Auntie Mame
Auntie Mame 1958, NR, 143 min. Directed by Morton Dacosta, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Rosalind Russell, Forrest Tucker, Coral Browne, Roger Smith, Fred Clark, Patric Knowles, Peggy Cass, Pippa Scott. “Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death,” are the bywords of the fabulous Auntie Mame, the wonderful…
Kill or Be Killed
Kill or Be Killed 1980, PG, 90 min. Directed by Ivan Hall, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring James Ryan, Charlotte Michelle, Norman Coombes, Daniel Duplessis, Raymond Ho-Tong. In this martial arts movie, a former Nazi karate coach wants revenge against the Japanese team that beat him during World War II. So international karate…
Humanoids From the Deep
Humanoids From the Deep 1980, R, 80 min. Directed by Barbara Peeters, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Doug McClure, Ann Turkel, Vic Morrow, Cindy Weintraub. Humanoids From the Deep arrived at the tail end of the drive-in exploitation boom, with its theme of ecological mayhem brought about by negligent scientists and depressed economic…
Swordfish
Swordfish 2001, R, 97 min. Directed by Dominic Sena, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Sam Shepard, Vinnie Jones, Don Cheadle, Halle Berry, Hugh Jackman, John Travolta. It’s difficult to synopsize Swordfish, to whittle it down to a digestible nugget. The film (directed by Gone in 60 Seconds’ Dominic Sena) is a mish-mash of…
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1990, PG, 93 min. D: Steve Barron. The original movie that launched the kiddie craze that spawned the sequels. Four mutated turtles fight crime, live in the sewer, and have a rat for a ninja master. Every kid’s fantasy, right? And they’re color-coded warriors too. Jim Henson’s Creature Shop designed their…
Exhibitionism
You know the way Dilbert can sometimes get the whole office / cyber scene down perfectly? That’s what Tapestry Dance Company does in their new show .com, and just as cleverly — but with dance. And with some real depth and beauty worked in there, too. It was like the best of Dilbert, but with…
Diverse Portfolio
The boom in Austin may be busting, but the 183 / MoPac tech force will always be hungry around noon, Pableaux Johnson writes in his review of Sushi Sake.
Record Reviews
WhiskeytownPneumonia (Lost Highway) Ryan Adams is a melancholy boy. Once hailed as Gram Parsons for the flannel generation, adult radio has revealed it’s really Jackson Browne in that nudie suit. Which is good; Parsons couldn’t sing in key to save his life. What Adams shares with the late, great Flying Burrito Byrd Brother, beyond an…
Boo-ya!
Ultima Online III: Third Dawn Electronic Arts/Origin Systems PC $39.99 The cover for UO III: Third Dawn boasts that Ultima Online is the most popular online role-playing game. If that’s even still true, I suspect it’s likely to change. Ultima Online III is the same game as its predecessors with a graphical interface-lift that takes…
Exhibitionism
The penultimate night of the 2001 New Texas Festival saw a reduced Conspirare Choir of 12 singers under the direction of Craig Hella Johnson compare and contrast selections by 16th-century composer Giovanni Pierluigi Da Palestrina and 20th-century composer Arvo Pärt in an evening that displayed just how exquisite Johnson’s choir is.
Food-o-File
There’s nothing new about fundraising events in Austin, but a friend-raiser is a new concept in River City. That’s what the board members, staff, and community volunteers associated with the Sustainable Food Center / Austin Community Gardens (SFC / ACG) chose to call the event they threw this past Sunday afternoon.
Record Reviews
Clem SnideThe Ghost of Fashion (spinART) The beautiful people can’t catch a break on Clem Snide’s newest CD and indictment of all things plasticly gorgeous, The Ghost of Fashion. Starting out with the surprisingly amplified “Let’s Explode” and the declaration that “Love is only for the lovely,” this usually reserved NYC band, now a quartet,…
Short Cuts
Sony Pics faux crix, 10-year Slacker reunion.
Uncle Blubbafink
Keith Graves, the author of seriously ridiculous stories like Frank Was a Monster Who Wanted to Dance, is garnering Hollywood�s attention, but did he ever want it?
