Cover Story
Thanks, Canada
Blood-soaked nights on the road to punk rock with the Krum Bums
Where the Video Gaming’s Hot and the Guv Is Cold
By most accounts, the video-game conference nonpareil, E3, has been a wash this year. Resident Evil 5, Gears of War 2, etc., etc. all met expectations, although I would have enjoyed them just as much during my usual clicks around IGN.com. So, why bother wasting your precious blog-reading time? Because in case you didn’t feel…
Because Weekends Were…
Summer nights are engorged
Earache in My Eye: Episode Three
999 Eyes Freakshow and That Damned Band keep Austin weird
Howard Dean Rolls Into Town
The Deaniac roars into town for Netroots Nation
The Other Dean
Nixon’s bane in Austin tonight
Aztex Headed to Florida for PDL Playoffs
The Premier Development League has announced that the first round of playoffs for the Aztex U-23s will take place in Orlando, Fla., July 25 and 27. The Aztex, PDL Mid South champions, will take on the Southeast runners-up – probably the Bradenton Academics – in the first round. The other first-round game features the Southeast…
Netroots Now!
Progressive blogger convention opens today.
Film Fight Happy Hour
Last week was all brawl, but this week, in the spirit of reconciliation (and, well, spirits at Happy Hour pricing), Josh “Lickin’ His Wounds” Rosenblatt and I will be hosting a get-together at the United States Art Authority. I suppose we might talk about comic book movies some more, but honestly, neither one of us…
LOL Werd
Sad. No more Teh LOLGay.
FILM FIGHT Wrap-up Happy Hour!
As the dust settles on the first-ever Austin Chronicle Film Fight, a victor emerges. Kimberley Jones got out to a strong lead early in the week, and poor old Josh Rosenblatt just wasn’t able to make up the difference. Voting is over, but now you can unwind with the contenders. What this means for you…
FILM FIGHT Wrap-up Happy Hour!
As the dust settles on the first-ever Austin Chronicle Film Fight, a victor emerges. Kimberley Jones got out to a strong lead early in the week, and poor old Josh Rosenblatt just wasn’t able to make up the difference. Voting is over, but now you can unwind with the contenders. What this means for you…
Georgie Porgie
Last October, as Annie Lennox bewitched SMU’s McFarlin Memorial Auditorium in Dallas, one of her national and generational music peers humored at least one autograph hound while watching transfixed from the sixth row. Seems George Michael splits his time between Metroplex largesse, London courts, and Los Angeles with his Big D boyfriend, gallery owner Kenny…
Good Gawd(y)
James Brown’s thangs get auctioned off
Darfur Update
International Criminal Court pushing for war crime prosecution in Sudan, local activists respond.
Aztex Drop a Pair; Regular Season Finale This Saturday
With the division title wrapped up and little to play for, the Austin Aztex U-23s played like it, losing back-to-back games for the first time this season, 1-0 at New Orleans, and 2-1 at Baton Rouge, to drop to 10-4-1 for the year. This Saturday’s regular season finale at the El Paso Patriots should be…
No Homo So Homo
“No Homo” is the new “No Fag Backs.”
The Internet Conservatives are Coming!
Grover Norquist and Robert Novak to talk at right-wing Web convention
Kismat Konnection
New Bollywood romance.
The Lighter Side of Black
Perry’s press guy explains why he’s leaving.
Dumb Spiro Spero
South Carolina is Sooooooooo Dense.
Three Cheers for the Alternative Softball League
Make that two cheers for BookPeople, holding strong to that first place spot, and one for The Austin Chronicle, which is no longer in last place. BookPeople stayed busy last week with two games in four days. Last Sunday they took out KOOP. And Wednesday, July 9, they defeated Emo’s. Representing in the third game…
Gayfiosa?
American Mafia? Open and tolerant?
High School Musical … or Drama in the Theatre?
McCallum’s Rent due to launch this weekend, despite AISD.
Black Out of the Press Room
Long-time Perry consigliere Robert Black stands down as communications director
Love or Confusion?
More vinyl memories
Shamelessly Cool
The Cool Kids shake and bake
Bad Times in Waxahachie
Cops find a basement pot paradise in Waxahachie – man, who woulda thunk it?
