Arcade Fire will be on "Austin City Limits" this Saturday. To promote this, they've released a video of themselves playing a sweaty but well-restrained performance of "We Used to Wait" interspersed with behind-the-scenes footage of how the show gets produced. I like the part where we get to see the audience come in: A bunch of friendly-looking music dorks totes psyched to have a good time. Some of them flash the camera what you first think is the devil-ears hand sign. But then you remember that this is Texas, and they're probably saying "Hook 'em, 'Horns!" But R.I.P. Dio, anyway.

On Monday at the CNN-Tea Party Republican presidential debate, Michele Bachmann pounced on the fact that Rick Perry signed an executive order in 2007 mandating all girls in his state be vaccinated against HPV. She was accusing the Texas governor of crony capitalism. READ MORE

Here is something good: Houston mayor Annise Parker has declared today, August 30th, 2011, "Bun B Day" in her city. Bun, who made up one half of the rap duo UGK until his partner Pimp C died in 2007, and is now is about to start his second semester teaching a course on Religion and Hip Hop Culture In America at Rice University, is actually from nearby Port Arthur. But he is easily awesome enough to cross municipal borders.

In a marriage otherwise marked by acrimony and the hurling of dishes, my parents always agreed on one thing: that we rooted for the Cowboys. The allegiance was, to say the least, unpopular in Miami, where we moved from Texas in 1973, much too soon after Dallas crushed the Dolphins in Super Bowl VI. I was two then, and some of my earliest memories involve the three of us gathering in front of the TV to watch the star-helmeted men stand around kicking the grass, amble into formation, and then tear across the field, chased by or chasing men in some other kind of helmet. From time to time my mother would leap from her seat and bring her fists down before her in distress and supplication, while screaming, "Git 'ihhhm!" READ MORE

You know, some people consider Texas to be a barren, heartless prison of stunted humanity and cultural illiteracy. To them it is a symbol of the worst American values; a place where ignorance is prized, rapacity lauded, the least fortunate scorned and abandoned, plus even the babies are packing heat. On the other hand, there is a dentist there who serves wine and beer. So it can't be all bad. [WARNING: Includes standard local news punnery.]

The Malakoff News serves (part of) Henderson County—county seat, Athens, Texas—overall home to almost 90,000 28,000 households. And just like the fictional town of Dillon, Texas, Henderson, if those fatcats in the Texas House have their way, will be redistricted into two districts. Henderson, says the paper, is the only county in the state to be butchered up in such a fashion, and the locals are ticked off. Then the robocalls started, blaming their (Republican) state representative for it all, and asking citizens to call him up. Unfortunately, the freshman is actually not on the redistricting committee. Meanwhile, closer to Malakoff? They are trying to tax everyone's dogs! READ MORE

"But while the name will get you in the door, the food won’t necessarily keep you coming back. 'Supa Fly Ho with Cheese' was not especially juicy—or fatty, as the restaurant’s name would suggest—and the patty itself was almost charred." READ MORE

The 11-year-old in Texas who was raped by a group of men was not, it turns out, asking for it, reports the paper of record, which was previously not really clear regarding the sixth-grader's ability to be considered a "proper" rape victim. (That is, when the paper wasn't overly concerned about the futures of the young men involved.) Yes, it's do-over time on the most outrageous story in the world, one that was so wildly mishandled that it prompted world-wide outcry and now... another, more thorough story—a story that is now about a "nightmarish ordeal." (You think?) It turns out the 11-year-old in question was a very happy, "bubbly" young person who underwent a drastic and rapid personality change over a period of months. This personality change—in which she began to "dress older than her age," as per the original story—apparently manifested at the same time that she began to be regularly sexually assaulted. (Go. Figure.) READ MORE

In defense of Texas Governor Rick Perry, who called Juarez “the most dangerous city in America," it's not like El Paso and Juarez aren't deeply intertwined and immediately abutting—as you will recall from when the MEXICAN SPY DRONE landed on (BARELY) AMERICAN SOIL in El Paso. Though, in many ways, they have nothing in common! Contrary to what the right-wing border militia winguts say, America's border cities often have an admirable crime rate. (Also, I would not agree that Juarez is the most dangerous city in the Americas, either. Have you been to Bogota and St. Louis recently?)