All her friends call her Alaska

* San Francisco's top Mayorial hopefuls list their
top five records.

Based on the picks, I, like Tim Thompson, would have to vote for Matt Gonzalez:

"No. 4:

Gonzalez: Pavement, Slanted and Enchanted

Newsom: Miles Davis, Kind of Blue

I can't really knock either of these picks. Next to Chet Baker Sings, Kind of Blue is one of the best make-out records ever made. It's also slow, pedestrian jazz, whereas the Pavement disc is a schizoid jarble that's still puzzling more than a decade after its release. It's hard to know if a taste for the unstable is a good thing. I'd rather have a more even-keeled mayor than someone who's liable to break into a Stephen Malkmus-esque freakout in the face of a challenge. Then again, the lyrics for Pavement's 'Conduit for Sale!' are as good an excuse as any for not following through on campaign promises: 'I'm tryin'/ I'm tryin'/ I'm tryin'/ I'm too tired.'"

* Nice guardian article on Keith Richards as he approaches 60.