Big Stinkin’ Schedule
The Big Stinkin’ International Improv Festival II continues through Saturday, May 24, with seven showcases to go, featuring over 20 improv troupes from Yonkers to San Jose. Festival venues are: Borders Books & Music, 10225 Research; Electric Lounge, 302 Bowie; Esther’s Pool, 525 E. Sixth; the Paramount Theatre, 713 Congress; and The Velveeta Room, 521…
Food-O-File
This spring, savvy food service operators all over Austin are tinkering and making adjustments to increase their market shares. A prime example would be the changes at Jean Luc’s French Bistro (705 Colorado, 494-0033), where chef-owner Jean Luc Salles has initiated some features to increase his client base beyond the satisfied patrons of his bistro-priced…
The Austin Bicycle Program has:
installed six miles of new or re-established bike lanes installed five miles of new wide outside lanes installed 906 bicycle parking spaces, with 2,800 more to come adopted and completed Part I of the Bicycle Plan, which includes bicycle-friendly objectives, and is attempting to adopt Part II, which will include creating specific bike routes responded…
Agency of Light
Neon brightens Pato’s Tacos photograph by Kenny Braun The fiery red of the Pontiac chief’s head is still burned into my memory like one of those funny phosphene op-art patterns, the kind generated when you press on your eyelids too hard for too long. It was a simple Pontiac logo, outlined in neon, encircled by…
Smoothie Operators
photograph by John Anderson Like so many other foods — sushi foods — sushi, Pacific Rim cuisine, American goat cheese — I first sampled summer’s frothiest, most fortifying beverage in San Francisco. Funky little smoothie stands cropped up and spread like wildfire across the Bay area years ago, long before most Texans had ever heard…
Naked City
What’s good for business is good for…UT athletics? Maybe it was a slip of the tongue or maybe it was just a statement of a rather obvious fact. On May 14, Darrell K. Royal, the patron saint of UT football and a $44,000-per-year special assistant to the president at UT, testified before the Senate Education…
Neon Austin
Within a one-mile stretch, South Lamar reveals itself to be Austin’s most radiant neon district. Intended or not, the effect of so much neon in one area makes for a happy, congruous urban plan. Ground zero for this area is the west side of the street’s 2000 block, the small parking lot shared by Hayward…
Let It Sno, Let It Sno
photograph by John Anderson Call them New Orleans snowballs, Mexican raspas, or the more literal “shaved ice” — a snowcone by any other name is still as sweet… and just as cold. In the sub-tundra summertime, disposable cups hold artfully constructed domes of pulverized ice (crushed, shaved, or chipped depending on venue) which are then…
Oh, Build Me a Home
illustration by Doug Potter NOW AVAILABLE: An architecture of community. Be the first on your block to join the crowd at Public Realm Village! Leave your car behind. Share good times with your neighbors on the (mandatory ) front porch. Forget about yard work with your low-maintenance small lot. Affordable living in a traditional atmosphere,…
Footnotes and First Novels
In drama, as on the page, farce is the idea of taking something that is utterly serious and showing how ludicrous it can become. John Kennedy Toole used this approach with intelligence and wit in his novel A Confederacy of Dunces. Now, local writer Roger Boylan does the same with his first novel, Killoyle (Dalkey…
In It for the Money
photograph by Bruce Dye Punk rock may be a traditionally tricky intersection for art and commerce, but former Skatenig Phil Owen has chosen his side. “Everything is for sale,” says Owen. In fact, one could say this statement of purpose is at the heart of Choreboy, Owen’s retro-punk side-project he founded alongside former Big Boy…
Access-ive Viewing
The Duke in all his glory: Filmmaker Brian Huberman’s documentary John Wayne’s Alamo will be shown at ACAC’s Main studio as part of their 24th anniversary celebration. The Stations Formerly Known as ACTV (geez, how long can we get mileage off that joke!), now known less melodiously as ACAC, Austin Community Access Center, turns 24…
In Person
