In an effort to honor the who's who of Austin legacies, City Council has finally named the new city park near the south shore of Lady Bird Lake and just west of the Palmer events center (between Riverside Drive and Barton Springs Road) Butler Park. The park itself was named in honor of the Butler family that donated the land to the city. In the late 1800s, Butler was an Irish immigrant who ran a successful brick-making business on the land and ultimately his heirs donated the land to the city in 1941 for civic purposes....

Over the last several months, the Austin Parks Department has been accepting public nominations for naming the new downtown Austin park on the south shore of Lady Bird Lake. Located west of the Palmer events center, just upstream from the Ann Richards bridge, the new city park features an ultra-cool high-tech fountain. ...

Various images from the AISD Documentary, Teaching Austin: 125 Years of Public School Education, produced by Barbara Morgan of the Austin Film Festival and directed by local filmmakers Kevin Smith and Mike Nicholson. Local luminaries interviewed include political writer and UT/Austin High grad Liz Carpenter, former Austin school board president and city council member Gus Garcia and current AISD Superintendent Pat Forgione. RSVP information is available in our previous post. Photos courtesy AFF, Picture......

SXSW Presents returns to KLRU TV tomorrow for its third season, with four brand new episodes slated to run through the end of February. The critically acclaimed series, hosted by SXSW Film Fest Producer Matt Dentler, showcases some today's finest examples of independent filmmaking, many of which have a local emphasis -- past epiodes have featured Viva Les Amis, 24 Hours on Craigslist, and Witches in Exile. BBQ: A Texas Love Story February 6th,......

WEDNESDAY [6] film • Amélie at Rounders Pizzeria (8pm,Free) city • Austin Community Cultural Planning Project Arts & Culture Round Table discussion at One Texas Center (505 Barton Springs Rd, RSVP, 7-9pm) music • Pirates vs. Ninjas, Jolly Garogers at Beerland (dress as a pirate or ninja and get in free) music • 101X Homegrown w/ Visitors, Driver F at Flamingo Cantina -1 music • Cut Club with free Mickey's at The Mohawk (10pm)......

A new group in Austin called W.O.R.D. (Women Organizing to Revive Democracy) is throwing a bash tomorrow evening in support of Chris Bell. The event will feature appearances by State Rep. Donna Howard, slam poet Genevieve Van Cleve, and Liz Carpenter’s Yellow Dog Democrat mask. The goal is to provide a place for local Democratic women to gather, learn more about Chris Bell, and hopefully rally behind him. So break out of your Perry-induced......

Did the end of Bel Canto make you cry like it did us? Are you as interested in the friendship and literary relationship between Lucy Grealy and Ann Patchett as we? Do you like celebrating the works of a beautiful writer at dinner parties the way we do? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you will probably want to attend The Writers' League of Texas’ 1st Annual Award of Literary......