Postscripts
Elmer and Jan Grape say the best way to say goodbye to their bookstore, Mysteries & More, is to stop by the store (11139 N. I-35); that’s in part because they’d like to sell off the many, many items in their liquidation sale. Mysteries & More opened in 1991 and has brought to town such…
The 1704 Sword
From the reaction of legislators to the Austin amendment, it seems that the risk the council took in approving the Forum PUD may have been in vain. In retrospect, the city may have granted too large a development over the aquifer for too little stroke at the Capitol. (In her statement before the House, Austin…
About AIDS
In studies about youth and HIV risk behavior, the only constant predictor of risk that researchers can find is this: Do the child and parent(s) communicate about sex and drugs or not? If they do, the likelihood of risky behavior is less; if not, risk is more likely. A new survey from the respected Kaiser…
Endorsements
Here’s a recap of our endorsements for the May 1 Austin City Council elections. For the full text of the endorsements, which appeared in last week’s issue, see http://www.auschron.com. Place 1: Daryl Slusher Place 3: Jackie Goodman Place 4: Beverly Griffith We urge you to re-elect these three incumbents to the Austin City Council. After…
Coach’s Corner
I’m going to take up for arguably the most unpopular person in the world of sports: David Falk. Sports agents are the lawyer jokes of today. If you see the words “sports agent,” be sure “sleazy”will follow pretty quickly. I can’t think of a subgroup within the population who’s been more univer-sally negatively stereotyped. If…
Running Solo (Almost)
illustration by Doug Potter With the late, late entry of Alyssa Eacono — the former legislative aide who neatly encapsulates the phrase “token opposition” — into the Place 3 race, Jackie Goodman was denied the rare opportunity, for an Austin city councilmember, to run unopposed. (It’s only happened once in the 24 council races of…
Day Trips
Tips State Recreation Area west of Three Rivers was one of the first parks donated to the state. photograph by Gerald E. McLoud The Civilian Conservation Corps built the backbone of the Texas park system. Between 1933 and 1942, the CCC worked on 31 state parks. In addition to these recreation areas, there were more…
Eight Is Enough
All four are people of color, and Vrudhula and Mok are the first Asian-Americans (he from India, she from Hong Kong) to run for council, signifying a demographic shift that anyone who hasn’t yet clued in needs to attend to. Ortiz, a native of Puerto Rico, is likewise the first “Hispanic” candidate who is not,…
Page Two
In this issue, our politics staff takes an in-depth look at the City Council races only to find there just isn’t much depth there. The big unknown here is voter turnout, and if you care about the future of Austin, you will vote. What once we thought would be a volatile campaign season has turned…
Naked City
Early voting for the May 1 City Council elections continues until April 27. Polling places are open from 7am-7pm Mon-Fri and 10am-4pm Saturday. Call 499-2210 for more info. For a complete list of candidates, our endorsements, and a list of early and mobile polling locations, check out our special section. –L.T. Lacresha Freed She’s home.…
Public Notice
Some weeks, doing this column is more difficult than others. Today, our mind reels with the images and news of yet another school massacre at the hands of young students. National tragedies, like the horrific attack in Colorado, touch every one of us in different ways. It’s difficult not to internalize, not to project, not…
Power to the People
Ken Altes photograph by John Anderson Anyone who knows Kirk Watson knows his fondness for fast-tracking ideas. So when word spread that the mayor had voiced an idea about the future of the Seaholm Power Plant, Ken Altes sang like a canary. Altes, who feels as protective of the old power plant as he does…
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Spiders have transparent blood. A team of scientists at Okayama University near Hiroshima has found that beer can stop the harmful actions of some mutagens believed to cause cancer in both humans and animals. The last B-52 bomber will be retired at 95 years of age. According to A Dictionary of Modern English Usage by…
East-West Dissent
The way de Leon sees it, Slusher and his fellow councilmembers pay lip service to the concerns of Austin’s Eastside, yet continue to stand idly by while outsiders destroy the area. “The council keeps saying we want your support, we want your vote, this is what we’re going to do,” says de Leon. “And they…
