While gathering in the conference room to watch DVDs about your esteemed corporate founder or practicing falling off of chairs and into each other's arms as part of a trust exercise have always been a great way to spend an hour or two not surfing the internets at work away from your cubicle, the Writers' League of Texas has introduced a new program that will make you not dread the email from Human Resources,......

Dao Strom, a fixture of Austin scenes literary and musical, has a new collection of four novellas from Counterpoint Press. The Gentle Order of Girls and Boys: Four Stories presents the sturm und drang of becoming and being a woman in contemporary America. Featuring road trips, themes of isolation, and naked strangers, The Gentle Order of Girls and Boys promises to keep readers rapt. Dao Strom, author/musician/wonder woman, will be at BookPeople tonight to present......

THURSDAY [24] music • Brother Will (Brothers & Sisters) and Friends, Lomita, and Sean Ohno (The Arm) at Beauty Bar (10pm, Free, Drink tickets to first 150 guests) ® music • Fiction, Gulf of Mexico, Bello Ragazzo at 912 Red River (10pm) ® party/fashion • DJ Ian Orth aka Learning Secrets spins at Bettysport's cocktail party celebrating the new silhouettes and colors of the Stella Mccartney fall/winter collection for Adidas at Bettysport (5-8pm, Free)......

TUESDAY [30] [music] "German with a laptop" Jan Jelinek does a solo show at Flamingo Cantina -- check out what Tiny Mix Tapes has to say! (Thanks, Margaret!) (link) [music] Scion returns to Austin with Tony Touch, DJ Hier, DJ Kwestion and DJ Mel at The Parish Room (Free, RSVP required) (link) [music] Youngmond Grand and Solace Bros at Club DeVille (link) [books] Mark Falkin presents Days of Grace at BookPeople (7pm) (link) [film] Out......

This weekend, Nicki Richesin, along with Dao Strom and Amanda Eyre Ward, will be in town to participate in a reading and discussion of The May Queen [our review]. The editor and authors will be at BookPeople on Saturday night, and we're going to try to check it out. We hope Ward reads at least a part of her "To All the Men I've Loved Before," one of the funnier essays in the book.......

SXSW.com released an updated lineup for this year's SXSW Music Festival earlier today, and it's one hell of a list. The SXSW committee hastens to note that "This is a partial list of performers confirmed to appear at the 2006 SXSW Music Festival. This list is current as of 1/13/06. All of this information is subject to change." International acts include: Masahiro Nitta, DMBQ, Ellegarden, Tsu Shi Ma Mi Re, PE'Z, The Emeralds (Japan)......

All right everyone, at 7PM today Austinist expects you to get off your fanny and head down to BookPeople to help them celebrate their receipt of PUBLISHERS WEEKLY BOOKSELLER OF THE YEAR AWARD. That's the whole of the U.S.A., folks. BookPeople CEO Steve Bercu will be on hand to introduce the award, along with Austin mayor Will Wynn, Spike Gillespie, and several other Austin favorites. There will be music by Dao Strom, live balloon......