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--At Intersection for the Arts, an evening of performances, readings, and conversations with formerly-incarcerated youth in The Prison Project, their year-long artistic exploration of the California penal system. $5-15, 7 p.m., 446 Valencia (x 15th). more ›

Phillyist Jill (who compiles half of those Week Around The Ists posts for all of us in the Gothamist network) sends along some info about a nationwide memoir contest that they're sponsoring out of Philadelphia -- so those of you frustrated (or successful!) This American Life aspirants, start mining your childhood for poignantly-insightful anecdotes! more ›

Okay, let's get the premise of this band over quickly, and with a minimum of references to Hufflepuff badgers and flying Bludger balls -- the band Harry and the Potters is made up of two brothers, one of whom calls himself Harry Year 7 and the other of whom is Harry Year 4. They write original songs all based on the Harry Potter universe, like "Save Ginny Weasley From Dean Thomas," "The Missing Arm of Viktor Krum," and "Horcruxes," among many, many others. This has spawned a whole genre of Wizard Rock, by bands like The Whomping Willow and Neville Longbottom; they've all put out what looks like a hysterical Christmas album, featuring a song titled "In My Room Of Requirement (It's Always Christmas)." more ›

interview by Ira Glass. (It's actually kinda refreshing to learn that Ira is human, but we wouldn't wish his interview on anyone.) Point being that we, too, were once anti-corporate rebels, but unfortunately, most of our anti-corporate memories make us totally cringe. (You should see pics from college.) In his post, Ed Batista points to a larger story about "the end of authenticity (or more accurately, the end of perceived, manufactured and marketed 'authenticity')." We like that phrase, "marketed authenticity." We had that beaten out of us when we worked for a non-profit, and pretty much learned all the lessons that Ed Champion links to. It's harder, sometimes, to let go of "marketed authenticity" when its associated with nobility, as opposed to cool-ness. Spuds MacKenzie was "cool," but we all saw through that easily, or if we couldn't, quickly grew tired of it. But disabusing ourselves of a notion that art was worth putting up with insane amounts of bu11$h!+, because it was for an ideal, was much harder. Which is why, although Burning Man art is beautiful, we can't fully trust it. We want to, we just can't. The pier, on the other hand, we fully support. more ›

Good thing we got to the Swedish-American early for Friday night's Porchlight Third Anniversary storytelling evening -- even 45 minutes before the show, the rush ticket line was snaking all the way down to the Lucky 13. And inside, the crowd (women in flower-print shift dresses, men in corderoy) was distracted the arduous folding-chair seat selection process by the gigantic set of klieg lights and steadicam equipment -- KRON 4 was taping the show. (We've always wanted to be on KRON 4!!! Look for us!) Porchlight is basically the live San Francisco version of This American Life -- hosts Arline Klatte and Beth Lisick invite people to come up to the stage and tell an extemporaneous story on a theme. No notes, no patter, and a strict 10-minute limit per person. Friday's show was Porchlight's Third Anniversary show, with the theme, "Eye of the Tiger: Stories of Weird Little Triumphs." Because it was the Third Anniversary, storytellers were limited to 6 minutes, and they featured a lightning round, where five members of the audience would be picked to tell a one-minute story each. After the jump: the tyrannies of a live studio audience, the ominous 2-minute piano warning, and Matt Gonzalez on Archie Manning. Picture of Porchlight hosts Arline Klatte and Beth Lisick by Lori Spears more ›

Here at SFist, there's nothing we hold dearer than our precious preconceptions and snap judgements. As evidenced by our recent plague of Blink-readings, we busy urban hipsters have no time for fact-gathering and mold-breaking -- we want decisions, motherf**cker, and we want them now! That's why our latest intarweb-obsession is Buttercouple.com, a sort of statistical matchmaking cross between Friendster and AmIHotOrNot plus The Gottman Institute (you know, that guy from This American Life who can watch a couple for a few minutes and then predict how long their marriage will last). Cooked up by a cabal of Berkeley kids, Buttercouple allows you to submit your picture for side-by-side comparison to argorithmically selected potential mates, a coupling then rated by other users for feasibility based solely on your looks. Or in plainer terms, you get to vote on what couples you think ought to get together, and to find out who everyone else thinks that you should be paired with. "We're a serious answer to a problem that's not serious at all," says Buttercoupler Noam Lovinsky. Noam and co-butterers Annie Chang, Matias Cudich, Kavin Stewart, and Scott Grant set out to harness the collaborative filtering power of the intarweb, or as Annie puts it, "something computers can't do that humans can." For now, Annie ... for now. BWAH HA HA HA HA HA HA!!! more ›