You Only Live Twice
Connery didn’t want to play Bond anymore, and it shows, although Donald Pleasence’s villain is as demonic as they come.
Diamonds are Forever
Diamonds are Forever PG, 119 min. Directed by Guy Hamilton, Starring Sean Connery, Charles Gray, Jill St. John, Lana Wood. There’s really nothing funny about a pair of homosexual hitmen who kill an old lady, blow up a helicopter, and throw James Bond into a cremation furnace. Well, maybe if one of them looks like…
I Walked With a Zombie
I Walked With a Zombie 1943, NR, 69 min. Directed by Jacques Tourneur, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Frances Dee, Tom Conway. A nurse comes to the Caribbean to take care of a rich man’s sick wife. But it turns out the woman’s not sick but the victim of a voodoo spell. I…
Dr. No
Dr. No 1962, NR, 111 min. D: Terence Young; with Sean Connery, Ursula Andress. The sweet scent of over-the-top Bond antics isn’t evident in this tentative opening to the series. Connery takes a fairly normal bloke with a cool gun and a rotten disposition on a quest to stop the fiendish Dr. No from stealing…
From Russia With Love
A chess-playing criminal mastermind, a steroid-ridden übermensch, and the Teutonic dwarf with a poisoned shoe are out to catch and kill a Bond.
The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek
This is the master of subversion’s most subversive work, a wartime romantic comedy built around a small-town sweetheart getting drunk and knocked up by a soldier she can’t remember. Sturges covers himself by saying his heroine got married before she did the horizontal bop, but even so, the plot is a radical departure for the…
Goldfinger
Two words: Pussy Galore. Plus, Q brings out the Aston Martin for the first time, and Shirley Bassey shatters the speakers with the consummate Bond song.
Articulations
Robert Faires reports his recent binge of arts festivals programming.
Public Notice
Love, love, love. That’s what it’s all about. Yup, this week’s column: You’ll love it.
String Theory
If you’ve been around people in local rock bands for any length of time, you’ve undoubtedly suffered though enough litanies of perennial band grievances to know most of them by heart: The drummer quit, the singer’s a twit, the amp is blown, the money — gone. We haven’t even started talking about music yet. The…
Naked City
Computer Sciences Corporation prepares to sign a contract with the city to develop on three blocks of lakeside land.
Exhibitionism
The FronteraFest 2000 Long Fringe round-up continues with Robert Faires’ review of SLABBER, by Lisa D’Amour.
After a Fashion
Black for every budget at South Lamar boutique Blackmail.
Dancing About Architecture
The Mercury enters a new orbit, how to build your own music festival, the Continental Club get’s a new big brother, plus more food for thought about buildings and songs
Naked City
George W. Bush’s loss in New Hampshire forces a radical retooling of his campaign strategy.
Hard
Hard 1998, NR, 102 min. Directed by John Huckert, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Ken Narasaki, Bob Hollander, K.D. Jones, Steve Andrews, Michael Waite, Charles Lanyer, Malcolm Moorman, Noel Palomaria. It’s hard to know what to make of Huckert’s directorial debut: It’s part Cruising, part Silence of the Lambs, and part generic coming-out…
Exhibitionism
The FronteraFest 2000 Long Fringe round-up continues with Robert Faires’ review of the Bottom’s Dream production of chokecherry, by Erik Ehn.
Mr. Smarty Pants
Perhaps it is the female opossum who requires shock-absorbing underwear.
Live Shots
The PretendersAustin Music Hall, February 4 The reason to watch the pros is to see them be pros. Such was the case with Chrissie Hynde at the Austin Music Hall, decked out in a black waistcoat and attacking her Telecasters like she was betting with the devil. It’s almost a cliché to point out Hynde…
Naked City
Economist James Galbraith will speak on “Inequality: What Is to Be Done?” as part of the Working Stiff Journal Forum series at 7pm Friday, Feb. 11, at the AFL-CIO building, 11th and Lavaca. The talk will be followed by a panel discussion featuring City Council members and local activists. Call Bob Jensen at 471-1990 for…
Five Wives, Three Secretaries and Me
Five Wives, Three Secretaries and Me 1999, R, 80 min. Directed by Tessa Blake, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . Among his abundant blessings Tom Blake should be most grateful of all for the generous spirit of his daughter, Tessa, who directed this film about the 89-year-old Houston lawyer and his influence on…
Exhibitionism
The FronteraFest 2000 Long Fringe round-up continues with Robi Polgar’s review of the State Theater Company School of Acting production of A Macbeth
Coach’s Corner
The only remedy for your lard ass is a daily regemin of realism.
