Cover Story
Chest Cavities, Empty Kneecaps, and Elbows
A week at Austin’s all-ages live music venue Redrum and the ‘School of Rock’ lessons learned
Readings
One of the better in a small field of serious analytical tomes on the topic, despite the commanding, hyperbolic exclamation in its title, mirroring the often breathless voice used by bloggers
Texas Platters
Dale Watson’s impending departure to Baltimore is about to leave a gaping hole in the local honky-tonk scene. His shows are models of economy and grace that navigate the depths of neon delight and despair without lapsing into cliché – in other words, big boots to fill. Watson himself helps ease the transition on Michael…
The Towers of Power
Are high-rises the key to a middle-class Downtown?
Pay, Performance, Politics, and Education
Perry offers incentive pay, but only to a tiny handful of teachers
Page Two
Free speech in defense of liberty is no vice
Texas Platters
Johnny, Dick, and Emily GimbleA Case of the Gimbles When you’ve got credentials such as Johnny Gimble and a lifetime of music behind you, there’s only one way to go: Bring the family. With three generations of Gimbles playing (plus a passel of ’em in the credits) and perennial favorites like Irving Berlin’s “Blue Skies”…
Towers in the Pipeline
Under ConstructionThe Milago on Rainey Street is currently under construction (as one can see from the Congress Avenue Bridge). Finish-out work also continues at the 5 Fifty Five, inside the Austin Hilton. Both projects are being marketed now. In the ProcessSpring, Third and Nueces, and Gables Park Plaza all require zoning or entitlement changes that…
Another Hearing for Rodney Reed
Death row inmate’s case goes back to Bastrop County district court
Chicken Little
Disney’s first all-CGI, made-in-house, animated feature is painful for all ages, despite a voice-talent roster to make the angels weep.
Letters at 3AM
Right now, and for at least the next three years of this administration, the United States of America is not being governed. Hurricane Katrina demonstrated, and Iraq every day confirms, that the powers-that-be are dysfunctional. We are on our own.
Texas Platters
The Horton Brothers Tempo for Two (Texas Jamboree) The Horton Brothers are stuck in the late 1950s. Everything about their third album Tempo for Two – the sound, the sibling harmonies, the songs – is a throwback to a time that may not have ever really existed. Yet it’s presented with so much frolicking devotion…
Victory for God – or Bigotry?
The already illegal practice of gay marriage just got more illegal
FLDS First Family Update
Warren Jeffs’ nephew caught en route to Texas; possibly “The Prophet” is here?
Get Rich or Die Tryin’
The film story of Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson’s tough road to success is so melodramatic that if it weren’t real it would be laughable.
After a Fashion
Who is Stephen’s fave new singer? Who is The. Best. Salesperson. EVAH? What happened when Stephen set foot back in Oilcan’s? You’ll have to read to see!
Texas Platters
Edith FrostIt’s a Game (Drag City) San Antonio native, former Austinite, and current Chicagoan Edith Frost might be the female equivalent of labelmate Bill (Smog) Callahan – in his latter years. Like the local voice of brambles, Frost’s singing is full-bodied, yet curiously expressionless. Poker faced. In the songwriter continuum, she’s Kate Wolf for the…
Top of the Props
A roundup of the non-gay-bashing amendments
Shocker: Perry’s New Tax Commission Industry Heavy
Whether to tax big businesses more will be decided by … big businessmen
Pride & Prejudice
This fresh adaptation of Jane Austen’s masterpiece starring Keira Knightley presents a witty and lovesick skirmish of the sexes that exceeds all expectations.
About AIDS
Avian flu and the effects on the HIV-positive community
Texas Platters
Two-Headed Dog Better Than One (Halt Music) If you lived in New Orleans in the late Eighties, you might have heard of Two-Headed Dog. It was a side project for Lisa Mednick and Alison Young, the keyboard-player/singer-songwriter and lead singer respectively for one of NOLA’s hottest and unfortunately never signed bands of the time, the…
County Gets Bonded: Roads and Parks and Jail, Oh My!
Local voters easily pass county bond package
Can Austin Carshare?
Several car-sharing proposals hope to reduce auto spending, traffic, and pollution
Zathura
With his follow-up to Elf, actor-turned-director Jon Favreau sticks with family-friendly filmmaking, this time delivering a bang-up version of Chris Van Allsburg’s bestselling children’s book Zathura.
To Your Health
Why is calcium added to so many foods while other nutrients (like magnesium) aren’t?
