Page Two: Education, one of the key

elements for any reasonable future, is an area deserving far greater concern than such voodoo crap as the balanced budget and flat tax. A committment to genuine education excellence and not some politically sensitized agenda is crucial to improving our world. Yet everywhere we turn, from the religious right to the politically correct left and from book-banning to sex education, public education has become one of this country's most intensely ideological battlefields. What this state and this city decide about education will most definitely affect all our futures. As part of our continuing coverage of education, Roseanna Auten interviews the State's Commissioner of Education Mike Moses in this issue, on p.16.

The deadline for voting in

the Austin Chronicle Music Poll is this Friday, February 2. Ballot turn-out seems to be running ahead of last year with several days still to go as I write this. Don't complain; we have nothing to do with the results. (If we did, would the Statesman's Don McLeese have won best music writer for the last few years, rather than a Chronicle writer? Not that we aren't happy that McLeese won nor do we question his impressive talent, but if we were going to jack with poll categories, we'd start by helping ourselves.) We decide the line-up for the poll's ceremony but you, the reader/voter, decide the winners. Make sure to vote -- there is no ballot in this issue, but there was in each of the four previous ones.

That ceremony is, of course, the Chronicle's Austin Music Awards show, at Palmer Auditorium, Wednesday, March 13. This show has become one of the city's premiere musical events and the entire music community turns out to hang out, see and be seen, and, most importantly, listen. (The Chronicle produces this event, so we're way over our heads in conflict-of-interest here, but bear with us.) Headlining the diverse roster of performers on this year's show is the critically acclaimed Sixteen Deluxe and the ever-popular Asylum Street Spankers, with many more guests to come. The Awards show is also the official kick-off event for South by Southwest Music and Media Conference and Festival, of which you will be reading much more in weeks to come.

Friends coming together

to help friends practically defines community, and many people have been served by the Austin music community's generosity. Chronicle associate editor Julie Weaver and her fiancé Shelley Lucksinger were seriously injured over the New Year's holidays when a drunk driver crashed into them, sending them both to the hospital. Julie is now out and in physical therapy but Shelley, though recovering, is far from well.

The couple has been in a number of bands throughout the years, the most recent being Hurtbox. On Saturday, February 17, at Liberty Lunch, Ed Hall, Sincola, Moist Fist, Tallboy, and a special reunion of Swine King will honor and benefit the two. This event speaks for itself; the bill alone should pack the house. Over the years Julie has worked on the Chronicle's general listings and club listings, making sure information about what our community was doing got back to the community. Now, because of this accident, her life has taken a dramatic turn; this show is an opportunity not simply to generate monetary assistance but to offer emotional reinforcement.n