Carolina Garcia-Aguilera May 27 Book People South Florida has been a hot spot for tales of crime and misadventure ever since that group of deadly archers belonging to a tribe of Glades Indians brought an abrupt halt to Juan Ponce de Leon’s beach party on the Gulf Coast in the 1500’s. Mystery fans who love…
7 and 7 Is
The surface of the moon is a lonely place. Its stillness belies the constant motion of the universe, and the silence is deafening. First again to plant their flag on this surface is Austin’s Trance Syndicate label, whose new The Kahanek Incident series matches like-minded bands and has ’em mix each others’ songs. Volume 1…
Hot Movie Previews
Between mid May and Labor Day, there are only 15 weekends – the weekends that define the summer movie season. To you and me that may sound like a lot (or at least a reasonable number), but to frantic movie executives trying to strategically place their product, 15 weekends is about a dozen too few.…
Postscripts
Texas Writers Month Borders is celebrating Texas Writers Month with panel discussions featuring Lone Star writers every Saturday afternoon in May at 3pm. On May 24, Kathleen Kaska (What Is Your Agatha Christie I.Q.?) will present a trivia quiz contest based on the works of Texas mystery authors Jeff Abbott (Distant Blood), David Lindsey (Requiem…
Bonus Tracks
TERRY ALLEN & THE PANHANDLE MYSTERY BAND Smokin the Dummy/Bloodlines (Sugar Hill) You know that phrase, “Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark, and Steve Earle”? Well, it’s time we started thinking ’bout appending it to include ol’ Terry Allen. For yet more evidence of his status as Lone Star songwriting treasure, check this “twofer” coupling of…
The Big Films of Summer: Picking the Winners
Mira Sorvino stars in Mimic THE LOST WORLD: JURASSIC PARK: This one hits this weekend just in case you’ve missed the ads, and by all advance accounts it is going to be the one to beat this summer. That’s so sad, when the “one” to beat is a sequel. Sigh. Anyway that appears to be…
Summer Solace
Don’t let the pastoral view fool you, the Creole Trail in Louisiana’s Sabine National Wildlife Refuge is abuzz with all forms of life. Despite the recent rains and unusually cool weather carrying us into mid-May, the summer’s humidity is already present in damp tendrils on the neck or light beads of sweat on the brow…
Do Not (Po)Go Gently Into the Night
illustration by Roy Tompkins Saturday night, a few weeks back: The phone rings. It’s a rather drunken acquaintance of mine, now living 90 minutes away in some town with a name that sounds like a horror movie title. He’s about 26 sheets to the wind, and as his roommate raises holy Hell about the phone…
Something Old, Something New, Something Eighties, Something P.U.
(Scanlines wishes to thank Encore Movies & Music, I ™ Video, and Vulcan Video for their assistance in providing videos) Yee! How did Sherilyn Fenn (L) get her hair soooo big in Thrashin’? Easy! It was the Eighties! Robert Rusler and Pamela Gidley look on. The grandaddy of every crummy sports flick on the planet,…
about AIDS
You’re afraid of needles, but you want to test for the virus that causes AIDS? A new HIV testing vehicle is different from past testing techniques: The test sample is taken from the mouth, not the bloodstream. Called OraSure, this SmithKline Beecham product is increasingly in use in medical settings, street and bar outreach testing,…
In It for the Money
photograph by Bruce Dye Punk rock may be a traditionally tricky intersection for art and commerce, but former Skatenig Phil Owen has chosen his side. “Everything is for sale,” says Owen. In fact, one could say this statement of purpose is at the heart of Choreboy, Owen’s retro-punk side-project he founded alongside former Big Boy…
Kult Klassics
Sometimes our favorite B-movies are too wretched for even the coolest cult-video sections. Jerry Renshaw has discovered the joys of ordering videos from catalogues — and watching them! — Margaret Moser Here’s a nice seamy slice of sleaze from Something Weird Video’s catalogue (Send $5 to: Dept. S.U.N., Box 33664, Seatle, WA 98133) of scratchy…
hearth & soul
