Cover Story
Lake of Fire
Meat Puppets, Chapter 3: Curt and Cris Kirkwood, reunited, and it feels so good
The Beat Goes On: R.I.P. Uncle John Turner
Johnny Winter drummer and the power of three
Live-Blogging the FY 2008 Budget
Just what the title says!
Could Harriet and Alberto Represent You?
Could Miers and Gonzales face losing their law licenses? The answer is a big “maybe.”
Yellow Bike Project Donates Workshops to Winning Neighborhoods
The Yellow Bike Project will host free community workshops this summer for the neighborhood planning areas that win the monthly Kill-a-Watt Challenge competitions. YBP volunteers will help participants repair bikes (no prior experience is necessary), and participants will have access to YBP’s thousands of scrap parts. The Yellow Bike Project has been providing free bikes…
Chronic Invades MSNBC
Yup, your fearless Chronic scribe, staff writer and City Council columnist Wells Dunbar will be on MSNBC today. Well, his voice at least, doing phone interviews regarding Austin’s local government serving as a model for Iraq. (Seriously, the jokes write themselves.) I should be doing four hits, at 10:22am, 11:37am, 12:10pm and 3:30pm. Tune in!…
Beckham Debuts to Hollywood Royalty, and More
Arnold Schwarzenegger, Wayne Gretzky, Kevin Garnett, John Hurt, Ray Winstone, Tom Cruise, Will Smith, Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, Brooke Shields, Eva Longoria, Simon Fuller, Wesley Snipes, Quincy Jones, Bruce Willis, Demi Moore, Ashton Kutcher, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Vivica Fox, George Clooney, Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg, Katie Holmes, Sharon Stone, Drew Carey, and Jada Pinkett Smith…
‘The Bigs’ for Xbox 360 Is an Arcade-Style Thrill Ride
While Sony’s The Show and 2K Sports’ Major League Baseball 2K7 pride themselves on replicating the intricacies and subtleties of an actual big-league game down to the most minute detail, 2K’s The Bigs prefers the fireworks and flash of arcade-style ball and the power-ups and special effects that accompany this fun and fluffy style of…
Are They Talking About the Same Place?
OSHA says the BP site at Texas City is unsafe: BP think’s it’s all rosy.
Just Because You’re Paranoid …
Curious placement of the city’s new red light cameras, no?
Green Events: July 26-Aug. 2
The usual opportunities for local food and brew continue this week, plus TreeFolks launches its new carbon-offset program, and more.
More Bad News for Miers, Bolten, and Bush
House Judiciary Committee hands down contempt citations against Miers and Bolten.
Colbert Takes on the Pot Lobby
You’re on notice!
There’s Nothing Like a Real Coal Fire
Public Utility Commission member pushes for more coal, even after the recent TXU struggle.
Real Kid Rock
Kids get left at the airport, but don’t worry.
The Senator Has No Clothes
Democrat group dresses down Cornyn
ACL: The Afterparty
The Austin City Limits Music Festival announced its official aftershows this morning. They can be viewed here. The concerts should ease the strain of choosing sides during the festival’s more painful pairings (Spoon vs. Queens of the Stone Age), though a few conflicts (MIA vs. LCD Soundsystem, Muse vs. Arctic Monkeys) are left unresolved. For…
Neo-Cons for Top Ten Percent
The undergraduate diversity rule gets some unexpected new allies.
Craig Biggio to Retire Following This Season
Earlier today future Hall of Famer Craig Biggio announced that he’ll be retiring following the conclusion of this season. His playing time will also be reduced drastically for the remainder of the season with manager Phil Garner informing fans of the nights he’s scheduled to play. He will most likely only start the initial game…
Health Care Solutions for Small Businesses
Health care coalition seeks business owners’ input.
Cute Band Alert!
W-S Burn creeps through the woods.
City Council Notebook
What’s happening this week at City Council.
‘Chronicle’ Modulates Frequency of KOOP’s Bid for Unbeaten Season, Wins Instant Classic 7-5
Collectively picking up a softball and delicately cupping it between their fingers and palm for the first time in weeks, The Austin Chroniclers emerged from an extended rain-soaked layoff Sunday night to take a stubbornly muddy field and their toughest test of the young season: the undefeated KOOPerators, purveyors of fundamentally sound community radio and…
Marshalling Forces and Strange Bedfellows
Will Tom Craddick be able to muster enough votes to hang on as speaker if there’s a special session?
TXU Faces Fines
The commercial supply side of the electricity giant gets caught re-signing customers without telling them.
Former Express Infielder Mike Coolbaugh Killed Sunday
The tragic news came in today that former Express infielder Mike Coolbaugh was killed Sunday night after being struck in the head while standing in the first base coach’s box of a AA game between the Tulsa Drillers and the Arkansas Travelers. Coolbaugh leaves behind two sons with another child due in October. A collection…
Speaker on the Scales of Justice
The battle for Craddick’s powers enters a new stage.
