Chronic is now your one-stop blog shop for buzz on politics, sports, music, film, television, gaming, technology, design, gay stuff, and – do we even need to say it? – opinion.
Our blogs as you knew them (Earache!, The Score, etc.) still exist – though the news/politics blog is now called "Newsdesk" – and you can still spin off into your own zone of interest if that's your preference.
But now all blog posts will also feed into Chronic, the better to keep you up-to-date on all subjects in the universe – newest on top, just like you like it. Love it, loathe it, but tell us what you think about it. – Cindy Widner
The Texas Homeless Network presents the Face the Homeless Film Fest, Tuesday, Sept. 2, at the Alamo Ritz, 320 E. Sixth. The program includes the Texas premiere of Kicking It, a documentary about the 2006 Homeless World Cup in Cape Town, South Africa. That film is 3-5pm ($25); the full event is 8:30am-5pm ($75). Among those in attendance: a player with the Entourage Austin Street Soccer team who's been selected for the national team that's going to Australia for the 2008 HWC in December.
Full event info with this column online; see also www.kickingitthefilm.com, www.streetsocceraustin.org, and www.homelessworldcup.org.
St. Edward's women (17-3 last season) are ranked 23rd in the NCAA Division II preseason rankings. They start their season today with a scrimmage against Southwestern: Thursday, Aug. 28, 5pm. The Hilltopper men start their regular season Sunday, Aug. 31, 1pm against Regis. Both teams compete in the tough Heartland Conference, along with national powers St. Mary's and Incarnate Word of San Antonio.
Below: more home teams: Longhorns, Stoke City, U.S. Men and Women, MLS in CONCACAF.
Monday, Oct. 13: That's the date Capital Metro's board of directors set today for the new bus fare schedule to take effect.
The baseline single fare goes from 50 cents to 75 cents, while the 24 hour travel card goes from $1 to $1.50. Pretty much every other fare gets a boost (visit their new rates chart page for details.) Interestingly, the traditionally free 'Dillos, which have undergone a massive route re-shaping to make them more attractive to downtown commuters, get a 25 cent fare.
So get used to packing some extra change, and then get ready for 2010, when the standard fare is slated to go up to $1. Full press release after the jump.
If they’d publicized it in advance, they could have sold tickets. Alex Jones versus Michelle Malkin on the streets of Denver.
Neo-con blogger turned Fox News reservist Malkin, whose political analysis is so spot-on that she had to issue an errata for her book In Defense of Internment, had been hanging around the outside of the Democratic National Convention. That’s where Austin’s own conspiracy theory connoisseur spotted his nemesis. Well, one of his many nemeses, frankly, and started dragging her over the coals about, well, pretty much everything she has ever done, written, or espoused politically.
“You think you’re going to get your message across by shouting?” asked one cameraman (who obviously had never met Jones.)
“Absolutely,” replied Jones. Malkin then asked Jones to stop shouting. Jones replied by asking her to stop supporting torture. Seriously, go get popcorn. This is awesome.
Giant among dykes, founder of the Daughters of Bilitis, subject of the 2003 documentary No Secret Anymore, and gay marriage activist Del Martin has passed away in San Francisco today. Del is survived by her beloved Phyllis Lyons. The couple, together for over a half a century, was the first to wed the day gay marriage became legal in California this past June.
"I played with James Brown for a couple of shows but I smacked his ass so bad he paid me to get away from him. "
“I want somebody to tell my mother and go down yonder in Georgia and tell my father that I’m way over here crawling in these trench holes covered with blood,” yearns the Mighty Hannibal on his devastating 1966 anti-war anthem. “But one thing that I know … there’s no tomorrow, they’re burying me.” In a just world, “Hymn No. 5” would have made the Mighty Hannibal a household name rather than another obscure footnote in the book of lost soul legends.
Born James Shaw in Atlanta, 1939, Hannibal had the outlandish personality of a superstar and the talent to back it up but his career was often derailed by drug addiction. After breaking the chains of crack and heroin, Hannibal found Jesus and released the only full-length LP of his career in 1972. Titled simply Truth, it’s righteous, defiant, gritty, and funky as hell.
The last time Hannibal was here, in April 2007, TCB had a lively chat with the man before his show at the Scoot Inn. Bump & Hustle catches up this time around, rapping about Barack Obama, upstaging James Brown, and how much he loves Archie Bell’s big, fat butt. Hannibal, Bell, and Barbara Lynn play the Continental Club Saturday.
