Cover Story
Arrested Development?
Young-at-heart Austin is home to a booming Young Adult literature scene
Anatomy of a Gay Bashing, Part 2
More of the story of the Christmas night gay bashing
Anatomy of a Gay Bashing, Part 1
The story of the Christmas night gay bashing
‘Austin Chronicle’ Cover 12/31
Auld Lang Syne
Frasier Named New Police Monitor
The former sheriff will start work on Jan. 18
Splitters! Part Two
More divisiveness amongst the Republicans
Wednesday Rewind
Jimmie Vaughan brings ‘Just a Little Bit’ to Conan
Meditations
A meander through the holidays and DADT
Newsgeist: 12/29/10
The spirit of the news
2011: Bring It On
Celebrities dish up their New Year’s resolutions
What’s a Master of Discovery?
Q&A guide to the challenge in House District 48
Bedside Manner: The Cheat
Sometimes the best books are the ones you don’t read
Alone in a Crowd
Why do people not act in the face of violence?
Popular People’s Front of Texas
Empower Texans redefines ‘conservative’ to exclude conservatives
Newsgeist: 12/27/10
The spirit of the news
Um…
“Finishing” off your year with Shake Weight
UT Basketball on a Major Roll
Defeat Spartans and Tarheels in the same week
Former Yogurt Shop Suspect Killed by APD (Updated)
Maurice Pierce killed in officer-involved shooting
Texas Platters
Michelle Anthony Tornadoes (Merctwyn) Is there a singer-songwriter in Austin more under-the-radar than Michelle Anthony? The Milwaukee transplant’s third disc, Tornadoes, is her first in four years due to motherhood – times two – and the development of HELLP syndrome, a life-threatening illness she fought after her first child’s birth. Time and trauma have served…
The Fresh and the Cured
Two local charcuterie wizards surf the old wave
Res Publica
Citizens’ calendar, Dec. 23-30
Manmadhan Ambu
This Tamil-language romantic comedy was filmed entirely in Europe and on a cruise ship.
The Sky’s the Limit
County buys AMOA block for a new “hundred-year” courthouse
Texas Platters
Zein Al-Jundi Sharrafouni (WMDP) Sri Kirtan Live Your Love (Mantralogy) The gorgeous Arabic folk-pop of local singer/entrepreneur Zein Al-Jundi’s latest disc Sharrafouni comes at an auspicious time. Al-Jundi grew up in Syria, a singing sensation from age 5 until she retired at 17 to pursue her education. Coming to the U.S. in 1982, she earned…
Last-Minute Culinary Stocking Stuffer Ideas – for Both Pre- and Post-Holiday Shopping!
In case you’re still trying to shop for that foodie on your list
A Bumper-to-Bumper Crop of MoPac Proposals
Not everyone’s happy with this cornucopia
Tees Maar Khan
A master thief executes a most creative heist in this Bollywood action comedy.
Austin Museum of Art
The museum is losing a block but may be gaining a leg up on a new facility
Texas Platters
John Mills Times Ten Caffeine Dreams (Fable) The Jon Blondell Quintet Alive! at the Elephant Room (Fable) Two longtime journeymen of the Austin jazz scene step forward on this pair of releases from local Fable Records. It’s significant that reedman/composer/arranger John Mills, currently with UT’s jazz studies department and a veteran of countless local bands,…
Gay Place
The Gay Place tells you what they want, what they really really want.
