The Vortex
news
The Taco Kings, Besieged
A conflict with neighborhoods has made the previously independent street taco vendors organize in self-defense
BY MICHAEL MAY
Design Standards
Austin's new commercial design standards are ready for prime time
BY WELLS DUNBAR
City Budget Hearings Begin Today
Parks and Rec, Library funding, Health and Human Services, Neighborhood Housing and Community Development, and Solid Waste Services to be discussed; citywide increases proposed across the board
BY MICHAEL KING
Democrats Get a Boost From Court Redistricting
District 25 will now be more rooted in Travis County, yet also more conservative
BY LEE NICHOLS AND KIMBERLY REEVES
Vintage Thieves
Female team targets local vintage store employees' purses and wallets
BY SEAN O'NEAL
Pie-in-the-Sky Pollution
Federal Clean Air Act critics say it's an unrealistic, paper-only policy
BY KIMBERLY REEVES
Plan B Politics
FDA officials to meet with representatives of Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc. about long-stalled plan to sell Barr's emergency contraceptive Plan B sans prescription
BY JORDAN SMITH
More Minimum Wage Woes
We have less than four months to go to beat our national minimum wage stagnation record, and we're doing great!
BY CHERYL SMITH
Naked City
Headlines and happenings from Austin and beyond
Point Austin: Oppel vs. Chomsky
On seeing the world through blood-drenched eyes
BY MICHAEL KING
Beside the Point
Council members take to the waters, al fresco
BY WELLS DUNBAR
The Hightower Report
Another Front Group for George; and Protecting America from Fair Drug Prices
BY JIM HIGHTOWER
food
Commemorative Ritual at KatrinaDinner2006.com
One year later, a commemorative ritual for New Orleans
BY VIRGINIA B. WOOD
A Passion for Ice Cream: 95 Recipes for Fabulous Desserts
The perfect guide to a yummy summer
BY CLAUDIA ALARCÓN
Food-o-File
A bittersweet weekend for Taco Xpress
BY VIRGINIA B. WOOD
Event Menu
Go forth and feast
Food Reviews
China Palace
Revisting a Seventies standout
Wild Wood Art Cafe
Shelter from the gluten storm
music
King of Bongo
Tracking Spain/France's illusive King of Latin punk rock, Manu Chao
BY RAOUL HERNANDEZ
The B-Side
Mourning Kim McLagan, the return of Dale Watson, flipping over C-Side Records' Golden Bear and the Channel, Patrice keeps hope alive, and the loss of Love's Arthur Lee and Sahm saxophonist Rocky Morales
BY DARCIE STEVENS
Texas Platters
Midlake
The Trials of Van Occupanther
Gnappy
Unloaded
the Swells
Slept for Seven Days
Eric Tessmer Band
Blues Bullets
the Drams
Jubilee Dive
Blue Diamond Shine
Shrimp Boat Town
Robert Earl Keen, Let's Step Outside, Jim Halfpenny, Stephen Doster & Will Sexton, Eric Hanke
Live at the Ryman, Let's Step Outside, First Things First, Impossible Sun, Autumn Blues
screens
Searching for Once Upon a Time
Why Monument Valley – again part of the Netflix / Alamo Drafthouse Rolling Roadshow this summer – is such a magnetic place for me
BY MARJORIE BAUMGARTEN
Hector Galán on 'Cottonfields and Crossroads'
Local doc on local band opens locally on Aug. 11
BY BELINDA ACOSTA
Film News
Local intrigue abounds; plus, SXSW 07 is ready for your best shot(s)
BY JOE O'CONNELL
TV Eye
Roaring at the Static
BY BELINDA ACOSTA
Screens Reviews
Film Reviews
Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul
This trip through musical Istanbul is a little prettier than it is deep, but it provides a window into the variegated subcultures of a city one musician calls “a bridge crossed by 72 nations.”
Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna
Not reviewed at press time. This Indian drama revolves around the subtle development of attraction between a man and a woman who are married, but not to each other.
