Cover Story
More a Man Than a Legend
Observing as the golden-throated Flatlander becomes a record-label executive
Book Reviews
The Danish Girl: A Novel by David Ebershoff Viking, 288 pp., $24.95 The time is 1925, the place is Copenhagen, and the protagonist of David Ebershoff’s exquisite debut novel The Danish Girl is one Einar Wegener, a painter who specializes in dreary Danish landscapes. As the novel opens, Einar’s American-born wife Greta, also a painter,…
Mini-Review
Mother of Pearl’s 9033 Research, 719-4455 Mon-Thu, 11am-2am; Fri-Sat, 5pm-2am (Dinner served until 10pm, late-night menu until 1am) This North Austin restaurant/live music venue is one resilient Mother. Popular in the late Eighties as Pearl’s Oyster Bar and reborn after a disastrous fire simply as Pearl’s, this never-say-die operation is running again in its third…
Naked City
Capital Metro works to secure federal funding and a “recommended” ranking for its light-rail proposals, to be voted on in November.
Short Cuts
Upcoming events and workshops of interest to the Austin film community.
Book Reviews
The Walking Tour by Kathryn Davis Houghton Mifflin, 288 pp., $23 Kathryn Davis’s new novel The Walking Tour defies any easy summary but here’s the basic narrative: Late in the 20th century, two couples, Bobby Rose and Carole Ridingham and Coleman Snow and Ruth Farr, join a group of tourists for a pleasantly bucolic walking…
Mini-Review
Opie’s Barbeque In Spicewood, next to the post office, 830/693-8660 (Go northwest on Highway 71, about 20 miles past Highway 620, turn right at the gas station) Mon-Sat, 11am-8pm; Sun, 11am-4pm People from all over Central Texas flock to Llano for barbeque at Cooper’s. Go on a Saturday afternoon during some pretty weather and the…
Naked City
South Carolina primary victor George W. Bush goes on the defensive after John McCain wins big in Michigan.
Video Reviews
Mad LoveD: Karl Freund (1935); with Peter Lorre, Ted Healy, Frances Drake, Colin Clive. Beautiful Yvonne Orlac (Drake) is the leading lady of a Grand Guignol theatrical production; creepy Dr. Gogol (Lorre) is infatuated with her, sending mash notes to her dressing room and falling into a swoon during her onstage torture scenes. The doctor…
Book Reviews
Partisans: Marriage, Politics, and Betrayal Among the New York Intellectuals by David Laskin Simon & Schuster, 320 pp., $26 The intellectual giants of the late Thirties found their orbit around the Partisan Review, the influential publication that served to inform a culture as literary and political authority for nearly three decades. That the stars of…
Naked City
Has the finger-pointing begun inside the Bush campaign? If the Drudge Report — not always the most reliable source — is to be believed, then Bush’s chief strategist, Karl Rove, is getting the blame for Bush’s losses in Michigan and Arizona. On Wednesday, Drudge quoted an unnamed Bush campaign insider who said it’s “becoming increasingly…
Hanging Up
Hanging Up 2000, PG-13, 92 min. Directed by Diane Keaton, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Diane Keaton, Meg Ryan, Lisa Kudrow, Walter Matthau, Cloris Leachman, Adam Arkin. So you young ‘uns thought the changing of the generational guard (at least in pop-culture terms) was a done deal; that you’d finally escaped the clammy…
Postscripts
The details on the bookstore to go to in East Texas if you want your hair done and your book shopping completed in one stop.
One Endless Night Reviewed
Jimmie Dale GilmoreOne Endless Night (Windcharger/Rounder) Jimmie Dale Gilmore is a helluva singer, but he’s no Bobby Darin. That much is painfully evident as he lolls his way through a toothless reading of “Mack the Knife” so flaccid it can’t even qualify as camp. Fortunately, it’s about the only misstep on One Endless Night. The…
Naked City
Hydrilla, an invasive aquatic weed, is starting to choke Lake Austin.
Andre the Giant Has a Posse
Andre the Giant Has a Posse PG, 98 min. Directed by Helen Stickler, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . A short documentary about skateboarder and graphic designer Shepard Fairey’s rebellion against corporate logo worship.
Off the Bookshelf
Cult Fiction A Reader’s Guide by Andrew Calcutt and Richard Shephard Contemporary Books, 320 pp., $16.95 (paper) Cult Fiction sets out to list the most important creators of literature “from the margins and extremes … offering a different angle on social reality.” Energetically written, with photographs, topical lists (“H is for Heroin — 10 Novels…
The Right Profile
Austin singer-songwriter grows a up, grows a beard, and grows out of a strict DIY ethic.
Naked City
The League of Women Voters of the Austin Area will hold a panel discussion on “Sustainable Development — What Is the City of Austin Doing About It?” on Wed., March 1, at 7pm in the Schroeder Performance Hall at Concordia University, 3400 N. I-35. Panelists will include Asst. City Manager Toby Futrell and Capital Metro…
Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr.
Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. 1999, PG-13, 96 min. Directed by Errol Morris, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . Leave it to Errol Morris (The Thin Blue Line, Fast, Cheap & Out of Control) to make a documentary about a manufacturer of execution equipment, who is also…
Off the Bookshelf
Geeks How Two Lost Boys Rode the Internet out of Idaho by Jon Katz Villard, 256 pp., $22.95 Jon Katz is the kind of phlebotomist Keith Richards might take a liking to — trained to extract, he instead winds up injecting. Katz is attempting to analyze the fact that networked computing makes it possible for…
Dancing About Architecture
More record label shuffles for the Meat Puppets, the Hole in the Wall gets bigger, Ray Benson gets taller, and music lawsuits get uglier
Council Watch
The Bradley deal is out in the open but no one seems to have an opinion on it.
The Cup
Filmed in Bhutan with a cast of unknown Tibetan nonprofessionals, The Cup takes its charming premise – pint-sized monks striving against all odds to watch a satellite broadcast of the 1998 World Cup match between Brazil and France – and runs with it.
Local Bestsellers
Local bestsellers are based on recent sales at Austin bookstores selected to reflect varied reading interests.
Live Shots
WWF SmackdownFrank Erwin Center, February 8Krassmaster G (KG): The sweaty human drama that is the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) packed the Erwin Center to capacity with enthusiastic minions eager to have their hard-earned discretionary income stretched like spandex in the name of entertainment. What they got was a spectacular amalgam of arena rock, tabloid telegenics,…
Video Reviews
Grosse Pointe BlankD: George Armitage (1997); with John Cusack, Minnie Driver, Dan Akroyd, Alan Arkin, Joan Cusack, Jeremy Pivin. Martin Blank is a professional killer with no end of trouble. His last two jobs haven’t gone according to Hoyle, his therapist doesn’t want to see him any more, and worst of all, the fates and…
Page Two
Defending the Lauryn Paige Fuller murder story.
Live Shots
SymphonyScottish Rite Temple, February 12 You could tell something was happening just from the people walking up the sidewalk. It was in the air. And on the sign: Scottish Rite Temple — of Freemasonry! Hmm, yes — quite — but who were all these smelly children, and was this their idea of dressing up for…
Video Reviews
Back Street D: David Miller (1961); with Susan Hayward, John Gavin, Reginald Gardiner, Natalie Schaefer. A typically lush Ross Hunter/Fanny Hurst gusher with Miss Hayward as Rae Smith, an aspiring young fashion designer who keeps coincidentally running into Captain Paul Saxon, played by the Ross Hunter staple, Gavin, also known as the poor man’s Rock…
Public Notice
Our weekly calendar of activist and volunteer events and fundraisers.
Live Shots
Orquesta Ibrahim Ferrer, Rubén González y Su GrupoBass Concert Hall, February 14 And suddenly it was real. Down went the lights, up came the audience, and out onto the huge Bass Concert Hall stage wobbled 81-year-old Cuban pianist Rubén González, his carmel-colored skin and angel white hair glowing against his finely tailored gray suit. In…
TV Eye
Phil Alden Robinson’s Freedom Song, premiering on TNTthis Sunday, is a touching depiction of a small town’s grassroots Civil Rights movement; also, cheers to Frasier and jeers for Fox’s Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire.
Second Helpings: Bakeries
Chronicle writer Greg Beets writes up local bakeries in this week’s edition of Second Helpings.
After a Fashion
Get thee to the Wal-Mart, but don’t take the bus.
Live Shots
20 Miles, Bob Log IIIStubb’s, February 16 The blues is No. 1. Ya heard? I said, the blues is No. 1! No. 1 in Tucson, Arizona, and New York City. No. 1 in Austin, Texas, and Yazoo, Mississippi. No. 1 in your heart and in your pelvis. No. 1 at the White House and in…
Show and Tell
The movie distributors compartmentalize the year by season — summer, fall, holiday — each season indicative of a certain kind of mood or movie. Summer is light and carefree, aimed at all the kids out of school with time on their hands; fall is for the heavier dramatic fare, aimed at the adults who’ve been…
Two Generations, One Art
Like twins who have grown up apart and are finally reunited, writer-performer Terry Galloway and the Austin theatre company Rude Mechanicals are creative soulmates who have at last discovered their kinship through their collaboration on Galloway’s dark comedy In the House of the Moles.
Mr. Smarty Pants
The nutty world of etymology and mistranslations (and cornea transplants).
Live Shots
Handsome Family, Okkervil River, Pearly GatesEmo’s, February 18 Less is more. It was a night of reductive alternative-country at Emo’s, the music getting sparser and more austere as the night went on. Austin’s Pearly Gates crowded the stage first, with a drum set, keyboard, bongo player, tape machine, drum machine, bass player, and kitchen sink…
Tried and True: Auteurs Make a Return to Form
BEYOND THE CLOUDSD: Michelangelo Antonioni; with Fanny Ardant, Chiara Casselli Irene Jacob, John Malkovich, Sophie Marceau, Vincent Perez, Jean Reno, Peter Weller, Marcello Mastroianni, Jeanne Moreau. Desire, love, and deception are the themes the legendary Italian filmmaker Antonioni (L’avventura) in this 1995 film. It was the director’s first film in seven years, and is structured…
Articulations
The announcement of Ballet Austin’s new artistic director; the release of facility specifications for the Long Center.
