Cover Story
#VanLife Isn’t Just a Trend Anymore. It’s a Tether to Home.
A cross-country trip to unite a family in the pandemic
Fantasia Review: The Oak Room
Canadian crime labyrinth cuts deep and cold
Austin Films For the First Wave of Austin Film Festival
Fugitive Dreams, Horton Foote doc in first wave
WhatsintheMirror? Kicks Off Virtual Art Heals Festival
Four-day fest uses art to help end HIV and mental health stigma
Secrets & Spies: Inside Austin’s Police Fusion Center
The Chronicle continues its coverage of a trove of documents hacked from a multi-agency intelligence center operated by the Austin Police Department. The hack, called BlueLeaks, contains documents meant to be kept secret, originating from the Austin Regional Intelligence Center (ARIC) and other such “fusion centers” across the country that emerged after the 9/11 attacks.…
The Cinema Comes to Pinballz Kingdom
Arcade opening its first drive-in this weekend
Fantasia Review: The Clapboard Jungle
Live shots from the indie filmmaking trenches
TABC-Thwarting Shenanigans, Smokin’ Beauty’s Vietnamese Brisket, Lenoir’s Sunday Suppers, and More
All the news that’s fit to get your taste buds quivering
Checking In: DJ Chicken George Rolled Out Coconut Air Fresheners
“Rather than let [it] get the best of me I shifted to hyper creative mode”
Classic Game Fest Cancels 2020 Event
“Biggest Retro Gaming Event in Texas” takes the year off
Fantasia Review: Crazy Samurai Musashi
Hour of swordplay sound fun? Have we got the bloodbath for you!
Checking In: Soulwriter Ray Prim Deals – Mostly
“Reach back out to me in three months, I may be certifiable by then”
The Blech Effect
The case against the king of biotech investment indicts corporate culture
Community Cinema Brings the Drive-In to East Austin
Outdoor projection is nothing new to the Community First! Village
Checking In: D-Madness Calls Getting Cut-off ‘Pure Hell’
Multi-instrumental funk marvel holds on tight to his sound-makers
Waterloo Counseling Center Will Become a Program of Texas Health Action Alongside Kind Clinic
THA announces vision to combine sexual and behavioral health services
The Vanished
Thomas Jane and Anne Heche hunt for their daughter, and everyone’s a suspect
Stage Mother
Jacki Weaver wants to take you to a gay bar
The Pale Door
Witches versus cowboys in the weird, weird West
Desert One
Inside Carter’s catastrophic mission to rescue the Iranian hostages
Son of the White Mare
Gorgeous avant garde animation recounts a Hungarian myth
An Easy Girl
French coming-of-age drama doesn’t get what it means to be young
You Don’t Nomi
Should you re-assess Showgirls? No, but that’s not what’s happening here?
Cut Throat City
RZA takes on New Orleans’ history of racism through a B-movie lens
Coup 53
Documentary unpacks America’s involvement in the coup that wrecked Iran
The Prey
Vietnamese cinema is back with a vicious bang
Tesla
Ethan Hawke illuminates the electrical genius
Unhinged
Russell Crower bulldozes his way to unwarranted revenge
Train to Busan Presents: Peninsula
The Korean zombie franchise becomes a fun heist flick
Tulsa
Father, daughter, faith, you know the drill
Where to Park Your Van or RV During Your Pandemic Road Trip
And other socially distanced camping tips
Jazz Mills Provides Free Lunch for the Houseless
Fresh fruit goes a long way on 100-degree days
So You Want to Buy an RV
Purchasing tips from two “Day Trips” pros
Community Efforts Addressing Food Insecurity
While organizations like Central Texas Food Bank, Mobile Loaves & Fishes, and Austin Food Not Bombs have been around and doing this work for decades, homegrown initiatives like Free Lunch have been popping up at a prodigious rate since the start of the pandemic, fueled by Austinites eager to rally for their community. Below are…
Stay Gold Landlord Threatens Club With Half-Million-Dollar Lawsuit
With evictions over rent expected once moratoriums lift, the music venue’s landlord wants the remainder of the lease term paid in full now
Austin Mutual Aid Organizations Share Resources During COVID-19 and Beyond
Looking for solidarity, not charity
New Austin Music Worth Your Bandwidth This Week
Lucinda Williams, Ray Prim, and Curved Light lead the pack
Soccer Watch
Starts and Restarts The Austin Bold are playing at Tulsa as we go to press Wednesday, needing a win to pass the Roughnecks for the second playoff position in Group D of the USL Championship. It’s the second game of a five-game road stretch that started Saturday with a heartbreaker: ceding a stoppage-time equalizer at…
Cowboys Versus Witches in The Pale Door
Austinite Aaron B. Koontz’s weird, weird West
Austin At Large: The Dog That Caught the Cop Car
De-policing becomes partisanized, but who is really putting themselves at risk?
