Volume 29, Number 15
ON THE COVER:
features
Here's your chance to give back to the areas of our community that need it the most
news
Local participants, activists in Denmark for U.N. climate summit
BY KATHERINE GREGOR
Workers and homeowners seek justice from home builders
BY MICHAEL KING
Council closing in on a raft of unfinished business
BY WELLS DUNBAR
Citizens' calendar, Dec. 10-15
GIFT GUIDE 2009
Let these plum picks from the News staff dance in your head
White shifts to the governor's race, and the candidate lineup follows
BY RICHARD WHITTAKER
Proposal would expand transportation board's representation
BY LEE NICHOLS
The investigation has just begun, but already one city employee has been put on administrative leave
BY JORDAN SMITH
A new report shows sentencing on the decline – but Texas is still No. 1 when it comes to killing
BY JORDAN SMITH
Enviro Board wants answers
BY WELLS DUNBAR
The Republican Party of Texas gets crosswise with a crooner from the 1950s
BY RICHARD WHITTAKER
Candidates begin the fight for the Texas Lege
BY RICHARD WHITTAKER
News briefs from Austin, the region, and beyond
Climate-change fighters can now tuck the Clean Air Act into their tool belts
BY KATHERINE GREGOR
Dunbar unseats Dems' chance to unseat her
BY LEE NICHOLS
BY JORDAN SMITH
New report shows 2008 was slow-growth year for U.S. prisoners
BY JORDAN SMITH
Hiding Worker Injuries; and The Good Food Movement
BY JIM HIGHTOWER
food
GIFT GUIDE 2009
We'll wager these Food writers' wish lists would satisfy the foodie in your life
A local farmers' market has become more complete with Richardson Farms' new offering
BY KATE THORNBERRY
Give the gift of personalized wine this holiday season
BY WES MARSHALL
Area hotels help fill your holiday season with gingerbread
BY VIRGINIA B. WOOD
A guide to holiday foodie events around Austin
BY VIRGINIA B. WOOD
music
Progressive blue-eyed R&B
BY AUDRA SCHROEDER
Blasts from the past courtesy of Armadillo Records, David Garza's Twang Twang Shock-a-Boom, and Jody Denberg's final broadcast
BY AUSTIN POWELL
GIFT GUIDE 2009
Box Sets
Backtracks
Alan Lomax in Haiti
Fire in My Bones: Raw, Rare, and Other-Worldly African-American Gospel 1944-2007
Side Steps
My Dusty Road
Dolly
The Live Anthology
Where the Action Is!: Los Angeles Nuggets 1965-1968
Live in New York
New York
The Rod Stewart Sessions 1971-1998
Woodstock 40 Years On: Back to Yasgur's Farm
Essential Montreux
A Cabinet of Curiosities
More box sets
screens
Richard Linklater explores the rich contradictions of artifice and reality, theatre and film, love and desire in Me and Orson Welles
BY LOUIS BLACK
Werner Herzog talks about his eccentric tour de farce, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
BY MARC SAVLOV
John Waters tackles holly and jolly live at the Paramount
BY MARJORIE BAUMGARTEN
It seems there's no avoiding the pleasure the public takes in watching personal destruction
BY BELINDA ACOSTA
Film Reviews
An armored truck robbery of $42 million is an inside job in this action film starring Matt Dillon, Laurence Fishburne, and Jean Reno.
Nic Cage delivers one of his best and most outrageous performances in Werner Herzog's cops-and-iguanas drama.
This drama is inferior in practically every way to Danish director Susanne Bier’s original – but now with more U2!
Morgan Freeman stars as Nelson Mandela in this true story of the leader helping to heal a nation through rugby.
Joining Matthews are Ben Harper and Gogol Bordello.
Richard Linklater has crafted a joyful period charmer about that moment before a boy becomes a man and another man becomes a mythological figure.
Disney's 49th animated feature film is set in Jazz Age New Orleans and stars a black cast of characters.
New Bollywood comedy is the story of a young graduate entering the working world.
Cheryl Hines directs this romantic comedy starring Meg Ryan and Timothy Hutton, based on a script penned by Adrienne Shelly.
The Broken Lizard comedy troupe returns with a new feature.
For a change, instead of gross-out shorts, Spike & Mike have simply gathered the best and funniest animated shorts they could find.
arts & culture
In Tapestry's Of Mice & Magic, dance is more than the medium; it's the message
BY ROBERT FAIRES
The legendary comic reveals how he 'slayed' Reagan and killed on the moon
BY STEVE BIRMINGHAM
The Austin collective's faux convenience store sells well at the Pulse art fair
BY ROBERT FAIRES
Another Grammy nod for Austin's powerhouse choral ensemble
BY ROBERT FAIRES
Arts Reviews
A strong acting ensemble plays this Neil Simon comedy like there's no tomorrow
This revue of World War II tunes gives new meaning to 'home for the holidays'
Deeply felt tributes to the late dancer Lucia Rodriguez shaded Ballet East's program
columns
Meditations on moving forces
BY LOUIS BLACK
Fa-la-la your holidays the Cap City Men's Chorus way
BY KATE X MESSER
Your Style Avatar was here. And you can own a piece of him.
BY STEPHEN MACMILLAN MOSER
Navasota is the home of the Blues Alley, and the Navasota Blues Fest and is the old stomping grounds of legendary songster Mance Lipscomb
BY GERALD E. MCLEOD
Tempur-Pedic pillows, text messages in China, and more
BY MR. SMARTY PANTS
CLOSED Monarch Event Center, Thursday, December 10, 2009
BY THE LUV DOC
Letters to the editor, published daily
sports
England vs. United States World Cup 2010 match hottest ticket in South Africa, and more
BY NICK BARBARO