A small, sweet gathering was held at La Peña to honor Ana Sisnett, the community activist, writer, poet, friend, and leader who passed away Jan. 13 after a three-year battle with ovarian cancer. An altar bearing photos, flowers, copies of Ana's book, Grannie Jus Come! and sweets had been assembled the night before, and those who attended the event gathered before it to share their memories, poetry, and laughter, and yes, tears. "Oh no," Sisnett's daughter Meredith Sisnett told the assembled. "My mother told us, 'Don't give me one of those sad, sad, everybody crying, funerals!'" Everyone recognized the spirit behind those words, and it was the perfect cue to invite musicians Olivia Prendes and Odaymara Cuesta to perform. The two women, new to Austin, who happened to be from Sisnett's native Panama, were found at a chance meeting earlier in the day. Their spirited, heartfelt singing, accompanied only by conga and rhythm sticks, was the perfect way to send the assembled out into the frigid night, a little warmer than when they arrived. Below are a few remembrances of Ana. Others are invited to share their memories by clicking on the link below. The thread will remain on the Austin Chronicle site indefinitely.

Lately I've been having a bit of insomnia, so I've taken to watching the HG network's many addictive home buying, selling, and improving shows. This doesn't make a lick of sense -- I'm frustratingly far from being able to escape from rental land, so it's kinda like a chubster choosing to pass the time with his face pressed to the glass outside a Krispy Kreme – but for whatever reason, I'm hooked. My favorite show is House Hunters, in which a rental agent takes a potential home buyer to three different properties and weighs the pros and cons; each show ends with an offer, and then a six-months-later happy ending in which the new homeowner shows off the place. I've gotten pretty good at armchair quarterbacking – marveling at open floor plans and gleaming marble islands, tut-tut'ing at laminate floor and unfinished basements. I'm an even bigger sucker for House Hunters International, having whiled away plenty of hours imagining my own Parisian garret with windowbox planters... Which is why when Ellie Nielsen's Buying a Piece of Paris: A Memoir (St. Martin's Press, $24.95) crossed my desk, I took it home and tore into it immediately. (Finished it the same night, too -- like I said, insomnia.)

A few months back we were trolling French eBay searching for some trés chic, dans la Metro-sized film posters that they do so well, when we came across the oddity pictured above. It's the French one-sheet for Samuel Fuller's lost masterpiece White Dog. Needless to say, we snagged that sucker for 40 Euros and promptly plastered it to our wall. Co-scripted by future Oscar-winner Curtis Hanson, Fuller's film is an anti-racist cri de coeur revolving around a stray German shepherd trained to attack and kill black people. Paramount Pictures had expected something along the lines of "Jaws on paws," but, Fuller being Fuller, what they got was something altogther different and far more challenging. Nonplussed, Paramount shelved the film prior to its scheduled release in 1982 and that was that until a brief art-house run a decade later. [You can read Marjorie Baumgarten's review here.] Lo and behold, Criterion, always ahead of the pack, has just resurrected the film in a sparkling new DVD edition with a pristine print, a snarly documentary ("Four Legged Time Bomb"), and more. The irony, of course, is that White Dog has finally received the attention it so richly deserved 27 years ago just as the country that birthed it prepares to swear in its first African-American President. We're pretty sure Sam Fuller would've appreciated that. We certainly do.

RED, WHITE, AND BRAVO!
Bravo has decided to celebrate the presidential inauguration by serving up a day of The West Wing, Aaron Sorkin's award-winning, progressive-leaning drama that aired from 1999 to 2006. Given the spirit of the present, the series' tagline, "The right place. The right time. The right man," seems downright poetic. The West Wing marathon is Tuesday, Jan. 20 from 9am. to 5pm. Check local listings.

Music
United States Marine Band and the San Francisco Boys and San Francisco Girls Chorus

Call to Order, Welcoming Remarks
The Honorable Dianne Feinstein

Invocation
Dr. Rick Warren, Saddleback Church

Music
Aretha Franklin

Oath of Office
Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden, Jr.

