Two nights with Thee Ohsees and I'm sore. Pathetic. John Dwyer, however, is probably not. In bands like Pink & Brown and the Coachwhips, the guitarist has never been one to contain himself live. Every time I've seen a band he's a part of, he's always filled to the brim with nervous energy, which makes it look like he's constantly trying to put out a fire. What started as Dwyer's solo project ten years ago has now become a full band, and its pure rock potential has been tapped with one of 2008's sleepers, The Master's Bedroom Is Worth Spending a Night In. Which brought them to Beerland on Sunday. The quartet set up next to the bathroom and with a simple introduction launched in to an hour set. Dwyer's bowl-shaped mop of hair was wringing sweat down his face, making him look a little like an overgrown Eddie Haskell, as he and singer Brigid Dawson yelped in tandem. Guitarist Petey Dammit and animal drummer Mike Shoun are really the band's secret weapon, the rhythmic base that fuels every stomper they play. Last night at Club 1808, the Eastside's delightfully grimy new punk dive, they encountered a few technical difficulties, but it was really the perfect venue for their dirty, collaborative punk catharsis. Check the gallery for color (Sunday) and black & white (Monday).

Austin Congressman Lloyd Doggett, speaking on the House floor today: "A few months ago, President Bush accurately diagnosed the problem he just dumped in the lap of Congress. 'Wall Street got drunk, and now it’s got a hangover,' he said. But Mr. President, you gave them the keys to the liquor cabinet by failing to enforce our laws. And now you’re really demanding that Americans, who didn’t get invited to the party, must pay for everything destroyed in the drunken brawl. "These late night negotiators have not asked the President, 'where do we find $700 billion?' It is time to demand that bailout supporters outline the revenue measures necessary to pay for it. And the place to begin is with those who enriched themselves when Republicans took the cop off the corporate beat. We need an alternative to just raising the credit card limit – an alternative to more irresponsible 'borrow and spend' from a President, who has already borrowed more from foreigners than all previous Presidents in American history put together and who continues to mortgage America’s future."

The Austin American-Statesman is reporting that Congressman Michael McCaul has turned down their attempt to organize a debate between him and his challengers for the District 10 seat, Democrat Larry Joe Doherty and Libertarian Matt Finkel. The McCaul campaign "could not immediately say what the exact scheduling conflicts were," writes Statesman reporter Jason Embry. District 10 stretches from West Lake Hills and the exclusive, gated Lake Austin neighborhood where McCaul lives, through north Austin and Pflugerville, and then all the way to the suburbs of Houston. UPDATE: Statement from Doherty: "At a time when our financial markets are going bankrupt, our energy bills are skyrocketing and the public's trust in Congress has collapsed, it is irresponsible of McCaul to run away from the issues. Texas families are struggling, and they deserve to know my opponent's views on the issues they face each day. My campaign is based on holding Washington accountable, and politicians like McCaul need to be held responsible for the pay-for-play style politics that place the burden on working families."

The twentysomething, punky girl hesitated at the corner of 27th and Guadalupe, waiting for the light to change. Her modified mohawk lay like a white fur pelt on her cropped hair. She appeared blissfully unaware that her once-rebellious hairstyle made its Austin debut more than a quarter-century ago in a building that stood about 50 feet away. 2610 Guadalupe stood open last week, being gutted for renovation in its umpteenth incarnation as a bar. For the last 20-odd years, it was the well-loved Texas Showdown but I’d darkened its unprepossessing doorway when it was also Gemini’s and the Buffalo Gap. And Raul’s, of course, which is what brought me back there last weekend. The swell guys that pass for developers – and I say that with 100% heartfelt sincerity because they have been sweethearts – let the South Austin Museum of Popular Culture, marshaled by Museum mistress Leea Mechling, inside to view the mural. Since the Texas Showdown opened, it hid behind wooden planks, living in legend and memory. Sarita Crocker painted it with a combination of housepaint and acrylic in 1979, assisted by Claire LaVaye, and all these years later it looked pretty damn good, if dusty and dirty.

Time for some adventures in parsing: On Friday, when explaining to the Associated Press why he was asking Gulf Coast residents not to head back to areas ravaged by Hurricane Ike, Gov. Rick Perry said, "I absolutely understand they want to get back to their homes … I'd like to get back to the mansion." Seriously, read that one again. Does someone want to explain to the governor the difference between sleeping on a cot in one of the hanger-like exhibition rooms at the convention center, with 1,300 other evacuees and potentially all your worldy possessions in whatever bag you could stuff as you fled the storm, and living in a three-story West Austin mansion with a heated pool and a cabana, courtesy of the state, valued at over $1 million? A West Austin mansion that he had been living in for over half a year -before- the governor's mansion fire?

We volunteered our asses off Saturday in Bayou Vista, Texas and shot what we saw. Keep an eye out for more posts, photos, video, and details from the weekend's trip to BV and Galveston Island, over the next few days. (Or, if you are seeing this on Chronic or Gay Place, click over to our In Case of Emergency blog for much more.) We had no intention of making a film, but then we met Dee Dee and couldn't have stopped if we tried. We hope we did our subjects justice. This is dedicated to them. [video-1] This Is Not Kansas is a film by Kate X Messer and Dacia Saenz. The principal characters in this baby doc are Dee Dee, Pookie, their neighbors, some onlookers, the filmmakers, the town of Bayou Vista, TX, and the remnants of Hurricane Ike. The music is Kaki King's "Doing the Wrong Thing" (permission pending).

It's Sunday afternoon and we feel like we got punched by a donkey. On a boat. Teeming with beered-up Aussies and Spaniards and Chiléans and Brits and, yes, more than a few Yanks and locals. We blame Fantastic Fest sponsor Foster's "It's Australian for Goddam My Head Hurts" Lager®. Which just serves to prove our theory: Fantastic Fest is has come into its own a mere four years since Harry Knowles, Tim McCanlies, Paul Alvarado Dykstra, and Alamo Drafthouse founder/overlord Tim League dared to dream it. And it's not even half over as we type this. Good on ya, mate. Our Highlights Thus Far: There's good news for everyone who ever wished the Alamo would open up a permanent outdoor drive-in-esque location (other than the Rolling Roadshow, natch). During Friday's outdoor screening of Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, League announced that the official fire lane which currently separates the Alamo South Lamar's front and rear parking areas will become, post-fest, a permanent outdoor venue, complete with -- presumably -- honest-to-goodness green-grass sod laid over the existing, butt-unfriendly blacktop. League has already set the plan in motion and met with representatives from the Austin Fire Department and City of Austin zoning officials, which means by this time next year you won't have to worry about getting gravel in your trousers because you forgot to bring a folding chair, or what that weird red stain on the pavement to your right is. Sweet.

Is it just us or does Austin now have more film festivals per capita than Smurfville had little blue not-so-meanies? Here we are with aGLIFF barely behind us, Fantastic Fest is currently, gloriously redefining the limits of our imaginations (and livers), and as of yesterday the Austin Film Festival, which this year runs Oct. 16-23, has just announced their initial lineup of films, filmmakers, and a handful of the many events that continue to make it one of best fests in the country. So who's coming and what will they be screening? Two words: Danny Boyle.

Leave it to the inimitable Kevin Smith to slip the word, if not an actual skin flick, into the grand lady of Austin theatrical venues: the Paramount Theatre. A screening of his new film Zack and Miri Make a Porno was the opening film at the fourth annual Fantastic Fest. Smith's simultaneously sweet and unsavory new comedy stars box-office king Seth Rogen and delightful Elizabeth Banks (who is soon to appear as Laura Bush in Oliver Stone's W.