Yes, we have a pair of tix to Talib Kweli on Thursday night at Scoot Inn up for grabs! Just post your #1 ACL tip in the comments to enter to win! Could be your fave band to see, outfit suggestions, places to go instead, whateva! As usual, I will use random number generator unless your comment is boring in which case I will randomly generate a different number.

Jay-Z’s famous Black Album rhyme: “If skills sold, truth be told/I’d probably be, lyrically, Talib Kweli.” Yeah, you could see that for FREE (or just $22 at the door)

Presented by KnuckleRumblr, the definitive cool-music kids in Austin. They’re also presenting Art Disaster and EA Need for Speed on Thursday, then Amanda Blank on Friday, Etienne De Cracy on Saturday, and The Smoker’s Club (Curren$y, Big K.R.I.T., and Smoke DZA) on Sunday.

Yogasm 2010

lululemon also presents Yogasm to kick off ACL in healthy style on Thursday at Republic Square Park. At 4pm reserve your mat spot & enjoy food vendors, artists & local DJs. The yoga class begins at 6:30 & after the last savasana, MC Yogi will take the stage for his first performance in Austin.

Bright Light Social Hour at Paggi House

Another Thursday happening, free but food and drink will cost ya.

Contest: Post your ACL tip in the comments by 9pm CST on 10/6/2010 to register to win two free tickets to Talib Kweli. Winner announced 10/7!

Fine Line Bar & Grill is a new bar, restaurant, grill, hangout in El Jebel/Basalt that’s reasonably-priced, has GREAT happy hour food and drink specials from 3-6pm daily ($2 Bud & Bud Light Drafts , $3 New Belgium Drafts, $10 Bucket Of 6 Coronitas, $5 Tuaca & Soco Lime Shots), plus special deals for each day and even serving up karaoke Tuesday nights!

Totally Tuesdays: Half Price On All Appetizers
Wine Wednesdays: Buy One Glass Of House Wine Get One Free / Free Chips & Salsa
Tequila Thursdays: Gingeritas & Margaritas $5 / All Nacho Plates Half Price
Fired Up Fridays: Free Chips And Salsa / Tuaca & Soco Lime Shots $3
Smokin’ Saturdays: Rib Platter $10 / Fat Tire Drafts $3
Sunday Bloody Sundays: Absolut Peppar Bloody Marys $5

This is the Gingerita: A Simple Margarita With A Twist. Equal Parts Fresh Lime Juice, Grand Marnier, & Ginger-Infused Corzo Tequila. At $8, a good price for a great, creative margarita. The drink menu is top-notch–all of the drinks are creative and delish!

The food is mostly outstanding. The salad was not good–but the menu calls their salad menu “Rabbit Food,” so maybe I should have known they aren’t really salad fans. Get into the heavier dishes and you’re golden. The Lobster Ravioli was as good as you’d find anywhere, and reasonably-priced at $15.95. Menu reads: Ravioli Stuffed With Fresh Maine Lobster And Served With Vodka Marinara Sauce And A Side Of Garlic Bread.

The best thing Fine Line serves is probably its pizza. This stuff was GOOOOOOD. Menu says: Veggie Garbage Pizza: Spinach, Black Olives, Red And Yellow Onions, Artichoke Hearts, Mushrooms, Fresh And Sun Dried Tomatoes, Roasted Garlic, And Feta Cheese. $14.95/$18.95 (this is the $14.95 size and was HUGE)

Overall, all four of the people in my party loved the For Locals By Locals experience of Fine Line Bar & Grill. I only wish such a reasonably-priced, laid-back place was in Aspen! Also check out their 50″ flat screens for football this season!

Also, in more it’s-a-small-world-after-all news, the owner’s fiancee works with the Vermonster, and the owner went to school with the Vermonster in Vermont, where the Vermonster was the MAILMAN for the owner’s dorm. Awesome.

Kenichi Sushi is hosting a fund raiser for Mountain Rescue (you know the crew that may just save your butt) Thursday night May 20th. Make any dollar donation to Mountain Rescue and you get 50% off your food, sushi, and sake.

—-

Down the road (because everything is down the road in Aspen, as downtown is about 6 blocks squared), the brand-new 520 Grill is opening today too, in the old Noodles by Kenichi (ha?!) spot at 520 E. Durant.

520 Grill will offer half-pound, hand-crafted burgers using buffalo, beef, or turkey (with bacon ground INTO the meat on bacon burgers!!), and hot dogs (all-beef kosher franks and turkey dogs), plus not-your-average salads like kale-and-quinoa and chipotle Caesar. Fresh-cut fries and homemade potato chips round out the new menu, created by two young locals with experience all over Aspen.

