In Person
Book People April 22 Mentors and memoirs were the ideas, says Ann Beattie, for her newest novel, My Life, Starring Dara Falcon. Promotion of the book has brought Beattie, a literary icon of the early 1970s, to Austin for the first time, and to a crowd that welcomed her warmly. As Beattie told a packed…
Whisky 101
Times are `a changing in the world of whisky. If you’ve bellied up to a liquor bar recently, you’ve probably seen members of the “Scotch” family multiplying faster than jackrabbits in springtime. Taking its cue from the microbrewed beer revolution, the recent popularity of high-dollar single malt Scotches has brought specialized whisky vintages to the…
Naked City
Two prospective suitors are courting Christopher House in a big way. The closing of the comfy residential facility for people with AIDS has sparked the interest of the City of Austin and Hospice Austin, both of which want to buy the place. Carol Cody, Christopher’s executive director, says proposals from potential buyers are due May…
Femmes Fatales: Rounding up Austin’s Women of Mystery
(L-R) Mary Willis Walker, Susan Rogers Cooper, Carolyn Banks, Sharon Kalm, Jan Grape, Jan Maxwell, Nancy Bell While driving on a lonely stretch of road, I get inspired. I see an abandoned farmhouse and I can’t help thinking, “Hey, what a great place to dump a body!” It seems as though Austin is well populated…
I Shall Be Released
illustration by Jason Stout There’s not a lot you can’t do yourself… if you really want to do it,” says Bruce Robison. Although these words of self-help wisdom may sound like the local singer-songwriter is in the middle of an infomercial pitch, he’s really just trying to explain the new realities of the music business,…
Let’s Talk About Sex, Bay-bee
Planned Parenthood’s Michael Hayes guest lectures a health class at Austin High School. photograph by John Anderson It’s an April afternoon at an Austin High School health class, and Michael Hayes, an educator from Planned Parenthood of Austin, is talking about sex. Needless to say, the students are riveted to this guest lecturer. Hayes asks…
And the Edgar goes to…
This is not a complete listing of all the mystery writing awards given, only a guide to those that have been won by this group of writers. Awards * EDGAR: The oldest and most prestigious award. The nominees and winners are chosen by a committee of published authors. HAMMETT: Given by International Crime Writers Association.…
First Things First
illustration by Jason Stout Football games over Philosophy and Finance? Sounds like an old Aggie problem. But this legislative session, it’s a University of Texas problem, one that’s particularly galling to Austin’s Representative Glen Maxey, who complains that UT’s priorities are woefully misplaced. Minority applications at Texas colleges are falling fast in the aftermath of…
The ABC’s of S-E-X
These are the topics covered in AISD’s “Making Healthy Choices,” which are supposed to be presented in an age-appropriate manner, following the stages of child development: * Grades Pre-K-2 (ages 4-8): growth and development, naming of body parts, personal hygiene and disease prevention, appropriate social behavior, physical and sexual abuse prevention, recognition of good/bad touching,…
Postscripts
One of America’s greatest literary figures, Alice Walker — Pulitzer Prize winner for The Color Purple — will read from and sign copies of her new book, Anything We Love Can Be Saved: A Writer’s Activism, at the King Seabrook Chapel on the Huston-Tillotson campus, 6:45pm, Friday, May 2. Tickets are $30, $40, and $45,…
Dancing About Architecture
Well, it appears that you and I weren’t the only ones who had to read David Fricke’s SXSW piece in Rolling Stone several times to figure out that a long-time favorite Austin music emporium hadn’t gone up in flames. The city fire department also took notice of the article, which reads in part: “Austin fire…
Too Sexy for AISD?
