Production still courtesy of Troma Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead w/ Lloyd Kaufman Live! Friday, December 7thAlamo Drafthouse Lake Creek (17329 Research Blvd)(7:30pm, $10)[info] | [tickets]Over the course of the last thirty-three years, Lloyd Kaufman's Troma Entertainment has produced hundreds of films, attracted legions of devoted fans, and influenced the likes of Peter Jackson, Quentin Tarantino, Trey Parker, Eli Roth and Takashi Miike. In fact, by Kaufman's estimation, the studio now owns more than... more ›

With unseasonable weather descending upon much of North America, schools getting ready to reconvene, and sports seasons getting exciting, it's a busy time of year for us here in the Ist-A-Verse. Luckily, even with all the things we have to do, we still managed to get together to let you know what we've all been up to. After cooling down from a hot weekend of many badass Sunset Junction Street Fair photo dispatches, LAist asked... more ›

Our Hot Real Estate Listings column is pretty much dead, but we still cruise the MLS on occasion and this beauty popped up as the most expensive listing in central Austin right now (beating out 3 Niles Road, which has been for sale for a while). It is the Allen-Von Boeckmann Building, a historical structure dating from around 1874 (the listing says 1869, but 1874 is pretty clearly carved into the cornice), at 811 Congress... more ›

For the sixth year in a row, MovieMaker Magazine has ranked Austin in the top 3 of its “Top Ten U.S. Cities to Live and Make Movies” list. And though we’ve slipped a little this year (we sat at number two for the last two years, just behind New York City), we still beat the crap out of Shreveport, which feels pretty good. Moviemaker cited the “unique education and support that the [Austin] community fosters... more ›

Recently, we've become increasingly frustrated with the eating choices in Austin. As chic restaurants rush to accommodate equally chic new residents, it seems like no one's building shitty old, often carpeted, fast-food joints anymore. Our search for an affordable yet filling meal has led us to three neon lights peeking out over a quiet East Austin road. Far from First Thursday or 2nd Street, the new place to park and walk is Cameron Road.... more ›

On Sunday, Austin Film Festival presents a free script reading of a comedy written by Anne Rapp, an Austinite, sometime Michener Center instructor, and Robert Altman collaborator whose previous credits include Cookie's Fortune and Dr. T and the Women. Her new project's called Double Wide, and a bunch of funny people, including Johnny Hardwick (King of the Hill), Dana Wheeler-Nicholson (Fletch and Fast Food Nation), and Matt Bearden (a Funniest Person in Austin winner),... more ›

When Austin's newest Chick-fil-A opens its doors this Thursday, it's planning on handing out $26,000 in free food to the first hundred adults eagerly salivating in line. more ›

Baby Greens remains at the top of our short list of delicious fast food restaurants and we're giving them a shout-out regarding their fresh new website, launched today. Because we're mature and sophisticated, we'll avoid the comments about tossing salad, and we won't snicker at all about the big "Wrap It Up" banner on their website. more ›

For those of you who were out seeing the rock n’ roll or slamming Beaujolais Nouveau last night, you may have missed Austin filmmaker Richard Linklater on the Colbert Report. With his trademark ease, Linklater went toe-to-toe with the satirical newsman, discussing his new movie Fast Food Nation and explaining the evils of international mega food corps. and the harm they perpetuate vis-à-vis the environment and public health. Linklater, while funny, didn’t try too hard,... more ›

Director Richard Linklater flashes his horns before entering the premiere of his latest film. Linklater and Fast Food Nation author Eric Schlosser discuss the collaborative experience. Check out more Austinist photos from last night's premiere here.... more ›

TUESDAY [13] film • Fast Food Nation Premiere at Paramount (7pm) film • AFS Essential: The Ghost and Mrs. Muir at Alamo Drafthouse (7pm) film • Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers at MonkeyWrench Books (8pm) film • City of Men Episode 4 at Spider House (8pm, Free) film • Tommy at Rounders Pizzeria (8pm, Free) film • SXSW Presents Witches in Exile at KLRU (9pm) film • Raising Arizona at Alamo Village (9:45pm)... more ›

As you may have read months ago, Richard Linklater’s Fast Food Nation took Cannes by storm earlier this year. The hometown folks will get to see what all the hullaballo’s about next Tuesday, as the Austin Film Society and Sustainable Food Center will be screening the Austin premiere of the fictional adaptation of Eric Schlosser’s best-selling book. “We are thrilled to premiere this powerful film in Austin and to partner with Sustainable Food Center to... more ›

