Coach’s Corner
For the second time this evening, I’m explaining my “NBA play-offs as a substitute for real life” doctrine. It’s quite late at La Zona Rosa. Most of the chairs are up. I’d floated this hypothesis earlier. It drifted across the littered table with as much substance as the choking cigarette smoke. Capitol Rats, toting portable…
Readings All Over
Here are the plays being read this week: Aunt Rose, by Marc Bockmon, is an insightful family drama, a murder mystery, and a black comedy. It will be read May 6, Sat, 10am, at the Dougherty Arts Center, 1110 Barton Springs Rd. Produced by First Stage Productions. Call 926-7441. Texans and Their Guns, by Steven…
Live Shots
UT Performing Arts Center, April 30 The King’s Singers are the six Englishmen who perform a startling a capella arrangement of Billy Joel’s And So It Goes that KUT’s John Aielli occasionally plays on “Eklektikos.” Even though I’d heard them live for the first time over 15 years ago, I was still shocked to discover…
Rebel Music
Jazz used to be a rebel music. But like so many revolutionary movements, it has grown regimented and rarefied, an art form based on precision rather than passion. But Medeski, Martin & Wood, a New York-bred keyboards, drums, and bass trio, will have none of that. Consider their itinerary of Austin appearances: Last year, they…
Council Watch
With four days left before the city defends the federal lawsuit brought by Freeport-McMoRan, the air around City Hall these days is becoming increasingly steeped in suspicion. Two weeks ago, Councilmember Brigid Shea’s office requested a chronology of the negotiations that resulted in Freeport’s latest proposed settlement, the one rejected by the council on Feb.…
Scanlines
D: Sake Kawamura; with Akira Hashimoto, Rie Kondou, Aya Odabu. Video Search of Miami A spellbinding horror film with a quirky sense of black humor, The Last Frankenstein is a wildly ambitious, fiercely intelligent picture that occasionally recalls the best work of Alejandro Jodorowsky and David Cronenberg, while at the same time maintaining a totally…
Dancing About Architecture
Lisa Mednick has found touring as keyboardist for Juliana Hatfield to be less than a whirlwind adventure. Oh, sure, they did MTV’s 120 Minutes, the Conan O’Brien show, and David Letterman and all, but the latest I hear is that after only five live gigs, Hatfield has called a halt to her planned European tour,…
Sashay, Shant�
“I’ve always been interested in fashion,” says 21-year-old Shar Superstar, one of a handful of Austin clubkids responsible for a spate of recent outre, indie fashion shows that would put Anna Sui and J.P. Gaultier to shame. “I love the production end of things, and I’m such a control freak that I can’t be told…
Day Trips
Tours of Distinction in San Marcos takes visitors on a tour of historic homes. Vans leave the Cock House Museum at C.M. Allen Pkwy. and Hopkins St. every 30 minutes from noon to 6pm, May 6&7. Art Among the Oaks, a juried show and sale of arts & crafts, will be in the park behind…
Hearth & Soul
Dear Suzy, I have a 1951 house, pier-and-beam construction. Out back is an ugly 10′ x 12′ concrete slab and two concrete steps, about two feet high. There is stucco-like masonry around the skirt of the house. I would like to install a deck, doing at least some of the work myself. Is it better…
Green Reading
For the past six months, I have been trying to read Goodbye to a River by John Graves. There are others, buried beneath magazines, last Sunday’s New York Times, newspaper clippings, and press releases. Half a dozen books I was supposed to review last year still sit on my shelf. Another half dozen new arrivals…
Only the Brave
Only the Brave 1995. Directed by Ana Kokkinos, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Elena Mandalis, Dora Kaskanis, Maude Davey./////playing The Part/////d: Mitch Mccabe. Who am I? Such a simple question, yet its answer is so elusive. These two films are very different — one is a brooding tale of lost teens in industrial…
Down in the Swamps
Move over Rhino, the Best of Excello Swamp Collection you put out in 1990 has given way to Excello’s own series, and what glorious treasures it has unveiled. This cache of regional blues is more than simply another series of reissues, however, as it carries with it some of the genetic imprint of rock &…
Once Were Warriors
Once Were Warriors 1995, R, 103 min. Directed by Lee Tamahori, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Rena Owen, temuera Morrison, Mamaengaroa Kerr-Bell. Harrowing is the first word that comes to mind when describing this movie. You can tell from the opening shot that Once Were Warriors will not settle for surface illusions. It…
Natural Born Breakfast Eaters
Cereal is the food that Americans love to hate. Ask anyone about cereal and the first thing you are likely to hear is a complaint. People complain about the high price of cereal, the dumb TV ads, the sugar, the boxes. And yet, despite their complaints, they eat it – 2.7 billion packages of cereal…
French Kiss
French Kiss 1995, PG-13, 111 min. Directed by Lawrence Kasdan, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Meg Ryan, Kevin Kline, Timothy Hutton, Jean Reno, Francois Cluzet, Susan Anbeh. Remember real cotton candy? The stuff that was freshly spun, sweet and pink, directly onto paper cones at carnivals and fairs? Full of empty calories and…
A Good Catholic Girl
EDITED BY ROBERT BRYCE Missing the Target: She’s only been in office five months, and she’s already been targeted as a Christian-hating liberal by ultra-conservative groups. Freshman Rep. Dawnna Dukes (D-Austin), representing District 50 on the east side of town, was the subject of a recent mail-out sent by the American Family Association of Texas…
Top Dog
Top Dog 1995. Directed by Aaron Norris, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Chuck Norris, Erik Von Detten, Michele Lamar Richards, Carmine Caridi, Herta Ware, Clyde Kusatsu, Reno. Talk about your bad timing… Top Dog chases after balls that turn out to be grenades. Karate kicker and action star Chuck Norris here plays an…
DJ Herb and Alien Records
