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The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (Extended Edition)

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (Extended Edition) 2011, NR, 235 min. Directed by Peter Jackson, Starring Elijah Wood, Viggo Mortensen, Ian McKellen. This sequel to series starter The Fellowship of the Ring features 45 minutes of new material, added special effects and music. Read the Chronicle’s original 4-star review.

by Chronicle Staff

Austin’s Artisanal Food Companies

In our research of local artisanal foods, we generated this unscientific and noncomprehensive list of artisanal food companies with products on Austin store shelves and in farmers’ market stalls. Give them a try! Condiments, Salsas, & Prepared Dishes Austin Slow Burn, Fischer & Wieser (Fredericksburg), Classy Delites, Two Hot Mamas, Sgt. Peppers, Carter’s Select, Rose’s…

by Virginia B. Wood

Texas Platters

White Denim D (Downtown) White Denim’s never lacked direction. The longtime local power quartet just has too many tangents meriting exploration. From the early carousal skronk and garage-soul fervor of debut 7-inch Let’s Talk About It to the spastic trucker jams on 2008’s Exposion and maximum R&B of 2009’s Fits, White Denim has reinvented itself…

by Austin Powell

Austin-Based Restaurant Chains

Austin has proven to be an ideal nursery for developing restaurant concepts which, over time and growth, develop into legitimate chains. We’ve shown ourselves to be very receptive to the idea of creative quality food served in a friendly, relaxed manner, and at fair prices. Several of our local chains have developed further into legitimate…

by Mick Vann

Texas Platters

Suzanna Choffel Steady Eye Shaky Bow Don’t let the title fool you, there’s nothing unsure about anything in Steady Eye Shaky Bow. Suzanna Choffel’s sophomore release and her first full-length since 2006’s Shudders & Rings shoots for the sky from the opening track “Archer” on her exuberant sound. By turns sultry and soulful, bubbling with…

by Margaret Moser

Texas Platters

The Blind Pets Sweet Tooth The Blind Pets’ excellent Smashed (2009) played out like a toddler tantrum in a grocery store: kicking, thrashing, and demanding attention for the better part of an hour. With Sweet Tooth, the local power trio refines those impulses into one of the better Saturday night rock LPs in recent memory.…

by Austin Powell

Texas Platters

Eddy Hobizal Kinetic From the moment opener “Twin Stars” begins with marimba and then drops in drum beats that could’ve come off Radiohead’s new release, it’s safe to say this isn’t going to be your standard jazz album. This ever-tasteful and often elegant Austin pianist isn’t doing something entirely new, but the formula of Hobizal…

by Jay Trachtenberg

Texas Platters

The Jeff Lofton Electric Thang Chasing the Voodoo Down: Live at the Cactus Cafe Channeling the spirit of early electric Miles Davis, in particular the 1969-70 era that produced massively influential LPs In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew, Jeff Lofton’s recording from the Cactus Cafe features the local trumpeter and his plugged-in quintet stretching…

by Jay Trachtenberg

QueerBomb Weekend Events

In 2010, QueerBomb launched its counter-Pride movement, manifesting in a zero-budget streetside rally, march, and afterparty. This year, QueerBomb owns Austin’s traditional Pride weekend, as Austin Pride has moved festivities to the fall. The two groups have recently come together (see “QueerBomb/Pride Roundtable: Extended Remix”), and peace may be headed to a valley near you.…

by Kate X Messer

Texas Platters

Greezy Wheels Gone Greezy Dig the cover: The dude’s in a groove, shoulders hunched and getting down, dressed in a crisp, white T-shirt and clean tailored jeans. His shoes are no doubt spit-shined. The music’s snaking down his backbone, shooting out of his fingertips. He’s Gone Greezy. And so has Greezy Wheels, the decade-spanning veteran…

by Margaret Moser

Texas Platters

The Wronglers With Jimmie Dale Gilmore Heirloom Music (Neanderthal) The Wronglers are a San Francisco-based group that includes Warren Hellman, founder of the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, that city’s free equivalent to the Austin City Limits Music Festival. Through Jimmie Dale Gilmore’s appearances at Hardly Strictly, he and banjoist Hellman struck up a friendship that’s…

by Jim Caligiuri

Neighborhood Wins, Then Loses at ZAP

A Southwest Austin neighborhood group says it was caught off guard by a city commission that reversed its vote on a set of development waivers just minutes after rejecting the requested variances. At its May 17 meeting, the Zoning and Platting Commission first voted to deny waivers sought by Cypress Ventures Realty Invest­ments for a…

by Amy Smith

Texas Platters

Susan Gibson TightRope A songwriter’s goal is the hit, right? Then they’ll have it made: The royalties will roll in, and they can close their sets with that song the rest of their life. That doesn’t cure the songwriter’s itch or quell the muse, though. Just ask CMA Award-winner Susan Gibson, author of “Wide Open…

by Margaret Moser

Quote of the Week

“I’m ready to live in a Winnebago if that’s what it takes.” – Austin U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, responding to proposed congressional maps that might force him to move again

by Chronicle Staff

Texas Platters

Hector Ward & the Big Time Sum of All (BMI) While they remain adventurous, Hector Ward & the Big Time stumble on their second disc. Sum of All demonstrates what a talented ninepiece band can do, surfing between Latin rhythms, Texas blues, slippery funk, and even ska and reggae grooves. All that, with heady horn…

by Jim Caligiuri

Incendies

A powerful and eloquent anti-war drama, this French-Canadian film unites the personal with the political in a stunning manner.

by Marjorie Baumgarten

Texas Platters

Blaze Foley Duct Tape Messiah: Soundtrack From the Documentary Film (Lost Art) In the 12 years Kevin Triplett spent tracing the threads of Blaze Foley’s life for his documentary, the filmmaker uncovered countless scraps of songs that Austin’s “Duct Tape Messiah” left behind. The requisite songs that have posthumously come to define the songwriter’s mythic…

by Doug Freeman

The Tree of Life

Terrence Malick’s latest film bursts with unbridled ambition and vision, and while it doesn’t always reach the heights for which it aims, it soars boldly and fearlessly.

by Marjorie Baumgarten

Texas Platters

Darling New Neighbors are calling it quits after one last splash, Freakers on the Spazmonaut Train. The five-tracker’s the most “rock” the local country-folk trio has sounded, especially on New Wave standout “Hate,” and holds off on the usual accordion jam until closer “Hometown 1988,” a fitting send-off for a band of freaks and geeks.…

by Audra Schroeder

Headlines

� City Council takes the week off, returning June 9 for its second to last meeting before a monthlong break. With revisions to Austin’s historic zoning program postponed until nearly August, the city’s plans for Waller Creek engendered much discussion at last week’s council meeting. See “City Hall Hustle.” � Early voting for the June…

by Chronicle Staff

Lion of Judah

In this animated film, a bold lamb and his friends in a Bethlehem stable try to avoid the sacrificial altar during the week preceding Christ’s crucifixion.

by Marjorie Baumgarten

Texas Platters

Roy Orbison The Monument Singles Collection (1960-1964) (Monument/Orbison/Legacy) Although he found success with the Sun Record Company and was on RCA briefly, Roy Orbison had his greatest impact at Nashville, Tenn.’s Monument label. April 23 would have been the Vernon, Texas, native’s 75th birthday, a fact this three-disc set commemorates. The A Sides features Orbison’s…

by Jim Caligiuri

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