Cover Story
Are You Decent?
Dudley & Bob and the footsoldiers in the FCC’s war on pop culture
OHAYO!
OHAYO! 2004, NR, 95 min. Directed by Tom Alter, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . While it’s not Journeys With George, the 2004 presidential election takes center stage during a tour of the Midwest by Okinawa, Japan’s pixie punk screamers Bleach and Austin’s trombone crushing freight train Gorch Fock. Road shenanigans, the occasional…
Cafeteria Chaos
Cafeteria Chaos The elementary school’s assembly hall and cafeteria will host AV Geek Skip Elsheimer, legendary 16mm educational film collector, and his collection of shorts explaining the do’s and don’ts of cafeteria behavior. Ticket price includes a nutritious, well-balanced meal (with tots!) prepared by the Maplewood kitchen ladies, access to the PTA bake sale, and…
Gorilla at Large
Gorilla at Large 1954, NR, 83 min. Directed by Harmon Jones, Starring Cameron Mitchell, Anne Bancroft, Lee J. Cobb, Raymond Burr. Screened in 3-D, this movie features marauding apes – comin’ right at ya.
House on Bare Mountain
House on Bare Mountain 1962, NR, 62 min. Directed by Lee Frost, Wes Bishop, Starring Bob Cresse, Laura Eden, Angela Webster. Monster movie meets nudie-cutie.
A Star Is Porn
A Star Is Porn NR. Directed by Various. In conjunction with pop-culture archivist Ken Lieck, the Alamo has compiled another original presentation. to begin, they gathered porn knockoffs of Hollywood blockbusters (i.e., Edward Penishands, Whore of the Rings, Hannibal Lickter, etc.). The sex scenes were then removed, thus revealing some of the most awful –…
Naked City
A roundup of what to expect today at City Hall
Page Two
The capricious, political use of recall and referendum perverts and endangers the idea of our constitutional republic
Phases and Stages
American Analog Set, Paul NewmanThe Parish, Feb. 11 You know that feeling when you fall asleep in front of the TV, and snippets of dialogue float in and out of your semiconsciousness, and you’re not quite sure if it’s the beginning of a dream or the end of America’s Next Top Model? American Analog Set’s…
Naked City
Strama says take the money out of politics and the politics out of redistricting
Inside Deep Throat
This documentary about the heady days of porn – when “deep throat” became a household expression and everyone viewed the movie Deep Throat as a breath of fresh air – is informative yet lacking historical rigor.
Naked City
“Bait and switch” bill dismantles Clean Air Act, activists say
After a Fashion
Hobnobbing with the Style Avatar at the Grammys and ArtErotica!
Phases and Stages
Elizabeth McQueen & the FirebrandsHappy Doing What We’re Doing (Freedom) Elizabeth McQueen is full of surprises. Few artists today would record a tribute to pub rock as their second LP. Actually, you have to wonder how many people even know what pub rock is. For the uninitiated, it was an influential UK scene flourishing in…
Point Austin: They Toll for Thee
Behind the toll battle is a long and bumpy road to the same old place
Paper Clips
It’s an only-in-America tale about kids in the Tennessee hamlet of Whitwell and their “paper clip project” – a teaching tool meant to help them comprehend the dimensions of the Holocaust – but it grew into something much, much more.