Party Hardly Cock*tail Par*ty: n. 1. A form of friendship without the warmth. 2. A device for paying off obligations to people you don’t want to invite to dinner. 3. Amidst meatless platters of little treats, the pitiless patter of little feats. 4. A gathering held to enable 40 people to talk about themselves at…
Dancing About Architecture
It’s been a messy couple of weeks at the Blue Flamingo, as owner Laura Moses battles business partners, the health department, and the TABC. Moses says that partner Ron Blackett, who was scheduled to purchase the Flamingo Friday, May 9, failed to appear with the money and has since seized the club’s PA system; it’s…
Short Cuts
The smell of sawdust is one of my most stimulating recollections of the SXSW.97 Film Festival and Conference. It was so abundant and so full of promise, an intoxicating signal of new things emerging downtown. Two new film facilities debuted during that week. The Austin Film Center, a new post-production facility, held the conference’s opening-night…
Benefits
FRI 23 Soprano Edria Voursalle will perform to benefit Road to Emmaus, Catholic home for teenage girls, at St. Theresa’s Church, 4311 Small Dr., 7pm. Cost is $25. 502-0765. SAT 24 Summer Comedy Camp to benefit Out Youth’s Guy Sterling Memorial Scholarship Fund, at Scholz Garten, 16th & San Jacinto, 1pm. 323-2329. SUN 1 Fun…
Recommended
Friday: Warrant, Back Room Saturday: Hamell on Trial, Electric Lounge Sunday: Over the Rhine, Pilot Ship, Emo’s Monday: Two Hoots & a Holler, Saxon Pub Tuesday: Big Game Hunter, Mercury Lounge Wednesday: Ant Man Bee, Flamingo Cantina Thursday: Merchants of Venus, Speakeasy; Cornell Hurd Band, Jovita’s
BMXtreme
The posted signs say ride at your own risk, but nobody has to remind the daredevils who built the Ninth Street BMX park to be cautious. True, these devotees pull out the stops every afternoon – zipping up one lovingly sculpted dirt mound on their tiny bicycles and taking flight to the next. But despite…
Coach’s Corner
The room is dark, eerily illuminated with blues, reds, oranges, yellows, and whatever other bright primary colors the teams are wearing. On my 36-inch screen — bought for occasions like this — are two games: ice hockey and, in the tiny picture-in-picture, basketball. I’m alone. My girlfriend, to whom I haven’t talked much since the…
Texas Platters
RADISH Restraining Bolt (Mercury) A million-dollar deal with Mercury and a recent blowjob from the New Yorker has made Radish this year’s biggest curiosity. As it winds up, though, the kids are just alright. Sure, all the hooks and choruses seem to indicate that if there were a school for alternative rock radio, 16-year-old Dallasite…
Life on Two Wheels
The little tan seat has an S on it. S for Schwinn. My big brother holds the back of the seat as I climb on, a little wobbly, and touch my feet to the pedals. The stretch of road in front of us seems impossibly long and I just know I’m going to disappoint him…
day trips
Buchanan Dam is one of the marvels of human ingenuity not only for its engineering beauty, but also for the visionaries who saw the potential advantages it could bring to Central Texas. Sixty years old this year, the dam created Lake Buchanan, the largest and northernmost of the chain of six lakes called the Highland…
Road Shows
MAY FRI 23 Warrant, Back Room FRI 23 Dirty Dozen, Antone’s FRI 23 Gnomes of Zurich, Emo’s FRI 23 Trulio Disgracias, Thelonious Monster, John Frusciante, Super 8, Street Walkin’ Cheetahs, Liberty Lunch FRI 23 Poor Dumb Bastards, Gnomes of Zurich, Emo’s FRI 23, SAT 24 Ezra Charles & the Works, Top of the Marc FRI…
Walk, Don’t Run
illustration by Walt Holcombe Have we forgotten how to stroll? We bike, hike, jog, run, race, and even powerwalk, bypassing the pleasures of the promenade in our feverish pursuit of buns of steel. I think it’s time to slow the hell down. I’m not alone. Fitness guru Dr. Kenneth Cooper thinks so, too. The man…
Page Two
The “Best of Austin” ballot appears again this issue giving you yet another opportunity to vote. This really is your chance to honor the businesses, people, parks, and places that make Austin special. Naturally, you don’t want to give away well-kept secrets (though a business that is a well-kept secret is often not around for…
And One for You…
