Cover Story
Bats Left, Sings Right
With help from Esther’s Follies, Austin Lyric Opera turns Strauss’ Viennese waltz into a Texas two-step
Cap Metro Wants Input on Proposed Fare Increases
Agency wants increase to 75 cents next year and $1 in 2010
Turner: End Tuition De-Reg
Speaker pro-tem to announce intention to re-regulate higher ed fees
Odetta Sings!
A blues legend shines on Austin
Dispatch From the Land of the Deranged
Taibbi takes on American crazies
Empty Seat News
Perry calls special election to replace Janek, West recovering after collapse.
Wait ‘Til I Get My Money Right
‘Cuz it’s expensive hanging with Kanye West
U.S. Open Cup on Its Way to Austin
Another milestone this week for the Austin Aztex, as they host the First Division Atlanta Silverbacks in a U.S. Open Cup match, Tuesday, June 10, 7:30pm. This is a knockout game, so it will go to overtime and a penalty kick shootout, if necessary; the winner goes on to the second round June 24. That’ll…
Euro 2008 Around the Corner
The 2008 European Championship kicks off this Saturday – 19 days of top-level international football, every game broadcast live on ABC/ESPN networks. (All games at 11am and 1:45pm; the full schedule is below.) The quadrennial tournament (co-hosted this year by Austria and Switzerland) is second only to the World Cup in the international game; the…
94 Is Less Than 99
Clinton campaign still keeps claiming it won Texas
Austin Heart and Chicano Soul
Ruben Molina, the Los Angeles-based author of Chicano Soul, will be at Antone’s Records for a book signing at 6pm Friday. Besides being the best book on 1960s/70s Mexican-American rock, Chicano Soul is a landmark publication for filling a gap in popular music history. It is also the first book to detail the way young…
@#%&*! Smilers
Aimee Mann’s latest curse
Never Lose That Feeling
Live Swerve returns to ATX
Rough ‘Boys
Does Dallas Cowboys coach Jerry Jones have a little rough-trade fetish? You think?
Sneak Peek at ‘Trinidad’ Tonight
Trinidad sneaks tonight
Book Expo America: Essentials for Father’s Day
More outposts from Book Expo America
Sunset Staff: Scrap TTC, Overhaul TxDoT
Legislature’s Sunset Commission staff make their sweeping recommendations for state transportation agencies
Bad Day for Big XII Baseball
Sunday was not kind to Big XII baseball teams. It was a day of judgment – Elimination Sunday some called it, particularly the in-over-their heads crew staffing ESPNU’s studio coverage of the NCAA regionals – and the ultimate judgment for the Big XII was Doom. Nebraska, Missouri, Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, and Texas were all knocked…
CD 10 Race May Be Close
Poll shows McCaul ahead of Doherty by about 5%.
Into the Vault
Breaking into Breakaway Records
Dude. Seriously.
Not many of you are getting out to vote
The Interactive Road-Map to Victory
Lone Star Project lays out the House seats the Dems will target come November
‘In Philadelphia it’s worth $50’
That line was my first exposure to Bo Diddley, delivered via his role as a pawn broker in 1983’s Dan Akroyd/Eddie Murphy film Trading Places. Later, I was exposed to his music: “Bo Diddley,” “Who Do You Love?” “Mona,” “I’m a Man.” As a music photographer, I’ve always tried to shoot aging legends. This one…
Fact Checking the Galindo Mailers (UPDATED)
‘NO Green Tax’ talk from self-described green builder Galindo
Book Expo America: Where Books Go to Party
Book Expo America
Hell Marys Nearly Home
Hell Marys get closer to championship, Hotrod Honeys give Big Easy some lessons
Ice Bats Cancel 2008-09 Season
We knew this news was coming but it is still sad all the same, it has been announced that there will be no 2008-09 season for the Ice Bats after 12 continuous years of providing Austin hockey fans a professional team to root for. The die was cast after it was announced that the Dallas…
‘When There’s No More Room in Hell …’
Dead again
The City Tackles E.D.
