Cover Story
Dog Years
Austin’s version of the Band – the Gourds – steps into those brown shoes almost literally with Old Mad Joy
Our Overdue Central Library
Transit activists decry delinquent transit options
Hank Lives!
Hank Williams’ ‘Lost Notebooks’ come to life.
FF2011: Hunting the Aardvark
Director Kitao Sakurai leaves rap videos for docu-noir
FF2011: ‘Haunters’
S. Korea’s ‘Haunters’ reviewed
Imagine ‘Logan’s Run,’ Locked at 29
The Postmortal‘s Drew Magary at Black Sheep Lodge
County Bond Backers Do the ‘Two-Step’
Committee tees up votes on transpo, open space spending
‘Luther’ Back on American Airwaves Tonight
BBC America’s detective show debuts at 9pm
Tramp On Your Street
Review of Richard Hell’s reading at Justine’s
Nasty, Brutish, and Short?
We’re not talking about Frodo on a meth bender
Wednesday Rewind
Kashmere Stage Band’s ‘Texas Jewels’
FF2011: ‘A Lonely Place to Die’
The Gilbey bros. explain the truth of their Fantastic Fest title
Getting to Know You
Texas fans grin at scary blind date with 2011 Longhorns
FF2011: Seizing ‘The Day’
Dominic Monaghan talks trash talking amongst the ruins
The Whole Love
Reviewing Wilco’s new ‘The Whole Love’
FF2011: Fantastic Fest Awards
‘Bullhead’, ‘You’re Next’ win big
FF2011: ‘Two Eyes Staring’ (‘Zwart Water’)
Kids doing the craziest things (like murder, haunting etc)
Emo’s Red River Location Sold
Emo’s two rooms at Sixth & Red River have been sold.
Tribune Festival Notes
Legislative aftermath: Hard to run a state without revenue
FF2011: James Quinn McDonagh Shows His ‘Knuckle’
Bare knuckle bruiser talks fair fighting and boxing Tim League
FF2011: ‘Borderline’ (‘Une Pure Affaire’)
Coke dreams of la petite bourgeoisie
What I Learned at Fantastic Arcade: Saturday
or, where have all the fishermen gone
FF2011: Sharni Vinson Says ‘You’re Next’
From Australian soaps to home invasion horror
FF2011: ‘The Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence)’
‘Human Centipede II’ reviewed
FF2011: Beyond the Badge
Off-campus antics for the badgeless
FF2011: ‘Juan of the Dead’ Premiere
A love letter from Cuba to Austin, signed in zombie blood
FF2011: ‘Calibre 9’ Director Jean-Christian Tassy Goes Ballistic
An interview with Jean-Christian of ‘Calibre 9’
Rigoletto: Met Summer Encore 2025
Rigoletto: Met Summer Encore 2025 2025, NR, 150 min. Directed by Michele Mariotti. In this electric performance from 2013, baritone Željko Lucic sings the title role in Michael Mayer’s 1960s-era production of Verdi’s great drama, sharing the stage with soprano Diana Damrau and tenor Piotr Beczala. Michele Mariotti conducts. Originally broadcast February 16, 2013.
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives 2010, NR, 114 min. Directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Starring Sakda Kaewbuadee, Jenjira Pongpas, Thanapat Saisaymar. This winner of the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or is a strange, mystifying, and often oblique movie. The Thai film easily blends naturalism and surrealism, the physical and spiritual worlds, the corporality…
Fantastic Arcade Interview: Robin Hunicke
Designing games for the heart instead of the adrenal gland
Kid Powers
Charlie Belle kicks up some Magnetic Fields buzz
TDH: 9/23/11
November spawned a monster: Split council keeps May vote
Things I Learned at Fantastic Arcade: Bonus Edition
We don’t need no stinkin’ badges
Austin Rockin’ 9/23/11
Margaret Moser picks this weekend’s live shows for Fox 7
FF2011: ‘Kill Me Please’
Saul Rubinek goes from Warehouse 13 to Swiss suicide clinic
Texans Face Tough Test in Saints
37-34 Houston in OT
AMP Museum Day
Get an agricultural history lesson this Saturday
FF2011: Elijah Wood Challenges Dominic Monaghan!
