Cover Story
Gypsy Rose
The ‘Rockabilly Filly’ bucks back into Austin
E-Voting? No Sale
Diebold’s electronic voting division gets a new name and no buyers.
CHIP Changes Kick In Sept. 1
The changes to the Children’s Health Insurance Program that passed in the last legislative session go into effect Sept. 1.
ACT Stats Ranking Texas Students on College Readiness Grim
Texas continues to lag behind the national average on ACT scores.
Will Wynn: In the (PR) Ghetto
Hound dog, indeed.
Prayer Back in School?
Amidst concerns that policy makers want creationism in schools, a new law lets kids do it for them.
Seasons Come … Seasons Go: Champions League, Lady Longhorns, David Beckham, and More
The European season started last week in most places, though Spain and Italy don’t kick off for another couple of weeks. And already, some of the biggest clubs on the continent are facing do-or-die games for their international seasons, as the third qualifying round in the UEFA Champions League got under way this week. Rome…
Green Events: Aug. 16-23
Austin Energy saves you money, Whole Foods celebrates the greenest school year ever, and more.
Catholics Start Campaigning
The Catholic League starts to position itself to lobby presidential candidates, and defend Christmas.
Peter Bean From Burnt Orange Nation Speaks Tonight at BookPeople
Peter Bean, the founder of BurntOrangeNation.com and the author of the The Eyes of Texas 2007 will speak tonight on the current state of the UT football program. Joining him will be Chip Brown from The Dallas Morning News and Geoff Ketchum, publisher of OrangeBloods.com. This event takes place Wed., Aug. 15, 7pm at BookPeople…
County Crumpets & Crumbs
Travis County auditor wins award; ex-Commish makes a comeback
DADS: The Next TYC?
Craddick prioritizes reforms of the State School system – almost a year after a Justice Department report.
Jana Hunter: ‘Feow!’
Jana Hunter launches Feow!
Come and Take It
Austin invades Kansas.
Win Tickets to This Saturday’s Cowboys’ Game!
[Update: We have a winner. Thanks for participating. Answers: 1) Energy Star-qualified compact flourescent lightbulbs use 75% less energy. 2) Roy Williams.] Ticket City has donated four Dallas Cowboys tickets to the Chronicle’s Kill-a-Watt Challenge, the citywide contest encouraging everyone to conserve electricity this summer. The preseason game is in Dallas this Saturday (Aug. 18,…
Blizz Sandbags Statesman on SOS
More fallout from the reporting on Lee Leffingwell’s new SOS proposals.
Karl and Christ
Karl Rove invoked Christianity in his resignation speech. Isn’t hypocrisy a sin?
Like France Doesn’t Have Enough Cool Stuff
Logging 20,000 rentals a day, Lyon, France’s new twist on bike-sharing might be revolutionizing urban transportation. Check out “Rent & Roll” to read all about this awesome new thing that Austin doesn’t have.
Study: More Austin High Schoolers to College
Most Austin teens making the grade.
Inside the Texans’ Training Camp
“That is your job! If you don’t know your job, you do your family an injustice!” – Jethro Franklin, Houston Texans defensive line coach. Young dragonflies darting in and out of the cool summer grass is the first thing you see when crossing the racetrack that surrounds the practice field at the Methodist Training Facility,…
Why You Shouldn’t Stick Toys in Your Mouth
The full list of those recalled Mattel and Fisher Price toys.
You Don’t Need to Be a Hairdresser to Know Which Way the Hair Whorls
DNA barometer readings for your sexuality.
Community College Funding Hearing Live Now
Link to live coverage of the community colleges hearing.
Abbott’s Anti-Closed Shop Stance
For once, state employment law trumps federal rules on closed shop agreements
ACL: Countdown to Meltdown
Sold-out ACL aftershows, tapings, etc.
Ding-dong, the Pillsbury Turd Blossom Is … Going Dove Hunting?
Karl Rove. Enough already.
One for the Girls
A tribute to Uncle John Turner.
Helium Tea
Octopus Project’s balloons go up, up, and away.
WTP4 Still Running?
