WTO X 2
WTO X 2 NR. Directed by Various, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . Two documentary films – “This Is What Democracy Looks Like” and “Breaking the Spell” – focusing on the WTO protests inn Seattle will be screened.
Les Enfants Terribles
Les Enfants Terribles 1950, NR, 107 min. Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Jacques Bernard, Renee Cosima, Edouard Dermithe, Nicole Stephane. Opportunities to see Jean-Pierre Melville films don’t come around too often, and when they do they shouldn’t be tossed off lightly — especially when he co-scripted this one with…
Sleeper
Sleeper 1973, PG, 88 min. Directed by Woody Allen, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Woody Allen, Diane Keaton. Slapstick is still alive in Allen’s futuristic vision in which he plays a clarinetist/health-food-store worker who awakens after surgery to a world comically set 200 years in the future.
Lucky Bum Film Tour
Lucky Bum Film Tour NR. Directed by Bill Daniel, Vanessa Renwick, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . Portland-based media artists Vanessa Renwick and Bill Daniel (former impresario of Austin’s Funhouse Cinema series) are stopping in Austin this weekend during their 10-state traveling program of their experimental and documentary films and videos. Daniel will…
Destiny (Der müde Tod)
Destiny (Der müde Tod) 1921, NR, 105 min. Directed by Fritz Lang, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Lil Dagover, Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Bernhard Goetzke, Walter Janssen. Austin film score veterans ST 37 (Metropolis) turn their musical talent to this early. and rarely screened, Fritz Lang silent. The film was Lang’s first to achieve any…
Amarilly of Clothesline Alley
Amarilly of Clothesline Alley 1918, NR, 77 min. Directed by Marshall Neilan, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Norman Kerry, Mary Pickford. In this story about love and social class, Pickford plays the virginal cigarette girl at the Cyclone Cafe, who finds her high society mate when he’s decked in a barroom brawl and…
Bruce Lee Fights Back From Beyond the Grave
Bruce Lee Fights Back From Beyond the Grave 1976, R, 84 min. Directed by Doo-Yong Lee, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Deborah Dutch, Bruce K. L. Lea. Has about as much to do with film legend Bruce Lee as any of the several dozen other Lee-alike movies that attempted to cash in with…
Hoppity Goes to Town
Hoppity Goes to Town 1941, NR, 78 min. Directed by Dave Flesicher, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Stan Freed, Kenny Gardner, Gwen Williams, Jack Mercer. The second – and last – animated feature from Max and Dave Fleischer’s animation studio is this look at a community of insects whose city garden home, Bugville,…
Joshua
Joshua 2002, G, 90 min. Directed by John Purdy, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Tony Goldwyn, Colleen Camp, Stacy Edwards, Kurt Fuller, F. Murray Abraham, Giancarlo Giannini. The big question posed by the new Christian film Joshua is whether humanity would recognize Jesus for the savior he really is if he were to…
Coach’s Corner
Tiger Woods is a column-killer; what more is there to say about The Glory of Tiger?
Phases and Stages
Elvis CostelloWhen I Was Cruel (Island) There was self-mythology in the beginning, and there’ll be more at the end. In between is anyone’s guess. On his first proper album in six years, Elvis Costello’s guess is an educated one. But on “45,” When I Was Cruel’s first question, the 47-year-old is all brains and no…
Stratus Shrinks for Perks
With state law as its biggest bargaining chip, Stratus Properties has agreed to shrink its development plan for 1,253 acres of environmentally sensitive land as part of a tentative deal struck with the city. The agreement provides a new starting point from which to work toward a settlement, which would allow Stratus to move ahead…
Second Helpings
Food Editor Virginia B. Wood serves up bite-sized reviews of Austin’s continental restaurants.
Letters at 3AM
Why has the Bush administration ignored warnings about the catastrophes that would befall our nation as a result of a terrorist attack on any of our 103 nuclear plants?
