Best of Austin 1996Critics PicksMediaAdvantage Taken of a Captive Audience: Local News Coverage of the Freeze Thank goodness the local news teams were there to cover The Freeze of '96, otherwise how would we have known that it was toe-numbingly cold out this past February? The super-complete coverage of 1/4-inch patches of ice on MoPac and cars sliding on damp roads was critical to the entertainment of shut-ins throughout Metro Austin. How grateful we were for the breaks in regularly scheduled programming each half hour to hear from respected reporters: "I'm still out here on Sixth Street, and it's still really, really cold." It's ground-breaking journalism like The Freeze coverage which keeps all eyes focused on the cutting-edge television news of Central Texas. Keep up the good work! Alternative Marketing Campaign: First Texas Honda in The Texas Triangle A right-wing radio commentator demanded a boycott of First Texas Honda after the company placed advertisements in The Texas Triangle, a weekly newspaper geared towards the state's gay community. Enraged by this homophobic intolerance, Austinites rallied behind the publication and its advertisers. Sales at the dealership actually increased. Alternative To Espn, Part 1: Sunday Sports Section, KXAN-36 TV We finally have a pro sports franchise (the Ice Bats) and we finally have all-sports radio. Sure KFON-AM has it's peaks and valleys, the latter needing to be corrected before the station will start amassing better numbers. But if you're driving down the road and you're hungry for a sports fix, the right end of the dial is the only 24-hour alternative. KXAN 36, 908 W. MLK, 476-3636 www.kxan.com Alternative To ESPN, Part 2: KFON 1490 AM Can't afford cable and can't stand missing the weekend sports highlights? Turn on Channel 36 at 10:30 pm for the Sunday Sports Section. The 30-minute program isn't quite as crisp as SportsCenter, but its not too far behind. 811 Barton Springs Rd., 390-5366 Article by a Local Writer in a National Magazine: Lawrence Wright in The New Yorker An overview of recent discoveries regarding fraternal and identical twins penned by Austin's Lawrence Wright, published in The New Yorker last summer, reinforced this man's standing as one of the nation's preeminent writers. Bang For Your Buck, One Radio Freq.: KOOP/KVRX
With 91.7FM, you not only get a diversity of programming, you get a diversity of stations. Since a nasty court battle ordered the two stations to share the same frequency, the two new kids on the radio have been getting along wonderfully and complementing (and complimenting) each other well -- the cooperatively run community station (KOOP) during the day and the UT student station (KVRX) at night. Both have similar missions -- wildly divergent programming that has a little something for everyone. KOOP has world music, weird music, several great roots- and Latino-oriented music shows, and public affairs programming that features the true left. The station's programmer slots are open to the public, so anyone has a shot at being a deejay. KVRX similarly romps through a mix of alterna-rock (the real thing, not the corporate pseudo-alternative), with dashes of poetry, speaker-busting metal, psychotic hillbilly music, and a different view of the university than what Dollar Bill Cunningham probably wants you to see. KVRX 91.7FM, PO Box D, 471-5106; KOOP 91.7FM, 3823 Airport Ste. B, 472-1369 www.kvrx.org; www.koop.org Biz-newz Scooper: Austin Business Journal Hardly a week goes by when The Austin Business Journal isn't burying its business-writing competitors over at the daily. Witness: ABJ broke a story on Schlotzsky's successful public offering under the heading, "The Earl of Sandwich." The Statesman chased the same story four days later with a clone headline: "Austin's earl of sandwich." Whoops! On July 5, ABJ told us that Radian sold one of its divisions after a tiff with the Environmental Protection Agency. Then the Statesman re-told the story on July 8, just in case we missed it the first time. It's sporting to watch a weekly beat a daily paper on the big news of the day. Cheap Quick Apple Fix: Macintosh Magic Like you, your Macintosh is not getting younger. Chances are you cherish it as a bulkhead against the Windows program of world domination, yet worrythat breakdowns and constantly mutating system architecture will make it obsolete and force your defection to the evil empire. Worry no more. The Mac gurus at this shop know everything, can fix anything from old toaster-boxes to the latest supercharged kitchen-sink-included models, and speak in plain English. Plus, they don't mince words about the occasional dogs Apple unleashes on the market. 