Cover Story
What Would Jean-Luc Do?
In a post-digital world, is cinema dead or just rebooting?
Milk and King Get Top Bling
Obama names LGBT trailblazers among list of “agents of change” receiving Medal of Freedom.
White Men Can’t Jump
The Chronicle laces up its sneakers on Red River
Last FLDS Custody Case Closed
Polygamist prophet’s child bride is moving in with her aunt
Norris Makes MLB Debut
Express standout has solid performance at Wrigley
Now You, Too, Can Own the House on Haunted Hill!
Ennis House on Haunted Hill for Sale
Suddenly, It Makes Sense?
Pearce closing: a theory
Pearce Vote Monday
AISD confirms repurposing meeting to take place Aug. 3
Aztex Let One Get Away
Draw with Montreal feels like a loss
Laying It on ‘Thick’
Wanna see In the Loop? Start with The Thick of It.
Hot Wheels
Cherry Bombs continue their undefeated streak on the banked track
KBH Says N-O on Sotomayor
First Cornyn, now Hutchison come down against Supreme Court nominee
Lonesome Whistle
Williams Nite at the Cactus
Gay New York: Queer Zine-itude
They Shoot Homos, Don’t They?
Pearce Progress Report
AISD to present the new repurposing proposal “by the end of the week”
What the Bleep
Circuits get bent, Furbys are forced to sing – take that, robotpocalypse
Calendar Girls
Texas librarians love their ink
What Rolls Downstairs?
The Gay Place/Face Vlog is coming. Here’s just a tease.
Tru Blood Beverage–Just in Time for School!
The fictional beverage the vamps love on HBO’s True Blood is coming to a grocery store near you.
Where’s the Other $66 Million?
Congressman Doggett savages Texas budget for misusing stimulus dollars meant for schools
Off the Record – 33 RPM
Coma in Algiers goes door to door, Ignitor slays The Spider Queen, and Tia Carrera lays down The Quintessential
Book Review: Kilobyte Couture by Brittany Forks
DIY Geek Chic jewelry
Carstarphen’s New Chiefs
AISD superintendent picks new CFO, chief schools officer and elementary leader
Fresh to Yum-O!
Rachael and Jillian together again.
Red Carpet Wrangle
Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds to premiere in Austin
Deathdream
Deathdream 1974, PG, 88 min. Directed by Bob Clark, Starring John Marley. Horror film about a soldier’s corpse that returns from Vietnam more bloodthirsty than ever.
Cherry Bombing Tonight
Lonestar rollergirls move to the final stages of the 2009 season
West Campus Murder Motivated by Drug Debt
Police have charged 19-year-old Ricky Thompson with capital murder
Gay New York: Jonathan Horowitz at PS1
Andy’s next installment from NYC.
Medi-Pot Patients Score Two Wins
Medi-pot advocates in California and Colorado win big this week
The Lineup
Recommended music for the week of July 24-30
And That’s the Way It Was It Was It Was
Walter, meet Gertrude… Gertrude, this is Walter.
Cornyn: No on Sotomayor
Texas Senator says his doubts about her “liberal judicial activism” too great
Turfcats to Play for SIFL Title
Austin vs. Louisiana in the Presidents Cup this Monday
Keene Prize Winners Announced
Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig takes home $50,000 for her play Lidless
Waterfront Planning: Professionals Needed
Yet activist Mary Arnold gets the first nod
Food-o-File
Sweet news from Panaderia Chuy, Sticky Toffee Pudding Co., and Treat
Texas Platters
Ocote Soul Sounds & Adrian Quesada Coconut Rock (ESL Music) Coconut Rock is as good a clarifier as any for the sublime frequencies of Austin’s Ocote Soul Sounds, an evolving fusion of Latin funk, sedated Afrobeat, and Hot Buttered Soul. The third collaboration between now-local founder of New York City’s Fela Kuti-inspired Antibalas crew, Martín…
City Budget
Public safety spared; fee increases and other cuts likely
TV Eye
Remembering Walter Cronkite
Restaurant Review
Black Sheep Lodge is still pulling in a crowd every night, despite the fact that the liquor license has arrived, so you now have to pay for your drinks
Texas Platters
Rusted Shut Dead (Load) Rusted Shut’s Don Walsh is the cockroach that just won’t die, a result of the singer/guitarist’s “Why not?” approach to rock & roll lifestyles. In that spirit, he returns with the Houston group’s second proper long-player in more than two decades of existence, and they’re certainly in good hands with Providence,…
Perry and the Demise of Safe Passage
Cycling advocates scratch their heads at Perry’s veto of the Safe Passage bill
Paul Mooney
This cutting-edge comedy legend talks about Richard Pryor, SNL, and race
Book Review
Wrangham posits that cooking and the dietary benefits it confers played a crucial role in hominid evolution and the entire arc of human social development
Texas Platters
D-Madness Equinox/Funk Fest As Bavu Blakes professed at D-Madness’ farewell show in May, Washington, D.C.’s gain is Austin’s loss. Fortunately, the local funk impresario/hip-hop mastermind left behind Equinox/Funk Fest, a double album of the one-man band’s appropriately named “D-Funk.” First disc Equinox holds as the collection’s most complete side, jazz-laced hip-hop that slips seamlessly through…
Is the D.A. Hiding Evidence?
