It's our turn to read the Weeklies this week, and we start with SFist Sarah L's pick of last week, the newly-re-indied East Bay Express. Congrats! The letters hate on the UC Regents. Something about racial bias in contracting, we didn't really understand it. The story behind those "nappy headed hos" t-shirts at Bear Basics. Cover article: Some well-paid lackey of "Golden Pig" Don Perata. Bless their hearts at the EBX! They've also started summarizing......

The acclaimed French-trained Guinean contemporary circus troupe Circus Baobab makes its US debut as part of the SF Int'l Arts Festival, performing The Jumping Drum, a fable about globalization and family, complete with acrobatics, stilt-walking, and African music. 5:30 p.m., $30, Project Artaud Theater (450 Alabama, x Mariposa). They're here through Sunday, and you may find it intriguing to learn that tomorrow's performance is in French. That's them on the YouTube above. Other events:......

It's our week up on the weekly-reading duties! Last week's winner from SFist Sarah L, the SF Weekly. A letter writer says: "While Matt [Gonzalez] may not be the next Picasso (but don't count him out)..." It doesn't matter what the rest of the letter says. The SF Fire Department gave a bad test. Cover article: We hate baby boomers and their dirty self-centered hippie ways. Carnivorous plants! Yay, the SFIFF! A flyer fell out......

Sorry for the delay in reading your alt-weeklies this week; there was a comical mixup in our attempts to implement the weekly switchoff between us and SFist Sarah L. We'll try again in a few weeks, and we also briefly considered just not doing something this week, and then we thought, Oh no -- what about the YTD count? Everyone in December will say "that only adds up to 51!". So here we are! Last......

Before we kick things off, we should give a big shoutout to SFist Sarah L, who generously stepped in to read the weeklies for us while we were away. Thanks, SFist Sarah L! She rocked it so hard we're going to start alternating weeks for weekly-reading from here on out. Now, who did SFist Sarah L pick to win last week? The Metro! Gary Singh on San Jose soccer. The FBI may start investigating local......

Tonight there will an interesting auction, for the Princess Project. It's a Bay Area non-profit that provides prom dresses and accessories to high school girls that could not otherwise afford them. Which sounds kind of not very important but just think about what a special night it will be for those girls who are suddenly able to have a nice dress to the prom. One could argue too, that this would make a great reality show for MTV but who cares about poor people when you can show rich, spoiled sixteen year olds. The auction will feature items from local businesses and will from 6:00 – 9:00 p.m., at Dolce in San Francisco....

Let's hear it for SFist Sarah L and her awesome weeklies wrapup from last week! Whoooo! And an extra-special thanks for compiling not only a weekly of the week but the weekly of the year as well. So let's get 2007 started right, with the weekly of the year, the Bay Guardian. Yes, we know, we usually start with the weekly of the week, but we wanted an excuse to run a picture of that......

Wow, there's a whole lot of benefits for worthy causes going on this weekend, as well as a head-spinning amount of other stuff to do: Friday that's tonight, and it's the kick-off for Creativity Explored's (3245 16th St. at Guerrero) Annual Holiday Art Sale, a bargain hunter’s paradise of original artwork by artists with developmental disabilities. And it’s all on sale for rock bottom prices – many items as low as $5. Creativity Explored......

As yesterday's post listed nary an East Bay event, we're making up for it today: We are going to be on 25th St. in Oakland for 21 Grand's Illuminated Corridor event, a collision of live music and media on the theme of mobility taking place in the street with projections on most available surfaces, with 50 or so artists and musicians. (SFist Sarah L will be cruising around the Oakland Art Murmur with Neighborhood......

Last week's winner, the Guardian. The SF People's Organization is having a meeting this Saturday. Letters about guns in the Castro. Everything is better with strippers -- union woes, men against women, and a no-fatties proposal at the Lusty Lady. Hating on fixie bikes -- and big ups to SFist Sarah L for pointing out to us how awesomely combative the comments in response have gotten (typical comment: "My god man, do you have an......

First, let's dispense with the murders and shootings. We would very much like to see news items about Oakland and Richmond that don't involve people being shot and killed or shot and in critical condition at Highland Hospital, or falling to one's death or being severely beaten and dying several days later. Oakland's already past the 100 murder mark. It is now illegal in the state of California to steal free newspapers, as reported......

