Clinton campaign seeks to control local caucus sessions? more ›

For years, the Austinist staff has fielded queries from friends and acquaintances about SXSW goings-on. "Can I walk to The Salt Lick?" "Does it really take 90 minutes for a Casino El Camino burger?" But most of all: "What showcase do you recommend to see some good new bands I don't know about?" This year, we've made the answer official. Austinist is presenting an official nighttime showcase featuring six different American acts at Spiro's on Thursday, March 13. We've done a lot of listening to different bands and entire showcases, and believe that this one has great potential to impress you. The roster: more ›

A super swell, baby-faced Harvard drop-out, Zuckerberg is constantly balancing on the edge of controversy, whether it be college hacking, the murky origins of Facebook, or the implementation of new privacy invading features on his fancy website. Yet, for a venture that is barely four years old, Zuckerberg has garnered billion dollar buyout bids, household name status and a probable place in the history books. more ›

On Sunday night - before my sinuses joined the writer's strike - I fancied myself a Rockwell-ian protagonist. In my crappy efficiency apartment, I laid leisurely in an armchair, reading Yeats and watching Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. I also made laborious use of the first-person singular and listened to a new Bavu Blakes song, which arrived in my inbox that night. more ›

Sarah, the youngest, had met someone at work and had told a friend her father "would kill her if he found out." The police are afraid that this phrase may have been an ominous foretelling instead of teenage hyperbole. more ›

This Saturday, The Mohawk is hosting a benefit for Girls Rock Austin and the Girls Rock Camp Alliance, featuring oddly punctuated, mostly female rockers Ume., Follow that Bird!, Code Rainbow!, and the venerable Pink Nasty. more ›

Image from Benko’s MySpace Benko, The Boxing Lesson, & The Story OfWednesday, November 21Stubbs (801 Red River)9 p.m. | $8[info] | [Benko MySpace] | [The Boxing Lesson MySpace] | [The Story Of MySpace]Thanksgiving is just around the corner but before you get stuffed and sleepy, get your long weekend started right on Wednesday evening. There is a mouth watering set of shows on the Austin schedule for the 21st. Extended details to follow in our... more ›

Photo of Emily Tindall and Leslie Chastain courtesy UT Dep’t Theatre & Dance Ashes, Ashes8pm Saturday, 2pm SundayWinship Drama Building (UT Campus)[info] | [tickets]Ashes, Ashes, closing this weekend at UT, is the most visually-impressive theatrical work we’ve seen anywhere in quite awhile. We’ve even been to lower-end Broadway productions that didn’t have half the visual whammy of this retro-futuristic extravaganza. We simply couldn’t tear our eyes away from the post-Victorian steampunk fantasia created by the... more ›

Local author Sarah Bird (The Yokota Officers Club, Virgin of the Rodeo, The Mommy Club, The Boyfriend School, and Alamo House) doesn't know how to just sit down and write a book. For her, research for a novel—say, one about flamenco music and dance—means picking up and moving to New Mexico for a summer to take flamenco dance lessons at The University of New Mexico. This may sound a little extreme when she could've hacked... more ›

Local writer Spike Gillespie (along with a dozen of her closest friends) has been holding forth on the subject of wookin pa nub in all the wrong places. The Dick Monologues run once a month at Hyde Park Theater. When we walked in, there was a sea of women with tiny plastic cups of red wine. Any trepidation over being surrounded by that many sleeveless tops quickly dissipated as the raucously hilarious women (and... more ›

Danny Taylor and Simeon Coxe III created The Silver Apples in 1967 in New York City. With Simeon supplying the vocals and synth, and Taylor providing the percussion, the duo created psychedelic soundscapes accentuated by electronic beats. Their name was coined from a William Butler Yeats poem while musically, the duo employed all the tricks of the trade that might seem fairly standard now but were truly innovative at the time. Simeon utilized multiple audio... more ›

Go Texas Film! After a lengthy submission and selection process, the Austin Film Society has announced the recipients of the 2007 Texas Filmmakers' Production Fund. more ›

