Cover Story
Betty Baker Rules
Love her or fear her, Austin’s land-use queen rules the city her own way
Intimate Lighting
Intimate Lighting 1965, NR, 72 min. Directed by Ivan Passer, Starring Vera Kresadlová, Zdenek Bezusek, Karel Blazek. An award-winning gem of a film directed by Milos Forman’s former writing partner, Intimate Lighting is a wonderful comedy about the simple life.
Readings
The Flash of Lightning Behind the Mountain contains a collection set aside by Charles Bukowski to be published, yet there are no grand revelations into the life and times of the author to be discovered within
Phases & Stages
The StrokesAustin Music Hall, March 23 Dear Julian, Why must you act like such a pompous ass? Sure, the hair and über-fashionable waistcoats count for a little something in the world of rock & roll, but that doesn’t mean you get to glom on to your mic onstage, wasted. When you opened the set with…
Naked City
City prepares to solicit proposals for reusing the Art Deco power plant
Home on the Range
It’s fitting that this is Disney’s last traditionally animated feature; the whole affair has a warm, nostalgic feel.
News/Print
Moving images and archbishops on death row
Phases & Stages
The Point! BMG DVD When my mother began dating my stepfather in the mid-Seventies, he was a virile young buck looking to put his paws on my keeper, so he did the right thing and bought me a book/record. Many nights I sat alone in his living room, wearing his enormous, cupped headphones, listening to…
Naked City
The Bug Man hits up his friends for his anticipated legal defense fund
Walking Tall
Contemporary remake of the 1973 grassroots classic retains and updates the basic plot while losing much of the original’s heart and soul.
Page Two
Spurned by cool former friends and driven to distraction by Ralph Nader and the 9/11 hearings, Louis Black busts all Erma Bombeck in the SXSW aftermath
Phases & Stages
John FruscianteShadows Collide With People (Warner Bros.) More so than Anthony Kiedis, Flea, and Chad Smith, the latter two emerging from the shadows here, John Frusciante’s fourth solo album misses Rick Rubin. Even genius needs shaping, and the Yeti-like production Svengali has proved time and again that the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ guitarist is a…
Naked City
The $420 million proposal is now in the trustees’ hands
The Reckoning
A traveling troupe of actors in medieval England stumble upon a mysterious murder and end up single-handedly inventing the morality play.
Oops!
Our report of the death of Urbanscape appears to have been exaggerated
Phases & Stages
N.E.R.D.Fly or Die (Virgin) In the wake of N.E.R.D.’s dynamic SXSW 04 showcase, Fly or Die is a particularly painful letdown. And that’s only the beginning of their second album’s shortfalls. Instead of bringing back funk-rock outfit Spymob from 2002’s In Search Of… to provide a live groove, Pharrell Williams, Chad Hugo, and Shae handle…
Naked City
Lege leaders talk at length about their mutually exclusive goals
Kitchen Stories
The science of efficiency is undone by the unpredictability of human emotion in this Swedish comedy.
Letters at 3AM
It’s time to put our money and our mouths where they’re needed in order to defeat George Bush in 2004
Phases & Stages
Cee-LoCee-Lo Green Is the Soul Machine (Arista) Contrary to the title of his second solo album, Cee-Lo Green is more than simply a “soul machine.” This former Goodie Mob MC is equal parts poetry engine and Southern hip-hop blender. He sings, he raps, he recites, and he claims (in “I’ll Be Around”), “It’s kind of…
Naked City
Austin women allege their sexy snaps got passed around the photo labs
Second Helpings: Thai, Part II
�Second Helpings� is compiled from new and previous reviews, guides, and poll results. This week�s entries were updated by Erin Mosow. For more on Austin eateries, check here. Bangkok Cuisine 9041 Research, 832-9722 Monday-Friday, 11am-2:30pm, 5-10pm; Saturday-Sunday, 5-10:30pm Opened in 1986, Bangkok Cuisine is one of Austin’s oldest Thai restaurants and boasts a longtime clientele…
Day Trips
Hangin’ with the ‘gators in Brazos Bend State Park
Phases & Stages
The Bad PlusGive (Columbia) With last year’s Columbia debut, These Are the Vistas, NYC’s the Bad Plus garnered rave reviews while incurring the wrath of the jazz establishment. To old schoolers, the Bad Plus is nothing but a rock band masquerading as a jazz piano trio. To the faithful, they’re the saviors of jazz, making…
Austin @ Large: The Big-Box Big Deal
Little things mean a lot, but design standards aren’t simply superficial
TCB
With Tower Records closing in June, North Loop’s new Sound on Sound hopes to fill some of the void
After a Fashion
Stephen gets all gushy when he poshes it up in Houston – sort of like The Simple Life, but backward.
Kill the Messenger!
