Growin’ a Beard
Growin’ a Beard 2003, NR, 30 min. Directed by Mike Woolf. This documentary follows the men of Shamrock, Texas – and one hairy outsider – as they compete in the town’s annual Beard Growing Contest. Since 1938, it’s been a tradition in Shamrock to grow a beard from New Year’s Day to St. Patrick’s Day.…
Book Review
“Casares has been listening,” Roger Gathman writes of the Brownsville native’s Brownsville: Stories. “His dialogues seem to hang just outside the realm of literature, which is where real writing happens.” The recent Dobie-Paisano fellow will kick off his book tour at BookPeople on Thursday, March 6, at 7pm.
Picks 2 Click
The Rise Austin’s greatest and brightest new hardcore band has a confession to make. “We’re not really all that into hardcore,” says Stewart Reilly, guitarist for the Rise. “We listen to all sorts of stuff.” They’re on a hardcore label, their music is fierce and aggressive, and they’re a hit with the hardcore crowd. But…
Naked City
A six-year real estate wrangle ended in an out-of-court settlement last week, with Northwest Corridor real estate baron Bill Pohl agreeing to relinquish control of hundreds of acres of suburban properties and paying, along with other associates, more than $1 million in damages to investors who sued him in 1997. The plaintiffs had accused Pohl,…
Fomenting Evolution: Kevin Warwick and “I, Cyborg’
I, Cyborg isn’t just a book, it’s a manifesto. Computer scientist and professor of cybernetics at the University of Reading in England, Kevin Warwick is impatient with the snail pace of human evolution. He wants to speed things up a bit by hooking people up to computers in order to enhance their intelligence and empower…
Page Two
When they label war protesters’ speech as traitorous, right-wing war supporters reveal themselves as truly anti-American.
Phases and Stages
FastballLive From Jupiter Records (Jupiter) Fastball has always been about songwriting. Songwriting credits. All three of the Austin trio’s major label releases leapfrog compositions by the guitarist and bassist, each of whom sings his own contribution: Scalzo, Zuniga, Scalzo, Zuniga, Scalzo, Zuniga — with few exceptions. Given this polarization that ultimately led to Zuniga’s leaving…
Naked City
“Can You Hear Us Now?” Austinites will gather for a follow-up to last week’s massive anti-war rally on Saturday, March 1, at 1pm, at Republic Square, Fourth and Guadalupe, part of a day of nationally coordinated protests. For more info: www.austinagainstwar.org. Meanwhile, at 2pm the same day, the Texas Review Society is sponsoring a Rally…
New on DVD
New on DVD: Stargate: Ultimate Edition
After a Fashion
What do Osama Bin Laden, Aretha Franklin, and Blue Genie Art Industries have in common? Absolutely nothing, but go ahead and read about them anyway.
Phases and Stages
SupergrassLife on Other Planets (Island) In 1996, England’s Supergrass brought the then-nascent Britpop explosion stateside in a burst of manic teenage energy. Shortly thereafter, they all but vanished, leaving behind a pair of muttonchop sideburns and what appeared to be Limahl’s hairpiece. Much has been made of the Oxford trio’s apparent disregard for the niceties…
Naked City
Travis Co. park officials have taken public masturbation into their own hands at Hippie Hollow Park. They’ve cleared out the underbrush, small junipers, and low-hanging tree limbs to discourage that sort of “illicit activity” at the clothing-optional Lake Travis landmark. Park rangers have recently stepped up their patrols of the area in response to complaints…
UT Transmedia Showcase
Bill Lundberg, one of the pioneering artists in film and video installations, will join UT colleagues Bogdan Perzynski and Michael Smith at Cinescapes’ UT Transmedia Showcase.