Aqua Teen Hungerforce is one of our favorite late-night TV shows. Cartoon Network's trippy and witty antics of fast food products living in the suburbs of New Jersey has been entertaining inebriated viewers since Adult Swim's debut. One of the signature artists in Adult Swim's motley crew of hip-hop contributers is DJ Spooky, who penned theme songs and more for these cult cartoon favorites. Hailing from Washington D.C. and armed with a degree in... more ›

Even though we are way way past school age, we still get a little melancholy at the close of summer. Fortunately, our friends across the -ist network know that the shenanigans don't need to end just because the big yellow buses are back on the roads. So, grab your sunscreen and your favorite hangover cure, as we take a tour of end of summer fun from -ist cities all over the damn place. SFist Tourist... more ›

Despite Austin's population of just 700,000, there is no denying that we have become the regional hub for film and television production in the Southwest. In fact, no fewer than six films shot in Austin will hit screens between now and Thanksgiving. If you're curious about what those trucks near the Capitol building and at Texas Chili Parlor have been up to, or simply want to support locally made films with your movie dollars... more ›

Billing themselves as an "indie-vaudeville-conceptual-art-rock-slideshow" band, the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players are a quirky -- if not downright hilarious -- mom, pop, and daughter trio who create and perform songs about random slides found at garage sales, vintage shops, estate sales, and other places where vintage archival flotsam might be procured. Frontman, guitarist, pianist, and father Jason Trachtenburg leads mother Tina Piña (slide projectionist, backup singer) and 12-year-old daughter Rachel (drums, vocals) through intricate... more ›

Filmmaker, AFS founder, and diehard Austinite Richard Linklater was in Cannes last month to present A Scanner Darkly, the rotoscoped film adaptation of Philip K Dick's dystopic novel, and Fast Food Nation, based on Eric Schlosser's expose on the fast food industry. At the same time, the Criterion Collection -- famous for its fabulous reissues of landmark films from the likes of Fellini, Kubrick, Godard, and Lang -- released a special edition of Dazed and... more ›

Sharon Mays dug in her heels a few years ago and turned a dumpy old Short Stop into the freshest fast food joint south of the Colorado. She's quick with the humor, sure, but her work is full of substance. more ›

It's a mad, mad workd out there, folks. And here's the proof... SFist commenters pose for before and aftershocks when the mayor commemorates a 1906 earthquake...at 4:30 in the morning. A hot tip on the Chronicle vending machines comes in and the SFist war correspondent risks life and limb to post this dispatch from the frontlines. Houstonist announces their new Cops spinoff "World's Funniest Tazer Videos" and the possible cancellation of their pervs' "World's Grossest... more ›

The lineup for the 2006 Cannes Film Festival has been announced, and Austinite Richard Linklater will have the distinction of being the first director to ever show films in the main competition and Un Certain Regard (the competition which grants money to the winner to enable French distribution). Linklater’s Fast Food Nation, based on the book by Eric Schlosser and starring Ethan Hawke, Patricia Arquette and Kris Kristofferson, will appear in the main competition.... more ›

This post is by future Austinist contributor Karin L. Kross. more ›

Last week, we posted a review of a brilliant locally-published novel entitled "Egypt Egypt" by a certain Sam Ramos. An enthusiastic bout of Google-stalking yielded, to our surprise, nothing. It seemed that, so much as 8,058,044,651 web pages were concerned, neither the author nor the publisher existed. This, naturally, left us intrigued and somewhat confused – had we yet again replaced our vitamins with crazy pills? But mere days later, through a series of... more ›

We just re-read that headline, and even though it sounds a little...weird...we're rolling with it. more ›

We have a problem. We believe it is very important to support local businesses, but there seems to be a definite lack of good, cheap, Chinese food in our immediate vicinity. Enter Pei Wei. So, yeah, P.F. Chang's owns it. It's a chain store. That sucks. But it's gooooood, dammit. We eat Pei Wei at least three times a week. It's fast and relatively cheap. And there is no bothering with waitstaff and menus and hey can we get our check now for crying out loud. They take your order at the counter, you find your seat and fill your beverage cup, and then they bring it out hot and sizzlin' right to your table. And then they leave you the hell alone so you can stuff your face in peace. Austinist knows that we are becoming a more segregated, individualistic society, less community oriented and whatnot, and Austinist does recognize this as sad and problematic, but Austinist really can't help loving this new upscale fast food trend: order at the counter, pay up front, leave when you want. Pei Wei Asian Diner really meets our needs. It's okay to be naughty, sometimes. more ›