Cover Story
Free as a Bird
Andrew Kenny, leader of the American Analog Set, watches his phoenix rising in the Wooden Birds
From Cimmeria to Cinema
Conan star Jason Momoa leads the Drafthouse hordes
WTP4 Stoppage Estimate Postponed
Asst. City Manager promises numbers by next week
That Scandalous Ad
Salon, HuffPo and WaPo get excited about our ad pages
Toros Host ‘Select Your Seat’ Event With Danny Ferry
With free basketball clinic for the kids
Lust to Love
Kathy Valentine/Go-Go’s Q&A outtakes
Fantastic Fest Unleashes Wave Two
Alumni Adam Wingard, Nacho Vigalondo, Ti West return, and more
TDH: 8/18/11
City Council meets today
Ghost and the Machine
Marc Bianchi pulls the plug on Her Space Holiday
City and Statewide Police Union Settle Dispute
CLEAT will pay for Sgt. Harrison’s leave time
Wednesday Rewind
Gary Clark, Jr.’s ‘Redemption Road’ plus Krum Bums and more
A Smoky, Sexy Take on TV News
BBC America’s The Hour premieres tonight
TDH: 8/17/11
Spelman on WTP4, politics and conspiracies
A Look Behind the Curtain of Herman Miller, Inc.
Must-see exhibition on the iconic furniture designer at AMOA
Paul Versus Perry
Congressman’s TV spot targets governor in the presidential race
Stumblin’ In
At the crossroads of the Quatro brand and Spotify
TDH: 8/16/11
Wind power, Downtown parking debate and other renewable resources
It’s the Stupid Economy
Fact-checking Perry’s campaign against Texas’ financial realities
The Sour Notes
Paper Cuts, August 16, 2011 at the Palm Door
Don’t Take This ‘Lying’ Down
Locally shot series premieres on ABC Family tonight
TDH: 8/15/11
Council acquiring open space, moving dirt on Waller Creek Tunnel
Up for ‘Enchantment’
David Liss reads from his new historical fantasy tonight
Chrontourage Changing of the Guard!
I’ll miss y’all!
Who’s on Sixth? Perry
Governor finally declares, but trails in Ames poll
Texas Rollergirls by the Bay
Texecutioners travel to Oakland for the Golden Bowl this weekend
Austin Rockin’ 7/12/11
Celebrating Buck Owens and Women in Latin Music with Fox 7
The Totally Awesome AusChron Newscast Declares
Time to spring the Perry Trap, plus police union hijinks
Reefer Roundup: 8/12/11
It’s back! Your dose of drug news has returned
3, 2, 1, Ignition
Travis County officials still uneasy over wildfires
TDH: 8/11/11
Spelman sets sights on high interest payday loans
London Calling
Free Theophilus London show
Bumping Uglies with Modern Prose
The Cunning Stunts of Miracle Jones
The Other One
“We’re probably at our best when Leslie and I are singing together,” notes Andrew Kenny of his female counterpart in Wooden Birds, Leslie Sisson. “We’ve found that ground where we can do more together than we can do on our own.” Kenny and Sisson have a long history of collaboration, stretching back to Kenny recording…
Time To Tweak Code Compliance
Wildlife Habitats could see reprieve with revisions
Page Two: No Virtue
The vicious circle of constitutional desecration
The Devil’s Double
Saddam Hussein’s decadent and monstrous eldest son Uday forced Latif Yahia to serve as his body double, and this movie recounts his experience.
After a Fashion
Your Style Avatar’s new lease on life as an affirming and supportive avatar starts, ahem, with Fashion Week
Heat Wave Renews Call for Renewable Energy
Solar and wind could do the job more efficiently, advocates say
Oops!
Last week’s “Res Publica” jumped the gun and listed the wrong date for the screening of the film The Greenest Building. The good news is you can mark your calendars for the Sept. 7 screening at the Paramount Theatre.
Dhada
New Telugu-language romance and action film.
The Spine Tingler
Horror pioneer and first-time novelist Tobe Hooper plays with the medium and metafiction in Midnight Movie
First Project Under New Ordinance Gets Nod
Project in Barton Springs Zone wins unanimous council approval
30 Things
Now well into our 30th year of publication (our 30th anniversary will be Sept. 4, 2011), we’re building up to that notable milestone by, among other things, republishing the first year’s issues online every two weeks and running a contest to spot vintage ads from some of our original advertisers in each week’s paper. In…
The Future
As an unsparing portrait of disaffection among the small-paycheck, faux-creative class, Miranda July’s film is on the mark but her performance grates nevertheless.