Down at the Jinn Mill
Austin’s dirigo group prepare to premiere the best new play one could wish for
To Your Health
The pros and cons of using grapefruit-seed extract in fighting fungus problems
Phases and Stages
The Golden ApplesCooler Jets Will Prevail There will always be a place for fun, cheery pop music in the American lexicon. From the Fab Four to That ’70s Show, pop fed by harmonies and happy guitars has now raised multiple generations. The Golden Apples are bringing what Cheap Trick trademarked as their own into the…
Handicapping Slots for Tots
The pols and the lobby shuffle the deck on gambling for education’
Anna Deveare Smith Gets Under Austin’s Skin
The packed house at Zach on Feb. 12 showed that Austin was ready for Anna Deveare Smith, and Smith proved herself more than ready for Austin
The Common Law
People’s Law School
Phases and Stages
EisleyRoom Noises (Reprise) As much as it hurts to say this, Eisley’s first full-length album, Room Noises, is the sonic equivalent of a very beautiful woman. Once the shock of her beauty has worn off and you actually tune in to the noises coming from her mouth, you realize that she’s dull as dirt. Not…
The Hightower Report
White House propaganda: pundit payola, video news releases, and misleadingly misnamed bills
Vin Gallery Rises From the Ashes
Like the phoenix of old, the Vin Gallery has emerged from the flames reborn
About AIDS
So you met that Mr. or Miss Right on Valentine’s? This, then, is the right time to discuss HIV. Don’t be embarrassed; be realistic: If you can’t talk about something this important, do you want to be sharing even greater intimacies? It’s strongly suggested that when “dating” someone new, the couple should go together and…
Phases and Stages
The Innocent Our Grievances (Vainglorious) One of the most intriguing finds from Beerland’s Disco Hospital coterie, the Innocent casts a wide net over subterranean Eighties ennui with an eye toward separating the pathos from the posh. While not every tangent explored here is entirely cohesive, Our Grievances never gets bogged down under the weight of…
The Visitor
Crispin Glover comes back to Austin with his What Is It?’ in the can
Culture Flash!
See a show and aid local theatres, catch some more Crush, show some dramaturgs how to two-step, and read up on Austin artists in national mags
Letters at 3AM
Statistics on American education tell a dreadful story, the story of an advanced technological society slipping back to a state of ignorance and superstition
Phases and Stages
That puff of dust when you opened this page came from the “Girlie Action” CD shelf, cleared and dusted off from 2004. The Platforms strut into the spotlight with Kicked Off, 10 punchy, pop-punk tunes produced to perfection by Mike Stewart. The femme quartet’s strappy, scrappy sound (“Kick Your Rock Off,” “Scorn”) and ultra-cheeky lyrics…
Celluloid Zealots on the March
It began last fall with a group of self-confessed film geeks – über-geeks, to be fair, the kind of rabid film fanatics who might as well have their names legally changed to IMDb, except that those particular letters are already a registered trademark. Three Austinites, Reel Women founder Sherry Mills, Brad Baylor, and Charles Stewart,…
Arts Review
FronteraFest: Best of the Fest, Bill B Hyde Park Theatre, Feb. 12 The final night of Best of the Fest at the FronteraFest 2005 Short Fringe was typically eclectic, with pieces ranging from expressive abstractions to spoken word. Spare Change gave us “Tupperwhere?” with a set comprised of enormous, pastel-painted, two-dimensional bowls and plates. Two…
Day Trips
The hot mineral waters of Marlin still flow from the fountain under the public pavilion
Phases and Stages
Ana EggeFlipnotics, Feb. 12 Following five years in New Mexico and Brooklyn, and one phantom Canadian release, Ana Egge is back. Mostly. She’ll split time between her “ghetto” back East, and a centrally located East Austin apartment she calls a dream. “Welcome back,” came the inevitable shout-out from the Flipnotics audience. Just as inevitably, the…
In Print
On Thursday, Feb. 24, the Alamo Drafthouse Village will host the third Bill Hicks Night, in part to celebrate the release of this collection
Arts Review
Its distracting title notwithstanding, the Concordia exhibition Is This Drawing?’ features some intriguing visual work by outstanding Austin artists
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
The first gratuitous use of an umlaut for a rock band
Phases and Stages
The ChaptersBleeding All Over This Town (Has Anyone Ever Told You?) Manchester, 1980. Ian Curtis dances his way into the hearts of a million malcontents, all jerking elbows and popping knees. The Chapters are the local resurrection of that dark, introspective dance music, and Bleeding All Over This Town is a snapshot of nightlife in…
Film News
The stars are out already – just look around; plus Guadalupe Arts Center groups regroup and more industry news you won’t find anywhere else
13th Annual ‘Austin Chronicle’ Short Story Contest
The theme wasn’t “stripper girlfriends and homo love,” as one judge speculated (there was no theme), but gender, class, and orientation were more deeply considerable issues among this year’s finalists than ever before. Here’s a look inside the process.
