The 24 Hour Woman
The 24 Hour Woman 1999, R, 95 min. Directed by Nancy Savoca, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Rosie Perez, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Melissa Leo, Wendell Pierce, Karen Duffy, Patti Lupone, Diego Serrano, Aida Turturro, Reno. A friend of mine, years ago, frequently and vociferously declared during her pregnancy that “having a baby wasn’t going…
Two Hundred Cigarettes
Two Hundred Cigarettes 1999, R, 97 min. Directed by Risa Bramon Garcia, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Guillermo Diaz, Angela Featherstone, Janeane Garofalo, Kate Hudson, Casey Affleck, Gaby Hoffman, Jay Mohr, Dave Chappelle, Christina Ricci, Martha Plimpton, Ben Affleck, Courtney Love, Paul Rudd. There’s plenty of smoke in 200 Cigarettes, but not much…
8 MM
8 MM 1999, R, 119 min. Directed by Joel Schumacher, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Nicolas Cage, Joaquin Phoenix, James Gandolfini, Chris Bauer, Anthony Heald, Peter Stormare, Catherine Keener, Myra Carter, Amy Morton. It used to be that Brian De Palma was the one who made folks antsy. Now it’s Joel Schumacher. That’s…
Another Day in Paradise
Another Day in Paradise 1998, R, 101 min. Directed by Larry Clark, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring James Wood, Melanie Griffith, James Otis, Natasha Gregson Wagner, Vincent Kartheiser, Branden Williams. This will forever be known in some circles as the film that sent Larry Clark back to his old heroin habit, and watching…
The Day of the Beast
De la Iglesia builds this original horror film around a priest who belives the Antichrist will be born on Christmas Day. The director’s unique visions blend ultra-violence and satiric touches make this a stunning example of his work screening in this four-part Alamo series.
Eight Days a Week
Eight Days a Week 1997, R, 92 min. Directed by Michael Davis, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Johnny Green, R.D. Robb, Josh Schaefer, Keri Russell. If Michael Davis can avoid excessive heartburn over the slew of There’s Something About Keri quips his debut feature is sure to inspire (though, in fact, his film…
The Other Sister
The Other Sister 1999, PG-13, 129 min. Directed by Garry Marshall, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Giovanni Ribisi, Tom Skerritt, Diane Keaton, Juliette Lewis. From Benny & Joon to Angel Baby to Forrest Gump and beyond, there has been no shortage of recent movies addressing the implications of (non-platonic) love among the mentally…
Postscripts
“Having been an agent here for about four years now and seeing the wealth of literary talent that we have available, it’s always hurt me that we haven’t had more publishers available to tap that. So I’m really looking forward to being on the other end of things.” Those are the words of Marc Schwarz,…
Dancing About Architecture
The notorious Johnny Rotten is still managing to cause trouble, not only as MTV’s liaison to the Grammys (which unfortunately aired after our deadline) but also on Austin radio, as Mayor Kirk Watson, appearing on Andy Langer’s 101X program Open Mike last Sunday, made a big fuss about how stringent he was about screening the…
Louis Sachar: Top of His Class
Since 1978, Austin author Louis Sachar has been creating a body of work — an oeuvre, if you will — that has inspired stalwart affection among readers aged seven to 12. Sideways Stories From Wayside School, The Boy Who Lost His Face, There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom, and others, are well-known to many…
Live Shots
Joan Baez at the Paramount Theatre, February 23. All Photos by John Carrico BILLY SQUIER Waterloo Records, February 12 Say what you will, but Billy Squier can still pack ’em in. To Waterloo Records anyway, where the ancient axe-man’s in-store drew a thick but mixed crowd: For every true Squier fan clutching a worn vinyl…
A Fan Writes in
I’m a fan of Louis Sachar. In fact, I just finished one of his books a few minutes ago. I think he’s a wonderful children’s writer — he’s creative, keeps the reader interested, and also writes for all ages. Here’s how I discovered Louis: My mom and I were out shopping at a ladies’ clothes…
Council Watch
The Austin City Council did not meet last week. The council returns to the dais today (Feb. 25) to tackle a meaty agenda. The prickly issue of the day may well center on the city’s solid waste contract. The city staff has recommended awarding a joint landfill contract to Browning-Ferris Industries and Texas Disposal Systems…
Amassing Awards
So far, Louis Sachar has received the following awards or citations for his book Holes: a National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, a Newbery Medal Award, an American Library Association Notable Book, an American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults, an American Library Association Quick Pick for Young Adults, a Christopher Award for…
