Chinese petroleum company PetroGas set to become world's largest company by market value, surpassing ExxonMobil. Interesting gender-bender story from the Middle East... Mac users now entering the cross-hairs of the computer virus world...at least, the naughty Mac users (for shame!). Canadian study: P2P-file sharing actually INCREASES music purchasing? But how can this be?? Most Earthlings are ready to make sacrifices for the planet's environment, BBC study says. Is the next American economic recession on......

Now that the summer rains are finally over, progress on the new Mueller Redevelopment is proceeding at a swift pace. With the credit crunch from the sub-prime market slowing new home construction in many parts of the country and foreclosures rising rapidly, it remains to be seen whether Austin really is as immune as some analysts predict, or is merely a bubble looking for a pin. If you can't view the Flash slideshow above,......

Lions held their own recently amidst a who’s who of Texas talent at the 2007 Wall Of Sound Festival. The Austin act was one of the few to make sense of the commotion that was Stage 3, generating incessant guitar riffs supplemented by vocalist Matt Drenik’s energy and howls to successfully satisfy a somewhat disgruntled crowd. The no-nonsense rock n’ roll band brings its brand new album, No Generation (produced at The Bubble Studio), and......

aGLIFF Aferparty Preview Midnight Opening Night Party featuring special guest Rev. Troy Perry, founder of MCC and star of the opening night film, Call Me Troy Friday, September 28th @ Austin City Hall 9pm-Midnight Centerpiece Film Afterparty Saturday, September 29 @ Club de Ville 10pm Art Party Thursday, October 4 @ Arthouse 10pm-Midnight Closing Night Party Saturday, October 6 @ AMoA Downtown 10pm-Midnight The annual Austin Gay and Lesbian International Film Festival (aGLIFF) is......

Childlike optimism and one recording artist's poetic ponderings have inspired two local artists to create vivid new works on display at the East Austin gallery, Art Palace. Artistic friends Eric Gibbons and Nathan Green have teamed up to create the new exhibit,“Lasers in the Jungle," which opens Saturday. Gibbons' whimsical portraits pay homage to one of his music idols. "It comes from a lot of Paul Simon listening," he admits. "I have an affinity for......

Believe It or Not: My Bloody Valentine reuniting for Coachella 2008? Last weekend, the American Psychological Association rejected a moratorium that would have prevented its member psychologists from participating in interrogations at U.S. detention centers in Guantanamo Bay and secret CIA "black sites" around the world. Venetian Macao Aims to Transform Chinese Gambling Enclave Into Full-Fledged Resort City. Leslie Feist, joined onstage by members of Broken Social Scene, The New Pornographers, Grizzly Bear, The......

Kurt Vonnegut was the little booger hanging on the up-turned nose of literature. He kept the sci-fi and fantasy genre from getting too one-dimensional, and he helped reel the “literary world” back in from too much self-aggrandizement. For decades his cynical humor and desperate energy pulled at the spindly awkward adolescent us, and gave us something we could claim as our own. He got us to suspend our disbelief and see the same-old same-old......

Black Nasty Feed From Me It's hard not to start by saying "This music is totally offensive, completely cringe-worthy, and absolutely not appropriate in almost any situation you can imagine." There, we didn't start by saying that. Feed From Me is a maxi single (not an EP, CD or regular single, these are different times, folks) with ten songs that push the boundaries of what most normal people consider music. Influenced by the olden days......

WEDNESDAY [11] books • JoAnna Barrett presents The Men's Guide to the Women's Bathroom at BookPeople (7:00pm) film • Texas Doc Tour: "Fish Kill Flea" at Alamo Downtown film • Open Screen Night at Alamo Downtown film • Weird Wednesdays: "Marta" at Alamo Downtown film • Jim Jarmusch Film Series: "Dead Man" at Alamo Village film • "Babe" Organic Vegetarian Feast at Alamo Village film/discussion • Screening of Israeli film director Eytan Fox's "Walk......

A British accent could get you everywhere. Rally your sweet Peeps for Easter. If you don't have a sifter or a whisk, forget about it. Happy Birthday to bubble wrap - relieving stress for over 50 years. Good news: slobs are more productive. Obama is winning the Presidential race on YouTube. Looks like the ugly ones might want to aim for a plea bargain. The TSA says no to nail clippers, but lets a......

There’s always a group of youth, every three years or so, who is “on the cusp of DOING something!” Something amazing. Massive in potential scope! Probably artistic and important! Maybe even important on a national if not international scale!...

Clipse Hell Hath No Fury The bubble has burst. Ever since 50 Cent turned bullet wounds into a marketing bonanza—it really wasn’t that long ago, was it?—artists in the loosely defined subgenre known as “coke rap” have been falling all over themselves to convince suburban America that they sold more drugs, shot more people, and spent more time in jail than whoever happens to be selling records that week. The situation is so far gone......

