Cover Story
Sunset vs. Goliath
Tiny Sunset Valley defends the aquifer — but could use a little neighborly help
Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages
Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages 1922 (1968 re-release), NR, 74 min. Directed by Benjamin Christensen, Starring Maren Pedersen, Clara Pontoppidan, Elith Pio, Oscar Stribolt, Tora Teje, John Andersen, Benjamin Christensen. There’s no other way to describe this Danish feature from the Silent Era: It’s extremely weird and mind-twisting. Strange images and set-pieces adorn this early…
Kilometer Zero: The WTO Ministerial Shipwrecks in Cancún, Mexico
Kilometer Zero: The WTO Ministerial Shipwrecks in Cancún, Mexico 2003, NR, 60 min. While the WTO meets, people rally in the streets.
Young, Strong, and Getting Stronger
Love Object D: Robert Parigi; with Desmond Harrington; Melissa Sagemiller, Udo Kier, Rip Torn Part Willard, part Fatal Attraction, and part scary mannequin orgy from Chuck Connors’ classic Tourist Trap, this creepy exploration of erotic displacement run amok from director Parigi is guaranteed to make you look at those anatomically correct sex dolls in all…
Food-o-File
Virginia B. Wood grooves to smooth yet rocking Austin restaurant scene.
Texas Platters
HobbleGods Work (AMC) Barreling through the intersection of punk and hard rawk like a souped-up El Camino, Gods Work advances Hobble’s cause with zealous fervor. The local quartet’s third release harnesses bombastic guitar theatrics, a hypercaffeinated rhythm section, and blood-curdling screams that would’ve given Kurt Cobain laryngitis. Hobble exhibits mad skills in the art of…
Naked City
Austin tries to clarify — and enforce — its rules against “bandit signs.”
Shakespeare-ouette
Ballet Austin’s Stephen Mills has a deft touch at getting the Bard to the barre.
Mini-Review
Spanish Home Cooking/ Cocina Casera Españolaby Miriam Kelen Cocina Casera Inc., 252 pp., $34.95 Fixing a dish for someone you love is like giving that person a hug. Whether it’s your spouse, your mother, a friend, or a neighbor, you think about them and ask yourself, “what would surprise them?” — Rosa Prats i Novau,…
Texas Platters
The SpidersGlitzkrieg (Acetate) If it seems like the Spiders’ sophomore album has taken as long to arrive as Guns N’ Roses’ Chinese Democracy, truth is it’s only been three years since their debut, Sex Is Thicker Than Blood, gave everyone on Red River a new favorite band. Although Glitzkrieg isn’t quite the explosive volley of…
Naked City
The speaker clearly breaks the rules rather than lose on the House floor
Out of Time
Denzel does a Southern-fried potboiler.
Strings Attached
The Miró Quartet launches its residency as UT’s faculty string quartet.
Liquid Assets
October is Texas Wine Month, and corks are poppin’ all over the state. This is a great opportunity to visit a local vineyard and try some great new wines. Within a two-hour drive of your home here in Central Texas, there are 22 wineries, everyone eager to meet you, show you what they do, and…
Texas Platters
EndochineDay Two On its self-released full-length debut, Endochine balances the competing demands of appealing to new ears while distinguishing themselves from the herd of melodic hard rockers. The local fivepiece obviously shares sound and vision with extant and/or established bands, but with strong songwriting, hints of inspiration, and production assistance via Swede-cum-Austinite Lars Gorranson, the…
Naked City
The feds’ curious “hemp rule” gets laughed at in court
Kill Bill: Vol. 1
Quentin Tarantino goes into overdrive with this story about the bride who was left for dead on her wedding day and seeks revenge against them that done her wrong.
Articulations
Nine current and former Austin playwrights storm the finals for the 2003 Hedieman Award, while playwright Lisa D’Amour storms New York.
Chiseled in Stone
An appreciation of honky-tonk veteran Billy Dee
Texas Platters
SubsetDueling Devotions (Tight Spot) There’s something inherently pretty about pain. Or at least Subset would like you to think so on their sophomore release Dueling Devotions. Guitarist/vocalist (and Chronicle Webmaster) Lindsey Simon makes that clear enough on “Bad Luck,” declaring, “It’s high time to get over this — starting over without a doubt.” Before the…
Naked City
The DA has now beaten the business group in every court in Texas.
