Cover Story
The Shepherd
Dripping Springs recluse Sam Beam spills some Iron & Wine
Crazy Train (Update With Pictures)
Train off the tracks on East 6th Street.
Best Fwends Fworever
Best Fwends invade Iceland.
Girls Rock Camp Benefit!
In addition to celebrating her 70th birthday tomorrow night at the Continental Club, rockabilly queen Wanda Jackson has signed a Daisy Rock guitar, which will be raffled off to benefit the Girls Rock Camp of Austin. Tickets cost $5. GRC director Emily Marks mentioned over the summer that Jackson may also be involved in the…
Longhorns and Hilltoppers Earn Top-10 Rankings, and More
Both of Austin’s Top 10-ranked football teams continued their win streaks on the weekend: The UT Lady Longhorns, now ranked second in the country, won a couple of tough physical matches, beating Wright State 2-1 and Texas Tech 1-0. Freshman Niki Arlitt got the winning goal Friday, then assisted on Caitlin Kennedy’s goal to beat…
About Those 17 ‘Panhandling’ Deaths …
ACLU Texas leader puts lie to ‘safety’ concerns in pannahdling debate.
How Not to Fix TYC
The scandal-wracked Crockett State School gets a principal to match.
East End Hustle
Canadian hookers organize against their oppressive pimps.
A Conversation Between Coaches Brown and Stoops
“Coach Brown, I am patching Coach Stoops through to your headset …” “Mack, you old walrus, how’s practice treating you? I bet you’re hurting this week. I know I am. Colorado? I let my guard down, coach. We had a big ole lead, and we got cocky. You know I’m a defense guy. Always have…
SCHIP Veto – Texas Dems Respond
The deluge of anti-SCHIP veto statements from elected officials starts here.
Vetoes and V-22s
Even with Texas Congressional Republicans supporting it, Bush vetoes the SCHIP extension
Red Sox Win It All and More Postseason Prognostication
Well that didn’t last long. I can’t believe we are already in the postseason. Where has the time gone? It’s been a while since I’ve checked in. I’ve had to put baseball on a list of to-dos while my wife and I spoil our new son rotten. It wasn’t until I unwrapped the Red Sox…
Radical Itty Bitty Titties
IBTC@aGLIFF rulz!
Collars Were Popped
The Mafia does dirty South proud.
21 Million Copies of George Will
Is anyone surprised that most columnists – a trade that often deals in annoyance and ire – are conservatives? According to a survey by Media Matters, entitled Black and White and Re(a)d All Over: The Conservative Advantage in Syndicated Op-Ed Columns, 60% of newspapers carry more syndicated conservative columnists than liberals, while only 20% favor…
DocuWeek Tour
DocuWeek Tour Seven documentary films will screen several times over a three-day period. They include Larry Flynt: The Right to Be Left Alone by Joan Brooker-Marks (80 min.) at 3:10pm and 9:55pm; Nanking by Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman (90 min.) at 12 noon and 6:40pm; The Price of Sugar by Bill Haney (90 min.)…
It Came From Barton Springs!
CEOs will tell you that when your corporation is running roughshod over a city’s delicate ecosystem, the best way to endear it to skeptical residents is to attach its name to as many local charities and cultural events as possible. Win their hearts and minds (the theory goes) and you can pretty much have your…
Fort Bend Gets ’08 Fever
Fort Bend County races start to shape up for ’04.
Toke ‘Em If You Got ‘Em: Pot Prohibition Turns 70 … and Pot Arrests Keep Adding Up
That’s right, 70 years ago this week, the federal Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 took effect, giving life to the federal pot prohibition we’ve all come to know and love.
Extend Our Trail (If Not Our Sympathy)
New astroturf org backed by developers pose as anti-developers.
Sciencing Be Hard
Al Gore comes to town, and gives the media an important lesson in science.
Animal Shelter Lawsuit: City Has Alpo on Its Face
On Monday, the fifth citizen-group lawsuit this year was filed against the City of Austin, this time alleging a “conspiratorial strategy” to keep the controversial animal shelter relocation decision away from the public scrutiny of an open council vote.
The Quiet War
The Quiet War 2007, NR, 54 min. Directed by Mary Rosanne Katzke. The content of this film was shaped by cancer survivors and serves as a guide regarding the reality of living a full life while battling advanced breast cancer.
Austin Film Festival 2007
Austin Film Festival 2007 The film festival continues through Thursday, Oct. 18, while the conference part of this event devoted to the art of the screenwriter occurs this weekend. Among the features and documentaries in competition at numerous venues around town, the festival will also sneak some of Hollywood’s prestigious fall product. Festival honorees include…
Death Takes No Holiday
Mourning two Austin players.
