Cover Story
Where Comedy Lives
Austin stand-ups have a complex – and it’s called the Sandstone Apartments
Top Chef Texas, Week 5: Trophy Wives Make Easy Targets
The cheftestants cook for the 1%
‘The NFL Beat’: Week 13
Waiver-wire pickups and more
Bedside Manner: Books In My Possession, Which I May or May Not Read
A consumer guide to recent purchases
Wilco Part One: Capitol City
Previewing tonight’s Wilco show with Wednesday’s ACL taping
World Wide Texas Derby
Austin skater in first Roller Derby World Cup
Your Geographic Representation Cheat Sheet
A guide to competing maps and more Charter Revision issues
Texas D vs. Baylor Fire Bolt
Winner take all
Drafthouse Films Gets Cannonized
Drafthouse Films acquires Cannon Films documentary
SXSW Music 2012 Keynote Speaker: Bruce Springsteen
SXSW Music announces Bruce Springsteen as its 2012 keynote
Gracey Notes
Public memorial for Joe Gracey at the Moody, Sunday, Dec. 4
All I Got for Christmas Is the Blues
Blue is the new black in Tinseltown.
Five and a Half Things About Sheryl Cole’s Re-Election Kick-Off
SMDs to education, the Capitol Complex to … lipstick?
Mail Art With Dandy: The Results Show
A gallery of our arts and crass
Task Force to Abbott: Don’t Mess With Texas
Minority and voter representation advocates deplore AG’s stalling
Create a Holiday Memory, Learn Something New
East Side Glass Offers Christmas Ornament Classes
The Ageless Climate of the Rock Star
Jason McMaster of Dangerous Toys: “I Don’t Regret Anything”
Shaq’s Third Autobiography
Where he reveals he’s pretty much the best at everything
Pop Up Shop Coming to Congress
City Council changes temporary retail from ‘naughty’ to ‘nice’
Spirit Awards Take a Shine to ‘Take Shelter’
Jeff Nichols’ film nominated in five categories
The Tiny Adventurers
Paper Cuts, November 29th, 2011 at the Palm Door
15 Minutes with Nick Lowe
Q&A with Nick Lowe, who opens for Wilco Thursday
Group Accuses Morton Prosecutors of Gross Misconduct
Group files grievances with State Bar
AISD Facility Meeting Tonight
Last big chance for public comment on single sex, charter and more
Staffing Overhaul at City Hall
Big changes out of City Manager’s office, reshuffle in Mayor’s staff
Gore for Good
Horror community gathering to help veterans Monday
From the Vaults: John Logan
How did Johnny Depp come to be a producer of Hugo?
‘Out of Bounds’: Astros Fans Continue To Suffer
Fingers and Costas both dislike the DH and so should you
Food-o-File
An attitude of gratitude
Arts Review
Despite the author’s absence, Different Stages delivers a fine production
UT Men’s Basketball
J’Covan Brown leads the Horns against North Texas and Sam Houston State
Quote of the Week
“We care about kids and education, and that’s the bottom line.” – Education Austin co-President Ken Zarifis, firing back at AISD’s claim that teachers only care about their jobs
Food Events
Anniversary celebrations, whiskey, wine, and more this week
Arts Review
Don’t think for an instant that the work in this show is anything but art
Oops!
Due to an editing error, a story in last week’s News section (“Tire Slasher Convicts Himself”), Lisa Harris was incorrectly identified as co-vice president of the Hyde Park Neighborhood Association. Harris is president of HPNA.
Rediscovering Highland Mall Food Court
Worthy ceviche from a mall food court? Trust us.
Texas Platters
KGSR Broadcasts Vol. 19 (93.3 KGSR Radio Austin) Incredibly, Broadcasts just gets better. After the departure of the series’ founding producer, KGSR programmer, ideologue, and deejay Jody Denberg, the local station’s 2-CD annual fundraiser for the SIMS Foundation wobbled almost imperceptibly. With Andy Langer at the helm, Broadcasts Vol. 19 opens with a bang (Band…
Page Two: The Metaphoric and the Mimetic
A journey
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1
With this new entry, the series officially marks a transition from relatively harmless Victorian-minded trash to something flatly pernicious.
