As we close out 2008, we're taking a moment to briefly revisit some of the articles that we published on Austinist this year. Whether poignant, sad, hilarious, or downright ludicrous, many of these stories probably affected your lives to some extent. Certainly, at the very least, they provided their own commentary on Austin's ongoing transformation.
Snapshots from this year's Zilker Kite Festival.
At a "Texas-sized Town Hall" at the Austin Convention Center, Senator Hillary Clinton's media entourage was forced to work out of a men's bathroom in a nearby community center. "It was immediately interpreted as something of a metaphor for the Clinton campaign's attitude to the press: With Sen. Hillary Clinton at Austin's convention center for 'a Texas-sized townhall,' her media entourage was taken to its work space in a men's room of a separate community center." A campaign representative was quick to apologize, saying, "These accommodations should in no way be taken as a commentary on the quality of our media coverage." Still, too late for the ensuing shit storm, as it were.
They Might Be Giants have been making music as a band since 1982. Their odd but endearing mix of accordian, saxophone, and guitars coupled with witty lyrics earned them a huge college radio following from the mid-80's on. Songs like "Don't Let's Start" and "Birdhouse In Your Soul" even became hits, and the duo toured and recorded ad infinitum. A second chapter of their story is quite unusual: TMBG are now famous in children's circles.
Primary results from the national/state/local primary races revealed that even though it seemed that Hillary won the Texas primary, Obama still beat her in delegate numbers.
Two days after SXSW kicked off, Austinist presented the fifth installment of our popular
Local Music is Sexy party at the PureVolume Ranch.
The 'Interactive Carbon Tree' was designed specifically for SXSW in an effort to mobilize attendees at the conference to reduce their collective carbon impact.
The Merlin Works Institute for Improvisation, Austin's newest improv training center, launched its first series of classes at Salvage Vanguard Theater.
Eugene Mirman is much funnier than you.
Austin's continued involvement in the Central Texas Clean Cities Program earned the city a $12,500 in grant funds from the U.S. Department of Energy.
"I was initially drawn to Crawford, because I'd been effectively duped. I didn't know that Bush wasn't from Crawford."
"When I first started thinking about what I wanted to say, I figured out that I really shouldn't be thinking in the first place; that just makes things complicated. I could start by simply complaining about the people who complain about SXSW or better yet I could start railing on the organizers of after parties and how they should really figure out what their legal obligations are before calling shenanigans on SXSW management. Maybe I could talk about how $140 is way too much to charge for access to 1500+ bands, but that would just be asinine and ridiculous. Maybe, just maybe, I could bring myself to try and help some people out on how to deal with SXSW. That my friends, (read as people who have too much time on their hands so they are actually reading this garbage) is what I will attempt to do."
Amidst the frenetic Democratic Presidential primaries, Austinist took a look at the Texas party elite.
Austinist stirred up a little controvery of its own after publishing, then pulling, a controversial column entitled "Louis Black, We Hardly Knew Ye" by respected staff columnist Ben Reed.
Much of the buzz leading up to this year's SXSW Interactive Keynote revolved not around Mark Zuckerberg, this year's guest and founder of Facebook, but around his tendency to give awkward and empty interviews.
This year's award-winning websites are groundbreaking and gorgeous, so if you have some free time (off the clock, of course), take a look.
An Associated Press survey indicated that pharmaceuticals ranging from antibiotics, anti convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones are found the drinking water supplies in 24 major metropolitan areas -- but not in Austin.
Developers abandoned plans to build a multi-family complex at the site of Mercury Hall in South Austin.
King of the Hill showed its Austin ties on an episode titled "Lady and Gentrification." Certainly gentrification is not an Austin-centric issue, but it is a current hot topic in our city, and it is hard to watch this episode and not see the parallels to what is happening in East Austin.
The Long Center opened its doors to the public after a major $77 million renovation that saw much of the original structure creatively recycled and re-imagined.
"First, a brief history of Spike and The Festival. I got to Austin late '91. My first SXSW was spring '92. I was a waiter at the Magnolia and so my baptism was by fire as the place was slammed with all those badge wearing assholes. I became a badge wearing asshole a year or two into my Austin tenure because, as I like to remind y'all, I am so popular. Sometimes I got a badge for performing (back when they still had a poetry venue for SXSW) and sometimes for being a reporter. And suddenly, I understood that sense of entitlement I once loathed back when I was pre-badge. I pitied the fools who had to wait in long lines when I could simply sashay to the front of any line..."
After being rejected by city officials, Villa Muse started to look elsewhere in Texas to build its massive entertainment industry project.
Exhaustive highlights from this year's SXSW Festival, along with a tidy roundup of our interview and preview coverage.
Travis County added 31,739 residents between July 1, 2006 and July 1, 2007, according to estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Everyone's favorite Austinist writer and indie-devotee, Adi Anand, launched a new show on Break Thru Radio dubbed "River Runs Red."
The long-anticipated condo project near the Hotel San Jose finally found a flashy website and a big billboard. The project will include 77 condos ranging in price from $300k-$900k and aimed to break ground before the end of this year.
Austinist hosted another hugely successful
Gonna Gonna Get Down SXSW day party at the Mohawk. This year's artists included Shout Out Louds, Shearwater, We Barbarians, Jukebox the Ghost, The Forms, Liam Finn, Phosphorescent, A Place to Bury Strangers, and more.
The regents of the University of Texas selected Cooper, Robertson & Partners to create a master plan for potential development of the 345 acres south of Enfield, west of Mopac and north of Lady Bird Lake known as the Brackenridge Tract.
In an interview with "Fresh Air"'s David Bianculli,
Friday Night Lights star Kyle Chandler confirmed that a third season of the Austin-filmed show is on.
"Have there seriously been thirty of these things? You're goddamned right there have been. From the days of way-back in smaller venues when Mel and his 80s jams held court with smaller, more intimate crowds, where the records made people say "Careless Whisper? Man, that's my song right there. Totally got that twelve inch back at the crib. Let's go to Hoek's for some pizza and fear." Nowadays the party's (past dozen or so) all grow'd up and far drunker. Just like us!"
Google expanded their nifty Street View application to include Austin. The feature, part of Google Maps, allows you to 'virtually' drive through the city.
Dell announced plans to shutter one of its Austin manufacturing centers, eventually leaving some 900 Austinites out of a job by January 1. The Round Rock-based computer giant had previously pledged to lay off at least 8,800 employees, or ten percent of its worldwide workforce.
I Am So Popular: Break Up Camp For Big Girls
SXSW 2010: Austinist's List Of Day Shows, Afterparties, and More
Austin Woman’s Club, "Historic Downtown Austin Assets" Among Preservation Texas' Most Endangered Places 2010
Filter Magazine, Village Voice at SXSW 2010
Excellent Show Alert: Bowerbirds & Julie Doiron at Mohawk
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