African-American Independent Film Festival (Southwestern University)
African-American Independent Film Festival (Southwestern University) NR. Directed by Various, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . The first annual African-American Independent Film Festival honors Jessie Maple Patton, who has opened many doors for African American women in the film industry. In 1981 she directed Will, and became the first contemporary black woman to…
The Mother and the Whore
The Mother and the Whore 1973, NR, 220 min. Directed by Jean Eustache, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Jean-Pierre Léaud, Bernadette Lafont, Francoise Lebrun, Isabelle Weingarten. Without question, the most popular and successful of Eustache’s films, The Mother and the Whore was a revelation when first released. It captured the sensibilities of young…
The Craving
The Craving 1980, R. Directed by Paul Naschy, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Paul Naschy, Silvia Aguilar. Spanish horror legend Paul Naschy also plays a werewolf in this grade-Z picture about the reincarnation of Elizabeth Bathory, a vampire intent on drinking (and bathing in) the blood of young virgins. (For more on the…
The Natural History of the Chicken
The Natural History of the Chicken 2000, NR, 56 min. Directed by Mark Lewis, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . Mark Lewis delves into the often strange relationship between people and animals, much as he did in his previous films Cane Toads: An Unnatural History and Rat. Here, he talks with many people…
Mr. Smarty Pants
The First Rule of Trivia Is: You Gotta Talk About the Trivial.
Second Helpings
Hill-Bert’s 3303 N. Lamar, 452-2317 5340 Cameron, 371-3717 Mon-Fri, 7am-10pm; Sat-Sun, 10am-10pm The burgers at this little locally owned chain are consistently superior and popularly priced. Whole-grain buns hold thick, juicy beef patties, the leaf lettuce is fresh, the cheese is melted just right, and the bacon is crisp: burger heaven. Fresh-cut fries, lacy, hand-breaded…
Sheffield, the APA, and the Cop Wars
A Brief History of the APA
Spy Kids
The first entry in Rodriguez’s kids action movie remains the best in the series.
Play On!
In the backstage comedy Anton in Show Business, playwright Jane Martin wittily paints the contemporary stage as a madhouse overrun by loons and lunatics so preoccupied with money, image, and themselves that they can hardly be bothered to create art. And the State Theater Company’s production takes us inside the insanity with an air of…
After a Fashion
Since the SXSW dissipation, your Style Avatar looks to the International Scene for his dirt …
In God’s Country
Why U2 is the best band ever
The Hightower Lowdown
Star Wars boondoggle, MBNA’s bankruptcy fraud, and the CIA’s cooked books
Someone Like You
Someone Like You 2001, PG-13, 94 min. Directed by Tony Goldwyn, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Ellen Barkin, Marisa Tomei, Hugh Jackman, Greg Kinnear, Ashley Judd. After a bull has mated once with a cow, he’ll never go back to her, always choosing a new cow over the old. What if the same…
Articulations
Playwright Adam Sobsey cooks up some drama at Central Market, the UT Department of Theatre & Dance serves up six weeks of new works, and UT student Kristi McGarity snags the 2001 SEAMUS / ASCAP prize.
Day Trips
Wings over the West: The Fredericksburg Butterfly Ranch and Habitat.
U2 — Opening Night, National Car Rental Center, Sunrise, Fla., March 24
Sweat poured off Bono’s face. He kept that damn Matrix coat on all night, despite Miami heat made all the more intense by the 20,000-strong throng at his feet. He looked up at the crowd and smiled, “Thanks for following us around all these years, and for giving us a great life …” He paused.…
Naked City
Harold Simmons’ political contributions could get him a West Texas Waste Dump & Austin environmentalists rally around the documentary film Green.
Tomcats
Tomcats 2001, R, 92 min. Directed by Gregory Poirier, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring David Ogden Stiers, Gary Marshall, Bill Maher, Joseph D. Reitman, Travis Fine, Jaime Pressly, Horatio Sanz, Jake Busey, Shannon Elizabeth, Jerry O’Connell. I honestly didn’t think I’d see anything onscreen this week that was more patently offensive than that…
Exhibitionism
The iron belly muses production of Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida sometimes seems to have little to do with Shakespeare’s text, and that’s a problem, but director Sharon Sparlin does a fascinating job of “updating” the play, and when it works, it works wonders.
About AIDS
The Cost of Treatment.
Breaking Barriers With Christ and Rock
A reprint of an Austin Chronicle Q&A from 1982 with U2’s Bono Hewson and Adam Clayton.
Naked City
Local news this week in Austin.
Company Man
Company Man 2000, PG-13, 81 min. Directed by Douglas McGrath, Peter Askin, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Douglas McGrath, Sigourney Weaver, Alan Cumming, Ryan Phillipe, Anthony Lapaglia, John Turturro, Denis Leary, Woody Allen. I’ve got good news and I’ve got bad news. The good news is that Company Man is only 81 minutes…
Exhibitionism
In PEXO, musicians with the Walter Thompson Orchestra, dancers from Ariel Dance Theatre, and several guest artists coax music from instruments, intentionally mangle lines of speech, and draw from a palette of physical movement at the command of conductor Thompson, creating an improvised yet shaped performance that is a complex, scattered spectacle for the ear…
To Your Health
I will be undergoing surgery in about a month. Are there certain nutrients that I should take before surgery?
