As the growth of downtown continues to explode, so does the need for commuter friendly alternatives - enter the bike. Granted nothing new, but with Lance Armstrong's recent unveiling of plans for a commuter biker shop, he really is bringing biking back. According to Armstrong: "This city is exploding downtown. Are all these people in high rises going to drive everywhere? We have to promote (bike) commuting."...

Photo courtesy of supersassafrasThe city's Urban Transportation Commission is currently at a crossroads over the future of our quickly-expanding pedicab businesses. As we discovered from The Texan over the weekend, two transportation commissioners are each recommending very different resolutions, hoping to strike a balance between a growing business of bicycles and a growing city whose streets seem to be getting a bit more cramped. There are five registered pedicab companies currently operating in Austin: PediChad,......

Image from EAST East Austin Studio TourSaturday, November 17 - Sunday, November 18Various Venues (Austin)Free, 10am-5pm Daily[info]The 2007 East Austin Studio Tour (E.A.S.T.) is happening this weekend, and over the next two days we'll be previewing a handful of the artists whose works you'll be able to check out. Here's our guide to E.A.S.T. 2007: The tour runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. With 113 studios and over 200 artists......

Flyer from BGirl City Championships Home Slice Pizza celebrates its second anniversary (happy birthday, guys!) with a giant Pizza Carnival—expect pizza tossing acrobats, pizza eating contests, "Great Calzoni the Slice Reader," and more, with proceeds going to benefit Young Texans Against Cancer The 6th annual East Austin Studio Tour returns, featuring more than 200 artists at over 100 studios—ride your bikes this year! VICE Magazine, Gomikitti, and Scion throw a killer free party at Antone's......

Our market is bringing world markets down with us. . . all because of the subprime mortgage market. Universal Music joins the move away from the use of DRM (except through iTunes). Preview of the nation without net neutrality: AT&T censors Pearl Jam's Lollapalooza performance online. Parisians provided with 10,000 self-service bikes: Citizens bike downhill to work and take mass transit home. The Perseid Meteor shower may be visible late this weekend. Hannah Montana's......

Next year's Olympic Games in Beijing won't be quite as explosive as Neo-Tokyo's futuristic Games. From the title character's astonishing powers to Tetsuo's astonishing rage, Akira represents a truly revolutionary advance in anime, not to mention some prescient observations about the unchecked ruthlessness of government. A ground-breaking anime film, Akira was one of the first displays of truly excellent animation. Adapted from Katsuhiro Otomo's manga series (also called Akira), the movie follows both delinquents and......

In times like these, it's good to know that at least some folks are looking out for others. From Craigslist: first, to preface this... ive had close to $6k worth of bikes stolen from me in austin in the past ten years so i kind of unloaded $6k worth of stolen bike frustration on this kid tonight i work downtown and this kid comes up trying to sell a *nice* newish k2 full suspension with......

FRIDAY [1] party • Rare Magazine Summer Issue Launch Party at Mean Eyed Cat (5:30pm) bikes • Republic of Texas Biker Rally at All Over Austin dance/benefit • Project Transitions Hosts 12th Annual Texas Swing at Saengerrunde Hall and Scholz’s Beer Garten ($40, 8-Midnight) art • Opening Reception: Cantanker/us, the Cantanker Magazine staff show at Else Madsen Gallery, 411 Brazos, Suite 99 (7-11pm) art • The B Scene at The Blanton Museum of Art,......

Austin's own Pink (a bicycle "love courier" service we profiled back in December) was recently nominated for "Best Independent Project of the Year" by the Austin Critics Table. To celebrate, they're taking their special brand of two-wheeled viral love-spreading to Portland, just in time for that bike-smitten city's Pedalpalooza fest. But first, they invite you to join them for a bike-in double feature tonight at Café Mundi, where you can take in both Pee Wee's......

