Cover Story
Born on the Fourth of July
Explosions in the Sky are blowing up. (Sorry, we resisted the pun as long as we could.)
Alien: The Director’s Cut
Alien: The Director’s Cut 2003, R, 116 min. Directed by Ridley Scott, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm, Yaphet Kotto. The modern horror story meets the space opera in this outstanding film that launched a small franchise. Weaver quickly rose to…
The Last Unicorn
The Last Unicorn 1982, G, 92 min. D: Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin Jr.; with the voices of Alan Arkin, Jeff Bridges, Mia Farrow, Tammy Grimes, Robert Klein. In this animated feature, a brave unicorn and a magician fight an evil king who wants to exterminate all unicorns.
GoBots: Battle of the Rock Lords
GoBots: Battle of the Rock Lords 1986, G, 75 min. Voices by Roddy McDowall, Telly Savalas, Margot Kidder. They’re Hanna-Barbera and Tonka Toys’ answer to the Transformers.
Articulations
Austin Lyric Opera’s new artistic director receives raves for his conducting at Seattle Opera, Beehive diva Judy Arnold takes ill, and Chronicle Arts writer Barry Pineo gets a publishing deal for his book on acting.
Food-o-File
Virginia B. Wood is on a rampage when it comes to diet trends and bad cookbooks. Plus: Au revoir, Jean-Luc.
Maspero Heads for Rehab
Williamson Co. Sheriff John Maspero apologizes for public drunkenness, enters treatment.
TV Eye
A minute with Belinda Acosta: Norm Macdonald comes back in a big way.
Millennium Actress
This Japanimation import is a sweeping romantic saga full of big, lush ideas.
Exhibitionism
With its isolated farmhouse and unseen menace, The Middle of the Night may look like a conventional thriller, but playwright Lowell Bartholomee refuses to play by the rules, creating an offbeat drama that keeps us perpetually off-balance by playing against our expectations.
Will Travel for Food
Appalachia: The Land and the Larder … Southern Foodways Symposium, Oct. 2-5, Oxford, Miss.
Naked City
Headlines Quote of the Week: “Why is this man in the White House? The majority of Americans did not vote for him. Why is he there? And I tell you this morning that he’s in the White House because God put him there for a time such as this.” — Army Lt. Gen. William “Jerry”…
Short Cuts
Harry Knowles hits it big, in a manner of speaking. Plus: the Wilsons on SoCo and Bob Ray in the West.
Exhibitionism
In their reunion performance Difficult Women and Transgressive Daughters, former Hard Women Suze Kemper and Rachel Martin vibrated feminist polemics regarding mother-child scenarios.
Naked City
The Texas Association of Business finally consents to cooperating with a grand jury investigation of its electoral practices.
150 Confessionalists Walk Into a Room
JournalCon comes to Austin.
Exhibitionism
The Austin Classical Guitar Society scored a great coup in booking guitar virtuoso Pepe Romero, who treated the sold-out house to a hypnotizing, intoxicating evening of Spanish grace and melody.
The Classical Perspective
Seeking a fresh perspective on Explosions in the Sky’s instrumental rock, the Chronicle queried the single most important figure in Austin instrumental music, renowned Austin Symphony conductor Peter Bay. Bay was given a promotional advance of the band’s new disc, The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place, and in return gave us his off-the-top…
Naked City
Prison reformers protest plans for a for-profit detention center near Laredo.
Elvis Lives
An interview with Bruce Campbell of Bubba Ho-Tep
The Rebirth of Venus
Greg Curtis’ Disarmed gets the elusive skinny on the sculpture whose stomach is “immense like the sea.”
Explosions in the Sky Reviewed
Explosions in the SkyThe Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place (Temporary Residence) Walk toward the light. Past bipolar youth (How Strange, Innocence), through volatile maturity (Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Live Forever), and into the radiance of totality. Taking its “First Breath After Coma,” The Earth…
Naked City
Why does the West Texas sheep town contain the brain of state government?
