Peerless
Joe York on the set of Ruthless! The upstairs at Caswell House is ready to burst. The second floor of this restored Victorian manse, one of Austin’s favorite venues for weddings and soir�es, isn’t really roomy enough to hold more than a few dozen people comfortably, and on this night in late June, there are,…
Dancing About Architecture
Yep, it’s another reminder to fill out that all-important Chronicle Music Poll on page 23 of this issue, and I don’t even have to feel uncomfortable about pummeling you with it, since this year the Statesman has been dedicating more press to it than we have! Having said that, you only have a couple more…
Hamlet
Hamlet 1996, PG-13, 238 min. Directed by Kenneth Branagh, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Kenneth Branagh, Julie Christie, Billy Crystal, Gerard Depardieu, Charlton Heston, Derek Jacobi, Jack Lemmon, Rufus Sewell, Robin Williams, Kate Winslet. The man we can pretty much thank for the movies’ current “Bard Wars” – actor-director Kenneth Branagh, who set…
Dusting the Bookshelf
No — you are not seeing things. These reviews — albeit differing opinions — were of notable titles in 1996 and it would be unfair to let this year get much farther without noting them. Enjoy. — Margaret Moser Never has a novel with a fictional base taken such a meticulously circuitous route through music…
Also Playing
Friday: Headhunters, Joe’s Generic Bar Saturday: Tenderloin, Strap, Emo’s; Alejandro Escovedo, Flipnotics; Derailers, Libbi Bosworth, Continental Club; Bruce Robison, Cactus Cafe Sunday: Mitch Watkins Trio, Manuel’s Monday: Kacy Crowley, Antone’s Tuesday: Trish Murphy, Saxon Pub Wednesday: Ed Miller, Cactus Cafe Thursday: Cowboy Mouth, Stubb’s; Shawn Colvin, Continental Club; Los Pinkys, La Zona Rosa
In Love and War
In Love and War 1996, PG-13, 116 min. Directed by Richard Attenborough, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Sandra Bullock, Chris O’Donnell, Mackenzie Astin, Emilio Bonucci. It seems like some kind of cruel joke that a lot of movies lately are based on books through which I struggled in high school. Suddenly, the mysteries…
Postmarks
by Lee Nichols & Margaret Moser * THU, JAN 23: Mexican author Elena Poniatowska and architectural photographer Richard Payne will present Guerrero Viejo, at Book People at 7pm. The work studies the submersion of the city of Guerrero by the damming of the Rio Grande in the early 1950s… Thom the World Poet will host…
Texas Platters
LISA TINGLE In the Water In the liner notes to In the Water, Lisa Tingle thanks the Peach Pit After Dark. No, that’s a joke, but the record was produced by David Silverman. Okay, that’s a joke, too, but if you even understood those references you should probably get out more often, and realize that…
Metro
Metro 1997, R, 117 min. Directed by Thomas Carter, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Eddie Murphy, Michael Rapaport, Michael Wincott, Carmen Ejogo, Denis Arndt. Having revived his moribund career with last year’s out-of-nowhere hit, The Nutty Professor, Eddie Murphy now attempts an even more ambitious artistic feat: reanimating the fly-blown carcass of the…
Hearth & Soul
Money Laundering Dear Suzy, Do you know where I can find reliability reports on Asko washers, dryers, and dishwashers? After reading the manufacturer’s brochures, some Usenet postings, and some “green” websites, I’m convinced that these appliances really do conserve water and electricity, but I can’t find anything on how many times I should expect to…
Back to the Baths?