With bands constantly forming, regrouping, burning out or fading away, it takes moxie to stick around on the Austin club scene long enough to get noticed. Case in point: Elliott Frazier and his jangly noise-pop trio Ringo Deathstarr. Frazier originally formed Deathstarr two years ago with confederates fom his hometown of Beaumont; following a seemingly endless period of lineup changes, the band is currently making waves on fancy music blogs and radio playlists worldwide. We... more ›

Horrified though we were that a woman was killed by a flying tire on I-35, we chalked it up to a random freak tragedy—the kind that gets coverage on the national news because of its wholly unbelievable nature. This might not be the case. Shortly after Monday's incident, a woman on internet activist site Actt Up posted about a strikingly similar accident that happened to her three weeks ago, also on I-35: My name is... more ›

The Austin City Limits Festival gang are smart enough to know that a) all the people lining up with their plastic cups full of merlot waiting patiently to see Los Lonely Boys and proudly displaying their It's Been a Crazy Weekend henna tattoos aren't just tying their kids up to trees when they leave, and b) there is an ever-growing market for music aimed at kids and families. Combining these two concepts (we assume)... more ›

The Writers' League of Texas will be honoring author Lawrence Wright on September 21st with the 3rd Annual Award of Literary Merit. The award seeks to recognize individuals who "embody the League's mission of promoting literacy and elevating the art of writing." The first two Awards of Literary Merit were bestowed upon Sarah Bird (2006) and Anne Patchett (2005). Currently a staff writer for The New Yorker, Lawrence Wright has authored several books as well... more ›

We love a good cry, and we are expecting a Niagra Falls worthy Wednesday night, as Austin Film Festival brings us Away From Her, the directorial/screenwriting debut of Canadian powerhouse Sarah Polley. You may remember Polley from Dawn of the Dead, My Life Without Me and of course, the Road to Avonlea series. (Come on, we know you have the entire Anne of Green Gables spinoff on VHS right next to your NKOTB action figures.)
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“I’ve loved vintage all my life,” says Sarah Evans, co-owner of La Luz, a new vintage housewares and clothing store on South 1st Street. “When I was seven I was sifting through thrift stores. I never thought I’d have my own store.” Last year, Sarah was working a desk job she hated, and eventually quit after her “80th nervous breakdown.” While telling us this, her boyfriend, Ace San Miguel, says, “I told her, ‘You... more ›

Tig Notaro is hilarious. But you already knew that. Maybe you saw her in this season's most heralded breakout TV comedy, the Sarah Silverman Program. Or perhaps you watched her perform stand-up in Austin in October with the Crackpot Comedy Tour. You may have even caught a glimpse of her on Jimmy Kimmel Live, season 4 of Last Comic Standing, Dog Bites Man, or Comedy Central's Premium Blend. And it's possible that you simply... more ›

MONDAY [5] art • Opening Reception for Sarah Canright and Melissa W. Miller: Measured Strokes at The Sarofim School of Fine Arts, Fine Arts Gallery (6-7:30pm) benefit/music • Heather Love Fest Benefit with Dan Dyer & Friends, John Pointer, Govinda, DJ Chicken George, BIGFACE, DJ Mahealani, DJ Chris, DJ Trey Lopez,DJ Orian, Performance by the Super Sonic Soul Squad, Complimentary Appetizers and TONS of Raffle and Silent Auction Prizes at Saba, Cedar Street, and... more ›

That's right: it's time to heat up your winter nights again, with the 14th season of FronteraFest. The Short Fringe, the Long Fringe, or Mi Casa es su Teatro -- FronteraFest is five weeks of alternative, offbeat, new, and just plain off-the-wall fringe theatre presented by Hyde Park Theatre and Austin Script Works. For complete FronteraFest 2007 information, including times and locations for the Short Fringe, the Long Fringe and Mi Casa es su... more ›