Entertainment districts on tap with live music task force
Junkie Rush
The Cowboy Junkies and Tom Rush: Six degrees of separation
Valu
Valu 2008, NR, 123 min. Directed by Umesh Vinayak Kulkarni, Starring Atul Kulkarni. Marathi-language movie.
Early Voting Begins Today
Austinites must settle the Galindo-Morrison run-off for Austin City Council
Hell Marys’ Last Hope
Hustlers stand in Hell Marys’ championship path: BERG have to handle the Hotrod Honeys.
Travel-Team Top-Up for TXRG
Texas Rollergirls want your old books, CDs and DVDs
Modernism and Me
Modernism and those funny feelings at the Heritage Society of Austin’s Mid-Century Modern Heritage Homes Tour
Vermont Votes Hemp
On May 29, Vermont became the second state to legalize industrial hemp farming when Republican Gov. Jim Douglas allowed H.267 to become law without his signature. The bill creates a regulatory scheme similar to that enacted in North Dakota, the first state to reauthorize agricultural production of the non-narcotic cousin of marijuana. Under the new…
Texas and the Numbers Game
How the Democratic presidential nomination could still come back to Texas
Express to Hand Out Colt .45s Hats
The Round Rock Express welcome the New Orleans Zephyrs to Round Rock for four starting this weekend and they’ve got several promotions to take advantage of. The biggee is Saturday night. They’ll be handing out 3,000 classic Colt .45s hats. This would be a favorite design of mine even if I weren’t a die-hard Astros…
Breakaway This Weekend
A new vinyl haven on the Eastside
MTV Strikes Again
MTV’s top MCs? WTF.
Live ‘Rook’
Shearwater debuts its latest flight
License & Registration: Bon Iver
Bon Iver hits the small screen
Richies for Obama
TDP chair and his wife back Obama, tying him in TX superdelegates with Clinton
Read to Eat
Wine Bar Food: Mediterranean Flavors to Crave with Wines to Match by Cathy and Tony Mantuano Clarkson Potter, 208 pp., $27.50 The Mantuanos have successful careers as Chicago restaurateurs. What they love most is pairing interesting wines with creative foods. Wine Bar Food offers their inventive recipes based on the cuisines of 10 cities (Venice,…
Texas Platters
Charles Potts MagIc Windmill Band The Golden Calves (Business Deal) The best punch lines are delivered with a straight face. The same sentiment holds true for the irreverent tales spun by Charles Potts Magic Windmill Band. Led by locals Travis Catsull and Cavedweller’s Dirk Michener, the self-coined “New York City-style experimental country” outfit howls like…
Rock & Roll Summer Reading
The Music Lesson: A Spiritual Search for Growth Through Music by Victor L. Wooten Berkley, 288 pp., $15 (paper) Akin to Carlos Castaneda’s travels with Native American shaman Don Juan, The Music Lesson leaves it to the reader to decide whether it’s fiction or not. With an impulsively eccentric guru named Michael, acclaimed bassist Victor…
Robin Lewis: If it’s springtime, it must be Hitler
The TexARTS artistic director gets to goose the goose-steppers one more time in a regional production of The Producers
Petition for Writ of Mandamus
Less than 24 hours after the 3rd Court of Appeals ruled against Child Protective Services, CPS lawyers appealed (PDF) to the Texas Supreme Court, arguing that the 3rd Court, and not Walther, had erred. The state is asking for an emergency stay, to stop the children from being returned to their families, pending the outcome…
Read to Eat
Washington Wines & Wineries: The Essential Guide by Paul Gregutt University of California Press, 328 pp., $34.95 Paul Gregutt has covered Washington wine in newspapers and magazines for 20 years. When he started, Washington had six wineries. The count is now more than 500, and the reason is simple: Once you get east of the…
Texas Platters
Chris Brecht The Great Ride (Dead Leaf) Scratching out from under the influence of Dylan seems a veritable rite of passage for young songwriters, and Chris Brecht’s local debut rewinds thoroughly through the Basement Tapes. His elongated nasal drawl, the easy rhythm of B-3 organ, and restless lyrics cutting sardonic all build upon firmly set…
Rock & Roll Summer Reading
A Deeper Blue: The Life and Music of Townes Van Zandt by Robert Earl Hardy University of North Texas Press, 300 pp., $24.95 The genius of Townes Van Zandt’s songwriting is unavoidably cast against the backdrop of his bipolar struggle, juxtaposing his gregarious charismatic charm with his addiction-fueled depression. As the title suggests, A Deeper…
Beside the Point: Riptide!
