Cover Story
The Book on Lance Letscher
What lies behind the buzz of Austin’s hot collage artist
The Rules of the Game
The Rules of the Game 1939, NR, 106 min. D: Jean Renoir; with Renoir, Marcel Dalio, Nora Grégor, Gaston Modot. Renoir’s masterpiece The Rules of the Game, which is always cited on lists of the greatest movies of all times, is nevertheless fortunate to have survived in reasonable enough shape to support this new digital…
The Ghost Breakers
The Ghost Breakers 1940, NR, 85 min. Directed by George Marshall, Starring Bob Hope, Paulette Goddard. Hope and Goddard investigate a haunted Cuban mansion she’s inherited in this comedy spookhouse story.
Nashville
Nashville 1975, R, 159 min. Directed by Robert Altman, Starring Henry Gibson, Karen Black, Keith Carradine, Ronee Blakley, Michael Murphy, Geraldine Chaplin, Lily Tomlin, Ned Beatty, Jeff Goldblum, Gwen Welles. Altman raised the bar with this American tapestry set on the eve of the American Bicentennial. It’s a wonderful examination of a range of American…
Jandek on Corwood
Jandek on Corwood 2003, NR, 89 min. Directed by Chad Freidrichs, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . Houston musician Jandek doesn’t do interviews. He doesn’t appear in public. His entire public persona consists of 35 whispery albums, their 35 grainy covers, and one 1985 interview he recorded before he dropped out of communication…
The Muppets Take Manhattan
The Muppets Take Manhattan 1984, G, 94 min. Directed by Frank Oz, Voices by Frank Oz, Jim Henson, Jerry Nelson, Richard Hunt, Starring Dabney Coleman, Art Carney, James Coco, Joan Rivers. The Muppets storm Broadway for a perfectly charming song-and-dance spectacle.
The Italian Connection
The Italian Connection 1972, R, 92 min. Directed by Fernando Di Leo, Starring Mario Adorf, Henry Silva, Woody Strode, Adolfo Celi. Lots of stylish violence and sleaze reign in this Italian crime film about a shipment of heroin that goes astray between Milan and New York.
‘Books and Parts of Books: 1996-2004’
Lance Letscher’s current retrospective at the Austin Museum of Art is exciting in its breadth and diversity and the sense of possibility those qualities create
Letters at 3AM
It takes fierceness to grow old well
Naked City
Headlines and happenings from Austin and beyond
‘If the Kids Are United …’
The filmmaking wunderkinder of Center for Young Cinema talk shop
New Leader for the Long
Dallas area arts administrator Cliff Redd named executive director of the Long Center for the Performing Arts
The Assimilated Appetite
Does Thai Tara aim to please the American palate at the expense of traditional tastes?
Naked City
Deal brings an end to Sixth Street excessive-force case from 2002
CYC Offers DIY Skate Video Workshop
Skateboarding and videomaking have gone hand in hand since the good old days of the Bones Brigade and Vision videos in the mid-Eighties. Back then, shooting footage of your friends usually meant grabbing your dad’s super-8 camera and sitting beside the back yard half-pipe as the skaters practiced their backward McOllies and shredded perfectly good…
Target Audience, Loaded Images
Denton artist Max Kazemzadeh addresses his Persian heritage and images of violence in the media in a tight little show titled ‘Curious Comforts’ at Studio 107
Liquid Assets
A rosé by any other name …
Naked City
A low-turnout run-off sends off conservative activist Marc Levin
Getting to Know You
East Austin Stories celebrates three years of documenting Eastside lives with a free night of movies and music
Arts Bullets
The ballet’s box office heads downtown, and cabaret artists sing for life
Food-o-File
Kudos to area chefs, a hot new sweet shop to cool Austinites down, and new ownership at Ararat
Naked City
The college’s response to its accreditation crisis leaves many without work
TV Eye
Why The OC rocks and why its many imitators should walk
Exhibitionism
Where Nothing Falls II is a breathtaking, heart-rending parade of bodies in motion through the vast expanses of a warehouse
Everything Must Go
Tower’s last hours
Naked City
Don’t crack jokes about the man! The YCTs will get you!
