Cover Story
Then and Nau
Of Kash-Karry, Casiraghi’s, and Jeffrey’s: Clarksville’s culinary history
Trivium’s ‘Crusade’
Trivium launches a crusade.
Sad Day for the Toros, Basketball, and Austin: Dennis Johnson Dead at 52
I hate to be the bearer of absolutely terrible news, but Toros coach Dennis Johnson died today, Feb. 22, after collapsing on the court during the team’s practice. He was 52 years old. Johnson, better known to basketball fans as D.J., was an NBA legend who helped two teams win the championship trophy during his…
Whole Foods Reaps Some Wild Oats
Austin-based organic superstore chain Whole Foods is buying out its biggest rival.
Wal-Mart Concessions: Hoo-Boy!
You gotta be kidding me.
Whose Job Is It Anyway?
Habitat for Humanity is being criticized for not rebuilding the Gulf Coast fast enough – but is it really their job?
Champions League Round of 16 Kicks Off; Dynamo Lose
The 2007 season started in earnest this week as the European Champions League round of 16 kicked off. It’s a breakneck pace from here on out: critical late-season league games on the weekend, cup competitions midweek, important showdown games every three days. It’s a heady time for football fans. Liverpool’s 2-1 shocker at Barcelona was…
Burger Jam to Benefit Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Texas
Spring is fast approaching, and your thoughts are filled with visions of barbecues and brand-new “Boss of the Sauce” aprons, but you’re not quite ready to fire up the Broilmaster just yet. The Texas Rollergirls, Multimedia Games, and Fuddruckers have the perfect solution, and it supports a good cause: Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central…
Dirty Coal Update: Fast-Tracking Slowed Down
Travis Co. district judge issues temporary injunction instructing state administrative hearings judges to ignore Perry’s 2005 executive order fast-tracking coal-plant permitting as hearings were set to begin Wednesday on six TXU plants.
RG4N Questions City’s Legal Wisdom
Anti-Wal-Mart group wants to know why city hired outside legal staff in Northcross case.
Even the People Who Make Gardasil Don’t Back Perry
The manufacturers of Gardasil are no longer lobbying for states to make vaccination mandatory, but is it too late?
Enjoying the Basketball Game?
Why am I not seeing my game right now?
Anthology Recordings Dusts Off the Early Stuff
Anthology Recordings for the digital age
People From Other States Shouldn’t Make Alamo References
Perhaps he should have hired a Texan to edit his speech
Obama Speech Moved to Auditorium Shores
Obama speech is still Friday, 2pm, but now at Auditorium Shores
Lone Star Arena Football Classic This Friday at the Drum
The Austin Wranglers Foundation is hosting this event featuring Central Texas’ finest high school players playing an exhibition game using the exciting, fast-paced, and high-scoring Arena League rules and 50-yard field. Westwood High School head coach Anthony Wood will lead the North squad with Lake Travis High School head coach Jeff Dicus doing the honors…
One Down, 30-Something to Go
Gibson “art guitar” advertisement, uhh, public art swiped from downtown.
Burka, the Patrick Booster
Why is Paul Burka betting on Sen. Dan Patrick as the next governor of Texas?
Nothing Compares to Britney
Spears, shaved
Ice Bats Split a Pair at Home
Austin’s leading representatives in the hockey world, the Ice Bats, hosted the New Mexico Scorpions on Friday and the Memphis Gorillas on Saturday at the Chaparral Ice Center. Austin toppled the Scorpions in a topsy-turvy 5-4 outing on Friday but didn’t fare as well on Saturday, losing 2-1 to the visiting Gorillas. Friday’s nine-goal matchup…
Albert
Bleached by the sun And scorched by the moon If I make it ’til tomorrow noon I’m leaving – Richard Meltzer/Albert Bouchard, “Death Valley Nights” Lyrics have never been the be-all, end-all for me. Like Dee Snider said, “I wanna rock.” That’s an oversimplification, of course. Give anyone verse after delirious verse of Dylan’s “Tangled…
‘Extreme Makeover’: ‘Statesman’ Edition
‘EM:HE.’ If you know what those letters stand for, you’ve got more problems than I thought.
Attack of the High Rises
A composite of Austin’s future skyline.
Coalition of the Cargo Cultists?
It’s not just in the White House where Dubya’s foreign policy is an article of faith.
Battleship Potemkin
Eisenstein’s classic dramatization of the 1905 naval mutiny starts as a protest strike when the crew is given rotten meat for dinner and ends in a street riot – and a horrific police massacre – in Odessa.
Everybody, Watch Your Ass
The APD is coming to arrest you.
Downtown’s Already a Giant Playpen
400 ft tower on Seventh and Rio Grande – made of Legos?
Machine Head: Still Pissed
Machine Head’s Phil Demmel talks new rage
The Perfect Metaphor
Heaven help us, it’s true.
Lamb of God’s Randy Blythe: Survivalist, Wakeboarder
Lamb of God’s journey through ultraviolence
Proud to Be a Geezer
Nanci Griffith slides into the Cactus Cafe.
VMU Saves Lives?
