As summer storm season approaches, you can now track local power outages online with the Austin Energy Storm Center. more ›

Sunday marks the tenth anniversary of Komen Austin Race for the Cure. With 24,000 attendees and a fundraising goal of over $1 million, this year’s event is expected to be the largest in the Austin's race history. Throughout the past ten years, 150,000 Austinites have raised more than $6 million dollars to support those affected by breast cancer in our community. Susan G. Komen for the Cure started as a promise between sisters back in... more ›

We admit to using the Austin Public Library Online Catalog at least once a week to search for books we've heard about and to put books on hold. So we were happy to see that the online catalog was updated over the weekend. The "My Account" button in the top navigation now opens a new window for you to sign into, which is more private and secure for public computers than the previous setup. The... more ›

The City of Austin wants your input in naming the new 21-acre, $7.3-mililon park just south of Lady Bird Lake. The recently opened area, which houses the Palmer Events Center and the Long Center, is currently dubbed "Town Lake Park," but a "facilities naming ordinance" calls for the park to be rechristened in honor of "an individual(s) (living or dead) or something other than an individual such as a place or natural feature." Submit your... more ›

Tickets for Former Vice President Al Gore's in-person performance presentation of An Inconvenient Truth will go on sale this Saturday morning at 10 a.m. Prices for normal seats range from $29.50 to $99.50, with half-price discounts available for college students and university faculty/staff. Those wishing to get intimate with the fire and brimstone may opt for super-deluxe $250 VIP tickets, which guarantee you seats within the first two rows at the Theatre at Frank... more ›

Wiretree Bouldin Austin's Kevin Peroni has been writing songs under the moniker of Wiretree since 2005, when he released his first EP. The latest album, Bouldin, is a nine song testament to American chords, everything that was good about real folk music, bridging the gap between The La's and late '70s George Harrison with ease. Peroni's vocals are at times extremely Elliott Smith-ish, but that's not a bad thing. The songs are reminiscent of... more ›

Bad Brains Build a Nation (Mega Force) It's been a decade since the proper Bad Brains lineup released a proper studio album, and Build a Nation finds the group just as furious as ever. Produced by the Beastie Boys's Adam Yauch, Nation is reminiscent of I Against I-era BB, and the album's songs are split pretty evenly between hardcore and reggae, as you might expect. For those uninitiated, the release of another full-length by... more ›

Austin Humane Society, the largest nonprofit no-kill pet shelter and adoption center in town, recently suffered a tremendous setback: yesterday, the facility's A/C system abruptly shut down. A subsequent inspection found the system to be broken beyond repair. "Our air conditioning unit died," said AHS representative Lisa Starr to KXAN. "Went kaput." The center is installing a temporary mobile A/C unit today, but this solution won't work for the long term; even now, the animals... 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 ›

Shearwater Palo Santo Remastered, Expanded (Matador) The release of Palo Santo in 2006 marked Jonathan Meiburg's emergence from the shadow of the 'O' into full light. The songs are dense, revealing themselves slowly and carefully amidst moments of reflective sincerity and emotional cacophony with equal precision. Shearwater's sound is difficult to pin down, but the songs are always centered around Meiburg's unfaltering voice, a dark but lilting instrument that narrows the gap between fragility... more ›

City of Austin is currently looking for works by local artists for their 2007 "People's Gallery" Austin City Hall Exhibition, meant to "showcase regional artistic endeavors and to encourage public dialogue, understanding and enjoyment of visual art." Their requirements are fairly broad (acceptable works include "2-dimensional and 3-dimensional, installation and digitally-created art"), so anyone even remotely interested would do well to apply. more ›

Violinist Charles Yang. Photo by Eric Uhlir Three weeks ago, Austin's newest arts organization, strataTX, launched with a successful kickoff gala at the Design Center of Austin. The latest giving group of the Texas Cultural Trust, strataTX brings together enthusiastic young professionals of all industries and backgrounds to help sustain and expand the Lone Star State's arts community. StrataTX Launch Party Attendees. Photo by Eric Uhlir Amidst heavy fanfare, TCT Deputy Director Jennifer Wijangco... more ›

One of our favorite authors, and national treasure, Sarah Vowell returns to Austin Friday night for a performance at the Paramount Theatre. In addition to authoring several outstanding non-fiction books (Radio On, The Partly Cloudy Patriot, Assassination Vacation), the dry-witted Planes Stater-by-birth, New Yorker-by-choice has applied her substantial intellect and rapier wit to work for This American Life, McSweeney’s, Believer Magazine, Esquire, GQ, The Los Angeles Times, The Village Voice, Spin and The New York... more ›

• City safety rankings coincidentally reflect MLB standings...St. Louis was recently named the Most Dangerous City in the US while Detroit was only in 2nd place.
• MySpace is not so MySpecial anymore.
• Online Christmas Shopping could be more costly than playing Spider Solitaire at work.
• An Oklahoma man was killed in his attempts to scare the Haunted Hayride passengers; we can't say his attempts failed.
• Vaseline is only one way to make your pumpkin last longer.
• Though we don't really consider it camping, we're excited that Texas is getting Yurts!

