Cover Story
Attempting to Comply
With a new name and a new boss, Code Compliance tries to become more ‘people-friendly’
Reviving ‘The Dead’
Fantastic Fest 2010 zombie horror returns this weekend
Short Films, Tall Screen
The ShowGO! comedy and film showcase takes over the Paramount
Big City Council Meeting Today
Election vote, Occupy Austin and more. The Hustle has tweets.
Sittin’ on a Red Hot Stove
A Q&A with Charles Sanders, Jr. of Kool & Together
AFF Finalizes Slate
‘Butter’ to open festival
Wednesday Rewind
The Zoltars’ short film, plus Okkervil River
Bettysoo and Some Parts of the World (Slight Return)
Bettysoo writes from the road again, this time in London
It’s a San Antonio Squeeze Box Invasion!
From Argentine tango to Zydeco, the accordion is versatile
Reefer Roundup: 10/4/11
Your drug war news roundup
Austin Toros Player Tryouts
Tune in next week to see if our blogger made the team
FF2011: Getting Rabies in Israel
Tel-Aviv finally gets bitten by the horror bug
Bedside Manner: The Book of Levi
Alaskan redneck meets Greek tragedy
Blues for the Red Sun
Kyuss Lives! (Exclamation the band’s emphasis, not ours.)
FF2011: ‘No Rest for the Wicked’ (or for Ryan Schifrin)
How to build a short into a franchise
Pow, Right in the Face!
Laura Spector and Chadwick Gray get all personal with art
One Way or Another
Live review of Blondie at the Moody
FF2011: Kevin Sorbo Picks ‘Julia X’
The former Hercules slashes up 3D
It Gets Better Than This?
In general, not bloody likely
Austin Rockin’ 9/30/11
Eric Johnson, Mohawk’s anniversary and more with Margaret Moser
Cole Springs Defense of May Election
Supports turnout, but not at “expense of violating the Charter”
Optic Nerve #12
Floppy is as floppy does
Hysterical Historical
On the Beaton path to old school lulz
Overheard @ FF
Stolen passports, zombie verisimilitude, and more
Off the Record
The Hamburg Sound: OTR retreats to Germany’s Reeperbahn Festival as Frank Hendrix sells Emo’s
Morton Murder Case Takes Another Turn
Defense pushes for release of Michael Morton
Thunder Soul
Thunder Soul tells the story of the Kashmere Stage Band, and before the film is through this high school band you’ve never heard of will have earned a top spot on your personal hit parade.
Book Review
With minimal tech jargon, Ian Bogost explores how games have become embedded in all aspects of our lives
Arts Review
Austin Shakespeare fuses matter and art in a well-balanced take on the tragedy
Last Supper No More
State ends last-meal requests on death row
Tucker & Dale vs. Evil
This is the rare horror comedy that near-perfectly balances its blend of grue, guffaws, and gag reflexes.
Film History, With a Fresher Date Than Usual
Austin Cinematheque opens season with Uncle Boonmee
Arts Review
Egan’s stunning, simple graphic images of skulls bring Yard Dog to life
AISD: Open Embargo, Find Plan
Carstarphen’s AISD reveals a process inside a plan inside an embargo
Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame
Tsui Hark directs this delightful mystery film that’s part spectacular period piece and part Sherlock Holmes.
Texas Platters
Scott H. Biram Bad Ingredients (Bloodshot) Contrary to both the back cover and liner notes to eighth full-length Bad Ingredients, Scott H. Biram isn’t just a one-man band. He’s the one-man band, a CB radio poet cultivating his own genre – Lo-Fi Mojo – for the past decade. Bad Ingredients mines the best of Biram’s…
Arts Review
Conspirare revealed how this composer does go gentle into that good night
Page Two: Fact-Free Follies
More fun from the wacky world of right-wing zealots
Force
In this new Hindi film, a renegade cop doles out his own justice.
Texas Platters
Carolyn Wonderland Peace Meal (Bismeaux) If the first track off Carolyn Wonderland’s Peace Meal sounds unexpectedly countrified, listen up: Wonderland just tapped into rare Janis Joplin track “What Good Can Drinkin’ Do” and stamped it as her own. That may be the only concession outside her traditionally volatile blues, and Peace Meal serves it on…
Quote of the Week
Ignorant voters make bad decisions
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Clark Kent’s namesakes, Lincoln’s last meal, and more
Gay Place: Best Of-ing
Oh, gays. There is so much to do!