Monster Movies
Tobe Hooper on his new film, Djinn
Things That Make You Go Boom
Bellflower‘s broken hearts and homemade bombs
Reel Paddling Film Festival
Reel Paddling Film Festival In its sixth year, this event features a full slate of happenings that’ll keep Austin weird, fit, and beautiful simultaneously. From 9 to 11am, Keep Austin Beautiful will lead a cleanup of Festival Beach followed by the Waterman’s Race (noon to 5pm). Next up (7pm) is the freestyle competition, with contestants…
Bellflower
Hellaciously original, this low-budget, post-apocalyptic film looks like no other in recent memory.
Event Menu
The harder they come, the harder they nosh
In Print
The Seventies couldn’t have asked for a more empathetic chronicler of the human condition than filmmaker Paul Mazursky
Point Austin: Eat the Heat
Capital Area Food Bank extends its reach and relevance
Aarakshan
The story of Prabhakar Anand, a legendary educator, is told in this new Indian film.
Off the Record
Sad Days, Lonely Nights: Visiting the Sahara Lounge and The Jon Dee & Friend Show
Food-o-File
More Lone Star master sommeliers, Hatch chiles return, and foodies see if their brains are bigger than their stomachs
Texas Platters
Jean Caffeine Geckos in the Elevator (Joe Records) With opener “Lucky Penny,” Jean Caffeine slides into a groove so familiar that Geckos in the Elevator tricks you into thinking this veteran rocker spent the last decade honing these 11 celebratory, confessional, autobiographical, and gorgeously patterned songs here in Austin instead of Durham, N.C. “Jane Rearranged”…
Soccer Watch
UT soccer gets started with a friendly, and more
The Help
Based on a bestseller, this Southern civil-rights era story about white women and their black maids is saved by the film’s deeply moving cast.
Gay Place
Oh, the planets are aligning for some late summer fun, darlings, we promise
Wine of the Week
Chablis – The Thinking Person’s Chardonnay
Texas Platters
Christian Bland & the Relevators The Lost Album (Reverberation Appreciation Society) Recorded in an old ice cream factory with Greg Ashely in 2007, Christian Bland knocks the dust off his solo debut with lo-fi juvenilia of the Syd Barrett variety (“Jabberwocky,” “Icy Gray”) and an unplugged, murderous lament (“Katy”). The Relevators’ psych-pop is all drone…
Quote of the Week
“I think the numbers will speak for themselves.” – Mayor Pro Tem Sheryl Cole, on the estimate, expected Aug. 18, of what a five- or 10-year postponement of WTP4 would cost the city
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
The special effects in this prequel may be infinitely more elaborate, but they hold little of the charm and “humanity” of the original.
Day Trips
Pizzitola’s BBQ is an East Texas-style barbecue joint with a funny name in the heart of Houston
Letters at 3AM: An Extraordinary Silence
Oddly, American progressives don’t protest Obama’s war in Pakistan
Texas Platters
My Education/Theta Naught Sound Mass (Differential Records) An improv collaboration with surprisingly cohesive results, Sound Mass captures a five-act drama with what sounds like a post-rock chamber orchestra. “Careful With That Saw, Ryan” unfolds with a fleeting grace and the Pink Floyd echoes expected from Austin’s My Education, but Utah’s Theta Naught lends an eerie…
Headlines
� No City Council this week, aside from the special-called meeting at the Water Treatment Plant No. 4 construction site Wednesday. When council convenes Thursday, Aug. 18, it should receive an estimate of what it would cost to temporarily suspend construction of the controversial plant. � Also on tap Aug. 18: previously postponed council action…
Time Bandits in Uniform?
