Page Two
“Beware the Salamander, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! Beware the Jujub bird, and shun The frumious Bandersnatch!” `Tis the season of the salamander, the poor amphibian which has become the poster child of environmental extremism. In the daily paper and on the radio we hear about the crazed, tree-hugging environmentalists…
Magical Mystery Tour
If you could change places with anyone in the world right now, you likely wouldn’t be itchin’ to switch shoes with Justin Augustine, the general manager of Capital Metro. Then again, he’s pretty satisfied where he is. “We’re a transportation company — that’s our responsibility to the public we serve,” he said in a recent…
Def Jam’s How to Be a Player
Def Jam’s How to Be a Player 1997, R, 90 min. Directed by Lionel C. Martin, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Bill Bellamy, Natalie Desselle, Lark Voorhies, Mari Morrow, Pierre, Max Julien. From his ritual morning cologne spritz to the pelvic region to his shoeboxed archives of panties left by “house guests,” everything…
Public Notice
This is an updated list of a similar column we printed this past spring. The variety of types of organizations listed here is as varied as the skills these folks request. (Part 1, last week.) If your organization is not listed, be sure to submit your calls for volunteers to “Public Notice” on a regular…
Dream Homes in East Austin?
Come here. I want you to see this view,” beckons Gene Watkins, climbing the plywood stairs of a half-constructed home to a window which perfectly frames the state Capitol building beyond a neighborhood park and a hillside of trees. This could be any three bedroom, two bath home in Tarrytown or Clarksville, except that the…
Cop Land
Cop Land 1997, R, 105 min. Directed by James Mangold, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Sylvester Stallone, Harvey Keitel, Ray Liotta, Robert De Niro, Peter Berg, Janeane Garofalo, Robert Patrick, Michael Rapaport, Annabella Sciorra. Casting is everything, and the casting of Stallone — playing way against type — as the powerless hayseed sheriff…
Mister Smarty Pants Knows
It took the late Orville Reddenbacker, a former county agent, 24 years to breed his gourmet strain of popping corn. In 1947, the Syrian Orthodox archbishop of Jerusalem convinced himself that the Dead Sea Scrolls were genuine by tearing a corner off one manuscript and setting it on fire to make sure it was real…
Black, White, and Unequal?
In the December 1995 issue of Texas Monthly magazine, Kirven Blount, the author of a story on pickup basketball games, wrote about what it was like to be a white player in a game dominated by blacks. Discussing the fact that whites were often inferior to blacks on the basketball court, Blount wrote that “it’s…
Who Remembers Phil Ochs?
illustration by Jason Stout It isn’t likely that any- one much under 40 thinks often of Phil Ochs. His music didn’t sell, and he was most famous for songs that protested a war everyone wants to forget. A folk singer, a “protest” singer, a freedom rider, a suicide. His boyish voice challenged the history of…
Media Bills Chill
The City of Austin isn’t the only entity that quakes in its boots when the legislature hits town — news outlets and any other interests that may be concerned with freedom of information (which, when you get right down to it, is everyone) always fear an assault on the public’s right to know, and according…
Food-o-File
As summer shimmers to a close, there are several events scheduled this weekend to whet the appetite. The seventh annual Austin Chronicle Hot Sauce Festival takes place Sunday, August 24 in Waterloo Park, 12th and Red River, from noon to 5pm. There will be ample parking in nearby state lots and, as always, admission is…
1997 Texas Legislature Press Bills
ANTI HB273: Exempts from the open records act information that identifies a person as a participant in a neighborhood crime watch program. HB625: Closes off access to information submitted to a governmental body by a potential vendor or contractor wishing to prove its status as a historically underutilized business. SB454: Creates an open records act…
Triangle Property Design Contest
Got an idea for what you think ought to be done with this controversial tract of land adjoining Hyde Park? Here�s your chance to put your drafting skills where your mouth is. The Chronicle will bestow modest prizes and fame, of course, when we print the winners. But don�t expect the developer to chuck its…
Sandwich Sans Peer
The Little Deli 7101-A Woodrow, 467-7402 Mon-Fri, 10am-4pm The Little Deli photograph by Jana Birchum Three times in as many recent weeks, friends and acquaintances encouraged me to try out The Little Deli. “Cute little neighborhood place, great roast beef sandwiches, friendly service,” were some of the descriptions. I’m always game for an undiscovered neighborhood…
Naked City
Despite a groundswell of support from the music community, city number crunchers say there is no money in the new $1.375 billion operating budget to support the Austin Music Network. The budget made its long-awaited debut Wednesday, and on the same day, City Manager Jesus Garza sent out pink slips to AMN’s four full-time staffers,…
