Hearts and Minds
Now more than ever – the time is right for this Oscar-winning documentary about America’s involvement in Vietnam.
High and Low
High and Low 1963, NR, 142 min. Directed by Akira Kurosawa, Starring Toshirô Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai, Yutaka Sada. Based on Ed McBain’s King’s Ransom, a Western detective novel, High and Low is a taut Japanese thriller about a kidnapping gone wrong and the business mogul who must decide between saving his fortune or risking the…
Throne of Blood
Throne of Blood 1957, NR, 108 min. Directed by Akira Kurosawa, Starring Toshirô Mifune, Isuzu Yamada, Takashi Shimura. Kurosawa leaves his stamp on Shakespeare by setting his version of Macbeth in feudal Japan with warring samurai. Often cited as the most “Western” of the Japanese directors, Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood is the grizzliest Macbeth you’re…
Yojimbo
Yojimbo 1961, NR, 110 min. Directed by Akira Kurosawa, Starring Toshiro Mifune, Eijiro Tono, Seizaburo Kawazu. One of the most popular of all Kurosawa’s movies, Yojimbo has also provided the template for Sergio Leone’s A Fistful of Dollars and Walter Hills’s Last Man Standing. The plot has a masterless samurai coming between two warring factions…
Sanjuro
Sanjuro 1962, NR, 96 min. Directed by Akira Kurosawa, Starring Toshiro Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai, Takashi Shimura. Sequel to Yojimbo.
Minouli Steals a Kiss
First Place
After a Fashion
SMOKE SIGNALS Dammit, I just had to quit smoking cigarettes. I was waaay too addicted; 30 years of hard puffing, and I was petrified of quitting. I’d only tried, obviously unsuccessfully, a couple of times over the years. But suddenly I was sick of smoking, as it was affecting my health in a hundred different…
Is the Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door?
AISD’s budget cuts could be deep and painful.
It’s a Wonderful Life
The Austin Film Society presents an evening in celebration of Sam Fuller.
Song Loon
Second Place
To Your Health
What is inulin good for, and where can I buy it?
Maurice Pierce: A Free Man
Saying that prosecutors lack enough evidence to “convict him right now,” District Attorney Ronnie Earle announced at a surprising press conference Jan. 28 that his office has dropped all charges against Maurice Pierce, the last defendant awaiting trial in the 1991 yogurt-shop murders. And with that, after more than three years behind bars, Pierce was…
Shelter From the Storm
Austin multimedia company Internal Machine outfits the Alamo Drafthouse North with a something better than Pepsi commercials.
Denying Marisol
Third Place
About AIDS
East Austin Rally for AIDS, Feb. 8 Join us on Saturday, Feb. 8, in observance of the second annual National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness and Information Day. We are in a state of urgency. We have a common and familiar enemy, which is destroying the people of our communities, our city, our country, and the world.…
Max For Mayor, For Real
Max Nofziger kicked off his mayoral campaign for last Friday at Güero’s amid a laid-back South Austin crowd sprinkled with a couple of Republicans. The former three-term council member touts his City Hall background, plus his experience dealing with economic shortfalls (he rode into office during the 1987 bust), as qualifications for the job. This…
Short Cuts
Savlov goes South by
Response to the Number Nine
Honorable Mention
A New Kind of Catering
Local businesses are marrying style with substance on the wedding table.
City Budget: Same Song, Second Verse
Just like last year, City Hall is grappling with a $70-million-plus projected budget gap.
Food of Love
Food of Love 2003, PG-13, 112 min. Directed by Ventura Pons, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Juliet Stevenson, Kevin Bishop, Paul Rhys, Allan Corduner, Geraldine McEwan. Adapted from David Leavitt’s novel The Page Turner, Food of Love dips its toes – albeit ever so gently – into the affair between a British concert…
Cicadas
Honorable Mention
Local Specialties to Enhance Your Austintatious Wedding
All these delectable sweets require special orders in advance of your event. 1. Central Market Westgate (899-4300) Pastry chef Katherine Clapner’s newest creations are tiny, one-layer individual wedding cakes in either Italian cream with edible flowers or carrot cake with frosting ivy and candied violets. They’ll also prepare flower-decorated cupcakes for showers or wedding receptions.…
SOS, Stratus Split in Court
At a hearing last week before District Judge Jeanne Meurer, the city of Austin, Stratus Properties, and the Save Our Springs Alliance each got some of what they wanted in their court dispute over development in the Barton Springs Watershed. From one side of the courtroom, the city and Stratus won a partial victory when…
Talk to Her
Gone, with one major exception, are the delicious hysterics of Almodóvar’s earlier works; Talk to Her is a mostly restrained, though by no means unemotional, work about two men in love with comatose women.
I Hear a Symphony
Composer Kent Kennan has been an essential voice in America’s musical counterpoint since 1936 when he won the Prix de Rome Composition Prize. Now, at age 90, he’ll hear the Austin Symphony play his composition for the very first time.
