Cover Story
Will Women Have a Voice at the New Women’s Hospital?
Issues of choice and midwifery still perplex women using Brack’s hospital-within-a-hospital.
Black Christmas
In this prototype slasher movie, a killer targets a sorority house while the sisters are also plagued by a rash of crank calls.
It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World 1963, G, 197 min. Directed by Stanley Kramer, Starring Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, Buddy Hackett, Ethel Merman, Mickey Rooney, Phil Silvers, Terry-Thomas, Spencer Tracy, Jonathan Winters, Edie Adams, Jimmy Durante, Dick Shawn, Don Knotts, Peter Falk, Eddie “Rochester” Anderson, William Demarest, the Three Stooges. Featuring a powerhouse array…
To Your Health
Is salmon calcitonin as worrisome as Fosamax?
Liquid Assets
Cool red wines
Texas Platters
Austin Lounge Lizards Strange Noises in the Dark (Blue Corn) The Austin Lounge Lizards have been together in one form or another for more than 20 years now, and, as Strange Noises in the Dark makes apparent, they have no plans for stopping anytime soon. It’s a sure bet that the Lizards are some of…
Naked City
The retailer wins a round on points: 4-3.
Once Upon a Time in the Midlands
British romantic tale uses the gunslinger mythos as a means to explore romance and regret.
Second Helpings: Meat Markets, Part I
“Second Helpings” offers tasty, bite-sized restaurant listings compiled from new and previous reviews, guides, and poll results. This week’s entries were updated by Erin Mosow. For quick, reliable info about Austin eateries, check here. Central Market 4001 N. Lamar, 206-1000 Daily, 9am-9pm 4477 S. Lamar, 899-4300 Daily 9am-9pm Among Central Market’s numerous fresh products are…
Soccer Watch
Horns lose in Big 12 tourney; NCAAs start Friday Well, it’s been a bad news, good news, bad news kind of week for the Longhorns and the Big 12 Conference. For UT, the bad news hit Thursday night in San Antonio, as the Horns were bounced out of the Big 12 Tournament in the first…
Sheiks of Industry
Part one of a two-week look at Austin record labels and their leaders
Texas Platters
Just in time for the chilly norther comes the anticipated debut of Austin’s I Love You but I’ve Chosen Darkness. A year in the making, the self-titled Emperor Jones EP from these Austin veterans of Windsor for the Derby, Paul Newman, and Glorium is 18 minutes of darkly bouncy pop that ought to bend the…
Naked City
Council unanimously OKs another Beastcenter — and a study of the big box invasion.
Confusion of Genders
This French sex comedy was not reviewed at press time.
TCB
Conrad Keely and Juliette Lewis? Getting it on with the Trail of Dead, Frenchie, Cheap Trick, the Austin Music Commission, and our own Todd V. Wolfson.
About AIDS
Court’s Medical Marijuana Ruling a First Step
Sheiks of Industry
Misra: Charging Michael Stipe Search for “misra” on the Internet, and you’ll generally find three things: Indian names, the Motor Industry Software Reliability Association, and Misra Records. While all three are seemingly unconnected, two are in fact linked. Label founder Phil Waldorf explains how he picked the tag for his new label in 1999: “I…
Texas Platters
Ian MooreLive From the Cactus Cafe (Music Video Distributors) The very last thing a concert film should be is boring. It can be self-indulgent, it can even be too long, but it should never be both of these and then boring, too. To be sure, Live From the Cactus Cafe was captured gracefully. A trio…
Naked City
Local leaders want your input on an extensive — and potentially controversial — list of smog-fighting strategies.
Inside and Outside the Curatorial Box
Husband and wife curators Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro and Regine Basha discuss the art of their profession.
Naked City
Texas still has a ways to go to ensure fairness in death penalty cases
Sheiks of Industry
New West: Out of the Woods New West Records is perhaps Austin’s most prominent label, even if half of it is located in Los Angeles. The company was founded in the Minneapolis living room of lawyer Cameron Strang in 1995. Four years later, Jeff Cole, founder of Austin indie Doolittle Records, resigned, leaving second in…
Naked City
Kirk Overbey announces he’s running to unseat Alan Sager.One more windfall of Capital Metro money boosts city transportation budget by 50 percent.
