The Hi-Lo Country
The Hi-Lo Country 1998, R, 114 min. Directed by Stephen Frears, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Woody Harrelson, Billy Crudup, Patricia Arquette, Sam Elliott, Penelope Cruz, Cole Hauser, James Gammon, Enrique Castillo, John Diehl. As The Hi-Lo Country would have it, Big Boy Matson (Harrelson) is the Last American Cowboy. In keeping with…
Playing by Heart
Playing by Heart 1998, R, 120 min. Directed by Willard Carroll, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Patricia Clarkson, Jay Mohr, Ellen Burstyn, Anthony Edwards, Madeline Stowe, Dennis Quaid, Ryan Phillippe, Angelina Jolie, Jon Stewart, Gillian Anderson, Gena Rowlands, Sean Connery. Like the Angelenos in Alan Rudolph’s Welcome to L.A. and Robert Altman’s Short…
Slamnation
Slamnation 1998, NR, 91 min. Directed by Paul Devlin, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . The slam poetry movement: return to verse’s classical roots as an improvisational, often competitive oral art form or barbarians at the gate of high art? Either way, Paul Devlin’s hugely entertaining documentary should provide plenty of fodder for…
Virus
Virus 1999, R, 100 min. Directed by John Bruno, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Cliff Curtis, Sheman Augustus, Julio Oscar Mechoso, Marshall Bell, Joanna Pacula, Donald Sutherland, William Baldwin, Jamie Lee Curtis. Pity the poor Mir space station. First it suffers the real-world traumas of lousy post-Perestroika management, technical foul-ups, and shoddy construction,…
At First Sight
At First Sight 1999, PG-13, 124 min. Directed by Irwin Winkler, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Val Kilmer, Mira Sorvino, Kelly McGillis, Bruce Davison, Steven Weber, Ken Howard, Nathan Lane. What a pleasant last few months it must have been for those male (and female) filmgoers sick to death of the blond, chiseled…
East Palace, West Palace
East Palace, West Palace NR, 90 min. Directed by Zhang Yuan, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Hu Jun, Si Han. Not reviewed at press time. Gay men cruising in a public park — the sight would be commonplace were it not in Beijing. This film was shot clandestinely and smuggled out of China,…
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Grappa is an Italian brandy made from the residue of grapes that have already been pressed for wine. Seiko recently released a wristwatch powered by human body heat. Electricity is generated by a device that utilizes “the Seebeck effect,” which exploits the temperature difference between a wearer’s arm and ambient air. Called the Thermic, it…
Projecting the 21st Century
photograph by Jon Lebkowsky Gary Chapman gets around. Originally from California and formerly a member of the Green Berets, Gary was director for several years of Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, followed by a stint as director of the same organization’s 21st Century Project. He is currently director of the University of Texas’ 21st Century…
Food-o-File
Farm Life After they worked through a scorching drought, a killer flood, and a pre-Christmas ice storm, who could blame Central Texas farmers if they all wanted to cash in and hightail it to Mexico? Most of our favorite farmers survived 1998 intact, but crop depletion and winter weather have caused a scarcity of local…
Scanlines
D: Don Roos (1998, DVD) with Christina Ricci, Martin Donovan, Lisa Kudrow, Lyle Lovett Christina Ricci as DeDee Truitt in The Opposite of Sex Let’s see … sex with a minor, illegitimate pregnancy, physical abuse, blackmail, murder, drugs … this is a comedy? Damn straight it is, and a funny one too. As America continues…
Is the Constitution Just a Screenplay?
