Cover Story
Seizing the Day
Alvin Rangel’s future may be uncertain, but for now he’s making great dance
Marvel Vs. DC Comics: Who Clobbered Whom?
The Dionysium’s comics debate did not turn out as predicted
‘The NFL Beat’: It’s Playoff Time
Get your lineups set for tonight’s game
Oh, Why NOT be Onstage in the New Year?
That is, if you think you have the chops
Peace Sells…
Megadeth’s entry in the album-as-box-set sweepstakes
Fuller Versus IDEA
Charter school group attacks academic’s work, he rebuts
Thomas and Dentmon Lead Toros to 2-1 Start
The first in a weekly series of Toros reports
Oh, the Humanities
Author mingling at Humanities TX annual Holiday Book Fair
One Manly Bedpost
The saucy ladies of Bedposts let the boys run amok
South Austin Silent Night
Christmas albums local and otherwise.
A Dense Discussion
Downtown density debate to unfold on dais tomorrow
What Amazon Will – But Mostly Won’t – Do For You
Need a few reasons to shop local? BookPeople’s got ’em
F1: It’s On
Circuit of the Americas confirmed for 2012 Grand Prix season
Freddie King and the Faces/Small Faces Burst into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
Freddie King & the Faces/Small Faces make the Hall of Fame
F1 Back On? ‘Looking Good’
Sources close to track say race will be on 2012 calendar
‘Hellion’ Headed to Sundance
New Kat Candler short to world-premiere in January
Mayoral Maneuvers: Shea Names Campaign Treasurer
Challenge looks likely; Phone polls start; and a fluoride candidate
‘Redemption’ for Point and Click
GameSalad merging graphic novel with puzzle play
SXSW Music 2012: Now With More Names!
400 more music acts announced for SXSW 2012
A-Paul-ling!
Our beloved Soileau makes his (and her and her) mark on Chicago
‘Local’ Filmmaker Spotlights Farms
Christian Remde looks at local farms and restos
Tuesday News Gay: Dec. 6
Queerty editor teams up with Gay Place for new weekly feature
For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow
Kirk Lynn earns a $50K fellowship from United States Artists
Crafty & Cool? That’s a Good Thing
Austin designer Allison Hoffman meets Martha
Sundance to Screen New Zellner Bros. Film
“Kid-Thing” world premieres in January
Parks Smoking Ban, More Up Thursday
No ifs, ands, or (37,000) butts: One smokin’ council agenda
PAGE 2 SCREEN with RICK MOODY
Join us Tuesday 12/6 for Austin Bat Cave’s literary series Page 2 Screen
Mail Art With Dandy: The Results Show Part 2
Dandy and friends art in your face, and you like it
Music Mo’nday: Dec. 5
A new weekly feature that clues you in to what’s playing at the Gay Place
AISD Releases Facility Recommendations
Superintendent will ask for two charters, more
Wilco Part Two: Standing O
Wilco, night two at the Moody, reviewed
The Purrr-fect Gift
With shelters swelling, slashed pet adoption fees
Austin Toros Season Preview
Undefeated Toros begin home schedule
CARTRIGHT at The Mohawk, Saturday 12/3
Brittany’s concert pick for this weekend!
Eastside Principal Out
Coburn quits on eve of charter recommendation
Texas Platters
Super Secret Records’ long and loyal run of local vinyl continues unabated on a second 7-inch by Ichi Ni San Shi. Named for a Kraftwerk uptick, Bill Jeffery’s Casio keyboard caper unwinds Krautrock as a lithe fivepiece aiding the frontman’s non-Auto-Tuned good humor (“Here Sometime Today”). The Boxing Lesson punches up four songs on two…
Doggett, Travis Returned to Normalcy
New congressional map gives Travis a three-way split, which is a lot better than five
Civics 101
This week’s opportunities for public engagement
Santa, Baby
Gift Guide: Interchanging ideals in the Three Colors trilogy
Texas Platters
Final Exam This 10-track eponymous debut from young locals Final Exam kicks with a nostalgic, indie guitar-driven sound that evokes 1990s Sub Pop, accentuated by the nasal clip of Taft Mashburn’s vocals and aggressive cacophony that nonetheless reigns effectively on “5 6 7 8 9 10” and “In the Future.” Added shades of Superchunk and…
Carstarphen’s Black Box
Carstarphen’s approach to planning leaves plans unrevealed
Headlines
� City Council keeps chilling, with no meeting scheduled this week. They return soon, with meetings on Dec. 8 and 15 to close out the year. If that’s left you desperate for wonking, you could do worse than tonight’s meeting of the Charter Revision Committee (Thursday, Dec. 1, 6pm, Carver Branch Library, 1161 Angelina), expected…
Santa, Baby
Gift Guide: Coffeetable Saul Bass
Texas Platters
Oh Look Out Alright Alright Alright Alright Alright JP Pfertner chronicled his 8-bit Devo fascinations with local quartet Built by Snow, and the self-recorded Casio calamities that mark his debut in Oh Look Out play on the same Nintendo levels, only as lo-fi variations. Lullaby-ish “Short Waves” shakes a cavalcade of bleeps, but as on…
‘More Inclusive’ at the Exclusion of Teachers?
