Cover Story
Written in Stone
UT’s Jim Bob Moffett and Freeport-McMoRan ride a new wave of allegations of business as usual: exploitation, cronyism, and environmental devastation
Domino Preview
Domino Preview 2005, R. Directed by Tony Scott, Starring Keira Knightley, Mickey Rourke, Edgar Ramirez, Lucy Liu, Mena Suvari, Christopher Walken. This advance screening boasts the attendance of director Tony Scott and screenwriter Richard Kelly and an after-party at a skeet range. The movie is based on the life of bounty hunder Domino Harvey, actor…
Shorts Program
Shorts Program Directed by Various. A collection of popular shorts from the last few years of the SXSW Film Festival.
Cinematic Re-Articulations: Screening and Lecture by Isaac Julien
Cinematic Re-Articulations: Screening and Lecture by Isaac Julien It’s unclear exactly what Julien will be screening, but if his lecture has anything near the force of his sharp-minded features it should be most invigorating. The British director of such films as Looking for Langston, Frantz Fanon: Black Skin, White Mask, and Young Soul Rebels tackles…
BloodShots 48-Hour Filmmaking Challenge
BloodShots 48-Hour Filmmaking Challenge Directed by Various. Show here are the results of short horror films made by teams of filmmakers the previous weekend. Each team will have been assigned a different horror subgenre and be told the prop, line of dialgue, and character name that must be included. A “best of” screening will be…
Art Aid
In the wake of Katrina, Austin artists do their part to help
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Killer whales, the Pope’s e-mail, Stephen Hawking, and thousands of popping toads
ACL Music Festival Interviews
Grupo Fantasma Friday, 5:45pm, Capital Metro stage Situated at the crossroads of the Deep South and Mexico, the Lone Star State sports its fair share of interbreeding between African-American and Latin dance cultures. As a native of Laredo and a member of Austin’s Grupo Fantasma, Adrian Quesada leads his primary outfit on occasional forays into…
ACL Music Festival Reviews
South Austin Jug BandDark and Weary World (Blue Corn) In the time between their first album and the new Dark and Weary World, the South Austin Jug Band has been through a whirlwind. Lineup changes, nonstop roadwork, and across-the-board acclaim might affect some bands in uncomplimentary ways, but the experience has made SAJB substantially better.…
ACL Music Festival Reviews
The Black KeysLive (Fat Possum) Back when the blues was only for whiskey-drinking gee-tar players with Mississippi ZIP codes, the Black Keys were a tiny dynamic duo without a name. They started out in Akron, Ohio, and have dropped three great albums, gaining recognition with 2003’s Thickfreakness and continuing with last year’s Rubber Factory. Dan…
The Report on the Mine
Based on the findings of EnviroSearch, the Overseas Private Investment Corp. canceled Freeport’s risk insurance
Point Austin: Under Fire
Memo to Toby Futrell: it’s called ‘negotiation’
The Memory of a Killer
A hitman who’s losing his memory to Alzheimer’s anchors this absorbing Belgian policier that’s tightly wound and expertly unraveled.
Monteverdi’s ‘Vespers of 1610’: Heaven, I’m in Heaven
For Jeffrey Jones-Ragona and Daniel Johnson, performing Monteverdi’s divine ‘Vespers of 1610’ in its entirety at St. Mary’s Cathedral is a dream come true
Soccer Watch
The UT Women break their streak
ACL Music Festival Interviews
John Prine Friday, 6:30pm, Cingular stage John Prine, one of America’s premier songwriters, has garnered worldwide acclaim for his ability to be literate, yet folksy, since he began in the late Sixties. Earlier this year he released Fair and Square, his first collection of new material in nine years. Speaking from his home in Nashville,…
ACL Music Festival Reviews
AqualungStrange and Beautiful (Columbia) There are two kinds of Coldplay fans in the world: those who feel the band opened an important door for emotional rock and those who feel like they opened Pandora’s box. How one interprets Coldplay’s legacy will inform how one feels about Aqualung. The one-man band’s major label debut, Strange and…
Cool It
Hot enough for you? Well, how about some ice-cold, 68-degree water up in that crag? Last year, it was hotter than Satan’s kitchen at the ACL Fest, and between sets, we went across the street to chill out at Barton Springs pool. Back in the day, the springs were frequented by Native Americans, but now…
APD’s White Settles: The End of Mala Sangre?
