March 23 • 2001

Mar 23-29, 2001 / Vol. 20 / No. 30

Suits: The Clothes Make the Man

Suits: The Clothes Make the Man 2000, NR, 76 min. Directed by W. Ross Wells, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Michael Galbreth, Jack Massing. The film is a cross-country travelogue with Houston’s famed Art Guys, who traveled the country in Todd Oldham suits emblazoned with advertising logos. Free hot dogs will be provided…

Pedicab Driver

Pedicab Driver 1989, NR, 95 min. Directed by Sammo Hung, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Sammo Hung, Lau Kar Leung, Benny Mok. Sammo Hung directs and stars in this action vehicle about a bunch of pedicab drivers in Macao who are looking for love and get into trouble with a pimp. Hung can…

Jackal of Nahueltoro

Jackal of Nahueltoro 1969, NR, 95 min. Directed by Miguel Littin, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Luis Alarcón, Marcelo Romo, Shenda Román, Rubén Sotoconil, Nelson Villagra. Capital punishment comes under attack in this passionate Chilean investigation of poverty’s curse.

Barravento

Barravento 1962, NR, 80 min. Directed by Glauber Rocha, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Luisa Maranhao, Antonio Pitanga, Lidio Silva, Aldo Teixeira. This first feature by the guiding spirit of Brazil’s Cinema Novo movement, Glauber Rocha, is a neorealist story about the exploitation of a Bahia fishing village. The film was initially banned…

Hour of the Furnaces

Hour of the Furnaces 1969, NR, 260 min. Directed by Fernando E. Solanas, Octavio Getino, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . A polemical indictment of neocolonialism, this four-hour-plus documentary (that represents the first conscious expression of the Third Cinema movement) was made to be shown in clandestine settings and presents a collage of…

Antonio Gaudí

Antonio Gaudí 1985, NR, 72 min. Directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . This documentary about the unique work of the famous Catalonian architect Antonio Gaudi is directed by the Japanese filmmaker who made Woman of the Dunes 20 years earlier. Instead of using voiceover narration, Teshigahara uses the camera…

Chac: The Rain God

Chac: The Rain God 1974, NR, 95 min. Directed by Rolando Klein, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Pablo Canche Balam, Alonzo Mendez Ton, Sebastian Santis. Milestone Films has struck a new print of this lost 1974 film made by first-time Chilean filmmaker Klein and starring nonprofessional actors from Chiapas, Mexico, where it was…

Supareal: Live Djs vs. Anime

Supareal: Live Djs vs. Anime NR. Directed by Various, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . Supareal: Live DJs vs. Anime continues the Alamo Drafthouse’s groundbreaking Movie & Music program that couples silent movies with the performance of original scores by local musicians. Supareal pairs Japanese anime features with local DJs who will be…

Santa Claus Has Blue Eyes

Santa Claus Has Blue Eyes 1966, NR, 47 min. Directed by Jean Eustache, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Jean-Pierre Léaud, René Gilson, Gérard Zimmermann. The film tells the story of a group of young men in a small French province and their attempts to earn money and meet girls. The character played by…

Une Salle Histoire

Une Salle Histoire 1977, NR, 50 min. Directed by Jean Eustache, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Michel Lonsdale, Jean Douchet, Jean-Noël Picq. A fabled film in the history of cinema, Une Salle Histoire (A Dirty Story) deals uncomfortably with the subject of voyeurism. The story involves a friend of Eustache who accidentally found…

A Umm Kulthoum: Voice Like Egypt

A Umm Kulthoum: Voice Like Egypt 1996, NR, 67 min. Directed by Michal Goldman, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Omar Sharif, Om Koultoum. The rags-to-riches biography of the legendary Arabic singer, Umm Kulthoum, is portrayed in this documentary that accompanies a live vocal performance of her music by Zein Al-Jundi and the Trans…

Out of the Past

Out of the Past 1998, R, 97 min. Directed by Jeffrey Dupre, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Steven Spinella, Gwyneth Paltrow, Cherry Jones, Edward Norton, Leland Gantt. This crowd-pleasing documentary (it’s won audience awards at Sundance, and at several gay & lesbian film festivals) traces the emergence of gay men and lesbians in…

Exhibitionism

Watching this neat and happy Second Youth Family Theatre production of Snoopy!!! is like paging through a random helping of funnies from the philosophically comic genius of Charles Schulz. And with songs at least as clever as the comic shtick, it’s an easygoing, good-natured musical that, as advertised, is theatre fun for the whole family.

