Another day, another long list of long list of web-darling music acts and their attendant corporate sponsors....

Today both the Clinton and Obama campaigns announced upcoming town hall meetings. Obama's will take place tomorrow at the Austin Convention Center, while Hillary's sounds like more of a "virtual" town hall meeting - on TV the Monday before election day....

But what if attitudes and religious memeplexes aren’t changing because adapting to social pressure is necessary? What if the new millenarianism, instead of crashing computers, will be a fight to the death with a Frankenstein version of Mother Nature? What if environmentalism is becoming the new faith? What if responsible consumerism is the new moral ethic? What if recycling, dear Green God, is the new ritual of absolution?...

Some of the city’s underexposed and underappreciated artists have come together for a special show opening Saturday at Gallery Lombardi. The offbeat Surprise Me includes a mixed bag of contemporary drawings, photos, sounds, videos, mixed media paintings and fiber art. Local artist Josh Rios helped organize the show and called on a few of friends to join him — Ryan Lauderdale, Rachel Cook and Corkey Sinks. Rios recently answered a few questions for Austinist about......

One man’s hapless journey through life is documented in the new exhibit, Mike’s World, a performance and video installation at the Blanton Museum of Art. Tonight's edition of the monthly B Scene at the Blanton Museum of Art will offer a sneak peek at Mike’s World, which won't officially open until September 11. Short video performances shown on flat screens throughout the exhibit space will give viewers a focused look in to the life of......

Brillo pads, travel toothbrushes, and stainless steel dog bowls may seem more appropriately placed in your junk drawer than at an art museum. But the beauty of ordinary household items is exactly what's celebrated in the new exhibit, Extra-Ordinary: The Everyday Object in American Art, now on display at the Austin Museum of Modern Art. In addition to the main exhibit, which features Andy Warhol’s iconic Campbell’s Soup Can and a giant fabric sculpture of......

Childlike optimism and one recording artist's poetic ponderings have inspired two local artists to create vivid new works on display at the East Austin gallery, Art Palace. Artistic friends Eric Gibbons and Nathan Green have teamed up to create the new exhibit,“Lasers in the Jungle," which opens Saturday. Gibbons' whimsical portraits pay homage to one of his music idols. "It comes from a lot of Paul Simon listening," he admits. "I have an affinity for......

Gangsters retire and move to Miami; rock stars never retire, but some do move to Nashville, have kids, and start making records by the numbers. Who wouldn’t? It’s not like you’d need to impress anybody anymore. Exhibit A: Icky Thump, the 6th LP from the Artists Formerly From Detroit, the White Stripes. Icky Thump follows a similar template as last year’s under-appreciated Get Behind Me Satan—open with an iconoclastic berserker of a single and spend......

Strawberries and chocolate. California and Schwarzenegger. Spiderman 3 and Xanax. All classic pairings that destiny and the Austin Museum of Art have been working to outstrip this week, with the presentation of two new exhibits: The Target Collection of American Photography: A Century in Pictures and 24 Summers at Barton Springs Pool: Photographs by Will van Overbeek. Both shows open this Saturday. A Century in Pictures presents nearly ninety photographs taken by men and women......

*The views expressed in Truesday are those of the author and do not represent Austinist as a whole. Thank heavens.* -The Editors Due to extreme apathy toward Austin having a flag (and Benji adding further, in so many words, that perhaps even I myself did not actually care about this issue), I doodled together some rough sketches for the pleasure/disgrace of your eyeballs. Exhibit A: Perhaps it is an old school, Spy vs Spy......

MONDAY [2] books •Peggy Collins presents Help Is Not a Four-Letter Word at BookPeople (7:00pm) comedy •22nd Annual Funniest Person in Austin Contest at Cap City Comedy Club (Check site for lineup) film •Serge Gainsbourg Birthday Feast at Alamo Downtown film •"El Duce Vita" with The Mentors at Alamo Downtown food •Central Market Cooking Class: Midnight in the Garden of Food and Evil at Central Market Cooking School, 4001 N Lamar ($40, 6:30-9pm) music......

