Cover Story
Desk Set
Its inaugural class – equipped with cameras, computers, and expert instruction – wades into a sea of possibility
Huh?
Council finishes Northcross discussion
City Hall’s On Fire. Or Something.
Just when you thought the evening couldn’t get any weirder. And no, we’re joking; there is no fire, at least not that we know of, but everyone has been evacuated out of City Hall until the fire department figures out what’s causing the smoky smell in chambers. OK, the scare’s over. People are filing back…
Liveblogging the Northcross Hearing…
Thank God. It is finally upon us. A few considerations, before we get underway: –The previous speaker sign-up numbers got blown out of the water, with the arrival of a large post-work Northcross crowd. Hopefully, the 45-minute limit still stands. – Will Futrell even rear her head? She’s been in and out all day, appearing…
Suttle Watch
To answer to our earlier question, no, it wasn’t incriminating, lascivious photos attorney Richard Suttle draped across each council member’s seat earlier this afternoon (so that’s what council did at the Crossings); it was letters from several local musical and audio wonks begging them to let Redeemer Presbyterian Church go to 60 feet in order…
Gonzalo!
“There is no place like Austin, Texas,” says the outgoing senator.
A Council Carol
Twas some hours before Northcross And all through city hall The AC was cranked up So asleep we would fall The 2 o’clock briefing On homelessness canned To make room for zoning 20 cases, goddamn! Richard Suttle rounded The dais with care At each members place Placing a dossier (What the shit is it? Naked…
Lone Star Arena Football Classic Set for February 23
The Austin Wranglers announced today the creation of the first Lone Star Arena Football Classic which will take place on Friday, Feb. 23 at 7pm to be held at the Frank Erwin Center. This game will feature standout high school seniors from capital area football teams who will participate in this Arena Football League style…
City Council Notebook
A few random musings: – They really are sticking to their own 45-minute limit: On Item 81, the Big Box ordinance, 15 are signed in to speak, 123 signed in but not speaking; on Item 82, the Northcross discussion, 23 signed in to speak, 115 signed in but not speaking. – Aside from its size…
Northcross Neighbors Scream, ‘No Deal!’
At 2pm, two hours after more than 150 protesters descended on City Hall, it’s finally quiet. Council has temporarily absconded behind closed doors into executive session, following a whirlwind of action and new developments in the Northcross/Wal-Mart saga. Not that it’s over by half; with Supercenter foes Responsible Growth for Northcross still signing in to…
Sara Hickman to Perform Live Following UT Women’s Basketball Game This Sunday
The live music capital of the world ain’t no joke. Live music emanates from every nook and cranny of this town and sporting events are no different. The lovely and talented Sara Hickman will perform live following No. 23 ranked UT’s Sunday Dec. 17 matchup with Tennessee at the Frank Erwin Center. The whole thing…
Wal-Mart Protest
You would’ve thought the KKK was back in town. More details to come shortly; for now, enjoy the camera-phone picture.
Wal-Mart: Three the Hard Way
It’s a Big-Boxapalooza in the print edition this week, with Katherine Gregor dissecting the latest Northcross foibles in Mart Growth, Michael King weighing in in Point Austin, and yours truly sweeping up the rest (and surprisingly, a few non-Mart matters before council) in Beside the Point.
Northcross, Big Box Scheduled for 6pm
If my ears are to be believed, Will Wynn just said Item 82, the Northcross timeline and discussion, will be scheduled for 6pm with their other public hearings, including the Big Box ordinance. The Responsible Growth for Northcross protest, by all accounts, still looks on for noon. Council, begin girding of the loins … now.
Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas
Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas 1977, NR, 48 min. D: Jim Henson; with the voices of Jim Henson, Jerry Nelson, Frank Oz, Marilyn Sokol. Kermit the Frog hosts this classic Muppet musical Christmas tale with original songs from master tunesmith Paul Williams.
Keep Those Wheels in Motion
Roll into Irving and do your thing. Another 100-plus yard game for Deuce McAllister, Reggie Bush racks up 160 all-purpose yards, and Drew Brees throws for 384 yards and five touchdowns. Hell, even unsung stud fullback Mike Karney scores the first threee touchdowns of his typically blue-collar career. Defensive end Will Smith bounces back from…
Derby Day in Europe
Chelsea 1, Arsenal 1 Lazio 3, Roma 0 Two great derby games last Sunday in Europe. First up was London, and an absolutely brilliant game in the heavy rain – with two goals in the last 15 minutes, two balls off the post in extra time alone, and a goal-of-the-year candidate from Michael Essien to…
Bradley New U.S. Coach
Longtime MLS coach Bob Bradley was named interim head coach of the U.S. National Team on Friday, the day after Juergen Klinsmann withdrew from consideration. Bradley will also coach the U.S. Under-23 team as it tries to qualify for the 2008 Olympics, and he’s also one of the five finalists for the permanent job (Lyon’s…
‘Juiced’: The Deacon’s Master Plan
Astros fans who have accused GM Tim Purpura of being slow to pull the trigger must now officially back off. There’s plenty of other stuff to complain about. But yesterday, the Good Guys traded fledgling pitching prospects Taylor Buchholz and Jason Hirsh, and budding fan favorite Willy Taveras, to Colorado for starter Jason Jennings and…
Breaking: Northcross Development Stopped for 60 Days
Big news out of city hall: Councilmember Mike Martinez has announced Wal-Mart is undertaking a 60-day moratorium on development at Northcross. “This is a huge step in the right direction,” reads a press release from Martinez. “The Mayor and Council members worked together on this deal, and I want the residents of the neighborhoods to…
Spirit of the Game
Greg Clark is a botanist in the biology department at UT. He transacts most of his business wearing shorts and sandals and enjoys playing music before his lectures to help each class begin positively. Greg shares a home with his wife, Monica, an educator for AISD, and their 8-year-old daughter, Isabel, a burgeoning artist with…
Do We Need WTP4?
