Rolondo Hinojosa-Smith Honored
The Center for Mexican American Studies (CMAS) at the University of Texas will honor Rolando Hinojosa-Smith with a day-long symposium on Friday, Feb. 21 at the Bass Lecture Hall. This noted author is also the Ellen Clayton Garwood Professor in Creative Writing in UT’s English department, and a native of Mercedes, Texas. He has been…
On the Threshold
photograph by Michelle Dapra It’s a chilly summer’s afternoon and you’re climbing the curves on the Kancamagus Highway, a tortuous stretch of blacktop that connects your last gig in New Hampshire to your next one in Vermont. The Buick Skylark you bought for $1 and got running for $150 is doing fine, except you never…
Scanlines
D: D.S. Everett; with Robbie Benson, Pat Hingle, Claudia Cron, Graham Greene. VHS Home Video I Luv Video, 4631 Airport With Prefontaine renewing interest in distance running — well, sort of — the early-Eighties biopic of Olympic champion Billy Mills, Running Brave, deserves revisiting, if for no other reason than its superiority to the newer…
Kalling Kathy’s Bluff
In a predatory, frankly feline swipe at experimental writer Kathy Acker’s Pussy, King Of The Pirates (Grove Press, $12 paper), critic David Kelly wrote of its hardback release last spring in The New York Times Book Review, “…if Ms. Acker were funny, she could probably write first-rate episodes of Melrose Place… [with] an echo of…
Dancing About Architecture
Here it is. The confirmed lineup for the Austin Music Awards, presented by your own cute, cuddly Chronicle (and cute, cuddly Margaret Moser). In order of appearance, you’ll see The King of Sixth Street Gerry Van King, 81/2 Souvenirs, Texas Tornados featuring Roy Head, Sexton Brothers Sextet, Jimmie Dale Gilmore’s Tribute To Townes Van Zandt…
Short Cuts
Critics and film buffs alike passionately argue the virtues of legendary director Samuel Fuller, whose films brought to the screen politics atypical to the movie industry and the brutal violence Fuller experienced during bouts as a soldier and crime reporter. Possessed of a truly independent spirit, his films spanned genres from westerns and war movies…
Postscripts
A reception will be held for Luz Marina Delgado to commemorate the publication of her Manos de Mujer at Ruta Maya Coffee Company on Sunday, Feb. 23, at 7pm. The Guatemalan writer has traveled to Austin to help the La Ruta Maya Conservation Foundation raise the $40,000 needed to print and distribute 10,000 copies of…
Also Playing
Friday: Kacy Crowley, Ruta Maya Coffeehouse; Bruce Robison, Stubb’s; Silverjet, Electric Lounge Saturday: Miss Lavelle White, Top of the Marc; Pocket FishRmen, Bigfoot Chester, 50 Million, Hole in the Wall; Glorium, And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead, Emo’s Sunday: King Soul, La Zona Rosa Monday: Don Walser, Babes Tuesday: Trish Murphy,…
Sexual Health Means Healthy Living
Many people believe that having sex with someone who is HIV-infected will automatically infect them, but that’s not true. Exposure doesn’t guarantee infection. Why do some people “catch” it and some don’t? One reason might be a strong vs. weak immune system. Ways to make your immune system strong include eating well, exercise, low stress,…
Record Reviews
THE FUTURE SOUND OF LONDON Dead Cities (Astralworks) FSOL’s constant fiddling with the clickbeep aspects of electronic/ambient dance music has led me to think of them as a bunch of knobs. Their grey, eerie soundscapes call up unbidden images of dead cities, thick with a patina of futurist grime and William Gibson technowaste. Making this…
Hearth & Soul
Fabulous Fakes Dear Suzy, I have always loved the look of a mantel and fireplace in a house but with the hot weather in Austin, I am reluctant to undergo the expense of constructing a real wood-burning fireplace. I am somewhat handy and would like to tackle this project myself. Since it would go against…
New Bomb Turks
Emo’sFriday, February 21 Last time through Emo’s, the New Bomb Turks — who completely upstaged the Supersuckers the time before that — caused a riot. It was a small riot, but a riot’s a riot. So, have they done like their new Epitaph CD says and been Scared Straight, or are they still the punk-rock…
Benefits
Bowl for Pets Sake II to benefit Williamson Co. Humane Society, at Showplace Lanes, begins at noon. 244-9247. SUN 23 Chess Exhibition to benefit St. Theresa’s Choir Tour, St. Theresa Church, 2222 & Mt. Bonnell Dr., 3pm. 451-5121. Human Race ’97 10K Run & 5K Walk to benefit Central Texas Volunteer Centers, at French Legation…
