Four Films by Tom Palazzolo
Four Films by Tom Palazzolo NR, 20 min. Directed by Tom Palazzolo, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . Chicago filmmaker Tom Palazzolo’s films, which were made in the Seventies, continue to be shown in anthropology classrooms. “Marquette Park” focuses on the reactions of white residents to a black march in their neighborhood. “Jerry’s…
A Time to Live and a Time to Die
A Time to Live and a Time to Die 1985, NR, 137 min. Directed by Hou Hsiou-Hsien, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Mei-Feng, Yu-Yuen Tang, Tien-Feng, Shufen Xin, Ann Shuen Yu. Heavily autobiographical, this film draws on Hou¹s childhood and adolescence, as his family moved to Taiwan from the Chinese mainland in 1948.…
Ricky and Rocky
Ricky and Rocky NR, 15 min. Directed by Tom Palazzolo, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . Chicago filmmaker Tom Palazzolo’s films, which were made in the Seventies, continue to be shown in anthropology classrooms. “Marquette Park” focuses on the reactions of white residents to a black march in their neighborhood. “Jerry’s Deli” examines…
Enjoy Yourself It’s Later Than You Think
Enjoy Yourself It’s Later Than You Think NR, 20 min. Directed by Tom Palazzolo, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . Chicago filmmaker Tom Palazzolo’s films, which were made in the Seventies, continue to be shown in anthropology classrooms. “Marquette Park” focuses on the reactions of white residents to a black march in…
Chinese Torture Chamber Story
Chinese Torture Chamber Story NR, 88 min. Directed by Bosco Lam, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Ching Mai, Lawrence Ng Kai-Wah, Yvonne Yung Hung. This Hong Kong export promises a very weird mixture of sadomasochistic torture, humor, and eroticism. A maid and her master are arrested after the penis of the maid’s husband…
Marquette Park
Marquette Park NR, 25 min. Directed by Tom Palazzolo, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . Chicago filmmaker Tom Palazzolo’s films, which were made in the Seventies, continue to be shown in anthropology classrooms. “Marquette Park” focuses on the reactions of white residents to a black march in their neighborhood. “Jerry’s Deli” examines a…
Crashing the Party
Crashing the Party NR. Directed by Los Angeles Independent Media Center, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . This documentary documents the demonstrations against the corporatization of the 2000 Democratic National Convention and the failure of party politics to address grassroots concerns and initiatives. More info is available at www.la.indymedia.org.
Against the Grain: Vive La Revolucion Festival
Against the Grain: Vive La Revolucion Festival NR. Directed by Various, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . The Co-op’s latest festival presents a screening of more than 20 local and international revolutionary Super-8 films that illustrate the idea of a personal manifesto.
Twenty-Four Nights
Twenty-Four Nights NR, 97 min. Directed by Kieran Turner, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Kevin Isola, Aida Turturro, Steven Mailer, David Burtka. Does Santa answer his mail when the lovelorn send him letters requesting a new boyfriend for Christmas? This romantic comedy with a gay slant makes its Austin premiere at this monthly…
This is What Democracy Looks Like
This is What Democracy Looks Like NR. Directed by Seattle Independent Media Center, Big Noise Films, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Michael Franti, Susan Sarandon. This documentary was made with footage from over 100 independent videomakers who participated in the Independent Media Center and focuses on the coalitions that were created for the…
Jerry’s Deli
Jerry’s Deli NR, 9 min. Directed by Tom Palazzolo, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . Chicago filmmaker Tom Palazzolo’s films, which were made in the Seventies, continue to be shown in anthropology classrooms. “Marquette Park” focuses on the reactions of white residents to a black march in their neighborhood. “Jerry’s Deli” examines a…
Postscripts
Book news, signings, and author appearances this week.