Dancing About Architecture
A flood of weather (and music) following SXSW
Naked City
Handicapping the (future) race for mayor
Exhibitionism
In Wallpaper Psalm, a strange operetta about an elderly lady in an old apartment building who appears to go crazy, writer Ruth Margraff and director Jason Neulander produce a psalm, a hymn sung in challenging style.
Coach’s Corner
Live sporting events? Barely. TV is choking them to death.
Record Reviews
U2Pop (Island) The great lost U2 album. Lost between the funky, New Deal-defining Achtung Baby from 1991 and last year’s New Millennium revisionism, All That You Can’t Leave Behind. Lost in the woozy Flood of Enoisms from ’93’s Zooropa and space trajectory of the Passengers project two years later (both coming together as ’00’s opulent…
Naked City
Handicapping the (future) race for mayor.Rep. Jim Dunnam introduces a bill that would place new restrictions on charter schools and limit the creation of new charters; charter school advocates protest, saying they’re being punished for the misdeeds of a few.
India Ink
Reality meets fantasy in three new novels set in India.
Nouveau Bistro
On any given evening, Rebecca Chastenet de Géry writes, Zoot’s cozy, warmly lit dining room fills with a cross-section of the city. Seated around the white-clothed tables you find young and old, dates and small groups, black-clad hipsters and the obvious “out of towners,” all nodding in approval as they spear forkfuls of sautéed veal…
Record Reviews
U2Zooropa (Island) Zooropa is U2’s accidental album. The band headed into its Dublin studio as a means of staying fresh between the fall ’92 and spring ’93 legs of the never-ending Zoo TV tour, and wound up recording enough material for a new LP. If it’s not quite on the same plateau as U2’s best…
Naked City
Well, we sure didn’t see that one coming. Less than a year after Gary Bradley signed his historic deal with the city — agreeing, in exchange for city water and wastewater service to his hotel and golf course, to restrict the size of his empire in Southwest Austin — the developer appeared to be back…
Palabras: A Latino Literary Festival
What is the state of Chicano arts and letters today? That question is part of what inspired Palabras: A Latino Literary Festival, which takes place for the first time this weekend at Mexic-Arte Museum.
Food-o-File
Why two new books that cover the basics of waiting tables are so necessary.
Record Reviews
U2Achtung Baby (Island) It’s impossible for me to be objective about Achtung Baby. So much of my early experience with the album is directly linked to the hormonal roller coaster of being in high school; I didn’t fully appreciate its musical depth and emotional potency until years afterward. Songs that once prompted me to hit…
Naked City
First Intel announced it would halt construction on its downtown chip design center after it finished the building’s concrete shell, citing short-term economic uncertainty. Then it announced that — whoops! — it wouldn’t be finishing the exterior after all, leaving a hulking steel-frame monolith in the center of one of downtown’s busiest intersections. So now…
Postscripts
Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Edna Buchanan’s latest detective novel, and upcoming events.
Mini-Review
Elsi’s 4708 Burnet, 454-0747 Mon-Thu, 7am-4pm; Fri-Sat, 7am-9pm; Sun, 8am-4pm I am certain that I am not the first person to remark on the explosion of new restaurants in Austin. It’s hard not to notice that at every street corner, in almost every abandoned downtown warehouse, there’s a new establishment catering to monied flavor addicts.…
Record Reviews
U2 Rattle and Hum (Island) Compile 10 studio albums and one of them will necessarily fall to the bottom of a list ranking them by quality. Thus, relative to U2’s catalogue, Rattle and Hum is so bad it’s laughable. True, it isn’t a studio recording in its entirety, but that’s no extenuation. “This is a…
Naked City
The city council proposes a number of changes to several city departments, including DRID, PECSD, and the Planning Commission.
Readings
Goats A Novel by Mark Jude Poirier Talk Miramax Books, 368 pp., $22 A year ago, Mark Jude Poirier arrived on the literary scene with a crackling and highly praised short story collection, Naked Pueblo. His first novel, Goats, should win him even more admirers. It’s one of those rare novels — one that is…
Second Helpings: Burger-Mania
Burger-Mania in this week’s “Second Helpings.”
