Photo by smellyknee on flickr Sorry, Kucinich fans: Federal judge rules that he won't be on the Texas ballot. Downtown oil-spill sends 1,500 gallons of oil into Waller Creek, and it is still unclear where the oil came from. City of Hutto signs U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement. Seven City of Austin employees alter vehicle inspection stickers, get arrested. Search is still on for Lewisville dad who killed his two daughters; on New Year's Eve......

The Blanton Museum's B Scene events happen once a month and celebrate the arts by combining music, drinks and socializing to rejuvenate the sometimes stuffy fine art scene. Their unique approach to reaching out to the public this way includes showcasing local musicians and DJs, and each B Scene event offers a different genre representation from Austin's diverse musical culture. ...

Photos from this year's First Night Austin, which took place last Monday. The family-friendly New Year's Eve festival relies on volunteers and local performers. To find out how you can help with next year's festivities, visit their website. Photos courtesy of Steve Hopson. If you can't view the Flash slideshow above, an alternate version appears after the jump.......

Besides the wonderful events highlighted by the flyers above, there are a few other shows on New Year's Eve in Austin worth noting: - New Monsoon @ Club 115 - South Austin Jug Band & Dertybird @ Stubb's - Bob Schneider & Two Guy Trio @ Antone's - Dale Watson & Jon Dee Graham @ The Continental Club - The Flametrick Subs & Scott H. Biram @ Emo's Outside - Reckless Kelly @ La......

The Onion (Grand Master Onion)Austinist got a chance to swap sarcasm with Chet Clem, The Onion’s Editorial Manager and one of many fine writers for their newest hard-covered print offering: Our Dumb World: Atlas Of The Planet Earth, which is an atlas bursting with humorously doctored images and witty insights into our little Earth (as it has been politically divided to-date by drunken Brits). We asked Chet about The Atlas, his affinity for dated pop-culture,......

SFist saw Christmas Day turn tragic after a Siberian tiger escaped from her pen at the San Francisco Zoo, killing a visitor and mauling two others. Phillyist counted down the top ten items on Philadelphia's New Year's wish list. Gothamist looked at the wooden bikes being offered for NYC's first bike share program on Governors Island. LAist received a Christmas present in the form of a drunk Santa Claus in a g-string. Bostonist launched......

Image courtesy First Night Austin, by 2008 featured artist Alina Byoun Now in its third year, First Night Austin will return to downtown on New Year's Eve. This massive public gathering, intended to ring in the new year through "art, ritual, and festivity," features visual and performing art projects by more than 60 Austin artists. This year's performances and installations will run from Congress Avenue to Cesar Chavez, including Auditorium Shores, City Hall, and......

Photos from the First Night Austin Kickoff which took place Thursday, December 6th at City Hall. Visit First Night Austin to find out more about this year's New Years event. Photos courtesy of Keith Gaddis. If you can't view the Flash slideshow above, an alternate version appears after the jump.......

5th Annual Big Reds and BubblesTuesday, November 27Driskill Hotel (604 Brazos St.)6:30-9pm; $75 general admission, $60 for members[info] | [tickets]With Thanksgiving a mere two days away and the holiday season right around the corner, this time of year brings fine wine to all foodie minds. Wine lovers traditionally splurge in December on fancy bottles for both holiday toasts and New Year's Eve celebrations. To welcome this time of year and the wines that complement......

There's really no way to talk about just one of the bands that's playing tonight at Emo's. Though not widely praised in Austin's rock-loving community, we think they're wonderful, each with its own fanciful and individual personality. Come early. Be loud. Stay late. Avoid the bathroom. Headlining the show are locals The Boxing Lesson, whose lo-fi and indie sounds "deserve more of a following" says The Chron. Also, you'll get another chance to see Tussle,......

Keith Rowe has been astounding audiences for decades with his unusual style of free-form jazz guitar techniques inspired by early American jazz greats and other less likely influences such as Jackson Pollack and an old art instructor. Rowe took small steps over the years as a guitarist to attempt a completely individual approach to the instrument, embracing free jazz and various prepared guitar techniques (eg. a New Year's resolution to never tune his guitar......

HBMG Foundation is still inviting folks to apply for the 2007 ArtSpark Festival, a twelve-week-long creative festival and competition that pits teams of theatre junkies, video game developers, and visual artists against one another to create awesome new works. At orientation, each team is given a "spark," an object which serves as the catalyst and inspiration to jumpstart the team's creative process. If you'd like to apply but can't find a team to join,......

Norman, Oklahoma sounds like a fairly sedate, even mundane blip on the vast plain of Middle America...so of course they churn out psycho rock bands with names like Flaming Lips, Chainsaw Kittens, and latest blog darlings Evangelicals with the consistency of pubescent rabbits. With a full-length out on Austin's own Misra label, Evangelicals are livin' the dream; we talked to bandleader Josh Jones about audience antagonism, fecal pranks, and his cool parents. Share a......

We don't know about you, but it's friggin cold out there. Well, not for some of you. It seems as though places that are supposed to be cold are warm and places that are supposed to be warm are cold. Or maybe that's just us. Either way, we're freezing. Austinist said goodbye to their co-editor (sell-out) and played rumor monger on the SXSW lineup. And when dozens of dead birds littered downtown Austin, it's......

As you make those New Year's resolutions, you may wonder how to get more involved in the Austin community for 2007. January is National Mentoring Month, and one way to mentor here in Austin is through a volunteer teaching position at Citizen Schools. The Boston-based nonprofit arrived in Austin last year, and helps children in lower-income middle schools to prepare for the rigors of high school and college. They've already won 2006 and 2007 Fast......

