Cover Story
Kicking the Tires at Fleet
City whistle-blower confirms that the trouble at Fleet Services has been much worse than scrap tires and bad record-keeping. And nobody in charge wanted to hear it.
Houston Fiber Artists Invade Rosedale
Fiber arts at Dragonfly Gallery: July 12-Aug. 13
Praise From the ‘Predators’ Premiere
How home-town talent made sequel possible
Says She Ain’t Got No Extra Hush Puppies to Sell
Doing the Goodie Mob Soul Food crawl
This Week’s Waste of Time
Free gaming, 10 seconds at a time
Time to DNN
Help outfit the Texas Rollergirls via the Derby News Network
Uh-Oh Exxon
Oil giant sued for violations of the Clean Air Act
The Daily Hustle: 7/8/10
More with Morrison
Half Time Mix
The best of 2010 (so far)
Normal MetroRail Service This Afternoon
Freight train derailment caused morning cancellations
Know Your Enemy: Oklahoma City
Highlighting minor-league players visiting the Dell
The Daily Hustle: 7/7/10
More B&C action today
Safer Drilling? Whoda Thunk?
Perry’s project seems too little, too late
OTR – 33 RPM
The week in local music news
The Future of Electricity
Watch the Austin Energy GM candidate forum
The Daily Hustle: 7/6/10
City keeps hitting the snooze button
Days of Thunder
Days of Thunder 1990, PG-13, 107 min. Directed by Tony Scott, Starring Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman. Tom Cruise is an injured NASCAR driver trying to heal up in time for the Daytona 500.
The Geek Shall Inherit the Fests
Austin becomes ground zero for the new cool
The Count of Monte Cristo: Gankutsuou
The Count of Monte Cristo: Gankutsuou Japanese animated television series.
The Cremaster Cycle: Parts 4 & 5 and De Lama Lâmina
The Cremaster Cycle: Parts 4 & 5 and De Lama Lâmina NR, 132 min. Directed by Matthew Barney, Starring Matthew Barney, Ursula Andress. Barney plays a satyr who tumbles through the floor to the sea while motorcycles race in Part 4. In Part 5, Andress plays an imperious monarch who lip-syncs the soprano parts at…
All That Jazz
All That Jazz 1979, R, 123 min. Directed by Bob Fosse, Starring Roy Scheider, Jessica Lange, Ann Reinking, John Lithgow, Cliff Gorman, Ben Vereen. In dazzling spectacle and dance, choreographer Fosse recounts less-than-flattering aspects of his life story, including drug use and womanizing.
Talking In The Reading Room
Foreign librarians learn from Austin volunteerism
Greens On The Ballot (For Now) UPDATED
TX supremes grant stay on earlier ruling
Getting Bitter All The Time
Daniel Clowes’ new book presents a cretin with a heart of, well, flesh.
The Daily Hustle: 7/2/10
Fireworks!
Book Review
An original, humane, and deeply funny novella about a polar bear making it big in L.A.
Letters at 3AM: Dead and Alive on the Fourth of July
A eulogy spoken over the coffin of our empire
Funding Questions Follow Cap Metro’s Court Win
Court victory creates more tension between labor and transit agency
The Last Airbender
M. Night Shyamalan’s live-action film is based on a popular animated series on Nickelodeon, and although the movie retains the series’ mythology, it loses all its humor and suspense.
In Print
This foldout design book is both ridiculously fun and the perfect primer for kids or adults curious about Japan’s giant monsters
The Common Law
Protest High Property Taxes
Empty Seats on the Red Line
Cap Metro going down with the ridership
I Am Love
Tilda Swinton brings a haunting mix of ethereality and carnal gravitas to this fearlessly melodramatic Italian movie, which she also co-produced.
After A Fashion
Despite being rejected by Facebook, Your Style Avatar is still fortunate and worldwide
Page Two: Making Their Marks
Austin loses two legends in one week
End of the Road for Eastside Urban Renewal?
Urban Renewal Board doesn’t relish extending life of ARA
I Hate Luv Storys
In this Bollywood film, an assistant to India’s biggest romantic filmmaker is scornful of love, but then the cynic meets a female production designer who lives for love.
Food-o-File
How quickly can you make an online reservation for Uchiko?