Articulations
Terminated. That’s the word being used to describe the recent action by the board of directors of the Austin Circle of Theatres (ACoT) in regard to Betty Siegel, until last week the Managing Director for AusTix/The Box Office, the centralized ticketing service for local performing arts events run by ACoT. Siegel’s position was terminated. It…
Mai’s Cafe Restaurant
8557 Research Blvd., Ste. 146, 339-1078 Wed-Mon, 10am-9pm Authenticity is an illuminating and exhilarating prospect, if sometimes a rather scary one. At a Vietnamese restaurant, you can gauge authenticity by the contents of the menu: If anything looks familiar, it’s probably not really Vietnamese. In America, we tend to shy away from bible tripe and…
The King and I
Elvis, we hardly knew ye…Well, okay, maybe we knew you too well. But we still love you! Nothing in the background of my family offers any clue as to why I came to love Elvis Presley late in life. My dad loved opera and classical, and my mother liked Sinatra, Tom Jones, and a little…
Exhibitionism
Planet Theatre through August 23 Running Time: 3 hrs Tennessee Williams has given Blanche DuBois some of the greatest lines in theatre history, words full of wonderful descriptions of her skewed reality, and some thinly veiled references to the act of making theatre. “I have always depended on the kindness of strangers,” she purrs, night…
Veggie Heaven
1914-A Guadalupe, 457-1013 Daily, 11am-9pm Veggie Heaven photograph by John Anderson Restaurants on the Drag come and go, but those with a gimmick — Philly steak sandwiches, big bowls of noodles for next to nothing, pizza by the slice — have staying power. One of the newer arrivals along this collegiate strip, Veggie Heaven, certainly…
WNBA: The “We Got Next” Generation
The point guard hurls a 3/4-court missile. Play becomes frantic as the clock erases the cruel, churning seconds. Whistles blow, sneakers scream, and arms flail, as the excited announcer reads the score with but minutes left in the half. The familiar bed of energetic network music fills, indicating a break for “a word from our…
Ripping the Shrew
illustration by Robert Faires Press Release: Rude Mechanicals is proud to present their 97/98 season premiere, curst & Shrewd: The Taming of the Shrew Unhinged, a candid, impertinent, and downright feminazi look at marriage and mating at the end of the millennium. From the boardroom to the auction block, Dr. Narrator navigates us through the…
Faerie Tales
illustration by Tom King Brace yourself. It’s another one of those “scene” stories. Let’s think, just for a moment, of some of the “scenes” we’ve been subjected to recently: alt-culture, alt-country, alt-anything; surf, garage, space, chick, indie, punk, post-rock; however you explain Hanson and the Verve Pipe; hip-hop playas, headz, and hatas; lounge, cocktail, and…
Nothing but (Inter)Net
For the lastest WNBA news and gossip, make a fast break for these websites: http://www.wnba.com The official WNBA website is a user-friendly place to check into the who, what, and where of your favorite players. The site’s bells-&-whistles ratio (downloadable audio and video clips) is balanced by easy links, clean graphics, and scads of stats…
The Pope of Avant Garde
Just got the word that Burroughs died. A fine fellow, despite his nihilistic veneer. I spent the afternoon of his 70th birthday with him. Spoke about guns, hunting, and whether or not I should tell my mother I took LSD. In college, I published a little book of poems, Cheap Picture/Pink Poems, one of which…
Dancing about Architecture
1) See item in “Naked City.” 2) Don’t forget the Austin Music Network Benefit at Liberty Lunch this Sunday, featuring Shoulders; Ta M�re; the Wannabes; Two Hoots & a Holler; Recliners; Teisco Del Rey & the Del Reylettes; a Songwriters Circle featuring Will Sexton, Mark Addison, Johnny Goudie, and “Scrappy” Jud Newcomb; and the Studebakers.…
Scanlines
D: Alfred Green (1963) with Dan O`Herlihy, Noel Neill, Edward G. Robinson, Jr., Phyllis Coates Several lushes are holding down barstools in mid-afternoon and listening to dire news about the Commies on a newfangled television device, when a mysterious stranger makes them watch while he sloshes brandy around in a snifter. Next thing you know,…
Adventures in Loving
It’s nine o’clock on a cool, wet night in April. More than 200 women have found their way down a winding, tree-lined stretch of road that ends at the Zilker Clubhouse in West Austin. The parking lot is jammed with sedans, Jeeps, sports cars, pickups, and… a giant U-Haul?! The sight of the orange and…
Ted’s Continental Blowout
TCB. Three letters and a lightning bolt. Takin’ care of bidness. 20 years before “Hypnotize,” there was only one Big E, and he wasn’t Smalls. The original Big Poppa hailed from Tupelo, Mississippi and Memphis, Tennessee. He threw his hands in the air — actually just the one, thrust out and up in front of…
Short Cuts
