Cover Story
The Memories of the Long-Distance Runner
After surviving a holocaust, Gilbert Tuhabonye runs through life to tell his tale
Strangers on a Train
Strangers on a Train 1951, PG, 106 min. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, Starring Farley Granger, Ruth Roman, Robert Walker, Leo G. Carroll. Great psychological suspenser from Hitchcock based on a Patricia Highsmith novel stars Granger as a tennis pro who makes an unwitting “arrangement” with a very creepy Robert Walker.
Major Dundee: The Extended Version
Major Dundee: The Extended Version 1965, PG-13, 136 min. Directed by Sam Peckinpah, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Charlton Heston, Richard Harris, Jim Hutton, James Coburn, Michael Anderson Jr., Senta Berger, Mario Adorf, Brock Peters, Warren Oates, Ben Johnson, R.G. Armstrong, L.Q. Jones, Slim Pickens, Michael Pate. The movie Peckinpah made in between…
Fighter Pilot: Operation Red Flag
Fighter Pilot: Operation Red Flag 2004, NR, 48 min. Directed by Stephen Low, Narrated by Michael Hanrahan. Aiming to be more than just a movie, this short documentary is billed as an “IMAX Experience.” Cameras soar with the fighter jets and pilots who have come to Red Flag, an elite, two-week, combat training exercise at…
Lakshya
Lakshya 2004, NR, 186 min. Directed by Farhan Akhtar, Starring Hrithik Roshan, Amitabh Bachchan, Preity Zinta, Om Puri. A young man born into wealth has everything but direction in life – until he joins the military and becomes an excellent soldier and combatant in the India-Pakistani border wars.
POPaganda: The Art & Crimes of Ron English
POPaganda: The Art & Crimes of Ron English 2004, NR, 78 min. Directed by Pedro Carvajal. Ron English is an artist and an activist, and the work he produces ignores those boundaries. Although he maintains a respectable career as a fine art, English is inspired by the daily bombardment of advertising art to use the…
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Dead hair and Nixon’s psychic
Texas Platters
Paul NewmanThis Is How It Is Lost (Emperor Jones) The sparse artwork on the cover of Paul Newman’s latest may look simple, but you have to study it to see its beauty. The Austin quartet’s music is the same. The songs on This Is How It Is Lost float on the surface and dig into…
Dealey: No Regional Base + No Target Audience = Few Votes
“I have no regrets.” That’s what Mandy Dealey said when asked Saturday night about the pending outcome of the Place 3 race. Dealey ultimately came in last place with about 11% of the vote. She had been receiving updates throughout the night at her Serrano’s Symphony Square election night party that she was trailing her…
Lege Notes
Odds and ends (mostly odds) from the 79th
TCB
The smoking ban passes, and Austin falls down the rabbit hole – only to find Ms. ‘White Rabbit’ herself already there
Day Trips
Quanah Parker walked the stony road from nomadic Plains Indian to successful cattle rancher
Texas Platters
King TearsRope Chair Needle Some might mistake Austin quartet King Tears for goths: They’re named after a local mortuary, and their debut takes its title from three common methods of capital punishment. Yet there’s not a single murder ballad here; even “Heaven or Hell” turns out to be about a difficult relationship instead of any…
Place 4
Betty Dunkerley waxed her most critical opponent by a margin as wide as the South Austin sky
The Hightower Report
Making America dependent on domestic oil instead of focusing on conservation and renewable fuels is an ass-backward energy policy; and the ridiculous notion that we should treat corporations like living beings
Politics String
Austin Community College annexation and Round Rock ISD school board elections
Soccer Watch
European season draws to a close
Texas Platters
Ed Miller’s Generations of Change (Wellfield) appeared last fall, a delicious taste of what was to come in the latest Celtic harvest. Teamed again with Rich Brotherton and longtime accompanists Brian McNeill and Pipo Hernandez, Miller weaves contemporary Scottish songs (“Ferry Me Over”) with traditional ones (Robert Burns’ “Green Grow the Rashes O”) and a…
Restoring Services a Priority for Dunkerley
Brushing off accusations of shady campaign finance dealings, incumbent Betty Dunkerley waxed her most critical opponent by a margin as wide as the South Austin sky above her co-victory celebration Saturday night. With her daughters and five of her 12 grandchildren in tow, Dunkerley cheerfully hailed well-wishers on the patio of the Hill’s Cafe before…
NY (Heart) TFF
A report from the fourth annual Tribeca Film Festival
Dancing Through Uncharted Territory
Choreographic explorers Sharir & Bustamante and their 20-year expedition of discovery
Oops!
