The Amazing Race is holding a casting call in Austin this Friday afternoon. For those unfamiliar with the Emmy-winning series, teams of two travel around the world with the teams going up against each other in challenges, all in an attempt to be the first to get to Phil's mat at the pit stop. The show in its 12 season run has made stops in six continents (no Antarctica pit stops yet). The winning team gets a million dollars in the end, but usually the first team to reach the mat at each pit stop wins a little something....

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....

Fantastic Fest '08 Badges are on sale now! VIP badges sold out while the '07 festival was still running, but there are some new ticket options for '08 including "2nd Half" and "Daytime Only" badges. UT Professor Ellen Spiro and Talkshow Host Phil Donahue's doc "Body of War" has made the Oscar shortlist. Check out Chris Garcia's interview with Spiro here. The Belgian government has honored four Austin filmmakers for their documentary work. We......

Several Austin TV stations were honored at last night's 5th annual Lone Star EMMY Awards. One of the evening's big winners was local PBS affiliate KLRU, which garnered 6 awards out of its initial 21 nominations, including three for Downtown (a co-production of KLRU, the Downtown Austin Alliance and Action Figure) and one for the Central Texas community-driven "collaborative collage," Docubloggers. CBS 42's investigative journalist Nanci Wilson scored two wins, for her special feature stories,......

One burrito to rule them all: 10,000 lb burrito to be built at October fundraiser for local charities. Texan Dan Rather is suing CBS (and others related to his ouster) for $70 million. GOP presidential candidate Fred Thompson visited Dell today. Southwest Airlines is sticking with open seating, but families with small kids will no longer get to go first. A rabid bat was found this morning at St. Edwards. A local filmmaker is......

Did barely legal Canadian funthrob Michael Cera (of Arrested Development, Clark and Michael and now Superbad fame) totally go swimming at Barton Springs without us? A not-at-all-obsessive perusal of the Clark and Michael website (where you can also watch hilaritudinal webisodes of the CBS online series for free) reveals, in the "Photo Diary" section, that Michael or Clark or possibly both boys may have once lazed on the venerable poolside lawn at Barton Springs. The......

We're sure you already know this because, after all, what else could you have possibly been doing on Sunday night other than watching the 2007 Tony Awards broadcast live on CBS? It's not like there was anything else on TV. Nevertheless, in case you missed it, former Austinite Julie White scored a Best Actress Tony for playing a lesbian Hollywood agent in Douglas Carter Beane's The Little Dog Laughed. White was nominated alongside the likes......

The penultimate speaker in KLRU's 2007 Spark Series is the ever-fascinating Douglas Rushkoff, a hugely prolific author, teacher, and documentarian who's written extensively on new media, pop culture, religion, and technology as it pertains to society in general. Rushkoff first exposed the world to the emerging cyberculture phenomenon with his 1994 book, Cyberia, and has since published at least ten best-selling books, including Nothing Sacred: The Truth About Judaism (2003) and Media Virus: Hidden......

One of the cornerstone events put on by the Texas Cultural Trust -- which also runs the fledgling young professional arts group, StrataTX -- is the biannual Texas Medal of Arts Awards. Since 2001, the Medal of Arts have recognized "outstanding contributions" by standout Texans, notable past winners of which include Tommy Lee Jones (film), Willie Nelson (music), Phylicia Rashad (TV/theatre) and Joe and Teresa Long (for arts patronage). A slew of events are planned......

One of the cornerstone events put on by the Texas Cultural Trust -- which also runs the fledgling young professional arts group, StrataTX -- is the biannual Texas Medal of Arts Awards. Since 2001, the Medal of Arts have recognized "outstanding contributions" by standout Texans, notable past winners of which include Tommy Lee Jones (film), Willie Nelson (music), Phylicia Rashad (TV/theatre) and Joe and Teresa Long (for arts patronage). A slew of events are......

