Cover Stories
A Score Is Born
UT midwifes a new symphony by John Corigliano
Five Degrees from Beethoven
UT pianist Anton Nel, figuratively descended from a line of teachers beginning with Beethoven
Chocolate: Pathway to the Gods
Chocolate: Pathway to the Gods 2005, NR. Directed by Meredith L. Dreiss, Sharon Edgar Greenhill. A new documentary film about the history of chocolate. Pastry chef Amy Osborn will present a buffet. Advance reservations with payment required. Contact foodwaysrsvp@yahoo.com.
Johnny Firecloud
Johnny Firecloud 1975, R, 94 min. Directed by William Allen Castleman, Starring Victor Mohica, Ralph Meeker, David Canary, Frank DeKova, Sacheen Littlefeather. When he returns to the reservation after his military service, an Indian man finds his tribe the object of victimization by the white man. How do you say Walking Tall in Navajo?
Karmen Geï
Karmen Geï 2001, NR, 86 min. Directed by Joseph Gaï Ramaka, Starring Djeïnaba Diop Gaï, Magaye Niang, Stephanie Biddle, Thierno Ndiaye. This Sengalese film tells the story of Carmen (popularized through Bizet’s opera), who dances, loves, and fights her way through life, attracting both male and female suitors.
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Concerning beans, pods, snow, wind, rain, hedgehogs, and perfect chopsticks
Phases & Stages
The Yuppie PricksBrokers Banquet (Alternative Tentacles) Listening to the Yuppie Pricks on disc is like reading a screenplay. Without the visuals, it’s hard to imagine what actually happens behind the camera. However, with the bills pouring from the Pricks’ silk-lined pockets, it’s shocking that Brokers Banquet, their debut on Jello Biafra’s notoriously silly Alternative Tentacles,…
Naked City
House investigation hands seat to Vo
True Hollywood Stories
Mark Vandermeulen, editor In a Culver City Thai restaurant, Mark Vandermeulen is piecing together how he became an editor. While he will turn 27 next January, Vandermeulen still looks like a college kid – the worn leather of his jacket offsetting a young face. But there is patience in his eyes, that glimmer of youth…
TCB
Doug Sahm’s and Handsome Joel’s memories live on, even as the international pipeline into Austin dries up
To Your Health
What are lignans?
Phases & Stages
Broken TeethBlood on the Radio – Live (Perris) A live album from a band that plays at least every other weekend might seem a little redundant, but it hardly matters when said band is as reliable as Broken Teeth. And given the way frontman and local hard-rock lifer Jason McMaster feeds off an audience, it…
Naked City
Scoring unreliable and discriminatory, legislators reply
True Hollywood Stories
Mike Simpson, agent “I try to pick clients whose work sweeps me off my feet,” explains Mike Simpson from his William Morris Agency office in Beverly Hills. “I’ve always followed my gut instinct.” Such faith may have been gleaned during his childhood as a military brat, moving from air force base to air force base…
The Common Law
Mediation – what happens at a mediation?
