Fond of French
photograph by John Anderson The Belgian L’Estro Armonico 3520 Bee Caves Rd., 328-0580 Mon-Fri 11:30am–2pm; Sun-Thu 6pm–10pm; Fri & Sat 6 pm–11 pm Like Agatha Christie’s fictional sleuth Hercule Poirot, the cuisine of Belgium is often mistakenly assumed to be a product of France. But as Ruth Van Waerebeek writes in her new cookbook, Everybody…
Scanlines
D: Jan Bucquoy; with Jean-Henri Comp�re, Isabelle Legros, Sophie Schneider, No� Francq. VHS Home Video Vulcan Video, 609 W. 29th St. Beginning with the line, “My mother had nice tits,” The Sexual Life of the Belgians is one filmmaker’s frank yet amusing sexual catalog of the years 1950-78. We follow Bucquoy (Comp�re) from a pitiable…
School for Scripts
illustration by Robert Faires If you trace any piece of theatre to its beginnings, you will almost always stumble upon a furiously scribbling little figure hunched over a desk. Without the playwright, there would be no action for the director, no setting for the designers, and no subtext for the critics. Actors would be left…
Austin Chamber Ensemble Benefit
at The Belgian Restaurant For the past nine years, Belgian restaurant chef/owner Jean-Louis DeHoux and his wife Marianne have donated a five-course dinner for 48 people as a fundraiser for the Austin Chamber Ensemble. The money raised by the annual dinner is a major factor in the continuation of the organization’s regular concert series. On…
Shortcuts
by Jen Scoville The South by Southwest Film Festival & Conference has awakened from its off-season hibernation clear-eyed and assiduous — in fact they’ve just announced a preliminary line-up of panelists for the spring to-do. So far the list includes Festival veteran and resident celebrity filmmaker Richard Linklater (subUrbia); SXSW alumni John Pierson (executive producer,…
Articulations
Austin Theatre for Youth received an enormous show of support in the form of a $50,000 challenge grant from the Bernard and Audre Rapoport Foundation. The local theatre company, which produces plays for pre-school-age and school-age audiences, is only just about to start its second season — it opens The Christmas Schooner December 7 –…
Food-O-File
by Virginia B. Wood Zoot, one of Austin’s most successful dinner houses, has recently added a Sunday brunch. Service in the sunny, comfortable West Austin cottage is available from 11am-2pm, featuring an � la carte menu. Diners can sip Mimosas and order from an interesting selection of breakfast and lunch dishes such as cinnamon brioche…
O Captains! My Captains!
I have always been a bit ambivalent about Star Trek. I grew up watching Gene Roddenberry’s original show in syndication. Along with Batman, Gilligan’s Island, and yes, even The Brady Bunch, Roddenberry’s unlikely hit show and pop-culture phenomenon played, I suspect, a fairly sizable role in my adolescent development, as it did for many. When…
Art of the State
ART MUSEUM OF SOUTH TEXAS offers “A Painter’s Path,” featuring work by Robert Jessup, through November 24; “An Artist and His Place,” featuring photorealist paintings by Jesse Trevi�o, through December 1; “Pieces, Parts, and Passion,” featuring quiltwork, through December 29. 1902 N. Shoreline, Corpus Christi. 512/884-3844. ARLINGTON MUSEUM OF ART features “Facing the Millennium: Texas…
Bonus Tracks
BETH BLACK (Strike) One thing’s for sure about local singer Beth Black — she’s no introvert. No shuffling, no shoe-gazing, rather she’ll look you straight in the eye and sing to you in clear, powerful tones. Melissa Etheridge, anyone? The only question is: What’s she doing at the Saxon Pub instead of the Frank Erwin…
The Oprah Diaries
illustration by Penny Van Horn Thursday, April 11, 1996 Marian Brown, the Pantheon publicist assigned to promote First Comes Love, called today to say I’ll be hearing from a producer from Oprah Winfrey’s show. She was ecstatic, said this is every writer’s dream — that Oprah has the power to make a book an overnight…
Postscripts
by Lee Nichols & Margaret Moser * THU, NOV 21: Michener Fellow and former UT student Alex Shakar reads from his debutnovel, City in Love, at Book People, 7pm… Rosemary Wells autographs her new book, My Very First Mother Goose at Toad Hall, 10am-noon. * FRI, NOV 22: Local blues musician Brian Robertson will have…
Independent Yet Empathic
illustration by Nathan Jensen Music history is full of examples of unrecognized genius, and hindsight’s contribution to the reputations of people no longer on this earth cannot be underestimated. Jazz aficionados, listening in horror as the audience talks loudly over one of their favorite vintage club recordings of Jelly Roll Morton, know that if only…
Ornette Coleman
Sound Museum: Three Women (Harmolodic/Verve) Sound Museum: Hidden Man (Harmolodic/Verve) Ornette Coleman’s new album is actually two albums. The Ft. Worth saxophone legend, who has forged an indelible swath across the jazz landscape ever since he brought his West Coast quartet to New York in 1959 and introduced the stunned cognoscenti to the revolutionary music…
The Usual Mayhem
Mystery novelist Kinky Friedmanphotograph by Evans Cartlage A blurb from Simon & Schuster, plugging the publication of Kinky Friedman’s ninth and latest mystery novel The Love Song of J. Edgar Hoover ($23, hardcover), claims that “all the critics agree that the Kinkster is a `true original,'” and furthermore, so do “Kinky’s fans, who multiply with…
Dancing About Architecture
Alejandro Escovedo is no longer a Rykodisc recording artist. Well, he’s not a Ryko solo act, anyway. His option came up a few weeks ago and Ryko wanted to renegotiate, but Escovedo chose to go elsewhere. Al says he won’t be actively pursuing a label for awhile as the next six months will belong to…
Hype!
