It's not official yet, but yesterday evening Nikke Finke reported on her blog that NBC is making a deal with DirecTV to keep airing critically-acclaimed and locally-filmed Friday Night Lights. ...

Green Drinks gets computer savvy this month with a focus on greening computer usage and IT. Rebecca Thorburn, a member of the Climate Savers Computing Initiative, will be on hand to discuss the non-profit organization's dedication to promoting climate conservation through the widespread deployment of energy efficient hardware and power management software. ...

Last Saturday, actor Will Ferrell made a quick stop in Austin during a press tour for his new film Semi-Pro. He also attended a sneak preview of the film and did a Q&A session at the Alamo Drafthouse, where attendees were required to dress in 70's basketball attire for admission - you can see the Drafthouse "team photo" here. Austinist's Tom Thornton and Gordon And The Whale's Chase Whale spoke briefly to Ferrell during the media day....

SFist worried over drugstore chain Walgreens celebration of Black History Month.Gothamist was surprised that apparently New York City is the fourth most miserable city in the country, after Detroit, Stockton, CA, and Flint, MI.Shanghaiist finds out what the Chinese think of Hilary and Obama.It was with a healthy amount of schadenfreude that Phillyist reported that former Eagle, and now Cowboy (ew), Terrell Owens owes the Eagles a significant wad of cash.Torontoist is two weeks......

On Thursday night, the Austin Film Festival will make you wonder what you would do for a joy ride as they bring us Blood Car, one of the surprise hits of the 2007 fest. Based in the not-so-distant future, where gas prices are over $30 a gallon and everyone's new mode of transportation involves Rollerblades, vegan kindergarten teacher Archie discovers that the future of the combustion engine may not lie in fields of green, but in pools of blood....

Released on Polyvinyl records this past summer, Saturday Looks Good to Me’s Cold Colors E.P. is a collection of song snippets, elongated studio experimentation, and little in between. While fans of this Michigan collective could easily appreciate their band’s experimental side knowing a more palatable full-length lay in the future (the fall’s Fill Up the Room), the EP itself has little to recommend it other than a promising lead here or there, jettisoned just as it’s discovered....

In an effort to put to rest the debate over whether Austin has an actual gay and lesbian community, eight prominent LGBT organizations today announced the formation of the Pride Coalition. The unifying entity is, in many ways, largely an effort to eliminate some of the petty squabbling over resources and public attention that many of these groups often found themselves caught up in. It also hopes to better promote the various community volunteer efforts that take place throughout the year....

City Council is considering a proposal that would revise the zoning regulations on East 12th Street along the lines of the recent revisions to the zoning regulations on East 11th Street (item 44 on the agenda). The new regulations would apply between I-35 an Poquito St. and would generally allow for mid-rise construction along 12th Street. ...

SureFire Media + Promotion along with Do512.com and yours truly present a kick-ass show at Antone’s this week that supercedes all bad-ass shows. A quadruple line-up of fast emerging local acts takes over the famous 4th St. venue this Thursday evening to offer a wide range of pop, rock, and beyond....

This week's news on art, books, music, and film....

Image from Clap!Clap!’s MySpace Clap!Clap! final showSaturday, December 8Emos (603 Red River St)$5 | Doors 8 p.m. | Outside[info]Local act Clap!Clap! has furnished enough dance parties around town with their brand of energetic electro-pop to command endearment and respect alike. However, last month they surprised a good amount of us with news of their demise. Needless to say we were fairly intrigued about the reasons for this culmination and also their plans for the future.......

Photo courtesy of supersassafrasThe city's Urban Transportation Commission is currently at a crossroads over the future of our quickly-expanding pedicab businesses. As we discovered from The Texan over the weekend, two transportation commissioners are each recommending very different resolutions, hoping to strike a balance between a growing business of bicycles and a growing city whose streets seem to be getting a bit more cramped. There are five registered pedicab companies currently operating in Austin: PediChad,......

Image via Big Hassle PR The Straylight Run w/ The Color FredMonday, December 3The Parish Room (214 East Sixth Street)$15, Doors at 7pm[info] | [tickets]Formed from the ashes of Taking Back Sunday, the Long Island group Straylight Run plays a blend of indie rock and chamber pop. Formed in 2003 by ex-TBS members Shaun Cooper and John Nolan, the duo left behind most of their emo influences when switching groups and recruited both Will Noon......

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......

Sol-Art SOL-ART @ E.A.S.T. Austin Studio TourNovember 17 from 10am-11pm and November 18 from 10am-5pmSOL-ART (1141 Perry Rd)[info]Central Texas living meets sustainability in a new development project called SOL, or Solutions Oriented Living. The new green oasis is three miles east of downtown and will consist of architect-designed, environmentally conscious homes surrounded by 5 acres of oak trees. Some of Austin's finest artists filmmakers, writers, photographers, musicians, and other creative souls will gather in full......

The Waller Creek Tunnel project here in Austin is gaining ground. Major scientific breakthrough shows that cloning embryos is much easier than anticipated... U.S. clean energy stocks are doing better than the U.S. economy as a whole. Is classical music on the comeback? Norman Mailer dies in Manhattan at the age of 84. Writers Guild of America strike in Hollywood goes into week two... We will all have less privacy in the future, says......

unattributed press photoSo there’s this band. They’re called Battles, and they’re getting pretty damn big pretty damn fast. The reason for this burgeoning bigness is at least three-fold: their critically-adored debut album Mirrored, the YouTube sensation known as the “Atlas” video (watch it after the jump), and, not least of all, their ferociously energetic live show. While there's no doubting that their music can be a bit challenging, and isn’t for the faint of heart,......