AISD’s sexuality education policy could be compared to the plight of a child whose feuding parents divorced before he was born. The most recent policy changes started in June 1992, when trustee Ted Whatley (then new to the board) asked his fellow trustees to consider a resolution calling for the adoption of guidelines from the…
Book Reviews
Reviewing a mystery novel is an enterprise fraught with peril; reveal too much and you’ve spoiled the whole game for everyone. Reveal too little, however, and you might as well not say anything at all. With that in mind, then… The last surviving member of the Rawlins family, 29-year-old Amelia Caswell, turns up in a…
Keith Ferguson 1946-1997
In his house, wall-to-wall with posters, knicknacks, arcane musical instruments, photographs, postcards, and objets d’art, Keith Ferguson’s precious collection of vinyl albums were divided into three sections: “Negro,” “Mexican,” and “Other.” That, his friends will testify, was pure Ferguson, the white boy who was as black and brown as they come. Best known for his…
Mi Amigo Loco
The Bitch is Back: Joan Collins sashays back onto the small screen in FOX’s Wednesday night potboiler Pacific Palisades. “Lemurs,” Keith Ferguson’s voice would cryptically announce, with an excited lilt that was much different from the gravelly monotone he reserved for just about everything and only varied if someone mentioned Antonio Bribiesca, Lydia Mendoza… or…
Murder Most Female
Susan Wade Walking Rain, Susan Wade’s first novel, is dedicated to her father, “Houston Russell Wade, who gave me the word processor. Having a wonderful time, Dad. Wish you were here.” “I wrote my father a letter I guess in ’88 and said `I really think I could write if I just had a word…
In the Shadow of the Dinosaurs
illustration by John Keen It’s everybody’s favorite number these days — 28,000 — which is the staggeringly absurd number of albums released last year. Some people play around with it, breaking it down to albums released per day (over 76) or per week (almost 540). Anyway you break it down, it’s insanely large. And it…
Scanlines
CD-ROM for MS DOS Origin Systems In recent years, Hollywood has crept silently, deliberately into the interactive gaming business, spreading its influence like an undetectable computer virus. Without so much as a warning cough, it slipped through Dr. Norton’s defense grid with a contagious handshake and a lucrative word. “You don’t need a story line,”…
About AIDS
Preventing HIV Infection Is a Holistic Effort Can having a strong immune system protect us from getting HIV? Can a positive attitude, exercise, laughing a lot, and generally being happy keep us from contracting this virus that has no cure? What about eating well? Expressing our feelings? Quitting smoking? Can these help keep us safe…
Live Shots
SHAWN COLVIN, FREEDY JOHNSTON Backyard, April 18 Majek Fashek at Flamingo Cantina April 25 A Socratic cross-examination that was more vitriolic and antagonistic than zetetic got me thinking the last few days about what it is exactly that elevates some songwriters and performers from the ranks of the average to the remarkable. Why is it…
Short Cuts
Numerous special film screenings are getting underway this week. An impressive six-part series, Short Films from Latin America, begins Thursday, May 8 at Mexic-Arte Museum. Presented by the museum and the Chicano/Latino Film Forum, the film series is organized and circulated by the American Federation of Arts. The survey includes 36 dramatic narratives, documentaries, and…
Hearth & Soul
Crib Coat Dear Suzy, I have a baby crib that I need to paint. Is it okay to use an alkyd enamel? It is a new paint can so I assume it is lead free. Some people recommended using a latex, but isn’t latex water soluble and hence can’t the baby slobber it off? My…
Music Recommended
Friday: Buick Mackane, Electric Lounge; Mary Chapin Carpenter, Jim Lauderdale, Paramount Theatre Saturday: Julianna Sheffield, Speakeasy; Miss Molly & the Whips, La Zona Rosa Sunday: Mother Earth Festival, Liberty Lunch Monday: Yuckmouth, The Assholes, Emo’s Tuesday: Rocket 69, Carousel Lounge Wednesday: Seth Walker, B-Side Thursday: Kathy McCarty, Spot, Flipnotics
The Slow Burn
