*The views expressed in Truesday are those of the author and do not represent Austinist as a whole. Thank heavens.* -The Editors I don’t want to say that there’s a right way and a wrong way to celebrate The Holidays. That would be foolhardy and dickish. Especially in a city as diversified as this one (we celebrate Christmas AND Thanksgiving!). But something this chick was crying about on NPR this morning got me thinking......

Image via misterjingo on Flickr. Azul (1808 East Caesar Chavez)Now Closed[info]Last week, popular East Side coffee and food spot Azul closed down for good on the day before Thanksgiving. The converted house at E. Cesar Chavez and Chicon had been serving the neighborhood since 2000 with a mix of coffee, sandwiches, and breakfast items. It had been featured as one of Austin's best coffees in both Zagat's Texas restaurant guide and hipster travel guide eat.shop.austin.......

In Los Angeles, LAist most definitely celebrated Thanksgiving like no other. After all, one has to keep up all the energy to keep on walking the line at the Writers Strike and fighting the unfortunate return of the wildfires in Malibu, which single handedly destroyed over fifty homes within the first 24 hours. National outlets may be covering the fires, but CNN also found it is easier to buy a gun than fruit and......

Image from Scion's websiteSo you’re all set for an afternoon with the family and/or friends, tons of food on the horizon, be it Turkey or Tofurkey. Still, you need to scratch that live music itch before heading home. Well, fear not oh lovely residents of Austin, the city has a solid night of gigs on the 21st in store for the common layperson. If you’re not already planning on hitting up the Benko and The......

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......

Photo by clickykbd on flickr Two state pension fends haven't yet divested from Iran, even though Perry asked them to. Kelso takes on Hyde Park Baptist Church's treatment of the Austin Area Interreligious Ministries Thanksgiving service. Mother of weekend murder victim is still missing. Drivers of both vehicles involved in Burnet County wreck this morning died at the scene. UK organization working with Texas law enforcement officers to set up Trace.com, which keeps records of......

Photo by Broken Piggy Bank on flickrThe Texas Youth Commission was in court Monday defending itself against advocacy groups claiming the TYC has overused pepper spray on its inmates. Texas Appleseed and Advocacy, Inc. say the TYC has doubled its use of pepper spray even after a settlement with the TYC back in September forced them to cut back. TYC has not commented on the case but Jim George, an Austin attorney who chairs the......

5th Annual Big Reds and BubblesTuesday, November 27Driskill Hotel (604 Brazos St.)6:30-9pm; $75 general admission, $60 for members[info] | [tickets]With Thanksgiving a mere two days away and the holiday season right around the corner, this time of year brings fine wine to all foodie minds. Wine lovers traditionally splurge in December on fancy bottles for both holiday toasts and New Year's Eve celebrations. To welcome this time of year and the wines that complement......

Photo by jetalone on flickrThe third Thursday of November (one week before Big American-Style Thanksgiving) marks Beaujolais Day - setting off a sort of Cannonball Run of wine, with distributors racing to get wildly celebrated bottles of Beaujolais Nouveau, the red wine made exclusively from Gamay grapes produced in the Beaujolais region of France, to market. We were busy drinking some middle-of-the-road Sauvignon Blanc last night or we would have totally reminded you yesterday. According......

Photo by Thomas McConnell on aaim.org AAIM Interreligious Thanksgiving ServiceSunday, November 18Congregation Beth Israel (3901 Shoal Creek Blvd.)service starts at 4pm, reception at 5pm[info]This Sunday, Austin Area Interreligious Ministries will hold their 23rd annual Interfaith Thanksgiving Service. Austinites of diverse faith backgrounds join together for this service every year. This interfaith service is unique and sometimes surprising, and the call to worship is always a moving experience. Please note that the location for the service......

