Hill Stomp Hollar
Hill Stomp Hollar NR. Directed by Bradley Beesley. Hill Stomp Hollar by Brad Beesley (also the director of another SXSW fave Okie Noodling) is an homage to blues musician R.L. Burnside.
Day Trips
The Sanderson Depot was built in 1882, a few months after the railroad reached the dry creek bed that marked the halfway point between San Antonio and El Paso. Abandoned since 1995, the 120-year-old, two-story building that is a symbol of the railroad era in America and was once the lifeline of the town now…
One More Time
Hot Hot Heat Red Eyed Fly, Saturday, March 15 Hope you took a good, long look at these kids on this night, because it’s the last time you’ll see them perform in a club this small until their reunion tour 30 years from now. These four Vancouverites are hot, hot, hot, and are going to…
Naked City
UT-Austin student Christopher Phillips turned himself in to federal authorities after being charged with hacking UT’s systems and stealing data on more than 55,000 students, staffers, and job applicants. The university says that no grade data or health records were exposed in the security breach, which involved a script that generated millions of random Social…
Sending Off SXSW 2003
THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE TELEVISEDD: Kim Bartley and Donnacha O’Briain. Documentary Feature Special Screenings, U.S. Premiere This film is a finely crafted work, but it is the story itself that will keep you leaning forward in your seat, hands clenched to your knees. The filmmakers were allowed unfettered access to Hugo Chavez, the controversial…
Second Helpings: Smoothies
Summer’s coming, y’all: time to get smoooooooth.
To Your Health
Q. I would like to try SAMe for depression. What is good and what is bad about it, and is it safe? A. S-Adenosyl Methionine (SAMe) comes with a lot of good news and only one bit of bad news: It is really expensive. The good news is that it appears to be entirely safe,…
One More Time
Turntables and DJs Zero Degrees/Spiros, Saturday, March 15 Saturday was saturated in a hip-hop summation of double-dosed DJing and mic ripping at Zero Degrees and a block down the street at Spiro’s turntablist showcase. Spectators wore a path back and forth all night, 7pm-2am, in order to ferret out worthy newcomers. St. Paul’s Heiruspecs started…
Naked City
As the House was gaveled to order Tuesday morning, a familiar face was missing from her customary place in the last row. Rep. Irma Rangel, D-Kingsville, had passed away early that morning from cancer, and on her desk stood a bouquet of two dozen yellow roses. As her longtime colleague Paul Moreno, D-El Paso, took…
The Hit Parade
Documentarian Jamie Meltzer pokes under the rock of the music industry in Off the Charts: The Song/Poem Story.
TCB
Buckaroo Banzai Saddle up, pardners, because it’s time to git on down to the Travis County Expo Center for the 2003 Star of Texas Fair & Rodeo. This year’s musical lineup is long on hot-country favorites, plus a few familiar faces, and even the Godfather of Soul. Think I wanna kiss myself! March 22: Tracy…
About AIDS
Nobel Winner: No Vaccine, No Cure Nobel laureate Dr. Rolf Zinkernagel recently opined at a conference that developing a truly effective vaccine against AIDS is impossible. HIV won’t be eliminated, he suggested, but perhaps someday will mutate into a less deadly form. Making an HIV vaccine is difficult, because there are many virus variations. A…
One More Time
Panel: Producers and Their Process Austin Convention Center, Saturday, March 15 When a musician enters the studio with a mind full of ideas, a van full of instruments, and maybe a voice, these are the guys that turn it all into an album. They record, engineer, add, subtract, write, arrange, and until recently, aside from…
Naked City
Investigative journalist Greg Palast, author of the bestselling The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, will speak on “Truth About Globalization, Corporate Cons, and High Finance Fraudsters,” at Unitarian Universalist Church, 4700 Grover, on Wednesday, March 26, at 7pm. The appearance benefits the Texas Fair Trade Association. See www.gregpalast.com for more info. A community forum, “Is…
Off the Shelf
Suki Hawley and Michael Galinsky’s Horns and Halos isn’t so much about Bush, but rather the book about the Bush that Bush didn’t want you to know.
Turning the Lens on Us
Austin is hosting the 40th national conference of the Society for Photographic Education, which aims to consider how the United States has been represented by photographers in the past and where photographers need to focus their attention in the future.
