Cover Story
Invisi-Bell Halloween Mask Instructions
How to magically appear on Nov. 7
One Day of Early Voting Left: A Message From the County Clerk
Travis County’s early voting numbers spiked even higher today; Friday, the last day of early voting, could be a little crazy. After averaging only about 5,000-6,000 per day last week, numbers climbed this week up to 11,828 today. Combined with mail-in ballots, a total of 79,503 votes have been cast, or 14.31% of registered voters.…
The Animal-Friendly Voting Guide
The Humane Society Legislative Fund released its Congressional Scorecard last week, tracking federal legislators’ voting records on major animal-welfare policies. Those policy issues included: a bill banning the transport, possession, purchase, sale, or USDA-funded inspection of horses to be slaughtered for human consumption; legislation creating felony-level penalties for dogfighting and cockfighting and related interstate commerce;…
Who Decides … You or the Machine?
I went to a press conference this morning by VoteRescue, an activist group dedicated to ridding our nation of electronic voting machines and going back to paper ballots. More on that press conference later, but in the meantime, keep the 8pm time slot open tonight (Thursday, Nov. 2) so you can watch the documentary Hacking…
I am Grandma, Hear Me Roar
Carole Keeton Strayhorn today took a rolling pin to Gov. Rick Perry for referring to her as “Mrs. Corrupt Comptroller Politician Woman” in a radio spot. Calling an opponent “corrupt” is one thing, but a “politican woman” is a whole ‘nother kettle of fish, according to Strayorn. “You don’t single out a candidate’s gender in…
Prop PACs: We’re Rich, Beeyatch!
The eight-day-out campaign finance reports are in with the city clerk. There’s not too many surprises: Will Wynn’s chickenscratch scribbles as UNITY PAC treasurer reveal his wilder side, while the Nancy Pearls over at Libraries for Austin PAC were the only people thoughtful enough to type up their report. But the sums are nothing to…
Good Week for Texas Soccer:Longhorns Beat A&MDynamo Advance in MLS Playoffs
The UT Lady Longhorns finished off the regular season in fine style Friday night, dumping fifth-ranked Texas A&M, 1-0, with a late header from defender Kasey Moore. The rivalry game, played in front of the third-largest crowd in UT soccer history, pushed the Horns to 15-3-1 and a No. 7 national ranking. As we go…
Bell files ethics complaint
Democrat Chris Bell said today he has filed an ethics complaint against Health and Human Services chief Albert Hawkins, charging that the commissioner violated the state’s ban on conflicts of interest by also serving as a trustee of the Texas Health Institute, a nonprofit organization that has reaped contract work and grant money from his…
Drug War Czar Stumping in the Silver State
With the election just days away, the debate in Nevada over one ballot initiative, Question 7 – a measure that would legalize and tax-and-regulate the use of marijuana by adults over 21 – is getting more and more heated. Indeed, the folks backing Q7, the Committee to Regulate and Control Marijuana have filed at least…
Big Jump in Early Voting Numbers
Day 10 of early voting in Travis County saw a sharp jump in the number of ballots cast. Today, 9,592 of you finally made up your minds and punched your tickets. That beats the previous high (from yesterday) by 1,818. The grand totals: combining early in-person votes with mail-in ballots, 67,244 Travis residents have done…
The Latest Numbers
Majority Watch is predicting a Democratic landslide in the House, while Electoral-Vote.com is calling a 50-50 Senate (which, of course, favors the Republicans, since Vice President Dick Cheney would cast the tie-breaker vote on any 50-50 votes). Majority Watch has narrowed its races considered “ties” from five to two this week. If its current polls…
Turn on Your TV RIGHT NOW
If you turn on your TV to cable access Channel 17 (the Travis County channel) right now (Wednesday, at 7:41pm), it appears they are showing some sort of candidate forum. Speaking at this moment is James Crabtree, the Republican who is challenging Dana DeBeauvoir for the office of county clerk. And over on Channel 10,…
Champions League Game Day 4Wednesday’s Action
Arsenal did everything but score in Wednesday’s Champs League action, and so find themselves with everything to play for in the final two Group G games. Elsewhere, Lyon and Real Madrid clinched the top two spots in Group E; both Manchester United and Celtic Glasgow lost in Group F, as Benfica and FC Copenhagen fought…
Welch’s Sparkling Juice
Bill Welch’s fundraising woes are over, thanks to an enormous wad of campaign cash from sources other than his personal piggy banks. The Republican nominee for Travis Co.’s HD 47 seat collected nearly $700,000 in the last month, most of it from major GOP PACs, including House Speaker Tom Craddick’s Stars Over Texas. (Democrat Valinda…
Travis Dems and GOP Accuse Each Other of Dirty Tricks
The Travis County Democratic and Republican parties are hurling charges at each other of, either willfully or accidentally, suppressing voter turnout with misinformation and harrassment. The first volley was actually in private. The GOP held a training session for election judges, but only for judges who are Republicans, pointedly telling any Dems who wanted to…
“Sick” of Perry?
