Overexposed: An Erotic Film Festival
Overexposed: An Erotic Film Festival NR. Directed by Various, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . Overexposed: An Erotic Film Festival is the Sin-a-maker Co-op¹s first-ever Super-8 festival devoted to this theme, but as the group points out, “A hard film is good to find.” These locally made films run no longer than four…
My Night at Maud’s
My Night at Maud’s 1969, PG, 110 min. Directed by Eric Rohmer, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Jean-Louis Trintignant, Françoise Fabian, Marie-Christine Barrault, Antoine Vitez. “Love and Morality: The Films of Eric Rohmer” is an eight-film survey of films from the modern era of feminist filmmaking. It kicks off with one of the…
It’s Elementary: Talking About Gay Issues in School
It’s Elementary: Talking About Gay Issues in School 1996, NR, 88 min. Directed by Debra Chasnoff, Helen Cohen, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . This documentary by Chasnoff, the Academy Award-winning director of Deadly Deception: General Electric, Nuclear Weapons and Our Environment, offers a survey of how American schoolteachers are dealing in the…
Ocean’s Eleven
Ocean’s Eleven 1960, NR, 127 min. Directed by Lewis Milestone, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, Angie Dickinson, Joey Bishop. It’s Rat Pack heaven as Sinatra plays a character named Danny Ocean who, along with his 10 pals, enact a simultaneous robbery of five Vegas…
Final Exam
Final Exam 1981, R, 89 min. Directed by Jimmy Huston, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Cecile Bagdadi, Joel S. Rice, Deanna Robbins, Ralph Brown, Sherry Willis-Burch. A psycho killer seeks out college kids in this slasher picture.
Lalee’s Kin: The Legacy of Cotton
Lalee’s Kin: The Legacy of Cotton 2001, NR, 88 min. Directed by Susan Froemke, Deborah Dickson, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . When HBO asked Maysles Films in 1996 to take one of its “direct cinema” looks at poverty at the end of the millennium, director Susan Froemke had no idea they’d end…
Public Notice
This is the last Public Notice ever.
Wish You Were Here!
5 Neal heads back over to the Capitol complex to enjoy the offerings of this benevolent cupid gushing over with the pause that refreshes. Wait! That’s not a water fountain! That’s not water!!
Would You, Could You Be My Neighbor?
The new incarnation of neighborhood planning and the latest handicapping of the mayoral candidates
Video Reviews
Road to Nashville is a wonderful snapshot of what Nashville was like in the years before all the Shania Twains and Tim McGraws of the world took things over.
Open Letter to Vanessa Leggett
We’re all in trouble, along with Vanessa Leggett, if the governement begins defining who is and who is not a true journalist.
Wish You Were Here!
6 Neal “finishes off” the day at the Six Pack with a rousing game of hide-and-seek. “Peek-a-boo, Uncle Hogg!!!”
Shooting the Messenger
On Monday, Chronicle City Editor Mike Clark-Madison resigned from his voluntary positions on the city of Austin’s Library Commission and Bond Oversight Committee, at the request of Council Member Daryl Slusher, who had appointed him. Clark-Madison had served on the Library Commission since May of 1998, and the Bond Oversight Committee since March of this…
The Deep End of Laughter
Cartoons ain’t just for kids anymore, again.
Mr. Smarty Pants
The information superhighway’s last chance exit for trivia
Reasonably Offensive
Two civil suits against live music venues downtown call into question Austin’s sound ordinance.
Clark-Madison Responds
This is Mike Clark-Madison’s letter to the City Council, responding to Council Member Danny Thomas’ demand that he be removed from the Library Commission. The only omissions are chronological details which have since changed. Aug. 24, 2001 Mayor and Council: After reading, and discussing with many people in some detail, Council Member Thomas’s memo of…
Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Adapted for film from the off-Broadway musical hit, this movie is a rousing screen spectacle about a surgically botched transsexual from East Germany (played charismatically by John Cameron Mitchell, the show’s creator and film director).
After a Fashion
Our Style Avatar charts a plethora of moving and shaking in the local scene.
