In Hurricane Season, the soaring poetry Pennimann and Garcia have collectively created and simultaneously deliver is at once a diatribe against injustice in its many forms, but it is also the beginning of a dialogue that will continue far beyond the night’s end. For one evening, the Off-Center was transformed into a sacred space of listening and participation....

Hurricane Season: The Hidden Messages in the Water brings to life the struggles and strengths of New Orleans natives through an energetic amalgam of spoken word, video projection, dance, shadow art, and sound collage of personal testimonies. Electrifying spoken word activists Naima Pennimann and Alexia Garcia go straight to the core of the issues affecting the nation and the globe that have been ignited by the needless destruction of America’s most spirited and magical city....

Usually, street closures around the Capitol hail the arrival of one of Austin's many street festivals, where you can listen to a wishy-washy blues-rocker do his best to channel Stevie Ray Vaughn while you eat a turkey leg amongst a sea of fanny-packed families and homemade jewelry vendors. But once a year it means it's Texas Book Festival time. As literary events go in this town, it is the big one. For two days......

COLOUR REVOLT What’s the Deal: There’s a small college town in Mississippi where Colour Revolt is waiting like a swollen, porous sponge for someone to wring them out over the parched mouths of indie rock fans and critics alike. Right now, there is only the self-titled 6-song EP re-released in October of ‘06, but they’re currently in the final stages of recording their debut full-length. The EP, which caught ears at Spin and Stereogum......

The Out of Bounds Improv Festival and Miniature Golf Tournament ended on Monday after six days of blithe musings from some of the finest improv and sketch-comedy troupes in the country. In its sixth year, Out of Bounds reached new heights of comedic exuberance over the past week—and, more importantly, surely introduced a new universe of humor to an unimaginable quantity of newcomers. But for some, Out of Bounds was more than a once-a-year......

Coldtowne Conservatory's Tami Nelson and Chris Trew are Hurricane Katrina transplants who also happen to be pretty damn funny improv artists with a sold out FronteraFest 2007 show - one a.m. Austinist got up close and personal with these two cut-ups, and this is what we found out: Tell me about the background and history of Coldtowne Conservatory. Tami Nelson: So, Tami Nelson and Chris Trew are in Coldtowne and one a.m. is the......

First Night Austin Schedule 2-5pm Family Festival 5:30-6:30pm Grand Procession 7pm Family Finale at City Hall 7-11:30pm Evening programming Midnight Grand Finale First Night Austin takes over downtown this Sunday, kicking off the second annual festival with three hours of family-friendly activities, performances, and art installations. From hip hop freestyling to Appalachian-style clog dancing, there promises to be enough culturally-rich distractions to entertain even that obnoxious nephew of yours who'd rather stay home to......

The first-ever Fun Fun Fun Fest is this Friday, December 1st, at Waterloo Park. Over two dozen great acts are on the bill, including Spoon, Peaches, The Black Angels, Prefuse 73, and DJ Mel. Tickets are $20, and can be purchased online. Quintron and Miss Pussycat perform on the Austin Fuzion Stage/Tent at 6:50 p.m. -- The Editors How is the tour going for you so far? Great... even though we have broken our......

All images in this post by special guest contributor Megan Griffiths This is the second post highlighting the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The first is here, but we'll ask again: if you know of good local resources to help Katrina and Rita evacuees, or if you know of any artists who were forced from their homes and into Austin, please let us know. In this installment, we highlight the work of Megan......

FRIDAY [22] music • Rogue Wave, Jason Collett at The Parish Room ® music • The Gossip, Mika Miko, Swan Island at Emo's ® music • Rockland Eagles, The Colour, The Shys, The Fall Collection at Emo's music • Kissinger, Driver F, Seaflea at Stubb's music • Brent Fariss / Bill Thompson CD release at End of an Ear (6pm) music • Sybil, As the Phoenix Rises, Smokin' Gun, Wax Dart and Andice at......

