Cover Story
A Republic of Indie in a Netflix Nation
How Austin’s homegrown video stores are faring against the big red giant
aGLIFF’s New Day
The Austin Gay and Lesbian Int’l Film Festival chooses a new board president.
The Boys (and Girls) in the Band
Gay band nerds have reason to celebrate the inauguration.
Day One. Road to the Whitehouse: Save Us, Davis!
Gay Place correspondent Dacia Saenz finally has a moment to breathe and blog about her inaugural inauguration experiences.
Report From the Front
Our special photo correspondent Kim Falgout shares pics from her trip to the inauguration.
Hizzoner Dishonor
An open letter to Portland Mayor Sam Adams.
Lenny
Leonard Cohen’s U.S. tour to open at Austin’s Long Center April 2.
Fathead
Texas tenor titan David “Fathead” Newman, RIP
Design a Poster, Save A Life
Local ISDs and Cap Metro launch rail safety competition for kids near new tracks
Dot Gov Luv
Change is afoot at WhiteHouse.gov.
The Lineup
Recommended music for the week of Jan. 23-29
Manfest 2008 (better late than never)
Video of Manfest 2008
SXSW, IFC Film Partner for Swanberg Premiere
SXSW Film and IFC Film team up for a unique twin-platform release of Joe Swanberg’s new picture
Queer Vid From the Great Beyond
An upcoming night of queer video art.
All Over the Place
Surveying the Geezerville landscape
Aztex Announce USL-1 Schedule
The Austin Aztex released their 2009 schedule today
The Green Movement
KRS-One and Hakim Green bring the Stop the Violence Movement to Austin
Four Longhorns Go in Pro Draft
Four UT players were among the top 41 players taken in the first WPS college draft
Will the Next Drug Czar Please Stand Up!
President Barack Obama has named plenty of players in his new administration – notably absent is the name of the person who will chart the nation’s drug control strategy.
Tigurr Sighting on National Mall
The Gay Place’s own Dacia Saenz makes an appearance on CNN.
I’m Gay for Band
The first LGBT group invited to appear in an inaugural parade marches proud.
Inauguration Day, Scholz Style
Snapshots from the watch party at Scholz Garten this morning: Texans for Obama, Travis County Dems speak
A Tale of Two Party Chairs
Democrat Richie asks for unity, GOP chief Benkiser asks for cash
Farewell to “W”
…hello Obama.
Local Congressmen on Obama Inauguration
Statements from Austin representatives
Cornyn: Turd in the Punchbowl
Texas Senator objects to Clinton nomination while everyone else has fun
Hollywood Marketing 101: Way Worse Than You Thought
The New Yorker on Hollywood marketing
Inauguration Day
Moving past Rick Warren.
Party With Obama-Boosters
Where to inauguration-watch in Austin
VHS Forever!
Nakatomi, Inc. T-shirts
Reefer: Commutations for Two Texas Border Patrol Agents
Before leaving the building, Bush today commuted the sentences of two Texas Border Patrol Agents who shot a man in the ass
Year of Sparkle and Desi Cration
Results and pictures from last night’s Texas Rollergirls’ Whammy Awards
Thank You, Masked Man
Eddie Angel flies into the Continental
ESPN Goes Inaugural
ESPN to commemorate Obama’s inauguration with ‘Breaking Barriers’ marathon and more
We’ve been FACEBOOKED!
dammit! we’re people!
Harry Knowles, Pedazo Chunk, and the Independent Video Store
Harry on indie video stores
Ana Sisnett Service & Related Information
Location of Sisnett service and where to send contributions in lieu of flowers
Ana Sisnett, 1952-2009
The place to post remembrances of local community activist, Ana Sisnett
Pulpwood Queen, the TV show?
Kathy Patrick’s already got the Pulpwood Queen’s Book Club fanning out across the country. Now she wants her own TV show.
City Hall Hustle: It’s About Leffing Time
After months, Lee Leffingwell declares for Mayor
Change Is Coming … to Capital Metro
Alterations to bus service take effect Sunday
Four Days Down, 136 to Go
Surveying the State Legislature after the first week
Rage and Ruin
Red 7 gets a Marxist makeover
Turfcats Announce Player Signings/Tryouts and More
Our own Southern Indoor Football League team gets the ball rollin’
Ott’s Bad News Budget
City manager announces hiring freeze, suspension of wage review
P1 … Fun!
K8 and Andy go to New Orleans!
Bush’s Faith-Based Farewell
Final presidential address from the Texan president throws red meat to small government crowd
Attention Pampering Types: Free Cosmetics!
