LIT: Launch party for Larry Smith and Rachel Fershleiser's newest release, Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure, which is, well, just as it sounds: six-word memoirs penned by famous and not-so-famous writers. Happens at the Rockit Room tonight. *CLUB: You know who knows how to party? Service industry workers. From chefs to bartenders to waiters to barbacks, you will find a group no finer than these people......

Article and photo by Heath Biter/LAist Just moments ago, in a letter to its members, the WGA announced that writers have voted by a 92.5% margin to lift the “restraining order” and officially end the strike. The move comes on Day 100 of the labor dispute. WGA president Patric Verrone is expected to hold a press conference in just a few moments at the WGA Theatre in Beverly Hills, where members voted this afternoon.......

A sad week for LAist as they lose their trusted and amazing editor Tony Pierce to the LA Times, but what a blast his last week was. He shared his 25 Favorite CDs of 2007 and wrote a great review of just a good movie, No Country For Old Men. At UCLA, thousands of students celebrated the end of their quarter by running around campus in their undies (lots of photos in a two-part......

It's not fair that our sister, LAist, gets all of the great writers strike coverage. Alas. But the Bay Area's own Sean Penn has joined the noble striking effort. He helped to create the above Writers Guild of America-conceived video for "Project Speechless," videos that feature A-list thespionic talent. What's more, they found a way of making Mr. Penn funny. (We kid, Sean. Please don't hit us. Not that you'll have the chance.) Anyway,......

In Los Angeles, LAist most definitely celebrated Thanksgiving like no other. After all, one has to keep up all the energy to keep on walking the line at the Writers Strike and fighting the unfortunate return of the wildfires in Malibu, which single handedly destroyed over fifty homes within the first 24 hours. National outlets may be covering the fires, but CNN also found it is easier to buy a gun than fruit and......

Phillyist prepared to party by doing the hustle, lighting the lights, shopping up a storm, and... visiting Khrushchev? LAist continues to cover the Hollywood Writers Strike with visiting guest "strikers" such as KT Tunstall and Presidential candidate John Edwards. To celebrate Veteran's Day, they visited a Civil War reenactment and to celebrate Geography Week, they asked all the Los Angeles City Councilmembers about the districts they represent finding that LA's 180+ official neighborhoods are......

-- Bonds' final, fatal backlash continues. (I wonder how he spent his day today? Ugh.) [SFGate, SF Examiner, FCJ , SFBG, The Snitch]...

-- Evil Dead 2 (1987): Sam Raimi's exquisite sequel to the equally-exquisite Evil Dead, minus any tree-rape. Screens at 7:15p.m., 9:15 at The Red Vic, 1727 Haight (at Cole). -- Opium's Literary Death Match: The last Opium's Literary Death Match got ugly, in a good way. (Read about it here.) Judges Anika Streitfeld (Random House), Jesse McKinley (New York Times), and Eric Spitnagel (Fast Forwards) have literary series Writers With Drinks (Carol Queen), Porchlight......

-- KrOB'S Film Farm -- Faust (1994): Jan Švankmajer's version of Faust, using Goethe's and Christopher Marlowe's tales as well as heaps of surrealism, screens tonight at 8 p.m. at Chez Poulet, Cesar Chavez (Army) and Mission Streets; free. -- Minnie Driver: Why should you see her? Well, she has an Oscar nomination under her belt. Granted, it's for the XY-heavy emo-porn shitfest Good Will Hunting -- but Driver's got an Oscar nomination nonetheless.......

-- Writers With Drinks: Tonight Robert Mailer Anderson, writer and game designer Austin Grossman, Sheng Wang, Darieck Scott, and Dom Brassey read. 7 p.m. at the Make-Out Room, 3225 - 22nd; $3-$5. -- Deep Fried Murder: A play about the world of competitive eating, veganism, and breaking up. Curtain rises at 8 p.m. at the Climate Theatre, 285 - 9th Street; $12. -- Altered Barbie Show: Fifth annual doll/art show has over 75 designers......

