The loss of Simone in last week's episode of "Project Runway" leaves us with one local left to root for. (Although as Rita pointed out in her recap of the show, Jack went to U.C. Berkeley, so that kind of counts. But we'll see how well Chris does before we set our sights on him...) At the beginning of the episode we were put through the always boring selection-of-the-models ritual. This could be a......

Here's todays sports news...

Here's todays sports news...

To celebrate 07/07/07, local modern Japanese theater troupe Theater of Yugen is presenting The Cycle Plays, an all-day festival of pieces influenced by Japanese Noh theater traditions. The performances use Noh theater conventions and imagery but present stories about figures of American pop cultural legend -- so there's a piece about Ted Kaczynski, a play about Helen Keller (pictured at right), and an adaptation of A Long Day's Journey Into Night. Plays start at 9:30,......

Avoiding the masses storming the theaters for Transformers? Here are a few things to keep you busy until the 4th... If you haven't been yet, stop by Gallery Nineteen Eighty Eight to check out Back for Seconds, a diverse group show with 37 different artists. 1173 Sutter St, SF. Kick back with Castle Quiz at the Edinburgh Castle with seven rounds of questions about music, history and pop culture. Drink specials and cash prizes......

SFist Wendy takes a trip to the other San Diego (not the one with the fish tacos!). The Road to San Diego, at the SFIFF, is the story of Tati, from Pozo Azul, a small town in the Northeast Argentinian Misiones province (between Paraguay and Brazil), who embarks on a spiritual quest to deliver a timber statue of his hero and idol, the notorious soccer player, Diego Maradona, to Maradona himself. Tati, who is......

Tuesday Night Trivia Roundup ...

We bloggers love the pop culture references. Love, love, love, them. We use them everywhere and anytime. This is especially true of us sports bloggers-- nothing goes hand in hand like sports and pop culture. It's like Shakespeare and poetry or George Will and obscure quotes by obscure people. So, in keeping with this tradition, we here at SFist will break down the upcoming NFL season with quotes from one of our favorite personages of pop culture-- Moliere. Cause nothing says American football like Enlightenment-era French dramatists. Grab a seat, put on some chamber music, and put on your favorite wig as SFist takes a look at the new NFL year!...

Happy 10th birthday, Bitch Magazine! Back in 1996, local writers Lisa Jervis and Andi Zeisler kicked up a furor with their provocatively-named zine about feminism and pop culture -- and ten years later, the magazine's putting out its 33rd issue (the Hot and Bothered Issue), they've put out a best-of anthology (BitchFest), and Ms. Zeisler's good-naturedly matching wits with Deborah Solomon of the NY Times Magazine (the East Coast's own Aidan Vaziri). Calls for a......

Wednesday's in a stage 2 heat emergency! Tonight: Feeling discombobulated by the big three-oh? The San Francisco Cody's is hosting the Bay Area editor and local contributors from the latest women-telling-it-to-you-straight anthology, The May Queen, featuring women in their 30s reporting about their lives today. The thirtysomething fun starts at 7 p.m. Thursday: Feeling discombobulated by the influence of market forces on horror movies? Techsploitator Annalee Newitz is reading from her new book, Pretend We're......

Last Friday night, Kathy Griffin, star of the Bravo reality show "My Life on the D-List" and heir apparent to the Sandra Bernhard/Joan Rivers style of snark and dish comedy -- without the singing and the dead husband -- brought down house at the Warfield with her second sold-out San Francisco show.

Onstage doing standup, Griffin is energetic and totally comfortable, with a loosely structured conversational routine that could seemingly go on forever. Her Robin Williams-like manic energy leads the audience on a frenetic, often disjointed, but always piercingly funny walkabout through American pop culture.

If we ever host a World Series of San Francisco Pop Culture contest, we're totally asking the question "Who's Laurie Beijen?" Ms. Beijen is, of course, the well-connected bride who made Gavin Newsom move last year's Cow Hollow ski jump event because she had a wedding planned at Flood Mansion the day it was originally set (August 27, 2005). And we can't think of a nicer anniversary present to get Laurie Beijen than the news......

Let us give you some advice, if you plan on taking any hallucinogenic drugs in the near future, head straight for Cosmic Wonder at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. We freely admit that our first response to the show, billed as “contemporary artists exploring trance … through exaggerated color, mind-altering patterns and morphing forms,” was more or less, “Whoa, trippy, man!” However, we quickly snapped out of it, and pen and paper in hand,......