In this visual age, seeing is believing. But it’s our lying eyes that become the background and text of a documentary, Waco: The Rules of Engagement, which opens Friday at the Dobie Theatre. Despite its length — nearly three hours — Waco has played to packed houses and holdover runs ever since its momentous debut…
Benefits
NF Crawfish Classic to benefit Texas Neurofibromatosis Foundation, at Carlos ‘n Charlie’s, Lake Travis, 2-8pm. Cost is $25. 476-7696. Cinco de Mayo Enchilada Dinner to benefit Manos de Cristo, which provides food, clothing, and more to the needy, at 1200 Willow, 4:30-7:30pm. Cost is $5 children/$8 adults. 477-7454. Red Salmon Arts Cinco de Mayo Fri…
Roadkill
Pete Anderson is in Utah, and he must be bored, because the 30 minutes allotted for the interview float into the ozone, and subjects pass like Greyhounds going in the other direction. Lots of things come up: how he produces albums (“by acting more like an arranger”), why Dwight Yoakam’s Gone sounds the way it…
Supercut
illustration by Walt Holcombe It was the kind of impulse that goes away if you ignore it, but I didn’t. I cut my hair. Actually, I “cut off” my hair, a rather dramatic revision that took my formerly flowing locks from mid-spine to pre-ear. The strange thing is, I loved it at first. I thought…
Coach’s Corner
Johnny Clyde Copeland, a dead ringer for a blood relative of Richard Pryor, paces the stage at the new Antone’s, sizing up the crowd. Last night, I was in Dallas for a disappointing Stars playoff loss, in double overtime, to the Edmonton Oilers. We had great seats. It was fine theatre. Still, the game itself…
Road Shows
MAY FRI 2 CJ Chenier & the Red Hot Louisiana Band, Antone’s FRI 2 Ron Brown, Elephant Room FRI 2 Mary Chapin Carpenter, Jim Lauderdale, Paramount Theatre FRI 2 Grand Street Cryers, Electric Lounge FRI 2 Big Ass Truck, Mercury Lounge SAT 3 Mojo Nixon,Continental Club SAT 3 Miss Molly & the Whips, La Zona…
Summer Reading
Out of my peripheral vision I can see a stack of brown cardboard packages waiting to be opened. As book section editor, I get tons of books daily. Despite that embarrassment of riches, I have found myself haunting our local bookstores of late like some sort of lost soul searching for meaning or truth in…
Day Trips
Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center in Athens is no ordinary aquarium. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s (TP&WD) state-of-the-art facility gives visitors and scientists a peek at the fragile underwater ecosystems of Texas. Opened in November 1996, you don’t have to be a fisherman to enjoy this underwater zoo, even though it was the tax on…
Longhorn Lobby?
illustration by Doug Potter In politics, money means access. Donations to campaigns, gifts — such as football tickets — and expensive parties are used by donors to get access, and in theory, influence, over legislators. Given the hard fact that money equals access, should public institutions, like universities, act any different from corporations? By law,…
Waco: The Rules of Engagement
“The First Amendment guarantees you the right to be weird. We look at it as a human rights violation,” comments Amy Sommer Gifford, co-executive producer of Waco: The Rules of Engagement. The filmmaker is clear about her involvement with this startling documentary. “There are a lot of wacky theories out there, both on the far…
Page Two
Vote. This Saturday, go to your polling place and vote. This election has generated little excitement, and early voting turnout has been abysmal. There’s no reason to expect more on election day. Some of the problem is a lack of issues — the candidates mostly agree with each other. But surely some of the complacency…
Pigskin Perks
The UT System bought $5,937 worth of good will in the form of football ticket giveaways to members of the Texas State Legislature last year. According to information obtained from UT through the Open Records Act, the school gave a total of 195 tickets to the following 54 legislators: Rep. Kip Averitt Sen. Gonzalo Barrientos…
Breakdown
Breakdown 1997, R, 97 min. Directed by Jonathan Mostow, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Kurt Russell, J.t. Walsh, Kathleen Quinlan. Breakdown further illustrates the axiom that every truly original movie must be remade again and again until it achieves a state of sublime, all-encompassing idiocy. Actually, since it’s still possible to imagine a…
Public Notice
