Life of Brian
Life of Brian 1979, R, 93 min. Directed by Terry Jones, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Terry Jones, Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Michael Palin. Is it Christ or is it Brian? Only the Monty Python crew know for sure in this sacrilegious comedy designed to equally offend all practitioners…
Scrooged
Scrooged 1988, PG-13, 101 min. D: Richard Donner; with Bill Murray. Murray plays a hard-hearted TV executive who visits his past, present, and future Christmases, à la Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, and discovers the error of his ways with the help of a large coterie of cameo players.
Mr. Smarty Pants
Mosquitoes are attracted to stinky shoes.Researchers at McMaster University have found that women’s brains are more densely packed than men’s in the area responsible for reason, judgment, memory, and some emotion.Anti-Wahabbis in the Muslim world claim that the movement’s founder, Muhammad ibn ‘Abd alWahhab, was inspired by a British spy named Hempher to start the…
The Other Restaurant Row
Taqueria Arandinas 2110 E. Riverside, 244-2446 Sunday-Thursday, 7am-3am; Friday-Saturday, 7am-4am Although this little restaurant doesn’t look like much, it may be one of the more popular places along the East Riverside corridor, especially among the club crowd at closing time. Open until 3am on weekdays and 4am on weekends, Taqueria Arandinas generally buzzes with partiers,…
Phases and Stages
Jackson 5 Diana Ross Presents the Jackson 5/ABC (Motown)Jackson 5Third Album/Maybe Tomorrow (Motown)Jackson 5Goin’ Back to Indiana/Lookin’ Through the Windows (Motown)Jackson 5Skywriter/Get It Together (Motown)Jackson 5Dancing Machine/Moving Violation (Motown) Motown isn’t known for subtlety in handling the Jackson 5 catalog. After Thriller hit, Motown slapped new music on an old outtake and called it “Farewell…
The Hightower Lowdown
John Ashcroft goes on an imperious jihad; King George throws away our Constitution; and corporate greedheads profit from censorship.
After a Fashion
Our Style Avatar has a mystery date with a “gladiator” … or does he?
The Other Restaurant Row
China Express 1913 E. Riverside, 448-3633 Monday-Thursday, 11am-9:30pm; Saturday, 11:30am-10pm; Sunday, 11:30am-9:30pm China Express is next to the large bingo hall in the River Hills Shopping Center, and they offer a daily lunch buffet ($3.99 weekdays, $4.99 weekends) of somewhat limited scope (six entrées plus additional items). Limited or not, the crowds don’t seem to…
Phases and Stages
Bob Marley & the WailersExodus — Deluxe Edition (Island)Marvin GayeLet’s Get It On — Deluxe Edition (Motown)Marvin Gaye & Tammi TerrellThe Complete Duets (Motown)Rick JamesStreet Songs — Deluxe Edition (Motown)James BrownLive at the Apollo Volume II — Deluxe Edition (Polydor) Universal’s reissue arm is in full swing these days, stamping out a second batch of…
Brave New Web
In the wake of Sept. 11 and the hard-line USA Act, the Internet has become a very unfriendly place for hackers.
Day Trips
Rose’s Warda Store isn’t just the biggest store in town; it is the only store at the wide spot in U.S. 77 halfway between Giddings and LaGrange. The only choice for area residents, the combination cafe, convenience store, domino hall, and post office has developed a statewide reputation for their hearty “Wardaburgers” by mountain-bike riders…
The Other Restaurant Row
La Hacienda Market 2410 E. Riverside, 441-2984 Daily, 7am-9:30pm This friendly tienda is the newest grocery outlet on the south shore. When La Hacienda opened earlier this year, it became the fourth grocery store in the burgeoning neighborhood, joining HEB, Albertson’s, and the K & S Oriental Market. Other neighborhoods east of I-35 should be…
St. Michael’s Passion
St. Michael’s Academy is, for the moment, Austin’s only Catholic high school. But it’s not your parents’ Catholic school. The students wear no uniforms. There are no nuns whacking kids on the knuckles with rulers, nor any larger-than-life statues of the school’s namesake, the Archangel, casting Lucifer’s sorry butt out of heaven. Until last year,…
Crowe’s Feat
Actor Russell Crowe shows his new film, A Beautiful Mind, to friend and Governor Rick Perry.
To Your Health
I have heard about a “thrifty gene” that makes it easy to gain weight. Is it real? How would a person know if they carried this thrifty gene, and what could be done to keep from gaining weight if they do?
Food-o-file
Restaurant closings, openings, and happenings in this week’s “Food-o-File”
Creedmoor Need More
The city of Austin and the BSEACD are skeptical of Creedmoor-Maha’s request to triple its pumping limits.
