Cover Story
Arch Support
Foot Patrol’s TJ Wade might just know the meaning of ‘toe jam football’
Double Plus Ungood
Dewhurst wants credit for cuts, gets points for illogical thinking
As Above So Below
The Art of the Secret Society
TDH: 5/5/11
A purp & people-powered campaign for Roger Chan
Lovely Laughing Ladies
Ladies Are Funny Fest opens Thursday in the ATX
Now I Got Worry
The return of the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
Pages And Pages of Free Comics
Flicking through this year’s Free Comic Book Day comics
‘Austin Chronicle’ Uncovered 5-6
The Band of Heathens Bands Together
Wednesday Rewind
Nakia on ‘The Voice,’ Graham Reynolds vs. a piano
Watson’s ‘Honesty Agenda’ Moves Forward
Fiscal clarity bills attached to others as amendments
TDH: 5/4/11
The Hustle gets down in the Place 3 gutter
Africa for Africa
A chat with Femi Kuti
TDH: 5/3/11
Relive the forum magic online
King Hex
Hang a fang on this new Hex Dispensers jam
In the Nick of Time
Nick Curran honored with fundraiser at Antone’s
Early Voting Begins Today
Austin City Council the headliner on May municipal ballot
Roller Derby Update 4/30/11
Texies pack their bags for cooler climes, TXRD has double fun in May
Legal Challenges to Redistricting Maps Begin
Rep. Garnet Coleman files complaint to Justice Department
This Week’s Waste of Time
Browser games are back … in 3-D!
Joan Wasser: Police Woman By Day, Torch Singer By Night
Rob yaks with Joan Wasser from Joan As Police Woman
The Lineup
Recommended music for Austin Psych Fest and beyond
Long Live the King!
The Decemberists’ Nate Query talks about their new CD
Restyling ‘Slacker’
Local filmmakers join forces to reshoot the Austin classic
Dark Shadows
Billy Miller on the return of Cold Sun at Austin Psych Fest
Cowboys & Dinosaurs!
Ray Harryhausen’s “Valley of the Gwangi” at Alamo Kid’s Club
First Night Austin
The organization behind the New Year’s Eve arts celebration says the party’s over
Texas Platters
The Drakes Nighttime Problems Apart, the Drakes have backed up a list that ranges from Alice Cooper to Toni Price. Together Matt Giles, Michael “Cornbread” Traylor, Ron Flynt, Vicente Rodriguez, and Tom Gillam make a joyful noise that recalls the world’s greatest bar band, NRBQ. Pretense-free originals and potent covers of songs from Eddie Hinton,…
TV Eye
Mustering enthusiasm for the wedding that has gripped the world
Spring Council Elections
Highs and lows by decade
Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Big Happy Family
Madea is tasked once again with fixing a broken family.
A New Night-out Option
The Violet Crown Cinema brings the arthouse ethos to Downtown
Texas Platters
Brian Hudson Into the Black (Strong Woman) With the breakup of folkie favorites the Hudsons, Brian Hudson strikes out on his own with a set that’s spare and deeply personal, yet sounds somehow incomplete. Hudson’s simple melodies reach a naivete approaching Harry Nilsson at times, especially on the shimmering “The Shield,” but too often Into…
Early Voting
You may vote at any early voting location in the county in which you’re registered. On election day, you must vote in your precinct. For a list of precinct locations: 238-VOTE or www.traviscountyelections.org. Williamson County info: www.wilco.org/elections or 512/943-1630. Hays County info: www.elections.co.hays.tx.us or 512/393-7310. EARLY VOTING LOCATIONS Open Mon.-Sat., 7am-7pm, and Sun., noon-6pm, unless…
AISD: Tax Relief vs. Teacher Relief
AISD board hears testimony on historic property tax exemptions
African Cats
Lions and cheetahs in the African savanna look lovely onscreen but are imbued with human emotions.