As important to the clubkids scene as the clubs they frequent are the deejays, and the records they spin, fold, and manipulate. And while many among the populace might argue that Austin needs another music store about as much as it needs more road construction, the availability of club-oriented dance music has been a sorely…
West Campus Wear
So, what happens when all the houses in West Campus fall down? Informed observers of the West Campus real-estate scene agree that this is an unduly alarmist prospect. It’s true, they argue, that much of the housing stock near the University of Texas is old, getting older, and not aging well. But the reality of…
Destiny Turns On the Radio
Destiny Turns On the Radio 1995, R, 102 min. Directed by Jack Baran, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring James LeGros, Dylan McDermott, Quentin Tarantino, Nancy Travis, James Belushi, Bobcat Goldthwait, Tracey Walter. Very strange stuff indeed. Baran’s Sundance-nurtured “mystical love story” is a bizarre cross-pollination of genres that puts one in mind of…
About AIDS
Disclosure of one’s HIV+ status can be gut-wrenching – but at the same time a very liberating experience. Being proactive and prepared is the best approach. The following guidelines, featured in the fall 1993 issue of Positively Aware, were compliled by writer David Thomas, with the assistance of Stephen Jeffries of Test Positive Aware Network…
Media Clips
Most of what passes for talk radio these days is racist, bigoted, homophobic, and misogynist in both its tone and overall content. This is a medium that continually re-invokes ugly stereotypes, thrives on hearsay and innuendo, cares little for balanced journalism, and almost never seeks an objective analysis of factual evidence before rushing to pronounce…
Panther
Panther 1995. Directed by Mario Van Peebles, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Kadeem Hardison, Bokeem Woodbine, Joe Don Baker, Marcus Chong, Tyrin Turner, Dick Gregory, M. Emmett Walsh, James Legros. After years of floating around Hollywood, the story of the Black Panther Party has finally made it to the screen, and though some…
Let Them Eat Cake
It’s back. Fresh from a two-year hiatus, that oft-disputed fiscal tool called tax abatement is once again part of Austin’s economic development showcase. The latest participants in a growing national trend, the Austin City Council and the Travis County Commissioners Court, encouraged by the Chamber of Commerce, set policies three weeks ago allowing corporations as…
Naked City
Edited by Louisa C. Brinsmade, with contributions this week by Andrea Barnett, Nelson England, and Chris Walters. MUD, LIES AND IBUPROFEN: A sore southpaw wasn’t the only thing giving Mayor Bruce Todd twinges last week. At last Thursday’s council meeting, a motion by Councilmember Brigid Shea to delay voting on money for a new customs…
Friday
Friday 1995, R, 91 min. D: F. Gary Gray; with Ice Cube, Chris Tucker, Nia Long. A refreshingly lighthearted look at day-to-day life in the inner city, Friday does suffer from a few problems in the scripting and directing departments, but entertains nonetheless, thanks mainly to the easygoing style of its talented cast. The threadbare…
Bonus Tracks
The Advanced Mitt This may be the best reason since the Rudy Schwartz Project to keep up with the local tape section at Sound Exchange. Brown Hornet crams a relentless gumbo up your ears that hops around from frantic punk to space rock to well-mannered groove. Their approach is reminiscent of Chrome’s bombardment of the…
Public Notice
HOW MUCH TO STAY HOME? Got a buttload of benefits this week, most of them in the Things We Wouldn’t Do On a Bet, But Think Somebody Else Should category. Worthy causes all, so let’s get to it… Amy’s Ice Cream 10K Cattle Drive Run (Sunday, May 7, 8am, Austin High School). We once read…
My Family, Mi Familia
Nava’s film spans 50 years in the life of the Sanchez family, a Mexican-American clan whose roots in the United States date back to the 1920s in Los Angeles. The film’s epic story takes place in various decades.
These Children That You Spit On
No one in their right mind would dare argue with the statement that Austin is a city loaded with youth subcultures. They’re all here, in one form or another, from the ubiquitous, mohawked punks that line the Drag daily alongside their low-rent cousins, the crusties, to the cannabis-enshrouded, slightly groggy hippies and neo-hippies. From the…
The Naked Play
Imagine a stage production in which there are no limitations whatever on the size of the set, the finery of the costumes, the brilliance of the lighting. Imagine a theatrical production in which the words sound sharper, crisper than usual, in which the acting choices are bolder, more daring. Now, imagine yourself as one of…
Location, Location, Location
On the television, the sound turned off, the Oklahoma bombing was unfolding, hours after the explosion. The shades were drawn, the air conditioner on high, I sat in a chair drinking mineral water, lost in the back streets of Boston while in the middle of a hot afternoon in a faceless motel pitched at the…
Page Two
The paper has settled into a different pace, after a hectic fall and crazed pre-SXSW season. We’re back in the rhythm of week-by-week, focusing on a scattering of special issues over the next few months including: Summer Fun Issue May 19 Summer Reading Issue June 2 Annual Chronicle Beer Tasting June 30 Short Story Contest…
The (Corporate) Welfare State
Competition for business has become a high stakes poker game. To bring professional football back to St. Louis, the city offered the owners of the Los Angeles Rams an incentive deal worth $720 million. Mercedes Benz located its new auto plant in Alabama because the state and local governments came up with a package of…
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Numbering at about 400,000 head, there are more emus in the United States than there are in Australia. To ensure that their bank notes are clean and crisp, the Swiss government replaces as many as one third of the bills in circulation each year at a cost of more than 20 million francs, or $13…