illustration by Jason Stout Contrary to most of what you read and hear, there is perfect bipartisan agreement in Washington concerning all the major issues. A few details need to be negotiated, and that will be called “news,” but the areas of major disagreement are minor. Both parties agree the Pentagon needs at least a…
Short Cuts
It was announced this week that the postponed Jack Hill Tribute to be hosted by Quentin Tarantino is now scheduled to happen as part of the upcoming SXSW Film Festival. The festival takes place March 12-20. Details on the scheduled films are still to come, but you might start drooling with anticipatory hopes for such…
Harmonic Convergence
Ella’s Restaurant & Bar #1 Jefferson Square, 458-2148 Mon-Thu, 11am-2pm, 5:30-10pm; Fri & Sat, 11am-2pm, 5:30-10:30pm; Sun, 10am-2pm Many factors con-tribute to the success of an upscale restaurant: good food, attractively presented, and complemented with well-chosen wines and spirits; friendly, knowledgeable service that’s attentive but unobtrusive; and the creation of decor and atmosphere that are…
Chicken Exotica
illustration by Jason Stout I am not, by nature, a fan of exotic, mystical cuisine. As a car should get you from “A” to “B,” then food should as simply get from the kitchen to the mouth. I was born and raised in England, where “meat and two veg” is the staple of any typical…
The Phytophia Cookbook: a World of Plant-centered Cuisine
by Barbara Gollman and Kim Pierce (Phytopia Inc., $17.95 soft) As a cook and a cookbook collector of 30-plus years, it’s not often that I find a cookbook which holds my attention for more than a few recipes. This one did. The Phytopia Cookbook: A World of Plant-Centered Cuisine not only held my interest, but…
To Love a Rock
Were I to love a rock, it would be a thick rock, dense and meaningful, satisfying when I cradled it. It would be grave, grand, and majestic, but without the trappings of celebrity. It would be unassuming, prepossessed, resistant of poetics. There would be no minstrel who could sing of it, no writer plumb it,…
A Painter’s Work
Taking Flight by Fidencio Duran Fidencio Duran is a regular guy. He lives in a nondescript, one-story house with Debbie, his wife of four years, and Zack, their impossibly large Doberman pinscher. The 38-year-old painter is mild-mannered and shy, and unlike one of his artistic influences, Salvador Dali, he doesn’t wear elaborate moustachios or the…
Winter Calls and It’s Asking for Syrah
I realized last fall that, like a chipmunk, I was stocking up for winter. Nuts, however, were not the object of my hoarding. For months, the spicy, sensual fruitiness of Syrah has captured my attention. Syrah, or Shiraz as it’s called in Australia and by some California wineries, is the stuff that winter evenings are…
On the Lege
Has this adoration of former Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock gotten completely out of hand? Consider this: After Gov. George W. Bush was sworn into office, he turned and gave his wife, Laura, a kiss on the cheek. He hugged his daughters. Then he walked down the front row, and instead of hugging his mother, former…
Exhibitionism
FRONTERAFEST ’99 BEST OF WEEK ONE: TRUTHS WHISPERED IN OUR EARS Hyde Park Theatre, January 16 “Ghost Radio” Death seemed omnipresent in the first Best of the Week night at FronteraFest ’99 — dead mothers, dead husbands, dead poets, and dead literary icons prowled the stage in pieces both humorous and haunting. It’s a curious…
Dancing About Architecture
Invasion of the Carpetbaggers Last week this column covered the plight of the financially strapped Electric Lounge and its attempts to stay open a few more months. These days, however, an Austin club that features live original “alternative” music (for lack of a better term) doesn’t even have to be struggling to get tossed out…
Articulations
In Memoriam To the last, Clayton McGran was giving of himself to help the theatre community he loved. In the weeks before making an unexpected trip to Houston for emergency heart surgery, the actor and indefatigable supporter of the stage fired off a letter to the members of the Austin Circle of Theatres (ACoT) asking…
Readings From the Fringe
Mystery and science fiction sometimes go hand in hand. They’ve spent a lot of time together in the pulp fiction ghetto. Although pulp fiction magazines may have gone out of vogue years ago, mystery and science fiction are still around in force; these are the genres, after all, that compensate for a lack of critical…
Tasting Defeat
photograph by Todd V. Wolfson Don’t go looking for a long stage rap from Beaver Nelson. In fact, he rarely speaks to his audiences at all. He says it’s because he fears awkward, off-the-cuff commentary could dilute songs he’s spent years perfecting. Along those same lines, Nelson is just as reluctant to discuss why it…
Blue Plate Poets Reunion
“Perhaps it was just serendipity that us six poets happened to be on that stage at that time,” says Pasha of the Blue Plate Poets group he formed nearly six years ago. “There’s a new generation of poets in town who probably don’t know who some of us are. I think a great deal would…
Texas Platters