Coach’s Corner

Four seed? Six seed? It really doesn’t matter if you lose your first game. UT basketball teams have gotten way too used to early exits from the NCAAs.

River High, Mountain Deep

Vinicius CantuáriaAzucar, Thursday, March 15 You know multi-instrumentalist Vinicius Cantuária has both chops and soul when he can enlist the help of world-class musicians such as Joey Baron, Marc Ribot, Bill Frisell, Brad Mehldau, and David Byrne to play on Vinicius, his latest for Transparent Music. The Brazilian Cantuária is known as a singer, guitarist,…

River High, Mountain Deep

‘The Word on Christian Rock’ PanelAustin Convention Center, Saturday, March 17 Doug Pinnick should be one of the industry’s heroes. As bassist and vocalist for King’s X, he helped break new ground in terms of crossover appeal, bringing Christian-friendly music to a wider audience and making many aware that some of the music labeled as…

Say it Isn’t So

Say it Isn’t So 2001, R, 95 min. Directed by James B. Rogers, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Mark Pellegrino, Jack Plotnick, John Rothman, Eddie Cibrian, Richard Jenkins, Sally Field, Orlando Jones, Chris Klein, Heather Graham. Although the TV spots for Say It Isn’t So practically demand that nonattentive viewers take note that…

Exhibitionism

Blake Yelavich’s new play Aidan’s Bed is like a bottle of soda, fizzling and popping with characters who are laughable, wry, and sardonic, but the author’s uneven direction of his own play proves that even the best soda can go flat without proper handling.

Worlds of Flavor

As a food writer with a special passion for the foods of Southeast Asia, I was excited about the 2000 Worlds of Flavor International Conference and Festival, Mick Vann writes. My pulse quickened and I salivated uncontrollably every time the possibility of attending crossed my mind. I would love to go, but my financial picture…

River High, Mountain Deep

The MorellsWaterloo Brewing Co., Thursday, March 15 State of the Rock, Circa 2001. There are the nü-metal bands, grimacing, posturing, flailing their hair and angrily testifying about all the things that irritate them. There are the latter-day spiky punks, making like it’s 1981 and getting after it with all the grim determination (and relevance) of…

River High, Mountain Deep

The Last Temptation of SuperegoHole in the Wall, Sunday, March 18 According to Paul Minor, one way George Lucas got ready for Star Wars was applying his new Lucasfilm technology to airbrush a big lump of cocaine out of Neil Young’s nose in Martin Scorsese’s 1975 film The Last Waltz. We all have to start…

SXSW Interactive Festival

It wasn’t all doom and gloom at SXSW Interactive, but anyone who doubts that the New Economy euphoria has been replaced with a post-dot-com hangover need only check out the list of career-track panels offered this year.

Exhibitionism

Chicago printmaker and poet Tony Fitzpatrick shares memories of his hometown in a show of his intaglio prints at Slugfest Gallery, and the images and stories make it a powerful place to visit.

The Stars

The following is a list of just a small portion of the highly esteemed culinarians who made up the world-renowned faculty of the 2000 Worlds of Flavor Conference on the foods of India and Southeast Asia, including some of their publications and awards. They truly are the tops in their field. Jeffrey Alford and Naomi…

River High, Mountain Deep

Peter Anthony/ DJ Muppetfucker, DJ FirewheelTexture/Empire, Thursday, March 15 Nature abhors a vacuum, and so too does the DJ. The difference lies in the fact that a DJ sans audience sounds a helluva lot better than the negative squelch of an anti-crowd. Lines around the block at Stubb’s Jurassic 5 mindwarper the same night as…

SXSW Interactive Festival

With no startling new technical innovations around to distract, this year’s SXSW Interactive Festival panels devoted to the visual creative process stressed that now is the time for designers to find their roots.

