Cover Story
The Zen of Revolution
Career sideman Michael Ramos steps out with ‘Charanga Cakewalk’
European Champions League:Final Qualifying Results and Group Stage Draw
Third Qualifying Round Second Leg: Results from Aug. 22-23 AEK Athens 3, Hearts 0 (AEK 5-1 on aggregate goals) Steaua Bucharest 2, Standard Liege 1 (Steaua 4-3 agg.) Mlada Boleslav 1, Galatasaray 1 (Galatasaray 4-3 agg.) Ruzomberok 0, CSKA Moscow 2 (CSKA 5-0 agg.) Rabotnicki 0, Lille 1 (Lille 4-0 agg.) Spartak Moscow 2, Slovan…
Readings
In the late 1960s, a new writer emerged on the science-fiction scene, producing powerful stories that explored the role of sexuality and gender unlike any author before
Food-o-File
News that will make you smile
Dirty Air Update
Energy industry still running roughshod over Texas
The B-Side
As the ACL Music Fest looms, at least one venue on Red River hopes to be ready for the overflow. The Las Vegas Emo’s won’t quite be ready by then, however.
Readings
‘Our children are hostages to the world,’ a mother stricken with Alzheimer’s tells her daughter in the story ‘Oversite,’ included among this collection by Maureen F. McHugh
Event Menu
Choose wisely
NFL Cracks Down on TV News
Despotic sports league bans local TV crews from sidelines of games
Zoom
This superhero sci-fi farce drags its feet, while the sappy sweetness will make you wince.
Page Two: Light and Darkness
Light and Darkness: In the bright cacophony of black and white, a confession of despair and an ode to uncertainty
Don’t Leave Us in the Dark
Local activists sign on to letter asking city manager to ensure public participation in process of selecting a new police chief
Pulse
Pulse, the American remake of Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s 2001 horror film Kairo, is the McDonald’s Unhappy Meal to the original’s elegantly obtuse sashimi o’ sorrow.
Letters @ 3AM
To blame disasters like the Twin Towers and New Orleans on a few perpetrators is to ignore the greater disasters that are the foundation upon which the developed world lives: our attempts to hold on to an unsustainable way of life
Inside La Cumbia Lounge
Few “civilians” have seen the inside of La Cumbia Lounge, Michael Ramos’ Lake Austin studio and the incubator for his two spectacular Charanga Cakewalk albums. The way Ramos fearlessly bends music traditions, one might expect La Cumbia Lounge to resemble a mad scientist’s lab – a cross between a wacky Mexican restaurant and an itinerant…
More Toll Road Tremors
East Austin activists say toll road plan is unfair
Accepted
Accepted asserts that a college run by students might be better than its institutional alternative, but who wants education advice from the creators of such a witless, uninspired excuse for a college comedy?
After a Fashion
Is DIY design? Your Style Avatar weighs in … like the 500-lb. gorilla in the middle of the room.
Phases & Stages
Heartless BastardsAll This Time (Fat Possum) This isn’t a blues album. Yes, it’s on Fat Possum, the home of Cedell Davis, Hasil Adkins, and R.L. Burnside. Yes, Erika Wennerstrom sings the blues. Yes, the guitar yelps. Yet this isn’t a blues album. Instead, Heartless Bastards’ sophomore LP is a triumph in reality. It’s frustration on…
Noticias Las Manitas
Grassroots effort to save Las Manitas Avenue Cafe and Escuelita del Alma daycare is growing
The Oh in Ohio
This story of an uptight corporate go-getter (Posey), her sad-sack high school science teacher husband (Rudd), and her search for her first orgasm is intended to invoke rolling laughter but instead results in repeated sighs.
Day Trips
The Hanna Springs Sculpture Garden is just one of many reasons to visit Lampasas
Phases & Stages
Carrie RodriguezSeven Angels on a Bicycle (Back Porch/Train Wreck/EMI) Chip TaylorUnglorious Hallelujah/Red Red Rose (Back Porch/Train Wreck/EMI) Chip Taylor and Carrie Rodriguez have been musical Siamese twins for the last five years, so it’s difficult to separate them. Yet here come solo works by both that define and redefine them as individual artists while maintaining…
Jollyville Salamander Not So Jolly
Save Our Springs Alliance files suit against U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for failing to respond to petitions to add the rare Jollyville salamander and Val Verde County’s San Felipe gambusia to the endangered species list
Lower City
The toastiest summer on record is but an intermittently flickering 40-watt bulb compared to this positively incendiary sexual firestorm.
To Your Health
When organic produce is not available or is too expensive, are those grown in water or in greenhouses less likely to be contaminated with pesticides?
Phases & Stages
Corinne Bailey RaeAntone’s, Aug. 14 It’s hard not to be entranced by Corinne Bailey Rae. Her return to Austin follows a pair of virtually unnoticed showcases at this year’s SXSW, which came several months before the stateside release of her self-titled debut album, a disc that skyrocketed to the top of the UK charts last…
Beside the Point: A Vegetative State
The City Council tries to move the budget beyond meat and potatoes
Jailbait
The stage origins of this low-budget, indie prison movie are simply everywhere, but it is so fantastically acted that it inspires indulgence of its first-timers’ mistakes.