-- Writers With Drinks not only boasts an awesome substance-abuse party, but overlaps it with readings from some of your favorite local and national (that is to say, usually New York City- or LA-based) scribes and novelists. Who knew writers like to drink? But brace yourselves for tonight's edition: an "honest" look at the (dying? dead? necessary?) state of print publishing. Such inky icons as Ben Fong-Torres (from Rolling Stone), Lynn Peril (publisher of......

--Audacia Ray, the editor of the sex worker zine $pread and a Fleshbot [nsfw] contributor, talks at Modern Times about the commodification of sex on the Internet. 7:30 p.m., 888 Valencia (x 20th) --Kearny Street Workshop, Intersection for the Arts, and Galeria de la Raza are throwing a reading and book release party for their 2007 Intergenerational Writers Lab collection, at Capp180 (180 Capp Street 3rd Fl., x 16th and Mission). $5-15 sliding, 7 p.m.......

Friend of SFist Charlie Anders reminds us that her nifty and unusual spoken-word group, Writers With Drinks, will be experiencing yet another stupendous explosion of literary greatness this Saturday, the 9th, from 7:30 to 9:30 at The Make Out Room. Presenters include: - Judy Budnitz, author of Nice Big American Baby and If I've Told You Once - Clifford Chase, author of Winkie - Sesshu Foster, author of Atomik Aztex - Anthony McCann, poet......

In artist Paul Madonna's weekly comic series All Over Coffee, San Francisco architecture—and coffee—seem to be the main characters. Beautifully technical drawings of SF scenes, combined with disembodied voices that almost feel like the city's collective consciousness, give an ethereal quality to the pieces. You can catch All Over Coffee every Sunday in the Pink section of the Chronicle, and it's archived online as well. Paul also updates his web site every Monday with a new free cartoon. This month, there are several ways you can get to know Paul and his work a little better. • Tonight from 7 to 10 pm at 312 Valencia @ 14th street, there is a Book Release Party for Paul's collection of past to present work from All Over Coffee. You can also buy the book at a discounted price from City Lights Books. ...

Almost 20 years after the death of graffiti artist turned art star, Jean Michel Basquiat, we have a new documentary about graffiti in the art world, Next: A Primer on Urban Painting screens at Mezzanine (444 Jessie St. near 5th) courtesy of SF360 Film+Club. Directed by Pablo Aravena, the film combines cinema vérité of artists in action and interviews with painters, journalists, collectors, sociologists, DJ's, art critics and others. There will be a live......

Friends of SFist, Charlie Anders (Writers with Drinks) and Annalee Newitz (whose Techsploitation column we read each week with the Weeklies) have a new anthology out called She's Such a Geek. Tonight, contributors will be reading at City Lights (261 Columbus Ave. at Broadway). The book is a collection of first-person stories by women working in tech, science, game design, and other male-dominated "geeky" fields like tech law and even comic book writing. And......

This, the first week after the holidays, is traditionally where Hollywood dumps all the crappy flicks that weren't good enough to release during the holidays. So any movie opening this week has to be viewed with suspicion....

We remember the late 90's when every food magazine offered the definitive risotto technique. Writers trudged to Italian villages to learn how rural matrons made this popular dish. Even as newbie foodies, we rolled our eyes at these accounts. Why make it sound so treacherous? We have a tried and true technique, learned not at the side of a Piemontese peasant woman but through observation and common sense. Risotto is a stress-free dish that's perfect......

First, the excitement of the election, and now the excitement of a (for many people) three day weekend. More excitement! Movies: Third I South Asian Film Festival, In Debt We Trust by Danny Schecter Friday and Saturday night, Hardcore Viewmaster on Saturday night, early Werner Herzog shorts at SF MoMA, Saturday afternoon, and New Italian Cinema all day Sunday. Book Parties: Friday at the Cartoon Art Museum, Just Like Heaven, which is a children's......

