Results tagged “alamodrafthouse”

Our friends at Ultra8201 have the scoop on Fun Fest kickoff and after parties. Here's the deal:

The Troubadour on Santa Monica Blvd. is the cozy club that did it for us. After rock-out worshipping Beth Ditto of The Gossip, witnessing the hypnotic effect Bon Iver has on an audience, and giggle-festing with Chelsea Peretti, we were dead set on finding a way to actually live in one of the best venues on Planet Earth. We could imagine ourselves waking up under the blue glow from the light above the stage and high-fiving Joni Mitchell on our way to pay rent. There’s a unique, comfortable, respectful vibe where the performer rules and being a member of the audience can be pretty darn special. It’s an atmosphere that offers up a multitude of more than memorable nights and it was recreated by club owner and filmmaker Mark Flanagan at Largo on Sunset Blvd. No, you didn’t accidentally click on sibling site LAist; we’re just setting you up for Austin Film Festival’s documentary screening of the stellar, performance-heavy Largo at Alamo Lake Creek this Thursday. It’s a required A/V workout for all Austin music buffs.

Fall has arrived and you need something elegantly creepy with pumpkin spice on top. We're going to go out on a dead branch here and say you've seen one too many stories/shows/films revolving around chiseled man-boy vamps in high school; facebook-fed zombie apocalypse tactics probably aren't doing it for you anymore either. We all need an ominous slap in the face—a sinister cold shower! Thank the gods that The Invincible Czars are returning to the Alamo Lake Creek this Sunday to bend genres with their swoon-worthy original score for Fritz Lang's 1921 German silent film Destiny. Paying a little respect to our elders in both film and all-around eeriness—Lang and Death (Mr. Death, to be exact)—is just the thing to get us out of our tween trance. By the end of the night, we want everyone to be contemplating mortality and clutching a baby like actress Lil Dagover. Everyone have a baby they can bring?

Tonight at the Drafthouse downtown, catch a documentary about the legendary graphic designer Milton Glaser, who was responsible for, among other things, the famous Dylan poster here, the old DC Comics "bullet" logo, the Brooklyn Brewery logo, and the entire concept of "I HEART NY." Glaser also co-founded New York Magazine in 1968.

In a blitz of blood spatter and body counts, the Alamo Drafthouse and Ain't It Cool News today released a portion of the sure-to-be incredible program for the 5th annual Fantastic Fest, which will burn down the South Lamar location in a cinematic firestorm September 24 - October 1, 2009.

The Alamo Ritz invites you and your pooka to the movies this weekend to enjoy the Jimmy Stewart classic, Harvey. You and your spirit animal can sip Martinis along with Dr. Chumley, Dr. Sanderson, Nurse Kelly and of course Elwood, as Harvey is part of the Alamo Cinema Cocktails Signature Series, which pairs signature drinks (The Harvey Wallbanger, for example) with movie characters' alcoholic tastes.

Creating a short film requires as much vision and creativity as any other variety, and rather than attempting to locate the best of the best using googling skills and illegal downloading, you can easily enjoy a pre-approved (by that certain Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences) selection in the comfort of your very own Alamo Draft-home. Starting on Friday, the South Lamar location will offer screenings of both the live-action and the animated Academy Award-nominated films—five shorts per 90 minute program.

This February 14 the Alamo South Lamar is showing Annie Hall, the Academy Award-winning masterpiece that blended comedy and romance into a big soft serve chocolate vanilla swirl cone of awesomeness, and throwing in a delicious meal into the deal. It's the perfect date and all you need to do is to spring for tix.

What's not to love about Labyrinth? You got Bowie, his enormous package (that we didn't notice as wee babes), a young, pre-getting-nekkid Jennifer Connelly, cool puppetry, and badass songs. Now, what if a theater were to get Jareth fans into one place to sing those badass songs? Well, it might have some power over us. Tonight's Labyrinth Sing-Along is sold out, but you've got three more chances to attend in the coming weeks.

Now NBC fans on Time Warner can watch the election results next week, and the season premiere of 30 Rock tomorrow night, on KXAN. KXAN announced earlier this morning through Twitter that the channel was once again available to Time Warner cable subscribers. So no more Tuesday lunch dates with Chuck via hulu, and no more needing to spend every Thursday night at the Alamo because otherwise you couldn't see the funniest comedy on TV that night (although the season premiere for 30 Rock was posted a week early on the internet). Phew. [KXAN on Twitter]

This past Saturday 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. It was announced today that in all, the final tally of people dancing simultaneously (in various locations) was 4,177. The Alamo's blog has more information (and a birds-eye video), and the Statesman has some photos from the event.

Following last night's 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.

Five liquor-slingin' finalists are gearing up to win the 5th Annual Austin Cocktail Throwdown on Wednesday at 7 p.m. The finalists represent the Alamo Drafthouse, Ranch 616, the Hyatt Regency, Hilton Garden Inn and The Driskill, and will compete to earn the sole bragging rights to serving the 2008 Official Drink of Austin. Threadgill's World Headquarters hosts this free event which will feature $2 Tito's and $2 Shiner Bock. There will also be music by The Greyhounds and a chance to sample the winning drink. It's all for a good cause, too - the show benefits the Health Alliance for Austin Musicians.

Your trash collection fee is likely to increase, perhaps by as much as 36%. Planned Oak Hill development would impact water quality, environmentalists and residents say. UT Alumni Center employee threatens that he will blow the building up because his check isn't ready, freaks co-workers out, is arrested. Criminal charges filed against Houston woman who kept 5 children from their mother after helping the family post-Katrina. First out-of-Texas Alamo Drafthouse franchise to be built in Winchester, VA.

