Downtown Austin
Volume 31, Number 1
features
The Austin Ch30nicles
How landing in Austin after Katrina was made just a bit easier
30 Things
The highs, the lows, the lists
news
This Is Your City Budget
More police, vanishing grants, rising costs, and ... Jazzercise?
BY WELLS DUNBAR
Drought? What Drought?
Just because we have a huge water supply doesn't mean we have to use it
BY AMY SMITH
City Hall Hustle: When's the Next City Election?
Council weighs shifting ballot choices to November
BY WELLS DUNBAR
Civics 101
Quote of the Week
Headlines
New Map Poses Challenges for Huber
BY MIKE KANIN
WTP4 Work-Stop Costs Go Under a Microscope
Auditors scrubbing CDM costs estimates on postponing plant construction
BY WELLS DUNBAR
Poison in the Park
Plants and trees in Stacy Park began to die after a Parks and Rec volunteer sprayed herbicide
BY JORDAN SMITH
History Removed
Art-deco facade disappears from 1940s building
BY AMY SMITH
Stripper Tax Ruling Reversed
Plaintiffs may move case to another court
BY RICHARD WHITTAKER
Worst Fears Confirmed for Women's Health
Family planning providers formally told they've lost funding
BY JORDAN SMITH
The Austin Ch30nicles
The time when the 'Chronicle' stated the wrong outcome of Kirk Watson's testicular cancer
Sparks Rules for Women
The larger question of whether the law should be thrown out entirely remains unsettled
BY JORDAN SMITH
The Hightower Report
Rick Perry is like Michele Bachmann, with better hair
BY JIM HIGHTOWER
food
21st Annual 'Austin Chronicle' Hot Sauce Festival Winners
Feel the burn! Texans show they can take the heat: red, green, and summer.
BY KATE THORNBERRY
Chow Times
This week: Work on your barbecue and beer bellies, get a taste of the world, and eat for the cure
BY VIRGINIA B. WOOD
Food Reviews
Roll On Sushi Diner
Culinary experimentalists will appreciate this mischievous take on Americana
21st Annual Austin Chronicle Hot Sauce Festival Contest Winners
music
30 Rock
Thirty recordings for 30 years of music Chronicling
BY MARGARET MOSER, RAOUL HERNANDEZ AND AUSTIN POWELL
Off the Record
Gimme All Your Lovin': Emo's heads East as John Kunz looks back; plus, Whiskey Shivers' single malt success
BY AUSTIN POWELL
The Austin Ch30nicles
Remember That Issue ... When Nick Balanced Louis?
Texas Platters
Slaid Cleaves
Sorrow & Smoke – Live at the Horseshoe Lounge
Kevin Fowler
Chippin' Away
Hundred Visions, Adrian & the Sickness, the Angel Babies, Sands Hollow, Follow That Bird
Last Cab From Tunis, Criminal Dog Days, Blew My Speakers, "Watch Yourself" b / w "The River's Edge", "Wooden Bones" b / w "Antlers"
screens
Something Wild
AFS Essential Cinema: Hong Kong New Wave Cinema
BY KIMBERLEY JONES
Start It Up
At Austin Startup Week, money and a good idea may mean the next big thing in tech
BY JAMES RENOVITCH
Eye on aGLIFF 24
Austin's favorite LGBTQ fest kicks off
BY KIMBERLEY JONES
The Austin Ch30nicles
John Pierson recalls when the Chronicle published Rick Linklater's Dazed and Confused diary
Film Reviews
Bodyguard
In this thrice-made Hindi film, a tough bodyguard's exterior hides a hidden romantic's heart.
Colombiana
A professional assassin by day, a vigilante by night: Zoe Saldana is Luc Besson's latest femme fatale.
The Debt
Helen Mirren stars in this film that's part espionage thriller and part moral meditation, though the emphasis leans more toward the former than the latter.
A Good Old Fashioned Orgy
Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice meets a considerably tamed Van Wilder for a mediocre romp in the Hamptons.
Mankatha
This Tamil action thriller involves organized crime and cricket competitions.
Our Idiot Brother
Paul Rudd plays a well-meaning pothead who couch-surfs among his family, leaving nothing but chaos and good vibes in his wake.
Point Blank
In this frenzied French thriller, a man races to save his wife's life – and then races some more.
Saving Private Perez
This Mexican black comedy about a drug lord who gathers a posse to rescue his captured brother in Iraq is a huge hit in its homeland.
Seven Days in Utopia
Robert Duvall and Lucas Black join forces for this film version of psychologist/golfer David Cook's memoir, Golf's Sacred Journey: Seven Days at the Links of Utopia.
arts & culture
Be Prepared
The secret to improv's split-second successes is in years of training
BY ROBERT FAIRES
All Over Creation: Die Another Dad
Puzzling out the meaning of the theatre's Summer of Dead Dads
BY ROBERT FAIRES
The Austin Ch30nicles
Shannon Sedwick recalls the Chronicle's recognition of Esther's Follies' first star
Arts Reviews
'From Specifics, From Concrete Evidence, From Things'
These fine photographs reveal the power of objects in our material world
Hair
Little City fields a big, strong tribe for its go at the love-rock musical
Dos Pocitos
Teatro Vivo teaches us how to preserve the past in a future South Texas
columns
Page Two: Delusions and Grandeur
Delusions and Grandeur
BY LOUIS BLACK
After a Fashion
Stephen attended Fashion Week and despite reservations, liked it just fine
BY STEPHEN MACMILLAN MOSER
Gay Place
We're here, queers!
BY KATE X MESSER
Day Trips
Cadillac Ranch is the most popular art installation in the Texas Panhandle
BY GERALD E. MCLEOD
Mr. Smarty Pants
BY MR. SMARTY PANTS
Common Law
Rental House Foreclosed – What are Tenant's Rights?
BY LUKE ELLIS
Luv Doc Recommends: Out of Bounds Comedy Festival
Stateside at the Paramount, Monday, September 5, 2011
BY THE LUV DOC
Feedback
Letters to the editor, published daily
sports
Brewskee-ball
League starts ninth 'skeeson'
BY MARK FAGAN
Soccer Watch
Longhorns soccer off to an impressive start, and more
