TUESDAY [24] party • KLRU, Downtown Austin Alliance and Action Figure host a party for Season 3 of "Downtown" at Seaholm Power Plant (7:30pm, Free, Bring a Canned Good) POSTPONED books • Rob Neyer and Jim Baker present Baseball Prospectus 2007 at BookPeople (7:00pm) comedy • Tig Notaro and Steve Burr at Cap City Comedy Club film • AFS Essential Series: "Funny Games" at Alamo Downtown film • "Shaft" with Free 40! at Alamo......

Director Michael Haneke is best known for 2005's Caché, which used a cool, detached style to examine the effects of a stalker on a wealthy but dysfunctional Parisian family. This uncomfortable subject matter was explored by Haneke in much more bombastic fashion nine years earlier in Funny Games. A sort of meta-mixtape of Straw Dogs, Cape Fear, and A Clockwork Orange, the film wonders aloud why audiences respond to fear, violence, and torture. The......

MONDAY [23] books • David Sedaris at The Paramount Theatre books • Bill Bradley presents The New American Story at BookPeople (7:30pm) art • Artistic License: WorkSpace Artist Jedediah Caesar at the Blanton Museum of Art at The Blanton Museum of Art, MLK at Congress (Included with Museum Admission, 6-7pm) comedy • "Funniest Person in Austin" Contest, Hosted By Mario DiGiorgio (Winner 1999)" at Cap City Comedy Club dance • The Whirling Dervishes at......

We saw both Freedomland and Caché this past weekend. One we loved, the other, not so much. Can you guess which is which? Okay, you got us, we are gluttons for arty French films. And yet, we always show up for the American thrillers, despite low scores on Metacritic. These two films actually do have something in common. They both deal with race and how racism affects the lives of individuals, directly or indirectly. Of......