Writer and former Austin resident Neal Pollack has tried his hand at many things, from satirizing pop culture to exploring the difficulties of being a "cool dad." His latest collection explores physical strains and not emotional ones - entitled Stretch: The Unlikely Making Of A Yoga Dude, the book follows Pollack's transformation from skeptic to master yogi. more ›

Shearwater's Jonathan Meiburg and Thor Harris played a gorgeous set of songs (mostly) from the soon-to-be re-rereleased Palo Santo on Sunday afternoon at the Rock N Romp Mohawk. The show also featured readings from Neal Pollack and a performance by Black Before Red.... more ›

On Sunday afternoon, Austin Rock N Romp and Book People are sponsoring an all-ages event on the patio at Mohawk featuring Neal Pollack and Shearwater's Jonathan Meiburg. The show will also feature Black Before Red, amps still warm from their Local Music is Sexy 3 performance the night before. Rock N Romp has been putting on all ages rock shows since last summer, and in the coming months will be moving their events to... more ›

FRIDAY [9] art • Grand Opening Party for DRAW, 150 artists strong at Gallery Lombardi (7pm - 10pm) comedy • Todd Barry, Matt Bearden at Emo's Lounge music • Deerhoof, Macromantics, Experimental Dental School at Emo's music • Primordial Undermind at End of an Ear (6pm, Free) music • The Everyday People CD Release Show with The Hero Factor, Live Oak Decline at The Parish Room music • Lucinda Williams, Heartless Bastards at Stubb's... more ›

THURSDAY [8] film • Super Happy fun Monkey Bash 5 at Alamo Drafthouse Downtown film • Now That's What I Call a Singalong: Pop Royalty at Alamo Drafthouse Downtown film • Terror Thursday: The Beast Must Die at Alamo Drafthouse Downtown art • Opening Reception for "In My Stairwell" by Mark Seliger at Fielding Lecht Gallery (6-9pm) art • Artistic License: Matthew Day Jackson at The Blanton (6-7pm) art • Public Tour: The Geometry... more ›

In his latest release, Alternadad, Neal Pollack chronicles his experiences as a father and family-man in the early 21st-century. Pollack proves in his fourth bound collection of pages that it is indeed an exciting time to be alive and parenting. Please be sure to read Austinist's exquisite review of Alternadad, an instant American classic. Having said that, we think it's important to let you know that Neal Pollack is coming to Austin. We won't tell... more ›

MONDAY [5] art • Opening Reception for Sarah Canright and Melissa W. Miller: Measured Strokes at The Sarofim School of Fine Arts, Fine Arts Gallery (6-7:30pm) benefit/music • Heather Love Fest Benefit with Dan Dyer & Friends, John Pointer, Govinda, DJ Chicken George, BIGFACE, DJ Mahealani, DJ Chris, DJ Trey Lopez,DJ Orian, Performance by the Super Sonic Soul Squad, Complimentary Appetizers and TONS of Raffle and Silent Auction Prizes at Saba, Cedar Street, and... more ›

For some of you, SXSW is an obsession. For others...not so much. While we're rather immersed in the whole SXSW experience at Austinist, we know that many of you just want to take in a free or cheap event or two during the festival to experience the thing. No problem. Here's a list of events featuring local merchants, community organizations, and radio stations that will allow you to casually dip a toe in the... more ›

Whether you've just entered your twenties and are thinking about things like what to major in in College, or you can see 30 looming on the horizon (or fading behind you, for that matter) there's at least one thing that everyone has in common: parenthood. Wait, what? Seriously. Think about it: you are either a parent yourself, or you'll eventually become one, or your friends are parents or maybe you simply have parents (and the... more ›

Torontoist throws down the gauntlet and challenges all comers: pillow fight, bitch. They also stand up for a fellow blogger taking heat from the TTC and welcome city-wide WiFi. SFist can finally admit it: It's possible that Bary Bonds juiced. Is Bay Area artist (tempted to put quotes around that) Thomas Kinkaid "kinda crappy" or "explosively crappy" or does he just like marking territory? SFist wonders. Technology comes in the form of new Mac goodness... more ›

This Friday at the Velvet Spade, quite possibly the greatest literary rock star on the planet returns for a one-off reunion show with his Neal Pollack Invasion. Pollack, author of the seminal piece of satirical literary journalism, the Neal Pollack Anthology of American Literature (an Austinist favorite), left our fare shores last year to move to the moral abyss that is Hollywood. But he is back this week to help celebrate the launch of... more ›

[The following is an editorial column by contributor Alison Coffey and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Austinist staff. --The Editors] In the tradition of Neal Pollack's Salon.com Grammy's post, I've decided to take us on a live tour of this year's Academy Awards, minute by minute, hour by hour, boring acceptance speech by boring acceptance speech. Well, I hope not, but odds are, the acceptance speeches are going to be boring.... more ›

George W. Bush: aka Dubya, President of the United States, dumbass Owen Wilson: aka The Butterscotch Stallion, screenwriter, asslicker, and Movie Star Wes Anderson: writer/director of the best films ever(Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, etc), wears cool glasses Sandra Bullock: aka Mrs. Jesse James, producer, movie star, nice gal Matthew McConaughey: bongo player, weed smoker, movie star, hunk Marcia Gay Harden: character actress, Oscar winner Benjamin McKenzie: stud, lead actor of the O.C. Molly Ivins: whip-smart... more ›

Austinist was walking down the street on Friday evening on our way for a few pints at Lovejoys -- ah, delicious, freshly brewed beer! -- with our pal Neal Pollack when we bumped into Andy Langer, host of The Next Big Thing, and contributor to every form of media known to man. We had a nice chat, standing there on the sidewalk, during which Andy mentioned that he had sent Neal's recent piece about... more ›

:: FRIDAY :: [art] Art Party, 7pm @ 708 Congress Avenue :: SATURDAY :: [politics] DemocracyFest 2005 with Howard Dean and Neal Pollack, 7:30pm @ Stubb's - $20 [sports] Longhorns play the College World Series, 6pm on ESPN [art] Summer Fashion Party, 8pm @ Art Studio Studios [music] The Teenage Pajamas From Outer Space Tour featuring The Aquabats and The Epoxies @ The Backroom - $12 [culture] Pop Nation! @ The Austin Convention Center... more ›

Austinist was planning on taking it easy last night, as the first day of the music festival is the sixth day of SXSW for us. But the lure of rock and roll is very strong, and we found ourselves wafting towards downtown at a surprsingly early hour to see shows. And what dids't our little eyes peep? Crowds! Crowds everywhere! And not an internet nerd in site! Before we go into our writeup of... more ›

There are so many panels at SXSW Interactive, we hardly know which ones to go to, but we'll do our best in recommending the exciting and/or most relevant ones. 1130: How to Leverage Solipsism - Lead by Peter "I coined the term 'blogger'" Merholz, this will be a panel about tagging and taxonomies -- the stuff that powers Flickr and Delicious. If you're into emerging web tech, which we very sadly are, this is one... more ›

Local literary celebrity/gadabout Neal Pollack, author of Never Mind The Pollacks and Nerve's Bad Sex column will be performing today at the SXSW day stage. If you haven't seen Neal perform before, you owe it to yourself to stop by. He is a consumate performer, an hilarious writer, and just plain fun to be around. Plus, he was totally the king of political bloggers for like 6 months.... more ›