In a bit of late-breaking news, teenagers are apparently illegally(!) drinking(!) underage(!). Marin County held a townhall meeting in Kentfield last night to discuss this very recent, out-of-control phenomenon amongst teenagers. Parents and teenagers (sober, natch) voiced their concerns about underage drinking and wagged their fingers at certain areas of town where drinking runs rampant at city high schools. Studies show that southern Marin teens drink far more than most kids their age. "They're getting......

We interrupt your holiday frivolity, wild binge drinking, and high stress levels to bring you the following event: Tomorrow night the annual Homeless Death Memorial March takes place. A Day of the Dead, if you will, for those of us who passed away this year without having a place to call home. You want more info? Here you go: Please join us to commemorate homeless people—our friends, relatives, neighbors, acquaintances, and even some who......

-- Colors of Christmas: Oh yeah. You know you want to hear this KOIT-ish night of soulful holiday tunes live at Davies, right? Well, we sure do. Peabo Bryson, Oleta Adams, Ben Vereen, and Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis Jr. croon R&B-tinged holiday classics and modern hits starting at 8 p.m. at Davies Symphony Hall; $20-$80. -- The SantaLand Diaries & Season's Greetings: David Sedaris' famous dysfunctional and wry Christmastime tales hit the stage.......

Photos of Santarchy 2007...

Bon voyag-ee, Cosco Busan! And don't come back! The leaky Cosco Busan ship that contaminated our beautiful bay with oil is expected to get clearance to get the heck outta Frisco, setting sail at noon today to head back to South Korea. We kind of have this vision of the ship disconsolately listing off into the sunset, leaving a trail of oil behind it, like when Wile E. Coyote hits something and walks off screen......

Congratulations, Oakland (29th), Fremont (32nd), and San Francisco (34th) -- you made it on the top 50 drunkest cities in the U.S. list. At least, according to the December issue of the body dysmorphia-inducing rag Men's Health Magazine. The rankings are based on alcohol-related liver deaths, "binge drinking data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention," FBI-culled drunk driving arrest numbers, death-related auto accidents that involved booze, and "grades given to cities......

We love Gridskipper's edge as of late. Take, for example, today's revealing top 8 San Francisco bars with the "crappiest crowds." Rankings 8, 7, 6, and 5 are Beauty Bar, Medjool, Swig, and R Bar, respectively. In all fairness, you need to visit good ol' Gridie to find out just who made the top four. (Also, regarding the number-one spot, we've never visited the sorta chic spot but have heard mixed reviews. Is it......

The hostage standoff is over. No one died. Nothing went ka-blam. The "deranged man" at Clinton's HQ was simply the town crazy infamous around those parts for his kooky mental instability. (Then, this situation must happen on a daily basis over at Hillary Clinton's SF headquarters.) According to CBS 5: WBZ Radio's Lana Jones learned that the [wacky] man's stepson reported to police that his stepfather had been drinking for two days. The son......

In North Beach fights breakout and mild vandalism occurs after bars close at 2 a.m. This chaos, typical for any city, makes some of our sensitive city dwellers cranky before bedtime. Or whatever. So, the City Planning Commissioners somehow got it into their heads that closing pizza parlors on the the Broadway strip, pizzerias that normally stay open until 3 a.m. or 4 a.m., before 2 a.m. will solve a slew of problems. According to the Examiner:...

While it's no new thing for rock bands to come out with their own movies, they've definitely gotten more dramatic. Two films (that couldn't be on more opposite ends of the cinematic concert-film spectrum, if you ask us) are showing in the next two weeks: Sigur Rós' Heima (Icelandic for "Home" or "Homeland") and Daft Punk's Electroma. While Heima is more your traditional rockumentary (see band play. See band play in nice locations.), Electroma......

Anyway, the real story here is that it's an uninteresting race, but that that shouldn't matter. With Gavin Newsom running unopposed in the minds of many a San Franciscan, the city sheriff having no serious challengers, and the district attorney running unopposed, we can see why. And according to Alex Clemens in today's Examiner (AP), "[w[]"ithout a good fight at hand, a lot of people are worried that many San Franciscans will opt out of the process and just go to work instead." (That what they want you to believe, man! Wheels within wheels.)...

Anyways, Sean saw this, failed to see any humor in it, and made his offer to be the money bags to everyone's favorite "hunky-hipster attorney". Again, we don't know if this is true or what the what is with the story. It could be a joke, a crazy rumor, or something Sean and Matt jokingly talked about while drinking some wine and discussing the finer points of Costas Gravas's L'Aveu. ...

Last week's winner, the deceptive SF Weekly. Letters abound, either outraged by the fake Barry Bonds story or entertained by the elk. Why don't the negative letters have the names of the authors? Are you now questioning all the journalism you read in the Weekly now, or did you just think it was a good joke? Matt Smith says Gavin Newsom is supporting a cult. No, not the cult of Gavin, though no doubt Gavin......

Back in August, we told you about how some Safeway employees were mysteriously and suddenly transferred to different stores as management was becoming more demanding about checkers asking for donations. We hear from our Safeway mole, that things did not stop there. As you may as well already know, the Safeway crusade of the month is breast cancer research. (For those heavy-drinking ladies out there – score!) Safeway stores are festooned with pink balloons and......

MTT's conducting of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde is so good, it should be recorded and kept for the posterity. But wait! It was! The series, which concludes tonight, will be taped and processed, and included in the Mahler recording cycle, the on-going endeavor to put all of Mahler's symphonic work onto a CD. MTT's take on Mahler, a forcefully engaged and expressive rendition, has been observed here quite a few times. We expect......

