Author by Author
Reviews by: Jim Hightower | D. Marion Wilkinson | Jan Grape | Tom Grimes | Tom Doyal | Evelyn Palfrey | Marian E. Barnes | Elizabeth Crook | Jim Bob McMillan | Barbara Bonds Thomas | Jesse Sublett Jim Hightower is one of 11 local literati contributing reviews in this issue. photograph by Kenny Braun…
Road Shows
MAY FRI 1 Dougie MacLean, Cactus Cafe FRI 1 Electric Frankenstein, Emo’s FRI 1 Fear, Spider Virus, Liberty Lunch SAT 2 Reverend Horton Heat, Old 97’s, Pie Tasters, Austin Music Hall SAT 2 Quadrajets, Cash Money, Boy Hits Car, Emo’s SUN 3 Beausoleil, East First Garden Theater SUN 3 Knife in the Water, Halcyon Shell,…
Nuevo Tex-Mex: Festive New Recipes From Just North of the Border,
by David Garrido and Robb Walsh (Chronicle Books, $19.95 paper) The eagerly awaited book by up-and-coming regional chef David Garrido and award-winning food writer (and former Austin Chronicle food editor Robb Walsh) will be on the shelves of Austin bookstores this week. This has been a very good year for local cookbook authors, and these…
Coach’s Corner
I’m trying to think of a song, like “New York, New York,” saying something, let alone anything nice, about Las Vegas. I can’t, though Hank Snow must have mentioned this twisted place in “I’ve Been Everywhere.” I guess the reason is, it’s hard to leave Vegas feeling very good about too many things, aside from…
Selective Enforcement
illustration by Jason Stout The Sixth Street crowd is an unruly one. Overwhelmingly drunk, charged with the adrenaline of a night in the clubs, their throngs are always loud and often violent. There’s no telling what any situation might develop into when those bumping into each other are half out of their minds drunk, with…
The Spanish Prisoner
The Spanish Prisoner 1997, PG, 112 min. Directed by David Mamet, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Campbell Scott, Rebecca Pidgeon, Steve Martin, Ben Gazzara, Ricky Jay, Felicity Huffman. Writer-director David Mamet is up to his old tricks again. In fact, if the title were not already taken, he might have named this film…
Postscripts
UT prof and Texas Institute of Letters president Don Graham, whose new collection of essays, Giant Country: Essays on Texas, is recently out from TCU Press, has a November deadline for a yet-untitled travel/memoir work to be written with his wife Betsy Berry that will be published sometime in 1999 from Texas native Tom Southern’s…
Bed, Bathhouse, & Beyond
Midtowne Spa is housed in this nondescript building on Airport Boulevard. photograph by Jana Birchum What on earth could a morality crusader and the owner of a gay bathhouse have in common? Both, it turns out, oppose a new category in the city zoning code for “adult service businesses.” Add members of the Austin City…
Les Miserables
Les Miserables 1998, PG-13, 129 min. Directed by Bille August, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Liam Neeson, Geoffrey Rush, Uma Thurman, Claire Danes, Hans Matheson, Reine Brynolfsson, Peter Vaughn. I should confess up front that after a cursory high school reading of the classic novel and a late-Eighties viewing of the Broadway phenomenon,…
About AIDS
A new AIDS Services of Austin support group is getting underway, called The Negative/Positive Connection. It is for male couples of mixed status, i.e., one partner is HIV-positive and one is HIV-negative. The Negative/Positive Connection will meet once a week for six sessions from 5:30 to 7pm. A voluntary research component will be included, conducted…
Ciao, GianCarlo
illustration by Tom King Though I had not seen my friend GianCarlo Cesaroni for almost 10 years, I awoke one morning this past January from a powerful dream in which I could clearly see his furrowed face, but could not hear a single note of his gruff, staccato voice. For a long time I lay…
Still Breathing
Still Breathing 1998, PG-13, 109 min. Directed by James F. Robinson, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Brendan Fraser, Joanna Going, Celeste Holm, Ann Magnuson, Lou Rawls, Angus Macfadyen, Toby Huss, Paolo Seganti, Michael McKean, Junior Brown. Fletcher McBracken (Fraser) is a sweet, dreamy young man who suffers the same curse that his father…
