Cover Stories
Okie Dokie Stomp
Clifford Antone didn’t invent the blues, he immortalized them
This Be an Empty World Without the Blues
Sometimes a sandwich – and its maker – is a hero
Buried Alive in the Blues
The night Austin’s Godfather of the blues granted Ed Ward a favor he’ll never forget
I Saw the Light
Clifford Antone, hardcore to the end
See No Evil
Former porn auteur Gregory Dark advances to making this rote exercise in slasher-film tedium.
The Common Law
Annulment because the marriage was a “mistake”?
Summer Reading
The Nasty Bits: Collected Varietal Cuts, Useable Trim, Scraps, and Bonesby Anthony Bourdain Bloomsbury, 288 pp., $24.95 When I saw the subtitle, I feared that this might be the leftover dregs of Bourdain’s writing, that somehow this collection of shorts might be something less than his best. I’m happy to say that it’s right up…
Shall We Bike?
Local bike advocates pedal optimistically uphill
The Hightower Report
Health Care Morality; and Keeping Watch on You
X-Men: The Last Stand
This third outing in the franchise lays on the subtext even more heavily than its predecessors – racial, gender, and sexual politics are all over the place, as are the multiple strands of the story line.
Day Trips
The sleepy Texas town of McMahan is for sale and $215,000 gets you the whole kit and caboodle
Family Reunion at Cafe Caprice
The Tankersleys gather at their old home, now the Constantines’ Cafe Caprice
In the Works
Pending Bike Projects
Movies and Shakers
The production companies behind – and ahead of – the boom, and how they might be able to help you
Tibet: A Buddhist Trilogy
More a meditation than a traditional documentary, Tibet: A Buddhist Trilogy beautifully employs direct cinema techniques to transport the viewer into the world of an exiled culture.
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
The ever-dapper Teddy Roosevelt, the “no-mow” movement, and more
New and Noteworthy
P&K Grocery
Place 6
Lawyer promises promotion of affordable housing
Movies and Shakers
BURNT ORANGE PRODUCTIONS “We’re a production company, but we don’t do development in the traditional sense of finding material, hiring a writer, writing the script from scratch,” says Carolyn Pfeiffer, Burnt Orange Productions’ president and CEO, who three years ago left her position as a vice-chair, master filmmaker-in-residence, and head of the producing discipline at…
Mountain Patrol: Kekexili
A self-appointed game warden and his ragtag band of volunteers cross some treacherous Chinese landscape in search of poachers who are decimating the Tibetan antelope.
Soccer Watch
The U.S. men lose 1-0 to Morroco, Man U loses their doctor, and more
Not Too Peachy
Bad news for Hill Country peach lovers
APD’s Stan Knee Goes East – Way East
After nine years, APD Chief Stan Knee steps down and moves – to Afghanistan
Movies and Shakers
BARCELONA FILMS Located in a modest quanset-hut-style building just off the Drag, Barcelona Films head Viviane Vives is perhaps more immediately familiar to Austin filmgoers in her acting capacity, having co-starred – and, with Barcelona, having helped to fund – Bryan Poyser’s breakthrough film Dear Pillow. Vives, a Barcelona native, who nailed the Spanish equivalent…
Fanaa
New Bollywood film explores the choices made by those in love.
Oops!
Mark W. Tschurr was incorrectly identified as an SOS board member in the May 19 “Postmarks.” Tschurr no longer sits on the SOS board. Last week, in the Election Notes article titled “ACC Race: The Dirt,” an editing error garbled a sentence in the story about the race between Allen Kaplan and Ana Mejia-Dietche. It…
Food-o-file
Plus, this week’s Event Menu!
