A couple of weeks ago, I blogged about the uplifting and relaxing experience of taking my son to court for truancy. Brief recap: In Texas, if, say, your seventeen year old child, who lives independently, takes care of himself, buys his own food and gas and concert tickets, owns his own car, and demonstrates daily acts of thoughtfulness, compassion and general total-duded-ness, decides that having to attend chemistry first period is not part of his Desired Life Experience, and if, say, he does this forty-seven times in a row, there’s a very good chance that you, the parent, will find yourself in a court case titled State of Texas vs. Henry’s Mom....

Here's your chance! In conjunction with Maker Faire, HEYA (Toyota's collaborative youth program) is hosting an interactive art car build with Harrod Blank, art-car artist extraordinaire. Blank is the dude behind the Camera Van, which will be cruising through central Austin tomorrow—so get out your, uh, cameras. The build will run throughout the weekend, and anyone attending Maker Faire can participate. The goal is to transform a Toyota Matrix into a "music-themed piece of art......

We've heard of grocery stores accepting rivals' coupons, but this is a first for us: Waterloo Records takes chain competitors' gift certificates and cards! From their email sent out earlier today: Have you received a gift certificate or card* from a national chain store that carries music or video (Walmart, Best Buy, Target, Circuit City, Borders, Barnes & Noble, FYE, etc.)? Do you prefer to shop locally, or maybe you'd like something out of......

Nine Inch Nails, on tour in support of their new (fantastic) album, With Teeth, will be playing tonight at Stubb's. Their opening band is The Dresden Dolls, about whom we've known for a while, thus making us cool. But cool is not the same as concert tickets, a fact about which we are very sad. Ironically, the birth of this very web site is what kept us from purchasing those highly coveted little pieces......