Television Takes the Stage
Information artists How + Why promise that their show No Dead Air will “appeal to your demographic.”
About AIDS
Last September, King Mswati III of Swaziland ordered all young women to abstain from sex for five years to reduce the spread of HIV. Swaziland being an African culture, men were not ordered to be celibate, but having sex with a woman under age 18 would result in a fine of one cow, the country’s…
Holiday Wish Lists 2001
Despite gloomy predictions, latent Santas all over Austin will still perform their appointed rounds — especially those that help fellow humans. Smart Santas also know that the end of the calendar year is a fine time to unload some excess and qualify for some much-needed tax relief. We hope this list of Public Service Wish…
Seton’s Secrets
Seton HMO comes under fire for failing to report data that could be helpful to consumers.
Butt-Numb-a-Thon Roster
One of the 700 people Harry Knowles turned away for his third annual birthday bash cum 24-hour movie marathon, the Butt-Numb-a-Thon? Here’s what you missed at the shindig, held at the Alamo Drafthouse Downtown last Saturday: 1. Fiend Without a Face (1958) d. Arthur Crabtree 2. The Majestic (2001) d. Frank Darabont (intro video from…
Second Helpings: American Cafes
American cafes in this week’s “Second Helpings”
Coach’s Corner
Believe the hype. Longhorn freshman point guard T.J. Ford is something special — maybe the best player in UT basketball history.
Sweet Caroline
New face on the old-timey music scene: Caroline Herring
Letters of Intent
Possible rape victim Virginia Glore has found a champion in Charlotte Johnson.
Short Cuts
What Russell Crowe’s been smoking.
Heyd in Plain Sight
Austin painter Heyd Fontenot exposes more than himself in his new exhibition.
The Other Restaurant Row
The Food staff uncovers a burgeoning restaurant row on the South Shore.
Behind the Scenes
They’re not exactly famous, but onetime Austinites Buddy and Julie Miller make some of the most authentic country music around.
Compassionate Profiling
The Austin Police Department is helping John Ashcroft’s dragnet; critics say they may be violating state and city law in doing so.
TV Eye
Keeping one eye on television and the other on pop culture.
Being Mother Ginger
This year, Ballet Austin invited Kevin Connor to be one of its celebrity Mother Gingers in this year’s production of The Nutcracker, and the KGSR morning anchor learned firsthand what it’s like to be dolled up for a quickie in the Land of the Sugar Plum Fairy.
The Other Restaurant Row
Marisco’s Seafood Restaurant 1504 Town Creek Dr., 462-9119 Monday-Sunday, 11am-10pm Marisco’s Seafood Restaurant lives up to its name — a casual, family-run Mexican eatery that does a mean business in seafood. From your arrival at the restaurant, which anchors a rather unexciting strip mall complex, you know what’s in store. This Austin veteran, in business…
Dancing About Architecture
SXSW confirms a keynote speaker.
Naked City
U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett says he joined the 215-214 minority that voted against fast-track legislation partly because “every major environmental group [was] against this bill.” Doggett elaborated, “I am not against taking a fast track to more trade, but I am against denying Congress a steering wheel and a brake when the Administration takes the…
Video Reviews
Beautifully designed and illustrated, Lord of the Rings: The Boardgame proves challenging without being too difficult to enjoy.
Articulations
Terry Galloway keeps the Olympic flame alive.
The Other Restaurant Row
Taqueria Vallarta Jalisco 1644 E. Riverside, 444-9484 Sunday-Wednesday, 7am-2am; Thursday, 7am-3am; Saturday-Sunday, 7am-4am This newest addition to the Taqueria Vallarta family of restaurants took over an abandoned fast food joint early this year and announced itself with a Day-Glo orange paint job. While the paint job may be the first thing to get your attention,…
The Touring Syndrome
Every little bit helps, they say, and even as simple a thing as a catchy tour name can help bring an audience. This week, “Dancing” suggests a few bands that should get together to create a potentially interesting double (or triple) bill. For instance, Dallas rappers Boss paired with Houston blues band the Tweeds would…
Naked City
No more Maxey in the state House
Video Reviews
It’s not high art, but Black Christmas is a spare, efficient fright flick.