Say Baby
Davíd Garza’s still DIY.
A Brief Chronology
May 3, 1997: At City Coliseum on election night, defeated Council Member Eric Mitchell denounces his victorious opponent, Willie Lewis, saying: “Austin lost the day. You can’t stand the truth. You don’t want honesty. You don’t want integrity. You don’t want responsibility. You want a house nigger. And you got one!” (Get a transcript of…
O: The Movie
O: The Movie 2001, R, 94 min. Directed by Tim Blake Nelson, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Mekhi Phifer, Josh Hartnett, Julia Stiles, Martin Sheen, Andrew Keegan, Elden Henson, Rain Phoenix, John Heard. The practice of reimagining Shakespeare for film has produced some modern wonders that have added contemporary depth to the classic…
Day Trips
The Central Texas Bonsai Exhibit at Wimberley’s Jade Gardens
Dancing About Architecture
The local music community holds its breath as it waits for the music-industry target-study set to go before the City Council’s budget meetings.
Naked City
News shorts
Jeepers Creepers
Jeepers Creepers 2001, R, 90 min. Directed by Victor Salva, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Jon Beshara, Eileen Brennan, Patricia Belcher, Jonathan Breck, Justin Long, Gina Philips. Jeepers Creepers may not be the most technically accomplished horror film I’ve seen — some of the night sequences, of which there are many, have a…
Second Helpings: Sandwich Boards
Austin’s sandwich shops in this week’s “Second Helpings”
To Your Health
I have a 10-year-old son by a previous marriage, but after trying for six years, it looks like my husband may not be able to father a child. We simply cannot afford the cost of the entire batch of medical tests and treatment that insurance will not cover. What could nutritional supplements do to help?
Record Reviews
Butthole SurfersWeird Revolution (Hollywood/Surfdog) It goes without saying that Weird Revolution is neither as weird nor as revolutionary as any of the Butthole Surfers’ pre-1990 efforts, notably 1987’s groundbreaking Locust Abortion Technician. There’s no topping the Pistols/Beefheart sound effects library blast of a “Lady Sniff” or the general “found sound” Drain brammage of a “Kuntz”…
Naked City
The city’s “hospital within a hospital” plan for reproductive services at Brack fails to satisfy.
O
O 2001, R, 94 min. Directed by Tim Blake Nelson, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring John Heard, Rain Phoenix, Elden Henson, Andrew Keegan, Martin Sheen, Julia Stiles, Josh Hartnett, Mekhi Phifer. The practice of reimagining Shakespeare for film has produced some modern wonders that have added contemporary depth to the classic texts: Kurosawa’s…
At Long Last Love
Love will get you when you least expect it. So it goes in Charles Mee’s Big Love, a vigorous update of the ancient Greek drama The Suppliants, and so it went when the Rude Mechanicals theatre company saw the play. They fell unexpectedly and unabashedly head over heels for it and are staging it now…
About AIDS
“AIDS Monster” denied parole in New York
Record Reviews
The Damned Grave Disorder (Nitro) My God! Has it been almost 20 years since the last “proper” Damned album? You wouldn’t know it by listening to Grave Disorder. Captain Sensible and Dave Vanian, core members of the first UK punk band to release a single way back in ’76, have jumped back into the game…
Naked City
The Texas Coalition of Black Democrats holds a statewide candidate forum.
Articulations
Four months after using a new guideline to declare Sharir + Bustamante Danceworks ineligible for city arts funding, threatening the company’s survival and sparking community concern, the Austin Arts Commission reversed course and cleared the way for the company to receive money from the city.
Coach’s Corner
On a drive through the Hill Country and up to West Texas, Coach falls in love with the land all over again.
Record Reviews
Joe Strummer & the MescalerosGlobal A Go-Go (Hellcat) Third time’s the election for ex-Clash generalissimo Joe Strummer, and just in time too. Mick Jones, big rock star ego and strutting beatbox, was beginning to look like the group’s only arms dealer back in the punk rock revolution of 1977. Nearly two decades after their final…
Naked City
A UT grad is arrested in Jerusalem for peacefully opposing Israel’s seizure of a Palestinian building.
