Catching Out
Catching Out 2001, NR. Directed by Sarah George, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . With a lovely eye and a sensibility that draws pertinent details from her subjects, Sarah George captures the life of the modern hobo, a new breed of train hoppers who are young, often environmentally concerned, articulate, and intentional rather…
Ragamuffin Film Festival
Ragamuffin Film Festival NR. Directed by Various, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . The purpose of this annual festival is to encourage Christians to make films and explore the full range of human experience. Screening will be a batch of award-winning short films, including “The Perils of Nude Modeling” and the 2003 Academy…
“Throwing Stones at the Sun” & Other Lonesome Stories
“Throwing Stones at the Sun” & Other Lonesome Stories NR. Directed by Aaron Valdez, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . This retrospective screening of the Austin-based avant-garde film artist Aaron Valdez features his newest work, “Throwing Stones at the Sun,” which is a collection of personal films that document daily life, explore everyday…
Who Gets the House?
Who Gets the House? 1999, G, 98 min. Directed by Timothy J. Nelson, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Carl Marotte, Sophie Lorain, George Takei. When a married couple decides to separate, it’s the kids who get to keep the house and it’s the parents who have to shuttle back and forth for visits.
Paying the Price: Killing the Children of Iraq
Paying the Price: Killing the Children of Iraq 2000, NR, 75 min. Directed by John Pilger, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . British journalist John Pilger examines the non-“humanitarian” reasons behind the U.S. and U.K. sanctions against Iraq and the deleterious effect the embargo and the West’s “distorted truth” has had on the…
Fenceline: A Company Town Divided
Fenceline: A Company Town Divided NR. Directed by Slawomir Grünberg, Jane Greenberg, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . The Refinery Reform Campaign of the Austin-based Sustainable Energy and Economic Development Coaltion (S.E.E.D.) hosts this advance screening of a P.O.V. installment to be aired later this month on PBS. Fenceline documents the struggles of…
Kiss Me, Stupid
Kiss Me, Stupid 1964, NR, 126 min. Directed by Billy Wilder, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Kim Novak, Dean Martin, Felicia Farr, Cliff Osmond, Ray Walston. The smutty humor of this Billy Wilder farce got it in trouble with critics, the Catholic Legion of Decency, and other self-appointed American censors at the time…
The Man From Laramie
The Man From Laramie 1955, NR, 104 min. Directed by Anthony Mann, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring George Kennedy, James Stewart, Donald Crisp. Anthony Mann’s Westerns contain many a warped cowboy hero, and it’s great fun here to see kindly Jimmy Stewart playing a revenge-laden man searching almost pathologically for the gang who…
The Professionals
The Professionals 1966, NR, 117 min. Directed by Richard Brooks, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Burt Lancaster, Lee Marvin, Robert Ryan, Woody Strode, Jack Palance, Claudia Cardinale. It’s “guys on a mission” time in this wonderful but improbable tale about a group of mercenaries sent to Mexico to rescue their employer’s wife from…
Arthur
Classic performances are delivered by all involved; Gielgud even won an Oscar in this old-timey dipsomaniacal comedy.
10
10 1979, R, 122 min. Directed by Blake Edwards, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Dudley Moore, Julie Andrews, Robert Webber, Bo Derek. The movie that really launched Bo Derek’s career, as well as a billion blond cornrows and a smutty giggle for Ravel’s “Bolero,” 10 is the story of a middle-aged man hung…
Alvin Purple
Alvin Purple 1973, R, 87 min. Directed by Tim Burstall, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Graeme Blundell. Alvin Purple is a salient example of the Australian “ocker” genre of the early Seventies – a group of films generally described as urban sexploitation comedies. In this film, all woman are irresistibly drawn to Alvin.
Page Two
We change printers, resize the paper, and go to press a day early, all in the same week. At some point this must have seemed like a good plan.
American Boy
Chris Isaak’s drummer Kenney Dale Johnson: From Soap Creek to Showtime
Naked City
Barrientos implores Forgione and AISD not to drop its successful dropout prevention program.
Second Helpings: Snow Business
Erin Mosow knows where to go for the snow in this week’s “Second Helpings.”
Mr. Smarty Pants
Rats came to the New World on ships sent from England to organize Jamestown.At 3,517 miles, Route 6 was once the longest U.S. highway starting in Cape Cod and ending in Bishop, Calif. U.S. 20, however, is 116 miles longer, running from Newport, Ore., to Boston.George Washington never attended college.Maine is the only state whose…
Dancing About Architecture
The Hole in the Wall closes.
Naked City
Despite a wave of scandals, the State Board of Education approves licenses for new charter schools.
