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Phases and Stages

Etta James Austin Music Hall, April 24 Etta James doesn’t walk well anymore. Singing isn’t a problem. After a painful hip sway to her seat front and center, the 71-year-old R&B survivor held court in reading glasses while drinking Cognac for a mercifully brief, if at times still intoxicating, eight-song main set at an intimately…

by Raoul Hernandez

Not Forgotten

This unusual U.S.-Mexico border film is a thriller starring Simon Baker and Paz Vega, and it’s screening in Austin prior to its national release.

by Marjorie Baumgarten

DVD Watch

It’s appropriate – hell, it’s necessary – that a documentary about Philip Glass provide sound as crisp and clear as the sharpest images onscreen, and this one does, with aural textures you can almost feel against your skin

by W. A. Brenner

Phases and Stages

Los Lobos One World Theatre, April 25 “Say hello to Roky Erickson,” nodded David Hidalgo. By that point, the Los Lobos singer/guitarist had already had a shot or two, his Stella Artois chaser about to sustain a workout in the last third of a 90-minute set that ended with one of rock & roll’s purest…

by Raoul Hernandez

Upcoming Candidate Forums

REAL ESTATE COUNCIL OF AUSTIN/GREATER AUSTIN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE MAYORAL FORUM Friday, May 1, 11:30am. Hilton Hotel, 500 E. Fourth. AUSTIN COMMUNITY COLLEGE CANDIDATE FORUM Friday, May 1, 6pm. City Hall Chambers, 301 W. Second. NORTHEAST AUSTIN BUSINESS AND COMMUN­ITY ALLIANCE FORUM Saturday, May 2, 6pm. United Memorial Methodist Church, 6100 Berkman. BETTER AUSTIN TODAY…

by Chronicle Staff

Is Anybody There?

Michael Caine stars as a magician who’s come to live in a retirement home when his mental faculties start to fail.

by Marc Savlov

Phases and Stages

Napalm Death, Cattle Decapitation/Pack of Wolves, Lions of Tsavo Emo’s/Red 7, April 26 South by Southwest Sabbath, 2009: Red 7 hosts a metal assembly longer than your average workday as headlined by Chicago instrumentalists Pelican (at Emo’s May 19 with Isis and post-SX bill mates Tombs) and stolen in swirling red smoke and candelabra fury…

by Raoul Hernandez

Dumb Strategy, Flawed Execution

Every campaign season brings its own annoying twists, and in recent election cycles at the Chronicle, we’ve gotten used to a new one: copyright violations by political campaigns. Staff photographer John Ander­son has become a repeat victim, most recently by the Carole Keeton Strayhorn mayoral campaign, which last week launched her latest TV and Web…

by Michael King

Phases and Stages

Dengue Fever Mohawk, April 27 “Psychedelic surf cumbia,” by a Brooklyn sixpiece named for Incan corn liquor and trafficking in accordion-driven 1970s slink based in the Peruvian Amazon, and late-1960s Cambodian psyche pop from an equally Anglo L.A. quintet are ultimately distinguished via one crucial difference: Chhom Nimol. While Chicha Libre opened with 50 minutes’…

by Raoul Hernandez

Five-Star Rollins

Saxophone Colossus (Prestige, 1956) “St. Thomas” was the “hit,” but “Blue 7” is the masterpiece. If you must pick only one, this is it. Way Out West (Contemporary, 1957) The Claxton cover is priceless, and Rollins tears up these “Western” songs. A Night at the Village Vanguard, Vol. 1-4 (Blue Note, 1957) The template for…

by Jay Trachtenberg

Fighting

This film is set amid the world of underground street fighting where the plays bob and weave for love and respect.

by Marc Savlov

AISD: A Chat With the New Super

In June, the Austin Independent School District gets its new leader when Meria Carstarphen leaves her current post, as superintendent of St. Paul Public Schools in Minnesota, and moves into her new digs on Austin’s West Sixth Street. While Carstarphen talks about the Austin position as a dream job, this is a nightmare year to…

by Richard Whittaker

TV Eye

Bea Arthur blazed trails in Maude. But is there room in contemporary TV for strong, feisty, older women?

by Belinda Acosta

City Unions vs. McCracken

It’s a familiar political pantomime: On the trail, Candidate X makes an issue of public-safety costs. The public-safety unions – which, just coincidentally, support Candidate Y – issue a terse statement, questioning Candidate X. But in a very uncertain economy, arguments over budgeting, jobs, and salaries take on heightened implications. This go-round, “Candidate X” is…

by Wells Dunbar

Day Trips

At the Sea Life Center in Port Isabel, each tank serves as a window to the underwater world off the Texas coast

by Gerald E. McLeod

Headlines

• Early voting started Monday, April 27, for the May 9 municipal elections. If you want to beat the election day crush, you’ve got until Tuesday, May 5. Candidates for mayor and City Council have begun airing ads, while the campaign rhetoric takes a sharper turn. See “Lee & Carole & Brewster & All of…

by Chronicle Staff

Off the Record

Mayoral candidates sound off on the future of Austin music, Scott H. Biram gets back on his feet, and unveiling the lineups for the Austin City Limits Music Festival and Pachanga Latino Music Festival

by Austin Powell

Luv Doc Recommends: Next Up: U18 Showcase

There’s a good chance that if you do it enough times and with an opposite gender, you’re going to have a baby. Maybe even several. If you want to up the chances, try one of the following: Drink a few extra Jell-O shots with the rugby team. Buy condoms from a vending machine in the…

by The Luv Doc

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