North by Northwest
One of Hitchcock’s very best comic thrillers, North by Northwest features scene after unforgettable scene (including those with the crop duster and Mount Rushmore).
Smokey and the Bandit
Stuntman Hal Needham makes his debut as a director in this king of the “good ol’ boy” movies.
Coffeetable Books
Women by Annie Leibovitz, Susan Sontag Random House, 240 pp., $75 Dream on: That’s what most coffeetable books encourage us to do. Dream on, and be swept into another universe. Women, the mutually authored book of photographs by Annie Leibovitz and essay by Susan Sontag, challenges us to dream; moreover, to think. “After all, a…
Book Reviews
Sister Revolutions: French Lightning, American Light by Susan Dunn Faber and Faber, 258 pp., $26 In R.R. Palmer’s classic study, The Age of Democratic Revolutions, the French and American Revolutions are the brightest stones in a necklace of uprisings that stretched across the transatlantic world in the 18th century. Whereas Palmer famously surveyed the “common…
The Customs of Christmas
Chronicle Cuisines editor Virginia B. Wood and food writers Pableaux Johnson, Mick Vann, Wes Marshall, Rebecca Chastenet de G�ry, and Barbara Chisholm share their Christmas memories.
Record Reviews
Ringo StarrI Wanna Be Santa Claus (Mercury) I’m not a betting man, but even if I was, I never would’ve wagered that Ringo, the wacky Beatle with the novelty-record voice, would be that last Beatle to release a holiday album. He is, though, waiting some 15 years since Paul McCartney’s “Wonderful Christmastime” single followed John…
Naked City
Amarillo ISD Superintendent warns Forgione: Greater accuracy in dropout reporting doesn’t necessarily mean better ratings under the TEA’s accountability system.
Train of Life
Train of Life 1998, R, 103 min. Directed by Radu Mihaileanu, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Mihai Calin, Bruno Abraham-Kremer, Agathe De La Fontaine, Marie-José Nat, Clément Harari, Rufus, Michel Muller, Lionel Abelanski. Following in the peculiar tradition of such Holocaust dramedys as Life Is Beautiful and, to a lesser degree, Mel Brooks’…
Coffeetable Books
Keepers of the Kingdom: The Ancient Offices of Britain by Alastair Bruce, photographs by Julian Calder and Mark Cator Vendome Press, 224 pp., $40 There’s a striking paradox behind this intriguing book: The author writes in his introduction that “because of recent trends towards populist politics, the monarchy — does not seem to understand and…
Book Reviews
Freezer Burn by Joe R. Lansdale Mysterious Press, 245 pp., $23.95 “Bill Roberts decided to rob the firecracker stand on account he didn’t have a job and not a nickel’s worth of money and his mother was dead and kind of freeze-dried in her bedroom.” So begins Freezer Burn, Joe R. Lansdale’s latest attempt to…
The Keeper of the Nog
The Keeper of the Nog My great Aunt Rose’s annual Christmas Eve party was always a hit. Of all the celebrations on our extended family’s Baton Rouge holiday circuit, it was the one fête that consistently achieved that perfect balance of chaos and civility. It was the delicate equilibrium of holiday fancy dress and everyday…
Record Reviews
Brenda LeeRockin’ Around the Christmas Tree (MCA/Decca) Subtitled The Decca Christmas Recordings, this collection is allowed to sit out the annual lecture about the wisdom of dropping $15 on yet another Christmas album versus donating the sum to a worthy charity. Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree is a reissue of Brenda Lee’s holiday recordings for…
Naked City
The mood was relaxed and self-congratulatory at this month’s Real Estate Council of Austin awards luncheon on Wednesday, Dec. 15, at the Four Seasons Hotel. The crowd of about 150 developers, real estate agents, bankers, and others in the land business enjoyed a steak meal and the banter of KVET’s Sammy Allred and Bob Cole,…
Coffeetable Books
Your Action World by David Byrne Chronicle Books, 128 pp., $29.95 (paper) Who knew that a pleasant goof like David Byrne, the Talking Head of the big white suit and glasses, had so much to bitch about? Most of the images and text in his big yellow rubbery book are spent mocking the evil corporate…
Book Reviews
The Guest From the Future: Anna Akhmatova and Isaiah Berlin by Gyogy Dalos Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 256 pp., $25 In Gyogy Dalos’ study of Russian poet Anna Akhmatova’s literary fall and redemption, The Guest From the Future, brief encounters contain lifetimes. Dalos’ book details the reverberations (real and imagined) of Akhmatova’s lone visit in…
The Abraham Appetite
The Abraham Appetite Our friend Robert has worms! That’s the only plausible explanation his pals can come up with to account for his extraordinarily huge appetite. And what makes that reasoning even more bizarre is the fact that our Mr. Abraham is a vet (that’s veterinarian, not vegetarian) — a man who should be familiar…
Record Reviews
Ray Brown TrioChristmas Songs (Telarc) If you’ve gotta have Christmas music playing — and sometimes, I suppose, you do — then it might as well swing. And if there’s one thing that this compilation of traditional Christmas tunes does, it’s swing. Bassist and bandleader Ray Brown sees to that, as he and pianist Geoff Keezer…
Council Watch
Council denies historic zoning for old house on St. David’s property.