This Sunday, February 4th at 5:25pm central time, the world supremacy of American football for the 2006 season will be decided when the Colts of Indianapolis face the Bears of Chicago on the hallowed turf of Dolphin Stadium in Miami, Florida. Captained by the tenacious Brian Urlacher (a man who was known to bed a wench named Paris some fortnights ago), will the formidable Bears defense overcome late season gaffes and rise to this the......

Thanksgiving: a time for celebrating family, eating food, and of course, watching TV. Well, we're here to recommend some options: The given: "Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade", 9am, NBC/KXAN. The random: Twelve hours of Doris Day films on TCM, starting at 5am. Pigs at Thanksgiving?: Babe on NBC/KXAN, 2pm. Katie pre-TomKat: One of our favorite Thanksgiving films, Pieces of April, is on IFC at 4:15pm. What Not to Wear on Thanksgiving: What Not to Wear......

Tonight you might think that Dan Rather's jelly, because chances are he’s gonna be on a roll. Or something. The venerable newsman, and Wharton, Texas native, will be live on set tonight to analyze election results. But he won’t be working with Bob Schieffer or any other straight news reporters from around the nation, as he has done for the last 44 years. Tonight he saddles up alongside Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert on Comedy......

Austin remains the nation's fifth safest large city, according to the latest annual rankings published by Morgan Quitno Press. The Lawrence, Kansas-based research firm placed Dallas and Houston on the other side of the spectrum -- both are among the country's most dangerous, at sixth and tenth, respectively. Meanwhile, our northern neighbors in Round Rock should be happy to know that they're still living in of the overall safest cities, despite dropping to thirteenth......

Last night's roast of Molly Ivins went off without a hitch. It sounds like it was a very pleasant, friendly gathering (so most likely not officially a roast). Foley was sending sketchy emails to pages back in 2000 . . . and people knew about it. American Nobel prize-winners so far for 2006: Six. "(E)very prize except for the literature and peace awards, which are yet to be announced, have gone to Americans." How......

Some people may shy away from Infamous, thinking there is no need to see two movies in one year about the complex character of Truman Capote. That would be a mistake. This film is getting favorable reviews, which is quite a feat considering it must compete in the shadow of a virtuoso performance by Philip Seymour Hoffman in the first biopic. And, the movie was filmed in Austin. So what more do you want? How......

Webcams solve crimes! A Dallas Beatles fan foiled a crime in Liverpool that he witnessed in progress through a webcam-view of a street related to the Fab Four. It looks like Hurricane Ernesto may hit South Florida very soon. We're no scientists, but we think this study on smarts and their relation to height is just crap. The Austrian girl who was abducted and kept in a basement room the size of a closet......

Dry weather conditions are giving homeowners headaches by causing foundation problems and water pipe breaks. Don't forget to water your foundation, pets, plants and yourself, but conserve as much as possible. Happy Texas Summer! A recent CBS 42 poll shows a high disapproval rating for Gov. Rick Perry. We believe this is a direct result of all our Kinky & Cougar goober coverage. The U.S. Marine Corps will begin to recall troops on an......

One of the greatest players in NFL history appears interested in working for the Austin Wranglers. "Neon" Deion Sanders says he is very interested in coming to work in some capacity for the local ALF team. We are not sure where "Prime Time" would contribute, but he would definitely raise the profile of the team. "I'm very interested in arena football," Sanders said. "I love the game and have loved it for years. I......

There are two new (and very different) shows premiering tonight at 8pm. The one we will probably try to catch is The Unit (KEYE/CBS). Dennis Haysbert ("24") and Scott Foley (or as we think of him, Jennifer Garner's ex) star in this secret agent/military drama. We are intrigued enough to check it out because a) David Mamet is one of the producers, and b) Regina Taylor plays Mr. Haysbert's wife. We have fond memories......

