Image from SOS Alliance SOS Holiday Party & Silent AuctionFriday, December 7Mercury Hall (615 Cardinal Lane)$10 Suggested Donation, 7pm - Midnight[info]Tonight, the Save Our Springs Alliance will be hosting their annual Holiday Party and Silent Auction at Mercury Hall. In addition to food, drinks and great people, the event will showcase music by two environmentally-conscience local bands, Bill Oliver's Otter Space Band and The Bouldin Creek Bobkats. The Silent Auction features items from over 300......

There will always be chatter about Austin's changing landscape, much as there will always be supporters for both developers and the environment. We want the privilege of taking a dip in a glistening spring-fed pool, but we also want to have a robust economy that allows us to continue working and living in this city. Some would argue that the two desires aren't mutually exclusive, but we all know that it's a sticky subject.......

Highlights from this week's IST List: Folk-pop crooner Page France brings the sparkling jingle-jangle of Page France and the Family Telephone to Emo's, alongside Bishop Allen, The Teeth, and Frank Smith Sidebar's turning three, and they're buying you a drink on the house to celebrate. Join them for Ruby's BBQ, DJ Supafly, and giveaways Alas, one of our favorite social butterflies is flying away to--where else?--New York City. Before he leaves, join Dave "KidIndie"......

Save Our Springs Alliance, long-time advocate for Barton Springs and other environmentally-sensitive zones throughout Central Texas, issued a press release yesterday stating that it's being forced into bankruptcy by a court judgment won against it by Central Texas residential developers. In 2004, SOS Alliance filed a lawsuit against Lazy Nine Municipal Utility District, seeking to prevent the district -- which is allegedly just a puppet-agent of Wilshire Homes and Forest City Properties of Cleveland, Ohio......

Bad news John Kerry fans: if you'd planned to spend today with the Massachusetts Senator and his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, you're just going to have to wait. We've received word that his event scheduled to take place today -April 6th- at BookPeople has been canceled. The preliminary word is that the event has been rescheduled for Sunday, April 22nd -a.k.a. Earth Day- at a yet to be determined time. As originally planned, BookPeople......

Barton Springs is currently closed after this week's rains flooded the pool. Meanwhile, on the other side of the watershed, the Save Our Springs Alliance points out that recent construction by Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and the Hill Country Galleria Mall have left "huge amounts of sediment," much of which washed into the Edwards Aquifer earlier this week: More photos and descriptions are available on their website.......

Massachusetts Senator and former Presidential candidate John Kerry is coming to town in two weeks to speak at Austin High School about his new book, This Moment on Earth. Co-written by Teresa Heinz Kerry, the book celebrates so-called environmental pioneers -- "people and communities deploying ingenuity, technology, and sheer willpower to save the world they live in." The event is co-sponsored by the Save Our Springs Alliance and BookPeople, and the latter is now......

Footage found on Save Our Springs Alliance's website of Barton Springs, circa 1995. Video footage by Tom Taylor, directed by Grant Mitchell Find out more about the SOS Alliance here.......

In the wake of a finding by the U.S. Geological Survey showing the highest ever levels of the pesticide atrazine, dry cleaning solvent, and chloroform in Barton Springs, the subdivision of Belterra has requested a permit to expand their sewage treatment plant and allow discharge directly into Bear Creek, which feeds the Barton Springs portion of the aquifer. Maybe this isn't a big deal. The sewage discharged into Barton Springs would be treated to......

The 2006 Green Screen series of environmentally-inspired documentaries wraps up this evening at the Alamo South with Judith Helfand’s “toxic comedy,” Blue Vinyl. While on a press tour for her Peabody award-winning, Healthy Baby Girls, Helfand was horrified by the staggering incidence of illness endured by the people working in plants producing polyvinyl chloride in neighboring Louisiana. As a cancer survivor, the gauntlet was cast. She went on to discover that PVC was everywhere......

Bee Cave is awesome- life is peaceful there, lots of open air, sun in winter time. No wonder Criterion Property Co. has chosen to build its new 293-unit luxury apartment complex there. Dubbed the "Windsor," it will doubtless be a lovely place for tea and crumpets. This sprawling slice of limestone encrusted heaven** will be conveniently located close to both the Hill Country Galleria and the Shops at the Galleria. We haven't actually "been......

