Public Notice
Hey, you don’t have to be gay to be glad, and you don’t have to be a big queer to party during Texas Gay Pride Week. The “gay community,” as it were, extends far beyond sexuality or how people choose to identify themselves. “Community” means common interests, common goals, and transcends sexuality. Here in tolerant…
Jobs on the Side
Substitute teacher Susan Howard works as a waitress at Threadgill’s on weekends. photograph by Kevin Fullerton After working the substitute teacher beat for several years, Susan Howard, 41, is making the move into full-time permanent teaching for the Austin Independent School District. But she won’t be giving up her waitress job at Threadgill’s on weekends…
PRIDE ’98 Pride Week
Project Transitions hosts Texas Swing at Saengerrunde Hall with music by Alvin Crow, barbecue, and an auction, Fri, Jun 5. For those with two left feet, dance lessons will be held 7-8pm. Tickets are $20, advance; $25 at the door. 454-8646. Central East Austin Community Center (CEACO) and Ye Ye celebrate Black Pride at the…
What a Long, Strange Trip It’s Been
“Ladies and gentlemen, the Rolling Stones.” So begins the 25-year-old story of access television in Austin, Texas – with Mick and Keith and a temporary expatriate Texan. In 1969, Mike Tolleson, a man who on his resume can claim to have been one of the founders of both the Armadillo World Headquarters and Willie’s Fourth…
Mister Smarty Pants Knows
Lake Baykal in Siberia is the world’s largest lake – bigger than all five of the Great Lakes combined, according to Bill Nye (Science Guy). By her own admittance, Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine on Star Trek Voyager) has given up some of her own privacy. Due to her makeup and costume, every time she…
Back in 1972…
A sampling of highlights (and lowlights) from ACTV’s 25-year run. 1972 A group of students from the University of Texas interested in community access television forms Austin Community Television (ACTV). They begin talks with local politicians and the Capital Cable Company about access programming in Austin. 1973 Capital Cable board member Donald Thomas accepts the…
Food-O-File
No sooner had I turned in last week’s feature on gourmet getaways in Mexico than a brochure advertising another fascinating trip showed up on my fax machine. Nancy Zaslavsky, author of A Cook’s Tour of Mexico (St. Marten’s Press, $30, hard) and folk art expert Marilyn Mayo are leading two week-long Food & Folk Art…
25 X 25
Billed as a collection of “the best – and not quite the best” of Austin’s access programming, ACAC’s “25 years in 25 Hours” will begin at 11am Friday, June 5, and run until noon the following day. The program will be followed immediately by a live broadcast of ACAC’s Silver Anniversary Party. It will be…
Dancing About Architecture
The Asylum Street Spankers report having more than a vacation at the Strawberry Fest in Yosemite last week. After catching a crack show by Junior Brown with Buddy Miles (Wammo has since been going around telling everybody that “when you shake my hand, you’re shaking the hand of a man who shook the hand of…
The Spokesmouth
If you head down to the ACTV Silver Anniversary Party on Saturday, June 6, it’s a good bet the most energetic and exhausted man on the scene will be ACAC’s Public Relations Coordinator Jim Ellinger. As the grand PR poobah, he’s the guy responsible for scheduling events, alerting the press, and making sure everyone involved…
Articulations
As spring shifts into summer, Austin’s arts companies start letting us know what they have up their sleeves for fall. Several groups have announced seasons for 1998-99, and we’re here to give you a brief rundown on them. Austin Lyric Opera has an intense lineup for its 12th season. It kicks off with a William…
photograph by Todd V. Wolfson
Bruce Hughes may play in two ofAustin’s most popular bands, the Ugly Americans and the Scabs, but there have always been a lot of people in town that don’t like him. To them, the 37-year-old musician is simply offensive: a drunken loudmouth with a Napoleon complex. “I’ve definitely alienated a lot of people over the…
TV Eye
The MTV series Austin Stories is officially not being renewed. The decision was announced by the network on June 1. “I do feel a sense of loss,” sighed series star-scriptwriter Laura House over the phone. “But, the possibilities [for the future] are endless.” The female lead of Austin Stories sounded thoughtful and a bit sad,…
Austin Theatre Critics’ Table Awards 1998