In the Tomstown counterattack, the GOP spin doctors are pointing the finger in every direction
Remembering Ortralla
Students and faculty at Reagan High School hold a memorial in honor of slain classmate Ortralla Mosley
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
The ugly baby being held by Satan in The Passion of the Christ represents evil distorting what is good.Parts of Detroit are reverting to farmland.Left in minus 40 degree brine for several minutes, several lobsters have been known to come back to life after thawing. So says Trufresh, a Connecticut seafood company. However, folks at…
New Rules for Old Buildings: The Historic Task Force
As the task force on historic preservation concludes its work, the outcome remains uncertain
The Hightower Report
Next on the regime-change list: Venezuela; and, Mendocino County rejects Frankenfoods
Giving Voice
Students and colleagues sing in tribute to the late Martha Deatherage
Soccer Watch
The Austin Posse arrives; friendly days in Europe
Saving Woody and the Woodburn
In the late Seventies, Betty Baker lent a hand to help rescue a cat named Woody and ultimately the old house on whose roof the cat was stranded
GameRiot
On Tuesday, GameRiot, the world’s biggest video game festival, brought its sexy arcade to La Zona Rosa on its Spring tour, complete with a smoke machine, buxom blondes, and a cheeky British emcee
Pop Goes the Art!
Thirty years after the 1960s, Pop Art superstar Peter Max is still making art and still pushing the brand, coming to Austin on a national tour of his paintings and prints
The Common Law
I have a new car, and it keeps breaking down all the time. I’ve heard about the Texas Lemon Law, but how do I know if the law can help me?
UT Lawyers Take On the Death Penalty in D.C.
A team of UT-based attorneys takes the Tennard case to the U.S. Supreme Court
Kids With Cameras
The Austin Student Digital Film Festival
Bass Delay Gives Groups Room to Play
UT delays Bass Concert Hall renovations for local art schools
To Your Health
The possible link between antibiotics and breast cancer
APD Mistake Leaves Austin Woman Shaken
Real estate broker’s confrontation destroys her faith in Austin and the police
In Space
FoundMagazine.com
Articulations
UT delays the closing of Bass Concert Hall for a year, Conspirare wants to sing an ode by a young Austin poet, and Zach decides whether it wants to go out with Sally Bowles or Roxie Hart
About AIDS
What’s the latest scoop in HIV/AIDS research? To find out what went on at February’s 11th annual Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Diseases, come have dinner with Dr. Bob Wallace, as he gives a Retrovirus Conference update on Thursday evening, April 8.
One More Time for Lugo, Canchola
Constable candidates expect a close contest in the April 13 run-off
Short Cuts
First Ozomatli, now Jason Patric. Or Jim Bowie.
Exhibitionism
Austin Lyric Opera’s first production of The Flying Dutchman was a solid and compelling staging of the opera that marked a turning point in Wagner’s career and in German opera
Eat, Drink, and Be Merry
The ‘Saveur’ Texas Hill Country Wine & Food Festival
Naked City
Headlines and happenings from Austin and beyond
TV Eye
Do the right thing! Or not.
Exhibitionism
Director Ken Webster has made a career out of discovering quirky, funny scripts by young playwrights that entertain as they offer insight into our culture, and that describes Rebecca Gilman’s Blue Surge perfectly
Will Travel for Food (and Awards)
Late last August, the deadline to enter cookbooks in the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards was rapidly approaching, so I figured, what the hell, I’ve got nothing to lose but three copies of Art Meyer’s and my book, The Appetizer Atlas: A World of Small Bites (Wiley & Sons, $45), and postage to Spain. So off…
Naked City
Wynn, McCracken make nice with “hip” band in wake of SXSW bust
Exhibitionism
In Ballet East Dance Theatre’s Tribal, the company’s original dances made you aware of the people around you and your connections to them
Food-o-File
Food news you can use
Naked City
The Alamo star gets busted in ever-lively Downtown Austin
Red Trousers: The Life of the Hong Kong Stuntmen
This double-layered documentary examines the creation of a Hong Kong action film and the impossible feats performed by the Asian stuntman.
Readings
The Essential Neruda: Selected Poems
With a Bullet
Cross your fingers, Monte Warden and Bruce Robison may be headed for No. 1 with George Strait
Naked City
A 14-month revolt dethrones the dictators of Bradleyville
Hellboy
Cult comic book hero makes the transition to screen with much, but not all, of his charm intact.
Luv Doc Recommends: First Annual Texas Travesty Film Festival
What a great weekend to be a smoker. Finally being banished to face the elements for your post-appetizer, midmeal nic fix isn’t such a bad thing after all. No more huddling on a cold, damp, windswept patio sucking down a Marlboro so fast that it’s glowing like an afterburner on an F-16. It’s springtime, at…
