Cover Story
Godzilla vs. the Green Screen
Austin special effects artists can kill you with a squib or with a CGI bullet hit, gore it up with pig entrails or digitally composited blood, and create just about anything you can imagine with their bare hands or software. Does the industry need both?
Soccer Watch
Liverpool languishes in England
Texas Platters
Nati Cano’s Mariachi los CamperosÁLlegaron los Camperos! (Smithsonian Folkways) Los Camperos de Valles El Ave de Mi Soñar: Mexican Sones Huastecos (Smithsonian Folkways) Whether it’s the grand, volcanic expression of mariachi or the driving rhythms of son, lovers of traditional Mexican music have an abundance to celebrate with the two latest releases from the Smithsonian…
Battleship Paul F. Tompkins
The Cap City Comedy Club capos unleash the smart bomb that is comic’s comic Paul F. Tompkins
Cause and FX
As a post-production and visual effects producer on such films as Wolfgang Peterson’s The Perfect Storm, Robert Rodriguez’s Spy Kids 2, Spy Kids 3, and Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Brian McNulty of Highway 71 Productions guides the integration of visual and special physical effects companies to effects-heavy film productions. Austin Chronicle: How long…
A Loaf of Bread, a Jug of Wine
The simple but elegant art of picnic pairing
Texas Platters
Los Lonely BoysLive at the Fillmore (Epic/Or) Live albums are relics of an era when major labels determined mainstream tastes. The digital age, meanwhile, makes the procurement of almost any live set a modern reality. This Fillmore set mutes both truth and trend. Pulling a Santana – taking their Fillmore gig poster and adapting it…
The Brave and the Bowled-Over
How to survive the creativity marathon that is 24 Hour Comics Day
Austin Special Effects Houses/Artists
Partial list drawn from 2005 Texas Production Manual, searchable online at www.texasfilmcommission.com or available for free by calling 463-9200. Also try the 24-hour film production hotline at 463-7799. DIGIC (295-6277, www.digicadabra.com): Animation production, computer animation, titles, animation, computer effects, visual effects TEXFX (474-1107, www.texfx-austin.com): Visual effects, titles, computer effects JUDY ELKINS (693-4113, texelkins@earthlink.net): Visual effects…
Good Cuisine and an Interesting Scene
The ‘Saveur’ Texas Hill Country Wine & Food Festival
The Council We Deserve?
In the races for City Council, it’s a search for competence amidst the chaff
Theatre of the First Water
Zach makes a big splash on the national theatre scene as the first resident theatre to get to produce Tony winner ‘Urinetown’
All or Nothing
Local short-filmmaking / sketch group says hello and goodbye with Alamo show
Liquid Assets
Good bread will make you a better judge of wine. Honest!
Place 3
Jennifer Kim www.kimforaustin.com Background: Small business owner (Computer Moms franchise) with degrees from Texas A&M and Princeton (public affairs). Worked as a legislative aide to state Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, and as an economic development specialist with the U.S. Dept. of Commerce. She has served on the city�s Social Equity Commission and Commission on Immigrant…
Hello, Baby Sinus
Jodi and Owen Egerton (he of the Sinus Show) got a tax-day bonus: a baby girl!
DVD Watch
Am I really saying it’s better than Casablanca? You read right, and I say bring it.
