We saw Iphigénie en Tauride last Wednesday, and the curtain fell not only on the last opening of this season, but on the Pamela Rosenberg era. There are still three more performances of Iphigénie to attend (including one tonight; plus three Rosenkavalier and two Don Giovanni), so it’s not yet time to look back. This season was the last that Rosenberg planned (before her successor at the helm, SF Opera general director David Gockley tweaked......

The nicer the weather gets, the busier we get across the Ist-A-Verse. But we like being busy. Here's a peek at what we've been up to since last week! Chicagoist had an interview with Audrey Niffenegger, whose popular book, The Time Traveler's Wife, was based in their fine city. They also had a heated discussion about Rush Limbaugh's controversial Barack Obama parody, talked about whether Uncle Julio's Hacienda is a good place to get......

"I love that word 'relationship'. Covers all manner of sins, doesn't it? I fear that this has become a bad relationship. A relationship based on the President taking exactly what he wants and casually ignoring all those things that really matter to, erm... Britain. We may be a small country but we're a great one, too. The country of Shakespeare, Churchill, the Beatles, Sean Connery, Harry Potter. David Beckham's right foot. David Beckham's left foot, come to that. And a friend who bullies us is no longer a friend. And since bullies only respond to strength, from now onward, I will be prepared to be much stronger. And the President should be prepared for that." - Hugh Grant, as Prime Minister, in Love Actually ...

Okay, this was a pretty cool event. Peter Morgan, the writer responsible for both Forest Whitaker and Helen Mirren's Oscars this year (for The Last King of Scotland and The Queen) won the film festival's second annual Kanbar Award for excellence in screenplay writing -- so they had him up for an hourlong talk about his distinctive docudrama perspective on contemporary historical events and the flawed personalities behind them, and then they screened The Deal,......

Yesterday, on Treasure Island, the Governator pretty much gave an example of just why he's crushing Phil Angelides in the polls. With San Francisco in the background, Gavin Newsom and Speaker of the Assembly Fabian Nunez at his side, and Bush's poodle Tony Blair live via video feed, the Governator signed a bill making California the toughest state on carbon dioxide and other gases emissions. Hell, maybe the toughest locale ever. But wait, that's not all. He will also sign a bill later this week that will forbid state electric utilities from buying electricity from high-polluting plants elsewhere. ...

Total number of people pictured in this week's Swells society column: 51. (Tony Blair and Ben Fong-Torres both pictured, and thus counted, twice). Number of people in pictures whose names we recognize: 10. (Tony Blair, both Shultzes, Gavin the Newsom, Stanlee Gatti, Joanne Hayes-White, Heather Fong, Milton Friedman, Ben Fong-Torres, Sydney Kohara.) After some deliberation, we did not count Ray Dolby (founder of Dolby Labs) or anyone from Jefferson Airplane. Number of people from Jefferson......

Get out the Kibbles and Bits -- UK prime minister Tony Blair, widely derided as Bush's "poodle" for his unhesitating support of the questionable Iraq war, is making an unannounced visit to the Bay Area this weekend. It'll be the first ever visit by a sitting British prime minister to the state of California. (What, Maggie Thatcher never made it out here?) Blair gets out here today, is having dinner on Saturday with George and......