Cover Story
The House of Haunted Bills
Congratulations to the 89th Texas Legislature: You passed a whole passel of ultra-right-wing laws inside these hallowed halls that will haunt the citizens of Texas for years to come. These laws divide communities, demonize our neighbors, and trample on our rights, our bodily autonomy, and diversity of opinion. Well done, you! As a way to…
News
Austinites Try to Wrap Their Heads Around Controversial Prop Q
Joan Saslow Duce was confused about how much Prop Q would cost. She’d heard different numbers from different sources. The city of Austin’s estimate was that Prop Q – the proposal to increase property taxes at the Nov. 4 election – would cost the average property owner about $200 a year. Prop Q’s opponents said…
Austin Energy Makes Historic Investment in Battery Storage
Last week, Austin Energy announced a major milestone in its progress toward fulfilling Austin’s climate goals – a large-scale battery storage contract with Jupiter Power that will provide 100 megawatts of power toward AE’s goal of 125 megawatts by 2027. As the utility draws closer to its 2035 deadline of becoming 100% carbon-free, it’s balancing…
The Week’s Biggest News in Brief
Support During the Shutdown: 3.5 million Texans are poised to lose SNAP benefits on Nov. 1 due to the ongoing government shutdown; at press time, Senate Republicans were expected to block an emergency bill to fund the federal program, which provides food purchasing support to low- and no-income families, including more than 1.7 million children.…
Students Organize as UT Continues to Drag Its Feet on Trump’s Compact
“If UT adopts the Trump compact, it is not an exaggeration to say that we will become a laughingstock among our peer universities,” Karma Chavez, the president of UT’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors, said last week. Chavez was referring to the deal the Trump administration floated in early October to UT…
AISD Teachers and Staff Raise Concerns About Reassignment Process
Eric Ramos, a history teacher at Martin Middle School, was shopping at H-E-B recently when a kid from a neighborhood family asked Ramos if he’d still be a teacher at Martin when they made it to sixth grade. Martin MS, where Ramos has taught for the last 11 years and where he coaches football, basketball,…
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…
Music
Music Notes
UN DÍA Thursday 30, C-Boy’s Heart & Soul A melting pot of artists from Austin’s music scene converge on South Congress for this annual event benefiting PAWliska Rescue and Reunite. Musicians set to play two songs apiece include AJ Vallejo, Chief Cleopatra, Eve Monsees, Nagavalli, and Tee Double. Benny the Butcher Thursday 30, Empire Garage…
The Wandering Boy Never Flinches
Local critic asks another: “How’s the McMurtry?” Answer: cut-above songs and then the clutch killers. South Austin’s James McMurtry crosses over into permanently mortal territory on The Black Dog and the Wandering Boy. First missive since deep pandemic, his 11th studio album notches all the benchmarks – audiobook tunes, roadhouse Texicana, existential reality – of…
Atlas Maior’s Inquisitive Palindromlar
Atlas Maior has gone through a lot since their last album, Hadal. The quartet toured Morocco, a jaunt that included a residency at the club La Mama, a show for the ambassador in Rabat, and a performance/lesson with famed Gnawa musician Maalem Azouz Soudani. They discovered new ways of working, including using randomized cards that…
Gus Baldwin Goes Solo
“Pants are tight/ Shades are on/ Full regalia,” Gus Baldwin promptly sets the scene of his eponymous debut solo LP. That’s rock regalia, to you – and you’ll recognize it in every pulsing second of this 12-track release. Like a scrappily successful heist plot, Baldwin borrows and bends the genre’s classic conventions, scrawling his signature…
Big Thief Infinitely Innovates on Double Infinity
“Double Infinity was one confident brushstroke, very intuitive, and very little thought,” says Buck Meek, Big Thief’s Texan lead guitarist, of the alternative rock group’s 2025 LP. The now-trio has been playing together for a decade, yet each new release strikes a different cohesive tone, their sound seeming to grow alongside its creators. “It was…
Arts + Culture
Jess Hagemann Writes Marie Antoinette Into an Austin Sex Cult
The opening of Jess Hagemann’s sophomore novel Mother-Eating is not for the faint of heart. In the first scene, a man is captured, tortured, and sacrificed during a cult orgy. With that, the reader is thrown into a brutal, stomach-turning story that announces itself as horror without apology. For some, it will be too much;…
