Cover Story
Good Company
Welcome to Austin and SXSW Film 09
SXSW to Badge-Holders: Namaste
Morning yoga at SXSW
Panel Recap: Therapy 2.0: Mental Health for Geeks
Dr. Keely Kolmes talks about Information Anxiety
Comedy on House Floor
Legislator contemplates giving Perry the boot – er, shoe
SB3 Still Hard to Swallow
Texas State Teachers Association weighs in on the heavy issue of education
The Big Squeeze – New Screen Date
Tech troubles bump screening to Friday
How to Ride SX
The Annual, How to Ride SX—or why drive and pay for parking when you can take the Cap Metro?
Wherein the Gay Place Recruits Backup to Handle Amanda Palmer
Crack Chronicle politics reporter Richard Whittaker cracks Amanda Palmer’s code. Part 1 and 2.
Croonin’ Coonasses
Not asses. Coonasses. Legendary Cajun singers Tommy McLain and Warren Storm croon it up at SXSW!
Watson’s 3/17 Speech Against Voter ID
Transcript of Austin senator’s remarks
Legal Needle Exchange in Texas?
Senate approves SB 188
Okay, I’m an Idiot …
Voter ID not quite finished in Senate yet
SXSW Film Review: Grace
Grace film review
SXSW Film Review: ‘The Times of Their Lives’
A lovely and unflinching documentary look at aging
Aztex Pick Up First Win, and More
Aztex blank the Crew
Dismantling Family Planning
Advocates say a state Senate budget rider would cripple delivery of health care to poor women
Yogurt Shop DNA Saga Continues
Defense attorney Joe James Sawyer says D.A.’s office is ignoring science
Chinese Water Torture
One drop at a time. We are such suckers for Perez.
The Future is Free
Wired’s Chris Anderson keynotes SXSW Interactive
Fake Discord in the House of Straus
Conservative blog floats rumor of Democratic reps planning coup: News to Democrats
Happiness is a Plastic Brick
The return of the Lego pit at SXSW interactive
Panel Recap: Sexual Exploitation, Sexual Expression and Self-Defense
Author/sex blogger Violet Blue on online harassment
Panel Recap: Hack Ability: Open Source Disability Tech
Liz Henry talks about what the web can do for disabled persons
The Take Over
Zion I’s language arts
Smash Your Head on the Film Rock
Snapshots from last night’s Austin Chronicle Film Bash
Voter ID Officially Passes Senate
Vote along partisan lines sends SB 362 to House
The True Fiscal Note of Voter ID
Bill would supposedly cost state nothing, but now it does
The Beetle Queen of NYC
Director Jessica Oreck and the pride of owning a hissing cockroach
Silver and the Cloudy Future
Head of election prognosticators fivethirtyeight.com talks at SXSW about the limits of prediction
SXSWi: Bruce Sterling
Bruce Sterling speaks
Rodriguez confirms latest Austin shoot for June
Speaking at SXSW, Robert Rodriguez confirmed he’ll be shooting a new film here in June, about the time his film Shorts hits theaters. Sin City 2? Not so much. But Mr. R. is finally a college graduate!
Drag Me to Hell: The Wait Is Almost Over
Sam Raimi shows a work-in-progress print of his new horror film Drag Me to Hell at a SXSW midnight screening
Creationist Bills at the Lege
“Does Texas really need that kind of crazy?”
Over the Moon About ‘Over the Hills’
Previewing ‘Over the Hills and Far Away’
High Times at SXSW
Seventh annual Doobie Awards handed out this Saturday
Top o’ the Evening!
Rollin’ in the green at Dog & Duck, Opal Divine’s, and more
MetroRail Delayed Again
Mistakes by train operators led to decision for more training time
Cagey Perez Announces Two THREE Tigers
Rrrrrawr! Perez Hilton is keeping his One Night in Austin line-up secret.
Plutopians Unite
Tonight is the big SXSW Interactive Plutopia party at the Palmer!