Soccer Watch
Big 12 Standings Top eight qualify for Conference Tournament WTLPts Colorado61019 Nebraska50215 Texas50215 Texas A&M42114 Kansas41313 Oklahoma33212 Oklahoma St.32311 Iowa State1154 Baylor1154 Missouri1154 Texas Tech1063 The UT women moved into second place in the Big 12 with a pair of road wins last weekend and edged back into the Soccer America national rankings after a…
Readings
The doctor, a large, hulking fellow with fingers more like the digits of some great ape and a persistent cough — brought about, he’d informed me, by a leech-gathering mission assayed — or braved! — in the darker region of night but two weeks previous — frowned as he relayed his diagnosis.
Explosions in the Cinema
Rock band Cineophiles Explosions in the Sky and their favorite celluloid dreams.
Naked City
The comedian goes to jail as his appeal goes to court.
Readings
Reading Heather McHugh’s new collection Eyeshot, you realize that not only does every word count, but many of them in two or three directions at once.
Phases and Stages
The ShinsChutes Too Narrow (Sub Pop) All my other CDs hate the Shins’ second album. If this were the high school prom, Chutes Too Narrow would be the girl everyone hates — or wishes they could hate but really can’t because she’s just so nice and pretty and smart. These 10 songs, which the Albuquerque-bred…
Naked City
Bush’s military-intelligence expert — at war with Satan!
Runaway Jury
John Grisham courtroom thumper marches to a familiar tune.
Readings
Louis Begley recently wrote a glowing preface to a reissue of The Other House, James’ least known novel. Begley is one of the few fans of the book, and writes that “James makes manifest in this very remarkable novel the overpowering force and ignominy of the sexual drive.” Obviously Begley is after something like that…
Phases and Stages
The StrokesRoom on Fire (RCA) Elastica’s The Menace. If you guessed, “What’s the worst follow-up to a smash debut in recent memory?” time to change your tune. Considering the Strokes have toured incessantly since 2001’s mop bopper Is This It, maybe they too should’ve taken Justine Frischmann’s sweet time on their recorded comeback. Even the…
Naked City
A handful of candidates contest to replace Molly Beth Malcolm as state Democratic Party chair.
The Gospel of John
The last years of Jesus are presented with more realism than pageantry.
Page Two
Kill Contemporary Film Criticism: Vol. 1.
Phases and Stages
Joe Strummer & the MescalerosStreetcore (Hellcat) With the passing of Joe Strummer, 50, from a heart attack Christmastime 2002, punk’s musty coffin looked primed for its final rusty nail. Thank goodness, then, that Mescaleros Scott Shields and Martin Slattery polished off Strummer’s final studio effort. Reaching from beyond the grave, the Clash’s formidable ex-frontman smashes…
Naked City
Republican honchos seek to influence route of public project in Bexar County.
Radio
The mentally handicapped again are used as vehicles for our own best intentions.
After a Fashion
Join Stephen on his adventures with Buh-buh-buh-buh-Bing’s widow, some cuties at Club DeVille, and the scene at Factory People, Austin’s latest grab at its allocated 15 minutes.
Phases and Stages
Travis 12 Memories (Epic) If it seems like forever since Fran Healey and his mopey band of Scots released an album, that’s because in a way it has: Since 2001’s The Man Who, the world has lost the twin towers, boy bands, and seen the re-emergence of NYC guitar rock and Julian Casablancas’ waistline. Once…
Madame Satã
Life story of Brazilian drag diva from the last half-century.
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Telma Hopkins of Tony Orlando and Dawn is the voice you hear on Issac Hayes’ song “Shaft,” that tells him, “Shut your mouth.”Some say French toast was invented in 1724 by Albany, N.Y., tavern owner Joseph French.Although everyone calls that all-purpose handyman’s friend “duct tape,” it is more properly styled “duck tape” – the original…
Phases and Stages
The WhoThe Kids Are Alright (Special Edition) (Pioneer Entertainment) On a commentary track for The Kids Are Alright, director Jeff Stein confesses he wanted hysteria, not history, for his film. His wish could not be better granted with the new, 2-DVD chronicling of The Who’s vibrant peak. They don’t make rock bands like The Who…
Capitol Chronicle
The increases in tuition for Texas universities are symptoms of a much larger transformation in public life.
