Cover Story
General Jackson
Artist and historian Jack Jackson remembered by those who knew him well
Black Narcissus
Black Narcissus 1947, NR, 99 min. Directed by Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, Starring Deborah Kerr, Flora Robson, Jean Simmons, David Farrar, Sabu. Three Anglican nuns attempt to transform a Himalayan palace into a convent, but in addition to the physical challenges of the landscape, they are constrained by their own emotional demons. The distinguished directing…
The River
The River 1951, NR, 99 min. Directed by Jean Renoir, Starring Patricia Walters, Nora Swinburne, Arthur Shields. In one of his few English-language films, Renoir brings his famed naturalistic touch to this story of three British sisters coming of age in Bengal, India, on the Ganges. It’s based on the novel by Rumer Godden, and…
Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul
This trip through musical Istanbul is a little prettier than it is deep, but it provides a window into the variegated subcultures of a city one musician calls “a bridge crossed by 72 nations.”
Soccer Watch
UT’s Lady Longhorns back in action, and more
Texas Platters
Blue Diamond ShineShrimp Boat Town (Abyssinian) It hardly takes a hurricane for Gulf Coast residents to feel marginalized. The shameful aftermath of Katrina and Rita is merely the most tragic example of a phenomenon that also allows Houston Astros all-stars Lance Berkman and Roy Oswalt to prosper in relative obscurity and a discrete regional sound…
WTP No. 4: Still migrating
Stakeholders at city and county level struggle to catch up with City Council’s decision about plant location
Once in a Lifetime
The unexpected rise and meteoric fall of the North American Soccer League in the heady, silly mid-Seventies is chronicled for the first time in this charmingly chatty documentary, which ably tracks both the birth of the sport on these shores and its ignominious downfall, which arrived almost overnight with the leave-taking of Pelé.
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Keeping Ronald Reagan moving
Hutto Wastewater: Is Limmer at it again?
LCRA site selection report for regional wastewater treatment plant outside Hutto transforms what might otherwise be routine battle into darker tale
Commemorative Ritual at KatrinaDinner2006.com
One year later, a commemorative ritual for New Orleans
Texas Platters
Whether or not the world needs another live Robert Earl Keen album is open to debate, but Live at the Ryman (Koch) is a primo example of the versatility of his long-touring band. Recorded in 2004, it’s also notable for featuring Danny Barnes on banjo. Houston’s Compadre Records has made a name for itself with…
Cave Murder Update
Judge denies motion to suppress evidence in murder of 23-year-old who was dismembered and left in the bathtub of a West Campus apartment last summer
As Naked as You Wanna Be
Celesta Danger presents a show of her favorite photographs, including images of her partner, art teacher Tamara Hoover, that led to Hoover’s suspension by AISD
A Passion for Ice Cream: 95 Recipes for Fabulous Desserts
The perfect guide to a yummy summer
The Taco Kings, Besieged
A conflict with neighborhoods has made the previously independent street taco vendors organize in self-defense
Point Austin: Oppel vs. Chomsky
On seeing the world through blood-drenched eyes
‘Seven Year Itch’: REALMdanceproject’s lucky number
Folks don’t often make a big deal out of a seventh anniversary, but with all the changes in REALMdanceproject this year, the troupe thought it a good idea, hence its new show, ‘Seven Year Itch’
Food-o-File
A bittersweet weekend for Taco Xpress
The New Vendor Rules
Until this year, mobile taco stands operated without fully legal status in Austin. On June 8, the City Council gave preliminary approval to a new ordinance, which is undergoing review by city staff and commissions. The Planning Commission subcommittee on codes and ordinances will discuss proposed revisions on Aug. 15, and the full commission is…
Beside the Point
Council members take to the waters, al fresco
State Theatre: Shows canceled over flood, repairs
