Cover Story
Dialing for Dollar$
Austin radio stations scramble to keep the money flowing in a strange new media world
See Grace Fly
See Grace Fly 2003, NR, 91 min. Directed by Pete McCormack, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Gina Chiarelli, Paul McGillion, Benjamin Ratner, Jennifer Copping. Not reviewed at press time. A debut feature by a Canadian filmmaker, See Grace Fly tells the story of a religious woman who is beset by schizophrenia. Gina Chiarelli…
‘ESPN NBA 2K5’ vs. ‘NBA Live 2005’
In the contest between rival basketball games ESPN NBA 2K5 and NBA Live 2005, things are as lopsided as a San Antonio Spurs-Chicago Bulls tilt. San Antonio (NBA Live 2005) by 20. Much like the Bulls, Sega’s NBA 2K-whatever franchise was in the past a mighty contender, but oh, how the mighty do fall. Once…
Big Books: Part 3
Flowers: The Complete Book of Floral Design by Paula Pryke, with photography by Kevin Summers Rizzoli, 265 pp., $45 There are a few florists in town whose stunning flower arrangements literally chew the scenery at a party, stealing guests’ attention away from attractions they’re meant to enhance: the buffet, the guest of honor, the hosts.…
Cookbooks
Wine Spectator’s Ultimate Guide to Buying Wine (Eighth Edition)Running Press, 1,006 pp., $29.95The Wine Spectator’s Ultimate Wine Tasting KitRunning Press, $39.95 Wine Spectator has such an important place in the world of wine that they can make or break a winery with a simple score. All that power makes them a convenient target for industry…
Reissues
The Go-BetweensLiberty Belle and the Black Diamond Express (Jetset)The Go-BetweensTallulah (Jetset)The Go-Betweens16 Lovers Lane (Jetset) If Grant McLennan and Robert Forster have lost a step and half-step on 2000’s The Friends of Rachel Worth and 2003’s Bright Yellow Bright Orange, their recombination has only reinvigorated the Go-Betweens brand. Brisbane, Australia’s rootsy pure pop hops are…
The Skinny on Satellite
Subscriptions to either XM Radio or Sirius run from $9.95 to $12.95 a month; XM offers multiple-year discounts, while Sirius offers one flat fee (around $500) for a lifetime subscription. Receivers are sold separately, including a variety of sat-radio receivers for use in the car, at home, or with a sat-radio-ready boom box. XM’s line…
Naked City
An early Christmas present for educational technology vendors?
DVDs: Part 3
California SplitColumbia Tristar Home Video, $24.95 With Short Cuts, The Company, and 3 Women recently released on DVD, any Altman fans on your gift list could experience a winning streak this holiday, but the arrival of California Split marks the real jackpot. Personally, I’d rate it among his very best, up there with McCabe &…
Big Books: Part 3
Vice Dos & Don’ts: 10 Years of Vice Magazine’s Street Fashion Critiquesby Gavin McInnes, Shane Smith, Suroosh Alvi Warner Books, 272 pp., $17.95 (paper) Based on the remarkably simple premise that people like to make fun of other people, especially strangers, this 10-year anthology of the eponymous magazine’s infamous section is composed of candid street…
Cookbooks
Foods of the Americas: Native Recipes and Traditions by Fernando & Marlene Divina Ten Speed Press, 208 pp., $39.95 Released by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian as a tribute to the Native contribution to American cuisine, Foods of the Americas compiles recipes representing tribes and communities from all regions of the Americas.…
