Ride the High Country
Ride the High Country NR, 94 min. Directed by Sam Peckinpah, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Randolph Scott, Joel Mccrea, Mariette Hartley, Edgar Buchanan, R.g. Armstrong, Warren Oates, L.q. Jones. Thiseight-part film series dedicated to a reassessment of Sam Peckinpah’scareer is curated by local access TV’s Show With No Name and runs throughDec.…
Queer as Folk (Part One: Episodes Five-Eight)
Queer as Folk (Part One: Episodes Five-Eight) NR, 135 min. Directed by Sarah Harding, Charles Mcdougall, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Aidan Gillen, Craig Kelly, Charlie Hunnam. TheAustin Gay & Lesbian International Film Festival (aGLIFF) presents one ofthe favorites from the recent festival: this gay British TV soap opera,Queer as Folk. Produced by…
Mosquito Coast
Mosquito Coast 1986, PG, 117 min. Directed by Peter Weir, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Harrison Ford, Helen Mirren, River Phoenix, Andre Gregory, Martha Plimpton, Butterfly McQueen, Jason Alexander. The Texas Union Council presents a semester-long series co-sponsored each week by a different TUC committee; this week’s program is co-sponsored by the Environmental…
Death Race 2000
Death Race 2000 1975, R, 78 min. Directed by Paul Bartel, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Fred Grandy, Don Steele, Roberta Collins, Mary Woronov, Louisa Moritz, Sylvester Stallone, Simone Griffeth, David Carradine. This is the one and only (even though there are plans afoot – with different talent – to make Death Race…
Postscripts
Matthew Miller is a new publisher who doesn�t plan on selling any of his books through bookstores or sending any of his authors on book tours. Why is he so determined to be successful?
Coach’s Corner
In search of more synonyms for “idiot.”
Smoking Ordinance Revisited
Here are some key points of Austin’s smoking ordinance as it applies to bars and restaurants: Hours: No smoking is allowed in restaurants between 6am-2pm. Smoking is allowed between 2pm-6am in a bar or lounge area, provided there is a separate ventilation system, and at least 25% of the space is reserved for nonsmokers. Smoking…
Love, Etc.
Love, Etc. NR, 105 min. Directed by Marion Vernoux, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Thibault De Montalembert, Susan Moncur, Charles Berling, Yvan Attal, Charlotte Gainsbourg. This French take on the romantic triangle is based on a Julian Barnes novel in which a man who marries a woman he meets through a personal ad…
Tim O’Brien at SWT
For those unfamiliar with novelist Tim O’Brien, my condolences. For those whose shelves echo the name, emblazoned down the creased spine of books both dogeared and floppy, O’Brien’s public readings at Southwest Texas State are the best reason to travel to San Marcos since the advent of the outlet mall. The first recipient of the…
About AIDS
Bolivian shamans’ plants may provide new AIDS drugs.
Council Watch
Forget Batman. Where is Superman when you need him? Both the Chronicle and the Statesman — which took verbal hits from the council at last week’s meeting — could have used the intervention of our colleague Clark Kent in his more powerful incarnation. Statesman reporter Dylan Rivera took the brunt of complaints from Council Members…
Dill Scallion
Dill Scallion 1999, NR, 90 min. Directed by Jordan Brady, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Robert Wagner, Dana Gould, Henry Winkler, Peter Berg, Jason Priestley, Kathy Griffin, Lauren Graham, David Koechner, Billy Burke. There’s an old cowboy saying: “Any cowboy can carry a tune. The trouble comes when he tries to unload it.”…
Book Reviews
Plainsong by Kent Haruf Knopf, $24 hard On the plains the sky is bigger and the wind blows harder and this tends to make people some combination of humble, hearty, and resilient as hell. Plainsong is set in Holt, Colorado, on the rough, rugged, outstretched plains east of Denver and is infused with its landscape.…
Ultra-Gallic Gastronomy
Barbara Chisholm elucidates the finer points of dining at Chez Nous.
Naked City
A New Activist Group Forms To Stop Hyde Park Baptist ChurchÕs Development Plans.
On the Ropes
On the Ropes 1999, NR, 90 min. Directed by Brett Morgen, Nannette Burstein, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . Boxing, that peculiar sport that engenders both brutality and balletic finesse in its athletes, has never particularly captured this critic’s imagination apart from such related films as Raging Bull and When We Were Kings.…
Book Reviews
Homework by Suneeta Peres da Costa Bloomsbury USA, $23.95 hard If the label reads “California Sunshine,” maybe that’s exactly what’s inside. If a man wants to escape family troubles, he may bury himself — not in his work, but literally, under his own house. A world in which metaphors come alive is the world of…
Food-o-File
Details about a new nonprofit whose goal is to build home food gardens as well as upcoming food events in Austin.