Food-o-File

Local foodies who are traveling for food, and an update on the Texas Hill Country Wine & Food Festival.

River High, Mountain Deep

SpoonMercury, Thursday, March 15 Like bees, like flies, like fluorescent lamps, Spoon’s SXSW 2001 showcase was the source of pure buzz. With the release of their first true indie album, the new Girls Can Tell on Merge, and the fact that it may be the local quartet’s best album to date, Spoon would be out…

‘A Treasured Value’

UT’s faculty council considered the Justice for All episode on Monday, March 19. The meeting began with the reading of a prepared statement from President Larry R. Faulkner (who was attending a conference in Brazil). Faulkner summarized the background of the university’s permission for the JFA exhibit, noting that “the [JFA] student leadership had engaged…

SXSW Interactive Festival

As a keynote guest at SXSW Interactive 2001, Scott McCloud discussed his pioneering efforts to explode the form and expand the audience through online comics.

Postscripts

The funny people at Modern Humorist have devised a new way to make fun of the President, and upcoming events in Austin’s literary life.

River High, Mountain Deep

Bavu Blakes & Tee DoubleBack Room, Friday, March 16 Those willing to take the untethered trail toward the underground of hip-hop during South by Southwest, which predominantly takes place in the downtown area, would have found themselves at the gritty Back Room on Riverside. With many heads packed into the dark, smoky venue to see…

Chemical Warfare

Public health advocates organize around a Bill Moyers PBS special on the chemical industry and the hazards it creates.

Short Cuts

Spy Kids home in on the Paramount Theatre this Saturday, and the Alamo Drafthouse homes in on the former Village Cinema Art.

Readings

Swimming in Sky A Novel by Inman Majors SMU Press, 241 pp., $19.95 Inman Majors’ Swimming in Sky is such a rich book that it’s near impossible to figure out how to dive in to defining it. While it’s fair to characterize it as a first novel, it is certainly one filled with a distinctive…

Second Helpings

Tâm Deli & Cafe 82222 N. Lamar, Ste. D-33, 834-6458 Wed-Mon, 10am-8pm Of the smaller Viet noodle houses, Tm Deli enjoys a vaunted reputation. They offer several unique dishes that come highly recommended, such as the shrimp and shredded yam cakes, the shrimp stuffed tofu, and the crab meat and shrimp paste soup. All of…

River High, Mountain Deep

Tahiti 80Waterloo Brewing Co., Thursday, March15 Let’s just get it out in the open: There’s something slightly off about French pop. No matter what sound or style, French bands seem to have both Burt Bacharach and the Velvet Underground subsumed in the equation. Paris’ Tahiti 80, a bright and poppy band on the bright and…

Video Reviews

What’s Love Got To Do With ItD: Brian Gibson (1993); with Angela Bassett, Laurence Fishburne, James Reyne, Vanessa Bell, Richard T. Jones. The deification of St. Tina and the deserved crucifixion of Ike, starring the magnificent Angela Bassett, is harrowing and crackling with electricity. Perhaps the only movie with more domestic violence than Mommie Dearest,…

Readings

Unacknowledged Legislation Writers in the Public Sphere by Christopher Hitchens Verso Books, 344 pp., $25 Book reviews by Christopher Hitchens are refreshing for at least three reasons. First, and most basically, Hitchens is smarter, better read, and more brilliantly and subtly acidic than most reviewers. Second, he carries a meaningful point of view through his…

Second Helpings

Tan Tan 1601 Ohlen Road, 832-8393 Daily, 10am-9pm Tan Tan has a very loyal following of devoted fans, and they turn out one of the best bowls of vermicelli noodles with assorted toppings in Austin (tied for first on our list, in fact). The bowls of pho feature a tasty, rich stock, and diners really…