Chris Bell’s newest commercial is his first to gun directly for Rick Perry. In “Sick,” Bell takes down the guv’s cozy relationship with TXU and its disastrous health and environmental effects on the state. (At least Perry got the world’s largest bong out of the agreement.) Watch “Sick” below:
Kinky and Kay Bailey, Sittin’ in a Tree…?
It’s been a tough couple weeks for independent gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman. For starters, his campaign has been fielding a handful of nasty e-mails regarding the Kinkster’s health care plan, dubbed TexasCare, which he unveiled Oct. 18. Essentially, the TexasCare plan would offer subsidized health coverage for all Texans, paid for on a sliding scale…
Kerry on, Perry
Republicans found their voice again this week, and boy is it shrill. It all started when Sen. John Kerry told some college students to “study hard [and] make an effort to be smart… If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.” Republicans demanded that Kerry apologize for insulting the troops, but Kerry said he was…
Injunction Blocks Abbott Enforcement of Ballot Law
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge T. John Ward issued a preliminary injunction blocking state Attorney General Greg Abbott from what plaintiffs, including the Texas Democratic Party, described as overzealous enforcement of a ballot-handling law. The plaintiffs had sued Abbott because he had prosecuted 13 individuals for possessing the ballots of other voters. The six citizen…
Will Virginia Voters Bench Allen?
Have the voters of Virginia finally woken up and realized that they don’t want a flaming racist for their senator? After weeks of polls showing George Allen (son of the famous Redskins coach; maybe the racism was ingrained in him by that team name) slightly ahead, now they’re showing him slightly behind. An average of…
Grandma’s gone missing again…
Now this is some funny shit, from the Chris Bell campaign: Background: in 1990, as co-chair of the Clayton Williams campaign, Carole Strayhorn staged an “Ann Watch” outside the State Treasury, wanting to make sure that Richards was putting in her time as State Treasurer. AWR (Ann Willis Richards) Women and Men for Bell will…
Early Voting Trending Upward
Travis County’s early voting numbers continued rising this week, reaching new highs of 7,654 on Monday and 7,757 on Tuesday. The grand total now stands at 52,880 early voters, plus 4,418 mail-in ballots, for a total of 57,298, or 10.31% of the county’s registered voters. If you have an office betting pool going (and if…
More Like the Pink Panthers! (Sorry I’m Not as Funny When They Win)
This Sunday’s game against the Panthers was like my dream come true, complete with the disturbing gay undertones. Seriously, what was going on with Bill Parcells playing Seven Minutes in Heaven on the sidelines this week? Sure scoring 25 points for a come-from-behind win is exciting, but I haven’t seen that many awkward old-man kisses…
Rank
Rank 2006, NR, 90 min. Directed by John Hyams, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . Filmed at the World Championship in Las Vegas, this documentary looks at the three highest ranked bull riders competing for the PBR title. See austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid%3A346300 for the Chronicle story on the film that ran when it made its…
‘The Sporting Life’: It’s Game Time, Baby …
It was midway through the third quarter of a very interesting Nebraska-at-Oklahoma State football game this past Saturday when I received a phone call from my friend Brent. “You’ll never believe what’s just happened,” he said, and I could tell from the excitement in his voice that, for once, it had nothing to do with…
Barca Pain in Champs League
A dramatic late equalizer from Ivorian star Didier Drogba put Chelsea in the driver’s seat in Champions League Group A, and dropped defending champion Barcelona into the danger zone, as the top two teams on the continent fought to a 2-2 draw in the Catalan capital on Tuesday. Barca now faces a must-win against German…
Haunted by Affordable Housing
The precisely-monikered AustinContrarian raises an interesting point today regarding Prop 5, the affordable housing bond. Our author thinks they will do some good for the city’s oft-overlooked (umm, more like invisible) renters, but additionally, “will give the City Council the cover it needs to do the right thing on housing… Proposition 5 will allow Council…
The Green Voting Guide
This article about the League of Conservation Voters was previously published in our paper version of the paper, but it bears repeating here as you head for the voting booth. If environmental issues are key in helping you make picks for Congress and Senate, the LCV scorecard is mighty illuminating.: Enviros Say Doggett Shines, Others…
