Public Notice
Blue Lights Anonymous Oh! The shopping outside is frightful. Is there a way to make it delightful? Sure. Many of our friendly neighborhood public service organizations are offering deals, trinkets, gifties, subscriptions, etc., all to fill the bill of your holiday gift-giving needs. And to keep those bills reasonable and dedicated to supporting good causes,…
Naked City
The local cop shop was abuzz this week at the prospect of the city parks police getting a nice pay raise — without even asking for one. Meanwhile, the Austin Police Association has been at the bargaining table since February, hoping to nab a few more crumbs. “It’s insulting,” says one APA member. “It makes…
Articulations
by Robert Faires G & S Salute Do you hear what I hear? No, it’s not a chorus of “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen”; I think it’s “I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General.” This time of year, it’s a given that the songs of Gilbert & Sullivan will be in the air,…
Mister Smarty Pants Knows
Cat urine glows under black light. So does dandruff. Prairie dogs are very social and can make excellent pets. They can be trained to use a cat box and will come on command. As members of the rodent family, however, they are likely to chew up your furniture unless you give them sticks to gnaw…
Ally McBeal � Going Through Motions
Richard Fish, Calista Flockheart, and Billy Thomas in FOX’s Ally McBeal Three things happened this week that unnerved me about Ally McBeal. On Monday, Weezer and I were gabbing in the hall making plans for TV watching that night. “I didn’t watch The X-Files,” I told him, the holidays having thrown off our Sunday schedule.…
Exhibitionism
THE TAFFETAS: POPTO-BISMOL Zachary Scott Theatre Center, through January 1 Running Time: 1 hr, 30 min Pink. Easy. Soothing. These are the three qualities that count when you’re talking about Pepto-Bismol. Its color — that vivid rose, somehow both muted and electric simultaneously — distinguishes it from everything else in the medicine chest, a hue…
A Little Game Called Go Insane
illustration by Jason Stout We played “Light My Fire” too damn many times — so many that maybe some of us have forgotten how to hear it. We quoted “I am the Lizard King” out of context way too often. We gazed at Jim Morrison’s fatally photogenic lushness for too long, and left too many…
Tackling Texas Truisms
photograph byMarlene Hanlin Local documentary filmmaker Don Howard doesn’t look like the sort of guy to challenge existing stereotypes and subvert accepted knowledge, but then he doesn’t look too much like an ex-high school quarterback either, though he is. His documentary Letter From Waco (which aired nationally on PBS in September) took preconceived notions of…
Beat the Clock
illustration by Robert Faires I could spend hours agonizing about a lead sentence or I could just put one down to fill up the page and hope that I have time to change it. Right now, time is of the essence. Something I never seem to have the right amount of, either too much or…
Please Try This at Home
Angela Shelf Medearis photograph by John Anderson For many of us, holiday celebrations are the only meals where we share and preserve our family food traditions. Food and cooking are ties that should bind us to our land, our families, and our heritage. As life changes and families disperse, those precious traditions can easily be…
Scanlines
(“Scanlines” wishes to thank Encore Movies & Music, I Luv Video, and Vulcan Video for their help in providing videos and laser discs.) Ewan McGregor as the junkie Renton is 1996’s Trainspotting. Trainspotting D: Danny Boyle (1996) with Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Robert Carlyle, Jonny Lee Miller Shallow Grave D: Danny Boyle (1994) with Ewan…
They Knew What They Liked
Study for Keith by Chuck Close It’s not too late. You still have a chance to meet the Vogels — in a manner of speaking, of course. Seventy-eight minimal and conceptual art objects, a relatively small portion of their extensive collection, remain on view at UT’s Huntington Art Gallery through December 14. This exhibition is…
Food-O-File
