Was It Good for You?

Lin and the Tramp Maybe I’ll choose Thomas Pynchon’s Inherent Vice (Penguin Press) as my book of the year. Writing a detective novel (not to mention voicing your own book trailer) was an inspired move by one of America’s great novelists. Who wouldn’t root for a Pynchon who dropped some of his more elliptical tendencies…

by James Renovitch

National Top 9s

Greg Beets 1) GIRLS Album (True Panther) 2) HEAVY TRASH Midnight Soul Serenade (Big Legal Mess/Fat Possum) 3) RAINY DAY SAINTS Reflected (Get Hip) 4) YO LA TENGO Popular Songs (Matador) 5) DIRTY PROJECTORS Bitte Orca (Domino) 6) TINARIWEN Imidiwan: Companions (World Village) 7) PISSED JEANS King of Jeans (Sub Pop) 8) THE LOVE ME…

by Chronicle Staff

Top 9 Local Stories

1) WET OR DRY? For it or agin’ it, the 25-years-in-the-planning Water Treatment Plant No. 4 dominated city politics for several months, with City Council finally voting narrowly to move forward with the massive multiphase project. Come hell or high water – more likely both – something tells us we haven’t heard the last of…

by Michael King, Lee Nichols and Richard Whittaker

TV Eye

TV Eye picks her favorite shows of the year. No surprise: No. 1 looks good in dark suits and Brylcreem.

by Belinda Acosta

Texas Top 9s

Greg Beets 1) NEON INDIAN Psychic Chasms (Lefse) 2) THE STRANGE BOYS … And Girls Club (In the Red) 3) WHITE DENIM Fits (Downtown) 4) BLACK JOE LEWIS & THE HONEYBEARS Tell ‘Em What Your Name Is! (Lost Highway) 5) THE KRAYOLAS Long Leaf Pine (No Smack Gum) (Box) 6) THE BAND OF HEATHENS One…

by Chronicle Staff

Top 9 Cap Metro Derailments

1) DING, DONG, THE WITCH IS DEAD The seven-year tenure of Fred Gilliam as Capital Metro’s president/CEO saw a labor strike, a financial crisis, and a commuter rail system that still hasn’t debuted two years after its originally scheduled start date – few tears were shed when he waved goodbye. 2) NO, THIS TIME WE…

by Lee Nichols

Was It Good for You?

Listomania The year in books, sure, we can wrap it up just like that, all lickety-split and Chaucer’s-your-uncle, right? Readah, please. Remember, though, the Harry Ransom Center’s exhaustive and illuminating “From Out That Shadow” exhibition (presented in conjunction with the University of Virginia but built mostly from the HRC’s vast holdings) documenting the life and…

by W. A. Brenner

Top 9 State Stories

1) FORT HOOD RAMPAGE A routine day at a Central Texas Army base turned deadly Nov. 5, when a gunman suddenly fired on a crowd of people in a processing center. Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, has since been charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder.…

by Lee Nichols, Richard Whittaker and Amy Smith

Was It Good for You?

Fire It Up I’m aghast that some people are calling 2009 the year of the Kindle, but apparently some people – not booksellers, mind you – would like us to think that the demise of the traditional paper-and-glue variety of book is at hand (a hand I gladly and ferociously bite). For me, a born…

by Marc Savlov

Critics Poll

Best Local Show CHURCHWOOD Hole in the Wall (Greg Beets) THE BELLEVILLE OUTFIT/THE FIREANTS Momo’s (Jim Caligiuri) THE RELATIVES Continental Club (Thomas Fawcett) OKKERVIL RIVER Austin City Limits taping (Doug Freeman) PACHANGA! LATINO MUSIC FESTIVAL Fiesta Gardens (Raoul Hernandez) WHITE DENIM Antone’s (Chase Hoffberger) MOTHER FALCON Momo’s (Margaret Moser) THE DICKS Austin Music Hall (Austin…

by Chronicle Staff

Top 9 Lege Stories

1) TIME TO KILL THE KING With the House split 76-74, the imperial rule of Speaker Tom Craddick came to an end. When it became clear that he wouldn’t survive the bipartisan ABC (Anyone But Craddick) Alliance, he withdrew, yielding the gavel to user-friendly Rep. Joe Straus, R-San Antonio. 2) SHIFTY RICK Gov. Rick Perry…

