Photo by cogdogblog on flickrNetroots Nation, an annual convention of progressive political bloggers, has chosen Austin as the location for its 2008 meeting. Formerly known as Yearly Kos, Netroots Nation is expected to draw more than 2,500 participants for the July 17-20 event. At their 2006 meeting, about 2,100 bloggers and reporters attended, along with several Democratic presidential candidates. "There are many reasons that we chose Austin," organizers said in their announcement. "I was most......

Photo of Divali celebration courtesy of Kokeshi President Bush visits wounded soldiers at Brooke Army Medical Center, demonstrates how to "shoot the bad guys" in Iraq--on a computer game, that is A 160-pound chimp attempts a daring escape from the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, prompting a sweep of the entire 381-acre campus. He was later found; authorities were careful to point out that "Jake" wasn't carrying any diseases, and was merely there for "behavioral science"......

Austinites are at the forefront of the blogging community, according to a new report published by a leading market research firm. Scarborough Research's new survey found that Austin tops other tech-heavy cities—Portland, San Francisco and Seattle rounded out the top four—when it comes to folks who either read or contribute to a blog. Fully fifteen percent of adults in Austin interact with blogs in some fashion; the research firm attributes this to both the tech......

Brighton, England's Fujiya & Miyagi were one of the darlings of SXSW 2007. Whether playing to a packed house at the Pitchfork Media party or drawing a sizable crowd at their own showcase, the band cut through the clutter of 1,300 acts to draw raves from bloggers and critics. With their cool Asian name (inspired by a vintage record player and, well, Pat Morita), rhythm-section based tunes, and subtle electronics, the band really sounds like......

Last Friday in Houston, a young girl brought a loaded 9mm pistol to school and started pointing it at people. She is 12 years old. The U.S. Supreme Court's new term starts this week. Why exactly is socialized medicine such a bad idea? Interesting article... The guy who tried to extort $1 million from Tom Cruise commits suicide. Article about the bloggers who helped bring the story of recent government oppression in Burma to......

Hot Freaks! is a loose affiliation--a cabal, if you will--of international music and culture bloggers, including Dallas' Gorilla Vs. Bear, New York's brooklynvegan, and Toronto's Chromewaves, who have banded together Voltron-style to wreak cross-promotional havoc on the Western blogosphere. Masterminded by Austin promoter John Mascarenhas, Hot Freaks! has put together a lovely set of after-parties for those of us who won't be snarled in post-ACL parking-lot quagmires until midnight. Both events are looking really tempting,......

Austin Sound, if you haven't checked it out already, is a great site featuring information about local music. This Saturday, they're pulling out all the stops to celebrate their one year anniversary, and throwing a mini-ACL that's much, much cheaper. With 13 bands playing, there's bound to be someone to rock your picky ass. Also: free food and FREE BEER for five bucks! We know, it doesn't make sense to us either, but 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......

Since their inception in 2001, Portland's The Decemberists have channeled a unique and wide-ranging set of influences (be it R.E.M., Irish folkfore, or Russian literature) into classic indie-pop that has found a large and fervent fanbase. The group's 2006 major label debut The Crane Wife both amazed and shocked music critics, who loved the material but could hardly believe the band's audacity, as two 11-plus minute epics were featured on the disc. The bold......

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......

Oh hey, have you heard? The Original Alamo Drafthouse is closing. Closing! Well, closing and, in a few weeks, re-opening mere blocks away, but whatevs: This is the END of a glorious era in Austin movie-going and communitas. Memo to all you bloggy, film nerdish, or just share-a-holic types: It's time to take to the Internets and divulge your fondest memories from the venerable old building at 409 Colorado. Did Harry Knowles' hair brush your......

They're all over the place these days. The deck at Spiderhouse: on the cover Austin Music Magazine. Eating a taco at El Chilito, on the cover of The Chronicle. Pick up a copy of XL at Jo's on 2nd: there are their sweet faces yet again. The handsome Austin quintet Voxtrot, it seems, are kind of a big deal. We already knew they've been loved up by bloggers the world over, but magazine covers?......

After their phenomenally successful two-day party during SXSW, the good folks of Hot Freaks! have decided to start up a new monthly artist spotlight series at the Mohawk. Co-hosted by Seattle's beloved indie radio station, KEXP, music bloggers Gorilla Vs Bear, The Onion, and Austinist, the Mohawk Residency will showcase two hot Texas bands every month, with each band headlining on alternating Tuesday evenings. Inaugurating this new venture are Peel, whose latest album we lovingly......

TUESDAY [10] music • Brand New, Kevin Devine, Manchester Orchestra at Stubb's music • Richard Swift & Sons of National Freedom, David Vandervelde & the Moonstation House Band, Zookeeper, the Gigantic Rubber Band at Emo's Lounge music • Gurf Morlix at Waterloo Records (5pm, Free) music • DJ Trevor, A Few Nice Things at Beauty Bar music • Radioland Murders, Pack of Wolves at Whisky Bar books • Randall Pinkett presents The Campus CEO......

Okay, maybe we're not the kind of friend you'd invite to your wedding, or ask to hide a gun for you until the heat dies down. But we do try our best to keep you informed about awesome new films and film-related events—which is something your regular, non-blogger friends probably almost never do. Now that we think of it, why do you even hang out with them? Anyway, this Tuesday April 10th you'll get a......

We here in the Ist-A-Verse know that we're sensational, but it's very rare that we get a chance to be sensationalistic. This week, we've decided to have ourselves a little fun and try our hand at tacky tabloid headlines, using nothing more than our favorite posts from this week. Torontoist Special Report: Rosie to Trump: "Fire 300 Bicyclists for Fraud!" On DCist: Students Go Wild for Slogans, Secrets and Sexual Harassment The action was thick......