3004 Guadalupe Columnist, Missing In Action: Mike Kelley We recall many a morning that seemed unrelievedly dreary 'til we read the words of Mike Kelley. This Statesman columnist, who had a marksman's bead on Austin foibles, could loose a leisurely stream of satiric barbs at the Lege or South Austin, rattletrap autos (which he owned proudly) or condiments (to us, cilantro will forever be "the Germany of herbs"), and lift the gloomy clouds about us. His column was, alas, discontinued last year, but we keep holding out hope for its return. Kelley is simply too good. Austin American-Statesman, 305 S. Congress, 445-3500 www.statesman.com Comeback: Kevin Connor, 107.1 KGSR Three years ago, KGSR dismissed its popular morning show host, Kevin Connor. The Texas transplant eventually found other work in Austin, then bolted to Sacramento for another radio job. He returned to Austin last spring and, ever since, has gradually worked his way back onto the KGSR airwaves. The return came full circle September 9, when Connor returned to the station's morning shift. These days, it somehow seems a little easier to get out of bed. KGSR 107.1FM, 8309 N. I-35, 832-4000 www.kgsr.com Cry For Help: Some Guy Who's Probably Dead Now on ACTV More mysterious than that little slip of paper that says "Help! I'm being held prisoner in a Chinese fortune cookie factory," there's the cryptic "Please wait foq! A! Aaaaqq! Qqaaqa!" that has been appearing across the top of our TV screens from a fleet of access stations after they go off the air for the night. Don't know if it's the result of a break-in or a beer spilled on the console, but since it's been appearing for literally months now, we'd say it's probably too late to save the poor bugger at this point. Austin Community Access Center, 1143 Northwestern, 478-8600 www.austinaccess.com De-progamming For Gender Roles: Girl Games Sure, a gal can play MYST and Doom like the best of them, but before the existence of this multimedia maverick we didn't have much of a choice beyond blowing things up. Girl Games, a local company intent on producing interactive edutainment for the young female market (ages 7-17), has been busy designing products that entertain while addressing the issues that concern adolescent girls the most. Their CD-ROM Let's Talk About Me is due out this month, but Girl Games has a rich Web presence, too. Their site plays host to Girls Interwire, an online newsletter written by high school students. Thank goddess for women's intutition. www.girlgames.com Deejay: Gibby Haynes, 101X Refusing to conform his non-linear mind to the boring pre-packaged, pre-formatted world of modern rock radio, Haynes rocked late night Austin radio. His brief stint was the most entertaining development on the commercial airwaves in many years. www.buttholesurfers.com Dell-like Rise To Fame: Power Computing
In a town with one of the highest installed bases of Apple Macintosh computers (witness UT's annual position at the top of the MacWeek 200 survey, with some 12,000 installed), it's no surprise that the nerve center of this two-year-old company is in Austin (okay, it recently moved to Round Rock). Following Dell's footsteps to success, Steve Kahng and company are stunning critics with MacOS computers that are often more cost-effective and innovative than those from Apple itself. Fighting the pains of fast growth with a gutsy, damn-the-torpedos corporate spirit -- typified by their Frank Kozik-designed poster -- it's a good bet that Power Computing will continue to make waves among Mac fanatics. Eager Beaver DJ: Jenn Garrison
Tooling around in the Mustang, late '79, it was always a kick to smush the chunky pre-set buttons on the ol' Delco, to hear "My Sharona" cranking, only to smush another button and delight at the coincidence of the exact same song playing somewhere else down the dial... Now we are grown and realize that this was just a product of lame corporate fomula, but in a weird way, it still pleases us when it happens today. On KROX one moment, coming through on a pre-taped promo on KGSR the next, and within the hour tackling an airshift on KVRX, Jenn Garrison is the hardest-working rising star of the behind-the-mike set, and at only 25, we'll be sure to check in on her with frequency. KVRX, Mondays, 7-9pm; 107.1 KGSR, Saturdays,10am-2pm, Sundays, 