Blonde Redhead has always tried to push themselves outside their comfort zone. The drummer and guitarist have spent their whole careers trying to unlearn, in some way, their formal musical education in Jazz. And Kazu Makino though in love with the simple pop song, finds herself unable to write anything one could call simple, or really pop, for that matter. Their last album Penny Sparkle came out early last year, and Fun Fun Fun will be one of their only touring dates of the current year. We sat down with Kazu to talk about her new benefit album for Japan, her dream show, and why she feels so comfortable at the Austin Whole foods. more ›

• Check out this White Denim video where they are playing the “prom.” Hello, yummy cheesiness!
• It’s a rap about Whole Foods. Yes, “It’s Getting Real In the Whole Foods Parking Lot.”
• The Austin Public Library (and the Austin Film Society) are screening some movies for FREE!

Austin food blogger Jodi Bart at Tasty Touring is always up to something, be it berating Austin's overrated institutions, organizing a maple syrup crusade, or helping organize the wildly successful Austin Bakes For Japan event held last weekend. This week, she's asking the Austin foodie community for a favor: a Facebook vote in order to head to Europe as part of a Whole Foods Market blogger video contest. more ›

Though the Texas Hill Country Wine and Food Festival focuses on our state, after the twentieth tasting of wine from a local vineyard, you may start to wonder what else the world has to offer. And when you do, the festival has you covered.Australia Unleashed : Fine Wines and Rogue Cookery at the Whole Foods Market Culinary Center on Saturday, April 2nd is presented by Andrew Dwyer, a chef, cookbook author, and television personality who has garnered attention for his elegant yet unexpected dishes that are all created while trekking through the Outback. more ›

We’re only just over SXSW, so you probably need to take a break and get your strength up. But if you’re seeking civilized recovery surroundings, there are a couple of newish options you might not yet have discovered: more ›

Tyson Cole is a smart chef. To encourage pre-orders of his new Uchi: the Cookbook, Cole is throwing a VIP book signing on March 1 at Uchiko...with complimentary passed dishes straight from the pages of the new tome. If you're interested, head to uchicookbook.com for more information. The new book retails for $39.95 and was co-authored by Texas Monthly and Fodor's contributor Jessica Dupuy. more ›

• Did you buy a Gingerbread House from Whole Foods? Umm, you might want to put down that hunk of roof and check to see if you have one of the recalled ones! (Whole Foods has a money-back guarantee on everything they sell, so you can return your compromised casa for a refund.)
• An LBJ campaign ad is seen as one of the most influential ads ever.
• Here's a place to eat if you find yourself in Waco.

As its name implies, Noble Pig serves a whole lot of pork. But the shop's focus is broader and, if word on the street is any indication, food fare is delicious across the board. more ›

This old-world wine has a lovely balance of flavors - our palate found raspberry, cherry, smoke, and pepper. There's also a hint of mint and earth on the nose. The wine is aged for 10 months in French oak, but is fresh and not at all overbearing. While the color is fairly dark, the wine is a light-to-medium bodied red that would pair well with almost anything at the dinner table. The Nero d'Avola grape was new to us when sampling this wine, and made quite an impression. While it may not be available everywhere, it is well worth asking your local wine shop if they carry Zisola or other Nero d'Avola based wines to expand your palate. more ›

The holidays are the ideal time to make tamales with your family and friends, but let's be honest: it's kind of a pain in the ass to gather all of the ingredients, make the corn husk-wrapped suckers, cook them and then clean your entire kitchen. more ›

If you mixed together the things that make Austin great - music, food, crafts, and tech - you might get something close to the Bleet-Up. more ›

Tonight, two downtown Austin spots will help to get you ready for the forthcoming season of holiday parties, cooking, and wine buying.

For a free, drop-in experience, head to Whole Foods Market at 6pm for a complimentary sample of six different wines from the Whole Foods 2010 Top 10 Holiday Wines list. more ›

This week, we continue our preview of marquee fall food and wine events you may want to save up or book in advance for! A perennial favorite, the Wine and Food Foundation's Tour de Vin is a annual highlight due to the combination of early fall weather, a casual format, and a litany of wine and food presented in a "sip and stroll" format. The timing allows you to hang out on the Whole Foods rooftop during the sunset and early evening hours while sampling a number of new release wines and pairing dishes. To learn more about the specifics of this year's event, we recently spoke with the Wine and Food Foundation's Sarah Murray about pairings, pregaming, and this year's unique wine focus. more ›

Lamar Boulevard and 6th Street used to be an Austin intersection. That is no longer the case. As of right now, please consider it the epicenter of Whole Foods' nationwide Birthday Bash, because this weekend, the store turns thirty, and they're doing it up!

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• Four people dead after gas explosion in San Bruno, CA.
• Crowds attack NATO base in Afghanistan to protest FL pastor's planned burning of the Qur'an.
• On how the media covers Florida's Pastor Jones.

• Whole Foods will soon have more stores in Austin.
• There’s a heat advisory issued for Houston. That means it’s too bloody hot this week!
• Houston has a cool indie-county scene? Who knew?

