THURSDAY [7] music • Chicken Ranch Records, Obsolete Industries, Hold Fast, and 086 Studio present their Third Annual Christmas Shindig with The Ugly Beats, Automusik at Longbranch Inn ($5 or bring a new toy for Blue Santa, 8pm) music • Atomic Bitchwax, Pearls & Brass, Dixie Witch, The Flood at Emo's music • The Big Fix, O:A, Hellapeno at Stubb's music • Earl Greyhound, The Early Tapes, The Paper South at The Mohawk music......

THURSDAY [16] wine • Le Beaujolais Nouveau est arrivé! at Various music • Peter and the Wolf, The Interest Kills at The Mohawk music • The Elected (Members of Rilo Kiley), Margot and the Nuclear So and Sos, Whispertown 2000 at Emo's Lounge music • Jack Ingram & Reckless Kelly at Stubb's music • The Pretenders, Operation:Awesome at Austin Music Hall music • White Ghost Shivers, Dewayn Bros at Beerland music • St. Lawrence......

Tonight, the James A. Michener Center for Writers at UT is hosting a special reading by author Jonathan Lethem - he of such critically acclaimed novels as The Fortress of Solitude and Motherless Brooklyn, as well as various and sundry pieces in The New Yorker, McSweeney's, Rolling Stone, Granta and more. Special thanks to Greg for the heads-up! Jonathan Lethem Thursday, March 23 UT Campus - Avaya Auditorium, ACES 2.302 (24th and Speedway) 7:30 pm......

On Tuesday, John Dean of Worse Than Watergate and, of course, Watergate fame, reads at the Harry Ransom Center. 7:30-10pm, Prothro Theater on the UT campus. Sarah Vowell visits Book People on Wednesday. 7pm, 603 North Lamar. Tickets available at 6pm. Naomi Shihab Nye, National Book Award finalist, visiting professor at the UT Michener Center for Writers, and the author of numerous books of poetry and literature for young people, reads at the Avaya Auditorium......