The Austinist Staff
Editor Section Editors Paige Maguire Music
|
Contributing Staff |
||
| Tom Thornton Joshua Huck Adi Anand Matthew Dewitt Beth Lebwohl Spencer S Patrick Dentler Kristina B Eric Uhlir Erika May Aaron Haley Jessica Thornton Steph Beasley Breanna Rollings Zachary Brandon Douglas Alison Coffey Jeff Beckham Anna Hanks |
Eric Seufert Adam Schragin Shannon Kreiger Mike Agresta Joel Nihlean Rebecca Onion Ben Reed Mercedes Kraus Elisabeth Long Laura Hensley Carly Kocurek Kristin B. Nick Courtright Brady Dyer Julie Neumann Veronica Meewes Bryan Mochizuki |
||
Allen Y ChenEditorIt was at the tail end of a cross-continental road trip from Berkeley to Baltimore that Allen, upon closer examination of an atlas, realized that New England wasn't an actual state. |
 |
Paige MaguireMusic EditorPaige Maguire grew up in Austin, and returned here after studies in Maryland, Boston and Germany, where she acquired two Bachelor degrees (classical mathematics and philosophy), and came dangerously close to finishing law school. Upon returning the the U.S., she began working as a contributing editor to Blogher.org, where she curated the music section. As she fell back into life as an Austinite, she discovered the Austinist, and quickly sent Allen Y Chen a writing sample that may or may not have likened Illinois to a high school theatrical production that assured people of their positions as actuaries. Luckily, he overlooked it. After getting acclimated as a contributor, Paige began working as music editor.Since coming to Austinist, she has interviewed Jose Gonzales, Adem, the Lovely Feathers and more, and has listened to more albums than should be legal. Each week, she posts "New Release Tuesday" -- a glimpse into what's new on the shelves at Waterloo and End of an Ear. Aside from her regular writing, she enjoys going to as many live shows as she can, helping curate Austinist events, and working at her other job as Director of Web Production at KUT.org, 90.5 FM. She lives in 78704 with her son Daschel and some dogs. Would you like a dog? |
 |
Matthew SmithFilm EditorExpelled from Canada for not owning enough Rush records, Matt now lives in the 78704. When he's not watching movies at the Alamo Downtown, he's usually out seeing a band that everyone else hates. Or eating chicken-fried steak. Or both. |
 |
Sam ArmstrongFood and Wine EditorSam believes life is like a noodle bowl. Discuss. |
 |
Shawn ShillingtonUrban Development EditorShawn is an urban acolyte in the tradition of Jane Jacobs. He was born in Oklahoma, raised in Texas and educated in New York City. He will probably live out his days in Austin, but hopes to someday spend summers in the U.K. Likes: street front retail, trees, green (not the color), skulls, squares, kids, "awesome," white, black. Dislikes: sprawl, heat, highways, surface parking, suburbia, direct light, hippies, boomers, colors, cancer. |
 |
Elizabeth SNews EditorElizabeth S. comes from a long line of native Texans and has lived in Austin most of her life. She spent a year out of the state, during which she said "y‘all" as often as she could. She belongs to the Austin Film Society mainly for the free film series. A few of her favorite things: Austin Public Library, Netvibes, finding new/interesting Austin blogs, El Chile‘s house margaritas, and fresh sopapillas with honey. |
 |
Justin CoxPhoto Editorqueso queso queso queso queso queso queso queso queso queso queso queso queso queso queso queso queso queso queso queso queso queso queso queso queso queso queso queso queso queso queso queso queso queso queso queso queso queso queso queso queso queso camera. ps: tacos. |
 |
Julie HoldenTheatre EditorA native Texan, Julie Holden has spent most of her last 11 years in Austin. Having recently welcomed yet another precocious little Austinite into the world, she has since quit her day job as a brittle technical writer to stay at home and play with her daughter, Johanna. She and her husband John love living in the bluest city in the reddest state, and plan never to leave their adopted hometown again. |
 |
TruecraigColumns EditorTruecraig writes amongst the ranks of the 78704, practices regular bearding, drinks in a sporting sort of way (like a two-day game of cricket), and believes that the production of sincere panda pornography might be the key to the survival of that particularly lazy bear species. Truecraig thinks that everyone takes themselves far too serious. Even you. But Truecraig likes you anyway, and wishes you would call him more often to talk about cuddly puppies, open sewage, and where all that killer-bad graffiti be at. |