Live Shots
The Drummers of West AfricaParamount Theatre, January 27 Drummers are often treated like second-class citizens. In classical orchestras, tympani players inhabit the back of the stage, far from glowing limelights and flying bouquets. Same in rock, where drummer jokes are as common as they are corny. No such undeserved maligning in West Africa, however, where…
Council Watch
It wasn’t just Central Texas that got a cold snap last week. The gates of hell must’ve been swept by a cool breeze as well, as it looked like the thing that many thought would never happen — an agreement ending legal hostilities between developer Gary Bradley and the city of Austin — could come…
Holy Smoke!
Holy Smoke! 1999, R, 114 min. Directed by Jane Campion, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Kate Winslet, Harvey Keitel, Pam Grier, Daniel Wyllie, Sophie Lee, Julie Hamilton, Paul Goddard, Tim Robertson, George Mangos. I feel somewhat of a turncoat in regard to Jane Campion’s new film. After the rousing, invigorating triumphs of Sweetie…
Benevolent Agitator
Jim Hightower’s undiluted populism is wittty, rousing, and engaging, Clay Smith asserts in a review of Hightower’s new book If the Gods Had Meant Us to Vote, They Would Have Given Us Candidates
Day Trips
A Valentine’s weekend Hill Country winery tour.
Live Shots
Half Japanese, Brown Whörnet, Adult RodeoEmo’s, January 29 By 10:30pm, Danny & the Nightmares had been done 10 minutes. Damn that squirrelly Daniel Johnston! According to Sadies guitarslinger Dallas Good — hired out by Johnston’s ol’ Half Japanese buddy, Jad Fair — “Danny wasn’t supposed to open.” All the better for Adult Rodeo, an Austin…
The Bradley Agreement
Impervious Cover Overall, the impervious cover permitted under the agreement — 15.9%, or 399 acres — meets the SOS standard, since it includes a small amount of property in the contributing zone, where SOS impervious cover limits are 25% instead of 15%. However, impervious cover can be clustered in a way not envisioned in SOS.…
Postscripts
Austin is clearly experiencing a bout of literary event mania.
About AIDS
Unprotected oral sex may be riskier than previously thought.
Live Shots
Slaid CleavesCactus Cafe, February 1 Lo and behold, sometimes nice guys do finish first. It makes for better songs if they’re battered, bruised, and trod upon, though; no art without pain and so forth. That gulf between art and real life was an acoustic country mile wide Tuesday, as certified nice guy Slaid Cleaves launched…
Stories That Tell Themselves
In town for the Texas Documentary Tour, Albert Maysles — the man behind such famous documentaries as Gimme Shelter and Grey Gardens — talks about his fierce philosophy of direct cinema.
The Beach
The Beach 2000, R, 120 min. Directed by Danny Boyle, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Tilda Swinton, Virginie Ledoyen, Guillaume Canet, Robert Carlyle, Paterson Joseph, Lars Arentz Hansen. Can we all just get together, once and for all, on the ought-to-be-obvious notion that paradise is within and not without? Please? Work…
Book Reviews
The House of Gentle Men by Kathy Hepinstall Bard, 320 pp., $22 A man can buy sex, if that’s what he craves, if that’s what’s missing in his life. But what’s missing in that working girl’s life, or in the life of his wife back home? Maybe just kisses and compliments; slow dancing and gentle…
Happy Trails
Thirteen of Texas’ Hill Country wineries, all within an easy drive of Austin, are uniting to create a two-day Valentine’s celebration of love and wine February 12-13 in the Texas Hill Country Wine Trail. Wes Marshall provides the details on the participating wineries.
Count Me In
there’s power in numbers with the census 2000 data.
Short Cuts
Upcoming events and workshops of interest to the Austin film community.