AISD staff wonder if there’s union busting afoot
City Hall Hustle: … Held an Election, and Nobody Came?
Cole’s announcement for re-election dwindles the field again
Santa, Baby
Gift Guide: On Tintin, that intrigue-chasing young reporter
Texas Platters
Marmalakes Even Clothed Marmalakes’ 2010 EP, Wonder Winds, proved an impressive debut behind the local trio’s intricate exuberance, and their seven-song sophomore follows suit. The EP careens through “The Adventures of Jubilant John in Giggle City” and unhinges on “Colour of Defeat,” but underlying charm and classical guitar tones prevail on the jumping “Geneva Hall,”…
Day Trips
The Ezekiel Airship flew into Texas mythology even if it didn’t reach the record books
Point Austin: Storm Surge
Finger-pointing follows lost fed funds for Weatherization Assistance Program
Santa, Baby
Gift Guide: Coffee-table Steve McQueen
Texas Platters
This One’s for Him: A Tribute to Guy Clark (Icehouse Music) Tributes either enhance all involved or fail miserably. There’s rarely a middle ground. This 2-CD set honors the dean of Texas songwriters’ turning 70 by having contemporaries (Jerry Jeff, Willie), protégés (Steve Earle, Rodney Crowell, Lyle Lovett), and other Americana types (Kevin Welch, James…
F1 Friction = Squealing Brakes
Will there be an F1 race in Austin? Not in the short term.
Quote of the Week
Council Member Cole takes a feminist swing at the gentleman’s agreement
Santa, Baby
Gift Guide: Concrete-jungle dicks of Barney Miller
Texas Platters
Jean Synodinos Girls, Good & Otherwise (Fortunate) For women, every day is a tightrope walk of actions both micro and macro in scale, the mundane mingling gloriously with the transcendent. This delicious tension is at the root of local singer-songwriter Jean Synodinos’ third album, Girls, Good & Otherwise. Take “Five Things To Do Today” as…
A Possible Tip for Tips in Murder Case
Did you know Mark Alan Norwood in the late Eighties?
Soccer Watch
Houston’s Brian Ching selected in the MLS expansion draft, and more
Texas Platters
The Lonesome Heroes Daydream Western An institution of Austin’s psych-country scene since forming in 2006, the Lonesome Heroes are only now releasing their debut LP, but then primary duo Rich Russell and Landry McMeans have always been more experiential than archival. The three years since sophomore EP Crooked Highway have been spent in characteristic road-work…
Pease Out
New year will mean limited park use for commercial fitness groups
All Over Creation: Occupied World Seat
The doors to the theatre don’t keep the world out, and that can be a good thing
Arts Review
Even fading lights couldn’t dim the glow of Austin Playhouse’s lovely staging
Texas Platters
Whiskey Shivers Batholith Whiskey Shivers resembles a real-life version of O Brother Where Art Thou? – reckless, on the run, and playing for its collective supper. The local hillbillies’ raucous rendering of old-time bluegrass packs a wicked sense of humor, a trait that landed the controversial video for standout single “Gimme All Your Lovin” on…
Open House Meeting for Town Lake Park Master Plan
The first in a series of public meetings
Toros 2011-12 Home Openers
Austin opens season with fun promotions
Arts Review
In the subgenre of family reunion plays, this new entry struggles to compete
After a Fashion
Your Style Avatar expounds on little ranches and dandies
The Hightower Report
Gingrich, the gift that keeps on giving
Be Merry
Eat Drink Local Week comes of age
Restaurant Review
The maestro of fried catfish returns to East Austin
The Common Law
Eight-Foot Privacy Fence – Can I Build It?
Politics Gift Guide
For the person who has everything but still could use another thing
Pastorela
In this Mexican comedy, a man who plays the devil in the town’s nativity play is miffed when the new pastor recasts the role.