APD officers question whether union ‘leave time’ deal violates their contract
New Products From Cocoa Puro
Do yourself a favor and visit Tom Pedersen’s booth at the Downtown Farmers’ Market
Texas Platters
Reverse X-Rays RXR A quintet born from and destined for the graveyard shift at KVRX, Reverse X-Rays’ RXR offers oddball ear candy with jazz sensibilities, sci-fi vocals, and spastic trombone grooves. Highlight “To the Stars Through Difficulty” squiggles between early New Wave and surf-pop, like the Notekillers with a sense of humor. The B-side of…
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Vampire bats, watermelon, and more to sink your teeth into
Mapo Doufu Beatdown
Yum, like it hot
Texas Platters
The Calm Blue Sea (Modern Outsider) The Calm Blue Sea operates under the same Friday Night Lights mantra as Explosions in the Sky: clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose. The local instrumentalists bring more to the quiet-loud equation with rich piano melodies and occasional vocals, as in LP anchor “Literal.” This vinyl reissue of the…
Former Huston-Tillotson President Dies
King was longest-serving president at university
Blanton Museum of Art
The UT museum acquires 12 works by Texas artists through an art lottery
Arts Review
A straight-up goofball comedy makes an ideal outdoor summer show
Texas Platters
Quin Galavis Should Have Known You (Thread Pull) Stepping out from the garage-psych of Casual Victim Pile alums the Dead Space, Quin Galavis strips down and unplugs for his solo debut, an aching affair of indie folk, broke and drifting. He’s an old soul and a natural storyteller, a combination beautifully accented in “Crooked Deals”…
Lege’s Environmental Report Card
Most of Austin’s delegation fares well on scorecard
Harry Ransom Center
The papers of director Peter Masterson and actor Carlin Glynn land at the HRC
Arts Review
City Theatre’s satire can’t decide what – or when – it wants to be
Texas Platters
Michael Martin Murphey’s five-plus decades need no niche, yet Tall Grass & Cool Water (Rural Rhythm) is campfire cowboy music. As a face on Austin’s Mount Rushmore of progressive country, the now Colorado-based Murphey is a Western storyteller in the Marty Robbins fashion, calling for a “Trusty Lariat” and “Partner to the Wind.” If hand-tooled…
Prayer Rally Rick
News flash: Our governor is a man of faith
Cow Parade Austin
Ornately decorated fiberglass cows are herded into Austin for a good cause
Arts Review
A coffeehouse exhibit boasts tasty nectars in the form of nature paintings
Texas Platters
Bad Chapters Edge of Collapse Any precipice this local trio envisions itself teetering upon disappears with the first two cuts on Edge of Collapse, including the jerking punch of the title track. With the ferocity of redneck roots metallers bred at the fringes of grunge – incorporating a post-punk directness drained of any pretension –…
Res Publica
Civic Events, Aug. 11-18
Culture Flash!
An artist turns editor, a play tours Oz, and calls for new work
West Lake Comes Out Swinging Against LCRA
West Lake Hills wants to regain control over its wastewater line
Texas Platters
Old Gray Mule Forty Nickels for a Bag of Chips There’s no denying C.R. Humphrey’s devotion to Mississippi hill country blues. He’s so dedicated, in fact, that for his second LP as Old Gray Mule, the Lockhart-based guitarist went to Delta Recording Services in Como, Miss., the heart of that state’s hill country, to work…
City Hall Hustle: Cole on Water
Sheryl Cole seems to have laughed off the free advice we gave her. Last week, the Hustle was rhapsodizing about that perennial nexus of Austin politics, Water Treatment Plant No. 4. (Spoiler alert: Where do you see this week’s column going?) At its close, we wrote the “third way” Mayor Pro Tem Cole was attempting…
The Hightower Report
Both the feds and the corporations are abandoning the middle class
Workers Fight Unpaid Holiday (Inn)
Construction workers stiffed on pay – and wait for restitution
Texas Platters
Lex Land Were My Sweetheart To Go (Intelligent Noise) Lex Land’s sophomore CD follows her acclaimed 2008 debut with more of the same cheeky, twentysomething indie pop that traveled with her from L.A. to Austin where she’s settled. The bar’s high here for young female singer-songwriters, and Land’s strengths are worth developing and encouraging even…
End of the Road for Baylor Street Art Wall?
When renowned street artists and local graffiti artists collide
Little Big Plan
The Austin Creative Alliance proves it can think big by thinking small
30 Minutes or Less
Jesse Eisenberg reunites with his Zombieland director Ruben Fleischer for this action comedy about a hapless victim forced to rob a bank or be blown up.
Luv Doc Recommends: 20th Annual Buck Owens Birthday Bash
Why Buck Owens? Why the fuck not, motherfucker? First of all, his name is Buck. That name is badass molasses on a stick. You can’t shake it off. No, it wasn’t his given name. That was Alvis Edgar Owens Jr. – the sort of name that inspires in most people a primal urge to hand…
