The Legend of Drunken Master
A classic chopsocky mixture of action and comedy, capped by a ferocious 20-minute finale.
Nosferatu Video Release Party
Nosferatu Video Release Party NR, 70 min. Directed by F.W. Murnau, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . Nosferatu Video Release Party celebrates the Alamo Drafthouse’s wonderful two and a half years of presenting silent movies with live accompaniment by local musicians, a program that began with a production of F.W. Murnau’s 1922 vampire…
Zombie
Zombie 1979, NR, 91 min. D: Lucio Fulci; with Tisa Farrow. Zombies do their thing in the Caribbean in this grisly tip of the hat to George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead.
The Wizard of Gore
The Wizard of Gore 1970, R, 96 min. Directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Ray Sager, Judy Cler, Wayne Ratay, Phil Laurenson, Jim Rau, Don Alexander, John Elliot. My favorite film by this low-budget master slasher features a magician who hypnotizes his audience while he saws women in half.
The House by the Cemetery
The House by the Cemetery 1981, NR, 78 min. Directed by Lucio Fulci, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Paolo Malco, Catriona Maccoll, Giovanni Frezza, Giovanni De Nava, Dagmar Lassander. Demented things live in the basement.
The Gruesome Twosome
The Gruesome Twosome 1967, NR, 71 min. Directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Elizabeth Davis, Gretchen Wells, Chris Martell, Rodney Bedell. Lewis’ follow-up to Blood Feast.
Urbania
Urbania 2000, R, 103 min. Directed by Jon Shear, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Dan Futterman, Alan Cumming, Matt Keeslar, Josh Hamilton, Lothaire Bluteau, William Sage, Barbara Sukowa. Did you hear the one about the guy who went home with a woman and woke up without a kidney? The award-winning, arthouse film Urbania…
Barenaked in America
Barenaked in America 1999, NR, 92 min. Directed by Jason Priestly, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . There’s just something about nice guys from Canada: Michael J. Fox, John Candy, Dan Aykroyd, Rick Moranis – Barenaked Ladies? Sure enough, these Top 40 pop-rockers are the sweetest Canucks around. Or at least, that’s what…
Cinematexas 2002
Cinematexas 2002 NR. Directed by Various, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . Cinematexas is a series of screenings, performances, and events at various venues around town beginning Tuesday (9/17) and continuing through Sunday (9/22). Showcases include presentations (some in competition and some not) of student film work, international shorts, jury screenings, and retrospective…
Articulations
A weekly rundown of the latest news in Austin’s visual and performing arts scene.
Mr. Smarty Pants
Trivia-a-go-go for your next brainsnack.
Record Reviews
Bettie ServeertPrivate Suit (Palomine) That Bettie Serveert masqueraded as the Velvet Underground and Nico on the I Shot Andy Warhol soundtrack and released a live album of VU covers (Venus In Furs) means the recurring resemblance is intentionally coincidental. Like many bands on the Continent, particularly Northern European bands, Bettie Serveert are single-minded about their…
The Man Behind Stratus
The Man Behind Stratus Who’s driving the Stratus deals these days? By most accounts, it’s not Jim Bob Moffett. Popular opinion holds that Tom Hicks, owner of the Texas Rangers and Dallas Stars, former University of Texas regent, and a big financial contributor to Gov. George W. Bush’s presidential campaign, is the one calling the…
Screen Play
Recommended Shadow of the Vampire (Q&A with director Merhige) Director E. Elias Merhige is the man behind the 1991 arthouse freakout Begotten, and though he’s been AWOL for the past decade, this recounting of the creation of F.W. Murnau’s classic Nosferatu should put him back in the dark limelight. With John Malkovich as Murnau and…
Exhibitionism
The premiere production of Bianka’s Wake, Blake Yelavich’s farce about a badly behaved Madonna-like celeb has some solid physical comedy and pleasing physicality, but the lack of internal logic and shallow humor make it a weak evening of theatre.