Food Review
This might make us forget the Alamo … Drafthouse, that is
Texas Platters
Medicine Park Pope of Fools Under the name Medicine Park, Clay Berkes constructs a set of tunes ranging from atmospheric to twangy, but even guests Jon Dee Graham, Bukka Allen, the Tosca String Quartet, and producer George Reiff can’t salvage songs that prevaricate between whispery and being ready-made for some treacly television drama. The ability…
Oops!
In last week’s issue, two maps that accompanied a redistricting story, “Wiping Doggett Off the Map,” were incorrectly identified in the print edition. The map labeled “Existing House Districts” is actually the proposed redistricting map, and the map labeled “Proposed” is the map currently in place for Travis County House Districts. Also last week, an…
Prom
Friday Night Lights‘ Aimee Teegarden stars in this tween wish-fulfillment movie.
Stickmen With Ray Guns
Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Steam
Texas Platters
Trey Brown & Mission Dorado Like San Saba County and the Thrift Store Cowboys, Trey Brown and Mission Dorado tackle Southwestern soundscapes with aplomb. Brown’s dusky vision lacks the spark to enrapture, however; too many times he relies on Americana clichés like windy deserts and lonely midnights, while his reedy vocals remain sleepy where urgency…
Off the Record
Scouting reports on Austin Psych Fest and Reckless Kelly’s Celebrity Softball Jam
House: Livin’ on a Pair
For Travis County state reps, two is the magic number. Four of the six local reps managed to get a pair of bills each out of the House and into the Senate before the Easter break, and that deadline may turn out to be an important one for getting a bill passed. From here on,…
Rammbock: Berlin Undead
This wackily despairing horror film from Germany is chock-full o’ blood and guts.
Beer Flights
Austin says good-bye to a master brewer
Texas Platters
Not in the Face Bikini Singer-songwriter Jonathan Terrell and drummer Wes Cargal team up for Not in the Face, a project that picks up where the first Black Keys disc left off. Bikini is lo-fi and boisterous, with a Texas redneck attitude that makes it oddly attractive. Songs like “Downtown Girl” and “Yuppy Monday” reveal…
Point Austin: Hiding in Plain Sight
Here’s your lecture on voting: Vote.
Bill of the Week
Proclamation for Days of Prayer for Rain in Texas
Certified Copy
Juliette Binoche stars in this romantic drama about the value of originality by Abbas Kiarostami.
Food Review
Java fiends produce a newer, cooler cup of coffee
Food-o-File
Rooting for the home team in the U.S. Barista Championship Brewers Cup, and more tasty news bites
Texas Platters
Steve Earle I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive (New West) Harrowing twists and meaningful turns so define Steve Earle’s career that mortality underlies his oeuvre in powerfully subtle ways. Never one to do anything less than whole hog, I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive tackles the subject head-on, both as a…
City Hall Hustle: Tall and Short Stacks of Money
The biggest chunk of change is fueling Place 3 race
Senate: No Time To Kill
On the Senate side of the Travis delegation, the most noteworthy news has been headlining failures rather than successes, but both senators have moved several bills over to the House, so there’s still a little time to change that before the clock runs out. The bills will need to move soon, though – only a…
Circo
A family-run circus that travels the back roads of Mexico is the subject of this documentary which explores the universal theme of filial loyalty.
Food Review
If it’s good enough for Vietnamese grannies, it’s probably really good
Event Menu
For April 30-May 5, enjoy the power of Parmesan and a few twists for Cinco de Mayo
Ann, Taylor-made
A stage tribute to Ann Richards becomes Ms. Holland’s opus
Quote of the Week
“A $17 million gift.” – University of Texas Athletics Director DeLoss Dodds on possibly handing the athletics department offices at Bellmont Hall back to UT, which paid for them in the first place
Music to Your Beers
Microbrewer bill passes House
In a Better World
This Danish import by Susanne Bier deservedly won this year’s Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.
