Lite + Brite: 22 Landmark Austin Events 1/5

Hello, what’s up, and welcome to the Lite + Brite newsletter.

As you likely know if you’ve ever attended our bimonthly dance party No Lights No Lycra, we are quite fond of David Bowie. So we’re delighted that there are plenty of opportunities to celebrate his birthday this week, including Drinks Lounge’s annual Bowie Birthday Bash, a night of Bowie drag and burlesque, and a special Bowie-themed edition of Elysium’s long-running Sunday 80s night. You could also sing a Bowie song at Karaoke Underground, or come to our first No Lights No Lycra of the year on Thursday, where I’m sure we’ll play something by Bowie because we usually do.

In the world outside of David Bowie, if such a world even exists, you can read books silently or read zines or discuss literature whilst collaging. You can watch a number of short locally made movies, or one 90s film about a throuple. Or you can just spend all your Christmas money. Scroll down for details on all this and more.

If you’re not already a subscriber to this newsletter and you want to be, click here. We do one newsletter a week, usually on Fridays, plus a bonus edition around the start of each month. If you enjoy this newsletter, please support us by contributing to our Patreon and by forwarding this email to your friends who enjoy things like listening to music and leaving the house sometimes.

Let’s do fun stuff!

—Leila + Brian
liteandbriteatx.com

OUR STUFF

Our first No Lights No Lycra is on Thursday! If you’ve never been, it’s the dance party we throw in near complete darkness in the big backroom at West China Tea. Brian Blackout spins a broad mix of anthems, obscurities, + guilty pleasures across many decades. You can listen to a live recording of the last show we did to hear how it sounds, or scroll down for the full tracklist and more info.

No Humans Allowed found many great bleeps and bloops in 2023, so since we’re in year-end reflection mode still, Brian played some of his favorite italo, house, electro, and synthpop songs from 2023. You can stream the show here or scroll down for the track listing. NHA broadcasts live every Wednesday at 6pm CT on kpiss.fm.

What is No Lights No Lycra?
Austin’s twice-monthly, judgment-free, substance-free, high-impact dance thing in the dark. It’s a DJ night that’s not at the club, a workout that’s not at the gym, a personal meditation that’s anything but silent. It’s produced by us, your kindly L+B overlords, and usually one or the other of us is on the hook for DJ duties. Read more about us in the Austin Chronicle. You can listen the kind of music we play over on Brian’s Mixcloud.

EVENTS WE’RE EYEING

Friday 1/5

Saturday 1/6

  • Bowie Bash at Drinks Lounge
    DJ spinning an all-vinyl set of Bowie’s classics + deep cuts
  • Duke Ellington’s Nutcracker Suite at the Paramount
    All-Black ballet company’s version of the suite set in 1920s Harlem
  • Kollective Fusion Exhibit Closing Party at Austin History Center
    Art closing, DJ, + live screen printing demos
  • Open Studio at Austin Cinemaker Space
    Like an open house but for folks looking for artist studios
  • Karaoke Underground at Knomad
    Sing karaoke to your favorite punk, indie + alt classics
  • Super Experience at the Eureka Room
    The Eureka Room returns to doing immersive ridiculous experiences
  • Open Studios at Canopy
    Artists at Canopy open up their studios to the public
  • Opening Hours at the Sherwood Forest Zine Library
    Read from Sherwood Forest’s extensive library of zines
  • City-Wide Vintage Sale at the Palmer Events Center
    A vintage sale so big only the entire city could contain it
  • Dell XPS Tour at Radio East
    Local bands + a tour of immersive upcoming tech
  • Free Week at various venues around Red River
    Three nights of free local live music at some of Austin’s finest downtown venues

Sunday 1/7

Monday 1/8

  • ATX Short Film Showcase at Spider House Ballroom
    The films are short, the filmmakers are Texan + of varying heights
  • Silent Book Club at First Light
    Silently read books together + optional sharing
  • (weekly) Hyperreal Film Club at Hotel Vegas
    Watch a lesser known 90s comedy subverting love triangle tropes

Tuesday 1/9

Thursday 1/11

No Humans Allowed 176
It Was the Year 2023

With 2023 now in the rearview, No Humans Allowed is putting the finishing touches on our favorite tracks of the year. Typically we play a mix of new and old, but tonight it’s all bright, shiny, + chrome. Our picks for the best of the best synthpop, house, nu italo, + you name it of 2023.

