Payment in Blood
illustration by Jason Stout In one afternoon at a suburban high school in Colorado, more Americans were killed than during one month of war in Yugoslavia. The same was true of the Gulf War: Many more American children died of gunfire during those weeks than did our soldiers in combat. These days it is safer…
Naked City
Well, the early voting turnout for the City Council Elections was even worse than the dismal prediction. Only 5,967 — about 1.5% — of the city’s 408,891 registered voters cast early ballots between April 14-27. That’s significantly fewer than in 1997, when 17,823 voted early, or 1996, when 9,261 did. Let’s do better Saturday, May…
Articulations
This past week saw the passing of an Austin arts lover who made a significant contribution to the city’s visual artists by giving them that most rare and precious commodity: space. Gary Peden was a developer by trade, and when local painters and sculptors suffered the loss of the ArtSpace, a combination studio-exhibition venue at…
Unfolding Drama
photograph by John Anderson The Clay Pit 1601 Guadalupe, 322-5131 Mon-Fri, 11am-2pm (lunch); 4-6pm (half-priced appetizers; $1 off wine, draft beers, & premium liquors); 5pm (dinner) After spending hours — in fact, days — with my nose buried in Indian cookbooks and culinary treatises, I’m no closer to becoming the pseudo-expert on the country’s food…
Urban on the Rocks
Problem is, nobody asked the folks in the Desired Zones whether they desired to be Desired. Rightly or wrongly, many who had endorsed the enviro cause — including, one suspects, a healthy chunk of those two-out-of-three voters who in 1992 approved the S.O.S. ordinance — really thought very little about water quality or endangered species.…
Exhibitionism
The Public Domain, through May 8 Running time: 1 hr, 45 min Spanish poet and dramatist Federico Garcia Lorca’s Blood Wedding drips with sadness and foreboding, and director Chris Cortez wrings the sorrow from it with a deft hand in this new production from The Public Domain. Based on a newspaper clipping that told of…
Please to the Table: From Russia, With Love
The first time I went to the former Soviet Union, to Kiev and to the Crimea, I steeled myself for what I imagined to be a culinary wasteland. Brought up on Cold War images of endless food lines set against spartan, gray buildings, I expected the cuisine there to be unpalatably bland. I was wrong.…
Academic Angst
MIT released its tenure findings with a splash of publicity, reporting the information in the faculty’s official newsletter and on the school Web site, at http://www.web.mit.edu. The dean of the university, Robert J. Birgeneau, introduced the study by asserting that MIT’s faculty “remains overwhelmingly white male … to the detriment of the students, the faculty,…
The Emperor Jones
photograph by Kenny Braun David Jones stands onstage, listens, watches. An elegant figure, almost regal, Jones commands the audience’s attention, even when he’s standing still. There is more to him than his handsome, blond-haired, blue-eyed, six-foot frame. Jones radiates an onstage confidence, a generosity of soul that is infectious — this unassuming, multi-talented artist can’t…
Food-o-File
Ordinarily after a week of culinary adventures in another city, I’d fill a feature or a column with tales of my exploits and meals there. Here’s my trip to Phoenix last week in a nutshell: Even in the poorest section of town, many people have lemon or orange trees in their yards; acres of citrus…
Uneven Salaries?
