Cover Story
This Town
The Go-Go’s Kathy Valentine takes the Zilker Park train back to her Austin upbringing
UT Softball Hosts Texas Classic This Weekend
UT softball got their post-Cat Osterman era started on the right foot racking up four wins in five games on the road. Junior righthander Meagan Denny replaces Osterman as the squad’s ace and is sporting a 2-0 record with one complete game shutout in four appearances. She has an impressive 0.84 ERA, 22 Ks in…
Ross Johnson, Shit Rocker
Keeping it sleazy with Ross Johnson
UT Hockey vs. Austin Roadrunner Mini-Mites to Benefit Make-a-Wish Foundation
It’s the big boys versus the little kids as UT hockey hosts an exhibition matchup vs. the Austin Roadrunners Mini-Mites (ages 4-8) at the Chaparral Ice Center (14200 I-35) Sunday, Feb. 25, 3:30-4:30pm. Expect some big checks into the boards and plenty of fisticuffs as the UT squad looks to rout the kiddies and leave…
Where’s Dan Patrick?
When Sen. Dan Patrick was having his Valentine’s Day photo-op, what was he supposed to be doing?
Naishtat Files Medi-Pot Bill
Naishtat to Lege: Protect Pot Patients
Roaring Fork, Smoldering Fire?
Fire at the the restaurant in the Stephen F. Downtown.
Longhorns Embarrass Pokes in the Drum
Gentlemen, the sad truth is I have very little to say. I’ve thought about it, replayed the foul events of this past Monday night, and all I can come up with is: The second half of “basketball” played by the Oklahoma State University Cowboys was embarrassing, an insult to the game itself. Consider this: At…
Gojira Smash
Shifting into interstellar overdrive with Gojira
Thanks!
Awww shucks, you’re so sweet!
Won’t Somebody Think of the Children?
Skating Rink at Northcross says RG4N’s putting them on ice
Notice Anything Different?
Colbert nailed Austin last night.
Orwell and Bush
Won’t get fooled again?
Dynamo Opens Season in Costa Rica
The Houston Dynamo opens its season on the road this week, at Puntarenas in Costa Rica, in a CONCACAF Champions Cup quarterfinal. It’ll be shown live on Fox Soccer Channel, 1:30pm Wednesday, Feb. 21. The return leg will be played in College Station, Thursday, March 1, 8pm. Tickets at Ticketmaster; www.houstondynamo.com. The European Champions League…
The Cinematic Wisdom of Hank Sr.
The Last Picture Show with your host Hank Williams Sr.
Obama Coming to Austin: Been Here, Done That
Obama is coming! Ohmigod, Obama is coming!
A Supremely Bad Idea
Iraq redux.
The Merck Manual on Lobbying
Big Pharma cares… about Rick Perry’s reelection.
‘NYT’ Weighs In on the ATX
Times on the Austin development explosion
All We Are Saying … Is Give Investment a Chance
When it comes to Iran, which is bigger: the president’s urge to wage war or to service big industry?
Shed a Tear for the Lowly Condo!
More development developments at 7th and Rio Grande
NoDak Officials Urge Feds to Acknowledge Benefits of Hemp
NoDak officials urge Congress to get DEA hip to industrial hemp
Paul Files Legislation to Legalize Hemp Farming
Paul to Congress: Bring back the hemp!
Burning Sensations on V-Day
There’s something burning up at the Austin City Store
Democrats’ Suit Demands State ‘Fix’ Voting Machines
Suit asks that machines be banned if alleged flaw cannot be fixed
Montel to Help With Prescriptions, Determine Your Baby Daddy
Drug companies are the best!
McCracken: The Pwned Becomes the Pwner?
Square footage numbers vindicate McCraken?
Sharks 3D
Sharks 3D 2004, NR, 42 min. Directed by Jean-Jacques Mantello, Narrated by Geoffrey Bateman. This big-screen film seeks to debunk the public perception of sharks as fearsome predators of human flesh. The diversity of the species is highlighted and the spectacular underwater photography also provides images of many other sea creatures. Although geared toward kids,…
Midseason Lonestar Rollergirls Bout: Holy Rollers vs. Rhinestone Cowgirls
Sunday, Feb. 11, proved to be yet another rollicking time of panty-grabbing and hair-pulling at the Texas Roller Derby’s Lonestar Rollergirls’ most recent bout, at the Austin Convention Center. June 23 marks the final date of the 2006-2007 season, when the two front-running teams (out of five) will compete in the Calvello Cup Championship. Catch…
Bats Sweep Two-Game Homestand
After losing his first game back as head coach of the Austin Ice Bats, Brent Hughes responded by leading his squad to back-to-back home victories last weekend at the Chaparral Ice Center. Friday night against the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees Austin went up 3-0 midway through the second and never looked back, winning easily…
City Council Notebook
What’s happening at council this week?
