Hitting Below the Mason-Dixon Line
illustration by Jason Stout The recently issued Mason & Dixon, like all Thomas Pynchon novels, is a load of crap. He has nothing to say and often says it clumsily. His sense of humor is lame and sophomoric. He writes to exhibit what he thinks is his erudition and cleverness, but is a boring clod.…
Not a Big Beer Party
Last week, Harold McMillan, whose DiverseArts organization stages the Clarksville-West End Jazz and Arts Festival, talked about what it took just to get to year nine of Austin’s annual celebration of jazz. This weekend, for two days in Pease Park, a year’s worth of work finally comes to fruition. Considering that last year’s festival performed…
Summer Splash Party Movie Nights
Floating around in a pool and watching movies are two great ways to beat the heat of summer. Splash Parties allow you to do both each week at a city pool. Every Saturday from now through August, a Splash Party will begin at 8pm, with a feature movie that starts at 9pm. Refreshments will also…
Can Someone Be Immune to HIV? Maybe… (Part 2)
Can someone be immune to HIV infection? As our last column observed, research recently has shifted its answer from “No!” to “Hmm, maybe.” Budding research now suggests that some people have a modest form of immunity to HIV infection, or they at least are able to fight infection very effectively. However, this characteristic is not…
Clarksville-West End Jazz & Arts Festival Schedule
Saturday, June 14 (Pease Park) Jazz Stage Jimmy George (11am); Golden Arm Trio (noon); Jazz Pharoahs (1pm); Elias Haslanger & James Polk (2pm); Ellis Marsalis (3pm); Hope Morgan (4pm); Susanna Sharpe & the Samba Police (5pm); Austin Jazz Band (6pm); the Analogs featuring Roscoe Beck (7pm) Acoustic/Performance Arts Stage Maya and Magly (noon); Ebony Poets…
Paramount Theatre’s Summer Film Classics
Over 60 Hollywood classics will be presented between now and the end of August. Most films will be presented as double features with one admission price. Vintage trailers and Warner Bros. cartoons will also precede most shows. Tickets for adults are $5.25 evenings, $4 for matinees before 6pm; tickets for children under 12 and students…
Herbs & the Black Thumb
Do you lack a green thumb? Do plants wilt when they see you? Me too. I’m fairly certain I was an herbicide in a past life. Or a tree-stripping elephant. In any event, I frighten plants to death. When Richard met me, I was trying to do my part for a greener environment by growing…
Recommended
Friday: Friends of Dean Martinez, Teisco del Rey, Continental Club Saturday: Blu Sanders, Ruta Maya Sunday: Emilio, Dance Across Texas Monday: Reggae Cowboys, Liberty Lunch Tuesday: Brown Wh�rnet, Dizzy Luna, Emo’s Wednesday: Rubinchik’s Orkestyr, Flipnotics Thursday: Peter Tork, Cactus Cafe
Scanlines
D: Mike Judge (1996) I realize that nothing I say about this film is going to have one iota of impact on your decision to rent it, but it really does deserve a mention on the strength of its merits alone. The first Beavis and Butt-Head saga to hit the big screen, series creator Judge…
Benefits
Texas Swing to benefit Project Transitions (residential hospice care for persons w/AIDS), at Scholz Garten, 16th & San Jacinto. Cost is $20 advance; $25 at the door. 454-8646. SAT 14 Firehose Festival to benefit the Pedernales Emergency Services Auxiliary, at Camp Chautuaqua, Pace Bend Park, noon-5pm. Adults, $6; children under 12, free. 263-1476, ext. 2.…
AISD Notebook
Since AISD Superintendent Jim Fox arrived here, over 40 of the district’s 96 principals have either been moved to another campus, promoted or parked into a central administration job, have resigned, or retired. With the notable exception of the much-celebrated case of former LBJ High School principal Eddie Orum, there has been nary a hue…
Shortcuts
“Prime time is all the time on the Internet,” says InterneTV president Jay Ashcroft. This is the basic idea that fuels the Austin-based company, InterneTV, which announces itself as the “first broadcast station on the Internet.” Now in its second year of existence, the broadcaster has recently added live video clips on demand to its…
Coach’s Corner
And then I began to fall so low, lost all my money, had no place to go… — “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out” Sportswriters, let’s admit, won’t be on the top of many Sensitive New Age Guy lists, nor are they likely to be spotted leading the chants at a Men-Finding-Their-Inner-Selves meeting…
Record Reviews
HASIDIC NEW WAVE Jews & the Abstract Truth (Knitting Factory) The frenetic, skittish dance that is Klezmer music adopts a sharper edge on the Hasidic New Wave’s adventurous Jews & the Abstract Truth. Klezmatics trumpeter Frank London and saxophonist Greg Wall drive an ensemble rounded out by sought-after players David Fiuczynski (guitar), Kenny Davis (bass),…
