Meanwhile, both Obama and Clinton are pulling out all the stops to appeal to our state's Hispanic population, which account for as much as 25% of Texas' eligible voters, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. Obama today launched a Spanish radio ad (mp3) stressing his humble working-class roots. Each campaign is also spending upwards of $1 million on TV ads that began running this week....

Austin based non-profit, Grounded In Music is having its launch party tonight at the Gibson Show Room in Austin with all proceeds going toward their on-going effort to buy music instruments and provide free music lessons for underprivileged children at the Boys and Girls Club. Local favorites Vallejo will be providing music, and the event will also have a silent auction. ...

After being closed to new subscribers for a period of time, Austin Energy's GreenChoice program is extending its green arms for Austinites far and wide. Claiming to be the nation's most successful utility-sponsored green power program, GreenChoice is an opportunity to walk the sustainability talk. ...

Photo of Emily Tindall and Leslie Chastain courtesy UT Dep’t Theatre & Dance Ashes, Ashes8pm Saturday, 2pm SundayWinship Drama Building (UT Campus)[info] | [tickets]Ashes, Ashes, closing this weekend at UT, is the most visually-impressive theatrical work we’ve seen anywhere in quite awhile. We’ve even been to lower-end Broadway productions that didn’t have half the visual whammy of this retro-futuristic extravaganza. We simply couldn’t tear our eyes away from the post-Victorian steampunk fantasia created by the......

Beginning of the end? First baby boomer files for Social Security. The Rockies are going to the World Series. No, not the Rockettes. The Rockies. The South is thirsty. Not metaphorically. China is, like, the only entity in the world that doesn't love the Dalai Lama. Greenpeace says the iPhone is toxic. Small boys rejoice: a giant new dino has been found in Argentina. Led Zep finally gets with the program.......

You know how sometimes when you are out on the town for a nice dinner, you wish that you could order tiny versions of everything on the menu because all of the dishes sound so delicious? Well, that's how we feel about film sometimes - if only we could watch 20 minutes of splatteriffic gore, 20 minutes of absurdist comedy and round it out with a piquant documentary or two, we would have all of......

#7 Texas (3-0) vs. Rice (0-3) Time: 6 pm, Saturday, Sept. 22 Location: Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium TV: Fox Sports Southwest Radio: KVET (98.1 FM, 1300 AM) There have been more than enough distractions to keep Texas coach Mack Brown occupied this week. Word that a sixth Longhorn had been arrested in the past four months set off allegations that the program is out of control. And even though they've won their first three......

In the latest twist to the Las Manitas debacle, Lidia and Cynthia Perez have rejected the proposed $750,000 forgivable loan from the city. The financial reasons they provided seem pretextual - even with the strings added by the city after the proposal was passed by city council, the loan was still a bargain from a financial perspective. The first reason sounds more legitimate: "This loan has become way too complicated and caught up in controversy,......

Scotland's Paolo Nutini truly leads a charmed life. At the age of 20, he will return to Austin to perform at ACL Fest for a second consecutive year and at Stubb's (along with Peter, Bjorn, and John in support) for an ACL aftershow. Last year, he also had the honor of taping an episode of the Austin City Limits television program. Nutini's debut disc These Streets has gone platinum in the UK, and as......

Yesterday, city council approved a $750,000 loan to Las Manitas by a 5 to 2 vote, with a slight amendment to the terms of the loan. The solution to Las Manitas' problems has proven almost as controversial as the cause, and issues such as loan forgiveness, favoritism and elitism provided fodder for many opinionated individuals in the council chambers and the blogoshpere. One gentleman at yesterday’s meeting was particularly concerned with unfair competition in the......

"The cure for the common film fest," Austin Underground Film Fest is the way to go if you're beginning to tire of the latest blockbusters. Rest assured Delta Farce, The Ex, Knocked Up, and their ilk won't be on the program June 9, when you'll begin to feel what the weather is like underground. The 2007 lineup for the underground festival features several shorts, including Ghetto Big Mac, A Girl Like Me, Drawing Between the......

Sadly, it is upon us. We'd say they saved the best for last, but the whole darn fest has been great from start to finish. Along those lines, all of the offerings these last several days look to be par excellence. Here're just a few. The Blue Screen International Program, Part I, curated by Lisa Kaselak. (Read Lisa's interview with Refraction Arts' Ron Berry here.) This 1.5 hour program, tonight only, 8pm at the Blue......

If Texas State University gets their way, in a few months, the river and beer won't be the only thing you smell while driving through San Marcos. Plans are currently in the works by TSU to create a 17-acre "body farm", a forensic field laboratory used to examine and study decomposing corpses. The field will be placed along Highway 21, at the university's horticultural center. The Statesman reported that University Provost Perry Moore told local......

*The views expressed in The Laurie Show are those of the author and do not represent Austinist as a whole.* -ed. note Kids, I hope you're not too irritated with me but, once again, I will not be working the The Laurie Show late shift tonight on KUT 90.5. No sir. Or ma'am. I'm actually going to have live music adventures of my own this evening, leaving my program in the capable hands of......

Femme Film Texas and Austin's Storie Productions have joined forces to bring Austin girls a unique opportunity to learn digital filmmaking in a summer camp environment. Girls 12-18 years of age will get to acquire some awesome skills and build confidence, friendships, and their own, unique voices. One thing the world needs is more girls in media! Local filmmakers Kat Candler (Cicadas, Jumping Off Bridges), Stacy Schoolfield (Storie Productions), and Michelle Voss (Velocity) are teaming......