Food-o-File
Wrapping up the ‘Saveur’ Texas Hill Country Wine & Food Festival
Place 1
Casey Walker www.caseywalker.com Background: Austin native and 2000 UT grad, married with a young child. He works in sales for Teleclip, a local news monitoring company (which he notes is a �woman-owned� business). He�s also involved in the local film community via the Austin Film society, has written screenplays. Campaign Funds: $1,455 in contributions, returned…
Good Night, Sweet Prince
A memorial service for Boyd Vance will be held Saturday, April 23, at St. James Episcopal Church
TV Eye
Production companies are mad at work shooting sitcoms and dramas for consideration on the fall TV slate
Cajun Coeur
A few detours on your roadtrip to Jazz Fest and Festival International de Louisiane
Texas Platters
Beerland Friday, April 22 The Crack PipesBeauty School (Emperor Jones) While the gristly heart of the Crack Pipes’ sound still beats out a liberating testimonial of chicken scratch boogie punk, Beauty School finds the veteran Austin quartet trying on a slew of additional idioms as well. The Pipes’ fourth LP kicks off with the shuffling,…
Place 4
John Wickham Background: Owner of the Elysium bar; filed for the Council race to oppose the citizen-initiative proposed smoking ordinance. He was among the group of club owners who helped draft the existing �compromise� ordinance for the current council, following the reversal of the previous council�s enactment of a stronger ban. Campaign Funds: $0 collected…
Arts Review
With Patrick MacDonald’s dark comedy ‘Pageant,’ Hyde Park Theatre takes us deep into the woods to consider the nature of beauty with a quartet of low-key comic Canucks
TCB
A bumper crop of indie-rockers move to town, right before Audioslave burns it down
Texas Platters
Emo’s Friday, April 22 CueBring Back My Love (Earth Gets Back) Only the tightest instrumentalists elicit a Pavlovian response from their audience – a cocked head of incomprehension. Something’s being said, but what? Jazz is explicit, but skillful post-rock embodies enigma. The melancholic mystery of Bring Back My Love manages both. The combination of Clarke…
The Politics of Annexation
Critics say ACC election unfair, but Austinites foot out-of-district bills
Arts Review
Winding up the Rude Mechanicals’ Throws Like a Girl series, Holly Hughes’ ‘lesbian noir’ ‘Dress Suits to Hire’ chills and excites in calculated disturbances
The Eighth Cine las Americas
Through Sunday, April 24
Texas Platters
Ashlee SimpsonAustin Music Hall, Tuesday, April 19 We love to see people fail, and preferably in front of large groups of people. It’s why everyone sits slackjawed in front of American Idol – failure’s so thick you can eat it with a spoon. Although Ashlee Simpson is quite familiar with public embarrassment (the lip-synching/acid reflux…
Will the Lege Shut Down Public Broadband?
Lawmakers mull shrinking municipalities’ broadband influence
Arts Review
The Bedlam Faction tackle the cult hit ‘Reefer Madness’ with a postured, exaggerated approach that’s totally intentional and often quite funny
Readings
There is an impulse in all of us that is solicited by the night: to look in a stranger’s window; to walk, alone, into a seedy bar; to dare to make that pathetic 3am call to an ex
Texas Platters
Instantaneous obsolescence is the inherent risk of all politically themed entertainment. Just ask master JFK impressionist Vaughn Meader, whose career died in 1963, preceding his physical demise by 41 years. JFK also inspired Sing Along With JFK, a 1962 album combining snippets of Kennedy’s oratory with peppy musical arrangements. Therein lies the inspiration for Austin’s…
AMD and the Edwards Aquifer
SOS says mitigation offers aren’t enough
Readings
Jesus Christ! What are these words? Hincty, goudge, donicker, furze, rick, pecksniff, flapdoodle fantod, tumerling? What kind of screwball whips out stuff like this?
Page Two
The debate over the smoking ban is about rights, and saying it isn’t is just silly
Texas Platters
Black LipstickSincerely, Black Lipstick (Peek-A-Boo) The Velvet Underground spawned a million bands with their organic textures and swirling riffage. Black Lipstick is not alone. The Austin quartet’s sophomore LP, Sincerely, Black Lipstick, is a letter to lost friends and family, but the melancholy, more often than not, is replaced by slowcore jams and echoing beats.…
Dorothy T. Goes Home
Fiery, feisty queen of Austin civil rights activists is recognized, remembered
Naked City
Ex-Presidential Candidate Pedals Health Insurance Legislative Program at Town Hall Meeting, Says 2004 Is Behind Him
After a Fashion
Stephen is just dripping in the finery of spring, y’all. The benefit season is afoot, and your Style Avatar has more than his big toe in it.