Exhibitionism
Reeling frenetically from song to show-biz anecdote to soap dialogue and back, like Judy Garland on a speed jag, with its star channeling everyone from Bette Davis and Phyllis Diller to Ethel Merman and Joan Crawford, Lypsinka! The Boxed Set is a hoot, a joyride through a neighborhood of tacky mansions haunted by grande dames…
The Other Restaurant Row
K & S Oriental Market 1729 E. Riverside, 445-7458 Monday-Thursday, 10am-9pm; Friday-Saturday, 9am-9pm; Sunday, 10am-9pm K. J. Yoon started K & S at this location 22 years ago, and they have a fine selection of Japanese and Korean (with a nice representation of Thai and Chinese) foodstuffs and products. Most importantly, they are the only…
Think Local, Buy Bazaar
Yep, it’s time for the 12 Days of Christmas once again, which means the Armadillo Christmas Bazaar is up and running at the Austin Music Hall come today (Thursday), and with the gift-buyin’ comes music-playin’ as well. Here’s a clip-and-save list for the whole ‘dillo season, with music running 8-11pm each night, except on weekends.…
Naked City
Curtis gets political
Fat Girl
Fat Girl 2001, NR, 83 min. Directed by Catherine Breillat, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Anaïs Reboux, Roxane Mesquida, Libero De Rienzo, Arsinée Khanjian, Albert Goldberg. Words like “feminist” and “provocative” are frequently bandied about when talking about French filmmaker Catherine Breillat, a writer and director who has built a career around the…
Exhibitionism
The State Theater Company’s production of the musical The Gifts of the Magi, based on stories by O. Henry, features some appealing design work and polished performances, but they can’t overcome the show’s generic music and trite dialogue.
The Other Restaurant Row
Janitzio 1422 Town Creek Dr., 442-6275 Monday-Sunday, 7am-1am Although it’s located in a shopping-center parking lot just across I-35, a meal at Janitzio feels like a trip across the border. This cozy little place has the air of a neighborhood hangout, complete with a serve-yourself paletas icebox, a variety of fruit liquados, and a chiller…
Phases and Stages
The Langley Schools Music Project Innocence & Despair (Bar/None) As a child of the Seventies, it’s hard listening to this album and not wanting to recast yourself as a student in Hans Fenger’s elementary school music class. Recorded with two microphones at a rural British Columbia school gym in 1976-77, Innocence & Despair pits enthusiastic…
Naked City
The city’s new police review panel isn’t as apolitical as it was supposed to be.
ABCD
ABCD 2000, NR, 106 min. Directed by Krutin Patel, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Rex Young, Adrianne Erdos, Aasif Mandvi, Faran Tahir, Sheetal Sheth, Madhur Joffrey. Like many films by modern Indian and Indian-born directors, ABCD (an acronym for American-Born Confused Desi) dramatizes the conflicts between traditional and Western concepts of family life…
A Sense of Place
The focus on regional studies at Southwest Texas State University pays off with a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The Other Restaurant Row
Baby Acapulco 1705 Lakeshore, 447-1339 Monday-Friday, 11am-midnight; Sunday, 11am-11pm Like its cousins across town, Baby Acapulco on Lakeshore, one of three locations of this family-run Austin institution, pours a potent award-winning margarita that can hold its own against the restaurant’s fiery Tex-Mex and Mex-Mex creations. Founded in 1981, Baby Acapulco is still going strong, serving…
Phases and Stages
Liliput(Kleenex/Kill Rock Stars) Someone ever save your life tonight, Sugar Bear? Only to disappear in the night, leaving you sated, fulfilled, yet drenched and terribly confused? Well, finding an early-Eighties Liliput single — let alone an album, let alone a hint of their baby days as the pre-Eighties, Swiss-punk pop band Kleenex — was a…
Naked City
The city’s new police review panel isn’t as apolitical as it was supposed to be.
Habana Viejo
Two photography books recall a city that has fallen apart.
The Other Restaurant Row
Ta Lai Chinese Restaurant 2007-G E. Riverside, 447-1520 Monday-Thursday, 11am-2:30pm, 5-10pm; Friday, 11am-2:30pm, 5-10:30pm; Saturday, 11:30am-10:30pm; Sunday, 11:30am-10pm Ta Lai has been open since 1977; their restaurant on Riverside can be found in Rivertowne Mall (close to the Back Room). Ta Lai is authentically decorated, dark, and cozy, with service that is pleasant, friendly, and…
Phases and Stages
XLos Angeles (Slash/Rhino) X Wild Gift (Slash/Rhino)X Under the Big Black Sun (Elektra/Rhino) Onstage circa 1980, the band X was quite a sight. Blond guitarist Billy Zoom stood stage right, legs spread, only moving his fingers, with a broad smile that never left his face. At the center was Exene. You just knew she was…
Naked City
Local campaign encourages Austinites to buy. But what if we don’t have any money?
