Cover Story
Where the Beards Are
Meet the Austin Facial Hair Club, reality TV’s unlikeliest new stars
This Week’s Waste of Time
A free browser game with a bouncing Brit
Perry Teases Run Again
Wake us when it happens
TDH: 8/9/11
Council’s WTP4 site meeting, and what’s next for the waterworks
Dan Patrick Denied
Judge denies request to file brief in abortion case
Live! Nude! Improv!
They’re getting naked at the Hideout
Criterion Gets Candid
Slacker‘s Polaroid family album
Horns Season Gets Under Way
Lots of new faces as Horns kick off tonight
Wednesday Rewind
Humping in three clicks or less, plus Hellfire Social
That’s Parry With an -A
Stephen Colbert’s Super PAC sort of endorses Rick Perry
‘Twitchy,’ and on a Tear
Austin film collective wins festival prizes
You Got Me Singing
Another Spotify convert
F1 To Move to November? Maybe
Ecclestone confirms new provisional calendar is in play
Dry Hump: The Game
Yup, it’s an actual thing
TDH: 8/9/11
Council finally adopts changes to historic tax abatements
‘Top Chef’ Cries Uncle
Reality show finally confirms what we all already knew
Sell a Song
Sir Doug Sahm in mono
Viva Les Slackers!
Viva Les Amis and Slacker 2011 double-team
Long Time Coming
New Texas Rollergirls champions close out 2011 season
Boutique of the Week: A Town Austin Lifestyle Store
Bringing some fresh attitude to Burnet Road
How Do You Say ‘I Do’?
Quiero Mi Boda features Austin couple
TDH: 8/8/11
Council takes a WTP4 field trip Wednesday
Bob Ray Goes Apesh!t, Commits to Creating Four Films By End of Summer
Bob Ray embarks on a short-filmmaking binge
The Hitcher
The Hitcher 1986, R, 106 min. Directed by Robert Harmon, Starring Rutger Hauer, C. Thomas Howell, Jennifer Jason Leigh. A hitchhiker frames the Good Samaritan who picked him up for his crimes.
Bedside Manner: Return to Treehouse
Cloudy with a chance of ice cream
Who Pays For Police Union Work?
Police officers, union, and city officials argue over leave time
Guilty
Prosecutors will seek max punishment for prophet
How Good Do You Look in the Shower?
Annie Ray sets up a Psycho-themed photo booth
The Motion in the ‘Mation
AFF’s Saturday free claymation workshop for kids
Another Day, Another ERCOT Power Warning
Energy regulator still asking for conservation measures through 7pm
This Week’s Waste of Time
A free game that takes things one level at a time
Austin Rockin’ 8/5/11
More live music recommendations for the weekend
Gay Place
Get your tickets now for this year’s refreshingly goofy Pride lineup
Texas Platters
The Krayolas Tipsy Topsy Turvy Whatever’s in the water fueling San Antonio bands these days sure is potent. A feeling, a sound, an attitude – all things the Krayolas flaunt. Previous effort Americano reflected the band’s Latino roots, but the tonal palette of Tipsy Topsy Turvy is colorfully new, broader. Or not. After all, Hector…
The Right Confounded by Twitter
Empower Texans violates cyber rules, then claims conspiracy
Day Trips
The Hotel El Capitan offers weary travelers a comfortable night’s stay in Van Horn
Texas Platters
The Rock Garage Texas Live Concert Series Volume 1 “Hi y’all, we’re the Smiths,” opens Honky hesher J.D. Pinkus. “We’re gonna play a bunch of new songs about not eating meat.” Yuks lace themselves through 15 mostly local field recordings, including Nashville Pussy channeling Sam Kinison and the Ugly Beats’ touch of Jello Biafra. A…
For AISD, Some Positive Signs Amid Poor Ratings
Two high schools and six middle schools miss state targets
After a Fashion
Sometimes you have to go back to the very beginning to understand where you can begin again
Texas Platters
Pocket Fishrmen Live at the Fish Fry Taxidermy from the Scoot Inn last May, this second installment of the lead-balloon-named Rock Garage Texas Live Concert Series rages a grease fire of raucous, mosh-tossed, old-school Austin punk, irreverent as Bill Hicks and twice as consumptive. Gunning “Flaccid Is the Night,” complete with dueling guitar and bass…
Point Austin: Bag It
Proposed plastic bag ban will be popular – and under assault
Arts Review
Students sing and dance this satire at such a high level, it’s astounding
Texas Platters
Dickins (Official) “Instead of simply a regular 5-star review, could you give us a 5-pentagram review?” Your Dickins disc won’t include a pink Post-it query, but a pointed racket from the local fourpiece skewers all five sides. Thrash gallop (“Red Nurse”), Brit-punk bombast (“Chariots Ablaze”), prog caterwaul (“Nite Soil”), hardcore (“Fuck This”), and even Gwar-ishness…
A.G. Ruling on Arson Probe Is ‘Just Weird’
Decision hog-ties commission’s role in Willingham case
Arts Review
This concert of new music was driven by experiments with rhythm and sound
Texas Platters
Squidbucket Celery City Trio-battened heavy instrumentalism heaves and lurches through an analog-burnished maze that’s part the Jesus Lizard (“Ole Pickleneck”) and part acid-washed guitar thuggery (“One Armed Bandit”). Long stretches of sonic exploration approach Austin’s Tia Carrera (“Mid Evil Lullaby”), but needling and noodling collide on 8:25 of “High Water Mark.” Epic whaler that is…
City Hall Hustle: Water, Water Everywhere … and Nowhere
Council splits on WTP4 audit, possible shutdown
Council Notes: When To Park That Election
Downtown parking pulls in at City Council, and more
Arts Review
Bill Kennedy’s photos and Bob Schneider’s prints immerse you in watery goodness
Texas Platters
“One step forward, two steps backward,” intones keyboardist Chris Brown with a terror-alert urgency in “Call It, for Real,” the lead track on Bali Yaaah’s madcap debut, Never Early Always Fate. That’s a fitting summation of the synth-pop trio’s retro-futurism, a sci-fi swirl of syncopated drum machines, white-heat guitar, and near-dub bass. This isn’t chillwave…
Headlines
� City Council sits down to a full plate of weighty issues today (Thursday, Aug. 4) to consider and possibly vote on a proposed settlement of a lawsuit challenging the city’s historic property tax exemptions, a ban on plastic bags, Downtown parking hours, the appointment of a committee to review single-member districts, and other potential…
Res Publica
Citizens’ calendar, Aug. 4-11
Those Lips, Those Eyes
Reading between the features in the Blanton’s ‘About Face’
‘Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home’
Jeni Britton Bauer brings her upscale creations to Austin and your bookshelf
Oops!
