Afraid of Everything
Afraid of Everything 1999, NR, 80 min. Directed by David Barker, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Nathalie Richard, Sarah Adler, Daniel Aukin. Two siblings undergo a symbiotic crisis in this effective psychological drama by filmmaker David Barker, who has recently moved to Austin to work with the Cinematexas Short Film & Video Festival.…
Matinee
Matinee 1976, NR, 90 min. Directed by Jaime Humberto Hermosillo, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Rodolfo Chávez Martínez, Armando Martín Martínez, Manuel Ojeda, Héctor Bonilla. This early film by Hermosillo tells the story of two boys who play hooky from school to go to the movies, but before the day is over they…
Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier
Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier 1955, NR, 93 min. Directed by Norman Foster, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Fess Parker, Buddy Ebsen. Get out those coonskin caps. Disney’s King of the Wild Frontier is in town to entice a new generation. The feature film is actually an amalgam of the three…
Peripheral Produce
Peripheral Produce NR. Directed by Various, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . Portland’s Matt McCormick and Johnne Eschelman visit Austin with home-grown organic offerings from their part of the world. McCormick’s “The Subconscious Art of Graffiti Removal” (Sundance 2002, Village Voice Top 10 Avant Garde Films of 2002) and “Going to the Ocean”…
Abar: The First Black Superman
Abar: The First Black Superman 1977, PG, 90 min. D: Frank Packard; with J. Walter Smith. Also known as In Your Face, this blaxploitation relic has a black militant youth leader injected with a serum that makes him bulletproof and – voilà – he turns the community around. (For more on the Something Weird Wednesdays…
Exhibitionism
Onstage Theatre Company’s production of The Gin Game manages to do justice to D.L. Coburn’s 1978 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, taking two people who sit around playing cards and holding our attention for the better part of two hours.
Dancing About Architecture
Neil Diamond comes to town, the Metro stays open, Cotton Mather searches for a deal, Hamstein sells its publishing, Wynton Marsalis visits the Elephant Room, and much, much more.
Naked City
As Austin city officials finish totaling up the bill for new, post-Sept. 11 homeland security measures, the City Council will this week consider swallowing hard and agreeing in advance to raise next year’s property taxes. That increase would pay for up to $3.57 million in tax anticipation notes, to be issued this year to cover…
Exhibitionism
In Una Panthera: Music from the Trecento and Early Renaissance Italy, a concert of love songs from 14th-century Europe presented as part of the 2002 Mid-Winter Festival of Music, exquisite pain and longing were brought to exquisite life in the enrapturing voices and instruments of Texas Early Music Project singers and musicians.
Independence Day at the 710
“Who wouldn’t want to take home any of these bands?” asks Room 710’s Woody Weideman. The bands in question are the Spiders, Pong, and the eight others listed on the poster. Admittedly, even their most ardent fans are probably pleased to find that what they’ll be taking home is a CD of those artists and…
Naked City
In addition to deciding whether to borrow $3.57 million to pay the city’s homeland-security bill (see “City Faces Tax Debt,” at left) and whether to put single-member districts on the May 4 ballot (see “Chartering a Course,” p.24), the City Council faces a full plate this week: The controversial supply contract with Rainbow Materials –…
Recommended
The characters in Timothy Westmoreland’s exceptional debut, Good as Any: Stories (Harcourt, $24), have nowhere to go but up, though they tend to go further down. In the title story, the funniest of the lot, Mitch must choose between Rose Marie, his beloved English bull terrier, and Delilah, his saucy and severe girlfriend. Delilah issues…
SXSW Goes to the Movies
There should be enough music at the Music Festival for you, but in case there isn’t, the SXSW Film Conference & Festival is touting the remixed and remastered Martin Scorsese opus The Last Waltz, the filmed record of The Band’s last performance in 1976, which influenced all concert films that followed and inspired a post-SXSW…
Naked City
