Page Two
The morning of the last election, I was radio channel-flipping when I came upon Linda Curtis and Max Nofziger on the Sammy Allred and Bob Cole show on KVET-FM. They were talking as representatives of the group supporting the campaign finance reform proposition on the municipal ballot. I was so captivated by the show that…
A Little TLC
The Titanic salied from Southampton on April 10, 1912 and headed for America but went down in history instead. Discovery brings two specials on it next week, while TLC features two nights’ worth of shows on Castles of the Sea. It’s a rare night in my home when the remote doesn’t land on the Discovery…
Public Notice
1715 E. Sixth, Ste. 100, 472-5575 Freezer & refrigerator & non-perishable food (especially crackers, canned milk, canned tuna, canned chicken, any kind of canned meat and fruit), fixings for Christmas dinner, turkeys, chickens, hams, baked goods Winter clothing for Clothes Closet — “gently worn” Clothing suitable for job interviews and office attire Blankets Toilet Paper,…
Articulations
It seems like only weeks ago that we were congratulating David Deming on being named permanent dean for the UT College of Fine Arts and just yesterday we were sitting in his office listening to him discuss the direction of the college in the 21st century. In fact, it’s been half a year that Deming…
Mister Smarty Pants Knows
Streets made from cobblestones last about 350 years — about three times longer than those made from asphalt. The human ear is so sensitive that if it weren’t for a filtering mechanism in the brain, we would go mad from the constant bombardment of sounds — such as the sound of molecules bouncing on the…
Good Games for Adventurous Imaginations
No one in adventure gaming likes the term “adventure gaming” much, but this has become the catch-all term for the hobby devoted to paper role-playing games, board games, card and dice games, and more.These are neither computer games nor simple parlor games like Monopoly and Pictionary. Instead, think Dungeons & Dragons, Diplomacy, and Magic: The…
Food-O-File
by Virginia B. Wood Coffee Tawk! Hyde Park neighbors will be ferklemp to know that another bakery will soon take up residence in the empty space at Duval Center, 43rd Street and Duval. The owners of Captain Quackenbush’s Espresso Cafe (2120 Guadalupe, 472-4477) will open Quack’s 43rd Street Bakery just after the new year. A…
Scanlines
(“Scanlines” wishes to thank Encore Movies & Music, I Luv Video, and Vulcan Video for their help in providing videos and laser discs.) The Sony Playstation is currently the most popular gaming console in the world, which translates into many more available games each year than I’d ever care to look at. This list is…
East Meets Westlake
Pacific Moon photograph by John Anderson Pacific Moon 2712 Bee Caves Rd., 328-8888 Mon-Fri, 11-2:30pm; Mon-Sat, 5:30-10pm Call it what you will — Pacific Rim, Asian Nouvelle, Far-East Fusion — by any name, the cuisine at Westlake’s Pacific Moon certainly sounds intriguing. Chef and owner Colin Liu has combined elements of European and Asian cuisine…
Dark Colony
(SSI) Timing. SSI, known primarily for war simulation games, is in good position to capitalize on the hoopla surrounding Sojourner by offering you the chance not just to explore Mars but to take control of it. In Dark Colony, which is, given the bulk of other SSI products, somewhat surprisingly a real-time game, Earthlings have…
Reissues
BEG, SCREAM & SHOUT: THE BIG OL’ BOX SET OF 60’S SOUL (Rhino) Although the 9-CD Complete Stax Singles collection still stands as the consummate soul experience, the lavishly packaged Beg, Scream & Shout is the new box set standard, if not the definitive box set. Definitive may be a strong word, but a picture…
Short Cuts
Action Alert: Scheduled to occur just about the time you’re picking up this issue is a hurriedly scheduled event known as the Texas Union Massacre. To commemorate the passing of the Texas Union Film Program on its final day of regular operation, students and Austinites will unite at 5pm on Thursday, Dec. 11 outside the…
Dancing About Architecture
Talk has been going around lately about hip hangout Cedar Street either closing or possibly being up for sale, but of course, nobody wants to talk about it. Initially, Cedar Street’s Shannon Burke’s only reply to a phone query was an astonished “news travels fast!” Subsequently, he told the Chronicle that his attorneys had suggested…
Presents for Your VCR
I confess to being a master at the art of holiday procrastination. With the exception of a handful of acquaintances who actually begin to horde likely gifts every January 1, pretty much everyone I know falls into the trap of flustered, last-minute panicky shoppers. Which is fine. Without fail, I somehow manage to come up…
Miles and Miles of Miles
Even in the very beginning, it was there — a style. The clothes, the hair, and most of all, the sound — the clear, rounded tone from the most expressive of instruments, the trumpet. From the moment this skinny, intense, overly-serious son of a prominent dentist from East St. Louis sat in with Billy Eckstine’s…
Chaotic Order
Hey Suzy, I need help. I am not a person who regularly tends garden. In fact, I let my backyard vegetation do whatever it wants to do. Right now, it’s playing hide-the-various-raccoon-families. But recently, I was thinking that perhaps I, too — along with my pets — can enjoy the yard. My problem is the…
Naked City
`Tis the season for leadership changes in the Travis County Democratic and Republican parties. Actually, party members don’t cast their votes until March, but there’s plenty of talk swirling around about how the GOPs are fixin’ to gain momentum on the county front, starting with the Travis County Commissioners Court where all five seats are…
Benefits
FRI 12 Fancy Forties Gala w/an all-star lineup of local musicians to benefit Victory Grill, 1104 E. 11th, 8:30pm. Cost is $10. 474-4994. CD Release of La Buena Madera will be held Dec 12 & 13 to benefit the Teenage Parent Council of Austin, at Top of the Marc, 618 W. Sixth, 7:30pm. 472-3359. SAT…
Exhibitionism
A CHRISTMAS MEMORY: KINDLING OUR SENSE OF BEAUTY AND GOODNESS Zachary Scott Theatre Center, through December 28 Running Time: 45 min So much of Christmas lies in journeys — Mary and Joseph on the road to Bethlehem, the Magi following a star from the East, Santa flying across the face of the globe, the Grinch…
Recommended
edited by Christopher Gray SPIRITUALIZED, ACETONE Liberty Lunch, Saturday 13 This year didn’t give the music world much that wasn’t either a eulogy or catchy pop candy, which is why Spiritualized sticks out so blatantly. Their stunning Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space (Deadicated/Arista) is a harrowing journey into a cavernous world shrouded…
Rockin’ Scriptmas!
