Congratulate yourself, Travis County – turnout in the first two days of early voting was impressive. Nowhere near the pace of the supercharged 2008 presidential year, but the percentage is nearly double that of 2006's gubernatorial election – 4.49% of registered voters this year, compared to 2.43% after two days four years ago.

If you distrust Travis County’s electronic, paperless voting machines, you’re out of luck until at least 2013.

Wednesdays tend to be the slowest day at the Chronicle for OTR, a slight break from the anxiety of the past issue and the deadlines looming in the near future. As such, there's a bit of time to catch up on some of the local music videos making the rounds online. Tune in each week for a few of favorites.

And now for something completely different …  Remember that long-ass process for redesigning the city website? Believe it or not, we’ve finally hit the second and final phase of the project, where coders and techies will actually build the new site.

I wonder how many people were startled last night when they walked into Sufjan Stevens’ sold-out performance at the Long Center expecting an evening of folk-pop jangle and got a multimedia experience worthy of Laurie Anderson.

It's Ally Week, so let's share humpy love for two great organizations promoting equality and collaboration. Working together is the best way to ensure that respect, safety, and equality happen in our lifetime. No one gets it all done in isolation, right?

Just a quickie reminder and update on today's Vigil in Purple event at City Hall.

If anything summed up the three candidates at Tuesday night's KLRU Texas Gubernatorial Candidate Debate, it was what was on their podium. Green Party candidate Deb Shafto brought a small stack of files: Libertarian Kathie Glass had some well-organized talking points and a letter: And Democrat Bill White had a small pad and a pen.

Oh, Hillary, I was just thinking about you today, and here you are, popping up in my inbox, sending encouragement and love to LGBT kids and kudos and respect to your own LGBT staff. In these tea-bag tippy-toeing, tap-dancing times, your directness and clarity are beyond refreshing. They kinda take me aback.