Cover Story
A Girl Named Soo
‘Never the Pretty Girl’? Surely not BettySoo!
Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, R.I.P.
Two Seventies icons gone like dust in the wind.
Straus in Short
House Speaker keeps special session response short
Oh, the Horror…
The World Horror Convention touches down in Austin in 2011
Record Energy Use Yesterday
Officials predict another record today
‘A Little More Warning’
Donna Howard responds to Perry’s quick call for a special session
Can’t Stop the Serenity!
The Austin Browncoats host a fundraising event featuring two of filmmaker & media maven Joss Whedon’s most recent works.
African-American Book Festival Spotlights Women Writers
Pulitzer Prize-winner Annette Gordon-Reed headlines this year’s fest at the Carver Museum and Cultural Center
Summer, Camped
The Girls Rock Camp Austin showcase showdown
Gov. Perry: Special Session Begins July 1
Lege to consider sunset, TxDOT bonds, and TxDOT authority
Norris Named PCL Pitcher of the Week
Top Astros pitching prospect shines in AAA
RIP Sky Saxon
The Seeds frontman passes in Austin
This Week’s Waste of Time
A free browser game to get you through your excruciating day job
An Open Letter to Reno, Nevada…
Reno: Not such a great place for movies
U.S. 290 Rivalry?
Aztex host Houston Dynamo Wednesday in U.S. Open Cup
Confederations Cup Set in South Africa
The U.S. shocks top-ranked Spain in South Africa
Forever Man
Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood resurrect cult music mystic Jerry Lynn Williams in his hometown, Dallas.
Current Texas Political Thought
Republicans support same-sex unions? Really?
CHIPing in on the Special
Dems get four Republicans to join call to add health care to special session
Hot Night in the Lounge Room
Kasey Chambers leads the Australian invasion
Better Late Than Never
Terry Lynn brings the beat back
Flat-Out on the Track
Team Legit talks about ramping up for Battle on the Bank
Happy 1st Anniversary, Laura Morrison!
A surprise party
Gaygle?
Is this just for June?
Photo Essay: Texas State Track & Field Meet
Don Bender photographed the Myers Stadium action June 5-6
Gov. Watson?
San Antonio senator steps out of gubernatorial primaries, touts Austinite’s candidacy
Burn Ban in Travis County
Dangerous conditions prompt commissioners to outlaw burning.
City Hall Hustle: We Leffed, We Cried
Emotions run high as Lee Leffingwell is made Austin’s 51st mayor
May All Your PanTzs Come True!
Ridiculously tiny clothes. Ridiculous.
Bond Reduction for Robert Springsteen Denied
Judge says more extensive vetting of evidence needed
Jook Savages Redux
Lester Bangs’ Austin gang gets revived
College World Series Gets Political
Texas and Louisiana governors wager over the LSU/Texas matchup
Sadun Declares for SBOE
Former congressional candidate goes after Dunbar
Whatever Happened to SB 2038?
There’s another addition to the veto list
High-Potency Poppycock
Congressman says strong pot calls for stiff prison sentence
Please Step on the Scale
One last weigh in for our fitness fanatics.
Capital Punishing
Day two of the banked track roller derby tournament
Zombie TVs Keep Walking
Environmentalists furious over recycling veto
Red Pen Attack
Perry vetoes 37 laws, strips $289 million from budget
Gay Golfer Gets Refund, But Even Gayer Golfer in Argyle Gets Denied
HRC logo placement in new Orbitz ad.
The Lineup
Recommended music for the week of June 19-25
The High Point of the Track
Before this weekend’s banked track roller derby tourney, TXRD’s April Ritzenthaler talks rule negotiations and ankle breakers
Snapshot: Bonnaroo
I was up above it, now I’m down in it
Derby Me Two Times
Flat track Friday before the big banked track weekend
High, Low, and In Between
Steve Earle talks Townes
Up on the Sun
Defining the classic Meat Puppets sound
‘Hey, Perry, Veto This!’
With deadline looming, forces mobilize to push governor’s red pen
Yogurt Shop DNA Saga Continues, Pt. 3
Is there enough evidence to set Robert Springsteen free?
You Had Me at “E”die
Nurse Jackie: FIX ME!