Time for an Inconvenient Truth
The former vice president brings an inconvenient truth conveniently close to I-35. Maybe he can help with the pollution.
Travis County Needs Election Workers
Go to the Elections Open House if you’re interested.
Rock the Bike Tonight
Pedal-powered dance party tonight.
Kansas, the Wheeled Giant Killers and More on the Texas Shootout
Kansas City Roller Warriors roll to victory at the world flat track championship.
Happy Birthday Toby
She’s good on retirement credits, FYI.
More on the Vote Molehill
More on what they Dugg up about absentee voting in the House.
Digging Mountains Out of Molehills
The hive mind ain’t down with the Texas Lege.
The Brady Bunch Incestuous? And Gay?!?
Jan and Marcia. Together. There is a God.
We Didn’t Ask. Don’t Tell Us Your Malarky, Boys.
Peter Pace and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad cut from the same homophobic cloth?
More Religious Fervor
Last night, aGLIFF opened with the fervor of a preacher’s fever.
Go Thou & Do aGLIFF
It’s on, people: aGLIFF is a happening.
No One Said It Was the Wholesome Street Fair
Folsom Street poster has church panties in wad.
Calling All Losers
The Chronicle‘s Bacheloser search wants you!
‘Madden 08’ Wins the Battle for My Free Time
You know, I really am a quite well-rounded gentleman. I work 40 hours a week for The Austin Chronicle. I have a sweet and beautiful girlfriend and many close friends who I love to hang out with. I am the editor of the sports blog you are now reading and I run a vanity record…
Tax Assessor Candidates Duke It Out
Who’da thunk that this race is where the all the action would be?
There Will Be Blood
The closing night film of Fantastic Fest was a real doozy: Paul Thomas Anderson’s eagerly awaited Christmastime release There Will Be Blood. Despite the film not falling into the sci-fi, crime, and horror genres that populate the fest, the film is certifiably “fantastic.” Anderson was present for the screening and brought along some of his…
Taking From The Homeless
Homeless charity celebrates millionth meal while the panhandling controversy keeps swirling.
Six Questions for Patricia Vonne
Patricia Vonne takes the bull by the horns.
Bike Mobility Task Force Wheels Out Initial Recommendations
Street Smarts Task Force makes bike infrastructure and safety recommendations to city
Junior Roller Derby at the Texas Shootout: 2007 WFTDA Championship Tournament
Saturday, Sept. 29, roll on over to the Austin Convention Center to take part in ebullient, fishnet-burn-inducing Roller Derby bouts at the first day of the National Women’s Flat Track Derby, which runs through Sunday. Flat-track leagues from all over the country will be competing for the national championship title Significantly, Junior Flat Track Derby…
Peruse Panhandling Presentation
Read APD Chief Art Acevedo’s presentation on current anti-panhandling laws.
Hairy Bull Outcome
When is Bevo not Bevo? That’s the thorny issue of spoof sports t-shirts.
Conspirare
Tarik O’Regan writes just the kind of lush choral music Conspirare loves to sing
Texas Platters
Kevin Fowler Bring It On (EMG) What hath Toby Keith wrought? Once again, an entire generation of popular Texas country artists – this one reared in the respectable tradition of Robert Earl Keen – has been lured by big Nashville budgets, with their music paying the price. Kevin Fowler’s fifth studio affair plants the local…
Soccer Watch
Germany to play the winner of the USA-Brazil semifinal of the Women’s World Cup, and more
Naked City
Quote of the Week “We agree that the bankruptcy court did not clearly err in finding that [Gary] Bradley transferred assets to the [Lazarus Exempt] Trust … and concealed his secret ownership interest in those assets with the intent to defraud his creditors.” – Judge James L. Dennis, 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, affirming a…
December Boys
In his first film role post-Harry Potter, Daniel Radcliffe plays an orphan in Australia who’s pals with a bunch of other boys born in December.
aGLIFF Preview
Sept. 28-Oct. 6
‘Tuna Does Vegas’
New Tuna comedy does such brisk box office, one-week Paramount run extends to three
Texas Platters
Steve Earle Washington Square Serenade (New West) “Bound for New York City, and I won’t be back no more … won’t see me around, goodbye Guitar Town,” begins “Tennessee Blues” on Steve Earle’s New West debut, the programmed beats behind him signaling a songwriter leaving his roots in more ways than just his relocation to…
Arts Review
Fall fell early, thanks to a program of group dances that projected an autumnal mood
Will Austin’s Silicon Hills Supply Plug-In Hybrids’ Techno Entrails?
How Austin’s inherent intellectual, industrial, and human resources can take charge in supplying technological guts for plug-in-hybrid electric vehicles
Trade
This drama about international sex trafficking is tremendously sincere but also brutal.
