Cover Stories
Building a Found Film Family at Hyperreal Film Club
In the age of streaming and the decline of theatres, the movie viewing experience can feel more isolating than ever, but there’s still plenty of community to be found in front of a screen’s glow if you know where to look. Austin’s Hyperreal Film Club has been proving that for the past 10 years, forming…
News
After Having His Execution Halted, Edward Busby Awaits Supreme Court Ruling
Death penalty opponents are waiting to see if the state will proceed with what they say would be an unconstitutional execution. Texas officials plan to put Edward Busby to death today, May 14, despite the agreement of at least two experts that he is intellectually disabled and thus ineligible for the death penalty. Last week,…
Homing In on Affordable Housing?
“Clarity, consistency, and affordability, that’s what this item is about,” City Council Member Krista Laine said last week, as Council approved a resolution laying the groundwork for an expansion of the HOME initiative. “Our code in Austin is an incredibly complex document that needs to be cleaned up. We must make it quicker and less…
City Plan to Consolidate IT Employees Scales Back
City Council Member Mike Siegel declared a victory of sorts last week on behalf of the city’s IT workers after City Manager T.C. Broadnax walked back the One ATS initiative, a plan to consolidate the workers into one department. One ATS, as it was initially proposed, would have moved over 400 of the workers employed…
AISD Proposes Cutting Over 200 Full-Time Positions
It’s budget season for Austin ISD and the district is deep in the red, currently facing a staggering $181 million budget deficit that ballooned earlier this year. At a briefing held Thursday morning detailing the draft budget, Superintendent Matias Segura and district officials proposed cutting 215 full-time campus positions. Across the district’s elementary schools, 85…
May 26 Primary Runoff Election Endorsements for the Austin Area
The Chronicle Editorial Board provides the following endorsements to Democrats in the May 26 primary runoff election. We urge readers to be thorough with their ballots and cast a vote in every contest. You may vote at any Vote Center in Travis County where the “Vote Here/Aqui” sign is displayed. Early Voting: Monday-Friday, May 18-22…
The Week’s Biggest News in Brief: May 7-13
Sixth Street Shooting Not Tied to Terrorism: After investigating the March 1 West Sixth Street shooting that left four dead and 15 other injured for a little over two months, the FBI has said that they have found no evidence that supports the idea that the 53-year-old shooter, Ndiaga Diagne, was directed by a foreign…
Music
Music Notes
Nettspend Thursday 14, Emo’s Youthful rage is all the rage at Emo’s this week as Richmond teenager Nettspend follows che’s Wednesday show at the Riverside locale. The 19-year-old’s latest release, early life crisis, features a breakneck pace, glitchy synths, blaring bass, and an NBA YoungBoy feature (“masked up”). Locuust Friday 15, Butterfly Bar at the…
The Flaming Lips, DIIV, the Black Angels, and More Reviews From Austin Psych Fest
Though unfit for its title on first glance, the indie-heavy lineup for Austin Psych Fest 2026 proved, once live at the two-stage grounds of South Congress destination the Far Out Lounge, positively psychedelic. The Flaming Lips brought their famous blow-up stage decor to the show on Friday, and festival founders the Black Angels celebrated the…
Arts + Culture
Far-Flung Galleries Share a Bed at Friends Fair
Austin’s art world has long been the maybe-too-chill, scrappy little brother to Houston and Dallas’ more polished operations, but at Friends Fair, four local galleries are angling to change that perception. Martha’s, McLennon Pen Co., Northern-Southern, and Ivester Contemporary invited showroom-owning friends – hence the name – from across the country to the Loren for…
Sparkling in the Darkness at the Texas Burlesque Festival
In dark times, there’s nothing brighter than a spotlight on sequins. That’s why Terri Lynn Raridon, founder of the Texas Burlesque Festival, is sure that this year’s gathering in the name of dropping every stitch to the floor is more important than ever. “We will prevail,” she said. Running May 14-16 at Elysium and the…
Screens
LifeHack Review: Cybercrime Flick Never Escapes the Small Screen
Screens within screens within screens: thus is seemingly the fate of cinema, with viewers catching fragments of narrative in one of several competing windows. Sometimes that’s even a deliberate plan by the filmmakers. LifeHack, which debuted at South by Southwest last year, is the latest such screen life escapade from producer Timur Bekmambetov. After helping…
The Python Hunt Review: Mass Murder in the Everglades
