Benefits
SUN 8 Children’s Concert featuring Trout Fishing in America to benefit the Austin Jewish Community Day School, at La Zona Rosa, 4pm. Cost is $10. 469-7469. Musical Evening with Blue Mist, Ransom Notes, and Schr�dinger’s Cat to benefit Blue Mist (whose equipment was stolen), at Texas Union Ballroom, 6-8pm. Cost is $5. 478-6221. SAT 14…
Recommended
Friday: Choreboy, Emo’s Saturday: Renee Woodward, 503 Coffee House; 1001 Night, Casa de Luz; Boomshaka, Flamingo Cantina, Concerto Grosso, Flipnotics Sunday: Patty Griffin, Cactus Cafe Monday: Yummy, Stubb’s Tuesday: Mary Lou Lord, Liberty Lunch Wednesday: Bunny Stockhausen, Kiss Offs, Hole in the Wall; Ta M�re, Elephant Room Thursday: Tab Benoit, Antone’s
J.C. Herz’s Multi-track Mind
Almost every review of J.C. Herz’s Joystick Nation that I’ve read begins with “When I was a kid, I played Missile Command” or an equivalent sentiment: “I loved my Atari 2600.” “I stole money from my mom to buy Space Invaders.” Discussions of video games strike some primal chord within our psyches that makes us…
Caught Up
Caught Up 1998, R, 99 min. Directed by Darin Scott, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Bokeem Woodbine, Cynda Williams, Clifton Powell, Tony Todd, Basil Wallace, Joseph Lindsey, Snoop Doggy Dogg, Ll Cool J, Jeffrey Combs. This boy ‘n’ the hood drama about an ex-con caught up in a maelstrom of deceit, double-crosses, and…
Coach’s Corner
I gotta admit, I was feeling a little guilty. Last Saturday afternoon, Bill Little, subbing for Bill Schoening on the Longhorn Network, was chastising early-departing fans for abandoning a ship going down faster than the Titanic. He wished – this was the gist of it anyway, though even he conceded that watching the Runnin’ Horns…
SXSW Record Reviews
This is the first of three “SXSW Record Reviews” sections that feature reviews of albums by bands playing this year’s music conference. As with all showcase information, it’s subject to change, so please check our info against the schedule in the Chronicle. THE APPLES IN STEREO Tone Soul Evolution (Sire) What the fuck is this?…
Waiter, There’s a Brit in My Motherboard
Chris Roberts, Marten Davies, and Origin’s second-in-command Neil Young are all renowned talents within the industry, but they’ve got more in common than just that: They’re also British, a phenomenon that seems to have spread throughout the computer gaming industry on a national and, one assumes, global level. Why so many expatriate Brits creating video…
Day Trips
The San Jacinto Battleground was the first public land designated as a state park, 16 years before the state parks department was formed 75 years ago. The monument is the most visited “day use only” park in the state’s inventory. photograph by Gerald E. McLeod The state parks department turns 75 years old this year…
Road Shows
MARCH FRI 6 Rigo Star’s African Revue, Pepe Kalle & Luciana Demingongo, Flamingo Cantina FRI 6 Bickley, Emo’s FRI 6 Randy Garibay, Candye Kane, Antone’s SAT 7 Son Seals, Antone’s SAT 7 Joe “Ducktail” Clay, Continental Club SAT 7 Chris Chandler, Electric Lounge SAT 7 The Nixons, The Hunger, La Zona Rosa SAT 7 Ozium,…
What’s on the Gaming Boards
What’s up for some of Austin’s gaming companies in 1998? Kayte VanScoy took an informal poll of titles you can watch for over the next few months. Wargames, fantasy, simulations… and as you will see, not all the action was on the screen… –Margaret Moser Charybdis Enterprises is all tanked up again this year following…
Page Two
The most remarkable trend at our recent endorsement meetings was that many of the candidates had not one philosophical disagreement between them on the job and how it should be done. It came down to a difference in qualifications and capabilities, which is perhaps the reason why some of these campaigns have turned ugly. Without…
Somebody’s Gonna Die
photograph by Bruce Dye The tiny black bull stands defiantly on its uneven legs, four pairs of eyes fixed on it. For a moment, everyone in the room is silent, as if waiting for the small black beast to charge. Its sharp, white horns catch the light, as does the red sash protruding from the…
Scanlines
(“Scanlines” wishes to thank Encore Movies & Music, I Luv Video, and Vulcan Video for their help in providing videos and laser discs.) Playing tonight at Liberty Lunch- The Hackers! Just kidding. (l-r) Laurence Mason, Jesse Bradford, Renoly Santiago, Matthew Lillard, Angelina Jolie, and Jonny Lee Miller portray cyber-rebels on the new frontier in Hackers.…
Public Notice
Each year, at about this time, a rag-tag group of local airwave activators get together to honor and celebrate International Women’s Day. As in previous years, Austin’s community media will be taken over by a bunch of wild women. The point of their revolution is to televise it, broadcast it, and create a cyber presence…
Mattox is Back
Is Jim Mattox the Comeback Kid? Although his race appeared to be slow to get off the ground, no one can deny that it was good to be Jim Mattox last Tuesday. At the headquarters of the Democratic candidate for attorney general, on Manor Road in East Austin, the phones were ringing, the parking lot…
