Cover Story
Tres Chicas
The Latin ladies have it, but the Krayolas want it back
Sticks and Stones and Fair and Balanced?
Jenni Lee called back to apologize, but was not allowed to make any comment. At all, really.
Flying Pig Hunters
Feral hog helicopter hunt debate chews up time as clock counts down
Never Back Down!
Miss California USA (ugh!) Carrie Prejean makes a patriotic plea.
Spike and Kobe Team Up
ESPN to air ‘Kobe Doin’ Work’ commercial free
Talking Travis: Mark Strama
District 50 rep talks interim planning and his Sunny Day fund plan
Talking Travis: Valinda Bolton
District 47 rep fights the tax war for fire fighters
A Celebratory Spelman
Election Night Party
Aztex U-23s Start Up, as the Pro Squad Goes on the Road
Aztex U-23 team plays its first home game of the season Friday
Now Your Bust Can Count Past Two
The Husband-Hunter Bra from Triumph International
HB 3 Headed for Conference
School accountability bill gets back to House radically different to how it left
Like a NINJA
Jane’s Addiction and Nine Inch Nails, together again
Video: Wine & Revolution “Trees”
A poorly attended house party
Home Is Where You Hang Your Hat
Cyril Neville returns to the blues
A Time Suck for Hump Day
Another web-browser game to help you while away the workday
One of a Kind
Remembrances of Stephen Bruton
MetroRail Progress Report
Cap Met says milestones met, but still no firm date for launch
Is John Carter a Nutball?
Round Rock Congressman calls Obama a Marxist
No Italians Were Harmed in the Making of This Film
Angels & Demons‘s international flavor
Talking Travis: Eddie Rodriguez
The district 51 rep talks fresh priorities and fresh fruit
Kuempel Hospitalized
Seguin lawmaker collapsed at Capitol Tuesday night
Governor on the Floor
Perry visits House and discusses State School, TYC prosecutions
‘Heart of the Game’ Booksigning
The tragic death of Mike Coolbaugh lies at the center of S.L. Price’s new book
Off the Record – 33 RPM
Taking to the streets with Crew54
A Pre-Teen Genius Cartographer?
The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet
Verify This
High school voter registration takes torturous route to passage
City Hall Hustle: Brewster Bails Out
McCracken concedes race to Leffingwell
The Devotion + Doubt of Richard Buckner
A man of few words gets intimate
Jenni Lee and the P
Local Fox 7’s Jenni Lee posts on Facebook and can’t keep her hate to herself.
Is That a Shock in Your Pocket, or Are You Just Glad to See ‘Terminator Salvation’?
The Galaxy Highland installs new “motion-enhanced” seats
Talking Travis: Dawnna Dukes
Legeland catches up with the state rep for district 46
What Should Happen Along Waller Creek?
Public Planning Workshop May 13
Scott Ozmun Memorial Services
Travis County Democratic Party announces details of memorial and reception for judge
The Contenders Weigh In!
K8x and Andy take the Anytime Fitness Challenge: Let the trash-talking begin!
‘The Unforeseen’ Now Available on iTunes
You can now buy or rent Laura Dunn’s Bartons Springs documentary
Straight From the Horse’s Mouth
The Chron’s 1985 interview with Bud Shrake
Buttross Delivers
Mayoral also-ran’s wife bears child day after election
Old Crow Medicine Show/Justin Townes Earle
Live from Stubb’s, May 9, 2009
Comes in Threes
R.I.P. Stephen, Bud, and Poodie
City Hall Hustle: Electile Dysfunction
If your Hustle lasts four hours or longer, please consult a medical professional
Voter ID Clears Committee
But Elections chair predicts grim future for SB 362
J.J. Abrams, Notorious Rug-Puller-Outter
Picture in Picture has a bone to pick with the Star Trek reboot
Talking Travis: Donna Howard
District 48 rep on the pros and cons of getting studies passed
Dagoberto Gilb Hospitalized
A family rep says the Austin-based writer is recovering from a minor stroke
Brewster McCracken Drops Out of Mayor’s Race
Says going forward not in city’s best interest
Celestino, Take Me Away!
Celestino by Sergio Guadarrama at Spazio Interiors
Final Numbers
Leffingwell headed to runoff with McCracken; other results
Snowball’s Chance
Precinct returns don’t bode well for McCracken
McCracken Camp: There Will Be a Runoff
Despite Leffingwell’s 47.5%, McCracken’s in it to win it
Jubilant, But Guarded
The mood at Leffingwell HQ
Cavazos: ‘I’m Not Going to Disappear’
Place 1 candidate upbeat despite solid loss
Stephen Bruton (1948-2009)
The spirit chaser and songwriter passes on
More Returns
Leffingwell holds commanding lead over McCracken, in second, and Strayhorn, trailing in third
Riley Up 2-1 in Place 1
Former Planning Commissioner appears to have insurmountable lead.
