New Austin Film and Video, Part One: Projections
New Austin Film and Video, Part One: Projections NR. Directed by Various, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . New Austin Film and Video, Part 1: Projections explores the interactions between traditional art practices and the film and video media. Co-curated by Gail Sanders and Erica Shamaly the exhibit features work by Francesca Talenti,…
The Crisis of the Cultural Environment
The Crisis of the Cultural Environment NR, 24 min. Directed by George Gerbner, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . Gerbner’s documentary examines the “information superhighway” and all its potholes.
The Electronic Storyteller
The Electronic Storyteller NR, 30 min. Directed by George Gerbner, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . This doc outlines the way in which the corporate media has co-opted and corrupted our methods of storytelling.
Rocco and His Brothers
Rocco and His Brothers 1960, NR, 180 min. Directed by Luchino Visconti, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Alain Delon, Renato Salvatori, Annie Giradot, Katina Paxinou, Claudia Cardinale. Visconti returns to Milan, the city of his birth, in this story about the politics of class involved in the move to the big city of…
The Decalogue: Vol. One (Parts One & Two)
The Decalogue: Vol. One (Parts One & Two) NR, 110 min. Directed by Krzysztof Kieslowski, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Maja Komorowska, Henryk Baranowski, Krystyna Janda, Aleksander Bardini, Olgierd Lukaszewicz. Part 1: “I am the Lord thy God; thou shalt have no other gods before me” deals with a man who puts his…
The Decalogue
The Decalogue NR. Directed by Krzysztof Kieslowski, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . Late Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski’s widely acclaimed 10-part series (which originally aired in 10 separate hourlong segments on Polish television and was co-written with Kieslowski’s longtime collaborator Krzystof Piesiewicz) receives a long-overdue showing on the big screen. Each program is…
Chutney Popcorn
Intriguing and unpredictable film examines the lives of an Indian-American family torn apart by an elder daughter’s inability to conceive with her American-born husband.
Readings
Eddie & Bella A Novel by Wayne Wilson Algonquin Books, 304 pp., $21.95 For the past 20 years or so, Algonquin has offered the reading public some of the best of contemporary American fiction. The house firmly established the careers of Kaye Gibbons, Clyde Edgerton, Cindy Bonner, and Carol Dawson, among countless others, including San…
By Any Other Name
The history of Austin’s cherished landmarks reveals the extent to which chance plays a part in who among their namesakes we remember and which fade with time.
Dead Shots
Jesus Christ SuperhootCannibal Club, July 25, 1989 When a friend told me that Kathy McCarty was staging Jesus Christ Superhoot, I was a little apprehensive. “A perfectly great rock opera,” I thought, “it’s really a great parody already.” Not to worry. McCarty’s production was true to the original album down to the last nail in…
Short Cuts
Two more movie houses are closing — the Lake Creek Festival Theater and Village Cinema Art –both part of Regal Cinemas’ countrywide house cleaning.
Readings
Lost and Found A Daughter’s Tale of Violence and Redemption by Babette Hughes The Permanent Press, 168 pp., $24 Babette Hughes was an unhappy Jewish housewife in the 1950s, but she was unhappy for reasons no one could immediately detect. After having grown up in poverty, she had a prosperous husband who provided a country…
The Fantastic and Utterly Disreputable History of the Bevy of Sin Known as Guy Town
Before downtown Austin had the Warehouse District, it had the Whorehouse District: a notorious neighborhood of brothels and fandango houses called Guy Town.
Dead Shots
G.G. Allin (Arrest Report)Cavity Club, February 18, 1992 Upon arrival at the Cavity Club I notice numerous people running out of the front door. Dispatch had prior advised me that a fight was in progress and that a white male was on stage nude and was defecating. I went inside the club and was immediatley…
Video Reviews
Hoping to capitalize on the success of Tobe Hooper’s 1974 surprise horror hit Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Future-Kill reunited that film’s stars Neal and Burns and aimed for a similar creepy / kitschy vein. It failed.Meat Loaf quits his day job to become the world’s best roadie. Sound weird? It is.
Local Bestsellers
Local bestsellers are based on recent sales at Austin bookstores selected to reflect varied reading interests.