Photo by Will Pate on flickrInteractive + ScreenBurn The preliminary list of Interactive panels has been released, and includes topics like "The Great Debate: Is Web 2.0 Bulls#!t?", "The Porn Police: Know the Rules," and "The Suxorz: The Worst Ten Social Media Ad Campaigns of 2007." [Preliminary List] Additional, several panels for the gaming-centric ScreenBurn fest have been revealed. These include "The Future Virtual World Game Development: Rise of the Indies," "You Are Here: Gaming......

The owners of Las Manitas have signed a deal that will allow White Lodging Services Corp., the developers of the Marriott project on Congress Ave, to build over part of the alley running behind the future Marriott site, 211 Congress Ave, where Las Manitas is currently located, and 227 Congress Ave, which the Perez sisters own. Las Manitas will be displaced from its current location, and the Perez sisters' representative declined to comment on......

As a prelude to CNU XVI, Envision Central Texas and the Congress for the New Urbanism are hosting "From Boom to BEST? The Future of Central Texas", a lunch featuring a discussion by Andrés Duany of Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company, Hank Dittmar of The Prince Charles Foundation for the Built Environment and our own beloved mayor. Topics include fostering walkable development, transit, sustainability in times of booming growth and the impact of mixed-use development......

Austin couple wants neighbors to know that they are not sex offenders. Large community turnout last night for forum on the future of Johnston High. The ER at Dell Children's hospital is already overwhelmed. Horses are allowed to stop at state-owned livestock pens at the border on their way to Mexico to be slaughtered. In other border news: Mayors of some Texas border towns are trying to stave off the border fence by not......

Over the years, Béla Fleck and the Flecktones have accumulated several Grammy awards and many more nominations for the bluegrassy fusion jazz sound they so deftly create. They don’t do too bad as solo musicians either. As a group, they have been around for nearly 20 years, and still tour rigorously. The group is comprised of banjo pundit and band leader Béla Fleck, technical bass master and three-time winner of Bass Player Magazine’s “Bass......

The Austonian threw itself a ground breaking party this morning in the parking lot on the corner of 2nd and Congress, where the shiny building designed by Houston-based Zeigler Cooper Architects will one day stand. The festivities, complete with mimosas and mini-quiches, celebrated the future ‘landmark’, and featured a whole lot of loving between the City and Benchmark Development. Senator Kirk Watson and Mayor Will Wynn showed up, and praised Benchmark’s contributions to Austin’s......

It's official: Whole Foods now owns its biggest rival, Wild Oats Markets. Despite a juicy scandal over Chairman and CEO John "rahodeb" Mackey's anonymous web postings and the Federal Trade Commission's earnest efforts to prevent what they believed was a serious antitrust violation, the deal was given the green light by a federal appeals court last Thursday. Whole Foods' buyout offer called for purchasing all outstanding shares of Wild Oats for $18.50 a pop;......

The seasons will change and young lads will grow older and deeper with regret, but Perry Farrell will still be churning out the alternative rock. It’s nice to know that some things are constant. The ex-Jane’s Addiction, ex-Porno for Pyros, Lollapalooza co-creator is bringing the celestial shindig Satellite Party to Emo’s Friday night, along with New York pop rockers Mink. Farrell and team come with their pockets full of uplifting celebration and a sound......

TxDOT has increased its estimated cost for five of the new highways it wants to build around Austin to a total of $2.5 billion. This is especially troublesome because Congress has recently cut federal highway funding, and is expected to cut more in the future, leaving a potential shortfall of between $1 and $1.8 billion. The Statesman editorial board recently noticed that highways are expensive, but sees no alternative to building new highways as toll......

The new wave takes it old school with an evening that's part movie, part Austin, and all fun and games. Let's hope nobody gets hurt. Hip Mexican joint Nueva Onda will host a free show featuring Hunky Dory and an episode of Austin Stories this Thursday (that's tomorrow) at 8pm to keep your brain entertained as your mouth snarfs San Antonio tamales and sips Shiner beer. Propose a toast to slackerdom and misfithood as you......

In the hopes of increasing registered and polite participation in our comments section, Austinist has decided to publish a "Top 5" list of our favorite reader responses from the past week. There are no prizes this week, but one never knows what might develop in the future. Now, on to the main attraction! 1 "I'm gazing into the abyss, but all I'm seeing is a 6-BR split-level mansion, with swimming pool & cabana in back."......

Never mind that it's not that hot outside right now (though we would argue that the wet-dishrag humidity more than makes up for what the thermometer's not showing). Climate change is still happening/still scary, and the movie at the Alamo tonight, the next installment in the AFS' global scifi series, is all about that possible future heated terrasphere. The Day The Earth Caught Fire, having been birthed in 1961, is more worried about nuclear war......

From big blockbusters to foreign films, there's something for everyone being released today. These overviews should help you choose which movies you'd like to shell out for this weekend. DOA: Dead or Alive We thought DOA meant dead on arrival, but fans of video games and girls in bikinis likely won't quibble with the title of this action movie featuring scantily clad heroines. Babes! Yeah! Eagle vs. Shark Nerds kiss while wearing animal costumes,......