When people ask why we don’t have more really good Italian food locally, the standard response is that Austin lacks a large Italian immigrant community. San Francisco has its North Beach, descendants of Italian immigrants are well represented in the culinary landscapes of New Orleans and Chicago, and most eastern cities have thriving “Little Italy”…
Short Cuts
He’s back. Quentin Tarantino is returning to Austin with his new film Jackie Brown for a premiere screening that will benefit the Austin Film Society (AFS). Due for national release on December 25, this local premiere is scheduled for Saturday, December 20 at the Arbor Theatre. The film is Tarantino’s first writing and directing project…
India Ink
Back in the Seventies, I had a girlfriend who was a devotee of the guru Meher Baba (of “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” fame). She roomed with her sister, who had actually been to India on a spiritual pilgrimage, and their house was a virtual shrine. For a few heady months, while I delivered mail and…
Dancing About Architecture
Publicity-wise, Tuesday, November 27 wasn’t the best day for Sixth Street. Actually, it wasn’t the best night for it, with two separate incidents leading to two separate deaths in the vicinity; one man was stabbed to death in a fight outside the dance club Spirits, while another died of alcohol poisoning after leaving a bar…
The Bear Truth
illustration by Doug Potter There was no council meeting this week so Kayte VanScoy is takin’ a breather and I’m a’writin’ this guest column. For those a you readers who been ponderin’ my whereabouts, I disappeared from civilization last May. I done wrote this column for two years and just couldn’t take it no more.…
Postscripts
Mixed Notes Random House, James Michener’s longtime publisher, recently announced plans to establish the James A. Michener Memorial Prize, to be awarded annually beginning February 3 (Michener’s birthday), 1999 to an author who has published a first book at age 40 or later. Michener himself was about 40 when he published his first book, Tales…
Working for a Living
photographs by Todd V. Wolfson Austin plays host to as many music conspiracy theories as it does guitar players, but this one’s pretty intriguing: Local booking agent Davis McLarty moonlights as the music listings editor at both the Chronicle and XL-ent, using his editorial power to dole out gigs to acts he represents. The clubs…
Back to the Gridiron Knights to Remember
As I surrender my ticket and step inside, a wave of nostalgia hits me. It is the sounds that do it: the roar of the crowd, the crashing of helmets, the trombone tones of the high school band. For the first mesmerizing minute I am enchanted, lost in the sounds, transported by memory to high…
Who Wrote the Book of Rock?
by Martin Huxley (St. Martin’s Griffin, $12.95 paper) Postmodern industrialist Trent Reznor is an enormously talented musician, but he’s really not as important as he thinks he is. Author Huxley has cranked out enough of these rock bios to get in and out with all the fact and highlights but not a whole lot in…
Recommended
Friday: Dale Watson, Damon Bramblett, Stubb’s Ed Miller & Jon Taylor, Cactus Cafe Saturday: Gomez [last show], Stretford, Bicycle Pilot, Emo’s RATT, Back Room Sunday: Human Waste Project, Atomic Cafe Monday: Blue Monday Band, The Kellers, Antone’s Tuesday: Hamicks, Halfwatt, Bates Motel Wednesday: Juliana Hatfield, Fig Dish, Stubb’s Jonathan Fire-Eater, Enduro, Emo’s Thursday: The Lunachicks,…
Words About Music
It didn’t start out this way… The original plan for our semi-annual rock & roll books round-up was a typical allotment of a few extra pages in the book section. Less than 48 hours before deadline, it exploded into a full-blown supplement — a pull-out insert — taking on a life of its own. This…
Record Reviews
THE LONESOME ORGANIST Collector of Cactus Echo Bags (Thrill Jockey) A peaceful collection of church ballads and sweepingly dramatic should-have-been-made-into television theme songs quickly end up a trainwrecked circus when the windy city’s Lonesome Organist jumps the tracks and his consortium of overdubbed guitars, synthesizers, percussion, and vocals crash into a hillside. Entirely too busy…
Live Through This!