Texas Platters
The Hudsons Live Album The Hudsons describe their original acoustic songs as folk music, but with terms like “titty dancers and cocaine” and “dope-ass rhyme,” this ain’t no Carter Family redux. The Austin act began in 2002 as the singer/strummer duo of Brian Hudson and Hudson Mueller, wisely adding singer/fiddler Phoebe Hunt afterward. In contrast…
Election Results
All the numbers
More Cap Metro Union, Contractor Gridlock
Strike a real possibility
Côte D’Azur
The French still like to get their sex on, a fact confirmed again and again in this breezy, featherweight sex farce.
The Common Law
Why do I need a will?
Texas Platters
Housewife The Delicate Prey (Domestic Junkie) Suburban boredom has long been fodder for punk albums, but Austin trio Housewife does a damn fine job of encapsulating it. On their second full-length, singer/guitarist John Rose, drummer Craig Carson, and bassist Afsheen Nomai sound even more amped up than on 2004’s The Malaise of Modern Living EP.…
With God on Their Side: The KKK Stops By
Lawsuit filed after city separates Klan from counterprotesters and excludes certain media
Watershed AMD Saga Bulldozes On
A favorable City Council ruling brings development closer to reality
NBT: Never Been Thawed
Mockumentary about the members of a Frozen Food Enthusiasts Club is funny when it stays on topic but becomes scattered when it strays.
Day Trips
Earlier this year the Regency Bridge north of San Saba became the last suspension bridge in Texas that cars can drive across
Texas Platters
Rapid Ric Getcha Weight Up (Mixtape Mechanic) Basswood Lane The Lane Vol. 1 (Dollaz N’ Since) Knight Ridaz A New Knight (KRE) Bavu Blakes Nobody Leavin (Natural High) DamarThe G.U.G.U. Album (Bodyrockin’) When not busy globetrotting Texas rap around the Americas, ATX’s Rapid Ric saturates mix CDs with multitiered layers of down-home funk. His mouth-watering…
Instant Replay: How and Why Did Daniel Rocha Die?
Re-enactment discrepancies leave family still looking for answers
Point Austin: Sharpening Teeth
Remedial dentistry in order for Police Monitor
Where the Truth Lies
Master filmmaker Atom Egoyan goes for the mainstream with this new murder mystery, but sadly his aim is way, way off.
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Some parts of the Bible are not actually true
Texas Platters
Friends of Dean Martinez Lost Horizon (Aero) FODM’s trip has always been a strange one, but it’s a visceral one. The Austin via Arizona trio is adept at painting a landscape with big strokes and filling in the finer details with finger paint. They escaped from the painted desert of the Southwest on previous albums,…
Local Civil Rights Hero Overton Dies
Activist helped desegregate Austin’s schools
Point Austin: Beside the Point
It’s a no-brainer to denounce the no-brainers
Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang
Shane Black’s directorial debut is a suckerpunch-and-a-half, a trippy tribute to L.A. noir and a genre-busting blitzkrieg attack on Hollywood pretensions that’s just as full of them as the pulp it lampoons.
TCB
A harvest of local albums from I Eat Records, new location for the Bubble, and new hope for the SIMS Foundation
Soccer Watch
Ladies college and MLS playoffs come to Texas
Texas Platters
Explosions in the SkyHow Strange, Innocence (Temporary Residence) How strange, imperfection. The barely pressed CD-R debut of Austin’s instrumental virtuosos Explosions in the Sky, recorded over two days locally in 2000, is finally redigitized and illustrated in Picasso’s blue period. Time to stop kicking oneself for not buying the vinyl reprint at the merch table…
Waterfalls and Sea Changes
The former and current artistic directors of Austin Script Works discuss new plays, local theatre, and the writer’s voice
The Hightower Report
The Pentagon spends more than a billion in tax dollars every day; and commercial soul, not corporate logos, is what counts
Shaadi No. 1
In a country famous for its exhaustively over-the-top filmmaking, India’s Shaadi No. 1 is an extreme case: a maddeningly manic comedy-romance painted in vibrant shades of neon pink and Day-Glo violet.
