Cover Story
Five Years of No-Kill in Austin
What has the city learned about animal welfare, and how far does it have to go?
2016’s 10 Biggest Queer Crushes
We’ve got a crush on you and all you do
Travis County Catches a Judicial Break
Feds transfer vacant courthouse to county for probate court
Austin Says Farewell to Carrie Fisher
Goodbyes fit for a princess, senator, general, and writer
Austin Photo Ops
Visiting Austin? You’re going to want to take some pictures.
It’s a Wonderful Lie
Breezy, sneaky Christmas in Connecticut airs Christmas Eve on TCM
DVDanger: I Am Not a Serial Killer
Director Billy O’Brien on adapting the story of a young monster
Sing
Animated film about a koala who stages a singing competition
Passengers
Bound for a distant planet, two persons awake prematurely
Assassin’s Creed
Popular video game series hits the screen
Jackie
A portrait of the First Lady in the aftermath of JFK’s assassination
Why Him?
What if your child brought home James Franco as your new son-in-law?
Lion
An orphan’s search for his birth mother gets an assist from Google Earth
Fences
Denzel Washington scores big in August Wilson’s great American play
Elle
Riveting yet perplexing, this psychological thriller is a stunner
Gay Place
Finding your “family” over the holidays
Texas Platters
A passion project from a pared-down lineup of Brownout and Grupo Fantasma vets, Money Chicha has dished out gritty, effects-laden cumbia since 2012. With their proper debut, and as host of an annual chicha summit, the homegrown six-pack honors a formerly derided brand of Peruvian Sixties psychedelia sharing its name with the region’s saliva-fermented corn…
Local Podcaster Cleared in Spirit Halloween Store Incident
Round Rock PD rescinds criminal trespass warning against Moisés Chiullán
The Luv Doc: Feeding Pigeons
Toddlers have a lot of cartilage, don’t they?
Texas Platters
Frisco-raised alt-R&B vocalist/producer (and UT student) Jessica Bathea’s latest output as Upper Reality captures a polymath deep in discovery mode. “An exploration into inadequacy,” Silver offers courage by aurally illuminating her fears. Topically and tonally similar to like-minded artists Solange, Georgia Anne Muldrow, and SZA, she tackles the existential duality of blackness and womanhood, direct…
Quote of the Week
“Texans deserve to decide where to receive their health care, and for more than 80 years they have counted on Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas for that care.” – Ken Lambrecht, CEO of Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas, in response to the state’s latest attempt to end Planned Parenthood’s Medicaid funding, in violation of federal…
Austin Chefs Share Their Holiday Traditions
Try something completely different this year
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
For about 40 years, David by Michelangelo wore a prim brass wire girdle supporting 28 copper leaves. Leonardo da Vinci liked it. In the Oscar-nominated 1962 movie Knife in the Water, directed by Roman Polanski, Polish actor Leon Niemczyk’s character Andrzej smokes a pipe. His tobacco brand is Prince Albert (in a can). In 2001,…
Texas Platters
Debut release from Twin Bitches singer/songwriter Larry Llodra’s new outfit UVH, Last Fruit blasts off with “PS,” bashing Seventies proto-punk. Clanging chords and a pulse-pounding 4/4 throb achieve the perfect balance of ear-bending melody and garage rock clamor. That scruffy CBGB appearance may be deceiving, however. The rest of the EP skips forward a couple…
Headlines
Last week’s Council meeting (Dec. 15) featured the final approval of the Grove at Shoal Creek PUD, after some tinkering with the affordable housing component and a few other details. There was plenty of additional business, including the next big PUD: Austin Oaks. See “The Grove Gets Final Approval,” Dec. 23. City Council’s final meeting…
Not Very Statesman-like
The daily of record’s release of Jeanne Claire van Ryzin, its only full-time arts critic, isn’t getting good reviews
“Mapped Refraction: Andrea de Leon and Micah Evans”
In this two-person exhibition, a symmetry of haunting forcefulness and colorful zaniness
Texas Platters
Pirouetting around the headspace between despair and jubilation, Dagger’s fourth release unfolds like a spirited black box cabaret production. Multimodal artist Allyson Lipkin’s alter ego spins ragtime and blues-inflected yarns teeming with snark and sentimentality. The Deep Sombreros/Minor Mishap Marching Band saxophonist employs clever wordplay and twisted arrangements to refine her uniquely compelling persona. Luminous…
Steve Adler’s Year in Review
A lot of little victories, if the mayor may say so himself
The Regional Office Is Under Attack!
This adventure tale pulls elements from many corners of pop culture, but Manuel Gonzales’ writing chops make it wholly his own
Texas Platters
The story behind Silas Lowe’s second effort makes the listening even more interesting. Roy Michaels, Lowe’s father, co-founded almost forgotten Sixties New York rock act Cat Mother & the All Night Newsboys, whose debut was produced by Jimi Hendrix. Lowe takes on a half-dozen of his parent’s songs and six of his own as a…
The Hightower Report: Guess Who Joined Trump’s Barking Carnival Act?
What is it about Rick Perry and the Department of Energy?
TV in Trumpland
Quality struggles to take one step forward while culture takes 10 steps back
“I saw the world” at Pump Project
Imperialism and identity compete in Betelhem Makonnen’s solo show about a 19th century Ethiopian prince
Texas Platters
He played the most recent ACL Fest and counts television’s Dr. Phil and vodka king Tito Beveridge as fans, yet Shawn Pander still flies under the radar among the flood of local singer-songwriters. Third album Black & White finds him relying too heavily on heart songs without saying anything fresh, especially compositions titled “Just to…
Point Austin: Changing of the Guard
The mayor and the next City Council will have plenty to do
Day Trips: Buffalo Bayou Park Cistern, Houston
Historic water reservoir becomes one-of-a-kind public space and theatre
Texas Platters
Although he calls it a band, Jonathan Fox performed most of the music on his second disc himself. That he does so without flash or over-indulgence demonstrates a rare talent, one that’s able to work a variety of styles in a manner that’s self-assured and charismatic. Most of Loverlust projects power pop, with spiky guitars…
APD Shuts Down Effort to Reopen Crime Lab
Interim Chief Manley: “We recognize the failure in our lab. We’re taking responsibility, and pushing forward.”