The jet lag had just started to wear off (or the booze just started to kick in) when most of the filmmakers, actors and bloggers who are showcasing work during The 2007 SXSW Film Festival & Conference met at Buffalo Billiards Thursday night. Film gets kicked off today, with Scott Frank's directorial debut, The Lookout debuting at The Paramount tonight at 9:00pm. L to R: Dan Cox, director of Running With Arnold & Reginald Harkema,......

*The views expressed in The Laurie Show are those of the author and do not represent Austinist as a whole.* -ed. note My friend and fellow music lover John Gross, one of the proprietors of the fabulous music promotion vehicle known as Party Ends, reminded me about a fantastic weekend fundraiser that will surely entertain with great music…and great beer. Party Ends has teamed up with the good folks of Independence Brewing Co. to......

Sometimes Austin musicians move on and get signed. Yes, it really happens. Tonight is your chance to see one of these rare creatures in their native habitat! Formerly of Austin’s premier emo-core outfit, Recover, Dan Keyes now fronts the electronic dance-rock band Young Love, appearing tonight at The Parish. Released January 30th, Young Love's Too Young To Fight It (Island) has been generating lots of excitement, most of which is coming from the "mainstream". Some......

We'd heard rumors of a big blogger bonanza taking place during SXSW Music, and today finally got a glimpse of their awesome setup: two days, three stages, and 32 bands divided between Club Deville and The Mohawk. But then again, what else would you expect from music bloggers like Chromewaves, Gorilla vs Bear, Largehearted Boy, My Old Kentucky Blog, rock insider, and You Ain't No Picasso? Friday Catfish Haven, Thunderbirds Are Now!, Apostle of......

Our favorite posts by local bloggers for this first week of January: Wipeout celebrated New Year's at Emo's and has the photos to prove it. Ken (from Cheap Thoughts by Ken) tells about being towed next to DPS. I Blame the Patriarchy has Oprah all figured out. We agree with Diane Holloway. Why are people still watching Trump? We prefer to ignore him and hope he goes away. Ultra8201 looks forward to seeing The......

Movie critics, quilters, environmentalists, these types. The blog landscape is packed with these niche bloggers. Well, you can add former exterminators cum failed politicians with dubious pasts to the long list of those on the internets. Former US Representative Tom DeLay has started a blog. Glory be! Finally the voice of reason comes to Al Gore’s invention. [excerpted TomDelay.com]Over the course of my political life I have learned many things, one of which is that......

Favorite posts by local bloggers this week: Farewell to The Rich Girls Are Weeping! They are moving to Brooklyn. By now they are probably already there. And on the moving theme, clever-lazy will miss her neighbor's cat. Ben at Veg Out! Austin says that Dog Almighty now has a pizza dog. We are intrigued. Chip hates the loud promos that run before films at the Arbor. Hear, hear. Favorite Random Blog of the Week:......

We've been a bit lax in our celebration of Austin's bloggers, but we're back, baby. Our favorite posts for this week of November 27th: Austin Real Estate Blog ponders real estate east of IH-35. Sarah at BondBlog caught the quick reference to the Alamo Drafthouse on Heroes Monday night. Rocky Balboa has caused some strong audience reaction already, Jette at celluloid eyes noticed. It's probably not the reaction the studio is hoping for. Red......

If you're hiking, consider charging up your iPod, as Seattlest finds out that a man lost during a hike was found by the glow of his iPod. That cleverness seems to be devoid in cops who were using police cruiser instant messaging clients - although we imagine IMs "so are you nakie" to be included in cop shows, just for realism. If only the cops were busting the Hummer-driving jerk who made a poor......

Halloween is Tuesday, which means this weekend is really the time for all of the –ists to celebrate. And whether they’re designing super-spooky costumes or talking about the super-spooky upcoming elections, we’d say that they’re doing a fine job of it. Austinist knows that few things in life are scarier than zombies, people with way too much money, and politicians who try too hard to be funny. Slightly less scary, depending on whom you......

The internets is some crazy shit. Bloggers across the country were all atwitter yesterday over the latest low-res camera phone pictures coming out of the Old 97's show last Friday at Stubb's. There is no way, in the midst of his page turning (...too soon?), that disgraced Representative Mark Foley would take the time (or have the nerve) to travel 1,500 miles to catch the Dallas alt-country band...no matter how much Rhett Miller shakes his......

THURSDAY [12] music • FactoryPeople turns 3, and they're throwing a whole weekend's worth of awesome activities, starting with DJs sets by DFA Records' Juan McLean and Tim Sweeney at FactoryPeople (7-10pm) ® music • DFA Records artists Juan McLean and Tim Sweeney at Whisky Bar (10pm-2am, $12/$10) ® music • Man Man, Thermals, Oh, Beast! at Emo's ® music • San Saba County at Waterloo Records (5pm) music • San Saba County, Sorta......

"The cameraman was on night duty as we headed to Baltimore. Night duty means you watch the sea for buoys while everyone else sleeps. At 4am he totally spaced out and we crashed into a buoy. I wish to god we got that on tape, because it was super chaotic. We thought we were goin' down, the boat spun around, and then everything was very quiet. After that moment, I think we all descended into sea madness over the next couple of days."...

One of the most well-known and influential political bloggers in America, Markos Moulitsas of The Daily Kos, will be at MonkeyWrench Books tonight to discuss Crashing The Gate. (And, word is Markos will be heading over to The Parlor for some pints and pie after the presentation.) The book is a scathing look at how the Republican party has failed Americans and how, in turn, the Democratic party has failed to step up to the......