Cover Story
HOPE Outdoor Gallery Makes Its Long-Awaited Return
Austin is getting its hope back. Or rather, it’s getting HOPE back, as in the HOPE Outdoor Gallery. For almost a decade, anyone driving down Lamar could look up toward Baylor Street at the 12th Street junction and see graffiti artists covering and re-covering and covering once more what looked like an abandoned construction site…
News
Light Rail Maintenance Site Planned for East Austin
Five years since voters first approved Project Connect, a $7.1 billion rapid transit expansion, light rail is still in the planning stages – and some of those plans are drawing pushback from the community. Overseen by Austin Transit Partnership, the proposed 9.8-mile system consisting of 15 total stations would extend north to 38th Street, east…
AISD Parents and Students Brace for School Closures as Board Prepares to Vote
On Sunday, Oct. 5, outside of the colossal Texas Education Agency office, just blocks down the green on Congress Avenue from the Texas state Capitol, a group of about 50 parents, teachers, and small children cloistered by one of the basement doors. A young child held up a piece of wrinkled orange construction paper on…
The Week’s Biggest News in Brief
Texas Troops Deployed to Illinois: Gov. Greg Abbott authorized sending the Texas National Guard to Illinois at the president’s request to reinforce ICE’s aggressive immigration sweeps in Chicago, where, The Texas Tribune notes, “U.S. citizens and children have been caught up in raids and altercations between masked federal agents and locals in the nation’s third…
Republicans Continue to Batter UT
The Texas Republican Party’s ideological transformation of UT-Austin is barreling forward, with new developments coming on a weekly and sometimes daily basis. Last Wednesday, Board of Regents Chairman Kevin Eltife announced that UT was “honored” to be one of nine universities singled out by the Trump administration for a so-called “compact” promising the schools federal…
New Evidence in Robert Roberson Case Revealed in NBC Dateline Podcast
Updated Oct. 9, 11:30am: On Thursday morning, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted Roberson a stay of execution, sending his case back to his trial court. Read more. With one week left before Robert Roberson is to be executed by the state of Texas, his attorney, Gretchen Sween, informed the Texas Court of Criminal…
Arts + Culture
Vintage Do-It-Yourself Vibes Rule at the Y2K-Themed Lone Star Zine Fest
Since the Thirties, zines have been amplifying fan obsessions, political offshoots, and underground subcultures in ways not often seen in mainstream media. Though at times they may look like the magazines you see in the grocery store checkout line – with their glossy covers, crisp centerfolds, and aesthetically designed graphics – you won’t find any…
Screens
A House of Dynamite Review: A Popcorn Panic-Inducer
A House of Dynamite – Kathryn Bigelow’s return to the military and intelligence milieus of The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty, arguably her two most heralded films – opens with a text block contextualizing the Cold War and how superpowers came to a mutual understanding that the world is a much better place with…
Tron: Ares Review: Error Loading
Earlier this year, I was talking with Josh D’Amaro, Chairman of Disney Experiences, about the process for developing new rides for Disney parks. We talked specifically about why, 34 years after the release of groundbreaking CG adventure Tron, they finally decided to build the Tron Lightcycle Power Run coaster. His answer, basically, was that if…
Food
Le Calamar May Have the Best Prix Fixe Menu in Austin Right Now
A good dining deal is a rare and beautiful find in present-day Austin. To be clear, by “a good deal,” I don’t mean “rock-bottom prices.” I’m talking about a meal that’s completely worth the cash, both in terms of quality and quantity. And at Le Calamar, a new South First spot that specializes in Texan…
Columns
Feedback: October 10, 2025
Proposition Quit Dear Editor, Regarding the recent article in The Austin Chronicle [“Higher Taxes Are on the Ballot. City Leaders Explain What They’ll Get Us,” News, Sept. 12]: Back in November 2012, the Austin American-Statesman had a similar question on its editorial page, “Five Cents for Your Health?,” basically supporting Prop 1, which would fund the…
Music Notes
Last Call Friday 10 – Saturday 11, Coupland Dancehall Coupland Dancehall was going to close its doors this Saturday, but Lightstream Presents announced plans to take over programming, keeping the venue open. The venue’s building, which was first built in 1904, went through a variety of iterations before its eventual conversion into a dance hall…
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Prior to firing a gun on Ronald Reagan, John Hinckley Jr. stalked Jimmy Carter. According to Patti Smith in her memoir M Train, Orson Welles had Rita Hayworth cut and bleach her famous red tresses for The Lady From Shanghai. In a 2023 study, Shane Company found the average American spends about eight months using dating apps…
Out for National Coming Out Day
This Saturday being National Coming Out Day, I thought I had my column subject in the bag. Just talk about my personal coming out story, right? Wrong! I forgot that like most queer people, I have a million “coming-out” stories, because having any identity on the LGBTQ tree means you’ve sat down almost every person…
Twangy Trends on Steady Ground: ACL Weekend One Goes Off Without a Hitch
Austin City Limits has been a festival for about as long as the Killers have been a band, lead singer Brandon Flowers pointed out in the final hour of Weekend One: “Everybody knows you need a little time to grow before you reach your full potential, right?” True to 23 years of experience, and a…
The Luv Doc: Seventh Chances
Luv Doc, I met a nice fellow a few months ago at a fundraiser Downtown. We are both divorced and in our mid-40s and we found that we had so much in common – same suburban Texas childhoods, same taste in music, films, and even food (hooray for Sway!). Since that night, we have been…
Austin FC Clinches Playoffs Despite “Horrible” Stretch
Clinching a playoff spot for just the second time in club history wasn’t supposed to feel this way. “I think it’s [been] a horrible week for us. Horrible,” Austin FC head coach Nico Estévez said following a dismal loss to already-eliminated St. Louis City SC at home over the weekend. The defeat capped off a…
Day Trips: Saint Arnold Brewing Company, Houston
Saint Arnold Brewing Company turned 30 years old last year. That makes the Houston brewery the oldest independent craft brewery in the state. I made my first pilgrimage to the brewery in a warehouse in northwest Houston soon after it shipped its first keg on June 9, 1994. Saint Arnold isn’t the only Texas craft…
Fun + Games
Free Will Astrology
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Libra architect Christopher Alexander developed a sixth sense about why some spaces feel comfortable while others are alienating. What was the source of his genius? He avoided abstract principles and studied how people actually used spaces. His best architecture soulfully coordinated the relationships between indoor and outdoor areas, private and public…