Class-Action Suit Booty
No ‘Special Session’ on KLRU
Stekler show couldn’t secure funding
Balloons Do It Better
Balloon animals promote safe sex. Those animals.
Not Enough Drug Abuse Treatment in Prison
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, just a fraction of the inmates that need treatment actually get it.
Middle Americana
Boardroom song-craft? The Austin Songwriters Group Songwriters Symposium gets down to business.
See. Hear. Speak.
The other performance festival in January lines up primo comedians
Bill Would Rotate UIL Events Out of Austin
Father and son lawmakers call for holding high school state competitions in other areas of the state
Defiance
In this true story, Daniel Craig and Liev Schreiber play two Jewish brothers who escape into the forest to elude capture by the Nazis and wind up birthing a small village of escapees.
She Was Just 17
The best way to approach music as an under-21 female: Play it
Arts Review
This satire on reincarnation amuses but has trouble transcending its own gags
AISD Report Cards Go Online
Students beware …
Last Chance Harvey
Dustin Hoffman, Emma Thompson, and a strong supporting cast elevate this simple tale of two middle-aged discontents who grab a last chance at love.
Free Week Live Shots
Harlem, Ume Emo’s, Jan. 8 Working with producer Frenchie Smith has unearthed something in Ume, the band’s previously distorted waves of noise finally solidifying into something hookier. The local trio played songs from new EP Sunshower as well as material from 2005’s Urgent Sea, but there was no noticeable gap. Singer/guitarist Lauren Larson still owns…
Arts Review
The script’s faults and poor production choices hinder Displaced Theatre’s debut
RNC Aftermath
Austin protester pleads guilty in Minnesota
Notorious
In Notorious, the life of hip-hop artist Christopher Wallace, aka Notorious B.I.G. or Biggie Smalls, assumes the shape of the standard biopic formula.
Free Week Live Shots
The Teeners Emo’s, Jan. 9 Peeling into the penultimate night of Free Week, the Teeners grabbed Emo’s outside crowd by the throat and crammed their filthy garage-punk manifesto into the faces of all that could take it. While vocalist Johnny Vomitnoise acted as seesawing metronome, the quartet perverted the raw, belligerent aspects of the Stooges…
Arts Review
With work by 30 artists, this show is like a mixed chocolate box of visual delights
Hackers Attack the Netroots
Progressive bloggers regroup after hackers debilitate several sites
Timecrimes
Spanish director Nacho Vigalondo’s first feature film is a tremendously entertaining bit of Kafka that whirlpools down into The Twilight Zone – and one helluva blast to watch.
Free Week Live Shots
Lions of Tsavo Red 7, Jan. 9 The Russians are coming! The Russians are coming! Propaganda dripping down the walls in varying shades of Red 7, the club’s barren innards echoed forlornly in makeover mode. Daniel Francis Doyle jammed like Marnie Stern on his electric guitar while standing astride a drum kit in his socks.…
Gay Place
Whew! It feels like fresh panties, this “change” and “hope” thing.
Green Party Leader Holloway Dies
Local activists mourn the loss of one ‘passionate and steadfast’ friend
Risk Immersion
Time again to sink deeply into FronteraFest’s exhilarating experiments in performance
Free Week Live Shots
Those Peabodys, the Crack Pipes, Shapes Have Fangs Emo’s, Jan. 10 After warming up the huddled crowd at Club de Ville on Saturday night, Shapes Have Fangs rematerialized inside at Emo’s for a hearty second serving, simmering with richly distorted 1960s soul and keeping hard-driving metric attention and deep bass hooks that conjure the Kinks…
Day Trips
The Port Isabel Lighthouse still offers a commanding view of South Padre Island and Laguna Madre more than 150 years after it was built
Is Texas Bad for Kids?
A new report from Texans Care for Children shows kids faring poorly
A New Day
81st Legislature opens with unity in the House, mutiny in the Senate
Free Week Live Shots
The Lovely Sparrows, Frank Smith, Brazos Mohawk, January 10 “Cold weather does not make for nimble fingers,” laughed a bundled Shawn Jones as the Lovely Sparrows played into the chill of the Mohawk’s outside stage. Whether due to the bluster of weather or the outdoor setting, the Sparrows traded their usually intricate orchestration for a…
Letters at 3am
Everyone knows there’s something extraordinary in the air, and everyone wants it to mean what they want it to mean
City Hall Hustle: The Return of Jason Carole
Grandma the budget slasher is back for a mayoral campaign sequel
Lucia di Lammermoor
Lucia di Lammermoor 2009, NR, 169 min. Directed by Simon Stone. Donizetti’s tragedy returns to cinemas, starring soprano Nadine Sierra and tenor Javier Camarena in this 2022 performance of Simon Stone’s modern-day staging. Riccardo Frizza conducts.
