Content about writer

For professional women, mothers and college students, putting down that BlackBerry, ditching the cellphone and distancing from a laptop for a few hours can be a challenge.

It’s hard to believe that the Moontower Comedy and Oddity Festival is only in its first year when you compare it to other festivals around the city. It’s arguable that Austin City Limits didn’t hit its stride until R.E.M. headlined the festival in its second year.

Jonathan Franzen’s new collection of essays and speeches, “Farther Away,” is an uneven one. Much of it is marred by the writer’s excessive crankiness or weighed down by literary criticism of obscure novels. Nonetheless, at several points, his characteristic brilliance shines through.

In “Bernie,” Austin-based filmmaker Richard Linklater’s newest film, Jack Black plays real-life Texas criminal Bernie Tiede, a mortician who strikes up an unlikely friendship with millionaire Marjorie Nugent (Shirley MacLaine). When the friendly, unassuming Bernie is driven to murder the curmudgeonly Marjorie, District Attorney Danny Buck (Matthew McConaughey) swoops in to pick up the pieces.

From the literary outpourings of poets to the breakthroughs of inventors, many of us have this idea that creative brilliance is something that just happens. In reality, creativity is not some force that acts upon us — although it can sometimes feel like it — and it isn’t only reserved for artists, inventors or “creative types.”

Hip-hop heads rejoice: Thursday will feature two shows sure to appeal to both hardcore rap fans and music-savvy hipsters.

After reading the article published in Thursday’s issue of The Daily Texan regarding the Norman Finkelstein lecture on Wednesday, I am truly disappointed in the journalistic integrity of the article and the writer. It presents a quick summary of Finkelstein’s lecture and then offers the opinion of two students that are both firmly entrenched in a philosophy that ignores human rights and international law.

Mitch Clem is a cartoonist, perhaps best known for ongoing webcomic Nothing Nice To Say, which examines the culture surrounding punk music. He has also authored the autobiographical comic series San Antonio Rock City, and My Stupid Life. His work appears in zines like Razorcake, and on album covers and flyers.

With entire sections of book stores such as Barnes & Noble dedicated exclusively to the next big teen paranormal romance, many critics and readers alike have come to criticize the genre as having grown obsolete and shallow. However, alongside recent young adult novels that challenge these negative stereotypes in an ever-changing genre, modern publishing and marketing methods are gradually changing the perceptions of these works on both a local and general level.

On Sundays, brunch isn’t just a meal, it’s a way of life. The meal is a true hybrid that blurs the lines between breakfast and lunch with menu staples such as fried chicken and waffles, steak and eggs, and signature cocktails such as mimosas and Bloody Marys. Whoever said you couldn’t have the best of both worlds has obviously never had a drink before noon or a pancake for lunch.

A woman finds herself falling down a staircase after somebody brutally pushes her. An expert in body language finds a new student who seems to know almost as much about the skill as he does, if not more. Another man finds himself making a huge gamble that, if successful, would make him and his wife wealthier than they could have ever possibly dreamed. These stories seem unrelated, but readers beginning “The Face Thief” by Eli Gottlieb know that somehow they will come together before the end.

Editor's Note: The Life & Arts senior staff combed through this year’s pop culture and selected the artists, albums, books and movements that they think, in one way or another, helped define 2011. This is the second in a two-day series.

2011 certainly wasn’t a banner year for America. After all, political gridlock, massive protest movements and a slowly collapsing economy have made for a fairly volatile climate, and it’s no surprise that many of this year’s filmmakers took it upon themselves to look back to better days.