In addition to ruining the State Theatre stage, basement, and much valuable equipment, the June flood of the arts venue has washed away most of the State’s 2006-2007 season
Event Menu
Go forth and feast
The Taco Trail
There are dozens of mobile taco stands around town, complementing (or often in direct competition with) permanent taco joints or larger Tex-Mex restaurants. Quality varies widely from stand to stand, and every neighborhood has its favorites. Here are a select few of ours. For more on recommended local taco joints, see “Good to Go,” March…
The Hightower Report
Another Front Group for George; and Protecting America from Fair Drug Prices
Arts Review
The revival of Steven Tomlinson’s American Fiesta arrives with such hype, one might think it would have difficulty living up to it; but with this uplifting, transcendent show, one would be wrong
China Palace
Revisting a Seventies standout
Design Standards
Austin’s new commercial design standards are ready for prime time
Searching for Once Upon a Time
Why Monument Valley – again part of the Netflix / Alamo Drafthouse Rolling Roadshow this summer – is such a magnetic place for me
Arts Review
Prairie Oyster Productions’ staging of ‘Psycho Beach Party’ is trashy, but it’s meant to be: a campy, albeit loving, send-up of all things beach, all things Sixties, and all things Hitchcockian
Wild Wood Art Cafe
Shelter from the gluten storm
City Budget Hearings Begin Today
Parks and Rec, Library funding, Health and Human Services, Neighborhood Housing and Community Development, and Solid Waste Services to be discussed; citywide increases proposed across the board
Hector Galán on ‘Cottonfields and Crossroads’
Local doc on local band opens locally on Aug. 11
Arts Review
In ‘Beast-Footed Feathered Serpents,’ artist Jules Buck Jones and writer Caitlin Haskell playfully call into question the facts we use as human beings to make sense of the world.
King of Bongo
Tracking Spain/France’s illusive King of Latin punk rock, Manu Chao
Democrats Get a Boost From Court Redistricting
District 25 will now be more rooted in Travis County, yet also more conservative
Film News
Local intrigue abounds; plus, SXSW 07 is ready for your best shot(s)
Arts Review
In both halves of the Marjorie Moore and Jeffrey Dell joint show, “Below the Surface: A Different Order,” a sense of loss is communicated, sometimes in terms of artistic technique, sometimes in terms of life
Bangin’ Boogie
Mano NegraPatchanka (1988) Calling their punk take-down of French/Spanish traditionalism Patchanka, Mano Negra’s first manifesto doubles as a best-of. Eighties clubber “Ronde de Nuit,” gypsy body slam “Mala Vida,” and the 1950s big fins of “Takin’ It Up” all lead up to the Frankie Goes to Hollywood release of “La Ventura.” Taut ska (“Lonesome Bop”)…
Vintage Thieves
Female team targets local vintage store employees’ purses and wallets
DVD Watch
The Black Belly of the TarantulaBlue Underground, $19.95 Italian director Paolo Cavara is these days best remembered as the man who, along with Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi, unleashed the seminal exploitation shock doc Mondo Cane on an unsuspecting world way back in 1962. That film was adroitly scandalous enough to elicit howls from Pauline…
The B-Side
Mourning Kim McLagan, the return of Dale Watson, flipping over C-Side Records’ Golden Bear and the Channel, Patrice keeps hope alive, and the loss of Love’s Arthur Lee and Sahm saxophonist Rocky Morales
Eve of Destruction
Lawrence Wright on ‘The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9 / 11’
Ciao Lolla
Nine jet-lag dog years from Amsterdam ain’t exactly a “space cake” wake-up in one of Sin City’s “coffee shops,” so we flat out couldn’t make Lollapalooza Friday with all the local acts (Sound Team, Ghostland Observatory, Iron & Wine, Midlake). By all accounts, Jeff Tweedy’s spawn, the Blisters, and Jack White’s Raconteurs stole the afternoon.…
Pie-in-the-Sky Pollution
Federal Clean Air Act critics say it’s an unrealistic, paper-only policy
TV Eye
Roaring at the Static
World Trade Center
This is not the 9/11 film we expected from Stone, who tells the fact-based story of two individuals who somehow survived the collapse of the World Trade Center and with a remarkable economy of expressionistic detail and bombast.
