Cover Story
Can the Bands Play On?
The Live Music Task Force tunes up to protect Austin’s claim to fame
Netroots Shuffle
The Hustle escapes City Hall to invade Netroots Nation – featuring bloggers, politicians, filmmakers, and more – plus Al Gore?
Enchanted and PACE, Not Enchanted Vs. PACE
PACE spokesman calls to calm the flames of outrage about Enchanted Forest
Zogby Poll Shows Obama With Huge Electoral Lead
Texas numbers look fishy
Book Worms
Local musicians unleash their inner sci-fi geeks
First Day of Council
Morrison and Shade take to the dais
No Time for Losing
No one ever likes to lose. There’s not much more an athlete hates than losing. Except maybe losing when a playoff birth is on the line. That’s exactly what happened last Friday night when the Austin Wranglers visited the Rio Grande Valley Dorados. Not only did the Wranglers lose, but they only put up 17…
Aztex Playoff Games Streaming Live
One error and one update to the print edition of “Soccer Watch” (and to my last post online): The conference final will be on Saturday, 6pm Central – not Sunday as I reported. And, happily, I’ve just heard that the Southern Conference playoffs will be streamed live online at: http://ftslive.rbm.tv/. So, it’s: Friday, July 25:…
Sometimes Rock Forgets Where It Comes From
Dead Pyrates rock the 17th century tonight at Lamberts
CruVilla DeVille
To the manor, rebuffed.
Girls Rock Camp Showcase Showdown
The second time around….
Feds Take On Polygamists
Harry Reid is fighting to keep us all safe from the evil polygamists. Phew.
New Pot-Law Blog
New source for pot-law news hits the wire
Talking About Not Telling
The House considers the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.
Aztex Playoff Preview and Miscellaneous News
The Austin Aztex U-23s lost their season finale in El Paso, 3-1, and stumble into the Premier Development League playoffs (to be held in Orlando, Fla.) on a three-game road losing streak. The Mid South champs need to get back into early-season form against the Bradenton Academics on Friday. The Laredo Heat face the Central…
On Location From Planet Rock
Science fiction hip-hop vids
AFF to Award Sam Shepard
AFF to award Sam Shepard
Bush Should Know About Drunk
Dubya talks economics and housing prices in Houston. Nation removes jaw from floor.
On the Chron Happy Hour: Cocktail World Cup Edition
Don’t forget, tonight is a very special On-The-Chron Happy Hour where we will be providing samples of some of the top Austin competitors for this year’s Cocktail World Cup. Try out a few of these world-class beverages and vote for who you think is the best. If you can’t make it feel free to check…
TV on the Internet: Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog
Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog
City Budget: Minimal Slippage
Sparse cuts, few surprises in proposed fiscal document
Enchanted Forest Gets Organized
Community gets behind South Austin art institution.
Joe Strummer Was From Mars
The Future Is Unwritten, on DVD
Meme and Response
How to hold Congress accountable in nine easy cents.
Girl Pride (and Haircuts, Too!)
A new girls’ online mag gets launched
The Pre-Pre-Get-Out-the-Vote Effort
Travis County Dems continue pre-November ground work
The Red Shoes
The Red Shoes 1948, NR, 133 min. Directed by Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, Starring Anton Walbrook, Marius Goring, Moira Shearer. To follow the demands of her art or her heart: That’s the dilemma faced by the ballerina in this movie, which tells a story that has piqued young girls’ interest in ballet for decades since.…
Astros Trade Reineke for Wolf
Earlier today the Astros bolstered their struggling (and currently Roy Oswalt-less) starting rotation with the acquisition of left-hander Randy Wolf from the San Diego Padres. In return, the Padres received 26-year-old Round Rock Express right-hander Chad Reineke. This is a low-risk, low-reward deal for the Astros but should be useful in eating-up some innings down…
Daddy’s Little Girl Gets Mean
Teresa Jeffs v. Natalie Malonis, Round Two
Gas Prices Send Central Texans to the Bus
Capital Metro awash in new riders
BBC Uncovers British Columbia’s Pot Mafia
The Cannuck Pot Mafia Exposed!
