This Thursday through Sunday, improvised music is going to grab a foothold in both Austin and San Antonio. Featuring thirteen artists from all over the world – from the close confines of Houston and Austin to the far-off reaches of Tokyo and Boston – the No Idea Festival is poised to showcase a diverse array of acts you likely won’t see anywhere else, anytime soon....

This Thursday night, the Alamo will host a special advance screening of the new documentary No End In Sight. The film (which won the Special Jury Prize at Sundance earlier this year) paints a grim picture of the current situation in Iraq, and suggests that key errors in policy and strategy have caused a slow but certain spiral into chaos in the war-torn country. But here's the interesting bit: rather than focus on the usual......

It's hard to believe, but even our most talented artists, actors, musicians and filmmakers all had to start somewhere. You know "the journey of a thousand miles" and all that crap? It's totally true--whether those first attempts are timid baby steps or long, confident strides. This Thursday, the Austin Film Festival will pay tribute to a whole pile of tenacious Austin filmmakers--including Mike Akel, Steve Collins, Scott Rice, Jeffrey Travis and The Zellner Brothers--by screening......

In a town as creative as ours, there is plenty of ongoing chatter about “the next big thing," and (usually) further discussions regarding the viability of the buzz related to those bands. We strive to bring our readers show listings and news updates for some of Austin’s finest, be it Spoon or Ghostland Observatory. Amidst all that, we also do our best to recommend some of the city’s lesser known but equally talented acts.......

This Thursday, May 24th, Marisha Pessl will be at BookPeople to support the paperback release of her hefty debut tome Special Topics in Calamity Physics. We gave it a thorough reading about a year ago and you can read the review here. You like? Want to own this lovely novel that reads like a gripping murder mystery, is formatted like a class syllabus, and has a couple of pictures too? -What can't this book do?-......

This Thursday, May 17th at 7pm, Austin fixture Owen Egerton will be celebrating the release of How Best to Avoid Dying, his brand new collection of short stories, at BookPeople. The book is also the latest release for local publisher Dalton Publishing. They're offering a free peep of the book's first story, "Spelling," here. While the book itself is worthy of celebration, so too is its author. Egerton is one of Austin's renaissance men.......

This Thursday, Austinist presents another installment of Spot the Spank. By now, we hope you are already aware that Austinist has teamed up with Spank Dance Company to give you clues on where to check out their latest dance production, 4Red Lines. If you haven’t been able to catch the performance, what are you waiting for? Perhaps our clues have been just that good. Or maybe you were partaking in other recreational activities at Eeyore’s......

KVRX continues to go from strength to strength in the oft-shifting landscape of independent music. The student radio station for UT at Austin broadcasts on 91.7 FM (at certain times) while also streaming online at all times. KVRX’s mantra of “None of the Hits, All of the Time” has always held a soft spot in our hearts and their Local Live broadcast every Sunday night at 10pm usually showcases a quality act in its rawest......

An art extravaganza along the vein of E.A.S.T., the Texas Biennial returns to Austin tomorrow, kicking off a month and a half's worth of nifty art-related events at the Dougherty Arts Center, Bolm Studios, Okay Mountain and Site 1808. This time around, they're showcasing just about every medium of visual art imaginable, including paintings, drawings, photography, mixed media, video, sculpture and site-specific installations. Founded back in 2005 by Bolm Studios, Camp Fig, the Dougherty......

The Peacock on the east side has fast become a regular venue for eclectic shows throughout the work week. Having celebrated its one year anniversary last September, the bar’s interior decorations and (strong) cocktails continue to be a source of constant pleasure to the locals. This Thursday, Amy Annelle’s record label, High Plains Sigh and her project, The Places host another such night of assorted music. The Places’ soft sprawl of atmospheric folk will......

You know those kids in high school who made AP English bearable with some well-played Grendel jokes? The dudes you met at the GWAR show senior year who won UIL awards in Band? That funny girl in art class who was actually good at art (and wasn't there to make bongs out of driftwood)? Local improv troupe Parallelogramophonograph are those guys. Equal parts socially-observant geek and dry-witted freak, the Austin-based comedy troupe recently won......