Anarchy at Dove Springs
Anarchy Championship Wrestling comes back to Austin
América vs. Toluca at Dragon Stadium
There will be an exhibition game this week in Round Rock between two top Mexican teams: América vs. Toluca, Wednesday, July 16, 8pm at Round Rock Dragon Stadium, 300 N. Lake Creek Dr. (just west of I-35 and RR 620). Tickets range from $37-$52; buy advance tix at www.senorgolstore.com. I don’t have much info on…
Shanteau Diagnosed With Cancer
If I didn’t see this coming, you can bet that Eric Shanteau didn’t either. Last week, I wrote about the giddy joy I felt seeing Shanteau qualify for the Olympics in the 200-meter breaststroke [“Playing Through,” Sports, July 11]. Saturday, I picked up the Austin American-Statesman and had the exact opposite feeling. There, we learned…
That Would be an Ecumenical Issue
Methodists step up protest against new Bush presidential library
The Parallax View
The Parallax View 1974, R, 102 min. Directed by Alan J. Pakula, Starring Warren Beatty, Paula Prentiss, William Daniels, Hume Cronyn. A reporter investigates the assassination of a U.S. senator and discovers that there is an international conglomerate which is behind all world events. The film is a conspiracy theorist’s Rosetta Stone.
Hard Road Home
Hard Road Home 2007, NR, 74 min. Directed by Macky Alston, Andrea Meller. The difficulty of remaining crime-free after release from prison is demonstrated in this film which looks at the work of the Exodus Transitional Community, a Harlem faith-based program that assists ex-convicts.
The Dark Knight: The IMAX Experience
The Dark Knight: The IMAX Experience 2008, PG-13, 152 min. Directed by Christopher Nolan, Starring Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Gary Oldman, Aaron Eckhardt, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman. The IMAX Experience of Christopher Nolan’s second Batman film –and, arguably, first among superhero movies, full-stop – additionally contains six sequences which were filmed using IMAX…
Another One Bites the Pillow Dust
Anti-Gay… Republican… Caught in Bed With Man… McCain Disavows… Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah
Kicking Television
Nels Cline sings low
Stick a Fork in It
Well, if the numbers hold, it looks like I’ll be doing a victory lap at the Art Authority next Thursday, but who knows – maybe your troops will rally over the weekend. The polls will be open until Sunday at midnight, but as for you and me and this crazy experiment we call Film Fight…
Game, Set, Match
From the archives: June 20, 2008 From: Kim Jones To: Josh Rosenblatt Re: First Film-Fight Topic Resolved: Kimberley Jones is a rank sentimentalist Pro: Josh Con: Kim So what’s my prize? I’m hoping for a bowlful of chocolate-covered Brussels sprouts. Or the 32-DVD set of the Complete Works of Alfred Hitchcock. Though I’d settle for…
Big D, Little D
Little Doyle Bramhall all grown up
Conversations in Film Series Continues With Polly Platt
I saw Polly Platt speak at UT a few years ago, and I can’t recommend the experience enough. She’s smart, blunt, and has a hell of a lot of war stories to share from her decades spent in the business as a producer, production designer, and screenwriter – most famously as former husband Peter Bogdanovich’s chief…
Implausible Deniability
When did McCain first know Phil Gramm, and what did he know about him?
Davis Out as DPS Leader
Department reviews, mansion fire likely reasons for Davis’ departure
From Bookworm to Social Butterfly in One Easy Step
Further incentive to pick up a book, from yesterday’s Globe and Mail: “A group of Toronto researchers have compiled a body of evidence showing that bookworms have exceptionally strong people skills.” (link via The New Yorker’s The Book Bench)
You Got Me
“Identity is fleeting and ever-changing, and so should our influences and loves be. Everything else is rank sentimentality.” Identity may be fleeting and ever-changing, but why do we have to scrap our influences and loves every time we turn a new corner? Frankly, I think there’s something a little bit distrustful about someone who so…
The Night Does Not Mean an End
Will Oldham’s dark joy
“Senator No” Passes on to the Great Beyond
Jesse Helms couldn’t vote no on death.