APD Chief Says Farewell
Afghanistan-bound Stan Knee given an Austin send-off
Movies and Shakers
MARMALADE SKY MOTION PICTURES Let it never be said that high-end burlesque, with a wink and a nod in the direction of the golden era of yesteryear raunch, won’t get you anywhere. In the case of Marmalade Sky Motion Pictures, whose president, Emily Cropper, and vice-president, Eunice Rios Yaklin, met up as members of Austin’s…
Good Humor Man
Former ‘Seinfeld’ writer Pat Hazell is funny, upbeat, generous, and, oh, yeah, he lives here now
Summer Reading
Recipes, reminiscences, booze, sushi, and cheese: read it and eat
If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It
Travis Co. commissioners agree that county’s tax collection system isn’t broken, vote to do another exhaustive study of it anyway
Movies and Shakers
BEEF AND PIE PRODUCTIONS “I had been working as a writer at GSD&M and quit to pursue making documentaries,” explains Mike Woolf, who, along with partners Andrew and Karen Yates, is one-third of Beef and Pie Productions, one of the most monkey-centric production companies in the country. “What monkeys?!” we hear you cry. By way…
‘Minus Tide’
Austin playwright Kimberly Burke explains how her yearlong residency in Minneapolis helped shape her new play, ‘Minus Tide’
Summer Reading
Culinary Biographiesedited by Alice Arndt Yes Press, 432 pp., $48 The American culinary revolution in the second half of the 20th century served as the catalyst for many changes: Culinary education came into prominence, and cooking for the public was elevated to the status of a profession rather than a trade; dining out became a…
SPURring Students Toward College
Pilot program brings students from high schools with low college-attendance rates into UT writing classes
Movies and Shakers
ADVANCED FILM MECHANIX Like Marmalade Sky, the trio behind Advance Film Mechanix – Brad and Brandon Sappington and David Carsey – formed their production company in hopes of raising money to make their own feature film. That hasn’t happened yet, but in the meantime, AFM has created its own unique niche in the increasingly crowded…
Golden Hornet Project
Since Mozart isn’t writing any new chamber music, the Golden Hornet Project is picking up the slack with concerts of new works for small ensembles by local composers
Summer Reading
Horsemen of the Esophagus: Competitive Eating and the Big Fat American Dreamby Jason Fagone Crown, 320 pp., $24 Is there any there there? That’s the question that journalist Jason Fagone wants to answer during his year of following the International Federation of Competitive Eating circuit (“27 contests in 13 states and two continents”), attempting to…
Naked City
Headlines and happenings from Austin and beyond
Movies and Shakers
Four More Friends of Filmmakers Other local production companies – some small and independent, some rather large but still, somehow, indie – each very capable and generally open to submissions from “the outside.” – M.S. ACTION FIGURE INC.Matt Hovis, director/founder Mark Miks, director/founder Susan Lazarus, producer matt@actionfigure.com mark@actionfigure.com susan@actionfigure.com www.actionfigure.com One of Austin’s most respected…
Soul to Sole Festival
Hoofers from around the country are tapping their way to Austin for the sixth annual Soul to Sole Festival, featuring tap master Arthur Duncan as one of the 2006 Festival Legends
Summer Reading
The New Spanish Tableby Anya von Bremzen Workman, 478 pp, $22.95 (paper) Spain is the dynamic new epicenter of creative world cuisine, while at the same time, a culinary focal point for the freshest of Mediterranean ingredients paired with culinary tradition that goes back countless generations. Anya von Bremzen has managed to bridge the gap…
Plan B Interference?
Attorney for the women’s rights group challenging feds’ refusal to allow over-the-counter sale of emergency contraceptives says she has proof that Bush administration meddled in FDA drug-approval process
Movies and Shakers
Compiled from the Texas Film Commission’s 2006 Production Manual
Arts Review
The textures explored by artists Young-Min Kang, Candace Briceño, Jeongmee Yoon, and Miguel Cortez in Studio 107’s Slick, Furry, Lush, Line go far beyond the show title
Summer Reading
The Connoisseur’s Guide to Sushi: Everything You Need to Know about Sushi Varieties and Accompaniments, Etiquette and Dining Tips, and More by Dave Lowry Harvard Common Press, 297 pp., $14 (paper) The old saying tells us that if you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, but if you teach a…
Phases & Stages
Thirty minutes into Marvin Gaye, The Real Thing in Performance 1964-1981 (Hip-O/Motown/Universal), which begins with vintage black-and-white lip-syncs wrapped around color interview footage from Dinah Shore, up pops the Les Paul of bassists, James Jamerson, plucking away next to Gaye in a live performance excerpt from 1972’s long lost theatrical release Save the Children. Unreal.…
Dwarfing the Frost Tower
Two new skyscrapers coming to Congress
A Kinder, Gentler Filmmaker
Jeffrey Travis’ surprising success
Arts Review
The 13 artists in AMOA’s engaging exhibit ‘Over + Over’ use everyday objects from pencil stubs to marker caps to old tire parts to look at the craft of making art
Summer Reading
Sunday Suppers at Lucques: Seasonal Recipes from Market to Table by Suzanne Goin with Teri Gelber Knopf, 373 pp., $35 I can’t be the only person coming home from the farmers’ market with gorgeous produce and little idea exactly what to make with it. With Sunday Suppers at Lucques, Suzanne Goin has written the ultimate…
Phases & Stages
Red Hot Chili PeppersStadium Arcadium (Warner Bros.) Hubris goes sock-in-hand with creative peaks, and swaggering into their third decade, the Red Hot Chili Peppers take another unprecedented stage dive forward with Stadium Arcadium. During John Frusciante’s first term in L.A.’s trademark funkateers, Mother’s Milk birthed global epidemic Blood Sugar Sex Magik, after which the brilliant…
Stalling FEMA
Attorneys file class-action lawsuit in Houston to derail FEMA from cutting tens of thousands of low-income hurricane evacuees off from federal rent and utility assistance
Film News
It’s Texas vs. Arizona in the ‘Friday Night Lights’ Bowl, but we might have a secret weapon: the new TXMPA
Readings
Two from UT Press
Summer Reading
Cocktail Hour: Authentic Recipes and Illustrations From 1920 to 1960by Susan Waggoner and Robert Markel Stewart, Tabori and Chang, 96 pp., $15.95 If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Authors Susan Waggoner and Robert Markel published a similar book, titled Vintage Cocktails: Authentic Recipes and Illustrations from 1920 to 1960 five years ago – same…
Phases & Stages
San Quinn The Rock: Pressure Makes Diamonds (Done Deal/SMC Recordings) San Francisco Quincy holds court over the historically black Fillmore section of his city with brutally honest portrayals of project life. “I come from the bottom of the gutterest hood, wickedest niggaz, no need searching for good, it ain’t in us.” Since releasing his first…
Immigration Insanity in D.C.
