Cover Story
Do Right Woman
Polly Parsons, only child of Gram Parsons, comes full circle in Austin with the Hickory Wind Ranch, sober living for women
Remembering John Hughes
The Eighties’ keenest chronicler of teenage embarrassments and suburban ennui, dead at 59
Sotomayor Confirmed
NY Judge passes senate confirmation 68-31
Always Coming Back Home to You
Welcome to the big time, Slug. We’re glad you noticed.
This Week’s Waste of Time
A little bit Noam Chomsky and a little bit Richard Garriott
Lez ISO the Perfect Wiener; Gay ISO the Perfect Fish Taco
Some queer eyes (mouths?) on some hot dogs and fish tacos across Austin.
Texas Rollergirls Retirements
Video: As the 2009 season ends, some familiar faces say farewell to the flat track
Backs Against the Wall
Aztex need a win
It’s the Totally Awesome AusChron Newscast!
Podcasting the pages of the upcoming issue – the no-bill in the Sanders shooting, Water Treatment Plant No. 4, and more
Pizza Nuts
A competitive eating contest pits bros against dough
The Fog of Repurposing
AISD board president fits saving Pearce Middle School into the bigger district plan
Willie Bob Cougar
Three legends at the Dell Diamond
DeBeauvoir Recognized Nationally by Peers
Travis County clerk wins Public Official of the Year Award
WPFG Studios Film Party, Take 3
New details on that monster-sized film party. (P.S. You’re probably not invited.)
Pearce To Reopen
Education Commissioner Scott approves repurposing plan for middle school
Serial Robber on Loose in South Austin?
APD are looking for woman who they believe has struck three times since Friday
Jeffs Back on Solid Foods
Polygamist prophet feeds himself!
Capital Metro Wants Musicians
Transit agency seeks buskers for events
Stop Interrupting My Regular Programming (Please)
Why does PBS play so much crap during its pledge drive?
Making Good in Michigan
Ben Steinbauer and Bob Byington nab prizes at the Traverse City Film Festival
Adjust Your Calendars Accordingly
Todd Rohal joins Team TFPF and that “monster Texas film party” gets bumped to September
Introducing the Lingerie Football League
Friday night tights … oops, I mean lights
Pearce Plan Approved
AISD Trustees pass repurposing unanimously: Now it’s up to TEA
Doggett: ‘Real Desperation Tactic’
Austin Congressman appears on ‘Hardball’ to discuss mob that shouted him down
Get in the Van
A new documentary peeps the DIY scene at South by Southwest
Government Healthcare Won’t Protect You From the Robots
Our response to the right’s lies about euthanasia
Camp’s Out
Girls questioning girls
August Month for the Daze
If the Straitjacket fits…
Cap Met Seeks Input on Dillo
A public meeting and hearing are coming up on the proposal to eliminate Dillo service.
Lady Bird Johnson’s West Lake House: The Legacy Conveys
Lady Bird’s Westlake house is for sale
Off the Record – 33 RPM
Room 710 prepares to shut its doors, Amy Cook goes under the lens, and a personal introduction to The Austin Chronicle Music Anthology
Gay New York: Pilgrimage to Stonewall
Forty years of gay struggle, one tasty beer.
Gay New York: Big Gay Ice Cream Truck
The house-mother of soft-serve.
Sound Wars Winner! The Tiny Tin Hearts!
Sound Wars is over!
Flat-Track Finale
Hotrod Honeys look to hold on to their championship in the Texas Rollergirls season closer
Looking for Mr. Goodbar
Looking for Mr. Goodbar 1977, R, 135 min. Directed by Richard Brooks, Starring Diane Keaton, Richard Gere, Tuesday Weld. Sensationalistic yet compelling morality tale about an unmarried schoolteacher (Keaton) who spends her evenings picking up new sexual partners in the singles bars. Gere delivers a breakthrough performance as a particularly nasty piece of rough trade.
