Rocky Mountain High
Billy Forester, owner of the Waterloo Brewing Company, looked like a kid in a candy store. “Damn, these things are exciting. I’m just about jet-lagged out, and I don’t even care.” Fresh off an extended tour of Belgian and German breweries, Forrester didn’t think twice about hopping another plane, this time to Denver, Colorado, for…
Cyber Send-Ups
The Internet has provided a handy medium for those with a silly sense of humor to unleash their jokes onto the world. Lately, a lot of websites have appeared that parody various magazines. Wired, the much-hyped monthly magazine of cyber-culture and commerce, is the best and worst of parody subjects. On the one hand, it’s…
Articulations
For lovers of British theatre, last week’s 1996 Flair Symposium was a dream talking. The two-day event, Shouting in the Evening, sponsored by the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, brought together in one room some major figures of the English stage to speak personally about their work in British theatre and its importance in the…
Texas GABF Winners
Gold * Yegua Creek Brewing Co. of Dallas won in the Scottish-Style Ale cateory for their YCBC Scotch Ale. Gold * Bradley’s Restaurant and Brewery of Webster won in the English-Style Brown Ale category for their Midlands Mild. Silver * Copper Tank Brewing Company of Austin won in the German-Style Brown Ale/Dusseldorf-Style Altbier category for…
Cyber Slice of Lives
At first glance, 24 Hours in Cyberspace appears to be just another coffee-table book out in time for the holidays, a follow-up to its profound predecessor A Day in the Life of America, only this time, the slick pages might be covered with poignant full-color photographs of international business execs staring into the dim light…
Happy Camper
Judith Sims has that big-city look, with her stylishly short hair and slim gabardine blazer, buttoned top to bottom, over a white jersey and black stretch pants. She dresses like a New York art dealer or maybe an L.A. film agent. In fact, she could be either one, given her breadth of experience in the…
food-o-file
by Virginia B. Wood Austin weekends don’t get much busier than this one. Chabad House is sponsoring the second annual Chanukah Bazaar at the Renaissance Stouffer Hotel. The opening gala is at 7pm Saturday evening, November 16; tickets are $75. “The entire meal will be glatt kosher,” says organizer Dawn Weiner. Renaissance catering coordinator Linda…
Scanlines
D: Henry Selick; with Paul Terry, Joanna Lumley, Miriam Margolyes, Simon Callow, Richard Dreyfuss, Jane Leeves, Pete Postlethwaite, Susan Sarandon, David Thewlis. VHS Home Video Waterloo Video, 1016 W. Sixth Apparently, author Roald Dahl, skeptical about the translation into film of his favorite children’s book of the same title, refused to sell the movie rights…
AMOA Update
Not too long after Daniel Stetson’s departure as director, Sid Mallory, formerly of Longview, was hired as the museum’s first Chief Executive Officer. The position was created as part of an unusual and innovative management strategy for AMOA. In most museums, directors oversee administrative and curatorial responsibilities (with the help of senior or assistant curators),…
Austin Acoustic Music Festival 1996
The word “Acoustic” scares some people — “Uplugged” even more so. To them, it means “emasculated.” No balls. We have an MTV marketing scheme to thank for this. And yet this same monster has taught the general public something Austinites have known for years: A sole acoustic guitar in the hands of a determined musician…
Shortcuts
by Jen Scoville The Austin Museum of Art (AMOA) is on a roll of exhibiting film and video; this week begins a presentation of works that haven’t had the opportunity to reach wide audiences, previously appearing mostly in obscure film festivals or as one-time programming on PBS. In conjunction with the I Dream a World…
99 Years of Tracking Texas
For many residents in many states, a sense of state history often is left behind when the high school diploma meets the outstretched palm. In Texas, that’s different. Anyone taking a quick walk through downtown or West Campus, for instance, will see a number of silver-and-black plaques marking buildings as historical sites. It’s that inherent…
The Second Wave
Oasis bites. Compared to their show at the Austin Music Hall in April, Blur’s February date at Liberty Lunch was the difference between Abbey Road and Magical Mystery Tour. (It’s the Beatles vs. Stones all over again.) ‘Course I hear in England, Pulp is bigger than both of ’em. Not that I’d know. Pulp never…
…Nerd!
