Girl Wrestler
Girl Wrestler 2003, NR, 57 min. Directed by Diane Zander, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . Age 12 when this insightful doc began filming, Tara O’Neal just wants to practice, compete, and push herself to the limit. But the paucity of female freestyle wrestlers has her stymied. Zander’s camera follows Tara from club…
Shelter
Shelter 2001, NR, 60 min. Directed by Anne Lewis. Victims of domestic violence now often manage to escape to shelters for battered women, but this is a relatively new phenomenon. Such shelters have only come into being during recent decades. In Shelter , local documentary filmmaker and UT lecturer Anne Lewis tells the stories of…
Hope Along the Wind: The Story of Harry Hay
Hope Along the Wind: The Story of Harry Hay 2001, NR, 57 min. Directed by Eric Slade. The life of political and gay activist Harry Hay is examined in this documentary. In addition to being a founding member of the Mattachine Society – one of the first groups in America to argue for gay rights…
Super Happy Fun Monkey Bash DX (Vol. 1)
Super Happy Fun Monkey Bash DX (Vol. 1) NR. Directed by Various. The Alamo has teamed up with local Japanese pop-culture enthusiast and archivist Tony Salvaggio to present the best of bizarre Japanese video oddities. The program includes strange, surreal animation, A-list American celebrities pimping themselves out on Japanese commercials, cruel and inhumane game shows,…
Get Real!
With the Arts on Real, Blake Yelavich has managed to do what many other theatre groups in the city have been attempting to do, some for years upon years: create from scratch the premier alternative theatre facility in Austin.
Phases and Stages
Tord Gustavsen TrioChanging Places (ECM) From the ever-so-gentle musings of “Deep as Love,” the opener on Tord Gustavsen’s breathtaking debut, the Norwegian pianist/composer casts a disarming spell with his subtle grace and delicate beauty. It’s easy to just surrender and float away on the music’s wistful elegance, as Gustavsen has created a peaceful space far…
Naked City
After nearly a year of legal wrangling, the city’s independent investigation into last summer’s fatal shooting of Sophia King by Austin police officer John Coffey is set to go forward — but the timing of the announcement has ruffled some rank-and-file feathers. According to Assistant City Manager Laura Huffman, the city this week signed a…
DVD Watch
Arthur Penn’s film is an eclectically epic anti-Western that turns Ford’s red-hued racist conventions on their ear.
Exhibitionism
In the dirigo group production Hedda, director Laura Somers reimagines Henrik Ibsen’s classic as a perverse and sometimes brilliant Doris Day / Rock Hudson flick, coupling late 1950s zip — party dresses and sweater vests, manhattans and vodka martinis, breezy entrances and exits — with a forbidden sexuality that ratchets the tensions of Ibsen’s play…
Phases and Stages
Led Zeppelin DVD(Atlantic)Led ZeppelinHow the West Was Won (Atlantic) As a notorious talk-to-the-hand band, Led Zeppelin’s rock-star megalomania bottomed out with 1976’s The Song Remains the Same, a collision of Fantasy Island and concert film that all but necessitated the birth of punk rock. “When the early punks said it was self-indulgent,” notes Robert Plant…
Naked City
The Texas Municipal League is up in arms over “last-minute legislative trickery” involving the state ethics bill awaiting Gov. Rick Perry’s signature. And some Lubbock City Council members are threatening to bail if HB 1606 becomes law. Late revisions to the bill — the last measure passed by the House before session’s end — included…
Spellbound
This multi-award-winning documentary captures the suspense of the spelling bee in all its drama.