The Water Treatment Plant No. 4 controversy centers around selection of the plant’s site in one of two troubled locations: the currently slated Bull Creek site, or the city’s preferred location in the so-called Cortana tract, both within the ecologically sensitive Balcones Canyonlands Preserve. But as SOS’s Colin Clark writes in to say, there’s a…
So How Did Ciro win?
Simple – by winning where the votes are. Like so much of American politics today, the Congressional District 23 race (see previous posts below) was something of an urban (blue) vs. rural (red) battle, and although Bonilla beat Rodriguez in 12 of the sprawling district’s 20 counties, Rodriguez won the most populous, Bexar. Almost all…
Mixed Use Meeting Tonight
Tonight kicks off the first of several inform meetings regarding the recently passed Commercial Design Standards Ordinance, and its centerpiece, the Vertical Mixed Use provision. Neighborhoods can decide to opt-in or opt-out of the zoning category, dependent on their desire to reside in a $500,000 condo above a gelato parlor. (We kid, we kid –…
Can’t Tell the Players Without a Program
All your Wal-Mart/Northcross info
Rodriguez Wins – One More Democrat in Congress
It’s over. All 267 precincts have reported, and Democrat Ciro Rodriguez has upset Republican incumbent Henry Bonilla. Rodriguez racked up 38,247 votes (54%) to Bonilla’s 32,165. That makes it 233 Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Rodriguez Leading Bonilla
Democrat Ciro Rodriguez appears to be pulling off an upset over incumbent Republican Henry Bonilla in Congressional District 23 tonight. At the moment, despite polling behind Bonilla in a Survey USA poll over the weekend, election returns are showing him solidly ahead, 57% to 43%. These totals include early voting numbers and 67% of tonight’s…
Okay, We’re a Bit Biased on This One …
… but we would really like to see some sort of shield law for journalists that can protect us from being jailed when we refuse prosecutors’ and judges’ demands to reveal our confidential sources. And maybe the upcoming legislative session is the one where we’ll see that happen in Texas, as we have both some…
Can You Handle the Truth?
If you still haven’t seen An Inconvenient Truth, former Vice President Al Gore’s documentary on the global warming crisis, there will be numerous watching parties nationwide on Saturday, Dec. 16, sponsored by AlGore.com and MoveOn.org, including several here in Austin. To find the one nearest you, click here and type in your ZIP code.
Housing Authority to Raze Thurmond Heights?
We received this note from a friend of OCEAN, the Organization of Central East Austin Neighborhoods this afternoon. Due to the timeliness of the notice, we’re reprinting it below. UPDATE: Question mark added to title. As a member of our news team writes, “They’re in the very earliest stages of a public planning process to…
City Council Notebook
From the Chronicle newsbunker to you… Re: City Council Agenda, Thursday, December 14, 2006 Item 13: $130,000 for Parsons Brinckerhoff Quade and Douglas, Inc. for TOD Station Area Planning. Buys plans for Plaza Saltillo, Martin Luther King and Lamar-Justin. Item 14: The West Austin Neighborhood Group’s name is WANG. For real. Item 41: Approve a…
District 23 Run-Off Today
Only one seat in Congress hasn’t been settled yet, there’s reason to believe it may further pad the Democrats’ margin of power in the House, and it’s right here in Texas. District 23, which stretches from western San Antonio to eastern El Paso County, pits the two top vote-getters in a run-off from Nov. 7’s…
Wal-Mart Threat of the Day
Following up Brewster McCracken’s assertation in a KVUE interview that Wal-Mart and Lincoln Properties wouldn’t sue if council intervenes at Northcross, because “both companies are interested in continuing to do business in Austin,” today comes more word from the Granola Cosa Nostra: Jennifer Kim’s Statesman statement: “If (Wal-Mart) wants to have other developments in Austin,…
Jay Williams Is Received in Austin
The Toros sent a distress signal out into the farthest reaches of the basketball universe last Friday in an attempt to right their badly teetering ship and make something out of a season that’s in danger of spiraling wildly out of control: “SOS! SOS!” (Which, in this case, didn’t stand for “Save Our Ship” but…
Gay Basher Plans Perry’s Gala
Just when you think Rick Perry is really trying hard to change his polarizing ways, he appoints a controversial gay-baiting preacher to his 2007 Texas Inaugural Committee. Aren’t inaugurations supposed to be festive? Not with a buzz kill like Dwight McKissic on the team. Both Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst appointed the inaugural committee…
All American Tennis Shootout
I hope you’re ready for some top-notch tennis action because Austin will play host to the No. 1 American (singles) talent, James Blake, as well as the world’s top doubles team of Bob and Mike Bryan. Blake will take on Mardy Fish in a singles match and then team with his brother Thomas Blake (who…
Perry Shuffles Press Offices
Gov. Rick Perry has promoted his long-serving (and long-suffering, no doubt) press secretary, Kathy Walt, to special assistant for communications, while Robert Black – Perry’s officious spokesman during this year’s election rout – advances to chief talker for the governor’s office. Ted Royer, a Perry speechwriter, will become deputy press secretary. In her new job,…
Not 250-Thread Count Organic Cotton Sheets?