As we mentioned earlier, our own SFist Jon is spending the day at our favorite sports blog, Deadspin, liveblogging this afternoon's Austria vs Croatia game. Join him as he recounts the game in real time, references a variety of pop culture touchpoints (so far we've seen Bono, NASCAR, and Bob's Big Boy come up, and the game's only been on for about 10 minutes), and (gasp!) refer to himself in the first person. Go Jon,......

Just as the rain stopped, everyone has a new favorite blog topic--it's earthquake centennial madness! Eric over at and the Family Buick has a fairly lengthy write-up of the event, while Rangelife has a fever, and the only cure is--more cowbell. Sorry, wrong pop culture reference. We're still on the earthquake. Your favorite ex-bathroom attendant has a write-up on the plucky fire hydrant that saved so many, while sfdx has a different drink in mind. Mona has a beautiful pic of one of the survivors up on her blog. Some others, though, are more concerned about the effects of the next big one. Jennifer admits that she's been rattled by all the voice of doom coverage, and Jamison gets snarky over what he feels is unfair proactive re-distribution of blame. Maybe he should keep the turtle he found, a pet might make him feel better. Art makes us feel better. We love that we live in a town where art thrives. The Painted Ground of San Jose Avenue posts protest art this week, while the California Department of Corrections went big time and Kvatch takes over Market Street. This poster--literally--thinks locally. VJ Culture isn't protesting anything, but we do lament the fact we'll never be as cool and smart--at the same time--as he is. On the other hand, we have jerks here, too, as chronicled this week by Ed, in addition to Thomas Hawk's ongoing struggles with building security guards. So is it any wonder that sometimes we just go a little goofy? And sometimes, when the stars are aligned correctly, we have smart, goofy Newsom protest blogs that makes milk come out our noses. You suck! Have a nice day! Picture from If I Ran The Zoo. SFist Jacob, contributing. ...

Who doesn't love the Parkway Theatre? And who doesn't love Bitch magazine? Two of the Bay Area's cultural treats combine tonight as the feminist pop culture magazine kicks off its 10th anniversary celebrations with an 8 p.m. 9:15 showing of Desperately Seeking Susan. Admission's $7 for this benefit showing; as far as SFist is concerned, the real benefit is seeing Madonna in a movie that isn't Swept Away. The Parkway Theatre's at 1834 Park......

Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction was two years ago, but apparently America's still getting over it, if this year's batch of tame Superbowl commercials is any indication. We didn't think Superbowl ads could get any more boring than last year's batch. We were wrong. Sex was represented early in the form of Jessica Simpson singing about pizza bites--which have apparently been made for popping. Our hopes for the disappearance of the Simp from the pop......

When we first saw local author Charlie Anders across a Japantown karaoke bar, we took in the long blond hair, the dress, the masculine posture, and thought, "that's either a boyish girl, or a girlish boy." As we discovered, Charlie's use of the feminine pronoun to describe herself does nothing to clarify matters; but that dichotomy's nothing compared to Berry, the main character of Charlie's new novel, Choir Boy. It's the story of a......

All the culture jammers said hey (haaaa-yeeee) on Friday night at the Women's Building, for the first SF DocFest screening of Pop-aganda: The Art and Crimes of Ron English by Pedro Carvala, and the film short Fridge by Brian Perkins and friend of SFist Jason Blalock. Pop-aganda is a profile of the artist Ron English, who's made a specialty of 1) guerrilla billboards and 2) paintings about the commodification of pop culture, and Fridge is about magnetic poetry in San Francisco. Like the films' introducer said, "these films are -- well, I don't want to say pranky....", to a resounding "whoo!!!" in the crowd. What happens when you take a refrigerator into the streets of San Francisco, and ladies with Mickey Mouse boobies, after the jump. Pop-Aganda and Fridge play again on May 21 at 10 p.m. Art by Ron English...

We're a little anxious because our local branch of the SF Public Library is closing for renovations, so we will have to pick up our materials reserved online at a branch across the park from us. While we're over there maybe we'll hit Green Apple, one of our favorite local independent bookstores. When we last heard from SFist Jon, he was bemoaning the fact that he has yet to read War and Peace. Today,......