Life After Death
A new life for almost-forgotten author Mary Gavell
Hot Shots
Just as if we’d ordered it that way, another year of fabulous hot sauce festivities drew to a close, the sunbleached crowds left Waterloo Park, and then the skies opened up.
Record Reviews
Darker Than Blue: Soul From Jamdown 1973-1980 (Blood & Fire) There’s always been a healthy cultural exchange between reggae and R&B. Jamaica’s toasting DJs and bottom-heavy sounds planted the seeds of rap in this country, while American soul singers have long provided source material for countless satin-throated crooners down yard. This latest compilation from the…
The Hightower Lowdown
Labor organizing is still necessary, George W. Bush scams us with his “tax cut,” and Denver football fans revolt against corporate stadiums.
New Hope for Charles Willeford
In 1961, paperback press Fawcett Gold Medal published a typically lurid book by one W. Franklin Sanders titled The Whip Hand. Its cover featured a curvaceous blonde wearing high heels while brandishing a bullwhip. “Lash by bloody lash, the she-devil from Dallas would get her revenge,” the text on the cover screamed. The Whip Hand…
ChileChaser
Crowd pleasin’ & commercial bottlin’ with a hot-sauce guru
Record Reviews
Head Jazz(Label M) As a species, the worst compilations sit barely a notch above tribute albums in the evolutionary chain. Many lack the imagination of a mix tape, and few labels jump through the legal hoops or spend the money needed to access a cohesive overview of a career or concept. Head Jazz’s concept is…
A Candle for Arnold
The Statesman’s Coverage of the Lacresha Murray case
Postscripts
Kip Stratton didn’t attend either of the universities he’s going to cover in a nonfiction book coming out next fall from Crown, a division of Random House, so don’t blame him on those grounds if you discern some partiality in it.
Food-o-File
Two high-profile Austin food-related businesses sold in August, and now both will experience growth and expansion as a result of investor cash infusions, Cuisines Editor Virginia B. Wood writes.
Record Reviews
Jimmy Eat WorldBleed American (DreamWorks) 2001 will go down as the year tuneful, bracing guitar pop made a roaring comeback, with top-notch efforts from newcomers (Idlewild) and old hands (Weezer, Guided by Voices) alike. What makes Bleed American a standout? Well, for starters, it’s the opening rush of the title track, a stormy foot-stomper –…
Call It a Draw
Last year’s eye-catching Earthlink commercials imitated local animator Bob Sabiston’s — and his software’s — style. A little too much, in his opinion.
Readings
The Absence of Nectar by Kathy Hepinstall Putnam, 304 pp., $23.95 The Absence of Nectar, Kathy Hepinstall’s achingly sad new novel, is rich with the perfume of loss: not just the loss of sweetness, but the loss of parents, the loss of love, the loss of justice, and the loss of God. The redolence of…
Wish You Were Here!
Austin’s public art provides fodder for naughty doddering
Record Reviews
Owls(Jade Tree)Ghosts and VodkaPrecious Blood (Sixgunlover) It’s been a long time coming for members of the Owls, who helped change the face of punk rock as the seminal Cap’n Jazz, which broke up in 1995. Their jangly, starry-eyed brew carried punk’s sloppy charm into a new pop age, while their demeanor influenced many of today’s…
The Female Gaze
Reel Women highlight digital filmmaking with festival
Readings
All Families Are Psychotic by Douglas Coupland Bloomsbury USA, 356 pp., $24.95 Yes, Douglas Coupland gave us the words “Generation X”; his new book is about a postmodern dysfunctional family reunion. Janet’s astronaut daughter Sarah, a one-handed thalidomide baby, is due to fly off in the shuttle. The rest of the family meets amid palm…
Wish You Were Here!