Phases & Stages
Baby RobotsChartorseau (Ant Lunch Musick) A transmission from the past once advised a restless generation to “kill yr idols.” One earful of Baby Robots’ Chartorseau and it’s obvious they too have had a love affair with early-Nineties noise rock, with Sixties psych as their mistress. The Austin foursome’s latest album careens along the roads forged…
Naked City
Officer Marquez recently disciplined for improper force
True Hollywood Stories
Camille Anderson, actress/model “There’s a lot of attention paid to looks in this town,” Camille Anderson admits, “but you can’t buy into the Hollywood stereotype.” An interesting statement, considering Anderson appears to be your quintessential California beauty – blond and thin with an equal class-to-craziness ratio. However, she is originally just another girl from Dallas,…
Our Motto: Be Depraved
‘I Am Alpha’ takes a darkly satirical look at a certain all-American youth group
For the Love of Chocolate
The taste, the look, the feel of an obsession
Phases & Stages
No Idea Festival(Coincident/Spring Garden Music/Ten Pounds to the Sound) It’s every mellow musician’s dream: finding a drummer good enough to know when not to play. That was the level of musicianship on display in Austin during last year’s second annual No Idea Festival, a gathering of far-flung musicians shepherded by local percussionist Chris Cogburn at…
Naked City
Parents wait in line all night for AISD transfer requests
Burnt Orange to Tell ‘Children’s Story’
A tale of two 12-year-old runaways is the next project from Burnt Orange Productions, the for-profit film arm of the University of Texas Film Institute
Fire Aid
Assistance has been organized for the more than 70 artists and arts organizations affected by last week’s fire at the Guadalupe Arts Center
For the Love of Chocolate
Chocolates El Rey: From Venezuela to Fredericksburg Established in 1929, Chocolates El Rey (www.chocolateselrey.com) is one of the world’s best manufacturers of premium chocolates, owned and operated in Venezuela by the Redmond family since 1973. Their connection to Central Texas started when Jorge Redmond, president of the company, sought his old college friend Randall Turner…
Phases & Stages
Oliver FutureThe Bear Chronicles (Lilywhite) Oliver Future’s new EP, The Bear Chronicles, proves this game Austin band has grown a bit in the last year. Following the respectable success of last winter’s otherwise disappointing self-titled debut, they’ve returned with a four-song preview of what’s in store for a second album, due fall 2005. Reteamed with…
Naked City
Ugly or not, ACC’s South Austin Campus will get built
Flicker’s Best
Thursday, Feb. 17, 9:45pm, Alamo Drafthouse Downtown
‘Light’ Dawns in Austin
A new ballet leads the way in an ambitious community project promoting tolerance
For the Love of Chocolate
Miles Compton: On the Road Austin chocolatier Miles Compton says, “I live in the land of chocolate and raspberries,” but it seems like he pretty much lives in his truck. Upon first hearing about Miles of Chocolate a couple of years ago, I had this goofy vision of a sweet brown river stretching into the…
Phases & Stages
The Onlys Limbic System (Detach) You can hear every red cent of the missing budget on the Onlys’ third album, Limbic System. Cut corners on every slightly off-key melody emanating from Rachel Romo’s keyboards, pennies pinched off Jason Lavalle’s centerpiece beat, which should have been sanded down further in the mix. Joel Chenoweth’s guitars and…
Naked City
A traveling memorial honors American and Iraqi war dead alike
In Print
Scott Von Doviak’s ‘Hick Flicks: The Rise and Fall of Redneck Cinema’
‘Light/The Holocaust & Humanity Project’ Schedule
Feb. 16, “Representations of the Holocaust Through Time” Free lecture: Dr. James Young, Dr. Robert Abzug, Stephen Mills. Wednesday, 7pm, LBJ Library and Museum Atrium. Feb. 23-24, Holocaust Education Institute Professional development seminar to help middle school and high school teachers improve their skills in teaching about the Holocaust. Wednesday and Thursday, 8am-6pm, Thompson Conference…
For the Love of Chocolate
Tom Pedersen: Chocolate Explorer Talking to Tom Pedersen, it becomes obvious that he’s a man of insatiable curiosity. When chocolate piqued his curiosity, he immersed himself in the subject, reading about its history, archeology, and agronomy. He spent countless hours in UT’s Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection researching the origins of chocolate and its…
Phases & Stages
The ExplosivesKaBOOM! (SteadyBoy) When Explosives drummer Freddie Krc describes the Explosives as “three against the world” in the liner notes to KaBOOM!, he’s not kidding. Krc, Cam King, and Waller Collie were regarded as interlopers when they hit Austin’s punk/New Wave scene of 1979, all edgy clothes and veteran-musician panache. They forged a brand of…
Naked City
Costello accuses Curtis of attempted bribery
TV Eye
First they came for Bob. Then, they came for Buster. Who’s next? But, more importantly, when will this witch hunt end?
