Film Reviews
DESPERADOD: Robert Rodriguez; with Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Joaquim de Almeida, Cheech Marin, Steve Buscemi, Quentin Tarantino. During its opening moments, Desperado announces itself as an action picture that demands to be watched, if not for its hyperkinetic staging and riveting fusillade of superhuman physical feats, then for its stunning choreographic vortex that sweeps all…
A Conversation with Stephen Harrigan Telling Ghost Stories
Comanche Midnight is the second terrific collection of Stephen Harrigan’s essays published by University of Texas Press (paper, $14.95), with topics ranging from the poisoning of Treaty Oak and the filming of Lonesome Dove, to the 75th anniversary of Rocky Mountain National Park and gambling in Monte Carlo. For those of us who are always…
Mortal Kombat
Mortal Kombat 1995, PG-13, 101 min. D: Paul W.S. Anderson; with Christopher Lambert. First things first: taken for what it is — a comic-book actioner based on a popular, relentlessly violent video game — Mortal Kombat isn’t half bad. Sure, there’s wooden acting, wooden dialogue, and wooden sets, but on the whole it manages to…
Bonus Tracks
DON WALSER & THE PURE TEXAS BAND The Archive Series Vol. 1 & 2 (Watermelon) He’s been called the “Anti-Garth” by the Chicago Tribune while on tour recently; no doubt about it – he’s got more fancy moves in one tonsil than Garth Brooks could ever shake out of his billion-dollar black jeans. We have…
No Rest
by Robert Faires There’s busy, and there’s Allen Robertson. Most theatre artists are lucky to fit four shows in a season. Robertson does a dozen. At least, that’s what this man squeezed into the past 12 months. Since last September, the versatile artist has: been musical director for no fewer than seven productions (six locally,…
Mina Tannenbaum
Mina Tannenbaum 1994. Directed by Martine Dugowson, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Romane Bohringer, Elsa Zylberstein. “One friend in a lifetime is much; two are many; three are hardly possible. Friendship needs a certain parallelism of life, a community of thought, a rivalry of aim.” I can’t say whether Martine Dugowson read those…
Dancing About Architecture
“What? Again!?” I’m willing to bet that that’ll be the most common reaction to the surprise news that La Zona Rosa is opening once again. And no, I don’t just mean that the property at that address will be housing a new business, even though several local club folks have been chatting up the idea…
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows…
According to Reader’s Digest, history repeats itself, particularly if you flunk it. The current New York City subway system opened in 1904 with a nine-mile system. It now has 238 miles. The city’s previous subway system, which opened in 1870, was a giant pneumatic tube. Baby mongooses are called “kittens.” Dr. John Fernstrom, a nutritionist…
Clive Barker’s Lord of Illusions
Clive Barker’s Lord of Illusions 1995, R, 120 min. Directed by Clive Barker, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Scott Bakula, Kevin J. O’Connor, Famke Janssen, Vincent Schiavelli, Barry Del Sherman, Sheila Tousey. Anyone who knows me even remotely knows how much I respect and admire the talents of artist, author, and filmmaker Clive…
Ural DeWitty: Give a Hand for the Drummer Man
Because he died when Erbie Bowser did, the passing of Ural DeWitty, Sr., 57, on August 13 went unnoticed. Almost. Like Bowser, DeWitty had been a mainstay in East Austin’s blues pantheon at places like Charlie’s Playhouse. As drummer for Blues Boy Hubbard & the Jets, the Austin native had an earthy, soulful beat that…
About AIDS
Drop-in Volunteers at ASA AIDS Services of Austin relies on volunteers to complete its mission. Over 800 volunteers are utilized throughout the year to provide practical and emotional support to clients, office support to staff, educational outreach to the community, to staff the food pantry, and hundreds of other various tasks. The months prior to…
Beyond Rangoon
Beyond Rangoon 1995, R, 100 min. Directed by John Boorman, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Patricia Arquette, U Aung Ko, Frances Mcdormand, Spalding Gray, Adelle Lutz. Choosing Patricia Arquette to play an American doctor grieving over the loss of her murdered husband and young son at first seems like a casting coup. Arquette…
“Fire”-man Arthur Brown The God of Hellfire
by Andy Langer For better or worse, when The Crazy World of Arthur Brown released “Fire” in 1968 it immediately made Brown familiar worldwide as “The God of Hellfire.” In the three decades that followed, “Fire”‘s hook, refrain, and the stage show that accompanied it have been borrowed, appropriated, and outright stolen by scores of…
Coach’s Corner
