Cover Story
Red, White, and Reckless
Reckless Kelly’s all-American bloodletting
Who Doesn’t Like Make-Believe?
Tonight I picked up David Hajdu’s The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America, which has been sitting for a while now in my ever-daunting pile of to-read books. Flipping through the prologue, I came across what to me was an obvious but still wowzer statistic – that in the 1940s,…
Nice Try, Buddy
That was a lovely and impassioned post, Josh. But don’t think I didn’t notice that you still – still! – didn’t address the issue of nonsuperhero comic-book source material. I bet you think you’re so sly… As for me, I got nothing – although I did toy with the idea of a pictorial essay on leather pants in…
The Glowing City
Austin daytrotting
Concessions, Admissions, Distractions, and Leather Pants
Yep, I knew it was going to come to this. I’ve been trying to distract you and anyone reading Film Fight for the past four days with semi-pornographic cartoon videos and off-topic rants in the hopes that you would forget that not all comic-book movies are super-hero movies. I didn’t want you to remember American…
Get Your War On
Our Film editor Marjorie Baumgarten brought up on the boards the question of villainry, arguing that the villains are the more interesting characters. History might be on her side – Alfred Molina’s tortured Doc Ock, Gene Hackman’s crazy-eyed Lex Luthor, Al Pacino’s hunchbacked Big Boy Caprice – all of ’em vastly more entertaining than the earnest,…
The Sins of Sin City
“Robert Rodriguez’s Sin City was a heartless, lifeless, soulless exercise in green-screen indulgence disguised as a film … and further proof that comic books should never be made into movies.” You know, the “green-screen indulgence” isn’t what I had a problem with. In fact, I think Sin City’s visual aesthetic – verily ripped from the…
Pickens in the Wind
Texas oil man trying to make green energy presidential issue
The Wages of Agreement Is Death (for Film Fight)
I know, just when we’d settled into a pleasant state of extended antagonism, Will Smith comes along and ruins everything. No … you come along and ruin everything. I hereby take back all the nice things I said about you in the last post. By recommending we go see Hancock together, you have all but…
What Would Jesus Edit? Who Would Jesus Sue?
When sacred texts go wild, all Hell breaks loose.
Kim and Josh Agree to Agree
Well, I think you were smirking when you suggested Will Smith in skin-tight rubber superhero suiting might broker a peace between us… but that’s exactly what happened. Behold the awesome power that is the Fresh Prince, now and forever. I resisted Hancock a touch in the beginning. Some of the early music choices felt distracting,…
Film Fight Field Trip … With One Quick Rejoinder
To the readers: In my last post I mentioned that the kind of movie super-hero I’m interested in would be “disrespectful, ironic, self-indulgent, cynical, lascivious, amoral, mendacious.” In response Kim just called me to suggest we go see Hancock, which is about a super-hero who is disrespectful, ironic, self-indulgent, cynical, lascivious, amoral, mendacious. A great…
Not So Super Superheroes
What if you were Lois Lane’s rebound?
Love Is a Bag of Nails
John Wesley Coleman reads, bleeds
Austin Tracksters Heading to Beijing
Local runners, jumpers, and throwers do well in Eugene
Elmo May Be in for Odessa Special Election
Libertarian may be running in both special and general election in House District 81
Aztex Clinch Division Title, Await Playoff Pairings
The Austin Aztex clinched their division championship Sunday night, by beating the Mississippi Brilla, 1-0, at Dragon Stadium. The Aztex dominated pretty thoroughly, holding the Brilla without a single shot on goal for the entire 90 minutes, and outshooting them overall, 14-1. Jamie Watson scored the game’s only goal in the 30th minute, with a…
Our Li’l Love Bug!!!!!
LoRo or RoLo, no matter what you call ’em, now, there’s a ring to it!
Clarifications
Someone in our comments board yesterday asked for clarification if we were discussing comic book adaptations or superhero comic adaptations? It’s an important distinction, and one I’ve let you slide on, Josh. Until now. When we kicked around this idea, your thesis, as I remember, was simply “I hate comic book movies, let’s talk about…
Shapleigh on the Border
El Paso senator lays down the law on what’s really important on cross-border crime
One Last Hitch and We’re Done
At the risk of beating this tangent to death: The two endings you point to from Rear Window and The Man Who Knew Too Much work brilliantly because they are entirely motivated by character. Doris Day – trapped in front of an audience of dignitaries, knowing her captive son is somewhere in the house –…
A Rough Night With Carrie and Jakob
Last night’s Austin City Limits taping with Carrie Rodriguez and Jakob Dylan could have been a revelation. Instead, it was an ordeal. I know Rodriguez, who taped her segment first, is a popular musician around these parts. While there were impressive things about her performance, overall I came away with the same impression I’ve always…
Whitmire on Coke
The Drug War’s problem? Not tough enough!