What is an “Urban” Wal-Mart?
Northcross Item Posted
An addendum to this week’s council meeting has been posted on the city’s Web site. It reads: 82. Staff presentation regarding the answers to questions from Council and the public regarding the proposed development at Northcross Mall and consideration of direction to the City Manager. (Council Member Brewster McCracken, Council Member Jennifer Kim and Council…
Love Ya, Vince
I think we finally saw Vince Young sweat. Forget the last-minute Rose Bowl prance into the end zone. This wasn’t as easy, but it sure seemed to mean more to the man who sees himself as snubbed by the guys who pretend to be his hometown team. No sir, Vince doesn’t take kindly to being…
Wal-Mart a Go-Go
The Responsible Growth for Northcross blog points to a pretty incendiary interview Brewster McCracken delivered to KVUE over the weekend. Dude does not mince words: “We do have grounds, in fact, a legal responsibility to stop this site plan,” McCracken said. He said a city memorandum may hold the key to legally stopping the go-ahead…
Has Anyone Even Read the Damn Thing?
Read the Big Box ordinance
Adventures in Journalism: Let’s Go to the Roller Derby!
When the dust finally settled after last Saturday’s (Dec. 2) important flat-track Roller Derby match between the hometown Texas Rollergirls Texecutioners and the skating Saddletramps from Tucson, Ariz., a few things were abundantly clear. First, if I am to really bite into this sporting press gig, I am going to need Full Access. We’re…
Texas Bows Out of Playoffs
All evening at Gregory Gym, it seemed like Texas was hanging on to the cliff by their fingernails. In game 4, the fingers finally got tired: At the NCAA regional on the UT campus at Gregory Gym, the Stanford Cardinal ended the Longhorns’ season three games to one, by scores of 30-28, 34-32, 31-33, and…
UT Slams Wisconsin 3-0
While it will certainly be tough to get through the next three games, the Texas Longhorns tonight looked like a team that can at least dream of a volleyball national championship and not be kidding itself. In what should have been an even Sweet Sixteen matchup tonight at Gregory Gym between No. 10 Wisconsin and…
‘NBA 2K7’ for the PlayStation2
While 2K7 sports an impressive soundtrack lorded over by Dan the Automator and the difficult-at-first yet eventually rewarding Shot Stick Pro gameplay style, the poor graphics and the difficult learning curve leave 2K7 with a little work to do (although they are definitely gaining some ground) before they surpass NBA Live as my basketball game…
‘Friday Night Lights’: Snakes. Why Does It Always Have to Be Snakes? Edition
It’s not even Christmas yet, and Santa Claus has already been good to San Marcos, giving the Rattlers victories over Smithson Valley, San Antonio Marshall, and Harlingen South after a 5-5 regular season to put them in the 5A Division II state quarterfinals. This week Saint Nick has been extra generous and given San Marcos…
‘WWE Smackdown vs. Raw’ for the Xbox 360
Finally the WWE admits they are “sports entertainment,” but both the sport and entertainment aspects of this game are sorely lacking. All the superstars are rendered well as they pummel a path to their signature finishing moves. The overly complicated controls are frustrating and the limited soundtrack and loading times made me want to put…
Every Muslim a Terrorist
Not that anyone ever accused the Houston suburbs of being an oasis of understanding, but for fuck’s sake, c’mon: “KATY, Texas – A plan to build a mosque in this Houston suburb has triggered a neighborhood dispute, with community members warning the place will become a terrorist hotbed and one man threatening to hold pig…
Mucho ‘Carne Asada’ in the War on Drugs
And you thought arresting pot smokers – or, closer to home, using confidential informants of questionable credibility as the sole evidence to convict dozens of people for minor crack possession (as in Tulia or in Edna, Texas) – in the name of the (never-ending) War on Drugs was bad? Well, you ain’t seen nothing yet:…
Ice Bats Win Five Straight!
After getting off to a shaky start the Bats have netted five straight and look for number six this Friday in Laredo versus the Bucks. Laredo is atop the Bats’ Southwest Division and the entire Southern Conference but with Austin’s run of five consecutive victories they are a mere four points behind the Bucks making…
It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Wal-Mart
After weeks on end of paint-drying bureaucratic tedium and yawn-inducing dispatches from The Zoning Zone so boring Jeff Jack himself wouldn’t touch them if they involved a drive-thru porn and liquor emporium opening in the base of a 600-foot point tower on West Lynn Street, could next week’s City Council meeting – the last of…
Survey: Statewide Opposition to Proposed Power Plants Significant
Two-thirds of Texans oppose the construction of new proposed coal-fired power plants, with 47% strongly opposing, while an overwhelming 81% reject Governor Perry’s executive order to fast-track the plants’ permits, according to a survey of 600 randomly selected Texas residents released Dec. 6 by the Environmental Integrity Project. The survey, conducted by Opinion Research Corporation,…
Dickens Does Dallas: A Christmastime Visit From the Ghosts of Henny Youngman, Rodney Dangerfield, and Andrew Dice Clay Teaches Me the True Meaning of Cowboys Football
I’ll admit I’d gotten burned out on my Dallas Cowboys blog. It seemed like I’ve been making the same lame jokes and obvious observations all season. But last night, just like Ebenezer Scrooge, I was visited by three ghosts, but these spirits weren’t concerned with the Christmas spirit. They were here to give me enough…
Undocumented Immigrants Financial Plus for State, Drag on Local Gov
In her nearly forgotten capacity as state comptroller, Carole Keeton Strayhorn just released “Undocumented Immigrants in Texas: A Financial Analysis of the Impact to the State Budget and Economy.” Strayhorn says it’s the “first time any state has done a comprehensive financial analysis of the impact of undocumented immigrants on a state’s budget and economy,…
Apocalypto
The ever-astonishing filmmaker Mel Gibson continues his (probably unintentional) study of the mortification of the flesh through the ages.
