Tired of staying in your house to watch the Oscars, all seventy hours of them? Want to heckle in the company of others? Couture make you really hungry? more ›

• 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.

A sad week for LAist as they lose their trusted and amazing editor Tony Pierce to the LA Times, but what a blast his last week was. He shared his 25 Favorite CDs of 2007 and wrote a great review of just a good movie, No Country For Old Men. At UCLA, thousands of students celebrated the end of their quarter by running around campus in their undies (lots of photos in a two-part photo essay, one, two). That wasn't the only photo essay either: Joss Whedon/Mutant Enemy friends and Star Trek actors all joined in at the Writers Strike and KROQ's Almost Acoustic Christmas brought two nights of amazing bands that included Avenged Sevenfold, Linkin Park (Part I), Modest Mouse, Muse, Spoon and The Killers (Part II). Not only is L.A. a great music town, it has just been named the best city for bookish types. For those who are looking for something a little more active, American Gladiators are back (yes!) and if that's not enough, how about a Christmas gift of action and adventure? more ›

Let's admit something to each other right now--we love seeing heads explode. Don't fight it... it's a perfectly natural, healthy feeling. Probably an inherited vestige of our violent, primal past when bloody cranium blow-outs were necessary to ensure our collective survival. Or something. Anyhoo, this past weekend, audiences attending screenings of No Country For Old Men at the Alamo Ritz got a satisfying dose of messy 'splosions as the crew from Dorkbot Austin demonstrated... more ›

"Oh, hai." Still from No Country for Old MenThis week in new movies: A cornucopia of literary adaptations, special effects, and Javier Bardem. No Country for Old Men is FINALLY opening in Austin, and we couldn't be more excited (or strangely aroused by Bardem's "lost Beatle from hell" haircut and Wranglers ensemble.) Beowulf: Robert Zemeckis reprises the motion-capture animation technique he used in Polar Express and applies it to everyone's fave Anglo-Saxon epic poem. Ray... more ›

Photo courtesy Richard Foreman/Miramax There is dark humor, and then there is the kind of humor in which a bone sticking out of a man’s arm qualifies as one of the lighter moments. No Country For Old Men, a film of dark beauty and sharp formal precision, is not a comedy by any stretch of the imagination; but, like the best films, it proves that an element of absurdity is necessary to chart the best... more ›

Still from Lions for LambsWe were under the impression that "No Country for Old Men" was opening this weekend, and we just found out it's only coming to "big" cities today—Austinites have to wait till next weekend. Miffed, we're only slightly placated by the other offerings at hand, though Philip Seymour Hoffman is hard to turn down... Lions for Lambs: Meryl Streep is a reporter, Tom Cruise is typecast as a neocon congressman, Robert Redford... more ›

Yesterday, we totally spaced on getting tickets for the grand opening of the Alamo Ritz. And considering how quickly the last triple-feature at the old theatre sold out, we figured we'd be out of luck come this morning. But much to our surprise, there are (as of this writing) still Triple Feature and Double Feature tickets available over the interweb! The triple feature tickets are $140 and include all three movies, the "Attack of the... more ›