The San Francisco Bay Area is considered the 12th largest metropolitan area in the United States. We have beautiful hills and ocean views, economic opportunity, diversity of opinions, and great food. But you know what we don't have? A top 40 radio station!!! We can't believe this. Ever since the death of our beloved Z 95.7 (for a classic rock format, which was then later changed to country), there's no place in San Francisco to tune in for those naggingly-catchy Kelly Clarkson and Ashleeeeee (so many e's!) Simpson tracks. (There's a station in Fremont and a station in Santa Rosa, but we can't get them in SF proper). How are we supposed to participate in pop culture if we can't even hear that abysmal new Britney Spears strip-joint song? We try to keep up by watching MTV Hits, but -- man, those kids on TRL are annoying. Sure, we can hear the slower mainstream pop tunes on Yawn 101.3 and we can catch the crunky on our Clear Channel hip-hop affiliates -- but part of what we like about top 40 radio is the cross-genre mixing! We like hearing the new Mariah next to the new Eminem next to the J.Lo next to the Ciara! And while we can download what we like on iTunes or Musicmatch, we're certainly never going to spend even 99 cents on schlock like Ryan Cabrera or Jesse McCartney, so we'll realistically never really listen to them anymore -- and thus we can't even be as fully contemptuous of them as we might be if we sort of absorbed them while stuck at a red light or finishing up that last 3 minutes on the Bowflex. We're being hampered in our snark! So someone, please -- like Ms. Spears-Federline says -- Do Somethin'! (na na na na na na, na na na na NA na na na). ...

SFist interviews the editors of Bitch Magazine...

If you, like us, want to support our local arts community but aren't really interested in buying one of those Hearts of SF -- we're here to help! If you, like us, want something with a little feminist indie cachet to hang in your apartment, we're here to help! And if you, like us, search vainly on ebay for something -- anything -- cool to buy, and end up bidding instead on a scratched 45 of "The Super Bowl Shuffle", we're definitely here to help. Local nonprofit and independently-published feminist/pop culture zine Bitch Magazine is holding a benefit auction for the next two weeks, featuring art from its pages, and arts and crafts from its contributors. Where else would you be able to find Lynda Barry drawings starting at $30 (see above), an Alison Bechdel cartoon panel for $35, or Guerrilla Girls prints at the impossible price of $10 each? They're also offering a print of Rebecca McBride's photograph on the cover of Michelle Tea's book Valencia (which we used to illustrate that post on the DPT's proposals about the street just last week), and a collection of comic book anthologies signed by comic book historian Trina Robbins, among many other cool items (meet Michelle Tea! Get a portrait painted of your pet! A t-shirt of Valerie Solanas by Diane DiMassa!) Plus -- sold-out back issues, cover art and illustrations from the magazine, and -- special treat! -- the Bitch staff annotates an issue of Jane, the magazine we all love to hate. The auction preview begins today and bidding goes from March 6-13. All money goes to support the magazine. Art by Lynda Barry, available at an opening bid of $30. Disclosure: This SFist is on the nonprofit board of Bitch Magazine, but gets no perks at all in the auction bidding....

If you think you have a knack for tasteful flower arrangements, baking the perfect pie, and obstruction of justice, then fire up that glue gun and head on down to KNTV in San Jose tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. to an open casting call for "The Apprentice: Martha Stewart." NBC announced Wednesday that Mark Burnett will produce a "The Apprentice" spin-off series that will feature Martha Stewart. Production is scheduled to begin in March,......

SFist believes wholeheartedly in supporting the local arts, and when those local arts can also make us laugh (intentional or not), well so much the better. Which is why when we heard the Shelton Theater is currently staging a production of the Christopher Durang play Beyond Therapy, we attended a performance with much eagerness. We remember reading and loving the play back when it was a Broadway hit in the early 1980s, and we......

First off, don't let the name of the program fool you. Dick Clark will NOT be hosting Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve this Friday. That privilege is going to Regis Philbin, and we think you already know how we feel about Regis. So skip it. Or go outside. Or go to sleep before midnight even strikes. Because New Year's Eve? Blows. In other news, this week TV offers up the inevitable "Year in......

What better way to celebrate the original Saturday night date of Britney Spears's nuptials than at feminist zine Bitch Magazine's release party for its latest issue, on the theme of Fake? The party kicks off at 9 Saturday night at the Mile High Club in Oakland. ...

SFist interviews Oliver Wang, aka DJ O-Dub...

Bitch Magazine's Andi Zeisler, Lisa Jervis, and Rachel Fudge on the Bay Area...