Readings
With a simple drawing style reminiscent of TinTin‘s Hergé, Kevin Huizenga uses the comics medium to brilliant effect
Cookbooks
What to Drink With What You Eat: The Definitive Guide To Pairing Food With Wine, Beer, Spirits, Coffee, Tea – Even Water – Based on Expert Advice from America’s Best Sommeliersby Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page Bulfinch Press, 358 pp., $35 Which wine goes best with Oreos? How about with Salt Lick’s rich, sweet barbecue…
Box Sets
What It Is! Funky Soul and Rare Grooves from the Vaults of Atlantic, Atco & Warner Bros. Records(Rhino) In a tidy little box approximating the dimensions of a dozen 45s stacked neatly atop one another, the 4-CD What It Is! retraces the path of funk leaving its indelible imprint on soul, jazz, and Latin sounds,…
Box Sets
Buddy GuyCan’t Quit the Blues (Silvertone / Legacy / Sony BMG) Why has it taken a half-century for Buddy Guy to get the box-set treatment? Whatever the answer, the 3-CD/1-DVD Can’t Quit the Blues corrects the oversight for the most part. Guy’s legendary rep stems from three prime facts: the master bluesman has played professionally…
More Eight-Liner Seizures
APD nabs another 352 eight-liners allegedly being used in illegal gambling operations around town
Sports Gaming Guide
Arena FootballEA Sports PlayStation2 $29.99 Staying loyal to the AFL rules and regulations, Arena Football was aiming to keep sports junkies hooked on the juice during the off-season. However, unlike real-world NFL, Madden NFL 06 has no off-season, thus the need for another game is eliminated. Necessary or not, Arena Football garners a lot of…
The Holiday
Nancy Meyers’ follow-up to Something’s Gotta Give mines the same go-girl terrain but is far less interesting, featuring stock characterizations and a blandly upbeat vibe.
Readings
The Mother’s Mouth by Dash Shaw Alternative Comics, 128 pp., $12.95 Read enough modern comics, and eventually you’ll wonder if anyone else is going to do something like what Chris Ware does at the level that Chris Ware does it and using the sort of narrative methods that Chris Ware uses … but without seeming…
Cookbooks
Into the Vietnamese Kitchen: Treasured Foodways, Modern Flavorsby Andrea Nguyen Ten Speed, 344 pp., $35 Cookbooks dealing exclusively with Vietnamese cuisine are rare. Rarer still are excellent ones, those books that reach deepest into the soul of the food. This new release from Andrea Nguyen does just that. The food writer and culinary instructor left…
Box Sets
The Complete Motown Singles Vol. 6: 1966 (Motown/Hip-O Select) Bound for clutching, Hip-O Select’s The Complete Motown Singles campaign preserves the boutique series’ midpoint in another cherished yearbook of music history. The Supremes modeling red sequins, the Temptations’ purple choreography, Smokey Robinson serenading Tammi Terrell: Camelot. By 1966, JFK and Jackie were three years gone,…
Box Sets
Robert PlantNine Lives (Rhino) “The only thing I was sure of was that I wasn’t going back and relive [Led Zeppelin] in any form.” So assures Robert Plant about his unexpected solo career in the hourlong DVD documentary to Nine Lives, another 90 minutes of MTV video staples the 9-CD box set’s greatest hits. The…
California Tailpipe Rules Could Cruise Into Texas
New “Clean Cars” bill would require new rides in Texas sold after 2008 to adhere to California’s Zero Emission Vehicle program
Sports Gaming Guide
NFL Head CoachEA Sports PlayStation2 $19.99 EA Sports NFL Head Coach allows all the armchair Tom Landrys and Don Shulas out there a chance to step into the role of all-powerful head coach for an NFL team and to handle the tasks and duties thereof: hiring a managerial staff, drafting college players, signing free agents,…
The Architect
This well-meaning social drama about the intersecting lives of a dysfunctional, upper-middle-class family in suburbia and the residents of a deteriorating public-housing project is flimsy at best.
Readings
The Placebo Man by Tomer Hanuka Alternative Comics, 134 pp., $14.95 Twin brothers Tomer and Asaf Hanuka are an especially bright binary star system in the firmament of comics and illustration, and AC’s Jeff Mason has spared little expense in amplifying their light through a pair of solo collections this year. Tomer’s book comprises his…
Cookbooks
The Bon Appétit Cookbookby Barbara Fairchild Wiley & Sons, 816 pp., $34.95 At the precise moment of the party when it’s photo-op perfect, my friend Janelle and I know our cue to exclaim, “Great cook! Great party!” and strike a pose with our glasses raised and happy, animated faces on. We know this because we…
Box Sets
Bee GeesThe Studio Albums 1967-1968 (Reprise) “Please Read Me”! “I’ve Gotta Get a Message to You”! Reprise has restored the first three Bee Gees LPs, 1st, Horizontal, and Idea, 1967-68, in a 6-CD boxed set featuring the original albums in stereo and mono, plus a full disc each of rare and previously unreleased tracks! Heed…
Box Sets
Andy Partridge Fuzzy Warbles Collector’s Album (Ape House) If your main squeeze is an XTC fanatic, your holiday shopping ends here. A longtime home recording enthusiast, the 30-year-old English mainstay’s guitarist Andy Partridge began plundering his tape vaults in 2002 for a series of eclectic UK releases that eventually grew to eight volumes. The 8-CD…
Plug-in Hybrid Cars: Coming Soon to Austin, Detroit, and Your Driveway?