Elijah Wood may be in trouble here. Or not.
Food-o-File
The once and future pit master returns?
ACL Live Shots
Daniel Lanois’ Black Dub Zilker Park, Sept. 17 Someone should have reminded Daniel Lanois that it was close to 100 degrees with nearly 100% humidity. Just looking at him attired in his trademark wool cap and buttoned denim jacket made him uncomfortable to watch. Still Black Dub was much more intriguing as a live act…
Gay Place: Texas Is a Queer State of Mind
UT goes balls-out on Queer State(s)
Off the Record
The 2011 Austin City Limits Music Festival draws to a close, as does Emo’s outside on Sixth Street
Council Opponents Concede on WTP4
The city auditor brings the latest numbers on a WTP4 shutdown
ACL Live Shots
Cults Zilker Park, Sept. 16 Cults have basked in Internet buzz from its single “Go Outside” since last summer, so the question with this year’s eponymous debut LP was whether the New York band could rise above. Last fall at Fun Fun Fun Fest, the last-minute lineup addition was somewhat ramshackle and not ready for…
ACL Live Shots
The Moondoggies Zilker Park, Sept. 17 “That’s how it goes,” muttered Kevin Murphy, singer/guitarist and frontman of Seattle’s Moondoggies. Despite being visibly unimpressed by the excessive (and surprising) noise bleed from Iron & Wine’s uncharacteristically rocking set, Murphy and his bandmates soldiered ahead with their gothic Americana. The set was curiously, and rather obviously, bisected…
Letters at 3am: Zelda’s Law and 9/11
9/11 conspiracy theories will outlive their perpetrators
One Cop, Two Cop … How Many New Cops?
Council approves 47 new APD hires – with perhaps a change in the air
DOJ on Redistricting: Tell It to the Judge
The DOJ refuses to preclear U.S. and Texas House redistricting
ACL Live Shots
An Horse Zilker Park, Sept. 16 Caught between jangle pop and coffee shop confessional, Australian duo An Horse blinked in the midday sun. After a six-week break, vocalist Kate Cooper admitted, “I’m going to puff like a motherfucker,” and the stomping tick-tock of “Trains and Tracks” felt a little under-wound and underwhelming. She found some…
ACL Live Shots
Fitz & the Tantrums Zilker Park, Sept. 17 If there were such a prize, Fitz & the Tantrums might have won Band Happiest To Play ACL Fest. “It’s because of you, Austin, that we got our record deal!” crowed co-singer Noelle Scaggs, paying back the crowd with such spirit that they might also deserve a…
Gods and Monsters …
… and aliens and abductors and much, much more at Fantastic Fest 2011
Day Trips
Stacking rocks has become a new pastime along the Galveston Seawall
Trading Grass for Cash
When it comes to water, Augustine is no saint
ACL Live Shots
Theophilus London Zilker Park, Sept. 16 A branded rapper ripped from the pages of Fader magazine, Theophilus London led the early afternoon crowd in call and response: “I got too much swag for ya!” Damn right. All swag, no substance. The Brooklyn-based electro-popper seared his name into the collective brain of the audience with “Last…
ACL Live Shots
Gillian Welch Zilker Park, Sept. 17 Understanding the deep-rooted chemistry between Gillian Welch and David Rawlings doesn’t start by watching their instruments, although their playing is picking perfection. Nor does it lie in their voices, where the gentle interplay of harmonies captures something natural and timeless. No, an appreciation of Welch and Rawlings’ two-decade-long collaboration…
Rick Baker: Monster Maker
An American Werewolf in London
Bombat Washers Championship
Central Texas lays claim to being the Washers Pitching Capital this weekend
The Hightower Report
The new super PACs amount to a corporate takeover of national politics
ACL Live Shots
