Cover Story
Meet the Party Crashers
Welcome to the world of cyberpolitics. What took you so long?
His Most Serene Highness
His Most Serene Highness 2000, NR, 112 min. Directed by Felipe Cazals, Starring Alejandro Parodi, Ana Bertha Espín, Rodolfo Arias, Pedro Armendáriz Jr.. Cazal’s film delves into disputed Mexican history by examining the life of General Antonio López de Santa Anna. It was nominated for 11 Arieles.
Lubbock Lights
Lubbock Lights 2004, NR, 90 min. Directed by Amy Maner, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . 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…
TCB
She’s got her TV eye on me
Day Trips
A bridge to the past
SXSW Records
Danny BarnesDirt on the Angel (Terminus) Danny Barnes is a study in contradictions. A gifted banjo player, Barnes is also a Butthole Surfers fan. An old-time music devotee, the singing multi-instrumentalist also has a degree in audio engineering. Born in sunny Texas, the founding Bad Liver now resides in oft-cloudy Washington state. Barnes’ varied interests…
Naked City
Austin leaders pledge to defend local businesses from anti-abortion boycott
Comedy Is Not the Enemy of Seriousness
Author-activist Robert Newman at the Drafthouse
Everyday Whimsy
Remembering the late, beloved artist Tré Arenz through her warm and playful ceramic sculptures
Food-o-File
Virginia B. Wood revs up with all the restaurant news you can read
SXSW Records
Joanna NewsomThe Milk-Eyed Mender (Drag City) The embroidered album art should’ve been a tip-off: Nevada’s 21-year-old Joanna Newsom is quite possibly the definition of outsider art. The problem with outsider music is that people tend to like it not because it’s particularly good, but because it ups their erudite hipness quotient by pretending to be…
Naked City
John Kerry rolls over John Edwards for the Democratic presidential nomination
SXSW Update
Christina Ricci, Rebecca Romaijn-Stamos, and hordes of young Republicans
Young at Art
At age 85, violinist Robert Rudié is still fiddling around – and teaching and acting and …
P2C04
Seven Austin acts showcasing at SXSW 04, and why we love them
The Insiders at Introgen
As Texas looks for a new economic boost, the decision-makers like to have a piece of the action
Austin @ Large: Music Minus Wynn
In front of screaming fans, the mayor smashes a guitar over his own head
Short Cuts
Holy relentless tide of divergent marketing options, Batman! Jason Henderson’s Sword of Dracula sees its stakes raised.
Articulations
The Austin Shakespeare Festival gets a roof over its head and a place of its own, and Austin Lyric Opera gets a new season and a cool million
P2C04
Sound Team “We are the robots.” With this intonation by Bill Baird back in a Portland bar roughly four years ago, Sound Team was born. Baird and his brother Michael, the founding members of the now sixpiece with increasing local buzz, played three songs to a sparse crowd with just a guitar and a synthesizer.…
Election 2004: Endorse-o-rama!
Candidates hit the hot Democratic club circuit
Sharpstown vs. Tomstown
Will “Tomstown” be as big as Sharpstown?
