Sweet Dreams
Operating a bed and breakfast is a daydream probably shared by many: Just imagine a cozy retreat that embodies the owner’s personality and interests, serves wonderful food, and attracts a steady stream of fascinating travellers. It’s a lovely notion right up to the point where the accounting starts, then it becomes apparent that a healthy…
Naked City
Sometimes the line between white elephants and sacred cows is very thin. Take Austin’s Aqua Festival. In recent years, the annual live music fling has come up short, in both wallet and spirit. The latest cash crunch, detailed in a quietly circulated city hall memo, has festival organizers owing the city $124,214. Parks and Recreation…
Worth a Thousand…
Septima Poinsette Clark, photographed by Brian Lanker Consider the value of words slathered like paint on an artist’s canvas: poetic words that live somewhere between literature and painting; words written about photographs, spoken by the elegant women in those photographs; words spoken by artists who perhaps don’t trust images to speak for themselves. The Austin…
B&B Holidays
Both Citiview and the Bremond House will be bustling with holiday activities. The following events will give curious Austinites a chance to check out the facilities decked out in all their holiday finery. On December 12, the Heritage Society of Austin will sponsor a Candlelight Christmas Tour of the Historic Bremond Block, 4:30-8:30pm. During the…
Ring in the HollyDaze
With nearly 40 films in release this holiday season, it’s harder than ever for a viewer to keep pace. Multiplying faster than partridges in pear trees, during the next five weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, these movies will vie with each other for our attention and ready cash. There will be winners and…
Downtown Galleries — Yes!
Allow me just a few words in support of the (temporary) downtown galleries at 823 Congress. Whether or not the Venturi museum building moves forward — and yes, I still hope that it does — we can all benefit enormously from five years of programming in these new, improved AMOA galleries. They triple the total…
Food-o-file
by Virginia B. Wood Now that the blessings are all counted in anticipation of Thanksgiving Day, one good way to share the bounty with folks less fortunate (and work up a good appetite for turkey at the same time), would be to enlist the whole family in the sixth annual ThunderCloud Subs Turkey Trot. The…
Scanlines
D: Giuseppe Tornatore; with Sergio Castellitto, Leopoldo Pinto, Franco Scaldati, Tony Sperandeo, Clelia Rondinella, Jane Alexander, Tano Cimarosa, Costantino Carrozza, Tony Palazzo. VHS Home Video I Luv Video, 4631 Airport Blvd. The Star Maker From Giuseppe Tornatore, the Oscar-winning Italian director of Cinema Paradiso, comes this 1996 Oscar-nominee for best foreign language film, The Star…
Articulations
Dave Steakley has hardly had a minute to savor the success of his latest stage sensation at the Zachary Scott Theatre Center. Zach’s managing director and the director of Beehive, Forever Plaid, and several of the theatre’s other many musical hits no sooner got The Gospel at Colonus open than he had to jet off…
Texicalli Grill
534 E. Oltorf, 442-2799 7am-4pm daily (Fri til 9pm); closed Sun. Ease into a booth at Texicalli Grill, a funky little south Austin institution, and after you’ve spent several minutes scanning the ceiling collage honoring Austin music history — a work impressive enough to have received mention in Rolling Stone — turn your attention to…
Austin Opening Dates
Nov. 8: Ransom Nov. 15: Space Jam, The Mirror Has Two Faces Nov. 22: Jingle All the Way, The English Patient, Star Trek: First Contact Nov. 27: 101 Dalmatians Dec. 6: Daylight Dec. 13: Mars Attacks!, Jerry Maguire, The Preacher’s Wife Dec. 20: Beavis and Butt-head Do America, One Fine Day, My Fellow Americans, Scream,…
Local Palette
Various Artists Huntington Art Gallery, UT campus through December 8 Few things make me want to return to college… spring break, maybe; between-class naps, sure. But this exhibit! Oh, how this exhibit made me envy any UT art student. Those lucky dogs! “Faculty exhibition” sometimes resonates with “old school”; this one, however, resonates more along…
Bonus Tracks
DEATH OF MILLIONS Ritual Killing This already-popular five-song cassette by local death metalists Death of Millions is as well-produced and as well-executed as anything by Napalm Death, Carcass, and Obituary. And because the genre’s ironic trademark of brilliance is its comedy factor, Ritual Killing’s one-two punch of “Death Is the Love Drug” and the “Feasting…
Short Cuts
by Jen Scoville What’s cooking besides turkey dinner this holiday week? Movies, movies, movies. Though the beefed-up film season now officially starts somewhere around Halloween, the noticeable glut from now through Christmastime is about to be unleashed. Be sure to check out Chronicle film editor Marjorie Baumgarten’s preview of seasonal releases in “Screens,” and choose…
2 Kool 2 Be 4gotten
Juke Joint: They’ll never know how beautiful they are, frozen in this moment in time. And written on the upper left wall: 2 Kool 2 be 4gotten What would the holidays be without those huge art and photography books, the cost of which are sometimes the monetary equivalent to a couple of days’ pay? Does…
AISD Notebook
Perhaps owing to the snakebit nature the fall school semester has assumed so far, a lengthy executive session bisected the regular meeting of the AISD Board of Trustees on Monday. Executive session is when the board discusses some of the potentially more litigious affairs of the school district — among several other items, this week’s…
Can’t We All Just Call It Thursday?
