Prison Girls
Prison Girls 1972, X. Directed by Tom Desimone, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Uschi Digard, Rick Lutz, Angie Monet, Candy Samples, Robert Whiting, Jason Williams. This movie, helmed by the director of Reform School Girls, promises to be the most controversial movie ever made based on confidential prison sex reports. The movie is…
La Rosière De Passac I & II (The Virgin of the Pessac I & II)
La Rosière De Passac I & II (The Virgin of the Pessac I & II) 1968/1979, NR, 65 min. Directed by Jean Eustache, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Isabelle Weingarten, Francoise Lebrun, Bernadette Lafont, Jean-Pierre Léaud. Eustache was interested in capturing the passage of time and the evolution and transformation of society in…
The Queen of Outer Space
The Queen of Outer Space 1958, NR, 80 min. Directed by Edward Bernds, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Marilyn Buferd, Barbara Darrow, Patrick Waltz, Paul Birch, Lisa Davis, Laurie Mitchell, Dave Willock, Eric Fleming, Zsa Zsa Gabor. This unintentional (I think) piece of camp features a man-hating female civilization on the planet Venus,…
Cine Las Américas Film Festival
Cine Las Américas Film Festival NR. Directed by Various, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . Cine Las Américas is a nine-day festival that focuses on contemporary films by and about Latinos. Films hail from the United States, South America, and the Caribbean. Some highlights include personal appearances by directors Angel Torres from Mexico,…
Pleasureland
Pleasureland 2001, NR, 18 min. Directed by Bryan Poyser, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Jacob Vaughan, Karen Skloss, Sarah Gill-Williams, Elle Klein, Dandi Hamann, Carlos Garza, Ryan Willingham. The inspired pairing of this short film and feature is the work of Bryan Poyser, the director of “Pleasureland” and the co-founder of the CinemaTexas…
Migrating Forms
Migrating Forms 2000, NR, 80 min. Directed by James Fotopoulos, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Preston Baty, Rebecca Lewis, Kiele Sanchez. The inspired pairing of this short film and feature is the work of Bryan Poyser, the director of “Pleasureland” and the co-founder of the CinemaTexas Short Film Festival. Eerily similar in theme,…
Day Trips
Houston’s bibliophiliac dream: The Detering Book Gallery.
Guys Like Me
In his song “All Grown Up and No Place to Go,” Dick Price claims that America was made for guys like him: America was made for guys like me, with dark-blonde hair and a college degree. It’s time to take my place in the world, It’s time to marry an appropriate girl … Offices were…
Naked City
First Intel announced it would halt construction on its downtown chip design center after it finished the building’s concrete shell, citing short-term economic uncertainty. Then it announced that — whoops! — it wouldn’t be finishing the exterior after all, leaving a hulking steel-frame monolith in the center of one of downtown’s busiest intersections. Just last…
Blow
Blow 2001, R, 120 min. Directed by Ted Demme, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Johnny Depp, Penelope Cruz, Franka Potente, Miguel Sandoval, Max Perlich, Cliff Curtis, Jordi Molla, Paul Reubens, Rachel Griffiths, Ethan Suplee, Ray Liotta, Denis Leary. In the Seventies, George Jung (Depp) brought cocaine back from the dead, making it the…
Search Through the Skies
The new musical Jouét represents a journey not only for the title character, a pop star in search of a home, but one for Austin composer Allen Robertson and for the city’s Zachary Scott Theatre Center, which is producing its first original musical.
To Your Health
I feel very blessed to come from a family that lives long and generally healthy lives. I am 40 and still feel good, but my doctor recommended I take an aspirin tablet every day to prevent heart problems. What are the pros and cons?
Dick Price Reviewed
Dick PriceDick Price’s Theatre of Cruelty The album you didn’t know you were waiting for is here! After years of treasuring battered cassette tapes, fans of the Austin-based pianist can rejoice in the new millennium as their favorite Dick finally appears on CD. Like the Austin Lounge Lizards’ lone cousin, Price’s wry compositions alternately skewer…
Naked City
APD officer Samuel Ramirez is convicted of official oppression for forcing a woman to have sex with him while on duty, but a witness’s statement may force a mistrial.