Ha Ha Tonka Zilker Park, Sept. 16 Roots rock’s latest saviors come from the Ozark Mountains of Missouri with the peculiar name of Ha Ha Tonka. What makes the young quartet fascinating was on abundant display in a set crammed with effervescent harmonies, churning rhythms, and smart yet entertaining lyrics that draw heavily from latest…
ACL Live Shots
Wanda Jackson Zilker Park, Sept. 17 Snappily and uniformly outfitted in matching suits, Wanda Jackson’s band warmed up her entrance playing Link Wray’s “Rumble,” a reminder that the veteran songstress was once a rebel, too. Dressed in a sequin-trimmed hot-pink jacket with her hair lacquered coal black, Jackson looked the part – the “Fujiyama Mama”…
Teaching You the Fear
Extraterrestrial
Soccer Watch
UT women begin conference play, and more
ACL Live Shots
Secret Sisters Zilker Park, Sept. 16 Some acts shouldn’t play festivals. The Secret Sisters, two women with an acoustic guitar passed between them and only one CD out, couldn’t capture the imagination of a healthy assembly no matter how pretty their harmonies or charming their banter. At the end of their hourlong set, the audience…
ACL Live Shots
Preservation Hall Jazz Band & the Del McCoury Band Zilker Park, Sept. 17 To most people’s ears, jazz and bluegrass couldn’t be more dissimilar. New Orleans’ Preservation Hall Jazz Band and Tennesseans the Del McCoury Band proved that the genres intersect at more points than you might imagine. While on their recent American Legacies collaboration…
This Is Your Mind on Black Rainbows
Beyond the Black Rainbow
Headlines
� City Council convenes today (Thursday, Sept. 22), deciding whether to hold the city’s next election in May or November 2012. (See “City Hall Hustle.”) If that’s not controversial enough, on Wednesday, council’s Audit and Finance Committee received a full vetting on the cost of postponing completion of Water Treatment Plant No. 4; see “Council…
Straw Dogs
Rod Lurie remakes Sam Peckinpah’s 1971 bloodbath-classic about a home invasion and tapping into man’s inner rage monster.
ACL Live Shots
Brandi Carlile Zilker Park, Sept. 16 Good thing Brandi Carlile had a killer arrangement of “Dreams” handy, since drummer Allison Miller practically stole the show from the Seattle singer by tearing off an opening drum flourish with energy usually reserved for an encore. It was Carlile’s moment though – her first appearance at ACL –…
ACL Live Shots
Cee Lo Zilker Park, Sept. 17 “I’m 323 pounds of raw sexuality – can you handle that, Austin?” With an outsized personality and all that sexiness packed in a stout five-foot frame, Cee Lo Green is never boring, even when a set falls a little flat. Backed by a spandex-clad band of killer ladies, the…
Inventing New (Still Horrible) Ways To Die
You’re Next
City Hall Hustle: Mo’ Money
As the budget year ends, council reshuffles the last few cards
Dolphin Tale
This true story of the world’s first dolphin with a prosthetic tail provides solid family entertainment.
ACL Live Shots
Big Boi Zilker Park, Sept. 16 As the pimped-out yin to Andre’s cosmic yang, Big Boi dropped some of the illest bars of the last 15 years as half of OutKast. As a reminder, he immediately launched into a medley of classics, slangin’ gator belts and patty melts on “Skew It on the Bar-B,” “Rosa…
ACL Live Shots
Stevie Wonder Zilker Park, Sept. 17 “Master Blaster” Stevie Wonder minted ACL Fest 2011’s big moment simply by walking onstage. Resplendent in a gold and Chinese-red dashiki, trademark cornrows spilling past his shoulders, he entered unaccompanied with a keytar strapped around his neck to the howls of thousands. Many of those faithful had marked their…
Let the Games Begin
Fantastic Arcade
Point Austin: Electric Shock
Austin Energy’s ‘regressive’ proposed rate increase brings out little guys and their advocates
Life, Above All
In this South African drama, a township overcomes its fear of AIDS by the example of a courageous young girl.
