Katharine Graham
Katharine Graham with Richard Nixon History books are like portraits. They present the outside surface, all objectively researched, studied, and posed. For the inside view, one turns to more subjective genres: to literature, to journalism (yes!), and to the memoir. I lump those three together because they, like fossils which are in themselves unanalyzed and…
Hey Baby, It’s the Fourth of July
In other places, like on the Rolling Stones’ Beggars Banquet, they talk about the salt of the Earth. Here in Texas, we have the dust of the earth. It gets in our clothes, hair, fingernails, mouths, and noses. We write our names in it on cars and stir it up if we drive down a…
All Over Me
All Over Me 1997, R, 90 min. Directed by Alex Sichel, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Alison Folland, Tara Subkoff, Cole Hauser, Wilson Cruz, Ann Dowd, Leisha Hailey, Pat Briggs. Claude (Folland) is the sort of teenage girl who goes by Claude instead of Claudia: a big, sturdy girl with beautiful red hair,…
Postscripts
Garry Mauro, Texas Land Commissioner, is the recent author of Beaches, Bureaucrats, and Big Oil, which begins thus: “I never would have dreamed that a decision to go to a 1986 beach cleanup and risk missing a Texas A&M-Baylor football game would ultimately make me the enemy of international oil companies, the plastics and shipping…
Live Shots
PETER TORK, JAMES LEE STANLEY Cactus Cafe, June 19 For a lot of kids in the Sixties, the Monkees were every bit as magical as the Beatles — perhaps more so, because they got to see their antics every week on television. For the bulk of the crowd at the Cactus Cafe, then, this show…
Men in Black
Jones and Smith make for an entertaining combo as they play secret agents who monitor extraterrestrials.
About AIDS
If you know that you are HIV-positive, it’s likely you’ve been grappling with questions ever since you got your test result. Perhaps you’ve wondered which of the new therapy combinations is right for you. Or, whether to even take the “drug cocktails” or when to start. Do you know how to really communicate with your…
Pressure Drop
About two years ago, after some long-forgotten gig, I was returning home in the back of a taxi. At 3am, conversation is difficult, but my cab driver was some chatty burnout with a graying ponytail and beard, and he wanted to talk. As is often the case, he asked my musical preference. “Punk rock, mostly,”…
Face/Off
Exhilarating performances from Cage and Travolta, as well as Woo’s tremendously enjoyable action set-pieces make this a very entertaining action film.
Hearth & Soul
Sticky Wicket Dear Suzy, Should I spring for a dehumidifier? My folks swear by theirs. I just can’t figure — between the outrageous amount of energy a dehumidifier consumes and the fact that in Austin I’d be changing pans about every hour — whether it’s really worth it. I know that running one will allow…
Road Shows
FRI 4 Tab Benoit, Antone’s FRI 4 Big Drag, Electric Lounge FRI 4 The Wake, Numeralia, Back Room FRI 4 Grant Street Cryers, Stubb’s FRI 4 Flat Duo Jets, Emo’s FRI 4, SAT 5 Joseph Vincelli, Sullivan’s Ringside SAT 5 Civil Rite, Mercury Lounge SAT 5 Interstate Leisure Kings, Miss T White, Hole in the…
Out to Sea
Out to Sea 1997, PG-13, 107 min. Directed by Martha Coolidge, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Walter Matthau, Jack Lemmon, Dyan Cannon, Gloria De Haven, Brent Spiner, Elaine Stritch, Hal Linden, Donald O’Connor, Edward Mulhare, Rue Mcclanahan. Out to Sea: Boy, howdy… that’s the truth. This one misses the boat by several nautical…
Benefits
Sun 6 Hotter Than July Fireworks Show to benefit CEACO Youth HIV/AIDS Health Education Program, at the Edge, 214 W. Fourth, 9pm. 474-4494, ext. 2. Fri 11 Sixteen Deluxe, the Paranoids, Dizzy Luna & Shindigs will perform to benefit Austin Rape Crisis Center, at Spider House, 2809 Fruth, 6-10pm. Cost is $5. 445-5776, ext. 210.…
Message: We Care
illustration by Doug Potter Here’s a seashell: Politicians sitting around getting sappy and sharing their feelings is oxymoronic at best. A seashell, in the honey-dripping parlance of mediator-lawyer Mel Waxler, is a fleeting thought, an idea, an expression of words. And our city council spent two leisurely days collecting and sharing these seashells during a…
Wild America
Wild America 1997, PG, 107 min. Directed by William Dear, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Jamey Sheridan, Devon Sawa, Scott Bairstow, Frances Fisher. Suggested alternate title: The Women Don’t Know, But the Little Boys Understand. This second feature by William Dear (Angels in the Outfield) has its flaws, but as…