Arts Review
Robert Schenkkan’s ‘The Marriage of Miss Hollywood and King Neptune’ eases us back into that long-ago world of screwball comedy and serves up some new fun
Interior Designers
After 30 years, Miguel Ravago and Tom Gilliland offer a cookbook as challenging and fascinating as their menu
Texas Platters
Bayta DarellWrite Me in Metal/Make Me Forever (Jacket Weather) Austin quartet Bayta Darell loves the Beach Boys. Their debut, at over 80 minutes, is all spacey epics divided by echoed vocals and melody. “A Seaworthy Love Song” is reminiscent of Black Celebration-era Depeche Mode, while 17-minute “A Childsoul of Noface” attempts Sigur Ros. A brave…
Theatre: Classic Comeback
Throughout November, Austinites have the chance to see four plays that have stood the test of time: ‘Hamlet,’ ‘Macbeth,’ ‘The Way of the World,’ and ‘The Playboy of the Western World’
Starting From Something
After an eight-year break, Shane Black is back with ‘Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang,’ taking himself in a different direction
Arts Review
The delights of Refraction Arts Project’s ‘Up in the Old Hotel’ are many, but the creators seem to assume that you already know a lot about ‘New Yorker’ writer Joseph Mitchell
Ensalada de Nochebuena
Christmas Eve Salad
Texas Platters
Games & TheoryThat Dark Bird You Hold in Your Arms Hold on to your ass. Games & Theory’s debut LP shoots out of the gate with Faith No More fury wrapped up in Slayer speed. Mike Patton would love this. G&T isn’t a typical hardcore band. Sure they have the anger, thrash, and song titles…
Arthouse Texas Prize: Big Winner Eileen Maxson!
A glittering crowd gathered in the Driskill Hotel on Friday, Nov. 4, to watch Eileen Maxson of Houston take home the first Arthouse Texas Prize
Anything Can Happen: Jon Favreau and Dax Shepard on Zathura
How this Jumanji requel took to the stars
Arts Review
In this national tour of ‘Movin’ Out,’ Twyla Tharp’s choreographic power gleamed like the chrome of a streamline fin on a convertible
Budín de Elote
Corn Pudding
Texas Platters
The Invincible CzarsGods of Convenience (Above Suspicion) Invincible Czars are not indie rock. They’re a hybrid of klezmer, Latin, funk, and waltz. El Guapo meets Grupo Fantasma and Rubinchik’s Yiddisch Ensemble. Out of the ordinary, opinionated, and always better when instrumental, the Czars’ debut is chamber music for a Red River crowd. Activism abounds, eccentricity…
Boyd Vance: Sweet Remembrance
On Oct. 27, the City Council sweetened some of the bitterness of Boyd Vance’s passing this year by naming the new theatre at the Carver Museum and Cultural Center after him
Double Vision
The Polish brothers share their indie insights
Culture Flash
Calling all Eastside artists, here come the Russians, visual artists talk residency programs, and Steven Dietz comes to UT
Food-o-file
A conversation with Julie Powell; plus, the Kitchen Sisters at BookPeople
Texas Platters
PailStory of a Spacemonkey Some might say goth died in the late Eighties, but Austin “New Wave-disco-death-rock” outfit Pail dug it up, added samples, and called it their own. The 14-year-old fourpiece’s latest story of a monkey sent into space only to bring back a deadly virus adds just the right amount of tongue-in-cheek to…
Coffee Tawk With Maureen Dowd
Chatting with the star ‘NYT’ columnist about Judy Miller, Bush’s nannies, and blogs
‘SXSW Presents’: ‘See How They Run’
‘See How They Run’
Power, Forward
Dave Zirin on ‘What’s My Name, Fool?: Sports and Resistance in the United States’
Texas Platters
The SweetheartsLooks Could Kill (Mortville) Been there, done that. Local punks the Sweethearts are No Doubt without the backbeat. Linette Liendo’s Gwen Stefani vox necessitates nose-pinching, but on top of a simple punk rock beat, it’s more Screaching Weasel than “Spiderwebs.” Or maybe that should read “Chipmunks.” And never has a pop-punk band pulled off…
Naked City
Headlines and happenings from Austin and beyond
DVD Watch
An escapist romp from 1976, it’s determined to have a good time, and what’s wrong with that?
Readings
Gaitskill’s facility with the written word mostly compensates for the messiness of the novel’s plot
Texas Platters
Martí Brom Heartache Numbers (Goofin’) The concept behind Heartache Numbers is so simple that it’s mind-boggling no one thought of it before. Martí Brom, the little local lady with the powerhouse voice, chooses from a long list of country songs with numerals in their title and sequences them in order, one through 13. Even then,…
Texas Platters
ToofJennifer Love Handles (Propeller) One-man bands are all the rage these days, but none of them has as much fun as Trey D’Amico, aka Toof. Rocking out with scarce but for a guitar and keyboard, Toof hits the chain restaurants (“The Theme Song to Boobies”) with the Secret Machines (“The Ballad of Mean and Nasty”)…
Man Shot in Face
Mental illness possible factor in suspect’s behavior
TV Eye
Kinky Friedman, ‘The West Wing,’ and ‘Commander in Chief’
Luv Doc Recommends: James McMurtry
It says a lot that on a Friday night when you could be out trying to get laid you’re at the Continental Club watching James McMurtry. Sure, you could be dirty dancing at some theme club down on Sixth Street, poppin’ that ass, throwing back Jello shots, getting your mack on…because yeah, you occasionally roll…