Nationwide, male professors make more than their female counterparts at every level, in every type of school. The difference in pay increases as you go up the career ladder — from 6.6% for assistant professors, to 7.7% for associates, to 13.5% for full professors. Male Female Full Professor, all $68,884 $60,702 Public Universities 67,175 59,468…
The Director Dreams: Homing in on the Playwright du jour
“I’m a cluster eater, a cluster dresser, and a cluster producer,” explains Ken Webster, artistic director of Subterranean Theatre Company, when asked what made him follow up his successful performance of Daniel McIvor’s solo play House for Frontera by directing McIvor’s multi-character play The Soldier Dreams for his own company. “If I find a playwright,…
Hosting a Wine Tasting: A Guide for the Confused Consumer
Scooting along through the Central Market meat department, you’re caught unaware. You’ve just bought a pound and a half of premium choice, aged, boneless ribeye steaks and your plan is to grill ’em up and slurp some beer. But then you see it, a little beige “shelf talker” label flapping mysteriously in the wind of…
UT’S Tenure Process
Tenure status offers a form of job security that allows for free speech without fear of dismissal. The title no longer, however, comes with a promise of lifetime employment. The tenure process itself works like this: After six years of teaching, assistant professors must apply for tenure by submitting evidence detailing their publications, student and…
Marina Budhos
“Light is like that. Here and there. In between,” Meggie Singh proclaims in her precocious, adolescent manner. As the narrator of Marina Budhos’ new novel The Professor of Light, Meggie unwittingly articulates one crucial similarity between Budhos’ novel and its ostensible subject matter, light: The Professor of Light is also several things at once –…
Day Dream
Martin Banks photograph by John Carrico “Oohhh yeah. I admit I was really wild then. I’ve slowed down, though — to a halt,” says Martin Banks, laughing a slow and deep “heh heh heh” at the memory. He’s talking about the time he spent in New York City during the Fifties and Sixties, during the…
Tenure Disparity
THE GOOD The chart below shows progress toward gender equity over the past four years — 19% more tenured women than there were four years ago, and 18% more women overall, while the figures for men have remained essentially unchanged. THE BAD The charts below show how much disparity remains: At every single one of…
Little Inklings
photograph Courtesy of Michener Center For Writers A fast-paced thriller about a man who steals $7,500,000 from a deserted feed store and pays dearly for his theft: Somehow, this is not a plot you’d expect from the director of UT’s Michener Center for Writers. But the ersatz thief in James Magnuson’s Windfall is a UT…
Beginning to See the Light
illustration by Nathan Jensen Midway through The Matrix, the hippest, hottest, high-tech mega-movie of the year, a visceral soundtrack of ear-splitting hard rock, hip-hop, and electronica has matched the nonstop action blow for blow. Now, however, the mood and pace have changed from the frenetic to the serene, and it’s obvious that this scene, with…
Where TV Fails
It may be unseemly to say it, but it’s true: Tragedy is telegenic. Within hours of the school shooting in Littleton, Colo., television news crews from across the nation arrived to capture the aftermath of what has been called one of the worst massacres on a school campus in U.S. history. As soon as the…
Off the Bookshelf
by Rudolph M. Bell University of Chicago Press, $25 hard Imagine that you and your partner are a young couple in Renaissance Florence. No Parenting magazine. No Mom.com. No Girlfriends’ Guides. Instead, you might consult The Treasury of Good Health (1586) or the Compendium of Rational Secrets (1564). How to Do It: Guides to Good…
Desert Island Ellington
Where does one start in grappling with the enormity of Ellington’s recorded output? This isn’t intended as any sort of a definitive listing, but rather a few of my favorite Ellington albums (besides Live at Newport, of course) that might represent a cross section of his work. These titles may not necessarily comprise what “the…
A Movie Mesa
Begun in 1995, the Taos Talking Picture Festival has grown in its five years of existence from a small regional film festival to one of international repute. It was held this year from April 15-18. The unique natural beauty of Taos and the surrounding northern New Mexico area and the vibrant creative community that is…
Postscripts
Another week, another benefit in Austin that seems to effortlessly yoke a good time with a good cause: The Kick-Off Gala for Texas Writers Month at GSD&M (828 W. Sixth), Tuesday, May 4, 7-10pm, is free and open to the public, but the broadside pictured above will be for sale ($50), with all proceeds benefiting…
Record Reviews
The Complete RCA/Victor Recordings (1927-1973) (RCA/Victor) RCA Victor has come up with quite a project for the 100th birthday of Duke Ellington, the greatest jazz composer/arranger this country has yet produced and arguably the greatest composer in any genre — ever. Ellington recorded for a number of labels during his long and prosperous career, but…
Put Your Weight on It
Self-confidence is a powerful thing. It lifts the spirit, enhances positive energy, and bolsters credibility. It can also strengthen your show biz career when options are limited. Lord knows it has helped Rudy Ray Moore’s. Since his 1970 debut comedy record, Eat Out More Often (its cover featuring a naked Moore and an equally bare…
Book Reviews