 |
Tom ThorntonTom returned to Austin in early 2006 after two years in London and five years in New York City. He covers music, food, and film stories for Austinist, and is a former contributor to Gothamist. In 2005, Tom and his wife traveled to 16 countries while on sabbatical from work. His interests include wine and craft beers, travel, music, and ethnic food of all varieties. Tom graduated from London Business School's MBA program in Summer 2000. He has been interviewed about Austinist's music coverage by MTV, NPR, and News 8 Austin, and has interviewed acts such as Snow Patrol, M. Ward, Alexi Murdoch, and Explosions In The Sky. Tom lives in Southwest Austin with his wife, where he has amassed far too many CD's and bottles of wine. |
 |
Joshua HuckJosh lives, writes, studies, and plays music in the soft, tanned, patchouli-scented bosom of Austin. Having had just about enough of cities like Dallas and Washington D.C., he migrated here in the Summer of 2003, quickly acclimating to the unpredictable weather and gregarious citizenry. A breakfast taco connoisseur of the highest order, he also makes a fairly wicked Bloody Mary. |
 |
Adi AnandAdi grew up in New Delhi (South Side represent), India. His family moved to Tejas in the 90‘s and he ended up in Austin at the University of Texas. Adi loves music, sports, kitties, and much much more, not necessarily in that order. He enjoys attending concerts and shows, Longhorn sports, and general fun events. On Sundays, he plays soccer in the city league, and usually rests and stuff. In 2007, Adi fulfilled a life-long dream by sitting at the KOP end at Anfield. He watched the match too. |
 |
Matthew DewittWhen not pretending to play guitar or tending to his very controversial music column, Hots On, Matt DeWitt is working for the weekend.He went to art school, so go figure!He also writes for Skyscraper. |
 |
Kristina BKristina is an aspiring grown-up (not really). She arrived on the scene in Austin a few years ago in a giant U-Haul with the love of her life and a carsick cat. She spends much of her time actively avoiding fluorescent lighting. |
 |
Beth LebwohlThe digitized image at left shows the anticipated results of Beth‘s recent rounds of plastic surgery. Pricey but worth it -- the cigar alone cost 20K! (The bandages aren‘t off yet, so let‘s all keep our fingers crossed...) |
 |
Spencer SSpencer is a native Austinite. Upon returning from a 3-year walkabout in the Kalahari Desert, Spencer suddenly discovered himself and found new joy.At that same moment, he began writing for The Austinist, where he enjoys taking liberties with both fact and opinion alike.His supreme loves are music and writing.His supreme dislikes are high-pitched, dissonant noises, such as fingernails on a chalkboard or the incessant bleating of a car alarm.Also of note:Between the years 1997-2004, Spencer held the citywide record at Barton Springs pool for the loudest belly-flop off the diving board (110 dB). |
 |
Eric UhlirEric was born in Los Angeles to Swedish gypsies, who left him on the doorstep of a wealthy raconteur. They'd spend endless hours exploring the city with his brother in the family gyrocopter. When he was but 12, they moved to San Antonio to help defeat the Mexican Army. It was there that he realized his lust for adventure was not yet sated,so he went to college in Austin,at the University of Texas. There he found a distinct lack of adventure, but a lot of great people. He met the Queen of Siam and the Viceroy of the Exchequer of Butan. He would idyll away the days smoking opium pipes and reading the collected works of Kipling. Oh, what heady days, indeed. Now he finds himself in the venerable occupation of Sea Captain.Really? No, not really. But he DID grow up in Los Angeles and he REALLY went to UT where he majored in Art. He founded a studio on the east side, where he continues to make paintings. He's also a local correspondent for Austinist and Spin, taking rock photos, writing reviews, and interviewing bands. He also contributes to Urban Pollution, and AustinSound, and, occasionally, to Rolling Stone. |
 |
Erika Mayerika is from sweeny, tx (pop. 3,542), where she learned proper reverence for football, fried meats and cream gravy. after graduating from UT, she lived in cincinnati, oh and chicago, il before moving back to austin with her native philadelphian husband, bob. she loves graphic novels (esp. chris ware), BUST magazine and economic theory. she‘s guilty of making ‘to-do‘ lists that include of things she‘s already done so she can have the satisfaction of checking stuff off, and would really love a bubble tea right now. |