The Hightower Report
By ‘Charity,’ Do You Mean Charity? As Lily Tomlin says, “No matter how cynical you get, it’s almost impossible to keep up.” The truth of Tomlin’s observation struck me when I read that lobbyists for America’s charity hospitals are campaigning to kill reform legislation that would require charity-care hospitals to provide – get this –…
Fun and Games With the City Budget
The city takes its budget process on the road
Phases & Stages
Phoenix Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (Glassnote) Following up pre-Twitter hit “Long Distance Call” from 2006’s It’s Never Been Like That, “Lisztomania” upticks its kickoff tap dance on both snare and guitar picks flicked against taut, electric strings, while keyboards color all manner of poptopia. Such gaseous buzz opens “1901” against pinging steel and another go-go tempo…
TV Eye
PBS’ POV kicks off a new season with New Muslim Cool
A Recipe for Revolution
Food, Inc. serves up some scary facts on food production in America
Remixing the Music (Department)
The city is still trying to hit the right note with Austin’s music scene
Phases & Stages
Dinosaur Jr. Farm (Jagjaguwar) Unlike contemporaries Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr. isn’t trying to tighten up. The original Amherst, Mass., trio has mellowed with age, without compromising its sonic swell. Opener “Pieces” and follow-up “I Want You to Know” are impressive ramp-ups to their fifth album and Jagjaguwar debut. Lou Barlow’s moodier turn on “Your Weather”…
Playing Through
Practically every coach Thomas Hackett had as a kid was a psychotic or pervert. Or both.
Groundwork: Active Austinites
What’s doing at the grassroots level
AISD Efficiency Study Thwarted by Math
About that ‘efficiency’ …
Phases & Stages
Flipper Love (MVD Audio) Flipper Fight (MVD Audio) “It’s hard to do something that’s real and different and new in this world today,” snarls Flipper mouthpiece Bruce Loose in coiling lament “Learn to Live” from Love, the Bay Area behemoth’s first studio LP in more than 15 years. These old dogs haven’t learned any new…
Not So Cool
Austin’s 2009 Climate Protection Program update confirms progress on energy – but reflects a feeble citywide effort
The Chicago Comparison
For national perspective, it’s illuminating to review Austin’s annual report (and the plan it contains) against the Chicago Climate Action Plan, released Sept. 19, 2008. The Chicago Climate Action Plan is a comprehensive plan – the real deal, created with the backing of a high-powered, multistakeholder task force. The published 56-page plan is an appealing…
AISD Takes a Peek at Its Budget
It looks like the reserves will be taking a hit
Phases & Stages
Finally off Geffen and onto Downtown Records, Brooklyn “Quiet Dog Bite Hard” Mos Def avoids New Danger on The Ecstatic, rolling “Life in Marvelous Times” or, rather, an album evoking 1999 debut Black on Both Sides. Make this one a “Priority” – rare is the rapper who flips styles so seamlessly (“Workers Comp”) and flows…
Doggett: The D.C. Perspective
The lowdown from the Beltway
Measuring the Footprint
Travis County Carbon Footprint According to the ACPP annual report, the average Texan emits 27 tonnes of energy-related CO2 each year – the worst state in the union; the average American emits 20 tonnes. By contrast, the average Travis County resident emitted 14 tonnes in 2007. (That’s counting only emissions from electricity, natural gas, and…
Phases & Stages
Jeff Buckley Grace Around the World (Columbia/Legacy) “I don’t even know what that is, this flesh thing – or this earth thing, I don’t know,” shrugs Jeff Buckley on Vancouver TV in 1994, less than three years before he drowned at age 30. Collegiate existentialism can be shrugged off as well when major label spoils…
Austin Water Utility Progress
Cutting greenhouse-gas emissions
Record Review
BettySoo Heat Sin Water Skin Forgive BettySoo’s album for looking so Starbucks. It tastes nothing like decaf vanilla singer-songwriter. Patty Griffin is the immediate touchstone on opener “Never Knew No Love,” Soo’s declaration that she “Never knew no stain like the one I’m hidin’ now” right up there with Griffin’s Flaming Red visions. Soo’s folk…
Phases & Stages
Eric Clapton & Steve Winwood Live From Madison Square Garden (Reprise) Blind Faith London Hyde Park 1969 captures Clapton’s spidery digits and Winwood’s blazing soul despite supergroup dynamics, but their 2007 Crossroads Guitar Festival reunion and resultant DVD tore down to the ground. Fingernails are shorter at the UK godheads’ Madison Square Garden summit last…
The Proposal
The Proposal doesn’t reinvent the romantic-comedy wheel, but Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds ensure that it’s a likable cut above the usual fare.
City Hall Hustle: Trouble Abhors a Vacuum
There’s always room for argument at City Hall
Save Me From What I Want
Annie Clark births slow jams, a tin man, and a baby pony
Phases & Stages
Iron Maiden Flight 666: The Film (UMe) Travelogue by the writer/director team that aced 2005 documentary Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey rides 757 jet Ed Force One above four continents piloted by singer Bruce Dickinson and complete with band, a 70-man road crew, and 12 tons of equipment – a music tour first. Horns thrown by…
Away We Go
See it for the many lovely performances, although the film’s vision of Gen-Y nesting is liable to leave you up a tree.
