You know that Improv Everywhere group? Most people have seen their work in those videos of people standing motionless in train stations or staging a surprise musical in a shopping mall. But you've probably known about them for years because you heard about them on This American Life back before they were famous. Anyway. They're coming to do a stunt in San Francisco this Saturday. It happens at 2pm in Dolores Park, and if......

God, this story needs to die. If you recall, local blogger Thomas Hawk threw a temper tantrum after being tossed out of SF MOMA for taking shots of some girl's tit, or a daring piece of wire hangers, or whatever. Now Hawk is doing everything to get Simon Blint, the SF MOMA employee who had Hawk remove, fired because of a bruised ego. Incorrectly using "OMG, CENSORSHIP!" as his battle cry, many on the......

--Local photog Thomas Hawk gets assaulted for taking pictures -- again. [Thomas Hawk's Digital Connection, via the SFist tips line. update: From last year! Sorry! Keep those tips fresh, folks!] --C.W. Nevius didn't start the fire. [The Chron.] --Republicans busted by SF State for stomping on Muslim flags with the word "Allah" written on them are now suing. Oh, that's rich. [CBS 5.] --You thought Ed Jew Borderline was awesome? If that was Madonna,......

Looks like there's a stuck train blocking all inbound MUNI traffic from Civic Center on. We're still looking for info (and a sufficiently whimsical picture to illustrate this post) but figured we'd pass the info along for now. Update: Okay, now the story we originally found is gone, and we can't find anything about this. Any reports from the field, readers? (We did, however, find this gorgeous picture by Thomas Hawk.) Picture by Thomas......

Update: 11:45 a.m.: Here's your roads: W-80 to S-880 is closed (from Berkeley to the Oakland airport). E-80 to E-580 is closed (from SF to Lake Merritt and Piedmont). Alternate routes: BART or AC Transit. From SF, you could take S-880, surface streets to downtown Oakland and get on W-980 to get onto the intact sections of S-580. Or you could just take BART or AC Transit. Did we mention you should take BART......

With SFist Rita's report yesterday about Apple settling with Creative, Apple fanboys can console themselves with the news that Microsoft is also getting dinged for even more money in a patent infringment suit. Meanwhile, retail workers who downloaded the development version of Apple's new OS, Leopard, are getting canned left and right (scroll down). But BusinessWeek thinks good iPod news is on the way, while Wired News explores the back alleys of Chennai in search......

The good news is that the first battle in the legal fight against the NSA's wiretapping program has been won by everyone who doesn't work for the NSA. The bad news is that internet-enabled vigilante mobs could be the next big fad here in the States. Eh, we're too busy applying a new Dasani-branded profile treatment to our MySpace profile and checking out some of the videos. Damnit, we were totally going to lead off......

We'll be straight with you -- we're having a hard time following the whole "is Annemarie Conroy qualified" debacle that's been afoot for the past few days -- something about a report being released and how the Office of Emergency Services isn't really prepared for an earthquake? C'mon, guys, all they need is enough water and power bars to get through the first 72 hours! So apparently Conroy put in for more money than she......

There's lots of politics out there this week, gentle readers, but we'll leave it to others to cover the big stories. We here at Blog Central are all about the next wave, the fringes of politics where wonk meets snark. For example, we've followed Tony (whoops -- guess we subconsciously think he's hella cool, and we promise that's the only time we'll use the word "hella." OK, we can't promise that.)Thomas Hawk's insistence on his......

It warms our red hearts to see workers marching here at home and around the world on International Workers' Day, otherwise known as May Day. Protests and demonstrations happened from Berlin to Indonesia, and while most were peaceful, there were scuffles with authorities. Here in the United States, the marches were to protest changes to immigration laws, and coincided with many businesses shuttering their doors as immigrant workers walked off their jobs. Marches were......

