Lite + Brite: 54 High-Class Modern Austin Events 11/15

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

This weekend is East Austin Studio Tour, one of our all-time favorite annual Austin activities. EAST can be overwhelming, so to help you out, Leila wrote a guide. If you’re curious, some of the many stops we most want to hit up this weekend include 2324 Studios, Grackle House, Bolm Arts, Clover + Maven, The Big Blue House, Dark Horse, Good Dad, and RichesArt. 

Will we make it to all of those? Alas, we will not—because, in addition to Austin Studio Touring this weekend, we will also be Texas Book Festivaling. If you like books, TBF is not the only event for you over the next few days: There’s also the Lit Crawl (which includes the always-hilarious local literary comedy show Worded Funny), a bookish evening at the Dougherty Arts Center, and “Booksgiving.” 

If all of this sounds too mundane to you, don’t worry; the next week also brings us “a carnival of shadowy emotions,” “file cabinets for found materials [which] are combined with internet content to create syncretic visions that attempt to sit outside of time,” and a culinary adventure in the Pacific Garbage Patch. 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

We will be hosting a special one-off No Lights No Lycra at Sky Candy on November 22. This will be our first time at this venue and our first NLNL on a Friday—if it’s a success, maybe we’ll do more! Reserve your spot here.

If you’re checking out the Texas Book Festival on Saturday, say hi to Leila—at noon she’ll be moderating a middle-grade panel, and at 4:15pm she’ll be at the Writers League of Texas booth, raising a toast to her book The Museum of Lost and Found, which won the WLT’s annual book award.

This week was the return of No Humans Allowed, Brian’s radio show, with a collection of synthy music with bedroom production values (read: lo-fi). Stream it here for an hour of fuzzy synths, sophisti-pop, indiepop, house, + italo, or find the full tracklisting below.

EVENTS WE’RE EYEING

Friday 11/15

Saturday 11/16

  • High-Class Modern Amusements at 607 Pedernales
    “Outdoor immersive art exhibit” complete w/carnival barker
  • Lit Crawl at Speakeasy Austin
    Themed readings, collaborative storytelling, + Literary Death Match
  • No Body Passes at Salvage Vanguard Theater
    Big art show w/Trans + NB artists from across many media
  • Let’s Get Weirder at dadaLab
    “Immersive celestial happening” w/“aliens, astronauts, + a piñata”
  • Austin Opera Festival at KMFA
    Showcasing opera singers + composers w/new performances + panels
  • Muralist Summit at Color Cartel Studio
    Hear talks + workshops from muralists, + watch an art battle
  • Ten Year Party at Wild Gift Coffee
    Party w/free food + drinks, latte art throwdown, + cornhole
  • The Barefoot Ball at First Street Studio
    Historical dance lesson, door prizes, dance performance, + open bar
  • Stardew Valley Fall Festival at Tiny Minotaur
    Celebrate the viral cozy game by dressing up in character
  • The Water Shop at Future Front House
    Boutique popup bookshop, readings, refreshments + DJ
  • South Asian Heritage Festival at the Spicewood Springs Branch Library
    Celebrate South Asian culture w/traditional dance, food, art, + henna tattoos
  • Pinoy Potluck at Camp East
    A Filipino food potluck w/vendors, live music, + artists
  • Body Mechanics at 4211 Todd Ln.
    DJs happily blurring the lines between a dance party + a fetish party
  • Ball Gown Square Crawl in Georgetown
    Don your finest ball gown and go out on the town
  • PowerPints at the Highball
    Quick comedic talks on a variety of esoteric topics
  • Ride Bikes Austin Studio Tour at Parque Zaragoza Rec Center
    “All wheels welcome ride” to open studios, ending at Grackle House
  • Texas Book Festival in downtown Austin
    Authors + book fans descend upon downtown for talks, shops, + more
  • Austin Studio Tour at venues throughout Austin
    Artists across Austin open up their studios + hold wacky activities
  • ART Bus Tour at Almost Real Things HQ
    Ride in a bus w/beverages + art fans to see art across town
  • 2324 EAST Collective at 2324 E Cesar Chavez St
    Enjoy art while you get tarot readings, massages, food, + drinks
  • Art Market + Celebration at Clover + Maven
    Art for sale, free beverages, photobooth, + possible swag bags
  • Portkeys and Eyeskips at Time Being Books
    A collection of interactive magazines that an artist has altered + annotated
  • Grackle House at 2606 East 2nd St
    Artist studio w/live music, flash tats, free bevs, cute animals, + bird videos
  • The 43rd Annual Madrigal Dinner at Shirley Bird Perry Ballroom
    “Renaissance-style comedy play” w/orchestra, + dinner served
  • Latino Comedy Project 25th Anniversary at Hyde Park Theater
    Long-running sketch troupe celebrates 25 years w/classic skits
  • Creek Show at Waterloo Greenway
    Locals create spectacular site-specific neon art along Austin’s creeks
  • (weekly thru 11/30) Doom Metal Goat Yoga at Jester King
    “We call out to the beasts of the land to come forth and JOIN US!”
  • (weekly thru 12/15) The Ghosts of Christmas Past at Pioneer Farms
    Theatrical production featuring ghost stories, holiday desserts, + Victorian getups
  • (weekly) The Board Walks at Bennu Coffee S. Congress
    “Walk 5 miles and have energizing conversations”

