Same Men, New Tricks
Same Men, New Tricks NR. Directed by Sarah Harding, Charles Mcdougall, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Aidan Gillen, Craig Kelly, Charlie Hunnam. The Austin Gay & Lesbian International Film Festival (aGLIFF) presents a follow-up to one of the favorites from last year’s festival: the new season of the gay British TV soap opera,…
“The Return of Navajo Boy” (2000) and “Yada Yada” (2001)
“The Return of Navajo Boy” (2000) and “Yada Yada” (2001) NR, 52 min. Directed by Bennie Klain, Jeff Spitz, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . This film, which was co-produced by Chicago director Jeff Spitz and Navajo Austin filmmaker Bennie Klain, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival two months ago. The Austin presentation…
Passing Through
Passing Through NR, 105 min. Directed by Larry Clark, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Nathaniel Taylor, Clarence Muse, Pamela Jones. Director Larry Clark was one of the original members of the L.A. Rebellion, the UCLA-centered group of African-American student filmmakers who between the years of 1968 and 1977 made many politically and aesthetically…
Frame by Frame: The Art and Technique of Film Animation
Frame by Frame: The Art and Technique of Film Animation NR. Directed by , Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . Frame by Frame: The Art and Technique of Film Animation is a lecture and hands-on workshop that will explore four different techniques in animation – cut-outs, claymation, rotoscoping, and hand painting or scratching.…
Overlapping Fireworks
January 18: Auditions Top: Boone, Suite, and Segal take notes during Tara Battani’s audition. Middle: Boone, Suite, and Segal gather the auditioning students in a circle and ask them to introduce themselves. Bottom: As part of the auditions, Segal leads a movement exercise; Shannon Riley and Cory Cruser head the line of students.
Off the Bookshelf
In Search of Snow A Novel by Luis Alberto Urrea University of Arizona Press, 259 pp., $16.95 (paper) Recently back in print, In Search of Snow is award-winning Urrea’s first work about the Southwest and the human condition. This novel pretends to be an adventure tale, narrating the exploits of its hero who, after living…
Skate for Christ’s Sake!
“We don’t just set it up so they can watch some other boarder skate for them. It’s for them to use, and for them to learn about Jesus,” says John Newberry, Youth Minister of Calvary Chapel in North Austin. Opened in March 1999 and supported by the church for which Newberry ministers, the Calvary Skatepark…
Dancing About Architecture
Dynamite Hack goes prime-time; Atomic Cafe hangs in there; the Old Settler’s Music Festival is upon us.
… And Justice for All?
Bruce Sinofsky and Joe Berlinger’s Paradise Lost depicted the grossly mishandled trials of three Arkansas teens. With Paradise Lost 2: Revelations, part of the Texas Documentary Tour, they return to the scene of the crime.
Overlapping Fireworks
March 2: Early Rehearsal Top: Boone (front left) encourages her actors to cut loose; left to right, Elizabeth Wakehouse, Shannon Riley, Jenny Larson, Stuart Bone, Lee Eddy, Cory Cruser. Bottom: A bit of rehearsal improvisation; left to right, Stage Manager Melissa Ruggles (sitting), Shannon Riley, Stuart Bone, Nick Kougias.
Local Bestsellers
Local bestsellers are based on recent sales at Austin bookstores selected to reflect varied reading interests.
Tekgnar (née Blondies)
What originally opened in 1987 as Lonestar Skatepark & Pro Shop, Austin’s first skatepark, and further evolved into Blondies skate merchandise and entertainment emporium, is now Tekgnar, on MLK at Guadalupe. From this vantage point, shop owner Laurie Pevey has witnessed Austin’s skate and music communities evolve for the past 13 years. “People are starting…
Live Shots
Afro-Cuban All StarsParamount Theatre, March 23 After thanking them for a warm reception to his group’s nine-minute instrumental opener, Afro-Cuban All Stars bandleader Juan de Marcos González greeted the sold-out audience with “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Cuba.” González formed his big band in 1995 to reunite major stars of the Forties and Fifties with…
Short Cuts
Upcoming events and workshops of interest to the Austin film community.
Overlapping Fireworks
March 21: Midway Through Rehearsals Top: Tech Moment. Master Electrician Natalie George adjusts lighting in the Mary Moody Northen Theatre over Lighting Designer Regan Dodson. Bottom: During a movement rehearsal with Segal, Elizabeth Wakehouse and Cory Cruser practice moving in sync.
Page Two
Could the Statesman’s Michael Corcoran ever be Austin’s Herb Caen?
