Cover Story
Sisters Under the Scrim
Six of the finest theatrical artists in Austin discuss their work behind the curtain designing lighting schemes, mixing sound, and creating and constructing sets and costumes and how their careers have been affected by the fact that they’re women.
University Inc.
University Inc. 1999, NR, 54 min. Directed by Kyle Henry, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . Kyle Henry’s locally produced “University Inc.” uses the closing of the University of Texas’ Union Film Program as a paradigm for exposing the true corporate order. The film exposes the dominance of big business over education, student…
Page Two
It’s been two years since 9 / 11, and we’re under attack.
Texas Platters
Dead End AngelsNovember (Down Time) Featuring a pair of ex-Groobees, vocalist and main songwriter Scott Melott and drummer Craig Bagby, plus guitarist Rick Poss, who’s played with folks like the Robison brothers and Chris Knight, and bass player Troy Wilson, the Dead End Angels have a worthy pedigree. Add to this Alejandro Escovedo, who produced…
Don’t Worry, Be Happy:
City Hall’s left wing carries the day as the budget season draws to a close
The Judgment of the Rev. Crabb
The House Redistricting Committee chair behaves very, very badly.
TV Eye
Work and family, work and family, work and family. That perpetual sitcom theme keeps it up this fall, and Belinda Acosta accepts it with an asterisk.
After a Fashion
It was a “Mighty Real” period in at least one young man’s life: Oh, those heady disco nights! Oh, the power! The Passion! The psychedelics! Oh, it’s all within reach through the grace of MP3s! Oh, I should have saved them!
Texas Platters
Rick TrevinoIn My Dreams (Warner Bros.) Rick Trevino fans have much to celebrate this week; In My Dreams marks the local’s return to his career’s country beginnings. He may have left the cowboy duds behind, but the 10 tightly woven tunes written by Trevino, Raul Malo, and others, is bona fide country spiced with the…
Hightower Takes on the Bushites in His Underwear
Jim Hightower’s latest assault on the plutocracy hits the bestseller list.
The Hightower Lowdown
The Assault on the True America; Delay’s Judicial Witch-Hunt
DVD Watch
“You make sounds like you’re a mean little asskicker. Only I ain’t convinced. You keep talkin’, I’m gonna take your head off.”
Day Trips
A new exhibit at the New Braunfels Museum of Art & Music in Gruene documents the love and skill that musical-instrument makers around America put into their creations.
Texas Platters
Echo Base Soundsystem(Seedknowledge) From his small, home studio in Kingston, Jamaica, 30-odd years ago, Osbourne Ruddock, aka King Tubby, pioneered the instrumental remixes of popular reggae songs. To the ganja-enhanced sensibilities of avid dance-hall fans, this musical sensation was known as dub. Its wake has rippled through pop music worldwide ever since and is the…
Readings
Platformby Michel Houellebecq Knopf, 259pp., $25 Angling for a fatwa seems that most nervy of literary endeavors these days, but in this department author Michel Houellebecq has put Salman Rushdie to shame with the publication of his third novel, a work that so excoriates Islam (while simultaneously strutting and crowing about Thai sex tourism like…
Long Stories Short
Navigating this island avant-garde paradise is a tricky business. It’s a tribute to Cinematexas 8 that we couldn’t hope to do justice to its overwhelmingly inviting lineup by discussing each and every program (Eye + Ear! Competition! Terra Cognita! Parallax View!), not to mention each and every attendee (Babette Mangolte! Robbie Conal! Todd Haynes! Alexander…
Readings