Scream 3
Scream 3 2000, R, 116 min. Directed by Wes Craven, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Neve Campbell, David Arquette, Courteney Cox Arquette, Deon Richmond, Patrick Dempsey, Scott Foley, Parker Posey, Jenny McCarthy, Lance Henriksen, Liev Schreiber. Third time’s the charm in the concluding (maybe) chapter of Wes Craven’s self-referential (and self-reverential) teen slasher…
Book Reviews
Tigers in the Snow by Peter Matthiessen, photographs and introduction by Maurice Hornocker North Point Press, 160 pp., $27 There is a unique pain produced by any survey of mankind’s long, slow extermination of the tiger. We have extirpated plenty of other animals, of course. But unlike, say, the passenger pigeon, we know we are…
Food-o-File
Austin’s new pizza sellers, hints on how to find out of print cookbooks, ice cream novelties, and updates on the changes in Austin’s restaurant scene.
HTEs: Who’s Missing?
This map shows the 1990 census tracts for Travis County — the tracts which will be used to report 2000 data haven’t been finalized yet and don’t really have any bearing on the counting itself. (There will be more tracts, for sure, as fringe areas get more heavily populated.) The Census Bureau has a formula…
Video Reviews
William Wellman’s larger-than-life legacy: Reviews of Public Enemy, Nothing Sacred, and Battleground.
Book Reviews
The Brethren by John Grisham Doubleday, 366 pp., $27.95 In the breakneck world of politics, everyone has a price. That sums up John Grisham’s message in The Brethren, the prolific author’s latest tale of crime and corruption in the ranks. Unfortunately, Grisham applies that mentality to each and every one of his characters, none of…
Reservations of Choice
Chronicle food writers Wes Marshall, Rebecca Chastenet de Géry, Barbara Chisholm, and Mick Vann write about their favorite Valentine’s dining experiences.
What the Census Shows
These maps show the relative distribution of economic, social, and ethnic groups in Travis County. The darker the shade, the greater the concentration of the population measured; for median household income, darker shades show greater income levels. For example, the tracts marked in red on the Median Household Income map are those where incomes fall…
TV Eye
Sweeps period approaches, and it’s no big whoop that prime time is dishing up more drama, intrigue, and sex than ever. But the intelligent treatment of gay relationships on prime time? That would be a something to celebrate.
Off the Bookshelf
If I Told You Once by Judy Budnitz Picador, 294 pp., $24 Stories that portray magical events taking place in the real world are not generally set in the good old U.S. of A. Yes, there’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Samantha twitched her nose on Bewitched. But something about the collective vision of America…
Reservations of Choice
The Exotic Allure of Ararat I am the Valentine’s Scrooge. At the recent meeting of the Chronicle food writers, I emphatically bah-humbugged having to write about Valentine’s Day dining options in Austin for the umpteenth time in a row. Now don’t get me wrong. It’s not that I don’t like what our city has to…
Federal Money at Stake
Here’s a list of major federal funds programs that rely on census data for apportionment, and the amount of money at stake nationally for each: Health Medicaid $104.0 billion Rehabilitation services $2.4 billion Substance abuse prevention & treatment $1.4 billion Maternal & child health $0.6 billionTransportation Highway planning & construction $19.7 billion Federal mass-transit grants…
The War Zone
The War Zone 1999, NR, 99 min. Directed by Tim Roth, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Colin Farrell, Annabelle Apsion, Freddie Cunliffe, Tilda Swinton, Ray Winstone, Lara Belmont. Fair warning: The War Zone can be excruciating to watch. Dealing as it does with incest and the tribulations brought unto a tightly knit British…
Off the Bookshelf
Reservation Road by John Burnham Shwartz Vintage, 292 pp., $13 (paper) In Reservation Road, John Burnham Schwartz commits the mistakes of an inexperienced novelist. Despite a promising setup and minor poetry, Reservation Road ultimately fails to satisfy. The book opens with a boy’s death in a tragic hit-and-run car accident in the Northeast. The main…
Reservations of Choice
Paris in Austin No one ever says, “Let’s go to Frankfurt for a romantic evening.” They’d rather go to Paris. The very name conjures images of amour; its very soul is steeped in the stuff of love. An integral part of this sensuality and romance is Paris’ love affair with food. It is the French…
Courting the Vote
Four democrats are running for two judicial races.
