One very visible symbol of the shift from snail mail to email and all forms of electronic communication: Those blue mail boxes are disappearing! San Francisco's lost about 800 in the last couple of years, and dozens more are slated to disappear. Across the country, the USPS has killed off 60% of the boxes, bringing the total down to 160,000, down from 400,000 in 1985. more ›

Speaking of cool postage stamps -- Remember when Bay Area Reporter talked about an effort that's underway to get San Francisco artist Jim Leff's stamp memorializing Harvey Milk made into an official U.S. postage stamp? more ›

Last night around 2AM near downtown Oakland, an empty U.S. Postal Service truck slammed into another truck that had pulled over along I-880 in order to assist a woman who was having car trouble. The postal truck jack-knifed as it collided with the other truck, ruptured its own fuel tank, and exploded in a massive inferno which left one of the driver's injured and a dog in the woman's car dead. As KTVU reports, this caused a massive early-morning backup and two lanes on 880 remained closed into the commuting hours. Luckily, unlike the last enormous big rig inferno in that part of the world, this one does not appear to have melted an entire roadway. more ›

Those who still need to register to vote in time for the February 5 presidential primaries need to do so by tomorrow, January 22nd. Re-registering is necessary whenever you move, change your name, or change your political party affiliation. You can download a form here and mail it in by tomorrow (must be postmarked January 22nd) or deliver it in person. Here's a list of all the local county elections offices. The address for San Francisco's office is more ›

Wow, one show on Monday and twelve on Friday. This week we definitely start off a bit slow, but by the end of the week, we have a ton of choices. more ›

The Asian Art Museum's monthly throwdown, Matcha, kicks off around 6pm with DJs, tours, workshops and cocktails. The Live Action Cartoonists, a performance troupe that combines comics and theatre, will perform highlights from Science (Fiction) an experimental production that re-interprets Tezuka Osamu’s Astro Boy. 200 Larkin St., SF. more ›

more ›

SFist interviews Marco Panella from Dark Side of the Cop more ›

Eric Rice posts the transcript of Lawrence Lessig's recent chat in Second Life, which could just be the most meta-geek thing ever. Niall Kennedy, Caterina Fake and Josh Kinberg build an ego-bot for bloggers, Whuffie Tracker, in just a few hours. Sex.com sells for $14 million -- after the legal fees, there might just be enough to take the family to In-N-Out. And wondered why that new Apple ad looked like an old Postal Service video? Same directors. more ›

Perusing the club listings for December, we're seeing an awful lot of blank calendars. We reckon that means many of SFist's great music venues are being rented out for holiday parties. Perhaps even parties to which we were not invited. Party throwers, don't be afraid to invite SFist. We promise not to do anything untoward that might tarnish our sterling reputation. Not like we did last year. more ›

Cut Copy's CD Bright Like Neon Love makes us smile and dance like no other CD we own. We haven't taken a shine to an upbeat electro-pop band like this since Tahiti 80. Their bio describes theirs as a "sound that references 70’s rock staples like ELO and Fleetwood Mac, late 80’s/early 90’s indie like Sonic Youth and Guided By Voices, the disco production of Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards, post-punk and French house." Fans of the Postal Service take note: Cut Copy makes our rock n' roll heart want to dance. more ›

more ›

The June music issue of The Believer will come packaged with a CD compilation of pure indie rock gold. We hear that local do-gooder and author extraordinaire Dave Eggers is behind the compilation, proving his excellent taste and indubitable influence by convincing the persnickety indie rock elite to cover each other's songs. Local duo Two Gallants made the cut, as did Devendra Banhart, Vetiver and Joanna Newsom. The majority of the songs were recorded specifically and exclusively for the compilation. All this genius for only eight bucks, friends! Behold the track list: more ›

sfist reviews Smoosh, aqueduct, and mates of state at noisepop 2005 more ›

I mean, when we heard from our musician friends that there weren't enough rehearsal spaces and music venues in the San Francisco area, we had no idea it was this bad. The Heavenly States, a locally based indie power-pop outfit that features a violin-forward aesthetic (that's how we guessed that "a California indie rock band" meant "a San Francisco indie rock band") came up with the idea of being the first Americans to rock Libya. Known for their progressive politics, but not necessarily known for their command of Arabic, the band is taking their sound to the Roman ruins of Leptis Magna, and hope to draw crowds at other stops by leafletting. more ›