Exhibitionism
In The Dead Presidents Club, Larry L. King brings together Calvin Coolidge, Harry S. Truman, Lyndon Johnson, and Richard Nixon in the afterlife for a lighthearted exploration of these American leaders’ strengths and foibles, and the best part of Austin Playhouse’s funny, entertaining revival is the inspired work of the excellent team of actors who…
Phases and Stages
The Red Hot Chili Peppers(EMI)The Red Hot Chili PeppersFreaky Styley (EMI)The Red Hot Chili PeppersThe Uplift Mofo Party Plan (EMI)The Red Hot Chili PeppersMother’s Milk (EMI) When they came clowning out of Hollywood on 1984’s The Red Hot Chili Peppers, hardly anyone would’ve pegged this daffy, funk-obsessed bunch of weirdoes as some of the most…
Naked City
Will Wynn will be sworn in as Austin’s 53rd mayor on Monday, June 16, at 6:15pm, at the Palmer Events Center, 900 Barton Springs Rd. Also to be inaugurated: new Council Member Brewster McCracken and returning members Raul Alvarez and Danny Thomas. Free, open to the public, and refreshments. First organics, then wind power, and…
L’Auberge Espagnole
L’Auberge Espagnole 2002, R, 115 min. Directed by Cédric Klapisch, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Judith Godrèche, Romain Duris, Audrey Tautou, Kelly Reillym, Cécile De France. With a running time of almost two hours, L’Auberge Espagnole (the title is slang for a “potluck party”) veers between the interminable and the insufferable, with occasional…
Exhibitionism
With tempOdyssey, which follows a temporary office worker named Genny through her first and only day in a new office, Dan Dietz has written an amazing play, and the amazingly talented cast gets this world premiere off to a great start, but an interminable second act makes this voyage one you’ll be glad is over.
Austin @ Large: The Big Mac Attack
The landslide victory of Brewster McCracken may have significantly mixed messages.
Naked City
The battle between Travis Co. District Attorney Ronnie Earle and the Texas Association of Business took another twist on Monday, with two more contempt-of-court charges leveled against T.A.B. employees. As expected, T.A.B. President Bill Hammond and information systems director Don Shelton refused to turn over information to a grand jury investigating the group’s corporate financing…
House of Fools
House of Fools 2002, R, 104 min. Directed by Andrei Konchalovsky, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Yuliya Vysotskaya, Sultan Islamov, Stanislav Varkki, Vladas Bagdonas, Yevgeni Mironov, Yelena Fomina, Marina Politsejmako, Bryan Adams. The esteemed Russian director Andrei Konchalovsky, who made a couple of well-regarded movies (Runaway Train, Shy People) during a sojourn in…
Fixing Up the Fringe
Do it yourself? No way. This is the second in a series of articles by Josh Medsker as he attempts to re-establish a zine library in Austin.
How Can We Miss Them If They Won’t Go Away?
Although the Die is not quite Sine, the buzz is already of a Legislative special session.
Next Edition
For more than 13 years, Flatbed Press has been producing some of the most exquisite collectible prints made by contemporary Texas artists, but these days its owners are starting to plan for a new incarnation of Flatbed that may not include them.
Hollywood Homicide
Hollywood Homicide 2003, PG-13, 111 min. Directed by Ron Shelton, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Harrison Ford, Josh Hartnett, Keith David, Lena Olin, Vyshonne Miller, Master P, Martin Landau, Lolita Davidovich, Bruce Greenwood, Gladys Knight. Good looks can forgive almost anything. Art has proven that point time and again (pretty, dimwitted Christian gets…
Page Two
A short outing this time, because we’ve got a huge batch of letters and want to share them with you. Many of the letters are in favor of the smoking ban, and I think it’s important to let you know how much better and more socially concerned those folks are than the rest of us.…
Seton’s Getting the Kids
The City Council today (Thursday) could give Seton Healthcare Network the final nod to move forward on plans to build a $175 million replacement facility for Children’s Hospital at the former Mueller airport. Last week, Seton officials and supporters rallied support for the project, with little citizen opposition voiced before the council’s first round of…
Technique Made Easy
Think of intaglio as an umbrella word that covers many printmaking techniques that create incised or sunken designs on plates, usually made of copper. Intaglio is a fluid process, where many techniques develop the image on the same plate, each one contributing a different texture or depth. These include etching (using acid to form the…
Rugrats Go Wild
Rugrats Go Wild 2003, PG, 80 min. Directed by Norton Virgien, John Eng, Narrated by , Voices by Chrissie Hynde, E.G. Daily, Nancy Cartwright, Kath Soucie, Cheryl Chase, Tim Curry, Lacey Chabert, Flea, Bruce Willis, Starring . Let’s hear it for cross-product marketing, shall we? Combining two of their brightest animated kids shows (Rugrats and…
After a Fashion
You’ll have to know when to hold ’em at the 10th anniversary of the fabulous VIVA! Las Vegas charity event; Remedy’s love heals; and West Lynn’s local indie retailers could use some of your love now that street construction has finally ended.