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
It is a Texas superstition that a white mule is lucky.Ten years ago, the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area was expected to be off the EPA smog-problem list by now.The Parabuthus transvaalicus scorpion produces two different kinds of venom and not only stings, but also shoots its venom at predators like a water pistol.”Full spectrum” lighting…
Phases and Stages
SimianWe Are Your Friends (Astralwerks) Simian’s 2001 debut, Chemistry Is What We Are, came off as the product of a band with too much kind bud on their hands — lazy psychedelic weirdness that foretold of epic trippery to come. Somewhere along the path, however, Simian’s monkey business morphed into music to walk erect by;…
Naked City
Carlos Lavernia has many things to be grateful for, but freedom isn’t one of them. He spent 16 years in prison until a DNA test in 2000 proved he wasn’t the “Barton Creek rapist,” and he subsequently won a $400,000 judgment against the state in a wrongful conviction lawsuit. Yet, nearly three years after his…
Day Trips
All that is left of Thurber is marked by a red-brick smokestack that towers over I-20 about 75 miles west of Fort Worth. The town that was once on the cutting edge of technology has all but disappeared from the rolling hills of the West Texas prairie. A new museum documents the history of the…
Phases and Stages
Baptist GeneralsNo Silver/No Gold (Sub Pop) It’s hard not to giggle at the end of “Ay Distress,” the opening track from the Baptist Generals’ Sub Pop debut. After a haunting performance of the slow, spare tune, someone’s cell phone rings in the garage/studio. The spell broken and a perfect take ruined, singer Chris Flemmons goes…
Naked City
Elected officials must often give the public what it wants, even if it wants something the pol might not. Such is the dilemma faced by Mayor Pro Tem Jackie Goodman, the only smoker on the Austin City Council, as she considers a measure sponsored by Mayor Gus Garcia to ban smoking in all public places…
New In Print
Leaving Reality Behind: etoy vs. eToys.com & Other Battles to Control CyberspaceBy Adam Wishart and Regula Bochsler Ecco, 320 pp., $25.95 Yes, another dot-com story — this one complete with rise-and-fall details (pictures too!) and an epic storyline (think David and Goliath), one that raises significant questions regarding the cohabitation of free expression and commerce…
To Your Health
My mother has been taking 400 IU of vitamin D for several years. She has severe osteoporosis that was still getting worse until she increased her vitamin D supplement to 800 IU per day. What is the safe limit for a vitamin D supplement?
Phases and Stages
Tim EastonBreak Your Mother’s Heart (New West) Listening to Break Your Mother’s Heart, Tim Easton’s third CD, it’s easy to pick out his influences. One song recalls the lowdown J.J. Cale; another is bright and sunny like Paul Simon; then “Hummingbird,” with its easy, strummed acoustic guitar and shimmering harmonies, recalls early R.E.M. The Athens,…
Naked City
In an 8-to-1 decision Feb. 25, the U.S. Supreme Court voted to grant Texas death-row inmate Thomas Miller-El the right to appeal his complaint of race-based jury selection to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In a 24-page opinion written by Justice Anthony Kennedy, the court ruled that the 5th Circuit’s earlier rejection of…
New In Print
Pattern Recognitionby William Gibson Putnam, 368 pp., $25.95 Is cyberpunk author William Gibson burned out on the future? Of course, Gibson has stated that he has always been writing about the present, using science fiction as a kind of prop. But writers cannot always be trusted to tell the truth about their writing. In any…
About AIDS
Black Market Pushing Two AIDS Drugs In a really bizarre twist, a couple of the AIDS-related drugs have found followings on the black market — one as a recreational “trippy” drug and one for impatient gym bunnies. Among the most common side effects of the anti-HIV drug Sustiva (efavirenz) are central nervous system impacts like…
Phases and Stages
Sonny LandrethThe Road We’re On (Sugar Hill) The road has taken Louisiana guitarist Sonny Landreth all over the map. He’s spent entire albums traveling such disparate musical landscapes as zydeco and jazz, playing on recordings from Dolly Parton to Kenny Loggins. His latest release for Sugar Hill, The Road We’re On, is all about one…
On the Lege
This week at the circus, er, Lege.
Short Cuts
Locals Paul Beck and Jason Archer animate Molotov’s new video.
Around the World …
In 28 ethnic markets: where to shop when you want to live locally and eat globally
Phases and Stages
BongzillaGateway (Relapse) On their third Relapse release, this Madison, Wis.-based outfit tenders up eight sticky tracks of crunchy, loud, and oozy tunes that sound like a modern-day Black Sabbath running a Dutch coffee shop. As song titles make clear, this quartet is all about the sweet leaf: “Hashdealer,” “Greenthumb,” and “Keefmaster.” Bongzilla uses green goggles…
Capitol Chronicle
The legislative fight over vouchers and school finance has a long history and deep roots.
TV Eye
Breaking more ground: Six Feet Under returns for a third season.
