Kicking and Screaming
Kicking and Screaming 1995, R, 98 min. Directed by Noah Baumbach, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Josh Hamilton, Eric Stoltz, Olivia D’Abo, Chris Eigeman, Carlos Jacott, Jason Wiles, Elliott Gould, Parker Posey, Cara Buono. “Twentysomething and fresh out of college” is increasingly coming to define a whole genre of pictures that may trace…
Meet Marlon Brando
Meet Marlon Brando NR, 28 min. Directed by Albert And David Maysles, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . This documentary captures the candid Brando in a press conference during which he plays cat and mouse with the assembled journalists.
What’s Happening: The Beatles in the USA
What’s Happening: The Beatles in the USA NR, 55 min. Directed by Albert And David Maysles, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . The Maysles’ cameras document the Beatles’ crazy first week in America, from the landing at Idlewild to the Ed Sullivan Show debut and their journey down the East Coast. These filmmaking…
Going Long
One to the Right by I Megalomani The Off Center Running Time: 50 min If you’ve yet to receive your Recommended Daily Allowance of sight gags concerning groin injuries, jokes involving bodily fluids, and comic bits based around slang terms for sexual organs, you might forgo renting another video from the Farrelly Brothers and take…
Local Bestsellers
Local bestsellers are based on recent sales at Austin bookstores selected to reflect varied reading interests.
Dancing About Architecture
Collapsing Beams at the Mercury, Asleep at the Wheel Beams into Your Home, SXSW Marches On
Record Reviews
Karen KohlerJam and Spice: The Songs of Kurt Weill The German son of a cantor, a left-wing intellectual dramatist and composer who in 1935 fled Nazi Germany for the United States where he wrote sophisticated Broadway musicals until his death in 1950, Kurt Weill is to American popular music what his song “Mack the Knife”…
Dance Fever
Sundance 2000: The year of “dot-comming,” short films, female athletes, and the feverish race for the next big thing.
Sweet and Lowdown
Sweet and Lowdown 1999, PG-13, 95 min. Directed by Allen, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring John Waters, Gretchen Mol, Anthony Lapaglia, Uma Thurman, Samantha Morton, Sean Penn. If there is any justice in the world, this engaging, embraceable tale of one man’s romance with jazz and women will at long last snuff all…
Going Long
Homer by Phillip Owen The Off-Center Running Time: 1 hr, 30 min Say you’re sitting in your apartment or house or whatever and you’re watching James Burke’s Connections on PBS or you’re chuckling and frowning over the latest piece by David Foster Wallace in Harper’s. And Burke is about to make ancient Lithuanian food-preparation rituals…
Page Two
I am the walrus.
Record Reviews
Slaid CleavesBroke Down (Philo) Well that settles it. Slaid Cleaves, with a big assist from his producer and jack-of-all-trades musician, Gurf Morlix, has supplied us with the first great Austin album of the 21st century. Cleaves’ last Philo release, No Angel Knows, showed a great deal of promise and had many critics comparing him to…
Field of Dreamers
Two dems, five gop candidates vie for district 48 race, but the seat is expected to remain Democratic.
Short Cuts
Upcoming events and workshops of interest to the Austin film community.
Going Long
The Messiah Formerly Known as Jesus by Richard Hinojosa The Off Center Running Time: 1 hr, 45 min “Jesus was way cool. He could’ve played guitar better than Hendrix — He turned water into wine and if he wanted to, he could’ve turned wheat into marijuana and sugar into cocaine –” — King Missile, “Jesus…
Public Notice
This week, your pals at Public Notice ponder the power of table manners and gets all campy.
Record Reviews
Chris MontgomeryYou Know You Want It (Big Pants) What a cocky title for such an engaging debut. It reflects nothing of the bright rays of shuffley slide guitar optimism peeking through the Southern murk of such timeless American themes as losing one’s baby to big wheels on the highway and getting her back on a…
March 14: The Primary Ballots
It’s a fight to the finish in November, but first we head for the March 14 primaries to select a Democratic and Republican nominee from each of the contested party races. Below is the list of candidates who filed in Travis County. For those newcomers who still need to register to vote, chop-chop, the deadline…
TV Eye
Austinite Edward E. Toutant wants to be a millionaire : and in this interview, he tells of his near-miss adventure to get into the hottest seat on prime time.
Going Long
Two by Linney by Romulus Linney The Off Center Running Time: 2 hrs Time Magazine once described playwright Romulus Linney as “one of the American theatre’s most mysteriously buried treasures.” The United States Theater Company unearths two of this treasure’s pearls as part of the FronteraFest 2000 Long Fringe. Though very different works, the one-acts…
Letters at 3AM
It’s time for the American South to reject its “rebel” hypocrisy of states rights and atone for the sins of the slave economy of the Confederacy.
