Mister Smarty Pants Knows
The self-winding watch was invented in 1923. At the Battle of Bull Run, confusion prevailed in some areas due to the fact that many Southern units were dressed in blue, while some Northern units were wearing grey. James Joyce liked the number 13. So did Mrs. Winchester, of Winchester rifle fame. To own a new…
Naked City
Annex 4,600 acres and what do you get? In the City of Austin’s case, a little bit bigger and deeper in debt. The 4,600 acres in question are within the four municipal utility districts at Circle C, the upscale development southwest of Austin that has, so far, been able to escape the city’s annexation plans.…
Articulations
The death last week of James Michener was not one of those celebrity passings that catches the world off-guard. In this case, the celebrity was 90 years old and had been in ill health for years. When he removed himself from dialysis earlier this month, Michener as much as signaled the world that he would…
A Revolutionary Letter on Education
illustration by Jason Stout The object of an education is to know a revolution when you see one.” So wrote the great essayist Randolph Bourne in 1916. He was not trying to radicalize American youth. He was saying that we live in an era of revolutions — revolutions in social behavior, technology, art, and economics;…
Shattered Icon
illustration by Doug Potter Times change. So do liberal icons. Four years ago, Ann Richards was an icon, a role model for housewives, recovering alcoholics, divorced mothers, and others who saw themselves as hopeless or helpless. Boosted by a tart tongue and a sassy personality, Richards shot through the ranks, becoming the first woman to…
Painting Race
SOMEPLACE, SOMEWHERE, SOMETIME, SOMEDAY. IT COULD HAPPEN, says Michael Ray Charles on his Liberty Bros. Permanent Daily Circus poster-style painting. What could happen? HANDINI’S GREAT ESCAPE WILL DUMBFOUND U. Huh? The image is of a black figure lying on his stomach, hands held behind his back as if bound, and yet there is no evidence…
Food-O-File
Along with the recent deluge of rain came a deluge of grocery products for consideration. It included everything from wine to a national brand of cookie that tasted like little pieces of cardboard sandwiched around sweetened shortening to an inedible bread sculpture to a tasteful selection of locally made salad dressings and a huge basket…
Richards for the Defense
Ann Richards has made some new lobby friends since her days in the governor’s mansion, such as weapons manufacturing clients Lockheed Martin, McDonnell Douglas, and Textron. This is the same woman who in 1988 told the Democratic National Convention in Atlanta: “You don’t have to be from Waco to know that when the Pentagon makes…
Other Voices on Michael Ray Charles
Dr. Edmund Gordon, UT anthropology professor, during the Austin Museum of Art panel discussion: “Stereotypes are the basis of racism, not ideas… Not to discuss them is to run the risk of perpetuating them.” Mia Carter, audience participant during the Austin Museum of Art panel discussion: “I want my kids to see this work in…
The ‘Shroom Boom
photograph by John Anderson Mushrooms are funny things. Filling your plate with fungus hardly sounds appetizing, but no matter how hard we try to cast them in a more favorable “vegetable” light, mushrooms remain a part of the fungi family. Time was that the fungus appellation kept a majority of American consumers away from mushrooms,…
Smoke Smoke Smoke That Cigarette
Win or lose on the tobacco settlement, Ann Richards’ employer, Verner Liipfert, Bernhard McPherson & Hand, will make money. According to the National Law Journal, the firm is being paid about $200,000 a month by the big five cigarette makers to lobby for the global tobacco settlement in Congress and within the Clinton administration. Richards…
Exhibitionism
Theatre Room, UT campus through October 26 Running time: 1 hr Without fireworks, there would be no fiesta. Colorful explosions of light let you know there’s a party going on somewhere. Bastille Day. Diez y Seis. The Fourth of July. But there is a double edge to these bursts of contained energy. Fireworks also stand…
Dancing About Architecture
Well, the MTV Sports and Music Festival has come and gone and the folks behind it have posted their figures for the weekend. They counted over 42,000 spectators over the three-day festival, and Ric Luber at the Convention and Visitors’ Bureau calculates that the direct dollar impact to the city was at least $3 million,…
Fashion (Turn to the Left)
The Rolling Stones on VH-1 Ridden with guilt, I looked at my recent VH1-happy column. Had I been a wee bit too gushy over a network that unabashedly plays too many Mariah Carey videos and keeps Suzanne Somers in work on 8-Track Flashback? My ears burned with shame as Weezer chided me (“I don’t see…
A Chip off the Auld Sod
