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November 30 • 2012

Nov 30 - Dec 6, 2012 / Vol. 32 / No. 14
Digital Edition

Civics 101

Thursday 29 PEDALING FOR SAFER ROADS The recent deaths and serious injuries of cyclists due to drunk drivers have incited fellow bikers to send a message to city officials and Austin at large with a ride from City Hall to the Capitol. 7pm. Austin City Hall, 301 W. Second. www.facebook.com/events/422012057852704. Friday 30 DEMOGRAPHICS AND INFRASTRUCTURE…

by Chronicle Staff

Mr. Smarty Pants Knows

The highest bowling score ever by a U.S. president was Richard Nixon’s 232. If you compare the ratio of government employment to popu­lation, the public sector – federal, state, and local government employees – is smaller now than it has been since 1968. The public sector has cut 680,000 jobs since 2009. “Knock Knock” jokes…

by Mr. Smarty Pants

Headlines

› City Council doesn’t meet this week, but a weighty agenda is set for Dec. 6, with a public hearing on whether to give an economic incentive deal to Visa Inc. (see “Point Austin: Questions for Visa”), and a council vote on whether to pour more money into WTP4. See “Next Week’s Council: It’s a…

by Chronicle Staff

Texas Platters

ZZ Top La Futura (American) Like the Beach Boys’ diaphanous “That’s Why God Made the Radio” this summer, “I Gotsta Get Paid” – sparking up ZZ Top’s 15th album and first since 2003’s prickly Mescalero – constitutes an instant indelible for the next essentials collection. La Futura has its crystal ball moments, all right. Produced…

by Raoul Hernandez

Texas Platters

Mike & the Moonpies The Hard Way Wise choice calling sophomore LP The Hard Way. Few acts cover all the facets of Texas country, and even fewer manage to do it with this young Austin quintet’s rugged character. Things start forcefully with the Derailers/Jesse Dayton-styled honky-tonk of “Damn Strait” before they emulate some of the…

by Jim Caligiuri

Texas Platters

Jesse Dayton Jesse Sings Kinky (Stag Records) Jesse Dayton demonstrates his affinity for Kinky Friedman’s sincere side by taking on “Marilyn and Joe” and “Lady Yesterday” instead of “They Ain’t Making Jews Like Jesus Anymore” and “Get Your Biscuits in the Oven and Your Buns in the Bed.” On Jesse Sings Kinky, the singer, guitarist,…

by Kevin Curtin

Texas Platters

The Gary Remains (Sick Room Records) The country’s in crisis, pushing toward a tipping point in the us-versus-them battle heightened by the presidential election. The Gary’s Remains doesn’t address the issue directly, nor is it overly political. Yet, over the course of 31 minutes, the local trio boils down the essence of the so-called 47%,…

by Austin Powell

Texas Platters

Foreign Mothers Duh (Thread Pull Records) Foreign Mothers’ XX chromosomes propagate the crucial DNA of Austin’s feminine punk and post-punk past. In spirit, Lynn Keller, Terri Lord, and decades of local women flex their grit and yell Duh. Pleasingly post-clang, bristling with ire and irony, rhythmically aggressive, the local trio’s debut LP grooves a bruising…

by Raoul Hernandez

Food Events

� Texas House Farm-to-Table Food Caucus Reception & Dinner Bipartisan caucus founders Reps. Eddie Rodriguez and Lois Kolkhorst host a fundraiser at Austin’s oldest urban farm, featuring the best in Texas food and drink. Thu., Nov. 29, 5:30-8:30pm. Boggy Creek Farm, 3414 Lyons. $100 ($175 per couple). www.buildacrowd.com/event/192. � Food for Thought Benefit for Communities…

by Virginia B. Wood

Vinyl Bin: Monofonus Press

Thousand Foot Whale Claw Dope Moons Volume One (Monofonus Press) The black-hole noise opening Dope Moons seems infinite, humming for minutes before a loop rezones the spacious ambience into a three-note bassline and a single repeated tone that rides out the astonishingly uneventful 20-minute time warp of side A. The flipside comes alive, by comparison,…

by Kevin Curtin

Downtown Stopgap: The Public Order Solution

In late September, Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo launched what the APD called a “public order initiative.” The operation was aimed at reducing Downtown crime in the wake of data that reflected that, while violent crime had been decreasing citywide, it had been rising in neighborhoods Down­town. Numbers were floated that suggested – perhaps misleadingly…

by Mike Kanin

The Luv Doc: Hopelessness

LuvDoc, I think I found the girl of my dreams, but after going out with her a few times, she stopped answering my calls and has replied to my emails saying that she is not interested in me romantically and that she just wants to be friends. Any suggestions on how I might win her…

by The Luv Doc

Quote of the Week

“We shouldn’t be playing games. That’s how we end up where we are now.” – Council Member Bill Spelman, to In Fact Daily, on the WTP4 cost overruns discussions

by Chronicle Staff

The Comedy

Tim Heidecker (of Tim & Eric renown) plays a rich, cynical hipster who uses New York City as his playground.

by Leah Churner

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