Late last week, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Dan Morales pledged “a wholly positive campaign” against opponent Tony Sanchez. “I have never run a negative campaign,” Morales told an Austin press conference, “and I don’t plan to start now.” Over the weekend, various media polls showed Sanchez, using saturation TV advertising, had overcome Morales’ early name-ID and…
Bottled Lightning, in a Book
When I told a coworker I was writing a review of Randall Kennedy’s new book, Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word (Pantheon, $22), he cleared his throat uncomfortably, frowned, and said, “You really do like stepping in it, don’t you?” “Hey,” I replied, “Think about what Kennedy’s going through.” He furrowed his brow…
Phases and Stages
The ByrdsThe Preflyte Sessions (Sundazed) Roger McGuinn has come full circle. The Chicago native who began his career in the early Sixties as a picker for sweater ‘n’ turtleneck folk-pop acts like the Limelighters, Chad Mitchell Trio, and even Bobby Darin, now tours solo with only his wife, his Rickenbacker, and a satchel full of…
Naked City
GOP lieutenant governor candidate David Dewhurst is still fending off charges involving his campaign advertising. Dewhurst’s TV ads that claim that as land commissioner, he cut the General Land Office budget by 25%. Unfortunately, the Legislative Budget Board, which keeps actual track of such things, doesn’t agree with his arithmetic, and says he reduced the…
Page Two
Single-member districts would wrest control of the City Council from the residents of heavy-voting, progressive / environmental Central Austin, but would not be a quick fix for any of the civic problems currently laid, somewhat inaccurately, at the feet of the current council.
Phases and Stages
The B-52’sNude on the Moon (Warner Bros./Rhino) The B-52’s are the reason “quirky” is part and parcel of modern rock critic speak. The Georgia-based quintet exploded on the late-Seventies punk scene of black leather and skinny ties like country bumpkins slicked up for a hoedown. “Hip” wasn’t even an issue for the Southern-to-the-bone multisex combo,…
Naked City
After a year of promising a plan for AN-2, its unfinished office building at Fifth and San Antonio, Intel has once again postponed making an announcement. The company renewed its permit for the building — originally set to expire on Jan. 15 — on Jan. 3, buying itself another 180-day grace period, but let lapse…
Day Trips
Recycling old jailhouses gives new life to one of the first public buildings constructed in the frontier communities. A dozen jails around the state have been converted to museums commemorating past generations of the community. To varying degrees, the jailhouse museums on this list are underfunded and overlooked. Most have irregular hours; usually dependent upon…
Phases and Stages
ThujaGhost Plants (Emperor Jones)Alastair Galbraith & Matt De GennaroLong Wires in Dark Museums (Vol. I) (Emperor Jones) Like documentary filmmakers, there’s a segment of musicians obsessed with the idea that reality is the most powerful medium. Musique concrete collagists like Luc Ferrari, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and even Negativland use field recordings and samples of everyday sounds…
Austin @ Large: Austin at Large
It’s a lovely image conjured up last week by Statesman columnist Susan Smith: Beverly Griffith, with her “Prada purse full of money,” buying up signatures to bust term limits. Obviously, it wasn’t to be taken literally, because Griffith is clearly not a Prada kind of girl (Hermes scarf and Coach bag, maybe …). It’s no…
Super Troopers
Super Troopers 2002, R, 100 min. D: Jay Chandrasekhar; with Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme. Exceedingly silly — and how could it not be when its comic well draws mainly from bottom-of-the-barrel material like masturbation, marijuana, and blow-up dolls — Super Troopers is an earnest, mostly funny spoof of law enforcement in a sleepy…
Mr. Smarty Pants
Eating the flesh of mummies was a common 16th-century practice in Europe. People believed that, because mummies contained a black tar called bitumen with healing properties, a powder made from the ground up bodies would cure illnesses.Prince Charles has a Sussex trug.Before his death, Bing Crosby specified that his grave be dug to a depth…
Phases and Stages
Catscratch, Hipshot, Wild Things, Miss Spent Youth, Spitfire@La Zona RosaFebruary 10 “They’d play an encore if they knew one!” So said Michele Murphy as she led the audience at La Zona Rosa in applause for Spitfire, one of the kid bands from her Natural Ear Music Camp. Only the quartet didn’t head for the bar…
Capitol Chronicle
John Sharp would balance the budget by cutting Medicaid.