A Plan for Pearce
AISD release new Pearce repurposing proposal ahead of Monday’s board meeting
Ortiz Released, ‘Stros Call Up Gervacio
Second Express pitcher called up within the week
Blunt Cruisin’
Asher Roth and Kid Cudi roll deep at Stubb’s
AISD Scores Improve For Some
District gets academically acceptable status in latest state accountability scores
(Re)Birth of a Meme
The “Perry Gay” story goes national, stays groundless, but gains traction
Flavor tripping the night away.
Miracle fruit makes lemons taste like lemonade.
Event Menu
A guide to local foodie events in Austin
Texas Platters
Leeann Atherton Heart Traveled Road After a trip through the worldly acoustic sounds of Gypzee Heart, her previous band, Leeann Atherton returns to her roots with Heart Traveled Road. Under the steady hand of producer Rich Brotherton, who not only brings his guitars but a trunk-full of other instruments including mandola, harmonium, and cittern, the…
Calling All Citizens
The Comprehensive Plan and the waterfront need engaged Austinites
DVD Watch
This feature-length documentary explores Bourgeois’ heady and challenging body of work
Texas Platters
Graham Wilkinson & the Underground Township Yearbook Although Graham Wilkinson’s stylistic diversity at times makes his sophomore offering ungovernably eclectic, his persistent vision of optimistic inclusiveness is admirable. Yearbook opens strafing gritty guitar roots-rock on “Water Towers and Windmills,” the dreadlocked local’s raw, Waitsian voice rolled in Oklahoma red dirt, but changes course with the…
A Plan to Plan for a Zero-Waste City
Leadership will determine the success of long-range strategy
Food-o-File
The Austin food community is gearing up for the opening of what promises to be a really good foodie movie, Julie & Julia
Arts Review
City Theatre Company updates Molière’s satire in a cheeky yet entertaining fashion
GreenChoice Affordable After All?
GreenChoice Batch 6 customers may soon get a break on their utility bills
Film News
The martini shot
Arts Review
The classical guitarist and a few gifted friends created an engrossing evening of music
Nine (So Far) Vie to Fill Court Vacancy
Will Perry appoint someone with a chance of winning the election?
Cheese in the Heart of Texas
Austin’s getting cheesy
Arts Review
The three exhibitions in two neighboring galleries is like the Neapolitan ice cream of art
City Brokers Peace Accord With Budget Lodge
City settles lawsuit filed against the crime-magnet motel
Letters at 3AM
We did not fall from the Garden; we journeyed away
Off the Record
Room 710 prepares to shut its doors, Amy Cook goes under the lens, and introducing The Austin Chronicle Music Anthology
Appraisal Reform at the County? Never Mind …
Commissioners won’t challenge appraisal district’s undervalued commercial property
TV Eye
Chris Kattan shows real range in the charming IFC miniseries Bollywood Hero
Austin’s Summer Refreshment Treasure Map
Beat the heat by visiting one of Austin’s many shaved-ice havens
Double Murder: The Dark Side of Reefer Madness
A dispute over drug money may have led to the recent West Campus murders
The Hightower Report
Dog-Sniff Jurisprudence; and Gov. Goober’s Border Cams
Health-Care Showdown
Health-care reform rally draws a big crowd of people on both sides of the issue
Man Mountain and ‘Sin City’
In Ben Fong-Torres’ 1991 biography Hickory Wind: The Life and Times of Gram Parsons, the author describes the hastily assembled, short rehearsed Gram Parsons & the Fallen Angels tour during the spring of 1973, with its stops in Texas, including Austin’s Armadillo World Headquarters. Of particular note was Parsons’ four-night, six-show run in Houston at…
Crash-Scene Budget
The budget balances, and stitching is transparent
Naked City
News briefs from Austin, the region, and beyond
‘Libres y Lokas’
Masked wrestlers and drag queens work side by side in this multimedia installation
Day Trips
The top eight state park swimming holes in Texas
AISD: Holes Plugged … Temporarily
The 2009 AISD budget balances the books, but the financial future’s not bright
‘Orestes’
A contemporary playwright explains what drew him to adapt an ancient Greek tragedy
Gay Place
Reports of its drifting off into the sunset greatly exaggerated, Foodies rides again
Travis County Holding Steady … for Now
County braces for bigger economic challenges in 2010
The Collector
From the writer and director of Saw 4-6 comes this horror film about a handyman who tries to rob his employers’ home but finds it rigged with a lethal maze.