More on the controversial waterworks
‘Madden 08’ Drops August 14
If Columbus Day (Monday, Oct. 8) is observed as a national holiday, then we can certainly set aside one day a year to celebrate, as a nation, the release of EA Sports’ Madden 08 video game. First of all, Christopher Columbus didn’t “discover” America. Secondly, there’s no need to distribute disease-ridden blankets here, EA wants…
Stuck in the Middle – Updated
Who are the most centrist legislators?
Bush’s Brain Removed
Karl Rove to quit the White House staff.
Turns Out the Winners Do Write History: Late ‘Chronicle’ Comeback Stuns BookPeople, Clinches Series
Gazing intimately into the eyes of death as it gave them a come-hither look and slipped into something more comfortable late Thursday night, The Austin Chroniclers resisted its clumsy advances and demurred with the class that has emerged as their calling card. In so doing – winning a staring contest while dodging a bullet, which…
Red Bull Flugtag Returns to Austin Aug. 25
It’s a bird. It’s a plane. No, it’s just some guy with old helicopter propellers strapped to his arms with bungee cords and duct tape. Since the tournament’s inception in 1991, the Red Bull Flugtag (“flying day”) has been hosted only once before by the Lone Star State, in Austin in 2003. And this will…
The Man Who Beat McCarthy
He already has Austin’s central public library named after him, but any American who treasures free speech should be ready to honor the late John Henry Faulk again and again. On his birthday – Tuesday, Aug. 21 – the man who beat the McCarthyists will be honored with a free 8pm screening of John Henry…
Ice Bats Release ’07-’08 Schedule
On Thursday our own Austin Ice Bats released their schedule for the upcoming 2007-2008 season. This will be the Ice Bats 12th year of existence. My how time flies. Their first regular season home game will be Friday, October 19 at 7:35pm versus the Texas Brahmas. The final game of the season will also be…
Low Point in Casting First Stones
Arlington church denies funeral for gay man. Surprise.
Ween: The New Grateful Dead?
Ween sells out at Stubb’s.
The Craddick Writes Back
Speaker Craddick
Look Cookie: Mutatis mutandis
New and rough-edged as the improv troupe Look Cookie is, it’s still worthwhile watching them do their thing
Texas Platters
Dale Watson The Little Darlin’ Sessions (Koch) The fact that Austin honky-tonker Dale Watson is protesting Koch’s release of this album only attests to his workmanship. The Little Darlin’ Sessions’ sole problem lies in its antiseptic sound. According to Watson, these Sessions are a collection of unfinished roughs, but the truth is his voice never…
SXSWclick Winners
Dan Brown’s “Pierre” heads list of Web-fest shorts
Constables: The Rodney Dangerfields of Police Work
Constables forced to defend their jobs
Nohegan: Camping out for art
The art camp Nohegan is back for a second summer, with more camping, camaraderie, and creating art at McKinney Falls State Park
Texas Platters
The Cornell Hurd Band Beyond the Purple Hills (Behemoth) If you’re looking for oily, chart-busting country, set Beyond the Purple Hills down right now and head to the “R” section for Rascal Flatts. If you’re hoping for a band that values its dancers as much as it values a solid country tune, Cornell’s your man.…
Off the Record
Off the Record goes the distance at the Virgin Festival in Baltimore; Snake Eyes Vinyl relocates; Belaire and Tacks, the Boy Disaster ship overseas; and more
Graves’ Retrial Locale Up in Air
Second capital murder trial of Anthony Graves won’t take place in Burleson Co., Bastrop and Williamson Counties speculated possibilities
The Common Law
Sell your home and get a tax break?
Texas Platters
The Weary Boys Coalinga The Weary Boys’ sixth and final album closes with an appropriately funereal air, Southwestern horns leading the dirge of “The Last Stand of El Sordo” into a fateful showdown. Rather than going out in a blaze of strings, however, Coalinga sounds as if the band’s already resigned to its ruin. The…
Oops!