Reissues
Bobby DarinAces Back to Back! (Hyena) ‘Tis the season for Bobby Darin. One of several products concurrent with Kevin Spacey’s new biopic of the crooner, Aces Back to Back isn’t the place for Darin neophytes to start. That said, this piecemeal CD/DVD is a fascinating and sometimes dazzling souvenir of Darin’s final years. The majority…
91.7: No Satellite Here
She prefers her radio like her tomatoes: locally grown
Naked City
Austin Jockey Club lines up high-power Capitol friends
DVDs: Part 3
Home Movies: Season One Shout! Factory, $34.99 “I was fortunate to do Dr. Katz, before,” says Jon Benjamin, leaning back in his chair, during an interview on disc three of this Cartoon Network series’ first-season set. He’s referring to Comedy Central’s squiggly revelation of the Nineties, the one starring comedian Jonathan Katz as an ineffective…
Big Books: Part 3
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke Bloomsbury, 780 pp., $27.95 This bestselling behemoth posits what Regency-era England, the same period of the Napoleonic wars and thousands of romance novels, would have been like if humans had the ability to conjure faeries, raise the dead, summon ghost armies, and travel into the kingdom of…
Cookbooks
Vanilla: A Cultural History of the World’s Favorite Flavor & Fragranceby Patricia Rain Tarcher, 372 pp., $22.95 Just about everyone instantly recognizes the flavor and aroma of vanilla, but most people don’t realize that natural vanilla comes from the fruit of a climbing orchid, or that it has recently surpassed saffron as the world’s most…
Reissues
Jeff BuckleyGrace: Legacy Edition (Sony) Jeff Buckley’s relationship to music wasn’t a casual love affair, but rather an all-encompassing obsession that probably made the 30-year-old musician a difficult person to be around before he drowned in 1997. That passion blankets his only proper studio album, Grace, which showcased Buckley’s ear for epic, lush arrangements and…
Water Gushes Forth From LCRA
The utility wastes no time inking deals to moisten Hill Country sprawl
Naked City
City rolls out its ambitious 10-year plan to end chronic homelessness
Games: Part 2
Holiday gift guide
Big Books: Part 3
John James Audubon: The Making of an Americanby Richard Rhodes Knopf, 528 pp., $30 The bastard son of a French naval officer and a chambermaid … draft dodger … a doodler since childhood … perennially broke until his first big break … supported by his superdevoted wife, Lucy, especially when he was off on one…
Cookbooks
Central Market Cooksedited by Mary Cummings & Jane Hinshaw H.E. Butt Grocery Company & Favorite Recipe Press, 192 pp., $24.95 For some of us now completely spoiled, it’s hard to remember what grocery shopping was like BCM (before Central Market). Did we really not know what a fingerling was? Were fresh shittakes really not always…
Reissues
Nick DrakeMade to Love Magic (Island) Like Jeff Buckley, UK folk martyr Nick Drake was barely a blip on the pop-culture radar when he died in 1974 at the age of 26. Nevertheless, his desolate influence has infiltrated the work of contemporary artists like Elliott Smith and Josh Ritter, not to mention the wallets of…
Johnston Tensions Land in Court
Transferred Johnston High School teacher sues Austin ISD
The DA Makes a Deal
They stole the Lege – will we get more in return than a sermon?