Soccer Watch
Champions League campaign under way, Nistelrooy recovers from Achilles injury
Phases and Stages
StickponyUnderneath the Beer Light Born and bred on a barstool, Stickpony’s third release plays like a sociological case study of the hard-drinking nightlife and its resulting wreckage. Since 2001, the local quintet has faced an Aerosmith-sized list of maladies, including a catastrophic illness that nearly claimed the life of songwriter/guitarist Brit Jones and the departure…
TV Eye
A bit of TV history took place last week
TCB
Strong new albums from Milton Mapes and the Action Is, and the Eighties still won’t go away.
The Winners
First Place: “Romeo” Robert Byington lives in Austin. “Romeo” is his second submission to the Austin Chronicle Short Story Contest. His first, “Javelkemeiche,” received an Honorable Mention in 1992. Heartened, Byington adapted a screenplay from it and made a movie called Olympia, which opened South by Southwest in 1998.Second Place: “Applesauce” Raised in Ohio, Jason…
Off and On
Can Bellagio combine thoughtful food with thoughtful service?
Phases and Stages
The Malford Milligan BandRides Again … Every thing about the Malford Milligan Band’s debut is unremarkable: the title, artwork, song selection – compositions by Freddy King, Muddy Waters, Merle Haggard, and Buck Owens. Everything except Malford Milligan’s voice, that is. When the veteran Austin bluesman rips into King’s opening “Palace of the King” with full-throated…
DVD Watch
The artistic tragedy of Jules Dassin’s being blacklisted in Hollywood after 1949’s swiftly compelling ‘Thieves’ Highway’ is leavened somewhat by the fact that the 94-year-old director is still around to partake in the contemporary celebration of his dashing noir oeuvre
City Attorney Report on Knee Calls for Changes at APD
City criticizes APD management, but Knee’s fate unclear
The Judges
Ann Cvetkovich is professor of English and women’s and gender studies at the University of Texas at Austin. She is the author of An Archive of Feelings: Trauma, Sexuality, and Lesbian Public Cultures (Duke, 2003) and co-editor of the journal GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies. Linden Dalecki’s “The B-Boys of Beaumont” won…
In Print
Two books, one old and one new, zero in on seafood and soups
Phases and Stages
Conjunto AztlanFrom Aztlan With Love It might seem a curious marriage of political consciousness with sentiment, but the Movimiento-rooted Conjunto Aztlan’s newest CD, From Aztlan With Love, is dedicated to love. It’s not entirely surprising, considering the words of Che Guevara, prominently quoted in the liner notes and early on the disc: “All true revolutionaries…
New Austin ‘Spokes’ Speak Out Against Tasers
Austin activists coordinate efforts on police tactics, war, and other issues
‘Romeo’
1. This guy I know Romeo he would go up to gurls and ask them for a dollar and it worked, you know? You wouldn’t think it would for a lot of reasons but they’d talk to him, he was very short, like five-three, not as much now, more five-seven. I met him when he…
Banzai Sushi & Grill
Never a town to ignore fashion, Austin has its own set of worldly fast-food eateries selling everything from wraps to pasticcio. One of the newest is this Japanese grill.
Phases and Stages
The Grassy Knoll Boys Buckeyed Rabbit Of the new bands in the burgeoning Central Texas bluegrass scene the Grassy Knoll Boys appear to be the most musically accomplished. Leading the way on Buckeyed Rabbit, their self-released debut, is Dobro player David Hamburger, a transplant from the Northeast, who’s worked with Freedy Johnston and a long…
Pooh’s Heffalump Movie
It’s not big and bright and busy and boffo, but it’s a perfectly marvelous matinee option for young children. It’s a sweet little story, from a kid’s-eye view, about the anguish of being too little to do stuff.