Voter ID: Just to Clarify …
Senate should pass voter ID on Tuesday
SXSW Film Review: Reel Shorts 1
Humor’s in the eye of the beholder
SXSW Film Review: Blood Trail
Documentary about war photographer Robert King
SXSW Film Review: Roadsworth: Crossing the Line
An extra screening added tonight for Canadian art doc
SXSW Film Review: Animated Shorts
A solid anthology of animation
Paul v. Baldwin
Rep. Ron Paul debates pot prohibition with actor Stephen Baldwin
SXSW Interactive Panel: We Have Been Objectified
Objectified panel
GayBiGayGay Line-Up!!!!!
It’s finally released!
Trail of Bullets
Blood Trail director Richard Parry explains the perils of shooting in a war zone
Good ‘Goat’!
The Brothers Bogart premiere ‘Artois the Goat’
Kubrick is Coming to Your Bookshelf
Stanley Kubrick fans rue the missed opportunities from the late film legend. But at least two projects are being revived in book form, his longtime executive producer and brother-in-law says.
Live From Studio SX: Jim Dziura
Your humble correspondent goes behind the camera at SXSW’s Studio SX with Jim Dziura to discuss gunplay, hip hop and jumping trains.
Which Came First: The Twitter or the Twegg???
Mobile Loaves & Fishes feeds the mind, body, spirit, and the egg lobby!
SXSW Film Review: We Live in Public
Mashing Big Brother, performance art, Salò, and pre-Guantanamo interrogation techniques for one hell of an entertainment
SXSW Film Review: Awaydays
Soccer hooliganism, 1980s English style
Prosecuting the Prosecutors
Proposed law would punish prosecutors for withholding exculpatory evidence
Legalize Hemp Now
Federal lawmakers will again file hemp legalization bill
Look at Yourself, Austin.
Brenner roams the imploding SXSWi social nodes
Heather Gold Wants to Talk With You
Gay Place sits down and chats with the media/performance maven.
Yes, Billy Bob, you’re a Texan now
Billy Bob Thornton may be from Arkansas, but don’t mention it to him too often. Such comments brought out his rancor at the Texas Film Hall of Fame awards.
Vote Brand X!
The thin line between political campaigns and corporate branding
ASL Preseason Heats Up
The Alternative Softball League: Still cheap as free
Scamology
Brian Brushwood and the quiet art of getting anyone to say yes
And So It Begins
First big pink gorilla sighting of SXSW 2009
SXSW Film Review: Pontypool
Pontypool review
South African Lesbians Raped to ‘Cure’ Them
South African lesbians face horror
Anchia: Fraser’s Voter ID Bill Is Dead
Democrats’ point man thinks even some Republicans can’t go for it
Queer Queer Queer Movies
SXSW films for homos, films for this homo.
How Not to Impregnate Your Wife…
Crazy lesbian in Massachusetts tries to forcibly impregnate Wife.
Country Music’s Digital Divide
Assessing the CMA Consumer Research Study
The Cutting Edge
Trailer maker Mark Woollen talks shop
T.J. & Dave: Masters of the All Made Up
One of improv’s leading duos is on Film at SXSW and live at Spider House
Food-o-File
Wheatsville Co-op celebrates its 33rd anniversary, and Zoot reopens at its new location
Playing Through
The Aztex look to turn Austin into a soccer town
LegeLines
Odds and ends from the Capitol
In a World Where …
Plumbing the depths of Joe Dante’s Trailers From Hell
New in Print
Former Austinite Philipp Meyer has impeccable, even prescient, timing with his debut novel about an economically ravaged steel town in Pennsylvania
Downtown Condos: What’s Up?
Developers deliver the lowdown on the economy and the future of Austin’s new high-rises
Carstarphen on Tour: Reagan High
The would-be superintendent meets more stakeholders
It Came From Down Under
Aussie films swarm SXSW 09
No Small Feat
Scott Blackwood’s novel experiments in form
Film News
Welcome to the great state of South by Southwest
Pondering Downtown Condos
Isn’t the Austin condo market overbuilt? The “O” word irritates all of the developers interviewed, Realtors as well. All insist: “No, we are not ‘overbuilt’!” Their key argument: After the four high-rise condo projects now under construction sell out, no other projects are in the pipeline. Due to the meltdown of the economy, which has…
Walking on the Water
Running hot or cold on the boardwalk
Every Step They Take
Kathryn Bigelow dramatizes the dangerous business of bomb detonation in The Hurt Locker
Letters at 3AM
How far are you willing to go to make a picture?
