Due to the "unusual and extraordinary" Christmas Day tiger attack at the San Francisco Zoo -- which resulted in the mauling death of 17-year-old Carlos Sousa Jr. and wounding of Paul and Kulbir Dhaliwal -- a three-member tiger team formed by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums has been called in to examine the zoo's big cat grotto. While the investigation and renovations are underway, the tigers and lions are currently kicking it indoors. What's more, according to zoo director Manuel Mollinedo, the cats have been subjected to the wonderful world of Disney: more ›

Where to begin? Well, for starters, the page's score set to The Lion King's eleventh-hour song "Circle of Life." While we tend to loathe music set to any page on the webs, this is fitting. And touching. But Tatiana's official postmortem MySpace page offers more than just Elton John-manufactured teardrops. You can find informative links to such items as the transcript to Nancy Grace's show on the tiger attacks, a makeshift memorial of sorts, and more. (Also, according to the site, Tatiana was a Cancer, the moodiest astrological sign of them all. Just saying.) more ›

We don't say this lightly, because there are really a lot of great artists coming out of the Bay Area, but we do have a current favorite: Birds & Batteries. We've been telling you about this co-ed quartet for a little while now, and our expectations for their new record were really high. Thankfully it's good news: we love I'll Never Sleep Again. It's still the B&B we met on their last release, but this time the woeful steel guitar and Mike Sempert's deep drawl are buffered by better production, including warm bursts of synth so thick you could hold them in your hand. The record starts out by making the simple, straightforward Neil Young classic "Heart of Gold" into an existential epic, and we love the song "Starclusters" so much that it's secured a solid entry in our top 10 tracks of the year. One lucky winner will get a Birds & Batteries prize pack, including two tickets to the CD release party on Wednesday night at Cafe Du Nord, a limited edition copy of the CD with silk screened artwork, plus a poster from the show. Enter to win (contest ends 6/25; winner will be notified via email). more ›

We’ve been on tour of sorts this week, but since it’s for our day job we regret to inform you that there’s nothing very rock about it. We are happy to say that we’re meeting some fellow –ists along the way though. Last night we met and chatted with Kyle and Nicole from DCist. We commiserated with Kyle about the burden of keeping up too many blogs (check out his excellent music blog Information Leafblower) and listened with envy about his plans to cover the Pitchfork Music Festival this weekend. Tonight we’ll be meeting some Chicagoists, which makes us think we should create some sort of dorky visualization out of which –ists we’ve met/haven’t yet met, something like those cardboard maps for collecting state quarters. more ›

A few years ago we went to the San Francisco Zoo and became entranced with the prairie dog and meerkat exhibit. We could have spent the entire day in that one section watching the prairie dogs prairie-dogging, and the meerkats doing their sit-on-hind-legs-turn head-this-way-and-that-way thing all day. ALL DAY, we tells ya! more ›

-- from the song "Winners Never Quit" by Pedro The Lion more ›

Pixar, located on Hollis Avenue in Emeryville, has been on a rather fantastic run of hits, from the first Toy Story through the current king of the box office, The Incredibles. Disney, on the other hand, hasn't had a hit animated feature since The Lion King, and in fact Disney's Orlando animation studios have been shuttered. Andrew Millstein, who headed those facilities, is now out trying to poach artists from other studios to stock the new Glendale facilities while Michael Eisner is in a court in Delaware. Pixar, on the other hand, is seeing its stock rise based on the success of their latest effort, and also won approval from Emeryville voters to expand their facilities. more ›

EssEffist saw "The Lion King" at the Orpheum this weekend, and it was exactly as we expected: magnificent and deeply disappointing at the same time. more ›