East Austin Videos
East Austin Videos NR. Directed by Various, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . Each semester the students in Andy Garrison’s East Austin Documentary Project at UT research and produce videos from and about East Austin. This third semester’s videos include profiles of bluesman Clarence Pierce of the Eastside Kings; Mrs. Robinson, a neighborhood…
The Red and the White
The Red and the White 1967, NR, 90 min. Directed by Miklos Jancso, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Jacint Junasz, Andras Kozak, Tibor Molnar, Jozsef Madaras. Jancso’s formal stunner, although concerned with a specific time in Hungarian history, is also a universal story about war, the human patterns of power and submission, and…
Cinemaker Co-Op & SXSW Trailer Festival
Cinemaker Co-Op & SXSW Trailer Festival NR. Directed by Various, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . The gang at the Cinemaker Co-op challenged their membership to make some trailers for the SXSW Film Festival 2002 that were as good as the ones screened in 2001 (viewable online at www.sxsw.com/coverage2002/burgerhut.php/. The results of these…
Paradise
Ten years after Gravity, Alejandro Escovedo finds his “Paradise.”
A Mall to Bee?
There were no surprises in Bee Cave Tuesday night: Local residents packed the house to speak against a proposed $250 million shopping mall, and the village aldermen gave it their unanimous approval. But winning the board’s vote on the Hill Country Galleria was only half the fun for developer Chris Milam. He’s now under the…
TV Eye
Good riddance to Bill Maher, with reservations.
Coming Home
Steve Balgooyen knows the Vietnam War drama Tracers quite well, having been involved in five different productions, and he hopes the sixth, which he’s staging at St. Edward’s University, will bring the stories of Vietnam to still more audiences and perhaps heal some of the wounds it has left.
APA Feels Kneed to Respond
Last Friday at high noon, APD Chief Stan Knee received a hand-delivered letter from the Austin Police Association condemning his recent decision to reassign APA President Mike Sheffield off full-time union duty and into a part-time assignment in the Sexual Offender Apprehension and Registration Unit. The shift means Sheffield is now splitting time between SOAR…
Video 101
There’s more than a Depression-era dime’s worth of hokum in this story of a country bumpkin who inherits millions, then has his worm bitten in the Big Bad Apple, but at least it’s Capra-corn.
Ah, Sweet Air!
In July, there may be no real way to beat the heat, but listening to the strains of a Haydn string quartet or a Dvorak serenade can go a long way toward cooling one’s fevered brain (or at least taking your mind off the weather). For the next three weeks, the Austin Chamber Music Festival…
Dancing About Architecture
Goodbye to the Hole, hello Trail of Dead. Imus falls for the Flatlanders.
Dollars for Charters
The Dallas Morning News reported last week that while there still aren’t many charter schools overall in Texas, the Texas Education Agency is doing its financial best to shore up the numbers. Reporter Terrence Stutz’s lead is a stunner: “Charter schools in Texas have captured nearly 40% of the funds in a new $72 million…
Articulations
People and organizations on the move: KMFA and the Austin Circle of Theatres look for new homes, and Austin Theatre Alliance CEO Dan Fallon and KMFA Director of Broadcast Operations Randy Harriman leave their respective companies.
Honky if You Like Pussy
Jeff Pinkus and Co. hook up with their Nashville brethren and Rev. Horton Heat for a butt rockin’ tour of the Western and Midwestern U.S.
APD Looks North
On June 20, APD Chief Stan Knee said department officials will travel to Tennessee within the next two months to learn about the exemplary crisis intervention program run by the Memphis Police Dept. The announcement came during a noon press conference, held just one week after officers responding to a disturbance call in East Austin…
True Crime?
Why is the Austin American-Statesman in touch with the lawyers for Holtzbrinck Publishers Holdings and its subsidiary Holt, publisher of the critically acclaimed A Death in Texas?
Phases and Stages
David BowieHeathen (Columbia) It’s been exactly three decades (give or take a week or two) since Ziggy Stardust & the Spiders from Mars released their eponymous debut LP with a little assist from longtime pal Bowie. Fitting, then, that Heathen features a cover of the Legendary Stardust Cowboy’s “I Took a Trip on a Gemini…
Here Comes the Gas
Attorneys for the city of Austin, two landowners, and the Barton Springs Edwards Aquifer Conservation District will present arguments in federal court next month in the long-running legal battle against the Longhorn Pipeline. U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks has set a hearing date for 2pm, July 12. The plaintiffs are asking the court to set…
Readings
The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuqueby Jeffrey Ford William Morrow, 310 pp., $24.95 The toast of turn-of-the-century New York society, Piambo is a portraitist of extraordinary skill who seeks to escape the mundane world of the rich. He wishes the freedom to create a masterpiece worthy of his abilities. Then, the opportunity of a lifetime presents…
Phases and Stages
WeezerMaladroit (Geffen) The 2001 comeback kids follow up their buoyant “Green Album” with an album that’s likely to make lead Weezer Rivers Cuomo the first-ever arena-rock frontman with a crippling case of Social Anxiety Disorder. Cuomo’s romantic difficulties are well documented on, well, every other Weezer album, and Maladroit (note the title) is no different,…
Volunteers for Texas?
