Hey There, It’s Yogi Bear
Hey There, It’s Yogi Bear 1964, G, 84 min. Directed by Joseph Hanna, William Barbera, Voices by Daws Butler, Don Messick. Yogi, Bobo, and Ranger Smith migrate from TV to the big screen.
A Day at the Races
A Day at the Races 1937, NR, 111 min. Directed by Sam Wood, Starring Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, Harpo Marx, Allan Jones, Maureen O’Sullivan, Margaret Dumont. The Marx Brothers get caught up in the mayhem when a sanitorium (directed by a veterinarian played by Groucho) is taken over by a casino.
Exhibitionism
From its annual competition, Austin Script Works has picked eight new 10-minute plays for presentation in the annual Out of Ink Festival, and this year’s crop is outstanding throughout, serving up some fairly serious situations and complex characters treated with sensitivity and not a little humor.
Phases and Stages
Drive-By TruckersDecoration Day (New West) After making their peace with Lynyrd Skynyrd on 2001’s thrilling Southern Rock Opera, Athens, Georgia’s Drive-By Truckers chose a much more formidable task for Decoration Day: coming to terms with their own lives. In doing so, they touch on most of the great Southern themes: family, land, romance, honor, and…
Naked City
Quote of the Week: “There’s never been a pipeline fire in the city of Austin. But there have been deaths from Christmas-tree fires. Maybe we ought to ban Christmas trees.”– Harry Savio of the Home Builders Association of Greater Austin, asking Travis Co. commissioners not to adopt Austin’s “overreaching” pipeline-safety ordinance. The county put off…
Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle
Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle 2003, PG-13, 105 min. Directed by McG, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu, John Forsythe, Bernie Mac, Crispin Glover, Justin Theroux, Demi Moore, Robert Patrick. I’ve always assumed that any film that opens with the line, “Get off the babysitter … Daddy’s home,” must…
Journalist George Crile on His ‘Charlie Wilson’s War’
Journalist George Crile believes that “something about Texas and its oil heritage seems to permit its citizens to reinvent their histories and to carry out their lives as if they were part of an ongoing theatrical experience.” So, how does this relate to legendary Lufkin Congressman Charlie Wilson, the CIA, and Afghanistan?
Phases and Stages
The Allman Brothers BandHittin’ the Note (Peach/Sanctuary) The psilocybin mushrooms pictured on the inside of Hittin’ the Note say it all about the Allman Brothers Band: unhiply hip, unrelentingly Southern, undeterred by death and misfortune, unerring in a love of blues that’s unaffected by 35 years of playing. In their maturity, ABB resembles the big…
Naked City
Gavino Fernandez Jr., leader of the El Concilio coalition of Mexican-American neighborhood associations, is scheduled to appear in District Judge Brenda Kennedy’s courtroom tomorrow (Friday) for a hearing related to his May 22 arrest. Fernandez is charged with possession of a controlled substance (a state-jail felony) and aggravated assault (a second-degree felony); he has spent…
28 Days Later
A zombie picture, with lots of topical updating.
Page Two
Despite the Supreme Court’s recent decision, affirmative action is alive and well — for the dominating elite.