News about several films with Austin connections have been filtering in over the recent weeks. Teenage Catgirls in Heat, made in 1991 by Austin filmmaker Scott Perry with his writing and producing partner Grace Smith has just been released on video by Troma Team Video. Although the campy, low-budget comedy has already had a run…
Postscripts
As you’ve probably heard, President Clinton and Congress have recently signed an agreement to balance the budget, and as you probably also heard, there were plenty of last-minute scramblings to either include or excise those pesky, small details the public seems never to hear about. What effect does passage of the agreement have on writers?…
A Vision Shared
“I’m lost in the pines, where the sun never shines. I shiver when the cold wind blows. I shiver when the cold wind blows, darling, In the pines, where the sun never shines.” — “In the Pines” On the road less traveled, fate and chance walk hand in hand. The path of least resistance bustles,…
Last Forever
(Nonesuch) On Last Forever, songwriter/musician Dick Connette has created an ambitiously inclusive historical document as well as a beautiful collection of songs stemming from the traditions that comprise the musics of this country. Like any historical document, the vision is somewhat narrow, at least in its interpretation, which is sort of a necessary limitation if…
Hearth & Soul
Harry Belafonte Knew the Answer Dear Suzy, My husband and I bought our first house last December — built 1953, slab, brick and shingle, in Allandale. We fell in love with it and overlooked some stuff we shouldn’t have, so please disguise this letter and give me a nice pseudonym, because I don’t want all…
Music Recommended
Friday: Prima Donnas, Crack Pipes, Bates Motel; The Nortons, Jovita’s Saturday: Elyza Gilkyson, Cactus Caf�; Drums & Tuba, Spider House Sunday: AM15 Benefit, Liberty Lunch Monday: James Polk, Sullivan’s Tuesday: Kiss-Offs, Softs, Emo’s Wednesday: Sugar Ray, Smash Mouth, Stubb’s Thursday: Lucky Strikes, Dan McKluskey’s
Mrs. Brown
Mrs. Brown 1997, PG, 103 min. Directed by John Madden, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Judi Dench, Billy Connolly, Anthony Sher, Geoffrey Palmer. With more fresh blood and less starch than we’ve come to expect from Brit costume drama, Mrs. Brown dramatizes the 20-year friendship between Queen Victoria (Dench) and a Scottish commoner…
Benefits
Club Skirt to benefit Cornerstone Gay & Lesbian Center, at the Zilker Clubhouse, 7pm-midnight. Cost is $10. 708-1515. SAT 16 Elvis in “Holeywood” features your fave Elvis movie numbers by your fave bands to benefit SIMS Foundation, at the Hole in the Wall. 472-5599. MON 18 Shortgame Shootout Golf Tournament to benefit the Capital Area…
Record Reviews
BARRY BLACK Tragic Animal Stories (Alias) Remember the Residents’ album Hunters? Probably not. It’s the soundtrack to the Discovery Channel’s television series about predatory creatures. Archers of Loaf singer Eric Bachmann must have known the station’s spin-off frequency, the Animal Planet, was coming down the pike when he began Tragic Animal Stories, because with this…
Viva Erotica
Viva Erotica NR, 100 min. Directed by Derek Yee, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Leslie Cheung, Hsu Chi, Karen Joy Morris. Not reviewed at press time. Living in Oblivion, Hong Kong style. This 1996 comedy follows a film director on the skids who’s reduced to helming a “category three” sex film just to…
Coach’s Corner
“Don’t take your guns to town, son. Leave your guns at home, son. Don’t take your guns to town.” – Johnny Cash It was just a chance occurrence I picked this day to tread on enemy soil out at St. Ed’s. It was the day after Barry forgot about the loaded .38. Since I could…
Roadkill
Emo’s Sunday, August 17 In two decades of ground-breaking punk rock luminescence in X and as a solo artist, Exene Cervenkova has carefully intertwined seething social criticism and post-romantic abandon with machete wit. The relentless attack of Auntie Christ’s Life Could Be a Dream (Lookout) is at once a return to punk roots and a…
Nowhere
The third chapter in Araki’s teen-angst-run-riot-in-L.A. triptych is as gorgeously messy as the first two films.
Day Trips
photograph by Gerald E. McLeod Horses and cowboys are not the only themes of the artwork at the Cowboy Artists of America Museum in Kerrville. Preserving the traditions and the sights of the Old West, the museum encompasses much more than just than cowboys and Indians. For generations the cowboy way of life has been…
Road Shows
AUGUST FRI 15 King Kong, Emo’s FRI 15 Rising Lion, Flamingo Cantina FRI 15 Hamell on Trial, Electric Lounge SAT 16 Bedhead, Liberty Lunch SAT 16 22 Jacks, Clowns for Progress, Emo’s SAT 16 Boom Shaka, Flamingo Cantina SUN 17 Auntie Christ, Stone Fox, Emo’s MON 18 The Wailers, Liberty Lunch TUE 19 Skoi Daps,…
Free Willy 3: The Rescue
Free Willy 3: The Rescue 1997, PG, 86 min. Directed by Sam Pillsbury, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Jason James Richter, Vincent Berry, Patrick Kilpatrick, August Schellenberg. Among the fictional cetacean set, Moby Dick still commands all the highbrow respect, but with two megahit movies to his credit, curly-finned screen idol Willy is…