Okay then. I’m not going to launch into some worthless tirade about Texas weather, but I will say that it is seriously fucking with my sleep. Well, it’s joining forces with other less-pleasant elements to turn my private slumberland into a deranged dreamscape that would likely force Snake Pliskin to gouge out his last functioning eye. ...

Last week, Austin's American Repertory Ensemble (ARE) was in the land of fried Snicker bars, indiscernible drunkards, and the largest fringe performance festival in the world. (Read: Edinburgh, Scotland.) Everything was laughs and lager until the terrorists got involved. After British police arrested 21 people suspected of planning to blow up a dozen planes with liquid explosives, the UK banned all carry-on items. No more laptops. No more zit cream. No more safe passage......

Ah, smart theatre. Clever people making good decisions – articulating concepts effectively and concisely without any messy spills or sloppy emotional baggage. For better, and (occasionally) for worse, Coda Project’s production of The Play About The Baby is most definitely theatre of the intelligent variety. Firstly, they’ve chosen an incredibly clever script. It’s no surprise that Baby’s creator, Edward Albee, is sometimes referred to as the “best living American playwright”. True or not, there’s......

Sometimes you need to clean yourself up, get serious, and move in with daddie for a few months before you head to Latin America for a new gig. The District bid's Jenna Bush adios. D.C.-based television shows have an elderly audience and DCist has some suggestions to fix that. They're also throwing Butterstick the panda bear a birthday bash. Yeah, we may have a few issues with our World Cup broadcasters here, but this guy......

It looks like we were hornswoggled by the fake announcement earlier this week from Jeff Mangum (Neutral Milk Hotel, Elephant Six Collective), announcing an upcoming album and tour dates. In an E6 message board posting, Fakey McMotherFaker claimed that new material might be on the way, and went on to ramble about giant eggs and Michael Bolton and other crazy things. Hell, even Pitchfork was all conflicted 'n shit, first saying that Kelly Ruberto from......

When you’re in your mid-twenties everything seems so damn important. And by everything, we mean everything that happens to you, everything you think, everything you desire or fear. The stakes are seemingly always raised, and as the 1/3-life crisis approaches, melodrama can be ubiquitous. You later realize that most of the drama and anxiety is self-imposed. By failing to make hard choices or take responsibility for our actions, we perpetuate a world of confused emotions......

This Saturday, our preferred HQ, Progress Coffee is throwing an Indie-pop dance party with DJ Mel, Household Names, Go Nova, Black Before Red and Benko. We're really looking forward to dancing in the streets at this one, and we love that they have added that "Pink attire is suggested." We rise to any occasion that we can sport our pink threads which will go splendidly with Progress's bubble machine and pink lights. Beer and......

We're running a quick giveaway contest for the "Comedians of Comedy," happening at Emo's tonight! Simply be the first to send us an email and you're in. Update: Congrats, Sonia! From their website: A new wave of creative, risk-taking comedians are coming out of Los Angeles, New York, and cities all over America. Tired of shopworn premises, hack punchlines, and impersonal comedy, these so-called "alternative" comedians are the vanguard of what stand-up comedy will become......

Another week, another steaming batch of new movie releases. What’ll it be, folks? Big Momma’s House 2 Martin Lawrence, your pigeonhole is waiting for you. *Nanny McPhee The new Mary Poppins - only uglier, and with more children. Starring Emma Thompson and brooding hottie Colin Firth. Supposedly this movie is doing very well in the UK. We could make a joke about unattractive British people here, but we’re far too classy for that. Annapolis......

The local housing market continued its rapid growth last month, increasing over 30% versus the same time last year. Coupled with the slowly rising mortgage rates, Austinist thinks this is potentially bad news for those looking to buy a place in town. From the Austin Business Journal: Keeping in step with an Austin housing uptick, October 2005 single family home sales jumped almost 30 percent over the same period last year. According to the......

We will give you seven reasons to head over to Emo’s this Friday. 1. It is Loxsly’s CD release show. After becoming a full fledged band over the past year, Loxsly has matured (literally) into quite the local boy band. Cody Ground and his bubble-pop brigade are set to self-release Maps + Organs, which expands on their 2003 Forecast a Brainstorm release which was mostly just Cody messing around with his electro-pop sound. When......

Reader Alison writes: What exactly is an aquifer? I'm always entering some kind of aquifer and don't know what the heck they are. But damn, those aquifers and watersheds, or whatever, are all over the place. To summarize all of the definitions we found, an aquifer is an underground body of water. Ever heard of an Artesian Well? Sounds sexy, doesn’t it? The marketing departments of certain bottled water companies seem to think so.......

Just a reminder for you Thursday night dance party seekers that Teleportdoor is now having its elctroclash dance night, Surveillance, at the Karma Lounge every Thursday. So find some time to sneak away from your scheduled Whiskey Bar tonight to hear the bubble-gum electro-pop teen-beat heartthrob goodness that is Loxsly followed by the darker new wave sounds of The Chapters. DJs New Berlin + Care Clusaki are sure to keep you clashing all night......