Comic Books and Forward Motion
OK, so I’ve been doing a little research in honor of the last full day of our inaugural Film Fight, and I just stumbled upon an interesting bit of trivia. We all know about the Lincoln-Douglas debates that took place all over Illinois in 1858. They’re famous for the eloquence and logical elegance displayed by…
Book Review
Austin author Doug Dorst marries literary playfulness with a gritty, yet supernatural police procedural
Building the Netroots Nation
The netroots arrive in Austin next week … and they’re thriving
Time for Rosés
Rosés are a crisp complement to the savory flavors of summer grilling
Playing Through
The human drama of athletic competition lies as much in defeat and disappointment as it does in victory
The Common Law
I Didn’t Know That’s What the Law Says – Ignorance of the Law Is No Defense
It’s Nation Time!
Netroots Nation 2008 Thursday-Sunday, July 17-20 Austin Convention Center Netroots Nation, the third annual gathering of liberals and progressives from the blogosphere and beyond, meets July 17-20 at the Austin Convention Center. In addition to panels and discussion groups, the convention includes a progressive film series, a career fair, organizing sessions, and more. To register,…
Four Cutting-Edge Cocktails
Nutrient-rich cocktails promise to quench your thirst this summer at the Belmont, courtesy of Daily Juice
Beside the Point
City’s chief information officer avoids indictment, but his firing is still a mystery
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Microwave popcorn with cell phones, slurpin’ Slurpees for 43 years, and more
The Blogosphere Branches Out
National Daily Kos* The high-traffic, influential Kos is nearly self-sustaining, allowing users to post their own entries/diaries. www.dailykos.com. Eschaton* Written by Duncan “Atrios” Black, Eschaton provides quick links and snarky commentary on what’s most relevant in the blogosphere. www.eschatonblog.com. Talking Points Memo Praised for pursuing the U.S. attorneys firing scandal when no one else would,…
Margaritas, Mojitos & More
Jessica Strand’s new summer-beverage book will instantly make you thirsty
Point Austin: Prog Blogs
The progressive bloggers are establishing a political agenda
After a Fashion
How Your Style Avatar sleeps at night
Bloggers and Pamphleteers
Karl Frisch and Lawrence Lessig on netroots politics
Quote of the Week
“We think that it’s important to remember our leaders in the right historical context.” – Brian McConnell, a member of a group petitioning to rename a San Francisco sewage treatment plant after President Bush
Restaurant Review
The new Austin outpost of a Houston chain brings more than just hummus to North Austin
Netroots Thumbnail
Becoming visible together
Off the Record
Robert Plant and Alison Krauss raise sand in Dallas, Lick Lick goes big in Japan, Dutch hip-hop sprouts in Austin, and a homecoming for Doyle Bramhall II
Headlines
• The Save Muny campaign that fended off two past attempts to close the Lions Municipal Golf Course returns for a third fight to save the historic West Austin landmark, as UT regents weigh a redevelopment deal for the Brackenridge Tract. See “Happenings,” for info on a public meeting about the plan. • On Wednesday,…
Restaurant Review
Sophisticated wine flights and tapas foster post-convention lingering on Second Street
The Hightower Report
Dead Executives; and Lawmakers Cash in as Lobbyists
Cool City: My Big Fat Carbon Footprint
One reporter’s liberating steps toward energy efficiency
Naked City
• Talk about a bad Monday: Austin Police Department Officer Daniel Eveleth had a real stinker this week. The 11-year veteran was out at the Circle C Ranch Metro Park around 5am working with a police dog when, somehow, he lost his Glock pistol. To make matters worse, Eveleth didn’t even notice the gun was…
Texas Platters
Ian McLagan & the Bump Band Never Say Never (Maniac) Misery loves company, but on Never Say Never, Austin’s adopted homeboy Ian “Mac” McLagan doesn’t want your pity. He wants you to join him for a pint and some old-fashioned reminiscing. Following 2006’s Spiritual Boy, a masterful tribute to his late friend and bandmate Ronnie…
The Great Crusader
Nobody’s safe from man-with-a-camera Alex Gibney
Happenings
