Ooooh!!! You know we love the Asian-American Film Festival! We love the feature films by the young ambitious Asian-American directors, we love Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay, we love the KQED-ready documentaries about identity and history, we love the beautifully shot foreign films, and we loooooooooove Music Video Asia! MAN, do we love Music Video Asia. (Plus -- a sing-along Colma The Musical!) The film festival starts in two weeks and runs......

Oh, fine. Today's image of the day was a bit bitter. So, how about this arty treat from Mogul Larry Tee, fashion designers/club freaks Heatherette, media Artist Andrew Strasser, and music video producer Francis Legge? Although it veers dangerously close to Bernie Ward territory and Heatherette probably made the girl lose 10 pounds before the shoot, we find it to be darling.......

As the winners of Live 105's Local Band competition, Maldroid will be opening for Modest Mouse, Jimmy Eat World, Angels & Airwaves, Spoon, and Paramore tomorrow night at the "Not So Silent Night" bash at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. Maldroid's sound is a mix between The Beatles and The Hives. They first became popular when their video, "He Said, She Said," won "The Youtube Underground" competition - Youtube's first ever music video competition. They......

In a city littered with film festivals, few of them stand out. This is one of them. Starting this Thursday (11/6), the San Francisco International Animation Festival will sample a wide array of animation with a selection of the finest, boldest and most exciting animated films and videos from around the world, including frame-by-frame and computer-assisted animation. The festival opens with Leslie Iwerks' examination of Pixar, perhaps the best-known and most successful animation house......

As it gets closer to Halloween for LAist, a contributer recollects her tale of staring down the serial killer, Richard Ramirez, otherwise known as the Night Stalker. Must think happy thoughts -- okay, free organic chocolate chip cookies for Los Angeles -- now that's a happy thought. Other happy Los Angeles thoughts include an interview with Jack Kehler of The Big Lebowski (he was the Dude's landlord), a beautiful and magical photographic moment in Venice......

--Pride was fun! (Have you noticed we always have great weather for Pride?) [Chron, ABC 7, CBS 5.] --Who were the bloggers floating the Newsom coke rumors? We don't think it was us. [Chron.] --They're trying to apply the lessons from the Kim family search in looking for the Alameda County woman and her priest friend. [KTVU.] --Cal students getting hyphy. [Clog Blog.] --Don't try and fix the worst house in San Francisco yourself......

From the tallest skyscraper in the City of Brotherly Love to Canadian tourism copywriting brilliance, here's what you should know from our -ist cities: This week, Phillyist took a gleeful listen to the White Stripes' exciting new release, watched in awe as their new tallest skyscraper was finally completed, found a cheaper way to get to Gothamist, invented a tasty new dessert, and brought back their Craigslist Round-Up feature with a bang. Bostonist watches......

SFist Sara's back, with your weekend picks in indie cinema! We are always going to tell you to see Other Cinema. You can set your watch to it, we promise. This week’s Incredibly Strange Music program is packed with punk rock/bad music video genius. We’re particularly into the experimental film Foucault’s Pendulum but there’s oddity for every taste, as curator Craig Baldwin’s program religiously offers. This week, however, the OC schedule has a staunch competitor......

This is a little late to be posted- but we did just want to give a nod to the youth short films screening as part of the SF Women's Film Festival on Saturday afternoon in the Audre Lorde Room at the Women’s Building. The whole viewing lasted about an hour or so, but it managed to showcase a whole lot of youth talent in a brief time period. Yes, we’ll admit we went to the......

We go to this screening of Asian and Asian-American music videos every year! We are now the people in the audience who shout, "Chi-hui!!!!" when the SFIAAFF festival director and music video programmer Chi-hui Yang comes to the front of the theater and says we're in for a "real treat." We don't even know Chi-hui and we almost said hi to him when we saw him on the street the other day. We're stalking......