We went back to The Domain, Austin’s new consumer wet-dream, to attend "Fashion Live!" The, err, creatively named fashion show was a marketing campaign celebrating the Macy’s opening. How could we resist? The host was Michael Knight, a “fan favorite” designer on Bravo’s Project Runway. This was an important event, judging from the throngs of people (consisting mostly of women of all ages in cocktail dresses, decked out with big hair and bling) stuffed......

The City of Austin is going to be rolling out their recently completed project to coincide with the start of SxSWi: an interactive DVD, titled Austin Past and Present, which tells the history of Austin. The DVD incorporates historical documents from local archives (mainly the Austin History Center) into 300 slideshows and stories about our fair city. You can learn about the geological beginnings of our area, learn more about the beginnings of neighborhoods such......

One of our favorite radio shows around is Morning Becomes Eclectic, the weekday program produced by Santa Monica public radio station KCRW. Affable Englishman Nic Harcourt, host of MBE and music director at KCRW, has helmed the program since 1998, introducing his listeners to some of the best new bands around the world while playing a range of genres that encompasses progressive pop, world beat, indie rock, jazz, African, reggae, classical and more. You......

On Thursday, City Council will hear a presentation from city staff regarding land banks, land trusts and funding options under the Homestead Preservation Act (HB 525), which was passed in the State Legislature after being filed by East Side state rep Eddie Rodriguez. The details are "complicated," but from what we understand, homeowners in the designated district (Town Lake to Manor Road, and I-35 to Airport Boulevard) would be able to donate or sell......

Official Poster of First Night Austin 2007 by Peat Duggins After the tremendous success of last year's inaugural festival, First Night Austin returns to downtown this New Year's Eve with an all-day program full of music, art, theatre, dance, and more. Begun in Boston back in 1976 as a massive public gathering to ring in the new year through "art, ritual, and festivity," First Night events are now held all over the world, from......

University of Texas students will soon have the opportunity to learn Hindi and Urdu as part of a Department of Defense initiative that focuses on global security. The National Security Education Program has awarded $700,000 to UT’s South Asia Institute to help implement the program that will “teach languages whose knowledge is considered critical to national security.” The program kicks off next year, and university officials expect to enroll about 10 students who already have......

Although not officially part of the Austin Film Festival, tomorrow night, the AFF hosts the 4th annual Film & Food party to benefit its Young Filmmakers Program. Considered by many to be the finest party of the year, the evening begins at the Paramount Theatre with a 6:30 p.m. retrospective screening of the classic film The Black Stallion followed by a Q&A with screenwriter and Austinite Bill Wittliff (Legends of the Fall, Honeysuckle Rose, “Lonesome......

[Several weeks ago, we told you about a community radio DJ from Nashville who'd set out, for the second year in a row, to profile all of the bands playing this September's Austin City Limits Festival. We've invited Janet Timmons of Out the Other to join our staff as a guest writer -- she'll be providing weekly summaries of the latest bands she's covered on her fantastic ACL Artist Previews Page. Welcome, Janet! --......

An anti-tax group called Citizens Lowering Our Unfair Taxes ("CLOUT") has filed suit against state lawmakers alleging illegal spending of our tax dollars over the last 28 years. According to CLOUT, lawmakers use inflated budget numbers to overspend and this leads to Texans being overtaxed. Democratic goober nominee Chris Bell has reported that his campaign received a donation of $100,000 from Houston oilman A. Earl Swift. According to the Texas Ethics Commission for the......

Austinist was heavy-hearted to learn this week of the passing of Warren "Ryder" Schwartz. As has been much reported in the press, Schwartz was stabbed to death in south Austin last weekend. Ryder Schwartz -- a nickname that seemed to grow from "Red" (he had quite the coppertop), to "Red Ryder", to most casually "Ryder" -- was a juggler of unusual talent. In 1987, at the age of 21, when he heard that the......

The following details came to us in a vision at 3 a.m. on the night of the Blanton Museum's grand opening. So here they floweth, as if from a golden goblet on high: Four times a month, the Blanton Museum hosts a series of public programs known collectively as Art Fix. Each "fix," as it were, uses work from the galleries as a springboard for specialized discussion and activity. For example, this month's Art Fix......

For far too long Austin (a burgeoning giant in indie filmmaking) has gotten a bit of the stepchild treatment with regard to indie film releases. Often times it we don't even get films that other towns like Chicago, Washington DC, New York and Los Angeles get. Hell, even Houston gets some films we don't. Houston? WTF?! And it seems like every time we want to see an indie film, that's not being shown during a......

Recently, PBS sent us a hilarious press release announcing the launch of their brave new foray into reality programming, giving us the scoop on a 24/7 webcam focused on the lives of a few Texas natives, with "day-to-day intrigues," a "hot, forbidding landscape," and "pixilated romance." The natives in question are, of course, Texas Longhorn cattle, and the program's called MooTube. Through wireless cow-cams attached to their collars, we're able to watch these lazy......

To kick off National Women's History Month, The Vortex is presenting Shrewd Production's Where Are They Now?, a "revived and revised" Cyndi Williams piece originally performed at Frontera Fest '05. We took it in, it all its glory, on opening night last Thursday. For starters, we feel compelled to state that Where Are They Now? is a moving and beautiful work, but it is unconventional in its story-telling, and it has the potential to......

There are things to do on Valentine's Day besides go out to dinner, eat chocolate, and put on new lingerie. For example, you could take your date to the 80's Power Ballad Sing-A-Long at the Alamo Drafthouse, a sure-to-be-hilarious night presented by Mr. Sinus' Owen Egerton and Henri Mazza (the program director at the Alamo). From the Alamo site: This February Owen and Henri will present the definitive sing-along for the Valentine’s season, featuring......