Near Dark
Near Dark 1987, R, 95 min. D: Kathryn Bigelow; with Adrian Pasdar, Jenny Wright, Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton. Near Dark is the third film directed by Kathryn Bigelow, although the first one to gain wide attention. It’s a smart, creepy, violent, funny, and modern vampire movie that benefits from some wonderful performances, a stunning visual…
Meet Me in St. Louis
Meet Me in St. Louis 1944, NR, 113 min. Directed by Vincente Minnelli, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Judy Garland, Margaret O’Brien, Mary Astor, Lucille Bremer. Set during the St. Louis World’s Fair of 1904, this musical is heavy on the Americana but loaded with great songs and performances. Margaret O’Brien received a…
M*A*S*H
M*A*S*H 1970, PG-13, 116 min. Directed by Robert Altman, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould, Tom Skerritt, Sally Kellerman. Altman’s irreverent portrait of a Korean War medical unit inspired the TV show and was the director’s first certifiable hit. Originally, the film was released with an R rating.
Stalag 17
Stalag 17 1953, NR, 120 min. Directed by Billy Wilder, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring William Holden, Don Taylor, Otto Preminger, Robert Strauss, Harvey Lembeck, Peter Graves. Wilder depicts life in a World War II POW camp, with Holden as the cynical sergeant (a role for which he won an Oscar) and Preminger…
Marius
Marius 1931, NR, 125 min. Directed by Alexander Korda, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Raimu, Pierre Fresnay, Charpin, Alida Rouffe, Orane Demazis. Part of a trilogy with Fanny and Cesar, the French classic satirizes life in the provinces. Marcel Pagnol wrote the screenplay.
Slacker: A Ten-Year Reunion
Slacker: A Ten-Year Reunion R, 97 min. Directed by Richard Linklater, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring A Cast Of Hundreds. To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the release of Slacker, all the old cast and crew members have been invited to turn out for the special Austin screening of a newly struck print.…
Sarah Bird Reviewed
The Yokota Officers ClubA Novel by Sarah Bird Knopf, 376 pp., $23 In the Root family — an Air Force family — everyone has a special talent. Twelve-year-old Buzz is able to place his ankles behind his head and walk on his hands; his twin brother Abner can “do his age times one hundred in…
Crying in the Chapel
The Texas Hill Country features an unexpected wonder: The Most Holy Theotokos of New Sarov sheds tears of myrrh at Christ of the Hills Monastery in Blanco
Naked City
Headlines from the president’s European tour often conflict with the Austin American-Statesman’s gentle treatment.
Postscripts
Trust Us, We’re Experts!: How Industry Manipulates Science and Gambles With Your Future looks like it’s good for you. But it’s not a didactic or joyless read. John Stauber, the book’s co-author, will be at BookPeople on Monday, June 25, at 7pm.
Red River Valley
Red River, home to Austin’s real live music venues
Naked City
Following a vote by the conference of Catholic Bishops to include many reproductive services in its list of “intrinsically immoral” practices, Seton Health Care Services says it will have to re-negotiate its lease with the city for Brackenridge Hospital, which currently contracts out such services.
Readings
Killing Pablo The Hunt for the World’s Greatest Outlaw by Mark Bowden Atlantic Monthly Press, 296 pp., $25 Killing Pablo is the perfect showcase for veteran investigative reporter Mark Bowden (Bringing the Heat, Black Hawk Down) to resuscitate a story often dulled-down by the U.S. media to a case of good vs. evil. This fascinating…
Charity Begins at Home
The gospel music and charitable concern of the Imperial Golden Crown Harmonizers
The Hightower Lowdown
ZapMe!’s snooping on kids, downsizing hurts the boss too, and Fleet Bank’s fleeting sympathies
Readings
Life After Death A Novel by Carol Muske-Dukes Random House, 275 pp., $23.95 Carol Muske-Duke’s third novel (she is also well-known as the author of six books of poetry) takes an unusually composed look at death — composed both in the sense of being calm and unsentimental, and also as in a salade composée: an…
Dancing About Architecture
The Return of the Butthole Surfers and the christening of Beerland
Capitol Chronicle
Bush brings smog to Europe, and Rich Oppel blows smoke.
