Cover Story
North Central Blues
APD’s new North Central Area Command force is bringing community policing to blighted north central neighborhoods
Hollywood and the Historian: The Alamo
Hollywood and the Historian: The Alamo 2004. A lecture from Dr. Stephen Hardin, historical consultant on The Alamo and local author Stephen Harrigan (The Gates of the Alamo)
The Killing Kind
The Killing Kind 1973, R, 88 min. Directed by Curtis Harrington, Starring Ann Sothern, John Savage, Ruth Roman, Luana Anders, Cindy Williams. Seventies exploitation film about a convicted rapist (Savage) newly released from prison and seeking revenge.
Cry-Baby
Cry-Baby 1990, PG-13, 85 min. Directed by John Waters, Starring Amy Locane, Johnny Depp, Traci Lords, Iggy Pop, Ricki Lake, Patricia Hearst. Johnny Depp is a a hip-swiveling, sensitive delinquent bent on winning the girl next door in this cult fave. It would eventually be rejiggered as a Broadway musical, but it didn’t catch fire…
In Space
BitTorrent
Day Trips
A beautiful area of Texas, Wharton County has hundreds of stories to tell
Reissues
Gilbert O’SullivanCaricature: The Box (Rhino Handmade) If Gilbert O’Sullivan’s limp, 1971 hum-along “Alone Again (Naturally)” makes you wonder how he came to qualify for a 3-CD box set, you’re not alone. Rhino, as reckless as they are ambitious on these limited edition sets, apparently finds him worthy. It’s helpful to examine Britain’s musical history in…
No Clear Winner as Bradley Trial Wraps Up
Will developer’s bankruptcy case end with a split decision?
Momentum Requires Movement
With the Arbor’s reopening, the culmination of 11 years of student work completed at Steve Mims’ Austin FilmWorks is about to see the big screen. “I was waiting for a venue to become available that would allow me to showcase digitally finished films well,” says Mims of the Nudge Micro Digital Film Festival’s destination. “The…
Short Cuts
Press 1 for English
Soccer Watch
The Austin Lightning kick off their season and more
Reissues
The HolliesThe Long Road Home 1963-2003 (EMI) When Epic/Legacy reissued The Hollies’ Greatest Hits in 2002, it included a bonus track. One: the Manchester sextet’s last major hit, 1973’s “The Air That I Breathe,” which apparently just missed the compilation’s cutoff date since it was originally issued that same year. Now, those 13 tracks are…
Defending the Innocent in Texas
The Texas Center for Actual Innocence is open for business at the UT Law School
Money Changes Everything
Greg Pak’s ‘Robot Stories’ is ap-pealing to just about everyone, seven years after his appeal to the Texas Filmmakers’ Production Fund launched his career.
TV Eye
A spoonful of censorship …
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Isn’t it worth taking 30 seconds to say you’ve learned something new today?
Reissues
Bob DylanThe Bootleg Series Vol. 6: Bob Dylan Live 1964 – Concert at Philharmonic Hall (Columbia/Legacy) “Don’t let that scare you,” Bob Dylan tells the enthusiastic Oct. 31, 1964, Philharmonic audience after the distinctly up-tempo introduction of “If You Gotta Go, Go Now (Or Else You Got to Stay All Night),” a song of mischievous…
Blix In Austin:
The UN weapons inspector blasts Bush at the LBJ School
Liquid Assets
The wines of Chile and Argentina: up close and personal
To Your Health
Which is the ‘better quality’ protein: whey or rice?
Reissues
Peter Paul & MaryCarry It On (Rhino) On their 2002 LP, One Beat, the women of Sleater-Kinney asked, “Where are the protest songs?” Exactly. We’re living in a time that casts a similar shadow to the Vietnam era, when singers like Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and Peter, Paul & Mary were articulating impassioned and literate…
Naked City
Headlines and happenings from Austin and beyond
Envy
Director Barry Levinson tackles the human vice of envy in this comedy starring Ben Stiller and Jack Black.
