Cover Story
Snake Charmer
Ray Wylie Hubbard survived the crash, recovered the black box, and continues to fly high and get lowdown with ‘Snake Farm.’
WC Quarterfinal Preview (and Suggested Menu)
Here’s a look at the games in the next couple of days (Friday-Saturday, June 30 and July 1), plus suggested breakfast menus. Friday: 9:45am: Germany-Argentina. These two would probably be favored to go to the finals if they weren’t in the same quarter of the bracket; the winner becomes the favorite to win it all.…
Round of 16 Concludes
Who can tell why, but the pattern of one great game a day, and one disappointing one, held throughout the first knockout round. Italy and Brazil went through as expected, but in contrasting styles, and the best game of the tournament so far was saved for last. Monday: Italy squeaked by Australia, 1-0, on a…
Weekend Update
A couple of crackling games on the afternoons, and a couple of relative duds each morning: Saturday: Germany looked very strong, very comfortable, in taking out Sweden, 2-0. But it’s hard to tell, really, how good they are; they scored twice in the first 12 minutes, and then effectively killed the game; the Swedes never…
Round of 16 Update
Here are the Round of 16 matchups, along with menus for the WC Breakfasts I’m hosting at my house. Drop by! Saturday: 10am: Germany-Sweden. The hosts will be favored, but Sweden is dangerous. Cheeses and sausage of course, and perhaps dueling pancakes; apfelpfannkuchen were a crowd favorite in the first round, and I have some…
Arts Review
There ain’t nothin’ like a ho’-down, and Austin Playhouse’s production of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas draws the audience to her big friendly bosom
Ray Wylie Hubbard Reviewed
Ray Wylie HubbardSnake Farm (Sustain) If Lightnin’ Hopkins met ZZ Top at Gurf Morlix’s house and cut a record, it would sound like Ray Wylie Hubbard’s Snake Farm. Since 2001’s Eternal and Lowdown, Hubbard has worked with Morlix as his producer, and together they’ve made some of the finest music of RWH’s career, imbuing his…
Texas Platters
Left OutDistortion (Lucky Seven) There are few words to describe a local power trio that takes notes from Jerry Cantrell and shot-bar bands. There’s usually an apt guitarist, a funky bass player, and an audaciously whiny singer like Marc Nobles. Not even a production credit by the legendary Terry Manning (ZZ Top) can help Left…
Might as Well Face It
Caveh Zahedi on ‘I Am a Sex Addict’
Readings
Pretty much all the major culture war battlefronts are encapsulated in this very readable primer on the burgeoning Christian political movement in the U.S.
Texas Platters
Dixie ChicksTaking the Long Way (Columbia) The Long Way in the title of the latest from the Dixie Chicks begins with that “little ol’ cowgirl band from Texas” and ends with three strong women with opinions they firmly stand behind. It’s been a mighty journey, and not for the faint-hearted, but the trio’s fourth album…
Texas Platters
Anthony RomeroForest Talks (Contract Killers) Creepy buzz, spine-tingling hiss, and incomprehensible vocalizations. Anthony Romero would be right at home on Kranky Records. Instead, his five-song debut EP follows the breakup of noise band TV Party. Anyone familiar with the creepy drone of indie horror movies or even scary PlayStation games (Silent Hill comes to mind)…
Film News
In Austin and abroad: action
Click
Click is a message movie whose real message isn’t “Stop and Smell the Roses, Jackass,” but “How to Manipulate the Audience in 12 E-Z Steps.”
Readings
The most damning passages in Lapdogs, Eric Boehlert’s indictment of the media’s deference to the Bush administration, don’t spring from the author
Texas Platters
Alvin Patterson Battle of the BandsNelson Field, June 16 High-stepping drum majors led bands from far and wide onto Nelson Field for a Pre-Juneteenth celebration and exhibition of the SWAC style of play. From the moment that the Jackson (MS) All-Star Band sauntered onto the field, it became apparent that their funky break-down of drums…
Downtown’s Tall Order
Where can we put 20,000 new residents?
DVD Watch
Harlan County, USACriterion, $39.95 During the summer of 1973, the men at the Brookside Mine in Harlan, Ky., voted to join the United Mine Workers of America. Duke Power Company refused to sign the contract, and the miners went on strike. Barbara Kopple’s Academy Award-winning documentary follows the miners throughout their 13-monthlong fight for justice.…
Krrish
A sequel to the Bollywood fantasy blockbuster Koi Mil Gaya.
Letters @ 3AM
On this drive, the universe condensed into one word: invitation.
