Forever 21, which last year signed a lease for the enormous former Virgin Megastore space at Stockton and Market, is about to get its second Union Square-adjacent store. The chain's spinoff brand, XXI Forever, which targets a "slightly older demographic," is going into the 53,000-square-foot space just a block away from Forever 21's flagship at 1 Powell Street. (Signage just went up this morning.) more ›

The Virgin Megastoe at the corner of Stockton and Market will be closing its doors in late April, according to KCBS. This comes on the heels of Virgin announcing the closure of two new York stores, including their US flagship store in Times Square. The store is shuttering for obvious reasons: skyrocketing rent prices, iTunes, what's a CD?, the recession, the evil interwebs. While we can handle SF Chronicle stopping operations -- which even Chris Daly predicted back in 2007 -- we'll miss the Virgin Megastore. Pray to God another trite museum doesn't go in its place. more ›

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 Bareilles while covering Aqualung (for our neighbor site, Phillyist) earlier this year at World Cafe Live. We were so impressed with her singing ability, stage presence, and songwriting, we just had to get in touch with her to learn her secrets and get to know her a bit better. more ›

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 4th Street Berkeley store will remain. more ›

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 tech-schwag tee combo, but nobody at the St. Regis or manning the check-in tables paid us any mind as we wandered up to the fourth floor. We absentmindedly stepped out onto the patio and, Hey! How are you doing? Haven't seen you in a while! They got free food and booze, eh? Well, maybe we'll stick around and chat for a bit. more ›

Submissions go to Yvesdroppings at gmail dot com. more ›

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, . Hey, we even have some copies of his book to give away, so enter below to win one. more ›

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 one day the Virgin Cafe was gone, blocked off and empty. more ›

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 to win here). more ›

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. more ›