Tobacco-Free Triumph Goes Up in Smoke
The smoking ban won’t go into effect until Sept. 1 — which is another way of saying it’s dead.
Naked City
Leaders of the Austin Association of Professional Firefighters and Austin Police Association gathered June 5 to decry potential cuts to the city’s public-safety budget that, they say, could cripple basic services. At issue are potential cost-saving staffing solutions — for the firefighters, a plan to half-staff new “squad” trucks to be deployed in Central Austin…
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
The official state soil of Wisconsin is antigo silt loam, and the official state drink is milk (not beer). Several U.S. states have official state insects and state fossils, but surprisingly, none of these are lawmakers.Some say that if you want to pronounce it correctly, Osama bin Laden’s surname rhymes with “sadden.”The Nina in the…
On Sidewalks, Cap Metro Speeds Past City Hall
Capital Metro improves its reputation with its Community Connections workshops.
Naked City
After 181/2 years, six jobs, and five city managers, Mike Heitz, director of the city’s Watershed Protection and Development Review Dept., is leaving the City Hall roost on Aug. 1. Unlike so many city employees before him, Heitz is not — we repeat, not — headed for a higher-paying job with the Lower Colorado River…
Day Trips
River Road along Texas’ favorite playground is open for business again. The recreation district along the Guadalupe River between Canyon Dam and New Braunfels had been closed for nearly seven months after the summer flood of 2002. The river has been scoured, the outfitters have new equipment, and the water is cold. “This is the…
Sons of Smart Growth
While Naked City has been hearing (and saying) for a while that Smart Growth is dead, it was only last week that City Hall pronounced last rites over Austin’s controversial growth-management and incentive initiative. In briefing the City Council on progress toward a new economic development policy, city planning director Austan Librach noted that the…
Naked City
Citing last week’s abundant rainfall, Whole Foods Market canceled the official groundbreaking ceremony for its new headquarters and flagship store just south of its current location at Sixth and Lamar. Inquiring minds wanted to know: Why not simply rent a tent and some AstroTurf to protect the coifs and couture of attending dignitaries and company…
To Your Health
How can I tell if I have the right balance of calcium and magnesium for me?
McTear Admits Murder, Gets Maximum Sentence
Ortralla Mosley’s killer gets the maximum sentence.
Naked City
“This is a raid on bicycle and pedestrian funds,” cyclist Tommy Eden protested during Monday’s meeting of the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization’s Transportation Policy Board. Eden, who serves on the city’s Urban Transportation Commission, was referring to the CAMPO staff proposal to open up funding that it gets annually from the feds and currently…
About AIDS
The fight to stop the spread of HIV in the United States seems to have stalled out. While improved treatments have reduced the annual number of deaths to about 16,000 and have improved the quality of life for HIV-poz people, the same number of folks as in 1990, about 40,000, are becoming infected each year.…
APD Dispatcher Drug Bust
On June 4, Austin Police Dept. dispatcher Maccabee Memmen was placed on administrative leave without pay after being indicted on federal drug charges. On May 28 a federal grand jury indicted Memmen on three counts, including conspiracy and “possession with intent to distribute” nearly 200 pounds of marijuana. Memmen worked for APD for two years,…
The Hightower Lowdown
Health care fight proves that The People can prevail; and what happened to Ranger George?
