The Mod Squad
The Mod Squad 1999, R, 94 min. Directed by Scott Silver, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Steve Harris, Dennis Farina, Giovanni Ribisi, Omar Epps, Claire Danes. Irony, modern Hollywood style: Young director flashes promising talent with a sharp debut feature about male hustlers, thus earning himself a shot at … this, a chance…
Twenty Dates
Twenty Dates 1999, R, 88 min. Directed by Myles Berkowitz, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . It’s a sound premise, you have to admit: Hopelessly unattached romantic and Hollywood bottom feeder decides to film his own quest for companionship and thereby break into not only the movie business, but also storm the gates…
Ravenous
Ravenous 1999, R, 100 min. Directed by Antonia Bird, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Joseph Running Fox, David Arquette, Stephen Spinella, John Spencer, Jeffrey Jones, Jeremy Davies, Robert Carlyle, Guy Pearce. Antonia Bird is best known for the unsettling Priest, which tackled the issue of gay clergy head on. Ravenous is devoid of…
EDtv
EDtv 1999, PG-13, 115 min. Directed by Ron Howard, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Matthew McConaughey, Jenna Elfman, Woody Harrelson, Sally Kirkland, Dennis Hopper, Rob Reiner, Ellen Degeneres, Martin Landau, Elizabeth Hurley, Adam Goldberg, Don Most, Clint Howard. The watch factor: Film critics know it by heart (we all bought stock in Timex’s…
Tango
Tango 1998, PG-13, 113 min. Directed by Carlos Saura, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Julia Bocca, Carlos Rivarola, Juan Carlos Copes, Mia Maestro, Cecilia Narova, Miguel Angel Sola. Carlos Saura proves once again, as he did with his recent Flamenco and 1983’s Carmen, that he is a master director of the dance film.…
Doug’s First Movie
Doug’s First Movie 1999, G, 77 min. Directed by Maurice Joyce, Narrated by , Voices by Constance Shulman, Chris Phillips, Fred Newman, Thomas McHugh, Starring . Doug Funnie is, in some respects, the Charlie Brown of the Nineties. Warmhearted, shy, and likable, he’s frequently perplexed by the slings and arrows of adolescence, particularly when it…
Postscripts
If you’re a young hipster and into progressive fiction, and if you tend to let everyone you know in on the secret that you feel bleakly depressed about the fragmented, alienating nature of contemporary society — or just want it to appear as if you do — then Rob Weisbach Books is looking for you.…
Jesus Gonna Be Here
Stubb’s, Wednesday, March 17 It has often been said that rock & amp; roll is a rather transparent metaphor for extreme sexual frustration. If this is indeed the case, a porn star should be the last person on earth with anything to gain by strapping on a guitar or grabbing a microphone. This drugstore thesis…
Further Reflections
Elizabeth Hurley at the EDtv premiere at the Paramount Theatre. photograph by John Anderson Included here are reviews of some of the films that played during the SXSW ’99 Film Festival. Other reviews were included in last week’s Chronicle; additional reviews can be found on our web coverage of SXSW. The entire list of films…
SXSW Music Festival Photo Gallery
photos by John Carrico, John Anderson and Martha Grenon Beth Orton, Antone’s Thursday Jeff Beck, La Zona Rosa, Wednesday Joe Ely with Fastball’s Miles Zuniga and Tony Scalzo, Waterloo Park, Friday Mark Rubin and Al Kooper, “Mr Rubin’s Neighborhood” panel, Convention Center, Saturday Wanda Jackson, Soho Lounge, Thursday more
Book Reviews
Right From Wrong by Cindy Bonner Algonquin Books, $21.95 hard The fact that Algonquin Books publishes Cindy Bonner’s work tells the reader that it’s artistic, literary, and probably not available in airports. Woe to all frequent flyers! The cover of Cindy Bonner’s Right From Wrong and the covers of her three previous books (Lily, Looking…
Heavy Mettle
None of this is intended to minimize the genuine neglect, and at times direct oppression, of Austin’s Mexican-American community by the city’s elites. Racism, enviro- and otherwise, directed against East Austin is a fact, not a canard. Where we run into difficulty is in generalizing everything that is alien to our current values as evidence…
SXSW Music Festival Photo Gallery, page 2
