*CLUB: Check out Rock Out Karaoke over at Amnesia. What is Rock Out Karaoke? Well, it mean that you will hear neither a Righteous Brothers cover nor a note from everyone's least favorite musical, Grease. And isn't that what you really want in a karaoke night? Of course it is. (Glenny Kravitz hosts.) READING: Sorry to throw another Valencia Street happening your way, but: author and artist Ian Philips, of Suspect Thoughts Press, reads......

Seeing as how the Summer of Love was the single most important event in the history of time and space, we thought it would be delightful of us to review a smattering of Summer of Love anniversary reviews for you. In no particular order, discover the music, elderly genitalia, and abundance of ATMs you missed. -- Beyond Chron: Goes into detail about that guy who sang that anti-Vietnam war song prefaced by a spelling lesson......

Last week's winner, the San Jose Metro: Gary Singh wants the San Jose flea market to move to City Hall. Folks moving from city to city to run for office -- hey, at least they actually move into the city they want to represent down in the South Bay. Ed Jew, take a note! Cover: yay the environment, reduce your carbon footprint by buying a Prius. There's a gymnastics meet on the Olympics circuit this......

Wow-- this is pretty shocking: Pulitzer Prize winning author David Halberstam was killed today in a three-car accident in Menlo Park. The accident occurred at westbound Bayfront Expressway and Willow Road near the Dumbarton Bridge and according to authorities, he was one of the passengers. ...

When visiting your republican parents in Ohio for the holidays, it can be hard to have a satisfying conversation over the dinner table. Worry not, we found a fantastic ice-breaker at the Alemany Farmer's Market. ...

A few years back, it seemed like everyone we knew was vacationing in Thailand. To keep ahead of the curve in fashionable Southeast Asian travel destinations, we're heading over to the Main San Francisco Public Library (100 Larkin @ Grove) to see Wendy Yanagihara, author of “Lonely Planet’s Guide to Vietnam,” talk about her travels in said country and learn all about the off-the-beaten-path gems so we can nod sagely and make intelligent comments......

This was a much better week for our locals than last week when we lost two of them--TWO! Read on. On "The Amazing Race," bodybuilding brothers Godwin and Irwin left the pitstop in eighth place--AKA second to last place--and headed to Vietnam, although in their hearts, they'd already won because they've been able to see such wonderful things, and they've been together to see it all. Aaawwww. Everyone got on the same flight and started......

We here at SFist not so fondly remember our adolescent quest, our desire to find the true essence of rock and roll. With a puberty induced punk rock fervor, we wanted to be rock stars that would catch panties thrown at us with our teeth, smash our equipment, mosh with the gnarlyist metal heads, and captivate audiences with our own brand of rock and roll mayhem. What we got instead were guitar lessons from......

Your SF weekend assaults roundup: A shooting at 5 p.m. on Saturday at Mission and 18th, followed 45 minutes later by a stabbing at Mission and 17th; a shooting in Visitacion Valley Saturday night/Sunday morning; a shooting at Broadway and Columbus outside Vietnam Restaurant; and a shooting outside 330 Ritch. Hey, if you hate alternative music of the late 80s that much, just say so! Good Samaritans at the North Berkeley BART stop -- people waiting on the platform Sunday interceded to stop an attempted robbery of a woman waiting for a Richmond-bound train. Four people were injured (one seriously), but they caught the would-be robber. The BART stop was then closed for three hours as the police came by for interviews, a weapons search, and to clean up the station. BART says maybe September 11 is not the best day to try anything funny on a transit system. And yesterday, an Alameda County jury returned two second-degree murder convictions in the Gwen Araujo case, and hung again on the third defendant. The jury rejected first-degree or the hate crime enhancements to the penalties. ...

So Matt Gonzalez's new law firm has sued the San Francisco School District for approving Superintendant Arlene Ackerman's "platinum parachute" contract without proper notice. This post isn't really about that (and SFist will probably be covering this more in depth later), but please make a note of this for background. The lead plaintiff in the case is a recently graduated high school senior named Alan Wong. Wong serves on the school board's Student Advisory Counsel, which makes recommendations on what it thinks the school should be doing. The counsel tried to bring up the contract issue with Ackerman, but were rebuffed. So Wong went to the board meeting last week, and gave a fiery speech about how the school district is a "totalitarian state." (Whaddya want, he's 18 years old!) Wong gets a standing ovation from the crowd. In the middle of the applauding, Wong says that school board commissioner Dr. Dan Kelly (an Ackerman supporter) leans over, and whispers to him, "You're an egotistical idiot and that was the stupidest speech I've ever heard." When asked for comment, Kelly responded, "um.... those comments weren't supposed to be public, and I was misquoted." Oh, that's awesome, a 50-something guy (who spent two years in jail for resisting the Vietnam War) bullying a high school senior. Why don't you just give Wong a wedgie and hang him up by his underwear in his locker next too, Dr. Kelly? ...

Yesterday on Slashdot was a review of local NYT tech correspondent John Markoff's new book, "What The Dormouse Said: How the 60s Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer Industry." Quoting the review: Most histories of the personal computer begin with Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Apple in 1976, but while hanging out at SAIL in the mid 1970s, and at the First West Coast Computer Faire in 1977, I heard highly attenuated versions of the......

In the truly tasteless department, Low Culture tipped us off to the "Apocalypse Now" tour of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, one of Wild Frontiers "Reel Adventures." Kate Watson of Wild Frontiers, quoted in the UK's Guardian, says: We're really hoping to catch the eye of City boys with heaps of dosh who are after something that's very different from your average 'follow the flag' guided tour. Of course the film Apocalypse Now was filmed......

SFist often fantasizes about the day we win the lottery and, among other things, kick our crappy-ass IKEA furnishings to the curb (or hire someone else to do so). Our dream then moves to the refurnishing our fabulous new home montage sequence, where in which MAXsf plays a pivotal role....