Schwarzenegger continues to make us weirdly like him. (But we're still not moving to California.) Castro beginning to show signs of willingness to retire. Monkeys are better at estimating quantities than Duke undergrads. Students, beware: Professors are spying on your Facebookings. Good news: Cancer death rates are falling in the United States. Lady lets the New York Times take a picture of her Celine Dion tattoo. Are Leno and Conan scabbing, technically?......

Venezuelan voters didn't want Chavez as a ruler for life after all. Putin's party wins the Russian election, warns against Westerners who may say the election was unfair. Best feminist candidate: Obama? Later this week, Romney will publicly address his Mormon faith and how it may affect his possible presidency. Looks like it will be Texas v. Arizona State at the Holiday Bowl. Conan O'Brien will pay his "Late Night" crew from his own......

As our friend The M.O. reported, Ghostland Observatory are set to perform on Late Night with Conan O'Brien tomorrow evening. It will be their first nationally televised performance, and they're expected to play a tune from delete.delete.i.eat.meat.... GLO recently recorded a set for Austin City Limits, and we can expect that episode to air on KLRU sometime in December. Known for their energy-packed live sets, GLO are wrapping up a very exciting year that saw......

As we reported on the night it occurred, two weeks ago St Idiot Collective was forced to move their annual fundraiser from its planned location, Gutter Kitty Studios, to a different venue, Scoot Inn, at the eleventh hour. In spite of this, a fabulous time was had by all; see Conan the Librarian's comment for a micro-review. After some hard thinkin' and some even harder wordsmithin', the Ids have release the following statement. Quite the......

Jonathan Richman is many things to many people. To the casual observer, he's the upbeat and silly troubadour featured in There's Something About Mary and on Conan O'Brien. For music nerds, he's the architect of "Roadrunner," a three-chord classic that is sometimes referred to as the first punk song. David Bowie covers his tunes, Lou Reed considers him a friend, and legions of indie-rockers were inspired by him. But none of this truly gives......

Austin's Explosions In The Sky play powerful instrumental indie-rock that has been compared to Mogwai and Sigur Ros and are widely lauded by critics. Their live shows have become so popular that their Emo's show in March has been sold out for weeks, and multiple-night runs are now needed in cities like New York and Toronto. After a three-plus year wait, EITS's new album All Of A Sudden, I Miss Everyone arrives on Tuesday.......

Ever since he dropped out of NYU Law School — to the initial chagrin of his family — Demetri Martin’s star has been on the rise. His success as a stand-up comedian in New York City led to a writing gig on "Late Night with Conan O’Brien." After honing his skills on O’Brien’s show, Martin moved over to Comedy Central, where he has worked as a contributor on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart."......

Tonight, Alamo Music Mondays presents Let Them Eat Rock, Rodman Flender’s (Idle Hands, Leprechaun 2) documentary look at the supremely bizarre career of Boston aristo-rockers The Upper Crust. Formed in 1994 from bits of various Boston indie bands (including Lyres, Bags, Mente and Clamdiggers), The Upper Crust play AC/DC-meets-Spinal Tap rock about the trials and tribulations of being obscenely rich. Their live shows--featuring the band dressed in full 18th century nobleman’s garb--became wildly popular in......

Only a week earlier, we had watched from afar (very far) as José González performed his subdued acoustic set on a massive Austin City Limits Festival stage. Though large crowds and larger stages aren't out of the ordinary for the Scandanavian superstar, José seemed much more at place at The Parish a few weeks later, where we sat down for a chat before the show. Are large stage shows and massive outdoor audiences difficult......

Dateline: Budapest. Mullet-wearing, cowboy boot-wearing, justice-keeping, Texas martial arts phenom Chuck Norris is close to putting another feather in his black belt. Or something. Hungarian government officials need a name for a new bridge that crosses the Danube in Budapest. Being the grand, tech-savvy democracy that they are, they decided to let the voice of the people be heard, so they took the name-voting to the intraweb. And, not surprisingly, the leading vote-getter thus far,......

The end is near, or someone had a serious typo. Wal-Mart was listed as the #1 most charitable foundation by Forbes. A research company in Austin is using baby-teeth as a source for stem cell extraction. Robert Brooks, the guy that started Hooters (the boobies+wings=a good combo restuarant) passed away. In case you missed it, here's Stephen Colbert on Conan. Damn, we love nerds. Among the recommended ways to save gas: roll your windows......

Seattlest saw a house party get senselessly attacked with a shotgun and end in seven dead. A local senator is debated and their version of the big dig is investigated. To truly get to the bottom of it they interview the writer Jonathan Raban. Bostonist has its first birthday party and investigates how to attach more gambling dollars to the Red Sox. Benjamin Franklin is celebrated and Johnny Damon is not. Image by Ethan Bagley......

Wake up. Go to work. Go to bar. Go to rock show. Go to sleep. Repeat. If this is beginning to sound like your life, too, we encourage you to break the mold this weekend. Skip Bright Eyes on Saturday and head to Emo’s instead for a night of comedy and music with Eugene Mirman, Andy Blitz and Langhorne Slim. We have been fans of Mirman (who has opened for The Shins and toured......