Abby Birds provide delightful pop ditties to our yearning ears this Thursday evening at Room 710. Although the venue is largely known for its raucous rock acts, Abby Birds headline a bill showcasing the softer side of the Red River spot. Singer/guitarist Nathan Crawford is already somewhat of a veteran on the scene, having sold his 4-track, home recorded cassettes at Sound Exchange (R.I.P.) and 33 Degrees (R.I.P.) since the mid-'90s. Abby Birds formed in 2005 and a debut record featuring the band's brand of harmonious pop, the kind that keeps your head bobbing throughout, is in the works....

GOP voters look at their candidates, say "eh". Environmental groups push idea of warning pregnant ladies about caffeine. But what if you want your baby to get a lot of homework done before it comes out? Are you not rich, only kinda super-privileged? Not to worry, Harvard will help. Just get your caffeinated fetus to ace the SATs in utero. A bunch of dudes really want to fly without parachutes, spend their lives building......

You might have thought that our former governor and current President was too busy defending his stance on Iran yesterday to do much else. But you would think wrong! Dubya made time to talk to daughter Jenna as she recorded her appearance on Ellen Degeneres' show (the show will air today). It seems strange that at a time when his approval numbers are so low the audience would be so excited to hear from him.......

Image from News 8 AustinThe ad should’ve read “Single Newborn Baby Boy seeks Long Term Relationship with Healthy, Well Adjusted Non-Dysfunctional Family.” This may be just another case of Craigslist Tomfoolery, but News 8 Austin is reporting that an ad posted on Craigslist dated November 30th sought out prospective leads for an online adoption. The ad (which has since been removed) declared: Newborn Baby Up For Adoption: This beautiful newborn baby boy of age 9/10......

Hillary plants one again, this time at the Republican debate. Broadway re-opens tonight. The newly proposed tuition hike brings about protests from the UT student body. Family lawyer claims "Baby Grace" was murdered for not saying "Please" or "Yes, sir". Iran is cracking down on rap music. Half of immigrants in Texas are illegal. We may be late on this one, but has anyone seen the man that is turning into a tree? Click......

Photo by fotocitizen on flickr Ann Richards' gravesite doesn't have a permanent marker yet. Classical guitar a popular subject in Austin schools. Gas line broken this morning in South Austin has been capped. Local man crushed by a dump truck Saturday evening. Aggie news: Mike Sherman to be new A&M football coach. Mother and stepfather of "Baby Grace" arrested; the case is still being investigated. Mississippi GOP senator Trent Lott is resigning . . .......

Baby it's cold outside, and that means it's time for more connections. Time to snuggle up indoors, at least until it heats up again next week, and make some connections. If you're too shy to get the job done then just slap them up on the web and see if you get a reply, although it would just be better to say hello. Luckily we're here to help decipher the best of last week's......

Beginning of the end? First baby boomer files for Social Security. The Rockies are going to the World Series. No, not the Rockettes. The Rockies. The South is thirsty. Not metaphorically. China is, like, the only entity in the world that doesn't love the Dalai Lama. Greenpeace says the iPhone is toxic. Small boys rejoice: a giant new dino has been found in Argentina. Led Zep finally gets with the program.......

Asleep At Heaven’s Gate – Rogue Wave (Brushfire Records) The year 2006 was full of activity and turmoil for California’s Rogue Wave. There was some great news when founding member Zach Rogue had a baby daughter, but sadly, guitarist Gram LeBron’s father passed away and drummer Pat Spurgeon had a kidney transplant (and was understandably out of commission for a good amount of time.) Adding to the mayhem was the fact that Sub Pop was......

We're gonna come right out and say it: We're total crybabies. No seriously, we may be the most empathetic people in the entire world. Anytime that we see someone in pain, someone suffering injustice, or even something sappy and overly romantic, like a first love, it's Niagara Falls, Frankie Baby. When you see a bunch of puffy-eyed, slobbery messes walking around downtown for next week, you can blame these films. And yeah, we're fine, we've......

The Beauty Bar presents a quality bill of local pop-rock this Thursday night. Til We’re Blue Or Destroy, comprised of a number of multi-talented musicians, have recently wrapped up work on their debut record, This Train -- due later this year. The band’s delightful ditties fluctuate between catchy dance-pop and melodic guitar-rock, and that’s just fine with us! She, Sir support with an array of guitar laced soundscapes complemented perfectly by soft, distant vocals. Russell......

This summer, Austin resident Scott Blackwood received the Association of Writers and Writing Programs Award for his forthcoming novel, We Agreed to Meet Just Here. His collection of short stories, In The Shadow of Our House (2002), received great reviews. In The Shadow of Our House interweaves nine tales of Austin — marriages falling apart, youthful anger erupting into inexplicable violence, sudden tragedy testing family bonds, and adulterers caught between incomplete worlds. Blackwood’s keen sense......

LAist began the month with a new food series exploring the popular and unknown late night eats around town. If a Top Chef winner opened up a late night spot in Los Angeles, denizens would flock it, yet the LA Times and other media might be wary. Turning to sports, the Dodger season was quite memorable in the way that it imploded and the LA County Sheriff's Department made some games of their own such......

Weird: Finding a human leg in a smoker you bought at auction. Weirder: It wasn't from a murder, the owner of leg was too attached to let it go. Woman gives birth to 17-pound baby. And no, she's not American. SHOCK! Parts of the Patriot Act are unconstitutional. Not only was he making dogs kill each other, but he was smoking weed too. The U.S. Citizenship test just got a little bit harder. Not......

