Cover Story
Following a Whirlwind of Love and Success, Chaparelle Faces the Next Chapter
When Chaparelle takes the stage at the Austin Blues Festival on Sunday, it will be their first show with fronting duo Jesse Woods and Zella Day performing as a married couple. Earlier this month the songwriters were wed in a Hill Country ceremony, with their producer and third pillar of the band, Beau Bedford, officiating. …
News
AI Now Decides if Texas Medicare Patients Receive Certain Types of Care
Since Jan. 15, Texas Medicare patients who need a skin graft, a nerve stimulator, or one of 12 other specific procedures must pass an AI-powered checkpoint. In Texas, the Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction (WISeR) Model is a federal program run by a private AI company whose profits are derived from a percentage of the…
City Leaders Hold Their Ground on ICE Policies
Austin found itself in a familiar position last week as both Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton threatened the city over its latest progressive policy decision. The threats followed the Austin Police Department’s March decision to change its general orders to ban officers from arresting people on noncriminal arrest warrants issued by ICE,…
SAFE Alliance in Dire Need of Funding
The woman in the SAFE ATX video stares into the camera and describes the trauma of receiving a forensic exam in a hospital after being raped. “There’s the noise, the long waits, the lack of privacy, the feeling that your pain is just one more thing in a long line of other emergencies,” she says.…
The Week’s Biggest News in Brief: April 16-22
Abbott Threatens Austin: After Austin Police Department Chief Lisa Davis made policy changes in March that prohibit officers from arresting or detaining individuals solely based on a noncriminal ICE warrant, Attorney General Ken Paxton placed the city under investigation on April 10. Now, Gov. Greg Abbott is threatening to cut state funding from Austin if…
Despite New Confession, James Broadnax’s Execution Date Grows Closer
James Broadnax has spent nearly half his life on Texas death row for the 2008 killings of Stephen Swan, 26, and Matthew Butler, 28, outside their Garland music studio. A Dallas County jury sentenced him to death in 2009 after prosecutors tried him as the shooter in the robbery. Now, he is scheduled to be…
Music
Music Notes
GZA Thursday 23, Far Out Lounge The Wu-Tang Clan MC’s impeccably sharp lyricism and clever wordplay on Liquid Swords, paired with RZA’s dark production, still causes ample rewinds decades after its release. Phunky Nomads provide backing support for GZA at the Austin stop on the album’s 30th anniversary tour. Live at Central Machine Friday 24…
Arts + Culture
An Empire Divided, An Uncertain Future for Chili’s, And Other Cultural Happenings
Empire Control Room & Garage is open in a limited capacity this month, following a lockout notice posted Friday, April 3, on the Control Room half of the venue. That notice, which remains visible on the front door of the building as of April 22, states that “payments under the Lease Agreement” on behalf of…
Objects and Aesthetics Tell “Tales From the Freezer”
The 10 moments that comprise Carter Flachbarth’s solo painting exhibition, “Tales From the Freezer,” are hauntingly composed dioramas of emotion and identity. Each centers a different human subject, yet the story of the scene is told through the objects that surround them: A duck tchotchke bears mythical significance in The Transaction, a bell placed amid…
Deconstructing Austin: 2026 Homes Tour Celebrates History Across the City
“Worth the wait!” a woman called to me reassuringly while I stood in line to wander through a Craftsman bungalow in Travis Heights. Once inside, admiring repurposed shiplap and curved furniture, I couldn’t help but agree with her. The residences on Preservation Austin’s 2026 Homes Tour have had no problem waiting for their moment in…
Screens
Over Your Dead Body Review: Shotgun Wedding
The term “Hollywood remake of a foreign film that was a festival smash” normally fills the chest with dread. So went the initial response to the idea of Over Your Dead Body, a remake of Tommy Wirkola’s 2021 Norwegian bloody action comedy The Trip – a film that was the definitional genre festival smash but…
Mother Mary Review: All the Little Monsters
There’s an unexpected resonance between Michaela Coel’s work in Mother Mary and her recent performance in The Christophers: Both are a functional two-hander, in which she plays an artist whose career has been in the constant shadow of a greater figure, only to find their need for her outweighs their own understanding. But unlike her…
Fuze Review: Disposable UK Actioner Squanders a Good Premise
What if an unexploded WWII-era bomb was unearthed in the middle of London? And what if some criminally-minded folks took advantage of the chaos to do a little capering? The premise of this British actioner is a corker, at least, and it has in theory three potentially gripping staging grounds for drama, with the military…
Columns
The Luv Doc: Selfish, Distrusting, and Mean-Spirited
Dear Luv Doc, I have anxiety caused by my belief that people have become more selfish, distrusting, and mean-spirited than I remember them being before the pandemic. I used to consider myself the kind of person who gets annoyed by people for entirely reasonable reasons, but people in Austin are such jerks these days. They…
Day Trips: The Boat Bar, Port Aransas
The Boat Bar recycles a former TxDOT ferry as a waterborne tavern in Port Aransas’ municipal harbor. The open-air nautical saloon attracts a mixture of locals and visitors. With a wide spectrum of beers and wine – sorry, no cocktails – it’s a pleasant place to watch pleasure and fishing watercraft come and go. The…
Feedback: April 24, 2026
Transit Office Rerouted Dear Editor, Mayor [Kirk] Watson was too hasty in derailing the Austin Transit Partnership’s plans for a shiny new office. The ATP should be allowed to spend $47 million to rent office space. The issue isn’t the money, it’s the location. Instead of a high-rise on Congress Ave., ATP should spend $47…
Opinion: Austin’s Guaranteed Income Program Helped Me Break the Cycle of Generational Poverty
We hear a lot about building generational wealth and the importance of equity, but we don’t speak enough on generational poverty, which is far more common. Generational poverty has plagued my family for many years, and living paycheck to paycheck was the norm. I was determined to be the curse-breaker, and build something solid for…
Opinion: Joe Ely Told Me a Story Once …
So … a warm’ish October night in the Texas Panhandle … Lubbock, to be exact … I was 27, Joe Ely was a little younger … that night his band played what I believe was their first gig … at the Main Street Saloon, across a boulevard and up half a block from Texas Tech…
Austin FC Fans Wanted More Goals. They’re Getting Worse Defense.
From a culture, brand, and marketing standpoint, you’d be hard-pressed to find many MLS clubs with a stronger identity than Austin FC. The crest, the color scheme, the stadium and atmosphere – it all works. But when it comes to on-the-field identity, well… that’s where things tend to fall apart. Through the first quarter of…
Qmmunity: Reading the Rainbow, Again
Reader, today I come to you with advice handed down by this year’s indie bookstore day ambassador LeVar Burton’s classic children’s show: Take a look; it’s in a book! Yes, this Saturday, April 25, is Independent Bookstore Day across the nation. We’re blessed in ye olde Bat City to have several queer indie book spots…
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
The birds on the original Cadillac trademark shield are not ducks, they’re merlettes, a mythological legless and beakless bird. They’ve been drinking snake wine in Southeast Asia for its supposed medicinal use since the Western Zhou dynasty (771 BC). Author Henry D. Thoreau most likely pronounced his name with an accent on the first syllable…
Fun + Games
Free Will Astrology
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): You’re finished with energy-draining indulgences. No more seductive perils or cute ailments, either. Once you wriggle free from the tangles that have been hobbling your style, I suspect you will also renounce anything that resembles joyless restraint, naive certainties, pointless cravings, numbing comforts, or misplaced bravery. May it be so! Abracadabra!…
