Even after the sketch comedy gem The State was grounded prematurely (and where’s that DVD already?) it hasn’t stopped Michael Showalter or Ian Black from bounding into many more comedic projects in the ensuing years....

Photo by hamron on flickr 48 cats rescued from deplorable conditions in Rescuties' founder's home earlier this month; a judge is allowing her to keep 3 of them and recommended psychological counseling. Capitol One will not be buying Austin-based business NetSpend for $700 million as was planned, but will buy a minority share of the company. Work starts on making Cesar Chavez fully 2-way. Starting this week and going through January 1, APD will be......

Watch the northeastern sky at 7:06pm tonight for the shuttle. Austin ad firm GSD&M loses part of the AT&T account. Statesman has a story on the split between LBJ High School and the magnet school housed therein. Crimestoppers looking for a man who followed a woman home from HEB and attempted to rob her earlier this month. Someone is mutilating cats in the San Antonio area. $3,000 from the feds isn't enough to convince......

Austinist recently had the opportunity to talk with Zell Miller III about his upcoming show Hip Hop Theater Explosion!. Miller was this year's winner of the Mark David Cohen New Play Award for his work My Child, My Child, My Alien Child. He received critical acclaim for last year's B-Boy Bluez, and packed houses the previous year for his phenomenal Evidence of Silence Broken. Now he's showcasing Austin's best and brightest hip-hop talent in what......

Just moved out of the family house and feeling lonely? Living in an apartment that won't allow dogs? Maybe you need a cat. Throughout the month of July, the Austin Humane Society and Town Lake Animal Center have lowered the adoption fee for cats to $35. This fee covers vaccination, microchipping, de-worming, flea/tick treatment, as well as spay/neuter procedure (if applicable). At this low cost, how can you pass this deal up? Even some......

Last Friday, Pets America delivered pet oxygen masks to City Hall; there are enough so that 100 local emergency vehicles can be outfitted with sets of three masks (cat, small dog and large dog). The funds for this project were raised in cooperation with Tomlinson's Pet Supplies, Lowe's, the Austin Community Foundation, and individual donors. Austinites helped raise over $5,500 to help save the lives of cats and dogs in need of oxygen in......

It is odd how a man believes he can think better in a special place. Many Austinites dreamed that Mueller would be their special place. Most of those dreams are crashing against the brick wall of reality. Mueller was supposed to be a green-urbanist dream: an affordable neighborhood near downtown where residents could walk to retail and commercial space and public transportation, where you could paint your house any stupid color you want and......

Austin Pets Alive!, a local organization working to hinder pet overpopulation, is hosting a fundraiser tonight. Their Pet Friend of the Year, Tom Spencer from KLRU, will be feted, and State Rep. Eddie Rodriguez and City Councilmember Lee Leffingwell will make appearances. The money raised tonight will benefit a group that promotes spaying/neutering services to the Austin community. Austin resolved to become a "no kill" city in the 90s, but in 2005, over half......

It was a dark night. The scene: A tanning salon, closed up for the night. The cats: An old man and a teenage boy, both dressed in black burglar outfits, only their eyes showing through their wool ski masks. “Jonesy, what’s the plan?” asked the youth to the old man. “Sheddup! And keep cool, Jack! We’re gonna score man, but first we gotta climb up through that window, dig?” He took the last drag......

It's the Saturday Hatha instructor at YogaYoga South, or Orange Hat Bike Messenger guy. It's one of the Lone Star Rollergirls, or your favorite coffee house employee. It's your local secret crush. After spending many fruitless mornings skulking around Whole Foods, trying to meet the elusive "cute red-haired guy who works the (Whole Foods) counter up North," we move on to an entirely different Crush-Out request in the interest of keeping them coming. He's a......

You probably know actor Curtis Armstrong best as the vulgar, grubby, utterly lovable anti-frat boy character Booger from the 1980s teen comedy series Revenge of the Nerds. So you may be surprised to find out that in real life, Armstrong is articulate, cultured and polite - and that he’s one of the world’s foremost experts on pop songwriter Harry Nilsson. This Saturday, Armstrong will be visiting Austin to host a screening of Nilsson’s 1971 film......

Oh no. Ohio. Again. In Tokyo, people pay to hang out in houses filled with cats. (Real cats, not Sanrio ones.) A crooked sports agent (think Jerry Maguire, before he met the girl with the annoying kid) is charged with smuggling potential Cuban ballplayers into the US on go-fast boats. (It's an interesting story, but mostly we just wanted to have the chance to drop "go-fast boats" into a sentence. Try it! Addictive.) Gmail......

Here's what's new this week: The Walkmen Pussy Cats Starring the Walkmen (Record Collection) When John Lennon and Yoko Ono took a break in 1974, the former jumped into the studio with pals Ringo Star, Keith Moon and Harry Nilsson (among others) to produce Pussy Cats, a fascinating mix of classic tunes and originals arranged primarily by Nilsson and Lennon. Misunderstood and bizarre, Pussy Cats is the ultimate buddy album for music geeks with......

Remember that Lazy Sunday parody you did after you couldn’t get The Chronic-what-cles of Narnia out of your head? Or the remake of the Sabotage video you did using your old Starsky & Hutch action figures? Well, funny guy/gal, Cap City Comedy Club and the Austin Film Festival have synergized to give you the chance to flex your inner Benigni with the Funniest Filmmaker in Austin Competition! Get your funniest film on tape and send......

