Results tagged “media”

Over beers at TRIO last Tuesday, we had a chat with former Texas Monthly president and editor-in-chief Evan Smith about his new nonprofit media project, the Texas Tribune.

• Civilian goals still unmet in Afghanistan
• Two Americans share Nobel economics prize; this is the first year a female has been awarded the prize for economics.
• Insurance industry advocacy group claims premiums will rise under healthcare reform

The venerable 117-year-old Waco Tribune-Herald, freshly sold to a local insurance mogul in July, debuted a guest column by the publisher's poodle on Sunday.

• Three Americans share Nobel Prize for medicine
• Iran playing nice?
• Foreign frenemy policy: Obama delays meeting with Dalai Lama

After nearly a year on the market, the Statesman is no longer for sale. Parent company Cox Enterprises announced today that they will retain ownership of the paper.

Like the publishing industry as a whole, Austin's Rare Magazine has been undergoing a metamorphosis of late, which ostensibly began with the departure of former Publisher and Founder Matt Swinney earlier this year. The magazine's co-owner, Taylor Perkins, who runs local real estate firm 512 Realty and serves as Development Director for Charity Bash, a fledgling philanthropy group, then bought out his business partner's share, becoming sole owner of Rare and assuming the Publisher title.

Lan Bui/Flickr
• Sex research is well and good, but when is someone going to study our drunken hook-ups?
• SXSW made money. Duh.
• People came to SXSW to find work.

• Local rancher dies after being crushed by cow.
• Austin rapper "Capone" allegedly hit and robbed a mentally disabled man over $45 bucks in CD sales.
• Do they waive the late checkout fee for everyone else when Austin Police Department SWAT teams are outside the hotel?

Although most local stations (KXAN, KVUE, and even FOX7), are sticking with analog past February, the Washington Post reports today that about 500 stations nationwide are going ahead with the digital transition on the originally scheduled date of February 17. Given this tweet posted yesterday saying "KEYE will stop broadcasting its analog feed on the original planned digital conversion date, Feb. 17," KEYE looks to be one of them. Also: KLRU CEO on the delayed switch.

• Pres gets sorta apocalyptic with it.
• GM cuts 10,000 jobs - of the management variety.
• Good to see the energy efficiency question is still out there, despite cheap gas.

As part of KUT's 50th anniversary celebration, BBC has been in town since Monday doing their live show, . Yesterday they were on the air from UT's Communications Courtyard, discussing capital punishment, when KLRU's Docubloggers found them. They will be in town through Friday - their show is airing throughout the week at noon on KUT.

Michele Norris, host of NPR's All Things Considered, will be in town next week. The Mary Alice Distinguished Lectureship, William Randolph Hearst Endowment for Visiting Professionals and the School of Journalism at UT Austin are sponsoring her lecture titled "Listening to America in an Election Year: Did the Press Get it Right?" Her lecture next Thursday is free and open to the public.

Wells Dunbar from the Austin Chronicle (speaking of which, have you voted yet for Best of Austin? *hint, hint*) stopped by the Annie's List get-together last night for a wrap-up of the Democratic convention and chatted with some politicians in attendance about Obama's possible effect on local/state elections.

A woman was sexually assaulted on Saturday after leaving a Hyde Park Walgreens; police searching for the suspect. Multi-vehicle wreck this morning on Bee Caves at Barton Creek results in one death. Cesar Chavez St. set to turn two-way on Monday, August 11. Fickle Edouard floods areas of Southeast Texas, only sends some light showers our way. Girl, you know it's true: Jammin' 105.9 is now up for sale.

Two men arrested in San Marcos after using credit cards stolen from California, Michigan and Texas residents. Woman killed in a hit-and-run accident off of Steck last night. Ponderous: Feet found at Lake Travis linked to possible suicide case. 59-year-old Round Rock woman gives birth. Gov. Perry's flight to D.C. in June paid for by Bo Pilgrim, as Perry was going to get a waiver on ethanol mandates. Shady!

• Lesbian couple of 55 years to be the first in line today in San Francisco to get married.
• Honda starts commercial production of hydrogen-powered cars.
• Obama spoke about fatherhood at a church yesterday.

• China plans to relocate 12 *million* people.
• President Bush is really, really sorry that some troops used a Koran for target practice. (Or, at least, he's sorry people found out about it.)
• Obama meets big crowds in Oregon (surprise, surprise).

• Bush to meet Benedict at the airport, near the Alitalia baggage claim, holding a white carnation. If they miss each other they'll use their cell phones.
• Sure, and NOBODY was bitter during the Depression. Tell that to Herbert Hoover.
• Bloomberg picks gun control as way to bring himself to national attention - almost as politic a choice as that congestion pricing thing.

Another day, another long list of long list of web-darling music acts and their attendant corporate sponsors.

