Tonight's your perfect chance to help out one of our own: local uninsured musician Chris Neale faces staggering medical bills after undergoing an emergency operation to remove a ten-pound tumor from his stomach back in October. To help offset some of this financial burden, friend of Austinist Marisa Wall has organized a stellar fundraiser taking place at Moxie and the Compound this evening, with support from a bevy of local businesses....

Image from www.homeslicepizza.com Home Slice-O-RamaSaturday, November 17Home Slice Pizza (1415 South Congress)Noon-6pm, Admission is free; booths, games and drinks cost tickets. All carnival proceeds to benefit Young Texans Against Cancer[info] The delicioso crew at Home Slice Pizza will celebrate their second year of slinging perfecto pizza by hosting a back yard carnival on Saturday, with all proceeds benefiting Young Texans Against Cancer. Here's what's on tap: • An old school pizza eating contest to win......

Photo courtesy Fossum Studios L Style G Style, a new gay and lesbian lifestyle magazine, hit the streets of Austin yesterday. Executed in a “two magazines in one” format, the print pub is flip-able, like the old Spiegel catalogs from back-in-the-day, with the "L" side tailored to ladies and the "G" side for the guys. “Our goal with the magazine is to offer the public a different view of the gay and lesbian community,” said......

While the West Coast leads the pack, it's no surprise that Austin has ranked 7th in a national survey ranking organic food consumption. In fact, the study looked at local organic juggernaut Whole Foods Market, finding "Organics consumers are 272% more likely than the average consumer to have shopped Whole Foods during the past week." According to the survey, the top local markets for organics consumers are: 1. San Francisco/Oakland/San Jose, CA 2. Seattle/Tacoma, WA......

First there was Keep Austin Weird, then Keep Austin Wired, Keep Austin Corporate— and, starting tomorrow, Keep Austin Good. The first annual “Don’t Lose a Good Thing, Keep Austin Good” is sponsored by Los Angeles lifestyle magazine GOOD, and described in a press release as “part party, part information exchange,” bringing the spirit of fun and the commitment to Austin’s quality of life together. Vendors and local businesses will hand out information about community......

Saturday and Sunday, October 6th and 7th Hey you, big-spender: If you missed FactoryPeople's last pop-up store, take a look-sy at the rockin' jewelry by Austinite Brian Crumley (now based in New York). The Crumley trunk show is from noon to 6 p.m. Guests can chat up Brian and sip Crumley Cosmos—a raspberry champagne cocktail—while browsing through sample on the new fall lines. Enter to win Crumley's handsome Banquet Amulet, a large hand blown glass......

Finding hot button issues in Austin is not unlike finding a needle in a needlestack and no issue is as passionately debated as real estate. When Liz Lambert left her law practice with the Attorney General’s office and purchased the run down San Jose Motel, she had designs to create an oasis of hip on South Congress Avenue before the condo-boom had even begun, and little did she know that what she was building would......

Apparently our fair city is besting all others when it comes to "cleantech" (green technology) startups. According to the Austin Business Journal, we're home to seven of these forward-looking paragons of environmental innovation, including startups developing wind and geothermal energy technologies, and one working on something mindblowingly called "Internet-controlled irrigation." For those keeping track, we beat out San Jose, Berkeley, Pasadena, and Boston for the top spot. Image courtesy kingjoshdavidon Flickr......

How many times has this happened to you? Situation: you're at the Hotel San Jose with friends, on your second *cough third* Champassion, and it hits you: you're hungry. Sure, there's always the cheese platter at the San Jose, but seriously man - you're hungry. What do you do? You call Homeslice Pizza, only to find out there's a half hour wait for carryout ... and you're hunnngryyyy. Come early February, there may be......

The magazine Natural Home has put South Congress second on its list of America's Best Eco-Neighborhoods. The list appears to be arranged alphabetically by city name, so being second doesn't really matter, but at least it's in the top ten. The area's walkability, integration of residential and commercial space, and access to public transportation helped put it on the list. Great local stores like Farm to Market and Ecowise probably also helped. SoCo is......

Zagat's 2007 America's Top Restaurants Survey is out and although the setup on this one begs for an immediate rimshot, it's true - we love eating out. In fact, only Houston residents eat out with more frequency *snicker* than Austinites. Hungry Houstonians are eating out an average of 4.2 meals per week while residents of Austin and Dallas/Ft. Worth eat out an average of 4 times per week. Trailing in weekly eating-out outings are......

Austin remains the nation's fifth safest large city, according to the latest annual rankings published by Morgan Quitno Press. The Lawrence, Kansas-based research firm placed Dallas and Houston on the other side of the spectrum -- both are among the country's most dangerous, at sixth and tenth, respectively. Meanwhile, our northern neighbors in Round Rock should be happy to know that they're still living in of the overall safest cities, despite dropping to thirteenth......