The Price of Progress
Born in London in 1948, Patricia “Ash” Corea has loved cooking since childhood, a passion not gained from her mother, “who could burn water.” Moving to Paris at the age of 17, she studied at Le Cordon Bleu, the world-famous gourmet school founded in 1895. Traveling and living in many countries over the next 25…
Despite Their Price, New Meds Reducing HIV Costs About AIDS
Over the last couple of years, people have been astonished at the cost of the newer anti-viral drugs. It’s true that anti-HIV medications, especially the new class called protease inhibitors, are among the most expensive compounds on the American market. But along with improved treatment for the AIDS-accompanying opportunistic diseases, the new combination therapies have…
On the Lege
Accusations of racism and homophobia reached a boiling point in the hallways of the Capitol last week when Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, argued the merits of proposed hate crimes legislation (HB 638, SB 275) with two of the bill’s biggest Republican opponents, Rep. Wayne Christian and Sen. Drew Nixon. Christian and Nixon both represent Jasper,…
Page Two
We landed in Oakland, Calif.,on the way to my son’s piano competition. Last Sunday, we left the airport and headed north into Sonoma County to stay with some friends for a few days before the competition started. It was hinting rain more than threatening but the vegetation was a sodden green, as though drenched. Sonoma…
Taking Off
So the mantra of the Mueller Neighborhoods Coalition may well be: “Do it now.” This risks, however, running afoul of other neighborhoods in the city, and other progressive constituencies, some of whom have already started to fuss that the New Mueller plan is not sufficiently dense and SmartGrown to accommodate their needs and interests. “We…
Public Notice
The ashes are but a smudge on the forehead and the sins have been forgiven. Lent may be in full swing for some, but it seems that some local fundraising types can’t shake the naughties out of their nalgas.A Night in Brazil — A Carnaval Celebration hits La Zona Rosa Sat, Feb 27, 9pm, and…
Naked City
After more than a year of maps and meetings and hand-wringing, the AISD Board of Trustees is slated to vote on new school boundaries tonight, Thursday, Feb. 25, at 6:30pm at the Carruth Administration Building (1111 W. Sixth). If the board votes in the proposed plan, it could mean the end of 27 years of…
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Cadillac was the first car with an electric starter. According to one theory, the singing of “ahh … ” in the original Star Trek theme was actually not a soprano singing, but a type of instrument called a theremin. Another theory is that it really was a person, Lilly Jean Newman, a singer at Desilu…
Two Thumbs Up
Gene Siskel was a most unlikely television star, but if being a television star is as simple as being recognized because of the small screen, then that was Siskel. Siskel, who died on Saturday at age 53, was the film critic for The Chicago Tribune, but it was his presence alongside Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger…
A Pinch of Yin, A Dash of Yang
When a chef comes to town, especially one courted by a national culinary association and hyped for months by Central Market Cooking School, this cook takes notice. And takes notes. On February 10, renowned Chinese food scholar and restaurateur Barbara Tropp returned to Austin to lead a cooking class like one she led at the…
Roll ‘Em
ANALYZE THIS D: Harold Ramis; with Robert De Niro, Billy Crystal, Lisa Kudrow. A mob boss begins having panic attacks and goes to see a psychiatrist. Sounds awfully similar to the premise of HBO’s The Sopranos; however, this movie stars Robert De Niro doing a comic version of his wiseguy persona and has Billy Crystal…
Women Chefs & Restaurateurs
Women Chefs & Restaurateurs (WCR) was organized in 1993 by eight prominent professional women to promote the education and advancement of women in the restaurant industry and the betterment of the industry as a whole. When founding mothers Barbara Tropp, Mary Sue Milliken, and Elka Gilmore appeared as celebrity chefs at the Texas Hill Country…
Scanlines
D. Peter Howitt (1998) with Gwyneth Paltrow, John Hannah, John Lynch Gwyneth Paltrow Imagine that the rest of your life could be drastically changed based on whether or not you make it to your train or bus on time. Capital Metro users may not want to waste too much thought on this concept, but it…
Joe’s Bakery
2305 E. Seventh, 472-0017 Tue-Sun, 7am-3pm For many people in Austin, Mexican food is a source of comfort. It is as familiar and as necessary as mother’s milk. People eat it when they feel depressed. People crave it. But as with all comfort foods, most people are finicky about how they like it to taste.…
