Volume 24, Number 47
ON THE COVER:
news
Can big bucks and big names return the CBS affiliate to the land of the ratings living?
BY KEVIN BRASS
First test showed no drugs in suspect; second contradicted
BY JORDAN SMITH
Heritage neighbors give mixed reviews to redevelopment north of the Drag
BY DANIEL MOTTOLA
Headlines and happenings from Austin and beyond
BY LEE NICHOLS AND CHERYL SMITH
No solution; another special session is coming
BY AMY SMITH
While the Lege shows what not to do, the city has a chance to do better
BY MICHAEL KING
Enlist the rich; and Supremes clear the way for government to turn your property over to companies that'll pay more in taxes
BY JIM HIGHTOWER
food
Maiko sushi lounge has great potential, but some of its promises have gone unfulfilled
BY CLAUDIA ALARCÓN
Thoughts on the feeding tube; plus, Nu Age, El Chilito, and everything you need to know, event-wise, for the upcoming week on the Austin food scene
BY VIRGINIA B. WOOD
Food Reviews
The land of milk and honey down Far West
Less Louis Prima than the Spins
music
Tough Austin tenorman Alex Coke
BY JAY TRACHTENBERG
Looking back on the onetime heart of local hip-hop, Catfish Station, and the visuals that defined it
BY ROBERT GABRIEL
Hanging with the Devil's Rejects, dodging downtown water-gun fire, mourning two more fallen rockers
BY CHRISTOPHER GRAY
Phases & Stages
Illinois
Live shot
Weather and Water
Engineers
Free the Bees
Axes
Alpine Static
screens
'Murderball' and the making of a celebrity
BY SHAWN BADGLEY
Craig Brewer tells the story behind 'Hustle & Flow'
BY MARC SAVLOV
Action Figure's new digs; plus, 'The Cassidy Kids,' Native American shape-shifters vs. bounty hunters, and more
BY JOE O'CONNELL
What the ...?
BY BELINDA ACOSTA
Screens Reviews
Based on one of Robert Crumb's earliest characters, Fritz the Cat doesn't exactly survive the test of time and was admittedly off-base to begin with Crumb famously hated the movie and killed Fritz off in a subsequent comic but that didn't diminish the film's popularity
Film Reviews
This genial remake is Billy Bob Thornton’s game all the way.
A viciously entertaining psycho-road-movie-revenge-‘n’-wreckage-romance.
A rousing Rocky story set on the mean streets of Memphis.
If you like Maxim, you'll love this latest from adrenaline fiend Michael Bay.
This doc about quadriplegic rugby entertains, informs, and inspires.
arts & culture
There's much more to Ms. Channing than Dolly and Lorelei
BY ROBERT FAIRES
Curtain up on GRRL Action and Vortex Summer Youth Theatre
BY BARRY PINEO
The Zachary Scott Theatre Center had to close its hit production of 'Hank Williams: Lost Highway' because of a planned national tour of the show
BY ROBERT FAIRES
Vocalist Tina Marsh, pianist Eddy Hobizal, and cellist Terry Muir have recorded their delectably eclectic program from last summer's CO2 benefit, and the CD is out
BY ROBERT FAIRES
After only a year and just two productions, play! Theatre Group has sold its building at East 12th and Cedar and cancelled all future productions
BY ROBERT FAIRES
A new short film by Austin comic Tom Hester screens at the big Just for Laughs international comedy festival in Montreal
BY ROBERT FAIRES
Arts Reviews
Zilker Theatre Productions' staging of 'Annie Get Your Gun' is delightful enough to make you feel there are no show people like show people
The Original Theatre Company's 'The Two Lives of Napoleon Beazley' presents the story of a Texas teen sentenced to death with heartbreaking scenes, evoking pathos for injustice
In her clothesline installation 'Winter Hung to Dry,' artist Karyn Olivier utilizes the sparest means to penetrate the consciousness of nostalgia and perception
The Texas Monkey Project: 2005 Art Show and Sale runs Saturday, July 23 through Saturday, Aug. 20, at Progress Coffee. All proceeds benefit the Primarily Primates sanctuary
columns
Our readers talk back.
No recent commemoration of the 150th anniversary of Walt Whitman's 'Leaves of Grass' shared the poem's spirit or its author's invitation to expand the very definition of 'human being'
BY MICHAEL VENTURA
BY STEPHEN MACMILLAN MOSER
You've got mail ... and gonorrhea!
BY SANDY BARTLETT
Caring for the special needs of premature babies
BY JAMES HEFFLEY, PH.D.
Buying on eBay caveat emptor part II
BY LUKE ELLIS AND MEGAN LONERGAN
Jim Hansen, aka the Birdman of Bellville, can tell you a thing or two about birds and birdhouses
BY GERALD E. MCLEOD
24,000 metal knife-shaped objects of unknown origin and purpose
BY MR. SMARTY PANTS
Our latest batch
, Friday, July 22, 2005
BY THE LUV DOC
Letters to the editor, published daily
sports
Lightning buckles under Heat, and U.S. advances to Gold Cup semi-finals
BY NICK BARBARO