Cover Story
Austin Comic Books Come to Life at Inky Eyes
he sign-up sheet at Inky Eyes is chock-full of eager cartoonists hoping to read their work. Whether they read or not, the quarterly mixer and reading series draws artistic storytellers of all varieties to Alienated Majesty, where they fill tables to sketch in the evening’s drink-and-draw portion, or otherwise chat and peruse the shop’s colorful…
News
Scientific Study on East Austin Neighborhood’s Water Finds Contaminants
When Will Stoerner moved to Austin’s Colony neighborhood in far East Austin, he knew about the water issues. For decades, residents have been complaining of hard and discolored water in the area served by Texas Water Utilities, a private service provider, outside the jurisdiction of Austin Water. So in 2020, Stoerner purchased a home filtration…
Former EMS Union Leader Says First Responders Are Overworked
Lee Nudelman retired as a captain from Austin’s EMS department in the spring of 2024, but he hasn’t stopped worrying about the crushing workload his fellow medics struggle through. “Every single person in the field right now is living on some form of survival instinct,” Nudelman said. “They’re just trying to make it, because it’s…
Families Can Buy Bible Studies, AI Classes, More With Private School Vouchers
Texas families can now use state tax dollars to pay for Bible studies, faith-based curriculum, online courses taught by artificial intelligence, and much more using their new private school vouchers. The Texas Comptroller’s Office has accepted over 102,000 students to receive vouchers through Texas Education Freedom Accounts, ranging from about $10,000 to $30,000 for homeschool…
The Week’s Biggest News in Brief: July 2-8
Disability Lawsuit Protest: Disability rights advocates gathered outside of the Capitol last Friday, July 3, to protest the state’s participation in Texas v. Kennedy, a multistate lawsuit that challenges some federal disability civil rights. The lawsuit challenges Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, which protects disabled individuals from discrimination in healthcare, housing, schools, and other…
Music
Music Notes
Exploded Drawing LXVIII Friday 10, dadaLab Detroit rapper Black Milk headlines the latest edition of Exploded Drawing. He comes to Austin before embarking on a tour for his new studio album, CEREMONIAL. Other performers include masked MC Vermin the Villain and Fort Worth producer louiewithapen. Beyond the Call Friday 10, Meanwhile Brewing Weldon Henson, the…
Arts + Culture
A Human as A Real Animal
In a brisk clip of straightforward prose, Emeline Atwood’s A Real Animal trots through the life of Lucy, interspersed by encounters with ferality. A solitary and often aloof figure, Atwood’s protagonist navigates a chilly relationship with her mother, a devastating sexual assault, and profound and mundane aftershocks at different stages of life. With haltingly realistic…
Screens
Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass Review: A Wholesome Sex Comedy That Doesn’t Quite Click
Zoey Deutch was robbed. In another cinematic era, this fizzy fast talker would have been a screwball comedy star. Instead, she’s had the bad fortune of being born in an age of middling Hollywood comedies, mostly underachievers and straight-to-streamers. That the genially doofy Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass is even getting a theatrical…
Night Nurse Review: The Psychopath’s Guide to Caretaking
“Nurse at a retirement community gets her kinky kicks when she becomes part of a resident’s scam” is an accurate précis of the story of Night Nurse. Yet it comes nowhere near capturing how weird, idiosyncratic, hilarious, and unrelentingly horny the debut feature from writer/director Georgia Bernstein manages to be. Pert nipples meet sagging bellies…
Moana Review: The Same Wave Rolls Back Around
Moana, the live-action remake of the 2016 modern animated favorite, will make a huge amount of money. Disney’s live-action remakes generally do, even supposed box office bombs like last year’s dire rehash of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Disney’s Snow White. But is that reason enough for this remake to exist? Dwayne Johnson said…
Food
Austin Oyster Co. Brings the Maine Coast to Austin
I have always been an adventurous eater, but growing up in landlocked Austin with a seafood-allergic parent meant I didn’t eat much from the sea until later in life. These days, I have strong opinions on East versus West Coast shellfish, happily nerd out about Gulf oyster farming, and never say no to nigiri. So…
Columns
Day Trips: 24 Hours in Marble Falls
Twenty-four hours in Marble Falls is barely enough time to scratch the surface of this thriving city on the Highland Lakes northwest of Austin. Three friends and I with two dogs set out to see what was to be seen. Late in the afternoon we self-checked into McKenzie Guest House, a vacation rental with six…
Wavemakers Sets New Courses for Women Musicians Over 40
Lurleen Ladd and her team of Wavemakers are sowing seeds in the cracks of a broken music industry to benefit women musicians over 40. They question the competitive structures they feel have pushed artists like them out of the conversation. “I wanted to build something where women 40-plus could come and learn about how to…
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Forget gender-reveal celebration cakes. There’s a new trend for an ultrasound cake that includes an ultrasound scan image printed on top. Ba’ Game is a version of medieval football played in parts of Scotland. Historians believe this street sport reputedly was first played using a captured soldier’s head for the ball. Panspermia is the hypothesis/belief…
Feedback: July 10, 2026
Other Types of Trauma Dear Editor, “Why Are Republicans Suddenly for Ibogaine?” [News, July 3] mentions only veterans as suffering from PTSD – estimated to be around 7% of all U.S. veterans. Yet 94% of women who are sexually assaulted experience PTSD symptoms immediately following the assault, and up to 50% have long-term PTSD. Rebecca…
USMNT Proves Nothing’s Changed in World Cup Collapse
The summer of soccer is over for the United States Men’s National Team, who crashed out of the 2026 FIFA World Cup harder than the Fourth of July parachuter thanks to a 4-1 Belgian ass-whooping Monday night. It was nothing short of a total meltdown of a performance inside Seattle Stadium. The USMNT, playing in…
The Luv Doc: Grabbing a Hoe
Dear Luv Doc, Do you ever sense you might be vicariously observing the lives of men who have no purpose, subconsciously suffering that as a form of malady, throwing in for urban activities, few of which can really fulfill an empty core? In such a state there is much to contemplate for those meeting life…
At the 2026 Hemp Beverage Expo, a Taste of What’s to Come
When my comrades at The Austin Chronicle told me that this year’s Hemp Beverage Expo was going to be held here in our very own Austin, Texas, I saw a weed-leaf-shaped bat signal in the sky and I knew what I had to do. At the registration table, I selected the “High-Drated” ribbon flair to…
Opinion: Austin, Let’s Get Serious About Rail to San Antonio
I ride the Texas Eagle out of Austin, so I know what little it offers: one train a day, at an hour nobody wants, chronically short on cars. It is the only train serving both Austin and San Antonio. Even so, its ridership rose over 14% last year, part of a record year for Amtrak…
Qmmunity: Cool Lizard Alert
Do y’all like lizards? I’m a little obsessed with the scuttling populace in the area around Chicon and Tillotson by Figure 8 Coffee. There’s three species who occupy the flora who can be identified by a helpful poster outside the coffee shop: the Texas spotted whiptail, Texas spiny lizards, and the green anole. Summer heat’s…
Fun + Games
Free Will Astrology
CANCER (June 21-July 22): Male humpback whales in the Pacific Ocean change their songs over the years. New phrases can spread across thousands of miles as other whales take up and transform them. Researchers don’t know why, but the pattern is clear: The whales value novelty even in their ancient rituals. They create an evolving…