Kinda Fonda Wanda
Wanda Sykes performs at tonight’s White House Correspondence Dinner.
Early Voting Results
Leffingwell takes the lead
Back Draft
Democrats slam Republicans for dumping consensus voter ID bill for Senate language
Today Is Election Day
Balloting for Austin City Council and Mayor runs 7am-7pm
Spash Down in H-Town
This weekend is Houston Splash, H’Town’s black gay pride.
MP3: Vega “No Reasons”
Back to the future… of disco.
Randall “Poodie” Locke (1948-2009)
Healing hands of time
Scott Ozmun Dies
353rd District Court judge passes this afternoon
Democracy Sucks
On turnout, campaign finance, and their correlational relationship
Tasty!
Come on out to A Taste of Pride: TONIGHT!
Ingalls Partying Down With … Strayhorn?
Sure they’ve both been in stranger situations
Flight of the Conchords
Listening while laughing til you cry
Found Footage Festival finds its way back to Austin
Dig public access, training tutorials, and Eighties’ workout videos?
Celebrating the Stepmom at BookPeople
Two new books from Austinites examine blended family dyanmics
Finding Love in the Senate
I wanna engross your bill, baby
Texas legend Edwin “Bud” Shrake loses battle with cancer
Bud Shrake (Strange Peaches) dies at 77
Phases & Stages
Metric Fantasies (Last Gang) Following her more intimate solo fare, Broken Social Scenester Emily Haines hikes up her skirt for Fantasies, Metric’s third and most unabashedly commercial LP, heavy on heartbreak (“Stadium Love”), New Wave (“Help I’m Alive”), and huge choruses. While everything could be trimmed, Jimmy Shaw’s razor guitar in “Sick Muse” and “Front…
Restaurant Review
The Austin dessert craze includes the treats at Pie Slice
Ticketing a (Campaign) Violation
The anonymous Brewster Nation tickets Downtown parking
Criminal Justice Reform
Slow Train A-Comin’
Goodbye Solo
This small marvel of a film by American portraitist Ramin Bahrani is a large-hearted examination of human curiosity and kindness and the limits of both.
The Common Law
Police Roadblocks & DWI
Phases & Stages
The Veils Sun Gangs (Rough Trade) Impressionable singer Finn Andrews masters his Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde routine on the Veils’ third disc, splitting time between desolately romantic piano ballads (“Begin Again” and the title track) and dense indie rock detonations, most notably textured banjo freak-out “Three Sisters” and early U2 kiss-off “The Letter.” Ecstatic,…
Evolving Dialogue
Can Sharon Sparlin’s play get science and religion to stop yelling and start talking?
Election Night Campaign Parties
Lee Leffingwell: Hill’s Cafe, 4700 S. Congress Brewster McCracken: Cuatros, 1004 W. 24th Carole Keeton Strayhorn: Jaime’s Spanish Village, 802 Red River David Buttross: Not announced at press time Josiah Ingalls: Jaime’s Spanish Village, 802 Red River Chris Riley: Scholz Garten, 1607 San Jacinto Perla Cavazos: Alligator Grill, 3003 S. Lamar Mike Martinez: Hill’s Cafe,…
Voter ID
The Fight Continues
Star Trek
Star Trek is an immensely satisfying origin story that introduces the characters we know – before we knew them.
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
British ‘krimmies,’ weaselly wolverines, and more
The Constancy of Sorrow
Native Texan Kevin Reynolds taps loss of innocence, from Cold War Commies to The Count of Monte Cristo
After a Fashion
This week, fashion goes viral
Chain-Saw Frenzy
Fear of a Springs PARD massacre is about trust as well as trees
Reproductive Rights
‘Choose Life’ – and Defund Women’s Health Care
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Wolverine is a noisy mess, full of Hugh Jackman’s seriously killer snarl but utterly devoid of the borderline-subversive smarts that made Bryan Singer’s X-Men films so resonant.
