ACL Festival week just got even more interesting: on Tuesday, September 13, C3 has just announced that Wisconsin's Bon Iver will perform at the Long Center. While the venue isn't often used for rock concerts, those who have seen it employed for past shows such as Leonard Cohen or Sufjan Stevens can attest that it's a fantastic venue for nuanced listening. Fellow indie-folk singer Kathleen Edwards will open the show. Tickets are onsale from Friday at 10am via www.C3Concerts.com, www.longcenter.org, and the venue box office.

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Last September, Texas Monthly dipped a toe in the food festival waters with their first-ever BBQ Festival. The results were unsurprisingly delicious - 20 of the state's best 'cue spots turned up with mobile smokers and cutters to deliver the goods to the sold-out crowd, who basked in a multi-hour meat coma on the Long Center Terrace. The only problem? The organizers erred so far on the side of caution that the 1,000 tickets available sold out in days (they were trying to prevent long lines) - and pitmasters actually had more food than people to serve it to! For this year's second edition, the magazine has learned that they can accomodate far more BBQ enthusiasts, and is making everything bigger the second time around: more food, more sides, and more guests. more ›

Fusebox, Austin's annual festival of contemporary art and performance, is well underway, and for the next two nights, New York-based playwright and director Young Jean Lee presents The Shipment. A sharp, comic look at cultural stereotypes of black America, this production marks the first time this Korean-American experimental theater rock star (no, really, she's in a band, too) brings her work to Austin. more ›

Few people in the world of writing have carved themselves such an enviable and steady niche as David Sedaris, the undisputed king of the awkward-yet-relatable insight and the breezy-but-thoughtful read. His books of "essays" (Barrel Fever, Naked, Holidays on Ice, Me Talk Pretty One Day, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, 2008's When You Are Engulfed in Flames, and his latest, Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary) have risen to the top of all the most popular lists, and everyone from NPR to the New York Times to the Grammies has lauded his instantly recognizable style. Right now he's touring America with material both familiar and unfamiliar, and his penduluming between cringe-worthy honesty and heart-string tuggery goes over as well in performance as it does on the page. Heads up, though: the show was in such high demand it was moved from Paramount to Long Center, so don't end up standing around confused on Congress! more ›

She’s a living legend, she knows Kermit and, as spooky as her “Single Ladies” cameo was, she was the only good part of Sex and the City 2. If you’re straight (or fairly young) you probably started to have some...feelings for Liza Minnelli when she played the vertigo-stricken Lucille Two on Arrested Development. It’s only natural. No matter how much you love Liza, we know you're excited because tonight, one of the few living EGOT winners will make the gay dreams of about 2,400 Central Texans come true. more ›

For the first time in 20 years, Liza Minnelli is returning to Austin, gracing the stage of the Long Center on Thursday, March 3, 2011. Forty-five years ago, a 19-year-old Minnelli became the youngest woman to ever win a Tony, and the unforgettable songstress has gone on to conquer the Emmy, Grammy and Oscar awards -- making her one of the few to hold the coveted EGOT title. This highly-anticipated event is sure to sell out, so don't miss the chance to get your tickets (which start at $39) when they go on sale this Monday, December 13th at 10 am. Hint hint: these make perfect Christmas gifts. Check out www.thelongcenter.org to grab yours. more ›

Someone must have liked Chuck Norris’s autobiography, right? Even if you’re a member of the NRA and just signed up for beginner Tae Kwon Do, in order to READ such a book you must be literate which suggests you have read other books. So you should be able to recognize how bad Norris’s book is. Still, someone must have read it and found something in it to enjoy. Right? As a matter of fact, writer/performer Eugene Pack and Dayle Reyfel are leading a new group of celebrity connoisseurs of perhaps the single worst genre of so-called literature in a wildly successful reality theater experiment: Celebrity Autobiography. more ›

I returned from several weeks of travel semi-determined to lay pretty low for a while when I got back. In particular, spending a week off the coast of Maine almost entirely disconnected from the world inspired a desire to SLOW DOWN upon my return. I knew, even before landing in Austin, the folly of this goal. Besides having to do the Find Work Hustle, I faced a bigger challenge to a slower pace. And that is the fact that this city is packed-- more than packed, bursting-- with opportunities to expand mind, body, and spirit on a daily basis. On an hourly basis. So when I got word that Blue Lapis Light, Sally Jacques' aerial dance company, was fixing to stage another performance, I shoved aside my hermit aspirations and rushed over to see the opening night of ONE. Hopefully by now all of you have seen at least one performance by the group. In case not, let me attempt to clue you in to what these stunning pieces are like. Fortunately, Warren is lending an assist-- he attended with me as my official photographer and I'm delighted to be able to share some of his pictures with you here. more ›

