Street Corner Arts' local premiere of Jason Wells' Men of Tortuga is a lightning-fast series of scenes about the worst possible outcomes of politics: ninety minutes of rapid-fire jokes, scheming, philosophizing, and a James Bond-style briefcase rigged for homicide. more ›

• The creator of Celis beer is mourned.
• It’s time for Passover!
• The backstory behind this past weekend’s Texas Burlesque Festival.

It's no secret that Austin has experienced something of a gastronomic revival over the past couple of years, with the opening of several locally-sourced, high-quality restaurants, breweries and wine bars indicating a growing taste (or thirst) for the unique and well-crafted. You can now add Antonelli's Cheese Shop to the list. more ›

One spring day every year for the past five years, a procession of white costumed individuals floats through Hyde Park repetitively performing short acts for the neighborhood's residents and a small audience. Part performance art, part conceptual theater, Jaclyn Pryor's site-specific exhibition floodlines is once again set to be performed in Hyde Park on April 5th. Pryor came up with the concept for floodlines as a performance memorial in response to the terrorist attacks of September 11th. Less a direct tribute to the specific casualties of 9/11, floodlines addresses the themes of loss and grief in broader strokes, encouraging its audience to contemplate the nature of permanence as performers appear and disappear in the familiar setting of one of Austin's most historic neighborhoods. more ›

Every weekday morning we'll be featuring a photo (or two) from our readers. Please feel free to submit your photos (min 600px width) by adding them to the Austinist Flickr Group. more ›

A house near 46th and Evans was destroyed last night after a gas leak caught fire around 8pm. Firefighters were at the location starting to deal with the leak when the explosion caused the roof to blow off. A fireman's knee was injured and the residents of the house were treated for natural gas inhalation, but thankfully there were no fatalities. Twitter-users in the area were quick to post their reactions to the explosion as it was felt throughout the neighborhood. [Daily Texan] more ›

Every weekday morning we'll be featuring a photo (or two) from our readers. Please feel free to submit your photos (min 600px width) by adding them to the Austinist Flickr Group. more ›

North Central - An on-going series of shots from the sidewalks, driveways and lawns of the North Central Austin more ›

Our pal Austin Contrarian is reporting that at last night's City Council hearing, the councilmembers acceded to demands from the Hyde Park Neighborhood Association to deny pedestrian and bicycle access between Hyde Park and a new development on 51st Street. This means that not only will the street grid that is the basis of Hyde Park not be extended for cars, it will also not be extended for bikes and pedestrians. The street grid is the groundwork on which an urban environment is built. Urban streets form a network that allows movement in every direction via multiple modes of transportation. Suburban streets form a maze of dead ends and require every trip to use an arterial road, almost always by car. more ›

This Sunday afternoon, residents of Hyde Park might come across something a little strange—a group of cars driving slowly through the neighborhood, the passengers watching as actors perform a series of vignettes along the route they're traveling. This is the annual production of floodlines, conceived by Jaclyn Pryor seven years ago, and in its fifth of seven years of annual production (2010 will be the last year it's performed). more ›

So, I produce and co-star a little show called The Dick Monologues. We have four shows this month—three more than usual. Two are in Dallas this weekend at the Water Tower Theatre as part of the Out of the Loop Festival. Two are here in town—one at the Victory Grill on March 21st and the other at Hyde Park Theatre on March 30th. Please tell your Dallas friends to come to the show up there. And if you want to attend an Austin show, please email me at spike@spikeg.com for info. This week, I present a piece I wrote that sometimes appears in the show. Big Dick on Buddha Mountain To meditate with the enlightened Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh, is akin to playing guitar with Pete Townsend, making cookies with Martha Stewart, or tying your shoes with Mister Rogers. And so, despite my tight budget, when I heard that Thay, as he is known, was leading a retreat in California, I did what any overzealous aspiring Buddhist would do: I mailed off a hot check to procure my place at the monastery. more ›

Hyde Park Theatre brings us Martin McDonagh's The Lonesome West. Think of the brilliance of True West, but without the monotonous fuckin' crickets. Th-Sa @8pm through March 29. Tickets online. // Based on Euripides' Trojan Women, Troades at The Vortex explores life for the women of Troy following its decimation at the hands of the Greeks. Th-Su @8pm through March 29. Reservations: 478-LAVA. more ›

Frontera Fest is such a playing-field-leveled egalitarian opportunity for creative types from all walks and skill levels to have a night in the spotlight. Totally worth the $12 -14 price of admission but don’t wait to figure this out later. The wait for unclaimed tickets on sold out nights starts an hour before showtime and baby it’s cold outside. more ›

Starting tonight and going through February 3, The Long Fringe portion of FronteraFest will showcase pieces up to 90 minutes at the Blue Theater. Max Langert's You're Happier Than You Think: Recalibrating Your Emotional Scale and Spank Dance Company's Dance Carousel 2008 kick off the shows with stories of downtrodden ocean liner passengers and innovative choreography. more ›

Sunday, 1/13, 10pm at the Alamo Downtown, the big Dick cast and Austin's premiere naughty boy band, Cedar Fever, will thrill and excite you with performances, sing-alongs, and heaven knows what else. more ›

Thirteen years after founding Salvage Vanguard Theater, Artistic Director Jason Neulander is stepping down. Neulander has grown SVT from a crazy little fringe collective to a powerhouse producer of cutting-edge works. No doubt it'll be very exciting to see what he gets into next. more ›

