El Azteca Restaurant
2600 E. Seventh, 477-4701 Mon-Thu, 11am-9pm Fri & Sat, 11am-midnight A friend and I had lunch at El Azteca for old times’ sake the other day. We’d both been customers of the Eastside landmark since our college days, witnessed a Democratic political meeting or two there over the years, and displayed our share of the…
Hollywood Babble On
It’s no big secret that during its heyday from the Twenties until the late Fifties, Hollywood was dominated by men in key decision-making roles. What is not as well known, however, is that many influential women also shaped this period in the history of American cinema. Screenwriter Frances Marion was one of these women, and…
Articulations
Mari Carmen Ram�rez, curator of Latin American Art for the Archer M. Huntington Gallery at UT, has just been awarded a 1997 Peter Norton Family Foundation Curator’s Grant. This program from the Norton Family Foundation provides support to innovative curators through funding which helps them acquire and exhibit contemporary art. Through her grant, Dr. Ram�rez…
Nhatrang Restaurant
8766 Research, Ste. B & D, 453-2020 Nhatrang is an unobtrusive place swallowed up in a strip mall along Research Boulevard. But if the tidy little restaurant’s location doesn’t stand out, its food certainly does. Visit Nhatrang at dinnertime; lunch is a rather ordinary buffet. And instead of opting for the standard Vietnamese bowl of…
Scanlines
D: Vittoria De Sica (1947, subtitled) With L’Amberto Maggiorani, Enzo Staiola, Lionella Carell. No witty cutline repartee this week. This frame from The Bicycle Thief beautifully illustrates its moving cinematography. Antonio Ricci is a man who needs a bicycle to keep a job and a job to keep his dignity, and struggles on the edge…
“What I Wanted”
photograph by Minh A block from the old courthouse on Milam Street in Columbus, Texas stands the Live Oak Art Center. Inside, “Contemporary Texas Art: The Personal Collection of Chuck Cooper” commences in the first large room and continues down a little hallway, into the library, and beyond into a social room in the back.…
Soul Sushi
by Meredith Phillips D.K.’s Sushi Bar & Seoul Restaurant photograph by John Anderson D.K.’s Sushi Bar & Seoul Restaurant 6400-C S. First St., 326-5807 Mon-Thu, 11:30am-9:30pm Fri 11:30am-10pm; Sat 4:30-10pm Closed Sunday 16th century samurai warrior saved face by commiting hara-kiri when the emperor stumped him with this riddle: What must be done well, but…
Shortcuts
Outdoor Shorts: Our town’s premiere support system for the art and practice of Super-8 filmmaking, the Austin Cinemaker Coop, is hosting an outdoor screening of films and videos shot recently in Austin. The summer screening is scheduled for Saturday, July 26, 9pm, in the garden of Sugar ‘N Spice (2529 S. Lamar). Admission is $2…
Exhibitionism
The Acting Studio Running Time: 2 hrs 10 min Bundled top to toe in overcoats, scarves, boots, gloves, and hats, the characters in George M. Cohan’s melodramatic farce, Seven Keys to Baldpate, fend off the permeating cold as ineffectively as they orchestrate their multitudinous underhanded scams and schemes. Or so it would seem. In this…
Austin Aqua Festival ’97
My new favorite band name? Doodle Bug the Clown. Hard drivin’ punk sounds for the Atari Teenage Riot generation. Take no prisoners, give no quarter. They’re playing Austin’s Aqua Festival, now in its 36th year. Man, whoever books the fest is hip. Yeah, right. Doodle Bug the Clown is just what it sounds like, a…
Leash-Free Zones
photograph by Tre Arenz Auditorium Shores from South First to Bouldin Creek Avenue Soccer fields of Zilker Park between Barton Springs Road, Stratford and Park River Road Surplus Airport Property between Old Manor Road, Manor Road, Lovell Drive and the airport fence Far West Boulevard right of way between Great Northern and Shoal Creek Boulevards…
Elvis Lives!