This Thursday, as part of their ongoing "Best of the AFF" series, the Austin Film Festival and Chicken Ranch Records are screening "Stomp! Shout! Scream!," the beach-party-rock-and-roll-monster-movie by Jay Edwards, the guy behind Aqua Teen Hunger Force. They're billing it as a beach party screening extravaganza, replete with a beach party-themed menu and a bunch of sweet prizes and giveaways. Chicken Ranch records will be on hand to celebrate the release of the film's......

This Thursday, Ceeplus pays us a visit from his Houston venues to tap the turntables of Beauty Bar. He’ll be joining up with other Austinist favorites Prince Klassen and New Berlin in a combined effort to get you drunk enough to make out with whoever it is you’ve been scamming on for the past three months. You really should just go for it, for crying out loud. They soooo want you. From what we’ve......

This Thursday night at Ruta Maya, Ghostland Observatory, Tammany Hall and All Points Bulletin join forces to help raise money and awareness in the fight against cancer. The bands are playing a gig benefiting the Texas 4000 for Cancer, a UT student organization whose mission is to spread awareness about cancer. The students’ main source of fundraising is their annual bike ride from Austin to Anchorage. Yes, that Anchorage! So come out to Ruta......

This Thursday Effing Press, a local imprint of experimental literature and poetry, is throwing a shindig at Big Red Sun. The event will feature poetry readings and showcase about 20 of the most active small press publishers in the country. Peter & The Wolf will close out the evening with a set around 10:30PM. Head on down to get your slant rhyme on. The outdoor event will have adult beverage refreshment for your enjoyment......

This Thursday, February 9th, from 6pm to 10pm, Scion's Installation Art Tour will be opening at Gallery Lombardi (910 West 3rd St). The reception is to feature a "live painting" session by Austin's own Matthew Rodriguez, whose painting will be auctioned off for charity at the end of the Tour. Two of Austinist's favorite local turntablists, DJ Mel and Prince Klassen will be providing the tunes. The show will also feature original artwork on......

Last night, as we were standing outside of Plush waiting for Ghostland Observatory to play -- yes, we know we go see them too often, but we simply can't help ourselves -- a lovely woman came up to us and handed us a flyer for an event. Then she beat us up. And we liked it. What event? It's a Lonestar Rollergirls fashion show! This Thursday, as part of the drag's Third "Not First"......

We've heard of improvisational comedy, music, and art - all three can be found pretty commonly nowadays. But improvisational dance? It seems also contradictory to what we've always imagined to be the nature of dance itself: carefully rehearsed movements conveying a precisely choreographed grace of form. But this might very well be because the only forms of 'dance' we've ever seen outside of a performance space are the slapstick appendicular convulsions exhibited in nightclubs,......

This Thursday night offers your last chance to hang out with your neighbors and friends (and Austinist, of course) and watch a Movie in the Park. For its final cinematic event of the Spring, the Austin Parks Foundation brings you one of the funniest movies of the past year or two, “Napoleon Dynamite.” Festivities begin at 7pm in Republic Square Park (4th and Guadalupe) with a dance lesson cum dance competition to get everyone......

Howdy Austinist readers and fans! First off, we love you, and probably more than is appropriate. Certainly this is true of our infamous editor, if not all of the Austinist contributors. Austinist digresses.... This Thursday we are having an Austinist Happy Hour at the new Opal Divine's Penn Field location off of South Congress. If it ends up like the last happy hour, you can be sure Austinist will be practicing our gymnastic abilities on......

If you're like us and often strapped for cash yet eager for new music, here's a bit of welcome news we found in our inbox this morning. This Thursday through Sunday, Waterloo Records, hipster-mecca and one of Austin's favorite locally-owned record shops, is throwing their annual Storewide Sale. Regularly priced items at 20% off, plus more. Austinist thinks you'd be wise to take advantage of this nice deal and flesh out that Englebert Humperdinck collection.......