Record Reviews
Mike Rosenthal(Red Truck) There’s something about Mike Rosenthal’s music that draws the ear closely. It’s not the vocals, though they sound favorably Elvis Costello-like on “Settle In” and “Mission Man.” It’s not the playing, though on songs like “Very Next Town” Rosenthal was clearly an honor student in his pop-driven melodies class. It’s not even…
District 48 Candidates
DemocratsAmanda M. “Mandy” DealeyAge: 49 Education: BA in Art History, UT; master’s degree work, UT LBJ School of Public Affairs; mediation training, UT Center for Public Policy Resolution. Occupation: Working toward master’s degree in public affairs, LBJ School of Public Affairs. Former work: president, Austin Area Mental Health Association; vice president, Mental Health Association of…
Video Reviews
One-eyed monsters! Great White sharks! Man-eating alligators! We look at four adventure films that take their threats (sort of) seriously: Jason and theArgonauts, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, Lake Placid, and Deep Blue Sea.
Articulations
Another death in the dance community, longtime UT jazz dance instructor Lathan Sanford.
Day Trips
Eat the fresh eggs of the watchchickens at the Luckenbach Inn Bed & Breakfast.
Record Reviews
Grand ChampeenOut Front by the Van Any album that can bind a listener’s musical past with the present and hoped-for future is bound to end up in the regular rotation at home, and if you’re one who insists that unsentimental, booze-blasted roots rock shall indeed never die, then local quartet Grand Champeen’s debut, Out Front…
The Wild Card
Austin’s own merry prankster, Linda J. Curtis, a grassroots political campaign organizer who works for Gallup Polls, has been nominated by the Reform Party to run for the District 48 seat. Curtis, who helped spearhead the successful campaign contribution limit initiative in Austin two years ago with the group Austinites for a Little Less Corruption,…
Video Reviews
The 7th Voyage of Sinbad D: Nathan Juran (1958); with Kerwin Mathews, Kathryn Grant, Torin Thatcher (special visual effects: Ray Harryhausen; music, Bernard Herrmann). The 7th Voyage of Sinbad was the third film brought to the screen by producer Charles H. Schneer and effects technician Harryhausen, and broke new ground for the duo in a…
Exhibitionism
In this week’s section of Austin Chronicle arts reviews, Ben Willcott reports on a night at the second annual Dancefest.
After a Fashion
Outr� at the Golden Globes.
Record Reviews
Missing IngredientConsolation Prize Consolation Prize is one of those rare albums that makes you feel guilty, almost voyeuristic, for even listening. Credit local singer/guitarist Mike DuBose’s hyperpersonal songwriting for presenting the pitfalls and emotional ambushes of modern relationships through an appropriately bitter haze of poison and drug metaphors. Musically, the album follows the fault line…
Power House
Custer’s last stand was at Little Big Horn. The last stand for Texas Democrats may be the Texas House. Witness: For the past 10 years, Democrats have taken a beating at the polls. And they are now facing an election in which they must keep control of the Texas House and regain control of the…
Video Reviews
Lake PlacidD: Steve Miner (1999); with Bill Pullman, Bridget Fonda, Oliver Platt, Betty White, Brendan Gleeson. A sort of Ally McBeal meets Alligator. The only difference is that the giant creature is actually a crocodile and instead of the gaunt Calista Flockhart we get the equally lean Bridget Fonda. Aside from that, the same neurotic…
A Place of Her Own
In her two short story collections, Lasting Attachments and Crossing Shattuck Bridge, Annette Sanford can be laugh-out-loud funny, poignant, and tragic, sometimes in the same breath. But she couldn’t do it if she lived in the city. The country is indelibly her metier.
Mr. Smarty Pants
An assortment of facts and hearsay that incisively and subtly captures the human condition.