His Whole Life
How Lake Austin Spa and Resort chef Terry Conlan rose to the top without losing his perspective and priorities
One More Time
The Locust Emo’s Annex, Saturday, March 15 Finally, a real SXSW buzz band! Clad in brown pullovers and masks with mesh bug eyeholes, the Locust does its best to mimic the altered sensual perception of the insect phylum. Anyone who came to check them out just because they’re the newest signing to Epitaph Records’ Anti…
Naked City
Another vicious twist entered the fiscal debate at the Capitol last week, as Health and Human Services budget-writers proposed saving the elderly and disabled by throwing the children out of the lifeboat. A week after the HHS Commission proposed jettisoning half (250,000) of the Texas children now receiving health care under the Children’s Health Insurance…
Short Cuts
Sending off SXSW 2003
Authentic Sound
When pianist Paul Badura-Skoda plays classical music of centuries past, he strips away the centuries of romantic interpretation and provides us with the beauty and lively spirit of the music as it was originally heard.
Beef and Veal Bolognese
Excerpted with permission from ‘Fresh: Healthy Cooking and Living From Lake Austin Spa Resort’ by Terry Conlan (Favorite Recipes Press © 2003) 2 teaspoons olive oil 1/2 cup diced onion 3 tblsp. diced carrot 3 tblsp. diced celery 2 garlic cloves, minced 6 oz. ultra lean, all-natural ground beef 6 oz. ultra lean, all-natural ground…
One More Time
Gorch Fock Emo’s Jr., Sunday, March 16 Just how loud was Sixth Street early Sunday night? Still belching enough live rock & roll noise pollution that even with the front hatch of Emo’s tree fort thrown asunder, you still couldn’t hear Gorch Fock down the street. A street mostly deserted, the dead and wounded from…
Naked City
The Alliance Schools, a program that improves school performance through direct community involvement, has fallen victim to the slash-and-burn budget battle being waged at the Capitol. The program, run by the Texas Industrial Areas Foundation, has been getting state money for its Investment Capital Fund since 1993. The $14 million fund supports grants to schools…
TV Eye
Local filmmaker Heather Courtney’s award-winning doc, Los Trabajadores, hits the small screen.
Piece of Work
In his large charcoal drawing Rock n’ Roll, Drugs and Sex, artist Randy Twaddle reverses a familiar phrase and places it on a curling banner floating through a dark and grimy background, making it an example of verbal recycling in an otherwise wasted landscape.
Food-o-File
With great SPAM™ comes big changes, great and not great, in this week’s “Food-o-File.”
One More Time
The Dung Beatles Emo’s, Sunday, March 16 There’s something reassuringly revolting in having a band obsessed with feces playing the unofficial SXSW wrap (crap) party. It’s as if the festival, many of whose staffers stood proudly watching numbers like “Felch!,” “Really Got a Load in Me,” and “Piss Bowl,” was saying thanks to the industry…
Naked City
The 2003 Austin Environmental Directory, which made its debut Monday, may represent Paul Robbins’ most ambitious effort yet. The longtime activist and editor of the free sourcebook spent nearly three years digging into our industrial past to support this year’s theme — environmental business as a viable economic engine. A meticulous researcher, Robbins devotes the…
Video Reviews
By combining elements of classic Westerns with a modern narrative, Hill and his capable cast render a thrilling look at characters often misinterpreted by Hollywood.
Articulations
The stars come out at the Paramount when the Texas Medal of the Arts Awards are given, and the Bastrop Opera House shoots for a national title in the American Association of Community Theatres competition.
One More Time
Wrapping up SXSW 03 with a sampling of Saturday night showcases.