Two (Extremely) Late-Night Observations
One: Damn! It is, it is, it is! It’s the tights! I admit it; that’s what kills me. The tights! That and the masks … and the capes … and the ridiculous nicknames … and the endless pontificating … and the mindless car chases … and the repulsive moralizing … and the laborious descriptions of…
Texarkana on the Gay-Bating Side
Sacha Baron Cohen pokes cage fight fans.
On Hitch: A Digression
Oh, Josh, you’re breaking my heart. Just as I find it bewildering that you’ll casually write off the whole comic book movie canon, it is nothing short of flabbergasting – not a word, I don’t think, but work with me – that you thumb your nose at the collected works of the master of suspense,…
Let’s Get Real
The “rules of reality”?*** What do you even mean by that? First: I think this might be an instance in which our lack of comic book knowledge comes into play. I think in fact that rules of reality do exist – rules according to the worlds created in these comic books. But for us lay…
A Quick Something
Sorry, I didn’t notice your 1:51pm entry, Suspense (With a Little Suspension of Disbelief), until just now. This is the price we pay for conducting an online debate, I guess. That and the fact that anyone can jump on his or her computer and see that I only won 15% of yesterday’s vote, which, I’d…
Brimer and Davis Back to Court
Senate District 10 race gets legal challenge (again)
Sweet Chocolate and Sour Tragedy
What I’m saying is why waste your time eating Brussels sprouts when every time you eat Brussels sprouts you’re miserable, and meanwhile there’s a great huge, heaping dish of chocolate over here, just begging to be eaten? (The answer, of course, is that for some reason you’ve agreed to a week-long cyber-argument about the relative…
Elections Two-for-One in Odessa
Perry calls special election for same day as regular election in House District 81
Suspense (With a Little Suspension of Disbelief)
So… suspense. You thought I was trying to dodge that bullet, huh? First of all, curious that THE GUY WHO HATES HITCHCOCK is so hung up on suspense, or rather, his perceived lack of suspense in comic book movies. True, in a lot of these movies – especially the ones you know are destined for…
Cocktail World Cup: Submit your cocktail to represent Austin and the U.S.!
If you are a bartender, mixologist, or just fancy yourself as the creative type there is an extremely unique opportunity for you that ends this week. 42 Below Vodka sponsors the Cocktail World Cup every year in New Zealand where 42 bartenders from around the world compete to see who can devise the world’s greatest…
The Love Parade
Star-cross’d love, superhero-style
Range Life
The holiday weekend reminded me of a trio of albums I’ve been meaning to write about on the Range Life label from my hometown of Lawrence, Kansas. Starting with On the Plains by nominally relevant Lawrence sixpiece Fourth of July, all of these albums have a significant Austin connection, having been mixed and mastered in…
Austin on TV
Neil Curran Flips for TV
Circular Argument, Spinning Its Wheels
I’m gonna run with the Brussels sprouts-as-comic-book-movie metaphor. As I understand it, you’re saying that while you have never had a good Brussels sprout before, you believe in the potential of a great Brussels sprout… provided that the aforementioned Brussels sprout actually tastes like a sweet delicious chocolate bar.*** I’ve got a lot more to…
Late Nights … and Suspense
3:30am Now we’re getting somewhere. Pleasantries dispensed with, Queensbury Rules tossed out the window, gloves off. First of all, there’s no circularity to an argument condemning comic-book movies for embracing their comic-book elements when one is arguing that comic-book movies aren’t any good. That’s like saying I can’t hate Brussels sprouts because they taste like…
An Appetite for Destruction
the liberal’s get-out-of-jail-free card (comic book movie edition)
Just Thought You Might Like to Know
It’s a butt thang.
Lessons in Circular Logic
Well. I’ve just reread your (monster-size) post, and – if you’ll forgive me the annoying workshoppy word – you’ve given me a lot to unpack here. I want to touch on two points before I call it a night. You say that you don’t doubt that superhero movies could be great but that “they haven’t…
The Magic of Mushrooms
Study participants say a hallucinogenic experience has increased their sense of well-being
A Sweet & Fitting Memorial
Honored with a memorial fund in her name, trans- and feminist activist Beth Westbrook would be proud.