Star Dreck
Toby Futrell: Definitely a Trekkie
Bug Watch ’07
Out with the eco-friendly insect spray: Austin issues a mosquito warning.
Perry vs. Ahmadinejad
What may make Rick Perry call a special session?
Tammy Faye Bakker Messner, 1942-2007
Rest in peace, Tammy Faye.
Time to Grab your Life Preservers
The last of the boating restrictions on the local lakes may be lifted Monday.
Hold-Up in Hyde Park
Armed criminals rob convenience store in broad daylight.
Hide the Red Button!
Not a dream! Not a hoax! Dick Cheney will be president – for about two hours.
Former Vet Tech Files Grievance on WilCo Animal Shelter (Updated)
Kathy (Lopez) Abdella files a formal grievance alleging violation of the Texas Whistleblower’s Act.
To-To-Totally Dude
Bank robbery suspect dresses totally gnarly.
Former Congressional Candidate Harrell Hits TV, Radio Waves
The adage that politics makes strange bedfellows is certainly coming true for former District 31 congressional candidate Mary Beth Harrell lately.
Deadline Approaching to Register for Wiffleball Tourney
This Monday, July 23, is the deadline to register for the Texas State Wiffleball Tournament. This tournament takes place Saturday-Sunday, July 28 and 29 at the Milburn Park Wiffleball Complex in Cedar Park. Players will be guaranteed four games and will be charged $50 per team. There will be two skill divisions with Division 1…
Venus: Shocking Blue & Cabanel
The Shocking Blue scores Alexandre Cabanel’s Birth of Venus
Party Planning Experience a Plus
City finally advertises the unfilled Convention Center Director gig.
Perry Plus-One for Bilderberg
Why Rick Perry chose Turkey for his summer vacation and who went with him.
Day Trips
Nacogdoches has more history in its little finger than most other Texas cities have in all of their city limits
Phases & Stages
InterpolOur Love to Admire (Capitol) Interpol’s brooding has always pulsed cold and calculated, a measure that only added to the emotional disturbance and damp decadence of the band’s still brilliant debut, 2002’s Turn On the Bright Lights. With its disappointing and predictable follow-up two years later, Antics, the NYC quartet’s shadowy allure all but disappeared,…
Naked City
Quote of the Week “Lady Bird Johnson cared for all that is beautiful and vulnerable in this world. Every child in a Head Start program, every wildflower brightening our roadways is a testament to her service to our nation. Our thoughts and prayers are with her children and grandchildren, who continue her tradition of public…
Hairspray
While there’s nothing offensive about the wholesomeness of this new version of John Waters’ 1988 cult classic, you wish that it didn’t feel as if every hair were in place.
Soccer Watch
Lightning, Tornados, Dynamo, and more
Phases & Stages
Nicole Willis & the Soul InvestigatorsKeep Reachin’ Up (Light in the Attic) It’s hard not to float back into the shadows of Motown after staring at the soft-lit cover photo of Nicole Willis, eyes come-hither, skin aglow. Even after the album’s second track, “If This Ain’t Love (Don’t Know What Is),” slaps you back into…
Anthony Graves Update: Defense Team Shot Down Again
Judge rules special prosecutor may use recanted – and likely perjured – testimony of man who fingered Graves as his accomplice in multiple murder
I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry
Newest Adam Sandler comedy Chuck & Larry is a movie full of weak moments, contrived to the point of painful, that quickly turns from wild farce to gay-agenda movie.
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Flipping off Ed Sullivan and flagging down Morse
Phases & Stages
Jason IsbellSirens of the Ditch (New West) When Jason Isbell left/was kicked out of the Drive-by Truckers earlier this year, it was a shock. For the past six years, the 28-year-old guitarist/songwriter had been a principal voice in crafting the band’s epic Southern swagger. Sirens of the Ditch, his solo debut, doesn’t surprise as much…
Warren’s Woes: FLDS honcho’s legal troubles mounting
Jailed polygamist prophet served with two new arrest warrants
Introducing the Dwights
Introducing the Dwights is a difficult film to watch. Ostensibly a comedy, it’s really just a collection of awkward stage performances set off by scenes of familial dysfunction.
