Cover Story
What About Bob?
Don’t hate Bob Schneider because of his Lovely Creatures
Game On Austin
Local video-game developers show their stuff. And beer!
Who’d Want to Live Here?
Learning from Denmark
Desk Shuffle at Sunset
Lt. Gov. Dewhurst promotes, appoints new members to oversight committee
Hello Zilker Elementary School!
Learning from Copenhagen
Multi-Modal Remix
Learning from Copenhagen
Big 12 Power Rankings: Week 5
Sooners ranked seventh, UT stays at No. 1
This Week’s Waste of Time
Taking the video-gamed Little Prince for a test drive
Head Downtown With the Totally Awesome AusChron Newscast!
Downtown homelessness and more for your listening pleasure
Visual Activism
Zanele Muholi WILL rock your arty-activist world!
Can’t Make the NEM?
Join the Impact, Burnt Orange Benefits, marchers, and Ladies Home Journal (not really) will recap events and talk about Austin’s next steps.
ACL Fest 2009: The U18 Report
Next Up blogger Livvy Bennett didn’t just enjoy ACL Fest, she sang with Daniel Johnston
We’re Packin’ More Than a Gak This Week
Veuve Clicquot Takes Bubbly on the Road
Smoke Local
Time to get down with and give it up to Texas NORML
Craddick’s Cash
Texans for Public Justice file ethics complaint about former speaker
Bloggin’ the NEM
Follow the Gay Place to the National Equality March!
Velo-City Global, 2010
Learning from Copenhagen, Post #7
Claudio Sanchez: My Life in Comics
Coheed and Cambria frontman explains how he will Kill Audio
Everyone Here Cycles!
Learning from Copenhagen, Post #6
Images from Samso
Three more photos from Samso
Kickin’ the Mud Off My Sneakers
A pretty good weekend in Geezerville
Austin Energy Chief to Retire
Environmental innovator Roger Duncan announces he is stepping down in 2010
Renewable Energy Island
Learning from Copenhagen, Post #5
Meet the Real Babe Ruthless
Whip It inspirations putting on the Ritz
A Strange Arrangement
Mayer Hawthorne, a Stones Throw away from soul
APD’s Investigation Complete But Biased?
Independent investigation into Nathaniel Sanders shooting death suggests problems within APD
Climate Consortium Denmark
Learning from Copenhagen, Post #4
ACL Day 3: Rodeo Day
Next Up susses out the last day of ACL Fest 2009
HD 48 Heats Up
Ex-banker Glenn Bass to challenge Rep. Donna Howard in general election
Wind Power
Learning From Copenhagen: Post #3
ACL Fest Day 3: Mud, Sweat, and Beers
First thoughts on the final day of ACL Fest 2009
If It’s Not a Dust Storm, It’s a Swamp
Next Up’s Aaron Miller reports from ACL Fest Day 2
ACL Fest Day 2
Day 2: The Hazards of Mud
ACL Fest Day 1
Report from the Festival’s first day
Get Registered to Vote by Monday
Oct. 5 deadline for Nov. 3 amendments election
The Totally Comprehensive, Totally Awesome AusChron Newscast!
Comp plan talk and more this week
Victory for Bright Lights Social Hour!
ACL Fest Sound & Jury winners get their moment in the spotlight
Turfcats Leave SIFL, Join IFL
Remove the ‘S,’ and there you go
After a Fashion
This week: Your Style Avatar was brought to you by the letter “E”
TV Eye
TV Eye likes what it sees in the new Fall lineup
Solar Withdrawal Symptoms
Austin Energy’s solar rebate program is out of money – are Austin’s solar installers out of luck?
Toy Story in 3-D
Toy Story in 3-D 2009, G, 81 min. Directed by John Lasseter, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Don Rickles, Jim Varney, Wallace Shawn, John Ratzenberger. Repackaging. We loved these movies the first time around and now we’re being assured that we’ll love them all the more in 3-D. Plus,…
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Drunk sex, anal glands, and more
Point Austin: A Green and Democratic Place
Local activists kick off co-op project with a visit from Omar Freilla
Reefer Madness: Kicking the Drug War Habit
More of the same under Obama’s new drug czar?
