It's not just the coffee that packs a punch! Tuesday afternoon, a woman rushed into the Starbucks at Congress Avenue and 6th Street, stole a tip jar, and assaulted a customer for her wallet. Richard Chambers, another customer, stopped the woman outside the store and held her until police arrived. No one was seriously injured and the suspect was taken into custody. Austinist thinks Starbucks owes this guy a venti iced white mocha, breve and with caramel drizzle! more ›

Iraq launches study abroad initiative. Hamas proposes yearlong truce. MLK, Ghandi, Mandela ... and Blago? Portland Mayor to keep on keepin' on. British man kills wife over Facebook status. Cuts at Starbucks? Google to kill PCs? more ›

• Driver slams his bulldozer into a crowded bus in Jerusalem, killing at least 3 people
• Manhunt ends in Illinois for suspect in eight murders
• Hospital employees disciplined after ignoring a woman who collapsed and died in an ER waiting area

Hillary Clinton says we really matter! Texan self-esteem at an all-time high (and that's saying something). GM wants to buy out every single one of its United States hourly workers. Texas beats No. 3 Kansas in basketball, 72-69, in front of a sold-out Erwin Center. By 2050, one in five Americans will be foreign-born, survey saith. more ›

Like the disaffected grunge movement. Nobody could really find a way to bank off it, at least not until Ethan Hawke and Eddy Vedder came along. Then the music and film execs got a hard-on so big, it bumped into Kurt Cobain’s elbow while he was cleaning his shotgun. more ›

Photo by gunnyrat on flickr
• The oil that spilled onto Sixth Street and into Waller Creek last week came from a 100-year-old underground tank.
• Jennifer Kim on the Northcross WalMart: "It's going to be a freaking disaster."
• Celebration Church in Georgetown has its own Starbucks and 5,000 attendees. Sayeth the pastor: "You can't do church without money."

Did you hear something that tops our quotes from this week? Send them to overheard@austinist.com and we'll publish the best. more ›

In 1997, Carl Newman started a side project called The New Pornographers in Vancouver for fun. The cast of characters included the ridiculous gifts of both Neko Case and Destroyer's Dan Bejar, and an indie-pop collective for the ages was born. Now touring behind their fourth album Challengers, Newman and the other New Pornographers have somehow managed to continue the project in addition to each pursuing their solo aims. The band seems to grow in... more ›

FACT: In 2007, there will be 181,510 new cases of breast cancer diagnosed in the U.S. alone. Of those diagnosed, nearly 41,000 will succumb to the disease. AWESOME FACT: When detected early, breast cancer has a 96% survival rate. This Wednesday, join Mayor Wynn and members of Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation’s Austin Affiliate to kick off National Breast Cancer Month and celebrate the 10-year anniversary of Austin’s Race for the Cure. To celebrate... more ›

You bring up the idea of “art”, and you’re definitely begging for some heated shit talking. Opinions are the first to fly, then potentially followed by epithets, then perhaps some brass knuckles. All metaphoric in form, of course. Why must these disagreements come to pass? Notorious MSG comes to mind. It could be said that this is exactly what art and artists, as functional cogs in the machines of social industry, are supposed to... more ›

Every fall, Austin looks forward to ACL Fest, and each year, there's always a point where two of your favorite bands are playing on different sides of the park at the exact same time. ACL Band Clash is a weekly series in which Austinist scribes Paige Maguire and Tom Thornton examine the worst ACL scheduling clashes, and try to provide good advice on finding a resolution. Well, good advice might be a stretch, but... more ›

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... more ›

Less than two hours are left before Apple's "revolutionary new mobile phone" is finally unleashed to the ravenous hordes. Like in every other big city in the country, Austin's gadget geeks and conspicuous consumers are eagerly awaiting the sweet sound of that six o'clock bell—when they'll finally get to the suckle from the engorged teet of Steve Jobs' brilliant marketing machine. more ›

Short one this week. I read in The New York Times Online (5/28/07) that CD sales have fallen more than 20% this year--the most precipitous drop in the format's history--and that the big music conglomerates, or at least the ones not in the process of being bought or sold, are having to get creative. Steps taken include: taking cuts of their artists' profits outside of album sales (touring, merchandise, and licensing profits), finding new... more ›

This Saturday at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, there will be badass doin’s a-transpirin'. We have various Blanton parties. We had the whole Radical NY! at the AMOA (which the writer who posted on it completely ruined by misspelling the names of extremely popular artists, and just appearing to be a twat of an art icon ignoramus in general), and if you attend(ed) these events, you’ve likely felt the energy surrounding the concept:... more ›

