RSO [Registered Sex Offender], follows the unenviable life of one ex-convict, played by newbie Gabriel McIver, who must reintegrate into a world that has indefinitely deemed him a social leper. He must deal with all of the minutiae that all of these other sad, pitiful, white males that we love to capture on film must deal with, but with the dark cloud of criminal damnation hovering somewhere just above his brow, to humorous effect. We don't know what he did (just yet) but we are guessing that, in his case, the punishment and repulsion may not fit the crime....

Two months ago, we let you know about the Austin Chronicle's annual Short Story contest, open to aspiring writers from Texas and the world. This Wednesday, the winners will be unveiled at a BookPeople gala, catered by Austin Java. ...

Rogue Wave released their third full-length Asleep At Heaven’s Gate last year, leaving behind the safe haven of Sub Pop to find a new home at Jack Johnson’s Brushfire Records. The album itself found the band conjuring up a textured mosaic of pop harmonies and poignant lyrics with the aid of sufficient guitars and keys. “Own Your Own Home” and “Like I Needed” were two of our favorite sleeper tracks of the past year, while single “Lake Michigan” was a lush pop hit never to be heard on everyday FM radio. (Watch the video on YouTube.)...

• Londonist pondered who might be the next sponsors of the London Eye and whether or not readers would be willing to donate £1,000 each for a Londonist Eye.
• Shanghaiist was shocked to find a cameltoe in the city's only English-language paper.
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Continue Reading "Week Around the -Ists"

If you’re an aspiring writer, you might want to find some time between holiday parties this weekend to brush up your best short story. The Austin Chronicle’s sixteenth annual Short Story Contest closes on Monday. Winners split $1,500 and get published. ...

Photo by Herald H. Schoeder courtesty of Essay RecordingsSHANTEL What’s the Deal: Finally, some club music that doesn’t make you want to club yourself for being so easily convinced into going “clubbing.” In case you missed them on NPR’s All Songs Considered, which everyone should be listening to, Shantel & Bucovina Club Orkestar is comprised of German electronica master Shantel and an ensemble of Balkan sounds. The result of this mix of electronic beats and......

The Paramount presents White ChristmasDecember 9th, 11th and 12thParamount Theater (713 Congress Avenue)$7 / $5 Children, Students and Seniors, 7pm-ish, Tickets available at the box office day of show[info]Being that we live in a heat belt where it is not uncommon to see kids raking leaves in tank tops and jorts on Christmas Day (seriously, we've done it...well, not the jorts part), dreaming of a white Christmas is something that we are intimately familiar......

Image by LuiSFher Gallo via Cafe Tacvba’s MySpace Cafe TacvbaThursday, December 6La Zona Rosa (612 W. 4th Street)$40, Doors at 7pm, Show at 8pm[info] | [tickets]Pop quiz: name a band that has won multiple Grammys, performed on MTV Unplugged, been compared favorably to Radiohead, played three encores at a recent Lollapalooza, and headlined to 170,000 people at Mexico City's Palacio de los Deportes. If you're thinking U2 or Coldplay, we couldn't blame you. But the......

Intelligence reports now reveal that Iran is *not* making a nuclear bomb. Remains to be seen whether this will make a difference to Bush, who just doesn't like the cut of their jib. Damn! What is it with the Senate and thirteen-year-old boys? Brad Pitt, perhaps in a contest with Angie to see who can adopt the most people, takes the entire Lower Ninth Ward under his wing. Two popular musicians were recently murdered......

Photo from MySpace Jose Gonzalez w/ Cass McCombsThursday, November 29The Parish Room (214 East Sixth Street)$20 presale, doors at 8, all ages show[info] | [tickets]If left to your own Texan devices, it would be easy to assume that world-famous guitarist/heartthrob José González came from somewhere south of the Rio Grande, or perhaps even from Austin's own bustling music scene. But, luckily, you don't have to rely on your own devices. And that means that when......

