Good news: Translink will be up and running on Muni in the late fall/early winter of 2007. Or at least, that's what Muni said last year, and surprise! It's still not working. (And before that, it was January of 2007.) Translink is the work of a company called ERG, Ltd (emphasis on the "limited"); and in the decades (decades!) that it's been bandied about, lots of other cities have managed to set up Translinks......

Okay, before you ask, this is not the much-beloved Our Locals On Reality TV Project Runway recap, this is the SFist Symphony review -- we'll explain later in the post. We had a little San Francisco Polyphony of our own on our way to the SF Symphony concert yesterday night to see Gyorgy Ligeti's shimmerily-dissonant orchestral piece of the same name -- the driver of our MUNI bus finally got fed up with people sneaking......

A doorway at a fire station between the W Hotel and the Gold Club has been set up as a Safe Surrender Site for newborns. ...

Yesterday, Mayor Newsom signed into action the Tommy Ammiano-introduced legislation that requires the city to handout ID cards to undocumented immigrants and other residents who either can't or just won't apply for driver's licenses. The good news is that these IDs will help (formerly) undocumented residents gain access to the wonderful world of banking, a sense of peace before calling the fuzz, as well as "health services at city-run clinics, public library privileges, and resident discounts at museums and other cultural institutions." (Entry fee discounts at the Exploratorium: the American dream realized.) ...

Perhaps in an effort to appease the masses for screwing them over on insane parking ticket allocations, the San Francisco Police Department, the Mayor's Office, and city prosecutors are working together to stop the city's most "overlooked crime": smash-and-grab auto burglaries. (Also known as "Boosts." Oh, that's fun name!) With an average of 41 smash-and-grabs per day in SF, the Mayor's office created a special task force that arrests one boost-happy hoodlum per week,......

We caught the symphony on Thursday for a really cool program: Mostly Ives, with a Mendelssohn violin concerto squeezed in between for good measure. Those quicker than us with their opinions found the concerto rather pedestrian. But it's such a delicious yet cloying confection that even under the the jurisdiction of a particularly uninspired interpretation, is still satisfying. And the soloist, 22yo Sergey Khachatryan, did spark some fireworks in the final movement. In the program......

Kurt Masur proved why he is a conducting legend. We caught him leading the SF Symphony on Thursday night, and, even at 80, the man can conduct. Yep, eighty year old. He looks so not octogenarian we thought it was a typo in the program, until we found a list of celebrations for his big birthday this year. But who cares about his age: he is not working on the senior tour, he is still......

San Francisco and the Bay Area are getting ready to throw a big (albeit somewhat belated) celebration for Philip Glass’ 70th birthday with concerts all over the place and, of course, the premier of Glass’ new opera Appomattox. And the kick-off is this Friday night with a very special and rare intimate recital courtesy of San Francisco Performances. Mr. Glass will be playing several of his pieces with cellist Wendy Sutter and percussionist Mick Rossi at Herbst Theater....

If you are concerned about people growing old around you, just keep looking for fresh faces to hang out with. We got this bit of wisdom not from Gavin Newsom (who got it from Willie anyway), but from James Schwabacher. One of Schwabacher’s initiatives was to co-found the SF Opera Merola program, now in its 50th anniversary, a training program-slash-talent-search for opera singers that lasts all summer. Schwabacher sadly passed away in the middle of......

While San Francisco is known globally for a certain worldview, those of us who actually live here know that when it comes down to particulars, we don't often agree. We can't agree on Blue Angels. We can't agree on a Muni solution. Heck, we can't even agree on what to do about Ed Jew (oh no!). But you know a banner we can all unite under? The One City One Book: San Francisco Reads program. Imagine, hordes of people reading a sort of narrative story on paper! No electricity required (save, perhaps, for reading lights). ...

The University of Michigan's Transportation Research Institute has just published a study on the effectiveness of a new method to reduce greenhouse gas emission in California . While it may seem strange that an out-of-state university is concerning itself in California's affairs, we'll take it: the findings are pretty encouraging....

The Oakland Trib has an extremely depressing story about a pediatric AIDS study that's had its funding cut. The Pediatric AIDS Clinical Trial Group, a combined effort of UCSF and the Children's Hospital and Research Center Oakland, had been getting $750,000 a year from the National Institutes of Health to study mother-to-child transmission of the virus and the effectiveness of drugs in pediatric care. No longer. The problem? They've done it too well. ...

We don't think he'll attract quite the crowds that Conan amassed last week, but another TV personality has decided to broadcast from our fair City. Charlie Gibson is anchoring ABC's World News from San Francisco this week, and the newscasts are focusing on the Bay Area's varied attempts at "going green." Insert Conan's marijuana/plastic bags joke here. In other local TV news items that have managed to make their way into our In Box,......

Jill Tucker's series on Junior ROTC (Reserve Officers Training Corp) and Nanette Asimov's features on California's special education program have won top honors in the 2006 John Swett Award for Media Excellence, which is the California Teachers Association's highest honor for media professionals....

Our beloved Muni Driver may have stopped writing for us, but that doesn't mean we can't get another part of Muni to take their chances posting for us. So without further ado, we'd like to start our new feature, Ask a Muni Security Guy. And standard rules apply-- we're really lucky to have this feature and our Muni Security Guy is not a writer, so be nice in the comment section....

