Cover Story
Texas Roller Derby Skates Into Its 25th Year of Campy Competition
In a fury of faded, red-streaked hair and a star-emblazoned helmet, Las Putas del Fuego’s Stevie Kicks barrels into the backs of the Rhinestones’ blockers. The blockers’ stance, wide-legged and arm-in-arm like a rugby scrum on wheels, wobbles. The 5-foot-1-inch skater struggles to create a seam, derby shorthand for a gap in players, to get…
News
A Resolution but No Closure to the Yogurt Shop Murders
The last place on Earth that Austin filmmaker Margaret Brown expected to be on Sept. 29 of last year was in the city of Austin Council chambers. She was supposed to be heading to the set of her next project, having recently wrapped the press cycle for her four-part true-crime HBO documentary series, The Yogurt…
Austin Energy Argues Gas an Unfortunate Necessity
The 2024 update of Austin Energy’s carbon zero plan to 2035 was marked by a sense of urgency to meet skyrocketing demand on the statewide ERCOT grid, the specter of another Winter Storm Uri, and the need to reaffirm to the public that the city is on track to reach its climate goals, with a…
West Austin Residents Raise Concerns About Courtyard/RM 2222 Project
West Austin residents gathered at Riverbend Church Wednesday, May 13, for a TxDOT event regarding the agency’s $68.4 million overhaul of Loop 360 at Courtyard Drive and RM 2222, where they met the project team and asked questions about potential impacts on traffic, safety, and access in the area. The work will route Loop 360…
Local Organizations Propel Next Generation’s Shift to Trade Work
In a parking lot on the campus of Austin Community College’s Riverside campus on an April afternoon, eight teams of Central Texas high school students are constructing their own small structures. They’re participating in a design-build competition sponsored by ACC and the Construction Industry Education Foundation. Just across the lot, applied technology students take classes…
Analyzing Austin’s New Police Shootings Dashboard
For years, Austinites trying to understand police shootings had to piece together answers from briefings, news coverage, court cases, and old reports. Now, a new Office of Police Oversight dashboard puts that information in one place. OPO launched its Officer-Involved Shooting Dashboard May 19, tracking Austin Police Department shooting incidents from 2018 through 2025. The…
The Week’s Biggest News in Brief: May 14-20
Austin Musicians Against AI: Austin musicians gathered on Tuesday, May 19, to call for tighter regulations on artificial intelligence within the music industry, arguing that the technology is putting artists’ livelihoods and human creativity at risk. Led by Austin Texas Musicians, the group of artists is calling on lawmakers to put legislation in place to…
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…
Music
Music Notes
Essynce Thursday 21, Swan Dive Smooth flowing rapper Essynce Hall has called Austin home for several years after living across the world. Short new track “Outta Sight Outta Mind” touches on staying true to your aspirations regardless of outside noise. She’ll perform as part of Shaad the Beast’s Beast Day event, which also features CHHK,…
A Curious Mix of People Authors Debut Emo’s Documentary on Red River
Greg Beets, Richard Whymark, and Chepo Peña premiered Emo’s, a documentary about the original Sixth Street iteration of the landmark Austin music venue, at a nostalgic, scene-reuniting double screening last weekend. The third in a series of films produced from interviews musician/writer Beets, filmmaker Whymark, and musician/graphic designer Peña originally published in the 2023 oral…
Giddy Ups Trots Into New Location
Greener pastures await for Giddy Ups. The beloved bar is preparing to reopen at 10509 Old Manchaca, just a 2-mile trot down the road from its old watering hole. When the “Biggest Little Stage in South Austin” was forced to close its doors in 2024, then-owner Michael Morgan, son of longtime proprietor Nancy M. Morgan,…
Puppet Palooza Unites Cloth Performers
Fragile Rock’s cloth rock & rollers and Cloud Companion’s celestial embodiment of time, Bardo, have never shared a bill with another puppet act – but that’s all about to change at Howdy Gals’ Puppet Palooza, which goes down at Hole in the Wall on Friday night. “I think there’s something to be said about holes,”…
Arts + Culture
Cloud 9: A Foggy Historical Relic
I love modern art, but I believe it takes research to fully appreciate. Sure, there are pieces that are immediately engaging, but all work benefits from discovering the process and the meaning behind it. Cat Martinez’s Africatown, Generational Trauma instantaneously impressed me with the intricacy of water and metal. Learning the materials were actually sourced…
Puppet Palooza Unites Cloth Performers
Fragile Rock’s cloth rock & rollers and Cloud Companion’s celestial embodiment of time, Bardo, have never shared a bill with another puppet act – but that’s all about to change at Howdy Gals’ Puppet Palooza, which goes down at Hole in the Wall on Friday night. “I think there’s something to be said about holes,”…
