Hugo Award Winners 1997
The 1997 Hugo Awards were announced at the 55th World Science Fiction Convention, LoneStarCon 2 in San Antonio on August 30. Austin author Neal Barrett, Jr., served as Master of Ceremonies for this event. The prestigious awards are named in honor of Hugo Gernsback, the first editor of Modern Electrics, Amazing Stories, and the creator…
Live Shots
Taj Mahal at Stubb’s September 13 photograph by John Carrico RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE Southpark Meadows, September 6 It’s the little things that separate good concerts from great ones, and it was a lack of these seemingly small, but crucial components (alternate arrangements, interesting segues, spontaneous jams) that prevented Rage Against the Machine’s much-anticipated stop…
Room With a View
The still revitalizing La Zona Rosa photograph by Kenny Braun In truth, the war hasn’t really started,” says Liberty Lunch owner Mark Pratz of a highly anticipated booking battle that local music insiders say is about to erupt between Austin’s mid-size venues. “I think we’ve been operating more on the anticipation of it than the…
Beyond the Multiverse
photographs by Kenny Braun Most people have no idea who Michael Moorcock is, and he seems to like it that way. But many Science Fiction/fantasy/comic readers have long heard the name mentioned in hushed tones by those who have experienced his fiction. Those who have read any of his Eternal Champion saga, the Hawkmoon series,…
Recommended
Friday: Opening Night, Chicago 20 Saturday: Robert Earl Keen, Travis County Expo Center; Heiroglyphics, Electric Lounge Sunday: 4th Annual Chili Cookoff, Backyard Monday: Dumpster Juice, Breast Fed, Emo’s Tuesday: Tiktok, Tertium Quids, Manor Rd. Coffee House; Diana Jones, Cactus Cafe Wednesday: Buck-o-Nine, Stubb’s Thursday: Two O’Clock Courage, Fado
Goosebumps Rising
Although this year’s Worldcon didn’t really do it for me — too many paunchy caped crusaders rushing through the halls, a threadbare dealer’s room, and a woeful amount of absentee luminaries — the number of legends wandering around and looking somewhat dazed still managed to impress. Forrest J. Ackerman, sporting his trademark retro-eyewear (ridiculous yet…
Sci-Fi Book Reviews
by John Seabrook Simon & Schuster, $25 hard I’ve been told that I give good e-mail, not a huge surprise since I really can’t remember a time when there haven’t been computers and have had a lot of exposure to electronic communication. Surviving in a digital world must be encoded in my blood somehow, from…
Road Kill
Ziggy Marley & the Melody Makers La Zona Rosa Thursday, September 25 The mantle of responsibility is a heavy one, especially when you carry the burden alone. David “Ziggy” Marley, 28, oldest son of perhaps the only musician to have been a truly international icon, politically, spiritually — voice of the downtrodden — carries it…
A Thousand Acres
A Thousand Acres 1997, R, 105 min. Directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Jessica Lange, Michelle Pfeiffer, Jason Robards, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Colin Firth. Jane Smiley’s Pulitzer Prize-winning, Lear-on-a-John Deere novel has reached the screen with its bleak and anguished spirit intact. That’s a bit of a surprise considering that…
about AIDS
The infant HIV-infection rate is declining in the U.S. and Europe, new research reports. U.S. cases had swelled to almost 1,800 per year, but in 1996 fewer than 500 HIV-infected babies were born. Even though heterosexual women are a fast-growing group in the epidemic, stepped-up testing among pregnant women plus anti-viral therapy for those infected…
Cracks in the System
Carol Hadnot, a minority procurement consultant, says African Americans are not gettinga fair share of the city’s construction business. photograph by John Anderson Everybody makes mistakes, but this one was a doozy. Last January, Sam Harris, assistant director of the city’s Department of Small & Minority Business Resources (SMBR) — which awards minority status to…
L.A. Confidential
Los Angeles police corruption and 1950s noir sexuality combine in this modern thriller.
Garage Converts Hearth & Soul
I received an e-mail a few months ago from a reader (amazing) which I lost (not amazing), but have somehow remembered (truly amazing). It went something like this: Dear Suzy, You are by far the best writer in the world. I read your column and clip it every week, sending copies of it to all…
Emmy, Emmy — Who Got the Emmy?