Consumers Beware
illustration by Doug Potter According to Saturday’s Statesman, Jackie Goodman’s attempt last week to hire consumer advocate W. Scott McCollough to help city-paid consultants Metzler & Associates make our electric utility more efficient was tantamount to “consultants watching consultants.” It appears that the Statesman opinion editors either didn’t understand Goodman’s proposal, or, scarier still, didn’t…
Coach’s Corner
With the NBA All-Star game behind us, let’s breathe a sigh of relief. The endless season is past the halfway point. Let’s take a look back, grading my pre-season comments, to see how stupid or brilliant I was. EAST: The New York Knicks, with massive roster changes and brave talk of “Chicago who?” hogged much…
Shock to the System
illustration by Doug Potter Like it or not, it’s coming. Whether by federal or state mandate, Texas is almost guaranteed to have a completely deregulated electric industry by the new millennium. Some Texas legislators, preferring it to be by state mandate, have tried hard to make it happen this session, but oddly enough, after all…
Day Trips
Kendalia Dance Halle at the Hill Country crossroads southwest of Austin celebrates its first anniversary again after 93 years. The classic Texas dance hall was built in 1903, but Tom and Glenda McKinney have been holding dances there every Saturday night for a year since last February 15. Come hell or high water, Tom, his…
Watt’s Wrong
Consumer and environmental groups backed out of talks last month with legislators interested in filing a bill calling for deregulation of Texas’ electric industry. Tom “Smitty” Smith of the consumer watchdog group Public Citizen, who was among the consumer and environmental advocates who walked away, lists three concerns that he says pro-deregulation forces refused to…
Page Two
Margaret Moser comes down the hall with that gleam in her eye, a special exuberant bounce to her step. Immediately, I know she is bringing good news about the Awards show line-up, that 81/2 Souvenirs and the Sexton Brothers have said yes, that the Jimmie Dale Gilmore-hosted tribute to Townes Van Zandt (one is tempted…
Country Club PERCs
illustration by Doug Potter For two days, in a plush conference room just down the hallway from Jim Bob’s bar at the Barton Creek Resort, representatives from the Political Economy Research Center (PERC) in Bozeman, Montana, extolled the virtue of market-based solutions to environmental problems. For example, in areas with water shortages, PERC suggests that…
Public Notice
Barring sounding like one of those green-headed, Slim Whitman-hating creatures from Mars Attacks!, ACAC is back with a vengeance. The Austin Community Access Center (ACAC, nee ACTV) has some exciting on- and off-camera programs coming up: Us general-public types are invited, along with access producers, to the community access forum, Personal Responsibility for Free Speech,…
Energizer Lobbyists
Janee Breismeister and Reggie James of the Consumers’ Union(l), and John Hildreth of the Coalition for Affordable Power-Texas(r)photographs by Jana Birchum Last session, the gravy train for lobbyists and consultants was casino gambling. This year, it’s electricity deregulation. Hundreds of lobbyists have signed up to fight over the issue, and numerous consultants in Austin and…
Mister Smarty Pants Knows
There are 336 dimples on a golf ball. On Jan. 5, 1979, jazz great Charles Mingus died in Cuernavaca, Mexico, at the age of 56. That same day, 56 whales beached themselves on the Mexican coast. F.D.R. thought up the name for the United Nations while he was in the shower. According to economist Arthur…
No conflict. Just business.
Isn’t it fascinating that the city’s lobby firm, Adams & Zottarelli, represents Austin’s interests in the electric utility fight while at the same time representing Mobil Oil Corp.? After all, the city, which awarded a $400,000, three-year contract to the firm, wants to protect its utility, which means going slowly on deregulation. But Mobil Oil…
Food-O-FIle
by Virginia B. Wood Pie is the quintessential American dessert. The editors of Cook’s Illustrated magazine take pie very seriously and have recently published the first in a series of books from the Cook’s Illustrated Library called simply, How to Make a Pie (Boston Common Press, $14.95, hard). The slim little volume contains 24 recipes…
Who Is Citizens for a Sound Economy?