1 Hey! Be careful when you hit the center of town, you might just slip on the World’s Largest Buttplug!
Record Reviews
Thalia Zedek Been Here and Gone (Matador) On the cover, there’s a heart, suspended midair and draped in a night sky of stars and a waning crescent moon. The heart hangs in. A ladder rests under it. Is the ladder the only access to the lonely heart-shaped planet? Or what’s left of an escape? Since…
The Gleaners and I
Gleaning — the individual right to collect what is left on the ground when the harvest is finished — is a freedom protected under French constitutional law. Everyone Agnès Varda speaks with in her new documentary The Gleaners and I seems to know this to be true. Yet no one is in agreement as to…
An American Rhapsody
An American Rhapsody 2001, PG-13, 106 min. Directed by Éva Gárdos, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Scarlett Johansson, Kelly Endresz-Banlaki, Nastassja Kinski, Tony Goldwyn, Mae Whitman, Agnes Bánfalvy, Zoltán Seress. An American Rhapsody has many things to recommend it. Among them are its non-exploitative glimpse at the immigrant experience as seen through the…
Readings
The Deadwood Beetle by Mylène Dressler BlueHen, 240 pp., $23.95 One man’s guilty conscience is another man’s terminal illness, and Dr. Tristan Martens, a recently retired entymology professor in New York specializing in beetles, is dying one hell of a slow death. The Deadwood Beetle opens with his discovery of a battered worktable in Cora…
Wish You Were Here!
2 The Six Pack at the University of Texas at Austin offers a host of upstanding figures of modern history to stand among. Here, a strapping George Washington “holds his own” as Neal ponders what exactly is mightier than the sword …
Record Reviews
Townes Van Zandt Anthology 1968-1979 (Fuel 2000) Poet: A Tribute to Townes Van Zandt (Perdenales) When Townes Van Zandt left this mortal coil on January 1, 1997, he left behind a legacy of songs that no one will ever match. His lyrics captured beauty and truth in a way that could be brutally sad or…
‘Digital Divas’ Program
All screenings and events take place at the Millennium Youth Entertainment Complex (MYEC), 1156 Hargrave (except for the kickoff party, at the Clay Pit, 1601 Guadalupe). Tickets cost $6 per screening/$4 for Reel Women & Austin Film Festival members. A $20 pass ($15 for Reel Women/AFF members) may be purchased for admittance to all screenings,…
Check It Out
The 10 most circulated items at the George Washington Carver Library
Wish You Were Here!
3 Elsewhere on campus, Neal, finding one darned anatomically accurate Longhorn, asks the age old question, “Where’s the beef, Bevo?” Oh … there it is …
Record Reviews
Dead Kennedys Plastic Surgery Disasters/In God We Trust, Inc. (Manifesto) Dead Kennedys Frankenchrist (Manifesto) Dead Kennedys Bedtime for Democracy (Manifesto) Dead Kennedys Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death (Manifesto) Dead Kennedys Mutiny on the Bay: Dead Kennedys Live From the San Francisco Bay Area (Manifesto) The biggest obstacle to overcome in mating politics with…
Short Cuts
Bob Ray overdrive
Page Two
The Chron’s about to turn 20! Louis Black illuminates the recent changes in our Politics staff.
Wish You Were Here!
4 Ada’s adventure at Barton Springs leads her to Philosophers Rock, where she overhears three grand old men heated in debate. They cannot seem to come to an agreement about a certain passage of the Kama Sutra. Ada volunteers to assist in figuring out who among them is the bull man, who is the horse…
What’s Wrong with Public Housing?
The remarkable turnaround of the city’s Housing Authority
Video Reviews
The Yards works well as an homage to Mean Streets-era Seventies crime movies, but the film’s maddening problems with pace and dialogue make it a less enjoyable viewing experience than it could be.
11th Annual Austin Chronicle Hot Sauce Festival Contest Winners
Individual Category Red Sauce 1st Place: Larry Blanton (Houston) 2nd Place: Brent Kirby 3rd Place: Debbie Tucker (Cedar Creek) Green Sauce 1st Place: Benita Trevino 2nd Place: John Randall 3rd Place: Mark Kobdish Special Variety 1st Place: Larry Blanton (Houston) 2nd Place: Susan McCartney 3rd Place: Ben Petko Restaurant Category Red Sauce 1st Place: The…