by Lee Nichols and Richard Whittaker

Top 9 Media Stories

1) WETBACK SETBACKS KLBJ-AM morning hosts Todd Jeffries and Don Pryor were suspended after Pryor repeatedly used the term “wetback” on the air. Faced with protests from the Hispanic community, parent company Emmis Communications condemned the language and vowed to become more culturally sensitive. A few months later, Emmis management proved its politically correct resolve…

by Kevin Brass

Top 9 Developing Stories

1) PLANNING-A-GO-GO This year saw a harmonic convergence of major planning efforts shaping the region. If properly synced up, they could herald a tipping point – a course correction for Central Texas’ future. The city of Austin is progressing on a comprehensive plan, Strategic Mobility Plan, Downtown Austin Plan, and Waller Creek District Master Plan;…

by Katherine Gregor

Top 9 Enviro Stories

1) DROUGHT DEVASTATION A hotter ‘n hell summer and the driest period since the Fifties prompted city and regional utilities to enforce mandatory water restrictions – until steady autumn rains washed us out of the danger zone. Meanwhile, the Lower Colorado River Authority set about fashioning a forward-looking regional water plan with a special emphasis…

by Amy Smith and Nora Ankrum

Top 9 Austin Weirdnesses

1) CAROLE SPRINGS ETERNAL Grandma Keeton Strayhorn, Austin’s political Energizer bunny, just keeps on running. 2) TEXAS TEA-TIME Rick Perry panders to loonies and ponders secession. 3) ALLRED AND ALL RIGHT Exiled Sammy returns to radio as a “Big Talker” – with Glenn Beck! 4) MUD MUSIC Austin City Limits Festival + major downpour =…

by Chronicle Staff

Top 9 Final Exits

1) ROY BUTLER The former mayor engaged his city until the end. 2) LOWELL LEBERMANN From boardrooms to politics to beer, an Austin mover and shaker. 3) MINA BREES departed under curious circumstances, estranged from life. 4) SCOTT OZMUN Risen to the bench, then abruptly gone. 5) 24 DEATH ROW INMATES Executed for political reasons,…

by Chronicle Staff

Day Trips

Looking back at 2009, it was a year of drought, change, and some exciting new opportunities for day trippers

by Gerald E. McLeod

Top 9 Criminal Justice Stories

1) ANOTHER EASTSIDE SHOOTING In May, Austin Police Officer Leonardo Quintana fatally shot 18-year-old Nathaniel Sanders II in the parking lot of the Walnut Creek apartments. With a federal civil lawsuit pending, this story will linger in 2010. 2) DAMAGED GOODS In the fallout from the Sanders shooting, Police Chief Art Acevedo fired Internal Affairs…

by Jordan Smith

Screens Top 10s

1) ‘WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE’ The No. 1 spot is reserved for the movie that took my breath away, a most involuntary response. Where the Wild Things Are did and does. 2) ‘THE BEACHES OF AGN�S’ Agnès Varda’s beaches are festooned with mirrors and scarves and her courtyard with sand and umbrellas. Her film…

by Marjorie Baumgarten

Headlines

• A South Austin man was fatally shot at his home Monday after an Austin Police Department officer and a Travis County sheriff’s deputy, responding to a domestic disturbance call, opened fire on Roger Tyrone James, the father of four children. Police say James pointed a handgun at APD Officer Justin Berry and Sheriff’s Deputy…

by Chronicle Staff

Top 9 Joints

1) PATIENTS FREE TO INHALE Keeping a presidential campaign promise, President Barack Obama’s Department of Justice sent out an official memo to federal prosecutors in October advising them to end raids on patients using medi-pot in compliance with state law. 2) SOME LIKE IT POT A home movie of Marilyn Monroe that purports to show…

by Jordan Smith

Screens Top 10s

1) ‘A SERIOUS MAN’ Forget somebody to love – what Larry Gopnik wants is somebody to give him a lousy break. With the Coens playing God to his Job, it isn’t likely. Still, this is their most challenging, forgiving, and likable film in a long time. 2) ‘IN THE LOOP’ Inspired by the American-Anglo ramp-up…

