Hearth & Soul
When I was a kid, I lived by Galveston Bay. Our beach sand was made up of unusual dark brown, very tiny pebbles (surf-worn petrochemical by-products, perhaps?). A few inches beneath this sand was a wonderful supply of clay. My sister and I spent most of our formative years digging up this tan clay and…
Winners and Losers: Comparing This Year’s Budget to Last
The highlights here are a 34% increase in the Transportation Fund, and the fee on your utility bill that goes with it, and employment cuts in the Electric Utility, due to restructurings that EU managers said last year were impossible. Budget in Millions of $ FTEs (Employees) Change from Last Year 1996-97 1997-98 1996-97 1997-98…
Career Girls
Career Girls 1997, R, 90 min. Directed by Mike Leigh, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Katrin Cartlidge, Lynda Steadman, Kate Byars, Mark Benton, Andy Serkis, Joe Tucker. Time makes different people of us all. One day, our faces are fresh and unlined; the next, they bear the folds and creases added to them…
Benefits
Thu 21 Storyville & guests perform to benefit A-T Project (biomedical research foundation), at Antone’s, 8pm. Cost is $8. 472-3417 or 474-5314. Sun 24 Chocolate Sunday benefits Another Way Texas Shares, at Foley’s Court, Barton Creek Mall, 2-5pm. Cost is $10. 473-2172. The Chronicle benefits database extends a year or more into the future. Call…
Spotlight on the Streets
With the swelling cost of street maintenance (up 250% since 1991) and street repair (up 500% since 1991), there’s no money left over for the sidewalks, bike lanes and speed humps Austinites now demand. 1996 1997 est. 1998 goal Lane miles 5366 5442 5517 % poor or failed 31% 32% 30% % maintained annually (sealcoat…
Comrades, Almost a Love Story
Comrades, Almost a Love Story 1996, NR, 98 min. Directed by Peter Chan Ho-San, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Maggie Cheung, Leon Lai, Shu Qi. Is there anything Maggie Cheung can’t do? Her recent turn in Olivier Assayas’ Irma Vep was a startling turnabout from the standard Golden Harvest and Hong Kong roles…
Day Trips
Joe’s Jefferson Street Cafe in Kerrville began as a fresh lemonade stand at county fairs and festivals around the state and has become one of the premier dining experiences in the Hill Country. Locals and visitors line up for their Southern-style home cooking featuring fresh meats and vegetables and stay late to enjoy the fresh…
If It Ain’t Broke…
The city council and city staff have finally found something they can agree on: This year’s city budget process stinks. Normally, the city manager prepares a “policy budget” in June as a framework for the budget which council adopts in September. “It used to be that a couple of months before we’d vote, the manager…
G.I. Jane
G.I. Jane 1997, R, 124 min. Directed by Ridley Scott, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Demi Moore, Viggo Mortensen, Anne Bancroft, Jason Beghe, Daniel Von Bargen, Kevin Gage, David Vadim, Morris Chestnut, Josh Hopkins. Touted for months now as the template for the oft-asked question “Can Demi Moore carry a film on her…
Page Two
The annual Austin Chronicle Hot Sauce Contest happens this Sunday, August 24, from noon to 5pm at Waterloo Park (12th & Red River). Don Walser’s Pure Texas Band and Los Pinkys will perform, and there will be hundreds of sauces available for tasting for free, with additional food and beverage for sale. Although restaurants and…
Hispanic Pass Over
illustration by Doug Potter It’s not every council meeting that the mayor gets called a “pendejo,” at least not within earshot anyway. Gavino Fernandez, who represents El Concilio, an East Austin organization of neighborhood groups, flung the expletive at Kirk Watson while expressing his anger over council’s failure to appoint a Hispanic to the Planning…
Money Talks
Money Talks 1997, R, 95 min. Directed by Brett Ratner, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Chris Tucker, Charlie Sheen, Heather Locklear, Paul Sorvino. Until Eddie Murphy pulled his career out of its long free fall with The Nutty Professor, Money Talks is the sort of fiery, catastrophic auguring-in he was headed for. Though…
Public Notice
Y’know, the Salvation Army isn’t just about primly dressed church matrons ringing bells and slinging buckets. In Austin, they act in concert with some of the area’s most progressive and effective public service care groups in their Passages Program, like: Austin Families, Inc., Foundation for the Homeless, Center for Battered Women, HOBO, Caritas, and Youth…
A Mistake Made With Kinkade?