A Place, a Time, a Memory
More Is More One of my favorite Christmas dinners occurred more than 60 years before I was born. Around the turn of the century my paternal great-grandfather was the chef at the Hotel Superior, in Superior, Wis. At that time, Superior was a busy port with prosperous traders and shippers in residence or in transit.…
Record Reviews
Reckless KellyThe Day (Reckless) There’s something to be said for being consistent. A lot, really. Austin’s Reckless Kelly kicks off their second full-length studio effort with “Floodwater,” a bar-band Southern rock number that burns like a shot of Jim Beam and gets things rolling quick on a hopeful note. “Arizona Skies,” on the other hand,…
Record Reviews
Zulu as KonoII (Perverted Son) The reckless, spiraling music of Zulu as Kono makes a fine soundtrack for an industrial age flailing about on the cold, hard concrete in its death throes. Though the two-drummer Austin sextet favors loud, prog-punk guitar foundations, their song structures consistently favor machines over melody. Witness “Perverted Son,” a repetitive,…
Election 2000
Analysis of the Nov. 7, 2000 election in Travis County, focusing on turnout, the rail vote, and Ralph Nader.
The Great Escape
Chocolat D: Lasse Hallström; with Juliette Binoche, Johnny Depp, Alfred Molina, Carrie-Anne Moss, Lena Olin, Judi Dench. After a series of ill-fitting roles in critical misfires (The Ninth Gate, The Astronaut’s Wife), Johnny Depp reteams with director Lasse Hallström in their first collaboration since the gentle gem What’s Eating Gilbert Grape. Chocolat tells the story…
Video Reviews
The Grissom Gang is a good afternoon’s crime film.
Book Reviews
Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881-1999 by Benny Morris Knopf, 751 pp., $40 If anyone has any doubt about what a dangerous force nationalism is, he or she should read Righteous Victims. Morris, who teaches at Ben Gurion University, previously wrote The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, 1947-1949, in which he…
A Place, a Time, a Memory
How to Cope in Catalunya Every American who’s lived abroad has at least one coping-with-Thanksgiving story. Here’s mine. A decade ago, I spent more than a year in Barcelona, that ancient and worldly capital of Catalunya, for centuries a proud autonomous kingdom, and now the northeastern province of Spain. By a quirk of great fortune,…
Record Reviews
Danny BarnesMinor Dings (Cavity Search) This latest solo effort by Bad Livers main man and former Austinite Danny Barnes is actually an earlier solo effort, recorded and manufactured at his home in Port Hadlock, Wash., in 1998, and sold through his Web site and at shows. Mastered and re-released on Portland indie Cavity Search, Minor…
Record Reviews
Rhythm RatsRatrospect (Rats) Well, of course it’s what you think it is — a retrospective of Rhythm Rats recordings over the years. And the Rats, definitely the least-likely Austin blues-rock act to ever get labeled “too serious,” have a number of years’ worth of material to choose from. The obvious ones are here, like their…
Voter Turnout
The presumption is that if people don’t come out to vote for president, they won’t vote for anything, which means the turnout figures shown on the chart are the realistic ceilings for voter participation. Whether that would remain true if Texas’ electoral votes were actually in play is not clear. But Travis County’s overall turnout…
The Great Escape
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon D: Ang Lee; with Chow Yun-Fat, Michelle Yeoh, Zhang Zi Yi, Chang Chen. You don’t have to like kung-fu to appreciate Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; if anything, Ang Lee’s latest masterwork may finally explain it all for you. Director Lee’s genre-busting career includes such films as The Ice Storm, Sense and…
TV Eye
Spike Lee’s Bamboozled, a satire about the return of the minstrel show on television, is a powerful indictment of the entertainment industry.