Coach’s Corner
Coach went to his first Texas / OU football game last weekend, and boy, was it a doozie.
Record Reviews
Elysian FieldsQueen of the Meadow (Jetset) Jennifer Charles, the voice behind NYC loungeoids Elysian Fields, has a throat full of honey, and she’s not afraid to use it. Just watch out for the bees. Along with her partner, guitarist Oren Bloedow, Charles wields some of the most flammable torch songs since Jessica Rabbit. That may…
If You Can’t Stand the Heat …
Republican Jill Warren is behind in the polls and going negative on her Democratic opponent Ann Kitchen, in the race for House District 48 in Travis County.
Austin Film Festival Screenings
Film passes are $41 and good for all festival films. Individual tickets are $7, for sale at theatres prior to showtime (Slap Shot and Horror Night, $15). Call 469-SHOW to charge tickets. 800/310-FEST or www.austinfilmfestival.com *Cast and/or crew in attendance.Thursday, Oct. 12PARAMOUNT 7pm Dr. T and the Women* Q&A with Anne Rapp 10pm Shadow of…
Exhibitionism
The Subterranean Theatre Company production of John Mighton’s Body and Soul is provocative and features a talented cast, but it never lets us get to know the play’s characters.
Day Trips
The natural glory of the Hill Country’s Westcave Preserve and its 40-foot waterfall.
Record Reviews
Chantal KreviazukColour Moving and Still (Columbia) In these post-Lilith days of Apples and Osbornes, the voice is queen. Canadian chanteuse Chantal Kreviazuk (sound � it � out) chirps like the best of them on her second album for Columbia, Colour Moving and Still, nesting comfortably above the schoolyard of love. While 1997’s Under These Rocks…
He’s Coming Back
Who gets punished when George W. Bush comes home to Austin after losing the election.
CinemaTexas5
Now in its fifth year, the Cinematexas International Short Film and Video Festival continues to grow and expand, taking on more screenings and sidebar presentations. The University of Texas student-run festival begins on Wednesday, September 18 and continues through Sunday, September 22 at numerous venues around town. Mainstays of the festival are the UT undergraduate…
The Man Who Knew Too Much
Although some critics have assumed, from Jacques Barzun’s criticisms of modern culture, that he is a conservative ideologue, in reality he has always followed his own, pragmatic vision of things.
About AIDS
News of the October 15th AIDS WALK AUSTIN 5K
Record Reviews
Emmylou HarrisRed Dirt Girl (Nonesuch) Since she left country in her rearview mirror with 1995’s Wrecking Ball, Emmylou Harris has ventured even further into America’s musical backwaters. “We are soldiers from an ancient war,” sings Harris on opener “The Pearl.” Once it may have been “be-bop-a-lula,” but these days her battle cry is more “alelluia.”…
Naked City
Thanks to soaring energy prices, wind energy is becoming cheaper than that fueled by natural gas and other fossil.fuels.
Short Cuts
Upcoming events and workshops of interest to the Austin film community.
Postscripts
Upcoming literary events in Austin.
The Paggi Principle
The Paggi House opened in 1980, and immediately became known as one of Austin’s most beautiful and best dining establishments. Twenty years later, the restaurant is still one of Austin’s finest.
Record Reviews
Allison MoorerThe Hardest Part (MCA) For the past couple of years, Allison Moorer has been championed by critics as one of Nashville’s new leading lights. The Alabama native (and sister of Shelby Lynne) possesses an attractive, sultry voice and the ability to write hard-hitting songs. Her music leans toward the traditional sound of country, yet…
Naked City
The city’s SMARTHousing initiative gets its first concrete proposal for affordable housing, a 55-unit complex for lower-income seniors.
