A Day at The Races…. One Hour at the Mixed Arts Panel Review Session
Jim Bob McMillan, chair of the Mixed Arts panel, carries folding chairs into the meeting room in the Dove Springs Multipurpose Center, located a few miles east of I-35 off Stassney. Each year, the Parks and Recreation Department, which oversees the Cultural Contracts Program, picks a different venue for the review sessions; to the players,…
See What You Want to See
“I got to the point where mainstream Nashville took a big right turn on a musical and production level in the past five years and I took a big left turn,” says Radney Foster. He’s sitting on the bed of his modest hotel room in Austin, dressed casually in shorts and white T-shirt, sunglasses shading…
Hooked on Phonics
Learning to read in the Nineties isn’t what it used to be. Back around the turn of this century, when many Americans never made it past middle school, you didn’t have to say “phonics-based reading curriculum” because that’s what reading was. But times have changed, and so have our methods of learning to read. Ever…
Off The Bookshelf
An Ocean in Iowaby Peter Hedges Scribner, $11 paper An Ocean in Iowa is at once as charmingly unassuming as its seven-year-old protagonist, Scotty Ocean, and as complex as the boisterous Sixties in which Scotty grows — if not up, then a year older. An earlier novel, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, established Peter Hedges’ penchant…
Radney Foster
See What You Want to See (Arista Austin) Harkening back to the smart country/pop stylings of Foster & Lloyd, Radney Foster’s third solo outing, See What You Want to See, is also his best. While it’s patently obvious that the boyish Del Rio, Texas singer-songwriter still resides and records in Nashville — those soaring power…
Forgiving His Trespasses
It’s a tricky dance GOP candidates do: To win the nomination, they pander to the religious right, but in order to capture the general election, they have to appeal to the moderate mainstream. For now, the Bush team — which reportedly includes former Christian Coalition president turned political consultant Ralph Reed — is focusing on…
Titles That Can’t Myth
Few legends of the West so neatly capture a specific time and place as the ultra-violent feud between rival merchants and cattle barons in New Mexico Territory known as the Lincoln County War. But who today would remember, much less celebrate, that colorful saga if not for the mysteriously charismatic, bucktoothed slacker who blundered into…
Arista Austin — in Nashville
While it may come as a surprise to many in the local music industry, Radney Foster’s new See What You Want to See marks the return of Arista Austin. In the fall of 1998, most of the major label imprint’s staff was let go and the local offices were vacated. Rather than closing up for…
In Order to Live
D: Vincente Minnelli; with Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron, Oscar Levant, Nina Foch, Georges Guetary, Madge Blake, Mary Young, Ann Codee, Hayden Rorke. An American in Paris This has always been one of Minnelli’s most popular movies, but even if you think you’ve watched it to death on TV and videotape, you have never really seen…
Postscripts
Last week, while reading our guide to Central Texas barbecue, I noticed an item of food described as “sweet, dark, and zesty.” After recovering from the mild shock I experienced upon realizing the disturbingly sensual nature of that particular triad of adjectives, I moved on to jealousy, jealousy for the fact that book critics rarely,…
Texas Platters
Holy Roller (Sub Pop) Brothers and sisters of the Lone Star State, on the occasion of his 24-song Sub Pop anthology, the right Rev. Horton Heat would like you to know how very proud he is of his penis. It’s quite well-documented here: 1990, “Love Whip”; 1993, “Wiggle Stick”; 1996, “Big Red Rocket of Love.”…
Afs Summer Free-for-all: a Tribute to George Morris
June 1 Kiss Me Deadly (D: Robert Aldrich, 1955) June 8 Imitation of Life (D: John M. Stahl, 1934) June 15 They Died With Their Boots On (D: Raoul Walsh, 1941) June 22 Tobacco Road (D: John Ford, 1941) June 29 Diary of a Country Priest (D: Robert Bresson, 1950) July 6 Day of Wrath…
Huckleberry Minh: A Walk Through Dreamland
by Glen Alyn Pecan Grove Press, $15 paper It’s been almost 25 years since the fall of Saigon, yet for many it’s still a deep and unhealing wound in the American psyche. By taking on Vietnam in a book-length poetry project, Austin poet Glen Alyn happens upon the tragic and literary qualities that many before…
Tragedias de la Frontera
Since the United States began its so-called “War on Drugs” in the early Eighties, the cost to taxpayers has been enormous. Billions of dollars have been wasted, with little or no noticeable effect on the tide of drugs flowing into our country. On May 20, 1997, another loss was incurred that people in Redford, Texas,…
An American in Paris (1951)
D: Vincente Minnelli; with Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron, Oscar Levant, Nina Foch, Georges Guetary, Madge Blake, Mary Young, Ann Codee, Hayden Rorke. This has always been one of Minnelli’s most popular movies, but even if you think you’ve watched it to death on TV and videotape, you have never really seen this most tragic of…
About AIDS
A recent poll of 500 Americans over age 25 reveals that 85% would be willing to discuss sexual problems with their physicians, but 68% are afraid that their physician would be embarrassed. The Columbia University study, entitled “Adult Attitudes Towards Sexual Problems,” was recently presented at the Gender and Human Sexuality Conference in Washington, DC.…
Santiago Jim�nez Jr.