Intolerable Cruelty
The Coen brothers tackle a comedy of manners and come out winners.
News/Print
Martin Scorsese needs to keep his mitts off the blues. You need to mark your calendars. I don’t need a drink.
The Ride
It’s 1979 and the David Allen Coe show is on the road. These are good times, and the caravan has two full tour buses as well as two semis. Driving one of the 18-wheelers is a guy named “Useless” and among his passengers is Billy Dee. Somebody in the caravan has a blowout, and they…
Texas Platters
Primordial UndermindThin Shells of Revolution (Emperor Jones) For anyone who’s heard Austin psyche-jam scions Primordial Undermind at the height of their free-noise lunacy, as on last year’s abstract Beings of Game P-U, this album is going to be a surprise. PU mastermind shredder Eric Arn, who abstained from the mic on the last disc, returns…
Austin @ Large: Austin at Large
For regional planning, it’s a great day to go back to the future
Mambo Italiano
Broad gay and Italian stereotypes mambo through this farce.
Readings
Debut author Julie Orringer, who is 30, belies the old bromide that young people can’t write about youth convincingly, and she’ll be at BookPeople on Friday, Oct. 24.
Billy Dee’s Top 10 Covers
1. “The Real Mr. Heartache,” Johnny Paycheck When Johnny Paycheck died earlier this year, his passing went largely unnoticed, but not by Billy Dee, who considers Paycheck one of the great country songwriters. This slow sad song brings out a real passion in Billy Dee.2. “The Ride,” David Allen Coe Billy Dee sings several songs…
Texas Platters
Grand ChampeenThe One That Brought You (Glurp!) The sound of a band hitting its stride is always a beautiful thing. On their third album, local quartet Grand Champeen comes roaring out of the gate with the vein-pounding “The Good Slot” and doesn’t look back until the final squeals of “Fakin’ It” have evaporated into the…
Capitol Chronicle
The state gridlock persists on public school finance.
Casa de los Babys
The new film from John Sayles presents a great group of characters and then strands them without a plot.
Readings
Almost 150 years after the death of François Eugène Vidocq, criminal investigators of all stripes still follow his basic methods of detection. Likewise, all manner of thieves and con artists follow in his footsteps, and that includes writers, too.
Dale Watson and Mini-Dee
Dale Watson is the reason Billy Dee is here in Austin. He met the bassist back in the early Eighties, during Billy Dee’s tenure at Gilley’s. At the time, Watson was playing clubs in Pasadena, Texas, and would sit in with Billy Dee whenever he got the chance. Years later, Billy Dee was doing a…
Texas Platters
The Mars VoltaEmo’s, Oct. 3 “Is anybody there?!” screamed Mars Volta vocalist Cedric Bixler as a sold-out Emo’s throng squirmed like sardines at the band’s Friday night performance. Actually, it was the refrain from “Drunkship of Lanterns,” off this summer’s De-Loused in the Comatorium. Nevertheless, the massive Texas fan base for this off-shoot of El…
On the Lege
The Democrats watch in shock and awe as the GOP mangles its own re-redistricting crusade
Readings
We’ve seen the holy fool before, of course; perhaps we’re well acquainted. In The Ecstatic — the debut novel by Victor LaValle, who cannonballed into the young / urban / big-lit milieu with the award-winning short story collection Slapboxing With Jesus, made the PEN / Faulkner finalist list with this book, and, somewhere in there,…
Ginny’s Little Longhorn Saloon
Ginny Kalmbach never meant to own a bar. Yet through a few twists and turns, she’s quietly become the queen of Austin’s honky-tonk scene, and her bar, along with the Broken Spoke, is its epicenter. Seven days a week, live country music fills the room, and there’s never, ever a cover. This isn’t open-mic material…
Do the Travis Three-Way
Despite the chaos caused by the re-redistricting crusade, from Austin’s local perspective the falling of the maps has settled into a soothing rhythm, like the tides. Good map, bad map, good map, bad map. When the House and Senate sent their adopted redistricting proposals to conference, both were Good Maps — ones that left Travis…
Page Two
If you want to cut government spending, legalize pot, plus more pearls on government spending (or lack thereof) and the Austin Film and Green festivals.
