Cover Story
Where’s Your Evidence?
Advances in forensic science have made physical evidence increasingly crucial in criminal justice – but the practice of preserving and maintaining that evidence is often underfunded, poorly managed, or just plain sloppy
Strama Leaving House
Updated: Mayoral rumors swirl as successors line up
Texans March for Immigration Reform
Friday’s rally will challenge the Legislature’s silence
The Terror: Flaming Lips at SXSW
Auditorium Shores’ gratis mega-bills hit a new high
‘The NFL Beat’: Combine Cliff Notes
Getting caught up on the 2013 NFL draft season
SXSW Comedy Announces Preliminary Lineup
Fred Armisen, Sarah Silverman, UCB, WTF, Bang Bang, and so on and so on
‘High Noon’ Hits Just as Hard After Dark
UT’s RTF Community Screenings leads off with iconic Western
Do Women Rule The Austin Comedy Scene?
Kat Ramzinski suggests that, yeah, they sure as hell do
Newark Mayor (and Stealth Superhero?) Cory Booker Booked for SXSW
Social-media savvy mayor to speak at Interactive
Lars Nilsen Steps Back From Full-Time Alamo Duties
Longtime programmer will stay on as adviser and Weird Wednesday host
Legeland on TV
Sunday on KXAN, Monday on Fox 7
Buy a Burrito on Feb. 21 to Support Austin’s Urban Roots
Chipotle Mexican Grill partners with farm project for second year
Barrientos Declines to Run
Retired Austin state senator says he’ll support Eckhardt
The International Modern Quilt Guild: The First QuiltCon in Austin
And these aren’t, as the saying goes, your grandmother’s quilts
Restore Rundberg Kicks Off Revitalization Campaign
The APD continues to target the declining neighborhood
The AggreGAYtor: February 20
Your daily dose of LGBTQIA news
A Pedicab Food Tour Kicks Off With GUSTO
A roving multi-course meal hits the streets of Austin
Family Law Attorneys Say Keller Is Innocent
Veteran practitioners support Fran Keller’s bid for freedom
Wine Down for a Cause at Cru
Non-profit that empowers women to find jobs is event beneficiary
Majority of Texas Voters Favor State-Funded Family Planning
And disapprove of 2011 fam-plan budget cuts
Le Bistrette Bistro Open at ACC
On-campus restaurant serves lunch one day a week during semester
SXSW: Black Lips
A band you should probably know by now
‘Because It’s Austin! Why Wouldn’t I?’
Bill Maher at the Moody Theater
Bikes, Beer, Bars, and Partnership
FrankenBike kicks off pop-up events at Lucy’s Retired Surfer Bar
Michael Sieben Illustrates a New Edition of ‘The Wizard of Oz’
Austin’s inkstained Okay Mountain man drops da Baum on us
I Sh!t You Not: ‘America’s Most Wanted’
Dennis from the White Horse on how he made it on ‘America’s Most Wanted’
Chinese New Year in Austin: A Sort of Parallax View
Leng Wong and Cindy Soo tell it like it is
Youngbloods Pretty Little Demons at SXSW
Not old enough to drink, but veteran enough to showcase
Joshua Jay Tells You How They Died Their Tragic Deaths
Magicians, their assistants, audience members: Killed onstage
The Q&A Hole: Superhero Movie Redux
I knew that ol’ Lazarus pit would come in handy one of these days …
‘Face Off’ Recap: Double the Work, Half the Pay-Off
Giant successes and monstrous mistakes this week on SyFy’s FX show
The Super Geek Bowl in Austin
Geeks Who Drink take trivia to a whole new level
Bill of the Week: Just Say No
Bill would keep Planned Parenthood out of sex ed
Kansas Gives Texas Lesson In Humiliation
Jayhawks beat down hapless Horns 73-47 in ESPN featured game
American Meat
Throwing conventions aside and bringing the farmer back to the table
From the Vaults: LaGravenese Gravitations
Richard LaGravenese enters the YA fray with ‘Beautiful Creatures’
Beyoncé’s HBO Doc
Real insight or PR from a pop princess?
