*FILM: The 5th Annual San Francisco Irish Film Festival kicks things off with Garage by director Lenny Abrahamson and writer Mark O’Halloran. This is followed by a reception with the Consul General of Ireland, Emer Deane. According to LS, "other highlights include Speed Dating, a romantic comedy about a lovelorn amnesiac; the award winning Irish-language feature film Kings, and finally The Undertaking, a documentary about Irish American undertaker and poet Thomas Lynch, who is......

*FILM: Before she was hooked on aerobics and uttering "cunt" on live TV, Jane Fonda had a memorable career as an actress. She won her first Oscar for playing "Bree," a whore, in Klute, a taut '70s thriller by Alan J. Pakula. Tonight's screening is a part of Cinewhores, brought to you by Whore! magazine and St. James Infirmary. A talk about the sex-selling business follows. Show starts tonight at Artists' Television Access. MUSIC:......

Photo by Phillyist's Matt Johnson, SkyscraperSunset.com, December 19, 2007. Phillyist explored an impending implosion and lived to tell the tale.Gothamist marveled at the city's new NYC-branded condom campaign - especially the use of a Toronto landmark in the advertising. (Also, fun fact: Gothamist turned five years old yesterday.)Tired of the worldwide Scientology protests? Torontoist totally isn't: they covered the big downtown protest the day it happened, and followed up with an examination of all......

Have you always wanted to appear on Spike TV? We have. We'd even be on Max-X, which is, aside from Intervention, the best show on TV. But there's a safer way to get on the testosterone -heavy network: the 2008 Star Wars Fan Movie Challenge. This year's SWFMC winners will air on Spike TV, so hop to it. Your movies should be under five minutes, frighteningly original, and make viewers flood their pants with......

LIVE MUSIC: Parenthetically named '80s pop outfit Was (Not Was) is known for the song, "Walk the Dinosaur" And that ditty? Went a little something like this: "Open the door, get on the floor/Everybody walk the dinosaur/Boom boom acka-lacka lacka boom." Bring your favorite Gen-Xer to hear them live at Cafe Du Nord. *FILM: Just in time to make you feel less bad about being single on Valentine's Day is Woody Allen's Annie Hall.......

Luring us in with "just the kind of quirky San Francisco event that SFist readers would be interested in," a PR company sent us word today of a zany pre-Valentine's Day activity that's happening right this very second! It seems that a woman -- a woman who looks like she has no trouble finding a date whatsoever, God bless her -- is looking for love. Check it: [Today] at the bright and early hour......

Article and photo by Heath Biter/LAist Just moments ago, in a letter to its members, the WGA announced that writers have voted by a 92.5% margin to lift the “restraining order” and officially end the strike. The move comes on Day 100 of the labor dispute. WGA president Patric Verrone is expected to hold a press conference in just a few moments at the WGA Theatre in Beverly Hills, where members voted this afternoon.......

We've got another local to root for on reality TV, as Yau-Man Chan has returned to "Survivor"-land in a new season called "Fans Vs. Favorites." Now, there's little doubt that Yau-Man is a definite favorite. He played the hell out of the game, especially being an old guy, and most importantly, he wasn't a douche bag, unlike so many other "Survivor" contestants. Contestants like Jonny Fairplay, who, for some inexplicable reason, was also cast as......

Photograph of Michael Strahan, coach Tom Coughin (holding the Vince Lombardi trophy) and quarterback and Super Bowl MVP Eli Manning by Tien Mao Gothamist was amazed after the Giants won the Super Bowl, the city went wild, and it witnessed a ticker-tape parade.Barack Obama drew 20,000+ ahead of Seattle’s Saturday caucus.Londonist had Super Tuesday too.Elusive guerrilla street artist Banksy revisits Los Angeles.After the Patriots lost the Super Bowl and came this close to making......

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......

Just some random scribbling on a game that is still reverberating through our hungover, overstuffed brains.......

Programming note: Last week's "Project Runway" was a rerun, so there will be no Locals recap this week. But take note: This Thursday at 8 p.m. on CBS is the premiere of "Survivor: Micronesia - Fans Vs. Favorites," which brings local legend Yau-Man Chan back to the game. Next Monday we'll see how both our local boys did. We found it difficult to tear ourselves away from the "Puppy Bowl" and turn the channel to......

Local-TV Tivo alert! We've got some exciting news about everyone's favorite concerned local investigative reporter, Dan "My Rumpled Tie Says No But My Piercing Gaze Says Yes" Noyes. The next installment of his long-running Muni investigation airs tonight at 6pm on ABC-7, and it sounds like it's going to be awesome: after spending months pouring through Muni's complaint records (while simultaneously fighting off the drivers' union), Dan's I-Team has the goods on Muni's most......

The closing act of 2008's SF Sketchfest brought the prize of two nights with The Kids In The Hall. This legendary Canadian sketch troupe whose deranged, ribald, brilliant humor has scarred the minds of a generation through stage and screen came to Sketchfest as revered elders....

Speaking of Oprah, the fellow Aquarian just received American sculptor Daniel Edwards' chin-scratching touch. (You know, the celeb-loving guy who created that Britney-gives-birth sculpture?) Anyway, Edwards says his "piece pays homage to the closest thing America has to a living deity," hence its resemblance to the coffin of Egypt's Tutankhamun (King Tut!) Or maybe not. According to a thisislondon commenter: She's in the guise of fertility goddesses. It's about celebrating her feminity [sic] and......

