Cover Story
Here Come the Transporters
In the endless Central Texas transportation wars, the lions and the lambs look for ways to make peace
House of Wax
House of Wax 1953, NR, 88 min. Directed by Andre de Toth, Starring Vincent Price, Frank Lovejoy, Phyllis Kirk. House of Wax remains the best known of all the 3-D films ever produced. It stars Vincent Price as a crazed sculptor who turns his victims into wax figures. It was the role that redirected Price’s…
The Last Movie
The Last Movie 1971, R, 108 min. Directed by Dennis Hopper, Starring Dennis Hopper, Samuel Fuller, Peter Fonda, Kris Kristofferson, Dean Stockwell. After Easy Rider Dennis Hopper is given a lot of money to go to Peru and make a movie. Why? Because it’s cheaper to film there? No, because the drugs are cheaper –…
Jaws
This originator of the summer blockbuster still packs a bite. One thing is certain: We’re always gonna need a bigger boat.
Forsaken
Forsaken 2006, NR, 80 min. Directed by Ken Johnson. Loosely based on the Book of Job, this locally made film is in Spanish and English.
To Your Health
I may be allergic to sulfites – is this common, and what should I do now?
Phases & Stages
GhostfaceThe Pretty Toney Album (Def Jam)Method ManTical 0: The Prequel (Def Jam) Masta KillaNo Said Date (Nature Sounds) As the Wu-Tang dynasty strives to retain its relevance in a hip-hop world gone digitally bonkers, Ghostface Killah leads the charge with an album full of voluptuous soul samples fused with brusque perspectives on love, life, and…
Too Little, Late at ‘Times’
The Gray Lady apologizes (sort of) for its ham-handed Iraq propaganda
O Pioneers!
The eight members of the Austin Arts Hall of Fame Class of 2004 led the way to culture
The Common Law
Small disputes, should I hire a lawyer?
Phases & Stages
Greyboy, DJ MelTambaleo, May 28 On the surface, this Friday night event was a rousing success. Its promoters enjoyed a packed house, and the DJs on hand had no problems keeping the dance floor active. Beyond the façade of a fruitful turntable excursion, however, resides a nagging wound of cultural misappropriation so far gone in…
Libs Tap Badnarik for Prez
Austinite will carry third-party flag into November battle
Sixth Street Survivors
The cafes Paradise and Pecan Street: still plating after all these years
About AIDS
Worried about your HIV drug cocktail making you look strange, perhaps thin in the face but pot-bellied? Central Texas Clinical Research (CTCR) is seeking HIV-infected individuals for a new study on an experimental treatment for lipodystrophy, one of the thorniest side-effects of anti-HIV medications. Simply stated, lipodystrophy occurs when the body loses its ability to…
Phases & Stages
He didn’t live to see this, but Alms for Iraq (Soleilmoon) captures the typical response of Bryn Jones, aka Muslimgauze, to current world events. Jones, an English non-Muslim, died in 1998 of a rare blood disease after a prolific 15-year run of moody, instrumental postindustrial electronica infused with Arabic-flavored samples and textures. The packaging of…
Austin @ Large: Where’s the Mayor?
Mayor Will Wynn visits European capitals – will anybody in Austin notice he’s missing?
Second Helpings
Asti Trattoria 408-C E. 43rd, 451-1218 Monday-Thursday, 11am-10pm; Friday, 11am-11pm; Saturday, 5-11pm In their Hyde Park venture, those talented Foxes, Emmett and Lisa, have achieved that rarest of combinations in Austin restaurant fare – food that is simultaneously sophisticated and unpretentious, skillfully prepared and artfully presented. The menu includes dishes styled from various Italian regional…
Liquid Assets
Unscrew your wine!
Testing, Testing, 1 2 3 …
There are lies, damned lies, and statistics … and then there’s the TAKS test
TCB
AMN loses its plumbing while Cinemania sinks altogether
Food-o-File
Farmers, parties, and more Zen
One System, Multiple Modes
The map lays out the main lines of the ‘multi-modal’ regional transportation plans in progress
The Hightower Report
George W. Bush goes easy on the rich … and Donald Trump needs it!
Pros@Cons
Flimflam experts (and old pals) Harry Anderson and Turk Pipkin reunite in Austin at One World Theatre
The Haven
Exploring the grounds and sounds at the International Festival-Institute at Round Top
ACC Run-Off: Levin Defends His Record
A preview of the ACC Board of Trustees Place 6 run-off election
All in the Timing
Austin artist Patrick Joseph’s story NOW will be published in the 24-Hour Comics Day anthology
Summer Series Schedule
Orchestral Programs (Saturdays, 8pm)June 5: Mozart (The Marriage of Figaro Overture, Piano Concerto No.17); Tchaikovsky (Symphony No. 4) June 12: French Composers – Bizet (Symphony in C); Ravel (Tzigane); Chausson (Poeme); Roussel (Symphony No. 3) June 19: Mozart (Symphony No. 38, Concerto No. 4 for Horn); Elgar (Enigma Variations) June 26: Beethoven (Leonore Overture No.…
TFN’s ‘Briefing Paper’ on ACC Board Candidate Marc Levin
Attorney Marc Levin – candidate for Place 6 on the Austin Community College Board of Trustees – currently serves as vice- president of the Texas Review Society, a nonprofit organization that publishes far-right public policy newspapers and journals in Texas. He has served as president of the far-right Texas Federalist Society and as state vice-chairman…
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
The boy wizard rides again and this outing proves zippier and spookier than the previous two.