Support for plug-in technology building nationally and locally
Sports Gaming Guide
MVP 06: NCAA BaseballEA Sports PlayStation2 $19.99 MVP 06 merits some local attention by featuring UT’s own David Maroul on the cover. Aside from the occasional lag, the smart gameplay and player animations deftly capture the minutiae of the game. When using the Classic batting mode, hitting the ball for power is next to impossible,…
Blood Diamond
This action-packed take on the issue of blood diamonds is an example of social critique masquerading as cineplex fodder.
Readings
Pizzeria Kamikazeby Etgar Keret and Asaf Hanuka Alternative Comics, 100 pp., $14.95 Here’s the other half of the Hanuka twins, crafting a graphic work from the short story “Kneller’s Happy Campers” by acclaimed Israeli author Etgar Keret. The set-up is fantastic: There’s a specific afterlife set aside for everyone who’s committed suicide, and that afterlife…
Cookbooks
The Sushi Experienceby Hiroko Shimbo Knopf, 280 pp., $40 Hiroko Shimbo’s first book, The Japanese Kitchen, was an impressive feat, ranking at the top of the best English-language cookbooks on Japanese cuisine. Her second title, The Sushi Experience, matches or exceeds the brilliance of the first. It’s loaded with step-by-step photos to carefully guide the…
Box Sets
The ClashThe Singles (Legacy) The fact that “Rock the Casbah” is being used to shill music-compatible cell phones is no reason for Clashistas to abandon hope. Three decades after exploding out of London’s tube, the revolutionary English quartet retains its sonic potency; although, if you think that chanting “Rock the Cat Box” is anything less…
Box Sets
John MayallEssentially John Mayall (Eagle) Once it seemed that all the notable English blues guitarists of the Sixties did time in John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers. Never the best guitarist, singer, or songwriter, Mayall nonetheless had a master’s eye for talent and a bandleader’s strength. Essentially John Mayall, a 5-CD set from Eagle Records, gathers four of…
Beside the Point: Their Northcross to Bear
Council wades into Wal-Mart’s waters
Sports Gaming Guide
MLB 06: The ShowSony Computer Entertainment PlayStation2 $29.99 Clearly swinging for the fences, MLB 06: The Show is such an accurate and thrilling portrayal of a big-league game that users will experience all the stress and teeth-grinding of an actual major-league manager. The graphics are smooth like a well-executed double play, and the pitching and…
Unaccompanied Minors
Calling John Hughes: Former Freaks and Geekster Paul Feig has got your number.
Readings
Moomin by Tove Jansson Drawn & Quarterly; 96pp., $19.95 Whimsy. Whimsy of the gentlest, cleverest sort from Finland in the 1950s, in the form of daily comic strips (originally for the London Evening News) by Tove Jansson, chronicling the adventures of a friendly, troll-like creature called Moomin and his delightful (and sometimes delightfully barbed) friends.…
Cookbooks
Doña Tomás: Discovering Authentic Mexican Cooking by Thomas Schnetz, Dona Savitsky, et al. Ten Speed, 216 pp., $29.95 Chef Thomas Schnetz and partner Dona Savitsky have studied the regional cooking of Mexico, including dishes from Oaxaca, Veracruz, and Yucatán, paying tribute to the huge diversity of Mexican cuisines. Although the book’s title refers to “discovering…
Box Sets
SublimeEverything Under the Sun (Geffen) Like Kurt Cobain’s suicide, the overdose death of Sublime frontman Brad Nowell in May 1996 occurred at the peak of the group’s popularity and creativity. The SoCal trio was months away from the release of their Paul Leary-produced third album, which generated three hit singles. In that wake, the band…
Box Sets
The Harry Smith Project: Anthology of American Folk Music Revisited(Shout! Factory) Harry Smith’s massive collection of 78s became the patchwork of American folk. This was old, weird America, and Smith – filmmaker, musician, eccentric – was the preservationist. His anthology of songs, originally released on Folkways Records in 1952 and spanning 1927-34, was re-issued in…
Reefer Madness
Hemp Farming Battle Update
Sports Gaming Guide
Table TennisRockstar Games Xbox 360 $39.99 Rockstar Games, following its reign as cool-gaming king with the Grand Theft Auto series and the retro-hip Warriors, decides to lower the stakes with Table Tennis. Their latest release focuses less on style and lets the simple beauty of the sport shine. The players are rendered well without dropping…
Baabul
After his son’s death, an Indian father-in-law tries to get his daughter-in-law remarried.
