Photo by Pat Rioux on flickr Wanna see the Cowboys game tonight and don't know anyone with the NFL network? Local sports bars are getting ready for what could be their busiest night this year. Former Chester's site to house a community-service-oriented Christian congregation. Currently only one in five 5th graders who fail the TAKS are made to repeat the grade. Father of UT student killed in 1996 accident doesn't think the driver needs to......

Image provided by Soundcheck MagazineWhile attending the University of Texas at Austin, one faces a constant barrage of “the weekend starts on Thursday” type advertisements. Although largely for exposure of Thursday night drink specials at bars on 6th Street, the intrinsic appeal of that statement bleeds through on days like these. Kick off your weekend early (and gently) with Swedish singer-songwriter José González at The Parish or dance away at the Electric Six show at......

Between now and January, New Release Tuesday will focus on 2007 reflections and music news related to both this year's releases and 2008's potential. The standard NRT posts will resume in 2008. As 2007 winds down, most of the Internet begins to consider their favorite releases of the last twelve months. Austinist is no different: our top albums of 2007 (a collective list based on all the writers' top picks) is in the works.......

Image from AmericanApparel.netAustin will move three steps closer to becoming Southern California a real city a place where you can try on those high-waisted hot shorts and shiny tights before buying them with the opening of three new American Apparel locations (two real stores in Austin and an outlet in Round Rock). The first location will be on the Drag at 2316 Guadalupe, which is good news, because there are few things as vital to......

Image from Tom Brosseau’s MySpace Nickel Creek & Tom BrosseauSaturday, November 17Stubbs (801 Red River)$25 Advance; Doors 7 p.m.[info] | [tickets] Singer-songwriter Tom Brosseau brings heartfelt lyricism and mellow melodies to Stubb’s on Saturday. Hailing from Grand Forks, North Dakota, Brosseau’s high pitched voice and gentle guitar complement his sincere storytelling perfectly, and has found him at least one fan in a certain Natalie Portman. Portman picked Brosseau’s “Plaid Lined Jacket” (along with tracks by......

Photo by Nash Cook on FlickrFun Fun Fun Fest lived up to its name in spades last weekend, showcasing local and not-so local bands of all genres on three stages in two short days. Day 2 was teeming with talent and intrigue as local acts like I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness, Riverboat Gamblers, Car Stereo (Wars) and Moth!Fight! did their thing, laying the groundwork for an out of town lineup any festival would......

Photo courtesy 31 Corn Lane StitchSaturday, November 10Austin Convention Center (500 E Cesar Chavez Street)Doors at 4pm, Fashion show 9:30pm, Tickets $10[info] | [tickets]31 Corn Lane is all about girls wanting to have fun. It's the brainchild of three sisters—Teeter (the youngest), Amy and Heather Sperber (the latter two are identical twins who rock out with The Boxes). We've loved their pony necklaces, novelty totes and bright floral print belts ever since we saw them......

*The views expressed in Truesday are those of the author and do not represent Austinist as a whole. Thank heavens.* -The Editors H O M O G E N Y. Or so everyone keeps telling me. Like all these damned cat photos you're supposed to go apeshit over.......

Folks heading out to Maker Faire this weekend know to expect robots, catapults, art cars, and other manly machines, but you might not be aware that there're also some pretty things to be found at the faire. We scoped out Liza Eyster's recycled line of jewelry, and liked what we saw. With designs ranging from delicate to chunky, each of her pieces is made of at least 30% recycled materials, including beads, chain segments, findings,......

Fun Fun Fun Fest captured more than a few hearts last December on a cold winter evening with a three-stage-pronged attack that provided ample genres for everyone in attendance. Some of the stand-out acts included Spoon, The Black Angels, The Octopus Project, Peaches, and Prefuse 73. This year, the fest is back, bigger than before, and a month earlier to boot. November 3rd and 4th will see Waterloo Park transformed into a musical carnival featuring......

