Last year, inspired by the timely coming together of what seemed to be countless writing posses via social media, and with Litquake as an inspiration and a model, a handful of writers decided to throw a festival in Uptown Oakland that turned into 125 authors reading in 25 venues in three hours -- all for free. Appropriately, they called it Beast Crawl ("East Bay" being "beast" in pig latin). The gathering's second annual edition is right around the corner, and to raise funds and generate excitement, the organizers are throwing a hat party on Monday that will feature live music from Wreck This Place and Titan Ups, plus a raffle with prizes donated from local businesses. We thought this was a good chance to check in and see what The Beast Crawl Collective has in store for us this year.

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Debbie Smith

We're gonna go out on a limb here and guess that the most popular song in the clubs this weekend will be REM's "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)." Between the end of the Mayan calendar and the constant "fiscal cliff" blathering, the whole country is feeling positively apocalypsish. And while the world probably won't end on December 21st, it's always good to cover your bases, so we've rounded up the seven best Apocalypse-themed events on December 20 (and the coming weekend).

See also:

Books for Surviving the Impending Apocalypse

Masterminds 2013: Artists, Enter Our Contest to Win Money and Fame*

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Erika Henrikson

This Friday, San Francisco will once more pour out onto the Mission streets (those poor, battered, and abused streets!) for the 26th Annual Dia de los Muertos parade. Yet another pagan festival turned Catholic holiday, Dia de los Muertos is a hybrid celebration of Aztec/Meso-American reverence and remembrance of the dead and the Spanish-Catholic All Souls' Day. It is also yet another excuse for San Franciscans to don outrageous costumes, fantastical makeup, and dance around in the middle of the road! So, we're obviously excited about it.

See also:

Video of the Day: Dia de los Muertos Parade and Art Show

Podcast Review: The Grimaldis Are Dead

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Marigold Project

The Mexican holiday Día de los Muertos is something of a cross-cultural collaboration. While the Aztecs used their summer month of Miccailhuitontli to celebrate dead children, fallen warriors, and other ancestors, the Spaniards brought the Roman Catholic All Soul's Day with them in the 16th century.

Eventually the two holidays merged -- the Spanish influence pushed the celebration into the fall, but it retained the rituals of the indigenous tradition. Here in San Francisco, our own Day of the Dead festivities draw from two distinct cultures as well. Each year, the city's artistic types come out in style alongside the Mission District's Latino community to celebrate those that have passed from this world.

See also:

Tacos, LSD, and Jesus: The Stranger vs. The Believer Storytelling

Books for Surviving the Impending Apocalypse

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Paul Madonna

A recent study about parole decisions informed us that judges were far more likely to grant favorable outcomes for prisoners early in the day, before they became mentally fatigued by all the tough calls they needed to make each day. When it comes to Litquake, the annual literary festival featuring 163 events and more than 850 authors, we feel this decision-making fatigue simply from looking at the schedule.

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The Silent History for Interactive Readers: A Novel Concept

Author Cheryl Strayed: on Dear Sugar, Keeping the Faith, and Palling around with Oprah

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Esteban Abión

La Farruca, matriarch of the legendary Farruco Family clan

San Francisco has always been at the cutting edge of cultural diversity. This weekend, our multicultural metropolis hosts visiting artists from Spain who share emerging trends in the world of flamenco music and dance. The Seventh Annual Bay Area Flamenco Festival is one of the most dynamic cultural events in the U.S. This weeklong affair celebrates flamenco's living culture through a series of performances, lectures, workshops, film screenings, and master classes, culminating with the U.S. debut of Manuel Fernandez Montoya ("El Carpeta"), a 14-year-old dance sensation and member of the famed Farruco family. More »

All photos by Gil Reigo Jr. for SF Weekly

Miss the Folsom Street Fair over the weekend but still have a hankering for leather and sexually wild BDSM action? Of course you do! Alas, you're at work, stuck at a cubicle with your boss's stare cutting right through you. Or perhaps its the IT guy -- who secretly hates everyone -- just waiting for you to slip up. Either way, enjoy these perfectly PG photos from  Folsom. If you're giving zero fucks about your boss or your IT guy, go on and enjoy the NSFW Folsom Street Fair slideshow.

See Also:
- 2012 Folsom Street Fair Photos
- 2011 Folsom Street Fair Photos
- 2010 Folsom Street Fair Photos
- 2009 Folsom Street Fair Photos
- 2008 Folsom Street Fair Photos

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San Francisco is no stranger to festivals involving dicks, but those who've grown wary of seeing every Tom's Harry will be delighted to hear that a different dick fest is in town. We speak of the Philip K. Dick Festival, a celebration of the sci-fi author who penned 44 novels, 121 short stories, and brought us films such as Blade Runner, Total Recall, and Minority Report. Dick's metaphysical, dystopian tales foretold modern surveillance technology and color-coded terror alerts. He also called the Bay Area home for the majority of his life.

See also:
*Fifty Shades of Grey Meme Brings New Meaning to the Word "Tool"
*Twitter's Dick Movie Meme Has Some Stiff Competition

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Eckhard Pecher

This Saturday, Sept. 8, three obese grown men in diapers will descend on San Francisco, and it won't be part of the Folsom Street Fair. Crazy I know! Instead they're sumo wrestlers invited to compete in a free Sumo Champions Exhibition in Japantown's Peace Plaza. Now, I know there are a lot of big things going on this weekend, but, well, it doesn't get much bigger than this.

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Who needs flesh and bone to make a pop star?

The buzz over the Tupac hologram may have abated, but the reign of the holograms hasn't, especially at the annual two-day explosion of Japanese pop culture known as the J-Pop Summit Festival. More »