River High, Mountain Deep

K.C. & the Sunshine BandStar of Texas Rodeo, Travis Expo Center, Friday, March 16 While so many were content to spend the week getting poked in the eye by some West Coaster’s cell phone antenna, others of us got as far from all that as we could between showcases. Wallowing instead in an aura of…

Video Reviews

Money for NothingD: Ramón Menéndez (1993); with John Cusack, Michael Madsen, Debi Mazar, James Gandolfini, Benicio Del Toro, Michael Rapaport, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Maury Chaykin. They say money is the root of all evil, changing people for the worst, and director Menéndez sets out to show this in Money for Nothing, a bumbling rags-to-riches tale…

Readings

Kosher Meat edited by Lawrence Schimel Sherman Asher Publishing, 144 pp., $14.95 (paper) The premise of Kosher Meat, a slim collection of 10 short stories detailing the sex lives of gay Jewish men, sounds rather routine at first glance. Every trope that the reader expects to find in these stories, after all, from the conflicted…

Second Helpings

Triumph Coffee Shop 3808 Spicewood Springs Rd., 343-1875 Mon-Thu, 7am-7pm; Fri, 7am-11pm, Sat, 8am-11pm This delightful spot with a garden courtyard began as a French bakery with fresh roasted coffee imported from the family’s plantation back in Vietnam. Over the years, they have added more and more Vietnamese specialties, all of which are above reproach.…

River High, Mountain Deep

Ex-GirlRed Eyed Fly, Friday, March 16 Pity the poor band that has to take the stage (or what’s left of it) after an incendiary performance by those …Trail of Dead boys. How exactly do you top a bass drum being thrown through a plastic Coors Light banner and into Waller Creek? Tokyo’s Ex-Girl is one…

Naked City

By the time you read this, the second Watson administration — motto: “Anything Past Councils Did, We Can Do Better” — might have finally run out of decades-old controversies to “resolve” with a flourish. If it hasn’t already, the City Council will soon rezone the Bennett Tract and plant a SmartGrown seed firmly on the…

Video Reviews

Conan the BarbarianD: John Milius (1982); with Arnold Schwarzenegger, James Earl Jones, Sandahl Bergman, Mako, Gerry Lopez. While Gladiator snapped up a Golden Globe, some fans may want to revisit this early Eighties gem. True Conan fanatics may dispute its authenticity, but as a fantasy film, it works brilliantly. Conan (Schwarzenegger) is orphaned when his…

Second Helpings

Saigon Kitchen 4323 S. I-35, 326-3969 Sun, 11:30am-9pm; Mon-Sat, 11am-10pm One of the very few sources for good specialty Vietnamese grub south of Fortune Pho and the central Research corridor, Saigon Kitchen is a southerly boon for us Bubbas (and with the construction finally ending on the frontage road, it’s much easier to get to).…

River High, Mountain Deep

‘The Unearthed Treasures Of The Lomax Recordings’ Panel Austin Convention Center, Friday, March 16 Together with the legendary work of his father, John, Alan Lomax’s prolific 62-year career ensures the name “Lomax” will forever be brought up quickly in most any conversation on the subject of field recordings. Born in Austin on January 15, 1915,…

Naked City

Two Texas legislators file two very different bills in response to apparent conflicts of interest by state Supreme Court clerks who take bonuses from their future employers.

TV Eye

Belinda Acosta frees her inner dork, with big ups for The Lone Gunmen and BattleBots, among others. Also, a partial Oscar ballot.

Second Helpings

Sea Dragon 8776-B Research, 451-5051 13945 Research, 291-5054 Mon-Fri, 11:30am-2:30pm, 5-10pm; Sat, 11:30am-10pm; Sun, 11:30am-9:45pm www.sea-dragon.com For the last 13 years, Sea Dragon has helped educate Austin diners about the nuances of Vietnamese food. They have a four-page Vietnamese menu loaded with choices, and they’re especially heavy on the spicy and the seafood specialties. The…

River High, Mountain Deep

Twangfest Day Party Under the Sun, Friday, March 16 Twangfest is a relatively small, yet growing, music festival that happens every June in St. Louis. It’s an outgrowth of the listserv “Postcard 2,” an Internet music discussion list that’s devoted to alternative country and all its flavors, yet ranges wide enough to include banter on…

Naked City

The City Council prepares to decide how much information about Austin Energy’s finances and operations will be kept out of the public view when deregulation comes in 2002.

