Austin ChronicleWe're thrilled and so very honored that you've voted us Best of Austin for the third year in a row! And for two equally wonderful categories this year, no less: Best Local Blog and Best Local Entertainment Website. We're also touched that critics chose Austinist's Urban Development Editor, Shawn "Shilli" Shillington, along with Mike "M1EK" Dahmus and Chris "Austin Contrarian" Bradford for the jointly-shared award for "Best Urban-Development Echo Chamber." "Like a box of......

Photos from The Austin Chronicle's 18th Annual Hot Sauce Festival. Congrats to all the winners. Steve Hopson/Flickr If you can't view the Flash slideshow above, an alternate version appears after the jump.......

RSO [Registered Sex Offender], follows the unenviable life of one ex-convict, played by newbie Gabriel McIver, who must reintegrate into a world that has indefinitely deemed him a social leper. He must deal with all of the minutiae that all of these other sad, pitiful, white males that we love to capture on film must deal with, but with the dark cloud of criminal damnation hovering somewhere just above his brow, to humorous effect. We don't know what he did (just yet) but we are guessing that, in his case, the punishment and repulsion may not fit the crime....

I wonder: why wouldn’t the APD drug cop and the data miner want the world to know what they’re up to? They’re heroes, after all! Cleansing our streets of the dreaded indoor weed farmer. They should be proud. They're like The Punisher and Microchip....

Two months ago, we let you know about the Austin Chronicle's annual Short Story contest, open to aspiring writers from Texas and the world. This Wednesday, the winners will be unveiled at a BookPeople gala, catered by Austin Java. ...

Playwright and filmmaker David Mamet will appear at UT's Hogg Auditorium on Monday, February 4th for a discussion of his work with the Austin Chronicle's Robert Faires. The event is the first of several appearances by Mamet at UT in conjunction with the acquisition of his archives by the Harry Ransom Center....

Brownout! kick off their tour this week but not before supplying the Beauty Bar with diverse concoctions comprised of Latin funk, Afro-beats, soul and R&B. Following their Tuesday night gig in Austin, the eight-piece plays one more show in the Lone Star State, at Zeppelin’s Pub in El Paso before leaving for California....

Presidential Primaries: Hillary and Mitt Romney take Nevada, McCain takes South Carolina....

The week's news on arts, books, film and music....

Andy Langer is Austin's nearly ubiquitous multimedia music journalist. In the past, he's worked for both The Austin Chronicle and KUT. He now hosts music news segments on News 8 Austin, writes a column for Esquire magazine, and appears on both KSGR and KROX radio on Thursday mornings. Now, after twelve years of (also) hosting 101X's Sunday new music program The Next Big Thing, Langer is migrating to a prime weekday evening spot at KGSR. His show will air Monday-Friday from 6 to 10pm, immediately following Jody Denberg's drive-time broadcast. Though KSGR's format is pretty flexible for AAA, it's a big change for the guy who's been playing lots of loud indie, Britrock, electronica, and lo-fi material at KROX. We spoke with Langer yesterday about the changes to his radio job, and he had a lot to tell us...

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. ...

Photo by lilapants ln flickrPatrol car video footage that documents the final, pleading calls of police shooting victim Kevin Alexander Brown was made public by the city of Austin yesterday according to The Austin American-Statesman. "Please turn me over," Brown asks repeatedly from the distant background of the grainy video. His last request falls on deaf ears. "I'm gonna die," he says to the officer who shot him. The cop in question, Sgt. Michael Olsen,......

Image from Scion's websiteSo you’re all set for an afternoon with the family and/or friends, tons of food on the horizon, be it Turkey or Tofurkey. Still, you need to scratch that live music itch before heading home. Well, fear not oh lovely residents of Austin, the city has a solid night of gigs on the 21st in store for the common layperson. If you’re not already planning on hitting up the Benko and The......

Image courtesy Kill From The Heart fanpageAnyone who read the Meat Puppets cover story in the Austin Chronicle this summer knows that the brothers Kirkwood have had some serious ups and down in their 20-odd years together. From their belated arrival as grunge superstars in the mid-90s and appearing for a four-song stretch on Nirvana's Unplugged album to a heroin-fueled spiral into depression and bankruptcy, the Puppets have lived the kind of life most people......

Image from www.loadedguntheory.comThe holidays are a busy time for theatre in Austin, with too many seasonal shows to choose from. As the glut looms, several fine shows are closing. Get to these while the gettin's good! Much-lauded director Karen Jambon helms Loaded Gun Theory's Little Murders. You can't judge a show by its artwork, but we think theirs is the best we've seen all year. This dark comedy about an overbearing daughter—played by the always-delightful......

Image courtesy Keep Austin BeautifulThursday November 15th is Texas Recycles Day, a statewide campaign to raise awareness about recycling. There are a number of happenings across the state, but an Austin event worth mentioning is HEB's celebration. Local area HEBs are giving out 20,000 reusable grocery bags as well as encouraging customers to use the newish plastic bag recycling containers at the entrances of the stores for both grocery bags and other thin plastic recyclables......

Photo by CAVE CANEM on flickrToday's the day to cast your vote in the statewide Constitutional Amendment Election. If you're unfamiliar with the sixteen propositions appearing on the ballot, we've reprinted them after the jump. Austinist is officially recommending that you vote "NO" on Prop 12, which would authorize the Texas Transportation Commission to issue up to $5 billion in bonds for so-called "highway improvement projects"—read about it here. We're also recommending a wholehearted "YES"......