Fast-moving development deal on deck
Border Security Expo
Immigrant rights activists and border security entrepreneurs mix it up in Austin
Read to Eat
Around the World in 80 Dinners: The Ultimate Culinary Adventure by Cheryl and Bill Jamison William Morrow, 272 pp., $24.95 The Jamisons have spent their married life traveling the country teaching cooking classes, contributing food and travel articles to major magazines, and writing numerous award-winning cookbooks. Not a bad gig at all, in my estimation.…
Texas Platters
KVRX Local Live Vol. 12: Technicolor Yawn Not the best-named compilation, Technicolor Yawn nevertheless plays like a who’s who of Austin talent. Culled from KVRX’s Local Live in-studio broadcasts, 2006-07, Yawn’s more local than recent volumes – the show brings in international talent (the Netherlands’ C-mon & Kypski, Paris’ Cyann & Ben) – and quality…
Rock & Roll Summer Reading
How Can I Keep from Singing? The Ballad of Pete Seeger by David King Dunaway Villard/Random House, 544 pp., $18 (paper) What to think? Populist Pete Seeger was literally stoned by conservative groups and investigated for sedition during McCarthyism, only to be subsequently feted with a Kennedy Center Lifetime Achievement Honor and the National Medal…
Quote of the Week
“History appears poised to confirm what most Americans today have decided – that the decision to invade Iraq was a serious strategic blunder.” – Austinite and former Bush press secretary Scott McClellan spills the Bush beans in his new book, What Happened
Read to Eat
Delizia! The Epic History of the Italians and their Food by John Dickie Free Press, 384 pp., $26 We all love Italian food, don’t we? And most of us have very specific ideas of what Italian food is, depending on where we’ve grown up and how susceptible we and our antecedents have been to media…
Texas Platters
Dubb Sicks Mind in the Gutter (Backyard Recordings) In-your-face Austin MC Dubb Sicks brings the heat and the grime on second LP Mind in the Gutter, its title track dialing Dr. Dre’s signature ring with brutally self-effacing rhymes (“I haven’t bathed in three weeks”). “Wake up, hate everything around” to the Odessa native’s POV, spooked…
Rock & Roll Summer Reading
Backstage Passes & Backstabbing Bastards: Memoirs of a Rock ‘n’ Roll Survivor by Al Kooper Watson-Guptill Publications, 352 pp., $19.95 (paper) Twice republished – the original hit in 1977 as Backstage Passes: Rock & Roll Life in the Sixties and again in 1998 with its current title – Al Kooper’s tell-all memoir is a fitting…
Headlines
• Early voting starts Monday in the Austin City Council Place 4 run-off. See voting info and the Chronicle endorsement. • Austin schoolteachers and staff appeared Tuesday before the Austin Independent School District board seeking a few more shillings in their modest paychecks, a request the board may punt to local voters in a “rollback”…
Sex and the City
The new feature stands on its own (typically stilettoed) feet, while holding fast to the series’ singular mix of the giddily ribald and brutally confessional.
Read to Eat
Italian Grill by Mario Batali, with Judith Sutton Ecco Press, 256 pp., $29.95 Summer has arrived with its typical vengeance, and it’s time to fire up the grill and move the cooking heat from kitchen to patio. Mario Batali’s new Italian Grill is the perfect accompaniment to that endeavor. Batali has packed this new title…
Texas Platters
Steven Markus Bernstein Distant Sky The title, cover art, and title track are all incongruent with the true nature of this debut release. They conjure up a dreamy world of Western sunsets and happy trails. In fact, saxophonist Bernstein, a Friday-night member of Austin’s Regulars, and some distinguished friends have molded a set of original…
‘Chronicle’ Endorsements
June 14 City Council run-off
Naked City
News briefs from Austin, the region, and elsewhere
The Strangers
First-time writer/director Bertino, a UT alum, scares up a solid horror-film success with this debut outing.