Among Us
The gypsy feet of playwright Ruth Margraff keep wandering back to Austin, and we’re fortunate that they do
The Common Law
A relative passed away recently and the duty has fallen to me to wind up her affairs. She left a will. Where do I start? Can I do this without a lawyer?
Reissues
Depeche ModeSingles Box Volumes 1-6 (Reprise/Mute) To paraphrase Jerry Seinfeld, could we possibly need this much Depeche Mode? The gargantuan Singles Box rounds up all 36 of the Eighties linchpins’ Sire singles, replete with enough B-sides, live tracks, and remixes to clock in at slightly less time than a drive from Austin to Denver. Each…
Naked City
The final (but not really) fruits of the regional-planning effort’s labors
Main Hoon Na
Hindi movie full of plot and song.
From ‘Night Parachute Battalion,’ Stadium Devildare
DAZZLER SPEED RACER LAMAR And then you just, like, track the target super fast and ram into it really hard just like those old BANG HARDER Derby T-shirts. And I call the payloads that are gonna squeeze out in the impact Orange crush because of that one soda that never seemed to go anywhere but…
About AIDS
For HIV-infected people, the speed at which they progress in HIV disease depends to some degree on how well they take care of themselves. What do poz folks need to understand about HIV/AIDS essentials, so they can try to stay as healthy as possible for as long as possible? On Wednesday, May 12, HIV educator…
Reissues
Hallucinations: Psychedelic Pop Nuggets From the WEA Vaults (Rhino Handmade)Come to the Sunshine: Soft Pop Nuggets From the WEA Vaults (Rhino Handmade) Lenny Kaye’s original 1972 Nuggets compilation venerated Sixties psychedelic garage-punk oddities, but remember, Nuggets also included Sagittarius’ “My World Fell Down,” which was performed by session cats like Glen Campbell instead of kids…
Naked City
The district responds to parents – and its own demographics
Robot Stories
A short film collection billed as “science fiction from the heart,” with an emphasis on the heart part.
In Memoriam: Danielle Martin
The music community mourns the loss of professor of piano Danielle Martin
Pao, Wow!
The Mandarin House’s stellar reputation has followed it out to Lakeway – why haven’t you?
Reissues
Jerry GarciaAll Good Things: Jerry Garcia Studio Sessions (Rhino) Some might think it curious that it’s taken nine years after the death of Jerry Garcia in 1995 for his estate to dip into what one would assume to be a treasure trove of unreleased material. Sure, the Grateful Dead continue releasing live recordings from throughout…
Naked City
Breast-feeding advocates seek to restore programs after hospital layoffs
Van Helsing
Hugh Jackman’s mysterious monster hunter is pittefd against nearly the entire pantheon of Universal’s classic monsters, including Dracula and and the Wolf-Man.
A Piece of Work
Laser-etched Corian by Sandra Fiedorek, “Sandra Fiedorek + Naomi Schlinke,” at D Berman Gallery, through May 22 I can’t tell you exactly what Sandra Fiedorek’s “Portraits” depict; they’re not narrative. But they did lead me through a curious string of personal mental narratives as I took them in. Her “Portraits” offer only suggestions as to…
Will Travel for Wine
It might seem like a long way to travel for wine – almost 5,000 miles. But Chile and Argentina are producing stellar wines at affordable prices. Chile is also a country of incredible beauty, from the world’s driest desert in the north to fjords that would put Norway to shame in the south, all surrounded…
Reissues
Bad ReligionHow Could Hell Be Any Worse? (Epitaph)Bad ReligionSuffer (Epitaph)Bad ReligionNo Control (Epitaph)Bad ReligionAgainst the Grain (Epitaph)Bad ReligionGenerator (Epitaph) Theirs has been the ultimate punk rock odyssey, from the pantheon of early Eighties hardcore to Nineties tours with the mainstream punkers they inspired, Green Day and Blink-182. Through it all, Bad Religion’s articulate punk has…
Naked City
Will – or should – the Forty Acres take over America’s top bomb factory?
