Cover Story
A Lot of Cojones and a Little Faith
The art of Micael Priest
The Crying Boy (and Bob) of OU
The Crying Boy of OU is apparently getting his mug plastered all over T-shirts and e-mail attachments slinging back and forth across the Red River. See the above photo of the sobbing youngster who may or may not have been upset that his beloved Sooners got squashed by the University of Texas Longhorns. Or maybe…
‘Soccer Watch’: Lady Longhorns Sweep on the RoadEuro 2008 Qualifying Results
The Lady Longhorns had a great weekend up north, beating Kansas, 1-0, then coming from behind to beat 14th-ranked Colorado, 2-1, with freshman Emily Anderson (Westlake High) nailing the winner, the first goal of her college career. With that, the Horns ran their season record to 10-3-1, including 6-2 on the road. This week they…
Ice Bats Swoop Into New Bat Cave as 2006-07 Season Looms
There’s activity aplenty within the Ice Bats organization, but no news is more exciting than its move into Austin proper. While they made some improvements to the barn commonly known as the Travis County Expo Center, and it had a certain charm, relocating to the Chaparral Ice Arena may be the biggest news from the…
‘Pig Skinny’: OU/UT Wrap
If you would have told Pig Skinny on Friday afternoon that the Oklahoma Sooners would outgain the Texas Longhorns 332-232 and go eight-for-16 on third down, the Skinny would have declared a certain victory for the Sooners based on early returns. Unfortunately for OU, the Sooners also loaded the ballot box with five turnovers and…
Mr. October
Just in the nick of time, major dividend No. 1 darted for 65 yards and a game-winning touchdown against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The number of new friends Reggie Bush made in New Orleans Saints country Sunday afternoon with that oh-so-timely punt return puts census workers to swamp boots and pirough oars. It was indeed…
Too Depressed to Write a Clever Headline
Forget about the Drew Bledsoe/Terry Glenn connection. It looks like Bledsoe’s found himself a new favorite receiver. With two receptions in the Philadelphia game, including a 102-yard touchdown, looks like Lito Sheppard may just be the face of Dallas’ future. Wait, what’s that you’re saying? Sheppard is an Eagle? Well thanks for the info, Pat…
Grandma to Tony La Russa: ‘Shape Up or Ship Out’
Still drunk and stinking even more so after a 3-mile jog to retrieve my car from the evil clutches of a colleague’s-birthday-party parking spot – thanks for the ride this morning, whoever you are – I called up my grandmother in St. Louis. After the requisite small talk – my cousin will not, in fact,…
Waiting for Happiness
Waiting for Happiness 2002, NR, 95 min. Directed by Abderrahmane Sissako, Starring Khatra Ould Abder Kader, Maata Ould Mohamed Abeid, Mohamed Mahmoud Ould Mohamed. While revisiting his hometown in a small Mauritanian coastal village, a man reflects on belonging, modernity, and exile amid a torrent of images that are rich in cultural specificity.
