"Is he cutting out his own eye?" Just about every film fan has their favorite Stan Winston moment. For me, it was the bit in The Terminator when the T100 does some impromptu plastic self-surgery in a sleazy hotel with a scalpel. For others it's a decapitation here or a subtle wrinkle there or a psychotic killer knee-deep in someone's gizzards all over the killing floor. But there shall be no more such moments, because one of the special effects greats died yesterday. From 1972's Gargoyles to Iron Man, as a make-up artist, effects co-ordinator and designer, director and producer, Winston spent decades creating wonders and robbing audiences of a good night's sleep. It was Winston that aged the cast of Roots, that took the alien out of the shadows in Aliens, carved the scars into Edward Scissorhands' face, hid raptors in the weeds of Jurassic Park, and earned four Oscars, four Saturns, three BAFTAS, and two Emmys along the way. But amongst many horror fans, there will always be a soft, squishy place in their gooey, blood-filled hearts for his own films: like Creature Features, the short series of B-Movies he produced for HBO in 2001, remaking Samuel Arkoff classics like She-Creature and Earth vs. The Spider. And, of course, no movie summed up the vengeance-fueled demon genre like his directorial debut, Pumpkinhead.

Breaking news: Cavemen continue to not be hot. On the heels of the disastrous ABC sitcom Cavemen and Roland Emmerich's universally reviled 10,000 B.C. comes the release of Homo Erectus, the long-delayed lowbrow comedy from the now-shuttered UT production arm Burnt Orange Productions. In a Variety review posted Thursday, June 12, Peter Debruge – a UT alum and a former Chron contributor (as well as classmate of yours truly) – took a club to Homo Erectus and proceeded to pound at will. The opening whack:

Ran into Austin filmmaker David Modigliani at Barton Springs yesterday, and he had nothing but good news to report. First, there was the June 4th Crawford, TX, premiere of Crawford, Modigliani's doc about W's effect when he set up house in the small Texas town. He deemed it a wildly successful night, netting about 400 attendees and giving him a chance to do some more filming for future DVD extras. (Go here to see Variety's photo essay from the night.) But the good news doesn't stop there – during the Crawford screening, Modigliani received a text letting him know he'd just won the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the Brooklyn International Film Festival. Modigliani flies out on Thursday for the Munich International Film Festival, something Crawford's residents get an especial kick out of, Modigliani told me – that the little pic about the tiny town is going global, baby.

I can't decide if this new CBS reality show is one of the four horsemen of the Hollywood-has-so-run-out-of-ideas-alypse... or the awesomest guilty pleasure ever. It's called Greatest American Dog; the gist is that a bunch of super-talented dogs live in a house together with their show moms and dads and compete for the title of... well, you know. Although one does wonder about how they measure the greatness of a dog. Sure, back flips and skateboarding skills are impressive, but they're not really indicative of dogness, are they? That's more like Greatest American Dog Impersonating a Human. How about Greatest American Dog Licking His Balls for an Hour? Greatest American Dog premieres Thursday, July 10 on CBS. Show preview below. (link via EW's PopWatch)

Richard Linklater's loving doc of UT baseball coach Augie Garrido, Inning by Inning: A Portrait of a Coach, will make its nationally televised debut Sunday night, June 15, on ESPN2 at 9pm. Austinites were treated to its regional premiere and a Q&A with Linklater and Garrido at the Paramount Theatre Tuesday, June 3. Garrido sports the most wins of any NCAA baseball coach ever and has won five championships over four decades at two schools (Cal State Fullerton and UT). Our own Ashley Moreno interviewed Richard Linklater about his doc and her piece “Zen and the Art of Winning Championships” (Screens, May 30) can be found here. Not to be missed are Augie's locker-room “talks” with his players following disappointing (in his opinion, regardless of the numbers on the scoreboard) outings. I recommend programming your DVRs now before you forget.

The New York Times' Books blog, Paper Cuts, has a recurring thread called "Living With Music," in which authors write about their perfect playlists. I was thinking about this as I set down to blog about The Black Cab Sessions, the site where musicians like St. Vincent, Spoon, and Daniel Johnston can be seen singing a single song in a taxi cab as it roams the streets of London. I'd wandered onto the site because, after months of not listening to Bon Iver at all, I suddenly had to watch everything the Internet had to offer of him (Bon Iver is the recording name of singer/songwriter Justin Vernon; Darcie Stevens wrote about him in relation to licensing here). I hadn't stopped listening to Bon Iver on purpose – I'd just sort of forgot. Moved onto newer loves. You know what it's like – when you get crazy-obsessed with a song (like "Skinny Love"), and you just wanna curl up in the sound and stay there forever. And then a week passes, or a month, and you sort of forget. You caught a bug for a while, and then you got better – or worse, depending on your point of view. I don't think I'm alone in that I feel best, my most ragged and alive, when caught in the clutches of something or someone else.

Steve Metze, a National Guardsman and Desert Storm vet, was teaching film at UT when he was deployed to Iraq. He took his camera with him, aiming to capture, in his words, "no bias, no headline, just the day-to-day reality of life in Iraq balancing the defense of an entire base with the struggle to keep my brand new family together." (Metze shipped out nine days after getting married; his first child was born while he was away.) Filmmakers Steve Metze and Don Swaynos will be in attendance at a special Austin Film Festival sponsored screening of Year at Danger (Danger was the name of Metze's basecamp in Iraq) on Thursday, June 12, 7:30pm at the Regal Arbor Cinema (9828 Great Hills Trail). The event is free for AFF members and $4 for the general public. For more info, go here.

Technology is changing the way servicemen and veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are communicating, not just with their family and community but with the nation at large – something the soon-to-premiere web show In Their Boots captures in its tagline: "A new show. A new medium. A new America." The web series – which will weekly profile a new veteran and his or family, followed by a live discussion – premieres online on Wednesday, July 2, but locals don't have to wait that long. There will be a sneak preview of the series' premiere episode, "Beating the Odds," featuring injured Round Rock Army combat medic Alan Babin and his family, on Wednesday, June 18, at 7pm at VFW Post 8787 (500 VFW Road). The Babin family will take part in a Q&A post-screening; there will also be a musical performance by Iraq vet Levon Ingram, and Iraq vet and In Their Boots host Jan Bender will be in attendance. The evening is free and open to the public; donations are appreciated and will benefit the VFW foundation. For more info, call 512-836-8767 or go here. RSVPs are encouraged.

The Texas Filmmakers' Showcase lineup was announced not too long ago, and five Austin films made the cut. And by cut, I mean these five shorts were selected by the Houston Film Commission to be shown (along with three others) at the Showcase's annual special screening in L.A., in which studio execs, agents, and producers are invited to the Directors Guild of America theatre to sample the talents of Texas. Homegrown films include Toddy Burton's "The Aviatrix," Julio & Marla Quintana's "Death Of An Ally," SunHee Cho's "jean=truth," Anne S. Lewis' "Separate Vacations," and Keith Wilson's "When The Light's Red" (a funny, neurotic short we enjoyed the hell out of at UT's annual Hollywood Showcase in 2007). (Did we mention that two Showcasers are part of the Chron family? Both Burton and Lewis are frequent Chronicle contributors. Congrats, ladies.) An Austin screening of the Showcase is in the works. When we know, you'll know.