Image from Team Fabrication’s MySpace Emo’s is just one of the places you could be this Friday evening. Local experimental act, The Octopus Project released their latest full-length, Hello, Avalance on Peek-A-Boo Records last month and will be providing nuggets of electronic mayhem from the new album and past releases, no doubt. Cue and Horse+Donkey round off this bill of unique Austin acts on the outside stage. Inside at Emo’s, Those Peabodys will be on......

Whether you're going nuts over your afternoon commute, pleased as punch about Cap Metro's Long-Range Transit Plan, tonight's your chance to let 'em know—after you've downed a few rounds of liquid courage, if need be. The monthly edition of Keep Austin Blue's Social Hour is happening over at Mother Egan's Irish Pub, and tonight's agenda is all about transportation. Participating public transit aficionados include Matt Curtis (Director Community Involvement, Capital Metro), Todd Hemingson (VP......

Upon arriving around 2:50pm, we found quite a bit of chaos. An unfortunate propane tank explosion had injured four ACL staffers, so fire trucks, EMS vehicles, and golf carts were buzzing everywhere. Our tickets were stuck with a friend inside, so we found a shady tree and hung out until the dust settled around 3:15. We entered to the wafting notes of Peter, Bjorn, and John, who had attracted such a huge crowd we......

Austin's Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) initiative, which will attempt to better integrate public transportation with mixed-use communities, is being implemented all around town. As this will affect a large majority of those living in or around the urban core, the City of Austin is reaching out to the public by hosting another series of discussion and forum sessions. Tomorrow afternoon, city officials and national planning consultants will present their vision of TOD, as well as......

Just in time for SXSW, Google today announced that it has partnered up with Capital Metro to provide Austin public transportation information on their way-nifty Google Transit Trip Planner. Using their straightforward interface, you simply enter in where you'd like to go, where you're coming from, and (if you're fancy) what time you'd like to depart or arrive. Google Transit takes care of everything else, accessing CapMetro's fancy databases to figure out exactly what route......

"Punky" Brewster McCracken gave a press conference yesterday to discuss the newly proposed commercial design standards for the city's "Core Transit Corridors" (think South Congress, South First, Lamar, etc.). Lots of interesting stuff: 1. 15 foot wide sidewalks - 8 feet of trees or furniture adjacent to the street and 7 feet between that and the building. Trees generally required every 30 feet. Love it. 2. Utility lines must be buried or behind the building......

Austin's Capital Metro Transit, with the help of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), has declared today an Ozone Action Day. What does this mean for the lay commuter? Free bus rides! It's a great way to forgo guzzling gas or avoid getting pit stains from biking to the office. According to Capital Metro Transit's web-site they estimate an increased ridership of 8,000 on Ozone Action Days. There could be some truth to......

We got beat out by Eugene, Oregon in The Green Guide's list of the top ten green cities for 2006. That's cool; we'll take it. The Guide's criteria for the list include: air quality, electricity usage/production, green design, recycling, public health and other factors. What they think about Austin [from their article]:Austin . . . stands out for its commitment to solar power and green building. Offering its customers one of the highest solar......

Some fast-talking on the part of Mayor Will Wynn helped prevent a strike by Capital Metro employees that had been set to begin at noon Monday. While unionization and the ability to organize and strike certainly does help workers get fair pay, strikes by transportation workers hardly hit people in positions of power. As demonstrated by the New York City Transit Workers strike, the folks inconvenienced most by disruptions to mass transit tend to......

Once again, it looks like those of us who rely on public transportation on a daily basis could be faced with a strike of some sort, unless Cap City Metro and the unionized drivers and mechanics can come to terms. We are not very hopeful. Last night the Cap City Metro Board held an emergency meeting to discuss the problem. Union workers from the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1091 were told after the meeting......

Starting at 9PM tonight, The Whiskey Decision and The Transit War are playing at Red Eyed Fly. The Whiskey Decision will be touring most of the Summer, so catch them at one of their last shows before they head out on the road. You can check out the rest of this month's Red Eyed Fly schedule at their calender page. Rock & Roll.......