Cover Story
My Favorite Year
In an extraordinary season of four premieres, playwright Robert Schenkkan brings UT, his old school, a new screwball comedy
Firecracker
Firecracker 2004, NR, 112 min. Directed by Steve Balderson, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Karen Black, Jak Kendall, Mike Patton, Susan Traylor, Kathleen Wilhoite. A truly bizarre film, Firecracker combines some magnificent imagery with some other seriously awful examples of composition and execution. Director Steve Balderson of Wamego, Kansas, where this story is…
Beside the Point: Somewhere Over the Dais
Pay no attention to the man sleeping under the bridge
Art From the Streets: Off the Streets and on Your Walls
Art helps, and the annual Art From the Streets Show and Sale helps artists who are homeless sell the work they’ve created and help themselves
Food-o-file
Betty Meyer survived our big mistake, Eddie Wilson gets Gaynelle Neville in the kitchen, and Justin Raiford previews his new menu; plus, a whole lot of food stuff going on Sunday, Nov. 6
Texas Platters
Appetizers & Leftovers(I Eat Records) This is a very promising 21-track introduction to I Eat Records, a local label specializing in eclectic, folk-flavored indie-pop from locals like Fluffers Union, Okkervil River, and the Glass Family. The Orange Mothers’ graying-templed anthem “Kids (Don’t Know)” shares pick-hit status along with the Handsome Charlies’ horn-infused barroom rambler “Makes…
The Hightower Report
‘If an ordinary American did to a 7-Eleven what Halliburton routinely does to taxpayers, that poor soul would be doing 25-to-life in state prison’; Domestic oppression in the air?
Arts Review
Discovering why a rockabilly singer is in the middle of a play about mass-murdering brothers in the American Revolution is one of many delights in Dan Dietz’s genius play ‘Americamisfit’
Wedding Vows
No one believes more firmly than Jack Ingram that Jack Ingram ‘is’ the future face of country music
Texas Platters
Over the Top Volume One(Violent Hippy) Seattle-based Violent Hippy Records chronicles eardrum-popping Category 5 vortices of metallic destruction from Austin clear on out to Okinawa. A one-two local punch from the Sword (“Winter’s Wolves”) and Oh, Beast! (“Spontaneous Lee”) jump-starts the commotion and does the town proud. Ditto for Gorch Fock’s demented ass-shaker “Tap Is…
Shot in the Dark
The Texas Documentary Tour presents Paul Devlin’s ‘Power Trip’
Arts Review
Leah Ryan’s ‘Chopper’ has the quirky characters and bizarre humor of many Hyde Park Theatre productions, but sympathizing with its disconnected characters is difficult
Texas Platters
Bun BTrill (Rap-A-Lot/Asylum) DJ Rapid Ric King of the Trill: Bun B’s Greatest Verses (Mixtape Mechanic) Now more than ever, inebriation is a crutch on the bayou, down-home Houston rap flooding its bloodstream with stupefying distortions. Riding blurred waves of ho’s and hurt like an escapist champ, Bun B designates himself as just the driver…
Texas Platters
Almost There Turn One(Almost There) Austin’s Almost There, the label behind last year’s inspired Who tribute, pulls together another winning assortment with Turn One. This time, 21 Austin regulars do one unreleased song apiece. Li’l Cap’n Travis’ “The Blinding Crash” and Moonlight Towers’ “Back to the Pines” are solid specimens of twang-driven rock by the…
Don’t Hate It Because It’s Beautiful
Arnand Tucker and Jason Schwartzman talk ‘Shopgirl’
Arts Review
If some of the works included in Gallery Lombardi’s ‘Erotica 2005’ dip into the realm of juvenile bad taste, they also reveal that sex is of compelling interest to humans
Texas Platters
Paul WallThe Peoples Champ (Swishahouse/Asylum) As a gold-grill jeweler, H-town rapper Paul Wall understands full well that extra frills depend on an effective hustle. Exhibiting a knack for righteous bezels, The Peoples Champ benefits tremendously from guest appearances that often outshine their welcome wagon. While Wall holds his own on summer anthem “Sittin’ Sidewayz,” it’s…
Justice or Vengeance?
A tale of tragedy and punishment in Williamson County
‘SXSW Presents’: ‘American Detective’
‘American Detective’
Culture Flash!
The Blanton unloads some prints, ‘Keepin’ It Weird’ gets the eye from CBS, and Zach’s Little Elf ain’t so little anymore
Texas Platters
True BelieversAntone’s, Oct. 27 “Sounds like the True Believers,” grinned Alejandro Escovedo after the band’s smokestack billowed black on Lou Reed’s “Train Round the Bend.” “[Though] not as drunk and out of tune.” Now it was Jon Dee Graham’s turn to laugh. And it did sound like the True Believers. More or less. Less than…
How Not to Gentrify: HRC Asks for Eastside Moratorium
Alvarez advises caution, further study
Film News
‘Sin City’ set for small screen? Plus: Amber Heard, ‘Cavite,’ and an Austin finalist for the Nicholl Fellowship.
