• Why the spectacle of the Super Bowl is a snapshot of our society, aka a "pop culture nexus point."
• Quelle horreur! There weren’t seats for some of the Super Bowl ticket holders! This is ironic, given that it totally wasn’t a problem getting a seat at the first Super Bowl.
• Looking at the Super Bowl commercials with the crazy idea that women are people.

The Austin Center for Design is holding a virtual open house via webcast from 6-7 pm on Thursday. Center director Jon Kolko will talk about this program, which teaches how to apply design thinking to cultural problems. more ›

Kicking off this Wednesday with Bikes Rock at the Parish La Zona Rosa, the 9th Annual BFF will skid into Austin for five days of bike-centric love, including art shows, after-parties, bike polo and, of course, films about bikes and the people that love to ride them. Luckily, we got the chance to exchange emails with Brendt Barbur, the founding director of the Bicycle Film Festival, about why this festival is important, the culture of cycling and, oddly enough, fashion. more ›

Robert Harrison’s forte has always been melodious pop music and his current outfit Future Clouds and Radar is no anomaly. The act’s stellar self-titled album (out now on Star Apple Kingdom) contains boundless hooks and plenty of Beatles-esque psychedelia, and has garnered rave reviews from a plethora of publications such as HARP, Paste, Pop Culture Press, and No Depression. Check out the video for “Dr. No.” here. more ›

With the promise of receiving many gifts in return, this headlong rush into the temples of consumer culture hardly looks like the selfless goodwill to all mankind, but a few bookstores around Austin are offering the opportunity to participate in the truly noble exercise of helping the needy and downtrodden this season. more ›

• GOP voters look at their candidates, say "eh".
• Environmental groups push idea of warning pregnant ladies about caffeine. But what if you want your baby to get a lot of homework done before it comes out?

Photo from ImageAfter Art Fashion photography is gaining more credibility in the art world as of late. Critics prophesy the dilution of fine art in the 21st century, while supporters of the trend assert that fashion is a formative aspect of our modern culture that deserves official recognition in the arts world. /// UT-Austin names the new dean of the College of Fine Arts, Douglas Dempster, to replace the former dean who retired in the... more ›

Promo still from Jaman.com AFS Essentials: Le Vent de la NuitTuesday, December 4thAlamo Drafthouse Downtown (320 E 6th Street)FREE for AFS members, $4 non-members; 7pm[info] | [tickets]Tonight, AFS continues their amazing Phillipe Garrel retrospective with 1999's La Vent de La Nuit (The Wind of the Night), starring the timeless Catherine Deneuve as Hélene, a hot (duh) rich lady driven to distraction by her much younger art-student lover, Paul. Does he really love her for who... more ›

*The views expressed in Truesday are those of the author and do not represent Austinist as a whole. Thank heavens.* -The Editors I don’t want to say that there’s a right way and a wrong way to celebrate The Holidays. That would be foolhardy and dickish. Especially in a city as diversified as this one (we celebrate Christmas AND Thanksgiving!). But something this chick was crying about on NPR this morning got me thinking... more ›

Photo from ImageAfter Starting today, we'll be publishing a weekly roundup of various arts & entertainment news that we've come across. Most of these developments, whether national or international, have a direct relationship with something local, whether it be an organization, individual, or our collective culture. In any case, it's a nice chance to broaden our world view -- a definite bonus (or necessity, some might argue) for a city that revels in creativity! --... more ›

The first U.S. troop cutback in Iraq has officially begun. The tentative working title for this one is "Operation Mistake Acknowledgment." Human rights organization takes the Kenyan police force to task on allegations of mass murder. In order to prevent the "destruction of culture," the French government has outlawed certain forms of P2P downloading. Event is referred to as a "victory" for the recording industry. Oh reeeeally? Economist suggests that we could soon know... more ›

