It seems that over 1,000 custodial artists have gone on strike as of this morning at some of Silicon Valley's most prestigious hi-tech companies, including Cisco Systems and Apple, livid over a new contract. Accordng to the Mercury News: Garcia said the proposal did not "do enough" to correct a system that makes workers wait 2 1/2 years to become eligible for health care benefits. For new hires, the waiting period for health care......

Article and photo by Heath Biter/LAist Just moments ago, in a letter to its members, the WGA announced that writers have voted by a 92.5% margin to lift the “restraining order” and officially end the strike. The move comes on Day 100 of the labor dispute. WGA president Patric Verrone is expected to hold a press conference in just a few moments at the WGA Theatre in Beverly Hills, where members voted this afternoon.......

Due to the continuing WGA strike, the Golden Globes look like they might - might - get the ax. (For all of you book-reading intelligentsia who claim to have TV sets only so that your can watch your Netflix DVDs of The Sopranos and The Wire, you can read more about the strike here.) While not necessarily Bay Area-related, this deeply affects all of us who look at awards season at something holy and......

A sad week for LAist as they lose their trusted and amazing editor Tony Pierce to the LA Times, but what a blast his last week was. He shared his 25 Favorite CDs of 2007 and wrote a great review of just a good movie, No Country For Old Men. At UCLA, thousands of students celebrated the end of their quarter by running around campus in their undies (lots of photos in a two-part......

Photo of a funny sign in Golden Gate park...

By Frances Reade Local psych-rock heavies the Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound pilot a cavernous, abandoned spaceship, where the ponderous echoes of Black Sabbath, Neil Young, the Stooges, and the 13th Floor Elevators reverberate through empty chambers and recombine into mind-frying gamma rays. Equal parts brooding stoner sci-fi, choogling jam-along, thunderous riffage, and Californian-sunset melancholy, the Assemble Head plays the Hemlock tonight at 9 p.m. If the mood should strike, do stop by. In......

Kids, it's time to get rocking. (Especially before the "Private Party" dry spell that is coming on. Yikes.) This week, the San Francisco music gods are offering a vast array of newbies and veterans - something that we will graciously partake of any day of the week. Now that the bets are in (okay, so no one really cast any bets - how boring is that?), you can go to Cafe du Nord, tonight,......

The cold weather - and holiday festivities - descended upon Gothamist. The Rockefeller Christmas tree was lit, Broadway stagehand finally ended their strike, and NASCAR decided to run their victory lap through Times Square. There were disturbing photographs revealing the working conditions in which many city manholes are produced and ninjas were also a hot topic, either robbing homes or entering into alibis. But the city was really rocked by how Rudy Giuliani's visits......

HBO bought the rights to Game of Shadows: Barry Bonds, BALCO and the Steroids Scandal That Rocked Professional Sport, the infamous book penned by Chronicle reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams. According to a sister over at Variety, in it Bonds is "painted in 'Game of Shadows' as a gifted player who made a Faustian bargain to increase his power." (Might we suggest Damn Giants as a working title, then?) Ron Shelton -- auteur......

It's not fair that our sister, LAist, gets all of the great writers strike coverage. Alas. But the Bay Area's own Sean Penn has joined the noble striking effort. He helped to create the above Writers Guild of America-conceived video for "Project Speechless," videos that feature A-list thespionic talent. What's more, they found a way of making Mr. Penn funny. (We kid, Sean. Please don't hit us. Not that you'll have the chance.) Anyway,......

By day he's an Alight Electric employee. By night? A Ford F-350 Super Duty hero. It seems that last night on the Golden Gate Bridge, John Beatty of Mill Valley saved the day, so to speak, after noticing a woman unconscious in her Jeep, moving into oncoming traffic. At around 6:50 p.m., Sylvia Durrance, 62, came to a stop while driving southbound in the No. 2 lane. She appeared lifeless, her body slumped over......

There's been so many murders lately that it's hard to find a new twist on the stories, so here's one: a Pizza Hut pizza delivery man was shot and killed in the Richmond last night as he was trying to deliver a pizza. Apparently, he got lost and was wandering around trying to find the house he was supposed to deliver the pizza too and when he was stopped by several men trying to rob him. When he tried to run away, he was shot in the back, something that anyone who has ever seen a Western knows is the coward's way. ...

Each Tuesday we will feature new music that should (or whatever) be on your radar. Standouts: This week is worst than last week. Really though, there's nothing (except the Original Cast Recording of Lovemusik). Even on the Amoeba Records website, they only have two, we repeat, two records on their list. With the holidays approaching, one would think that there would be an avalanche of CDs being released but again, there's only a few. Please......

In Los Angeles, LAist most definitely celebrated Thanksgiving like no other. After all, one has to keep up all the energy to keep on walking the line at the Writers Strike and fighting the unfortunate return of the wildfires in Malibu, which single handedly destroyed over fifty homes within the first 24 hours. National outlets may be covering the fires, but CNN also found it is easier to buy a gun than fruit and......

Black Friday, the Friday after Thanksgiving, the day where big retail shoppers traditionally break even for the year! Traditionally considered the biggest shopping day of the year! Is it retail therapy? ....Or is it kowtowing to the gods of capitalism and binding the workers who long to be free? Well, if you're heading out to Union Square today but feel kind of guilty about it, you can at least make yourself feel a little better......