When one thinks of B-movie icon Roger Corman's disciples, big names spring to mind: Coppola and Scorsese come first, followed by genre directors like Jack Hill. One name that's not so immediate is Monte Hellman, but for cinéastes, it's nearly as important. Hellman's films are often concerned with obsession, ambiguity, and genre in a manner that manages to be simultaneously intriguing, fairly abstract and avant-garde.

The Chronicle's Virginia Wood and a collection of Austin's favorite restaurants join forces this Sunday to support Chronicle columnist Stephen Moser in his battle with prostate cancer at the Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar.

The final preliminary round of the Austin Air Guitar Championship is taking place this Tuesday at the Alama Drafthouse. This is the last opportunity for participants to compete for a spot in the finals, wherein a representative of Austin will be chosen to compete in the National Championship in New York. The winner at New York moves on to compete in the World Championship in Finland—and, presumably, to enjoy an elevated social status for his or her remaining days on Earth (air guitar champions don’t believe in the afterlife). We attended the penultimate preliminary round of the Air Guitar Championship at the Alamo Ritz last month; we share the experience after the jump.

Hard drinkers rejoice! After serving it's audiences measly draft brew, wine and 5-beer buckets for the last 10 years, The Alamo Drafthouse at The Ritz has finally obtained a TABC liquor license (which has been serving Austin for the last 70 years) and will be offering up a plethora of newly-crafted beverages to enhance Austin's movie experience!

One of the ten million things I love about Austin is how well this town lends itself to the creative class—those of use dreamers who eschew cubicle jobs and want to figure how to put matzoh on the table through some fun, interesting endeavor that pays (I’m trying hard to avoid the word “work” here). It’s precisely because Austin embraces this lifestyle that I’ve been able to support my writing habit through putting on camps and shows and performing non-traditional weddings and working all sorts of nutty gigs. And oh, how I admire my creative class cohorts. Back around 2002, I met David Ansel at a dinner party thrown by Lisa Kaselak. David was just starting a business, inspired by a trip he took to Real de Catorce (a Mexican village I would one day come to count on for my annual escape-Christmas plot). David’s business, the Soup Peddler, involved making good, homemade soup and delivering it to people’s homes. By bicycle.

Music Mondays at the Drafthouse is traveling to weird intergalactic territories with this week’s offering Space is the Place starring jazz great Sun Ra.

Music is seen as a man's world. Whether it's heavy metal, mainstream rap music or today's MTV pop, today's entertainment industry is often accused of being fueled by testosterone and sexism. This leaves little room for women in the industry to create and be heard, let alone be taken seriously in a society that seems to favor male musicians over female musicians.

While not always the case, most documentary filmmakers, as invested as they may become in their subjects, try to maintain a journalistic distance. We can assume that isn’t the case for The Pied Piper of Hutzovina, a film by Pavla Fleishcer about Gogol Bordello lead singer Eugene Hutz. In fact, the impetus for making the film was largely due to the fact that Fleischer fell in love with Hutz, and it charts a 2004 visit to Eastern Europe they made together. Hutz, a New Yorker who can chart his Gypsy lineage to his grandmother, travels across the Ukraine to share his music with family, friends, and strangers, and to rediscover his roots.

Our sister sites in NYC, San Francisco, and Chicago may have the culinary advantage of established food scene braggin' rights, but during the long weekend of April 10-13, the Texas Hill Country Wine and Food Festival returns for its 23rd year, showcasing Central Texas' unique culinary points of distinction (with modern mixology, gourmet hangover breakfasts, and Austinist's most important gastronomic matter - the ubiquitous search for the perfect taco - at the head of the line.)

Since 2001, the Rock 'n' Roll camp for girls based in Portland has instructed young women on the finer points of learning to play instruments and rocking out, while also helping to give their students a positive self-image and can-do attitude.

In Intimidad, documentarians Ashley Sabin and David Redmon follow the lives of Cecy and Camilo, a young couple living in Reynosa, Mexico. Cecy and Camilo both work for minimum wage in maquiladoras, trying to save money to buy land, build themselves a house, and bring their daughter Loida back to live with them.

If you were there to see the many downright amazing clips featured in “You’re Looking at Country,” a Music Mondays presentation at the Drafthouse a few weeks ago hosted by Dallas Wayne, among live performances by Faron Young, Willie Nelson, Loretta Lynn and more was The Man in Black himself, Johnny Cash, pickin’ his big hit “Get Rhythm.”

Last Saturday, actor Will Ferrell made a quick stop in Austin during a press tour for his new film Semi-Pro. He also attended a sneak preview of the film and did a Q&A session at the Alamo Drafthouse, where attendees were required to dress in 70's basketball attire for admission - you can see the Drafthouse "team photo" here. Austinist's Tom Thornton and Gordon And The Whale's Chase Whale spoke briefly to Ferrell during the media day.

When Thelonious Monk passed away in 1982, his status as an innovator and one of the leading figures in modern jazz music was well established. A pianist who cut his first recording in 1944, Monk went on to work with fantastic musicians over his remarkable career including Sonny Rollins (tenor sax), Art Blakey (drums), Miles Davis (trumpet), John Coltrane (tenor sax) and many others. An unusual and versatile performer, Monk’s personal behavior was often just as spontaneous, and his relationships with others, including his wife and child, were as challenging as some of his best music.

With incredibly varied subject matter, there is sure to be an Oscar nominated film that you really love, that is if you don't fawn over every single one. And, come on, if you hate any of the films, the next picture will start in about 20 minutes, at the most.

For the first time in over a year, erstwhile Sinus Show members Owen Egerton, John Erler and Joe Parsons are back together, skewering bad films like some kind of movie mocking Voltron. And this time, they're taking dead aim at Robert Zemeckis' goofy sci-fi adventure Back to the Future.