If I Can Cook/ You Know God Can
by Ntozake Shange Foreword by Vertamae Grosvenor (Beacon Press, hard) Sultry, vibrant, bitterly honest, spiritually redemptive: These words describe the work of Ntozake Shange. The author of poetry, novels, and plays, this diva of African-American letters now adds a cookbook to her oeuvre. A what? That’s right, a cookbook titled If I Can Cook/You Know…
The Information Junkie
Reva Basch photograph by Terry Lorant A one-time caterer, former librarian, software designer, and online researcher, the self-proclaimed “Queen of Aubergine and Goddess of Cyberspace” Reva Basch has worn many more hats in her life. She is an author and speaker specializing in research disciplines, and her books include Secrets of the Super Net Searchers,…
Performance
Sorry, no performance listings this week.
The Spirit of Improvisation
Ephraim Owens photograph by John Carrico Ambient energy still pulsed in the smoke-filled air as scores of dazed fans shuffled through the door and back out onto Sixth Street. Not yet midnight on a Friday evening, and already the place looked like a bomb had gone off inside. Employees darted around the room, arm-sweeping tabletops…
Scanlines
(“Scanlines” wishes to thank Encore Movies & Music, I Video, Vulcan Video, and Waterloo Video for their help in providing videos, laser discs, and DVDs.) Titanic D: James Cameron with: Kate Winslet, Leonardo DiCaprio, Billy Zane, Frances Fisher, Kathy Bates, Gloria Stuart, David Warner, Bill Paxton Paramount/20th Century Fox Laserdisc Is Titanic any good? It…
Articulations
Masters Move to UT Just when you thought Austin’s arts scene had made about all the strides toward Big City Culturehood that it was likely to in this decade, up it jumps and takes another one. The latest giant step for the little Paris-on-the-Colorado is the placement of a major art collection at the Jack…
Live Shots
Tom Freund, joined by special guest Abra Moore at the Continental Club November 13 photograph by John Carrico BUICK MACKANE Babe’s, November 7 It was the best of shows, it was the worst of shows. It was a Buick MacKane show. “It’s been 370 days since the last time these guys played together,” announced KLBJ…
Short Cuts
by Marjorie Baumgarten “Thanks for nothing” might be another way of getting across the idea behind the Film Feast hosted this Friday and Saturday at the Texas Union Theater by KVRX, KVR-TV, and The Daily Texan. However, that wouldn’t be in keeping with the positive holiday spirit of the season. But the fact of the…
Austin Musical Theatre Hits the Heights
by Robert Faires “The Farmboys” in Austin Musical Theatre’s Gypsy. photograph by Kenny Braun The group of young men dash onto the tape-lined section of linoleum that denotes the “stage” in this cafetorium serving as a theatre rehearsal space and immediately start singing and dancing their hearts out. To the insistent tunes pounded out on…
Weird Bands From Texas
When Butthole Surfers drummer King Coffey made his New Year’s resolution to start a record label at the cusp of this decade, years of recession and regurgitation had stagnated to a nadir from which something different, if not better, had to emerge. Jobs were scarce, money was tight, and the sterile affirmations of Jesus Jones…
Double Teaming
One couldn’t help but feel pity for the poor women from Missouri who were trying valiantly to beat the University of Texas Lady Longhorns volleyball team last month. No doubt, the Tigers from MU were good athletes — one simply doesn’t compete for a Big 12 Conference school without substantial talent — but across the…
Exhibitionism
60TH ANNUAL ART FACULTY EXHIBITION: A WHO’S WHO … BUT FOR WHOM? Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art Art Building, UT campus through December 6 Dressed-up little kids strain to touch the big blue-green plastic loungers of Kate Caterall. High-heeled ladies stumble trying to get around Ericson & Ziegler’s installation piece, a long row of…
The Complete Trance Syndicate Discography
TR01: Crust, Sacred Heart of Crust (12″ EP/CS) TR02: Love & Napalm, Vol. 1 (7″ EP) TR03: Pain Teens, Born in Blood (LP/CD/CS) TR04: Drain, A Black Fist (7″) TR05: Crust (LP/CD/CS) TR06: Crust, “Feelings” (7″) TR07: Ed Hall, “Deth” (7″) TR08: Love & Napalm, Vol. 2 (7″ EP) TR09: Ed Hall, Gloryhole (LP/CD/CS) TR10:…
Kill for Dee!
