Volume 20, Number 2
features
Bug-nut Wayne Alan Brenner goes coo-coo for click beetles!
BY WAYNE ALAN BRENNER
news
Texas environmentalists wonder when George W. Bush will face up to the consequences of killing the Tejas emissions-reduction program.
BY LOUIS DUBOSE
As the presidential race tightens, the Bush campaign doesn't seem to be worried.
BY ROBERT BRYCE
The 'Renaissance' of Far South Austin Pushes Upscale Development South of Stassney
BY AMY SMITH
It could be that the 20 reporters who showed up at the Governor's Mansion on the Sunday before Labor Day saw the only presidential debates that will occur this year; Hyde Park Baptist Church seems intent on moving "Forward Forever"; The light-rail train ride to the polls continues to build steam.
BY LOUIS DUBOSE
food
While it's obvious that hours of work making stocks, sauces, marinades, and custards go into the production of every meal at Siena, the end result is an array of hearty and robust peasant dishes elegant in their simplicity and true to their heritage.
BY VIRGINIA B. WOOD
Anthony Bourdain is a hot literary dish, Rosa Salas, whose salsa was a huge hit at the recent Chronicle Hot Sauce Festival, is already serving her concoction at a local restaurant, and the details on learning how the ancients ate.
BY VIRGINIA B. WOOD
Cuisines writer Lorne Opler scouts out Austin's best smoothies.
Food Reviews
music
One of the hiphop elders delivers a sermon.
BY ANDY LANGER
Austin hip-hop in the house -- really
BY CHRISTOPHER GRAY
Is the Return of Wayne Douglas on the way? Bob Schneider gets a solo record deal.
BY KEN LIECK
Record Reviews
Hot Night Tonight
Cliff's Picks
Extra Extra Darden Smith Sings Twelve Songs by Heart
The Beanhouse
Beer, Bait, and Ammo
Sleepytown
Heave Ho!
Live -- Noise and Smoke
Trash Hits the Rock
The Futants
Bright Ideas for a Better Tomorrow
Peak Moments
De Avonden 091099
The Screamin' Cat
Philo
Full Throttle
Bad Luck -- Or the Plan?
Talk Dirty to Me
Blackmassking
Please Come Home ... Mr. Bulbous
screens
How Christopher McQuarrie, the writer of The Usual Suspects and the director of the upcoming The Way of the Gun, learned to say no.
BY MARJORIE BAUMGARTEN
Todd Phillips' Frat House, screening at the Alamo this Wednesday as part of the Texas Documentary Tour, asks the question: Will you ever dick a brother?
BY ANNE S. LEWIS
BY MARC SAVLOV
Memories of the Jerry Lewis telethon. Also, upcoming KLRU programming for September, Hispanic Heritage Month
BY BELINDA ACOSTA
Screens Reviews
Film Reviews
Easygoing romantic comedy about an unlikely ladies' man.
arts & culture
Good design, like good air, helps you breathe a little easier, and here are a few Austinites who are helping us all breathe easier through their work as graphic designers.
BY WAYNE ALAN BRENNER
Director Don Toner makes his exit from the State Theater Company, and Austin creeps back into the pages of American Theatre magazine.
BY ROBERT FAIRES
Arts Reviews
With Lipstick Traces, the Rude Mechanicals have adeptly created a theatrical adaptation of Greil Marcus' legendary book that is loud, defiant, intelligent, funny, absurd, literate, physical, and fun, a rock concert for your head.
In the State Theater Company production of Martin McDonagh's The Beauty Queen of Leenane, director Don Toner and a strong acting ensemble strikingly evoke a world of brutal feuds and long memories, where an unending series of bitter skirmishes between mother and daughter ends in tragedy.
With Elytra, the artists of the Vortex Repertory Company and Ethos achieve a new level in integrating cyber-opera style and story.
columns
Rather than legislating by principal and vision, the influences on Bush are special interests, short-term voter response, and accident.
BY LOUIS BLACK
Yoga and Starbucks. Karaoke and republicans. Squirrel rifles and Al Gore. Together for the first time in this week's letters to the editor!
Public Notice asks not what it can do for its community but what you can. This week features a list of Austin area Volunteer opportunities.
BY KATE X MESSER
Slightly shopworn but still vital and acerbic fashion authority available for hire ...
BY STEPHEN MACMILLAN MOSER
Lessons in underused geometric shapes.
BY MR. SMARTY PANTS
Coach picks the AFC's winners and losers for the upcoming football season. And, as promising as the Longhorn football team looks, don't get carried away just yet.
BY ANDY "COACH" COTTON
The summer drought is making historical Indian sites throughout Texas more accesible to archaeologists ... and to looters.
BY GERALD E. MCLEOD
Genetically modified Salmonella bacteria look promising as an HIV vaccine.
BY SANDY BARTLETT
Letters to the editor, published daily