Arts Review
Underneath its vulgar, profane surface, Bert V. Royal’s look at the Peanuts gang as teens still honors its source material
Read to Eat
Screen Doors and Sweet Tea: Recipes and Tales From a Southern Cook by Martha Hall Foose Clarkson Potter, 256 pp., $32.50 I was especially pleased to get this book, because I was a big fan of chef/author Martha Hall Foose’s excellent baked goods at the Bottletree Bakery in Oxford, Miss., when I attended the Southern…
Texas Platters
London-based Tovah would be an unlikely candidate for Girlie Action were it not for Escapologist’s percussive heart, courtesy of King Crimson drummer Pat Mastelotto and his Austin-area studio. It’s an expensive presentation from package to the final track, rich and luxurious beats that meld reggae (“Alpha & Omega”), classic-form rock (“D-Day”), and exuberant Euro synth-pop…
Travis Co. Early Voting
June 2-10
Beyond City Limits
• The Texas Democratic Party’s two-step presidential nomination process may be complicated, but a federal judge says it’s legal – just in time for the June 5 state convention. The League of United Latin American Citizens and the Mexican-American Bar Association of Houston sued the party, claiming the caucus delegate-selection process violated the Voting Rights…
Bra Boys
Russell Crowe narrates this insider’s documentary about Australia’s Bra Boys – a family of brawlers whose exploits are legendary.
Arts Review
Much has been invested in mounting Manuel Zarate’s five-play cycle, all to answer the basic question: What is love?
Read to Eat
Cornbread Nation 4: The Best of Southern Food Writing edited by Dale Volberg Reed, John Shelton Reed, and John T. Edge University of Georgia Press, 320 pp., $17.95 (paper) Over the past few years, traditional Southern cooking has enjoyed something of a proud renaissance at home and has become steadily more popular in other areas…
Texas Platters
Cult of Color, the latest Graham Reynolds-scored trip with the Golden Arm Trio, sold out all of its shows during a run at Ballet Austin last month. The surreal performance paired the talented Reynolds with visual artist Trenton Doyle Hancock and choreographer Stephen Mills for an interpretative tale of creatures in a colorless world. Without…
The Honorable Charlie Baird
Judge Charlie Baird is ruffling official feathers at the Travis County Courthouse
Oops!
In last week’s News section, a photo caption reporting on a historic Hyde Park home tagged for demolition stated that Steve Sadowsky, the city Historic Preservation officer, overruled the Historic Landmark Commission’s recommendation to preserve the home. In fact, it was a technical procedural error – the clock ran out on further consideration of the…
The Fall
Astonishing and hyperstylized images mark Tarsem’s stunning but mournful movie, which is also layered with fairy-tale subtext and thickets of moral and motivational ambiguity.
Readings
The shock of Snuff – about a record-breaking, 600-man sex-a-thon – is that the sexual content isn’t that shocking at all
Boundless Nutrition Oatmega-3 Bars
Trevor Ross cooked up his own protein bar, and they’re available to you
Rock & Roll Summer Reading
AC/DC Maximum Rock & Roll by Murray Engleheart with Arnaud Durieux HarperCollins, 488 pp., $16.95 (paper) “It was a real gut-wrenching thing, the whole episode, and we didn’t still know what was going to happen. You were sort of in a limbo world and I think that came through in all the stuff we came…
Guess Who’s Coming to Terrorize Your Night
UT alum Bryan Bertino’s nerve-shattering debut, ‘The Strangers’
Page Two: Running in Place
Movie-serial style coverage plagues the most thrilling, genuine, and troubling Democratic contest in decades
The Wedding Weekend
This earnest, well-acted ensemble film is a seriocomic meditation on what it means to be an American male approaching the dreaded four-oh.
