Off the Bookshelf
Car Crashes & Other Sad Stories by Mell Kilpatrick Taschen, 175 pp., $29.99 Ten years ago this would have ended up on my coffeetable, sitting alongside Gray’s Anatomy and some treatise on forensic photography. Ten years closer to the soil and I’ve mellowed like a fine rotgut, choosing instead to keep it on the shelf,…
Live Shots
The CureCynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, The Woodlands, TX, May 24 Scoff if you must, but there’s really not that much distance between today’s teen faves and bedroom pinups of yore like the Cure — though it’s doubtful that the Backstreet Boys would ever preface a concert with Samuel Barber’s heart-rending “Adagio for Strings.” Going on…
Video Reviews
That Obscure Object of Desire aka Cet Obscur Objet du Désir D: Luis Buñuel (1977); with Fernando Ray, Carole Bouquet, Angela Molina, Julien Bertheau. This was Buñuel’s last film and a culmination of the surreal, if the surreal can indeed culminate. Based on a book by Pierre Louys (and on many a male fantasy about…
Off the Bookshelf
The Philosophers Introducing Great Western Thinkers edited by Ted Honderich Oxford University Press, 264 pp., $24 How refreshing to see a book so utterly unashamed of itself. According to editor Ted Honderich, a list of the most notable philosophers thus far in Western history begins with Socrates and ends with Sartre. This collection includes 28…
Live Shots
‘N SyncFrank Erwin Center, May 29 So what can you buy after selling more albums faster than anyone else in music history? Certainly not an ounce of good taste, judging from the ragtag spectacle that was ‘N Sync’s No Strings Attached extravaganza. From the pirate-inspired costumes they wore as they descended to the stage on…
Video Reviews
Goodbye Cruel WorldD: David Irving, Nicholas Niciphor (1982); with Dick Shawn, Chuck “Porky” Mitchell, LaWanda Page, Priscilla Pointer, Cynthia Sikes. Comedies don’t get much stranger than this one, but what do you expect from a feature co-directed by Irving (C.H.U.D.II: Bud the Chud) and Niciphor, the screenwriter of Tusk, the legendary unfinished behemoth directed and…
A Question of Equity
Of all the nights in the life of a production, the final dress rehearsal might be the most nerve-racking for all concerned. The company has worked on the play for weeks, and this is the last opportunity to run it before paying audiences arrive. The producer, director, designers, and crew will all have notes to…
Off the Bookshelf
Aprons Icons of the American Home by Joyce Cheney Running Press, 128 pp., $24.95 To think of aprons is to recall TV sitcom moms in all their crystalline 1950s glory. True, aprons reached their heyday in mid 20th-century America, but as Joyce Cheney explains in her new book, this simple piece of cloth fastened with…
No Man’s Land
Substandard Conditions Are a Way of Life for Northridge Acres
Video Reviews
AMERICAN PIED: Paul Weitz (1999); with Jason Biggs, Chris Klein, Tara Reid, Alyson Hannigan, Mena Suvari, Natasha Lyonne. One time, at band camp … If nothing else, American Pie should be admired for the progression of this joke, delivered by retainer-wearing dork-o Michelle. Played by cuddly little redhead Alyson Hannigan (Willow on WB’s Buffy, the…
Actors of the World, Unite
Actors’ Equity Association was founded May 26, 1913, in response to centuries of exploitation at the hands of unscrupulous producers. Until Equity came along, theatrical producers weren’t bound to: any standards where working conditions were concerned; paying actors a minimum wage or for rehearsals; holding rehearsals to set time limits; or guaranteeing employment for any…
Page Two
Is the alternative press dead?
Map: Colonia on the County Line
The Northridge Acres subdivision straddles the Travis and Williamson county lines, and lies in the forgotten gray area just outside the city limits of Austin and Round Rock. The community’s 300-plus residents live without basic city services, such as water and sewer. These substandard conditions exist within blocks or a few miles of some of…
TV Eye
The Real World: New Orleans and Survivor, CBS’
brutal bid to rein reality television, are sure to fascinate
pop culture fans throughout the summer. Belinda
Acosta explains why she resents it: and why she can’t
stop watching.
Nonunion Actors: Raising It a Notch
For every Equity actor in Austin, there are scores of nonunion actors. Some of the best actors in town, and the best-known, are not Equity and have no intentions of joining the union. To them, the benefits of higher pay do not outweigh their need to act in any project they think worthy of their…
Letters at 3AM
Advice to a high-school graduating class: Face your fear and take risks.
