Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow this morning, which means there may be six more weeks of winter.

The 7-day forecast in the Austin metro area from Feb. 2-Feb. 8, 2006, according to KXAN:

2006 may mark Mozart's 250th birthday, but it also marks the 100th birthday of Dmitri Shostakovich. A number of arts organization in Austin have banded together to commemorate the latter with Shostakovich 100.

Throughout 2006, chamber ensembles, soloists and the orchestra will schedule Shostakovich works into their programs. Tonight (Jan. 21), Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg joins the Austin Symphony Orchestra for a performance of the composer's Scherzo No. 1, his first opus.

Austin Chronicle and the Statesman have both written about Shostakovich 100.

Let me just say, though, the Chronicle does a better job than the Shostakovich 100 web site in listing events. The calendar interface on the Shostakovich 100 site forces you to click on every single date to see each event, and you can't see a complete list of events on one page. It's time-consuming and unintuitive, two things it shouldn't be for the most important aspect of the site itself.

No one has scheduled a performance of Shostakovich's Quartet for Strings No. 8, or its string orchestra version, Chamber Symphony, Opus 110a. That's my favorite Shostakovich piece (predictably). I'd be there in a heart beat if someone did.

But there's enough Shostakovich happening around town this year that I may actually take in a concert or two.

I noticed a lot of Austinites writing about the new Whole Foods. So I may as well be fashionable and chime in:

• That creek in the middle of the outdoor dining area is the dumbest waste of a footpath.
• The $8 sushi isn't bad, but it sure isn't worth $8.
• Further proof of the idiocy of Austin drivers -- there is a NO LEFT TURN sign posted to prevent south-bound Lamar drivers from entering the Lamar Blvd. driveway. Heed it, dammit.

The ISP I've used to provide my shell access is changing ownership. Illuminati Online, once voted the best Internet service provider back in the days when dial-up was all there was, is being sold to Prism.net.

Prism is another local ISP, and the e-mail I received from the IO folks say the changes in service should be minimal. The io.com domain will remain, as will "a majority of services".

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