Zilker Holiday Tree 5K
Justify all those holiday calories by signing up for the Zilker Holiday Tree 5K
Charles Pasco
Remembering the Texas State University educator and playwright for children
Texas Platters
Reverend K.M. Williams When I Rise (Dialtone) Gospel and the blues have long had a contextually fractious but musically compatible relationship. That truism is personified by the Rev. Kelvin Mark Williams, whose message rises up from the pulpit of his Dallas/Fort Worth Holiness Church ministry yet comes delivered in the raw, primal, intense blues historically…
Day Trips
Take a ride in the slow lane at the Country Place Hotel in Fayetteville
APD Detective Disputes ‘Chronicle’ Story
Officer remembers different version of arrest of deaf-blind man
D Berman Gallery
After 10 years in Austin, David Berman’s art gallery is moving to Wimberley
Texas Platters
The Roller Wasted Heritage (Cyclopean) Eons of doom and sludge fossilizing in the Roller’s eponymous 2007 debut harden like Mother Earth on Wasted Heritage. Four-song full-length in a vinyl gatefold, the local metal quartet’s second LP crisscrosses its wall shakers. At two songs per side, the opener of both slows to a crawl, building Sabbath-like…
Arts Review
Well-executed entertainment that still left the writer pining for more art
Soccer Watch
Inter Milan wins FIFA Club World Cup, and more
Urban Tejano
Tortilla Factory pulls down a Grammy nomination as Best Tejano Band as the almost four-decade-old local institution gets ready to reinvent the genre
Arts Review
These photos put a face on undocumented students without putting faces on them
‘Tis the Season To Demolish Holly
Unanswered questions cast a shadow over bidding process for Holly plant demolition
After A Fashion
From Bô to Fo’ in one fashion show
Texas Platters
The Authors Get Haunted (WRKR) The debut full-length from this Austin foursome starts off promising enough. Opener “Timebomb” has single written all over it, but the rest of Get Haunted never catches up. There’s a wealth of dance-punk ideas and influences, but no real theme tying it together, besides 1980s worship. “Feels Like Running” evokes…
Arts Review
Local landmarks rendered in meticulous, miniature, gray bursts of information
Animal Shelter’s Next Top Dog?
A brief look at the five candidates
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
After 20 years of trying to make it a business, fuel ethanol from corn can only be sustained through $6 billion of taxes a year. They have coyotes in Chicago. The cost of making an iPhone – about $179 – is credited to China, even though the China assembly process is only about $6.50 per…
Texas Platters
A robust 2010 for Austin vinyl 7-inches caps its year with The New 45 (Sugar Hill), from Wimberley-gone-college wunderkind Sarah Jarosz. Still and lovely, acoustic-lined meditation “My Muse,” which she performed live throughout the year, graces the A-side while Bill Withers cover “Grandma’s Hands” clasps fiddle and mandolin in the palm of the singer’s ace…
Off the Record
Decking the halls with Kickstarter, a new holiday sampler, and Michael Nesmith’s Videoranch
Football Watch
Muschamp gone, Texans and Cowboys continue slides, and more
Texas Platters
Bill Hicks The Essential Collection (Ryko) Within the cult of Hicks, it’s hard to say what’s “essential” from the Texas comic. Consider this collection an after-dinner mint to this year’s excellent documentary American: The Bill Hicks Story. Two CDs feature material from well-known albums that aren’t hard to find, but the selections are top-notch. Hearing…
Horror for the Holidays
Dusk to dawn with Silent Night, Deadly Night
No, Really. I Can’t Quit You.
State tries to block gay divorce
The Hightower Report
Victory for Truth in Labeling; and Tea Partying Like Old Pros
Texas Platters
For his second LP, local songwriter Aaron Calhoun subsumes his identity into Insects of the Underground. The moniker and comic-book cover art suggest sci-fi punk, but Mind Matter takes its cues from the mellow art-rock travelogues of Al Stewart and Alan Parsons. Calhoun’s songs fixate on themes of isolation and alienation, but his expressive voice,…
Backing ‘Black’
The Austin Film Critics Association announces 2010 awards
Spencer To Head Neighborhood Housing and Community Development
Last week, City Manager Marc Ott appointed Betsy Spencer to head the city’s Neighborhood Housing and Community Development Office. The move comes at a time when the city’s ambitious affordable and supportive housing policies are coming under closer scrutiny. Spencer has served as acting director of NHCD since June, when she took over from Margaret…
Texas Platters
Toni Price Cherry Sunday Orchestra (CSO) Cherry Sunday Orchestra? “Cherry Sunday String Band” is more like it. Following up 2007’s Talk Memphis, Toni Price moves away from the previous disc’s titular Southern soul and R&B and skews past the all-roots Texana of Born To Be Blue (’03) by enhancing her traditionally acoustic musical backing with…
Texas Platters
The Derailers Live! From Texas (Varèse Sarabande) The Derailers hit a rough spot after co-founder/co-frontman Tony Villanueva left. The results: multiple lineup changes and a noticeable lack of direction. This live disc, recorded at both Dan’s Silverleaf in Denton and Gruene Hall, proves the veteran locals still move a dance floor by marrying Buck Owens…
30 Things
A personals inventory
Neil Still Gunning for Howard’s Seat
Dan Neil files petition with Texas House
Texas Platters
Eric Johnson Up Close (EMI/Vortexan Music) “It was somewhat of the beginning of an awakening for me on this project,” writes Eric Johnson in the liner notes to Up Close, explaining, with some hesitation, why a mere five years has passed since his last venture, 2005’s Bloom. “Start to let go a bit and see…
Texas Platters
Cory Morrow Brand New Me (Apex Nashville) The title of the Red Dirt titan’s latest refers to the fact that after his 2005 drug bust, he’s now sober and happily married. Producer Lloyd Maines gives the disc an inviting sheen, and while some will find Morrow’s new message uplifting, he’s still dealing in country rock…
What Are You Looking At?