4-6pm; 101X, Saturdays, 2-6pm WWW: http://www.utexas.edu/students/kvrx/.web/direct/jenn/jenn.html Email: 8injar@mail.utexas.edu Editorial Series: Oppel Condemns Freeport Among the many changes wrought by new Statesman editor Rich Oppel is his self-penned column appearing in every Sunday's "Insight" section. The column has shown flashes of brilliance -- particularly during the five-week period from November 19 through December 17, when Oppel condemned Jim Bob Moffett and Freeport-McMoRan on three separate occasions. His sharply worded attacks against the bullying tactics of this huge company were a shocking departure from the Statesman's traditionally silent stance on this issue. Austin American-Statesman, 305 S. Congress, 445-3500 www.statesman.com Effort To Get Austin Wired: Austin Free-Net Another nonprofit focusing on online access, Austin Free-Net's mission is to provide the hardware, internet connection, and training necessary for the general public to find all kinds of web-based information that lack of expensive equipment and technical know-how may have previously kept obscure. Starting out by placing computer stations in libraries and low-income housing projects in the central city, Free-Net's directors Sue Beckwith and Jeff Evans plan to have 51 public access stations in locations throughout Austin and Cedar Park by the year's end. We're certainly not the first to commend the group's effort -- the Texas State Library and Archives Commission presented them with a $206,000 grant earlier this year that is sure to make their goal considerably more reachable. 2209 Rosewood, 236-8225 www.austinfree.net Environmental E-Zine: Greenbeat If you tire of exploring websites that offer no more content than a 900 number, check out Greenbeat. Texas Environmental Center dishes out content-rich selections from this site, including Greenbeat and other eco-conscious selections. WWW: http://www.tec.org Evidence That People Who Listen to FM Radio Don't Own Calendars: April Fool's Day On April Fool's Day, the KLBJ-FM morning team reported that the Space Shuttle would be making an emergency landing at Austin's Executive Sky Park. Following the announcement, about 75 gullible listeners showed up at the tiny airport. KLBJ 93.7FM, 8309 N. I-35, 832-4000 www.klbjfm.com Food Story In The Local Daily: Vita Pro With apologies to Kitty Crider, Statesman reporter Mike Ward kept the Vita Pro scandal simmering until prison officials were whelping for mercy. Ward gave a fine dinner party, offering up helping after delicious helping of the Vita Pro scandal, complete with Yank Barry trimmings. Yum! Austin American-Statesman, 305 S. Congress, 445-3500 www.statesman.com Homepage for Local Filmmakers: Delta 9
Named after site creator Tommy Palotta's Austin-based production company, the Delta-9 web page houses information and links pertaining to just about every aspect of film production, including international postings of contest, festival, conference and grant leads, a national index of independent movie theatres, a listing of distribution companies, writers' resources, and direct paths to film organizations such as our own Austin Film Society, the Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers, the American Film Institute, and much more. Movie fans may be interested in the list of what projects are currently under way right here intown. WWW: http://www.eden.com/~delta-9/index.html Hypnotic Radio Station: LCRA River Radio AM-1530 We can listen to this station for hours on end... and never hear a thing. The chants of falling lake levels and generation schedules, the reports from the Statistical Abstract of the United States, the NOAA weather simulcasts, and especially the interviews with city managers of towns like Brenham and Gonzales can lull us into blissful, catatonic stupors. (Although they can shake us up from time to time, like when they added KVUE promo spots.) Lower Colorado River Authority, 3505 Montopolis, 473-3200; 6550 Comanche Tr., 473-3333 www.lcra.org Local Food Show: Green Gourmet on ACTV Diana Welsch, aka the Green Gourmet, inspires us to take to the stove every time we tune into her cooking program whose moniker comes from Welsch's devotion to gardening and cooking with fresh produce. Welsch is not one of those pained, joyless health food fanatics though; she's a regular gal who loves good food and wants to share her healthy, accessible recipes with all of us. It just goes to show, you will convert more people with delicious alternatives than