Cover Story
Rap Trio Third Root’s Trill Pedagogy
Ultra-enlightened hip-hop crew set to school the Austin Music Awards
“Don’t Be a Dick” Mural Covered Up by Ads, in Textbook Dick Move
Temporary OkCupid ads festoon Native Hostel wall
New Wearable Tech Offers Peace of Mind for People With Limited Mobility
Unaliwear’s new watch brings emergency response to the 21st century
CodeNEXT Fun With Levers and Indicators
Planning Commission learn how priorities affect mapping
SXSW List Lucky No. 7
Metz, Princess Nokia, Nikki Lane, Tennis, and 108 others
Inttelligent
Telugu double identity drama
Levitation Grids Announced
Psych fest’s return comes into full focus
Wes Anderson Brings Isle of Dogs to SXSW
Plus Midnighters bring the gore, and Alita party
Starman
Starman 1984, PG, 115 min. Directed by John Carpenter, Starring Jeff Bridges, Karen Allen, Charles Martin Smith. Sci-fi/romance hybrid earned Jeff Bridges an Oscar nomination as an alien who comes to earth and takes the corporeal form of a recently deceased Wisconsinite.
The Best Places to Play Board Games in Austin
Find a good tabletop to throw down and throw dice with friends
Soundtrack of the Austin Music Awards
Explore this year’s lineup with our hand-picked playlist.
Abbott to Crack Down on Sexual Assault, Human Trafficking
Texas Rangers to have purview over investigations
AFS to Honor P.T. Anderson, Armie Hammer
Legendary director and rising actor take inaugural awards
Loafer’s Renaissance Default
Trio’s smoke-filled vision of a millennial da Vinci
David Simon Turns on ATX Television
The Wire creator confirmed, plus Queen Sugar team
DVDanger: Victor Crowley
Adam Green and Kane Hodder head back to the swamp
Council: Because We’re Happy!
Council dances, hires, and lives the Life Aquatic
Students Say Register to Vote
Student films to remind you the deadline is today
Threadgill’s Upstairs Store for Rent
Owners seek contributors to “cultural petri dish”
No Headline
Some days the Netflix-and-chill recipe for romance just doesn’t cut it. Valentine’s is one of those days. For the romantically inclined, here are some resources to help make it a day (and night) to remember. Find a place for an intimate meal, some sex toys to spice up the afterparty, or perhaps a place to…
Why Valentine’s Day Sucks
At least, the actual date of it – historically speaking
Austin Animation Studio Releases Interactive Storybook
Mighty Coconut unveils augmented reality app 57° North
Austin’s Adult Store and Sex Shop Roundup
Get naughty locally
Weekend Wine
Would you like a simple bottle of Pinot with dinner?
At the Intersection of Fashion and Justice
Creators of Saturday’s workshop on how fashion fights inequality
Five Recommended Arts Events This Weekend
Fear not, citizen! We’ll shield you against that mofo of a FOMO!
Five Films to See in Austin This Week
Your weekly film guide for Feb. 2 through Feb. 8
Show Some Love for Emancipet
Fundraising kits offer treats for a Valentine’s Sit Stay Day at home
Where Did Valentine’s Day Come From?
The beginning was, as for most of us, totally erotic
Living Among Us
Bloodless vampire found footage should stay in the shadows
The Insult
Lebanon’s internecine crises as courtroom drama
Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool
Annette Bening soars in the last days of starlet Gloria Grahame
Texas Platters
The New Wave of British Heavy Metal deserves a locally designated acronym thanks to Ignitor. On sixth LP since 2004, teas’n, pleas’n Dangerous Toys frontman Jason McMaster (Broken Teeth, Watchtower) leads this five-headed Valkyrie as if King Diamond resided in Dallas. Priest (“To Brave the War”), shades of early Def Leppard (“Heavy Is the Head…
Is Your Water Running … Pink?