Little Miss Sunshine
Like any indie comedy worth its weight in quirkiness, Little Miss Sunshine is packed with offbeat characters, all struggling to find meaning in life – in this case on a road trip to a children's beauty pageant. And the film is so much fun, it's almost impossible not to enjoy the journey.
Los Lonely Boys: Cottonfields and Crossroads
Austinite Hector Galán’s reverential look at Grammy-winning "Texican" rockers Los Lonely Boys is a document of persistence, passion, and some of the finest rock & roll since Stevie Ray Vaughan’s untimely exit.
Once in a Lifetime
The unexpected rise and meteoric fall of the North American Soccer League in the heady, silly mid-Seventies is chronicled for the first time in this charmingly chatty documentary, which ably tracks both the birth of the sport on these shores and its ignominious downfall, which arrived almost overnight with the leave-taking of Pelé.
Shaadi Karke Phas Gaya Yaar
A Bollywood love story about an upper-class man who marries a liberal woman and the problems that inevitably arise in their union.
Step Up
This snooty-dancer-meets-street-dancer musical romance is so painfully intent on teaching its characters life lessons every few minutes that it forgets to be trashy.
World Trade Center
This is not the 9/11 film we expected from Stone, who tells the fact-based story of two individuals who somehow survived the collapse of the World Trade Center and with a remarkable economy of expressionistic detail and bombast.
arts & culture
General Jackson
Artist and historian Jack Jackson remembered by those who knew him well
BY MARGARET MOSER
As Naked as You Wanna Be
Celesta Danger presents a show of her favorite photographs, including images of her partner, art teacher Tamara Hoover, that led to Hoover's suspension by AISD
BY KATE X MESSER
'Seven Year Itch': REALMdanceproject's lucky number
Folks don't often make a big deal out of a seventh anniversary, but with all the changes in REALMdanceproject this year, the troupe thought it a good idea, hence its new show, 'Seven Year Itch'
BY BARRY PINEO
State Theatre: Shows canceled over flood, repairs
In addition to ruining the State Theatre stage, basement, and much valuable equipment, the June flood of the arts venue has washed away most of the State's 2006-2007 season
BY ROBERT FAIRES
Arts Reviews
American Fiesta
The revival of Steven Tomlinson's American Fiesta arrives with such hype, one might think it would have difficulty living up to it; but with this uplifting, transcendent show, one would be wrong
Psycho Beach Party
Prairie Oyster Productions' staging of 'Psycho Beach Party' is trashy, but it's meant to be: a campy, albeit loving, send-up of all things beach, all things Sixties, and all things Hitchcockian
'Beast-Footed Feathered Serpents'
In 'Beast-Footed Feathered Serpents,' artist Jules Buck Jones and writer Caitlin Haskell playfully call into question the facts we use as human beings to make sense of the world.
'Below the Surface: A Different Order'
In both halves of the Marjorie Moore and Jeffrey Dell joint show, "Below the Surface: A Different Order," a sense of loss is communicated, sometimes in terms of artistic technique, sometimes in terms of life
columns
Page Two: Songs of Ourselves
As friends and legends pass, art and memory burst from
the present and warn the future
BY LOUIS BLACK
Postmarks
Our readers talk back.
After a Fashion
Stephen gets all artsy and somehow manages to not even get any on himself. He also encourages men to wear fewer clothes.
BY STEPHEN MACMILLAN MOSER
To Your Health
Although hemp protein is by no means a perfect food, it is a valuable source of fiber, proteins, and essential fatty acids
BY JAMES HEFFLEY, PH.D.
The Common Law
Landlord & tenant issues – security deposit issues
BY LUKE ELLIS
Day Trips
Looking for a nice B&B in Chicago with a terrific porch? Try the Benedictine Bed & Breakfast.
BY GERALD E. MCLEOD
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Keeping Ronald Reagan moving
BY MR. SMARTY PANTS
Luv Doc Recommends: Get Yer Ya Ya’s Out With Sticky Fingers Stones Album Hoot
Ruta Maya, Saturday, August 12, 2006
BY THE LUV DOC
Feedback
Letters to the editor, published daily
sports
Soccer Watch
UT's Lady Longhorns back in action, and more