Readings
Visible Spirits A Novel by Steve Yarbrough Knopf, 288 pp., $23 If you read one good novel set in Mississippi this summer, read the posthumously published Taps by Willie Morris. If you read two, pick up Steve Yarbrough’s Visible Spirits. Novels set in Mississippi invite comparison. The godlike Faulkner aside, there are also fine contemporary…
Live Shots
ColdplayThe Backyard, June 11 Five years from now, Coldplay will either be selling out arenas or rank among the decade’s great could’ve-beens. But never mind the future, because for 75 minutes at the Backyard, the London quartet was by turns luscious, brooding, majestic, despondent, a bit irked, and when they broke into — of all…
Light It Up
Director Lizzie Borden revisits her incendiary 1983 feminist classic, Born in Flames, showing as part of the Austin Film Society’s series “Dance, Girl, Dance: Women Directors of the 70s and 80s.”
The Anniversary Party
The Anniversary Party 2001, R, 115 min. Directed by Alan Cumming, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Cumming, Leigh, Phoebe Cates, Kevin Kline, Gwyneth Paltrow, Denis O’Hare, Mina Badie, Jane Adams, John C. Reilly, Parker Posey. Critics tend to get a little suspicious whenever entertainers try to break out of their…
Local Bestsellers
Local bestsellers are based on recent sales at Austin bookstores selected to reflect varied reading interests.
Live Shots
Tortoise, Mouse on MarsStubb’s, June 12 Everything stopped except the ping-pang of the mallets. A storm of crystal droplets emanated from the vibes onstage as Tortoise’s John McEntire and John Herndon went tête-à-tête during the storied Chicagoans’ trademark “Djed,” producing a grand metronomic symphony. The sky itself seemed to feel the natural beauty of the…
Their Gay Movies
The Austin Gay and Lesbian International Film Festival presents the First Annual My Gay Movie Challenge, a call for amateur movies with a queer sensibility.
The Fast and the Furious
The Fast and the Furious 2001, PG-13, 101 min. D: Rob Cohen; with Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster, Michelle Rodriguez, Rick Yune. The Fast and the Furious has cult movie scrawled all over it. From top to bottom it’s pure, unadulterated teen exploitation filmmaking at its best — a heady, rocketing blast of fast…
Page Two
The FCC legalizes microradio, then regulates it out of existence. The forced demise of public access radio.
Live Shots
Mastica Empanada Parlour, June 13 Three’s a good number for Mastica: The local outfit has three founding members; their set featured three guest musicians, they occupied one of Empanada Parlour’s three stages; and during their 12-song, 90-minute set, it seemed like each member played three instruments. “Where are those chewy people?,” asked the group’s bassist/singer…
Short Cuts
Two don’t-miss documentaries, works in progress at AIFV, and the Alamo makes it impossible for you to forget it.
Public Notice
Check out ways to help the Houston flood victims, get a free HIV test, and find out what’s up this week in Pride.
Live Shots
AIRLa Zona Rosa, June 15 We are the synchronizers! We are electronic performers! BPM controls your heartbeats! And control they did. Franco-stylers Air exploded with the first track from their new 10,000 Hz Legend, “Electronic Performers,” a track that served not only as manifesto and exposition, but as synchronization for the audience’s collective lub-dub. The…
Video Reviews
Intern isn’t a particularly deep movie, but, to paraphrase Karl Lagerfeld, fashion is not the same thing as feeding the hungry and curing the ill.
Letters at 3AM
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon asks whether we�re really living � and if not, why not?
Live Shots
RadioheadCynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, The Woodlands, Texas, June 18 This had to be the most anticipated show in recent memory. Sure enough, the ticket said Radiohead, but which Radiohead would it be? The forlorn melodicists who produced two of the Nineties’ most indelible albums in The Bends and OK Computer, or the anti-pop terrorists responsible…
Video Reviews
The Cycle SavagesD: Bill Brame (1969); with Bruce Dern, Gary Littlejohn, Scott Brady, Steve Brodie, Chris Robinson, Melody Patterson, Tom Daly. The biker movie was an incredibly popular exploitation genre in the late Sixties and early Seventies. Watch The Cycle Savages and listen closely: You’ll hear the sound of barrels being scraped. Keeg (Dern) is…
Culinary News in Austin Area High Schools
For most of the past 200 years, there was one path to becoming a chef, Chronicle Cuisines writer Mick Vann observes. Young European men apprenticed themselves as teenagers and learned the culinary arts from the ground up. But with the advent of cooking schools, the role of chef has been legitimized into a respected profession,…
Day Trips
North Texas’ Lake Texoma is about more than just fishing for stripers.