Tickets for the hotly anticipated Broadway Across America performances of The Lion King at Bass Concert Hall go on sale tomorrow morning. An insider tipster tells us that there's already someone lined up. As the limited engagement is almost guaranteed to sell out, UT PAC recomends that you show up in advance before tomorrow morning's ticket sale begins. For the first three hours, tickets are only available in person at the Bass Concert Hall box... more ›

Last weekend was pretty intense show-wise, if you're like us, you're ready to crawl in bed with your headphones and listen to something new from End of an Ear or Waterloo's new release wall. Well, here's what you've got to choose from: The Decemberists The Crane Wife (Capital) Already being described as the album of the year in some circles, Crane Wife marks the Portland-based Decemberists' major label debut with themes familiar to the... more ›

This weekend, Jovita’s will play host to a night of Texas blues and rock, featuring Jimmy LaFave, Troy Campbell and Seth Walker. The event will benefit the Texas Civil Rights Project (TCRP). “We are honored to build a fundraiser around such a great evening of music and such terrific musicians. Folks can support civil rights and have fun doing it,” said Jim Harrington, TCRP Director. In its 16th year, TCRP is among the nation’s most... more ›

With our wine loving in-laws in town for the month of July, there were plenty of opportunities to drink bargain wines. After all, when you're sitting on the back porch nightly with a glass or two of red each for four people, those $25 bottles just aren't a fiscally sound option. This led to the pleasant discovery that there are many great bottles at the $10 point on the shelves of Austin's wine sellers.... more ›

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Word is bouncing around New York City that Cuban leader and noted baseball fanatic Fidel Castro has bought the big tobacco farm. On the day of the MLB All-Star game, no less. Net gossip Wonkette reports that the net rumor started with Jonah Goldberg from the National Review Online. She seems skeptical, as are we. But, hey, it's on the internets, so it could be true. Alex Jones scoffs at the report, saying Castro died... more ›

The fabulous music bloggers at DepravedFangirls have merged with The Rich Girls Are Weeping to start a joint project, Four Inches from the Cuff. To kick off the launch of this new music feature+interview site, they're sponsoring tonight's show at Emo's, featuring The Ebb & Flow, The Hourly Radio, Protokoll, and A Featherweight Burden. Consider what DFG Shannon had to say about The Hourly Radio, a foursome from Dallas whose new record, History Will Never... more ›

Shake everything you got this weekend at Antone's, as the incomparable master of the funky horn blows into Austin. This has become one of the best shows of the year in Austin, as sax legend Maceo Parker does his best to burn the place to the ground. Maceo came to notoriety as the horn centerpiece (along with Fred Wesley) of James Brown's band The JB's, quite possibly the tightest unit in the history of the... more ›

The Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar is offering a special one-night-only Da Vinci Code Feast, replete with wine parings, inspired Dan Brown's best-selling novel (the Overrated Grigio is deloosh). So, if you have never experienced one of the Alamo's themed feasts, and feel that Tom Hanks' hair will not spoil your appetite, get online and get your tickets now, cause they will be gone soon. more ›

Our friend turned us onto this hilarious, touching, and completely serious thing happening in town through May: the Austin Flamingo Project 2006 is an annual (well, second annual) fundraiser for Austin-based Planet Cancer, a community network that helps out young adults fighting cancer. [The Austin Flamingo Project 2006]
[Planet Cancer] From now through May, you can have them deliver a legion of twenty neon pink flamingos to a friend/foe/politician of your choosing. And by "deliver" we mean they'll plant the plastic birds in said recipient's front yard for three days. Here's how it works, in their words:

To flock someone, you pay a small fee to send 20 lovely pink flamingos to the yard of another person or business, where they will roost for three days. The “flockee” can make the requested donation to have the flamingos fly away or they can pay a little extra to flock someone else—perhaps the original “flocker!” Flock someone for their birthday. Flock someone to celebrate a new job or a new baby. Give a sick friend a chuckle with a surprise flocking. Or flock someone just so you can call them up and say, “FLOCK YOU!” It's all in good fun, donations are 100% tax-deductible, and it's for a worthwhile cause.

Procrastinate much? We sure do. But it's getting down to the wire now -- you've approximately thirteen hours left to file your taxes! Unless you happen to be reading this from Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Vermont or the District of Columbia; slackers in these states are off enjoying Patriots Day today and thus have until tomorrow to get their act together. But back in Texas where we've all-but forgotten about the shot... more ›

Ever notice how dogs tend to look like their owners? Or is it the owners who look like their dogs? Decide for yourself this Saturday at the 8th Annual Mighty Texas Dog Walk . Leash up your pooch and head out to the Tony Burger Center to help this Austin event retain its Guinness Book of World Records status as the world’s largest dog walk (or something like that). This gigantic 3-mile canine constitutional... more ›

U.S. District Judge Stephen Yelenosky has told the Austin City Council to rewrite the language on the proposed ballot regarding the Open Government Online and Clean Water charter amendments. The judge stated that the language was misleading and nondescriptive. He pointed out that the City's use of the words "any" and "all" in the ballot language conflicted with the amendment which includes substantial privacy-protecting exceptions to the information that could go online. Our dear mayor has said that the City's illegal wording of the ballot language for the two amendments was due to short notice. more ›

This weather is absolutely perfect for running and playing outside! more ›

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As everyone knows, this weekend is the big one before Mardi Gras! We're so excited we can hardly contain ourselves. Our shirts are going to stay on, but we're willing to do "other" things to earn beads. We'll even kiss another girl, indulge on colorful mixed drinks, make out with random strangers, run a few miles. St. Gabriel's School is hosting their 4th Annual Mardi Gras 5K Run and Walk tomorrow. It's an afternoon... more ›