PLUS: SXSW News & Reviews • Summer Camps

Bridging the Language Gap

Austin Chronicle: You’ve already packed a lot into your career, with time in both the private and public sectors and a run for office, but it was all in Colorado. What was it about this position in Austin that made you say, “Yeah, I’ll move down there?” Alex Sanchez: It was very interesting how it…

by Richard Whittaker

Fun Fun Fun Shots

The Damned Auditorium Shores, Nov. 5 If you caught a glimpse of a tall, cadaverously made-up gentleman sporting a powder-puff-gray complexion and antique cheaters wandering hither and yon throughout the festival grounds on Saturday, yes, that was Damned frontman Dave Vanian, doing a surprisingly passable version of Michael Jackson incognito as … Dave Vanian. The…

by Marc Savlov

Headlines

› City Council meets again today (Thursday), with second and, potentially, third readings for approval of the Downtown Austin Plan, as well as possible approval of a one-year contract with Austin Pets Alive! to operate the Town Lake Animal Center for adoptions as city shelter operations move Saturday to the new Betty Dunkerley Campus on…

by Chronicle Staff

Fun Fun Fun Shots

Major Lazer Auditorium Shores, Nov. 5 A Major Lazer show is basically spring break compacted into an hour and a single stage, neither of which is enough to contain the insanity. It’s debauched, dangerous, filthy, and fantastic, and like spring break, much of your opinion of the show will depend on how deeply into the…

by Doug Freeman

Fun Fun Fun Shots

Kool Keith Auditorium Shores, Nov. 5 Consider the baseball statistic VORP: Value Over Replacement Player. It became relevant Saturday morning when the news that a broken foot would keep god MC Rakim out of the fest hit. Enter Kool Keith, the seemingly borderline schizophrenic Bronx native in town for a FFF Nites performance at Empire…

by Chase Hoffberger

Fun Fun Fun Shots

Donald Glover/Childish Gambino Auditorium Shores, Nov. 5 The first time America heard Donald Glover rap, the co-star of NBC sitcom Community was sitting on a study-room couch spitting random phrases in Spanish. “My mom and Chevy Chase are the only two people who watch Community,” Glover deadpanned to the crowd spilling out of the comedy…

by Thomas Fawcett

Fun Fun Fun Shots

Danzig Legacy Auditorium Shores, Nov. 4 Memo to Glenn Danzig: Dude, what’s up with the hate breeding? You’re 56 years old; Misfits broke up aeons ago. You’ve had a solo career that’d do any Class of ’77 punk rocker proud (even the Ramones are dead at this point), and yet Friday night you once again…

by Marc Savlov

The Skin I Live In

Pedro Almodóvar, Spain’s maestro of madness and desire, reunites with Antonio Banderas for this dark and frazzled tale of l’amour fou.

by Marc Savlov

Fun Fun Fun Shots

Public Enemy Auditorium Shores, Nov. 4 Public Enemy is 20 years removed from its last great album – Apocalypse 91 … The Enemy Strikes Black – but its music and message sound as urgent as ever. Backed by a live band and flanked by the militaristic boot-stomping of the S1Ws, Chuck D’s fierce raps shot…

by Thomas Fawcett

Like Crazy

This is a love story love story about people of a certain age – which is not to be confused with a love story for the ages.

by Kimberley Jones

Fun Fun Fun Shots

Black Milk Auditorium Shores, Nov. 4 Though Jon Laine, subbing on drums for Black Milk’s always on-point band, may not crash with the same bravado and flash as longstanding seat-holder Daru Jones, dude still pops vintage J Dilla snare perfect for a live hip-hop set. Black Milk knows it, too. The Detroit native gave his…

by Chase Hoffberger

Fun Fun Fun Shots

Touché Amoré Auditorium Shores, Nov. 5 Who killed screamo? Hardcore’s most heartfelt genre took body blows when it should have been landing them, and became a big-label, commercialized joke of itself. Touché Amoré’s Jeremy Bolm crouching midstage, screaming and keening as the pit punched the air for every beat of “Home Away From Here,” brought…

by Richard Whittaker

Fun Fun Fun Shots

Adira Amram Auditorium Shores, Nov. 4 Forget daylight saving time: Set your clocks to boom-jazzle time, a glittery epoch populated by misguided American Idol contestants, a drunken electro-pop wedding DJ, and crazed disco nerd Adira Amram. A swirl of neon spandex and ruffles, Amram maniacally stared into the audience under eye shadow that would make…

