Cover Story
The Duality of Southwest Key
An East Austin nonprofit in the immigration debate
Queering the Archive With Kate Messer
“Your own culture is worth a memory.”
Willie Nelson Unites America
A guitar-strumming Beto O’Rourke tries too
July Is Crime Month: The Crime Blotter, Week 1
A curated guide to unlawful activities around town July 4-8
Boy George’s New Life
Culture Club frontman relives the Seventies
Five Spots Serving Boozy Ice Cream in Austin
Sugar highs and alcohol are a surefire way to make memories
Ken Paxton Seeks to Remove Eight of Austin’s Planning Commissioners
Lawsuit will target volunteer appointees in violation of City Charter
Fourth of July: Hot Dogs and Innuendos
Tubular hot meat is the grandest way to salute America
Hey Babe, It’s the Fourth of July!
You know you want to eat snacks and watch fireworks.
Day Trips & Beyond: July Events Roundup
Get hip to these timely travel tips
CodeNEXT Petition Hearing Awaits Ruling
Decision must be made before Aug. 20 to impact November election
Alejandro, Blaze & Townes Shake the Continental Club
Escovedo sets up Blaze duo Ben Dickey and Charlie Sexton
RTX Animation 2018 Festival Lineup
Rooster Teeth gathering adds Titmouse, more
Weekend Wine
Les Aspres is great with burgers, lamb, and everything else
Art Caravan for the Children’s Act of Creative Resistance
Yocelyn Riojas, Jolt Texas are sending an artful message to the border
Recommended Live Music for the Weekend
Psych, pop, and punk this weekend? Yes, please.
Music to Wave Flags By
The 411 on the 4th of July concerts in the 512 and environs
July Is Crime Month
Maybe it’s the murderous heat that bumps off our better angels, but something about summer brings out the outlaw in the Chronicle crew. Thus, we’ve decided July is Crime Month, and for four weeks, our writers and editors will be toasting the unlawful with reviews of recent crime fiction and nonfiction; interviews with authors in…
Five Recommended Arts Events This Weekend
Because you don’t want to miss a good Austin thing
Activists Protest Southwest Key at CEO’s Home
Frente de Liberación Inmigrante call on Sanchez to break gov contracts
Major League in Soccer Dream Inches Closer to Reality
Council authorizes city manager to begin negotiations with Precourt
Sicario: Day of the Soldado
Cross-border thriller gets a bloodier, morally grayer sequel
Eating Animals
Natalie Portman narrated documentary about the ethics of farming versus factory farming.
Damsel
Austin’s Zellner brothers head out to demolish myths of the Old West with Robert Pattinson
Nancy
Andrea Riseborough spellbinds in this drama of self-delusion and second chances.
Luv Doc: An Octogenarian Don Draper
Why is the Luv Doc looking at 60-year-old penises?
Texas Platters
After nearly a decade in Germany, Tish Hinojosa returned to Austin mending heartbreak on 2013’s After the Fair. Now, West flashes the promise of a songwriter fêted among the best and brightest locally during the Nineties. Her voice luminescent, emotive, and strong in tenderly constructed tunes, Hinojosa’s songcraft likewise regains its peak luster on the…
AISD Task Force: On the Money
New body charged with fixing school district’s financial woes
Peter Bay’s MASS Appeal
The local maestro brings Leonard Bernstein’s massive stagework to Austin with a lot of help from a lot of friends
Playback – Kinky Friedman: Between the Lines
Kinky Friedman’s first album of original songs in 35 years: “How hard could it be?”
Texas Platters
Marcia Ball’s fingers spark a party when they touch the keys. Shine Bright is a revel in tough times, the 2018 Texas State Musician of the Year as ever digging into her New Orleans roots for rousing grooves and anthemic declarations. Sax blasts against her incomparable piano boogies, but her vocal range constraints remain and…
Piss or Spit
Drug testing at ATCEMS
Arts Umbrella Human Influence Stirs Austin’s Musical Diversity Melting Pot
Because the live music capital of the world can get pretty white male
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
According to BBC, Japan alone accounts for around 20% of earthquakes worldwide with a magnitude 6.0 or greater. Since George Washington’s second inaugural address, the shortest U.S. presidential inaugural speech so far was FDR’s 1945 speech, which lasted about five minutes. When the federal food stamp program was restarted on May 19, 1961, after the…
Texas Platters
If the artwork of Wilson Marks’ sophomore LP doesn’t signal the uncanny, haunting contortions of Peregrine, opener “Save the Nest” sets the tone. The local jazz marksman takes a folkier turn, resulting in a collision of Nick Drake with Ralph White on “Couldn’t Drain the Devil,” his patient, nasal vocals floating in sustain atop twisted…
Stratford Drive: Let’s Work On It
Redevelopment plan goes back to drawing board
First Concert: Rosa Madriz
Margin Walker director / booker Rosa Madriz describes a Houston Rodeo when she and her whole family took in Selena
Texas Platters
Born in Illinois 12 years ago, then moving to Austin in 2009, melodic brat punks the Butts soon found themselves playing many a night at Headhunters. If you barely listened to their second CD, you might mistake this for the pop-punk specialized by Blink-182 or Sum 41. Yet their rowdy spirit and boozy snottiness breaks…
First Concert: Matt Muñoz
Cactus Cafe manager Matt Muñoz revisits his first concert in El Paso: Van Halen
World Cup: The Knockout Rounds Begin
The knockout rounds begin
Gay Place
Know what queers know!