Gillian Anderson won the Emmy for Best Actress in a Drama Series. High five! The Emmys always come off a bit like the Oscars’ country cousin: cautious, na�ve, and a couple of years behind in fashion. If television had invented the Oscars, they’d come off looking, well… a lot like the Emmys. Having thoroughly enjoyed…
Love Serenade
Love Serenade 1996, R, 92 min. Directed by Shirley Barrett, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Miranda Otto, Rebecca Firth, George Shevtsov, John Alansu, Jessica Napier. Love and loss and floundering about in search of happiness in the tiny town of Sunray, Australia. Barrett’s feature debut is an oddball melange of off-kilter comedy and…
Coach’s Corner
Like Moses in the desert; two voices crying out for years. Voice number 1: Robert Heard, the little-known publisher of the caustic Longhorn newsletter, Inside Texas. Since early in John Mackovic’s tenure, Heard has preached loudly, to a largely unhearing choir, two maxims, as of last Saturday now accepted (though never properly attributed) as fact.…
New Old Hands at Smbr
As the latest director of the Dept. of Small and Minority Business Resources, Tim Warren faces a daunting challenge. Commanding a budget of less than a million dollars and a staff of 13, he must oversee minority certification and compliance issues for city contracts totalling hundreds of millions of dollars (the City of Austin spent…
Dirty Dancing
Dirty Dancing 1987, PG-13, 100 min. D: Emile Ardolino; with Patrick Swayze, Jennifer Grey. This is one of those re-releases that probably belongs in the “Who Asked for a Rerun Anyway?” file. But, still, I have to admit to feeling some dangerously warm fuzzies for this 1987 movie that’s set in a Catskill resort during…
Day Trips
The Dutchman’s Hidden Valley Country Store north of Hamilton on US281 is a self-contained shopping mall with 10 rooms and 14,000 square feet of merchandise ranging from peanut brittle to antiques. “We’re diversified,” says store owner Ronnie Wenzel with considerable understatement. The store is a throwback to the days when locally owned roadside shops selling…
The Impossible Dream
Live Oak Theater president Susan Walker adn Live Oak artistic director Don TToner say the city ought to invest in their dreams to renovate the State Theater. photograph by John Anderson Normally, council meetings are about as compelling as algebra class, but last week the chamber was abuzz with Austin celebrity. The unlikely draw? A…
In & Out
In & Out 1997, PG-13, 92 min. Directed by Frank Oz, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Kevin Kline, Joan Cusack, Tom Selleck, Matt Dillon, Debbie Reynolds. Anyone who claims to know the formula for movie comedy success is, almost by definition, a liar. But I’d venture that one element common to most great…
Page Two
If those old MGM musicals were set in a real world, we all know that moments after Mickey and Judy screamed, “We know what to do, let’s put on a show,” they would dance off stage. The real work — not the singing and dancing, but the booking, the arranging, the negotiating, the coordinating, the…
Chasing Gary
While the city’s on an annexation rampage, any takers for Circle C? The MUD’s surrounding it are already slated to join the city. Austin is on the annexation warpath. Last week, the city council announced plans to absorb more than 30,000 new residents who currently live outside the city in 26 different municipal utility districts…
Box of Moonlight
Box of Moonlight 1997, R, 107 min. Directed by Tom Dicillo, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring John Turturro, Sam Rockwell, Catherine Keener, Lisa Blount, Annie Corely. Al Fountain (Turturro) is a humorless, uptight prig. He’s a man who’s not happy being who he is but he’s also incapable of changing his behavior, and…
Public Notice
Community radio is one of those things rarely appreciated by communities which actually have it. Having spent too much of our adult life in the cultural armpit known as South Florida, we know all too well the hunger bordering on obsession for good radio. It just wasn’t there. Sure, there would be the occasional promising…
Another Riot, Another Crackdown
The human rights situation in the villages near Freeport-McMoRan’s huge gold and copper mine in western Papua, New Guinea continues to deteriorate. Last month, four Ekari tribal members were killed — two in mysterious circumstances, two by gunshots delivered by Indonesian soldiers. Predictably, more unrest followed the deaths, provoking a further crackdown by the Indonesian…
Articulations
It took nearly four hours, but the folks at the Austin Circle of Theatres (ACoT) did finally hand out all the 1996-97 B. Iden Payne Awards this past Monday, September 15, at The Metropolitan Club. The annual celebration of outstanding achievements in local theatre typically runs closer to two and a half hours, but an…
Mister Smarty Pants Knows
Americans spend about $2,000 per second on “legal” drugs. Some of the fish near the Antarctic coast have a substance in them — a fish anti-freeze of sorts. The molecule is 300 times as effective as ethylene glycol, a main ingredient in car anti-freeze. The Ford Museum has Thomas Edison’s last breath displayed in a…
Health Scare
The Indigent Care Work Team includes citizens from various health fields and organizations who will help determine the fate of the city’s health clinics. Chair David Evans is at center, and Nurse Stephanie Tabone is on his right. photograph by John Anderson At last month’s meeting of the Indigent Care Work Team — the body…
Quotes From Lonestarcon2
On Mojo Press editor Rick Klaw: “This gentleman is known the length and breadth of the comics world as `that bastard Klaw.'” — Michael Moorcock After relating an anecdote about helping a blind man mow a yard with a weedeater: “The world is goofier than you imagine.” — Joe Lansdale On Joe Lansdale: “Joe Lansdale…
Eat Globally, Dine Locally
