Half Japanese formed in the mid-seventies, and the band, which initially consisted of just brothers Jad and David Fair, would go on to have an musical impact on par with fellow primitive rock and roll ideologues Beat Happening and forebears The Shaggs. Kurt Cobain and Penn Jillette both championed their qualities to a larger audience, and their early history is even chronicled in a film entitled Half Japanese: The Band That Would Be King by The Devil and Daniel Johnston director Jeff Feurezeig. Even after David left Half Japanese to pursue other things, Jad kept the love lights glowing by recording both under the band’s name and his own, collaborating with many other musicians along the way. ...

Ranger flexes its muscles by simulating the "rising temperature plume within the Earth’s mantle." By Rhea Group (Carsten Burstedde, Omar Ghattas, Georg Stadler, Tiankai Tu, Lucas Wilcox), in collaboration with George Biros (Penn), Michael Gurnis (Caltech), and Shijie Zhong (Colorado)At the beginning of this month, the world's most powerful supercomputer for open scientific research officially went online at the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at UT Austin. Dubbed "Ranger," the high performance computing (HPC) system......

Photo from the Austin History Center archives Since so many of you wrote in asking about places to watch the Democratic Presidential Debate, we went ahead and called around town. Below are your best options if you missed out on the Alamo's watch parties or the Texas Democrats' party—both are now sold out. We still recommend calling ahead to make sure the folks below haven't changed their minds, and feel free to share any that......

This is a good example of poor judgment.The students of Penn State University should have taken a note from their counterparts at Tarleton State University when picking out this year's Halloween costumes. Even more idiotic than their costume idea was their decision to post the resulting pictures on Facebook. Photos of two Penn State students donning Virginia Tech t-shirts, covered with bullet holes and fake blood, were put up on Facebook and quickly spread over......

Photo courtesy Ricardo B. Brazziell Brownout w/ Bavu BlakesFriday, November 16Flamingo Cantina (515 E. 6th St.)Doors: 9pm[info] Bavu Blakes @ B-Girl CitySaturday, November 17Ruta Maya (3601 South Congress Penn Field)10pm set[info] Bavu BlakesSaturday, November 17Plush (617 Red River)$10, Midnight[info]The anticipated long-form paean to Sparkdawg will have to wait for a week: Bavu Blakes, Austin’s biggest rapper, plays three shows and runs a 5k this weekend before hanging up his hat for the holidays. I caught......

There’s a way to fundraise, that is. Established painter, photographer, and filmmaker William Wegman has a series of short works that will screen this Thursday, September 6th at The Design Center of Austin to benefit EmanciPET. It’s a collaboration made in doggy heaven, given that Wegman’s subjects are most often his own Weimaraners – a German breed of dogs known for their beautiful coats and haunting, gray eyes. On the subject of his medium-crossing......

Austin ticket broker TicketCity.com has published a list of the top 25 hottest college football games of 2007, based on the average price per ticket, and two University of Texas games are on the list. The Longhorns' game with Oklahoma at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas on October 6 is currently #8 (average ticket price $555), while the November 23 game with Texas A&M in College Station is #18 ($402). The face value of......

The folks at South by Southwest have announced the winners of their 2007 SXSWclick short film competition. This year's winners include some fantastic shorts about lovestruck mice, low-budget time machines and bizarre customer service reps. If you haven't already, we recommend checking out all of the finalists here, but if you're short on time (like, say, if you have a nail appointment, or you desperately need to pee) you can just check out the winners......

Tonight, 101X and the Alamo Drafthouse present The Princess Bride, in a special screening on the lawn at Central Market North. It's a no-brainer! Buy yourself a treat and indulge with everyone's favorite slice of 80's self-referential swashbuckling. A pre-Shepard Fairey-co-opted Andre the Giant! A pre-Penn Robin Wright! The so-hot-he's-cornz-Carey Elwes! Rodents of unusual size, cliff-scaling, and the six-fingered man! Vaudevillian troll Billy Crystal! And of course, sporadic interruptions from a whiny Fred Savage.......

Calling all 2.0 auteurs: Have you been sleeping on the SXSWclick! Festival deadline? You best get your ten-minute video in the mail by Friday, June 15th--tomorrow--so you can get in the running to win a veritable cornucopia of glittering prizes, including tons of slick production software AND a MacPro Workstation with an Apple Cinema display from iThentic! Just make sure your masterpiece is ten minutes long or shorter, and enter it in one of five......