Our latest batch
After a Fashion
Our social butterfly, your Style Avatar, keeps it indoors and parks it in front of the tube for a bit
Texas Platters
Vince Bell Recado (SteadyBoy) The listener- and radio-friendly “Labor of Love” is buried late in the sequencing here, and yet track eight is exactly where Vince Bell’s Recado starts to get interesting. That, of course, sends the listener back to the beginning, muttering, “What did I miss?” The native Texan and former local’s talent lies…
Page Two: Downward Spiral
Aesthetically, we have gone insane and dull
Underdog
A mad scientist’s experiments provide a beagle with superpowers and the ability to speak in this children’s comedy based on an old cartoon.
Mr. Smarty Pants
Spatial-temporal reasoning, Hitler’s favorite movies, and more
Texas Platters
Sam Baker Pretty World Born in Itasca, southwest of Dallas, but Austin-bound, Sam Baker developed a fervid cult following with 2004’s Mercy. Sophomore effort Pretty World continues its predecessor’s frugal moods and lean poetry, although Mercy possesses a more upbeat tone that makes its follow-up seems fragile in comparison. What strikes you first with Baker…
Down We Go
Revisiting Renaissance man Robert Thom’s prolific and hellish Hollywood visions
Stardust
This uneven adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s bestselling novel is clogged with too much fairy dust.
Sipping From the Spigot
The time has come for the great boxed-wine challenge
Texas Platters
The Breathers I’m Still Curious Although the Breathers have transformed their supporting cast since 2003’s Work and Sleep debut, Claire Hamilton’s captivating vocals remain the hallmark of the band, trimmed now to a primary trio with Bill Doughty and Li’l Cap’n Travis’ Gary Newcomb. The more spacious yet controlled arrangements exhale a sensuousness that allows…
Beside the Point: Money, Money Everywhere
City budget: A study in haves and have-nots
Becoming Jane
Jane Austen could spot a phony, and, as a result, she would not have been happy with this romanticized account of her early years.
Rub Elbows With Really Smart Wine People
Last August, three Austin-area wine experts swept TexSom: the Texas Sommelier Conference Competition. Devon Broglie, Craig Collins, and Scott Cameron brought home the gold and apparently one other prize as well. This year, TexSom will be held in Austin, at the Four Seasons Hotel, on Sunday and Monday, Aug. 19 and 20. The exciting news…
Texas Platters
Seth Tiven Solitude (Rae Dell) Amazingly, it’s been six years since Dumptruck’s last disc, Lemmings Travel to the Sea. When Seth Tiven began Solitude, he thought he was writing for the band, but along the way, he decided that the material was adventurous enough to be his first solo effort. Not that Dumptruck fans will…
Naked City
Quote of the Week “It’s not about them; it’s about us.” — Austin attorney Richard “Dicky” Grigg, speaking about his experiences as a pro bono defender of detainees at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, most of whom are held with little or no evidence of wrongdoing Headlines • City Council meets Thursday, Aug.…
Rush Hour 3
It’s The Bourne Ultimatum‘s evil twin, relying, as it repeatedly does, on tired, cookie-cutter, cliché action set-pieces.
La Reyna Bakery
A dad comes out of retirement to help his daughter expand the family business
Arts Reviews
Zachary Scott Theatre’s Almost Holy Picture might work better with a thousand different words
The Death of Brad Will
An American reporter films his own murder in Oaxaca, and Mexican and U.S. authorities look the other way
Daddy Day Camp
Someone should blow “Taps” for this outing and put it out of its misery.
In Print
Arabesque: A Taste of Morocco, Turkey, & Lebanon by Claudia Roden Knopf, 352 pp., $35 Back in 1968, Claudia Roden introduced American readers to the wonders of Arab cuisine with her groundbreaking, Book of Middle Eastern Food (revised in 2000). With Arabesque, she concentrates on three regions: Morocco, Turkey, and Lebanon. Turkey is especially exciting,…
Arts Reviews
The Zachary Scott Theatre Center’s peppy staging of Disney’s High School Musical proves the live version can beat out what’s in the box
Killing the Messengers
Brad Will was the latest victim in a continuum of U.S. reporters who have traveled to Mexico to document the struggle for justice here — and perhaps assuage their personal demons — and have wound up in a shallow grave or the receiving end of an assassin’s bullet, under enigmatic circumstances. One of the first…
Macbeth
This Australian film puts a modern, hyperstylized spin on an old tale: Should it be, “Out, damned spot” or “Off, damned Ray-Bans”?