For more details and events, see Community Listings. Thursday 10 HISPANIC VOTER OUTREACH MEETING 6pm. TCDP Coordinated Campaign Office, 1107 N. I-35. sylvia@traviscountydemocrats.org. GROUNDWATER MANAGEMENT PUBLIC MEETING Join the Barton Springs/Edwards Aquifer Conservation District board of directors for a discussion on the new groundwater management plan. 6pm. BSEACD offices, 1124 Regal Row, 282-8441. www.bseacd.org/rules.html. Friday…
Beyond City Limits
• The Detention Watch Network has launched an interactive online map of U.S. immigration detention center locations. According to a DWN press release announcing the launch, these locations are typically “shrouded in secrecy with isolated and remote facilities scattered across the country. … It is heartbreaking to see families struggle to find a loved one…
Texas Platters
The Jazzus Lizard Horn In the realm of musical tributes, you don’t get more arcane than jazz-themed renditions of Jesus Lizard screeds. While Horn might have become a one-note novelty in less steady hands, the Jazzus Lizard cultivates a new avenue of appreciation for its inspiration. The Austin quartet recasts the harrowing, scattershot dynamic of…
On Ypsilanti Roller Girls and Inverse Proportions
Continuing the film incentives crusade: Five percent really packs a punch
Well of Controversy: Water Hogs Threaten Farm
Water shortage in East Travis County growth corridor threatens Tecolote Farm
Texas Platters
Willie Nelson & Wynton Marsalis Two Men With the Blues (Blue Note) Two American music icons, one a genuine country music renegade and the other a tireless, neoconservative champion of jazz, share their love of blues and deep appreciation of American popular songs on this live set, documenting a two-night stand last year at NYC’s…
Real American Heroes, Clocking in at 3¾ Inches
The GI Joe Stop-Motion Film Festival
Dispatches From Darfur
Austinites Rio Tenango and Leah Pries take their activism, and their aliases, all the way to Africa
Bab’Aziz: The Prince Who Contemplated His Soul
In the Tunisian desert, a young girl and her grandfather spin stories of woe, lost love, and religious disenchantment in this trancelike movie.
Why Chamber Music?
For the folks who play it, it’s the intimacy and democracy and unity and fun
Texas Platters
Lisa Loeb Camp Lisa (Furious Rose Productions) Who doesn’t love summer camp? Those endless days of swimming, horseback riding, arts and crafts, bunk beds, and even tearful goodbyes and promises to write can bring a nostalgic smile to the crustiest curmudgeon’s eye, which is at the root of Lisa Loeb’s second children’s album. There’s an…
TV Eye
TV Eye gives up her sabbatical from the box and re-embraces TV
FLDS Fashions Turn Frowns Upside-Down
Since the raid on their West Texas ranch, plucky FLDS moms are making their way in the gentile world by selling their signature prairie-style clothing online
Journey to the Center of the Earth
The new version of this Jules Verne classic provides gentle fun, but without the 3-D visual effects “comin’ right at ya,” this journey’s center will not hold.
2008 Austin Chamber Music Festival Schedule
Thursday, July 10 Joel Becktell, cello, and Michelle Schumann, piano Noon, Central Presbyterian Church, 200 E. Eighth Behind the Scenes With the Artists: Cecilia Quartet 1pm, Brentwood Christian School, 11908 N. Lamar Friday, July 11 Behind the Scenes With the Artists: Peter Bay 1pm, Brentwood Christian School, 11908 N. Lamar Blue Rhapsody Festival Opening Gala…
Texas Platters
David Grissom Loud Music (Wide Lode) Austinites first met David Grissom in the late 1980s as a member of Joe Ely’s band. Since then, he’s been a guitarist in demand, performing with an extraordinary range of artists: the Dixie Chicks, John Mellencamp, Allman Brothers, Ringo Starr, and, of course, Storyville. Equally impressive, his songs have…
Arts Review
Tom White’s new drama about wish-fulfillment and a couple facing their final time together suffers from a lack of clarity
Which Way for Puerto Rico? Ask McClintock.
Puerto Rican Sen. Kenneth McClintock stopped in Austin last week with some words of comfort for Dems … for now, anyway
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
Guillermo del Toro’s Hellboy II is the most splendidly imaginative and creatively uncorked piece of fantastic cinema since his Pan’s Labyrinth netted an Oscar trifecta in 2007.