Phases and Stages
SubaTributo (Six Degrees) Legend has it Suba ran back into the fire that engulfed his studio to save some master tapes. If so, the 37-year-old Yugoslavian producer paid the ultimate price for his spellbinding musical genius. “I’ve been studying music since I was five years old,” wrote Suba in 1999 for what became his posthumous…
Inside Books Turned Outside
For over four years, the Inside Books Project has run its free-books-to-prisoners service from the Center for Mexican American Cultural Arts building at 600 River. But on April 1, the city sent the all-volunteer nonprofit a 30-day notice to pack up and vacate its roomy, $100-per-month space. IBP members now face devoting much of their…
Articulations
Sad songs for local choral companies — Austin ProChorus ends its song and Chorus Austin lets go its executive director — but a sweet tune for Arts Center Stage: a million-dollar donation from Southwestern Bell.
Beveridge Man
How a little Austin distillery caught the attention of worldwide vodka drinkers.
Phases and Stages
Meta-machine music from Boards of Canada, Fog, Pan American, Fridge, ST 37 and more …
Ya Gotta Have Friends
Less than a year ago, the Friendship Alliance — a neighborhood coalition in northwest Hays County — was pegged as a fledgling bunch of old hippie no-growthers. But the group (whose membership, for the record, is a cross-section of conservatives, liberals, and Libertarians) turned out to be a pretty well-oiled machine that now wields influence…
Exhibitionism
With The Medea Stories, the St. Edward’s University Theatre Department with guest artists from the SITI Company reinvents Euripides’ tragedy as a modern courtroom drama and connects us to Medea’s tale with immediacy and a great urgency.
Favorite Vodka Cocktails
It’s almost a shame to mix Tito’s Handmade Vodka with anything else. It’s so smooth and satisfying, we can’t imagine drinking it any other way than Tito’s preferred method — over ice. But when I mention that to Tito, he balks. “Sometimes, someone will come up and tell me how much they love my vodka.…
How Much Mold?
AISD’s notion of mold remediation might be too little money, too few schools.
Parking Policing
Austin isn’t alone in its attempt to regulate parking on lawns. This week, the city of Rollingwood began considering its own parking ordinance, which is broader and imposes more restrictions than the draft proposal currently before the Austin City Council. Drawn up by Council Member Danny Thomas’ office, Austin’s proposed ordinance lets neighborhoods opt in…
Exhibitionism
Rick Ehrstin’s play The Rainbow Machine is ultimately a tale of a man and a woman who simply cannot communicate, but this idea is drowned in a deluge of words and much tangential, quasi-absurdist schtick.
Russian Grocery
Gastronom 6701 N. Burnet Rd., in the Burnet Farmer’s Market, 459-1449 Monday-Friday, 12-7pm; Saturday-Sunday, 12-5pm www.sashacooks.com Looking for a place to stock up on munchies for your next vodka party? Austin now has its very own Russian grocery. Called Gastronom, which in English implies a person who loves food, but which in Russian means simply,…
Bond Package for Mold
A list of AISD mold remediation projects funded by money from the bond package.
This Week in Council
Hot items on today’s agenda include, in no particular order: Hearing the appeal, by neighbors just east of Hyde Park, of the conditional-use permit granted by the Planning Commission to Sammy’s House, a day-care center serving children with special needs (see “Sammy’s House Looks for a Home,” April 5). Approving the Bouldin Creek Neighborhood Plan…
Big Bad Love
Big Bad Love 2001, R, 111 min. Directed by Arliss Howard, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Arliss Howard, Debra Winger, Rosanna Arquette, Paul Le Mat, Angie Dickinson, Michael Parks. Another drunken wannabe writer watching his life skid out of control while he drifts through midday reveries and pines for his lost love ……
Exhibitionism
Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off, Liz Lochhead’s award-winning dramatization of the bonnie queen’s reign, is an ambitious first production for Renaissance Austin Theatre Company, but producer Lorella Loftus prevails by enticing some of Austin’s finest actors from the Shakespearean courts to the realm of the experimental.
Food-o-File
Why is Central Market Cooking School director Cathy Cochran-Lewis leaving the school?
A Separate Peace
From the department of never thought you’d see that happen: On Friday, Texas Civil Rights Project Director Jim Harrington praised Travis County Sheriff Margo Frasier on her decision to pull the TCSO out of the Capital Area Narcotics Task Force. “This is long overdue, and should never have been undertaken in the first place,” Harrington…
Looking for Leadership
It takes a community to support the schools.