St. Patrick’s Day Revels
St. Patty’s Day isn’t all about the booze, but booze is good, too
City Hall Hustle: Who reads the ‘Statesman’? Not its editors.
Statesman lets its bias show
It’s All About the Process
City delays vote on hiring comprehensive planning consultant
The 11th Hour
Tim McCanlies eyes the finish line
The Hightower Report
Words for Wall Street Greed; and Corporatist Court Favors Mountaintop Destruction
SXSW 09 Picks 2 Click
A septet of local acts with (inter)national appeal
Point Austin: Indelicate Balances
Political compromise depends on who’s holding the cards
And the Candidates Are …
Cheaper by the dozen: Twelve file in mayoral and City Council races
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Starbucks in church, Brits tortured Obama’s grandfather, and more
Texas Platters
Randy Reynolds, better known as Leatherbag, hit his stride last year with Love & Harm, and he’s not about to slow down or even glance backward. Latest EP Tomorrow charges forth with renewed vigor and confidence, balancing American classic rock & roll and New Sincerity realism, epitomized by the closer, “Tom Petty Summer,” and timely…
SXSW 09 Picks 2 Click
Free drugs and living-room rock
Naked City
Local news briefs
Hard Bargaining at KLRU
KLRU has hit a snag in contract negotiations with employees
TV Eye
A new workplace sitcom addresses the tough questions. Like, if eyeballs explode at minus 20 degrees Celsius.
Event Menu
Your local food events for March 14-17
SXSW 09 Picks 2 Click
Power trio creates a voltaic Sunshower
Res Publica
Citizen affairs, March 12-19
Adding Insult to Brain Injury
Brain injury lab and its former director on the skids
The Watchmen
Three documentaries shine a light on playing to the audience
Texas Platters
Jenny Wolfe After School (SteadyBoy) Jenny Wolfe’s grooming at the hands of producer Freddie Steady Krc gives her plaintive vocals an authentic 1960s feel that suits the 16-year-old’s energy and sparkling style. Having Explosives guitarist Cam King, Double Trouble keyboardist Reese Wynans, and Brit steel player B.J. Cole as sidemen doesn’t hurt the reigning local…
SXSW 09 Picks 2 Click
ATX hip-hop with a positive tip and call to action
Headlines
• Texas has a heap of pressing problems, but voter fraud isn’t one of them. Nevertheless, the Senate clashed in an all-day and all-night voter ID debate March 10; the bill passed 20-12 on straight Republican-Democrat lines, with Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst casting a rare vote. See “After All-Nighter, Senate Passes Voter ID.” • The…
Page Two: The Incredibles
SXSW Film lines ’em up
Shiner at 100
After 100 years, the Spoetzl Brewery still shines
Texas Platters
Michael Martin Murphey Buckaroo Blue Grass (Rural Rhythm) Mixing cowboys and bluegrass might seem like a stretch until you remember that Bill Monroe penned a tune called “Rawhide.” Actually, Michael Martin Murphey might be the only one who could pull off this fusion; his cowboy roots, cosmic and otherwise, are legend, and his songwriting skills,…
SXSW 09 Picks 2 Click
Latin funk beamed down from the Grupo Fantasma mother ship
After All-Nighter, Senate Passes Voter ID
A marathon session delivers a GOP partisan priority
Breaking the Buddy Movie Mold
Two takes on the bromance in Humpday and I Love You, Man
Rock and a Hard Place
Exploring the elusiveness of fame and the ethics of the mash-up in 24 Beats per Second
Texas Platters
Joe Ely Live Chicago 1987 (Rack ‘Em) Live Shots (1980), Live at Liberty Lunch (1990), Live @ Antone’s (2000), Live Cactus! (2008) – Joe Ely’s heart beats onstage. Live Chicago 1987 isn’t about to break the Austin firebrand’s mean streak, either. Precursor to the Lunch gig three years later, Chicago bustles with Ely’s second classic…
SXSW 09 Picks 2 Click
Thickfreakness from the family band
TxDOT Defies Stimulus Stipulations
After some arm-twisting, TxDOT halfheartedly addressed ‘economically distressed areas’ last week
Texas Culinary Icons
Austin is the place to try true Texas treats, from chicken-fried steak to frozen margaritas
Arts Review
City Theatre Company delivers a strong production of August Wilson’s 1987 Pulitzer winner
Texas Platters
Wideawake Something That We Can’t Let Go (Artist Garage) “Can I rise above the pain?” groans Scott Leger in opening Wideawake’s third LP with “Higher,” before beckoning, “This mystery of love take me higher.” As trite as the emo-tinged uplift of the lyrics may be, they’re made more palatable by the undeniable studio polish of…
SXSW 09 Picks 2 Click
Neoclassical instrumentalists venture into the wild
Staying Abreast of Tax Debate
‘Titty tax’ law hangs in the balance
After a Fashion
Stephen gears up for SXSW and spring: Should he choose the pink crocodile or the one-shoulder with ruffles?
