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Let Me Paint You a Picture

Kitten to ‘Cat’ My daughter did not inherit my gene for horror. That curiously unsettling pleasure that since childhood I have derived from ghoulies and ghosties and things that go bump in the night, in literature and comics and on film and TV, was not passed along to Rosalind. In fact, when she was very…

by Robert Faires

Phases & Stages

TV on the Radio Nine Types of Light (Interscope) “Do the no future,” chants guitarist Kyp Malone in the urgent “No Future Shock,” an early highlight from TV on the Radio’s Nine Types of Light. It’s a complex dance the Brooklyn outfit masters on its fourth full-length, molding post-industrial surges, avant-indie rock, and No Wave…

by Austin Powell

Let Me Paint You a Picture

‘True Grit’ Ruined Christmas I’ll admit it. I was one of the shaggy, bearded Austin hipsters who agreed to work minimum wage to be an extra in the Coen Brothers’ locally shot, skewed sepia vision, True Grit. You might have missed me in the hanging scene if you weren’t looking at the cutting room floor…

by James Renovitch

Phases & Stages

Panda Bear Tomboy (Paw Tracks) Tomboy’s an ambitious work that finds its power and grandiosity in the slightest moments – an album that demands headphones, yet equally compels to crank the stereo. Like the intricate raves that have come to characterize Animal Collective’s jams, Noah Lennox’s fourth solo album thrives on nuances. Delivering a lesser…

by Doug Freeman

Let Me Paint You a Picture

Seeing Other Cinemas There was only one cinema in Macclesfield. As in most crumbling post-industrial towns in the north of England, entertainment choices were in short supply. The Majestic was an old-fashioned, family-owned picture house, with a single screen in a gently dilapidated auditorium and a sound system with the audio clarity of a tin…

by Richard Whittaker

Phases & Stages

Loudon Wainwright III 40 Odd Years (Shout! Factory) When Loudon Wainwright III began his career in the late 1960s, he kept his hair short and dressed in a conservative manner to stand apart from the hippies. The 4-CD/1-DVD 40 Odd Years is like that. There’s nothing fancy about the dated and bulky box-set packaging, and…

by Jim Caligiuri

Day Trips

National Natural Landmarks are some of the country’s most unique biological and geological sites

by Gerald E. McLeod

Phases & Stages

Ray Davies See My Friends (Decca) Square-peg/round-hole pairings of the Kinkster and guests seldom jell as duets (Bruce Springsteen), but covers from Lucinda Williams (“Long Way From Home”) and Jackson Browne (“Waterloo Sunset”) make for choice B-sides. Genuine thrills include Big Star Alex Chilton (“‘Til the End of the Day”) and Mumford & Sons’ rolling…

by Raoul Hernandez

Quote of the Week

“Not yet it’s not.” – Council Member Bill Spelman’s reply to the question, “Uh oh, is that a quorum?” as he joined Council Members Laura Morrison, Sheryl Cole, and run-off candidate Kathie Tovo for a group photo on election night

by Chronicle Staff

Phases & Stages

Alison Krauss & Union Station Paper Airplane (Rounder) Bluegrass songbird rises from the ashes of Albion with 11 impeccables beginning with the breathtaking title track and equally stilling “Lie Awake.” Union Station masters Dan Tyminski (mandolin), Ron Block (banjo), and Jerry Douglas (Dobro) suit up behind the boss lady fiddling Lori McKenna and Jackson Browne,…

by Raoul Hernandez

Phases & Stages

Emmylou Harris Hard Bargain (Nonesuch) Nashville’s harmony constant wrote/co-wrote all but two of the 13 tracks on her latest career high, though the Ron Sexsmith cover titling Hard Bargain demands its very own songbook. Gram Parsons (“The Road”) and “Darlin’ Kate” McGarrigle bookend the album’s touring musician’s lament (“Home Sweet Home”), from Southern Gothic (“My…

by Raoul Hernandez

Phases & Stages

Robbie Robertson How To Become Clairvoyant (429) Proper follow-up to the Band leader’s unblemished solo start, 1987’s Robbie Robertson and Storyville (1991), rides Eric Clapton uptown on seven tracks, 3am urban blues for the limousine set. Slowhand’s whale tones on “He Don’t Live Here No More” meet Robertson’s gut-string pluck, while Steve Winwood’s organ grounds…

by Raoul Hernandez

Phases & Stages

Paul Simon So Beautiful or So What (Hear Music/Concord Music Group) Abandoning “another album with a rhythmic premise” according to So Beautiful’s deluxe edition DVD, Paul Simon nevertheless injects echoes of Graceland and The Rhythm of the Saints in “Dazzling Blue” and “Love Is Eternal Sacred Light,” respectively, feeding their author’s master class mixtape of…