sermons. Austin Community Access Center, 1143 Northwestern, 478-8600 www.austinaccess.com Local Television News Expose: KVUE-24 on Riverbend Baptist In November, KVUE reported that Riverbend Baptist Church pastor Gerald Mann had paid no property taxes since 1990 on the $500,000 Rob Roy estate at which he resides. According to Channel 24's Greg Groogan and Scott Guest, the pastor (who has also authored several books and hosts a nationally-broadcast cable program) avoided these taxes by claiming this residence as the parsonage for a non-profit ministry bearing his name. Aired despite protests from Mann and his numerous contacts in the local media, the KVUE report reminds us that hard-hitting journalism has not completely vanished from local television newscasts. KVUE, 3201 Steck, 459-6521 www.kvue.com Net Development in Austin Gardening: austin.gardening Ah, information, this Usenet newsgroup had it! Blossom end rot is what everyone claimed killed the tomatoes, and darned if they weren't right. New Local Daily: Daily Chronicle Just kidding. (See our issue of 3/31/96.) The Austin Chronicle, 4000 N. I-35, 454-5766 austinchronicle.com Newsletter: In Fact Daily Newsletter
Husband-and-wife team Ken Martin and Rebecca Melancon, who formerly served as editor and publisher (respectively) of the Austin Business Journal, have switched their talents to newsletter publishing. The fruits of their labor is titled In Fact -- a zippy political four-pager that is concise, well-written, and extremely informative. PO Box 3224, 441-9680 www.infactnews.com Non-Deity In The Ether: SubGenius Website What a friend we have in SubGenius. This is not an Austin-based website, but there are enough freakin' SubGeniuses in Austin to warrant notice for the page of this 15-year-plus nonreligious cult that worships a pipe-smoking salesman named J.R. "Bob" Dobbs. Okay, we confess that at least one staffer is a long-time, high-ranking church member, we're just not saying who! Online Slumber Party: Webgrrls No Java jive here -- these women can talk high-tech in their sleep. A national support network (and girl society) solely for techie gals, the Webgrrls listerv is a virtual question-and-answer session where field professionals and newbies alike share information on programming languages, html editors, web design, job leads and the occasional rental listing. But the group doesn't only exist in cyberspace, they meet regularly in realspace too, to socialize, organize classes, and network face-to-face. With the Webgrrls' online and offline presence growing daily, we're assured the prospect of a multimedia man's world will be kept in chick check. WWW: http://www.amy.com/webgrrls Place to Buy Yesterday's News: Teleclip Didn't see the newscast where they filmed junior's peewee football game? Missed it when they broadcast your thoughts on the national debt? Not to worry. Teleclip tapes all the news, both local and national. Give 'em a ring and, for a modest fee, they'll locate the story in question and make you a copy. Preserving your 15 minutes -- err, seconds -- of fame was never so easy. 811 Barton Springs Rd., 477-2547 Place to Get Your Feet Wet in Technology: WATER House
Women's Access to Technology and Electronic Resources (WATER) always has its doors open to women with the desire to learn more about video production, radio broadcasting, and online/computer technology. The facility also lends equipment to any woman, or women-led project, expressing a vision in line with the foundation's goal of social and environmental justice. Some of the artists who have utilized WATER's resources for personal projects have stayed on to share their expertise with beginners; staff members actually work in the fields they teach. An offshoot of the Foundation for a Compassionate Society, WATER house is the next best thing to a real community media center -- a progressive vision we admire. 