Logo from Austin Jewish Book Fair Keynote Lecture: "Iraq, Al Qaeda, and the Future of Israel" with Jeffrey Goldberg and Lawrence WrightSunday, November 11Jewish Community Association of Austin (7300 Hart Lane)7:30pm, $12 Gen Ad, $10 Students/Seniors/JCC Members[info] | [tickets] Austin Graphics and Comics Night with Paul Benjamin and Terry and Patty LaBanThursday, November 8Barnes and Noble Westlake (701 S. Capital of Texas)7:30pm, Free[info]Less than four days are left in the 2007 Austin Jewish Book Fair,......

Chinese petroleum company PetroGas set to become world's largest company by market value, surpassing ExxonMobil. Interesting gender-bender story from the Middle East... Mac users now entering the cross-hairs of the computer virus world...at least, the naughty Mac users (for shame!). Canadian study: P2P-file sharing actually INCREASES music purchasing? But how can this be?? Most Earthlings are ready to make sacrifices for the planet's environment, BBC study says. Is the next American economic recession on......

Like an accidental tourist, Terry George stumbled into filmmaking while penning a semi-autobiographical stage play with scribe partner Jim Sheridan about a failed prison break. Stemming from that first true-story collaboration, he has continued as both a writer and director, chronicling the triumph of the human spirit, and helping to catapult injustices in Ireland and the heinous genocide in Rwanda into our national consciousness with the critically acclaimed Hotel Rwanda. In conjunction with the regional......

Ambassador Dennis Ross, U.S. point man on the Middle East peace process during Bush I and the Clinton administrations, is coming to town to deliver a special morning lecture in advance of the Austin Jewish Book Fair. Now counselor to the Washington Institute and author of Statecraft, And How to Restore America's Standing in the World, Ross will discuss "how it came to pass that, not so long after 9/11 brought the free world to......

As everyone knows, Iraq is a mess. A big, nasty mess. It's also pretty much common knowledge that the Bush Administration, faced with dwindling patience by Congress on the war, is working double-time in a mad scramble to create some sort of progress and forward movement in the region. A large part of this effort is being directed toward ensuring that local governments in cities throughout Iraq move toward self-sufficiency. As it turns out, the......

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......

*The views expressed in Truesday are those of the author and do not represent Austinist as a whole. Thank heavens.* -The Editors I’m all for the co-opting of absolutely horrific tragedies for pet causes. Like using hurricanes to sell Global Warming DVDs. Valentine’s Day for the relationship healing powers of warming lotions. Or cancer to peddle aromatherapy. Go Free Market! You mad-dazzler you! Why, it feels like just yesterday that after hearing of some......

Tacks, the Boy Disaster's Daytrotter Session features four free songs, one of which is slated to appear on their forthcoming album. "Dying to Know" is one of the band's oldest songs, but one that needed some help before it became clear how to deal with that pesky bridge. Although the charm of the Daytrotter Session songs is their live and impromptu nature (complete with borrowed instruments and auxiliary musicians), we're anxious to hear this......

Michael Tully came of age at the North Carolina School of the Arts, where he made friends with such latter-day indie stars as director David Gordon Green and songwriter Dave Berman. His documentary, Silver Jew, about Berman's band The Silver Jews and their recent tour in Israel, is set to screen during SXSW. We caught up with him via email to ask the tough questions: So the documentary is only 51 minutes long. Does......

Tonight, as part of their Children of Abraham/Ibrahim: Films of North Africa and the Middle East series, the Austin Film Society presents Satin Rouge, Tunisian director Raja Amari’s warm, moving tale of personal triumph and reclaimed happiness. The film follows Lilia, a conservative, widowed mother struggling to come to terms with her husband’s death and frustrated by her increasingly rebellious daughter, Salma. After fainting at a belly-dancing cabaret late one night, Lilia is befriended by......

Tonight, as part of their Children of Abraham/Ibrahim: Films of North Africa and the Middle East series, the Austin Film Society presents Iron Island, Mohammad Rasoulof’s eerie, allegorical drama about a community of Iranian squatters living on a decaying oil tanker anchored somewhere in the Persian Gulf. The ship is full of strange characters: a schoolteacher who insists the boat is slowly sinking; an eccentric old man who spends his days staring into the sun......