Hey, remember a few weeks ago when we mentioned that Noise Pop was sponsoring a one-day make a music video contest a la Iron Chef? Well, here's the winning video! The video's by the local band Blammos, for the song "Girl Of My Dreams," where the singer walks around the Mission, singing to as many different girls his team could find that were willing to be on film. It's kind of cute! And, as......

It's almost Noise Pop time in San Francisco again! While SFist (and Bagel Radio DJ!) Krissy keeps you covered on the nonstop jingle-jangle clang-clang of the local indie rock scene, don't forget that NoisePop always presents an excellent array of music-related film as well. This year's Noise Pop Film Fest runs from Feb. 28 through March 4, and is featuring movies like: a documentary about 924 Gilman, a Sonic Youth concert video shot by concertgoers,......

Noise Pop announced their full line-up this week and it has us feeling a little dizzy with excitement. The fest's 15th anniversary kicks off on February 27th with a free Opening Night Event (lineup TBA), followed by highlights including Sebadoh performing with their original lineup and Roky Erickson of 13th Floor Elevators' first Bay Area show in 25 years. Read all about the events and performances and get your all-fest badge while they're still......

We know we're saving up our money for countless Halloween-themed events this weekend, so tonight we're all about the free stuff. Funcheap SF is an e-mail newsletter that clues in the city's under-employed, bored and frugal on the best in fun and cheap stuff to do. Tonight they're hosting the Cheap Bastard Fun Happy Hour at EZ5 Bar(682 Commercial St. at Kearny near the Holiday Inn in Chinatown). The event will feature cheap happy......

Sunday kicked off the 10th annual Mission Creek Music and Arts Festival featuring over 170 music acts, most of them local but some of them national (Vincent Gallo) and international (Ane Brun). The MCMAF offers a fantastic opportunity to get out into your neighborhood bars and clubs and see some bands on the rise. You can also get an earful of the uniquely adventurous and creative music coming out of the bay area. The......

Being a relatively recent gratuate to cable from rabbit ears, we're not sure how that whole In Demand thing works, but we've been tempted to figure it out ever since we heard about Friend of SFist Harmon Leon's stint on "Juiced", a hidden camera prank show starring OJ Simpson. That's right, Harmon and OJ, sharing the screen. In Harmon's words: Some (let’s call them the sane) would be apprehensive to work with OJ. But......

We had such a good time at last year's Music Video Asia program, we signed up immediately for this year's screenings too. Why hasn't anyone taken our suggestion from last year and given Chi-hui Yang a video show yet? It could run on the AZN channel! We'd totally watch it. Hip-hop made a strong showing this year: our faves included an Asian-Canadian female rapper (Masia One, with a big-ass boombox), a fun video shot in the East Bay over a high-energy Korean rap, and several moody gangster videos. Subtitles are the new pimp cup. South Asians did innovative work too, with one particularly cool bit featuring tabla drums and beatboxing. We also loved indie rockers +/- (ex-Versus), with a catchy tune and a great video -- we're predicting it lands on Subterranean soon -- and French-Asian Lalipuna shot a beautiful formalist piece. Pinoise did very well too, with the Pacifics back in the house; Invid's hilarious Filipino exorcism party, and an music video film production company featuring someone's dad saying "xylophone." We always leave this screening excited to have more Asian and Asian-American artists to check out. If our computer crashes at work today, it's from overdownloading .mp3s. Picture of MC Masia One PIC....

Jason Schultz found an exciting job opportunity posted at a cafe -- Mr. Fancypants himself, Hammer (nee MC), needs dancers for a music video:Tuesday, November 22nd between 7pm - 9 pm Film Arts Foundation 145 Ninth Street #102 San Francisco, CA We are holding an audition for two Hammer music videos, which will have national distribution. The videos will be show November 29 and 30th. We are looking for 3 featured actresses age, 18-30,......

