Cover Story
Controlling Their Own Destiny
So many questions for the gaming industry, so many Austin game developers to answer them
The King and I
This Rodgers and Hammerstein musical about a widowed governess to the children of the King of Siam earned Yul Brenner a Best Actor Oscar, as well as winning a fistful of other awards.
Los Angeles Plays Itself
As the capital of the movie industry, Los Angeles (and its streets and homes) has played host to more film productions than any other city. This personal documentary looks at Los Angeles as it has been seen in the movies.
The In Sound From Way Out: Aural Oddities From Musical Madmen
The In Sound From Way Out: Aural Oddities From Musical Madmen 2004, NR. Directed by Lars Nilsson, Anne Heller, Kier-La Janisse. This Alamo in-house production is an homage to the world’s musical outsiders and features performances by Kevin Ayers of Soft Machine, the Silver Apples, Captain Beefheart, the Screamers, Tiny Tim, Scott Walker, CW McCall,…
Searching for Something
Artist Roi James’ journey through landscapes, abstracts, figurative work, and more
Siena Ristorante Toscana
Set in a limestone, tile-roofed building at the corner of FM 2222 and Loop 360, Siena resembles one of those rambling manor houses that define the Italian countryside
Phases & Stages
Willie NelsonIt Always Will Be (Lost Highway)Willie Nelson & FriendsOutlaws and Angels (Lost Highway) Webster’s defines “codger” as “an often mildly eccentric and usually elderly fellow.” That’s Willie Nelson: mildly eccentric, as in chummy with both Toby Keith and Lucinda Williams; and usually elderly, as in staring down the September of his years on “Be…
Rewriting Austin History
City tackles ambitious preservation plan, contentious ordinance
The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie
Nautical nonsense from a highly absorbent animated hero.
A Passage to (the Contemporary Art of) India
Intermission at Bass Concert Hall got a lot more interesting last month when Kala Fine Art filled the building with 80 large pieces of contemporary art from India
Tâm Deli & Cafe
Tâm Deli, open since 1999, is one of our favorite Vietnamese cuisine venues
Phases & Stages
Happily, “Girlie Action” attracts a grab bag of Austin talent. Melissa Mullins, formerly of Significant Digits and Stellary, offers Solo-Style, neo folk in a rock vein. Mullins’ thoughtful, sometimes plaintive style is sweetly underscored by tough songwriting that embraces her boundless world. Though she’s sometimes tentative, the sharp “Sparkle Girl” and P.J. Harvey-ish “Tumbling Out”…
Schlotzsky’s on the Block: End Game?
Schlotzsky’s to auction, John Wooley says the company’s reported losses happened after his watch
Testosterone
Part colorful noir, part scatterbrained comedy, Testosterone envisions the severed tether of a presumably functional relationship.
Million-Dollar Month
The Long Center closed out the month of October with more than $1 million in pledges
Bake Break
Finding the best breads for holiday hosting
Phases & Stages
Crimson and Clover: A Tribute to Tommy James & the Shondells(Wildebeest) Scoff dismissively if you must, but this tribute to Sixties bubblegum auteur Tommy James on local imprint Wildebeest is way better than it has a right to be. It’s easy to mistake Tommy James & the Shondells as tasty but less-than-venerable oldies fodder, but…
Austin @ Large: Which Way Did We Go?
Looking for the starting line as the Council races begin.
Enduring Love
This creepy tale of a stalker and the object of his affection is adapted from an Ian McEwan novel.
