Natalie Portman hangs out with 100,000 in Austin, TX

Actually Natalie Portman has apparently arrived in Austin for her role in Terrence Malick's film formerly known as Lawless. Filming occurred during the University of Texas' 56-50 victory over the Baylor Bears at DKR-Memorial Stadium.

Over at Daily Beast they report the all-important news that Portman has gone blonde for her next film. Hint, hint--this is it.

The announcers weren't clued in that the guy standing next to Portman was her costar, Irish actor Michael Fassbender.

First Rooney Mara and Ryan Gosling shoot scenes for the Malick film for the second straight year at the Austin City Limits Music Festival, now the director shoots at one of the largest football stadiums anywhere. Isn't he supposed to be a recluse?

Can the Texas Longhorns beat the Baylor Fire Bolt?

I've been blogging the University of Texas football seasons for The Austin Chronicle for about four years now. This Saturday is the last game of this season. Here's my latest blog post (which doesn't mention unsubstantiated rumors that Mack Brown will retire as Texas coach after Saturday's game):

Texas fans nibbled on Thanksgiving turkey and expected the worst. The Aggies could taste this win. They wanted to end the rivalry with forever bragging rights as they shuffled off to the SEC and leave the Longhorns with the beer-soaked, early-morning regret that is the Big 12.

My die-hard UT fanatic brother-in-law feared a blowout. “It’ll be close,” I said. He shook his head with a grin that spoke of my naiveté. You know what happened next.

Aggies complained of a bad call, of the injury that kept Cyrus Gray out of the game. But the truth is the Texas defense finally rose to the level necessary to offset the befuddled Burnt Orange offense. Special teams did, too. We’re talking points off of turnovers. Quandre Diggs’ 81-yard punt return. A defense that battered the Aggies and their seasoned quarterback Ryan Tannehill, capped by a Kenny Vaccaro interception that led to a rare touchdown.

The rag doll named Case McCoy did the rest with a gutsy gallop into the Texas A&M defenders, who smacked him this way and that as he struggled for any yards they’d cede. Enough to get Texas in field-goal position. It worked. Justin Tucker made up for a night of horrendous punts by finessing the ball through the uprights from 40 yards out as time ran out.

In College Station you can find billboards still up in summer heralding the last win over the t-sips. In Austin, we marvel at the strange traditions: the overalled cheerleaders with their odd gang signs, the incessant “howdy,” the constant standing and swaying at Kyle Field. That cute little dog they worship. We’ll miss every bit of it.

Read the rest here.

Da-Da goes to Waco

It was a sweaty, fun night in Waco. I met up with Paul and his pal who drove in from Dallas. Some nice Baylor fan gave us two free tickets as we were about to go buy some. We wandered to the Bobcat section to cheer on the school that shall forever be known as Southwest Texas State. The game was forever close, as you can see from the 21-14 score in this photo as Boko the Bobcat mascot gets a ride through the stands after a Bobcat TD. It seemed the night was ripe for an upset, but Baylor passed at will and foiled an onside kick with little time remaining to take the game 28-20. As one Baylor fan said as we walked back from George's where we got a beer at halftime: "We suck." It's the second time in recent years (the other two years ago against Texas A&M) that the Bobcats seemed poised to upset a Big 12 team.

I came home to discover that Nicholas has learned to say (repeatedly) "Da-Da." Fortunately he repeated it for me this morning.