Cover Story
Caught ‘Em in Autumn
Local scene roundup
RG4N Trial: Thursday Afternoon
Both sides wrap up testimony; closing arguments tomorrow morning.
Looking Over the MGs and a San Antonio Benefit
Let us stop and reflect for a moment on Booker T. & the MGs. They returned to Austin for the second time this year last Thursday, and it was sweeeeeeeeeeeet soul music by the chairmen of the board. That they returned with William Bell and Eddie Floyd and had Jimmie Vaughan guest on guitar was…
Longhorns Win NCAA Opener
This just in: The University of Texas Longhorns got two early goals from freshman Alisha Ortiz to beat BYU, 2-0, in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, Thursday afternoon in College Station, despite being outshot 25-12. They now advance to the second round Saturday afternoon, against Texas A&M, who beat Stephen F. Austin, 4-1,…
UT Gets Its First Green Building
In more sustainability news, the University of Texas at Austin has constructed its first certified, bona fide, environmentally friendly building. The new Research Office Complex at the J.J. Pickle Research Campus has been officially certified by the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program of the U.S. Green Building Council. In order to become LEED-certified,…
Correction: Northcross trial to end Friday morning
Northcross Wal-Mart trial expected to end Friday.
Party Like a Barack Star
From City Council to the White House
Rating Sustainable Landscapes
The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center at the University of Texas at Austin has embarked on a national rating system for sustainable landscapes. The Sustainable Sites Initiative (which includes many other partners) released its first report Nov. 1, with more than 200 recommendations for designing and building (see www.sustainablesites.org). The standards and guidelines finally adopted…
Possible TLC for Ancient Trees
The historic Auction Oaks at Republic Square may soon receive tender loving care, thanks to the Austin Parks Foundation. The 150- to 200-year-old oak trees and their root systems are stressed; the proposed solution includes adding a shaded deck, a new perimeter with fencing, tree transplanting, and partial removal of a sidewalk and berm. Austin…
RG4N Trial: Thursday Morning
“I sue for the trees, for the trees have no lawyers!”
Extended Play
No Idea Festival and Capital Area Food Bank do the benefit.
Dukes: HillCo No Problem
Rep. Dukes people talk down big PAC donation and the Craddick connection.
Screw Prevention and Treatment, War Is Where It’s At
House-Senate approve treatment funds, only to face Bush veto threat.
Horns Win Big 12 Title; Dynamo in MLS Cup; Euro Qualifying
In what is widely assumed to be a historic first, Longhorn goalie Dianne Pfenninger was named offensive player of the Big 12 tournament. She scored the winning goal in each of the Longhorns’ first two games, which they won in penalty-kick shoot-outs, then notched an assist on the winning goal in the championship game, as…
Is RG4N in Trouble?
Testimony seemed to go poorly for anti-Wal-Mart forces Wednesday.
Green Events, Nov. 15-21
Interested in a little theatre, this week? Some shopping, perhaps? Wanna take a class, go to a party, eat something tasty, build a bike, volunteer, attend a lecture, or maybe just fight the man? Well, you can do green versions of all of these things this week, and by green, we don’t mean the Christmas…
‘Dirt’ in Your Third Eye
Wednesday nights at Club de Ville have gotten a lot cooler now that the Psychotropic DJs have taken over from Seattle. Tonight, however, the added treat is a screening of Scott Conn’s documentary, A Dirt Road to Psychedelia: Austin, Texas During the 1960s, featuring interviews and archival footage with folks who were there, man. 9pm,…
Hell Is Other Candidates
BTP’s jaundiced eye peers into the next election cycle.
Scare for a Cure Scares Up Cash
Local superhero cop and his Halloween activities raise $10,000 for cancer charities
RG4N Trial: Wednesday Morning
Arguments over Northcross plat note and flooding.
Behind This Mask, Another Mask (and Armed Robber)
Give up the candy!
You Got Your Electrons in My Phonons
Saturday night at Ceremony Hall, the New Music Co-op presents Electrons & Phonons: New Music for Instruments and Electronic Sound, which is pretty much what it sounds like. Eight local musicians, including Kirk Laktas of My Education, Doug Ferguson, and Travis Weller, among others, demo found objects and hand-built contraptions as instruments. Local experimental vet…
RG4N Testimony Continues Today
Northcross neighbors continue to plead their case
Bad News Horns
Did the Texas Longhorns play their best, most-complete game against Texas Tech? Without question. It’s been a strange season for the Horns. Lots and lots of close matchups that were expected to be Texas blowouts. A wretched running game that Jamaal Charles has somehow dusted off and made shiny new. A string of season-ending injuries…
Keep Your GOPee Pee’s in Your Pants, Boys
Jury pants Fla. Rep. Bob Allen.