Lauren Hutton’s Feet
illustration by Penny Van Horn An exercise teacher told me years ago: Tilt your head back until your neck is stretched. Open and close your mouth like a fish. This will keep your neck looking young. I did it a few times a year. My neck doesn’t look young. If I’d done it every day…
day trips
photograph by Gerald E. McLeod Fort Davis National Historic Site is regarded as the most outstanding surviving example of a Southwestern frontier military post. More than half of the original 50 structures remain as a vivid reminder of the rugged pioneer life in the scenic West Texas mountains and a significant chapter in the history…
Roadkill
You must realize that there are people that think you’re lame and that you aren’t taken as seriously as the next guy? “I know what you’re saying, but I’m not sure who that next guy is,” says the artist formerly known as Kenny Gorelick. “The thing about the criticism I’ve gotten is that it insinuates…
Residence = Difference
llustration by Robert Faires My mama always said that good things come to those who wait. For more than two years, Austin artists have been casting envious eyes toward San Antonio where the ArtPace Foundation for Contemporary Art has been making good on its promises to become a catalyst for the creation of significant art…
Page Two
I feel like an old man being read to by a young boy, but the warm rains seem to be calming me down. Last week, politics editor Audrey Duff eloquently dealt with some of the same issues I’m about to harp on here. I’m going on about the same topic because the coverage of the…
Road Shows
JUNE FRI 13 Rollins Band, Skunk Anansie, Liberty Lunch FRI 13 Mess, Plain, Voodoo Lounge FRI 13 Friends of Dean Martinez, Continental Club FRI 13 Cunninghams, Electric Lounge FRI 13 Sugar Shack, 20/20, Emo’s FRI 13 Randy Beckett’s Rebel Train, Speakeasy FRI 13 Carolyn Wonderland & the Imperial Monkeys, Mercury Lounge FRI 13, SAT 14…
Public Notice
After asking able bodies to hold back until recovery efforts could be organized, Williamson County Emergency Management has now issued a call for volunteers to assist in salvaging and clearing small debris, so that families whose homes were destroyed or damaged in the killer storm can begin rebuilding. Individuals or volunteer groups should call the…
Enough Is Enough
They came to bury Eric, not to praise him. Last week’s meeting began as political love-in bidding Ronney Reynolds a fond adieu after his six years of service. Nary a word was uttered during the tearful farewells, however, on the timely demise of Eric Mitchell’s council tenure. In fact, the council seemed only too happy…
Mister Smarty Pants Knows
Baseball pitcher Roger Clemens adds strength to his hands by squeezing fistfuls of rice. Recent studies at Rockefeller University show that black-capped chickadees might generate new brain cells in their hippocampus, the area of the brain dealing with spatial rel@  � During World War II, Nazi pilots dropped stakes bearing swastikas on parts of…
Banking on Amtrak
illustration by Doug Potter Don’t be surprised: The Texas Legislature has made history again. Amtrak Corp. announced in April that they were practically busted and the Texas Eagle line — from San Antonio to St. Louis — was shutting down. There were five other routes marked for extinction across the nation. Amtrak begged for the…
Appetite for Reading
illustration by Lisa Kirkpatrick Cookbook sales are soaring and the consuming public still seems hungry for more. What’s a publisher to do now that most of the world’s identifiable cuisines have been recorded for posterity several times over? The new trend in cookbook publishing appears to be the “reading cookbook,” which offers receipts and reminiscences,…
Doing the Twister
It goes without saying that the top story of the past couple of weeks was the tornadoes that ravaged Jarrell and Cedar Park, and local news outlets deserve applause for their coverage. Both television and newspaper journalists worked hard and actually braved possible danger to deliver this story quickly, accurately, and for the most part,…
Foodie Fiction
The distance between books of recipes surrounded by personal stories and novels laced with recipes seems to be getting shorter every day. Savvy publishing house marketing executives seem to be willing to mine the “foodie” niche for all it’s worth, including everything from a standard romance novel with a restaurant setting to culinary erotica to…
Naked City
