Page Two
The election results, as presented in this issue, should give central Austin voters pause. More than ever, one of the great responsibilities of this council is long-range planning. This is what makes annexation necessary (annexation on an accelerated timetable is the result of both laws and the threat of the next legislative session). But it…
Road Shows
NOVEMBER FRI 21 Kitty Wells, Broken Spoke FRI 21 Eric Taylor, Cactus Cafe FRI 21 Frig a Go-Go, Emo’s FRI 21 Kirk Whalum, Bob James, Jeff Golub, Phillippe Saisse, Austin Music Hall FRI 21 Sons of Hercules, Bates Motel FRI 21 MU330, Liberty Lunch FRI 21 Pimpadelic, Aftershock, 10w30, Atomic Cafe SAT 22 Everclear, Our…
Public Notice
For some people, the thought of facing the winter chill without a brand new winter wardrobe is enough to keep them inside ’til Groundhog Day or at least the post-holiday sales. God forbid they should be seen in public in something that screams 1993. Well, for most of us that’s just not practical. But even…
Spreading the Gospel
illustration by Doug Potter I don’t usually accept gifts from subjects I write about, but Mayor Kirk Watson really wanted me to have this particular gift. It was a book, and I kept it because it’s not just a book — it’s the book on every city hall insider’s reading list this annexation season. It’s…
Mister Smarty Pants Knows
Alexander Graham Bell hoped to cure cancer. Cablevision of Yorktown, N.Y. provides Odyssey (a religious network) and The Playboy Channel on the same shared cable channel. Portugal will return control of Macao to China on 12/20/99. The recipe for corzido, once a popular dish on San Miguel in the Azores, involved wrapping beef, chicken, pork,…
Travis County Election Results
Countywide, 61,382 voters turned out for the November 4 election, approving all but one of the eight bond proposals. Below is an analysis of some of the voting, based on regions defined by life-long Austinite Peck Young, who served as a political consultant on the bond election campaign. Inside city limits, 43,953 voters went to…
Fifty-Two
artwork by Jason Stout Age. For most of human history, to be old has been a mark of honor. Today it’s a source of fear, even shame. Yet my 50th birthday was strangely joyous. It began as my days usually begin: I walked to the corner cafe, drank my coffee, read my New York Times,…
Bradley Files Again
illustration by Doug Potter Gary Bradley spends more time at the courthouse than Lance Ito. While Bradley, the flamboyant developer of the about-to-be-annexed Circle C Ranch development in southwestern Travis County, has proven his skill at developing real estate, he has also shown himself to be a lawyer’s dream. He is to lawsuits what Pamela…
Food-O-File
This Saturday, November 22, the Granite Cafe (2905 San Gabriel, #200, 472-8524) celebrates its 10th anniversary with a benefit for the Austin Children’s Museum. The festivities begin at 7:30pm and include food, drinks, music by 81/2 Souvenirs and a neon art exhibit by Ben Livingston. Call the restaurant to purchase tickets… Jean-Luc’s French Bistro touts…
Music Channel Blues
illustration by Doug Potter It’s still messy, only now the future of the Austin Music Network is at stake. And the mess is completely understandable given that at the highest level — the city council — people are still unclear about the most basic of things. At the last Telecommunications Infrastructure Sub-committee meeting on Oct…
Exhibitionism
WEST SIDE STORY: A BOXFUL OF KITTENS Paramount Theatre, through November 23 Running Time: 2 hrs, 15 min Testosterone will be oozing off the Paramount stage all the rest of this week. The Jets and the Sharks are at it again, marking their territory like packs of stray dogs, snarling and snapping at anyone who…
The Pies That Bind
photograph by John Anderson My mother never prepared a complete holiday meal by herself until after my grandmother Walden died when mother was 40 and I was 12. Nana didn’t leave her much to go on. Winnie Kelly Walden was reputed to have been a wonderful cook, but she did indeed take it all with…
Naked City
Edited by Amy Smith, with contributions this week from Nate Blakeslee, Mike Clark-Madison, Robert Elder, Kevin Fullerton, Nicole Kleman. Off the Desk: The powerhouse law firm of Mayor Kirk Watson is splitting in two, with Watson preparing to move into the Littlefield Building downtown with two of the firm’s six partners. The firm, Whitehurst, Harkness,…
Ever the Spoils
The Love of the Nightingale In stature she was very tall,” writes Dio Cassius, the author of Rome’s history through 229 AD. He is describing Boudica, a Celtic queen who waged a two-year war against the Romans. “In appearance most terrifying, in the glance of her eye most fierce; a great mass of the tawniest…
Osgood Pie