Admit it, you’ve always wanted to film that little story about the kid you knew back in elementary school who used to strip for quarters and once ate dried and chalky cat poop for a dollar. You’d set it up like a “and look how they turned out now” piece where he owns fifteen Kentucky Fried Chicken outlets, married his semi-retarded cousin-in-law, sees more butt-play from Brazilian Swimwear Models than you’ve had hot meals,......

Well I've kicked around a lot since high school I've worked a lot of nowhere gigs From keyboard man in a rock'n ska band To haulin' boss crude in the big rigs Now I've come back home to plan my next move From the comfort of my Aunt Faye's couch When I see my little cousin Janine walk in All I could say was ow-ow-ouch CHORUS: Honey how you've grown Like a rose Well we......

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......

San Francisco is proud host of a new reality show called "How to Get the Guy" that's unfortunately not a descendant of Will and Grace, Queer Eye, The L Word, American Idol etc. Also a biodefence lab is coming to the East Bay and SFist teaches wine pairing. Getting on the wrong train sucks. Getting on the wrong train and becoming the victim of what will later be described as a "stabbing spree" really sucks.......

New York/California indie rock trio We Are Scientists are one of the most entertaining bands around, in part because of their punchy pop-punk sound but even more because of their offbeat sense of humor: on the official W.A.S. website, the lanky lads offer an advice column, in which they tackle all manners of ridiculous problems from fans ("I'm worried about the size of my cat's penis/the other cats are laughing"), and also frequently update a......

The propaganda machine is running at maximum capacity. Priests calling from their pulpits for book-and-film-banning in churches around the globe, and for a New World Government that prohibits the public from reading and seeing what they wish, all in the name of God. The devout, standing on the hilltops in white robes, proclaiming violent opposition to the lies propogated by The Wicked and demanding the repentance of all sinners. Vagrants in the street waving......

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......

Ms. Kat Candler's most recent effort, Jumping Off Bridges, fresh from its premiere at SXSW, has another screening at the Alkek Theater in San Marcos Friday, April 21st. In this next long sentence we would like to tell you that in addition to Jumping Off Bridges you can also view Rescue Me, a documentary by fellow Storie Productions principle, Stacy Schoolfield. According to their website, in Rescue Me, "profiles of animal rescue volunteers raise the......

An employee of the Travis County sheriff’s department attacked a photojournalist yesterday after leaving a Williamson County court hearing for animal cruelty charges. Mike Truman, a security coordinator, no less, for the department and his wife were facing charges of animal cruelty after animal control had to remove 11 dogs and 3 cats from their house. KXAN photog Julie Karam was at the couple’s house attempting to get footage of the accused, when Truman......

Another Sunday afternoon searching for Missed Connections, to no avail. Although it was no surprise that Austinist found plenty of posts to share with our readers. Wanted: Green Tree Frog During a recent visit to my parents in Austin, I made the mistake of using the toilet in the guest bathroom. I was somewhat asleep when a green tree frog decided to jump on my manberries from his hiding place under the rim of......

We caught up with Independent gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman recently to discuss the upcoming election and why he wants primary voters to save themselves for him. As you would imagine, Kinky did most of the talking. We found him to be thoughtful, engaging and funny. What follows are highlights of that interview for which we used Kinky’s song titles as subject headers.* *The first reader to email us with the names of the three......

Earlier this week kissy couples were wading through roses and red tissue paper deeper than an east coast snow dump and singles shook a tiny, lonely fist (no ring!) at it all. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 - Valentine's season is in the can, finally. Austinist is already pulsing with SX energy and posting on the People's Choice Award nominees and the short films that will be playing while the......

For years now we have been over -inundated with salt & pepper haired men throwing cats through tire swings or sitting in hot tubs at dusk, frisky as hell, waiting for all that pharmacologically-inspired blood to rush to their johnsons as the missus sits by nervously, er, eagerly, waiting for her gravity-caught-up-to spare-tire-having lover to regain his vigor and mount her like the wild (and loving) animal he once was for a few weeks......

It turns out that the destruction and devastation wrought by Katrina may be a boon for the Austin music scene. Through a great article by Michael Corcoran in today’s Statesman, we have come to learn that a slew of New Orleans’ musicians have relocated to Austin, some permanently. And several of the bands and artists have already lined-up gigs. The Iguanas will be playing the Continental Club on Monday nights; Big Sam from the......

The Humane Society of Austin has organized a relief effort for pets of Katrina evacuees. By calling the special Hurricane Pet Hotline at 512-646-PETS, The Humane Society can help find temporary placement for pets in need or provide supplies to those without. Austinites can volunteer to man the phone bank, foster pets, or provide supplies like food. Call 512-837-7985 for more information. FYI, our picture is of Molly Mocha. To adopt her or other......

A few month's ago we sold our tiny house in North Loop and leaped across Lamar to rent an even tinier house in Brentwood. The official parameters of Brentwood are North Lamar and Burnet to the East and West, and Justin Lane and 45th Street to the North and South, but much like Hyde Park and other neighborhoods the lines tend to get stretched and muddled. We were fond of the North Loop area.......