Man on the Moon
Man on the Moon 1999, R, 118 min. D: Milos Forman; with Jim Carrey. “I’m pushing an elephant up the stairs,” declares one of the lyrics in “The Great Beyond,” R.E.M.’s Man on the Moon theme song that tries to capture the essence of the Andy Kaufman performance mystique. The image might more accurately describe…
Coffeetable Books
Fabulous Las Vegas in the 50s: Glitz, Glamour & Games by Fred E. Basten and Charles Phoenix Angel City Press, 127 pp., $26.95 A “real-life, make-believe world,” full of “fun, fantasy, and risque pleasures” — that was the promise Las Vegas offered a generation of Americans wearied by World War II and energized by the…
Book Reviews
Sleeping With Extra-Terrestrials: The Rise of Irrationalism and Perils of Piety by Wendy Kaminer Pantheon Books, 278 pp., $24 The truth is out there. But most people would rather believe in UFOs, angels, and a liberal press. Put on your credulity shields, friends, and welcome to America 2000. Wendy Kaminer, a fellow at Radcliffe College…
The Infectious Love of Good Wine
My father-in-law, Martin, was an epicurean. Both of us had some knowledge of wine, but the bug really bit us at about the same time. We set out to learn about wine together. Suddenly, the thousands of fascinating possibilities in the world of wine began to open up to us. We would go to good…
Record Reviews
Garth BrooksThe Magic of Christmas (Capitol)George StraitMerry Christmas Wherever You Are (MCA) Why is Garth Brooks glowering like Glenn Danzig on the cover of The Magic of Christmas? Maybe it was that big Chris Gaines lump of coal. At any rate, he sounds as full of the Christmas spirit as he looks; about the only…
Media Clips
The world�s major corporations have realized that the media can be big money, and they have invested heavily.
Coffeetable Books
Irving Penn Regards the Work of Issey Miyake: Photographs, 1975-1998 Bullfinch Press, 160 pp., $75 This gorgeous book — legendary fashion photographer Irving Penn riffing on the exquisitely tactile fabrics and designs of Japanese designer Issey Miyake — is just one step removed from the breathtaking experience of seeing these colorful, finely pleated clothes on…
Off the Bookshelf
The Adventures of Jules & Gertie by Esther Pearl Watson Harcourt Brace, 36 pp., $16 The Western plains prove a festive backdrop in Esther Pearl Watson’s The Adventures of Jules and Gertie, a rapid-fire children’s book that will leave you hollering and kicking up your spurs. Jules, a cowgirl, is “strong like licorice.” Her horse,…
Faultlessly Fashionable Grazing
Faultlessly Fashionable Grazing “Grazing,” or sampling little mouthfuls of this and that, may be the new millennium entertaining style, but in my holiday experience, it’s always been the fashion. While other families sat down to full-blown feasts of Christmas ham with all the requisite trimmings, we nibbled on my grandmother’s densely decadent blue cheese dip,…
Record Reviews
Al Di MeolaWinter Nights (Telarc) Former Return to Forever guitarist and longtime solo artist Al Di Meola tones down typically obvious and obnoxious Christmas music on the 15 instrumental tracks of Winter Nights, on which there are three types. First, holiday standards, such as “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” “Greensleeves,” and the spontaneously deconstructed…
The Brain Behind Cyc
Doug Lenat discusses artificial intelligence and its increasing presence in the next century.
