Austin Chronicle in 5 minutes 4/14/06

The Chronicle is awesome, but there are so many pages… and so many ads… who has time? And we know you read this site while you are supposed to be working anyway. In case you don’t get the chance to lounge around in a coffee shop this week, we’ll break it down for you.

Let me be honest, I haven’t read this issue too deeply because when I went to pick up the Chronicle there was also a new issue of Austin Daze. Despite it’s low-rent production values, I really like that paper. So that has taken away from some of my precious Chronicle reading time. Nevertheless, I think I can give you the highlights.

COVER: Lame! Why do the covers have to suck so bad? This is Austin, hire a designer! They’re falling out of trees in this town.
6. (PAGE TWO): Louis Black takes on the immigration issue. There is absolutely no mention of Neil Young.

8. LETTERS: The S.O.S. people are pissed over last weeks editorial. Someone wants to know why the music reviews keep using the word “skronky.”

26. Immigration Storm Reaches Hurricane Strength. Politicians have pushed the immigration issue to the forefront to hopefully help their own careers and now it is exploding in their faces. Awesome!

38. FEATURE: This is the second week in a row we’ve had a cover article focusing on Austin theatre, which is pretty cool. This week brings two articles that trace the history of upstart theatre groups The Rude Mechs and Salvage Vanguard.

46. Horny toads. Style columnist finds a website (toadland.com) with jewelry and gifts dedicated to the horny toad.

48. Book Review: Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster

60. Cine Las Americas preview. A rundown of recommended films from the upcoming festival.

88. Review of Don’t Come Knocking, the new film by Wim Wenders, written by Sam Shepard. I’m really looking forward to this one. Starts Friday at the Arbor. There’s also a review of Asia Argento’s The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things, which I expect to be terrible, but an awesome kind of terrible.

92. Roman Polanski’s Knife in the Water will be playing Friday night at the Texas Union Theatre. Great movie and something that would be cool to see on the big screen.

98. Neko Case. I really love Neko Case. She’ll be playing at La Zona Rosa on Tuesday the 18th.

Sorry I couldn’t make this entry more interesting or funny, but they didn’t give me much to work with this time. But as always, the Chronicle is essential reading. And it’s FREE!