Cover Story
Why Are Republicans Suddenly for Ibogaine?
few years ago, former Republican Texas Gov. Rick Perry traveled to Mexico to take a psychedelic. During his youth, Perry experienced three concussions and has dealt with mild insomnia and anxiety since his early 20s – around the same time he began serving in the Air Force. After years of his own research and having…
News
South Austinites Worry About Planned Homeless Navigation Center
Residents living near I-35 and Oltorf continue to worry about a homeless navigation center that city officials are placing in the area. A group of them recently formed a nonprofit called the South Austin Neighborhood Safety Alliance, which is meeting regularly with city and county officials, local law enforcement, representatives from the Travis Early College…
14 Years After DACA’s Inception, Dreamers Are Facing Renewal Delays, Job Loss, Deportation
Juan Rodríguez remembers the year in high school when all of his friends got their driver’s licenses. Some of them even got their first cars. Hoping to get his license too, Rodríguez asked his mother about the process. And for the first time in his life, his mother told him that he wasn’t a U.S.…
The Week’s Biggest News in Brief: June 25 – July 1
KUT’s Uncertain Future: Following UT-Austin’s decision to fire KUT and KUTX general manager Debbie Hiott, donors to the university’s news outlets are now considering the future of the station, according to KVUE. Hiott’s firing follows disputes between the university and KUT regarding the news outlet’s plans for the KUT Festival that was supposed to be…
Republican-Majority SBOE Approves Bible-Infused Required Reading Lists and Social Studies Curriculum
In the Barbara Jordan State Office on June 22, a group of Texas senators and two Republican members of the State Board of Education, Julie Pickren and Brandon Hall, bowed their heads in prayer to open a press conference. “We’re not educating children of the world. We’re educating the children of Texas,” Pickren said, prompting…
Music
Tim Stegall Details Punk’s Rise in Anarchy in the Studio
If you wore in your leather jacket at Raul’s or got your punk concert recommendations from this very publication, you’re likely familiar with Tim Stegall’s ink-black spiked ’do and clever, rhapsodic writing. Some people are born to be punk – and this longtime Chronicle contributor is one of them, through and through. “I wasn’t hearing…
proun Creates a Nostalgic Tempest on Maybe Luck
A cool wind blows through Maybe Luck, heavy with the smell of a storm. From the first gentle notes of “Satellite,” a breakdown is imminent. The opener’s question mark-bending guitar notes and breathy harmonies swirl suspensefully into its final moments, but the downpour begins in earnest in the follow-up title track. Grunge sensibilities and math…
Don Cento Launches His New Project With Halfway to Mellowtown
Guitarist Don Cento has been a subtle mover and shaker in the Austin scene for years, producing or performing with everyone from Jerry DeCicca and Sarah Jaffe to Little Jack Melody and Ume – not to mention his own bands El Cento and Shibboleth. With experience in power pop, jazz, and Americana, Cento whips it…
it could be worse Has One Foot in the Door
On their debut EP, emo trio it could be worse are sharpening their teeth – and Erin Malone is sharpening her axe. The project opens with her crisp, twinkling guitar as singer-bassist Brittany Leaning explodes, “Get back, if I let you close/ I’m afraid I’ll explode.” ICBW plants their first flag with lyrics written seemingly…
Music Notes
BMI Plug & Play Thursday 2, Güero’s Taco Bar After several events in Nashville, BMI brings its free Plug & Play series to Austin. Tallula Junction, Magic Rockers of Texas, and Henry Invisible will each play four-song sets inside Güero’s. Carson McHone Friday 3, Hole in the Wall Folk/country singer-songwriter Carson McHone returns to her…
Arts + Culture
Antone’s Pilots Vinyl Recycling Program, Barrett’s Bolsters Austin’s Growing Coffee Reputation, and Rosewood Gains an Art Space
Antone’s Record Shop is joining Warner Music Group and independent record stores across the nation in a pilot vinyl recycling program. Last month, a manufacturing study by WMG, GZ Media, and Abbey Road Studios found that recycled vinyl can be successfully reprocessed into high-quality new pressings, opening the door to reduce physical media’s carbon footprint…
