Fusing Southwestern and Asian Cuisines Brio Grande
Brio 1112 W. Sixth Street, 499-0442 Dinner 5pm-12am, daily by Tom Philpott Flannery O’Connor wrote that “the lady who reads only books she thinks will improve her will always be disappointed, because she can never know if they have had the desired effect. But if by some chance she stumbles across a great novel, she…
Heritage Lost
The Texas Natural Heritage Program, one of the primary tools for researching and protecting endangered species in Texas, is being exterminated by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD). The program, which researches and evaluates endangered species on public and private land around the state, is being dismantled, and much of the blame for the…
Lagniappe
“She has everything: magic, money, beauty, intelligence. Why can’t she be happy?” – Andy Warhol on Elizabeth Taylor I love Liz, but not for any of the usual reasons. I don’t love Liz for her acting, humanitarianism, or sheer survival. I love her because she’s larger than life, though not as large in life as…
Work It
by Robert Bryce The boom bypassed Yvonne Turner. The presence of Motorola, IBM, Advanced Micro Devices, and all the other big players in Austin’s booming economy, and their desperate need for skilled workers, has done nothing for her. A 33-year-old mother of three, Turner made $12,000 last year. In March, after 12 years of driving…
Rats Saving a Sinking Ship
by Robert Faires Fifty people on a stage, slouching in chairs, clutching coffee cups, stifling yawns. On this summer morn they have come into a rough circle to invoke a new American theatre. It is a theatre that will infest every corner of the country, a theatre of risks, of vaulting imagination, a theatre of…
Job Training on a Shoe String
On September 9, from 10am-1pm, the Arthur B. DeWitty Center, the city’s job training and multi-use facility, allowed citizens to sign up for computer training classes. The line began forming outside the door at 6:30am. By mid-morning, it stretched around the building. Unlike programs sponsored by state or federal agencies, anybody who walks through the…
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Dutch scientists use mussels to monitor water pollution. By hooking up electrodes to their shells, they can measure mussels’ reaction to pollutants. By his own admission, Gumby creator Art Clockey experimented with LSD when it was legal. The use of the word “jake” to mean “hip” was derived from an alcoholic drink made from Jamaican…
Naked City
Edited by Audrey Duff, with contributions by Andrea Barnett, Louisa C. Brinsmade, Robert Bryce, Alex de Marban and Amy Smith. MAX OUT: On Tuesday morning, October 10, longtime Austin City Councilmember Max Nofziger announced what many already suspected: He won’t seek reelection next spring. The reason? “I feel like I need a breather. It’s time…
New Season Begins Marking The Territory
by Marjorie Baumgarten One sure sign of the changing of the Texas seasons (or what passes for seasons in these parts) is the annual return of one of the best shows broadcast by our local PBS affiliate, KLRU-TV: The Territory. This innovative and long-running show features short experimental works by film and video artists. Seeking…
Bradley U?
by Daryl Slusher Imagine this scene. Circle C developer Gary Bradley is leafing through the blue pages of the telephone book and discovers that there is a taxing entity he hasn’t hit yet, one that hasn’t provided subsidies to his development. So he immediately contacts Austin Community College (ACC) to see what the problem is.…
The Awful Truth
by Marion Winik By the time I quit my job of over 10 years as a technical writer for a software company in South Austin, I thought of the office I went to every day as a drab, fluorescent-lit prison. Writing manuals and datasheets and advertisements held no more interest for me than breaking rocks:…
Circle C Subsidies
For decades, the citizens of Austin have demanded protection for the Barton Springs Contributing Zone. For just as many decades, politicians have promised that protection, and have repeatedly fallen fall short on those promises. Meanwhile, a seemingly endless string of subsidies to private speculative investment have poured into the area. The champion of subsidies is…
About AIDS
Family Support Group The City of Austin Health and Human Services Department, HIV Services Unit, and AIDS Services of Austin are pleased to announce the next Family Support Group for families whose members are diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. The Family Support Group will begin October 26 for seven weeks from 5:30-7pm. The facilitators are Lois VanLaningham,…
Day Trips
At the Texas Renaissance Festival there must be something in the water, because everyone seems to be having fun in the medieval village. The theme park was built over an abandoned strip mine on FM1774 between Plantersville and Magnolia. Since 1975, the village north of Houston has grown from 15 to 50 acres on the…
Coach’s Corner
by Andy “Coach” Cotton I dialed the 816 area code seeking professional advice. My friend, The Whipp, resides in 816. The Whipp is well-suited to provide the counsel and guidance needed for this column for I intend to pen the ultimate O.J. Simpson column. It’ll be clear, powerful, all-in-all, the most memorable. The Whipp, as…
Hearth & Soul
