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.
On August 31, 2008 The Human Race charity 10K organized by Nike was run in cities around the world, including here in Austin. In the Men’s division, Bernard Manirakiza originally from Burundi, Africa won the race with a time of 31:51. In 2nd place, Gilbert Tuhabonye, also from Burundi, finished a little over a minute after his cousin Bernard with a time of 32:56.
Austinist was out in full force with exhaustive coverage of this year's ACL Music Festival at Zilker Park. Click through for all of the links to our related posts.
Las Manitas closed forever at the end of August, according to Cynthia Perez (one of the owners).
At the Long Center, 881 Austinites joined in with people in other cities worldwide to break the record for the largest group of people dancing to Michael Jackson's "Thriller" at one time.
We were thrilled and so very honored that you voted us Best of Austin for the third year in a row! And for two equally wonderful categories this year, no less: Best Local Blog and Best Local Entertainment Website.
"I'm going back to professional cycling," said Armstrong. "I'm going to try and win an eighth Tour de France."
Local NBC affiliate KXAN announced that it might be taken off of Time Warner Cable's broadcast service in early October if current contract re-negotiations didn't work out. The station, which has been around since the 1960s, is part of parent company LIN TV, which owns local stations around the country. We got both sides of the story, from a KXAN rep and the director of digital communication for Time Warner Cable.
The posh shops of the 2nd Street District were feeling the growing pains of “urban development" after six stores fell victim to burglary over one week.
In this video of a small press gaggle at the RNC in St. Paul, Hutchison defends McCain's choice of Gov. Sarah Palin as running-mate. When asked why she didn't want to be vice-president, she says, "I didn't want to spend the next four years in Washington, and I really don't. And I really have decided I'm going to go in a different direction." Her "different direction"? Veering towards the governor's mansion.
Austinist was out in full force with exhaustive coverage of this year's Maker Faire at Travis County Expo Center. Click through for all of the links to our related posts.
If you stopped by the Austinist table Maker Faire, we might have convinced you to fill out a map of the places or things that are important to you in our fair city. Submissions ranged from informative to sassy to just plain colorful, and we presented some of our favorites here.
Austin's own Good Flow Juice was ordered to cease production of its bottled juices by the Food and Drug Administration. According to company co-founder Judy Crofut, Good Flow had been operating under the assumption that pasteurization—the process of heating up a liquid to kill off bacteria and molds—wasn't necessary for its products since they were handmade and delivered to neighborhood grocers in less than a day. The company had previously operated as a "juice bar," like Daily Juice, with the approval of the FDA via an exemption.
With the eye of the storm out of Cuba and into the Gulf of Mexico, Hurricane Ike had the potential to strengthen severely before hitting somewhere along the Texas coast.
Found via Craigslist: harvest moon bottle sniper - "Last night, catching up to the Harvest Moon ride, someone who I do not know was
hit with a bottle thrown from the window of a car."
Former Longhorn Brendan Hansen lost his gold medal from the Beijing Games during a flight from Philadelphia to Austin, but got it back a day later thanks to a good samaritan fellow traveler.
Another Capital Metro bus rider was severely assaulted in North Austin, and this time there was reason to believe that the attack was a targeted hate crime.
"About twenty of us, women all, gathered in plastic molded chairs and waited for the presentation to begin. On the screen, the first image of the instructional PowerPoint appeared: an illustration of a tube of lipstick. Only instead of lipstick, the thing sticking out of the tube was an erect penis."
Following the Fantastic Fest/U.S. premiere of
Zack & Miri Make a Porno, the Alamo Drafthouse hosted the final round of their year-long Air Sex Championships. The result was anything but ordinary.
Old school Austin beer fans cried a collective "Booo!" when it was announced that the Ginger Man's space was slated for demolition to make room for -- you guessed it -- a brand new high rise.
"On a walk through any Austin neighborhood, the sidewalks and street corners will reflect an underground movement of street artists who try to express themselves through anything they can get their hands on."
Beleaguered former Texas running back Cedric Benson signed with the Cincinnati Bengals, days after two Travis County grand juries declined to indict him on alcohol-related charges stemming from a pair of arrests earlier in the summer.