The pair plan to serve lunch and dinner daily from 11a to 7p. Hopefully the hours will extend soon, 7p doesn’t seem very late!

Aspen Times article here.

Things I’m Thankful For:

• My amazing, wonderful, big-word-using, quick-witted family
• Denali, the lovably quirky mutt who sleeps with her paws in the air
• My amazing, wonderful, GRE-word-using, quick-witted, silly Vermonster
• My ridiculous, athletic, big-word-using, sarcastic, witty friends
• Hey! That’s Not My Flag! and the Handfulls (football)
• CrossFit (Central, Austin, TLSP, your Mom, I don’t care, I just love it)
• Austin Post and Sideline and getting paid to create really cool, fun stuff
• Twitter, because 140-character quips are really all you need
• *And YOU, dear blog readers, because comments from you can really make my day!

If you came here looking for Black Friday deals, don’t worry, I’ve got those too … well, by “I’ve got” I mean I compiled all the other news stories in town and summarized them here. Ultimately I can only tell you guys that my takeaway is this: unless you ENJOY the craziness, crowds, and EXPERIENCE of doing Black Friday, the deals are simply not worth it. You can get similar deals all season long with research and coupon maximization (aka retailmenot.com).

BUT you don’t get the same glory from telling the “I drove to Best Buy, parked three spots away, and was out in ten minutes” story as you do the “I camped out in line three spots from the front door, slept there for nine hours, and got THE LAST BIG SCREEN TV IN THE ENTIRE STORE, which I waited in line for another three hours to purchase. ROCK ON!” story. So there’s that.

*There are obviously many more things for which I am thankful, like lululemon yoga pants that are long enough for my legs, Whole Foods salad bar that contains cooked white-meat chicken, that stupid cat that double-digit-dumps on everything in my room, my new favorite pair of jeans, Britney’s comeback, TiVO, and blackberries the fruit not the phone, but I don’t have time or room to list them here. Perhaps it will become a new sidebar one day …

Torchy’s Tacos, Holy Cacao, and Man Bites Dog invite you to groove to DJ Chicken George while sipping Liquid S’mores made with complimentary Dripping Springs Vodka and 1921 Tequila and try Holy Cacao’s 12 DAYS OF CHOCOLATE Cake Balls!

10% of sales for the entire day of November 19th will be donated to the families of the Fort Hood tragedy.

We all know how obsessed with cake balls I am (damn you Fudge Babies), so I’m reeeeeally glad I’m not eating sugar right now. Starting the Friday following Thanksgiving HOLY CACAO will introduce a NEW flavor of Hot Chocolate and a NEW Cake Ball, every day for 12 Days. Those who come back EVERY DAY for the full 12 days and have the Hot Chocolate and Cake Ball special will be rewarded with a FREE Go Local Austin Card ($10 value).

Preview flavors:

BERRY BALLS (a cranberry thyme cake dipped in candy coating then dipped in white chocolate)

RUDOLPH’S BALLS (chocolate cake spiked with chopped red hots then dipped in dark chocolate and topped with red hot sprinkles)

GRANDMA’S BALLS (a fruit cake made with red wine and dipped in dark chocolate)

Man Bites Dog is simple—more meat, better buns, bigger ideas. www.manbitesdogaustin.com.

Other Thursday night events:

1) The Dress Shop’s Fashionable Food Drive benefitting the Capital Area Food Bank, www.austinfoodbank.org, 5-9pm

Shoppers who bring in three canned goods or boxed dinners will receive 15 percent off their entire purchase excluding accessories.

Guests will enjoy champagne and Asian-inspired samplings from the appetizer menu of Mama Fu’s.

Dress Shop is located at 315 Congress Avenue, Suite 100, http://www.dressshopaustin.com

2) SoLa Fashiongate

10% of all sales go to two Austin charities – Save our Springs Alliance, www.sosalliance.org –and the Austin Sunshine Camps, www.sunshinecamps.org

RSVP at www.facebook.com/nuo

• Barton Place Restaurant Row Taste Off

  

• Saks New York State of Mind March of Dimes Event

  Cocktails by Twin Liquors, hors d’oeuvres provided by The Driskill, door prizes, and NY themed music, getting everyone in a New York state of mind. Five percent of all sales will directly benefit the Austin chapter of March of Dimes. Graff Jewelry will have a special selection here specifically for the event, as they too will also be donating a percentage of sales to The March of Dimes. Also, a fabulous giftcard promotion on Thursday: $100 w/ a $450 purchase, and $250 w/ a $1000 purchase in Cosmetics, Men’s & Women’s Contemporary, and WEAR.