ACL Live Shots
Kurt Vile & the Violators Zilker Park, Sept. 16 “I feel like a schizophrenic with all this music going around,” the Vile One mumbled from beneath his drooping mane, trying to wish away Beardyman’s beats from the BMI stage. The soundboard countered by overdriving the hypnotic acoustic roll of “Blackberry Song.” The distracted set was…
Live Shots
Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. Zilker Park, Sept. 18 For a band whose debut showed as much promise as Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr.’s It’s a Corporate World, it was disappointing how much the band fell back on gimmicks to rally the early Sunday afternoon ACL crowd. Between the hometown Longhorn shout-out, the Popsicle throw-outs, and three…
After a Fashion
What a drag it is getting old … even with surgery
Quote of the Week
“If the tar sands are thrown into the mix, it is essentially game over.” – NASA climatologist James Hansen, on his belief that permitting exploitation of tar sands oil will doom efforts to curb global warming. See “Civics 101.”
Moneyball
Brad Pitt hits a home run with this film about the inner workings of baseball. It’s a film that will appeal to sports fans and nonfans alike.
Arts Review
The crises facing Chekhov’s characters feel very current in UT’s staging
ACL Live Shots
Foster the People Zilker Park, Sept. 16 Chances are Mark Foster didn’t realize he’d be fostering quite so many people baking in the Friday afternoon sun and shimmying to the pumped-up beats of the super-hot L.A. trio. Kicking off a set that drew almost entirely from major label debut Torches, Foster demonstrated his talent not…
ACL Live Shots
AWOLNation Zilker Park, Sept. 18 Dude, bro, did you catch that AWOLNation show? Shit was epic. When Bruno came out rocking “Jump on My Shoulders” and “People,” it was over. So tight. I was throwing horns and freaking, chicks were crowd-surfing, and a dude even whipped out a boogie board and rode the damn thing…
Civics 101
Calendar of civic events, Sept. 22-29
Mausam
This Hindi film presents a timeless story of love in the face of political hostilities and religious conflict.
Arts Review
Five artists massage your corneas with vivid colors and Fauvist style
ACL Live Shots
Gary Clark Jr. Zilker Park, Sept. 16 Back when Gary Clark Jr. first set foot onstage at ACL 2002 at the age of 17, he was the kid, the heir, the contender. Clark entering the ring in 2011 is different. With him now comes over a decade of experience with real old-fashioned guitar blues that…
ACL Live Shots
Elbow Zilker Park, Sept. 18 As the epic intimacy of “The Birds” ebbed and swelled like a tide under gray, gathering clouds, Guy Garvey and his celestial Northern English rockers should have felt at home. As the storm cloud bass line of “Neat Little Rows” rumbled out, he took time to survey his crowd like…
Record Review
The Gourds Old Mad Joy (Vanguard) Of the dozen tracks on the Gourds’ 10th studio LP, Kevin Russell wrote five, Jimmy Smith hallucinated six, and ace detailer Max Johnston snuck in “Haunted,” an Athens, Ga.-style bar bruiser powered by Old Mad Joy producer Larry Campbell’s steel-rail string bending. Smith’s absurdist rockers, “Drop the Charges” (“Suzi…
Taxi Report Hits Rocky Terrain
With transportation, it’s hard to find the middle of the road
Dookudu
New Telugu action film.
Arts Review
A rare play that manages to offer both comfort and truth
ACL Live Shots
Coldplay Zilker Park, Sept. 16 As snuggling couples, tolerant boyfriends, and Twilight moms gathered in anticipation of Friday night’s milkiest of headliners, the interstitial music, Jay-Z’s “99 Problems,” caused a mild flurry of double-checked schedules. Finally, a dramatic instrumental ushered in the pale Brits against a backdrop of neon, “Hurts Like Heaven” leading the charge…
ACL Live Shots
Death From Above 1979 Zilker Park, Sept. 18 Opposites attract, of course, but coexistence thrives on a middle ground. Dressed in something approaching white long johns, hair bleached blond, Sebastien Grainger of reunited Toronto twopiece DFA1979 cut a stark contrast to partner Jesse Keeler, all in black with hair dyed to match. “Wind and rain…
All Over Creation: Come Together
You’re not alone in the theatre, and there’s power in that
‘ACCESS News’ Goes Live
New show reaches Austin’s deaf community
Incendiary: The Willingham Case
The “junk science” used to make the case for the Texas execution of Cameron Todd Willingham for the arson murders of his children is persuasively laid out in this locally made documentary.
