Solomon & Gaenor
Solomon & Gaenor 1999, R, 100 min. Directed by Paul Morrisson, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Ioan Gruffudd, Nia Roberts, Sue Jones-Davies, William Thomas, Mark Lewis Jones, Maureen Lipman, David Horovitch. Although writer/director Paul Morrisson wrote the original screenplay for his debut feature Solomon & Gaenor, the film feels like a literary adaptation,…
Zapatista!
Zapatista! NR, 54 min. Directed by Benjamin Eichert, Richard Rowley, Stâle Sandberg, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . Zapatista! blends powerful visual elements and evocative music from groups like Rage Against the Machine and Neil Young and Crazy Horse with the impassioned voices of Mayan and Zapatista leaders, including Zapatista military leader, Subcomandante…
Forbidden City Cop
Forbidden City Cop R, 89 min. Directed by Stephen Chow, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Stephen Chow, Carina Lau, Carmen Lee, Indra Leech. Hong Kong’s biggest box-office star, Stephen Chow, wrote, directed, and stars in this period comedy. He plays an imperial-era policeman who can’t compete with the better superheroes on the royal…
Swinging Cheerleaders
Swinging Cheerleaders R, 91 min. Directed by Jack Hill, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Jo Johnston, Candy All, Colleen Camp. A reporter infiltrates a cheerleading squad in order to get the real skinny.
Revenge of the Cheerleaders
Revenge of the Cheerleaders 1976, R, 88 min. Directed by Richard Lerner, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Cheryl Smith, Helen Lang, Patrice Rohmer, David Hasselhoff. Cheerleaders compete and spike the cafeteria food with drugs. However, the antics of young David Hasselhoff steal the show.
The Cheerleaders
The Cheerleaders 1973, R, 90 min. Directed by Paul Glicker, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring John Bracci, Jovita Bush, Denise Dillaway, Stephanie Fondue, Howdy Gowdy. This campy exploitation film finds the middle ground between soft- and hardcore.
Dracula
It’s the movie that put Transylvania on the map and the role to which Bela Lugosi became forever linked.
Living With Pride: Ruth C. Ellis @ 100
Living With Pride: Ruth C. Ellis @ 100 1999, NR, 59 min. Directed by Yvonne Welbon, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . Having won the Best Documentary awards at most of this year’s major gay and lesbian film festivals (including aGLIFF), the inspirational Living With Pride returns to Austin as a memorial to…
The Puppetmaster
The Puppetmaster NR, 142 min. Directed by Hou Hsiou-Hsien, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Li Tienlu. Hou uses the memoirs of Taiwan’s celebrated 84-year-old puppeteer, Li Tienlu, to tell the 20th-century history of Taiwan. The narrative is multilayered and formally inventive, and is the second installment in a trilogy of historical films. See…
Postscripts
Want a little morality with your murder tale? Austin author Suzy Spencer has the solution.
About AIDS
Volunteer Call for peer counelors at the HIV Wellness Center.
Record Reviews
Dandy WarholsThirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia (Capitol) Dandy vox populi Courtney Taylor-Taylor has both the chops and the cheekbones to rule the world, so why do the Dandys continue to play out their existence within the deadly wilderness of post-collegiate radio and M2? They’re big in Europe, sure, but so is my dick. 1997’s The…
Cowboy Poker
Click here to view a larger PDF file (i.e., one you can actually read!).
CinemaTexas
Photos and award winners from Cinematexas5
The Yards
The Yards 2000, R, 115 min. Directed by James Gray, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Mark Wahlberg, Joaquin Phoenix, Charlize Theron, James Caan, Ellen Burstyn, Faye Dunaway, Steve Lawrence. There are a number of extremely enjoyable aspects to this second feature by James Gray (Little Odessa), among them Howard Shore’s ominous score, which…
Book Reviews
The Neal Pollack Anthology of American Literature by Neal Pollack McSweeney’s Books, 156 pp., $16 Neal Pollack is a three-time winner of the National Book Award (The Brutal, Racist Murder of Wally Trumbull; Give Spain a Chance; Hell Here on Earth, Volume II) with a lucrative job at a major television network. At the age…
Southeast Feast
On 620, about halfway between Mansfield Dam and Lakeway, in Lakeway Plaza, is one of Austin’s best pan-Asian restaurants. It’s a small spot with limited seating and tiny tables turning out some of the finest Thai, Cambodian, Laotian, and Burmese cuisine around. As a matter of fact, they turn out the only Cambodian, Laotian, and…
Record Reviews
SpoonLove Ways EP (Merge) The first song on Spoon’s new EP, “Change My Life,” starts out almost hesitant enough to feel reluctant. With its stop-start hovering energy, with guitars bobbing and weaving around the drum beats, it seems to take an age before they get down to the business of pop. But then it happens:…
All the Right Moves
Democrat Donna Howard faces self-proclaimed moderate Republican Cynthia Thornton in the general election for Austin’s seat on the State Board of Education
Ask Questions First, Shoot Later
In 1967, Hobart Ison shot and killed Hugh O’Connor, who was filming a documentary on Ison’s property. In her documentary Stranger With a Camera (showing at the Alamo Drafthouse this Wednesday, November 1), Elizabeth Barret examines the context that brought these two men together — one with a gun and one with a camera.