The Tempest is relatively popular today, perhaps because the story, in which a banished duke uses his magic powers to control and manipulate a sprite, an orphaned child, and to orchestrate a marriage for his own daughter, is ripe material for post-modernist, post-colonial, post-feminist, post-whatever interpretation. If deconstruction exhausts you, this production, which is at the Rollins Studio Theatre at the Long Center for the Performing Arts through September 26, is probably a good bet. Artistic Director Ann Ciccolella has assembled a cast of accomplished vets and energetic newcomers for a classical-feeling interpretation: the audience never doubts that Prospero's magic is real, and even though he is a bit of a controlling dad with delusions of grandeur, he does seem to want happiness for his daughter, and the story ends on the redemptive, uplifting note that is characteristic of the romance plays. more ›

Last Friday and Saturday, the Long Center hosted Jason Neulander’s pitch-perfect homage to sci-fi pulp and Weird Tales-inspired radio dramas, The Intergalactic Nemesis. We’re glad they did, it was totally nuts and a ton of fun. more ›

The Intergalactic Nemesis was a radio serial from the 1930's that started being recreated live on stage here in Austin back in 1996. Several years ago, Nemesis returned to the radio when recordings of these performances airing on KUT. The evolution of this project now makes a leap to the big screen with a "live-action graphic novel" from the creative team led by Jason Neulander and Tim Doyle. The story itself plays out on screen in the form of comic book panels, while three actors and a foley artist perform all of the voices and sound effects live. more ›

Austin’s improv community has been expanding over the past several years to the point where there’s now at least five venues offering regular improv programming every week. Austin’s improv scene provides not just quantity, but quality and variety. This weekend is another big moment for Austin improv, particularly short-form improv, for two different reasons. This weekend The Hideout Theatre presents The Battle of The Sexes at The Long Center and CompedySportz Austin travels to Philadelphia for the ComedySportz World Championship. more ›

The Long Center for the Performing Arts has surpassed its fundraising goal for the fiscal year. The goal was just under $1.6 million and that number had increased about 3% from the previous fiscal year's contributed income. 64% of their operating budget comes from ticket sales and rental revenue. They also announced that Sheila Berry will be stepping into the role of Annual Members Liaison, working closely with Director of Development Jennifer Houlihan. The Long Center hosts symphony, opera and ballet companies as well as numerous local small and emerging arts organizations. more ›

Texas Monthly's longstanding tradition of the twice-a-decade BBQ issue has led to arguments, road trips, debates, and all sorts of cacophony. Their food editors travel the state in search of new, obscure, and classic joints serving the holy trinity of brisket, ribs, and sausage. When all is said and done, they pick their favorite 50 spots, and explain why. In the past, such stalwarts as The Salt Lick have sometimes missed the cut. Texans take BBQ personally, and when Texas Monthly mentions, say, Snow's BBQ as the #1 spot in the state for 'cue, Snow's immediately gets hour-long lines (in Lexington, TX) and starts running out of food at 10am on a weekly basis.

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We all know that liberties get taken with history (read: Holocaust denial, the First Thanksgiving). Of course these have often been, in the course of human events, virulent ploys to obscure truth for the sake of agenda. However, in the realm of art, liberties taken with purported facts have elucidated great and (if there's any such hierarchy) more important human truths. With Mary Stuart, Friedrich Schiller's account of an interaction between Queen Elizabeth and Mary, Queen of Scots, the author has crafted a parable that examines the crushing responsibility of the powerful and the incoherency of truth when viewed through pained eyes. These women never met, but Schiller's imagined liason offers them a humanity that history didn't. It also offers the audience musings on the ties that bind, and the ways hands break those ties. more ›

Austin charmer Erin Ivey marks her return home from her national summer tour with a special show at the Long Center's Rollins Theatre. Presented by Mixtank Studios, the show is billed as "a rare collaborative performance with emphasis on improvisation and interdisciplinary exploration." Other artists in the mix include Hammond M3 Organ trio the Finest Kind, and opening act Red Corner Rhymers. The bill also promises to-be-named special guests, so the evening should have at least a few surprises on the bill as well. more ›