Impeccable Vista
Brio Vista 9400-B Arboretum Blvd., 342-2642 Mon-Thu, 11am-2pm, 5:30-9:30pm; Fri, 11am-2pm, 5:30-10:30pm; Sat, 5:30-10:30pm; Sun, 11am-2pm, 5:30-9pm photograph by John Anderson When the owners of the popular Brio restaurant on West Sixth Street built a second location in the Arboretum area, they named the stuccoed faux Italian villa Brio Vista for the spectacular view of…
Plotting a Park
by Lee Simmons and Lisa Tozzi After a three-day charrette, Town Lake Park stakeholders agreed upon a tentative plan that places the new civic center (left) next to Palmer Auditorium. A 1,200-car parking garage wraps around the building. This community planning thing isn’t for the faint of heart or the weak of spirit. If you…
The Coffeehouse Chronicles: Episode 4
Little City Espresso Bar and Cafe Neighborhood: Downtown Address/Phone: 916 Congess/476-2489 Hours: Mon-Fri, 7am-midnight; Sat, 9am-mid; Sun, 9am-10pm Munchables: Pastries, sandwiches, soup Standard Cup o’ Joe: $1.19 Bean Source: Roasted at their north location Crowd: Downtown office folk and club crowd Artwork: Showings by local artists Soundtrack: The Artist Formerly Known, Morrissey, miscellaneous trance Bonus…
Why We Listen to What They Say
Doug Rushkoff has been writing about media, cyberculture, and rave culture for several years now, starting as a geeky idealist and evolving into a perceptive cultural critic with an international reputation. Earlier in this decade, he was a raver and explorer of psychedelics who was with Timothy Leary when he died, but these days, he…
Articulations
For months, the local stage community has been buzzing over the rumor that Tuna Top Dog Charles Duggan was hard at work on a plan to create a new professional theatre company. Details were hard to come by, but one big piece of the plan was known: The company would be affiliated with UT’s Department…
Food-o-File
After I and several other members of the local media finished judging the signature dishes presented by the participating restaurants at the “Stars Across Texas” event at the Texas Hill Country Wine & Food Festival (THCWFF), we adjourned to the ballroom of the Four Seasons to join the other 800 patrons in attendance. Eventually, I…
Scanlines
D: Michael Curtiz (1948) with Doris Day, Jack Carson, Janis Paige, Don DeFore, Oscar Levant, S. Z. Sakall, Eric Blore. Years ago, while casually watching this film very late one night, I was stunned. Doris Day, having romantic problems, goes into the ship’s bar, orders a drink, and begins to sing. Her performance opened me…
An Eye for History
The year is 1958. The place: La Californie, Pablo Picasso’s village chateau outside Cannes, France. David Douglas Duncan, the celebrated combat photographer and Life magazine photojournalist, is working late. He takes one of the canvases belonging to the artist, dusts it off, situates it in front of two huge copy lights, and shoots a photograph…
Tan Tan Vietnamese Restaurant: The Zenith of Bun
1601 W. Ohlen, Ste. E, 832-9585 Daily, 10am-9pm photograph by John Anderson In the convoluted and twisted workings of my mind lies the food appreciation center, where my gray matter logs, rates, ranks, and categorizes everything I eat. There’s a special recessed corner for Bun — the huge, heaping bowls of vermicelli rice noodles, which…
Short Cuts
The new, 20th-edition of the Texas Production Manual is now available from the Texas Film Commission. The 1999 directory lists 1,330 Texas-based film crew persons and service vendors. Sources are listed for virtually every crew position as well as equipment rentals, film stock, transportation equipment, post-production facilities, and so on. The manual also includes newly…
It’s a Mystery to Me
illustration by Penny Van Horn Believe it or not, mystery musketeers, there are people in the world who maintain a certain snotty conceit that all genre fiction is somehow inferior to so-called “literary” fiction, that Hammett was a hack, that the MacDonalds (John D. & Ross) were mediocre. Indeed, it’s a mystery to me how…
Dancing About Architecture
This week’s goodbye is to the much-beloved Austin Rehearsal Complex, which, as we reported here previously, recently won a lawsuit against their landlord, leading ironically enough — to their own closing. The story in a nutshell is this: The owners of the building had kept their tenants from expanding, which the ARC felt was a…