New York Minute
A winking, disingenuous farce from the Olsen twins.
Arts Bullets
Texas high schoolers act; Deborah Hay lectures; Bill Wittliff and Julie Speed read; and you learn about Duchamp
Food-o-File
Mario Batali has discovered Austin’s Matt Lee, but not in a good way; Hoover’s has a new breakfast; and the Alamo Drafthouse finds food on the tracks
Reissues
Preservation Hall Jazz BandThe Best of the Early Years (Preservation Hall Recordings)Preservation Hall Jazz BandPreservation Hall Hot 4 With Duke Dejan (Preservation Hall Recordings)Preservation Hall Jazz Band Shake That Thing (Preservation Hall Recordings) There’s no smoking in Preservation Hall. This rule exists because the New Orleans venue is centuries old and would likely burst into…
Naked City
A study looks at how, when, and why innocent prisoners ever get exonerated
Love Object
A shy office drone orders a life-sized plastic doll off the Internet, to predictably disastrous results.
Exhibitionism
The Rude Mechanicals’ Stadium Devildare, from a script by Ruth Margraff, offers a muscle-bound riff on reality game shows and superpatriotism, but its torrents of text eventually leave the brain numb
2004 Austin Parks & Recreation Pool Schedule
The first day of AISD’s summer vacation is Thursday, May 27. Most of the neighborhood pools open that week or the next and stay open through either Aug. 8 or Aug. 15. Some (marked with t) stay open for extra weekends through Labor Day. Please note that the schedule is subject to change throughout the…
Reissues
Dave BrubeckFor All Time (Columbia/Legacy) In April 2004, octogenarians Dave & Iola Brubeck were lauded for their lifetimes’ work in social justice by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. This for the guy accused of Europifying jazz and dismissed as too white, too Jewish, too intellectual to swing. Brubeck’s appearance as Time’s “New Jazz” cover boy in 1954…
Naked City
A proposed LCRA water line – and 1,300 new homes – alarm the neighbors
Bon Voyage
An engaging chamber comedy cum lavish period piece set in France at the beginning of WWII.
Exhibitionism
The Texas Early Music Project’s concert rendering of this Baroque gem L’Orontea left no doubt as to the opera’s musical pleasures
Hot Smoke & Sasafrass
‘Hot Smoke & Sasafrass’ (and its backstory) returns via the reissue of A Gathering of Promises
Reissues
Black SabbathBlack Box: The Complete Original Black Sabbath (1970-1978) (Warner Bros./Rhino) On a rainy, windswept night at the dawn of the Seventies, there was some bad mojo rising. Out of the bowels of the Earth came a dark, slithering riff, setting the table for Ozzy Osbourne’s burnt offering to the unholy beast. It was the…
Naked City
Yes, we remember hearing about those nuclear-power plagiarists …
Nói Albinói (Nói the Albino)
This bewitching Icelandic film mines frozen veins of resentment and quirky, black-ice humor.
