We'll end with Mr. Statesman endorsement himself, Robin Cravey. This chestnut is already a month old, but we hadn't noticed it until this weekend: If that wasn't enough, here's a trailer for Robin Cravey: The Movie.

Now we have Jennifer Kim's campaign clip, "Independent." Funny how she's highlighting her refusal to take the council pay raise, in light of the Rick Culleton ad beating her up for approving it. (Guess no good deed goes unpunished.) Also, there's the fact it's stunts like that that impacted her working relationships on the dais, which have partially put her in this precarious position. Lastly, I'm not sure how well "I'm Jennifer Kim. I sure have screwed the pooch …" plays at the end, either. But overall, it sure looks clean and professional.

For many years, I resented the Texas Showdown Saloon (2610 Guadalupe) for a totally frivolous reason: It took the place of my favorite club, Raul’s, sometime around 1982. Eventually, the bitterness subsided, though not the way I’d gaze at it in passing, the years melting away like a Trey Parker montage. There I’d be in fuzzy 1979 memory, hanging out front with Jeff, E.A., Chris, and whomever, flipping off the cars full of frat boys yelling at us. Clubs have been my friends over the years. When you work in clubs, they take on a different aura than if you just go for fun. When you work in a club you know its secrets, learn about its past, and treasure its flaws. It’s more than having a favorite bartender or door person. I've developed an affinity for standing in the same spot because the sight line is good for the stage and the crowd. Both make the show, yanno? I have preferences for certain stalls in club bathrooms, 'nuff said. There are places where I want to lean on the bar and if someone’s there, I'll doggedly inch my way in. Heaven help the person at “my” table.

Next up we got Laura Morrison's new ad, an unexpectedly hard-hitting joint taking City Council to task for giving millions to "certain developers." Burn! As my BFFs over at Burnt Orange Report point out, that's supposedly the land in front of Green Water Treatment Plant where the three dystopian phalli are photoshopped in. Terrifying!

Hmmm – wonder where he got the jogging idea? Overall, I think it's a good look, the verité, outtake-like style making Leffingwell look real earnest and whatnot.

First Council Member Jennifer Kim got Stop Domain Subsidies on her side, now she seems to have added some Save Our Springs heft to her attempt to stave off Randi Shade. The council place three hopeful took a pummeling from the Kim campaign via an open letter from a series of historic city notables over comments she made at the Real Estate Council of Austin Candidate Forum about Barton Springs. Noting that the near-universally-supported efforts to block development there resulted in the state legislature castrating city rights over developers, Shade said it was sad that there was not a "better compromise that made everybody a winner." But in the letter Save Our Springs Alliance executive director Bill Bunch, former SOSA chair Robin Rather, former mayor Gus Garcia, former Austin state rep Ann Kitchen, and former council member Brigid Shea said this showed a "fundamental lack of understanding" of the issues at stake (not to say how much the lege loves beating up on Austin). D'oh! This comes after one eagle-eyed Chronicle forum writer noted that, during the latest Shade TV ad, there's some inadvertent support for a Kim booster. In the "I like to talk to people in cues" spot, at one point Shade is talking to people in front of Guero's. Which is owner by Rob Lippincott. Who supports Kim. Double d'oh!

It's battle of the acronyms, as SDS (Stop Domain Subsidies) has issued a brutal press release demanding that KVUE (Erm K-View?) redress its "unfair and biased coverage" of Council Member Jennifer Kim, "coverage just prior to the start of early voting." KVUE ran a report on Kim's 2007 office budget, and asked Kim to talk about it. She, on camera, said it was all legitimate office expenses. But SDS spokesperson Linda Curtis says the piece suggests Kim that spent her $260,000 office budget on treats and nick-nacks, "while leaving out that 86% of that money is for staff salaries, including her own!" SDS head honcho Brian Rogers called this a "quibble about pennies" while the city still plans to go ahead with multi-million dollar tax rebates for The Domain. Among the groups going after Kim are, not unsurprisingly, her opponent Randi Shade and fundamentalist fiscal conservatives Texans for Fiscal Responsibility (who never met a government program they didn't hate). Which means anti-one-specific-subsidy SDS are going toe-to-toe with anti-ALL-subsidies TFR. Most baffled by this is KVUE reporter (and well-known Jennifer Kim-not-look-a-like) Elise Hu, who points out that every local station ran with the same story on the same night, so she's not quite sure why KVUE is being singled out.

Early voting begins today in local municipal elections. Among the contested races that concern most of our readership: Austin City Council, Places 1, 3, and 4; Austin Community College Board of Trustees, Place 1; Austin Independent School District Board of Trustees, Place 3; and three bond proposals by AISD. (Click on the links above for coverage of those races; also, we have endorsements.) From now through May 6, Travis County voters may cast ballots at any early voting or mobile voting station (see below the endorsements). On Election Day (May 10), voters must vote at their precinct polling place.

Leave it to a Texan to whip out some slabs of leather at a sweat-drenched outdoor fest. Mychal Mitchell and Edward Bailey of Iona Books are set up selling heirloom leather journals and photo books at Jazz Fest.