Billy Dee Reviewed
Billy Dee Heart, Don’t Fail Me Now Comes a time when a sideman feels the need to strike out on his own. Billy Dee, after logging many, many hours playing bass for Dale Watson (among many, many others), is doing just that. Now, the simplest way to go would be to split his solo debut…
Lowe’s, Austin, and HB 1204: Who’s Got the Cards?
Are Austin’s hands tied on another land-use battle over the aquifer?
The Hightower Lowdown
Congress feathers its own nest; electronic voting threatens to steal our vote.
After a Fashion
Blow by blow details of Stephen’s night out, including an up-to-the-minute sunglasses-acquired count. Do not miss it!
Texas Platters
Milton MapesWesternaire (Aspyr)Milton MapesThe State Line (Aspyr) A horse pulls up on a ridge and its rider looks out on Westernaire. “I’m a brave young gun; got the world sittin’ on my thumb. I feel air fill my lungs; there’s a race I’ve gotta run.” An electric guitar burns like the red clay beneath their…
Parker Springs Developer Beats the (Reset) Clock
For three years, developers at King Fisher Creek Ltd. have clashed with Southeast Austin residents, city and state officials, and their own subcontractors over their efforts to build the Parker Springs low-income housing complex off East St. Elmo Road. Now, the saga may soon be over. King Fisher vaulted a major hurdle last week when…
Finding Their Tuva
The Texas Documentary Tour screens ‘Genghis Blues,’ the Belic Brothers’ next step in living a ‘kickass, adventurous life and meeting cool people.’
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Late fees have become the fastest growing source of revenue for the credit card industry, jumping from $1.7 billion in 1996 to $7.3 billion in 2002.Roadrunners can make weird barking noises.A study published in the journal Science in September 2002 purported to prove how dangerous the drug Ecstasy is. However, the study was later retracted…
Texas Platters
Growin’ a Beard(Aspyr)The GourdsGrowin’ a Beard: The Soundtrack (Aspyr) Like many a slice-of-small-town-life documentaries, Growin’ a Beard depends on its cast of eccentric townspeople and a quirky event to carry it. Unlike Michael Moore’s Roger & Me, Beard doesn’t have a sniggering undertone, and unlike Hands on a Hardbody, it avoids the human train-wreck syndrome.…
No Worries for Wal-Mart? Not So Fast
When it canceled its plans to build a Supercenter over the aquifer, Wal-Mart may have thought that little else would stand in the way of its blueprint for the rest of Austin. But a spin-off coalition of local business and community activists has emerged to become the newest thorn in the retailer’s side. The group…
Short Cuts
The Austin film community becomes a forum, just after it becomes a juggernaut. Plus, the Arbor sprouts again.
Day Trips
Post, Texas, hangs on the edge of the Caprock where the American plains drop into the rolling hills of Central Texas. It was to this inhospitable land that the inventor of Post Toasties cereal came to create a utopian community and one of the most unusual chapters in Texas history. From its pedestal in front…
Texas Platters
Kevin McKinneyTalking to Plants (Shat) “Laugh when there’s nothing left to lose,” urges Kevin McKinney in the opening seconds of his latest solo album, Talking to Plants. The song in question, “Laugh,” serves as an ample introduction to the Soulhat frontman’s need to make his audience grin. The problem is that more often than not,…
Naked City
Headlines and happenings from Austin and beyond
TV Eye
Where does Belinda Acosta come down on the “the whitest black girl on TV”? Find out here.
Soccer Watch
Germany 3, USA 0; Sweden 2, Canada 1 Well, the U.S. women are out of the Women’s World Cup — to everybody’s surprise except, apparently, the German squad, which played with more confidence than any American opponent I’ve seen in a decade. The 3-0 score, of course, wasn’t indicative of the game — two goals…
Texas Platters
Robert Earl KeenFarm Fresh Onions (Audium) Farm Fresh Onions is Robert Earl Keen’s 10th album, and the songwriter’s debut for Nashville’s Audium label. The fact that his last three releases have appeared on three different labels doesn’t seem to have had any effect on his music, however. Long gone are the days when Keen would…
Naked City
GOP luminaries turn the highway’s groundbreaking into a blessed event.