An all-male “health spa” may open at this site in the heart of East Austin.photograph by Shelley Wood Jos� Orta is worried. After 15 years of plague, he fears that too many fellow gay men are slipping back into behaviors that helped lead the community into the darkness of AIDS in the late 1970s and…
Spike & Mike’s Sick & Twisted Festival of Animation ’97
Spike & Mike’s Sick & Twisted Festival of Animation ’97 1997, NR, 92 min. Directed by Various, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . Many of the animators in this latest version of the infamous Sick & Twisted animation anthology thank their parents in their films’ closing credits. And don’t you know those moms…
Benefits
Sincola, Shindigs, and other bands perform to benefit the Center for Battered Women, at Hole in the Wall. 472-5599. Terror @ 10,000 Feet, Phantom Creeps, Flaco, & Hamicks perform to benefit KVRX 91.7FM, at Liberty Lunch. 477-0461. SAT 25 Roast & Toast BBQ to benefit the American Cancer Society, at Scholz Garten, 6:30-8pm. $25-$50. 928-1144.…
Un-FAIR Deal
illustration by Doug Potter It’s cryptic. It’s complex. It’s the electric industry, and with deregulation now considered a certainty, it’s a Chinese puzzle that will perplex. Should we sell off our city’s most valuable asset and raise taxes to make up the difference? Or keep our electric utility, and risk losing customers to competition? To…
Vive L’Amour
Vive L’Amour 1994, NR, 120 min. Directed by Tsai Ming-liang, Starring Yang Kuei-mei, Chen Chao-jung, Lee Kang-sheng. Vive L’Amour is the latest film from Taiwan-based director Tsai Ming-liang, whose debut Rebels of the Neon God established him as one of the up-and-coming talents of the Second Wave of Taiwan’s New Cinema movement. Heralded for his…
Coach’s Corner
My old friend The Whipp once observed that I couldn’t be happy unless I had something to bitch about. The Whipp, as always, is wise. He spoke, however, to a younger, more volatile Coach. Grudgingly pulled towards 50, I find myself in a relatively tranquil, dare I say content stretch of life. The Continental Club…
Up in Smoke
An Austin firefighter helps residents salvage property that was not lost to fire or looting at Centennial Condominiums If Lisa Cashiola’s mother had not called to chat late that Friday night, Cashiola, 20, probably would have been asleep when the screaming started. The Centennial Condominiums, where she lived in the West Campus neighborhood near the…
Day Trips
The oldest Dr Pepper bottling plant in the world attracts visitors to Dublin, Texas not only because it’s over 100 years old, but because they still use the original formula with Imperial pure cane sugar from Sugar Land. Enthusiasts of the soft drink say they can tell a difference and often drive hundreds of miles…
Bloody Murders
illustration by Doug Potter The beginning of the 1995 Texas legislative session looked promising for the Lesbian and Gay Rights Lobby of Texas (LGRL). In the aftermath of eight brutal murders of gay men in 1994, it appeared the Texas Legislature finally might be forced to admit there was inequality in the treatment of gay…
Public Notice
It’s always fun to have first crack at a locally shot and produced feature film. When your hipster pals from the Northeast or L.A. call you in a few months to snoot about this great flick shot in Texas, you can be all blas� and yawn, “Yeah, I saw that last winter. Did you see…
Doppler Shift
The icy rain that covered the city almost two weeks ago (January 13) brought the bizarre state of TV weather reporting into sharp relief as almost everybody but emergency crews and reporters avoided the cold light of day. On the face of it, the local weathercasters and their colleagues at all four stations did a…
Mister Smarty Pants Knows
On any given day, six million Americans lie in bed with back pain. The 19th-century song “Pop Goes the Weasel” refers to the art of the professional pickpocket. The “monkey” is the pickpocket, the weasel is the wallet/purse, the “mulberry bush” is a crowd, and “pop” is the action of removing the property. A pair…
Naked City
If today is Thursday and it’s early enough in the day, there could still be some opposition discourse underway in the board room of the Lower Colorado River Authority. At issue is the LCRA’s proposed $4 million acquisition of the water/wastewater system of FM Properties’ developments on Barton Creek. Neither the Sierra Club’s Austin Regional…
Food-o-File
Concerned about your food supply? ECO-FAIR `97 is a conference and trade show to promote ecologically and economically sound farming, ranching, landscaping, building, gardening, and community practices being held this weekend, January 24 & 25, at Palmer Auditorium. The focus of this year’s gathering is sustainable agriculture and will address topics concerning family farming, organic…
Cyber Swindle
illustration by Roy Tompkins The scam works something like this: Innocent consumer is tempted, by an e-mail or website, into calling for information about some product or service, or often, a job opportunity. He is given a toll-free 800 number to call, and thinking that there is no charge, he dials it up. Innocent consumer…
Recipe for Success