Paris Is Burning DVD Cover Scion Independent Film Series Presents Paris Is BurningWednesday, November 28thAlamo Drafthouse South Lamar (1120 S. Lamar)Free, 9:30PM, RSVP Required[info]The musical stylings of "strike a pose, there's nothing to it", "you better work" and "I'm too sexy" entered our lexicon at a time when we were still sporting a perm and a retainer, so understanding that these pop radio songs were simply a corporatization of an entire underground subculture was far... more ›

(Okay, what I’m about to tell you may not be true. So don’t hold me to it. And anyway, the point of its telling isn’t veracity, but rather the very real fact that it was [justly or un] canonized by bar employees, show goers, and the rest of the whiskey-breath'd throngs of Sixth Street and Red River, circa three or four years ago.) more ›

SFist witnessed a new apartment building tszuj the skyline with spectacular, gaudy turquoise aplomb, the (informal) renaming of the Mission/SOMA neighborhood border, the return of the Maltese Falcon, the Mayor Gavin Newsom mea culpa-ing over his Hawaiian getaway during the oil spill, and double-decker buses hitting the streets of San Francisco. Oh, and some baseball player named Barry Bonds is a liar whose pants, it seems, are totally on fire. LAist continues to cover the... more ›

Alamo Drafthouse Micro Roadshow Presents: TampopoSaturday, November 17thLocation TBA $60, includes movie, dinner and beverages[info] | [tickets]There is a fine line between loving your food and loving your food. Well, actually no, it's a big, fat freakin' line, one which the Japanese are not afraid to catapult themselves over with gusto filled oyster/face licking, giving pork slices the ole' bedroom eyes and even some egg yolk fellatio. (Yes, the school yard taunt "Go suck... more ›

strataTX is a non-profit organization looking to bring together young professionals to support creativity in the arts, culture, and economy. Photos courtesy of Keith Gaddis. If you can't view the Flash slideshow above, an alternate version appears after the jump.... more ›

Image from Austin Asian Film Fest official site Austin Asian Film FestivalThursday November 8 - Sunday November 11Various VenuesAll access badge $30, Individual films $7 / $5 students, AFS, TAA[info]Austin has a mind-blowing number of film festivals. In the last six weeks alone we've had the Austin Film Festival, Fantastic Fest, aGLIFF, The Austin Polish Film Festival and the Dismember the Alamo Zombie Film Fest--all of which were awesome. And beginning tomorrow, we'll have another... more ›

Image from MySpaceBONAPARTE What's the Deal: Chances are slim to none at the moment if you are in the United States and you want to see this odd rock and roll force that's catchy, boisterous and riddled with pop culture references. Bonaparte is the name taken by the project’s mastermind and frontman who is from unknown international origins. His MySpace says he hails from Berlin, but it also claims St. Helena as well as saying... more ›

Boubacar Joseph Ndiaye & Youssou N’Dour at the Maison des Esclaves AFS Presents Return to GoréeTuesday, November 6thAlamo Drafthouse South Lamar (1120 S. Lamar)$4 / Free for AFS members, 7pm[info]The place where my fathers died, return to the land of Gorée, the place where my mothers cried, return to the land of Gorée. – Harmony Harmoneers We'll admit it: our jazz knowledge consists of a couple of Miles Davis and John Coltrane albums mixed with... more ›

For this Week's TWIT, we're revealing the contents of our crystal ball—lurking on the horizon are a one-night-only you do not want to miss, and remounts of two box-office smashes. Jambi says, "Get your tickets now!" The Vortex is hosting, an irresistible, oddball of a show; three German actors, two American actors, and two Austrian video artists (collectively GTA’s Road Theater) are driving cross country (track 'em here), performing Roland Schimmelpfennig's Start Up. In this... more ›

Sugar Cane Alley, the third offering of the current Austin Film Society series Torn From the Motherland: Films from the African Diaspora, introduces us to a young boy named Jose who has grown up in the shanty towns of Martinique. Life in his village has been poor in material possessions, but rich with lessons. He has learned about race relations through his friendship with a child of mixed ethnicity, the bastard son of the Creole... more ›

