First up is "Survivor," because nothing much happened in regards to Yau-Man this week. His team won the immunity challenge, and they went off to be their super-favorite selves for most of the episode. On to "Project Runway," and the final pre-Fashion Week challenge! Two would be going home! Now, anyone who was paying attention to Fashion Week saw that all five of the remaining designers got to show their lines, which is understandable lest......

So, it's the eleventh hour and you've decided against crushing up a couple of Ambiens into a mug of fume blanc and calling it a year. Instead, you've turned that frown upside down, choosing to see what's happening tonight on New Year's Eve 2008. Good for you. And to help you out, here are some last-minute events for each neighborhood in the San Francisco. Just follow links for more info; they will provide you......

Some local PBS affiliate stations will be re-airing two San Francisco-centric episodes of "American Experience" this weekend. The first, and best, is Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple. Through interviews with former members and survivors of the Jim Jones cult, along with loads of archival footage, you get an eerie portrait of a good idea gone bad. In hindsight, it's hard to imagine how anyone could have fallen under the spell of......

Londonist are starting to think their city is getting just a little bit too expensive, when even Christian Slater can't afford to go out there. And there's no escaping, as local singer Lily Allen discovered when she was barred entry to the US. The British mapping agency caused further bad karma, by blocking a 3-D representation of London in Google Earth. But the smiles returned to Londonist's faces as they interviewed Baroness von Reichardt,......

Part 1 of SFist Mihi's journey into female sexuality on a lovely Friday night. Part 2 is immediately below this post. After seeing two women-centered movies at the Frameline LGBT Film Festival on Friday night, we've determined that you can tell the difference between a lesbian movie made for a mainstream audience and a lesbian movie made for lesbians by the so-called "butch" in the film. Spider Lilies (Ci Qing), a Taiwanese import, played at......

We've got a really cool giveaway this week. Everyone knows who Rufus Wainwright is, right? Please, tell us that you do. He's still crooning luxuriously behind the piano, wearing fabulously tailored suits and hasn't aged a day since his auspicious self-titled debut nearly ten years ago. His brand new record, Release the Stars, is hot off the presses and he's coming to play a special show at Nob Hill Masonic Center with Sean Lennon......

Well, all of San Francisco politics is trivial, isn't it? Get that confirmed at tonight's 4th Annual Political Trivia Contest, featuring Chris "Whiskers" Daly, Ross Mirkarimi, and Jake McGoldrick, at a benefit for the John Muir PTA, for a spelling bee for the Western Addition. Categories of questions include: "Streets (and Transportation) of San Francisco," "Interesting Characters of San Francisco," and, in a bracing slap of reality, "Only Trivia That A Policy Wonk Would......

While intra-city burrito debates are a San Francisco tradition, we were a bit shocked to come across this article from a San Diego-based pub in which a "burrito expert" of sorts totally disses the San Francisco burrito! ...

It's Bay Area National Dance Week! Dance studios across the city are dramatically flinging open their doors for free events all week. The one that jumped out at us for tonight is a free introduction to fire hoop dancing at the Temple of Poi. There's a 6:15 class and a 8:00 class, and the Temple is located at 953 Mission, Suite 11. Check out that YouTube clip of the Temple of Poi founder hula-hooping......

Some organization we've never heard of and could probably care the less about, the American Institute of Architects, put together a list of the Top 25 Bestest Buildings in San Francisco. Look for attendant show on VH-1 featuring snarky comments from Hal Sparks, Ian Michael Black, and Rachel Harris. ...

Here's todays wrap up of the news...

If it’s as beautiful and warm as everyone says it will be this Sunday, then we’re headed to the Thai Buddhist Temple in Berkeley for the Sunday brunch. We haven’t been in awhile, and we’ve been craving that Mango Sticky Rice. Brunch in general is not usually our thing -- the long wait to get seated for an over-priced generic egg scramble usually makes our tender hangovers worse and not better. But the brunch at Wat Mongkolratanaram in Berkeley does not disappoint. It’s a weekly fundraiser for the temple. For around $5, you can get a tasty and pretty authentic Thai meal, including their delicious mango sticky rice for dessert. ...

Let's just get this right out of the way first-- we love Jesus Christ Superstar and we're not too proud to admit it (blasting it on our stereo, on the other hand...) We love the songs, we love the story, we love the lyrics, we love the singing, we love everything. Not only that, we think the songs rock. And if you don't believe us, go check out the Afghan Whig's cover of "the Temple" and see what we mean. We also think that the play's main riff-- that malevolent, bad-ass riff, the one played while Jesus is receiving the thirty-nine lashes, is one of rock's great unknown riffs. ...

As we look around the bare walls of our apartment, we're compelled to bring some art into our life with the YBCA's online auction, running until October 13. As of this writing, looking at their catalog tells us that some lovely items can be gotten for as little as 90 bucks. And if you're not in the market for an actual piece of art, what about a visit and dinner with Toychestra (be the......