Letters @ 3AM
A report from 2107: The decline and fall of the former United States of America
Texas Platters
Lyle Lovett & His Large Band It’s Not Big It’s Large (Lost Highway) It isn’t that Lyle Lovett’s been absent for the past decade. Then again, It’s Not Big It’s Large is only the lanky Texan’s third collection of new songs since 1996. He’s obviously been wrestling his muse, and the wide-angle view he presents…
Arts Review
This year’s five prize finalists all question what civilized society is, in Texas and elsewhere
Happenings
September 27-October 4
After a Fashion
More star sightings at ACL and Stephen dishes with Fox
A Food Writer’s Favorites From ACL Fest
Back and forth between the concerts and food court
The Making of Downtown North
The Domain may sound like just another fancy mall – but planners say it’s the seed of a second Austin
House GOPs Jump Ship; Another Crosses Over
Kirk England gets some sense, announces switch to Democratic party; other changes afoot as well
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
There are more germs on your body than people in the United States, and more
Texas Platters
With the recent Under-ground Kingz, UGK re-established themselves as top dogs of Southern rap. Like UGK, local What It Dew Family affiliates Black Mike and Lil A document street hustle in rhyme. Lil A’s Hold My Own on Blood Money Records is a 60-minute gun-clapping romp through the hood. The beats knock, but the gangsterism…
SDS
Giving incentives a bad name
Cross-Border Craziness
Illinois workers allegedly fired due to ‘no match’ problems with Social Security numbers
The Common Law
Trademark My Small Business?
The Hightower Report
War on Terrorists Gets Goofier; and An Early and Exclusive Primary
Density, Diversity, and Especially Design
The Domain as TOD
@ Chronic
City Council Notebook
Uncle Billy’s Brew & Que
The newest addition in a series of restaurants launched by the founders of the wildly successful Austin Java
Epaulets, Hard-Plastic C-Cups, and a Superhero Cop
NCsoft’s gaming love-in
Getting From Here to There
At the moment, what is meant to become one of Austin’s most pedestrian-friendly areas is virtually unreachable on foot. Transportwise, the Domain is a pair of conjoined twins, each with separate needs. Domain I, the retail area, is meant to be a regional destination, a shopping environment meant to drag in tax dollars from much…
Taking On Another Identity
Lisa Kaselak, a straight woman, leads the Austin Gay & Lesbian International Film Festival into its 20th year
Paila Peruvian Cuisine
Cutting-edge traditional flavors and combinations that deserve to be tasted and appreciated
In Space
ON Networks’ Proper Ollie
Point Austin: An Open Letter
From Charles Urdy, chairman of the board of the Austin Revitalization Authority
Correspondence: Charles Urdy and Michael King
An exchange of letters on the ARA, affordable housing, and related matters
In Print
ESPN Gameday Gourmet: More Than 80 All-American Tailgate Recipes by Pableaux Johnson ESPN, 208 pp., $16.95 (paper) Former Chronicle writer Pableaux Johnson is well-known for his writing about all things New Orleans, from cookbooks to a highly entertaining website and blog. In his latest book, he steps out of the box and explores the etiquette,…
DVD Watch
When it was first released in 1984, Jim Jarmusch’s tale of three lost souls going nowhere was a revelation – a dry-as-the-desert revelation in black and white, or rather gray and lighter gray
Page Two: Knocked Out, Loaded
On the limits of imagination, the brilliance of ACL Fest, and the purifying power of The Hottest State
Readings
Thirty years, 64 narrators, and 165 stories
Food-o-File
No rest from the fests; plus, Paul Petersen in the pages of Esquire
TV Eye
Seasonal Pickings
Oops!
Our latest batch
Resident Evil: Extinction
Milla Jovovich continues to fight zombies and the apocalypse.
Readings
British-born David Peace comes on like James Ellroy with a pint of warm Yorkshire ale in his hand
Event Menu
Sept. 28-Oct. 4
Off the Record
Scaling the Wall of Sound Festival in Fort Worth, paying respect to late blues great Gary Primich, and readying for the second annual HAAM Benefit Day
Keeping Our Land Public
Stretch of undeveloped land in far West Texas focus of unusual ownership debate
The Game Plan
The Rock plays a quarterback whose life is altered by the daughter he didn’t know he had.
Blake Behind Bars
To write a parody of prison movies, Naughty Austin’s Blake Yelavich sentenced himself to 27 films in the big house
Bocaditos
Kishibori Shoyu: Pure Artisan Shoyu
Beside the Point
No, they’re not speaking metaphorically
I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With
Curb Your Enthusiasm‘s Jeff Garlin wrote, directed, and stars in this endearing schlub-in-Chicago movie that features contributions from Sarah Silverman, Bonnie Hunt, and other comic performers.
