Tonight we're headed down to the Hemlock (1131 Polk Street) for the release party for Volume one Of Defenestration Literary Magazine. more ›

Even after a couple of small technical glitches delayed the Saturday night start a little bit, The San Francisco 3-Minute Film Festival still managed to go off without a hitch (which is good, because that Will Smith/Kevin James movie was terrible, and way over 3 minutes). more ›

At the behest of those who know better, we skipped the decidedly lame Media Bistro mixer occupying half of 111 Minna Gallery for the Dirt Press lauch party situated on the other side of the space. Founded in Brooklyn, circa 2003, as a collaborative effort between a small cache of artists and writers, Dirt Press began as an online journal of arts and letters, published thrice yearly. The entire operation became bi-coastal following Editor-in-Chief Su Hwang's move to San Francisco—hence our celebration of Dirt: Volume One, the first printed compilation of issues previously published online. more ›

"Straight guys really ought to know about this," we're told by Scooter, a local cartoonist and signmaker, "because, I mean, talk about a sure-fire place to pick up women." He's talking about Yaoi-Con, a yearly gathering of the mostly-female writers, artists, and fans of Yaoi (also known as "Boys Love"), anime-styled comic books about young affectionate men. (Actually, it's a bit more complicated than that; but for now let's forgo a discussion on the intricacies of manga. Okay?) Scooter's a soft-spoken fellow, with a pointy, Freudish beard; he started drawing Yaoi about six years ago when he was introduced to the genre. "I figured, how hard can it be? There's not too many lines to draw," he says as he flips through his sketchbook. Well, yes and no - flip through some of the featured artists in Shonen Comics Volume One (of which Scooter is one) and you'll see a range of artistic styles that you might not ordinarily expect from what is, on first inspection, a naughty-gay-cartoon zine. more ›