In Full Bloom
Lucky number 13 for the Old Settler’s Music Festival this year, and with Central Texas in the full spring bloom, patrons of this annual outdoor music festival are certain to cash in. Featuring headliners Bela Fleck & the Flecktones, Leftover Salmon, and Claire Lynch & the Front Porch String Band on Friday, Willis Alan Ramsey,…
Live Shots
Ahmad JamalOne World Theatre, March 24 Hard to say who it speaks better of, Austin’s One World Theatre or Ahmad Jamal himself, but what was essentially an off-night for a piano trio still came off like some enchanted evening in a postwar Paris basement. Credit goes to both camps, obviously, the nearly 70-year-old pianist playing…
Video Reviews
Eyes Wide Shut D: Stanley Kubrick (1999); with Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Sydney Pollack It’s sad when a legend’s final film winds up as one of his least engaging works. That was the case when Kubrick’s much ballyhooed erotic drama failed to score at the box office and with a number of critics. In the…
Overlapping Fireworks
April 1: Late Rehearsal Top: The cast in a group moment from rehearsal inside the Mary Moody Northen Theatre. Second: Boone (right) rehearses Shannon Riley (left) while Elizabeth Wakehouse accompanies the scene on violin from above. Third: The weekend before opening, set pieces are being set in place; left to right, Assistant Stage Manager Cristi…
Public Notice
Public Notice is back to normal after the weight of post-SXSW malaise. See who’s running and walking and biking and singing for good causes this week.
In Full Bloom
Jerry Douglas, Tim O’Brien, and Dirk Powell
Live Shots
Peter MurphyLa Zona Rosa, March 29 Ah, the children of the night. Still making such sweet music. La Zona Rosa made a delicious dungeon last Wednesday, as several hundred Central Texans — many clad in Forbidden Fruit’s finest — crawled out of their crypts to commune with undead rock shaman Peter Murphy. But while the…
Video Reviews
The Muse D: Albert Brooks (1999); with Sharon Stone, Albert Brooks, Andie MacDowell, Jeff Bridges. The usually clever Brooks seems to falter a bit in this effort. Of course, the premise itself is pretty dumb, but you’d expect more from the man whose past efforts include the witty Real Life and Lost in America. Here,…
Overlapping Fireworks
April 3: Dress Rehearsal Top: A choreographed moment of wildness; left to right, Stuart Bone, Jenny Larson, Jason Garrett Hays, Tara Battani, Bradley Carlin, Elizabeth Wakehouse, Lee Eddy, and Shannon Riley. Middle: Jenny Larson sits astride Nick Kougias while Cory Cruse observes from above. Bottom: Shannon Riley and Lee Eddy share a moment in the…
After a Fashion
Life is cruel, but it doesn’t have to be unattractive.
In Full Bloom
Del McCoury
Live Shots
Kelly Hogan & the Pine Valley CosmonautsThe Hideout, Chicago, Illinois, April 1 It seemed that Chicago’s music community was everywhere during this year’s SXSW. From Jon Langford and his many different incarnations and special guest spots to afternoon parties held by Chicago venues Schuba’s and the Hideout (plus hip alt.country record label Bloodshot), there seemed…
Video Reviews
YOUNG FRANKENSTEIND: Mel Brooks (1974); with Gene Wilder, Peter Boyle, Teri Garr, Marty Feldman, Cloris Leachman, Madeline Kahn, Kenneth Mars, Gene Hackman. One of Mel Brooks’ finest and funniest films, Young Frankenstein was initially the brainchild of Gene Wilder, who took the idea to Brooks after the duo paired on the amazingly successful Blazing Saddles.…
Articulations
An extraordinary new project for Deborah Hay and his week in Louisville that was all about Austin.
Mr. Smarty Pants
The poop on Mexico City.
In Full Bloom
Guy Clark
Little City Hall
Austinites are damn good at fighting City Hall, even though we don’t have one. We’re also quite practiced at fighting over City Hall, which is why we don’t have one. But soon we will, Lord willing and the lake don’t rise. Will it still be worth fighting over? As you all know, the City Council…
TV Eye
ABC’s new drama Wonderland takes us through the looking glass and into the disquieting reality of a psychiatric ward; also, The Sopranos head toward their second season finale.
Exhibitionism
The script for Mac Wellman’s Terminal Hip is gibberish � literally � but that doesn’t stop actor Dan Dietz and director Jason Neulander from creating a viscerally pleasing explosion of language.
Day Trips
The Old Settler’s Music Festival has a new Dripping Springs home.