. If Southern rock is dead, it’s the Crowes that are poised to revive it, not a second generation Black Crowes rip-off who so shamelessly owe their melodies, arrangements, and phrasing to their fellow Atlantans that it’s virtually impossible to afford them any benefit of the doubt and consider them a third-generation Aerosmith or fourth-generation…
Postscripts
Tragic Good News When Lou Claire Rose died last year in New Braunfels at the age of 82, she bequeathed between $600,0000 and $650,000 to the MFA creative writing program at Southwest Texas State University. Beginning in the fall of 1999, one student will receive $25,000 from the Lou Claire Rose Fellowship to be used…
A Sovereign Neighborhood
Like more famous and glamorous West Lake Hills, Rollingwood traces its municipal roots back to the mid-50s. (The “village,” incorporated three years after West Lake, became a “city” in 1963.) Unlike its neighbor to the west, though, Rollingwood does not trace its actual roots back to pioneer days. Most of what is today Rollingwood was,…
This Kind of Love
Donald Scott Fuller LGRL & Out Youth marched in his honor Mon, Jan 18. NAACP and LGRL, among other groups, will march on the Capitol to protest hate crimes in the Rally for Hope, Sat, Jan 30, 1pm. (M. Hentges/ J. O’Nym) Little Top Music/No Salt LLC � 1999 At every high school in the…
Drake Tungsten and His Boy Skellington
(l-r): Britt Daniel, Josh Zarbo, Jim Eno photograph by Bruce Dye Drake Tungsten and Skellington have the drop on Britt Daniel. Two minor toughs from the Spoonman’s nefarious past, Tungsten and Skellington hold all the answers. Naturally, they’ve vanished. Poof! Haven’t been seen in a Hoffa’s age. Ferret them out of the back-alley urinals of…
Gaps Between Conventional Thinking and African-American Attitudes
About AIDS Al Sharpton and his National Action Network in New York City recently sponsored the Harlem AIDS Forum featuring opponents to traditional views on HIV/AIDS, and conspiracy theories were rampant. Of 12 speakers, only one believed that HIV causes AIDS, but even he argued that HIV is being spread to the world’s people of…
Death Row Dilemma
Board members insist that their refusal to divulge their procedures has more to do with ensuring that members do not influence one another than with hiding from accountability, but this concern has not been reflected in their lopsided votes against clemency, which have been virtually unanimous in 75 capital cases since 1993. The board is…
Coach’s Corner
So, I understand Miami and New York — the NBA’s prime exponents of goon-ball — are likely spots for the landing of the poster child of NBA image problems for the next century, Latrell Sprewell. Shocking. Just shocking. In Chicago: Scottie Pippen’s either staying in Chicago, about to sign with the Rockets, the Suns, or…
Time for a Makeover?
It’s more than a little ironic that the Board of Pardons and Paroles, today the subject of intense controversy over the secrecy of its practices, was originally conceived as a remedy to executive corruption. Prior to 1936, the governor had almost unlimited power to grant clemency to condemned inmates at his or her discretion. This…
Day Trips
At Ingrid’s Custom Hand Woven, Inc. in Paint Rock, the term “snug as bug in a rug” has new meaning. The clacking of the looms in the back of the shop creates a cacophony of mechanical sounds as the weavers create rugs and saddle blankets for customers around the world. Most of the businesses have…
Washout
Meanwhile, out in the Barton Springs watershed, the Forum PUD is in trouble with this week’s news out of city hall that Council-members Daryl Slusher and Bill Spelman would vote against the proposed 700,000-square-foot retail development at William Cannon and South MoPac. The planned project had been scheduled for a council vote today (Thursday, Jan.…
Page Two
Among the cornerstone concepts of conservative political philosophy are personal freedom and local control. Anti-affirmative action, school vouchers, and cutting taxes are variations on the same concept — getting big government out of our lives. Right or wrong, the thinking goes,government social engineering is inherently too intrusive; furthermore, it has no right to impose on…
Naked City
In viewing the events intended to honor Martin Luther King Jr. on the Jan. 18 holiday that bears his name, one wonders how much of King’s true philosophy has been lost among the hype that has replaced the living man. Before Monday’s five-kilometer walk from Austin Community College’s new Eastview campus through East Austin to…
Public Notice
This week’s headlines — loaded with news of murder and bigotry — made even mushy big-hearted peaceniks like us seriously consider the positive aspects of armed insurgence as possible means of plowing through gutters and sewers of hate. Banning adoptions of children by gay people? Killing an 18-year-old boy in cold blood (probably) for dressing…
Loving Liz and Lana
There are better act-resses, certainly. There are bigger stars, and probably more beautiful faces than hers. But is there any question that Elizabeth Taylor will always be one of Hollywood’s biggest, brightest stars? Taylor came from a time when movie stars were created, only she was so perfect from inception that she didn’t need to…
