Willie Varela: Renegade
Willie Varela: Renegade NR. Directed by Willie Varela, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . Varela is a well-known El Paso filmmaker who is a pioneer of the “personal” style of film expression, as well as an advocate of the Super-8 format. Inspired to pick up a camera by the examples of John Lennon…
“Space Station 3-D”
“Space Station 3-D” 2002, NR, 46 min. Directed by Toni Myers, Narrated by Tom Cruise, Voices by , Starring . Given the amount of cinematic science fiction in the last quarter-century, modern moviegoers may feel they’ve seen it all where space travel is concerned. But Space Station 3-D provides a fresh and intensely personal experience…
The Last Picture Show: Special Edition
The Last Picture Show: Special Edition 1971, R, 118 min. Directed by Peter Bogdanovich, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Randy Quaid, Eileen Brennan, Cybill Shepherd, Ellen Burstyn, Cloris Leachman, Ben Johnson, Jeff Bridges, Timothy Bottoms. This director’s cut of Larry McMurtry’s haunting Texas tale is a pure gem and a perfect way to…
Batman: The Movie
Batman: The Movie 1966, NR, 105 min. Directed by Leslie H. Martinson, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Adam West, Burt Ward, Cesar Romero, Burgess Meredith, Frank Gorshin, Lee Meriwether. The camp humor of the Sixties TV series is extended into a feature-length format.
Swiss Family Robinson
Swiss Family Robinson 1960, NR, 128 min. D: Ken Annakin. No one knows how to shipwreck a family as well as the folks at Disney.
Now More Than Ever!
Now More Than Ever! NR. Directed by Various, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . Visiting artists from New York and Japan will be on hand, the play We Sell Peace of Mind will be staged, and video art from all over will be screened, including selections from the vaults of RTMark, contributions from…
The Prayer Robbers
A fantasist’s view of the rise of monotheism.
City Begins Budget Cut-and-Paste
We’re $68 million in the hole. What’s council going to do about it?
New In Print
Timed neatly with the premiere of George Lucas’ latest Star Wars installment, Will Brooker’s new pop-cult study of Star Wars fandom sheds some light on the dark side.
Second Helpings: Indian Restaurants, Part Two
The weekly Chronicle feature “Second Helpings” offers readers the opportunity to sample tasty, bite-sized restaurant listings compiled from new and previous reviews, guides, and poll results. This week’s entries were updated by Chronicle writer Mick Vann. When you need quick, reliable information about Austin eateries, check here. Spicy Tandoor 6800 Airport Blvd. (at Guadalupe), 459-6859…
Emily Sings
New Texas Music Works is kicking off the ninth annual New Texas Festival with the Emily Dickinson Song Symposium. A conference dedicated to art songs featuring texts by the master American poet.
Food-o-File
What’s cooking in the Central Texas food scene.
Back to the Chalkboard?
Though tensions between City Hall and Austin ISD have cooled a bit since last year, when Mayor Gus Garcia made the district’s problems the major focus of his mayoral campaign, the battle is far from over. Despite AISD Superintendent Pat Forgione’s recent Blueprint effort to address Austin’s problems educating children of color, the Mayor’s Committee…
Short Cuts
Music video maven Lance Myers stays up all night to animate the Riddlin’ Kids’ latest spin, plus pennies from heaven (or: the Texas Filmmakers Production Fund).
Articulations
The Long Center for the Performing Arts is delayed until 2005, and MS / Nerve Dance Company and Jason Phelps hold a very personal benefit.
1,000 Musical Kisses
Patty Griffin comes of age.
“Whoring Is Boring” …
… was the late-session mantra of one ancient lobbyist of our acquaintance down at the Lege. But for Austin’s Mark McKinnon, a George W. Bush media consultant, the Dance of the Sugar-Plum Spin Doctors got uncomfortably interesting last week. On May 8, the Austin American-Statesman reported that he and his wife had given campaign contributions…
TV Eye
What, you think watching TV for a living is easy? Boy, does “TV Eye” have a thing or two to tell you.
