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. ...

Today both the Clinton and Obama campaigns announced upcoming town hall meetings. Obama's will take place tomorrow at the Austin Convention Center, while Hillary's sounds like more of a "virtual" town hall meeting - on TV the Monday before election day....

Caroline Kennedy will be at Serrano's this afternoon to campaign for Obama....

Photo courtesy Ricardo B. Brazziell Brownout w/ Bavu BlakesFriday, November 16Flamingo Cantina (515 E. 6th St.)Doors: 9pm[info] Bavu Blakes @ B-Girl CitySaturday, November 17Ruta Maya (3601 South Congress Penn Field)10pm set[info] Bavu BlakesSaturday, November 17Plush (617 Red River)$10, Midnight[info]The anticipated long-form paean to Sparkdawg will have to wait for a week: Bavu Blakes, Austin’s biggest rapper, plays three shows and runs a 5k this weekend before hanging up his hat for the holidays. I caught......

Most Americans think waterboarding is torture...but some still think we should go ahead and do it. Whaaaa? No more booze on the beach in San Diego for one year. Buzzkill. Big mudslide hits Chiapas. Portland solidifies position as Bike City, USA. Please, take us with you! Newest trendy food ingredients: chemicals. Vermont is now the nation's healthiest (yuppiest) state. Hollywood writers go on strike - will other Tinseltown workers support them? Barack Obama will.......

One of Scotland's best voices, Emma Pollock has been creating dark and beautiful indie-pop anthems for the better part of 15 years. As primary vocalist of The Delgados, she was a force behind an under-appreciated but consistently brilliant group that successfully walked a sonic line between The Pixies, The Sundays, and Mercury Rev. When the group disbanded in 2005, Pollock took a short time away from music before signing with 4AD Records and heading back......

It’s almost Halloween weekend, and you’re getting the final details of your costume all worked out. It’s going to be face-slapping rad this year because your best friend said they were going to be decked out as Osama Bin Laden, which forced your hand in the Mummy vs Statue Of Liberty debate. Time to make your parents proud. You need somewhere to sport yourselves as a happy couple. You need an environment where profiling such......

Brooklyn singer-songwriter Mike Doughty's name may not instantly register with you, but you have undoubtedly heard him before. In the early 90's, he founded the alt.radio staple Soul Coughing, who had hits with "Super Bon Bon" and "Circles" before disbanding in 2000. Far from the throwaway status of the Marcy Playgrounds and Harvey Dangers of the day, Soul Coughing used samples, drum loops, jazz references, and experimental producers like Mitchell Froom on their recordings. This......

Brighton, England's Fujiya & Miyagi were one of the darlings of SXSW 2007. Whether playing to a packed house at the Pitchfork Media party or drawing a sizable crowd at their own showcase, the band cut through the clutter of 1,300 acts to draw raves from bloggers and critics. With their cool Asian name (inspired by a vintage record player and, well, Pat Morita), rhythm-section based tunes, and subtle electronics, the band really sounds like......

FACT: In 2007, there will be 181,510 new cases of breast cancer diagnosed in the U.S. alone. Of those diagnosed, nearly 41,000 will succumb to the disease. AWESOME FACT: When detected early, breast cancer has a 96% survival rate. This Wednesday, join Mayor Wynn and members of Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation’s Austin Affiliate to kick off National Breast Cancer Month and celebrate the 10-year anniversary of Austin’s Race for the Cure. To celebrate......

Remember back in those halcyon summer days, when kids with spike-swoop haircuts would sulk over to your house on their skateboards, kick-flipping the whole way, bangs covering everyone’s pot-reddened eyes, just to bask in your glory as Thrasher’s newly claimed “heir to the Hosoi throne”? Man, those were the days. The chicks, the sponsorships, the Jimmy Z woody, all the righteous goodness. Remember that? No? Of course not. That's probably because like the rest of......

Science Times celebrates the 50th anniversary of Sputnik, which changed everything - history, geopolitics, the scientific world. The US dollar hit to new record low against the euro as investors fretted about a world credit crunch. The Democratic chairman of a House committee complained Tuesday that the State Department was blocking his panel’s efforts to investigate the private security firm Blackwater USA and its operations in Iraq. How To Lose All Your Friends Immediately,......

A popular dance-workout phenomenon that's been getting asses in shape in New York City and Chicago is now catching on in Austin. It's called the Dance Dance Party Party — think of it as a ladies-only, free-form, DIY Sunday night Rock the Casbah to help you work off that weekend of boozing. In their October/November issue, BUST magazine explains its appeal as bringing back that "giddy, uninhibited spirit of those bygone slumber parties, when you......

You bring up the idea of “art”, and you’re definitely begging for some heated shit talking. Opinions are the first to fly, then potentially followed by epithets, then perhaps some brass knuckles. All metaphoric in form, of course. Why must these disagreements come to pass? Notorious MSG comes to mind. It could be said that this is exactly what art and artists, as functional cogs in the machines of social industry, are supposed to......

The Mexican holiday of Diez y Seis is this weekend (September 16), and the City of Austin, along with the Consul General of Mexico and the Fiesta de Independencia Foundation, is holding the annual celebration at Waterloo Park. The holiday is a celebration of Mexico's independence from Spain. At this local celebration, Consul General Rosalba Ojeda will perform "El Grito", the yell that in some ways led to the War for Independence. Performances at this......

In less than two days, we'll be hosting our big annual pre-ACL party, Local Music is Sexy IV, Thursday night's soiree will feature Austinites The Lemurs, The Corto Maltese, and Brazos on the outside main stage, with DJs Car Stereo (Wars), Ceeplus Bad Knives*, and Markus with a K supplying dance-party jams inside alongside Magic Surprise. We're also thrilled to be bringing in Seattle indie rockers Say Hi To Your Mom* as our headliners. What's......

