Cover Story
Beyond Imitation or Flattery, Tribute Bands Make New Live Memories
Ty Hurless has been playing Tom Petty in the Damn Torpedoes for 15 years. A natural brunette, he wore his hair short for much of his original musical career. Now, though, it sits just above shoulder length, dyed a gentle golden blond. The look suits him, his graying stubble and laugh-lined cheeks. As a person,…
News
The Week’s Biggest News in Brief
City to Cut Over $5 Million in Social Services: Following Prop Q’s unsuccessful vote, Austin is set to make major cuts to social services throughout the city. A city memo that was secured by the Austin American-Statesman shows where City Manager T.C. Broadnax and other city leaders have decided to decrease funding. The memo shows…
Get Prepped for Winter Weather
It’s another La Niña year, which means Texans are having a warmer and drier winter than normal. But warmer temperatures don’t necessarily mean that we’ll get through the season without seeing a winter weather storm or power outages in Austin. “It’s actually looking like a fairly warm Christmas here, but typically in this area of…
Legal Kiosk Opens in Travis County Courthouse
Back in the early days of the COVID pandemic, the courthouses closed. Court hearings were suddenly being held over Zoom, a service plenty of people still didn’t know how to use, if they even had a computer. “They didn’t know how to unmute themselves, or how to scan evidence in,” said Karen Miller, executive director…
D.A. Dismisses Case Against Man Falsely Accused of Rape
The Travis County District Attorney’s Office has dismissed the case of yet another person that judges say was wrongfully convicted of a major crime in Austin in the early 2000s. Marshall Moreno was found guilty of sexual assault and indecency with a child in 2003, after his daughter accused him of raping her two years…
Council and Firefighters Agree to New Contract
The city of Austin and its firefighters signed a new labor contract on Thursday, Dec. 18. The four-year, $63 million agreement approved by City Council and the Austin Firefighters Association increases pay, guarantees a minimum of four firefighters on every truck sent to an emergency, and establishes a new shift schedule that provides more downtime…
Arts + Culture
Flipping Through Austin’s Music Scene
Pinning down the buzzing, cross-pollinating music scene of this here Live Music Capital is like trying to catch a cloud and pin it down, or trying to hold a moonbeam in your hand. Austin’s Music Scene: Your Guide to the City’s Most Iconic Artists & Venues does it anyway via good ol’ fashioned blurbs, crafted…
Screens
Marty Supreme Review: Historic NYC Takes a Paddling
Hollywood loves a punchable face. From Terry-Thomas to Justin Long, every generation has that one actor who deserved a comeuppance. That’s not a bad thing – they excel as guy in over his depth who the audience relishes watching dig a deeper hole for himself. With Marty Supreme, that title may have been handed over…
No Other Choice Review: In the Clutches of Capitalism
Director Park Chan-wook’s newest feature, No Other Choice, starts with a scene of sublime middle-class success. Breadwinner Yoo Man-su (Squid Game’s Lee Byung-hun) grills eel given to him by his longtime employer Solar Paper, where he works in a factory among many other veteran laborers. His wife Lee Mi-ri (Son Ye-jin, who previously starred in…
Song Sung Blue Review: Shining Like a Diamond
Every musician plays a part, a stage persona that they throw on like James Brown’s cloak, but some of them are reviving a role someone else created. We’re not talking about pale imitators, like all the glam metalers who tried to be Axl Rose and Madonna wannabes that clogged up the Eighties charts. These are…
Food
New Year, New Dining Offers
With the holiday season winding down, it can be nice to start the new year without leftovers and dishes waiting in the washer. We’ve rounded up some restaurants with deals and perfect eats to enrich your palate entering the new year. Uchi, Uchibā, and Uchiko uchi.uchirestaurants.com Former Longhorn and celebrated Austin chef Tyson Cole’s Uchi…
Columns
What To Do During the Weird Time
So, we’ve reached the week or so between holidays where nothing counts. From Dec. 26 onward to the 31st, all bets are off and whatever bad habit you’ve staved off all year is allowed respite because, like. Who cares? 2025 is about to become a memory and a pretty bad one at that. Let yourself…
The Luv Doc: Expurgatory Catharsis
Officially this issue is supposed to be dated for December 26, which is known as Boxing Day in the UK and other British Commonwealth countries. If you felt a quick surge of adrenaline at the thought of pasty-skinned pugilists whaling on each other à la Brad Pitt’s bare-knuckle pikey fisticuffs match in Snatch, you would…
Feedback: December 26, 2025
Bless Your Heart Dear Editor, In the December 19th, 2025, edition was printed a letter from Lindie Gibson [“Not Jazzed About Jasmine,” Feedback]. All I can say in response is, Honey, your racism is showing. Even your tone sounds like a Southern belle. Your time has passed. Go, Jasmine, I celebrate your individuality and your…
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
At age 38, Toni Basil wore her original high school cheerleader outfit in the 1982 music video of “Mickey.” Kayak is spelled qayaq if you’re honoring Canadian English spelling that reflects the hunting vessel hearkening to Inuits. If you see pinkish slime in your bathtub, especially on the grout or around taps, it could be…
Day Trips: Fisherman’s Memorials
Fisherman’s memorials in three Texas coastal communities honor the commercial sailors who put seafood on our tables. Harvesting the bounty of the Gulf of Mexico is a dangerous job. According to the Texas Department of Insurance, watermen are 28 times more likely to die on the job than the average worker. El Cristo de los…
High Expectations
I’m not convinced that anyone is going into 2026 with high expectations (pun intended). Let’s be honest with ourselves; the Roman calendar doesn’t really set us up for success when it comes to New Year’s resolutions. Starting a new fitness regime is challenging in the middle of winter, and even Texas is not immune to…
Fun + Games
Free Will Astrology
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): A newly planted orchard spends its first year growing roots, not fruit. Underground and unseen, the real work happens. I surmise that’s like what you will be doing in the coming months, Capricorn: mostly invisible stabilization and preparation. If anyone asks you what you’re producing, smile inscrutably and say, “Depth.” Be…