Coach’s Corner
Television may have birthed the modern NBA, but now it’s turned into a monster intent on killing her young.
Cross Examination
An El Paso medical supplier says the American Red Cross took part in an illegal scheme to ship medical supplies and other goods into Mexico without paying import taxes, and conspired to keep it a secret even after he was wrongfully imprisoned as a direct result.
The Real World: Documentaries
AMERICAN PIMPD: Albert and Allen Hughes. Disturbingly funny documentary depicts the life of the American pimp. Through street interviews, and analysis of Seventies blaxploitation films, the Hughes brothers confirm many of the clichés and personality types involved with the art of prostitution management, and end the film by confirming a “Pimp of the Year” trophy…
Exhibitionism
Open Wide and Say AAAHHH!!!: Holler, Get It OutMovements Gallery, February 18 A double whammy of self-reflective, girl-centric performance art rocked Movements Gallery last weekend. The first piece, a work in progress, was billed as a “campy exploration of the compulsory nature of heterosexuality,” and indeed there lurks beneath the wigged heads of writer-producer Deanna…
Day Trips
Fayetteville, Texas, pop. 500.
Grand Old Mess
Has anyone checked in on the Travis County Republican Party lately? What a mess. You know a political organization is on the fritz when you have three ideologically different people trying to wrest control away from its leader, who is running for another term despite strong indications that she’s lacking the support needed to win.…
Calling the Shots: Women Behind the Camera
AMERICAN PSYCHOD: Mary Harron; with Christian Bale, Willem Dafoe, Jared Leto, Reese Witherspoon, Samantha Mathis, Chloë Sevigny. Scandalous for its depiction of American life through the eyes of a serial killer, Bret Easton Ellis’ controversial novel takes to the big screen. Long the fodder for trade rags because of Leo DiCaprio’s would-be attachment to the…
Exhibitionism
Entrance to the Scriptorium: Landscape of EpitomesAustin Museum of Art — Downtown, through April 30 Entering the Austin Museum of Art’s Bernard Maisner exhibition feels like being a young Jean-Michel Basquiat standing in front of Picasso’s Guernica with his mother — the wonder, the illumination, the spiritual. Maisner once said, “The artist breathes life into…
About AIDS
The herb St. John’s Wort could be dangerous in combination with some HIV drugs.
The Whole Truce
Gary Bradley ponders the significance of his proposed settlement agreement with the city of Austin.
With a Twist: Literary Classics Get a Modern Makeover
HAMLETD: Michael Almereyda; with Ethan Hawke, Kyle MacLachlan, Bill Murray, Liev Schreiber, Sam Shepard, Julia Stiles. This modern-day update of the bard’s oft-revisited tale of the melancholy Dane is told against the urban jungle of 2000 New York — a well-appointed stage of cell phones and luxury chariots — and stars Hawke in the title…
Exhibitionism
The Best of Tapestry, Too: Persistent JoyParamount Theatre, February 18 The dancer taps elegantly across the empty stage, the modest smile playing across her lips signaling the personal satisfaction she takes in these movements and the syncopated rhythms they sound out. But in the midst of her dance, she is interrupted. A disembodied voice –…
Macro Education
There’s more to macrobiotic cooking than brown rice and tofu. Natural Epicurean Academy of Culinary Arts founders Fran Moody and Dawn Black are showing Austinites why, Cuisines editor Virgina B. Wood writes.
Endorsements
By the time the Texas primary election date arrives on March 14, who will run for president on the Republican and Democratic tickets will largely be determined. Although Texas’ relatively late placement on the quadrennial primary calendar might seem like a convincing argument to stay home March 14, this year’s primary ballot includes several local…
They’re Baaack: Austin Hosts Limited-Run Revivals
THE EXORCIST: THE VERSION YOU’VE NEVER SEEND: William Firedkin; with Ellen Burstyn, Linda Blair, Jason Miller, Max von Sydow, Lee J. Cobb, Kitty Winn. The re-release of this 1973 film restores about 11 minutes of film that the author, Peter Blatty, always wanted to include. The press release promises that in addition to making the…
Lone Star Sweden
“Lars Gustafsson has the air, somehow, of a sailor,” Roger Gathman writes about this Austin author transplanted from Sweden. “It is as though he were some Swedish Sinbad come to rest here after a dozen ports. And in a way, that is true.”
Food-o-File
In this week’s edition of Food-o-file, Austin Chronicle Food editor Virginia B. Wood tells readers about several upcoming charity events that involve food (the best kind!) and mentions a Home Winemaker Conference that readers can attend.
Naked City
Is there a neighborhoods/SOS split on the horizon? Nobody’s willing to call it that for the record, but all is not well between these two groups, which usually stand united on most everything. Everything, that is, except two of a slew of candidates running for Place 5 on the City Council: neighborhoods activist Clare Barry…
A Long, Strange Trip
The long, strange trip of The Saragossa Manuscript, Jerry Garcia’s favorite film.
