A Texas judge made her staunch stance on gay marriage publicly known on Tuesday, and her position might surprise you. Judge Tonya Parker of Dallas County made the bold decision to no longer marry couples until same-sex marriage is legal. "I do not perform them because it is not an equal application of the law. Period," she explained at a monthly meeting for the Stonewall Democrats of Dallas. more ›

This morning Steve Blow, who is a columnist for the Dallas Morning News and not a club DJ in the Castro, published his thoughts on why his "Regular Joe" Rangers deserve to win the World Series. Ignoring for a moment that the team who deserves to win the World Series is actually the team who sends the most players around those four little bases the most times, Blow seems oblivious to what might happen should he invoke the ire of SFGate commenters. more ›

A shooter was reported on the University of Texas campus this morning. No one was injured. Well, other than the gunman who shot and killed himself. Austinist has continuing coverage. more ›

We received the following missive from an angry Texas resident (or troll) early this morning. While she doesn't directly point to it, we assume it is in response to this. She writes to us, saying: more ›

Alfonso Israel De Leon, 34, was arrested on charges of tossing a two-year-old boy from a car in El Paso, Texas, on Saturday. While police wouldn't "disclose the children's relationship to De Leon," it seems the man was passing through the scary state of Texas with two children, the little boy and a four-year-old girl, when he threw the kid, as well as other objects, from the moving car. The boy is expected to survive. more ›

• Londonist pondered who might be the next sponsors of the London Eye and whether or not readers would be willing to donate £1,000 each for a Londonist Eye.
• Shanghaiist was shocked to find a cameltoe in the city's only English-language paper.
• Gothamist believed that a writer who wanted pre-gentrified gritty New York and ended up getting beaten up during a mugging learned his lesson.

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-- At Long Last Love (1975): At last -- the fecal matter-fest that is Peter Bogdanovich's career-killing, Cole Porter-infused musical. Starring Cybill Shepherd, Burt Reynolds, and Madeline Kahn, how did it all go wrong? Find out for yourself tonight at 7:45 p.m. at the Castro Theatre; $6-9. (Psst: Best Little Whorehouse In Texas screens at 9:45 p..m.; Smokey & the Bandit at midnight -- it's a Burt Reynolds extravaganza!) more ›

There will also be: greed, husksterism, rage, isolation and open-handed brawls. more ›

Choose your allusion-- the sword of Damocles finally striking, the chickens coming home to roost, karma being an ill-tempered bitch-- but Barry Lamar is now up against it for breaking the law, breaking the law. Personally, we were a bit stunned that it happened coming as it did years after the actual case, but we're cavemen-- we fell on some ice and was later thawed by some of your scientists. Your world frightens and confuses us! more ›

Want to know why there's no Thanksgiving card from grandma in your mailbox today? Because it's Veterans Day. (Or because she's dead, Timmy.) While Bush pretended to be sad about it in Texas today -- "Not on my watch," chump? Bite it. Hard -- we thought of a recent veteran who died over the weekend, Mr. Norman Mailer. (He was a cook during WWII. How awesome is that? Well, we think it is.) more ›

Fun Fun Fun Fest 2007 Recap from Super!Alright! on Vimeo. more ›

Writer, lead singer, guitarist, and founder of J-Church, Lance Hahn, passed away due to kidney disease complications on Saturday. He was 40. more ›

November 2004 - September 2007 more ›

Here's todays sports news more ›

Hey, all you singles in San Francisco/Oakland, looks like you live in the right place. Our fair city was tops in Forbes 7th Annual Best Cities for Singles Report. more ›

Thesis: classic Italian opera represents the core tradition of the art form and success as a singer means being able to master the genre. Anti-thesis: opera is an evolving live form, and the work of contemporary composers is relevant, forget about the old dead ones. Synthesis: let’s toss a little bit of everything on the wall, old and new, domestic and foreign, we’ll see what sticks, and call it the Merola Grand Finale. more ›

We were thinking of Chekov’s principle of drama: "One must not put a loaded rifle on the stage if no one is thinking of firing it," when Hotel Casablanca opened with a rack full of guns hanging on the wall. Was it to illustrate that Thomas Pasatieri, the composer/librettist of this new opera, had relocated the original French play in NRA-friendly Texas, or were the weapons instrumental to the plot? more ›

The way Wired's Noah Shachtman sees things struck us as astonishingly clear and pragmatic in reference to the Lawrence Livermore lab's partnership with Texas A&M. more ›

How can it be? So many great film festivals all over town! This week, you've got the Jewish Film Festival coming up at the Castro, and this Saturday, the Slant Film Festival at the 4 Star (Clement and 23rd). more ›

Let the vanity runs for offices begin: Tenacious Texas trespasser and brilliant anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan just promised to maybe, possibly, perhaps make a run against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi if our current Speaker fails to (finally) jumpstart a Bush impeachment come July 23. Sheehan plans to make it official next Tuesday, run as an independent, and swears to "give [Pelosi] a run for her money." more ›

Who needs the Sopranos when there’s the San Francisco Craft Mafia? That’s right, we said craft mafia. You got a problem with that? We hope not, because this group is taking over the city, organizing crafters of all stripes, helping to build up a community and a movement that’s showing no signs of slowing down. more ›

Here's todays sports news more ›

A controversy was brewing, surrounding the dismissal of Hope Briggs, who was originally scheduled to sing Donna Anna, and her replacement with Elza Van Den Heever, in the new SF Opera production of Don Giovanni, which kicked off the summer season on Saturday night. The explanation for the switch from the upper floors of the opera house was rather laconic, which left the door open to wild speculations. Was it, as this Berkely Daily Planet op-ed conjectured, due to the new media suite, which will record every performance on high definition from this Don Giovanni on and thus will put some demand on the singers to look good, conjectures the writer? more ›

Week Around The -Ists more ›

All across the Ist-A-Verse (or at least the American parts thereof), writers and editors are in the midst of enjoying their three-day weekend. But after the week we've all had, we feel like the break is not only needed, but deserved. Just look at everything we've been doing! more ›

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Remember how everyone was so upset because it turns out that SF doesn't collect on like 60% of parking meter money? Well, the second half of the study is in and it turns out the city makes up virtually all of that difference in parking meter fines. (Thanks, opera/parking blogger The Standing Room, for helping the city balance its budget!) By contrast to the 40% scofflaw rate for meters, the city collects 97% of the $21 million billed out in parking tickets. Oh, the power of The Boot. more ›

Let’s spend a few graphs on Hans Graf. He is music director at the Houston Symphony, and guest conducting the SF Symphony this week, Thursday till Saturday. Now whatever you may say about Texas, consider that he earlier had the same job at the Iraq National Symphony Orchestra, and all of a sudden, Houston sounds much more, well, inviting (truth be told, it was in pre-Saddam Baghdad in 1975-76, when it was actually a nicer place to be). The guy has extensive experience with top tier orchestras, like LA or Boston, and will conduct ours for the first time. more ›

This week we'd like to congratulate the -ist network's Mother Hen, Gothamist's Jen Chung, who found herself a recipient of Wired Magazine's Wired Rave Award. If that doesn't sound terribly exciting, keep in mind another recipient was J.K. Rowling. Yep, that's right, the -ist network and Harry Potter now have something in common. Go us. more ›