Official state budget estimates project a $5 billion shortfall for the next biennium — although with sales tax revenues teetering and other factors, some believe Texas may be closer to $8 billion in the hole when the Lege gets down to business next year. Essential programs like health care and education are already shortchanged, and…
Juwanna Mann
Juwanna Mann 2002, PG-13, 91 min. Directed by Jesse Vaughan, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Miguel Nuñez Jr., Kim Wayans, Tommy Davidson, Vivica A. Fox, Lil’ Kim. Point to ponder next time you spot a couple of homeless dudes behind a Minit Mart dumpster express-laning it to oblivion with a jug of cheap…
Page Two
There’s a lot of really great stuff in this issue, from Raoul Hernandez’s great story of Alejandro Escovedo’s ambitious performance piece “By the Hand of the Father” and a pair of controversial arts pieces to Mick Vann’s treatise on authentic Thai food, Mike Clark-Madison’s bracing look at a troubled Eastside school, and a flurry of…
Phases and Stages
Depeche ModeOne Night in Paris (Mute/Hip-O) Image and fashion have always been integral elements of Depeche Mode — French for “fast fashion” — and the band’s longtime friend, photographer, and video director Anton Corbijn is a huge reason why. Corbijn has worked with acts ranging from Bryan Adams to Bauhaus, but it’s his work with…
Ecology Action Bouncing Back
Ecology Action of Texas recently received some rare good news: The city awarded it a special contract providing roughly $85,000 in reimbursements for operating expenses this year. The money is a further sign that the 30-year-old recycling group — which runs a processing center in Austin and four rural drop-off stations in the Hill Country…
Mr. Deeds
Mr. Deeds 2002, PG-13, 96 min. Directed by Steven Brill, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Adam Sandler, Winona Ryder, Peter Gallagher, Jared Harris, John Turturro, Erick Avari, Conchata Ferrell, Harve Presnell. One needn’t be a fan of Frank Capra — the widely revered director who won his second Oscar for his direction in…
Mr. Smarty Pants
“Mrs.” is not an abbreviation for “missus,” as it is pronounced, but for “mistress.”A recent study presented to the Pediatric Academic Societies shows that three-fourths of the children brought to U.S. emergency rooms for routine medical care — mostly inner-city children — showed some signs of an undiagnosed mental disorder.According to one source, the song…
Phases and Stages
Castles Made of Sound: The Story of Gil Evans By Larry Hicock Da Capo Press, 288pp., $25 If you’re at all familiar with Gil Evans it’s probably via his extraordinary triumvirate of collaborative, late-Fifties albums with Miles Davis, Miles Ahead, Porgy & Bess, and Sketches of Spain. With the simple declaration “arranged and conducted by…
Back on the Dais
The City Council convenes today (Thursday) for the first time in more than a month, with new Council Member Betty Dunkerley making her debut. The agenda is long, long, long, but expect lots of postponements. Among the highlights: Stratus, Stratus, Stratus: Repeat 12 more times, because there are 15 separate Stratus zoning cases (including the…
The Salton Sea
The Salton Sea 2002, R, 103 min. Directed by D.J. Caruso, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Louis Guzman, Deborah Kara Unger, Doug Hutchison, Anthony Lapaglia, Peter Sarsgaard, Vincent D’Onofrio, Val Kilmer. The first of two new films about the extremely seedy underworld of the methamphetamine addict to hit theatres this summer (the other…
Day Trips
Check out the new poisonous fish exhibit at Fair Park in Dallas. Just don’t touch!
Phases and Stages
Portishead Roseland New York (Island) Watching and listening to this five-year-old Portishead performance from the fabled Roseland ballroom in NYC is an awful lot like watching them live anywhere, which is either good or bad depending on your idea of what a live performance should be. There’s little to no variation in the trip-hoppy beats…
Cruel and Unusual
Even small victories against tyranny need to be celebrated, so last week’s 6-3 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, declaring the execution of mentally retarded prisoners unconstitutional, must be acknowledged as one small step for the court, one great leap for humankind. The majority considered the “evolving standards of decency” which define what sort of punishment is…
Dagon
This H.P. Lovecraft-inspired fish story is so extreme that it borders on camp.
