Articulations
This is the big week for local stars of the stage. It’s the week of the B. Iden Payne Awards, presented by the Austin Circle of Theatres. In a ceremony at The Metropolitan Club Monday, September 15, 25 awards for outstanding work in theatrical productions of the past year will be presented, along with several…
Keeping The Lid On
Between 75 and 100 people filled the gym of the Hyde Park Methodist Church on Monday evening, September 8 for the general meeting of the Hyde Park Neighborhood Association. Among several serious issues was the consideration of a petition to support the request for a parking variance at the Duval Center. Development Review Committee chairman…
Princess of Hearts
Diana, Princess of Wales, and princess of our hearts It won’t take a psychic to figure what has been on TV Eye’s mind since Saturday night when the news broke. The tragic death of Diana, Princess of Wales, was as shattering as that of any other icon whose presence shone in my life: John F.…
Exhibitionism
SMALL DEATHS: UNNOTICED BEAUTY Women & Their Work Gallery, through September 27 Recently we’ve been confronted with quite a few “big deaths,” deaths of highly visible public figures – notably a nun, a princess, and a fashion designer. They’ve been powerful events, impossible to miss and sometimes overwhelming. Perhaps that’s what makes this exhibition of…
Who Is Jesus?
photograph by John Anderson At the council retreat just three weeks after the June runoffs, Jesus Garza was a marked man. No doubt he suspected that the new 7-0 environmental majority on the council were gunning for him. After all, as a City Manager notorious for what some have characterized as a tendency to align…
Film at Wit’s End
Stan Brakhage, the de facto Godfather of American experimental cinema, is the most influential filmmaker you’ve never heard of. Although only a handful of people have seen even one of the 250+ films he has made over the past 45 years, filmmakers and students regard as classics such films as Dog Star Man, Reflections on…
Beth Lisick and Justin Chin In Person
As an accomplished performance poet who has done shows across the country, Beth Lisick has seen many reactions to her work. But this summer, they’ve gotten a little stranger. “I’ve been doing a series at this local trendy retro supper club,” Lisick said last week from her San Francisco home. “The musicians (Iggy Pop’s drummer…
7 and 7 is
Ever had your tone-arm hit nothing but air and then come down on the cold, unfriendly surface of a spindle with no record? That’s a sound right up their with screeching cats in heat. Not quite that bad is Eight Frozen Modules’ Daydream Nightmare EP on Trance Syndicate. While their own press releases rightfully conclude,…
Dracula vs. Frankenstein
D: Al Adamson (1973) with Lon Chaney, Jr., Forrest J. Ackerman, J. Carroll Naish, Zandor Vorkov, John Bloom Picture, if you will, Jerry Seinfeld with a goatee, curly hair, egg-white makeup, plastic fangs, and red, red lips. Now, visualize a Frankenstein monster with a face that looks like a wad of chewed-up bubblegum (or one…
Snake Oil Cures Turbulent Instinct
illustration by Tom King I just spent two hours waiting to see my doctor, who just happens to be a very busy, popular orthopedic surgeon. Having already perused every magazine in his waiting room on our last visit (only 90 minutes that time), I decided to bring along some reading material of my own. I…
Dancing About Architecture
How long has it been since you’ve seen that particular palindrome peering down from the top of this column? Yes, though original Chronicle music columnist Margaret Moser was wont to invoke the name and image of the great J.R. “Bob” Dobbs in almost every installment of her In One Ear gossip page, the Church of…
Scanlines
D: Al Adamson (1973) with Lon Chaney, Jr., Forrest J. Ackerman, J. Carroll Naish, Zandor Vorkov, John Bloom Picture, if you will, Jerry Seinfeld with a goatee, curly hair, egg-white makeup, plastic fangs, and red, red lips. Now, visualize a Frankenstein monster with a face that looks like a wad of chewed-up bubblegum (or one…
Postscripts
