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European Champions League Group Play Opens

And so the group stage is underway. For the most part, the home teams held serve – eight games on Tuesday, and just one visiting team managed to score. And there was nary an upset (unless you count Lyon dumping Real Madrid – again). It was a great week for English clubs, as Arsenal, Man…

by Nick Barbaro

Weekly Digest, Sept. 15, 2006

The Lady Longhorns split a pair of road games last weekend, beating New Mexico 2-1 (Ashley Foster hit the winner in overtime), then losing 1-0 at Rice. The Horns’ national ranking, up from nowhere to No. 8 last week, dropped to 23rd this week. Sic transit gloria. The Horns are back home this weekend for…

by Nick Barbaro

Hollywoodland

Although Hollywoodland stokes the dying embers of uncertainty regarding the 1959 death of George Reeves, TV’s Superman, it nevertheless seems that the result should be more provocative and scandalous.

by Marjorie Baumgarten

Readings

A place where the ice age meets the modern world is an apt setting for Drury’s story, one that toys with the idea that “time doesn’t exist”

by Jess Sauer

Weed Watch

The feds are again using citizens’ dollars to campaign against citizens’ drug law reform initiatives.

by Jordan Smith

Brothers of the Head

An astonishing twinning of wild imagination and drop-dead realism, Brothers of the Head is simply the most poignant and exciting mockumentary about (conjoined) sibling rivalry, revelry, and reversal of fortunes ever made.

by Marc Savlov

Texas Platters

Scratch AcidEmo’s, Sept. 2 Up in the mosh pit, elbows flew, shins got booted, and comet blondes shot above and below, magazines of bullet sweat spraying on stage and in front of it. “Whatcha been doing these last 20 years?” shrugged vocalist David Yow, shirtless and gushing sweat 30 seconds into Scratch Acid’s hourlong assault.…

by Raoul Hernandez

Factotum

Charles Bukowski’s Henry Chinaski is back, played by Matt Dillon in a low-key, gorgeously beery performance; it’s 100-proof Bukowski, but with a decent barkeep at the helm and Lili Taylor’s Jan on his arm. Factotum, for all its grim grind, is funny-serious and smart-stupid.

by Marc Savlov

Texas Platters

TraeRestless (Rap-A-Lot/Asylum) That cold, dark place where insecurities take root nurtures Houston’s self-proclaimed “Asshole by Nature.” Forever twisting unfortunate situations into sustained abrasiveness, Trae embodies the painfully mistreated, lashing back at intrusive demons with blunt force. In the tradition of Scarface admitting, “I never seen a man cry until I seen a man die,” and…

by Robert Gabriel

Calvaire

Belgian horror romp Calvaire is so dead-set on being disturbing that it ends up tripping over its own hobbled feet and evoking fewer gasps than curdled little giggles.

by Marc Savlov

Texas Platters

Weird WeedsWeird Feelings (Sounds Are Active) Loneliness. Despair. These could be the emotions Austin’s Weird Weeds are referencing in the title of their latest LP. Sure, many of the songs here start out like the musical equivalent of a panic attack, but there’s also joy, pain, sunshine, and rain. Their weirdness grows from roots to…

by Audra Schroeder

Texas Platters

Southpaw JonesBedroom Demos Vol. 1: Zero Demand Austin has its share of quirky in all art forms, but when it comes to folksingers, nobody keeps the town weirder than Southpaw Jones. Comparisons to They Might Be Giants, Jonathan Richman, and perhaps Daniel Johnston are apt, yet only Jones writes of pop culture, politics, and that…

by Jim Caligiuri

Day Trips

Carlos Cortés continues the family tradition of making beautiful art out of concrete structures that appear to be made of wood

by Gerald E. McLeod

Texas Platters

For young women singing early-Sixties-style country, St. Patsy casts a mighty shadow. On her debut album, Introducing Miss Lauren Marie (Texas Jamboree), Miss Lauren Marie conjures the era with satiny vocals that also bear a touch of the great Kay Starr. The right-on-the-beat musicianship comes in equal doses from her band, the Two-Timin’ Three, and…

by Margaret Moser

Texas Platters

Golden Bear (C-Side) Austin fivepiece Golden Bear is as innocent as the day it was born. Led by Chris “Grizzle” Gregory, the jubilant troupe shoos away apathy on their eponymous debut. Pied-piping listeners through dew-tapped meadows of sweet scent, opener “A Reason to Be Proud” is arena enthusiasm from a first-timer; dueling guitars battle bounce…

by Darcie Stevens

DVD Watch

So how does it hold up, the arch back-and-forth of these kids treading water in dead-end video-store gigs and oddly affecting affairs with underage girls?

by Kimberley Jones

Schumann in Concert

Gypsy Muses opens the Austin Chamber Music Center’s 2006-07 season with gypsy-themed works by Dumky, Bartok, and Brahms. Friday, Sept. 8, 7:30pm, in a private home, and Saturday, Sept. 9, 7:30pm, at First Unitarian Universalist Church, 4700 Grover. For more information, call 454-0026, or visit www.austinchambermusic.org. Pathways to Shostakovich features mezzo-soprano Elizabeth Pétillot and pianist…

by Chronicle Staff

TCB

A pictorial history of TCB’s, and the modern Austin music scene’s, formative years

by Christopher Gray

Idiocracy

Mike Judge’s underrated comedy Idiocracy is the story of a man who awakes 500 years in the future to find a society so dumbed-down that he instantly becomes the smartest person alive.

by Marjorie Baumgarten

The Wicker Man

Notorious director Neil LaBute’s well-intentioned but inadvertently silly film starring Nicolas Cage replaces the vague, sinister paganism of the original with a creepy infusion of earth-mother estrogen gone haywire.

by Marc Savlov

Arts Review

Bell(e), ethos’ installation focusing on literary suicides, chucks the adolescent illusion that killing oneself is a meaningful act of passion

by Patti Hadad

Naked City

Quote of the Week “Jesus didn’t tell us to heal the sick unless politics gets in the way. When Jesus healed the lepers and gave the blind their sight, he didn’t stop to worry about slippery slopes and potential implications.” – Democratic gubernatorial candidate Chris Bell, speaking at Southwestern University in Georgetown on TuesdayHeadlines• Last…

by Chronicle Staff

Crossover

The story of the friendship and contrasting paths to success of two natural ballplayers, both of whom appear to be too old to be playing teens, Crossover tries hard but never makes the leap.

by Marjorie Baumgarten

Arts Review

The Oliver Boberg retrospective at Lora Reynolds Gallery is a must-see, but telling you why might spoil the surprise

by Nikki Moore

Crank

Jason Statham’s Crank – despite the fact that its ever-revving mayhem is ultraviolent, sexist, and frequently offensive enough to warrant a look-see by both the ACLU and the DOJ – is pure action-film bliss.

by Marc Savlov

Arts Review

D. Berman’s joint exhibition of work by Naomi Schlinke and Gladys Poorte is an illumination of the “creatorly” power of the artist in process art

by Nikki Moore

Broken Bridges

At first glance, Toby Keith drama Broken Bridges is about reconciliations; really, though, the movie is about the cross-marketing potential of contemporary country music full of cliché and contrived music performances.

by Josh Rosenblatt

Readings

Why fork over $13 – or $9.97, if you use the fulfillment service on Slate.com’s click-through ad – to read anything that’s free online?

by Marrit Ingman

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