Top 10 Film/Video notables of 2003
1) “Nutella and Gummi Bear Sandwich” for Precarious Warehaüs Dwellers by Zellner Brothers 2) “Frijolero” & “Hit Me” videos for Molotov by Jason Archer and Paul Beck 3) “Projections” video series for the “Difficult Daughters” exhibit at the Blanton Museum of Art 4) Luke Savisky at Testsite or anywhere else! 5) Lori Surfer for Gorch…
News Top Tens
Top 10 Local Stories 1) East Austin vs. APD: As controversy raged on — and the investigations dragged on — over the 2002 death of Sophia King, the June fatal police shooting of Jessie Lee Owens took conflict between APD — and City Hall — and the African-American community to a whole new level. By…
DVD Watch
Every girl’s a sucker for a disheveled goofball who’s crying on the inside.
Top 10 Contemporary Art Shows of 2003
1) “Walk Ways” (Arthouse) 2) “Juror’s Choice 2003” (Women & Their Work) 3) “Natural Selections: Julie Speed and Bale Creek Allen” (Arthouse) 4) “Lauren Levy and Owen McAuley” (D. Berman Gallery) 5) “Diana Dopson: Biota” (Women & Their Work) 6) “Summer Light” (D. Berman Gallery) 7) “Hallowed Ground” (Gallery Lombardi) 8) “Virginia Fleck and Daphane…
News Top Tens
Top 10 State Stories 1) The Republican Ascendancy: In the style of the masters they serve, once the Republicans took over all the statewide offices, the House, and Senate, they acted like majority stockholders in a corporation rather than leaders of a bipartisan government. They set about dismantling the social safety net, public education, and…
New Year’s Eve Events
As the coming new year begins to claw its way through the still-living carcass of the old one and citizens start jockeying for the best position from which to celebrate the consummation of this temporal abstraction, your crack team of Chronicle chrononauts is on the ball with the pertinent lowdown. Never too busy mixing metaphors…
Top 10 Mixed-Media Artists of 2003
1) Faith Gay 2) Lance Letscher 3) Randy “Biscuit” Turner 4) Sodalitas 5) Rory Skagen 6) Win Wallace 7) Kate Breakey 8) Andy Coolquitt 9) Sun McColgin 10) Irene Roderick
News Top Tens
Top 10 Legislature Stories 1) The Texas Redistricting Massacre: Whatever the final outcome, the 78th will be long remembered as the Lege that broke the decennial dam on no-holds-barred partisan warfare. Tom DeLay gave us the gift of angry hearings, busted quorums, legislators in full flight and bitter exile in two states, and now a…
Paycheck
Affleck and Uma race to descramble the past in this futuristic thriller based on a Philip K. Dick short story and directed by John Woo.
Top 10 Arts Events in 2003
1) Steinberg comes to town. Two Leo Steinberg Collection print exhibitions at UT’s Blanton Museum of Art allowed us to begin to experience the wealth of images and ideas in this vast treasure. To top it off, Steinberg himself gave an awesome lecture that opened his collection for us to see from his eyes and…
News Top Tens
Top 10 APD Moments 1) The Sound of Glasses Clinking: APD Assistant Chief Jimmy Chapman has left the building. Yes, it’s true. Although he has insisted that he’s done nothing wrong, even as controversy and allegations of improper conduct have swarmed around him all year, Chapman unexpectedly decided to leave the APD effective Dec. 31.…
Calendar Girls
Middle-aged British women bare all for charity.
Most Memorable Theatre I Chanced to See in 2003 — A SemiHierarchical List
1) The Flaming Idiots (Zachary Scott Theatre Center) The single most entertaining group of performers I’ve seen in around a decade. 2) An Ideal Husband (Different Stages) Some people complained that I was surprised this worked so well. I was surprised — in the best way possible. Acting, direction, sets, costumes — the whole thing,…
News Top Tens
Top 10 Lege Moments 1) Tomball Rep. Debbie Riddle succinctly summarizes the Republican position: “Where did this idea come from that everybody deserves free education? Free medical care? Free whatever? It comes from Moscow. From Russia. It comes straight out of the pit of hell.” 2) El Paso Rep. Paul Moreno — Quorum-Buster No. 51…
One From the Heart
One From the Heart 1982, R, 100 min. Directed by Francis Ford Coppola, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Frederic Forrest, Teri Garr, Raul Julia, Nastassja Kinski, Lainie Kazan, Harry Dean Stanton. Coppola goes for broke, in more ways than one, in this aptly titled 1982 film. Set in a Las Vegas of the…
Articulations
Former fixture on the Austin comedy scene Charlie Shannon has passed away.