Phases and Stages
The JayhawksRainy Day Music (American) The JayhawksBlue Earth (Restless) For those who discovered the Jayhawks through 2000’s sunny Smile, Rainy Day Music may come as a shock. The dense production is gone, replaced by banjos, accordions, and dulcimers. For the Minneapolis-based band’s longtime fans, this is cause for rejoicing. At long last, the group has…
Naked City
The long-running legal adventures of the Texas Association of Business continued this week, with a state district judge ordering the arrest of two T.A.B. employees and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granting their release the same day. Jack Campbell and Cathy DeWitt were booked (but were spared the cell) for refusing to testify about…
The Eye
The Eye 2002, NR, 99 min. Directed by Oxide Pang, Danny Pang, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Lee Sin-je, Lawrence Chou, Chutcha Rujinanon, Candy Lo, Yut Lai So, Yin Ping Ko. This moody Hong Kong thriller puts a stylish new spin on the old Hands of Orlac horror motif: transplanted body parts causing…
After a Fashion
After this week of making the scene, we’re ready to change the name of this column to “Hob-nobbing the Fashion” or “After the Schmooze …”
Phases and Stages
The New PornographersElectric Version (Matador) A song by the New Pornographers doesn’t so much play as it sparkles and then fades, leaving the kind of impression you get from a Fourth of July firecracker. This makes the Vancouver-based pop band ideal for summer listening, shaping ridiculously infectious hooks around heart-pumping tempos. Their second album, Electric…
Naked City
The Lesbian/Gay Rights Lobby of Texas will hold a rally either today (Thursday) or Monday to either praise or bemoan the U.S. Supreme Court’s imminent ruling on the Texas sodomy law. By the time you read this, the landmark decision may have already been announced. If so, head over to Republic Square Park for a…
Whale Rider
This quietly powerful tale of youthful female empowerment in New Zealand is based on a cornerstone Maori myth.
Day Trips
Lefty Frizzell always claimed Corsicana as his hometown even though his family left East Texas about five months after he was born. Nearly 20 years after the country singer’s death in 1975, the city proudly erected a statue and a small museum in his honor. Frizzell’s music maintains a timelessness, 50 years after it was…
Phases and Stages
GrandaddySumday (V2) Grandaddy’s third full-length is the band’s Dark Side of the Moon, a musical snapshot of postmodern existence in which things are often not what they seem. Sumday kicks off with the explosive “Now It’s On,” seguing into the simultaneously wistful and sly “I’m on Standby,” in which the narrator blames his dysfunction on…
Naked City
“Hopwood is dead,” said UT Law School Associate Dean Douglas Laycock Monday following the announcement of the 5-4 U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding the affirmative-action plan used by the Univ. of Michigan Law School. He referred to the 1996 Hopwood decision of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals that had effectively ended affirmative action at…
Together
Together 2002, PG, 117 min. Directed by Chen Kaige, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Tang Yun, Liu Peiqi, Chen Hong, Wang Zhiwen, Chen Kaige. The latest film by Chen Kaige, the Chinese director of Farewell My Concubine and The Emperor and the Assassin, again confronts issues regarding the history of modern China’s effect…
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Alfred Hitchcock’s last cameo in his last film (Family Plot) is a silhouette through the door of the Registrar of Births and Deaths.The USS Abraham Lincoln’s flight deck has an area of 4.5 acres, and the ship can generate enough electricity for 100,000 homes.M.D. Anderson Cancer Center has tested a “viral smart bomb” therapy that…
Phases and Stages
Palaxy TracksCedarland (Peek-a-Boo) Beneath the piano and cut-up drum tracks, creeps a low monotone: “A stranger in your own town; if everyone knew. …” The voice is Brandon Durham, who shepherded his band Palaxy Tracks to Chicago in 2001, uncertain of his and their place in Austin. “… the real you.” Oh, but we do.…
Naked City
Before a packed house, the city’s Historic Landmarks Commission voted earlier this week to postpone granting a demolition permit on a cluster of four cottages on Washington Square, built in the Thirties by UT’s first athletic director, L. Theo Bellmont. Commissioners got an earful from residents of the surrounding Heritage neighborhood and other citizens who…
Capturing the Friedmans
Capturing the Friedmans 2003, NR, 107 min. Directed by Andrew Jarecki, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . It’s often said that behind the greasepaint smile and comic antics of every clown there lies the soul of a sad, anguished human being. Indeed, this folk observation may be the only truth we know for…
To Your Health
Is coenzyme A similar to coenzyme Q? What good is coenzyme A, and how do we get it?