D-League Primer
News came in this week that the Austin Toros will have the 10th pick in this year’s D-League draft, which will take place Nov. 2. In honor of the occasion, I felt it was a good time to explain the ins and outs of the NBDL, its draft, and its affiliation system: in other words,…
‘Friday Night Lights’: Westlake Bested, Watch Out for Westwood
Tonight’s pick game is easy: Westwood visiting Leander at A.C. Bible Stadium. Leave now, and you might still beat the 183 traffic. Maybe not, but still. QB Chase Rich has led the Warriors to their first-ever 4-0 start, including wins over Round Rock (behind Rich’s 328 passing yards); Austin High (see below); and area 4A…
2005’s Second-Best Quarterback Comes Home
While Vince Young was celebrating his first pro start by spitting out the grass the Dallas Cowboys’ defense had shoved into his craw, last year’s second-best Texas college quarterback was all but forgotten. If you don’t know the name Barrick Nealy, you missed out on – next to Vince’s win (yes, he did it himself)…
‘And Now It’s My Time (Now It’s My Time) It’s My Time to Dream (My Time to Dream)’
Good afternoon, sports fans. I just awoke from a nearly weeklong alcohol-induced coma, which I fell into after the St. Louis Cardinals clinched the National League Central. It was in celebration, yes, but it was also in relief. It was a release of sorts. Remember: We don’t drink to forget; we drink to … remember.…
UT and OU Fans Warned to Drive Safely (or Else)
DPS will increase patrols Friday and Saturday along I-35 between Austin and Dallas to monitor traffic headed to Dallas for the Texas-Oklahoma football game. Troopers will concentrate on finding aggressive drivers, as well as speeders and drunken drivers on their way to the game or on their way home. They’ll also look for people who…
Arts Review
As a play, ‘Bitten! A Zombie Rock Odyssey’ is impressively bad, but it’s got one hell of a soundtrack
The Devil in Us All
Butch Hancock, like Leo Tolstoy and Bob Dylan, takes on this political world
Housing Authority Won’t Use Affordable-Housing Bond Money
HACA chooses to keep independent of city’s $55 million in affordable housing bonds on November ballot
Viva Pedro!
Eight re-releases in two weeks lead up to ‘Volver’
Arts Review
In Lu Ann Barrow’s brilliantly colored canvases, every pebble, blade of grass, dress, and wallpaper pattern is rendered in bold colors that excite rather than drown one another out
Butch Hancock Reviewed
Butch HancockWar and Peace (Two Roads) He appropriates the title from Leo Tolstoy, but with War and Peace, Butch Hancock crafts his most Dylanesque work to date. It updates the political Dylan of “Masters of War” and “With God on Our Side” and does so with a West Texas twang. Opening on the a cappella…
Media Watch
KXAN staffers fear the baseball bat to the head
SXSW Presents
‘Last Days of the San José’
‘Kid B’
Linden Dalecki’s new novel: an excerpt
Dream Story
Boy with a horn returns from the Big Apple
Naked City
Headlines and happenings from Austin and beyond
Film News
Triskaidekaphobia be damned, at least for some; others on the scene are quite unlucky, actually.
Page Two: Seasons Change, and So Do We
Our sports blog commences, ‘SXSW Presents’ continues, and Priest unmasks the past
Speak No Evil
Asked for a soundtrack to our interview, Haslanger chose Wayne Shorter’s 1965 Blue Note album, Speak No Evil. “This is a seminal record for me. Every note on it is perfect, and as a concept album, it’s perfectly realized. The cover, with Wayne peering out from the background behind his wife, conjures an otherworldly sense.…
Immigration Legislation Update
Immigrant rights taking a hit in D.C.
DVD Watch
Operating with limited resources, Steev Hise interviews mothers, activists, scholars, and writers to paint the portrait of a city in a state of severe crisis
After a Fashion
Your Style Avatar searches for the greenroom at the county tax assessor’s office
Elias Haslanger Reviewed
Elias HaslangerDream Story (Cherrywood) In the late Nineties, the wind fell out of Austin jazz sails when Elias Haslanger moved to Brooklyn. The lyrical tenor saxophonist and composer also led an exceptional band, captured on 1998’s popular and critically acclaimed Kicks Are for Kids (Heart). The Austin product’s new outfit, including his former quartet’s timekeeper…
Yogurt Shop Murder-Conviction Update
Court of Criminal Appeals denies request by Travis Co. district attorney’s office to reconsider its ruling earlier this year, overturning capital-murder conviction of Robert Springsteen, sentenced to die in connection with yogurt shop murders case
TV Eye
Good timing
TCB
Finally, nobody died this week, heralding several new beginnings: Trail of Dead hopes its career is reborn on ‘So Divided,’ ex-Domino Bobby Whitlock relocates to Austin, Stretford comes back on the scene, and even the boy-band craze is revived
To Your Health
What is the best alternative to an elimination and challenge diet in determining dietary factors with migraines?