Benefits
SAT 2 Spring Fling to benefit Hyde Park Presbyterian charity programs, at Hyde Park Presbyterian, 3913 Ave. B (@ 40th), 2-7pm. 459-7747. 45th Anniversary Celebration of the All Austin Cooperative Nursery School to benefit the school, at AACNS, 4700 Grover, 10am-3pm. Cost is $2. 454-5315. Music & Food to benefit West Texans Opposed to the…
Raising Cane
photograph by Alan Pogue Mark Weaver is back and, for better or worse, we’ve got him. The anti-porn and anti-gay activist has been laying low since 1991. That was when the young minister was arrested for criminal trespassing, handcuffed, and removed from an AIDS Services of Austin board meeting. He said he decided then that…
No Looking Back
No Looking Back 1998, R, 96 min. Directed by Edward Burns, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Edward Burns, Lauren Holly, Jon Bon Jovi, Connie Britton, Blythe Danner. Surely there’s more to life than choosing Mr. Right; that is… unless you happen to be a woman stuck in an Edward Burns movie. Actually, the…
Day Trips
Guadalupe River State Park between Bulverde and Boerne gives just a glimpse of the beauty of the upper Guadalupe River because most of the river’s banks are jealously guarded possessions of private landowners. Without the park, access to the cool river waters would be severely limited. According to park staff, it was because of canoeists…
Who’s Minding the Clinics?
Nurse Beverly Milwee examines client Maria Miles at the South Rural Health Clinic. photograph by Jana Birchum There’s no room anywhere. Every time you turn around you bump into something,” complains Delores Peralez, maneuvering out of the cubbyhole where she checks in patients at Travis County’s South Rural Health Clinic in Del Valle. Her supervisor,…
Dancer, Texas Pop. 81
Dancer, Texas Pop. 81 1998, PG, 97 min. Directed by Tim McCanlies, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Breckin Meyer, Peter Facinelli, Ethan Embry, Eddie Mills, Patricia Wettig, Eddie Jones, Alexandra Holden, Wayne Tippit. There are so many captivating characters, so many funny moments, and so much sweet affection in this movie, its ending…
Page Two
You can hear it. Quiet, just listen. There, do you hear – the pounding of the drums, the blare of the horns? You can hear it on local talk radio, see it on ever-sprouting yard signs, and read it in flyers that come in the mail. Vote No on the propositions. Let’s rip control of…
The Cost of Public Clinics
OPERATING COSTS City County Total Personnel $9,771,835 $1,700,416 $11,472,251 Non-Personnel $3,880,849 $ 438,695 $ 4,319,544 Total Operating Exp. $13,652,684 $2,139,111 $15,791,795 OTHER COSTS Admin. Support $1,242,143 $0 $1,242,143 Debt. Service $ 103,288 $0 $103,288 Other $ 58,300 $0 $ 58,300 Total Other Req. $1,403,731 $0 $1,403,731 Total Requirements $15,056,415 $2,139,111 $17,195,526 Employees (Full-time) 208.23 42.33…
The Butcher Boy
The Butcher Boy 1998, R, 105 min. Directed by Neil Jordan, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Eamonn Owens, Stephen Rea, Fiona Shaw, Alan Boyle, Aisling O’Sullivan, Sinead O’Connor, Ian Hart, Milo O’Shea. Deeply tragic yet savagely funny, The Butcher Boy is an audacious account of a troubled and violent childhood. Set in a…
Public Notice
Over the next few weeks, there seems to be an inordinate amount of Homespun Benefits to help out a specific person (or other carbon-based life-form, as we will see…). Phone numbers are listed at the end of each so that you may offer a donation even if you can’t attend (hint*hint). * Help with the…
Annexation Relief Act
illustration by Doug Potter Who would have thought, during the afterglow of the May 1997 elections when the Green ticket swept the City Council races, or during the long trudge of annexation hearings last fall while the environmentalists stood beside their council and the newly annexed cursed their oppressors, that the Green Council would soon…
He Got Game