One can certainly gauge the amount of fun happening in Austin by the number of Missed Connections on Craigslist. If the sheer number of posts this past week is any indication then everyone was certainly living it up last week. For us that means more work, for you it means much better reading. We've combed the depths of last week's Missed Connections to find the best just for you... Did anyone see me yesterday?......

When the people behind Vice Magazine throw a party, it's safe to assume that much booze will be enjoyed, and, on more special occasions, that buildings may partially collapse. All in the name of good fun. Meanwhile, Harley Davidson recently spawned the latest hellion in its family of meaty motorcycles: the "Nightster" is an ultra-low sportster designed, as its 27-year-old creator put it so succinctly, "to look illegal." We know precious little about fancy......

Austin has a love/hate relationship with bikes. Love Lance. Hate the Lance-wannabes cruising FM-1826, slowing down the burnt-orange pickups on their way to the Salt Lick. Love biking the Hike-and-Bike trail. Hate slaloming between kids and dogs on a busy Saturday. Love the idea of bike lanes and bike commuting. Hate actual bikers slowing down traffic and swerving into the street because of cars parked in the bike lanes. Love reducing traffic and pollution......

FRIDAY [4] party/bikes • Yellow Bike Project's Second Annual Bike Art Show with music by DJ Orion, DJ Katherine at Gallery 1906 (Free, 7pm-Midnight) art • Opening Reception: memoria/memoir: Carol Flax at Volitant Gallery, 320 Congress Ave., Ste 100 (6-9pm) art • B Scene at the Blanton Museum of Art 1st Anniversary Celebration at Blanton Museum of Art, MLK at Congress ($5 members, $10 non-members, 6-11pm) art • Opening Reception: Tunnel Vision: Parading Down the......

Bellingham, WA's The Trucks carry on the loud-and-proud post-riot grrl tradition of acts like Peaches, Le Tigre, and The Gossip, playing guitarless, keyboard-driven pop-punk that'd be perfect for your little sister's sleepover if their hit single wasn't called "Titties." Maybe it is anyway. Depends on your sister. Anyhow we got to chat with singer/visual artist Marissa Moore, who also doesn't get why the SXSW schedule isn't up yet. Share a story about a visit......

It's the handsome downtown gallery owner with curly hair or the hot Astanga instructor at YogaYoga South. It's the pedicab driver with the cute southern accent or your favorite Lone Star Rollergirl. It's your local, secret crush. Austinist is pleased to kick off the new year with this edition's interview: Patrick, The Orange Hat Bike Messenger Guy. We'd just about given up on this request—after months of scoping out messengers downtown. However, Lady Serendipity threw......

As 2006 ends and 2007 begins, the -ists look back not at the past week, but at the past year. So here it is, your Best of 2006 Spectacular. And from all of us at the -ists, happy New Year! Austinist was all about controversy as new construction to increase urban density ran rampant in 2006, as did threats to the city's image from gigantic corporations looking to set up shop in town, leading......

It's a definite sign of the times. Today alone, we told you of two Austin art institutions—Gallery Lombardi and Iron Gate Studios—closing their doors. Now, add to that another local organization: The Yellow Bike Project. For the uninitiated, YBP is a non-profit, volunteer run, community supported bicycle shop on East 51st Street. They act as a local bicycle advocacy group, teach bicycle maintanence, operate a pro bono bicycle shop for the community, and place......

As fall settles in and another calendar page gets turned, thoughts turn from bbq's and vacations to holidays and the realization that '06 is coming to an end. With all that going on, with change in the air, we wonder what is it that made that makes the -ists ponder? Phillyist is concerned that the war on Trans fats could affect it's beloved cheese steak sandwiches, something for which we should all be concerned.......

Remember Rad? Or Gleaming The Cube? How about Gotcha? Did you ever think that it was so unfair that your town never had any of that cool paintball/skatepark/BMX stuff? Well, you may be in your 30s, but your (kids') luck is about to change. News 8 reports that developers have broken ground in Leander on a $66 million extreme sports park, the likes of which we can barely imagine. The park will include a......

