Zazzle. You can't say the name without feeling and sounding like a drunk cartoon character. Zazzle, a website located in Redwood City that sells items like custom t-shirts, postage stamps, iPhone cases, and a whole new line of Bay to Breakers shwag, has signed on to be the shiny, new sponsor of Bay to Breakers for at least two years.
Zazzle To Sponsor Bay To Breakers For At Least Two Years
Less Than Jake (McGoldrick)
Well, at least he lives in the Richmond, right? (Some) affordable housing advocates and ethicists are shaking their heads over District 1 Supervisor Jake McGoldrick's poor party timing this week.
SFist Photo: Citizenship Workshop Tomorrow
Notice of a Citizen Workshop for green card holders tomorrow
It's Thursday-- Do You Know Where Your Baseball Team Is
Lew Wolff announced today that he's signed an agreement to purchase 168 acres of land in Fremont to build the new A's stadium and requisite development. What this means, essentially, is the A's are one step closer to moving to the 'burbs. Just call 'em the Soccer Mom Team.
Ask a MUNI Driver
ith fare evasion and it's effect on MUNI's budget being one of last week's big stories, we thought we'd ask our MUNI driver what the what is about all things MUNI fares. And remember, if you have any questions you'd like answered, send them to editor@sfist.com
Cycling: RSVP Dates for 2007
Mountain biking is a grass-roots sport that is only about one bake sale above your local group ride in terms of publicity and prestige, but it is an exciting sport that requires intense fitness, training, and dedication. At SFist, we understand the sport and the culture around it. We also understand what makes a good mountain bike race. To that end, we've reviewed the 2007 MTB racing season in order to provide our readers with a summary of this year's most interesting Northern California events.
So grab your bike, sharpen your elbows, and strap on a number plate for some challenging dirt action, or pack up the camp chairs, the cooler, and the kids, and head out to the races for a cheap day of fun and entertainment. Even if you aren't interested in competing, check out some of these events. You will see amazing feats of cycling prowess, discover the latest in space-age materials and designs, and probably pick up an armful of free posters, stickers, and other industry schwag.
Netroots Powers, Activate!
Now that Netroots have slowed down on the Tauscher hating, they've moved onto another subject to which their ire is drawn, KSFO. One of the diarists on Daily Kos is telling the story of poor Spocko the Blogger. Spocko had a thing about KSFO for whatever reason and decided to record bits and pieces of various shows with the hopes of capturing of something truly appallingly in bad taste and full of invective. Our guess is that he probably spent a good ten minutes or so before he had enough damning evidence. With recorded bits and pieces of the shows. Spocko the Blogger turned some of the quotes into mp3s and sent them to various sponsors of KSFO shows as well as their corporate overlords. The obvious reason, of course, is to show those holding the purse strings just what they are spending money on.
Handing in Guns to See the Guns
Chip Johnson in the Chron is reporting on a promotion in Oakland to get people to hand in hand guns. The promotion this time around is basically if you hand in your gun, you'll get tickets to an upcoming concert. The upcoming concert this time around is Guns n' Roses at the Oracle on December 15th.
Name That Bridge!
From the people who brought you AT&T Park and Monster Park and the Doritos’s Fiesta Bowl comes word that the Golden Gate Bridge-- THE Golden Gate Bridge-- might get corporate sponsorship too.
Gas Guzzling Government Goo-Goos
Put this in the category of something we're shocked-- shocked! to discover, but it turns out that all of those California government officials who have been going around pledging fealty to being Green drive gas guzzling cars. We all know about Arnie's love of the Hummer (we mean the car-- get your heads out of the gutter people!) but his security detail drives a 2005 Ford Excursion that gets less than 11 miles per gallon. Speaker Fabian Nunez, co-sponsor of the big global warming bill that will be signed tomorrow, drives a 2003 Ford Explorer that gets about 14 mpg in the city and 20 mpg on the highway. Two other sponsors of the bill drive Jeep Cherokees. Also of note is Oakland Assemblywoman Wilma Chan who does the commute four times a week in 2004 Lincoln Aviator that gets 13 mpg in the city and 18 mpg on the highway. Hmm...just think how much damage to the arctic will be done just in all the politicians showing up to sign a bill to purportedly save it. Won't somebody think of the polar bears?
