The Ten Commandments
Aren’t you tired of trying to formulate your own resolutions? Then I’ll dig through my chest of hats here and…. no, not the French maid’s cap… wait, what’s this feathered thing for?… Oh, here it is… the self-help/inspirational Answer Woman Beret with the pompous pompom… and I’ll tell you what to resolve: 1. Change your…
Off the Desk
KLBJ-AM kicked Paul Pryor, its popular right-wing radio talk show host, off the air Monday. The Austin American-Statesman reported that Pryor, who has battled drug- and alcohol-related problems for years, said in a hand-written note to KLBJ management that he is “fighting depression, relapsed, and gone into treatment.” Pryor was fired after missing work for…
Coach’s Corner
My solitary New Year’s resolution of 1995 was modest: a golfer’s prayer to break 100. I did, a 99… once. It’s more common to use this time of year as a period of reflection, a time to think of the year past, to wish for good things in the coming year. I’m not big on…
Page Two
by Louis Black This is the last Austin Chronicle of 1995. The Chronicle does not publish again until 1996. Then, for one of the rare times in our history, we will actually come out on Friday rather than Thursday; the first issue of 1996 appears on its issue date, Friday, January 5, 1996. Chronicle offices…
Lost in Space
by Mike Clark-Madison Most of us can pin- point an Austin spot — a vista point, a stretch of roadway — that was empty when we first saw it and now harbors scads of people, jobs, and mini-marts. Envision said spot, double its density, double its expanse, and you know what much of San Jose,…
Day Trips
The Christmas lights of Marshall act as a reminder of how much fun a visit to the northeast Texas town can be any time of year. From Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day, the town begins to glow when the sun goes down. The centerpiece of the lighting display is the old Harrison County Courthouse, outlined…
Hop on the Bus, Gus; Donate a New Can, Stan
With all the holiday hoo-hah, we neglected to inform you fine, commuting-types of the Capital Metro and Capital Food Bank cooperative effort to fend off hunger: the Food for Fare program. Until Santa hits the sky, bus riders may opt out of the regular fare by donating a food item. The program lasts through Sun.,…
Planning a Compact City in the Midst of Urban Sprawl
Sic Transit Gloria by Nelson England For two decades, Austin environmentalists have fought two major battles in transportation planning: trying to halt construction of freeways that pave the way for urban sprawl, and seeking to protect the inner city from the daily onslaught of traffic created by a system that panders to suburban freeway commuters.…
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Alfred Hitchcock never drove a car because he feared getting traffic tickets. Benjamin Franklin became a vegetarian, but ate fish. He concluded fish were okay to eat, as they eat each other. Evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson had an accordion band, a ukelele band, and a tambourine band. What did Neil Armstrong say during his lunar…
Bubbly Buzzwords:
Blanc de blanc: Made with all white grapes, usually Chardonnay. Blanc de noirs: “White from Red” White wine made with all red grapes, usually Pinot Noir. Brut: It literally means natural, but in the case of Champagne, it means dry. Brut is drier than Extra Dry (Why ask why?). Charmat Bulk Process: A process to…
New Rail Options for Capital Metro
Sharp cuts in federal transit funding have left Capital Metro with an ever-increasing need to sell bonds in order to finance a light rail starter line, at a time when voters appear extremely reluctant to approve new indebtedness. In October, consultants advised Capital Metro on an alternative: Upgrade 29 miles of the Austin & Northwestern…
International Cookbooks
This fall, the publisher’s catalogues included several fascinating international cookbooks that provide insight into peoples and their culture as well as information about foodstuffs in other lands and recipes for their preparation. By far the most glamorous book I’ve considered lately is The Chinese Gourmet by William Mark (Thunder Bay Press, $39.95, hard), another in…
A Revolutionary Letter to Artists
some money in our faces and called it the N.E.A., and with one swift stroke shifted most discussion of art in America into an argument about money. (The adjacent argument about sexual depiction is only relevant as part of the tiff about money.) Artists were finally in the national mainstream, not because our art was…
Film Encounters of the in*situ Kind
