One of our favorite Washington wineries is J. Bookwalter, a family-owned Columbia Valley producer who began making wine in 1983. The winery was started by Jerry Bookwalter, and his son John assumed the helm as winemaker in 2000 along with consultant Zelma Long. John's decade of experience on the sales side of the wine business has led him to make big changes during his tenure with everything from branding and packaging to the winery's tasting room experience. Mr. Bookwalter has also poured his efforts into focusing the winery on top-flight reds, and the success of his results will be clear to everyone that tries his Merlot or Cabernet at the Hill Country Wine & Food Festival. The wines are approachable, elegant, and complex, yet represent solid value compared to many of their Californian counterparts....

There's a Joke in Here Somewhere: Clinton Campaign Stations Media Next to Toilets At yesterday's "Texas-sized Town Hall" at the Austin Convention Center, Senator Hillary Clinton's media entourage was forced to work out of a men's bathroom in a nearby community center. "It was immediately interpreted as something of a metaphor for the Clinton campaign's attitude to the press: With Sen. Hillary Clinton at Austin's convention center for 'a Texas-sized townhall,' her media entourage......

Another interview with our governor: he tells the Washington Post, "just because you're a liberal doesn't mean that you can't be loyal, trustworthy and kind and obedient." Good to know. Federal judge decides to suspend the law preventing groups from raising funds to lobby for the ouster of the Texas Speaker. Is Craddick soon to be outta here? Dukes campaign manager complains about Thompson's big donors; Dukes herself has received a chunk of change from GOP donor Bob Perry. Double homicide on East Sixth Street early this morning. Firefighters fighting garage fire in Northwest Austin this morning find a body inside....

Photo by Steve Hopson for Austinist.com “And among the people whom I got to know, who became not only friends, but heroes, were Barbara Jordan, who taught me a lot about courage, and today would actually be her birthday. I remember all the time about how she got up every single morning, facing almost insurmountable odds, to do what she did. And another was my great friend Ann Richards, who taught me so much about......

American Gangster PosterAmerican Gangster Do you really need a two-disc box set of Ridley Scott's American Gangster, which includes two different versions of last year's Denzel Washington/Russell Crowe movie, the ability to download yet a third, plus featurettes including one in which Scott is shown the ins and outs of heroin production by an NYPD officer (as if he didn't already know)? It depends on how much you like Scott, and if you do, it'll......

Photo by Phillyist's Matt Johnson, SkyscraperSunset.com, December 19, 2007. Phillyist explored an impending implosion and lived to tell the tale.Gothamist marveled at the city's new NYC-branded condom campaign - especially the use of a Toronto landmark in the advertising. (Also, fun fact: Gothamist turned five years old yesterday.)Tired of the worldwide Scientology protests? Torontoist totally isn't: they covered the big downtown protest the day it happened, and followed up with an examination of all......

Photograph of Michael Strahan, coach Tom Coughin (holding the Vince Lombardi trophy) and quarterback and Super Bowl MVP Eli Manning by Tien Mao Gothamist was amazed after the Giants won the Super Bowl, the city went wild, and it witnessed a ticker-tape parade.Barack Obama drew 20,000+ ahead of Seattle’s Saturday caucus.Londonist had Super Tuesday too.Elusive guerrilla street artist Banksy revisits Los Angeles.After the Patriots lost the Super Bowl and came this close to making......

Image from the Wine and Food Foundation Website The Wine and Food Foundation of Texas Presents - Taste Washington – Austin!January 22, 2008One World Theatre (7701 Bee Caves Road)(6-9pm, $50 members, $60 non-menbers)[info] | [tickets]According to our trustworthy friends at the Wine and Food Foundation of Texas, Washington State has become a premium wine producing region. Even though the Washington Wine industry is relatively young, it is now the nation's second largest wine producer and......

Directors Guild and studio reach deal. We're one step closer to less reality television! Suddenly everyone remembers it's about the economy. Everyone can relax, Paul McCartney is fine. Bush to reveal economic stimulus package today. CIA boss names Bhutto's killer. World Bank closes Washington office after bomb threat. Watch out for patches of ice on our bridges and overpasses!......