While we're confused enough by the daily goings-on over at Craigslist Austin, reader Christina kindly alerted us to an even more perplexing spate of dairy and poultry-related posts that have been showing up recently in their free stuff section. Exhibit A, "Brie": I bought this "cheese" last week thinking I would step out of my comfort zone and try something new. Well....I look at the package every time I open the refrigerator and it hasn't......

FRIDAY [8] music • Centro-Matic, Those Peabodys, Pink Nasty at Emo's (Inside) music • Anagen, Two Guy Trio at Stubb's music • The Midgetmen, The Boxing Lesson, Sounds Under Radio, Label Me This at Red Eyed Fly music • Fireside Creative Showcase with Shrapnel, Lone Star Porn Star, Nooner, Hundred Year Storm, Bayta Darell, and a chance to win a Gibson guitar autographed by (huh?) Chuck Norris at The Parish Room music • Rescue......

Sometimes the jokes just write themselves. Exhibit A: Check out the juxtaposition of the picture of President Bush with this (allegedly) unrelated headline from today's Austin American-Statesman. Thanks to reader Bruce for the heads-up.......

Ah, the sweet smell of college freshmen. School's back in session, summer is almost over (in theory), and it's a few weeks before the holiday movie rush begins (Exhibit A: this week's slim pickin's). *Trust the Man We’ve got one word for the entire cast of this movie: yum. The Wicker Man God bless Nic Cage. He tries, ya know? What a trooper. The Quiet This film is receiving fairly poor reviews, which is......

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)......

Trying out a different approach in their efforts to preserve the Edwards Aquifer from urban development, Save Our Springs Alliance today launched a new audio-based walking tour of Barton Springs. The self-guided tour covers thirteen stations of note, including Philosopher's Rock Statue, Old Mill Springs, Eliza Spring, and the Monument on Big Hill. What's more, they're making these available as free mp3 downloads so you can load 'em onto your iPod before you head......

We respect the hell out of concert photographers; they manage to take awesome photos while expertly dodging meathead security guards, wayward elbows and flying steel-toed boots. At the same time, we loathe the irritating bastards – partly because they distract us with their incessant flashing, but mostly because no matter how hard we try, our own attempts at concert photography usually fail spectacularly, yielding little more than a pile of purple-red streaks that just......

FRIDAY [14] [music] The Arm CD Release, with Single Frame, Faceless Werewolves and Lomita at Emo's (link) [music] Sound Tribe Sector Nine with Govinda at Stubb's Austin (link) [music] Matt Nathanson at Waterloo Records (Free, 5pm) (link) [music] Til We're Blue or Destroy at Beerland (link) [music] The Weary Boys Release Show at Continental Club (12:15am) (link) [party] Car Stereo (Wars) at Plush (10pm-2am, $2 Lone Stars) (link) [music] Loxsly and The Lemurs at Blue......

We are big supporters of our local Public Broadcasting Station KLRU. From Charlie Rose to Austin City Limits, we constantly find engaging, informative and entertaining programming to satisfy our television fix. But KLRU is more than just a television station; it is a part of the community. Exhibit A: Spark: KLRU's Engaging Speakers Series, formerly known as the Distinguished Speaker Series. We have been fortunate enough to attend a couple of these speaker events......

The SWAT standoff off of Riverside yesterday ended in the arrest of a 19-year old who allegedly shot two people overnight-injuries were minor. George W. Bush's visit to India-in hopes of congealing some kind of partnership with the country-is laughable. His next stop is Pakistan where, ironically, he has been deemed as The Most Hated Man. If only we had his confidence, after a 5 year search, Bush insists that Osama Bin Laden will......