In “Pepsi Brings Union Fight to City Council,” May 6, the quote “Their strategy is delay, dishearten, and discourage. Wear us down, wear us out, and we’ll go away,” is incorrectly attributed to Gary Whiteknight. This was actually said by Teamster Phil Bunker. In the same issue, the photo caption to “Full Campaign Disclosure: Here…
Texas Platters
Robert Earl Keen What I Really Mean (Koch) What I Really Mean is Robert Earl Keen’s 11th album. It’s a rare artist who can make that much music and still keep things interesting. Keen succeeds because he never stays in one place too long. Of course he’s always hovering around a sound that’s vaguely country,…
Benedict Whipped
“The grandma is gonna whip my butt!” The outcome of the Place 4 race was evident to a resigned but good-humored challenger Wes Benedict by 8pm Saturday night, when the early voting returns and the first round of election day tallies showed incumbent Betty Dunkerley pushing 60%, and Benedict barely brushing 18%. Benedict had been…
Film News
Linklater maps out our ‘Fast Food Nation’; plus, Andrew Shapter, Dante James, and a Mitchum among us
Violet Crown Treasures
Pollyanna Theatre Company’s new play brings together two of Austin’s most exceptional artists and women
Lavender Love
Blanco celebrates its essence with a brand-new festival
Texas Platters
For six long and lonely winter months, it seemed as though only Manikin’s dark garage drone kept the torch of local 45s aloft. Satellite to this summer’s sophomore LP, the blue vinyl duress of M.4 (Super Secret) harnesses the Austin punk trio’s Beerland mojo in four kinetic jolts of top-down hearse rock, including Joy Division’s…
Place 1
It’s rare when a winning candidate receives congratulations and condolences in the same breath, but such was the bittersweet victory of Lee Leffingwell, who won a seat on the City Council just two weeks after losing his wife to suicide. Leffingwell spoke freely of both Saturday as he mingled with supporters at Hill’s Cafe in…
DVD Watch
You have to wonder about some of these people
Mothers & Fathers
Bill Cosby rang up Mother’s Day at Bass Concert Hall with a real cell phone call to an audience member’s offspring among two PAC-shaking hours of familial riffing via the vantage point of parent- and grandparenthood
Le Soleil
The vast majority of the customers are Vietnamese, which is something we love to see
Texas Platters
Lucinda Williams Live @ the Fillmore (Lost Highway) For those who remember the six-year wait between albums in the Nineties, a live album by Lucinda Williams is a significant surprise. She’s apparently over her perfectionist phase as Live at the Fillmore captures her with blemishes intact, screeching vocals and all. In fact, one has to…
The Odd Case of Pinetree v. Corndog
An Austinite defends his product as parody
TV Eye
I’m not an expert on American Idol, but I play one on TV
Planet Plan It
You can help plan the arts’ future in downtown Austin’s extreme makeover at a Community Charrette on May 14
El Borrego de Oro No. 2
El Borrego de Oro No. 1 is in Red Rock, halfway between Lockhart and Bastrop, but from the tastes at unit dos, we would have expected it to be somewhere deep in Mexico
Texas Platters
Rick Broussard’s Two Hoots and a Holler (Stag) Rick Broussard’s Two Hoots & a Holler Songs Our Vinyl Taught Us Rick Broussard is back, and that’s good news to his long-faithful fans, who love and appreciate influences worn on black leather sleeves. 2004’s Vinyl is a delicious tribute, 14 tracks from the award-winning roots rock…
Naked City
Headlines and happenings from Austin and beyond
Arts Review
Pat Hazell’s ‘The Wonder Bread Years,’ his solo comic riff on growing up as a kid in the Sixties, touches the late-generation baby boomer in all of us
Food-o-File
More lavender pleasures; plus, auctions, lectures, demos, and benefits
Naked City
Rep. Joe Moreno was supposed to be reminiscing with his colleagues this week, as it’s the second anniversary of House Democrats’ breaking quorum during the 2003 redistricting fight. Instead, the Houston lawmaker was laid to rest Tuesday in the Texas State Cemetery, following a long procession from services in Houston. Moreno, 40, was killed early…
Arts Review
The photographs that Stephanie Routh is exhibiting at Manuel’s discreetly document daily activities in Mexico – except for one
Cured HAAM
Health Alliance for Austin Musicians is now served
Gilbert Tuhabonye, Champion
Despite the pain of the past, running and life are still fun
Naked City
Keel changes language to speed up death penalty
Culture Flash!
Art in Public Places sets a fingerprint at the forensics lab, and Austin theatre is all over the map – of the U.S.
Texas Platters
SpoonGimme Fiction (Merge) Like no less than Wilco, Spoon has yet to release a mediocre album. On the contrary, with every new series of sneaks, the beloved Austin indie institution overlays yet another evolutionary transparency onto its endlessly compelling musical matrix. Where 2001’s Merge debut, Girls Can Tell, stripped Spoon’s jagged edge down to its…
Burundi: History and Tragedy
An African nation’s brutal past … and present
Naked City
Legislators argue over whether bill would drain or add money to public schools
Write of Passage
As Austin upstart Badgerdog Literary Publishing prepares to relaunch ‘American Short Fiction,’ it’s preparing high-needs students to express themselves on the printed page
Texas Platters
My Education, Bright & Hollow SkyCarousel Lounge, May 7 Between smoky conversations, New Balance sneakers tapping the floor, and pink elephants on the walls, a soft clank from a bass fell into the paper-thin chug of a guitar. Like a TV screen, reality is never at the Carousel Lounge, where scruffy hipsters, circus murals, and…
Doughnuts No More!
