Cover Story
Translating the War
From Hebron to Camp Mabry: A Palestinian’s path to U.S. citizenship
Two Become One
Two contemporary designs on the theme of “Couple”
HD-11: Round Three?
Republican challenger asks speaker to consider over-turning run-off result
OTR Stocking Stuffers
Hawking for the holidays
Daily Affirmation: Hooking Up With Tila Tequila
Tila Tequila has a new book, and it is great/awful.
Wynn Speaks on Gale Death
Encourages donations to House the Homeless’ thermal drive
Police Use of Force Declined in 2007
The number of times police used force against Austin residents declined last year
Can We Throw One Back?
Or how I wish coming out was like fishing.
Aztex Roster Hunt Begins in Earnest, and More
Coach Adrian Heath is on the road scouting players for the Aztex’s inaugural season, and more
Council Comments on Gale Death
CMs Leffingwell, Martinez weigh in on Jennifer Gale’s passing
Cofer In for Council
Solid Waste Advisory Commissioner Rick Cofer declares for council
Under Your Spelman
Former council member wants his Place 5 seat back
Hust FM: And They’re Off!
Talking on the City Council races, and Jennifer Gale’s death
Chris Riley for Council
Downtown advocate announces run in ’09
Flying Solo
Eleanor Whitmore spreads her wings
Jennifer Gale Found Dead
Local political fixture discovered on street this morning
‘The Best Game Ever: Giants vs. Colts, 1958, and the Birth of the Modern NFL’
Mark Bowden’s book ‘The Best Game Ever’ delves into the game that put the NFL on the map
Arne Duncan = Ally
Barack Obama selects Arne Duncan as Secretary of Education, so what does this mean for the gays?
Court Denies Rodney Reed Appeal
Death row inmate Rodney Reed still denied relief in courts
Huffman Takes SD-17
Former judge to finish Sen. Janek’s term
Christeene Lyon Wants You to “Fix My Dick”
Austin Pop Star has a new video, and it’s on YouTube.
I’m Officially a Stalker
I am stalking Rebecca Havemeyer.
City Hall Hustle: Leffingwell on Draft
Supporters tap Leffingwell for Mayor
Austin Film Critics Association Announces Year-End Awards
The Austin Film Critics Association loves it some bat
Showdown in Senate District 17
Bell, Huffman battle for last state Senate seat
How’s Your News, SXSW?
SXSW Film gets Academy-approved and an opening night film
She Doesn’t Look a Day Over 232
Jane Austen turns 233
Obama Team Says No to Pot
Obama transition team says “no” to legalizing pot
War Machine
Live review of AC/DC performance in San Antonio, 12.12.2008
Ames Jones Aims for DC
Railroad commissioner starts exploratory committee to replace Hutchson in 2010
Yesterday When I Was Younger Than Yesterday
Surveying the local scene then and now
The Doctor Is In
Eugene Chadbourne pulls a graveyard shift
Keffer-D’s, Solomons-D’s, and Merritt-D’s
Republican speaker candidates work on winning over Dems
Bringing Sexy Back … to Outer Space
MIT Dr. Dava Newman designs a BioSuit for future space travel
Menorah Roundup
This season’s best menorahs
Gorilla Man
The Chrontourage checks out the Vestige Group’s performance of Gorilla Man at Creekside.
Williams Eyes Senate Run
Former secretary of state announces exploratory committee
Team Torture Named
Senate armed services committee pulls no punches over torture policy allegations
Prison Population Increases…Again
For at least the ninth year, the U.S. prison population increased in 2007
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Dubai’s crane population, European eating habits, and more
Box Sets
Love Train: The Sound of Philadelphia (Sony/Legacy) When Barack Obama’s victory broke last month, McFadden & Whitehead’s “Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now” cued up coast to coast. The 1979 anthem acts as logical culmination of the aspirational sound developed at Philadelphia’s Sigma Sound Studios by songwriter/producers Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff. This 4-CD retrospective begins…
TV Eye
Independent Lens rolls out more standout docs
Texas Dems Sue Over Vote-Counting Method
Recount gives incumbent Linda Harper-Brown the victory, but Democrats aren’t ready to throw in the towel
A Girl Cut in Two
French master Claude Chabrol’s latest film is the tale of the downfall of a cheery, open-faced weathergirl in Lyons who falls in love with two different men.