Page Two: Sluggish by Design
The only “original intent” of the Constitution was to foil extremism and maintain a balance of power
Cookbooks
Sake: A Modern Guide by Beau Timken and Sara Deseran Chronicle Books, 120 pp., $18.95 This is the perfect book for the sake curious. Beau Timken discovered the wonders of sake while at a sushi bar – in South Africa, of all places. His introduction to a premium sake by some Japanese diners led to…
Box Sets
Michael JacksonVisionary: The Video Singles (Epic) For the hardcore pop fan on your shopping list, Visionary, 20 of Michael Jackson’s hit singles and videos, is the splurge of choice. Younger fans of the troubled singer might get a kick out of seeing and hearing Jacko before he was wacko, although anyone older than age 30…
Box Sets
The DoorsPerception (Rhino) The Doors’ catalog has already been reissued more times than Kramer has apologized, but nowadays the Stones, Pink Floyd, Zeppelin, Springsteen, and, for God’s sakes, even Rush and Journey get more classic-rock love than Jim Morrison’s UCLA film crew. Public favor waxes and wanes with every mouse click, so it’s easy to…
The Hightower Report
How Glamorous is Child Labor?; and A Sweet Fix
Sports Gaming Guide
Fight Night Round 3PlayStation2 EA Sports $39.99 The beauty of boxing is its simplicity. It’s a sport of man vs. man with nothing but some barely forgiving gloves and only-somewhat concerting low-blow protection. This focus on the human form – one of the toughest challenges for game designers – makes boxing video games a struggle…
National Lampoon’s Pledge This!
Two weeks before this Paris Hilton sorority comedy is released to DVD, the film is making a half-hearted theatrical run.
To Your Health
Jim Heffley’s death, on November 26, was a loss not only to his large circle of family, friends, and colleagues but to all of us in the extended Austin community who were lucky enough to benefit from his extraordinary professional expertise
Cookbooks
Talking With My Mouth Full: Crab Cakes, Bundt Cakes, and Other Kitchen Storiesby Bonny Wolf St. Martin’s Press, 272 pp., $24.95 My mother once queried how Greater Tuna, the two-man play performed by Joe Sears and Jaston Williams, found an audience outside of Texas. It appeared to her so Texas-centric, she wondered how Ohioans or…
Box Sets
Dolly PartonThe Acoustic Collection: 1999-2002 (Sugar Hill) As the most business-savvy country singer of the 20th and 21st centuries, Dolly Parton’s squeezing every nickel out of her adoring public. The Acoustic Collection repackages the singer’s three Sugar Hill albums from 1999 to 2002: Little Sparrow, The Grass Is Blue, and Halos & Horns. The Grammy-winning…
Box Sets
More 2006 box sets Tori Amos Beatles Björk Billy Bragg Byrds Miles Davis Goth box Bruce Hornsby Impulse Records Waylon Jennings Motown Vol. 4 Motown Vol. 5 Willie Nelson Pretenders Rockin’ Bones rockabilly Sonny Stitt Fats Waller Bob Wills
AFS Texas Documentary Tour
Heather MacDonald’s ‘Been Rich All My Life
Letters at 3AM
The film Babel is winning awards, but none of them for Best Comedy. It seems I’m fated to laugh alone.
Cookbooks
Cradle of Flavor: Home Cooking from the Spice Islands of Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysiaby James Oseland W.W. Norton, 384 pp., $35 There’s an old Indonesian folk saying that asserts “If you don’t know it, you can’t love it.” Because so few Indonesians live in the States, few Americans have ever had the opportunity to taste…
Box Sets
John ColtraneFearless Leader (Prestige) After coming to prominence with Miles Davis’ legendary mid-Fifties quintet, saxophonist John Coltrane went on to an unparalleled explosion of creativity over the next decade until his untimely death in 1967. This incredibly prolific period begins with the music in this beautifully packaged and thoroughly annotated 6-CD set. Recorded between May…
Turnaround Tale
Annie’s List jumps out of the red and into the blue
The Prospectus
Free introductory seminars will take place Saturday, Dec. 9, 10am-noon Online registration: www.austinfilmschool.com Online ASF/Google calendar: www.austinfilmschool.org/dmt-schedule.htm Membership $50 regular membership: Access to six editing stations on eMacs, Final Cut Express & Macromedia Suite, screening room, library, in-house Super-8 cameras, Monday-Thursday, 10am-5pm. $200/three-month pro membership: All benefits of regular membership plus access to 24-inch iMacs…
Austin Films Bite Into Sundance
The Unforeseen, Teeth, and Joshua
Kitsch Kringle
What we really want when we want Santa
After a Fashion
Your Style Avatar takes you on a shopping spree to test out Tickle Me Mark Foley’s stamina and to find Kinky boots or give Kinky the boot(s).
A Baker’s Half Dozen
The best new books on pastry, chocolate, and more
Box Sets
Weather ReportForecast: Tomorrow (Columbia/Legacy) Weather Report is one of the most influential improv acts since jazz went from naughty word to sonic idiom. Like the group and its legacy, however, this 3-CD/1-DVD retrospective is a polarizing affair. Built around the compositional gifts and jaw-dropping musical interplay of reedman Wayne Shorter (Miles Davis) and keyboardist Joe…
Ho-Ho-Homegrown Holidays
Austin’s independent “iconic” businesses hope we’ll all put them on our list
In Development
1996: Cinemaker Co-op founded by Kris DeForest and Barna Kantor as a way to promote the small-gauge filmmaking community. • First housed in the ArtPlex, 1705 Guadalupe. Screenings held at the Ritz Lounge, Sixth Street. • Early luminaries include Luke Savisky, Gonzo Gonzales, Deb Lewis, Jen Proctor, Shannon Owens, Bill Daniel, Lee Daniel, Bob Ray.…
DVD Watch
“By the time someone has gone from heroin to speedballs, methadone, and prescription drugs, the magic is over. The fantasy now is what other people might call a routine day.”