Pola X
Carax’s follow-up to The Lovers on the Bridge is based on Herman Melville’s novel Pierre, or the Ambiguities, and is rich in images and ideas. A man who shuffles between the houses of his mother and fiancée becomes involved with a woman who says she is his illegitimate sister.
Book Reviews
Head: Stories by William Tester Sarabande Books, 200 pp., $19.95 These are 10 stories about the subconscious and the unspoken erupting into daily life and, thankfully, William Tester owns the language to convey the undercurrents. In a lesser writer’s hands, these would be 10 stories about disturbed, horny people. Head is an apt title; the…
Food-o-File
Upcoming food and wine festivals, updates on local culinary news.
Record Reviews
Damon & Naomi with Ghost(Sub Pop) The music of Massachussetts-based duo Damon & Naomi is not difficult to resist. Their unsteady, ethereal vocals and fragmented lyrics of gentle longing applied to slow, slow melodies do not demand nor even ask very loudly for your attention. But to succumb to a Damon & Naomi record, like…
The Greening of George W. Bush
An industry pollution control program started backed by Gov. George W. Bush has cleaned less than 3% of the industrial toxic emissions it aimed to clean up.
American Nightmare
A new documentary on IFC examines seminal horror films of the Sixties and Seventies and persuasively argues that the images and ideology of these groundbreaking films were influenced by the mood of the times.
Book Reviews
Another Beauty by Adam Zagajewski translated by Clare Cavanagh Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 221 pp., $23 Adam Zagajewski is a critically acclaimed poet who, living in both Paris and Houston (where he teaches at the University of Houston) is estranged and exiled from his native Poland. With an exile’s wizened eyes, Zagajewski reflects upon his…
Mini-Review
Austin has grown so far north that Dot’s Place is no longer really in the country; the construction worker clientele is now joined by hungry high tech office workers from the Silicon Hills. Diners patiently snake their way through a maze inside the front door to a cafeteria line loaded daily with an embarrassment of…
Record Reviews
YOUSSOU N’DOURJoko (Nonesuch) Has it really been 15 years since Youssou N’Dour added his definitive voice to Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes”? While that cameo and a subsequent opening slot on Gabriel’s world tour catapulted the singer onto the international stage, it was only a matter of time before N’Dour would shine as one of…
Ten Big Polluters Who Designed Bush’s 1997 Anti-Pollution Program
Company: Grandfathered Tonnage Texas Utilities: 210,437 Alcoa: 109,646 Phillips 66: 37,841 Valero: 18,335 Shell: 15,010 Amoco: 14,282 Coastal: 8,628 Lyondell-Citgo: 8,297 Lyondell: 8,069 Dow: 5,568 Total: 436,113 Of the 17 industry executives the governor and Big Oil brought together in 1997 to clean up their own pollution, 10 represented companies that were among the state’s…
Tobe Hooper Remembers ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’
Austin Chronicle: Where did you get the crazy idea that you could make a movie here in Austin? TH: I saw at the State Theater a long time ago a short subject called “Skater Dater” by Noel Black. It was this silent, basically no-dialogue, short subject that was nominated for an Academy Award. It looked…
Off the Bookshelf
The Slate Diaries edited by Jodi Kantor, Cyrus Krohn, and Judith Shulevitz PublicAffairs, 400 pp., $14 (paper) The allure of this addictive, thoroughly browsable collection is the promise of familiarity with famous people, though it quickly becomes apparent that the daily lives of Bill Gates, Karena Gore Schiff, and Benazir Bhutto aren’t necessarily more scintillating…
Liquid Assets
$10 and under La Playa Sauvignon Blanc, $9 Score: 86 Another in a long line of incredible bargains from Chile. Syrupy and jammed with tropical fruit flavors, especially pineapple. Delicious enough to drink before dinner, but really shines with a salty/rich dish like Snapper Veracruz. Tyrrell Long Flat Red, $7 Score: 87 An amalgam of…
Record Reviews
Caetano Veloso Aprenda Minha (Blue Thumb) Currently Caetano Veloso ranks among the most internationally esteemed Brazilian artists, and deservedly so. Not only has he been an outstanding songwriter who’s built up an impressive stock of compositions over the years, but also a courageous, forward-looking artist who paid some dues when Brazil was ruled by a…
It’s the Planet, Stupid
George W. Bush is not sure global warming and the greenhouse effect are a problem.
