Sure, family-friendly films, "green" cinema and the corresponding warm-fuzzies you get from caring about your lil' ones and The Earth are nice. But historically, motion pictures have always been driven by violence, outlandishness and the public's insatiable and prurient interest in watching things on film that they don't necessarily want to see in real life. In this hallowed vein, the AFF Dark Matters Series explores subject matter ranging from blood-spattered vegans to Korean hillbilly gangs......

Congress votes to expand the White House's wiretapping free-for-all. Exercise, it turns out, doesn't have to completely suck. Man pleads "I was sleepwalking" to rape charges, actually succeeds. Wanna get a kid to eat something? Wrap it in a Big Mac wrapper. Giuliani's own daughter is voting for Obama. Chicago Tribune music critic sums up Lollapalooza 2007. Thinking of getting married? Oprah'll change your mind.......

Black Nasty Feed From Me It's hard not to start by saying "This music is totally offensive, completely cringe-worthy, and absolutely not appropriate in almost any situation you can imagine." There, we didn't start by saying that. Feed From Me is a maxi single (not an EP, CD or regular single, these are different times, folks) with ten songs that push the boundaries of what most normal people consider music. Influenced by the olden days......

Despite being removed from office, Tom DeLay is up to his old tricks: comparing Democrats to Nazis; comparing himself to the Duke students falsely accused of rape; proclaiming that if the liberals can take down Don Imus, the conservatives can get Rosie O’Donnell off the air; and now this, the most egregious of his statements. In what is one of the most disturbing things we have heard in the wake of the shootings at Virginia......

FRIDAY [13] fashion • RARE Magazine Spring Fling Fashion Show at The Belmont Hi-Lo (Moved due to rain) art/music • Take That!, a show of new images by Lance McMahan, plus music by Amanda Jones, Connie Ball, & Teddy and Marge at The Opera House (7-10pm) art • Hot and Cold: The Best of Canadian Contemporary Art at Art on 5th, 1501 W 5th (10am-6pm) art • Opening Reception for abstract paintings and encaustics......

In the mid 1980s, the US Senate (provoked by a high-powered busybody wives club called the PMRC) held a series of hearings on so-called “porn rock”—music containing lyrics about violence, sex, drugs, and the occult. The hearings were pointless but hilarious, providing a public venue for several old, rich, uptight assholes to make fools of themselves reciting lyrics from songs by prominent 80s rock bands. And though the hearings are probably best remembered for testimonies......

One would think that this would be the week to make connections, with people trying to find quick a hookup, even if just for that one evening. But there aren't many Valentine's Day desperate connections to be had--just a lot of normal desperate connections. So get out there and take a peek, as we bring you the best of last week's Missed Connections... Stupid Cad Girl Seeks Missing Purse. Lost During Debauchery Although Jim......

Jona Bechtolt is no more a normal human being than a toaster is a Ferrari. His eye and ear-boggling work with his pet project YACHT testifies to the hamster on acid that is constantly running in the wheel full speed in his head. As part of the duo that is The Blow, he is at least partly responsible for last year's awesome Paper Television. We e-cornered him to share a bit about himself and......

Wal-Mart decides to make their discriminatory practices public, just in time for the holidays. Women will take their clothes off for a tick, but not a Ding-Dong. Some of those things you wonder about, but never say aloud becuase they're kinda stupid gross, have actually been studied. This makes us a little more than nervous. ...guess it's good to know that we don't taste like chicken. A guy who raped his deaf, mute neighbor......

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......

On October 10, Ms. Magazine will release its fall issue with a cover story sure to spark a lot of debate. The magazine’s cover story, entitled “We Had Abortions,” will list the names of 1,016 women who have signed a petition stating that they have had abortions and support Pro-Choice legislation. In addition to the print version of the issue, Ms. Magazine is also taking names for their online petition, the numbers of which are......

The Decemberists won't release their new album, The Crane Wife until next Tuesday, but MTVU has an official leak, with the full album available to stream. Roughly the story of a man who marries a woman who turns out to be a crane, Decemberists' latest The Crane Wife (Capitol Records), is a tragic Japanese folktale turned epic Americana-flavored rock-opera, rife with greed, abduction, rape and death. The album, already widely proclaimed a masterpiece, calls......