Games: Part 2
Call of Duty: Finest HourPlayStation2, Xbox, and GameCube Activision, $48 The PC-based hit has now migrated onto console format, and it’s yet another World War II-themed first-person shooter. In Finest Hour, you fight with the Russian, British, and American armies, which allows for a wide array of settings and scenarios, including sniper fire, tank battles,…
Big Books: Part 3
Audible.com For anyone vacillating between the uninspired but sure-to-please gift certificate and the thoughtful book that may never get read, there is now a happy medium to be found at Audible.com, a Web site that allows you to buy audio books for downloading to a computer, burning onto a CD, or transferring to an iPod…
Cookbooks
Bruce Aidells’s Complete Book of Pork: A Guide to Buying, Storing, and Cooking the World’s Favorite Meatby Bruce Aidells with Lisa Weiss HarperCollins, 338 pp., $29.95 Bruce Aidells has earned his title as the American master of meat, crafting nine previous cookbooks on the subject as owner/chef of the famous Aidells Sausage Company. With his…
Reissues
George Jones50 Years of Hits (Bandit) In a year where a no-talent like Kenny Chesney was awarded Entertainer of the Year at the Country Music Awards and goofballs Big & Rich attempted to unite rap and country with a nasty guffaw, it’s heartening to troll through the 3-CD 50 Years of Hits. Like the liner…
Shareholders Swallow Schlotzsky’s Meal Deal
Fire sale leaves sandwich-chain investors with an empty plate
Austin @ Large: Money for Love
We all kind of knew this already, but now it’s official: Freescale Semiconductor, the now-all-grown-up and spun-off former Motorola chip division, is seeking “substantial” incentives to keep the corporate headquarters here in Austin. “Substantial” as in the biggest Austin incentive package ever, reports the Statesman. (Although it’s best not to take the daily’s assessments at…
Games: Part 2
ESPN NBA 2K5PlayStation2, Xbox, Sega, $19.99 NBA LIVE 2005PlayStation2, Xbox, GameCube EA Sports, $49.99 In the contest between rival basketball games ESPN NBA 2K5 and NBA Live 2005, things are as lopsided as a San Antonio Spurs-Chicago Bulls tilt. San Antonio (NBA Live 2005) by 20. Much like the Bulls, Sega’s NBA 2K-whatever franchise was…
TCB
Assessing 2004, local club owners break into a chorus of ‘Staying Alive.’ If only Dimebag Darrell had.
Big Books: Part 3
This panel from the Peanuts comic strip of Dec. 17, 1954 – whose promise we’re not responsible for – is collected in Fantagraphics’ 650-page-long smile, The Complete Peanuts: 1950-1954 box set ($49.95). After iPods, PlayStations (see p.60), gift certificates to Canadian pharmaceutical Web sites, and the 7-disc History of Soccer on DVD (see p.57), it…
Cookbooks
The Ultimate Bar/Bat Mitzvah Celebration Book: A Guide to Inspiring Ceremonies and Joyous Festivitiesby Jayne Cohen & Lori Weinrott Clarkson Potter Publishers, 288 pp., $18 (paper) One would think this book would be the answer to every Jewish parent’s prayer, so to speak, and one would be correct! A two-time veteran of this process myself,…
Reissues
The Centennial Collection The primary reason for purchasing any of the six titles in Bluebird/BMG’s Centennial Collection is the DVD half of these two-disc sets. That’s not to say that the music by these half-dozen influential jazz and popular artists – three of whom have centennial birth dates this year – isn’t enjoyable and/or important,…
Where the Dope Don’t Grow
Feds turn down application for research-marijuana cultivation project
The Hightower Report
Governments won’t support local business, so we have to; and ‘Support Our Troops’ – and their families – must be more than rhetoric
Games: Part 2
Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate EventsPlayStation2, Xbox, GameCube Activision, $39.99 On the front of the new Lemony Snicket video game, a promotional tie-in to the upcoming movie, there is a big “E,” which stands for “everyone,” meaning the people for whom the game is suitable. It’s a lie. This game is clearly for little…
In the Moment
Ann Hampton Callaway takes things ‘Slow,’ but she’s more alive live than ever
Page Two
A series of shifts: Mike Clark-Madison departs, our redesign winds up, and ‘Page Two’ tries to find joy while democracy crumbles
Cookbooks
The Sweet Potato Queens’ Field Guide to Men by Jill Conner Browne Three Rivers Press, 241 pp., $13.95 Regardless of whether or not Jill Conner Browne really is the down-to-earth, approachable character who appears in her books, the Field Guide generates giggles, snickers, and outright belly laughs. The book is filled with pithy observations about…
Reissues
The Jerry Garcia BandAfter Midnight Kean College, 2/28/80 (Rhino) When the Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia wasn’t serving as spiritual icon for the counterculture, he was more than likely on tour with his side project, the Jerry Garcia Band. Evolving out of early Seventies collaborations with keyboardist and fellow Bay area dweller Merle Saunders that included…
For the Activist Who Has Everything
Useless political gifts for the holiday season
Games: Part 2
Grand Theft Auto: San AndreasPlayStation2 Rockstar, $49.99 In this latest fantastically twisted and addictive installment of GTA, you are Carl Johnson, a man forced to return to his old neighborhood of Los Santos to keep his family from falling apart. Framed for murder by corrupt cops from the larger metropolis of San Andreas, you set…
Between the Lions
‘The Play of Daniel’ revives the biblical prophet just in time for … Christmas?