Surrender (But Don’t Give Yourself Away): Old Cars, Found Hope, and Other Cheap Tricksby Spike Gillespie University of Texas Press, 208pp., $24.95 With so many pop essayists cramming their neuroses onto bookshelves nowadays, we could easily spend each hour trapped in a whole new quagmire of someone else’s immaterial Prozac clutter. Even with every pretty…
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
The chess positions and moves that we see HAL and the astronaut playing in 2001: A Space Odyssey are from a game played in 1913 in Hamburg between two undistinguished players named Roesch and Schlage.It’s illegal to hunt camels in Arizona.The ancient Romans used urine as bleach to make their togas shining white.Antony Young of…
Texas Platters
Terry BownessStick Figures (Aardvark) A lot’s happened musically in the four years since Austin pianist/composer Terry Bowness released his acclaimed, self-titled debut. While that introductory volley was a rather straightforward affair, it’s obvious that Bowness, who commands the piano seat in Los Jazz Vatos, has kept his ears opened in the interim, incorporating the ubiquitous…
Readings
VSBR Matthew McIntosh’s Well (Grove, $23) will leave you quite unwell, for better or worse: Its company of miserable, craven, vile, and depraved Seattle-area residents — from abused children to spree killers to haunted deathbedders to stalkers, adulterers, and, as Elvis Costello would sing, shadow-panic drunkards — drift like noxious fumes and slip around like…
Long Stories Short
Inside Out: Special Guest Todd Haynes Filmmaker Todd Haynes’ most recent film, the Douglas Sirk-esque Far From Heaven, was nominated for four Academy Awards and some 75 other major awards from film and artistic organizations the world over. That’s a remarkable achievement in anyone’s book, but coming from one of the leading lights of the…
The Common Law
I want to break the lease on my apartment, so I can move in with a friend and save money. My landlord says I still have to pay the remaining five months rent. Is there any way to break the lease and avoid paying rent?
Texas Platters
Chris Duarte GroupRomp (Rounder)Monte MontgomeryNew & Approved (Harmonic) When the opening punch of an album is as urgent and below the belt as “Do the Romp,” chances are more good hits lie within. Romp, Chris Duarte’s fifth full-length over the course of almost a decade, highlights the San Antonio native’s modern, guitar-driven blues with style…
Endorsements
ENDORSEMENTS This year’s proposed list of 22 constitutional amendments is more than usually cumbersome. The Chronicle editorial board (an extremely informal institutional fiction) takes a dim view of the sort of legislative effluvia burdening what should be a bedrock document of common principles of government. We recommend that our readers at least consider voting a…
Long Stories Short
UT Student Competition When hunted Louisiana swamp rats and shagging stuffed animals stretch their life-sized cuddliness across the big screen, how can we turn away? If the strength of a successful short film lies in the charm of the characters, then the menagerie of playful and perverted captivators in this year’s Cinematexas UT Student Competition…
The Order
Mysterious doings in a Catholic sect, on the whole more silly than scary.
Second Helpings: Mexican Bakeries
“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. Cisco’s Restaurant Bakery & Liar’s Club 1511 E. Sixth, 472-4720, 478-2420 Daily, 7am-2:30pm It hasn’t been the same since Rudy “Cisco”…
To Your Health
After my third baby I didn’t lose the weight I gained during pregnancy, and I have even gained some more. What is going on?