One More Time
Best SXSW Related Set Greg Beets: Pong, Room 710 day party, Saturday Jim Caligiuri: Steve Wynn, Swollen Circus, Stubb’s, Tuesday Michael Chamy: Maserati, Blue Theater, Friday Christopher Coletti: Pharrell Williams, Producers Panel, Convention Center, Saturday Christopher Gray: The Frames, Convention Center Day Stage, Saturday Melanie Haupt: Har Mar Superstar, Blue Genie party, Thursday Raoul Hernandez:…
Naked City
The city is mobilizing forces to send into the war zone — Barton Springs Road, where businesses have been under siege for two years and orange-alert construction cones and barriers mark the spot known as Restaurant Row. After several skirmishes over a wastewater pipeline gone wrong, city officials last week delivered a “notice of termination”…
Horns and Halos
Horns and Halos 2002, NR, 90 min. Directed by Michael Galinsky, Suki Hawley, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . Remember that unauthorized George W. Bush bio Fortunate Son that was pulled by its original publisher, St. Martin’s Press, during the 2000 presidential campaign because of allegations of Bush cocaine use in Houston during…
Exhibitionism
The Vortex Repertory Company’s retelling of Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter feels like it’s coming from a fitful, troubled sleep, a hazy dreamscape in which director Michelle Fowler and her cast create a society of suffocating morality and the cruel reprisals that await any who violate its rigid rules of conduct.
One More Time
Joe Jackson Band Auditorium Shores, Saturday, March 15 The threat of rain didn’t deter a festival throng from a right sit-in at Auditorium Shores on a SXSW Saturday evening. Holding down the middle of five slots on this free show was the original Joe Jackson Band, celebrating two and a half decades since their seminal…
One More Time
Best SXSW Showcase Greg Beets: Polyphonic Spree, Stubb’s, Saturday Jim Caligiuri: Dan Brodie, Mother Egan’s, Friday Michael Chamy: Swervedriver’s Adam Franklin, 505 Club, Friday Christopher Coletti: Jean Grae, Venue, Friday Christopher Gray: Milton Mapes, Club DeVille, Thursday Melanie Haupt: Gogol Bordello, Red Eyed Fly, Friday Raoul Hernandez: Kinski, Mercury, Saturday Christopher Hess: Spoon, Stubb’s, Friday…
Austin @ Large: Austin at Large
Austin’s $100 limit on campaign donations survives another court test — does that mean it works?
The Hunted
The Hunted 2003, R, 94 min. Directed by William Friedkin, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Tommy Lee Jones, Benicio Del Toro, Connie Nielsen, Jenna Boyd, Leslie Stefanson. Possibly the least cost-effective game of hide-and-seek ever devised, The Hunted is also great fun for those of us who miss playing in the mud during…
Exhibitionism
In the best Hollywood tradition, the good folks at Refraction Arts Project have created a sequel to 2002’s Celebrity Crush, and the new series of sketches and films about obsessions with and fixations on various celebrities, old and new, has as much to recommend it as the old.
One More Time
Alex Skolnick Trio Elephant Room, Saturday, March 15 Alex Skolnick was once the fire-and-brimstone guitarist with Testament, yet here he was, neat and trim, before a packed house of jazzbos and hangbangers alike, leading a straight-up trio in Austin’s premier jazz cellar. Sampling his most recent disc, Goodbye to Romance: Standards for a New Generation,…
AMA Encore
(From top left): Hall of Fame winner Steven Fromholz picks ‘n’ grins during the all-star Redneck Rockers set (photo by Todd V. Wolfson) Ruthie Foster, radiant after her exuberant opening set (photo by Todd V. Wolfson) Austin’s new heavyweight champs/Band of the Year, Del Castillo (photo by John Carrico) 107.1 KGSR’s Jody Denberg presents SIMS’…
The Hightower Report
Being an arms pimp backfires on the U.S.; and to see our nation’s future, look at Texas’ miserable present.
The Way Home
The Way Home 2002, PG, 80 min. Directed by Jeong-Hyang Lee, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Seung-Ho Yoo, Eul-Boon Kim. It’s difficult to warm up to the 7-year-old Korean boy in the sincere but awkward The Way Home – for the most part, he’s nothing more than a spoiled brat, a poster child…
Exhibitionism
In Hush: An Interview With America, the students of the UT Department of Theatre and Dance handle the complexities of James Still’s play with steady hands, which may please viewers who enjoy supporting the development of young artists, but the play’s inconsistencies may leave other visitors to this theatrical lab disappointed.
One More Time
Hang on the Box Elysium, Saturday, March 15 Since 1997, Audrey Kimura’s Tokyo-based Benten label has been responsible for bringing some of Japan’s finest girl groups to SXSW, including Lolita No. 18, Mummy the Peepshow, and Petty Booka. Now Benten has stretched its empire all the way into Mainland China. Beijing’s Hang on the Box…
The ‘Mold Queen’ Fights Back
Melinda Ballard beat the insurance companies in court. Now she’s carrying her fight to the politicians and the public.