The Luv Doc: Bickering
Video can be a really effective learning device
Public Notice: Zoom Zoom Zoom
Flitting from meeting to meeting, pretending it’s real life
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
The name “Oedipus” literally means “swollen feet” and is a pun based on the ankle injuries he sustained as an infant. Hephaestus, one of the 12 Greek gods, had a limp, sometimes used a cane, and according to Homer had golden women robots to wait on him. Two red Persian cats named Crackerjack and Pumpkin…
Headlines / Quote of the Week
Back It Up Now, DSHS: Austin Public Health reported 350 new cases of COVID-19 in Travis County on Tuesday, an almost 100-case increase from numbers reported the day before. APH said the increase in cases started last week when APH received backlogged laboratory data from the Texas Department of State Health Services. RENT Relief Open:…
New Solo Performance Shows How Black Mothers Are Left Doubly Unprotected by the Constitution
Taji Senior’s amendment puts the country’s foundational document on trial
Council Candidates in District 6 and 10 Diverge on Police, Housing, Land Use
Race(s) to the West
Free Will Astrology
Your weekly horoscope, August 21-27
The Blanton Museum and the Umlauf Sculpture Garden Are Open Again
Two beloved bastions of visual art re-open for public view
Andy Brown Wins Democrats’ Nod for County Judge
On Aug. 16, local Democratic precinct chairs selected lawyer, former Travis County Democratic Party chair, and Beto O’Rourke staffer Andy Brown to be the party’s nominee to serve the unexpired term of former County Judge Sarah Eckhardt (who defeated Brown in the 2014 primary for that office). Brown got 56% of the chairs’ votes on…
Forty Acres of Anxiety: UT Students Return to Campus
UT students Sarai Velasquez and Maria Henriquez are taking COVID-19 seriously. The two friends, both wearing masks, are sitting six feet apart when I come across them hanging out on the South Mall’s lawn. With the fall semester less than two weeks away, I thought it was time to get a finger on the Forty…
ICE Quietly Renews 10-Year Contract With T. Don Hutto Detention Center
Taylor prison houses largely asylum-seeking women and has been the subject of numerous accusations of abuse
Faster Than Sound: Moody Amphitheater Rises Out of Waterloo Park
Delayed opening until spring, the Moody Amphitheater will be the biggest music venue in the Red River Cultural District
Family of Man Killed by APD Sues the City
Ajay Griffin did not point a gun at officers, attorneys claim
People Talk Funny at Austin Sketch Fest
The annual jubilee of jokes leads off with a spoof of a Trump-Biden debate and a speech on toxic femininity
City, County Extend COVID-19 Orders for the Long Haul
As expected, Austin and Travis County extended their COVID-19 orders last Friday, on the eve of their August 15 expiration. The new orders run through December 15. Travis County Judge Sam Biscoe extended the county’s order requiring face masks and banning gatherings of more than 10 people. There are some exceptions to the latter, such…
Day Trips: Drive-Ins
Carhop service available at these drive-ins
Austin’s Best Food and Drink Events This Week
Dinner parties, farmers’ markets, beer, wine, and more for the week of August 20, 2020
We Have an Issue: Happy Trails
In this week’s issue, we look at the logistics, and emotions, behind plotting a cross country road trip mid-pandemic
Arts Listings
Virtual galleries, streaming improv, and more
Oops!
In an Aug. 14 story about Unbarlievable owner Brandon Cash, the Chronicle inaccurately described Jeremy Levy as head chef at TenTen, a sushi restaurant operated by Nova Hospitality and located in the old Miller Blueprint building (which Cash and his partners at the Goodnight LLC lease). According to a Nova Hospitality representative, Levy has not…
Qmmunity: Nostalgic for Queer Days Past
Lately I’ve been nostalgic for the joys of yesteryear. Listening to Tegan and Sara’s So Jealous on repeat, revisiting old books, and inhaling Effing Dykes’ blog archive have been something of a salve for doomsurfing. It’s the past’s predictability, I think, that’s comforting. Which is why I uttered an unexpected “Wait, wha…?” while rereading The…
Black ATX Food Week, Oseyo’s Courtyard, Hopdoddy Pays It Forward, and More
All the news that’s fit to get your taste buds quivering
Applications for Rent Relief Lottery Open Tomorrow
City will distribute $12.9 million in direct aid to renters
Alamo Drafthouse Slaughter Lane Reopening This Weekend
First Austin location offering free Bill & Ted screenings
City Council Redirects APD Funds to Abortion Support Access
$250K to flow toward abortion support services
FY21 Budget Passes Unanimously With Big Cuts to Austin Police Funding
Council members celebrate first step, but acknowledge hard work ahead