Mini-Review
Comfort Me With Apples: More Adventures at the Table by Ruth Reichl Random House, 302 pp., $24.95 Like many regional newspaper food writers eager to learn from a master, I studied Ruth Reichl’s restaurant reviews, first in the Los Angeles Times and later in The New York Times. I especially appreciated her wit and obvious…
Record Reviews
Olu DaraNeighborhoods (Atlantic) An avant-garde trumpeter of note on the NYC jazz scene since the Seventies, Olu Dara’s first solo effort was an unexpected bit of loose and locomotive country blues, a musical journey from the Natchez of his youth to the New York of his now, with stops in Memphis, Detroit, and West Africa…
Video Reviews
Three childhood friends experience tragedy as adults when one of them runs away with the gangster boyfriend of another.
Postscripts
“I have a big fan base of five-to-ten-year-olds,” Austin actor Marco Perella confides in his new book Adventures of a No Name Actor. “I get invited to speak at elementary schools and Cub Scout pack meetings. I’m a big draw at after-school library parties.”
An Austin Original
There lies the cotton patch — spread out across the fields near Kyle — abundant with rich soil, and steeped in the legacy of Otto Jurgen Hofmann, 1918-2001. Aware of the fragrance of the freshly mown prairie grass in this small, country cemetery, I recall my late friend’s words about his childhood stomping grounds: “So…
Record Reviews
Ike Turner & the Kings of RhythmHere and Now (IKON) Everyone loves a good comeback, and Ike Turner, once near the top of everyone’s shit list, is currently in the throes of a redemptive revival following a triumphant appearance at Antone’s during SXSW 2001 that drew universal raves from visiting critics coast to coast. Now…
Video Reviews
Spike Lee imbues School Daze with as much race and identity politics as is possible without losing his focus in a film that should be rightfully viewed as a musical.
Readings
The Metaphysical Club A Story of Ideas in America by Louis Menand Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 546 pp., $27 On October 21, 1861, Colonel Edward Baker, a friend of President Lincoln’s, mounted a diversionary raid on Balls Bluff, Virginia. The 1,700 soldiers of the 20th Massachusetts were ferried across the Potomac, where they were supposed…
Mi Son
Rick Treviño returns to his roots.
University High
Community colleges are pushing “college credit” courses for high school students — but the education is in doubt.
Video Reviews
Yet another bloodbath featuring guns, vampires, and naked women.
Readings
Animosity A Novel by David Lindsey Warner Books, 339 pp., $24.95 Warner Books is billing Animosity as the latest page-turner from the “master of sophisticated suspense,” yet this compulsively readable yarn of art and obsession is neither sophisticated nor suspenseful. In fact, Animosity is propelled by all the wrong reasons, jettisoning characterization and plot mechanics…
Rick Treviño Reviewed
Rick TreviñoMi Son (Vanguard) It was obvious from “El Que Siembra Su Maiz,” Rick Treviño’s suave solo on Canto, Los Super Seven’s sophomore score earlier this year: Time for a solo album. Only this time, gone is the “y” from Ricky — replaced by the tilde in Treviño — as are the KVET country leanings…
Naked City
Local news this week in Austin.
TV Eye
The cure to the summer rerun doldrums? HBO’s Sex and the City and Six Feet Under.
Local Bestsellers
Local bestsellers are based on recent sales at Austin bookstores selected to reflect varied reading interests.
The Country Shuffle
Justin Trevino, the voice of angels
Naked City
Hard as he tries, Rick Perry can’t shake the impression among reporters that he’s tentative, stiff, and rarely forthcoming with details.
Smell of Camphor, Fragrance of Jasmine
Smell of Camphor, Fragrance of Jasmine 2000, NR, 93 min. Directed by Bahman Farmanara, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Parivash Nazarieh, Mahtaj Nojoomi, Firouz Behjat Mohammadi, Hossein Kasbian, Valiyollah Shirandami, Reza Kianian, Roya Nonahali, Bahman Farmanara. Numerous original touches characterize this recent Iranian export — in addition to its distinction as the only…
Page Two
Editor Louis Black comments on our brief reunion with cover subject (and onetime Chronicle illustrator) Keith Graves, reconsiders Joan Micklin Silver’s Chilly Scenes of Winter, and says “get well” to KVET talk-show mainstay Sammy Allred and “farewell” to former staffer Sarah Hepola.
