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exas is playing on the road, the weather should be great, so your excuses are scant. Two hundred and twenty authors and box loads of new books will be arriving. And, according to Clay Smith, this is an excellent year to be a reader. Be sure and check the Texas Book Festival schedule for any last minutes changes. Author Terry Tempest Williams, unfortunately, could not attend. An earlier interview with Clay Smith, the literary director, can be found here. more ›

Each Friday, we'll be offering up a sampling of Longhorn- and Big 12-related sports coverage making its way around the Web. This week: injured quarterbacks, OSU fans, and a man who's 40. more ›

'I would see Bill Clinton across the table. He would be eating a banana sandwich. He would talk about... stuff... There would be lurking secret service agents.' "Make sure you frame the goal positively. Don't say I have to quit smoking. Say, I will be happy when I can breathe clearly." 'I will be happy when Bill Clinton is eating a banana sandwich while sitting across the table from me... He will talk about... stuff. There would be lurking secret service agents.' "And make sure it's something you can influence. It can't be I wish he/she would do such and such. It must be initiated and influenced by you." 'Re-frame: I will be happy when I am eating a banana sandwich and Bill Clinton is sitting across the table from me... I will talk about... stuff. There will be lurking secret service agents, but I will make them go away.' more ›

My life as a study in contrasts extends to my travel. I am a fan of getting in very large airplanes and hurtling thousands of miles to get to places where I can then dispense with all modes of transportation besides my feet. I enjoy hanging out in little towns and villages where the best live entertainment comes in sitting around, drinking coffee amidst the locals, alternately eavesdropping and participating in the conversation. Such it was, then, that last week I headed off for Oregon. For the fourth year running, I lighted temporarily in Portland, then joined forces with my friend David, whereupon the two of us headed on over to Astoria, a town famous for a few things. This is the place where the Columbia spills into the Pacific, Lewis and Clark wrapped up their little walk, and Goonies and Kindergarten Cop were filmed. And it’s the first town in Oregon Country where a white woman—an English barmaid named Jane Barnes— lived. more ›

The gang goes as the Royal Tenenbaums for Halloween more ›

The No. 2-ranked Texas volleyball team will go for a record 27th consecutive win Friday in a Top 5 matchup against No. 8 Nebraska at Gregory Gymnasium. more ›

Install recumbent bicycle benches at CAP Metro Bus stops? Outdoor stair climbers on Congress Ave.? In-ground trampolines on Guadalupe? Criss-crossing balance beams on 2nd Street? Concrete ping pong tables at intersections throughout town? Climbing boulders on East 5th Street? Let's face it, many of you would consider me quite out of my mind if I were to suggest that we turn Austin into one big playground, a landscape of physical challenges and gleeful adventures by installing outdoor stair climbing machines, 30 foot wide slides, rock climbing boulders and in-ground trampolines at our bus stops, on our sidewalks and in the unused spaces of our overly wide streets. The diagnosis of insanity would surely be cemented were I to claim that by creating a streetscape that is more challenging to traverse we will lure children away from the television, increase their mobility, create a generally healthier Austin and decrease our community health care costs. more ›

Former AMD chief executive officer Hector Ruiz finds himself tied to an alleged insider-trading case, raising questions about his business practices around an AMD spinoff company. more ›

Each week, we'll look at some reasons to taunt, belittle, and bully the Longhorns' football opponent. This week: the Missouri Tigers. more ›

Each Friday, we'll be offering up a sampling of Longhorn- and Big 12-related sports coverage making its way around the Web. This week: staggering defensive stats, BCS banter, and this week's line. more ›

Months ago Warren sent me a link to the trailer for Where the Wild Things Are. It’s a wonder that, after watching it, I could focus on anything else but while I waited for the films release. For you see WTWTA is not just another book for me. It was my First Ever Favorite Book. I say first ever because, being the voracious reader I am (and have been since first being introduced to the alphabet) of course many other favorites joined the list along the way. Little Women, The Handmaid’s Tale, Of Human Bondage, and about 90,000 others (and that’s the short list—the long list is about two million). I got WTWTA back in the sixties, not long after it first came out, and Sendak had me at hello. This was not a book I ever forgot or relegated to some dusty heap of childhood memories. Max was and remains the bomb. I’ve read the book hundreds of times (at least) and I think I could, without exaggeration, give that book plenty of credit (or blame?) for my decision, very early on, that I wanted to be a writer when I grew up. more ›

Speaking last Friday at City Hall, Mayor Leffingwell estimated there are around 4000 homeless people in Austin, with about 600 of those chronically homeless. Bill Hobson, Executive Director of Seattle’s Downtown Emergency Service Center, spoke to those fighting the problem in Austin: city and county agencies, private organizations and interested citizens. A Baylor graduate and self-described “recovering Southern Baptist”, Hobson focused on his experiences with 1811 Eastlake, a 75 bed facility for the chronic homeless opened in 2005. Eastlake residents are about evenly split between alcohol and drug addicts and those with serious mental health problems like schizophrenia. more ›

Each Friday, we'll be offering up a sampling of Longhorn- and Big 12-related sports coverage making its way around the Web. This week: defense, rushing, and coaching. All might be important this week. more ›

Each week, we'll look at some reasons to taunt, belittle, and bully the Longhorns' football opponent. There's a lot to of material work with here: presenting the Oklahoma Sooners. more ›

Sooner fans, I'm really happy for you, and Imma let you finish, but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time. more ›

