Fuses
Fuses 1967, NR, 22 min. Directed by Carolee Schneeman, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . Schneeman’s personal study of her own sensuality is graphic yet entirely subjective. This former UT professor’s work attempts to create its own film language and challenge conventional ideas about representation.
Dreadnaught
Dreadnaught 1981, NR, 91 min. Directed by Yuen Woo-ping, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Yuen Biao, Leung Ka-yan, Kwan Tak-hing, Yuen Cheung-yan. Director Yuen Woo-Ping is the action maestro best known on these shores for choreographing the phenomenal action sequences in The Matrix and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. This movie about a psychopathic…
Butcher’s Fifteen
Butcher’s Fifteen R. Directed by Mike Akel, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Jerm Pollet. This Austin produced comedy is a mockumentary about a former tennis pro/current mobile-home salesman who offers up a Hands-on-a-Hardbody-style challenge: Anyone who can beat him in a tennis match wins a new mobile home. Mr. Sinus Theater 3000 comic Jerm…
The Act of Seeing With One’s Own Eyes
The Act of Seeing With One’s Own Eyes 1971, NR, 32 min. Directed by Stan Brakhage, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . Stan Brakhage, the patron saint of the personal cinema, takes his camera down into a busy metropolitan morgue and records what he sees decay, destruction, autopsies, and death. The film…
Take Me to the River
The Brothers Neville: An Autobiography by Art, Aaron, Charles, and Cyril Neville and David Ritz Little, Brown & Co., 352 pp., $24.95 When the Neville Brothers chose Uptown Rulin’ as the title for their last album, few could disagree. The Brothers cast a long and badass shadow in their hometown of New Orleans, where their…
Day Trips
Baseball, bats, obits, no buts, and environmental action figure into this year-end wrap-up.
Making a List
Examining the prospects for Austin’s lobby at the 77th Legislature
The Lifestyle: Group Sex in the Suburbs
The Lifestyle: Group Sex in the Suburbs 1999, NR, 78 min. Directed by David Schisgall, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . Never has sexuality looked so unsexy. Schisgall’s documentary explores the semi-hidden world of “the lifestyle” — swingers in suburbia — and what it finds is decidedly unappealing. The myth of wild, sexy…
Take Me to the River
The Billboard Book of No. 2 Singles by Christopher Feldman Billboard Books, 288 pp., $19.95 (paper) What a singular idea! In this country, everyone’s so obsessed with who’s No. 1 that we tend to forget that anything else matters. As one result of this attitude, there have been innumerable books written about things that have…
Coach’s Corner
To Rick Barnes: In the beginning … ‘Twas a morn’ long ago, the year doesn’t matter, When Frank Erwin awoke, his mind in a clatter. The TV was on and what did he see? Big crowds in Champaign and Knoxville, Tennessee. “What game are they playing?” The Regent did whoop. It’s round and it bounces…
Austin’s Hired Guns
Here’s who will be defending us at the Lege this session, with their salaries: Carl S. Richie* ($75,000): attorney with Mayor, Day, Caldwell and Keeton; deputy chief of staff to Gov. Ann Richards; assistant to Comptroller John Sharp. Cliff Johnson and Reggie Bashur* ($180,000): Bashur, governmental relations and communications consultant; deputy executive assistant to Gov.…
All the Pretty Horses
All the Pretty Horses 2000, R, 117 min. Directed by Billy Bob Thornton, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Matt Damon, Henry Thomas, Penélope Cruz, Julio Oscar Mechoso, Robert Patrick, Ruben Blades, Lucas Black, Miriam Colon, Bruce Dern, Sam Shepard. This much-storied and long-in-the-making film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s widely cherished Western novel is…
Take Me to the River
Wake The Town And Tell The People: Dancehall Culture in Jamaica by Norman C. Stolzoff Duke University Press, 360 pp., $19.95 (paper) You don’t have to look very far to see the influence that Jamaican dancehall music has had on popular culture worldwide. If nothing else, it was the spirit and traditions of the dancehall…
About AIDS
A note of hope and thanks for the new year.