Coach’s Corner
Enough is enough. On a warm, muggy night, 37 years ago, the most malevolent, fearsome fighter ever sat on his stool, a beaten and confused man. He refused, in front of thousands of fight fans at the Miami Beach Convention Center, to answer the bell for the eighth round. Sonny Liston was the most frightening…
Still Homeless
Bobby Joe Jones with his camp mates, Anthony and Ann, seated on couch photograph by Jana Birchum “Trip wire,” says Bobby Joe Janes, pointing out a thin black wire leading up to a bouquet of empty beer cans in a nearby tree. “That’s my alarm,” he says, and then whistles loudly into the woods. “We’re…
Temptress Moon
Temptress Moon 1996, R, 119 min. Directed by Chen Kaige, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Leslie Cheung, Gong Li, Kevin Lin, He Saifei, Zhang Shi, Lin Lianqun, Ge Xiangting, Xie Tian, David Wu, Zhou Jie, Zhou Yemang, Ren Lei. Set against the blustering, turn-of-the-century opium trade in China, Chen’s newest film resonates on…
Day Trips
Garrett Wilkinson of Bertram is an artist whose work has elements common to many folk artists. However, like any master craftsman, Wilkinson’s creations express a personality, humor, and craftsmanship that is very much his own. The 81-year-old retired welder and machinist makes whimsical art objects from discarded objects. When Wilkinson sees an old car part…
Mapping Out a Solution
Richard Troxell leads the fight for Austin’s homeless. photograph by Jana Birchum With Austin’s no-camping ordinance up for repeal this summer, all eyes are now looking to the proposed homeless campus to save the day. To be sure, homeless people in Austin are in a Catch-22 position. With an estimated 6,000 homeless locally, and only…
Page Two
I’ll warn you: I can’t be objective about this Triangle Park/Triangle development thing. I have a vested interest here, a personal stake in this tract of land, which profoundly colors my judgement on the subject. It’s the sense of proprietorship I share with a lot of other people I know: I live close to it.…
Naked City
In the spirit of compromise between two embattled city departments, the Barton Creek Preserve (BCP, formerly Balcones Canyonlands Conservation Plan) is transferring out of the Parks and Recreation Dept. and going under the control of Drainage and Utility. With D&U funds paying for Parks personnel to run the preserve, clashes between the two city departments…
Public Notice
Here’s a great opportunity to motor-vate folks with walking impairments. Some senior citizens and permanently disabled citizens may qualify for the Senior Wheels Program. The program makes power and manual wheelchairs, three- and four-wheeled electric scooters, walkers, canes and other medical items available for no cost to folks who qualify. The items are delivered and…
Squaring the Triangle
photograph by Gary Lockhart An uppercase Greek delta — that is, a triangle — symbolizes a lot of things, but one of them is “change.” And whatever else the three-cornered empty space between Guadalupe, Lamar, and 45th Street stands for these days, it sure as hell has something to do with change. But change from…
Mister Smarty Pants Knows
Every 24 hours, Americans collectively shed six miles of skin. Drinking fine vinegar as an aperitif has caught on in California in recent years. For those who want to try at home, first warm the glass in your hand, then sip slowly. A half tablespoon sip can cost $4. Kit Kat bars are wrapped widthwise…
Fear of a Black Network
Check yo’self, before you wreck yo’self: advice from Chris “Bring the Pain” Rock Howdy. I come crawling off the couch like my post-7-Eleven-Nachos stomach to pinch-hit for Margaret, who’s on vacation this week. Of course it’s a working vacation; last I checked with her, she was catching up on old black & white movies on…
The Most And Last Drastic Space
illustration by A. J. Garces Take heart from the ruins. When a teacher showed us photos of the Acropolis, I noticed the temple was a ruin yet Athens was intact. I raised my skinny arm, flapped my eager hand, and asked was it true, had Athens continued all these centuries, a city where people worked…
Scanlines
(“Scanlines” wishes to thank Encore Movies & Music, I Luv Video, and Vulcan Video for their help in providing videos and laser discs) Freeway D: Matthew Bright (1996) with Reese Witherspoon, Amanda Plummer, Kiefer Sutherland, Brooke Shields Admit it. Didn’t seeing Ferris Bueller’s Day Off make you do something just a little naughty? Anyone? Anyone?…