"Well that was odd" is likely how you'll respond to most of the programs in ResFest, a hipster-doofus festival of shorts, documentaries, panel discussions, and live music events. The visual talent behind the work in ResFest is undeniable -- mostly CG effects and gimmicky art design, it's all balls-to-the-wall gorgeous, every frame of it. The storytelling talent is ... eh ... a bit dodgy, though still stronger than what you'd find at your average......

Our concert picks for the week of 7/28-8/3. This week offers you chances to see spanking new UK rockers, hiphop's underground acts and chart-toppers, and yet another show by Tegan and Sara. We love those cute lil' Canadians, but how many times have they played San Francisco this year? Tonight starts early with a free performance by Nine Black Alps at Amoeba. The young lads of the UK's band-of-the-moment will rock you later at Popscene......

So we have a cousin. No, this is not some coy way of referring to the newest -ist site, Austinist(welcome!), we're talking about our actual cousin. Anyways, our cousin plays this game whenever we watch videos, called "spot the Asian." There's always one (but no more than one) Asian hip-hop dancer in any given video, for instance. Hapas Jay-Z and Foxy Brown count for half a point. And there's always Chad Hugo, or the Linkin Park DJ, or the kid who plays violin for Yellowcard.... yeah, it's kind of slim pickings on mainstream MTV -- which is why the Asian-Am Film Fest's Music Video Asia program is so key! Every year, the Asian-Am film fest selects a number of music videos featuring bands from Asia, bands with Asian-American members, and Asian video directors and production crews. (Yes, Chinese-American Joseph Kahn directed the Britney Spears Toxic video, but no, he was not featured this year.) Plus, we're always psyched every year to go to this show -- come on, watching music videos is our favorite thing to do in the world! This year's video selections ranged the map. Thoughtfully collected by program curator Chi-hui Yang, they included local SF Asian-American indie musicians, breakthrough British dance artist M.I.A., some excellently head-bobbing hip-hop from across the country and the globe, a metal band, Filipino emo, a huge array of music from Japan, and a Hives-like Swedish band with an Asian lead singer. Brief reviews after the jump....

The nominees for the 47th Annual GRAMMY Awards were announced yesterday in Hollywood, with homeboys Green Day earning an impressive six nominations. That's four less than Kanye West, two less than Alicia Keys and Usher, but one more than Norah, Loretta and Prince. Billie Joe, Mike, and Tré Cool are honored for American Idiot (the album and the single) in the categories of Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Best Rock Performance By......

In a partnership that was originally announced months ago, Hewlett-Packard - the folks who brought you the Light Emitting Diode, among thousands of other patented inventions - is now shipping Apple's iPod to customers around the world. You may have seen the new ads premiering at this weekend's MTV Music Video Awards. EssEffist would like imagine the conversation over beers at some Cupertino watering hole: "Well, HP wants a digital music player as part of their new line of media products for the home user." "Hmm. Over at Apple, we want to distribute our products to people who are scared of the intimidating modernism of our retail stores." "Well, HP does have one of the best world-wide distribution networks for computers and electronics." "And Apple does have the best digital music player in the world. I wonder..." While we were originally concerned this could be some sort of unholy union - after all, HP will be shipping Windows Media Center on it's new entertainment-centric PCs - Apple is practically supporting their niche-market computers with money from iPod sales, and as a Mac user, whatever keeps the sleekly designed, loveably reliable Apple computers coming is fine with us. We think this could be a good move for both companies, since Apple's expertise is in digital media and HP's in research, manufacturing and distribution. But couldn't they have done something about the price? We can only hope this is making Steve Jobs feel better....

Or so says Vikter Veysey, who first approached SFist as we were riding our bike to the Caltrain Station along the Embarcadero. Although we turned town his invitation to be a bicycle ballerina in his upcoming music video, we were flattered enough to make him SFist’s very first interview subject (and for the record, SFist likes to boogie, we like to get down, we like to be asked to dance, but ballet isn’t really our cup of tea)....