Further Reading
Calle Ancha isn’t found on any Austin map, but this “wide street” that once ran from the Colorado River to 12th Street, where I-35 is now, was once a vital avenue for Austin’s Latinos, a place where people could shop, families could meet, kids could play, and neighbors and friends in from outlying areas could…
Dead Shots
Punk Prom & Little Debbie Taunt-BallChances, April 16, 1994 This was truly the prom to make up for being misunderstood in high school! We arrived just in time for the hickey contest, but we missed the Hormones. Mr. Tim Stegall was wearing his gold Elvis-was-the-first-punk jacket, so I didn’t feel like we missed how great…
Spike & Mike’s Sick & Twisted Festival of Animation 2001
Spike & Mike’s Sick & Twisted Festival of Animation 2001 2001, NR, 68 min. Directed by Various, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . It’s tremendously reassuring to realize that some things never go out of style. Converse’s Chuck Taylor high-tops, for example, have remained the best-selling athletic shoe in history since their introduction…
Page Two
Welcome to the Austin That Was.
Mapping Calle Ancha
La Calle Ancha — “the wide street” — isn’t among Austin’s high-profile streets and avenues. It’s not at the center of debates between pro-development mavericks and historical preservationists like Rainey Street. It doesn’t have the sexy cachet of Sixth Street, and unlike Congress Avenue, it’s not the centerpiece of walking tours to celebrate architecture or…
Dead Shots
Sleater-KinneyElectric Lounge, May 25, 1997 It’s gotta be a slow year if this is what’s getting profiled in Newsweek. It boils down to this: Don’t just stand there, play the album. I can get the album, sit at home, and hit the shuffle button. Same thing. Even better, for the price of two beers at…
Shadow of the Vampire
Shadow of the Vampire 2001, R, 94 min. Directed by E. Elias Merhige, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Nicholas Elliott, Ronan Vibert, Aden Gillett, Eddie Izzard, Catherine Mccormack, Cary Elwes, Udo Kier, Willem Dafoe, John Malkovich. F.W. Murnau’s 1922 vampire classic Nosferatu gets a boost from Merhige’s fictional account of its creation in…
Public Notice
This week’s Public Notice gets cranky on the bike tip and pedals a worldview geared to a slower pace. Hynuk!
Life at the Cha-Cha Palace
Stephen MacMillan Moser takes a trip down the yellow brick-laid, disco ball-lit memory lane in the world of Austin’s Seventies Disco scene.
Dead Shots
Sonic YouthLiberty Lunch, July 7 & 8, 1999 The Golden Note. Heard so often, by so many — management estimates 250,000 annually — over the years at Liberty Lunch. That impossibly sweet, perfect note attuned to every fiber of your being. That sound that makes you close your eyes and wish with all your might…
Sugar & Spice
Sugar & Spice 2001, PG-13, 80 min. Directed by Francine Mcdougall, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Sean Young, James Marsden, Alexandra Holden, Marla Sokoloff, Melissa George, Sara Marsh, Rachel Blanchard, Mena Suvari, Marley Shelton. I vaguely recall first seeing that little ditty about sugar and spice and everything nice — maybe embroidered on…
Killer Reputation
Murders from Austin’s not quite forgotten past
After a Fashion
The Style Avatar expounds on the First Family Jewels.
Shades of the Past
Austin’s ghosts, from pioneer times to the present
Naked City
A farewell to Federal Judge Lucius Bunton III
Second Helpings: Staying Power
The weekly Chronicle feature “Second Helpings” offers readers the opportunity to sample tasty, bite-sized restaurant listings compiled from new and previous reviews, guides, and poll results. This week’s entries were compiled by Chronicle Cuisines editor Virginia B. Wood. When you need quick, reliable information about Austin eateries, check here. Dirty Martin’s Place (established 1926) 2802…
Mr. Smarty Pants
More interest for your memory banks.
Bygone Buildings
Right in the booming heart of Austin, folks can still find evidence of times past. Devin Greaney explores some of Austin’s abandoned haunts.
Naked City
Politics News Items for the Week
Signs of Other Times
A photographic guide to some of the markers that still point to parts of Austin that have disappeared.
