With much loved “ultralounge” Pangea closing, famed Austin impresario Michael Ault is trading in wildebeest-penis afrodisiacs for a new Chris Claremont-era X-Men themed club called “The Pheonix.”

But the true visionary next step in Austin nightlife is to take the club back to the streets. After the Pheonix, his next venture “The Lot” (pictured above), will forever change the face of drinking beer in a parking lot.

Features include comfortable “curb” seating and a gravel VIP area.

July 15, 2009, 9:42am

Skillcrane

Better Than Ezra

Margaritas

May 29, 2009, 1:23pm

“LOVE IT! BUT NEEDS VINTAGE JORTS PLZ”

my suggestion at the Levi Strauss Archive Collection in San Francisco. On display, among many pairs of pants, was the world’s oldest surviving denim jeans.

April 21, 2009, 4:31pm

“There is no Spoon”

-Keanu Reeves to Britt Daniel, overheard at the Side Bar, Austin, TX.

January 23, 2009, 1:13pm

A panopticon is a circular prison structure conceived by British philosopher/social theorist Jeremy Bentham. The concept of the design is to allow an observer to observe all the prisoners without the prisoners being able to tell whether they are being watched, thereby conveying what one architect has called the “sentiment of an invisible ominescence.”

Bentham himself described the Panopticon as “a new mode of obtaining power of mind over mind, in a quantity hitherto without example. The Panopticon was intended to be cheaper than the prisons of his time, as it required fewer staff; “Allow me to construct a prison on this model,” Bentham requested to a Committee for the Reform of Criminal Law, “I will be the gaoler. You will see … that the gaoler will have no salary — will cost nothing to the nation.” As the watchmen cannot be seen, they need not be on duty at all times, effectively leaving the watching to the watched.

It’s sort of the inverse of certain peep shows in Seattle…

December 05, 2008, 9:55am