Video Reviews
THE STORY OF G.I. JOED: William Wellman (1945); with Robert Mitchum, Burgess Meredith, Wally Cassell, Freddie Steele. War correspondent Ernie Pyle attached himself to a U.S. Infantry company in North Africa, later catching up with them during the Italian campaign. His story is dramatized in Wellman’s The Story of G.I. Joe, with Meredith playing Pyle…
Book Reviews
Detective Fiction and the Rise of Forensic Science by Ronald R. Thomas Cambridge University Press, 341 pp., $59.95 Detective Fiction and the Rise of Forensic Science is one of those tomes that surfs through the musty origins of a popular art form — in this instance the 19th-century detective tale — and uncovers fresh gems…
First Round Draft Picks
As owners, brewers and distributors of Austin’s Live Oak Brewing Company, Chip McElroy and Brian Peters have reached the highest level of malty geekdom. They are self-described “beer nerds gone pro.”
Record Reviews
Amy RigbyThe Sugar Tree (Koch) Just for the sake of argument, let’s dispense with all that aging hipster hooey, and instead focus on critically acclaimed veteran songwriter Amy Rigby’s songs. After all, her first two albums, Diary of a Mod Housewife and Middlescence, established her cozy role as rockin’ elder babe in boyland quite adequately.…
Naked City
Council hears supporters and those in opposition to the city’s proposed central booking facility, which would be moved from 7th and I-35 to a residential neighborhood west of downtown.
Video Reviews
Get Crazy D: Alan Arkush (1983); with Daniel Stern, Allen Goorwitz, Malcolm McDowell, Lou Reed, Ed Begley Jr., John Densmore. Rock ‘n’ Roll High School is a tough film to top. Its free-spirited approach to teens and rock music is corny, absurd, and funny. At the same time, it is a fairly honest film with…
Book Reviews
As Seen on TV: Provocations by Lucy Grealy BloomsburyUSA, 224 pp., $23.95 With a title like As Seen on TV: Provocations, it’s easy to mistake this new book of essays by Lucy Grealy as another diatribe against the medium. But television is only the starting point for Grealy’s musings. The subjects of her 15 essays…
Food-o-File
You can tell it’s October in Austin by the number of food and wine-related events packed into the coming week. Chronicle Cuisines editor Virginia B. Wood informs readers of all of them.
Record Reviews
Dar WilliamsThe Green World (Razor & Tie) In recent years, the singer-songwriter genre has grown remarkably flaccid. Songs about the same tired clichés, or perhaps about nothing at all, have become the norm, while most practitioners have wandered far from their folk roots into a region remarkably close to New Age navel-gazing, with often sleep-inducing…
Naked City
Corporate luminaries in town for the Fortune 500 conference will be met by a bevy of protesters against the event.
Video Reviews
Any Given Sunday D: Oliver Stone (1999); with Al Pacino, Jamie Foxx, Cameron Diaz, Dennis Quaid, LL Cool J, Ann-Margret, James Woods, John C. McGinley. This long look at the world of pro football makes it apparent that director Stone has spent little time around the sport. First off, his fictitious teams (L.A. Rhinos, Dallas…
Off the Bookshelf
Horror of the 20th Century An Illustrated History by Robert Weinberg Collectors Press, 256 pp., $60 The price tag isn’t the only spooky thing about this lavishly illustrated history of the horror genre — there’s plenty of rich and rare examples of B-movie one-sheets (The Tingler, The Curse of the Werewolf), garish pulp-magazine covers (Weird…
Too Much Caffeine Woman
Watching Jean Caffeine’s eyes light up.
Record Reviews
Maria OchoaAsi Quiero Vivir (Blue Jackel) The son, a hybrid Cuban genre derived from Spanish and African music, developed in the Oriente province during the 19th century and achieved a great deal of popularity in the 20th; Oriente and its major city, Santiago de Cuba, remain son hubs. The music features simple, repeated motifs, call-and-response…
The Hightower Lowdown
Creative Destruction; Poor People Don’t Vote
TV Eye
Keeping one eye on television and the other on pop culture.