Day Trips
The slow-cooking tradition of Joel’s Bar-B-Q outside Flatonia.
The Dead Club Crawl
Club hopping through Austin’s musical past.
Naked City
Advocates for historic preservation have for years tried to update the blue-rinse-and-pearls image of their chosen passion. But there are times when the sedate old days, when guilds of older ladies and gentlemen discussed local history over coffee, seem mighty attractive. These days, preserving local history and culture isn’t much different from preserving the environment…
Livin’ Lavaca Loca
In the early Eighties, back when Jay Leno was still funny, he and a number of now-big name comics told jokes at a little place on Lavaca called the Comedy Workshop. Being there changed the life of one person, who recalls what it was like.
About AIDS
HIV and Sexual Behavior
Dancing About Architecture
Bush’s balls drop.
Naked City
City council lingers over matters including the fate of the Austin Music Network, the city’s media system as a whole, and the proposed Mueller Airport swap.
Articulations
The Texas Cultural Trust Council announces a new set of honors for native and residents of the Lone Star State, the Texas Medal of the Arts Awards, and the recipients of the first awards.
Coach’s Corner
A guide for the younger generation: Sick of hearing about Woodstock? Recreate all of its dubious glories at this year’s Super Bowl party.
Dead Shots
IntroductionChronicle offices, present day Sifting through 20 years of Chronicles for these “Live Shots” from dead clubs, most gratifying were the places I didn’t have to bother with: Back Room, Broken Spoke, Cactus Cafe, Continental Club, Hole in the Wall. They were there at the beginning — or at least when we started running “Live…
Naked City
George W. Bush may have to testify in the influence-buying scandal known as Funeralgate, if attorneys for whistleblower Eliza May manage to convince a state court.
Exhibitionism
Yasmina Reza’s Art has come to Austin, and the Zachary Scott Theatre Center production is equal to the playwright’s work. It’s a pearl and it’s the inside-out of a pearl — a thing of beauty and the irritant that creates it.
The Flight of the Night Bird
Harry Akin opened for business on Christmas Eve, 1932, selling hamburgers for 15 cents apiece. Cuisines Editor Virginia B. Wood reveals how Akin turned his hamburger stand into Austin’s former restaurant empire.
Dead Shots
Albert KingClub Foot, April 16, 1982 Standing alone in the shadows outside the flood of stage lights, his huge frame cast amidst thick clouds of smoke billowing from his long-sloped pipe, Albert King evokes an eerie image indeed. But once front and center, King’s commanding presence as a blues shaman was unquestionable as he rang…
Naked City
Expect some upsets at the state housing agency, as Gov. Rick Perry and the state Sunset Advisory Commission implement changes in the scandal-wracked department.
Exhibitionism
The Different Stages production of Milcha Sanchez-Scott’s Roosters offers a script and actors that are quite enjoyable. However, the mix of inventive and repetitious staging, striking and visually inappropriate costumes, open and cluttered space, it feels almost like two entirely different shows.
Night Hawk Alumni
There was a time in the city of Austin when having a Night Hawk job on your résumé commanded respect and insured employment at hotels, restaurants, and country clubs around Central Texas. It would be impossible to track all the “graduates” of Harry Akin’s highly regarded in-house cooking, butchering, and management training programs, but here…
Dead Shots
Ramblin’ Jack ElliotSnaveley’s, July 1982 Thank God Snaveley’s exists to combat the general atmosphere of Sixth Street. On Saturday night it’s impossible to park your car within three miles of where you want to go, so you have to thread your way through drunken preppies and confused tourists. Any sane person would have nothing to…
Naked City
Madalyn Murray O’Hair is coming home. On Wednesday, David Waters, the ex-con suspected of masterminding the plot to kidnap, rob, and murder the atheist, her son, and her granddaughter, agreed to show federal authorities where the victims are buried, says a source close to the investigation. Waters, 53, was scheduled to go to trial before…
Notes on Mad Dogs
If you were young, talented, and a little crazy in the old Austin, you may have answered to the bizarre title of “Mad Dog.”