Arts Review
The gallery does a nice job of mixing styles and types of artwork, all of it handmade
Texas Platters
The Dark Water Hymnal As Above, So Below The evolution from the Dark Water Hymnal’s eponymous 2007 EP to first LP As Above, So Below is one of maturity and restraint, comfort woven through the smooth harmonies of Jeremy Ballard and Emily Hurt. As soon as Ballard’s deep, opiatic vox meets the plucked sigh of…
SXSW 09 Picks 2 Click
Chameleon singer-songwriter’s aim is true
Getting With the Program
Dukes files bill to shore up Texas film industry
Shot on Location
For All Mankind filmmaker Al Reinert goes walking on the moon one more time
Arts Review
A strong ensemble abets this witty but quiet play about three old French soldiers
Found Film
The rehatching of Tobe Hooper’s 1969 debut, Eggshells
Sold on the Cool
The Blanton’s ‘Birth of the Cool’ is midcentury modernism made sexy
Needle Exchange Clears Committee
Needle-exchange program could finally see daylight
An Expanding Definition of Family
Karen Skloss’ personal documentary explores mothers and daughters and the choices they make
Magnificent Obsession
Charting the unlikely ascension of Troll 2 from crappiest movie ever made to cult darling
Texas Platters
Mrandmrsmays’ self-titled CD posits its local husband-and-wife team in DIY heaven, with a little help from friends. Sixteen Deluxe’s Chris “Frenchie” Smith produced this edgy little album like an ode to 1980s New Wave. Vocalist Kate Kind orbits the B-52s’ Cindy Wilson’s gulpy vocals and Björk’s sonic soaring with her “banshee shenanigans.” Songwriter James Mays…
Day Trips
Bigfoot Wallace lived a life as big as Texas
Doggett Refutes McCaul Op-Ed
Doggett calls the bill ‘imperfect but responsible’; McCaul calls it a ‘Trojan horse’
Animated Ladies
Signe Baumane and Sarah Jane Lapp illustrate their points
David Box: Box on sax
An Austin musician takes Adolphe Sax’s horn back to its classical roots
Never Say Goodbye
Past and present mash up at the 2008-09 Austin Music Awards
Gay Place
South by So Gay
School Bill Put to the Test
Omnibus school bill doesn’t make the grade, critics say
The Bee’s Knees
Andrew Bujalski’s uncommon process
Ray Donley: Lost and Found
A rare local showing of the Austin artist’s work includes his first sculpture
We Thank You Very Sweetly
Remembering once and forever Munchkin Clarence Swensen
Off the Record
Blaze’s blues strike a chord with the SXSW Film 09 and dropping out for the Black Angels’ Psych Fest 2
Nurse Ratios Stir Debate
Bill filed to counter Howard’s RN proposal
A Tale of Two Resolutions
House officially has high regard for Laura Bush, sincere appreciation for Dubya has to wait
Luv Doc Recommends: SXSW Screening of ‘Sweethearts of the Prison Rodeo’
Texas did away with its prison rodeo back in 1986. It wasn’t because Texans drank the PETA punch and had some sort of animal rights epiphany. No, believe it or not, the state of Texas was reacting to budgetary shortages that resulted from a sudden collapse in oil prices in 1986 (yes, this isn’t the…