Channel Surfing
My Own Private Idaho, a retelling of Henry IV, Pt. 1, is part of Bravo’s birthday celebration for the Bard. Men and women watch and explore television differently. Surely there’s hardcore scientific evidence to support this statement. If not, all one has to do is come to my house and do some fieldwork. The “Papi…
Exhibitionism
Wally Workman Gallery, through April 30 In part of her artist statement, when asked why she puts animals instead of humans in her paintings, Sarah Higdon responds: “Well, I was formerly an anthropomorphic rabbit and was abducted by aliens from outer space where my soul and mind were transferred into the human body of an…
Big Sweet Life
photograph by John Carrico When last we left Jon Dee Graham, he had just made his Escape From Monster Island, a critically lauded solo debut from the former founding member of Austin’s True Believers. With its songs of scraped hearts and cynical longing, Escape From Monster Island wasn’t just a catharsis for Graham, it was…
Search & Employ
Rather than being discarded without any hope of reclamation, items are placed out on the curbs and lawns for all to see and browse on Junk Day — or as the City of Austin calls it, Bulky Item Pick-up (see sidebar). As the arrows on the universal symbol for recycling go ’round and ’round, so…
Billy Shakes, Superstar
He’s hot, he’s sexy, and he’s dead. Okay, okay, you’ve heard that line before, and no doubt it’s lost some of its charm from having been applied to every moderately alluring deceased male celeb from Jim Morrison to Liberace. Still, it’s very apt for the subject of this piece, and for what it’s worth, you…
Texas Platters
Trail (Bohemia Beat) If you’re already a Jimmy LaFave fan, run out and buy Trail. Don’t even think about it, just do it. There’s nothing better than getting your hands on the best bootleg around, and that’s what this 2-CD collection often feels like. Full of previously unreleased live material, radio performances, and studio tracks,…
Curb Your Bulk
Coming soon to a curbside near you — it’s the twice annual bulky item pickup! Included in the price of the city’s Pay-As-You-Throw waste management program, twice-annual collection of bulky items is offered to every PAYT customer, every six months, give or take a few weeks. Since it’s impossible to predict the number of items…
Book Reviews
Aubrey Beardsley: A Biography by Matthew Sturgis Overlook Press, $29.95 hard When Aubrey Beardsley was six years old, the miniature dandy stood with his mother in Westminster Abbey and declared himself to be “rather good looking.” It was his physical appearance above everything else, he decided, that should be immortalized in art after his passing.…
Mule Conversations
Tom Waits, Paramount Theatre, SXSW 99 photograph by John Anderson The songs Tom Waits has written over the last 25 years are so deep and wide emotionally, it’s hard to believe one mere mortal is responsible for all of them. From “The Heart of Saturday Night” to “Downtown Train” and beyond, the songwriter’s myriad compositions…
Everything & the Kitchen Sink …
In an effort to divert a lot of recyclable construction material from the landfill, the City of Austin is offering for purchase the reusable building materials from the buildings and sites facing demolition due to the city’s convention center expansion, north of the center itself and west of Red River into two city blocks. Deconstruction…
Off the Bookshelf
by Daniel Mueller Overlook Press, $23.95 hard This odd little collection of stories would be just perfect for Norman Bates’ bookshelf. They’re about bad things happening to bad people that no one loves. The Aleut girl who guts salmon in an Alaska processing plant, the poet who works as a stripper, and the overweight man…
Tom Waits
Mule Variations (Epitaph) On the cover of Mule Variations, Tom Waits’ first album since 1993’s Black Rider and his first non-soundtrack release since 1992’s Bone Machine, the singer looks over the shoulder of his battered overcoat and into the camera. He’s not afraid of the camera stealing his soul because stealing souls is his profession…
On The Lege
The vaunted development agreement forged in recent months by the Save Our Springs Alliance, Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce, and Real Estate Council of Austin was dealt a potentially fatal blow at the Capitol on Tuesday when the House passed a bill reinstating regulations that were inadvertently deleted during the last legislative session (see “Council…