Hart’s War
Hart’s War 2002, R, 125 min. Directed by Gregory Hoblit, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Bruce Willis, Colin Farrell, Terrence Howard, Marcel Iures, Cole Hauser, Vicellous Shannon, Rory Cochrane, Linus Roache. There’s nothing particularly astonishing about this WWII prisoner-of-war drama; the film marries standard court-martial dramatics to the race issue and then throws…
To Your Health
I stopped eating nuts a few years ago when I found out about aflatoxins, but now I am hearing more about nuts being good for us. Should I reconsider?
Phases and Stages
Girl Singer: An Autobiographyby Rosemary Clooney with Joan Barthel Broadway Books, 368 pp., $14.95Liberace: An American Boyby Darden Asbury Pyron University of Chicago Press, 494 pp., $27.50 The Sammy Davis, Jr. Readeredited by Gerald Early Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 304 pp., $20 Three books chronicling three American musical entertainment icons offer us a variety of…
The Hightower Lowdown
Brazil’s indigenous people battle corporate biopirates; the Bush appointee calendar is 12 months of ugly; and the Century Club lets in the riff-raff.
Return to Never Land
Return to Never Land 2002, G, 72 min. Directed by Robin Budd, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Roger Rees, Andrew McDonough, Kath Soucie, Jeff Bennett, Corey Burton, Blayne Weaver, Harriet Owen. It wasn’t as if the world was crying out for a new animated Peter Pan, but here it is nevertheless, and it’s…
About AIDS
Needed: Stories From the Streets The painful parts of history, like the adventurous parts or the pretty parts, often give rise to profound and articulate expressions of our shared humanity. “How will future generations understand the culture of AIDS?” author Patrick Moore asked last year in The Washington Post. “Most likely … through the arts…
Chartering a Course
A preview of the Charter Revisions Proposals
Fandemonium!
Television fans who organize to keep their favorite shows on the air, or even don the occasional Star Fleet Commanding Officer’s uniform, are often depicted as lonely losers with too much time on their hands. According to TV columnist Belinda Acosta, the truth is quite the opposite.
Metropolis
Metropolis 2001, PG-13, 107 min. Directed by Rintaro, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . If your experience thus far with Japanese animation (anime) has been limited to late-afternoon brushes with the Cartoon Network’s Toonami and the odd Pokémon episode, you’ve been missing out on one of the most important and exhilarating forms of…
After a Fashion
BEYOND BEAUTY You can imagine how grueling it was, getting up in time for a 9am appointment for a massage, facial, highlights, and cut. But such is the life for one who Chronicles the style biz. For well over a year, I had been promising David Schneider, vice-president at Aziz Day Spa & Salon, that…
Living by the Line
People who live by the Longhorn Pipeline fight to keep the gas turned off.
The Naked Truth
Legendary exploitation producer Dave Friedman comes to town to present Mau Mau Sex Sex, the documentary of his career with Dan Sonney.
Crossroads
Britney’s screen debut.
Coach’s Corner
Coach pretty much stays out of political discussions these days — but did you catch our president at the Olympics the other night? What a doofus!