Where Cement Is Beautiful and Cranes Are Elegant
The Texas realism and pop-art imagery shared by Sodalitas and Brian Bowers make their pairing at Davis Gallery good sense.
Naked City
Three inhaled — but only one (a different one) supports decriminalization
Sheiks of Industry
Dialtone: Makin’ History If a tree falls on the Eastside and nobody documents it, does that mean that Austin is devoid of the blues? The underrecorded spirits of Grey Ghost and T.D. Bell might have something to say about that, as do Eddie Stout and Dennis Wall of Dialtone Records. “It’s a shame that so…
Midwives and the Law in Texas
State laws give certified nurse midwives more flexibility to practice in hospitals than the hospitals do themselves. At least that’s the case in Austin, the only major city in the state without midwifery services in any hospital. Two midwifery programs — one at Seton Medical Center and the one it managed at the city-owned Brackenridge…
Naked City
The local UW and BSA affiliates part ways over the scouts’ anti-gay rules.
Piece of Work
In her painting Katherine, Katy O’Connor portrays the subject’s relationship to her purse such a way as to suggest multiple possibilities, questions left unanswered, which makes the work unusually intriguing.
Austin @ Large: Austin at Large
Austin’s chain store vs. local business battle is economic and political.
Sheiks of Industry
Austin Electronica: Mutations It wasn’t long ago that electronic music in Austin consisted primarily of DJ-oriented dance trax, local artists releasing their own bedroom mixes, white label 12-inchers, and live-set mix tapes at outlets like Alien Records, Technophilia, and the late System-7. Yet as in Austin, so goes the nation; techno and its myriad permutations…
Midwives: Certified and Direct-Entry
Midwives have come a long way since the days of “granny ladies” in rural villages. Today, midwives are delivering babies in major metropolitan hospitals, birthing centers, and homes across Texas, combining the instincts of granny with the extensive training required of their profession. There are two types of midwives: certified nurse midwives and direct-entry midwives.…
Naked City
The ARA and business owners close in on a (shared?) vision.
Articulations
The Elisabet Ney Museum is headed for a makeover, Austin photographer Sean Perry takes the prize in New Mexico, and Chronicle arts writer Barry Pineo gets a publishing deal for an acting book.
Austin @ Large: Austin Unchained
The Austin Independent Business Alliance is asking Central Texas consumers to forego chain-store shopping for one day — Saturday, Nov. 15 — in favor of local merchants. Why? Here’s why: Local consulting firm Civic Economics — working with Liveable City, the AIBA, and BookPeople and Waterloo Records — concluded late last year that the local…
Sheiks of Industry
Aspyr: Queso Warriors Chad Beck and Zach Rener spend many lunch hours like this one at Chango’s on Guadalupe, eating chips and queso while a staff familiar with their needs caters to them expertly. Beck is even wearing a Chango’s T-shirt this sunny October afternoon to solidify his loyalty to the restaurant that aims to…
The City, the New Women’s Hospital, and UTMB
As if its relationship with one health care provider weren’t rocky enough, the city of Austin has added another marriage partner to the public health care daisy chain. The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston has signed on to run the new Women’s Hospital located on the redesigned fifth floor of city-owned Brackenridge Hospital.…
Naked City
Mack Martinez steps down after a being arrested himself on drunk-driving charges
Exhibitionism
Local theatre genius Ron Berry and his talented friends of the Refraction Arts Project have turned the Blue Theater into a snowed-under tundra, with an amazing array of multimedia effects, live performers, sounds, and moments real and imagined, all inspired by the frozen North.
The Hightower Report
The war on drugs attacks poor Bolivian farmers, not drug kingpins; and Halliburton still has its snout in the war trough.
Sheiks of Industry
Other Imprints: Out of the Cellar Beyond the 11 labels we’ve chosen to profile this week and next, many more Austin musicians are making records bearing an imprint of their own design. Most of these labels begin and end as merely an outlet for a musician and his or her friends, but every so often…
High Tech vs. High Touch
The midwifery debate is not new in Austin — a Chronicle reprint from June 18, 1993
Naked City
The state makes new rules to allow “instant teachers” into Texas schools
Exhibitionism
The power of little things to make spirits real drives The Woman in Black, a terrifically old-fashioned ghost story in the English tradition, and the State Theater Company production employs simple sights and sounds in effective ways that make us believe and be terrified.