Starting today, Cinematexas #11 will present a cavalcade of international, narrative and experimental short films at venues all over Austin. Thematically, this year's festival is incredibly diverse, with subjects ranging from "provocative experiments with vintage 'skin flicks' to sobering documentaries on the reconstruction of the Gulf Coast following Hurricane Katrina." Screenings are taking place all over town, at unique venues like the east side's historic Victory Grille, so we recommend checking the schedule to see......

MONDAY [18] film • La Brune et Moi with Cry Blood Apache live at Alamo Downtown (9:45pm, $2) ® music • Darling New Neighbors, Coach & Four at Hole in the Wall (10pm) music • David Garza at Cactus Café ® food • Dining for Life at Participating restaurants all over town More than 50 of Austin's best restaurants donate 15% of their dinner proceeds to Aids Services of Austin ® books • Greg......

It’s already a sold-out show for the endurance portion (regular tix should be still be available though). It’s the most eccentric cause we’ve ever come across. It’s the absolute strangest attempt at providing for that eccentric cause that we’ve ever heard of. And it’s wrapped around what will likely be the shittiest intentional, scripted movie ever made. And that includes that bullshit Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles rip-off you and your half-retarded friend made back in......

We'll never smoke look at broccoli the same again- especially if it means that the truck is carrying our next stash. We're getting mixed messages from those astronomers. On Monday, Pluto wasn't a planet, now we have three more to add to our solar system. Tomorrow, the Sun will be cold or something. Apparently water had nothing to do with the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina. We don't want to make it a spectacle,......

Good Morning! This kitten has two faces. Cheap, plastic crap has finally taken the backseat. Exxon surpassed Wal-Mart in the rankings of the 500 largest companies on the planet. The 2008 Class President of Lehigh University in PA set a good example for his class after he robbed a bank to pay off some gambling debts. After being humbled by the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, our favorite Mr. T is losing all the bling......

We’re suckers for a good book and for a good cause. The Dewey Donation System lets us indulge in both. Started by mega-achievers Pamela Ribon and David T. Cole, the site connects needy libraries with shameless book addicts donors. Their 2006 book drive focuses on the Harrison County Library in Mississippi. Several of the library’s branches were devastated by Hurricane Katrina and lost many or all of their books and materials; others fared better in......

It's just been announced that President Clinton is coming back to Austin. He's scheduled to deliver the convocation address at UT's LBJ School of Public Affairs on May 20. UT President William Powers had this much to say: "The LBJ School was formed as an expression of President Johnson's faith in government to serve democracy by building a more just society. It is fitting that this year's convocation speaker at the LBJ School is a......

We caught up with Independent gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman recently to discuss the upcoming election and why he wants primary voters to save themselves for him. As you would imagine, Kinky did most of the talking. We found him to be thoughtful, engaging and funny. What follows are highlights of that interview for which we used Kinky’s song titles as subject headers.* *The first reader to email us with the names of the three......

Last night, City Council told us that it was cool if we took our dogs out to eat with us on those outdoor patios. America is hypocritical? No. Bush's proposed nuclear deal with India isn't without criticism. His visit was unwelcome by many and led to protests and rioting causing at least one fatality. Some information has been released detailing the fact that George W. was warned of the pending threat of Hurricane Katrina......

There seem to be a lot of double standards in place when it comes to regulating Free Speech around the world. Joseph "Jack" Thomas, an Austrailian-Muslim convert, had a hard time with his conversion because he loves his beer. On Sunday, a 22-year old in Detroit shoots his girlfriend's mother while she's attending Sunday Services. While the 'Horns men's basketball team looks ahead to the Big 12 and NCAA tournaments, take a peek at......

If you thought your week went well, check out five days in the life of Spurs guard Tony Parker. On Monday, he and girlfriend Eva Longoria appeared on The Oprah Winfrey show to donate $50,000 to Oprah's Hurricane Katrina fund and to talk about their relationship. On Wednesday, Parker scored 32 points and added 13 assists in a road win against Toronto. Yesterday, he was named to the 2006 NBA All-Star Team for next......