by Raoul Hernandez

Event Menu

Something’s fishy about the Kocurek’s latest class, but there’s nothing to wine about at the Front Porch

by Virginia B. Wood

Headlines

� Council Member Randi Shade and challenger Kathie Tovo will face off in a June 18 run-off, with early voting June 6-14, after Tovo surprised everyone by taking a nearly 14-point lead on the incumbent in the general election. Two other incumbents won re-election handily. See “All the Votes That Fit.” Meanwhile, City Council will…

by Chronicle Staff

Food-o-File

Not a chef, but want to eat like one? We’ve got you covered during the International Association of Culinary Professionals conference.

by Virginia B. Wood

Bike Study Wants You

Speaking of cycling, researchers from Texas A&M’s Texas Transportation Insti­tute and the University of Texas at Austin want your help gathering data to improve routes and services in Austin. Participation is easy: Just download a program called CycleTracks to your iPhone or Android and use it on your trips. “The GPS system will allow us…

by Lee Nichols

Let Me Paint You a Picture

‘Blood’ Brother My brother, Jeremy, is a complicated guy. He’s a music teacher, father of two, incredibly smart and funny, but he keeps to himself for the most part. He loves Phish and Sufjan Stevens and St. Vincent, but he is probably the closest thing to a jazz aficionado I’ve ever known. In fact, he…

by Melanie Haupt

Let Me Paint You a Picture

L-I-V-I-N, Single-Mom Style David Wooderson. Even some seasoned Austinites don’t realize he had a first name. Since Matthew McConaughey branded that character onto the haunch of pop culture history in Dazed and Confused, he’s become synonymous with post-glory days and burnouts on cradle-robbing benders. The Wooderson icon enjoys a dubious distinction, loaded – like a…

by Kate X Messer

Let Me Paint You a Picture

There’s a Place for Us The seeds of the Great New Year’s Eve 1968 Sneak-Out Plot were planted as Betsy and I watched West Side Story on television during a sleepover. I’d loved the film from childhood and grew up hearing the magnificent Broadway musical version with “Maria,” “Tonight,” and “One Hand, One Heart” as…

by Margaret Moser

Go for It!

A young woman in Chicago learns to overcome her fears and become a hip-hop dancer in this inspirational dance movie.

by Kimberley Jones

Let Me Paint You a Picture

Multisensory Cinema The movie house had no roof. An inky night sky and stars were all that hung above us and the flickering shades of Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis as they skirted being murdered by the mob by slipping into skirts and slipping out of Chicago with an all-girl band. Their train was bound…

by Robert Faires

Players’ Guide

Wiley Wiggins wants to show you his Thunderbeam; indie game developer Adam Saltsman gets an unwelcome Taiwanese clone; and more

by James Renovitch

Let Me Paint You a Picture

Close to Heaven Three films birthed my cinematic POV, beyond an early excursion to Pinocchio. They survive first in my memory perhaps only because they impressed above all others. Either way, they’re the father, son, and Holy Ghost of my silver screen, only substitute mama bear for the head honcho. Mine. She who wouldn’t let…

by Raoul Hernandez

Oops!

In the May 13 News feature, “The Color of Fire,” we incorrectly reported, in both the story and the accompanying chart, that there are two male division chiefs and one female division chief in the Austin Fire Department. There are, in fact, four male division chiefs. We apologize for the error.

by Chronicle Staff

Let Me Paint You a Picture

Parental Accompaniment, Not for the Prudish You never forget your first time, your first glimpse of onscreen nudity. No matter what age you might have been at the time, that initial frisson of sexualized imagery – 24-fps flesh in all its shame-lust glory – is seared into your mind, a milestone, a coming-of-age, a moment…

by Marc Savlov

30 Things

In which we continue to be back Now well into our 30th year of publication (our 30th anniversary will be Sept. 4, 2011), we’re building up to that notable anniversary by, among other things, republishing the first year’s issues online every two weeks and running a contest to spot vintage ads from some of our…

by Chronicle Staff

Skateland

Skateland is a sweet, knowing, visually spot-on evocation of early-Eighties teen life in a small East Texas town.

by Marc Savlov

Luv Doc Recommends: Deutschen Pfest

OK, so maybe Pflugerville isn’t technically Austin, but it is just up the road a piece. It’s nearly in Austin. In fact, if you scroll out far enough on a Google map, Austin and Pflugerville are indistinguishable. Of course, the same could be said of Texas, the Continental U.S., and, in a larger cosmic sense,…

by The Luv Doc

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