It doesn’t matter how much they avoid people, how little danger they really pose, but just because they didn’t have the common sense to grow some fur and look traditionally cute, no one really cares if you kill a snake. As python hunter Joe Wasilewski, aka the Croc Doc, puts it in new documentary The…
The Wizard of the Kremlin Review: Inside the Political Mind of Russia
Not enough people know who Vladislav Surkov is. If they did, maybe the world wouldn’t be in as horrific a place as it is now. To be clear, Vadim Baranov (Paul Dano, There Will Be Blood) is not Surkov, even if the man known as the Grey Cardinal of the Kremlin is the clear inspiration…
Is God Is Review: Bloody Revenge Burns
There’s a short list of playwrights who have become filmmakers, and a rare few have directed their own stage play for the screen: names like Harold Pinter, Neil LaBute, Luis Valdez, and now Aleshea Harris, who crafted the film version of her critically lauded debut, Is God Is. It’s probably wise that she oversaw this…
Obsession Review: You Can’t Spell “Possessive” Without “Possess”
The author Carson McCullers believed that in any relationship there is the lover and the beloved. She wrote, “the beloved fears and hates the lover, and with the best of reasons.” That’s basically the plot of unhinged horror Obsession, in which spineless dweeb Bear (Michael Johnston) finally gets the love-of-a-lifetime devotion from his platonic best…
Columns
The Luv Doc: #seavibes
Dear Luv Doc, This year me and my girlfriend of three years decided to take a spur-of-the-moment four-day weekend in Port A. We called my friend to take care of the dogs and headed out Friday afternoon. On the drive, our phones kept blowing up with texts and calls from co-workers, friends, spammers, etc., so…
Feedback: May 15, 2026
Destructive Detention Dear Editor, Hello! My name is Anais Long and I’m a high school student here in Austin. I would like to discuss the Dilley detention center, more specifically the distress the people being held in this center are facing, to your readers. The inhumane conditions that are presented by this center are absolutely…
Day Trips: Panning for Gold, Llano
Panning for gold in Texas involves two fun activities that are ideal in the summer: treasure hunting and getting wet. Where to find gold: The Llano River is perhaps the best gold-bearing stream in the state as it drains much of the mineral-rich Llano Uplift geological formation. One of the most productive gold mines in…
Time to Audit Austin FC’s (Roster) Finances
We soccer geeks have it rough. While pencil-pushing NFL, NBA, and MLB fans get to bathe constantly in a pristine sea of financial transparency – contract terms, salaries, bonuses, etc. – those of us on the MLS beat are left to feed off scraps. For silly reasons we won’t get into, the league does not…
Underdogs, Artists, and Freedom Fighters
It’s been a rainy spring in Austin and I’ve been restless staying indoors. As I have become one with the couch, scrolling through streaming services looking for the perfect stoner documentary, I stumbled upon 4×20: Quick Hits, a new anthology series Hulu bills as “highlighting cannabis and the people who love it.” The medium stays…
Opinion: Nobody Should Be Denied Digital Access
People with disabilities want what anyone does – the chance to learn, to work, to engage in civic and social activities. As more of these essential life activities have moved online, the law has been unclear about how equal access is provided to people with disabilities. A Department of Justice Final Rule posted in April…
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Gabi, a humanoid robot, was recently ordained as a Buddhist monk at the temple of the Jogyesa order in South Korea. The crown-shaped felt hat worn by Goober Pyle on The Andy Griffith Show and Jughead Jones in Archie Comics is called a “whoopee cap.” In an upcoming biography of the Rolling Stones, according to…
Qmmunity: Humid Yet Happenin’
Good morning, evening, or afternoon, Reader. The time has come once again for YOU to vote on who the Best of Austin truly is! Our annual roundup of Reader’s choice businesses, individuals, and etc. just dropped last issue with tons of surprise noms – and tons of queer noms, too! Make sure you get your…
The Common Law
One of my co-workers told me I can only pay my federal taxes to the IRS electronically. I’ve always paid by mailing in a personal check. Can I still pay my federal taxes to the IRS with a personal check? Yes, as of this month (May 2026), you can still pay the IRS by personal…
Fun + Games
Free Will Astrology
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Soil biologists say a teaspoon of productive soil may contain billions of living organisms. These bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and nematodes work in cooperative networks, generating a hidden abundance that ensures everything above ground thrives. Your immediate future has this quality, Taurus. Beneath the visible surface of your life, beneficial processes are…