Dancing About Architecture
Alt.rock and Woodshock out, Michael Corcoran back in.
Naked City
For the first time in recorded history, the Rio Grande has failed to reach the Gulf of Mexico.
Evolution
Evolution 2001, PG-13, 102 min. Directed by Ivan Reitman, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring David Duchovny, Julianne Moore, Orlando Jones, Seann William Scott, Ted Levine, Ethan Suplee. It’s baffling that the same comic mind that directed Meatballs, Ghostbusters, and Dave could have coughed up this underachieving and so very un-comic sci-fi spoof ……
Public Notice
Austin’s wheely hot this week and next with these fine skating fundraisers!
Record Reviews
Lucinda WilliamsEssence (Lost Highway) What makes an album great? If upon first listen it transcends comparison with the previous beloved effort, that’s a start. Three years after the divinely inspired Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, Lucinda Williams has bought herself another round of critical praise, gushy reviews, and undoubtedly another Grammy. The 11 autobiographical…
Naked City
Council Member Jackie Goodman believes ZAP is the answer to Planning Commission gridlock.
Letters at 3AM
Monet’s Water Lilies transport us to a time before the definition of eyesight and humanity.
Record Reviews
Ani DiFrancoRevelling/Reckoning (Righteous Babe) Every few months something new comes from powerhouse singer-songwriter Ani DiFranco. A Carnegie Hall debut, new LPs from her Righteous Babe imprint, projects with Prince and Maceo Parker, etc. This time, it’s 29 new, original songs. An album of halves, this 2-CD set gravitates between two poles, the extroverted, rockish Revelling,…
The Hightower Lowdown
CEO hogs, the Bush / Cheney energy hypocrisy & science for sale
After a Fashion
Our resident fashionista delivers a play-by-play account of the newest (fictional) reality game, Shopping Survivor; he also recommends the straight-to-video feature Intern, a bitchy, insidery take on the high-fashion industry, and Swap & Bop, an open-air flea market / music event at Waterloo Brewing Company this Saturday.
Record Reviews
Incredible Moses Leroy Electric Pocket Radio (Ultimatum) Musically, we inhabit the Age of the Record Collector Geek. You got your Beck, your PJ Harvey, your Air, your Buffalo Matto Funk Soul Chemical Brother, and a whole new wizard’s sphere of electronic wands and gadgets to commit those brilliant neural impulses to posterity. The thin line…
Capitol Chronicle
Monday’s news that the U.S. Supreme Court has once again rejected the Texas system of capital prosecutions — convict ’em first, ask questions later — hasn’t made Gov. Rick Perry’s life any easier. During the just-concluded legislative session, there were two dozen bills that attempted, in various ways, to slow the Texas execution assembly line…
Day Trips
San Antonio’s Texas Folklife Festival
Record Reviews
RadioheadAmnesiac (Capitol) Looking back, it makes sense now. Somewhere toward the back end of OK Computer, right around, say, “Lucky,” Radiohead left us for planet Yorke. Kid A wasn’t a radical departure. Sure, maybe it was an attempt to challenge or even irritate fans (albeit one that backfired as it only seemed to endear people…
Boo-ya!
New computer and video game reviews for the summertime gaming shut-in season
To Your Health
When I picked up a prescription a few days ago, my pharmacist advised me not to use grapefruit juice while I was taking the medication. Why would that make any difference?
Record Reviews
Sigur RósÁgætis Byrjun (PIAS) They appeared suddenly, like the comet from the heavens that in ancient times marked the end of one era and the beginning of another. Sigur Rós isn’t the end of any era, but it may be the flourishing of a new one — a new beacon in the marriage of raw…
Boo-ya!