In “Austin Falling Short on Clean Air” (July 22), we quoted a Lower Colorado River Authority employee as saying that LCRA is “in the process” of installing scrubbers on two units of the Fayette Power Project. Actually, says the LCRA, installation was completed earlier this year.
Nights in White Satin
Streaming Spotify all the way back to the reel-to-reel
Event Menu
Belly up to the bar for the Texas Rollergirls
Page Two: Community Sourced
Moving backward and forward, toward the future
Slow-Cooked Felonies
Business permits yanked for selling stolen meat
Food-o-File
Rumors of a Burnet Road building boom, Kickstarting cookie cutters, new croissants at Quack’s, and other food news
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…
Onward Through the Smog
EPA backs off of clean air deadline
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Sponges instead of toilet paper, Elvis’ diet, and more
Restaurant Review
The Eastside gets another superlative house of meat
Musical Chairs for Williams
The indecisive politician
The Hightower Report
Back to the Great Recession; and Subsidizing Plutocrats
We Can’t Go Home Again
Piecing through Nicholas Ray’s archive at the HRC
Tabloid
Errol Morris finds a real character for his documentary subject this time – scandal magnet Joyce McKinney, who allegedly abducted and raped a Mormon missionary.
Ecclestone Wants Later F1 Date
New fuel has been added to the fire surrounding the U.S. Grand Prix in Austin. On July 28, Autosport reported that Formula One Management CEO Bernie Ecclestone wants the inaugural race at the Circuit of the Americas pushed back from June 17, 2012, to Nov. 18, and the revised schedule was given to teams over…
The Common Law
Many Austinites change rental units in August, and withholding of the tenant’s security deposit becomes a common problem. This week’s column addresses return of security deposits from a tenant’s perspective. I’m moving into another new place this month. My security deposit has never been returned in full in all my years of renting. Is there…
In Print
Film scholar Patrick McGilligan explores an auteur’s troubled life and career
Another Earth
Shaky science fiction shacks up with a corny redemption tale in this Sundance Film Festival double award-winner.
Shakespeare at Winedale
The UT program offers a marathon run of the Bard’s early trilogy
Restaurant Reviews
Bartlett’s adds a dash of Austin to the chain-restaurant model and comes out on top
Off the Record
Fun Fun Fun Fest spins at Turntable.fm, Zorch goes viral, and other digital delights from Bali Yaaah and the Meat Puppets
The Change-Up
In this body-switcheroo movie, Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman star as pals each a little envious of the other’s life.
Crisis and Opportunity
Do you know your audience?
Texas Platters
Planets Austin’s virtual jukebox – its nonexistent “cloud” – rains down a beer-can-sized hailstone in Planets opener “It’s Not 1977.” With the title hollered beforehand as if it were the all-girl quartet’s mission statement, followed by a “motherfucker!,” its 2:23 punk tunnel boasts back-alley vox (“no one misbehaves anymore … the record stores are empty…
Arms on Brazos
As it nears completion of an extended ‘Great Streets’ rehab project, has Austin learned any lessons?
Sarah’s Key
Two parallel stories from different eras intertwine and inform each other in this film based on Tatiana de Rosnay’s best-selling novel.
ATX Roller Derby
Both of Austin’s Roller Derby leagues are in action this weekend
Texas Platters
Charlie Faye Travels With Charlie (Wine & Nut Records) The concept behind Travels With Charlie, putting down musical roots in 10 towns over 10 months, finds local namesake Faye cultivating a little roots patch in each. She tended it until it was strong, took what was hers, then moved on to the next fertile ground.…
Spears’ Retirement Creates Rare Vacancy
Tax assessor-collector leaving office a year early
Soccer Watch
U.S. Men’s team replace Bob Bradley, and more
Texas Platters
T Bird & the Breaks Never Get Out of This Funk Alive Tim Crane and crew have grown exponentially since 2009’s Learn About It. Where they previously leaned heavily on blue-eyed soul with positive results, Never Get Out of This Funk Alive finds them venturing into hip-hop, New Orleans-style jams, and even studio and turntable…
Quote of the Week
“And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the … streets.” – The Response from Matthew 6:5 on the matter of public prayer, such as Gov. Rick Perry’s Aug. 6 Houston prayer fest
Luv Doc Recommends: ‘Texas High School Football: More Than the Game’
If you’re reading the Chronicle, there’s a pretty good chance that you were never too big on football – at least not the American kind. Let’s just be honest with ourselves, shall we? Yes, you might enjoy football for its camp and spectacle. You might even own a slightly stained, vintage, 1970s-era Dallas Cowboys cheerleader…
