Cover Story
Hang the DJ
The new political theatre invites you into its messy, sexy conversation
Soccer Watch
Good luck scoring World Cup tickets, the San Jose Earthquakes move to Houston, and more
Phases and Stages
WIll Taylor & Strings Attached with James McMurtry St. James Episcopal Church, Jan. 14 If there are any pitfalls to the concept of Austin’s Strings Attached, it’s that Will Taylor’s group can at times overwhelm the artists they work with. A match with A-town’s feral songsmith James McMurtry, then, posed an interesting question. Would he…
Austin Jewish Film Festival Schedule
Venues: Regal Arbor Cinema, 9828 Great Hills Dr.; Hideout Theatre, 617 Congress Admission: Individual tickets – $7.50 general; $5 students/seniors – may be purchased at the box office; for information on Flexpasses and Friend of the Festival badges, as well as discount details for members of the Austin Film Society and the Austin Gay and…
TCB
Art, food, football, TV, and even a little music: this one’s got it all
Uncommon Generosity
Following restaurateur Michael Vilim’s time and money
KUT by the Numbers
That ringing sound you hear? It’s the cash register at Austin’s public radio station.
Trail of Ray
Keeping track of Crashcam
Hungry Planet: What the World Eats
Peter Menzel and Faith D’Aluisio have produced what can only be called an extraordinary book
Howard Surprises Bentzin, Leads Into Run-Off
In a district designed to favor the GOP, Democrat Donna Howard needed a surprising mere 73 more votes to avoid a run-off.
High Society
AFS’s 20th birthday party
Tapestry’s ‘JASS’
In remounting Tapestry Dance Company’s ‘JASS,’ Artistic Director Acia Gray is seeing how dancers, like jazz musicians, take their time as they get older
Matzoh Ball Gumbo: Culinary Tales of the Jewish South
Marcie Cohen Ferris traces the story of the Jewish immigrants in the South from larger urban centers like Savannah and Atlanta to more rural areas like the Mississippi Delta
2006 State Races
A sampling of some of the livelier contests taking shape in the March 7 primary and the general election in November
In Space
Listening closely to Last.fm and Pandora
Spank Dance Company
The fire at 304 E. Fifth has forced choreographer Ellen Bartel of Spank Dance Company to close Center Studio, the dance space she’s been managing there for a decade
Food-o-File
Ambling around the aisles at HEB Plus! and marvelling at how busy Martin Yan is these days
The Moriarty File
The former manager of the Austin Clean Water Program files suit against the city, claiming defamation
DVD Watch
Sandwiched between career peaks, Kurosawa serves corporate sacrifice – suicide by seventh-story window, truck, and volcano – rather than feudal slicing and dicing
The Gospel of Lead
Arthouse’s Talking Art with Dario Robleto and Jeremy Blake is a good bet for a stimulating afternoon, with two rising art stars who have a history of weirdly personal, spicy commentary
Renegade
Still mourning the death of Thin Lizzy’s Phil Lynott 20 years later
Naked City
Quote of the Week “Voters are in a foul mood and highly frustrated with the inability or unwillingness of this crowd [the GOP-led Legislature] to get the job done.” – Democratic consultant Kelly Fero on why Democrats in Tuesday’s special election took 60% of the votes in a House District (48) drawn up for an…
TV Eye
Billed as ‘a new spin on drama,’ the drama of ‘Rollergirls’ is limited to the petty arguments of whiny women having trouble getting along, because, well, you know how women are
Arts Review
Anne Ducote’s solo exhibition at Hyde Park Bar & Grill covers landscapes and passages that lead the viewer toward a welcoming valley or pathway
King’s Ransom (discography)
Thin Lizzy (1971) Exhibit A in the original trio’s Hendrix rap: funky, oft pummeling, burp gun blues (“Ray-Gun”), delivered in Lynott’s thick, earthy yowl. CD adds succeeding New Day EP and first indelible, “Things Ain’t Working Out Down on the Farm.” Shades of a Blue Orphanage (1972) Off to the poor house for slumping sophomores…
Gammage Stumps Austin for Dem GUV Nomination
Gubernatorial hopeful fends off attacks from fellow donkey Bell
The New World
Instead of a great story about the conflicted origins of the American nation, Terrence Malick interrupts his transcendental observations for a dopey love story between John Smith and Pocahontas.
Arts Review
Improv, Butoh, cabaret, and one of those commanding performance moments that make FronteraFest made up the Short Fringe 2006 Best of Week One
Cruising in the Lizzymobile
“Emerald,” Mastodon “It’s Only Money,” Concrete Blonde “Cowboy Song,” Grand Champeen “Jailbreak,” Wesley Willis Fiasco “Leave This Town,” Tenderloin “Whisky in the Jar,” Metallica “Don’t Believe a Word,” Nuclear Valdez “The Boys Are Back in Town,” the Recliners “Dancing in the Moonlight,” Smashing Pumpkins “Johnny the Fox Meets Jimmy the Weed,” Mordred
Politics Trumps Science on Birth Control
Office of Women’s Health official resigns in protest, comes to Austin to speak out
Darwin’s Nightmare
This delicately horrific yet artful documentary examines the destruction of Lake Victoria by the omnivorous Nile perch, and the dire consequences this causes the Tanzanian people.
The Latest in Paper
In his clear, descriptive style, Christian Parenti delivers not only the now-familiar voice of the “embedded” journalist, but also that of one who is intelligent and curious enough to seek out the resistance.