photos by John Carrico, John Anderson and Martha Grenon | Bob popular DJ Showcases: (clockwise from left) Sups DJ Dmitri (at Fat Tuesday), Juan Adkins, Mathematechs, Tomoyuki, Tanaka aka Fantastic Plastic Machine, and Rob Swift back forward
Random Notes…
Nushawn Williams guilty of exposing sex partners: Nushawn Williams has pleaded guilty to statutory rape and exposing young women to HIV. Traveling from New York City to upstate New York last year, he had traded drugs for unprotected sex with numerous women. When he was caught, the story made major headlines and has resulted in…
Reality Check
For many candidates, making even the $500 filing fee was a financial hardship. Perennial candidate Jennifer Gale got caught in a bind by a changing of the guard at the city clerk’s office. Gale, who had planned to file her candidacy by petition, said that in a previous election she was allowed to turn in…
SXSW Music Festival Photo Gallery, page 3
photos by John Carrico, John Anderson and Martha Grenon Clockwise from top left: Seagull Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her, Electric Lounge, Saturday; Pocket FishRmen, Stubb’s, Wednesday; DOA, Back Room, Friday; Kindred, Flamingo Cantina, Friday; El Gran Silencio, Scholz Garden, Saturday back forward
About AIDS
Nushawn Williams guilty of exposing sex partners: Nushawn Williams has pleaded guilty to statutory rape and exposing young women to HIV. Traveling from New York City to upstate New York last year, he had traded drugs for unprotected sex with numerous women. When he was caught, the story made major headlines and has resulted in…
The Contenders
Daryl Slusher* Age: 45 Occupation: Councilmember, writer photograph by Alan Pogue Reason for Running: “Where you formerly for years had the developers versus the environmentalists, some of the warring factions have reached some measure of peace. We supported the convention center, they supported the bonds out over the aquifer, we all supported the May bonds…
SXSW Music Festival Photo Gallery, page 4
photos by John Carrico, John Anderson and Martha Grenon Clockwise from top: Mojo Nixon, Continental Club, Saturday; Terry Allen, (bottom right) with backup singers David Byrne, Guy Clark, and Marcia Ball (bottom left), Liberty Lunch, Friday. back forward
Coach’s Corner
I am, at heart, an anti-social person. It’s a fact of nature that even the feeblest of earth’s creatures are equipped with some device to offer a semblance of protection for the weak and pathetic. I come with just enough social skills — I can tell an amusing tale, laugh at a joke, not burp…
Buried in Scandal
SCI lawyer Rogers, a former legislator and lobbyist who has worked for funeral-related interests for several decades, says this story is a simple one. “It’s very popular to think negatively about funeral establishments,” he said. And when it comes to SCI, Rogers believes, “There’s a vendetta against them in the liberal press. Any time you…
SXSW Music Festival Photo Gallery, page 5
photos by John Carrico, John Anderson and Martha Grenon Anna Fermin of Trigger Gospel, Threadgills Outdoor Stage, Friday; Guided By Voices, Waterloo Park, Saturday; Freakwater at Green Mesquite, Saturday; Daniel Johnston at Electric Lounge, Wednesday back forward
Day Trips
Anaqua Festival at Rancho Richey Refuge near Belmont is some real family entertainment around the campfire with music and storytelling, food and guides included, Mar. 27-28. 383-TXTX or http://www.io.com/~zow. Season-Opening Celebration at the Orange Show in Houston, 2402 Munger, after a winter restoration has the neighborhood theme park better than new, Mar. 27. Take the…
Blowing the Whistle
Eliza May’s whistle blower lawsuit against the state is the result of a Texas Funeral Service Commission investigation into Service Corporation International’s embalming operations. SCI, the world’s largest death care business, increases its profitability by concentrating operations into single locations. For instance, it often dispatches all of its hearses in a given city from a…
SXSW Music Festival Photo Gallery, page 6
photos by John Carrico, John Anderson and Martha Grenon Guilotina, Scholtz Garden, Saturday; Hayseed, Broken Spoke, Saturday; Ni�os Con Bombas Sangerunde Hall, Thursday; Mike Ness Continental Club, Thursday back forward
Page Two
