Jason Stout
Volume 31, Number 16
ON THE COVER:
features
2011 GIFT GUIDE
We've made your list, now check it twice and give to do good!
BY KATE X MESSER
news
Revisiting the yogurt shop murders: A cold case reconsideration of the 1991 crime points away from the prosecution's assumptions and conclusions
BY JORDAN SMITH
Bungling a high-profile project is not the best way to ask for a raise
BY AMY SMITH
No Silent Night here
BY WELLS DUNBAR
This week, save a dog, talk Occupy, and learn about the proposed rate increase
Board punts charter vote to Dec. 19
BY RICHARD WHITTAKER
Laura Pressley hasn't decided which seat she's seeking
BY JOSH ROSENBLATT
Union decision postponed – is IDEA involved?
BY RICHARD WHITTAKER
There's no short of imaginative puppetry with this bicycle troupe
BY RAMON MARTINEZ
Part of the controversial mural comes down
BY JORDAN SMITH
2011 GIFT GUIDE
Slip into something more comfortable with Perry, Freud, and more
BY RICHARD WHITTAKER AND MICHAEL KING
The Hyde Park Tire Slasher story heads for sequels
BY JOSH ROSENBLATT
The Supremes throw a monkey wrench into election maps and planning
BY RICHARD WHITTAKER
Name the GOP circus and win 'The Hightower Lowdown'
BY JIM HIGHTOWER
food
One busy mother's search for perfect meal service
BY MELANIE HAUPT
Get your buns to these burger joints and bakeshops, plus a fundraiser for a foodie photographer in this week's food news
BY VIRGINIA B. WOOD
Stuff yourself like a Christmas stocking with beer and cheese, teas and chocolate, bubbly and red wine
BY VIRGINIA B. WOOD
A trio of wines from one of France's great vintners
BY WES MARSHALL
Bargain wine queen Natalie MacLean chronicles her continuing quest
BY CLAUDIA ALARCÓN
music
2011 GIFT GUIDE
Rock & roll books from Austin to Beijing
BY RAOUL HERNANDEZ
Ruby Jane and her mother are carjacked, plus other holiday tales of need
BY MARGARET MOSER
screens
Steve McQueen on Shame's New York state of mind
BY MARC SAVLOV
When movies go looking for Christmas redemption
BY JOSH ROSENBLATT
Rolling with the Bike Smut Film Fest
BY MARC SAVLOV
Film Reviews
We're wondering if anyone will call the ASPCA if we leave these animated rodents chipwrecked far from civilization.
This animated Mexican film is an inspirational story about three Catholic women in crisis.
This fourth entry in the Tom Cruise film franchise is the best of the bunch; it's wacky and keen to please.
Wolfgang had a sister who was also a musical prodigy. Guess which sibling the history books remember.
Crime, love, and vengeance abound in this Telugu action drama.
Exquisite control and spasmed anguish mark the performances of Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan in this dark, NC-17-rated story about a sex addict.
Robert Downey Jr. inhabits the role of Sherlock Holmes to a near-molecular level in this rushing whoosh of a follow-up to 2009's blockbuster.
Jonah Hill plays the world's most irresponsible babysitter in this new movie from David Gordon Green.
Actors Charlize Theron and Patton Oswalt prove as riveting a combo as writer Diablo Cody and director Jason Reitman.
arts & culture
There may be new life in old Scrooge yet, thanks to creative Austin artists
BY ROBERT FAIRES
Area visual artists win support for 2012 projects
BY ROBERT FAIRES
Photographers rally around one of their own
BY ROBERT FAIRES
Arts Reviews
Penfold's staging is a charming complement to the holiday hustle and bustle
A Latina Scrooge has a change of heart in this sweet adaptation of A Christmas Carol
Tapestry's syncopated take appeals even to those who have sworn off sugarplums
Rare is the theatre company whose debut is as deft and precise as Street Corner Arts' is
This drama of identity-switching may leave you feeling equally fascinated and repulsed
columns
Checking in, expressing thanks
BY LOUIS BLACK
Corporations are not people
BY MICHAEL VENTURA
Your Style Avatar neglected to mention your name, didn't he?
BY STEPHEN MACMILLAN MOSER
You will always find us in the kitchen at parties
BY KATE X MESSER
Get your Mexican-food fix in El Paso
BY GERALD E. MCLEOD
Canned corn tortillas, Joan of Arc, and more facts to chew on
BY MR. SMARTY PANTS
Broken Spoke, Wednesday, December 21, 2011
BY THE LUV DOC
Letters to the editor, published daily
sports
More year-end wrap-up
BY NICK BARBARO