Record Reviews
Cinema West(Dark Candy) Now that the brothers Gallagher have anointed Austin’s Cotton Mather their successors, perhaps it’s finally safe for local Britpop bands to come out of the studio. On Cinema West’s 23-minute, self-titled debut, this capital city fivepiece darts out of the gate with a snappy, XTC sugar rush, “You’re the Reason,” and never…
How the Pendulum Swings
Less than 10 years ago, Democrats controlled all but one of the major elected offices in Texas, and held big majorities in the Texas House and Senate. Today, Republicans hold every single one of the 29 positions that are elected statewide, and the party control ratio has narrowed considerably in the House and Senate. While…
Video Reviews
Deep Blue Sea D: Renny Harlin (1999); with Thomas Jane, Saffron Burrows, Samuel L. Jackson, LL Cool J. Nearly every sea creature movie since Jaws (save, of course, the San Marcos-filmed Piranha) has been quite awful. With that in mind, Deep Blue Sea comes across as quite a surprise, with its great effects and balance…
Book Reviews
Figures of Speech: Poems by Enrique Lihn translated by Dave Oliphant Host Publications, 187 pp., $12 (paper) The most fascinating stories from the evolution of Latin American poetry in the 20th century seem to come, quite unexpectedly, from Chile. The long and narrow land that produced Pablo Neruda, Gabriela Mistral, and Vicente Huidobro, already rich…
Coach’s Corner
Ray Rhodes may not have been fired as the Green Bay Packers head coach because he’s black, but he’d still have the job if he were white.
Record Reviews
Coffee SergeantsThe Blessing House Those of us who are refugees from the Sixties will feel a certain affinity for the Coffee Sergeants if for no other reason than the longtime local band’s dead-on re-creation of the dreamy soundscapes that characterized much of that decade’s “underground” musical ambiance. Known to take long periods of hiatus between…
Council Watch
City plots downtown’s retail future
Little Darlings
Addison DeWitt and Miss Caswell come back to life as chihuahuas, and it’s All About Margaret.
Book Reviews
Tea by Stacey D’Erasmo Algonquin Books, 336 pp., $21.95 A young girl waits, a cup of tea cooling in the next room, for her mother. A young woman’s hand cups another woman’s breast. An imagined string of lustrous, perfect pearls — the pearls her mother might have given her if she had not swallowed several…
About AIDS
Teens are more likely than adults to continue risky behavior after learning they are HIV+.
Record Reviews
Three Balls of FireFriday Night at Ego’s Lounge Instrumental rock frequently gets painted in hues of Floydian pink and Tortoise-shell gray, when in reality it can be just as catchy and direct as any Christina Aguilera ditty. Leaving ornate noodling to the other Phish in the sea, Austin’s Three Balls of Fire offer some 25…
Media Clips
Two Fox reporters, fired by a Tampa station for their report on the continued use of the controversial recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone, are coming to Austin to tell their tale.
The Ten Commandments of Miss Caswell
1. There shalt be NO other puppies before me. 2. NO other puppy shall be served food BEFORE me. 3. NO other puppy shall be served MORE food than me. 4. NO other puppy may be picked up BEFORE me. 5. NO other puppy shall be held LONGER than me. 6. NO other puppy shall…
Second Helpings: Korean
Tasty, bite-sized restaurant listings compiled from new and previous reviews, guides, and poll results. This week’s entries were compiled by Mick Vann. When you need quick, reliable information about Austin eateries, check here. Many of these Korean restaurants offer sushi as well as traditional Korean dishes. (see Second Helpings: Sushi). Please note that the names…
Book Reviews
Falling Dark: A Novel by Tim Tharp Milkweed Editions, 271 pp., $21.95 Tim Tharp’s novel Falling Dark won the prestigious Milkweed National Fiction Prize, and rightly so; it is a beautifully rendered story of our bleak times which manages to leave the reader with a much-welcome whisper of hope for our shared condition. The novel…
Meal in a Bowl
Twin Dragon may have its faults, but Chronicle food writer Mick Vann explains why the Hot and Sour Soup With Fish and Shrimp more than makes up for any culinary lapses.
Record Reviews
HugAuto/Erotic/Life Some folks constantly spew forth obscenities to no end other than the brief euphoria of packing a big wad of curses between their cheek and gum. Perhaps it’s natural defiance for a five-year-old to do this, but an adult’s only defense is a vaguely sociopathic brand of nostalgia. Hug encapsulates this downtrodden mentality with…
Naked City
Tivoli Systems supports smart growth with its move to a desired development zone; Nelson Linder announces his candidacy against willie lewis for city council; the austin lesbian gay political caucus makes its endorsements; cherrywood neighborhood assn. supports depressing i-35 lanes.
The Mission Statement of Addison DeWitt
1. I reserve the right to SHIVER constantly. 2. I reserve the right to look WORRIED all the time. 3. I reserve the right to HOP in circles. 4. I reserve the right to retain my SUNROOF. 5. I reserve the right to sound like a CHICKEN when I bark. 6. I reserve the right…
Going Long
The Chronicle Arts team hits the new FronteraFest Long Fringe to see how local artists expanded their visions in response to the first festival opportunity to produce full-length works. Nine shows are reviewed.