ACL Previews Interview: Patterson Hood Del McCoury Band, Preservation Hall Jazz Band Jon Dee Graham, Kevin Devine, and Ike Reilly Assassination Beau Soleil & Will Hoges Rail Road Earth It's Official: Bob Dylan & His Band Set to Play Stubb's Aftershow So You Wanna See An ACL Taping Trent Summar, Steve Earle, & DeVotchKa Interview: Crowded House It's Official: Bob Dylan & His Band Set to Play Stubb's Aftershow Weekly Features The Accidental Gentrifist:......

Maru (Japanese) Location: 4636 Burnet Rd [map] Phone: (512) 458-6200 Cost: Starters $5-8, Maki Rolls $6-13 Atmosphere: Not much to speak of, as it's on a nondescript part of Burnet Road in some modest and anonymous white-walled digs. Food: There are three reasons to visit Maru, and they are simply the freshness of the fish, the affordability of high-quality sushi, and the modest $5 corkage charge. Maru's decor is as plain as can be,......

Our first experience with Independence Brewing Company came just a few short years ago when browsing the beer aisle at a nearby Austin grocer. Shuffling past the quick favorites (Lone Star) and growing tired of the old standbys (Shiner) we noticed the logo of a shaggy-haired kid jumping, cannonball-style, into a pool not unlike Barton Springs. With curious minds and ever-growing sobriety, we jumped in and discovered what has quickly become one of our......

For 2008, Capital Metro is planning to double bus fare for adult passengers from 50 cents to $1. Other fares would increase in proportion (students would have to pay 50 cents instead of 25 cents for local/rapid routes); the Dillo would remain free for everyone. In their informational brochure(.pdf), Capital Metro makes a point of saying that the current fares have been the same since 1985, while operational costs keep going up. Is this......

The Texas Department of Agriculture has put up a list of Texas businesses selling gas or diesel during the last 60 days whose pumps aren't compliant with state laws. You could be getting less fuel than you're paying for because such businesses aren't conducting proper maintenance on their pumps. While a large number of the businesses seem to be in Taylor County or Harris County, there are a few from our area on the list.......

It's not often that an indie blues-rock combo from Northwest England go from garage band to a Mercury Music Prize, but that's exactly what happened to Gomez nearly a decade ago. Formed for fun in late 1996, the band's demos ignited a bidding war in the post-Britpop era and produced a classic debut album, Bring It On (hear two singles by clicking on the YouTube links below.) Since then, the band has produced four......

Neal Kay’s Heavy Metal Soundhouse inspired the first set of air guitarists in London in the late 1970’s and the spectacle has truly evolved into a world wide phenomenon in the last decade. The first World Air Guitar Championships were held in Finland in 1996 (at the Oulu Music Video Festival) and 12 years later, the event is still going strong. Austin is no stranger to the scene, holding regular contests at the Alamo......

Are you worried about a use of force by APD so great that it warrants a federal investigation? Do you find the rift between the police department and Austin's black community unsettling? Are you satisfied with the choice for Chief? Do you think that APD is doing a great job and has been given a bum rap? Whatever your thoughts, Austin Listening wants to hear from you. The program is looking to get Austinites'......

Austin Humane Society, the largest nonprofit no-kill pet shelter and adoption center in town, recently suffered a tremendous setback: yesterday, the facility's A/C system abruptly shut down. A subsequent inspection found the system to be broken beyond repair. "Our air conditioning unit died," said AHS representative Lisa Starr to KXAN. "Went kaput." The center is installing a temporary mobile A/C unit today, but this solution won't work for the long term; even now, the animals......

We love Austin. As obvious as that might seem, it never hurts to declare how great this city is for people interested in art and culture, and specifically live music. On any given evening, one has a chance to experience a wide variety of genres at different venues around town. And in most cases the cost is minimal, or nothing. Tonight, the Scoot Inn presents another great opportunity to catch a local favorite. Pink......

Austin's independent film distribution website B-Side is relaunching today, and as part of that, is offering the documentary "Pirate Radio USA" as a DRM-free download. The doc, which was an audience favorite at last year's Austin Film Festival, is a riotous tour of the free radio underground (no Christian Slater or Samantha Mathis, but this is way cooler, we promise). B-Side chose "Pirate Radio" solely as a result of positive audience feedback—a concept which is......

You look like you need a cupcake, and that is just what you will get tonight when the Austin Parks Foundation and the Alamo Drafthouse bring you Election, the second installment in the spring Movies in the Park series. However, that cupcake will be laced with arsenic icing and a heavy dose of satire extract. When we first saw Election back in the late 90’s, high school was still fresh enough in our minds that......

Talk about getting a bad reputation for no reason! Zinfandel is the quintessential American grape: author Mark Oldman calls it the "great American wine" and describes it as "a varietal with mouth-filling heft and massive alcohol...which offers a lovable, jammy excursion built for immediate gratification." Unfortunately, many casual wine drinkers only associate the word Zinfandel with the horrible pink blush wine that comes out of a Franzia box. To help combat this misguided idea,......

Austin’s got a new agent all up in the local scene’s Artist Management: Bueno Music Bureau. And Bueno’s got some local talent that they think you should be bragging to your friends about listening to. Something like that. So they’re having a little thingy-thang at Deville this Friday (tonight, for most readers) to showcase that talent. There will be some doin’s-a-transpirin’. Specifically: four bands with their own instruments and haircuts for the pleasure of......