Restaurant Review
Frites to meet you
ACL Live Shots
Kanye West Zilker Park, Sept. 16 The biggest single day ever for hip-hop at ACL ended with pop’s most polarizing star delivering the most theatrical festival set since Bjork touched down from Venus via Iceland four years ago. As ballerinas swirled across the stage in front of a giant backdrop of battling Greek gods, Kanye…
ACL Live Shots
Manu Chao Zilker Park, Sept. 18 “¿Que paso, mi gente?” yelled Manu Chao, bounding onto the massive AMD stage at sunset Sunday. “Ya llego!” It had arrived, all right – in the form of four multinational musicians who put on a punk rock master class not seen since the Clash. Where the Clash integrated the…
Damian Priour
Remembering the respected Austin sculptor
Crime Down, Except for Murder
Austin homicides up; everything else down
Book Review
Kids prove better at adapting than parents when they run away from home
ACL Live Shots
Aloe Blacc & the Grand Scheme Zilker Park, Sept. 17 California soul man Aloe Blacc promised to get down like James Brown and bring the thunder like Stevie Wonder. He delivered on both counts, although his high-gloss R&B – brimming with polish and positive vibrations – leans less on the Godfather of Soul and more…
ACL Live Shots
Social Distortion Zilker Park, Sept. 18 The low-slung guitars, the swaggering attitude, and the blue-collar aggression are still there. Yet “Mommy’s Little Monster” is all grown up and then some. Entering to “Mannish Boy,” these aged road dogs have more than a little grizzled gray around their muzzles. While Social D remains Mike Ness’ rebellious…
Actors From the London Stage
Who needs more than five actors to do a Shakespeare play? Not this troupe.
Realigning Police Lineups
New study shows that changing lineup procedure reduces mistaken ID’ing
Texas Craft Brewers Festival
The festival returns after a hiatus
ACL Live Shots
Cowboy & Indian Zilker Park, Sept. 17 Austin’s newest upstart roots-rock outfit, comprising former T-Bird & the Breaks vocalist Jazz Mills, Daniel James of Leopold & His Fiction, and Jesse Plemons, who played Landry on the beloved TV series Friday Night Lights, started out mellow – too mellow – early on Saturday afternoon. The set…
ACL Live Shots
Randy Newman Zilker Park, Sept. 18 Randy Newman wasn’t the oldest performer at ACL. Mavis Staples probably takes that honor, but he was surely its most accomplished songwriter. The overflow crowd in the tent wasn’t just geezerville either: Thanks to his recent work in film, the twentysomething set showed their love as well. Everyone not…
Seasoning’s Greetings
A look at the savory and the tweet of Hilah Cooking
Hangman Hangs Fire
Case included racially biased testimony
Food Events
Enjoy cooking demos, feasts, and cocktails to benefit many good causes
ACL Live Shots
Twin Shadow Zilker Park, Sept. 17 Twin Shadow couldn’t be more aptly named. The Brooklyn quartet’s music balances on the threshold of dark and light, mimicking the early afternoon sun and threatening dark clouds above with a sound that seemed torn in two directions. George Lewis Jr.’s vocals and lyrics swoon with a dramatic romanticism…
ACL Live Shots
Arcade Fire Zilker Park, Sept. 18 Only one word can describe Arcade Fire’s Sunday night ACL capper: perfect. The Montreal-by-way-of-Houston octet was nothing but pure energy from start to finish with the balletic Will Butler on keyboard, snare, and various stage antics to Régine Chassagne’s quirky interpretive dance. The band bolted out of the gates…
A Movie-able Feast
Exploring Toronto’s cinematic menu
Christmas Comes Early for Texas State
General Land Office gives the gift that keeps on giving
FF2011: ‘The House by the Cemetery’
Horror icon William Lustig gets maniacal about the Fulci classic
What I Learned at Fantastic Arcade: Thursday
or, OMG, I got a new 3-D hat!
Luv Doc Recommends: Queensrÿche
You may be one of those whippersnappers whose image of the Eighties looks a lot like Arnold’s Drive-In: Richie, Potsie, and Ralph Malph sitting around sipping cherry cokes concocting crazy schemes on how to get to second base with girls who sadly lacked the benefit of reliable birth control. The most dangerous person they know…