The Superman Returns unprecedented 7-day opening weekend begins today. To kick off this holiday “week end,” film philes might opt for something really special: An Austin Film Society 20th Anniversary screening of Jean-Luc Godard’s Week End at the Alamo Downtown. This 1967 classic follows a bourgeois French couple as they make their way to the country to visit the wife’s mother and find themselves in the mother of all traffic jams. What is intended to......

Another Waco-type situation presently looms on the horizon out in west Texas, just south of San Angelo. This time, instead of the Branch Davidians and David Koresh, it’s the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), a radical polygamist organization based out of Utah, headed by its spiritual leader, Warren Jeffs. Jeffs is wanted in Arizona and Utah on criminal charges of sexual conduct with a minor and rape. He is also......

Now its going to be just as expensive to kill yourself as it is to see a doctor. The proposed tax on cigarettes was approved by the Texas Senate yesterday in an effort to give teachers a long-overdue raise. The Duke Lacrosse rape investigation has led to a massive increase in past rape victims seeking counseling. A Senate committee has recommended that FEMA be abolished, saying it is "beyond repair." Others recommend an entirely......

*The views expressed in Truesday are those of the author and do not represent Austinist as a whole. Thank heavens.* -The Editors So, I’m not sure how “in the know” you might be concerning the movements of global wealth by way of rampant American consumption of crap, but gas is stupid expensive. I describe it as “stupid” because these days, I’m standing at a pump that’s pushing out the goods at over $2.50 a......

F R I D A Y [ 2 7 ] [music] Explosions in the Sky, Octopus Project and A Hawk and a Hacksaw at Emo's (Sold Out!) [music] Brandi Carlile at Cactus Cafe (9pm) [music] Zilla featuring Michael Travis (String Cheese Incident) at Stubb's [music] Shake Your Ass Record Release Party with Chili Cold Blood, This Damn Town, Possessed By Paul James, Black Joe Lewis & Cool Breeze at Beerland [music] Chant, Exit, and......

W E D N E S D A Y [ 2 5 ] [music] St. James Inc, Hurts to Purr and Mike Blackhurst at Stubb's (8pm) [music] Akron/Family, Mi and L'au, Shearwater at Emo's [music] "Old Man Night," with skate videos, DJ Vomitnoise, free pizza from Slices and Ices, and special raffles and giveaways at Beerland [film] Screening of Fearless Freaks director Bradley Beesley's "Hill Stomp Holler," plus a set by John Schooley at......

All in all, we enjoyed this collection. But we also liked Stallone's performance in "Over the Top." (So compelling, that arm wrastlin' man!) During SxSW 2005, we stumbled (quite literally, as we were bendered and broken at the time) upon a Vice mix-CD of some sort. Grappling with the emotional mania that comes part-and-parcel with errant boozing, we fell in love with the first track, which fit our obliterated state of consciousness most neatly.......

Another one of those asinine polls are out that we can all assail as being unscientific, pointless and a waste of our time in a product’s lame attempt to draw interest to its brand by releasing Top-25 polls. But, we’re a blog, you’re bored, people like to bitch, so here it is. Axe body spray (the one that if you wear it your girlfriend’s mom will rape you) has released a poll listing the......

The Reverend Arthur Michalka apparently crossed the line last weekend when he administered pin pricks to 15 children during evening Mass. The priest was trying to demonstrate to the children the type of suffering that Jesus endured. Isn’t that kinda like sliding a whoopy cushion under someone to demonstrate what anal rape is like? The Catholic Diocese of Austin is investigating the evening’s events, not so much on the grounds of the cruelty of......

In the nature of things, life is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short." Few of us would agree with Thomas Hobbes' famous condemnation of humanity's default condition, and yet our days aren't all picnics at Barton Springs with puppies and rainbows. As long as life is less than perfect, jokes are conducive to happiness, if not out-and-out necessary. Taking features of the external world—from banana peels to sectarian struggle—jokes turn tragedy or banality into......

This Saturday, April 16th, Safeplace will be holding it's Walk to End Violence. The Austinist would like encourage everyone to show their support of victims of domestic and sexual violence by registering to walk or sponsoring a walker. To sponsor the Austinist team, click here! Safeplace is a resource and support center/shelter committed to the prevention of rape, sexual abuse and domestic violence within our community. They not only provide a safe place for women,......