Judge Baird wants some answers from an assistant district attorney
American Repertory Ensemble
Coming soon to a computer or TV screen near you: dance and classical music from ARE?
After a Fashion
Was Austin Fashion Week a “Fashion Week”?
Texas Platters
Two High String Band Hot Texas Bluegrass Burrito As a trio, Billy Bright on mandolin and guitarists Brian Smith and Geoff Union turned the Two High String Band into one of the best acoustic music combos in Central Texas. Now, with the addition of the renowned Alan Munde on banjo, Bad Livers co-founder Mark Rubin…
MetroRail Progresses; ‘Dillo Regresses
Dicking around with the ‘Dillo
Playing Through
The reason we need to explore the heavens is the same reason we need to sing arias and write poetry and hit baseballs – to transcend our lesser selves
Arts Review
Even in the record heat, Zilker Theatre Productions’ revival delivers a good time
Texas Platters
Ted Hadji The Particles Don’t Care The McMercy Family Band’s backbeat opens his debut playfully with the clarinet-braced romp of “Page Three Girl,” though settles into safer country fare. Hadji displays flashes of Guy Forsyth and Todd Snider in juxtaposing sincerity (“Sad Man’s Revenge,” “All We Have,” “Too Close”) against the quirky pop of “Get…
Debate on Posthumous Pardons Continues
Sen. Rodney Ellis has requested an opinion from Attorney General Abbott
Oops!
In last week’s News feature about the yogurt shop murders (“The Never-Ending (Crime) Story”), we inadvertently switched the names of Sarah and Jennifer Harbison in reporting that Sarah had been dating Sam Buchanan, when in fact it was Jennifer who was dating him at the time of her death.
Arts Review
This 1775 English comedy of manners is reset in 1980s America and suffers for it
Texas Platters
The Mars Volta Octahedron (Warner Bros.) Since the Mars Volta’s magnetic debut EP, 2002’s Tremulant, At the Drive-In expat tandem Omar Rodriguez Lopez and Cedric Bixler Zavala have followed a career trajectory that parallels a round of Tetris: musical shapes of various size and color falling with ever-increasing speed and complexity. Experimental megalomania ensued unchecked…
Headlines
• City Council returns from summer break today (Thursday), with an agenda bursting at the seams. For a breakdown, see “City Hall Hustle.” • Barton Springs Pool has sprung a leak! Actually, about a dozen leaks, in the bypass culvert that directs Barton Creek water around the pool. Repairs will cost the city at least…
Page Two: Variation on a Theme
Following the logical threads of a revolution
Arts Review
This stark exhibit conjures a melancholy introspection rare in art about male identity
Texas Platters
David Ducharme-Jones Weeds Rainravens’ guitarist Ducharme-Jones showcases his blues side on Weeds, drifting from the mellow slink of “Golden” to the horn-spiked groove of “Say What You Want.” “Goodnight Roy B” and fusion giant Billy Cobham’s “Red Baron” lay jazz backdrops for D-J’s supremely smooth six-string maneuvers, while a cover of Al Green’s “I’m a…
Naked City
News briefs from Austin, the region, and beyond
City Hall Hustle: Small Council, Huge Agenda
Maybe they could use a few more members after all …
Day Trips
Terry Jones of Jewett in Leon County is a shade-tree sculptor who destroys illegal firearms in the making of his art
Texas Platters
Fatback Circus Dark World Fatback Circus delivers soaring pop and rugged rock behind twin brothers Nathan and Aaron Campbell. The local quartet’s sophomore offering streams through eight songs in mini rock opera fashion, and though expectably overdramatic at points (the Queen-meets-sludge-metal title track), the band unloads fury and finesse in equally impressive measures.
Res Publica
Citizens calendar, July 23-30
Point Austin: Stepping on Your Punchline
When free speech becomes hate speech
Gay Place
Set up the spankin’ machine for Charlie’s and ‘Bout Time!
Texas Platters
King Fisher Sweet Tea & Cigarettes Uvalde transplants Val Link and Catlin Rutherford split the difference between 1990s alternative and blues-based rock. The former’s vocals drudge through STP and Candlebox-like effects on “Pest” and “Some Other Messiah,” then water down soul on “Indifference Bound” and “The Game.” Acoustic closer “As Nietzsche Said” feels equally estranged.