Day Trips
The National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in Fort Worth is a sassy, fun-loving, classy kind of gal. Just like the women honored within its polished walls, this museum blazes its own trail with a combination of high tech wizardry, cutting-edge art, playful, interactive displays, and historical artifacts. When the museum opened to the…
Phases and Stages
Radar BrothersAnd the Surrounding Mountains (Merge) Maybe it takes the big-time bustle of L.A. to fully appreciate the escapist pleasures of a melody and harmony, delivered at a quarter-speed chillout pace. Or maybe it’s just a California thing. Whatever the case, the Radar Brothers have seemingly digested all the warp-speed dichotomies and competitive capitalism of…
Naked City
The city’s way of handling the proposed ordinance banning lawn parking causes a rift in South Austin.
After a Fashion
The Style Avatar’s Botox experiments — and their eyebrow-raising results!
Phases and Stages
Soul Picnic: The Passion and Music of Laura Nyro by Michele Kort Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Press, 352 pp., $25.95 Laura Nyro (née Laura Nigro) was an anomaly as a singer-songwriter in the late Sixties/early Seventies, the dawn of feminism’s rise. She wrote “And When I Die” at age 16, an unusually prescient composition for…
Austin @ Large: Austin at Large
Okay, riddle me this. According to the survey results announced last week with the launch of the LiveableCity campaign/coalition/movement, Austinites think the environment is important to our quality of life, but they’re more worried about transportation, affordability, and the state of the schools, and think that’s where we should be expending our civic energies. So,…
To Your Health
I have decided to start taking a multivitamin/mineral of some sort, but I don’t want to waste money taking more than I need. How would I know if I am getting enough, but not too much, of a nutrient?
Phases and Stages
Laura NyroEli & the Thirteenth Confession (Columbia/Legacy)Laura NyroNew York Tendaberry (Columbia/Legacy)Laura Nyro & LabelleGonna Take a Miracle (Columbia/Legacy)Laura NyroThe Loom’s Desire (Rounder) Three recently expanded and remastered reissues, plus a latter-day 2-CD live album, should keep the cult of Laura Nyro fans happy. Alternately praised and reviled by critics of the day, her ripe, expressive…
Capitol Chronicle
The Supreme Court, by supporting vouchers, removes another brick from the church-state wall.
Invasion of the Kiddie-Lit Plays
Characters from children’s literature storm Austin-area stages in July.
About AIDS
Treatment Is More Livable – Take Advantage of It! As they are developed, newer anti-HIV drugs are gaining strength to fight against the virus, says a new study in the New England Journal of Medicine. It’s a good thing, as the beleaguered Martha Stewart might say. Potency is key to treatment success. Witnessing the day-to-day…
Phases and Stages
Shakey: Neil Young’s BiographyBy Jimmy McDonough Random House, 800 pp., $29.95 Who’s going to read 800 pages on Neil Young? Peter Guralnick’s biography of Elvis Presley took two books, and he’s “the King.” Young is what, “the Godfather of Grunge”? Shakey, which takes its title from a nickname given to Young, who was susceptible to…
The Hightower Report
Bush wants to spend your taxes on missile defense, but won’t tell you if it works; and, WWJD — What Would Jim Do?
Articulations
The former bakery turned arts center on Tillery gets another tenant, Austin Musical Theatre gets an executive director, and Zachary Scott Theatre Center alums get plum acting gigs on opposite coasts.
Coach’s Corner
Coach ventures forth to a pre-dawn World Cup-watching party.
Phases and Stages
Neil YoungAre You Passionate? (Reprise) There’s everything wrong with Are You Passionate?. The songs are too long, too slow, and they all sound the same. They may all be the same. Leadoff “You’re My Girl,” a bigdumbfriendly ode to Young’s gone-college daughter, couldn’t be more aw-shucks, while “Mr. Disappointment” is simple to a fault, and…
Happy Trails to You
Jill Sprecher sits in an upscale hotel room on an uncomfortable stool-type chair. Bubbly yet engagingly proper, her cute Wisconsin accent quickly relieves any awkwardness. She is genuinely kind. At first I’m too comfortable to notice a certain quietude to her character, or that I’m sitting in the cushy chair. I suspect this is intentional.…
Exhibitionism
Ronnie Larsen’s play Making Porn dramatizes the making of Cops, a gay porn movie, from casting calls to the spin-off calendar, and in Naughty Austin’s production, director Blake Yelavich realizes the comic potential of the script and the world of porn. But a tragic subplot undermines the show’s success as a satire on the adult…
A Snowball’s Chance
Casey’s New Orleans Snowballs, the little family business that could at 51st and Airport, packs a year’s worth of fun and flavor into six months, writes the Chronicle’s Rae Nadler-Olenick.