by Gene Shirey Experimental films and videos often elude the uninitiated. One is unlikely to stumble upon these unusual works in the course of daily life or at the flip of a TV dial. Blockbuster Video doesn’t carry them, and the average multiplex cinema doesn’t show them, either. But a new collective of Austin filmmakers…
Food-O-File
If visions of sugarplums still aren’t dancing in your head, grab the kids or your significant other and hurry on down to the lobby of the Omni Hotel, 700 San Jacinto. Chef John Lucas and his ACF apprentices Ellen Williamson, David Spooner, Kim Ruiz, and Lauren Campbell have created a confectionery masterpiece in the form…
Champagne Strife
by Robb Walsh Every year at this time, I write a cute little article about the limestone caves under the city of Reims where Champagne is stored, or about the widow Cliquot who founded one of the great Champagne houses of France, or on some other seemingly charming topic related to the subject of Champagne.…
Austin’s Guide to the New Year In With the New…
Compiled by Julie Weaver It’s time again to ring in the New Year. There’s plenty of activities for young and old, both during the day and nighttime hours. Old stand-bys are featured, like NYE productions from Zach Scott and Capitol City Playhouse (oh, and Sixth Street — yawn!), as well as unique new activities, such…
Bonus Tracks
STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN & DOUBLE TROUBLE Greatest Hits (Epic) STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN & DOUBLE TROUBLE Live From Austin, Texas (Epic Music Video) “Taxman” was a scare. Amidst the Beatlemania boomerang, Stevie Ray Vaughan’s take on the Fab Four’s tune was nearly as lame as the computer-concocted “new Beatles song with John Lennon,” “Free as a…
(Your Name Here) Roasting on an Open Fire…
You musicians out there know: I feel your pain. I live in the same type of rotting old house that you do. And, having just woken up for the second time this year to the stench of burning man-made fibers and styrofoam, let me remind you to keep a watch on those heaters this winter.…
In With the New…
Compiled by Julie Weaver photo by Bruce Dye It’s time again to ring in the New Year. There’s plenty of activities for young and old, both during the day and nighttime hours. Old stand-bys are featured, like NYE productions from Zach Scott and Capitol City Playhouse (oh, and Sixth Street — yawn!), as well as…
Record Reviews: Christmas
JAMES BROWN Funky Christmas (Polydor) It’s obvious Christmas cheer makes James Brown more soulful than the advertised funky. Still, Funky Christmas works surprisingly well anyway, mostly because Brown wisely sidesteps over-trodden Christmas standards and includes nine of his own tunes on this 17-track compilation – collected from three J.B. X-mas records: James Brown and His…
The Word Made Song
by Christopher Gray “Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness; come before His presence with singing. Know ye that the Lord is God: it is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture.” — Psalms 100:1-3…
Ceremony and Celebration La Virgen de Guadalupe
by Abel Salas December 12, 1995. Between midnight and 4am in the historic center of Mexico City, the darkness is severed by taxi cab headlights and lamplight glows that catch on bicycle reflectors. With almost digital regularity, bike riders pump past in either direction, making their nocturnal sacrifice in honor of Mexico’s patron saint, La…
Scanlines
Dark Forces CD-ROM for Windows LucasArts As a disgruntled expatriate of the dreaded Imperial Forces, you are taken on by the Rebels to help bring down the evil Empire. Armed with a bevy of weaponry and showing no mercy for Stormtroopers, Imperial Officers, and the ever-elusive Boba Fett, you must navigate and chart the intricate,…
The ARA Clubhouse
by Audrey Duff Despite winning the battle last month to force the board of the Austin Revitalization Authority (ARA) to add representatives from the Eastside neighborhoods affected by the proposed redevelopment of E. 11th and 12th Streets, Eastside residents grumbled at last week’s council meeting that the war for inclusion is far from over. Since…
A Spruced-Up Nutcracker
The quest for a new, improved Nutcracker for Ballet Austin began in earnest this past Sunday, December 17, when the company held a reception at which new costume and set designs for BA’s annual production of the Tchaikovsky ballet were unveiled and a campaign to pay for the new look was initiated. Following an introduction…
Knnc X-mas/reverend Horton Heat, Meices
