Cover Story
Tale of a Tale Spinner
How a ballplayer, a piano player, beatnik poetry, and Lubbock made Terry Allen an epic storyteller.
Go Ask Alice
Go Ask Alice 1973, NR, 74 min. Directed by John Korty, Starring Jamie Smith-Jackson, William Shatner, Ruth Roman. Alice feeds her head, all right, in this early made-for-TV movie about teenagers and drugs. But if William Shatner played your father, you might look for a means of chemical escape, too.
The Trip
The Trip 1967, NR, 85 min. Directed by Roger Corman, Starring Peter Fonda, Susan Strasberg, Bruce Dern, Dennis Hopper. Roger Corman introduces LSD to Hollywood. In this Jack Nicholson-penned film, Fonda plays a TV director who drops acid for the first time and, after discovering that his living room is really his “living room,” wanders…
Articulations
Austin architectural firm TeamHaas was tapped as the new design team for the proposed Long Center for the Performing Arts.
Food-o-File
Since you’ve been good boys and girls this year, Virginia B. Wood fills your stockings with lumps of foodie news instead of coal.
APA, Futrell Turn Up the Heat
The city manager and police union continue slinging barbs over the withholding of the King investigation results.
Mona Lisa Smile
The new Julia Roberts movie applies a retrofitted sense of feminism to the Great Housewife Debate of the Fifties.
Exhibitionism
The cast of Zachary Scott Theatre Center’s annual Rockin’ Christmas Party delivers like crazy for over two hours, but this year’s edition feels under-rehearsed and is uncomfortably loud.
Liquid Assets
Usually, I am a hard-nosed bargain hunter in the world of wine. Anyone should be able to find a great bottle of wine for $100, but try finding a great wine for $10! The one time of year I loosen my iron grip on the AmEx card is during the holiday season. It seems to…
How Much Is the Sun Worth?
Austin Energy tries to place a value on solar power.
In America
The masterful storyteller Jim Sheridan, along with a wonderful cast, tell the story of a family whom you’ll never forget.
Exhibitionism
Pro Arts Collective’s Black Nativity isn’t quite theatre and isn’t quite church, but a celebratory presentation of both that includes glorious gospel music and the eloquence of Langston Hughes.
My Obsession
Joe Nick Patoski leaves this terrestrial plane — radio plane, that is.
Naked City
Headlines and happenings from Austin and beyond
Charlie: The Life and Art of Charles Chaplin
An authoritative film study of the career of the Little Tramp by the esteemed journalist Richard Schickel.
News/Print
Comic book store wars? What comic-book store wars? And: The Austin Public Library makes merry while making a difference.
Reissues
Doug SahmThe Genuine Texas Groover (Rhino Handmade) Back to the Funhouse. Rhino’s Internet-only 7-CD dissertation on the 44-minute Stooges album resides in eBay heaven now, only 3,000 pressed and sold out. There are 5,000 of Doug Sahm, The Genuine Texas Groover, but like their pop, who died in 1999, they too will go to a…
Naked City
A grand jury declines to indict in the death of Lennon Johnson.
Love Don’t Cost a Thing
A nerdy high school student pays a cheerleader to pretend to be his girlfriend in order to appear cool.
Readings
The characters that inhabit the four short stories and a novella in Alan Rifkin’s slim volume are all strikingly out of place and emotionally disconnected.
Reissues
Jefferson AirplaneTakes Off (RCA/BMG Heritage)Jefferson AirplaneSurrealistic Pillow (RCA/BMG Heritage)Jefferson AirplaneAfter Bathing at Baxter’s (RCA/BMG Heritage)Jefferson AirplaneCrown of Creation (RCA/BMG Heritage) For a band that was so tremendously popular and influential at such a critical moment in the counterculture zeitgeist, Jefferson Airplane has rusted in the hangar of obscurity. Perhaps a re-examination of these psychedelic warriors…
Naked City
Valley Democrats look for a border candidate in the new District 25.
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
The saga ends (and ends) back in the Shire where it began.
Readings
In this, her third novel, Julianna Baggott joins her poetic voice with her consummate sense of story to craft a jazzy, soaring tale of the lives of women in West Virginia, circa 1924.
Reissues
The BeatlesLet It Be … Naked (Apple/Capitol) With half of the all-time greatest pop band now deceased and producer Phil Spector looking down the barrel of a prison sentence, the time must’ve seemed ripe to remix the Beatles’ infamous scrap heap Let It Be. The retooled album, crafted by Abbey Road engineers and retitled Let…
Naked City
The school district doesn’t know who left its old computers by the roadside.
Readings
Because the jacket of Sheila Kohler’s new collection of short stories bears warm endorsements from Amy Tan and J.M. Coetzee, her fellow South African native and recent winner of the Nobel Prize, it has a lot to live up to.
Reissues
TelevisionMarquee Moon (Elektra/Rhino)TelevisionAdventure (Elektra/Rhino)TelevisionLive at the Old Waldorf, San Francisco, 6/29/78 (Rhino Handmade) Television: oft referenced, seldom heard — a critic’s band if ever there was one. Led by the twin-guitar gymnastics of frontman Tom Verlaine and rhythm man Richard Lloyd, Television started New York’s infamous CBGB scene in the mid-Seventies. After breaking ground with…
Page Two
The very nature of the police’s job should earn more consistent praise, but at the same time it demands monitoring.