Image courtesy Rude Mechs The Method GunThru 12/15, Th/Fr/Sa at 8pmThe Off Center (map)[info] | [tickets] The Dick Monologues12/16 at 2pmHyde Park Theatre (map)12/12 at 7pm (sold out)[info] | [tickets]In this season of family-friendly fare, we're pleased to highlight a bit of naughty-naughty for your holiday pleasure. Admittedly it's something of an intellectually flavored naughty-naughty, but hey, that's how we like it. Rude Mechanicals' current show The Method Gun contains nudity! Whee! Nude Rudes!! Which... more ›

Photo by Bret Brookshire, courtesy Hyde Park Theatre Thom Pain (based on nothing)Through 12/22, Th/Fr/Sa at 8pmHyde Park Theatre (511 W. 43rd. Street)Reservations: 479-PLAY[info]Every so often when doing a review, we’ve gotta own up to something from our past. In this case, it’s that we used to be in a cult. In our defense, it was a good cult. Back in college we were part of the American Forensic Association*—"forensic" meaning “having to do with... more ›

The Ultimate Christmas Musical: The Musical!Through 12/22, Th/Fr/Sa at 8pmSalvage Vanguard Theater (map)[info] | [tickets]Christmas will be here sooner than you think! What nicer gift than an evening out at the theater? Here're just a few shows we think worthy of being early stocking-stuffers. You've probably already seen the XL cover or read the AusChron piece (damn, Jonathon Morgan gets around!)—Yellow Tape Construction Company's Ultimate Christmas Musical: The Musical! opened last weekend. We loved... more ›

Photo courtesy Shrewd Productions X-Mas: Unwrapped!! A Holiday Burlesque11/30-12/15, Thu-Sat at 10:00pmHyde Park Theatre (511 W. 43rd. Street)479-PLAY for reservations[info] 'Tis the season for giveaways! And the lovely ladies of Shrewd Productions are sharing the joy by offering two free tickets for Friday and Saturday night's performances of Xmas Unwrapped!! A Holiday Burlesque. The Jingle Belles have returned by popular demand to take the chill off the cold winter nights. Or, er, the cool-ish winter... more ›

Photo by clickykbd on flickr Two state pension fends haven't yet divested from Iran, even though Perry asked them to. Kelso takes on Hyde Park Baptist Church's treatment of the Austin Area Interreligious Ministries Thanksgiving service. Mother of weekend murder victim is still missing. Drivers of both vehicles involved in Burnet County wreck this morning died at the scene. UK organization working with Texas law enforcement officers to set up Trace.com, which keeps records of... more ›

Did you know that the vestige group was founded on Craigslist in 2006? Interesting, no? What's also interesting is their latest production, The New Jersey Book of the Dead. Billed as portraying a world "where people struggle to hold on to emotional connection in a world gone technological," we're pretty sure we can relate. The show's press materials also include the catch phrase, "Omnivore is listening. Spread the word." We're not sure what that means,... more ›

For this Week's TWIT, we're revealing the contents of our crystal ball—lurking on the horizon are a one-night-only you do not want to miss, and remounts of two box-office smashes. Jambi says, "Get your tickets now!" The Vortex is hosting, an irresistible, oddball of a show; three German actors, two American actors, and two Austrian video artists (collectively GTA’s Road Theater) are driving cross country (track 'em here), performing Roland Schimmelpfennig's Start Up. In this... more ›

For those of you jonesing for Tamari Cashew Vinaigrette and a big Peasant's Meal, your wait is almost over. Keep your fingers crossed - the folks at Mother's Cafe and Garden tell us they are hoping to reopen tonight after the popular Hyde Park restaurant was damaged by fire earlier this year. According to their website, plumbers have been working to get the restaurant in order for opening tonight, but very well may be pushed... more ›

Last night, Austin Circle of Theaters ushered in a whole new batch of B. Iden Payne Award winners. The event took place on the lovely St. Ed's campus; MMNT artistic director Ev Lunning Jr. hosted, along with members of the Actor's Equity association. Local heroine Karen Kuykendall was this year's Outstanding Honoree; Austin Chronicle Arts Editor Robert Faires presented her award. It was an elegant and exciting evening, to be sure! We weren't shocked by... more ›

As we mentioned in last week's TWIT, Capital T Theatre Company is currently running Samuel Beckett's "most cheerful" play, Happy Days, at Hyde Park Theatre. In case you're not familiar with this particular Beckett work, it's about "a middle-aged woman, Winnie, [who] finds herself increasingly submerged in a mound of earth. An incurable optimist, she uselessly follows the daily routine of her life. Over the passage of time, her few possessions gradually dwindle, and her... more ›

O, the mighty men and women of Austin's stages! They get so busy this time of year. There's more than enough to choose from this week, but here are the theater picks that top our list. ProArts Collective wraps up the Black Arts Movement Festival with Incognito on Thursday at 8pm, and Spoken Word Caravan on Friday at 8pm. The former is a one-man drama, performed by author Michael Fosberg, about a man who grew... more ›

Local writer Spike Gillespie (along with a dozen of her closest friends) has been holding forth on the subject of wookin pa nub in all the wrong places. The Dick Monologues run once a month at Hyde Park Theater. When we walked in, there was a sea of women with tiny plastic cups of red wine. Any trepidation over being surrounded by that many sleeveless tops quickly dissipated as the raucously hilarious women (and... more ›

Fall finally arrived on Sunday, not that anyone would notice. However, autumn also brings a start to most theatre companies' 2007-08 season. Things are kicking on Austin's boards. Here're a few shows we're excited about. If you need to warm up, consider taking in Naughty Austin's Cellbloq. In the words of writer-producer Blake Yelavich, who says it best, "Yes, it's about a bunch of muscular guys in prison, but that doesn't mean it is strictly... more ›

Sampaio's (Brazilian Cuisine) more ›