Phases & Stages
MastodonBlood Mountain (Reprise) A move to the majors didn’t kill the Mastodon. From opener “The Wolf Is Loose,” it’s clear the Atlanta quartet has journeyed further into the abyss. This time it’s not a white whale; however, it’s a horrific mountain that turns you into a cannibal, and the symbolism isn’t accidental. Drummer Brann Dailor…
The Future of Biodiesel
Texas Biodiesel Conference and Expo sells out, casts spotlight on the alternative fuel
Who’s Paying for LCRA Growth?
The LCRA�s wholesale customers are asking tough questions about the agency�s expensive expansion
Election 2006
The latest reports from the campaign trail
The Common Law
Changing My Name – Do I Need a Lawyer?
Phases & Stages
American HeritageMillenarian (Translation Loss) Despite the intricate beauty and sheer force of instrumental compositions by Pelican, Red Sparowes, and Don Caballero, one can’t help but wonder how their music would be altered with vocals. Insert American Heritage, a Chicago-based thinking man’s metal band whose instrumental debut, 1999’s Why Everyone Gets Cancer, was chock-full of highly…
Health Coverage in the Hole
Ranks of nation’s, state’s, and county’s uninsured have been swelling
WTP 4: Meryl Streep Plays Travis County?
The county tells the city to take its Cortaña plan and get bent
The Guardian
Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher co-star in this action drama about the Coast Guard Rescue Swimmers, which is a surprisingly engaging character-driven picture.
Day Trips
The Waco Mammoth Site tells an amazing story of the prehistoric elephant’s natural parenting instincts
Phases & Stages
DJ Screw: The Untold Story(Oarfin) Robert Davis, aka DJ Screw, left as enormous an imprint on Texas rap as anyone ever has or possibly ever will. By “chopping and screwing” pre-existing songs, which basically entailed dramatically slowing tempos and repeating selected phrases and drum kicks, Screw created his own subgenre of a hip-hop that specifically…
Schwarzenegger Terminates Hemp-Farming Hopes in California
Guv’s hemp-farming bill veto a “letdown” for farmers
Phases & Stages
Burt Bacharach Paramount Theatre, Oct. 4 In 2006, an audience with Burt Bacharach is as much a chance to pay homage as to see him perform. Who wouldn’t relish the opportunity to sing along with “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” in the same room with the man who wrote it? Opening with “What the…
The Departed
Watching this new film by Scorsese is tantamount to falling in love with the director all over again.
Soccer Watch
A tough weekend for the Longhorns, and more
Phases & Stages
Rogue’s Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs & Chanteys(Anti) The beautifully executed 2-CD Rogue’s Gallery will only come as a surprise or novelty to nonfolkies. Within the trad folk circuit, where “What Do We Do With a Drunken Sailor” and “Cape Cod Girls” are as de rigueur as “Nottamun Town” and “Sam Hall,” these Pirate Ballads,…
Trash-Can Punch Crackdown
APD teams up with fire department, TABC, DPS, and the city Solid Waste Services office to ensure codes and laws are enforced during all public assemblies
Al Franken: God Spoke
The film follows around comedian and politico Franken without managing to either inflame or inspire the viewer or add much new information to Franken’s already well-documented history.
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Dancing from Canada to Austin, and where not to tether a pregnant pig
Phases & Stages
M. WardPost-War (Merge) Given its title and M. Ward’s abilities as a wordsmith, it’s tempting to assume Post-War is his scathing treatise on Bush the Younger’s America. It’s not. Its only politics are the sort manifested daily in our most intimate relationships. Ward’s evildoers aren’t terrorists, craven politicians, or faceless megacorporations but ordinary acquaintances, relatives,…
Point Austin: Why Vote?
Here are 10 good reasons to mark your calendar for Nov. 7
49 Up
This British series is one of the great achievements of the cinema, one that reveals how an observant camera plus the passage of time can capture reality.
Oops!