Letters at 3AM
Seniors graduate into the world of the Bush junta.
The Backroom Is Open
Under a new law awaiting the governor’s signature, cities will be able to hammer out backroom deals with landowners wanting to develop property within a city’s extraterritorial jurisdiction. So what else is new, you ask? For residents living in Dripping Springs’ sprawling ETJ southwest of Austin, the legislation — HB 1197 — simply legitimizes what…
Outfitting the Stars
It’s all in a name: suiting up the stars at Star Costume and Clothier.
Food-o-File
Virginia B. Wood offers up a little sample of everything in this week’s “Food-o-File.”
DPS Documents: More Questions About Killer-D Manhunt
The back story of the hunt for the House Democrats gets more and more intriguing.
Battle-Ready
This fall, history nerds will have cause to rejoice when the History Channel presents First Invasion: The War of 1812, a collaboration with local post-production facility Match Frame.
Bring on the Birria!
Three recently discovered restaurants are serving up Mexico’s regional specialties.
Another Way
Fastball goes extra innings.
Making Recycling Illegal?
Today (Thursday) the City Council is expected to consider on second (and possibly third) reading a downzoning recommendation that, if left untweaked, might forbid recycling activities at 2416 E. Sixth — current home of Balcones Recycling’s Central Texas operations. The recommendation would add conditions to Balcones’ limited-industrial zoning that could outlaw all uses except light…
‘Banned Toons’ at the Alamo
Kansas City’s Chucky Lou AV Club brings a collection of banned Looney Tunes shorts to the Alamo Drafthouse Downtown.
Second Helpings: A Little Italy, Part 3
“Second Helpings” takes you on a third tour of Italy in Austin.
Phases and Stages
RadioheadHail to the Thief (Capitol) If the evolution of Radiohead hasn’t ceased altogether, then the once-cherished pioneers of modern rock have at least painted themselves into a corner with their sixth studio album. Not without occasional moments of brilliance, Hail to the Thief is nevertheless well-trodden territory for the beloved British quintet. The new songs…
Howard Dean Riles ‘Em Up
A pachanga broke out in East Austin Monday night, as more than 3,000 people turned out at Plaza Saltillo for a rousing Howard Dean for President rally, hosted by the suddenly burgeoning Dean for Texas campaign. Even the Texas campaign coordinator, former state Rep. Glen Maxey, confessed surprise at the large turnout more than a…
Short Cuts
XL ent’s “The 20 Greatest Car Movies of All Time” gets “Short Cuts” all in a tizzy, and an upcoming production from the Wilson brothers.
TCB
This Just In Despite being notoriously hard to reach (just ask my parents), “TCB” continually finds himself inundated by more new music than he knows what to do with. A few recent local highlights: THOSE PEABODYS, Unite Tonight (Tiger Style) SETUP: Austin fourpiece take on the Datsuns with a full tank of FM riffs and…
Phases and Stages
Christopher O’RileyTrue Love Waits: Christopher O’Riley Plays Radiohead (Sony Classical) Seeing how they’re from Oxford, you’d suspect that Radiohead was popular with well-educated types, and in the case of award-winning concert pianist Christopher O’Riley, you’d be right. Transplanting 15 of the enigmatic quintet’s songs from modern rock’s outer limits to solo grand piano, O’Riley translates…
Naked City
Quote of the Week: “It’s clearly a time of searching reappraisals by smart editors and journalists to assess how we do our jobs.” — Statesman Editor Rich Oppel, pulling his chin over The New York Times scandal in remarks dispatched across the globe by the Associated Press. (Note to Rich: While you’re searching, maybe you…
TV Eye
How to resolve conflict? Japanese import Iron Chef has the right idea.