Monday morning after SXSW (Film, Interactive, and Music conferences and festivals), after the Austin Music Awards, after four huge issues in a row, after it all, Chronicle publisher and SXSW director Nick Barbaro and I sat in the office talking. It wasn’t a conversation of celebration, but one of concern, as we realized that on…
Funeral Biz Online
The AMBIS survey of funeral prices is available on the Web at: http://www.funerals.org/famsa/ambis.htm Service Corporation International: http://www.sci-corp.com Author Darryl J. Roberts: http://www.profitsofdeath.com
SXSW Music Festival Photo Gallery, page 7
photos by John Carrico, John Anderson and Martha Grenon (clockwise from top right): Cesar Rosas, Antone’s, Saturday; Gwil Owen,Ritz Lounge, Friday; Lucinda Williams & Co., Austin Music Hall, Friday; Jimmie Vaughan, Austin Music Hall, Saturday back forward
Public Notice
No, not for SXSW, silly. You’ve already done your part. Let’s hear it for the volunteers. Whooooooo Hooooooo! Here’s a list of our local opportunities for you to show your stuff as a big-hearted babe. ALAA — Artists’ Legal & Accounting Assistance Lawyers, accountants, and marketing assistance needed. 3710 Cedar, 407-8980. AIDS Services of Austin…
On The Lege
A bill to enact private-school voucher programs in Texas was expected to clear the Senate Education Committee Wednesday, but voucher proponents may already be muttering “Wait ’til next year.” Austin Sen. Gonzalo Barrientos vowed Friday to fight any and all “risky voucher experiments,” such as SB 10, proposed by Senate Education Committee Chair Teel Bivins,…
SXSW Music Festival Photo Gallery
photos by John Carrico, John Anderson and Martha Grenon (clockwise from bottom left): Patti Griffin, Austin Music Hall, Friday; Old 97s, la Zona Rosa, Thursday; Neko Case, Jazz Bon Temps Room, Saturday back
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
An unfueled B-2 costs about the equivalent of twice its weight in gold. Researchers at Guy’s, King’s, and St. Thomas’s School of Medicine and Dentistry in Great Britain are working with the pharmaceutical company Actinova to produce a mouthwash that prevents cavities for up to three months. The first potatoes grown in Germany were raised…
Naked City
Last week Rep.Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, joined fellow Austinite and longtime friend Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul, and Mary fame on the steps of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., for a congressional sing-along in support of federal arts funding. Doggett gave a heartfelt rendition of “This Land Is Your Land,” but said his level of…
The Spirit of Mid-Season
Before cable, and that doesn’t even include the premium channels, TV watching was pretty basic for me. There were your season premieres, followed by season reruns, punctuated by specials and the big three award shows — the Oscars, the Emmys, the Grammys, and some would include the Tonys. Now mid-season premieres, nearly 40 televised award…
A Biblical Feast:
by Kitty Morse Ten Speed Press $14.95 Eating. It is at once the root of human misery and the cup of human salvation. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, the fall from grace begins with a single event: Adam and Eve eat from the Tree of Knowledge and thus become aware of their own bodies and their…
Net Worth
Philip Glass MICHAEL WOLFF KEYNOTE SPEECH Monday, 10am WEB BUSINESS MODELS: AMAZING SUCCESSES, AMAZING FAILURES Monday, 1:30pm Mod: Dave Dix (Dell) Speakers: Michael Wolff (Burn Rate), Chris Clark (CGI Group), Carey Earle (Barn Door Consulting), Jim Seymour (PC Magazine), Patrick Spain (Hoovers), Tish Williams (Upside Media) “An exciting thing is happening in America. For the…
Blades in the Water
photograph by Jana Birchum For the first time I can recall, I was completely free of any notion of homophobia,” says Steve Siefert, reflecting on the significance of a recent adventure he had. “This didn’t hit me until I came back to Austin and noticed I was watching my words while telling some friends in…
Kosher Certification
From macaroons to jarred borscht to many-flavored matzoh, Jews rely on packaged “Kosher for Passover” goods: foods that are not only kosher, but are also approved for holiday consumption. Such certification means that a product’s manufacturing and packaging never brings it into contact with one of the forbidden foods or even with a machine that…
Stroke!