Xmas Unwrapped: Doff we now our gay apparel
After a powerhouse first year of sold-out shows, critical awards, and company growth, the shrewd women of Shrewd Productions are returning to their debut effort, the holiday burlesque Xmas Unwrapped!
Day Trips
James Owens Handmade Boots of Clarendon are family footwear made the old-fashioned way – one stitch at a time
New & Noteworthy
Pear Bread
Box Sets
Frank Sinatra Vegas (Reprise) Without Frank Sinatra and a handful of enterprising legitimate businessmen, Las Vegas wouldn’t be Vegas. While late-stage Elvis best defines Sin City’s gaudy excess, the Chairman’s swank appeal did a lot more to attract the high rollers. This 4-CD/1-DVD set captures five of Sinatra’s Vegas engagements, 1961-1987. Recorded a year after…
Holiday Shopping: The Anti-Mall
For those who loathe the mall experience, IBIZ districts offer a way to find that perfect gift at clustered – but far more eclectic – stores with neighborhood character. Or eat a soulful meal. – K.G. Guadalupe IBIZ DistrictAlong and off Guadalupe, between 29th and 32nd Sample stores: Toy Joy, 2900 Guadalupe, 320-0090 Wheatsville Food…
Sports Gaming Guide
Holiday Edition ’06
TV Eye
Midlife Geists
Austin Eurythmy Ensemble: Our bodies, our instruments
With their performance of Touched Twice, the members of the Austin Eurythmy Ensemble mark 10 years of embodying sound through movement
Soccer Watch
North Carolina wins NCAA women’s championship, UC-Santa Barbara wins the men’s, and more
Food-o-File
Toys, tamales, and drive-through pies – the holidays are here in earnest
Box Sets
Vince GillThese Days (MCA) Vince Gill is destroying his reputation in the best way possible. After Eric Clapton invited the underrated six-stringer to his Crossroads guitar-god summit in Dallas, 2005, the Nashvillian shucked his new-country balladeer shoes for some ass-kickin’ boots. These Days is one of the most ambitious artistic statements of the year, a…
Choose Austin First
Oddly enough, Austin has two different indie-biz groups – both started in 2002, with the same basic goals and mission. The smaller group, with just more than 100 members, is Choose Austin First. Also an alliance of locally owned, Austin-based businesses, it differs from AIBA chiefly in that it eschews a public activist or advocacy…
Sports Gaming Guide
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07EA Sports $59.99 This year’s Tiger achieves EA Sports’ goals like no game before it. When I say this, however, I’m assuming that EA Sports’ ultimate goal is to destroy my marriage. In a brilliant move to trick me into playing this game with my wife, this year’s model includes more…
‘La Pastorela’: A funny thing happened on the way to ‘La Pastorela’
Half a millennium after Franciscan missionaries brought the nativity story to Mexico, the Austin Latino Theater Alliance continues the tradition of La Pastorela but also creates something totally new
The Common Law
Sexual harassment at work – what is it?
Event Menu
We’re here to present you with several attractive options: among them, drink whiskey, shop sustainably, and/or construct a gingerbread house
Box Sets
Tony Joe WhiteSwamp Music: The Complete Monument Recordings (Rhino Handmade) Tony Joe White boasted one self-composed Top 10 hit in white-trash anthem “Polk Salad Annie” from 1969, not long before Elvis Presley added it into his repertoire. That hardly makes Louisiana-born White a one-hit wonder, as Swamp Music, Rhino Handmade’s Internet-only, 4-CD anthology of his…
Oaxacan Turmoil Touches Austin
Oaxacan artist with Austin connections arrested during police sweep in Oaxaca City
Sports Gaming Guide
NBA 2K72K Sports PlayStation2 $29.99 While 2K7 sports an impressive soundtrack lorded over by Dan the Automator and the difficult-at-first yet eventually rewarding Shot Stick Pro gameplay style, the poor graphics and the difficult learning curve leave 2K7 with a little work to do (although they are definitely gaining some ground) before they surpass NBA…
365 Days/365 Plays: Week 5
The yearlong festival of plays by Suzan-Lori Parks continues with seven short plays presented by Hyde Park Theatre in Week Five
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
The monkey bite heard round the world
Notes on Kitsch
Was It Grandpa or Snoopy? “I never really thought about it,” laughs Linda Lou Von Hochtritt, the designer and purveyor of Lucky Lou Shoes, a company run out of her South Austin home office, from where she ships vintage-inspired shoes all across the globe and sometimes onto the tootsies of the rich, hot, and famous.…
Box Sets
Tom WaitsOrphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards (Anti-) Welcome to Tom Waits’ garage sale! This 3-CD collection of covers, rarities, new and old songs is a big lot to sort through, but the choice finds are worth it. Orphans is more of Waits’ strange fruit: murderers and madmen, petty criminals and wicked women, junk cars and…
The People Have Spoken: Here are your icons
The results of our “Icon or Eyesore?” contest are in
Sports Gaming Guide
NBA Live 07 EA Sports PlayStation2 $29.99 You had me with cover star T-Mac. Much like Madden, the main selling point for many new sports games is the updated roster and Live is no different. Not so much an issue for Rockets fans but with the amazing graphics and solid gameplay (including Total Freestyle Control)…
TCB
Fun Fun Fun doesn’t disappoint, the Dixie Chicks leave Bush for Britney, and a Red tide sweeps through club land this week.