Off the Bookshelf
Atom by Steve Aylett Four Walls Eight Windows, 176 pp., $14.95 (paper) If Damon Runyon and Jonathan Lethem had reproduced, the offspring would write a heck of a lot like Steve Aylett. His inventive and constantly surprising use of language puts one in mind of a world like Guys and Dolls, a place with its…
A Place, a Time, a Memory
Gimme Riceandgravy For the Hebert family, the holiday season triggered a never-ending stream of celebration and homecoming. For most of my childhood, five of my mother’s siblings lived far from their hometown of Baton Rouge, but returned for some chunk of the 40-day Thanksgiving/Christmas/ New Year’s trifecta. During family celebrations, seven cars blocked the grandparents’…
Record Reviews
Eric Johnson … Alien Love ChildLive and Beyond (Favored Nations) To say that singing the blues is one of Eric Johnson’s strengths is like denying the Austin-born guitarist his due as one of the most influential guitarists to come out of Texas in the past 20-plus years: just plain wrong. That Alien Love Child is…
Record Reviews
Martí Brom with the Cornell Hurd BandFeudin’ and Fightin’ (Goofin’) Martí Brom eschews her usual coy roots-rockabilly stylings for this outing, opting for a half-dozen songs that have more of a hillbilly Tin Pan Alley feel. Naturally, with renowned South Austin goofballs Cornell Hurd and company behind her, there’s no way things could get too…
Presidential Vote
The biggest news in our presidential race was Ralph Nader, who pulled higher-than-statewide, higher-than-nationwide numbers everywhere in Travis County. Sure, a lot of those votes were Nader-trades, cast by people who knew that in Texas they had nothing to lose. But does that really explain Nader winning 7.6% of the Southwest vote? (He got nearly…
The Great Escape
Enemy at the Gates D: Jean-Jacques Annaud; with Jude Law, Joseph Fiennes, Ed Harris, Ron Perlman. Based on a true story, Enemy at the Gates channels Jude Law’s smolder in a role that reflects all the gunmetal cool of Barry Pepper’s penitent sniper from Saving Private Ryan. Law plays champion Russian marksman Vassili Zaitsev, who…
Solas
Solas 1999, NR, 98 min. Directed by Benito Zambrano, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Ana Fernandez, Maria Galiana, Paco De Osca, Carlos Alvarez-Novoa, Juan Fernandez, Antonio Dechent. “A mi madre, a todos los madres” is Spanish director Zambrano’s closing dedication and it’s a particularly fitting one for his debut feature, a grim but…
Off the Bookshelf
The O. Henry Awards: Prize Stories 2000 Series Editor: Larry Dark; Prize Jury: Michael Cunningham, Pam Houston, and George Saunders Anchor, 412 pp., $13 (paper) As steady and dependable as a good friend, the new O. Henry anthology arrives each year to serve up the ”best” stories published in magazines and journals from the previous…
A Place, a Time, a Memory
Surly Earl Tackles the Turkey Earl Barnes, age 75, is the crustiest of curmudgeons, and the father of my pals Diane Winslow (owner of It’s About Thyme Nursery), Jeffrey Barnes (woodwind player extraordinaire of Brave Combo), and Lynn Barnes (doctor and pathologist). Each Turkey Day, after festivities at my Mom’s house in North Austin, I…
Record Reviews
Chris Duarte GroupLove > Me (Zoe) Here’s what’s wrong with Chris Duarte: After 20 years of playing professionally, he’s still a student of guitar and of his generation. He doesn’t mind referencing the Red Hot Chili Peppers or B.B. King, and sometimes that’s not bad, but he strains a little too hard on lawdy-mama type…
Record Reviews
Sue FoleyBack to the Blues (Antone’s/Texas Music Group) The fact that Sue Foley delivers admirably on a few of these numbers doesn’t quite explain the need for Back to the Blues. Is Antone’s cleaning out its inventory? Did Foley need to fulfill a contract to the label? Was there a lull in the release schedule?…
Light Rail
The failed light rail referendum is one race on the ballot where “what happened?” is a question that deserves to be answered. On the chart, it looks like the same old story: a landslide of support in Central Austin, and narrower defeats everywhere else. So it was that low turnout in the progressive precincts in…
The Great Escape
Finding Forrester D: Gus Van Sant; with Sean Connery, Rob Brown, Anna Paquin, F. Murray Abraham, Busta Rhymes. Is Gus Van Sant going soft? After a decade of making complicated, messy masterpieces like Drugstore Cowboy and My Own Private Idaho, Van Sant finally earned a little respect with the fuzzy, friendly Good Will Hunting. Following…
102 Dalmatians