Do Knot Disturb
New Bollywood comedy.
Food-o-File
How ’bout them apples?
City Hall Hustle: All Things Bright and Comprehensive
One man’s diversity is another woman’s usual suspects
ACL’s Food Court Keeps the Crowds Nourished and the Good Times Rolling
Take an ACL break Austin-style with local eateries and portable fine dining
Toy Story 2 in 3-D
The addition of 3-D perks up this second entry in the series.
Arthouse
Arthouse staffers weren’t sure if people would actually show up for The 24 Hour Roman Reconstruction Project, a time-based installation/performance by Los Angeles artist Liz Glynn in which volunteers help build a model version of ancient Rome in a day. They needn’t have worried. This is Austin, a city with DIY in its DNA, that…
Event Menu
Central Texas foodies are already fully in fall mode, with upcoming events that include the fifth annual Texas Fall Fest & Wine Auction this weekend and an Octoberfest party at Zax next week
Headlines
• The bus stops here: Capital Metro CEO Fred Gilliam announced Wednesday he’s taking an early retirement, leaving his post in mid-October. • Capital Metro adopted its 2010 budget less than unanimously, while the firing of Union Chief Jay Wyatt continues to chill relations at the transit authority. And, oh yeah, the rail line won’t…
Wake Up Sid
New romantic comedy from Bollywood.
Sara Medina-Pape
Remembering the longtime costume designer and teacher at St. Edward’s University
Restaurant Reviews
Try this UT-area eatery for an interesting balance between Mediterranean fare and New Orleans standards
Res Publica
Citizens’ calendar: Oct. 1-8
Lord, Save Us From Your Followers
Dan Merchant seeks to uncover why the gospel of love is dividing America.
Personnel Changes
A leap to Conspirare from the Blanton and a resignation at Zilker Theatre Productions
Tough Enough
Whip It director Drew Barrymore and scribe Shauna Cross roll with the punches
Soccer Watch
Last chance to catch the Aztex in action this year and more
Under Our Skin
This documentary probes the human, medical, and political dimensions of Lyme disease, its treatment, and diagnosis.
The Kids Stay in the Picture
Diana Welch talks about the joint memoir she wrote with her siblings about surviving childhood
Lee’s Beer Flight
Beer news from Austin and Central Texas
Page Two: Slow Drift
The eternal winter of our discontent
Pandorum
Two crew members wake up aboard a spaceship with no knowledge of their identities or their mission in this horror/science-fiction amalgam.
The Common Law
New Traffic Laws
See You Next Year, Fantastic Fest
Thanks for all the memories, FF. Oh, the bleary, beery memories.
More From Omar Freilla
The Chronicle spoke to Omar Freilla of New York’s Green Worker Cooperatives on Sept. 28, in anticipation of his Oct. 6 appearance in Austin. Here’s a longer excerpt from our conversation: Austin Chronicle: Your first business is a building-products recycling supplier? Omar Freilla: The organization I represent is a business incubator, to help people to…
Surrogates
Bruce Willis is a cop in a future society where human beings live in isolation and interact through robots.
Restaurant Review
Fortune: We welcome you to Austin
Naked City
News briefs from Austin, the region, and beyond
Fame
Fame: Some stories live forever. It’s more or less the same story as before, just a different generation.
Restaurant Review
With a little tightening of the ship, Tarbouch may yet avoid the rocks
Record Review
Bob Schneider Lovely Creatures (Kirtland) Somewhere between Bob Schneider’s insatiable declaration, “I want you to love me!” on 1990s alternative riffer “Realness of Space” and his broken realization, “I can’t change your mind,” achingly echoed by Patty Griffin on “Changing Your Mind,” lies the local songwriter’s central dilemma: Schneider would be all things to all…
Developing Stories: A Long Route to Go
Will we vote on urban rail in November 2010?