Tomorrow night, Cine Las Americas presents Víctimas del Pecado (Victims of Sin), an over-the-top slice of Mexican melodrama from 1951 and the second installment in Cine's Sin, Scandal and Song series. There's sin aplenty here (and also really great outfits and hairstyles), courtesy of its setting in postwar Mexico City's red-light district (romanticized in lush black and white cinematography by the legendary Gabriel Figueroa). Amidst all the picturesque seaminess, beautiful cabaret dancer Violeta (Ninón Sevilla)......

Technically, Fantastic Fest doesn't start until Thursday. But for badgeholders who get into town early (or, you know, live here), the fun will begin on Wednesday night as Casey Affleck hosts a free sneak screening of his new film The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. We've been huge Affleck fans since his criminally under appreciated role in Good Will Hunting. And with The Assassination and Gone Baby Gone (both of which......

Every fall, Austin looks forward to ACL Fest, and each year, there's always a point where two of your favorite bands are playing on different sides of the park at the exact same time. ACL Band Clash is a weekly series in which Austinist scribes Paige Maguire and Tom Thornton examine the worst ACL scheduling clashes, and try to provide good advice on finding a resolution. Well, good advice might be a stretch, but......

Patterson Hood is best-known for his work with the Drive-By Truckers, but the Alabama native, whose father was a member of the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, has a musical career stretching nearly 20 years. He's been through near-hits and near-misses aplenty. In one particularly tumultuous season, he put together an album of solo material, Killers and Stars, which became an unofficial release passed out at shows and circulated amongst fans. Now, as he's wrapping......

Augustana. Even if you don’t know the name, chances are you’ve heard their single “Boston” over the past year. You know the one. They played it in on Laguna Beach, Scrubs and The Today Show. It hovered around the thirties on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for a while. You know, it’s a melodic, piano-driven pop rock song with super sweet, almost cherubic vocals played by some baby-faced hipsters with shaggy hair and tight jeans.......

So apparently this new movie not only makes Paul Giamatti into a bad guy, but also features a gunplay scene filmed entirely while the principal battlers are falling from airplanes, as well as several semi-dangerous-looking gunfights with a human infant in the middle of the proceedings. Clive Owen is the good guy—once again, as in "Children of Men", protecting a baby that's not his own (come on guys, doesn't Clive Owen deserve his own freaking......

With unseasonable weather descending upon much of North America, schools getting ready to reconvene, and sports seasons getting exciting, it's a busy time of year for us here in the Ist-A-Verse. Luckily, even with all the things we have to do, we still managed to get together to let you know what we've all been up to. After cooling down from a hot weekend of many badass Sunset Junction Street Fair photo dispatches, LAist asked......

Settle down, gore hounds, for this weekend’s movie releases are clearly not for you (put your blood-soaked dreams of a modernized Michael Myers on hold for one more week). The real question is – are this week’s new releases for anyone? If fans of Scarlett Johansson’s panty lines and Rowan Atkinson’s crotch shots really do exist, then there must be at least a few audience members out there reveling in the fact that their time......

The Invasion Kidman stars in this remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. While some might argue that this particular sacred cow does not need a remake, others might argue that a remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers that was first directed by the German guy who made the fantastic Der Untergang, and then meddled with post-production by the Wachowski Brothers, is a totally different story. Monstruous and beautiful hybrid, we hail you. [Trailer]......

And you thought you couldn't look any stupider on a tandem bike? It now costs two cents to make one cent. Does that make sense? A man upset with his property tax hike pays his $12,000 bill in change. Fox News is accused of altering Wikipedia articles. Raising a baby until the age of 17 will cost you $290,000 if you make around $75,000 a year. $198,000 if you make $45,000 a year. A......

If you happened to be downtown two weekends ago, you might have found yourself startled, amused, or even aroused (it’s okay, you’ll be totally accepted at some clubs in Japan) by the sight of four human forms wandering the streets in golden, skin-tight zentai suits. There must be something in the way head-to-toe spandex outfits cling to one’s body, because clubbers all over downtown were completely enamored with the mysterious beings - perhaps it......

Remember how Beyonce fell on her ass at a concert and said she didn't want anyone posting videos of it? The folks at Shout Mouth have compiled their Top Ten Most Embarrassing Stage Falls (with video accompaniment, of course). Do you remember the last State of the Union when Bush honored Julie Aigner-Clark, founder of Baby Einstein (a series of infant educational programs)? Yeah...those programs don't actually work. Scary: Shitload of Germans pile on......

It's hard to believe, but even our most talented artists, actors, musicians and filmmakers all had to start somewhere. You know "the journey of a thousand miles" and all that crap? It's totally true--whether those first attempts are timid baby steps or long, confident strides. This Thursday, the Austin Film Festival will pay tribute to a whole pile of tenacious Austin filmmakers--including Mike Akel, Steve Collins, Scott Rice, Jeffrey Travis and The Zellner Brothers--by screening......

1990s Cookies (Rough Trade/World's Fair) The 1990s "play music like a blond gets out of a car." This, we assume based on listening, means something like, "Our sound is snotty, a little fucked up on we-don't-remember-what, and always f-u-n." While John McKeown (Yummy Fur) won't make any news showing his knickers to paparazzi during a limo exit, he will succeed in promoting the display of everyone else's underthings on the dance floor, as Cookies......

According to a recent research report issued today, Texas children are getting the proverbial short end of the stick. Like, the really short end. The report - called the KIDS COUNT Data Book - is a national state-by-state report issued by the Annie E. Casey Foundation in conjunction with the Center for Public Policy Priorities (CPPP). Today's report is a precursor to CPPP's "The State of Texas Children 2007" which will be released this fall.......

Ready to make some connections and get into the summer swing? Grab the lawn chairs and fill up the coolers, the sun is out and it's time to take advantage of the Texas summer. We know that you're busy, so we're working hard to find the best of last week's Missed Connections... To the girl whose ass I slapped at Beauty Bar - m4w This is more of a connection that should've gone missed,......