Big Circus of Life
Books Editor Clay Smith and Litera columnist Ric Williams handicap which of the 200-plus international poets attending this year’s Austin International Poetry Festival will be best bets.
Litigious Linda
Even after being dropped, Linda Curtis’ lawsuits could impact city politics.
Austin @ Large: Analyzing the Analyst
A look at the proposed utility consumer analyst
One City, Three Books
Austin’s become a popular place for public reading programs.
20 Questions With Darden Smith
The return – again – of Austin singer-songwriter Darden Smith
Ethical Sunset
The Texas Ethics Commission faces Sunset Review; meanwhile, a commission watchdog faces a sunset of its own.
The Hightower Lowdown
Alan Greenspan’s laissez faire fantasy; a Congressman teaches the wrong lesson; and readers re-name Enron.
The Scorpion King
The Scorpion King 2002, PG-13, 90 min. Directed by Chuck Russell, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Sherri Howard, Peter Facinelli, Grant Heslov, Michael Clarke Duncan, Kelly Hu, Steven Brand, The Rock. It’s entirely appropriate that professional wrestler the Rock (né Dwayne Johnson) should have staked his claim to The Mummy franchise and this,…
Readings
Notable American Women by Ben Marcus Vintage, 224 pp., $12.50 (paper) A reader who picks up your average American novel expects the characters in novels to use some recognizable form of English in which to communicate inter alia. Readers also expect the events in the novel to unfold by way of the writer’s judicious use…
Darden Smith Reviewed
Darden Smith Sunflower (Dualtone) There’s an intimacy to Darden Smith’s seventh LP. Lucky No. 7. Not just in its subject matter — love and the damage done — but in its electric blanket of sound. As such, Sunflower is the culmination of the Austin singer-songwriter’s career-long path toward a songcraft that evokes the timeless daydream…
Some Justice in Tulia
An “anomaly” in Tulia bust?
Keeping the Faith
The Texas Documentary Tour presents festival hit Trembling Before G-d, in which Orthodox Jews try to reconcile religion with their homosexuality.
Murder by Numbers
Murder by Numbers 2002, R, 121 min. Directed by Barbet Schroeder, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Chris Penn, Michael Pitt, Ryan Gosling, Ben Chaplin, Sandra Bullock. Personal accountability is all well and good, but if I were in Barbet Schroeder’s Davanzatis, I’d invoke the Alan Smithee pseudonym a thousand times over before taking…
Readings
Arafat’s Elephant: Stories by Jonathan Tel Counterpoint, 208 pp., $14 (paper) In the wake of a broiling Israeli-Palestinian conflict that appears to have no end, this slim volume of 17 short stories comes along to help put a personal face on the people now caught up in this maelstrom of tragedy. Not surprisingly, the most…
20 Questions With Eliza Gilkyson
The maturation of Eliza Gilkyson
Downtown Mobility? Take Your Turns
Transportation Department proposes new downtown mobility plan
Alien Nation
Experimental filmmaker Craig Baldwin is down on corporatization and up with aliens, presenting a compilation of his work at the Blue Theater’s Blue Screen series.
Page Two
The misleadingly named Austin Fair Elections Act proposes an unneeded “cure” for a healthy body politic.
Eliza Gilkyson Reviewed
Eliza Gilkyson Lost and Found (Red House) On Lost and Found, the follow-up to 2000’s successful Hard Times in Babylon, Eliza Gilkyson appears to be an artist at the top of her game. Where Hard Times dealt with loss and trying times in the Austin songwriter’s life, Lost and Found is filled with hope, confidence,…
May 4 Election at a Glance
Elections will be held May 4, to determine three City Council seats, eight proposed changes to the city charter, six Austin Independent School District Board of Trustees seats, and three Austin Community College Board of Trustees seats. Early voting runs April 17-19 and April 22-30.(I = Incumbent) Austin City Councilwww.cityofaustin.org/election/ Place 1 Vincent W. Aldridge…
Shake Whatcha Mama Gave Ya
Professional Elvis imitator Drew Dyal appeared at last Tuesday’s Movies in the Park screening of Viva Las Vegas, which kicked off with a karaoke contest devoted to — what else? — songs by the swivel-hipped one. Co-presented by Time Warner Cable and Austin Parks Foundation, the popular Movies in the Park series concludes this Saturday,…
Day Trips
Camp Ben McCulloch is a living reminder of old Texas traditions. The last Confederate veterans reunion ground in the South still serves all Central Texas residents as a recreation facility 106 years after it was organized. In addition to being a prime swimming hole and campground, the scenic park on the banks of Onion Creek…
Dancing About Architecture
The outdoor shows continue …
Chronicle Endorsements
The Chronicle‘s endorsements for city council and charter amendment proposals
Short Cuts
Here’s a chance for you to give a little love to your friends at the Austin Film Society.
