The new Museum building will be developed in partnership with international developer Hines and world-class architecture firm Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, whose portfolio includes the MoMA in Manhattan, the future World Financial Center in Beijing, and the Citigroup Tower in London....

With Beirut’s ads proclaiming, “Nudity. Sexually Explicit Material. Adults Only,” audiences might think they'll be seeing a titillating show. While there is plenty of nudity, it isn’t of the arousing sort. In this hour-long saga of love, lust and sexual deprivation, the actors (and real-life newlyweds) Patterson and Vogt-Patterson go at each other with a clawing intensity and emotional rawness that pulls you into their dark tale of doomed love....

Actor Heath Ledger was found dead in his downtown Manhattan apartment by the police. Some reports say he died from an overdose. Vermonters get to weigh in this week on a bill before the Legislature that would decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana. Tens of thousands of Palestinians poured from the Gaza Strip into Egypt Wednesday after masked gunmen with explosives destroyed most of the seven-mile barrier dividing the border town of Rafah.......

Photograph of the Trump Soho by Riccardo Sinti...

Image from the Peacock Website Cuisine de CocktailTuesday, January 8The Peacock (515 Pedernales St)$40, 8pm, Reservations Required[info] Forget tasting menus with wine pairings, the Peacock kicks off a monthly "Second Tuesday" tomorrow featuring a cocktail menu with food pairings. Executive Chef Deegan McClung of Cissi's Market (who is also the former Chef de Cuisine at Uchi) will spearhead the food menu, and Peacock Head Bartender Slim Neumann is in charge of the cocktail menu. Reserve......

The Waller Creek Tunnel project here in Austin is gaining ground. Major scientific breakthrough shows that cloning embryos is much easier than anticipated... U.S. clean energy stocks are doing better than the U.S. economy as a whole. Is classical music on the comeback? Norman Mailer dies in Manhattan at the age of 84. Writers Guild of America strike in Hollywood goes into week two... We will all have less privacy in the future, says......

17-year-old Hannah Hawley (photo at right) has been missing since Monday afternoon and has a heart condition requiring medication. She was last seen at South 1st and W. Stassney Lane. Police ask anyone with knowledge of her whereabouts to call 911. Texans for Public Justice says that our city is losing money on incentive deals. Citizens of Northeast Travis County are opposed to the possible expansion of the landfill in their area. The odor......

#7 Texas (4-0) vs. Kansas State (2-1) Time: 2:30 pm, Saturday, Sept. 29 Location: Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium TV: KVUE (ABC) Radio: KVET (98.1 FM, 1300 AM) As the Kansas State Wildcats come to town this week, the Texas Longhorns insist they don't have revenge on their minds, but it would be easy to allow them that sentiment. When the two teams met last year in Manhattan, Kansas, Texas was on top of the......

Saturday night at Stubb's will likely be awfully warm (the forecast shows around 90 degrees), but it's worth braving the August heat for this strong of a bill. For reasons unknown to us, Rufus Wainwright and Neko Case are both playing at Stubb's, a venue that either performer could likely play on their own. Rufus Wainwright is the moody, theatrical brother in the musical Wainwright clan, which includes father Loudon Wainwright III, sister Martha,......

Remember how Beyonce fell on her ass at a concert and said she didn't want anyone posting videos of it? The folks at Shout Mouth have compiled their Top Ten Most Embarrassing Stage Falls (with video accompaniment, of course). Do you remember the last State of the Union when Bush honored Julie Aigner-Clark, founder of Baby Einstein (a series of infant educational programs)? Yeah...those programs don't actually work. Scary: Shitload of Germans pile on......

This week ended with the launch of the seventh and final Harry Potter installation. But while the world was consumed with Pottermania, it's important to remember that there were more serious things going on in the world, too—two of them in -Ist cities. Sampaist was shocked when a passenger jet crashed into the center of Sao Paulo, killing at least 200 people. The airplane, an Airbus A320, skidded off the runway at the city's Congonhas......

You have probably never heard of Larry Weir, but if you grew up in the 80's you have most likely seen or heard his handiwork. This Sunday, he and his brother/writing partner Tom Weir will visit Austin to host a serendipitous screening of the 80's cult cheese classic Teen Witch as part of the Alamo Drafthouse Celebrity Guest Signature Series. Apparently, an Alamo staffer had been bugging the management to play the movie for years......

"I've had a hell of a good time. I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don't let anybody tell you any different." Such was the off-the-cuff nonchalance and quirky charm that epitomized the inimitable Kurt Vonnegut, who passed away yesterday at the age of 84. With a dazzling career that spanned over half a century, Vonnegut was, to us, the quintessential American man of letters: novelist, essayist, playwright, and,......

Tonight, Alamo Music Mondays presents Times Square, Allan Moyle's two-against-the-world teen drama set in the grimy, x-rated heart of late 1970s Manhattan. Featuring music by Gary Numan, XTC, Roxy Music, The Ruts, Patti Smith, the Ramones, and the Talking Heads, the film follows two teenage girls who escape from a psychiatric hospital, take up residence in an abandoned warehouse and form an underground punk band called "The Sleez Sisters". With the help of a hip......

Paula Disbrowe has been a food and travel writer in Manhattan and the cowgirl chef at Hart & Hind Fitness Ranch in Rio Frio, Texas. Her work has been featured in publications including the New York Times, Food & Wine, Cooking Light, and Saveur. She recently launched one of our favorite websites, Dishola, and her new book, Cowgirl Cuisine: Rustic Recipes and Cowgirl Adventures from a Texas Ranch, showcases her love for Texas food. Catch......

