Volume 22, Number 49
features
Prescriptions for Survival
When it comes to going back to school, what will be, will be…
BY ABE LOUISE YOUNG
news
Let the Battles Begin!
The new city budget promises less is less.
BY MIKE CLARK-MADISON
With Minimal Drama, Saltillo Project Lurches Forward
Capital Metro hires a planner and appoints community advisors for the rail-yard redevelopment
BY LAURI APPLE
Patched Atoms: Feds OK Restarting the Nuke
Despite not really knowing why South Texas Project 1 sprang a leak, federal regulators are satisfied with the $4 million repair job.
BY WILLIAM M. ADLER
Fine Prison Dining: The Cheese (and Bacteria) Come a la Carte
Inmate advocates allege that TDCJ routinely feeds prisoners -- but not guards -- substandard and inadequate food
BY JORDAN SMITH
Naked City
Headlines
BY MIKE CLARK-MADISON
Albuquerque or Bust!
The Texas Senate Democrats make a stand in New Mexico against congressional redistricting.
BY MICHAEL KING
Austin @ Large: New (and Improved)
The new Liveable City survey confirms a community consensus on development and governing issues.
BY MIKE CLARK-MADISON
The Hightower Lowdown
Republicans come out against "misleading information" -- oh, the irony! And, patriotic defense contractors refuse to buy American.
BY JIM HIGHTOWER
food
The Taste of Summer
The perfect meal, searching for seafood tamales, eating wild strawberries stoned, and more memories of heat and hunger
Food-o-file
Virginia B. Wood gives The Restaurant a room-temperature review, and plates up the latest local news in this week's "Food-o-File."
BY VIRGINIA B. WOOD
Second Helpings: Slices of Life, Part III
music
Do Shepherds Dream of Digital Sheep?
2178: A digital-music dystopia
BY MICHAEL CHAMY
TCB
Scuttlebutt from the Dead Club Capital of the World
BY CHRISTOPHER GRAY
Phases and Stages
Eels
Shootenanny!
50 Cent, Jay-Z
Live Shot
Mainlines, Blood Feasts, and Bad Taste: A Lester Bangs Reader
Bangs, Lester
screens
Love Is a Battlefield
In 'The Holy Land,' indie auteur Eitan Gorlin Feels at home as an interloper in a world of religion, romance, and war.
BY MARC SAVLOV
Here Come the Judges
The Texas Filmmakers' Production Fund Panel screenings
BY SHAWN BADGLEY
In Print
The pint-sized media consumer in the family in need of some ungluing from the TV would do well to flip through this new picture book from satirist Brian Gage.
BY KIMBERLEY JONES
Short Cuts
New Line has no doubt about Tim McCanlies' Secondhand Lions, and Guillermo Del Toro wraps up Hellboy in Prague.
BY MARC SAVLOV
Queer Like Them
"It seems like a mere 20 years ago that prime-time TV viewers were all atwitter about gays on television," writes Belinda Acosta. But now, with the success of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and Boy Meets Boy on Bravo, "viewers are consuming TV's idea of gay culture as happily as a free pass at a day spa." Turns out, though, that there are still a couple of little problems.
BY BELINDA ACOSTA
Screens Reviews
Ararat
Atom Egoyan's cri du coeur about the Armenian massacre of 1915 gets a fitting two-disc release, with interviews, featurettes about the genocide, and director's commentary that hardly pauses for a breath. Marrit Ingman offers her own commentary.
Film Reviews
arts & culture
Speaking Out From the Border
A new play by Gregory Ramos, Border Voices: An Intimate Theatrical Montage about Sex, Fear, and Love on the U.S.-Mexico Border revisits the complex symbolism of the border in the personal stories of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered individuals living in El Paso, Texas; Juarez, Mexico; and Las Cruces, New Mexico.
BY BELINDA ACOSTA
Articulations
Owing to budget woes in the College of Fine Arts, the UT PAC Prop Shop is closed for business, and local choreographers and dance companies earn national awards and international gigs.
BY ROBERT FAIRES
Arts Reviews
'"New American Talent: The Eighteenth Exhibition"'
For the 18th edition of the annual "New American Talent" show at Arthouse, curator Dominic Molon has steered away from choosing what might be the "best" new art today and chosen instead what suits his particular tastes, which means art that is sardonic, humorous, and hip, with lots of brightly surreal color and texture.
Guys and Dolls
In Broadway Texas Academy's production of Guys and Dolls, the cast of youthful actors look to be joyfully immersed in Damon Runyon's picturesque world, reveling in the extravagant personalities of its gamblers, gangsters, and nightclub dancers with knockout gams.
Norman Normal Saves the World
With Norman Normal Saves the World, writer and solo performer Rob Nash creates a breakout vehicle for the sinus-clearing, "I could kill you right now" über-geek of Nash's Holy Cross Sucks!, and its absurd hilarity, along with Nash's usual clarity in characterization, chameleon comic abilities, and ever-sharp wit, make this Holy Cross installment a fine summer blockbuster of its own.
columns
Page Two
If he were CEO, and not governor, of Texas, Rick Perry's lazy disloyalty would never be tolerated; look for new "Postmarks" online daily; Screens Editor Kimberley Jones decamps for graduate school; and we honor the righteous life of Marjorie Hershey.
BY LOUIS BLACK
Postmarks
Our readers talk back.
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
BY MR. SMARTY PANTS
To Your Health
A friend and I will take an extended hiking/camping vacation this fall, and I am looking for a way to get safe water on the trip without carrying it along or spending a lot of money for a water purifier. What are the options?
BY JAMES HEFFLEY, PH.D.
About AIDS
BY SANDY BARTLETT
Letters at 3AM
Ralph Nader's stubborn refusal to acknowledge any difference between the Republican and Democratic political platforms cost the Democrats the election.
BY MICHAEL VENTURA
Daytrips
BY GERALD E. MCLEOD
Luv Doc Recommends: Alamo Drafthouse’s Camp Hacknslash
Alamo Drafthouse Downtown, Saturday, August 9, 2003
BY THE LUV DOC
Feedback
Letters to the editor, published daily