Short Cuts
That squishy splat noise you hear in the distance is the sound of the town’s collective eyeballs crunching under the weight of all the tempting and worthwhile movies that are out there to see right now. I’m getting very close to uttering words I never thought I’d hear coming out of my mouth: Too much.…
Food-O-File
The generous, talented Brackenridge Hospital chef responsible for the Red Wagon Salsas is Paul Landers, not John. Also, in a recent piece about two large local farmstands currently being without farmers, I neglected to mention that the South Austin Farmer’s Market, located at 2910 S. Congress in the El Gallo parking lot, is open every…
Blood on the Keys
photograph by John Anderson I was not yet 15 when I fell in love with the old devil blues — caught hold of them hellhounds and rode them straight on down to the Delta. It worked me up good, it did, and loosed something stuck within me. Having neither a bottle-neck git-tar nor a rusty…
Momoko Bubble Tea Room and Japanese Gift Store
705 W. 24th, 469-0232 Mon-Sat, 11am-8pm; Sun, noon-6pm Momoko is basically a space-age tea room, and 27-year-old, super-hip Welinning Ko is basically my hero. Welinning (way-leen) moved from Taiwan nine years ago to attend Texas Lutheran College in Seguin, Texas; she knew that without many other students from Taiwan, her English would get that much…
Despite Their Price, New Meds Reducing HIV Costs About AIDS
Over the last couple of years, people have been astonished at the cost of the newer anti-viral drugs. It’s true that anti-HIV medications, especially the new class called protease inhibitors, are among the most expensive compounds on the American market. But along with improved treatment for the AIDS-accompanying opportunistic diseases, the new combination therapies have…
Articulations
Since the Music and Screens departments get to fill out their columns with items about upcoming monster conferences, I’m playing copycat and doing the same. No, we haven’t yet started a South by Southwest Puppet Theatre and Interpretive Dance Festival (though we’ve been meaning to get started on that); we mean the fourth annual Big…
Triumph Coffee House
3808 Spicewood Springs, 343-1875 Mon-Thu, 7am-7pm; Fri, 7am-11pm; Sat, 8am-11pm In October of 1980, Nguyen Chinh Truc, proprietor of Triumph Coffee House, left the coast of South Vietnam with 28 of his countrymen in a river boat that had already sunk once, drowning four. Out of its league even in a river, the small wooden…
Bright Lights, Little City
Eight Days a Week It’s not difficult, if you’rean Austin resident, to fall into the habit of taking the River City for granted. And if you’re a film connoisseur, as is so much of the population, it might occasionally slip your mind that not every city boasts such an explosively healthy film community. I suspect…
Family Man
illustration by Robert Faries For David Mark Cohen, life’s work was plays. He was forever seeing them, reading them, talking aboutthem, writing about them, developing them, directing them, helping get them produced. And when he died suddenly in December, 1997 — the victim of a tragic automobile accident — Cohen’s friends and colleagues spoke at…
Something to Live For
photograph by Austin American-Statesman It was 1921 when a young barrelhouse piano player by the name of Georgia Tom stopped in at the National Baptist Convention in his hometown of Chicago. Thomas A. Dorsey, the father of gospel music, was flush in the middle of what he would later call his sinful days. “At that…
Coach’s Corner
I’ve come across a predictable and alarming pattern of decay and ravage in my body. As any good television detective can tell you, it takes time and patience to discern a pattern in long-term abuse. After 15 years of observation, I’ve found that the body parts on my right side tear or rip, or just…
Exhibitionism
BLUES FOR AN ALABAMA SKY: ON EDGE AND EAGER FOR MORE Santa Cruz Center for Culture, Through February 28 Running Time: 2 hrs Good acting, good script, and a cozy venue — makes for a perfect theatre production, doesn’t it? It does at the Santa Cruz Center for Culture when ProArts Collective of Austin, an…
The Primary Source
Carol Fran photograph by T.O. Petitt History is subjective. It’s the perception of events that can’t be experienced firsthand — a reconstruction composed partly of memory and partly of imagination. Webster’s New World Dictionary defines history as “an account of what has or might have happened, esp. in the form of a narrative, play, story,…
Day Trips
“Loading Cattle,” by Otis Dozier, in the lobby of the Fredericksburg post office photograph by Gerald E. McLeod Post office murals around the state survive as a reminder of the power of art to inspire and encourage a nation overwhelmed by the problems of the Great Depression. In post office lobbies from San Antonio to…