Record Reviews
U2The Joshua Tree (Island) Before 1987’s The Joshua Tree, U2 was the revolutionary flag bearer for post-punk idealists who were certain Reagan would blow up the world before they had a chance to drink legally. Then came “With or Without You,” the strategic lead-off single whose melodic bassline and quasi-romantic delivery covered up the lyrics’…
Like a Kid Again
For Spy Kids, his first youth-oriented movie, director Robert Rodriguez maintains the spirit of youth – and El Mariachi
Readings
Recent History A Novel by Anthony Giardina Random House, 205 pp., $23.95 There comes along, every once in a while, a fictional character so compelling that the novel he or she inhabits becomes larger than life. A reader begins to pick up the novel not only for plot progression, or for the simple beauty of…
Second Helpings
Dirty Martin’s Place 2808 Guadalupe, 477-3173 Daily, 11am-11pm Juicy, simple and perfect — Dirty’s defines the Austin dive burger. Generations of UT students know the white frame drive-in for its simple menu of griddled burgers, Russet fries, and hand-breaded onion rings. Any seat at the counter gives you a perfect view of the burgers frying…
Record Reviews
U2Unforgettable Fire (Island) Released in September 1984, U2’s fourth album was named after an exhibit of artwork made by survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic holocausts. In stark contrast to the mindless cock rock, New Wave synth, and big-hair metal vogue at the time, Unforgettable Fire was a breath of fresh air, dealing with…
Short Cuts
Bill Maher flops in onscreen attempt to cut Harry Knowles down to size.
Readings
Below the Line by J.R. Helton Last Gasp, 203 pp., $14.95 (paper) J.R. Helton’s tell-all book might more accurately be called Below the Belt — that’s where the author directs most of his hits at Hollywood. A set painter who worked on a string of Texas films both classic (Dazed and Confused) and forgettable (The…
Second Helpings
Waterloo Ice House Sixth & Lamar, 472-5400 1106 W. 38th St., 451-5245 Daily, 11am-10pm 8600 Burnet Road, 450-0480 Daily, 7am-10pm Waterloo has been the home of our burger choices for many years because the burgers are fresh, juicy, and kinda messy to eat, just the way we like them. We’re also exceedingly partial to the…
Record Reviews
U2War (Island) Some of rock & roll’s greatest moments — Who’s Next, Never Mind the Bollocks Here’s the Sex Pistols, Nevermind — are borne of pure anger. The instances where the desire to subvert or to simply scream get captured so perfectly on tape are so rare and so potent that they usually define new…
Video Reviews
The Animal House of the Nineties
Local Bestsellers
Local bestsellers are based on recent sales at Austin bookstores selected to reflect varied reading interests.
Second Helpings
Nau’s Enfield Drug 1115 West Lynn, 476-1221 Mon-Fri, 7:30am-4:00pm; Sat, 8:00am-2:30pm Choose either a small ($1.95) or large ($2.75) burger, cooked on the griddle and dressed with lettuce, tomato, and white onion. Each is sweet with mayo and sticky with a single piece of cheese and all are wondrously juicy. Don’t go here with anyone…
Record Reviews
U2October (Island) Wedged as it is between the lauded debut and breakthrough album, October is often dismissed as a commercial speed bump in U2’s career, an untimely pause for artistic introspection that could have derailed or divided a rock band composed of mere mortals. It’s a relatively quiet LP, with slow, piano-driven meditations and religious…
Video Reviews
This 1973 bizarro thriller is as disgusting (and compelling) as a car wreck.
Page Two
There is probably no social agency we take for granted more than the police. In this week’s cover story, Mike Clark-Madison offers a powerful profile of Mike Sheffield, 22-year APD veteran and head of the Austin Police Association.
Second Helpings
Holiday House 2425 Exposition, 478-2652 Mon-Sat, 6:30am-9pm; Sun, 7am-9pm 5201 Airport 452-3136 Daily, 11am-9pm Flame-kissed and floppy, Holiday House’s signature cheeseburger stands up to its reputation as an old-fashioned burger of the drugstore variety. The patty comes topped with a mound of grated cheese, a slew of diced white onions, and the requisite tomato and…
Record Reviews
U2Boy (Island) Boy shone so brightly when released in late 1980 that it shimmered throughout the warm spring of 1981. In a time of magnificent and definitive first releases, Boy resounded with an exuberance that lifted hearts and spirits in a way that other albums didn’t. U2 were so fresh that the sweeping joy of…
Video Reviews
A classic film that reflects a balance between early Seventies counterculture and the era’s conservative right.
Public Notice
Public Notice asks not what it can do for its community but what *you* can. This week features the second of a three-part list of Austin area Volunteer opportunities.
Second Helpings
Burger Tex 5240 Airport Blvd., 453-8772 2912 Guadalupe Daily, 11am-9pm Burger Tex keeps its priorities squarely on the griddle, where they belong. Patties are substantial and not overcooked, buns are baked fresh on the premises every day. The condiment bar can be hit or miss, but the quality of the burger itself stands on its…
The People vs. Mike Sheffield
The new APD oversight agreement is a first for Austin — but will it do what it’s supposed to do?
TV Eye
“The Flintstones saved me.” Belinda Acosta looks at the legacy of William Hanna, who died last week at the age of 90.
Walk Across Texas
Remembering Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, the first white Texan.
Second Helpings
Katz’s Deli 618 W. Sixth, 472-2037 Never Kloses All flavors, even that of the salty, savory half-pound burger, yield to the blast of caraway seed in the lightly buttered rye toast holding this patty melt together. Ordinary condiments prove superfluous — the flavor is already big enough and the slices of American cheese on each…
Oversight 101
An Introduction to Austin’s new police oversight process
Memento
Christopher Nolan’s breakthrough movie is a film noir thriller with a gimmick.