Texas Platters
George DeVoreFour Under Par Who knew there’d come a time when Hootie & the Blowfish or Blues Traveler would be missed? George DeVore’s third album is doing its part in this endeavor, Four Under Par being a collection of beer-soaked anthems without much porous inspiration. Tight musicianship and taut production make Four Under Par anything…
Full Ballot Language With Extended Endorsements
In case you’re wondering, since the Texas Constitution was first enacted in 1876, voters have approved 410 amendments. That’s averaging a little more than six per biennium, so this year’s proposed list of 22 is more than usually cumbersome. The Chronicle editorial board (an extremely informal institutional fiction) traditionally takes a dim view of the…
Long Stories Short
Oskar Fischinger Retrospective His patron, Baroness Hilla Rebay, mocked his masterwork, “Motion Painting No. 1,” and its “awful little spaghettis.” His homeland branded his abstract art as “decadent” and “degenerate.” Uncle Walt signed him up to work on Fantasia; hiring the internationally renowned artist as a “motion picture cartoon effects animator” for a lousy $60…
American Splendor
At the center of its uniquely beating heart, American Splendor is a heartfelt valentine to Everymen (and Women) everywhere
TCB
Goths, Goths, Goths
About AIDS
Resistant HIV? No Long Drug Holidays, Please! With HIV/AIDS, sometimes the treatments are as likely as the disease to be the cause of feeling bad, and no one can be faulted for wanting to take a long break — a lengthy “holiday” from the drugs. However, a much-anticipated study published in the New England Journal…
Texas Platters
Willie Nelson & Ray PriceRun That by Me One More Time (Lost Highway) Like the saying goes, the older the fiddle, the sweeter the music, and these two old fiddles are as finely tuned as ever. Ray Price and his former bassist Willie Nelson return to the scene of 1980’s San Antonio Rose to trade…
Naked City
Headlines and happenings from around Austin and beyond
Long Stories Short
Science Is Fiction: The Films of Jean Painlevé Jean Painlevé managed over the course of some 200-plus short films to synthesize science with the surreal, sterility with subjectivity, to create a uniquely idiosyncratic view of the wild kingdom. By endowing his often nautical subjects with human complexity, emotion, and desire, Painlevé won the acclaim of…
Cabin Fever
A festival breakout shocker that twists genre conventions into a jarring battery of scares.
The Michoacana Connection
Paletas on the streets of Austin, paletas on the streets of Mexico!
Texas Platters
Marti BromWise to You! (Goofin) There’s a reason why Marti Brom has always had a following in Europe; European rockabilly fans are rabid about traditional styles, and Brom has always delivered plenty of swingin’ 1959-era rock their way. There’s plenty of greaser stuff to be had this time around, certainly, but Brom also branches out…
Naked City
Fair, balanced, and getting stupider by the minute
Long Stories Short
“Leche”/”Mala Leche” Children gather in the doorway of a modest farmhouse, smiling. Dressed in his best, a ranchero flaunts his rope tricks. Hands press the liquid out of cheese; a tortilla iron flattens a ball of dough. To the sounds of milk jetting into a pail, a calf nurses, a woman embroiders, two crickets mate…
Matchstick Men
Neurotic con artist reunites with abandoned daughter in a surprisingly sweet bait-and-switch.
Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?
Karen Maness This summer, with support from the Performing Arts Center and the UT College of Fine Arts, Maness returned to the Florence Academy of Art to study anatomy and figure painting. (Two years ago, Maness studied landscape painting and academic drawing at the FAA.) This fall, Maness will be building the set for the…
Paleta Pronunciation Guide
So, your Spanish isn’t great, but you’d like to buy a paleta? Don’t let that stop you! Here’s a pronunciation guide to help you order some of the more difficult flavors (thanks to Jeff Carmack for his assistance with the pronunciation). English :: ESPAÑOL :: Pronunciation Tamarind :: Tamarindo :: tam-ma-REEN-do Pecan :: Nuez ::…
Texas Platters
Gretchen PhillipsWelcome to My World (Seasick Sailor) It starts off innocuously enough, a simple drum-track beat and a tinkly synth melody to match. Yet as soon as Gretchen Phillips, local veteran of such venerable groups as Girls in the Nose, Two Nice Girls, and Lord Douglas Phillips, greets the listener with Welcome to My World,…
Naked City
Finger-Pointing Continues Regarding Williamson County Juvenile Justice Center Delays
Long Stories Short
Cinematexas 8 Schedule Tuesday, Sept. 16, through Thursday, Sept. 18Tuesday, Sept. 165-7pm Opening Reception, Las Manitas, 211 CongressAlamo Drafthouse Downtown, 409 Colorado7pm [UT Student Competition, Program 5] The Eyes of Texas (Are Upon You) 9pm [International Competition, Program 2] Energy Fools the MagicianThe Hideout, 617 Congress7pm Sonic Light 1 9pm Sonic Light 2Wednesday, Sept. 17The…
Derrida
If you don’t already worship Derrida, this film won’t change your mind.