Arts Bullets
Physical Plant Theater’s first Garden Party raised more than $8,000, Ann Hume Wilson has been appointed associate director of the Blanton Museum of Art, Blue Lapis Light is exhibiting – and auctioning off – bras and breastplates for angels, and the city unveils a new mural at the Pan Am / A.B. Cantu Recreation Center
Summer Schedule Highlights
The Festival Hill summer series (www.festivalhill.org), which opens Saturday, June 5 with a gala opening orchestral program of Mozart and Tchaikovsky, is brimming with outstanding concerts. These five highlights are merely a tiny sampling, but they represent the broad scope of programming the series is built on. One Impressionist concert, one Classical, one avant-garde, one…
Questionable Ethics at the Ethics Commission?
A whistleblower lawsuit and a gubernatorial appointment raise questions about the state of ethics at the Texas Ethics Commission
The Agronomist
Jonathan Demme’s riveting documentary about slain Haitian populist and radio personality Jean Dominique.
Exhibitionism
Different Stages’ production of The Misses Overbeck generates an affectionate quality that personalizes the particular objects surrounding all of us
The Austin Contingent
Three stand-out Austin performers and teachers participating in Round Top’s 2004 summer series.Rebecca Henderson, oboe Rebecca Henderson has the kind of command and expressiveness on her instrument that makes an oboe the favorite instrument you never knew you had. Her phrasing and tone bring life to music that in other hands sounds stiff or dated.…
No Mother’s Milk Here: Hospitals Cut Breast-Feeding Support
Following hospital cuts, a task force forms to defend breast-feeding support services
The Saddest Music in the World
Strange, marvelous, and unique, Guy Maddin’s new film starring Isabella Rossellini is his best work to date.
Exhibitionism
Onstage Theatre Company’s production of Crimes of the Heart focuses on the relationships among Beth Henley’s small-town Southerners and describes them simply, truly, and beautifully
Phases & Stages
The StreetsA Grand Don’t Come for Free (Vice) Britain’s Mike Skinner has thrown down a one-of-a-kind hip-hop album, bursting with heart and Northern soul. So sharp are his rhymes, you could eunuchize 99% of the gall that passes for rap in the States and still have enough edge to shave your willie for your big…
Endorsements
The Chronicle endorses Veronica Rivera
Exhibitionism
The latest program from the Violet Crown Radio Players is an appealing return to yesteryear via the nostalgic delights of radio drama
Tyranny Killed the Radio Star
Jonathan Demme on ‘The Agronomist’
Naked City
Headlines and happenings from Austin and beyond
Page Two
We celebrate the opening of Jonathan Demme’s complex and moving The Agronomist and cherish the sensibilities of horror-film art director Robert Burns, who passed away this week
Our Man in Cannes
UT filmmakers and mo(o)re
Parsing the TAKS at AISD
The Austin ISD TAKS scores mirror the state averages, for better and worse
After a Fashion
What did the drag queen teach Stephen, and when and where will he get Wilde?
Short Cuts
Cinemania implodes at the last minute; plus: South by Southwest moving to Dallas?!
Barnes: ‘Take Back Texas’
The former Texas political star fires up local Democrats
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Horn-dogs, the runs, death, pants, and accordions forever
TV Eye
If they launch it, viewers will come
‘Tomorrow’ Not Far Away?
Local greens use the disaster flick to talk seriously about climate change
Day Trips
St. Mary’s Grotto in Windthorst isn’t your normal piece of modern sculpture
Phases & Stages
Morrissey You Are the Quarry (Attack/Sanctuary) “I like you, because you’re not right in the head and nor am I,” moans Morrissey on You Are the Quarry, seemingly singing to his fan base. And what a devoted fan base that is, having clung for dear life onto every gloomy melody the Smiths frontman ever fashioned.…
Supremes OK Search Powers
Court says it’s OK for cops to search your car even if you’re not in it
Soccerwatch
World Cup qualifying has begun, and Texas is hosting
Phases & Stages
Ron SexsmithRetriever (Nettwerk) Seventies AM radio would’ve gobbled up Toronto’s Ron Sexsmith like three scoops of vanilla ice cream lathered in chocolate sauce and nuts. Blue boy’s seventh LP, Retriever, which far out-distances his 2002 Nettwerk debut, Cobblestone Runway, and overall is Sexsmith’s best bauble since his mid-Nineties Interscope output, would’ve gone Paul McCartney back…
More Texans Behind Bars
Nearly 165,000 of our friends and neighbors are guests of the Lone Star State
Luv Doc Recommends: Republic of Texas Friday Night Bike Parade and Free Concert
If you decided to pitch in for the environment last night and leave your bedroom window open instead of running the AC, you no doubt were audience to a flatulent symphony of sputters, pops, and rumbles. No, your window isn’t a portal to Sturgis, S.D., or a wormhole to Daytona Beach – what you’re hearing…