While Senate debates useless details of proposed immigration legislation, potentially insidious portions of Hagel-Martinez compromise lurk, waiting to slip through
DVD Watch
‘That was me making the movie – being initiated into how you get a film made with someone else’s money at a studio level. I felt I was the one being paddled and running for my life.’
Page Two: Praise and Lamentation
Saying goodbye and a final thank you to Clifford Antone
Summer Reading
My Life in Franceby Julia Child with Alex Prud’homme Knopf, 336 pp., $25.95. You might think there’s simply nothing more to know about Julia Child, but this charming posthumous memoir would prove you quite wrong. As told to her grandnephew the year before her death at age 91, this is a roughly chronological narrative about…
Phases & Stages
Irma ThomasAfter the Rain (Rounder) In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Irma Thomas was among New Orleans musicians reportedly missing. Turns out she was in Austin, although nearly all her possessions, including her home and nightclub, were lost. After the Rain, the Soul Queen’s first album in six years, is subtly informed by the disaster…
TAKS Scores Show Both Improvement and Trouble for AISD
Numbers down for the crucial third and 11th grades
TV Eye
Slot Machines
TCB
Remembering Clifford Antone, who gave Austin a home of the blues
Letters @ 3AM
The federal government benefits from undocumented workers, therefore something is owed those workers in return: justice
Summer Reading
The Unprejudiced Palate: Classic Thoughts On Food and The Good Lifeby Angelo Pellegrini, edited by Ruth Reichl Modern Library Food, 235 pp., $13.95 (paper) When the Modern Library decided to reissue a handful of great cookbooks, attempting to save them from oblivion, they could not have made a more inspired choice than The Unprejudiced Palate.…
Phases & Stages
The WalkmenA Hundred Miles Off (Record Collection) It’s the last night of SXSW 04, and NYC’s Walkmen are covering the Kinks’ “Come Dancing.” A breeze whips through the open-air Eastside warehouse, swirling smoke and ice, the 4am crowd just drunk enough on fourth-day whiskeys to grin in unison. That was months after the release of…
Another One Bites The Dust
Elizabeth Peacock resigns from Travis County Medical Examiner’s Office
The Beauty Academy of Kabul
This documentary shows how real power flows not from the barrel of a gun but rather a can of hairspray.
After a Fashion
Stephen gets all judgmental and then recants. As usual. Who are his targets this week?
Summer Reading
Cheese: A Connoisseur’s Guide to the World’s Best by Max McCalman and David Gibbons Clarkson Potter, 304 pp., $32.50 Max McCalman can perhaps be considered a rock star in the cheesemonger world. While a maître fromager at New York’s Picholine restaurant, he elevated cheese to a new level and was the first in America to…
Phases & Stages
Mission of BurmaThe Obliterati (Matador) Tongue firmly in cheek and amps turned to 11, Mission of Burma have delivered an uncompromising palate of post-punk vitriol since 1980. After the release of 2004’s stellar ONoffON, and a subsequent reunion tour, the Boston quartet obviously still has an itch to scratch. Under the production of tape manipulator…
Point Austin: Blues for Clifford
Men are remembered not for what they had, but for what they gave
The Da Vinci Code
Faithful adaptation of Dan Brown’s bestseller treats the novel as if it were a sacred text even though it’s basically a Hardy Boys mystery dressed up in provocative attire.
To Your Health
Outside of antidepressants, what are the best ways to treat postpartum depression
Summer Reading
At Home in the Vineyard: Cultivating a Winery, an Industry, and a Lifeby Susan Sokol Blosser University of California Press, 256 pp., $24.95 (to be released in August) We lived in Oregon in the early 1980s. At that time, other than a few zealots (who later turned out to be right), most people never thought…
Phases & Stages
Pearl Jam(J Records) Once upon a time (read: 1991), Pearl Jam was thrown into the grunge pit to die. They didn’t. Instead, they became a machine of CDs and tours, congressional hearings and Ramones tributes. They took the “jam” and went classic rock, with a heavy reverence for stalwarts like Neil Young, even providing the…
Beside the Point
Austin Energy – at least they’re not FEMA; and, coming up this week: more bond slicing and dicing
Luv Doc Recommends: BOBaritaville
While all the smelly hippies are off at Kerrville listening to folk, smoking dope, making mud pies, and carousing in communal squalor, local not-so-oldies station BOBFM is taking advantage of the extra elbow room by hosting a margarita contest down at Waterloo Park, called BOBaritaville. If you haven’t tuned into BOB, it’s sort of the…