The Common Law
Partnership or Corporation?
The Hightower Report
The Death of Journalism; and Who Pays for CEO Mismanagement?
Disagreeing to Agree
With contract negotiations suspended, Austin firefighters look inward for a change
Yogurt Shop
Defendants in yogurt shop murder may get an opportunity to bond out of custody while awaiting second trial
After a Fashion
Your Style Avatar kicks ass. But you knew that already.
Austin Goes to Park City
Zombies and Mongols do the ‘Dance
Off the Record
It has begun: Breaking down the full South by Southwest band list and learning the secret handshake at the Austin Moose Lodge No. 1735
Point Austin: MUD Rising
Canyon Creek voting-rights lawsuit goes to the Supremes
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
L.A.’s car population, ‘so help me God,’ and more
Film News
Local docmaker Heather Courtney heads to Afghanistan, and the 2009 Texas Film Hall of Fame Awards
Trouble at Station 15
Austin firefighter sues city after officials stonewall unequal treatment
Headlines
• The 81st legislative session opened Tuesday, and as expected, San Antonio Rep. Joe Straus was elected the new speaker of the House. See “A New Day” for opening day images. • Bipartisanship was not in the air everywhere. On the Senate side, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst convened the session and began a wrangle to…
Restaurant Review
The cozy atmosphere and satisfying cuisine at Whisk will transport you to the sun-splashed Mediterranean
TV Eye
Inauguration Day might not count officially as a national holiday, but it certainly feels like a brand-new day
Video Web Extra
Nona Allen’s videos of the men’s and women’s locker rooms of Austin Fire Station 15
Respublica
Citizen’s calendar, Jan. 15-22
Restaurant Review
Paggi House is the tastiest example of old Austin co-existing with new Austin
Six Under 17
MACKENZIE ALEX With more than an hour’s worth of original material, MacKenzie Alex is ripe to play anywhere she can plug in. Favoring her solo performances on electric guitar as well as acoustic, her unusually well-honed compositions come partly as a result of writing with her mother, Chey. Alex, 16, attends the Austin School of…
Naked City
News briefs from Austin, the region, and beyond
Event Menu
Your local foodie events for Jan. 21-23
New In Fiction
The dominant tone here is one of doom and existential catastrophe
Never Forget
Alamo Drafthouse programmers Lars Nilsen and Zack Carlson talk about the rise of Netflix and their enduring love for old-fashioned tape
Cooking With the Seasons at Rancho la Puerta: Recipes From the World-Famous Spa
Cooking with the Seasons offers a seasonal assortment of enticing yet very simple recipes and menus
New In Fiction
Raymond writes life as it is lived – which is to say devoid of significant drama – and writes of it without recourse to stylistic flamboyance or narrative tricks
Oops!
In a News story that appeared in the Jan. 9 issue (“Charter School Approval Sparks More Debate”), we should have noted that Williamson County parent Karalei Nunn was concerned about the quality, not the number of seats, in Georgetown ISD’s Gifted & Talented program.
Bride Wars
Best friends become enemies when a scheduling snafu places their two weddings on the same day.
Food-o-File
Check out foodie wishes for the new year, local foodie fundraisers, and the Year of the Ox
The Israeli/Palestinian Comedy Tour
Four stand-up comics aim to ease cultural tensions with a few swift salvos of laughter
Page Two: Hope Jr.
Only the foolish expect a rebirth of wonder from Obama, but a restored sense of decency is a good start
The Unborn
A young woman is possessed by the spirit of her twin brother who never made it to term in this film directed by esteemed horror writer David S. Goyer.
Liquid Assets
Riesling white is the new black
American Repertory Ensemble
ARE’s new program aims for fewer people so it can put more of them inside the magic
Playing Through
Other than getting on an airplane, there’s no place in Austin where you can go as fast, safely, as you can at the Driveway Austin Motorsports Academy and Retreat
Not Easily Broken
In this film based on a novel by pastor and bestselling author T.D. Jakes, a couple hits a rough patch in their marriage but eventually discovers that their vows are “not easily broken.”
Luv Doc Recommends: Bye Bye Bush
It’s very likely that sometime around 3am on Jan. 20, a fleet of black helicopters will descend on the White House lawn, their speakers blaring the Star Wars Evil Empire theme, and Bush and Cheney will begin their sad, dark perp walk into the annals of infamy. The only thing left for historians to squabble…
