So we all know that Mayor Newsom has been going through a rough patch recently. The affair, the drinking, we’re well aware of it all. But he has one thing going for him–style. Politicians have tended to be pretty telegenic since the Nixon-Kennedy debates in 1960 ushered in the era of the moving image in campaigning, but I’m pretty hard pressed to think of any picture of Newsom I’ve seen where he doesn’t look like he’s on his way to a GQ photo shoot.

How does he do it? The good people of Rabbit Bites wrote in with a theory. It’s all about the hair tonic:

Come to think of it, I didn’t live here during his term, but I understand Willie Brown was a pretty stylish fellow too. Might he even now be tweaking the formula for a revolutionary men’s grooming product, preparing to take the pages of Esquire by storm with its launch? One thing’s for sure: Metroblogging San Francisco will keep you informed of the latest developments.

In the latest useless exercise of Major League Baseball’s Potemkin Investigation into the steroids problem, Barry Bonds is being urged to cooperate, talk to investigators and turn over records.

Bonds’ lawyer said, approximately, “Drop dead.” Barry’s not saying anything, not while a federal grand jury is still on the case.

Barry’s not saying much to the press, either. So the reporters gathered in Scottsdale are covering Ray Durham, Russ Ortiz, Lance Neikro, Dave Roberts — anybody. And oh yeah, they did the “American Idol” satire again, and in the role of Paula Abdul this year: The Other Barry.

The spring’s first game is March 1.

Kicking off with an opening night event at Mezzanine on Tuesday, Noise Pop 2007 will fill the city with music throughout the rest of the week. With multiple bands playing together nightly in venues all across the city, Noise Pop takes the idea of the music festival and spreads it out so people of all ages can enjoy it.

And it’s not just music that makes up Noise Pop 2007; the weekend dates will bring The Expo, which includes art exhibits, film stuff and an acoustic day stage. There’s a Noise Pop Film Festival, shopping opportunities and lots of other related events. If you’re interested in finding out which Noise Pop show is best for you, check out this week’s horoscope and show suggestions at San Fran Voice. (Yes, it’s a shamless self-plug but hopefully you’ll get your kicks there and feedback is always welcome.)

I left work a little early yesterday and went down to Chinatown.

That’s right y’all, Dave Chappelle (Picture from Front Row King) was in town last night to perform at the Punchline comedy club. Tickets went on sale only two days in advance–and it didn’t take long for both shows to sell out. I intended to write about the event earlier this week but after realizing it may increase the number of people competing with me to get tickets, decided against it. I secured my tickets and arrived at 9:30, given that the show time was listed as 10pm. I should have known better.

The line was already around the building and doors didn’t open until 11pm, leaving some of us soaking in the rain. Security staff at the venue was a whole ‘nother story–don’t get me started on those buffoons. After a couple of good opening acts and enough time to dry off from the rain, Dave took over at midnight. He was scheduled to perform for one hour, but stayed on until 3:30am.
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Holy crap! Did ya’ll just feel that earthquake just now?? This one lasted about six seconds and i’ve scoured various news sites but haven’t seen anything posted about it just yet. The big one, I am convinced, will be coming sooner rather than later given the series of mini’s we’ve been having.

On March third, put your city knowledge, your running shoes and your sleuthing skills to the test. It’s the Chinese New Year Scavenger Hunt, and it coincides with the Chinese New Year Parade. You’ll have to run around town looking for clues and solving mysteries with friends, which sounds pretty awesome to me. I wonder if we get extra points for showing up in a Mystery Van dressed as Shaggy and Scooby? Also, in the “rad” column, is that all proceeds go to charities, including the San Francisco Food Bank.

From the website:

The Chinese New Year Treasure Hunt is a unique urban sleuthing adventure played on the streets of Chinatown, North Beach, and Telegraph Hill on the night of the annual Chinese New Year Parade. Treasure hunting teams have four hours to solve sixteen clues leading them to obscure landmarks, forgotten architectural delights and vestiges of San Francisco’s colorful past. Players can come with a team already organized, or can join like-minded hunters at the event; it’s a great way to make new friends.Sleuths in action, dressed properly for the occasion

Familiarity with San Francisco geography or history is useful, but is not required. The clues, or puzzles, are designed to test various skills: map reading; knowledge of popular culture, current events, science or literature; crossword puzzle solving; cracking simples codes, etc. Everyone on a team gets to contribute, and must collaboratively agree on what they think is the correct solution to each clue.

If you do sign up and sleuth, we want to hear about it here at SF MetBlogs.

Rainy nights and neon lights just seem to go together, and my meandering path home is magnetically drawn to them. This saucy little number peeks out from a ‘live model’ lingerie shop in the overlap of union/nobhill/t’loin ‘hoods, and it is surprisingly elegant, considering it’s task.

My favorite aspect, though, is that she peeks out towards a swankish ‘private club’-type venue across the street, where livery cabs – the all-black elongated kind – are often dropping off the polished elite of the city for fundraisers and secret-handshake events.

Care to guess where she is?

Word came to me today from the Inner Sunset Merchants Association that the Canvas Gallery will be closing its doors soon. This is sad news for all of those who live nearby as the Canvas was a great meeting place, with decent food and a nice gallery. They held excellent community events, giving local artists and crafstmen/women the opportunity to sell their wares. Note, imho the food and service passed its peak some time ago, unfortunately this may have been the leading indicator that the gallery was going to fold. If you are a regular at the Canvas, let them know they will be missed. If you have never been, now is the time.

There is also a rumour circulating that the Canvas will be replaced by a seafood restaurant called Pacific Catch. They have locations in the Marina and Corte Madera.

Previously on Metblogs: The Canvas.

And stop that snickering!

The good people of SFist have linked to the N-Judah Chronicles‘ writeup of a town-hall meeting where Muni gave roadmaps for upcoming service improvements. Highlights include:

• End of March: all electric bus lines on NextMuni
• April 2: Online FastPass sales
• August: lots of stuff. Transit Effectiveness Project completed, NextMuni signs installed at bus shelters, all diesel lines on NextMuni
• Late fall / early winter: TransLink rolls out on Muni (we ran a story about TransLink recently)

Of course, recent events don’t make me too confident about any of this, but we’ll see . . .