Food-o-File
Newbies near the Long Center, tamales for the holidays, reading for beer snobs, and more
Box Sets
Miles Davis Kind of Blue 50th Anniversary Collector’s Edition (Columbia/Legacy) The jazz album recommended above all other remains Kind of Blue, but it comes with a caveat: If the music isn’t to your liking, you shouldn’t waste time pursuing jazz at all. In so many ways, trumpeter Miles Davis’ conceptual tour de force epitomizes the…
Early to Rise
Daniel Johnson loves early music’s purity of sound and intimacy, and he’s not alone
Comptroller Touts Her Open-Book Policy
Susan Combs holds up her agency as a model of state transparency
Accident
A radio deejay returns home to India from a foreign trip to discover that his activist wife has died in an accident. But was it really an accident?
Donate for the Holidays
Lean times call for hefty donations to nonprofits curbing hunger, teaching sustainability, and making the world just a little bit better
Event Menu
Your local foodie events for Dec. 13-17
Box Sets
The Jesus & Mary Chain The Power of Negative Thinking: B-Sides & Rarities (Rhino) The Jesus & Mary Chain taps into an unequivocal force, an acerbic marring of antagonistic distortion and pristine pop clarity. The Power of Negative Thinking, an essential 4-CD, 81-song collection of JAMC’s odds and ends, mirrors the Scottish misfits’ evolution from…
Arts Review
TexARTS’ original holiday revue is thrilling when it’s not hampered by tentativeness
Cap Metro Farms Out Four Bus Routes
In a cost-cutting move, Capital Metro switches four of its bus routes to cheaper contractors
Dark Streets
A collection of blues originals by the likes of Aaron Neville, B.B. King, and Etta James lightens this otherwise dreary exercise in modern film noir.
Esther’s Follies
Esther’s alumnus Derek Reid returns from L.A. to show us how funny Obama can be
Cookin’ Good for the Holidays With the Cola Sisters
The Colas on Christmas, cyanide, and serial killers
Box Sets
Cheap Trick Budokan! (Epic/Legacy) Thirty years ago, 14,000 Japanese schoolgirls went crazy. And with good reason. “The Budokan made us famous, and we made the Budokan famous,” explains Cheap Trick songsmith and lead guitarist Rick Nielsen of the concert that turned his late-blooming Illinois proto-punks into household names worldwide. Polished again after a 20th anniversary…
Arts Review
Like its confused hero, this rock musical doesn’t seem to know what it really is
VA Brain Research Lab Could Close
Research facility set up to study combat-related traumatic brain injury may close in wake of whistle-blower complaint
Arthouse
A half-million-dollar challenge grant boosts Arthouse’s capital campaign
LSD C&W
Experimentalist Eugene Chadbourne’s got a thing about Austin
Wish List
Here’s your chance to give back to the areas of our community that need it the most
Arts Review
Eight new dances that spoke engagingly to the place individuals have in groups
Whitmire: Substance Abuse Program Is Doing Fine
Women’s allegations against a state-run drug program for felony offenders gets short shrift by a Senate committee
The Vortex
The Eastside theatre bids farewell to a treasure: managing director Edna Parra
Texas Sessions
Eugene Chadbourne With Evan Johns and the H-Bombs Vermin of the Blues (Fundamental, 1987) Chadbourne’s Austin debut with Johns’ H-Bombs backing opens upending rockabilly on “We Tried to Make a Record but We Couldn’t Get It Together” but quickly veers toward the bizarre with the noise assault of “Rakeman”. The H-Bombs keep pace through “Johnny…
The Hightower Report
Sign of the Times; and Bush Okays Environmental Grotesquerie
Gay Place
Who will lead the next Join the Impact action?