 |
Aaron HaleyAaron has been a proud Austinite for over ten years, having skipped out of the burgeoning hill country village in which he was raised before later realizing that it was both "quaint and charming." He spends his days and nights managing an ever-growing mass of networked gizmos for a very passionate organization in downtown Austin and the rest of his time dreaming about running off to the CIA and spending the rest of his life in a kitchen. He enjoys sports; primarily hockey, rugby, and college football, although now mainly watching, rather than playing, as he now realizes the price of healthcare. His favorite drinks are Mexican Martinis, Guinness and Dublin Dr. Pepper. His favorite foods are Sushi, Tex-Mex and BBQ. He does seem to continually get caught up in lofty and idealistic technology projects around town, but no, he will not fix your computer. |
 |
Jessica ThorntonJessica was born and raised in Austin, which makes her a de facto outsider in her own home town. Although she remembers the days when the Austin skyline wasn'ft visible above the trees and North and South Austin had tug-of-war contests over Town Lake, she does not apparently remember much of anything from her high school years, except for breaking into swimming pools and various underage-mischief. After ill-advised educational excursions to such un-Austin places as St. Louis and Denver, Jessica returned to her roots with marginally more maturity and a significantly higher alcohol tolerance. Jessica enjoys being active and involved in the Texas outdoors, sipping homebrews and microbrews, shaking her ass to obscure techno music, and catching live shows on Red River St—but only if they're cheap. |
 |
Steph BeasleySteph is one of the five people in Austin who was actually born here (Seton Hospital, respect!) However, she technically grew up in Round Rock, but that makes her totally OG. Her first concert was the Oak Ridge Boys at the Erwin Center. Obviously, she has great taste in music. During said concert, she sat on her daddy‘s knee, with a gigantic ten gallon hat blocking her view of the entire show. Obviously, she dislikes large hats. She loves the Alamo Drafthouse and Live Oak HefeWeizen, especially when the two are combined and hates that people do not know how to merge in traffic. |
 |
Breanna RollingsBreanna grew up in a suburb of Dallas, but please don‘t hold that against her. She believes with her whole heart and soul that Austin is the best city in this vast, vast state. She loves watching British comedy, drinking red wine, eating fried food, receiving postcards, and collecting miniature replicas of everyday objects. |
 |
Zachary Brandon DouglasZachary is from somewhere north of Texas, but south of Canada. He has been in several highly successful bands, but is now in one that many consider to be the next A-HA. |
 |
Alison CoffeyAlison moved to Austin from Chicago 8 years ago. She's a true midwestern girl, but Chicago has too many mean people. People told her about Austin and she decided it was the promised land. Sometimes, though, she misses corn fields. And cornbread made without jalapenos. By day Alison is a mom, wife, and mental health counselor. By night she is a couch potato with a love for crime stories and physical comedy. She believes Doug Benson to be the funniest man alive. She takes paxil for the pain. |
 |
Jeff BeckhamJeff grew up in Dallas but is quick to point out that he attended UT and has spent the last 10 years in Austin. He enjoys watching the Longhorns both from the far confines of Section 102 or from the comfort of his couch. This is not his Heisman Trophy, but it does, oddly enough, currently reside on his mantle. |
 |
Eric SeufertEric Seufert is a comedian and writer living in Austin, Texas. He had a difficult time deciding what to do with himself after graduating from the University of Texas, so he stuck around to party by osmosis. He is a member of the nationally-touring Look Cookie improv troupe and can be found most weekends at the Coldtowne theater. |
 |
Adam SchraginAfter looking to the city of Austin with jealously and longing growing up in San Antonio, Adam S. finally made the move to attend the University of Texas after a year and a half of studying at U.N.T. in Denton. Austin has been a permanent home other than a brief stint back in S.A., wherein his love for Austin was reaffirmed and he fell into journalism largely as a result of a few happy accidents. |