All the ingredients for a major battle were there. The Eric Mitchell T-shirt-wearers were in the house. City-wide community activists were milling around council chambers, chatting excitedly. And $2.8 million dollars in federal funding was at stake. The saga of the unused Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds had been building to a knock-down, drag-out…
Do the Stroll
Strolling is a lot like drinking good home brew from a keg; once you start, it’s hard to stop. Walk around your own neighborhood and you’ll be surprised by the details you missed while driving or even biking. Other great strolling spots include: The Wildflower Research Center 4801 La Crosse Avenue, 292-4100, admission fee. The…
Articulations
When you’re at Hyde Park Theatre this week seeing First Stage Productions’ revival of Shay Youngblood’s Shakin’ the Mess Outta Misery (which you will be going to see, I know), be sure to stick around after and ask cast member Joni Lee Jones about her recent appearance in the Houston Fringe Theatre Festival. The good…
Public Notice
Summer’s no fun for kids who find themselves in trouble as a result of that age-old ailment called “(insert whine here) there’s nothing to doooooooo!” Maybe you don’t have kids but have some spare time? Big Brothers & Big Sisters can always find a precocious pre-teen pal for you caring, responsible mentor-types. 472-5437. Or check…
CDBG Funding: Proposed and Actual
Funding Recommendations Actual Staff CDC* HOUSING, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, PUBLIC FACILITIES One Stop Career Shop $1,900,000 $2,000,000 $1,454,339 Central City Entertainment Ctr. 392,000 392,000 392,000 City Public Parks & Recreation 117,300 56,000 157,300 American Institute for Learning 100,000 135,000 216,000 Businesses Invest in Growth 67,213 67,213 67,213 Southeast Corner of Assoc. Neighbor. 42,400 0 16,361 Texas…
The Dicks
Dicks 1980-1986 (Alternative Tentacles) For musicians, anger was not in short supply in 1980. It was requisite for punk, the flamethrower for hardcore, and it came in all shapes and sizes. In Austin, the arc between punk anger and nascent hardcore were the Dicks, the queerest of the queer. The Big Boys may have been…
Exhibitionism
The Acting Studio, through May 24 Running Time: 2 hrs One of the wonders of theatre is the one-act. A small sample of a playwright’s work, a one-act generally explores a single idea efficiently, with little wasted language or tangential thought. It is the essence of the way the writer uses language. It can also…
Mister Smarty Pants Knows
California has the highest percentage of serial homicides in the nation — 16%. Maine has none. On March 9, 1997, more Americans were logged on to AOL than were watching CNN. Two years ago, an AOL bigwig predicted that in five years, AOL activity would start to surpass viewership on some cable channels — making…
A Council in Harmony
If there were ever any doubt about the power of the Green vote in Austin, it was answered on May 3. Regardless of the outcome in the runoffs for places 5 and 6, the city’s environmentalists will have a supermajority on the city council. And while there are continuing complaints about the low turnout of…
A Monk’s Education
Improvisation. Every actor knows the art. The ability to create from nothing, to make up lines and dialogue and action. As basic training for a performer, improvisation is right at the top of the important list. It quickens thinking and gives actors a saving grace when things go wrong in a play or production. But…
L.A.: Drastic Space
by Michael Ventura illustration by A.J. Garces America has always been a place of the drastic, shaped by refugees, revolution, slavery, civil war, and other such drastic modes of human behavior. Obsessed with the drastic project of mastering a wild continent. Conceiving cities as drastic constructs. (Imagine just how drastic New York seemed even 50…
Activism on Wheels
The vicious and unre- quited death of Tom Churchill last September added fuel to the fire of a bicycle community already up in arms over the city’s Bicycle Helmet Ordinance. Churchill, who was riding his bicycle home from his workplace at Magnolia Cafe on Town Lake Boulevard, was struck and killed by a driver on…