Exhibitionism
The thrill that comes from the bright, full, flashy, splashy sound of a brass band is the feeling you get from Austin Musical Theatre’s production of Sweet Charity and to coin a phrase, how sweet it is.
Patty Griffin Reviewed
Patty Griffin1000 Kisses (ATO) Whether it’s by coincidence or design, there are few things sweeter in popular music than artists and their fans falling on the same page; for close to six years, Patty Griffin diehards have longed for a proper follow-up to her minimalist debut, Living With Ghosts. While 1999’s Flaming Red was wonderfully…
Circular Logic
Stratus forgets to tell Circle C residents about their zoning requests.
Exhibitionism
With Rigoletto , Austin Lyric Opera once again executes in bold strokes a classic opera in the vaulting openness of the City Coliseum, with director Joseph McClain again showing a flair for the theatrical and finding a degree of intimacy in that vast space.
The $975,000 Question
The Hole in the Wall needs to dig itself out of one.
Report on Child Fatalities
The Travis County Child Fatality Review Team, a multidisciplinary group of community professionals, recently released its sixth annual report, covering child deaths in the county for the year 2001. The results indicate some improvement and some disappointments in key areas from the previous year. In 2001, there were 124 child fatalities in Travis County, virtually…
Exhibitionism
The Rude Mechs took a road trip to see the Marfa lights, and their journey has been translated by playwright Kirk Lynn, director Shawn Sides, and a gifted ensemble into a raucous, sweet, funny, fanciful meditation on the tension between desire and intellect, and heaven as embodied in the land called Texas.
30 Days in the Hole Highlights
Friday, May 17 Shakin’ Apostles, 3 Balls of Fire Saturday, May 18 Subset, Black Before Red Sunday, May 19 Rock & Roll Free for All: Dismukes, Superego All-Stars, Milton Mapes, Scott Biram Monday, May 20 Unplug This: Rebecca Cannon & Thor, Larry Seaman Thursday, May 23 The Bubble Presents: Orange Mothers, Young Heart Attack, Pocket…
Naked City
No elections took place in Austin last week? No wayyyy! However, early voting for the two ACC run-offs runs May 19-28, with the election scheduled for June 1. On May 13 the AISD Board of Trustees’ lame-duck members said goodbye, and new members said hello. The board unanimously elected former board veep Doyle Valdez president;…
Devil in the Details
Why Is ‘Talented Amateur Historian’ Leon Day Obsessed With the Death of Ambrose Bierce?
Phases and Stages
Nick Cave & the Bad SeedsStubb’s, May 8 It came at the very end, during “Stagger Lee,” the second song of the second and final encore. At the end of two alternately pensive and pounding hours that Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds preached sin and salvation from the pulpit of Stubb’s outdoor stage. During…
ACLU in Austin
This past weekend, the American Civil Liberties Union held its annual nationwide staff conference in Austin — “a symbolic move,” says ACLU of Texas Executive Director Will Harrell, “to give respect to the reinvigorated Texas affiliate but also to commune in one of the country’s most troubled spots, where things are deeply off-kilter from our…
Book Review
Shadows of Blue & Gray: The Civil War Writings of Ambrose Bierce Edited by Brian M. Thomsen Forge, 290 pp., $24.95 In the introduction to this well-researched collection of Bierce’s Civil War fiction and journalism, editor Brian M. Thomsen argues that tagging Bierce as the “foremost literary chronicler of the War Between the States who…
Phases and Stages
Ring of Fire: The Johnny Cash Reader edited by Michael Streissguth Da Capo Press, 352 pp., $26 It’s a challenge writing about country music and its practitioners. Like soul and blues, it’s something that comes from the heart, and at its best, manages to sum up complex emotions and thoughts in a fairly direct and…
Worn Bindings
On April 30, former Statesman Books Editor Anne Morris filed suit against the paper (technically, against Cox Texas Newspapers, L.P. doing business as the Statesman) for age discrimination under the Texas Commission on Human Rights Act of the Texas Labor Code. According to her court filing, Morris, 58, has written for the paper since 1983,…
Lucky Break
Lucky Break PG-13, 109 min. Directed by Peter Cattaneo, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Christopher Plummer, Lennie James, Bill Nighy, Timothy Spall, Olivia Williams, James Nesbitt. Described as a “comedy about a prison escape with a musical twist,” this British film tells the story of crooks whose criminal ambitions exceed their talents. Lucky…
Never Too Much Coffee Man
What happens when you drink a li’l too much java? Ask Too Much Coffeeman.