For this Week's TWIT, we're revealing the contents of our crystal ball—lurking on the horizon are a one-night-only you do not want to miss, and remounts of two box-office smashes. Jambi says, "Get your tickets now!" The Vortex is hosting, an irresistible, oddball of a show; three German actors, two American actors, and two Austrian video artists (collectively GTA’s Road Theater) are driving cross country (track 'em here), performing Roland Schimmelpfennig's Start Up. In this......

We haven't made it to Project Runway at Moxie and the Compound, yet, but we've heard it's fun. Last week's winner Malissa Long sent us a picture of her creation (see right); the challenge was to design a piece only using a white knit fabric. This week the challenge is to design a dress for the Shiki customer. The Moxie version of Project Runway is similar to the Bravo show, although there's a local twist......

Last night, Austin Circle of Theaters ushered in a whole new batch of B. Iden Payne Award winners. The event took place on the lovely St. Ed's campus; MMNT artistic director Ev Lunning Jr. hosted, along with members of the Actor's Equity association. Local heroine Karen Kuykendall was this year's Outstanding Honoree; Austin Chronicle Arts Editor Robert Faires presented her award. It was an elegant and exciting evening, to be sure! We weren't shocked by......

Just how much do you know about local artist Daniel Johnston? Enough to play Captain America or Joe the Boxer on stage? Convincingly? If you happen to have two Johnston pieces in your repertoire, check out this little gem we spotted in the current issue of the Austin Chronicle: "After two wildly successful runs at Houston's Axiom last year, Jason Nodler's original rock opera Speeding Motorcycle, based on the life and music of Daniel Johnston,......

Two-time Austin Chronicle Best of Austin tattooist (and really badass chick) Karen Slafter is now pumping ink at Resurrection Tattoo on South Lamar at Oltorf. She's got a bigger, private room now with more space to work her painful magic, and the guys and gals at Resurrection make sure the place is uber-clean and always friendly. Long-time Karen customers and tattoo n00bs alike should check her out at the new location. Karen works Mon-Fri 12pm......

We know you're coming to ACL Fest for the amazing live music, not the culinary delights. That said, you're going to need to keep your blood sugar up to withstand three days of dirty heat and canned beer. The Austin Chronicle has helpfully detailed the food vendors and their offerings at the park grounds as well as the restaurants near Zilker within walking distance should you decide to venture out. Gourmet foodies may want to......

Man sweat, burned tongues, and cold beer dominated the Austin Chronicle’s annual Hot Sauce Festival and competition on Sunday. A bounty of Austin’s bravest descended on Waterloo Park to test their Texas taste buds on sauces both red and green, chunky and thin, zing-zangy and hotsy-totsy. Lines were long, but spirits remained high among those eager for a mouthful of abuse. What was good: No scarcity of chips. Revolts have broken out in years past.......

If there was a memo about sporting black-tie attire to the Runway to Heaven fashion show, we didn't get it. We dressed way down (think just-got-out-of-the-pool-and-threw-on-some-jeans) compared to the high-heeled and coiffed attendees—so we jokingly told the charming and stylish gawkers sitting next to us in the "media" seats that we were with Vice Magazine. Friday's event at the UT Alumni Center showcased creations from emerging local designers and raised money for charity at......

In your mouth you have these things called taste buds. The amazing thing is that everyone’s buds are different--even people who came out of the same birth canal. For example, we lurv broccoli and begged for it as a child. But our siblings, and this guy, hate it. Taste buds don’t make sense. Tastes buds are kinda like humor receptors; everyone’s sense of what is good is different, and thankfully no one can tell us......

The Funniest Filmmaker in Austin contest returns to Cap City Comedy Club, with semifinals emceed by Bryan Gutmann, winner of the 2007 Funniest Person in Austin contest NYC's uber-scenesters The Misshapes hold court at Beauty Bar with Riot in Belgium and KidIndie Zilker Park hosts the very last installment of KGSR's Blues on the Green, featuring Marcia Ball & Band DJ Mel spins the killer 80s jams at the quarterly Rock the Casbah dance......

If you happened to be downtown two weekends ago, you might have found yourself startled, amused, or even aroused (it’s okay, you’ll be totally accepted at some clubs in Japan) by the sight of four human forms wandering the streets in golden, skin-tight zentai suits. There must be something in the way head-to-toe spandex outfits cling to one’s body, because clubbers all over downtown were completely enamored with the mysterious beings - perhaps it......

A scandal two years in the making over at Austin City Hall may finally be reaching critical mass. On July 20, one Bill Moriarty, the former head of the Austin Clean Water Program, filed a lawsuit against a virtual who's-who list of local urban developers: Development firms PBS&J, Malcolm Pirnie, Owen Consulting, CH2M Hill Inc., Parsons Engineering Science, K Friese & Associ­ates and Hey Cister! Consulting. Also named is attorney David Armbrust, Moriarty's former legal......

Austinist co-sponsors an awesome boat party out on Lake Travis, with bands, DJs, swimming, and more. Tickets are still available, but get yours now before they sell out! Gallery Lombardi's latest ocean-themed exhibition, entitled "Radical Nautical," opens with a full evening of music, videos, and more Forklift Danceworks debuts their "revised and expanded" performance of their Elvis-inspired dance production, The King and I Austin Film Festival brings in veteran screenwriter Dan Petrie Jr. ("Beverly......