It seems most of the Republican candidates are bent on showing Iran the gates of Hell. The Onion editor is moving to Moveon.org. What the deuce? Kerry endorses Obama and no one cares, except Edwards. 6th Street between Brazos and Congress still closed due to oil spill. A what? Bush is desperately trying to make some kind of positive impression before being dismissed as the worst president in our history. Too little, too late......

Wait a minute; monkeys actually DO steal stuff in real life, not just in movies? Desertion rate in the Army is 80% higher than it was in 2003 when we invaded Iraq. Austin concert promoter C3 Presents encountering political obstacles in bringing music festival to Philadelphia. The first completely legal mp3 blog, RCRD LBL, went up Thursday. That girl who was asked by Southwest Airlines personnel to show less skin before boarding is now......

If you had the opportunity to tell the world your deepest, darkest secret, would you? Would you do it if you could reveal these feelings behind the anonymity of a postcard? That's the idea Frank Warren had in 2004 when he created PostSecret as a community art project in Washington D.C. The website, which has received multiple awards, now takes in roughly three million new visitors a month and has been visited by over 100......

While the West Coast leads the pack, it's no surprise that Austin has ranked 7th in a national survey ranking organic food consumption. In fact, the study looked at local organic juggernaut Whole Foods Market, finding "Organics consumers are 272% more likely than the average consumer to have shopped Whole Foods during the past week." According to the survey, the top local markets for organics consumers are: 1. San Francisco/Oakland/San Jose, CA 2. Seattle/Tacoma, WA......

Ambassador Dennis Ross, U.S. point man on the Middle East peace process during Bush I and the Clinton administrations, is coming to town to deliver a special morning lecture in advance of the Austin Jewish Book Fair. Now counselor to the Washington Institute and author of Statecraft, And How to Restore America's Standing in the World, Ross will discuss "how it came to pass that, not so long after 9/11 brought the free world to......

A handful of UT students are in Washington, D.C. this week to compete in the Solar Decathlon, a U.S Department of Energy-funded challenge that pits 20 universities against one another to create the best solar-powered house. UT's entry is the "BLOOMhouse," a sleek rectangular structure designed around five core principles: community, adaptability, harvest, endurance and delight. The house incorporates passive solar elements to take advantage of sunlight, and, true to form, includes a "Texas-size" kitchen.......

O, the mighty men and women of Austin's stages! They get so busy this time of year. There's more than enough to choose from this week, but here are the theater picks that top our list. ProArts Collective wraps up the Black Arts Movement Festival with Incognito on Thursday at 8pm, and Spoken Word Caravan on Friday at 8pm. The former is a one-man drama, performed by author Michael Fosberg, about a man who grew......

In the mid-'80s, a movement of Los Angeles denizens later described as the Paisley Underground rebelled against new wave and hair metal by getting psychedelic and pretending that it was 1967 all over again, replete with Rickenbackers and sunshine pop. The bands involved in the Paisley Underground included the Three O’Clock, Dream Syndicate, Rain Parade, and even The Bangles before they walked away like Egyptians all the way to the bank. While all this was......

Trent Summar’s story-telling capabilities and straight-up country sound drive his latest album, Horseshoes & Hand Grenades. His music has been covered by artists such as Jack Ingram (who scored a hit with his adaptation of Summar’s “Love You”) while Summar has also collaborated with country stars like Pat Green. (They co-wrote “Somewhere Between Texas And Mexico” off Green’s Lucky Ones record.) Summar fronted the band Hank Flamingo prior to working with The New Row Mob.......

Zombie is the watchword this time around. Not only is Rob Zombie unmasking his take on 1978’s slasher classic Halloween this weekend, the Alamo Drafthouse has also managed to round up a herd of zombie sheep from New Zealand for your viewing (really resisting the urge to say ewe-ing) pleasure. If you could care less about the grisly fate Rob Zombie doles out to lustful babysitters and the thought of zombie sheep does nothing......