Last week's winner, the Bay Guardian: Mocking Dede Wilsey and Newsom about the DeYoung parking situation. The Guardian gets distracted from its single-minded focus on Village Voice LLC to decry MediaNews's purchase of the San Jose Merc News. Letter from a Peoples Temple survivor asking for further investigations into a CIA conspiracy. Hipsters worry that they're accidentally causing gentrification in Oakland. Sonic Reducer reviews an album of songs sung by actors. You know, we may have to download the version of Ewan McGregor singing Sade (or Jennifer Garner singing a show tune. It's totally awesome to work out to!!!!!.) A review of the Flipper reunion show from April 8. It took them a month to get that up? New brunch place in Noe Valley, Shanghai soup dumplings in the Sunset. Cover: Daniel Clowes. And SFist Eve's horoscope: be more confrontational. Watch out, crazy commenters! The SF Weekly: Nate Cavallieri, ex-Weekly writer, won a journalism award for his cover article about a guy who works with gang members. Congratulations, Nate! Matt Smith on Chris Daly, Mission Housing, and someone saying that Daly speaks with a "forked tongue" -- outraged Matt Smith spittle flying everywhere! N.B.: Matt Smith reports that Chris Daly has adopted a policy of "not speaking to me." Gay cop sues. Orphan pigeon rescue. Cover article: why won't the SF Unified School District back smaller schools? Meredith goes BBQ, while SFist Ced roasts some ribs of his own! And Savage Love: do any fetishists want to buy a letter-writer's breast milk? Direct all responses to Dan Savage, not us. The EBX's Best Of issue, and the Metro -- after the jump....

Anyone who's interested in San Francisco history must see this movie. Director and MacArthur genius grant recipient Stanley Nelson (who previously directed the Emmy-award-winning The Murder of Emmett Till) has put together a sensitive and thoughtful history of Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple that stays away from the usual pat explanations of the situation (as Nelson said in the post-screening Q&A, the story of "900 crazy people drinking Kool-Aid in the jungle") to outline a story that's even more disturbing when you realize how almost-acceptable the situation was that Jones created. As you can see in the picture at the left, Jim Jones was tight in San Francisco local politics, and was considered a key part of George Moscone's (short-lived) mayoral triumph in 1977. Peoples Temple promoted a religious doctrine of interracial brotherhood, responsibility for the poor, and a socialist utopia in which everyone looked out for everyone else. Doesn't sound so bad, does it? Peoples Temple also participated in a number of progressive social movements, attending rallies and organizing get-out-the-vote campaigns, and as a result, Jim Jones was awarded a seat on the board of the San Francisco Housing Authority (!!!) before he fled for Guyana, killed a state congressman, and orchestrated the mass suicide of over 900 people. Our mouth kept dropping open at the footage that Nelson had obtained -- interviews with Jones's childhood acquaintances (all of whom agreed he was a weird little dude, torturing and killing cats so he could hold funerals for them), sermons by Jones at his Fillmore/Geary temple (now the post office next to the Fillmore Theater, where the downtown-bound 38 Geary stop is), footage of followers seeing Guyana for the first time, and the most chillingly, live film of the final days in Jonestown and the fateful visit by Congressman Leo Ryan (and a very young Jackie Speier) and tape recordings of Jim Jones urging people to "drink faster, faster, faster." Dude, we were freaked out. Interviews with survivors, Intersection for the Arts, and Jim Jones Jr. at the Q&A, after the jump....

Wednesday will deposit $20 million into your Nigerian bank account if you'll write SFist a $20,000 check. [before the FBI comes after us for committing fraud, we're kidding, we're kidding!] Tonight: Parlez-vous meetup? San Franciscan French speakers are meeting up at 8 p.m. at Catalyst Cocktails (312 Harriet, at Bryant and 6th) to practiquent the language, and boivent some drinks. (did we conjugate those right?) Thursday: Now that the Basque ETA has declared a cease fire, Artists' Television Access is screening "Silent Voices," a documentary about people victimized by the movement. $5, 8 p.m., 992 Valencia. and Friday: The Temple of Poi puts on a fire-dancing performance at 7:30 tonight at Union Square, totally free. Poi is a dance form where you move weighted things around your body on a cord -- fire, lights, glasses of water, you name it. If you fear fire and/or Union Square, go instead to the Precita Eyes benefit fundraiser at their studios on 24th and Harrison, where finalists in the Mural Appreciation Month competition will display their work, and you can watch a live mural performance too. 2981 24th St, 7-10 p.m....