More art tonight! Feeling hungry? Check out Détourned Menu: Food in the Form of Activism at The Lab(2948 16th Street @ Capp) from 6-9pm. Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi continues his predecessor, Matt Gonzales' tradition of art shows in his office. Tonight, photos by Amy Auerbach and Ethel Mays! (City Hall Room 282) - 5-8pm. Saturday Writers With Drinks, two hours of trauma and nihilistic epiphany (and drinks), returns to the Make Out Room (3225 22nd.......

Edie Meidav's Crawl Space has been praised to the rooftops, and she's hosting a reading and panel with local authors Joshua Braff, Sylvia Brownrigg, and Carolyn Cooke at the Corte Maders Book Passage tomorrow at 7 p.m. The subject of the panel is "Dispatches from Dystopia: California Writers on (Writing) the Bad", and each author will briefly read from their work before the panel discussion begins. Edie's so happy to be in the Bay Area......

Anything you can do, Wednesday can do better. Tonight: The APA group Kearny Street Workshop, in conjunction with Intersection for the Arts, presents the finale to its 2006 Intergenerational Writers Labwith a reading of the works that the lab participants have been preparing throughout the year. Sounds like experimental fiction, poetry, and maybe some lyrical prose might be making an appearance (though the group is careful to say that their work "transcends genre.") $5-15, 7-9......

This is little Gastronomique's first birthday! First column was on March, 3rd a year ago. This was 48 posts ago, which is one per week plus our Blog Writers Guild union-sanctified four weeks of rest and relaxation. We're looking forward to the second year, but we want to take a peek behind our shoulder, so we know what to say when we sit down for our year-end evaluation with our editors. And we want to......

So many moons ago, we wrote a post about Other Magazine. We were still young, unknown punks on this here locally scribbler scene. Nearly a year and a half later, we're still young punks at least (though we'll just be punks before long), mostly by virtue of being accepted by actual literary luminaries like Charlie Anders and Annalee Newitz. Granted, they're not hard to find, with Charlie MCing Writers With Drinks at the Makeout......

Tonight: We're running just down the street to Borders Books and Music (200 King Street at 3rd) for Making It: Writers on the Verge. Brought to us by our pals at Friends of the SF Public Library this event features Beth Lisick, Michelle Tea, and Stephen Elliott with moderator Oscar Villalon (SF Chronicle book editor) discussing how they started out and how they sustain their work. And it's free! Saturday: We're headed down to......

Since our last update, there have been no major breakthroughs in the negotiations between Chronicle management and the Media Workers Guild. Based on the latest reports from management and the Guild, it seems that the two sides are still quite far apart, even though the deadline on management's 'best' offer is due to expire at midnight on Monday. While the Guild is still at the table, the Pressman's Union has become much more active......

When we heard that Geoff Callan and Mike Shaw's project, "Pursuit of Equality," a documentary about San Francisco's 'Winter of Love,' was premiering at the San Francisco International, we were happy, as we've been waiting for months since the film's trailer went online (under the working title "Rush to the Civil Altar"). When we got the press release about the red carpet treatment for the film's stars, we figured there would be the added......

We initially passed this press release from the Author's Guild along to Gothamist Jen so that she could get the scoop on Gawker and FishbowlNY. Why? Because it looks like the Author's Guild along with the American Society of Journalists and Authors and the National Writers Union, UAW Local 1981, have come through with an $18 million dollar settlement for copyright infringement by companies like Time, Inc., The New York Times and the Wall......

In the "Lengths Writers Will Go To Promote A Book" department, Tom Dolby, author of The Trouble Boy, submitted to an SFist grilling. And by grilling we mean a nice, spicy rub-down followed by a slow, low-temperature smoke. Because Tom is a native of The City, and successful in New York, so we can't really be all that hard on him. As part of local literary impresario Kevin Smokler's "Virtual Book Tour," Tom will......

SFist managed to get their hands on the latest memo to the members of the Northern California Media Workers Guild at the Chronicle. Looks like they have now entered into negotiations with the management of the Chronicle. What's troubling is that unlike previous contract negotiations, which involved all the locals that represent employees together as the Chronicle Newspaper Unions, each local is now bargaining on their own (the Teamsters have already renegotiated their terms until......