After a Fashion
WORDS OF THE WEEK “Call me old-fashioned, but nothing says I love you, like a big, old rock!” answered Catherine Zeta-Jones when asked by Brad Pitt what to buy his wife Jennifer Aniston for their anniversary. CELEB-A-THON It is a sad state of affairs in the star game these days. It just doesn’t matter anymore.…
Food-o-File
My fondness for community cookbooks is well known, and I’ve just received two that I can recommend for holiday gift-giving; plus, holiday tamales!
Reissues
Johnny WinterSecond Winter: Legacy Edition (Columbia/Legacy) Originally released in 1969 as a three-sided double LP – yes, the fourth side was blank – Second Winter is a blues landmark of the era. Less psychedelic than what passed for blues-rock at the time, i.e., Hendrix and Cream, it’s referred to as “power blues” by Austin bassist…
Many Unanswered Questions in Officers’ Deaths
A fatal motorcycle accident was preceded by a long afternoon of barhopping
DVDs: Part 3
History of Soccer: The Beautiful GameFremantle Media for Shout! Factory, $99.98 You can count on one hand (okay, maybe one finger) the number of sports documentaries that have had much appeal outside the pre-existing fan base. And, okay, this is no Olympia. It is what it says, and if you have absolutely no interest in…
In Print
�By the whole equation,� David Thomson dares, aiming at nothing less than to set forth a single-volume history of Hollywood filmmaking in its entirety in under 400 pages, �I mean not just the history of American movies, but America in the time of movies�
Hark! The Herald Organ Sings
New UT faculty members and exceptional organists Gerre and Judith Hancock give the mighty Visser- Rowland organ a workout with their own holiday concert
About AIDS
The holiday season is upon us, and we are all likely to indulge in unfamiliar food and drink and perhaps even travel a bit. For those with HIV, some simple precautions can keep the season from becoming “The Nightmare Before Christmas!” ° Don’t forget to take your meds! Erratic or disrupted schedules – typical both…
Reissues
WireWire on the Box: 1979 (Pink Flag) After chopping punk rock down to its artsy bones on 1977’s scalding Pink Flag, Wire went in the other direction on the following year’s Chairs Missing, adding sinew, gristle, and melody, building unexpected sonic layers from the ground up. Wire on the Box: 1979, the first in a…
Abstinence Makes the Head Grow Softer
A new report finds that federally funded abstinence-only educations contains “false, misleading, or distorted information about reproductive health.”
DVDs: Part 3
L’Age D’OrKino International, $24.95 Un Chien Andalou Facets Video, $19.95 Perhaps it was lying in wait for DVD all along. Could any film be more agreeably hostile to a scholarly commentary track than Luis Buñuel’s L’Age D’Or? Pity Robert Short (author, The Age of Gold: Surrealist Cinema), who knowingly walks into this ambush: One can’t…
Red Alert
If any further proof were needed that some Americans are sorely lacking a sense of humor these days – and we’re not talking about Ralph Nader’s people here, either – local short-film mavens and multimedia content providers the Late Train (www.thelatetrain.com) have got it in spades. The company’s broadly humorous microfilm “What’s the Story?,” which…
Art Park
For four ephemeral hours on Saturday, Dec. 11, Wooldridge Park was transformed into a giant sculpture
To Your Health
What new discoveries are there in regards to vitamin B-12?