CO2’s ‘Butterfly’ Takes Wing This Weekend
The postponed Creative Opportunity Orchestra premiere of a new Tina Marsh composition lands at a rain-free venue
The Stress-Free Thanksgiving 2004
Let the hotels, restaurants, and markets take care of it
Phases & Stages
Who and Who(Almost There) Thirty years of the Who’s maximum R&B are compressed tighter than Pete’s Townsend’s first (mini) rock opera “A Quick One While He’s Away” on Who and Who, 13 bull’s-eyes and near misses from modern Austin mods. Saratone’s bashing of “A Quick One” windmills, the Dynamite Brothers’ live “Young Man Blues” thrashes…
The Hightower Report
Wal-Mart gets indignant; and Cheney gets churlish
Arts Review
Waiting on GodotHyde Park Theatre, through Nov. 20 Running time: 45 min Nature has set many creatures in natural opposition, locked in an eternal, mythic combat: dogs and cats, sheep and wolves, snakes and mongooses. But in all the animal kingdom no pair is more at odds, more fiercely at war, than diners and waiters.…
Liquid Assets
‘Tis the season for Zinfandel lovers
Your Beautiful New Home
Welcome to the City Hall you thought would never come
Arts Review
MetamorphosesMary Moody Northen Theatre, through Nov. 21 Running Time: 1 hr, 35 min Every once in a while – sometimes once in a long while – a production comes along that not only overcomes its flaws, but transcends them. If you go see this St. Edward’s University production, you’ll see actors taking a lot of…
Food-o-File
V.B.W. misses the Paella party but gets the scoop
Grand Opening
The dedication ceremony for the new Austin City Hall will be held at 11am Saturday, Nov. 20, at the new digs at 301 W. Second. Following will be, of course, live music – including the Cornell Hurd Band, the Nash Hernandez Orchestra, W.C. Clark, and the Malford Milligan Band with Kelly Doze. That’s all on…
The Controllers (For Now)
Any and all of these companies – some big, some small, some downright tiny – are worth a look, and many are producing games you’ve probably heard of
Arts Review
“99 Cent War”Iron Gate Studios, through Nov. 18 Derek Boshier’s installation and film works at Iron Gate Studios are spectacular and are a tremendous coup for the space, given the British artist’s international fame. Returning to the show on a weekday after the reception, your reviewer was unprepared for the intense experience that awaited. The…
Almost Famous
Adventures in young bandom: Zykos on the road
APD’s White Takes ‘Bad Blood’ Back to Court
White lawsuit is the latest chapter in the Mala Sangre saga
The Geek Behind the GURPS
A conversation with Steve Jackson
In Person
BookPeople, Thursday, Nov. 11
Phases & Stages
KGSR Broadcasts Vol. 12(107.1 KGSR-FM/Radio Austin) Like rolling loaded dice, the 2-CD KGSR Broadcasts Vol. 12 is a guaranteed win. Culled primarily from KGSR in-studio and Music Lounge appearances, as well as SXSW shows at the Four Seasons, the annual KGSR party, Austin City Limits studio, ACL Music Festival, and even St. David’s Episcopal Church,…
Fighting for the Right to Clean Energy
The first Texas Clean Energy Congress issues its call to action
Transcending Transgression
Richard Kern abandons hysteria for erotica
Page Two
Boston ’69 revisited
Phases & Stages
Ornette ColemanBass Concert Hall, Nov. 14 It had been decades since saxophonist Ornette Coleman last played in Austin, and even then you’d be hard pressed now to find anyone who was there. Long scorned as the leader of the free jazz revolution that hit N.Y. in 1959 and later for his radical harmolodic ideas equating…
Other Energy News …
Outcry over San Antonio coal-fired power plant, and biodiesel gets a big boost
HorseBack Salad Happy Hour
Local design and animation luminary HorseBack Salad Entertainment has teamed up with renowned children’s book author/advocate/superguy Trevor Romain (The Little People’s Guide to the Big World) to create a series of three animated DVDs based on Romain’s books. To that end, they’ll be hosting a celebratory shindig at their brand-spankin’ new world headquarters (8705 Shoal…
After a Fashion
Stephen does Dallas … No, wait, we mean Houston. Stephen does Houston. In a big way. With big names. At the Icon. Don’t you wish you were this fabulous? Oh, and he does the State Board of Education, too. Don’t they wish?
Phases & Stages
The RiseReclamation Process Powerful, political, pure, the Rise reclaims rock & roll for the younger, jaded generation with fury on Reclamation Process. Back in August, Sparta attempted such a finished product, but failed miserably, possibly due to commercial constraints. The Rise doesn’t have this problem. On this too-short firebomb, the hardcore local quartet genre-hops through…
Naked City
Breaking news from Austin and beyond.
Flicks & Friends
This Thursday, Nov. 18, is also your chance to catch the up-and-coming Richard Kerns of Austin as the Motion Media Arts Center and the Center for Young Cinema team up for the first in a proposed bimonthly Flicks and Friends Happy Hour at Pedazo Chunk Video (2209 S. First). “Cinemaker Co-op used to have a…
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
A wholphin, some Harp seal milk, and 1 quadrillion operations a second
Phases & Stages
E.C.F.A. TrioDie Fäden (Pecan Crazy) It’s been a winding road for saxman Carl Smith, Austin’s premier free jazz evangelist and courageous trailblazer of odd venues about town. Constantly serenading three faces at out-of-the-way coffee shops has worn on Smith at times, and twice he’s packed his bags for cities where avant-jazz titans like Albert Ayler…
Water Flows Downhill
Regional water plan nears completion while LCRA looks to move water westward
Never Leave the House Again
Time Warner warms up your cold nights with … nonstop anime?