Don’t Tell. The Army Wasn’t Asking.
Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell seems to amount to Don’t Tell when the Army doesn’t Ask.
‘Metalocalypse’ … Now
Dethklok strikes midnight
Already, She’s Calling a T.O. …
Welcome to the day, Josh. It”s nice to hear from you… although I think this whole late-sleeper thing might just be a ruse for some dirty-rat strategizing — meaning, you’ve come out swinging just as I’ve hit the late-afternoon “all-I-want-to-do-is-find-a-mat-and-take-a-nap” stretch of the day. Which is all my long-winded way of saying: Yeah, my rebuttal’s…
Hatin’ It! Or… Your Kind of Place?
The AFA is boycotting McDonalds? Throw some cheese on those bitches.
Film Fight Response No. 1 (Over Breakfast)
Good morning, Kim. I should have known I’d wake up today to find three entries from you. It takes a special kind of cruelty to sucker punch a man first thing in the morning – before he’s had a chance to meditate, no less – with a three-entry attack, but you are apparently possessed of…
Dems Hopping Away From the Texas Two-Step
TDP starts reviewing the two-step presidential delegate system.
My Trip to the U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials
Lots of current and former Longhorns in Eugene this week.
The Erotic Gospel According to Khan
A few weeks ago King Khan told me, “In 1999 I moved to Germany with a dream to make a big psychedelic soul band, complete with go-go dancers and blazing horns.” And the wrath of Khan began. When an Indian guy wearing a pith helmet and carrying a cobra staff tells you it’s time “to…
Vinylly Getting Organized
A vinyl venture, and a word from Davie Allan
Soul No Longer for Sale on eBay?
Screenwriter Carrie Crain knows how to promote her work. The Austin scribe recently finished her screenplay Souled about a woman who sells her soul on eBay. Naturally, Crain is now selling her own soul on eBay, and the publicity stunt seems to be working. Today it quickly shot onto CNN’s radar. But, alas, the listing…
On Critical Subjectivity
At the risk of spiraling this thing into tangent only hours into its inception: In my last post I touched on how subjective the critic’s job is and how some reviews age, for the critic, more squirmingly than others… something Kenneth Turan just talked about yesterday on the L.A. Times blog, after being asked if…
Hotrods, Hell Marys for TXRG Championship
Honky Tonk Heartbreakers fail to break points deficit, finalizing championship line-up
In Defense Part Deux
So some years back I wrote a positive review about the much-reviled comic book movie Daredevil. I didn’t make any friends with the fanboys for it, I’m sure, and nobody’s gonna hire me as professional prognosticator – I said that its director had written his meal ticket with the picture. (To whatever bunker you’ve burrowed…
In Defense (and a Mea Culpa)
Good morning to all, and welcome to our first-ever Film Fight. Not sure what I’m talking about? Go here for a thorough explanation. But in brief: My film critic compadre Josh Rosenblatt and I will spend the week duking it out over comic-book movies. I like ’em; he hates ’em. And … go. Okay, actually,…
In Memoriam: Shannon Leigh Lewis
Austin lost a native daughter and rising star last week when Shannon Leigh Lewis, age 20, died from injuries sustained during a cave diving accident in Florida. As a talented teenaged writer, Shannon Leigh turned performer when she and her mother, music professor Sheila Siobhan, began making the Austin poetry slam rounds. The two met…
Aztex Play for Division Title Tonight
The Austin Aztex put a big hurt on the defending national champion Laredo Heat Thursday night – tonight they can do them a favor by beating the Mississippi Brilla in their regular season home finale. The Aztex 3-1 win on Thursday put the first-year expansion team right on the verge of a division championship. A…
After a Fashion
A visit with Van and a send-off for Cyd.