Shout!
Annie Weisman’s satiric drama Be Aggressive, receiving its area premiere from the State Theater Company, gives a shout out to cheerleading as an outlet for teenagers to make themselves heard.
Food-o-File
Virginia B. Wood brings all-you-can-eat news.
Texas Platters
The Golden Apples (Golden Apple Music)The Soft SetOnly Lovers Left Alive To quote the dearly departed Wesley Willis: Rock & roll will never die! In what is truly a never-ending cycle, two of Austin’s newer rock disciples dust off the high school yearbooks and plunge into those definitive days of yore with the enthusiasm of…
Naked City
The health care chain takes over a cash-strapped residency program from the state.
The Producer
Austinite Robert Rodriguez has, of course, been a maverick from the get-go, but it’s wife and producer Elizabeth Avellán who often seems the cogent heart and soul behind her husband’s outrageously entertaining productions.
No Good Deed
Samuel L. Jackson as an auto-theft detective, perhaps in over his head. Not reviewed at press time.
In Memoriam: Brother Jeremias Mysliwiec CSC
Farewell to Brother Jeremias, a generous man who gave his life to the church as a member of the Congregation of Holy Cross and who in his final years achieved recognition as a visual artist. He passed away this past Friday, Sept. 5, even as a new show of his work was going up at…
Mini-Review
There aren’t any pushcarts at Jegimajo!, but you can sure get a taste of the Philippines there.
Texas Platters
MaterialisticsTomorrow Is Fat and Old (Super Secret) Stiv Bators is alive and well and living in Austin. One spin of the Materialistics’ seven-song EP, and you’ll be a believer, too. Lotsa punk bands gnaw the old-school carcass enthusiastically and unabashedly, but too many come off as long-distance tributes that can’t tap the wellspring through all…
Naked City
Is APD Assistant Chief Jimmy Chapman being treated like any other cop accused of misconduct?
‘Pocho’ Patchwork
AFS’s Texas Doc Tour brings the formidable Héctor Galán and his ‘Visiones’ to One World Theatre.
Once Upon a Time in Mexico
The third film in Robert Rodriguez’s south-of-the-border action trilogy is a whole lot of movie.
Articulations
A bright design firm on the Austin theatre and film scene, Star Costume & Clothiers, falls to earth, and folk artist Brother Jeremias Mysliwiec passes away.
Waking the Dead
Okkervil River’s Will Sheff and Centro-matic’s Will Johnson find common ground.
Texas Platters
Stars as Eyes, we hardly knew ye. Jetting for Brooklyn after two years in Austin, the duo leaves as a parting gift their third release on Kid606’s noise-tronic stronghold, Tigerbeat6. Loud New Shit is four new tracks tacked on to eight remixes by the likes of Brad Laner’s Electric Company and Iceland’s Múm, plus a…
Naked City
Are Texas doctors doing harm to truth and justice?
Toronto Diary
Dispatches from the 2003 Film Festival
The Magdalene Sisters
A grim and unmistakable masterpiece of bleak, black sorrow.
Exhibitionism
Perdita, playwright Monika Bustamante’s chilling exploration of what can happen when loss barrels its way through everyday lives, is one of the most tightly crafted and beautifully written works of the year, and its production at Hyde Park Theatre is of sterling quality.
