One of the great things about film festivals is the chance to attend foreign films. The down side, of course: all that damn reading you have to do. Subtitles are like homework for your brain. Well we’ve got a solution for you: Crying With Laughter is an excellent foreign film…but it’s from Scotland! (Thank us later.) more ›

Xiu Xiu are what many would call a success story. After all, they’ve evolved from an experimental freakshow of a duo who appealed only to the outer edge of musical snobs and depressed hipsters, to a full-on, four member, MySpace friendly, blog-writing, book-producing, ceaselessly collaborating, networking whirlwind with legions of fans and the respect of critics. Not only that, but unlike some rise-to-glory stories, Xiu Xiu’s transformation has been nice to see, mostly because founding members Jamie Stewart and Caralee McElroy always seem to be having a lot of fun, connecting well with their fans and managing to maintain their sense of humor and their honesty. more ›

Say you’re drunk. Or, better yet, you just woke up after one of those Mexican Martini nights, so it's one of those mornings where the sun, you’re sure, is already blazing its blaze just beyond your bedroom window, yet you can only spot a squeak of it through the blinds, and that little bit of light is really all you handle. Anything more would send you into full-on fury, but that special kind of fury where you can’t really do anything, because, truly, you feel like shit. more ›

The run-up to the 2058 mayoral election will see Austin’s first competition between two ‘green’ candidates. No, I mean literally. Competition for the mantle of ‘most green’ will compel contenders to start taking a chlorophyll-based diet supplement that gives their skin a greenish pigmentation. On the downside, both candidates will be notoriously unproductive after sunset. more ›

The allegorical narrative of Moses bringing down the Ten Commandments represents a massive backwards step for humankind, culturally and intellectually...Modern monotheism’s overlooked Pandora’s Box. more ›

The APD could adopt a more compatible attitude, one that sees violent crime on the East Side as another inevitable casualty of gentrification, one that will eventually succumb to the gradual transition. Essential to all parties accepting responsibility for these mixed-race, mixed-income neighborhoods is that transition from negative stigma includes a reduction of all forms of violence. more ›

*The views expressed in Truesday are those of the author and do not represent Austinist as a whole. Thank heavens.* -The Editors Every city goes through its own little evolution. Not always pretty, not always clean, but always in the process of becoming. Our little oasis is no different. There is a change upon us, and it is high time we grabbed the wheel and started to do some stunt steerin’. You know, to... 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 ›

*The views expressed in Truesday are those of the author and do not represent Austinist as a whole. Thank heavens.* -The Editors Pardon me in full if this week’s column is completely baron (or BARREN, if you're into 'homonym correctness'. Damned good drugs here) of clean direction. The majority of it was conceived and written while suffering a heavy fever and enjoying some heavy cough medicine. I’ll get around to the birth of that... more ›

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? more ›

Photo by Will Pate on flickrInteractive + ScreenBurn The preliminary list of Interactive panels has been released, and includes topics like "The Great Debate: Is Web 2.0 Bulls#!t?", "The Porn Police: Know the Rules," and "The Suxorz: The Worst Ten Social Media Ad Campaigns of 2007." [Preliminary List] Additional, several panels for the gaming-centric ScreenBurn fest have been revealed. These include "The Future Virtual World Game Development: Rise of the Indies," "You Are Here: Gaming... more ›

I thought I might give you a little taste of the strange and peculiar experience of moving to a new place. Not just moving to a foreign land, but also enjoying its idiosyncrasies while also attempting to replicate some of your favorite experiences in the place you loved but fatuously left. more ›

*The views expressed in Truesday are those of the author and do not represent Austinist as a whole. Thank heavens.* -The Editors Whoo-yeah and all that kind of excitedness, today is HALLOWEEN! You ready? You got all those party invites from all the smooth folk? Got that evite from the chick who you swear you gave your number like, six times already but she still hasn’t fucking called you yet? Oh, well, her party... more ›

The notion that ‘It's not a conspiracy theory if it's actually true,’ is about as spot-on and useful as ‘Golly, she ain’t a witch if she done drown.’ more ›

*The views expressed in Truesday are those of the author and do not represent Austinist as a whole. Thank heavens.* -The Editors H O M O G E N Y. Or so everyone keeps telling me. Like all these damned cat photos you're supposed to go apeshit over.... more ›

Even the airplanes on approach to Bergstrom looked fake, forced by the low ceiling to approach at a tight angle, like models from a Japanese monster movie, their blinking forms visible in great detail as they fell inches above wet rooftops, the heavy air muffling all but the lowest drone of the engines. more ›