Reissues
PavementCrooked Rain Crooked Rain: L.A.’s Desert Origins (Matador) 1994’s Crooked Rain Crooked Rain crystallizes a time when bands could get by just fine playing for beer money and sleeping on floors, just before the alternative revolution turned this world inside out. It brushed Pavement up against the mainstream – the first and only time they…
Reissues
Sigur RósVon (One Little Indian) Before the new millennial grandeur of Ágaetis Byrjun and follow-up glacial glyph ( ), Icelandic rocket scientists Sigur Rós convened on the 12th moon of Cygnus X-1 for an exorcism. Von was hatched. The year: 1997. Jón Thór Birgisson’s “Hopelandish” coos and cries haven’t yet steered the ship toward his…
Naked City
Headlines and happenings from Austin and beyond
DVDs: Part 3
Pee-wee’s Playhouse #1 (seasons 1 & 2) and #2 (seasons 3-5)Image Entertainment, $49.99 each Pee-wee’s Playhouse Christmas SpecialImage Entertainment, $14.99 Before the indecent exposure, Blow, and that Elton John video, there was no Paul Reubens – there was only Pee-wee Herman. That man-child who had every kid’s dream house: no parents, toys everywhere, friends streaming…
CongratuSnizzles!
Austin-based NCsoft’s City of Heroes – already named “PC or Console Game of the Year” by Billboard Magazine – won Best Massively Multi-Player Game at Tuesday’s Spike TV Video Game Awards, hosted by Snoop Dogg. The groundbreaking game, recently released in a collector’s DVD edition ($49.99), was also nominated for Most Addictive.
Arts Review
Two rather different versions of ‘A Christmas Carol’ illustrate the power still to be tapped from Charles Dickens’ ghostly little book
The Common Law
Basketbrawl – Self Defense in Texas
Reissues
The KinksAre the Village Green Preservation Society (Sanctuary) When the rest of rock & roll had sympathy for the devil, the Kinks were asking God to save “china cups and virginity.” In 1968, Electric Ladyland and Beggars Banquet amped toward burning guitars and Altamont, but Ray Davies turned away from the power chords of “You…
Reissues
Brian EnoDiscreet Music (Virgin/Astralwerks)Brian EnoAmbient 1: Music for Airports (Virgin/Astralwerks)Harold Budd & Brian EnoAmbient 2: The Plateaux of Mirror (Virgin/Astralwerks)Brian EnoAmbient 4: On Land (Virgin/Astralwerks) It’s difficult to gauge music that is, by Brian Eno’s own definition, as “ignorable as it is interesting.” Yet with the proper balance and ear, the straddling of ambient music’s…
Naked City
“Rumor mill runs amok” over plans for old post office building
DVDs: Part 3
The Avengers: The Complete Emma Peel MegasetA&E Entertainment, $199.99 Sixteen digitally remastered discs, 51 episodes, and just under 50 hours of the luscious Dame Diana Rigg as haute couture über-babe Emma Peel, judo-chopping her way through Christopher Lee, the living dead, and plenty of poncey Eastern Bloc baddies. (Look! It’s Donald Sutherland!) It’s a delirious…
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Sing-Along
The Alamo Drafthouse Downtown’s (409 Colorado, 476-1320, www.originalalamo.com) Buffy the Vampire Slayer Sing-Along – featuring the episodes “Hush” and “Once More With Feeling,” as well as trivia, treats, and drinking games – has been held over for two more shows tonight, Friday, Dec. 17, 7 and 9:45pm.
Big Books: Part 3
From Terry Gross to everything you�d ever need to know about trees, from flowers to Vice, from Jonathan Strange and Ranger Ray, from Audubon to Audible.com: one last holiday gift guide gasp.