 |
Shannon KreigerShannon is an Austin-area high tech manager, photographer, writer, and mom to an impressively-coiffed toddler. When not typing on a computer keyboard, she can be found imbibing caffeinated and beer-y beverages, leveling her Nikon at yellows and blues, floating on Lake Travis, doing tiny 2T laundry, or poking her boyfriend D in the kidneys. |
 |
Mike AgrestaMike has lived in Austin since 2004, mostly on a fellowship at UT. He writes stories, novels, plays, and poems, and sometimes also grants, promotional materials, form letters, and such, for money or for love. He has worked on Wall Street and in a chocolate factory, and his coolest boss ever (aside from Allen) was a retired founding member of GWAR. Mike's interests include the extraordinary and the everyday. |
 |
Patrick DentlerA proud graduate of Austin High and currently attending The University of Texas, Patrick lives in Hyde Park, surrounded by his friends, who enjoy sitting on the porch, movies at the Drafthouse and mag mud at Magnolia. Aside from the Austinist, Patrick can totally hook you up at Fricano's Deli and enjoys his work at the local public radio station. Any other time, you can find him taking photos, running on the trail, riding his bike and once a week he heading the UT Polar Bear Club at Barton Springs. He hopes to run into you one day. |
 |
Joel NihleanWriter, photographer and drummer for local bubble-gum players The Sweethearts, Joel Nihlean floated around the University of Texas for nearly a decade working on degrees in Journalism and English. He graduated with little fan fair in late 2007. Hopefully gainful employment will follow shortly, but he's not holding his breath. His flashy, mysterious blue eyes and unkempt looks earned him work as a smart-ass literary snob and event host for BookPeople and as a food service peon at various local establishments, most notably Amy's IceCreams. On December 17th, 2007 he became a dad. His son Lucas is adorable but has no chance of turning out normal. |
 |
Rebecca OnionTransplanted Northeasterner Rebecca Onion is a freelance writer and graduate student in the American Studies department at the University of Texas, Austin. You can read her non-Austinist writings at www.rebeccaonion.com |
 |
Ben ReedBenjamin Reed's fiction appears online and on paper. Sometimes at his house, sometimes in bound journals. He's written one novel, The Bow Tie Gang, and is finishing work on his second, currently called How to Clean Everything. He lives in the Oh-Two. |
 |
Mercedes KrausA native Texan, Mercedes got her bachelor of journalism from the University of Texas last May and decided to stick around Austin for a bit to try out the whole 'working' thing. Other than write (of which she does very little), Mercedes is a hostess, was a graphic designer, and is terrible at returning emails. Notorious for her habitual tardiness and bad storytelling, Mercedes knew she and Austinist were MFEO when she met Allen for the first time: they were wearing the same jacket. |
 |
Elisabeth LongElisabeth is a native Austinite, but has only recently returned after too many years in the cold northeast. She is a graduate student at the LBJ School of Public Affairs, a research assistant at Environment Defense, and a patron of many local coffee shops where she pretends to be working but is usually people watching. Elisabeth is really into historical non-fiction, the vegan cookies at Whole Foods, and environmental policy. She is not so into traffic, scary movies, or bad grammar. She promises to never ever leave Austin again, except maybe for Paris. |
 |
Laura HensleyLaura grew up on a cotton farm in West Texas and lived in College Station for seven years. However, she escaped both conservative bastions with little more than an FFA Lonestar award, an Aggie husband and a longing to live in a place where everyone doesn't know your name. When she's not writing about sewer system projects or Fourth of July parades for her day job she catches live music, art exhibit openings, hangs out at the Alamo Draft House and futilely attempts to foster new hobbies like photography, sewing or bicycle riding. She is horrible at all three but that doesn't keep her from trying. |
 |
Carly KocurekCarly Kocurek researches, writes, and edits in Austin, where she's lived since 2004. She likes barrettes, cultural theory, rhinestones, and elaborately decorated desserts. She dislikes cold weather, microfilm, and the sound Velcro makes. |
 |