Unicorn’s site will be an ad-supported entertainment site offering “free, unlimited access” to audio and video content, but there’s more to it: Rather than focusing on sheer volume of music, as MySpace seems to intend, it looks like Unicorn will raise the bar by focusing on two primary goals: (1) Offering consistent, high-definition content to customers, and (2) allowing emerging artists to showcase their work in a more attractive, efficient and profitable way.

This is what SXSW free day parties are all about. Twelve bands, two venues, and short sets so that you can see as much as you can stomach. Forcefield and Terrorbird are having their blow-out at Emo’s and Emo’s Jr. on the first day of SXSW, kicking things off with quite a bang.

The Democratic party of Williamson County didn't order enough ballots; some precincts had used half of their ballots before the afternoon and evening rush. Today is the day of judgment for some of Craddick's Democratic supporters. Austin's Pluck purchased by Demand Media. Alfonso Royal, aide to Gov. Perry, named as chief of staff for TYC. The man who tried to steal copper from an East Austin electrical substation last week has died.

They Might Be Giants have been making music as a band since 1982. Their odd but endearing mix of accordian, saxophone, and guitars coupled with witty lyrics earned them a huge college radio following from the mid-80's on. Songs like "Don't Let's Start" and "Birdhouse In Your Soul" even became hits, and the duo toured and recorded ad infinitum. A second chapter of their story is quite unusual: TMBG are now famous in children's circles. In 2002, the group released "No!", a kids record they had recorded years earlier for fun. The record was a surprise smash, leading to deals with both Disney for a series of children's music CD's and Simon and Schuster for the CD + book Bed, Bed, Bed (which also features a pre-Juno Kimya Dawson). Having conquered the grownups and the kids, They Might Be Giants have also become in-demand composers for TV, doing the themes for "Malcolm In The Middle", "The Daily Show", and even some Dunkin' Donuts ads. We're unsure when the group sleeps, because they seem to be awfully prolific.

At yesterday's "Texas-sized Town Hall" at the Austin Convention Center, Senator Hillary Clinton's media entourage was forced to work out of a men's bathroom in a nearby community center. "It was immediately interpreted as something of a metaphor for the Clinton campaign's attitude to the press: With Sen. Hillary Clinton at Austin's convention center for 'a Texas-sized townhall,' her media entourage was taken to its work space — in a men's room of a separate community center." A campaign representative was quick to apologize, saying, "These accommodations should in no way be taken as a commentary on the quality of our media coverage.” Still, too late for the ensuing shit storm.

Built to Spill’s Doug Martsch speaks on evil record companies, Phil Collins, the ugly faces of politicians, shitty guitar solos, future collaboration with Modest Mouse, and old reggae guys getting high. Alright, so Built to Spill is one of the greatest, most influential, and most acclaimed bands of the past fifteen years. There's really no way around it. And for those of you who are a little late to the love-in, here's a very small sample of some of the things that have been said about them:         "A band whose talent and proficiency at times seem[s] boundless." --Pitchfork Media         "Flawless." --Trigger Magazine         "In short, he's a talent more people ought to know about." --Rolling Stone, on Doug Martsch         "Better than getting laid, finding God and winning the lotto combined." --San Francisco Weekly, just last week when discussing their live performance

In keeping with its aim of promoting exceptional artists to the unsuspecting masses, or “starting fires”, SureFire Media + Promotion presents an exciting line-up of local talent this Thursday at Antone’s. SureFire takes on responsibilities such as booking, publicity, and marketing for Austin acts with The Soldier Thread and The Mercers being just two of the bands on its roster. The Antone’s showcases are meant to bring a new set of local bands to the legendary venue -- according to SureFire’s Director of Media Relations, Stephen Tatton, “Antone's is really an Austin landmark, and I think that if we can do something there that helps everyone involved, then we've done our part.”

A super swell, baby-faced Harvard drop-out, Zuckerberg is constantly balancing on the edge of controversy, whether it be college hacking, the murky origins of Facebook, or the implementation of new privacy invading features on his fancy website. Yet, for a venture that is barely four years old, Zuckerberg has garnered billion dollar buyout bids, household name status and a probable place in the history books.

SureFire Media + Promotion along with Do512.com and yours truly present a kick-ass show at Antone’s this week that supercedes all bad-ass shows. A quadruple line-up of fast emerging local acts takes over the famous 4th St. venue this Thursday evening to offer a wide range of pop, rock, and beyond.

• A Straight Dope message board member attempted to waterboard himself, then shared all the details. It's as close to feeling tortured as most of us will ever experience.
• A hundred years after Freud, one man may have figured out why we dream. You'll never think the same way about nightmares again.
• Exhaustive Sesame Street video archive makes searching for your favorite old clips easier than ever. Oh, and maybe your kid will be into it.

A certain local website with a feature that starts with "A" and ends with "ist" (which appeared right around the time they hired our former editor) is having a little poll. They ask "Which local Web site is the best?" Um ... le duh! Vote here (early and often - up to once an hour).