‘Damas, Dramas, and Ana Ruiz’
The debut novel from Chronicle staff writer Belinda Acosta: an excerpt
Texas Platters
Local vinyl production rises with summer temperatures, apparently, and singles always outpace LPs. Followed by Static pressed 100 white vinyl 7-inches on Rare Dust Records, and their eventual collectibility correlates directly to the Austin duo’s breakout with “Lullaby” b/w “AADC.” The A-side illustrates why 45s were conceived in the first place, a plaintive Vaselines-like melody…
City Hall Hustle: The Magic Water Bullet
What water do we need, and when do we need it?
G-Force
In its gadget-lust and obvious Transformers envy, G-Force is a loud and stupid Jerry Bruckheimer production, and its guinea pig spies are similarly crude.
The Common Law
Does the Setback Ordinance Apply to My Garden Shed?
Texas Platters
New Roman Times On the Sleeve (New Granada) Not unlike one particular local forebearer, New Roman Times draws a hard line between love and darkness, only it’s never quite clear which side it’s chosen. On the Sleeve, the sophomore effort from these Florida transplants, rides a shadowy, 1980s electro groove through familiar themes of jealousy…
Point Austin: The Bottom Line on Health Care
Congress needs to act for universal health care
Orphan
A married couple adopts a child who turns their lives into a horror show in this atmospheric, above-average but overlong addition to the “cuddly hellspawn” genre.
After a Fashion
Stephen softens with age … at least for this column.
Texas Platters
Headdress Lunes (No Quarter) The latest from local drone duo Headdress yields more direction than its 2007 debut, Turquoise. At just five songs, Lunes is mostly instrumental guitar meditations (save for a few moans and whispers) that shake off the holed-up desert vibe of Turquoise and translate the blur of passing landscapes into stretches of…
Headlines
• Austin Independent School District plans to announce its new repurposing proposal for Pearce Middle School before the end of the week. Details are not yet available, and the plan will still need approval by both the board of trustees and Commissioner of Education Robert Scott (see “Naked City”). • Leading economic indicators: Gail Roper,…
Funny People
With this story about comedians which stars Adam Sandler and Seth Rogen, filmmaker Judd Apatow rewrites his own songbook in the key of James L. Brooks, a tricky mix of humor and heartfelt.
Been There, Done That
This year’s TFPF panelists still remember the trenches
Texas Platters
Darling New Neighbors Rocket DNN isn’t afraid to start a food fight, throwing it all at the wall to see what splats on its second LP. The Austin trio’s genre-skipping once again produces 1980s love, country, doo-wop, and punk, quirked up by Elizabeth Jackson’s violin and accordion. There’s sweet, like “Boys in Cars,” accented by…
Res Publica
Citizens calendar, July 30-Aug. 6
The Stoning of Soraya M.
This impassioned work of persuasion is like a splatter film made for the Lifetime network, a screed against stoning made for audiences who already agree.
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Elapids, Alaska, ginger ale, and more
Texas Platters
Powell St. John On My Way to Houston (Tompkins Square) Misidentified for his contributions to the 13th Floor Elevators’ 1966 debut, The Psychedelic Sounds Of …, Powell St. John is still out to make a name for himself. The Austin-bred Bay Area dweller’s first offering since his 2006 reintroduction, Right Track Now, rekindles the brushfire…
Page Two: Field of Dreams
Summer in Vermont singing Gram Parsons’ Grievous Angel
Unmistaken Child
This documentary is a full-immersion glimpse into the ancient traditions of Buddhist reincarnation and one that no filmmaker has ever before explored with this level of freedom and insight.
Luv Doc Recommends: How to Secede in Texas Without Really Trying
Texas is a really big state. Crazy big. Emphasis on the crazy. We may be the 11th largest economy in the world (according to the Texas comptroller), but look at our gubernatorial candidates. It’s a good thing Moe, Larry, and Curly are already dead and buried or they’d probably end up in the Governor’s Mansion.…