Why Austin Gets Screwed
For more than a decade, Capitol watchers have speculated on why Austin is targeted by legislators attempting to replace city ordinances with state law. Some of the theories: Austin is envied because Texas President Mirabeau B. Lamar made it — instead of Houston — the capital. Voters in Austin are so liberal they offend legislators…
Wes Craven Presents: Dracula
Wes Craven Presents: Dracula 2000, R, 127 min. Directed by Patrick Lussier, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Gerard Butler, Jonny Lee Miller, Justine Waddell, Christopher Plummer, Omar Epps, Colleen Fitzpatrick, Jennifer Esposito, Jeri Ryan. “I don’t drink – coffee,” says Butler’s sleek, telegenic nosferatu, droll little bloodsucker that he is, and right then…
Take Me to the River
Night Moves: Pop Music in the Late ’70s by Don Breithaupt and Jeff Breithaupt St. Martin’s Griffin, 216 pp., $13.95 (paper) “Golden Years,” “Happy Days,” and “Boogie Nights” — the titles say it all about a time when “Get Together” had become “Get Down” and we had traded Earth Shoes for “Boogie Woogie Dancin’ Shoes.”…
The Confounded Carnivore
One bite of steak from Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse and we were in meat-eater heaven, Mick Vann writes. It was the consummate carnivore’s dream. Unfortunately, it’s not a consistently dreamy experience at Ruth’s Chris.
Looking for Mr. Goodbill
A look at what’s been filed for the 77th session at the Texas Legislature
Quills
Quills 2000, R, 123 min. Directed by Philip Kaufman, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Billie Whitelaw, Amelia Warner, Michael Caine, Joaquin Phoenix, Kate Winslet, Geoffrey Rush. “Tell me more,” whisper the titillated listeners of the imprisoned Marquis de Sade’s stories of sexual perversion in this fictionalized account of the notorious writer’s latter years.…
Take Me to the River
Fela: The Life and Times of an African Musical Icon by Michael E. Veal Temple University Press, 313 pp., $24.95 (paper) “Artists are here to disturb the peace.” This quote by distinguished African-American author and playwright James Baldwin opens Michael Veal’s thorough and nuanced biography of Nigerian Fela Anikulapo Kuti, easily the most influential political…
Food-o-File
The holiday season has been like a runaway train for Cuisines editor Virginia B. Wood; here’s a list of the new restaurants in Austin she wants to try out in January.
Naked City
We’re pulling for you, Buster. As we go to press, Attorney General John Cornyn is in court defending the Texas Senate’s secret vote to name a replacement for Rick Perry. It’s an odd twist. Cornyn claims to be an enthusiastic supporter of open government, and sometimes actually rises to the occasion and defends the state’s…
Second Helpings: New Sushi
Chronicle Cuisines writer Wes Marshall surveys new sushi restaurants.
Take Me to the River
Songs in the Key of Z: The Curious Universe of Outsider Music by Irwin Chusid a cappella, 271 pp., $16.96 (paper) There’s something compelling about that which we can’t fathom. That’s what makes Songs in the Key of Z by Irwin Chusid — noted New York musicologist, journalist, and guru of the strange and obscure…
Liquid Assets
Champagne and Sparkling Wine Millennium or not, one thing is certain, champagne is the wine to drink this Sunday night. It’s as traditional for New Year’s Eve as turkey is for Thanksgiving. The dilemma we all face is how to sort through the myriad possibilities and still get good value for our money. Here are…
Naked City
GSD&M lays off 32 employees, the first lay-offs in the Austin ad company’s recent history.
Will Anybody Ever Love Neal Medlyn?
For vulnerable performer Neal Medlyn, Dork = Cool.
