Evan Smith, president and editor in chief of Texas Monthly, is leaving the magazine to join the Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan public media organization aimed at politics, government, and other matters of statewide interest. Smith will become CEO of the new venture, which also claims Austin Ventures general partner John Thornton as the chairman and former Austin Technology Council president Alisha Ring as general manager. Smith spent nearly 18 years at Texas Monthly, serving as editor for eight years before becoming president and editor in chief last year. In his farewell letter to the staff, Smith said that Texas Monthly "without question, gave me my life, gave me the most wonderful and unbelievable and exciting career that anyone could ask for." [NYT] more ›

Photo courtesy Fossum Studios L Style G Style, a new gay and lesbian lifestyle magazine, hit the streets of Austin yesterday. Executed in a “two magazines in one” format, the print pub is flip-able, like the old Spiegel catalogs from back-in-the-day, with the "L" side tailored to ladies and the "G" side for the guys. “Our goal with the magazine is to offer the public a different view of the gay and lesbian community,” said... more ›

[This review courtesy of new Austinist contributor Anna Hanks! -Ed.] As much as we'd like to change a few things about our first time, we regret we’ll never be able to repeat the experience. We also can’t change history, so catching the currently playing, slick incarnation of the Rude Mechanicals' Get Your War On also wasn't our first time. (We reviewed the show last January as well.) Directed by Shawn Sides, Get Your War... more ›

In less than two days, we'll be hosting our big annual pre-ACL party, Local Music is Sexy IV, Thursday night's soiree will feature Austinites The Lemurs, The Corto Maltese, and Brazos on the outside main stage, with DJs Car Stereo (Wars), Ceeplus Bad Knives*, and Markus with a K supplying dance-party jams inside alongside Magic Surprise. We're also thrilled to be bringing in Seattle indie rockers Say Hi To Your Mom* as our headliners. What's... more ›

Chances are pretty good that you’ve heard of The MisShapes – New York's party-throwing trio and current It-kids. Last fall, the New York Times wrote about “the phenomenon known as the MisShapes” and their 15 minutes of fame. They've been in countless pop culture magazines, most of which reference the one time that Madonna dropped in on their weekly residency at Don Hill’s in SoHo. They've been on ads for those Eastport backpacks that kids... more ›

*The views expressed in Truesday are those of the author and do not represent Austinist as a whole. Thank heavens.* -The Editors I cry about it every year. What can I say? I’m Nordic. My peoples battled chill and rain-brought illness. Snow drifts and day long nights. Christmas trees and rowing to Greenland to fish. Various doings in the cold. They never sweat to death. So this current variety of heat, though delayed this... more ›

If you missed out on the initial deadline to participate in this year's inaugural Maker Faire Austin festival, you're in luck! The event organizers have set a new deadline of Thursday, September 6, thereby affording you a comfortable two and a half weeks to come up with your very own zany creation. For an idea of what to expect, the MAKE blog highlights some of the inventions recently previewed at Austin Children's Museum, including hyperbolic... more ›

Maker Faire, the annual Bay Area festival that revels in Do-It-Yourself (DIY) ingenuity, is expanding to Austin this year. The two-day, family-friendly event will showcase some of the coolest shit—arts, crafts, wickedly geeky science projects—you've never seen in your life; think Dorkbot but hulked out. What else would you expect from a festival organized by the staffs of Make and Craft magazines? If you're a "Maker" and are interested in showing off your zany (or... more ›

under the legal bar age a chance to rock out, bounce in a moonwalk, and relax. Recently profiled on the Today Show, in Newsweek and Rare magazines, as well as featured in the Statesman, RNR is quickly becoming the go-to solution for adults and children all over Austin for cheap, fun rock n roll on the weekend. more ›

Sam Duckworth (aka Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly) just celebrated his 21st birthday by headlining a sold-out 2,000 seat theatre in London. If that's not precocious enough for you, he also has three UK Top 40 singles and made almost all of the major British magazines' Top 100 albums of '06 lists. The emotive and earnest vocals Duckworth employs are a touch emo, often political, and quite radio-friendly, which has earned him comparisons to... more ›

Dallas’ The Hourly Radio has garnered some top-notch buzz lately. Rolling Stone and Filter magazines both named History Will Never Hold Me in recent “Top 5” listings, while their guitar-centric, post new-wave musical stylings are a hit in NYC, among other cities. We, too, have enjoyed their Texas shows, be it last year’s non-SXSW the rich girls are weeping bash during, well, SXSW, or their opening gig for Stellastarr* at the Parish a few years back. Everyone gets their Hourly Radio fix at Austinist’s free day show at the Mohawk on the 14th. more ›

Two weeks ago saw the launch of Forward Austin, a new publication geared towards gay and lesbian professionals in the business community. Produced by the AGLCC (Austin Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce), the debut issue of Forward Austin can currently be found at Bookpeople, Progress Coffee, and a handful of other venues around town. We recently engaged AGLCC President Jimmy Flannigan in a brief interview about the fledgling magazine. Below and after the... more ›

