Sculpting a School
photograph by Kenny Braun It’s the hands. Even if you didn’t know David Deming was a sculptor, you still might guess that he works with his hands. As he talks, they’re perpetually active — one moment shaping the air to illustrate a spoken point, the next supporting his chin as he contemplates a question, now…
Fortunate Son
On the Old Scorekeeper’s great tote board in the sky, not much rings in higher for 1997 than John Fogerty’s new album, Blue Moon Swamp. EPMD are Back in Business, Bill Gates bought Apple, the feds even balanced the budget, and none of it even comes close to having the soul of Creedence Clearwater Revival…
Screen Dreams
illustration by Tom King It’s about 1965 or so. One of my earliest movie memories is going to see It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World at the drive-in in our small Southern Illinois farm town. My dad would have iced down a bunch of grape and orange Nehi sodas, we’d light up one of…
Exhibitionism
Chronicle arts reviews FLAME FAILURE, EPISODE 4: WAITING IN THE DARK The Public Domain Gallery, through June 29 Running Time: 40 min Extended periods in the dark are unnerving. Even after your eyes adjust, you keep waiting for a dry, sinister hand to brush across your defenseless cheek while it searches for a vulnerable spot.…
The Draft Unveiled
At a press conference Wednesday morning, Mayor Kirk Watson unveiled a draft of the city’s ordinance meant to serve as a recommendation on how to deal with the issues raised by the repeal of SB 1704. Addressing a crowd containing representatives from developers, environmentalists, and the Legislature (Austin Senator Gonzalo Barrientos), the Mayor continued to…
From Nowhere to Here
photograph by Todd V. Wolfson James Duval is the coolest superstar you haven’t seen yet… at least, not as much as you’d like to. The 24-year-old star of Gregg Araki’s gender-smashing Los Angeles teen trilogy (Totally F***ked Up, The Doom Generation, Nowhere) is the linchpin that holds Araki’s unique vision together, an achingly handsome na�f…
The Road to Publication
UT Press Executive Editor and Assistant Director Theresa May and Press Director Joanna Hitchcock stand at the helm of the UT Press. photograph by Minh “Bureaucracy” may be one of the most misused, overused words in American English, and the University of Texas at Austin is sometimes thought of as the bureaucracy to out-evil all…
At Large in the Hills
photograph by John Carrico “Doomed” is one of Ray Wylie Hubbard’s favorite words. It captures the many shadowy and sometimes shadowless figures that line his songs — hobos, preachers, outlaws, and hard young rockers, billowed and buffeted by the forces of nature and life’s cruel twists of fate. And as the former wild man of…
Scanlines
D. John Halas and Joy Batchelor (1955) With Gordon Heath and Maurice Denham Babe D. Chris Noonan (1995) With James Cromwell, Magda Szubanski, Christine Cavanaugh, Miriam Margolies, Danny Mann, and Hugo Weaving Farmer Hoggett (James Cromwell) and the pig who wanted to be a sheepdog. The genuinely charming Babe has a timeless quality to it…
Crossing Literary Borders
photograph by Minh In May of last year, when Latino author David Rice mentioned Dr. Rolando Hinojosa-Smith, author of the Klail City Death Trip series, during an interview, the name evoked only the vaguest of reactions: that good old academic nod, learned well in four years of college. The Nod says, “Um-hmmm, of course, who…
Recommended
edited by Christopher Gray IRMA THOMAS / BOBBY BLUE BLAND Antone’s, Friday 29/Saturday 30 It’s a Labor Day weekend coup bigger than the one that almost rode Newt out of D.C. on a rail. Friday, the Soul Queen of New Orleans, Her Royal Majesty Miss Irma Thomas, struts her stirring gospel/R&B stuff with a little…
Short Cuts
If you’re not running around breathless from trying to keep up with all the special screenings going on in this town, then you only have yourself to blame. The burst of activity is the surest sign that summer’s over here in these parts where you can’t depend on the heat index as a true indicator…
Postscripts
Since it’s one of my favorite books, I have to tell you about Barnes & Noble Westlake’s First Book Storytime, this month a reading of Margaret Wise Brown’s Goodnight Moon. It happens on Wednesday, September 3 at 11am, and is that store’s first monthly event of children’s readings benefitting First Book, a national non-profit organization…
Record Reviews
CHRIS ARDOIN AND DOUBLE CLUTCHIN’ Gon’ Be Jus’ Fine (Rounder) If Chris Ardoin were a race horse, he’d be one of Secretariat’s descendants. The story of recorded Creole/zydeco music begins with the Ardoin family — with Am�de Ardoin’s 1929 recordings, made in a New Orleans hotel room. The tree then branches to Am�de’s cousin Bois…