Editor's Note: Triller is a new column here at Austinist featuring the latest news and goodies from 512's hip hop scene. The views expressed in this column are the author's, and might not reflect the Ist network as a whole. Enjoy! Rap is, by definition, intensely and inescapably local. It’s a music obsessed (some would say overrun) by its culture, and this culture is divided first and foremost by state, then city, then neighborhood, then... more ›

If you ask us, "bling obsession" has long been commercial hip-hop's most shameful component (though we're totally down with the Bling! barbershop quartet). At one time, conspicuous consumption by a historically poor culture might have seemed like powerful social commentary--but now that hip hop is the music industry's cash cow, doesn't a $100,000 necklace just seem completely ridiculous? And is obnoxious ornamentation really worth the cost--not only monetarily, but socially and politically? Next week, as... more ›

Hey, thanks Austin! We're thrilled that you chose us as your 2007 Best of Austin pick for Local "Fun" Web Site. Needless to say, it's a tremendous honor to be recognized two years in a row (last year, we tied with the Chronicle itself for Best Local Entertainment Web Site). We solemnly swear that we'll continue to entertain and, on those lucky occasions, enlighten you with the best in Austin culture and news. And, to... more ›

“Then wolves will live in peace with lambs. And leopards will lie down to rest with goats. Calves, lions and young bulls will eat together. And Reverends will profess their love for leather culture.” The above spin on a few verses from the Book of Isaiah pretty much sums up the Austin Gay and Lesbian International Film Festival’s stellar opening festivities. As expected, there was a strong sense of community that only increased throughout the... more ›

The City of Austin's Cultural Arts Division recently unveiled two new grant programs designed to encourage interaction between local nonprofits, and help out fledgling organizations who might otherwise have difficulty acquiring funding. These "auxiliary" programs are currently accepting applications from nonprofit arts and cultural organizations: The Community Collaborations Funding Program supports community-based arts and cultural projects to collaborations of two or more nonprofit groups. Support varies depending on the project's overall budget, with a maximum... more ›

Tomorrow night, Cine Las Americas presents Víctimas del Pecado (Victims of Sin), an over-the-top slice of Mexican melodrama from 1951 and the second installment in Cine's Sin, Scandal and Song series. There's sin aplenty here (and also really great outfits and hairstyles), courtesy of its setting in postwar Mexico City's red-light district (romanticized in lush black and white cinematography by the legendary Gabriel Figueroa). Amidst all the picturesque seaminess, beautiful cabaret dancer Violeta (Ninón Sevilla)... more ›

Hot Freaks! is a loose affiliation--a cabal, if you will--of international music and culture bloggers, including Dallas' Gorilla Vs. Bear, New York's brooklynvegan, and Toronto's Chromewaves, who have banded together Voltron-style to wreak cross-promotional havoc on the Western blogosphere. Masterminded by Austin promoter John Mascarenhas, Hot Freaks! has put together a lovely set of after-parties for those of us who won't be snarled in post-ACL parking-lot quagmires until midnight. Both events are looking really tempting,... more ›

Trent Summar’s story-telling capabilities and straight-up country sound drive his latest album, Horseshoes & Hand Grenades. His music has been covered by artists such as Jack Ingram (who scored a hit with his adaptation of Summar’s “Love You”) while Summar has also collaborated with country stars like Pat Green. (They co-wrote “Somewhere Between Texas And Mexico” off Green’s Lucky Ones record.) Summar fronted the band Hank Flamingo prior to working with The New Row Mob.... more ›

Since 1975, Grammy Award winners BeauSoleil have charmed audiences as being one of the most heralded and esteemed Cajun groups in American music history. Band leader Michael Doucet artfully takes the rich traditions of Louisiana culture and blends other southern folk elements such as Zydeco, Jazz, Tejano, Country, Blues to astonishing effect. Beau Soleil have played The Grand Ole Opry, New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, and the Newport Folk Festival in the past.... more ›