We Have an Issue: Politics as Performance, Political Activism as … – Austin Chronicle

September 21, 2023

Brigitte Bandit (Photo by Jana Birchum / Design by Zeke Barbaro)

The Ken Paxton impeachment trial sure ended in a wet fart, huh? Was there ever truly a chance justice would be served when the jury was stacked with MAGA Republicans unwilling to break with partisan politics and vote against one of their own? Now their claws are out for the House Republicans who decisively voted to impeach Paxton in May, and any other party members they deem insufficiently deferential to their extreme far-right agenda. Honestly, watching the Republican Party wage war on itself sounds like popcorn entertainment … if only the rest of us weren’t collateral damage.

As discussed in these pages many times over, the most recent Texas legislative session was an exercise in “how low can you go” – how cruel, how repressive, how derelict in the duty to pass laws that better the lives of Texans. One particular head-scratching priority of the Texas GOP has been to ban drag performances, a crusade that resulted in the passing of Senate Bill 12 and subsequent legal challenges from the ACLU and others – including one of Austin’s leading drag performers, the exquisite Brigitte Bandit. Check out staff writer Brant Bingamon’s engaging profile of Brigitte on p.14.

Y’all have a lot of opinions about Austin restaurants! How do we know? Because you cast thousands of votes in the first round of the Best of Austin: Restaurants Readers Poll. Now we’ve whittled the ballot down to five finalists in each category, which you’ll find on p.42 of this issue. The rest is up to you: Head to vote.austinchronicle.com to choose your favorites. Voting in this last round ends October 2, and winners will be revealed in the Nov. 3 issue.

On the topic of farming the work out to our dear readers – who do you want to see on our Halloween mask cover this year? If you’re new to the paper, you might not know we have a decades-long tradition every year of making a monster mask out of the most disreputable folks or trends of the past year – recent dishonorees include Alex Jones as a sad clown, an orange and bulbous Trump-kin, Greg Abbott as Game of Thrones‘ Night King, and Ted Cruz reimagined as Freddy Krueger. Check out all the past covers at austinchronicle.com/special/halloween-masks and send us your suggestions for this year’s mask at mail@austinchronicle.com or on the usual social channels at @austinchronicle.

ONLINE THIS WEEK

APOA Still in Limbo: Months after voters approved the Austin Police Oversight Act, critical components of the law have not been implemented. A new resolution aims to change that, Austin Sanders reports.

“Bad feminist” and essential culture critic Roxane Gay is among the 300 authors announced for the 2023 Texas Book Festival lineup (Courtesy of Texas Book Festival)

Texas Book Festival Announces Full Lineup: Authors participating in the November fest include Roxane Gay, Tim O’Brien, Angie Kim, Héctor Tobar, Ali Hazelwood, and Ingrid Rojas Contreras.

Cosmic Saltillo Lands in East Austin: The Historic Texaco Depot has been reinvented as a bar/cafe/restaurant by the folks behind Cosmic Coffee & Beer Garden.

Wild No More: Wilder Wood, Texas’ first gluten-free restaurant, has shuttered after 22 years in business.

Austin Film Festival to Honor Damon Lindelof: The TV super-scribe (Lost, The Leftovers, Watchmen) will receive the Outstanding Television Writer Award at AFF’s upcoming fest.

Who is the Funniest Person in Austin? Valerie Lopez reports from the official judges’ ruling at this year’s Funniest Person in Austin competition at Cap City Comedy.