F R I D A Y [17] [DJs/party] Caps and Jones at Barcelona (link) [music] Zykos, The Black, Evangelicals, and Michael Kingcaid at Emo's (link) [film] John S. Rad's "Dangerous Men" at Drafthouse Village (9:45pm) (link) [books] Anthropologist Jenny White presents her first novel, The Sultan's Seal at Bookpeople (Free, 7pm) (link) [party] Freescale Marathon kick off party at Runtex Riverside (Free, 5-7pm) (link) [music] Zookeeper, Sad Accordions, Alex Dupree & The Trapdoor Plan, Meryll......

* The IST List will be updated this afternoon to reflect additional events -- The Editors F R I D A Y [3] » [music] Quien es, Boom!, Brothers and Sisters CD release, Lomita, and David Longoria (of the Black) at Beerland » [music] The Early Tapes, Peel and The Happy Familes at Stubb's » [music] Driver Friendly and The Arm at Red Eyed Fly » [music] Rockland Eagles, Yuppie Pricks, Pink Swords, and The......

F R I D A Y [ 2 7 ] [music] Explosions in the Sky, Octopus Project and A Hawk and a Hacksaw at Emo's (Sold Out!) [music] Brandi Carlile at Cactus Cafe (9pm) [music] Zilla featuring Michael Travis (String Cheese Incident) at Stubb's [music] Shake Your Ass Record Release Party with Chili Cold Blood, This Damn Town, Possessed By Paul James, Black Joe Lewis & Cool Breeze at Beerland [music] Chant, Exit, and......

M O N D A Y [ 9 ] [film/music] End of an Ear Presents "Shield Around the K," which "profiles the birth and growth of influential Olympia-based punk rock DIY record label K Records," at The Drafthouse Downtown (9:45pm) [info] [film] Super Happy Fun Monkeybash DX Gaiden (Vol. 2) at The Drafthouse Downtown (7pm) [info] [art] Check out the new gallery exhibit, Liz Ward's Aqueous, at Women and Their Work (All Day) [info] [music]......

: : FRIDAY : : [art] Coy Poage and William K. Stidham Art Exhibit benefiting the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition of Austin, 7pm-10pm @ Barocca Studios - $15 donation [music] Mae Shi @ Elysium [film] New Films! @ Your Local Theaters [music] Andy Rourke of The Smiths @ The Parish [music] Loxsly, 8pm @ Red Fez [music] AM Syndicate with Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, Cue and Dear Nora, 8pm @ Beerland [books] Douglas......

Photo of William K. Stidham's "Into the Wild Blue Yonder" Austin prides itself on being locally-focused, and on Friday, you can get an entire dose of locality while benefiting a very worthy, local cause. Two local artists, Coy Poage and William K. Stidham , are holding an art exhibit, "Let the Beauty we Love be What we Do," to benefit the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition of Austin (NOCC), and they've got some sweet sponsors......

FRIDAY:: [music] Neo-Catastrophism, 9pm @ Gallery Lombardi [books] Phil Lesh, 7pm @ Bookpeople [music] Of Montreal Instore, 5pm @ Waterloo, CD Release Party, 9:30 @ The Parish [music] ROCKIT 4: Dance party, 8pm @ Big Red Sun - $7 [comedy] Margaret Cho, 8pm @ Bass Concert Hall SATURDAY:: [music] Keren Ann, 8:30 @ The Parish SUNDAY:: [volunteer] Danskin Women's Triathalon, 7am @ Travis County Expo Center ALL WEEKEND:: [theater] Holes Before Bedtime, 8pm @......

FRIDAY [Sale] UT Press' Annual Outdoor Book Sale, (Friday 10AM-6PM & Saturday 10AM-3PM) @ I-35 & Manor [Film] Alamo Drafthouse Midnight Movies presents Wet Hot American Summer, 12AM @ Alamo Downtown $5 [Music] Rebirth Brass Band, 9PM @ Stubb's $14 SATURDAY [Art]AMOA Art Trek to the Texas Hill Country $75 [Film] Austin Student Digital Film Festival, 4PM @ UT Student Union [Music] Johnny Goudie CD Release Party, 7:30 @ Antone's $14 [Art] 5X7 Preview......