Culture + Travel

Melania is expected to make around $3 to $8 million this weekend — way, way short of its $40 million production budget alone. Melania Trump’s evasion of her own husband (and most responsibilities as the First Lady of the United States) deserves admiration and study. Melania’s presence in the White House has remained sparse; she comes in, and through sliding glass doors, it seems, only to disappear moments after a press junket. Her documentary, Melania, is billed as an intimate, detailed, unprecedented glimpse into the First Lady’s life. But those hyperboles aren’t generating either good reviews or healthy ticket sales for the documentary. Made on a $40 million production budget and pushed by a $35 advertising budget footed by Amazon MGM Studio, the film’s opening weekend sales figu...

Brixton, the golden retriever who won the hearts of countless San Franciscans over the past 12 years, passed away this Monday, next to his favorite human and wrapped in floral regalia. Amid ongoing (and worsening) health issues, Brixton made his final public appearance in San Francisco last week. An enormous crowd showed up to honor — say goodbye, shed cathartic tears, hug his fluff — the beloved doggo in Union Square on December 4th, where Brixton and his favorite human were inundated with tenderness.   Brixton, who, after overcoming digestive issues and other ailments, was diagnosed with a terminal cancer diagnosis earlier this year, found himself at Crissy Field on Monday, the Golden Gate Bridge framed in the backdrop. And in the “blink of an eye,” Brixton, saddled with ...

Cancer doesn't just affect us humans — the disease, too, remains one of the leading causes of death for animals, particularly reptiles. The collective mourning over Claude, the albino alligator that served as the California Academy of Science’s unofficial mascot for over 17 years, is not measurable by traditional forms. The Bay Area girlies are, in fact, grieving like they haven’t in ages. At 30 years old, Claude’s death surprised staff. American alligators commonly live well into their 50s in captivity, with some examples still basking past 70 years old; Claude was barely past middle age in crocodilian years.  A preliminary necropsy conducted by experts at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine and Steinhart Aquarium Senior Veterinarian Dr. Lana Krol showed that albino alligato...

Zoox has opened its waitlist for self-driving ride-share services in San Francisco, which do indeed come with a little extra sweet treat. Waymo’s monopoly on self-driving rideshares is coming to an end … just not right now. After years of test driving and months of speculation, Zoox, which has been the subject of joke fodder about the Amazon-owned company’s toaster-oven-looking cars, has opened up a waitlist for rideshare opportunities in the company’s home city. “Zoox has been testing our autonomous technology in San Francisco since 2017,” said Zoox’s CEO, Aicha Evan, in a blog post announcing the company’s looming operations in SF. “It's our home. A city of innovation and progress, with an amazing mobility ecosystem that we feel Zoox can really complement. We have seen incredible...

48 flights have been canceled today, November 7th, at SFO, thus far — with more expected before the day's end. We’re now in the longest (and likely most costly) government shutdown in American history. Social security checks remain in limbo, and tens of thousands of federal employees are still without them. While SNAP was fully funded this month, it remains unclear what December will hold for the tens of millions who rely on the program to stay alive. Another casualty of the shutdown is America’s woefully understaffed airports, which are now seeing flights reverted, grounded, and outright canceled across the country. The San Francisco International Airport (SFO) is one of the dozen American airports affected by the government shutdown-caused understaffing.  As of publishing, a total...

Plus: An apartment building fire in SF's Cow Hollow neighborhood turned deadly Friday evening, and more San Francisco weekend news. San Francisco was alive with all manner of ghoulishness this past Friday night — a collection of regal terror that spilled well into the weekend. There was no place where that nexus of nightmarish costuming and glow-in-the-dark decor met better (or more effectively, tbh) than at the Palace of Fine Arts, which was turned into a “Ghost Palace” for Electroluxx’s now-annual takeover of the iconic venue. For its third year running, Electroluxx, the queer-focused event company founded by San Francisco-based artist Elliott C. Nathan, DJ Brett Mendenhall, and Danny Snodgrass, who sadly passed away in 2021, has transformed the Palace of Fine Arts into a psyched...

SF's beloved "Doloresaurus" was photographed and filmed in downtown Palo Alto last month, delighting children and adults alike. The last non-avian dinosaur went extinct about 66 million years ago in the weeks, months, and years after the Chicxulub meteor impact. But for those who frequent San Francisco’s Mission Dolores Park on a regular basis, the odds of spotting glowing theropod-like creatures stomping around the area are quite high at night.   Trevor Mead, a data privacy lawyer by day, frequently dons his 6’ 7” bioluminescent-like costume before leaving his apartment at 20th and Dolores's streets to enchant the masses. For Mead, it’s this Jurassic cosplaying that brings levity to his day. “This is how I deal with my day, with my life choices that led me to become a lawyer,” ...

Over a thousand irreplaceable relics were stolen from a prominent Oakland museum earlier this month. Since the now-viral jewel heist at the Louver took place on October 19th saw an estimated $103 million worth of priceless gems seized from the world-famous museum in less than seven minutes; some napkin math means that every minute passed, the thieves pulled more than $14 million. But unbeknownst to Bay Area residents, the Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) suffered a heist four days before the Louver’s, which resulted in criminals walking away with over 1,000 historic artifacts. The heist occurred in the early morning hours of Wednesday, October 15, at approximately 3:30 a.m. But the thievery, itself, didn’t happen on exhibit grounds like the Louver, but rather at an off-site s...

Union Square will soon flood with (frozen) water in about a month, bringing with it a host of holiday programming. Downtown San Francisco's seasonal transformation into an ephemeral winter wonderland has only increased in both extravagance and execution over the past twenty years. Between evergreens as tall as residential buildings and dazzling storefront holiday lights, Union Square’s holiday charm attracts hundreds of thousands of both tourists and locals alike each year.  Among the area’s more popular attractions is the massive ice skating rink that occupies Union Square between November and January, which will return this year. "We are happy to have Willy Bietak Productions continue this beloved tradition for its 18th season," said Marisa Rodriguez, chief executive officer o...