Stream It Was the Year 2023

Tracklist
Hello Meteor – Synonyms for Waves
Alan Palomo – Stay-at-Home DJ
Alison Goldfrapp – So Hard So Hot
Gabto – Ki Ko Ho
Lovetempo – Turnaround
Donny Benét – Multiply
North Satellite – The Stars Are Ours
Black Light Smoke – Nighttime Honey
Dérivative – Got to Be Me
Sally C – All Love
Boys’ Shorts – Crop Tops
Black Spuma – No No No
Superski – The Friendship Spacecake

No Humans Allowed is Brian Blackout’s award-winning, dodgy European news coverage receiving, weekly robots-themed radio show on internet station KPISS.fm. Machine vibes 4 machines. Songs for robots, androids, mandroids, cyborgs, AIs, cylons, skinjobs, roombas, wifi routers, smart devices, anything colored Bondi blue, and virtual assistants. Humans not required. Broadcasts live every Wednesday at 6pm CT on kpiss.fm, with over 150 episodes now streamable in the archives on topics like and Beach Simulations, Roomba dance parties, undersea adventures + Cyber Texas.

No Lights No Lycra ATX 159
w/Brian Blackout

Recorded live in the dark at West China Tea House on December 14, 2023.

Listen to No Lights No Lycra 159

Tracklist
Madi Diaz – Trust Fall (Jensen Sportag Remix)
The Supreme Jubilees – It’ll All Be Over (Ron Basejam Edit)
P.M. Dawn – Reality Used to Be a Friend of Mine
Claudia Telles – Foi como um Sonho (Patchouli Brothers Edit)
Icehouse – Electric Blue
Rod Stewart – Do Ya Think I’m Sexy
Róisín Murphy – Something More (Soulwax Remix)
DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince – Ring My Bell (Hula & K. Fingers club mix)
Buzz Compass – Copa for Fun
Madonna – Vogue
Depeche Mode – Enjoy the Silence
Kornél Kovács – Pantalón
Lauer – Make It Stay (Gerd Janson Remix)
Kylie Minogue – Love at First Sight
Ibibio Sound Machine – Something We’ll Remember
Bollywood Freaks – Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get to Bollywood
Boys Don’t Cry – I Wanna Be a Cowboy
Bruce Springsteen – Dancing in the Dark (Arthur Baker Mix)
The Knack – My Sharona
Joe Bataan – Subway Joe
Mitski – The Only Heartbreaker
The The – This Is the Day
The Killers – Mr. Brightside
Home – All at Once

PATREON THANKS

A huge thank-you to our Patreon subscribers Katie Green, Christina Jue, Colleen MB, Lilly Ettinger, Lena Long, Amalia Litsa, Jacob Rosenberg, Alexander Freed, Spencer, Kristen Backor, Timon A., Kate Murray, and Amy Wilde. We’re deeply grateful for your support, which allows us to do things like “pay our Mailchimp fee” and “spend hours researching Austin events when technically we should be working.”

If you’d like to support us on Patreon and get access to exclusive member-only benefits, you may do so here.

SOCIALS

Recent weeks found us celebrating “Bouncemas” at UT, partying with Art Island at the Coral Snake, and admiring art lamps at Highland Collective. Follow Lite + Brite on Instagram to keep up with our adventures. And come chat with us and the rest of the L+B community on our Discord server!

ABOUT US

How do we choose which events to feature?

Honestly, it’s pretty random. We might include anything in Austin that we, personally, would conceivably want to go to, generally excluding normal concerts, comedy shows, and movie showtimes because there are many other good resources for finding those. (We especially recommend Showlist for live music, The Darker Side of Austin for goth and metal stuff, and the 60+ Weirdest Things in Austin for exactly what it sounds like). This list is by no means exhaustive; it’s just stuff that caught our eye this week. If you have an event that you want us to consider including, send it over.

Who are we?

We make this newsletter. We do our own events, most prominently No Lights No Lycra (every second and fourth Thursday of the month). We once got called “local Austin couple” by KXAN. We do some other stuff here and there. We love going out to creative events in Austin, and we want you to join us. Visit us at liteandbriteatx.com, and support us on Patreon if you like what we do.

SEE YOU NEXT WEEK, CHAMPIONS

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