The organizers of the Austin Jewish Community Center Book Fair 1997 think that you could be one of four writers picked to read your work at its Works in Progress event as long as your material contains Jewish elements such as characters, theme, plot, setting, etc. The work must be unpublished. This is the Book…
I’m Sorry, Yogi
Like it or not, Frank Kozik is legend. If he never draws another red devil bitch with big tits announcing a Godbullies/Hole show at Club Soda (wherever that is), or a zombied-out Nazi clown saluting a spoken-word event at the Dobie Cinema, he’d still be legend. And legend has it that Kozik is a prick;…
Short Cuts
You know, sometimes you just cruise along thinking you’re on terra firma, and then something, suddenly, comes along and yanks you by the whatsit just to let you know that those things you take for granted are really rather precious and should frequently and loudly be honored as such. The film community here in Austin…
Lizard Dreams Hearth & Soul
A hot wind blows across a barren landscape of rocks and a few cacti. There is no dust; the soil was blown away years ago. A lone Texas Spiny Lizard wonders where his next meal is going to come from and thinks it might be time he blew this place, too. Then all of a…
Violators Will Be Punished
In the beginning, there was music. And damn, it was yummy. Trouble was, no one seemed to know who was playing where, when. Was Janis at the Soap Creek Saloon, or the Armadillo? Cornell Hurd at the Hole in the Wall? Nah, that can’t be right. Where the hell was Eddie Wilson’s pager when you…
about AIDS
Wellness Center Programs Offer “Renewal! Back to Work, Back to Life” The advent of protease inhibitors has radically assisted many people in the management of their HIV infection. Indeed, a significant number are responding so well that they may be able to work again. The HIV Wellness Center (HWC) is presenting a free informational series…
Benefits
Saturday 13 Meisenbach & Gloden (Flute/Harp Duo) to benefit Sri Atmananda Memorial School, at Ceremony Hall (Sri Atmananda School), 4100 Red River, 8pm. Cost is $8 general/$5 seniors & students. 371-7065. Bob Marley Festival will be held through Sun, Sept 14 to benefit Capital Area Food Bank, at Waterloo Park, 15th & Red River, noon-10pm.…
Recommended
Friday: Big Drag, Shindigs, Bedwetter, Hole in the Wall; Ottmar Liebert, Backyard Saturday: Cure Hoot Night, Electric Lounge; Sunday: Hank Williams Birthday, Continental Club Monday: Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Bim Skala Bim, Dropkick Murphy’s, Austin Music Hall Tuesday: Mr. T Experience, Groovie Ghoulies, Emo’s Wednesday: C&C Music Factory, Liberty Lunch Thursday: Flotsam & Jetsam, Atomic Cafe
McLeese’s Pieces
Is it just our imagination, or is the Austin American-Statesman back on the anti-environmental/leftist warpath again? While the local daily has improved its news coverage in the last couple of years, no longer serving as a mere policy arm of Austin’s development industry, the editorial and column writers still bear the markings of the same…
Coach’s Corner
At 7:55pm on September 3, I’m reposing serenely upon my bed. I’d been caught outside in a sudden rainstorm. The overhead fan, which has been making that I-need-oil sound for years, groaned over my slightly damp, unclothed, but for the first time in months, cool body. The Coach is quite comfortable in the gathering gloom.…
Texas Platters
PHIL OCHS Farewells & Fantasies (Elektra Traditions/Rhino) Though he was born in El Paso in 1940, there’s little about Phil Ochs’ music that says “Texas,” other than an affinity in his later recordings for a bit of country twang. That doesn’t matter; we’ll take him — with pride. Ochs, to most, is a name shrouded…
The Game
The Game 1997, R, 128 min. Directed by David Fincher, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Michael Douglas, Sean Penn, James Rebhorn, Deborah Kara Unger, Peter Donat, Carroll Baker, Armin Mueller-Stahl. Shadows, fluorescent lighting, and David Fincher. The unholy trio. Fincher’s first outing since the wildly popular Seven has echoes of everything from the…
Day Trips
Russo’s Texitally Cafe in Marble Falls combines familiar Texan and Italian recipes to produce a unique and flavorful meal. What is Texas if not a blending of traditions to create something new? Russo’s family cafe is pure Texan in the finest tradition. Born and raised in New Jersey, John Russo migrated to the Hill Country…
