To Have and to Eat
A Chronicle food writer says goodbye to Austin
DVDanger: 12 Rounds 3: Lockdown
Can the WWE make an action star out of Dean Ambrose?
Searching for a King
Debating leadership in the wake of the Tamir Rice decision
Locals Named to Imbibe 75 List
Texas trio cited for innovation
Haskell Wexler and Taking a Stand
Editor Louis Black on the creative visionary
Texas Supreme Court Makes Abortion Access for Neglected Teens Even More Difficult
Texas Court adds more rules to judicial bypass law
Few Details Emerge From APD Suspension
Officer failed to report his involvement in two incidents
Fill a Bowl for Stickland
State rep’s stoner past comes out in primary
Top 10 Most Read Stories of 2015
Sex sells, and so does stupidity and guns
Ambiguous Oracle: Company’s New Austin Campus Displaces Longtime Residents
Legal group calls Oracle plan “a slap in the face” to low-income renters
Mad Max: Fury Road Tops Austin Film Critics Association Awards
Full list of winners, plus who made the best Austin film?
Antone’s Reopening on New Year’s Eve
Zydeco heir C.J. Chenier breaks in the stage
From the Vault: “The Guilt of Frank Sinatra”
As ASO toasts Sinatra in concert, we revisit a Michael Ventura classic
News Roundup: Storms, Season’s Greetings, and Open Carry
Reminder: Open carry law takes effect Jan. 1
House District 49 Update
Hinojosa campaign fast out of gate for Dem primary
Daddy’s Home
Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg vie for the love of their shared family
Joy
Jennifer Lawrence rises above family dysfunction in this comic biopic
Carol
Everything about this Fifties lesbian romance is sublime
The Hateful Eight
Tarantino’s latest opus screens in 70mm this week at two Austin venues
The Big Short
The financial meltdown of 2008 is treated with terrific comic spin
Concussion
Will Smith is the doctor who pioneered research into NFL head injuries
Seasonal Cinema
Forget Die Hard, here’s some holiday deep cuts
Texas Platters
On fourth LP Happy Forever, long-running local noise-rock collective Coma in Algiers keeps the first half of that genre designation as prominent as the second. The sextet joyously slams dissonant chords together, kicking rhythms around and filtering voices through gradations of distortion. Then CiA drafts the skronk and discomfort into actual songs, built from off-kilter…
Soccer Watch
While most of the soccer world is in midwinter break, the English Premier League forges ahead with the traditional full slate of games on Boxing Day, Saturday, Dec. 26, with all 10 being shown live across NBC and its networks, from 6:45am through until about 3:45pm. Barcelona further cemented their position as the best team…
Collaborations of Love and Pain
Creative couple Ericka Marsalis-LaManna and Ray LaManna slay their demons
Texas Platters
Ronnie Wood’s slashing guitar, Rod Stewart’s joyful vocal lust, and Ian McLagan’s descending Rhodes line herald the iconic “Stay With Me,” the Faces’ only hit and still a classic rock radio staple nearly 35 years after its original release. There’s more to the story of England’s greatest bar band. Containing the band’s four studio LPs,…
Kitchen Scales
The cost of Austin fine dining
J. Scott Brownlee’s Requiem for Used Ignition Cap
J. Scott Brownlee’s first full-length poetry collection brings him back to Llano, powerfully
Headlines
Happy Holidays! City Council held its last meeting of the year Dec. 17, and isn’t scheduled to meet again until Jan. 28 – when the lingering controversies over short-term rentals and transportation network companies return, along with plenty of other leftover business. See “Council’s Christmas List: Call It Incomplete,” Dec. 22. Rate Shock: Austin Energy…
Juniper
Attention to detail yields small pleasures
The Take-Out
Remembering Congress Restaurant
Point Austin: Getting From Here to There
Will the driver-eat-driver “free market” imposed by billionaire corporations rule the day?
Parade of Holmes
Spend the yuletide at 221-B Baker Street, where the library is stocked with new books about Sherlock
Open Secret
The not-so-hidden pleasures of dine
Choosing Detention Over Death
Refugees come to the U.S. seeking protection, find detention instead
Quote of the Week
“When it comes to inaccurate statements, the Donald was on fire.” – PolitiFact, awarding GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump a cumulative “Lie of the Year” for the 76% of his reviewed statements rated “False,” “Mostly False,” or “Pants on Fire” on the site’s “Truth-O-Meter.”