Being Bayard Rustin
Bennett Singer and Nancy Kates’ Brother Outsider gets inside the life of a civil rights lion.
Texas Platters
Hot Club of CowtownContinental Stomp (HighTone) Blending songwriting skill with Bob Wills and Django Reinhardt, the Hot Club of Cowtown hits a grand slam with Continental Stomp. The title of the Austin troupe’s first live recording has several meanings. The stomp part is obvious, as you’ll need oven mitts to hold this scorcher. Recorded at…
Midwives: From L.A. to Santa Fe
The legal state of midwifery (Chronicle reprint from 1993)
Exhibitionism
Oracle Theater Company makes its debut with a production of The Importance of Being Earnest, and just as there is much to admire in Oscar Wilde’s play, there is much to admire in Oracle’s production, starting with the work of director / designer Russell L. Wiseman.
TO: America; FROM: The BBC
I imagine that this is what it could be like to get one’s hands on and then one’s brain around a DVD containing the first season of Cheers — or maybe even The Simpsons — after finding it lodged in a bottle washed up on a particularly media-savvy beach. After knowing little to nothing about…
Texas Platters
Patty GriffinA Kiss in Time (ATO) Recorded in January of this year, A Kiss in Time captures Austin songwriter extraordinaire Patty Griffin at the end of 2002’s 1000 Kisses tour. The combination of superbly crafted songs, road-tested band, and a hallowed venue in Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium equates to something quite special, and we’re all lucky…
Our Midwife
An experience with a midwife — a Chronicle reprint from 1993
Girls Will Be Girls
Valley of the Dolls meets Female Trouble in this all-male semimusical romp.
News/Print
Q: Amis, Armey, Avedon? A: The 12th annual Austin Chronicle Short Story Contest. Plus: Sandra Bullock buys a book.
The Birthday Party
They can make movies, but can they cut a cake?
Texas Platters
Libby KirkpatrickGoodnight Venus (Heart Music) Like Kristin Hersh and Edie Brickell before her, Libby Kirkpatrick makes autumn music for autumn people. Songs on her studio debut, Goodnight Venus, drop like leaves without any chance of making it back up again. This becomes a problem since the sparse, crisp melodies of her material are overcome by…
SBOE Approves an Evolution in Texas Textbooks
Over loud objections, the State Board of Education voted to approve high school biology textbooks discussing evolution.
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
It’s a Russell Crowe’s nest of a performance in this seafaring adventure.
Page Two
The Planned Parenthood construction boycott is thuggery, pure and simple; conservatives’ hysteria about Bush-bashing is ahistorical and largely fantasy-based.
Short Cuts
Credit where credit is due: Bill Broyles takes on Brian Grazer in The New Yorker.
Texas Platters
Coco CandissiImpedimenta The idea of escape hovers around Coco Candissi’s second CD, Impedimenta, like a barely detectable fog. It’s there in opener “Day Job,” Melissa Sternberg’s mock-disco bass bouncing along in the background as guitarist/singer Brandon Tucker details the importance of having something from which to escape. It’s in “Hate Team,” where Tucker prescribes Eighties…
Planned Parenthood Says Its Future Is Set in Stone
A week after Planned Parenthood lost its prime contractor to an intense anti-abortion campaign designed to kill construction of a new facility, the nonprofit group announced it would take matters into its own hands to see through the completion of the flagship office. “We are going to become our own general contractor,” Executive Director Glenda…
The Human Stain
Despite some terrific moments, Philip Roth’s words fail to stick to the screen.
Letters @ 3AM
The cancellation of The Reagans by CBS was an act of cowardice in the face of noise from the afar-right banshees.
TV Eye
Just say no to free speech.
Texas Platters
The Crack PipesSnakes in My Veins (Emperor Jones) Just as Snakes in My Veins begins descending irrevocably into Mudhoney grunge, a life raft is thrown. The raft is dead-on Dylan homage “Super Motel 8,” and as the fifth track on the local punk-blues band’s third full-length, it acts as a segue into a powerful onslaught…
Did Farmers Insurance Keep Secrets From the State?