Hair High
Hair High 2004, NR, 78 min. Directed by Bill Plympton, Narrated by , Voices by Ed Begley Jr., Craig Bierko, David Carradine, Keith Carradine, Beverly D’Angelo, Starring . Cult filmmaker Plympton (25 Ways to Quit Smoking) is fresh off his massively popular animation tour with co-conspirator Don Hertzfeldt and ready to warp both hearts and…
No Headline
From Austin Chronicle cartoonist Doug Potter
Flicker Film Festival #28
Flicker Film Festival #28 Directed by Various. Flicker is a quarterly screening series featuring short films that must be under15 minutes in length and originate on celluloid. Local filmmakers will be featured alongside national and international shorts. “Cold?” by Norwood Cheek, a Flicker LA regular, and “Unidentified Flying Object” by Austin-based Lion & Leon Productions…
International Short Films
International Short Films Directed by Various. Eight films from 8 countries include “Make a Wish” by Cherien Dabis of the Palestinian Territories, “Exploding Buds”: by Petra Schroder of Germany, “Domestic” by Brett Snelgrove and Katie Hides of Australia, “Rogairi” by Tom Cosgrove of Ireland, “Habitat” by Lars Arrhenius and Johannes Muntzing of Sweden, “United Nations…
Radio On
Post-punk anti-road fiction set in Thatcherite England
Fumble: Brees Benched by Son
You’ve probably seen the ads by 3rd Court of Appeals Place 5 Democratic candidate Mina Brees invoking the name of her famous son, NFL quarterback Drew Brees. Well, you won’t be seeing them any longer. KXAN-TV is reporting that son and mother are estranged, and Drew has asked Mina to pull his name from the…
One-Carr Accident, Carr Runs Out of Gas, etc.
The Houston Texans may have to come to terms with the fact that David Carr is not the franchise QB that they have been counting on him to be. After re-signing Carr in the offseason and thereby passing up Vince Young, Jay Cutler, and Matt Leinart in the draft, the Texans placed all their hopes…
Grandma’s House of Horrors
Congratulations to the Rick Perry campaign for managing to call the kettle black in a creative, humorous, and vaguely sexist fashion. Just in time for Halloween, the camp rolled out an interactive Web tour of Grandma’s Attic, a lively exploration of Carole Keeton Strayhorn’s “secret” records stashed away in the bowels of the state comptroller’s…
Back to the Drawing Board
The New Orleans Saints typically don’t fare well in games following a bye week. The extra preparation time tends to give both coaches and players just enough rope to hang themselves. Sunday against the visiting Baltimore Ravens, the Saints did everything they could in an all-out attempt to shed their newfound reputation as a surging…
Early Voting: Solid but Unspectacular
Seven days of early voting are behind us, and now my early predictions of nearly 50% turnout are looking a little rosy. Thus far, 37,427 Travis County citizens have voted early, including a high of 6,852 on Friday (people shopping for their weekend party snacks?). Another 3,735 ballots have been received by mail, for a…
Uh-Oh … Lampson No Longer Such a Sure Bet
A Houston Chronicle/Zogby poll indicates that we pundit/journalist types may have greatly underestimated the intelligence of voters in Congressional District 22. The conventional wisdom has been that Democrat Nick Lampson was a shoo-in because the only Republican in the race is a write-in. That is because even though Tom DeLay withdrew from the race and…
‘Pig Skinny’: BCS Analysis
Take a look at the BCS Standings. With Oregon State’s upset of USC on Saturday, the Ohio State/Michigan game (in two weeks) and this Thursday’s West Virginia/Louisville games loom as virtual semifinal matchups. The only real hitch being that West Virginia and Louisville both have games with Rutgers and Pitt. As for the Texas Longhorns,…
Ruck Feplay: Can’t the Refs Get It Right the First Time?
The only time I laughed during the clash of the Longhorns and Red Raiders was at a shirt in the stands. It read “Tuck Fexas.” Now that spark of creativity is a natural for Panhandle folks, who claim Buddy Holly and the Flatlanders as their own. Of course, who wouldn’t be creative when the goal…
The PAC Behind The Curtain
All you eye-glazed city staffers take note (we’re looking at you, Brewster): quit hitting your refresh button and get some fresh air. Specifically, if you head over to Sixth and Lamar, you’ll enter the land of Oz. Affordable housing advocates and Prop 5 proponents HousingWorks Action will be there from from 11:30am to 1pm and…
“Everyone knows it’s really Las Manitas!”
Open mouth, insert … foot?