is as lovely and understated as its author’s name is ostentatious. By the Shore is narrated by 12-year-old May, a reflective, serious English girl who at the tale’s outset has recently moved from London to the coast with her single mother Lucy and six-year-old brother Eden. The three live in a financially struggling bed-and-breakfast run…
Digital Duke: Best of the Rest
While Victor has the best Ellington stash, Duke recorded tons of great stuff for other labels. Next to Victor, Columbia owns the richest Ellington recordings, including some that they acquired from other labels. The Okeh Ellington (1927-30) is one of the most important Ellington collections out there, capturing the orchestra at one of its early…
Scanlines
(“Scanlines” wishes to thank Encore Movies & Music, I Luv Video, Vulcan Video, and Waterloo Video for their help in providing videos, laser discs, and DVDs.) The Brain That Wouldn’t Die D. Joseph Green (1962) with Jason Evers, Virginia Leith, Adele Lamont. The Head D. Victor Trivas (1959) with Horst Frank, Karin Kernke, Michel Simon.…
Texas Writers Month
It’s May; it’s Texas Writers Month. This year, that means many, many events — more than in any previous Texas Writers Month — will be taking place. In fact, the list below is only the first half of the month’s events. We’ll print the rest of Austin’s Texas Writers Month events in mid-May. Events are…
Dancing About Architecture
What do you call a club without a liquor license? Closed, eventually, but it doesn’t seem too likely that will happen to the revered Antone’s, which has had to use a catering service since late March because there’s been a delay in switching from the club’s old liquor license to the new. Clifford Antone says…
Short Cuts
The Killer Storm is the title of a two-hour TV documentary researched and written for the History Channel by Austin writer Jesse Sublett. The show premieres locally Saturday, May 1 on cable channel 27 at 8pm (weekend repeats are scheduled for Saturday, 12am & 5pm; and Sunday, 3am). The Killer Storm tells the story of…
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…
On The Lege
The future of school vouchers in Texas doesn’t lie on the floor of the House or the Senate. The fate of the issue rests in room 611 of Methodist Hospital in San Antonio. Sen. Gregory Luna, a longtime opponent of vouchers, is the key vote in keeping Sen. Teel Bivins’ voucher bill, SB 10, from…
Blattidae in the Park
illustration by Roy Tompkins With God as my witness, Austin, Texas, I swear I didn’t mean to aid or abet the destruction of your delicate ecological balance. If the triple-generation family of Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches that my daughter and I innocently unleashed in one of your fine parks eventually clobbers all competing species and puts…
Day Trips
A peaceful place far from the madding crowd photograph by Gerald E. McCleod Lake Jacksonville Campground has the look of a new penny. The wood-and-rock-screened shelters are polished and cleaned. The waterfront landscape is a well-maintained garden. But the towering pines and oak trees are reminders that this area has the history of a Lincoln-head…
Stompy Jones
illustration by Nathan Jensen It was early Sunday evening, dusk, twilight racing the weekend into history. With the sliding glass doors wide open, ocean air poured into the second-story living room like laughing gas; intoxicating, as if you could breathe underwater. Santa Cruz, Calif., an integral link in the state’s university system — two hours…
Page Two
Vote! It is your right; it is your responsibility. The election is this Saturday, May 1, 1999. This paper strongly endorses Daryl Slusher, Beverly Griffith, and Jackie Goodman. There is concern that if the turnout reaches a historic low, as it seems likely to do, that a very small group could sway this election. Don’t…
S.o.s. 101
illustration Doug Potter 1993 was a year a lotof people came to Austin. It was the year they split the phone books into White and Yellow Pages. It was also the year after Austin voters overwhelmingly passed the Save Our Springs Ordinance, presumably to settle once and for all the conservation vs. development debates that…
Public Notice
Baywatch’s Kimm Collinsworth Yummy Baywatch hunk and hunkarino Jose Solano (Manny Gutierrez on the show of shows) and Austin native (whoa!) Kimm Collinsworth will be jostling it For the People this weekend along with the City of Austin Parks & Recreation Department at the Barton Springs Pool 5K Run & Fundraiser. We non-bronzed-god types are…
The Other Side of Prison
As the state’s inmate population grows, so, too, does the number of inmate families in Texas. At the end of 1998, 144,439 inmates filled Texas state prisons, more than double the 1993 figure of 71,103. But before TIFA, which formed in March of 1996, inmate family members with problems had virtually nowhere to turn. Cary…
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
The Aztecs believed warriors’ souls came back in the form of monarch butterflies. One study of amphetamine abuse by football players in the 1960s found that linemen preferred dexedrine to methedrine, while quarterbacks liked either methedrine or methylphenidate. The Rat Pack — Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., and Dean Martin — did jingles for a…
The Savage Touch
KAZI was started in 1979 by Dr. John Warfield, a professor of African-American studies at UT. At the time, an African-American-oriented station of any sort was desperately needed, commercial or otherwise. Despite being a growing urban center, Austin didn’t have the type of contemporary R&B stations that cities like Houston or Dallas had. The station…
