Cover Story
Better Luck Next Year?
Mapping Chaos Six months into his second term as president, Donald Trump was nervous about the chances for keeping a Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives after the 2026 elections. So in July, Trump demanded that Texas Republicans discard decades of precedent and redistrict the state’s congressional districts in the middle of the…
News
Protecting Trans Texans, Creating Jobs, Reducing Homelessness
Marti Bier, a nonbinary organizer with the Texas Freedom Network, spent the last three legislative sessions at the state Capitol trying to protect the trans community from a series of Republican attacks. “It has felt worse and worse as our humanity and dignity has been legislated away,” Bier told Austin’s City Council last Thursday. “When…
Hannah Terrell Named Austin Public Library Director
Two weeks after the Austin Public Library hosted the public for a meet-and-greet with the four finalists for the APL director position, Hannah Terrell was named the new director of the public library system on Monday, Dec. 15. With nearly 20 years of experience working in libraries under her belt, Terrell has been with APL…
Texas’ THCA Vape Crackdown Sparks New Consumption Loophole
When Senate Bill 2024 took effect on Sept. 1, smoke shops across Texas hurried to clear their shelves of highly desired products: vaporizers. The law reclassified the sale of pre-filled THCA vapes – long a staple of Texas’s hemp economy – as a class A misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in jail, a…
Business Owners Search for Solutions After Termination of HUB Program
As the year comes to a close, Jessica Scanlon, founder of Hot Dog Marketing, can already cross one item off of her 2026 to-do list: renewing her Historically Underutilized Business program status. After Comptroller Kelly Hancock abruptly announced in early December that the program would no longer provide benefits to women- and minority-owned businesses, business…
The Week’s Biggest News in Brief
City Extends Deadline for Flood Insurance Assistance: Following the catastrophic July 4 floods that took place this past summer, the city has announced that it is continuing its pilot program partnership with Del Valle Community Coalition to provide flood insurance assistance. With a goal of supporting Austinites who reside in high-risk flood locations, the Flood…
Music
Music Notes
Jim Franklin Birthday Party Sunday 28, Empire Control Room Illustrator/musician Jim Franklin celebrates his 82nd birthday with a free gathering at Empire Control Room. He’ll perform with Armadillo Groove Engine after a documentary showing. Donations will support Jim Franklin and the Austin Museum of Popular Culture (AusPop) for the expenses it accrued for the event.…
Music Notes
A Motown Christmas Friday 19, Geraldine’s For years, Austin-based R&B singer Tje Austin has hosted a “Motown Christmas” event in which he and several musical guests perform a variety of classic Christmastime tracks. This go-around’s a bit different because he’ll also perform his new, Christmas-themed EP Seasonal D. The four-track release contains original music; “Everything…
The Top 10 Austin Albums of 2025
I fell back in love with Austin music in 2025. Our city has been rife with talented performers since long before I came around, but it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the embarrassment of riches – and by everything else going on these days. These records – anticipated follow-ups, big-time debuts, new outfit premieres –…
Robert Earl Keen Presents Christmas for Jokers
Robert Earl Keen didn’t even set out to write a Christmas song. He certainly didn’t set out to create a Christmas show. Still, the country singer-songwriter has never been one to pass up an opportunity to have fun. For 15 years, that’s exactly what Keen’s Christmas show has meant to him. “We aren’t there to…
Duke Ellington’s Nutcracker Takes the Benefit Stage
Tiered skirts in confectionary colors, an austere classical soundtrack, and predictably old-fashioned roles are the sugar plum visions that the Nutcracker conjures – but not at this performance. Caitlin Elledge, artistic director of Capital Contemporary Ballet and co-founder of the fledgling nonprofit ATX Artists for Social Impact, has imagined a different variation on the dance.…
Arts + Culture
Top 10 Lessons I Learned From Austinites While on the Culture Beat
If you’re looking for a crash course in Austin’s music, art, and culture scene, I suggest writing a biweekly column on the subject – it sure worked for me. In between sets at five-band shows and in the lobbies of museums and galleries, I’ve been jotting down notes, learning from the city and the creative…
The Top 10 Shows of (Mostly) 2025
1) Ground Floor Theatre’s Falsettos Technically a 2024 show, but it happened right after last year’s Top 10s issue, and it sure deserves a spot at the top. This show earned the unique honor of making me fall in love with musicals again. I thought I’d moved on, but this score, this talent, this sheer…
A Tale of Two Tunas