Short Cuts
Upcoming events and workshops of interest to the Austin film community.
Off the Bookshelf
It’s the Media, Stupid by John Nichols and Robert W. McChesney Seven Stories Press, 128 pp., $10 (paper) The great failing of the academic left in trying to reach the masses is long-windedness. Seven Stories Press’ “Open Media Pamphlet Series” at least partially addresses this problem with short, to-the-point booklets (pocket-sized and usually less than…
Grave Importance
Meiling Guentzel explores her fascination with small local graveyards and death and learns about life in the process.
Record Reviews
Jimmy ScottMood Indigo (Milestone) It’s safe to say that Jimmy Scott doesn’t sound like any other vocalist in jazz. In fact, folks hearing him for the first time often mistake his high, delicate, emotion-filled voice for that of a woman. A hereditary condition that left the 75-year-old singer pre-pubertal did not stop him from embarking…
Naked City
Daryl Slusher debates Max Nofziger on light rail; Garnet Coleman fights with Hugo Berlanga at the St. Louis presidential debate; Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins support a soft money campaign for Ralph Nader; the Statesman buries a Bush funeral scandal story.
TV Eye
Does it seem like this new crop of series, including Ed and Gideon’s Crossing, mask their chauvinism under fresh-faced idealism and earnestness — or is it just us?
Off the Bookshelf
Walkin’ the Dog by Walter Mosley Back Bay Books, 272 pp., $13.95 (paper) Socrates is a street philosopher. Squatting in between two buildings on the streets of L.A., he reflects on his old life as a murderer and his new life as a supermarket clerk, surrogate father, and man of integrity. The dog in the…
Local Cemeteries: What Do You Want on Your Tombstone?
Fall Creek Cemetery take Hwy 71 W. past the intersection at Hwy. 290 W.; cemetery is on the left, past S. Paleface Ranch Rd., just before the Burnet County line. More than 270 graves make this cemetery my favorite one to visit. It’s removed from neighborhoods and constant traffic and has sites dating back to…
Record Reviews
Keith JarrettWhisper Not (ECM) This recording, in a trio with bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Jack DeJohnette, is the first Jarrett has cut live in a couple of years after being forced to take time off to overcome chronic fatigue syndrome. His all-star trio is noted for recording a series of impeccable standards-CDs for ECM…
Naked City
In response to East Austinites’ outrage, Danny Thomas comes out against the light rail referendum.
Video Reviews
Louis Black reviews Night of the Living Dead, Last House on the Left, Texas Chain-saw Massacre, and Halloween — all featured in IFC’s new documentary, American Nightmare
Off the Bookshelf
Day of the Bees A Novel by Thomas Sanchez Knopf, 305 pp., $24 Day of the Bees hinges on a bizarre event in which Louise, the love-stricken heroine, is raped by Nazi officers, rescued by a beekeeper, drenched with honey, and stung by thousands of bees. This is bookended by a series of letters that…
Still a Good Thing
Lady sings the blues
Record Reviews
Rex Hobart & The Misery BoysThe Spectacular Sadness Of Rex Hobart & The Misery Boys (Bloodshot) Being Kansas City’s kings of honky-tonk isn’t such a bad thing, but how many other bands can you name from there anyway? The Spectacular Sadness Of … is chock-full of Bakersfield-style country, performed with a reverence for that tradition…
Naked City
A pipeline explosion in North Austin raises questions about Longhorn Pipeline’s plan to run gas through a 50-year-old pipeline across the Edwards Aquifer.
Making a Front Porch for the City
As he was completing the final design for the Austin Museum of Art’s long-awaited downtown facility, architect Richard Gluckman took time to discuss the project, his approach to architecture, and what it means to design buildings for a boomtown.
Local Bestsellers
Local bestsellers are based on recent sales at Austin bookstores selected to reflect varied reading interests.
