Daily - The Austin Chronicle (2024)

Travis Dems Go Long (Center)

Ding, ding! Round two!If you hadn't noticed, there's a bit of a presidential debate tonight, so unless you were planning to watch with your shoes off and your hand in your pants, a la Al Bundy, there's a couple of watching party options (not including the Alamo Dratfthouse South Lamar, who'll be having their own bash on multiple screens.)The big one is the Travis County Democratic Party's big screen presentation at the Long Center. The evening will kick off at 5.45pm with an event for retiring Judges Margaret Cooper and Jeanne Meurer in the Kodosky Lounge. However, expect everyone to bail early to grab some the good seats for the big debate watch in the Michael and Susan Dell Hall. Fancy-schmancy.Burnt Orange Report-er Matt Glazer explained it would be a nice option, so put your best dress pants on: not least because Jimmie Dale Gilmore will be performing and there'll be a very special guest in the form of LBJ's daughter and Luci Baines Johnson in attendence (sigh. Remember the happy days when Texas produced presidents that believed in signing civi rights legislation?) For the more informally dressed or big fans of brisket, Texans for Obama have booked out Scholz Garten againFor our GOP readers, the Travis County Republican Party will be having their shindig atAnnie's West at 706 W. Sixth.

The Marvelous Jew

A New York Jew with a thick Brooklyn accent, Larry Harlow is an unlikely hero of Latin music. Born in 1939 into a family of musicians, Harlow grew up in New York barrios where Afro-Caribbean rhythms drifted from record shops and bodegas. A Tito Puente protégé and devotee of Cuban bandleader Arsenio Rodriguez, he was one of the first musicians signed to New York’s mighty Fania Records. “El Judio Maravilloso,” or “The Marvelous Jew,” as he’s affectionately known in Latin music circles, produced more than 250 albums for the Latin Motown in addition to leading his Orchestra Harlow in some 50 LPs.His searing keys bless two standout tracks on Grupo Fantasma’s latest release, Sonidos Gold, and Harlow will join the local Latin big band Saturday at Antone’s, as well as present the 1998 documentary Through the Eyes of Larry Harlow 4pm Sunday at the Alamo Ritz Downtown. Bump & Hustle caught up with the Marvelous Jew by phone at his New York home and respectfully disagrees with his disdain of the boogaloo.

Hangin' With the Neighbors

Austin Police and other public officials will get down with neighbors from across Austin tonight for the 25th National Night Out.APD Chief Art Acevedo, public officials and community activists want YOU to join them tonight for a Night Out kick-off party at the Turner/Roberts Recreation Center, 7201 Colony Loop Drive, from 5-7pm.Following the kick-off, city officials will visit Night Out shindigs at the Rosewood Rec Cetner (at 6:45p), 1182 Pleasant Valey Rd.; Austin Community College Riverside Campus, Bldg. A (at 7:15p), 1020 Grove Blvd.; and at 4811 Allison Cover (at 7:45p).National Night Out (elsewhere held in August, when, in Austin, its really not so much fun hanging with your neighbors out on the street) encourages neighbors to get outside and get together to generate support for and awareness of crime prevention efforts.

Oooh Ladies First, Ladies First

I admit, the Girls Rock Camp Austin final showcase this past summer at the Parish made me tear up. The confidence and ambition of these middle school and high school-aged girls was inspiring, and it made me wish I had something like that when I was a kid.And then it made me wish there was a place women could go and do the same thing.And then there was! The inaugural Ladies Rock Camp Austin takes place the weekend of Oct. 17-19 at the Griffin School (710 East 41st St.) and benefits its little sister. No experience necessary, just the desire to rock. Instructors include Rosie Flores, Amy Cook, LZ Love, Terri Lord, Akina Adderly, Tiffanie Lanmon of Follow That Bird!, Lauren Langner of Ume, Cari Palazzolo of Belaire, and more.Go here to register.

Bob Stoops Is on Line 3! Mack Brown Is on Hold …

Joe, my man! Bob Stoops here. But you can call me Coach, my scribbling wordsmith. So here we are again. The big week. Tell me, is Mack Brown shaking? Has he got that little nervous smirk on? Heck, Joe, I'm sitting on top of the world here at No. 1. How do I do it? Pure Oprah, buddy. Positive visualization. The Law of Attraction. The Secret. That New Agey crap. But it works! I visualize my Sooners beating your Horns by 20. Pow! It happens. Thank you, Oprah.Don't get me wrong. I watched the tape of UT walloping Colorado 38-14. It wasn't even close. Hey, Mack, where'd you find that pass defense? A goal-line stand. Outstanding. I like what I see from this Roy Miller kid. He's a hustling madman. Eight tackles. Recovered a fumble. I've got my eyes on him. I like what Ryan Palmer is doing, too. Heck, Mack scored one by snagging Will Muschamp to coach these lunkheads. He's crazy, and I like crazy. What's that he said? "Stats are for losers. I like winning games." You rock, Coach! Of course the biggest stat of all is the final score. The Horns are up-and-comers. Maybe next year will be their year. They need to think positively about the future. The present is all Big Red. I can see it. And we've found our defense, too.