Arts Review
Zachary Scott Theatre Center’s Aida’ delivers some memorable moments, but not all sides of the musical’s romantic triangle are in balance
For the Love of Chocolate
Rick Bristow: In the Mood These days, Rick Bristow is one happy guy, as well as a consummate salesperson and entrepreneur; he’s really glad to see you and serenely confident that you’ll love his product as much as he does. Bristow is the visionary, owner, developer, and promoter of the new Austin-based, enigmatically named SXUL…
Phases & Stages
Shaun YoungWiggle Walk (Goofin) Ya gotta love rockabilly for its limited sound and handful of subjects – cars, girls, the occasional scrape with the law. Nothing wrong with that; it keeps the sound pure and identifiable, and in the case of Shaun Young’s Wiggle Walk, clean and crisp (“One Two Three Carburetors”), sinewy and snaky…
Naked City
Protesters rally to restore children’s insurance funding
DVD Watch
After several years in the States, where he directed four films, German-born Wim Wenders decided to head back home and compose a love letter to Berlin
Arts Review
Michelle Mayer’s middle-class home installation at Women & Their Work offers aesthetic and conceptual strength and shows Mayer at her very best
For the Love of Chocolate
The Great Book of Chocolateby David Lebovitz Ten Speed Press, 165 pp., $16.95 (paper) The chocolate odyssey of San Francisco Bay area pastry chef David Lebovitz led him to investigate everyone from the Old World artisans of Europe’s finest chocolate houses to the talented upstarts responsible for the chocolate renaissance sweeping this country. Lebovitz has…
Phases & Stages
Kimmie RhodesWindblown (Sunbird) Following the big sky ascendancy of 1996’s West Texas Heaven, Kimmie Rhodes burrowed deep for what seemed like an eternity. The last five years have reversed that trend: the confidence of 2000’s Rich From the Journey, 2002’s peak Love Me Like a Song, ’03’s half-hearted duets with Willie Nelson, Picture in a…
An Education Only a Boss Could Love
The House education bill introduced last week drew instant criticism from teachers unions, tempered praise from legislative leaders, cautious restraint from school administrators, and … heads up, everybody … an enthusiastic thumbs up from the Texas Association of Business! Uh-oh. The state’s most powerful business lobby group hasn’t been this tickled since the new Republican…
Boogeyman
Don’t go into the closet.
News/Print
You ain’t getting in to see Don DeLillo, so you might as well read about Seymour Hersh, Laura Bush, and Eli Wallach rolling around in the green, green grass together. Get your mind out the gutter! It’s the Claiborne K.H. Smith connection.
For the Love of Chocolate
Chocolate: A Bittersweet Saga of Dark and Light by Mort Rosenblum North Point Press, 290 pp., $24 Mort Rosenblum is an award-winning international journalist with a love of food and a genuine talent for immersing himself in his chosen subjects. His gifts and passions are evident in this erudite exploration of the history, archeology, agronomy,…
Phases & Stages
Zein Al-Jundi Traditional Songs From Syria (ARC Music) Imagine OutKast asking local MC Bavu Blakes to lay down tracks in Atlanta. Or Austin’s Pieces of East being taped by sonic wizard Bill Laswell in NYC. Or how ’bout Brian Eno phoning 710 kings Pong to set up a London studio date? These are the like…
Point Austin: A Question of Vision
By sticking his foot firmly in his mouth – and following it with his wallet – mayoral aide Matt Curtis has given the anti-toll activists at Austin Toll Party yet another handy weapon in their determination to turn the Central Texas transportation fight into a symbolic battle of sublimely virtuous grassroots citizens against the woefully…
In the Realms of the Unreal
The strange artwork and life of primitivist Harry Darger is given dimension by master documentarist Jessica Yu.
Page Two
SXSW 2005 looms on the horizon
Liquid Assets
Valentine wine
Phases & Stages
The Ugly Beats Bring On the Beats! (Get Hip) Slowly but surely, the Ugly Beats have utilized both pluck and scholarship to posit themselves as Austin’s most logical 21st-century heir to the Sixties garage rock explosion in Texas. Seeing the Beats shake it down at the Carousel Lounge is as close as you’re likely to…
The Hightower Report
Jim hopes Dubya enjoyed his inauguration, because polls show the next four years may be bumpy
Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior
The mass release of this top-notch Thai action film should havee American audiences grinning ear to ear and shore to shore.
After a Fashion
Stephen weighs in on city planning issues … at least ones regarding how certain things look. Other than that, he drops a lot of names and tells you where to go. For Valentine’s Day, silly.