Second Helpings

Twin Dragon 9717 N. Lamar, 832-8393 Mon-Fri, 11am-2:30pm, 5-10pm; Sat-Sun, 11:30am-10pm Twin Dragon is the other Grande Dame of Vietnamese cuisine in Austin, and has a very loyal, large, and satisfied following. The menu is extremely complex and varied, covering all the requisites, and then some. Try the mussels with lemongrass or the fish and…

River High, Mountain Deep

Vic Chesnutt, Clem SnideBuffalo Billiards, Friday, March 16 There was some stiff competition for the last two showcase slots of Friday night, with Lucinda and company over at the Music Hall, the Secretly Canadian indie-mope contingent squatting at the Copper Tank all night, and the bulging Brit-pop occupation of La Zona Rosa, but one man…

Naked City

Supporters of the James Byrd Jr. Hate Crime Act braved cold, rainy weather on Sunday, March 18, to march to the Capitol for a rousing rally on the south steps. The Lesbian Gay Rights Lobby of Texas, which organized the march, placed head-count estimates at about 1,500 at the start of the march, although the…

Philadelphia Freedom

They call themselves the Bruins We think that name is crumbs We have a better name for them We call them Boston Bums! This is the chant my brother and I have made up. It’s the early Seventies, and I’m maybe 11, so that makes him maybe nine. We are hockey fanatics. Specifically, we are…

River High, Mountain Deep

Tift MerrittAustin Music Hall, Friday, March 16 During last year’s South by Southwest, Chapel Hill’s Tift Merritt played on the patio in front of Opal Divine’s to an audience of maybe 30 people. This year, she opened the Lost Highway label showcase at the airplane hangar they call the Austin Music Hall in front of…

The Brothers

The Brothers 2001, R, 106 min. Directed by Gary Hardwick, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Bill Bellamy, Morris Chestnut, Gary Harwick, D.l. Hughley, Clifton Powell, Shemar Moore, Clifton Powell, Tatyana Ali, Nadege Auguste, Jesse Caldwell, Clifton Powell, Gabrielle Union. Hardwick’s debut feature goes to pains to distance itself from the black male ensemble…

River High, Mountain Deep

David Byrne/Thomas Mapfumo & Wadada Leo SmithLa Zona Rosa, Saturday, March 17 It was a South by Southwest moment: During Jim White’s twisted folk-rock set — the second act of four — the evening’s opener, troubled troubadour Johnny Dowd, mingled with fans, while buxom babes passed out beer company promo swag and headliner David Byrne…

Exit Wounds

Exit Wounds 2001, R, 117 min. Directed by Andrzej Bartkowiak, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Steven Seagal, DMX, Isaiah Washington, Michael Jai White, Anthony Anderson, Bill Duke, Jill Hennessy, Tom Arnold. Exit Wounds is a textbook example of how to revive a lagging career. Steven Seagal, who’s now been absent from the screen…

Pushing the Envelope

For years, mail art has been enlivening the world’s postal systems and creating a “meeting of minds” among creative types across the world. Three Austin artists are profiled in a look at the history and continuing appeal of mail art.