illustration by A.J. Garces With Indigo Slam, the seventh novel in his best- selling Elvis Cole series, Angeleno detective novelist Robert Crais returns to the early form that had readers and critics hailing him as the wunderkind of the gumshoe set. Its immediate predecessors were, by turns, rote (Voodoo River) and unexceptional (Sunset Express). This…
Dancing About Architecture
After a long, arduous process, the Austin city council will soon get a chance to vote on issues regarding street closures in our downtown Entertainment District. A street closure task force, assembled in February 1996 and including members tied to every aspect of Sixth Street business, completed an overview of problems and solutions regarding the…
The Ruff Guide
by Suzy Banks photographs by Tre Arenz John Steinbeck took Charley on his search for America. John Muir brought along Stickeen, a little black dog, as he canoed southeastern Alaska. Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Scottie, Fala, traveled with the president to Newfoundland to meet Winston Churchill aboard the U.S.S. Augusta to sign the Atlantic Charter. So,…
In Person
Bradley Denton at Borders There were no lines reaching around the corner Saturday, June 28. Most of the chairs — set up in the cooking section — went unused. Those who came into Borders Books & Music on a beautiful Saturday afternoon came to hear local writer Bradley Denton read from his latest novel, Lunatics,…
Out of the Shadows
There are a lot of things of which I’m probably more informed by what others remember and say about it than what I remember and say about it,” says local songwriter/guitarist Jon Dee Graham. “The whole idea of `significance’ is one of those things.” That word, “significance,” pops up constantly in conversation about or with…
Jon Dee Graham
Escape from Monster Island (Freedom) There’s a lot to be said for the self-discipline of a musician like Jon Dee Graham, who waited nearly 20 years to release his first solo album. The most obvious point is that a lifetime of experience will be poured into such an effort, but then Graham’s lived more than…
Postscripts
Several recent changes in Austin’s literary world: Angela Smith, executive director of the Austin Writers’ League since 1989, has decided to resign that position in order to devote more time to private consulting; in her stead the League has named Sally Baker as interim director. Baker, presently the associate director, has been with the League…
Recommended
edited by Christopher Gray PHISH Southpark Meadows, Saturday 26 Austin got the big, hard summer-tour shaft this year, but the cows of Southpark Meadows must finally yield their pasture to hordes of love children and merry pranksters; Phish is in town. What, me hippie? Call the pan-cultural musical stew of Ben & Jerry’s fellow Vermonters…
“Morning-After Treatment” for HIV: Don’t Count On It!
Recently there was a lot of hoopla in the media about a “morning-after treatment” against HIV infection. The premise was that if people slipped into a risky event with sex or drugs, they could call their friendly doc and take a round of the remarkable new medications so they wouldn’t actually become infected. Frankly, hoopla…
Road Shows
JULY FRI 25 Cher UK, Hole in the Wall FRI 25 Thrall, Rocket Fuel is the Key, Boxcar Satan, Emo’s FRI 25 The Gluey Brothers, Darlahood, Stubb’s FRI 25 Stefani, Auditorium Shores SAT 26 Dokken, Back Room SAT 26 June of ’44, Dinaogah, Emo’s SAT 26 Dan Israel & the Cultivators, Hole in the Wall…
Hearth & Soul
Concrete Rerun Dear Suzy, My son is building a home and he has heard of a way to make a concrete slab look like a Mexican tile floor. He was told was that you could score the concrete into tic-tac-toe squares, then paint the concrete, fill the scored grooves with grout, then high shellac the…
Record Reviews
LEE ROY PARNELL Every Night’s a Saturday Night (Arista/Career) Warning: This album causes drowsiness. Do not operate heavy machinery while under the influence of Lee Roy Parnell. My apologies to Austin’s new homeboy, but it has to be said. Not only is there a total lack of originality on his latest release, but it’s infuriating…
Benefits
Red Hot VI Fundraiser to benefit Project Transitions, at Oilcan Harry’s, 211 W. Fourth, 5pm-1am. Cost is $5. 320-8823. Sat 26 Disability Rights Awards & BBQ to benefit ADAPT of Texas (a non-profit disability rights organization), at South Austin Recreation Center, 1100 Cumberland Rd., 7pm. $15. 552-0252. BBQ Dinner & Raffle to benefit Tom McNiel…
Roadkill
Helmet Liberty Lunch Tuesday, July 29 Helmet drummer John Stanier is calling from the “lovely Phoenix hotel in San Francisco” and can’t hear a thing. Could be a lousy phone hookup or it might be that eight years with the NYC quartet has taken its toll on his hearing. After all, all that grandiose verbiage…
Coach’s Corner
“The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day.” The Book of Joshua Las Vegas: In the clamorous, jingle-jangle sensory overload of this Sodom/Disneyland in the central Nevada desert, 7:45am is a very early time indeed. Nevertheless, here I stand, with 25 other shaky fellows, at Bally’s…
High Tech, Low Priority?