TV Eye
Questions and answers
Exhibitionism
For all its luscious designs and fine actors who work exceptionally hard, Mary Moody Northen Theatre’s production of Amadeus winds up more dull than daring
P2C04
This Microwave World Opening for the female Milli Vanilli was the last straw for This Microwave World. After being shoehorned into last year’s “electroclash” fad due to their use of a drum machine, the Austin quartet was tapped to open a number of style-over-substance road shows, culminating in an Emo’s slot with W.I.T., three tall…
All the Hottest Clubs
Most of Austin’s many political clubs meet about once a month, though some remain dormant until election season. Most groups claim not to accept new members during the 30 days prior to endorsement meetings. More info on Democratic groups can be found at www.traviscountydemocrats.org. In addition to these clubs, a number of issue-specific groups get…
The Hightower Report
Bill Gates wants to tax your e-mail, and the Bush administration finds the science it wants
In Space
More Bill Bennett than Zogby: election odds online
Exhibitionism
In her latest appearance at Cap City Comedy Club, trying out material for a new show, Margaret Cho was awesome
P2C04
Echo Base Soundsystem Summoned into being by the 1997 release of Lee “Scratch” Perry’s Arkology box set, Austin’s Echo Base Soundsystem began with the basics: dub standards by Lee Perry, King Tubby, and Augustus Pablo. “Once we caught our stride on the classics,” explains Phillip Hernandez, EBS’s Melodica player, “we began to use dub as…
The Rest of the Races
Anti-Soifer site comes down, Hidalgo Co. turnout goes up, and Williamson Co. (as usual) veers right
Exhibitionism
UT Opera Theatre tackles the American premiere of Luis Jaime Cortez’s La Tentación de San Antonio with vigor, but there’s too much here to take in in one pass
P2C04
Dead Whale Tide Not only is Austin now the No. 1 place for filmmaking in America (according to MovieMaker magazine), it’s also high on the list of ‘burgs with a sizable shoegazer/space rock revival going on. Journalistic pigeonholing aside, this, as anyone who owns more than three Creation Records CDs knows, is a very good…
Mosley vs. Mosley: Reagan Case Takes a Sad Turn
Wrongful-death settlement leads Ortralla Mosley’s parents to the courthouse
Progressivism Comes of Age
A few words with MoveOn.org’s very young, very busy Eli Pariser
Tom Dowd & the Language of Music
Dowd recorded and engineered the legendary Atlantic sound. He recorded and engineered Bird, Coltrane, Aretha, and Skynyrd. Introduced Allman to Clapton. Standardized 8-track recording. Oh, and he helped make the atomic bomb.
The Latest in Paper
You couldn’t really call these kiddie books, although even the youngest readers will enjoy them, doubtless reveling in the just-getting-through-the-day antics and verbal jousting of this cross-species odd couple
P2C04
I Love You but I’ve Chosen Darkness “It’s just as much about Rush as it is about Duran Duran,” explains Eddie Robert. “Rock music now is constantly being distilled into something else, but it’s just rock.” What Robert is really saying is that Austin’s I Love You but I’ve Chosen Darkness isn’t post-punk or New…
Nader Does the Texas Two-Step
The newest presidential candidate meets his supporters – and detractors – in Austin
Blogging to Utopia
The new alternative press
Twisted
Ashley Judd thriller is routine at best.
Page Two
Here comes SXSW. And, surprisingly, the Young Conservatives of Texas still don’t like us.
P2C04
The Winks In case there’s anyone left who doesn’t tune in to the Fox network hit show, here’s a glimpse of next week’s The OC. Ryan, aka ex-Austin High footballer Ben McKenzie, is unable to reconcile with girl-next-door-gone-bad Marissa, so he heads back to Tejas for some punk rock love on Red River. The band…
‘It’s Time to Give Them Another Jolt’
Ralph Nader stops to chat in Austin
Lessons of the Good Run
An interview with Dean cyberforce Joe Trippi
The Barbarian Invasions
Winner of the Best Foreign Film Oscar, this French-Canadian film reunites a group of old friends.
Letters at 3AM
The Gospel according to Mel is not as it was
P2C04
The Greencards A green card is a Permanent Resident Card, evidence issued by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services that allows someone foreign-born lawful permanent resident status with a right to live and work permanently in the United States. In other words, the Greencards is an apt name for this local acoustic trio composed of…
Naked City
Headlines and happenings from Austin and beyond
Almost Famous
Red vs Blue’s Machinima stars
Starsky & Hutch
Seventies TV shows live on through Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, and Snoop Dog.
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Stuck on the toilet in a Tupperware coffin, you dummy
Beyond the Fatal Shores
SXSW’s Aussie and Kiwi invasion
Naked City
The high court rules – solidly – against Texas in death-penalty case
Unchained Melodies
The Austin Wireless City Project and SXSW Music launch a real-world test for the interactive world
Hidalgo
Old-time adventure in which both man and steed look good.
After a Fashion
Stephen pees himself over and over and over, and some upcoming stuff too cool to miss
SXSW Records
The Walkmen Bows & Arrows (Record Collection) If Rod Stewart fronted the Stone Roses after a tour with My Bloody Valentine, it wouldn’t sound as delirious as the Walkmen on Bows & Arrows. A story of jealousy, anger, betrayal, and forgiveness, B&A is at once exciting and unbelievably personal. Hamilton Leithauser’s raspy, panged vocals only…
Naked City
The Eastside charter school begins its bankruptcy proceedings
The Man Behind the List
Craig of Craigslist really exists, and he’s about more than selling your tuba
AKA
Eighteen-year-old Brit from an unhappy background re-invents himself as a member of the aristocracy. He’s also working out his gay identity. And it’s told in triptyches, too.
