Middle Eastern cuisine in Austin blossoms with Mohamed Kosari's Alborz Persian, writes the Chronicle's Rachel Feit. Hurry, before everyone else notices!

BY RACHEL FEIT

Food-o-File

In this week's "Food-o-File," Food Editor Virginia B. Wood tells us about Austin restaurants at a Fever Pitch, a Shack Attack, Asti's Farm to Table dinner, and much more.

BY VIRGINIA B. WOOD

Food Reviews

Doña Emilia's

Chronicle Food writer MM Pack makes it clear that while you might not be in and out of Doña Emilia's family-style Colombian restaurant in a hurry, it's definitely worth the wait.

music

Phases and Stages

Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, Dexter Gordon

Straight, No Chaser, Bird, Round Midnight

Rock On: Greatest Hits From the Observer Label, Money in My Pocket, Dennis Brown in Dub, Microphone Attack: Niney the Observer 1974-78, Head Shot: Reggae Instrumentals, Dubs and Other Oddities

Johnny Winter, Edgar Winter

The Best of Johnny Winter, The Best of Edgar Winter

Spoon

A Series of Sneaks

Butthole Surfers

Humpty Dumpty LSD

The Psychedelic Furs

Psychedelic Furs, Talk Talk Talk, Forever Now

Richard Hell

Time

Jane Siberry

Love Is Everything: The Jane Siberry Anthology

XTC

Coat of Many Cupboards

Chieftains, Clannad

The Wide World Over, A Magical Gathering

Ozzy Osbourne

Blizzard of Ozz, Diary of a Madman, Tribute

Patti Smith

Land (1975-2002)

screens

Will Video Kill the Celluloid Star?

Most loves fade over time, and the romance of a hundred-plus years of filmmaking seems to be losing its luster as well. At least, that's what the new High Definition video vanguard, led by George Lucas and Robert Rodriguez, is saying. Is video the future of film?

BY MARC SAVLOV

Riff on SIFF

Notes on the Seattle International Film Festival

BY MARJORIE BAUMGARTEN

Science, With a T.W.I.S.T.

Austinite Alana Cash screens two of her documentaries focusing on female scientists in a benefit screening for T.W.I.S.T. (Tomorrow's Women in Science and Technology Inc.).

BY WILL ROBINSON SHEFF

Short Cuts

Congratulations to J.C. Rieser and Shea Warton, two area students handpicked to attend the AFF's Kids 'N Film Summer Camp.

BY MARC SAVLOV

TV Eye

PBS' documentary series P.O.V. offers a kinder, gentler (though no less provocative) brand of television.

BY BELINDA ACOSTA

Screens Reviews

Kicking and Screaming

Sure, its slacker characters incessantly dissect every little thing in circles and circles, harping on the most miniscule details of life and making the same old lame pop-culture references. But Kicking and Screaming rises above other comedies of the mid-Nineties Gen-X genre.

Film Reviews

The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys

Catholic school boys and comics.

Lilo & Stitch

Minority Report

arts & culture

Articulations

The photography gallery Lake Austin Fine Arts closes its doors, and local playwrights Dan Dietz and C. Denby Swanson see new productions of their work.

BY ROBERT FAIRES

Arts Reviews

"Master Harold" … and the boys

This Pro Arts Collective production of Athol Fugard's "Master Harold" … and the boys sneaks up on you, seeming mundane at the outset but in the end delivering a dramatic power that draws tears.

Intergalactic Nemesis Redux

Salvage Vanguard Theater has remounted The Intergalactic Nemesis and Return of the Intergalactic Nemesis, its pair of homages to the golden days of radio, with a double-bill of light-hearted, clever spins on those old serialized mysteries.

12 Steps to a More Dysfunctional Family

With 12 Steps to a More Dysfunctional Family, playwright-performer Rob Nash elevates the unhealthy sport of impersonating the members of one's family into a fulfilling art.

columns

Page Two

The movement to replace traditional film stock with High Definition video is under way, and some notable local directors are leading the charge.

BY LOUIS BLACK

Postmarks

Our readers talk back.

Mr. Smarty Pants

BY MR. SMARTY PANTS

Day Trips

BY GERALD E. MCLEOD

To Your Health

My thyroid test results vary a lot and don't seem to match the way I feel. My prescription for thyroid is usually 75 micrograms (mcg) per day, but sometimes down to 50 mcg/day or up to 88 mcg/day. Why would it vary and what is the best way to tell if my thyroid is OK?