Readings
Personal Days’ themes of corporate downsizing and office malaise have been done before and done better
Zhi Tea
This formerly online-only tea resource is opening its physical doors this summer
Rock & Roll Summer Reading
Comfortably Numb: The Inside Story of Pink Floyd by Mark Blake Thunder’s Mouth Press, 418 pp., $26 Mark Blake’s impeccable Pink Floyd tome was alternately titled When Pigs Fly for its European release, and rightfully so. Bookended by the group’s historic reunion at Live 8 in 2005, a mere four days before the death of…
Zen and the Art of Winning Championships
Richard Linklater profiles living legend Augie Garrido in Inning by Inning
Llano Springs Ranch
The Vandivier family wins the Leopold Conservation Award for their restoration of an Edwards Co. ranch
After a Fashion
Wake for the living; Stephen wants to see what you’re going to wear.
Food-o-File
Restaurant closings dot the Austin landscape, while Zax and the Belmont expand their hours and menus
Rock & Roll Summer Reading
Legendary Sessions: Bob Dylan, Highway 61 Revisited by Colin Irwin Billboard Books, 256 pp., $19.95 A Freewheelin’ Time: A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties by Suze Rotolo Broadway Books, 384 pp., $22.95 Real Moments: Bob Dylan by Barry Feinstein Omnibus Press, 159 pp., $34.95 Bob Dylan’s 1965 single “Like a Rolling Stone” and…
Funny Ha-Ha in a Half-Dozen Languages
AFS Essential Cinema presents Making the World Laugh: Global Comedy
Ogling the 360 Condo Crowd
Up close and personal with Downtown’s newest high-rise residents
The Common Law
Big Night Out? Try Deferred Disposition
Event Menu: May 29–31
Sarah’s Party and Ararat’s Mid-East Fusion light up the weekend with fundraising and fire dancing
Rock & Roll Summer Reading
Rollin’ With Dre, the Unauthorized Account: An Insider’s Tale of the Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of West Coast Hip Hop by Bruce Williams One World, 164 pp., $25 Rap-Up: The Ultimate Guide to Hip-Hop and R&B by Devin and Cameron Lazerine Grand Central Publishing, 335 pp., $16 (paper) In Search of the Blues by Marybeth…
Arts Review
The exhibit has moments of direct correlation that would not have been achieved without guest curator James Elaine
Lovable Livability
Love (and trophies) for Austin’s leaders of livability
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
An ex-Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan writes a sex book as a woman, 10% of Brits think George W. is their leader, and more
The Hightower Report
The Toxic Corruption of Our Political System; and Herbert Hoover Revisited
Rock & Roll Summer Reading
Bowie in Berlin: A New Career in a New Town by Thomas Jerome Seabrook Jawbone Press, 272 pp., $19.95 Berlin’s a “city made up of bars for sad people to get drunk in,” David Bowie was once quoted saying. In his first book, British author Thomas Jerome Seabrook takes on the period between 1976 and…
Day Trips
The Peaceful Valley Donkey Rescue program out of California is humanely removing donkeys from the Big Bend Ranch State Park
Read to Eat
Traverse the world of food from your poolside perch this summer
TV EYE
‘TV Eye’ has lost its love for Lost
Rock & Roll Summer Reading
Re-make/Re-model: Becoming Roxy Music by Michael Bracewell Da Capo Press, 426 pp., $17.95 (paper) For a book documenting the creation of a rock band, Re-Make/Re-Model assiduously limits its discussion of music. Author Michael Bracewell’s primary interest in Roxy Music derives from his ongoing fascination with reinventive dandyism as an antidote to British austerity. Through exhaustive…
Playing Through
The visiting Big Easy Rollergirls Roller Derby squad hopes they are up to the monumental task of defeating the Texas Rollergirls’ Hotrod Honeys
Happenings
For more events, see Community Listings. Thursday 29 AMERICORPS BENEFIT CONCERT with the Brothers Lazaroff, the Unbearables, and more. 8:30pm-2am. Ruta Maya, 3601 S. Congress, 707-9637. $5. www.rutamaya.net. Friday 30 MARINE EXECUTIVE ASSOCIATION LUNCHEON Service members welcome! E-mail to RSVP. 10:30am. American Legion Post 76, 2201 Veterans Dr. Free ($10 with food). comm.marine@austinmarineea.org, www.austinmarineea.org. Saturday…