Letters From the Women of SAFPF
A small sample of the letters received by Austin attorney Derek Howard; transcribed and minimally edited
Conspirare
Austin’s top vocal ensemble earns two Grammy noms for its Threshold of Night CD
Box Sets
Roy Orbison The Soul of Rock and Roll (Sony/Legacy) “I’ve spent my lifetime trying to figure love out,” offered Roy Orbison in his final interview, and no other artist more fully embodied both love’s mysteriously swelling swagger and savagely lonesome desperation than Vernon, Texas’ Big O. His haunting voice, sweeping through octaves with a grace…
Fractured Family Tales
AFS Documentary Tour presents In a Dream
Day Trips
Factory outlet stores offer great savings on everything from dominoes to ice chests
Public Safety Likely to Avoid Big Budget Cuts
Local public-safety agencies will be asked to trim, rather than hack, their respective budgets
Box Sets
Hank Williams The Unreleased Recordings (Time Life) You bought 1998’s 10-CD The Complete Hank Williams and thought that was all the Hank you’d ever need. Sorry, buckaroo; you’re in for a big surprise. On the 3-CD Unreleased Recordings are 54 of 143 songs that Williams performed on Nashville’s WSM during his daily 7:15am radio show…
Digging for Change
Cash-strapped but ever hopeful, aGLIFF looks to next year
After a Fashion
Stephen wears what he eats
Reefer Madness: Bush Pardons Hip-Hop Artist
John Forté was dealt harsh sentence under draconian drug law
Cultural Studies
A great holiday gift for the sexually curious
Box Sets
Johnny Cash Johhny Cash at Folsom Prison (Columbia/Legacy) According to Cash biographer Michael Streissguth in the liner notes to this 2-CD/1-DVD set, “few of Cash’s associates and musicians remember that he recorded two concerts [at Folsom] that day.” Listening to the full shows, it’s easy to see why. The performances are noticeably sluggish in the…
Film News
Wildfire Films launches in Austin, and Austin filmmakers land Independent Spirit noms in L.A.
Off the Record
Grupo Fantasma gets a Grammy nod, a tribute to the Cactus Cafe’s Griff Luneburg, and tripping daisies with Woozyhelmet
Page Two: Madness in General
A film review and recommendation for this blur of a year
Cultural Studies
More Bat Scratch Fever from Chip Kidd
Box Sets
50 Songs Celebrate 50 Years of Cowboy
DVD Watch
Before 1995 came along and caught him in a deeply formalized act of pretension, Lars von Trier was already something of an ass
Playing Through
The Bad News Cowboys search for an identity
Closing Early
The Austin Chronicle offices will close at 4pm, Friday, Dec. 12. We will resume our regular business hours on Monday, Dec. 15.
Cultural Studies
Whatever makes our states most mythic is going fast. Ain’t that America?
Box Sets
Hunter S. Thompson The Gonzo Tapes: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson (Shout! Factory) Sometimes it’s best to enjoy a classic work of art without knowing how it was wrought. Rather than offering new insight into Hunter S. Thompson’s work, The Gonzo Tapes spool forth like a souvenir from the sausage factory.…
City Hall Hustle: First One In
McCracken cracks open his war chest in officially declaring his candidacy for mayor
Cultural Studies
The fictional shenanigans of an incompetent journalist trying to paint a portrait of an artist
Box Sets
The Pogues Just Look Them Straight in the Eye and Say … Poguemahone!! (Rhino) On one hand – the one holding a dram of Jameson – the Pogues were fueled as much by Gaelic myth as rock & roll. On the other hand, who would have guessed that Irish folk music could produce such a…
Peep Your Yuletide Games
Cutest. Game. Ever.
