SFist reader/commenter Tendernob kindly sent this find our way: I spent the holidays with my mother in Los Angeles, who collects rare first-edition books. While I was visiting, she opened "The Complete Sherlock Holmes" (circa 1930) and an old San Francisco MUNI transfer fell out. We don't know whose it was, or how long it was in that book. We're not even certain how old this ticket is, but google tells us that John M.......

-- Evil Dead 2 (1987): Sam Raimi's exquisite sequel to the equally-exquisite Evil Dead, minus any tree-rape. Screens at 7:15p.m., 9:15 at The Red Vic, 1727 Haight (at Cole). -- Opium's Literary Death Match: The last Opium's Literary Death Match got ugly, in a good way. (Read about it here.) Judges Anika Streitfeld (Random House), Jesse McKinley (New York Times), and Eric Spitnagel (Fast Forwards) have literary series Writers With Drinks (Carol Queen), Porchlight......

As part of the National Queer Arts Festival, graphic artist and memoirist Alison Bechdel is speaking at Michelle Tea's Radar Reading Series at the SF Public Library tonight! We've been huge fans of Bechdel's Dykes to Watch Out For for, like 10 years now (we're latecomers -- she's been drawing the strip since 1987), and her first graphic novel, Fun Home, about her relationship with her closeted gay father totally blew our mind with......

Thank you, SFist Jenna, for being a friend. Also -- erotica! Erotica Reading: Drop by the Good Vibes Polk St location from 7-8 for a tantalizing session with Dahlia Schweitzer, who will be reading from her novel, The Slightest Provocation, a historical romance, and Pam Rosenthal, reading from Seduce Me, a collection of stories about women who always get their way. Good Vibrations Polk is at 1620 Polk Street (x Sacto), SF. Golden Reunion:......

We first became aware of Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music back in 2000, when the Coen Brothers' released O Brother, Where Art Thou? After listening to the old-timey music on the soundtrack, we pondered just what we should call that stuff so we could seek out more of it. Was it country music? Bluegrass? Folk? The key factor, at the time, was we wanted to hear the original recordings and not a......

SFist Jenna sez....: Get your learn, dessert, dance and drink on at these Tuesday haps around the city: Reading & Book Signing: A.M Homes, (author of Safety of Objects, Music for Torching and The End of Alice) reading from and signing her latest book, The Mistress's Daughter, about her horrible biological parents, tonight at 7 pm. Booksmith,1644 Haight St. Get there a bit early to take advantage of the free cone day at Ben &......

Since August 2006, artist Nicole Wintermeyer's blog Arthead SF has been providing a forum for artists throughout the Bay Area and beyond to fully describe the meaning behind their work. We think this is a great idea since we often feel more drawn to a piece of artwork when we know the artist's intentions. Tonight, Oakland's Swarm Gallery presents a group exhibition of artists featured in Arthead, and each piece is accompanied by the artist's description. Swarm is also celebrating their one-year anniversary this evening. While you're at Swarm, have a seat in Tao Urban's "Reading Room" installation, and feel free to touch the art! Arthead's show runs through April 27, and Reading Room runs through May 6. Swarm is located at Jack London Square, just a few blocks from the Alameda/Oakland ferry from San Francisco. Swarm Studios + Gallery 560 Second Street Oakland, CA 94607 ...

We're not going to miss a rare opportunity to see Stalker (1979) by Andrei Tarkovsky (director of the original Solaris), screening tonight at the SF Art Institute (800 Chestnut St.) for free. This influential Russian film has many elements associated with Russian literature - epic length, existential ennui, depressing locales. A brief plot synopsis: Two disenchanted intellectuals wish to explore the Zone, a mysterious region at the center of which a room, said to offer......

Matier & Ross today has an interview with Gavin about the upcoming Mayoral election and his future in politics that's getting a lot of play. So what does the future hold for Mayor McDreamy? Only that he is "absolutely not convinced" that he's going to run again. How's that for definitive ambivalence. ...

We're heading down to the Make Out Room (3225 22nd St. b/w Mission and Valencia) tonight for LitPAC and LitQuake's Progressive Reading Series featuring Dave Eggers, Keith Knight, Mary Roach (author of Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers), and more, hosted by Stephen Elliott author of Looking Forward To It: or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the American Electoral Process. This is the last of this year's series of monthly......

LitPAC's Progressive Reading Series is a monthly literary benefit to support progressive congressional candidates nationwide. Every second Monday of the month though the 2006 mid-terms, hit the Makeout Room (3225 22nd Street) at 7 p.m., to hear local and visiting authors read from past and recent works. Tonight's event (their ninth) marks the "5th Anniversary of September 11 with a special reading by authors writing about the tragedy and its aftermath." Readers include Joyce Maynard,......