Screens
Review: Catch the Nouvelle Vague
There’s a moment in Nouvelle Vague – Richard Linklater’s retelling of the making of Jean-Luc Godard’s À bout de souffle – that will resonate with everyone who has ever been a part of the film business. It’s when cinematic legend Roberto Rossellini (Laurent Mothe) visits the offices of seminal movie magazine Cahiers du Cinema, where…
It Was Just an Accident Review: No Exit
Dissident Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi hasn’t been reticent about putting himself in his films, even appearing in 2023’s No Bears as himself. So it’s not hard to see a connection between his own experiences, having been arrested and detained multiple times by the Iranian government, and the trauma suffered by car mechanic Vahid (Vahid Mobasseri),…
Columns
Open a Booo-k, Babe
Hey: Anyone else out there reading books? I find real-deal paperbacks and hardcovers to be my favorite – and honestly best-acting – escape from social-media induced mania. Can’t click any weird links if there’s literally no interactive capabilities, right? Plenty of strange and unusual queer-written and -centric tomes to pick from for the last few…
The Luv Doc: Generation Xtremely Stupid
Luv Doc, In 2018 I graduated with a degree in film and media studies from a small liberal arts college in the Midwest. At the time it seemed like the TV industry was doing well in Austin, so I moved back in with my mom to get my feet under me and start looking for…
Day Trips: The Faust Hotel, New Braunfels
The Faust Hotel has been called one of Texas’ most haunted hotels. At nearly a century old, New Braunfels’ hotel certainly has its share of ghost stories. While most guests to the hotel, including this author, have spent restful nights at the hotel, some have not. Guests have reported hearing furniture scraping across the floor…
Feedback: October 31, 2025
Insensitive Review Dear Editor, I’ve been a resident of Austin since 1989 and even got my first published artwork on the Back Page of the Chronicle in 2004! I’ve been a longtime reader, huge fan of Jim Hightower’s pieces. Huge fan. But I’m very disappointed in the recent article that was published titled “East Asian…
Two THC-Infused Recipes for Your Canna-Cookbook
As a weed enthusiast who loves food and cooking, to me there’s nothing better than getting baked and baking, or burning one then (hopefully not) burning one. Blazing up then glazing up. Smoking reef then smoking beef. Using pot then using a pot. You get the idea. It’s no secret that potheads get the munchies,…
Op-Ed: Dear White Austin: A Call to Keep an Open Heart on AISD School Consolidation
I know it’s hard to hear that your neighborhood school might close. I began my own journey 30 years ago as an ESL immigrant at Bryker Woods Elementary, now slated for closure – a small school where teachers, staff, and parents were deeply devoted to their community. Bryker Woods shaped my earliest understanding of what…
Goalkeeper, Grad Student: Brad Stuver’s Double Master Class
Forget the Year of the Snake. In Austin, 2025 has been the Year of the Stuuv. Beloved goalkeeper Brad Stuver has put together a career season stopping shots for Austin FC, landing his first All-Star selection, finishing second in MLS in saves, and setting a new league record for total saves in a five-year span.…
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Winnie-the-Pooh is banned in China because political activists have compared the country’s leader, Xi Jinping, to the beloved fictional teddy bear. Chianina cattle originated in Italy and are the largest and tallest cattle in the world. To get rid of a hickey, Dr. Isabela Bottura, an Australian gynecologist-turned-integrative sex coach, recommends applying a cold compress…
The Common Law
Last month, this column covered new Texas laws affecting education. However, education is not the only area subject to new laws passed during the 2025 Texas legislative session. Listed below are a few other laws passed by the state’s 89th Legislature which may affect Austinites’ day-to-day lives. No HOA Penalties for a Crispy Lawn During…
Fun + Games
Free Will Astrology
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): In the late 18th century, Balloonomania came to Paris. Large crowds gathered to watch inventors and impresarios send hot air balloons into the sky. Spectators were astonished, fearful, and filled with wonder. Some wept, and some fainted. I suspect you’re due for your own exhilarating lift-off, Scorpio – a surge of…