That’s so 2004
Rick Perry’s campaign has trotted out an unfunny anti-French radio ad attacking Chris Bell’s voting record in Congress. OK, some of the audio is cute, like the “Mr. Way Too Liberal for Texas Guy” theme song, borrowed from a Bud Light commercial. But then comes the tired and predictable: “You voted to let the United…
Game 5 in What for the Most Part Are Pretty Crappy Pictures
One man’s worst World Series ever is easily among another man’s Top 10 nights of his life. I’ll let LOOGY (Lefty One-Out Guy) Randy Flores sum it up: “We beat the team with the best pitching [San Diego Padres]. We beat the team with the best hitting [New York Mets]. And we beat the team…
Good Odds for the Democrats
I know better than to get my hopes up. I’ve seen Democrats snatch defeat from the jaws of victory before. But let’s face it, the handwriting on the wall does indeed seem to favor the donkeys this time around. Exhibit A: Look at the current polling on Majority Watch. Of the 54 House districts that…
‘Friday Night Lights’: Great Pumpkin Harvests Frighteningly Good Matchups
Week 8, Halloween week, brings some truly scary matchups. Taylor Field in Seguin, where No. 8 Westlake tries to hold off the charging Seguin Matadors and monstrous linebacker Marcus Richardson, last week’s TexasFootball.com’s Player of the Week for his frighteningly complete performance (16 tackles, one sack, two forced fumbles, one fumble recovery) in Seguin’s 28-20…
They Call Me PROPOSITION 4!
With $5 million in repairs and improvements promised within for Austin Studios, Prop. 4 would be a shot in the arm to Austin’s film scene. Understandably, the local film community is psyched about the proposition, and is pulling out the stops in promoting the prop. The talented crew at 05min Productions recently created an eye-popping,…
The American League Is a Joke
Heh. Just wanted to write that. Headed downtown to see if I can’t scrape up a couple of tickets to the cold, wet, but playable game that could clinch the World Championship for the St. Louis Cardinals over the mighty Detroit Tigers. Will be watching the game regardless in the city, somewhere, probably in various…
Just So We’re Clear on This …
Due to an editing error, this week’s paper version of the Chronicle accidentally cut Mary Beth Harrell’s name off of our list of endorsements. So, lest anyone think we’ve retracted it: The Austin Chronicle enthusiastically endorses Mary Beth Harrell for Congressional District 31, which stretches from the Williamson County portion of North Austin, through Fort…
Ice Bats at Home This Friday and Sunday
The Ice Bats began their season with an exciting 3-2 shootout victory over the Bossier-Shreveport Mud Bugs at the noisy Chaparral Ice Arena last Saturday in front of a capacity crowd. Winning their first home game against the defending Northern Conference champs was nice, but keep in mind that the Mud Bugs were playing with…
Live Boxing Tonite in the ATX
The Austin Music Hall will host Latin Explosion II tonight at 7pm. Both main event fights feature hometown boys, with local pugilist Brian Vera (11-0, eight knockouts) defending his middleweight title against Jose Spearman (27-12-4) of Indianapolis in an eight-rounder. The co-headlining brawl features Ray Lino Garcia (5-0) of Austin and Josh Burns (3-4-5) of…
Breaking: Libertarians Are Cheap-Asses
Warning that “seven bad bonds enable seven bad habits,” Travis County Libertarian Party schoolmarm Wes Benedict announced today his party opposes all seven City of Austin bond propositions. (On an unrelated note, WTF’s up with the SRV statue on their website? Perchance, if the bonds do pass, would it be said “the sky is crying?”)…
Tideland
Terry Gilliam misfires completely in this dreary, unfocused, and exhausting psychodrama.
Food-o-File
Getting a read on Halloween
Arts Review
Joey Fauerso’s ‘Wide Open Wide’ is a stellar animation that sets hundreds of her paintings in motion, but the display of those paintings at Women & Their Work makes for a less than compelling installation
The Common Law
How do I file a grievance against an attorney?
Four of Six: 3rd Court of Appeals
This year, four of the court’s six seats are contested
‘SXSW Presents’
’24 Hours on Craigslist’
TCB
Halloween tricks and treats from the Rolling Stones, Pet Shop Boys, White Ghost Shivers, and Palm School Choir, while yet another Austin outdoor festival is born
Event Menu
Texas Wine Month wraps; chili cook-offs are just heating up
Arts Review
Caridad Svich’s ‘Thrush’ takes place in a war-ravaged world, but the writer’s ill-conceived structure and Salvage Vanguard Theater’s slow and sentimental production makes that world surprisingly dull
Day Trips
Wanna see some ghosts? Galveston is the town for you.