Peggy Venable, the head of the Texas office of Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE), says her group represents regular consumers who support free market public policies. And she isn’t thrilled with the way the press treats her organization, which is backed by a laundry list of corporate interests. “It does irk me sometimes that…
The Hoffbrau
613 West Sixth, 472-0822 Mon-Fri, 11am-2pm and 5-8:30pm As a purist, I have a tendency to sing butter’s praises to anyone who’ll listen, but a signature Hoffbrau T-bone opened my eyes wide to the wonders of margarine, a substance I normally categorize as butter’s evil twin. Since there are no menus at the Hoffbrau, the…
Naked City
The mood was bittersweet Wednesday at Christopher House when leaders announced they would close the homey quarters after three years of providing care and comfort to people with HIV/AIDS. On the bright side, the reason is they’ve seen a sharp drop in admissions, due in large part to new “drug cocktails” and changes in the…
Articulations
Looks like I-35 isn’t the only thing linking Austin and Minneapolis these days. There’s a theatrical bond that’s blossomed between the two cities recently, and it’s tightening every week. Several out-of-town playwrights who have nearly made Austin a second home — Ruth Margraff (Wallpaper Psalm and the new Battle of San Jacinto), David Hancock (The…
Chain Reaction
La Salsa 701 Capital of Texas Highway, Suite 550 (Loop 360 and Bee Caves Rd.), 306-9003 Sun-Thu, 11am-9pm; Fri & Sat, 11am-10pm La Salsa In America’s age of culinary enlightenment, chain food is like the double plague: unhealthy and uninspired. If God meant for an onion to bloom, after all, he would have made room…
Internet Brings the World to Rural TexasThe Road to the Wild
Ben and Carolyn Durr, proprietors of Casa de Leona in Uvalde.photograph by Janet Heimlich This winter’s cold spell seemed to provide the perfect excuse to call the boss, explain how it’s really too icy to drive to work, and then climb under a few comforters for about a month. But let’s face it, winter in…
Prints Charming
Untitled (dark shapes/two lillies), 1993. Monotype, 42×28 inches. Published by Flatbed Press. If out-of-town friends suddenly appeared on my doorstep expecting to be entertained, I’d include on our Austin tour “Fresh Ink,” the current exhibition in the Austin Museum of Art’s downtown galleries. This is our community museum, I’d say, as we drove around the…
Momma’s Diner
314 Congress Ave., 469-9369 Mon-Thu, 11am-midnight; Open 24 hours Fri & Sat; Sun ’til midnight. Momma’s Diner I don’t know about your Momma, but mine never cooked the homespun fare favored at Congress Avenue’s newest eatery, Momma’s Diner. Somebody’s family, though, did provide inspiration for this retro-hip little place — ancestors with names like Mabel,…
Lucrative Gab
ichat Entrepreneur Andrew Buseyphotograph by Kenny Braun Anyone who’s ever been in a long-distance relationship knows how the miles separate — not only hearts but money from wallets, spent on countless lengthy phone conversations, frequent airfare, and gas tank fill-ups. But when twenty-five-year-old Andrew Busey found himself in an across-the-miles romance, he developed a way…
Local Palette
Jos� and Salvador Reanda Quieju Galeria Sin Fronteras through March Principal de Confradia, by Salvador Reanda Quieju Hiding behind a partition in the back of Galeria Sin Fronteras is a little flavor of Guatemala, brought to us through the artistic insight of Guatemalan artists Jos� and Salvador Reanda Quieju. These brothers have lived in Santiago,…
Sleeping With the Television On
Artistic Director Tim Hamblinphotograph by Jana Birchum Forget death and taxes. You want universal certainties? Ziggy won’t be funny, any Seventies disaster flick re-running on TNT will star George Kennedy, and if you flip on the Austin Music Network, you’ll see footage from the Austin Acoustic Music Festival. Tim Hamblin, the artistic director at the…
Subdividing subUrbia
Richard Linklater When future biographers write their surveys of the film career of Richard Linklater (a career which, by that unspecified future date, will certainly be associated with dozens more movies and other projects), they will all cite subUrbia — the new Linklater film opening in Austin this Friday — as a transitional key. In…