Photo by Aubrey Edwards The Octopus Project with Horse+Donkey and Cue at Emo’sFriday, November 16Emos (603 Red River St)Outside, Doors at 8 p.m., Show at 10 p.m., [info]The Octopus Project have recently been galloping across the country, showing off the material from their new album, Hello, Avalance, out on Peek-a-Boo records. Tonight, however, the gang's back in Austin to wrap up the tour with a hometown show at Emo's. The new album sounds a bit......

Image by David Clearly from Myspace The Swell Season with Martha WainwrightThursday, November 15Stubbs (801 Red River)$23, doors at 6:30 p.m.[info]If you loved the romantic indie musical Once, head to Stubb’s early tonight to see the movie recreated live by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová. In the film, Hansard, Irish frontman of The Frames, and Irglová, a Czech singer and pianist, played two musicians that fall for each other in song. As The Swell Season,......

Image from MySpace Trans Am, My Education @ MohawkThursday, Nov. 15The Mohawk (912 Red River)9 PM, All ages, $8[info] | [tickets]It's unfriggingbelievable that these guys are on tour with Tool right now. Seriously, it doesn't seem like it was that long ago, standing in crowded bar somewhere, listening to a song called "Ballbados", feeling like there must not be that many people in the world that want to hear instrumental, testosterone-driven synth-rock performed by some......

Image from Wild Sweet Orange’s MySpace, by Jason Wallis The Whigs & Wild Sweet OrangeThursday, November 15Stubbs (801 Red River)$10 | Doors 10:30 p.m. | Inside[info] | [tickets] | [The Whigs MySpace] | [Wild Sweet Orange MySpace]Wild Sweet Orange are in town this Thursday at Stubb’s to offer introspective dream-pop from their recently released The Whale EP, as well as their upcoming full-length for Canvasback Music. The Birmingham, Alabama act’s “Ten Dead Dogs” was featured......

Image from Team Fabrication’s MySpace Emo’s is just one of the places you could be this Friday evening. Local experimental act, The Octopus Project released their latest full-length, Hello, Avalance on Peek-A-Boo Records last month and will be providing nuggets of electronic mayhem from the new album and past releases, no doubt. Cue and Horse+Donkey round off this bill of unique Austin acts on the outside stage. Inside at Emo’s, Those Peabodys will be on......

photo courtesy of Brazil’s abril.com Jens Lekman w/ Kristi RaeNovember 14, 2007The Parish Room (214 East Sixth Street)$10 presale, Doors at 8[info]With boyish charm and a silken voice, Swedish sensation Jens Lekman will play some songs tonight at The Parish Room. Plenty of those songs are sure to come from Night Falls Over Kortedala, a critically-praised (Pitchfork gave it a 9.0, for God's sake) collection of ornate and catchy-in-that-old-timey-way pop. And, for good measure, we......

Image from www.homeslicepizza.com Home Slice-O-RamaSaturday, November 17Home Slice Pizza (1415 South Congress)Noon-6pm, Admission is free; booths, games and drinks cost tickets. All carnival proceeds to benefit Young Texans Against Cancer[info] The delicioso crew at Home Slice Pizza will celebrate their second year of slinging perfecto pizza by hosting a back yard carnival on Saturday, with all proceeds benefiting Young Texans Against Cancer. Here's what's on tap: • An old school pizza eating contest to win......

Dear Pillow poster by Rob Jones Dear Pillow DVD Release PartyMonday, November 12thAustin School of Film8pm, Free, Beer and snacks provided[info]Austin-made indie favorite Dear Pillow will hit the shelves tomorrow in DVD form (courtesy of Heretic Films), and tonight the Austin School of Film will host a party to celebrate the occasion. Written and Directed by Bryan Poyser (who we interviewed about his latest short Grammy's during SXSW), Dear Pillow tells the story of a......

Image courtesy of The Pinker Tones’ MySpace The Pinker TonesTuesday, November 13Beauty Bar (7th St. at Red River)$5, 11 p.m.[info] The Pinker Tones had to cancel their show at the Mohawk in July but the Barcelona based duo of Mister Furia (Salvador Ray) and Professor Manso (Alex Llovet) return to Austin this Tuesday, fresh on the heels of a new remix record titled More Colours!. The Pinker Tones have two prior full-lengths, and compositions for......