Awright! It's time for another SFist contest! Where was Gavin Newsom last week? a) On the playa at Burning Man; b) On a date with a barely-legal model; c) On a date with a C-list reality TV star; d) Trying out for Skating With Celebrities; e) Ably leading San Francisco through its current crisis of high crime rates and a fractiously-divided Board of Supervisors. or ..... f) something else entirely? Was he.... babysitting Suri Cruise?......

Local bookstore chain, Cody's Books has just announced that it is selling itself to a Japanese chain. Current owner, Andy Ross, will stay on as President of Cody's. Meanwhile, the former flagship Cody's store on Telegraph Ave. in Berkeley that closed recently, prompting much hand-wringing, 60s nostalgia, and debate amongst armchair urban planners is now one of those temporary Halloween superstores. We are holding our breath for the ironic next phase of vacant large storefronts......

SFist Sarah L, about the East Bay crime news -- going from bad to worse: A Hayward teenager was beaten up and left bloody on a stranger's porch. In the pleasant upscale suburb of Lafayette, on Happy Valley Road, no less, a human body was found burned to death in a car fire. Suicide, homicide, accident - the authorities aren't sure yet. We already wrote about the dead man at the Cal sorority, in what......

East Bay SFist Sarah L doesn't care about the stupid Bay Bridge being closed down this weekend! As we mentioned here before, the Bay Bridge eastbound will be closed Labor Day weekend. For those of us who live East of the Edenic S.F., here are some cultural offerings on this side of the Bay. Saturday, September 2 - Old Time Relijun and Trumans Water play the Stork Club in Oakland. Old Time Relijun "blend primitive......

Besides the homicide rate, Oakland residents' quality of life continues to be impaired by wasteful immigrants flocking to the shores of Lake Merritt - the Canada geese, also causing trouble in Richmond, as reported recently by the East Bay Express. The Lake Merritt geese population produces an estimated ton of fecal matter a day. The geese have also been sighted exhibiting aggressive pedestrian behavior not unlike that of Oakland's human residents, known for holding up......

SFist Sarah L. tells us the latest in the East Bay! First, the quick and dirty: the Oakland Tribune reports: one dead, two injured, 3 alarm fire at a 6 story residential hotel in downtown Oakland early Friday morning . In the Berkeley Daily Planet, a new book alleges Oakland Mayor and Attorney General candidate, Jerry Brown, took money from the mob back in his gubernatorial days. Jerry's opponent, Chuck Poochigian (we're waiting on the......

Last Friday, your East Bay Correspondent left the confines of her designated area to witness a rare spectacle - a Bay Area performance by Survival Research Labs. which took place in San Jose as part of the ISEA festival. This was the first large-scale (i.e. includes fire) public Bay Area SRL show in approximately 10 years. We did not try to utilize our newfound status as an SFist correspondent in order to wrangle a......

Someone in Oakland is not doing their part to keep the city clean and safe; instead, they are stealing trash cans. Not just any trash cans, but $1500 stainless steel trash cans. We are trying to comprehend trash cans costing $1500, as well as the black market potential for $1500 trash cans that weigh 120 pounds. We doubt these are the same "vandals" that had their way with hundreds of Berkeley parking meters a few......

Public art is often the butt of jokes and viewed with contempt, along with performance art and washed up aging rockers on the county fair circuit. Whatever your feelings are about the role of government in the arts, many people support public art in theory, and its civic impact is meager compared to contracts for garbage disposal, cable television, and towing. Public art controversies are noteworthy in that one sees people get twisted knickers......

A guy named Penisimani Schneider was arrested in Mountain View for assaulting his wife and trying to slash her with a knife, with five of his children present in the house. Yes, it's terrible, but we've gotta ask -- what kind of name is Penisimani? Is this like Mike Litoris? New contributor SFist Sarah L passed along the following East Bay tidbit: an Emeryville man was arrested after attacking his girlfriend with her own shoe.......

Money Magazine has published its annual list of "Best places to live" in these here United States, with the highest ranking Bay Area city coming at number 31. While we've never visited the winning city of Fort Collins, Colorado, we have read that Thomas Frank book, and we're highly skeptical that Overland Park, Kansas (#6) is somewhere we'd like to call home. And weather wimps that we are, Boise, Idaho (#8) and Eden Prairie, Minnesota......