Ray Wylie Hubbard
Dangerous Spirits (Philo) It probably didn’t take Ray Wylie Hubbard too long to come up with a title to his latest album. Dangerous Spirits is nothing if not outlaw — outlaw with a spiritual bent. Adding one plus one ain’t that tough, but here the resulting sum is an emotionally rich album that sounds pretty…
About AIDS
How YOU Can Volunteer For Change! Every volunteer at AIDS Services of Austin makes a dramatic difference in the lives of people with AIDS by giving the gift of self — the willingness to grow, to be present, to learn, and to serve. People come to us from every race, creed, culture, age, marital status,…
Road Shows
AUGUST FRI 29 Irma Thomas, Antone’s FRI 29 Carolyn Wonderland & the Imperial Monkeys, Mercury Lounge FRI 29 Buzzkill, Emo’s FRI 29 Johnny Reno & the Lounge Kings, Speakeasy FRI 29 Sugarhill Gang, Liberty Lunch FRI 29 Drone, Blue Flamingo FRI 29, SAT 30 Joe McBride, Sullivan’s Ringside SAT 30 Bobby Blue Bland, Antone’s SAT…
Hearth & Soul
Home Maker Houses can be built; homes must evolve. From what I can tell, this truth is lost on a lot of people building their quasi-mansions in and around Austin. When they close on their house, they expect it to be finished. The brass coach lamps are hung on either side of the front door.…
A Golden Opportunity
There was something half-hearted in the revelry at the Save Our Springs (S.O.S.) party at La Zona Rosa on August 8. And it wasn’t just the lack of free beer. A hundred or so people milled around the homey sheetrock of La Zona Rosa’s dining hall, currently under reconstruction; some bid on T-shirts at a…
Benefits
Putt-Putt for Tots to benefit CEDEN Family Resource Center, at Putt Putt Golf and Games, 6700 Burnet, 9am. Cost is $300 per team. 477-1130. The Chronicle benefits database extends a year or more into the future. Call Julie Weaver at 454-5766 to get your event listed, and/or to see if there are other conflicting events.…
What Bike Plan? UT Fails to Embrace Bike Culture
The fall semester has only begun, but freshman Cedric Mitchell has already learned the basics of bicycling on the UT campus. He was recently ticketed by UT police for riding with no brakes, and now he is unchaining his bike from a signpost near the Littlefield Fountain, maneuvering it from behind another bike lashed against…
Coach’s Corner
The cover of Esquire asks, “Is football still relevant?” This got my attention, because I wondered what they could be talking about. Football relevant? The stories supporting the cover barely touched on this absurd proposition — football relevant?! — though they added to the daily overload on wonderful, quaint Green Bay, Wisconsin and the weirdly…
UT’s Master Plan Disaster?
Welcome to the corner of 26th Street — which is now Dean (Page) Keeton Street — and Speedway, which used to be Lampasas Street but is — for now — still Speedway. Here at the University of Texas’ “geek corner” — where most of the science and engineering departments are imprisoned, cut off from the…
Day Trips
photograph by Gerald E. McCleod Joe Peters at Peters Brothers’ Hats of Fort Worth hates gimme caps. “They’re a health hazard,” Peters says of the baseball-style caps. Without the full brim of a hat, Peters says, Americans are risking skin cancer due to exposure to the sun. Of course, Peters might be a little prejudiced…
A New Day at ARA
illustration by Doug Potter Remember “opposite day,” where everything is the opposite of what it is supposed to be? Apparently last Friday was opposite day at the Austin Revitalization Authority (ARA), the non-profit organization charged with the revitalization of East 11th and 12th Streets which, since its inception in 1995, has made a name for…
Page Two
The Chronicle used to publish guide issues to the different sections of the city regularly. This was back when we were bi-weekly. These guides required an incredible amount of energy and hours. Since we went weekly, nearly a decade ago, we’ve published very few because they are so labor-intensive. Over the next couple of years,…
Drag Rehab
Above, drag planners envision wider sidewalks with trees, cafes, benches and lamp posts. Below are two views of Guadalupe from the south, showing a northbound light rail land, bike lanes on both sides of the street and four lanes of car traffic. San Antonio Street would carry the southbound light rail line. illustrations by Francis…
Public Notice
Well, it’s comin’ up on Labor Day and you know what that means: Lots of watermelon, lots of weenies in buns, and lots of weenies on the road, drunker than skunks. And that means the return of the Safe Ride Home program and those valiantly relentless Jody Denberg TV commercials imploring you not to drive…
MoreThan It Can Chew?