Sunday 11/17

  • Solarpunk Summit at the Portal
    Q+A, discussions, + films about working to live in harmony w/the planet
  • Sparkle Stride at Epoch Coffee
    Aerobic exercise via “choreographed parade style dances”
  • Rise to Runway at the Vortex
    Showcasing Austin-based fashion + the folks behind it
  • Wish Upon a Star 10th Birthday Bash at Austin Beerworks – Sprinkle Valley
    Meet some Disney princesses, sing along with them, + pet some tiny tailed animals
  • Texas Book Festival in downtown Austin
    Authors + book fans descend upon downtown for talks, shops, + more
  • Austin Studio Tour at venues throughout Austin
    Artists across Austin open up their studios + hold wacky activities
  • ART Bus Tour at Almost Real Things HQ
    Ride in a bus w/beverages + art fans to see art across town
  • 2324 EAST Collective at 2324 E Cesar Chavez St
    Enjoy art while you get tarot readings, massages, food, + drinks
  • Art Market + Celebration at Clover + Maven
    Art for sale, free beverages, photobooth, + possible swag bags
  • Portkeys and Eyeskips at Time Being Books
    A collection of interactive magazines that an artist has altered + annotated
  • Grackle House at 2606 East 2nd St
    Artist studio w/live music, flash tats, free bevs, cute animals, + bird videos
  • (weekly thru 12/15) The Ghosts of Christmas Past at Pioneer Farms
    Theatrical production featuring ghost stories, holiday desserts, + Victorian getups

Monday 11/18

  • When Animals Dream at Sekrit Theater
    Watch a Danish coming-of-age horror film in an open air garden cinema

Tuesday 11/19

Wednesday 11/20

  • Book Floods + Pagemasters at the Dougherty Arts Center
    Swap books Icelandically + watch a 90s book nerd flick
  • Booksgiving at Vuka North Loop
    A book swap with some mystery, plus vendors + curated cocktails
  • Art/Craft Supply Swap at Flipside Warehouse
    Unload unused arts n crafting supplies, or pick up some new ones
  • Open House at Dear Diary Coffee
    Artist market, meet + greet, and byob drink n draw