916 W. Johanna, 444-1672 Place To Hang Ten: WWW Cafe Inc. Location, location, location. If that's the key to launching a successful business, then where exactly do you locate a "cyberspace" cafe? Perhaps the demise of the Eastside's Discovery Incubator could have been foretold, so this year's opening of the WWW Cafe across from the downtown Omni hotel gives new hope to cybercafe fans. Head towards the basement to find them. 1914 Guadalupe, 495-1880 www.wwwcafe.com Public Service, Email Division: The Texas Show List These weekly dispatches from "Jeremy," an active member of the local punk/noise rock contingent, are amazingly thorough. He's managed to set up links with all major and minor scenes in the state, so the listings are comprehensive, and much-appreciated addendums, including the latest on zines, leftist political actions, and environmental concerns, help push the weekly hit count between 25-30,000. Email: Subscribe at: sarootabaker@mail.utexas.edu Re-focus On The Family: Texas Triangle For a while, it seemed The Texas Triangle just couldn't decide what to wear. There were vague stabs at being cute, hip, gossipy, trendy -- but those motifs left some of us yearning for the journalistic days of old. In the last year or so, though, editor/publisher Kay Longcope managed to pull the paper back on track with serious news and columns about lesbians and gays -- the very objectives on which the paper was founded. This may have had something to do with her hiring of David Elliot, a newspaper man's newspaper man, as managing editor. He filled the slot well, having left behind a longtime reporting position at the Statesman. In late July, Elliot moved to Washington, D.C., to perform media work for People for the American Way. Elliot's friend Dan Quinn is now carrying the torch in what appears to be an effortless transition. 609 W. Sixth, 495-9563 Reason To Ignore Your Screaming Hangover: KVET's Country Gold Wake up early on Saturday -- if that's possible -- and tune into the only place on commercial radio you can still hear Kitty Wells, Conway Twitty, Loretta Lynn, Charlie Rich, Hank, Sr., and all the stars of country's golden age. They used to play Tanya Tucker's "Texas When I Die" every Saturday at 10am; Saturday mornings never seemed so bright. KVET/KASE, 705 N. Lamar, 495-1300 www.kvet.com Reporter: Michael Barnes Fortuitous, maybe, that arts stories -- the embryonic downtown museum, the Black Arts Alliance fiasco -- made Page One in recent months, allowing the daily to show off its estimable arts-beat point man to best advantage. But these might not have been important stories were it not for Barnes, who's brought energy and critical insight to covering Austin arts as a key component of our public life and exposing where we fall short of our promise and our leaders' promises. Making important issues into news rather than reacting to the spoon-feeding of image engineers is what a good journalist should do, and Barnes has done it well. Austin American-Statesman, 305 S. Congress, 445-3500 www.statesman.com Save: Ford Trucks Underwrites Austin City Limits With $325K in federal funding cut from his budget and no local underwriters stepping up to the plate, longtime ACL executive producer Bill Arhos thought his program was a goner. Well-connected music maven Robin Shivers was hired to convince local businesses that underwriting ACL is a smart media buy. Before Shivers even got to work, Ford Trucks rode to the rescue with a whopping $200K and helped save the 22nd season of the program that is the city's best-ever music ambassador. Austin City Limits, KLRU, 2504-B Whitis, 471-4811 www.klru.org Sunday Morning Wake-up: KAZI Sunday Gospel Twice the power of opera without the translation problems. KAZI's rotating lineup of gospel deejays -- including the relentlessly enthusiastic Atwell Tenon and Sister Hallelujah -- play a mix of gospel that leans heavily on the mighty voices of the black choir tradition. Religious or not, this show will get you powered up for your Day of Rest. KAZI 88.7FM, 8906 Wall #203, 836-9544 www.kazifm.org Talk Radio Show: KVET-AM's Sportsday Hosts Jeff Ward and Bill Schoening are informed, articulate, and most importantly, hilarious, meaning you can still get a lot out of the show even if you don't spend your Augusts at St. Ed's angling for a view of Troy and Emmitt. They transcend typical sports talk, plunging head-on into the pop-cultural, irreverent, and the downright weird, and they've cultivated a number of regular callers, such as NASCAR apologist Speed Racer, who add to the circus atmosphere. We personally achieve nirvana every time they play the death-metal Arena Football theme song. KVET/KASE, 705 N. Lamar, 495-1300 www.kvet.com Thing State Did for City: Internet Assistance Grant from TSLAC Sure, we could carp that any city that fancies itself a high-tech capital should not need state aid to bring public Net access to its citizens. But what the hell. Because of an Internet Assistance Grant package from the Texas State Library and Archives Commission, managed by the non-profit Austin Free-Net (connecting Austin Public branches) and the Metropolitan Austin Interactive Network, or MAIN (connecting other local libraries throughout Central Texas), you can now surf from any of Austin's Public locations for free. Think global-information-infrastructurally, act locally. 