And we're back!!!! Hope you had a very happy holiday season and a very drunken good New Year's eve, we know that we did. Spec's made it a very happy evening, and we've been recovering ever since. We've barely had any time to for any excitement, but we managed to round up the best of last week's Missed Connections just for you... Didn't We have English Together at [fill in college name here] -......

Sunday. Usually, a quiet, contemplative day in the Blogosphere. But not here in the Ist-a-Verse. Nonono! Just look below and see all of the wild and crazy stuff our staffs are up to. In Austin, bands are beginning to confirm for SXSW and the rumor mill is up and running. Good thing, too, because we all know how much Austinites love live performances. Austin also found itself in the national spotlight, with Longhorn Legend......

Our favorite posts by local bloggers for this first week of January: Wipeout celebrated New Year's at Emo's and has the photos to prove it. Ken (from Cheap Thoughts by Ken) tells about being towed next to DPS. I Blame the Patriarchy has Oprah all figured out. We agree with Diane Holloway. Why are people still watching Trump? We prefer to ignore him and hope he goes away. Ultra8201 looks forward to seeing The......

FRIDAY [5] film • Sinus Show: Die Hard at Alamo Downtown (7pm & 10pm, $12.50) music • Amplified Heat, Lions, Full Stride, The Flood at Emo's (Inside) music • Grand Champeen, Quien Es Boom, The Fall Collection, The Alice Rose at Emo's (Lounge) music • Lemurs, The Lord Henry, Clap!Clap!, Lomita at Emo's (Outside) music • The Black & White Years, AUX, The Paper South, Aster Years at Stubb's music • Summer of Blood,......

An Austinist reader left a comment in our First Night preview inquiring about the canopy of bells installed on 1st Street Bridge. "Liminal Spaces," envisioned and executed by local artist Neesha Thakkar, was meant to "represent the movement between grounded and defined states," and "create an idyllic passageway with a processional quality." Handcrafted in India and each featuring a unique ring tone, the brass bells were to be given away after First Night to......

DJ Mel packed the house at the Parish on New Year's Eve.......

Relive those halcyon days of flannel shirts and Gin Blossoms this New Year's Eve, as the folks of Car Stereo (Wars) present SWISSmas: A '90s-themed party at the Beauty Bar. Outside, local super group SWISS, drawn from members of The Gloria Record, Zykos, and more, will be performing apropos hits from the likes of Pavement, Smashing Pumpkins, Weezer and all the alt classics you know and still love. Inside, the mixmasters behind Car Stereo (Wars)......

Say what you will about the Austin music scene, if there's one thing we've got in spades, it's heart. And breakfast tacos. But that's another story altogether. Our bands can take any other city's bands on when it comes to sheer per capita productivity and playing out, never leaving their respective constituencies on the sidelines. And albums? Lordy, just walk into Waterloo Records and check out the local music section: 2006 was a banner......

Relive those halcyon days of flannel shirts and Gin Blossoms this New Year's Eve, as the folks of Car Stereo (Wars) present SWISSmas: A '90s-themed party at the Beauty Bar. Outside, local super group SWISS, drawn from members of The Gloria Record, Zykos, and more, will be performing apropos hits from the likes of Pavement, Smashing Pumpkins, Weezer and all the alt classics you know and still love. Inside, the mixmasters behind Car Stereo (Wars)......

Come 12:01am on Monday morning, downtown Austin will be a madhouse of drunken revelers and even drunker artsy types. You could opt to shell out plenty of dough to get into the swanky parties, but why bother? You probably won't remember it the next day. Below are our top choices for fun things to do this New Year's Eve, all with reasonably-priced cover charges and, more importantly, within stumbling distance of one another. Get there......

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......

Relive those halcyon days of flannel shirts and Gin Blossoms this New Year's Eve, as the folks of Car Stereo (Wars) present SWISSmas: A '90s-themed party at the Beauty Bar. Outside, local super group SWISS, drawn from members of The Gloria Record, Zykos, and more, will be performing apropos hits from the likes of Pavement, Smashing Pumpkins, Weezer and all the alt classics you know and still love. Inside, the mixmasters behind Car Stereo (Wars)......

Relive those halcyon days of flannel shirts and Gin Blossoms this New Year's Eve, as the folks of Car Stereo (Wars) present SWISSmas: A '90s-themed party at the Beauty Bar. Outside, local super group SWISS, drawn from members of The Gloria Record, Zykos, and more, will be performing apropos hits from the likes of Pavement, Smashing Pumpkins, Weezer and all the alt classics you know and still love. Inside, the mixmasters behind Car Stereo (Wars)......

While on tour, New Orleans sextet Galactic provide support for some serious funk and jazz artists, from The Meters to Medeski Martin & Wood. And their contemporary and ex-labelmate, North Louisianan slide guitarist Papa Mali has worked with some of the most famous funk musicians on the planet, from Cyrille Neville to Burning Spear. So it's safe to say that fans of those groups will gravitate to La Zona Rosa for the New Year's......

SATURDAY [23] music • Wintershow Benefit for SafePlace and Capital Area Food Bank with Bill Callahan (SMOG), Shearwater, Nick Hennies (Weird Weeds) and Brian Sookram at The Mohawk (Doors at 3pm, Music at 5pm) film • Sinus Show: Die Hard at Alamo Downtown (7 & 10pm, $12.50) music • Everyone Knows Everyone Winter Party, with music by Visitors, Rory + the Artificial Hearts, Pompeii, and Mars Wars; art by Carlos Rosales-Silva, Justin Cox, Jay......