Food-o-File
March comes in like a SXSW and Virginia B. Wood gets down to business, in this week’s “Food-o-File.”
Creative Capital?
In the City of Ideas, the people with ideas are dancing with day jobs.
Austin @ Large: Austin at Large
The city may go where it feared to tread last year — tax hikes, layoffs, and cutting public safety budgets.
Video Reviews
While Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf is no stranger to long, long shots gazing down long, long roads for a long, long time, he also knows how to tell a story.
Second Helpings: Simply Seafood
Climb aboard for the catch of the day, in this week’s “Second Helpings.”
Picks 2 Click
Mouths are gonna hit the fan when the results of this year’s Austin Chronicle Music Poll come out the night of the Austin Music Awards. The sea change in the local club scene is reflected in the face lift of “It” acts as voted by our readers. It’s appropriate, then, that the Chronicle’s picks of…
ACC Budget Axe Swings: Will It Miss Students?
The governor’s 7% budget cut means drastic — and ill-timed — choices for Austin Community College.
The Hightower Report
Bush goes on a spending binge; lawmakers demand Bush ask for war permission.
The Life of David Gale
The Life of David Gale 2003, R, 131 min. Directed by Alan Parker, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Kevin Spacey, Kate Winslet, Laura Linney, Gabriel Mann, Rhona Mitra, Matt Craven, Leon Rippy. One thing director Alan Parker has never been accused of is understatement. From such early films as Bugsy Malone and Midnight…
TCB
50 Cent brings his bullet proof vest to the Delco Center
Picks 2 Click
Gary Clark Jr. On a hot September afternoon last fall, Gary Clark Jr. took bows to thunderous applause. His set at the Austin City Limits Music Festival had blistered like the sun, hot blues channeled from Alberts, both Collins and King. With less than six years of experience, Clark has played happy hours, opened for…
Reed Appeals ‘Conviction of an Innocent Man’
A federal appeal attacks the state’s ‘airtight” case against death-row inmate Rodney Reed.
Plays Well With Others
How Creative Commons is redefining copyright law and what it means for artistic collaboration across the Internet.
Love Liza
Love Liza 2002, R, 93 min. Directed by Todd Louiso, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Kathy Bates, Sarah Koskoff, Stephen Tobolowsky, Jack Kehler, Erika Alexander. Wilson Joel (Hoffman) is bereft. His wife Liza has killed herself just prior to the start of the film. We never see Liza. All we…
From the Ridiculous to the Sublime
How do you take Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist and, in less than a month, condense it into a 100-minute one-man play, with the actor playing 20 characters from the novel plus a New York City drag queen? Everett Quinton and Eureka, veterans of the fabled Ridiculous Theatre Company and creators of Twisted Olivia, explain how…
Picks 2 Click
Moonlight Towers It takes Moonlight Towers just 30 minutes to write a new song. Actually, it takes singer/ guitarist/principal songwriter James Stevens longer to come up with the melody and the lyrics, but it takes the local fourpiece — Stevens; lead guitarist Jacob Schulze; bassist Jason Daniels; drummer Richard Galloway — no time at all…
A Revolt Brews Among the Circle C Masses
New residents at Circle C Ranch question the control Gary Bradley’s allies still have over the homeowners’ association.
A Corner in Cyberspace Turned Blog Party
Jon Lebkowsky asks, why blog?
Max
Max 2002, R, 106 min. Directed by Menno Meyjes, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring John Cusack, Noah Taylor, Leelee Sobieski, Ulrich Thomsen, Molly Parker. Controversy surrounds certain films like a gray and cloying fog. It can be beneficial, a contrived marketing tool that might add a certain luster to an otherwise forgettable picture,…
Double D’Amour
In one week, Austin is blessed with two theatrical projects by gifted playwright Lisa D’Amour: her 16 Spells to Charm the Beast, a curious romance between a big-city enchantress and the fairy-tale beast who adores her; and Nita and Zita, a cabaret in which the ghosts of two sisters relate the story of their lives…
Picks 2 Click
Shane Bartell “I got really drunk and fell into a river, and I got out of the river, and I decided I had to move to Portland,” explains Austin’s Shane Bartell. “It’s all a little hazy right now.” What’s not hazy is the music of Shane Bartell, who wasn’t really Shane Bartell until he returned…
Will the Circle Be Unbroken?