My One and Only
Renée Zellweger stars in this 1950s-set story that’s based on George Hamilton’s memories of his early years traveling with his mother while she searched for a new husband.
Box Sets
The Beatles (Capitol/EMI) The Beatles in Mono (EMI) “Clearly in the Sixties, mono was king. Even in 1967, when the Beatles were at the height of their experimentation in the studio, the mono mix of Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band was their absolute priority. That is the important point about this period of transition;…
Off the Record
David Garza maps The Road to ACL, inside Ghostland Observatory’s new crash pad, and other strange insights into this weekend’s festival
Cap Metro
Cap Metro board reluctantly passes budget
Toy Story & Toy Story 2: 3-D Double Feature
“To infinity and beyond” gains new dimension in this 3-D-improved double feature.
The Hightower Report
Health Care Tidbits; and Loco for Local
Travis County ‘Death Spiral’
Facing a personnel dilemma, the commissioners respond: Fire everybody!
Watching Jay Like a Hawk
Transit agency’s eye follows union leader’s moves
Zombieland
A hilarious script and seamless performances make this a quite tasty zomcom.
Setting the Table
New director Ned Rifkin wants to bring more people to the feast that is the Blanton
Gender Studies
Kino goes back to the classroom with How to Be a Man and How to Be a Woman
MetroRail Watch
How long will we wait for the train?
Capitalism: A Love Story
Michael Moore wants to know where our money went.
Arts Review
Puppets add humanity to Upton Sinclair’s story, retold here with a lean, mythic power
Continuing Education
Are you of boorish ilk? Despite friends’ protestations of your vast appeal, do you drool down your chin to avoid conversation with strangers? Are you terrified of overly attractive, gregarious persons? Are you the antithesis of couth? If you actually answered any of the preceding questions, you are as badly in need of guidance as…
SBOE
Dem candidates for the SBOE hope to fight Cynthia Dunbar with the moderate Republican vote
Whip It
Drew Barrymore makes her directing debut with this Austin-set story about the modern age of roller girls.
Arts Review
Few young stage companies risk as much or succeed as well as Penfold Theatre Company does
Day Trips
Highway 16 winds through the heart of Texas like the seam of a colorful quilt
Council Sleeper
You’ll be on the edge of your seat for this week’s council agenda
Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
Gertrude Berg, the woman behind the radio and TV icon Molly Goldberg, is profiled in this documentary.
Arts Review
For real spelling bee champs, see Spellbound. For their comic counterparts, see this.
Gay Place
Set your harmonics for another month’s queer convergence, as Gaytober begins
AISD
Rejected by AISD, Community Education Partners blames an academic paper – and sues its author
The Boys Are Back
Clive Owen is a widower in Australia who learns to become a hands-on dad to his sons.
You Can’t Get Married in Texas, But You’d Better Stay Married
Dallas judge rules Texas same-sex marriage ban is unconstitutional.