Okey-Pokey
After watching 27 prison movies, Blake Yelavich was able to reaffirm the greatness of a few films generally held to be classics of the genre: The Green Mile (D: Frank Darabont, 1999): “By far the best prison movie out there.” The Shawshank Redemption (D: Frank Darabont, 1994) Cool Hand Luke (D: Stuart Rosenberg, 1967) The…
Texas Platters
Amplified Heat How Do You Like the Sound of That (Arclight) In 2004, Austin’s Ortiz brothers were involved in an altercation on Red River that left bassist Gian and drummer Chris hospitalized with multiple stab wounds, delaying the power trio’s ability to record a follow-up to their carnivorous debut LP, In for Sin. Three years…
Iron & Wine Reviewed
Iron & Wine The Shepherd’s Dog (Sub Pop) Sam Beam’s work has often carried apocalyptic undertones, a dire biblical portent couched in the intimacy of his calming verses and hovering disconsolately behind wearily nostalgic narratives and augural allusions. The Shepherd’s Dog almost inverts the approach, discordant textures usurping the album and leaving the traces of…
Austinites Mobilize in Support of the Jena 6
Local march part of one of largest civil rights demonstrations in recent history
Outsourced
When a Seattle man is transferred to India due to outsourcing, he overcomes his aversion and becomes the eventual poster boy for immersing, life-altering travel.
Jailhouse Rank
Then there were the prison movies that Yelavich wants locked up with no possibility of parole. Reform School Girls (D: Tom DeSimone, 1986): “Gets a whole lot of talk, but I didn’t like it. I wanted it to be better than it was. It could have been really funny, really campy, or really okay, but…
Texas Platters
Doyle Bramhall Is It News (Yep Roc) Doyle Bramhall’s three-decades-plus of blues credentials are unimpeachable, and the all-original compositions on the Alpine, Texas, drummer’s third solo album are certainly steeped in that tradition. There’s more going on here, though. While Bramhall’s acclaimed Fitchburg Street (2003) trafficked in no-frills blues and R&B, Is It News retains…
Corralling the Shepherd
On songwriting “When I sit down with pen and paper, it’s usually to try and discover something that I really didn’t know I could do. Instead of trying to say what I’m thinking the best way I can, it’s really about throwing out phrases and combining phrases. I’m trying to find meaning out of nothing.…
The Millionaire Who Would Be Constable
Former APD cop wins lottery, settles brutality lawsuit, and embarks on dream of becoming a … constable?
The Kingdom
Initially, The Kingdom seems like it might be another of this season’s politically charged movies, but it actually plays more like an explosive episode of CSI: Riyadh.
2007 B. Iden Payne Awards
More than 60 shows scored nominations for ACoT’s annual theatre honors
Texas Platters
Brownout Homenaje (Freestyle) The cover of Brownout’s debut, Homenaje – Spanish for “homage” – preserves a traditional Mexican shrine with many of the group’s inspirations, among them old vinyl LPs, a wrestling action figure, and a bottle of Buchanan’s Scotch whisky. The musical output from Grupo Fantasma’s funky alter ego also pays tribute. Titles such…
Ladling Iron & Wine
(Discography)
Wrecking Ball Headed for Home of Preservation Champion
Commission rejects pleas to save Roberta Crenshaw’s former home
The Nines
Ryan Reynolds, Melissa McCarthy, and Hope Davis star in three discrete but thematically linked short films in this feature-film-directing debut from screenwriter John August.
Actors From the London Stage
You can imagine five actors performing all of Macbeth, but you need to see it
Texas Platters
Chamillionaire Ultimate Victory (Universal/Motown) Styling on 2005’s “Ridin’,” from major label debut The Sound of Revenge, Chamillionaire found himself in unfamiliar territory as a rapper considered both commercial and political. In an effort to build on that Top 10 success, follow-up Ultimate Victory posits the Houston rapper as an MC he isn’t. Failing to pick…
Day Trips
Fort Lancaster was acquired by the state in 1965 and, after years of archeological exploration, hosts a very informative interpretive museum
Point Austin: Shoot the Messenger
The ARA strikes back
Across the Universe
Julie Taymor takes the timelessness of the Beatles’ music and yanks it earthward into a minefield of literalism.
Luv Doc Recommends: WFTDA Championship
If you’re into helmet sports, this weekend is shaping up to be a humdinger. Not only are the wacky Longhorns testing their mettle against an actual conference opponent, there are big doings down at the Austin Convention Center, as well. You probably didn’t know it, but here in Merkuh we have something known as the…
