Last month, my young hot domestic partner, Warren, took me to France. Part of the deal was this: he would pay for my plane ticket if I would promise him one thing—I would not attempt to speak Spanish to the natives. To Warren’s chagrin as well as the ongoing disdain and mortification of my son, I am in the habit of attempting Spanish, a language I admittedly don’t really speak, at any opportunity. Warren knew that, given my French is even worse than my Spanish (to the point it is entirely non-existent), I would try to communicate with foreigners with the only foreign language I pretend to understand, and the results would be disastrous. And it went without saying, (or so he thought), that under no circumstances would I utter more than a simple bon jour, au revoir, or merci in actual French. Behind Warren’s back, I acquired an audiobook that promised to teach me all the French I’d need to know to get by on my vacation and that this program would take a mere 57 minutes. A similar claim had been made by another language audiobook I once attempted to get through—this one assuring me that, also in less than an hour, I could master Hebrew. That time around, realizing it takes about 300 syllables to count to ten, and that these syllables involve a sound that results in lots of inadvertent spitting, I quit trying to learn because my interior windshield was so spittle-smeared I could not see enough to safely drive. I had a choice then—learn Hebrew or literally risk die trying. more ›

When reviewing Wilde, as when reviewing Shakespeare, there is an overwhelming desire by the reviewer to seem as brilliant, poetic, and insightful. This is, of course, impossible, so at the risk of sound oh so trite, we will begin by simply stating that An Ideal Husband as produced by Austin Shakespeare is ideal in many respects. more ›

If your heroes include absinthe guzzling artistic wack-jobs like Oscar Wilde, Toulouse Lautrec and Vincent van Gogh, get ready to party like it's 1899. more ›

*The views expressed in Truesday are those of the author and do not represent Austinist as a whole. Thank heavens.* -The Editors Initially, I planned on writing about the boat-party-Summer-Extrav-O-Ganza thing. But, I didn’t attend, so I’d be talking out of my ass. Well, I'd be pulling more out of my ass than normal. So I won’t even touch on that event, as I’d just be speculating without a real purpose. (though I soooooo... more ›

Currently making his way on a nationwide tour and in town performing a single show tonight is Jade Estoban Estrada, who'll be presenting his self-authored musical, ICONS: The Lesbian and Gay History of the World, Vol. 1. Estrada was last here in May at the Vortex; for tonight's show he'll be at the play! Theatre Group, also on the Eastside. more ›