Can you build a sense of community – and safer housing – with vertical mixed use?
Protocols of the Elders of Chisum
State rep joins the tin foil hat brigade
Eve Ensler and the V-Day Story
When Eve Ensler first conceived of The Vagina Monologues, she had no idea it would evolve into a worldwide movement. Her original 1997 script was written because she was “worried about vaginas” – worried about how they were neglected, taunted, misunderstood, abused, demonized, mutilated, scorned, and called names, a panoply of names ranging from indistinct…
The Common Law
People’s law school
Left Behind
AISD moves to close Webb Middle School – and transfer the “merchandise”
‘SXSW Presents’
Animated Shorts Program
Personnel Department: New Hires at Conspirare and the Mary Moody Northen Theatre
Personnel changes at local arts organizations continue, with the arrivals of a new executive director at Conspirare and a new business manager at the Mary Moody Northen Theatre
Oops!
Our latest batch
Forgione’s BEST-Laid Plan for Closing Webb
On Feb. 5, Pat Forgione told the AISD board of trustees that Webb Middle School should close – regardless of how the students perform this spring on the TAKS test. “Even if Webb meets the standards this year,” he said, “my recommendation doesn’t change.” Forgione argues that closing the school will provide the district a…
SXSW Interactive 07
Web Awards finalists
Arts on Real: Secrets to building a successful theatre
Naughty Austin Artistic Director Blake Yelavich spills all about the creation of his theatre, Arts on Real, in his cover-story interview in the trade publication DramaBiz
Developing Stories
Citizen passion against city-approved site plan for redeveloping Northcross Mall continues to run hot and deep
Film News
As Perry proposes $20 million for incentives in budget, two major productions open up shop in Austin
365 Days/365 Plays: Week 14
The yearlong festival of plays by Suzan-Lori Parks continues with seven plays directed by Kathleen Fletcher
Dining Up and Down West Lynn
Venerable spaces and new faces
Media Watch
Musical Managerial Chairs at KEYE, Emmis
DVD Watch
Taking a look at recent releases, from Johan van der Keuken to the St. Louis Cardinals
When is a lion an ape?
Disney turned The Lion King into the 800-pound gorilla of Broadway musicals, which means it can sleep anywhere it wants, and the Lion sleeps tonight in Bass Concert Hall
‘San Antonio Express-News’ Wine Competition and Festival
Hyatt Regency Hill Country Resort
Naked City
Quote of the Week “Well, to quote the great Simpsons – ‘Haa-ha!'” – Austin singer Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks, channeling Nelson after picking up one of five Grammys Sunday night. The awards were seen as vindication after country radio dumped the Chicks when Maines criticized President Bush four years ago. Headlines• Neighbors of…
TV Eye
Program Guide
Arts Review
That Mother of Invention Productions has chosen Romeo and Juliet as its premier offering is admirable, but this new Austin theatre company’s reach exceeds its grasp
Blue Bell Centennial Celebration Starts in Austin
The Texas treasure’s rolling birthday party
Transportation Funding Friction
Toll-road frustration leads to blow up in House Transportation Committee meeting
Some Enchanted Evening
Accompanying this week’s Sony Legacy reissue of Spectres, its 1978 live offshoot has finally grown into its title. Originally truncated at 36 minutes, Some Enchanted Evening now rumbles at twice the run time without sacrificing any of MC5’s “Kick Out the Jams” or diluting “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper.” Equally savory is the hourlong DVD, same…
Arts Review
Kathy Dunn Hamrick Dance Company’s Flash Dance: 30 Dances in 60 Minutes won’t give you Jennifer Beals, just clean, clear movement in expressive, compact little nuggets
Event Menu
Feb. 16-22
Democrats’ Suit Demands State ‘Fix’ Voting Machines
Party says eSlate has flawed method of recording votes
Music and Lyrics
Drew Barrymore plays lyricist to Hugh Grant’s has-been musician in this Valentine’s Day romantic comedy.
Arts Review
As you look at the drippy, globular shapes on the canvases in “Theresa Marchetta: Retreat,” your mind may get lost trying to figure out what’s in front of you
Death Valley Nights
BÖC’s Spectres reissue brings out the ghosts
Tort-Reform Folly
According to new report on state’s tort-reform measures, Perry’s promise that frivolous lawsuits and high medical-malpractice insurance rates for docs are down and that the recruitment of specialists is apparently on the rise are promises that haven’t panned out
Eklavya: The Royal Guard
A stellar cast stars in this contemporary Bollywood film about the guardian of a dynastic legacy.
Culture Flash!
A pair of Austin-penned plays are fit for an elevator, a local’s little yarn scores a big win, and two receive visual-arts prizes while one helps choose a big winner
Dominance & Submission
Buck Buck (Dharma) “Then Came the Last Days of May,” Blue Öyster Cult “Before the Kiss, a Redcap,” Blue Öyster Cult “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper,” Agents of Fortune “E.T.I. (Extra Terrestrial Intelligence),” Agents of Fortune “Godzilla,” Spectres “Golden Age of Leather,” Spectres “I Love the Night,” Spectres “Deadline,” Cultösaurus Erectus “Burnin’ for You,” Fire of…
National Spotlight Shines on Detention Center
Things are getting dicey at Immigration and Customs Enforcement-affiliated facility in Taylor
Breach
The career of Robert Hanssen, the brilliant real-life FBI spy whose exploits as a double agent caused a great many deaths, should be the mole story to end all mole stories, but it is not.