Is anyone else tired of Christmas music yet, or is it just us? While eating Sushi one night last week we were forced to listen to Feliz Navidad. Give us a break. Some Bing Crosby or Sinatra music on Christmas Eve is fine, but when Sisqo has a holiday album out it's time to stop the madness. The point of this diatribe is to point out that it can be very hard to make... more ›

Good news: Texan lawmakers propose package of sweeping reforms, important enough to hit the national section of the New York Times! Bad news: Said reforms are all aimed toward stripping illegal immigrants of their rights and humanity. Oh, well. We might soon be able to recharge our wireless devices wirelessly (that means no more fighting over outlets at Starbucks). Is there anything Nikola Tesla can't do? iPhone. Surprised? Queen Elizabeth has promised to visit... more ›

Apparently the nuclear testing by North Korea has made South Koreans a tad frisky. Obese people are totally bad for the environment. And we aren't talking about methane gas. Students in business school are a bunch of cheaters. That explains quite a bit. On its death-bed, the Ford Taurus is considered to have been a huge influence within the auto industry. Grandpa would be glad to know he's storing a piece of history. In... more ›

You can blame higher rent, blame Starbucks, or blame the cheapness of college students, but Little City on Guadalupe is serving their last cup of coffee tonight when the shop -- a Drag mainstay for over ten years -- will close its doors for the last time. This west campus sidewalk café is the latest in an already high number of coffee shops that just can’t compete on the Drag anymore. Donna Taylor, owner of... more ›

This has been a rough week for your -ist pals, though you wouldn't know it from the great posts all over the network. Plagued with server problems, our tech team (led by the great Neil Epstein) toiled around the clock to solve the glitches as they arose. Seriously, we've said, typed, and thought the phrase "server problems" more in the past week than we have for the last 35 years combined. Why not say it... more ›

We learn from Consumerist that today from 10am-noon you can get a free tall coffee from Starbucks. We prefer patronizing local coffeeshops (especially Russell's, who has the best chai latte), but we know there are plenty of Austinites who wait in the drive-thru lines at Starbucks in the morning. You know who you are. more ›

DCist helps us make more sense of the world this week. Posts like this concert review are the reason for Scott Stapp. DCist also enumerates the reasons for playing ultimate frisbee, Condi's tight buns, their love of a local convenience store, and their jealousy of a person in Seattle calling the city. LAist documented graf artist Banksy's most recent visit to LA in one two three posts. They also found the best possible use... more ›

A week or so ago we were coming out of a meeting in preparation for our fabulous slew of parties that will occur during a certain week in March. We were hungry, so having about 90 minutes to kill before going to a concert, we figured we'd be brave and eat on 6th Street - not the part of Sixth where Thai Tara and Maiko reside, the other part. In between Congress and Red... more ›

Lately, the music industry has been making more moves than a blog editor at a GLO show. Here's a run down on everything you need to fuel your hatred of corporate music and Nashville. If you don’t hate Music City, move there, it took us exactly six hours to develop a serious loathing we allowed to fester for six years. James Blunt, unsurprisingly called Blunt the C*nt by his sassy British friends, became the... more ›

What do we want? MOVIES! When do we want them? NOW! *Before the Fall An interesting film set in 1942 Berlin about an elite school where the country’s brightest young men were trained to be future members of the Nazi regime. Yeahhh, there’s just nothing funny about that. A Good Woman Holy crap, Scarlett Johansson and her breasts are everywhere, it seems. At least this movie finally answers the question, “What ever happened to... more ›

--The Editors] more ›

One local coffee establishment that's been keeping Austin good 'n weird for the past 10 years is closing its doors come January 1st due to financial losses. Mojo's Daily Grind has felt the mighty force of that global coffee virus, Starbucks, as well as the strain from rising rent costs along the Drag and too much coffee competition. Founded by Wade Beesley in 1994, Mojo's has been well-known for its laid-back attitude and openness... more ›

Showing Skin Support
Check out this New Orleans evacuee's new tattoo . The city will find homes for the last 500 hurricane victims in Austin by the end of the week. What's the number one cause of arrest in the convention center? Public intoxication. more ›

How high is too high?
This isn't a reflective piece by Cheech and Chong...we're talking about construction downtown, this time a 36-story condominum complex planned for Third Street, a block east of Lamar. Members of the Old West Austin Neighborhood Association want to wait to see city's entire plan for downtown before signing off the "ok" to build the ginormous building. They're afraid of what's coming....in other words, how many other towers are going to block their view. There's currently 13 projects in the works. more ›

Last night, as the rains approached, we found ourselves at a car wash vacuuming and armor-all-ing the inside of our car. Yea, we know, why wash your car when it is about to pour rain? Well, we were actually just there for the interior detailing (cause we couldn’t let a certain someone see the inside of our car for the first time and have it looking like a dog kennel/pig sty). The car wash was strictly perfunctory. more ›