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?...

Little did we know last Monday when Al Gore stopped off in Austin for his Inconvenient Truth presentation that today he would be announced the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. There were rumors that it might happen - as a way for the Nobel committee to make a firm statement about the correlation between the environment and world peace - but now it is official. Gore will share the prize this year with the......

Britain creates new drug to combat obesity...dog obesity. Dear Abby supports gay marriage. A London judge has found nine lies in Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, orders disclaimer to air before being played in schools. The Empire State Building will glow green for the end of Ramadan this year. In China, there is a 95-year old woman growing a horn out of her forehead. Houston ISD is thinking of charging students (and their parents)......

Al Gore came into town Monday night in a Honda hybrid (in case you wondering) to give his "An Inconvenient Truth" slide show. It had a few extra slides different than the DVD, but for any layman who hadn't seen it, it naturally was an eye opener. Mr. Gore certainly has more stage presence than his Saturday Night Live persona (circa 2000) gives him credit for. Photos by Romain Nayalkar. If you can't view......

Tickets for Former Vice President Al Gore's in-person performance presentation of An Inconvenient Truth will go on sale this Saturday morning at 10 a.m. Prices for normal seats range from $29.50 to $99.50, with half-price discounts available for college students and university faculty/staff. Those wishing to get intimate with the fire and brimstone may opt for super-deluxe $250 VIP tickets, which guarantee you seats within the first two rows at the Theatre at Frank......

Former Vice President Al Gore is packing up his Powerpoint slides and taking 'em on the road—and he's coming to Austin on October 1st. Much like he did in the 2006 Academy Award-winning documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, Gore will be here to discuss today's pressing environmental issues and their impact on our world. Tickets go on sale next Saturday, September 8th at 10 a.m. Former Vice President Al Gore October 1st The Theatre at......

National Poetry Slam returns with a full schedule of stuff happening all over town this week, culminating in Friday and Saturday's final matches at the Paramount HBMG Foundation presents the 2007 ArtSpark Festival Visual Art Showcase at the Off Center Mayor Will Wynn and director Turk Pipkin screen "Nobelity" and "An Inconvenient Truth" at the Paramount Willie Nelson headlines the Austin Freedom Fest 2007, joined by the likes of Jackie "The Joke Man" Martling......

Mayor Will Wynn and writer/actor/director Turk Pipkin will tackle a hot topic (this one, not that one) this coming Monday as they host a special "Global Warming Q&A Session" between screenings of Pipkin's Nobelity and Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth at the Paramount Theatre. Mayor Wynn loves talkin' climate change (he's a key member of the U.S. Mayors Council on Climate Protection, and in January, he trained with Al Gore to deliver the slideshow Gore......

Austin Mayor Will Wynn, long a proponent of green energy, has his sights set on an even bigger target: global warming. Back in February, Wynn unveiled the Austin Climate Protection Plan, whose ambitious goals are eliminating all carbon dioxide emissions from municipal activities by 2020 and running all City buildings and vehicles using renewable energy sources. "Austin has long been a national leader on energy efficiency, renewable power and innovative technologies," said Wynn earlier this......

MONDAY [27] film • The Virgin Suicides at Rounders Pizzeria (8pm, Free) music • Sierra Leone Refugee All-Stars at Antone's music • The Rogue River String Band & Love Gone Cold at The Parlor music • Paris 49 Weekly Happy Hour at Continental Club (6:30pm, Free) film • School House Rock Learn and Sing-along at Alamo Downtown (7pm, $10) film • Love Streams at Texas Union (7:30pm) film • KOOP Benefit: The Power of......

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......

SNAKES ON A MUTHAF*CKIN’ PLAAAAAAANE! Because it just hasn’t been said enough. *Snakes on a Plane We debated about whether or not we should recommend this one, and we only do so out of sheer, morbid curiosity (plus, we really like jumping on bandwagons. A lot!). There aren’t words to express how ridiculous/awesome this movie must be. It’s like a whole new genre of film. We’re witnessing history here, folks. History determined by an......

We all know which movie you're going to see this weekend, so let's just cut the chit-chat and get down to it. *Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby Hotly anticipated, highly hilarious, and rife with corporate logos, this flick is about as "All-American" as you can get without draping yourself in Old Glory, stuffing your face with apple pie, and using insider trade information to pad your personal bank account while denying health......

And in the spirit of slackerdom, today we’re just recommending every new release that doesn’t star a Wilson brother. *Clerks 2 Austinist review As is the case with most sequels, we’re not really sure why this one is necessary. But Joel Siegel walked out of a screening, so that’s just as good of a reason to see it as any. *Lady in the Water Judging by the past, there’s a really good chance this......

Okay, we must take a quick moment here to talk about Pirates of the Caribbean Part Deux, which we should have talked about sooner but didn’t because, well, quite frankly, we kinda forgot we’d seen it until two hours ago, when yet another preview came on TV and we said to ourselves, “Hey, didn’t that scene come after that other scene and hey, how do we know that? Oh right, we saw that movie......

More summer blockbusters are coming your way, friends. Don't forget your eyepatch! *Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest It seems like forever ago that Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl took the world by storm. Depp was nominated for a friggin’ OSCAR, for Jeebus’ sake. We’re almost positive that won’t happen again, but we’re not ashamed to admit we’ll pay full admission price for this fluffy bit of high......

To sum up today's releases: a few big stars, fewer hopes. *Nacho Libre This one comes from the makers of the cult favorite Napoleon Dynamite and stars the more-famous half of Tenacious D, Jack Black. Yeah, it’s probably a little crude and not as funny as the previews, but we’ll go see it anyway. Because being Mexican is hi-larious. Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties Bill Murray agreed to be the voice of a......

A few tasty offerings today, including: Edward Norton in a cowboy hat! Vince Vaughn and Jen Aniston - omg, will they get back together in the end?? And hey, guess what - planet Earth is totally f*cked! *An Inconvenient Truth Last week we were a little confused about this film's release date, but we've confirmed that it does in fact open today. Not a moment too soon - the oceans are rising! Former presidential......

Celebrate, it's Memorial Day weekend! You most likely have plans to float down a river, or swim in a pool, or have your rich friends take you out in their boat, all while getting exceedingly plastered and forgetting about your soul-sucking day job.* Good thing, because film pickin’s today are slim and, well, strangely international. Most of you are probably wildly anticipating the release of X-Men Part Trois - one Austinist editor was so......