Stupid White Guilt
The front jacket of Michael Moore’s new book, Stupid White Men … And Other Sorry Excuses for the State of the Nation! (Regan Books/HarperCollins, $24.95) features an oversized Moore bestriding a boardroom of corporate executives who seem miniscule next to his colossal frame. To augment his righteous menace, Moore wields the Washington Monument in his…
American Cinematheque’s Universal Appeal
Operating out of L.A.’s recently renovated 1922 Egyptian Theatre, the American Cinematheque is a viewer-supported, nonprofit organization devoted to the preservation and distribution of films of every stripe, from new indie to classic exploitation. The coming months will see the Cinematheque, hosted by the like-minded folks at the Alamo Drafthouse (and co-sponsored by the Austin…
Rollerball
Rollerball 2002, PG-13, 99 min. Directed by John McTiernan, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Chris Klein, LL Cool J, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, Jean Reno, Naveen Andrews. John McTiernan has never had a problem choreographing powerful, knock-down action sequences before, so why does Rollerball feel like the work of a grade-Z hack? Certainly McTiernan’s work…
Mix and Match
Don’t sweat it trying to create the perfect mating of beer and food, Chronicle Food writer Wes Marshall writes in a review of North by Northwest Restaurant & Brewery. Pick a drink you like, pick a dish you like, and just enjoy them.
Desperately Seeking Quality Control
On Feb. 6 a federal jury ruled in favor of California-based project manager Fluor Daniel in its court battle against Travis County over delays and cost overruns in the construction of the Blackwell-Thurman Criminal Justice Center Complex. The jury ordered Travis County to pay the company $2.8 million for work completed on the project. The…
New on DVD
M*A*S*H (1972)Season One Collector’s Edition DVD (20th Century Fox Home Entertainment) In the pantheon of sitcom immortals, Henry Blake’s bust is chiseled out of creamy pink marble. With his salute speared to his fishing hat, and his small-town life back in Bloomington, Ill., Lt.-Col. Henry Blake ran the M*A*S*H 4077 like the Titanic. “Imagine,” Hawkeye…
Second Helpings: Tex-Mex
Tex-Mex restaurants in this week’s “Second Helpings”
Food-o-File
How Virginia B. Wood joined the Local Yokel Coalition and a chance to meet Bill Jamison and Cheryl Alter Jamison, the authors of A Real American Breakfast: The Best Meal of the Day, Any Time of Day.
Building Black Momentum
A report on the African-American Legislative Summit
Short Cuts
The Arbor gets the axe from Simon Property Group.
What Lies Beneath
Sydney Yeager’s new paintings at D Berman Gallery represent a departure in the artist’s work, a potential turning point from the figurative images that made Yeager’s work recognizable for nearly a decade to what has always been the real strength of her paintings: the abstraction beneath.
Be Real
The Bottle Rockets cut one helluva tribute to Doug Sahm.
David (and Jesus) vs. Goliath
The city alleges that Time Warner Cable is offering illegal discounts to snuff out competition.
TV Eye
Memo to America: The Olympics aren’t about one, but all.
The Basics, With Bogart
Nine people walk across the studio floor. Their paths are individual, random; they move at varying paces, in various directions. But gradually, the different patterns they’re creating resolve into one, and they begin moving as a single entity, like birds in a flock or fish in a school, remaining unified in a line or formation…
Record Review
The Bottle RocketsSongs of Sahm (Bloodshot) During “Stoned Faces Don’t Lie,” Bottle Rockets vocalist Brian Henneman chuckles singing the title. It’s a poignant moment, a very Doug Sahm-like touch to this Sahm tribute, appropriately titled Songs of Sahm. It’s also a tender reminder of Sahm’s much-missed presence, as if one were needed. What is needed…
Naked City
The City Council voted 5-2 last Thursday (Beverly Griffith and Danny Thomas dissenting) to approve a lease amendment creating a separate “hospital within a hospital– for reproductive services on the fifth floor of Brackenridge Hospital. City staff’s next steps for the $9.3 million facility include developing architectural plans and timelines, preparing patient transfer agreements, contracting…
Articulations
The Austin Arts Commission defuses a community controversy by restarting the process of selecting public art for the soon-to-be-expanded George Washington Carver Museum and Library.
Breaking Down the Barricades
Aussie songstress Kasey Chambers becomes Austin’s darling.
Naked City
In a victory for Southwest suburbanites and, in particular, developer Gary Bradley, the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (CAMPO) board voted Monday not to delete State Highway 45 South — the erstwhile Outer Loop — from the region’s long-range transportation plan. The SH 45 vote was postponed from January’s CAMPO meeting, at which time it…