In Full Bloom
Fred Eaglesmith
Naturally Nader
You don’t get elected president of the United States by quoting Cicero. You win by showing you look good in a suit, that you can throw a baseball, flip pancakes, and give short, glib answers to questions on predictable issues. You win by raising and spending tens of millions of dollars given to you by…
Agnes Browne
Agnes Browne 1999, R, 92 min. Directed by Anjelica Huston, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Tom Jones, James Lappin, Gareth O’Connor, Mark Power, Carl Power, Roxanna Williams, Ciaran Owens, Niall O’Shea, Arno Chevrier, Ray Winstone, Marion O’Dwyer, Anjelica Huston. Angela McCourt, the Irish heroine-mum of Frank McCourt’s witheringly sentimental novel Angela’s Ashes (as…
Exhibitionism
In tackling Shakespeare’s most gruesome play, the Disciples of Melpomene prove themselves able to confront violence in ways that are simultaneously shocking and playful : and able to make an ancient story speak to modern times.
Coach’s Corner
Daylight Savings is a bummer, but Austin’s hosting of the NCAAs was an upper. And as the NBA regular season winds down, disappointments outnumber pleasant suprises, but the Lakers are a big, big, exception.
In Full Bloom
Bela Fleck
Naked City
West Austin neighbors oppose MoPac’s expansion, Thomas Henderson may be spending his lottery winnings to help elect Danny Thomas, ALGPC makes its endorsements for city council
Flesh Gordon
Flesh Gordon 1972, X, 73 min. Directed by Michael Benveniste, Howard Ziehm, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Cindy Hopkins, Joseph Hudgins, Jason Williams, Mycle Brandy. Seventies sex comedy spoofs Thirties film serials, adopting the breathlessly episodic storyline of the latter while adding a campy eroticism all its own.
Exhibitionism
Photographer George Krause searches for the complex emotional life which makes us human: in our sexuality, our cultural conventions, and our attitude toward death. The exhibition of his images at D Berman Gallery confirms him as one of the country’s greatest photographers.
About AIDS
Another product that could help in HIV prevention is on the horizon.
In Full Bloom
Slaid Cleaves
Naked City
The Texas Supreme Court denies Austin DA’s request that it overturn the decision that allowed LaCresha Murray to go home last April, but the DA’s office says it make take the case to a third trial.
Show Me Love
Show Me Love 1998, NR, 89 min. Directed by Lukas Moodysson, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Axel Widegren, Maria Hedborg, Ralph Carlsson, Stefan Horberg, Mathias Rust, Erica Carlson, Rebecca Liljeberg, Alexandra Dahlstrom. Days after seeing Show Me Love (in Swedish, with English subtitles), my maxillary muscles are still smarting from grinning so much…
Lost City
To get from ancient Rome to Austin, Texas, 1885, Steven Saylor had to experience something that most people call coincidence. He calls it serendipity. It was the summer of 1992, and he was working on Arms of Nemesis, the third installment in his successful Roma Sub Rosa mystery series set in ancient Rome. It rained…
Hill Country Compendium
Cuisines editor Virginia B. Wood has been scouting the Hill Country looking for all the new bed & breakfasts, restaurants, and other interesting places she can find.
In Full Bloom
Peter Rowan
Naked City
The embattled Texas Funeral Service Commission, which says it can’t find much of the evidence in its case against funeral giant Service Corporation International, sends the case to the State Office of Administrative Hearings.
Welcome Back, Mr. Mcdonald
Welcome Back, Mr. Mcdonald NR, 103 min. Directed by Koki Mitani, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Keiko Toda, Masahiko Nishimura, Kyoka Suzuki, Toshiaki Karasawa. Not reviewed at press time. The American title of this 1997 Japanese film, Rajio no jikan, makes this comedy sound like the cheery bottom half of a double bill…
A Twist at the End Reviewed
A Twist at the End: A Novel of O. Henry by Steven Saylor Simon & Schuster, 466 pp., $25 As the dawn of the 20th century approached, eight horrific ax murders — likely America’s first serial killings — chilled Austin’s citizens to the bone. From the wee hours of December 31, 1884 with the slaying…
Immaculate Taste
Be prepared to disbelieve. Skeptics unite! Do you believe that the wrong wine glass can make a great wine mediocre? Wes Marshall explains why.
In Full Bloom
Jack Saunders, Doc Watson, and David Grisman
Naked City
Charles Gandy hopes to best perennial candidate Gene Kelly, who has a famous-sounding name but has never held office, in the Democratic race to oppose incumbent Sen.Kay Bailey Hutchison in November.
Excerpt From A Twist at the End
The following passage follows William Sydney Porter — later known as O. Henry — as he makes the rounds of his Austin haunts. The imaginative 22-year-old works hard at the business of leisure: the original Austin slacker, perhaps. It takes place the day after a serial murderer and rapist, whom Porter later dubbed the Servant…
How to Clean a Wine Glass
Wine glasses have two common causes of bad smells: insufficient rinsing that leaves either a detergent or a chlorine smell, or absorption of environmental odors like a woody/cardboardy smell from a cupboard, or cooking odors. More good wine has been ruined by a malodorous glass than anything else. Always smell a glass before pouring wine…
In Full Bloom
LeeAnn Atherton
Naked City
Six candidates are vying for three uncompensated positions on the AISD school board.