Letters at 3AM
Having a personal relationship with an impersonal God
Getting Creative With Constraints
AFS Documentary Tour presents the 10 Under 10 shorts program
City Counseling: Sprinting to a Compromise
Council and joggers ‘give a little bit’ on street closures
County Land Use
Slow Crawl to Nowhere
New in Graphic Novels
This manga autobiography is the result of a decade’s work by the acclaimed artist
DVD Watch
Joyless v. Joyful: The case against Pulling and for Gavin & Stacey
Record Review
‘Austin Music Mezcla 2009’: A Latino Music Sampler
Getting a Move on Mobility
A peek at Austin’s new Strategic Mobility Plan
Transportation
TxDOT’s Continuing Troubles
New in Graphic Novels
An exhaustive and often overwrought tome with an obsessive pen craft as unnerving as Schrag’s storm of baby-dyke dilemmas and crises
Film News
‘Film News’ explains what the new film incentives bill means; plus news from Rick Linklater, Andrew Bujalski, and Owen Egerton
A Rose by Any Other Name
Ranking cabinet member of the Latino scene Rose Reyes
TYC Sees Light at End of Tunnel
Youth Commission just might catch a break
Education
Lots of Reform, No Money
New in Graphic Novels
An insider’s view that reveals a matter-of-fact acceptance of Middle East violence
Recreating the Domain
Six artists’ walking tours of the Domain make visiting there more surreal than ever
Day Trips
Prause Meat Market in La Grange makes barbecue the 105-year-old-fashioned way
LegeLines
Quick hits from the Capitol
Media
We Can Has Shield, Too?
New in Graphic Novels
The latest in the anthology series curated by Fantagraphics’ Eric Reynolds and Gary Groth
Lordy Rodriguez
The lush maps created by this visual artist aren’t real, but they are worth exploring
Gay Place
If black people freak you out, don’t bother reading …
Dinosaur Daze
Creatures of the House
Grading the Campaign Ads: Who Did Their Homework?
Which candidates did their homework?
Phases & Stages
Bob Dylan Together Through Life (Columbia) If love doesn’t kill you, then the devil hasn’t done her job. “My Wife’s Home Town,” wherein Bob Dylan adapts Willie Dixon’s “I Just Want to Make Love to You” to the tune of “I just want to say that hell’s my wife’s hometown,” crackles in David Hidalgo’s Day…
Allisyn Paino
One of Ballet Austin’s leading ballerinas is bidding farewell to the spotlight
Off the Record
Crew54 hits the streets and documents the ATX hip-hop underground, Austin’s all-American Idol contestant, and Ohn dials in a new music platform
Redoubling Against Redistricting
Wentworth trying to avert another DeLay disaster
City Hall Hustle: What Time Is It? It’s Brewster Nation Time!
The McCracken week that was
Phases & Stages
Thee Oh Sees Help (In the Red) Consider John Dwyer’s musical career an evolutionary chart. In Pink & Brown, he pounded out late-1990s Neander-noise. With the Coachwhips, he fashioned fast blasts of garage punk. As the OCS and Ohsees, his bedroom backlog yielded gauzy reverb folk. Now, settled into his current simian brain, comes Help,…
Restaurant Review
Buda’s Nonna Gina’s is Italian, friendly, and good
‘Chronicle’ Endorsements
Mayor: Lee Leffingwell When the mayoral race was first being handicapped last year, it didn’t appear the central issue would be how to survive the economic bust. Now that problem is front and center – and of the five candidates running, only City Council incumbents Lee Leffingwell and Brewster McCracken have direct experience in handling…
Contradictory Keller Conclusions
To impeach or not to impeach
Res Publica
Thursday07 FOOD JUSTICE SPEAKER SERIES Learn the effects of conventional food production on the environment. 7pm. MonkeyWrench Books, 110 E. North Loop, 407-6925. Free. www.fairfoodaustin.blogspot.com. POSTPONED: ST. JOHN/CORONADO HILLS NEIGHBORHOOD MEETING This meeting was to be held today but has been postponed; see www.cityofaustin.org/zoning/sj_ch.htm for further updates. Friday08 ENVISION CENTRAL TEXAS COMMUNITY STEWARDSHIP AWARD LUNCHEON…
Phases & Stages
New York Dolls ‘Cause I Sez So (Atco/Rhino) The New York Dolls were always a numbers racket, prepunk movers of their seedy CBGB Revlon anti-scene, slopping out greasy bucketfuls of blues-inflected trash rock. And then there were two: David Johansen’s howlin’ wolfishness and Sylvain Sylvain’s dirty boulevard guitars, here both beaded and salty with an…
Restaurant Review
Despite the grownup Greeks, J Black’s has some of the best bar food in town
Arts Review
