Sure, it's now (oddly enough) cool and obligatory for people in the Bay Area to label themselves as "self-described nerds" or "self-described geeks." (And anyone outside of the 18- to 25-year-old range is inherently uncool, right?) But there's a dark side to holding such an annoying title. As reported in the Chronicle today, Marlon Pagtakhan, 29, a Burlingame nerd and "rabid text messager," -- who was arrested several years ago for stalking Seven of......

It's January 1, and here are the best things from the last 365 days....

We're the first to admit that we're not a big Robin Williams fan. That fast talking, manic thing got stale for us before we hit the "cocaine" unit in health class. We find his beard movies even more tiresome, but do like us some creepy Williams: in Insomnia he outacted Pacino, no mean feat, and in One Hour Photo he was only eclipsed by Michael Vartan's saggy balls. We were surprised to see that......

50 out of 50 Wednesday precincts reporting -- Tonight: Come see newly-anointed state assembly representative Fiona Ma, along with DA Kamala Harris, performing at the SF Black Film Festival's Urban Slam spoken word event tonight, at the Theater Artaud. My name is Fiona/ Janet Reilly is bologna..... The Urban Slam starts around 8:15, after the 6:00 p.m. screening of the movie Sp!t, a documentary about the hip-hop poetry slam scene. $10 for the movie, $10 for the slam. Theater Artaud is at 450 Florida (x Mariposa). Tickets here. Thursday: Screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga, who wrote that Sean Penn movie "21 Grams", will be at the Balboa for the 7:00 p.m. screening of "The 3 Burials of Melquidas Estrada," for which he won the Palme D'Or last year. Arriaga will be signing copies of his book The Night Buffalo starting at 6, and at 7, he'll be leading a discussion about screenwriting tips. The Balboa's at Balboa and 38th Ave. and Friday: Shoo-be-doo-waaaaaah -- the Pacific Mozart Ensemble presents an evening of a capella jazz and pop songs at the Green Room in the War Memorial Building on 401 Van Ness. $20. Finger-snapping is always our favorite. Download musical excerpts here....

The creative team behind J.T. Leroy should send James Frey flowers, since his little revelations have given the J. T. Leroy hoax story a sort of also-ran quality. However, we were pleased to see the San Francisco Chronicle finally pick up the story and give it a well-sourced local angle. First up: the local literary Who's Who with regard to who was sucked in: Dave Eggers, Susie Bright, David Wigand, Michael Ray, Michael Chabon......

Our live music picks for the week of 2/17-2/23. You could commemorate President's Day by celebrating Washington's or Lincoln's birthday, or by reflecting on your most and least favorite Presidents of the past. For most of you, we're betting Monday just means a much-needed day off of work. Not to worry -- there are plenty of ways to party like it's a three day weekend. Ex-True Believer Jon Dee Graham plays a 6pm early show......

The Chronicle today said goodbye to yet another columnist, this time not out of economic hardship on part of the Chron, but on economic hardship on part of the columnist. Citing the need to move on from cabbing due to the hardships entailed by cab drivers, the Night Cabbie handed in the keys to his cab and signed off on his column in today’s paper, telling his readers that: Simply said, I got tired of......

SFist has been so busy listening that we have barely found time to read. But remember, nothing is a better accompaniment to your favorite Quannum tracks than a book reserved from the San Francisco Public Library. And a close second would be those books purchased from our local independent bookstores. SFist Emily needed a break from studying this week. Luckily one of her roommates had the vaccous antidote for her over worked brain: He's Just......