Developing Stories
Big Box, Back Off!; Las Manitas Swirls On; and Bucking the City
‘Mutual Appreciation’
Writer/director Andrew Bujalski is back in Austin for his critically acclaimed film’s theatrical opening here
Election News
The latest dispatches from the campaign trail
All Over the Map
The many moods of International Drag KingCommunity Extravaganza 8
Foreword
Previewing the 2006 Texas Book Festival, Oct. 27-29
Soccer Watch
An MLS playoff update, and more
A Letter to Mexico
Oaxacan unrest visits local consulate
In Space
Super!Alright!
The Sound and the Fury
Nic Armstrong’s IV Thieves, stealing thunder in Austin.
Foreword
A Suggested Itinerary I am the Books editor of The Austin Chronicle, so you can bet that my approach to the weekend’s hundreds of authors and wall-to-wall programming will all but assure you a fulfilling journey. What I am about to do is guide you through the schedule, homing in on how to spend your…
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
In 1970, breaking up was easy to do
Primal Troubles
Hill Country primate sanctuary seized
DVD Watch
Released in 1985 to a chorus of religious condemnation and social opprobrium, it’s Jean-Luc Godard’s most divisive film, which is saying something
The Prestige
Two rival magicians are locked in a lifelong quest for supremacy, which leads them down a slippery slope of hairpin twists and triple-turns in this Christopher Nolan movie.
IV Thieves Reviewed
IV ThievesIf We Can’t Escape My Pretty (New West) In the nearly two years since Nic Armstrong & the Thieves landed a raucous Britpop roundhouse with The Greatest White Liar, the Austin-by-way-of-Nottingham quartet changed its name to IV Thieves to reflect a more democratic approach in songwriting and lead vocals. While IV Thieves’ second album…
Foreword
The Uses of Enchantmentby Heidi Julavits Doubleday, 368 pp., $24.95 The title may conjure something a little pretty-pony – or, more to the point, Bruno Bettelheim’s appreciation of fairy tales – but Heidi Julavits’ Gordian rendering of a maybe-abduction in 1985 West Salem counters as a dark, even hostile, take on the devastating power of…
Texas Platters
Bob SchneiderThe Californian (Vanguard) It’s not easy being Bob. He’s an enormous talent, popular, and as adept at songwriting and performance as he is at leading a band and artwork. His prolific Midas touch gilds every local project he’s attempted, from Joe Rockhead’s funky beats and the Scabs’ brassy smart-rock to more recent aggregations like…
Naked City
News briefs from Austin, the region, and elsewhere
TV Eye
Say hello to my big (and black) friend
Flicka
Girls and their horses. They’re grist for this new update of Mary O’Hara’s beloved novel My Friend Flicka.
Oops!
In last week’s “Endorsements,” we incorrectly reported that 3rd Court of Appeals Place 3 candidate Diane Henson received the endorsement of the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas when, in fact, CLEAT did not endorse her candidacy. The Oct. 20 “Naked City” story “Bicycle Helmet Headbutting Resumes,” erroneously stated that the League of Bicycling Voters…
Texas Platters
Ben Kweller(ATO) Ben Kweller shoulda coulda been the next Kurt Cobain. In 1997, The New Yorker told us as much – in a sprawling, 10-page feature on the then 15-year-old Dallasite. The funny thing about hyperbolic proclamations of potential is that people only pay attention when you don’t live up to them. To date, there’s…
Foreword
The Republican Playbook by Andy Borowitz Hyperion, 160 pp., $16.95 Through the Children’s Gate: A Home in New York by Adam Gopnik Knopf, 336 pp., $25 As a longtime contributor to The New Yorker and the mind behind the political humor Web site The Borowitz Report, Andy Borowitz has honed the art of satire to…
Texas Platters
Beat Box Forget Dangerous Toys. Austin’s Dirty Wormz represent the quintessential Back Room band. Welding nuclear fallout raps to a heavy metal chassis, the Wormz crudely remind us that it was indeed the now-defunct hard rock club just south of the river that hosted early versions of Public Enemy and Ice Cube when they first…
Death Row Inmate Kills Self, Claimed Innocence
As his defense attorney worked on a last appeal of his case, 29-year-old Michael Johnson, who was set to become the 376th prisoner executed in Texas since 1976, took a makeshift knife and slashed his own throat
Reefer Madness
‘Hemp for Farming’ and Acronym Antics
Catch a Fire
Phillip Noyce explores the havoc and repercussions caused by white interlopers toward indigenous peoples in this straightforward account of real-life black South African activist Patrick Chamusso and the white Boer police agent, who hunts him.
