Daily - The Austin Chronicle (2024)

Turner: End Tuition De-Reg

Do'h! Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston, has called the press together at 9.30am tomorrow in the Speaker's Committee Room to "announce the intention by several members of the Texas Legislature to reverse tuition deregulation in Texas." However, he seems not to have noticed that the entire press corps will be at the Austin Convention Center covering (or lining up to get their credentials for) the Texas Democratic Party.Bad planning, because soaring higher ed fees are a topic that Texas Dems are gaining some traction on these days. De-regulation did pretty much nothing except cause fees to sky-rocket to the point that working and lower-middle-class families have to sell organs to get a child through a four-year degree.UT System chancellor Mark Yudof has consistently opposed regulation, and probably will continue to fight it. But that's working on the principle that, of the big two systems, UT has any friends in the lege. A&M, through its pivotal role in rural communities through the A&M extension, is part of agricultural life in many districts. But when UT Austin went hat-in-hand to the Senate Finance and House Appropriations committee last session, the disdain in the air for president Bill Powers' pleadings of poverty was thick in the air.

Odetta Sings!

This Saturday, Odetta will perform a special benefit concert at the St. James Episcopal Church. Few voices have rung as powerful or as influential in folk and blues as Odetta, her deep and commanding vocals serving as the voice of the civil rights movement. Dubbed by Martin Luther King Jr. as “The Queen of American Folk Music,” it was Odetta who sparked the visceral ferocity of a young Janis Joplin and was famously claimed by Bob Dylan to be his entrance into folk music.Born Odetta Holmes in Birmingham, Ala., New Year’s Eve 1930, Odetta began her career at age 13 with classical training in opera in the Los Angeles-based Turnabout Theater. Realizing that even her indomitable voice could not break the racial barriers in opera, however, she turned to folk music and quickly gained recognition. In addition to her staggering range, Odetta invested her work with an integrated influence of jazz, English and Appalachian folk, blues, and African American spirituals. Her 1954 debut, The Tin Angel, and seminal 1956 album Odetta Sings Ballads and Blues cemented her reputation as one of the most important figures in American music.

As If High School Isn't Tough Enough Already Without a Chainsaw for an Arm?

As the third season of Venture Bros. helps those who don Aquaman-themed pajamas pass the time ‘til Comic-Con, nerdom’s cinephiles – busily anticipating this year’s Fantastic Fest – can find an additional arm for their support network from the June 3 release of The Machine Girl. Media Blasters purchased the film, which was initially set to screen at Fantastic Fest this fall. The Alamo Drafthouse held a sneak screening of it last Monday at the South Lamar location (no word yet on an Austin theatrical run). Directed by Noboru Iguchi, this Japanese gore-fest follows the revenge quest of a high school girl name Ami (Minase Yashiro) as she rains destruction upon a yakuza ninja family for the murder of her little brother, Yu, and his schoolmates.

Dispatch From the Land of the Deranged

What do John Hagee's "Christian Zionist" San Antonio megachurch, 9/11 Truthers, and the U.S. Congress -- notably, among them, Texas Rep. Joe Barton, R-Arlington, have in common? Narcissism, for sure, and certainly a most unhealthy penchant for intellectual dishonesty. As a group, to Rolling Stone reporter and author Matt Taibbi, the triad are more alike than not, and together perfectly illustrative of the Great Derangement.The Great Derangement: A Terrifying True Story of War, Politics, and Religion at the Twilight of the American Empire, is Taibbi's latest election-year offering, exploring how the absence of a "commonly accepted set" of facts has splintered the American psyche, leaving it adrift, primed to believe even the most unbelievable -- like President George W. Bush's post-9/11 "conclusion" that we were attacked because the terrorists hate "our freedoms." Please. Is there any doubt we're seriously deranged? In Taibbi's estimation, the answer is clear: We're f*cked up. And in this latest book, he sets out to prove just that.

Empty Seat News

Gov. Rick Perry has announced that the special election to fill Senate District 17, the seat of retiring Sen. Kyle Janek, R-Houston, will indeed be on Nov. 4. So, no shocker there. Closing date for filing applications of Aug. 29 at 5pm, early voting will be Oct. 20-31. However, it will be interesting to see who files: in 2006, Janek held the seat with 78% and no Democrat challenger. These days, the Texas Democratic Party is looking at Harris and the surrounding counties as ground zero for legislature gains. Janek's early exit gives them room for an unexpected gain in the Senate. Plus, the GOP will need to find their own candidate.Meanwhile, on a related note, outgoing eight-term incumbent Rep. George "Buddy" West, R-Odessa, is currently recovering after he collapsed in a restaurant last week. 71-year-old West, who lost a primary runoff to challenger Tryon Lewis 76%-24%, has been taken off a ventilator and is breathing by himself. Doctors have upgraded his condition to serious. We at Newsdesk wish Buddy a speedy recovery.