Suzi’s Chinese Kitchen 1152 S. Lamar, 441-8400 Mon-Thu, 11am-10pm; Fri & Sat ’til 10:30pm; Sun, 4:30-10pm. photograph by John Anderson Ask your neighbor where is the best place in town to pick up a pair of chopsticks and the likely answer is Suzi’s Chinese Kitchen. Since opening just south of Ray Hennig’s Heart of Texas…
Scanlines
D: Lars von Trier; with Ernst Hugo Jaregard, Ghita Norby, Kirsten Rolffes, Holger Juul Hansen, Peter Mygind, Baard Owe, Soren Pilmark, Birgitte Raabjerg. VHS Home Video Waterloo Video, 1016 W. Sixth The Kingdom Seeing Lars von Trier’s haunting Breaking the Waves over the holidays made me curious about this Danish director’s earlier film The Kingdom.…
Everybody Loves Austin City Limits
Highlights from Season 22: Libbi Bosworth, Eric Johnson, Walter Hyatt, and Lyle Lovett Everybody — all over the world — loves Austin City Limits. The PBS broadcast show, now in its 22nd season, is not only a beacon for Austin and its “Live Music Capital of the World” designation, it’s also the best calling card…
Shortcuts
by Jen Scoville Film festivalgoers in New York City and Park City, Utah may have been the first audiences to experience the South Austin convenient store (actually the Stassney Food Mart) hangout of the twentysomethings in subUrbia, but the film’s director Richard Linklater (who is also artistic director of the Austin Film Society) is making…
None of the Hits, All of the Time
Ina Hendricks and Jenn Garrison Thursday nights on KVRXphotograph by John Anderson “C’mere!!” motions the affable station manager. “I want to show you the bathroom.” Inside the small closet of a loo is evidence of fresh graffiti. “I just painted this so they could start over for the new year, and they’ve already covered it,”…
This Ship’s Cool
A Night to Remember CD-ROM for Mac/Windows Voyager Titanic: Adventure Out of Time CD-ROM for Mac/Windows CyberFlix Okay, so the Devil meets this capitalist on the crossroads one night and says he’s got a helluva deal: Name your new state-of-the-art ocean liner the Titanic, and on its maiden voyage across the Atlantic it will hit…
Articulations
Austin Musical Theatre launched its debut production of Peter Pan last week still unsure whether this city wanted what it had to offer, large-scale professional stagings of classic musicals. Well, now they’re sure. Ticket sales and audience response to their one-week run at the Paramount Theatre have been so strong that the company has extended…
Bonus Tracks
WALTER HYATT King Tears (MCA) Not long after Walter Hyatt was killed, MCA reissued the maiden release of its “Master Series,” King Tears. Co-produced by Lyle Lovett, Hyatt’s 1990 release sounds a lot like the smooth, acoustic parlor swing into which Lovett can slip so easily. Only it’s even sexier, sultrier — like Sinatra –…
Cooking By Strobe Light
(KVRX) The idea of compiling a discful of local talent floated around the KTSB/KVRX ether for years before becoming a reality with 1994’s Fallout: A Radioactive Compilation. While that project did manage to overcome UT’s stifling administrative haggles, poor sound quality and uneven performances marred the final product. Fortunately, Cooking by Strobe Light… is compelling…
Local Palette
Various Artists Lyons Matrix Gallery through February 22 Botanic Romantic by Robin Urton The new year has brought a bevy of new art shows. It seems that just about every gallery in town has decided to start ’97 with a fresh collection, which makes this a truly delightful time for the faithful gallery-hopper. For its…
Tentatively Titled
Their albums are still mostly “as yet untitled” and their futures are simply “yet to be determined,” but so far, over a dozen artists have reserved their spots in Austin’s “Class of ’97” yearbook by announcing their intentions to release national debuts on major labels (or major indies) in the first part of this year.…
Beverly Hills Ninja
Beverly Hills Ninja 1997, PG-13, 90 min. Directed by Dennis Dugan, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Chris Farley, Nicollette Sheridan, Nathaniel Parker, Soon-Tek Oh, Chris Rock, Robin Shou. Nearly as much fun as a case of scabies, Beverly Hills Ninja transports the viewer into a mystical realm where pratfall is king and mediocrity…
7 and 7 is
Whenever I prowl around Sound Exchange, I stop at the doorway leading to the back and look at the singles high on the wall. The Bad Livers, the Rev. Horton Heat, Sixteen Deluxe — all those Sub Pop singles-of-the-month. Then I look at the prices — $10, $15, $30. Are any of those songs on…
AISD Notebook
See the eyebrows arch, the lips tighten, the fists clench at the mere mention of Channel One, a 12-minute news program that’s beamed via satellite into over 12,000 U.S. middle and high schools every day — including AISD schools. (Once a product of the always-controversial Whittle Communications, Channel One was purchased by K-III Communications in…
Fierce Creatures
Fierce Creatures 1997, PG-13, 93 min. Directed by Robert Young, Fred Schepisi, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring John Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline, Michael Palin, Ronnie Corbett, Carey Lowell, Robert Lindsay. As a general rule of thumb, studios reserve the month of January for the release of those films deemed “not so…