Beaten by Wackenhut
A former Travis County inmate alleges that Wackenhut Corporation bears responsibility for his prison beating.
How to Get the Government to Pay Attention, the Rotoscope Way
Animated anarchy from locals Paul Beck and Jason Archer
Exhibitionism
For Different Stages’ staging of The Unexpected Guest, director Johanna Whitmore has tried to bring Agatha Christie’s 1930s English village mystery into a contemporary setting, but with the text still rooted in the phraseology and linguistic mannerisms of the past, the result is a stilted and, ultimately, wooden production.
Your Kiss Is on My List
My love affair with Casey’s began two summers ago. I’d just changed jobs, and my new bicycle route took me past their location daily. It occurred to me that my husband Walt, who works hard outdoors, could use a treat on those hot afternoons. So I started bringing one home to share — always lime…
“A Record of Dishonesty”
Allegations of improprieties against Wackenhut are not confined to Travis County.
Landmark Loves You
National arthouse chain Landmark Theatres is giving away free stuff. Score!
Book Reviews
In Stephen Dixon’s latest and other recent books of interest, looking for answers could mean looking for trouble. Our Books writers explain why.
Eat, Drink, Watch “La Strada”
The Chronicle joins the Austin Museum of Art, the Alamo Drafthouse Downtown, Siena Ristorante Toscana, and Austin RentAll Party to bring you another great dinner-and-a-movie evening on Thursday, July 18, benefiting the Capital Area Food Bank. Tickets are now on sale for La Strada, Italian director Federico Fellini’s poignant film about traveling circus performers. Chef…
Stratus Sparks Citizen Uprising
Hundreds of citizens turn out to denounce the proposed Stratus deal.
I Am the World Trade Organization … Or Am I?
The WTO gets spiritualized in a carbon-copy hoax site.
Book Reviews
I. by Stephen Dixon McSweeney’s Books, 338 pp., $18 At a party recently, someone began talking about metafiction. Another person asked, “What is metafiction, anyway?” and everyone looked at me, because I was an English major. I gulped my drink and stammered something about a text drawing attention to its own artifice, exposing the creative…
Preserving Planet Texas
Outdoor-loving Texans can thank the federal government for requiring the state to firm up its state parks planning over the next decade.
Short Cuts
Writer / director Tim McCanlies enthuses about his upcoming film, Secondhand Lions; plus, The Alamo gets a new scribe.
The Believer
The Believer 2001, R, 100 min. Directed by Henry Bean, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Ryan Gosling, Theresa Russell, Summer Phoenix, Billy Zane. Danny Balint is an unfathomable contradiction: he is a fiercely anti-Semitic neo-Nazi, and he is also a Jew. Unlike the blind rage of his skinhead colleagues, Danny’s hatred isn’t borne…
Book Reviews
City of Bones by Michael Connelly Little, Brown, 400 pp., $25.95 City of Bones is the eighth Harry Bosch novel since he first appeared in The Black Echo, Michael Connelly’s smashing 1992 debut. Although the decade has aged and scarred his body, time hasn’t mellowed the LAPD detective’s edgy, brooding personality a bit. The author,…
Cookbook Reviews
Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky Walker & Company, 496 pp., $28 For anyone who has followed the trail of Kurlansky’s writing, salt seems like a predictable topic to tackle. Kurlansky’s 1999 book on cod won the James Beard Award for food writing. His research on the topic led him deep into the fishing…
APD Case Moves Forward
A judge rules in favor of an attorney who claims that APD engages in selective prosecution of officers. Attorney Steve Edwards now must collect evidence — and his number one goal is to get Chief Stan Knee to testify.
TV Eye
Keeping one eye on television and the other on pop culture.
Like Mike
Like Mike 2002, PG, 100 min. Directed by John Schultz, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Lil’ Bow Wow, Morris Chestnut, Robert Forster, Crispin Glover, Jonathan Lipnicki, Eugene Levy, Anne Meara, Brenda Song. Like Mike is precisely the kind of movie you’d expect to see if the NBA were to get into the business…
Book Reviews
Rio Ganges by David Theis Winedale Publishing, 262 pp., $20 (paper) Perhaps the most refreshing refrain in David Theis’ skillfully orchestrated first novel is the protagonist’s refusal to accept his wife’s desire to sleep around. In the hands of a Richard Ford or a Rick Moody, Dan would most likely slink off into an amoral…
Cookbook Reviews
The New Taste of Chocolate: A Cultural & Natural History of Cacao With Recipes by Maricel E. Presilla Ten Speed Press, 208 pp., $29.95 Maricel E. Presilla is a woman of many talents: anthropologist, author, restaurateur, chef, and cacao importer. With such a résumé and a family that includes generations of Spanish-Cuban cacao farmers, Presilla…
Unconsuming
The Whirl-Mart concept comes to Austin
Video Reviews
Based on an Elmore Leonard story, this 1957 Western is a compelling mix of conflicting principles between two men, a farmer and a murderer, who hold each other captive while waiting for the 3:10 train to Yuma.