Texas Platters
Peter & the Wolf(Whiskey and Apples) A famous Canadian Zen Buddhist once remarked “There’s a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in,” and the spare strum of L.A. transplant Red Hunter shines through every crack on his latest full-length. With the golden-voiced Dana Falconberry accompanying him, the stark beauty of the like-minded Iron…
Defenseless: TFDP Sues Williamson Co.
Is Williamson County dispensing with defense?
TV Eye
Instant classic?
Wordplay
A documentary about crossword puzzles and their ardent fans, with specific focus on the daily puzzles in The New York Times; their editor, Will Shortz; and the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament.
After a Fashion
You wouldn’t think that an event so oozing with testosterone would displease Stephen so. Well, you’ll just have to read to find out.
Texas Platters
Paul Minor Shadow Figure (Minor Productions/I Eat Records) Like the melancholy musings of an armchair philosopher who likes to sleep in, Shadow Figure is a homey, laid-back life lesson that reveals its wisened charms at a refreshingly unhurried pace. Paul Minor’s decades of musical-man-about-Austindom provide plenty of songwriting grist along with an acoustic ensemble of…
Hoover: Caught in the Flash
Artsy nude photos of teacher took on dramatically different context when viewed through lens of a high school classroom
Watching, Breathing, and Eating the World Cup 2006
The round of 16 means excitement on the pitch and at the table
Sketches of Frank Gehry
The controversial architect is brought into focus by veteran filmmaker Sydney Pollack.
To Your Health
What is the difference between l-glutamine and glutamine, and the same for the other amino acids?
Texas Platters
Maneki Neko Auracle (Stray Pointer) If Brian Eno’s name were switched with Maneki Neko’s in the credits of Auracle, it wouldn’t be noticed. Not because no one’s listening, but rather because the ethereal soundscapes produced by Maneki Neko – the nom de sound of Taylor, Texas’ Al Mikula – parallel Eno’s ambient Thursday Afternoon, Music…
Church Fight
Local atheist activist and Presbyterian pastor team up to challenge conservative wing of church’s hierarchy
Peaceful Warrior
It’s mostly hoo-hah, but there are moments in this New Agey, feel-semi-good crowd-pleaser that rise above and beyond the gymnastics and psychobabble.
The Common Law
Divorce – Let Me (Unfortunately) Count the Ways
Texas Platters
Willie NelsonThe Complete Atlantic Sessions (Rhino/Atlantic) Atlantic Records, which gave the world Ray Charles, the Drifters, and Led Zeppelin, never had much luck with country. Too sophisticated, uptown, and, um, black for Nashville, the pioneering label nevertheless signed Willie Nelson, a refugee from Music City after his wife set fire to his bed with him…
Naked City
Headlines and Happenings from Austin and Beyond
I Am a Sex Addict
If you leave the theatre with that awkward too-much-information feeling after peering into the director’s self-exposed psyche, you will also remember his high-wire act that combines fact and fiction, drama and self-deprecating humor, honesty and self-delusion.
Day Trips
Tolbert’s Restaurant in Grapevine knows chili
Texas Platters
Cat ScientistCicada (Australian Cattle God) There’s way too much yang in the world presently. More yin. In the nick of time comes Austin’s Cat Scientist, whose Rae Craig and Brant Bingamon voice the centrifugal balance down to the decimal point. Tom Tom Club’s Tina Weymouth and Chris Franz got there first, Imperial Teen blew it…
Disaster Fraud
Government Accountability Office releases two reports on FEMA disaster aid payments made in the wake of hurricanes Katrina and Rita
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Deadly doctors and dentists’ drills
Texas Platters
My EducationMoody Dipper (Thirty Ghosts) Essentially a remix disc of songs from last year’s stellar Italian, plus three new songs, Moody Dipper’s heavy on the electro vibe, which adds a nice layer of grime to the local septet’s typically pristine sound. There’s something lurking here, though the new-age chimes of opener “Spirit of Peace,” their…
Hurricane Evacuees Take a Legal Blow
Emergency housing class-action suit against FEMA dismissed
But You Can Win Her Yet
TexARTS revives a classic musical and a big musical theatre dream
Soccer Watch
All the World Cup news that’s fit to print
Texas Platters
Van WilksRunning From Ghosts (Dixiefrog) Embarrassment of riches. That’s Austin’s story when it comes to gifted blues-rock guitarists, and Van Wilks is an easy exemplar. The South Austinite has chops to spare, strumming and soloing around the rock-blues-pop nexus with ease since the Seventies, opening for marquee acts like ZZ Top. In Europe, where this…
Polygamist Prophet Sighting
Warren Jeffs spotted in FLDS stronghold Colorado City, Ariz.