Rediscovering Highland Mall Food Court
Finally we can condone getting Sauced at the mall
Texas Platters
The Carper Family Back When Ever wonder why Austin never spawned a female answer to hillbilly Wayne Hancock? Check out the Carper Family. In spite of their youth, Melissa Carper (bass), Beth Chrisman (fiddle), and Jenn Miori (guitar) blend their voices immaculately, kick some shit when they have to, and write warm and enticing songs…
Fork in the Road on Sixth Street
Business owners clash over direction of entertainment district
Arthur Christmas
The folks at Aardman Animation, who gave us Wallace & Gromit, seve up an instant – and funny – holiday classic.
The Art and the Arduousness
Daniel Kliewer’s hypnotic moving paintings
Texas Platters
Nathan Hamilton Beauty Wit and Speed (Irondust) Still traveling the roots-rock path he’s known for, Nathan Hamilton matures before our ears on Beauty Wit and Speed. A meditation on time, aging, and how technology accelerates life, it hearkens more to the dark moods and fiery crashes of the Waterboys, but from the point of view…
LCRA Close To Capping Utility Sales
River Authority moves to begin unloading water/wastewater utilities
The Muppets
This Muppet reboot is an absolute delight and puts an end to the great Muppet diaspora.
Uwaga!
Polish metal got me to Poland
Texas Platters
Amanda Shires Carrying Lightning A Lubbock native some may remember from the Thrift Store Cowboys, Amanda Shires has delivered a second disc that finds her balancing dusky overtones with occasional buoyancy. In the process, the fiddler and singer-songwriter lands somewhere between the perkiness of Dolly Parton, whom she resembles vocally on occasion, and the disquieting…
Discipline of APD Officer Still Uncertain
Chief asks for more time to consider possible discipline in fatal police shooting
The Descendants
George Clooney teams up with Sideways filmmaker Alexander Payne for this funny but tender story that’s a little too smug for its own good.
Stankonia
“We have a special light [in Poland], not dark, but gray,” Polish trumpet vanguard Tomasz Sta´nko told me at the Montreal Jazz Festival last year. “A lot of grays. This gray, when you open your eyes, it’s the first light you see. You remember that forever.” Here are four four-star ECM titles illustrating precisely that.…
Texas Platters
Reed Turner Side One: See How Far I Get Tumbling from Austin to Boston, Nashville, Tenn., to Portland, Ore., Reed Turner’s absorbed lots of influences. This six-song EP, fashioned after one side of a vinyl LP, is the perfect length to expose his multifaceted songwriting. Roots-rock-based, there are echoes of the Avett Brothers and some…
AISD Parents, Teachers a Tough Sell
AISD board slated to vote on charter school plan Dec. 12
My Week With Marilyn
Based on the memories of Colin Clark, this movie recounts his time getting to know Marilyn Monroe while she was in England shooting The Prince and the Showgirl with Laurence Olivier.
Decapitated
Like the Netherlands-born Van Halen brothers, guitarist Waclaw “Vogg” Kieltyka and his drummer brother Witold “Vitek” Kieltyka shared metal and DNA, the former 15 and the latter 11 or 12 years old in 1996 when Decapitated tried technical death metal in Krosno, Poland. In a bonus DVD for 2000 debut Winds of Creation, shot in…
Texas Platters
Graham Wilkinson The Spiritual Accessories E.P. (Little Windmill) While its five songs purportedly deal with spirituality on different levels, The Spiritual Accessories E.P. doesn’t deliver enough variety or insight. With a reggae bounce and whispered rasp, Wilkinson recalls Michael Franti channeling Bob Schneider, but instead of enticing, he becomes annoying. Anthemic standout “This World” begs…
New Map Tweaks Local House Seats
Travis Senate map untouched, but House map altered slightly
Hugo
Martin Scorsese steps outside his comfort zone to create an effects-heavy children’s film set in France – and winds up creating one of his most splendid and personal films.