Mutant Aliens
Mutant Aliens 2001, NR, 81 min. Directed by Bill Plympton, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring George Casden, Matthew Brown, Francine Lobis, Dan McComas. Only in the mind of animator Plympton will you find a man tenderly making love to a giant disembodied nose from outer space. (At least, I hope so.) Juxtaposing the…
Book Reviews
Piggs by Neal Barrett Jr. Subterranean Press, 205 pp., $40 (signed/limited ed.) More and more I’m becoming convinced that there are actually two Texases (Texi?), existing side by side in one of those parallel-universe scenarios so popular with writers who want to take a stab at what the Americas would be like these days had…
Cookbook Reviews
Vegetables From Amaranth to Zucchini by Elizabeth Schneider William Morrow, 804 pp., $60 I usually eschew statements like, “If you only have one book about [kumquats, race cars, cocker spaniels, etc.], this should be the one, blah blah.” However, I’m so taken by Elizabeth Schneider’s magnum opus that I’m tempted to make such a pronouncement…
Naked City
This Week in AustinNoah denies rumors of Forty Days and Forty Nights… Hundreds crowded Thursday’s City Council meeting to oppose the Stratus deal; the public hearing will be continued July 11 (see p.18). A Travis Co. Grand jury no-billed police officer John Coffey in the fatal shooting of Sophia King (p.21). The Texas Parks and…
Cherish
Cherish 2002, R, 100 min. Directed by Finn Taylor, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Robin Tunney, Tim Blake Nelson, Jason Priestley, Brad Hunt, Nora Dunn, Lindsay Crouse, Liz Phair. Initially, Cherish takes its cue from the AM light pop central to its plot — frothy and fun. Tunney is Zoe Adler, a San…
Hey Arnold!: The Movie
Hey Arnold!: The Movie 2002, PG, 72 min. Directed by Tuck Tucker, Narrated by , Voices by Spencer Klein, Christopher Lloyd, Francesca Marie Smith, Dan Castellaneta, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jamil Smith, Paul Sorvino, Starring . Playing like some strange, post-Battle of Seattle take on semi-real-world kid politics filtered through the lens of Naomi Klein’s No…
Book Reviews
The Fly Swatter: How My Grandfather Made His Way in the World by Nicholas Dawidoff Pantheon, 353 pp., $26 Born in Odessa in 1904, Alexander Gerschenkron was just a boy when revolution gripped the streets of Russia with fear and danger. One hopeless night he slipped quietly away to Vienna. There, the Gerschenkron family reassembled…
Food-o-File
Food Editor Virginia B. Wood says goodbye to Chronicle writer Rebecca Chastenet de Géry and hello to Claudia Alarcon and Erin Mosow, while still serving up the latest news in this week’s “Food-o-File.”
Naked City
In light of the shooting of Sophia King by an APD officer, Police Monitor Iris Jones discusses the role of her office with the community.
Thirteen Conversations About One Thing
Several vignettes follow different characters as their lives interconnect in a search for happiness.
In Person
Though the crowd at New York literary lion Darin Strauss’ June 27 appearance at BookPeople was thin, he still read and signed The Real McCoy, while telling Mike Shea all about the life of a “hugely talented” young writer.
Soccer Watch
Well, the World Cup is over. And I must say, it really couldn’t have come to a better conclusion. The winning team, Brazil, was also the team that played the most attractive, aggressive, optimistic — joyful — football all month, and if there were doubts about them coming in, there’s really little doubt that they…
Naked City
A Travis County grand jury returns a no-bill against the officer who shot Sophia King, but some people remain unsatisfied.
Men in Black II
Men in Black II 2002, PG-13, 82 min. Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Patrick Warburton, Tony Shalhoub, Rosario Dawson, Johnny Knoxville, Lara Flynn Boyle, Rip Torn, Tommy Lee Jones, Will Smith. It’s tempting to view this sequel to the 1997 sci-fi comedy — which then as now featured Messrs.…