Christopher Paul Curtis
For 13 years, Newbery Award-winning novelist Christopher Paul Curtis worked on an automobile assembly line in Flint, Michigan. Every day he and his partner would double up for a half hour so that they would have 30-minute breaks. Most people, no doubt, would spend the time getting a Coke or smoking a cigarette. But not…
Food-o-File
Breaking news at the recent IACP Convention in Providence, Rhode Island, details on upcoming culinary events in Austin.
In Full Bloom
Willis Alan Ramsey
Naked City
District 5 Ingrid Taylor Albert StowellDistrict 2 Rudy Montoya (incumbent) Wanda RogersDistrict 3 Johna Edwards Tom Arbuckle The AISD board races will be held on May 6.
Second Helpings: Wine Lists
Food writer Wes Marshall surveys the wine lists in 10 Austin restaurants.
Postscripts
Highlights of the Austin International Poetry Festival and critic Neil Postman’s upcoming visit to Austin.
Mini-Review
The French Laundry Cookbook by Thomas Keller, Michael Ruhlman, Susie Heller Artisan, 325 pp., $50 The French Laundry Cookbook is a stunningly beautiful food pictorial that takes you on a culinary journey through the doors of one of the greatest restaurants in our country, The French Laundry. Thomas Keller, French Laundry’s chef and proprietor, acts…
In Full Bloom
Molly O’Brien
Naked City
Scott Loras and Jill Warren head into an acrimonious runoff for the GOP nomination for Texas House District 48.
Overlapping Fireworks
It�s been six long years since Frontera artists Vicky Boone, Margery Segal, and Annie Suite have all worked with each other on a play, but the threesome still send off fireworks together, as C. Denby Swanson
Off the Bookshelf
In the Beginning … Was the Command Line by Neal Stephenson Avon Books, 151 pp., $10 (paper) Intended for readers wanting to get in touch with their inner geek, In the Beginning … Was the Command Line is a metaphor-strewn hacker rant that is often contradictory (Stephenson can’t seem to decide whether Bill Gates is…
Sk8 Baby Sk8
Austin author Inga Muscio (Cunt, Seal Press) reflects on her experience as a badass skateboard babe and wonders why more women in Austin don’t fancy life on four wheels.
In Full Bloom
Tim O’Brien and Dirk Powell
Council Watch
For those of you having trouble keeping up with the council’s itinerant meeting schedule, relief is on the way. After a last-minute move to the airport last week discombobulated a group of Southpark Meadows neighbors who planned to storm the LCRA building and oppose the project (the item was ultimately postponed), Mayor Kirk Watson said…
Return to Me
Return to Me 2000, PG, 116 min. Directed by Bonnie Hunt, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Bonnie Hunt, James Belushi, Joely Richardson, David Alan Grier, Robert Loggia, Carroll O’Connor, Minnie Driver, David Duchovny. What are the odds? A woman (Richardson), a crusading bookkeeper, dies, and her organs are harvested. Her desolate and grief-stricken…
Overlapping Fireworks
Photo Essay: Intro For the past 11 weeks, local photographer Bret Brookshire has been documenting the production process for Love’s Fire at St. Edward’s University. In an effort to provide a record of how a show comes together, Brookshire has shot dozens of rolls of film, capturing every phase of the production’s development, from auditions…
Off the Bookshelf
For the Time Being by Annie Dillard Vintage, 205 pp., $12 (paper) Annie Dillard writes like a dream, as fans of her novels and essays have long known. In For the Time Being, the risks she takes with structure and topic pay off in a provocative meditation on a major philosophical issue: the problem of…
Austin PARD Skatepark
We all know boys can be clueless puds, especially when they are in an arena where their perceived manhood is tested. And nothing tests a 17-year-old’s manhood like seeing a girl whomping ass on the ramps at the skatepark. The survival instinct in such young men seems to require that they ridicule and intimidate skategirls…
In Full Bloom
Jerry Douglas, Vassar Clements, Peter Rowan, Tony Rice, and Rob McCoury
Media Clips
Texas Triangle fires its longtime co-editor, spurring controversy over the direction of its coverage.
Black and White
Black and White 2000, R, 100 min. Directed by James Toback, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Brett Ratner, Elijah Wood, Eddie Kaye Thomas, Scott Caan, William Lee Scott, Marla Maples, Jared Leto, Kidada Jones, Stacy Edwards, Gaby Hoffmann, Method Man, Raekwon, Mike Tyson, Claudia Schiffer, Joe Pantoliano, Allan Houston, Bijou Phillips, Ben Stiller,…