photograph by Jana Birchum On most days the water is smooth as glass. From the small Town Lake dock a rower can go five miles uninterrupted in either direction. On this particular early morning at 5:30am, one can row toward the full moon hovering in the west and, if timed just right, turn around and…
Articulations
The spring of 1999 … oh, it had such promise once. It was to be splendid with freshening showers and profusions of bluebonnets and, oh yes,Joe York in fishnets again. In addition to the traditional signs of the season, locals were to be treated to the hunky theatre hero strutting across the Zachary Scott Theatre…
Food-o-File
There’s still time to contribute to the “March to End Hunger” at the Sustainable Food Center (434 Hwy183 S., 385-0080). The hard-working folks at the East Austin nonprofit were awarded a challenge grant by Rhode Island’s Feinstein Foundation that will match any donation of $25 or more made to the Center during the month of…
Eat His Dust
Ron Howard Premieres EDtv in Austin
Full Gallop: Everything Is Beautiful
Zachary Scott Theatre Center, Through April 11 Running Time: 1 hr, 30 min Never heard of Diana Vreeland? Why, dahling, of course you have! Even if you don’t know by name the eccentric, exuberant fashion guru, you see her legacy not only in the beauty-conscious pages of Vanity Fair and Vogue (two magazines she molded),…
Kosher for Passover
It made sense to me as a kid that I couldn’t eat bread during Passover, the holiday that marks the Jews’ escape from the Pharaoh’s persecution in ancient Egypt. I knew that as the Jewish people were forced to flee quickly, they snatched their as-yet-unleavened bread from its proofing places and ate the resulting flat…
Scanlines
D.Ubaldo Ragona/Sidney Salkow (1964) w/ Vincent Price, Giacomo Rossi-Stuart A mysterious bacterium has swept over the world and left everyone dead except for epidemiologist Morgan (Price), who picked up an immunity to the germ years before while working in South America. Unfortunately for him, the dead rise at night to become shuffling vampire/zombies bent on…
Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect …
4:30pm. That’s what the clock on the wall of the Kinko’s copy shop at Fourth and Congress reads. It’s Monday afternoon, March 15, and Austin artists from all disciplines are nervously standing over copy machines, trying to spur them on like jockeys speeding their horses toward the finish line. This race will be down to…
Over the Rainbow
T & S Seafood Restaurant 10014 N. Lamar, 339-8434 Mon-Fri, 11am-2:30pm; 5-10:30pm; Sat & Sun, 11am-11pm photograph by John Anderson T& S Seafood Restaurant is the reincarnation of the old Rainbow Inn Chinese Restaurant (which used to be in the shopping center at the end of Westgate Drive). Despite the number of years since the…
Shortcuts
Okay, we’re all probably nearing the end of our conversational interest in this year’s Academy Award results, ceremony, attire, and Kazan controversy. Or is there a limit? Less discussed are the results of last Saturday’s Independent Spirit Awards, which saw Gods and Monsters take home the best feature award as well as best actor and…
The Cultural Contracts Timeline
January: Application Orientation Sessions All interested artists and organizations descend upon the Dougherty Arts Center for a briefing by Cultural Contracts staff about what to expect in the coming funding season. February: Proposal Preparation Workshops; Cultural Contracts Staff Review of Proposals March 15: Deadline for Final Proposals Either the proposal is in the hands of…
Dancing About Architecture
Well, it’s over. We made it through another South by Southwest. The problem is, not all of us will be making it much further. After resorting to benefits earlier this year to support themselves until SXSW, the owners of the Electric Lounge report that their festival income didn’t meet expectations and that the six-year-old live…
SXSW 1999 Film Spotlights
Abilene (review, issue #30) The Accident (review, issue #30) American Chain Gang (preview, issue #28) American Hollow (review, issue #29) Amerikan Passport (review, issue #30) Band (preview, issue #28) Big Monday (review, issue #29) The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords (review, issue #29) Blind Light (review, issue #29) The Book of Stars (preview, issue #28)…
Unmitigated Mercies
Widely worshipped for her straight talk on motherhood in Operating Instructions (she actually admitted to the terrifying impulse many of us have secretly felt, to grab dear Baby by his heels and bang him against a wall) and for her insights on writing in Bird by Bird (nuts-and-bolts advice on subduing the evil twins, self-doubt…
The 1998-99 Austin Music Awards
The 1998-99 Austin Music Awards show was an evening of Austin-style celebration and song. From the burst of musical energy kicking off the show to an unnannounced Grammys presentation, the evening sparkled and its stars shone. A few of its many moments (clockwise from top): Reckless Kelly with Joe Ely, stretching across two frames; 8…
SXSW 1999 Film Spotlights
Abilene (review, issue #30) The Accident (review, issue #30) American Chain Gang (preview, issue #28) American Hollow (review, issue #29) Amerikan Passport (review, issue #30) Band (preview, issue #28) Big Monday (review, issue #29) The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords (review, issue #29) Blind Light (review, issue #29) The Book of Stars (preview, issue #28)…
