The Ballroom
Illustration by Mike Reddy
Volume 39, Number 16
features
Your Guide to Charitable Giving
How to donate to local nonprofits
2019 TOP 10S
Photo Finish
Our staff photographers choose their favorite photos of 2019
news
2019 NEWS TOP 10S
2019's Big Stories Shaping Austin's Path Into a New Decade
Never a slow news day
BY THE NEWS STAFF
Top 10 Quotes From Austin Politics in 2019
The smart, dumb, courageous, and cowardly words from the local and state political arena.
Headlines
Civics 101
NAKED CITY
Local Police Train Up on Hate Crime
Matthew Shepard Foundation helps create intra-agency network
BY SARAH MARLOFF
Supreme Court Decision Validates Local Strategies to Decriminalize Homelessness
SCOTUS passes on camping bans
BY AUSTIN SANDERS
City Sued Over Land Use Code Revision
Homeowners, neighbors want to protest rezoning
BY AUSTIN SANDERS
2019 Sees Decline in Texas Executions
Still, concerns of the fairness and accuracy of the state's death penalty system remain
BY SARAH MARLOFF
Election Ticker: Marching Toward 2020
The latest from the local campaign trails
BY MICHAEL KING
food
2019 FOOD TOP 10S
Food Editor Jessi Cape's Top 10 Austin Bites
Conscious craving has always been
BY JESSI CAPE
Top 10 Austin Veggie Burgers
All the taste, none of the meat
BY MELANIE HAUPT
The Top 10 Overlooked Central Texas Breweries of 2019
Grab a beer off the beaten path
BY ERIC PUGA
Top 10 Ways to Eat Corn in Austin
We're thinking outside the cob
BY JESSI DEVENYNS
Austin's Top 10 Lunch Buffets
We'll decide when to say "when"
BY EMILY BEYDA
Top 10 Gas Station Taquerias in Austin
Fuel up with the unofficial food of Central Texas
BY LINA FISHER
Austin's Best Food and Drink Events This Week
Dinner parties, farmers' markets, beer, wine, and more for the week of December 19, 2019
music
2019 MUSIC TOP 10S
Top 100 Austin Records of 2019
Kevin Curtin unveils his third annual list of local releases
BY KEVIN CURTIN
Chronicle Critics Choose Their Top 10 Local Albums
10 lists by 10 of our music writers
BY THE MUSIC STAFF
Austin's Best Live Music Performances of 2019
The bands and venues that kept our critics on their feet
BY THE MUSIC STAFF
Faster Than Sound – Beerland & Beyond: The Year in Music News
Squeezing out the decade's end in local music headlines
BY RACHEL RASCOE
screens
2019 SCREENS TOP 10S
The Austin Chronicle Top 10 Films of 2019
Parasite takes the top slot in our critics’ year-end review
BY RICHARD WHITTAKER
Top 10 Local Video Games
From battlegrounds to the bathroom, here are our favorite Austin games
BY JAMES RENOVITCH
Film Reviews
Black Christmas
Redo of horror classic rejects subtext for political message
Bombshell
Finding sympathy in Fox’s #MeToo moment by ignoring everything else about Fox
Cats
You can’t teach old Cats new tricks
A Hidden Life
Malick's Nazi-era drama sees the heart and soul overriding the State
Little Women
Relish the contemporary touches in this new version of Alcott’s classic
Spies in Disguise
This kid-friendly animated spy romp is for the birds
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
The saga ends … in fan service
Uncut Gems
Sandler and the Safdies take a roller-coaster through the NYC Diamond District
arts & culture
2019 ARTS TOP 10S
Robert Faires' Top 10 Theatre Treasures of 2019
History came alive and exceptional ensembles propelled the year's most memorable shows
BY ROBERT FAIRES
Robert Faires' Top 10 Joys in Dance and Classical in 2019
It was a year in which the bold and the beautiful made strong impressions in dance and music
BY ROBERT FAIRES
Wayne Alan Brenner's 10 Favorite Arts-Related Things of 2019
Kinetic performances and galleries mounting great show after great show kept the year exciting
BY WAYNE ALAN BRENNER
Barbara Purcell's Top 10 Only-in-Austin Arts Highlights of 2019
The year seen through a lens of the city, upending the expected and lifting up the unusual
BY BARBARA PURCELL
Trey Gutierrez's Top 10 Moments That Left Audiences Speechless in 2019
The year celebrated through moments when performers stunned their audiences into silence
BY TREY GUTIERREZ
Elizabeth Cobbe's Top 10 Arts Entrances of 2019
It was the onstage arrivals – some creepy, some hilarious, all welcome – that made this year distinctive
BY ELIZABETH COBBE
All Lit Up
The books we marked in 2019
Arts Reviews
A Christmas Carol
Zach Theatre's musical version abounds in great voices, but it may drown out Dickens with songs
The Watchmaker's Song
Ventana Ballet's playful take on The Nutcracker lets audiences in on the action and brings a new magic to the familiar ballet
"Sylvia Benitez: Recalling Memory / The Interior Lay"
The paintings in this solo exhibition depict a place where landscapes are, more than anything, a Texas state of mind
columns
2019 TOP 10S
Qmmunity: The Queer Stories That Made 2019
Looking back, enjoying gelato, and the return of Middle School Dance Party
BY SARAH MARLOFF, BETH SULLIVAN, JAMES SCOTT AND AUSTIN SANDERS
Day Trips: Top 10s
A look back at 2019
BY GERALD E. MCLEOD
The Luv Doc: Top 10 Things in Austin That Will Ruin Your Relationship
Or, how to find out if your love is double-donkey strong.
BY THE LUV DOC
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
BY MR. SMARTY PANTS
Feedback
Letters to the editor, published daily
sports
Soccer Watch
BY NICK BARBARO
comics