Hype! 1996, NR, 85 min. Directed by Doug Pray, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Bruce Pavitt, Jonathan Poneman, Members Of Soundgarden, Tad, Pearl Jam, Mudhoney, Seven-Year Bitch. Lint gray clouds roll down from the Cascade Mountains and spit lukewarm drizzle on mildewed rooftops nestled among clumps of waterlogged conifers. Inside these houses, stir-crazy…
Kinky Friedman
Friday, November 8 at Citiview Bed & Breakfast Benefit for the Humane Society of Austin The man in the black hat strapped on a modest, duct-taped acoustic and launched into a gloriously twisted number that any normal performer might not have thought appropriate as the opening salvo in this room of mostly liberal, mostly wealthy,…
Musical Chairs
illustration by Tom King Last month, Bob Meyer ended a seven-year run as the City of Austin Music Liaison by resigning his post. A week later (November 1), the Austin Convention and Visitors Bureau (ACVB) became an officially privatized entity, transforming the city’s tourism and marketing office into a non-profit corporation. Although neither of these…
Star Trek: First Contact
Star Trek: First Contact 1996, PG-13, 120 min. Directed by Jonathan Frakes, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Patrick Stewart, Frakes, Brent Spiner, Levar Burton, Michael Dorn, Gates Mcfadden, Marina Sirtis, Alfre Woodard, James Cromwell. Directed by the Enterprise’s executive officer “Number One,” First Contact is what you might expect from Commander Will Riker…
about AIDS
One of the things I hear most often from prospective and new volunteers with ASA is “I want to make a difference.” Making a difference is what our volunteer programs are all about. There are many volunteer opportunities at AIDS Services of Austin for every age, skill, ability level, and certainly one that you can…
Also Playing
Friday: The Gourds, Aunt Beanie’s First Prize Beets, Flipnotics; Kelly Willis, Stubb’s Saturday: Merchants of Venus, Ritz; Toni Price, Bill Carter & the Blame, Antone’s; Brave Combo, Lauren Agnelli, La Zona Rosa Sunday: Tex Thomas & The Danglin’ Wranglers, Hank’s Roadhouse; Libbi Bosworth, Cornell Hurd, Continental Club; Super 8, Steamboat Monday: Chris Gage, Donn’s Depot…
The English Patient
The English Patient 1996, R, 162 min. Directed by Anthony Minghella, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche, Willem Dafoe, Kristin Scott Thomas, Naveen Andrews, Colin Firth, Julian Wadham. Based on the Booker Award-winning novel by Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient is a lush, sprawling epic about romantic betrayal and redemption…
Brick-A-Brack Attack
Dear Suzy, We live in a 1945-era house in South Austin. It looks like it’s brick, but the “brick” is apparently actually brick-size concrete blocks with some kind of coating that makes them look like brick. The house also has a room added on. It is made of cinder block which has been plastered or…
Live Shots
A TRIBUTE TO JAMES POLK St. James Episcopal Church, November 8 The Young Lions of Jazz did James Polk proud. On the first night of the Jazz at St. James concert series — produced by Harold McMillan and River City Bluez — the Southwest Texas State University professor had his crew of past and present…
Kaspar Hauser
Kaspar Hauser NR, 137 min. Directed by Peter Sehr, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Andre Eisermann, Katharina Thalbach, Uwe Ochsenknecht. Not reviewed at press time. Undaunted by the fact that approximately 2,000 books have been written that explore the enduring mystery of Kaspar Hauser — the wild child who turned up, without explanation,…
Benefits
International Holiday Market will be held through Nov 23 to benefit various non-profit organizations, at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, 8134 Mesa, 1-8pm. 288-7351 or 472-7627. SAT 23 Pets With Santa Photos to benefit the Humane Society, at Humane Society Auditorium, 11am-5pm. 837-7985, ext. 226. SUN 24 Bass Roundup 1996 to benefit The Arc of Austin,…
Everything but the Girl
Austin Music Hall Friday, November 22 At a career dead end a couple of years ago, Everything but the Girl pulled off a facelift of Michael Jackson proportions. Ben Watt, who does Everything but the Singing (Tracy Thorn handles that), began to incorporate break beats, jungle, drum-and-bass, and techno into EBTG’s sparse but unmistakably pop…
Rendezvous in Paris
Rendezvous in Paris 1995, NR, 100 min. Directed by Eric Rohmer, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Clara Bellar, Serge Renko, Veronika Johansson, Michael Kraft. Opinions about French film director Eric Rohmer tend to diverge sharply into two entrenched camps. One regards the doggedly productive septuagenarian as an ageless treasure of world cinema; the…
Coach’s Corner
On a clear, dark night, gazing at a sky filled with stars, it’s hard to believe we’re the only life form in the universe. I can’t prove it, but it makes sense. With thousands of athletes playing college and professional sports, mixed combustibly with millions of dollars wagered on the sports they play, it likewise…
Bad Medicine?
