Writer Amanda Hesser, Edible Austin and Farmhouse Delivery will host an evening of food and drinks to celebrate and launch Hesser's Essential New York Times Cookbook: Classic Recipes for a New Century this Saturday from 7-9 p.m. at Rain Lily Farm. Tickets to the event are $35 and proceeds will benefit the Sustainable Food Center. more ›

• Strong magnitude 6.1 aftershock jolts Haiti
• Republican win in Massachusetts senate race may endanger health plan
• Erich Segal, Robert B. Parker: Remembering a pair of influential writers

This afternoon at SXSW Interactive, two leaders of the NYT's design team will be discussing how old media is reinventing itself to change with the times and educate attendees about how they are using emerging technology to lead the paper of record through the next great wave of customizable, interactive content. more ›

New York Times rejects McCain’s Iraq War Essay The New York Times on Monday rejected an essay by presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain. The essay was written as a response to an Op-Ed piece by Barack Obama published by the paper last week and focused on McCain’s strategy for the Iraq war. The New York Times, which endorsed McCain as the Republican candidate and has published seven Op-Ed pieces by the Senator, encouraged McCain to submit another draft. more ›

• Today's the day! This is it! Ya es el dia! Voila!
• Israel has now said that they might go into Gaza and reoccupy it.
• The Monkeywrench Gang is alive and well.

Has the media attention around "Mumblecore" ultimately been a positive or negative thing for the Festival and the filmmakers? more ›

Photo by Steve Hopson for Austinist.com
• For those who are watching from home but don't have access to CNN, local PBS affiliate KLRU will be airing the debate on tape-delay, starting at 9pm
• DailyKos has an informative rundown of each democratic candidate's proposed legislation and their record in the Senate (thanks, MikeB)
• Chelsea Clinton will speak at ACC’s South Austin Campus tomorrow morning at 9:45am. The event is free and open to the public

Super Tuesday is the new Super Bowl; New York Times continues its mastery of the obvious. Oh, Obama. Bringing the Dead out of the grave. Is there anything you can't do? Move over, Zeus - archaeologists have found evidence of a pre-Jove deity in Greece. more ›

The Iraqi defense minister just said that the country will need US military help through at least 2018. That would make...oh...fifteen years of US involvement, total. Bush begs Saudi Arabia to produce more oil, help a brother out. Obama tries to stop the hatred between his campaign and Hillary's. Good luck, buddy. more ›

• Schwarzenegger continues to make us weirdly like him. (But we're still not moving to California.)
• Castro beginning to show signs of willingness to retire.
• Monkeys are better at estimating quantities than Duke undergrads.

Image from RCIS.org Solar Austin Happy HourTuesday, November 6Artz Rib House [map]6:30-8:30pm[info]Solar Austin gathers for their monthly happy hour Tuesday at Artz Rib House. Renowned science fiction author and founder of Viridian Design Movement, Bruce Sterling, will be the featured and the topic will be Future Trends in Solar. Best known for his eight science fiction novels, Mr. Sterling is also a contributing editor of WIRED magazine and a columnist for MAKE magazine. He has... more ›

Today's New York Times has an interesting article on Austin gaming mogul Richard Garriott, the person behind the Ultima franchise. The eccentric millionaire is a self-described space junkie, but whereas other enthusiasts would be content to collect "normal" space-related objects — "astronaut autographs, mission patches, ... 'flown' goods" and the like — Garriott has the means to think outside the, err, box. To wit: a giant, Soviet-made aluminum replica of Sputnik, which he purchased... more ›

Back in 1996, Junot Diaz published a collection of short stories, Drown, which became one of the most celebrated literary debuts of the Nineties. Drown drew on Diaz’s experiences growing up, first in the Dominican Republic, and later, from the age of six, in a northern New Jersey immigrant neighborhood. Now, after eleven years, he has just published his long-awaited first novel, The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Wao, the protagonist, is a... more ›

Donald Trump and The Apprentice have nothing on screenwriter Mateo Gil (Vanilla Sky, The Sea Inside). Gil zeroes in on the paranoia of office politics and brutal selection processes that force contestants to adhere to strict, snazzy dress codes in El Metodo, a critically acclaimed film that was released in Spain two years ago. The New York Times apparently labeled the movie as a comedy-laced suspense drama. For those of us that were not in Spain in 2005 and didn’t see this genre-bending movie appear anywhere else, Cine Las Americas will be hosting a screening tomorrow night at Regal Metropolitan 14. more ›

In 2005, Bloc Party released their debut album Silent Alarm, a glorious highlight of the postpunk revival that the New York Times described as "angsty and urgent, with jagged guitars and sexy dance-punk drums." Unlike many of their British rock contemporaries, the band have aggressively toured America in the interim, stopping in Austin for both SXSW and ACL Fest in 2005 and 2007 and at Stubb's in 2006. This approach may help explain why... 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 ›

