Mister Smarty Pants Knows
When the Italian liner Andrea Doria sank, it was carrying a Chrysler concept car called the Norseman. Earlier this year, a European Commission report, “Assessing the Technologies of Political Control,” claimed that within Europe, all e-mail, telephone, and fax communications are routinely intercepted by the United States National Security Agency. A 10-minute phone call from…
Endorsements
President: Kathy Rider For the last four years, Rider has demonstrated her ability to lead the Board of Trustees through one of the district’s most productive periods of growth and student achievement. We endorse her bid for a second term as president. Perhaps now more than ever, the board needs an experienced leader to continue…
Articulations
A second giant of the Austin arts community has passed, and only hours after the first. Last Thursday, April 9, as the city was still suffering from the news that John Bustin, the Dean of Austin Entertainment, had succumbed to complications from cancer the day before, news came that W. H. “Deacon” Crain, actor, playwright,…
Technological Vertigo
illustration by Jason Stout We have been taught, from the cradle, by people who were taught from their cradles, that ours is an era of fantastic progress and that the proof of that progress is the ever-increasing power of technology. For two centuries now, this idea has been central to our sense of what it…
Comrades in Court
illustration by Doug Potter Only in Texas could the boll weevil end up as the Capital City’s biggest ally. And yet, that is exactly what has happened in the city’s legal battle to invalidate more than a dozen water quality protection zones that have been formed around the city since 1995. It sounds odd. Hell,…
The Stink Is All Over
You can’t stop a stink from spreading.Once loosed from its source, be it lowly skunk or exalted multinational petrochemical refinery, a stink will expand, will grow, will extend itself outward in all directions until every nose has become aware of it. And nothing you throw in its path � not window, not wall, not stiff-armed…
Food-O-File
I made no secret that I didn’t enjoy many of the events I covered at the Texas Hill Country Wine and Food Festivals in 1996 and 1997, although the opportunity to hear the legendary Robert Mondavi speak last year was worth the entire weekend. This year, I decided to attend strictly as a paying customer,…
The Morning Report
KVET’s Eric Blumberg photograph by John Anderson If you’re not already in the habit of doing so, tune in to KVET radio when you wake up tomorrow morning. You’ll hear an energetic news team that is both a pleasant listen and an informed source about the city it covers. The team presents the issues of…
BS3 Improv & Sketch Comedy Fest Schedule
The BS3 runs April 20-25, with 55 different showcases in 13 venues, all of which are listed here. A $40 festival pass ($35 seniors, students, and Austin Circle of Theatres members) gets you into all shows. Individual tickets for the Palmer Auditorium shows are $12. All other shows are $6 ($4 seniors, students, and Austin…
Tip Tapas!
Rhythm House 624 W. 34th St., 458-4411 Mon, 11am-2pm; Tue-Fri, 11am-2pm, 4pm-midnight; Sat, 4pm-1am; Sun, 11am-2pm, 4pm-midnight. Rhythm House photograph by John Anderson Tapas make for my kind of meal – one in which diners are expected to share and discuss an endless parade of plates whose contents promise a dizzying variety of tastes and…
Naked City
Deputy Superintendent for Administrative Support Services A.C. Gonzalez, Jr. has been tapped to lead AISD until a permanent replacement for Superintendent Jim Fox is named. Fox, who hired Gonzalez in 1995, recommended that the transition begin immediately, although Fox will remain with the district in an advisory role until May 31. Prior to coming to…
BS3 Picks & Sleepers
Every year when SXSW rolls around, the Chronicle tries to help those people whose eyes glaze over every time they stare at the mammoth list of showcases with those hundreds of band names printed in three-point type by running a feature called “Picks & Sleepers,” in which Chronicle music writers try to handicap the many,…
7 & 7 Is
Having recently received information about the April relaunch of Sub Pop’s “Famed Singles Club,” the editors at “7 & 7 Is” debated seriously whether to raise $70 for a year’s subscription (12 singles), being sold with names such as Radiohead, Luna, Cornershop, Jesus & Mary Chain, and Modest Mouse. Thanks to some recent bad venture…
Coming to a Home Entertainment Center Near You
illustration by Jason Stout Quite a few years ago, my home was broken into and robbed. Thieves being practical individuals, they stole just about every electronic appliance that could be carried off. There were nothing but dusty outlines on the hardwood where the television, VCR, amplifier, and cassette deck had formerly resided. In fact, the…
Exhibitionism
The Acting Studio, through April 18 Running Time: 90 min Like water and sodium, the Greeks and the Trojans were a really volatile mix. For 10 years, these two communities beat the living snot out of each other in a brutal, horrific war over a Greek woman, Helen, who was kidnapped by a Trojan during…
Oh, Lady, You’re Good!
