Cover Story
Behind the Legal and Financial Chaos Circling Empire
The message on the black gate that separates Empire Garage from the street was simple: “Fuck u Steve.” The spray-painted words, captured on Dec. 30, quickly became a backdrop for angry Instagram posts, directed at Empire Control Room & Garage owner Stephen Sternschein, that flooded the timelines of music lovers across the Live Music Capital…
News
HB 7 Is Now Law, but Texans Are Still Accessing Abortion Pills
Though living in a state with a near-total abortion ban, Texans can be prescribed and mailed mifepristone and misoprostol pills by out-of-state medical providers, making at-home medicated abortions possible. Last summer, Texas lawmakers tried to close off that access to abortion medication for good when they passed House Bill 7. As of Dec. 4, HB…
City Workers Fear Layoffs Are Coming
Does City Manager T.C. Broadnax believe that Austin is employing too many workers? Carol Guthrie, a longtime leader of the union representing the city’s employees, AFSCME Local 1624, fears he does. Guthrie told the Chronicle last week that she is in communication with a city employee who said that Broadnax expressed this opinion during a…
The Week’s Biggest News in Brief
ICE Protests Around the Nation: On Jan. 7, an ICE agent in Minneapolis shot and killed 37-year-old U.S. citizen Renee Nicole Good. Good, along with others, was protesting ICE operations in the city when the incident occurred. After ICE agents began surrounding her SUV, she attempted to drive away when agent Jonathan Ross fired three…
Renee Good’s Murder Sparks Local Protests Against ICE Brutality
At 7 o’clock on Friday night, under the street lights of 11th Street, about a hundred people gathered at the southern gates of the state’s Capitol building. Many hoisted signs, one reading “ICE out of Austin,” another “Abolish ICE!,” and several reading “Justice for Renee Good.” Two Mexican flags rose above the crowd. Green-clad officers…
Music
Chrystabell Honors Collaborator, Mentor David Lynch with The Spirit Lamp
“The whole idea of The Spirit Lamp was the flicker of recognition, or the flicker of that soft candlelight, of something beckoning you to a deeper awareness,” says Chrystabell, the mononymous vocalist who cherished a decades-long creative relationship with filmmaker David Lynch. “And, hopefully, towards the idea of peace and love for humanity and love…
Music Notes
Peyton, Hasaan Olu Thursday 15, Sahara Lounge Houston connects with Austin for a show celebrating the birthdays of Pushermania founder Matt Sonzala and Ichikara Valdez, who performs as the vocalist for H-Town experimental trio Hasaan Olu. Stones Throw Records signee Peyton headlines after Sonzala DJs between sets. Big Mic & Nnédịmmáyá Friday 16, Flamingo Cantina…
Red River Comes Alive
When was the last time you saw a line outside the 13th Floor? It’s typically a touring act that inspires Austinites to queue, but Free Week 2026 brought musical enthusiasm back to the locals. Folks of all ages – some in winterwear, others braving the surprise cold in their night-out best – milled around the…
Arts + Culture
State of Grace Scores Vintage Finds for All
Many a magazine, movie, and vintage rack would have you believe that until very recently, everyone was rail thin. The problem with movies and magazines as an all-encompassing, representative source is, well, we know better. “Everyone of all sizes has always existed,” says Grace Womack, the curator behind State of Grace, a mid- and plus-size…
A Moving Memoir for Lone Star Loners
Middle school, high school, college – these defined educational stints, relatively short compared with the expanse of adult life, are often the stuff that lifelong labels are made of. How these bracketed years impacted you, or who you were during them, gets permanently folded into your life story in some way or another. For author Stefan…
Celebrating MLK Day With Poetry at the Vortex
Martin Luther King Jr. Day was first celebrated in 1986. Some 40 years later, the third Monday in January continues to be a moment for reflection on freedom of speech as well as freedom for all people. In that tradition, the Vortex – which resides in the historically Black cultural district Six Square – hosts…
Red River History Celebrated in New Zine
Red River Cultural District launched the Red River Zine, a quarterly print publication, on Jan. 14. The staple-bound missive, a part of the organization’s Cultural Currents storytelling and preservation initiative, celebrates the people and places that have shaped the cultural district’s distinctive identity through first-hand stories and reporting, complete with historic articles and photographs. The…