illustration by Doug Potter For over a decade, the city of Austin has been giving cash rebates to residential and commercial electricity customers who buy high-efficiency heating and cooling equipment. Now, there are plans afoot to end the commercial rebate program and replace it with a city-owned energy services company that will provide a wide…
Mister Smarty Pants Knows
Smell is the sense most closely related to memory. There’s an international treaty prohibiting the driving of golf balls into the sea. But Patrick E. Kane has developed an environmentally friendly golf ball made from citrus peel and collagen which he calls “the Aquaflyte.” When a whale sings, no air is released. Both Richard Nixon…
What a Drag
“The day Les Amis closed, that’s when reality hit,” sighs Frank Hilbolt, co-owner of Technophilia, Austin’s first store to sell used compact discs. Long before the era of the CD, though, before the epoch of the strip mall and the era of corporate conformity, there was the Bluebonnet Plaza — a ramshackle but cozy clutch…
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…
Rainbows at Your Feet
illustration by Jason Stout At some times of day, in some slants of light, it’s as though a rainbow collapsed and was crushed into the ground — the Painted Desert, off I-40 in Arizona. A naked place, treeless, adorned only by the changing light, its colors shift upon the land as the shadows lengthen. Delicate…
The National Texan?
The billboards around town proclaim, “It’s not your same old Statesman.” It’s too bad that The Daily Texan editorial page couldn’t have grabbed that slogan first. Anyone who attended the University of Texas in previous decades will no doubt remember the joke: The Daily Pravda. Of course, the UT student newspaper’s nickname was never truly…
Nothing Succeeds Like Success
Red Sauce 1st Place: John Randall * 2nd Place: Larry Blanton of Houston 3rd Place: Julia Payne Green Sauce 1st Place: Dennis Willms of Cedar Creek * 2nd Place: Brian Morrison 3rd Place: Lindy & Carol Billich Special Variety 1st Place: Kevin Higgins 2nd Place: Lisa Vasquez 3rd Place: Jimmy Williams * RESTAURANT CATEGORY Red…
Food-O-File
It was bound to happen. No matter how thorough we try to be, some deserving restaurant invariably gets overlooked in round-up stories. Comfort food devotees were kind enough to remind me about Soul Kitchen and Grace’s Home Cooking. Drunken conspiracy theorists confronted me in a restaurant because Casino El Camino and Mike’s Pub were inadvertently…
Naked City
City Manager Jesus Garza threw city clinic workers a bone last Thursday. While clinic labs are still going under the private control of Laboratory Corp. of America, clinic advocates fought to retain four quality control inspectors at the lab sites at least through next September. Keeping the employees will cut the predicted savings from privatization…
Articulations
Hail & Farewell, Alice It’s never easy saying goodbye, but it’s certainly nicer when you’re surrounded by friends and colleagues and reminded of all that you’ve accomplished through the years. Just ask Alice Wilson, who’s bidding farewell to the Zachary Scott Theatre Center this week after 18 years with the theatre, first as the artistic…
Dancing About Architecture
Al Over the Place Alejandro Escovedo won’t have to do much to get his debut album for New West Records out this November. Rather than shoving Al into a studio, New West (Kelley Deal’s Minneapolis-based label), plans to release an album of live tracks from all parts of Escovedo’s post-True Believers career, including a number…
You Go, Girl!
Many years ago I read a comment about the women’s movement saying basically that it wasn’t until Gloria Steinem started wearing glasses like Georgia state troopers that men sat up and took notice. (I don’t even remember the gender of the writer, just the phrase.) The statement seemed to have two points: 1) Besides being…
7th Annual Austin Chronicle Hot Sauce Festival Contest Winners
Individual Category Red Sauce 1st Place: John Randall 2nd Place: Larry Blanton of Houston 3rd Place: Julia Payne Green Sauce 1st Place: Dennis Willms of Cedar Creek 2nd Place: Brian Morrison 3rd Place: Lindy & Carol Billich Special Variety 1st Place: Kevin Higgins 2nd Place: Lisa Vasquez 3rd Place: Jimmy Williams Restaurant Category Red Sauce…
