Cover Story
Campfire Horror Story
How Carole Keeton Strayhorn and the state destroyed a healing camp for kids
Happy Thanksgiving from Eli Roth
Eli Roth’s “Thanksgiving”
Thanks for Wayne
Wayne Schmidt remembered: The man who feeds the gay on the holiday.
The Four-Day Weekend
Road and agency closures for Thanksgiving
Not the Same Ol’ Ho Ho Ho
A sampling of 2008 holiday discs
Wish You Were Queer
Send Barack a postcard!
Arthur Russell Is Overtaking Me
New Arthur Russell comp Love Is Overtaking Me expands on the new DVD doc Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell
The All-New All Scar Army
Lonestar Rollergirls announce all-star lineup, 2009 schedule
UT Volleyball Photo Gallery
‘Chronicle’ photographer Sandy Carson captured UT’s 3-1 victory over Nebraska
College Report, Crew Romps, and More
Texas A&M is in the NCAA Elite Eight, the Columbus Crew is the MLS champ, the U.S. is in the quarterfinals of the U-20 World Cup, and the Austin Aztex are close to making a major announcement
Introducing the Austin Turfcats
The Turfcats will play in the Southern Indoor Football League
Thanksgiving Dessert Ideas
Local businesses are ready to help out with desserts for your Thanksgiving table.
R.I.P. Rooster
Rooster, a 12-year veteran APD drug sniffing pooch passed away Nov. 20
Ruben Ramos, Texmaniacs Win Big
Primetime Tejano TV Awards results
Brendan Short, ZZ Packer put on readings
The Michener Center plays host to two upcoming readings
Computer to Mack: Got the Guts to Attack?
The computer says …
Another Anti-Pot Presidential Appointment?
Obama’s reported pick to head the transition at the ONDCP is a medi-pot foe.
A Stitch in Time: Revisiting Stitch V
In lieu of an event, a virtual trip around the online crafting world
Garriott’s Tabula Rasa Gets a Space Burial
NCsoft pulls the plug on the online game and lays some people off for good measure.
Prime Time Tejano
Tejano Music Awards
The Big 12 South Ain’t Nothing to Mess With
Texas Tech, Texas, and Oklahoma are all ranked in the Top 5 and have a shot at the National Championship
Larry Goes to Dallas
AISD CFO Larry Throm takes on the challenge of fixing broken ISD
Tribute to Xalapeno Charlie
Xalapeno Charlie needs help paying for the 1970s
The Lineup
Recommended music for the week of Nov. 21-27
They Call Me Monsieur Van Damme
Jean-Claude Van Damme
After a Fashion
Stephen parties � for kids, mind you, kids
Music Deportment
The Live Music Task Force recommends a Music Department under Austin government. Time for the Austin music community to put its many heads together.
Page Two: Everybody Plays the Fool
Neither party is sainted, and dominance tends to encourage the worst of political habits
Event Menu
Nov. 22-25
Sound on Sound
While the designation of the Music Department and its charge of developing infrastructure foreground the task force’s recommendations, each of the four subcommittees have contributed goals, as well, both immediate and long-term. Here are some highlights from the report. The Live Music Venues Subcommittee • Adopt a definition for a live-music venue that’s inclusive but…
Headlines
• City Council meets today (Thursday); among the tasks, reconsidering the design teams for the new central library. See “City Hall Hustle.” • Who will be the new House speaker? Rep. Tommy Merritt, R-Longview (who wants the job himself), has called a summit of all 10 candidates for the job. Arm-wrestling tournament? See what Austin’s…
My Name Is Bruce
Cult star Bruce Campbell directs and stars here as himself, but the actor is mistaken for his popular character Ash from the Evil Dead trilogy and is forced to fight a real monster.
Food-o-File
Another lightning round of local food news
Res Publica
Your do-good guide for Nov. 20-27
JCVD
Jean-Claude Van Damme is the JCVD of the title, and in this career-adjusting film, the Muscles From Brussels advances from laughingstock to smart, respectable action-film star.
Restaurant Review
This tapas bar may have moved into a bigger space, but it still manages a packed house
Strayhorn on Woodside Trails
Former comptroller defends her actions on foster care
Point Austin: Unaccountable
In the public school testing frenzy, responsibility and consequences flow only downward
Bolt
Bolt is a canine who plays a cybernetically enhanced dog on TV but has no knowledge of how to cope in the real world in this new animated film.
Restaurant Review
Meet one of the newest residents at the 360 Condominiums
Woodside’s Future
A green-skills program caters to children who have aged out of the foster-care system
Austin Unchained
Think globally, shop locally, and we’ll all be better for it
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
Vera Farmiga is a knockout in this otherwise predictable and emotionally manipulative story about the horror of the German concentration camps.
Restaurant Reviews
Head to Cookie Lounge for customized, fresh-from-the-oven, gourmet treats
Phases & Stages
The Cure 4:13 Dream (Suretone/Geffen) Stasis generally suspends the law of diminishing returns in the uppermost strata of classic rock acts. Once the ultimate masterpiece ascends – Exile on Main St, Back in Black, Disintegration – even the music gods require a miraculous harmonic convergence to reel off a four-star album late in life (Dylan’s…
Cap Metro Aftertaste: No Love Lost
Wounds still fresh from Cap Metro/ATU conflict
Fuel
Fuel is a two-hour infomercial for biodiesel and the virtues of other alternative energy sources that won the Audience Award for a documentary at Sundance.
