Katie Hayes
Volume 28, Number 15
ON THE COVER:
features
news
From Hebron to Camp Mabry: A Palestinian's path to U.S. citizenship
BY KATIE HAYES
Here's your chance to give back to the areas of our community that need it the most
BY KATE X MESSER AND MEGHAN RUTH SPEAKERMAN
News briefs from Austin, the region, and elsewhere
McCracken cracks open his war chest in officially declaring his candidacy for mayor
BY WELLS DUNBAR
Matters of the public, Dec. 11-17
Austin's Lege delegates ready to go back to work
BY RICHARD WHITTAKER
Recount gives incumbent Linda Harper-Brown the victory, but Democrats aren't ready to throw in the towel
BY RICHARD WHITTAKER
Susan Combs holds up her agency as a model of state transparency
BY RICHARD WHITTAKER
In a cost-cutting move, Capital Metro switches four of its bus routes to cheaper contractors
BY LEE NICHOLS
Research facility set up to study combat-related traumatic brain injury may close in wake of whistle-blower complaint
BY LAUREL CHESKY
Women's allegations against a state-run drug program for felony offenders gets short shrift by a Senate committee
BY PATRICIA J. RULAND
Local public-safety agencies will be asked to trim, rather than hack, their respective budgets
BY JORDAN SMITH
Shopping ideas from the Chronicle News staff
John Forté was dealt harsh sentence under draconian drug law
BY JORDAN SMITH
Sign of the Times; and Bush Okays Environmental Grotesquerie
BY JIM HIGHTOWER
food
The Colas on Christmas, cyanide, and serial killers
BY R.U. STEINBERG
Lean times call for hefty donations to nonprofits curbing hunger, teaching sustainability, and making the world just a little bit better
BY VIRGINIA B. WOOD
Newbies near the Long Center, tamales for the holidays, reading for beer snobs, and more
BY VIRGINIA B. WOOD
Your local foodie events for Dec. 13-17
music
Experimentalist Eugene Chadbourne's got a thing about Austin
BY DOUG FREEMAN
Grupo Fantasma gets a Grammy nod, a tribute to the Cactus Cafe's Griff Luneburg, and tripping daisies with Woozyhelmet
BY AUSTIN POWELL
Box Sets
The Soul of Rock and Roll
The Unreleased Recordings
Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison
Boots, Buckles & Spurs: 50 Songs Celebrate 50 Years of Cowboy Tradition
The Gonzo Tapes: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
Just Look Them Straight in the Eye and Say ... Poguemahone!!
To Be Free: The Nina Simone Story
The Complete Motown Singles Vol. 11A: 1971
1970-1975
Live in Gdansk
Love Train: The Sound of Philadelphia
Kind of Blue 50th Anniversary Collector's Edition
The Power of Negative Thinking: B-sides and Rarities
Budokan!
screens
AFS Documentary Tour presents In a Dream
BY ANNE S. LEWIS
Peep Your Yuletide Games
Cash-strapped but ever hopeful, aGLIFF looks to next year
BY CLAY SMITH
Wildfire Films launches in Austin, and Austin filmmakers land Independent Spirit noms in L.A.
BY JOE O'CONNELL
Screens Reviews
Before 1995 came along and caught him in a deeply formalized act of pretension, Lars von Trier was already something of an ass
Independent Lens rolls out more standout docs
BY BELINDA ACOSTA
Film Reviews
A radio deejay returns home to India from a foreign trip to discover that his activist wife has died in an accident. But was it really an accident?
The story of the birth of Chicago blues is well-told through this ensemble portrait of Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Chuck Berry, Etta James, Little Walter, and their label, Chess Records.
A collection of blues originals by the likes of Aaron Neville, B.B. King, and Etta James lightens this otherwise dreary exercise in modern film noir.
This dull, unnecessary remake of the 1951 science-fiction classic features Keanu Reeves and Jennifer Connelly in a wooden cautionary tale.
In this animated fantasy, a band of teens joins together to defend its land from alien winged creatures.
French master Claude Chabrol's latest film is the tale of the downfall of a cheery, open-faced weathergirl in Lyons who falls in love with two different men.
In this new Bollywood romance, polar opposites find themselves drawn together by fate.
Danny Boyle's crowd-pleasing Slumdog Millionaire may be drenched in the saffron and violet palettes of its Mumbai setting, but it plays like a classic Hollywood rags-to-riches love story.
arts & culture
Daniel Johnson loves early music's purity of sound and intimacy, and he's not alone
BY ROBERT FAIRES
Esther's alumnus Derek Reid returns from L.A. to show us how funny Obama can be
BY BARRY PINEO
A half-million-dollar challenge grant boosts Arthouse's capital campaign
BY ROBERT FAIRES
The Eastside theatre bids farewell to a treasure: managing director Edna Parra
BY ROBERT FAIRES
Austin's top vocal ensemble earns two Grammy noms for its Threshold of Night CD
BY ROBERT FAIRES
Arts Reviews
TexARTS' original holiday revue is thrilling when it's not hampered by tentativeness
Like its confused hero, this rock musical doesn't seem to know what it really is
Eight new dances that spoke engagingly to the place individuals have in groups
columns
A film review and recommendation for this blur of a year
BY LOUIS BLACK
Stephen wears what he eats
BY STEPHEN MACMILLAN MOSER
Who will lead the next Join the Impact action?
BY KATE GETTY AND KATE X MESSER
Factory outlet stores offer great savings on everything from dominoes to ice chests
BY GERALD E. MCLEOD
The Bad News Cowboys search for an identity
BY JOE O'CONNELL
Dubai's crane population, European eating habits, and more
BY MR. SMARTY PANTS
Modify child-support payments?
BY LUKE ELLIS
Maplewood Elementary School, Saturday, December 13, 2008
BY THE LUV DOC
Letters to the editor, published daily