Luv Doc: Speculation
The facts are merely ornaments that adorn the Luv Doc’s mighty Douglas fir of speculation
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Poinsettias are native to Mexico and Central America. 91% of retirees claim their Social Security benefits on or before full retirement age. According to researcher Cassondra Williams from UC-Irvine, emperor penguins do not have the highest feather density of any bird. The white-throated dipper has plumage that’s six times more dense. The earliest recipe for…
Public Notice: A Week of Peace
One final tidbit for the year
Oops!
In the Dec. 18 News story “‘Tis the Filing Season” current South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham was incorrectly attributed as a former senator.
Austin Airport Keeps Growing
ABIA plans on adding new gates to meet demand
Folk Music Fireball!
Sixty years ago this month and next, Elvis Presley destroyed Austin
Playback: The FAQs of Austin Music 2015
Q: Is Austin still the “live music capital of the world”?
The Hightower Report
Merry Christmas, right-wingers, the Red Pope, and Jesus
Texas Platters
Ted Hawkins spent 30 years perched on a milk crate, singing supernaturally soulful folk on Venice Beach for coins. Months after his major label debut in 1995, he died. Two decades after the fact, this tribute album herds together an Austin-centric collection produced by Shinyribs frontman Kevin Russell, radio promo wiz Jenni Finlay, and author…
Page Two: The Stories We Tell
“If you’ll gather ’round me, children, a story I will tell …” – Woody Guthrie, “Pretty Boy Floyd” Stories are never exactly what they seem. Not the truth … maybe, at best, a truth. History has a way of considering the past that our community, whatever that may be, has come to accept, as a…
Abbott Appoints New Education Commissioner
Education advocates criticized Morath for attempting to quietly privatize Dallas ISD
Texas Platters
Full artist-to-artist tributes have become increasingly rare, but still produce spectacular contemporary results on occasion. Local roots maven Brennen Leigh finds new room for interpretation of Corsicana-born country music icon Lefty Frizzell 40 years after his death. Leading with yearning hit “I Love You a Thousand Ways,” her vocal swoon polishes the twang of fiddle…
Doctuh Mistuh’s Debbie Does Dallas: The Musical
This send-up of the 1978 blue movie serves up the cheese and camp for a load of giddy fun
Council Approves Three Homestead Preservation Districts
Impoverished parts of East, North, and Southeast Austin receive affordable-housing protection
Texas Platters
Austin gets its own taste of Johnny and June in locals Dawn & Hawkes. A lot has changed for the local folk troubadours since debut 2012 EP Golden Heart. The pair enjoyed a two-week run on NBC’s The Voice last year and eloped this October, both major life changes borne out on their first full-length,…
“Alex Diamond: Wette” at Not Gallery
An unlikely combination of violence, action, and watercolor stand out in this solo show
Foster Kids’ Rights Violated
Judge rules Texas’ foster care system unconstitutional
Texas Platters
Doug Moreland’s Bring Back the Swing, the local fiddler’s ninth LP, begins with easy-rolling Western swing. Strings straight from the dance hall, the ever consummate entertainer, songwriter, and host of Sun Radio’s Behind the Lines keeps boots shuffling. Moreland’s hardly trying to reinvent the wheel, but he has enough natural charm and talent to rise…
Day Trips: Chicken Farm Art Center, San Angelo
San Angelo artist colony offers surprising shopping, B&B, and food in West Texas
Workers Defense Welcomes New Executive Director
Jose Garza takes the helm
Texas Platters
First, Austin guitar slinger emeritus Van Wilks n-a-i-l-s Billy Gibbons’ ranchero drawl on 21st Century Blues opener “Strange Girl,” fast broadside to ZZ Top’s “Rough Boy.” Then the Houston trio’s bearded icon himself voices “Drive By Lover,” a post-Eliminator-revving bauble built by the pair of stringbenders who once shared management. Blues polished to digital perfection…
Gay Place: Merry Soxmas
Ebony Stewart holds a sock drive as the holidays are upon us
Holiday TV Cheat Sheet
A multigenerational guide for the family
Texas Platters
The best punk album of the year, Austin or otherwise, wasn’t recorded this year. For that matter, the locals haven’t existed as a band since 2013. From their beginnings nearly 20 years before that, the Chumps distilled a violent collision of the Ramones, New York Dolls, and AC/DC: crunch riffs, pressure-drop rhythms from drummer Aaron…
Hornography
Ahead of the Christmas holiday, University of Texas sports programs got a mixed bag. The young Horns got a candy cane-sweet victory out at the Farm. However, the Lady Horns’ wishes weren’t granted, ending the season with a heart-wrenching loss. Also, who’s coming to Austin in 2016? Taking the Farm The Longhorns traveled out to…