Boyd Richie announced a change to the Roll Call Vote process at this morning's Delegate Breakfast. After receiving our delegate credentials, we were directed to a small room in the west wing of the host hotel. Inside the room we presented our delegate credential and ID, then placed our president preference (Obama, Clinton, or Abstain) and signed our name. This was our official vote. The list will be copied and published then delivered to the Pepsi Center via a shuttle bus around 12:30pm. Mr. Richie stated that officials staying at other hotels would still have the opportunity to vote later today.
Chairman Richie was upset both visibility and emotionally when some delegates asked whether observers would be present during the voting process. "We're all Democrats", said Richie in an angry tone. Finally, after several interruptions from some delegates requesting an observer, he asked the Obama registered agent Ron Kirk and Hillary registered agent Garry Mauro whether they wanted observers. Registered agents are the official representatives for campaigns. Mr. Kirk said they [Obama delegates] were not interested in having observers. As he said this, some Obama supporters began to chant, "Unity, unity." In place of Mr. Mauro, John Oeffinger represented the Hillary campaign and honored the request of Hillary delegates to assign observers. John then immediately scrambled about the ballroom to schedule observers in shifts.
Strangely, we've also been told that we'll vote again this evening. Mr. Richie said he did not know the process for delegates that wish to change their vote from what they placed on this morning's ballot.
After voting, we were sent to a table to obtain our seating assignment for this evenings Roll Call Vote at the Pepsi Center.
So, how many times do we vote? Which one counts? I guess we'll find out tonight.
You don't need to tell us that talking about books is a hip way to pass the time, but I guess some people still need convincing. To that end, forward-thinking librarians Blair Parsons and Bonnie Brzozowski are rebooting the Austin Public Library's Downtown Book Clubs with new names, new topics, and new non-library homes. The reading material's gotten sexier – graphic novels and contemporary fiction – and now you can sip coffee while you talk with your fellow bibliophile. For now, the new book clubs will set up shop at Halcyon and Little City, respectively, but as APL's Marketing Program Manager Patricia Fraga enthused in a recent e-mail, the soon-to-break-ground downtown central library will have its own coffeehouse/cafe space – "coming soon 2013-2014!!" That should give us just enough time to find the right opening-day outfit...
When you first walk into the Pepsi Center and look at the stage, it completely overwhelms. Fiberoptic stars twinkle on a black backdrop on either side of the stage. From the floor to the rafters, lights and video screens make you seem like you're at a U2 concert. In between guest speakers, the video screens pan across the venue to capture people dancing to soul and gospel music (and maybe a couple of disco songs every once in a while).
I'm not exactly sure what you see on television, but I can tell you what you didn't see yesterday on the floor of the convention. There was not an empty seat in the venue. In fact, the most powerful person at the Pepsi Center was the fire marshal, who at one point decided there were too many people standing on the floor and aisles. Anyone having to use the restroom or a drink could leave, but wouldn't be back allowed onto the floor. Now you know why some of us were dancing around to the music a bit more wildly than the night before.
Just before Hillary began her speech, workers wearing florescent green vests walked through the aisles with black trash bags. Each of the workers wears a headset connected to a two-way radio. And on cue, they opened the trash bags to reveal "Hillary" signs as the crowd went wild with excitement. As a Hillary supporter, I noted that each sign had a surreal footnote reading: "Paid for by Obama for America."
After being introduced by her daughter, Senator Clinton received a standing ovation with thundering applause from everyone: Unity at last. For the first time in my life, I saw people wearing Obama shirts and pins waving 'Hillary' signs. For a few minutes, it was as if we were in some parallel universe where Senator Clinton, not Barack Obama, was the actual nominee.
Her speech was as far from self-centered as one could get. She urged Democrats to unite behind Barack Obama for president. Whether that will happen or not, I don't know. I hope so. What I do know is that for tomorrow's speech, we'll all go to the bathroom early and sneak in some bottled water.
Ronnie James Dio, 66, wins. And Tony Iommi, 60, with the silver crosses inlaid into the neck of his ancient SG. Don't forget Geezer Butler, 59, and his lithe basslines. Even baby Vinnie Appice, 50, rocking his drums until they nearly crashed down upon him. Now billed as Heaven and Hell, the four deserve metaldom’s highest accolade: Black Sabbath.
That is, of course, the name they recorded both 1980’s Heaven and Hell and ’81’s Mob Rules under. One black t-shirt at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater on Sunday summed it up in simple white script, with “got ronnie james dio?” on the front, and “ozzy who?” on the back. Ronnie James Dio still roars down from high atop Mt. Olympus, while gods of the underworld Iommi and Butler peal the skin off molten doom blues – here at electric chair speeds – in lashing tides of primordial void.