Texas Platters
The Mars VoltaFrances the Mute (Universal/CSL) The Ramones died for the crimes of Frances the Mute. In breaking from the Sabbath Bloody Sabbath conventions of their still-best debut, 2002’s Tremulant EP, the Mars Volta jumps the outer wall of follow-up LP De-Loused in the Comatorium and runs screaming into the electric razor-wire fence surrounding El…
Naked City
Headlines and Happenings from Austin and Beyond
Never Enough Time for Ethics
House GOP leadership seems determined to pretend bipartisan reform bill quietly disappearsName(s) of subject
About AIDS
“AIDS denialism” is the belief that HIV and AIDS are bogus. There are several variations: that HIV/AIDS are artificial concepts constructed of pre-existing phenomena, that HIV doesn’t really exist or doesn’t cause AIDS, etc. Denialists believe HIV/AIDS was invented to fulfill some darker agenda, most commonly profits for multinational drug companies. It’s worth noting that…
Texas Platters
Super Heavy Goat Ass60,000 Years (Arclight) The latest from Austin quartet Super Heavy Goat Ass is a story of evolution. 60,000 Years pits SHGA against history; unfortunately, the era they’re most focused on is the Seventies. Black Sabbath was indeed an awesome band, forging killer riffs. Yet taking Ozzy Osbourne’s solo breakout, “Crazy Train,” and…
Naked City
House Members not Keen on Bill that would allow pharmacists to interject moral, religious judgement into birth control scrips
Lege Notes
Odds and ends (mostly odds) from the 79th
To Your Health
The pros and cons of caffeine
Texas Platters
Spencer Perskin & FriendsMagic Feather (Bluethroat) In between adulation of the 13th Floor Elevators and Doug Sahm’s enduring roots-rock, Spencer Perskin has fallen through the cracks. Perhaps it’s the guitarist/violinist’s never having stopped performing his homegrown brand of psychedelic roots music with Shiva’s Headband or caring if it was hip or popular. Spencer Perskin &…
Naked City
The Politics of Watershed Urbanization
Point Austin: Ribbonless
On or off the dais, looking for a little wisdom along Austin’s color line
The Common Law
Texas Board of Legal Specialization
Texas Platters
Global Soul describes its music as “eclectic jazz.” On their impressive debut, This Is It, the local sextet demonstrates a diversity of sound, slipping from Latin to funk to Brazilian to fusion to bebop effortlessly. Most often, styles blend within a given tune for a sound that’s familiar enough to grasp yet exotic enough to…
Naked City
While passage of HB 254 may signal movement toward smart-on-crime proposals in Texas, federal narcos continue their goofy-on-drugs approach to drug control
Point Austin: Beside the Point
City Council notes
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Scissors, elephants, truck noises, lawnmowers, frogs, and 1/100th of a second
Texas Platters
Pinetop PerkinsLadies Man (M.C.) “What say, Mr. Perkins?” asks Marcia Ball at the opening of “Pinetop’s New Boogie Woogie.” Her throaty question receives an “um hmm” and an ivory reply as the two estimable pianists go key-to-key. To call this album Ladies Man is no joke since the nearly 92-year-old Joe Willie “Pinetop” Perkins continues…
Naked City
The Trials and Tribulations of Sexy Panhandling
The Hightower Report
Big Cendant is watching you; and honcho H. Lee Scott Jr.’s tantrum wins recognition
Day Trips
Livestock brands tell many stories of an industry and of families in the language of the plains
Texas Platters
Omar Lopez Forever Red The classical training of Austin’s worldly violinist Omar Lopez shows in his fiery technique, sweet tone, and this debut set list (“Ave Maria,” “Pachelbel’s Canon”). With a little help from his musical cohorts, locals Matson Belle, Dreamsound Orchestra, the Brew, and Pieces of East, Lopez attempts to tie it all together…
One Holiday, Two Gifts, 100 Years
Dan Welcher’s pair of Yuletide operas shows what a difference a century makes
Luv Doc Recommends: Fighting Brothers McCarthy
Secondary smoke is annoying, nearly as annoying as the moldy, dried-sweat funk of the jogger in front of you at the Whole Foods checkout who can’t find the time to shower and change out of those camel-toed suction pants before popping in to pick up some carrot juice. Yes, smokers have their black teeth, raspy…