by Kimberley Jones

Top 9 Quotes of the Week 2009

1) “I’m pleased to say that there were more smiles in the House chamber for this opening day swearing-in than I’ve seen in recent years.” – Austin Rep. Elliott Naishtat on new House speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio (Jan. 16 issue) 2) “[T]he safest place for a woman to live is married to a man.”…

by Chronicle Staff

Top 9 Letters of 2009

We’re doing something a little different this year. In the name of fun we’ve chosen nine letters from the calendar year ’09 that readers may find amusing, insightful, regionally topical, or none of the above. Unfortunately, we did not have space to include our readers’ tributes to some of the local heroes who passed on…

by Mark Fagan

Screens Top 10s

1) ‘A SINGLE MAN’ Tom Ford’s delirious meditation on the life, death, and rebirth of desire is, simply put, a flawless and exhilarating debut. 2) ’12’ This Russian reconceptualization of the Sidney Lumet classic 12 Angry Men is just as talky but infinitely more poetic and a slow-burning thing of enormous, post-Soviet beauty. 3) ‘MOON’…

by Marc Savlov

Critics Picks for the Week: Jan. 1-7

Critics Picks for the Week: Jan. 1-7 Marjorie Baumgarten Where the Wild Things Are Me and Orson Welles An Education Kimberley Jones Avatar Fantastic Mr. Fox Me and Orson Welles Marc Savlov Fantastic Mr. Fox Where the Wild Things Are Avatar (IMAX)

by Chronicle Staff

Was It Good for You?

The Pleasure Principle I read half of A Truth Universally Acknowledged: 33 Great Writers on Why We Read Jane Austen (Random House) before I kicked it under my bed, bored and peevish. The essayists tended to say the same glowing things about Jane Austen and her books; the unintended effect was to send me away…

by Kimberley Jones

Was It Good for You?

Rock, Bebop, Etc. Arthur Phillips’ The Song Is You (Random House) opens with a riveting prologue that not only stands on its own as a brilliant short story about musical obsession but also sets the stage for similar mania in our iPod generation. While the novel works on many levels, at its core this is…

by Jay Trachtenberg

Top 9s

Top 9 National 1) SLAYER World Painted Blood (American) 2) SONIC YOUTH The Eternal (Matador) 3) MEAT PUPPETS Sewn Together (Megaforce) 4) NEKO CASE Middle Cyclone (Anti-) 5) VIEUX FARKA TOURÉ Fondo (Six Degrees) 6) DEATH … For the Whole World to See (Drag City) 7) MORRISSEY Years of Refusal (Lost Highway) 8) BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN…

by Raoul Hernandez

City Hall Hustle: Top 9 City Council Stories

1) GOODBYE, WILL Anticlimax was the order of election day, as Lee Leffingwell took the mayor’s office. Brewster McCracken’s forward-thinking campaign couldn’t coalesce constituencies, and his endgame had no game. (Brew­ster Nation, anyone?) Carole Keeton Strayhorn was a nonstory, and downballot was even less exciting, with Bill Spelman running unopposed and Chris Riley blowing Perla…

by Wells Dunbar

Was It Good for You?

Going Underground Could be my burrowing tendencies talking, but two of my favorite books this year seem to have excavation at their cores. Jonathan Lethem’s Chronic City (Doubleday) foregrounds the havoc wreaked by a wayward tunneling machine (or possibly a giant tiger) in an off-kilter Manhattan and provides endless layers of identity, reality, and high-wire…

by Cindy Widner

Top 9s

Top 9 National 1) THE COATHANGERS Scramble (Suicide Squeeze) 2) THE CLEAN Mister Pop (Merge) 3) THOSE DARLINS (Oh Wow Dang) 4) BLUES CONTROL Local Flavor (Siltbreeze) 5) ST. VINCENT Actor (4AD) 6) THEE OH SEES Help (In the Red) 7) THAO WITH THE GET DOWN STAY DOWN Know Better Learn Faster (Kill Rock Stars)…

by Audra Schroeder

Luv Doc Recommends: The Gourds New Year’s Eve Masquerade Ball

When the big ball drops Thursday night, the Aughts will become the shoulda’s. You’re probably planning on spending the evening in quiet, contemplative thought, torturing over the mishaps and missed opportunities of the last decade. There are certainly lessons to be learned. For instance: Presidents of the United States should at least be able to…

by The Luv Doc

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