Looks like Round Rock ISD is headed to court over their policies on organized prayers at school events. Washington-based Americans United for Separation of Church and State, representing six students and one former student, have filed suit against the district, saying that its policy of allowing school-sponsored prayer at graduation ceremonies violates the First Amendment principle of church-state separation. Every year, each of the four Round Rock high schools (Round Rock, Stony Point, McNeil......

Separated at birth?Two weeks ago, the Statesman's new-ish resident fashion fella, Marques G. Harper, wrote an innocent little style article in which he happened to compare the president's recent vacation attire as "more like 'Walker, Texas Ranger' than a sweaty, tough ranch hand." OMGWTF, screamed an outraged White House, which promptly contacted Harper several days later. Evidently, Dubya—who seems to care little about his sub-30% approval rating—"read" the article and was, according to the Washington......

On Mondays and Thursdays, we syndicate comic strips from around the IST network. If you're an artist and would like to share your works with our readers, please email us. Today we're posting another comic from Washington, D.C.'s The Argyle Academy. It's "a comic strip about a vampire cat named Lionel, a lonely octopus named Matthew, two fireflies in a jar who are constantly breaking up and getting back together, remorseful robots, and other random......

And you thought you couldn't look any stupider on a tandem bike? It now costs two cents to make one cent. Does that make sense? A man upset with his property tax hike pays his $12,000 bill in change. Fox News is accused of altering Wikipedia articles. Raising a baby until the age of 17 will cost you $290,000 if you make around $75,000 a year. $198,000 if you make $45,000 a year. A......

Eat More Anchovies: Ten Solutions to Save the Ocean. Breaking Taco News: Al Pastor (the truck and the restaurant) reviewed by Taco Journalism. You can 100%-unlock the iPhone using a Turbo SIM card, without depending on the version of your current carrier card. The Washington Post discusses salary, gender and the cost of social haggling. Houston Community Radio station KPFT 90.1 received a single bullet through a window this week, missing a DJ by......

Major Applewhite will still be nearly a year shy of his 30th birthday when he takes the field as the nation's youngest offensive coordinator next month at the University of Alabama. Applewhite, 29, is only seven years' removed from his days as a Longhorn fan favorite, when he set school records for passing yards and touchdown passes. He helped Texas to four consecutive bowl games and was the Offensive MVP of the 2001 Holiday Bowl,......

On Mondays, we'll be syndicating comic strips from around the IST network. If you're an artist and would like to share your works with our readers, please email us. Today we're posting another comic from Washington, D.C.'s The Argyle Academy. It's "a comic strip about a vampire cat named Lionel, a lonely octopus named Matthew, two fireflies in a jar who are constantly breaking up and getting back together, remorseful robots, and other random stuff,"......

Okkervil River The Stage Names (Jagjaguwar) Like a knight clad in frail, antiquated armor but with precise and impeccable form, Okkervil River have proven on their latest release they have what it takes to awe a crowd that has come to expect so much from them. The Stage Names makes good on all forecasts calling for Will Sheff’s shaky, vulnerable vocals and sturdy indie folk songs with a eye for infection. They deliver a little......

On Mondays, we'll be syndicating comic strips from around the IST network. If you're an artist and would like to share your works with our readers, please email us. Today we're posting another comic from Washington, D.C.'s The Argyle Academy. It's "a comic strip about a vampire cat named Lionel, a lonely octopus named Matthew, two fireflies in a jar who are constantly breaking up and getting back together, remorseful robots, and other random stuff,"......

New American Talent: 22, up at Arthouse at the Jones Center for another month, has received positive reviews. That's unsurprising, considering Anne Ellegood, curator of the Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., juried the show. Picking and choosing from nearly 900 submissions, she landed on 96 works generated by 45 artists, 15 of whom are from the great state of Texas. You might recognize locals Roberto Bellini, William Hundley, Rebecca Rothfus, Joseph Phillips......

Each week, Austinist's staff takes some time to introduce you to the bands playing at this year's Austin City Limits festival. Some you know, some not so much, but they're all going to be here, so stay tuned. --Paige Maguire, Music Editor The Gospel Silvertones specialize in soothing R&B and soul fit to kick off most mornings -- the band plays regularly at some of Austin’s favorite breakfast and brunch spots on weekends. They recently......