He Got Game 1998, R, 136 min. Directed by Spike Lee, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Denzel Washington, Ray Allen, Rosario Dawson, Milla Jovovich, Ned Beatty, Hill Harper, Bill Nunn, Jim Brown, Zelda Harris, Lonette Mckee. With He Got Game, the director most capable of delivering Hollywood’s first truly great hoop drama squares…
Mister Smarty Pants Knows
Car parts cartoon characters Manny, Moe, and Jack were allegedly born in California. Lucent Technology is working on a plastic transistor that can be sprayed onto things like credit cards and show their owners their balance and recent transactions. Some in Thai culture are superstititious about MSG and believe it will make your hair fall…
Endorsements
Prop. 1 (Conv. Center/Waller Creek): Yes Prop. 2 (Barton Creek Land Purchase): Yes Prop. 3 (Walnut Creek Flood Control): Yes AISD Board of Trustees: President: Kathy Rider Vice Pres.: Doyle Valdez District 1: Loretta Edelen District 4: Ave Wahrmund District 6: Jeff Jack District 7: Olga Garza Barton Springs/Edwards Aquifer Conserv. District: Prop. 1 (Abolish…
Tarzan and the Lost City
Tarzan and the Lost City 1998, PG, 80 min. Directed by Carl Schenkel, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Casper Van Dien, Jane March, Steven Waddington. Van Dien, late of Starship Troopers, is back in what appears to be another unintentional satire in this umpteenth variation on Edgar Rice Burroughs’ formidable series. Unfortunately, the…
Wired to What?
illustration by Jason Stout The standard line from magazines like Wired, and technological apologists everywhere, is that the personal computer and the Internet are instruments of freedom. Our government says so, too, and schools teach this to our (white) children. (Schools attended by children of color don’t have many PCs. And the Senate just voted…
Business as Usual?
Over the past 18 months, more than two dozen people have been killed or disappeared and more than 100 homes and churches have been burned to the ground by the Indonesian military in central Irian Jaya. Those are the findings of a new report documented by a group of human rights activists and church officials…
The Big Hit
The Big Hit 1998, R, 94 min. Directed by Che-Kirk Wong, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Mark Wahlberg, Lou Diamond Phillips, Christina Applegate, Avery Brooks, Bokeem Woodbine, Lela Rochon, China Chow, Elliot Gould, Antonio Sabata Jr. More aptly titled The Big Miss, this grade-Z action parody looks like a second-rate John Woo cast-off…
Interior Indulgence
Bretram’s Restaurant & Bar photograph by John Anderson Bertram’s Restaurant and Bar 1601 Guadalupe, 476-2743 Mon-Thu, 5:30-10pm; Fri-Sat, 5:30-11pm; Sun, 11am-2pm The low-slung limestone structure that Rudolf Bertram built to be a general store in 1862 has since seen a lot of change in use, if not in structure. Besides a store, Bertram’s has served…
Naked City
City election officials are bracing themselves for yet another low turnout Saturday as voters decide on a number of heady issues: A trio of “Smart Growth” bond propositions, a field of candidates vying to fill six seats on the AISD Board of Trustees, the fate of the Barton Springs/Edwards Aquifer Conservation District, and two spots…
Major League: Back to the Minors
Major League: Back to the Minors 1998, PG-13, 97 min. Directed by John Warren, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Scott Bakula, Corbin Bernsen, Dennis Haysbert, Takaaki Ishibashi, Jensen Daggett, Eric Bruskotter, Bob Uecker, Ted McGinley. Back to the Minors… yeah, that sounds about right for this third installment in the Major League film…
Food-O-File
The last two weeks of April are packed with back-to-back food-related travel options. By the time you read this, the group of Austin food writers, chefs, and restaurateurs who attended the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) convention in Portland, Oregon will be back in River City. Chef/cookbook author Miguel Ravago of Bertram’s by Miguel…
Ace Rewards
Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York. Okay, so she’s no Diana. Would Diana have appeared on Friends? You’ve probably heardby now, but TimeWarner Cable, Rogers & Hammerhead Productions, and Austin Music Network (AMN15) have been nominated for a CableACE award for the Rogers & Hammerhead Show. The CableACE awards have been presented annually by the…
Dancing About Architecture
Okay, so by this point you’re expecting to see the lads of Fastball appear on MTV every half-hour or so, as well as talk shows and any music-related program on television, due to the success of their breakout hit “The Way.” But who could have been ready to have no less a source than the…
Breathing Lessons
photograph by Todd V. Wolfson Ostensibly a romantic comedy with a light touch of magical realism, the little indie film that could, Still Breathing, received a huge word-of-mouth push when it made its worldwide premiere in March 1997 as the closing night feature at South by Southwest. Writer, director, and San Antonio native James F.…
Articulations
Last week, we noted that the fine arts museum on the University of Texas campus – let’s all say it together now: the Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art – had launched its search for an architectural firm to design the new facility it will be building on the south campus, but we failed to…
Trawling Panthalassa
Long before antiquity, all the earth’s terra firma was contained in one gigantic land mass called Pangea. Geological forces pulled apart Pangea, the fragments forming today’s seven continents. The ocean that lapped up on the shores of Pangea was the one, primordial sea: Panthalassa. And as of last week, that term now also refers to…
Scanlines
Sony Playstation My introduction to this game was inauspicious. A friend who’d played it said, “You remember that thing Simon where you had to punch out the colored, beeping lights in the right order? It’s like that, only it’s more cheesy.” I was utterly appalled when I first played it, but grim fascination kept bringing…
Framing the Border
photograph by Byron Brauchli Snapshot of a moment in the cultural life of Central Texas. On a sunny Thursday morning in a gallery in Austin’s Uptown Cultural District, a handful of people who all share a passion for photography and for the region encompassing Mexico and the southwestern United States gather round a table for…
Recommended
Friday: Dougie Maclean, Diana Jones, Cactus Cafe; Jerry Jeff Walker, Backyard Saturday: Big Game Hunter, Electric Lounge; Jimmy George Band, The Mercury Sunday: Knife in the Water, Halcyon Shell, Pave, Emo’s Monday: Texas Urban Music Showcase, Midtown Live Tuesday: Tosca, Cabaret Diosa, Continental Club; Con Rumba Son, Speakeasy Wednesday: Avail, Atomic Cafe Thursday: REO Speeddealer,…
Short Cuts
A University of Texas student organization called the University Filmmakers Alliance (UFA) is hosting an interesting two-part event this weekend which is open to the community at large. Jump Cut ’98, a compilation of student film projects in competition, will screen Friday, May 1, 7pm, in the Texas Union Theatre. UFA Conference ’98: Texas Connection…
Exibitionism
The Public Domain, through May 2 Running Time: 3 hrs Don’t let the name fool you. The Life of Galileo may sound like a textbook snore, but it is The Public Domain’s visually dazzling, engaging, and intriguing foray into the difficult and sometimes deadly truths of arts, science, and man. Galileo � quick history lesson…
Record Reviews
JERRY CANTRELL Boggy Depot (Columbia) Alice in Chains is (was), arguably, the best of the Seattle “grunge” bands, having put out a series of albums that grew progressively better without ever succumbing to pretension or rockstaritis – the often lethal affliction common to commercial success. On the other hand, Layne Staley, the band’s singer, did…
Celebrity Reviews
Syndicated trivia columnist L.M.Boyd has a long-running bit called “The Proper Job Club” in which he humorously noted people whose last names fit their occupations. Here at The Austin Chronicle, our version of The Proper Job Club is having notable folks review books in their area of expertise. We hope you find this informal roundup…
