Coffee Table Books That Depict and Provide Escape From
Bordertown Since objectivity is pointless, really pointless, when it comes to coffee table books, why not throw it out the window with a hearty heave-ho? When I think about coffee table books, I think about a remark philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein made in a notebook in 1937: “The horrors of hell can be experienced within a…
Dancing About Architecture
Wham, bam, no thank you, man! Strange how things snowball in this town. Last week, I got a call from River City Rapists member Derek Meyers alleging that he and others had recently been assaulted by bouncers at Emo’s (a longtime employee of the club admitted that there had been some unusual occurrences that week,…
Short Cuts
Oh, Scott, say it ain’t so. Scott Dinger, the owner, manager, booker, concessions worker, and all-around man behind the curtain at the Dobie Theatre, called this week with the sad news that he has sold the Dobie Theatre. Effective January 15, the Dobie Theatre will become the lone Austin outpost of the Landmark Theatres exhibition…
Giving Austin Authors
Milagros: A Book of Miracles by Helen Thompson, with artwork by Paddy Bruce HarperSanFrancisco, $15.95 hard Milagros are small charms found throughout Latin America, made of tin, aluminum, stone, or wood, and shaped like body parts in need of healing. They are religious symbols of thanks by petitioners for overcoming illness, and when offered as…
A Cultural Imperative
Though considered a small independent label, Chicago’s Delmark Records has produced hundreds of LPs and CDs over the past five decades. Their catalog contains a variety of albums, mostly blues, both acoustic and electric, and jazz, ranging from the boogie woogie piano of Speckled Red to the New Orleans style of George Lewis to bop…
Life After Wartime
interview by Rebecca S. Cohen What’s left of an apartment building in Sarajevo photograph by Dr. Norman Chenven Sarah Chenven lives in Bosnia-Herzegovina. How did this happen to a child of comfort, if not outright privilege, a 1989 graduate of Austin’s McCallum High School, a product of the me-first Eighties? For a number of years,…
In Person
Yoniverse at Book Woman Billed as a book release party, it was more like a caffeinated baby shower. No polite titters or modulated “oohs” and “ahhs” from this bunch of “impossible bitches,” as one of the seven contributors, Lydia Armendariz, called the collective. The “newborn” was a collection of spoken word poetry titled In a…
Free as They Want to Be
The term “Free Jazz” refers to a strain within the genre that isn’t based on pre-set foundations such as chord progressions. While there were a few free-jazz performances recorded prior to Ornette Coleman’s impact on the scene around 1960, the Ft. Worth native was essentially ground zero for the movement. Some of the early free…
English Is a Foreign Language
illustration by Penny Van Horn We use language every day. It can engender in us every emotion from sympathy to despair, love to hate. Its evolution has been as convoluted as it has simple, and the need for language has infiltrated every person on the planet regardless of race, colour, or creed. Its importance and…
Faces and Places
It is September 1962. I am eight years old and living in a faceless South Houston suburb. My eight-year-old world is colored by fear. I imagine Russians as men wearing devil suits and waiting outside my bedroom window at night to invade our house. At school, bomb drills and duck-and-cover have supplanted fire drills. My…
Cash Cows
The United States has long had a love-hate relationship with newcomers. We love calling ourselves a nation of immigrants; we enjoy strutting around the world stage, portraying the U.S. as the land where freedom reigns. But truth be told, we aren’t terribly thrilled when folks from other countries want to take us up on our…
Follow the Leader
Taft is considerably less charitable. “The Statesman trashed her out,” Taft says. “They took what Earle and [Assistant D.A. Gary] Cobb and [APD homicide detective Ernesto] Pedraza and Bayardo said and characterized it as fact. They didn’t bother to ask questions. Nobody asked if Lacresha did it. They asked, ‘How could an 11-year-old have done…
Postscripts
Money for KAP House Chalk one up (again) for the forces renovating the Katherine Anne Porter house. Bill Johnson, a trustee of the Johnson Burdine Foundation in Buda and co-chair of the Katherine Anne Porter House Restoration Committee, recently donated $100,000 for the restoration of the house, which is in Kyle. The Burdine Johnson Foundation…
How Counties Profit from the INS
An estimated 70 counties in Texas receive funds for the detention of INS prisoners. Below is a sampling of counties, number of INS detainees currently housed (though this number fluctuates daily), the amount charged to the INS per prisoner per day, and the amount of money the county has received year-to-date (Jan-Oct.), based on information…
Superman: Peace on Earth
by Paul Dini and Alex Ross (DC Comics, $9.95 paper) When is the last time you saw Superman? No, really. When is the last time you came across an image of that character � you know, strange visitor from another planet, powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men? � and truly saw him,…
Buried Alive
photograph by Robert Bryce “Soy Marielito,” Herrera says, referring to his departure in 1980, when Fidel Castro allowed 125,000 Cubans to immigrate to the U.S. from the Port of Mariel. About 300 of the refugees were mental patients, another 350 were released from Cuban jails � a fact that has stigmatized the thousands of others…
About AIDS
In an act of unusual saneness, the Illinois Supreme Court has ruled that people who groundlessly feel they were put at risk for HIV due to medical care are not entitled to monetary damages. The court ruled against a woman employee who sued over fears that she may have been infected when she injured herself…
Was Jane Campos Fired for Telling the Truth?
