Cover Story

From Ravitch to the Ritz: SXSWedu highlights

March 3 12:30pm: “Making the Most of SXSWedu”: Ron Reed and SXSWedu coordinator (and Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list honoree) Greg Rosenbaum walk first-timers and veterans through the conference lineup. Austin Convention Center Ballroom D. 1:30pm: “Reign of Error: The Danger of Privatizing Schools”: Diane Ravitch, America’s leading researcher on educational policy and the danger…

by Chronicle Staff

Mr. Smarty Pants Knows

Ed Asner collects shells. Nouadhibou, Mauritania, is one of the largest ship graveyards in the world. One reason is that starting in the Eighties, the country nationalized its fishing industry and its harbor officers took bribes to let outdated ships be discarded there. If you take Alaska and subtract Texas, the amount left over is…

by Mr. Smarty Pants

The Luv Doc: How Close is Too Close?

Dear Luv Doc, There is a guy who just transferred into my office from another division and he has no sense of personal space. When he talks to me in the hall or if (God forbid) he is sitting by me in a meeting, his face is so close to mine I can feel his…

by Chronicle Staff

Headlines

› In his final “State of the City” address Tuesday, Mayor Lee Leffingwell joked about his post-2014 future, declared that Austin is in a “golden era,” and warned that if we don’t get serious about mass transit – specifically a November vote for urban rail – that we will endanger the city’s economy and quality…

by Chronicle Staff

3 Days to Kill

Kevin Costner stars in this snappy but contrived mix of international espionage and paternal redemption.

by Steve Davis

8 Mile

Kydd Jones Sat., March 15, Blackheart, TBA Eight years ago, when LNS Crew leader Kydd Jones was 17 and just beginning to rap, he and a few friends stepped inside Mohawk to find a venue full of white people. “Culture shock,” he remembers, but the white-out allowed him to change course. “That night I was…

by Chase Hoffberger

8 Mile

OBN III’s Fri., March 14, Hotel Vegas Patio, 8:25pm “He was popping off a bit. Then I was in the crowd at one point, and he was being too forceful with me.” Orville Bateman Neeley III sits in the kitchen of the East Austin house he shares with two others, including Flesh Lights guitarist Max…

by Tim Stegall

8 Mile

Zorch Tue., March 11, North Door, 11pm Consider how just two musicians summon the sonic tornado of joyous electro-madness that is Zorch. Face-to-face, Zac Traeger and Sam Chown take their places and power up. Speckled by roving lasers, illustrative of the Austin duo’s future psych, they come to life in a robo-blitz of jaw-dropping dexterity,…

by Kevin Curtin

8 Mile

Black Books Tues., March 11, Dirty Dog Bar, 8pm You could make the argument that Black Books has existed, in some form, for decades. “I’ve known Kevin, Meg, and Mike since the fourth grade,” says singer/drummer Ross Gilfillan, “Kevin and I met playing Town and Country baseball. He got a guitar, and Meg saw us…

by Luke Winkie

The Texas Film Awards Class of 2014

With Luke Wilson acting as the master of ceremonies, the 14th annual Texas Film Awards slate runs from last girls to Presley pals to one of the Chronicle’s own. Billy Bob Thornton will deliver the Rising Star Award to native Austinite Amber Heard, a local favorite through her genre roles in last year’s Machete Kills…

by Richard Whittaker

8 Mile

The Black and White Years Wed., March 12, Parish Underground, 10pm Nashville transplants the Black and White Years have scored at SXSW. While playing unofficial parties in 2007, the quartet was singled out from the crush by Talking Heads guitarist Jerry Harrison, who then produced their debut. Two years later, the band cleaned up at…

by Abby Johnston

8 Mile

Starlings, TN Tuesday, March 11, Valhalla, 9:30pm After nearly 15 years in varying degrees of bandom, Starlings, TN finally made a true band album with last fall’s All the Good Times. While bandleader/songwriter Steven Stubblefield’s metaphysical Southern folk-bluegrass atmospherics remain intact, crackling jolts of rockabilly, punk, and blues bear the tell-tale imprimatur of group work.…

by Greg Beets

Edu’s Ron Reed: ‘Moving the Needle’

“I’m pretty fond of calling myself a community organizer, rather than an event planner,” said SXSWedu conference Executive Producer Ron Reed. But who is the SXSWedu community? In January, Reed’s staff performed a pre-conference survey of registrants. Of the respondents, around 60% were female; 66% were under the age of 44; and 70% have graduate…

by Richard Whittaker

8 Mile

The Mastersons Thu., March 13, Velveeta Room, 10pm Some six years ago, Eleanor Whitmore from Denton and Chris Masterson from Houston decided to try out living in New York. After five years, the married couple realized they were almost never home and it was costing them a fortune to keep a place in the city,…

by Jim Caligiuri

8 Mile

The Well Wed., March 12, Red 7, 7:30pm Austin’s metal scene represents nationally behind the Sword and Scorpion Child, both signed to renowned labels and subsequently road warriors, but psychedelic doom trio the Well will soon follow its friends into the national spotlight. Guitarist Ian Graham, bassist Lisa Alley, and drummer Jason Sullivan convened in…

by Michael Toland

Quote of the Week

“Rail – or fail.” – Mayor Lee Leffingwell in his “State of the City” address, exhorting Austinites to support an anticipated November vote on an initial urban rail investment.

by Chronicle Staff

The Winners

First Place: “In the Room” Raul Garza is an Austin-based writer who has drawn acclaim for telling stories that resound with authenticity and sense of place. His full-length play Fantasmaville garnered the National Latino Playwriting Award, and he earned a B. Iden Payne Award nomination for Outstanding Original Script. When not writing plays, Raul teaches…

by Chronicle Staff

Civics 101

Thursday 27 AUSTIN ENERGY GENERATION PLAN STAKEHOLDER MEETING 1-3pm. Austin Energy, 721 Barton Springs Rd. Free. www.austinenergy.com/go/genplan. CAPITALISM AND THE ENVIRON­MENT Alternative Radio founder David Barsamian discusses his latest series of interviews with Noam Chomsky. 7pm. MonkeyWrench Books, 110 E. North Loop. 2014 TEXAS LAND CONSERVATION CONFERENCE Sessions highlight water policy, endangered species, and conservation…

by Chronicle Staff

The Judges

Bill Cotter was born in Dallas in 1964. His fiction and essays have appeared in McSweeney’s Quarterly, The Paris Review, the 2014 Pushcart Prize anthology, and elsewhere. He lives in Austin with the storyteller and poet Annie La Ganga. Mo Daviau holds an MFA in fiction writing from the University of Michigan, where her novel,…

by Chronicle Staff

‘Chronicle’ Endorsements

Here are the Chronicle editorial board’s endorsements for the March 4 party primaries. Travis County Races County Judge: Sarah Eckhardt Eckhardt’s greatest strength is that she has been knee-deep in county work for many years, first as an assistant county attorney, and then for six years as Pct. 2 Commissioner, working on all kinds of…

by Chronicle Staff

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