Food-o-File
Our Valentine’s Day Eat, Drink, Watch Movies screening of ‘Chocolat’ is sold out for Monday night, so be sure and tune in to Majic 95FM at 6:40am on Friday morning for the chance to win the last pair of tickets! Meanwhile, folks at the following places will be glad to help you choose the perfect…
Wrong Place, Wrong Time
Texas prosecutors use the ‘law of parties’ to widen the net for capital punishment
True Hollywood Stories
Texans who took a chance and headed west tell all
Shabd
Not reviewed at press time.
About AIDS
More than half of new HIV cases reported in the U.S. each year are among African-Americans, even though they represent only 13% of the general population; and about two-thirds of all women being diagnosed with AIDS today are black. This is one thrust of a new report, “The Time Is Now!,” from the Black AIDS…
Circular Logic, Circular Justice
When the legislature set out to revise the penal code back in the 1970s, section 7.02(b) didn’t exist, says Seth Searcy, a longtime Austin attorney who served on the state bar committee that helped rewrite the code in 1971. (The revision was first introduced in 1971 and enacted in 1973.) That section’s definition of conspirator…
True Hollywood Stories
John Jackson, actor “When I first came out to L.A., all I needed was for someone to look me in the eye and tell me to get the hell out of here,” says John Jackson, gazing out the back window of the diner at the soaking Studio City parking lot. “That person never appeared.” Jackson…
William Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice
Al Pacino stars as Shylock in this film rendition of Shakespeare’s thorniest play.
Day Trips
The Canyon of the Eagles on Lake Buchanan outside of Burnet is as special as its name implies
The Concerts
Ravel and BeethovenAnton Nel, piano; Brian Lewis, violin Feb. 19, 8pm, Jessen Auditorium, UT $12 general admission, $7 UT students The Ravel Violin Sonata contains one of the oddities of classical music: a French impressionist composer’s version of the blues. By the time Ravel composed this piece in 1927, the radio broadcasts from the Eiffel…
FWS Punts Salamanders to TCEQ
Environmentalists decry shift in enforcement responsibility
True Hollywood Stories
Scott David Burton, sound designer “Raw chicken makes the best punches.” Technically, Scott David Burton shouldn’t know this. Technically, this is a foley artist’s job – the vocation that consists of being locked in a room with various props to re-create a purer sound for the action onscreen. But technicalities don’t matter when it comes…
A Tree of Palme
It’s the Pinocchio story filtered through the prism of cyberpunk animé.
Soccer Watch
The U.S. national team sees and conquers in Port of Spain
Phases & Stages
Reckless KellyWicked Twisted Road (Sugar Hill) On their fifth release – second for North Carolina indie Sugar Hill – Reckless Kelly has penned its “Freebird.” True, the leadoff title track is only three minutes and lands smoothly, as opposed to crash-landing a three-guitar pileup, but its road/world weary tone and Southern drawl would make both…
Neighbors Call Foul on Tennis Center Expansion
Galindo residents want to keep green space
True Hollywood Stories
Lupe Ontiveros, actress In El Paso “you grow up with a very different mindset because of the diversity,” Lupe Ontiveros says, her Spanish accent thick and authentic. “Being able to speak both English and Spanish was a normal thing at my high school.” So was bumping into upperclassmen like F. Murray Abraham, who would grow…
Oops!
In last week’s article “Kick ‘Em When They’re Dead,” (Feb. 4), the Chronicle incorrectly wrote that Houston Mayor’s Crime Victims Office Director Andy Kahan “at press time, had not returned calls requesting comment.” In fact, at press time we had not tried to reach Kahan and instead used his comments from an August article for…
Phases & Stages
Justin TrevinoToo Many Heartaches (Heart of Texas) If Ray Price had heartaches by the number, Justin Trevino orders them up two at a time in matching his-and-her shot glasses. Tracing an arc “from the top of the world to the bottom of the bottle,” Too Many Heartaches renders loneliness and despair in such painstaking detail,…
Naked City
Headlines and happening from Austin and beyond
True Hollywood Stories
Joe Hursley, performer It’s another perfect Southern California afternoon in Silverlake, a community built upon the smaller ridges of what is better known as the Hollywood Hills. Joe Hursley is trying to explain himself, but his cell phone keeps interrupting, ringing a theme song from some show he used to watch as a kid. “People…