Fun Fun Fun Fest captured more than a few hearts last December on a cold winter evening with a three-stage-pronged attack that provided ample genres for everyone in attendance. Some of the stand-out acts included Spoon, The Black Angels, The Octopus Project, Peaches, and Prefuse 73. This year, the fest is back, bigger than before, and a month earlier to boot. November 3rd and 4th will see Waterloo Park transformed into a musical carnival featuring......

Among the fun to be had at the upcoming Maker Faire is the King of Fling Contest which you, dear reader, can enter today! What, praytell, is a King of Fling contest? Why, it's a little competition wherein participants vie to be dubbed "the Earl of Hurl, the Count of Catapults, or the Baroness of Ballistas" for creating the hurling machine that most accurately smashes a Bozo Bop Bag with a water balloon. Or a......

Head over to TicketWeb to purchase combo and day passes for this year's FunFunFun Fest at Waterloo Park, November 3-4. In case you haven't noticed yet, or are still recovering from ACL weekend, the Funx3 festivities are top notch: Explosions in the Sky, Cat Power, Battles, Final Fantasy, Girl Talk, Murder City Devils, Neurosis & many more are scheduled to play. Two day passes are $54, and day passes are $30 each. For more......

You may not have noticed, but Maker Faire is just around the corner—less than two weeks away on October 20-21. Among all of the homemade, groovylicious goods, we’re especially excited about the Zimbabwean-style Rattletree Marimba band—playing their gigantic instruments, which are hand-crafted by a band member. We first saw the group while hauling our sweaty, sticky selves home from ACL. Right there on Barton Springs Road, Rattletree was infusing the Heineken-sponsored, AT&T corporate-ness of ACL......

Funnyman Carlos Alazraqui is playing the Cap City Comedy Club this weekend, stating tonight. Familiar to most as Officer James Garcia on Reno 911!, Alazraqui also has a lengthy list of voiceover credits to his name: Nestor in the film Happy Feet, Mr. Crocker on The Fairly Odd Parents, Rocko on Rocko’s Modern Life, and Lube and Winslow on Cat/Dog. Also, perhaps infamously, “Yo Quiero Taco Bell.” We had the chance to chit-chat with Carlos......

Huge Arctic icemelt convinces even some global warming skeptics. Texas oilman pleads guilty to paying Saddam Hussein money in order to gain access to his raw materials. Profits make you do strange things... They found a (very old) former Nazi dog trainer in Georgia. Saber-toothed tiger was more like a bear than a cat. Next time you dress your man down for leaving his clothes on the floor, remind him it's all for your......

José González In Our Nature (Mute) Last year, González talked to us about the never-ending tour schedule, the slow process of songwriting, and how his next record --well, this record-- would focus on the guitar. His first full-length, Veneer, wooed us back in 2003, and though Gonzalez has been touring fairly relentlessly in support of it, he has found time to put together this work, a ten song album that sounds quite similar to......

Violent crime goes up in the US; so do arrests for pot. Apparently, nobody in Iran is gay. Even gay people. It's been fifty years since Little Rock, and now we have Jena. Progress... If Microsoft buys Facebook, will it become lame? Or don't the corporate kids care? India gets meta with the outsourcing. Kiefer Sutherland arrested for DUI. Maybe he's drinking to drown the guilt over his torture-show? Newest sex tape scandal features...Meg......

"When was the last time you saw a stuffed chicken taking phone calls, a mermaid playing an ocean harp, and a burnt-out yet decorated has-been singing to a cat in a litter box?”, asked Rebecca Havemeyer in an email. Um, not in quite some time, we thought to ourselves. She continued, “It’s time to get your pennies and prayers together, boys, because a telethon is coming to Austin!” Rebecca is promoting her Live Telethon Jubilee......

What a difference a year makes—certainly in the case of this fledgling music festival. Last December's inaugural Fun Fun Fun Fest featured over two dozen bands and DJs, and showcased a good variety of indie rock, punk, and electronic music. This year, they've grown even bigger, better, and bolder: the second annual installment will span two days and has been pushed ahead by a month, to November 3rd and 4th. Staying true to their......

