New study out of NYU "discovers" that blogosphere "chatter" about an album is directly correlated to that album's sales. Yahoo will reject Microsoft's buy-out bid of $44.6 billion, claiming that the figure "massively undervalues" the company. Analysts, on the other hand, believe that Yahoo's acceptance of the buy-out offer is only a matter of time. Today, Austin's City Hall will discuss a recent study showing the economic impact of a proposed medical school for the Austin area....

The Utter Reading Series is back tomorrow, with more pathos than Hillary, more transcendance than Barack, more grit than McCain, and more exposure (for local writers) than a bead-strewn balcony on Bourbon Street. As always, the reading is free and open to the public, and the audience is invited to join the readers afterwards for drinks and conversation at Opal Divine's on 6th....

ImageAfter Art An art industry boom? Yahoo reports that, despite unrest in the financial markets, the art industry appears to be doing quite well. Experts say the market's robustness is due to "the weak dollar, expanding world wealth and new buyers from countries not previously associated with the art collecting community." /// Jeanne Claire van Ryzin at the Statesman has released her "Best of 2007" for Austin's art scene. Film Fox and iTunes will sign......

A sad week for LAist as they lose their trusted and amazing editor Tony Pierce to the LA Times, but what a blast his last week was. He shared his 25 Favorite CDs of 2007 and wrote a great review of just a good movie, No Country For Old Men. At UCLA, thousands of students celebrated the end of their quarter by running around campus in their undies (lots of photos in a two-part......

If you’re an aspiring writer, you might want to find some time between holiday parties this weekend to brush up your best short story. The Austin Chronicle’s sixteenth annual Short Story Contest closes on Monday. Winners split $1,500 and get published. ...

This week's news on art, books, music, and film....

Woman who had worked as pharmacist for the CVS on Riverside had fake documents. 60 soldiers who had been serving in Iraq for over a year return home to Ft. Hood for the holidays. Look what our city might be gifted: a 60-foot saxophone sculpture!...

Now in its sixth week, the Writers Guild of America strike is still going strong. And despite Alec Baldwin's hilarious/bizarre advice and Michael Eisner's name-calling, WGA members show few signs of giving in any time soon. Though the effects of the strike are most evident in places like Los Angeles and New York City, you may be surprised to learn that there are around 100 WGA members living here in Austin....

Photo from ImageAfter Art Fashion photography is gaining more credibility in the art world as of late. Critics prophesy the dilution of fine art in the 21st century, while supporters of the trend assert that fashion is a formative aspect of our modern culture that deserves official recognition in the arts world. /// UT-Austin names the new dean of the College of Fine Arts, Douglas Dempster, to replace the former dean who retired in the......

Photo from ImageAfter Starting today, we'll be publishing a weekly roundup of various arts & entertainment news that we've come across. Most of these developments, whether national or international, have a direct relationship with something local, whether it be an organization, individual, or our collective culture. In any case, it's a nice chance to broaden our world view -- a definite bonus (or necessity, some might argue) for a city that revels in creativity! --......

In Los Angeles, LAist most definitely celebrated Thanksgiving like no other. After all, one has to keep up all the energy to keep on walking the line at the Writers Strike and fighting the unfortunate return of the wildfires in Malibu, which single handedly destroyed over fifty homes within the first 24 hours. National outlets may be covering the fires, but CNN also found it is easier to buy a gun than fruit and......

You wouldn’t necessarily think the squeaky-clean world of power-pop and dirty, dirty metal have a great deal in common, but they do share a few similarities other than loud guitars. Writers and fans of metal often rate metal in terms of its “heaviness,” as if how sludgy, powerful, hard, or just “metal” an artist is works as a sure-fire way to judge their output. Even when picking and choosing between different types of metal, the......

SFist witnessed a new apartment building tszuj the skyline with spectacular, gaudy turquoise aplomb, the (informal) renaming of the Mission/SOMA neighborhood border, the return of the Maltese Falcon, the Mayor Gavin Newsom mea culpa-ing over his Hawaiian getaway during the oil spill, and double-decker buses hitting the streets of San Francisco. Oh, and some baseball player named Barry Bonds is a liar whose pants, it seems, are totally on fire. LAist continues to cover the......

The Waller Creek Tunnel project here in Austin is gaining ground. Major scientific breakthrough shows that cloning embryos is much easier than anticipated... U.S. clean energy stocks are doing better than the U.S. economy as a whole. Is classical music on the comeback? Norman Mailer dies in Manhattan at the age of 84. Writers Guild of America strike in Hollywood goes into week two... We will all have less privacy in the future, says......

Photo by johnkoetsier on flickr Utter Reading SeriesMonday, Nov 5BookPeople [map]7pm, Free[info]This month’s Utter Reading Series features two standouts from a couple hours south on I-35. Both teach at Trinity University in San Antonio, and both are long-overdue candidates for the Utter Series, which spotlights hot Texas-based writers. One has just won a national award for his short stories, and the other is an Austin-bred recent graduate of the Michener Center at UT. After the......

This summer, Austin resident Scott Blackwood received the Association of Writers and Writing Programs Award for his forthcoming novel, We Agreed to Meet Just Here. His collection of short stories, In The Shadow of Our House (2002), received great reviews. In The Shadow of Our House interweaves nine tales of Austin — marriages falling apart, youthful anger erupting into inexplicable violence, sudden tragedy testing family bonds, and adulterers caught between incomplete worlds. Blackwood’s keen sense......

*The views expressed in Truesday are those of the author and do not represent Austinist as a whole. Thank heavens.* -The Editors Writer's note: this is the longest post I’ve ever written. If you hate long posts, don’t torture yourself any further. There are many moments over the course of their life when the average person should feel a nip of introspection and take a look back on their time here while asking whether......