Phases and Stages
Jim LauderdaleThe Hummingbirds (Dualtone)Jim Lauderdale, Ralph Stanley & the Clinch Mountain Boys Lost in the Lonesome Pines (Dualtone) Tom Waits may have pleased his fans by releasing two albums at once this month, but Jim Lauderdale has done him one better: two albums, but one of them with Ralph Stanley & the Clinch Mountain Boys.…
The Long Arm of LBJ
“During the Q&A portion of his May 6 booksigning for The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Master of the Senate, at BookPeople, author Robert Caro quietly told the standing-room-only crowd that the LBJ Library’s leadership has been “unremittingly hostile” to him for the past 25 years. “I’ve never really been invited to participate in their conferences,”…
About a Boy
About a Boy 2002, PG-13, 100 min. Directed by Paul Weitz, Chris Weitz, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Hugh Grant, Nicholas Hoult, Toni Collette, Rachel Weisz, Isabel Brook, Sharon Small, Victoria Smurfit. “They say no man is an island, but they’re wrong,” says perpetual bachelor Will Freeman (Grant). “I am an island. I’m…
Page Two
Dave Marsh is a writer of passionate convictions whose work is designed for engagement. Which is why we’re excited that he wrote our cover story on as great a talent as Patty Griffin.
Phases and Stages
Badly Drawn BoyAbout a Boy (BMG) Exactly why the endearing pop charms of Mancunian songsmith Damon Gough (aka Badly Drawn Boy) have failed to catch on stateside remains one of life’s more exquisite mysteries. His first full-length album, 2000’s Hour of the Bewilderbeast, ably stole the limelight from Coldplay and former Verve frontman Richard Ashcroft…
Boys Will Be Hawks
U.S. Senate candidates John Cornyn and Ron Kirk jumped on Ariel Sharon’s bandwagon with enthusiastic endorsements of Israel’s current war policy last week, although Cornyn outdid his rival — and even his president — on the Tough Guy posture. According to a Statesman report, after meeting with the National Jewish Democratic Council, Kirk said the…
Triumph of Love
Triumph of Love 2001, PG-13, 107 min. Directed by Clare Peploe, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Rachel Stirling, Jay Rodan, Fiona Shaw, Ben Kingsley, Mira Sorvino. A concoction of airy artifice, Pierre Marivaux’s 18th-century French play Triumph of Love is all icing, with a few crumbs devoted to the notion that it is…
Mr. Smarty Pants
Cola ingredients include orange, lemon, nutmeg, and coriander oils, and food-grade (never use art-grade!) gum arabic.Need coriander leaves in a recipe? All you need is cilantro (cilantro is the Spanish word for coriander). Cilantro, a member of the carrot family, is also known as Chinese or Mexican parsley.Mobil Oil’s pegasus logo used to fly west.…
Phases and Stages
Y Tu Mamá También(Volcano) Summer cinema has just swung into a neighborhood metroplex near you, but already Y Tu Mamá También is nearly six weeks into its subtitled impression of a bona fide indie blockbuster at the Dobie. What better escapade from CenTex sunstroke, after all, than a steamy two-reeler about a pair of randy…
Austin @ Large: Where Was Everybody?
Austin’s population is going up, but its voting population is in decline.