Readings
Unfortunately, Norman Mailer is more a journalist than he is a novelist, more a student of humanity than a creator of lives
Phases & Stages
Lucinda WilliamsWest (Lost Highway) A decade ago, no Lucinda Williams fan could have imagined that West would be her third album in six years. She was, after all, the poster girl for artists who took their sweet time but delivered stunning results. Here she’s working through another difficult breakup in producer Hal Willner’s softer hues…
Prevention First
Legislation filed on Capitol Hill would expand family-planning funding, require health insurers to include contraceptive coverage, and more
Tears of the Black Tiger
This Thai film is part melodrama and part spaghetti western, as if Sirk and Peckinpah fell into a blender and out poured tear-soaked Polaroids, giant exploding squibs and blown-up heads, tearful Asian songbird ballads, and homoerotic outlaw bonding.
Page Two: Second Nature
The ritual chaos and considered lunacy of South by Southwest
Phases & Stages
Kristin HershLearn to Sing Like a Star (YepRoc) Should we be surprised that after two decades of alternately raging and wailing, Kristin Hersh’s voice sounds so dignified, so worn and torn, or that it serves her so well on her first solo album in four years? “Ask a question, you get an earful,” she rasps…
Point Austin: Webb Games
Webb Middle School is a test case for bad public policy vs. community resolve
Academy Award-Nominated Live Action Shorts 2006
And the Oscar goes to … see the five nominees and judge for yourself.
Letters at 3AM
U.S. military action against Iran is not likely to be tolerated by Europe, Russia, and China
Phases & Stages
Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band American Airlines Center, Dallas, Feb. 8 Not that an arena brimming with duppies (old urban professionals) noticed or even cared, but Thin Lizzy’s “The Boys Are Back in Town” as the Silver Bullet Band’s entrance cue was a nice touch. An early-Seventies tour pitted both crews against one…
Beside the Point
McCracken waxes Wal-Mart for the cameras
Academy Award-Nominated Animated Shorts 2006
See this year’s five nominees and some additional animated shorts.
After a Fashion
Your Style Avatar yawns at the Grammys and gets a dry cut
Phases & Stages
The Autumn Defense(Broadmoor) In 2001, Wilco’s John Stirratt and Pat Sansone formed the Autumn Defense, a reverential nod to the bucolic sounds of the early Seventies that’s become a full-on soft rock resurrection. The duo’s third, eponymous LP is a vision of falling leaves and sun rays, decked out in woodwinds, percussion, and falsetto. Opener…
On the Lege
Texas and Sudan: In or Out?
Day Trips
The Babe Zaharias Museum is a tribute to one of the greatest female athletes of all time, Mildred “Babe” Didrikson Zaharias
Phases & Stages
Clap Your Hands Say YeahSome Loud Thunder The success of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah’s self-titled, self-released, and self-distributed 2005 debut album overshadowed the music itself as the album came to epitomize the power of industry buzz in the digital age. Some Loud Thunder, the long-awaited follow-up by the Philadelphia/Brooklyn-based quintet, struggles to overcome this…
Reefer Madness
Corporate America, say hello to your new partner, NORML
TCB
Changes in the air at the Parish and Emo’s, a new label on the horizon, Li’l Cap’n Travis gets a Friday Night Lights close-up, and a Grammy surprise for an old Texas Playboy
Soccer Watch
The Houston Dynamo explodes in Costa Rica, and more
Phases & Stages
ClinicVisitations (Domino) There are some bands that can’t be left to their own devices. Clinic’s fourth album, Visitations, which the group self-recorded in Liverpool, is case and point. It sounds like the fourpiece, in an attempt to rehash the acid-trip aesthetics of 2001 debut Internal Wrangler, got blazed and expected the music to write itself.…
The Hightower Report
The Workplace Body Snatchers; and Rummy Won’t Go Away
Warrior Voices
With a Spanish-language production of The Vagina Monologues, Austin Latinas are making themselves heard
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
The greatest tragedy of all … good thing Jesus is on his way
Phases & Stages
Forever Changing: The Golden Age Of Elektra Records, 1963-1973(Elektra/Rhino) Whether you were there or missed it the first time around and want to hear what the big deal was, Forever Changing is as close as we’re likely to get to the sound of the Sixties in the 21st century. The dates don’t match, but the…
Actually Living With War
The latest AFS Essential Cinema series focuses on the films of the Middle East and North Africa
Luv Doc Recommends: Cornell Hurd
People are strange, but love makes them even stranger. If love makes the world go round it’s only because it’s spinning beneath the heels of people running away from lovesick crazies. News reports generally refer to them as “stalkers” or “spurned lovers.” They run the gamut from prank-calling preteens to wild-eyed, middle-aged astronauts who drive…
