Academy Award-winning screenwriter and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Horton Foote passed away yesterday at the age of 92. Foote, a native Texan, was perhaps best known for his Oscar-winning screen adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird. Foote was inducted into the Texas Film Hall of Fame in 2003. Click here to read Robert Faires' interview with him at the time.

Viva Las Vegas was a little bit of Vegas nightlife mixed with fashion week. It is nice to see a bit of change from the typical Lonestar tallboys and skinny jeans that you often encounter downtown. Plus, you get to help out Aids Services of Austin so that is always nice. Check out the photos by Matthew Wedgwood and the thoughts of Chrontourager Tran Pham to see a little of what you missed. Special thanks to Chrontourager Charles Heidrich for putting together a video of the night, we look forward to more in the future.

Austin Police Dept. Chief Art Acevedo on Wednesday honored 30-year department veteran Sgt. Kenny Wilson with the Distinguished Command medal for demonstrating "exceptional command and leadership" over an "extended period of time." Wilson, a supervisor of the APD's Bomb Squad Unit, was diagnosed two years ago with esophageal cancer. Despite his deteriorating health, Wilson continued to serve at APD until last month. Now in hospice, the 55-year-old is unable to continue his duties and will officially retire, effective March 31. Wilson's sons, Randy and Daniel, accepted the medal and a citation on their father's behalf during a press conference on March 5. "Sometimes he had radiation treatment on his lunch break and then returned to the office afterward," Acevedo said. "If strength, stamina, and positive attitude could cure cancer, Kenny would have been completely well long ago. He became a role model by his actions and gave the rest of us a standard to try to achieve."

When I look back at my blog posts, I get the impression that I watch entirely too much television. Confirm or deny? Confirm. Today's catch of the day is Gay, Straight or Taken? on the vomitous LifeTime Television Network. The show started in 2007, and the premise, as you might guess, is that a lovely young straight women goes out on a group date with three young gentlemen (Sidebar: Can we talk about how weird the reality show group date as a form is? Confirm of deny? Confirm, again.), and she must choose based on her limited interactions with the men which one is taken (by another woman), which one is gay (and taken by a man), and which one is straight (and available for some horizontal happy times). As you can imagine, this gay is fascinated and repulsed…

A little more than 2,000 people braved a frigid, windy Saturday night to see the USL-1 Austin Aztex play their first game ever, a 2-0 exhibition loss to Major league Soccer's New England Revolution. With the Aztex using two entirely different squads in the two halves (and both of them looking a tad nervous, especi­al­ly at the start), the home side still acquitted itself well: A couple of glaring (if wind-related) defensive lapses led to the goals, but all in all, we matched up pretty well with a team that looks a lot better on paper. Next up, the Houston Dynamo, this Saturday, March 7, 7:30pm at Nelson Field. With two different Dynamo supporters groups reportedly coming in for the game, and given the natural geographic rivalry, this could be one of the better game atmospheres of the season, even if it is still an exhibition. The Dynamo's regular season doesn't start for another two weeks, but their international campaign is already over – they were knocked out of the CONCACAF Champions League by a 3-0 loss Tuesday to Atlante in Cancun, Mexico.

So you remember that little spat Waco Rep. Jim Dunnam, chair of the committee overseeing Texas’ portion of the federal stimulus money, had with the Texas Department of Transportation on Monday? Well, now he has the feds backing him up and telling TxDOT they’d better obey the law. Dunnam blew up in his House Select Committee on Federal Economic Stabilization Funding meeting when TxDOT officials told him they had already committed $500 million in stimulus money to maintenance projects – without getting any input from the Lege and, as TxDOT executive director Amadeo Saenz openly admitted, without considering and giving priority to “economically distressed areas” of the state in deciding which projects to fund, which the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 requires. The Texas Transportation Commission, which oversees TxDOT, has a vote scheduled tomorrow morning to commit even more stimulus cash, possibly again without factoring in economically distressed areas. “We are subject to being charged back this money if y'all don't spend it in compliance with statute," warned an angry Dunnam Monday.

Last night at the Cactus Cafe (how many times have I said that in the past month?), Ana Egge held court in fine style. Backed by members of What Made Milwaukee Famous, the indie-folk diva ran through most of the tunes from her new disc, Road To My Love (Grace). Egge, who’s moved between Austin and Brooklyn a couple of times in the past few years, was in especially high spirits because earlier in the day she found out Rolling Stone gave her a rave review in its upcoming issue. Speaking to her before the gig, she claimed the Chronicle’s Raoul Hernandez was partially responsible for her hooking up with the WMMF guys, as he recommended that she check them out a couple of years ago. When she did and got talking with them, she discovered the popsters were major fans of her music and thrilled at the idea of working together. While a little rough around the edges, the performance showed just how far Egge has come from the seemingly innocent folk ingenue of 12 years ago to a world class risk taker whose pop sounds rivals Ron Sexsmith or Beth Orton. The media might want you to believe that the new U2 album is the only one released this week, but I’m just as excited by Bela Fleck’s Throw Down Your Heart (Rounder), a companion disc to the fabulous movie that was shown at last year’s South by Southwest. Forget bluegrass or jazz, Fleck travels to Africa to discover the roots of the banjo and comes back with a set of collaborations that’s as delightful as anything you’ll hear this year. Those familiar with African musicians will recognize names like D’Gary, Oumou Sangare, Baba Maal, and Toumani Diabate, but the combination of rhythms, voices, stringed instruments unusual to Western ears, and Fleck’s banjo make the CD as joyful as the movie.

After all the back-slapping in Senate about Moving Image Industry Day this morning, it was actually the House doing the legislative heavy lifting on Texas cinema. Texas Film Commission Director Bob Hudgins told the House Culture, Recreation and Tourism Committee that, over the interim, his agency had initiated new production assistant and location scouting training programs to build up the talent pool. He also touted the new Film Friendly Texas program, which teaches communities how to attract and nurture film productions. The other part, he explained, involves teaching communities "how to set up guidelines that will protect them," so that productions don't strip them like locusts. He was also particularly proud of the achievements of the remarkable Texas Archive of the Moving Image. So what about the moving image incentive program? Hudgins, who is a big advocate for the extra latitude HB873 would give his office, said so far it was most successful in attracting game development and commercials, rather than TV and movie production (mainly because Texas is pretty much the only state to incentivize them.) He also sold the gaming industry as a great way to get kids interested in math and science, and said UT is considering a game design program.

There was a little star power in the Texas Senate this morning with the passage of Senate Resolution 371, making March 4 Moving Image Industry Day at the state capitol. Cue a standing ovation (sadly, not for resolution authors Bob Deuell and John Carona, but for members of the Texas Motion Picture Alliance, including alliance president Don Stokes, Vice President of Business Development MPS Studios Meredith Stephens, and some guy called Richard Linklater.) Also in attendance were legendary Texas character actors Burton Gilliam (famous for having the first line in Blazing Saddles) and James Hampton (if you're under 40, he was Michael J. Fox's dad in Teen Wolf: over 40, the caretaker in the original 1974 The Longest Yard.) Quick six degrees moment: They both appeared in Evening Shade with Burt Reynolds. By no small coincidence, the House Culture, Recreation and Tourism Committee is currently discussing House Bill 873 – the new tweaks at the Texas Moving Image Industry Incentive Program.