Tori Amos is playing Saturday night at the Long Center, part of a tour to promote her new album, Abnormally Attracted to Sin. It's a concept album following Amos' life-long subjects: women, religion, power and sin. It harps on that desire in all of us (or at least most of us here in Austin) to want what's bad or different or obviously wrong for us. A trait so trite, yet so innate in us all. more ›

Project Runway alum and designer Johnathan Kayne Gillaspie will be presenting new pieces from his eveningwear collection at the Austin Fashion Awards this Sunday, July 19th at the Long Center. Johnathan Kayne dares to take high design where there’s a major style void in the industry - the heavily embellished pageant and prom scene. Gillaspie won a Project Runway challenge by designing a gown for then Miss America, the infamous Tara Conner, which she then donned at the Miss Universe pageant. In preparation for the Austin Fashion Awards, we were able to pick the pageant prince’s brain, and we got fashion philosophical about his background and bling. more ›

Austin's first annual fashion week will be like no other, because it doesn't follow any rules. While New York, Milan, and Paris operate on the Fall/Spring schedule, we in the South like to see our fashion at peak season: summertime. From July 13-19, local boutiques will host weekly in-store events to showcase competing designers for the eventual Austin Fashion Awards ceremony, to be held at the Long Center on Sunday, July 19th at 5:30 p.m. more ›

Tori Amos will be at the Long Center on July 25. The tickets go on sale through their site, beginning May 30. Amos will be touring to support her new album, Abnormally Attracted to Sin, a concept album following Amos' life-long subjects: women, religion, power and sin. more ›

Tori Amos is coming to the Long Center on July 25. Tickets go on sale May 26 here. more ›

Kathy Griffin, comedienne and Emmy Award-winning star of her eponymous reality series on Bravo TV, Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List, returns to Austin for a one-night-only show at The Long Center on July 9. Tickets for the show range from $59 to $89, and go on sale this Friday at 10 a.m. [Tickets] more ›

Photos by Austinist contributing photographers Steve Hopson and Scott Miller from the Texas Hill Country Food and Wine Festival event at Long Center. more ›

This year's gala takes place on Tuesday, April 7th at the The Long Center for the Performing Arts, and includes a post-dinner dessert reception. Tickets, $75, can be purchased online, or for your chance to go for free, enter our contest after the jump. more ›

• Tornado watch for Travis County until 9pm
• 81st legislature passed its first bill (finally): Rep. Dawnna Dukes' film incentives bill.
• State Senate approves scaling back the top 10% rule.

American folk icon Leonard Cohen is returning to Austin on April 2 to perform at the Long Center. more ›

This past Saturday at the Long Center, 881 Austinites joined in with people in other cities worldwide to break the record for the largest group of people dancing to Michael Jackson's "Thriller" at one time. It was announced today that in all, the final tally of people dancing simultaneously (in various locations) was 4,177. The Alamo's blog has more information (and a birds-eye video), and the Statesman has some photos from the event. more ›

Tomorrow night, Ballet Austin will kick off it's season with Tharp's ballet, an eclectic mix of traditional ballroom dancing and the soothing sounds of Sinatra's collection. The Austin Symphony Orchestra will provide accompanying instrumentation. more ›

KLRU-TV and Conspirare are bringing the latter's Grammy-nominated vocal ensemble to the small screen in a one-hour concert to air nationally on PBS next March. The contemporary-meets-classical performance will be taped at the Long Center for the Performing Arts on Sunday, October 12, at 7 p.m. The taping is free — but you'll need a ticket if you'd like to attend. Free tickets will be distributed to the public at noon on Tuesday, Oct. 7, at KLRU's offices (2504-B Whitis Ave., at the corner of Dean Keeton and Guadalupe). Tickets will be distributed two-per-person on a first come, first served basis until they are gone. [More Info] more ›

Austin Shakespeare’s Artistic Director Ann Ciccolella offers an updated take on one of Shakespeare’s über-bummer tragedies, Macbeth, with pretty solid results mixed in with a little bit of Huh? Marc Pouhe as Macbeth gives a strong performance and is mighty easy on the eyes. Sharron Bower as Lady Macbeth is wonderful—cognitive dissonance personified with an utterly evil soul wrapped in the façade of loveliness. more ›