Soccer Watch
If you have enough interest in soccer that you’re reading this column, then you’ve probably seen a pitch to “participate in a survey about bringing Major League Soccer to Austin.” It’s being promoted by various local business groups, and it’s for real: As the survey introduction states, “Major League Soccer has retained Barrett Sports Group…
Texas Platters
Did Vallejo just pull a Use Your Illusion? Simultaneous releases, sí, but Unified and Unificados divide by language, not compositions. Which itself clusters Austin’s Latin rock siblings with the likes of superstar acts such as ABBA and the Beatles, who released some singles in different languages, or perhaps Greek oracle Nana Mouskouri, known for vocalizing…
What’s It Cost the City When a Cop Hits a Cyclist?
After two years of negotiations, injured cyclist receives settlement
Page Two: Bye Bye Social Safety Net
Returning to the discussion of those so disgusted with the Democratic Party and its candidate that they followed their conscience either by choosing a third party candidate or not voting, what is troubling is how they became so hostile. That though driven by progressive politics, they dismissed the consequences of their decision, even though Trump’s…
Texas Platters
Led by Willie Nelson’s son Micah, this Venice Beach, Calif., quintet’s second 2016 release spools forth in multiple stream-of-consciousness tendrils held together by eclectic instrumentation and musical acumen. Nelson’s nimble charango picking and Nikita Sorokin’s effects-sodden strings remain key sonic delineations. While TheyllKillYaa sometimes stretches tangents too far afield, frenetic evolution keeps this seven-song string-band/prog-rock…
Healthy Choices, Healthy Foods
Local nonprofits plant seeds in South Austin
Playback: Biggest Austin Music Stories of 2016
Looking back on the biggest Music news headlines of the year
Texas Platters
Recorded in 2014, this bittersweet EP represents the last musical testament of local punk rock and sartorial legend Davy Jones. The longtime Hickoids guitarist, who died of lung cancer in 2015, was already struggling with the illness when these tracks were cut. While it’s impossible to hear Jones and company reimagine this eclectic six-pack of…
Texas Platters
Welcome to the nihilist’s ball! On full-length debut End Position, Austin’s new extremists dive further into existential shadows than even their unrelenting trio of singles from 2014, putting Eighties industrial into conflict with itself. Composer/sonic reducer Shaun Ringsmuth sets his devil machines on eviscerate with complex, stop-start techno terror rarely heard since early Test Department…
Texas Platters
Robert Earl Keen’s live albums capture the iconic Texas songwriter at his most real, 1996’s No. 2 Live Dinner still his bestseller. In celebration of its 20th anniversary, Keen returned to Floore’s Country Store in Helotes to remake the magic. Aided by an all-star guest cast and 5,000 fans, Live Dinner Reunion surpasses the original.…
Texas Platters
Katie Shore belts like a big band chanteuse and fiddles finer than a phenom. Her first solo album, Fall Away highlights the finer points of both of those skill sets. The Ft. Worth native took time away from her strings and vocal duties with Asleep at the Wheel to cut a collection of ragtime-tinged tunes,…
The Grove Gets Final Approval
With one PUD approved, attention turns to Austin Oaks
Texas Platters
From the vintage rose in the clouds on the cover to the chugging, jangling guitar riffs guiding the album, Austin threepiece Tinnarose throws back to the finer points of the Seventies on My Pleasure Has Returned. The follow-up to 2014’s full-length debut swings psychedelic on “Hello My Son,” vocalist and songwriter Devon McDermott wavering between…
Police Monitor Margo Frasier Retires
What’s next for the office that watches over APD?
Texas Platters
Twenty tells you right in the title what you’re getting into: Twenty minutes of fresh, no-frills Americana. Veteran Greezy Wheels chanteuse Lissa Hattersley synced up with TripTrio in a follow-up to 2009’s How I Spent My Summer Vacation. The five-song EP evades easy classification within the gentle percussion and unassuming guitar breaks in “I Got…
AISD’s Transfer Freeze
Trustees approved the 2017-18 school year list at their Dec. 19 meeting
Texas Platters
Alvin Crow Texas Christmas for You and Me Asleep at the Wheel Lone Star Christmas Night (Bismeaux) The gold standard of Texas country Christmas albums remains Dale Watson’s 2001 disc Christmas Time in Texas. Two new efforts from similarly revered C&W Austinites vie for the same relevancy beyond songs worn threadbare by repeat spins and…
The Americans With Disabilities Act Done Right
How do you defend against frivolous ADA lawsuits? Start a defense project.
Texas Platters
Before Guitar Town in 1986, few outside of the fertile songwriters’ circle led by Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark had heard of Steve Earle. Sixteen albums later, the Schertz-reared troubadour’s debut remains packed with songs illuminating the path to a lengthy and rewarding career. It’s the kind of country tough enough to attract bikers,…
AISD’s Overtime Ailments
School nurses say they feel the working squeeze already
Dear Glutton: Alone for the Holidays
The least sad way to spend Christmas solo
Texas Sends Final Notice to Kick Planned Parenthood Out of Medicaid
Planned Parenthood says: We’ll see you in court
Federal Judge Blocks Fetal Burial Rule … For Now
Anti-choice rule will not go into effect Dec. 19