Yesterday, we totally spaced on getting tickets for the grand opening of the Alamo Ritz. And considering how quickly the last triple-feature at the old theatre sold out, we figured we'd be out of luck come this morning. But much to our surprise, there are (as of this writing) still Triple Feature and Double Feature tickets available over the interweb! The triple feature tickets are $140 and include all three movies, the "Attack of the... more ›

*The views expressed in Truesday are those of the author and do not represent Austinist as a whole. Thank heavens.* -The Editors This week is dedicated to all those intrepid fun-finders who have been inspired by those three cave-riders who were rescued yesterday. May you find something more constructive to do with your time. My rendition of a fictional attempt by myself to rescue the three bored college kids from the clutches of Airman’s... more ›

Okay--so there are a bunch cool things happening at the Austin Film Festival tonight, and a we wanted to let you know about a few last-minute tidbits and screening changes. *The Rebel is now playing at 9:45pm at the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum, NOT at the 9:30 Paramount slot we'd previously told you about. *The awesome narrative feature and 2007 AFF "Film Jury Narrative Feature Winner" Shotgun Stories is now playing at 9:45pm... more ›

In terms of the new businesses in the wake of a Navy base closure, ‘revitalization’ is a hard nut to sell. More like 'damage control'. In Alameda, the closure meant the exodus of literally tens of thousands of civilian jobs, not to mention the millions of dollars enlisted Navy personnel poured into the city's economy trying to impress local high school girls. more ›

*The views expressed in Truesday are those of the author and do not represent Austinist as a whole. Thank heavens.* -The Editors Bro-dawgs, huddle around the Axe Body Wash fountain and check this out: There’s a new lounge opening up where that freakshow movie place used to be, and it’s gonna be sweet bangin’ with more honeys than we’ll be able to drug in a single night, and more lesser bro-hams than we’ll be... more ›

...each East Austin Gentrifist is, in his or her own way, a kind of Columbus: Making assumptions passed on projections of the real estate market, alternately worshiping or shaking their fist at the spate of new condominiums, depending on their particular deities—‘discovering’ new parks and stores, trying to understand the strange speech and habits of the natives, semi-aware that their very presence contains a pathogen of tax hikes that threaten to exterminate the indigenous population. more ›

*The views expressed in Truesday are those of the author and do not represent Austinist as a whole. Thank heavens.* -The Editors Writer's note: this is the longest post I’ve ever written. If you hate long posts, don’t torture yourself any further. There are many moments over the course of their life when the average person should feel a nip of introspection and take a look back on their time here while asking whether... more ›

“No,” he said, laughing. “I’m a pilot.” more ›

*The views expressed in Truesday are those of the author and do not represent Austinist as a whole. Thank heavens.* -The Editors It was sometime after four in the morning. Several years ago. July of the summer months. We had just finished a night out making mistakes all over the city, the lake, the river, and some apartment off Riverside where we smoked out with football players who were the largest hulks of humanity... more ›

US bands have less than two months to apply for a showcase slot at SXSW Music. Turn in your application before next Friday and you'll save yourself a little beer money. There are two ways to apply: through SXSW's site, or using Sonicbids. The latter is a great option for bands who already have an electronic press kit (EPK), as they'll just use this to evaluate the application. If you opt for the former,... more ›

F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote, “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.” ...(but) F. Scott never met our president. more ›

Austin's PBS affiliate KLRU-TV received a record 21 Emmy nominations from the Lone Star Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. The awards dinner will take place in Dallas on Saturday, October 27th. The complete list of KLRU honors includes: KLRU producer Elena Ramirez (Public/Current/Community Affairs Feature Segment category), for her story "Getting By in Austin." This documentary, which aired on Austin Now, focused on the difficulty of families making minimum wage... more ›

*The views expressed in Truesday are those of the author and do not represent Austinist as a whole. Thank heavens.* -The Editors Dearest members of our esteemed Neighborhood Association Board of Directors, I would like to begin this letter by way of gracious manifest: you are all perceivably noble and considered generally benevolent in all the interest you show toward our collective reputation to outside neighborhoods. I feel that your presence here has been... more ›

The word ‘naïve’, stripped of its pejorative connotation, is a good description of Snakepit for other reasons. While the comic has gotten a smidge flashier over the past few years, it’s hasn’t developed in any manner that would suggest Ben is trying to improve. On the contrary, the sheer discipline of his daily drawing is only excelled by his ethic to not let his art evolve—to keep it crude/shitty/primitive, whatever. more ›