Hurtling along in a plane about to take off for New England, the prospect of two weeks between Mexican food and my mouth ate holes into my heart. Then I remembered the eager plans to fill those spaces with pumpkin stewed by Afghani immigrants and zuppa di clams prepared by Italians, two cultures better represented…
Naked City
The nation has been clucking its tongue in the week since UT Law School prof Lino Graglia made his famous “Blacks and Mexican-Americans are not academically competitive with whites” comment. In a statement released Tuesday by Graglia, the professor tried to explain his comments, which he says were “taken out of context and misunderstood.” Perhaps…
Exhibitionism
Hyde Park Theatre, through September 24 Running time: 1 hr Go ask Alice… …if you want to know what it is to have the earth drop from under your feet and your body fall through space, down, down, no bottom in sight and no way to stop your descent; if you want to know what…
Food-O-File
Last April during the Texas Hill Country Wine & Food Festival, I happened to overhear Coyote Cafe founder Mark Miller whining to successful New York restaurateur Drew Nieporent about how horrible it was to do business in Austin. Considering Austin’s lukewarm response to Miller’s particular blend of spices and condescension, it’s not too surprising that…
Untangling the Web
photograph by Jon Lebkowsky Many people are talking about the elitist character of the Internet and a lack of access on the part of the “information have-nots,” but in Austin we are, by god, doing something about it. Just ask Sue Beckwith and Gene Crick. Austin has two of the largest nonprofit community networking projects…
Watching Art Grow
Wish Once is not enough — at least where the new exhibition “Art in Process” is concerned. The current show at the Austin Museum of Art’s Laguna Gloria site is one which will grow and change during its eight-week run, and one way or another, you should visit often. “Process” is the operative word. Audiences…
A Really Big Shoe
Rock & Roll Free for All mastermind Paul Minor (center) and some pre-millennial music junkies photograph by Pedie Morgan Sometimes it’s deserted,and you can find more people waiting in line for a booksigning. Sometimes it’s more packed than the photo pool at a celebrity funeral. It could be Sixteen Deluxe, Wookie, El Flaco, or Starfish…
Cyber Rights ’97 Rally
September 21st, 1PM Joe C. Thompson Conference Center Last June the United States Supreme Court affirmed a lower court ruling that portions of the Communications Decency Act (CDA) were unconstitutional. This was the culmination of an ongoing struggle in which free speech advocates and their supporters had sought to suppress restrictive legislation of Internet content,…
Postscripts
Katherine Anne Porter There goes the HRC again, reminding book lovers to think of the book itself as a work of art in addition to a book’s contents in its fascinating new exhibition entitled Modern American Book Arts at the Ransom Center, held at UT’s Leeds Gallery, on the fourth floor of the Flawn Academic…
Dancing About Architecture
Anytown Stories The general consensus around the Chronicle office was that the premiere episode of MTV’s Austin Stories was about as enjoyable as finding fecal matter in your watering hole, but it appears the farther away you get from the capital of Texas, the more likely you are to dig it (the show, not sifting…
Scan Lines
D: Chris Hegedus, D.A. Pennebaker (1993) with James Carville, George Stephanopoulos, Bill Clinton With ABC’s fall season opening and new episodes of Spin City here, lovers of this Michael J. Fox vehicle should rent the film on which some of the action is based. While this documentary should also be required viewing for anyone in…
From Scully to Spock
Snapshot from the 55th World Science Fiction Convention: The exhibit hall in the Henry B. Gonzales Convention Center, San Antonio. Left of frame, an exhibit of lovingly detailed costumes and character sculptures from Disney’s animated Beauty and the Beast, crafted by fans; right of frame, a promotional booth, impressively rigged out with television screens and…
Behind the Mask
photograph by Bruce Dye There were three young men and they could hardly contain their enthusiasm. With alarming zeal they hopped out of the crowd and onto the stage, pulled off their shirts, got down on all fours, and received a whipping from a couple of women in skimpy plastic outfits. Welcome to Fetish Night.…
Short Cuts
The second annual CinemaTexas Short Film and Video Festival kicks off this week on the UT campus. Organized and operated by students in the RTF Department, the festival is dedicated to the art of the short-form format. The festival runs Wed. Sept. 24-Sun. Sept. 28 and will be screening works from Austin and around the…
Not Just for Geeks
Wander the halls at the World Science Fiction Convention, and you’ll spot every species of the genus Science Fiction Fan: literary fans, art buyers, media groupies, fanzine publishers, anime-heads, filkers (fannish folk-song singers), space activists, Big Name Pro camp-followers, wannabe writers (lots of wannabe writers)…. And my own breed, gamers. I almost wrote “gaming geeks,”…
Road Shows
SEPTEMBER FRI 19 Big Ass Truck, Straight Up Buzz, Mercury Lounge FRI 19 The Nixons, Radish, Sevendust, Liberty Lunch FRI 19 Rebirth Brass Band, Stubb’s FRI 19 Je June, Get Up Kids, Electric Lounge FRI 19 Takacs Quartet, Bates Recital Hall (UT) FRI 19 Susan Werner, Cactus Cafe FRI 19 Jimmy Eat World, Electric Lounge…
279 Movies and 2 Funerals
One of the biggest and busiest film events in the world is the Toronto International Film Festival. Some 279 films screened during the 22nd annual festival, held between September 4-13. Along with these movies comes a huge influx of filmmakers and stars, publicity agents and marketing mavens, acquisitions executives and programmers, journalists, celebutantes, volunteer festival…