102 Dalmatians 2000, G, 101 min. Directed by Kevin Lima, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Glenn Close, Gerard Depardieu, Ian Richardson, Carol Macready, Ben Crompton, Tim Mcinnerny, Alice Evans, Ioan Gruffudd, Jim Carter, Eric Idle. God bless Glenn Close. She really gives this Cruella De Vil thing her all. She brings such relish…
Off the Bookshelf
Off Keck Road by Mona Simpson Knopf, 167 pp., $19 Mona Simpson’s first novel, Anywhere but Here, is a lyrical and deeply disturbing exploration of the relationship between a mother and daughter. It remains a must-read for budding novelists. Although Simpson’s next two novels, The Lost Father and A Regular Guy, were filled with luminous…
A Place, a Time, a Memory
Anything but Turkey! “Mama, why are you putting those out?” asks my insatiably curious three-year-old, turning over the tattered paper Thanksgiving figures I’m arranging on the table amid dried Indian corn and mini pumpkins. “Well, because it’s almost Thanksgiving — our next holiday,” I respond, “and this is a Pilgrim, this a Native American, this…
Record Reviews
Tina Marsh & the Bob Rodriguez TrioOut of Time (CreOp Music) While Tina Marsh may be known primarily for her 20-year (and still counting) involvement as the vocalist and guiding force of Austin’s internationally recognized jazz composer’s group the Creative Opportunity Orchestra, she’s also birthed a number of side projects that allow her to incorporate…
Record Reviews
Eliza GilkysonHard Times in Babylon (Red House) Following Misfits, her fine, self-released collection of songs from 1999, Eliza Gilkyson underwent some trying times. Her father, folk singer Terry Gilkyson, passed away, a close friend committed suicide, and she went through a difficult relationship breakup. Hard Times in Babylon is a diary of sorts on how…
Naked City
The George Bush campaign office’s e-mail volume increased after Election Day and Elliott Naishtat could be veto bait if Bush continues as governor.
The Great Escape
O Brother, Where Art Thou? D: Joel Coen; with John Turturro, George Clooney, Tim Blake Nelson. Homer’s The Odyssey updated to a Depression-era Preston Sturges comedy-spectacle? Oh, those wacky Coen boys — what will they think of next? Okay, so 1998’s The Big Lebowski was a bit of a mess (nihilists? marmots? huh?), and Fargo…
Unbreakable
Unbreakable 2000, PG-13, 107 min. Directed by M. Night Shyamalan, Starring Elizabeth Lawrence, Eamonn Walker, James Handy, Charlayne Woodard, Spencer Treat Clark, Robin Wright, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis. Nine-year-old Elijah Price is a boy with a burden, specifically a degenerative bone disease that has rendered his thin frame as excessively fragile as a crystal…
Local Bestsellers
Local bestsellers are based on recent sales at Austin bookstores selected to reflect varied reading interests.
Food-o-File
Local culinary news
Record Reviews
Laura ScarboroughChapter One: Desire Somewhere between soul and jazz, in the space between sultry pop, R&B, and serene torch songs, Austin pianist/chanteuse Laura Scarborough explores the emotional peaks and pits of sexual desire on her debut CD. A classically trained pianist, Scarborough sounds it, her notes singular and clear, her blues tempered by technique, her…
Record Reviews
The East Side Band No Sleep (Prevatt) Dallas-area Prevatt Records put out this disc by the East Side Band, featuring Texas Trumpets Martin Banks and the late Mark “Pat” Patterson, along with blues guitarist Clarence Pierce and sax man Larry DC Williams. It’s a disc of meandering jams and riffs that call to mind Seventies…
Naked City
Free Radio Austin gets shut down again; this time, possibly, for good.
The Great Escape
Pollock D: Ed Harris; with Harris, Marcia Gay Harden, Amy Madigan, John Heard, Val Kilmer, Jennifer Connelly. He rages. He howls. He drinks and sobs and drinks some more. He literally throws himself into his canvas. And in the end, Jackson Pollock became one of the most famous and most imitated artists of the 20th…
Two Family House
Two Family House 2000, R, 108 min. Directed by Raymond De Felitta, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Louis Guss, Michele Santopietro, Matt Servitto, Kevin Conway, Kathrine Narducci, Kelly Macdonald, Michael Rispoli. In Staten Island in 1956, owning a house means owning your freedom. It means not having to live in the home of…
In Person: Mark Z. Danielewski and Poe
Chronicle writer Roger Gathman imagined Mark Z. Danielewski as “one of the roughs,” because his novel, House of Leaves, is saturated in the tattoo parlor demimonde of Los Angeles. What he found is something quite different.
