Hotel Vegas
Volume 20, Number 17
features
On the Santa Trail
Ace reporter Jordan Smith is hot on the trail of Austin's own Santa.
BY JORDAN SMITH
news
Commuter Rail: Stuck in the Station Again
The attempt to salvage commuter rail in the San Antonio-Dallas Corridor
BY ROBERT BRYCE
Mystery Train
Light Rail's narrow defeat at the polls has probably spared Capital Metro an assault by legislators in January. But the agency is trying to figure out how to keep rail on track while satisfying Republican legislators who want sales tax returned.
BY MIKE CLARK-MADISON
Naked City
Cheney and Bush interview prospective hires. Which Texans go to Washington as Bush takes office and the economy cools down?
BY LOUIS DUBOSE
The Hightower Lowdown
Hightower on clean elections, corporate genetic research, and living wage legislation
BY JIM HIGHTOWER
Capitol Chronicle
As Gov. Bush moves to D.C. in a wave of acclamation, the Legislature prepares to meet over redistricting and new legislation.
BY MICHAEL KING
food
Potluck at the Pedernales
Cuisines editor Virginia B. Wood asked each of the writers who contribute to the Cuisines section to prepare one or two dishes for a potluck dinner. Here's what they came up with.
BY VIRGINIA B. WOOD
Food-o-File
Considering the date, it's likely all your Christmas shopping is already done, but Cuisines Editor Virginia B. Wood has some ideas for gifts that keep giving long after the wrapping paper has been thrown away.
BY VIRGINIA B. WOOD
Second Helpings: Creole/Cajun
Beauxdacious po-boys, muffalettas, étoufée, and jambalaya in this week's Cajun / Creole-themed "Second Helpings."
music
The Little Station That Could
Austin's AAA station KGSR and its market ascendance.
BY MICHAEL BERTIN
Nourishment for the Soul
Correo Aereo Deepens, Ripens, and Grows
BY BELINDA ACOSTA
Dancing About Architecture
Somehow George W. Bush becomes president and takes Jimmie Vaughan with him. Swine.
BY KEN LIECK
Record Reviews
Dale Watson
Christmas Time in Texas
Various Artists
Blue Christmas
Tina Marsh & CreOp Muse
Circle of Light
Caroline Peyton
Celtic Christmas Spirit
Various Artists, Rosie O'Donnell & Friends
Martha Stewart Living: Home for the Holidays, Another Rosie Christmas
Bing Crosby & the Andrew Sisters
A Merry Christmas with Big Crosby & the Andrew Sisters
Mark Mothersbaugh
Joyeux Mutato
Lynyrd Skynyrd
Christmas Time Again
Lovemongers
The Last Noel
Steve Vai
The 7th Song
Various Artists
Sleighed: The Other Side of Christmas
Christina Aguilera
My Kind of Christmas
Lara y Reyes
Navidad
Cuba L.A.
Navidad Cubana
Yolanda Adams
Christmas with Yolanda Adams
Soundtrack
Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas
screens
Crimes of Passion and Prose
With Quills, Philip Kaufman (Henry & June, The Unbearable Lightness of Being) has made another film about the startling fusion between literature and sex.
BY MICHAEL VENTURA
Short Cuts
To the eyes of Austin animator Bob Sabiston, those ubiquitous Earthlink.com commercials by Klasky Csupo Inc. (the creators of Rugrats) look an awful lot like the work created by his proprietary software, which is being used in the new Richard Linklater feature Waking Life.
BY MARC SAVLOV
TV Eye
Don't know what gift to get your couch potato? Well, why not buy your spud-butt a book? Yes, a book.
BY BELINDA ACOSTA
Screens Reviews
A Christmas Story
A Christmas Story strikes a balance between being sentimental and irreverent, with Peter Billingsley putting in one of the better performances ever from a child actor and the rest of the cast clearly having a good time.
Santa Claus
This Santa might actually frighten a small child, chortling uncontrollably through the whole movie and leering at the camera. More than likely, however, a kid above the age of four would probably find it unbearably hokey and dumb.
Santa Claus Conquers the Martians
If Ed Wood had ever made a Christmas movie, it would probably have turned out a lot like this.
Film Reviews
Cast Away
Chocolat
This English-language movie is set in a provincial French village in 1959 and deals with the pressing question of whether the seductive and mysterious powers of chocolate can soothe the priggish tendencies of the local townsfolk – and during Lent, no less.
Dude, Where's My Car?
arts & culture
Professors of Pleasure
Their name may suggest a lack of intelligence, but make no mistake, the Flaming Idiots are wise men when it comes to comedy.
BY ROBERT FAIRES
Articulations
Dispatches from New York: Playwright Aaron Mack Schloff on the reading of his work In Galicia and artist Michael A. Arthur on creating drawings for American Ballet Theatre.
BY ROBERT FAIRES
columns
Page Two
BY LOUIS BLACK
Postmarks
Our readers talk back.
Public Notice
Gather 'round the Yule log and the figgy pudding, get out a paper and pen, and jot down some of these items form our Annual Holiday Wish List 2000. Local organizations need you!
BY KATE X MESSER
Letters at 3AM
Let's Get Drunk and Read Poetry
BY MICHAEL VENTURA
Mr. Smarty Pants
BY MR. SMARTY PANTS
After a Fashion
It's perfect outside for staying in with a good book ...
especially one loaded with lots of pretty pictures ... of semi-nude
men ...
BY STEPHEN MACMILLAN MOSER
Coach's Corner
Why does a nice Jewish boy have to put up a
Christmas tree?
BY ANDY "COACH" COTTON
Day Trips
BY GERALD E. MCLEOD
About AIDS
Brazil Gives HIVers a Big Gift: Free Meds
BY SANDY BARTLETT
Feedback
Letters to the editor, published daily