Coffeetable Books
Chávez Ravine, 1949: A Los Angeles Story by Don Normark Chronicle Books, 144 pp., $29.95 Every town has its dirty little secrets. Los Angeles has at least one the size of Dodger Stadium. That pocket of the L.A. hills used to be called Chávez Ravine, and until 1949 it was home to a thriving, quaint,…
Off the Bookshelf
The Adventures of Jules & Gertie by Elise Primavera Harcourt, Brace & Co., 38 pp., $16 This wonderfully illustrated picture book ranks with the childhood classics by Maurice Sendak, where the bold and busy illustrations blend with whimsical prose and magical realities. In Auntie Claus, Sophie is a spoiled but curious little girl who is…
Le Belle Arti
Le Belle Arti When I was 12 years old, my family and I moved to Germany. It was 1970, a perfect time for an American to be living overseas: The dollar was unnaturally inflated, and the luster of the heroics of the soldiers of WWII was still appreciated, if only by the elders. My family…
Record Reviews
Michael Martin MurpheyAcoustic Christmas Carols (Westfest)Riders in the SkyChristmas the Cowboy Way (Rounder) Here’s a Christmas scenario: You have to travel back for Christmas with your parents and family, and you’d rather not hear the traditional versions of Christmas songs that have been circulating for the last 50 or so years (and have been bombarding…
Cyc Invades Cyberspace!
e-Cyc (http://www.e-Cyc.com) could be described as an advanced type of Internet search engine that’s being offered as a solution to the preponderance of time-consuming “false positives” and “false negatives” often produced in the process of browsing. e-Cyc raises the search engine to a higher degree of precision utilizing common sense and will include a meaningful…
Coffeetable Books
Physiognomy: The Mark Seliger Photographs Bulfinch Press, 224 pp., $75 Elizabeth Shue wrapped in an American flag. The Seinfeld cast frolicking in Oz. Jennifer Aniston, Ben Stiller, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers au naturel. The award-winning photographs of Rolling Stone’s Mark Seliger shine a ray of light into the person beneath the celebrity facade.…
Off the Bookshelf
DC Comics Masks: Nine Masks of DC Comics Heroes and Villains to Assemble and Wear by Christos Kondeatis Bulfinch Press, 60 pp., $25 (paper) Masks are great liberators. In hiding your identity, they break the hold of social conventions and free you to do whatever you like: ridicule authority, flout laws, or put on tights…
Food-o-File
The latest local cookbooks, changes to the menu at Vespaio, and a special Boxing Day celebration at Becker Vineyards
Record Reviews
Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas! & Horton Hears a Who!(Rhino Movie Music) For those of us who weren’t allowed to watch TV as children (not without “Express Written Consent”), the holiday season meant one thing: Christmas specials. It was that magical time of the year when the Holy Trinity came to pay tribute:…
Short Cuts
Upcoming events and workshops of interest to the Austin film community.
Coffeetable Books
Full Moon by Michael Light Knopf, 244 pp., $50 This stunningly beautiful collection of photographs culled from NASA’s Apollo inflight photographic archive by photographer and artist Michael Light is the perfect gift for anyone with a sense of wonder, a love of photography, or an interest in space. The elegant and astonishing images (reproduced from…
Off the Bookshelf
Until Now by Anne Geddes Cedco Publishing, 264 pp., $49.95 Only the hardest of hearts could resist Anne Geddes’ adorable babies. The photographer has made a name for herself in recent years with colorful images of fat little cherubs rolling in rose petals and infants dressed as fairies; her popularity has made the style ubiquitous.…
Sleigh Ride
Robin Bradford takes a trip back to examine love, trust, and safety.
Chain Reaction
Downtown construction projects raise fears that Austin will lose its charm.
Video Reviews
Walk on the Wild SideD: Edward Dmytryk (1962); with Laurence Harvey, Jane Fonda, Capucine, Barbara Stanwyck, Anne Baxter. Tawdry trash, of the finest sort, rife with revolting characters and dreadful performances, Walk on the Wild Side is adapted from the novel by noted Texas writer Nelson Algren, who, like Jim Thompson, wrote about the human…
Coffeetable Books
The Collectible Barbie Doll: An Illustrated Guide to Her Dreamy World by Janine Fenwick Courage Books, 176 pp., $19.98 I officially went Barbie-crazy as an adult and indulged myself in Barbies in the early Nineties. Back then, Mattel was just beginning the onslaught of special series Barbies as well as reissuing the early models that…
Local Bestsellers
This week’s list of bestsellers is from Resistencia Bookstore, 603 W. Live Oak.
Journey Into Clarity #83
For years he’d blamed his sister for destroying his comic book, a book worth over two grand today. Looking back at a painful memory brings Wayne Alan Brenner that much closer to understanding why losing that darned comic book at age seven meant so much.