One, Two, Tres, Cuatro: The Sum Is Greater Than the Whole of Its Parts
Thirty-five years later, only who’s doing the clutching has changed
Texas Platters
SubKulture Patriots Vol. 1 Issue 1 (Ruler Why) Queue up any clip from SubKulture Patriots’ debut LP, Vol. 1 Issue 1, and you’ll find a competent, at times complex, rhyme scheme. You just won’t find much focus. Issue’s second verse: “I’m on my own type of zone like a thrown microphone/Take a zone to the…
Sticking to His Guns on the Wrong Guy
Former sheriff’s sergeant doesn’t help WilCo’s case of justice gone awry
Gay Place
Happy Thanksgiving, gaybirds!
Texas Platters
P-Tek Oh! What a Miracle! “Greetings From the Life!” – for P-Tek, life happens in Austin, even if the sound on second LP Oh! What a Miracle! comes from an Iowa native. Tek, who relocated to Cap City in 2008, spits with the pointed focus of Atmosphere’s Slug (“An Attempt at Focus”) and rocks beats…
The Hightower Report
A grassroots movement is changing the U.S. food culture
After a Fashion
Your Style Avatar is 100% and amping up for the rush of impending holiday ‘ho’-downs
Texas Platters
Sons of Fathers (Blanco River) File under Most Ridiculous Cease and Desist Ever. This local roots-rock act, fronted by David Beck and Paul Cauthen, used to be called Beck & Cauthen until Beck (“Loser”) insisted the band change its name. The duo changed its name to Sons of Fathers in September, which delayed the release…
Driver Closes Door on Violation
Lawmaker pleads guilty on misuse of funds
Texas Platters
Tyrone Vaughan Downtime Tyrone Vaughan’s jeans, torn and frayed at the hem, yet pressed into a clean crease for the sharp-dressed man on the cover of his debut CD, Downtime, are designer. The blue color stands for youthful years woodshedding in Breedlove with Dan Dyer, but the attitude is pure Vaughan: handsome, charismatic, and as…
Not Strictly Abstinence Anymore
‘Ignorance won’t protect our kids’
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Wisconsin’s cranberries, Ronald Reagan’s fondness of Bart Simpson, etc.
AMOA-Arthouse
Feral hogs invade Laguna Gloria (sorta)
Civics 101
Want to make a difference? Here’s a good place to start.
One Day at a Time
The lines start early on distribution day at the St. John Community Food Center
What Are You Looking At?
Thanksgiving viewing guide
All Over Creation: Under the Influence
So what does being named one of the nation’s most influential critics really mean?
City Hall Hustle: A Movable Feast
City data, apps, and more turkey talk
Cottage Industries
Eating locally never tasted so sweet
Going Back for ‘Seconds’
Cinema Club and Wiley Wiggins revive a Sixties thriller
Day Trips
The Central Texas Coast around Port Aransas attracts a wide variety of feathered residents
Headlines
� The horn of plenty’s gone empty this week at City Hall: City Council doesn’t meet until Dec. 8, for its second-to-last meeting of the year. “City Hall Hustle” rounds up the scraps. � Here’s a holiday heart-warmer: Travelers can expect longer lines and advanced imaging technology “body scanners” at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. ABIA officials…
Dad’s Premium Granola
Get your own!
Arts Review
An ensemble of lovely, lovely actors makes this updated Greek drama great fun
Soccer Watch
LA Galaxy win MLS Cup, and more
Point Austin: Holiday Hunger
While helping our neighbors, consider the structures of poverty
Bleak, er, Black Friday Morning for Some Retailers
It’s hit or miss for Austin retailers at Black Midnight
Luv Doc Recommends: A ‘Hole’ Bunch of Thanks With Chris Brecht & Dead Flowers
Well, well, well … what have we to be thankful for? Yes, the world economy’s in the toilet, drought and fires have ravaged most of the local landscape, the Longhorns might be looking at a break-even season, and it’s an inescapable reality that each and every person reading this column is going to die someday,…
