Meet Dave Dart. This former astronaut trainer and Systems Analyst at the University of Texas started Dart Music International (DMI), an Austin Area nonprofit that works to bring small indie/rock/pop bands from around the world to Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico, with the majority of their work centered around artists coming for the annual South by Southwest (SXSW) music festival in downtown Austin. DMI's Backstage Pass to the World event and first annual International … [Read more...]
Marigold owner serves up Indian home cooking
Driving down South Lamar, you might notice an inconspicuous store with Indian clothes and decor in the front windows called Marigold – Gateway to India. Lata Karna is the owner of the retail store, which sells authentic Indian clothing, tapestries, and home furnishings. Originally from New York, Lata had a friend that would come to her house, cook traditional Indian food, and leave enough for an entire week. When Lata moved to Austin, she tried Indian food across the city and felt that … [Read more...]
TC’s Lounge: Austin’s down home blues spot
Hours before the music begins and the sun is just beginning to set, T.C.’s Lounge feels like a ghost town. It is hard to believe in a few hours the place will be crowded with people old and young dancing to the blues, causing the floor to move and the walls to rattle. The place will be so packed that the fan and A/C unit will no longer be enough to keep the place cool. There will be a long line at the bar for cold beer and free southern soul food made by T.C.’s bartender, Baby Girl. The … [Read more...]
Mexico’s Camila takes time with 2nd album
Patience is a rare virtue in the music business. But Mexican pop trio Camila has benefited from taking things slowly not once, but twice. In May 2006, the group released its debut album, “Todo Cambio,” and watched it do next to nothing at first. It took a year for the release to enter Billboard’s Top Latin Albums chart and then climb steadily to the top five, eventually selling nearly 400,000 U.S. copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. But instead of quickly capitalizing on that success and … [Read more...]
Habitat Young Professionals: Helping to build a better Austin
By Katie Warner The Austin Times Staff According to a recent poll by the Wall Street Journal, Austin was ranked as the fifth hottest, hippest destination for highly mobile, educated workers in their 20s. One of the factors why Austin was chosen by many young professionals was the abundance of nonprofits in the city, and the influence it has had. According to Greenlights for NonProfit Success, Austin has more nonprofits per capita than any other city in the southwestern U.S. Over the next … [Read more...]
Tens of thousands feared dead after Haiti quake
Austin Times Wire Services PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Dazed survivors wandered past dead bodies in rubble-strewn streets Wednesday, crying for loved ones, and rescuers searched collapsed buildings as officials feared the death toll from Haiti’s devastating earthquake could reach into the tens of thousands. The first cargo planes with food, water, medical supplies, shelter and sniffer dogs headed to the Western Hemisphere’s poorest nation a day after the magnitude-7 quake flattened much of the … [Read more...]
Mark McGwire finally admits using steroids
NEW YORK – Finally willing to talk about the past, Mark McGwire sobbed and sniffled, giving the missing — and unsurprising — answer to the steroids question. Ending more than a decade of denials and evasion, McGwire admitted Monday that steroids and human growth hormone helped make him a home run king. "The toughest thing is my wife, my parents, close friends have had no idea that I hid it from them all this time," he told The Associated Press in an emotional, 20-minute … [Read more...]
Environmental justice in East Austin
By Beth Cortez-Neavel The Austin Times Staff Along East Cesar Chavez Street on the front of a blue-gray one-story house there are three signs hanging. Next to a muffler shop and across from a small hair salon, this house looks nothing out of the ordinary for East Austin. “¡Si Se Puede! Feed. Teach. House & Employ.” “Protect our children/relocate Pure Casting/build affordable housing!” and “PODER’s Young Scholars for Justice” the signs read. This is the home base for the People … [Read more...]
Acclaimed trumpeter Marsalis composes Blues Symphony
Acclaimed trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, arguably the world's most prominent jazz musician, is set to premiere a major new project -- composing a Blues Symphony for orchestra. In keeping with a career that spans jazz, classical music, band leadership and high-profile advocacy for the arts, Marsalis' symphony is epic in scope -- to celebrate American history from Revolution to the present through the blues. The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra at Morehouse College in Atlanta will … [Read more...]