Aug. 11, 2006

Volume 25, Number 50

ON THE COVER:
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

BY NICK BARBARO

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