We visited The Homestead for the first time last summer and it instantly fell in love with the relaxed ambiance, gilded decor and fantastic jukebox. We'd never seen a DJ in there before, so when we saw one this past Monday we were a little worried. It didn't take long for Shellac Shack, a weekly 78 rpm listening party hosted by DJ Chas Gaudí, to win us over. He plays blues, jazz, R & B,......

We won't say the Democrats are confident right now, but we hear Nancy Pelosi is already asking her staff to refer to her only as Madame Speaker, Ms. Speaker if you're nasty. Democrats are so confident these days that Kos himself weighed in yesterday to say that everyone is getting too confident. Hell, Democrats are so confident these days that they're starting to wonder if Nancy being in charge is really such a great idea. ...

We'll tell you about two shows that have little in common except perhaps six degrees of separation....

Is your wallet looking slim this week? Fret not; there's plenty of free music to be had. Check out any of Amoeba's stellar in-store offerings, including Prefuse 73, Zion I, locals Six Organs of Admittance, and a rare acoustic performance by Trail of Dead. Local label Six Degrees Records presents Niyaz at Virgin Megastore on Saturday at 2pm. And SFist is giving away a free copy of Citizen Cope's CD The Clarence Greenwood Chronicles (enter......

A feature in which SFist brings attention to restaurants in the oft-overlooked Richmond and Sunset districts. We hope you're inspired to try new some new places, and we'd love to hear recommendations of Westside joints you'd like to see reviewed, so please send your thoughts our way, or leave them in the comments. Out in the Sunset, you can't swing a cat without hitting a pretty decent Thai restaurant. We're reminded of the line......

SFist interviews Virgin69 Byron Brown...

We've already broken our New Year's resolution to not be late anymore, but we can still rally to see more live music in '05. Things remain a bit askew during this first week of January (holiday parties are still happening?) but there are many musical options if you need to get out and about. Or as those kooky Canadians like to say, oot and aboot. Groove is in the heart tonight down at the 111......

To paraphrase and bastardize Six degrees of Separation, San Francisco is like 18th century Florence, with brilliance on every corner. Here, EssEffist humbly attempts to give you a shapshot of that brilliance, as seen through the pages of this week's local food media....