We here at SFist feel compelled to write about the latest outrage coming out of Crawford Texas these days. No, not the whole War on Terror thing, but the word on the street being that one of W's Summer Beach Reading Books is Albert Camus' "The Stranger." Apparently, he was so taken by it that he debated it with Tony Snow. We can only imagine the conversation too: "See, 'The Stranger' is a book about philosophy, which means the author, Cay-Moo, philosiphizes. He's a philosopher. I find what he says interesting."...

Saturday: We're hitting the Pandora's Trunk art and fashion event. Come by 916 Natoma (at 10th Street) between 1-7 p.m. for "handmade fashion goods, art, homemade truffles, and a deluxe spa and massage corner." See the entire lineup of vendors for this free event here. Sunday: If you're still feeling artsy, there's the San Francisco Fine Craft Show, where you can browse "hand-crafted jewelry, clothing and accessories, baskets, quilts, and sculptural and functional objects in......

Saturday: Hell yeah! For those of you who couldn't get a ticket during HoleHead, The Primitive Screwheads are back with their stage show The Chainsaw Massacres. Running on June 30, July 1, 2, and 7, you can get your tickets here. Doors open at 7:30, a band plays at 8, and the Sawyers chow down at 9, all at Cellspace (2050 Bryant at 18th). Sunday: Sometimes we like to pretend to be deep, and going......

We've taken to leaving the house -- sometimes for hours at a time -- without a jacket, which can only mean one thing: it's Summer Book Club time. Dude, look at the stipulations: "Small incentive prizes will be awarded to enrolled children who have read for two, four and six hours during the eight weeks of Summer Reading." When we were a kid, we read six hours a day (our "honey, don't you want to......

We would be lying if we said that the Craigslist community section is anything but a good-ol' hodgepodge. There are nearly no off-limit topics and much of the free-form discussion is devoid of the usual "He's an idiot. No, He's an idiot" conversation. Honestly, where else can you find normal conversation on pets, liberals and/or conservatives and how Osama is teaming up with Mexicans? Reading these we have recently noticed a few postings about finding......

Once upon a time a famous New Yorker cartoon suggested, “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.” Now a day, nobody cares if you are a dog. The Internet is awash with dogs posting of their own profiles to communicate with other canines and humans alike. Witness the explosive growth of SFist Friend and occasional contributor Ted Rheingold's dog-to-dog site dogster.com, a friendster imitation for pet owners over 30, single and childless (or just......

The SFist test kitchen staff has a tiny list of essential food books. At the top you'll find Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking. Our copy's tattered cover and stained pages broadcast our love for this accessible bible of kitchen science. When we use the bright red tome to answer our culinary questions, we say we're "Reading From the Book of Harold." Alton Brown uses this book as a reference. Why should you click......

My Wednesday brings all the boys to the yard.... Tonight: The Make Out Room is dedicating tonight's PYT dance party to the memory of Sarah Tucker, who founded the monthly club event and was tragically killed in a hit-and-run bike accident two weeks ago. All proceeds will go to Uncommon Legacies, a group Tucker supported. Thursday: Take a private tour of the Contemporary Jewish Museum in support of its exhibition "Intersections: Reading the Space," an exploration of three women artists on faith, patriarchy, and collaboration. The centerpiece of the exhibition is a piece of cloth that the three artists, located around the globe, each worked on and passed along to the next. The museum's at 121 Steuart Street, call 415-292-1233 to register or for more information. and Friday: Stargazing! Bring binoculars and a red-colored flashlight (to preserve your night vision) to the SF Botanical Gardens tonight. Sunset is at 5:28 p.m., and the gazing begins at 6. They promise you that guide Bing Quock of the Morrison Planetarium will be able to point out sights like Saturn, Mars, and the Taurus constellation tonight, but we gotta say, the only one we can ever find is Orion. $8 members, $12 non, reservations appreciated at (415) 661-1316, meet at 5:45 outside the main gate. Picture of Sarah Tucker...

Can you smell what Wednesday is cooking? Tonight: Tax breaks! The California Lawyers for the Arts are holding a workshop on how to incorporate as a nonprofit. Give your mom a tax break for supporting your career in theater all these years! The workshop goes from 7-8:30 at their offices in Fort Mason, Building C, Room 255. Thursday: As part of the Contemporary Jewish Museum's new show, Intersections: Reading the Space, they're hosting a three-part salon. Part one of the salon is tonight at the Jewish Community Center, and features a cooking class on making Muslim, Christian, and Jewish foods of India. That's $50 worth of yum ($45 if you're a museum or JCCSF member) -- so if you're looking for something on the other end of the money scale, you could also stop by a free shuttle bus historical tour of the Presidio at 12:50 (meet at the Presidio's Officers Club, reservation required at 415-561-4323.) and Friday: Our very favorite living ex-president, Nobel laureate Jimmy Carter, will be appearing and signing copies of his new book at 5:30 at Cody's SF! President Carter will not be speaking or reading, mysteriously enough, but will pose for pictures (in a separate area) if you ask nicely. Tickets are required, but there's no fee if you buy a copy of the book at Cody's. Don't attack him, killer rabbits! ...