Crossroads 3
I went up to the Crossroads – and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame – fell down on my knees
TDS, Balcones to Split City Recycling Work
Split vote over decision to abandon bid process
Event Menu
This week, celebrate our nation’s birthday and several eateries’ anniversaries
Don’t Go Into the Light
It’s time to lighten the load of light pollution
When Bad Movies Attack
James Nguyen’s underground oddity Birdemic cries fowl
Blowing the Whistle
E-mails show what city officials knew and when they knew it
Packing Heat in the Windy City
Supremes give thumbs-down to Chicago handgun ban
Marfa Bites
Take a break from Austin’s humidity in Marfa’s cool oases
Arts Review
A fine creative team works to reimagine a myth, its own play, and love itself
The Final Buntier
Veggie hot dog eating contest
TV Eye
More summer shows
Arts Review
This week of musical events expanded our sense of what classical guitar can be
Soccer Watch
Aztex host Puerto Rico; WC quarterfinals preview
Phases & Stages
The National High Violet (4AD) Marking its third stellar offering, following 2005 breakout Alligator and 2007’s Boxer, the National’s fifth album continues to perfect misery as an aesthetic achievement. Now a decade in, the Brooklyn brooders have come to serve as antithesis to the hipster clichés of their borough counterparts, the quintet’s Midwest roots grounding…
Arts Review
Davis Gallery artists offer vistas of Texas and beyond into which you can escape
Dining del Lago 2010
Artisan Bistro, Patisserie & Boulangerie 900 RR 620 S. Ste. C-107, Lakeway, 512/263-8728 Wednesday-Saturday, 11am-3pm, 5-10pm; Sunday brunch, 10am-3pm www.artisanbistroaustin.com A shopping center at the entrance to a Central Texas lake resort might be the last place you would expect to find an authentic French bistro featuring fresh pastries and breads, but here it is.…
Increments of Destruction
Chris Jordan’s ‘Running the Numbers’ at Austin Museum of Art
Phases & Stages
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers Mojo (Reprise) He may be approaching 60, but Tom Petty appears to be at his most adventurous. Mojo is a natural follow-up to his work with Mudcrutch, Petty’s original band that reformed to record its debut in 2008. It’s a Southern rock delight that eschews obvious hooks and crowd-pleasing anthems…
Off the Record
Firsthand accounts of the Warped Tour and Delaney & Bonnie from the Riverboat Gamblers’ Mike Wiebe and Bobby Whitlock, respectively
Point Austin: Something Must Be Done
City Manager Marc Ott needs to clean up Fleet Services management
Austin Improv
Three of Austin’s top improv troupes get to play away this summer
Phases & Stages
Twistable Turnable Man: A Musical Tribute to the Songs of Shel Silverstein (Sugar Hill) Shel Silverstein is perhaps best known for illustrated books like Where the Sidewalk Ends, full of pen and ink oddballs stumbling and bumbling through preposterous situations. His stories were often aimed toward kids but were charmingly subversive. His music, like the…
World Cup Watch
A rundown of local viewing parties
City Hall Hustle: Big Thinkers
Council’s pre-vacation litany looks toward the biennium
Acia Gray
Local rhythm tap legend to be honored with a major national award
Phases & Stages
Devo Something for Everybody (Warner Bros.) “What we do is what we do/it’s all the same, there’s nothing new,” sings Devo on “What We Do,” the second track off the quintet’s first LP in two decades. Albums such as 1978’s Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! and 1980’s Freedom of Choice made…
Day Trips
Lost Maples Cafe anchors downtown Utopia as a community center, visitors’ center, and diner
Headlines
� City Council has entered its summer hiatus, returning to the dais for a full meeting July 29. Recycling contract negotiations and planning for upcoming bond elections will give the council a bunch to mull in the meantime. See “City Hall Hustle,” and “TDS, Balcones to Split City Recycling Work.” � The city held its…
CreateAustin
Two years after seeing it, City Council endorses the cultural master plan
Phases & Stages
Sleigh Bells Treats (N.E.E.T. Recordings) Ratatat LP4 (XL) Never mind the hype. Sleigh Bells offers little more than a Barbie version of M.I.A., fitting given that the Brooklyn duo signed to the controversial rapper’s vanity label. Producer Derek Miller crafts aggressive instrumentals with street-sweeper riffs and dirty house beats, as if trying to single-handedly end…
Gay Place
Your Gay Place blows shit up reeeeeeal good
Naked City
News briefs from Austin, the region, and beyond
When That Bump in the Night Becomes Flesh and Blood
Pondering pure evil in Cropsey
Phases & Stages
In the mid-1970s, Azar Lawrence was the preeminent post-Coltrane saxophonist, pairing with McCoy Tyner, Elvin Jones, and Miles Davis while still in his teens. Just as quickly, he disappeared from the scene and didn’t resurface for three decades. Following a 2008 comeback album, Lawrence appears to have hit his stride with Mystic Journey (Furthermore Recordings),…
The Flickering Search for an AE Chief
How many stakeholders does it take to screw in a light bulb?
Res Publica
Citizens’ calendar, July 2-8
Reanimating a Monster Franchise
Producer Robert Rodriguez on Predators
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Tom Cruise, cell phones, and much more
A Glimpse at AE’s GM Candidates
How might these Californians take on Austin’s challenges?
Book Review
From the author of Cloud Atlas, a tale of tenuous East/West relations in turn of the 19th century Japan
The Hightower Report
The Chamber of Commies; and BP’s Steady Flow of BS
GOP Gets Back to Basics
Travis County Republicans’ attack-ad attack
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
This new chapter in the series splits the difference between kickstarter Twilight’s stylish camp and follow-up New Moon’s turgid drama, but still does not come up a winner.
Luv Doc Recommends: Austin Symphony July 4th Concert & Fireworks
In America, we celebrate freedom by making a lot of noise … as opposed to say, meditating quietly on the blessings of liberty. No slam against meditating, mind you, but sitting calmly with your thoughts lacks the ostentatiousness (no, dudebro, it isn’t spelled “Austintatiousness”) of colorful, ear-shattering explosions that make dogs spontaneously urinate on expensive…