illustration by Jason Stout Thanksgiving, as far as holidays go, is fairly harmless. Except if you consider: a) Thanksgiving opens the floodgates of hell known as “the holiday season” and b) all holidays are way overrated. Why? Because the Holiday Gods are sardonic folk who think it funny to instill great sensations of guilt and…
7 and 7 Is
Remember that most often, 45s are a group’s first stab at immortality — a physical manifestation of their art. Something concrete. They’re also a sign the group’s probably flat broke. No money, no production. No production, no telling what you get. Sometimes the songwriting shines through, but more often than not, it’s obstructed by shit…
Dancing About Architecture
“Steve Wilkison is that rarity in the music business,” says the Wannabes’ Kevin Carney. “A guy who does exactly what he says he’s gonna do.” And even though the Wannabes had already made the decision to leave Dejadisc, Carney says he was sorry to hear that what Wilkison says he’s gonna do now is pack…
Women in Tights
illustration by Penny Van Horn I was typing furiously on my laptop when another passenger took the seat beside me on the flight from Chicago, so I didn’t look up right away. But even with my head bent firmly over my monitor, I couldn’t help but notice that she was wearing almost exactly the same…
Postscripts
by Lee Nichols & Margaret Moser * SAT, NOV 30: Science fiction author and former Austin Chronicle contributor Mark Leon will read from and sign copies of his latest work, Unified Fields, at 2pm at Book People. Unified Fields is the third in his series, which includes Mindsurfer and The Gaia War… Barnes & Noble…
Party of Three
Guess which version of Javelin Boot is pictured here. A hint — L-R: David Mider, Dan O’Neill, and Blake Pattersonphotograph by Laura Skelding It’s been a long, hot year in Austin with high humidity and sunny days a given. For months and months now, I’ve gone to bed at night knowing it would be hot…
Javelin Boot
Fundamentally Sound (Pravda) Good pop music is a slight of hand best not examined too closely. Look what that did for XTC — got ’em sacrificed to the intellectuals. That’s the same group that slaughtered the Monkees because they didn’t really exist — no matter how good those first few albums were. Poor Brian Wilson…
Violet Crown Winners
The Sixth Annual Violet Crown Book Awards — so named for a passage about Austin by author O. Henry — were presented at a ceremony at Scholz Garten on Nov. 16. Top Lone Star honorees and recipients of $1,000 cash prizes and custom-designed glass sculptures were: * MARION WINIK, for her personal memoir First Comes…
The Party Circuit
photography by Arnie Levine Times are tough on Sixth Street, say both the clubowners and musicians. In fact, all over town, big local draws are fading and young contenders are having trouble establishing a following. Yet in the midst of what feels like a musical recession, one facet of Austin’s live scene continues to prosper:…
We Need You!