Off the Bookshelf
Mollie’s Job A Story of Life and Work on the Global Assembly Line by William M. Adler Scribner, 318 pp., $27.50 In this study of globalization’s effects on one company, it is 1950 and Mollie has traveled from her home in Cartersville, Virginia, to Paterson, New Jersey, where she has gone to meet her fiancé.…
Hello Dottie
Austinite old-school punker Dottie Farrell explains the meaning of the word ‘splooge.’
Record Reviews
Patricia BarberNightclub (Blue Note/Premonition) Chicago couldn’t keep Patricia Barber a secret forever. When the pianist/vocalist finally blipped on the radar screen of national jazz consciousness with 1998’s brilliant Modern Cool, it was with devilish élan and plenty of dark, brooding attitude. These qualities were most evident on her strikingly original tunes, but have been noticeably…
Top of His Craft
Prior to his appearance at the Austin Film Festival, writer / director Steven Zaillian remembers his first film, his most successful, and the lessons he’s learned along the way.
Get Carter
Get Carter 2000, R, 104 min. Directed by Stephen Kay, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Sylvester Stallone, Miranda Richardson, Rachael Leigh Cook, Alan Cumming, Mickey Rourke, Michael Caine, John C. McGinley. It’s far too easy to poke fun at Sylvester Stallone, the man behind Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot and Tango &…
The Contender
The Contender 2000, R, 125 min. Directed by Rod Lurie, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Gary Oldman, Joan Allen, Jeff Bridges, Christian Slater, William Petersen, Philip Baker Hall, Saul Rubinek, Sam Elliott. Timely as can be, The Contender arrives on the scene this presidential-election season as a sober reminder of the evils inherent…
Off the Bookshelf
An Inordinate Fondness for Beetles by Arthur V. Evans and Charles L. Bellamy photography by Lisa Charles Watson University of California Press, 208 pp., $24.95 (paper); $40 hardback Nobody cares for beetles. That’s overstating it a bit, but considering their ubiquity (beetles “have penetrated nearly every terrestrial habitat” and account for “20% of all living…
Dancing About Architecture
FCC raids shuts down the third and last local microradio station.
Record Reviews
Irma ThomasMy Heart’s in Memphis: The Songs of Dan Penn (Rounder) It might have been easier to accept the low-key My Heart’s in Memphis from New Orleans’ Queen of Soul Irma Thomas if her East Texas peer Barbara Lynn hadn’t recently released a much torchier, more soulful album. Thomas’ last effort with Tracy Nelson and…
Screen Play
Austin Film Festival Reviews and Recommendations
Dr. T & the Women
Dr. T & the Women 2000, R, 118 min. Directed by Robert Altman, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Richard Gere, Helen Hunt, Farrah Fawcett, Laura Dern, Shelley Long, Liv Tyler, Kate Hudson, Tara Reid, Robert Hays, Matt Malloy, Andy Richter, Lee Grant, Janine Turner. The mere presence of a new Robert Altman film…
Off the Bookshelf
Four Blondes by Candace Bushnell Atlantic Monthly Press, 245 pp., $24 What is truly shocking about Bushnell’s tale of four of the unnaturally fair headed breed is not the fact that some women use their looks to get what they want, snort coke, pop Xanax, and live shallow, pointless lives, but that Bushnell isn’t a…
Record Reviews
MadonnaMusic (Maverick) Madonna, that cheeky little wench, has obviously had her fill of the Britney-Jessica-Christina clones encroaching on her sacred Queen of Clubs dance floor, so what does she do? Shimmies into get-the-hell-out-of-Dodge duds, cocks her index finger like a gun, and blows away the competition. Returning to her dance roots is a smart move,…
Record Reviews
Shemekia CopelandWicked (Alligator) “Wanted: Queen of the Blues.” Ever since the crown was vacated by the able but aging Koko Taylor, the blues world has been looking for a successor worthy of the name. Every few years a new contender steps forth — Deborah Coleman and Susan Tedeschi, recently — some sharpshooter who has a…
Screen Play
ABCD D: Krutin Patel; with Madhur Jaffrey, Faran Tahir, Sheetal Sheth, Aasif Mandvi, David Ari, Jennifer Dorr White. (35mm, 105 min.) Cultural identification and loss figure strongly here in writer/director/producer Krutin Patel’s feature film debut, ABCD. ABCD revolves around Anju (Jaffrey), an Asian Indian immigrant living in the suburbs, and her first-generation adult children, Raj…
The Ladies Man
The Ladies Man 2000, R, 84 min. Directed by Reginald Hudlin, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Tim Meadows, Karyn Parsons, Billy Dee Williams, Will Ferrell, Lee Evans, Tiffani Thiessen, Eugene Levy, John Witherspoon, Julianne Moore. Leon Phelps (Meadows) has never met booty he couldn’t plunder. Between his mile-high Afro, crème-colored flairs, and open-just-shy-of-the-navel…
Local Bestsellers
Local bestsellers are based on recent sales at Austin bookstores selected to reflect varied reading interests.
