Photo by Phillyist's Matt Johnson, SkyscraperSunset.com, December 19, 2007. Phillyist explored an impending implosion and lived to tell the tale.Gothamist marveled at the city's new NYC-branded condom campaign - especially the use of a Toronto landmark in the advertising. (Also, fun fact: Gothamist turned five years old yesterday.)Tired of the worldwide Scientology protests? Torontoist totally isn't: they covered the big downtown protest the day it happened, and followed up with an examination of all......

Each Tuesday we will feature new music that should (or whatever) be on your radar. Standouts: 1. Eskimo Joe - Black Fingernails Red Wine (w/ Bonus DVD): Hands down, one of the best CD's of 2007. Eskimo Joe released "Black Fingernails, Red Wine" as their debut single in the US in August. Their CD already went quadruple platinum in Australia (it was released in 2006). The quiet application of the piano combined with the melodramatic......

SFist Nick forwarded along an unintentionally-hilarious article by professional provocateur Christopher Hitchens from earlier this week in Slate. In this article, Hitchens mostly complains about Conrad Black, the Canadian press tycoon recently convicted of corporate fraud, but check out this kicker at the end! Postscript: I am writing this from the San Francisco Bay Area, where all summer a local politician named Ed Jew has been in trouble over his filing of an allegedly bogus......

Hey, want to win tickets to see the Fray at Shoreline this Saturday? That's their sensitive pop ballad on the YouTube clip above, and Gomez and the SFist Krissy endorsed Eisley are opening! We have to get the names of the winners to the folks offering us these tickets pretty quickly, so we'll give them to the fifth commenter on this post. Only registered commenters can win, because we'll need your email address to......

First bedbugs, then crack addicts, then bone-rattling noise -- that's the sort of bad-neighboring up with which Tenderloin residents will not put. Residents of the Lawrence Hotel have been scowling for a long time now at the deafening noise generated by Club Six -- check out these complaints. Shaking windows and floors, people on medication for sleep deprivation due to noise, doors left illegally open, and crowds so big on the sidewalk that you......

We don't know about where you are, but it seems like spring can't decide whether or not to happen. Some days are warm, some days are cold, and sometimes you aren't sure which. Baseball may have started up (and soccer/football winding down) but it still seems cold out there. Unless it's not. Anyways, onto the -ists....

A recent wave of immigration sweeps (or, as Indy Bay calls it "Gestapo Immigration Raiders") is creating a bit of a fuss not only in San Francisco but throughout the Peninsula and East Bay. There's talk of protests, organizing, sending out nasty press releases, and even the creation of new laws. In Redwood City, there's talk of creating an "Immigration Sanctuary" in San Mateo County and in San Francisco, the Board of Supervisors will debate a resolution tomorrow condemning the sweeps. That'll show them. Hell, even Gavin's jumped into the fray with his very own press release tut-tutting the raids. All of this has brought the Minutemen into the action as they held a rally in Castro Valley to call for closing the border. It wasn't until a few days ago when we realized the Minutemen were named after our Revolutionary soldiers and not their sexual dysfunctions, although one could probably explain the other. ...

Ahem...... Perhaps you would like a preview of the upcoming season from a totally official source? Well, you’re obviously not going to get that from us, but we are pleased to bring you the very first installment of A’s Anatomy; where the green and gold will be dissected all season, and no one will be spared, even if you’re Billy Beane and his BFF. (Just kidding, Bob Geren; welcome aboard!) ...

Lest we forget, the Gavster is also up for re-election this year and there's a few stories taking the temperature of his campaign, not least of which is Matier & Ross' story that Gavin still has 70% approval ratings, even after l'affiare du Tourk....

The latest involving the Niners is that yesterday Aaron Peskin jumped into the fray. Peskin had dinner with the accidental John York Thursday night and on Friday, he, along with Sophie Maxwell, said they'd introduce a resolution to move forward with the development at Candlestick Point and the Hunters Point shipyard. The idea being, of course, that instead of waiting for the Niners to figure out what they're doing, the city should move ahead and just do it. There's two reasons for this. One is that everyone wants to build stuff there anyways so why not just get the ball rolling. The other is that if things fall apart in Santa Clara, things will be all ready to go here. ...

-Arnie is now officially our Governor for the next four years. -Arnie also raised a whop-load of money....

Yesterday the 49ers sent a proposal to Santa Clara about the new proposed stadium. And you'll love this-- instead of sending a long, drawn-out, detailed proposal, they basically told Santa Clara to help them out by putting together the long, drawn-out, detailed proposal for them. So, in other words, the came up with this idea to move to Santa Clara without actually telling Santa Clara, then asked Santa Clara to put together the plan for them. There will be a big meeting on Tuesday to brainstorm all this. ...

In another big split-up, albeit one not nearly as suprising as Gav & Kim, the Niner's divorced themselves today from coach Dennis Erickson and GM Terry Donahue. None of this should be shocking as this is the sort of thing that happens when once proud franchises totally embarrass themselves with 2-14 seasons. While some people thought the miserly John York would hold onto both men as a way of pinching pennies (both men are under......