Casis Elementary students didn’t know that last May, when they bid their principal, Amy Kinkade, goodbye for the summer, that it was actually goodbye forever. And neither did she. Just days after the school session ended, Kinkade was told that, after more than 10 years of service at Casis, she was being reassigned to an…
When the Cat’s Away
When the Cat’s Away 1996, NR, 95 min. Directed by Cédric Klapisch, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Garance Clavel, Oliver Py, Zinedine Soualem, Renée Le Calm, Romain Duris. The Parisian neighborhood in the French film When the Cat’s Away is one of graffitied walls, struggling artists, encroaching gentrification, and multicultural experiences — a…
Mister Smarty Pants Knows
One requirement for a tornado to be classified as an F-5 (the deadliest) is its ability to strip bark from trees. Swiss cheese holes are made when bacteria emit carbon dioxide during fermentation. This action could be the source of the expression “cut the cheese.” Alexander Graham Bell’s school for the deaf failed. On August…
Naked City
Councilmember Willie Lewis has already backed off his brief campaign to break up the $9 million set aside for the Central City Entertainment Center for several smaller recreation centers in East Austin. Turns out that if the project changes significantly, the city will have to send the money back to the feds and then reapply…
Steel
Steel 1997, PG-13, 105 min. Directed by Kenneth Johnson, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Shaquille O’Neal, Annabeth Gish, Judd Nelson, Richard Roundtree. This year’s Shaquille O’Neal vanity acting project features the sky-blotting LA Lakers pivotman as the armored crimefighter of DC Comics fame. Shaq plays former army metal engineer John Henry Irons, and…
Food-O-File
Former Mars Restaurant owners Georgia Coleman and chef Tim Kartiganer finished globetrotting and returned to Austin in July. Tim is working as a private chef (482-8260) while they develop a bed & breakfast/event facility concept… Pamela Nevarez has given up the world of private chefdom and returned to Heart of Texas Produce (479-8771), selling specialty…
Coca-Cola High School
illustration by Doug Potter Westlake High School gets a new softball field. Coca-Cola gets exclusive access to the gullets of 7,200 affluent, thirsty students. Is it a deal made in heaven, or the beginning of an educational purgatory in which every school in America is up for sale? Professional and college sports teams have long…
Mimic
Mimic 1997, R, 104 min. Directed by Guillermo Del Toro, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Mira Sorvino, Jeremy Northam, Josh Brolin, Giancarlo Giannini, Alexander Goodwin, F. Murray Abraham, Charles S. Dutton. Bummer about those Big Apple subways. First giant alligators, then cannibalistic humanoid underground dwellers, and now giant, man-eating roaches — with lungs,…
Dancing About Architecture
They Shoot Kennedys, Don’t They? Well, if the Austin Music Network goes under, it looks like MTV is ready to fill their offices. Not only is the former music video network shooting episodes of the logically titled Austin Stories here, this Tuesday, at a press conference at La Zona Rosa, they announced plans for their…
Re-Re-Re-Reruns
In the land of the blind the one-eyed man is king, and in the land of summer, TV re-runs rule. (Why do writers feel compelled to quote homilies so much? I don’t even know the origin of the phrase except I like the Tom Waits song that uses it.) I was on vacation a while…
Event Horizon
A spaceship returns to Earth after seven years in limbo.