Naked City
A new era in downtown law enforcement was inaugurated Friday, with the opening of the downtown Austin Community Court. The idea behind the court is to match repeat transgressors of the city’s public nuisance laws (public intoxication, panhandling, public camping and the like) with the social services they need to get on the right side…
Drive Me Crazy
Drive Me Crazy 1999, PG-13, 94 min. Directed by John Schultz, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Melissa Joan Hart, Adrian Grenier, Stephen Collins, Mark Metcalf, Ali Larter. What can I possibly tell you about this agonizingly familiar teen fantasia that you don’t already know? That it’s an adaptation of the novel How I…
Book Reviews
In the Blink of an Eye: The FBI Investigation of TWA Flight 800 by Pat Milton Random House, $26.95 hard If the Waco debacle was the FBI’s darkest hour, then surely its investigation of the crash of TWA’s flight 800 was its finest. Associated Press reporter Pat Milton’s In the Blink of an Eye pulses…
Sallie’s
Rachel Feit explores the Southern/soul food combinations at Sallie�s.
Naked City
Despite biting criticism from several key Democratic lawmakers, Gov. George W. Bush took steps last week to permanently cut off welfare benefits to thousands of Texans up to three years sooner than state law requires. On Thursday, the governor sent a letter to Washington that will effectively subject Texas to a federal welfare law enacted…
Superstar
Superstar 1999, PG-13, 82 min. Directed by Bruce McCulloch, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Molly Shannon, Will Ferrell, Mark McKinney, Harland Williams, Elaine Hendrix, Glynis Johns, Emmy Laybourne. Fetishists of women’s white cotton underpants will think they’ve died and gone to heaven when they attend a screening of Superstar, but let’s hope their…
Book Reviews
Where the Roots Reach for Water: A Personal and Natural History of Melancholia by Jeffery Smith North Point Press, $24 hard Over the past few years, memoirs about depression from writers such as William Styron, Lauren Slater, Kay Redfield Jamison, and countless others have appeared in droves. As Jeffery Smith writes in Where the Roots…
The Coffeehouse Chronicles
Coffeehouse adventurer Pableaux Johnson provides the essentials on 503 Coffee Bar.
Naked City
Let’s admit it: “Rail~Volution” is a stupid name. But the thousand-plus souls — including dozens of Austinites — who gathered in Dallas in late September for Rail~Volution Ô99 were not stupid people. So in between the inevitable schmoozing and bad chicken entrees, and the de rigueur (for a progressive conference) urban bicycle tour, the attendees…
Cabaret Balkan
Cabaret Balkan 1998, NR, 102 min. Directed by Goran Paskaljevic, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Nebosja Glogovac, Sergej Trifgfunovic, Vojislav Brajovic, Nikola Ristanovski, Miki Manojlovic. More than anything you’re likely to see on the nightly news, Cabaret Balkan cuts to the quick of the ongoing madness in Belgrade. Not a movie of politics,…
Book Reviews
How the Body Praysby Peter Weltner Graywolf Press, $23.95 hard How the Body Prays is written in the Southern Gothic tradition and deals with the Odum family, patricians of a rural Carolina community, where they’ve lived since well before the Civil War, during which an Odum was killed by Sherman’s troops as they cut a…
Destruction as Beauty
Profile of local alternative band Trail of Dead; explication of their new album Madonna
Naked City
Forget Eliza May. Service Corporation International has bigger worries. Last Friday, the funeral giant saw its stock price fall yet again after it announced it would not meet third quarter revenue projections. The news sent the stock down 25% to close at $7.87. On Tuesday, the stock fell further, to $7.62. A year ago, the…
Off the Bookshelf
Stuart Wade Reviews The Pop Journal Hermenaut.
Madonna reviewed
… And You WIll Know Us By the Trail of DeadMadonna (Merge) In both performance and on their 1998 self-titled Trance Syndicate debut, Austin’s … And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead have been more style than substance. Sound and fury over songs. On Madonna, their second full-length and first for North…
Anne Rapp’s Fortune
The screenwriter of Cookie�s Fortune talks about storytelling, working in the business, and the incredible collaborator she found in Robert Altman.
Off the Bookshelf
Lissa Richardson Reviews Ann BeattieÕs Collection Of Short Stories, Park City.
Playing Kissyface
Profile of eclecto-rockers Adult Rodeo
Austin Heart of Film Festival Schedule (Revised)
The Austin Heart of Film Screenwriters Conference and Festival (AHFF) is the first national conference to be devoted to the art of the screenwriter. Now celebrating its sixth year, this annual gathering has grown more impressive than ever. The Screenwriters Conference takes place Thursday, October 7-Sunday, October 10, at both the Driskill and Omni hotels…
Second Helpings: French and Fine Dining
Tasty, bite-sized restaurant listings compiled from new and previous reviews, guides, and poll results. This week’s entries were compiled by food writers Rebecca Chastenet de Géry and Meredith Phillips, and Chronicle Cuisines editor Virginia B. Wood. When you need quick, reliable information about Austin eateries, check here. Green Pastures 811 W. Live Oak, 444-1888 Daily,…
Off the Bookshelf
Gabrielle Mathieu Reviews Irregulars By Marilyn Jacovsky.