Liquid Assets
Wines for Thanksgiving Turkey Day is here, and what better time to serve some interesting new wines? Throw out the old “red wine with red meat and white wine with white meat” rule. Turkey is happy with all sorts of white and red wines. If you go more for ham, there are white wines that…
Record Reviews
The Peek-a-Boo Book of Spells(Peek-a-Boo) Sixteen songs about witches and spells? Three weeks after Halloween? This has to be some kind of joke, right? Well the joke’s on the doubting Thomas. This limited-edition clear-vinyl goody may be a couple of weeks late, but it’s nevertheless a spot-on cauldron of bubbly bat-wing stew, dry ice, and…
Record Reviews
Johnny BushLost Highway Saloon (Lone Star)Johnny BushJohnny Bush Sings Bob Wills (Lone Star) Longtime San Antonian Johnny Bush shines on Lost Highway Saloon, one of two new simultaneously released albums on Lone Star, his voice and choice of material bearing more than a hint of Ray Price. The production is smooth without ever sounding too…
Naked City
When the counting started in Broward County — one of the three Florida counties conducting a manual recount in the contested presidential election — the mainly Democratic canvassing board ignited a fierce and mostly incomprehensible debate, currently being duked out in the Florida Supreme Court, over whether election canvassers should count so-called hanging chads, swinging…
The Great Escape
Quills D: Philip Kaufman; with Geoffrey Rush, Kate Winslet, Joaquin Phoenix, Michael Caine. For those who prefer their period pieces down and dirty, look no further than Quills, Philip Kaufman’s long-awaited biopic of the Marquis de Sade. Adapted from Doug Wright’s hit play, Quills examines the latter half of the scandalous French scribe’s life inside…
Page Two
Chronicle editor Louis Black on Election 2000: This isn’t a crisis; this is a robust burp.
The Bride From Hell
The Austin Chronicle’s style avatar wants your wedding to be the peachiest. Here, he offers helpful hints to make your wedding panning that much less disastrous.
Record Reviews
Monroe MustangI Am the Only Running Footman (Emperor Jones) Hot on the fuzzy slipper heels of De Avonden 091099, a warm, half-hour live set for Dutch public radio released earlier this fall, the 20-minute I Am the Only Running Footman keeps pace with the rest of Monroe Mustang’s psychedelically introverted and fast-blossoming catalog. Lo in…
Record Reviews
Correo AereoLo Que Me Dijo el Viento This is what the wind told me, of a Mexican man, raised playing folk music of the Americas — Mexico, Venezuela, Argentina. Of a New Mexican woman, raised playing the violin. Together, as husband and wife, they mastered the harp, guitar, cuatro, quinta huapanguera, bombo, cajon, quijada (he),…
Naked City
The lawyer representing George Bush in court in Florida has represented dozens of right-wing causes and is a friend of Kenneth Starr.
The Great Escape
Shadow of the Vampire D: E. Elias Merhige; with John Malkovich, Willem Dafoe, Cary Elwes. Who’s the creepiest beasty haunting the multiplex this holiday season? It ain’t the Grinch, baby. (Not without the voice of Boris Karloff, anyway.) Instead of that lime-green scoundrel, check out the truly deranged Dafoe as the title character in this…
Public Notice
Hey! It’s Thanksgiving, kids! And, wow, we are so honored, so thankful that you or that anybody for that matter is reading this, our humble little public service column, instead of remaining glued to the tube in breathless anticipation of a Chief to sing “Hail to the …” to or some stupid holiday bowl game…
The Future’s Still Bright
Barbara K, the woman who turned down $900,000
Record Reviews
Silver ScooterGoodbye EP (Peek-a-Boo) Silver Scooter is a band whose sense of pop songcraft seems to mellow with age. That’s not to say the Goodbye EP — a four-song precursor to the band’s forthcoming full-length, The Blue Law — is headed for Burt Bacharach territory. A better analogy might be the local band’s inevitable graduation…
Women on Top
The risks and rewards of being a woman in Austin’s high tech world
Naked City
A recap of how the Democrats and Republicans fared in this year’s state legislative elections.