It's kind of an interesting Presidential Race in that two of the leading Republican contenders, Romney and Guiliani, are basing their campaigns on bashing the liberal bastions they governed. The obvious reason is to throw some red meat at conservatives by saying not only are they not actually liberal, but that they based most of their governance on beating back gays, Jews, and dark skinned people liberals. So Rudy just put a commercial out saying that he tamed "America's Most Liberal City." This didn't sit well with New Yawkers, however, and Douglas A. Muzzio, a professor of public affairs at Baruch College, fought back and said, “Blame San Francisco. We’re not No. 1.” ...

Each Tuesday we will feature new music that should (or whatever) be on your radar. Standouts: (There are no major standouts this week) Please Let Us Know What You Think About: 1. Amy Winehouse - Frank: Winehouse doesn't have much luck - her last single, "Rehab," was so deliciously repetitive that it apparently drove her into exhaustion rehab. Will her next single be "Fuck Me Pumps" or "Amy Amy Amy"? We hope that nothing gets......

Photo of a daylight graffiti artist on Haight Street...

Judging by the audiences' volatile reactions, She Wants Revenge did everything in their power to give the audience what they wanted: a spectacle (with some music). About half-way through their hour and a half set, a fight erupted. (This isn't the first time, we hear, that fights have started at one of their shows.) The lead singer, Justin Warfield asked, "Can't we all just get along?" and then continued singing their synth-pop Depeche Mode influenced......

Phillyist prepared to party by doing the hustle, lighting the lights, shopping up a storm, and... visiting Khrushchev? LAist continues to cover the Hollywood Writers Strike with visiting guest "strikers" such as KT Tunstall and Presidential candidate John Edwards. To celebrate Veteran's Day, they visited a Civil War reenactment and to celebrate Geography Week, they asked all the Los Angeles City Councilmembers about the districts they represent finding that LA's 180+ official neighborhoods are......

Good news everyone-- well-known libertarian, Ron Paul fan, exotic male dancer and bisexual male escort Starchild has been aquitted of charges of prostitution by a Fremont court. Starchild was up on charges for soliciting prostitution on Craigslist and was caught up in a sting by a Fremont police officer. ...

-- The WGA strike suuuuuucks. As does a fall season full of reruns. [The Bastard Machine, The Snitch] -- Vote tomorrow. Or whatever. [SFGate] -- No Googlephone? Then, what's the point of living? [ValleyWag] -- GOP Presidential candidate Romney Mailer is a ginormous GOP tool. [SFGate] -- Missing teen found with blue square at Fisherman's Wharf. Ew. [Examiner] -- Wisconsin-based chain store Batteries Plus banned. (Who knew there was a chain store devoted to......

Londonist got the big scoop of the week with what may be the first images of notorious street artist Banksy in action. They also got on a runaway train without an operator provoking a response from the transport authorities. Elsewhere, London's answer to Central Station is about to open for business, and Londonist got a sneak preview. Meanwhile, spooky goings-on beneath London Bridge, where a cache of skeletons provided an apt story for Hallowe'en.......

UPDATE: Oh man! How could we have missed this one? There's also going to be a Falun Gong march! We're sick and tired of trying to figure out whether we want to make fun of the pro-FG crowd or the anti-FG crowd -- oh, they're oppressed; but wait, their leader said nasty things about gays; and then there's that weird Epoch Times newspaper that they're involved with -- so we leave the thankless task......

For all those Decemberists fans out there waiting patiently for Thanksgiving weekend (a four-night run in San Francisco) to happen here's some bad and then even worse news. First, the bad: Decemberists' tour is canceled. Over. Done. Second, the worse news: now you have to find some other excuse why you don't want to spend time with your crazy family. We're thinking that this just sucks all around. What else was were we going......

Mere days after the head of the environmental department broke with Aaron Peskin and other city leaders on a Public Utilities Commission policy, this week Peskin introduced a wee bit of legislation that would obliterated said department. Yoinks....

Earlier this year, a fight broke out over the placement of a helipad at SF General. In short, proponents of the plan say it could save lives but opponents of the plan say it's not necessary and damn, those helicopters are loud. They also point out that those helicopters occasionally crash. Good thing there'll be a helipad nearby. Recently, the battle has flared anew with a proposed helipad at UCSF. SF General UCSF has been......

Between the black n' purple checkered floor and the burlesque porn that was playing in the TV over the bar, we knew we had entered the perfect world's most interesting venue, Bottom of the Hill. (We continued that thought as we ventured into the sticker/grafitti laden walls of the cramped men's bathroom.) Bumping into Chris Reynolds, Eulogies' drummer, at the merchandise table before the show was unexpected as the porn but we digress. After a......

Google maybe plotting world domination, but the good news is that at least they're liberal. That's what happens when you have Nobel Peace Prize/Oscar/Emmy/Grammy/NL MVP Al Gore as a board member....

-- Behold! The Infinity apartment! [Curbed SF] -- Welcome Wikipedia to SF with a slew of wacky neighbors and a joint taped to their door, won't you? [Examiner] -- Missing cyclist, James Bronstein, found dead. [SFGate] -- BART wants you to save Darfur. [Civic Center Blog] -- UC Berkeley searching for a hooded man in connection with recent arson activity. [SFGate] -- The Gov signs into action a bill forbidding you to light up......