Titus
Taymor creates a spectacularly imaginative piece of Shakespearean cinema set in a world out of time.
Off the Bookshelf
Anonymous Rex A Detective Story by Eric Garcia Villard, 276 pp., $23 Anonymous Rex leaps out of its gumshoe formula fast enough to break the genre barrier. Imagine a hard-boiled detective novel crossed with magical realism. Think film noir with great special effects. Think fabulous read. Vincent Rubio is a down-on-his-luck dinosaur detective in modern-day…
Reservations of Choice
Our Grade-A Romantic Retreat There used to be a place in Walburg called Joe’s Place. It wasn’t really a restaurant, more a pool hall with beer and some sausages from the Taylor Meat Company. In the evenings, the place was full of Moravian and German farming families. People talking, playing dominoes or pool, and enjoying…
Bench Mark
At first blush, the 53rd District Court race shakes out this way: In one corner you have Scott Jenkins, a lawyer with broad-based support, a list bearing the names of 650 lawyers who are backing him, a war chest loaded with working capital, and a campaign staff with a nifty record of election victories. In…
Off the Bookshelf
The Museum of Unconditional Surrender by Dubravka Ugresic, translated by Cecilia Hawkesworth New Directions, 238 pp., $24.95 In 1993, with war breaking out all over the former Yugoslavia, Croatian fiction writer Dubravka Ugresic went into self-imposed exile. The years of exile have taken a heavy toll on her; their impact is the subject of this…
Reservations of Choice
The Vietnamese Picnic A different viewpoint to finding a secluded, intimate dining locale in Austin is that no sane couple would venture anywhere near any restaurant on Valentine’s night for fear of interminably long waits and overloaded kitchens and staff. Yet we still don’t want to suffer the indignity of having to prepare our own…
Coming in November
Here’s what the landscape looks like for the rest of Travis County’s judicial races, the ones in which there are no primary challenges: 126th District Court — Incumbent Judge Ernest Garcia, a Republican whom Gov. George W. Bush appointed to fill this vacancy, will be a test case to determine if the GOP can break…
Second Helpings: Sandwich Boards
Tasty, bite-sized restaurant listings compiled from new and previous reviews, guides, and poll results. This week’s entries were compiled by Chronicle Cuisines editor Virginia B. Wood. When you need quick, reliable information about Austin eateries, check here. Jason’s Deli 3300 Bee Caves Road, 328-0200 13729 N. Hwy 183, 258-7888 9722 Great Hills Trail, 345-9586 Sun-Thu,…
Local Bestsellers
Local bestsellers are based on recent sales at Austin bookstores selected to reflect varied reading interests.
Climbing the Family Tree
Virginia Wood finds that with the help of U.S. census records, finding the roots of her family is possible.
Naked City
Capital Metro hires Ann Richards; Linda Dailey decides against running for Place 6; three candidates : Raul Alvarez, Gloria Mata Pennington and Rafael Quintanilla are running for Place 2 on City Council
A Big Word With a Small “A”
Sue Graze leads an organization that works to bring the visual arts to the entire Lone Star State. She talks with Rebecca Cohen about her first year directing the Texas Fine Arts Association.
In Person
Helen Ellis’ serious satire Eating the Cheshire Cat resonated in some unique ways with the audience at her reading at BookPeople last week.
Golden Arm Symphony
Unraveling the budding symphonic genius of Graham Reynolds
Naked City
Over the objections of SH130 backers, CAMPO expresses its unanimous support for an eastern alignment for the road.
More Than a Pair of Jokers
While she was growing up, Anne S. Lewis thought of Randy and Jason Sklar as just her crazy twin cousins. But now, after an MTV sitcom and success on the comedy club circuit, she’s thinking her relatives may be more than just a pair of jokers in her family deck.
Page Two
Do not underestimate the power of the census.
Music Feature
The Golden Arm Trio Why the Sea Is Salt (Loveletter/Shamrock) The second album from the Golden Arm Trio finds sole constant member Graham Reynolds expanding his already formidable stylistic range to new eclectic heights while retaining his ear for strong, memorable melodies. Reynolds is often pigeonholed as a jazz artist merely for lack of a…
Naked City
The Charter Review Committee comes out with recommendations for city council elections, including single-member districts, a larger council, and possibly proportional representation.