Live Shots
Bernie Worrell at Stubb’s August 9 photograph by John Carrico THE ARTIST Alamodome/Hollywood, San Antonio, August 8 He played few of his own tunes, a little bass, and no guitar. Yet he allowed has-been rapper Doug E. Fresh to hijack his show for nearly a half hour. In fact, during a limp reading of Fresh’s…
Gay Culture in Focus
A Queer Story The founder of the Southwest’s first and most successful gay and lesbian film festival admits that, at times, he lacks perspective on his own creation’s place in the overall social framework. “Maybe I should get out more,” mused Dobie Theatre owner Scott Dinger. “I spend a lot of time at work, so…
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…
Two Schools of Thought
illustration by Roy Tompkins It’s $80 million to them. What’s it to you? Eighty million is the estimated value of LBJ-S, the new corporate entity created by the merger of local radio stations held by the LBJ Broadcasting Company (KLBJ-FM, KLBJ-AM, and KAJZ-FM) and by Sinclair Telecable (KROX-FM — 101X to you — and KGSR-FM).…
Scanlines
Frank Whaley (left) and Matthew Broderick (right) have their hands full as they deliver a rare Komodo dragon in The Freshman.. The Freshman D: Andrew Bergman (1990) with Matthew Broderick, Marlon Brando, Penelope Ann Miller, Bruno Kirby, Frank Whaley, Paul Benedict, B.D. Wong Nothing soothes the mind of someone undergoing a traumatic change of residence…
SF in S.A.
The 55th World Science Fiction Convention, also known as LoneStarCon 2, takes place in San Antonio August 28-September 1, one of the largest gatherings of science fiction fans anywhere. Nearly 4,500 attendees are expected for the five-day event, which includes appearances and panels with noted SF/fantasy writers and artists, an art show, dealers room, the…
Also Playing
Friday: Mojo Nixon, Hollisters, Continental Club; Big Drag, Kiss Offs, Junior Varsity, Hole in the Wall Saturday: The Recliners, Club Max (Red Lion Hotel) Sunday: Red Elvises, Continental Club Monday: Blue Monday Band, Holy Moellers, Keller Bros., Antone’s Tuesday: The Softs, The Onlys, Emo’s; Counting Crows, Wallflowers, Neilson Hubbard, Erwin Center Wednesday: Kathy McCarty, Flipnotics…
Short Cuts
The Austin Film Society (AFS) has scheduled three special events this week designed to make the most of the days spent in Austin by this year’s review panelists for grants by the Texas Filmmakers’ Production Fund (TFPF). In addition to donating their time and talents to the TFPF, three of the four distinguished panelists will…
Articulations
An ardent theatre artist and activist has passed on. Bill Jay died Tuesday, August 12, of a heart attack. Jay’s contributions to Austin theatre were varied, both on and offstage. He appeared as an actor in Amadeus, the Texas Young Playwrights Festival, Easy Does the Stars (for Capitol City Playhouse), Woman in Mind, Black Coffee…
Road Shows
AUGUST FRI 22 Blue Meanies, Middlefinger, Hi Fi & the Roadburners, Atomic Cafe FRI 22 Mojo Nixon, The Hollisters, Continental Club FRI 22 Diesel Boy, Goober Patrol, Latch Key Kids, Emo’s FRI 22 Red Elvises, Jovita’s FRI 22 Big Drag, Hole in the Wall SAT 23 Cheap Trick, The Cunninghams, Stubb’s SAT 23 Jinkies, Hole…
Triple Teaming
(l-r) Lisa Molosky, Hannah Storm, and Ann Meyers of NBC Sports photograph courtesy NBC Sports If the WNBA doesn’t fly now, it never will,” asserts sportscaster Lisa Malosky, courtside reporter for NBC’s coverage of the WNBA. The affable ex-ballplayer lets a bit of her Minnesota slip through her dialect-free, broadcast-honed tones, “Never has pro basketball…
Collecting as Affliction
Philip Dempsey’s most recent art purchase arrives just before I do at his north Austin home. The package — about the size of a toaster oven, sent from the Moody Gallery in Houston — is lying near an assortment of glassware and a plate of gigantic cookies. A bigger, unsealed box nearby contains a hand-colored…
