Bill Burr has been on fire recently. The incendiary comic is basking in the glow of victory, having just won the Boston Comedy Festival's "Comedian of the Year Award," with that, along with recent appearances on Letterman and Fallon, a second successful hour-long special, and a recurring guest spot on the much-loved AMC sensation Breaking Bad, meaning that, apologies to Louis C.K., there is room on this great green globe for more than one red-headed, truth-telling comic. Burr, who may not quite yet be a household name, is certainly on the upswing, and he'll be performing some new likely-to-upset-someone material this Saturday night at the beloved Paramount Theater. In advance of his headlining gig, we rang Bill up for a chat on virgins kissing, taking inflammatory words out of context, and his fifteen-second star turn on Law & Order. more ›

This Saturday, the Association of Moving Image Archivists is inviting the public to see a restored screening of David O. Selznick’s Nothing Sacred, a screwball comedy from 1937 starring Carole Lombard and Fredric March, at the Paramount, Austin’s only movie theater that was around to show it the first time. more ›

It's not too late to attend tonight's premiere of Slacker 2011, the re-imagining of Richard Linklater's homage to Austin as it existed 20 years ago. You don't have to love the original film to appreciate the significance of this project -- whether you were born in the skyscraperless hippie town Austin once was or recently moved here from California to start your new tech job, consider it your civic duty see and think about what this updated snapshot represents. more ›

The Paramount continues its Summer Classics film series this evening with a double-feature of two of the best haunted house movies ever produced, The Haunting (at 7pm) and The Shining (at 9:10). Lovers of classic horror rejoice -- these movies were made to be shown back-to-back. more ›

Last night, Joanna Newsom played the Paramount Theater. Our photographer Chad Wadsworth was there to catch and document the show. more ›

Be one of the first to see Predators before the nationwide release! Tickets are going on sale tomorrow, June 24th at noon. This is definitely something you won't want to miss. Come on, Topher Grace has been drinking massive amounts of protein shakes in an attempt to beef up for his character. We owe it to him to at least watch it, but we owe it to ourselves to be one of the first. more ›

Polarizing and hugely entertaining chef and TV personality Anthony Bourdain just visited Austin in April for an evening of travel tales and extreme food yarns at a packed Paramount Theater. A mere three months later, he'll return to the same venue for a more informal event that will likely be both wickedly funny and politically incorrect.

Bourdain will be in town on both June 28 and 29 for events - on Monday, he'll take the stage at the Paramount to do a reading and Q&A from his new book "Medium Raw" - a work about American food culture, celebrity chefs, and today's culinary world. This of course means that the book is likely filled with the chef's wry, snarky, and scathing style of commentary on a subculture he seems simultaneously attracted to and repelled by. Tickets to the Paramount event are $12 for orchestra seats and $10 for balcony, and seem to be disappearing by the minute. Click the tickets link at right to purchase before they're gone.

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• President Obama wants you to know your oyster po’boy (and other Gulf seafood) is safe to eat!
• There were 40,000 bikers here in the ATX for the ROT bike rally this weekend. “I’m the eye candy,” said one of the people interviewed for this story!
• Longhorn report: Television --and TV money-- may save the Big 12!

The Paramount Theatre may be nearly 100 years old, but that hasn't stopped the historic venue from incorporating some new technology: an iPhone application is now available to get show updates and buy tickets. more ›

Tonight the Arthouse and the Paramount are joining forces to present a free screening of Eve Sussman's film The Rape of the Sabine Women. A modern interpretation of the legend that details the founding of Rome, Sussman's five-act film was inspired by paintings by Poussin and David. Originally recounted by Roman historian Livy, The Rape of the Sabine Women tells of how Romulus and his warriors abducted the daughters of the neighboring Sabine tribe in order to capture women who would go on to be the mothers of Rome. In Livy's telling, the term rape is used to mean abduction; Sussman's retelling of the story is more modern in both its setting and interpretation of the language. more ›

White Christmas and It's a Wonderful Life have a trivial connection: the child actress who plays Zuzu (Karolyn Grimes) in It's a Wonderful Life appears as Bing Crosby's child in another Irving Berlin musical, Blue Skies. Otherwise, the only thing the films have in common is that they are both holiday favorites - and the Paramount is showing them this week. Only the Jimmy Stewart film will show tonight, but both films will be offered Friday night. more ›

Whenever someone says they’ve never seen Lawrence of Arabia, someone has to go, “What?!?! That’s so wrong!” It’s like, some sort of rule. And if someone says they’ve never seen it on the big screen, everyone has to suck in their breath really hard like they just saw two cars almost collide: “Oh, man, you gotta see it on the big screen. You haven’t seen it if you haven’t seen it on the big screen!” (We suspect that many of the people that say that haven’t seen it on the big screen either. It’s just the rules.) Well, guess what. You’ll never have to hear that again as of this weekend. more ›

What is it about science fiction that gets us so excited? It seems society has been obsessed with the future and what magical wonders it might hold since…well, since the discovery of time. This week, the Paramount continues its Summer Film Series with some old school Sci-Fi from way back—in double feature mode no less, so you really can feel like you’re back in the Day. more ›