The Great Escape
State and Main D: David Mamet; with William H. Macy, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rebecca Pidgeon, Sarah Jessica Parker, Alec Baldwin, David Paymer. When you think David Mamet, do you think “funny”? Probably not. This playwright-turned-film director is known for many things: the deliberate staccato of his dialogue (see Oleanna), the dick-swinging machismo of his characters…
Second Helpings: Home Away From Home
How to have Thanksgiving by letting others do all of the work
Letters at 3AM
The current election crisis proves the strength and integrity of our political institutions.
Barbara K Reviewed
Barbara KReady (Fire Sister) It should come as no surprise that Barbara K’s solo debut, Ready, picks up where Timbuk 3 left off. Full of deep grooves and introspective lyrics, Ready also demonstrates that she can stand on her own as a songwriter and musician. It flows with songs of deep personal meaning, yet with…
Record Reviews
Jason Blum & the Flexible Sensuals(Atomic Anodyne) Found: the missing link between Tom Waits and Beck? Not quite, but neither is Jason Blum your typical talk of the Townes singer-songwriter. Lyrically, Blum displays talent typical of an above-average s-sw, but it’s definitely in the art of arrangement that he makes his mark, utilizing the everything-old-is-new-again…
Women on Top
Randi Shade: Good Intentions What does it take to lead one of Austin’s most prominent, and popular, dot-com start-ups from inception to funding to acquisition in just over a year? Well, nerves of steel come in handy. And Randi Shade, the president and founder of Charitygift (www.charitygift.com), is as tough as they come: Frank, no-nonsense,…
Naked City
The City Council prepares to debate a new settlement with Stratus Properties in a series of public hearings.
The Great Escape
Traffic D: Steven Soderbergh; with Michael Douglas, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Don Cheadle, James Brolin, Benicio del Toro. When Soderbergh chose Austin to test-screen his latest opus a couple of months back, audience feedback was unanimously positive. At that point, the film ran two hours and 43 minutes; expect the final cut to have been whittled down…
To Ancient Troy (By Way of Denver)
Ancient Greece and modern Denver may seem an incongruous pairing, but in the new Greek epic Tantalus, produced by the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, they prove a striking fit, creating a work that’s heroic.
After a Fashion
DIVINE DEVILLE I had a terrible fear that it would just be canceled completely, but neither rain, nor sleet, nor dark of night could have stopped the show — this time. After several postponements due to weather, the Club DeVille Fall Fashion Extravaganza went on last Wednesday night, amidst falling leaves and drizzly skies, which…
Where Idealism Is Still Alive
Webster’s defines “Americana” as “material concerning or characteristic of America, its civilization or culture; broadly, things typical of America.” The people attending the first Americana Music Association meeting in Nashville Nov. 10 and 11 seemed mostly content to leave it at “music of a certain style.” For some, Americana is synonymous with “alternative country,” although…
Record Reviews
The PlaythingsDemo Mode Twenty years ago today, every major label had a stable of reliable, quirk-laden bands with one foot steeped in New Wave and the other planted on the terra firma of radio readiness. For every act like the Knack who hit one out of the park, you had umpteen other bands like Paul…
Women on Top
Ellen Wood: All Business There aren’t too many businesses out there that measure their success by how many clients they lose. Virtualcfo (www.virtualcfo.com), started by former CPA and UT graduate Ellen Wood with partner Tommy Deavenport in 1996, may be one of the only companies, in fact, for which getting rid of customers is a…
Naked City
Contrary to popular belief, Vignette Corp. isn’t making improvements near its future downtown location out of the goodness of its heart; rather, it’s being subsidized by the city.
The Great Escape
You Can Count on Me D: Kenneth Lonergan; with Laura Linney, Mark Ruffalo, Rory Culkin, Matthew Broderick. No stars. No special effects. No bravura camera work. There’s nothing sexy about You Can Count on Me — even its title sounds like a children’s book. Still, this little film about a brother and sister reunited as…
Articulations
More Austin theatre turning up in New York: Despair�s Book of Dreams and Lipstick Traces set for spring 2001 runs.