Saturday: There's Chicken John's Christmas show at 9 at the 12 Galaxies. "Here's how it works: everyone brings a stupid gift or two, and puts it under the tree. Chicken hosts a game show that everyone in the club plays for like 3 minutes. Everyone wins. You open the gift that you select for winning right there on stage. When we run out of gifts, the show is over. Last year the show was......

We love a good guidebook. We grew up as devotees to the Lonely Planet series, but frankly, we've been known to grab a travel tome when we're bored just to bone up on the best cheap hotel in Jakarta or nightclub in Buenos Aires. Not that we have plans to go any of these places anytime soon, but it's fun to daydream, no? We especially like guides that eschew the blurbs-and-listings format to give......

Reading that Daily Dish feed on the 'gate is always such a guilty pleasure. And today is no exception! Top on the Dish is the revelation that Not Britney Spears (i.e., Christina Aguilera) and her fiance Jordan Bratman are getting married in Napa this weekend. Those of you loopily wine-biking up and down Silverado Trail this weekend, be on the lookout for a tent on the edge of a forest, or a pair of buttcheeks flapping up and down out the window of a white Rolls Royce with a big JUST MARRIED sign. Aguilera and Bratman are having a rehearsal dinner tonight at "an acclaimed local restaurant." (How much you want to bet it's French Laundry? And they're staying at the Auberge du Soleil?) And please, Xtina begs you, no gifts: donate money to Katrina relief instead. Free SFist t-shirt to any reader who sends in a picture of Fred Durst in Napa this weekend! ...

"I like talking about books" seems like the kind of thing you put into your personal ad, somewhere before "I'm spiritual, but not religious" and after you crop your ex out of your ad's head shot. But it's true (not the spiritual part) -- we like to talk about books, and, even more than that, we like the conversations that books inspire. We've had strangers ask us about library books we were reading, or......

Look, you've probably noticed lots of other people talking about this, and look, it's not like we don't care about the Middle East or Iran or anything (hey, we read both Persepolises, we'll have you know -- and Reading Lolita in Tehran.) But -- well, look. We've tried. Good Lord, we've tried. But we just cannot get through these Letters From Iran by Sean Penn that the Chronicle Datebook is faithfully publishing. Not even to mock. We just can't get through them. We can't even scroll through them online, they tire us out so much. We like Mr. Penn fine, don't get us wrong -- he seems like a nice and thoughtful man and a good actor and all that. Just -- well, he's not really a writer, now, is he? A history of US-Iran relations? Iran's ambivalence about the US? Please, Datebook, please -- make it stop! We were wrong -- we would prefer some more articles about how to play Sudoku, or lengthier Jon Carroll colummns. Picture of S. Penn by Robin Weiner, from the Chron...

Marketing is a weird thing. SFist has been known to fall for a good PR game in the past (we're particular suckers for nifty packaging). M.J. Rose is an author and has been called the "poster girl of e-publishing". For her latest novel, "The Halo Effect", she's at it again - but this time we're on it because she's doing something more than trying to sell you her book. There's been a VidLit created......

We first heard of Tayari Jones when we read her novel Leaving Atlanta, which details the coming-of-age experiences of three children under the shadow of the (recently reopened) Atlanta child murders. We've been reading reviews of her new book The Untelling, and it sounds like bracing stuff. Described on her site as a "portrait of a woman seeking to overcome the trauma of her past." The folks at The Believer (excerpt viewable by all,......

Books incite strong emotions in people, as you can see from the thoughts below. Sometimes we love a book so much that we want it forever, so we pick it up at one of our fine local independent bookstores. Other times we're glad we just reserved it online from the SF Public Library, because, dang, there are a lot of crappy books out there. SFist Emily pre-empted all the hipsters, literary youngsters, and book......

Well, oral arguments in the MGM v. Grokster case concluded yesterday, and the reports from the scene conclude that the justices were very pointed in their questioning of the plaintiff, MGM. Reading different sources give us different impressions of the mood and tone -- the SCOTUSblog makes us think that the Justices were giving MGM the benefit of the doubt, whereas the EFF seemed encouraged by the hearing from the tone of their press......

SFist Rain makes a good point today when she reminds us that our friends at the San Francisco Public Library have more to offer us than just the printed word. You can also check out or reserve CDs, DVDs, audiobooks, and VHS tapes (for the unfrozen cavemen lawyers among us) for those times when reading isn't your first choice. Needless to say, you can also find these types of items at our fine local......