Centro-Matic Reviewed
Centro-maticLove You Just the Same (Misra) This is it, the one that finally takes Centro-matic beyond the borders of the Lone Star State that frontman Will Johnson has systematically conquered. Does the seventh Centro-matic full-length since 1997 deliver the goods we’ve come to expect from the most consistently enthralling band in Texas? Yes and no.…
Texas Platters
Hog-holler blues have long been the stomping ground for Austin’s feral harp hound Walter Daniels, and his South Filthy swine are no cleaner on their “Soul of a Man” vinyl 45. If “the harmonica is a breath away from the soul of a man,” as former local scribe and current Memphis blues biographer Robert Gordon…
Naked City
The worst anti-drug bill yet burbles up in Congress.
aGLIFF Announces Winners
The Austin Gay & Lesbian International Film Festival has announced its winners.
Exhibitionism
Theater at the J’s production of Cabaret makes good use of the large hall at the Dell Jewish Community Center, creatively weaving the cabaret’s musical shenanigans into the more serious larger story, in which the central characters fend off the accelerating horror of Nazi Germany by choosing not to see it.
Okkervil River Reviewed
Okkervil River Down the River of Golden Dreams (Jagjaguwar) Okkervil River’s second album, 2002’s Don’t Fall in Love With Everyone You See, was hailed by critics worldwide. The band’s brand of laconic country and off-kilter rock drew comparisons to the likes of Wilco, Will Oldham, and Bright Eyes. How do they follow that kind of…
Closing the Books
A UT editor says he lost his job at the Center for Mexican American Studies for complaining about administrative malfeasance.
Austin @ Large: Austin at Large
The City Council takes a hard look at the budget crisis — and blinks.
Graphic Representation
“Boob physics” is not a hard science. But the Jiggle Factor is a type of precision receiving much attention in video games today. Last May, the Los Angeles fire marshal almost shut down an entire wing of E3, the mother of game conferences, when Tecmo drew record crowds for its presentation of the jiggle-authentic Dead…
Exhibitionism
For the Austin Symphony’s season opener, conductor Peter Bay and company made a pleasure cruise of Smetana’s “The Moldau” and turned Sibelius’ Second Symphony into a ride through the perfect storm, while guest Emanuel Ax led a refined reading of da Falla’s Nights in the Gardens of Spain.
Texas Platters
Scott H. BiramLo-Fi Mojo (KnuckleSandwich) Recorded live on KVRX Feb. 2, Scott H. Biram’s Lo-Fi Mojo is so anachronistic it’s almost cutting-edge. It’s easy to imagine Biram hunkered over some bulky microphone in some bottomland basement instead of an award-winning college radio station, even easier due to the singer’s fondness for material that predates inventions…
CMAS, CMAS Books, and Víctor Guerra
The Center for Mexican American Studies and CMAS Books share a proud history at UT and nationally.
Capitol Chronicle
Sen. John Whitmire flees exile in Albuquerque and says he’ll return to the Senate with or without his Democratic colleagues.
Latin Grammy for Local Vid Artists
Paul Beck and Jason Archer, video artists and Waking Life animators, are the proud owners of a pair of matching Latin Grammys for their video for Mexican hip-hop rockers Molotov.
Ourshelves
Dao Strom and Elvia Padilla-Medal, front women for All Night Lincoln
Texas Platters
Cave Catt SammyWhiskey and the Devil (Rubric) Cave Catt Sammy is a group of four fresh fellows originally from San Antone, whose rootsabilly keeps getting better and better. Their fourth disc, Whiskey and the Devil, is no exception. What’s lacking is conviction. There are moments of rock, sure; Jerry Reed’s nasty “Your Money Makes You…
The Owl, the Chicken, and the Beast of Bentonville
Environmental and community groups have come together to defend South Austin against plans for three new Wal-Mart Supercenters.
On the Lege
Perry calls a third special re-redistricting session, and the Dems explore their options.
Short Cuts
Game on!
Luv Doc Recommends: Secondhand Lions Regional Premiere
Hollywood seems to be high on Austin in recent years. In any given month at least a couple of major productions are shooting in or around town, bringing with them a retinue of grips, gaffers, sound technicians, set designers, make-up artists, painters, carpenters, stunt men, and camera operators, many of whom look like they live…