Current
Texas Monthly President and editor-in-chief Evan Smith announced on his blog that he had selected Jake Silverstein, currently a senior editor at the magazine as well as a contributing editor at Harper’s, to assume his lead editorial position when he eventually steps down.
If there was a take-away from the election season, it's that Texans love rooting for the underdog. In this case, make it the lipsticked underdog.
We followed
Crawford, the Austin-made documentary about a tiny Texas town thrust in the international spotlight after would-be President George W. Bush relocated there to perfect his wholesome good-old-boy image, since it was but a work in progress.
Advanced Micro Devices, one of Austin's largest tech employers, entered a new phase of its history by announcing that it would split into two companies: one focused on designing microprocessors and the other on manufacturing them.
Medicom Toy created a line of gear featuring Daniel Johnston's Jeremiah the Innocent illustration.
Started in 2004 by a couple of enterprising University of Texas students, the Austin Asian American Film Festival has, in a very short period of time, grown from humble roots into a full blown cultural event.
Back in August of 2007, we found a hot real estate listing for Emo's Lounge, and this time we found a resolution. Our friends at the
Statesman reported that Emo's Lounge would soon be the home of El Sol y La Luna, a popular SoCo restaurant.
Some parents of LBJ High School students were "outraged" over the t-shirt design, intended to show school spirit in advance of a big football game against Reagan High School on Halloween.
There was some to-do made over the fact that cousins/UT roommates Blake and Connor Kincaid had a political sign (supporting Obama) in their Brackenridge Hall dorm window.
Photos by Ann Harkness from the Recycled Fashion Show at Treasure City Thrift Store.
20-year-old Ashley Todd, originally from College Station, Texas and working for the McCain campaign in Pittsburgh, gained national fame after claiming that she had been assaulted and robbed, allegedly by an Obama fan who noticed the McCain bumper sticker on her car and "became enraged."
"Stephin Merritt leads The Magnetic Fields, but it hardly defines him. The prolific and genre-hopping songwriter and arranger also leads the groups The 6ths, The Gothic Archies, and Future Bible Heroes...when he feels like it. In addition, he's writing the music to a Broadway adaptation of Neil Gaiman's novella 'Coraline' that is due in 2009."
Say what you will about real estate prices downtown and boutiques shilling $300 designer denim—at least as far as the rest of the country is concerned, Austin was still the best city to get a good value for your dollar.
The election ballot in Austin included a proposition for an amendment to the city charter to "prohibit the City from providing financial incentives ... for projects that include one or more retail uses." The proposition was the result of a signature drive by Stop Domain Subsidies.
Tensions were flaring with so little time left before the elections, and here in Central Texas it was the cars that are suffering as a result.
"I think I might be the most racist person I know. Let me clarify. When I say I’m a racist, I don’t mean that in the classic sense which, in my case, being a whitey, would shake down as me discriminating negatively against groups outside of my own race. Like the blacks. Or the Jews. Au contraire! For often enough it is the lily white man—usually the one in the business suit pushing me out of the way at the airport—that most alarms me. Those others? Well let’s just say sometimes I go overboard in the opposite direction."
"Back in 2004, everything moved fast. John Kerry claimed he voted for 87 billion dollars of war funding before he voted against it, and the George W. Bush campaign was on top of it, quick as a grackle on a sticky candy wrapper."
KXAN announced via Twitter that the channel was once again available to Time Warner cable subscribers.
On Sunday, October 26, eight days before Election Day, Sen. Barack Obama held a rally with over 100,000 people in downtown Denver, Colorado--the capital of a state that has voted for a Republican in nine out of the last ten presidential elections. One of those people in the crowd that day was 86-year old Charles Alexander, a Boulder resident that has lived a remarkable life, combated a variety of hardships and out of it all personified a true American story, with a life dedicated to family and service.
Jay Wyatt, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1091, said the Cap Metro bus drivers, mechanics and maintenance workers in the union would begin a strike in response to continued failure to reach a settlement in contract negotiations.
Interview with Bobby Hackney of Death
I Am So Popular: Love Me Doo-Doo
Fun Fun Fun Fest Previews: Street Dogs and Betaplayer
Wine: Austin Cellar Classic Is Tomorrow
Fun Fest News: Danzig, Death & More
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