Cover Story
In Case of Disaster
We live in calamitous times. Natural disasters have always plagued humans, but anthropogenic climate change – meaning, brought on by human activity – has meant more, and more destructive, disaster events. We’re still grappling with the impacts of COVID-19, and worrying how vulnerable we may be to another pandemic. And then there are the threats that…
News
Taking the Road Less Traveled to Provide Relief
The common complaints against autonomous vehicles designed to provide first aid relief to disaster victims are that they are either too expensive or inefficient. ASCEND wants to change that. Founded by University of Texas professor Christian Claudel, ASCEND, or Aerial Solutions for Combating Emergencies and Natural Disasters, started in spring 2024 as a research group.…
Austin’s Street Medics Race to Beat the Heat
At a table in Epoch Coffee, Carissa Stephens and Matthew Blaney are working to help Austin’s unhoused population beat the heat. The pair are encouraging coffee shop goers and passersby to take a warm-weather first aid kit to distribute to someone in need. One man stops on his way out, no doubt drawn in by…
‘It’s All About Information’
Just off SH-71, sandwiched between a meat processing facility and the Mexican Consulate, Austin’s professional doomsday planners do, well, just that. Austin Emergency Management has gotten busier in the past few years, and has in turn focused on the one thing they feel is most important – the spread of information. “Information is currency, and…
In a Mass Casualty Incident, Every Second Counts
The scene is chaotic by design. Volunteers act as injured patients while emergency crews assess casualties and establish treatment areas. Behind the scenes, another team determines how much blood is needed, prepares transport containers, and tracks each unit. The scenario is only a drill, but for Austin-Travis County EMS and Central Texas blood bank We…
Texas U.S. History Curriculum Will Only Mention Islam in Relation to Terrorism
Hanifa Nayeemuddin, a high school sophomore, told the Texas State Board of Education about her experience as a Muslim student growing up in Texas during a public hearing on the new public high school history curriculum standards on Monday, Aug. 31. “A girl from public school … saw my mom wearing a hijab and asked…
State Set to Execute Two Inmates Involved in Capital Murders
Texas prison officials have scheduled two executions, one week apart, for a pair of men convicted of the same criminal act. The state plans to kill LeJames Norman on Sept. 16 and, seven days later, Ker’sean Olajuwa Ramey. The state has also set three more executions for October and November. Kristin Houlé Cuellar, executive director…
Texas’ Pregnancy Death Report Set to Release After Midterms
Texas is statistically among the most deadly places for pregnant women in the wealthy world. The United States has the highest maternal mortality rate of any high-income country, and Texas ranks poorly within the U.S., per CDC data and a cross-country analysis by The Commonwealth Fund. What happens when you take a state with a…
The Week’s Biggest News in Brief: Sept. 3-9
Republicans Assemble in Dallas: With the midterms less than two months away, Republicans from Texas and around the nation are gathering in Dallas for the party’s first-ever midterm convention. The two-day event began on Wednesday, Sept. 9, as conservatives filed into the American Airlines Center to try to energize voters and accumulate campaign funds. The…
Threat of Data Center Construction Looms Over Dog’s Head
Could a large-scale data center be built on Dog’s Head, even though city leaders have begun the process of banning data centers inside the city limits? Critics of the controversial 2,600-acre development project east of Downtown say it’s possible. “There’s a loophole created by the Dog’s Head annexation and development agreement passed back in May,”…
Music
Music Notes
The Midnight Friday 11, ACL Live at the Moody Theater I’ll credit ACL Fest 2022 for putting the Midnight in my scope. Touring band member Justin Klunk repeatedly stole the show during a Saturday afternoon with his saxophone solos. Show opener Bonnie McKee featured on the synthwave outfit’s latest album, Syndicate. Chance the Rapper Sunday…
Shape-Shifting TOMGIRL Quentin’s Situationship Sugar Rush
It’s situationship summer – didn’t you hear? On his first official full-length solo album, shape-shifting TOMGIRL Quentin rolls through contemporary dating’s most universal humiliation ritual with buoyant pop-rock glee. Glistening synths and driving bass propel the genderfluid songwriter through the early stages of one-sided infatuation: “Just a girl who loves fiction,” she chirps, unbothered, on…