Foreshadowing the tone of the new council, Councilmember Gus Garcia is already promising an end to the camping ban by August. “While the ordinance has had some effects, it really hasn’t had significant effects. We’re spending a lot of resources and not producing the results. In repealing, my hope is to send a message that…
Food-O-File
The sun is out and summer weather has arrived, just in time to ripen the sweet corn, tomatoes, basil, and peas at Central Texas farms and gardens. Some of the best tastes of early summer so far: sweet corn bathed in cultured butter from Vermont Butter & Cheese; cobblers made with the first peaches from…
Get Out the Bootstraps
photograph by Jana Birchum Loaded down with plastic bags filled with soft drinks, snacks and paperwork, Kathy Skellenger and Frank Schroff, who have lived together for 6.5 years, trudge into a South Austin branch of the “Human Services Department” – otherwise known as the welfare office. Sweating and exhausted from their travels – they had…
The Tools of the Trade
Famous alums-to-be: Freddie Mendoza (l) and Elias Haslanger photograph by Shannon McIntyre One thing that scholars, critics, and musicians seem to agree on is that jazz is an art form indigenous to America. It was born here, and the world’s best players have been and are Americans. As such, it’s a relatively new medium, its…
Welfare Reform, Texas-Style
Food Stamp Program Legal permanent residents will no longer be eligible. (Those who were already receiving food stamps on or before August 22, 1996 can continue to receive them for one year (8/22/97) to give them time to become citizens.) Able-bodied adults with no dependents, ages 18-50, are limited to 3 months’ benefits in a…
Articulations
It seems Austin’s arts institutions rarely undergo big personnel changes in isolation. If one company suffers a big change, wait a few minutes and you’re likely to see another big change at another company. That’s what’s happening in the ballet community this year. First, Austin Contemporary Ballet lost its artistic director when Greg Easley resigned…
Dancing About Architecture
Warner Bros. exec and Texas Tornados booster Bill Bentley just happened to be returning my call on the evening of May 27, as Austin was bathed in storms and the Chronicle TV was crackling out the news of the on-going devastation north of town. “So what’s up in Austin?” he queried. When I replied that…
Looking for Mr. Mom
Between TV Guide, Cable Monthly, and the Austin American-Statesman’s Show World, there’s no shortage of print schedules of the television medium. For Time Warner cable subscribers within Austin, there’s also that rotating 90-minute what’s-playing-now schedule on Ch 7. Individual publications for cable networks such as The Learning Channel and A&E are available by subscription or…
Exhibitionism
ComericA Bank Bldg, 2nd floor, through June 28 Running Time: 2 hrs, 10 min (but can vary) Theatre is a fabric of lies, carefully woven to illuminate a greater truth, probably one of the medium’s greatest strengths. While the drama is live and onstage, the lines between truth and falsehood blur, but once the final…
A Short Movie
Ronnie Wood plants one on Ronnie Lane at the Terrace in 1992. Ronnie Lane, the English rocker who called Austin home for nearly a decade, died early June 4 in a Colorado hospital at the age of 51. Multiple Sclerosis took its toll on Lane’s body, but it didn’t dim the twinkle in his eyes…
That Old Revival Spirit
Myra Breckinridge Video stores killed the revival houses. Video and the old movie channels on cable TV. It wasn’t intentional. No one may have meant for it to happen. But there it was. Before we noticed, it had already become a fait accompli: Suddenly, it was easier to stay home and watch old movies on…
Postscripts
Two professorial appearances coming up… on Sat, June 14, 2pm at Bookstop Central Park, UT Professor and Director of the Counseling Psychology Doctoral Training Program Ricardo Ainslie will sign copies of his latest book, The Psychology of Twinship. Don’t be frightened by his professor status – the book seems intended for non-academics. Local author James…
A Greater Need
Ellis Marsalis wouldn’t have been the first musician to need a day job. Nor would he have been the first to supplement his income with a teaching gig. In fact, it seems that at one time or another, a disproportionate number of musicians have entered the classroom not only as a means of feeding their…
Austin Film Society Summer Free for All
Screenings are every Tuesdays at 7pm at the Texas Union Theater (24th & Guadalupe). Admission is free and open to the public. For more info or a program calendar call 322-0145. Jun 17 The Story of Adele H (D: Francois Truffaut) Jun 24 Adoption (D: Marta Meszaros) Jul 1 The Awful Truth (D: Leo McCarey)…