Do Make Say Think You, You're a History In Rust (Constellation) It might just be a coincidence that Do Make Say Think release their latest full length just one week after local favorites Explosions in the Sky, but even without the timing to consider, both albums (and their eager fans) confirm the post-rock instrumental movement's throbbing heart. At the core of this kind of thing must be a conscious effort to avoid the trappings... more ›

The city of Austin is a bastion of local print and internet media publications of many varieties, and we at the Austinist are always excited to get our from under our cave desks, rub the sleep from our eyes, and actually read something that has been printed on a real live piece of paper once in a while. Or just download the .PDF. Regardless of how we come to read our favorite local print publications,... more ›

Despite lackluster sales growth and a stock price that plummeted nearly 40% last year, Whole Foods Market was again rated highly among Fortune Magazine's 100 Best Companies to Work For. The annual rankings puts the organic food mecca in fifth place overall, and number two among large companies. Tech firm National Instruments was the only other Austin-based company making it onto Fortune's list, coming in at 86th place. more ›

Apropos of nothing, really, other than that we drove past this sign on E. Cesar Chavez, here are some reminders about what you can recyle in Austin:- Newspapers, magazines, catalogs, junk mail & office paper - Aluminum, steel & tin cans - Glass bottles and jars, all colors - Plastic bottles (#1 and #2) -- no other shaped plastic containers than bottles - Corrugated cardboardPick up a recycling bin from any City of Austin... more ›

This past June, American portrait photographer Arnold Newman passed away in his birthplace of New York City at the age of 88. Four months later, his acclaimed portrait photographs have found a permanent home, where they will share a room with the first-ever photograph and The Gutenberg Bible, at The University of Texas' Harry Ransom Humantities Research Center. more ›

In Money Magazine's annual Top Ten Best Big Cities list, published online yesterday, Austin came out in second place. Oddly enough, we weren't anywhere near the top for their separate rankings of metrics like Job Growth, Skinniest, Youngest, Safest, and Most Singles. According to the magazine's survey, our population of nearly 700,000 (over half of whom are college educated) has a healthy median age of just under 31 and spends almost $7000 a year... more ›

• Median household yearly income in Austin: $48,267 [link]
• Equivalent purchasing power, adjusted for cost of living here: $53,275 [link]
• Money Magazine's average: $43,961 [link]
• National average yearly salary of an "Associate Store Team Leader" at Austin-based Whole Foods: $73,061 [link]
• Amount Texas collected in sales tax revenue in June of 2006: $1.49 billion [link]
• Percentage increase from last year: 15.6 [link]
• Cost of new Lakeline Station project -- including up to 3,000 homes and 150,000 square feet of retail space -- in northwest Austin, near 183 and 620: $400 million [link]
• Estimated number of years to complete: 8 [link]
• Size of Austin's labor force, as of May 2006: 826,197 [link]
• Total weight of air cargo shipped through Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in May, in pounds: 93 million [link]
• Rank of ABIA among 19 small airports in J.D. Power and Associates' 2006 North America Airport Satisfaction Study, form the bottom: 3 [link]
• Maximum grant to be given to a local arts organization by the City’s Cultural Arts Funding Program: $25,000 [link]
• Number of works of art in the Blanton Museum collection: 17,000 [link]
• Number of state parks that may have to say "Adios, Mofo" if recent budget cuts ordered by Governor Perry are implemented: 18 [link]
• Total distance, in miles, to be swum by Austinites David Broyles and Rush Vann across the shark-infested Straits of Gibraltar, from the coast of Spain to Morocco, to raise money for US veterans: 13 [link]
• Total distance, in miles, covered by Pure Austin fitness trainer Shawn Bostad during last week's 12-hour treadmill marathon: 70.4 [link]
• Estimated capacity of renovated Austin Music Hall, after expansion work: 7,000 [link]
• Top capacity of The Backyard, for general admission shows: 4,500 [link]
• Minimum number of Austin "bands" on Myspace: 10,000 [link]
• Number of fans claimed by Shaven Ass-Hair Mustache, a "Psychobilly/Death Metal/Afro-beat" band: 1 [link]

Some strange bird behavior in California is being blamed on acid. Philanthropist Warren Buffet is donating a substantial portion of his fortune to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Want to see a minor leage baseball coach lose his cool? The Department of Homeland Security is getting too many calls from telemarketers on their "secrect homeland defense" hotline. As healthy as you hippies think you are, extreme vegetarianism can actually lead to diseases including... more ›