Diddley Daddy
Last year it was 82-year-old John Lee Hooker, who headlined Antone’s Blues Festival at Waterloo Park; last month it was 75-year-old B.B King, who reigned supreme at his B.B. King Blues Festival on Auditorium Shores. Now it’s 71-year-old Bo Diddley, who plays La Zona Rosa on Saturday. The three most influential bluesmen alive, and all…
Record Reviews
THE WACO BROTHERSElectric Waco Chair (Bloodshot) Live, the Waco Brothers put across an unbelievably forceful and energetic show that leaves audi-ences exhausted, exhilarated, and panting for more. On the other hand, their recorded output, though it shows some great performances and songcraft, has never quite captured the band’s mastery of the live medium. The Brothers…
Naked City
Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs board member Florita Bell Griffin goes on trial for allegedly conspiring to benefit from housing projects she approved.
Articulations
Austin playwrights are drawing attention around the nation, and one theatre company is getting hit by the Macbeth curse smack in the face.
The Little Vampire
The Little Vampire 2000, PG, 97 min. Directed by Uli Edel, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Jonathan Lipnicki, Richard E. Grant, Jim Carter, Alice Krige, Rollo Weeks, John Wood, Pamela Gidley, Tommy Hinkley, Anna Popplewell, Dean Cook. Adults may have a hard time swallowing this toothless tale of PG-rated bloodsuckers, but kids may…
Page Two
The opposition to Light Rail is rebutted by our Editor.
Dialtone, Please
Everyone who deals with the music business is familiar with the following scenario: Label opens its doors, tries to be everything to everyone, and, with only the highest intentions in mind, swears to treat its artists right by paying royalties on time, offering tour support, booking, distribution, the whole shootin’ match. Credit cards at the…
Record Reviews
At the Drive-InRelationship of Command (Grand Royal) Understand, the massive hype At the Drive-In has been getting of late is all about timing. Aggressive revolutionary music is in, riding the post-Rage crest. So is aggro-producer Ross Robinson (Korn, Limp Bizkit, Slipknot), and getting signed by the same man who signed Nirvana to Geffen (Gary Gersh,…
Naked City
Austin Adopt-a-Minefield is struggling to raise enough money to clear Praca, a village in Bosnia, of land mines.
Exhibitionism
In the State Theater Company production A Macbeth, director Guy Chandler Roberts strips the Scottish Play of its dramatic spectacle and boils it down into a compelling ritual of human evil, a Black Mass.
Public Notice
PN takes you through the final weeks of Breast Cancer Awareness Month and looks ahead to events on the public service horizon.
Dancing About Architecture
What’s up in the live music capital this week
Endorsements
Capital Metro Prop. 1: Yes Remember, you are not voting on a specific Capital Metro light rail plan. You’re voting to give Cap Met permission to build some kind of rail system. You the people get to decide the details later. If you vote no on Prop. 1, you will not only never have anything…
Naked City
Former TFSC head Dick McNeil testifies that he talked to Governor George W. Bush about the ongoing investigation into funeral giant SCI, a statement that contradicts Bush’s sworn testimony on the matter.
Live Nude Girls Unite!
Live Nude Girls Unite! 2000, NR, 70 min. Directed by Vicky Funari, Julia Query, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . The exotic dancers who work at the Lusty Lady Theater in San Francisco are all hot and bothered, but not for that guy behind the one-way glass. Nope, these sex workers are champing…
Letters at 3AM
Michael Ventura reflects on the gateway of Time.
Beat Box
Dress ya ass up for a hip-hop Halloween.
The Hottest Race in Texas
On the evening of October 17 — while much of the nation was watching either George W. Bush and Al Gore impersonate Disney World robots, or the Yankees finally pummel the hapless Mariners into submission — a real, live, up-close and personal political event was in progress up in East Texas. In the auditorium of…
Naked City
What’s coming up at City Council.
After a Fashion
The Style Avatar digs into the subatomic particles of the Atomic Cafe Fashion show and goes on a “Bender”…
Record Reviews
RadioheadKid A (Capitol) “I’ve lost my way,” howls Thom Yorke in “In Limbo,” exactly where many loyal Radiohead-heads may find themselves — especially if they were expecting anything akin to the guitar-driven anthems which captained the band’s first three records. Even 1997’s alienation dissertation OK Computer delivered plenty of bombastic assertiveness amidst the angst, vagaries,…
Who’s Buying S.D.3?
“Lawyers are like ICBM’s,” says a junk-bond king in Other People’s Money. “The other side has theirs, so you have to have yours.” In the U.S. political system, the same is true of campaign contributors: If you don’t have big-monied backers, you don’t get to play the game. For the average voter, without specialized knowledge…
Naked City
Port Austin, the turbo-hyped broadband expo planned for Nov. 9-11, has been canceled.
Second Helpings: Casual Fine
Casual fine dining in Austin.
Coach’s Corner
Coach is having none of this “Subway Series” BS. Only question is: Which team does he hate the most?