Image from the Pipettes MySpace. the Pipettes with Nicole Atkins and the SeaWednesday, November 7The Parish Room (214 East Sixth Street)$12 in advance, All Ages, Door at 8 p.m.[info] | [tickets]Get your 1960s retro fix with the Pipettes, headlining tonight at the Parish Room. The self-aware manufactured 1960s girl group vibe is somehow much more fun than it sounds, and the Pipettes won our hearts when they put out that deadpan Beyond the Valley of......

unattributed press photo Regina Spektor at Stubb’sTuesday, November 6thStubbs [map]$22.50 SOLD OUT, doors at 7[venue info][Regina Spektor Website][MySpace]Tonight, Russian import and all-around cutie Regina Spektor will deliver her charming sense of humor and attitudinous tunes to Stubb’s. And if it feels like she was just here, it’s because she pretty much was, with an evening position at the Austin City Limits Festival followed up by an intimate performance for her ACL show taping—both of these......

Before Fun Fun Fun Fest begins on Saturday, the good folks at Club DeVille are gathering the troops for one heck of a kick-off party. On Friday night, Robbers On High Street will play the versatile venue and we want you there. Sure, you might have won a contest or two in your lifetime but this special giveaway includes a dinner with Robbers On High Street, provided by the wonderful people at Lambert's. The......

If you had the opportunity to tell the world your deepest, darkest secret, would you? Would you do it if you could reveal these feelings behind the anonymity of a postcard? That's the idea Frank Warren had in 2004 when he created PostSecret as a community art project in Washington D.C. The website, which has received multiple awards, now takes in roughly three million new visitors a month and has been visited by over 100......

Galactic brings its annual Halloween bash back to Stubb’s this Wednesday for a grand ole time powered by the band’s funk, jazz and hip hop medleys. Since vocalist Theryl “Houseman” DeClouet left the New Orleans outfit a few years ago, Galactic have largely returned to their days of extensive instrumental jam sessions while also continuing to receive vocal support from the likes of Lyrics Born and Gift Of Gab from Blackalicious. This year’s Galactic......

Highlights for this week: The Royal Family bids adieu to the east side with a giant Halloween bash, featuring DJ sets by Stay Gold, a costume contest, and a whopping 75% off the entire store inventory The Blanton Museum of Art opens up afterhours on Friday for its monthly B scene, with art from the American West and music by the Unfortunate Heads and DJ Spooky Texas Fun Fun Fun Fest takes over Waterloo Park......

No worries if you haven't paid Helmet any mind since the mid-nineties: the band's potent blend of post-hardcore riffing and sarcastic, smart-stupid lyrics made Page Hamilton and Co. underground stars, but it also unwittingly helped usher in the IQ-lowering hordes of nu-metal that sent heavy music into a self-loathing free fall at the turn of the century. That does not, however, discount the fact that Helmet was-and is-one of the most formidable acts in hard......

Montreal based outfit Stars has managed to capture our heart every time we take in their pop melodies and poignant lyricism. Amy Millan and Torquil Compbell are true stars, countering each other perfectly with crisp vocal delivery, while crystal clear production on the band’s recordings complemented by immaculate instrumentation make for a mighty fine final product. The band has two releases to be proud of this year -- Stars released In Our Bedroom After The......

KLRU-TV will be taping an episode of Austin City Limits this Thursday with singer-songwriter (and guitarist extraordinaire) John Mayer. These days, the Grammy Award-winning artist routinely plays to packed amphitheaters and festival audiences. For die-hard Mayer fans, seeing him at the intimate ACL studios with its capacity of a few hundred and incredible acoustics is an opportunity not to be missed. That being said, your only chance to win a pair of space-available tickets* is......

Pflugerville band students participate in contest with loaned instruments after bus carrying students and instruments was hit by drunk driver over the weekend. Construction slowing down at some downtown condo projects? We admit to driving a little fast on Chestnut; neighborhood residents ask drivers to take it slow. City leaders are hoping that local retailers will phase out plastic bags in a year. Will this lead to an official city ban on plastic bags?......

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......