Last week's winner, the East Bay Express: Bottom Feeder on whether the Concord mayor is anti-abortion, and the bad body odor of a Berkeley narcotics officer alleged to be on the take. Photoshopping pandas in Oakland. (check out that awesome picture!) Do conservatives have fewer friends? Cover article: no, you can't void your mortgage by claiming that US currency has no value (this is a pretty cool article). Cafe Gratitude in Berkeley has bad service. I Like Eating charms us again with a visit to Rudy's Can't Fail Cafe. And Harvilla on the Kim Deal musical everyone's talking about. The Bay Guardian: Hey, new website design! Chris Daly for Assembly? An entertaining editors' note (scroll down) about whether or not the Guardian believes that vegetables feel pain as they're being digested! Oh, advertiser Rainbow Grocery, always on the cutting edge (ouch! watch that edge!) The inside scoop on the Haight-Ashbury Free Clinic brouhaha. Hating Berkeley law professor John Yoo ("torture is a-okay by me!"). On The Sidelines' hilarious cartoon about bands with three repeated word names ("Die Die Die?" "Tony Toni Tone?" "!!!" ?). Cover article: Matt Gonzalez on Jonestown (and the Guardian shamefacedly admits that they totally thought the Peoples' Temple was okay at the time.) Bettie Page lookalike contest at Thee Parkside this Friday. And SFist Eve's horoscope: it implies that she's currently in a "crazy place" right now -- hey, Double Team, that ain't nice! The SF Weekly and the Metro, after the jump -- along with the Weekly of the Week....

On the cultcha front, lots going on. Edward Champion scores a sit down with SFist's second-favorite Floridian, Dave Barry, in his latest podcast of The Bat Segundo Show. Lost in Grovont says that tickets are now on sale for Noise Pop 2006, but that details on the shows are sketchy. Leonard McKay files the second installment in his history of San Jose brewing for San Jose Inside, and Alder Yarrow wades into the debate......

For all of our good intentions, we occasionally return our library books after the due date. Sure, you can renew online, but sometimes it just slips our mind. We'd like to take this opportunity to apologize to anyone on the online reserve list for Oh Pure and Radiant Heart. We promise that we'll be getting it back this weekend. Then again, if you're all that eager to read it, may we suggest you pick it......

Win it before you can buy it! We've got a copy of The Long Winters' excellent new Ultimatum EP that comes out October 11th. You can download the title track here and be sure to catch them opening for The Fiery Furnaces at Cafe Du Nord on Saturday. (Contest ends Weds. 10/5.) Tonight at the Rickshaw Stop Casiotone for the Painfully Alone celebrates a CD-single release, and at 12 Galaxies there's a Quintron and......

Likely to start throwing chairs if he hears the words ‘Virgin Pina Colada’, Barrespondent Drew continues his quest to find a bar so seedy and unscrupulous that they’d spike your kid’s Shirley Temple given half a chance. Whether it’s because of a deep seeded and constantly flip-flopping jealousy or our subconscious desire to pigeonhole every person in the city into predefined little categories, we continue to hold on to the belief that San Francisco......

It's black history month and we're ashamed to admit that all we've done is buy James Baldwin stamps and curse Condoleezza Rice. So we were glad to receive a tip from a reader about what looks like a fascinating world music concert. The Abayudaya Jewish tribe of Uganda have a rich choral tradition of African religious songs, sung in both Hebrew and Luganda (a local Ugandan dialect), and their most recent album was nominated for a Grammy this year. (They were beaten by Maroon 5. Kidding, kidding -- Ladysmith Black Mambazo took home the Best Traditional World Music title this year.) As part of their Be-chol Lashon (In Every Voice) Think Tank to promote Jewish racial and ethnic diversity, the Institute for Jewish and Community Research is sponsoring a concert with the Abauyudaya Jewish singing group and the Temple Bethel Choir, an African-American Jewish group from Philadelphia. The Temple Bethel Choir is known for their "foot-stomping celebration" of Jewish music, so this should be a slightly different world music experience than, say, a "Putomayo presents: The Beauty of the Didgeridoo" concert. The concert is at 7 p.m. in the Venetian Room at the Fairmont Hotel, and tickets are $10. ...

If you're lucky, you'll see an SFist b***hfight between those of us who are competing to reserve the hottest new books at the San Francisco Public library. There are some days we can't face SFist Rita's kung-fu, however, so we break down and just buy the books we want at one of our fine local independent bookstores. SFist Eve is here to tell you that the "Desperate Housewives" gang are a bunch of punk-ass......

Remember the nineties? Back when nobody knew Scott Weiland was a big junkie, but wondered why every single that Stone Temple Pilots came out with sounded like a song recorded by Nirvana or Pearl Jam? When the Internet was going to change the world for, the, uh, better? When Microsoft Windows was actually a useful operating system, and our major worry was whether or not Bill Clinton could keep his penis out of the mouths......

Ahhhh, nothing soothes like tension at Berkeley’s Claremont Resort and Spa. Along with your signature "Mayan Temple Journey” massage and exfoliation, or your "Moor Than Mud" bath, the Claremont also offers a simmering two-and-a-half-year fight between spa workers and management over the right to organize. Back in 2002, workers called for a boycott, and last weekend, workers picketed the resort for 27 hours. (That’s gotta make your session with the nutritionist a little uncomfortable.) The......