Point Austin: They Died in Your City
Austin is built by workers subject to institutionalized injustice
Hey, Look Me Over!
AFF and the Blanton team up to bring underseen films to Austin
Arts Review
Max Langert’s educational farce is a grade shy of being the zany romp it means to be
Easy Virtue
In this adaptation of an early Noël Coward play, Jessica Biel is the American newcomer whose brash attitudes disrupt the British decorum of her new mother-in-law (Kristin Scott Thomas).
Headlines
• Austin mourned the loss of jazz singer Tina Marsh – leader of the Creative Opportunity Orchestra – who died of cancer on Tuesday at age 55; see “Tina Marsh” and “Off the Record.” • Juneteenth celebrations began across the city, memorializing the anniversary of the June 19, 1865, official declaration of the ending of…
Film News
Austin Studios lands a long-term tenant; Robert Rodriguez talks about a live-action The Jetsons; and more
Arts Review
The people in this show love Gilbert and Sullivan, and you can feel it in every moment
Enlighten Up!
The filmmaker, a yoga practitioner, documents a skeptic’s journey into the big om.
Anderson Lane: Tex-Mex Rules This Road
Anderson Lane: enough Tex-Mex to keep it interesting
Res Publica
Citizens’ calendar, June 18-25
DVD Watch
Muck and maggots and food slopping down chins, or: The World According to the Original Chuck D
Arts Review
Brants’ restless exploration of printmaking has created a lush and compelling body of work
Role-Play Playing
When improv asks, ‘Can we get a suggestion for something you’d slay a dragon with?’
Special Session Is the Only Thing That’s Certain
The when and the what are still unknown
Off the Record
Another sad and confounding week in the live music capital: City Council takes steps to create a music department as APD pulls the plug on Shady Grove, and Tina Marsh succumbs to breast cancer
Pollyanna Theatre Company
Kids loved Emily Cicchini’s play about patterns so much that it’s spawned two sequels
Book Review
Like Kathy Acker and William Burroughs before him (both admirers), Dennis Cooper marries literary ambition and deviance
Another Round
AG’s Office asks state Supremes to review unconstitutional stripper surcharge
Event Menu
Local foodie events for June 18-25
Chris Bonno
A former Funniest Person in Austin on the comedy life in Los Angeles
Book Review
The title story of this posthumous publication is brilliant and moving, a master class in narrative concision
Three More Casualties of Austin’s Growth
A deadly accident in West Campus highlights the dangers of construction work in Texas
Food-o-File
The advent of Father’s Day has me thinking about Bill Wood, because even though he didn’t cook, my father’s life experiences and his attitudes about food ultimately did help to shape my culinary consciousness. Daddy grew up in the small Panhandle town of Post. I know he was exposed to good cooking growing up because…
Tina Marsh
Remembering the beloved singer and founder of the Creative Opportunity Orchestra
The Common Law
Will I Ever Get My Security Deposit Back?
Naked City
News briefs from Austin, the region, and beyond
Supper Underground
Supper Underground redefines the dinner-party experience
Day Trips
Dietz Bakery in Fredericksburg continues a family tradition that is three generations old
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Martin Luther King Jr.’s influence on Star Trek, Harry Houdini’s influence on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and more
Not Everyone Profits From ROT Rally
Last weekend was all about noise and headaches for some Congress Avenue merchants
Wine of the Week
Texas summers are the right time for dry Rosé wines
Gay Place
Pride lasts all month long
Letters at 3AM
Bad exists in dialectic with good
Bike Plan Passes: 2020, Here We Come
Austin can peddle unfettered toward its bright, bikeable future
Phases & Stages
Iggy Pop Préliminaires (Astralwerks) With every passing year, Iggy Pop, 62, looks increasingly like one of those “visible man” model kits, the ones that expose the knotty, crimson musculature and miles of circulatory threading. Préliminaires is the aural equivalent of just that inner Pop, a 12-tracker that could almost be filed under “jazz,” which finds…
After a Fashion
Stephen: like a little fawn in the Houston meadow
Luv Doc Recommends: Party at the Moontower
Sunday is Father’s Day. You might be a real bastard, but it doesn’t mean you don’t actually have a dad. It’s just that sometimes they’re a little hard to track down without a summons or ironclad DNA evidence. Being fatherless has some advantages. First, you save the money on the Father’s Day card … and…