Soccer Watch
And then there were 16; U.S. women make plans for the summer
SXSW Records
The ThrillsSo Much for the City (Virgin) It’s been tough avoiding the candy-sweet jangle-pop of the Thrills as they’ve warmly harmonized their way into the charts over the winter. Almost as tough as avoiding the use of the B word with them: Beach Boys. While the Dublin, Ireland-based quintet croons about California as if they…
Naked City
Nobody voted for it, but insta-teacher certification is now the law
A Day on Craigslist Austin
Inspired by Craig’s call for democracy and Michael Ferris Gibson’s documentation of it, I set out one morning to see what the good people of Austin were serving to their neighbors
Japanese Story
An off-the-charts performance by Toni Collette is just one of the many rewards of this unconventional love story.
The Sum of ‘One of Us’
More everyday whimsy by sculptor Tré Arenz
The Common Law
My car was towed from a parking lot. I never saw any signs before I parked, so I went back to look, and I only found a really small sign that you can barely see. Can I be legally towed based on that sign?
SXSW Records
+/– You Are Here (Teenbeat) Much like their obtuse moniker, +/– can be hypnotically compelling as well as confounding. The New York-based quartet’s second long-player is an interesting mix of electronic loop and guitar-driven songs, thematically bound together by the pall of heartbreak. On a somnambulant, left-of-the-dial journey like “Ventriloquist,” these elements come together masterfully…
Naked City
Design standards sought to upgrade Austin’s chain-retail sprawl
Geeks Get Paid
What’s cool about gaming? Apparently, everything.
South Austin Treasures
Green Pastures and the Broken Spoke: two old-timers getting better with age
To Your Health
Does better nutrition help annoying eye “floaters”?
SXSW Records
Attic TedThe Bastardized Country Carnival (Pecan Crazy) Everybody loves a carnival, but that’s not what San Marcos’ Attic Ted has in mind. The Bastardized Country Carnival is a low-rent midway in an abandoned grocery store parking lot as seen through the eyes of someone who’s had a few too many whiffs of industrial-strength cleaning solvent.…
Naked City
APD and the sheriff take different approaches to comply with state law
Escape From Loserville
Online dating gives the personals a new cachet
Second Helpings: Simply Seafood
Captain’s Seafood & Oyster Bar 5700 N. I-35, 452-1417 Monday-Thursday, 11am-11pm; Friday-Saturday, 11am-11:45pm; Sunday, noon-11pm Captain’s started as a Houston chain; Austin’s branch rests behind the boat on I-35. Especially popular are the oyster or shrimp Diablos appetizers (jalapeño-stuffed, bacon-wrapped, and broiled) and Captain Dan’s Crawfish Pirogue (mudbug tails, veggies, and cheese stuffed into a…
About AIDS
If you’re HIV-positive, what do you really need to know? Come find out at ASA’s dinner program, 10 Things HIVers Need to Know, on Wednesday evening, March 10. The guest speaker will be Houston’s Nelson Vergel, the poz founder of the Body Positive Wellness Clinic. The evening is the March program in ASA’s Dinner with…
SXSW Records
Colin GilmoreThe Day the World Stopped and Spun the Other Way (Squirm) A product of Austin’s burgeoning wave of second-generation tunesmiths, Colin Gilmore’s lengthily titled debut is evidence that songwriting talent can be as genetic as hair or eye color. Like dad Jimmie Dale, Gilmore possesses a dulcet, slightly nasal lilt and the ability to…
Naked City
An angry rant by a redistricting disenfranchisee
Give Them What They Want
An interview with Virginia Postrel
Luv Doc Recommends: Dexter Freebish
The lush overgrowth of your neglected lawn and the vernal glaze on the trees should tell you that the cruel, three-week tease of springtime in Austin will soon begin. It’s the only time of year when the temperature can accurately be described with the adjective “comfortable.” Spring is something people in other parts of the…
