This post is brought to you by our advertiser, Paramount.

Nebraska is nominated for 6 Independent Film Spirit Awards including Best Feature. After receiving a sweepstakes letter in the mail, a cantankerous father (Bruce Dern) thinks he's struck it rich, and wrangles his son (Will Forte) into taking a road trip to claim the fortune. Shot in black and white across four states, Nebraska tells the stories of family life in the heartland of America.

The Paramount can't throw shade at at the St. Regis San Francisco. Pft. (Photo by kapshure.)

Well actually, it appears Paramount DID learn from past transgressions, as these chalk markings we saw being put down all over the place will come off pretty easily. But this kind of approach doesn't work at all anyway. You're not going to check out the offical trailer or the affiliated, clue-laden fake web sites (some, like Slusho.jp written partially in Japanese). You're not even going to look at the crossover promotion they've got going on featuring pouty spy Jennifer Garner. Nobody in San Francisco is ever going to respond to this kind of tactic. We're above that kind of thing.

So, Paramount, take your chalk bag and go home! Just start heading south and you'll find the 101 in no time. Or just wait around for the High Speed Rail. Either way.

Now that the bets are in (okay, so no one really cast any bets - how boring is that?), you can go to Cafe du Nord, tonight, to check out San Francisco's unsigned best at Live 105's "Top 5 Local Bands Contest." Tuesday, venture over to Great American Music Hall to catch San Francisco's own, Scissors for Lefty. (You'll want to purchase your tickets soon to their off-the-hook New Year's Party at BotH.) Oh, you'll also get to see Juliette and the Licks headline. (It looks like they like to perform sans clothes. Woot!)

Back in July, we briefly mentioned a "band-of-the-moment" named Vampire Weekend. They are back and this time they are headlining at The Independent. We listened to Mansford Roof (listen here) and we couldn't get over how catchy and quirky they are. We love them; their infectious bite style is called: "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa", "Upper West Side Soweto", "Campus", and "Oxford Comma Riddim". We feel it safe to assume that the inside joke is for Columbia University's alumni only. Look for a full length album late January.

Friday we'll be hanging out at Live 105's "Not So Silent Night." Our attentions will be focused on the local band (who won Monday night's competition), Jimmy Eat World and Modest Mouse (two of our favorites). Saturday, quirky sock-loving violinist, Andrew Bird, from Chicago is back in town. We saw him earlier this year and was overwhelmed by the incredible process that Bird goes through to create his minimalist folk electronic-art music.

Don't forget Tori Amos' three-night stint over in Oakland at Paramount Theatre, Friday through Sunday.

Take the jump to see the full listings...

Eastern SOMA's budding, unfortunately named condo "community" BLŪ, on Folsom and Second Streets, is about ready to bloom in all of its steel and glass glory. Problem is, we don't see any lottery for affordable housing on their site. Has the lottery already happened? Or are they planning on having some sort of learning annex or UC Berkeley extension, a la The Paramount, to skirt those types? We can't seem to get anyone over at BLŪ on the phone to fill us in.

More BLŪ after the jump.

Yeah, we don't remember any dramatic hand-on-the-Bible or inaugural speechifying either -- it turns out they threw together a somewhat slapdash inauguration when someone realized that the Oakland city charter required Dellums to be sworn in no later than 11 a.m. on the first Monday in January -- which was yesterday and the holiday. So Dellums was deputized the mayor at a private ceremony at his house last Friday afternoon, with only a few friends and officials present. It's all gone so fast they still haven't even updated the Oakland website yet!

The public inauguration will be next Monday, Jan. 8, at the Paramount Theater, which will kick off a gala (and presumably less last-minute) week of events -- including a night of hyphy-soul (Thursday Jan. 11, tickets $40).

Hey, time to fuel up that ol' SUV and drive with the freon-leaking A/C on to see local filmmaker Al Gore's , opening on Friday at the Embarcadero Center (and at the Sequoia in Mill Valley).

MoveOn.Org is asking people to buy tickets in advance to pump up the buzz, and Paramount has announced it'll be donating 5% of the profits to the Alliance for Climate Protection.

Thanks, Green Party, for making it necessary for Al Gore to switch careers to documentary filmmaker in the first place!