Page Two: Dead Dinosaurs
The only legitimate shot at energy independence is to develop alternative power sources
350 or Bust: New Climate Change Campaigns Get Rolling
The Share350 initiative launches at this weekend’s Green Fourth of July, bolstering an international climate-change campaign with its own Austin twist
Playing Through
Residents of Austin’s ARCH traveled to Washington, D.C., to take part in the Homeless USA Cup
Happenings
For more details and events, see Community Listings. Friday 04 FOURTH OF JULY CONCERT & FIREWORKS It’s your patriotic duty to party, so join the Austin Symphony Orchestra tonight for your yearly dose of pyrotechnics and Howitzer cannon blasts. (For more Fourth of July shindigs, see “Calendar.”) 8:30pm. Auditorium Shores, South First at Lady Bird…
Record Review
Reckless Kelly Bulletproof (Yep Roc Records) The cover of Reckless Kelly’s fifth studio album and Yep Roc debut, Bulletproof, comes branded with the image of folk hero Ned Kelly and definitively subtitled “Death Defying Songs for Looters and Thieves.” Opener “Ragged as the Road” makes good on the claim, channeling Woody Guthrie through the trailblazing…
Day Trips
San Antonio’s San Pedro Springs eternal
Cap Metro Courting Prospective Partners
Transit authority could extend rail and bus service well beyond Austin
Highlight Reel
Musicians seem to want to be athletes almost as much as athletes feel compelled to make music. Willy Braun and David Abeyta both claim if they were half as good at baseball as they are at music, there’s no doubt which career they would have followed. Here are some of Reckless Kelly’s favorite sports memories.…
Microbrew Renaissance
It’s a good time to drink beer in Texas
Johnston High School Is Dead; Long Live …?
Johnston High will get a new name and perhaps a new lease on life
Band of Brothers
In a brotherhood like Los Lonely Boys, all is ‘Forgiven’
Off the Record
Commemorating the 95th birthday of Pinetop Perkins one year at a time, exploring Willie’s Place at Carl’s Corner, and a pregame pep talk with Paul Wall
The Greening of Michael McCaul
Austin congressman breaks with GOP on environmental vote
Swearing-In Day at City Hall
District Judge Orlinda Naranjo swears in returning Council Member Lee Leffingwell, and newcomers Randi Shade (center) and Laura Morrison. Mayor Pro Tem Brewster McCracken shares a laugh with new council colleagues Randi Shade and Laura Morrison. Laura Morrison takes her place on the dais. Lee Leffingwell takes the mic after taking the oath. Randi Shade…
Record Review
Los Lonely Boys Forgiven (Epic/Or) If maintaining the best of both worlds somehow smacks immodest for San Angelo’s devoutly classic rock trio Los Lonely Boys, they can be Forgiven. Major label polish buffers the bros second studio LP for Epic and fourth Sony release overall, while strict adherence to decidedly radio-friendly run times of 3½…
Event Menu
Celebrate our country’s and Matt’s El Rancho’s birthdays, and more
Supremes Rule on Lawyers, Sex, and Guns
Court’s rulings hit home
Nothing Less Than Magical
Veterans of the Zilker Summer Musical recall enchantment on the hillside
Steve Jordan
Identifying Steve Jordan as a first-call drummer hardly does justice to the man’s titanium credentials. Grammy-winning producer for Robert Cray, he’s a veteran of the Saturday Night Live and Late Night With David Letterman bands, backed Chuck Berry in Taylor Hackford’s Hail! Hail! Rock ‘n’ Roll, and worked mano a mano with Keith Richards in…
Food-o-File
Lots of news on reataurants opening and closing
Craddick Rebuked for Reps’ Rule-Breaking
After receiving a private complaint about absentee voting in the House of Representatives, a Travis Co. grand jury has taken an unusual step. It did not hand down any indictments, but on June 26, the 299th grand jury did hand a special report to Judge Charlie Baird criticizing the House for letting members vote in…
The Fabulous 50
1959 Seventeen 1960 Girl Crazy 1961 Anything Goes 1962 Wildcat 1963 Finian’s Rainbow 1964 Brigadoon 1965 Oklahoma! 1966 The King and I 1967 Once Upon a Mattress 1968 A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum 1969 The Music Man 1970 Oliver! 1971 Peter Pan 1972 Hello Dolly 1973 You’re a Good Man…
Dead Dogs Don’t Lie
If your pet escapes, pray for Animal Control
Wines for Grass-Fed and Free-Range Meats
Argentinean Malbecs and Torrontes pair wonderfully with grass-fed meats
Computer Crash? Call a PI!
A new law pertaining to private investigators may inadvertently require your computer tech to take on a whole new career
Domy Books: Where Art and the Printed Page Meet
Russell Etchen on launching an Austin version of his Houston bookstore that focuses on art books, magazines, and toys
The Hightower Report
Bush; and FEMA Strikes Again
Book Review
Farmer Shannon Hayes shares grass-fed knowledge, and all your local meat is here
Cap Metro Disability-Service Cuts on Hold
The Texas Civil Rights Project has been given more time to fight Cap Metro’s changes to services for the disabled
Austin Symphony Orchestra: How Much Is That Symphony in the Window?