Liberty Lunch, Friday 22/Saturday 23 There’s music 365 days a year in Austin Texas, and you don’t have to go very far to find it. We recommended Liberty Lunch for two nights this weekend. Friday’s radio war bribe — a free bash from KNNC — looks to be good as Dallas’ Spot comes to town…
Art:
ARLINGTON MUSEUM OF ART features TEXAS REALism… with a twist, a show of representational paintings and drawings by eleven emerging and veteran Texas artists. 201 W. Main St., Arlington. 817/275-4600. DALLAS MUSEUM OF ART presents Impressions from the Riviera, masterpieces from the Wendy and Emery Reves Collection, through February 4. The exhibition is a collection…
The Road to Somewhere
by Louisa C. Brinsmade Twenty-two people can change the world. Or at least the small world of Austin. That’s the goal of the Citizens’ Planning Committee, a group put together by the city council to look at Austin’s urban planning process, or lack thereof. Since their mandate began a year and three months ago at…
To Boldly Go Where No Opera Has Gone Before Opera: The Next Generation
by Robert Faires Opera smells of age. That isn’t meant as a slap at the venerable form of musical drama; it’s merely a comment on the way opera is enveloped almost exclusively in the past. The operatic works produced most frequently today are the products of the 18th and 19th centuries. Their subjects are often…
CPC’s 12-Point Program:
1. The development regulations and permitting process must be simplified. They should be predictable, accountable, consistent, and clear in intent. 2. The planning and development regulations should be coordinated with a comprehensive, integrated neighborhood association system. 3. The comprehensive planning and development regulations should begin with integrative community plans created through neighborhood participation. This process…
Exploring the Rites of Titles
What’s in a Name? by Rebecca S. Cohen My Aaron Karp paint- ing, a recent wedding present, is named “Chameleon.” It’s a pretty straightforward title, except that there aren’t any reptiles (hidden or obvious) on the whole jewel-toned abstract painting. Karp, otherwise known as my-cousin-Aaron-the-painter, layers a dozen acrylic paintings or more on each canvas.…
Dragons in the Whorehouse
by Audrey Duff Clad in a worn tweed jacket with a wool muffler warming his thin neck and wearing glasses thick as coke bottles, T. Paul Robbins stuck out like a nun in a whorehouse among the dark-suited lawyers gathered in the corporate digs of Austin’s Graves, Dougherty, Hearon & Moody last month. Robbins, who…
Art and Photography Books Classics Revisited
by Margaret Moser I was fortunate to grow grow up around many books, titles that became as familiar as the Bible verses learned in Sunday school. As the years passed and these titles remained somehow relevant enough to stay in print, they seemed to be an odd kind of comfort. They were proof that my…
Kerry Is So Very…
by Amy Smith Call it radical thinking, but 1996 might be the year the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce rumbles out of its trenches to rally for the masses. Granted, that’s a hard one to swallow in a town where the Chamber is identified with developers, and developers are identified (in much of the public…
Texas Titles
Here are a few notable titles from the past year, if you’re looking for Texas books… * Cerealizing America: The Unsweetened Story of American Breakfast Cereal by Scott Bruce and Bill Crawford. No sugar-coating here; the two authors tackle the crunchy subject of breakfast culture with humor and panache. * Under the Beetle’s Cellar by…
Free to Be Me
by Hugh Forrest He is an award-winning winning journalist whose best stories have attacked government inefficiency and indifference. When talking of the newspaper business, he is adamant about the moral responsibilities he believes must guide this industry. The passion and feeling he brings to his new position leave many in Austin highly optimistic about the…
Guidelines for Positive Living
The close of 1995 and the beginning of 1996 afford everyone an opportunity to reflect on what has — and has not — furthered one’s well-being during the past 12 months. Here are 12 practical steps — for taking life-supporting action in the face of life-threatening disease: * Eat a balanced, varied diet based on…
Pryor Out at KLBJ-FM
by Hugh Forrest Moderate-turned-conservative KLBJ-AM talk show host Paul Pryor was fired by the station effective Monday, December 18, apparently for slipping off the wagon. By his own admission, he has battled alcohol and substance abuse problems ever since high school. After missing work for four days last week, Pryor was terminated by the station,…