Reissues
Allen ToussaintThe Complete Warner Recordings (Rhino Handmade) Toward the end of the minibook that houses the 2-CD The Complete Warner Recordings, New Orleans’ dean of Music U. condenses his storied career in a phrase: “Too white to be black, too black to be white.” Gray, colorless? Rock & roll standards like “Fortune Teller” and “Working…
Naked City
White supremacists in Texas with weapons of mass destruction: Who knew?
After a Fashion
Stephen gets on all fours for the holidays. You heard it here first.
Reissues
In contrast to Ethiopian stories of famine and war, the Buda label’s Ethiopiques reissues prove that this 3,000-year-old civilization has much more to offer than bad news. Tireless French sound archivist Francis Falceto is the series’ prime mover, nearly single-handedly researching, negotiating for, and preparing this stunning anthology. Totaling nearly 20 volumes to date, the…
Naked City
South Carolina kids file suit against drug-bust stormtroopers.
Second Helpings: CoffeeHouses Part I
Flightpath Coffeehouse 5011 Duval St., 458-4472 Daily, 8:30am-12mid Though the sound of jets thundering overhead at low altitudes is now a thing of the past at Flightpath, this Hyde Park coffee shop has become something of a community cornerstone. Flightpath’s economical coffee and relaxed, sit-and-stay-awhile atmosphere make it a prime spot for reading or studying.…
Day Trips
Enjoy some Golden Gal Pralines with Capt. Day Trips.
Reissues
Riots and revolution, music festival spectacles, and volcanic space rock — spanning post-Summer of Love to the cusp of Generation X’s wonder years — creak onto DVD amid a year-end tsunami of music-related theatrics. Jimi Plays Berkeley (MCA) might be slight in run-time (49 minutes), but the intimate theatre gig Hendrix played five months prior…
Austin @ Large: The Writing on the Wall
If neighborhoods don’t embrace Smart Growth, the city as a whole will get stuck with stupid growth.
Dreck the Halls
WE ARE EACH OTHER’S ANGELS (Hungry for Music) Hungry for Music is a D.C.-based nonprofit that strives to inspire the disadvantaged. This 2-CD set benefits the project and features 39 songs with the word “angel” in the title. Performers range from Texas artists like Alejandro Escovedo, Delbert McClinton, Billy Joe Shaver, and Slaid Cleaves to…
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Broccoli is to cats as feet are not to Toto.
Mutual Interests
Military might makes investments right for teachers and state employees in Texas.
Human Rights Are Indivisible
International Human Rights Day activities in Austin strung together workers’ rights, social services, and Texas’ awful death penalty.
TCB
Outer-space transmissions picked up by recent dental work
The Common Law
I used cash to buy electronics equipment from the Austin store of a nationwide electronics company. I want to get my money back but am not sure what my options are.
The Texas Growth Fund
The Texas Growth Fund is a bipartisan creation.
The Hightower Report
Cable television promised savings with deregulation … and we’re still waiting; and, the “synfuels” loophole has just become a bad joke.
Naked City
The man behind FreePAC can’t find enough conservatives at the Capitol.
To Your Health
Are there natural remedies for pinworms?
Rights and Consequences
The Redistricting trial pits “partisan gerrymandering” against the Voting Rights Act.
Resetting Middle-Earth
As The Lord of the Rings journey ends onscreen, Austin game developer Inevitable Entertainment rewinds to The Hobbit.
Soccer Watch
Soccer news from around the world
Meanwhile, at the Supreme Court …
The “supine seahorse” in Pennsylvania has become an elephant in the (court)room during the Texas redistricting trial. The seahorse, along with the “upside-down Chinese dragon” and other fanciful creatures, is a congressional district in the Keystone State — one of the GOP-crafted gerrymanders that allowed Republicans to garner a 12-7 majority of the state’s U.S.…
Taking on ‘Trivial Pursuit’
Bill and Gin Tolany’s ‘Dibs’ parties smart.
Terry Allen: A Discography
Juarez (1975): Allen’s first album. Includes: “Cantina Carlotta,” “There Oughta Be a Law Against Sunny Southern California.” Originally issued on Fate Records. Reissue due in April 2004 on Sugar Hill Records, with new liner notes by Dave Alvin. Lubbock (on Everything) (1979): Double album return to Allen’s roots. Debut of the Panhandle Mystery Band. Includes:…
About AIDS
As we get into the holiday season, thoughts turn more toward having a good time with friends. Lots of parties are happening, from office doings to Saturday night blasts at the clubs. It can all be great fun — but what a time for falling off the meds wagon or engaging in the risky friskies.…
The Ellis Memos
Among the exhibits to the congressional redistricting federal trial is a selection of memoranda, from Jim Ellis to U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land. They were submitted a trial exhibit by the Democratic plaintiffs, as explained in the document. Ellis is the executive director of the Americans for a Republican Majority political action…
Short Cuts
Sundance, Slamdance, and South by Southwest: The 411 on upcoming fests is right here.
When Comic Do Good
Thanks to the benefit ‘Stand-Up Is Dead,’ some Central Texas wildlife won’t be.
Candy Hell
Or, it takes a lot of patience to play Mrs. Santa Claus.
For Lowe’s, A Win’s a Win
Lowe’s and the city cut a deal over the aquifer.
TV Eye
Questions and answers
Luv Doc Recommends: The 3rd Annual Mr. Sinus Holiday Spectacular
Alrighty folks, it’s go time. No matter how hard you’ve been trying to shove the schmaltz to the back of your brain and concentrate on important matters, at some point you’re going to have to accept the fact that the holidaze are here. You have roughly five shopping days until Dec. 25 – that very…