Take Me to the River
Carp Fishing on Valium: Stories by Graham Parker St. Martin’s, 227 pages, $22.95 Add Brit R&B blaster Graham Parker to the growing ranks of rockers like Greg Kihn, Joe Jackson, Richard Hell, Pete Thomas, and yours truly who have turned from the comfy format of three-minute songs to book-length prose for self-expression. When I think…
A Small Green Cow
There is a small green cow that stands atop my piano. No bigger than a thumbnail, no heavier than 27 cents in change, he has been my constant companion since 1987, the fated year I dropped a quarter into a vending machine at a Stuckey’s in upper East Tennessee and got him, my small green…
Naked City
Austin’s high tech economy is boosting some wages, but leaving others behind, while the cost of living rises
Neal Medlyn’s Shows April-December 2000
1. This Is My Poem, This Is My Song (Movements Gallery) 2. Don’t Steal Me, I’m Art (Gaby and Mo’s restroom) 3. If You Announce What You See, No One Can Stay No (Lamar Blvd outside Taco X-press) 4. This Is Fuckin’ Bullshit (Ruta Maya Coffeehouse) 5. Constant State of Freakout (Ruta Maya Coffeehouse) 6.…
Take Me to the River
The Rockpile “Why,” began an e-mail after we published last Christmas’ rock & roll book section, “do you say these books are about rock & roll when they are anything but?” Because, o best beloved, rock & roll was grand theft to begin with. It was like that essay Lester Bangs once wrote about punk,…
Blue Monday
Antone’s Blue Mondays continues, 25 years later.
Naked City
David Waters prepares for trial in federal court on charges that he helped conspire to kidnap and murder atheist Madalyn Murray O’Hair and her family.
Karen Finley Reviewed
A Different Kind of Intimacy: The Collected Writings of Karen Finley, A Memoir by Karen Finley Thunder’s Mouth Press, 384 pp., $17.95 (paper) In 1990, four notable American artists were denied funding from the National Endowment for the Arts — a refusal stemming from the “obscene” nature of their work — and gained celebrity/notoriety as…
Postscripts
Upcoming changes in the Books section, radio drama in Austin, and Clay Smith’s revelation about Amazon.com that everyone else knew about already.
Outlaw Blues
Think Sinatra did it his way? Try this long-haired, Harley-riding redneck David Allan Coe
The Hightower Lowdown
Gifts for pets and corporate spies, and Michael Milken lobbies for a presidential pardon.
Articulations
Nine Austin arts organizations find grants in their stockings, courtesy of a Santa played by the National Endowment for the Arts.
Readings
Boone’s Lick: A Novel by Larry McMurtry Simon & Schuster, 287 pp., $24 Almost three years ago, Larry McMurtry, Texas’ foremost novelist for almost 40 years, declared that he would write one more novel and then be done with writing fiction. With Duane’s Depressed (1999), he completed the Thalia trilogy that began with The Last…
Dancing About Architecture
Sandy and Bob are almost done in, while Kirsty MacColl isn’t so lucky, and Pops Staples goes onto his great reward. Dopey the Goat, meanwhile, becomes cabrito.
Lost at Sea and Back Again
Chuck Noland has everything under control. As a troubleshooter for FedEx, Noland’s job is, in fact, to control the path of the items shipped all over the globe by his company: when they get there, how they get there, that they get there in one piece. “The World on Time” each FedEx box promises, and…
Exhibitionism
Through his Holy Cross Quadrilogy, a solo show that tracks three friends through four years at a Catholic high school, writer-performer Rob Nash takes us back to adolescence, re-creating that time of life in all its cruelty, uncertainty, agitation, and yearning, but also blessing it with an abundance of good humor and compassion.
Readings
The Quick & the Dead: A Novel by Joy Williams Knopf, 352 pp., $25 Ten years after publishing the stellar short-story collection Escapes, the critically acclaimed and cult favorite Joy Williams finally returns with her much-awaited fourth novel, The Quick & the Dead. The book is vintage Williams — odd, funny, dark, heartbreaking, philosophical, and…
Record Reviews
OutkastStankonia (Arista) All aboard the underground smellroad! And you thought the South was dirty before. Get a big whiff of the skanky guitars and Molotov cocktail lyrics of “Gasoline Dreams.” OutKast, the Southwest Atlanta duo also known as Andre 3000 and Big Boi, have outdone themselves on this sprawling, sticky-icky-icky opus that manages to find…
Short Cuts
A new film series begins at the Off Center, introducing avant-garde films and a new theatrical venue to Austin moviegoers.
Take Me to the River
“Why,” began an e-mail after we published last Christmas’ rock & roll book section, “do you say these books are about rock & roll when they are anything but?” Because, o best beloved, rock & roll was grand theft to begin with.
Local Bestsellers
Local bestsellers are based on recent sales at Austin bookstores selected to reflect varied reading interests.
