SXSW recently announced its list of 2008 Showcasing Artists and so (officially) begins the countdown, the madness, the drama, and of course the anticipation of it all. Our coverage has been picking up speed with constant updates and an interview with Deer Tick, among others. Of course, showcase information is arriving fast and furious as well, and we will do our best to bring you information regarding some of the choice events scheduled for the week of SXSW....

Directors Guild and studio reach deal. We're one step closer to less reality television! Suddenly everyone remembers it's about the economy. Everyone can relax, Paul McCartney is fine. Bush to reveal economic stimulus package today. CIA boss names Bhutto's killer. World Bank closes Washington office after bomb threat. Watch out for patches of ice on our bridges and overpasses!......

The Fiery Furnaces--they of the Friday and Saturday night headlines at Emo's Inside--have an unmistakable sound and an unmistakable presence. Between mastermind Matthew Friedberger's pounding around on three different keyboards, to sister Eleanor's ultra-intense vocals, The Fiery Furnaces are a band who's crafted quite a unique little niche in the psyche of music lovers all round that big ol' world. With their two-night to-do at Emo's coming less than a month after the release of......

The mother of a missing British girl to become a suspect in the case. Republican Fred Thompson focuses on Iowa voters. A US district judge strikes down portions of the Patriot Act. US forces at a all-time high in Iraq. Osama bin Laden dyes his beard to look younger. Democratic fundraiser, Norman Hsu, faces sentencing on 16-year-old grand theft conviction. Paul McCartney is still cool.......

Paul McCartney - Memory Almost Full The problem with rock legends, assuming they live past 30, is that they are held to such high standards. But for Sir Paul McCartney, age 65, such standards exist nowhere if not in his own driven psyche. In the past two years, he has released a politely (read: coolly) received acoustic album, Chaos And Creation In The Backyard, performed an extravagantly surreal rendition of "Yesterday" with Jay-Z at the......

The BBC mistakenly interviewed a cab driver instead of the computer expert they intended. Check out the video. South Texas is hot, but when you perspire tar, its time to get checked out. Morgellons Disease has many doctors and scientists stumped. In England, a court ruled that patients can get reimbursed for the cost of their surgery if they have to travel to a foreign country to get it done in a timely manner.......

It could have been a lot worse. Mariah Carey could have walked away with Song, Record, or even Album of the Year; at that point, we would've completely given up on the music industry. Not that we have an extreme degree of faith in the corporate arts as is, but giving the big one to an album titled The Emancipation of Mimi would have all-but confirmed that those people are insane, evil, and totally......

He was the Walrus. He taught the world that all we need is love. He was a self-admitted dreamer, until one fateful night 25 years ago. On December 8th, 1980, Mark David Chapman, a former Beatles fanatic robbed the world not just of a beloved rock star, or a worldwide symbol of peace and love, but a true artist who changed the way the world viewed music. No one can take away John Lennon's......

While the Beatle Paul McCartney once posited, "The only love you take is the love you make," his colleague John Lennon was quick to point out that "Money can't buy you love." As a result, the amount of money made cannot correlate to the amount of love taken, but it can help a lot of people feel better about themselves. Unfortunately many of the readers and contributers for the Austinist find ourselves in the......