Just Visiting
Just Visiting 2001, PG-13, 88 min. Directed by Jean-Marie Poiré, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Jean Reno, Christian Clavier, Christina Applegate, Lorenzo Clemons, Bridgette Wilson-Sampras, Tara Reid, Ric Sarabia, Malcolm McDowell. An amiable American remake of a wildly popular French film (Les Visiteurs) that keeps the director and stars intact, Just Visiting isn’t…
Articulations
The “first lady of Austin theatre” — actress and educator Nan Cameron Elkins, whose credits included more than 300 Austin theatre productions and teaching speech and stage skills to thousands of Central Texas students — has taken her final bow.
About AIDS
Drug-resitant HIV
Angel in the Dark
The last release from pop noir princess Laura Nyro.
Naked City
Developer Gary Bradley pulls back on legislation that would create a special development district for his Spillar Ranch property southwest of Austin, but the development could move forward anyway.
Exhibitionism
In Drawers, Dawn Davis Loring and the other six members of her Mosaic Dance Body explore our relationship to our underwear with wit and — á la the lingerie itself — a certain delicacy, a subtle evocation of rhythm and juxtaposition of bodies in space.
Coach’s Corner
Opening day for major league baseball. A fresh start for last year’s losers. Enjoy it while you can — by June, the big-market teams will be back in control.
Dancing About Architecture
Our resident Marshmallow Peep relates the news and hearsay in and around the Live Music Capital…
Naked City
Legislators introduce a bill to protect endangered Texas bats.
Exhibitionism
In the Austin Playhouse production of Mahalia!, director Don Toner has staged a neat chamber piece with a trio of talented actor / singers, allowing the singing to be spectacular and the rest of the play to operate simply.
Hill Country Wine & Food Festival
The board of the Texas Hill Country Wine & Food Festival (THCWAFF) has chosen the foods and wines of Spain as the main focus of this year’s event and invited a stellar lineup of culinary professionals with expertise on those subjects to present seminars over the course of the upcoming festival weekend, April 5-8. While…
Richard Hays Remembered
Our resident Marshmallow Peep relates the news and hearsay in and around the Live Music Capital…
Naked City
The council takes up recommendations from the Urban Transportation Commission, and considers a larger resolution to revamp the city’s system of boards and commissions altogether.
Prison Buff
Shakespeare Behind Bars: The Power of Drama in a Women’s Prison by Jean Trounstine St. Martin’s Press, 208 pp., $23.95 The Wrong Man: A True Story of Innocence on Death Row by Michael Mello University of Minnesota Press, 552 pp., $29.95 Going Up the River: Travels in a Prison Nation by Joseph T. Hallinan Random…
Food-o-File
Cuisines editor Virginia B. Wood tracks down the latest restaurant news in this week’s Food-o-File.
Live Shots
Outkast, LudacrisAustin Music Hall, April 1 The South has risen again. “We love the dirty South,” announced MC Poon Daddy at 8pm straight up, out front of an enormous American flag. A black flag. Given opener Ludacris’ double-platinum Def Jam South debooty, Back for the First Time — Nelly-style scratch with extra X’s — ol’…
The Hightower Lowdown
The Bush budget and children’s welfare, Pete Domenici and nuclear power & Jonah Goldberg on the joys of sweatshops
Postscripts
Upcoming events in Austin’s literary life.
Mini-Review
Distinguished Chef Wine Dinner March 26, 2001 Granite Cafe During the past several months, chef Sam Dickey from the Granite Cafe has been opening his kitchen to chefs from around the state. He calls the experience the Distinguished Chef Wine Dinner. Here’s how it works: Sam picks a city (Dallas, in this case) and brings…
Live Shots
The New YearLa Zona Rosa, March 31 It was like they were playing in an open field. Maybe it was all those years of seeing them at Emo’s, Dallas’ Trees, and even Liberty Lunch, but seeing Bedhead’s Kadane brothers in their new band at the sterile, cavernous La Zona Rosa seemed wrong. Bedhead’s sound, while…
Capitol Chronicle
The grandfathered pollution exemption celebrates its 30th birthday, and the Lege takes another look at cleaning up the air
In Person
At the LBJ Library Auditorium, the second of Fuentes’ stops on his sweep through Austin last week, he pined: “I wish I could be ubiquitous today so that I could be here and in the Mexican Congress to see the events that occurred today.”
Second Helpings: Vietnamese, Round Three
The final installment of Chronicle writer Mick Vann’s series of reviews of Vietnamese restaurants in this week’s Second Helpings.