In 1997, the inaugural year of Sarah McLachlan’s Lilith Festival, women ruled the rock & roll roost. Shawn, Eryka, even Abra landed headlines, hits, and Grammys (or nominations), transforming themselves into an emerging female hierarchy of a new generation. At the same time, somewhat outside the media spotlight in the shadows of Lilith’s second stage,…
A City With Smarts
illustration by Doug Potter On May 2, we all (well, maybe one in 10 of us, if the city is lucky) will troop to the polls to yea or nay three very different bond measures. The first would expand the Convention Center and flood-proof Waller Creek; another would buy up thousands of acres over the…
In Person
Claude Stanush at Barnes & Noble Arboretum “This is a lesson in oral history. When you find this person, it is your job to chronicle their life,” remarked Richard Linklater, discussing how Claude Stanush had preserved history by discovering Willis and Joe Newton and recording their conversations before they died. In 1973, Stanush and David…
The Dialogue of Poets
Daniel Mendoza, Juan Tejeda, Jos� Flores Peregrino, Clemecia Zapata, and Armando Tejeda photograph by Jana Birchum Imagine a place where poets were noble, and the nobility were poets. A place where the wise were visually depicted with flowers blooming from their mouths, climbing to the heavens in eloquent scrolls. A place where the Dialogue of…
The Elements of Smart Growth
As of April 10, the City of Austin’s Smart Growth Initiative includes: All three May 2 bond propositions; The creation of the Smart Growth zones shown on the map (Drinking Water Protection Zone, Desired Development Zone, and Urban Desired Development Zone), with the eventual addition of zones for Downtown and for transit corridors; A rewritten…
Shifting Gears
Six of the nine seats on the AISD Board of Trustees are up for election on May 2. The president and vice president are elected at-large, and four of the seven district representatives are up as well. To simply dub it a “transition” year hardly describes the vast changes ahead for the Austin Independent School…
Conjunto Aztlan
Several years in the making, the debut from Conjunto Aztlan recaps an era of political activism and a spiritual trek through pre-Columbian Meso-America. Pairing traditional Tex-Mex conjunto instrumentation and rhythms with “danza azteca”-informed musicianship — Conjunto Aztlan features a veteran crew of local Latino music stalwarts led by Chicano poet/musician Jose Flores Peregrino and Tejano…
Whither DVD?
CDs on steroids and speed or the latest technological innovation to hit the market, DVD is most definitely the acronym of the moment. So what exactly is DVD? Will it really change our lives or simply become the eight-track of silver discs? Digital Video Disc (or digital versatile disc, or any combination of words beginning…
Pioneer Grit and Newfangled Novels
photograph by Todd V. Wolfson On a gray, drizzly March afternoon which matched my low-grade, self-indulgent, melancholy mood perfectly, I drove out of Austin toward one of the legendary Hill Country towns and my scheduled interview with writer Debra Monroe. I had done my homework at the gentle insistence of my editor. I knew that…
Dancing About Architecture
Still awaiting “official” word from Arista Records president Clive Davis as the Chron went to press Wednesday, Cameron Randle, Vice President and General Manager of the locally based Arista Austin and Arista Latin imprints, confirmed what was being whispered on the street: Arista is closing up its local offices. Well, sort of. “Arista Latin is…
Under the Big Top
A scene from Tod Browning’s 1932 film classic Freaks. Because it is in the imagination business, Hollywood has always been fascinated with the circus. What else is so often cited, even in the adult world, as the ultimate escape? I think I’ll run away and join the circus. In the world of celluloid make-believe, circuses…
Newfangled Untangled
“The caustic fact of the afternoon, the felt fact, was the sun…” This is how Newfangled: A Novel by Debra Monroe (Simon & Schuster, $22 hard) begins, at the edge of Maidie Bonasso’s front yard, where she’s taking a lunch break from her job as curator of Tucson’s Museum of Domestic History and Home Economy…
Recommended
Friday: Dan Fogelberg, Eliza Gikyson, Backyard; Kelly Willis, Cheri Knight, Stubb’s Saturday: Nash Hernandez Orchestra, Continental Club; Big Foot Chester, Hole in the Wall Sunday: Koko Taylor, Antone’s Monday: Disciples of Christ, Emo’s Tuesday: Jimmie Vaughan, Jake Andrews, La Zona Rosa; Pierre Bensusan, Cactus Cafe Wednesday: Godzilla Motor Co., Human, Shovel Nose, Stubb’s; Richard Buckner,…
Scanlines
Juliette Lewis and Woody Harrelson star in Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers. You’d think that if some kid wanted to kill people, he’d find a better role model than the characters in this film. Like South Park. (“Scanlines” wishes to thank Encore Movies & Music, I Love Video, and Vulcan Video for their help in…
Postscripts