Dye study confirms Onion Creek as aquifer recharge source
Texas Platters
First album in four years, Mammoth Grinder’s fourth LP overall succeeds its two predecessors for Philly metal fortress Relapse with deathcore gusto. Drum source behind thrash regenerators Power Trip, Houston-reared local Chris Ulsh leads Iron Reaganites Mark Bronzino and Ryan Parrish in an all-out graveyard assault, “Blazing Burst” and “Molotov” both exploding at a sprint.…
Florence of Comfort House Mugged
Ponziano punched, loses glasses in bus-ride heist
The Luv Doc: Rejection
An effusively positive affirmation of your undeniable awesomeness
Texas Platters
Third LP from local indie rock darlings Good Field signals a marked evolution. Paul Price’s languid vocal swoons contrast his aggressive guitar, the chiming outset of “Necessary Feeling” and “Ordinary People” spinning into psych-infused breakdowns. Spoon’s Jim Eno and White Denim’s James Petralli both aid in production, and serve as guideposts for the tension between…
Ann Kitchen 1, Precourt Sports Ventures Nil
Updating the score in the quest for the Columbus Crew
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Saddam Hussein wrote a romance novel called Zabiba and the King. It has bad reviews on Amazon. Some veterinarians say it’s not uncommon for horses to stand continuously for as long as a month or more. IBM is studying ways to monitor health and living conditions of elderly people, to assist caregivers and loved ones.…
Texas Platters
Fresh off the homegrown James Arthur’s Manhunt, Virginia-bred multi-instrumentalist Sean Morales’ solo debut prioritizes the right feel over high definition. The album’s rough veneer is indicative of its single-occupancy origins, but Morales’ rich songcraft and compelling arrangements exude a warm human scale that never veers into obscurity for its own sake. Leading with a cover…
CodeNEXT: Outlook Bleak
Land use commissioners stumble into Feb. 12 final draft
Seen / Soon: Feb. 2
Hearing a stately Passion from Arvo Pärt sung by Ensemble VIII and reading a Texas take on Moby Dick from Austin author Elizabeth Crook
Texas Platters
Luna Negra and the Daughter of the Sun inhabits two worlds: one recalling the poetic transparency and country simplicity of Emmylou Harris, and another that settles south of the border with chest-heaving boleros and romantic Latin ballads. 2011 debut Beautiful Mistake came steeped in the losses of her lover and mother, but the sophomore album…
Now Streaming in Austin: Becoming Jessica Nigri
Rooster Teeth’s new cosplay documentary, Becoming Jessica Nigri
Snapshot: Austin’s Large-Scale Public Art
Exploring the big ideas behind big art installations
Texas Platters
Local chamber music experimentalists, Montopolis here bends Americana into a meditative celebration of the massive granite pluton batholith that resides north of Fredericksburg. Headed by Justin Sherburn (Okkervil River), “Run” notes warm flannels and glorious Southwestern early mornings in an interplay of strings and country twang. The bandleader swings drum machine rumbles early into the…
SXSW Film Goes to A Quiet Place
Over 100 films and 43 world premieres fill a noisy nine days
Texas Platters
After recording Whippersnapper in his family’s Brooklyn basement studio, Devan Mulvaney’s solo capture took on an entirely new life. In a devastating turn, his parents and sister perished in a car crash in upstate New York, Mulvaney having opted to stay home and mix the album. The dream-pop collection melds the bright, kicky instrumentals of…
Austin Spotlight Film Festival Shines on Locals
Monthly fest for underdogs and up-and-comers
Texas Platters
When Gary P. Nunn wrote “London Homesick Blues” on his first trip to Europe with Michael Martin Murphey in 1973, the songwriter inadvertently endowed Austin with a theme song that catalyzed the city’s music scene and introduced its aesthetic to the world as the opening music to more than four decades of Austin City Limits.…
Quote of the Week: Ryan Robinson
Let the City Demographer tell you about how Austin’s popular
Playback: Listening Outside the Lines
Kevin Curtin spends four days on the fringes
Headlines
Formal City Council meetings resume in earnest today, Thursday, Feb. 1, featuring a 126-Item agenda that includes official appointment of a new city manager (Spencer Cronk at $325,000+ a year), more arguments over the Champion tracts, and the return of the Aquatic Master Plan. See “Council: Back to the Dais,” Feb. 2. Negotiation Station: Austin…
In Pease Park, Patrick Dougherty Constructs a Wooden Wonder
The environmental artist sticks the landing
GenEnCo’s 893 | Ya-ku-za
This suspenseful two-hander serves up tension in its silences as much as its words
Public Notice: Groundhog Day … Again
CodeNEXT: Haven’t we been through this before?
