-- Unsilent Night: New York-based composer Phil Kline’s holiday concert creates "an outdoor ambient music piece for an infinite number of boomboxes. It’s like a Christmas caroling party except that [you] don’t sing, but rather carry the music, each [member] playing a separate track that is a "voice" in the piece. In effect, we become a city-block-long sound system" So ... there you have it. Tapes and CDs will be handed out to participants.......

From Tony Bennett to the Village People, several musicians have written songs about our beautiful city. What do you think should be our theme song? Over at yelp, they are arguing about Journey vs. Beach Boys vs. Otis Redding. We think it should be "San Francisco" by Vanessa Carlton. We heard it live (see above youtube clip) last night and we fell in love with it. Now we know it's not a classic like......

We went to our very first Ross Mirkarimi Third Friday art show yesterday, and had a very nice time -- loved the eggnog! We also picked up the following piece of gossip: Chris Daly is growing a mustache. Our source reported that Chris has shaved off his goatee but left a lush growth of hair underneath the nose. Our source was either serious or joking (we're not entirely sure which) when he said that Chris......

Cal is all over the blotter these days -- this time over a co-op, where 13 fun-loving residents had to go to the hospital after someone put something a little bit too funny in the space brownies. Two students and one recent grad have been arrested, and the cops are doing an analysis of the brownies (and cookie dough) in question. A house manager at the coop said, "We do not officially condone any of......

Entertainment galore from the ever-reliable SFPD Northern Station (.pdf). Not only the man featured in Leah Garchik's TIC on Friday (who was caught spraying graffiti on a billboard announcing the SFPD's Officer of the Month -- by the Officer of the Month. Ha!), but also a man dancing in a school auditorium after telling the principal he was a federal agent, a man hugging and licking a light pole, and a man unable to comply with officers' orders to kneel on the ground because the knife he was trying to conceal in his jeans pocket was too large. One less felon on the streets -- they finally caught the bail-skipping Village People cop! Victor Willis's sad saga has finally ended, as an officer in South SF stopped him with a female companion, and found cocaine and other drug paraphernalia in the car. Willis refused to give his name but was ID'ed by his snazzy 'fro and police officer uniform fingerprints at the station. And Berkeley is still reeling from the house party shooting this weekend. Parent Aderian Gaines was hosting a party at his house for his teenagers, so he could supervise and make sure they were safe. When Gaines confronted a guest carrying a gun, the guest shot him and fled the scene. The authorities say the party might have gotten out of hand because invitations were sent out by text message, and encourage you to invite people to your parties through "non-Internet" means in the future. ...

Victor Willis, the Village People cop, is the gift that keeps giving to the Blotter patrol! (We especially liked the headline, "Willis's destiny is the J-A-I-L" from the San Mateo County Times.) Willis failed to show up for court -- again -- despite the fact that his lawyer's worked out a plea bargain where if he surrenders, he'll serve 16 months. America's Most Wanted had a film crew on site to film what turned out to be the no-show. And hey -- we had no idea Willis had been married to Phylicia Rashad! San Francisco Superior Court judge Newtom Lam's mother died of several heart attacks three days after being struck by a cable car on a blind hill at Filbert and Mason. At the time of the accident, Mrs. Lam seemed okay and was speaking with investigators, but it turns out she fractured her skull and had broken her ribs, collarbone, and hip as well. Walk SF is holding a vigil on Monday at noon and participants should bring bells. ...and you thought you were unenthusiastic about school starting again! San Jose State put out a nationwide APB when a meteorology professor went AWOL for the first week of class. The professor hadn't called in, hadn't been seen since finals last semester, and was reported to have been having "employment and personal issues." He was found when someone at a Comfort Inn in Pennsylvania looked up from browsing Merc News articles online and saw the very guy whose picture was filling up the screen. Turns out the professor had been hiding out there for over a month. ...

The anti-war protestor hit in the jaw with a wooden dowel that was fired by the Oakland police as "non-lethal crowd control" back in 2003 (and who was our yoga teacher's yoga teacher, for what it's worth) has settled with the City of Oakland for $210,000. One of her co-protestors got a settlement of $500,000. You know, this seems remarkably similar to our new obsession, that new game show Deal or No Deal. Speaking of TV shows... guess who's going to be on America's Most Wanted? The cop from the Village People! As you may recall, Victor Willis from Daly City has a bench warrant out for his arrest after failing to show up in court on his coke possession charges. Remember, folks -- the true Macho Man respects the law. The America's Most Wanted episode will probably air around February. And the Merc News ominously intones, "it's beginning to look a lot NOT like Christmas!!!" in a story about two 18-year-olds in Redwood City who've been on a holiday-accessory crime spree this year. Some of their haul included, among other things, a moose-head Christmas wreath that sings "Here Comes Santa Claus." Dude. We are totally going to get ourselves one of those too! ...

To update you on where we're at on the two biggest crime stories in town: the Chron fronts a frightening photo montage of the teenager who allegedly killed Pamela Vitale (check it out on the newsstands -- yikes!!), and acquaintances say he kind of began a downward spiral after his older sister was killed in a car crash. And Lashaun/Lashuan Harris (spellings vary), the woman who threw her kids off Pier 7, reportedly told her cousin that she was going to feed her children to the sharks and left the house. The cousin tried to stop her but couldn't. Harris had apparently been saying this for some time, and other family members thought she would never do anything to hurt her children. Her family had been trying to get custody of the children, but had been denied. The VIllage People cop who got busted for crack failed to show up for his arraignment in Daly City, and a warrant's been issued. Hey, have you checked out the YMCA? And third graders in Mill Valley are happy again, after their classroom pet turtle, Myrtle, was anonymously returned after disappearing a few days ago. The principal isn't talking, but they think the turtle was returned by the turtlenapper's parents. The children are philosophical about not learning the identity of the thief, saying the teacher had "made a deal," which made sense because if they knew who did it, "a lot of people would be mad at him or her." The children then went back to encouraging Myrtle to eat the snails in her terrarium. "Go for the snail! Go for the snail!" ...

Courtesy of SFist Jon, creepiness a little outside our usual coverage area! Someone's been breaking into houses in San Lorenzo Valley, stealing stuff, and then writing on the walls, "I was here." Eep! However, this does also remind us of that old chestnut about the man who comes home to find that burglars have taken everything in his house except a toothbrush and a camera. We also feel obliged to report that the SF Alcoholic Beverage Control has finished an investigation of Les Natali and the various Castro bars he runs, and concluded that he did not discriminate against African-Americans, which allowed them to renew his liquor license. The ABC is requiring Natali to hang a big sign outside his door saying he doesn't discriminate, though, and public comment will be heard about the decision (no date given). Natali has also announced that he's selling the Pendulum, which is considered SF's main African-American gay bar. In other quick news items: Victor Conte, BALCO man, is taking a Martha Stewart-type plea (4 months in jail, 4 months house arrest). There was a shooting at the Hilltop Mall in Richmond. And they've ID'ed the guy who shot someone the other night at Van Ness and Post....

We are big fans of Feist, the Canadian chanteuse with an esteemed indie pedigree and smooth, seductive, award-winning sound. She's quite popular throughout the blogosphere, even though her internationally acclaimed record Let It Die just saw its US release in late April. So sending us to see her open for Rilo Kiley was basically preaching to the converted. Unfortunately, we're not sure how many new converts she won over at The Grand Ballroom on Saturday......