Texas (Cook)Book Festival
Foodies, follow us to paradise, aka the TBF Cooking Tent …
Texas Platters
Baboon More than a decade in the making, Baboon’s self-titled epic rejuvenates the Denton band’s identity in the most sensible fashion. Having earned their stripes as a raucous noise band, early versions of the group intensified their grungy guitar cacophony with a blaring trombone. As Baboon has aged, it has become a more melodic animal.…
Foreword
Goodnight, Texasby William J. Cobb Unbridled Books, 304 pp., $24.95 In the opening of William J. Cobb’s warm Goodnight, Texas, the Gulf Texas town Goodnight by the Sea has all but lost its hope, and as the days go by that the fishermen can catch nary a guppy to revive the town with vital economic…
Texas Platters
Kinky FriedmanLast of the Jewish Cowboys: The Best of Kinky Friedman (Shout! Factory) Why the Hell Not … The Songs of Kinky Friedman(Sustain) Kinky Friedman clearly suffers from multiple-personality disorder: gubernatorial candidate, mystery novelist, stray-dog savior, action figure. Of course, before all that, he was songwriter, and with Friedman’s name now before more Texans than…
Supremes to Examine Death Row Appeals
Supreme Court agrees to hear three Texas death row appeals during its new term
Death of a President
More sleight of hand than persuasive drama, this what-if story about the aftermath of a presidential assassination is technically seamless but dramatically hollow.
Texas (Cook)Book Festival
Dishes From the Wild Horse DesertWiley & Sons Publishing, 273 pp., $29.95 The origins of American regional cuisines – their ethnic influences, native ingredients, and authentic recipes – are currently a hot culinary topic. Texas has bragging rights to at least two established regional cuisines: our distinctive brand of barbecue as well as the dishes…
Texas Platters
Ornette ColemanSound Grammar (Phase Text) While Texas jazz legend Ornette Coleman has mellowed considerably over the decades, it’s a sign of how the times have finally caught up with his visionary, harmolodic approach to improvising when you realize how relatively accessible his music has become. It wasn’t always this way for the iconoclastic, Fort Worth-born…
Foreword
Mexico in Mind: An Anthologyedited by Maria Finn Vintage, 256 pp., $14 (paper) Described as a “literary travel guide,” Mexico in Mind assembles writings from 31 poets, essayists, and fiction writers covering nearly every corner of Mexico. What is distinctive about this anthology is that it includes work written from 1843 to the present. This…
Texas Platters
Big Chris Gates & GatesvilleAin’t It Grand … (Anodyne) When punk rockers decide it’s time to ease up on the lifestyle throttle, a distinct twang often accompanies their survivor stories: Jon Langford, Mike Ness, Supersuckers, Austin’s own Shootin’ Pains. There’s something innately redemptive in steel guitars and blues progressions, because they always seem to give…
Seaholm: The railroad conundrum
Two pieces of long-neglected and barely salvageable railroad track along and on the Seaholm Power Plant site could hold the key to whether the city has a commuter rail system limited to North and Central Austin or one that spans the entire city.
Renaissance
Not reviewed at press time. Science fiction, film noir, and revolutionary animation combine in this futuristic story set in Paris 2054.
Texas (Cook)Book Festival
The Joy of Cooking: 75th Anniversary Edition by Irma Rombauer, Marion Rombauer Becker, and Ethan Becker Scribner, 1,132 pp., $30 Chances are, if Americans own a cookbook at all, it is the Joy of Cooking. For many, it is a graduation gift, for some, a wedding present. The New York Public Library (quite rightly) named…
Texas Platters
Faceless WerewolvesMedium Freaky (Super Secret) Enigmatic, beguiling, and a little dangerous, Austin’s Faceless Werewolves beckon with one hand while hiding a sledgehammer behind their backs with the other. If that sounds a shade cartoonish, it’s no accident. Erica Barton and Kelsey Wickliffe’s Betty Boop vocals dominate the Denton transplants’ 11-song debut, conjuring a girlish innocence…
Foreword
THE WAR AT HOME: Evan Carton on John Brown Though armed with one of the more confrontational titles of any biography this year, Patriotic Treason: John Brown and the Soul of America (Free Press, $30) is less an argument than the story of a remarkable interracial family, according to author and University of Texas faculty…
Texas Platters
Lower Class BratsThe New Seditionaries (TKO) More than a decade into their existence, Austin’s Lower Class Brats haven’t lost an ounce of adolescent piss and vinegar. If anything, the veteran quartet’s sneering Brit-punk broadside has aged like a not-so-fine wine, slowly honed to its embittered essence. There aren’t a lot of surprises on The New…
Boo! Alcatravis Is Back
Many a surprise lurks this time of year within the walls of old Travis Co. jail
Running With Scissors
This film depiction of Augusten Burroughs’ hellish childhood is tonally fractured and features a series of performances that pitch and yaw between “normal” and utterly mad.