by Richard Whittaker

Fun Fun Fun Shots

Tune-Yards Auditorium Shores, Nov. 5 A slash of white paint across her face and dressed in puffy pink-tulle sleeves, DIY princess Merrill Garbus, otherwise known as Tune-Yards, dropped some seriously loopy funk on Saturday afternoon. The set list was populated almost entirely by tracks from her second and latest LP, Whokill, from the wry posturing…

by Melanie Haupt

Fun Fun Fun Shots

Crooks Auditorium Shores, Nov. 6 Crooks had a sparse crowd at opening Sunday, but their lonesome, windswept country provided an appropriate salve for the third-day festival hangover and dust-embittered blues. The fourpiece’s frontman Josh Mazour plays the classic Austin cowboy, with aviator sunglasses and long, dirty-blond locks spilling from beneath a cowboy hat, but it’s…

by Doug Freeman

Fun Fun Fun Shots

Reggie Watts Auditorium Shores, Nov. 4 Reggie Watts operates in the Bermuda Triangle of comedy, music, and improv that’s swallowed any number of performers. Watts is a maestro of mouth manipulations and beatboxing barrages that contort and dive in a one-man wall of sound through looped effects. Yet the core of his craft remains comedic…

by Doug Freeman

Fun Fun Fun Shots

Le Butcherettes Auditorium Shores, Nov. 6 The problem with making a big, fat splash with theatrical live shows that leave people shocked and gossiping is that you set up an eternal expectation for drama. Such was the case Sunday afternoon when Mexican garage-punk trio Le Butcherettes commenced its set with the fuzzed-out minor-chord drama of…

by Melanie Haupt

Fun Fun Fun Shots

D Generation Auditorium Shores, Nov. 4 Judging from the scrawny, late-afternoon FFFF audience for D Generation, the NYC punk quintet whose 1991-99 run yielded a pair of critically heralded but commercially ignored LPs still gets no respect. Packed houses at Liberty Lunch some 10 to 15 years ago notwithstanding, fair shakes never hampered Jesse Malin’s…

by Raoul Hernandez

Fun Fun Fun Shots

What the Hell: Magic Stunt Show Auditorium Shores, Nov. 6 There are no new freaks under the sun. If you’ve seen one guy tattooed as a human serpent floss his nasal passages with a condom, you have seen ’em all. Yet the good carny knows how to draw punters in and keep each gruesome sideshow…

by Richard Whittaker

Fun Fun Fun Shots

Flying Lotus/Diplo Auditorium Shores, Nov. 6 Was Erykah Badu supposed to perform during this two-set block at the Blue stage? Local rapper Zeale tweeted the First Lady of Neo-Soul’s pending guest appearance Sunday at noon with Pitchfork picking up the news and shooting the rumor all over the Internet. Badu squashed the rumor by 4pm,…

by Chase Hoffberger

Fun Fun Fun Shots

Passion Pit Auditorium Shores, Nov. 4 While Glenn Danzig played punk-rock prima donna, Passion Pit gamely took the stage ready to bop off accumulated beer calories courtesy of the Boston electro-poppers. “Little Secrets,” from the quintet’s 2009 debut LP, Manners, kicked off muddy, but it recovered quickly enough. Clad in a button-down shirt and gray…

by Melanie Haupt

Fun Fun Fun Shots

Odd Future Auditorium Shores, Nov. 6 The official schedule had Anarchy Championship Wrestling booked six hours earlier on the opposite end of Auditorium Shores, but the Odd Future set resembled a chaotic, high-flying death match with some hip-hop thrown in for good measure. With projectiles flying in all directions (a dildo landed onstage during the…

by Thomas Fawcett

A Mission To Communicate

Austin ISD’s new multicultural, multitasking outreach director has a big job ahead: telling the district’s story and getting the district to listen to the response

by Richard Whittaker

Quote of the Week

“Don’t nitpick; don’t try to Jew them down.” – Texas House GOP Caucus Chair Larry Taylor at a committee meeting on windstorm insurance, followed by a written apology for a comment “many people find offensive”

by Chronicle Staff

Fun Fun Fun Shots

Auditorium Shores, Nov. 4-6 Doomriders Friday on the Black stage careened with reckless abandon into Fun Fun Fun Fest and Transmission Entertainment’s refreshing belief in metal as indie-hip. Front-and-center-man Nate Newton, whose day jobs include bass in Boston stranglers Converge, screamed guitar and vox like Dave Grohl’s rabid little bro on 1970s rock adrenalized by…

by Raoul Hernandez

Luv Doc Recommends: Sims Benefit Bash

If you’re a 99 Percenter (and there’s about a 99% chance that you are), here’s a little secret: You didn’t come out too well in the health care debate either. Long before the banks were tappin’ your ass with usurious fees, penalties, and interest rates, the insurance companies were sucking you dry like big, fat…

by The Luv Doc

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