Thursday 11/21

  • Culinary Adventure in the Pacific Garbage Patch at Unchained.Art Gallery
    “A solution for plastic pollution: let’s eat it!”
  • Glamp Glamp at Lynny’s
    “Queer performative weirdness” a la camp talent shows
  • Koyaanisqatsi at Laguna Gloria
    Watch a radical hard-to-describe doc w/live soundtrack by musicians
  • Fusebox Artist Salon at the Elisabet Ney Museum
    See works by artists who fuse music, storytelling, + live performance
  • SXSW Mix.It.Up! at Arriba Abajo
    Mingle w/artsy types on a rooftop for fun + inspiration
  • Beyond the Bridge at AFS Cinema
    Watch a doc about homelessness + discuss tackling it
  • Nerd Nite at Barrel O’Fun
    Hear high-caliber talks on assorted nerdy topics
  • Queer Film Theory at the Highball
    “Basically, we ruin films for straight people + yell about the characters that made us feel gay”
  • Boyz of Austin at Elysium
    Drag King troupe celebrate “goth style, genre, + culture”
  • Trailheads Appreciation Party at the Perch
    Fans of the Butler Trail gather to tell stories, raffle, + hear live music
  • Latino Comedy Project 25th Anniversary at Hyde Park Theater
    Long-running sketch troupe celebrates 25 years w/classic skits
  • Open House at Dear Diary Coffee
    Artist market, meet + greet, and byob drink n draw
  • (weekly thru 12/15) The Ghosts of Christmas Past at Pioneer Farms
    Theatrical production featuring ghost stories, holiday desserts, + Victorian getups

No Humans Allowed 212
Bedroom Synthesis

No Humans Allowed returns to the airwaves with an hour of bedroom synthesizers. Warm, fuzzy tones with their emotions on their sleeves, + a wide range of sophisti-pop, library, italo, VGM, + early house sounds.

Stream Bedroom Synthesis

Tracklist
Dump – 1999
Four Color Press – The Great Depression
They Go Boom !! – Candy
Air – Planet Vega
Dionne – Come Get My Lovin’
Robert Owens – Bring Down the Walls
The Hit Parade – Sue
Keynotes – Let’s Let’s Let’s Dance
Adonis – No Way Back
Isadora Juice – Musica Magica
Brittle Stars – Falling Backwards
Hiroyuki Masuno – Water Area (Day)
The Famous Boyfriend – It Sounds as if You Are Falling Apart

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 200 episodes now streamable in the archives on topics like and Beach Simulations, Roomba dance parties, undersea adventures + Cyber Texas.

No Lights No Lycra ATX 174
w/Brian Blackout

Recorded live in the dark at 3rd Eye Meditation Lounge on November 13, 2024.

Listen to NLNL ATX 174 on Mixcloud

Tracklist
Fuga Ronto – L’Uomo Invisibile
New Jackson – Feather by Feather
FM-84 – Bend and Break
Sade – When Am I Going to Make a Living (Poolside Edit)
LCD Soundsystem – Dance Yrself Clean
Modest Mouse – Float on
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson – Willing
Odyssey – Going Back to My Roots
Gloria Gaynor – I Will Survive
!!! – Freedom ’15
Kate Boy – The Way We Are
Lindsey Buckingham – Go Insane (Eli Escobar Remix)
Stevie Nicks – Stand Back (Eli Escobar Remix)
De Lux – Act of Defiance
Whitney Houston – Love Will Save the Day (Jellybean Remix)
Joe Smooth – Promised Land
Twin Shadow – Changes
La Roux – Bulletproof
Young Galaxy – Crying My Heart Out
Paul Revere & the Raiders – (I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone
Heaven 17 – (We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang
David Bowie & Queen – Under Pressure
Discovery Zone – Ur Eyes

PATREON THANKS

A huge thank-you to our Patreon subscribers Erica Speegle, Mitch Rudea, Jarrett Holtz, Thomas Refferson, Dale Markowitz, Jason & Luciana, Bones Malones, Amy Hayes, Katie Green, Christina Jue, Colleen MB, Lilly Ettinger, Lena Long, Amalia Litsa, Alexander Freed, 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 visiting the Sherwood Forest Zine Library, admiring the site-specific art at Creek Show, and exploring the city on Austin Studio Tour. 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 are Leila + Brian. We make this newsletter. We do our own events, most often No Lights No Lycra (which is on hiatus but will resume), + also BYOT, a party where we share very good YouTubes (here’s a playlist from the last one). We go very hard seeing bands at SxSW (here are playlists of our favorites from 2024). 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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