Luv Doc Recommends: Capital City Marching Band Festival
This is a big weekend for music lovers – or at the very least for people who like to watch music being made. Unlike a football game, a bullfight, or a tittie-bar pole dance, watching live music demands rapt attention. You don’t want to miss a second. For instance … what if the bass player…
ACL Music Fest Friday Interviews
Music is his weapon
ACL Music Fest Sunday Interviews
American beauty and The Pirate’s Gospel
ACL Music Fest Saturday Reviews
Levon Helm Electric Dirt (Vanguard) There’s not a whole lot electric about this album, not in the sense that Levon Helm was capable of electrifying audiences with the Band and outfits like the RCO All Stars. It’s an all-too-comfortable fit of familiar covers (Grateful Dead’s “Tennessee Jed,” the Stanleys’ “White Dove”), well-worn blues tunes (“You…
ACL Music Fest Friday Interviews
UK’s lyrical savant dissects his insectoid obsessions
ACL Music Fest Sunday Interviews
One bad mother – shut your mouth
ACL Music Fest Saturday Reviews
John Vanderslice Romanian Names (Dead Oceans) John Vanderslice’s songs typically find their most compelling elements in unique pop arrangements and the distinctively voiced psyches of his characters, though both just as often threaten to overpower the tunes. The San Francisco-based songwriter’s seventh studio effort and debut for local imprint Dead Oceans follows suit, for better…
ACL Music Fest Sunday Interviews
Detroit’s “Sugar Man” still spits the cold facts
ACL Music Fest Saturday Reviews
Dave Matthews Band Big Whiskey & the Groogrux King (RCA) A saxophone opening anything signals bon temps. Minutelong intro “Grux” teases “Shake Me Like a Monkey,” which locks down Big Whiskey & the Groogrux King into a band scrum as thick as the Red Hot Chili Peppers, not to mention the frontman’s Anthony Kiedis-like footwork…
ACL Fest Friday Review
Daniel Johnston Is and Always Was (High Wire/Eternal Yip Eye) “I’m just a psycho trying to write a song,” lisps Daniel Johnston on opener “Mind Movies,” as if trying to sum up his entire career. For someone who’s built that niche career on lo-fi tape-hiss recordings wrought from isolation and mental illness, the Jason Falkner-produced…
ACL Music Fest Sunday Interviews
Inside Luke Temple’s world of echo
ACL’s Food Court Keeps the Crowds Nourished and the Good Times Rolling
Take an ACL break Austin-style with local eateries and portable fine dining
ACL Music Fest Sunday Interviews
Kate Pierson’s inner bongo mania
ACL Music Fest Friday Picks
The blurbing of ACL 2009
Restaurants Near Zilker
Estimated meal cost per person: $=<$10 $$=$10-25 $$$=$25-40 $$$$=$40+ 1) TEX-MEX: Chuy’s Barton Springs With hubcaps, colored lights, and a velvet Elvis, this is Austin-style Tex-Mex at its tacky, funky best. Almost always busy. 1728 Barton Springs Rd., 474-4452. www.chuys.com. $$ 2) TEX-MEX: Baby Acapulco No. 2 Try this place for great enchiladas and multiflavored…
ACL Music Fest Sunday Interviews
Cellist learns to bend with Abigail Washburn and Béla Fleck
Austin Kiddie Limits
Overlooked by a majority of festival-goers each year, the Austin Kiddie Limits tent truly is a diamond in the rough for those in the family way. Many acts play two sets over the course of the weekend, so you’ll have multiple chances to catch the primo stuff. Local quirk rockers the Telephone Company are a…
Barton Springs Pool Info
Life is full of hard decisions, especially at the Austin City Limits Music Fest. Passion Pit or Dirty Projectors? Kings of Leon or Yeah Yeah Yeahs? Mos Def or Levon Helm? What’s worse, there’s always a third option: to jump in Barton Springs and freshen up a bit. And while that might not seem imperative…
ACL Music Fest Sunday Interviews
Meet Ben Harper’s Austin-bred Band of Gypsys
ACL Aftershows
Thursday 1 Them Crooked Vultures, Stubb’s The Walkmen, Blitzen Trapper, Wye Oak, Emo’s outside School of Seven Bells, Phantogram, Emo’s inside Friday 2 Devotchka, Los Amigos Invisibles, La Zona Rosa Sound Tribe Sector 9, Stubb’s The Virgins, Stubb’s inside The Raveonettes, Here We Go Magic, the Parish !!!, Harlem, Neon Indian, Emo’s outside Deer Tick,…
