Record reviews 8/2/96
ELVIS COSTELLO & THE ATTRACTIONS All This Useless Beauty (Warner Bros) Like a married couple well into their second decade, Elvis Costello & the Attractions bring with them a lot of baggage. Ruminating from their collective armchairs, they squabble like champions, finish each other’s musical sentences, and make, on occasion, superlative music; they still seem…
No One Way About It
One-way or two-way for downtown? After nearly a decade of debate over Austin’s downtown streets, urban planners say it’s coming down to this: Do you prefer ease for commuters, or city pedestrians? Planners want to convert one-way street pairs like Cesar Chavez/Second, Fifth/Sixth, and Brazos/Colorado, to two-way flow, in order to create a calmer environment…
Roadkill
Def Leppard Southpark Meadows Saturday, August 3 Back in 1983-’84, Van Halen and Def Leppard ruled the hard rock arena circuit with larger-than-life hair, hooks, and stage shows. But even as Van Halen begat Van Hagar, Def Leppard stayed virtually the same – save for drummer Rick Allen’s arm and guitarist Steve Clarke’s liver and…
The Exhibition Switch
Mexic-Arte Museum sends some disappointing news this week: Due to budgetary constraints, its big fall exhibition, “Guillermo Kahlo 1872-1941,” a retrospective look at the career of this important photographer (and father of Frida Kahlo), has been postponed. But there’s a silver lining to the dark cloud. In place of the Kahlo exhibition, Mexic-Arte will present…
Assisted Suicide?
On one side, city staff and the mayor. On the other, Jackie Goodman, Daryl Slusher, and proteg�s of the creed that public health care for indigents should be government orthodoxy. The battleground: the city’s troubled health-care clinics — the primary caretaker of Travis County’s indigent population. At issue is whether the city should continue as…
New Works
Various artists Buzz Design ongoing display Buzzzzzz. That’s what you hear when you walk in. Buzzzzzz. Whether or not Buzz Design gets its name from the perpetual buzzing of woodworking, welding, and sundry other tools bouncing off the walls of its cavernous workshop, I don’t know. But it seems fitting. Buzz Design is a revolutionary…
In Point of Fact
Last week, the warp and woof of breaking news forced the Austin American-Statesman to acknowledge the existence of a news provider that had recently celebrated the anniversary of its first year in action, a weekly newsletter called In Fact. Devoted exclusively to city politics and related issues, In Fact is reported, written, and edited by…
Not Just the Goofy Guy
The world’s greatest detective and the world’s greatest criminal mastermind are engaged in a tense showdown of wills. The evil Professor Robert Moriarty has infiltrated the rooms of Sherlock Holmes, and Holmes has confronted him. The two move and speak smoothly, both making a great show of expressing outward calm, but the underlying tension between…
Off the Desk
First there was sludge, now nuclear waste — what`s next for Sierra Blanca? West Texas is the country’s newest dumping ground, particularly among the Davis mountains. The first of three public hearings will be held August 6 in Sierra Blanca as state officials hear comments on the proposed national radioactive waste dump in the desert…
Tales from the Valley
If you’re going to inter- view a Mexican-American author,” David Rice said to me on the phone Friday night, “You should do it at a Mexican-American restaurant. You know, we know much more about you than you do about us.” Rice is the author of Give the Pig a Chance, a collection of short stories…
Sun City Undercover
ASK ME — I’m a resident!” So say the large-print buttons adorning the lapels of Sun City Georgetown’s corps of graying greeters, known efficiently as the “Ask Me’s” — sorta like at Wal-Mart, except these folks are clearly more ambulatory and sentient. Organized, scheduled, and compensated, they fan out to battle stations throughout the public…
Taking Chances
Give The Pig A Chance by David Rice Bilingual Press, $10 paper The stories in Give the Pig a Chance, David Rice’s first collection of short stories, are stories in which the mingling of North and South American cultures plays a prominent role. In “Luc�a’s Last Curse,” a curandera is enlisted to help heal a…
Mayor, Mayor
Five years ago, Kirk Watson was a 33-year-old trial lawyer with a track record of winning multi-million-dollar verdicts against big companies. So when former Texas Governor Ann Richards picked him to chair a Republican-dominated, industry-friendly Texas Air Control Board, there was nervousness and disgruntlement all around. “He was an unknown quantity,” said Pamela Giblin, a…
“Water, Water Everywhere…”
But is it safe to drink? Ever since drinking tap water contaminated with the parasite cryptosporidium caused illness and even the death of many persons with AIDS in Milwaukee in 1993, there have been questions about water safety. This tiny microorganism, common in many of the lakes and rivers that provide drinking water in the…
Cyberculture Evolution
by Jon Lebkowsky and R.U. Sirius Two of the principal fathers of technocluture, electronic media activist Jon Lebkowsky and cyber-theoretician R.U. Sirius, have known each other almost from the virtual beginning. Lebkowsky, co-creator of the Austin-based subculture media system Fringeware, Inc., met the co-founder and editor of Mondo 2000 — the now-defunct slick magazine that…
Head ‘Em Up and Move ‘Em Out