Whose Affordability Crisis?
Looking through the prism’s lens
Far Flung Correspondence: Tropical Restaurant
Nothing embodies Nigerian food quite like jollof rice
Austin Opera’s Ariadne auf Naxos
Dude ranch antics make this reimagining of Strauss too busy, but when the music takes center stage, it’s gorgeous
Point Austin: If You Build It, They Will Come
Arguments over infrastructure reflect community visions
It Takes a Village to Eat Safely With Food Allergies
Local restaurants adapt to the growing number of Americans with food allergies
First Concert: Hartt Stearns
Jethro Tull’s Thick as a Brick tour? Yasss.
“James Surls: Man on Edge” at Flatbed
The prints by this renowned Texas artist are like portals to other worlds, revealing rapturous visions and terrifying cosmic disturbances
Gay Place
Love Jones brings queer black romance to the stage
Day Trips: O. Henry’s Bridge, San Antonio
Iron bridge spans the San Antonio River and 138 years of literary history
Council: Back to the Dais
Short month, long agendas
Oops!
In Jan. 19’s “Day Trips,” the Chronicle erroneously reported that Balcones Distilling produces “the first Texas-made whiskey since Prohibition.” In fact, Hye’s Garrison Brothers Distillery owns that distinction, and the trademark “Texas’ First and Oldest Legal Whiskey Distillery.” We regret the error. The caption in last week’s lead art to the News section incorrectly identified…
Soccer Watch
“Soccer Watch” will return next week, with previews of the U.S. Soccer Federation presidential election Saturday, Feb. 10 (with candidate Hope Solo making waves), and of the European and CONCACAF Champions League knockout rounds starting that week and the next. Meanwhile, see “Ann Kitchen 1, Precourt Sports Ventures Nil,” Feb. 2, for the latest local…
Substantive Proposals
Police oversight, left and right
Texas Platters
Beats ‘n’ bleats from Aaron Behrens and Jonas Wilson take undeniable shape on the locals’ sophomore full-length as the Midnight Stroll. Rudimentary rhythm tracks and overdubbed guitar lighting up first LP Heartbreak Bugaloo in 2016 proved as effectively moody and melancholic as a Queen demo. Western Static cements the band’s amorphous identity: Ghostland Observatory singer…
Going Off the Gridiron
Avoiding the Super Bowl
Canvassing the City for ECHO’s Point in Time Count
Nina Hernandez takes to the 4am streets for annual survey
Texas Platters
Metallizing Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon resulted in sold-out pressings and a one-off concert last August at Emo’s that landed three-quarters of Austin’s the Sword on the recent Austin Music Awards ballot for best cover band. The show’s encore – “Have a Cigar,” “Pigs (Three Different Ones),” and “Wish You Were Here”…
Voter Deadline Looms
Potential registrants have until Feb. 5
Judge Temporarily Strikes Down Fetal Burial Rule
Ezra says law will likely show “undue burden” on women
Zaragoza Resigns From Planning Commission
Todd Shaw tapped as replacement
Abbott to Trump: Pay Us Money We Lost for Excluding Planned Parenthood
Texas guv sends a “pretty please” to the president
