The final guest speaker in KLRU's "Spark" Engaging Speaker Series is novelist Anne Lamott, whose brutally honest but altogether hilarious stories are rooted in heavy and sometimes dark themes, like alcoholism, faith, and Republicanism. "The very first thing I tell my new students on the first day of a workshop is that good writing is about telling the truth," explains Lamott in Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. "We are a species......

Apply below for your chance to score a pair of tickets to tomorrow's Spark lecture: Update: Congrats, RT! [Official Site and Tickets] KLRU's Spark 2007 Engaging Speaker Series with Douglas Rushkoff Wednesday, April 17th The Paramount Theatre 7:30pm......

Those who grew up with NPR as auxiliary parent will doubtless recognize the names Maria Hinojosa and Ray Suarez, the honored guests at Spark: KLRU's Engaging Speaker Series this Wednesday. (So, do their pictures match your mental conception of how they'd look? 'Cuz the first time we saw a pic of Terry Gross, we flipped out.) Hinojosa, the anchor of NPR's Latino USA, is also most recently the author of a memoir of Mexican-American......

WEDNESDAY [31] dj • fStar, a biweekly project about "living, breathing, moving graffiti" coupled with a live soundtrack at Jo's on 2nd Street (8-10pm, Free) dj • Cut Club at The Mohawk music • The Lymbyc Systym, This Will Destroy You, Loren Dent at Emo's music • Live Oak Decline, Sounds Under Radar at Stubb's music • Brother Will, Carley Wolf, Stoney's Spoken Word (featuring the Golden Boys) at Beerland music • Militant Babies,......

Spark, KLRU's annual Engaging Speaker Series, brings to Austin some of our nation's foremost authorities in politics, science, literature, and more for lively discussions at the Paramount Theatre. All events, running from January to May, feature a 45-minute presentation given by the visiting speakers followed by a 30-minute Q&A session with the audience. For 2007, Spark turns its eye to issues with a "global impact, social significance and community relevance." Hence, they're kicking off......

One of Austin’s most thought-provoking events returns next year, as Spark: KLRU’s Engaging Speaker Series brings some of the best minds in contemporary sociopolitical society together for five evenings of dialogue. An Austinist favorite, the series offers a chance for citizens to engage directly with experts on issues with a global impact, social significance and community relevance. Spark returns to the wonderful setting of the Paramount Theatre for a series of evenings that feature......

MONDAY [15] [music] The Wood Brothers Featuring Chris Wood of Medeski Martin & Wood at Stubb's (link) [music] Wood Brothers at Waterloo Records (Free, 5pm) (link) [music] El Ten Eleven at Cactus Café (Free, 8:30pm) (link) [film] Taxi Driver at Austin Java (8pm, FREE) (link) [film] Soma at Café Mundi (8pm, FREE) (link) [film] Anime Monday at Ventana del Sol (7:30pm) (link) [film] American Beer with Amazing Beer Sampling (Sold Out) at Alamo Downtown (7pm)......

*Congratulations to reader Jenny Miller, winner of the ticket giveaway.* Next Tuesday night, Spark: KLRU's Engaging Speaker Series will feature hip-hop pioneer and social activist Chuck D, along with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Leonard Pitts. UT professor S. Craig Watkins, author of Hip Hop Matters: Politics, Popular Culture, and the Struggle for the Soul of a Movement, will lead the discussion. *Ticket Giveaway Alert:* We're giving away a pair of tickets to go be part......

MONDAY [27] [ music ] Jay Moeller's Birthday Blues Bash, with Ephraim Owens, Mike Barfield, Scott Nelson, Damien Llanes, James Bullard, and loads more at The Continental Club (9:30pm) (link) [ music ] KOOP Radio Monday Benefit with Guy Forsyth, Wammo and Sick, and Southpaw Jones. Hosted by Owen Egerton (of Sinus) at Ruta Maya ($5, 8:30pm) (link) [ art ] "Art is Imagination": Paintings of the American West at Blanton Museum of Art (Free,......

MONDAY [27] [film] Soul Cinema Monday: "The Spook Who Sat By the Door" at Alamo Downtown ($1, 7pm) (link) [film] "Candy: Terry Southern Psychedelic Mindwarp" at Alamo Downtown ($1, 9:45pm) (link) [film] Spike & Mike? Twisted Animation Fest at Alamo South Lamar and Alamo Village (Through Thursday, 10:15 SL, 9:45 Vill) (link) [film] "Tank Girl" at Cafe Mundi (8pm) (link) [TV] Twin Peaks & Carnivale at Beerland (Free, 7pm) (link) [books] Karenna Gore Schiff, the......