Live Shots
Waylon JenningsWaterloo Park, March 31 It’s going on 30 years since Waylon, Willie, and the boys grabbed the country music establishment by the collar and gave it a good shakin’. It’s hard to imagine a time when their brand of country would have riled as many people as it did in the early Seventies, but…
Chick Flick
Who amongst ye could have conjured Mainer Janet Bonney’s true chicken story? Mark Lewis’ documentary The Natural History of Chickens, playing on Wednesday at the Alamo Drafthouse as part of the Texas Documentary Tour, features real-life stories of fowl play so strange they must be true.
Readings
Observatory Mansions A Novel by Edward Carey Crown, 356 pp., $23 Francis Orme, the latest in an endless family line of Francis Ormes, wears white cotton gloves. Everywhere. He wears white cotton gloves to protect his hands from everything. He has rules about his gloves, 10 of them (“3. The washing of gloves is not…
Second Helpings
Hao Hao 1901 W. Wm. Cannon, #115, 447-8121 Mon-Thu, 11am-2:30pm, 5-9 pm; Fri, 11am-2:30pm, 5-9:30pm; Sat, 11am-2:30pm, 5-9:30 pm; Sun, noon-9pm 1235 Round Rock Ave., Round Rock, 388-3322 Mon-Fri, 11 am-2:30pm, 4:30-9pm; Sat, 11am-9pm; Sun, noon-9pm Owned by a pair of brothers, Hao Hao features a mix of popular Chinese dishes coupled with their Vietnamese…
Live Shots
U2, PJ HarveyCompaq Center, Houston, April 2 Reunion Arena, Dallas, April 3 The final tally on the Love-meter came to 84. That’s how many times Bono said the magic word Tuesday. The U2 frontman has been going on about “re-applying for the job” of best band in the world recently, but judging by the Texas…
Short Cuts
A report from the Vanity Fair Oscars party and other film-related news and upcoming events.
The Widow of Saint-Pierre
The Widow of Saint-Pierre 2000, R, 108 min. Directed by Patrice Leconte, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Juliette Binoche, Daniel Auteuil, Emir Kusturica, Philippe Magnan, Michel Duchaussoy. On a dreary, wind-ravaged island in 1859, an innocent man is killed by two sailors. Drunk silly, they jab a knife in him to determine whether…
Readings
Whose Song? And Other Stories by Thomas Glave City Lights Books, 204 pp., $12.95 (paper) The stories in Thomas Glave’s lyrical and haunting collection have several shared themes, one of the most powerful of which is the desire for love. In the tragic but graceful story “Commitment,” two young men love each other but will…
Second Helpings
Pho 72 9616 N. Lamar, #156, 491-8856 Daily, 9am-9pm Pho 72 has the standard Viet noodle house menu, and all of the selections are quite good. Of note are the spring rolls with shredded roast pork and pork skin, any of the stir fried vermicelli bun bowls with meat of your choice and garlic with…
Redistricting 2001
The new census numbers are out, and here’s what to look for in the Lege’s plans for redistricting.
Video Reviews
Following John Phillips’ career from his early folk music roots, Straight Shooter contains astounding footage documenting the formation of the Mamas and the Papas.
Readings
Los Many Mundos de raúlrsalinas un poetic jazz viaje con friends Calaca Press/Red Salmon Press, spoken word CD, $14 Consider the poor poetry CD. By cloaking themselves in notes, some poets can achieve a longer half-life. But for some, it’s an obvious gimmick. If notes are like clothes a poet puts on, some are like…
Second Helpings
Pho Huang 2521 Rutland, #400, 339-6002 Daily, 9am-9pm Pho Huang is hidden in the strip center at the southeast corner of Rutland and Burnet, but seek it out and you won’t be disappointed. The limited menu shines with stellar dishes such as the bun with grilled ground beef, lemongrass, and spices, the crushed rice plate…
Redistricting 2001
TEXAS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Districts: 150 2000 Ideal District Population (IDP): 139,012 Actual 2000 population range: 104,998 (–24.47%) to 224,330 (+61.37%) In the Lege, the range between the smallest and largest districts can be up to 10% of the “ideal district population,” which is simply the total official state population (20,851,800) divided by the number…
Video Reviews
Not nearly as remarkable as its distinguished cast, but fine entertainment for a lazy day.
Local Bestsellers
Local bestsellers are based on recent sales at Austin bookstores selected to reflect varied reading interests.
