Childless curmudgeons, gnash your teeth in anger over another way in which society prefers folks with kids over you! Gavin Newsom and the San Francisco Dept. of Children, Youth, and Families are sponsoring Family Appreciation Day this Sunday, January 8. Various museums and other local attractions are flinging open the door and child-proofing all their power outlets at places like the Asian Art Museum, SBC Park (which will be sponsoring free tours), Coit Tower (who's going to let you take the elevator for free), the zoo, the Exploratorium, and about a bazillion other places too. Those of you who live for First Tuesdays, you may want to borrow your friends' kids for the afternoon -- and those of you who hate those ankle-biters, you might want to check the list too, to figure out where you won't be this weekend. Kids must be between 0 and 18, and adult supervisors must bring proof of San Francisco residency. The rules also state that grown-ups must accompany children at all times. We now have a vision of wailing abandoned toddlers in the front foyer of the Asian Art Museum as the adults dash off into the Chinese painting galleries! ...

We sure had fun singing along to "Brown Sugar" with Mick Jagger last night. Singing along from our bedroom up on Bernal Hill, that is. Earlier in the evening while we were making dinner at home, we thought our neighbors were rocking some old school Metallica awfully loud, but we figured it was Sunday night, let them have their fun. When a friend from the other side of Bernal Hill called and asked if we......

Now, we're not (too) ashamed to admit that we've loved Green Day ever since their first (no longer on Lookout) album from 1990. But.... come on, they're playing SBC Park? Who's the American Idiot now? We took so long to decide if we wanted to go to the show that by the time we bought our tickets, the only seats left were in the row that's second from the very top of the entire stadium. So it turns out that the only people who procrastinate over their arena rock tickets more than ambivalent sellouts like yours truly are.... truly devoted teenage fans from the East Bay who required months and months of pleading before a parent reluctantly agreed to brave the drive into San Francisco on a Saturday night to give the kids some fun. This was totally the best crowd we've ever seen a show with. They knew the lyrics to every single song! "ST. JIMMY'S COMING DOWN, ACROSS THE ALLEYWAY!!!!" They shrieked their hearts out! When Billie Joe asked for volunteers to come on stage to play with the band, they raised their hands! (Did we mention that we were in the second to the very top row in the top tier of the stadium?) They bought big foam fingers that said GREEN DAY on them!! How can you not believe in the redemptive power of rock and roll?...

In which SFist eats our way around the Bay Area in alphabetical order. Sfist has a little crush on James Ormsby. No less than three times in seven months, we have been drawn back to his swanky Gavin-endorsed restaurant in SoMa, Jack Falstaff. We are not even quite sure what the allure of Jack Falstaff is. We'll call it the 'James Ormsby Je ne sais quoi factor'. The attraction is certainly not the look......

SFist went to last Sunday's Giants game against the Marlins and discovered a few things. Like the unknown gem of Giants' food fare, the Sheboygan, a grease drenched, grilled to perfection brat that's totally unhealthy, totally greasy, and totally yum. We also realized that in the midst of the dreariness of this season, all the hand-wringing about attendance might just not be necessary. Because on a beautiful, sunny, warm day, the ballpark was still packed......

Oh, woe is the Giant fan. This week we were taunted at by our resident A's scribe and all we could come up with as a retort was "at least we got a stadium." My, how the mighty have fallen. What else could we come up with? Our DL list could crush your DL list? Our GM has a better mullet? There's only one thing it appears that can save our season: Crazy Crab. What else do we have to look forward too? You've seen the Web site, you've heard the stories, you've bought the baby t's, now rally for the cause. This Saturday before the inevitable botched pitching job against the Cardinals, the Crustacean Liberation Coalition is calling for a rally to help bring back Crazy Crab-- Crustacean Commotion. Join the fun, drink some beer, wear crab hats, and fight injustice. The fun starts at noon in front of Pac Bell SBC Park and afterwards, everyone will continue fight crab discrimination at the Park Bar & Grill. As Triumph once sang, "Fight the good fight every moment/It's your only way."...