A surprise guest-star leads to some good ol' fashioned police work. more ›

In Cheever, A Life, Blake Bailey combines a biography with some literary criticism. Weighing in at 679 pages, it is an even-handed and meticulously researched picture of this fiction writer best known for short stories. Bailey’s authority comes from his knowledge of John Cheever’s writing and access to his unpublished journals. Although it pains me to say this, in general writers make boring nonfiction characters.They are of deep interest only to biographers and close family. In this case, however, the troubled man-boy who never finished high school made both a mess and magic out of his personal life, creating enough controversy to carry a story. more ›

How far were you allowed to travel alone when you were a kid? Are you per chance Vicky Thomas, from Sheffield? If by some very unusual fluke you’re from Sheffield, England and your name is Vicky, you are now in your late thirties, married and have a lovely son named Ed. Most of your extended family has lived in Sheffield for the entirety of their lives; the Thomas’ are Sheffield through and through. When you were eight years old your parents let you walk a half a mile by yourself to the local pool. At the very same tender age of eight, your father was allowed to walk a mile to the woods, while your great grandfather walked unattended six miles to the local pond. For a host of complicated reasons ranging from dangerous streets to a lack of nearby play spaces to a largely media induced fear of many things, I am sorry to report, that you only feel comfortable letting your son walk by himself to the end of the block. Otherwise, you drive Ed to the football pitch and the entire family drives to the countryside for bike rides. more ›

"Spoon bending is a metaphor for change," she continued. "Internal and external changes both start with energy applied to clear intent. Spoon bending shows us that everything is changeable as long we have clear intent." I couldn't help but be distracted by the couple who'd just joined us. The woman held a big wooden staff. Think Moses. Or the kind of thing they ban from festivals. And she was wrapped in a white sheet-like contraption. She had a calm smile on her face- one that signifies either inner peace or really awesome drugs, or perhaps some causally-vague combination of the two. more ›

As an Olympic champion swimmer, former Longhorn Garrett Weber-Gale keeps his body in top physical condition. But that doesn't mean he's free from illness. Weber-Gale has high blood pressure. The two-time All-American and Olympic gold medalist will talk about training and competing while managing a chronic illness on Oct. 29 as part of Disability Awareness Month. Weber-Gale's talk is set for 7 pm in the Carpenter-Winkel Centennial Room on the ninth floor of UT's Bellmont Hall. Admission is free and the public is invited. more ›

"My mustache ranks with such mustache greats such as Wyatt Erp, Tom Selleck, and Burt Reynolds. I have build [sic] my exceptional persona off my superior facial hair, however, due to the constraints on my time I will have to shave it off or worse, grow a beard." more ›

Each Friday, we'll be offering up a sampling of Longhorn- and Big 12-related sports coverage making its way around the Web. This week: impressive offense, an assault charge, and the benefits of a bye week. more ›

Each week, we'll look at some reasons to taunt, belittle, and bully the Longhorns' football opponent. This week's Big 12 opponent: the Colorado Buffaloes. more ›

For maybe four years running—until I got overwhelmed with being so popular and having too much work— I think I could count on my nipples the number of times I missed the regular Wednesday night gig Matt the Electrician plays with Southpaw Jones, a running residency going on something like seven years now (and currently held at Flipnotics on Barton Springs Rd). I never, ever, ever get tired of hearing either M or SP play. And I’m so happy to tell you that this week Matt’s sending a new record out into the world, Animal Boy, with an official CD release party Friday, October 9th, at the Cactus Café. The disc is pure brilliance from the rich horns that open the first song— and you have to have cojones muy grande to open with a cover of Journey’s Faithfully and pull it off the way Matt does—right on through to the end. Matt somehow manages to consistently spin the equivalent of a multi-plot novel in four minutes or less, and he can rhyme and sing while he’s doing it. The imagery in his songwriting is nothing short of cinematic so that you find yourself in each song, interacting with the cast of characters that inhabit his tales: a naked valedictorian at graduation, an arrogant leash-loathing dog owner, giddy girls on bicycles in Osaka in the rain, an underpaid yet terribly kind Walmart employee saving the day, a truck driver peeing into a Gatorade bottle. In Animal Boy (the song) we get a spectacular view of a child looking back at some of the curious rules and choices offered by the grownups at dinnertime. more ›

Hundreds of players will have their decks and lists ready this weekend as Austin hosts the 2009 World Championships for the World of Warcraft trading card game and World of Warcraft collectible miniatures game. The grand-prize winner of the trading card game gets $50,000 cash, and the collectable miniatures winner gets $10,000. Play begins at 9:15 am Friday and continues throughout the weekend. Admission is free at the Austin Convention Center's Exhibit Hall #1. more ›

The Dell Mini 3I, an Android-based smartphone that currently is available only in China, is coming to America in the next few months, according to CrunchGear. In August, consumers got a look at the Mini 3i, courtesy of photos from the Chinese site Sina. CrunchGear reported yesterday that Dell will bring the Mini 3i to U.S. customers to compete with other planned Android operating system phones from HTC, Samsung, and Motorola.
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The tragic result of a lifetime of pugilism is drudged up for a quick laugh. more ›

Have you ever forgotten everything you’ve ever learned? I had a severe case of amnesia last week that lasted maybe 48 hours. During this period, out the window went every single bit of accumulated sage advice from friends, any wisdom picked up over years of therapy, the philosophy behind my martial arts training, each hard won bit of insight from nearly a decade of almost daily meditation and plenty of Buddhist teachings and god knows how many self-help books, and all those lessons learned in the School of Hard Knocks. In short. I got pissed off. Really, really, really, really fucking pissed off. more ›