Just as the rain stopped, everyone has a new favorite blog topic--it's earthquake centennial madness! Eric over at and the Family Buick has a fairly lengthy write-up of the event, while Rangelife has a fever, and the only cure is--more cowbell. Sorry, wrong pop culture reference. We're still on the earthquake. Your favorite ex-bathroom attendant has a write-up on the plucky fire hydrant that saved so many, while sfdx has a different drink in mind. Mona has a beautiful pic of one of the survivors up on her blog. Some others, though, are more concerned about the effects of the next big one. Jennifer admits that she's been rattled by all the voice of doom coverage, and Jamison gets snarky over what he feels is unfair proactive re-distribution of blame. Maybe he should keep the turtle he found, a pet might make him feel better. Art makes us feel better. We love that we live in a town where art thrives. The Painted Ground of San Jose Avenue posts protest art this week, while the California Department of Corrections went big time and Kvatch takes over Market Street. This poster--literally--thinks locally. VJ Culture isn't protesting anything, but we do lament the fact we'll never be as cool and smart--at the same time--as he is. On the other hand, we have jerks here, too, as chronicled this week by Ed, in addition to Thomas Hawk's ongoing struggles with building security guards. So is it any wonder that sometimes we just go a little goofy? And sometimes, when the stars are aligned correctly, we have smart, goofy Newsom protest blogs that makes milk come out our noses. You suck! Have a nice day! Picture from If I Ran The Zoo. SFist Jacob, contributing. ...

Thomas Hawk is at it again, committing the shocking transgression of (gasp!) photographing buildings in downtown San Francisco. The fine, upstanding gentleman above is a Shorenstein Company security guard at 45 Fremont who began his conversation with Hawk "middle finger a blazing", and the level of discourse just declined from there. Read his entire account of the incident for all sorts of greater detail, including a man impersonating Walter Shorenstein. And when you're done,......

Sometimes we get burnt out on politics. Sometimes, in order to watch TV, we actually turn on the TV. Sometimes, mainly when Google on our cell phones allows us to lose a baseball trivia bet more quickly than we ever thought possible, we get a little bitter about the vast resources of information on the web. In those quiet, still moments we gravitate towards blog posts that are about nothing more than introspection and personal growth. Antics so Blonde obsesses over her tax return, while Geese gets all in aflutter about the giant hole of suck that is MySpace. Amy LeBlanc gets all blissed out at her boyfriend's birthday celebration, the same as XT. Jennifer at Mental Hijinks lovingly documents her field trip to Pixar, with some more pix over at Kimi's post. Brimful reminds us of why we were English majors and swooned over poetry with her own beautiful post and Joel writes a piece that examines the politics and emotional growth behind receiving the Advocate in a plain white plastic wrapper and makes it cut to the quick. And sometimes, we just want to be left alone.

Then, somehow, despite the rain, we're done with introspection. We want to read totally inaccurate, absolutely false writing and believe it totally. We want fiction. Yes, it's marketing, but we don't care. If it's good, it's good.

Finally, after our cleanse, we're ready to face the world again. Ready to accept Microsoft into our lives, ready to go hiking or talk politics. We're ready for literature, rain and the apocalypse. We're ready and reading for you. SFist Jacob, contributing. "Morning Clouds on Bay Bridge" by Thomas Hawk. ...

We know! We miss SFist Jackson around here too! Well, he's off blogging for reals these days at his new gig [NSFW], but we're working on bringing him back to our less-glamorous, ragtag site. And part of our Campaign To Return Jackson To SFist is to feature photoblogger Thomas Hawk's pictures from his awesome zowie-zip-bang-cool Jackson Street Project: 35 pictures of signs saying "Jackson." We've got a Jackson sign on our heart! Check out the......

[Ed. note: we were out of the office yesterday afternoon, so the blog pulse is a day late this week. Sorry!] We start this week with a pictoral ode to our fair city, compounded with a pretty scathing dissection of Windows Live Search functionality, courtesy of the uber-tech-photohound, Thomas Hawk. There's more interesting San Francisco photos over at Elaine Castillo's Flickr feed. It's very much a family photo album of the first year of her......

Concerned friend of SFist Camille wrote us to ask I just realized this morning on my way to work that I have not seen Frank in like 2 weeks! What is the deal? Is he on vacation? Is the SFist investigative team on top of the situation? I must know! Camille, we've spent sizable portions of the last two evenings shuttling between downtown Cingluar stores (sigh), so we made a point of keeping our......

Your occasional roundup of protests around the Bay. Photoblogger Thomas Hawk passed along this gorgeous shot of ferry workers protesting the National Park Service's decision to launch a ferry service to Alcatraz with anti-union Hornblower Yachts. Go to the Indybay site and check out their pictures of the ferry drill team! Extra bonus: Frank Chu in the background. Two strikers outside Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley were injured in protests today -- one striker was pepper-sprayed and another struck by a car. The strikers claim that the injuries were caused by security workers, but the hospital claims that a cleaning woman trying to get to work was the pepper-sprayer (but say nothing about the getting hit by a car thing.) No one was injured enough to need to go to (presumably another) hospital, though. And SF children's advocates rallied outside City Hall yesterday, with suitcases as props, to protest how San Francisco pressures middle class families to move out. Only 14.5% of the city is under 18 (from 25% in 1960. Children make up 27% of the state), 62% of families leaving the city are poor or middle-class, and 64% of families leaving SF are families of color. Picture of the ferry workers by Thomas Hawk...