Don't just read any words -- read good words, accurate and specific, tasty and gratifying and placed in sequences that make you shake your head in disbelief that anyone could possibly have ever used those words in sentences other than the ones on the page in front of you. You certainly won't find that here; but check out Booksmith tonight, Modern Times tomorrow, and 826 Valencia on Monday for that snake-charmer of the English......

San Francisco's white-hot crime trend continues to soar. Early this morning, someone fired shots from a car on the 3400 block of 19th Street, landing two victims a stay in the hospital, according to the Examiner (via Bay City News, a service we love more and more). What's more:: It was kind of startling — everyone wanted to know what was going on,'' said Melissa Scott, a customer at Lexington Club, which is located......

We don’t dabble in national politics much, except when a gay Republican senator is outed in a Minneapolis airport (fun!). But we relate to the Two Americas theme of Democratic primary candidate John Edwards’ campaign: there is an America which will go to the SF Opera tonight, and another one which will go to Opera in the Park on Sunday. The first one, tuxedoed and bejeweled, cheered up by a cocktail reception, will enjoy a......

-- Barefoot Nellies: "The Bay Area's finest all-gal bluegrass band" headline at one of the Bay Area's finest bars, Amnesia, starting at 8:30 p.m., 853 Valencia; free. -- Killer of Sheep (1977): Charles Burnett's masterwork about a slaughterhouse worker/father and his family living in Watts, LA screens tonight at 7:15 p.m. 9:15 at The Red Vic, 1727 Haight (at Cole). -- Ryan Auffenberg: Local, tender singer-songwriter performs in the Mission. So does Clare Burson.......

Apparently, the bottled water industry is ticked off at Gavin Newsom for banning bottled water at City Hall. Many believe that what it takes to produce, distribute, and recycle water bottles is wasteful when you think about all that fine drinking water that’s there for the taking from Hetch Hetchy. Joe Doss of the International Bottled Water Association argues, “The amount of resin needed to make the bottled water containers has been reduced by......

When we read the above headline on GavinWatch -- a site we enjoy reading; no offense, Gavin -- we waited to hear about a "disturbingly (but not surprisingly) skeevy" rape, AIDS, or Polish joke that came from our Mayor's cherry-stained lips. It seems that while he was getting signatures for his re-election effot, Newsom went up to a few guys at The Cafe and made this shockingly innocuous remark. GavinWatch's anonymous tipster recounts the......

-- 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......

Man, we were reading the Chron on the plane out of San Francisco on July 4 for vacation, balling our fists in frustration over missing the stories on Ed Jew's "part-time lover" response to the City Attorney's allegations AND the story about Aaron Peskin's zinger to Dianne Feinstein about her strange letter complaining about Chris Daly. No fair! (but thank you, SFist Jer, for covering it for us while we were gone!) Well, even......

SFist Julie treats herself! And why's she need treating? Find out for yourself -- congratulations, SFist Julie!!! So, you San Francisco folks have it made. With places like Polished Lounge and Le Crème Spa, you can go get a "natural" manicure and pedicure in a big puffy chair with lots of lovely organic products, fresh fruits and herbs, whenever you wish, with very little schlep involved, and no scary acrylics fumes. Us East Bay folks......

We're already getting tired of this story. Can we please get back to the Ed Jew investigations? The only coverage we're enjoying is Bad Reporter's! (We're enjoying Bad Reporter's coverage very, very much, though. "No oxygen: He could die.") Here's the latest in Daly Fight 2007: --Supervisor Michela Alioto-Pier is going to reintroduce a code of conduct for behavior before the Board of Supes. You may remember she introduced a motion to censure Daly for......

--Gavin Newsom had another Project Homeless Connect event. Reader Elihuh2001 sends along this picture, along with the note that Gavin refused the free coffee provided, in favor of a more corporate flair. --A Pirates of the Caribbean ship sails through Oakland. --San Francisco comic artist Justin Hall gives a superhero lecture at ToonFetish, a conference in Hollywood which SFist MattyMatt assures us is about exactly what it sounds like it's about. --Gay bomb, gay bomb,......

Week Around The -Ists...

And the Bay Area dominates your reality TV scene YET AGAIN!!! Danville's own Evan O'Dorney, sponsored by the proud-as-punch Contra Costa Times, wins this year's spelling bee on the word "serrefine," which is not a brand of drinking water but rather, is a small set of forceps used for clamping blood vessels. O'Dorney is home-schooled (but affiliated with a local charter school, and takes classes at various local community colleges), came in fifth in the......

Drinking and shopping? Sounds harmless! Or does it....? Find out for yourself at GenArt's first SF spring shopping event. Over 40 local vendors are offering discounted wares for the ladies and the fellows, with a fashion show, bevvys and music. 6-10pm, $10 for non-members. ShopSF at the Galleria, San Francisco Design Center, 101 Henry Adams St., SF. Fe in the Desert, a new play by Jessica Hagedorn about a woman struggling to make sense......

There's a profile of Phil Ginsburg, the new mayoral chief of staff, in today's Chron. Basically, it's a hard job, Ginsburg took a $75K paycut when he took it, and he was nonplussed when, about one week in, he got stuck dealing with the Ruby Rippey-Tourk/rehab circus. Also, Ginsburg is really into org charts. Interestingly, though, pretty much everyone admits (or at least doesn't deny) that Gavin is difficult to work with, and praise......