Read to Eat
Beyond the Great Wall: Recipes and Travels in the Other China by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid Artisan, 376 pp., $40 Dynamic duo Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid have done it again with their newest tour de force; I’ll go out on a very short limb and predict that they’ll garner both James Beard Foundation…
Rock & Roll Summer Reading
Pretty Vacant: A History of UK Punk by Phil Strongman Chicago Review Press, 304 pp., $16.95 (paper) News flash: The years 1975-1979 were the heyday of UK punk rock, and the Sex Pistols (and their dire ilk) were midwifed, squealing feedback and dripping placental gob-shite all over poor conservative TV Today host Bill Grundy, by…
Green With Ambition
Why we need a master developer – not a project developer – to mastermind Seaholm East
Council Packs More ‘P’ Into Every PUD
Proposed PUD ordinance changes may give council more mastery over master-planned developments
Read to Eat
Two Dudes, One Pan: Maximum Flavor from a Minimalist Kitchen by Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo Clarkson Potter, 240 pp., $24.95 (paper) Despite the testosterone-pumped, stoner-esque title, this is a well-written, well-organized, and very useful cookbook. Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo began “doing the food” at parties while they saved money to pursue classical chef-training…
Off the Record
Only in Austin: Green Day heats up Emo’s, Elvis Costello and Diana Krall dine at Eddie V’s, and Los Lonely Boys visit the Saxon Pub
Rock & Roll Summer Reading
Tell the Truth Until They Bleed by Josh Alan Friedman Backbeat Books, 262 pp., $19.95 (paper) Written by New Yorker-turned-Texan Josh Alan Friedman, who also boasts his own musical career, this well-paced essay collection reveals 15 occasionally sordid but always fascinating stories from the pale underbelly of rock & roll and blues. Many of the…
Culture Flash!
A new theatre company gets Broadway vets to teach teens in Austin, and an older one gets a new artistic director and a new name
Those Mothers!
High-court ruling favors mothers over the Lone Star State
Read to Eat
The Organic Food Shopper’s Guide by Jeff Cox Wiley, 320 pp., $14.95 (paper) This book tells you all the things you need to know to select the best food for yourself and your family and tells you how to cook it, too. It is a wonderful resource for those times when you are wondering what…
Texas Platters
Kacy Crowley Cave (Stable) A cave can be a hollow in the earth or a verb: to yield, submit, surrender. Cave, Kacy Crowley’s fourth disc, while definitely dark, sounds more like a resounding triumph, a fresh beginning instead of a burning loss. Once again she works with producer Billy Harvey, and, with the exception of…
Rock & Roll Summer Reading
The Boy Who Cried Freebird: Rock & Roll Fables and Sonic Storytelling by Mitch Myers HarperEntertainment, 321 pp., $14.95 (paper) Originally published last April in hardback, Mitch Myers’ The Boy Who Cried Freebird shouldn’t be judged by its title, but it takes more than genealogy to make a good writer. All Things Considered contributor, music…
Lance Letscher: Newly industrious
The Austin artist’s current work signals new shifts in the collages for which he has gained national notoriety
Court of Appeals Decision
In an opinion (PDF) delivered May 22, Texas’ 3rd Court of Appeals ruled in favor of 38 FLDS mothers, concluding that Child Protective Services failed to demonstrate that their children – approximately 130 of the more than 400 taken from the FLDS’ Eldorado ranch last month – were in imminent risk of danger, which is…
Luv Doc Recommends: Austin Poetry Slam Benefit
If you haven’t bought a cheap piece of East Austin, you’d better get on it. Recession or not, there’s a whole shitstorm of hipsters looking to put a down payment on authentic Austin. Sure, you could blow three-hundred large on a spacious ranch house out in disturbia, but all that gets you is a neighborhood…
