I know autumn officially arrived last week, but the season always seems to me slow to start in Central Texas. I grew up with North Carolina’s emphatic fall colors; the transition here is more subtle. We’re still regularly hitting 90 degrees, but when I recently got knocked off my regular routine swimming laps at the Y and missed a couple weeks, I was startled at how much cooler the water felt. The early mornings are now just crisp enough to convince yourself you need a cardigan. The afternoon sunlight has turned that lovely honeyed color.
We’re well into festival season now, another harbinger of fall. It’s a weird year, following the worst year. Events are back, but different: hybrid, or low-capacity, or some other version of half-in, half-out, which is kinda how I feel I’m still living my life, in this liminal in-between. ACL Festival is running this weekend and next, though I suspect it won’t dominate the town like it has in years past. I’ll be enjoying it by proxy, taking the recommendations of our music staff in this week’s issue to discover the music on my own, at a remove. Still, I always get a kick out of the occasional snatches of song that carry from Zilker Park to my back porch in East Austin. If the wind moves in the right direction, maybe I’ll get lucky again.
Can we all agree that pumpkin spice has tyrannized us for too long and that its monopoly on fall flavors must end? Here at the Chronicle, at least, we think we’ve got a contender in maple brown sugar. That’s the flavor of one of our latest collaborations with local CBD company Grassroots Harvest. Joining last summer’s still-available Watermelon Gelato CBD oil and Delta-8 THC oil, the autumn Austin Chronic line includes Maple Brown Sugar CBD oil and Delta-8 THC oil, the Chronic Kush CBG + Delta-8 THC hemp flower, and Delta-8 THC honey-flavored gummies. For more info and to order, check out grassrootsharvest.com/austin-chronic-products.
Online This Week
Picture This: See Jana Birchum’s photo gallery from last weekend’s BBoy City XXVII, the largest and longest-running competitive breaking event in Texas.
Keep the Laughs Coming: Moontower Comedy and Just for Laughs announce they’re launching a joint comedy fest in April, Moontower Just for Laughs Austin.
I’m Not Okay: Clara Wang talks with L.A.’s Weathers about mental health and writing music during COVID.
Fantastic Fest Dispatches: The film staff reviews a bloody horde of titles from this year’s ever-freaky fest, plus Richard Whittaker talks to Malcolm McDowell and Alice Krige about their supernatural #MeToo drama She Will.
Coming and Going: Wayne Alan Brenner offers two visual arts shows – one opening, one closing – you’re going to want to check out.
Weekend Wine: Wes Marshall recommends a traditional Italian white wine that scales up or down depending on the occasion.
The Austin Chronicle Show on KOOP 91.7FM
This week, Austin Sanders discusses COVID vaccination rates among Austin police, and Rachel Rascoe and Kevin Curtin offer more ACL artist recommendations.
Tune in Fridays, 6pm, to KOOP Community Radio. Past episodes at austinchronicle.com/av.
This article appears in October 1 • 2021.
