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 their articles on their blog. We like the word "NeoXican." Book reviews! Daniel Handler v. the guy who wrote that You Suck vampire book. Pho in Oakland Chinatown. I Like Eating goes to a sports bar. Aaron Axelson compares Live 105 to Moneyball. And the EBX wins some writing awards, along with EBX alum and current SF Weekly editor Will Harper. Congrats! more ›

The acclaimed French-trained Guinean contemporary circus troupe Circus Baobab makes its US debut as part of the SF Int'l Arts Festival, performing , 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. more ›

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 of our Weekly advertising Netflix for porn. Meredith likes Maverick, and we thought SFist Ced's post on "Mission Accomplished" was his thoughts on the review! (That'd be an excellent title for the post about Maverick, which is on 17th and Mission.)). Dueling opinions on Wilco. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs are on the Spiderman 3 soundtrack? (from an ad.) And a man tickling his stepmother in Savage Love. more ›

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, . So here we are! more ›

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. more ›

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. more ›

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. more ›

get SFist Chris to write an anti-fixie column so we can get this kind of entertainment on our very own website! Books section: Joan Didion, still not in the best shape after her family died. Meg Tilly wrote a book? Cover article: TV mashups with Dick Cheney. Also: Pixies documentary opening at the Roxie this week. And SFist Eve's horoscope: "Your life is on fire -- grab your three most precious things and get out." more ›

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. more ›

Awright! It's time for another SFist contest! more ›

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 - the discount and overstock book emporium featuring Szechuan cookbooks for $5.99 and calendars of corgis and tropical golf resorts. more ›

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cultural offerings on this side of the Bay. more ›

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 vehicular traffic by slowly crossing major thoroughfares in the middle of the street. more ›

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 . more ›

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. more ›

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 years ago, or whether this act has anything to do with with the Oakland litter tax. more ›

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 over something being ugly or, to put it politely, "compositionally unresolved." (Personally, we wonder if Baby Suri isn¹t compositionally unresolved.) more ›

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? more ›

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 (#10) don't seem very liveable. more ›