Short Cuts
South Austin hip video store Pedazo Chunk celebrates its third anniversary with a new store, and it’s time to get soused again with the Drunk Film Festival version 3.0
Exhibitionism
In Austin Museum of Digital Art’s Performance Series 2, three artists sank the mind’s inner core into a calm and melting psychosis
Phases & Stages
WilcoA Ghost Is Born (Nonesuch) Another heartbreaking work of staggering genius from Jeff Tweedy & Co.? Well, no. Being dark and challenging the audience that worshipped you as a “rock” band doesn’t automatically make you brilliant (see Thom Yorke). But Wilco’s A Ghost Is Born is dark, so much so that it makes Yankee Hotel…
Naked City
Nickels and dimes add up to $1.8 million for a cash-strapped city budget
DVD Watch: ‘SCTV Network 90: Volume 1’
SCTV Network 90: Volume 1Shout Factory, $89.99 This is a tough one. If you watched the show, you know. You look at the photo to the right, I tell you it’s finally available on video after some 20 years, and what more is there to say? And if you never saw it … well, words…
Exhibitionism
In producing Wallace Shawn’s The Fever, Physical Plant Theater issues a call to think, from your car radio, and it’s worth heeding
Phases & Stages
Vic ChesnuttLittle (New West) Vic ChesnuttWest of Rome (New West) Vic ChesnuttDrunk (New West)Vic ChesnuttIs the Actor Happy? (New West) In the overpopulated realm of singer-songwriters, Vic Chesnutt either leaves you searching for superlatives or scratching your head in wonder. One thing is indisputable, however: he blends folk, country, and rock & roll into his…
Naked City
The court also upholds laws requiring you to give your name to police
DVD Watch: ‘The Leopard’
Criterion releases a three-disc restoration project of Visconti’s regal The Leopard
In Person
“He’s so short,” whispered the woman standing next to me, eyeing the much-celebrated humorist David Sedaris during last week’s reading at BookPeople
Phases & Stages
Pan sonicKesto (234.48:4) (Mute/Blast First) Back when rock and power electronics first collided in the demolition laboratories of industrial pioneers Cabaret Voltaire, Throbbing Gristle, and Whitehouse, there was no music more visceral or shocking (literally). Two decades hence, hordes of faceless laptop mechanics have reduced electronic music into a near-mathematical competition of approximate, sample, and…
Naked City
The LCRA shuts down – again – the controversial West Cypress Hills project
DVD Watch: ‘Scenes From a Marriage’
After Bergman’s marriage-is-hell miniseries premiered in the Seventies, appointments for family counseling in Sweden increased, and the divorce rate swelled in Denmark
Page Two
Understanding the Iraq invasion the Socratic way
Phases & Stages
Sonic YouthSonic Nurse (Geffen)Sonic YouthCorporate Ghost DVD (Universal) Welcome to the sonic nursing home for eternal youth. It’s not like any old folks home you’ll find. The Youth’s umpteenth Geffen LP after umpteen indie releases finds the NYC institution knocking on 50’s door with a battering ram. Two years after Murray Street, a full-shredding return…
Naked City
Despite the Rick-overy, the state tells its agencies to do more with less
After a Fashion
Burying Reagan and ‘Mommy Dearest.’ Kind of like chocolate and peanut butter.
Phases & Stages
Marah20,000 Streets Under the Sky (Yep Roc) The raggedy man romanticism of Philly’s Bielanko brothers is pure Asbury Park, N.J. Three lines into 20,000 Streets Under the Sky, the pair’s fourth LP under the Marah moniker, and Camden’s already been name-checked. Saying these wild and not-so-innocent boys traffic in Springsteen is a misnomer only in…
Naked City
Tunnel project may be more expensive, less lucrative than once thought
Napoleon Dynamite
Indie film about teenage dork celebrates the youthful underdog.