Page Two: Songs of Ourselves
As friends and legends pass, art and memory burst from the present and warn the future
Texas Platters
MidlakeThe Trials of Van Occupanther (Bella Union) From electro-pop to classic-rock textures and alluring vocal harmonies, Denton fivepiece Midlake continues to elevate music, maturing structure and echo, this time without the maneuvering of technology. Where 2004’s debut LP, Bamnan and Slivercork, slapped Grandaddy on the keys, exquisite sophomore disc, The Trials of Van Occupanther, instead…
Plan B Politics
FDA officials to meet with representatives of Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc. about long-stalled plan to sell Barr’s emergency contraceptive Plan B sans prescription
Shaadi Karke Phas Gaya Yaar
A Bollywood love story about an upper-class man who marries a liberal woman and the problems that inevitably arise in their union.
Los Lonely Boys: Cottonfields and Crossroads
Austinite Hector Galán’s reverential look at Grammy-winning “Texican” rockers Los Lonely Boys is a document of persistence, passion, and some of the finest rock & roll since Stevie Ray Vaughan’s untimely exit.
After a Fashion
Stephen gets all artsy and somehow manages to not even get any on himself. He also encourages men to wear fewer clothes.
Texas Platters
GnappyUnloaded (Bean Pie) It has many meanings: To release power. Being clear-headed. Sexual innuendo. Unloaded is a fitting tag for Gnappy’s third, following their acclaimed 2001 debut and 2003’s sophomore-slump slayer, Is This a Machine? The Austin act’s tight-fisted instrumental grooves – self-described as “funk with jazz and hip-hop” – pop like fireworks. Unloaded’s sober…
More Minimum Wage Woes
We have less than four months to go to beat our national minimum wage stagnation record, and we’re doing great!
Little Miss Sunshine
Like any indie comedy worth its weight in quirkiness, Little Miss Sunshine is packed with offbeat characters, all struggling to find meaning in life – in this case on a road trip to a children’s beauty pageant. And the film is so much fun, it’s almost impossible not to enjoy the journey.
To Your Health
Although hemp protein is by no means a perfect food, it is a valuable source of fiber, proteins, and essential fatty acids
Texas Platters
The Swells Slept for Seven Days (Calgary) Though still firmly ensconced in the lilting spiral of late-Eighties British dream pop, Slept for Seven Days finds the Swells trying on a grab bag of stylistic variations with varying degrees of success. This compromises cohesion, but it also keeps things interesting. “Driver’s Song” leads off with a…
Naked City
Headlines and happenings from Austin and beyond
Step Up
This snooty-dancer-meets-street-dancer musical romance is so painfully intent on teaching its characters life lessons every few minutes that it forgets to be trashy.
The Common Law
Landlord & tenant issues – security deposit issues
Texas Platters
Eric Tessmer BandBlues Bullets Half the globe still imagines Austin’s Sixth Street churning out Stevie Ray Vaughan clones like Strats in the “Little Wing” video. They’re down there, but this particular young guitarist in the Steamboat-era SRV cap sounds especially slick in Red River corner pocket Headhunters and now Antone’s. On gunning third release Blues…
Supremes Say DeLay Must Stay on Ballot, Hammer Says Bowing Out
Legal fight between state Republican and Democratic parties screeches to a halt with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s swift rejection of GOP’s appeal of previous court rulings to keep DeLay on November ballot
Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna
Not reviewed at press time. This Indian drama revolves around the subtle development of attraction between a man and a woman who are married, but not to each other.
Day Trips
Looking for a nice B&B in Chicago with a terrific porch? Try the Benedictine Bed & Breakfast.
Texas Platters
The DramsJubilee Dive (New West) Slobberbone may be dearly departed, but the Drams, as evidenced by their debut, Jubilee Dive, are worthy replacements. Singer-songwriter Brent Best, ‘Bone guitarist Jess Barr, and drummer Tony Harper are joined by keyboard player Chad Stockslager and bassist Keith Killoren, both from Dallas-area band Budapest One, for a vigorous new…
Voucher Creep?
Appointment of Texas Association of Business President Bill Hammond to state Task Force on Test Security raises eyebrows and red flags
Luv Doc Recommends: Get Yer Ya Ya’s Out With Sticky Fingers Stones Album Hoot
Baby boomers break down into two basic categories: Ones who like the Beatles and ones who like the Stones. No doubt you could come up with a more sophisticated classification system, one that accounts for a Byzantine array of physiological, psychological, and sociological variations (type of PT Cruiser, for instance), but if you want to…