At the end of this month, local urban development coalition Liveable City will be having its annual award ceremony to honor community-led initiatives that have "contributed to preserving the special character of our community and to making Austin a more livable city." This year, the awards will be going to the following: - The Mueller Neighborhood Coalition - Responsible Growth for Northcross - The St. John Neighborhood - Save Town Lake - "Downtown," Austin's award-winning......

The young professional types at Habitat Young Professionals (an official division of Austin Habitat for Humanity) is will host their first ever “Build the HYP” fundraising event this Saturday at 8pm at the Design Center of Austin, 3601 South Congress at Penn Field, Building C. Guests will experience great food and drinks from many local culinary destinations, including III Forks, Moonshine, and Reed's Supper Club. HYP will also raise the roof (Har!) with a......

WEDNESDAY [11] books • JoAnna Barrett presents The Men's Guide to the Women's Bathroom at BookPeople (7:00pm) film • Texas Doc Tour: "Fish Kill Flea" at Alamo Downtown film • Open Screen Night at Alamo Downtown film • Weird Wednesdays: "Marta" at Alamo Downtown film • Jim Jarmusch Film Series: "Dead Man" at Alamo Village film • "Babe" Organic Vegetarian Feast at Alamo Village film/discussion • Screening of Israeli film director Eytan Fox's "Walk......

FRIDAY [16] art • Artist's Reception: Joan Winter: From Marfa to Sudari at Flatbed Press and Gallery (6-8pm) art • Flatstock 12 Poster Convention at Austin Convention Center (11am-6pm) books • Jack Pendarvis preseents The Mysterious Secret of the Valuable Treasure at BookPeople (3:00pm) books • John Sellers presents Perfect From Now On at BookPeople (7:00pm) sxsw • SXSW Film Festival at Everywhere sxsw • SXSW Music Festival at Everywhere theatre • Austin Shakespeare......

MONDAY [29] opera • Philip Glass' Waiting for the Barbarians at Bass Concert Hall music • Unwed Sailor, Bayta Darell, The Twilight Lieutenants at Emo's Lounge music • Hidden Hand, Kylesa, The Roller, Ironclad at Emo's music • The Fray, Mute Math at Frank Erwin Center music • Hill Country Outdoors' New Member Meeting at Opal Divine's Penn Field film • Darkon: The Movie at Alamo Drafthouse Downtown film • Melody at Alamo Drafthouse......

THURSDAY [16] wine • Le Beaujolais Nouveau est arrivé! at Various music • Peter and the Wolf, The Interest Kills at The Mohawk music • The Elected (Members of Rilo Kiley), Margot and the Nuclear So and Sos, Whispertown 2000 at Emo's Lounge music • Jack Ingram & Reckless Kelly at Stubb's music • The Pretenders, Operation:Awesome at Austin Music Hall music • White Ghost Shivers, Dewayn Bros at Beerland music • St. Lawrence......

Badly Drawn Boy - Born In The UK (Astralwerks): If Talking Heads were last year's band to emulate, The Boss is certainly the sound of 2006. After seeing a great Springsteen record from The Hold Steady and a suspect one from The Killers, we now find Brit Damon Gough wrapping himself in the English flag and turning up the shiny, Human Touch-style production. Unfortunately, Badly Drawn Boy's main charm were his lo-fi early songs......

If you lost your ACL pass and – even after countless screaming matches with Front Gate Ticket employees and hours of scouring Craig’s List for scalpers – you’ve been left sans plans for the festival weekend (or maybe you’re just afraid of tourists/loathe sunshine/whatever), we’ve got an alternative suggestion. An air conditioned alternative suggestion. Go see a play. That’s right, don’t be a pussy about it. It’s just theatre. You might even like it......

Get in touch with twenty of Austin's most innovative young businesses this Saturday at Ruta Maya. Austin Breaking Ground -- an event created as a launching pad for the aforementioned entrepreneurs -- will provide exposure and networking opportunities for companies like 360 Bebe, A Thousand Petals, Zen Blossom and more. For you? It's a chance to check out the up-and-comers while you shake your groove thang to the bitchin' DJ and watch dance performances......