Postscripts
Photojournalist Shepard Sherbell’s visual record of the end of the USSR and Gerald Duff’s new novel set on the Gulf Coast
The Other Restaurant Row
Al Pastor Restaurant 1911 E. Riverside, 442-8402 Monday-Thursday, 8am-4pm; Friday-Sunday, 8am-10pm Taco stand hours, Friday-Saturday, 6pm-3:30am Al Pastor has been the anchor tenant in a small Hispanic strip mall in the 1900 block of East Riverside for almost a decade. Its neighbors are the very popular Club Latino, a bridal shop, a cleaners, a jewelry…
Phases and Stages
Omar & the HowlersHard Times in the Land of Plenty (Austin)Omar & the HowlersWall of Pride (Austin) “Some people have, some people have not,” belts out Kent “Omar” Dykes’ gravelly baritone on the title tune of his reissued 1987 call of the wild, Hard Times in the Land of Plenty. That’s a disconcertingly apropos image…
Naked City
Statesman Editor Rich Oppel denounces slavery in the Sudan, but overlooks the terrorism wrought there by his own government. As Church Lady would say, “How Conveeenient.”
Vanilla Sky
Vanilla Sky 2001, R, 136 min. Directed by Cameron Crowe, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Tilda Swinton, Timothy Spall, Noah Taylor, Kurt Russell, Jason Lee, Cameron Diaz, Penélope Cruz, Tom Cruise. When I first heard that Cameron Crowe was planning a remake of Alejandro Amenábar’s 1997 film Abre los Ojos (Open Your Eyes),…
Page Two
Last week’s Pearl Harbor / Gift Guide cover draws fire.
The Other Restaurant Row
Los Comales 2110 E. Riverside, 442-7279 Sunday-Thursday, 10am-10pm; Friday-Saturday, 10am-midnight What this plain little strip mall joint lacks in atmosphere, it compensates for in culinary competence. Grilled and stewed meats are what this Norteño-influenced restaurant does the best. Well-seasoned steaks such as their Tampiquena Ribeye ($9, served with an enchilada, rice, beans, and guacamole), Carne…
Phases and Stages
Spencer Davis GroupI’m a Man (Sundazed)Spencer Davis GroupGimme Some Lovin’ (Sundazed) The mid-Sixties were the years of the British Invasion, with armies of bands falling in step with the Beatles and Stones and playing raunchy R&B-based pop and rock. The Spencer Davis Group always seems to get lost in the sauce when that era comes…
Naked City
“Bush to Unilaterally Withdraw U.S. From 1972 [Anti-Ballistic Missile] Treaty” (Associated Press, Dec. 11), “Fearful Americans Shun Liberties Lobby” (Philadelphia Inquirer, Dec. 10), “Critics Aid Terrorists, AG Argues” (Boston Globe, Dec. 7), “USDA Halts Clementine Imports” (Baltimore Sun, Dec.7), “Little Sense in Setting Fuel-Efficiency Targets” (New York Times, Dec. 6), “House Approves Broad Presidential Trade…
Not Another Teen Movie
Not Another Teen Movie 2001, R, 82 min. Directed by Joel Gallen, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Randy Quaid, Lacey Chabert, Samm Levine, Cody Mcmains, Ron Lester, Eric Jungmann, Deon Richmond, Eric Christian Olsen, Mia Kirshner, Jaime Pressly, Chris Evans, Chyler Leigh. Hard on the heels of the teen-movie craze of 1999 arrives…
Letters at 3AM
The Bush White House is mounting the most sustained and successful attack on the Constitution in America’s history and not enough of us are willing to say it publicly.
The Other Restaurant Row
China Garden Super Buffet 1717 S. Pleasant Valley #280, 385-858 Monday-Friday, 11am-10pm; Saturday, noon-10pm; Sunday, noon-9pm China Garden has the most sumptuous (and most expensive) buffet on the E. Riverside strip. The space is bright and open, and the service punctual. The buffet sells for $5.75 for lunch during the week ($6.50 weekend) and at…
Phases and Stages
Judas PriestSin After Sin (Columbia Legacy)Judas PriestStained Class (Columbia Legacy)Judas PriestHell Bent for Leather (Columbia Legacy)Judas PriestUnleashed in the East (Columbia Legacy) There’s nothing better than classic Priest for burnin’ it up down the motor mile, and Columbia Legacy has unleashed phase two of the label’s Priest reissue campaign, the treatment consisting of remastering, expanded…
Austin @ Large: Austin at Large: No Free Lunch
If you want good candidates, you’re going to have to pay for them.