Democratic Block Party Tonight
Mark Strama speaking at Travis Co. Dems’ party tonight
The New New in Indie Filmmaking
Filmmaker Magazine just announced its annual 25 New Faces of Independent Cinema, and while there’s a whole host of SXSW 08 alum on the list (including Benh Zeitlin, Barry Jenkins, Joshua Safdie, and Tom Quinn), it’s the inclusion of a pair of fraternal filmmakers that’s special cause for cheer: Austin’s the Zellner Brothers. Their feature…
KOOP Benefit Sunday
OMG, doesn’t it seem like everyone’s riding a scooter these days? The folks over at KOOP think it’s a good idea, especially since gas is going to be a trazillion dollars a gallon by the end of the summer. Sunday at the United States Art Authority, the station raffles off a sweet scooter from Scooter…
Tuesday with Teeth
Tonight just got less tame
Gramm Gets Huffy
McCain sidekick blames Democrats for his departure from campaign.
Ebert exits, Lyons and Mankiewicz enter
Roger Ebert leaves the syndicated series At The Movies after 23 years.
Party Faithful
Can Dems entice the faithful without resorting to straw men? Very gay straw men?
Elvis Mitchell: Under the Influence
Elvis Mitchell on TCM
Netroots: Next Stop, Pittsburgh
Blogger convention to head north next year, Austin progressives recovering
FLDS Bride Says Attorney Should Shut Up
Daughter of polygamist prophet Warren Jeffs tells her attorney to “shut your mouth” and stop talking crap about her “spiritual” marriage
Bell Files for SD-17
Former U.S. Congressman to run in Galveston State Senate seat
More Good S.A. Pop
The Krayolas color outside the lines
Blue vs. Gray … er, Red
After the past seven years, it’s time for a Reconstruction
Ebert & Roeper is History
Richard Roeper has made it official: He’s leaving At the Movies with Ebert & Roeper after eight years. It really never was the same without Roger Ebert. For that mater, it was never the same without Gene Siskel. There was something about the way the two grated on each other. It was easy to choose…
Gore was Here
The former vice-president’s appearance wows the Netroots Nation.
Jones and the Green Economy
Netroots Nation closing keynote put the 2008 election in terrifying perspective
It Takes Huevos
Oh Ahhhhnold, you have such nice eggs!
Barr? Here? Really?
Libertarian presidential candidate makes surprise stop by Netroots Nation.
The Dry Wit of Antonin Scalia
Lawrence Lessig shares a Justice Scalia story with the netroots
Katrina and the Lessons Not Learned
New documentary about Hurricane Katrina uses old footage to teach the same lessons.
More Gore and Extra Pelosi
Gore and Pelosi take questions from the Netroots floor.
Surprise Guest at Netroots
Al Gore turns up for Netroots Nation.
Dean’s ‘Register for Change’ Rally
Footage from Howard Dean’s Thursday rally
Pelosi on the Spot – UPDATE
House speaker starts two-hour Q&A at Netroots Nation
It’s the Issues, Stupid
How the mainstream media is letting down … its reporters?
Eastside High Needs You
Austin ISD holding enrollment fair for Eastide High campus today.
Yes, Michelle, You Always Order the Tuna
Michelle Paradise and her Chicken of the Sea fetish.
And Obama’s Running Mate is …
Poll suggest Powell would be Obama’s strongest choice. Yes, THAT Powell.