About AIDS
Have you ever wondered where to go for an HIV test? Does your regular doctor offer anonymous testing or counseling about risky behavior and HIV prevention? Do you know where HIV testing is free? The Austin-Travis County Health Department offers HIV testing at many places around Austin, plus scheduled testing in various bars and clubs.…
Phases & Stages
The Octopus ProjectOne Ten Hundred Thousand Million (Peek-a-Boo) There’s a girl on stage with perfectly flipped hair. She rocks back and forth, hands affixed to her rack of keys. Her husband rocks, too, more chaotically. The drummer on his throne bangs the kit, looking up and smiling at the bassist, who’s swaying rapidly. The girl’s…
That Funky Water …
The city says the water is just fine, but we’re not certain
TV Eye
If it’s November, it must be Christmas
To Your Health
Is chicken soup as good for a cold or flu as people say it is?
Phases & Stages
RecoverThis May Be the Year I Disappear (Strummer/Universal) Hometown screamo heroes Recover have pulled rank in Austin for years, but with major label debut This May Be the Year I Disappear, they deliver radio-quality love songs that combat teenage angst with adult euphoria. Ironically, it’s that 101Xity keeping Disappear out of the stellar category. Spotless…
Confederacy of Love
The Sons of Confederate Veterans take a stand for the old dominion at UT
DVD Watch
A butcher, a baker, a police officer, a newscaster, a phone-sex-operator mom, a dead-beat dad, and a cheat. Ray Carver and a confused audience. A Best Director nomination for Robert Altman.
TCB
Godspeed, ODB. Say hi to Doug Sahm for us.
The Common Law
Power of attorney
Phases & Stages
The EndsConcrete Disappointment (Dirtnap) Like trashcans hurled through plate-glass windows, the Ends’ growling, old-school punk campaign is a cathartic gesture borne of seething desperation. To that end, “Pucker Up” jumpstarts the local quintet’s second album with firecracker élan. The band’s grimy twin guitar rabble is augmented with carnival-style piano and horns, while vocalist Ian End’s…
Choose Your Dropout Rate
A big problem, or just a little problem? Either way, it’s problematic.
Expanding East
The third East Austin Studio Tour doubles the days, doubles the fun
Day Trips
Capt. Day Trips ventures north of the border to magical Victoria, British Columbia
Phases & Stages
13 Ways to Live (Red House) Bukka Allen, Robbie Gjersoe, and Brian Standefer have a band of sorts that they refer to as Screen Door Music. It’s really a collaboration that primarily creates instrumental music for film and other forms of media. Separately, they’ve worked with the Flatlanders, Eliza Gilkyson, Patty Griffin, Alejandro Escovedo, Jack…
Wake Us When It’s Over
As much as we’d love to believe it, no proof yet of massive presidential vote fraud
Seed of Chucky
Over-the-top gore is the rule when Chucky and Tiffany are resurrected by their anatomically incorrect offspring.
East Austin Studio Tour, Fall 2004 Map Guide
A guide to the participating stu-dios in the fall 2004 East Austin Studio Tour
Soccer Watch
Two brilliant Kellys, and the youngest American champion
Phases & Stages
David Holt Perpetual Motion (Blue Corn Music) With a résumé like David Holt’s, there’s no need to wonder what took him so long to record his solo debut. He’s been busy. For 25 years, the guitarist has shared stages with Jesse Taylor, Rosie Flores, Carlene Carter, Joe Ely, the Mavericks, Bill Carter, Jimmie Dale Gilmore,…
Supremes: What’d We Say?
High court spikes yet another Texas death-row verdict
National Treasure
Odd casting and unimaginative, workmanlike direction make the painfully overlong National Treasure an exercise in mediocrity.
Luv Doc Recommends: Ray Wylie Hubbard & Gurf Morlix
It’s shaping up to be a big weekend, what with the American Music Therapy Association holding its annual convention down at the Hilton. One assumes that the 1,500-odd attendees will have a passing familiarity with good music, otherwise they would surely be shacking up in Vegas, Orlando, or some exotic place with a beautiful river…