Restaurant Reviews
Thai Fresh is like a mini farmers’ market in Bouldin Creek
Phases & Stages
Live Shot
Live Music Task Force (of Millions)
There’s the 15-member task force, which makes its recommendations to council this week, and then there’s you – what are your plans for saving Austin music?
The Hightower Report
Public Works Work; and Big Oil’s Charm Offensive
Phases & Stages
AC/DC Black Ice (Columbia) Even Rick Rubin, messiah of rock & roll second comings, failed to produce a proper AC/DC phoenix with 1995 nadir Ballbreaker. One Stiff Upper Lip (2000) later, the Aussies continue to chisel out heavy brick and mortar R&B on 14th studio LP Black Ice without the urgent indecency and iron force…
Fate of the Texas Two-Step
Texas Dems held the final hearing last week gathering testimony opposed and in favor of the Texas Two-Step
A Less Wild Side to Argentina
AFS Essential Cinema: More Than Buenos Aires: Film Renaissance in Argentina
Phases & Stages
Gojira The Way of All Flesh (Prosthetic) The third CD from this French quartet comprises the same environmentally minded death metal as 2005’s From Mars to Sirius. Tight and heavy and not terribly fast, The Way of All Flesh recalls Cathedral or Entombed in its groovier moments, but, more often, the chromatic, midtempo riffs and…
Solid Waste: Who’s Driving the Train?
City staff’s landfill-expansion decision has violated – at least in the spirit – a resolution passed by council. Now everybody wants to know why.
Welcome to My Studio
The East Austin Studio Tour offers a rare chance to see where artists work and live
Inside the Mind of the Muscles
Jean-Claude Van Damme on being Jean-Claude Van Damme
Phases & Stages
Frida Hyvönen Silence Is Wild (Secretly Canadian) Where Tori and Fiona made the piano a vehicle for broken silence, Swede Frida Hyvönen slyly updates the story with animal magnetism on her second LP. Over 13 songs, she spans the spectrum of female emotion, her voice clear and matter-of-fact, even when she doubts herself, as on…
Naked City
News briefs from Austin, the region, and elsewhere
Arts Reviews
This Hamlet seen through the eyes of Ophelia – rather, five Ophelias – is astounding
DVD Watch
“I’ve got the last good lay in an aging whore!” said Martin Ritts of his famously troubled star, Richard Burton
Phases & Stages
Ray LaMontagne Gossip in the Grain (RCA) Ray LaMontagne’s third effort opens with a blast of suave Memphis horns on “You Are the Best Thing,” bolstering gritty soul vocals with a powerful swagger that announces the Maine songwriter’s expanded vision. Gossip finds the perfect balance between his raw emotional pull, singed in the soft sway…
Woodside Trails
Bebe Gaines talks about the day the state closed down her therapeutic camp for troubled foster kids
Arts Review
A revival that is surprising and funny and offers the rich joy of Chekhov done well
Letters at 3am
Obama won the election through a uniquely American combination of inspiration and cash
Phases & Stages
The Pretenders Break Up the Concrete (Shangri-La) This is a good time to ask veteran rock stars if they have any idea what they’re doing. You know, musicians who haven’t put out a truly inspired album’s worth of music in decades. In this downloadable world, the emphasis away from long-form album to the power of…
Who Wants to Be ‘Anybody but Craddick’?
A front-runner has yet to emerge to defeat Craddick
Arts Reviews
Three painters show work that will have you thinking about what it means to be alive
TV Eye
Hulu, Sling, YouTube, the DVR – it’s the age of the hybrid viewer
Off the Record
Weighing in on the Live Music Task Force’s recommendations to City Council and casting a ballot for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
An End to TYC’s Problems … and to TYC?
The Sunset Advisory Commission recommends drastic action to remedy the problems plaguing the Texas Youth Commission: dissolve the agency
New in Nonfiction
Two new nonfiction books work their mouths around the English language
Day Trips
New Mexico has many lovely hotels to choose from
Creative Research Laboratory
UT artists play prospectors, panning for new ideas out of the notion of space
TFN Report: Texas Scientists Support Evolution
Scientists overwhelmingly reject “creation science” and “intelligent design”
The Common Law
You Become Responsible When You Co-Sign a Loan
Gay Place
Turn last week’s national protest local at the Transgender Day of Remembrance
Salon Concerts
A violin and a cello made together in 1863 Paris are reunited in 2008 Austin
East Austin Studio Tour Map
The East Austin Studio Tour takes place Saturday & Sunday, Nov. 22 & 23, 10am-5pm. For more information, visit www.eastaustinstudiotour.com. Download a map of the studio tour here.
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Saving the Marx Brothers’ childhood home, energy-draining migraines, and more
Playing Through
Patsy Izaguirre and Amanda Houston may not have won the Texas School for the Blind’s Braille Rallye, but they had already achieved something far more important: friendship
Arthouse
Curator Elizabeth Dunbar opened her latest exhibit on Friday, gave birth Saturday
City Hall Hustle: Everybody’s on Vacation
The complicated business of hiring a city auditor who’s already the city auditor
Luv Doc Recommends: Night of the Moustache
Hold it off one more week. Do it for us. We know you’re all ready to take that peppermint-flavored candy cane stick pony ride into the holiday season, but it’s not here yet. It’s not time. You just think it is because the Madison Avenue greed whores are already burning up prime time with yuletide…