El Corrido de Esequiel Hernandez (Arhoolie) Like another master, Willie Nelson, and his superb Spirit album from 1996, Santiago Jim�nez Jr.’s El Corrido de Esequiel Hern�ndez is a career album that not only demonstrates the great accordion king’s genre-defining talents, it also encapsulates the San Antonio native’s highlight-filled, 40-year career in one confident flourish, while…
Scanlines
D: Richard Linklater (1993) with Jason London, Joey Lauren Adams, Milla Jovovich, Ben Affleck, Parker Posey, Anthony Rapp, Wiley Wiggins, Rory Cochrane, Matthew McConaughey. Can’t Hardly Wait D: Harry Elfont, Deborah Kaplan (1998) with Ethan Embry, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Seth Green, Lauren Ambrose, Charlie Korsmo, Peter Facinelli, Melissa Joan Hart, Breckin Meyer, Jerry O’Connell, Jenna…
Day Trips
Pet a fish at Moody Gardens. photograph by Gerald E. McLeod The Moody Gardens on Galveston Island has taken another giant step toward building a world-class vacation destination by giving visitors a chance to feel and see the creatures of the four oceans of the globe without getting wet. The resort famous for its Rainforest…
Where Was George?
Rep. Glen Maxey cajoles fellow reps on the House floor. Speaker Pete Laney presides in the background. photograph by John Anderson “We were promised that presidential politics wouldn’t interfere in the business of the state of Texas,” Austin Rep. Glen Maxey said in February. George W. Bush was at the National Republican Governors’ Conference and…
Short Cuts
This just in: Tonight, Thursday, May 27, Texas Writers Month has extended its celebration to include a screenplay reading of Tim McCanlies’ new script Secondhand Lions. It will take place at Jazz Upstairs (214 E. Sixth St.) at 7pm. McCanlies is the writer-director of Dancer Texas Pop. 81, who has also written the script for…
Page Two
He has outgrown mere governorhood. Over the past few months, George W. Bush has become a political phenomenon. He’s the acknowledged front-runner in the presidential race, even though he hasn’t formally announced his candidacy. He leads in fundraising without having had a single fundraiser. He has captured the interest of the bulk of the GOP…
Gorging on George
Unlike his predecessors, Gov. Bush maintains a friendly relationship with the Capitol press corps. photograph by Jana Birchum Has the romance finally worn off in the gushy affair between George W. Bush and the Austin American-Statesman? Well, not exactly, so don’t expect a great breakup any time between now and November 2000. But at the…
Fly Away Home
photos by John Anderson text by Lisa Tozzi & Kate X Messer (l-r): Austin-Bergstrom International Airport on opening weekend.The expansive Barbara Jordan Passenger Terminal– before opening, Sat, May 22 and after, Sun, May 23. Intricate Texana inlays adorn the mirrors of the unfinished men’s room. The hand-scrawled sign assures, “THIS WILL BE CLEANED UP ON…
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
The cylinder firing order of a VW Beetle is 1-4-3-2. A very ancient and rare South African species of plant, the cyad, has become so prized by poachers that authorities are implanting all remaining specimens with microchips as tracking devices in order to chart their existence and movement. The number of home-schooled children in the…
Naked City
They came, they pedaled, they guzzled margaritas. It was all in a day’s work for a few dozen bicyclists who put their pedal mettle to the test last Friday in the third annual “political pedal” effort sponsored by the Texas Bicycle Coalition. Council Members Beverly Griffith, Jackie Goodman, and Daryl Slusher took part in the…
Community Chest and Chance Rolled Into One
Lisa Fehrman photograph by Bret Brookshire A handful of artists applying for funding are being monitored as they make their way around the city funding game board. Regarding this second phase, applicants were asked about how they prepared for the review sessions and what criteria they believe they are being judged on. Lisa Fehrman Artistic…
Public Notice
Fresh! Check out the produce at Sustainable Food Center Farmers Markets. Give it a pinch and a nuzzle. It’s so fresh, you’ll probably have to slap it! The center employs at-risk youth to run the markets — obviously valuable business (and life) experience. Five markets will be operating on different days through the summer: Montopolis…
Work in Progress
If in two weeks the ANC is awarded a chance to solve the day labor dilemma, the task will be daunting. But some feel that involving the ANC in long-term processes would be an improvement over the current situation, where neighborhoods feel they are not kept informed of city decisions and city officials feel the…
Icif’s Italian Rice Cooking Competetion
Smoldering eyes, dark curling hair, and a bowlful of pasta in a garlicky red sauce — not a bad idea of Italy, but limited … very limited. Because most Italian-Americans trace their roots to the southern regions, like Sicily or Rome, the fair complexions and creamy flavors of the northern part of the country haven’t…
And Thy Right Hand Shall Teach Thee
by Michael Ventura illustration by Jason Stout Littleton won’t go away, not because politicians and commentators are still yapping about it but because no one can forget it; and because Littleton has taught some deeply disturbed young people (all affluent, all white) how to make an impact on an America that wants nothing from them…