Late night fire at police commander's house in Northwest Austin leaves over half a million dollars worth of damage. Firefighters from various regions of the country attend Central Texas wildfire training school. Hays County Area Food Bank starts their Thanksgiving food drive. Hannah Hawley, announced missing yesterday, is back with her family. Notice a different taste to our tap water? Sen. Cornyn votes against bill that would grant citizenship to young illegal immigrants who......

It is with heavy hearts that we come to you with news that we have lost a dear member of the Ist family. Phillyist co-editor Star Foster passed away Sunday morning. She had been complaining of a pain in her foot, which she thought had to do with some bad moves she'd made at dance class, but it turns out there was a tumor in her leg which metastasized and went to her heart. She......

If you're hiking, consider charging up your iPod, as Seattlest finds out that a man lost during a hike was found by the glow of his iPod. That cleverness seems to be devoid in cops who were using police cruiser instant messaging clients - although we imagine IMs "so are you nakie" to be included in cop shows, just for realism. If only the cops were busting the Hummer-driving jerk who made a poor......

The following is a weekly column by guest contributor Laurie Gallardo. Hear her Friday evenings on KUT 90.5FM, 11pm-3am. --The Editors Greetings to you, sufferers of post-Thanksgiving stress disorder. Come, now! You know exactly what I’m talking about. Were you one of the brave souls up this morning waiting at some random department store before the grand 5 a.m. opening to get your holiday shopping on?  Not me. “Black Friday” is not my cup......

Thanksgiving: a time for celebrating family, eating food, and of course, watching TV. Well, we're here to recommend some options: The given: "Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade", 9am, NBC/KXAN. The random: Twelve hours of Doris Day films on TCM, starting at 5am. Pigs at Thanksgiving?: Babe on NBC/KXAN, 2pm. Katie pre-TomKat: One of our favorite Thanksgiving films, Pieces of April, is on IFC at 4:15pm. What Not to Wear on Thanksgiving: What Not to Wear......

We'll be mostly offline through the rest of this week to spend the holidays with our families. Happy Thanksgiving, Austinites! WEDNESDAY [22] film • "School House Rock" Sing&Learn-Along at Alamo Downtown (7pm, $10) film • The Syrian Bride at Congregation Beth Israel (7pm) film • Be Here to Love Me at Beerland (7pm, Free) film • A Woman Is a Woman at Spider House (8pm,Free) film • Moulin Rouge at Rounders Pizzeria (8pm,Free) film......

TUESDAY [21] beer/books • Austinist's very own Truecraig presents a very special reading in honor of the release of his new memoirs, I Am An Idiot (but there's nothing wrong with you) at Club de Ville (8pm, Free, Recommended) food • Massive free pre-Thanksgiving feast at Palmer Events Center (4-8pm) books • Nomi Prins presents Jacked: How Conservatives Are Picking Your Pocket (Whether You Voted For Them or Not) at BookPeople (7:00pm) film •......

Polish off your Thanksgiving weekend with an intimate evening of music from British crooner James Blunt. The former British Army member will be taping an episode of Austin City Limits on Sunday, November 26, at 8 p.m. Tickets for the taping will be distributed tomorrow night beginning at 5pm at KLRU. The studio is located on the University of Texas campus at the corner of Dean Keeton and Guadalupe. Tickets will be distributed on a......

Every so often, a literary event takes place that serves to shape a generation or initiate some sort of movement. This Tuesday, November the 21st of 2006, Austinist contributor Craig McCullough, or Truecraig as he's known in the internet 'hood, takes the stage at Club de Ville to read from his new book, I Am An Idiot (but there's nothing wrong with you). The event likely won't have the same gravity as Ginsburg's first......

This Sunday two local interfaith events will take place. The first and largest gathering of the two is the Annual Interreligious Thanksgiving Service. This service is sponsored by Austin Area Interreligious Ministries and has been held for 22 years now. It is an amazing opportunity to see all the diverse faiths of our city represented under one roof. Our favorite part of the service is the call to worship, which has in the past......