Dear Suzy, I’ve been planning to beat the high cost of apartment rent by buying an old travel trailer and moving into one of the cheaper mobile home parks outside of town. After seeing what poor condition most used travel trailers are in, I’ve decided to build one myself. What are the proper building codes…
Virtual Footnotes
William Gibson, author of Neuromancer,is credited with the creation of the term/concept “cyberspace.” He is also responsible for Johnny Mnemonic, a great science fiction story that he and Robert Longo made into a cheerfully bad SF film. Gardner Dozois is the editor os Asimov’s SF magazine. He attends Amadillocon every year and hangs out with…
Page Two
nial Park bombing thing has me worried. Not about the threat of terrorism — statistically, it’s way down there beneath bathroom falls — but about the threat implied in the main rhetorical themes being sounded in response — by the press as well as by public officials. Those themes can be summarized more or less…
Wing Commander IV
CD-ROM for Mac* or PC D: Chris Roberts; with Mark Hamill, Tom Wilson, John Rhys-Davies, Jason Bernard, Robert Rusler, Malcolm McDowell. Origin Systems First, the “movie” part of this humongous six-disc interactive adventure: The sets are incredible, the Dolby Surround sound is first rate, and the visuals pass somewhere beyond Deep Space Nine; in short,…
The Ex-Files, Part III
The history of marriage as an institution is larger than any of our personal histories. And we carry its collective history as deeply as we carry our own experience, whether we know it or not. For tens of thousands of years most people lived in tribes, in villages, and on farms, and marriage was essential…
Clutched Hearts
Henry asked the other day, “Mom, when’s the next time we’re going to be near a wishing fountain?” I said I wasn’t sure, and asked if it was urgent. “I need to make a wish,” he said. “But I can’t tell you or it won’t come true. Well, okay, I can tell you and it…
Feast Your Eyes on This
Waterloo Brewery: The new rooftop beer garden provides a panorama of downtown. Note: Food is not allowed upstairs. Coyote Cafe Rooftop Seating: A lower view but more in the thick of things; also only for drinking. Bernie’s Place, 18th floor, Sheraton Hotel: One of Austin’s best-kept secrets, Bernie’s view is top rate. The sparse crowd…
Coach’s Corner
I’ve been de- nounced for so many alleged emotional crimes: Not being “in touch with my feelings,” avoiding unpleasant confrontations by hiding on the golf course, or just refusing to answer the phone. A plethora of “communication issues” and the topic of “hidden agendas and pre-conceived notions.” Perhaps there are tiny shreds of truth here.…
Dancing About Architecture
You might recall a few weeks ago we reported that Eric Johnson was hooking up with a major tour sometime after the September 3 release of his new album, Venus Isle. Manager Joe Priesnitz now confirms that the “G3” tour featuring Johnson, Joe Satriani, and Steve Vai (and possibly Adrian Legg), is set for early…
Day Trips
Emrys Berkower pauses from his work of shaping a colorful vase at the Wimberley Glass Works just long enough to agree with Erik Mordt, who is serving as the narrator, explaining the glassblowing procedure. “`Coaxing’ is a very good way to put it,” Berkower says of the process of molding the glass. “Having good lungs…
Firehouse Rock
One of the most enduring numbers in the huckster’s repertoire is “The Policeman’s Ball” — also fondly remembered by its alternate title, “The Fireman’s Ball.” With this little ditty, the con man calls to his prey, croons a bit about this “charity dance,” sells the sap the “tickets,” and heads for the city limits by…
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
The only country in the southern hemisphere to win a Winter Olympic medal is New Zealand. The African Grey Parrot is not only the best “talker” in the avian kingdom, but its intelligence is being measured against, and possibly surpasses, the chimpanzee and dolphin. REO Speedwagon named themselves after a defunct automobile made by R.E.…
The New Payola
Everclear hasn’t played in Austin this summer. By now they should have played twice — once by themselves, once in a package deal, and both times for cheap. The skeletal blueprint for the undoing is simple: KNNC (KNACK) wanted a show with Everclear. KNACK probably had a show. 101X wanted a show with Everclear. 101X…
Food-O-File
Some local restaurants have been experiencing a Summer Olympic marathon of their own: the carrying out of lifelong dreams through hard work, stress, pressure, and fatigue, all amidst beastly-hot weather. But alas, no big crowds have amassed to cheer them on. The good news at the finish line (Labor Day) is the return of 50,000…
Also Playing
Friday: Alvin Crow, Broken Spoke; Death Metal Fest, Voodoo Lounge Saturday: 8 1/2 Souvenirs, Continental Club; Kris McKay, Steamboat Sunday: Monte Montgomery, Saxon Pub Monday: PeACh benefit, Electric Lounge Tuesday: Del Dragons, Hole in the Wall Wednesday: Skatalites, Liberty Lunch, Lutefisk, Emo’s Thursday: Son Yuma, Miguel’s La Bodega; Poi Dog Pondering, Liberty Lunch
Bonus Tracks
DEL DRAGONS Trash &Tears Having spent most of the Seventies with my head in the sandbox, I missed the first wave of Stones-influenced bands and got stuck with Stone Temple Pilots. Thankfully, the Del Dragons are 100 percent grunge-free, skipping a generation to marry songs called “Crazy ‘Bout Tori” to those staggering, restrained Keith Richards…
