• Wolves In The Throne Room EP and Full-length This Spring
  This spring, Washington-based black metal band Wolves in the Throne Room will release a new EP along with (finally) a new full-length called Black Cascade, both through Southern Lord. If you're into black metal, and haven't yet heard these guys, you need to check out their 2007 Two Hunters EP. It's stellar.
• Tufte Comes to Austin
  Data visualization rockstar Edward Tufte will be teaching a one-day course in Austin at the end of this month. Cost is $380 per person, and includes copies of all four of his books.
• NIN’s Best-Selling, Creative Commons Licensed Album
  Over at the CC blog, Fred Benenson asks why so many people paid for a Nine Inch Nails record they could have legally downloaded for free.
• Porn Industry Seeks Federal Bailout
  If I didn't hate Joe Francis so much, this would be really funny.

• Cinephiliac’s Best of 2008
  Critic, filmmaker, and DVD label owner Aaron Hillis has posted a list of his favorite films for 2008. Some I've seen, some I now want to see. Hillis has recently taken over duties as postmaster at the highly awesome Greencine Daily blog, while longtime GC overlord David Hudson has moved to IFC.com.
• First Trailer For Romero’s …OF THE DEAD
  Twitch has the first trailer for George Romero's new zombie flick "…Of The Dead". It's a lame title, to be sure. But it might be good. Question Mark?
• In Slightly Better Horror News, Universal Sells Rogue for $150 Million
  In contrast to the recent mainstreaming of Lionsgate, Rogue Pictures (who've released some solid original genre flicks like Shaun of the Dead and The Strangers) were just purchased by Relativity Media, who apparently think the company has some value. Fingers crossed.
• Will We Be Able to Watch Watchmen?
  Twitch Film's Rodney Perkins has some fantastically detailed coverage of the ongoing lawsuit between Fox and Warner over the upcoming big-screen adaptation of the popular graphic novel Watchmen. If you ask me, this case is a perfect example of our need for sweeping copyright reform.

Apparently, I haven’t done a link roundup since October. I hate myself. Anyhoo–here’s the first roundup of the new year.

• Revolutionary Road Ain’t All That, Apparently
  This review of Sam Mendes' upcoming drama Revolutionary Road reminds me why I love reading Nick Schager.
• Sorry, Thanks
  A new film starring Austin's own Wiley Wiggins. Check the trailer.
• Why Lionsgate Is Abandoning Horror
  Lionsgate (the studio behind genre flicks like Shadow of the Vampire, The Descent, The Devil's Rejects and Midnight Meat Train) is transitioning away from horror. Which is bad news for fans of original (meaning non-remake), English-language genre films.
• Netflix To Stream Movies From Starz
  Netflix has just added significant value to its Watch Online service–maybe it's finally time to buy a Roku.

• Get Your War On: Bailout?!
  Get Your War On tackles the bailout plan.
• Role Models Q&A with David Wain and Paul Rudd
  Here's a short chunk of a great Q&A with Wain and Rudd that happened after their screening of "Role Models" at Fantastic Fest. The movie, despite the incredibly awful trailer, is actually really funny. I'm just gonna come out and say that I love Paul Rudd.
• Austin Film Festival Schedule Online
  The complete Austin Film Festival 08 lineup is now online. It's a strong lineup this year. We'll be doing a bunch of preview coverage on Austinist over the next couple weeks, so keep an eye out.
• Wayne Coyne To Present “Christmas On Mars” at the Alamo
  Apparently, Wayne Coyne has directed a sci-fi flick. And he'll be hosting three screenings at the Alamo on Saturday October 11th.

• Watch KLRU’s “Downtown” Online
  You can watch the first three seasons of KLRU's fantastic series "Downtown" through the magic of the internet. Most of the segments are between 1 and 7 minutes, so it's fun to browse around.
• US Gets First Solar-Powered Cinema
  VIA John Merriman at AFF
• Austinist’s “Must See Friday” ACL Picks
  Some of the music writers have come up with five "sleeper picks" for the first day of ACL. Vote on your favorite and win a chance to watch the band from the stage with 3 of your friends. Neat.
• Austinist: Fantastic Fest Announces Free Online Screenings
  I've seen a couple of these–I can totally recommend I Think We're Alone Now, though it dips into "way too creepy" territory once or twice.

• Voiceover Master Don LaFontaine Dies at 68
  Sad. I loved that guy. At my old job, a coworker actually called his agent to get a quote for some corporate voiceover work we needed done. He never called back though.
• The Onion Launches “Decider”, a Yelp-like Review Site
  While it's in beta, the only city available is Chicago. Could be pretty good when they go country-wide though.
• The Movie Blog Uncut Goes Daily
  The Movie Blog Uncut–probably the most enjoyable, fan-oriented movie podcast I've heard–has gone daily. They're perfect for listening to while you're working. And I'm not just saying that because the guys are Canadian.
• Stanley Kubrick’s Boxes Documentary on Google Video
  A British documentary about Stanley Kubrick is now available in its entirety on Google Video.

• aGLIFF 2008
  The Austin Gay and Lesbian International Film Festival kicks off next Wednesday. Austinist is presenting the opening night film, Otto, a gay zombie flick.
• AFS Essentials: Contemporary German Cinema
  The Austin Film Society's Essentials Series will return on September 9th with a look at contemporary German Cinema.
• The Orwell Diaries… In Blog Form
  Published each day, 70 years to the day after they were written.
• SXSW 09 Badges On Sale
  Earlybird badges for SXSW 09 are now on sale. Don't quote me on this, but it looks like the cheapest/earliest rates have gone up about $50 per badge type. If you're gonna buy, now's the time.

• Lionsgate Tries Bipartisan Approach to ‘W’ Marketing
  It might just be me, but these posters don't scream "drama". Still, I'm a fan of Josh Brolin, and I'm excited about seeing this.
• LAN Party Massacre
  Gamerz beware. Via BoingBoing.
• Austin Chronicle: Best of Austin 2008
  It's that time of year again. Please vote for Austinist in the "Local Non-Chronicle Publication", "Local Entertainment Website" and "Local Blog" sections.
• Very Short Stories
  Kristin and I were just talking about Hemingway's shortest story, and while I was looking for the exact phrasing, I come across this Wired list of stories written in the same spirit. Some are fantastic. Some are not.

• TIFF Midnight Madness Schedule
  Wish I couldbe there this year.
• Fantastic Fest Announces Second Wave of Titles
  There is some overlap between the FF lineup (so far) and the much smaller but equally awesome TIFF Midnight Madness Lineup. They both look great– in fact, Fantastic Fest looks downright amazing this year.
• Dischord Records opens Direct Download Service
  They announced this a while back, but the Dischord MP3 store is now officially open. The entire Dischord catalog is available for download, with most albums priced at $7. Who needs retail? I love Dischord so much.
• Brad Pitt Signs for Tarantino Film
  Kinda weird. But I actually like Brad Pitt, so this might be good.
• Slackerwood Podcast
  Local film fanatic and Cinematical contributor Jette Kernion has started a podcast over at her blog, Slackerwood.