Arts Review
The Santaland Diaries, as staged by the Zachary Scott Theatre Center, lets you laugh at the ridiculousness of American Christmas customs and yet leaves you feeling a bit more merry
Cookbooks
These cookbooks – which would make excellent holiday gifts, by the way – explain everything
Shopping Austin’s Vintage Vanguard
Atomic City Whoa, Bettie! Page, that is. They’ve got just about anything BP ya could ever covet: cuff links and lunch boxes to lighters. Plus, one of the best selections of kicks in town, as well as embroidered cowboy shirts, hula girls, and all things Gojira. 1700 San Antonio, 477-0293. www.myspace.com/atomiccityaustin. Austin Modern Quality Plycrafts…
Box Sets
Jerry Lee LewisA Half Century of Hits (Time Life) He’s the only living name from Sun Records’ Million Dollar Quartet (Lewis, Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash) and he’s going nowhere without a fight. At 71, Jerry Lee Lewis punched through the lines of contemporary music this year with the appropriately named Last Man Standing.…
Developing Stories: Northcross Neighbors to Wal-Mart: You don’t want us as enemies
“Responsible” development sought for flagging mall
Sports Gaming Guide
WWE Smackdown vs. RawTHQ Xbox 360 $59.99 Finally the WWE admits they are “sports entertainment,” but both the sport and entertainment aspects of this game are sorely lacking. All the superstars are rendered well as they pummel a path to their signature finishing moves. The overly complicated controls are frustrating and the limited soundtrack and…
National Lampoon’s Van Wilder: The Rise of Taj
This highly unanticipated offering is cut ’n’ paste horn-dog humor.
Also This Week …
Fifteenth annual Austin Chronicle Short Story Contest deadline approaches; and may we recommend Issue 1.0 of Front Porch
Cookbooks
101 Martinis by Kim Haasarud Wiley, 128 pp., $15.95 I admit it: I’m one of those “purists” who insists you can’t call every cocktail a martini just because it’s served in a martini glass. A martini consists of gin, a splash of vermouth – or not – and perhaps some olive juice or lemon twist,…
Year of the Squirrel
Ralph White, 21st century naturalist, 18th century musicologist
Box Sets
Richard Thompson RT: The Life and Music of Richard Thompson (Free Reed) The perfect Richard Thompson box set would feature his beginnings with pioneering British folk band Fairport Convention, his work as a sideman with artists like Sandy Denny, then an overview of his solo work, including a healthy helping of his ex-wife Linda. It…
Naked City
Quote of the Week “The notice to the neighbors needs to let them know that something more than a site plan has been filed. It needs to be something like, ‘All hell is about to break loose, so let’s get ready.'” – City Council Member Brewster McCracken, on the way Northcross Mall neighbors were alerted…
Sports Gaming Guide
Madden 07EA Sports Xbox 360 $59.99 Simply put, Madden is a must buy. With sweet-ass graphics, an exclusive roster deal with the NFL (featuring one of the most impressive draft classes in years), and some new features that work well (the highlight stick), as well as a few that don’t (lead blocking and snap count…
Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus
From the director and writer of Secretary comes this odd fictional biopic about this photographer’s impulses.
Readings
Each year, Monte Beauchamp harvests and designs a collection of work from the world’s diverse crop of illustrators, sequential artists, and the graphically obsessed. And each year, it rules.
Cookbooks
The San Francisco Ferry Plaza Farmers’ Market Cookbook: A Comprehensive Guide to Impeccable Produce Plus 130 Seasonal Recipesby Christopher Hirsheimer and Peggy Knickerbocker Chronicle Books, 288 pp., $22.95. (paper) Simple Soirées: Seasonal Menus for Sensational Dinner Partiesby Peggy Knickerbocker Stewart, Tabori, and Chang, 224 pp., $35 The Farmers’ Market at Ferry Plaza in San Francisco…
Ralph White Reviewed
Ralph WhiteNavasota River Devil Squirrel Non-traditional traditional? Indo-African mountain songs? Rocking-chair string ephemera? What longtime Austinite and former Bad Liver Ralph White puts on albums and onstage is so mind-boggling and vast, it forces those of us in the description business down a treacherous path. His five-string fretless banjos and African kalimbas – resonating thumb…
Box Sets
John Lee HookerHooker (Shout! Factory) No one in Canned Heat called bluff when the Boogie Man, John Lee Hooker, claimed he could cut three records in three days before laying down “Burning Hell” in ’71. During his five-decade career Hooker waxed more than 100 albums, recording under aliases Texas Slim, John Lee Cooker, and Birmingham…
Lotto Madness Continues in Court
Judge recommends denying motion for summary judgment in Texas Lottery Commission whistle-blower suit
Sports Gaming Guide
NHL 2K72K Sports Xbox 360 $59.99 While the NHL continues their rebound from the 2004-05 lockout, the world of video-game hockey is thriving in 2K Sports’ NHL 2K7. Every aspect of 2K7 is next-gen style impressive (the sound and the graphics certainly), but it’s the gameplay that sticks out. For those new to the Xbox…
Luv Doc Recommends: Whole Foods Rooftop Skating Rink
Austin isn’t much of a winter wonderland. Sure, we get a little cold snap every now and then – just enough to make the green thumb paranoids cover their flora with moving/dog/smallpox blankets and old HEB bags; just enough for annoying small children to pretend like they’re smoking imaginary cigarettes; just enough to turn a…