Mr. Smarty Pants
Author/weight-loss guru Gwen Shamblin’s program is based upon believing in God.Without myelin, the human brain would have to be 10 times bigger than it is now and we would have to eat 10 times as much to maintain it.The famous thoroughbred Seabiscuit ran 50 races before his great speed and stamina emerged with consistency.The color…
Satanism & Debauchery
Our resident Marshmallow Peep relates the news and hearsay in and around the Live Music Capital…
Naked City
After more than a year of discussion, evaluation, and bitter joking among the populace, Intel announced yesterday that it’s putting its concrete building-in-becoming at Fifth and San Antonio on the market. Back in the halcyon days of 2000, the company had planned to stick a chip design center on the site, but then the economy…
TV Eye
If wishes were kangaroos, the Captain would be back on the tube … And other “TV Eye” wishes for a brighter, better TV tomorrow.
To Your Health
What is different about the “super water” now appearing in health food stores? Is it really healthier than regular bottled water?
Mixed Notes
Our resident Marshmallow Peep relates the news and hearsay in and around the Live Music Capital…
Endorsements!
City Council candidate endorsements are coming in at a steady trickle, with this week’s collection including the Austin Sierra Club’s nod to incumbents Jackie Goodman and Beverly Griffith, and its pick of Kirk Mitchell over sitting Council Member Daryl Slusher. Likewise, Goodman, Griffith, and Mitchell won endorsements from the Political Action Committee of Austin Neighborhoods…
Video Reviews
A sublime, Surrealist comedy from the Marx Brothers, in which Groucho plays the new dictator-for-life of tiny Freedonia who declares war on a whim on neighboring Sylvania.
About AIDS
Rapid HIV Test Could Use a Push If you could go to an HIV testing site — say, your friendly neighborhood clinic — and get a test with immediate results, would you be more likely to seek out HIV testing? Studies say most people, especially young people, would. Unfortunately, because of patent disputes and profit…
Phases and Stages
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young Frank Erwin Center, April 10 Paraphrasing recent comments by Neil Young, after 30 years, CSNY finally got it right — especially with Booker T. & the MG’s (minus Steve Cropper) as the backing band. Opening with a 10-minute version of “Carry On/Questions,” the band then moved into one of Graham…
Note to Zilker Vandals: Stop!
Zilker Elementary apparently has turned into a magnet school — for people with destructive tendencies. Since the school year began, vandals have twice destroyed cement picnic tables and benches, most recently during the first week of April. And in March, Zilker students returning to school from spring break were saddened to discover that someone had…
After a Fashion
RETAIL GOSSIP In response to a blind item of two weeks ago, we received a report that an upscale jeweler in Austin got a call from one of their clients to see if the owner was going to be in that afternoon. You can imagine owner’s surprise when four black Suburbans arrived and out tumbled…
Phases and Stages
The BlastersTestament: The Complete Slash Recordings (Rhino) For the uninitiated, the Blasters were a band from the Los Angeles suburb of Downey. They weren’t just any band, however. The Blasters were the consummate American roots-rock band. Led by the Alvin brothers, Dave and Phil, they took the seemingly disparate genres of rockabilly, gospel, R&B, and…
Developing the Blueprint
“We feel we know what needs to be done. We must start doing it.” That’s how Austin Independent School District Superintendent Pat Forgione introduced his “Austin Blueprint to Leave No Child Behind” at an April 11 community meeting at the AISD board’s Carruth Auditorium. The “Blueprint” is the district’s latest attempt to address the achievement…