Well, folks, once again, Whole Foods CEO and gazillionaire John “Unions are Like Herpes” Mackey has rolled out some musings on health that he seems to think are brilliant. Not that I’m wishing cancer on the guy or anything, but it is going to be interesting if/when he gets taken down by some physical condition that is beyond his control, a disease that no amount of money can cure. Oh, but wait, he has one. I’m not sure what the Latin term for his disease is, but we little people call it diarrhea of the mouth. You might recall that last August, Mackey wrote a piece in the Wall Street Journal where he opined that the “last thing our country needs is a massive new health-care entitlement.” more ›

"I have held the Chairman title since Whole Foods Market’s beginning in 1978, but the reality is that today it is merely a title with no authority or responsibilities," wrote Mackey, who will retain his CEO role. "The authority and responsibilities normally associated with the Chairman position were all shifted over time to John Elstrott, after he became our Lead Director back in January 2001." more ›

The third Austin metro-area branch of Sprouts Farmers Market, at 2805 Bee Caves Road in Rollingwood/Westlake, opens this Friday. Like Austin-based Whole Foods and Central Market, the Arizona-based chain of stores differentiates itself by offering natural and organic foods. Its two other existing Austin metro-area locations, in Sunset Valley and Round Rock, opened earlier this year to strong buzz, and another store in the Great Hills area is slated to open next January. more ›

Drinking tall boys and eating chicken cones is a fun part of fall, but when ACL Fest ends, Austin foodie season begins to kick into high gear. After allowing for a few days to recover, The Wine and Food Foundation's annual Tour De Vin on the Whole Foods Rooftop arrives on Thursday, October 8th to help introduce you to some favorite new boutique wines and local dishes. While the event is normally priced at $75, the WFFT's fall member drive is offering a limited number of tickets for only $25 with a membership purchase - call 512.327.7555 to see if they're still available.

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• Our Facebook news feed today included a picture of a second-grader with a full Mohawk and a backpack. That’s how we found out it was the first day of school for many students in Central Texas. Drive carefully in those school zones!
• This editorial from weighs in on the trial of Texas appellate court judge Sharon Keller. Hint: Keller might not be emailing this to friends.
• The BBC reports on the Whole Foods boycott. (Sadly, the BBC’s coverage is still lacking in the great eggplant vs. aubergine debate.)

The Wall Street Journal has a nice profile today of Boggy Creek Farm, the organic market farm in East Austin where much of the produce served in Austin's best restaurants come from. The piece also briefly goes into the curious history of the old farmhouse that still stands on the property, including the mysterious giant brick-lined pit that sits nearby: more ›

Once, back in New York, my cancer-surviving-and-deep-in-medical-debt friend and I were sitting around, watching a Japanese movie. I don't remember which movie it was, but I do remember that, as the opening credits rolled, the word 'EMOTION' popped onto the screen and some happy little music played. more ›

• Man shot in Austin by TABC officers, after a pursuit where a TABC agent was nearly run over.
• Police in Southlake, Texas are looking for a late model Bentley in conjunction with a road-rage incident that started in the drive-thru lane of a Chick-Fil-A. (In 2008, Forbes reported that Southlake was the most affluent suburb in the country.)
• Police officers and the city manager in Taft, Texas are in trouble for facilitating this rap video about “Swangn.” We admit the video is boring, but should a city worker be in trouble for allowing it to happen?

Years ago I appeared in Mademoiselle magazine as one of those Before/After Fat/Skinny chicks that are constantly featured in women’s magazines. You know what I’m talking about—articles supposedly published to be all motivational for the fatties who dream of achieving that anorexic look we chicks have shoved down our gullets from the moment we wriggle our way out of the bloated, ruined, stretch-marked bellies of our mamas. Probably those articles are more about feeding what is, so often, an ongoing impossible dream. Because while achieving the look turns out not to be impossible for some of us, even those of us who manage to work our way back into our pre-adolescent jeans’ size have a hard time keeping it off. This is, of course, why diet books and pills, personal trainers, pre-packaged meals, gadgets like the Thigh Master, and programs like Weight Watchers do so well. It’s a perpetual thing, the yo-yo lifestyle. I’ve probably lost close to 200 pounds in my life. Now, I did not ever lose a grand total of 200 pounds. But I have, more than once, lost somewhere around fifty pounds at a time. If you want to know what lugging around an extra fifty pounds feels like, pick up a bag of soil next time you’re at Home Depot. Fifty pounds, particularly on the frame of someone who is 5’5” (as I am), is roughly a fuck ton of excess. more ›

Taking a cue from successful local business models like Soup Peddler and Dishalicious, Whole Foods Market's flagship store at 6th and Lamar is launching a new lunch and dinner delivery by bicycle. more ›

• Man tries to hide his baggie where the sun don't shine during strip search at Travis County Jail, police make him take a laxative.
• Taylor man arrested for housing 277 pot plants (as well as illegal firearms) on his property.
• Manor High School student tries to sell pot in class.

As planned, Austin Flash Mob's latest caper took place this past Saturday at Whole Foods Market downtown, with some 200 agents simultaneously 'freezing' near the prepared foods section. more ›

Round Rock woman leaves 4 kids (all under 3 years old) from her in-home daycare alone at her house while she goes shopping, and later gets in a car accident. Man driving his scooter downtown on Saturday morning was hit and killed by a driver who ran a red light. ACLU doesn't like the new state drivers license rules. A former employee of a Steiner Ranch steakhouse shot and killed a current employee there yesterday; police are still searching for him. Area of Southeast Austin currently under a boil water notice. Whole Foods is suing the FTC. Texas' dental health ain't great. more ›

Whole Foods Downtown will open "Skating on the Plaza," its annual rooftop ice-skating rink, this Friday. The outdoor rink will operate between 10 a.m. and 9 p.m. most days, with eleven daily 50-minute skating sessions starting on the hour. Tickets, which are $10 for all ages and includes skate rental, can be purchased from the Guest Services desk up to an hour before each session. The rink will be open through January 11, and closed on Christmas Day. More information is available via their hotline at (512) 542-2260. more ›