Phases and Stages
DysrhythmiaPretest (Relapse) Like Vermont’s Cancer Conspiracy, Philly’s Dysrhythmia is an East Coast rock trio who, fighting for consideration in a shrinking-attention-span world, makes wordless music. Medical terms are the foundation for both band names, but comparisons stop there. The Cancer Conspiracy’s broad watercolor brushstrokes contrast to Dysrhythmia’s angular, sometimes steely, flow. On their fifth overall…
Naked City
Loose lips were flapping last week after Mayor Will Wynn’s inaugural bash at La Zona Rosa, when word got out that Amy Rudy — wife of Endeavor Real Estate Group principal Kirk Rudy, of the Domain and Wal-Mart fame — shared some toasty words with Council Member Daryl Slusher. The story goes like this: Apparently…
About AIDS
Want to Help Plan HIV Services? The Austin HIV Planning Council is responsible for planning and for allocating funds for HIV services in the Austin community. This means looking at what programs and services currently exist for people with HIV/AIDS and determining what is needed in the future. Developing this long-range plan is some of…
Here Comes the Neighborhood
Capital Metro, City Hall, and Eastside neighbors come together to share their hopes — and fears — for the Saltillo corridor.
Naked City
Gary Bradley’s legal battle to develop more than 1,300 acres of the old Heep Ranch lost ground last week in a ruling that effectively invalidates the bankrupt developer’s claim to the property. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Frank Monroe determined that subsidiaries of the Lazarus Trust — the centerpiece of the Bradley case — did not have…
Letters at 3AM
Stanley Crawford’s new book, The River in Winter: New and Selected Essays, reminds us that we must all do our part.
Creating a ‘Corridor’
Capital Metro’s redevelopment plans for the Saltillo District would create a gateway and centerpiece for what has already, and rapidly, become a hot stretch of Austin real estate. After decades of neglect of the industrial rail yard, both private and public money is flowing into the corridor — transforming, and at times worrying, the Eastside…
Fun With Carole, Rick, and Greg
The budget standoff provides a snapshot of the new Texas politics.
Second Helpings: Cocktail Spots
For the best cocktail spots, start here.
The Cocktail’s Hour
Wes Marshall explains how to enjoy the resurgence of one of humanity’s great inventions.
Twenty Years of Battle in the Barrio
The two main Eastside neighborhood camps — and other figures on the margins — each try to take the reins of redevelopment.
Austin @ Large: The Real ‘Victim No. 1’
Another summer, another shooting, and a moment of truth for police oversight
TCB
Everybody’s hurtin’ unless they’re on Friendster
Spicy Mexican Cocktails
It is no secret that Mexicans like spicy and sour treats. Our fascination with these flavors also translates to many savory or spicy cocktails, which people enjoy mostly as apéritifs before the main meal in the late afternoon. Unfortunately, not many are available in Austin restaurants on a regular basis, but now that everything Latin…
Enviro Activist Jones Takes On Austin Energy ‘Tree Butchers’
Tim Jones’ complaints about the utility’s brutal tree trimming spawn a new city task force
The Hightower Report
Leave No Hummer Owner Behind; Tax Cheats Get Corporate Welfare
If It’s Summer, It Must Be Shakespeare
Summer is the time for Shakespeare, so naturally here are a couple of the Bard’s plays being staged in the Austin area — Julius Caesar from the Austin Shakespeare Festival and Two Gentlemen of Verona from Different Stages — and directors Paul Norton and Norman Blumensaadt to explain how they came to produce them this…
Best Bar Books
My single favorite bar recipe book is The Craft of the Cocktail by Dale DeGroff (Clarkson N. Potter, $35). DeGroff was the bartender at the Rainbow Room in New York. His book is a bit fussy and old-fashioned, but the information is exactly right. If you are looking for a larger compendium, The Ultimate A-to-Z…
Fuzzy Budget Math at AISD
The latest proposed Austin ISD budget has new millions in found money
They See Dead People, Too
The story of a young blind woman who undergoes a corneal transplant and begins to see visions of the dead, The Eye may sound familiar to fans of The Sixth Sense, but the Pangs’ film is a far more creepy affair than M. Night Shyamalan’s crowd-pleaser.