Charles Siebert brings Wickerby: An Urban Pastoral to Barnes & Noble Westlake Tuesday, April 28, 7pm. Wickerby is a collapsing log cabin in the woods of Canada, where Siebert is drawn for five months after having spent nearly his whole life in Brooklyn. The book is garnering the obvious critical comparisons to Thoreau, but its…
Texas Platters
DIXIE CHICKS Wide Open Spaces (Monument) Monument Records, a Nashville label that has been out of business for 10 years, is coming back to life under the power of Sony Nashville, and it’s raising its flag on the Dixie Chicks’ Wide Open Spaces. It’s a perfect match, really; this Dallas-based trio is Wilson Phillips, only…
Short Cuts
Earlier this month, the Austin Cinemaker Co-op, an organization of filmmakers and film enthusiasts dedicated to the support of personal filmmaking and the creation of a network of “low-fidelity” filmmakers, hosted two sell-out showcases at their spring festival, The Fool Monty, which featured 24 in-camera edited Super-8 films by local filmmakers. As a follow-up activity,…
Beware Bogus HIV Tests Sold Over the Net
A California businessman, Larence Clare Greene, and two companies he owns have been charged with marketing medically useless HIV and hepatitis home test kits over the Internet. The products were reportedly sold as “confidential, safe, accurate, and easy to use,” but they had not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The only legitimate…
Roadkill
Los Fabulosos Cadillacs Liberty Lunch Tuesday, April 21 The rat-a-tat-tat of two sticks on a snare leave a few precious seconds before a militia’s front-line of drum pounding erupts like a New Orleans second-line explosion. Then the whistles begin, and out of their midst someone yells in Spanish, “T’estan buscando matador,” like a town crier’s…
The Kneading Kind
illustration by Jay Hardwig Biscuits. I made biscuits this morning. Not at the crack of dawn and not in the family skillet, but I did make biscuits. Measured out the flour (self-rising, as a matter of course). Cut in the shortening – first with a fork, and then my hands. Added buttermilk. Worked the dough,…
Benefits
SAT 18 Quail Creek Festival to benefit the Austin Scottish Country Dancers, at Lanier High School, 1201 Peyton Gin, 10am-4pm. 323-0631. 101X Springfest to benefit RAINN (Rape Abuse Incest National Network), at Austin Music Hall, 7pm. Cost is $10.15. 908-4987. Bun Run to benefit YMBL Sunshine Camps, at Zilker Park, 8:30am. Cost is $10-$20. 433-4751.…
Road Shows
APRIL FRI 17 Cheri Knight, Stubb’s FRI 17 Dan Fogelberg, Backyard FRI 17 Voodoo Glowskulls, Zeke, Still Dreadful, Liberty Lunch FRI 17 Bedwetter, Darlington, Hole in the Wall FRI 17 Kreyol Syndikat, Flamingo Cantina FRI 17 The Cows, Emo’s FRI 17 Steve Reid’s Bamboo Forest, La Zona Rosa FRI 17, SAT 18 Lara & Reyes,…
What Can You Eat?
illustration by Jason Stout Thank God Lent is over. I don’t remember things being as extreme during the Lents of the Seventies, when my sister and I were tiny Catholics. Back then, Lent simply meant no meat on Friday. This translated to tuna melts and potato chips, which didn’t really cramp our styles. Now, people…
Day Trips
Spruced up after a spring cleaning, three iron sculptures watch over the campground at Windy Point Park and wait their turn to be dropped into the lake for scuba divers to explore. photograph by Gerald E. Mcleod Windy Point Park on Lake Travis might be the best inland scuba diving spot in Texas. On the…
Teachers Endorse Candidates
Austin Assoc. of Teachers PAC Austin Federation of Teachers/Allied Education Workers President Kathy Rider Kathy Rider Vice Pres. Doyle Valdez Doyle Valdez District 4 Ave Wahrmund Ave Wahrmund District 6 Jeff Jack Jeff Jack District 7 Olga Garza No endorsement
Page Two
Two weeks ago, on April 2, I used this space to lay out some questions and concerns about the upcoming Proposition 1 on the City’s May 2 ballot — and about expansion plans for the Austin Convention Center in general — and invited the city to respond to those concerns and provide their case for…
The Candidates
President Kathy Rider Diana Casta�eda Vice Pres. Doyle Valdez Jennifer Gale District 1 Loretta Edelen (unopposed) District 4 Ave Wahrmund William Newberry District 6 Jeff Jack Patricia Whiteside District 7 Scott Branson Olga Garza Pascual Piedfort
Public Notice
Club Casanova’s Lucky 7 Don’t forget, tonight, Thu, Apr 16, 7-11pm Club Skirt lesbian singles party brings Club Casanova — three dashing drag kings (and one babe named Bob) from NYC — to the monthly fundraiser for Cornerstone Gay & Lesbian Community Center at Fiesta Gardens. Last week we reported that the price of admission…
SCIPing Through Hoops
illustration by Doug Potter The critics have been trying to pick this fight for years. Last week’s City Council meeting brought two of the most contentious city planning initiatives ever – the Scattered Cooperative Infill Project (SCIP II) and the Austin Revitalization Authority (ARA) – into hand-to-hand combat. SCIP II, which is building affordable single…