The year in pop-culture fixations
On the Lege: Census Could Cause Senseless Redistricting
The GOP will be in charge of drawing new congressional districts. Terrific.
Texas Platters
Megafauna Larger Than Human Megafauna’s debut sits at the intersection of 1970s rock and 1990s noise, idling in the land of ice and snow and burnt rubber. Larger Than Human seats a wild ride of whiplash tempo changes and dizzying rhythms by the local trio, from the menacing thump of opener “Hug From a Robot”…
Texas Platters
Kevin Fowler Best of … So Far More a singles act than an album maker, Fowler collects 16 fan favorites and two previously unavailable tunes for the only LP of his you’ll ever need. Redneck anthem “Beer, Bait and Ammo,” sly double entendre “Don’t Touch My Willie,” the new, hard-charging “Beer Season,” and truck commercial…
Point Austin: The Cloudy Crystal Ball
If you’re wondering what the new Lege will do, look to its predecessors
Third Party’s the Charm?
Patrick forms Tea Party Caucus of Texas
Texas Platters
The Bright Light Social Hour Those rolling echoes across Austin throughout 2010 came from the townies, all those musicians who grew up in the glow of the live music capital of the world. Spotlight on The Bright Light Social Hour, an eponymous debut from a local quartet that did its homework as a college art-rock…
TV Eye: Square Peg in a Globe-Sized Hole
Decoding the Golden Globe noms
City Hall Hustle: Gather Round Yon Virgins
Council lopes toward Christmas in thermal underwear
True Grit
Rooster Cogburn rides again in this Coen brothers’ remake of the Western classic.
Texas Platters
Marmalakes Wonder Winds For all its youthful restlessness and exuberance, Marmalakes’ debut EP carries a developed eye for detail and ear for nuance. A welcome injection of vigor to the folk-pop fold, the local trio keeps the pace light and lively behind ganged harmonies, with winding lyricism flickering through scenes like Polaroid flashes. Opener “(A…
Food-o-File
Three restaurants open as 2010 draws to a close
Headlines
� City Council’s on ice until Jan. 13, after a not-so-silent night last week debating the controversial Spicewood Springs shaft site for Water Treatment Plant No. 4. See “City Hall Hustle.” � On Wednesday, City Manager Marc Ott announced that Abigail Smith, executive director of the Tompkins County SPCA in Ithaca, N.Y., is the “top…
Little Fockers
Surely we’re not the only ones Fockered out as this franchise aims for low-brow smut in its third outing.
Texas Platters
Oh No Oh My People Problems (Koenig) Four years between LPs can be a lifetime in today’s indie cycle. Since launching behind the twee-twinged pop of their eponymous 2006 debut, Oh No Oh My has teased out a couple EPs, but their proper follow-up exposes some of the dangers of letting an album gestate too…
Event Menu
Keep your holidays festive with farm-fresh ingredients and feasts
Naked City
News briefs from Austin, the region, and beyond
The King’s Speech
Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, and Helena Bonham Carter act up a royal storm in this movie about King George VI of Great Britain overcoming his speech impediment.
Luv Doc Recommends: Armadillo Christmas Bazaar
There are probably a few money shots left to be fired in your annual orgy of excess. Sure, the economy is deep in the shitter and the red Chinese have us by the shorthairs, but that isn’t conclusive evidence that you need to rein in your consumerism. Who knows? America may only be a few…
