More giveaways! San Francisco's own Kronos Quartet has a new album out, of their acclaimed September 2003 live performance with Tom Waits of four of Waits's songs, for the Concert for Peace and Reconciliation by Richard Gere's Buddhist humanitarian organization Healing The Divide with the Dalai Lama in attendance. There's also performances by Norah Jones's sister Anoushka Shankar, Philip Glass, and the Guyto Tantric Choir. We've got a copy to give away! Even if......

It's that time of the year again for San Francisco magazine's Best of the Bay party. The annual bash features lots of eats, drinks and chances to win prizes. Be prepared to fork over nearly a bill for your ticket here -- but as an added bonus it will also get you into the afterparty at Slide. San Francisco Concourse Exhibition Center, 635 8th St. Come watch contenders for the Air Guitar championship title......

Conan, we hardly knew ya. Conan O'Brien's week in San Francisco came to a close today with his final taping at the Orpheum Theater, and the line to get in reached from the front of the theater, all the way down to the scary Carl's Jr., and then across the street and back up again so that those in the front of the line could wave to those at the end of the line......

Did you get your tickets? We are speaking, of course, about free tickets to "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" which will be taping a week of shows at the Orpheum Theater starting on Monday. So, seriously, did you get tickets? And if so, can you take us with you? Actually, we will be going to one show, on Monday, when the guests will include Dana Carvey and the Arctic Monkeys. But man, we'd sure......

Last year we complained that WonderCon was a little lackluster. We couldn't quite put our finger on it. Maybe it was the smaller venue, forcing us into closer proximity with our fellow nerds? Who knows. But we just had higher hopes for this year. Unfortunately, this year was just as lackluster as last year, maybe even more so. And yet, we had a better time. Go figure. None of the big-name panels we attended......

Our concert picks for the week of 6/16 - 6/22. We were all excited to tell SFist reader Gaelen that she'd won tickets to see Amusement Parks on Fire at Popscene tonight, until we found out the show has been cancelled because the bass player is ill. We'll send good thoughts to him for a quick recovery (and we'll send Gaelen the APoF CD as a replacement prize). This week still offers up some great......

Music-loving good samaritans, this is your lucky week. If you like to enjoy a little partying and live performance in exchange for your charitable contributions, you have no less than six different tsunami relief benefits to choose from. On Friday, The Independent is having their second benefit, featuring members of New Monsoon, ALO, Samantha and the Ritual for a donation of $10-50. Great American's benefit that night with indie kings Gibbard, Kozelek, Richman and Bachman......

The nominees for the 47th Annual GRAMMY Awards were announced yesterday in Hollywood, with homeboys Green Day earning an impressive six nominations. That's four less than Kanye West, two less than Alicia Keys and Usher, but one more than Norah, Loretta and Prince. Billie Joe, Mike, and Tré Cool are honored for American Idiot (the album and the single) in the categories of Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Best Rock Performance By......

A weekly roundup of interesting theater you can check out this weekend. This week: A.C.T.'s "The Black Rider," a Neil Simon play, a world premiere from Shotgun Players, an Iranian drama, and another plug for the current production by the company that features one of EssEffist's writers....