Downtown Developments
The cranes are back, but you haven’t seen nothin’ yet. No doubt you’ve noticed several construction projects in the Sixth and Lamar area and other parts of downtown, but just wait until next year, and the next. Look for a real, live construction boom to take off in every pocket of downtown. Here’s a list…
Video Reviews
Leave Her to HeavanD: John M. Stahl (1945); with Gene Tierney, Cornel Wilde, Jeanne Crain, Vincent Price, Mary Philips, Ray Collins, Darryl Hickman, Chill Wills. If you’ve ever wondered what all the fuss about Gene Tierney was about, try this movie on for size. In it, she plays Ellen Berent, a possessively jealous woman who…
Second Helpings: Interior Mexican
Tasty, bite-sized restaurant listings compiled this week by Rachel Feit.
Coffeetable Books
West Texas: A Portrait of Its People and Their Raw and Wondrous Land by Mike Cochran and John Lumpkin Texas Tech University Press, 200 pp., $34.95 A nonphotographic coffeetable book about West Texas sounds like an oxymoron, but this oversize book lives up to its subtitle, and is a valuable addition to the western branch…
Page Two
Downtown development keeps coming; the Chronicle family keeps growing
A Walking Contradiction
Exploring the legacy of one of Austin’s great, unsung singer-songwriters, Blaze Foley
Shop Talk: City Nailing Down Retail
Two years ago, the idea of developing a stretch of downtown’s semi-seedy west end into a trendy strip of shops and restaurants seemed like just another big idea to entice a major employer — Computer Sciences Corp. — to the neighborhood. Now the city is in discussions with an East Coast urban retail developer that…
Video Reviews
The Letter D: William Wyler (1940); with Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall, James Stephenson, Gale Sondergaard, Frieda Inescort. Bette is at her finest as Leslie Crosbie in this Somerset Maugham story. She is drop-dead stylish in an Orry-Kelly gown as she guns down the overseer of the rubber plantation that her husband (Marshall) owns. She elicits…
Head of the Class
With Senioritis, the conclusion to his quartet of plays set at a Catholic high school in Houston, solo performer Rob Nash is all set to graduate — to Off-Broadway, says Robi Polgar.
Coffeetable Books
American Chronicle: Year by Year Through the Twentieth Century by Lois and Alan Gordon Yale University Press, 1,024 pp., $49.95 American Chronicle: Year by Year Through the Twentieth Century is a cross between an effort to capitalize on premature millennial madness and an encyclopedic journey through American lore. The book begins with an essay overview…
Public Notice
Every year, for two weeks around the holidays, “Public Notice” hands the type over to the Public Service Community and lets them directly address you, dear readers, with requests for things they need. They need you.
Blaze Foley Reviewed
Blaze FoleyLive at the Austin Outhouse (Lost Art) More people have heard of Blaze Foley than have actually heard him. With the CD release of Live at the Austin Outhouse, this circumstance is likely to change, however. A cassette of these recordings has been circulating around Austin for years, and this is a digital remaster…
Downtown by Design
Downtown design guidelines provide a blueprint for the future of the central city.
TV Eye
That holiday spirit getting to be too much? Here’s a look at Vegging Television: what you watch when you can’t watch anything.
Articulations
A report on the financial momentum of the proposed Long Center for the Performing Arts; the loss of two beloved area musicians and teachers.
Coffeetable Books
Palm Springs Modern: Houses in the California Desert by Adele Cygelman, photographs by David Glomb Rizzoli, 192 pp., $50 The rich and fabulous — entertainers, entrepreneurs, or anyone else well moneyed — have escaped to the desert oasis of Palm Springs since the 1930s. With them came the need for vacation homes, and due to…
Letters at 3AM
What does a Dark Age demand of a good person?
A Honky-Tonk Song
Profile of piano man Earl Poole Ball
High-Tech Heist
A former Power Computing company employee stole memory modules and drew a 25-year prison sentence.
Boys Don’t Cry
Without resorting to dogma, ideological tracts, or cautionary tales, Boys Don’t Cry evocatively tells the true story of a young Nebraska woman who changed her sexual identity and transformed herself (sans surgery) into a young man. Swank won her first Oscar for this role.
Exhibitionism
Ada Calhoun finds wicked delights in Zach’s production of David Sedaris’ The Santaland Diaries.
Coffeetable Books
Front Row Back Stage by Mario Testino Bullfinch Press, 132 pp., $60 Considered one of the finest fashion photographers working, Testino gives us the insider’s peek into the fashion world that all non-fashionistas like to see. He captures the world he inhabits, where the high stakes are beauty and glamour and billions of advertising dollars.…
After a Fashion
Versace tidbits, Christ on the catwalk, etc.