‘US’: Celebrating America in the mix
Inspired by Barack Obama’s presidential run, artist Ricardo Acevedo photographs mixed-race individuals in their homes
Texas Platters
Possessed By Paul James Cold and Blind (Voodoo Rhythm) The stories spun by Kerrville’s Konrad Wert as Possessed by Paul James crackle and pop like lost entries of John Lomax’s field recordings, artifacts of the Old South sung with the conviction of a penitentiary inmate. Recorded live at various locations, Cold and Blind could double…
Arts Review
The 50th Zilker Summer Musical not only brings the animated musical to charming life, it deepens our appreciation of home
The Magic of Mushrooms
Fourteen months after study participants were given psilocybin – the active ingredient in psychedelic mushrooms – as part of a controlled experiment, 64% say that the hallucinogenic experience has increased their sense of well-being, Johns Hopkins University researchers reported July 1 in the Journal of Psychopharmacology. “I feel more centered in who I am and…
Love Story 2050
New futuristic Bollywood love story promises to be full of special effects and is the first of its kind for India.
Lovey and Lovey: Tippling twosome toasts the town (but no titillation, please)
The gin-soaked alter egos of comedians Tami Nelson and Michael Jastroch dish on Austin, alcohol, and their new show
Texas Platters
The Jungle Rockers Cool It Out The sophomore EP from Austin’s premier greasers kick-starts with a yelp and riffs that don’t ease up until the tank’s tapped out. Rumbling out of the garage like Link Wray with a ferocious backbeat, the six tracks mod out the local quartet’s familiar rockabilly jive with a pop touch.…
Arts Review
Austin Museum of Art’s exhibit is successful in revealing nuances of LeWitt’s work, but less so in showing art by his peers
Acevedo Stumbles
Chief Acevedo’s firing of Larry Oliver raises questions about unequal treatment at APD
Before the Rains
This story about life and love in southern India during the twilight of British rule is exquisitely photographed but emotionally overwrought.
‘Kidnapped by Craigslist’: See the incredible obsessive postings!
How two theatre grads from St. Edward’s turned the online phenomenon into a wildly successful play
Texas Platters
The Steps (Kurofune) Relatively unknown in the States, Austin’s Steps have found moderate success in the Land of the Rising Sun. The teenagers’ eponymous debut, impeccably produced by Frenchie Smith, lands locally courtesy of Kurofune Records in Japan, where the band has been in rotation on a local version of MTV. Standout “Dagger,” a murder…
Event Menu
July 11-15
Page Two: Film Vault
With Hellboy II, Guillermo del Toro makes the leap from mere great director to cinematic superhero
Jellyfish
This prize-winning Israeli film is set in contemporary Tel Aviv and is both a realistic and magical portrait of contemporary women.
Drawing Interest
Books with graphic value
Texas Platters
My Education Bad Vibrations (Strange Attractors Audio House) Nearly a decade since their conception, My Education’s fourth release graduates from post-rock prep into its own instrumental class. Though the familiar repetition into swelling crescendos still surfaces, the guitars advance in constant choreography and tension with the strings and percussion, a dance for dominance between the…
Food-o-File
Remember When Dairy brings to life memories of old-fashioned milk products while Tecolote Farm struggles to survive
Oops!
The photographs accompanying the feature “Domy Books: Where Art and the Printed Page Meet,” July 4, were incorrectly credited to Rachel Koper. They were actually taken by Carling Hale and used by her permission. The Chronicle regrets the error.
Also New in Graphic Novels
The Number 73304-23-4153-6-96-8 by Thomas Ott Fantagraphics Books, 142 pp., $28.95 In the 1920s and 1930s, artists such as Frans Masereel (The Idea) and Lynd Ward (Gods’ Man) used woodcuts to produce popular wordless novels which would go on to influence generations of illustrators. The Swiss artist Thomas Ott employs a similar style in his…
Texas Platters
Horse + Donkey Dreams In dreams is where Horse + Donkey does its best work, from the surrealist-tinged art themes of the local trio’s albums to the phantasmal sheen of its live punk specters. On the group’s second release this year, that sleepwalking vibe becomes crystallized in a few moments of clarity. A handful of…
Incredibly Light Biscuits
Local dairy products give a boost to these buttermilk biscuits
Day Trips
Lasyone’s Meat Pie Restaurant in Natchitoches, La., put the sleepy town on the map with its delectable meaty pies
Luv Doc Recommends: 50th Annual Zilker Summer Musical – Disney’s Beauty and the Beast
OK, it’s highly unlikely you are going to get laid by attending the Zilker Hillside Theatre’s production of Beauty and the Beast. In fact, it’s probably not a good policy to go trolling for strange at a venue where nearly half the people are under legal age – even by Arkansas standards. However, if you’re…