Next: Thomas Friedman Presents ‘World Is Flat’ Defense
Laura Hall answers her own question.
DEA Won’t Waive Registration Requirement for NoDak Farmers
The DEA wants to keep the hemp all to themselves. Selfish bastards.
Australia vs. Obama … Not Really
Why does the anti-Obama crowd suddenly care what foreign politicians have to say?
Slovenian Ambassador to U.S. Running in Austin Marathon
The ambassador of Slovenia to the United States, His Excellency Samuel Zbogar, will lace up his running shoes for the Austin Marathon, Sunday, Feb. 18, as part of a four-city running tour he is doing to raise funds and awareness for the rehabilitation of child victims of landmines and other explosive devices in Southeast Europe.…
Friends From Work
One thousand protesters came out Sunday to demonstrate against TXU’s proposed coal plans. But who was there to back the polluters?
Bang the Drum Slowly
Bang the Drum Slowly 1973, PG, 96 min. Directed by John D. Hancock, Starring Michael Moriarty, Robert De Niro, Vincent Gardenia. This is a guys’ tender sob story about a pro baseball catcher who learns that he has cancer, and how his teammates help to make the season his best ever.
Dixie Chicks Win Grammy
Apparently, slamming George Bush won’t end your career after all.
10 Pounds of Blue Horseshoes in an 8-Pound Game, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Start Loving ‘the Best of You’
A fist full of blood thinners, a gallon of bluegrass bourbon, and a room full of physicians is how I witnessed Super Bowl XLI – although one of the doctors is a New England Patriots fan, the hated nemeses of my Colts, and I would never allow such villainy to touch my flesh in a…
McCracken: PWNED!
The largest IN THE WORLD, I TELL YOU!
Message to Wal-Mart Clear: Stay Out
They did it – an unbroken human chain around the entire Northcross Mall block!
Fo’ Shizzle: Horns Visit LBC
Fo’ Shizzle: Horns Baseball Team Visit LBC
Fabricant’s Drug War Rule No. 1: Don’t Pull A Wendy Watson
The Busted! Mantra: Reading is Fundamental….
Salad Days
These are fine times to be an Austin Toros fan, and it brings me great pleasure to be able to bring you, my loyal reader, all the good news from the front. First, with their 104-91 victory over the Colorado 14ers on Thursday night, the Toros have won nine straight games, pushing their season record…
The TCBender Is Gathering Steam
It’s Friday, Feb. 9, Depeche Mode is on the box, and TCB is on day two of a four-day TCBender. Maybe longer… It’s payday too! Brand-new super awesome cover band the Promise Breakers (Faces, Stones, T.Rex, Mats) and bluegrass fiends American Graveyard loosened the bolts last night, and there’s nothing like a Red River auto-pedestrian…
Quasars, Photons, and Clint Black
Pataphysics gets weird
The Long Arm of RG4N
Arms Around Northcross demo tomorrow.
Ice Storm’s Cold, Hard Cost
How much did the storm cost the city?
Why Not Outsource Crime, Too?
Let’s build American prisons in Mexico! Wait, let’s not.
Anna Nicole Smith, R.I.P.
What does this mean for Bush?
VMU: Affordable for You?
The city welcomes density but also wants to keep it within a working-class price range
Austin Film Society Documentary Tour
Jennifer Baichwal’s Manufactured Landscapes
Nothing Here Has Any Real Value
Honorable mention
Texas Platters
The ChumpsInvent Rock ‘N’ Roll (’95-00) (Mortville/Super Secret) After the Motards, no other band epitomized the screeching essence of Austin’s mid-Nineties garage punk renaissance more than the Chumps. Packing enough raw power to float a small brewery, the Chumps boasted a charismatic extra weapon in frontman Sean McGowan. Crossing David Johansen’s petulant vocal sneer with…
‘Texas Tough’ Sex Crime Wave Hits the Dome
Sex-predator hysteria threatens a legal backlash
‘SXSW Presents’
“Pedal”
Page Two: When I Write the Book
On luck, anarchy, and the narrative vagaries of life
Texas Platters
ST 37And Then What (Noiseville) And then what? That’s precisely the question ST 37’s posing to you, dear listener. After 20 years as Austin’s drone/prog/space/psych niche-fillers, no one can accuse them of not knowing the answer. On their latest slab of vinyl, bassist Scott Telles’ howl is as potent as ever on opener “Thirst,” a…
Coal War Update
Charles “Doc” Anderson launches legislative attack against proposed coal-fired power plants, efficiency practices report, and more
DVD Watch
“We don’t need writers”
After a Fashion
Stephen’s there as the fur and the rose petals fly … and reconnects with Ken. No, not the doll, silly, the Neiman Marcus veep.