Dancing About Architecture
SXSW kicks into gear, Eric Johnson gets intense, and things keep falling apart
Letters from Prison
Randy Pierce, writing about his experiences during the past few months as an inmate in the Gist Building, State Jail, Beaumont, Texas: My daily routine is to get up between 1:30am- 2:30am for breakfast, eat, go back to sleep. Get up at 5:45am for work at 6am to 2pm. Dorm janitor, mop, sweep, clean toilets,…
Liberty Heights
Liberty Heights 1999, R, 127 min. Directed by Barry Levinson, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Adrien Brody, Ben Foster, Orlando Jones, Bebe Neuwirth, David Krumholz, Rebekah Johnson, Joe Mantegna, Richard Kline, Carolyn Murphy, Vincent Guastaferro, Justin Chambers. Levinson returns for a fourth time to his beloved 1950s Baltimore, the setting of Diner, Avalon,…
Exhibitionism
Robert Faires gets a buzz from the Zachary Scott Theatre Center production of Rockin’ Christmas Party.
Coffeetable Books
Opium: A Portrait of the Heavenly Demon by Barbara Hodgson Chronicle Books, 152 pp., $22.95 Lush and decadent, Opium chronicles the history and social effects of the use and trade of opium. Colonialism, medicine, literature, and the drug war all have roots in opium culture, and Hodgson traces them from the past to the present…
Day Trips
Rockport captures the sea breeze and the hearts of visitors.
Record Reviews
JewelJoy: A Holiday Collection (Atlantic)Pro Jewel: She tries really really hard. Con Jewel: She’s not as good a singer as apparently a whole lot of people think. Pro Jewel: She’s a woman very successful in the music industry. Con Jewel: It’s easy to imagine Jewel as a poor naif surrounded by “yes” men record company…
Naked City
Austin buisnessman Manuel Zuniga may be hoping three times will be a charm if he decides to make his third run for Austin City Council next year. Zuniga is reportedly weighing whether to vie for the seat being vacated by Gus Garcia, who is retiring. Zuniga last lost a Place 5 council bid to Bill…
Any Given Sunday
Stone’s tale of a professional football team is full of excess, machismo, and a ripped-out eyeball.
Postscripts
Christmas in Texas: its oddities and comforts
Mr. Smarty Pants
Merry Tiswas!
Record Reviews
98 DegreesThis Christmas (Universal) Christmas doesn’t get much whiter than this, an album of excessively harmonic holiday gratings from the RC Cola of boy bands, 98 Degrees. Discovered while singing outside a Boys II Men concert, this Ohio foursome has ridden the coattails of better, more charismatic boy bands to the triple platinum success of…
Naked City
Despite Sen. Gonzalo Barrientos’ concerted efforts, the CAMPO board rejects peer review on a vote of 11 to 8.
Stuart Little
Retelling of E.B. White’s children’s classic.
Coffeetable Books
Batman: The Complete History: The Life and Times of the Dark Knight by Les Daniels Chronicle Books, 208 pp., $29.95 Ten years ago, he was The Phantom Menace in pointy ears — the year’s box office champ. Thirty-three years ago, he was Pokémon in a cape — the entertainment phenomenon taking TV and the nation…
Book Reviews
Swaggart: The Unauthorized Biography of an American Televangelist by Ann Rowe Seaman Continuum Publishing Group, 448 pp., $27.50 In 1987, Jimmy Swaggart was one of the world’s most popular televangelists, with a weekly television audience of 2.1 million in the United States and a worldwide audience of millions more. He had spent a lifetime climbing…
About AIDS
HIV has been taken hostage in the abstinence debate.
Record Reviews
Mr. Hankey’s Christmas Classics (American Recordings/Columbia) One of the best Trojan Horse maneuvers of 1999 was Matt Stone and Trey Parker getting millions of 25-year-olds (give and take a decade) to plop down $8 to see what was essentially a musical — albeit one masquerading as a feature film cartoon. It was a natural for…
Naked City
Against all odds and expectations, Hyde Park Baptist Church agrees to negotiate with neighbors on the construction of a proposed five-story parking garage in Hyde Park.
The Talented Mr. Ripley
The Talented Mr. Ripley 1999, R, 139 min. Directed by Anthony Minghella, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Matt Damon, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Cate Blanchett, Philip Seymour Hoffman, James Rebhorn. Like a pint of ice-cold Stoli dumped into the eggnog bowl, this black-hearted masterpiece arrives just in time to salvage the holiday movie…