To Your Health
I don’t know whether to be worried about genetically modified food or not. Should I be, and if so why?
Loving and Fighting
A history of struggle at Blackshear Elementary
Austin @ Large: Canary in the Data Mine
Profile of the 2002 Central Texas Sustainability Indicators Project
The Lady and the Duke
The Lady and the Duke 2001, NR, 129 min. Directed by Eric Rohmer, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Lucy Russell, Jean-Claude Dreyfus, Francois Marthouret, Leonard Cobiant, Caroline Morin. Of particular interest to Rohmer fans only, this stylistic experiment by the 82-year-old director of Claire’s Knee and Chloe in the Afternoon is gorgeous to…
After a Fashion
Follow Style Avatar Stephen as he follows Amy & Christina from Vylette on their fabulous NYC fashion buying trip!
Time to Buy that Bike!
As it has for nearly two decades, the Texas Transportation Institute’s Urban Mobility Study welcomed summer with unsurprising findings: Traffic congestion is growing everywhere and costs Americans a lot of money. The UMS, known for telling just how long the average person is stuck in traffic, tracks 75 U.S. cities, and Austin is mediocre at…
The Hightower Report
The Business Roundtable fights for CEOs’ rights to rip off stockholders; Bushites fight for more bureaucracy and big government; and Tom DeLay fights for the rich.
Time Out (L’emploi Du Temps)
Time Out (L’emploi Du Temps) 2001, PG-13, 134 min. Directed by Laurent Cantet, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Aurelien Recoing, Karin Viard, Serge Livrozet, Jean-Pierre Mangeot, Nicolas Kalsch. Quaffing coffee and clutching his cell phone, French salaryman Vincent (Recoing) rattles off his plans for the day to wife Muriel (Viard): meeting after meeting,…
About AIDS
Transmitting HIV: “I didn’t think I could be the one!” A middle school class in Michigan recently discovered in a science experiment how easy it is to spread “it” without being aware that one is doing so. The experiment showed that student Mike Barnes had spread “it” to 64% of his classmates. Fortunately, “it” in…
Bare-Bones Blanton
The economic downturn hits the world of art museums, including UT’s Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art.
Stuart Bloody Stuart
Filmmaker Stuart Gordon hits the Alamo with his latest H.P. Lovecraft adaptation.
Second Helpings: Ice Cream
Hurry, before it melts! Erin Mosow chills out at local ice creameries in this week’s “Second Helpings.”
Coach’s Corner
Attending an Astros game with the wife, in the sterility of the new Minute Maid Park, is an iffy proposition. But with the help of a friendly scalper and a lot of Shiner Bock, it’s not half bad.
Midwives on the Move
Local midwives pressure hospitals to continue midwifery programs.
‘Flesh’ Parade
The Dobie screens the X-rated director’s cut of Seventies Flash Gordon parody Flesh Gordon at midnight.
Letters at 3AM
With inaction, inattention, cowardice, and stupidity, Americans are watching tyranny take shape in plain sight before our eyes, while the overwhelming majority say and do nothing.
Knee-Deep in Hot Water
A retired investigator testifies that APD might engage in selective prosecution.
‘Neverwinter Nights’
A revolutionary new RPG freezes out the competition.
A Cook’s Tour
You just had to be there: The Chronicle’s Mick Vann compasses the cuisine of Thailand, in Bangkok and beyond.
SOS Sues Over Stratus Plan
Stratus Properties plans to develop 1,253 acres in the Barton Springs watershed, but the Save Our Springs Alliance believes state law prohibits their lofty plans.
On the Web
Look what the Web coughed up: a Web site review
Food-o-File
Food Editor Virginia B. Wood plates up the news that’s good for you in this week’s “Food-o-File.”
Naked City
Off the DeskThe “It’s Official” Section: TxDOT has inked a $1.4 billion deal with Lone Star Infrastructure (a consortium led by Fluor Daniel) to design and build State Highway 130. Former UT provost Mark Yudof has inked his deal to come back to Austin to be UT System chancellor. (Among the first items on his…
Short Cuts
Tim League says “blow me!” with his brand-new, German-imported, inflatable screen; plus, The Sixth Sense‘s Haley Joel Osment may soon be seen on Austin street corners, muttering “I see Texans.”