After thirty-five years, Alameda County sheriff's investigators have finally closed the murder of Meredith Hunter at the Rolling Stones' Altamont concert 35 years ago. Apparently, they’ve been looking for the semi-mythical "second knifeman" for the past thirty-five years only to come up with nothing. Which just goes to show you that shouldn't necessarily base a murder investigation on the testimony of thousands of people on brown acid. ...

It's opening day and if you know what's good for you you'll ditch work, head down to the ballpark, and try to get someone's extra ticket. The Giants welcome--Could that possibly be the right word?--the Dodgers today to start the season and, looking out the window at today's beautiful weather, there isn't a better place in the world to be right now than at Willie Mays Field at SBC Park. Jason Schmidt will throw the......

We're sure there are some people out there who are all interested in the AT&T/SBC merger because of what it means to the stock market. And we're sure there are some of you out there who are interested in the merger because of what it means for your job. But we here at SFist are interested in it for only reason -- what name will the Giants now call home? While the people behind......

The Curiosa Festival rolled into our very own SBC Park on Saturday. We were originally horrified at the choice of venue. Um, death rock and Barry Bonds? However, upon entry to the stadium, we realized that two stages (a small one for lesser known acts and a large stage for the others) were placed at second and third base. The festival purposefully did not sell seats behind the stages, or in the highest nosebleed sections. This allowed for a much more intimate feeling in what could have been just another big arena show. The Cure wasn't set to appear until 9:00 p.m., which left plenty of time for the other acts to wow us. We missed the first act on the small stage, Scarling. However, we did arrive in time for Mogwai on the large stage. We were pretty impressed by these Scots (and the accent never hurts!). Their lush instrumentals would have been better served under a clear, dark sky. However, we made a mental note to drop by Amoeba as soon as possible. Head Automatica, dressed in retro pink and black suits, did a great job of keeping the crowd going after Mogwai. Each band on the second stage played for exactly a half-hour sandwiched between the more known bands. We loved how each group made the most of their half-hour by not wasting any time between songs. Why can't more shows be like that? New York's The Rapture made obvious the definite 80's feel to all of the bands - a tribute to The Cure's far-reaching influence on today's artists. The Rapture definitely had that NY art-school vibe. Next, the The Cooper Temple Clause was up on the second stage. The one thing that we noticed about this band was the lead singer would pretty much stand in one place and sing, though his deep voice was haunting. Finally, one of the bands we had been intent on seeing came on - Interpol. Their 2002 debut, Turn on the Bright Lights, sucked me in right away. The vocals of Paul Banks have been heavily compared to that of Joy Division's Ian Curtis. It's not a comparison to be taken lightly. They ripped through their set, interspersing some new songs from their upcoming disc. We were so very happy. Next up was Cursive on the second stage. Two things we noticed about this band: one, they play an upright bass and two, the lead singer sounds like Bobcat Goldthwait. This provided endless amounts of laughter from our cohorts at the show. Cursive played their hearts out. We just couldn't get the Bobcat reference out of our heads. Then, it was time for The Cure. We had never had the opportunity to see them, or Robert Smith's infamous hairdo, live. They came roaring out with Plainsong from their Disintegration album. We can't begin explain how amazing it was to be under the full moon, listening to the soundscapes of their music, and watching the beautiful light show. Such perfection. The show only intensified with oldies such as "Shake Dog Shake", "A Night Like This", "Inbetween days", "Lovesong", "Pictures of You", and "Disintegration". People danced in the aisles to their favorites, dispelling the myth that Cure fans are all gloom and doom. We were so happy to hear songs from our favorite Cure album, Pornography--"The Figurehead", "A Strange Day", and "One Hundred Years". Robert's wailing voice came pouring out of the lights as an entity all its own. Songs from their new album, The Cure, were played as well--"Us or Them", "Before Three", 'End of the World", and "Alt.End". Apparently, SBC Park has an 11:00 p.m. curfew; the band couldn't play one of their epic three-hour shows. They ended with one upbeat encore which included "Close to Me", "The Lovecats", "Let's Go to Bed", and "Why Can't I Be You?" All in all, we'd say the Curiosa Festival was a success. We just can't wait till the next one!...