Screens
All You Need Is Kill Review: The Same Story Again, But Different
Time loop dramas are never really about temporal mechanics. Instead, they’re about the growth of the characters who realize they are the only ones who know their lives are on repeat. What differentiates them is the MacGuffin that induces repetition: a cave in Palm Springs, Cthulhoid abominations in The Endless, a groundhog (maybe?) in Groundhog…
The Voice of Hind Rajab Review: Come and Hear
The greatest horror of the modern era is to normalize atrocity. It’s to look at what is going on around us, shrug, and think that’s acceptable. It’s dehumanizing and callous and opens the door to acceptance of worse crimes. But then there are those for whom contending with atrocity is a burden. Those for whom…
The Testament of Ann Lee Review: This Musical Biography May Be the Weirdest Movie You’ll See This Year
The Testament of Ann Lee, a biographical musical about the woman who founded the Shaker movement in America, is a confounding film that fascinates and exhausts in equal measure. There’s really nothing quite like it out there. Amanda Seyfried plays the titular Ann Lee, an 18th century, deeply devout woman who joined the “Shaking Quakers”…
Night Patrol Review: Bloodsuckers of LAPD
These days, it’s really feeling like law enforcement is a bloodthirsty parasite on America’s communities. In ghetto horror Night Patrol, that suspicion is quite literal, as the titular Night Patrol LAPD special unit is actually a bunch of vampires. That’s the story that Wazi (RJ Cyler) lays out when he’s arrested with a giant piece…
The Choral Review: The Song of a War-Torn Community
The devastation of war is not simply on the battlefield. The idea of the home front may summon ideas of home fires burning, but at its worst it’s a subtle devastation. Take Great Britain during World War I. A generation of young men was butchered in the trenches, and the only people left behind were…
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple Review: End of the Old, Birth of the New
Since the massive success of revisionist not-a-zombie zombie flick 28 Days Later in 2002, the franchise has always been fundamentally disinterested in the infected themselves, having added little to their nature since the original idea of them being driven by rage rather than hunger. As the fourth film overall and second in the ongoing new…
Columns
Qmmunity: Bring About a Better 2026
Start of the year means the start of yearly goals, and boy: I’m not sure what even the next three months hold! To be honest, these early January weeks have been mostly filled by thoughts of how l-o-n-g last year actually was. Helping those thoughts proliferate have been all the year-in-review style Instagram posts folks…
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
The plural of carnyx, an Iron Age horn used by the Celts, is carnyces. According to Dating.com, nerdy men are going to be popular with the ladies in 2026. The red-lipped batfish or Galápagos batfish (Ogcocephalus darwini) is mainly known for its bright red lips. Not a good swimmer, the red-lipped batfish has highly adapted…
Day Trips: The Cartoon Saloon, Toonstone
The Cartoon Saloon in Toonstone, Texas, has been called a “roadside distraction” rather than a “roadside attraction.” It’s a photo op outside of Comfort disguised as an Old West town with tongue firmly placed in cheek. Built of weathered wood with a tin roof, the saloon is sandwiched between the “Not So OK Corral” and…
Feedback: January 16, 2026
Planting Seeds Dear Editor, Homelessness is a very big problem in the city of Austin. Many of us who live here see it every day. It’s a difficult problem to solve, as there are thousands of homeless people around Austin, and it is not as simple as just giving them a place to live. That’s…
The Luv Doc: Weaponized Incompetence
Dear Luv Doc, This year me and my husband of two years hosted our in-laws for the holidays for the first time. I say “we,” but that’s incorrect. My husband’s family was here Christmas Eve through January 4 and it was a lot. They are a traditional Midwestern family with a stay-at-home mom and working…
Fun + Games
Free Will Astrology
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Sandcastles are good reminders of how temporary everything is. We build them on the damp edge of the shore after the tide recedes, and then they crumble when the sea rolls back a few hours later. Let’s make the sandcastle your power symbol for the months ahead. In doing so, I…