Yes, you can be of help to someone who is living with HIV/AIDS. We are looking for people who are willing to volunteer a few hours weekly to assisting those who come to us for services. Some of the most important things needed are assistance with housecleaning, occasionally preparing a meal, child care, running errands,…
Also Playing
Friday: Sister 7, Steamboat; Bad Livers, Emo’s; Saturday: Kim Miller, Linda Lozano, Ana Egge, Waterloo Ice House 6th; Ant Man Bee, Cactus Smack, Creepy Myrtle, Blondie’s Sunday: King Soul, La Zona Rosa Monday: The Itals, Flamingo Cantina Tuesday: Shat Records, Quatropaw, Stubb’s; Godflesh, Pail, Ousla, Voodoo Lounge Wednesday: James Polk & John Mills, Sullivan’s Thursday:…
Oh, Deer
We probably built our house right on top of someone else’s home. No matter how sensitive we tried to be to the land and the environment during construction, at the very least we destroyed the dwellings of countless bugs and disturbed the peace of many critters that inhabit the canyon below our house. Despite our…
Record Reviews: Texas Platters
BETH WOOD Wood Work (Autonomous) It’s always a little disturbing to hear newly recorded material from a local artist of whom you’ve never heard. Especially when it’s this good. On her CD debut, Beth Wood sings of resilience and longing in as beautiful a tone as has anyone since k.d. lang sang “Constant Craving.” Granted,…
Benefits
Chuy’s Children Giving to Children Parade to benefit Operation Blue Santa, at Congress at the Capitol, 11am. Bring an unwrapped toy for a child. 473-2783. FRI 6 Holiday Swing Fundraiser to benefit Project Transitions (AIDS organization), at Ben Hur Shrine Temple Hall, 8pm-12:30am. 454-8646. SAT 7 Pets With Santa Photos to benefit Humane Society, at…
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
Liberty Lunch Saturday, November 30 Smell something funny? It’s probably Jon Spencer’s pant leg. Dripping sweat and oozing sex, Spencer, the “Number 1 blues singer in the country” and the bassless Blues Explosion (that would be Russell Simins, guitar, and Judah Bauer, drums) strut back into town Saturday on the heels of Now I Got…
Day Trips
The steeple of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Catholic Church in Cestohowa towers above the farm and ranchland west of TX123 in northern Karnes County. About 90 miles southeast of Austin, Cestohowa (the “w” is pronounced as a “v” sound) has a history that stretches back to the 1700s. With the exception of…
Chain Reaction
Philip Sansone, CEO of Book People, Austin’s largest indie bookstorephotograph by Walt Stoneham In Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury depicts a future world where the written word has been banned and the state is dedicated to rounding up and burning all contraband literature. Our access to literature may indeed be in danger, and in the near…
Page Two
I keep trying to write something about the Bloch Cancer Memorial Park, about how sometimes less is more, how one of the best things about Austin is that it says no so intelligently (though this is frequently portrayed as one of its most puzzling idiosyncratic characteristics). But I know I’ll end up saying something along…
The Chain Gang
The larger of the country’s two giant chain booksellers, Barnes & Noble, can trace its roots back to 1873 with a single bookstore in Manhattan. Jennifer Wolfertz, manager of corporate communication for Barnes & Noble’s corporate headquarters in New York City, says the venerable old bookshop had fallen on hard times when it was purchased…
Public Notice
By the Light of the Moon Hey, pussycat, grab your owl, dust off the tiara, strap on a cummerbund, and get ready to cut a rug at Project Transitions annual Holiday Swing, Fri, Dec 6, 8pm-12:30am at the Ben Hur Shrine Ballroom. Here’s a chance to live out those George and Mary Bailey fantasies. It…
Hallucination Village
illustration by Ben Anglin For a few glorious hours at last week’s council meeting, Ronney Reynolds’ mayoral fantasies had come true. The real mayor had slipped out early. Second-in-command Gus Garcia was ill. So the gavel went to Reynolds. Sycophantic speakers currying favor for the Vison Village project labeled him “Mr. Mayor-to-be,” and judging from…
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
In 1940, Spanish dictator Francisco Franco issued a law that prohibited women from bullfighting. The ban was lifted in 1974. In gold rush days, Charlotte Darkey “Charley” Parkhurst was known as one of the best stagecoach drivers in California. She once got an eye kicked by a horse, hence the nickname, one-eyed Charley or cockeyed…
Texas’ Cotton Boll
illustration by Doug Potter An ambitious plan to rid the state of the boll weevil has not gotten rid of the pesky cotton-destroying insect. Instead, the statewide spraying program has caused an infestation of lawyers. Most farmers would probably rather have weevils than lawyers. But these days, they have both. And now they can’t get…