Gay Place: Remember
World AIDS Day is way more than a red ribbon
Restaurant Review
Get your goat fix
Book Review
Gift Guide: Coffeetable Saul Bass
Politics Gift Guide
Austin Subway Map $20; 18 inches by 24 inches; printed on bright-white, FSC-certified, 10% post-consumer recycled, 100-pound paper. Austin Chronicle: Out of curiosity: Why Austin? Transit Authority Figures: This project started a few years ago as an absurdist fantasy with our focus on locales that would never have a subway system (i.e., Cape Cod, the…
The Women on the 6th Floor
This light comedy from France is pure bourgeois fantasy, but it’s a genial fantasy nevertheless.
One, Two, Tres, Cuatro: I Love Rock & Roll
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame needs to stay home
Restaurant Review
Being in the dog house isn’t so bad after all
Book Review
Gift Guide: Coffee-table Steve McQueen
Politics Gift Guide
Molly on Fun T-Shirt “We have to have fun while trying to stave off the forces of darkness because we hardly ever win, so it’s the only fun we get to have.” – Molly Ivins, The Nation, Nov. 17, 2003 If there’s a writer, a reader, a feminist, or an Austinite on your list –…
The Yellow Sea
Screened during Fantastic Fest, this is a fast-paced crime drama from South Korea.
Ten Fingers
Denny Freeman’s 40-year Austin arc
Wine of the Week: It’s Bubble Time!
Bubbles, bubbles everywhere, and lots of drops to drink
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Barnyardy, Yardbirds, Snow White, and more
Politics Gift Guide
I Heart Pants T-Shirt Are you gnashing your teeth over how to talk to your teenager about sexuality and safe sex? Worry no more! The answer is simple: Don’t talk to them at all. Simply buy a $12 I Heart Pants T-shirt from the folks at Austin LifeGuard – the abstinence-only education arm of Austin…
Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey
We’re tickled silly by this documentary.
Record Review
The Cobras Live & Deadly (Armadillo Records) Consider Live & Deadly a snapshot of the moment in Austin music: It’s November 1979; the decade is turning. Here’s the mighty Cobras, the band of mostly-Dallas refugees that picked up old-school blues in Austin in the early 1970s and set the standard followed by the Fabulous Thunderbirds…
Food-o-File
A tasteful remembrance of an Austin original
Oops!
Due to an editing error “One Day at a Time,” News, Nov. 25, erroneously stated that the Capital Area Food Bank of Texas pantry on East St. Johns Avenue is a block from Webb Middle School. The pantry is across the street from Webb Middle School.
Politics Gift Guide
Austin Humane Society 2012 Alumni Calendar The folks at the Austin Humane Society have operated as a no-kill shelter finding forever families for dogs and cats since 1952, and each year they produce a calendar featuring shelter “alumni” as a fundraiser for the shelter. Each calendar is a gift that gives life to countless animals…
Desi Boyz
Two young Indian men in London battle the recession by pole-dancing in this Bollywood film.
The Xtreme Solution
APD squad cars will now have ‘no-idle’ battery packs sufficient to run new video hardware – but did city officials fall for a system too expensive and impractical?
Food Events
Fusebox all these Digestible Feats together and find some mucho Gusto Tastings
Julie Speed
It is, it is a glorious thing to be a Pirate Queen!
Politics Gift Guide
A Henry Rollins Book Reco The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery by Eric Foner (448 pp., W.W. Norton & Company, $29.95) Here’s something you may not know about Henry Rollins: Aside from being a Grammy-winning and self-described aging punk icon, the former Black Flag frontman is also an Abraham Lincoln obsessive, with at…
Letters at 3AM: Flash Mob Dance Revolution: Part 3
Investment, invention, and labor: the three pillars of commerce
Texas Platters
Cruddy Negative World (12XU) “There’s nothing left – there’s nothing,” rants guitarist Drew Schmitz in closer “History’s Remains,” with a compelling mix of horror, intrigue, and disgust. Cruddy, a local trio featuring members of Total Abuse and Serious Tracers, thrives in this nihilistic realm. Following a 7-inch and Casual Victim Pile II contribution, the band’s…
Digestible Feats
Fusebox Festival’s culinary arts series pours a double shot of seasonal sauce
Politics Gift Guide
Wish List: An Independent Redistricting Commission Every 10 years, Texas goes through the trauma of political redistricting. On a good year, that means lawmakers come to a pleasant agreement about how every incumbent can keep their jobs without a general election fight. In a bad year – and they seem to be more regular –…
Luv Doc Recommends: Fleetwood Mac Hoot Night
Like Joe Paterno jokes, Christmas is just … too soon. Yeah, yeah, broken record. Every year the schmaltz piles thicker and thicker. Maybe if it was somehow discovered that Santa was a child molester … wait a minute, that story is a broken record too. Santa has probably been busted for child molestation countless times.…