Testament got 30 minutes at 5:30pm, Motörhead 45 at 6:30pm, and headliner Judas Priest hogged 90 minutes that ended at the stroke of 11pm. That left two New York Italians and two mustachioed musketeers from the industrial forests of Birmingham, England, exactly 75 minutes to reiterate The Rules of Hell.
A friend got lucky on the only day $10 lawn seats went on sale for Verizon Amphitheater shows earlier this summer, so I was able to sneak into last night’s Tom Petty/Steve Winwood show in Selma for cheap. The low price probably says more about the state of the touring industry, because everything but the free parking was ridiculously priced. I mean, come on, $9 for a plastic cup of Budweiser? But I digress.
Steve Winwood opened with an hour-long traipse through his past with a couple of side steps into latest Nine Lives (Columbia). Deftly managing to hit all the high points of his career, he performed songs from the Spencer Davis Group, Traffic, Blind Faith, and his solo life with verve and polish. Tropical rhythms met blue-eyed soul augmented by expansive saxophone and the flute work of Paul Booth, making time fly. “Dear Mr. Fantasy,” featuring Winwood's extended guitar workout, was a crowd-pleaser. As a whole, it made me wish he would play Austin sometime soon for a more extensive visit.
As with most of the press cadre, Scarbie is in Denver, and the thin air seems to be getting to him. This morning he sent the long-suffering Willie Geist to the Huffington Post big tent to ask the bloggers three questions.
– Do you eat Cheetos while blogging?
– Do you own any Star Wars figures?
– Do you live in your parent's basement?
Apparently this was some ham-fisted attempt to talk about blogger stereotypes. After the assembled erudite, well-dressed bloggers looked at poor Willie with a mixture of pity and more pity, and told him no to all three questions, Joe did the analytical equivalent of shouting "la la la not listening" by ignoring Geist's piece and claiming all bloggers are Jedi.
In a completely unrelated note, MSNBC's newest hire Rachel Maddow made wry comment on the "post-reality" bent of some GOPers. Just sayin' is all.
Did you know that the Gay Place's mascot is named Dandy?
I've been thinking a lot about unicorns lately. A lot. Mostly because the live coverage of the DNC has been so very… lacking.
Sample of live coverage:
Anchor One: What's happening now, Anchor Two?
Anchor Two: It looks like everyone is turning around for a moment of silence.
Anchor One: Is there any particular significance for this moment of silence?
Anchor Two: I don't know, but it sure is special.
Illuminating.
Naturally my thoughts turn elsewhere… and where else but to unicorns? Let's be honest, unicorns have been en vogue recently because – no thanks to a certain YouTube unicorn whose name rhymes with Schmarlie and another one we'll just call Schmlanet Unicorn – they are soooooo ironic.
Aren't they?
I mean, the Gay Place logo is a unicorn for a reason, right?
Let's imagine a queer political party – one that rightfully takes the unicorn for its party mascot. The unicorn makes a perfect political mascot because of what it symbolizes:
OK, this blog is proof: Staying up to watch the DNC makes you a little gayer.
Hey gang. Voting closes tonight at midnight for this month's Film Fight. It's still a pretty tight race, so don't think your vote doesn't count. Let me put it this way – if Josh went out and found himself a jury of his peers – well, and maybe throw in the stenographer, judge, and whatever that big bald guy on Night Court played – then he could really win this thing.
We'll announce the winner at tomorrow night's Happy Hour at Spider House. We'll also give away some stuff, show a couple shorts, and sit around and do everything in our power to not talk about Shakespeare. Not ever, ever again.
If it wasn't clear before, it's clear now. Hillary Clinton told not only her supporters, not only PUMA, not only the DNC, not only the DNCC, not only those who would use her name in vain, but she told the whole world: It's time to unite against the last eight years and to vote forObama. And a vote for McCain would only usher in four more:
With an agenda like that, it makes sense that George Bush and John McCain will be together next week in the Twin Cities. Because these days they're awfully hard to tell apart.
ABC was the first to put up the full text of her landmark speech. Click here to read.
Chelsea Clinton narrates this DNC tribute to her mom, which ran at the convention moments before she introduced her mom.
OK, so she didn't become an astronaut…
Our guest blogger Steve Rivas will be filing from the DNC later tonight. Stay tuned!