Texas Platters
Ray Bonneville Bad Man’s Blood (Red House) A native of Canada, Ray Bonneville has called Austin home for a few years now. He’s a bluesman mining the same vein of America’s musical underbelly as Ray Wylie Hubbard and Greg Brown, and Bad Man’s Blood is a worthy follow-up to 2007’s award-winning Goin’ by Feel. Joined…
Headlines
› No City Council meeting today – all the better, since council members are still recovering from a bruising debate over when to hold the city’s next mayoral election (see “City Hall Hustle”). A split council voted to keep elections in May despite the potential for increased expenses, but passed it on first reading only;…
Day Trips
Big Tex stands tall over the State Fair of Texas
After a Fashion
Perhaps Stephen can send Rick Perry’s hair some of that Platinum stuff he got in the mail
Texas Platters
Dark River Songs of the Civil War Era: Interpretations by Austin’s Finest Musicians (Blue Corn) The fact that the songs on Songs of the Civil War Era are 150 or more years old only increases their impact. That these compositions are covered by the cream of Austin’s singer-songwriter elite makes the project an impressive listen.…
Point Austin: Voter Suppression Made Easy
Hold the election when everybody votes? No way.
TXRD Playoffs
The banked-track battle of the season
The Hatchett Man
Local bookers like Charlie Hatchett Jr. built this city
Texas Platters
Sunny Sweeney Concrete (Republic Nashville) Sunny Sweeney’s got the chops: a hard-bitten Texas twang that can cut with both coyness and attitude, unapologetic about the kind of country she was raised on. Which is what makes the Longview native’s sophomore LP so disappointing. Concrete is gritty but so watered down by contemporary Nashville arrangements that…
City Hall Hustle: Rock the Vote! … Not
Given a choice to move elections to November, Council holds fire in May
Soccer Watch
The new Aztex, UT women in Big 12 play, etc.
Restaurant Review
Zax still serves it
Texas Platters
Elaine Greer Annotations In Austin’s the Sour Notes, Elaine Greer is a quietly compelling figure floating amid lush layers of the band’s indie-pop cool. For her solo CD, Annotations, she doesn’t necessarily veer from that form, but its sharp vignettes read like footnotes to her life, hence the title. And if Greer’s tone isn’t strident,…
Civics 101
Calendar of civic events, Sept. 29-Oct. 6
Texas Platters
White Denim Live at Third Man (Third Man Records) Produced by Jack White for his Third Man Records in Nashville, Tenn., the 11-song, vinyl-only Live at Third Man will be packaged hopefully one day into the deluxe version of White Denim’s latest knockout, May full-length D. Nine of its tunes come from the local quartet’s…
The Hightower Report
Don’t blame Wall Street – you’re just not spending fast enough
Abduction
Twilight‘s Taylor Lautner makes his bid for solo action stardom.
Cuban Joints
Perms, pedis, and sandwiches hot off the plancha
All Over Creation: Classical Alchemy
How Austin is transmuting the music of old into dance, art, and comedy
Fun With Animals
While wildfires raged, so did arguments among local animal activists
Killer Elite
Action-film icon Jason Statham is stuck in an overlong, perfunctory thriller.
Cuban Joints
Make way for the El Cubanito burger
‘The Mozart Project’
Via innovation and homage, Ballet Austin makes new dances from old tunes
Library Plans Evolved With the Cyber-Times
Library plans are both eco-friendly and tech-savvy
50/50
50/50 accomplishes the near-impossible: It’s a feel-good cancer comedy.
Food-o-File
Shake-ups on Sixth
Embracing Code Compliance
New director Carl Smart discusses his goals for a more user-friendly department
How Green Is Our Austin?
The city turns green with 100% renewable energy
Courageous
In this faith-based drama from the makers of Fireproof, four policemen struggle with their roles as husbands and fathers.
Food Events
Lederhosen let loose in Fredericksburg, baking for Bastrop fire relief, and Frankenfoods
Talking Down the Pipeline
Austin hearing highlights debate over tar sands pipeline
The Tree
Charlotte Gainsbourg stars in this uneven and overly metaphorical Australian drama that is nevertheless strange and moving.
Wine of the Week
Chase down this little rascal
Benjamin and Byron’s Long-Term Affair
An émigré author, a bad-boy poet, and an epic trilogy at its end
No Indictment in Officer-Involved Shooting
Former yogurt shop suspect was fearful of cops
What’s Your Number?
Anna Faris does more nose-scrunching than acting in this abrasive comedy about people acting stupidly.
Fantastic Fest Awards
You’re Next and Bullhead come out big winners
Large Gatherings of Bibliophiles, Now and Later
Austin Teen Book Festival & Texas Book Festival
A.G. Denies Release of Perry’s Clemency Memos
Abbott reverses Cornyn’s position on open records
The Interrupters
The Hoop Dreams filmmaker, Steve James, has a new documentary about a group working to halt crime in Chicago.
Luv Doc Recommends: Gagarazzi: A Lady Gaga Burlesque and Variety Show
Time to head down to the butcher shop so you can start putting your costume together. Meat is fairly expensive, and you’re no pop star, so you might want to go with one of the less expensive cuts – perhaps a flank steak or a skirt steak (a skirt steak miniskirt?) or maybe even something…