• Common Thread Happy Hour / Grand Opening

The cool thing about this fabric store is that they aim to provide three things in their collection:

• unusual, exciting, beautiful fabric for creating clothing and crafts
• Earth and human-friendly sources and fibers
• reasonable prices

Things You Should Do:

Austin Tidbits Fall Fete at y&i Clothing Boutique – 1113 S. Congress Ave.

Tidbits parties are synonymous for “great gift bag but get your butt there early or you’ll miss out.” 6-8pm, look for cocktails from Dripping Springs Vodka, yummy eats from Mama Fu’s and 20% off all y&i merchandise. First 50 people snag bags full of treats from Hollywood Fashion Tape, Austin Monthly Magazine, Votivo, Gal Pal,The Strapper, Footpetals, Garment Guard, and a little something extra from y&i Clothing Boutique.

Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Bachelor & Bachelorette Auction at 219 West

16 of Austin’s most eligible bachelors and bachelorettes will be gracing the stage for charity. Starts at 6:30pm, Live Auction begins at 7:30pm. A $10 donation scores you a bidding paddle and Grey Goose drink; it’s up to you how much your date costs when you get into a bidding war … First 50 people will receive two drink tickets when they arrive early and a goody bag from Saks Fifth Avenue Salon.

Check out the Faebook event page for photos of a few of the eligible bachelors & bachelorettes here.

Sponsors: Supercuts Austin, Grey Goose, Do512, ENVY Magazine, Choice Auctions, Rare Magazine, Green Tee Photography and 219West.

September Social Tweetup at Submerged

This tweetup features catering from two local steakhouses, NadaMoo ice cream, and LOTS of door prizes like $50 gift certificates at J. Black’s. Yes, parking is a pain in the ass like ANYWHERE downtown, but Submerged is offering WICKED drink specials.

Party starts at 5:30pm but is likely to last well past 8 … we can’t say the same for the food.

Curbside Trailer by Adelante Launch Party

The foodie frenzy has turned fashionista. Check out Adelante boutique’s new traveling trailer shop at 26 Doors Shopping Center (38th & Medical Parkway) and enjoy desserts and cocktails during the launch party. 6-8pm. More details here.

• Bubbles & Boots

  

  A Toast to 25 Years: Looking Ahead to the 2010 Texas Hill Country Wine and Food Festival

  6-8pm at Kodosky Lounge at the Long Center

  A private preview of the 25th Annual Texas Hill Country Wine and Food Festival. Over 10 sparkling wines along with select reds and whites with food tastings from some of Austin’s top restaurants.

  Tickets are $40. For more information & tickets call 512.249.6300 or email info@texaswineandfood.org

• The Young Women’s Alliance Fashion Show

  Hit the Parish for a fashion show with clothing from four local boutiques–Beehive, downSTAIRS Apparel, Soigne and SoLa–and music by Austin singers and songwriters. Complimentary cocktails from Savvy Vodka, Treaty Oak Rum and Paula’s Texas Orange, and decadent hors d’oeuvres from Abel’s on the Lake, J. Black’s and Zen are yours for a $35 ticket.

  This year marks the 5th anniversary of the YWA Foundation Fashion Show. Previous fashion shows have been crucial in raising money to provide scholarships and grants to many deserving young women in Austin.

  Sched:
  8-9PM            Cocktail Hour
  9-9:30PM       Intro and Fashion Show
  9:30-10PM     Music and Silent Auction
  10PM-2AM     After-Party

  More info here.

• Lanai One Year Birthday Party

  
  All of Lanai’s Resident and Guest DJs will be spinning, and there will be free cocktails and other goodies from 8-10pm.

  **Special thanks to: Polkadots Cupcake Factory, Hypers0nic Radio, Milk+Honey Salon and Spa, Real Pretty Flowers, Austin Tidbits, Licksamba, Wish, Avalon Salon, nurspace.com

• Dueling Glamazons Trunk Show w/ Swag & Free Cocktails

  
  The poster pretty much speaks for itself, eh?

Luckily, Austin Post‘s awesome event will be over in time for me to pop on over to my fave bar in all of Austin for some great times! … and the hop on over to the Fashion Show … so the headline here is really misleading.

• We’ve been on the scene for about three years and are now looking to the blog community to help connect us with new listeners.

• Here’s a video link that has gotten a really positive response on the radio recently: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBh7_OJsuQo

• And here’s our myspace link;  www.myspace.com/heynicevest

• The story of our coming to be a band is not too wild.  All five of us are teachers and basically met through that industry rather than the music scene.

• You might also like to know that we’re currently working as Kacy Crowley’s backing band (www.myspace.com/kacycrowley).