one deep 10-inch pie shell, unbaked 4 large eggs, beaten 2 cups sugar 3/4 cup butter, melted and cooled 3/4 cup walnut pieces 3/4 cup raisins 2 Tbs cider vinegar 1/2 tsp cinnamon 1/2 tsp ginger Preheat oven to 400deg. F. Have all ingredients at room temperature. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the beaten…
It’s a Wonderful So-Called Life
Angela Chase (Claire Danes) and Jordan Catalano (Jared Leto). Teen angst, Nineties style. Being a teenager was a time. There existed such emotional turmoil and social upheaval, I’ve never quite figured out if I was more a product of the Sixties or the Seventies. I turned 15 in 1969, too young to be a hippie,…
The Love of the Nightingale
Theatre Room, UT campus, through November 23, Running Time: 2 hrs In college, I had a professor named Dr. Hanners, a man whose wispy blonde hair always seemed to be jutting out in odd clumps. Dr. Hanners was a font of useful advice, little of it theatrical, despite the fact that he taught directing. Story…
Pennsylvania Dutch Sour Cream Apple Pie
crust: 1.5 cups flour 1/2 tsp salt 3 Tbs sugar 1/2 tsp cinnamon 1 stick cold unsalted butter, cut in chunks 2-4 Tbs ice cold apple juice to bind Combine the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl and cut in the cold butter chunks with a pastry cutter until the mixture resembles pea gravel. Carefully…
Exhibition Alternative
Your weekly media diet” is how filmmaker and exhibitor-auteur Bill Daniel offers up Funhouse Cinema, his wildly diverse weekly Monday night showcase at the Ritz Lounge of new and older experimental shorts, underground documentaries, archival oddities, and loops of this or that found in a friend’s basement. In a film culture in which 99% of…
The Trojan Women The Trojan Women
Mary Moody Northen Theatre, St. Edward’s University campus, through November 23 Running Time: 1 hr, 45 min It always sucks to be the messenger. Just ask Talthybius, herald of the Greeks, who has to deliver all the sad news to the women of Troy. These women are to be auctioned off to the Greek kings,…
Night of the Turducken
A turducken is a hybrid of a turkey, a duck, and a chicken, but you don’t have to be a bioengineer or even a student of animal husbandry to make one — turduckens are more about cramming than they are about science. The idea is to strongarm a duck into a turkey, and a chicken…
A Big Crowd for Little Wars: Millennium Gaming Convention
It all started with H.G. Wells. The author of War of the Worlds played with toy soldiers, and his books Floor Games (1911) and Little Wars (1913) describe, for the first time, simple rules for staging miniature battles. Miniatures gaming spawned board war games, role-playing games, and today’s entire adventure gaming hobby. Wells would be…
A Potpourri of Pages
Detailed to the point of obsession, The Highwaymen: Warriors of the Information Superhighway by Ken Auletta (Random House, hard, $27.50 hard) chronicles the aspirations of those who are currently scrambling to exploit the Internet — CEOs of TV networks, film studios, cable giants, and publishers. The book reprints 16 “Annals of Communication” columns Auletta wrote…
There Are No Guidelines
Pushing the issue: Steamboat’s Danny Crooks leans over a speaker blaring music out over Sixth Street. photograph by Jana Birchum It wasn’t exactly noble, but it was a tactic the City of Austin apparently thought worth trying. Throw two little old ladies out in front of the battle, and dare your opponents to run over…
Honoria en Ciberspazio
Computing in this ergonomic chair An oracle confronts me there My heart is weak, my back’s aligned My mind confused, my life, confined Seeking refuge from my postmodern intellectualized scorn found in a cyberspace without physical shape or form shaped by my projection so immediate and exact my heart and soul transformed in a single…
In Person
Patrick McManus, Book People, Oct. 17 “I wanna thank you for some of the best laughs of my life,” warbled a large and burly-backed man as he reached out to grasp Patrick McManus’ hand. “My wife always knows I’m reading you when she hears me wheezing in the living room.” McManus nodded and smiled graciously…
Visions of This Town
photograph by Todd V. Wolfson As a highly successful commercial photographer and graphic artist, Max Crace is no stranger to deadlines. In his business, you’re only as good as your reputation to consistently meet — and preferably beat — deadlines. More importantly, to miss a deadline is to miss a payday. “It’s not unusual for…
Scanlines
(“Scanlines” wishes to thank Encore Movies & Music, I [Heart] Video, and Vulcan Video for their help in providing videos and laser discs.) Vincent Price, the master of horror, stars in Roger Corman’s Tomb of Ligeia. The Tomb of Ligeia D: Roger Corman (1965) with Vincent Price, Elizabeth Shepherd Image Entertainment laserdisc Of all the…
Postscripts