Record Reviews
Erykah BaduMama’s Gun (Motown) Revisionists paint the Seventies as a golden epoch, coloring in today’s blank technological age with its supposed vintage-store hues. That shit’s jive … truth is, the Seventies were brown — gas was scarce, travel landed you in foreign jails, and the beaches were unsafe. Folks stayed in. Watched a lot of…
TV Eye
The Mole, Temptation Island, and Survivor II — get ready for a whole new season of watching contestants backbite, cheat, weasel, outsmart, and canoodle their way to the win.
Take Me to the River
Take Me to the River by Al Green with David Seay HarperCollins, 343 pp., $25 “I could tell you how to mix any kind of hard liquor you might have to make it go down smooth or how to brew up your own batch from a sack of potatoes. I could tell you the going…
Page Two
An integral creative talent of the past and present in this extraordinary town, Cast Away screenwriter Bill Broyles makes the perfect cover subject for this publication as we cross over into the new millennium.
Record Reviews
Roni Size & Reprazent In the Mode (Island) It’s now been three years since the arrival of Roni Size’s debut New Forms, and while that may not seem like a long time in the real world, within the ever-rushing time frame of electronic music it’s a century in dog years. In the interim, Size’s beloved…
Video Reviews
Visually magnificent, Restoration is a lovely mess.
Take Me to the River
The Beatles Anthology by the Beatles Chronicle Books, 368 pp., $60 Although there is nothing new left to write or say about the Beatles, you have to hand it to the Fab Four. For a band that broke up in 1970, they stand unchallenged when it comes to annually flooding the marketplace with high-dollar holiday…
Public Notice
Gather round the Yule log and the figgy pudding, get out a paper and pen, and jot down some of these items from our Annual Holiday Wish List 2000, Part 2. Local organizations need you!
Record Reviews
Rage Against the MachineRenegades (Epic) Rage Against the Machine’s dual role as social conscience and rap-metal gods has apparently pulled the group asunder. With MC Zach de la Rocha departed and working on a solo album, the group’s future is as clear as a Florida election, most likely rendering this covers album the L.A. quartet’s…
Video Reviews
Isn’t it awful?
Take Me to the River
Dark Midnight When I Rise: The Story of the Jubilee Singers Who Introduced the World to the Music of Black America by Andrew Ward Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 493 pp., $27 In the dark days after the Civil War, everyone in show biz knew that the newly freed slaves loved to sing and dance and…
After a Fashion
Somehow your Style Avatar remains faithful to fashion, even while bedridden. Read all about it …
Record Reviews
Badlands: A Tribute to Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Nebraska’ (Sub Pop) Wedged where it is in the Springsteen timeline, 1982’s Nebraska is a beautiful anomaly, a willful turn from ’80’s The River, which cemented Springsteen as a household name, and a passionate last grasp at Guthrie-style folk before the musical monolith that would be ’84’s Born in…
Video Reviews
The Postman Always Rings Twice is a stunning achievement that will live forever.
Take Me to the River
Can’t You Hear Me Callin’: The Life of Bill Monroe, Father of Bluegrass by Richard D. Smith Little, Brown, and Co., 352 pp., $25.95 When it comes to musical icons from the past century, Richard D. Smith’s Can’t You Hear Me Callin’ puts Bill Monroe in the front rank. Right up there with Frank Sinatra,…
Mr. Smarty Pants
Al Capone’s prison number was 40886.Aldo Leopold, the grandfather of U.S. conservation, was a bit of a tragic character. In later years, he regretted that as a younger man he killed Mexican grey wolves in the Southwest to save deer. Today, that species is the most endangered wolf in the United States.Sir Isaac Newton’s dog…
Record Reviews
Keith Jarrett Whisper Not (ECM) Thanks to chronic fatigue syndrome, Whisper Not is the first new recording by pianist Keith Jarrett in a couple of years. Coupled with bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Jack DeJohnette, Jarrett’s all-star trio recordings for ECM starting in 1983 have set a standard for modern jazz pianists. On this 2-CD…
Finding Forrester
Finding Forrester 2000, PG-13, 136 min. Directed by Gus Van Sant, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Sean Connery, Rob Brown, F. Murray Abraham, Anna Paquin, Busta Rhymes. To watch Gus Van Sant’s new Finding Forrester is a lot like realizing your gifted and talented child isn’t a kid genius after all. Maybe it’s…
