Wading through the four hours of testimony on Tuesday before the Senate Education Committee hearing on the new omnibus education bill Senate Bill 3, the recurrent meme was that it tackles the worst concerns about TAKS as the ultimate metric for student achievement. On the other hand, no-one seemed happy that, while it got rid of the acceptable/unacceptable tags for schools, it did little to change the "all or nothing" metric for school assessment. Rod Schroder of the Texas School Alliance likened it to calling a student with almost straight As and one C a C student. Richard Kouri, Director of Public Affairs for the Texas State Teachers Association, weighed in with an apt metaphor.

"Madame chairwoman, this will probably come as a surprise to you, but it did to me, my doctor told me I need to lose weight. For a month I've been going in the bathroom and weighing myself, and you know, I haven't lost any weight. None! And I told my wife, the problem has to be the damn scale."

A new screen day and time has been added for The Big Squeeze, Austin filmmaker Hector Galan's newest documentary about the annual accordion festival. Check it out Friday, 3:30pm, at the Paramount Theater.

I ride the bus. I rode the bus before it was cool to be green and reduce your carbon footprint. In fact, I didn’t even know I had a carbon footprint. But I do know how to ride the bus. I can get nearly everywhere in this town, and you can too. Just follow some time honored rules and a few others unique to Austin.

Richard Whittaker and Amanda Palmer really hit it off. In part one, they discuss (at first, non-verbally) sucking dick, William Shatner, ukuleles, Morrissey, and Oasis on the radio. And they cuddle.

It was a thrill to catch the world premiere of The Promised Land: A Swamp Pop Journey, about Louisiana supergroup L'il Band o Gold at the Alamo last night. At the film's conclusion the filmmaker and members of the band got up to answer questions. At one point the audience asked the subjects in attendance for a song: [video-1] "What key ya in man, whisKey?" And yes, that's LBoG founder C.C. Adcock against the backdrop. The film shows one more time: Tomorrow, Thursday, March 19, 3pm at the Austin Convention Center.

Whatever complaints one may have about Austin Sen. Kirk Watson, one of them can't be that the man doesn't give a good speech. For the second time this session in the Senate's tussle over voter ID, I found his words worth printing in full. Here's what he said on Tuesday, March 17, in an ultimately futile argument against SB 362 (and it's even better if you hear it – go to 1:25:30 of this video):

Thank you very much, Mr. President. Members, the outcome today we all know isn’t really in doubt. It hasn’t been since we opened this legislative session. We knew what would happen, what we should expect, well before our meeting last week of the Committee of the Whole. But even knowing what’s about to happen today, there was still a debate to be had last week, and a case that needed to be made. People who are watching us – and maybe, more importantly, those who weren’t watching, those millions of legally voting Texans whose lives won’t be the same if this bill passes – have a right to expect someone to prove that the supposed voter impersonation problem is at least significant enough to justify all the time we’re spending on it.

Knock me over with a feather: The Senate just approved the committee substitute for SB 188, which would allow for, among other things, the legalization of certain needle exchange programs for drug addicts. Could Texas actually be moving toward a sensible drug policy?

… or at least, inexperienced in covering the Lege. Senate Bill 362, the voter ID bill, wasn't quite finished yet. The final reading is happening right now. But again, it's just a formality, since the GOP has a 19-12 edge in the Senate. And … there. It's really done this time. I just heard Dewhurst say "SB 362 is finally passed." After passage, Royce West made a statement that of the 31 senators, eight are ethnic minorities, and all have consistently voted against 362. And now Eliot Shapleigh, who represents El Paso, has noted that although he is white, he represents a predominantly Hispanic district, and he too consistently went against 362.

Paul Solet, director and screenwriter of the post-natal splatterpunk shocker Grace, obviously knows what he want an audience to take home with them after seeing his film: nightmares. And not just any nightmares, either, but the pre-partum sort that can derail an impressionable couple's decision to procreate, or trust a midwife, and which pretty much calls into question the whole of the American birthing process in all its gory glory. Jordan Ladd is Madeline Matheson, an upper middle class wife with an upper middle class husband, Michael (Stephen Park) who, after years of trying, finally conceives. Having already determined to usher her little miracle into the world with the assistance of M.D.'d midwife Patricia (Samantha Ferris), Madeline's once-upon-a-time Univeristy mentor-cum-lover, the expectant mom foresees nothing but the joy of impending motherfun. Nevermind that her shrewish mother-in-law Vivian (Gabrielle Rose) is violently opposed to this non-traditional route, or that her husband has his own, vague, misgivings. No one ever said childbirth was ever anything other than painful, bloody, and -- to men, at least -- often downright horrific. The point is moot, however, as a tragic automobile accident leaves both Michael and his wife's in utero offspring dead on arrival. Madeline survives, though, and amidst the madness of the hospital's natal-trauma unit, she makes the ultimately unwise decision to birth the stillborn tot at Vivian's holistic midwife center. There, the dead infant -- christened Grace -- miraculously returns to cooing, drooling life, to the hysterical delight of its mother. Slow-burning horror ensues.