Coffeetable books: those decorative tomes of trite text and pretty pictures, usually about Swedish country homes or something frilly like thatz. Enter David Stocklein and Tom B. Saunder IV’s The Texas Cowboys (Stocklein, $60 hard), with its iconographic Marlboro man cover belying the visual and textual depth the authors pursue within. Stocklein and Saunders visited…
Dancing About Architecture
Austin may be sporting more music venues than ever these days, but that doesn’t mean there won’t continue to be casualties. Hondo’s on Sixth Street and the Blue Flamingo on Red River are two venues that have closed their doors recently. The latter club has long been laden with troubles, mostly related to disputes among…
Short Cuts
New Format Alert: As a result of our continuing effort to better organize and present our tons of weekly information and also to better reflect the recent explosion of activity in the local film scene (I know this isn’t just my imagination), the special screenings information customarily found in this column can now be found…
HIV Vaccine Is the Only Hope for a World Fighting AIDS
Several weeks ago, this column discussed the much-publicized offer by 50 AIDS researchers and treating physicians to be used as “human guinea pigs” in a live-virus HIV vaccine trial. Much of the scientific community views this as premature and foolhardy, as live-virus vaccine efforts are not yet at a stage to be productive. Last week…
Recommended
edited by Christopher Gray EVERCLEAR, OUR LADY PEACE, LETTERS TO CLEO Liberty Lunch, Saturday 22 Everclear main man Art Alexakis goes through great pains on 95’s Sparkle and Fade and on this year’s So Much for the Afterglow to show he’s put his pissed-off punk past behind him. Now a contented family man and budding…
The Rest of His Days
“This book takes us into the profound depths of that other country that lies around us on the streets… and if there’s any justice in the world, it should guarantee its author a roof over his head for the rest of his days.” — The New York Times Book Review on Lars Eighner’s 1993 memoir…
Benefits
FRI 21 Autumn Swing Gala to benefit The Leukemia Society of America, at Saengerrunde Hall, 17th & San Jacinto, 8pm-midnight. Cost is $10 general/$7 students. 453-3889. International Holiday Market will be held through Saturday to benefit Austin Metropolitan Ministries, at Memorial United Methodist Church, 6100 Berkman, noon-8pm. 472-7627. SAT 22 Austin Community College (ACC) Jazz…
Record Reviews
BUTCH HANCOCK You Coulda Walked Around the World (Rainlight) On first listen, this collection sounds like a sparsely performed and produced acoustic folk album recorded by someone with an interesting, Dylan-like voice who knows a bit about country music. Subsequent listens, however, reveal layers of meaning and sound, the lyrics unfolding to encompass the spiritual…
Articulations
Kenneth Hale, who took on the position of Acting Chairman for the UT Department of Art and Art History when former chair David Deming was tapped to serve as Interim Dean for the university’s College of Fine Arts, has gotten the nod to stay in the chair of the Chair for the long haul. The…
Coach’s Corner
I’m losing readers, in particular female readers. They ask about angst, as in, what’s happened to it? They ask about a time when my life was dull, but filled with angst. These days, life is just sorta placid. For instance, right now my girlfriend and I are in the middle of a country/western dance class.…
Off the Beaten Track
St. Louis’ MetroLink light rail system photograph by Rita Debellis At the end of October, about 800 planners, community activists, transit system officials, engineers, academics, and occasional nosey reporters like me gathered in St. Louis for “Rail-Volution ’97: Building Livable Communities With Transit.” The premise of the conference was clear — to build livable communities,…
Road Winners
The map has been cropped to highlight Austin. All precincts not pictured are considered “Rural” except precints 300, 306, 308 and 309, classified as “Southwest.” After Jan. 1, 1998, county voters can look forward to some re-aligned precincts, including 14 new ones. The average Texas voter has never met a road he didn’t like. So…
Day Trips
photograph by Gerald E. McLeod Almost anybody in Boerne can give you directions to the Pickle Lady. Word-of-mouth advertising has brought the world to Billie Shaw’s front door at the Carousel Antiques & Pickle Shop. She only sells one kind of pickle and it’s called “Fickle Pickles” because they start tasting sweet and finish with…
Roadkill
Travis La Zona Rosa Saturday, November 22 Get your pop heart down from the cupboard, blow off the dust, and mark “Travis” across it in big loopy letters. Cute enough for girls, tough enough for the boys, these four Glaswegians are young, Scottish, and adorable. More importantly, they’re Noel Gallagher’s favorite band, and while the…