The Common Law
‘Security freeze’ your identity-theft worries
Phases & Stages
Velvet RevolverLibertad (RCA) Velvet Revolver takes after its mother. Three-fifths Guns N’ Roses ought to make it ornery, but ex-Stone Temple Pilot Scott Weiland’s vocals mulch into the middle of the mix, more rhythm than lead, the band’s musical bed a grungy mire rather than metallic hellion. Libertad flips the end-run finish of the group’s…
Solar Car Race Enlightens, Enriches Students
12th annual Dell-Winston School Solar Car Challenge revs up, takes off
I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone
Although Tsai Ming-Liang’s I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone is nearly wordless and slow moving, the film’s characters are compelling and its pace hypnotic. (AFS@Dobie)
New & Noteworthy
Willie Nelson’s Country Peach Cobbler Ice Cream
Phases & Stages
BattlesMirrored (Warp) What’s the difference between a song and a movement? For New York math supergroup Battles – Helmet drummer John Stanier, Don Caballero guitarist Ian Williams, Lynx guitarist Dave Konopka, and soundman Tyondai Braxton – the two are one in the same. Warp debut LP, Mirrored, wraps around the strength of “Atlas,” a commingling…
Same Old Song for Texas GOP
Texas Republicans kick off 2008 campaign
Paprika
The multilayered Paprika, the newest animated film from Satoshi Kon (Millennium Actress, Tokyo Godfathers) captures the childlike, helter-skelter chaos and curiosity of the human mind better than any other animated film.
Hustle and Show
City Theatre Company’s first year is a lesson in building a new stage and mounting a season at breakneck speed
Bocaditos
Doctor Kracker Flatbreads and Snacker Krackers
Streetcar Desires
The Austin streetcar has a consensus – it still needs champions
Happenings
July 19-25
Eagle vs Shark
Like Napoleon Dynamite, Eagle vs Shark is a little wisp of a movie, a lightweight feature loaded with montage and hung on the multidimensional performance of Loren Horsley as Lily.
Rude Mechanicals: Grrl Action impacts Austin
The Rude Mechs’ greatest achievement? Maybe scoring funding for Grrl Action from nonprofit heavyweight Impact Austin.
Food-o-File
Can I interest you in some rum, frozen margaritas, gelato, and/or Butter Beer?
10 Reasons to Love a Streetcar
The ‘streetcar effect’ – offering Austinites far more than a free ride
@ Chronic: Slusher Speaks
Is Daryl Slusher benefiting from a revolving-door arrangement down at City Hall?
Partner
Not reviewed at press time. This madcap Bollywood comedy stars Khan as a “date doctor” and his real-life best bud Govinda, who needs a little help from the doc.
1 a.m.: No sloppy seconds
What time is it? 1 a.m. – i.e., the fiercely enjoyable brain warp that is improv duo Chris Trew and Tami Nelson
Streetcars: Fast facts
• Streetcar systems run on fixed steel rails. Most often laid directly in the street, rails also can run in a dedicated median or beside the street. • Streetcars usually operate in mixed traffic and share a traffic lane with vehicles; they can share sidewalk stops with buses. • Streetcars are powered by electricity. Typically…
Point Austin: Futrell’s Farewell
City manager’s retirement a curious affair
Arthouse: America’s Got Talent!
Curator Anne Ellegood explains her picks for this year’s New American Talent exhibit at Arthouse
Meat Puppets Reviewed
Meat PuppetsRise to Your Knees (Andoyne) The Meat Puppets defined themselves in the early Eighties through two eponymous releases, a spoon-cooked amalgam of spaghetti-western country and reckless punk, only a fraction of which was watered down into what became grunge. More than two decades later, the trio comes full circle, though time has clearly taken…
Learning From Portland
“Transportation is never an end in itself,” notes Portland, Ore.’s U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer, a leading national streetcar advocate. “It’s always been about shaping growth.” The envy-inspiring success of Portland’s modern new streetcar system has been credited to “a perfect storm” of planning and priorities, city policy, community attitudes, collaborative decision-making, zoning strategies, development opportunities,…
Beside the Point
Can council seize the reins at City Hall?
Arts Review
The City Theatre Company’s production of The Last Days of Judas Iscariot is not scintillating, but it is sufficient
Off the Record
Wining and dining with Trish Murphy, talking tapes with Natrix Natrix Records, and much more
Austin Streetcar Financing Study
Capital Metro has just released the “Austin Streetcar Financing Study.” Download a PDF of the full study here.