Record Reviews
Pearl JamBarcelona (Epic)Pearl JamLondon (Epic)Pearl JamDublin (Epic)Pearl JamParis (Epic)Pearl JamHamburg (Epic)Pearl JamStockholm (Epic) “Vacation, all I ever wanted, vacation, had to get away …” Barcelona, Paris, Milan. Arch romance. London, Dublin, Glasgow, Manchester. Arch rock. Nürnburg, Praha, Salzburg. Über rock. Zurich, Berlin, Hamburg, Stockholm, Oslo. Arctic rock. Twenty-five European cities in just over a month.…
Contributions by Locale
Staples(March 6 through Sept. 28) Total for Period: $1,464,414 In-State = 95% Top 5 States Texas: $1,398,014 Virginia: $51,500 D.C.: $6,500 Louisiana: $1,850 Alabama: $1,500 Top 5 Cities Austin: $471,275 Houston: $305,078 Dallas: $137,975 Washington, D.C.: $50,000 Irving: $48,200 Fisher(Jan. 2 through Sept. 28) Total for Period: $1,239,816 In-State = 84% Top 5 States Texas:…
Naked City
CAMPO undergoes the peer review study sought by anti-light rail activists, but the results turn out quite differently than the road warriors expected.
Exhibitionism
Director Marshall Ryan Maresca may lose the audience at times in the female-dominated world of his Macbeth, but he keeps hearts pounding on a trip through the supernatural world of Dunsinane and the many worlds of human psychosis.
Mr. Smarty Pants
More intriguing lumber for your mental woodpile.
Record Reviews
Go-BetweensThe Friends Of Rachel Worth (Jetset) This may be their first album of new songs in 12 years, but the Go-Betweens sound like they never left. The Friends Of Rachel Worth finds them as always in pure pop mode, spinning melodies that sparkle and singing lyrics that are both enigmatic and sincere. Original members Robert…
31 Staples Contributors of $10,000 or Over
$173,899 Associated Republicans of Texas $50,000 Nat’l Republican Congressional Comm. $36,000 Associated Builders & Contractors PAC $32,500 *Bob J. Perry, Perry Homes $28,000 HOMEPAC of Texas Inc., home builders’ PAC $25,000 Rick Perry $25,000 Florence Shapiro, State Senate State Affairs Comm. chair $25,000 Robert L. Duncan, State Sen. Criminal Justice Comm. vice chair $25,000 Robert…
The Hightower Lowdown
Congress and China Trade; Rewarding Failure
Lucky Numbers
Lucky Numbers 2000, R, 100 min. Directed by Nora Ephron, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Lisa Kudrow, John Travolta, Daryl Mitchell, Michael Rapaport, Ed O’Neill, Tim Roth, Bill Pullman, Michael Moore. Suddenly Battlefield Earth doesn’t look so bad. Compared to Lucky Numbers, an unfortunate teaming of Ephron (who previously directed Travolta in Michael)…
Years of the Dead
The Mexico of now, David Garza writes, is not held only within the borders of Mexico itself. It has spread northward, re-entered its old space, in a sense. For so many of the Mexicans, displaced but still infatuated with the idea of spirit and ghost, the nation itself is a ghost in the back of…
Day Trips
From Galveston to Cozumel on a Carnival cruise ship: food, gambling, food, and ruins.
Record Reviews
2getherAgain (TVT) They’re back — the only boy band that matters! Or at least the only one that can make you laugh intentionally. Created using the standard formula of cute one, shy one, heartthrob, bad boy, and older brother (only in this case the older brother is 34 and divorced), the five singers have unique,…
29 Fisher Contributors Over $5,000
$150,000 Democratic Legislative Campaign Comm. $103,834 Orbetuck PAC, Orgain Bell & Tucker law firm $50,000 Texas Trial Lawyers Association PAC $50,000 Wayne Reaud, Reaud Morgan & Quinn $50,000 TX Dem. Party Legislature Victory Fund $30,217 Texas Democratic Party $25,000 Texas State Teachers Association PAC $25,000 Williams Bailey Law Firm $25,000 Nix Patterson & Roach, plaintiff…
It’s Alive!
The unassuming, 42-year-old Bill Jones is Austin’s premier garage-kit model maker, and that Godzilla leering down at you from the corner of the room is only 1 / 500th scale. Lucky you.
Book of Shadows: Blair Witch Two
Book of Shadows: Blair Witch Two 2000, R, 90 min. Directed by Joe Berlinger, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Stephen Barker Turner, Tristine Skyler, Erica Leerhsen, Jeffrey Donovan, Kim Director. Is Book of Shadows the best comedy of the year? Or the worst horror film of the decade? Either way you look at…
