Cover Story
The Dark Horses
The redistricted Centex Democrats bravely into battle go
The Girls From Thunder Strip
The Girls From Thunder Strip 1966, X, 90 min. Directed by David L. Hewitt, Starring Maray Ayres, William Bonner. Girls, bikes, and booze.
They Live
They Live 1988, R, 97 min. Directed by John Carpenter, Starring Roddy Piper, Keith David, Meg Foster. Satiric science fiction about aliens, sunglasses, and consumerism stars wrestling icon Roddy Piper.
Exhibitionism
J. Damian Gillen’s take on Much Ado About Nothing derives its inspiration from Hollywood screwball comedies of the 1930s and 1940s, and almost pulls it off
The Meat Purveyors Reviewed
The Meat PurveyorsPain by Numbers (Bloodshot) Breaking up is usually bad for bands. Luckily, the Meat Purveyors aren’t like most bands. Calling it a day after Bloodshot let fly two platters of driving rural acoustics sutured with urban darkness, Austin’s Meat Purveyors reformed, offering up 2002’s gleeful All Relationships Are Doomed to Fail. With TMP’s…
APD Sued Over 2003 Search
Southeast Austin family charges it was target of illegal police raid
Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle
Dopey comedy is good fun.
Land of Confusion
Michael Simon’s first detective novel finds a transplanted New Yorker struggling to solve a murder in a ‘completely different’ Austin
Everything Changed
Abra Moore returns, younger and wiser, unafraid
A Desire Named ‘Streetcar’
Civic coalition forms to add downtown trolleys to the Capital Metro rail plan
The Manchurian Candidate
Is it Gulf War syndrome or justified paranoia? The Manchurian Candidate thrills again.
News/Print
San Antonio’s Robert Bonazzi re-releases his friend John Howard Griffin’s essential Black Like Me; plus, Austin is Cormac-crazy
Phases and Stages
The RootsThe Tipping Point (Geffen) Culled from 80 hours of studio jam sessions, The Tipping Point distills the instrumental prowess of the Roots through a filter of bare-bones rap sensibilities. Already heralded as Black Thought’s coming out, TP finds the always-dependable MC stepping up his game with the hunger of a neglected thoroughbred. As with…
‘Hold-the-Line’ Budget Hits the City Streets
City manager’s spending plan includes “anticlimactic” cuts
Thunderbirds
A TV show from the Sixties that starred marionettes gets the live-action treatment … or does it?
Page Two
Democrat love is in the air – even in Texas
Phases and Stages
Youssou N’DourEgypt (Nonesuch) Like U2, a spiritual river flows deeply through the music of Senegalese singer Youssou N’Dour. Nevertheless, as a thematic work in praise of West African Sufis, the mystical branch of Islam, Egypt is unique in N’Dour’s rich oeuvre. As with Johnny Cash’s Precious Memories, it’s an album of intensely personal songs realized…
D-Day for Taco Xpress Deal
Walgreens / Maria’s plan goes to City Council
Facing Windows
Overburdened domestic drama from Italy still features some great performances.
After a Fashion
Stephen goes to SOCO!
Phases and Stages
Joseph MalikAquarius Songs (Compost) One doesn’t generally look to Scotland for soul singers, but consider Joseph Malik an exception. The Edinburgh-based DJ/producer has a high, sweet falsetto reminiscent of Marvin Gaye and Curtis Mayfield. A veteran of the European underground scene, Malik sifts his music through the vibrant meshings of DJ culture; nu-jazz, hip-hop, electronica,…
And in Other Council Business …
After a month’s break, City Hall has a long, long, long agenda
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Bullets, birds, and Booth
Phases and Stages
Tanya DonellyWhiskey Tango Ghosts (4AD/Beggars) The former Belly frontwoman’s third solo effort opens with a curious admission, lovely and mat-ter-of-fact over a rainy-day piano line that lingers for the remainder of Whiskey Tango Ghosts. “I’ve lost something on the way,” coos Donelly. “And I can’t explain.” She doesn’t have to. It happens to the best…
Robin Hood Goes To Court
The latest school-finance trial begins August 9
Soccer Watch
Brazil’s current and future kings; and two weeks’ notice
Phases and Stages
The Cure(Geffen) Finally, the feel-good album of the summer. Take it away, Robert Smith: “Death is with us all. We suck him down with our first breath, and spit him out as we fall.” Yikes! Unlike 2000’s elegiac Bloodflowers, weighted down with assumptions of the band’s expiring career, The Cure arrives at a high tide…
Austin @ Large: The End of the Roads
The toll plan takes us down the right path, but there’s still a long way to go
To Your Health
Clearing coconut oil’s bad rep