Sincerely, Roger more ›

Over 25 years ago, John Mackey and his partners had a vision to give natural foods their own home. No longer would they be relegated to small sections of stores, they would have their own store. Their dream came to life with the first Whole Foods Market at 10th & Lamar. At the time, it was one of only a half dozen or so natural food markets in the country. Today, after dozens of acquisitions and slow profitable growth, Whole Foods is one of the most successful businesses in America, continually showing up in FORTUNE's Best Places to Work (placing 15th this year). Tonight, on CNBC, Whole Foods gets the Behind the Music treatment, as founder Mackey is profiled on their new show, American Made. more ›

We're sure it's already marked on your calendars, so it probably isn't necessary to remind you that today heralds International Respect For Chickens Day. In keeping with the other causes being celebrated this month at Austinist, we would like to shed some light on this little-known holiday and illuminate some of the more charismatic chickens that have graced our time. Numbering somewhere near 24 million and counting, chickens are by far the most populous... more ›

[The following is an editorial column by contributor Alison Coffey and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Austinist staff. --The Editors] It's not like I have thousands of dollars to make my home my castle, complete with beige furnishings from Room & Board and original artwork and decorative bowls filled with green apples. Even a total home by Target is kind of a struggle. So I don't know why I torture myself... more ›

Chris and Rich Robinson, of The Black Crowes, rolled into Austin to play four sold out acoustic shows - two on Monday at the Union Ballroom and two on Tuesday at the Cactus Café. We were lucky enough to get tickets for both performances at the Ballroom. The brothers have announced that there are no press passes to any of their shows on this mini-tour dubbed "Brothers of a Feather" and some reporters are... more ›

• The UT football team picked up another highly touted recruit, a 6-4, 305-lb.offensive lineman. One thing: he's only a junior in high school.
• When the Pope speaks, we do our best to understand him. This weekend, he called for an "honourable solution" to the Iran nuclear disagreements in an effort to bring about World Peace.
• Last week, our favorite President George Jr. met with Chinese President Hu Jintao. There were several things on their agenda to discuss.
• This morning, many homosexual parents and their children will participate in the annual White House Egg Roll. We think that this is a great way to show off your sexual orientation. And fun for the kids, too!
• Some priests think they can get away with murder. A Priest is on trial this week as he is accused of the murder of a nun over 25 years years ago that apparently involved Satantic Ritual.
• The Department of Homeland Security released a report recently that criticises the way that FEMA dealt with natural disasters last year, especially hurricanes. The agency was apparently pre-occupied with potential acts of terrorism and overlooking the immediate needs of many Americans.
• Australopithecus anamensis, you know, that guy. Well, his remains were found in Ethiopia and they fill a really important gap in the study on evolution.
• Today begins the fifth effort of the Texas Legislature to come up with a solution for school funding. We are hoping they can get something accomplished during this Special Session, or well before we decide to have children.
• Still unsure of what to do with your life? We are. Consider this list of the Top 50 Jobs in America. Being s Surgeon sure looks appealing.
• So now Katie Holmes is a Scientologist and she's not going to get a giant pacifier. more ›

Sure, David Sedaris is all the rage. And with good reason. His faux-angry satire always provides us with a hearty laugh. Even more so when we hear him read it. He's one of the great humor writers in the country today. Here's the catch, he's not even the funniest person in his family. We love David but give us Amy Sedaris any day. The absurdly funny Amy has kept us laughing for years with... more ›

The local design mavens known collectively as the Austin Craft Mafia -- members of which include Sparkle Craft, Naughty Secretary Club and Amet and Sasha -- have certainly made a name for themselves since forming back in 2003. With their various creations having been featured in a slew of magazines (Jane, Budget Living, Real Simple), various and sundry other Craft Mafias sprouting up all around the country, and the tremendous success of annual shows like Stitch, you'd think these fashionistas would be content in their extraordinary accomplishments, or at least exhausted. But, no. Last year, eight out of the ten mafiosa flew out to Los Angeles to film a new series for the DIY Network, called "Stylelicious." The 39 episodes each feature three of them showcasing a different type of wearable art, from purses to jewelry to clothing, along with special "field pieces" by local Austin designers (Mark Joiner, Will Heron, Amy Barber, Chia Guillory, Parts & Labour and more). DIY's synopsis puts it best:

Stylelicious makes life delicious! This half-hour series is a tasty concoction of fashion, accessories and fun as a round-robin group of fashionistas show viewers three unique takes on the same project. Viewers get three crafty points of view on each show as our designing divas tackle purses, shoes and all kinds of fashion treats. Viewers will be craving more and more of Stylelicious!

February 28th (usually) marks the end of the shortest month of the year, the month with a holiday devoted to love, the month where women's magazines dedicate chunks of print to relationship issues and how to overcome loneliness. Feb. 28th also marked the day Rhett Miller's latest solo effort, The Believer, came out. Woo Hoo! We love the Old 97's and, by extension, their leading man, Mr. Miller. The Old 97's are from Dallas and... more ›

In case you didn't know, women's needs have been largely ignored within the transportation industry--namely the limousine business. Where are the female drivers? The copies of Cosmo? The fresh flowers? more ›