City And Streets Closed for Presidents Day
Livestrong Marathon diversions this weekend
Pardo and Carrillo Guilty of Heroin Trafficking
After three days of testimony, a verdict
Tweethearts
Top 5 Austin band Twitter feeds
Askinosie in Austin
Chocolate maker comes to share his sweet love of the art and people
Farmers Market Report: February 16-17
A short report
After a Fashion
Your Style Avatar devours bytes, bites, and trinkets
Reckless & Romantic
Two bands joined at the lips – Sabrina Ellis
Council: Valentine’s Day Expenses
Budget discussion, Little Woodrow’s, Austin Energy, and more
Seeking XLB
In search of the mystical soup dumpling
Record Reviews
Bobby Jealousy The Importance of Being Jealous (Superpop Records) A Giant Dog Bone (Tic Tac Totally Records) A tale of two LPs for Sabrina Ellis and her alarmingly outrageous pipes, which flex, jive, and wail for more than an hour this week on two releases from a couple of Austin’s most entertaining gutter balls. The…
Point Austin: Doing What We Can
Public Safety Commission takes a stand against gun violence
Xiao Long Bau Recipe
The term “soup dumplings” refers to soup contained within dumplings (rather than dumplings in a bowl of soup.) These are a favorite dim sum of Shanghai, as eating each dumpling produces an explosion of rich broth. Traditionally, the congealed broth used in the filling was made by boiling-down pigskin in water for two days until…
Exhibitionism: ‘They Never Die They Just Go to Sleep One Day’
Scott Eastwood’s exhibit juxtaposes life and death, offering a noteworthy glimpse into memorials of the future
LegeLines
School finance, evolution, secession, and more
Misery Loves Company
‘Mortified’ turns teenage writing into performance
Exhibitionism: Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune
Not much happens in Terrence McNally’s play, but in staging it, FrogDog Productions makes a very fine debut
Jovita’s Trial Begins
The government seeks to demystify the alleged heroin-trafficking operation
Food-o-File
Who’s open, who’s closed, and who’s re-emerging transformed
Oops!
In last week’s “Then There’s This” column on unfair wage issues related to the construction of a new Downtown JW Marriott hotel, the last name of the Workers Defense Project’s Gregorio Casar was misspelled. The Chronicle regrets the error.
Man Who Functions at Third-Grade Level Sentenced to Die
Carl Blue was accused of dousing his ex-girlfriend in gasoline and setting her on fire; she died of her injuries
Food Events
� Texas Humane Heroes Chili Cook-off Chili cooks and chili lovers alike are invited to attend this fundraiser for Texas Humane Heroes. Registration fee for teams/individual contestants is $30 in advance or on the day of the event. CJ’s Catering will provide chili for all paying guests, who will also get to taste samples of…
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
In 1979, the Australian band Air Supply got its first real international recognition thanks to the release of Life Support, described as a concept album with extraterrestrial overtones. Afghanis spend twice their country’s domestic revenue ($3.9 billion) on paying bribes. The phrase “lunatic fringe” was coined by Theodore Roosevelt in 1913; he was commenting on…
The Hightower Report: Who’s Feeding the Bush Puppy?
George P. Bush is considering a (well-financed) run for land commissioner
Texas Platters
What Made Milwaukee Famous You Can’t Fall Off the Floor As evidenced by the last five years, What Made Milwaukee Famous isn’t afraid to make us wait, often with little live play in between. Following the locals’ pair of full-lengths for Seattle indie label Barsuk, 2008’s What Doesn’t Kill Us being the most recent, Michael…
Music News: The Pros & Cons of Hitchhiking
C3 Presents acquires Emo’s
Then There’s This: Who Should Control Austin Energy?