Extra Credit
As the current legislative session enters a critical period in which billions in new funding for schools is at stake, educators are not inclined to draw the governor’s ire by criticizing his education record. But neither can they point to many tangible improvements in the school system that weren’t already in progress when Bush took…
Bush vs. Bush
Governor Bush rarely talks about the environment. It wasn’t mentioned in his inaugural address. It wasn’t mentioned in his speech announcing his presidential plans on March 7. He did mention it, however, during his state of the state speech when he said, “I believe business and a healthy environment can coexist. I look forward to…
Food-o-File
In April of 1994, the Texas Hill Country Wine & Food Festival featured some of the nation’s top women on their annual panel of celebrity chefs. One of those women was Catherine Brandel, then executive chef at Berkeley’s famous Chez Panisse restaurant. In the early days of that landmark American restaurant, Brandel created the job…
Borderline Bush
Most of Texas’ poor are clustered along the Mexican border; the most recent comptroller’s report, issued in mid-1998, indicates that more than a quarter of Texas’ border counties were among the poorest 1% of all U.S. counties, with annual per capita incomes of less than $10,840. The Texas border region, according to the comptroller’s report,…
TV Eye
John Henson, host of the irreverent talk show review show Talk Soup, is leaving the program to pursue TV production opportunities with ABC. “I love Talk Soup. I love the people I work with. But after four and a half years, I think it’s time to try something new,” Henson said. Henson has hosted Talk…
Italia With & Without
Arrive in Milano, 10am Before I even managed to leave the Milano airport, I ate lunch twice — prosciutto panini and salmon on white bread — and a look at the clock told me it was only 9am my time. If I hadn’t been forced to wait around for the rest of the journalists and…
On The Lege
Rep. Ron Wilson’s bid to keep Robert Mueller airport open for general aviation aircraft appeared to crash and burn on Tuesday morning when Austin Sen. Gonzalo Barrientos used a parliamentary maneuver that could have delayed dozens of pending bills. Shortly after the Senate convened, Barrientos asked that Monday’s Senate journal be read aloud. But the…
Articulations
A few times in a generation, a gesture is made to a community that is extraordinary not only for the dramatic impact it will have on the future of that community but for what it affirms about the spirit driving the community. It may be a populist gesture made by many, such as the one…
Tasty Wake-Up Call
101 Main St., Salado, 254/947-3828 Wed-Sun, 5-9pm; Sat & Sun, 12-3pm John Anderson Katie and Dave Hermann are an enterprising pair. The thirty-ish couple, recent parents of twin boys and graduates of the Culinary Institute of America (CIA), opened their own restaurant at the stage when most young chefs accept a hotel or big-city dining…
The Can’t-Miss Kid
In retrospect, the March 7 coming-out party further solidified Rove’s position as Bush’s go-to guy. Yes, Hughes and Allbaugh are important. Both are smart and both are close to Bush. But both are easily replaced. And neither have been with Bush as long as Rove, who escorted Bush on those first few shaky press conferences…
Exhibitionism
Santa Cruz Center for Culture, May 8 And God stepped out on space, And he looked around and said: I’m lonely … I’ll make me a world. — “The Creation,” by James Weldon Johnson This original adaptation by director Boyd Vance of James Weldon Johnson’s slender book of poems God’s Trombones was laid-back, intimate, and…
Class on the Range
The Range currently offers monthly cooking classes, held in a small prep area within the restaurant’s grand kitchen. I attended a class on pasta at which I and a dozen other folks (many of them retirees) traipsed about the enormous, sunlit kitchen with freshly baked scones and coffee as we settled into our three-hour class.…
Bush: The Book
“Why,” Bill Minutaglio wants to know, “do people think I’m writing an authorized book on George Bush? I’ve had Rolling Stone and alternative weeklies from all over calling to ask me if it’s true.” Oh, those vicious rumors. Minutaglio knows a thing or two about them. He is, as he stresses with some frustration, writing…
Coach’s Corner
Onion Creek: How, I’m wondering, did my sports compass get so turned around? I gaze out the large picture window at the now subdued first fairway. I’m depleted from following three anonymous lady golfers around the course for five hours. I think, not kindly I might add, of Robb Walsh. Walsh, I think, it’s all…
Dancing About Architecture
Those poor, innocent, beleaguered River City Rapists just can’t get a break. If it isn’t their name (which some feel to be in questionable taste) encouraging feminists and other groups to protest their performances and the clubs that let them play, it’s their taste in art. With the band only just now emerging from some…
Heir to the Throne
How would Gov. Rick Perry work with the city of Austin? Very politely, says Sullivan. But don’t look for him to be jumping on the local-control-for-Austin bandwagon any time soon. Though former Democrat Perry has a “friendly and civil” relationship with Mayor Kirk Watson and other community leaders, Sullivan admits that there’s an “ideological gulf”…
