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Food-O-File

Virginia B. Wood predicts a bright future for the budding chefs who took part in last week’s Culinary Arts Career Conference

by Virginia B. Wood

Civics 101

Thursday 23 ATX CIVIC TECH EXPO The future of civic engagement is now. Get hands-on experience with new apps and websites that aim to help the city run better. Observe a one-day hackathon to see how it all comes together. 10am-5pm. Austin City Hall, 301 W. Second. Free. www.open-austin.org. 5604 MANOR COMMUNITY GAR­DEN DINNER AND…

by Chronicle Staff

Quote of the Week

“I love the fact that I have pushed the button of your lying extremist undeveloped brain. Thank God for the rest of America!” – APD Chief Art Acevedo to @JohnGaltTx after a heated Twitter exchange on gun control. Acevedo later deleted the tweet, and said it wasn’t intended to be public.

by Chronicle Staff

The Hightower Report

Global beer giant dances the can-can Anyone who says that America has lost its innovative edge in technology and manufacturing has not chugged a can of Bud recently. The buzz is back, baby! Well, actually, Budweiser is no longer American. It’s now a Belgian outfit, owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world’s largest maker of suds.…

by Jim Hightower

The Luv Doc: Grabbing Crotch

Luvdoc, What is the best way to get guys to notice me? I think I am reasonably cute and I think I dress nicely, but guys don’t flirt with me or talk to me like they do with my friends. They act like I am invisible. I know I am a little shy, but I…

by The Luv Doc

Ola Podrida Record Review

Ola Podrida Ghosts Go Blind (Western Vinyl) The general plotline for Ola Podrida’s Ghosts Go Blind reads like the sort of indie film songwriter David Wingo is better known for scoring. It’s a transitory album, caught between the nostalgic splendor of youth and the growing pains that come with maturation. Opener “Not Ready to Stop”…

by Austin Powell

Phases & Stages

Wheeler Brothers Gold Boots Glitter (Bismeaux) These upstarts’ debut, 2011’s Portraits, painted a gorgeous streak of homeland rock, indebted to country-laced stargazers like Band of Horses and the inescapable overlooks of the Band. Impressive but ultimately narrow, it hadn’t even cooled before the local quintet began talking about how different the new material would be…

by Luke Winkie

Exhibitionism

This Last Act Theatre show depicts a couple’s nice life unraveling with equal parts tension and release

by Jillian Owens

Soccer Watch

Robbery. At least that was the consensus of those of us at House Park Tuesday night, when the Austin Aztex’ U.S. Open Cup loss to the USL-PRO Wilmington Hammerheads turned almost completely on one questionable call just 20 minutes into the game: a red card ejection to Aztex goalkeeper Devin Cook, and a Hammerheads penalty…

by Nick Barbaro

Epic

This imaginative 3-D animated fantasy takes place in a forest world.

by Louis Black

Phases & Stages

Shinyribs Gulf Coast Museum (Nine Mile) Despite prolific output with the Gourds over the past two decades, co-frontman Kevin Russell deserves to have the term “side project” dropped from his other local group given the merits of Gulf Coast Museum. That’s a dodgy phrase anyway, since Shinyribs remains more akin to Russell’s musical alter ego.…

by Margaret Moser

Exhibitionism

Though often entertaining and quite humorous, this Trouble Puppet show seems to be missing something

by Adam Roberts

Phases & Stages

Steve Earle & the Dukes (and Duchesses) The Low Highway (New West) The Low Highway marks several firsts for Steve Earle. First album to credit the Dukes since 1987, it’s also the first to acknowledge his wife Allison Moorer and Austin’s Eleanor Whitmore as bandmates, dubbed the Duchesses. Three songs written for HBO’s Treme, on…

by Jim Caligiuri

Exhibitionism

The flamenco artists worked to build the energy and tension throughout, but that goal proved hard to achieve

by Natalie Zeldin

Phases & Stages

Natalie Maines Mother (Columbia) Voltaire said, “Originality is nothing but judicious imitation,” and with nine out of 10 tracks on Mother being covers, Natalie Maines takes that assertion to heart. After years of silence following the promotional cycle for the Dixie Chicks’ Taking the Long Way in 2006, the group’s leader, in collaboration with Ben…

by Abby Johnston

Phases & Stages

Mother Falcon You Knew (Creme Fraiche) Since 2010’s Still Life EP, Austin’s sprawling orchestral outfit Mother Falcon has balanced dynamic arrangements and subtle turns with a romantic if restless pull. Sophomore LP You Knew follows where 2011 debut Alhambra left off, yet despite the band’s size and virtuosity – 20 members plying horns, piano, and…

by Doug Freeman

Phases & Stages

Joe King Carrasco & El Molino Tlaquepaque (Anaconda) The crown-wearing king of Tex-Mex rock & roll jumps the border again to record with his old band El Molino, which backed him on his now-classic 1978 debut. The revamped lineup includes old-school members Speedy Sparks, Ernie Durawa, and Augie Meyers, plus Joe Morales, John X. Reed,…

by Kevin Curtin

Mr. Smarty Pants Knows

In 1660, King Henry decreed a particular style of spoon the puritan spoon. It has a deep bowl and is the prototype for all modern spoons. As many as a third of all fatal car crashes may involve fatigued drivers, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. And Texas – with its 3,200-plus miles…

by Mr. Smarty Pants

Phases & Stages

Dumb Live Fast Die Dumb (Gnar Tapes) Punk music ain’t nothing more than three chords and the truth. Or wait, that’s supposed to be country. No matter: Ohio transplant Corey Baum and threadbare trio Dumb throw both schticks into the fryer and cook up a second collection – on cassette, no less – of shit-kicking…

by Chase Hoffberger

Phases & Stages

Churchwood 2 (Saustex) “I’m coughing bullshit through my fist, crossing fables off my list/I turn the tables and resist the razor’s edge against my wrist/The ship of state has locked its rudders in a tailspin/Let the keels be damned, set the sails to wind!” So rumbles Joe Doerr, Leroi Brother and college poetry professor, on…

by Kevin Curtin

Headlines

› City Council meets today (May 23) on a hefty agenda with perhaps some disappearing items; most specifically, it looks like the attempt to create an independent governing board for Austin Energy has finally come a cropper. However, there’s always short-term rental regs to dispute, and we can celebrate Adelaide, Australia. See “Watch Out for…

by Chronicle Staff

Food Events

• Gatsby Gala Put on your pink suits and flapper dresses for an evening of Gatsbyesque dining, drinking, and dancing at Sullivan’s. (Upload a photo of yourself in full Gatsby regalia for a chance to win a private dinner for 10 prepared by Sullivan’s chef in your home at www.facebook.com/SullivansSteak between now and May 31.…

by Virginia B. Wood

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