1201 Brazos, 463-5455 Tv Commercial: Computer Nerdz Go ahead - make fun of the science guys in glasses and plastic pocket protectors: The look is a total aphrodisiac for at least one of our editors who's gone Net crazy. That appeal didn't escape the folks at Computer Nerds, whose endearingly goofy ad on TV stole our hearts. The thing is, they WILL come out to your home to fix your computer woes, whether you can't get Netscape running because of your modem or just to let you know that your screen is black because you DO have to plug it in. Thank heavens for Computer NERDZ! 8127 Mesa, Ste. C-302, 441-6373 www.nerdz.com TV News Format Change: KVUE As a rule, local television news focuses on murder, mayhem, and all other manner of disasters, both natural and man-made. Austin ABC affiliate KVUE has consistently bucked this trend, usually giving these stories less airplay than other stations. Last spring, Channel 24 formalized this policy by adopting a new format that shuns gratuitous violence. While the format has gained plenty of criticism for allegedly censoring important stories, we think it's a big improvement, and since the format change, the station has been profiled by National Public Radio, the American Journalism Review and USA Today, among others. 3201 Steck, 459-6521 www.kvue.com Used Mac Gear: Mac Alliance With just a few quick calls to inquire about the availability of a mouse to match a Neanderthal Mac Plus, we learned that there is one place that keeps them, up-keeps them, and sells them at a price way below the competition: Mac Alliance. With their prices, we might not have to wait until next century to upgrade. 900 Old Koenig Ln., 453-3830 Virtual Barn Raising: Austin MAIN (Metropolitan Austin Interactive Network) Community groups lacking in software, tech-knowledge and funding can command a World Wide Web presence virtually overnight with the help of the Metropolitan Austin Interactive Network (MAIN), the nonprofit organization known to conduct "web raisings" that can have a site up and running in as little as an afternoon's time. Although not as direct a form of shelter as our Amish brothers and sisters might have erected, the MAIN website has links to many other not-for-profit agencies (whose sites they've probably set up, too), that put essential information -- such as city and state job bank listings, information on subsidized housing, and health and medical advice -- at the fingertips of citizens who need it most. www.main.org/ Way to Avoid Travel Agents: Flifo We've done well ordering our airline tickets over the Web on Flifo, the online ticket service of Austin's Travelogix, Inc. There are times when a skilled agent comes in handy, but we've come to appreciate having a searchable ticket service when we just need to get away for a weekend. No more being put on hold, pushed towards less-than-desirable airlines, or having little choice of departure days and times. WWW: http://www.flifo.com Way to Ensure Lots of E-mail: Say Your Kid is the Youngest Person on the Net Yeesh! After our faux report on 10-month-old Dylan Cody, the "youngest Austinite to have his very own home page," in the April Fool's Chronicle, we were inundated with e-mail, Website URLs, and sonograms from proud parents and parents-to-be disputing our "claim" of having the tiniest tot in cyberspace. Yeah, but has your toddler made it all the way through Quake? WWW: http://www.austinbiz.net/users/wizkid.html Web Browser In Black & White: Harley Jebens' InterNer Section in XL ENT The best in CD-ROM, surfing the wildest websites, helpful guidance on local providers -- The Austin American-Statesman's Harley Jebens is our favorite Information Superhighway Patrolman. Every week in XL Ent., he sends us someplace new, fun, weird, informative, or just different. Thanks, Harley! Austin American-Statesman, 305 S. Congress, 445-3500 www.statesman.com Yellow Brick Net: Gay-Friendly Directory Online Don't surrender, Dorothy! This town is full of friends, if the Gay-Friendly Directory is any indication. While the Directory in and of itself is notable enough, its leap into the ether, providing online services is a great addition to the Austin Web community. WWW: http://www.gayfriendly.com |
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