‘In Search’ of a Release Date
Apple’s got a fancy new trailer for In Search of a Midnight Kiss up, and I highly recommend you go check it out right-this-very-second, and then thrum your fingers anxiously until IFC Films finally announces an Austin release date. (It opens in New York and L.A. on August 1.) In Search… is the third feature…
Wranglers Get Revenge
Wranglers 60, Renegades 54. How did it happen? How did a team, who started the season with zero wins and three losses, come back and win eight of their next 11 games and be in first place in the division? The Wranglers opened up their season with a couple of bad losses, one of them…
The Inevitability of Death and Texas
The University of Texas’ Harry Ransom Center – unsurpassed in both the quality of its collection and in its ability/buying power to lure talent – figures strongly in a recent article in the UK’s Guardian. (Last year, The New Yorker ran a fascinating profile of the HRC and director Tom Staley here.) The gist of the…
Campaign Cash: Finance Reports Come In
Noriega still running uphill; locally, Dems prepared to solidify power
Krugman in ‘Nixonland’
New York Times columnist on the media’s rightward shift
Health Officials on Lookout for Woman Exposed to Rabies
According to a press release from the Austin/Travis County Health and Human Services Department, officials are hoping to find a local woman who they believe was exposed to rabies last weekend. Described as a five-foot-four-inch-tall twentysomething singer-songwriter and recent Florida transplant with shoulder-length brown hair and a name that “may begin with the letter ‘L’,”…
Harris on the Colorado
Houston-area Democratic hopefuls at NetRoots Nation
Simon Joyner Pays His Toll in Austin
Before Omaha became the indie hub of Conor Oberst and Saddle Creek, its greatest export was the enigmatic singer-songwriter Simon Joyner. Since his 1993 debut, Room Temperature, Joyner’s songs have delivered dark, melancholy visions that conjure equal parts Dylan and Cohen with the ramshackle solemnity of contemporaries like Vic Chestnutt and Lambchop. Though championed by…
Film Fight: The Photo Essay
“He is not agent of CIA! He is writer of comic book!”
In Cyberspace, No One Can Hear You Scream
Alex Gibney, the Dean campaign, and beyond
Event Menu
July 18-24
Phases & Stages
You Think You Really Know Me: The Gary Wilson Story (Plexifilm) Gary Wilson could have been written off as another misunderstood, possibly mentally unstable artist who put out one album and slipped into obscurity. Fortunately, fate often has a way of intervening, and it does so in Michael Wolk’s documentary of the eccentric Endicott, New…
Olympian, Pro Wrestler, All-Around Nice Guy
6 feet 1 inch. 380 pounds. When Austin-based Olympic-weightlifter-turned-professional-wrestler Mark Henry enters the ring, announcers call him the world’s strongest man. He is currently one of the biggest names in sports entertainment, as his employers at World Wrestling Entertainment call it. His most recent bout in Austin, on Feb. 4, was in front of 13,001…
Happenings
What’s on your political plate this week: July 17-23
In Memoriam
Feisty local will be missed by many
Reefer Madness
U.S. ranks tops in drug use
TxDOT Clocked for Toll Trafficking
Texas Department of Transportation gets tough reception at Sunset Advisory Commission
Food-o-File
Austin’s got a crop of new summer offerings, including myriad cupcake boutiques, the Big Ass Burger, and ‘Le Burrito’
Rockin’ Solutions: A Four-Piece Combo
Highlights of solutions emerging from the four Live Music Task Force subcommittees
Point Austin: The Perps Walk
FISA, Congress, and the rule of law
In Dreams
Camera in hand, D’Ette Cole makes images to bridge the gaps between night and day
Review
South America invades Austin food scene
The Hightower Report
Citigroup’s Big Deal; and The Fight for Change in Washington
Quote of the Week
“We have … become a nation of whiners. You just hear this constant whining, complaining about a loss of competitiveness, America in decline.” – Phil Gramm, former Texas senator and now, thoroughly clueless economic adviser to John McCain
Summer Stock Austin: I’m Your Puppet
Trouble Puppet Theatre Company teams up with Summer Stock Austin to take Jack up the beanstalk in a whole new way
Younger Than Yesterday
Brothers and Sisters, tighter than yesterday, looser than today
TV Eye
A new ABC Family drama about teen sex would be groundbreaking if it didn’t lean so much on stereotypes
Headlines
• Texas Monthly Editor Evan Smith was named president and editor-in-chief of the 35-year-old magazine this week, replacing founder and publisher Mike Levy, who retires in August. • The progressive blogosphere – along with headliners like Howard Dean, Nancy Pelosi, John Dean, and Richard Clarke – gathers this weekend at the Austin Convention Center as…
Acia Gray: From Austin, an Ambassador of Tap to the World
The artistic director of Tapestry Dance Company has just been named president of the International Tap Association
All in the Family
While Brothers and Sisters’ sound hearkens back to the harmonizing icons of the 1960s and 1970s, Will and Lily Courtney’s inspiration originates closer to home. Their mother, Cynthia Clawson, is a renowned gospel singer, releasing more than 20 albums in her career and garnering five Dove Awards from the Gospel Music Association. In 1981, she…
Film News
Dallas continues to dominate the Texas Motion Picture Alliance
Naked City
News briefs from Austin, the region, and elsewhere
‘Skate! A Night at the Rink’: Heaven on Wheels
Choreographer Allison Orr liked the moves she saw at the rink so much, she invited local skaters to dance
Brothers and Sisters Reviewed
Brothers and Sisters Fortunately (Calla Lily) Cracking open the cellophane wrapping the cardboard sleeve of Fortunately, one can sense the sunshine within. The disc doesn’t disappoint. Brothers and Sisters’ second effort is big, bright, and balmy. It doesn’t travel far from their debut, but it’s a step up in songwriting, from the propulsive “You’re Gone”…
DVD Watch
Six animated visions of the Caped Crusader, as envisioned by six unique animé directors and six different writers
Beyond City Limits
• Texas is approaching a critical crossroads when it comes to wind power. Legislators have directed the Texas Public Utilities Commission to address inadequate power line capacity between the state’s large cities and West Texas, which is seeing a bonanza of investors building new wind farms. The PUC is considering three scenarios for new line…
Arts Review
Tongue and Groove Theatre’s new show leaves you feeling like something dark and heavy has been lifted up and carried far, far away
Hard Back
You got grime in my hip-hop!