Nurse Angie Diaz attends to client Nubia Rivera at Rosewood-Zaragosa Clinicphotograph by Jana Birchum Three weeks ago, Linda arrived here from Houston, alone and with no job prospects. And although she landed a spot at the Salvation Army downtown on Eighth Street and found work in home care, those were only temporary solutions, because Linda…
Day Trips
The bald eagles have arrived at Lake Buchanan, and Vanishing Texas River Cruise is taking hundreds of visitors to look for them daily. The birds winter at the lake between Burnet and Llano from November to March. As if right on cue, the first eagle was spotted November 3. Ed Low, owner of the year-round…
Area Public Health Centers
Austin/Travis County’s Federally Qualified Health Centers,ranked by number of Encounters estimated for fiscal year 1995-96 Address # of Encounters 1. South Austin Health Center 2529 S. 1st St., 440-9400 27,457 2. Northeast Austin Health Center 7112-Z Ed Bluestein, 919-1100 26,268 3. East Austin Health Center 211 Comal, 404-1600 23,260 4. Rosewood/Zaragosa Health Center 2802 Webberville,…
Page Two
Austin was overrun with the legend of itself this weekend. First, the Texas Book Festival opening dinner and reading at the Marriot found not only an astonishing number of Texas’ best writers in formal dress (it may be sexist, but I expected the women to be well-dressed) but also an amazing number of lifelong Democrats…
Patients Who Pay
illustration by Doug Potter On any given night, four of every ten hospital beds in Austin are empty. Given that, why are two new hospitals being built in Austin? More importantly, how will these new private hospitals affect the city’s ability to care for its indigent patients? The answer to the first question is easy:…
Public Notice
Ahhhh! Sweet oxygen swirls around the lungs, and muscles burn as they take boulders like King of the Hill. There’s nothing like that crunch of dry creekbed under clunky suede boots with huge red laces you wouldn’t be caught dead wearing anywhere else except maybe a Village People reunion. Hey, Snakes! Lizards! Deer! Don’t fret!…
Strangled Triangle
Two days after Election Day, when newspapers and newsweeklies were analyzing Bill Clinton’s victory and interpreting a net increase in the conservative nutjob population in the House and Senate as a return to centrism, the headline in The Texas Triangle reflected a different reality. “Sheriff Margo!” it announced in large type. “Frasier, Maxey, Lee Win…
Mister Smarty Pants Knows
On a cold day, a wooden bleacher seat would feel warmer than one that is plastic or metal because wood insulates heat better. California has the highest egg production of any state, as well as the highest incidence of SC Salmonella poisoning, which scientists believe comes from eggs. 17,000 Native Americans fought for the U.S.…
Naked City
Nov. 11 marked the first day to file bills for the 1997 legislative shindig, and Warren Chisum, the Pampa rep who rants against sodomy so much it makes you wonder, wasted no time setting his agenda for the new year. The Democrat-turned-Republican’s first bill out of the gate: a law banning same-sex marriages. “It’s just…
Curriculum II: America Is an Artist
illustration by A.J. Garces Some thoughts about the election before this column really begins: Nothing changed this November, except that the Democrats came out of the closet and revealed themselves as country-club, fern-cafe Republicans (as opposed to gospel-tent, truck-stop Republicans). Republican Lite. With Clinton preparing to put Republicans in his cabinet, the switch to a…
Scenes From a Scene
Doug Prayphotograph by Laura Skelding By the start of 1993, many Seattleites (myself among them) had a siege mentality when it came to coverage of their music scene. So when Doug Pray’s film crew came to town, filming shows at some of the stalwart clubs of the day (namely, the now-defunct RKCNDY and Off Ramp),…
