A sad week for LAist as they lose their trusted and amazing editor Tony Pierce to the LA Times, but what a blast his last week was. He shared his 25 Favorite CDs of 2007 and wrote a great review of just a good movie, No Country For Old Men. At UCLA, thousands of students celebrated the end of their quarter by running around campus in their undies (lots of photos in a two-part......

Back in 1996, Junot Diaz published a collection of short stories, Drown, which became one of the most celebrated literary debuts of the Nineties. Drown drew on Diaz’s experiences growing up, first in the Dominican Republic, and later, from the age of six, in a northern New Jersey immigrant neighborhood. Now, after eleven years, he has just published his long-awaited first novel, The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Wao, the protagonist, is a......

A gagillion cities have performance spaces named The Paramount Theatre: Oakland, Charlottesville, Seattle, hell, even Shreveport had a theatre named the Paramount at one point. But ours is the only one that is hosting its first EVER Poster Sale and Silent Auction this Saturday! Harumph! After its renovation in the mid 70’s, the Paramount began squirreling away classic movie and theatre posters—as well as signed memorabilia from performers such as BB King, Ravi Shankar, and......

We missed that whole “Black Friday” thing (post-traumatic stress symptoms related to a former life working retail), and the holidays are creeping up faster than a cheer-stealing Grinch in a dogsled. We’re sure that some of you, dear readers, find yourselves in a similar boat. But, before you start snapping up pre-packaged bath sets at Target, check out Austinist’s very special recommendations. We’ve sorted through some of the sparkliest surprises available locally and on the......

We haven't previously watched the G4 channel, because reruns of The Man Show and the channel's contemporary take on Star Trek haven't been enough to pull us in. Starting this week, however, we may be G4 converts. Last night they started their syndicated run of Arrested Development. Weeknights at 10:30pm, you can get back in touch with the Bluths and their shenanigans. If you have Grande, it's on channel 66 (expanded cable), or on......

French MP goes on hunger strike. "Like a sad clown," he says, "I'm not asking to win. I'm asking for good sense to triumph." Reason for the dramatics? He didn't want a paint factory in his district to close. When they say "Long Live the Queen" they're not kidding. Today Queen Elizabeth II celebrates her 80th birthday with a small get-together. MySpace has been quite the forum for do-no-gooders lately. Some kids were planning......

Chris and Rich Robinson, of The Black Crowes, rolled into Austin to play four sold out acoustic shows - two on Monday at the Union Ballroom and two on Tuesday at the Cactus Café. We were lucky enough to get tickets for both performances at the Ballroom. The brothers have announced that there are no press passes to any of their shows on this mini-tour dubbed "Brothers of a Feather" and some reporters are......

We have not seen Leslie around downtown in a couple of weeks. He will often disappear from time to time, but not one sighting in two weeks? That's odd. Well, not as odd as what he is up to, as it turns out. According to the Statesman's John Kelso, Leslie is on vacation, headed to Colorado. And he's taking quite the circuitous route. Proof: the cross-dressing downtown fixture was arrested two weeks ago in......