Page Two
Libby indictment evokes more scapegoating and hypocrisy from the right
Texas Platters
Angela StrehliBlue Highway (M.C.) The brilliance of the blues is often not in well-cut gems, but rather in the rough and rocky lyrics of the songs. Angela Strehli’s Blue Highway is a dazzling recording, by turns original and reverent, soulful and sad, and yet likely to get shunted aside in the holiday flood of releases…
The Beat Goes on Without Stern
Infinity adopts new talk format but leaves Austin hip-hop property alone
DVD Watch
DVD Watch The Wages of FearCriterion, $39.95 Le SamouraïCriterion, $29.95 You can’t swing a dead chat anywhere near French cinema without knocking over the Nouvelle Vague. Like any true artistic upheaval, it was a reaction to everything before it, and it affected everything afterward. On a second disc of bonus features to Henri-Georges Clouzot’s unforgettable…
After a Fashion
You don’t need a can-opener – an Oilcan opener, to be precise – when Stephen’s claws are unsheathed!
Texas Platters
Ethan Azarian Cross’n Over (I Eat Records) Former Orange Mothers leader Ethan Azarian’s second solo album eases further along on a path of musical maturation far removed from the Hollywood Indians’ “flyer wars.” Improbable as it would’ve seemed from the perspective of a 1991 campus-area telephone pole, this one-time raconteur from Vermont has become an…
Engineering Quality – and Equality
The African-American Quality of Life plan gets aired out; NAACP unsatisfied
TV Eye
Here at last, here at last:’The Boondocks’ on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim
About AIDS
Is a home HIV test on the horizon?
Texas Platters
John Dufilho I Remain, as Always, a Rabble Rouser From the Mountains (Glurp) In the wake of the Deathray Davies’ standout The Kick and the Snare earlier this year, frontman John Dufilho’s solo debut comes off as an Odelay-to-Mutations transition piece. From its lugubrious title on down, Rabble Rouser is an exercise in softly focused…
Clark Autopsy Released – APD and Tasers Exonerated?
Questions – and lawsuits – still linger over Taser use
To Your Health
Is the ox bile used in some digestive enzymes at risk for mad cow disease contamination?
Texas Platters
ST 37 Future Memories (Four/Four) The “Keep Austin Weird” bumper sticker can be multipurpose of course, but there are certain facets of the underground to which it applies in spades. ST 37 has been keeping it weird since 1987, and this wild and woolly collection of rarities and unreleased material proves that, through dozens of…
Endorsements
If there’s a beef we’ve got with this particular November election, it’s along the lines of, “Is this exercise in futility really necessary?” In too large part, the answer is a resounding No! The Travis County ballot is disfigured not only by the trivial, redundant, and/or reactionary proposed constitutional amendments generated by the Lege, but…
Shopgirl
Steve Martin’s latest stands out as an elegant work, one that provides a welcome look at love, romance, and heartbreak without the encumbrances of the usual Hollywood folderol.
22nd Annual Austin Jewish Book Fair
Nov. 9-17
The Common Law
When can the police search my entire car?
Phases and Stages
Will Taylor & Strings Attached Collaborations (Heart Music) Will Taylor’s idea is a novel one and his intent admirable. He backs some of Austin’s most renowned singer-songwriters, his band Strings Attached interpreting their catalogs with violin, cello, and viola in the unique downtown setting of St. David’s Church. It’s turned into a concert series that…
Naked City
Headlines and happenings from Austin and beyond
Jarhead
Though lacking a clear point of view, the film seems to say that war not only dehumanizes soldiers but also infantilizes them. It’s not a pretty picture, but it is a lovely film.
TCB
Stabbing, stealing, and another weekend in the blazing Texas heat: What the @$%@# is wrong with you people?
Day Trips
Government Canyon State Natural Area helps protect the Edwards Aquifer Recharge Zone while giving visitors a beautiful new area to explore
Phases and Stages
Thumbsucker(Hollywood) The Polyphonic Spree’s cult leader, Tim DeLaughter, wrote the original score for Thumbsucker, an indie film account of a misfit teen with an oral fixation. DeLaughter’s score drips with melancholy, as befits any authentic narrative of teendom; it’s a surprisingly subdued effort from a usually exuberant outfit. DeLaughter shines solo on “Wonderful for You,”…
Katrina Evacuees Falling Through Housing Cracks
Federal and city aid maze difficult to navigate
Dancing in Twilight
This intercultural Houston-made film is an off-the-beaten-path ensemble drama that shows a healthy disregard for Hollywood rules.