Heisman contender Ricky Williams may be the best player in the history of University of Texas football. But he’s probably only the second best athlete on the Forty Acres today. Not to take any glory away from Williams, he’s great. Then there’s Demetria Sance. Sance, a six-foot senior, is a three-time All-American and leads the…
Texas Book Festival Wrap-Up
Edward Hirsch speaks during the “Minding the Muse: Poets on Their Inspiration” panel on Sunday. photograph by Jana Birchum Moderator Lorenzo Thomas started off with an open-ended question, based on a comment he’d heard on public radio from poet Al Young, that poetry was meant to “sweeten the tongue,” thereby “elevating the language,” and by…
Rock the Boat
Roy Perkins is a 55-year-old Comfort native and a descendant of Peter Ingenhuett, a town founder who built various businesses and homes in town, later dividing the property among his sons. Perkins, who retired after working more than 30 years for the Comptroller’s office, dresses neatly and wears a large-faced watch. His heavy-lidded blue eyes…
Moore Is Better
Most Sundays I set eyes on The New York Times bestseller list and I just want to scream about how pathetic we are and how rigged the whole thing is. Do not say the words “Celestine Prophecy” to me. Avoid also “Spiritual Abundance,”Madison County,” and even “Jimmy Buffett.” This is why, when Lorrie Moore’s new…
Postscripts
by Claiborne Smith Real Answers The obvious question to ask the author of yet another book about the JFK assassination is why the world needs yet another book about the JFK assassination. Gary Cornwell, who has been a trial lawyer for 28 years and was the Deputy Chief Counsel for the Select Committee on Assassinations…
Dreams and Schemes
Watson said the logic of the CSC deal is “so obvious it hurts: “It bypasses developers and deals directly with the tenant, it snags for downtown a major employer with all its attendant benefits, and it bolsters Austin’s high-tech economy, which in turn gets us more mentions in the likes of Fortune magazine, etc. But…
Dancing About Architecture
AMN II: The “X” Generation Last Friday evening was the big, live on-air giving of the finger, er, I mean passing of the reins, from the old Austin Music Network to the new, wherein I joined with a number of local musicians (including Britt Daniel and Andy Maguire unintentionally together in the same building!) in…
About AIDS
Researchers at Johns Hopkins Medical School report that between women and men with the same HIV viral levels, the women may progress to AIDS faster. Studying 650 subjects, which is a fairly large group for a long-term study, they found that although the men and women progressed to AIDS at about the same time rate,…
Naked City
Lacresha Murray, currently serving a 25-year sentence for the death of two-year-old Jayla Belton, received some high-profile support thisweek. In his Sunday column, The New York Times’ Bob Herbert laced into Austin police and Travis County prosecutors, sharply criticizing their handling of Murray’s case: “She remains trapped in a Texas-sized nightmare,” Herbert wrote, “tricked into…
The Ol’ One-Two
The blur of Demetria Sance and Erin Aldrich, sporting Longhorn Volleyball jersey numbers 1 & 2 respectively, is an electric fence of ball-blocking power. They are magic to see live and in the flesh, but don’t expect to be able to detectthe nuance of all their moves with the naked eye. They jump. The ball’s…
Coach’s Corner
Manhattan, Kansas: We imagine, I think, that it’s easy to tear down a goal post. But it’s not. They die hard. Once upon a time, when a goal post was three sticks of wood stuck in the dirt, maybe, but a reinforced, steel goalpost is another matter. It took a mad throng of purple-and-white a…
Abducted by Aliens?
