Film Reviews
BABED: Chris Noonan; with James Cromwell, Magda Szubanski. Perhaps one of the cutest children’s films ever made, this tale of the young piglet named Babe who decides his calling in life is to be a sheepdog is also a rousing comedy appropriately filled with a variety of subtle messages, from self empowerment to the importance…
food-o-file
New and Noshworthy Austin Java Co. 1206 Parkway (Lamar & Enfield), 476-1829 Monday-Thursday 7am-11pm; Friday 7am-12am; Saturday 9 am-12am; Sunday 9am-10pm The economic boom now sweeping Austin feels like a bust in the chops to many of us. Rents escalate, wages for the underemployed stagnate, and new restaurants increasingly gear their menus to lure the…
Bare Bones and Books
It’s a year of budget casualties – some city departments are finding their funding slashed by up to 6% – but the library system has so far escaped being hit very hard. With a proposed budget of $10.6 million (up about $100,000 from 1994-95), director Brenda Branch says that there’s just no place to cut.…
Local Anthologies Take Root Growing Up
Although poetry is a highly individualized art form, it’s one that easily lends itself to being grouped in larger collections. Literary magazines are a well-established arena for finding new poetry, yet most of their contributors are linked solely by an intangible quality. Even in issues linked by a specific theme, what’s chronicled is often an…
What Happened to Our Buzz?
by Chris Gray “Don’t forget me when I’m gone” – Glass Tiger (1986) How ’bout that as food for thought? When you stop laughing, you might want to consider that there’s actually a grain of truth in what may be the most brazenly ignored piece of advice since somebody told Eisenhower maybe he’d better let…
Austin Music Network Schedule
Austin CableVision Channel 15 THURSDAY, AUGUST 10 10pm Tex Mix #41: Pretty Boys… 10:30 Tom Principato Special 11pm The People’s Picks #68 11:30 E.P.K.’s: Jewel, Herbie Hancock MID The Denns, AAMF 12:30 Tex Mix #5: Animal Mix 1am The Commandos, at Dixie�s Bar 1:30 Alternative 15 #64 FRIDAY, AUGUST 11 10pm Tex Mix #6 10:30…
Dancing About Architecture
I’m bracing myself as I type this, preparing to head for what Steven Wright (as “K-Billy” in Reservoir Dogs) would call a “bowhemoth” – that monster in a meadow called Lollapalooza. There’s good reason for my apprehension, besides the fact that this’ll be my first time at the big Loll (well, who wanted to drive…
How I Learned to Love the Bomb
If it is your life’s goal to read only one more film book, go and secure a copy of Steven Bach’s Final Cut. Bach was a production executive at United Artists during the studio’s glory years of the late Seventies and early Eighties and was involved in the making of the company’s legendary failure, Heaven’s…
This Is Pop?
by Mindy LaBernz The Beatles vs. the Stones? How absolutely ludicrous, I thought, flipping through my new music primer, The Austin Chronicle. That’s hardly a fair fight. “Wayne?” I called to my boss and mentor Wayne Nagel, owner of the Austin Rehearsal Complex and local Godfather, of sorts. “What’s all this nonsense about a Stones…
States of Mind
The Source of Trouble; $10 paperback A Wild, Cold State by Debra Monroe Simon and Schuster, $21 hard judge a story by the distance it transports me from my world; I clocked some miles in the stories in Monroe’s two books. In The Source of Trouble, we never leave the south central United States, but…
Downtown Churches
1. St Martin’s Evangelical Lutheran Church 606 West 15th, 476-6757 Rev. Sam Zumwalt, pastor Rev. Anamae Storbeck, associate pastor 2. First Church of Christ, Scientist 1309 Guadalupe, 472-2356 3. Central Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) 1110 Guadalupe, 476-6941 Dr. Fabaus Landry, senior pastor Rev. Phil Jones, associate minister 4. First United Methodist Church 1201 Lavaca,…
Milieu Pairs Beer With Brul�e An Elegant Eccentricity
by Robb Walsh Milieu 314 Congress Avenue, 472-1021 Lunch Monday-Friday, 11am-2pm Dinner Monday-Saturday, 6-10pm Beer and chocolate pudding sounds like one of those 3am-standing-in-front-of-the-refrigerator-after-a-long-night-at-Antone’s combinations. But my waiter insisted I try the chef’s chocolate cr�me brul�e accompanied by a Belgian beer called Liefmans Frambozen, a brown ale made with fresh raspberries and raspberry juice. The…
Council Watch
Last week’s agenda being nearly devoid of contentious items, one councilmember sought out a new forum for disagreement – namely, Ronney Reynolds’ surprising call last Wednesday to suspend a sale of the city’s electric utility. Reynolds’ announcement puts him in the same camp with Jackie Goodman, Gus Garcia, Max Nofziger, and Brigid Shea, who had…
Unscented
I once thought my mother was psychic. After discreetly playing at her dressing table, certain that she was busy downstairs stuffing bell peppers or doing other motherly things, I would wander past her on my way outside and she would call out from across the house and around the corner, “Suzy, have you been messing…
Wanted: High-Tech Labor, Will Train
Suffice it to say that Motorola, Advanced Micro Devices, and other high-tech manufacturers in Austin are not cheering for Samsung to locate here. Why? They’re having enough trouble finding workers as it is. If Samsung decides to build a new chip factory here, an already tight labor market could get frantic. The Korean company appears…
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows…