Congrats To The Local Geniuses! (Not Us)
Dang it, another year has gone by and we still haven't won a genius grant. However, three folks in the area are pleased as punch, having gotten the legendary call out of nowhere that they've won half a million dollars for just doing whatever it was that they were doing anyways.
SFist Cares ... Educational Funding Sucks
Ok, so perhaps SFist's own Donor's Choose challenge isn't going to break any records (and we're not the best promoter's are we?).
Wednesdays, The New Wednesdays
If Wednesday was attacking your face instead of your liver, you'd do something about it. Today: It's summer! The time of the year where the city sponsors random music concerts in the middle of the day! If you make your way to Union Square at noon today, you can check out the rockabilly band Panther Slim, and if you're near the Crocker Galleria, it's Silk Steel. Concerts will go on around downtown through September.
Another Hole In The Head: SFist Has You Covered
SF Indie's Another Hole In The Head is the film fest we enjoy the most (that's why we sponsor it), and we couldn't be happier to see it back for its third year of blood, guts, and mayhem.
SFIFF Opening Night: Perhaps Love
The opening night screening of a film festival is like having sex with a celebrity -- the experience itself is never that impressive, but it makes for a fun memory and it's nice to be able to say that you did it.
Nobody Expects the Spanish Inquisition
Remember how we said Bud wouldn't investigate Barry because it would serve absolutely no purpose? We were wrong. Yesterday, news leaked out that Bud is all set to investigate Barry and steroids with former Senator George Mitchell leading the investigation. We don't think it's much of a stretch to say that this investigation is nothing but a travesty of a mockery of a sham of a mockery of a travesty of two mockeries of a sham.
SF IndieFest: The Proposition
As our cab pulled up to the Castro Thursday night, our driver said "ANOTHER film festival? Don't we have one of those every week?" While a look at our email inbox indicates that he's not that far off base, dude, it's IndieFest! If IndieFest happened every week, we'd be in the hospital, rehab, or morgue, but we would have had a hell of a time getting there.
Wednesday, The New Wednesday
Wednesday, you're doing a heck of a job! Tonight: Satisfy your craving for Germanic food and drink at Schroeder's, while also learning more about the development plans for Piers 27-31 with San Francisco for Democracy, a spinoff group from the 2004 Howard Dean campaign. The local Sierra Club and a rep for an anti-development citizens' group will speak; the corporation trying to develop the property cancelled at the last minute. Mmmm, sauerkraut.
Thursday: Events listing fave Michelle Tea is at it again -- she's hosting a reading of underground and emerging writers in conjunction with the Gay and Lesbian Center at the Public Library. Authors Regie Cabico, Kaui Hemings, Roxane Dunbar-Ortiz, and Horehound Stillpoint will be reading. 5-8 pm in the Latino/Hispanic Room at the Main Library. In the same area, Cindy Sheehan is reading too, at Clean Well-Lighted at 7 p.m.
and Friday: The DeYoung Museum sponsors events on Friday nights! This week, Egyptian belly dancing performances! The dancers of the Al Masri Restaurant on Balboa and 42nd will perform a dance history of the raqs sharki dance from antiquity to today. 6:45 and 7:45, free with museum admission. The Egyptian Consul General will be present as well.
Where's Our Butterstick?
We want a panda! We want a panda! Our cries to Gavin to pick us up one when he was in China went unheeded -- and now we've been stymied again! Oakland City Councilman-at-large Henry Chang has reluctantly admitted that he didn't actually manage to get the Bay Area a panda by Christmas this year, like he'd previously promised.