Mr. Smarty Pants
There are 69 million grandparents in the U.S.Experts estimate that deep vein thrombosis, or “economy-class syndrome,” a condition that can be caused by long airplane flights resulting in fatal blood clots, kills about 100 people worldwide each year.The giblets packaged with your frozen turkey are most likely from another turkey, due to processing methods.Black Friday,…
Love Walks In
The first Rockrgrl Music Conference gets a blessing from Seattle’s rain goddess.
Record Reviews
Rhythm of Black LinesSet a Summery Table (Sixgunlover) At some point along the way, greater weight in independent music circles was given to “musicianship” — to actual instrumental prowess. As Tortoise and the rest of the Chicago crowd showed, there may be a correlation between skill and true musical innovation. There comes a point, though,…
Women on Top
Georgia Jones: The Computer Mom It’s hard to imagine that there was a time when everyone didn’t know how to use computers, but Georgia Jones remembers it. It was 1977, and Jones, a longtime Texan with the accent to prove it, was working as a staff member in Republican Senator John Tower’s office in Washington.…
The Hightower Lowdown
Corporate Criminals Come Clean; What’s in a Name?
The Great Escape
ALSO PLAYING Star Power Brad Pitt and Benicio del Toro star in the latest from Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels director (aka “Mr. Madonna”) Guy Ritchie, Snatch, a crime thriller with a spider-web storyline about jewel thieves and boxers… Nicolas Cage takes a break (thank god) from high-octane actioners to make Family Man, a…
Exhibitionism
Aaron Brown can write, no doubt about that, but in his new play The Bridge Burner the Austin playwright has used his fine ear for dialogue, skills of characterization, and sense of outrage to cover familiar territory in the vein of dysfunctional family drama.
Day Trips
The Nightengale Archaeological Center west of Marble Falls opens a time capsule of thousands of years for the public to see. Artifacts spanning from the Ice Age to pioneer times have been found at the site on Lake LBJ. Not only do visitors journey through time, but they also get to see how modern archaeologists…
Dancing About Architecture
Freddy Fender is diagnosed with Hepatitis C, as news comes in that Direct Events owner and longtime local live music promoter Tim O’Connor is getting ready to retire.
Record Reviews
The Bigamy SistersBeyond the Ha Ha (Scotsmen From Hull) Despite taking their name from the Beatles parody film The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash, there’s little sign of the Fabs, much less outright silliness, in the Bigamy Sisters’ music. Not that they lack an especially twisted sense of humor, as evidenced by disturbing song…
Women on Top
Molly Alexander: Quiet Time Sometimes, there’s an idea that’s so good, you have to keep it under wraps. In industries where competition is fierce, and funding scarce, secrecy is sometimes the only way one company gets an edge over another. That’s certainly the case with DataWeaver, a two-year-old company that, according to its Web site,…
Capitol Chronicle
Liberals blame Ralph Nader for Al Gore’s defeat; media frenzy at the Governor’s Mansion
The Great Escape
Holiday Calendar The following calendar is what you might call a good guess. It’s culled from press releases, publicists, Web sites, and theatre managers, but it’s by no means set in stone. Just a friendly reminder.DEC 1Non-Stop; Orfeu; Ran; RififiDEC 8Autumn Heart; Cleopatra’s Second Husband; Dungeons & Dragons; Into the Arms of Strangers; Lawrence of…
Exhibitionism
Brave enough to use symbols like the butterfly, the flower, the heart, the egg, and the dove, Austin artist Pio Pulido also proves in his new exhibition at the Dougherty Arts Center that he is wily enough to find new energies in these tired subjects.
About AIDS
World AIDS Day offers varied observances on Dec. 1.
Beat Box
If this year’s presidential election taught us anything, it’s that America is as divided as ever — and that, once again, the country could learn a thing or two from hip-hop. The hip-hop world also appears irrevocably split, between the somewhat self-important serious types who break it down to the most delicate minutiae, and the…
Record Reviews
KissingerCharm Kissinger’s debut CD goes by in what seems like a heartbeat (it’s only 30 minutes), but it’s likely to resonate long afterwards — especially for anyone who’s been to a mall. If it weren’t just slightly felonious, these songs would be perfect for cruising the food court. Calling on the services of Austin’s premier…
Women on Top
Laura Radewald: Quite an Experience For every start-up that succeeds, there are a dozen — perhaps more — that, for one reason or another, don’t make it. Experience Art, an interactive art company started by former ad executive Laura Radewald and two other women, Deborah Andelt and Nancy O’Brien, had a lot of things stacked…
The Great Escape
Chain gangs! Cast aways! Kung Fu! Chocolate! … It’s Time for the Holiday Film Previews
Short Cuts
The Austin Film Society announces ticket sales for the locally filmed Miss Congeniality benefiting the Texas Filmmakers’ Production Fund, and other news, workshops, and gatherings of interest to the film community.