Stephin Merritt's Magnetic Fields don't get out much tour-wise, but they will be supporting their latest, Distortion, this fall with a short tour. The Paramount will hose NYC's favorite gloomy lovers on October 14, and tickets ($33-36) go on sale July 23. Buy them through gettix.net. more ›

If your dad is anything like ours, he probably hates dudes in tights or pretty much anyone gyrating for the sake of dance. But, perhaps he’ll have the time of his life this Father’s Day for a dancing extravaganza at the Paramount Theater’s Summer Film Series with back-to-back dance film classics, Dirty Dancing and Flashdance. (Yes, the awful puns will continue.) more ›

The Paramount’s 2008 Summer Film Series continues Wednesday with Chinatown, followed by L.A. Confidential, and switches the order Thursday for those who can’t make it all in one night. Two classic, award-winning noir flicks for the price of one admission in a theater as old as the detective genre itself—now that’s the beginning of a beautiful friendship. more ›

"I was initially drawn to Crawford, because I'd been effectively duped. I didn't know that Bush wasn't from Crawford." more ›

Salvage Vanguard Theater has announced its new season! // Rubber Repertory has started airing their dirty laundry in a new, recurring series called From the Dumpster, in which they confess to madcap ideas they seriously considered staging. // There's more than music to SXSW. more ›

The week's news on arts, books, film and music. more ›

Zach Scott is getting national attention for its run of Porgy and Bess at the newly remodeled Austin Music Hall. The show runs two weekends only, and wraps up this Sunday. // Jaston Williams had great success with his autobiographical, one-man show, I'm Not Lying—and now he's back with more. This weekend only, Cowboy Noises further explores Williams' fascinating life with humor and, we expect, unflinching honesty. // We're mighty fond of local playwright Max Langert, and his current play, You're Happier Than You Think: Recalibrating Your Emotional Scale, at Frontera Short Fringe sounds like a charmer. Saturday @6:15pm, and Sunday @noon. more ›

Despite the obvious themes of power and faith, PT Anderson's vast, visionary epic There Will Be Blood isn’t primarily about oil, or about religion, or about extremism. Rather, it’s a thorough excavation of the foundation of American identity. And on top of all that, it’s the best film of the year. more ›

Dame Edna had to cancel her entire North American tour due to complications from appendix surgery. Said the Dame in a letter to her loyal Austin fans, "Texas is no country for sick Megastars, so I will see you in November 7-9, 2008 [at the Paramount], possums." more ›

This week's news on art, books, music, and film. more ›

Now in its sixth week, the Writers Guild of America strike is still going strong. And despite Alec Baldwin's hilarious/bizarre advice and Michael Eisner's name-calling, WGA members show few signs of giving in any time soon. Though the effects of the strike are most evident in places like Los Angeles and New York City, you may be surprised to learn that there are around 100 WGA members living here in Austin. more ›

The Paramount presents White ChristmasDecember 9th, 11th and 12thParamount Theater (713 Congress Avenue)$7 / $5 Children, Students and Seniors, 7pm-ish, Tickets available at the box office day of show[info]Being that we live in a heat belt where it is not uncommon to see kids raking leaves in tank tops and jorts on Christmas Day (seriously, we've done it...well, not the jorts part), dreaming of a white Christmas is something that we are intimately familiar... more ›

Image from the Paramount websiteBlade Runner: The Final CutNovember 18-23Paramount Theater (713 Congress Avenue)$8/$6 children, students, and seniors. Sunday, 2, 4:30 & 7 pm; Monday-Wednesday, 7:30 pm; Thursday, 7 pm; Friday, 4:30, 7 & 9:30 pm [info]Before Minority Report, before A Scanner Darkly, came by far the awesomest flick ever to be made out of a Philip K. Dick novel (sorry, Linklater). It's noir, it's scifi, it's scary, it's mind-bending: Blade Runner, which was released... more ›

Flyer from BGirl City Championships Home Slice Pizza celebrates its second anniversary (happy birthday, guys!) with a giant Pizza Carnival—expect pizza tossing acrobats, pizza eating contests, "Great Calzoni the Slice Reader," and more, with proceeds going to benefit Young Texans Against Cancer The 6th annual East Austin Studio Tour returns, featuring more than 200 artists at over 100 studios—ride your bikes this year! VICE Magazine, Gomikitti, and Scion throw a killer free party at Antone's... more ›

Smarter than Tyler Florence and cuter than Mario Batali, the thinking foodie's older man crush — Anthony Bourdain — chatted with a sold out audience at the Paramount last Saturday. At once charming and challenging, cynical and optimistic about the state of food and travel, the audience was walked through "The World According to Tony Bourdain" for an hour an a half - and he didn't disappoint. Bourdain on stage is no different than his... more ›

Okay--so there are a bunch cool things happening at the Austin Film Festival tonight, and a we wanted to let you know about a few last-minute tidbits and screening changes. *The Rebel is now playing at 9:45pm at the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum, NOT at the 9:30 Paramount slot we'd previously told you about. *The awesome narrative feature and 2007 AFF "Film Jury Narrative Feature Winner" Shotgun Stories is now playing at 9:45pm... more ›