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Weight Watchers, Teflon, Jacqueline Kennedy, and the average house
Reissues
The AvengersThe American in Me (DBK Works)Penelope Houston with Pat Johnson The Pale Green Girl (DBK Works) Key figures in the development of left-coast punk, the Avengers’ take-no-prisoners template rings loud and clear in Penelope Houston’s brash vocals, emulated by spiritual descendants like Kathleen Hanna. Unfortunately, the San Francisco quartet left little recorded history. The…
Reissues
46664: The Event Realizing his towering influence was needed to counteract the devastating effects of HIV/AIDS, Nelson Mandela asked the Eurythmics’ David Stewart to use 46664 – the prison number South Africa’s apartheid government tried unsuccessfully for 20 years to reduce Mandela to – for a new global initiative to counteract the tragedy. Killing more…
Naked City
Progressives of faith gather for loyal-opposition pep talk
DVDs: Part 3
Dead or Alive: TrilogyKino International, $49.95 United neither in tone nor plot, but instead in personality and audacity, the Dead or Alive trilogy is a celebration of V-Cinema, the direct to video action-genre where Takashi Miike cut his teeth (and several unfortunates’ jugulars). Casting V heavyweights Riki Takeuchi and Sho Aikawa as yakuza and cop…
TV Eye
No more Moyers – now what’ll we do for news?
Big Books: Part 3
Untamed by Steve Bloom Abrams, 424 pp., $55 Tree: A New Vision of the American Forest by James Balog Barnes & Noble, 160 pp., $50 Pimping nature photos in the name of environmentalism can be a dicey exercise, what with the perils of off-putting piousness and awkward futility and perhaps the superficial irony that such…
Day Trips
The Outdoor Art Museum reproduces some of the most famous works of the art world on the walls of the little town of Eastland
Reissues
CanMonster Movie (Spoon/Mute)CanSoundtracks (Spoon/Mute)CanTago-Mago (Spoon/Mute)CanEge Bamyasi (Spoon/Mute) Hearing the primal, Oedipal utterings of Malcolm Mooney, it’s easy to imagine the onstage nervous breakdown that led to the singer’s exiting Can after only one album. 1969’s Monster Movie is a razor-sharp, frenzied assault that stands as Can’s most typically rock & roll work in a career…
Naked City
But Clear Channel, Fox News deal won’t affect Austin stations
DVDs: Part 3
MCriterion Collection, $39.95 Before Jaws announced himself with a Great White “nuh-nuh,” before Norman Bates signaled danger with his shrieking-strings knife slash, there was Peter Lorre whistling Grieg’s Peer Gynt as prelude to a murder. In Fritz Lang’s first sound film, the masterful M, we hear the whistle before we see the man, see his…
Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events
Thankfully, the dark tone of the beloved childrens books is carried over to the screen, and the terrific performances and production design provide extra lift.
Big Books: Part 3
All I Did Was Ask: Conversations With Writers, Actors, Musicians, and Artistsby Terry Gross Hyperion, 353 pp., $24.95 It’s hard to imagine why you’d want to read Terry Gross’ new book when you can listen to her show instead. Gross’ voice alone, with its distinct combination of distance and intimacy and neutrality and curiosity, is…
Soccer Watch
Indiana prevails, and a long winter’s nap for international play
Reissues
The ClashLondon Calling: 25th Anniversary Legacy Edition (Epic) When it comes to crafting a career-making, era-defining rock masterpiece, an album Rolling Stone called the best of the Eighties despite its November 1979 release, it helps to hire a complete maniac as producer. Such was the case when the Clash, at loose ends after the tight…
Who Owns What?
Of Austin’s 24 commercial radio stations, 16 are owned by just three media chains, including all of the top 10 most popular stations in the key 18-54 demographic.Clear Channel CommunicationsKHFI 96.7FM (Kiss FM) KVET 98.1FM KASE 100.7FM KPEZ 102.3FM (World Class Rock) KFMK 105.9FM (Jammin’) KVET 1300AM (The Zone)Emmis CommunicationsKDHT 93.3FM (Hot 93.3) KLBJ 93.7FM…
Naked City
Redesign effort wins praise from high-school community
DVDs: Part 3
Mr. Show: The Complete Fourth Season Warner Home Video, $34.99 Trying to describe the appeal of Mr. Show is difficult. Like their mentors Monty Python, Mr. Show is skilled at taking an absurd situation and making it hilariously absurd. In the previous three seasons, the humor was memorable, guffaw-worthy, and smart. In the fourth and…
Spanglish
The venerable filmmaker James L. Brooks stumbles badly with his new dramedy starring Adam Sandler and Téa Leoni.