The Death and Life of Free Radio
Austin microradio lived fast and died young — can the movement live to broadcast another day?
Video Reviews
Mary Harron’s film adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’ novel, American Psycho, frequently hits the mark, thanks to leading man Christian Bale.
Second Helpings: Gourmet Takeout
Gourmet takeout in this week’s “Second Helpings”
After a Fashion
Our Style Avatar gets a personal tune-up at Lakeline Plaza’s Ulta salon.
Preachers and Pirates
The FCC proposes LPFM stations as an alternative to microradio, but that political process also generates static.
TV Eye
“TV Eye” delivers the skinny on the (mostly unimpressive) summer season debuts.
The Art of Parenting With Art
Trying to find ways to make art while sustaining a family is no easy road.
Mr. Smarty Pants
Bits of dark matter to keep your infoverse humming right along.
Microradio Contacts
A list of Web sites and information contacts on microradio
Calle 54
Superstars of Latin jazz are captured as they perform in the studio.
Articulations
News of the death of longtime Austin actress Judi Sklar Becker and the birth of a new era at Hyde Park Theatre, with Ken Webster as Producing Artistic Director, Subterranean Theatre Company as producing company in residence, and Austin Script Works as a producing partner for FronteraFest.
To Your Health
Now that I am pregnant, my mother-in-law is very concerned about the vitamin A in a multivitamin I have used for years. Am I endangering my baby?
Neighborhood Bankers or International Big Shots?
Laredo National Bank opens a branch in Austin, trailing a big fine and a clouded political and financial history.
Dr. Dolittle 2
Dr. Dolittle 2 2001, PG, 88 min. Directed by Steve Carr, Narrated by , Voices by Norm McDonald, Lisa Kudrow, Steve Zahn, Kevin Pollak, Starring Eddie Murphy, Kristen Wilson, Raven-Symoné, Jeffrey Jones, Lil’ Zane, Andy Richter. I missed out on Murphy’s previous outing as the eponymous Dr. D., though if this bland, cookie-cutter sequel is…
Exhibitionism
It might be hard to imagine that a story about a man who breaks wind for fame and fortune could be called “sweet,” but Tongue and Groove Theatre’s original musical Le Petomane: Anatomy of a Fartiste, about the extraordinary French vaudevillian Joseph Pujol, combines good humor, fun song, bawdy dance, and just enough ribaldry to…
About AIDS
National HIV Testing Day
Naked City
If you see someone scribbling notes in front of your house in the next few weeks, don’t call the police. It might just be a News 8 Austin employee checking to see if you, like so many other Austinites, have made the switch to a digital satellite system. Employees will be paid to provide satellite…
Himalaya
Himalaya 1999, NR, 104 min. Directed by Eric Valli, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Karma Tensing, Gurgon Kyap, Lhapka Tsamchoe, Karma Wangiel, Thilen Lhondup, Nyima Lama. Filmed by a French crew, but acted by mostly nonprofessional locals (and subtitled in English), Himalaya was the first-ever Nepalese entry for an Academy Award for Best…
Exhibitionism
Capturing the creepy power and tone of Franz Kafka’s novella The Metamorphosis, in which a man awakes one morning to find himself turned into a giant beetle, in a stage production may be as difficult as capturing the rare Megolaponera foetens. Still, the Refraction Arts / Public Domain co-production of The Metamorphosis is a valiant…
Coach’s Corner
It’s wedding day for Coach’s old fraternity pal, Dunn, in the swamps of Louisiana.
Naked City
US Rep. Lloyd Doggett’s request to turn acres of green space along Bull Creek into a subdivision gets postponed by the Planning Commission when city staff have more questions than Doggett can answer.
How to Be a Popular Girl
What will shy novelist Sarah Bird do now that she’s back in the limelight, Dick Holland asks in this profile of the author of The Yokota Officers Club.
Food-o-File
Things used to slow down here in the summer, but it looks like June could be the busiest month of the year for Austin-area chefs.
Naked City
Developers float a proposal to reduce the size of the Green Water Treatment Plant on Town Lake and build something more profitable there, but they’ll have to get in line — the city already sees the site as a prime location for the new central library.