Billboards are always an eyesore. We recommend not moving into a neighborhood where the advertising is more prominent than the sun. The guy that founded Daewoo, Kim Woo-choong, is in prison again for charges of fraud, etc etc etc. Stock up on calomine lotion. The increase of CO2 gasses in the atmosphere is triggering a higher growth rate of poison ivy and other poisonous plants. Pornography is becoming increasingly popular among the British. Researchers......

*The views expressed in Truesday are those of the author and do not represent Austinist as a whole. Thank heavens.* -The Editors I made good on last week’s word, and bought a bike. It’s a real beater too. Late eighties pink Gary Fisher sorta-mountain bike setup with a torturous seat that MUST have been carved from dolomite, knobby-yet-flattish tires, and 21 of those anti-ninja “kuh-chank” gears. Luckily, you can barely hear the embarrassingly loud......

FRIDAY [19] [music] Cross Canadian Ragweed w/ Micky & the Motorcars at Stubb's (link) [music] Clint Small Jr. Middle School's Phat Cats Jazz Ensemble at Waterloo Records (Free, 6pm) (link) [music] Moth Fight! at End of an Ear (Free, 7pm) (link) [music] Faceless Werewolves, Hotrails, Tokyo Nites at Beerland (link) [music] Dynah CD release at Red Eyed Fly (link) [music] Wilco Hoot Night with "many, many Austin bands" at Trophy's (link) [music] Pudge Zeppelin with......

For those who don’t know, Frankenbike is a pretty badass concept. We really respect the community aspect of their design. Frankenbike is, as quoted from their website in the form of dictionary definitions: FrankenBike (n) - A free bike swap meet held once a month in Austin, Texas that is open to anyone who wants to buy, sell or trade bicycles and bicycle related gear or parts. FrankenBike (n) - Any working bike that......

It seems everything and everyone is getting their own national month these days. This month alone, Barbecue; Bikes; Eggs; Hamburgers; Physical Fitness & Sports; and Salsa all get their time to shine. Nothing the overrated food item eggs need more than their own damn month, after already single-handedly trying to take down the taco industrial complex. But we digress. As all of these categories own a special place in Austinist's heart, we will be doing......

Slim pickin's today, friends. You can either choose a movie starring Oscar winners/nominees (which of course doesn't guarantee anything), or you can go with movies that cater to the lowest common denominator. Which is apparently pretty damn low these days. *Inside Man Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, Jodie Foster. Kudos, Spike Lee, for making a movie with one fine-lookin’ cast. (*Ed. Note: We saw a sneak preview of this movie and really enjoyed the nuances......

Austin has ranked high, yet again, in one of those polls that make us look so good to the rest of the country. The American Podiatric Medical Association has ranked Austin as the sixth-best city in America for walking. We received our excellent ranking due to the massive UT campus and students necessity for walking, our vibrant downtown (which is getting more vibrant by the day), our excellent parks and the number of residents......

Well, it’s far enough into the new year that we’ve already broken most (if not all) of our resolutions. But one of our resolutions was not to let the fact that we broke our initial resolutions keep us from resolving to do other good things throughout the year. Or something like that. Anyway, we have signed up to do the Hill Country Ride for AIDS this year, which takes place on April 29th. We figure......

Austin needs another bike shop like it needs a hole in its head. The shops have reached such a level of ubiquity (three within a half-mile of our house) they cause Volvo wagon traffic jams on our streets on Saturdays. It is the source of a bit of consternation with us; we’re not even sure why. But we recently came across a small outfit on the East Side that we love – East Side......

Austinites love their bikes. And we don’t just mean the Lanceophile, weekend warrior yuppie types who gear up in spandex to tie up automotive lanes, but just good ol’ bicycle riders. You know, people that know how to go to the grocery store and only buy as much food as they can pedal home. People who head down to the local pub for a few pints and then navigate the sidewalks home. People who......

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