The back cover blurb from Entertainment Weekly enthuses: “Expect revelations galore about Courtney Love…” but the only revelation inside is how bland and unmemorable Poppy Z. Brite’s writing can be once she abandons her neo-goth horrorshow roots in favor of non-fiction muckraking. And sadly, although the story may be “real,” that doesn’t necessarily make it…
Roadkill
Lords of Acid Liberty Lunch Wednesday, December 10 There is a secret 10th circle of hell where slinky female demons in neon latex catsuits jab at endless lines of overpriced, weasely lawyers with blue steel tridents and barbed cat o’ nine tails. Some of the lawyers dig it, but most suffer these torments of the…
Free HIV Testing
Have you ever wondered where to go for an anonymous (using a false name) or a confidential (using your real name) HIV antibody test? Has your medical clinic stopped offering the HIV test due to funding cutbacks? Does your test site only offer confidential testing, not anonymous? Do they provide a trained HIV counselor who…
Road Shows
DECEMBER FRI 5 KMFDM, Rammstein, Liberty Lunch FRI 5 Royal Finger Bowl, Continental Club FRI 5 Verbow, Stinking Lizaveta, Emo’s FRI 5 Beau Jocque, Antone’s SAT 6 Shawn Phillips, Cactus Cafe SAT 6 RATT, Back Room SAT 6 Scarface, City Coliseum SAT 6 The Hollisters, Continental Club SAT 6 Fullbright & Jaworski, La Zona Rosa…
Drive-In
Dear Suzy, My driveway has a four-inch drop between my carport and the driveway. I’m getting tired of slowly driving my car over that little cliff every time I enter or exit my carport and would like to pour some more concrete to make a gradual slope. I can find books that cover pouring concrete…
For Whom the Road Tolls
The Death of Touring For Whom the Road Tolls by Andy Langer The exception, not the rule: Radio play has made Abra Moore’s 1997 tours a lot less solitary. photograph by Todd V. Wolfson What does it say about a touring musician’s life that Abra Moore would admit to the biggest surprise coming from her…
Benefits
FRI 5 Silent Auction to benefit the Southwest Key Program’s Aging in Place, at Las Manitas, 211 Congress, 5-9pm. Cost is $10. 462-2181. Dykes for Choice to benefit the Rosie Jimenez Fund, at Electric Lounge, 302 Bowie, 9pm. Cost is $5. 433-7930. SAT 6 Walk to Fight Asthma to benefit the American Lung Association, at…
More Fightin’ Words
illustration by Doug Potter The running tiff between Austin American-Statesman editor Richard Oppel and Texas Monthly publisher Mike Levy is reaching ugly proportions. This will require some background: A few months ago, Texas Monthly wanted to interview San Antonio author Sandra Cisneros about her bright purple house, the color of which was causing consternation among…
Coach’s Corner
How can a dog bark all night? Why don’t steel ships sink to the bottom of the sea? Why can’t I touch that rainbow, and where is that pot of gold? Why can’t I match one number on a lottery ticket? Why are women too hot in the summer, too cold in the winter? What…
Military Hospitality
This group of Austin activists and journalists get the red-carpet treatment (complete with free brochures!) at the School of the Americas. photograph by Andy McKenna It must have been a military strategist who said, “Keep your enemies close to you.” That strategy was employed to fairly good effect recently when a contingent of Austinites traveled…
Day Trips
by Gerald E. McLeod Wyman Meinser and Andrew Sansom photograph by Gerald E. McLeod Wyman Meinzer and Andrew Sansom have traveled all over Texas visiting the sites that contributed to the making of the legend and the myth of the Lone Star State — Meinzer as an award-winning photographer and Sansom as the executive director…
Multimedia Plunge
How do you distill the essence of a unique place into a photograph, book, or essay? And of all the places on earth, what could be harder to capture than Barton Springs? For people interested in Austin’s most famous swimming spot, only a jump into the pool itself could rival the tsunami of information presented…
Page Two
Ray Benson is not by any means on the road to nowhere, but he can tell you that touring Austin bands rarely receive much in the way of monetary rewards. Benson is on the cover of this issue because he tours constantly and no one knows the rigors and the costs of the road more…
Pohl-Brown Town
photograph by Jana Birchum Right now, the Hog Farm is a dead end. North and east of the intersection of U.S. 183 and RR 620, all roads lead to the edge of the 446.4-acre Hog Farm tract and then stop. Usually pretty abruptly. Coming in from the old, abandoned, ruined Leander Rehabilitation Center, of which…