What’s Old Is New
photograph by John Anderson Despite being saddled with the moniker of “grocery snob” by my more frugal friends, yes, I shop at Whole Foods, and until recently, that was where I spent most of my grocery dollars. The reasons were multifold. There’s a store within walking distance of my home. It offers organic produce. The…
Short Cuts
When the folks at Warner Bros. talk about their Contact in Austin, they’re talking about the advance benefit screening of their new movie on Thursday, July 10 at the Paramount Theatre. Contact is the new Jodie Foster-Matthew McConaughey movie about an astronomer who receives humankind’s first message from an extraterrestrial source. Based on the bestseller…
Food-o-File
South Central Austin is just bustling with restaurant activity. At Threadgill’s World Headquarters (901 W. Riverside, 472-9304), Eddie Wilson has built a new fence around the front yard as the first step toward establishing a beer garden. Sixty honeysuckle bushes are planted along the inside of the fence in the hope that it will eventually…
The Fight Against Unsolicited E-mail
Spam is online pollution — selfish, greedy abuse that lessens everyone else’s enjoyment of the Internet. — Gene Crick, President, Texas Internet Service Providers’ Organization For Tracy LaQuey Parker, April Fool’s Day 1997 was like any other day; first task after waking and joining the world was to check e-mail, to see if any new…
Articulations
The above comment may seem obvious given the subject — sure, Tapestry moves; it’s a dance company! — but in this case, we’re talking about the troupe’s studio and offices. This week, Tapestry Dance Company leaves its North Austin home of seven years (at 2521 Rutland, near Burnet & 183) and moves to a warehouse…
Dancing About Architecture
Anyone who saw Buick MacKane’s show at Stubb’s a couple weekends ago (opening for the Bad Livers), knew it was bassist Dave Fairchild’s last gig. They knew this because Alejandro Escovedo announced it at the beginning of the show, and kept complaining about it throughout the set (though, by the end of the gig, when…
Good Neighbors
Pastor Rudd of Pedernales Valley Baptist Church stands by the bathtub in shich a family of four (mother, father, two kids) hid while the tornado leveled their home. The slab on which the house was built is behind him. photograph by Jana Nirchum On the afternoon of May 27, moments before the arrival of the…
Exhibitionism
AMOA@Laguna Gloria, through August 10 Mexic-Arte Museum, through July 5 Ya Me Voy by Teodoro Estrada The primal human impulse is to find a mirror. We are motivated by a need for self-examination, self-definition, and the search for our own kind. Certainly this seems to be what drives artists who formulate ways to express the…
R-e-s-p-e-c-t
“Jump On It” night at Rosewood Park on the Eastside photograph by Kenny Braun Austin’s hip-hop scene just isn’t the same as it was two years ago. And that’s a good thing — or so say local promoters, deejays, and artists who claim that our small hip-hop market is booming. Their evidence? A radio-friendly climate,…
Reggae
RAGGAMASSIVE Rise to the Top TRIBAL NATION Our Thing KILLER BEES All Abuzz (Mozelle) There’s a powerful argument to be made for the fact that reggae music, Jah music, is buried on Nine Mile in Jamaica. Born to an American father (R&B) and a Jamaican mother (indigenous riddims) in the early Sixties, reggae was a…
Art’s New Address
photograph by Jana Birchum Great cities have great arts districts. Great big cities (such as New York) often have several (Soho, Tribeca, Chelsea, the Village). In the last 15 years, Austin has seen the rise and fall of more than one modest area where visitors could see a variety of art exhibitions, eat lunch or…
Music Recommended
Friday: Wannabes, Big Drag, Silver Scooter, Electric Lounge; Breedlove, Steamboat Saturday: Lawrence Welk Revue, Palmer Auditorium Sunday: Doug Hall Group, Elephant Room Monday: Prima Donnas, Kiss Offs, Emo’s Tuesday: Alvin Crow, Babe’s Wednesday: My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult, Radio Iodine, Liberty Lunch Thursday: Big Ass Truck, Mercury Lounge
Book Reviews
In the good old days, political journalists were often brighter than the politicians they covered. Today it’s a wash. Maybe this is why Trail Fever by Michael Lewis (Knopf, $25 hard) proves exceptional. Held to the higher standards of that bygone era, the author scores — with a humorous take on politics, refreshingly malice-free. Assuming…