Jon Garth Murray Then there is the clue of the maxed-out credit cards. While the dead tell no tales, their financial records do. At the time of the disappearance, Madalyn, Jon, and Robin were joint owners of a checking account at Frost National Bank. The account held more than $23,000. Frost Bank is based in…
Day Trips
Poinsettia Celebration in Brenham at Ellison’s Greenhouses invites the public to view a five-acre sea of different colored holiday plants before they are shipped out to florists around the state, Nov. 21-22. 409/836-0084 or http://www.brenham.org. Glowfest and Weihnachtsmarket in New Braunfels combines hot air balloons in the evening at Prince Solms Park and unique gift…
Just the Facts
There is no evidence of foul play. There is no evidence of any criminal activity. At the time of her disappearance, Madalyn O’Hair, then 77, was suffering from diabetes and heart disease. Shortly before the three vanished on Sept. 29, 1995, Jon bought $600,000 worth of gold coins in San Antonio from a jeweler named…
Page Two
Smart Growth: It’s not where you grow, it’s how you grow. You can double the density of development on the Triangle and cut the traffic impact at the same time, if you just have the right mix of residential and commercial uses, and the right design to encourage alternative transportation and pedestrian-friendly streetscapes. Of course,…
Where, Oh, Where Are the Murray O’hairs?
1. All of them are dead. Very few people who disappear are able to stay gone for more than a few months. And given the publicity in the case, and the fact that all three of them had been on television, it’s unlikely that they could simply relocate and not be recognized. Still, there is…
Public Notice
When someone tells us to put a bag over our heads, we just skulk away with that familiar sinking feeling that comes with being a self-absorbed prat. We’re sure the message is directed at us, personally. Bag Day carries a different kind of message, however, one directed at a much larger foe than pathetic self-effacing…
Madalyn Murray O’hair Timeline
Palm Sunday, 1919 – Madalyn Mays born in Beechview, PA. Oct. 1923: Madalyn baptized in Presbyterian Church. Oct. 1941: Madalyn marries John Henry Roths. Sept. 1945: Madalyn has an affair with William J. Murray Jr., who fathers her eldest child of the same name. She sues Roths for divorce and begins calling herself Madalyn Murray,…
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Flamingoes roamed the earth 47 million years before man did. Lee Harvey Oswald’s only completely provable crimes of Nov. 22, 1963 were that he didn’t pay to get into the Texas Theatre in Oak Cliff, and that he assaulted a police officer in the theatre. World War I flying ace the Red Baron was shot…
Other Famous Missing Persons
It’s not easy to disappear. Police say that nine out of 10 people who disappear are found. And only about one in 10 disappearances involve foul play. Here are a few of the most famous missing persons cases. Joseph Crater, Aug. 6, 1930: This New York State Supreme Court judge vanished in New York City…
Food-O-File
Soup’s On! What a smart idea! ClayWays Pottery Studio & Gallery (5442 Burnet, 459-6445) has once again enlisted the talents of local potters and soup chefs to raise money to feed hungry Central Texans with the Empty Bowl Project 1998. The clever event takes place this Sunday, November 22, 11am-4pm, at the ClayWays studio and…
Techno Atheists
Atheists have prolifically colonized the Internet, with Web sites ranging from the intellectual to the absurd. The Celebrity Atheist List This is an offbeat collection of notable individuals who have been public about their lack of belief in deities. Is it an attempt to make atheism more palatable? All the usual suspects here — scientists…
Good Restaurants Make Good Neighbors
photograph by John Anderson For 25 years, Shady Grove BBQ was an unassuming little family joint nestled beneath sheltering trees on a quiet two-lane road near the edge of Zilker Park, and veteran restaurateur Bobbie Covey (El Metate, Chuy’s, Salsas) was one of its many frequent customers. But in 1982, the owners confided in her…
The Cast of Characters
John MacCormack John MacCormack, 49, reporter, San Antonio Express-News While other investigators have been sniffing around the case, MacCormack has broken all of the significant developments, including Jon’s cell phone records and the fact that Jon bought $600,000 worth of gold coins before he disappeared. He also broke the story regarding the disappearance of Danny…
Thanksgiving 101 with Rick Rodgers
Central Market Cooking School November 3 Rick Rodgers is a bird buff with a big personality; only an aficionado with a lot to say could publish three cookbooks dedicated to the topic of turkeys and other aspects of the Thanksgiving meal, as Rodgers has done within the past several years. To celebrate the release of…
That’s All, Folks!
In the background were voices — whiny, strident, cloying, skeptical, sniggering, smug, defiant, scared. I was home sick from work but had fallen asleep with MSNBC on TV. I woke up at one point and a horribly distorted face was filling the screen. Gaaaaaa! I shuddered and hid my eyes — it was Linda Tripp.…