Supremes Consider the Limits of Warantless Searches

It's October, which means that the nine members of the U.S. Supreme Court have dusted off their robes and are heading back to the court room for a few months of work.First up on the docket today, Oct. 6 – the opening day of their October 2008 term – was a drug case, but regarding the legal kind, that is: cigarettes. (The question there, in case you're curious, is whether state-law challenges to descriptions of "light" cigarettes – that they contain less tar and, thus, are perhaps less damaging, for example – that were authorized by the Federal Trade Commission are thus pre-empted by federal law. Sounds technical, sure, and perhaps boring, but the outcome could effect the ability of states to enforce their deceptive trade practices laws.)But just this first day will pass before the Supremes get down to considering the drug war, with two cases that will ask them to weigh in on the Fourth Amendment and limits of police search powers.In the first case, Arizona v. Gant, the court will have to decide whether a warrantless search of a car, made after the occupant was arrested and in handcuffs, violates the constitutional protection against unreasonable search and seizure. In the second case, Herring v. U.S., the court will have to decide if it is a violation of a defendant's Fourth Amendment rights to use evidence obtained by one police agency during a search that was based on erroneous information provided by another law enforcement agency.Stay tuned to Reefer Madness for more on these two cases.

Ott Trims List From 38 to Eight...Err, Seven

On Friday, City Manager Marc Ott announced the eight finalists for the top job at the Austin Fire Dept., five months after former Chief J.J. Adame resigned the job. (Adame had been in the hot seat since March, when he received a less than stellar job performance evaluation. He came to Austin from Corpus Christi in 2006.)The list of eight – honed from 38 total applicants, according to firefighterhourly.com – quickly became a list of seven after Longview Chief Michael Pruitt withdrew his name.The remaining finalists come from across the country, with just two plucked from Texas departments: Randy Bruegman, Fresno, Calif., chief; Jimmie R. Bryant, chief in Monroe, La.; Niles Ford, chief of Lincoln, Neb., Fire and Rescue; Richard Garcia, deputy chief of Fire and Rescue support services in Las Vegas; Noel Horan, assistant chief in San Antonio; Rhoda Mae Kerr, chief of the Little Rock, Ark., FD; and Raul Reyes, chief of the Greenville, Texas FD.The remaining candidates will be interviewed by local officials and a group of City Hall-selected community members, and then will host Austin city officials who will visit them on their home turf for a little look-see – a process not unlike that which last year brought us our new top cop, APD Chief Art Acevedo.Publicly, at least, Ott seems rosy about process thus far, and the challenge facing the finalists: "The Austin Fire Department has proven itself one of the leading departments in the nation," he said in a press release. "These candidates know that they will be expected to uphold its traditions of fire safety effectiveness and community responsiveness."

Obama Goes There (Updated)

The over-the-weekend announcement from the John McCain campaign that the gloves are off between him and Barack Obama (what, so practically accusing Obama of wanting to molest your kids is just beanbag?) has already reaped odious rewards – see the media attention lavished on Sarah Palin's ignominious announcement that Obama's taken to "palling around with terrorists," a reference to his acquaintance with Bill Ayers, former member of the Weather Underground, a radical group that did some bombings back when Obama was eight years old. But Ayers and others, like former pastor Jeremiah Wright, are old hat. These names were gurgling up back during the Dem primary – and look how that turned out. But there's one name that hasn't really surfaced yet – one that unquestionably speaks to a candidates darkest, most shameful moment in his career. That candidate, however, is John McCain, and that name is Charles Keating.Keating oversaw the Lincoln Savings and Loan back in the 1980s, and like our current financial crisis, he used his customers' investments to bet on risky financial instruments that ultimately went belly up. The non-FDIC insured deposits were lost, wiping out tens of thousands of accounts, and costing the taxpayers billions. Again, like today, deregulation was responsible for the horrible financial mess – and it was John McCain who advocated for less and less oversight of his pal, investment partner, and donor Keating.Sure, I could lay it out more for you, but Obama can do it better. Over the weekend, he launched KeatingEconomics.com, which witheringly lays out McCain's intervention on Keating's behalf. This is a dark page in McCain's career that he'd prefer to turn. But if McCain's talking about Obama's distant associates, can't Obama talk about Keating, who flew McCain on his private jet nine times, donated $166,000 to his campaign, and whose greed and shoddy accounting directly parallels our current market meltdown?Here's a trailer for the Keating documentary Obama's assembled: UPDATE: Here's the whole 13 minute documentary.

Blow Your Mind

It’s a little premature to start putting top 10 lists from 2008 in order, but the local releases this year have been absolutely stellar. I can’t remember the last time I had so many recent CDs from local bands sitting on my desk being played week after week.Suspects most likely to end up on my year-end list include Dan Dyer, the Petals, Alejandro Escovedo, 3 Balls of Fire, and Grupo Fantasma, but if Eve & the Exiles’ Blow Your Mind were vinyl, it would have been sitting on my turntable for a couple of weeks.The smartest thing Eve Monsees did with this record was sequence her originals as the three opening songs. Not only does it set the tone for her blue suede blues, it serves notice that the Exiles are one of the finest working bands around. Their musical sensibility is defined by the Texas roots all five members boast but the addition of Donna Pearl and Homer Henderson to the Exiles is what Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks brought to Fleetwood Mac when they joined in 1975: a secondary male-female dynamic. Monsees throws down her street-girl vocals on Doug Sahm’s “I Don’t Want” with smoldering sensuality and her guitar playing is sublime but former Naughty Ones’ shadow dancer Donna Pearl weaves her own hypnotic allure on “Starvation” and “I’ll Come to You.”