The Frisco Shop: Last of the Legend
When I sat in a booth with Frisco Shop co-owner Lawrence Baker to discuss the longevity of the north Austin restaurant (49 years and counting), our conversation was periodically interrupted by patrons who insisted on greeting Baker as they arrived or departed. He graciously greeted each customer by name, shaking hands, expressing his gratitude for…
Dead Shots
Huey Lewis & The News, Private LivesCardi’s, April 5, 1983 “How boring!” exclaimed the anonymous goddess, referring to me. “Get up and dance!” Then she scuttled off in her Espadrilles. The music being piped in was “Let’s Go” by the Cars. Welcome to Cardi’s. And welcome to Huey Lewis, who, rumors say, didn’t really want…
The Hightower Lowdown
High Tech Brought Low; All Expenses Paid
The Pledge
The Pledge 2001, R, 124 min. Directed by Sean Penn, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Jack Nicholson, Robin Wright, Aaron Eckhart, Benicio Del Toro, Vanessa Redgrave, Helen Mirren, Patricia Clarkson, Mickey Rourke, Harry Dean Stanton. Despite its cast of powerhouse thespians and occasional touches of nervy hyperrealism, Sean Penn’s The Pledge is a…
Man Writes About Woman!
Just about every story in Woodcuts of Women tells of male characters who suffer and sweat through long desert hours for the bitter perfume of sex, David Garza writes. But to label Gilb’s effort at writing effectively and seductively about women an exclusively macho affair would be facile, if not plain lazy.
Gardens of Eden
Entertainment has always been a keystone of Austin’s identity, Cuisines writer Rachel Feit observes. And among Austin’s numerous diversions were German beer gardens.
Dead Shots
Mitch RyderSteamboat, March 16, 1985 Life in Detroit ends unbreathed, I think. It ends in the quiet, late hours, a man sitting at his kitchen table in a sleeveless white undershirt, silently sipping a beer and gazing into a long night broken only by the metronomic rhythm of a bar’s flashing neon sign and the…
Capitol Chronicle
The Texas state budgeting process is called conservative, but might be better described as “penny wise, pound foolish.”
The Wedding Planner
The Wedding Planner 2001, PG-13, 102 min. D: Adam Shankman; with Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Lopez. As the lovelorn wedding planner Maria (Lopez) puts it, those who can’t wed, plan. And those who can’t produce smart, sexy material in keeping with the smart, sexy likes of Lopez and co-star/hometown boy Matthew McConaughey, churn out crap like…
Postscripts
Upcoming literary events in Austin.
Food-o-File
Why Virginia B. Wood’s first culinary epiphany got her in big trouble.
Dead Shots
The Last Days of the BeachThe Beach, September 26 & 27, 1986 Aww, mamma, can this really be the end … The Beach, after more than two years of faithful service to the, uh, seedier aspects of the Austin music scene, took its last bow, fittingly, with two nights of shows in which about a…
Part of Our Day
When discussing the Golden Age of Television, we usually speak in terms of the national networks, but there’s another chapter to the tale. Belinda Acosta looks at some of the pioneers of Austin television.
Readings
In Sunlight, in a Beautiful Garden A Novel by Kathleen Cambor Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 272pp., $23 If you’re looking for rich, allusive prose, for fiction ripe with fruitful ambiguity and unanswerable questions, here’s a tip: The historical novel is not for you. With its authors honor-bound to shovel boatloads of facts down your brain,…
Austin Timeline
Forward More Timeline 10,000BC to 1849 1850 to 1872 1873 to 1888 1890 to 1910 1911 to 1927 1928 to 1954 1955 to 1967 1969 to 1978 1979 to 1987 1988 to 2001
Dead Shots
DongfestDong Huong, December 12, 1987 Wow! Music is alive in Austin! I have seen the future and it is Dong Huong. It is coarse. It is anarchic. It is beautiful. Dong Huong is a tiny club north of Hyde Park. They once sold Vietnamese food; since early summer, however, they have sold underground music, often…
Slacker, the Map
It’s been over a decade since Slacker premiered at the Dobie Theater. Since then, the lifestyle it celebrated is largely gone, along with the locations it helped make famous. In this “Slacker map,” we look at what’s disappeared and what’s endured.