Sending Off SXSW 2003
Film reviews, and more!
Dreamcatcher
Dreamcatcher 2003, R, 134 min. Directed by Lawrence Kasdan, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Morgan Freeman, Jason Lee, Thomas Jane, Damian Lewis, Timothy Olyphant, Tom Sizemore, Donnie Wahlberg. Dreamcatcher, an adaptation of Stephen King’s unwieldy horror/sci-fi novel of the same name, is either a canny metaphor for the country’s current paranoia regarding terrorism…
‘Sleep Toward Heaven’
We’re not reviewing Amanda Eyre Ward’s debut novel, Sleep Toward Heaven, and we’re not interviewing her as an author, either, because she has contributed to The Austin Chronicle for more than three years. It would be a conflict of interest. We are, however, excerpting an early chapter of the book, and we are proud and…
One More Time
Kait0 3800-A S. Congress, Saturday, March 15 You have to give the fire marshals credit for being thorough. They didn’t forget to check in on this gathering at the aptly named Big Blue Warehouse, next to South Congress sanctuary Dee & Jim’s — one of the places least likely to ever have a SXSW stampede.…
We’re with Lloyds
The battle over homeowners insurance rates is front and center at the Lege
Sending Off SXSW 2003
ASSISTED LIVING D: Elliot Greenebaum; with Michael Bonsignore, Maggie Riley, Nanci Jo Boone, Clint Vaught, Jose Albovias, the residents of Masonic Homes of Kentucky. Narrative Feature First Films, Regional Premiere It starts out like Christopher Guest and ends up like P.T. Anderson, though at no point does it come remotely close to matching the light…
Lost in La Mancha
Lost in La Mancha 2003, R, 90 min. Directed by Keith Fulton, Louis Pepe, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . What happens to a dream deferred? Well, sometimes it goes into turnaround, and the six lousy days of footage you shot of it wind up as filler in a documentary/funeral dirge detailing the…
The Latest in Paper
‘Portis’ characters are painfully human; they are often complicated, sometimes plain wretched, and always worth the price of admission,” writes Anne Harris of the great man’s True Grit. “And his frugal comic dexterity can be so subtle as to just whisper beneath catastrophe.”
One More Time
The Coral Stubb’s, Saturday, March 15 Already heralded from Esquire to Pop Culture Press, the Coral are h-u-g-e, and you don’t even know it. You limped past the Liverpool sixpiece on your way to the Supergrass show at Stubb’s; you know, those buskers out front of Elysium, where at one point, five whole passersby jangled…
Supreme Court Ponders Banks’ Death Row Case
The U.S. Supreme Court grants a last-minute stay to Delma Banks, Jr.
Sending Off SXSW 2003
EXPERIMENTAL SHORTSD: Various. Out of death, birth. Coming just four days after the unexpected death of pioneering experimental filmmaker and avant-gardist Stan Brakhage, nothing is more apparent than that late cineaste’s influence, especially in Stephan Knuesel’s “Exercise,” which uses a film (video?) loop to repeat effect, all set to Beethoven. Coming from the mainstream, it’s…
Gerry
Gerry 2002, R, 103 min. Directed by Gus Van Sant, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Matt Damon, Casey Affleck. Gus Van Sant gets back to narrative basics after mucking around in the commercial wilderness of Finding Forrester and Good Will Hunting. Van Sant’s sense of “basics” leads him to another kind of wilderness…
Page Two
Let us hope the war in Iraq is quick, the death toll is low, and that all dire predictions prove unfounded; let’s also hope that we haven’t destroyed our own country ideologically in order to save it.
