Mayor Jacob Frey: “To ICE, get the fuck out of Minneapolis.”

I wrote a big ol' guide to January aka the busiest art month of the year. Pace yourselves and stay hydrated! www.kqed.org/arts/1398514...

Breaking some news for @coyotemedia.org here. Incredibly sad about this — some of the best nights of my life have involved this club — but I’m also so honored and grateful to Ramona, Kathleen and Lynn for trusting me with this story. www.coyotemedia.org/san-francisc...

This is the way

Watched ‘After the Thin Man’ last night for NYE and noticed the San Francisco Chronicle… with front-page stories about Culver City, the Mayan Theater and Cheviot Hills—all in Los Angeles.

Just some stuff I liked

Power went out so I’m having tomato soup and reading ‘Hamlet’🎄Merry Christmas🎄

“I will sing in San Francisco. I will sing for nothing in that city ... If necessary, I will sing in the streets.” On Luisa Tetrazzini’s free Christmas Eve concert at Lotta’s Fountain in 1910:

“Everyone wanted to go home.” On Miles Davis’ Christmas Eve recording session, 1954: tomreney.com/miles-davis-...

OK, officially anti-“lore” now

A 2026 calendar, each month with a different Kent Porter car-driving-into-storefront photo: would pay good money for this

Catch me, @ogpenn.bsky.social and @theluketsai.bsky.social on Forum this morning, from 9–10am. (Wish I could say we'll have dogs in the studio!) 88.5 FM / kqed.org

Hell yeah to this double feature coming to the Grand Lake for Noir City in January

After watching ‘Rififi,’ the guy who’d been sitting behind me held the theater door open for me as we left, and only then did I see that he was Tom Waits

On KQED radio right now: The best Bay Area music from 2025! With @nastiaaa.bsky.social and @ogpenn.bsky.social, plus Jamel Griot and Arts & Crafts playing live in the studio:

Wrote about turning 50.

Lots of fun on the radio this morning discussing Bob Dylan's famous 1965 press conference at KQED — which took place 60 years ago this week. Hear me on Morning Edition, talking with Brian Watt (@radiobwatt.bsky.social): omny.fm/shows/kqed-s...

The big roundup of shows from 2025 that helped me feel free from encroaching fascism, with one-sentence reviews of each:

This is a crazy back and forth between a Spotify exec & an artist whose music is up on the platform. We're able to pay more b/c we pay less 👎 In "Confessions of the Pricing Man: How Price Effects Everything", pricing consultant Hermann Simon explains why that thinking is flawed

For Bay Area rap heads, I wrote about the underground rap era of the mid-90s for KQED. www.kqed.org/arts/1398432...

Francis Albert Sinatra at work onstage, circa 1967.

Watch Waymo try to spin this into an uplifting story

Get with it America

Back at it again

‘The Monkey King’ is such a stunning, gorgeous work of art. I can’t say enough good things about this world premiere that, truly, feels destined to travel the world. At @sfopera.bsky.social through Nov. 30.

You mean to tell me that E-40, Gaye Lebaron and Twinkie Clark all have the same birthday?

RIP Todd Snider, who briefly lived in Santa Rosa and went to the JC. He once bounced a check at the Last Record Store. His songs were so good we eventually forgave him.

The 'OAKLAND IS PROUD' mural has been repainted in the same spot as the original (below), along E. 12th Street in East Oakland. @ogpenn.bsky.social with the story:

Some movies and film festivals at the Castro next year.

💯

NEW YORK CITY YOU NICE-ASS PLACE YOU

Hard to sum up the impact of this performance. Whether you're a diehard Wagnerite or casual operagoer, don't miss it.

A champ. RIP.

BURN IN HELL DODGERS

Here is the story of an ill-advised quest I took up last month: visiting the filming location of the juke joint in ‘Sinners,’ among huge swampland, giant insects and menacing Louisiana heat.

DAN DAN DAN DAN DAN DAN DAN

A notice for 'On Loop,' a new book detailing Oakland's history of suppressing the sounds and movements of young Black expression, its most valuable resource.

Read @emmaruthless.bsky.social on the Waymo that killed her neighborhood cat and the ways we delude ourselves into accepting evil forces, somehow, in our cities.

🎭 ACT I 🎭 Museum moves into empty Trump-owned building lured by free rent, claims they don't share Trump's values, while touting the benefits that art brings to a property and neighborhood. www.kqed.org/arts/1396349...

@sfopera.bsky.social Maybe you need an ad telling people Parsifal is shorter than a World Series game.

IT'S ROSALÍA'S WORLD WE JUST FAINT INTO IT www.youtube.com/watch?v=htQB...

Watching DeJohnette drum could be life-affirming, thrilling, a little confusing, incredibly fun, somewhat nail-biting, always very, very memorable. Once saw him solo on just *one ride cymbal* for five minutes straight, and it was utterly captivating. 🕊️🕊️🕊️

Ghost of Tom Joad > Nebraska

When was the last time you heard about a brand new movie theater being built? In Healdsburg, somehow, they’re making it work — with a little help from the former director of Sundance.

So many people have written wonderfully about Margaret and her incredible influence on the Bay Area art scene. She was a true connector and a generous supporter. As DL Alvarez says, it would take a small committee to fill her shoes. www.kqed.org/arts/1398269...

Last-minute heads up that The Cure live concert film 'The Cure: In Orange' screens tonight at the 4-Star Theater, with a Q&A with Cure member Lol Tolhurst afterward; not sold out yet:

D'Angelo has died, according to both DJ Premier and Marc Lamont Hill

Here's my commentary piece on the Big Art Loop, and what it means to hand our public space over to a billionaire and his choice of 100 pieces of existing, large-scale art. And for god's sake: Send your opinions to the agencies/nonprofit/org involved, not to me! www.kqed.org/arts/1398217...