Berkeley-based artist Eric Drooker painted this lovely-but-ominous cover, which he submitted to The New Yorker about a year ago, but only this week did the magazine decide it was thematically appropriate for the time. Says Drooker on the New Yorker's blog, "Manhattan Island has become more and more an exclusive place for the super wealthy, or the super corporations—and a hostile place for people to live, not just for the working class, but even for the middle class. The city has become this monolithic cathedral to money.” more ›

SFist interviews John Ringhofer of Half-handed cloud on the Asthmatic Kitty label more ›

So many moons ago, we wrote a post about Other Magazine. We were still young, unknown punks on this here locally scribbler scene. Nearly a year and a half later, we're still young punks at least (though we'll just be punks before long), mostly by virtue of being accepted by actual literary luminaries like Charlie Anders and Annalee Newitz. Granted, they're not hard to find, with Charlie MCing Writers With Drinks at the Makeout Room every month. more ›

We're only getting to this story now because it takes four days for magazines to travel across our great lands to us yokels out here in the Western hinterlands -- the New Yorker deigns to focus its little monocle on the far end of Democrat-Blue America and presents a rather one-sided hagiography of our boy wonder mayor, Gavin Newsom. more ›

Last Planet Theatre opens Wallace Shawn's "The Designated Mourner" in its new Civic Center/Tenderloin space this weekend. Go check it out. more ›

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