Dungeons and Draggin’s
illustration by Json Stout Gary Gattis and some of his friends met me in a way technicolor virtual world called Brittania, where we were a band of rogue swordsmen looking for adventure. We met and destroyed a blood-red wraith. We met with a guild member or two and listened to complaints about God… er, Origin,…
Mister Smarty Pants Knows
Deep Purple and UB40 both had their first hits in America with covers of old Neil Diamond songs. Francis Bacon, one of the most influential minds of the late 16th century, died by freezing to death. He was trying to freeze a chicken by stuffing it outside with ice. According to one pathology examiner, topless…
The Promised Land
Located off Far West Boulevard (map at left), the 115,000 square foot Jewish Community Center (as illustrated at right) will eventually include a swimming complex, two ball fields, two tennis courts, and hike-and-bike trails on eight acres of the 40-acre site. How good and how pleasant it is when people dwell together!” It’s not every…
Short Cuts
Atom Egoyan, currently a nominee for a best director Oscar for his haunting screen adaptation of Russell Banks’ novel, The Sweet Hereafter, has been added this week to the SXSW Film Festival lineup. He will be in attendance to present a rare American screening of four of his short films and videos: “Portrait of Arshile,”…
Collateral Damage
illustration by Jason Stout With U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s unprecedented end-run around American machinations, the Iraq crisis is perceived (as of my deadline) to be over. But America still insists on the right to dictate terms, and is still poised to bomb Iraq. Iraq’s Saddam is a grotesque man, but that does not change two…
Polling the Poleyard
illustration by Doug Potter In all the excitement over Mayor Kirk Watson’s push to revitalize downtown, questions have often been taken as criticism, and suggestions dismissed as uninformed attacks. Nevertheless, since the council has started the wheels turning on its second residential project downtown last week, it seems a good time to balance some of…
Bow Speak
illustration by Tom King You know what drives me up the wall?” I complained to my friend Sylvia over coffee at a downtown cafe a few weeks ago. “An anti-gravity car?” Sylvia has a sense of humor that even her truest friends will sometimes describe as “fucked.” Or maybe she was just launching a pre-emptive…
Bigger, Bitter
Bitter End Bistro & Brewery 310 Colorado, 478-BEER Mon-Thu, 11:30am-midnight, Fri, 11:30am-1am, Sat, 5pm-1am, Sun, 5pm-midnight photograph byy John Anderson When is a restaurant a brewery, a brewery a bar, and a bar a restaurant? When you’re at the Bitter End Bistro & Brewery, the trendy downtown haunt that squeezes a plethora of Nineties dining…
Judge on Trial
Wilfred Aguilar John Cutright Janet Stockard It’s not a good sign when a judge seeking re-election draws two opponents from his own party – and the challengers don’t hedge when asked why they are running against Wilfred Aguilar, the 10-year presiding judge at County Court-at-Law No. 5. Aguilar faces John Cutright and Janet Stockard, both…
Keeping Up Appearances
Stacie Herndon, David Hutts, Fiona Cherbank and Diane Everman photograph by Kenny Braun It is 20 minutes into the interview, and David Hutts, the affable and energetic marketing manager for Book People, is telling disaster stories. “She showed up about 30 minutes late for the signing,” he recalls of a certain prize-winning short-story writer who…
Food-O-File
This was almost a great story. It’s all about a cool essay contest in which the grand prize winner gets to own their own pub in Ireland. For the fifth year, the Guinness Win Your Own Pub in Ireland contest will fly the 10 finalists in the annual essay contest to Dublin for a week…
Courting the Vote
Jade Meeker Jan Breland Russell Ramirez When County Court-at-Law No.6 Judge David Puryear switched to the Republican Party four years ago, Travis County Democrats – feeling duped by the man they had just ushered into office – vowed to recapture the seat in 1998. Now Puryear is making a bid for the 3rd Court of…
Naked City
Is the independent candidacy of Kirk Mitchell in the Pct. 3 County Commissioner race causing a split among green Dems? Three major environmental groups – Save Austin’s Neighborhoods and Environment (SANE), the Save Our Springs Alliance (S.O.S.) PAC, and the Sierra Club – have abstained from endorsing either Ann Graham or Nan Clayton in the…
Articulations
For the “Just When You Figured You’d Found the Ideal Place to Rehearse That Edgy Little Play” File, comes this amusing anecdote from Katherine Catmull and Ken Webster. It took place as the pair were rehearsing the Nicky Silver satire The Food Chain (Webster directing, Catmull performing in, opening this week at Hyde Park Theatre),…
Ride This Rocket