One More Time
I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness Club DeVille, Saturday, March 15 In the blink of an eye, the patio at Club DeVille filled up just in time for the beginning of this chillingly precise set by locals that have chosen quite possibly the best name ever. Bathed in chilly blue light, the five young…
Profiling Racial Profiling
On Feb. 28, the Austin Police Dept. released its first report on “racial profiling,” as required under a 2001 state law. In a memo to the City Council, APD Chief Stan Knee wrote that the racial and ethnic background of drivers stopped by APD last year “roughly mirrors” Austin’s demographics. But other indicators — e.g.,…
Sending Off SXSW 2003
LIZARD TIMES TWENTY: THE AUSTIN LOUNGE LIZARDS LIVE AT ANTONE’SD: Steve Mims. Documentary Feature Special Screenings, World Premiere Not many bands last 20 years, and unlike most that do, the Austin Lounge Lizards can honestly say people are laughing with them, not at them. The demented bluegrass/country-comedy purveyors celebrated this fact at Antone’s in spring…
Open Hearts
Open Hearts 2003, R, 113 min. Directed by Susanne Bier, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Sonja Richter, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Mads Mikkelsen, Paprika Steen, Birthe Neumann, Niels Olsen. Open Hearts begins with what it’s like to be in love: the smiles, the secret language, the humor peculiar to two and only two. Over…
Beyond Limits Otherwise Prescribed
George W. Bush refuses to put our money where his mouth is in matters of domestic defense, even though all the experts testify that America is as vulnerable to major terrorist attacks today as it was on 9 / 11.
One More Time
Lyle Lovett: The SXSW Interview Austin Convention Center, Saturday, March 15 Sure the sun was shining and there were hundreds of bands playing around town on Saturday afternoon, but that didn’t stop several hundred people from showing up to hear a conversation with Lyle Lovett. With Texas Monthly Editor Evan Smith acting as interrogator (isn’t…
In Austin, Safety Comes at a (Too) High Price
The city’s inflated budgets may have left Austin ped / bike projects empty-handed.
Sending Off SXSW 2003
LUBBOCK LIGHTSD: Amy Maner. Documentary Feature Special Screenings, World Premiere From flat, empty plains to a hotbed of musical inspiration, the soil of Lubbock, Texas, has spawned more than its share of music innovators. Lubbock Lights wants to unearth the reasons behind this phenomenon. Asking the musical question “Why?,” the documentary films a number of…
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
When Omar Sharif was cast in 1968 as Nicky Arnstein opposite Barbra Streisand’s Fanny Brice in Funny Girl, Sharif’s films were banned in his native Egypt because he made love to a Jewish woman on screen.The English name Cholmondeley is pronounced “Chumley.”The introduction of NBC’s 1950s animated peacock logo no doubt helped sell color TV…
One More Time
Porter Hall, TN Jovita’s, Saturday, March 15 Sunday is the bloody final round of SXSW, the weary trudging to the finish line. It’s the day when those who were sucked up into the tornado are plunked down again like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, bleary and bewildered, landing squarely in a puddle of stale…
War Drums: Rumblings on the Home Front
As an Iraq war becomes inevitable, local responses range from the stupid to the sublime.
Sending Off SXSW 2003
MY FLESH AND BLOODD: Jonathan Karsh. Documentary Feature Special Screenings If you attend enough film festivals in your life, you grow wearily accustomed to that old indie-movie standby: the dysfunctional family film. How refreshing then that director Jonathan Karsh has chosen to share the story of supermom Susan Tom, den mother to one of the…
After a Fashion
LOFTIER PURSUITS If it wasn’t for my NBF (new best friend) Lance Morgan, Society editor of Austin Monthly and Elegant Texan, I’d have never gotten into the HRC Austin’s White Hot Black Tie Ball. Don’t know what HRC stands for? No, it’s not the Harry Ransom Center … it’s the Human Rights Campaign. Needless to…
One More Time
Women in Rock Lucky Lounge, Saturday, March 15 Granted, observing two and a half hours of a 12-hour event — in this case the Women in Rock showcase at Lucky Lounge on Saturday — is not enough to gauge the success of the entire affair. But if the talent, or rather the relative lack of…
Naked City
The (Second) Bush War has probably started by now. Turn to War Drums to see the latest rumblings and calls for action on the home front. To make sense of the week’s White House news, read Aesop’s fable of the wolf and the lamb (try www.aesopsfables.net). Even such good American girls as Natalie Maines of…
Sending Off SXSW 2003
RISE ABOVE: THE TRIBE 8 DOCUMENTARYD: Tracy Flannigan; with Tribe 8. Documentary Feature Special Screenings, World Premiere Raw, rude, and partly nude — the lesbian punk rockers of Tribe 8 have offended a few delicate sensibilities. “I’m scared,” says one guy after a show that includes, among other things, the lead singer demanding a straight…
