A classic that still holds up today: California State Assemblywoman Fiona Ma carrying her dog in a Snugli. Aw. Image credit: SFist Rita......

-- Why, it's our very own SFist Rita kicking it in the comfy confines (and breaking down the latest season of Project Runway) over at SFGate. Awesome. [Culture Blog] -- Japantown's J-Pop Center, well, pops. [Curbed SF] -- And look! It's your editor interviewed by SF Weekly. We don't come off as mildly-retarded as we did during the interview. Woo hoo! [The Snitch] -- Which '80s night is the best night? [Gridskipper] -- Yoshi's......

We were super-excited when we got the chance to talk with Alex Ross, the New Yorker's resident classical music critic (and blogger). Ross's writing has profoundly affected the way we think about music and music writing in all its genres and forms, and his twin enthusiasm for new classical music of the 21st century along with his deep love of the profoundly musical Icelandic pixie that is Björk always liven up our weekly periodicals reading......

After last week's dueling press conferences and memo-leakage, the Homeless issue is becoming the Issue du Jour, leading to a full-fledged reporter dogpile. First came CW Nevius who weighed in with yet another story on the issue, this time saying that even in liberal, tolerant, San Francisco, residents might not be feeling so liberal and tolerant when it comes to dealing with the homeless. As evidence, he points to one of those online polls SFGate ran about the issue in which 90% of the people said they wanted something to be done. We, as a rule, hate those "polls" because it's actual scientific value is nil as it's all determined by people who were motivated enough to play along and doesn’t factor in those who were too lazy to. ...

MTT's conducting of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde is so good, it should be recorded and kept for the posterity. But wait! It was! The series, which concludes tonight, will be taped and processed, and included in the Mahler recording cycle, the on-going endeavor to put all of Mahler's symphonic work onto a CD. MTT's take on Mahler, a forcefully engaged and expressive rendition, has been observed here quite a few times. We expect......

Here's a few random sports stories for the day...

You know we love the Chronicle around here at SFist -- where else would we get breaking news updates, steal pictures, and follow the lives of the Gettys and Trainas? So we're still very much in shock about the news that they're going to be laying off 25% of their workforce. The reason given was that they can't make enough money in advertising and other sources to cover the cost of putting out the paper.......

SFist Rita is out of town for work, so we are donning our tiara and gown for this weeks Swells analysis. Tra-la-la! Total number of people pictured in this week's Swells society column: 57. Total number of people pictured whom we recognize/know: 23. This high number is because of the SF Library event with lots of writers, including Amy Tan, Vendela Vida, Dave Eggers, Stephen Elliot, Ben Fong-Torres, Michael Lewis, Kathi Kamen Goldmark, Sam Barry,......

It's Sunset Magazine's Celebration Weekend! (For some reason, Sunset Magazine sent this event to our sister site Phillyist instead of us, and Phillyist was kind enough to forward it along.) Stop by their "publishing grounds" at 80 Willow Road in Menlo Park from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. for a smorsgasbord of Western-lifestyle events, like live music, cooking events with celeb chefs like Paul Bertolli, a home tour, and -- the main reason why we're......

It's good to be a starting lawyer at a big firm these days. Cal Law reports that a number of prominent, large, local firms keep raising salaries for staring associates, leading to peers to do the same. ...

We'd like to thank SFist Rita for sharing weekly-reading duties! Last week's winner: the SF Weekly. Spare the glare - oops, the fancy new Federal Building's got some lighting and climate control issues. Cover article: The SF International Film Festival keeps on keeping on and tries to attract young audiences with downloadable movies (what beautiful cinematography, well, it's probably beautiful, from what I can infer from the teensy screen of the video iPod ... even......

Matt Gonzalez: "I'm sorry, SFist Elaine, but I've gotta run." SFist Elaine: "We've only been dating for five minutes, and you're already breaking up with me?" Matt Gonzalez: "No, I just can't stand how Luke Thomas is always crashing our dates." Luke Thomas: "She's mine, Matt!"...

Univision: "You okay, Gavin?" Gavin: "Imo get to that question when I get through this door!" KGO: "Did your hair get bigger, or is the doorway getting smaller?" Gavin: "Why's everybody gotta hate? I killed that town hall meeting. I'm the best mayor in the world!" Pat Murphy: "Is it true you got rid of your entire blue tie collection to quell the wrath of SFist Rita?" Gavin: "SFist Rita wasn't even here. What's up with that? They sent that creampuff, SFist Elaine, instead." SFist Elaine: "Whatev, Gavin. You are so DTM!*" ...

As noted in this week's SF Weekly and SFist Rita's "We Read the Weeklies" column, the Bay Area's (and beyond) beloved Kitchen Sink—the magazine for people who think too much—is calling it quits this spring. Kitchen Sink is the latest of several independent publications to shut down due to the Independent Press Association's failure to fulfill its commitments before going under. Before Kitchen Sink's proverbial well runs dry, they will be producing one last issue. But they need your help to do it! Stop on by Edinburgh Castle this Saturday night for their fundraiser, which will feature lots of bands and a raffle with prizes from Amoeba, the Believer and local artisans....

Yes, lucky readers, that's right: Jennifer Siebel's movie The Trouble With Romance is screening in San Francisco for the SF Int'l Asian-American Film Festival. And who better to review the press screener we received, than our special guest correspondent, and Chronicle Culture Blog Gavin Watcher..... Beth Spotswood!!!! The infamous SFist Rita took time away from her remote cave lair and evil blogging minions to hook me up with an advance copy of The Trouble with......