photograph by John Carrico Well, I was hoping that this could be the first article written about me that didn’t mention Johnny Cash,” says Damon Bramblett, a mere 99 seconds into the interview. Oops. Oh well, might as well get it out of the way early. Yes, Damon Bramblett’s voice does bear a certain resemblance…
Election Endorsements
We know you care about regional planning. We know you worry about the future of transportation, the environment, and criminal justice issues in Travis County. We know you need topnotch elected officials to represent you at both the state and county levels. We also know that few of you have time to wade through all…
U.S. Marshals
U.S. Marshals 1998, PG-13, 136 min. Directed by Stuart Baird, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Tommy Lee Jones, Wesley Snipes, Robert Downey, Irene Jacob, Kate Nelligan. Even hardcore sequelphobes have to admit it’s a pretty cool idea: a The Fugitive-redux manhunt movie focusing on U.S. Marshal Sam Gerard, Jones’ stoically relentless flatfoot character…
The Long Voyage Home
His thoughts are of home.He feels as if he has been heading toward it for ages. He has faced obstacle after obstacle, each one seeming to be the last before he could reach that place of rest and fulfillment, but always more and more trials have erupted in its place. He is weary, bone weary,…
Independence Day
photograph by Todd V. Wolfson Damnations singer/bass player Amy Boone has been vomiting all morning. This is no way to begin another day of recording at Music Lane studios, or even the way to begin another interview, but there you are. The pressure’s on, and so’s the coffee. Five cups and as many trips to…
Full Circle on the Triangle
Protests are starting up again at the Triangle. photograph by John Anderson After a three-month hiatus from the headlines, the mother of all Central Austin neighborhood battles is back in your face. If you’re sick of hearing about the Triangle now, you might want to spend the next few months under a rock in some…
Twilight
Twilight 1998, R, 96 min. Directed by Robert Benton, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Paul Newman, Susan Sarandon, Gene Hackman, James Garner, Stockard Channing, Reese Witherspoon, Giancarlo Esposito, Liev Schreiber, Margo Martindale, John Spencer, M. Emmet Walsh. Twilight is a good title for this murder-mystery whose best attributes are not the caliber of…
Exhibitionism
Helm Fine Art Center at St. Stephen’s School, through March 8 Running Time: 2 hrs, 30 min Picture the pitch meeting. “Hey, I had this great idea to write a musical about all of the discontented nuts who have tried to kill a U.S. president.” “And what would the story be?” “Story? Why do you…
Dancing About Architecture
Here’s a little list of some people who won’t be showcasing at South by Southwest: Toadie member Lisa Umbarger, popster Marshall Crenshaw, Bobby Fuller’s brother Randy, author/Pete Townshend’s buddy Dave Marsh, David Letterman booker Sheila Rogers, Conan O’Brien booker Jim Pitt, producers Brendan O’Brien, Gus Dudgeon, and Hugh Padgham, and South Park’s Kyle, Stan, Kenny,…
Technomancers
Check the shelves at CompUSA or Computer City. After all those years lurking waaaay at the back of the store, there they are now, right up front: hundreds of computer games. Of course! What else drives the sale of new computers but today’s games? You can still trudge along on a 33mhz DOS fossil to…
The Wind in the Willows
The Wind in the Willows 1996, PG, 87 min. Directed by Terry Jones, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Terry Jones, Steve Coogan, Eric Idle, Anthony Sher, Nicol Williamson, John Cleese, Stephen Fry, Bernard Hill, Michael Palin, Nigel Planer, Richard James. Where did this come from and why haven’t we heard about it? More…
Dead or Alive
As the bookstore employees responsible for recruiting authors for in-store readings, Austin’s CRCs spend a lot of time staring at the walls and trying to figure out how to get their favorite authors into the store. When I spoke with them, I asked each the following questions: “If you could get any living author to…
The Hills of Arkansas
photograph by John Carrico The first image I have of Jo Walston, vocalist for the Meat Purveyors, is a revealing one. As I stood around at a party somewhere on West Campus a number of years ago, a frenetic female bolted into the room, lifted her shirt above her head, and in a cloth-muffled voice…
An Extra Day of Computer-game Heaven
With SXSW Interactive already underway on Saturday, March 14 (see accompanying story), Austin will mark the axis of the computer-gaming universe still more firmly when the International Game Developers Network (IGDN) holds its first developers’ conference here on Friday, March 13 and Saturday, March 14. Based in Sunnyvale, California, the IGDN is a young, grassroots…
The Big Lebowski
A case of mistaken identity embroils the supremely go-with-the-flow character of the Dude (Bridges) in an intersecting mix of kidnapping, pornography, German nihilists, sultry women, gumshoes, missing money, and missing toes.
