Volume 24, Number 30
ON THE COVER:
news
Leading with Al Franken, Air America lands in Austin
BY KEVIN BRASS
The House tax bill passes, but will it actually help
Texas schools?
BY KIMBERLY REEVES
Death penalty proponents trot out predictable
arguments against it
BY JORDAN SMITH
Judge tells bar owners they filed in the wrong court
BY MICHAEL KING
Volunteers fight market forces and nature to control
stray population
BY RACHEL PROCTOR MAY
Headlines and happenings from Austin and beyond
BY LEE NICHOLS AND CHERYL SMITH
'Virtual' or 'Pilot' Lege begins the biennial
campaign to siphon money from public schools
BY AMY SMITH
In their rush to reach out to the Eastside, city officials
get burned
BY MICHAEL KING
Bush's bureaucracy stiffs wounded vets; and
senators receive Gooberhead Award for denying
working stiffs a minimum wage raise
BY JIM HIGHTOWER
food
With the opening of the new Whole Foods, the grocery business in Austin and elsewhere is at its apex
BY RACHEL FEIT
Everything you need to know about Easter Sunday in
Austin
BY VIRGINIA B. WOOD
music
Planet Rock
Live Shots
Backstage pass
SXSW 2005 plows a furrow of beer cans, cocaine,
and music through downtown Austin
BY CHRISTOPHER GRAY
screens
Out Takes
SXSW might be over and done with, but our coverage isn't quite yet: reviews and photos
Prop Master Andina Aste-Nieto
BY WELLS DUNBAR
A reader's letter got me to thinking ...
BY BELINDA ACOSTA
Screens Reviews
Getting to the gist of screwball's golden age
Film Reviews
While Callas Forever seems sincere in its attempt to pay tribute to the world’s most famous opera singer, it unwittingly disserves her in its bizarre wish-fantasy about resurrecting her voice onscreen.
Bernie Mac gets punk'd by Ashton Kutcher.
This refreshingly femme-centric tale advocates on behalf of physics, feminism, and athleticism.
A sweet, emotionally complex film about faith, charity, and growing up is not what most people would have expected from Trainspotting's Danny Boyle, but this new movie is unmistakably his.
No medals will be awarded for this Sandra Bullock follow-up, although the actress proves herself an ever-game comic actress.
Narrative listlessness and a lack of scares makes this mother-and-son reunion a shabby affair.
The life of a retired German miner and accordion player is spurred toward change by the sound of zydeco music.
A fascinating, confounding documentary portrait of the "longest running religious festival in history" – the Kumbh Mela in Prayag, India, a 70 million-strong, once-every-12-years event.
arts & culture
Who is Young-Min Kang? That's what he wants to
know.
BY WAYNE ALAN BRENNER
Arts on Real replaces its scheduled production of
'Adult Entertainment' with the Lost Film Fest
BY ROBERT FAIRES
Christo and Jeanne-Claude are coming to Austin for
the Austin Museum of Art, which has just gotten a
splashy new look
BY ROBERT FAIRES
The Santa Cruz Center for Culture is the fourth
Eastside theatre to be hit by thieves in the last five
months
BY ROBERT FAIRES
A second life for 'Death of a Cat,' a new arts
commissioner from the tourism bureau, and a West
Coast trip for Kathy Dunn Hamrick Dance
BY ROBERT FAIRES
Arts Reviews
The Vortex Repertory Company's 'Sleeping Beauty'
shows the company in a playful mood, delivering a
musical adaptation that is fanciful, lighthearted, and
disarmingly sweet
The Arthouse exhibition 'Between You and Me' uses
video to explore intimate space in the artistic context
The second exhibition for the Open Doors art group
takes advantage of the cavernous AMLI space to
present six new large installation works
columns
Finding peace in the wonderful chaos of SXSW
BY LOUIS BLACK
Our readers talk back.
Stephen in overalls?? Can you see it? Billy Jack can
...
BY STEPHEN MACMILLAN MOSER
Waterloo offering new HIV support group
BY GAIL GOODMAN
What usually happens with chronic hepatitis C
infection, and can anything be done nutritionally to
improve the outcome?
BY JAMES HEFFLEY, PH.D.
Identity theft protect yourself
BY LUKE ELLIS AND LARA WAGNER
Lindsey Wagner, Atlantic tsunamis, Mount St. Helens,
and Condoleezza Rice
BY MR. SMARTY PANTS
Dan Blocker of O'Donnell, Texas, was Hoss
Cartwright on the television show 'Bonanza' and lives
on through reruns and in a museum and small park in
his hometown in the Panhandle
BY GERALD E. MCLEOD
Alamo Drafthouse Downtown, Sunday, March 27, 2005
BY THE LUV DOC
Letters to the editor, published daily
sports
Is Sir Alex 'sackable'?
BY NICK BARBARO