Day Trips
Rock climbing at Enchanted Rock State Park offers a unique view of the valley surrounding the granite outcropping for those with enough nerve to turn around and appreciate the sight. Working your way up a sheer rock surface may not be for everybody, but nearly everyone who tries it comes away with an enhanced sense…
Talking Trash
A huge garbage dump in northeast Travis County causes a stink with its neighbors.
Death Star and Fat Boy
The “invisible hand” of utility deregulation looks an awful lot like Ken Lay’s.
After a Fashion
Hmmmmmm, didn’t our Style Avatar’s psychic “see” what awaited him at the Brown Bar? Why was he not forewarned? Also, AAF checks in on George Michael’s potty habits.
Landfills Growing Up
“We’re building things for future generations to take care of,” says Austin attorney Rick Lowerre. In the last decade, the TNRCC began allowing larger and taller landfills than ever before. “A Place for Waste,” the agency’s recent overview of landfill trends, shows landfills hold 66% more waste than they did in the mid-Eighties. While population…
The Hightower Lowdown
Bush’s policy toward democracy is loaded with irony; Corporate Big Brother is watching you shop; Our government legal robs us — of our rights.
Piñero
This film is a sympathetic biopic about the troubled life of Nuyorican writer Miguel Piñero (author of Short Eyes).
To Your Health
All my life I have really loved milk, but my wife is concerned that it is making me gain weight. At age 30 I am otherwise healthy but about 20% over my ideal weight. Would two glasses of milk per day be too much?
Endorsements
Our endorsements for the 2002 ACC run-off elections
Hiiiiiiiii-Yah!
Austin foley artist Buzz Moran strips the sound out of a forgotten kung fu flick and redubs it live at the Drafthouse. The result? Something to chop about it.
Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones
Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones 2002, PG-13, 143 min. Directed by George Lucas, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker, Ahmed Best, Jimmy Smits, Temuera Morrison, Pernilla August, Ian McDiarmid, Samuel L. Jackson, Frank Oz, Christopher Lee, Hayden Christensen, Natalie Portman, Ewan McGregor. If you managed to…
About AIDS
Had Hypersensitivity Reaction to Ziagen, Abacavir, or Trizivir? Last week, “About AIDS” addressed a local research project involving HIV medication side effects, in general. The same group, Central Texas Clinical Research, is also doing another data-gathering trial, but with a specific drug and a specific type of reaction. CTCR wants to interview HIV-infected people who…
No More Cookies for Court
Last Wednesday, Hays County lost its second of two Open Meetings lawsuits brought by a citizens group that has long challenged the Commissioners Court’s way of doing business. The Hays County Water Planning Partnership accused the commissioners of violating state laws on two occasions in both their discussions and actions involving controversial road projects. The…
Get Your Game Face On
‘Tis the season to glue yourself to the PlayStation controller and get in some batting practice.
The Son’s Room
The Son’s Room 2001, NR, 99 min. Directed by Nanni Moretti, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Sofia Vigliar, Giuseppe Sanfelice, Jasmine Trinca, Laura Morante, Nanni Moretti. A teenage boy’s sudden, accidental death leaves his family members struggling to find the means of coping with their grief in The Son’s Room, a haunting film…
Soccer Watch
Ale, ale, ale, ale! The World Cup starts in two weeks! Plus a look at the basketball and hockey playoffs so far.
Not for the Birds
Barn swallows like the Airport Hilton, but the Airport Hilton does not like barn swallows.
SXSW Trailer Fest
SXSW and the Austin Cinemaker Co-op call for entries to their SXSW Trailer Fest competition.
Even More Fish in the Sea
Snow Pea Chinese Restaurant 3706 Jefferson, 454-3228 Monday-Friday, 11am-2:30pm, 5-10pm; Saturday-Sunday, 5-10pm We love sushi and Chinese food together. The interior here is calming and restorative, stimulating the appetite for the sushi to follow. A couple of the standouts are the spider rolls (tempura soft shell crab) and the spicy tuna rolls; the hamachi yellowtail…