The Common Law
My lease says what? – Issues to consider when signing a new lease
Phases & Stages
Johnny Cash American V: A Hundred Highways (American) You never heard a sadder album than American V. Nearly three years after Johnny Cash’s death, the American icon’s final recordings are a difficult listen. Short of breath, with a voice jagged beyond its normal craggy self, Cash faces the hereafter with a stark gravity. The majority…
Finish Your Vegetables
Unfunded Needs in the City Manager’s Proposed Budget
Cartoon Heritage
Food faces, renegade puppets, rainbow purses, and nicotine washes – it’s all part of the art of Matthew Rodriguez
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
The politics of Fluffernutter and Dylan channels the Everly Brothers
Phases & Stages
The ClashRude Boy (Epic/Legacy) Like Jean-Luc Godard’s One Plus One – now commonly known as Sympathy for the Devil – the propagandist agenda of Rude Boy can neither dampen nor dilute the real cry preserved. Instead of the Rolling Stones birthing their Mephistophelean samba at London’s Olympic Studios in the French New Waver’s otherwise laughable…
The Hightower Report
The Paris Hilton Minimum-Wage Hike; and Superrich Tax Cheats
Summer of Solo Shows: The Second Wave
In Austin theatre, solo shows sometimes come in waves, as in the second half of August, which has four one-person theatrical vehicles opening the same weekend
Soccer Watch
Lady Longhorns face UTSA in season opener
Phases & Stages
Johnny DowdSaxon Pub, Aug. 11 Dowd said it best: “An uneasy blend of James Brown and Gomer Pyle.” There’s a little more grit and feedback to it, but the Fort Worth-born, Oklahoma-raised singer-songwriter has swilled a mixture of Southern backwater noir and gospel New Wave blues. Dowd, who runs a trucking business in New York…
When :-( = $
Despair.com, demotivation, and capitalizing on the variables of Web content
Texas Arts Exchange: CultureCon 2006
The Texas Commission on the Arts’ latest biennial conference draws together artists and arts professionals to discuss ways to integrate the arts more fully into the lives of our communities
Margaritas vs. Mojitos
It’s Mexico vs. Cuba, tequila vs. rum, mix vs. muddle, in this battle for lime-infused-libation-sensation supremacy in the Lone Star State
The Lewis File
Park Police personnel record casts a harsh light on small law enforcement agencies
Other Online Goings-On
Amplifier.com This Austin-based company exists to facilitate artists, musicians, filmmakers, or any content creator distributing on the Internet. Amplifier helps its clients get away from supporting their orders and back to creating, while maintaining a direct-to-audience distribution. 30DayFilmFestival.com Since posting their first short in 2002, the wildly prolific (and Austin-based) Late Train Productions has flooded…
Culture Flash!
Police believe they have the killer of Esther’s juggler Warren Ryder Schwartz, Jenny Hart puts ‘Space Ghost’s Brak in stitches, more stage hits are back by popular demand, and construction starts on Ballet Austin’s new dance center
Mojito
Enjoy the rum-lime-mint concoction four ways
Read the Coy Report (PDF file)
Download the Coy Report here.
Irvine Welsh
‘Trainspotting,’ 10 years later, and a new book
Arts Review
Rubber Repertory’s ‘Red Cans’ is an experiment in new realms, one that puts you in another world, and so long as you bring your curiosity, you’ll be surprised how engaging this world is
Margarita
For a first-rate margarita, we like the 2-to-1-to-1 ratio. Pour 1 ounce tequila, 1/2 ounce triple sec, and 1Ú2 ounce fresh lime juice over ice in a cocktail shaker. Shake and pour into salt-rimmed (optional) glass. Garnish with a fresh lime wedge. This ratio can be multiplied and the whole mess poured into a blender…
Streetcar Plan Takes Shape
Rail advocates hope a downtown circulator will help boost usage of the new commuter rail
The Texas Filmmakers’ Production Fund Panel Meets and Metes
Plus, Allison Anders’ ‘Gas Food Lodging’ screens Aug. 21
Arts Review
Allen Robertson and Jerome Schoolar, better known as the Biscuit Brothers, have carved a vigorous musical stage show out of their Emmy-nominated PBS program
A Hatch Crash Course
Hatch Chile Festival, Central Market: Aug. 20-21 and Aug. 27-28
Campaign War Chest
Secretary of State Roger Williams’ officeholder account is brimming with more than $200,000 in donor cash, suggesting that he has been stumping for dollars ever since Gov. Perry appointed him to the post in 2004.
DVD Watch
Ren & Stimpy: The Lost EpisodesParamount Home Video, $26.99 If you’re the type who’s not satisfied with a DVD unless it’s stuffed to the gills with bonus material, this latest collection of antics from America’s most twisted cat-and-Chihuahua team will have you doing the “Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy!” dance from start to finish. The six…
Arts Review
Each of the seven video / multimedia works in Women & Their Work’s “All Dressed in White” grapples with what the institution of marriage means or should mean in the life of a contemporary woman
Hatch Green Chile Stew
Serves: 6 2 lbs. pork, cubed 2 tablespoons vegetable oil 1 large onion, chopped 3 cloves garlic, minced 9 green Hatch chiles, roasted, peeled, seeds and stems removed, chopped 2 medium tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped 3 cups chicken stock or water Brown the pork in the oil. Add the onion and garlic, and sauté…
Weed Watch
Stoner-culture icon in Austin Friday to read from his first book, penned straight from the pen
TV Eye
Not as Seen on TV
National Poetry Slam Results
In its debut National Poetry Slam, Austin’s own Team NeoSoul/SouthFlavas (profiled as part of our preview) finished second out of 73 teams, sealing its run during the finals at the Palmer Auditorium (the NPS took place in Austin for the first time since 1998; it will return in 2007). Team Denver emerged as champion –…
New and Noteworthy
Simply Sauces’ Hatch Queso
Naked City
Headlines and happenings from Austin and beyond
Luv Doc Recommends: White Ghost Shivers
It’s finally weed-out season: that succession of 100-plus degree, rainless days, mid-August through late September where the mythical, travel brochure Austin gets exposed as the merciless, scorching sweatbox it really is. If you’re a doe-eyed Midwesterner or a West Coast high tech transplant who moved down in May, you’re probably wondering what the hell happened…