FRIDAY [26] film • El Automovil Gris at McCullough Theatre ® art • Opening Reception: Ishmael Soto: Vessels and Inspirations: Ceramic and Sculptural Work at Mexic-Arte Museum (7-9pm, free) books • Sarah Lewis presents Indecent at BookPeople (7:00pm) comedy • Bil Dwyer at Cap City Comedy Club film • Spike & Mike's Sick & Twisted Festival 2007 at Alamo Drafthouse Downtown ® film • The Bridge at Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar community • Meeting... more ›

This Saturday, P & K Grocery will hold a Fresh Start Fundraiser for our friend Sarah Calhoon. Around Christmastime -- you might recall the media blitz -- she and her mother lost their home and most of their possessions to a devastating South Austin fire. Many loved ones stepped in to offer a stop-gap backbone of support, providing Sarah and her mom with food, clothing and shelter. But since the pair's financial needs are long-term... more ›

As SX07 approaches, we'll be keeping you informed on all of the official confirmations, rumors, and non-SX events that we feel are worth your attention. With January's arrival, a lot of news has surfaced in the past few days. Here's a quick recap: Confirmed Performers (via SXSW): Pete Townshend, Rachel Fuller, Emmylou Harris, The Stooges, Interpol, Lily Allen, Bloc Party, Devin The Dude, Hoodoo Gurus, Matt & Kim, Ghostland Observatory, The Watson Twins, Stax... more ›

Neither hyped enough to be a buzz band, nor obscure enough to make the list of “best bands you’ve never heard of,” Chicago’s Bound Stems have, in any case, quietly become one of the most interesting bands of the past year. Though the band has been recording since 2003, they turned up the volume in November of last year with the EP The Logic of Building the Body Plan. The album, which was greeted... more ›

We've been a bit lax in our celebration of Austin's bloggers, but we're back, baby. Our favorite posts for this week of November 27th: Austin Real Estate Blog ponders real estate east of IH-35. Sarah at BondBlog caught the quick reference to the Alamo Drafthouse on Heroes Monday night. Rocky Balboa has caused some strong audience reaction already, Jette at celluloid eyes noticed. It's probably not the reaction the studio is hoping for. Red... more ›

THURSDAY [30] music • Dave Brubeck, Ramsey Lewis at Paramount Theatre music • The Onion's Corporate Expansion Celebration with Sount Team, IV Thieves, Eugene Mirman, The Lemurs, Tacks the Boy Disaster at Emo's music • UT Dance Marathon Fall Benefit Concert feat. Danny Malone w. Smile Smile, The Downside Up at The Parish Room music • Lower 4th, Exeter, Blackholicus, She, Sir! at Flamingo Cantina music • The Fall Collection, The Always Already, AUX... more ›

Of all the cafés in Austin, Progress Coffee has to be one of the most ambitious. Ambitious may even be an understatement considering what owners Joshua and Sarah Bingaman have done to establish their little eastside gem as a casual, cultural environment that’s equally welcoming to day and night crowds. In addition to serving deconstructed delicacies, traditional café fare, coffee, and booze, Progress Coffee also regularly hosts literary events, art exhibitions, and live music. They... more ›

The UT Department of Theatre & Dance has cooked up a restoration comedy to cheer your winter evenings, and they want to send one lucky couple gratis! Crack your knuckles and cozy up to the harpsichord keyboard to enter below. First one in gets a pair of tickets to this Saturday's performance. [Congratulations Winner!] The production comes to you courtesy of the department's MFA candidates, and showcases the work of the class of 2007,... more ›

We're moving quickly into the holiday season, but this week there are no holiday-themed movies. Rejoice! Because there will be. Dear God, there will be. *Stranger Than Fiction We love seeing talented "funny guys" attempt less-over-the-top acting, especially when they do it well (see: Jim Carrey, Robin Williams, Freddie Prinze, Jr. - oh wait, he's neither funny nor talented). We commend you, Mr. Ferrell. Please be our friend? *Babel Multicultural interconnection, global complexity, blah... more ›