When Artificial Intelligence Meets a Failing Mind
Sci-fi drama Marjorie Prime questions human identity
Point Austin: The Wages of Civility
The Supreme Court confirms that elections have consequences
Far Flung Correspondence: Chennai Cafe
South Indian fare brings the heat and opens the mind
Shrewd Productions’ The Afterparty
We’re invited to hobnob with history’s great minds up on the astral plane
Headlines
City Council returns today for its final meeting before the summer break, with 130 Items, including action on the $816 million November bond (potentially still growing), the potential for soccer at McKalla Place, and economic incentives. See “Council’s Last Licks,” June 29. Austin Public Health reported this week on the sad state of the Austin…
Sicario: Day of the Soldado Director Finds International Themes to Tex-Mex Thriller
Stefano Sollima goes border to border
Andrea Ariel Dance Theatre’s Locked-In
A dance inspired by our rigid connection to our cell phones was more spontaneous and personal than its title implied
Public Notice: And, We’re Off …
Council tees up CodeNEXT for a loooong drive, takes a breather
My Obsession: Fresh Off the Boat
Asian cinema expert calls this sitcom the series America needs right now
One in a Crowd
Austin filmmakers need your crowdfunding help
Quote of the Week: T. Don Hutto Detainee
Anonymous letter details devastation of family separation
ICYMI: Wingzup Wingbar & Grill
Everyone’s favorite bar in Hancock Center offers more than award-winning chicken wings
Day Trips: Spring Branch
New barbecue joint resurrects old Hill Country roadhouse
Jimobous Flanigous Takes Cedar Park
Or something like that …
What’s the Deal With Styrofoam Cups and Plastic Drinking Straws?
Zero Waste Advisory Commission encourages Austinites to take small steps to reduce pollution
Texas Platters
Since relocating to Austin in 1990 at the age of 18, Eric Hisaw’s steadily perfected his self-proclaimed “roadhouse rock” and Southwestern noir songwriting. That world remains filled with desperate, tenderhearted characters living in filthy motel rooms reeking of booze, sweat, and stale cigarette smoke, while trying to scrape together enough change for one last phone…
No Dance Club Near Daffodil Apts
City, Foundation Communities help thwart Global Auto’s plan
Snapshot: Austin Ice Cream Festival
Where nostalgia for childhood runs as high as the temperature
Texas Platters
After a pair of mold-breakers and a live disc, what’s next for the Sword? More experimentation? Back to basics? In the case of Austin’s onetime metallurgists, both. Sixth album Used Future revs up behind “Deadly Nightshade,” an ass-kicking rocker showcasing the local quartet at its bombastic best. Alas, the Sword doesn’t stay in its wheelhouse.…
SCOTUS Lets Gerrymandering Slide
Only one of 11 house and congressional districts marked for redrawing
Texas Platters
Paul Cauthen’s 2016 solo debut, My Gospel, introduced the towering Texan’s booming baritone, cutting between Waylon Jennings’ rollicking power and Elvis Presley’s trembling croon. New extended-play Have Mercy arrives as a necessary holdover, but not without evolution. First of seven new songs, “Everybody Walkin’ This Land” summons Johnny Cash in a God-fearing anthem, yet with…
Council’s Last Licks
Closing up shop before summer break
Texas Platters
Bob Livingston helped define Austin’s progressive country sound in the Seventies, but the Lost Gonzo Band co-founder has done his best work this century. On 2003’s Mahatma Gandhi & Sitting Bull and 2011’s Gypsy Alibi, Livingston unrolled an increasingly eclectic and far-reaching sound while remaining true to his Lubbock songwriter roots and soothing tenor. The…
CodeNEXT and Compatibility
News and tidbits from the land of the land use rewrite
“Regional Fictions” at MASS Gallery
This thought-provoking show takes on the educational system’s traditional narratives by juxtaposing the familiar with images that challenge it
Soccer in Austin: The Knockout Stage
Showtime at McKalla Place
Texas Platters
Having hopped around the country prior to their current Austin abode, husband-and-wife duo the Watters pay tribute to their geographic and musical ventures on a sophomore release. Opener “I Need You” launches their immediately familiar feel-good, big-band, old-school assembly. A sevenpiece setup of bright horns (lent by the Shinyribs crew) and generally groovy aesthetics cushion…
Southgate-Lewis Survives Code Probe
City finds insufficient evidence Eastside house was operating as museum
Williamson County Commissioners Court Ends Hutto Contract
No guarantee facility will close; contract expires in 2019
Say Goodbye to the Plastic Bag Ban
Texas Supreme Court rules city ordinances can’t override state law