Road Shows
SEPTEMBER FRI 12-SAT 13 Carmen Bradford, Ringside @ Sullivan’s FRI 12 Clandestine, Cactus Cafe FRI 12 Ottmar Liebert & Luna Negra XL, Backyard FRI 12 Ronnie Dawson, Continental Club FRI 12 Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, Empire of Shit, Electric Lounge FRI 12 Big Drag, Hole in the Wall FRI 12 Bailter Space, Sunday Puncher, Emo’s…
The Full Monty
The Full Monty 1997, R, 90 min. Directed by Peter Cattaneo, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Robert Carlyle, Mark Addy, Hugo Speer, Paul Barber, Steve Huison. Bountiful laughs and a subtle dose of consciousness-raising coexist easily in Peter Cattaneo’s comedy about laid-off English steelworkers whose financial desperation leads them to form a Chippendales-knockoff…
Page Two
City staff drives the city. Politicians come and go, hot-button community issues flare then fade, and through it all the city staff, currently under city manager Jesus Garza, runs the city. The council is supposed to provide the direction, but the staff is at the controls. The conflict between staff and council can, and has,…
The ACM Machine
Immediately following the election of the new “green” council, City Hall buzzed with rumors of imminent resignations and dismissals of upper-level staff members. Even councilmembers were willing to confirm that heads were ready to roll, especially among the four Assistant City Managers (ACMs) who each oversee several related city departments. Three months later, blood-thirsty critics…
Spike & Mike’s ’97 Festival of Animation
Spike & Mike’s ’97 Festival of Animation 1997, NR, 99 min. Directed by Various, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . Another day, another animation festival from those wacky guys at S&M. As always, it’s a mixed bag, with various styles and sensibilities represented, from the sublime to the superfluous, and from the goofy…
Public Notice
Have Some Joe With Jane Pull up a stool, sidle up to the counter, and fetch the Cremora, the League of Women Voters wants to invite you to tea… well, to coffee, actually, at their Annual Fall Coffee, Sun, Sep 14, 2:30pm at the First Unitarian Universalist Church. Judge W. Jeanne Muerer of the 98th…
Wreckless Recs?
illustration by Doug Potter Affordability 2000. It sounds kinda cheesy, like a drive-in movie about Austin city government. That is, if it had a love interest, and there’s not a lot of love in the room when Affordability 2000 gets discussed. But the real-life city campaign to reinvent itself has generated plenty of conflict, action,…
Gamera: Guardian of the Universe
Gamera: Guardian of the Universe 1995, NR, 90 min. Directed by Shusuke Kaneko, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Tsuyoshi Ihara, Shinobu Nakayama, Ayako Fujitani, Akira Onodera. After a lengthy, 26-year rest, Japan’s other giant radioactive reptile is back, and none too soon. Gamera, the 60-meter flying turtle with elephantine tusks and fiery breath…
A Man Needs A Bench
Fingers were made before forks and benches were made before buildings. The first bench was probably a log. Later, it grew legs. This is known as civilization. For 10 years, I sat on the bench in front of the Hyde Park Bakery and ruminated. Rumination is a prelude to creation. For 10 years, I sat…
Affordability Restructuring
This year’s audits as part of Affordability 2000 calls for these city functions to be consolidated or privatized. CITY FUNCTION STARTED UNDER: MOVED TO: WHICH IS UNDER: Facilities & Maintenance Parks & Rec. Building Services Division Financial & Administrative Services Vehicle Maintenance Parks & Rec. Fleet Services Division Financial & Administrative Services Grafitti Eradication Program…
Fire Down Below
Fire Down Below 1997, R, 107 min. Directed by Felix Enriquez Alcala, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Steven Seagal, Marg Helgenberger, Harry Dean Stanton, Kris Kristofferson. Steven Seagal strikes me as the least interesting Zen Buddhist, environmental activist, country music-playing martial arts movie star imaginable. But my opinion is clearly in the minority,…
Mister Smarty Pants Knows