Medium Is the Message
Our relationship with images has never been more expansive, nor more exhausting. The camera in everyone’s pocket means that almost every corner of the world has been documented every way you can think of. But as we’ve hit peak visual saturation – and as AI now generates hyperreality – have we gained any new insight?…
Screens
The Invite Review: Plays With Knives
If you decide summer sex comedy The Invite is not to your taste, other flavors are available. There’s the 2020 original, Spanish filmmaker Cesc Gay’s Sentimental, followed by another half-dozen iterations from around the globe, including Germany, the Czech Republic, and South Korea. I can’t speak to their quality; what I am qualified to report…
Maddie’s Secret Review: Obnoxious Comedy May Leave You a Little Sick
Ever gone to a bar and a restaurant, and there’s been a really obnoxiously loud party there that insists on screech-laughing at the constant barrage of in-jokes they hurl at each other, and if that wasn’t bad enough they keep looking at you like you should be getting the joke too, and then rolling their…
A Night of Nobelity With the Pipkins
Twenty years ago, Christy and Turk Pipkin made a movie to send a message of hope for the future to their young children. Now the Austin filmmakers and founders of the Nobelity Project nonprofit mark two decades of spreading that optimism through film and hands-on engagement in building schools in Africa. To celebrate Turk’s 73rd…
Minions & Monsters Review: Little Yellow Man With a Movie Camera
There’s something charmingly throwback about the Minions, Despicable Me’s affable henchmen who became franchise regulars and then spun off into their own standalone series. That’s the kind of plotline you might catch on Turner Classic Movies, wherein the anonymous day player steps out from the shadows and becomes the star, and anybody who still holds…
Columns
Knockout Stage Ramps Up Drama as 2026 World Cup Rows On
“We can’t get enough BARBECUE!” cheered Ole Frøystad on the Dallas Stadium video board Tuesday, speaking for thousands of his fellow Norwegians who made the trek to North Texas to witness their nation’s first men’s World Cup knockout stage match in 28 years. Frøystad is credited with inventing the global phenomenon “Viking Row” chant, in…
The Luv Doc: A Humble Offering
Dear Luv Doc, I’ve been reading your work for a few years now, and I come to you with a humble offering. I started my first job around four years ago, working for a company no one will care about. The important bit of this story is that I very quickly grew to have a…
Day Trips: McKinney Falls State Park, Austin
McKinney Falls State Park is Austin’s park, and the recent rains have turned Onion Creek into a scenic waterway. Only 10 miles from the state Capitol, McKinney Falls has nearly everything you would want for a getaway in nature close to home. Of course, in the summer heat the main attractions are the two waterfalls…
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
The original pilot for Gilligan’s Island featured a calypso-style intro song that lasted almost two minutes and included very different lyrics. For more than 70 years, Major League Baseball has used the same mud from the same river to rub on baseballs. Oikophobia is a tendency to criticize one’s own society while praising others. According to the…
Feedback: July 3, 2026
Flagrant Usurpation Dear Editor, Since Gov. Greg Abbott and the Texas GOP are so determined to ignore the Constitution and the First Amendment, I got curious about what the Founding Fathers really had to say on the subject of religious freedom. Thomas Jefferson was an important supporter of religious freedom and frequently used the phrase…
Qmmunity: Ding-Ding-Ding
A farewell to Pride Month and a hello to July. Austin continues to be hot, humid, and full of queer stuff, so your humble editor returns to my usual column mode. Thanks to everyone I interviewed for being delightful conversationalists even though our correspondence was me sending you emails. An email can be a conversation,…
Fun + Games
Free Will Astrology
CANCER (June 21-July 22): There are phases when the cosmic energies and I urge you to put others first – even tend to their pain before you tend to your own. But this isn’t one of those times. Right now, sacrificing yourself for the sake of others would obstruct the flow of righteous grace into…