A quick sports heads-up: The #7 ranked UT Men's Basketball team faces #17 Oklahoma today in their regular season finale. The game is at the Irwin Center, and can also be seen on CBS beginning at 3pm. Texas can gain the #1 seed in the Big 12 Tournament and set a record for most regular season wins with a victory today. If you are a Longhorn, don't miss it. That is all. Image via......

We knew there was some devious reason John Mayer’s “Daughters” topped the charts. That song managed to be both cheesy and creepy at the same time. This morning, New York’s illustrious Attorney General Eliot Spitzer subpoenaed nine major radio conglomerates for their role in this crime against music. Buying airplay has been illegal since the 1960, when a federal law was put into place to ban the rampant practice of “payola” (pay plus Victrola,......

If you would like to hear about how our country rocks and why spying on us Joe Schmoes is necessary, then at 8pm tonight, be sure to tune to the basic networks for El Presidente's State of the Union address. KVUE (ABC), KXAN (NBC), KEYE (CBS), KTBC (FOX) and even KLRU (PBS) will be showing Bush's speech (and offering commentary afterwards). **Editorial Note: While we would never encourage listening to W. pontifuhmuhkate about the......

As strictly as Austinist is in the Letterman camp*, we feel we are duty bound to share this information. Following on the heels of Sunday's "60 Minutes" broadcast, NBC's "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" has invited Kinky Friedman to be a guest on this evening's broadcast. If you must, just Tivo and skip ahead of the blandness to Kinky. If you missed Kinky's segment on "60 Minutes", you can watch the segment on......

It just doesn't have the same ring to it, does it? A huge (and somewhat surprising) announcement was made today by Warner Brothers and CBS Corp: UPN and WB will be gone for-evah in the fall. Why, you may ask? These two mega-corps are forming a new fifth channel, CW, wherein Veronica Mars, Gilmore Girls, WWF Smackdown, Everybody Hates Chris and Smallville will live in harmony. Are you having a hard time imagining this?......

Catch our next Governor on 60 Minutes this Sunday night. Kinky Friedman gets 12 minutes of national airtime to tell the nation why Texas politics stinks. Kinky’s interview with veteran journalist Morley Safer will air, along with footage of Kinky on the campaign trail and the campaign's mega-fundraiser at Willie Nelson’s private ranch and golf course. Hey, why the hell not? 60 Minutes, CBS Sunday January 22 6:00 pm......

As we're all aware, the Rose Bowl is only 26 days, 9 hours, 24 minutes, and 41 seconds from kickoff. But one couldn't ask for a better matchup this Saturday to fill the cold, orange void left by Longhorns' football. Tomorrow the No. 2 Texas men's basketball team takes on down top-ranked Duke in East Rutherford, NJ. The scenario is familiar: two undefeated teams, one a strong program looking to make it to the......

Our Thanksgiving usually consists of a huge Thanksgiving lunch (with the Detroit game in the background) and then vegging out in front of the TV that evening. There are a bevy of holiday (and non-holiday) goodies on tomorrow. Here are a few things to watch out for: -"Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade" - 9am, KXAN (NBC). -Miracle on 34th Street - The 1947 original with "the real Santa Claus" (or so Dad tells us every......

This is a post by our new contributor, Elizabeth... NBC used to own Thursday nights in the bygone days of Friends and Seinfeld, but not so much anymore. We don't need NBC to have a good night and here are three reasons we still like Thursday television: 1. Alias is now on Thursday nights at 7pm (ABC/KVUE24). Why they moved this show to this time, we don't know. This season there are rumors (that......

This is a post from our new contributor, Elizabeth...(We swear, we're getting her an account soon) Tonight after our regular viewing of Gilmore Girls (WB, 7pm), we will be torn (and wish we had TiVo). Both Commander in Chief and The Amazing Race have their premieres at 8pm. Gack! We have heard good things about Commander in Chief (ABC, KVUE24). While we may not be big fans of Geena Davis, we do remember Kyle......