The Hightower Report
Country-of-Origin Labeling; and George’s ‘Excessive Punishment’ Doctrine
Arts Review
The Austin Chamber Music Festival’s Principally Precocious was a concert with glorious personality: thoroughly welcoming, energetic, and mischievous
Off the Record
Tapes ‘n Tapes Before the iPod, there was the Walkman, spawning an entire musical culture built on the premise of a perfect mixtape. Austin’s Natrix Natrix Records, formed by Rhonda Turnbough and Seth Whaland in 2004, still prefer the comfort of the cassette’s protective plastic shell, hand-dubbing and distributing limited-edition tapes by local anti-folk artists…
Austin Boards Biofuel Bandwagon
City makes biofuels-conversion progress, as it works to implement Austin Climate Protection Plan, strives to meet goal of carbon-neutral fleet by 2020
Cartoon Networking
Locals finding success at SuperDeluxe.com
Arts Review
Christine Gray’s paintings at Okay Mountain recall old Dutch still lifes but delightfully play with our perceptions
Off the Record
Food for Thought Local firebrand Trish Murphy stepped into the kitchen with the Food Network’s Dave Lieberman to tape a segment for his webcast series, In Search of Real Food, which streams on Yahoo! Food beginning Tuesday. “Food is something that brings people together, like music,” says Murphy one morning at Flipnotics’ new Triangle location.…
Saying Goodbye to Lady Bird
Family friend and spokesman Neal Spelce escorts Luci Baines Johnson down the stairs of the LBJ Library, where her mother, Lady Bird Johnson, lay in state last week. A private memorial service Saturday was attended by a full slate of dignitaries, including first lady Laura Bush, former first ladies Nancy Reagan and Barbara Bush, former…
In Print
Don’t You Forget About Me: Contemporary Writers on the Films of John Hughesedited by Jaime Clark Simon Spotlight Entertainment, 224 pp., $14 For a collection of cinematic madeleines, you couldn’t get a better title than Don’t You Forget About Me. Then again, if the soundtracks of the John Hughes oeuvre couldn’t be plundered to name…
Arab Star
Texas journalist Aziz Shihab on Does the Land Remember Me?: A Memoir of Palestine
Off the Record
True Love Cast Out All Evil Roky Erickson is a survivor, a fact reiterated by the screening of Keven McAlester’s disturbing documentary, You’re Gonna Miss Me, at the Paramount Theatre on Friday. The celebrated 13th Floor Elevators’ frontman is also a machine. His movements are confined to hardwired, salutatory gestures and Pavlovian responses: “Thank you.”…
Mr. Dubose Goes to Washington – Part Time
Local author Lou Dubose commuting to D.C. as new editor of The Washington Spectator
DVD Watch
Ace in the HoleCriterion, $39.95 “I’ve met a lot of hard-boiled eggs in my life, but you, you’re 20 minutes.” So sneers Jan Sterling at Kirk Douglas during 1951’s Ace in the Hole, and you can almost hear Billy Wilder yukking it up softly off-camera. That the peerless Viennese filmmaker (1906-2002) followed the second of…
Page Two: City Slights
In our civic dialogue, grace and respect have all but disappeared
Off the Record
Random Play • The Concert to Save Town Lake, hosted by Kinky Friedman and featuring Bob Livingston, Stephen Bruton, Dale Watson, Bob Schneider, Bill Oliver, Jimmy LaFave, and special guests, happens Friday at Stubb’s and will be dedicated to the memory of Lady Bird Johnson. “This event is helping us bring attention to our cause,…
WilCo Animal Advocates Hire Bulldog Attorney
Attorney Bill Aleshire hired to press for more vigor in Sheriff’s Office animal cruelty and neglect investigation into Williamson County Regional Shelter
TV Eye
Here’s to Holly Hunter
Letters at 3AM
If I hadn’t become a writer, I’m sure I would still keep the scribbles and torn scraps that I jot down like fragments from an inner life
Phases & Stages
Ryan Adams & the CardinalsParamount Theatre, July 14 The lone microphone planted out front of the band told the entire story, Ryan Adams stepping up to it only once during the two sets. The rest of the show found him singing from the folds of the other Cardinals, couched inconspicuously amid the seated sextet stage…
Bill Aleshire’s Open Records Request
The initial request to county officials
After a Fashion
The outlook sure looks rosier when the dress sizes start to drop
Phases & Stages
“In my mind there’s really [only] black American music and the white imitation thereof.” That mind, Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun’s, should reside in a Coptic jar at the Smithsonian, D.C. welcoming the second son of the Turkish ambassador during the jazz age. Atlantic Records: The House That Ahmet Built (Atlantic), a two-hour PBS documentary…
Queen Lo-La Facing RV Park Exile
Trailer court moves to eject Nubian Queen Lo-La
Captivity
Captivity, wherein 24‘s Elisha Cuthbert is abducted and tortured, is the kind of film that gives torture porn a bad name; it’s just soulless, hateful, and freakishly monotonous.
Exit Here to Eat
Dining around Central Texas
Luv Doc Recommends: Concert to Save Town Lake
Really, the question is, who wouldn’t want to live in $500,000 condo in a 44-story high rise on the breathtaking shores of Shoal Creek? Imagine leaning over your balcony railing on the 42nd floor and squinting downward at that tiny fissure of green space below and knowing that, just a few miles upstream under a…
