Hanks: Officials should consider the mobility limitations of voters
On the last day of early voting, I went to the Travis County Airport Boulevard Offices and stood in line a full one and a half hours to cast my ballot. I had checked...
Category: Essay and Opinion
Hanks: Austin should expect more from C3 Presents for hosting ACL Fest
By Anna Hanks – Special to the American-Statesman Updated: 11:01 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2015 | Posted: 12:00 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2015 The Austin City Limits Music Festival isn’t a place where one usually starts...
Hanks: Looking for some January resolve? Try being nicer
By Anna Hanks – Regular contributor I’ve spent the first weeks of January at home with the kind of severe cold that justifies not getting out of pajamas for days. While contagiously confined to...
Hanks: Clothes swaps are good for the planet, the holiday soul
By Anna Hanks – Special contributor Every year I cringe when I read about the crowds on “Black Friday,” the biggest shopping day of the year. Even more terrible is reading about the various...
Hanks: ‘Nana-technology’ is closer than you think
By Anna Hanks – Special to the American-Statesman As I was hanging my laundry out on the line on the day following the South By Southwest Eco Conference earlier this month, I realized that...
Strip away the buzz, SXSW is about connections with friends
I usually love the cultural circus of the South By Southwest festival, but I’m having a hard time reconciling the party atmosphere of the event with the tragic incident on Red River Street that...
Music forges family ties that bind
When I saw that the English electronic band Depeche Mode (known for their hit song “People are People”) was going to be to doing their first-ever showcase at the South By Southwest Music Conference...
Give a homeless animal a chance at a soft landing
Recently the Austin Animal Center has received more animals than they can handle. They are at full-as-a-tick capacity, with an additional 518 dogs and cats in offsite foster care. Hearing about the number of...
Live life now — don’t waste it taking pictures
You’ve heard the one about how a picture says a thousand words? This week’s $1 billion acquisition of the mobile phone picture-sharing service Instagram by social media giant Facebook says even more. It tells...
Let us dry clothes outside without fear of an HOA
One of my earliest childhood memories is of hanging out laundry with my grandmother. Early on humid Houston mornings, my East Texas-born grandmother would haul a load of wet wash down her back steps...