photograph by Alan Pogue Talking to reporters was part of Jane Campos’ job. As a sergeant at the Bastrop County Jail, she had helped several reporters interview Cuban inmates at the jail. So why was Campos fired in July, just three weeks after she was quoted in an article that appeared in the San Antonio…
Coach’s Corner
NYC: In case you missed my diatribe on the radio — judging from the outraged response — maybe you’d better sit down. This city-sponsored parade for Ricky Williams sucks. Now, I have nothing at all against Ricky. Nothing. Yes, he appears to be a good “role model.” Certainly, he’s a nice guy. No question, he’s…
Against All Odds
Attorney D’Ann Johnson at the Talladega, Alabama Federal Correctional Institution photograph by Alan Pogue Imagine you are a lawyer.Your client is in jail. You want to get your client out but you can’t determine his status without reading his file. But to get that file, you must file a Freedom of Information Act request. And…
Day Trips
A Timeless Christmas happens in Johnson City at the LBJ boyhood home and in the Johnson settlement, Dec. 19. The Johnson family will be at the annual Christmas tree lighting at the LBJ Ranch offering special tours, Dec. 20. 830/868-7128. Artists by the Lake presented by Texas Provincial Furniture and Haydn Larson Studio offers unique…
In Jail Forever?
Given the history of Palestine, perhaps it is not surprising that Said would be caught in the political crossfire. After all, the arid territory between Jordan and Israel has been fought over for more than 2,000 years. Palestine is not a country, nor is it likely to become one any time soon. Instead, the region…
Page Two
The end of the year rapidly approaches. Across the way, things have really heated up at SXSW World Headquarters, with SXSW Music, Film, and Interactive conferences and festivals steaming ahead. Expect a lot of SXSW information when January rolls around; for all three events it looks like a banner year. Here at the Chronicle the…
Somebody Needs a Nap
Maybe City Manager Garza was a little wound up by the return to the council’s work session agenda of a topic he finds touchy — his surprise reorganization of our electric utility, in which he brought the city’s Conservation Department, long revered for its independence, under the authority of Austin Energy. The item at hand…
Public Notice
Each year at this time we embark on the most American of odysseys. We fleece ourselves silly and then take our scraps of wool to our local merchant of wares in hopes of finding that exactly perfect little special something to impress the bejesus out of some object of affection. It’s quite a trek, lined…
Naked City
The Triangle Square development was dealt a New Urban setback this week when the much-heralded residential developers, Post/West Properties, pulled out of the project. Word of the Post departure spread like wildfire Tuesday, opening day of the long-awaited national Smart Growth Conference at the Austin Convention Center. The stumbling block hinged on the terms of…
Mr. Smarty Pants Know
The vaunted Pony Express mail delivery operated for less than 20 months (April 1860-November 1861). The term “cracker jack” was originally a slang cyclist term referring to a freewheel with its jacks (pawls) and clicking sound (cracker). Frank Sinatra collected model trains. Reindeer are crazy for human urine, and relish that yellow snow (they go…
It’s All in the Game
Pass the hat around for Charon’s fee, for 1998 nears the banks of the River Styx. Instinctively, the year seems to ache for a Kevorkian release. Of course, with the headlines punched out this season, it’s no wonder. The Clinton-Lewinsky scandal left a stink on the White House lawn large enough for John Glenn to…
Food-O-File