Wonderland
Dull take on real-life murder mystery has one titillating factor: the involvement of former porn star John Holmes.
Day Trips
Buck Pottery in Gruene mixes functionality with beauty in every piece that comes out of their wood-fired kiln. The dinnerware and cookware displays the vibrant tones of the clay and glazes while providing the owners with years of useful service. Customers are sometimes amazed that a pot or platter that they bought 10 or 15…
Phases and Stages
Somewhere south of Halloween lies SubArachnoid Space. On the new Also Rising (Strange Attractors Audio House), the S.F. nerve-rock scions weave a phantasmagoric cocoon of synapse-frying guitar behind deep, forward-looking bass grooves. Their finest album yet and one of the year’s best… The great northern eagle is Landing. Going back to the “rural psychedelia” of…
On the Lege
The Democrats file federal lawsuits against the new congressional map.
Beyond Borders
Donate your dollars directly to starving children instead of this Jolie adventure.
To Your Health
I want to try supplementing with quercetin to help my allergies. How much should I take?
The Best-Case Scenario
After years of work, Envision Central Texas goes majorly public.
The Hightower Report
Unions come together for national energy independence; and Bush stifles dissent.
Bubba Ho-Tep
Elvis Presley and JFK (played brilliantly by Campbell and Davis) fight a soul-sucking mummy in this twisted sci-fi horror film loaded with generous chunks of cheese.
Second Helpings: Community-Supported Agriculture
“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. Hairston Creek Farm 4300 County Rd. #335, Burnet, 512/756-8380 www.moment.net/~hcf hcf@moment.net Burnet County farmers Gary and Sara Rowland often participate in…
The Common Law
My daughter just turned 14 over the summer, and she keeps talking about getting a job. I thought you had to be at least 16 before you could work legally. Can she really work at only 14?
APD Officer Faces Homicide Charge in Owens Shooting
The grand jury takes an unusual step in indicting Scott Glasgow.
Lansdale Unraveled
How a cult director translated a cult author to craft a surefire cult favor
TCB
Pink elephants, dancing waitresses, and setups only equal one of Austin’s still-hidden treasures.
About AIDS
Dr. Lisa Capaldini, one of the nation’s most noted HIV-treating physicians and researchers, will be the guest speaker at a free dinner presentation on Oct. 30. Her topic will be mental health issues that accompany HIV/AIDS. Among people dealing with HIV disease, mental health � depression, anxiety, substance abuse � is often under-treated or even…
At Home With Capital Punishment
The fourth annual March for a Moratorium surrounds the Capitol.
Going Oneiric
Dick Blackburn brings ‘Lemora’ to the Drafthouse.
Back to Josquin
Texas Early Music Project Director Danny Johnson on the 15th-century composer he keeps returning to.
On Judges’ Hill
When the stately Wooten mansion was re-invented as the Mansion at Judges’ Hill last spring, we had the impression that the owners aspired to the rarified company of the nation’s best boutique hotels, five-star establishments renowned for both their exemplary hospitality and excellent food service. It was exciting to contemplate a local property that would…
Wal-Mart, Lowe’s, and Their Friends and Foes
Big-box battles from South Austin to Lakeway
Death Becomes Her
Kier-La Janisse unleashes CineMuerte on poor, innocent Austin.
Luv Doc Recommends: Austin Record Convention
After a while, you tend to forget why Austin is the Live Music Capital of the World (hereinafter referred to as the LMCOTW or more poetically, Austin). Somehow it seems perfectly normal that a live band should accompany breakfast, lunch, and dinner; provide a soundtrack to your stroll through the airport; and greet you at…