Rather than give up the act, the JT Leroy crew clings desperately to the blonde wig and sunglasses look at Sundance. Stephanie Tanner from Full House is recovering from a meth addiction, which Dave Coulier could drive anyone to. Thomas Hawk pens an open letter to the folks who don't want any pictures taken of the On the Road manuscript. And if you've ever wanted a DJ Q-Bert plushie, now's your chance to buy......

Dan Gillmor bows out of Bayosphere in Businessweek -- reactions from JD Lasica, Jonas Luster and Thomas Hawk. Blogger Tom Foremski says he's doing just fine, claiming to be more popular with PR folks than the Wall Street Journal's Walter Mossberg. Hey, at least no one has had to resort to astroblogging (astroturfing + blogging, natch). John Paczkowski is afraid, very afraid about rumors that boo.com is back. "Best Headline in a While" award......

Eric Rice posts the transcript of Lawrence Lessig's recent chat in Second Life, which could just be the most meta-geek thing ever. Niall Kennedy, Caterina Fake and Josh Kinberg build an ego-bot for bloggers, Whuffie Tracker, in just a few hours. Sex.com sells for $14 million -- after the legal fees, there might just be enough to take the family to In-N-Out. And wondered why that new Apple ad looked like an old Postal......

Min Jung Kim has decided to break up with 2005. We always thought that 2006 would be better for her anyway -- bad boys like 2005 are fun, but always end up causing you trouble. Supr.c.ilio.us turns in a year-end list of the top ten people they wished would link to them. We can't believe Dave Winer didn't link to their defense of snark (like we did). And Glenda B at Agendacide runs down......

Thomas Hawk shares this picture of a very, very quiet Bay Bridge from the Oakland side. According to the Mercury News, there were two closures during the day due to a suspicious package:The Bay Bridge was shut down twice this morning in both directions while authorities investigated a suspicious package near Treasure Island, according to the California Highway Patrol. The first closure occurred around 9 a.m. after Coast Guard officials spotted the item on......

This absolutely priceless picture is courtesy of Thomas Hawk, who managed a few snaps of His Royal Choadness during today's visit to the Ferry Plaza to speak about the environment (after taking a Coast Guard cutter instead of a public ferry). We hope Frank got at least a moment to impress upon Chas the importance of protecting the planet from the threat posed by the 12 Galaxies, since sustainable agriculture and artisan cheeses won't......

While our tenure as a ship's captain was short lived, as we didn't know how to tack and ended up drifting downwind until our angry father found us and rescued us from a beaching on Seattle's Seward Park. Since then we've relegated ourselves to mate status, and generally just try not to drown, knock anyone overboard or tie knots without proper supervision. But that doesn't mean that we've lost our love for all things......

Oh boy, here we go again. Friend of SFist Thomas Hawk was happily snapping away yesterday when he was accosted by a security guard. His heinous crime? Taking pictures of the building at One Bush Plaza -- a modernist gem designed by local architects Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. Obivously the guard has been told by his superiors to be on the lookout for evil camera-wielding terrorists, and is simply taking his job rather more......

Thomas Hawk sends us pictures of a police action at the Montgomery Street BART station today. The details are still fuzzy, but apparently a 'mysterious package' was found and the station was closed. Turns out it was a lunchbox with a (presumably not deadly) ham and cheese sandwich. Sigh. The station was quickly reopened. Photos by Thomas Hawk.......

Decidedly fantastic picture of street fightin' bots by Thomas Hawk, who spent the day with his sons checking out the steel-on-steel mayhem at the Robogames. Check out all his pictures here. Do we really have to keep pointing out how much cooler our city is than everyone else's? Apparently we do, and we will. The last two weeks have been something of a blur, and as you've probably noticed how late this post is......

Techie talk round up....

Hotel Strike continues into its second week....

Thomas Hawk, local San Francisco photo/blogger, posted an interesting essay on his experiences taking pictures at different private cultural venues around town. EssEffist found the link on Boing Boing, which often covers issues related to freedom of speech, expression, media and fair use....