So it turns out Chang isn't anywhere close to raising the $8-10 million he needs to build an adequate panda enclosure for the Oakland Zoo -- apparently corporate sponsors were distracted by the tsunami and Katrina this year, and the Oakland China Wildlife Preservation Foundation's big fundraising dinner at the Oakland Arena didn't net nearly as much money as they thought it would. Chang promises he's still working on it, though.
Chang couldn't raise money for a panda bear in the Bay Area? We're the folks who spontaneously raised $24,000 for ducks and $120,000 for a bichon! Maybe part of the problem is that the link on the panda foundation's online donation page is broken. Come on, Henry -- help us help you! There's panda bears at stake here!
Excellently-photoshopped picture of Oakland panda from Henry Chang's website. Gratuitous picture of DCist's own Tai Shan (Butterstick) with his mommy from the Weekly Reader.
Win Passes to "Traditions Unbound" at the Asian Art Museum!
SFist is a proud sponsor of the Asian Art Museum's newest exhibit, Traditions Unbound: Groundbreaking Painters of 18th-Century Kyoto. We got to see this unique, 8-artist show last night (you can see slides from the exhibit here), and will cite Ito Jakuchu's One Hundred Puppies as our favorite work in the show. Like you didn't expect that!
Halloween News
Just in time for Halloween, Animal Care and Control has issued a renewed warning asking city residents to be careful about bats. San Francisco has seen five rabid bats over the last two years, and ten people have had to go through rabies treatment after being bitten -- so if you see a bat in your house, good God, don't try and take care of it yourself! Call ACC!
In similarly well-timed Halloween press ops, the same SF Examiner column we found the bats in says that the California Nurses are holding a rally at Market and Montgomery. They'll be giving out Arnold masks that will say "property of _____," with one of the governor's corporate sponsors listed. Pick yours up between 11 and 1, and you'll be set for those 10/31 parties tonight!
No one's a better Dracula than Bela Lugosi!
Wednesdays, The New Wednesdays
Rockin like Dokken -- what's on tap? Today: Did you know the SF Public Library sponsors film events? Tonight's screening is the film "Mission Movie," which follows a group of neighbors through everyone's favorite neighborhood as dot-com gentrification starts to settle in. Oooh, we hope Nestor Makno makes a cameo! FIlm starts at 6, in the auditorium of the Main Library.
Thursday: You can either check out Tuvan throat singers at 7 p.m. at the Asian Art Museum -- or ululate with the candidates for city assessor-recorder at the League of Women Voters-sponsored debate (ladies, the word "calendar" is misspelled on your site). Maybe Ron Chun will bring his ermine robes and crown! Debate starts at 7 at the LGBT Center at 1800 Market.
And TGI Friday: As part of the Bay Area Now series, the Yerba Buena Center presents Under The Radar 1, which sounds like it's going to be an underground cabaret -- female faux drag queens (one of whom used to be our yoga teacher!), acrobats, hip-hoppers Felonius, a women's toy instrument ensemble, and Lynne Breedlove of Tribe 8 (among many others) will be performing. Yow! 8 pm at the YBCA, $20.
Picture of drag artist Glamamour off the YBCA website
Come On and Take a Free Ride
While reading Wonkette yesterday, we found ourselves shocked-- shocked!-- to discover that Nancy Pelosi has accepted $8,580 dollars worth of trips paid for by lobbyists "outside sponsors." Expenses paid for included hotel expenses, air fare, and food. Most of it, however, came on one really expensive trip to Taiwan. You know, if it weren't for that videotape of us at a Dead Show with a three-foot bong, some blue unicorns, and that hippie chick Sunshine Lebowitz, we'd totally get into politics. Who wouldn't want to make $180,000 a year and get to travel around the world for free?
SFist Wants Five Minutes of Your Time
SFist has put together a short (very short -- only a dozen required questions) questionnaire, and all we ask is that you take a moment to fill it out. We spend a lot of time working on the site to make it super-double awesome, so we don't think it's too much to ask. So if you like what you read here (or don't like it), tell us about yourself and what you think we could do to improve it!