Big Books: Part 3
Cutty, One Rock: Low Characters and Strange Places, Gently Explainedby August Kleinzahler Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 168 pp., $19 August Kleinzahler is an award-winning poet, but he does something astonishing in this book of nine autobiographical essays: He takes the form and makes it seem his own invention. The slender volume documents Kleinzahler’s life from…
Reissues
MinistryEarly Trax (Rykodisc)MinistrySide Trax (Rykodisc) It’s easy to drop a pencil on post-punk’s ground zero, where heavy metal met disco, and draw a line outward: Almost any trajectory will take you to a Ministry project. That’s the point of Rykodisc’s Early Trax, a compilation of the band’s Eighties-era 12-inch singles. The brainchild of Cuban-born, Chicago-based…
Top 10 Stations
(Adults 18-54, Arbitron*/Summer ’04) 1) KASE-FM (country): Clear Channel 2) KDHT-FM (Hot 93.3): Emmis 3) KKMJ-FM (Majic 95.5): Infinity 4) KLBJ-AM (news-talk): Emmis 5) KVET-FM (country): Clear Channel 6) KAMX-FM (The Mix): Infinity 7) KBPA-FM (Bob) (tie): Emmis 7) KGSR-FM (adult alternative): Emmis 9) KHFI-FM (Kiss): Clear Channel 10) KPEZ-FM (World Class Rock): Clear Channel…
Naked City
Restless, bored policymakers pay little attention to Sal Costello
DVDs: Part 3
The Complete Monty Python’s Flying Circus MegasetA&E Entertainment, $199.95 And now for something completely familiar. Return with us to those halcyon days when you were 11 and alienated your peers via regularly unscheduled in-school performances of “The Ministry of Silly Walks,” “The Spanish Inquisition” (nobody expects it, you see), and, god help you, “Spam, Spam,…
Flight of the Phoenix
Sticking closely to the tone of its predecessor, this remake of Robert Aldrich’s 1965 adventure film lacks the tang of the original, and trades the late-vintage Jimmy Stewart for the shirtless Dennis Quaid.
Big Books: Part 3
They Call Me Ranger Ray: From the UT Tower Sniper to Corruption in South Texasby Ramiro “Ray” Martinez Rio Bravo Publishing, 266 pp., $26 I was in my fourth-grade class the afternoon we heard that JFK had been assassinated in Dallas, and I was watching TV at home the day that deranged ex-Marine sharpshooter Charles…
Cookbooks
The Pat Conroy Cookbook: Recipes of My Life by Pat Conroy with Suzanne Williamson Pollak Doubleday, 263 pp., $26 I’ve been a devoted fan of Pat Conroy’s fiction since being inspired by The Water Is Wide while I was studying elementary education at UT many years ago. As I devoured each eagerly awaited book, I…
Reissues
Mark SandmanSandbox (Kufala) Most people remember Mark Sandman from his days with low-rock band Morphine, although he was also a major part of Eighties blues roots rockers Treat Her Right. When Sandman died in 1999 of a heart attack while onstage in Rome at the age of 46, he left a huge hole in the…
My Satellite Radio Jones
I love all radio, but my heart belongs to satellite
Naked City
Anarchist collective scores federal grant to clean up Eastside brownfield
DVDs: Part 3
Dr. Strangelove (Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb): 40th Anniversary Special EditionColumbia Tristar Home Video, $34.95 Forty years later, Stanley Kubrick’s world-annihilation satire might be the most relevant classic we have. Such a mantra is reiterated by such politicians and cinephiles as Bob Woodward, Roger Ebert, Spike Lee – who,…
Brother to Brother
A festival favorite jumps to the big screen with its story that compares and contrasts life as a gay black man in the present day and the Harlem Renaissance.