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
On minding your Q’s and W’s, the company you keep, and the drinks you drink
Texas Platters
Old 97’sAlive & Wired (New West) Dallas’ Old 97’s deserve a live album. At home in both honky-tonks and punk dives, the band has spent a decade on the saddle between Hank (Williams) and Frank (Black). What’s questionable is the need for a 2-CD overview that amasses 30 tracks from two summer nights at Gruene…
KKK Takes Spotlight Away From Other Prop. 2 Backers
Fundamentalists are shocked that Klan agrees with them
The Squid and the Whale
In this expertly acted piece about the coming apart of a family of New York intellectuals, humor is served not with a smirk but with a helpless shrug.
From the Source
Asked which Hollywood screwball comedies influenced or inspired The Marriage of Miss Hollywood and King Neptune or that he just liked, Robert Schenkkan listed the following: His Girl Friday (1940) D: Howard Hawks; screenplay by Charles Lederer, from Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur’s The Front Page; with Rosalind Russell, Cary Grant It Happened One Night…
Soccer Watch
The lady Longhorns head for the Big 12, and St. Edward’s hosts the Heartland Conference Tournament this week
Phases and Stages
D:FUSEPeople 3: Both Sides of the Picture.Live (Moist Music) Whither electronica or wither electronica? That’s the question, and to his credit, Austin’s D:Fuse manages to answer both questions and one other: Why buy live DJ compilations instead of simply heading out to the club? Not much reason, actually. D:Fuse, now quite admirably mixing live percussion…
Developing World Is Our Toxic Techno Trash Dumpster
Tons of electronic waste are polluting poor countries rather than being recycled
Keane
An unconventional psychological thriller without much plot, Keane is the gripping and uncompromising story of a man’s attempt to hang on to his sanity.
Written by …
Select works by Robert SchenkkanStageThe Devil and Daniel Webster (premiere, Seattle Children’s Theatre, Feb. 17, 2006) Lewis and Clark Reach the Euphrates (premiere, Mark Taper Forum, Dec. 1, 2005) The Marriage of Miss Hollywood and King Neptune (premiere, UT-Austin, Nov. 4, 2005) By the Waters Of Babylon (premiere, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Feb. 24, 2005) Handler…
Oops!
In last week’s “This Ain’t No Picnic: Minutemen on Patrol,” we incorrectly stated that Shannon McGauley wrote the e-mail that warned of Chris Simcox as a danger. The e-mail, written by Max Worthington of the Los Angeles County Minuteman Association, was actually forwarded by McGauley. Also, Crisol Pro Educacion y Cultura airs segments of a…
Texas Platters
STB/JerryskidsMars Needs Women and Other Big Hits (Family Fun) Shelf space devoted to Austin’s first-wave punk bands features more vinyl than digital, but Sharon Tate’s Baby/Jerryskids eases the loneliness with 14 tracks recorded live in the studio way back when. The appeal of old-school punk was its immediacy and its unwillingness to change, and more…
What’s Up With 290’s Expansion
CTRMA, TxDOT working together
National Lampoon’s Adam & Eve
More collegiate humor released by the folks at the Lampoon that has more hormonal smarts than necessary and about as many sex and toilet gags as you suspect.
Ben McKenzie on Uncle Robert
It was a boner only a real teenager could make. Back when Benjamin McKenzie Schenkkan was 16, his school decided to honor his uncle, Robert Schenkkan, on the Austin High alumni Wall of Fame. When Unc couldn’t attend, he asked nephew Ben to address the school on his behalf. He agreed “with great trepidation,” the…
Split Parties
Away from the table, several sides to the tipping story
Texas Platters
America Is WaitingIn the Lines (Wrong) America Is Waiting has gone and done it now. While the general public is being blissfully distracted by the new Starbucks opening across from the old Starbucks and shiny phallic condos and a satanic Mega Wal-Mart with six heads, the Austin quartet went and put out an album that’s…
Stratus Goes to Council on Lantana
SOS Alliance threatens to sue if application approved
Ansel Adams: Revelations
The Ransom Center exhibition ‘Ansel Adams: A Legacy’ lets you experience the works of the best-known of American photographers as art rather than commerce
Gratuitous Advice, Rants, and Revelations
With the advent of the Internet and the blogosphere there has been a surge in sites that allow waitstaff to vent and whine at will, while they provide the reader valuable insight into the inner workings of restaurants in general. A number of excellent sites are available for lurkers, and the ones that are specifically…
Texas Platters
Quasitropic Dexadreams(Business Deal) Like a hot mix tape, Quasitropic Dexadreams encapsulates the nascent buzz of a creative autonomous zone just outside of radar range. All 22 tracks coalesce around variations on retro-electropop or minimalist new wave decadence. The Zom Zoms’ “Race of Zom Zoms” stands out on the basis of unhinged aural hyperactivity, while Associated…
Point Austin: Halloween Masks
Everyone had a role to play, and some performed better than others
Luv Doc Recommends: “Will There Ever Be a Rainbow?” Opening and Reception
Believing in something is a very special kind of magic, and the more unbelievable that something is, the more powerful the magic. Deep, right? Well, consider that you can very easily replace the word “magic” in the preceding sentence with the word “stupidity” and it sounds nearly as profound. That’s the problem with abstractions: They…