Screens
Saccharine Review: Gross Anatomy
The greatest danger of social media is how it reinforces our own private fixations. When medical student Hana (Midori Francis, Good Boys, Grey’s Anatomy) looks at her feed, half of it is body positive influencers telling her that this is what a real woman looks like. The other half is skinny girl peer pressure dropping…
I Love Boosters Review: What a Coup
A booster is a person who jacks from the retail And sells it in the hood for dirt-cheap resale – “I Love Boosters!,” The Coup If we have learned anything from Coup frontman Boots Riley’s brief-but-bananapants filmography, it’s that he loves Marx, surrealism, and Oakland. As in his still-amazing debut Sorry to Bother You, he…
Rocket Cinema Celebrates a Meteoric Five Years of Mobile Movies
Sara Nelson and Justin Sherburn never planned to become cinema managers. Like everyone else, the husband-and-wife musician duo found themselves at loose ends during the pandemic. Best known at that point as composer and keyboardist for instrumental ensemble Montopolis, Sherburn had just received a touring grant from the National Endowment for the Arts for The…
Silent Friend Review: Tree of Life
I didn’t discover Hungarian filmmaker Ildikó Enyedi is in her 70s until after I watched Silent Friend, her two-and-half-hour meditation on the mysterious communion of humans with the natural world, but it certainly tracks: Silent Friend has the unhurried pace and admirable long view of someone who’s seen a lot of life – not unlike…
Food
Jersey Italian Hits Hyde Park
My New Jersey friends describe the Garden State’s Italian food as an unapologetic blend of red gravy and strip malls. They talk of unassuming storefronts hiding world-class comfort food behind neon signs and generic glass doors. In Austin, we often trade that grit for Instagrammable aesthetics and expensive small plates. Chef Mike Graffeo, an alum…
Columns
Head Coach, Sporting Director Firings Send Austin FC Back to Drawing Board
We witnessed a proper Red Wedding in Verde land Monday as Austin FC announced the simultaneous firings of head coach Nico Estévez and sporting director Rodolfo Borrell, triggering a complete factory reset of the club’s soccer operations. In the wake of consecutive calamitous results – a 5-0 loss at San Diego FC, followed by a…
Opinion: I Was Unjustly Arrested at City Hall While Advocating for Solutions to Homelessness
This month, I was unjustly arrested at City Hall as I advocated for solutions to homelessness. The organization I work for and the hundreds of unhoused members we represent – along with over 30 other organizations and over 120 healthcare workers, service providers, labor and faith leaders – were calling on city leaders to pause…
Qmmunity: Delicious Community Support
Anyone else feeling a little overwhelmed by the current state of things? Or is that just because I caught a cold at Marshalls while checking out the discounted but still high-quality dried pasta noodles? Whatever the case may be, we’re all struggling for one reason or another. It just so happens that, for many queer…
Feedback: May 22, 2026
Fundamental Foundation Dear Editor, Proponents of Texas law Senate Bill 10, which requires public schools to post the Ten Commandments, assert its purpose is to “remind Texas students of the importance of the Ten Commandments as a fundamental foundation of American and Texas law.” Although SB 10 identifies the Ten Commandments as foundational to American…
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
If you see limes being sold in green netting, it’s because retailers want to influence your color perception through the Munker-White illusion. If you find that drinking more water for your health is difficult, ASMR sounds of a slow pour, fizz, and the first crisp sip might help. Mamie Van Doren, now 95, was a…
The Luv Doc: Free Will?
Dear Luv Doc: Do we have free will? Do we carry any responsibility for having been born? Or when? If you find out, let the rest of us know! – Extra Old Austin Dude Good News Extra Old Austin Dude! I am delighted to inform you that not only am I the Luv Doc, I…
Day Trips: Orsak’s Café, Fayetteville
Orsak’s Café in Fayetteville continues the legacy of small-town diners where locals meet and travelers revel in discovering a good homestyle meal. Come for the juicy, two-fisted burgers or the chicken-fried steak smothered in gravy, but don’t miss the desserts. Meringue pies are a house specialty, but the cobblers are really special. Add a scoop…
Fun + Games
Free Will Astrology
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): When many people reflect on their early years, they focus on the alienation and wounds they endured. Few recall, in vivid detail, the moments of joy, triumph, and breakthrough. It’s a symptom, I suppose, of our era’s compulsive cynicism, and not necessarily an accurate account of the past. So many good…
