The Bold Italic

05/27/2026

So we put out a few feelers on where people like to get stoned in San Francisco, and the first thing we learned is that San Franciscans cannot answer this question without first doing a little bit. 😂

We asked San Francisco where it likes to get stoned. The city refused to pick just one, so we mapped all of them.

05/26/2026

Where do you like to get stoned in SF?

05/26/2026

Kesha at a piano bar. Adele in a brunch line. Zendaya at a worker-owned co-op. The most San Francisco thing about celebrity dining is how un-fancy it gets.

05/25/2026

From Japantown's lined-up classics to a beef-bone bowl out in the Sunset, a map of San Francisco ramen that's actually open.

05/25/2026

From Mission taquerias to Richmond dim sum, a citywide map in San Francisco of where to eat well without blowing past $50.

From Mission taquerias to Richmond dim sum, a citywide map of where to eat well without blowing past $50.

05/24/2026

Someone is casting a Daniel Lurie impersonator for a gay adult film, and the organizers confirm the casting call circulating in the Castro is legitimate.

We followed up with the email on the flyer. A person named Scooter responded with these details:

* The casting call is genuine and seeks a Lurie impersonator as the star
* The film’s title is “Let’s Blow San Francisco”
* It’s being produced independently
* The budget is “whatever our team can pool together”
* The plan is to collaborate with an established adult film studio to navigate the rules

The project is in its earliest stages; casting the lead is step one
If that’s you, submissions go to the flyer in the picture. The full story is on our website.

05/24/2026

In today's news, gay p**n seeks a Daniel Lurie impersonator. 🤷‍♂️

The mayor's slogan is "Let's go San Francisco." Someone built the X-***ed remix called "Let's Blow San Francisco." The casting call is real, and we have the receipts.

05/20/2026

Anyone remember the Mr. Marina Competition?

From 2012 to 2020, San Francisco's most aggressively heteros*xual zip code hosted an annual male beauty pageant where commercial bankers in pastel briefs competed in swimwear, "Marina-wear," and a talent round that could include beer pong, a moon-landing reenactment, or a fully choreographed tribute to Beyoncé's "Crazy in Love."

The contestants were dead serious about it. The press treated it as a yearly roast of frat-bro culture. E! Online called it "the bro-iest thing in the entire world," and somehow, across eight years and seventy-some contestants, the whole circus raised $883,000 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

It started at Ruby Skye, graduated to the Regency Ballroom, and in 2017 finally moved into the Palace of Fine Arts, the first year it was actually held in the Marina it was named for. There was a Mission District spinoff that never quite caught on. There were spray tans and popped collars and earnest little bios. And then 2020 arrived, the event was postponed, and it simply never came back.

Mr. Marina is gone, but Hunky Jesus lives on and the lookalike contests have taken over. The pageantry never stops here. It just changes costumes.

New on The Bold Italic. Link in comments, and yes, the contestant photos are everything you're hoping for. 🫶

05/02/2026

Some thoughts on this year's Art Bash at SFMOMA San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

There were several parties happening at SFMOMA's Art Bash this year, and you needed a different wristband for each one.

04/14/2026

Tosca Musk made a movie about s*x in San Francisco.

Somewhere between the Hallmark Channel and soft-core Skinemax is a movie called 'Wallbanger'. It's directed by Elon's younger sister on a streaming platform called Passionflix that you have almost certainly never heard of.

In the two years since its release, 'Wallbanger' has existed in a near-total critical vacuum. Rotten Tomatoes shows zero critic reviews. Zero audience ratings.

The film reeks heavily of 'The Wedding Planner' without budget, charisma, or a single believable San Francisco apartment. It lives in a nonexistent version of SF that has no gay people, and any person of color is set dressing or a sassy sidekick.

We follow Caroline, an interior designer in her quest to rediscover her lost or**sm. She moves next door to a man who—to Wallbanger's credit—creates a known problem in San Francisco of too loud s*x.

This is a premise that could wrap in 15 minutes but instead takes about two hours. Caroline talks about her rent-controlled apartment as if it's uncommon here. Her wall has a framed photo of Coit Tower, and she rides a cable car to work. That's $9 one way in real life, Caroline.

Now about the Musk of it all: Tosca has been described as a Democratic donor, but she attended soirées for the 2nd Trump inauguration, where she was seen with RFK Jr. A week earlier, Elon had made a gesture at a Trump rally widely interpreted as a N**i salute. Hundreds of Passionflix subscribers canceled. "So disappointed in Passionflix," one wrote. "Disgusting," said another.

It feels like we're canceling everything nowadays—justifiably. But the Tosca Musk situation is a lot like our feelings on Philz Coffee: 'Wallbanger' is a bad movie, lol. If you could call it a movie.

'Wallbanger' reeks heavily of 'The Wedding Planner' without budget, charisma, or a single believable San Francisco apartment. And it’s directed by a Musk.

04/14/2026

One of the Musks made a movie about s*x in SF.

Somewhere between the Hallmark Channel and soft-core Skinemax is a movie called 'Wallbanger'. It's directed by Elon's younger sister, Tosca Musk, on a streaming platform called Passionflix that you have almost certainly never heard of.

In the two years since its release, 'Wallbanger' has existed in a near-total critical vacuum. Rotten Tomatoes shows zero critic reviews. Zero audience ratings.

The film reeks heavily of 'The Wedding Planner' without budget, charisma, or a single believable San Francisco apartment. It lives in a nonexistent version of SF that has no gay people, and any person of color is set dressing or a sassy sidekick.

We follow Caroline, an interior designer in her quest to rediscover her lost or**sm. She moves next door to a man who—to Wallbanger's credit—creates a known problem in San Francisco of too loud s*x.

This is a premise that could wrap in 15 minutes but instead takes about two hours. Caroline talks about her rent-controlled apartment as if it's uncommon here. Her wall has a framed photo of Coit Tower, and she rides a cable car to work. That's $9 one way in real life, Caroline.

Now about the Musk of it all: Tosca has been described as a Democratic donor, but she attended soirées for the 2nd Trump inauguration, where she was seen with RFK Jr. A week earlier, Elon had made a gesture at a Trump rally widely interpreted as a N**i salute. Hundreds of Passionflix subscribers canceled. "So disappointed in Passionflix," one wrote. "Disgusting," said another.

It feels like we're canceling everything nowadays—justifiably. But the Tosca Musk situation is a lot like our feelings on Philz Coffee: 'Wallbanger' is a bad movie, lol. If you could call it a movie.