Texas (Cook)Book Festival
Mulli: El Libro De Los Moles (Mulli: The Book of Moles) by Patricia Quintana Grupo Oceano (in Spanish), 288 pp., $47.25 We are lucky to have renowned Mexico City chef Patricia Quintana visit Austin twice in the same year. Although The Best of Quintana – one of her most popular cookbooks – is in print…
Texas Platters
Peter and the WolfLightness (The Worker’s Institute) Lightness is Red Hunter’s salty manifesto, tethered by the sea, the moon, owls, lost loves, and highways that never end. Recently signed to the Worker’s Institute, which released Sigur Rós’ last EP, this is the Austin indie songsmith’s first release not on his Whiskey & Apples label. It…
Foreword
The Lay Of The Landby Richard Ford Knopf, 496 pp., $26.95 It has been more than a decade since we last encountered Frank Bascombe, the protagonist of Richard Ford’s acclaimed novels, The Sportswriter and Independence Day. The former introduced Bascombe in 1986 as an alienated young man. The latter, appearing in 1995, continued his saga…
Texas Platters
PompeiiAssembly (Eyeball) There’s only room in this world for one Death Cab for Cutie. Many have tried to imitate the precious, love-stricken songcraft of Ben Gibbard, and local quintet Pompeii is no different. On debut LP Assembly, Dean Stafford leads his troupe through tracks of longing and beauty. Unfortunately, there isn’t an original measure among…
Anti-War Dad Comes to Austin
Bob Watada, father of Lt. Ehren Watada – who refused to go to Iraq and who has publicly denounced the war repeatedly – comes to Austin as part of national speaking tour
loudQUIETloud: A Film About the Pixies
This film captures a fair amount of this band’s electric charge and documents its 2004 reunion tour.
Texas (Cook)Book Festival
I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influenceby Amy Sedaris Warner Books, 304 pp., $27.99 Sure, Amy Sedaris is a screamingly funny writer. And the art direction of her entertainment guide matches the copy for hilarity. But this girl needs to get her light out from under a bushel and get out there and promote her…
Texas Platters
Dana FalconberryPaper Sailboat Dana Falconberry is a relatively recent transplant to Austin, and we’re lucky to have such an intuitive songwriter in our midst. Every song on her self-released Paper Sailboat EP is a triumph of composition, giving listeners a taste of what’s missing on the coffeehouse circuit: thoughtful, beautifully written songcraft that aspires to…
Foreword
Beauty Junkies: Inside Our $15 Billion Obsession With Cosmetic Surgery by Alex Kuczynski Doubleday, 304 pp., $24.95 In the eternal effort to achieve the ideal look, one wonders how far is too far and whether we’re already beyond it. Is this a field where necessity is the father of invention or a case of the…
Texas Platters
SpartaThrees (Hollywood) It’s a simple law of physics hypothesized by Galileo: A dropped object steadily increases its velocity as it nears the Earth’s surface. Enter At the Drive-In dropouts Sparta. After El Paso’s ATDI hit rock bottom unexpectedly, Sparta released the highly anticipated and addictive Wiretap Scars. Good, but no “One Armed Scissor.” 2004 found…
Point Austin: Let ‘Em Eat Op-Eds!
From Managua to Guang Zhou, it ain’t easy being Wal-Mart
Unidentified
Satan causes Earthbound heathens to believe that the sudden depopulation of the planet is due to an extraterrestrial invasion rather than the Rapture. Holy UFOs!
Texas (Cook)Book Festival
The Scavenger’s Guide to Haute Cuisineby Steven Rinella Miramax Books, 319 pp., $23.95 When a friend loaned outdoor writer Steven Rinella a copy of Auguste Escoffier’s 5,012-recipe opus, Le Guide Culinaire (1903), he had an epiphany. Rinella – with an entourage of colorful characters and his long-suffering vegetarian girlfriend, Diana – decided to embark on…
Texas Platters
Michael Hall The Song He Was Listening to When He Died (Freedom) When speaking of underappreciated singer-songwriters in Austin, Michael Hall is near the top of the list. It might be his offbeat way of telling stories, his decidedly bent sense of humor, or the dryness of his vocal delivery. The Song He Was Listening…
Foreword
Web Extra For recent Chronicle coverage concerning the following TBF attendees, see austinchronicle.com. Ben Barnes (Barn Burning Barn Building: Tales of a Political Life From LBJ to George W. Bush and Beyond) Sarah Bird (The Flamenco Academy) Kevin Brockmeier (The Brief History of the Dead) David Bull (The Driskill Hotel: A Cookbook for Special Occasions)…
Beside the Point
Books at Green, Drunks on Sixth
The Queen
This Helen Mirren starrer provides a glimpse of the British monarchy at a contemporary crossroads between supreme dominance and utter irrelevancy.