ACL Music Fest Sunday Picks
The blurbing of ACL 2009
ACL Music Fest Sunday Interviews
Overcoming the pains of success
ACL Music Fest Sunday Interviews
A groover’s paradise from the Black Keys guitarist
ACL Music Fest Friday Interviews
The new sincerity of Randy Reynolds
ACL Music Fest Sunday Reviews
The Dodos Time to Die (Frenchkiss) Andy Partridge should receive some sort of stipend or flower arrangement from San Franciscan trio the Dodos, so full of XTC’s patented, swirling Britpop is this third outing from guitarist Meric Long, drummer Logan Kroeber, and new vibraphonic addition Keaton Snyder. Time to Die’s engagingly earnest if silkily overproduced…
ACL Music Fest Saturday Picks
The blurbing of ACL 2009
ACL Music Fest Friday Interviews
Rhode Island folkies take on Darwin
ACL Music Fest Sunday Reviews
White Lies To Lose My Life … (Fiction) With the British music industry still wearing funeral weeds for the death of Oasis, there may be no more suitable soundtrack to that mourning than the debut from Ealing’s White Lies. Formerly the Franz Ferdinand-aping Fear of Flying, this new incarnation of the trio has picked up…
ACL Music Fest Friday Interviews
The onetime Texan humorist finally gets his due
ACL Music Fest Sunday Reviews
Arctic Monkeys Humbug (Domino) Arctic Monkeys At the Apollo (Warner Bros.) The Timbaland effect: when a producer shapes the sound of an album in his or her image. That’s clearly the case for the Arctic Monkeys’ third LP, helmed at Joshua Tree by Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme. For the most part it…
ACL Music Fest Saturday Interviews
Reminiscing on the holy trinity of female singers
ACL Music Fest Friday Interviews
The Neverender story continues
ACL Music Fest Sunday Reviews
Passion Pit Manners (Columbia/Frenchkiss) What began in late 2007 as singer Michael Angelakos’ Valentine’s Day gift to his then-girlfriend has catapulted him from dorm room to the Reading Festival. Manners charms on unsubtle electronic confection, filled with big emotions and chockablock with danceable cheeries like “Little Secrets,” augmented by Staten Island’s PS 22 children’s chorus.…
ACL Music Fest Saturday Interviews
New Orleans’ blind saint of barrelhouse piano
ACL Music Fest Friday Interviews
The French quartet proves timing isn’t everything
ACL Music Fest Sunday Reviews
The Dead Weather Horehound (Third Man/Warner Bros.) The Kills’ Alison Mosshart for Meg White is a trade not even the Knicks could botch. Meeting at a Southern crossroads between her stalking, electro convulsions and the post-millennium blues of drummer/guitarist Jack White, Horehound stirs an ambitious witch’s brew of heavy psych (“New Pony”), Western noir (“Rocking…
ACL Music Fest Friday Interviews
Get behind him Satan. Austin’s iconic prodigal son returns.
ACL Music Fest Sunday Reviews
Pearl Jam Backspacer (Monkeywrench) Brevity clocks in as both the soul of wit and of Backspacer. Not wit as in witty, wit as in wizen. Nearly half its 11 tracks never reach three minutes and only two breach four. Pearl Jam’s ninth studio release knows its mind and the way, and save for majority lyricist…
ACL Music Fest Saturday Reviews
Deer Tick Born on Flag Day (Partisan) “I could drink myself to death tonight, I could stand and give a toast,” grates John Joseph McCauley III on Deer Tick’s sophomore outing, an album as entangled with its own depressed heritage as its frontman’s name. Flag Day kicks off with an electrified squall of guitar on…
ACL Music Fest Friday Interviews
The cosmic soulman revives the Motown sound
ACL Music Fest Saturday Reviews
MuteMath Armistice (Teleprompt/Warner Bros.) Who upset MuteMath? The indie-disco groove of the New Orleans experimental rockers’ eponymous 2006 debut has been partially abandoned in favor of something more jagged, jerkier, and driving for their follow-up. The end result, although no less layered than their earlier work, is more focused and spartan, evoking a dash of…