Cleaning Up Economic Development
Greens and the Chamber of Commerce join hands for renewable energy in Austin
AppleSauce
The very second she woke up she struggled into a sitting position and spit, her cheeks inflated as if trying to blow out a cake blazing with too many candles. Most of the shiny glob landed on her comforter near her knees and that which didn’t make it so far dribbled down her chin and…
Food-o-File
The Meat Shop shuts its doors in anticipation of SH 130; plus, the Shoal Creek Saloon’s Ski Lodge and Quack’s Maplewood Bakery
Hitch
What should be a battle of the sexes is more like a brief skirmish without any of the romantic tension that makes for an interesting – much less great – screen pairing.
Naked City
Quote of the Week”Until the results of the investigations are finalized, the use of these [Tasers] ought to be restricted and put on hold. And I say that as chairman of finance. Once we are put on notice like this, the liability that then is created is substantial.” – Chicago City Council Member Edward M.…
Worthy Stories
I wish I had a story to tell. Zhenya, she’s got dozens (dozens!) of worthy stories. They rise in her sweet mouth, and the words in her Russian accent are like pastries rolled in butter. “Zhenya. Tell them about how you won the beauty contest,” Evan demands. She frowns around her forkful of eggs. Charlie…
Enfants Terribles
Cruiserweight, armed and ready
The Rumble at Bunny Run Heads to Council
Neighbors say school reneged on promise of no apartments
Because of Winn-Dixie
There are no big surprises in this family picture, but neither is the admonition against working with children and animals appropriate here.
Naked City
Railroad Commission long overdue for name change
Misty’s Pulley
We were here again to take parts of them. Their parts had become even more valuable since the last time we were here. The more I robbed from them, the less chance they had of leaving. Their God might not accept an incomplete body in the afterlife, but it wasn’t going to stop me –…
Cruiserweight Reviewed
CruiserweightSweet Weaponry (Doghouse) Earnest emocore tries to be as big a boys’ club as possible, though the Austinites in Cruiserweight do their best to change that. On Sweet Weaponry, the band’s third release, they shed some of their pop aesthetics for a fuller, thicker punk sound. At times, songs like “Phantom Rider” or “Goodbye Daily…
Naked City
Mock exam gets grown-ups involved in kids’ study habits
Constantine
Adapted from Alan Moore’s groundbreaking DC/Vertigo comic title, Constantine is sure to divide the series’ most rabid fans, but those who can set aside their preconceptions will discover one of the more artfully designed comic-based films in some time.
Naked City
Talon News scandal reaches all the way to Williamson County
163 Questions
True or False (circle one): 1. I have never worked retail. T F 2. I enjoy incest, but not with any members of my own family.T F 3. I have never really sneezed. T F 4. When I was fourteen my father said to me, “No way are you leaving the house dressed like that.”…
Phases and Stages
PongBubble City (Realistic) Materializing out of the fog machine with 2001’s Killer Lifestyle, one of America’s great post-punk spawn, Austin’s Ed Hall, added keys, a second guitar, and gave itself a New Millennium makeover: Pong. Fun replaced fury with funky, a lithe, robotic bounce – They Might Be Giants as opposed to Trance Syndicate. Twenty…
Naked City
Recall petitioners look for a battle they can Wynn.
Bigger Than the Sky
Despite some bright spots in this woefully earnest modern romance, Bigger Than the Sky is awash in the obvious and sports a cloying adulation of theatre folk.
Luv Doc Recommends: Chris Gage Benefit Concert
The cool thing about not having socialized health care or universal health insurance isn’t the huge amounts of money we’re saving in taxes; it isn’t having an abundance of affordable health care providers, or the mind boggling selection of quality, brand name prescription drugs (enough, in fact, to make you think you have adult ADD).…
