We Have an Issue: Life’s Rich Pageant
In praise of people watching, and a face to follow on film
By Kimberley Jones, Fri., May 21, 2021
Dining al fresco at my beloved L'Oca d'Oro last week, newly reopened to outdoor dining after being shuttered for more than a year, there was a lot to thrill at: great food, great company, great people-watching. I hadn't realized how much I missed the people-watching – the conviviality, the feeling of being part of something larger, and the sheer pleasure in gawking at fellow humans. (Dogs, too.) One restaurant over, two guys cradled guitars but never strummed, a dangling threat; the dread of an impromptu jam session got a lot of laughs at our table. (I do not mean this in a mean-spirited way. If we're lucky, everyone finds their people, and my people are the kind of people who do not enjoy impromptu jam sessions.)
Anyway, if you've lived in Austin long enough and make a point of people-watching, you're liable to have seen around town the guy gracing our cover this week, body modification artist Pineapple Tangaroa. To wildly understate things, he's got a distinctive face, one that is prominently featured in a new film called Drunk Bus. Kevin Curtin talks to him about how he landed in movies right here.
Online This Week
ATX Television Festival: The annual Austin celebration of all things TV – streaming again this year – boasts a stacked June lineup, including special events for Steve McQueen's Amazon Prime anthology Small Axe, Showtime's Ziwe, a special tribute to Michael J. Fox, and newly announced closing night premiere The White Lotus, an HBO six-part "tropical thriller" series created by Mike White (Enlightened) and starring Connie Britton.
Escapist Cinema: The Paramount Summer Classic Film Series has announced the first half of its summer programming, kicking off May 27. The series begins with a run of movies with travel in mind (Casablanca; Planes, Trains and Automobiles; Monkey Business; and Strangers on a Train) and features mini retrospectives from the years 1971 and 1996.
Coming in June: The Austin Asian American Film Festival goes to the drive-in with a hybrid online/in-person fest.
Tony Hinchcliffe's Stand-Up Racism: Robert Faires has the story of an insult comic making national headlines for a deeply racist set mocking Asians and Asian Americans.
Eat the Rich: Kevin Curtin contemplates Bright Light Social Hour's surrealist combo video for "Guillotine Billionaires" and "Responsibility," featuring band alter ego Weed Martyr, rubber masks, and a potent performance from a horse named Comanche.
California Weepin': Austin FC had another tough loss in Cali, this time to LA Galaxy. Find "The Verde Report" columnist Eric Goodman's game recap online at austinchronicle.com/austin-fc, or sign up to have all his recaps arrive in your inbox hot off the proverbial press at austinchronicle.com/newsletters.