Eire
“Eire” “Dublin” “Shades of a Blue Orphanage” “Vagabond of the Western World” “Sitamoia” “Philomena” “Emerald” “Fools Gold” “Roisin Dubh” “Old Town”
Beyond the Poverty Line
Researchers say the poverty line is even higher in Travis County than what official numbers claim
Marebito
Although long on style and concept, this film lacks the primal urgency of Shimizu’s 2003 J-horror blockbuster Ju-on.
Page Two: Prayer for the Common Man
In the religious right’s new democracy, principles prescribed by man have no value in the war between heaven and hell
Got to Give It Up (wish list)
“Angel of Death,” Therapy? “Renegade,” U2 “Wild One,” Dolores O’Riordan “Little Girl in Bloom,” Sinéad O’Connor “Still in Love With You,” Van Morrison “Dancing in the Moonlight,” the Chieftains “The Boys Are Back in Town,” the Pogues “Whiskey in the Jar,” Hothouse Flowers “Don’t Believe a Word,” Moya Brennan “Fools Gold,” the Frames “Toughest Street…
Permaculture
Local activists try to break free of oil-dependent lifestyle
Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World
Albert Brooks again sallies forth where others fear to tread, although his comic results are more mildly amusing than riotously funny.
Letters at 3AM
Silence is not an option, if our Constitution is ever again to rise from the paper on which it was written
Phases and Stages
Jana HunterBlank Unstaring Heirs of Doom (Gnomonsong) Thanks to Devendra Banhart signing her to his Gnomonsong label, Jana Hunter probably gets lumped into the whole beard scene, only there are no psychedelic throwbacks on the 27-year-old Austinite’s debut. Recorded on four-track, Hunter channels spirits from some 1920s farmhouse, tape hiss allowing for paranoia and hallucination.…
Upcoming Permaculture Events
Weekend Permaculture Design Certification Course Saturdays Jan. 21-March 18 (plus Sundays Jan. 22 & March 12). Learn about techniques, tools, and design ideas to: mimic nature in gardening and vegetation, capture and re-use rain water, build an herb spiral, install a pond, maximize food output in a small area, design homes and landscapes that serve…
Match Point
Unoriginal but pleasantly prosaic, Woody Allen’s latest is a diverting story of crime, love, and luck that conducts itself with a refreshing absence of moral judgment and omniscience.
After a Fashion
Stephen remembers the bawdy Shelley Winters and goes to an all-girl affair!
Phases and Stages
Darden SmithField of Crows (Dualtone) Darden Smith is in full bloom. Like 2002’s Sunflower and 2004’s Circo, Smith’s third album for Dualtone is as unadulterated as it is adult. The impeccable musicianship one expects from a Nashville-based label matches the Austin master craftsman’s seamlessly self-assured adult contemporary pop, this Field of Crows flown in from…
Weed Watch
Court rules 55 years for 24 ozs. of pot is not cruel or unusual
To Your Health
What is the evidence that hoodia works as an appetite-suppressant?
Phases and Stages
B-Boy City 12 With hip-hop now catering to the “same old two-step” instead of truly creative dance moves, Romeo Navarro’s B-Boy City events are nothing short of a godsend. A dozen summits into its eight-year existence, this Austin-based phenomenon and its documentation couldn’t get any more up close and personal. Taking viewers right into the…
Point Austin: Kicking Around the Bonds
T he Sisyphus bond committee just rolled the stone up the hill – be ready to duck
The Common Law
Austin smoking ordinance – what’s the skinny?
Phases and Stages
Hurts to Purr Hurts to Purr is the brainchild of singer Liz Pappademas, Austin’s answer to Fiona Apple without the drama-queen histrionics. Accordingly, the local trio’s debut is a moody affair that opens with the lugubrious “I Didn’t Mean It,” in which Pappademas croons a plea for forgiveness over her piano and producer Kevin Ryan’s…
Point Austin: Beside the Point
This week’s action at City Hall
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
The rules of bowling, and one doozy of a Chilean diplomat
Phases and Stages
Jack Ingram Live Wherever You Are (Big Machine) Jack Ingram’s debut for Toby Keith’s new label is a curious disc. Live Wherever You Are is basically the Live at Gruene Hall set Ingram released on his own in 2004, bracketed by two new studio tracks and a performance recorded for CMT’s Outlaws 2005 TV special.…
The Hightower Report
All hail King George; and the congressional king quid pro quo
Day Trips
San Luis de Las Amarillas Presidio once stood on the world stage as Spain’s most remote outpost against French expansion into Middle America
Phases and Stages
Roscoe BeckWalk On (AusTone) Austin über-bassist Roscoe Beck wears many hats: the low end behind the Dixie Chicks, Eric Johnson, and Robben Ford; co-producer of the platinum 1986 Leonard Cohen tribute Famous Blue Raincoat; the subharmonic groove pushing Antone’s Blue Mondays; and string wizard who auditioned to be a Rolling Stone. Beck’s friends help on…
Keep Not Silent
The fourth Austin Jewish Film Festival
Luv Doc Recommends: Silver Thistle Pipes and Drums’ Burns Supper
When was the last time you stared into the dark, gaping maw of your own mortality? Maybe it was that time you had a few too many rum drinks at Louie’s Backyard in South Padre and nearly lost your drunken brawl with the undertow? How about that pocket of wicked turbulence over the Rockies on…