Book Reviews
The Longest Silence: A Life in Fishing by Thomas McGuane Knopf, 320 pp., $25 In such wonderfully improbable novels as The Sporting Club (1968) and Ninety Two in the Shade (1973), Thomas McGuane gave the literary world pistol-wielding, flyfishing heroes whose antics and pyrotechnic abilities defied conventional notions of flyfishermen being one-dimensional, transcendental pacifists. Through…
Food-o-File
Cuisines editor Virginia B. Wood says goodbye to Craig Claiborne and gives the low-down on some exciting food events for the upcoming week.
Record Reviews
DayneAnonymityville (Dog Pile) This seventh album by Dayne (which means “do as you’re not expected”) is unabashedly inspired by melodic hard rock. Opener “Poisonous Remains” begins with a swearing-like-a-dockhand phone psychic praising the Beatles for showing that “anyone can do it,” a quote joined by cinderblock-punching guitar riffs. More an intro to the album than…
Naked City
The state agency that hands out tax credits for low-income housing projects changes some provisions of its controversial tax-credit allocation process.
Tinkle Tinkle Little Dog
Well, we couldn’t have a dog story without a little tinkle reference, eh? And when you think dog tinkle, what comes to mind? Fire hydrants? Your dead granny’s genuine antique Persian rug? Your boss’ shoe the last time you had her over for dinner? Think “walk.” Dog Walk. Bring your dog or borrow a dog…
Going Long
Introduction The debut of the Long Fringe at FronteraFest 2000 gave area artists their first shot at producing performance works for the fest longer than the 25 minutes imposed by the long-running Short Fringe. This past week, the Chronicle Arts team hit the fest to see how local artists were expanding their visions in response…
Book Reviews
The Last King of Texas by Rick Riordan Bantam, 368 pp., $23.95 A wisecracking P.I./English teacher, a San Antonio setting made authentic with generous doses of all the right Tex-Mex trappings, including Poquito Mas, Big Red, and Shiner Bock, and an enchilada-eating cat named Robert Johnson — what’s not to like about San Antonio mystery…
Mini-Review
Thistle Cafe 3801 Capital of Texas Highway N., 347-1000 Mon-Fri, 10am-9pm; Sat, 8am-9:30pm; Sun, 8am-3pm Hungry inhabitants of the hills take note: What once seemed like an exotic species in the Loop 360 biotic province is now breeding at record rates. Restaurants are popping up like weeds along the Balcones Escarpment. There’s the Canyon Cafe,…
Record Reviews
KVRX Local Live, Vol. 4Refurbished Robots With all the ugly infighting going on recently at KOOP, the station with which it shares the 91.7FM frequency, student-run KVRX does one hell of a job in keeping well above the fray every night on the air. With Refurbished Robots they further their noble cause of live, free-willed…
Naked City
Victory at last? Well, it’s hard to say. Feelings were mixed among Hyde Park neighborhood supporters when the City Council handed down a 5-0 decision (with Mayor Kirk Watson absent and Council Member Bill Spelman abstaining) that, among other provisions, sent the neighbors back for 30 more days of negotiations with Hyde Park Baptist Church,…
Topsy-Turvy
Topsy-Turvy 2000, R, 160 min. Directed by Mike Leigh, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Shirley Henderson, Martin Savage, Kevin McKidd, Timothy Spall, Ron Cook, Eleanor David, Lesley Manville, Allan Corduner, Jim Broadbent. Naked this isn’t. British film director Mike Leigh is known more for his love of dark improvisation and interpersonal dramas (Secrets…
Going Long
We Won’t Get Into That Story … by Kara L. Samson The Off Center Running Time: 1 hr, 30 min Getting married is a scary business to be sure, but it’s particularly scary when you’re marrying the biggest scumball on the planet, as Leslie Worthington is. Her fiancé Greg Parker is prone to endearing lines…
Postscripts
Neal Barrett Jr.’s third book in as many months, Perpetuity Blues and Other Stories, is all previously published material but well worth the re-read.
Mini-Review
Cook’s Illustrated Master Class: How to Make a Pie Christopher Kimball Central Market Cooking School January 12 “I’ll let you in on the dirty little secret about cooking and cookbooks,” Christopher Kimball said as he stood behind the cooktop at Central Market’s cooking school and smirked at the crowd. “Recipes don’t work.” Now, that would…
Record Reviews
The Big D Jamboree Live, Vol 1 & 2(Dragon Street) These two discs were culled from countless Library of Congress radio transcriptions (complete with Falstaff beer commercial) and document the mid-Fiftiesí honky-tonk and rockabilly scene at Dallas’ Sportatorium. With a total of 54 songs and a detailed 32-page booklet, this is an exhaustive collection with…
Naked City
TheLeague of Conservation Voters releases report cards on the major presidential candidates, and finds Gov. Bush : who did not return a League survey : lacking in every category.