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Horseshit, oarfish, toothpaste, cheese spread, and mouse traps
Phases & Stages
Gretchen WilsonHere for the Party (Epic)Avril LavigneUnder My Skin (Arista) “It’s really just about being proud of who you are!” So says 31-year-old Illinoisan Gretchen Wilson, who’s bowled over Nashville with her rowdy, straight-talking smash “Redneck Woman.” She “ain’t no high-class broad,” prefers Wal-Mart lingerie to Victoria’s Secret, and, God love her, can recite the…
Naked City
Withhold federal money until police resolve race crisis, group demands
Baadasssss!
Melvin Van Peebles’ son Mario pays tribute to his groundbreaking film Sweet Sweetback’s Baad Asssss Song, and also settles a few old Oedipal scores along the way.
Soccer Watch
Giants fall in Europe; and the U.S. advances with a whimper
Spotting the Rare Cheap Rental
The history and habits of a not-quite-extinct-yet Austin species
Naked City
Before it’s a great street, it’ll be a torn-up street. Prepare accordingly.
White Chicks
Wayans brothers’ comedy depends on latex and whitewash.
To Your Health
Without doubt, the best way to live a long, healthy life is by keeping yourself physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually fit
Will There Finally Be a Mala Sangre Trial?
The city loses another bid to have the APD corruption case dismissed
The Posse Convenes
In Houston, Texas Democrats unite behind one cause: dumping Bush
Two Brothers
Two tiger cubs separated during infancy are cast to the winds of fate in French-occupied Indochina.
Second Helpings
Amy’s Ice Creams Various locations This quintessentially Austin institution dominates the local ice cream scene, and with seven shops, Amy’s is just a few minutes away from any neighborhood. You’ll find them all serving up the same comic wit and irreverence alongside the luscious, high-butterfat scoops of ice cream that have made Amy’s a favorite.…
The Common Law
Can businesses use metered parking as valet parking?
Mala Sangre Timeline
1995: The joint narcotics task force investigation code-named Mala Sangre (“Bad Blood”) commences. 1997: Five Mala Sangre investigators allege that they were reassigned, and the probe effectively shut down, once they uncovered evidence of involvement in narcotics trafficking, and then subsequent cover-ups, by APD officers. They file whistle-blower suits, which are eventually settled by the…
Austin @ Large: The Metro Message
In the much-seen, much-discussed Capital Metro “outreach” ad featuring Willie Nelson, the only bus in sight is the music legend’s personal home-on-wheels. Stuck in traffic. Likewise with the other spots in the transit authority’s campaign – oops, “outreach effort” – featuring Austin music stars. They talk about traffic and air quality, but they say nothing…
The Notebook
The love sap flows freely in this movie romance told in retrospect.
TCB
The Austin Music Co-op wants to give local musicians a break, but since they serve food, you can’t smoke there
Day Trips
The Cross Timbers Hiking Trail meanders along the south bank of Lake Texoma as if it were following a serpent’s path
Remembering Ruthe Winegarten
Author and activist changed Texas history – literally
The Hightower Report
National political conventions: bought and paid for; and vets need Bush to put the money where his mouth is
Fahrenheit 9/11
Michael Moore’s agitprop is a political scorcher.
About AIDS
Some of the most devastating symptoms of AIDS – and the side effects of HIV medications – can be significantly alleviated by marijuana. (Ditto for glaucoma, cancer, MS, epilepsy, and chronic pain.) Clinical studies demonstrate its effectiveness, and 73% of Americans (Gallup) support legal availability. Unfortunately, its use risks landing the user in jail. Texans…
Woes for Lowe’s
The big-bad big box gets stuffed – twice – in court
The Kids Stay in the Pictures
When the Cinemaker Co-op and the Center for Young Cinema combined to make the Motion Media Arts Center, at least one thing stayed the same: the importance of kids
Luv Doc Recommends: Movies in the Park
Waterloo Park isn’t just a bunch of sunburned, shirtless, barefoot guys in beer-stained denim cutoffs playing Frisbee with dogs wearing bandanas. Admittedly it can seem like that at times, but if you really crunch the numbers, the dog-in-the-bandana crowd is just a drop in the statistical bucket. Besides, who in their right mind would argue…