FRIDAY [10] music • Tilly and the Wall, The Tyde, Pony Up at Emo's music • The Places, 4 Hungry Tummies, Ralph White, Ryan Anderson at Emo's Lounge music • Jolie Holland w. Sonny Smith at The Parish Room music • The Alice Rose at Waterloo Records music • CREEPOUT Fest: Chumps, Bulemics, The Ends,The Wolves at Beerland music • Regina Spektor with Only Son at Antone's (Sold Out) music • The Black, Horse......

Come celebrate indigenous and mestizo contributions in the 3rd Annual Dia de la Raza celebration tonight from 7-10:30 at the Pavilion at Fiesta Gardens, featuring East L.A. band Quetzal and Austin-native Maneja Beto. Poetry readings, a Latino community group fair and refreshments are included. The latest hot-button issue: Christian Deitering, president of the Longhorn Hellraisers, used his Capitol connections to destroy the Texas A&M University pep rally traditionally held on the South side of......

Despite Austin's population of just 700,000, there is no denying that we have become the regional hub for film and television production in the Southwest. In fact, no fewer than six films shot in Austin will hit screens between now and Thanksgiving. If you're curious about what those trucks near the Capitol building and at Texas Chili Parlor have been up to, or simply want to support locally made films with your movie dollars......

We'll get the bad news out of the way first: Junior Boys, Hot Chip, and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah have all slighted Austin on their fall tour schedules. So if you were hoping for one of these shows, start saving for a JetBlue flight. Thankfully, almost every other indie-Pitchfork-college rock band known to man will touch down in our town between now and Thanksgiving. There were a flurry of new show announcements over......

Need a little extra spending cash? Wanna meet strangers by knocking on their doors? Wanna spend some quality time walking the streets in the beautiful spring weather? Then give the US Census Bureau a shout. The Bureau is preparing for its 2010 census and is implementing some new technology. So they figured they would give it a test run here in Austin, cause we're so tech-savy and whatnot. There are about 1,500 part-time positions......

You might want to think twice before starting that ignition after tossing back a few at your holiday parties this season - the police department announced yesterday that they're increasing traffic enforcement efforts for the next few weeks as Austin prepares to celebrate the winter holidays. Specifically targeted are "drunken, aggressive and erratic drivers," who were largely responsible for last winter's increased traffic fatality count - 8 occured between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day.......

Yesterday morning, Austin Area Interreligious Ministries hosted a roundtable discussion for local clergy about the IH-35 divide: the ever-present "social and economic divide between the neighborhoods east and west of Interstate 35" [News8Austin]. We had heard mention of this continuing discussion when we attended AAIM’s annual Thanksgiving service a few weeks back. The goal of these discussions is to have clergy on both sides of the highway get their congregations more pro-active and involved......

Stockholm's Shout Out Louds were one of our favorite bands at SXSW this year. Opening for the New York Dolls at Stubb's alongside Kasabian, Aqualung and Bloc Party, their onstage ebullience infused the night with exactly the sort of pomp and circumstance to get the capacity crowd in a rabid frenzy. Since then they've come into their own, releasing their international debut album, Howl Howl Gaff Gaff, to widespread acclaim and blanketing most of......

Spending Turkey Alone? Don’t like watching football all day while recovering from your turkey coma? Want, in a very peaceful way of course, George Bush to know what an asshole you think he is? Then drive to his ranch in Crawford and celebrate Thanksgiving with Cindy Sheehan and other military families and veterans, as they keep a peaceful vigil outside of Bush’s ranch letting him know that the time to bring troops back from......

Our Thanksgiving usually consists of a huge Thanksgiving lunch (with the Detroit game in the background) and then vegging out in front of the TV that evening. There are a bevy of holiday (and non-holiday) goodies on tomorrow. Here are a few things to watch out for: -"Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade" - 9am, KXAN (NBC). -Miracle on 34th Street - The 1947 original with "the real Santa Claus" (or so Dad tells us every......