We know we’re a few days late in telling you this, but just to remind you, The New York Times has decided to allow all readers free access to the NYT Select section. The offer runs through this Sunday and gives you the opportunity to read Select columns, such as Maureen Dowd’s – today she has a great piece about how, after watching little W. fuck up so badly over the past few years, Papa......

Activist and author Elie Weisel is in town to speak tonight to a sold-out audience. He is kicking off the 23rd Austin Jewish Book Fair which starts today and goes through Sunday, November 12. Tonight Wiesel will most likely speak on the topics of racism, anti-Semitism, genocide in Darfur, religious fanaticism and more. When we heard him speak he was still working on his lecture for this evening. "Indifference is the enemy of humanity."......

Out at the refurbished Del Valle High School football stadium, a staged homecoming football game was filmed last Friday night and into the pre-dawn hours of Saturday. The “game” was the backdrop for the Austin-based NBC series Friday Night Lights. The show’s pilot premieres tonight at 7:00 p.m. “We wrapped at 4:00 a.m.,” assistant director Michael Waxman said. “I’ve had about 3-1/2 hours of sleep at this point.” Waxman was talking by cell phone from......

Austin is a generally peaceful city, and we've got no issue demonstrating that we're all for it. The wars in the Middle East are serious, offering not much more than unnecessary and seemingly endless civilian casualties. Today, a rally is being organized by Instruments for Peace at the Pfluger Pedestrian Bridge (the pedestrian bridge that parallells Lamar). People are encouraged to bring instruments, banners, signs, flags and costumes. The event is during rush hour so......

Last week, from July 18 to July 19, national fundamentalist Christian organization CUFI (Christians United For Israel) had its “Washington/Israel Summit” in Washington, D.C. Thousands of pro-Israel evangelical Christians descended on Washington to push the Bush administration toward stronger support for the Jewish state. According to San Antonio pastor and CUFI founder John Hagee, CUFI urged the President and other government officials “not to restrain Israel in any way in the pursuit of Hamas......

Gov. Rick Perry has stated that he has more than $10 million in campaign cash, while our friend Kinky has only about $491,000 on hand. A prisoner broke out of jail to wish his girlfriend a happy birthday. Romance is not dead. Officials in Jakarta failed to issue a tsunami warning despite receiving data about yesterday's earthquake 20 minutes before the first wave struck. The recent developments in the Middle East conflict have put......

That bitch that cut you off almost swiping the side of your shiny car wasn't drunk. She was gossiping on her cell phone. But she might as well have been drunk. Check out some proposals for Austin's largest public art project and tell the developer what you think. Who knew that Disney World was such a dangerous place? A judge in Oklahoma, was insecure about his own sexual performance behind the bench. He was......

We imagine you're as bewildered as we are regarding those Danish cartoon depictions of Muhammed and the harsh reaction they've set off. To help Austinites deal with our questions and thoughts on the issue, Austin Area Interreligious Ministries is hosting a dinner and discussion tomorrow evening led by a small panel that "will address Muslim expectations regarding visual representations of Muhammed, issues of religious diversity in the public arena, and the idea of freedom of......

Austin's own Sound Team was one of the best acts we caught at ACL this year - despite the blistering temperature and sporadic dust tornadoes, they played an unceasingly energetic set that made us (nearly) forget about our impending heat strokes. Live, theirs is synth-happy dancerock constructed from the supple layering of their dual keyboard/guitars, toe-tappingly catchy drum beats, and Matt O.'s big, blaring vocals. Their studio work is something you'll have to experience......

The enigmatic Naomi Shihab Nye seems determined to undermine categorization, judging from her extensive accomplishments: one might choose to call her a poet, novelist, editor, song-writer, essayist, teacher, or columnist. But when you strip away the labels and the mediums, it becomes crystal clear that she is, above all else, and social and cultural commentator. Which shouldn't come as a surprise, given her background. As a child in her half-Palestinian, half-American family, Nye lived......

Congratulations Kenneth Y. Tomlinson! You are the Austinist Shit-Bag of the Month! For those of you that don't know, Kenneth Y. Tomlinson is the Chairman of the Board for the Corporation for Public broadcasting (CPB). Here's a short list of the good work he has done so far: - "Tomlinson contracted an outside consultant last year to monitor the 'political content' of PBS's Now With Bill Moyers for 'anti-Bush,' 'anti-business' and 'anti-Tom DeLay' 'biases.'"......