It looks like Survivor: Cook Island winner Yul Kwon won't get to serve you air-pumped, sugary, dairy-like deliciousness. After getting ready to set up a Red Mango chain in North Beach, and after being granted a building permit and signing a lease, his permit was pulled after he was "told he ran afoul of the strict North Beach ordinance against 'formula chain' stores," or so says the Gate. Kwon went on to say, "I......

Gus Van Sant isn't the only one who might make you a shiny, coke-addled star here in San Francisco. Take, for example, MTV and NBC who want to use you for their up-and-coming reality programming....

While watching Seinfeld this evening (the awesome, awesome episode involving double-dipping and Teri Hatcher's breasts), we were teased during a news break to tune into a very special episode of the KTVU 10 o'clock newscast. Intrigued, we watched something else instead. So what did we miss? Dennis Richmond announced that he is going to retire. His last broadcast will be May 21, 2008. To say Richmond has been a mainstay would be an understatement. We've......

Tickets, tickets, anyone want some tickets? We have two tickets to Friday's concert at Slim's featuring: Until June, Matt White and Melee. We've already told you that you don't want to be late to this show, because all three bands are equally as good. Until June, from sunny Phoenix, traveled to Los Angeles in hopes of a record deal. Obviously, at first, they got lost in the mix, but promised themselves that if they didn't......

Poor BVHP. Can't they get a break? It seems that today's hazardous material spill snafu was due to a leaking drum at a Bayview-Hunter's Point city corporation yard. The spill "prompted a shelter in place warning." That tis to say, it's time time to go inside, close doors and windows, turn off air conditioning or heating systems, and flip on the radio or TV for further info if you're near 2121 Evans Street. According......

Back in December, The Lovemakers, a glam-rock outfit from Oakland, decided to stay put and forego their national tour to record their next full-length album entitled "Love is Dead." (For a band called "The Lovemakers," that's quite a title!) According to their blog, they've also decided to "be a 3-piece [band] again for the next while live. Scott, Lisa and Michael Urbano on drums. Back to basics. Very cool. Very fun." What we didn't......

Wanda Sabir gets a call from Michelle Obama. [SF Bay View] Where to take that special someone you like, but don't like-like. Like, you know? [Gridskipper] Hasbro can go straight to hell wants to put an end to Scrabulous. [Valleywag] Rejoice, guilty white liberals! Sen. Barack Obama's TV ads will kickoff the vote-for-me ad campaigns we'll start seeing. Wee. [SFGate's Politics Blog] Engagements be damned. Beth returns for the sweet, sweet taste of Gavin......

Compelling television's loss is the bargain bin's gain. KRON 4 is up for sale. Again. Amid a "high level of interest," it seems, Young Broadcasting plans on possibly peddling the network to the highest bidder. KRON 4, once the golden child as the Bay Area's NBC affiliate, was sold eight years ago and turned into an independent station. After seeing much of the KRON 4 news team jump ship - like Pete Wilson (RIP),......

Today's goes to Dede. Why? Because we're in a "faggy" mood, that's why. Look, whatever sins she committed against poor little Sean were swept under the rug after bearing witness to last year's inspiring Vivienne Westwood exhibition at the deYoung. (See, we said something nice about you. Will you pay our rent now? What about a new plasma TV? A Wii?) That said, where has she been lately?......

Oh, the jokes about Chris Daly and/or the Marina bar scene just write themselves -- but seriously, SF Animal Control reports that there's a rabid bat in the Marina. The bat was found alive and wrapped in a towel at Beach, Cervantes, and Mallorca, right off Chestnut Street last Saturday night, and the tests have only just now come back positive for rabies. If you think you or your pet might have been bitten, call......

Due to the continuing WGA strike, the Golden Globes look like they might - might - get the ax. (For all of you book-reading intelligentsia who claim to have TV sets only so that your can watch your Netflix DVDs of The Sopranos and The Wire, you can read more about the strike here.) While not necessarily Bay Area-related, this deeply affects all of us who look at awards season at something holy and......

Moby must be sick with envy over this one. Tonight the "unconventional young network," Emmy Award-winning Current TV, will air a taped, private, hour-long Radiohead concert on New Year's Eve (and on New Year's day on broadcast Current TV.) Thom Yorke and his merry band of croonies will perform each track off of their top-listed 2007 effort, In Rainbows. With words that could spark the battle for the title of Christ 2.0, David Neuman,......

Here's todays sports news...

Gearing up for the big New Year's Eve bash, several artists are playing mini-residencies (two or three night stays) this weekend including: Cracker, The Radiators and ALO. If you schedule correctly, you could probably see everything that you want. Though New Year's Eve has some rocking concerts, we are going to cover those shows later in the week. For now, let's focus on Popscene's continued success in picking the perfect bands for their Thursday night......

New feature alert, folks! Ever want to know more about your local library? Or anything about libraries of the world. The art of receiving a masters in library sciences? Or why people use the Main Library bathroom as their own personal, um, spa? Well, send us your bibliotech-y questions. We've got a real-life librarian who will answer your many queries about documentation, fact-finding, library culture, annals, stacks, record-keeping, donations, cruising, Internet usage etiquette at......