The Kissyface reviewed
Adult RodeoThe Kissyface (Shimmy-Disc) Performing live, Adult Rodeo come off as an admirable blend of the Meat Purveyors and Three Day Stubble, balancing a love for twang with an affinity for making goofy faces. That and singer Stephanie Mankins’ disarmingly hickey voice would seem to make them prime candidates for producer Kramer’s eclectic Shimmy-Disc label,…
Something Completely Different
Comedy writers Bob Odenkirk and David Cross took everything they�d learned from past comic masters and made their Mr. Show variety show into something completely different.
The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland
The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland 1999, G, 77 min. Directed by Gary Halvorson, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Kevin Clash, Mandy Patinkin, Vanessa L. Williams, Sonia Manzano, Roscoe Orman, Fran Brill, Dave Goelz, Carmen Osbahr. It seems blasphemous to say anything bad about the Sesame Street gang. I have visions of waking…
For the Love of the Line
In the exhibitions �Old Master Drawings From the Suida-Manning Collection� at the Blanton Museum of Art and �Selected 20th-Century Master Drawings� at the Norwood Gallery, we can indulge our eyes in samples of art spanning five centuries.
Local Bestsellers
This WeekÕs Bestsellers Come From Toad Hall ChildrenÕs Bookstore.
Dancing About Architecture
Liberty Lunch is finally reduced to dust bin debris even as Mueller Airport hosts the “Airport Rave” and some 6,000 attendees, one of which was NOT Biz Markie, who was a no-show. Who says there are no more live music venues in Austin. Once-local guitarist Evan Johns hospitalized in DC with severe liver problems, just…
Small Screen, Big Ideas
The Territory Begins A New Season
Random Hearts
Random Hearts 1999, R, 133 min. Directed by Sydney Pollack, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Peter Coyote, Ariana Thomas, Dylan Baker, Richard Jenkins, Sydney Pollack, Dennis Haysbert, Bonnie Hunt, Charles S. Dutton, Kristin Scott Thomas, Harrison Ford. Something akin to viewing dead grass not growing, Random Hearts is that rarest of movies, a…
Articulations
Reports on The “Three ‘J’s” of Austin culture And Lily Tomlin At UT.
Page Two
Close your eyes in Portland, and it sounds a lot like Austin.
Liveshots
Descriptions of live shows
Video Reviews
Sextette D: Ken Hughes (1978); with Mae West, Timothy Dalton, Dom DeLuise, George Hamilton, Walter Pidgeon, George Raft. This film, a famously misguided team-up between the former Diamond Lil and the future James Bond, is guaranteed to wrench a nauseated grimace from any critic’s mug at the mention of the title alone — but is…
Exhibitionism
Reviews of recent and ongoing exhibitions and performances around Austin
Public Notice
Atlatl, atlatl, atlatl, atlatl!
Liveshots
Descriptions of live shows
Video Reviews
Cheech and Chong’s Next Movie D: Thomas Chong (1980); with Chong, Cheech Marin, Edie McClurg, Paul Reubens. Drug humor aside, Cheech and Chong are frequently understated in the annals of comedy. This film proves it. Although several bits are dated, the duo’s chemistry (then at its peak) and flair for peripheral comic touches make it…
Exhibitionism
Reviews of recent and ongoing exhibitions and performances around Austin
Mr. Smarty Pants
A playmate for the fishberry?
Liveshots
Descriptions of live shows
Video Reviews
Black SamsonD: Chuck Bail (1974); with Rockne Tarkington, William Smith, Carol Speed, Connie Strickland. He’s big, bad, speaks softly, and carries a big stick. No, this isn’t the Teddy Roosevelt Story. It’s Black Samson, one of the lesser-known blaxploitation flicks of the Seventies. Samson (Tarkington) is a dashiki-clad owner of a topless night club who…
Exhibitionism
Reviews of recent and ongoing exhibitions and performances around Austin
After a Fashion
Nepotism is disliked only by those who have no familial connections to make use of.
Don’t Ash, Don’t Tell
The city�s smoking ordinance is rather lax in bars and restaurants, but hardly anyone�s complaining
Short Cuts
News from the Austin film world.
Direct Hit
Why are Tupperware-style home parties where children�s books are sold putting booksellers on the defensive?
Day Trips
Tyler, Texas’ own City of Roses.
California Dreamin’?
Last year, the state of California enacted the strictest anti-smoking law in the country, banning cigarettes from nearly all public places, including bars. Organizations such as the American Cancer Society, the American Lung Association, and the American Heart Association think Austin should follow California’s lead. “Whenever Austin’s ready to tackle nonsmoking bars, we’ll be there…
TV Eye
A small-screen return to twitching noses, magic potions, and girls who hold the power; also, a review of TNT�s daring live-action Animal Farm.
