Cover Story
Tell Your Tale: Backstage at Austin’s Abundant Storytelling Events
“We all live stories,” Hyde Park Storytelling co-founder Matthew Stoner says simply. “I love listening to people’s average day, my friends and my family. I love hearing about what they’re doing and all of the drama, or not drama, that ensues.” All day long, at work and home and everywhere in between, we’re telling true…
News
The Week’s Biggest News in Brief
Free Speech Win (for Now): A district court issued a preliminary injunction Tuesday, preventing the UT System from enforcing the Campus Protection Act, which limits free expression at public universities. Under the law, the university is no longer a “traditional public forum,” meaning only UT students, faculty, and staff can participate in expressive activity on…
Meet the UT Researcher Who Wants to Open the Depopulation Conversation to Everyone
Texas’ declining birth rate is not something you’re likely to notice while jogging around Lady Bird Lake or grocery shopping at H-E-B, says UT population researcher Dean Spears. The difference between a society where people have 1.8 kids on average, compared to 2.1, is hardly noticeable at first. But over a few generations, it becomes…
Council Moves Forward With City-Run Navigation Center
The residents of neighborhoods near the intersection of Oltorf and I-35 fought passionately and persuasively at City Council last Thursday to stop Austin leaders from placing a homeless navigation center at 2401 I-35 S. The residents warned that the location of the center would endanger kids walking to and from local schools. They said it…
The Prop Q Debate Has Entered the “Silly Season”
Joe Cascino suspected that someone was throwing around dark money to persuade voters to reject Prop Q, the proposal to hike property taxes in the November election. Cascino, the consultant who leads the Love Austin political action campaign supporting Prop Q, had seen a website – austintaxrateelection.com – which had popped up opposing the measure. …
Chronicle Endorsements for the November 2025 Election
The Chronicle Editorial Board offers the following endorsements ahead of early voting (Oct. 20-31). On the ballot this fall: a tax rate increase for the city of Austin (Prop Q) and 17 proposed amendments to the Texas Constitution. In next week’s issue, we’ll print a streamlined, non-annotated version of our endorsements, which is also available…
AISD Board Deliberates Over School Closures and Rezoning
On Oct. 9, under the sweltering 5 o’clock cloudless sky, about 100 Austin ISD parents and students clustered at the edge of the I-35 service road where AISD houses their headquarters, hoisting signs reading “I love Maplewood” and “Save Becker.” Inside the building, the AISD Board of Trustees prepared to gather at the dais. A…
Robert Roberson’s Execution Has Been Suspended Once Again
Robert Roberson’s execution has been suspended once again. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted an unexpected stay of execution to Roberson on Thursday morning, sending his case back to his trial court. That court will determine whether it made a mistake in convicting Roberson of killing his 2-year-old daughter, Nikki, in 2003 on the…
Music
Music Notes
Lil’ Flip Saturday 18, Antone’s Game over: iLL Manner Shows brings Aughts-era Houston rapper Lil’ Flip to their home base, Antone’s. The 44-year-old adds a twist to his usual live performances as he’ll be backed by a full band for his set this Saturday. Openers include soul artist Gypsy Mitchell, Austin rap veteran Clova, and…
Arts + Culture
Jim Harrington Recounts The Texas Civil Rights Project
If you’re interested in modern Texas history, you could do worse than begin with Jim Harrington’s founder’s tale of The Texas Civil Rights Project. Although billed as a memoir, the book is much more judicial than personal. It recounts the highs and lows of what the lawyer counts as roughly 2,600 civil and human rights…
Much Ado Has Much To Do
I first reviewed the Baron’s Men a year ago, delighting in their Romeo and Juliet. The play was great! But I was deeply, irrevocably smitten with the venue. The Curtain Theatre, a space dedicated to Elizabethan and Jacobean performance art, stole my heart. It’s not a period-perfect re-creation of the Globe, but it came close…
Screens
Black Phone 2 Review: Returned Call
There are two kinds of film fan. Those that define Ethan Hawke through his collaborations with Richard Linklater, and there are those that connect him with Scott Derrickson. Yes, Linklater brought him critical acclaim but Derrickson gave him two major career shifts. First, Hawke made his first horror film in found footage chiller Sinister, then…
