Mister Smarty Pants Knows
There are about two million worms under every football field. John Wayne once served as a judge for a California TV talent show that included contestants Karen and Richard Carpenter (and their combo). Wayne was so fond of Karen that he convinced her to read for a part in True Grit. Houdini had special paw…
Early birds fly right: Voting trends spell trouble for Mitchell
In general, between 25-35% of the Austinites who vote cast their ballots during the 17-day early voting period preceding each election. And almost invariably, these voters tend toward the right; conservative candidates see their highest percentage leads right at the beginning of Election Night, when the early-vote totals are released. On May 3, that boded…
Articulations
The latest sign of our local theatre scene’s good health? No, it isn’t the fact that everyone still has a working liver after this week’s Critics Table Awards; it’s the number of local productions being revived for second runs. Last week at The Public Domain, Daniel Alexander Jones gave his autobiographical soul saga Blood:Shock:Boogie a…
Food-o-file
The first annual “Hotel Issue” of Gourmet magazine is on the stands, featuring the results of a comprehensive reader’s poll about the best hotels around the world. In a section entitled “Rooms at the Top,” the Four Seasons Hotel-Austin places second only to Dallas’ Mansion on Turtle Creek in the Texas region, and is one…
Texas on the Tube
Is there a voice closer to heaven than that of Emmylou Harris? That’s a subjective statement, of course, but fans of hers — and they are legion — will be thrilled to see her as the subject of a one-hour documentary this week on PBS (KLRU, 5/16, 9pm). Building the Wrecking Ball follows the making…
Theatre Critics Table Awards 1997
On Monday, May 12, the Austin Theatre Critics’ Table presented their fifth annual awards for achievement in theatre at Top of the Marc. The participating critics — Michael Barnes, Jamie Smith, and Anna Hanks, Austin American-Statesman; John Bustin, West Austin News; David Mark Cohen, Texas Triangle; Jerry Conn, Westlake Picayune; and Robert Faires and Adrienne…
The Taco Shack
4412 Medical Parkway, 467-8533 Mon-Fri, 6:30am-3pm; Sat, 7am-1pm. The Taco Shack is a little ol’ place where you can get together around outdoor picnic tables and feast on cheesy Tex-Mex turned out by a friendly, family-run kitchen. The triangular, pink eatery, located just south of the intersection of Burnet & 45th Street on Medical Parkway,…
Picking Apples
Product placement — the practice by which companies effectively “loan” their products to filmmakers and studios in exchange for some free publicity in the movies — is nothing new. The concept goes back decades, with such corporate heavy-hitters as Pepsi and Coca-Cola insinuating their brand-name products into everything from Teen Wolf to Midnight Cowboy and…
Exhibitionism
WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?: TRAPPED IN THE EMOTIONAL MAELSTROM Dougherty Arts Center Theatre, through May 24. Running Time: 2 hrs, 45 min. There is a magic zone that happens every night between 2am and sunrise. The rest of the world is asleep and their prying eyes are shut. You are free to act as…
Serious Intuition
Simple Cooking by John Thorne North Point Press, $13 paper Outlaw Cook by John Thorne with Matt Lewis Thorne North Point Press, $10 paper Serious Pig: An American Cook in Search of His Roots by John Thorne with Matt Lewis Thorne North Point Press, $30 hard Simple Cooking Newsletter P.O. Box 8 Steuben, Maine 04680…
Samples to Chew On
Now that you know Apple computers are in darn near every film that comes out these days, let’s say you’re interested in hosting an all-Apple video party for your pals. Hey, it’s gotta be better than yet another Trivial Pursuit tourney, and besides, everyone’s still sore from last weekend’s marathon Strip-Twister debacle. But what to…
Back to Nature
“Monkey #2: Isabella,” by Claudia Reese. “Wild Life,” the current exhibition at Lyons Matrix Gallery, features Austinites Claudia Reese and Judy Jensen. Over the years each has honed her craft, turned craft into art, and learned how to market herself and her production. Given the similarities in their experience (both have established reputations well beyond…
Dancing About Architecture
It seems like not a week goes by without a new rumor concerning the Antone’s/Discovery Records partnership. This time, words were flying that a new boss was coming in and unceremoniously dumping a load of acts, which could spell potential disaster for such Antone’s stalwarts as Toni Price, Sue Foley, Steve James, and Guy Forsyth.…
Transcontintental Travesty