DVD Watch
Included among this fall’s syllabus of Sayles releases, like Casa de los Babys and other new DVD issues of Sayles’ earliest films, this first flick gives great opportunity to survey the professional development of the maverick lone star director known for playing Hollywood against itself.
Second Helpings:
“Second Helpings” offers tasty, bite-sized restaurant listings compiled from new and previous reviews, guides, and poll results. This week’s entries were updated by Erin Mosow. For quick, reliable info about Austin eateries, check here. The Bagelry 8127 Mesa, 502-9222 701 Capital of TX Hwy. S., 347-1939 Monday-Friday, 7am-3pm; Saturday-Sunday, 8am-2pm This locally owned chainette that…
To Your Health
I eat a lot of canned fish, and sometimes canned beans and tomato products. Is there still lead in canned food? How can I know when a can is likely to have lead?
Texas Platters
Hamell on TrialTough Love (Righteous Babe) It’s been a decade since Ed Hamell’s one-man wrecking crew amassed a devoted following here in Austin during his lengthy residency at the sadly departed Electric Lounge. Here was a keen cultural observer with a big heart, a humanist punk hero armed with nothing more than an acoustic guitar…
Naked City
The city takes feedback on its proposed improved cultural contracts system.
Exhibitionism
Second Youth Family Theatre’s Beauty and the Beast is no less magical than other versions of the tale, but its real enchantment comes from the way it show us its fairy tale characters discovering each other’s hearts.
TCB
And now, the news…
About AIDS
Last week the news media painted an increasingly discouraging picture of U.S. health care, specifically regarding the growing number of Americans who have no health insurance. Too often, these families and individuals are already on our society’s margins: poor, un- or undereducated, struggling to stay on track and employed and well. One serious health complication…
Texas Platters
P.W. LongRemembered (Touch & Go) P.W. Long, ex-singer/guitar player for Chicago’s heavy roots bangers Mule, has put together an incredibly angry and passionate disc on this third outing. Long’s backwoods yowl, relocated to the Lone Star State, is hard to categorize; guitars that slash and clang rather than twang, and a weariness to the lyrics…
Naked City
The council member appeals to history to keep Town Lake Park alive and the boat races dead.
Exhibitionism
Tom Stoppard’s Travesties mixes early 20th-century history, European politics, and Oscar Wilde into a typically brilliant work, and the cast of Austin Playhouse’s production rises to the intellectual challenges of the script and appears to be having a fine time playing with it.
Green With Energy
William Greider and Amy Goodman bring a message of changing capitalism to meet human needs to Austin for the Green Festival.
Growing Pains and Great Strides
I have to start with a confession. I love the Salt Lick barbecue in Driftwood. Their rich, calorie-laden sauce is one of my favorites anywhere on the planet; their brisket is tender and juicy and the occasional beef ribs are soul satisfying. I had heard owner Scott Roberts tell a Central Market cooking class that…
Texas Platters
ZZ TopMescalero (RCA) National press on Mescalero suggests it’s time for the Li’l Old Band From Texas to hang up its marabou-banded Stetsons. That’s an idea worth pursuing, after all, any band might get stale after 33-plus years. Perhaps the trio could try a guest rapper or feature Sheryl Crow’s warbling. Better yet, maybe Messrs.…
Naked City
The police chief still hasn’t addressed conflict-of-interest issues with his handpicked “independent” investigator.
Exhibitionism
The Conspirare choir can do anything, from communicating a work’s sonorous beauty to delivering well-placed, carefully planned emotional punches, and they did both in their recent performance of the Bach B Minor Mass.
Luv Doc Recommends: The Austin Green Festival
Even with the exodus of thousands of Longhorn fans, it looks to be a busy weekend here in Weirdville. Those who resist the pull of the orange and red yin-yang of the Cotton Bowl will be amply rewarded with a host of interesting festivals, events, and other recreational oddities. Thursday night the Austin Film Festival…