When we last left the Leno vs. Migden contest, there was much gnashing of the teeth over these two progessive titans matching up. As SFist Rita put it, What Would the Progressives Do? Should they side with Leno or with Migden? It's like when two really good friends have a party at the same time and one guy has a keg of Meisterbrau and another of Sierra. You want to drink the Sierra, but if you go to that party, would your other friend get pissed at you? So, to make sure the campaign didn't get too nasty a peacetreaty of such was signed with both Leno and Migden pledging to be all cute and cuddly during the campaign. And so within days, a Migden ally went all NAMBLA on Leno. ...

Did you get your tickets to see Menomena on Friday night at Cafe Du Nord? Hopefully you did, because the show is sold out. As we've said before, this record is already on our top 10 of '07, so if you haven't checked the band out yet - what are you waiting for? OK maybe you're broke or you've fallen and you can't get to Amoeba, so we're going to hook one of you......

Twenty-three thousand nine hundred seventeen dollars and eighy-three cents -- but let's just round it up to a solid $24,000. That's how much the MTA (Muni's parent agency) is going to be allotting to pay off this month's round of settlements. Collecting Muni money in February are State Farm Insurance, Nikita and Vivienne Johnson, and Tokuko Yamagishi. The Johnsons' case is dramatic -- they claim that back in 2004, a driver on the 9......

It looks like the Chronicle's two BALCO reporters, Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, will not be joining Josh Wolf in prison as they're no longer on the hook. The main reason being the source who they were protecting finally came forward to admit that that he was the leak. The person in question was the lawyer for Victor Conte and BALCO vice president James Valente, Troy Ellerman. Ellerman is being charged for handing court transcripts over to Fainaru-Wade and Wiliams. In a perfectly oily move that gives lawyers the reputation they have (sorry SFist Rita!), Ellerman was busy complaining to the judge about leaks all the while being the one who was leaking. Of course, it could have all been his master plan. After all, who would suspect the guy complaining the most about leaks? ...

There's not much going on in the Gavin front today, for which we praise the heavens for. Yes, we're as tired of this as you are, and, actually, that's got to be considered good for the Gavster as the more bored we are by it, the less we'll care about it. So today, we have Gavin paying Alex Tourk, the latest on Gavin's re-election chances, and Ken Garcia putting Gavin on the couch. ...

A few photos of today's rally before the anti-war march....

For those unfamiliar with the phenomenon that is "Ghost Ride the Whip," let us get you up to speed. Ghost riding is when the driver of a car puts it in neutral or allows it to idle, and then the driver (and passengers) exit while it's still rolling and dance beside it or on the hood or the roof. It was started in the Bay Area and was coined by Mac Dre and later popularized by E-40, as part of the hyphy culture, which features ghost riding as one of the automobile tricks done in sydeshows....

Some of you might have noticed a new commenter to the site, Peter Ragone. As in Gavin Newsom's communications director Peter Ragone. Now the first question some of you might have is "is it really him?" And the second question you might have is "doesn't he have better things to do with his time?" Well, we're pretty sure that most, if not all, of the comments in his name were made by him, since we've received second-hand confirmation that he's commenting on SFist. We don't, however, know if he has better things to do with his time. ...

A few photos of the MLK Breakfast at the S.F. Hilton, Monday morning, 1/15/07...

This morning, we dragged our flu-ridden butts all the way out to the Richmond hoping to see what had all the makings of a circus. We didn't get it. What we got, instead, was a serious policy discussion about the homeless. How do you prevent a circus from taking place? You bore the crap out of everyone. We have to give credit to Team Gavin. They defused any potential for the meeting getting out of hand with two brilliant gestures. The first one was to have it early in the morning all the way out in the Richmond. We expected a full-house full of the usual suspects but didn't get it, partly, we think, because saying you're going to go out to the Richmond at ten in the morning and actually getting up and going out to the Richmond on a very, very cold morning at ten in the morning is a completely different thing....

How did you ring in the new year? Here's an expansion on a blotter item that SFist Rita wrote about this morning: According to eyewitnesses, the 19-year-old son of the staggeringly wealthy local physician Eileen Aicardi spent it by gathering a mob of friends and then gaybashing an all-male singing group from Yale. When the assault was over, there were bruises, cuts, sprains, and facial reconstruction surgery requiring the wiring shut of the victim's......

strong>Total number of people pictured in this week's Swells society column: 76 people plus two dummies and one dog....

SFist Rita is on a well-deserved holiday break so we apologize ahead of time for this week's suckage. Total number of people pictured in this week's Swells society column: Too many to count. It's the "Cotillion" Edition Total number of people pictured whose names we recognize: One. Danielle Steele. Minority count: Zero. It's the Cotillion-- like there'd be any minorities. Hats, capes, tiaras: Zero, Zero , and two tiara/wood nymph type things, although one picture......

SFist Rita is on vacation, so we're guest-reading the weeklies for her this week. Plus, it's the last weekly week of 2006, so we will be tallying up this year's picks to anoint a Weekly of the Year at the end of this post. Last week's winner and in at 4th place for 2006 with 6.5 WotW points, the Metro: Gary Singh on Rudy Rucker's new book Mathematicians in Love. Cover: Year in Review for......

Man, that was some storm last night. Nothing like being woken up in the middle of the night because it sounds like your apartment is about to explode -Speaking of winds, the winds closed the Great Highway as sand and other debris got blown onto it. ...