illustration by Robert Faires The scene is the cluttered workspace of a mild-mannered arts editor at a great metropolitan newsweekly. The editor, a balding, bespectacled boomer we shall call R., sits at his desk, hunched over a book of some kind, reading intently. Enter A., the freewheeling Gen X theatre critic. A: Shouldn’t you be…
Cultural Cross Pollination
photograph by Nathan Jensen It’s apparent from the moment the bass and drums mesh in the opening seconds of “Fisherman” that Lee Scratch Perry’s 20-year-old Heart of the Congos album is a masterpiece. The way Watty Burnett’s booming bass voice and Cedric Myton’s sweet soaring falsetto meld into a magically ethereal harmony routinely sends shivers…
Pages for Presents
To hell with checking lists twice — isn’t making them once enough? I know, I know… it is for the majority of the names on your gift-giving list, but one or two of those names always seem to elude just the right gift. My philosophy is: A book for everyone and everyone with a book.…
Road Shows
DECEMBER FRI 12 Jonathan Butler, Antone’s FRI 12 O’Jeez, Dave Pirner, Electric Lounge FRI 12 Block, Speakeasy FRI 12, SAT 13 Steve Forbert, Cactus Cafe SAT 13 Spiritualized, Acetone, Liberty Lunch SAT 13 PW Long’s Reelfoot, Boxcar Satan, Emo’s SAT 13 REO Speedealer, Bates Motel SAT 13 Fear & Whiskey, Hole in the Wall SUN…
International Condom Study Says Behavior Not Changing
Several years ago, the Student Health Center at UT made a study of risk behavior among returning students (freshmen, who we might assume to be more na�ve, were not included). The study found that almost everyone had basic AIDS awareness, i.e., what HIV is, transmission, and prevention. About four-fifths were sexually active, typically with multiple…
Kaplan Crunch
ACC teacher and tutor Gary Hillman photograph by Jana Birchum When word leaked out recently that Austin Community College President Richard Fonte was considering hiring Kaplan Educational Centers to help overhaul the college’s remedial studies curriculum, an understandable furor ensued. Rumors began to fly that secret deals were being cut and jobs were in danger…
Postscripts
Mixed Notes Before you run over to the Texas Center for Writers or call Random House thinking you might be able to obtain a $50,000 scholarship in the James A. Michener Memorial Prize, let me make a slight clarification to what I wrote last week about the establishment of that fund by Random House in…
Neighbors Know Best
illustration by Doug Potter “Neighborhoods Council” has such a heartwarming ring. Everybody can get behind it. What’s not to like about neighborhoods? You got your families, your parks, your friends, your churches, your businesses — all living in perfect harmony. But when you’re a member of a city council which has taken a blood oath…
Coach’s Corner
After a gloomy two-month death watch, a time shrouded in anger and negativity, an almost carnival-like atmosphere prevailed in the crowded Burnt Orange room last week as an unusually eclectic mob of bored secretaries, curious players, relieved, heavy-hitting boosters, a legendary ex-football coach, the odd Regent, a befuddled, blue haired lady who seemed completely lost,…
Inside Agitator
Twice a month Linda Curtis meets with local Reform Party members at a local restaurant to plot the bust-up of the two-party system. photograph by John Anderson Linda Curtis, professional activist, is an obnoxious loudmouth… when she wants to be. Like the time she showed up at former Councilmember Ronney Reynolds’ office to protest his…
Day Trips
photograph by Gerald E. McLeod At Tannenbaum Christmas Tree Farm between New Braunfels and Seguin, three generations of Vogels work on weekends between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Betty Vogel (far right) is helped by her grandson John Davis, daughter Peggy Davis, and granddaughter Chelsea Davis. The Vogels first planted a crop of Christmas trees in 1982,…
The Growth Word
Olga Garza, Kiker Elementary PTA president, on what used to be the school’s playground but now is home to 40 portable classrooms. If you weren’t informed of it, the aroma of prepubescent sweat would surely give it away. One of Kiker Elementary School’s 22 portable buildings is used as a “satellite” gymnasium — for tumbling,…