Kristin B.Kristin (a.k.a. "K.E.B.") had no idea what she had gotten herself into when she moved to IAH during a redonkulously hot summer in Y2K. While her friends back home in ORD were placing bets to see how long she would last, K.E.B. was quickly falling in love with the great state of TX. Three years ago an early midlife crisis induced a hiatus from Corporate America to travel, take photos and snowboard. After landing in AUS, she took a job at a tech company where she has gained praise and near-celebrity status for her ability to carry on entire conversations consisting of only acronym-laced buzz phrases and IATA airport codes. She enjoys dolmas BTT (by the truckload), further advancing her OCD and making fun of the 2nd Street yupsters despite being one of them on the slimmest of technicalities. |
 |
Nick CourtrightNick Courtright is a phenomenon/is not a phenomenon. There is a good chance he is from Ohio, where he may be the oldest of six kids. A rumor spreading through the halls of local high schools suggests that he recently extricated himself from a job as a "cube worker," and that he drives a car without air conditioning. The latter is the gravest demonstration of his tolerance and/or poverty. His lifeblood is the poem, and he has published his lifeblood in dozens of national literary journals, many of which most people have never heard. He is, so it is said, a fan of mangling a sentence just to avoid ending it in a preposition. Perhaps you should buy him dinner. |
 |
Brady DyerOriginally from Virginia, Brady moved to Austin three years ago. She graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University with a degree in English and is ONE class (!) away from finishing her MA in Humanities with an emphasis in modernism. Currently on staff at the Blanton Museum of Art, she was the PR Associate the Chrysler Museum of Art in VA for seven years. As an avid art/music/film lover, there are so many things to dig about Austin! |
 |
Julie NeumannAfter growing up in the permafrost and angst of Chicago, Julie migrated to Nashville for college and has been moving closer to the equator ever since. According to the University of Texas, she is a master of journalism, so she pays the bills by writing and selling her soul. At Austinist she muses about music in My Ex-Boyfriend's Band. She vows to never write about bands featuring exes in her column, unless one of them becomes the next big thing at SXSW, in which case she reserves the right to shamelessly take credit for their success. Everything you just read may change at any moment, for Julie is constantly rearranging her life for the Bird, her hyperkinetic Texas Blue Lacy with a penchant for Mason Pearson brushes and decorative pillows. |
 |
Veronica MeewesVeronica Meewes grew up against the backdrop of the indescribable New Jersey suburbs and barely has an accent (right?). After attending Sarah Lawrence College, where she studied writing, art, and sociology, she toured the U.S. and heard Austin calling. Since arriving in 2005, she's been a teacher of children, lover of food, caretaker of plants, planner of parties, builder of cakes, student of yoga, taker of photos, rider of bikes, and trader of sorts. Now she works full time at Helping Hand Home for Children, part-time at the Dougherty Art Center, and has developed a method of sleep-writing which allows her to pen between jobs for the austinist, as well as Eat & Drink Austin and Soundcheck...shhh: do not disturb... |
 |
Bryan MochizukiBryan comes to Austin from California, by way of New York. He avidly supports the NBA and only buys cars from Garrity Motors. |
 |
Anna HanksAnna Hanks escaped a hellfire 'n' brimstone childhood in Deer Park, Texas. Consequently, her life is now devoted to pleasure, going out, and parsing the nuances of pop culture for an appreciative audience of dozens. In the mornings she enjoys howling along with her Anatolian Shepherd "Duke" as he sings along with the sirens on Lamar. A DJ pal suggested putting some beats behind this collaboration and turning it into an act for SXSW. Sometimes she actually thinks this is a good idea. She was made to love magic. One of her fondest memories is drinking Port from 1907...poured by magician Kevin James. |
|
Alumni
Matthew OdamBen Brown
Matt Wright
Sergio Padilla
Michael Barnett
Katie Spence
Rod Barrera
Jen Rodosta
CJ Castillo
Wade Treichler
Shannon Roberts
Michael Favia
Jackie Y
Lisa Bintrim
Jonathon Morgan
Ami Larson
Kerry
Clarisa Ramirez
Published by Gothamist
Executive Editor and co-founder: Jen Chung
Publisher and co-founder Jake Dobkin
Technology director Neil Epstein
Logo: Sam Park