The kids returning to UT Austin have something extra special to brag about this year: the university was just named the country's number one party school in a survey of 115,000 college students conducted by the Princeton Review, beating the likes of Penn State University, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and (snicker) Brigham Young University. In addition to dominating the overall list, Longhorn students were ranked: 2nd in the "use of hard liquor" 3rd in beer......

Sean Penn has a voodoo doll of Anne Coulter. Where did he get it? We want one, too. A man in New Delhi unintentionally divorced his wife in his sleep because he said the word "talaq" three times in his sleep. Hmm...We wonder what would happen?... beer- beer -beer. Damn. Bush meets with Mexican President Vicente Fox tomorrow and Friday in Cancun. Fox is pleased with the guest worker bill that was before the......

In case you slept on our Sunday heads-up, head to Opal Divine's (South Congress location) tonight if you are an Austin newbie or are just looking for some new drinking buddies. The inaugural edition of Austin Newcomers is going down, and $2 domestic pints will abound. We know it's flooding outside, but the cars will have probably all floated away by 6pm, leaving you with an easy drive to the bar. To recap: This......

Are you new to Austin? Are you missing your bar in New York/Boston/Seattle or wherever you came from? Pining for a happy hour with your drinking buddies? If you're nodding with a wistful sort of look, we may be able to help. Austin Newcomers is beginning a monthly happy hour designed to help connect people 25-35 who are new to Austin. There's not a formal organization, it's just an excuse to drink good beer......

Cine Las Americas is a not-for-profit, multi-cultural media arts center located in Austin which promotes cross-cultural understanding and growth by educating, entertaining and challenging the community through media and film of the Americas. We think they're a vital part in promoting underserved voices in our community, and so we encourage everyone to support them. "How can I possibly help?" you might ask. Well, this weekend, Cine Las Americas is having its second annual fundraising gala......

With the deluge of radio ads promising "drink specials!" and "the biggest screen in town!", it's tough to know which Super Bowl parties might actually be worth getting off of your ass for. We've read the ads, asked around, and looked for a few parties that have something better than average going for them. Our five selections (and the reasons why) follow: - Antone's: Doors at 4pm. Food by Mangia Pizza and Rudy's BBQ.......

The UT Performing Arts Center presents the Dave Douglas Quintet, led by powerhouse jazz trumpeter/composer Dave Douglas, a musician the Boston Globe calls, "[one of] the most musical, inquisitive, and prolific of current jazz trumpeters, composers, and bandleaders" Rounding out Douglas' quintet are Donny McCaslin, tenor saxophone; Uri Caine, Fender Rhodes; James Genus, bass; Clarence Penn, drums. The Quintet's first album, The Infinite, was nominated for a Grammy as best instrumental jazz album in......

F R I D A Y [16] [theatre] Rude Mechs present Pale Idiot by Kirk Lynn at The Off Centre (Through Sat, $12, 8pm) [Austinist Review] [theatre] Langston Hughes' "Black Nativity" at Austin Playhouse on Penn Field (Through Sat, $20, 7:30pm) [theatre] "When Pigs Fly" at Arts on Real (8pm) [theatre] Shrewd Productions presents "Xmas Unwrapped! A Holiday Burlesque" at Hyde Park Theatre (Through Sat, 10pm) [theatre] "A Christmas Carol" at The State Theatre......

M O N D A Y [12] [music] UT Ethnomusicology Dept Ensembles at Momo's (8pm) [music] David Newbould at Flipnotics (8pm) [music] Singer-Songwriter Night at Longbranch Inn [music] Elizabeth McQueen at Theadgill's (8pm) [music] Listening party for Ludacris' new album, Disturbing Tha Peace at Nasty's (8pm) [music/shopping] Armadillo Christmas Bazaar with the Eggmen at Austin Music Hall (Check website for dates/hours) [party] Friends of the Spade Christmas Party at Velvet Spade (11pm) [film/food] "Narnia"......

M O N D A Y [5] music · MF Doom, Count Bass D, John Robinson at La Zona Rosa music · Saves the Day, Senses Fall, Emmanuel, Early November at Emo's film · "Shaun Of The Dead" spinoffs at The Drafthouse Downtown (7pm) [link] T U E S D A Y [6] music · Red Leaves at CRL Art Gallery film · AFS screens "The Singing Blacksmith" at The Drafthouse Downtown (7pm) [link]......