Election statistics, maps, and analysis
Naked City
Residents claim crusher threatens Edwards Aquifer and roadway safety
Page Two
Once again, Austin has demonstrated its deep indifference to front-line troops who nourish the music scene it purports to be so proud of
Texas Platters
Sally Crewe & the Sudden Moves Shortly After Take-Off (12XU) A musician’s life is a transient one, marked by constant travel, continents of new faces, and perpetual goodbyes. Such is life itself, riddled with arrivals and departures, especially when it comes to matters of the heart. This is the motif of British expat Sally Crewe’s…
Smoking Ban
No one knew quite what to expect when the ballot results began filtering in Saturday night, but the most common predictions for the divisive smoking ban vote – that it would be close and that the people who actually came out to the polls, especially early voters, would be more inclined to support the ban…
Naked City
The anti-war movement has flagged, but some Texans still hard at work
Letters at 3AM
As the semester begins, I present my high school seniors with the words of our great American authors and hope they provide a road map or the bread crumbs that can lead them through the journey of their lives
Texas Platters
Single FrameBody/End/Basement (Volcom) Single Frame has a problem. Throughout their sophomore LP, Body/End/Basement, the Austin trio exhibits symptoms of multiple personality disorder, both on the album and the accompanying DVD. Dance-punk, post-punk, and art-punk followed by industrial, electronic, and good ol’ fashioned indie rock combine with bouts of depression and paranoia (“Through the Wires”). Single…
Place 3
Margot Clarke will face Jennifer Kim in a June 11 run-off
Naked City
Reagan High murder victim inspires House bill
After a Fashion
Stephen does drag in cartwheels or cartwheels in drag… you’ll have to read to figure it out
Texas Platters
The Deathray Davies The Kick and the Snare (Glurp) Every May deserves a bright, buzzing pop LP to usher in summer. The fifth album from Dallas’ Deathray Davies is an undeniable contender for just such a role in 2005. With 11 full-body songs succinctly arranged for maximum energy, The Kick and the Snare oozes a…
Clarke Garners Most Votes, No Guarantees
The emerging script in the Place 3 race is rather obvious: Jennifer Kim is the young thirtysomething who possibly represents (as firefighters union president Mike Martinez put it) the face of Austin’s future, while Margot Clarke, 51, is the Austin traditionalist trying to carry on the enviro/neighborhood legacy of Jackie Goodman. Clarke couldn’t have picked…
Naked City
Bill would protect medical marijuana users
About AIDS
One of the earliest decisions an HIV-positive person must make is also one of the most critical: choosing a physician and starting a program of care. Studies show that a doctor’s knowledge level and experience with HIV makes a major difference in a poz person’s survival. Medical education doesn’t prepare MDs to treat HIV/AIDS. It’s…
Texas Platters
The Small Stars8 Stereo 8 Anyone who saw Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star knows showbiz is a soul-draining succubus that’ll seduce you one day and knock your dick in the dirt the next. But never discount the value of adoration and occasional sexual favors from people who otherwise wouldn’t piss on you to put out…
Mixing Young, New Voters Worked for Kim
When Jennifer Kim’s supporters started gathering on the patio of the South Congress Cafe at about 8pm Saturday, many were ready for a night of uncertainty. The early vote had installed Margot Clarke in an easy first place with 40% of the vote, while Kim was neck and neck with Gregg Knaupe for a spot…
Point Austin: Saturday Smoke Signals
Place 3 surprises, while the rest of the vote follows the program
To Your Health
What is the rationale for the blood type diet for weight loss?
Texas Platters
Mike JonesWho Is Mike Jones? (Swishahouse/Asylum/Warner Bros.) Pointing out his “Grandma” as the mastermind behind his marketing genius, Mike Jones throws up his name and phone number like an infomercial. Go ahead and call it repetitious, simple, or even way-past-trendy. Nonetheless, requests for the “Still Tippin'” ringtone continue in droves. As Houston’s Swishahouse builds momentum…
Knaupe: The Wrong Channel
“TV paid off for the two campaigns that decided to use that medium.” That was Gregg Knaupe’s conclusion following his surprisingly thorough defeat at the hands of Margot Clarke and Jennifer Kim. Both had run television ads in the last week of the campaign; Knaupe said his campaign had made the decision to stick to…
Who’s Taking Who?
The inside game of the ‘property rights’ legislation reveals the usual suspects
Luv Doc Recommends: Bikes Across Borders Light Up Your Bike Night Ride and Vigil
This Friday is the 13th. Statistically however, it’s pretty unlikely that you’re going to get butcher-knifed by a lunatic in a hockey mask, but just in case, you should probably avoid all of the major puck sports. Any activity where you need a mask with that kind of coverage is bound to attract a certain…
