Sara Bareilles (Bar - rell - is) -- summer's hottest, as they say, new singer/songwriter -- has gained a broad fan base throughout the U.S. via her extensive touring and #1 selling album, Little Voice, on iTunes, resulting in an impressive debut on Billboard's Top 200 Album Chart at #45. Praised by critics for its depth and honesty, even Rolling Stone raved "Bareilles' writing voice is uniquely her own." Luckily, we were introduced to......

We're getting so upset to have to keep writing the same post over and over again -- yet another San Francisco independent bookstore is shutting its doors. This time, it's the not-so-long-ago opened Cody's SF, next to the Virgin Megastore in Union Square, who made it about a year and a half before the news today. Is that retail space cursed or what? The store's last day will be April 20, but the Cody's......

Honest to goodness, we weren't even planning on going to the Wired Rave Awards, much less wandering in uninvited (we've been, it's not all that). We just dropped by to hand off some equipment we'd borrowed to cover the "Mary Carey for Governor" campaign-cum-promotional junket at the Virgin Megastore for another New York-based blog publishing empire (no, not Weblogs, Inc. -- they're based out of Reston, Virginia now). Maybe it was the Thriftown suit and......

Submissions go to Yvesdroppings at gmail dot com. Customer at Good Vibrations: "Oh, that's the one I use in the car." -- From Jonathan, via Amy Geezer pushing a grocery cart, to no one in particular: "Ah, Mary. Life is so weary.... without sex. But I need a man. A big, strong, handsome, Jewish man." -- From Kim Askew/in front of the Virgin Megastore on Market Hoodie girl: "This is going against everything I'm learning......

Our life as a reader isn't all about borrowing and buying books -- sometimes we like to go to literary events, as well. We interviewed Nic Harcourt a bit back. He's the music director at LA's KCRW and host of "Morning Becomes Eclectic". This Friday at 6 p.m. he's going to deejay from the Virgin Megastore DJ booth, and read from his new book, Music Lust: Recommended Listening for Every Mood, Moment and Reason.......

When the Virgin Megastore on Market opened, the top floor contained a restaurant we spent hours in. Overlooking Market and Stockton streets, we sat there with our textbooks (while frequently reading magazines, don't get us wrong) swilling coffee and taking in the view. In fact, some of our first dates with our now life-partner took place in the Virgin Cafe, back when our lives weren't dominated by local-interest websites and Citizen Kane. And then......

Is your wallet looking slim this week? Fret not; there's plenty of free music to be had. Check out any of Amoeba's stellar in-store offerings, including Prefuse 73, Zion I, locals Six Organs of Admittance, and a rare acoustic performance by Trail of Dead. Local label Six Degrees Records presents Niyaz at Virgin Megastore on Saturday at 2pm. And SFist is giving away a free copy of Citizen Cope's CD The Clarence Greenwood Chronicles (enter......

A truculent teenage girl threatening to kill herself after a fight with a relative was rescued from the Redwood Shores swamp after she stormed onto a small island in the marsh and refused to come in. The authorites were unable to follow her footprints to the island because the mud would not support an adult's weight. She was finally picked up by an air boat. Keep an eye out above on your way to Target -- the rain has caused a cliff collapse on Avalon Canyon, and a 75-foot tree fall on a Colma home. And Oakland's new interim police chief is looking to reduce homicides by almost 1/3 for this year (from 88 in 2004 to 60 in 2005) as part of his plan to reduce crime in general. His conclusion -- it all comes down to narcotics enforcement. ...