According to Binney and Smith, makers of Crayola Crayons, kids, ages 2-8 spend an average of 28 minutes coloring every day. A recent study by the University of Chicago found that the average man and average woman share about the same level of intelligence, but men account for a higher proportion of geniuses and the…
Naked City
Edited by Andrea Barnett, with contributions this week by Alex de Marban and Roseana Auten. UNDER THE RUG: Lance Winters, a 13-year city employee known for his outspoken citizen advocacy, has been informed that he is a casualty of the belt-tightening proposed by the1995-96 budget. Winters’ boss, City Clerk Elden Aldridge, says he was under…
Carburator Blues
For me, end-of-summer is a time to kick back, open up a fresh can of snuff, crack some windows, break out the Mickey’s malt liquor, and read books 100% guaranteed not to engage whatever intellectual pretensions may be left in my smoked-out, sunburned head. Pages and pages of line after line of uninterrupted text, with…
A Neighborhood of Churches
A Chronicle colleague, when informed of this week’s subject, put its impetus quite succinctly: “When I moved to Austin, I went walking downtown with friends, and we said, `Wow, what a cool church.’ And then we walked another block, and said, `Wow, there’s another.’ And then, `There’s another’…” Actually, there are at least a dozen…
The Virtues of Flexibility
It was unlike any theatre I had ever seen, a temple to possibility, its playing space so flexible that it could accommodate tons of dirt, trees, or a tank. It could be configured into a big warehouse or an intimate salon. Pillars staggered throughout the space and lightweight beams that could be attached to them…
The Ultimate Solution
California transportation consultant Stanley Hart says that automobile subsidies guarantee that Americans will continue commuting long distances in their cars. Why? Because so much of the expense of driving a car is hidden. Americans tend to view insurance, depreciation, and maintenance as “fixed” costs of operating a car. Meanwhile, roads and parking are taxpayer subsidized,…
Scanlines
JOHNNY SUEDE Johnny Suede D: Tom DiCillo; with Brad Pitt, Catherine Keener, Alison Moir, Tina Louise, Nick Cave, Samuel L. Jackson. Miramax Films DiCillo’s new film, Living in Oblivion (opening in Austin on August 25??), is the buzz of the indie film world, so for those who like to do their homework, check out DiCillo’s…
Transportation Budget at The Crossroads
To the Public Works and Transportation Department (PWTD), the issue is simple. “Our Visa card’s at its limit, and even though our lawn mower, oven, and fridge are broken down, we don’t have the cash to pay for them,” complains acting director Matt Kite. So the sixth-largest city department is asking for a raise from…
About AIDS
Waterloo Counseling Center Expands HIV-Related Services, Starts Two New Support Groups Waterloo Counseling Center (WCC), the primary mental health facility in Austin for lesbians, gay men, and those living with HIV-infection, has announced a dramatic expansion of its HIV services. Waterloo has provided psychotherapy sessions free of charge to those living with HIV-infection since 1991,…
Jam City
Congestion management techniques can be divided into two broad categories, reflecting two widely opposing views of how to deal with traffic: Trip-reduction techniques attempt to lure motorists from single occupancy automobile commuting to mass transit, car-pools, walking, or cycling. This category also includes encouraging telecommuting and staggered work hours. Since the worst congestion occurs during…
Coach’s Corner
GRAND CAYMAN- The divemaster is quite clear in his directions. “You won’t need your depth gauges,” he explains to a boatload of indifferent scuba divers, “The bottom is 50 feet. You couldn’t go any deeper if you wanted to. See you in 40 minutes.” At the 38-minute mark, when the boat should be comfortably overhead,…
Music Recommended
Backyard, Saturday 12 Little Charlie Sexton ain’t so little anymore, and neither are the crowds that show up for his gigs – what few Austin ones there are. Since the unveiling of Under the Wishing Tree at the Austin Music Hall during SXSW, Sexton seems to have made only one other local appearance, and that…
Day Trips
John’s Country Store may be over 95 years old, but on August 15 it celebrates its second anniversary. It has been two years since Paul Holub and his stepdaughter Debbie Krenik gave the old clapboard building a coat of white paint and breathed new life into the store that has been the center of the…
Road Shows
AUGUST FRI 11 Tragically Hip, Liberty Lunch FRI 11 Real McKenzies, Sixty Six, Emo’s FRI 11 Bluerunners, Hole in the Wall FRI 11 Glue, Star 66, Electric Lounge SAT 12 Mojo Nixon, Steamboat SAT 12 Twinkle Bros., Della Grant & Pacesetters Band, Aussie’s WED 16 Cheryl Wheeler, Cactus Cafe WED 16 Lordz of Brooklyn, Back…
Hearth & Soul
The Flow Below Dear Suzy, I really enjoy reading your column every week. I’ve been meaning to write in earlier, but with the multitude of problems that I am having with my fixer-upper, I didn’t know where to start. So, I guess I’ll start with the foundation. All of the screens in the skirting of…
Film: Showtimes
Showtimes listed below start Friday, August 11 and cover the week ending Thursday, August 17. *An asterisk (*) before a title means that no passes or special admission discounts (apart from matinee discounts) will be accepted for any screening. *Parentheses indicate weekend showtimes for Saturdays and Sundays only, unless otherwise noted. *Changes may sometimes occur,…