On Tuesday, June 2, the Austin Theatre Critics’ Table presented its sixth annual awards for achievement in theatre in a ceremony at Top of the Marc. The participating critics – Michael Barnes, Jamie Smith, and Anna Hanks, Austin American-Statesman; Jerry Conn, West Austin News; and Robert Faires, Sarah Hepola, and Adrienne Martini, The Austin Chronicle…
The 10th Annual Austin Jazz & Arts Festival
Johnny Adams Year 10 for the Austin Jazz & Arts Festival, which runs this Sunday, June 7, through next Sunday, June 14. This week, the festival spotlights its series of satellite shows at the Victory Grill (all except for Johnny Adams), all featuring the best in local jazz, which will be honored on Wednesday, June…
New Director on the Block
photograph by John Anderson Austin Film Society managing director Rebecca Campbell’s move to Austin six years ago was a fortuitous collision of circumstance and fate. “I was looking for a place to put roots down,” she recalls. “I went to a concert at McCabe’s Guitar Shop in Santa Monica. I just sort of wandered in…
Exhibitionism
St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, through June 7 Running time: 2 hrs Godspell is kin to those meaningful Seventies musicals sprouting out of the chaos inherent to the late Sixties. With the Vietnam War raging and the blossoming of a socially conscious counterculture, the world was spinning furiously in search of a spiritual epicenter. One product…
Recommended
Friday: Manhattan Transfer, Backyard; David Garza, Liberty Lunch; Drum Fest, Stubb’s Saturday: Kacy Crowley, David Rice, David Poe (early), Spyro Gyra (later), La Zona Rosa Sunday: Gene Loves Jezebel, Electric Lounge Monday: Jughead’s Revenge, Fury 6, Atomic Cafe Tuesday: Aventura, Ashtoria, A. B. Cantu Pan American Recreation Center Hillside Stage Wednesday: Baby Jason & the…
“Documents of Persons & Place”
This month’s Texas Documentary Tour program marks a change of pace with “Documents of Persons & Place,” a showcase of two documentary shorts (rather than the usual feature) followed by a workshop on the documentary process. New Austin Film Society (AFS) Managing Director Rebecca Campbell will present her multi-award winning PBS project “The Town that…
Lost in Space
by Robert Faires Where are you? A simple question, usually answered simply: at the office, in a traffic jam, on the couch. Most of the time, such responses serve the purpose – locating us in a general way – but what if you took it further, really sought to define your position in space, your…
Texas Platters
DANIEL JOHNSTON Frankenstein Love: Daniel Johnston Live at the Houston Room 1992 (Stress) As you might expect, this is a live recording of Daniel Johnston solo, accompanying himself on guitar and occasionally keyboards. If you’ve heard Johnston’s live recordings before (usually nervous, high-energy, brief sets recorded in front of rowdy crowds at punk rock clubs),…
Scanlines
(1981) with Albert Brooks, Kathryn Harrold, Bruno Kirby, James L. Brooks Lost in America (1985) with Brooks, Julie Hagerty, Garry Marshall Defending Your Life (1991) with Brooks, Meryl Streep, Rip Torn, Lee Grant, Buck Henry D: Albert Brooks Attorney Bob Diamond (Rip Torn, left) counsels Daniel Miller (Albert Brooks, right) about his odds of getting…
Postscripts
June is blooming poets. More than usual are coming through town this month, but first and foremost in local poetry news is the recent selection of the 1998 Austin Poetry Slam Team, which will compete in the National Poetry Slam to be held in Austin August 19-22. Representing Austin will be the winner of the…
Road Shows
FRI 5 Trout Fishing in America, Cactus Cafe FRI 5 Manhattan Transfer, Backyard FRI 5 Digger, DBS, Fat Chance, Emo’s FRI 5 Sub Oslo, Electric Lounge FRI 5 Miroslav Rajkowski, Movements Gallery FRI 5 Agents of Good Roots, La Zona Rosa SAT 6 Natty Nation, Flamingo Cantina SAT 6 David Poe, David Rice, Spyro Gyra,…
Short Cuts
Over the years, ACTV has provided a berth in the storm to many a budding video and filmmaker. The facility and its equipment have played a critical role in helping to grow Austin as a creative center for film and video artists, and now, as the operation’s 25th anniversary rolls around, it’s time to show…
The Long, Hot Summer
illustration by Jason Stout You know you’re in for a long, hot summer when the weather has hit 100 degrees before the beginning of June. It’s a drier heat, to be sure, but that blasted smoke from Mexico hasn’t helped matters. Last month was one of the driest Mays on record. The only cure for…