Here’s our advice (especially if you are reading this on the Web): Go right now and check out Alice Walker’s letter to President Clinton (http://www.igc.apc.org/cubasoli/awalker.html). In it, she respectfully declines an invitation to the White House, regretting not being able to personally protest his signing of the embargo against Cuba, and making her points perfectly…
Gettin’ Out the Vote
illustration by Doug Potter It ain’t every day you get a rap concert with your council meeting, but the audience had waited hours to speak about Eastside revitalization, and the council-induced delay seemed to reflect the same injustices that have helped keep that part of town down for so long. Sundry issues had pushed the…
Waco: The Rules of Engagement
Waco: The Rules of Engagement 1997, NR, 165 min. Directed by William Gazecki, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . It’s been just over four years since the fiery deaths of 76 men, women, and children and four law enforcement agents at the Mt. Carmel Branch Davidian compound near Waco, and despite a series…
Articulations
The visual artists in this city are selling out — in a manner of speaking, that is. Lots of `em are getting more of their drawings, paintings, sculptures, photographs, and mixed media pieces into the hands of the art-lovin’ public. The Artists’ Coalition of Austin reports that their recent exhibition “Go Figure II” set an…
Mister Smarty Pants Knows
Tokelau recently became the last country to get telephone service. A team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has designed a boat powered by flippers instead of a propeller. The system is based on the swimming action of the penguin. The KGB slang for low-level agents was “trash-eating dogs.” Marine snails (cone shells) from…
MAYOR: Watson’s Plastic Past
illustration by Doug Potter This Saturday, Austin will elect the mayor that will take us into the year 2000. The candidates — the Big Three, anyway — are getting the vote out like crazy. On Tuesday, front-runner Kirk Watson was at the University of Texas, hanging around the early voting booths like an easy-going frat…
Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion
Sweet-natured, unpretentious, and full-throttled comic acting make this reunion movie loopy fun.
Exhibitionism
Paramount Theatre April 26 I don’t often get to hear gritos in the Paramount Theatre. Then again, the venue isn’t exactly renowned for shows that elicit the traditional, Aztec-esque approbatory yell from Mexican Americans. You know, as in… Aaaaaaayyeeeeeeeeee-aye-aye-aye! A-hoo-ya! But last Saturday’s show at the venerable theatre was an exception. In what was billed…
Food-O-File
While enjoying breakfast at Botanitas restaurant recently, I witnessed an exceedingly rare and civilized event: a young couple at the next table instructing their small daughter in restaurant dining etiquette. They taught her the name of each item on the plate (taco, tortilla, etc.), and questioned and reminded her about the “proper way to ask”…
Austin City Council Election Endorsements
Election day is Saturday, May 3. There’s 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. And, to repeat the Chronicle’s endorsements: Proposition 1: No. This request for $35 million to “purchase, acquire, and…
Going the Distance
It’s a long way from Israel to Austin,” says Rina Schenfeld, and she should know. The accomplished choreographer and dancer, who makes her home in Tel Aviv, has just made the journey from the former to the latter, for the first time flying here directly from Israel instead of breaking up the trip with a…
Mission: Mariachi
illustration by Tom King In the doldrums of Texas summer, margaritas are a ritualistic celebration of life. And the only thing finer than margaritas with compadres is margaritas with compadres and a troop of mariachis. You’re at a restaurant, eating enchiladas and slurping the first round. Everyone is behaving. Then the mariachis start strumming and…
TV News Revealed
K-EYE delivers autographed Terri Chappell photos, but not hard news. Last Wednesday, no less than eight PR flacks from local CBS affiliate K-EYE lighted on the Chronicle offices to inform me of a week-long news special on K-EYEWitness News. The unannounced visitation of such an enormous contingent of publicity people prompted some curiosity on my…