New Ownership Chef/owner Jean-Louis DeHoux has sold his charming, romantic L’Estro Armonico, the Belgian Restaurant (3520 Bee Caves, 328-0580) to former maitre d’ Felix Florez II. “When Marianne and I started the restaurant years ago, we didn’t have children,” DeHoux told me last week. “Now our kids are seven and 10 and I’d like to…
E-Mail Chitchat
He’s Tom Terrific! The greatest hero ever! My TV-watching pal Weezer is now gainfully employed. This means his late nights have been scaled back due to the unseemly hour at which he has to rise and put on a white shirt and tie. This change in schedule is good for our TV nights, but the…
Exhibitionism
ESTHER’S FOLLIES: REFRESHING DIP Esther’s Pool, ongoing Running Time: 1 hr, 30 min It’s time again to pay a visit to the Pool. Yes, yes, the temperature has dropped somewhat severely as Austin celebrates its annual week-long seasonal shift most often referred to as winter that might leave most swimmers a bit reticent to take…
Season’s Grazings
Virginia’s Famous Dishrag Turkey illustration by Lisa Kirkpatrick Christmas dinner has a somewhat checkered history in my family. My mother, Laruth Walden Wood, didn’t prepare a traditional holiday meal on her own until she was 40 years old. Until that time, we went to our grandparents’ house in Lubbock or they came to ours, but…
Walk Like an Egyptian
Jeffrey Katzenberg When Jeffrey Katz- enberg walks into a room, you damn well know it. Alongside partners Steven Spielberg and David Geffen, the hyperactive producer is the “K” in DreamWorks SKG, the fledgling studio created four years ago that has since produced as much controversy (“When will they break even?” is the oft-repeated Hollywood refrain)…
Ut Press for Christmas
For several seasons now, UT Press has been bolstering their art and photography publications. Here are the most recent titles: Portraits From the Desert: Bill Wright’s Big Bend. $40 hard; $24.95 paper. This is that rare hybrid — equally engaging text and photographs by Bill Wright. Texas Sky, by Wyman Meinzer with an introduction by…
Reissues
CLYDE MCPHATTER The Forgotten Angel (32 R&B) Here’s a historically significant, well-produced 2-CD set showcasing the singing of Clyde McPhatter, both with the Drifters and as a solo artist. McPhatter is somewhat neglected today, because his most well-known records were with a group and he died young. During the Fifties, however, McPhatter influenced a number…
Articulations
We Are All in This Together On a campus that has seen its share of the weird and the wonderful, they were still an exceptional sight: a man in a suit of wings; a man wearing huge ears and a Dixie cup hat, and acting like a monkey; a man in a fool’s hat of…
Cultural Coolness Around Texas This Month
Son of Art of the State ’98 Rhapsodies in Black: The Art of the Harlem Renaissance Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Harlem Girl With Blanket by Winold Reiss In the 1920s, the cultural landscape of the world exploded. Writers, painters, photographers, musicians, and performers were producing new and provocative works of art around the globe…
Identifying the Impulse
Art Blakey In their search for neat, storybook tales, Hollywood has generally shunned the cutthroat climate of the recording industry, a business where good deeds are not necessarily rewarded. There is at least one notable exception to the rule, however, a tale about perseverance against the odds and monumental effort that is universally acknowledged. And…
Scanlines
D: Paul Brickman (1983) with Tom Cruise, Rebecca De Mornay, Curtis Armstrong, Bronson Pinchot, Joe Pantoliano Rebecca De Mornay and Tom Cruise in Risky Business. Besides the unforgettable image of a young Tom Cruise dancing in a living room to Bob Seger’s “Old Time Rock and Roll” in briefs, Risky Business is a portrait of…