No More Clappy-Clap
That’s it for Clap! Clap!
Dems Dust-Up Over Donors
Democratic plans to target PAC recipients among the GOP could lead to some infighting in their own primaries.
RG4N Trial Update
RG4N’s engineer testifies that Lincoln’s site plan does not comply with city code.
R.I.P. ODB
Three years ago today, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, not surprisingly, passed away. I doubt he would’ve ever been spotted flashing euros in his videos.
Northcross Mall/Wal-Mart Trial Today
Neighborhood group challenges the city and the Bentonville Beast.
Blade Runner: The Final Cut
Blade Runner: The Final Cut 2007, R, 117 min. D: Ridley Scott; with Harrison Ford, Sean Young, Rutger Hauer, Daryl Hannah. Recut more times than a plastic-surgery junkie, Blade Runner: The Final Cut is exactly what its title promises: director Scott’s last word on the subject. Cops and androids fight it out in 21st century…
HEB’s Gone Green
HEB to give away 20,000 reusable grocery bags.
Under the Flag, Without a Roof
New report shows veterans increasingly likely to become homeless.
Dukes’ Views on Capitol Views
Local rep gets award for protecting city skyline.
Dianna Pfenninger Does It All
So what do I know? In this week’s “Playing Through” column, I suggested that the University of Texas women’s soccer team didn’t have the offensive firepower to win the Big 12 Championship. Turns out I was sort of right – in the three conference title games played last week in San Antonio, the team scored…
Tampopo
Tampopo 1985, NR, 114 min. Directed by Juzo Itami, Starring Tsutomu Yamazaki, Nobuko Miyamoto, Ken Watanabe. A Japanese widower endeavors to set up the perfect noodle shop, and all his friends and customers revel in the joys of food.
Stitch V: Would You Like Some Glam in Your DIY?
November 10, Austin Convention Center When we left the Stitch Fashion Show and Guerrilla Craft Bazaar in the last gasps of Saturday night with the spats-like leg-warmers we had reclaimed from some other soul’s long-forgotten sweater sleeves, we weren’t feeling thrifty or clever, or even a little crunchy. Instead, the event, considered as the sum…
It’s the Texans Just Being the Texans
The Texans must be grateful for the bye week. They have lost five of their last seven, are severely injury-depleted with a shallow roster, and have suffered another embarrassing home loss to the Titans, followed by an an even more embarrassing loss to the Chargers the next week. They barely beat the winless Dolphins with…
Is This What You Wanted, Kanye?
You’d do anything, Kanye?
Lit Up!
Get lit with this lamp!
Setback for Anti-Wal-Mart forces
But the trial is still set for Nov. 13
Walters’ Wishful Thinking?
Police in Houston and El Paso say the cocaine trade is alive and well despite what Feds say about a supposed shortage.
Fun Fun Fun Fest Live Shots
The Saints Those who came to see the punk side of the Saints were most likely disappointed. In the brief 40 minutes they were allowed, Chris Bailey and friends threw many styles into the mix, from raunchy blues to something that resembled a power ballad, but with only a modicum of success. The Aussie trio…
Karen Kuykendall: In Memoriam
When this performer and friend of the arts died on Oct. 31, the city lost the grandest of its grande dames
Oops!
In a News bullet last week about BFI’s Northeast Austin Sunset Farms Landfill, we misspelled Browning-Ferris Industries. Also, at some point during our weekly sausage-making process, we managed to botch the third sentence of the “Media Watch” column that ran in the Oct. 26 issue so that Radio Free Bulgaria reads radio-free Bulgaria. Kevin Brass…
Snake Collectors Recoil at New Wildlife Rules
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department formalized rules for all species after concerns last year over number of freshwater turtles being hunted for meat
Fun Fun Fun Fest Live Shots
Against Me! What is it about bands from Gainesville that make you want to chug a sixer of Coors Light and pump your fist in the air? Florida quartet Against Me! has, of late, gotten a whole lotta Springsteen comparisons, and while they’re not quite there yet, they are an American band, with extra emphasis…
Austin Chamber Music Center: Is that a bow in your pocket, or … ?
For ACMC’s next concert, Hot Enough for Ya, the aim is clear: Let’s talk about sex
Page Two: Living Just Enough for the City
City sound limits and national anti-immigration movements share absolutism and intransigence
No Christmas Present for Private Land-Purchasers?