Our latest batch
Phases & Stages
Tanya DonellyThis Hungry Life (Eleven Thirty) Now 40 with a family, Tanya Donelly has lately written songs more out of self-preservation than self-discovery. Her craft has grown up burdened, finding itself at odds with the girlish adventures of her best work with Belly and the Throwing Muses. It’s also adopted a heavy no-depression bent, which…
Beside the Point
The city and county play chicken over Bull Creek and Cortaña
Jesus Camp
This film is not a freak show or exposé but rather a call to arms to pick sides in the deepening cultural, political, and spiritual schism between the two Americas of the 21st century.
Tales Behind the Posters
The images on Micael Priest’s posters are impressively memorable. The sly wit and wild style imbued within is instantly recognizable. Yet beyond the portraits and art lie the stories of how the posters came to be. As Priest tells it, sometimes the story is in the poster itself. Even better, sometimes it’s not. – M.M.1972:…
Little Shops of Wines
How a couple of ounces are redefining the experience
Phases & Stages
Bobby Bare Jr.’s Young Criminals’ Starvation LeagueThe Longest Meow (Bloodshot) What can 11 people do in 11 hours? With Nashville’s Bobby Bare Jr., they can record 11 songs, each with its own distinct flavor, traversing the genre spectrum confidently to compose a continental breakfast of styles served up without a drop of self-consciousness. The Longest…
The Hightower Report
Messing With Meat; and From Wealth to Jail to Divorce
Women on Fire: Six of one, Ivey’s dozen of the other
Tony Award winner and Lone Star native Judith Ivey discusses the challenges of portraying a dozen characters in the one-woman monologue show ‘Women on Fire’
Taking a Look at Texas Wine Month
Throughout October, and thanks to Susan Combs
Phases & Stages
The KnifeSilent Shout (Mute) The Knife is rewriting the definition of electro-pop. What used to be happy, bouncy, and enthusiastic is now dark, eerie, and exacting. The masked brother-and-sister duo of Olof Dreijer and Karin Dreijer Andersson makes music in Stockholm, Sweden, on hard drive, stringing together yarns of chilling vocals and electronic boggles while…
Showcase Showdown
The Austin Museum of Digital Art’s programming challenges our notions of creativity
Free Night of Theater 2006: Encore run, still no charge
After a smash debut in 2005, the Free Night of Theater goes nationwide, with 300 performances across the country – including 21 in Austin – being offered at no charge
Event Menu
A bounty of places to be
Crestview at the Crossroads
Near north neighborhood faces redevelopment transformation
Belles on Her Toes
Trying to shake Gene Tierney
Free Night of Theater 2006: The list
Take your pick of 21 performances being offered at no charge with Free Night of Theater 2006
Food-o-File
You’re not leaving the site till you eat all of your news
More TODs to Come
Austin’s Transit-Oriented Development Ordinance, which officially became law on May 19, 2005, designated six areas of Austin as TOD zones. Leander established its own TOD ordinance and zone later that year. The purpose of each zone was to encourage maximum mixed-use density around major transit nodes, including six of the eight stops of MetroRail, Capital…
Leave Her to Heaven: Iconically Gene Tierney
“‘Young woman, you ought to be in pictures,'” recalled Gene Tierney in her autobiography. “That line was not even new in 1938. But I listened.” And how. It’s not every day a studio film director says that to a teenager touring the Warner Bros. lot with her family. “Among Hollywood discovery stories, mine might not…
Arts Review
‘Parade’ is an ambitious musical for a university theatre department, but the entire company presenting it at St. Edward’s is impressively in tune with Alfred Uhry and Jason Robert Brown’s retelling of the Leo Frank case
Medicine Man
Up a Tree With Greg Ashley
Planned Parenthood Slashed Again
While patients lose health care, the state dumps money on unprepared clinics
God Bless This Mess
The AFS Texas Documentary Tour: Doug Block’s ’51 Birch Street’
Luv Doc Recommends: aGLIFF Closing Party
You don’t have to be gay to appreciate the Austin Gay and Lesbian International Film Festival any more than you have to be straight to appreciate a gun and knife show, but it sure doesn’t hurt. It’s safe to say that the average breeder isn’t going to be queuing up for screenings like Eating Out…
