Lite + Brite: 15 Dandy Austin Events 11/28
Hello, what’s up, and welcome to the Lite + Brite newsletter.
Hello, it’s the one email coming to you today that has nothing to do with a sale! It’s kind of a quiet week because of all the givings to thank, the Mondays to cyber, and the Fridays to black out. But that doesn’t mean we haven’t been hard at work looking for a few morsels for those of you looking to shed those soft pants and venture out of the house.
Go see some new murals over at Hope Outdoor Gallery’s reopening (6 years is a long time to wait!). Hang with a baby goat dressed up like Santa. Attend a night of puppetry + drag. Try to spell accurately while inebriated. Swap vintage music + video media across many formats. Get your photo with “hot Santa” at a 60s-themed party. Watch 80s disasterpiece Mac & Me while dressed to the nines. Or, try to guess which member of L+B is Team Gorillaz and which is Team Blur while watching drag performers try to sway you in one direction or another, or maybe enter a Damon Albarn lookalike contest.
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
WHAT WE’VE BEEN UP TO
Last weekend Leila shopped artisanal wares from local makers at the Front Market, purchasing a bouquet of crocheted flowers and a pair of earrings, one of which she immediately lost. (That’s over now, but keep an eye out for the December Monthly, which will include a list of lots more upcoming holiday markets.) She also took a backstage tour of ACL, where you can see how they make the TV show happen. And she visited the Austin History Center, which is free and open to the public three days a week and includes an incredible wealth of historic maps, city directories, tax records, and other archives.
Brian’s radio show, No Humans Allowed, devoted a show this week to futuristic music from the past, with primitive sounds of what would someday evolve into hip hop, house, or become a musical dead end. Listen to the show here.
EVENTS WE’RE EYEING
Friday 11/28
- Grand Reopening at Hope Outdoor Gallery
Celebrated graffiti park reopens in a new location w/fresh murals
Saturday 11/29
- Blade Rave at Vulcan Gas Co.
Recreate the blood rave scene from Blade (without Wesley Snipes) - Can I Kick It? at Republic Square
Watch a martial arts film w/DJ creating a new hip hop + soul score - Barrio Daze at 3202 Bruce Drive
Latino comedian sends up current climate w/multiple characters - Goat Yoga at Jester King
“We call out to the beasts of the land to come forth and JOIN US!” - Cocoa, Cuddles, + Santa Claus at Suds Monkey
Why put a Santa outfit on some guy when you can stick one on a baby goat? - Grand Reopening at Hope Outdoor Gallery
Celebrated graffiti park reopens in a new location w/fresh murals
Sunday 11/30
- Gorillaz vs. Blur Drag Brunch at the Glassmith
Damon Albarn lookalike contest + drag performers inspired by his music - Everybody Loves Puppets at the Vortex
“Outrageous night of puppetry” + drag performers inspired by puppets - Grand Reopening at Hope Outdoor Gallery
Celebrated graffiti park reopens in a new location w/fresh murals
Tuesday 12/2
- The Odd World Formal at We Luv Video
We can confirm the oddness of this 80s flick, so dress up + see it classily - A Dandy Holiday at the Carver Museum
Gilded Age-inspired event w/Dandy fashion, live music + poetry
Wednesday 12/3
- Word Perv at Dirty Gold Theater
Storytelling + variety show about gender + sexuality - Holiday Party at Golden Mean
Mad Men-inspired party w/1960s dress code, DJ, “photos w/hot Santa”
Thursday 12/4
- Buzzed Spelling Bee at the Liberty
Sure you can spell gud but can you do it after downing a few bevs? - World AIDS Day Ball at Swan Dive
A classy drag ball to inspire AIDS awareness w/free testing
Friday 12/5
- Barter Friday at Breakaway Records
Swap your vintage video + audio media for new-to-you stuff
NHA260
Downgrade
“The history of the past enables you to dream of the future” was written in relation to a reissue of one of these songs. This collection would have sounded to their contemporaries (1979-1986) wildly futuristic. Our more cynical modern ears may hear something quite different though, echoes of what is now the past from further down the spiral of time, often primitive sounding and strange, like synthesizers oozing up through the crusts of time. In this example we’ve stuck mainly to electro + library records fairly contemporary to one another, but this seems like a format we’ll tweak and return to before long.
Tracklist
Material – Don’t Lose Control
Jimmy Spicer – Money (Dollar Bill Y’all)
Netzle & Graetz – Klaus
Geoff Bastow – Communique (the Mythical Beasts edit)
Mladen Franko – Life Today
Equip – XXXO
Sun la Shan – Catch
Bruce Haack – Stand up Lazaras
Pyramid Plus – Comin’ at Ya
Chris Blackwell – Hourglass
Man Parrish – Hip Hop Be Bop (Don’t Stop)
Willesden Parrish – BPM 117 (2)
No Humans Allowed is Brian Blackout’s award-winning, 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.
PATREON THANKS
A huge thank-you to our Patreon subscribers James Gray, Emily Heddleson, Andrew Creswell, Robert B., Roman Gonzalez, Nick Ivons, Molly Fonseca, Lilly Ettinger, Michael Sales, Zach, Gino Scaramuzza, Erica Speegle, Jarrett Holtz, Thomas Refferson, Bones Malones, Katie Green, Christina Jue, Colleen MB, Alexander Freed, Kristen Backor, and Timon A. 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 attending a dance party in a storage unit, marching in a Greek mythology-themed Halloween parade thrown by a bat crew and a rat crew, and watching a troupe of gigantic leftist puppets from New England. Follow Lite + Brite on Instagram to keep up with our adventures. We’re now on Bluesky too. Yay federation! And come chat with us and the rest of the L+B community on our Discord server (where we sometimes post stuff early too).
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, Concept Animals’ ATX Art for You for gallery openings + artist talks, ATX Theatre for plays, 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, + 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 2025). 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.