Food-o-File
“Food-o-File”
Wentworth Grabs Rose’s Tail
Freshman state Rep. Patrick Rose, D-Dripping Springs, got a taste of being a rookie last week when he called a press conference to announce new legislation and was promptly upstaged by Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio. The occasion was understandable: Rose’s bill (HB 456) would forbid legislators to act as paid lobbyists before state agencies.…
Biker Boyz
Biker Boyz 2003, PG-13, 111 min. Directed by Reggie Rock Blythewood, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Laurence Fishburne, Derek Luke, Orlando Jones, Djimon Hounsou, Lisa Bonet, Brendan Fehr, Larenz Tate, Meagan Good, Vanessa Bell Calloway, Kid Rock. Neither the riveting boy band documentary nor the riveted gay porn its title seems to suggest,…
FronteraFest
On a wet and shivering Saturday night, FronteraFest offered something, finally, to combat the chill outside: the warmth of great performers.
I Want My MP3s
The rise and demise of Austin’s once dominant file-sharing service, Audiogalaxy
Texas: One Dirty, Dirty State
The U.S. Public Interest Research Group has documented with statistics what many Texans could already tell with their own two eyes (and lungs, and other body parts): Texas is one of the most polluted states in the nation, especially around Houston. A new U.S. PIRG study reviews data from the EPA’s Toxics Release Inventory, to…
The Recruit
The Recruit 2003, PG-13, 105 min. Directed by Roger Donaldson, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Al Pacino, Colin Farrell, Bridget Moynahan, Gabriel Macht, Mike Realba. The pleasure of watching two alpha males – Al Pacino and Colin Farrell – circling each other mano a mano substantially beefs up this otherwise routine spy thriller.…
Articulations
Local theatre artists join a planetwide call for peace with the Lysistrata Project, the UT PAC’s associate director leaves for Pittsburgh, and the Puerto Rican Folkloric Dance & Cultural Center gets a room of its own.
Current File-Sharing Services
KaZaA On the FastTrack network along with Grokster, the one formerly used by Morpheus, KaZaA is far and away the most popular service, mainly because of its “for dummies” interface. Like most current services, however, it’s frustrating due to the nasty spyware that wreaks havoc with users’ machines and with an amazing lack of selection…
Hospital District Gets an Exam From the Lege
Austin and Travis County lawmakers ready a hospital district for the Legislature — and then the voters.
Rabbit-Proof Fence
Set in 1931 Australia and based on a true event, Noyce’s film shows what three half-caste aboriginal girls experience when they escape the camp where they have been forcibly sent in order to become anglicized. The music is by Peter Gabriel.
Exhibitionism
Genius and madness are the ac and dc of inventor Nikola Tesla’s life, as portrayed in the Rude Mechanicals’ biographical tribute Requiem for Tesla, and this new version provides the atmosphere and quickening charge of an old Universal horror film.
RIAA Alternatives
Depending on whom you believe, free Internet music file sharing is either crippling the record industry or offering precious exposure and free advertising for musicians worldwide. Whatever the truth, the RIAA and the labels themselves have gone to great lengths to offer file-sharing alternatives that give artists monetary compensation for downloaded material. So far, there…
Naked City
Quote of the Week: “It [requires] segregated high schools in order to work. The Texas high school system is in fact segregated. It doesn’t work elsewhere.” — Former University of Michigan President Lee Bollinger, quoted in The New York Times on the “Texas 10%” plan touted by President Bush as an alternative to Michigan’s affirmative-action…
Second Helpings: Sushi, part II
“Second Helpings” offers tasty, bite-sized restaurant listings compiled from new and previous reviews, guides, and poll results. This week’s entries were updated by Erin Mosow. For quick, reliable info about Austin eateries, check here. Korea House & Sushi Bar 2700 W. Anderson #501, 458-2477 Monday-Thursday, 11am-10pm; Friday-Saturday, 11am-11pm; Sunday, noon-10pm The Kim family of Korea…
Exhibitionism
As an old woman shuffling rhythmically in slow, jagged lines across the stage, accompanied by an audio montage of media snippets, instructional tapes, and music, contemporary dance artist Ann Carlson explores the way memory shapes narrative and time in Blanket.
Phases and Stages
Lou ReedThe Raven (Sire/Reprise) They got it backward. The single disc-edit of The Raven, Lou Reed heavy metal riffing on “Edgar Allan Poe” (“not exactly the boy next door …”), should have collected all the spoken-word theatre on the “limited edition” 2-CD issue rather than siphoning off the “music.” After all, “The Conqueror Worm,” opening…
Naked City
On Wednesday morning, Naked City learned that City Council members Daryl Slusher, Raul Alvarez, and Jackie Goodman were preparing a council resolution, to be offered for consideration next week, opposing unilateral U.S. military action against Iraq and supporting continuation of UN weapons inspections. At least 50 cities have passed similar resolutions, and campaigns are under…
TCB
Uncertainty, hope, and tragedy visit the Austin music scene this week.