Texas (Cook)Book Festival
Deep South Parties OR How to Survive the Southern Cocktail Hour without a Box of French Onion Soup Mix, a Block of Processed Cheese, or a Cocktail Weenieby Robert St. John Hyperion, 272 pp., $19.95 My friend Sam, who grew up in Virginia, is the consummate entertainer. She’s about the only person I know who…
‘The Fall of the House of Usher’: When Debussy was a Poe boy
With UT’s hosting of the Debussy International Congress comes a Halloween treat: an operatic adaptation based on Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’
Page Two: Bond on Bond
All seven propositions on the current ballot represent a triumph of thought, vision, and planning
The Rise of the Invisible Man
Can longshot Democrat Chris Bell ring up a miracle?
The Hightower Report
It�s 2006, George, Not 1706; and War Profiteers
A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints
Montiel’s debut feature about growing up in Astoria, Queens, in the mid-Eighties is full of the filmmaker’s instinctive brio and inchoate ideas and the elaborations of a brilliant ensemble cast.
Texas (Cook)Book Festival
The Kitchen Table: Brennan’s of Houstonby Randy Evans Bright Sky Press, 317 pp., $29.95 Many of the renowned chefs of our time have come out of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. Creole cooking is one of our authentic regional cuisines, and its practitioners are passionate about food and exacting in their standards. Among the…
ColdTowne Theater: Comedy moves uptown
You can count all the comedy venues in Austin on the fingers of one hand, so the opening of a new one, ColdTowne Theater, qualifies as a real occasion
Letters @ 3AM
Republican stewardship of our government has miserably failed. Polls show that Americans finally realize this, but we don’t know if that will translate into votes.
Backstage With Bell
Chris Bell knew the TV debate was his one shot, so he tried to hit it out of the park
The Game Is All
We catch up with some major players in Austin’s gaming universe
Mutual Appreciation
Writer/director/actor Bujalski has been branded the “emo Cassavetes”: His movies have an astoundingly lifelike rhythm full of small moments that only add up to something bigger later on.
Texas (Cook)Book Festival
The United States of Arugula: How We Became a Gourmet Nationby David Kamp Broadway Books, 416 pp., $26 With equal measures of historical inquiry and dishy gossip, David Kamp traces the rise of America’s preoccupation with gourmet gastronomy. Kamp is clearly a foodie: He dismisses out-of-season, chemically treated produce as “Franken-fruit.” And he is likewise…
Ventriloquist Night: Public speaking for dummies
With a new wave of interest in ventriloquism, what better time for full-time Austin puppeteer Bob Abdou to launch a course in Ventriloquism 101?
After a Fashion
The fall social calendar is in full swing, and your swinging Style Avatar is all over it
The Other Guy: James Werner
The real invisible man at the gubernatorial debate was the uninvited Libertarian candidate
Players Guide
– The Austin Game Conference, one of the largest gaming conferences in the world, has a slew of side projects in the mix. A portion of their 2006 registration fees were donated to Tech Tots, a program that gives computers to children from low-income families. The Game Initiative, the company that runs the Austin Game…
Conversations With God
Life-affirming lessons about a generous, forgiving God and the redemptive possibilities of love and charity dominate this movie based on Neale Donald Walsch’s bestseller.
Jay McInerney’s ‘Hedonist in the Cellar’
A novelist’s take on wine
Arts Review
Coda Theater Project’s staging of three one-acts by Eugène Ionesco suffers from its attempts to inject emotion and motivation into absurdist texts, but the plays themselves are still eminently entertaining
To Your Health
Did you know that wild foods have more nutrients than domesticated plants or animals?
The ‘Chronicle’ Endorsements
Our picks for the Nov. 7 election
Austin Film Festival Competition winners
Competition winners
Luv Doc Recommends: The Rocky Horror Show
Inhibition works for a lot of people. From a purely Darwinistic perspective, it’s best not to stand out. The tallest blade of grass gets cut first; the nail that sticks up gets hammered down … that type of thing. Inhibition is great for survival, but maybe not so good for living. How comfortable can it…