It’s All Fun and Games Until Somebody Starts World War III
A Cold War classic turns 25
Will ‘Safe-P’ and TDCJ Be Held Accountable?
Legislative committee will hear testimony on a controversial substance abuse treatment program
Arts Review
This theatrical tribute to the good doctor tries to take on too much at times, but its heart is in the right place
Off the Record
Putting a price tag on the new exclusivity of rock & roll records
Fantastic Fest 2008 Lineup Announced
The homegrown but internationally lauded Fantastic Fest – ground zero for all things horror, sci-fi, fantasy, animé, and the catch-all “cult” – announced today the first wave of its 2008 festival lineup. Some of the highlights include Let the Right One In, the Swedish vampire import that won Best Narrative Feature at this year’s Tribeca…
Defense Cries Foul on Yogurt Shop DNA
Prosecutors’ yogurt shop murder case appears to be in trouble
Arts Review
The kickoff to the Austin Chamber Music Center’s 12th festival was as much theatre as it was concert
Phases & Stages
Beck Modern Guilt (DGC Records) “I think I’m stranded, but I don’t know where,” confides Beck in his familiar skittering lilt on “Orphans,” opening his 10th album with a reflexive anxiety that only deepens with each track. Following the aimless, regressive spin of 2005’s Guero and 2006’s The Information back to Beck’s 1990s pastiche pose,…
Day Trips
Paddling the Colorado River from Little Webberville Park to Big Webberville Park is about as easy of a canoe or kayaking trip as you can imagine
ARA All Up in the Victory’s Grill
Unpopular Austin Revitalization Authority projects are threatening to crowd the Victory Grill
Shocked at ROT! Round Up the Usual Suspects!
Offended peepster takes a gazillion photos of nude revelers
Phases & Stages
Nocturnal austerity crystallizes a quartet of recent ECM releases, wintry sunlight bleaching the title track to January by the Marcin Wasilewski Trio. The pianist’s career birthed into a mid-1990s meet with Polish trumpet sage Tomasz Stanko, alongside double bassist Slawomir Kurkiewicz and drummer Michal Miskiewicz, when he was only 16. On Wasilewski’s debut as bandleader,…
Oops!
The July 11 “Mr. Smarty Pants” column said that a person can microwave popcorn with three or more cell phones ringing simultaneously and pointing at the unpopped kernels. This factoid was disproved by Snopes.com, and Mr. Smarty Pants apologizes for any inconvenience this factoid may have caused.
Thinking Beyond Coal
Coal mines are mucking up the environment, from the Appalachian mountains to the outskirts of Austin
Meet Dave
Eddie Murphy reteams with his Norbit director for this new extraterrestrial comedy in which miniature aliens operate a spaceship that has a human form.