by Lee B. Weaver I am a nerd. I won’t deny it. I can’t deny it. Thirty-two years ago, I was born into a family of nerds and raised in a loving, nerd environment. And, upon reaching adulthood, I adopted a nerd lifestyle. I know what it is to be… a nerd. I define a…
Texas Book Festival
Where: North side of Texas State Capitol (indoors and outdoors) When: Saturday, 9-5, Sunday 11-5 Parking: Free parking is available in the state garages along San Jacinto between 15th and 17th Streets. For more information: Call 477-4055 or check the Texas Book Festival web page at http://bookfest.tsl.state.tx.us. This swanky site contains a complete schedule and…
Dancing About Architecture
Whew! Did the Butthole Surfers return to form last Friday or not? The line outside Liberty Lunch certainly showed that they were fully expected to, and they lived up to the wait. Of course, the length of that line (all the way around the building and almost down to First Street) was augmented by the…
Day Trips
The 100-year-old cotton gin at Sister Creek Vineyards serves as a link between the old and new of Texas agriculture. Nestled in the fertile Guadalupe River Valley, 15 miles north of Boerne on FM1376, the vineyards has a tradition in Texas history, but looks much more like a European chateau. The grounds of the four…
The Oldest Little Book in Texas
In conjunction with the Texas Book Festival, Texas’s own Gutenberg Bible will be exhibited in the Seal Court of the Capitol Extension (second level) on Saturday (9am-5pm) and Sunday (11am-5pm). Printed on a press using movable type in Mainz, Germany around 1450, the Gutenberg Bible is considered the first printed book. Because the invention of…
The Li’l Green Aggravation Society
Everything you’ve ever heard about the Kinks is true. Everything you’ve ever heard about the Kinks is a lie. Everything you’ve ever heard about the Kinks is distorted beyond belief. True, by now the story of the Kinks is a tale about a pair of brothers, Raymond Douglas and David Russell Gordon Davies — especially…
Vertigo
One of the thrill master’s most psychologically dense and twisted films in which obsession, commitment, and dual identities merge to create a voluptuous tale of thwarted love.
Festival Roundup
Where: North side of Texas State Capitol (indoors and outdoors) When: Saturday, 9-5, Sunday 11-5 Parking: Free parking is available in the state garages along San Jacinto between 15th and 17th Streets. For more information: Call 477-4055 or check the Texas Book Festival web page at http://bookfest.tsl.state.tx.us. This swanky site contains a complete schedule and…
Monkee Dues
Dallas-born Michael Nesmith is a strange animal. He’s known for quite a few different achievements: He’s one of the pioneers of music video — sometimes called the inventor of MTV; he was a trendsetter rivaled only by the Byrds in the melding of country and rock in the early Seventies with his group the First…
Hustler White
LaBruce’s third feature film layers its seamy walk on the wild side with a vivid portrait of a day in the life.
Texas in Bold, Dark Strokes
Jack Jackson, fiftysomething, wears glasses, has white hair and a white mustache and a moon tan. As I pull up to the curb and park behind a faded blue VW Beetle with an Oat Willie’s “Onward Through The Fog” bumper sticker, Jackson comes out on the porch to holler my name. He’s bright-eyed and friendly.…
Also Playing
Friday: Vibro Champs, Babe’s Saturday: KVRX Anniversary, Flipnotics Sunday: Guy Forsyth, Antone’s Monday: Wedding Present, Versus, Electric Lounge Tuesday: Patty David, Broken Spoke Wednesday: Loose Diamonds, Hole in the Wall Thursday: Neil Diamond, Erwin Center; Diamond Smugglers, Continental Club
Space Jam
Dexterously mixing live action and animation, Space Jam tosses NBA champ Michael Jordan onto the 2-D court with the entire Looney Tunes gang and the opposing Monstar team of cartoon characters from another planet.