In Person: Nathan McCall at Folktales
Washington Post reporter Nathan McCall isn’t afraid to criticize basketball god Michael Jordan or founding father George Washington. He gazes at gansta rap and the white Christian church with the same unflinching eye. No one is protected, not even the author himself. It is a brand of truth that can make you squirm, like someone…
Carry a Big Schtick
photograph by Todd V. Wolfson I have a hard time going to see bands that take themselves seriously,” says Stacie Smith. “Like when 2,000 people just paid $18 for a Wallflowers ticket and they ask, `How do we sound?’ What are those people gonna say? Or when Sheryl Crow yells, `Does Austin know how to…
Much Ado About ACAC
Robert “Robot” Martin prepares for an outdoor shoot. Martin is also producer of the live cablecast of SXSW interactive. It all started with a fax about Austin Community Access Center’s live coverage of the SXSW Interactive/Film Trade Show. (Now, I could have written “It all started in a small 5,000-watt radio station in Fresno, California…”…
American Job
American Job 1996, NR, 90 min. Directed by Chris Smith, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Randy Russell, Tom Wheeler, Charlie Smith, Eric Lezotte, Dave O’Meara, Dan Layne, Ed English. Everyone knows this is nowhere, this world of minimum-wage jobs, stultifying labor, and dead ends. Another day, another meal, and we keep coming back…
Postscripts
A major exhibition that traces the relationship of the black letter typeface to issues of German nationalism opened this week at New York’s Herb Lubalin Study Center of Design and Typography at Cooper Union. Here in Austin, graphic designer and Texas Writers Month poster creator Marc English is also thinking about graphic design in relation…
The Sting
photograph by Bruce Dye In The Sting, the triple-cross setup at the end of the film is one of the greatest ruses ever depicted on screen. Every component of the scene’s reality – the betting facility, the passage of time during the race, the allegiance/betrayal of Newman and Redford, the glorious and murderous climax -…
Digital Anvil Chorus
photograph by Bruce Dye Let’s face it, the track record for video/computer games adapted to the screen has been pretty abysmal so far. Super Mario Brothers was an utter misfire, Street Fighter managed to leave a brief pall over the otherwise stellar career of Raul Julia, and Mortal Combat and its sequel – Mortal Combat:…
Dangerous Beauty
Dangerous Beauty 1998, R, 115 min. Directed by Marshall Herskovitz, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Catherine McCormack, Rufus Sewell, Oliver Platt, Moira Kelly, Naomi Watts, Fred Ward, Jacqueline Bisset. When Dangerous Beauty grows up, it wants to be a Merchant/Ivory film. Too bad puberty is still such a long way off. Based on…
About AIDS
Yes, you are still needed! You are needed to volunteer your time to help people who are living with HIV/AIDS. Every volunteer at AIDS Services of Austin makes a dramatic difference in the lives of the individuals we serve by giving the gift of self. The willingness to grow, be there, learn, and serve is…
The Nice Bunch
photograph by John Carrico Reckless Kelly is late. It’s no big deal. “Musician” and “on time” are mutually exclusive concepts in this town. Actually, the lack of punctuality works in the guys’ favor. As opposed to pissing me off, their late arrival for a meeting at Lucy’s Retired Surfers on Sixth Street allows me to…
“We Do Cool Things”
George Sanger, aka The Fat Man (“the biggest name in music for multimedia”), loves his work as much as anybody I know. So far he hasn’t been seduced by the lucrative world of film soundtracks, preferring to record tracks for diverse computer games including Origin’s Wing Commander, Trilobyte’s 7th Guest, Chuck Yeager’s Air Combat, Monster…
Hush
Hush 1998, PG-13, 95 min. Directed by Jonathan Darby, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Jessica Lange, Gwyneth Paltrow, Johnathon Schaech, Nina Foch, Hal Holbrook, Debi Mazar, David Thornton. Another in the growing genre of dysfunctional-family-member films, this new entry gives us Lange as Bad Mom Martha Baring, Paltrow as her new daughter-in-law Helen,…