Exhibitionism
Secreto y Malibu, choreographed by Argentine avant-garde artist Diana Szeinblum, illustrates the rare depth of closeness between two secluded women through cutting-edge choreography and the bravura of dancers Leticia Mazur and Ines Rampoldi.
Phases and Stages
Primal ScreamEvil Heat (Epic) Now officially a “supergroup” and “the only British rock & roll band that matters anymore” according to the English press, Bobby Gillespie and Co. should by all rights be riding the resurgence of squalling guitar rock. Tough break for them that they’ve morphed into an electro clash version of the Stooges…
Naked City
Voters in Webberville and Volente will go to the polls Saturday to decide whether to incorporate those two Travis Co. burgs as actual villages. Volente, on the north shore of Lake Travis, already lies within the city of Austin’s extraterritorial jurisdiction; Webberville, between Austin and Bastrop, will come close if the Austin City Council approves…
Video Reviews
This film no doubt planted the seeds for more good ol’ boy action pics, but Mitchum’s story and charismatic screen presence make Thunder Road a ride to remember.
Exhibitionism
As presented by da da kamera at the Fresh Terrain performance festival, Daniel MacIvor’s In On It provided a beautiful and quirky evocation of chance, choice, love, and life’s inevitable drift (or plummet) toward death.
Phases and Stages
Audioslave(Epic) Considering the Van Hagar-sized disaster that could’ve occurred here, this monsters-of-alt-rock hybrid acquits itself surprisingly well. It’s no Back in Black, but neither does Audioslave resume the wheel spinning that stalled both Soundgarden, and to a lesser extent, Rage Against the Machine in their sunset years. This “debut” is surprisingly nimble, but mostly it’s…
Naked City
On Friday, Jan. 31, AFRO (African-Americans for Radical Organizing) will host a forum on affirmative action, including the Bush administration’s position on the University of Michigan admissions policy and the role that UT will play in that controversy. The forum will be held at 6:30pm in Jester Auditorium, Speedway and 21st, on the UT campus.…
TV Eye
Happy 300th, The Simpsons.
Exhibitionism
Drummer Wanted, Richard Maxwell’s drama of a young garage musician’s relationship with his mother while recovering from a broken leg was memorable, but chiefly for the distinctively expressionless, uninflected style of delivery that called to mind really bad acting on purpose.
Phases and Stages
As rappers experiment with singing and rock while Snoop Dogg eschews the sticky icky, hip-hop, from west to east, is definitely Under Construction. It’s a peculiar predicament perfect for foremost female MC and all-around diva Missy “Misdemeanor” Elliott, who with a lighter look, playful production, and memory of how fun hip-hop used to be, rebuilds…
Austin @ Large: Austin at Large: Too Many Cooks?
Restaurateurs Marc Katz and Brad Meltzer may spoil Will Wynn’s (and Max Nofziger’s) smooth mayoral campaigns.
11th Annual ‘Austin Chronicle’ Short Story Contest
Introduction and Results
Page Two
Al Qaeda could not have hoped for a more perfect response to 9 / 11 than the American invasion of Iraq.
Phases and Stages
SongbookBy Nick Hornby McSweeney’s Books, 150 pp., $26 Three years ago, while discussing music, my girlfriend at the time made a remark that caught me completely off-guard: “You really don’t listen to much music, do you?” It was a disturbing thing to hear, because I’ve always been mad for music. She was right, however; the…
Capitol Chronicle: Nothing From Nothing Leaves Nothing
The state budget proposals are walking on moonshine.
The Judges
Dorothy Barnett was a James A. Michener Fellow in fiction and is currently the chair of the Creative Writing Department at Austin Community College. She founded Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review and The Rio Review: Literary & Arts Journal and is the director of the Balcones Poetry Prize. She won third place in the first Austin…
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Shirley Temple always had 56 curls in her hair.The phrase “Keep your eyes on the stars, and keep your feet on the ground,” was coined by Theodore Roosevelt.10021 is the wealthiest ZIP code in the U.S. It also has the dubious distinction of being the area in which the highest number of 9/11 victims lived.According…
Redrawing the Road Map
CAMPO expansion may change the roles of the Central Texas transportation game.
The Hightower Report
Fleet discredits the Constitution and news outlets perform PR.
The Winners
First Place: “Minouli Steals a Kiss” WYNN PARKS earned an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop in 1971 and was awarded a Dobie-Paisano Fellowship by the University of Texas soon after. His work has appeared in such diverse publications as Gambit, The Washington Post, and Archaeology Magazine. He is a geologist who has lived in…
Day Trips
The CowParade is stampeding through San Antonio as a moo-ving moo-seum. Colorful bovine sculptures with names like Dairy Crockett and Tres Amoogos decorated by local artists adorn city sidewalks as a fundraiser for charities and a source of amoo-sement for visitors and spectators. The CowParade originated in 1996 when Swiss artist Pascal Knapp was asked…
Impaired Judgment
SOS Alliance enters the controversy over toxins at Barton Springs.
Down From the Mountain
There was no snow at Sundance this year, but a strong slate nonetheless.