I have four children. I love them all very much. Of this quartet, only two are concerned with the early start of school. The youngest, my idiot son Floyd, is big as an ox, gentle as a lamb, and stupid as a stone. My boy is far too learning-impaired to educate. This is okay; Floyd’s…
The Brothers McMullen
The Brothers McMullen 1995, R, 97 min. Directed by Edward Burns, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Edward Burns, Maxine Bahns, Connie Britton, Mike Mcglone, Jack Mulcahy. Finally: A movie that lives up to its hype. The Brothers McMullen has been whispered about as a film to watch ever since receiving the Grand Jury…
Music Recommended
South Park Meadows, Thursday 31 Apparently H.O.R.D.E. is an acronym for “Horizons of Rock Developing Everywhere.” Having recently caught the show in Portland, Maine, I can tell you this is a misnomer: It really stands for “High on Really Delicious ‘Erb.” But then with the Black Crowes’ “Weed” Robinson and Ziggy “Praise Jah” Marley in…
Heat Aplenty
Whether you are an experienced salsa chef or just a novice, you surely want the best possible ingredients from which to create your salsa masterpiece: juicy, vine-ripened tomatoes picked at their peak; countless varieties of firm, fresh chiles from Mexico, South America, and the Carribean; fragrant garlic, herbs, and onions; plump tomatillos in papery husks;…
Dr. Lamb
Dr. Lamb 1992, NR, 89 min. Directed by Danny Lee Sau-Yin, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Simon Yam Tat-Wah, Danny Lee Sau-Yin. A film that pushes the limits of bad taste in several key scenes, Dr. Lamb is a slick, and sick, exploitation item that both repels the viewer with its images of…
C&W Maverick Kevin Welch: Square Peg Escapes Round Hole
Kevin Welch and Austin have always been a good mix. Despite Welch’s continued residency in the Evil Empire (that being Nashville), Austinites have always sensed that he was the exception to the rule – no matter where he may live, he’s a country music maverick, a square peg in the round commercial world. We like…
Caribbean Peppers and Hot Sauces
by Robb Walsh Port-of-Spain, Trinidad – A hot sauce safari – it seemed like a good idea at the time. But at the moment I am suffering from a bad case of heat-induced allergic reactions. Lying in my air-conditioned hotel room in Port-of-Spain, popping allergy pills, I am alternately sweating and shivering while occasionally breaking…
Council Watch by Alex de Marban Like Water for Councilmembers
“You just let Freeport-McMoRan in your back door,” lamented a disheartened speaker to the Austin City Council last Thursday, shortly after five councilmembers trampled colleagues Brigid Shea and Max Nofziger and struck a $4.1 million deal with the New Orleans-based, multi-national corporation to provide water to their Lantana tract within the city limits. The 5-2…
Old Flame
by Dave DeWitt T here is no doubt that this country leads the world in at least the number of brands of hot sauce produced. And although we think of the hot sauce boom as a relatively new phenomenon, hot sauces have been popular here for about two centuries. Much of what we know about…
1995-96 City Budget: The Electric Utility Holding the Line
by Alex de Marban Above the din created by the mayor et al.’s ceaseless clamor to sell the city’s electric utility is the sound of money being counted. Not necessarily by the lobbyists of the private electric companies hungry for a deal, but by the budget officers of the Electric Utility Department (EUD), who are…
Austin Chronicle Fifth Annual Hot Sauce Festival
Five years ago, when I wrote an article in Chile Pepper magazine calling Austin the Hot Sauce Capital of the World, salsa freaks in other cities disagreed. The City of San Antonio mounted an official challenge. Their hot sauce against ours,mano a mano in the hot Texas sun. And that’s how the Austin Chronicle Hot…
Media Clips
byHugh Forrest We’ve now settled into the dog days of summer, when a gray haze of ozone dulls our senses like a cheap narcotic. It’s too sticky to come up with complete essays, complete paragraphs, or even complete ideas. But the cool of Autumn is right around the corner, right? No, not in Central Texas.…
This Year’s Judges
While the festivities may be getting more extensive, you can rest assured that this will remain a serious culinary competition. The hot sauce contest is a blind tasting conducted by some of the top chefs and pepper authorities in the country. They take hot sauce seriously and so do most of the people who enter.…
The Silence of the Dan
During the final days of the last legislative session, Representative John Hirschi was fed up with the Attorney General’s (AG) Office. Frustrated by his inability to obtain the agency’s internal financial analyses of the potential costs of a major piece of pending legislation, Hirschi made a final attempt. He called Deputy AG Drew Durham to…
Lagniappe