Readings
A Texan veteran’s memoir on combat and its devastating aftereffects
Phases & Stages
Three 6 Mafia Last 2 Walk (Hypnotize Minds/Columbia) The Oscar-winning “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp” catapulted Three 6 Mafia from hip-hop’s Most Known Unknown to another million-dollar Memphis collective. Three years and one Crunchy Black exit later, DJ Paul and Juicy J stand as Three 6’s Last 2 Walk. Their ninth LP puts…
Page Two: Critical Grasp
Civil disobedience and free speech are cut from the same unalienable cloth
Bringing the Net to Austin
How Netroots Nation selected Austin for its meet-up for bloggers
Savage Grace
You can almost smell the desperation in the twisted psychosexuality of Savage Grace, the film purportedly based on the true story of a mother-son relationship that went tragically wrong.
Readings
George Lakoff writes on a culture war in which “the main battlefield is the brain”
Phases & Stages
Melvins Nude With Boots (Ipecac) For a band that’s spent most of its career playing largely the same riff faster and slower, the Melvins have made it work. After a few questionable efforts, 2006’s (A) Senile Animal brought them to the brink of thud-rock catchiness, and Nude With Boots, their second effort with Big Business’…
Playing Through
Lions Municipal Golf Course is an Austin treasure that deserves to be saved
The Catalyst: Chris Bowers
A Q&A with the editor of Open Left – who’ll be one of Netroots Nation’s busiest attendees
The Dark Knight
The visuals soar and Heath Ledger’s Joker is magnificent, although this Batman movie is grim and chilly, as if made for our age of anxiety.
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
The unoriginal Oreo, humans get HIV from monkeys, and more
Phases & Stages
Coldplay Viva la Vida (Capitol) Sure, Chris Martin still has a knack for melodrama, but damned if producer Brian Eno isn’t the man who saved Coldplay. To the London quartet’s simple melodies, heart-wrenching lyricism, and what had become formulaic songwriting, Eno has added texture, complexity, and maturity. From the Celtic swatches of “Cemeteries of London”…
Letters @ 3AM
As much fun as it is to blame speculators and oil companies, and as certain as it is that some reforms would help, the real culprit is global demand
Republicans on the Defense
Conservatives aim to prove their own blog-worthiness at the Defending the American Dream Summit this weekend
Mamma Mia!
This film adaptation of the Broadway adaptation of a catalog of Swedish disco hits retains all the fun but remains astonishingly silly.
The Common Law
But I Was Wearing My Seat Belt!
Phases & Stages
Catherine MacLellan Church Bell Blues (True North) Joining the recent influx of accomplished female singer-songwriters from Canada like Kathleen Edwards and Julie Doiron, Catherine MacLellan’s sophomore LP unfolds with a simple, comforting beauty. Precise and pure, MacLellan’s voice envelopes with graceful ease, touches of Emmylou Harris and Gillian Welch flowing into a permeating influence of…
Beside the Point
Brewster’s brewing a whole new role for himself
Animal Defenders Seek Ban on Circus Wildlife
Just in time for the circus – animal-rights group brings its message to town
Brick Lane
Brick Lane shows us the life of a Bangladeshi woman, who moves to London to marry a man she’s never met, keep house, raise a family, and eventually act on her squelched yearnings.
After a Fashion
Stephen goes on a desperately needed staycation
Phases & Stages
Martha Wainwright I Know You’re Married But I’ve Got Feelings Too (Zoë) It’s been so long (three years) since Martha Wainwright’s self-titled debut that at least one critic began to worry that her career would be subsumed by that of big brother Rufus. That worry’s all for naught, thankfully, because I Know You’re Married produces…
Industrious Anarchy
Anarchy Championship Wrestling is striving to keep the wrestling tradition alive in Austin
Mansion Fire Fallout
DPS head Col. Tommy Davis steps down; meanwhile, Texas first lady Anita Perry steps up to raise funds for restoration
Encounters at the End of the World
Werner Herzog, contemporary cinema’s most consistently lyrical examiner of the (in)human condition, returns to the documentary form in yet another wonderfully improbable locale: Antarctica.
Beyond the Spritzer
Cooling off with summer wines
Luv Doc Recommends: First Ever Film Fight Party
When historians finally hammer out a coherent synopsis of post-Eighties America, it will surely be a fascinating paragraph: A couple of Gulf Wars, Branch Davidians, the internet, the dot-com boom and bust, presidential fellatio, electoral thievery, the Twin Towers, the War on Terror, the moron terror (aka George Jr.), global warming, Iraq, Paris Hilton, Britney…