Quick, get me the Pentagon. American superiority is waning in the human longevity department. Can't we just bomb somebody over this? A lengthy but entertaining goodbye to Factory Records founder Tony Wilson, recently deceased. Informative readers' Q&A with Floyd Norris, chief financial guru at the New York Times, on the current state of the U.S. economy (not suggested for feel-good reading). Instead of simply fading away into the annals of big hair rock, Van... more ›

Few forms of entertainment elicit such fanatical, diverse opinions on what warrants the label of being "good" as comedy does. To this day, the mere mention of Andy Kaufman's name can set off a heated debate on whether "genius" or "talentless asshat" is more applicable, and the perceived injustice that the Freaks and Geeks fan club was dealt when network suits and critics downed one of Judd Apatow's earliest efforts still has teeth. All this... more ›

Fielding Lecht Gallery, which specializes in the contemporary art of Vietnam, closes on the the 22nd of this month. It's unfortunate for Austin, but, as gallery co-owner Pam Fielding explains, the art scene in Vietnam is currently such hot hotness that, "the inventory we have here is needed back in Hanoi." Ergo, if you had hoped to visit the show Five Changing Identities: Vietnamese Women of Today, you best run your badonkadonk over to Congress... more ›

We first fell for Chef David Lebovitz's sweet masterpieces during a Central Market cooking class, but his talent is no secret. More than 12 years at the famed Chez Panisse and his passion for sharing his food philosophies regarding seasonal, sustainable farm-fresh foods in print have garnered him recognition from publications including Bon Appétit, Food and Wine and the New York Times, and he was named one of the "Top Five Pastry Chefs in the... more ›

Short one this week. I read in The New York Times Online (5/28/07) that CD sales have fallen more than 20% this year--the most precipitous drop in the format's history--and that the big music conglomerates, or at least the ones not in the process of being bought or sold, are having to get creative. Steps taken include: taking cuts of their artists' profits outside of album sales (touring, merchandise, and licensing profits), finding new... more ›

This Thursday, May 24th, Marisha Pessl will be at BookPeople to support the paperback release of her hefty debut tome Special Topics in Calamity Physics. We gave it a thorough reading about a year ago and you can read the review here. more ›

We are totally jealous of Alyson Fox. Alyson owns an adorable house here in Austin with her boyfriend, was recently mentioned in the New York Times as an up-and-coming artist, and is starting her own clothing line. Impressed yet? Well, to boot, Steven Alan – who happens to own one of the biggest showrooms in New York – wants to see the line when it’s done. But this 27 year old artist wasn’t just... more ›

It's an odd proposition, but according to Michael Kimmelman, New York Times' chief art critic, there are striking parallels between museums and department stores as "institutions of social change." He's in Austin this afternoon to present his argument, which will also examine the role of commerce in today's museums. A finalist for the 2000 Pulitzer Prize in criticism, Kimmelman has authored several books on art and art history. Notable works include “Portraits: Talking with Artists... more ›

The penultimate speaker in KLRU's 2007 Spark Series is the ever-fascinating Douglas Rushkoff, a hugely prolific author, teacher, and documentarian who's written extensively on new media, pop culture, religion, and technology as it pertains to society in general. Rushkoff first exposed the world to the emerging cyberculture phenomenon with his 1994 book, Cyberia, and has since published at least ten best-selling books, including Nothing Sacred: The Truth About Judaism (2003) and Media Virus: Hidden... more ›

It was announced today that Austin-based scribe Lawrence Wright was awarded the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for general non-fiction. This is not the only award his book, The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, has won, but it is one of the more illustrious honors it has received. Wright is currently a staff writer for the New York Times New Yorker, has written for Texas Monthly, and helped pen the screenplay for the Denzel... more ›

And he's telling us all about it. Mr. Bush is just not the man Dowd thought he was when Dowd first signed on with him, he indicated today in a New York Times interview. Dowd, an Austinite and longtime key Texas Democratic strategist, switched parties and joined the Bush campaign team in 1999 because he believed then-Governor Bush would make a sincere attempt to bridge the partisan divide. His disillusionment during the Clinton administration left... more ›

Since unleashing the Peter Gabriel-like "Staring At The Sun" in 2003, TV On The Radio has done just about everything an indie band can hope for. They've released two lauded albums, made the major label jump, opened for the Pixies, recorded with David Bowie, and won the Shortlist Prize. And while The Arcade Fire may be the most blogged about band of the last two years, one could argue that TVOTR may be the... more ›

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... more ›

One of the cornerstone events put on by the Texas Cultural Trust -- which also runs the fledgling young professional arts group, StrataTX -- is the biannual Texas Medal of Arts Awards. Since 2001, the Medal of Arts have recognized "outstanding contributions" by standout Texans, notable past winners of which include Tommy Lee Jones (film), Willie Nelson (music), Phylicia Rashad (TV/theatre) and Joe and Teresa Long (for arts patronage). A slew of events are... more ›