‘Hitten Switches’: Of Communal Recognition
The mail-art collaboration ‘Hitten Switches,’ by Travis Millard and Michael Sieben, is a journal, a two-person diary, an ode to friendship, and a manifestation of a respectful relationship
New and Noteworthy
Peach Creek Farm Berkshire pork
Texas Platters
Roy OrbisonThe Essential Roy Orbison (Monument/Orbison Records/Legacy) The diamond-pure voice from Vernon, Texas, turned heartbreak agony into everlasting ecstasy with early-Sixties classics “Crying,” “Running Scared,” and “It’s Over,” but Roy Orbison matched – nay, transcended – his early sock-hop sorrows with a magnificent late-Eighties comeback that found the Man in Black Glasses paired with ELO…
Bouldin Meadows Update
With lingering 100-year floodplain concerns, Zoning and Platting Commission once again delays decision on the proposed South Austin subdivision
State Theatre
The waters may be gone, but the State Theatre is still sunk in the aftermath of a June 13 water-main break that left the venue’s stage, basement, and four rows of seats inundated
Wine of the Week
Well, whiskey, actually …
Texas Platters
Willie NelsonLive From Austin TX (New West) Kris KristoffersonLive From Austin TX (New West) Sir Douglas QuintetLive From Austin TX (New West) A couple of years ago, when New West began raiding the vaults of Austin City Limits, it was the anticipation of vintage shows such as these from three Texas legends that was truly…
Challenging Lethal Injection
Supreme Court rules death row inmates with no more criminal appeals left may challenge constitutionality of lethal injection method of execution under federal civil rights statutes
Austin Dance
Some Austin dance artists will be getting out of town this summer – way out of town: Innsbruck, Jacob’s Pillow, and Hong Kong – thanks to special invitations
Food-o-File
Tasty travel tips. bocaditos, and more …
Texas Platters
A Pocketful of DengBoxed In A Pocketful of Deng is not god-awful trash rock, as the name implies, but rather an intelligent, diverse, and melodic local rock band whose debut mixes the Talking Heads and Radiohead with more mainstream contemporaries plus a pinch of David Gilmore and Geddy Lee. “Such Magic Potion” opens with calming…
Point Austin: Three Dimensions
When you’re looking for heroes, avoid the usual suspects
TCB
Discussing the joys of Meatjoy with Deadwood’s John Hawkes, a toast to Beerland’s fifth anniversary, and Czeching out faded Western swing great Adolph Hofner
Arts Review
Not everything in Arts on Real’s production of The 24th Day comes together as well as it might, but Tony Piccirillo’s script works quite effectively on the level of human drama
The Lazy Fork
The latest in the Mikeska legacy lives up to the name.
Texas Platters
BlackholicusVariations in Death Minor What bad can be said about twin guitars, classic chug, and songs about lighthouses directing ships through the space-time continuum? Local metal quartet Blackholicus sail bloody seas (“La Fin du Monde”), sheath bloody swords (“Dark Forest”), and conduct a “Rome Symphony,” incorporating RenFair acoustic guitar with prog rock and some Little…
Beside the Point
City Council gets ready to wade in the water (treatment plant)
Arts Review
In his first Austin show, Lubbock’s Joe Romero presents abstract paintings that utilize a variety of colors and patterns to summon forth archaic subjects for the viewer to contemplate
RedBud Bar & Grille
Go for the booze, stay for the food.
Texas Platters
Ghost of the Russian EmpireWith Fiercest Demolition (Thirty Ghosts) Like a Valium-vodka cocktail, local indie fourpiece Ghost of the Russian Empire sedates and excites, their debut EP dancing MBV with the Dandy Warhols in an indecipherable cloud of reverb and fuzz. Brandon Whitten’s voice sends waves of inspiration through a vintage sound, more hum than…
The Hightower Report
Alito Strikes; and Corporatizing The Border
Arts Review
The Carver Museum exhibition “Legacies of Dust” is a vital exploration, through the lens of daughterhood, of how memory functions and how selves are defined out of time, place, history, politics, sexuality, and community
Texas Platters
KVRXLocal Live V.10 KVRX has this live-show format down to a perfect science. Locals like the Arm, Black Angels, Smog, Ethan Azarian, and Bavu Blakes play mano-a-mano with Japan’s Peelander-Z, Minneapolis’ Dosh, San Diego’s Castanets, and Seattle’s Crooked Fingers. Not only is this comp balanced with punk, rock, hip-hop, and ambience, it puts pride in…
Joined in Progress
Three local channels get Austin back with the program – but is anybody watching?
Luv Doc Recommends: Viva Las Vegas
It’s been said that the lottery is a tax on people who are bad at math. True enough. Problem is, some people just feel lucky. Actually, judging by the success of the lottery, a lot of people feel lucky, which is part of the reason so many of them are walking around with sexually transmitted…