illustration by Jason Stout Second grade teacher Anne Vergburg had always been a little curious about using computers in her Hill Elementary School classroom, but frankly, she didn’t want to give up the space a mini computer lab would require. Well, more than that, Verburg was afraid her seven- and eight-year-olds would just use the…
Day Trips
photograph by Gerald E. McLeod The Inks Dam National Fish Hatchery southwest of Burnet isn’t your typical tourist attraction. Most days there isn’t much action going on, but it is a peaceful place with lots going on under the surface. That is, if you consider a million fingerlings an attraction. The fish hatchery south of…
Get on the Bus
For starters, they could all agree on the heat. In the past, the diverse group of approximately 30 people who boarded a Capitol Metro bus for a historical tour of East Austin last Wednesday would have had plenty to argue about. Maybe it was the stifling temperature that kept all tongues civil that day, but…
Page Two
At first, Jon Dee Graham was just this friend of Dennis Nowlin (one of the herd of music writers cluttering The Daily Texan some time back in the early Eighties). Graham was from Eagle Pass and played stinging electric guitar, always with a cigarette clenched in his teeth and an easy smile. Later, after stints…
Allies No More
The lawsuit pitting Jim Bob Moffett against Gary Bradley is getting nastier. In February, Moffett sued Bradley. Now Bradley is returning the favor. In a pleading filed in Travis County District Court on June 18, Bradley’s lawyer, Eric Taube of the Austin law firm of Hohmann & Taube, asks that the court find Moffett’s local…
Public Notice
Justice First! Back in 1990, Earth First! activist Judi Bari and friend Darryl Cherney were victims of a car bombing. Bari’s pelvis was crushed, paralyzing her instantly. The bomber was never found. A cover-up by the FBI has been alleged, and on August 1 the case of Bari v. the FBI will be heard in…
Naked City
After weeks of low-level conflict over the future of the city’s 12,000-acre wildlife preserve system, City Manager Jesus Garza has decided to consolidate the management of the preserves in the Parks and Recreation Department. Rumors surfaced several weeks ago that staff from PARD and the Planning, Environmental and Conservation Services Department would be moved to…
Mister Smarty Pants Knows
An average person laughs about 15 times a day. According to National Geographic, for every 10 million tons of aluminum discarded, 6 million are recovered; for every 10 million tons of glass discarded, 2.4 million are recovered. Snow monkeys relocated to Dilley, Texas from Mount Arachi in Japan had to invent a vocalization for “Rattlesnake!”…
Net/Work Trouble
Wow, talk about nostalgia! The Chronicle’s server went down Monday at the beginning of deadline and stayed down our entire production cycle. That may not seem like a tragedy but let me assure you, I was wrecked! No network websites to sneer at. No TV Guide viewer’s choice grids to crib from. No peeking at…
Food-O-File
Last week’s rant was provoked by a movie and this week it’s a book. A good friend gave me a copy of Just Desserts (Wm. Morrow, $24, hard), Jerry Oppenheimer’s ultra-trashy unauthorized biography of mega-famous lifestyle guru Martha Stewart. Though I’m no particular fan of the ubiquitous Stewart, I tore through the book like a…
Dog Daze
by Suzy Banks photographs by Tre Arenz Are you trying to rediscover joy? Then toss out the saccharine self-help books and the herbal supplements and get yourself down to the canine playground at Riverside & I-35. Here, amid the pecan grove of the former Norwood Estate, unabashed joie de vivre reigns supreme. I double-dog dare…