Headlines
• California-based chip-maker Spansion announced a temporary, three-week closure of its Austin facility, leaving some 1,100 workers in the lurch. • The first volleys in the 2009 battle for mayor are fired, with Mayor Pro Tem Brewster McCracken announcing his candidacy and a political action committee created to “draft” Council Member Lee Leffingwell into the…
Cadillac Records
The story of the birth of Chicago blues is well-told through this ensemble portrait of Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Chuck Berry, Etta James, Little Walter, and their label, Chess Records.
Cultural Studies
A sumptuous and splendid telling of how the greatest graphic novel in the world came to be
Box Sets
Nina Simone To Be Free: The Nina Simone Story (RCA/Legacy) “When I get onstage, you keep your eyes on me.” Nina Simone directed that cue to drummer Buck Clarke in rehearsal for a 1970 New York City concert excerpted on the 23-minute DVD that accompanies this 3-CD summation of the North Carolina songstress’ 36-year career.…
Peep Your Yuletide Games
Choosing flight over fight for a change
Naked City
News briefs from Austin, the region, and elsewhere
The Day the Earth Stood Still
This dull, unnecessary remake of the 1951 science-fiction classic features Keanu Reeves and Jennifer Connelly in a wooden cautionary tale.
Cultural Studies
A warts-and-all biography of a misogynist, a depressive, a Nobel Prize winner
Box Sets
The Complete Motown Singles Vol. 11A: 1971 (Hip-O Select) In the music business, two plus two seldom equals four. Marvin Gaye’s greatest single achievement, “What’s Going On,” as the cover-sheaved vinyl 7-inch and an “A” appended into Vol. 11 of The Complete Motown Singles belie the end-times of Motor City’s dream vehicle. By the end…
Peep Your Yuletide Games
Call your friends; it’s time to survive another zombie apocalypse
Res Publica
Matters of the public, Dec. 11-17
Delgo
In this animated fantasy, a band of teens joins together to defend its land from alien winged creatures.
Cultural Studies
Rees’ strips are provocative and wise, and delivered with a punch to the gut
Box Sets
Genesis 1970-1975 (Atlantic/Rhino) In the beginning, Peter Gabriel was the singer, and Phil Collins wasn’t even in the band. While most fans know Genesis as a stadium-filling top of the pops trio, this is the definitive document of its beginnings. Completing an upgrade of the group’s catalog that began last year with two boxes (1976-1982,…
Peep Your Yuletide Games
Get juiced, and hit the gridiron
Holiday Gift Guide
Shopping ideas from the Chronicle News staff
Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi
In this new Bollywood romance, polar opposites find themselves drawn together by fate.
The Common Law
Modify child-support payments?
Box Sets
David Gilmour Live in Gda´nsk (Columbia) In the Cold War of Pink Floyd, guitarist David Gilmour cracking The Division Bell’s “A Great Day for Freedom” in the Gda´nsk shipyards to mark the 26th anniversary of Lech Walesa’s Solidarity movement in Poland pales in comparison to Roger Waters’ crumbling of The Wall in Berlin in 1990.…
Peep Your Yuletide Games
Holiday gaming rehash or bold reinvention? We’ll be the judge.
2009 Lege: Local Delegates Lay Out Agendas
Austin’s Lege delegates ready to go back to work
Slumdog Millionaire
Danny Boyle’s crowd-pleasing Slumdog Millionaire may be drenched in the saffron and violet palettes of its Mumbai setting, but it plays like a classic Hollywood rags-to-riches love story.
Luv Doc Recommends: Cherrywood Art Fair
There’s a decent chance your office holiday party is this weekend. Excellent. After 11 months of petty politics, gossip, bickering, and backstabbing, you and your annoying co-workers are going to put the cherry on top with a booze-fueled yuletide blowout. Merry indeed. Still, corny though they may be, office holiday parties are exactly the kind…