Exhibitionism
The Bedlam Faction’s production of Wayne Alan Brenner’s Screwed Into the Book of Love is an ambling journey through a maze of situations built upon the effects and circumstances of love
Reissues
Nas Illmatic 10th Anniversary Platinum Edition (Columbia) Galvanized as the marquee emblem of modern rap, Illmatic is the standard by which all other hip-hop albums are judged. Forging the visual rhymes of an emerging Nasty Nas with raw heat produced by an all-star cast of New York’s most revered studio visionaries, the concise 10-track debut…
Reissues
Judas PriestMetalogy (Columbia/Legacy) Dig the leather out of the closet, because Judas Priest is back. After years of denying reunion rumors, Rob Halford has finally reascended the metal altar and reassembled all the sacred ingredients: the duel-piston drive of guitarists K.K. Downing and Glenn Tipton, Ian Hill’s low-end bass, and the beating of Scott Travis.…
Coming Up Lemons
The House Bill on public school finance goes to the floor, and it’s all about tax cuts and slot machines
‘Never the Same Again’
Jesse Sublett’s ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Gothic’: an excerpt
Reissues
Bob Marley & the WailersGrooving Kingston 12 (JAD/Hip-O) Cut and recut, packaged and repackaged – sushi or Bob Marley? Grooving Kingston 12: The JAD Masters 1970-1972 is the latest 3-CD fricassee of reggae’s Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and though no sanctified communion, it goes down like fine wine in places. Followers of last year’s…
On the Lege
The Lege special session gets down to business, and it’s woefully business as usual
Summer Camps
Instead of renting twenty videos per week and melting your kids’ brains this summer, try some of these more active activities
The Latest in Paper
Mother Knows: 24 Tales of Motherhood
Reissues
Night Train to Nashville: Music City Rhythm & Blues 1945-1970 (CMF Records/Lost Highway) When most people think of Tennessee and R&B, their minds go straight to Memphis. But thanks to, of all people, the Country Music Hall of Fame, the state capital gets its due on this 2-CD set spanning 25 years, 35 songs, and…
APD’s ‘Magnificent 7’
Officer James Hellums13-year APD officerHellums, the NC7’s strategist, has spent a majority of his career patrolling the neighborhoods of North Central, beginning when they were part of the Northwest Area Command.Officer Gizette Gaslineight-year APD officerBeechinor chose Gaslin, a self-described “people person” for the NCDR team because of her energy, enthusiasm, and determination.Officer Dale Cooper18-year APD…
The Hightower Report
Social Security: It ain’t broke, so don’t fix it; and, productivity has gone up – so why hasn’t your paycheck?
TCB
Thirty Three Degrees announces it will be shutting its doors. Out the door, too, is Associate Music Editor Michael Chamy.
Page Two
The overwhelming need for a Travis County hospital district should be obvious
Reissues
Rita CoolidgeDelta Lady: The Rita Coolidge Anthology (A&M/Hip-O) For someone who “graduated from art school and walked into rock & roll,” Rita Coolidge has gotten by with more than just a little luck. The lithe, willowy singer was the darling of the Joe Cocker-Leon Russell-Delaney & Bonnie nexus of the Seventies that stretched from Oklahoma…
Operation Restore Hope
A new APD approach to distressed neighborhoods was the seed of North Central’s Operation Restore Hope
Ten Little Indies
UT and AFS team up for a Doc Tour deviation: 10 films under 10 minutes long made for less than $10.
The Texas Filmmakers’ Production Fund Class of ’97
The TFPF has awarded $403,000 to more than 140 film and video projects helmed by Texans since its inauguration in 1997. Along with Greg Pak, the following filmmakers received grants that year and have found more success since. Kyle Henry The three-time TFPF grant recipient is up in New York City at the moment working…
After a Fashion
So many purse designers, so little talent… errrrrr, time, time! We mean time!
Reissues
Fleetwood Mac(Reprise)Fleetwood MacRumours (Reprise)Fleetwood MacTusk (Reprise) When Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, and the former Christine Perfect, survivors of the Sixties UK folk and blues crusades, were hipped to Buckingham Nicks upon relocation to L.A. in the mid-Seventies, they recognized the entirety of Fleetwood Mac’s evolutionary arc. Shrouded in “Stevi” Nicks’ witchy folk, cured with Lindsey…
Bee Cave Brouhaha
Civic unrest erupts in the southwest Travis County village
10 Under 10 (Again) Shorts
Of the 68 original entries, these 10 were selected for Texas Documentary Tour screening by a UT Radio-Television-Film student jury. “Soldier” D: Marko Slavnic A revealing and personal journey into the life of an American soldier recently returned from Iraq”Right Centric” D: Jenn Garrison An intimate look into the life and work of local photojournalist…
Luv Doc Recommends: Cinco de Mayo Music Festival
Don’t fool yourself for a minute thinking that Cinco de Mayo was over on Wednesday. The goat heads are barely even on the barbie. You think if the Quatro de Julio happened on a Wednesday we’d all be back to work on Friday? Not likely. No, we’re looking at a five day weekend, minimum, more…
