Lurking in the near, near future is the album Alopecia, the strange, provocative, and incredibly engaging new album from Why?, a Bay Area band that seems to be ticketed for a whole new bunch of notoriety, right quick. While Why? in the past has often incited listeners to, well, invoke the name of the band--mostly because of scattershot verbosity and music that seemed more pieced-together than refined--they've pulled all their unbridled talent together into a cohesive and coherent, not to mention very good, whole. And, seeming as they're going to be tromping all about Austin's stomping grounds next week for SXSW, we sent out some questions to lead figure and wordsmith Yoni Wolf. You know, just to see what he's all about....

One of the big components of next month's Maker Faire Austin festival is the Swap-O-Rama-Rama, an enormous clothing swap and DIY workshop series. Through the recycling and repurposing of used clothing, Swap-O-Rama-Rama seeks to explore the benefits of community reuse and creativity. During the festival, you'll be able to bring your own bag of unwanted clothing to be added to the collective pile; in turn, you're invited to take away as much as you'd like.......

If you missed out on the initial deadline to participate in this year's inaugural Maker Faire Austin festival, you're in luck! The event organizers have set a new deadline of Thursday, September 6, thereby affording you a comfortable two and a half weeks to come up with your very own zany creation. For an idea of what to expect, the MAKE blog highlights some of the inventions recently previewed at Austin Children's Museum, including hyperbolic......

Maker Faire, the annual Bay Area festival that revels in Do-It-Yourself (DIY) ingenuity, is expanding to Austin this year. The two-day, family-friendly event will showcase some of the coolest shit—arts, crafts, wickedly geeky science projects—you've never seen in your life; think Dorkbot but hulked out. What else would you expect from a festival organized by the staffs of Make and Craft magazines? If you're a "Maker" and are interested in showing off your zany (or......

While SFist cringed at the fatal dose of crime littering the Bay Area, it found solace in Hillary Clinton's San Francisco campaign headquarters opening, which featured loads of exposed mammary glands. In other news, SF Taxi Commission ruled that Satan's cab must keep its (in)famous medallion number, 666; and in an un-fashion-forward frenzy, San Francisco Fashion Week (chortle) bars bloggers from covering and getting smashed at their shows and parties, respectively. Also, they found a......

*The views expressed in The Laurie Show are those of the author and do not represent Austinist as a whole.* -ed. note Greetings from Froggy McGee, writing to you while recovering in sick bay. I'm happy to report that the Bay Area tour I went on with the brilliant and talented crew of the Broken Clock Cabaret, featuring the rowdy and ravenous No Salvation Army Band, was an absolute success! Unfortunately, the crazy schedule and......

*The views expressed in The Laurie Show are those of the author and do not represent Austinist as a whole.* -ed. note Greetings from your San Francisco-bound host of The Laurie Show. I'm going on a trip with my Broken Clock Cabaret peeps to the Bay Area for a short tour of Inside A Broken Clock: A Tom Waits Peepshow next week. However, you can bet I'm on the air tonight, 90.5 on the......

We first fell for Chef David Lebovitz's sweet masterpieces during a Central Market cooking class, but his talent is no secret. More than 12 years at the famed Chez Panisse and his passion for sharing his food philosophies regarding seasonal, sustainable farm-fresh foods in print have garnered him recognition from publications including Bon Appétit, Food and Wine and the New York Times, and he was named one of the "Top Five Pastry Chefs in the......

Have you recently realized, sometime in the course of your busy day, that W is still in "charge" and will remain so for another 18 months? Remember that acid-churning queasy sensation in the pit of your stomach that followed? There's a sound for that, and it's on tour right now. The indescribable Bay Area noise-trashers The Locust have a new record out that's a perfect fit for a summer of drinking yourself into a stupor......

Torontoist immediately wins our heart by using the word "Jackass" in a headline. In fact, we love their use of it so much that we're going to use it as much as possible throughout this post. For example, it looks like there are Toronto-area jackasses besides those who misuse the sidewalk: look at the crap on sale on Toronto's craigslist. But it looks like Toronto doesn't contain the kind of jackasses who pee in public......

We've already told you about The Arm's CD release show on Friday, but we think it deserves another mention: they'll be playing with Single Frame, Faceless Werewolves and Lomita over at Emo's. We've also just found out that Super!Alright! has been tapped to provide visuals, which kinda makes sense considering they've already done a bunch of videos for Single Frame. The Arm's promised to bring some "special guests" onstage throughout their set, as well as......

Torontoist throws down the gauntlet and challenges all comers: pillow fight, bitch. They also stand up for a fellow blogger taking heat from the TTC and welcome city-wide WiFi. SFist can finally admit it: It's possible that Bary Bonds juiced. Is Bay Area artist (tempted to put quotes around that) Thomas Kinkaid "kinda crappy" or "explosively crappy" or does he just like marking territory? SFist wonders. Technology comes in the form of new Mac goodness......

We might as well dub this the Week of the Dance Party - Emo's on Monday, Beerland on Tuesday, Flamingo Cantina on Wednesday, The Parish on Thursday, and - best of all - Gallery Lombardi on Friday. Check it out, and pace yourselves. As always, feel free to contact us with any hot tips! MONDAY [music] Church of the Friendly Ghost may have postponed shows at their awesome Eastside house, but they're still bringing great......

Austin came in third place in chipmaker Intel's 2005 Most Unwired Cities survey, which ranks the largest 100 cities in the US according to the accessibility and proliferation of wireless internet access. Not surprisingly, Seattle came out on top - we're sure thanks in large part to their 1:1 ratio of People-to-Starbucks - and the San Francisco Bay Area, headquarters of just about every high-tech company, took second place. We love the fact that......