Picking Up the Pieces
Karr Conviction Closes Another Chapter in O’Hair Case
The Color of Paradise
The Color of Paradise 1999, PG, 90 min. Directed by Majid Majidi, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Farahnaz Safari, Elbam Sharifi, Salime Feizi, Hossein Mahjoub, Mohsen Ramezani. With its constant, susurating chorus of ambient sounds, this Iranian import is less a film than a lyrical, naturalistic tone poem. I can’t imagine it benefited…
Articulations
A tragic accident for a local dancer; the loss of a great state drama teacher.
After a Fashion
All that Stephen Allows.
Naked City
Statesman ignores Bill Bunch as part of its SOS history; Mary Arnold, Whole Foods and Lee Walker honored for their SOS dedication; the Austin Police Association’s mailers for Rafael Quintanilla never got mailed; Mayor Kirk Watson will lay out his transportation vision.
The Hi-Line
The Hi-Line 1999, NR, 104 min. Directed by Ron Judkins, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Rainer Judd, Stuart Margolin, Margot Kidder, Tantoo Cardinal, Ryan Alosio, Rachael Leigh Cook. A quiet moodiness envelops The Hi-Line, the first feature film by writer-director Ron Judkins, an Oscar-winning sound recordist (Jurassic Park, Saving Private Ryan). The Hi-Line…
Exhibitionism
The Doghouse Theatre’s production of Michael
Ondaatje’s The Collected Works of Billy the Kid may
take place in a back yard in West Campus, but the
ensemble, a three-piece combo, and Ondaatje’s
poetry transport you to dark wooden houses on the
plains where myth and…
Mr. Smarty Pants
Leaks, landfills, and the XXX signature of Monica Lewinsky.
Naked City
CAMPO’s 25-year plan is scheduled for approval next Monday, but few are still paying attention.
Gone in Sixty Seconds
Gone in Sixty Seconds 2000, PG-13, 119 min. D: Dominic Sena; with Nicolas Cage, Angelina Jolie. There was a period back in the Eighties when Nicolas Cage could do no wrong. Before the immensely talented actor somehow became enmeshed in disastrously bad films such as 8MM, Con Air, and Kiss of Death, he appeared in…
Exhibitionism
With its revival of David Mamet’s raunchy, cynical
Sexual Perversity in Chicago, the new Flood Theatre
Project tries to plunge audiences into skanky
Seventies reality, but the fresh-faced troupe only
succeeds in skimming its mucky surface.
Day Trips
Rails have been turned to trails at Lake Mineral Wells State Park.
Naked City
Some Hays County residents are up in arms about a proposed road over the EdwardsAquifer, which they say was moved westward under suspicious circumstances.
Human Traffic
Human Traffic 1999, R, 84 min. Directed by Justin Kerrigan, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring John Simm, Lorraine Pilkington, Shaun Parkes, Nicola Reynolds, Danny Dyer, Dean Davies. “The weekend has landed” declares the tagline to this 1999 British tale of debauched Welsh clubgoers searching for the perfect night out, but it’s less a…
Exhibitionism
The New Texas Music Works rendition of Carl Orff’s
masterwork Carmina Burana was the usual
exhilarating sonic roller-coaster of songs about love
and lust and way too much drinking in the Middle Ages,
but the exuberance of conductor Craig Hella Johnson
also made it feel…
About AIDS
What do the denialists want?
Naked City
TNRCC is up for review by the Sunset Advisory Commission, but major changes don’t seem likely.
Onegin
Onegin 1999, NR, 106 min. Directed by Martha Fiennes, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Lena Headey, Toby Stephens, Martin Donovan, Liv Tyler, Ralph Fiennes. Ralph and Martha Fiennes, brother and sister, bring to the screen a sumptuous yet unexceptional story of tragic love with this adaptation of Alexander Pushkin’s novel in verse Evgeny…
Saint Jackie
It was with high expectations of low class that Stephen
MacMillan Moser embarked upon the latest crop of
books about Jackie O. But shortly into it, he found
himself thinking, “Where’s the dirt?”
Zoot Suits
In a time when upscale restaurants most often crop up
in high-traffic areas or clamoring urban districts, Zoot,
a nine-year-old stalwart of the Austin scene, thrives on
a sense of quiet seclusion and implied formality.
Naked City
West Papua declares independence from Indonesia.