After the Hunt Review: Luca Guadagnino Goes Hunting for Sacred Cows
Julia Roberts has almost exclusively trafficked in contemporary stories; her bawdy laugh and mischief-making eyes don’t really jibe with period garb. But her new role in After the Hunt – a self-consciously au courant piece whacking at the double hornet’s nests of campus politics and the #MeToo movement – had me blinking in surprise, and…
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You Review: Mother Meltdown
Linda is the center of her own world. Of course, everyone is, that’s just being human, but in Linda’s case that’s all there really is. The antagonist of hyperventilating psychodrama If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, the camera is thrust in, pore-close, on her furious furrowed brow and constant consternation that she must deal…
Austin Film Festival Sees a Brighter Future on the Screen
In bleak times, it’s always a good idea to turn to cinema, and it seems that this year’s movies are meeting the moment, especially those screening Oct. 23-30 at the Austin Film Festival. “The stories that we have this year, I found really hopeful,” said festival founder and Executive Director Barbara Morgan. “For a while…
Food
East Asian Eats and Horrifying Parking at the Crescent
Welcome back to The Strip Club, highlighting Austin’s destination strip malls. We’re waxin’ and wanin’ at the Crescent! (Editor’s Note: This is the most bustling strip mall in town, so we split this report into two parts. To be continued in next week’s issue.) In addition to a galaxy of East Asian eateries, this strip…
Columns
One Little Joy After Another
Suddenly, we’re midway through October. Life goes fast when every day I read about a new cruelty perpetuated on my communities – the gay one, the trans one, and the living in Austin one. But it’s easy to pull up evil stuff happening and complain. I’ll try to be more positive, at least in this…
A Legal Smile
So, I guess it was always going to come to this. From the moment Kevin decided he had a life to live, that didn’t involve reporting on his drug habit every other week, and the word came that we were going to continue the column, authored for now by a rotating cast of staff members…
Day Trips: “Texas Legacy in Lights,” Gonzales
“Texas Legacy in Lights” captures the story of the opening salvos of the Texas Revolution in a 31-minute film projected on the facade of the Gonzales Memorial Museum. On Oct. 2, 1835, a group of Gonzales residents faced off against Mexican soldiers west of town. The soldiers had come to retrieve a small cannon loaned…
The Luv Doc: Homeboy
Luv Doc, I broke up with my boyfriend of three years at the end of June. We had been having problems long before that, but our summer vacation brought things to a head. Our relationship was always uneven. I have always been a person who likes being active, trying new things, meeting new people, traveling…
Feedback: October 17, 2025
Save Our Schools Dear Editor, I woke up at 4am thinking about this last night. In fact I’m still awake and seething. I am an Austinite, but I live north – my kids attend Round Rock ISD. Nevertheless, it makes me sick what our state government is doing to our public schools. Let me spell…
Nico Estévez Caps Off Successful First Season as Austin FC Looks Ahead to Playoffs
In the waning hours of Sunday evening, following Austin FC’s dramatic 1-0 victory over LAFC that tied a winning bow around the club’s home regular season schedule, head coach Nico Estévez did something that epitomized why he was brought to Austin in the first place. The first-year coach grabbed a microphone, walked out to midfield,…
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
A group of cats is called a clowder. Used tea bags can absorb condensation on car windshields. Since the 18th century, there has been a legendary creature living in southern New Jersey known as the Jersey Devil. Described as a kangaroo-like creature with the face of a horse, the head of a dog, bat-like wings,…
Fun + Games
Free Will Astrology
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): I’m pleased to inform you that the coming weeks will be an excellent time to make a big wish upon a bright star. But I must also tell you how important it is to be clear and exact. Even a slight error in formulating your wish could result in only a…