It's like attending a film festival in your pajamas. And the popcorn is free. “SXSW Presents” premieres tonight on KLRU. The purpose of the show is to “share festival-circuit gems with television audiences.” Produced by SXSW, in conjunction with Austin-based company, Beef & Pie Productions, the show endeavors to bring the film festival to you. Tonight’s first installment will feature Robert Brinkmann’s film, Stephen Tobolowsky’s Birthday Party. The film is a performance-based documentary that......

Or, better yet, high fashion and hard alcohol. You’ll find it all at the new Jo’s on 2nd Street this Saturday night (August 5). Stop by at 9 to grab a drink, listen to some tunes, and check out the unique and sure-to-be-popular silent auction items which will include: Night on The Town at Hotel San Jose, dinners for two, all kinds of bike related gear, parts, helmets, Discovery and other pro kits, National......

Do you have burning questions about burning food? Do you want to know more about cutting on the bias but want to remain impartial? Do you want to know why saffron is only somewhat less expensive per pound than crushed Faberge eggs and Bald Eagle skulls? Well, we may not know the answers, but we certainly know a ton of people in the culinary community who might. Don’t be afraid, just ask. We’ll run......

Trish Abbott of the Fellowship for Reconciliation will be on hand at Monkey Wrench Books this evening for a presentation and slide show about the current human rights situation in Colombia and the role of the US in said. Since the early 90s, Colombia has received more than $1 billion in US military aid. This money goes to a military that is the worst human rights abuser in the hemisphere and has been implicated in......

It's that time of year again, Austin. Although it seems like it happens about three times a year, the Austin Chronicle is conducting its annual Best Of Austin poll. While we obviously have certain favorites (Laguna Gloria, Curra's, El Chile, Mi Madre's, Eastside Cafe, Vespaio, the Backyard, the Parish, Continental Club, Hotel San Jose, DJ Prince Klassen, the Draugh Horse, Gingerman, Lovejoy's, Flipnotics, Casino El Camino, Club DeVille, the Off Center, KUT, KLRU, Quorum......

Everyone ballyhoos Austin's status as live music capitol of the world, but the pink elephant in the room that no chamber of commerce or visitors bureau would ever touch is that fact that Austinites truly like to get their drink on. More than that, they like their drinks served with snacks. You know it's true. A few quick thoughts as we approach the summer drankin' and snackin' season: In the category of best junk......

Cy, the one-eyed-kitten was sold to a museum that promotes the theory of creationism. The Lost World Museum opens later this year in Phoenix, Arizona and promises to house a regular freak show. French President Jacques Chirac was influenced by the protests of the young people across the country and has recalled his proposition for employment laws. In Canada, some bodies of suspected members of the Bandidos Biker Gang were found outside of Ontario.......

We generally like the reporting of Howard Fineman (Newsweek, MSNBC) but his attempt, with a throw-away line, to glibly paint Austin as a dangerous city in his piece last week about Bush's new chief of staff just seemed disingenuous to us. We could not tell if he was trying to be funny or insinuate that Bolten was a dandy who would find even South Congress threatening or what. But we thought it was pretty......

The annual Men's Fitness survey of America's Fittest and Fattest Cities just came out again, and lo and behold, Austin remains among the top 25 of the former. Austinist is hardly surprised by these findings: on our once-yearly morning traipse around Town Lake this morning we exchanged pleasantries with dozens of fellow runners, all no doubt preparing for February's orgiastic Freescale Marathon. And just last week our spiffy and intimidating-as-hell gym, 5th and Lamar's......

Why not enjoy this amazing weather with some outdoor strolling and people watching. South Congress is the place to be for tonight’s First Thursday. Austinist will definitely be at Factory People later on to hear DJs Black Madonna and The Casual Dude throw it down. Plus, we think they might have some tasty beverages for us to enjoy. Also, don’t forget to sit poolside at the marvelous San Jose. One day we will find an......

Some of you who are new to Austin may not know of SoCo’s previous life as a drug and crime infested sector of the city. The Last Days of the San Jose chronicles the transformation of the little motel from prostitute and junkie hangout to chic and trendy boutique hotel. The renovation of the San Jose helped spark the revival of South Congress into the fashionable neighborhood it has become today. The movie will......

Many of you who frequent the Hotel San Jose on South Congress - either for a drink, or just to drink in the ultra-cool design theme - may be aware that the owners recently opened a sister hotel in the tiny West Texas town of Marfa (and we're talking TINY - a population that barely tops 2100!). Well, Austinist recently had the opportunity to check out the new digs (called the Thunderbird Hotel) and would......