School Land Board says will give National Park Service time to make offer on Christmas Mountains
Fun Fun Fun Fest Live Shots
The Murder City Devils “This is really nice,” Spencer Moody reported while stroking his beard after a particularly ferocious “Rum to Whiskey.” Six years after the split, the Murder City Devils cemented their history-book status. When Leslie Hardy wound up the organ for opener “Dance Hall Music,” from 1997’s eponymous debut, the black-clad fanatics raised…
Arts Review
An entrancing swim through issues of communication, discrimination, and history (with a couple of eerie ghosts along for the ride)
Beside the Point
Council on deck to approve slip-n-slide water deal with LCRA
Fair Trade Visitors
At fourth annual Women and Fair Trade Craft Sale, holiday shoppers are invited to learn about fair trade, and to support local and foreign women’s organizations affected by immigration
Fun Fun Fun Fest Live Shots
Cat Power & The Dirty Delta Blues Band Introduced by her keyboardist as “the greatest soul singer in the world today,” Chan Marshall made a viable claim to that exaggerated sentiment, though she clearly didn’t seem to believe it herself. Backed by the makeshift Dirty Delta Blues Band, a quartet featuring the Dirty Three’s Jim…
Arts Review
In UT’s staging of this postapocalyptic fairy tale, we can’t help be sucked into the magic of the infinite hole
Point Austin: MUD in Your Eye
Northwest Austin suburb challenges the Voting Rights Act
Other Immigration-Related News
Congress reportedly strikes green card, H-1B visa amendments from Labor/HHS appropriations bill; Bush administration gets called out for trampling Constitution to expedite border-wall construction.
Los Angeles, I’m Yours
Thom Andersen sets the story straight on the city he loves in ‘Los Angeles Plays Itself’
Arts Review
Despite some enjoyable work by this year’s Young Latino Artists, the show overall isn’t impressive
Reefer Madness
Feds ease harsh penalties on crack defendants
@ Chronic
Carl Bernstein talks Hillary at Texas Book Festival
Jam on Wry
Primus’ Les Claypool rocks the mock-doc in his directorial feature film debut, Electric Apricot
The Capitol Beat on Books
Texas Book Festival Wrap
Developing Stories
Connect-the-dot conversations heard around town
More on CD 10
The Democratic candidates discuss the issues
Fourth Annual Austin Asian Film Festival
Nov. 8-11
16th Annual Short Story Contest
Announcing the Chronicle‘s 16th Annual Short Story Contest
License to Shrill, Uncensored
A conversation with New York Times columnist Paul Krugman
DVD Watch
For many, Chinatown epitomizes the peak of Seventies Hollywood filmmaking and is perhaps the finest neo-noir ever made
Off the Record
Reviewing the three-ring circus of Fun Fun Fun Fest and flashing back to the Armadillo World Headquarters with Dweezil Zappa
Houston Confronting Peak Oil
2007 Houston World Oil Conference focused on eventual point at which world oil production outpaces global demand
Fred Claus
Awash with amazingly talented actors – Vince Vaughn, Paul Giamatti, Miranda Richardson, Rachel Weisz, Kathy Bates, Kevin Spacey, to name a few – Fred Claus is sadly just an early lump of coal under the tree.
TV Eye
What to do when the writers’ strike shuts down your favorite shows
Capturing the Dragon
Two Dem Challengers contend for CD 10
Texas Voters Approve Props; Travis Narrowly Passes Cancer Measure
Constitutional-amendments election turnout low but a bit higher than we expected
Lions for Lambs
Robert Redford’s Lions for Lambs, in which he co-stars with Meryl Streep and Tom Cruise, is a piece of nervy political theatre that argues against individual complacency in wartime.
The Common Law
Fred Sanford is my neighbor
Love Craft
Stitch Austin, your rockin’ showplace for indie design
The Contenders
In their own words
Naked City
Quote of the Week “If you were confronted with someone who wished to do you harm, you could put on your best Clint Eastwood persona and say, ‘OK, creep, am I complying with national parks rule 36.1 or am I not? Make my day.'” – Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson on why he thinks the…
Control
Control, Anton Corbijn’s narrative portrait of Joy Division’s suicidal singer, Ian Curtis, is easily one of the finest films ever made about the collision of music, madness, and the human heart.
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Rats in India like curry, at fast-food restaurants there are more bacteria in ice machines than in toilets, and more
Event Menu
Nov. 10-15
Could the Texas House Turn Blue?
With Rep. Kirk England, formerly R-Grand Prairie, having switched parties in September, Democrats approach next November needing to pick up six seats for a state House majority – that is, matching the gain they made in 2006. “Six seats in one cycle is a lot,” says Texas Democratic Party spokeswoman Amber Moon, “but it’s not…
Portrait of a Refugee
It has been almost five years since the six members of the Jamal family – Mo, Shahla, and their four sons – were forced to pack up their lives and leave Austin, and the U.S., pursuant to an Immigration and Naturalization Service decision to deny the family political asylum. The Jamals fled Iran in 1979,…
Saawariya
This visually dreamy Bollywood romance is unusually financed and promoted by a Hollywood distributor.
