🤔 What are H-E-B’s best items?

🤔 Are These the Best Items at H-E-B?

Food & Wine magazine has declared five H-E-B items to be the best: True Texas BBQ Spicy Pickles, H-E-B tortillas, tarragon pecan chicken salad, guacamole, and the pre-marinated taco and fajita meats. Do you agree with their list? [Food & Wine]

📍 What To Know About Possible Redistricting

Texas Republican lawmakers, in an effort to appease President Donald Trump, are trying to create five new Republican congressional districts in the state. Democrats are strongly opposed to the measure, saying it will further silence minority voices. [City Cast Austin 🎧]

📰 Kerr County Official Was Asleep When Floods Hit

Kerr County Emergency Management Coordinator William B. Thomas IV told lawmakers on Thursday that he was sick, asleep, and had taken July 3 off, missing two coordination calls, when floods hit the area overnight on July 4. [The New York Times]

⬆️ Property Taxes May Go Up

The average Travis County homeowners may see their property tax bill go up by $200 if Travis County Commissioners approve a hike to pay for damage from recent flooding. Commissioners have until Oct. 1 to make a decision. [KUT]

“It is crowded," Nico Osier says through a Britney Spears-style headset to at least 100 people, all squished onto Sagebrush’s dance floor on a June summer night. "Kick on an angle.”

In between dozens of sweaty dancers making the wooden floor creak beneath their glitter-covered boots and cow-print stilettos, you'll find Osier perched on a 1-foot-tall wooden stage, directing a hip shake or foot shuffle. The horde doesn't seem to care that it’s crowded, or that it’s so hot you feel like you’re sweating from the inside out, or that, if you’re back far enough, you probably can’t even see Osier.

Everyone is here in the South Austin honky tonk for a night of free line dancing lessons unlike any other.

Osier runs Country Fried Dance, which specializes in creating queer-friendly dance spaces, offering line dancing and western-swing style partner lessons. The queer-and-trans-led business seems to have exploded in popularity in recent months, in part, because Osier has created an inclusive environment in spaces where everyone wasn’t always welcome. And, you don’t have to know a thing about dancing to be embraced.

“Anyone can do it. I’m just an idiot who loves to dance. I’m not using any official technique,” Osier said.

On a Whim

Country Fried Dance just celebrated its second birthday, but it was in the works long before then, even if Osier, a full-time professor, didn’t realize it. They grew up doing competitive ballet, tap, and jazz in Michigan, before falling out of love with it in middle school when it felt too strict and inauthentic. Even before that, Osier learned line dancing routines in elementary school.

But it wasn’t until after they moved to Austin in 2017 for the line dancing bug to truly bite.

Osier found themselves at Neon Rainbows’ dance events, learning the same couple of line dances over and over again.

“I had fun with it, but at some point I was like, ‘I want more,’” Osier said.

They went to another queer dance night, too, but the instructor wasn’t even queer. Osier started taking line dancing lessons and found a dance partner. The pair would dance at Neon Rainbows events, and one night, someone came up to Osier and asked, “Can you teach me how to do that?”