Music
Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma, Gabriela Montero, and Anthony McGill, performing a piece composed and arranged by John Williams

Oath of Office
President-elect Barack H. Obama

Inaugural Address
President Barack H. Obama

Poem
Elizabeth Alexander

Benediction
The Reverand Dr. Joseph Lowery

National Anthem
The United States Navy Band

Toasts across the nation. Let the celebration begin.

January has very little to recommend it – it heralds the season of dogs at the moviehouse (literally and figuratively) – but at least from SXSW Film we get the beginning of what I like to call The Long Tease, a deliciously slow reveal of all the goodies it’ll be showing come March. SXSW kicked it off today with an announcement tantamount to an, ahem, soupçon of skin (no more strip metaphors, I swear). First off, there’s Centerpiece comedy Observe and Report, which stars Seth Rogen as a mall security cop embroiled in a turf war with the (real) boys in blue. It was written and directed by Jody Hill, whose underground hit The Foot Fist Way was enthusiastically proclaimed to be the funniest fucking film ever made by no less than Will Ferrell. Also announced are a slew of panelists, including Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke (who’ll be inducted into this year's Texas Film Hall of Fame), Austin elder statesmen Mike Judge and Robert Rodriguez, SXSW wunderkind Joe Swanberg, and – how cool is this? – trailer-maker Mark Woollen (whose work on Milk electrified me in a way, frustratingly, the film itself never did). Wait, there’s more! SXSW, which has built a reputation as a premiere showcase for top-notch docs, has also leaked the names of a number of documentaries playing this year, including one about homegrown rabble-rouser Alex Jones (New World Order) and a new film from Gary Hustwit, who made the weirdly addictive Helvetica. (Who knew font was so hot?) Press release after the jump…

Frontline examines the personal and political life of Barack Obama, outlining his road to the White House, in Dreams of Obama. The episode airs on PBS, inauguration night, Jan. 20 at 8pm and 10pm, with additional screenings through Jan. 23. Check local listings. Can't wait? Dreams of Obama is available for online viewing now. Click here to view. Austin filmmaker Paul Stekler is among the episode’s producers.

Nobody paid much notice when ten years ago, Mike Judge's locally made Office Space opened and closed in theatres in the blink of an eye. A lot came happen in ten years, though, and the cult hit that won't quit is now getting a fancy Blu-Ray release on Feb. 3 and – can we get an "O" face? – a big anniversary/reunion screening at the Paramount Theatre on Sunday, Feb. 8, as presented by SXSW and Fantastic Fest. Judge will most definitely be in attendance, as will select – and as yet undisclosed – members of the cast. (Ron Livingston: You can Post-It note us any day of the week.)

Tickets go on sale at noon this Thursday, Jan. 15, but for 2009 SXSW and Fantastic Fest badgeholders only. The general public will have a shot at 'em starting at noon on Saturday, Jan. 17 at the Paramount box office or online at gettix.net. There are also a limited number of VIP tickets available. For more info, check out sxsw.com or fantasticfest.com.

Actually, make that the other screen. It's not the cable news network, but its online cousin that is teaming with Facebook, the popular social networking site, to glean FB users' reactions to the event (via status reports) and offer them in real time on CNN.com during the actual inauguration ceremony on Jan. 20, according to a MediaWeek.com report. Since the inauguration is happening during the workweek, the enormous interest in the event is likely to keep a lot of workers distracted from their normal activities as they try to follow the historic event online and through other media sources. CNN.com wants to capitalize on this activity by luring Facebook users and driving viewers to their site in the process. CNN.com will stream the event live, including a "mini-Facebook" window in the corner of their site. Facebook users can update their status, remark on what they're seeing, and have their status reports show up on CNN.com. It would be even cooler if CNN would show the Facebook status updates on their cable network. But who knows? Speaking it is the first step in making something come to life.