NBA Shootout 2001 989 Sports Sony PlayStation $39.99 ESPN NBA 2Night Konami Sony PlayStation2 $49.99 NBA Live 2001 EA Sports Sony PlayStation $39.99 One thing about the NBA Playoffs is, no matter how much you hate the Lakers or Sixers or Hornets or whomever, if you’ve got the right tools, you can always take out…
The Man Who Cried
The Man Who Cried 2000, R, 100 min. Directed by Sally Potter, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Christina Ricci, Johnny Depp, John Turturro, Cate Blanchett, Claudia Lander-Duke, Miriam Karlan, Harry Dean Stanton, Oleg Yankovsky. Would that Sally Potter’s moribund wartime love story evinced such a drippy reaction. As it is, a better title…
Second Helpings: American Cafes
The Chronicle’s roundup of diners and cafes in this week’s “Second Helpings.”
About AIDS
Inaccurate Statistics via the News Media.
Record Reviews
MogwaiRock Action (Matador) Even in rock nihilist circles, there are those who dismiss the decibel tsunamis of Mogwai as sonic posturing. They cite any number of rock deconstructionist groups who don’t just riff on simple melodies, but actually write songs, and avoid wrapping everything they do in a druggy gauze. These naysayers view Glasgow quintet…
Boo-ya!
Black & White Electronic Arts/Lionhead Studios PC $39.99 Who hasn’t dreamed of playing God? Imagine the power. Imagine the freedom. Imagine the perks. No electric bills. No irate bosses. No interstate construction delays, and best of all — an infinite number of cable channels. How many HBOs does that add up to? Okay, maybe as…
The Circle
The Circle 2000, NR, 99 min. Directed by Jafar Panahi, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Maryiam Palvin Almani, Nargess Mamizadeh, Fereshtedh Sadr Orfani, Elham Saboktakin, Fatemeh Naghavi, Mojhan Faramarzi. It may be hard to be a saint in the city, but it’s even more difficult to be a woman in Tehran, as evidenced…
Homecoming Queen
Many actors leave Austin seeking a career on the stage and are never heard from by the folks in their old hometown. But Austin native Starla Benford has come home as the star of a national tour. She talks about starting out at Harvard, making her mark as a professional, and nine months on the…
Mr. Smarty Pants
Canny confections for your forebrain’s sweet-tooth
Record Reviews
ToolLateralus (Volcano) Never let it be said Tool doesn’t give you your money’s worth. At one point on Lateralus, only the band’s second release since their 1993 debut Undertow, Maynard James Keenan even sings about “this tedious path I’ve chosen.” If nothing else, this 80-minute opus will cement Tool’s standing as the King Crimson of…
Boo-ya!
Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn BioWare PC $39.99 Two years after the success of their much-loved AD&D-modeled, role-playing game Baldur’s Gate, BioWare returns with Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn. Essentially a top-down view adventure game in the spirit of the Ultima series, Baldur’s Gate II lives up to the hype. You begin the…
The Animal
The Animal 2001, PG-13, 83 min. Directed by Luke Greenfield, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Rob Schneider, Colleen Haskell, John C. McGinley, Edward Asner. About the best you can say regarding this inoffensive Schneider vehicle is, hey, it could have been worse. Come to think of it, in today’s comedy market, where bodily…
Articulations
An invitation to the city’s loosest arts awards ceremony from the Austin Critics Table, a happy birthday to the Umlauf Sculpture Garden and Museum, and playwright Ruth Margraff is a hit in Big D.
Coach’s Corner
I suppose if anyone’s to blame, it’s Dr. Spock — not to be confused with Mr. Spock of the Starship Enterprise — but Dr. Benjamin Spock, the late doctor of the baby boomer generation. I’d venture that Dr. Spock’s book, published on the cusp of the boom, about a kinder way of child rearing, sat…
Record Reviews
Red House PaintersOld Ramon (Sub Pop) Mark Kozelek feels your pain. Not only does he feel it, he reaches right up beneath its skirt and gives it a good groping. Not content to stew in his own juices, Kozelek and bandmates Anthony Koudos and Gordon Mack have returned in a hellishly roundabout way. Why is…
Boo-ya!
Close Combat — Invasion: Normandy UBI Soft PC $34.99 Gunfire erupts as the troops hit the beach. The enemy is well-fortified behind cement bunkers and hidden in the thick hedgerows beyond that crisscross and divide the Normandy landscape. On the beach, the soldiers are pinned down. Angry shouts in German can be heard in the…