Life After the Classical Section
For two decades, he was the man Austin turned to when it wanted the best classical music on vinyl or disc, but the closing of Wherehouse Records has left Russell McCulloh with nowhere to sell Bach, Brahms, or Beethoven.
What Makes a Great Bar?
The first prerequisite for a great bar is an owner and staff that are serious about drinks. Beware of a place that tries to distract you from the serious purpose at hand — drinking. While researching this story, I found a bar where all the waitstaff and bartenders were female, young, gorgeous, and wearing tightly…
County Goes Slow on Lowe’s
Shudde Fath to Lowe’s: “Get off of our watershed and find another location.” The stern words of the 80-something environmental matriarch drew applause from audience members and may have even figured into the Travis Co. Commissioners Court’s decision Tuesday to delay action on Lowe’s plans to build a big-box store in a critical water-quality zone…
Short Cuts
Go on and take it: Renée Zellweger to star in and produce Piece of My Heart, the long-awaited Janis Joplin biopic.
Articulations
The UT School of Music hires the Miró Quartet for its new resident string quartet, Charles Leslie succeeds Neil Barclay at the UT PAC, and Don Toner brings back those dead presidents one more time.
Food-o-File
Virginia B. Wood updates us on Alex Kahn and the latest happy hour deal at the Roaring Fork.
Where the (Early Action) Rubber Meets the (Clean Air) Road
Local leaders take the first steps toward real-world solutions to our air-quality problems.
Dead Girl Talking
Showtime approaches the subject of death with Dead Like Me, a new series that moves the focus from those left behind to those dearly departed.
Exhibitionism
Blake Yelavich has transformed another Eastside warehouse into what promises to be a gem of a small theatre for years to come, but his sexual thriller Tricks, with which he opens the new Arts on Real, is much like the as yet unfinished theatre: incomplete.
Burning Brights
Billy and Bryn Bright, yes they do.
Redistricting Hard Ball
It’s full speed ahead for congressional redistricting at the Lege. Field hearings of the House Redistricting Committee — divided into three five-member subcommittees — are being held today (Thursday) in Lubbock, San Antonio, and Brownsville and on Saturday in Dallas, Houston, and Nacogdoches. The special session called by Gov. Rick Perry to address re-redistricting –…
DVD Watch
When so many commentaries these days are gossipy snoozefests, James Cameron’s has just the right amount of chutzpah and showmanship to be well worth listening to.
Exhibitionism
Eggheads pays fond tribute to the cinematic screwball comedies of the 1930s, and though the specific style of those comedies was old decades before the actors in Tongue and Groove Theatre’s production were born, they breezed through it, cracking wise and slinging slang, as nimbly as Busby Berkeley chorines tapping down 42nd Street.
Two High String Band Reviewed
Two High String BandInsofarasmuch (Blue Corn) Acoustic music takes a lot of forms these days. There’s revved-up breakneck bluegrass (Split Lip Rayfield, R.I.P.), Django-style swing (David Grisman), virtuosic neo-jam-band excursions (Nickel Creek), and traditional bluegrass from down in the holler and up on the mountain. In other words, it’s not confined to any one format…
Did APD Review Panel Fumble Sexual Misconduct Complaint?
The Police Monitor’s panel seemingly misses the point of the Lucy Neyens case.
From Justin to Kelly
From Justin to Kelly 2003, PG, 81 min. Directed by Robert Iscove, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Kelly Clarkson, Justin Guarini, Brandon Henschel, Katherine Bailess, Zachary Woodlee. (Random Thoughts While Watching From Justin to Kelly in an Empty Movie Theatre in South Austin …) 1) Justin meets Kelly. Kelly likes Justin. Justin likes…