Texas Platters
The UnbearablesJust One Bite: Selections From “Bitten!: A Zombie Rock Odyssey” (Stem and Leaf) With an appetite for destruction and a storyline that falls somewhere between Night of the Living Dead and Grease, the Unbearables’ soundtrack to Just One Bite, staged last year at Austin’s Dougherty Arts Center, does zombies proud with their very own…
Media Watch
With circulation sliding, Austin American-Statesman turns to heavens for help
TV Eye
Am I Having a Laugh?
Day Trips
“Body Worlds” at the Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas takes the visitor on an incredible journey through the human body
Texas Platters
The ArgivesNothing Better Beginning (ASP) Combining young man blues with Brit-flavored power-pop, Austin’s Argives deliver a high-minded, extra-cathartic wallop with their 12-song debut. Though its title nods to the Kinks, the lager-fueled strains of mid-Seventies era Squeeze and Elvis Costello are more immediate touchstones. Between his Glenn Tilbrook tone and foggy bar-stool profundities like, “Friends…
Reefer Madness
North Dakota ag commissioner still waiting to hear from feds on whether they’ll waive individual federal registration for qualified farmers who gain state approval to farm hemp; and hemp revolution seeds germinating in South Carolina
Throws Like a Girl: Catching Gretchen Phillips
Season four of Throws Like a Girl – the Rude Mechanicals’ annual series celebrating women performers – rocks, literally, and Gretchen Phillips explains why
Soccer Watch
Soccer-related deaths in Italy, and more
Texas Platters
Bill BairdSilence! (Big Orange) Bill BairdSunset (Big Orange) Morning relieves darkness in two ways: Either the sheets mediate a battle of good and evil, or sunlight seeping through miniblinds causes jubilation. Bill Baird, Sound Team’s resident mad scientist and bassist, has his equal share of both, evidenced here by two nearly opposite DIY players released…
On the Lege
The Cervical Wars Part I: Perry, HPV, and the Politics of Cancer
State Theatre: The show will go on, just not very soon
The Austin Theatre Alliance is committed to restoring the flood-damaged State Theatre but expects it to take another 18 months, at least
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
O, verily, thou needest not a dictionary
Texas Platters
Sean Mencher(Goofin’) Guitarist for Austin’s high-octane rockabilly trio High Noon, as well as sideman for a long list of notable roots rockers like Ronnie Dawson, Wayne “the Train” Hancock, and Rosie Flores, Sean Mencher sprouts music roots deeper than most. That said, his self-titled solo debut is surprising for the range of styles he embraces,…
The Messengers
This spook story is a surprisingly mediocre Hollywood debut for Hong Kong’s Pang brothers.
Lege Lowdown
Health, Hype, and the HPV Vaccine Opposition to Gov. Rick Perry’s surprise HPV vaccine mandate had begun even before the governor’s State of the State address Tuesday. At a hastily called press conference Monday morning, Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Lewisville, who chairs the Senate Health and Human Services Committee, asked Perry to rescind his executive order…
Mi Casa Es Su Teatro: Home is where the art is
Time again to get your theatre outside the theatre and inside someone’s home, via FronteraFest’s one-day, site-specific fiesta, Mi Casa Es Su Teatro
The Common Law
Small Business and Federal Tax ID – What Is It and How to Get One?
Texas Platters
Blue CartoonSeptember Songs (Aardvark) Veteran pop doctors Blue Cartoon have assembled all the parts on album No. 4, the local quintet’s first since 2002’s The Wonder of It All. Boasting impeccably shimmering production, a well-versed ear for the little harmonic details, and a handful of songs ripe for cerebral lodging, September Songs is no May-December…
The Last Sin Eater
Jesus Christ, the original sin eater, has his hands full with a bunch of superstitious Appalachian immigrants from Wales in the 1850s.
Naked City
Quote of the Week “The HPV vaccine does not promote sex; it protects women’s health. … Providing the HPV vaccine doesn’t promote sexual promiscuity any more than providing the hepatitis B vaccine promotes drug use. If the medical community developed a vaccine for lung cancer, would the same critics oppose it claiming it would encourage…
365 Days/365 Plays: Week 13
The yearlong festival of plays by Suzan-Lori Parks continues with seven plays performed by members of M.E.M.E.