Elvis Presley preferred Pepsi over Coca-Cola. According to The Wall Street Journal, Aldous Huxley was commissioned to write an adaptation of Don Quixote with Mr. Magoo in the lead role. Because Huxley had poor eyesight, no one told him about Magoo’s vision problems. The treatment was unusable. It is exactly 800 steps from the door…
Austin’s Benchmarks
Other than Austin, the communities benchmarked in the ICMA’s 1997 report are: CITIES: Albuquerque, Anaheim, Arlington, Atlanta, Baltimore (police data only), Calgary (the only Canadian city), Charlotte, Dallas, Fresno, Houston, Kansas City (MO), Long Beach, CA, Los Angeles, Oakland, Oklahoma City, Phoenix, Riverside, CA, Sacramento, San Antonio, Shreveport, Tucson, Wichita. COUNTIES: Metro-Dade County, FL (Miami),…
The Disappearance of Garcia Lorca
The Disappearance of Garcia Lorca 1997, R, 109 min. Directed by Marcos Zurinaga, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Andy Garcia, Edward James Olmos, Esai Morales, Giancarlo Giannini, Jeroen Krabbe, Miguel Ferrer. This will serve for many as their introduction to the work and short, tragic life of Spanish poet and playwright Garcia Lorca,…
Triangle Property Design Contest
Got an idea for what you think ought to be done with this controversial tract of land adjoining Hyde Park? Here�s your chance to put your drafting skills where your mouth is. The Chronicle will bestow modest prizes and fame, of course, when we print the winners. But don�t expect the developer to chuck its…
The Music of Our Sins
illustration by Jason Stout We’ve stuck the words “great” and “culture” to gobs of hype but let’s pretend they still mean something and say that there’s a great cultural event to speak of: the reissue of the most influential music compilation in recording history, Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music (originally issued by Folkways…
Top 10 Hits
illustration by Doug Potter Unlike the holiday season or football season, the City of Austin’s budget season is not marked by greeting cards, supermarket decorations, and beer specials. Instead, dark circles under tired eyes and angry protests from average citizens are the harbingers of the new fiscal year. After City Manager Jesus Garza presented the…
Untrained Wonders
The Quilting Bee by Fannie Lou Spelce On the night that the exhibition “Spirited Journeys” opened to the public, Fannie Lou Spelce wore a long black dress and, atop her white hair, a velvet black halo of a hat with a dark veil that trailed behind. Still spry at 90, although her sight is impaired,…
Food-O-File
The fall fundraising season gets off to a festive start on Tuesday, September 16 when Fonda San Miguel (2330 W. North Loop, 459-4121) hosts Frida’s Fiestas III to benefit Mexic-Arte Museum (419 Congress, 480-9373). The event is celebrated annually on Mexican Independence Day, Dies y Seis. The gala dinner is inspired by stylish parties given…
Musical Chairs
illustration by Doug Potter We trained hard, but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form into teams we would be reorganized. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing: And a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while…
Further Journeys
The Huntington Art Gallery has planned a number of events in conjunction with its “Spirited Journeys” exhibition. It’s a stellar lineup, as the schedule below shows. Unless otherwise noted, all events will be held in the Huntington Art Gallery in the Art Building, UT campus. Sep 11, Thu, 6pm — Gallery Talk: The Life of…
Hyde Parking
photograph by John Anderson A hot cauldron of emotions and inflamed public opinion is threatening to boil over at the corner of 43rd and Duval. At this commercial crossroads in the Hyde Park neighborhood, much heat has been generated lately over the future of a restaurant space. Restaurateurs Greg Cooper, Jon Shannon, and Amelia-Rey Shannon…
Naked City
The Save Our Springs Alliance (S.O.S.) and El Concilio last week lost the first round of a battle with the Austin Independent School District over the construction of a middle school in the Edwards Aquifer recharge zone. At issue was whether the AISD Board of Trustees violated the Open Meetings Act by discussing real estate…