If you're still in college and think you can scare the bejeezus out of someone in 1,000 words or less, the Writers' League of Texas is looking for you. Whether you've got a traditional campfire ghost story, a cutting-edge literary experiment, or anything at all that Stephen King hasn't already done, they want to see it. A $5 entry fee (and $15 student League membership dues) lets you channel your demons onto paper, enter to......

The UTTER Reading Series presents two young, local writers who are finding national success and recognition. Poet D. Antwan Stewart will present selections from his two books, The Terribly Beautiful (2006) and Sotto Voce (forthcoming) . Fiction writer Brian Hart, the winner of the first-ever Keene Prize for Literature, may read from his forthcoming and already-awarded novel, The Dog With the Broken Teeth, the One That Fetches Rocks. Stewart has an MFA from the Michener......

Given that Amy Winehouse's "Rehab" has become resolutely unfunny over the past month (even before she canceled), the title of "band with that one hit song that everyone loves" at ACL has fallen squarely on the shoulders of Sweden's Peter, Bjorn, and John. The group have been plugging away at their charming blend of pop, rock, and indie since 1999, and are anything but an overnight sensation. Their breakthrough hit "Young Folks" is actually......

Okay, as much as we love Beverly Hills Cop (and Family Guy), we've actually got a more important topic to cover here. The Austin Film Festival is continuing its popular Conversations in Film series this Sunday, August 5th, with a special session on Story and Structure: What to Think About Before You Write the Script. Leading this conversation is none other than Dan Petrie, Jr., who's worked on such top films as Turner and Hooch,......

The Writers' League of Texas will be honoring author Lawrence Wright on September 21st with the 3rd Annual Award of Literary Merit. The award seeks to recognize individuals who "embody the League's mission of promoting literacy and elevating the art of writing." The first two Awards of Literary Merit were bestowed upon Sarah Bird (2006) and Anne Patchett (2005). Currently a staff writer for The New Yorker, Lawrence Wright has authored several books as well......

Tonight, the Blanton Museum's monthly B Scene event is being held in honor of James Michener's 100th birthday. There will be readings by fellows from UT's Michener Center for Writers (who, seriously, are inhumanly physically attractive and talented), at 8pm sharp. There will be periodic guided tours of the Blanton's Michener art collection. There will be music by Julia LaShae and Stay Gold. There will be birthday cake and a cash bar offering, among other......

THURSDAY [7] music • Chicken Ranch Records, Obsolete Industries, Hold Fast, and 086 Studio present their Third Annual Christmas Shindig with The Ugly Beats, Automusik at Longbranch Inn ($5 or bring a new toy for Blue Santa, 8pm) music • Atomic Bitchwax, Pearls & Brass, Dixie Witch, The Flood at Emo's music • The Big Fix, O:A, Hellapeno at Stubb's music • Earl Greyhound, The Early Tapes, The Paper South at The Mohawk music......

Violinist Charles Yang. Photo by Eric Uhlir Three weeks ago, Austin's newest arts organization, strataTX, launched with a successful kickoff gala at the Design Center of Austin. The latest giving group of the Texas Cultural Trust, strataTX brings together enthusiastic young professionals of all industries and backgrounds to help sustain and expand the Lone Star State's arts community. StrataTX Launch Party Attendees. Photo by Eric Uhlir Amidst heavy fanfare, TCT Deputy Director Jennifer Wijangco......

Long a bastion of hilarious pseudo-journalism veiling insightful and viscous social commentary, The Onion was once relegated to small hamlets like Madison, Chicago and New York City. Over the years, it has published compendiums of articles in book format and expanded its coverage to include non-pseudo-reporting with the Onion A.V. club. Now, It has taken itself one step further, reaching out to us smaller urban communities to promulgate its singular wackiness and educate the......

WEDNESDAY [29] discussion • Patton Oswalt and Writers Present The Onion at Alamo Downtown (9:30pm, $15) music • Indian Jewelry, Cry Blood Apache, Wiggins at Emo's music • Real Live Tigers, Fourth War Boys Choir, David Israel, Pink Nasty at Beerland music • The Distant Seconds,The Late Fees & The Unbearables at The Parlor film • Third Coast Night: La Sierra at Alamo Downtown (7pm) film • The Devil's Backbone at Beerland (7pm, Free)......

In case you were in need of some cultural enrichment this weekend, here are some cerebral events for your consideration: SATURDAY (11/11) Do you only attend panel discussions featuring historic icons? Well, you're in luck this weekend as The Ransom Center presents A Conversation with Norman Mailer, literally. Norman Mailer, Gay Talese, and Lawrence Schiller will participate in a discussion moderated by professor Steven Isenberg. Admission is free and seats will go fast. Doors......

The Austin Film Festival kicked off its 13th year last night with several film screenings, the conference, and the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) cocktail party at Rio Grande. And yes, for those who didn't know, the former Real World space is now a restaurant. Check out these pics of the hot happenings and stay tuned for further bulletins about Austin's very own celebration of all things cinematic.......

FRIDAY [15] music • Ghostland Observatory and Thee Emergency at The Mohawk (912 Red River) ® party • Earthdance at NiaSpace (7:30pm-10pm, $15) party • Eastside City Limits party with Pink Nasty, Tnlons Fort, I Kill Cars, Missing Tapes, Brothesr and Sisters, Til We're Blue or Destroy, The Black at Red Scoot Inn and Old Austin Daze Compound (9pm-4am, FREE) ® party • Teleport Door presents the Pop Yo Colla' party with DJs Daniel......