illustration by Jason Stout I’d been criss-crossing Switzerland alone by train for three weeks. On my final day, I entered McDonald’s, something I’d sworn I wouldn’t do. Yet there I was waiting in line, praying not to encounter a fellow American. Two Zurich teens conversing in German caught my eye, probably since they were wearing…
Tanith Lee’s Adventure
Author Tanith Lee Some quick math: If Tanith Lee has written 61 novels since 1971, and if that includes eight series, all of which freely mingle elements of horror, fantasy, and science fiction… if Tanith Lee has also written six plays and one work of non-fiction… if Tanith Lee has written in genres including juvenile…
Truckstop Girl
photograph by Jana Birchum Road metaphors are to singer-songwriters what pancakes and eggs are to truckstops: stock tools of the trade, or staple menu items, if you will, that are comfortably and universally enjoyed by travelers of all sorts. So well-employed is the road metaphor that it borders on clich�. How many songs about Roads…
Scanlines
(Scanlines wishes to thank Encore Movies & Music and Vulcan Video for their assistance on providing videos) “Ah, me…” Claire Danes is a luminous Juliet in a modern day take on the fabled love story. So why didn’t they just remake West Side Story? William Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet D: Baz Luhrmann (1996) with Leonardo…
The Gods Are Thirsty
Not being a historian of the French Revolution, I refuse to judge how closely fantasy writer Tanith Lee has stuck to the known facts in writing her unusual new historical novel, The Gods are Thirsty (Overlook Press, $26.95 hard). Suffice it to say that a) it doesn’t matter, and b) I wouldn’t care if it…
Live Shots
Screaming with Velvet Hammer at the Electric Lounge, May 9 MARY CHAPIN CARPENTER Paramount Theatre, May 2 A Mary Chapin Carpenter show sure seems like the last place that a round of golf would break out, but sure enough, her show at the Paramount was a little like the Masters; not because the racial make-up…
Shortcuts
Gee, folks… it doesn’t get much easier than this. For the moment, all you need to complete is an “Intent to Apply.” I’m talking about the Texas Filmmakers’ Production Fund (TFPF), which awards grants to Texas producers of promising non-commercial film and video projects and whose deadline for application is July 1. That gives you…
The Art of Dying
Dying Is an art like everything else. I do it exceptionally well. — Sylvia Plath illustration by Penny Van Horn I’m not sure if comparing Evita with Elvis is more offensive to his memory or hers, yet I cannot resist the risk. Both were born of uncertain circumstances yet bloomed inexplicably into full-fledged stardom, shaping…
Abracadabra!
photograph by Shannon McIntyre Comparisons are often a useful tool for clueing people in to the style and sound of a new or relatively unknown artist. In fact, sometimes musical resemblances are so strong and the comparison so readily apparent that people can’t help making the obvious connection. It’s this type of sonic familiarity that’s…
>Look Up!
photograph by Jana Birchum We were both lost in Texas. We had no way of getting home. For me home was New York City, but for my friend Dymody and his Heaven’s Gate companions, home was somewhere out beyond the star named Sirius. It is still unclear whether Dymody was among the 39 who died…
Postscripts
San Marcos resident Roger Boylan will see the publication of his Killoyle, An Irish Farce on Thursday, May 15 (today) from Dalkey Archive Press. Killoyle is a comic novel set in a fictitious Irish town of the same name, and was no doubt created from Boylan’s experiences as a student in both Ireland and Scotland.…
Music Recommended
Friday: Jay Clark, Carousel Lounge Saturday: Sixteen Deluxe, Electric Lounge Sunday: Smiths’ Tribute Party, Planet Austin Monday: Two Hoots & a Holler, Saxon Pub Tuesday: Tony Campise, Elephant Room Wednesday: Seth Walker, B-Side Thursday: Cornell Hurd Band, Jovita’s
Heaven’s Gate & Related Bookmarks
Heaven’s Gate — How and When It May Be Entered http://www5.zdnet.com/yil/higher/heavensgate/index.html This is one of several mirror sites for the original site which was taken off the Web because the number of hits it was getting was melting the server. It provides 10 megs of higher truth — unexpurgated, unredacted, unfiltered, and un-spellchecked, too. Higher…
About AIDS
Straight Talk AIDS Services of Austin is pleased to offer “Straight Talk,” a six-week support group for heterosexual men and women living with HIV/AIDS. The group begins June 2 on Monday evenings from 5:30-7pm. Men and women living with HIV/AIDS can experience feelings of isolation, fear, grief, anger, hopelessness, and other emotions. “Straight Talk” offers…
Road Shows