News Top Tens
Top 10 Drug War Moments 1) Ashcroft Busts Chong: In February, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft gleefully announced that his drug warriors busted 50 individuals, including pot-comedy icon Tommy Chong, as part of a Justice Department-led undercover drug paraphernalia trafficking operation code-named Operation Pipe Dreams. It seems that although Chong’s Internet-based hand-blown-glass bong company had…
Truth Is Best Approached Indirectly
8) Brownsville: Stories by Oscar Casares (Little, Brown/Back Bay Books): Our Roger Gathman on the stories of former Dobie Paisano fellow Casares in March: The “poetry of their slow burns tells us that Casares has been listening. His dialogues seem to hang just outside the realm of literature, which is where real writing happens. Casares…
Page Two
History is speed-racing through this decade; we’re queasy and anxious to get to the finish line.
News Top Tens
Top 10 Ways to Play With Your Ann Coulter Action Figure 1) Two words: Paris Hilton. 2) Wipe that smirk (and everything else) off her face! (Try Easy-Off Oven Cleaner.) 3) Hair play. Give her cornrows. Or a Mohawk. 4) Feed her $500,000 worth of OxyContin. (It’s OK. It’s for her pain, not for kicks.)…
A Taste for Every Bud
The year in food, 2003
After a Fashion
Who was tops in 2003? Who will last into 2004?
News Top Tens
Top 10 Austin Media Moments 1) Statesman Manufactures a Crisis: BARTON SPRINGS IS BEING POISONED! WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE! AAAUUGGGHHH!!!! Or maybe not. In typical Statesman fashion, the local daily 1) finds a scandal where, in fact, there is none; 2) issues stern and condescending editorial reprimands to the citizenry; and 3) is stunned when…
Texas Top 10s
Chronicle critics list their Top 10 Texas albums for 2003
Daytrips
The year in review, “Day Trips” style
Naked City
Headlines Quote of the Week: “Don’t tell us to go to the Legislature for help, because the state of Texas has never done anything for minorities that it wasn’t forced to do by the federal government.” — Attorney Rolando Rios, arguing for the plaintiffs in the Texas redistricting trial A decision is expected this week…
National Top 10s
Chronicle critics list their Top 10 National albums
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
‘For the love of God, beam me up Scotty!’
Naked City
A verdict is expected this week in the federal case against the congressional remap
TCB
Fifteen music lists from 2003, plus a sample Austin Music Poll ballot. Fill yours out now!
The Common Law
Some common issues that can arise with your bank
Naked City
The company, the alliance, the mayor, and the Statesman read each other’s e-mail.
Translate This
2003 in Film
To Your Health
Can boys become anorexic?
Naked City
The DA passes on a perjury case against the outgoing APD assistant chief @META_Name(s) of Subject_pols: Mala Sangre
End of an Arts Era
The most prosperous period in Austin’s cultural history came to a painful close in 2003.
About AIDS
“It’s time for me to start on the pills. What’s the best drug combination to use first?” This is a question we hear often, and it’s been a puzzlement to doctors and patients alike. Finally, two studies demonstrate that there is actually a best first regimen for most patients just starting treatment: a three-drug combination…
Naked City
The state auditor does its job, the state enviro agency doesn’t. Guess who gets the governor’s goat?
Top 10 Shows in 2003 That Shed Light in a Dark Year
1) where nothing falls (Sally Jacques Productions) In a year shadowed by war, loss, and grief, Sally Jacques took us to heaven. The choreographer set this site-specific work in a cavernous warehouse space, close and sweltering in the summer heat, but when her fearless corps of roller-skating dancers glided out of a fog bank at…
Dead & Buried
Recapping 2003
The Hightower Report
Federal workers should not be paid below-poverty wages, and electronic voting machines should provide paper ballots.
10 That Get 10s in 2003
1) Ron Berry and The North Project (Refraction Arts Project) Ron Berry led a talented creative team on a quest through the Blue Theater to discover our fascination with all things North. Arctic and cathartic, this total-theatre journey will linger long after the last snows have melted. 2) Pepe Romero (Austin Classical Guitar Society) Mesmerizing,…
Critics Poll
Chronicle critics size up 2003
Short Cuts
Austin film — top 10 with a bullet
Top 10 Artists to Watch for in 2004 (in no particular order)
1) Eric Gibbons, painter 2) Stella Alesi, painter 3) John Sager, collage/assemblage 4) Benné Rockett, mixed media 5) Sodalitas, painters/mixed media 6) Sun McColgin, metal/fiberglass sculptor 7) Paul Beck, painter 8) Oscar Silva, fiber sculptor 9) Anna Marie Pavlik, printmaker 10) Faustinus Deraet, photographer
TV Eye
The best of TV in 2003 — with some weirdness and disappointment in there somewhere
Luv Doc Recommends: The Diamond Smugglers
This year New Year’s Eve falls on hump day. Larry Flynt couldn’t have dreamed it up any better himself. The electric buzz of indefinable expectation that always accompanies New Year’s will have an additional sexual subtext this year – as if the pressure of copping some lip at midnight weren’t enough. Don’t sweat it. People…