Trying out a different approach in their efforts to preserve the Edwards Aquifer from urban development, Save Our Springs Alliance today launched a new audio-based walking tour of Barton Springs. The self-guided tour covers thirteen stations of note, including Philosopher's Rock Statue, Old Mill Springs, Eliza Spring, and the Monument on Big Hill. What's more, they're making these available as free mp3 downloads so you can load 'em onto your iPod before you head......

MONDAY 24[music] TV On the Radio, Celebration, The Cocker Spaniels at Emo's (info) [film] Save Our Springs Alliance presents "Driving Sprawl," A 20-minute documentary about Advanced Micro Devices planned move to the Barton Springs watershed. at Ruta Maya (8pm) (info) [music] Josh Rouse at Cactus Café ($22, Through Tuesday) (info) [film/drinking] FuseBox Happy Hour/Nerve.com Screening at Blue Theater (6pm, $5, FREE beer and wine) (info) [books] Anthony Horowitz presents Ark Angel : An Alex Rider......

Austin is getting a new public Art Installation. Today at 11am, Mayor Will Wynn and Gibson Guitars will be part of a ceremony kicking-off the project in front of City Hall. Austin GuitarTown is going to feature guitars scattered around the city, placed in front of landmarks and significant businesses, that are painted by local musicians and artisans. NASA is planning to bomb the moon in order to study dust particles that come from......

Truecraig had some thoughts on the shot heard round the world in his column. Mr. Hollywood Jason Patric dropped his suit against the ever-aggressive Austin Police Department. Austin ranks as the second-best city outside of Hollywood in which to make a movie. We checked out the Zuraach Collective and took some photos. AM Syndicate, Nina Simone, Talking Heads...take a listen in AV Bits. It was a busy news week in the Kingdom of George.......

It's been a rollercoaster week for the Save Our Springs Alliance. The on Monday announced that it had finally collected the necessary 20,000 signatures to add an amendment to the ballots in May that would effectively make it city public policy to prevent development in the Edwards Aquifer, chiefly by restricting the tax incentives typically offered to land developers and discouraging large corporations from moving in. Case in point is semiconductor giant Advanced Micro......

While construction at the new 825,000-square-foot, $200 million Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) campus on Southwest Parkway is already underway, the site won't be complete until 2007. Ever anxious to expand their dominion - and, we're guessing, to make it harder for the Save Our Springs Alliance to prevent their final move - the semiconductor powerhouse has signed a lease for temporary office space at Travis Oaks, where they're moving 200 employees. When all is......

Austin Business Journal reports that AMD today filed its official site plans for their new Southwest Austin corporate campus, dubbed "AMD Lone Star." The gargantuan 870,000 sq ft, $230 million complex will see the relocation of over 2,000 employees sometime in 2007. Located at the intersection of Southwest Parkway and William Cannon, the facilities will boast "four office buildings, three parking garages and the Lone Star Commons Building, which will include an employee cafeteria,......

The Save Our Springs Alliance may have lost its bid to prevent AMD from building atop the aquifer near 290 and William Cannon, but that's not stopping them from celebrating the holiday season tonight. At Mercury Hall in South Austin, they're hosting a general bacchanal, with "smoked salmon from Chataugua River School, Veggie Tamales from White Mountain Foods, goodies from Manuel’s, Sweet Leaf Tea, Tito’s Vodka, Frozen Margaritas, Shiner Beer," dancing and a silent......

South Austin is starting to really shape up as an interesting part of Austin with the new-ish Opal Divine’s at Penn Field, the potentially swanky new shops at 3100 S. Congress, the mysterious new place next to Five Oceans and more. However, some local homeowners seem to want to stem the tide of coolness. After reading this Austin-American Statesman article on the subject, we can’t quite put our finger on what some South Austin......

Reader Alison writes: What exactly is an aquifer? I'm always entering some kind of aquifer and don't know what the heck they are. But damn, those aquifers and watersheds, or whatever, are all over the place. To summarize all of the definitions we found, an aquifer is an underground body of water. Ever heard of an Artesian Well? Sounds sexy, doesn’t it? The marketing departments of certain bottled water companies seem to think so.......

High on Austinist's list of things we love about this city are our countless lakes, springs, and rivers. Diving into Barton Springs is the perfect remedy for a scorching summer day, and in any season Town Lake provides the ideal backdrop for an early morning run. On a higher level, we feel that natural resources like these serve as the cornerstones of our outdoor community. Without them, we'd likely be as desolate and dry......