It was poet Gregory Corso who wrote of Jack Kerouac and the other Beats that it was “not so much our finding America as it was America finding its voice in us…” And before Kerouac, the Fifties and the Beats, Fitzgerald of the Twenties found himself the voice of a “Lost” generation. But for generations…
Naked City
Edited by Louisa C. Brinsmade, with contributions this week by Roseana Auten, Andrea Barnett, and Amy Smith. THE LONG GOODBYE: Rumors dating from last year’s mayoral race proved correct this week when Mayor Bruce Todd announced he would not seek re-election in 1997. In his announcement Tuesday, August 22, Todd cited family and career issues…
Day Trips
Bragging about your state being first is one of the stereotypes of a Texan. Who’s to say Texans don’t have the right to brag a little? The Lone Star State does, after all,have an impressive list of firsts. Let’s start at the entrance to the King Ranch (above), where a steamboat captain claimed the birthplace…
Art’s Eastside Origins The East End by Mike Clark-Madison
You can see it most clearly around East Sixth Street past the interstate, between the tortilla factories and the produce distributors, between the two Hernandez Cafes and the two bars named La India Bonita. Interspersed between these hallmarks of Austin’s Latino commercial center, you can find some of the most established artists this town can…
Hearth and Soul
The Glamour of Concrete Dear Suzy, I am remodeling a bathroom and was wondering if you could give me some ideas. I am adding a shower and I definitely do not want a fiberglass shower and don’t want to tile the walls either. What I was thinking of doing is putting a coat of mortar…
Hot Sauce Festival Schedule of Events
10-11am Entrant check-in 12-2pm Music by Los Pinkys 12pm Preliminary judging begins 12-5pm Salsa sampling, beer drinking, music listening 12:30-1:30pm Booksigning by famed chefs Stephan Pyles, Mark Miller, and Jay McCarthy, along with authors Dave DeWitt and Robb Walsh 2:30-4:30pm Don Walser’s Pure Texas Band 4:30-5:pm Presentation of awards Categories The Austin Hot Sauce Contest…
Scanlines
THE RAVEN THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH D: Roger Corman; with Vincent Price, Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre, Hazel Court, Jack Nicholson Orion Home Video/Image Entertainment Much of Roger Corman’s reputation as a director rests on a series of Edgar Allan Poe films he created (most of which featured Vincent Price) for American-International Pictures during…
Live Shots
EDITED BY RAOUL HERNANDEZ A BOWSER NIGHT Continental Club/ Ruta Maya/Victory Grill, August 20 The august have died this month: Garcia, Mantle, Erbie Bowser. At the Continental, Steve Wertheimer started happy hour with a tribute to the legendary pianist. Voice trembling, he acknowledged what regulars knew: Erbie Bowser, T.D. Bell, and the Blues Specialists made…
What Is a Hot Sauce?
Hot pepper sauce is in use in 13.3% (about 14.1 million) American homes. The age group most likely to purchase hot sauce is 25 to 34. Sales of hot pepper sauces reached $85 million in supermarket sales in 1992, but not counted in this figure is retail shops and mail order, accounting for about another…
Film: Showtimes
Showtimes listed below start Friday, August 25 and cover the week ending Thursday, August 31. *An asterisk (*) before a title means that no passes or special admission discounts (apart from matinee discounts) will be accepted for any screening. *Parentheses indicate weekend showtimes for Saturdays and Sundays only, unless otherwise noted. *Changes may sometimes occur,…
AISD Notebook
In the first of three scheduled work sessions, the AISD Board of Trustees on Monday aired some of its most pressing concerns about an upcoming bond issue – namely, will the bonds properly accommodate growth in the district, support the district’s instructional programs, and redress inequity between facilities? And even if taxpayers become convinced the…
Natural Born Self-Deprecators
Not long ago, Harvard University rescinded its acceptance offer to an incoming freshman upon discovering that the girl, when she was 14, had bludgeoned her mother to death with a lead candlestick holder. Though the girl served her time, there are those who think that wasn’t enough. And these people, I think, just don’t buy…
Chasing the Dream
Three weeks after Vanessa Ronsonette came to Austin in 1992, she wrote an article for Avaanti, the Austin Visual Arts Association (AVAA) newsletter, about the shortage of exhibition space for artists in Austin. Ronsonette – who was born in Bridge City, Texas – moved to Ohio with her husband, and then returned to Texas eager…
Desperado
Desperado 1995, R, 106 min. Directed by Robert Rodriguez, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Joaquim De Almeida, Cheech Marin, Steve Buscemi, Quentin Tarantino. During its opening moments, Desperado announces itself as an action picture that demands to be watched, if not for its hyperkinetic staging and riveting fusillade of…