Postscripts
by Lee Nichols & Margaret Moser * THU, NOV 14: As part of the Annual Jewish Book Fair, Melissa Faye Green will discuss her book, The Temple Bombing, at 7:30pm at Congregation Beth Israel; $5… James Earl Hardy reads and signs copies of his 2nd Time Around, at Folktales at 5:30pm… O.J. Simpson lawyer Johnnie…
Record Reviews
THE BEATLES Anthology 3 (Capitol/Apple) Now that the third and final anthology has rolled around, it longer feels as if we’re spying on something precious and undiscovered like we did in the first two, which revealed periods when the Beatles image was more controlled, the studio time less documented, and the individual contributions less obvious.…
The Grass Harp
The Grass Harp 1996, PG, 107 min. Directed by Charles Matthau, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Piper Laurie, Walter Matthau, Sissy Spacek, Edward Furlong, Nell Carter, Jack Lemmon, Mary Steenburgen, Charles Durning, Joe Don Baker, Roddy McDowall. The memory fiction of Truman Capote often tells the story of a sensitive adolescent growing up…
Book Reviews
Skinny Annie Blues by Neal Barrett, Jr. Kensington, $21.95 Publisher’s Weekly recently said that Austin author Neal Barrett, Jr. writes like “Robert Ludlum on laughing gas.” What a ridiculous thing to say. Robert Ludlum couldn’t write anything like Barrett no matter what kind of drugs he took. Barrett’s latest mystery, Skinny Annie Blues, is in…
Roadkill
Jon Langford Hole in the Wall Friday, November 15 Jon Langford is a man of many guises: Mekon and Waco Brother, producer and solo artist, cartoonist and painter. It’s that last pursuit that brings him to Austin this week with “Hard Country,” an exhibition of artworks that opens at Yard Dog this Saturday. Langford will…
The Mirror Has Two Faces
The Mirror Has Two Faces 1996, PG-13, 127 min. Directed by Barbra Streisand, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Barbra Streisand, Jeff Bridges, Lauren Bacall, Pierce Brosnan, George Segal, Mimi Rogers, Brenda Vaccaro. Barbra Streisand has said that she thinks we’re all looking for the “total experience” when it comes to love: companionship, romance,…
about AIDS
Making a difference is the most human thing all are able and empowered to do. Every volunteer at AIDS Services of Austin makes a dramatic difference in the lives of the individuals we serve by giving the gift of self. The willingness to grow, to be there, to be available, to learn, and to serve,…
Rutle to the Core
by Ken Lieck The last image most people have of rock legend Ron Nasty is a scene at the end of the 1978 film All You Need Is Cash. Therein, the embittered former co-leader of the Rutles, wheelchair-bound by choice, turns his back to the camera and on the world and speeds off into the…
Hearth & Soul
The Green Machine When I first began writing this column three years ago, I thought I would concentrate on green building techniques and materials. And while this sustainable approach is always simmering on my back burner, I haven’t been a purist to the green theme. My heart’s in the right place, but sometimes conventional solutions…
Council Blocks Bloch
Shelley Bishop was diagnosed with breast cancer more than a year ago, and though she has overcome it, the grandmother of six still faces a consuming fear that continues to draw her to the Cancer Survivors Plaza in Houston. On a recent autumn day in Hermann Park, she is standing under a domed gazebo, considering…
Coach’s Corner
It was late in the afternoon when the receptionist announced my daughter was holding on line three. I’d been anticipating this moment all day, but now that it was here, my heart skipped a beat. But that is the end of the story. Both my children have grown up in the Eanes School District. There…
Naked City
The gods of annexation were looking out for Austin in the Maple Run Utility District ruling; now the city is praying for another miracle: Regaining control over its extra-territorial jurisdiction in Cedar Park — control that the Texas Legislature took away last year. Renea Hicks, the city’s outside counsel on the case, laid out all…
Page Two
Usually we plan a little better than this, but we ended up with two major editorial special sections in the same issue as well as two advertising sections. Thus, as I write this on Wednesday morning we all look with some trepidation to the end of the day when we finish this issue: It could…
Hitting the Trails
Envision this: more than 400 miles of new hike- and-bike trails along creeks throughout Travis, Hays, and Williamson Counties. City dwellers could hop on their bikes and ride one continuous trail from Town Lake to McKinney Falls. Or how about a long, scenic trail along Walnut Creek that East Austinites could hike or bike up…
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Toss a coin 10 times and the odds of getting heads or tails on the 11th toss are 50-50. The term “cameo role” in a movie was originally coined by producer Michael Todd for the movie Around the World in 80 Days. Todd’s rationale: He wanted those actors to be showcased like gems. A “dude”…
Austin Trails: New and Proposed
The Austin Transportation Study will consider funding the following trails this month: 1. Boggy Creek. This 2.6-mile trail would link the Downs-Mabson baseball field north of 12th Street in East Austin to the Town Lake Hike-and-Bike Trail via Zaragosa Park. The city is requesting $428,580 to repair an existing trail along Boggy Creek, and to…