MAY FRI 16 Baboon, Electric Lounge FRI 16 Jesse Dayton, Stubb’s FRI 16 The Skeletons, Continental Club FRI 16 The Dwarves, F.Y.P., Damnation, The Boozers, Emo’s FRI 16, SAT 17Johnny Reno & the Lounge Kings, Speakeasy FRI 16, SAT 17Gregory Boyd, Jazz on Sixth Street SAT 17 String Cheese Incident, Stubb’s SAT 17 Flat Duo…
Abra Moore
Strangest Places (Arista Austin) As “Four Leaf Clover” blankets the national airwaves and the rest of the world is introduced to the singular talent of Abra Moore, you who knew her from Sing will be blown away by how she’s rockin’ these days — and even more surprised at how much you’ll love it. While…
Hearth & Soul
Bugged Photos of me during my childhood show a fairly happy kid, at least from the knees up. From the knees down, the picture ain’t so pretty. My bare, pale shins and calves appear perpetually covered in red bumps and scabs. Chicken pox? Shingles? Leprosy? No, mosquitoes, the bane of my summers on the Gulf…
AISD Notebook
It’s budget time again, and members of Austin Interfaith were on hand during citizens’ communications to oppose possible cuts in funding for schools with low socio-economic populations. As a five-year observer of AISD, your correspondent has become despondent and disgusted at watching this annual battle waged upon the backs of poor people every single budget…
Benefits
9-Ball Charity Classic to benefit the Humane Society of Austin/Travis Co., at Slick Willie’s Family Pool Hall, 8440 Burnet, 7-9pm. 837-7985, ext. 226. Alternative Prom & Variety Show to benefit OutYouth Austin, at Saengerrunde Halle, 16th & San Jacinto. 708-1234. Sat 17 Bluebonnet Dressage Show will be held through Sunday to benefit the Alzheimer’s Association…
Flinging the R-Word
Everyone agrees on at least one thing: Last week’s council meeting was the most inflammatory display of community venom in recent memory. After being cut short on April 24, the Eric Mitchell-sponsored public hearing on the Central City Entertainment Center (CCEC) rolled back into council chambers this week like a tornado, ripping apart everything in…
Coach’s Corner
Las Vegas conjures images of gangsters, Elliot Ness style guys, like Frank Nitti, selling sin in the western Nevada desert. I see the old Mafia-run casinos of the Fifties. I see Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis on the Desert Inn marquee. I see the Vegas of Casino, where Robert Di Niro and his wiseguy pals…
Austin City Council Election Endorsements
Early voting for the Saturday, May 31 run-off elections is May 12-27. There is a list of polling places and lots of other election information on the city’s Web page, http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/election/ — for yet more, check out the Chronicle’s Web Elections Board at /election. Place 5: Bill Spelman. Spelman is recognized as a strong environmentalist,…
Day Trips
When Dennis Thomas found The Antlers in Kingsland three years ago, the old railroad hotel hardly resembled its glory days when excursion trains from Austin stopped at its front door twice a day to unload guests for what was then one of the finest resorts in Texas. Built in 1901, the two-story, L-shaped hotel was…
The Justice’s Closet Case
Justice Raul Gonzalez photograph by Taylor Johnson This crusade is not the justice’s first venture into the territory of the religious right. Gonzalez is a Roman Catholic who says he converted to a “deeper faith” 24 years ago on a marriage retreat with his wife, Dora. Since then he and his wife have worked with…
Page Two
Some thoughts on the Chronicle… In this issue we offer the first appearance of the 1997 Austin Chronicle Best of Austin ballot. This is your poll, with over 200 categories in which to vote as well as ample write-in space for additional categories and nominees — a “Best of” issue should be bursting with ideas…
Naked City
Mike Workman, campaign lackey for unsuccessful mayoral candidate Max Nofziger, showed up at last Thursday’s council meeting armed with a petition calling for a recount of the May 3 election ballots cast in Precinct 442. Although Workman acknowledges that the campaign “really doesn’t expect to find any impropriety,” he said he was dismayed that a…
Public Notice
Close But No Cigars Our time in Tuxpan, Veracruz, Mexico was brief but left lasting impressions. We were there to enjoy la playa, and take in a few Gulfside restaurantes especialidad en pescados y mariscos, and lounge around schlucking five-peso Sols in the sun. We had no idea that we were in the very town…
The Hispanic Factor
Bobbie Enriquez declines to endorse either Spelman or Zuniga. photograph by Alan Pogue Bobbie Enriquez may have picked up less than 10% of the vote on May 3, but an endorsement from her would have meant the world to the two remaining candidates in the Place 5 city council race. Bill Spelman and Manuel Zuniga…