8 1/2 Women
8 1/2 Women 1999, R, 118 min. Directed by Peter Greenaway, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Vivian Wu, Toni Collete, Amanda Plummer, Polly Walker, Matthew Delamere, John Standing. Although I can recount for you the details of Peter Greenaway’s 8 1/2 Women, I can’t make it all add up. Ever the artful iconoclast,…
Spada Speaks
James Spada is a prolific celebrity biographer with no less than 15 works in print and a photographer of note. His books traverse the field between the gutter and the stars. I met him online by purchasing a photo of Jackie petting her German Shepherd, who is, delicately put, fully aroused. The vivacious Mr. Spada…
Food-o-File
Virginia B. Wood remembers Robert Paprota, who
owned Chez Nous before his untimely recent death
and updates readers on changes in the local
restaurant scene.
Naked City
Raul Alvarez wins by 201 votes over Rafael Quintanilla, confirming that Austin’s green machine is only weakened, not defunct.
Big Momma’s House
Big Momma’s House 2000, PG-13, 98 min. Directed by Raja Gosnell, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Martin Lawrence, Nia Long, Paul Giamatti, Terrence Howard, Ella Mitchell. It takes Big Momma’s House all of seven minutes to slide the first fart joke in. Of course, that’s exactly why one goes to see Big Momma’s…
Postscripts
Upcoming literary events in Austin.
Mini-Review
World Vegetarian by Madhur Jaffrey Clarkson Potter, 768 pp., $40 Madhur Jaffrey worked for 10 years putting together her latest book, a heavy tome of more than 650 meatless recipes taken from the cuisines of people across five continents. Her work, aptly titled World Vegetarian, may initially be off-putting to those used to salivating at…
Council Watch
Citizens voice their approval of the recommendations
of the Police Oversight Focus Group; proposed City
Hall balloons and its price tag grows; Rainey Street
Historic District nears its day of reckoning.
Book Reviews
The Married Man: A Novel by Edmund White Knopf, 336 pp., $25 Edmund White knows all about love and gay sex. In 1977, this gifted man of men even published a guide called The Joy of Gay Sex for the fellows who needed the extra help (and don’t we all at some point?). But with…
Mini-Review
A Drizzle of Honey: The Lives and Recipes of Spain’s Secret Jews by David M. Gitlitz and Linda Kay Davidson St. Martin’s, 352 pp., $29.95 A Drizzle of Honey is one of the more captivating cookbooks to come out lately — not because of the recipes, although they are well-researched and produce excellent dishes, but…
At the Top of His Game
Longtime Texas Monthly editor Gregory Curtis calls it
quits; deputy editor Evan Smith will succeed him.
Louis Dubose, editor of the Texas Observer for 13
years, announces he will retire.
Book Reviews
Don’t the Moon Look Lonesome: A Novel by Stanley Crouch Pantheon, 546 pp., $26.95 Cultural critic Stanley Crouch is a formidably smart man, and his long-awaited first novel is a formidably smart book. In it, we receive mini-primers to Crouch’s ideas on topics ranging from the experience of black soldiers in Vietnam, to school reform,…
Countdown to Ecstasy
I Feel Love I’m sitting in one of the myriad coffee shops on Congress Avenue — slouching, actually; it’s a sunshiney spring Saturday morning, and the previous night keeps doubling back on me. Blending with the almost imperceptible ambient babble from the shop’s other customers is the voice of the young man seated across from…
Shoot for the Moon
Actor Danny Trejo has made a film career out of
playing criminals. Before that, he made a career out of
being one. In town to shoot Robert Rodriguez’s Spy
Kids, Trejo visited Travis High School to talk to
students about the lessons he learned the hard way.
Book Reviews
Leave Before You Go by Emily Perkins Ecco Press, 292 pp., $23 First off: Ignore the jacket blurb that refers inexplicably to the “major zest and humor” of Leave Before You Go. With zero zest and damn little humor, Emily Perkins’ first novel is an unrelievedly glum tale of what the same blurb calls “generational…
Dancing About Architecture
House of Blues breaks ground at Southpark Meadows where the old stage will be replaced, but not before Willie Nelson’s Fourth of July Picnic.
Shoot for the Stars
With two major Hollywood productions shooting downtown this summer — Robert Rodriguez’s Spy Kids and Donald Petrie’s Miss Congeniality with Sandra Bullock — both foot and automobile traffic have been occasionally disrupted. Pile that on top of the general air of perpetual construction and street closings brought on by Austin’s downtown boom, and you’ve got…
Local Bestsellers
Local bestsellers are based on recent sales at Austin
bookstores selected to reflect varied reading interests.
Live Shots
Herbie HancockOne World Theatre, May 27 In the last of four sold-out performances over two nights at the ever-intimate and elegant One World Theatre, Herbie Hancock could have played beginning piano primer “Chopsticks” for 90 minutes and the ebullient audience would have still lavished on him the adulation due a music legend. “Can I take…