Letters @ 3AM
At least four factors could determine the nominees and results of the next presidential election, and nobody’s talking about them yet
Food-o-File
In the off-with-my-head department, sincere apologies to Duke and Kathy Bischoff, who wrote to remind me that their BBQ World Headquarters restaurant spent more than six years at the Burnet Road Farmers’ Market. My memory of the outlet there as more of a commissary kitchen for their successful catering business was evidently mistaken… And speaking…
Courtside: From Meurer to Earle
With Judge Jeanne Meurer leaving the bench of the 98th District Court after nearly 20 years and the addition of two new Travis Co. courts – County Court-at-Law No. 8 and the 427th Criminal District Court – a number of strong Dem contenders are already jockeying for primary position in all three races. Vying for…
What the DPS Doesn’t Want You to See
Why does it insist it can’t release video footage of a Capitol hallway to The Texas Observer? We can only imagine.
King Corn
The film’s light hand, appealing style, and simple exposition make it an eminently watchable inquiry into the politics of food, public health, and the reasons why corn has become an ingredient in virtually everything we eat.
After a Fashion
The slipstream of leather, cashmere, faux fur, and designer logos could be seen from space: Stephen is making the scene, people; cut a swath
Wine of the Week
Inwood Estates
Other Races Worth Watching
In addition to CD 10 and the judicial races, the spring primary ballots will have some other races to watch; here are some we’re aware of, with the filing deadline still almost two months off. • Travis Co. tax assessor-collector: Nelda Wells Spears (incumbent) vs. Glen Maxey – surprisingly, the sexiest race on the primary…
Happenings
Nov. 8-14
Sleuth
Surprisingly, this powerhouse combination of writer Harold Pinter, director Kenneth Branagh, and co-stars Michael Caine and Jude Law adds up to a load of nonsense.
The Hightower Report
Stand Up, Congress; and Money Goes In, Money Goes Out
Bubba & Babe’s Backwoods Texas Wedding
Considering that Patsy’s Cowgirl Cafe (5001 E. Ben White, 444-2020) is the brainchild of Esther’s Follies founders Shannon Sedwick and Michael Shelton, the fact that there is now a musical-comedy presentation on the menu should come as no surprise. For the next five Wednesday evenings, a cast of talented local professionals will present an interactive…
Day Trips
Tours of Georgia O’Keeffe’s home and studio in Abiquiu, N.M., allow guests unique insight into her art and life
Court of Criminal Appeals to Accept E-Filing in Death Penalty Cases
Move comes after petition filed in response to judge’s decision to close courthouse door before executed inmate’s attorneys could file last-minute appeal
Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
Both a crime thriller and family tragedy, this stunner from octogenarian Sidney Lumet stars Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke as brothers whose blood runs cold.
Fun Fun Fun Fest Live Shots
Angry Samoans Thirty songs in 45 minutes is on a par with D.R.I., but Angry Samoans’ stop-start stutter-songs sounded insanely tight despite their nonstop barrage of perpetually un-PC garage punk hits, most of which dated back nearly three decades. Frontman “Metal” Mike Saunders hasn’t aged a day since he came Back From Samoa in ’82,…
Restaurant Review
Go hungry, and eat slowly at this Brazilian steak house
Soccer Watch
St. Edward’s women host the NCAA Division II Midwest Regional, and more
Landlord Officer Fired for Bullying Tenant
Alex Sanchez was indefinitely suspended for forging documents, lying to investigators, and stealing former tenant’s truck
Om Shanti Om
Via a tale of reincarnation, this new Bollywood movie offers a tribute to the Hindi spectacles of the Seventies.
Fun Fun Fun Fest Live Shots
Neurosis When asked about Neurosis’ rare live performances, vocalist and guitarist Steve Von Till cryptically responded: “We are the music. We are the medium to the embodiment of the sound. We throw it all to the wind, so to speak, and let it become what it’s going to be.” Saturday night, performing as a quintet…
Restaurant Review
Diverse ingredients come together at this Cantonese hot spot
Playing Through
The young girls go nuts for the UT women’s soccer team
Old Murders, New Cases
Border Patrol agents nab Mexican national wanted for Northeast Austin murder; and man sentenced to life in prison for 1984 killing
Luv Doc Recommends: Bob Dylan Hoot Night
A Bob Dylan hoot night is a genius idea. Damn near anyone can do Dylan better than Dylan: Bobcat Goldthwait … Fran Drescher … Jaleel White … Stephen Hawking – pretty much any voice that’s remotely intelligible and doesn’t sound like chicken fat being fed into a garbage disposal will do the trick. This is…
