The mayor just gave a big, wet, slobbery smooch to South by Southwest. Let's report it, so I can, in the eloquent words of one commenter, wax that my "boss is so great, I'd eat the peanuts outta his shit!!!"

In a waiver of fees for SXSW events, Will Wynn also clarified that the city was becoming an official sponsor of the Festival. "We don't do this lightly. … We co-sponsor five or six big events that occur in town each year," he said, including the MLK Day parade, and Cinco de Mayo events. "It's the biggest event that occurs each year, a spectacular success now. … Frankly, it's become so successful it's become difficult for South by Southwest as an organization to maintain some logistical control; by having the city step up as a partner … we think we can aid in the coordination of a very big, very challenging series of logistics." So Louis Black was right – 1,700 bands just decided to show up one day!

Mayor Pro Tem Betty Dunkerley chimed in that the popular series of morbid travel books 1,000 Things to Do Before You Die highlighted SXSW. "It should include coming to a City Council meeting in Austin, Texas," said the mayor.

Well, maybe not.

Stella Boes, the patriotic, colorful beehive-sporting waitress (and quite a hoofer to boot) at the Carousel Lounge, passed away Monday. She was 80. Even in her later years, Boes was always game for a spin around the dance floor, and most nights could be found taking orders and passing around the tip jar. A viewing is scheduled for 5-7pm tomorrow at Cook-Walden Funeral Home, 6100 N. Lamar Blvd. Mourners are asked to wear red, white, and blue in Boes' honor. Her funeral is noon Friday at the Redeemer Lutheran Church, Anderson Lane and Woodrow, and a memorial service with several of her favorite bands is in the works.

A brief interview TCB did with Boes on the Carousel's 40th anniversary in 2003 is here.

With apologies to Lynyrd Skynyrd.

You know, now that I think about it, it does stink. Especially the hot water in the shower:

"Water’s harmless taste, odor caused by algae.

"Some Austin Water Utility (AWU) customers may notice an unusual taste or odor in their tap water as the result of odor-causing algae growth in Lake Austin and Town Lake.

"The algae growth is likely due to recent warm weather and low flow through the lakes. AWU officials emphasize that any unusual taste or odor in the City’s tap water is harmless to consumers and that the water is safe to drink.

"AWU is using powdered activated carbon to neutralize taste or odors as much as possible. … Austin’s tap water continues to meet all regulatory standards, and AWU officials stress that the Austin Water Utility water is safe to drink despite taste or odor fluctuations."

"It seems like we've had more and more of this lately, with a similar incident happening last year.

By way of Burnt Orange Report, we see the Fort Worth Star-Telegram has video up of the toddlers smoking weed at the behest of their older relatives. It's not like those kids are fighting it either - it looks like shorty's about to bogart it! Puff, puff, pass!

Seriously though, the video was brought to my attention via the FOX 7 "News Edge" earlier this week, which leads with an interview of one of the teens that put the joint in the kid's face. It's sad, and it's wrong, hearing him mumble a barely coherent defense, before seeming to shrug the whole incident off. But it would be a mistake to blame only them. What about the people that left the kid in their care - surely they knew about their weed habit and didn't care they were leaving the kids with them. Or the conditions of poverty and hopelessness that drove the teens to steel the camera with which they recorded the kids. It's a breakdown at pretty much every societal level.

Late breaking blog: Direct Events just announced a second ZZ Top show at the Backyard on tax day, April 15, so get ready to blow that refund check on fake beards and Lone Star. The Li'l Ol' Band From Texas' April 14 show sold out, like, forever ago, in one day, something those pussies the Shins still haven't done, and they play today. Kind of makes a feller proud to be from Texas. Tickets go on sale 10am Saturday at Waterloo Records, UT Co-op, all RunTex locations, and www.gettix.net.

Big up to Austin's Zykos, whose "sprawling indie rock from the Lone Star State" won them Spin.com's "Band of the Day" today. Elsewhere on the site, someone wrote up Explosions in the Sky's big sold-out psych-fest at Emo's last night; apparently our Friday Night Lights heroes have "one of the most accurate band names in music today." There are new Spoon tour dates on there, too, but nothing in Texas. Considering Metal Dave Glessner's write-up in this month's paper mag, it's easy to see why people from out of town think it's always South by Southwest around here. It kind of is.

It's just creepy. Especially when you're the former Texas Youth Commission security director accused of having sex with teenage boys. Not a good look.

This Mike Ward article spells out how former TYC official Ray Brookins, accused of molesting his teen charges, has a hot and heavy MySpace page, complete with pictures of him at the adult entertainment expo (i.e., porn convention) in Las Vegas. Unfotunately, the screen cap over in the corner is all user XXXRayVijon (fingered as Brookins' profile in the Statesman article) has up right now; the account has been set to private. But look, he's online now!

Must be trying to elicit some sympathy with the quote he's chosen. From the look of things, he'll need it.

Texas is one step closer to sentencing repeat child molesters to the death penalty, as House Bill 8 continues its rapid sprint into the law books. March 5, the house passed HB 8 from Rep. Debbie "Pit of Hell" Riddle, R-Tomball. Aside from alleviating the possibility of reduced sentences for good behavior and stretching the statute of limitations in molestation cases – measures applauded by victims' rights groups – the bill also gives prosecutors the option of pursuing the death penalty for sexual assailants who strike children younger than 14 twice or more. The bill looked headed for passage even earlier originally, late last week, but qualms that capital punishment would encourage attackers to kill the witness to their crime – the child victim – slowed it momentarily. Unfortunately, other concerns – that the death penalty option would silence reporting, as most molesters are family members – didn't weigh on lawmakers' minds as heavily. The bill now goes on to the Senate and, if successful there, to the governor for approval. Austin Rep. Eddie Rodriguez called HB 8, heavily lauded by Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, "gubernatorial electoral politics in action. … Even our notoriously tough Texas prosecutors did not request the death penalty for HB 8." In an unprecedented move of toughness, House Republican caucus Chairman Frank "the Fetus" Corte said, "Today, Republican members took a strong stand to protect the children of Texas. … By establishing the death penalty as an option for sexual offenders who repeatedly prey on the most vulnerable people in Texas, we have drawn a line in the sand against violent sexual predators."

Yeah, the all-powerful sex offender lobby's been driving the agenda forever!

Fifty cedar waxwing birds migrating north through Austin got drunk on fermented yaupon berries, keeled over and died in the courtyard of the offices of the state Dept. of Aging and Disability Services on Monday, says state Dept. of Health Services spokesman Doug McBride. A drunk waxwing will do things it wouldn’t normally do – like repeatedly fly into a plate glass window – or won’t do the things it would normally do to protect itself – like puff out its chests to stay warm overnight – either, McBride says, can spell disaster for the little yellow-chested dark-masked bird. Nonetheless, says McBride, the bird deaths posed no public health threat – unless, of course, you “happen to come between a plate glass window and a drunk bird.”