-The Washington Post's Terry M. Neal speculates on Miers' failed bid for the Supreme Court -The latest move in Google's quest to take over the internet: crushing eBay? -Janet Jackson has a secret kid! (Maybe) -2,000 international firms have been accused by the United Nations of paying off Saddam Hussein's regime -MSNBC explains the whole hubbub over the CIA leak story -Charles and Camilla, desperately trying to stay relevant -Another luxury condo's going up......

The storm may have passed, but there is still tons of work to do. In an effort to raise funds for Hurricane Katrina Relief, there will be a benefit show this Saturday at Room 710. The evening will feature an eclectic mix of bands including The Always Already, The Denim Tsunami, Cochino and Two Guy Trio. Entry is a mere $5, and there will also be some fabulous raffle prizes ($2 a ticket), including:......

-Some organization called Safe Kids Worldwide voted us the safest metropolitan area for kids. And proving why we're probably not the hippest metropolitan area for kids, the entire student body of Oak Springs Elementary celebrated ... by making 300 children walk two blocks from ACC to their their school. Back in our day we called that exercise. And in unrelated news, that assistant principal from Bastrop High remains under investigation for possession of child......

Rumors are flying that Austin will host this years Voodoo Music Experience while New Orleans is being rebuilt. From E! Online: With Houston already taking in refugees at the Astrodome and San Antonio serving as temporary home to the New Orleans Saints in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Austin has now agreed to host one of the Big Easy's largest music festivals--the Voodoo Music Experience. Austin, which is known for hosting large-scale musical extravaganzas......

: : FRIDAY : : [music] The Zippo Hot Tour Semi-Finals featuring Fractious, 9pm @ The Backroom - FREE! [film] A Bunch of New Movies Open! @ your local theater [film] QT6, 7pm & 9:30pm @ Drafthouse Downtown: Grindhouse Triple Feature also Saturday [music] Mike Graff, 8pm @ End of an Ear [dance] Refraction Arts presents "Shish-ka-bob! An Inventory of Works by Amy Cone," 8pm @ The Blue Theatre [music] Palaxy Tracks, The Glass......

[This post by future Austinist contributor Ami]Specifically, remember to go there next Tuesday or Wednesday night.  No, not the historically significant Alamo in San Antonio, silly, we’re talking about the Alamo Drafthouse Village.  Leave it to our friends at the Alamo to come up with a fantastic fundraiser for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Now, we know that we shouldn’t require some benefit for ourselves in order to help those displaced by the hurricane - we......

That’s the first thing you see when you click on the "How To Be Saved" link on the website for the Woodland Hills Baptist Church located at 3400 Old Jacksonville Rd. in Tyler, Texas. So what’s the big deal, you ask? The head of this church, Dr. Wiley Benett thinks that Hurricane Katrina was sent by God to destroy New Orleans. Don’t believe us? Well check out the sign for yourself. No PhotoShop was......

Twenty bucks goes a long way on Tuesday night as Antone’s hosts a benefit performance for survivors of Hurricane Katrina. Headliner Alejandro Escovedo will be supported by a who’s who of Austin singer-songwriters including John Dee Graham, Charlie Sexton, James McMurtry, Dan Dyer, Ian McLagan, James McMurtry, Fastball, and Heybale. Doors open at 6, and the show start at 7. Proceeds will benefit the American Red Cross, so please come out and show your......

* new! and improved! * : : FRIDAY : : [music] Book of Shadows & Devil Bat, 6pm @ End of an Ear - Free! [charity/music] Benefit for the victims of Hurricane Katrina with Attic Ted, The Vivian Girls, 8pm @ Monkeywrench Books [music] Zykos, Phosphorescent, Canoe, 9pm @ Emo's OUTSIDE - Free! [music] Voxtrot, Loxsly, Belaire, 9pm @ Emo's INSIDE - Free [charity/music] Crescent City Soul and R&B 45's by Waxploitation! DJs, 6-8pm......