Fear Knows No Limits
Steve Niles’ cross-platform experiments in terror
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Strangers as friends, the first nachos, and more
The Action’s in Place 3
Shade, Tovo, Nofziger race most watched and closely contested
Res Publica
Citizens’ calendar, April 29-May 5
Puppy Love at the Lege
With Longview GOP Rep. David Simpson still intent on trying to defeat the measure, a bill to outlaw unregulated large-scale dog and cat breeding operations passed the Texas House on a vote of 95-44 on Wednesday. HB 1451, by Rep. Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston, seeks to end the cruel and inhumane practices of so-called “puppy mill”…
Super
Rainn Wilson and Ellen Page star in this tonally odd superhero spoof that veers between cartoonish stylings and gruesome violence.
Film Flam
The Cannes Do Edition
The Hightower Report
Bugs Benedict? Bee Stroganoff?; and Tea Party Toys With Consumer Protection
Place 1: Significant Minor Victories
If it seems like Chris Riley was just up for election, he was, relatively speaking. Riley last ran in 2009, when he bested Perla Cavazos with a 66% showing. That campaign was to complete the final two years of Lee Leffingwell’s term, as Leffingwell decided to run for mayor. Should incumbent Riley win re-election –…
Headlines
� City Council decamps to David Crockett High School, 5601 Manchaca Rd. (at Stassney Lane) for its meeting today, Thursday, April 28. On the agenda: attempting a final recycling agreement bestowing 60% of blue bin contents to Balcones Resources and 40% to Texas Disposal Systems, the controversial Holly Street Power Plant demolition contract, and a…
Will Holly Pass Muster at Council?
Council to consider controversial bid proposal
Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen
Bone-pulverizing kickassery trumps plot in this Donnie Yen martial-arts film directed by Andrew Lau.
In Print
An encyclopedic overview of the grimy-great underbelly of Swedish exploitation films
Texas Platters
Explosions in the Sky Take Care, Take Care, Take Care (Temporary Residence) Explosions in the Sky has always been a self-fulfilling prophecy. Since its very first flier (“Wanted: Sad Triumphant Rock Band”), Austin’s signature post-rock outfit harbored an indisputable, trademark sound: crisp, translucent guitar sagas of apocalyptic proportion, with artillery command and euphoric release. The…
Place 4: It’s Morrison, and Then Some …
Is Laura Morrison “the Berkeley girl who put up her Birkenstocks to come and serve you”? An astute politician who rose to prominence riding the zeitgeist of neighborhood association politics? The independent holdout on otherwise consensus-driven council policies? All of the above? Whatever your hybrid answer, incumbent Morrison is the unstoppable force in Place 4…
Reefer Madness: Drug Court: No Silver Bullet
If drug court isn’t the answer, what is?
13 Assassins
The prolific Japanese filmmaker Takashi Miike takes a turn toward the truly epic with this classically styled samurai picture.
Texas Platters
Meat Puppets Lollipop (Megaforce) The Meat Puppets’ third album since brothers Curt and Cris Kirkwood reunited in 2007 concludes with a smattering of studio talk that will likely strike fans as typical of the band: “I don’t know, I could probably do it better,” offers Curt, breathing heavy. The Meat Puppets embody that sense of…
Gay Place
What doesn�t our GP krewe do?
Austin ISD Performing Arts Off-Center
Board approves purchase of Mueller tract for performing arts center
Planet Crosswise
Planet K provokes fight to keep Bee Cave ‘normal’
Music Review
Foot Patrol Pussyfooting With their fourth full-length, Foot Patrol delivers what will surely be hailed as the pinnacle of podiatric funk for decades to come. The onetime 4-track project from the fertile minds of keyboard wiz TJ Wade and bassist Hung Nguyen has burgeoned into a crack ensemble that almost makes you forget every lyric…
Texas Platters
Loves It! Yay! Jenny Parrott and Vaughn Walters’ debut plucks good-naturedly from bluegrass, country, and folk, combining the local multi-instrumentalists’ two halves into a whole. Almost. There’s a sugar high to Loves It!, and the cavity-tingling sweetness of “Dinosaurs” proves the duo is made for its own kids’ TV show. Parrott of ATX country-punks Shotgun…
Day Trips
Capt. Day Trips takes the controls of a four-seater plane
No Bus, No Fuss
New app allows real-time tracking of buses, trains
Half-Dead or Half-Life?