Food-o-File
Gene’s gumbo fakes not the funk on the nasty dunk
Arts Reviews
In ‘New American Talent: The 22nd Exhibition,’ we may be witnessing a return to structure
Developing Stories: Rent & Roll
French capitalism meets community bicycling
Goya’s Ghosts
Neither a biopic of the artist nor a historical epic, Goya’s Ghosts is a timeless study of the human potential for barbarism and hypocrisy.
Event Menu
Aug. 10-16
This Is Your Wake-Up Call
Robert Bly and what’s on the line
Charter School Stirs ‘Revitalization’ Politics
Eastside revitalization or private profit on public dime?
Gypsy Caravan
Billed as the “Gypsy Caravan,” five bands travel across America making music from across the Romani diaspora.
The Hightower Report
Pushing for shared prosperity; and Bush’s Iraq oil law
In Person
Dorothy Allison and more at the Jump-Start Performance Company
Texas Activists Rattle Cages Over Shabby Jails
Austin-based inmates’ rights group hopes to shine daylight on inhumane conditions and mismanagement in county jails
Chak De India
Bollywood film about a male coach who teaches the ragtag women’s national hockey team to believe in themselves.
TV Eye
Rebels, Rogues, and Rascals
Day Trips
Samuel Mirelez builds birdhouses like Michelangelo paints ceilings
Happenings
August 9-15
Spanking the Figurative
A new Austin gallery captures dancers with paint
Soccer Watch
Manchester United takes home the Community Shield trophy, and more
@ Chronic
Chronic Explains Iraq, Austin in Three Minutes or Less
‘Rainbow Family of the Serendipitous Now’: Working together
In its highest incarnation, theatre brings people together in a communal way, embodying universal truth through the joining of story, actors, and audience. While the possibility exists that every local theatre company thinks about its art in exactly this way, St. Idiot Collective exists almost exclusively to emulate that ideal as a group practicing the…
Texas Platters
The Derailers Under the Influence of Buck (Palo Duro) Since the departure of co-founder Tony Villanueva in 2004, the Derailers have foundered a bit. Searching for a way to keep their Beatles-meets-Bakersfield sound together, they’ve reached back to a primary influence with this collection of 13 songs associated with honky-tonk immortal Buck Owens. Simultaneously reinvigorating…
DVD Watch
Blue Water, White Death MGM, $19.98 Mission of the Shark: The Saga of the U.S.S. Indianapolis 20th Century Fox, $14.98 With August comes Discovery Channel’s Shark Week, and with Shark Week comes a great wave of shark-related titles by profit-minded video labels. But this isn’t just another August, since the current tsunami brings the long-awaited…
Johnston High School Gets Another Chance
Acting education commissioner says AISD can keep Johnston open another year
Spunky Monkey Ranch: Happy trails, spunky one
David Pratt and Susan Maynard, who helped make South First artsy and cool, are closing Spunky Monkey Ranch for life in the country
Texas Platters
White Ghost Shivers 2006 Flim Flam Follies: Hallowe’en Ball at the Oaks (API) The White Ghost Shivers hardly require a holiday to showcase spectacle, but never is the Austin troupe more in its element than at their annual Hallowe’en Ball. The event’s third incarnation, held last year at the Oaks in Manor and the first…
Film News
Forgiveness, All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, and more
Community College Controversy Continues
Hornet’s nest stirred by Perry’s veto of $154 million in community college funding continues to buzz
Luv Doc Recommends: 2007 National Poetry Slam Individual Finals
So how did slam poetry begin and where do we have to travel back in time to kill the evil bastard who started it? Questions like these invariably pop into your head when watching slam poetry. Sooner or later you’ll find yourself the victim of some unconscionably self-absorbed free verse soliloquy being performed forte voce…