One of the nice things about freelancing as opposed to being on the staff of a magazine or newspaper is that you get to write about what you like. When I was on Down Beat magazine’s reviewing staff in the Sixties, they’d send me all kinds of undistinguished records I didn’t want to criticize. Negative…
Armagideon Time
Getting and keeping a record deal is tough enough, but getting one in another country — another continent, even — would seem to rank right up there with such Herculean efforts as Mick Jagger maintaining the Stones’ street cred over the waning decades. Tough work, if you can get it. Nevertheless, local bands such as…
My Life in The Real World Kult
Real World 3: The Puck Year Just for the record, I am not a freak. I prefer to be called a complete-ist. Yes, as a teenager my bedroom was plastered with posters of Duran Duran. Yes, I owned every one of their albums, including the imports. Yes, I would still give a major limb for…
In Person
Though his career began when he humbly sold his house to finance a documentary about his beloved hometown of Flint, Michigan, you can never be sure how a box office hit, an Emmy-winning TV show, and a bestselling book can change a person. Lending his star power to the CinemaTexas film festival on September 25,…
Also Playing
Friday: Starfish, Pocket FishRmen, Shindigs, Hole in the Wall; Big Sandy & his Fly-Rite Boys, Continental Club; Doug Sahm, Antone’s Saturday: Jo Carol Pierce, Waterloo Ice House 6th; Women in Jazz, Victory Grill; Beeblefest, Stubb’s Sunday: Mineral, The Promise Ring, Emo’s Monday: John Forester, Threadgill’s AWH Tuesday: David Lindley, Liberty Lunch Wednesday: Webb Wilder, Antone’s…
“HEY! IT’S THAT GUY FROM THE REAL WORLD!”
When I pitched my Real World idea to editor Margaret Moser, she casually mentioned that she knew Dominic Griffin, the Irish guy from Real World 2, who just happens to be a music writer and came to SXSW a couple of years ago. Then she asked if I would like to talk to him. Like…
Postscripts
Last Call! A call from Austin Writers’ League board member Suzy Spencer last week corroborated the perception that while it takes work to produce tragedy, the serious work lies in creating comedy. Spencer, Esther’s Follies Shannon Sedwick, and other AWL volunteers have been working around the clock lately to ensure that their Big Hair Follies…
Record Reviews
OUMOU SANGARE Worotan (Nonesuch) This CD not only features one of Mali’s most interesting young vocalists and composers, Oumou Sangare, but capable instrumentalists including, in addition to African musicians, ringers such as saxophonist Pee Wee Ellis of James Brown’s band. Sangare sings with power, accurate time, and pitch, but don’t overlook her writing. A strongly…
Scanlines
(“Scanlines” wishes to thank Encore Movies & Music, I [heart] Video, and Vulcan Video for their help in providing videos and laser discs.) The utterly divine RuPaul – star of Wigstock then, VH1 TV hostess now. You go girl! Paris is Burning D: Jennie Livingston (1991) with Pepper LaBeija, Dorian Corey, Venus Xtravaganza Wigstock: The…
About AIDS
Couples Who Care Group Supports Pos/Neg Couples Couples Who Care is a support group sponsored by AIDS Services of Austin. To be eligible, you must be in a male/female relationship or marriage with one partner HIV-positive and one HIV-negative. Sexual orientation is not a criterion. The six-week group is free and confidential. A voluntary research…
Roadkill
Mark Eitzel. To those familiar with the man and his music, the name alone is enough to send them scrambling for the medicine cabinets in search of Prozac. To the unfamiliar, entering the singer-songwriter’s dismal world via his past work with the American Music Club or through either of his solo records — 60 Watt…
Shortcuts
Austin movie screens have increased by a total of 16 this week with the opening of Act III’s new Gateway Theatre on Hwy. 183. Already, we are seeing some changes in the standard exhibition patterns in the north end of town. The town’s dominant theatre chain is now taking some of its arthouse and independent…
Hearth & Soul
Dear Suzy, I finally got e-mail just so you wouldn’t keep begging for letters! And, I do need advice: My lovely old house has, of course, ancient plumbing. This summer I only used cold (as cold as it gets, anyway) water for my showers. Not running any water through the pipes must have allowed the…
Road Shows
OCTOBER FRI 24 Mark Eitzel, Cactus Cafe FRI 24 Big Sandy & his Fly-Rite Boys, Continental Club FRI 24 Dinosaur Jr., Liberty Lunch FRI 24 Ty Herndon, Dessau Hall FRI 24 Rhudabega, Atomic Cafe FRI 24 James Taylor Quartet, Stubb’s FRI 24 Zeke, Emo’s FRI 24 C.J. Ramone, Flamingo Cantina FRI 24 Apples in Stereo,…
Indie Shorts on Display
Shooting the Breeze Ever wish that your TV would break outside the confines of the humdrum? For a half-hour every week beginning October 28 through February 10, 1998, statewide PBS series The Territory promises to do just that. Now embarking on its 22nd season, the co-production of the Austin Museum of Art, the Southwest Alternate…