Today marks the third anniversary of "Care Not Cash" and as a result, homelessness is having the Best Week Ever. In honor of the anniversary, Team Gavin has launched a full court press showing that despite appearances, things have improved. Question: what is the proof? Answer: according to Trent Roher, about 1,800 homeless people are now people formerly known as homeless. Those who go into the program mainly stay in the program. Of course, numbers can be spun all sorts of ways and there's been different interpretations of those numbers. ...

If the lines outside the Kabuki this weekend are any indication, everyone and their cousin knows that the SF Int'l Film Festival is the place to BE for the latest and greatest in national and international cinema. But did you know the SFIFF is also featuring some really cool music shows too? They've all got something to do with film, anyways: a 13-piece live orchestra will be accompanying the family dysfunction drama Brand On......

The Say Hey Kid gives his blue Sharpie a well-deserved rest after graciously providing his autograph to a throng of longtime admirers. The aging movie theater behind him will soon be a construction site. Who did we see today next to the old Coronet Theatre on Geary today but Willie Howard Mays Jr. He was the star of the program kicking off construction of the residential project for seniors sponsored by the Institute on Aging......

Because we're not ashamed to admit we actually paid to see NSync live when we were 17, miss Justin's white boy 'fro, and still have the program from that concert somewhere in our parents' house...Because the stars finally aligned, and both Justin Timberlake AND Prince William are single (call us, Willie, we totes fancy you!)...And because we want Justin to dedicate "What Goes Around Comes Around" to Gavin Newsom when JT comes to town in September. ...

Google got a lot of press over the weekend for their big April Fools Day joke. The joke is that they're all set to announce a new Wi-Fi flan plan that "delivers online connectivity via users' plumbing systems" and the call the program Toilet ISP, or TiSP for short. Hardy, har, har, Google…the Onion has nothing on you. ...

First there was the Sound of Music Sing-Along. Then came a whole lotta other Sing-Alongs. But this Wednesday, there might be the awesomest Sing-Along of them all: a sing-along of R. Kelly's epic magnum opus, Trapped in a Closet....

This weekend, both the Chron and the Ex had big stories about Gavin's community court idea. Oh, wonky, earnest Gavin, how we missed you. Anyways, the thing about both stories is that we actually have community courts already set up. In fact, we've been praised for our community court program. So, then, why all the hullabaloo? And what is the proverbial what because as we could all attest, it's not like they appear to be making a difference? ...

Bipartisan legislators introduced a bill in the California Senate Wednesday that would grant every child born within the state a $500 savings account, earmarked for higher education, a home downpayment, or retirement. We appreciate the idea of teaching young 'uns how to save for the future, sure. And we appreciate that people are working to counteract California's poverty. But, come on . . . finance lessons from the folks that have put California in the red?...

So earlier today, we heard that Alex Tourk resigned as Gavin's campaign manager. It was a bit curious, a bit odd, but these things happen, although whenever somebody mentions that they are leaving for "personal reasons" the mind does tend to go to certain places. But no matter where your mind wandered, we have a feeling it didn't wander as far as what really happened because the Chron is reporting that Tourk quit mainly because Gavin had an affair with Tourk's wife, Ruby Rippey-Tourk. Rippey-Tourk (and woah, what a name) was Gavin's appointments secretary at the time....

We see it all the time, and we are fairly certain there is good money to be made doing it - public art is the topic of tonight's workshop in Southern Exposure's SoExchange series of artist-led workshops. How Do I Make My Art Public Art? features panelists, Seyed Alavi, Louise Bertelsen, Packard Jennings, Wang Po Shu, and Rigo 23. It takes place at the Mission Cultural Center (2868 Mission St at 25th) and covers how......

We hadn’t really opened last year’s Christmas gift yet: when David Gockley became general director of the San Francisco opera a year ago, we did not really know what was in the box. The second half of the 2006 season, and the 2006-2007 season operas were already booked by his predecessor. He was not the one who chose this rather uninspired selection of yet another Carmen, yet another Barber of Seville, yet another Rigoletto. ...

Last week, Gavin gave his State of the Homeless speech. And you'll never guess what he said? He said we're doing swell. He also said that there's still more to do and gosh-darnit, he's going to do it....

It's gotta be hard to perform at the symphony in the winter -- a number of musical sneezes and coughs periodically punctuated Wednesday's San Francisco Symphony movie-themed performances, helmed by guest conductor David Zinman. Get well soon, Wednesday night ticketholders! It was a night of romantic movie themes and orchestral folk music (and one modern piece described in the program as "an aircraft revving for takeoff"), with violinist Hilary Hahn the main star. A poker-faced......

We had high expectations for Atlantic Crossing, the new piano concerto from Kevin Volans which the SF Symphony premiered last night. And it turned out that a masterfully executed Shostakovich symphony ended up stealing the show. ...

We stole this column idea from Stephen Colbert -- but goodness, a lot of people are attacking Newsom these days, aren't they? Here's today's list! (The Guardian's keeping a list too.) Ross Mirkarimi!: Ross says that Gavin has been "hoisted by his own petard," in response to mayoral minder Peter Ragone's statements that Mirkarimi is only pushing the foot patrol issue so he (Ross) can run for mayor against Newsom. Ross said the Newsom......