In Anna Deavere Smith’s personal journey to confront mortality is a gift of grace
Playing Through
This is what 24 hours of nonstop pingpong looks like
Headlines
• Election day is Saturday, May 9! If you haven’t voted early (and very few of you have), make certain to stop at the polls Saturday before you hit the trails, the lake, or the lawn mower – a hot mayoral race likely heads to a run-off, and your city needs your vote! • Bad…
Phases & Stages
Peter Doherty Grace/Wastelands (Parlophone) Embodying a 30-year-old Keith Richards on Grace/Wastelands’ meaty special-edition DVD, the former “Pete” Doherty reveals the same English vulnerability all that infamy masked. Songs are sacred, even the offhanded ones; voices true heart. Largely unplugged, with the steel-string addition of Blur guitarist Graham Coxon, Doherty’s initial release under his own name…
The Hightower Report
Hiding the Facts on Global Climate Change; Lloyd Blankfein’s Big Hair
Arts Review
Half the fun of Different Stages’ absorbing production is talking about it later
Sniffing Sine Die
Taking stock of the 81st Lege
Naked City
News briefs from Austin, the region, and beyond
Phases & Stages
St. Vincent Actor (4AD) Over smoky piano standout “The Party,” Annie Clark purrs: “I lick the ice cube from your empty glass. Oh, we stayed much too late, ’til they’re cleaning the ashtrays.” Meanwhile, she keeps an “eye on the exit sign, steady now.” As on her 2007 debut, Marry Me, the former Texan is…
TV Eye
TV Eye gets schooled by readers, Paul Saucido and Stephen Mills on the air, and this Twitter’s for you
Arts Review
A rich concert that showed how much Peter Bay’s time on the podium has meant to ASO
Environment/Energy
A Few Green Sprouts
Bud Shrake’s Adventures in the Film Trade
‘Midnight rambling, creative gambling’: Louis Black’s 1985 interview with Songwriter screenwriter Bud Shrake
Phases & Stages
Depeche Mode Sounds of the Universe (Capitol) There’s no brave new world for Depeche Mode. The UK trio’s impeccably produced 12th album orbits back around the black-hole romanticism and sonic flourishes of its 1980s catalog with some welcome success (“Wrong,” “Fragile Tension”). Dave Gahan’s songwriting (“Hole to Feed,” “Miles Away/The Truth Is”) has improved since…
Food-o-File
Fried-chicken fans rejoice, Perla’s and Max’s come to Austin, and more
Oops!
In “Carole’s Greatest Hits, Vol. 2,” News, April 24, we reported that Carole Keeton Strayhorn (then Rylander) was appointed to the Railroad Commission in 1994. In fact, she was elected to that post, defeating Democratic incumbent Mary Scott Nabers.
Buying Time
The federal stimulus money rides to the state’s rescue – until the next session
Phases & Stages
Röyksopp Junior (Astralwerks) This Norwegian production couple are deft punks on their third album, a synthetic collection of upbeat dance music encapsulated by the coiling, galactic theme song “Röyksopp Forever.” Electro-pop starlets Karin Dreijer Andersson of the Knife (“This Must Be It”) and Robyn (“The Girl and the Robot”) glisten in the mix, while Lykke…
Event Menu
This weekend, head to Waterloo Park for barbecue shenanigans
Campaign Finance Flare-Up
When is a run-off not a run-off?
Drug Laws
A Mixed Bag
Shall We Kiss?
Quintessentially French in its preoccupation with the vagaries of l’amour, Shall We Kiss? is painfully dunderheaded about the proclivities of the human heart.
Phases & Stages
Empire of the Sun Walking on a Dream (Astralwerks) The debut collaboration between Aussies Luke Steele of the Sleepy Jackson and Pnau’s Nick Littlemore laces with the same modern-glam pixie dust as MGMT’s Oracular Spectacular and scores legitimate smashes in the disaffected disco of “Standing on the Shore” and beaming title track. Sadly, the intrigue…
Restaurant Review
This place at the end of the alley promises tacos and cold beer, and it delivers
Carole’s Top 10 Greatest Hits
In our hearts she’s No. 1 with a bullet
SBOE
Grabbing McLeroy’s Chair
Sugar
Sugar, by the makers of Half Nelson, follows a major league hopeful’s path from a baseball academy in the Dominican Republic to stateside spring training and single-A ball in rural Iowa.
Luv Doc Recommends: A Benefit for Max Moses
Getting laid on Mother’s Day is, to say the very least, problematic – unless, of course, you’re actually a mother. Then you can get it pretty much any way you want it as long as you’re not too tired, cranky, or bitter from the memory of having to force an extra-large coconut out of your…