photograph by Todd V. Wolfson
Bob Schneider may front two of Austin’s most popular bands, the Ugly Americans and the Scabs, but there have always been a lot of people in town that don’t like him. To them, the 32-year-old singer is simply offensive: a drunken misogynist with a rock-star complex. “That perception is fine,” replies Schneider. “I know there…
Ninfa-maniac
Ninfa’s on Sixth 612 W. Sixth St., 476-0612 Fajita Hot-line 481-8808 Sun-Wed, 11am-10pm; Thu-Sat, 11am-3am Ninfa’s on Sixth photograph by John Anderson When Ninfa Laurenzo found herself widowed in the prime of life with five kids to raise, she gamely converted the family pizza and tortilla factory on Navigation Street in Houston into a 10-table…
About AIDS
Even as we enjoy new optimism about HIV in the US, world news reminds us how lightly we have been impacted as a nation. Surveys in Rwanda suggest 11 percent of the population is HIV-infected. Devastating tribal warfare also brought rape, prostitution, and forced polygamy, all promoting the virus’ spread. Add low condom use and…
Diamond in the Rough
“I was surprised by how in sync the residents and businesses actually were,” says Dawson NA President Cynthia Medlin. “I got the impression that our businesses liked the neighborhood and valued South Austin the way it is.” photograph by Jana Birchum Wanna talk about prostitutes? You won’t find many takers among the leaders of the…
Bob Schneider
UGLY AMERICANS Boom Boom Baby (Capricorn) THE SCABS Freebird (Shockorama) By releasing two albums at the same time, Bob Schneider is engaging that mysteriously powerful force that sent Axl Rose back into oblivion and Bruce Springsteen back to Nebraska. The difference: Schneider has done it under two different names, the Scabs and the Ugly Americans,…
Benefits
FRI 5 Texas Swing with Alvin Crow (and dance lessons!) to benefit Project Transitions, at Saengerrunde Hall, 7pm. Cost is $20 advance; $25 at door. 454-8646. SAT 6 “Hollywood Stars” Alternative Prom to benefit Out Youth, at Saen-gerrunde Hall, 7pm. Cost is $15, ages 22 & under; $20, ages 23 & up. 708-1234. Women’s Pride…
TateAustin Energy
illustration by Doug Potter Did you know you are the proud owner (part owner, at least) of one electric utility company? That the utility is actively involved in research and development, especially in the area of sustainable energy? That the company returns a portion of its annual profits – $57 million this year alone -…
Coach’s Corner
I’m a Bulls fan. I’m unashamed. Chicagoans love the Bulls. They’ve saved a city long known – and rightly so – as the City of Losers. The Bears won a Super Bowl in ’84. Then, you have to go back a generation to find another championship, the Bears in ’63. Before that, you are, no…
Coming of Age
George Cofer photograph by John Anderson It’s taken six years, but George Cofer can finally say that Earth Share is starting to work. In 1992, Cofer and a handful of others launched a fundraising project based on the idea that public and private sector employees ought to be able to give money to environmental groups…
Day Trips
Once painted with red, white, and black stripes, the lighthouse at Bolivar Point across the channel from Galveston has survived since 1933 on private property off TX87. photograph by Gerald E. McLeod Lighthouses invoke a special romanticism all their own. Perhaps it is because of the lonely existence of the lighthouse operator or the idyllic…
Naked City
Cencor Realty’s controversial development proposal for the state-owned Triangle site goes before a review board of local and state reps at 5:30pm on Monday, June 15. Cencor wants the board to overturn City Council’s rejection of the plan. Review board members include Austin Mayor Kirk Watson, County Judge Bill Aleshire, General Land Commissioner Garry Mauro…
Page Two
Last Friday, the Chronicle hosted one of its semi-annual parties for staff, family, and friends. We put a tent in the parking lot and under house manager Deborah Wilson’s skilled direction it was filled, first with tables and chairs, then with a long row of food, and finally with a few hundred people, eating, drinking,…
Dropping Out
Manor math teacher Anita Tidwell drives a school bus on the side for extra income. photograph by Kevin Fullerton The technology industry is posting a huge sign across Texas that says, `Help Wanted,'” Gov. George W. Bush declared in April as he rolled out his proposal to attract more high school students into advanced placement,…