Two new symphonies will premiere in ASO’s next season, but how are those costly commissions being paid for?
Tradition Meets the Marketplace
AFS Documentary Tour presents Weaving Worlds
Live Shot
Festival International de Jazz de Montréal Montreal, Quebec, Canada, June 25-29 (and continuing through July 6) “I was born like this,” sang Leonard Cohen with a shrug. “I had no choice. I was born with a golden voice.” A May-to-December voice, from the man for all seasons: oracle of Eros. Over the course of nearly…
Film Fight
The Chronicle‘s critics turn on each other for an online debate
McCallum Fine Arts Academy: ‘Rent’ Due After All
AISD pulled its sponsorship of a districtwide production of Rent, but the show will go on at the McCallum Fine Arts Academy
Take Me to the River
Noodling 101 with filmmaker Bradley Beesley
Beside the Point
New council begins – then takes a month off
Book Review
Shades of Chappaquiddick in the terrific novel about a political dynasty
Film Fight
The Chronicle‘s critics turn on each other for an online debate
Point Austin: A Tale of Two Cities
Thinking about affordable housing from all sides
Hancock
Will Smith is the titular Hancock, a character as befuddling as the odd movie that surrounds him.
Book Review
Former Austinite Lewis Shiner returns with a near-perfect novel of family and race in North Carolina
Film News
Legendary documentarian Frederick Wiseman on the ropes at Lord’s Gym
Quote of the Week
“Protect them from losing their wits, their nerves, or their souls in the heady atmosphere of local governmental affairs so that we the people may flourish in a city blessed with liberty and peace and justice.” – The Rev. Joseph C. Parker Jr., of David Chapel Missionary Baptist Church, in his invocation at last week’s…
Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
It seems rather churlish to complain about entertainment aimed at little girls, who almost never get big-budget movies made just for them, nevertheless … this movie substitutes pluck and spunk for drama and sparkle.
Letters @ 3AM
Samuel Adams gave Americans a vocabulary both for revolution and for the building of a republic
TV Eye
It smells like strike … again. TV Eye preemptively tosses her TV for the Internet.
Headlines
• The Office of Inspector General released a report last week, stating that the U.S. Department of Justice illegally blacklisted law intern applicants over four years based on their “political or ideological affiliations.” Among the organizations on the no-hire list: Austin’s Save Our Springs Alliance, Texas Civil Rights Project, and the Political Asylum Project of…
Jaane Tu … Ya Jaane Na
Opposites attract in this new Hindi love story between a mild-mannered man and a volatile woman.
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Thomas Jefferson an early bird, the founder of ‘Founding Fathers,’ and more
Arts Review
Zach’s production inspires laughter as it offers the guilty pleasure of watching sexy young men dancing and singing together in a line
Naked City
• The case against former Georgetown Police Sgt. Jimmy Fennell Jr., accused of sexually assaulting a woman while on duty, will go to trial Sept. 8. Williamson Co. District Judge Burt Carnes rejected a plea deal Fennell agreed to in May – wherein Fennell would plead guilty to kidnapping and sexual misconduct in exchange for…
Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
Academy Award-winning documentarian Alex Gibney puts the famed journalist, icon, and myth Hunter S. Thompson before his lens and comes away with a telling portrait of the man and his era.
The Common Law
Nighttime Waterskiing?
Arts Review
J.T. Rogers’ play about racial attitudes is timely, but its agenda gets in the way of its characters
Beyond City Limits
• Longing for another war? The clock continues ticking on a possible U.S. assault on Iran, as Seymour Hersh reports at length in The New Yorker (“Preparing the Battlefield,” July 7). Amplifying earlier reports by Andrew Cockburn in the political newsletter CounterPunch (May 2 and 30), which broke the story of a March Bush “Presidential…
When Did You Last See Your Father?
Based on British poet Blake Morrison’s written memoir, this film is a very particular yet universal story about the eternal knot between fathers and sons.
Luv Doc Recommends: Fourth of July Concert and Fireworks
Friday is the Fourth of July, when Americans celebrate the glorious day their forefathers shot the bird at ol’ King George – presumably the American solo bird and not that confusing, two-fingered UK flip-off that’s sometimes tragically mistaken as a peace sign by American tourists who encounter rioting soccer hooligans. The average Yank doesn’t give…