Going Long
No Exit by Jean-Paul Sartre The Off Center Running Time: 1 hr, 30 min In Jean-Paul Sartre’s No Exit, three strangers, recently dead, are faced with spending eternity together in one sparsely appointed room in a sort of Afterlife Hilton; each of these characters is guilty of one sin or another, and all of them…
Off the Bookshelf
The Baffler Issue Number Thirteen Baffler, 120 pp., $7.50 (paper) Pick up a copy of The Baffler and you might find yourself screaming, “Lighten up!” Praised by everyone from The Nation to SPIN to The New Yorker, this literary and cultural zine is published in Chicago by a diabolically intelligent University of Chicago Ph.D. named…
The Statesman of the House
Meredith Phillips shares space with a persnickety purebred named Winston.
Record Reviews
Walter Daniels, the Oblivians & Monsieur Jeffrey EvansMelissa’s Garage Revisited (Sympathy for the Record Industry) How Walter Daniels and his Bigfoot Chester posse of gutter-blues roughnecks have eluded Mississippi’s Fat Possum Records is beyond me. Just listen to the way he and Memphis scuzz-garage kings the Oblivians mangle Marty Robbins’ “Don’t Worry,” turning a chiming,…
Naked City
A new study shows that SUVs and other light trucks clog up intersections across Austin.
Going Long
La Ronda / The Blue Room by Arthur Schnitzler/David Hare The Off Center Running time: La Ronda — 1 hr, 45 min; The Blue Room — 2 hrs, 15 min The mating dance of a man and a woman ultimately climaxes in a rather familiar set of circumstances, no matter the relative positions of the…
Off the Bookshelf
The New Military Humanism Lessons From Kosovo by Noam Chomsky Common Courage Press, 202 pp., $15.95 (paper) In this, his latest compilation of foreign policy inconsistencies embraced by the United States, the United Nations, and NATO, Noam Chomsky pores over media coverage before, during, and after the latest military campaign against Serbia and Slobodan Milosevic.…
Sea Cruise
Sailing into the sunset on Delbert McClinton’s Blues Crusie.
Record Reviews
Silver Thistle Pipes and DrumsWake Up There, Man! The story is not apocryphal: Silver Thistle Pipes and Drums might not exist as a band if Kevin Kendryx hadn’t worn a kilt to celebrate Sean Connery’s birthday in 1977. While many bands boast auspicious beginnings, few have the longevity of local 23-year-old bagpipe and drum outfit,…
Naked City
The Texas Coalition of Black Democrats will hold its state convention on Saturday, Feb. 5 at the Hilton Hotel, 6000 Middle Fiskville Rd. Lunch, which starts at 11am, is $15. For more info, call Georgia Thompson at 926-5769.
Going Long
Cab and Lena by Daniel Alexander Jones & Grisha Coleman The Hideout Running time: varies Down on Congress, at a joint so fresh it still smells like paint, two legendary performers are joining forces: Lena Horne, she of the epic cheekbones and sultry ballads, and bandleader/musician Cab Calloway, who put the “hi-de-hi-de-ho” in that jivin’…
Off the Bookshelf
Life Is So Good by George Dawson, with Richard Glaubman Random House, 288 pp., $23 George Dawson began receiving media attention when he enrolled in an adult literacy program at a Dallas high school at the age of 98. The book’s title also seems to be one of his favorite sayings. The lessons Dawson absorbed…
Fish Out of Water
Although I didn’t know exactly what to expect going into the Delbert McClinton Sandy Beaches Cruise, suffice it to say violent illness was not part of the travel plan in my head. But I had been fighting off a whomping case of the flu the whole weekend by the time we sailed Sunday evening, and…
Record Reviews
Tchiya AmetRise Again Truth (Milky Way) Crucial reggae ain’t dead, not if Tchiya Amet’s even-tempoed debut Rise Again Truth is any indication. Local singer/keyboardist Amet and handpicked area musicians supply the intricate and airy musical red carpet for this Soul Sista’s reasonings on living a natural, Ital life. Still, two things distinguish Rise Again Truth…
Survival of the Fittest?
The unlikely story behind the Austin-based black comedy, Natural Selection.
Natural Selection
This locally shot black comedy examines the bizarre feedback loop that exists among celebrity psychopaths, the increasingly tabloidized mainstream news media, and, not least, our own bad selves.