A Foodie’s Valentine’s Day Guide
… Not involving edible underwear
Hannibal Rising
Who would have thought mass murder and cannibalism could be so dull?
Hurricane Housing Censorship
Housing Authority of New Orleans sends letter to attorney representing former public housing tenants, requesting that he stop talking to media about government’s plan to demolish complexes deemed too damaged by Katrina to fix
Arts Review
You may think you know what a Noël Coward comedy is like, but the Zachary Scott Theatre Center production of Present Laughter is light years ahead of your expectations
Bocaditos
Mangia amore
Norbit
The three personas Eddie Murphy adopts in this film literally fill the screen, but the script doesn’t serve his multidimensional talents.
Will Lege Rescue Starving State Parks?
Legislators claim help is on way for suffering parks system
Arts Review
No one would ever plan a night of theatre such as the night of theatre that was the FronteraFest Short Fringe Best of Week 3, but it set a high-water mark for entertainment
Bess Bistro on Pecan
After one visit, you won’t be returning for a chance glance at Ms. Bullock
The Dead Girl
The filmmaker and an all-star cast create this somber murder mystery that has little mystery but is filled with a deep foreboding about the anguish that dominates some women’s lives.
Criminal-Justice Officials Get Spanked
Officials with Texas Department of Criminal Justice and Board of Pardons and Paroles get tongue lashings during Lege hearing, where agency leaders were questioned about communication and coordination problems
Arts Review
Studio 107’s “Rising Stars 3” features uniquely sculptural prints by Adreon Henry, appealing photos of rust by Fernando Lafuente, and powerfully honest portraits by Alonso Rey
Wine of the Week
Love potions
Women’s Legislative Days
“Where are all the young people?”
15th Annual ‘Austin Chronicle’ Short Story Contest
The winners, the judges, and the reasons why
Food-o-File
Has Top Chef hit bottom? Plus, Reed Clemons sells Capitol Brasserie.
TCB
SXSW inches closer, the Scoot Inn rises again, Arclight Records booms, and Cindi Lazzari and Chris Foley depart much too soon
Point Austin: What Molly Wrote
Ivins and her kind
Tuber
First place
Event Menu
Feb. 9-15
Texas Platters
Onion Creek CrawdaddiesIrons in the Fire One of the leading lights in Austin’s lively bluegrass scene, the Onion Creek Crawdaddies perform an animated variant of the high lonesome sound they call “beergrass.” Irons in the Fire, their second self-produced effort, accurately captures the young quintet’s sense of frivolity offset with occasional flights into sentimentality. With…
Beside the Point
Seaholm unveiled: Is the game worth the phalli?
bottom
Second place
Texas Platters
Ruthie FosterThe Phenomenal Ruthie Foster (Blue Corn) Decades ago, folks like Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin were described with words like “genius” and “electrifying” in album titles. In that tradition, Ruthie Foster refers to herself as “phenomenal,” and anyone who’s witnessed her talents as a vocalist would hardly disagree. Claiming that her fifth release is…
The Hightower Report
Support the Severely Wounded; and Bush’s Health-Care Tax
Ana’s Opening
Third place
Texas Platters
Joe Ely Happy Songs From Rattlesnake Gulch (Rack ‘Em) Although four years have passed since Joe Ely’s last studio release, 2003’s Streets of Sin – bracketed by 2000’s Live at Antone’s and ’04’s Hightone Records compilation Settle for Love – Austin’s onetime train-hopping troubadour comes roaring back for his 60th birthday with Happy Songs From…
Going Vertical
The new VMU zoning could transform your neighborhood – and you have 90 days to help decide how
On the Road Again
Suki Hawley and Michael Galinsky’s Half-Cocked Celebrates a Milestone
La Machinista
Honorable mention
Texas Platters
Lucky was Jean Synodinos’ aptly named local debut in 2003, and its successor Breathe (Fortunate Records) is an equal sigh of relief. Synodinos hails from the Austin singer-songwriter school of music, her sophomore disc shouldering a flirty sense of humor with substantial songwriting chops. And if Lucky marked her elation as a breast cancer survivor,…
Luv Doc Recommends: Couple Skate Valentine’s Day Benefit
Valentine’s Day is coming up. Question is: How can you parlay this once-a-year, bullshit greeting card event into something more meaningful like hot monkey sex (monkey sex in this case being a metaphor for energetic, acrobatic coitus with another human being and not sex with an actual monkey, even with that monkey’s implicit consent through…