The annual Eco-Fair was held at the Austin Convention Center simultaneously with the Realty Roundup, whatever that is. At one end of the sterile public corridor that runs through this strange building were men and women dressed as Ken-and-Barbie-Do-Business, with more cellular phones pressed to their ears than hearing aids at an AARP gathering. One…
Dark, Heavy, Grindy Music
by Marc Savlov Never in a million years would I have thought that Trent Reznor, Alain Jourgensen, and bands like Filter would be radio staples, racking up gold records like so many rotten carcasses at the back end of a Texas Feedlot. But then, 10 years ago, the very idea of bands like Green Day…
Film Reviews
DOUBLE HAPPINESSD: Mina Shum; with Sandra Oh, Alannah Ong, Stephen Chang, Frances You, Johnny Mah, Callum Rennie, Donald Fong. Multiculturalism as a concept is something to which most of us pay lip service, but rarely do we see it actualized – especially in the movies. Double Happiness, the wonderful first feature from the Chinese-Canadian writer-director…
Bonus Tracks
[[exclamdown]]CINCO A�OS! (Trance Syndicate) THE BEGINNING OF THE END (Unclean) THE WATERMELON SAMPLER VOL. 1 (Watermelon) S.A. INVASION (Reservoir) About this time last year, the Chronicle stepped back into the Raul’s era for a “Scene History” rockumentary. While there, I came across a few old 45s you couldn’t find today with a forensics team: singles…
Film: Showtimes
Film listings are updated Friday mornings. Showtimes listed below start Friday, October 13 and cover the week ending Thursday, October 19. *An asterisk (*) before a title means that no passes or special admission discounts (apart from matinee discounts) will be accepted for any screening. *Parentheses indicate weekend showtimes for Saturdays and Sundays only, unless…
Dancing About Architecture
Llano County District Attorney Bill Lewis is said to be upset about rumors going around that Ministry mastermind Al Jourgensen has gotten off the hook from that heroin possession rap he was hit with at his Marble Falls/Horseshoe Bay “compound.” Needless to say, Al wouldn’t be upset if they were true but nosiree, that just…
Post Scripts
* FRI, OCT 13: Latino Literature Prize winner Ilan Stavans will be at the University Coop bookstore to sign copies of his last book, Bandido: Oscar “Zeta” Acosta and the Chicano Experience, 2pm. Hunter S. Thompson fans will note that Acosta was “the Samoan” in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and is credited with…
Fear and Loathing at the Jourgensen Compound
by Tim Stegall Time is a rare and precious commodity, like oil, diamonds, and the Clash’s Cost of Living EP. When my time is wasted, I usually want it paid back. By my calculations, Al Jourgensen owes me 11 hours of my life, and I want it back. Now. It was January ’95, and the…
The Austin Tea Party
Nathan Jensen had contemplated leaving Austin a couple of years ago. He took a cross-country trip to check out the art scenes in various cities. But he’s since reconsidered, and part of what’s keeping him in Austin is a coalition of artists called the Austin Tea Party. “It gives us a chance to work on…
Music Recommended
Southpark Meadows, Saturday 14 The Thin White Duke and the Thin Prince of Darkness. Quite a team. Word has it that Nine Inch Nailman Trent Reznor practically begged David Bowie for a chance to open this tour – such is the crowned prince of industrial mayhem’s adulation of the Duke. And it’s not just an…
A Living in Art
by Phil West Three weeks ago, there was a man sprawled across the floor of Nathan Jensen’s studio. The man, made from wood and metal hinges, was one of many pieces of art in the room. Judging from his missing legs and slumping position, he wasn’t going anywhere soon. It appeared there were other and…
This Should Go on Forever
by Margaret Moser Browse through the “Blues” folder in America Online and you’ll find the usual suspects – Fabulous Thunderbirds, Dr. John, the Vaughan brothers. Some folders feature generic subjects, such as “South Florida Blues News,” “San Francisco Bay Blues,” and “Blues Festivals.” But one of the most-posted folders is an odd little sub-genre called…
A Bloody Good Read This Book Sucks
by Ed Ward Bloodsucking Fiends: A Love Story by Christopher Moore Simon & Schuster, $23 hard If this were a Hollywood meeting, and I had to give a high-concept description of Christopher Moore’s third novel, I’d say something along the lines of “Slacker meets The Vampire Lestat, with touches of Story of My Life.” It…
AISD Notebook
by Roseana Auten The abrupt removal of LBJ High School principal Eddie Orum is still very much on the minds of many LBJ parents, as they testified Monday at the regular meeting of the AISD Board of Trustees. A public meeting was held at the campus on October 7 regarding Orum’s September 28 reassignment to…
Food-O-File
ALL ABOARD AND EAT! Kon-Tiki Party Barge on Lake Travis Reservations, 327-0000 A nice way to enjoy the picture-perfect fall weather October usually brings to Austin would be to round up from 15 to 40 of your nearest and dearest and rent the Kon-Tiki, a festive new Lake Austin party barge. The 45 ft. covered…
Council Watch
Let’s be fair. After all, it was a Monday. And maybe, too, responsibility was just elusive in the heady, anticipatory crescendo leading up to last Saturday’s failed baseball stadium bond vote. But of the seven councilmembers, only Ronney Reynolds bothered to attend a specially called council meeting on October 2 to hear concerns from more…