Stay tuned this week for full-length review of the latest New Pornographers and Rilo Kiley albums. Caribou Andorra (Merge) Dan Snaith's project formerly known as Manitoba is the realization of a degree in mathematics, numerous electronic gadgets and a nothing if not agile companionship between the past and the present. Though Andorra is the product of Snaith's deft handling of quite modern equipment, the feeling of listening is more nostalgic than expectant. "Melody Day,"......

On Mondays and Thursdays, we syndicate comic strips from around the IST network. If you're an artist and would like to share your works with our readers, please email us. Today we're posting another comic from Washington, D.C.'s The Argyle Academy. It's "a comic strip about a vampire cat named Lionel, a lonely octopus named Matthew, two fireflies in a jar who are constantly breaking up and getting back together, remorseful robots, and other random......

As part of their ongoing investigations in the death of UT fraternity pledge Tyler Cross, who died last November after falling from a fifth story balcony at the University Towers, authorities are ">taking their search to the internets. The Travis County District Attorney's office recently filed a search warrant demanding access to the Google Group archives of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fall 2006 pledge class. In the affidavit, as described by KVUE News, investigators interrogated......

On Mondays, we'll be syndicating comic strips from around the IST network. If you're an artist and would like to share your works with our readers, please email us. Today we're posting another comic from Washington, D.C.'s The Argyle Academy. It's "a comic strip about a vampire cat named Lionel, a lonely octopus named Matthew, two fireflies in a jar who are constantly breaking up and getting back together, remorseful robots, and other random stuff,"......

On Mondays, we'll be syndicating comic strips from around the IST network. If you're an artist and would like to share your works with our readers, please email us. Today we're posting another comic from Washington, D.C.'s The Argyle Academy. It's "a comic strip about a vampire cat named Lionel, a lonely octopus named Matthew, two fireflies in a jar who are constantly breaking up and getting back together, remorseful robots, and other random stuff,"......

Forklift Danceworks marks the upcoming anniversary of Elvis’ death with an homage to the King that includes singing, dancing, and guest Elvis cameos from Jim Swift, Sara Hickman, John Kelso, and Mayor Will Wynn Austinist sponsors a big bash at Beauty Bar with the Turbonego cover band Apocalypse Dudes, DJ Jester the Filipino Fist, and Ernest Gonzales 1906 hosts the opening reception for "SeeSaw," their first-ever photography show, featuring landscapes, portraiture, digitally-manipulated images, and......

Some 300 competitors in 75 teams are set to converge upon Austin next week for the 2007 National Poetry Slam, a five-day competition that will feature some of the country's most talented slam artistry. NPS officially runs from August 7 through August 11th, but event organizers are hosting a series of preview events starting today to showcase some of what you can expect to see at the performances. "We're fortunate to be able to again......

As far as science fiction experiences go, the closest we have ever come to an extra terrestrial is when our cat got tapeworms (if your cat has ever had them, you know what we are talking about) or that time that we visited the meteor crater in Arizona (Hey! Look! It’s a big hole in the ground! That’ll be $15.00.) Truthfully, that’s the closest we need to come to any real life UFOishness as we......

On Mondays, we'll be syndicating comic strips from around the IST network. If you're an artist and would like to share your works with our readers, please email us. Today's inaugural post comes from The Argyle Academy. It's "a comic strip about a vampire cat named Lionel, a lonely octopus named Matthew, two fireflies in a jar who are constantly breaking up and getting back together, remorseful robots, and other random stuff," says its creator,......

I Know Who Killed Me: Oh LiLo, you are such a desperate mess. Shouldn’t the name of this movie be “I Know Who Killed My Career – Me!” There is a joke here somewhere about Lohan portraying a stripper, but we can’t quite put our finger on it…. No Reservations: Yes, Hollywood has absolutely no reservations about continuing to make trite, cliché rom-coms. This one is about two chefs and (GASP!) one of them......