South Texas Project expansion not quite dead – yet
Scenes From a Rubdown
Austin Chronicle: What does a foot session consist of? Is it different for every foot? TJ Wade: It is. It’s a combination of massage and tickling. But I like to add in my own twists and turns. AC: Do you always start from the top? TJW: I start from the top, to the heel. Then…
Texas Platters
Tia Carrera Cosmic Priestess (Small Stone) Metallic improvisationalists Tia Carrera telegraph more than most with song lengths. The instrumental Austin trio’s second disc for Detroit indie Small Stone, Cosmic Priestess, reaches deep space nine on its run times alone: 7:32, 15:10, 33:40, 8:01. “Slave Cylinder” blasts off this sci-fi novella light-years past the distortion point,…
Arts Review
Champion’s new group show hasn’t the grandeur or vision of its previous exhibits
Don’t Bogart That Prescription
Drop off your unused meds for safe disposal
Reckless Kelly Celebrity Softball Jam
Balls, beers, and bands
After a Fashion
Your Style Avatar treads lightly on the UT apparel design program and carries a big measuring tape …
Texas Platters
Gregg Rolie Five Days When your voice entwines with classic rock radio DNA as original Santana band vocalist Greg Rolie’s did on “Oye Como Va,” “Evil Ways,” and “Black Magic Woman,” every song thereafter summons nostalgia retroactively. Now ensconced in the Hill Country outside of Austin (see “Of a Lifetime,” Sept. 25, 2009), the longtime…
Arts Review
The Rude Mechs’ musical tall tale leads to a song that leaves your jaw on the floor
Doing the Electric Slide
Electric cab item pulled from council agenda
Soccer Watch
Barcelona and Man U continue their winning ways, and more
Austin Chamber Music Center Performathon
Hundreds of chamber musicians fill Dell Hall with nine full hours of classical sounds
Texas Platters
Willie Nelson & Wynton Marsalis (Featuring Norah Jones) Here We Go Again: Celebrating the Genius of Ray Charles (Blue Note/EMI) Like its 2008 predecessor, Two Men With the Blues, this live collaboration of icons Nelson and Marsalis performing the music of Ray Charles isn’t likely to generate any new converts. In fact, the uniqueness that…
Arts Review
Treating Shakespeare as a high school musical comedy leads to much fun at City Theatre
Forum or Against ‘Em
You don’t even have to leave your couch for the enviro forum
Austin Creative Alliance
After a decade of leading the arts service organization, Latifah Taormina retires
Texas Platters
The Wagoneers The Essential Wagoneers Had this CD been released a year ago, the Wagoneers would have been a footnote in the annals of local alt.country. A handful of reunion gigs beginning with South by Southwest 2011 now stamps the late-1980s Austin quartet’s indelible strum-and-twang as essential indeed. Digitizing for the first time the band’s…
‘Chronicle’ Endorsements
Place 1: Chris Riley Chris Riley ran in 2009 to finish out the last two years of ascending Mayor Lee Leffingwell’s council term, and looking at the robust work he’s performed in urban planning, transportation, and design – initiating a trial run of updates to the city’s zoning code, acting as an inquisitive voice on…
City Budget Meetings
This week’s opportunities to weigh in
Water for Elephants
Based on a bestselling novel, this 1930s-set film stars Robert Pattinson, Reese Witherspoon, and Christoph Waltz.
Luv Doc Recommends: Lysts on the Lake Lone Star Open Joust
It seems kind of crazy, but the climate in Austin is perfect for jousting … well, culturally at least. Meteorologically it’s ass. Yes, you can probably tolerate straddling a horse in a metal exoskeleton November through March, but the rest of the year, the heat is more likely to take you off your high horse…