Wait 'Til I Get My Money Right

If there's anything we know about Kanye West, it's that dude knows what he wants: for starters, the MTV awards and glowing (in the dark, perchance?) concert reviews he feels are his due. So it shouldn't be surprising Yeezy's also got some rather particular – and rather expensive – taste in fashion, clothing, art, and design. I mean, he did get pop artist and one-man industry Takashi Murakami to design his last album cover, right? They don't call him the Louis Vuitton Don for nothing, right?And so to that end: Kanye's blog. It's a consistently updated tour of things largely awesome in the world of design. Occupying the front page right now are a funny/terrifying series of models with animals styled into their hair by Nagi Noda (another Japanese popster), an exceedingly clean-lined mid-century modern (right, Cindy?) house by Mexican architechts K&A Diseño, and the upholsted fiberglasss Eudora chair. So you haters can rest easy that Mr. West's contribution to design didn't begin and end with those damn Stronger glasses. (Although you might be able to afford a pair of those.)

U.S. Open Cup on Its Way to Austin

Another milestone this week for the Austin Aztex, as they host the First Division Atlanta Silverbacks in a U.S. Open Cup match, Tuesday, June 10, 7:30pm. This is a knockout game, so it will go to overtime and a penalty kick shootout, if necessary; the winner goes on to the second round June 24. That'll be Austin's third game in five days: They host El Paso, Friday, 7:30pm, then go to Dallas on Sunday, before coming home for the Cup game Tuesday night. Though the Aztex lost their first game of the season last Saturday, 0-2, at Mississippi, they're still solidly atop the division with a 4-1-1 record heading into this critical stretch. Round Rock Dragon Stadium, just west of I-35 & 620.In other Aztex news, English Championship team Burnley has announced that it will play an exhibition in Austin on July 9. Along with Stoke, Burnley's another team the Aztex have ties to: Aztex senior team coach Adrian Heath is a former player and manager for the Clarets. It'll be a great opportunity for the team and the fans; somewhat unfortunately, it creates another brutal stretch of games for the team – five games in nine days, including a road trip to New Orleans and Baton Rouge – right during the stretch run of the regular season.

Euro 2008 Around the Corner

The 2008 European Championship kicks off this Saturday – 19 days of top-level international football, every game broadcast live on ABC/ESPN networks. (All games at 11am and 1:45pm; the full schedule is below.) The quadrennial tournament (co-hosted this year by Austria and Switzerland) is second only to the World Cup in the international game; the strength of the field, top to bottom, is probably better. The format is similar to the WC: a 16-team field split into four groups, with the top two in each group advancing into the quarterfinals. The bad news: All the highest profile matchups – notably the entire Italy-France-Holland showdown in Group C – take place on weekdays, midday. See UEFA's Euro2008 website for more info.World champion Italy took a blow in their first training session in Austria: Captain and 2006 world player of the year Fabio Cannavaro tore ankle ligaments on being tackled by a teammate during practice, and is out of action following surgery that same day.Former England manager Sven-Goran Ericksson has been named Mexico's head man; he has until WC qualifying starts June 21 to learn some Spanish.The U.S. men played much better at Spain on Wednesday, than they had at England last week, but still lost, 1-0, in both teams' last tune-up before serious play starts. Spain opens Euro2008 play Tuesday; the U.S. starts WC qualifying June 15 against Barbados. www.ussoccer.com for more info. (Apologies for originally posting that the game was a 0-0 draw. That result was taken from an international sports news site which shall remain unnamed. Mea Culpa.

94 Is Less Than 99

So as Sen. Hillary Clinton delivered her non-concession concession speech at Baruch College last night (as Keith Olbermann pointed out, in an underground meeting hall with no TVs, no cell signal and no wireless, so the faithful couldn't hear when Sen. Barack Obama won the final primary – talk about your siege mentality), there was a reiteration of what can generously be called an exaggeration. Clinton and her increasingly eccentric campaign chair/proxy/reality denial expert Terry McAuliffe (voted "Campaign operative most likely to get his own E! reality show" here at Newsdesk) keep telling the world, they won Texas. Which, well, she didn't.To go over that again: yes, Clinton won the primary in the day, but she lost in the caucuses and in the overall process. Which she knew was going to happen (cf. Bill Clinton telling the UT campus days before the primary that the shadowy "they" would steal it away from her in the precinct caucuses.) But 94 pledged delegates for Clinton does not beat 99 pledged delegates for Obama. 28 of the 32 named superdelegates have already declared and split 14-14 for each candidate. The remaining four (plus three left to be named at this weekend's convention) are unlikely to break for a dead candidacy.