The Circle C Homeowners Association has been led by the same cast of characters since Gary Bradley conceived of the project in the early 1980s. The cast includes: Jim O’Reilly: President, Circle C HOA and former treasurer of Circle C Municipal Utility District 1; O’Reilly chaired the Circle C PAC during the 1997 legislative session.…
Power up the PDA
Recommended at SXSW Interactive 2003.
Articulations
Austin helps the Lysistrata Project become the Little Peace Project That Could, the Long Center says “no thanks, after all” to the $25 million in Waller Creek tunnel bond money, and Austin Shakespeare Festival launches a new reading series.
Picks 2 Click
The Octopus Project Up from the murky brine of Red River, shooting through the electro-magnetic reefs of Tortoise, rock lobster ensnared in muscled suckers, comes this native cephalopod mollusk. “We came up with it while trying to name another band,” winces Octopus Project beak Toto Miranda. “And hated it.” High school pal, former Radio-Television-Film mate,…
Max For austinmayor.com?
Last week the Will Wynn campaign announced it wouldn’t participate in any online forums, chats, or other activities hosted by the new Web site Austinmayor.com. The site’s operator, Paul Terry Walhus, had briefly worked as webmaster for candidate Max Nofziger’s campaign; as recently as Jan. 8, Walhus remarked on Maxformayor.com that Nofziger is “the only…
Come Together: “Pieces” of David Weinberger
David Weinberger co-authored The Cluetrain Manifesto, and more recently he’s written Small Pieces Loosely Joined: A Unified Theory of the Internet, a philosophical exploration of our experience of the World Wide Web. Austin Chronicle: You taught philosophy, then got into marketing. That’s pretty weird in itself — but now you’re evangelizing about technology, as well.…
Exhibitionism
Playwright Lisa D’Amour’s 16 Spells to Charm the Beast is an urban fable of loneliness and love set in a whimsical world where furry brutes pine for sophisticated housewives; at its best Salvage Vanguard Theater’s production casts its own spell, capturing us in a thrall of poetic visions reflecting natural desire and supernatural devotion.
Picks 2 Click
Los Lonely Boys Los Lonely Boys are the kind of guys that make Mexican mothers coo, “Ay, mi’jito — I want you to meet my sister’s daughter’s cousin!” In gringo-speak, that means the brothers — Henry, Joey (Jojo), and Ringo Garza — are good boys with jobs, rooted in family. “Our familia, our culture –…
Naked City
Quote of the Week: “I feel like a weapons inspector in Iraq. Trying to get the information from the insurance companies and to get them to tell the truth has been quite challenging.” — State Sen. Troy Fraser, R-Horseshoe Bay, charged with leading the Senate’s response to the home-insurance crisis. Fraser’s SB 310, forcing insurers…
Coming up for AIR: Austin’s Accessibility Internet Rally
Let’s say you’re visually impaired, but you can still surf the Web because you have software that “reads” the text to you. You come to a page, though, that makes little sense. Perhaps the titles are images rather than text, and though there’s code that a Web developer can use to feed the titles to…
Exhibitionism
The Mary Moody Northen Theatre’s decision to stage Robert Schenkkan’s monumental The Kentucky Cycle is laudable, and the St. Edward’s University student actors and their Equity counterparts put their all into every moment of effort, but the production’s nuggets of brilliance are lost in technical inadequacies, inconsistent acting, and awkward staging.
Picks 2 Click
The Spiders The Spiders are a small-town band playing big-city rock & roll. Arriving in late 2000 with Sex Is Thicker Than Blood, a glam-baked, punk-fused collection of shoot-out-the-lights party rock, the San Marcos quartet quickly developed a rabid following on Red River, especially unreconstructed rocker haven Room 710. Their sophomore effort, Glitzkrieg, is due…
Naked City
The Long Center for the Performing Arts has dropped its bid to obtain $25 million in city bond financing originally approved for the Waller Creek Tunnel flood-control project. The City Council was supposed to take up the request at today’s meeting, setting the stage for a possible item on the May 3 city ballot. “It…
Strange Days: Bruce Sterling
The future. Don’t expect flying cars whizzing above a candy-colored skyline, a personal clone doing your laundry, or everything to end with a glorious atomic fireball. In his latest book, Tomorrow Now: Envisioning the Next Fifty Years, Bruce Sterling, the Austin-based science fiction writer and cyberpunk guru, offers a view of the future that is…