Benefits
FRI 24 Cuisine Lover’s Dream to benefit Children’s Advocacy Center, at Hyatt Regency,7pm. 472-1164. SAT 25 Hairy Man Festival to benefit area food banks, at Cat Hollow Park, RR 620 &N. I-35, 1-7pm. 255-7871, ext. 554. Soktoberfest to benefit Big Brothers & Big Sisters, at Clean & Lean, 4225 Guadalupe, noon-9pm. 458-LEAN. SUN 26 Night…
Total Honesty
photograph by Shannon McIntyre Leaning back in the chair, arms folded across his chest and eyes squinted ever so slightly, he speaks in a slow, gravelly whisper. “Fred, my man, you gotta look at everything in your life as an experience.” He lets the weight of the words settle sufficiently, holding his breath for a…
Haunted Houses
HAUNTED TRAILS AT THE BASIN is no mere walk in the woods. While Britannia Manor has been purged of its haunting inhabitants this year, Lord British (aka Richard Garriott) — the undisputed king of haunted houses — has ordered his masses of ghouls and goblins (and probably some good guys) to haunt the trails of…
Coach’s Corner
The plan was this. With UT playing at Old Mizzou, I’d write a column on some of the lesser sports on campus, hoping to discover an un-commercialized, unsullied area of amateur sport. On a lovely fall Saturday afternoon, as the Big Dogs were getting stomped by my alma mater in Columbia, I dragged Kelly over…
Slum, Sweet Slum?
illustration by Doug Potter It’s birthday time again. “Corner to Corner” is now three years old — which means it’s time for me get on my soapbox and talk about my own neighborhood. Which is handy, since it once again figures heavily in the News of Today. As you read this, I’ll have finished a…
Old Haunts
Years ago, when I was living in Upstate New York, I knew two poets who rented a gothic cottage in a nearby town. The faded white house with black shutters and high-peaked gables was misplaced in a neighborhood of Plain Jane saltboxes. It looked like the witch’s house in a children’s book about snow, and…
Mushroom Websites
For more information on foraging for and consuming wild mushrooms, check out the following sites on the Web. A Short `Shroom Primer Just what it says, a no-nonsense introduction to mushrooms. http://www.lclark.edu/~wstone/stuff/primer.html Mushroom Heaven! A page that provides lots of the basics of mushroom knowledge, especially those native to the Pacific Northwest, with some valuable…
The Changing of the Board
The back-and-forth arguments about who should be on the ARA board were, and are, confusing even to the participants. Here’s an attempt at a primer. Currently, there are 16 ARA board members, theoretically representing different constituencies, as follows: Dr. Charles Urdy (Chair), Community At-Large Rep Andy Ramirez (Vice-Chair), Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Karen Box (Secretary),…
Day Trips
by Gerald E. McLeod The ferries at Port Aransas may be the best free ride in the state. The three-minute ride across the Corpus Christi Ship Channel gives landlubbers their first welcome and their last goodbye to the island town. For more than 50 years the car ferries have been a lifeline for the fishing…
Million Man Mayhem
illustration by Doug Potter If former Councilmember Eric Mitchell had his way, he would still be controlling the council dais. That’s not to say he would necessarily be having more fun, or celebrating greater success in rallying his loyal constituents than he is from the private sector. But if last Thursday’s council meeting is any…
Page Two
Our current cover is making me kind of queasy. Understandably, Ann Richards is still a hero to many people in this state, an inspirational figure. Those people will insist that the cover and Robert Bryce’s story (see “Politics”) are outrageous, exploitative, exaggerated yellow journalism. They will defend Richards as a woman of remarkable integrity and…
Endorsements
up on November 4. Voters will be asked to consider 14 propositions to amend the Texas Constitution and eight propositions to spend nearly $100 million of bond money on such things as roads, criminal justice, and parks. On a separate ballot reserved for city voters will be a single proposition to change Austin’s charter to…
Public Notice
Those are some choices for those who characterize their views as “middle of the road,” following the recipe of Austin’s own Jim Hightower. His book, There’s Nothing in the Middle of the Road but Yellow Stripes and Dead Armadillos recently hit the shelves of local bookstores and seems perfectly timed for his reunion with Austin…
Flew the KOOP
The conflict between Pacifica Radio and Austin’s KOOP radio has come to a head and, as of Oct. 1, Pacifica Network News is no longer heard on the local 91.7FM frequency. The controversy, detailed previously in this column (“Static Interference,” Feb. 28), began about a year ago after cooperatively run KOOP learned of a conflict…