The insurer’s lawyers advised keeping the “most troublesome claims” out of sight
Looney Tunes: Back in Action
Riotous comedy mixes live-action and animation for a great result.
After a Fashion
BAUBLES, BANGLES, AND BOTOX Sorry — I couldn’t resist a cheap joke. But last week’s opening of the new Anthony Nak jewelry store downtown at 800 Brazos was no joke at all. Their signature look of delicate gold mesh coupled with chunky stones such as emerald, rose quartz, and citrine is exquisite, presenting a look…
The Bold and the Beautiful
Young chef / owner Tyson Cole has Uchi right where he — and probably everyone else — wants it.
Texas Platters
the GreencardsMovin’ On In a town where gifted fiddle players swarm like honeybees, the Greencards’ Eamon McLoughlin is arguably the best in the colony. The transplanted Englishman, who’s performed and recorded with the likes of Ray Wylie Hubbard, Bruce Robison, Alejandro Escovedo, and the Austin Lounge Lizards, among others, is capable of playing soft and…
Farmers Memo: The Full Text
Jackson Walker L.L.P. ATTORNEYS & COUNSELORS 100 Congress Avenue, Suite 1100 Austin, Texas 78701 Thomas T. Rogers (512) 236-2220 (512) 236-2000 fax (512) 236-2002 www.jw.com March 11, 2002 VIA FACSIMILE: 913/826-7199 Mr. Tony Melchionne National Catastrophe Center Farmers Insurance Group of Companies P.O. Box 2968 Shawnee Mission, KS 66201-1368 Re: Civil Investigative Demand/Farmers Insurance Exchange,…
Tupac: Resurrection
More popular dead than alive, the hip-hop Tupac Shakur is remembered in this authorized documentary.
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Nearly 1,100 “Looney Tunes” cartoons were created between 1930 and 1969.It takes a year for the moon to orbit the sun. The moon is moving away from the Earth at a rate of 4 centimeters a year.While a student in the 1820s and before coming to Texas, James Butler Bonham, Alamo defender and martyr, once…
Food-o-File
Virginia B. Wood unscientifically surveys local foodies on local coffee.
Texas Platters
McLemore Avenue926 East (Texas Music Roundup) As is well-known among devotees of Jimmy Smith, Booker T & the MG’s, and Ramsey Lewis, the Hammond B3 is good for much, much more than churchy hymn-accompaniment. Under the right set of fingers and feet, it’s capable of the ultimate soulful grooves. Locals McLemore Avenue would be easy…
Knee Won’t Let Fishing Cops Off the Hook
Police chief throws more than one book at the Decker Creek Six
The Legend of Johnny Lingo
This G-rated story about an orphaned Polynesian boy was not reviewed at press time.
Day Trips
Get lost in the Sweet Berry Farm maze.
Mini-Review
There’s something enduring about a bakery. The smell of fresh coffee, the sugar-tinged, yeasty aroma that twines through the air, warmly embraces you, and evokes carefree Sunday mornings. Russell’s in Northwest Hills is no exception.
Texas Platters
The Resentments(Freedom) The all-star lineup of Stephen Bruton, Jon Dee Graham, Bruce Hughes, Jud Newcomb, and the late Mambo John Treanor debuted on disc with the live Sunday Night Line-Up in 2002, an inspired, off-the-cuff collection of songs heard mostly in the band’s individual musical efforts. After the death of Treanor, John Chipman augmented the…
Naked City
Headlines Quote of the Week: “I certainly wouldn’t want to be a party to killing a creek, no matter where it is.” — Council Member Daryl Slusher, signaling trepidation before the City Council’s 7-0 vote to approve — on first reading only — zoning for a Wal-Mart at the head of Blunn Creek in South…
The Flower of Evil
Chabrol’s 50th movie is a study of guilt and its perpetuation.
Luv Doc Recommends: The Resentments
If there were ever a geographical locus of the “Keep Austin Weird” battle, it would unquestionably be South Austin. While other parts of the city have already been blighted by chain stores and cultural homogenization, South Austin still retains much of the funk and freakiness for which Austin is known. Even still, corporate Generica is…