Record Reviews
Britney SpearsOops… I Did It Again (Jive) Travis’ recent performance at Stubb’s achieved nothing so much as proving hipsters harbor as much of a Britney Spears fetish as punks once did for ABBA. An awful lot of people seemed to know the words to “…Baby One More Time,” that’s all I’m saying. With Oops… I…
Take the A-Train
Mike Clark-Madison discusses 10 years covering light rail, and urges voters to support it.
Screen Play
THE AUTEUR THEORY D: Evan Oppenheimer; with Alan Cox, Natasha Lyonne, Rachel True. (35mm, 80 min.) “Another movie about filmmaking?” I hear you cry. Hang on, this one’s different. Instead of focusing on the laborious processes of the industry, Oppenheimer mines the fertile ground of the film festival itself. In this case, that means a…
Digimon: The Movie
Digimon: The Movie 2000, PG, 82 min. Directed by Takaaki Yamashita, Hisashi Nakayama, Masahiro Aizawa, Narrated by , Voices by Joshua Seth, Michael Reisz, Mona Marshall, Lara Jill Miller, Colleen O’Shaughnessy, Philece Sampler, Bob Glouberman, Michael Lindsay, Starring . Just now, I feel a bit like a music critic sussing out the latest Ol’ Dirty…
Page Two
Editor Louis Black weighs in on the Light Rail question.
Record Reviews
Joan OsborneRighteous Love (Interscope) “Can you see me rising since your disappearance? Safe to say that I’ve regained myself.” One would hope so, Joan honey, you’re the one’s been gone five … long … years. One of the most influential female singers of the Nineties, Osborne opens the long-awaited followup to 1995’s ultra-platinum powerhouse Relish,…
Same as It Ever Was
Despite thousands of Austinites saying they “want all the details,” there really aren’t that many details to share. The referendum is asking for your up-or-down vote on light rail in general, not on a specific plan. The details we do know haven’t changed that much over the years. The starter segment that Cap Met is…
Screen Play
CERTAIN GUYS D: Stephen James; with Diedrich Bader, Melora Hardin, Traci Lords. (35mm, 70 min.) Certain guys are inherently ordinary, and so, alas, is Certain Guys. Writer/director Stephen James’ feature debut is a by-the-numbers ensemble drama that, despite its affable cast, only occasionally rises above its tired premise. Set against the cultural inertia of Dallas,…
Girl on the Bridge
Girl on the Bridge 1999, R, 92 min. Directed by Patrice Leconte, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Daniel Auteuil, Vanessa Paradis, Claude Aufaure, Bertie Cortez, Giorgios Gatzios. Girl on the Bridge is a film about luck and love and hurling weighted, razor-sharp knives at sexy, waifish women with big round eyes. It’s so…
Second Helpings: More Tex-Mex
More Tex-Mex in this week’s Second Helpings.
Public Notice
Our weekly calendar of activist and volunteer events and fundraisers.