River High, Mountain Deep

Yngwie Malmsteen & Rising ForceBack Room, Wednesday, March 14 Yngwie Malmsteen nearly single-handedly brought breakneck speed guitar — or shredding — into existence in the Eighties. Cast in the mold of Hendrix and Deep Purple, seasoned with Western classical and baroque flavors, and cooked in the fire of supersonic fretboarding, the Swedish-born Miami resident is…

River High, Mountain Deep

The BeatnutsBack Room, Saturday, March 17 New York owned the stage Saturday night as NYC’s Beatnuts and the X-ecutioners’ Mista Sinista posed the musical query, “How high can the beat take the crowd?” The Beatnuts, one of the few headliners of South by Southwest hip-hop who have not crossed Austin stages, were part of Loud…

SXSW Interactive Festival

“I don’t think information is property, and thus I don’t think it’s possible to buy it, and therefore, it’s not possible to steal it.” A keynote speaker at SXSW Interactive, Dublin native Ian Clarke speaks about Freenet, the peer-to-peer system he created.

Heartbreakers

Heartbreakers 2001, PG-13, 120 min. Directed by David Mirkin, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Sigourney Weaver, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Ray Liotta, Gene Hackman, Jason Lee, Jeffrey Jones, Nora Dunn, Anne Bancroft, Ricky Jay. If you’ve always dreamed of seeing Gene Hackman stumble about the screen slathered with an overabundance of stage make-up, well-browned…

The Way We Were: 2001

1 Best Drummer Brannen Temple (left) joins the rest of Blaze, winners of Best Jazz Band. 2 107.1 KGSR’s Jody Denberg, SIMS founder Peyton Wimmer, Kyle Ellison, and Alejandro Escovedo smile really big — this year’s check was for more than $132,000! 3 Sandra Bullock, looking as divine and darling in casual dress as she…

To Your Health

I have lived in Texas for 20 years. I have a great tan and have always supposed this protected me against skin cancer. Am I right?

River High, Mountain Deep

JapancakesEmo’s Jr., Wednesday, March 14 What’s the closest you can come to sucking without actually sucking? That’s how good (or bad) the Athens, Ga.-based outfit Japancakes was. It might not have been that bad, it might have just been the sound, but from the very first notes of opener “The Waiting,” from the band’s latest,…

River High, Mountain Deep

00100Emo’s Jr., Saturday, March 17 Thank heaven the Cult was so insufferably dull. And thank heaven I ran into a couple of other departing rock scribes who tipped me off to a band called the Shins playing Emo’s. Finally, thank heaven the Shins weren’t much better than the Cult. It was time to salvage the…

SXSW Interactive Festival

Looking for a soft silver lining in the Internet’s burgeoning cloud? The content track at the SXSW Interactive conference seems the most likely place to find some reassurance.

Nico and Dani

This Spanish import is a coming-of-age dramedy whose (nearly) teenage stars are natural actors, whose direction is unforced, and whose sexual themes are treated with candor and humor.

Articulations

Liz Smith writes up Zach Scott, Jaston Williams plans new acting projects, and ArtPlex undergoes a name change.

About AIDS

“If someone gets HIV, and then I have sex with them, how soon could they infect me?” This is a question we’ve heard thousands of times over the 15 years that we’ve been running a telephone (or Net) AIDS hotline. The answer has always been the same: people become infectious very quickly after their own…

River High, Mountain Deep

The Holmes BrothersAntone’s, Wednesday, March 15Bobby RushAntone’s, Thursday, March 16Ike Turner RevUEAntone’s, Friday March 17 Although its presence waxes and wanes from year to year as more fashionable musical trends come and go, the blues is still very much alive at South by Southwest. Thursday’s panel, “The Art & Commerce of the Blues,” included the…

River High, Mountain Deep

MogwaiAustin Music Hall, Saturday, March 17 So maybe the Soft Boys reunion wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, but at least there was room to breathe at the Music Hall’s Matador showcase, unlike last week’s claustrophobic Austin Music Awards. For those of us walking in to see Mogwai’s Texas debut, it wasn’t so…

Rollercoaster

Rollercoaster 1999, R, 90 min. Directed by Scott Smith, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring David Gren, Sean Amsing, Brent Glenen, Crystal Buble, Kett Turton, Brendan Fletcher. rollercoaster is like an afterschool special from hell, if hell were Canada and that pesky VD didn’t get cleared up by the end of the hour. The…


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