Howdy y’all. I’m Cat McCarrey, and I’m a Tuna virgin. My lack of experience with the fictional “third smallest town in Texas” could be generational or regional. Either way, the four-play sagas of that tiny town, written in the Eighties and Nineties by Jaston Williams, Joe Sears, and Ed Howard, were complete unknowns until my…
Screens
The Austin Chronicle’s Top 10 Movies of 2025
The Austin Chronicle’s Top 10 list, listed alphabetically, is the combined effort of Chronicle film critics Kimberley Jones and Richard Whittaker and film critic emeritus Marjorie Baumgarten, who was this week named the Austin Film Critics Association’s first Member Emeritus. Avatar: Fire and Ash Blue Moon Frankenstein It Was Just an Accident Marty Supreme Nouvelle…
AFS Cinema Invites You Home for the Holidays
The category of holiday film stretches around this time of year to fit basically any kino sufficiently comforting or wintry, if comfort’s in short supply. Such is the thread running through this year’s selections for AFS Cinema’s Home for the Holidays series – an annual tradition where Austin’s foremost indie cinema programs screenings to get you…
The Secret Agent Review: A Pulp Fiction With Political Resonance
The title of writer-director Kleber Mendonça Filho’s last film was Pictures of Ghosts, and his latest, The Secret Agent, opens with pictures of ghosts, too, of a sort. They are black & white photos of a bygone Brazil, pictures of 1970s-era merrymaking – drinking, singing, dancing. You’d never imagine these photos were taken in the…
Avatar: Fire and Ash Review: Bigger, Hotter, Wetter, Longer
It’s a running joke in certain more arch circles of cinema that no one can remember the name of the hero of the Avatar films. It’s Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), but that never really mattered, since James Cameron was never really that interested in having some singular figure save the day. He’s talked about these…
Food
The Top 10 Dishes From Austin Restaurants in 2025
Another year, another long list of new restaurants and food trucks hoping to make a name for themselves in our very opinionated city. Luckily for me as a food critic, 2025 provided Austin diners with plenty of exciting twists on classics, international items that were previously hard to find around here, and playful bites that…
Rocco’s Hopes to Become a Neighborhood Staple
These days, it feels like every new restaurant wants to become a destination-worthy venue. Appealing to social media users and out-of-town tourists is an easy-to-understand priority when you consider today’s rent prices and operational costs in general, but there’s something refreshing and brave about a restaurant that wants to serve its own neighborhood above all…
Columns
The Luv Doc: Season of Sadness
Dear Luv Doc, My boyfriend and I have been together since college (three years). When I met him, I was crazy about him. He was attractive, funny, he had ambitions, our values aligned. Over the last few years, I have come to realize that the compatibility I thought I saw in him was something that…
Day Trips: Top 10 Events in the World of Daytrippin’
Texas had a big year punctuated by devastating floods and crowned with new parks. Here are 10 highlights from all over the state. 1,785th in a series. Everywhere is a day trip from somewhere. Follow “Day Trips & Beyond,” a travel blog, at austinchronicle.com/day-trips.
Feedback: December 19, 2025
Going Steady Dear Editor, My late brother-in-law was a Vietnam vet and suffered from PTSD. My sister would attend various group functions without him and mention that he wasn’t attending because the PTSD made him nervous and uncomfortable in groups. I mentioned this to my buddies and their universal reaction was something like, “Wow! What a great way…
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Actress Cheryl Hines (wife of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.) broke out in hives after meeting Donald Trump. One way to stay cooler at night: Put some socks in the fridge and wear them to bed because cooling your feet can lower your body’s temperature. “Fly tipping” is British slang for illegally dumping rubbish. The term…
The Top 10 Moments of Austin FC’s First Five Years
As jarring as the fact may be, Austin FC completed its fifth season of Major League Soccer this fall, meaning it has officially outlived Breaking Bad, Friday Night Lights, and Vine. In celebration of that milestone, let’s reflect back on the top 10 most significant moments – both the good and the bad – in…
Top 10 Queer Places to Put Your Money
’Tis the season for top 10 lists, but ya boy here has looked at this year’s queer news bulletin and, um, well. It’s not a lot of “fun” or “uplifting” stuff to fill out the ol’ listicle format. Instead, I thought I might drop 10 local queer places to put whatever extra holiday bucks you…
Fun + Games
Free Will Astrology
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): According to legend, the genius composer Mozart heard entire symphonies in his imagination before he wrote down any notes. That’s a slight exaggeration. The full truth is that he often worked hard and made revisions. His inspiration was enhanced by effort and craft. However, it’s also true that Mozart wrote at…