TDF Watch
You will read in the Statesman today that Lance Armstrong came up short yesterday in the 17th and most difficult stage of the Tour de France and dropped out of podium position when he was unable to keep up with teammate Alberto Contador on the final climbs. Don’t believe it. Those who watched the race…
Street Connections
Reclaiming the humanity of people living on the streets by telling their stories
Have Food, Will Travel
West Texas’ wee oasis of fine dining is just six hours of driving from Austin
Texas Platters
Watch Out for Rockets Beasts With Hearts of Gold Outside of garage rock, lo-fi’s no longer all the rage, but Watch Out for Rockets has some fun with it. Led by Murdocks drummer David Jones, the local trio’s sophomore outing is a kaleidoscopic, 20-song trip of carnival beats (“Cattle Prod”) and rough-draft pop songs (“Lift…
Readings
Rushkoff’s latest is not just a critique of corporate culture but a call to arms, as well
March of the Flower Children
The last interview with Seeds frontman and oh-so-brief psychedelic Austinite Sky Sunlight Saxon
Texas Platters
Language Room One by One Don’t let the production credits from Blue October’s Matt Noveskey fool you. Language Room’s alt-rock debut is slick and radio-friendly, but the local quartet performs with the earnest sincerity of Clarity-era Jimmy Eat World and has an ace up its sleeve in guitarist Scott Graham (“In Lines”). Only overwrought ballads…
The Ugly Truth
In this formulaic battle of the sexes, no one will be mistaking Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler for Hepburn and Tracy.
Readings
Just the sort of guide a literate, death-curious person would want to spend his or her dwindling time perusing
Off the Record
Coma in Algiers hand-delivers its goods, while Tia Carrera and Ignitor pay their last respects to Room 710
Pearce Closing: Scorched Earth, Uncertain Horizon
Pearce community is trying to work through the closure crisis
Luck
New Bollywood film is an action thriller featuring characters who court Lady Luck.
The Common Law
Composting Your No. 2s? Austin Officially Welcomes the ‘Humanure’ Movement
Sara Hensley Turns Over a New Leaf
The new PARD director has big ideas – to realize them, she’ll have to raise big bucks
Judge to Irving
Will the Irving decision affect elections in Austin?
(500) Days of Summer
This romantic comedy is a deeply funny, seductive, and surprisingly honest dramatization of the ways we snooker ourselves into incompatible love.
Texas Platters
The Blue Hit Move In Less is clearly more on TBH’s proper debut. The sparse yet engaging backdrop provided by guitarist John McGee and cellist David Moss leaves plenty of room for the precious frailty and jazzy inflections of vocalist Grace Rowland, who recalls Regina Spektor without all the quirk.
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Saltwater crocodiles, Beatles, toddlers, and more
The Love Connection
Michael Moore hearts Austin and two of its funniest filmmakers, Bob Byington and Ben Steinbauer
Can Austin Avoid the Stigma of Dirty Air?
The Clean Air Force aims to keep the Austin area out of the ozone
Texas Platters
The Soldier Thread Shapes (Sea Change) This young Austin fourpiece digresses from the post-rock inclinations of its debut EP, Fevers and Fireworks, into processed beats (“The Silver”), ambient classicalism (“Seven”), and more straightforward indie rock (“Criminals”) that hinges on the harmony between violist Patricia Lynn and guitarist Todd Abels. Lavish arrangements from Tosca String Quartet…
The Hightower Report
Remaking Trade Policy; and Wall Street’s Fee Scammers
After Life and Liberty
Andrew Shapter’s Happiness Is
Social Studies ‘Experts’ Don’t Know Much About History
State Board of Education strikes again!
Texas Platters
Til We’re Blue or Destroy Helmed by producer Erik Wofford, the long overdue eponymous debut from this local broken social scene recalls a more drugged out Polyphonic Spree. TWBOD expands and contracts with relative ease, jumping from the gorgeous, shoegazed melodrama of “All Shook Up” to the jolting, electro-pop “Punk Rock Decisions” without thought or…
Event Menu
Local foodie events for July 24-29
DVD Watch
Go, go, Godard!
Usual Suspects Bankrolling GOP Primary Campaigns
Friends with money giveth to Perry and Hutchison
Luv Doc Recommends: Irish Tunes
Admit it. You wish you were Irish – well, except for that kelly green thing … or worse yet the Protestant orange. Damn, Ireland, does someone need to bust out a Pantone color swatch? That’s it? That’s all you got? Makes you appreciate the fashion sense of the Crips and the Bloods. And yet, Irish…