A fast-tracked proposal poses radical changes for city-owned utility
Texas Platters
Terry Allen Bottom of the World His first album in 14 years, Bottom of the World picks up right where Terry Allen left off. He’s been busy with multimedia installations, but each side of his Panhandle-fed artistry, be it visual, musical, or theatrical, feeds another. Bottom of the World opens with a reimagining of the…
All Over Creation: Mozart Was an Austinite
The spirit of innovation that drove the composer lives on in our city
Civics 101
Friday 15 THE ASSAULT ON HUMAN RIGHTS conference has workshops on marriage equality, immigration rights, workers’ rights, mass incarceration, and gender-based discrimination. 7:30pm. St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, 14311 Wells Port Dr. $10 suggested donation. www.staopen.org. Saturday 16 10-1 COMMISSION The League of Women Voters of Austin shows you how to apply to serve on the…
Texas Platters
RTB2 2 Denton’s Ryan Thomas Becker stirs many pots, but RTB2, his long-running duo with drummer Grady Don Sandlin, results in the most satisfying stew. The pair’s second full-length and fifth overall, 2 motors on two things: the musicians’ telepathic interplay and Becker’s songwriting excellence. The twosome burns on ass-kicking rockers “Wire to the Walls”…
America, With Tentacles
Speculative fiction writer Robert Jackson Bennett travels back to the future
Headlines
� Federal District Judge Lee Yeakel on Tuesday denied an attempt to unseal internal police department documents related to the May 2011 police killing of Byron Carter, ruling that the documents should remain confidential unless a civil rights suit filed in the aftermath of the shooting death goes to trial in July. � At its…
Texas Platters
Dustin Welch Tijuana Bible (Super Rooster) It’s taken Dustin Welch nearly four years to release the second installment of his proposed debut trilogy. He spent that time shaping the songs on Tijuana Bible into something distinct, yet with a tendency towards themes and sounds similar to those on his bow Whisky Priest. The songs aren’t…
The Pain of Change at the Springs
Debate centers on a paved parking lot and pathway to the pool’s south side
The Luv Doc: Tattoos Are Pretty Cool
LuvDoc, My 18-year-old son wants to get a tattoo. I am against it because I think he is too young. He says he is old enough to do it without my permission, but I have told him that I will stop supporting him financially (school, car insurance, etc.) if he does. I don’t want to…
Texas Platters
Townes Van Zandt Sunshine Boy (Omnivore) Unlike other musical icons who left us too soon, there’s been only a trickle of releases from the Townes Van Zandt estate since the Fort Worth-born singer-songwriter passed away on Jan. 1, 1997. Sunshine Boy, subtitled The Unheard Studio Sessions & Demos 1971–1972, rectifies the situation somewhat, not that…
Hanging TEA Fire at Eastside High
After the IDEA deal cancellation, AISD has until this summer to come up with a new plan for Eastside Memorial
Beautiful Creatures
She’s a witch, he’s a mortal, and they both read Charles Bukowski: Some teens will never make it to heaven.
Texas Platters
Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble Texas Flood Legacy Edition (Epic/Legacy) Shocking. Thirty years ago feels almost ancient now, prehistoric. Like it might as well be the 1930s, when Delta blues inventors Charley Patton and Robert Johnson still walked the earth. And yet, 1983 not only stirred up those ghosts with Stevie Ray Vaughan &…
Quote of the Week
“The American people don’t expect government to solve every problem. … But they do expect us to put the nation’s interests before party.” – President Barack Obama, in his State of the Union address Tuesday night
A Good Day to Die Hard
Bruce Willis’ John McClane is like Wile E. Coyote – always in the wrong place when things blow up but always persevering.
Home’s a Brewin’
First Gold LEED-certified brewery in the world is an Austin brewpub
Soccer Watch
Aztex announce 2013 roster, and more
Safe Haven
Director Lasse Hallström can’t find the pulse in this Nicholas Sparks sudser starring Julianne Hough and Josh Duhamel.
Searching for Cynthia Ann
Glenn Frankel’s new book untangles the true story behind ‘The Searchers’
Restaurant Review
A hidden gem in the North Loop area
Day Trips
Music venue offers intimate concert experience
Special 26
This Bollywood heist movie was inspired by real events that took place in Mumbai in 1987.
Modern Tales as Old as Time
New AFS series travels back to the seat of civilization
Exhibitionism: Design for Living
Keen direction and outstanding performances bring us into Noël Coward’s Thirties dandyism
Not Your Average Freshman
El Paso Rep. Mary Gonzalez is no Tea Partier
Chasing Ice
Time-lapse photography of various glaciers melting over the years provides undeniable evidence that they are disappearing faster than ever before.
Fusing a Parable With the Personal
Q&A with Susan Youssef, director of ‘Habibi Rasak Kharban’
Gay Place: Picture This!
Don’t let anyone tell you how (or whom) to love this Valentine’s