Exhibitionism
Telling the story of unlikely roommates � a staunch middle-aged couple and two young stowaway servants � trapped in a house in 1665 London at the height of the plague, One Flea Spare is an altogether decent sex-and-death psychodrama, and the high caliber of this production an altogether auspicious beginning for School of Night Productions.
Coach’s Corner
Coach wrests the TV Room away from the womenfolk to watch college football’s “Rivalry Saturday” — but what a disappointment!
Record Reviews
KGSR Broadcasts vol. 8(107.1 KGSR-FM/Radio Austin) This year’s installment of KGSR’s annual Broadcasts collection, Vol. 8, is remarkable for a variety of reasons. Chief among them is that on a 3-CD set (it’s grown by a disc in celebration of the station’s 10th anniversary), which includes the likes of Richard Thompson, Guy Clark, Kelly Jo…
Record Reviews
Experimental Aircraft(Devil in the Woods) You can’t take pretentiousness out of the Brits, but you sure can take it out of their music. Experimental Aircraft takes the dense, swirling brushstrokes and dreamy atmospheric sheen of such turn-of-the-Nineties imports as the Catherine Wheel, Lush, and most importantly, My Bloody Valentine, and welds to it a thumping…
Women on Top
Lora Kerr: Starting Up Every business has to start somewhere. Lora Kerr’s is starting in the front room of her house. Kerr’s company, Managing Yours, is, quite literally, still in its infancy. It was just eight months ago, in fact, that Kerr quit her full-time job and started researching the time management market, surveying focus…
The Great Escape
All the Pretty Horses D: Billy Bob Thornton; with Matt Damon, Penelope Cruz, Henry Thomas, Ruben Blades, Lucas Black, Robert Patrick, Bruce Dern. All the Pretty Horses is Billy Bob Thornton’s much-anticipated follow-up to his award-winning directing debut, Sling Blade. Along with switching domestic distribution from one company to another, the movie’s release date has…
Video Reviews
Plunkett & Macleane, the first film from Jake Scott (son of Ridley), is a lush but troubled debut.
The Years With Carlos Fuentes
Carlos Fuentes says he can not imagine a world without Shakespeare and Cervantes, but it is impossible to imagine a Mexico without Fuentes.
A Place, a Time, a Memory
Chronicle Cuisines writers share their Thanksgiving memories.
Record Reviews
Adam CarrollLookin’ Out the Screen Door (Down Hole) The sophomore release from East Texas singer-songwriter Adam Carroll is bulging at the belt with everything that made his debut, South of Town, such a good time: able strumming, fine singing, and enough stories to satisfy a dozen campfires. Though compared extensively to Townes Van Zandt, Carroll…
Record Reviews
The SpidersSex Is Thicker Than Blood (Unscene) The Spiders are onto something: blending Sonic Youth overtones with Led Zeppelin thump. It makes “School Night Out,” the opener of their first CD Sex Is Thicker Than Blood, a real corker, and agilely sets the table for the fusillade of Stooges attitude and Sex Pistols swagger that…
The Making of a President
While waiting for election recount results, George W. Bush is imitating Lyndon B. Johnson while allowing his staff to run the show.
The Great Escape
Cast Away D: Robert Zemeckis; with Tom Hanks, Helen Hunt, Christopher Noth. “I set out to create a modern myth of loss and redemption that raises the question: What do you do when your dreams don’t come true?” At last October’s Heart of Film Screenwriters Conference, Bill Broyles led a panel discussing his latest high-profile…
Video Reviews
Even for die-hard Joan Crawford fans, The Caretaker (aka Della) is hard to stomach.
