Trust your instincts, faithful readers. That is a disturbance you've sensed in the force. For the second year in a row, the nation's finest and funniest poets plan to pummel Austin with their poesy, prose, puns...and all sorts of other p-words we can't mention here. Starting August 7, National Poetry Slam 2007 will transform Austin into the epicenter of all things slammarific, with five days of knock-down, drag-out, no-holds-barred competition to find out who can best the rest on both an individual and a team basis. more ›

FRIDAY [30] music • The Skeletons at South Austin Speedshop (7pm) fashion/music • Couture de Amore with fashions by Loves, Mariessa; Stiletto Gold; Sea and Enemies; Amy Kline (Jewelry), and Clap!Clap!, Golden Bear, Haunting Oboe Music, The Valentines at The Parish Room ($10) music • Video/CD release for "The Projeckt" at Latitude 30 music • Bluebonnet Blues Festival, benefitting Historic Main Street Association of Marble Falls, at Marble Falls music • 3rd Annual Global... more ›

» [books] Spin magazine senior contributing writer Andy Greenwald presents Miss Misery, wherein he "captures the essence of what it means to be young and struggling with identity in the new century," at Bookpeople (7pm) (link) more ›

*Photo of last year's Heydays taken from UT's College of Fine Arts' website* What are you doing On Thursday? What about this weekend? No seriously, what is going on in your little world? Could you manage to squeeze a little culture in there somewhere? The Creative Research Laboratory of the Department of Art and Art History at UT is hosting Heydays(again) on Thursday, December 8th and again on December 10th. The December 8th date,... more ›

Did the end of Bel Canto make you cry like it did us? Are you as interested in the friendship and literary relationship between Lucy Grealy and Ann Patchett as we? Do you like celebrating the works of a beautiful writer at dinner parties the way we do? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you will probably want to attend The Writers' League of Texas’ 1st Annual Award of Literary... more ›

Get a heapin’ dose of original Texas tunes and down home Texas cookin’ tonight at Threadgill’s World Headquarters, as The Bill Jerram Band and Austin Collins perform their original songs. The Bill Jerram Band starts at 7:30pm and will be performing their blend of bluesy roots sound and power-pop tunes with songs that showcase the original songwriting and strong vocals and guitar technique of Jerram. Austin Collins takes the stage at 10pm with guitar in hand and some lyrics and tunes very reminiscent of Dwight Yoakum. Austin will be playing the ACL Fest later this month, so swing on by for a preview of one of the Fest’s local performers. (And if you get there early enough you just might see a certain Austinist contributor handling emcee duties.) more ›

Last minute entry here: more ›

The always-funky Grupo Fantasma join in the fun at Threadgill’s Beer Garden series this Sunday afternoon. The boys will start jamming at 4pm. But doors open at 1:30PM, as The Flying Club will open at 2PM. If you really want to get in a full day of listening at the former Armadillo World Headquarters, get there at 11AM for Sunday Gospel Brunch and music by Gospelaries and Dale Watson. Tickets for Grupo are $10... more ›