klru blog

Earlier this year, The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum designated Austin City Limits an official rock and roll landmark. University of Texas workers installed the official plaque marking the show as part of music history onto the outside of Communications Building B on the University of Texas campus on November 10.

Join KLRU in the studio for a Texas Monthly Talks taping with 60 Minutes correspondent Morley Safer. Evan Smith talks with the legendary newsman about his career and journalism today. Taping starts at 11:15 a.m. on Friday, November 13. Doors open at 10:30 a.m. RSVP here

When I first started to watch clips of Tattooed under Fire by Nancy Schiesari, I started to see an outline of a unique story that needed to be brought to public television.  I saw young men and women just out of high school who were preparing to go to war in Iraq as they as visited a local tattoo parlor near their base.  There they revealed their American pride, their concerns and their fears about going over to fight.  Then the film provides more revelations upon their return from Iraq.  Each soldier gives their own personal perspective giving us the sense of the human and cultural cost of war.  Tattooed under Fire gives a perspective and an experience that very few of us will ever experience in our lifetime.

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Join KLRU in the studio for a Texas Monthly Talks taping with Director Richard Linklater. Evan Smith talks with the Texas filmmaker about his career and his  next project, Me and Orson Welles, which hits theaters November 25. Taping starts at 11:45 a.m. on Wednesday, November 4. Doors open at 11 a.m. RSVP here

Taping date: Monday, November 2
Taping time: starts at 7 p.m.; doors open at 6:30 p.m.
Taping location: KLRU’s Austin City Limits Studio 6A
RSVP ONLINE for you and your guests by noon, Monday, November 2nd

Join KLRU’s InContext.tv for a special performance by Austin musician James Polk. RSVP here

James Polk has been a part of Austin’s jazz scene since the ’60s when he attended Huston-Tillotson College. In the late ’70s, Polk was an organist for the Ray Charles Orchestra and was arranger for two of Charles’ Grammy-nominated songs “Ain’t It So” and “I Wish You Were Here Tonight.” He returned to Austin in the ’80s to pursue his education and to teach others. He retired from teaching in 2006 and he received his Professor Emeritus status of Jazz Studies in the School of Music at Texas State University in San Marcos. Polk has been inducted into the Austin Chronicle Music Poll Hall of Fame.

InContext.tv reflects the arts culture in Austin’s community and explores the creative people and unique things which make our lives more interesting. It provides a glimpse into the lives of people who follow their dreams, the poets of form and function, the obscure, the inspiring, the strange and the beautiful

Please join Evan Smith and KLRU’s Texas Monthly Talks as we interview three authors from this year’s Texas Book Festival: novelist Jane Smiley, astronaut Buzz Aldrin and historian Taylor Branch. You’re invited to these special tapings at the Texas State Capitol on Saturday, October 31. Each taping will last approximately 45 minutes, including audience Q&A if the guest’s schedule permits. Once taping begins, no entry or exit will be allowed.

Jane Smiley
Taping room doors close at 9:10 a.m.
*PLEASE NOTE: The Capitol does not open to the public until 9 a.m. To reach the room in time for the taping, you will need to be at the Capitol door by 9 a.m.
Pulitzer-winning author Jane Smiley is known for her novels and essays about relationships, animals, politics and modern life.
RSVP for the Smiley taping here

Buzz Aldrin
Taping room doors close at 10:00 a.m.
Just over forty years ago, Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong became the first humans to set foot on the moon – a fact known to virtually anyone who hears his name.
RSVP for the Aldrin taping here

Taylor Branch
Taping room doors close at 11:30 a.m.
Historian and author Taylor Branch earned a Pulitzer Prize for Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954-63.
RSVP for the Branch taping here

LOCATION

Capitol Annex, Room LCC-E2.002 on Level E2.

Take any Capitol elevator to level E2 and proceed down the hallway. Keep walking, and Room LCC-E2.002 will be on your right (LCC stands for Legislative Conference Center).

Thanks to everyone who attended the 10/20 KLRU Community Screening on local productions. Evan Smith and Lynn Boswell shared humorous stories about creating Texas Monthly Talks for the last 8 years and we learned that Evan has made more 1/2-hour TV shows than both Bill Cosby and Jerry Seinfeld. Newcomer Chet Garner described putting himself into a challenging position while filming The Austin Daytripper … he had to eat tape two BBQ segments back to back. And lastly Linda Lehmusvirta and Tom Spencer talked about turning their passion for gardening into a weekly, regional gardening show and how viewers have helped to make Central Texas Gardener what it is today.

Photos from the KLRU Community Screening of local productions. Community members had a chance to meet with producers and hosts of their favorite programs plus tour the KLRU studios.

Watch The Newshour tonight for a story on Austin City Limits’ 35th anniversary. The segment is scheduled to air during tonight’s (10/20) episode which airs at 6 p.m. on KLRU.

Check out The Newshour’s coverage online at pbs.org/newshour

To commemorate the 35th anniversary of the first taping of the award winning PBS series AUSTIN CITY LIMITS, Mayor Lee Leffingwell has declared October 17 “Austin City Limits Day.” The date recognizes the show’s very first taping, which took place on October 17, 1974 and featured the iconic Willie Nelson. To mark the honor KLRU and ACL will stream the original episode in its entirety for one month. For more information visit the newly launched austincitylimits.org. And, on November 15, ACL will again present a very special episode with Willie Nelson, in a joint performance with Austin legends Asleep at the Wheel.

Watch the proclamation ceremony:

AUSTIN CITY LIMITS: “Great Music. No Limits.” Now the longest-running music series in American television history, ACL showcases popular music legends and innovators from every genre. In addition to being honored by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum as a rock and roll landmark, AUSTIN CITY LIMITS is the only television program to ever receive the National Medal of Arts, the nation’s highest award for artistic excellence. Still to come in this exciting anniversary season are shows with Kenny Chesney, Pearl Jam, Elvis Costello, The Avett Brothers, Mos Def and more.