Second Helpings
Sagiang 12636 Research, Ste. C-101, 250-8400 Tue-Sun, 11am-9pm; Mon, 11am-2pm Call for directions before attempting to locate. It’s one of those places you’ve driven by thousands of times and never noticed. But they specialize in over-the-top tasty grilled beef, chicken, pork, and shrimp skewers. The grilled beef skewers are positively addictive and can be had…
Redistricting 2001
TEXAS SENATE Districts: 31 IDP, 2000: 672,639 Actual Range: 576,638 (–14.27%) to 857,704 (+27.51%) The same 10% range around the IDP applies in the Senate, but in practice the county-line rule is widely ignored, which allows for more creativity. Plus, it’s almost unheard of for senators to get bounced from their seats by redistricting. And…
TV Eye
The most recent episode of The Sopranos illustrates the caste system among the women of the show — but does watching a woman get beaten to death educate or entertain?
Page Two
Robert Rodriguez, Chris Ware, Ben Sargent — what do these men have in common? They all worked as cartoonists for The Daily Texan.
Second Helpings
Saigon Restaurant 9200 N. Lamar, #101, 837-3692 Mon-Sat, 11am-10pm Saigon rides the cusp between noodle house and full-menu Viet. Try the tasty eel with coconut curry, the shrimp simmered in fish sauce, beef with baby ginger, or the beef and shrimp fondued in boiled vinegar for a different delight. They have a superlative version of…
Redistricting 2001
U.S. CONGRESS Districts: 32 (up from 30) IDP: 651,519 Actual range: 597,401 (–8.32%) to 845,541 (+29.76%) And you thought gerrymandering was illegal? Take a good look at Dist. 6 (Joe Barton) in the Metroplex. See, gerrymandering at the federal level is illegal only if you’re doing it solely to create a majority-minority district. In the…
Yi Yi
At nearly three hours long, Yang’s final film is a novelistic portrait of the Jians, a comfortable middle-class family, presumably like many others, whose members can be categorized neither as happy nor unhappy.
Public Notice
Public Notice asks not what it can do for its community but what you can. This week features the third of a three-part list of Austin area Volunteer Opportunities.
Second Helpings
Sunflower Restaurant 8557 Research, #146, 339-7860 Daily, 10am-10pm Sunflower is in the same complex with Hong Kong Market and Din Ho. They really excel with certain items that no one else in town does, such as the fabulous Shaken Beef, BBQ Lemongrass Ribs, Viet Spicy Shrimp and Pork Salad, and the Sizzling Seafood With Basil,…
Union’s Due
Labor lawyer David Van Os stands accused by former employees of blocking their attempts to organize
Along Came a Spider
Along Came a Spider 2001, R, 104 min. Directed by Lee Tamahori, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Morgan Freeman, Monica Potter, Michael Moriarty, Dylan Baker, Michael Wincott, Penelope Ann Miller, Mika Boorem. Much like its predecessor, 1997’s Kiss the Girls, Along Came a Spider is an efficient, if overly mechanized, delivery system of…
After a Fashion
Our Style Avatar goes to Hollywood (well, via his TV set!) and reports, Oscar style!
Second Helpings
Wok n Go 2200 Guadalupe (downstairs), 476-7997 Mon-Fri, 11am-10pm; Sat, noon-10pm; Sun, 5-10pm Wok n Go’s main claim to fame is the buffet that is wildly popular with the UT crowd. A fairly large selection of hybrid Chinese food cooked Vietnamese-style in unending quantity enjoys regularly large crowds daily. They also have very respectable versions…
Will the Charges Stick?
The National Labor Relations Board issues a formal complaint against Van Os and Associates
Pokémon 3: The Movie
Pokémon 3: The Movie 2001, G, 93 min. Directed by Michael Haigney, Kunihiko Yuyama, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Veronica Taylor, Eric Stuart, Rachael Lillis, Ikue Otani, Ken Gates, Amy Birnbaum, Dan Green, Stan Hart. It’s two, two, two movies in one! Okay, actually you’d be hard-pressed to find the remnants of one…
Mr. Smarty Pants
More nuggets from information’s mother lode.
Liquid Assets
Spanish wines are just beginning to get the general respect they deserve here in the U.S. Why it has taken so long is probably due to marketing problems. I can assure you that it isn’t an issue of quality or price. The average Spanish red wine packs incredible value and intense flavor. Their wines should…
Naked City
Local news this week in Austin.
Left Luggage
Left Luggage 1998, NR, 100 min. Directed by Jeroen Krabbé, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Jeroen Krabbé, Laura Fraser, Isabella Rossellini, Topol, Marianne Sagebrecht, Adam Monty, Maximilian Schell, David Bradley. Echoes of the Holocaust resonate through two different Jewish families living in 1970s Antwerp while the luminous Rossellini struggles to look plain. To…