French Film Drudge Through the Mud on Yours + Five
Tying together last year’s Yours EP with a string of past singles, French Film presents Yours + Five, an unrelenting, amorphous wall of sound. In the shoegaze tradition, obscure vocals take a backseat to constant volume and reverb. Yet, on antepenultimate “Blair,” the collection’s only previously unreleased song, a lyrical narrative emerges. Bassist Ash Keenum…
Talking to the Dog Delights in Surrealist Experiments
A saloon band at his back and a whistling jaunt in his step, Alex Dupree veers sweetly between manic revelation and clear-eyed realism on Talking to the Dog – or “From the road of excess/ To the palace of wisdom,” as tongue-in-cheek barn-burning vow “Room for One More” puts it. The surrealist storytelling here is…
Levitation 2026 Traces Austin Legacies
Weird roots run deep and tangled in Austin dirt – and though the city changes, we’re still reaping the fruit of the psychedelic and experimental music that sprouted here. Levitation and Austin Psych Fest have become yearly reminders of the influential artists that came up in or got a boost in the Live Music Capital,…
Arts + Culture
East Austin Gallery grayDUCK Does a Farewell “Dress Rehearsal”
At the recent Yuliya Lanina “Dress Rehearsal” opening, guests wove in and out of the surreal and often macabre work, gabbing happily. Jill Schroeder stood at the gallery’s center, barely able to move more than a foot in any direction, greeting folks and kindly gesturing to the exhibition. But everyone wanted to talk about the…
Lean Into Love With And She Was Loved
Breath. Movement. Words. These three principles guide Zell Miller III’s And She Was Loved, the inaugural performance of Black Rose Theater ATX. It’s a perfect entrance for a company dedicated to, as their mission states, telling “American love stories through an African American lens.” They’re a sorely needed voice for Austin, where spaces for those…
Screens
Hope Review: A Monstrous Waste of Potential
As a critic, I long ago accepted that which films do and do not get a theatrical release is a decision process that lies far above my pay grade and I will only suffer sleepless nights if I ponder them too long. These enigmas are doubly murky when it comes to the seemingly arbitrary path…
Columns
Qmmunity: Four Hours of Sleep
I simply can’t talk much right now, Reader. Because you must be apoplectic over a less than rambling column from your excessively familiar columnist, I’ll tell you the truth. Last night I stayed up until 5am reading a book. Yes! I’m aware this behavior is very James circa 2005 when first your loyal queer event/news…
The Luv Doc: Go Get You a D
Dear Luv Doc, I have been married for about seven and a half years now. We stopped having sex and being affectionate at year three. He said he didn’t want to have sex anymore. I was too much for him. My sex drive is higher than his. His attention was on work. Phone calls while…
Feedback: September 11, 2026
Radicalization of Household Pets Dear Editor, In last week’s opinion piece, “There Is No Such Thing as a Dangerous Book” [Columns, Aug. 27], Liam Mathison Farmer argues, rightly, against book bans. However, he makes the case that no book can be potentially harmful to a child by highlighting that he read Mein Kampf as a child and…
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Mount Everest’s Khumbu Glacier is melting in part due to human urine; more than 6,000 liters are produced daily by thousands of climbers and guides. With six suspects, six weapons, and nine rooms, there are exactly 324 possible solutions to the board game Clue. Regarding the stop-motion, animated series “Wallace and Gromit,” creator Nick Park…
Day Trips: Giddings Public Library, Giddings
The Giddings Public Library is recognized as one of the best small-town libraries in the state. Not only do they serve the community, but they offer something for out-of-town visitors. In 2003, Arnold Smith donated his collection of Native American artifacts to the library. When it went on display it was considered one of the…
The Future Can’t Wait for Austin FC
If there’s one thing that terrifies the suits running Major League Soccer, it’s a team like Austin FC. That is, a team so stuck in the nether regions of the league’s standings – we’re talking months, not weeks at this point – that the idea of sniffing even a chance at a championship is utterly…
Fun + Games
Free Will Astrology
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Master chefs say that diners first taste food with their eyes. The visual presentation is key to the whole experience. But the beauty must arise from craftsmanship rather than empty decoration. I believe you Virgos are in a phase when this is an important metaphor. Your outer style and inner substance…