Phases and Stages
The HivesTyrannosaurus Hives (Interscope) Little Steven Van Zandt probably peed himself when he first heard Tyrannosaurus Hives. The syndicated Mafioso of all things dank and subterranean would surely kill for the Fagersta Five, now certain to reign his garage airwaves like the king reptile the snotty Swedes named their third LP after. If 30:04 can…
The Hightower Report
The Bushites plot to cancel our election; Diebold taints it
The Common Law
Additional legal issues affecting nonprofits
Phases and Stages
LowA Lifetime of Temporary Relief: 10 Years of B-Sides & Rarities (Chairkickers Music) Overstimulated in general, a lot of folks dismissed Low as too slow, too sleepy, too boring to pay attention to. Those who sat quietly and listened, however, have been treated to the spellbinding evolution of a band in harmonic symbiosis. Like Sonic…
Fast, Twisted, and Deeply Paranoid
A year of notes on The Manchurian Candidate remake’s script
Second Helpings
Cipollina1213 West Lynn, 477-5211 Monday-Wednesday, 7am-9pm; Thursday-Friday, 7am-9:30pm; Saturday, 8am-9:30pm; Sunday, 8am-9pm Offering roasted chicken, osso buco, and other meats prepared by the same masterminds who operate the Jeffrey’s kitchen, Cipollina serves first-rate cuisine. This gourmet takeout eatery has daily specials and prepares wood-fired pizzas, pasta salads, risotto, and a changing assortment of fresh, Italian-inspired…
Day Trips
Not all day trips should be within a day’s drive of your couch
The 72 Hours War
Embedded at the Texas Gaming Festival
TCB
Pub-rock, U2, and British-style power-metal: Where are we again?
About AIDS
Once again the Bush administration is under fire for letting narrow ideology drive government policy. Testimony last week before the National Academy of Sciences made it clear that this administration makes up its mind based on its neocon ideas, while ignoring scientific evidence it doesn’t like. We saw just that in real-world terms at July’s…
Cracking Austin Democracy
The Republican re-redistricting plan radically split Central Texas communities
I Know That Voice …
Richard Elfman revisits ‘Forbidden Zone’
The Art of the Business of Art
Gallery owners David Berman, Wally Workman, and Steve Clark talk about their lives promoting artists and selling art
Sea Change
At 7, the customer has much more control, but at what cost?
‘Chronicle’ Loses Suit, but APD Probe Continues
Time sheets of two former officers accused of ‘double dipping’ will remain secret – for now
Beer Land: A Fairy Tale
‘Something’s Brewin’ in Shiner’ is all color, no condescension
A Texas Prize, Big Time!
Arthouse launches a major new award for the state’s artists
Baby Greens
Imagine a world where necessary stops at fast-food places inspired anticipation and yielded snapping fresh, healthy, creative, and delicious meals
Nader Raiders Target Texas Ballot
The indie campaign goes to court to get into state’s presidential race
Short Cuts
Tim League reflects on the sale of Alamo Drafthouse franchising and marketing operations; W. is Dracula; and San Marcos is at the drive-in
St. Ed’s Director Fired
Melba Martinez, artistic director at Mary Moody Northen Theatre for the past 12 years, has been fired from that position
Blue Fin Sushi & Robata Bar
Have Round Rock sushi lovers found a replacement for the defunct Tanoshii?
And They’re Off!
Money flows into Texas House horse races
TV Eye
If we’re very, very lucky, a solid TV series comes from all of this pain
Lone Star Arts Convergence
Artists converge on Austin for TCA’s Texas Arts Exchange Conference
Food-o-File
Casting calls, film premieres, cliff-hangers, and Lance’s high-carb diet: Get the scoop here
Naked City
Headlines and happenings from Austin and beyond
Exhibitionism
If Brecht’s The Good Woman of Setzuan drags some, the actors in the Vortex Summer Youth Theatre production don’t, and that keeps the evening engaging
Badass
The Meat Purveyors’ whip-cracking guitarist Bill Anderson: Austin punk veteran, AMA Hall of Famer, and yes, total badass
Democracy Coalition Wins on Appeal
Were city crowd-control policies used to stifle anti-Bush protest?
Carandiru
In prison in Brazil is a woeful place to be.
Luv Doc Recommends: Something’s Brewin’ in Shiner screening
Chances are that if a documentary has a beer company’s name in the title and the filmmaker’s not getting sued, you’re probably not getting the whole story. Then again, do you really want it? Undoubtedly there are probably a few black helicopters buzzing around the brewing industry. Wherever there is so much money to be…