Knocking at Your Back Door
The glaring sun beats down on this arid, dusty, alien plane, heating its surface to approximately 12,000 degrees and turning everything bright red. There are no signs of life. Mars? Try San Antonio’s Sunken Gardens Amphitheater on a three-alarm July afternoon where the R.O.A.R tour (“Revelations of Absent Revenue,” mutters one roadie) is grinding to…
Texas Women in the Pros
Stats as of press time, Wed., Aug 20 Name (#) Pos Ht College Pro Team PPG/RPG Fran Harris (#20) G 6’0″ UT ’86 WNBA–Houston Comets 4.3/2.3 Sheryl Swoopes (#22) F 6’0″ TXTech ’93 WNBA–Houston Comets 7.1/1.6 Cynthia Cooper (#4) G 5’10” USC ’86 WNBA–Houston Comets 22.7/4.1 Nekeshia Henderson (#6) G 5’8″ UT ’95 WNBA–Houston Comets…
Joe Lansdale
Joe R. Lansdale may be the most famous unknown writer working today. The 46-year-old Nacogdoches native has been consistently churning out a string of novels, short stories, screenplays, anthologies, and — more recently — comic books since he co-wrote, with his mother, a non-fiction piece for a regional farm journal way back in 1971. Since…
AISD Notebook
It seems almost inevitable for the first day of school in a kindergarten classroom. Metz Elementary teacher Janice Lowry has a little boy who is crying. A yellow button pinned to his shirt reads “Joseph.” His fellow pupils don’t much notice Joseph; they knock past him excitedly to explore the games, books, and toys in…
Dunk This
Look up “dilettante” in the dictionary and you will find a picture of me and my friends, sitting courtside at the Houston Summit sportsplex, waving Houston Comets and WNBA banners. We represent a large, new target audience: newbie fans of women’s basketball who barely know the basic rules of the game, much less have any…
PostScripts
Last week I promised news of a National Writers Union local, so here’s the scoop: The principals are Chris Garlock, a Rochester native who is now an Austinite currently producing Jim Hightower’s radio show, The Chat & Chew Cafe; Michael King, an associate editor at The Texas Observer; and Paul Jennings, a technical writer living…
Boom and Gloom
City finance director Betty Dunkerley is taxed by this year’s budget process. photograph by John Anderson Last year, when we wrote about the city budget, we said something about “a government headed for a cathartic transformation, if not a train wreck.” This year? Same song, second verse, joined in this time by both city staff…
From Court to the Courts
“No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex… be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.” — Title IX The WNBA: 25 years of Title IX in motion photograph by Jana Birchum When Ruth Kane was in high school in the Sixties, girls played tennis…
About AIDS
provided by AIDS Services of Austin Controlling HIV Is Still a Difficult Challenge Not long ago, Newsweek’s cover had, in huge type, the phrase “The End of AIDS?” The words certainly reflect the present hope and enthusiasm, based on significant advances in treatment. But people overlook — both on the magazine cover and in real…
The Cost of Growth
1991-92 1996-97 1997-98 % change since 91-92 Total tax roll $16.9 billion $25.8 billion $27.5 billion 63 % Total prop tax collections $102.1 mil $135.8 mil $149.7 mil 47 % To General Fund $55.8 mil $80.4 mil $91.2 mil* 63 % To debt service $46.3 mil $55.4 mil $58.5 mil* 26 % Total sales tax…
Predictions
Stats as of press time, Wed., Aug 20 Picks Yeah yeah yeah. Leslie, Swoopes, Lobo. They got next. Who else’s got mad game? Here’s our brief list of should-be and future stars of the WNBA: 1. Cynthia Cooper, Houston Comets — 34-yr. old leading the race for MVP. Scored 44 points in a game. Fifth…