Record Reviews
Kasey ChambersThe Captain (Asylum) Expect to have your heart melted. The Captain may be her debut, but 24-year-old Kasey Chambers, who’s been performing with her parents and brother in Aussie country band the Dead Ringer Band since she was nine, comes to a wider audience in full flower, not first bloom. A charged roots rock…
Tracking the Money
The light rail juggernaut continues to rumble down the tracks. The latest contributor and expense filings by the pro- and anti-light rail camps show that with three and a half weeks left until election day, the pro-rail contingent has nearly $250,000 in the bank, while rail opponents have just over $51,000. So far, pro-rail groups…
Screen Play
INTERSECTIONS D: Yuichi Kurokawa; with Greg Rodgers, W.W. Painter, Jack Clawges, Dwight Crenshaw, Becky Fly, Thao Duong. (16mm, 87 min.) It’s midnight in Memphis — do you know where your cabbie is taking you? intersections, the feature film debut of writer/director/producer Yuichi Kurokawa, takes the audience for a ride on one late night in the…
Best in Show
In Guest’s parodic hands, the Westminster Dog Show goes to the hounds.
Something Wicked This Way Comes … Again!
Dueling Macbeths on the stages of Austin prove once again this Shakespearean killer’s undying popularity.
Letters at 3AM
Being president of America is not good for one’s health.
Record Reviews
BjörkSelmasongs (Elektra) The hits just keep a-comin’ for Iceland’s pixellated chanteuse Björk Gudmundsdottir, though with Selmasongs, it’s her character Selma from Danish director Lars Von Trier’s new fatalistic song-dance-‘n’-death epic Dancer in the Dark who’s taking all the broadsides. This companion CD collects the film’s six musical numbers, and though it’s pure Björk through and…
The Facts So Far
What are we voting on? You’re giving permission (politically, if not literally) for Capital Metro to commence with building a 52-mile light rail system, which will, according to the transit authority, take at least until 2018.Why are we voting on it? In 1997, the Texas Legislature, in response to public controversies about Capital Metro’s management…
Austin Film Festival Reviews: A Man Is Mostly Water
Roper is a filmmaker devoting more time to his failures than to his frustrated girlfriend. Andy whittles away his inheritance playing golf and smoking pot. Jeff traded his dramatic aspirations for a comfy gig in commercials. They have stalled out on the way to midlife, and now drift along, rudderless and angry. Intersperse their stories…
Fastpitch
Fastpitch 2000, NR, 90 min. Directed by Jeremy Spear, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . At 35, New York conceptual artist Jeremy Spear trades gallery openings for the fast-pitch softball circuit, eagerly sallying forth with mitt — and digital camera — in hand. Hoping to stoke the flames of competition, which burned so…
The Curse of the Play
Robert Faires updated this story in November of 2018. Read that story for the most recent developments in the saga of this cursed play. The lore surrounding Macbeth and its supernatural power begins with the play’s creation in 1606. According to some, Shakespeare wrote the tragedy to ingratiate himself to King James I, who had…
After a Fashion
New shop Chimera is spotlighted and Therapy’s spooky exhibits elicit a few kudos, too.
Record Reviews
ElasticaThe Menace (Atlantic) When Elastica first washed up on these shores six years ago with their commercially viable take on Wire’s angular punk, Americans were utterly charmed. Who could resist the sight of vocalist/ guitarist Justine Frischmann mouthing the lyrics to “Stutter” (an emasculating paean to flaccidity, no less) with that alluring sneer of hers?…
The Art of the Deal
City Coucil wants to cut a deal with Stratus Properties on the Barton Creek properties because they think House Bill 1704 gives them no other option.
Screen Play
RAVE D: Ron Krauss; with Douglas Spain, Aimee Graham, Nicholle Tom. (35mm, 85 min.) If Greg Harrison’s Groove was the first film to celebrate the diversity of the San Francisco rave community, then Krauss’s Rave is that film’s gritty doppelganger, the anti-Groove. Unfolding over the course of 12 or so hours in Los Angeles, Rave…