Sunday. Usually, a quiet, contemplative day in the Blogosphere. But not here in the Ist-a-Verse. Nonono! Just look below and see all of the wild and crazy stuff our staffs are up to. In Austin, bands are beginning to confirm for SXSW and the rumor mill is up and running. Good thing, too, because we all know how much Austinites love live performances. Austin also found itself in the national spotlight, with Longhorn Legend......

Late Friday night, flames could be seen from all around the campus area as the lower floor of Dobie was engulfed in bright orange flames. We suspect it was some early celebrators (oh, wait) or just some rowdy kids out on the pool deck. Turns out, the fire that lasted only a few hours brought considerable damage. The Texan reported 900 sleepy, drunk or paranoid residents were moved to the Perry Castaneda Library for......

We hope you had a great weekend, there was certainly plenty to keep you busy. Is it Monday already? It goes by so much faster when there isn't any college football to watch. What, there was a game? We don't believe that we remember anything Saturday night, surely we would have remembered. Well, either way, another weekend has flown by and it's time for the best of last week's Missed Connections... You slipped right......

Let's look back at a week in which no site in the -ist network adopted anyone from Africa... -Austinist reveled in the dumb antics of some U.T. law students and posted some great audio from former New Orleans natives who've decided to stay in Austin. But the best news for Austinist? They were voted Best Local Entertainment Web Site by the local Austin alt-weekly. Congrats, Austinist. -DCist gloried in being told their musical tastes made......

Someone other than the government might have your census information. Speaking of the government, the feds allowed the Red Cross to visit the "high value detainees" at Guantanamo. The Yankees pitcher who loved flying was killed yesterday in a fiery plane crash in Manhattan. Gothamist kept us updated throughout the afternoon. No more cursive in schools? What about graphologists? Won't somebody think of them? Students at Gallaudet University are so upset with their proposed......

Tonight at 7:00 pm., Book People will host a reading and book signing by über-personal storyteller, Stephanie Klein. Her blog-turned-book, Straight Up & Dirty, is a tale of surviving, thriving and arriving, inspired by her well-read blog, Greek Tragedy. The outgoing and daring personality of Klein, coupled with her fearless honesty, has created a legion of fans who, having followed the writer’s adventures as a Manhattan singleton, have incorporated her vernacular into conversations. Her......

In stream-of-consciousness style, Klein weaves musings about the day-to-day in crosscutting fashion with the subconscious turmoil of a woman newly divorced. Like an over-filled martini glass, her ready acerbic wit spills forth on bad first dates, reminders of the “Wasband,” rantings about her worst fears as a single, and retrospectives on the challenges of her marriage. ...

A true benchmark of our time is the shortened distance that exists between real events in our world and their rebirth as silver screen dramas. An example of this is writer/director Peter Greengrass’ (The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum) United 93, an accounting based on documented facts of what transpired aboard the fated aircraft on September 11, 2001. Playing out in real time, cross cutting between stories, we get a glimpse of the shock and......

What they say about judging a book by its cover is true. Don’t do it! The late Wendy Wasserstein’s first and only novel, Elements of Style, has a pretty pink cover that looks like a neatly-wrapped gift and invites the viewer to tear into it with excited anticipation about the goodies inside. Only, what’s inside that pretty pink cover is shallow, overdone, contrived, and very disappointing. At least in our humble opinion. Elements of......

Jane Jacobs, the original urban planner who helped save Manhattan from an evil plan to cover it with highways, died this morning in Toronto. We at Austinist mourn her passing. Her vision of a livable downtown environment, explained in her book The Death and Life of Great American Cities, was a major factor in the rebirth of downtown living in the United States. Austin has just begun to reap the benefits of her insight. *Image......

Who’s afraid of Carolyn Bream? Not us. In fact, we’d say the economy-sized Texas Culinary Academy student – with her quirky schoolgirl ringlets and bright, funky wardrobe – is one of the least intimidating food people we’ve met. So who is afraid of Carolyn Bream? The competition. Bream is $15,000 closer to paying for her culinary education after winning the 2006 Stephan Pyles Celebrity Chef Challenge Scholarship. The annual competition, which comprises culinary students......

Austin is such an NPR town. How else can one explain a sold-out house of 2,800+ at $35 per ticket for author David Sedaris? Austinist hadn't been to many readings before, let alone one at a venue hosting Elvis Costello this week, so we weren't sure what to expect. We found a fawning audience, a writer in command of what he does best, and a great number of laughs through the course of the......

At the Velvet Spade, tonight, the Manhattan/New Jersey duo Metro Area (Morgan Geist and Darshan Jesrani) off Environ Records will be spinning their tastes and directions. We’re guessing that this will be something of a house-like set, but one never knows for sure. These fellows have and use many influences in their own music production, so we expect good things. What we do know for sure is that DJ Mel will be opening up......

We got a little tied-up this weekend, but here it is, your re-cap of what's what in the Ist-a-verse. Phillyist notes a fistfight between local pols that leaves one man down for the count. Jehovah's Witnesses get a Philly contributor out of bed, things get a little geeky with a film festival and geeky gets taken to a whole new galaxy when they talk with the Dragon Queen of the Dark Kingdom. Shanghaiist gets all......

Tara Wray fled Kansas when she was 19. That was the year her mother, Evie Wray, declared herself pregnant with the devil’s baby, and the year she threatened to drive both herself and her daughter off a bridge. After that, they didn’t speak much – until Manhattan, Kansas. The feature-length documentary -- named after the town in which Tara’s life began -- had its world premiere last Friday at the SXSW Film Festival. It is......