Unanswered questions leave a cloud over top brass
The Hightower Report
Media swallows ‘Cowboy President’ spin; and Big Brother keeping an eye on bookworms
Daltry Calhoun
Johnny Knoxville stars in this slapdash tale of wacky Southerners and midlife crises that feels like a compilation reel of Blue Collar TV outtakes and Coen Brothers-lite quirkiness.
Home Entertainment: Neighbors Blowing Bubbles by the Rising Moon
In the city’s back yards, Leticia Rodriguez and Tim Mateer are turning strangers into neighbors through evenings full of home entertainment
Learn Your EATs
An epicurean orientation for students new and returning, but also for ACL visitors and recently arrived residents
ACL Music Festival Interviews
The Frames Saturday, 3:30pm, AMD stage Perhaps you’ve read somewhere that the Frames are Ireland’s second biggest musical export after U2. “Don’t believe it,” says the Dublin band’s frontman, Glen Hansard. “It’s complete bullshit.” Hansard says the band’s overzealous Irish fans are to blame for the American misconception. The Frames have been touring in the…
ACL Music Festival Reviews
Mike DoughtyHaughty Melodic (ATO) Who knew that under the layers of trip-hop and art-rock of his old band, former Soul Coughing frontman Mike Doughty really wanted to be Dave Matthews? It helps to be on Matthews’ own imprint, have him guest on one of the album’s best songs (“Tremendous Brunettes”), and even open a few…
Restaurants Near Zilker
1) CHINESE: Wanfu Too The 1950s diner setting is as comforting as the usual Chinese menu choices like eggdrop soup, eggrolls, and lots of choices for main dishes. 1806 Barton Springs Rd., 478-3535 2) TEX-MEX: Chuy’s Hubcaps, colored lights, and a Velvet Elvis; this is Austin-style Tex-Mex at its tacky, funky best. Almost always busy.…
Get on the Bus
A guide to anti-war events nationally and in Texas on Sept. 24
Irreplaceable
Co-director Mike Johnson on ‘Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride’ and how stop-motion has done more than survive amid the rise of computer animation
Long Center: Rising to the Challenge
Only two weeks after scoring $835,000 toward a $2.5 million challenge grant amount, the Long Center is $1.35 million closer to its goal
Learn Your EATs
Campus Food Secrets Revealed When you work on campus like I do, you are always tuned in to the whispered restaurant scuttlebutt and keeping a sharp eye open for new openings. The Chronicle suggested that I put a few of my favorites to paper, so that the new arrivals on campus could save themselves some…
ACL Music Festival Interviews
Bettye LaVette Saturday, 4:30pm, Capital Metro stage “I’m an entertainer, not just another old broad being ‘revived,'” says Bettye LaVette, who considers her highly anticipated new record for Anti-/Epitaph not so much a comeback as a continuation. Across the Sixties and Seventies, the Detroit-bred soul singer recorded for classic imprints like Motown, Atlantic, and Epic,…
ACL Music Festival Reviews
Missy HigginsThe Sound of White (Reprise) It’s surprising major labels haven’t jumped on the Norah Jones bandwagon and produced more clones after her unanticipated success. Missy Higgins is one of the first, and if her brand of piano-based heart songs catches on, expect a deluge. There’s a problem, however. The young Australian’s debut, The Sound…
Phases & Stages
Son VoltStubb’s, Sept. 16 The signs were ominous. Son Volt’s new album, Okemah and the Melody of Riot, wasn’t exactly a hit; guitar player Brad Rice was unable to perform on this part of the tour; and reports of their SXSW 05 showcase were mixed. But Jay Farrar and his rejuvenated, reconfigured band hit the…
Youth Activists: ‘Demilitarize Our Schools’
The military leaves no child behind
TIFF Notes
What I took away from the Toronto International Film Festival
Rob Nash: He’ll Take Manhattan
New York critics have weighed in on the off-Broadway debut of Rob Nash’s Holy Cross Sucks! and given the Austin theatre artist a bushel of Big Apple praise
Learn Your EATs
Grocery Store Heaven For many of us, going off to college represents the first time we’ve lived away from home with the opportunity to make our own decisions about when, where, and what to eat. When I arrived in Austin, I moved into a co-op house and used the 30 hungry hippies there as guinea…
ACL Music Festival Interviews
Widespread Panic Saturday, 6:30 & 8:30pm, SBC stage As 2005 dawned, Widespread Panic had been on hiatus for 18 months, the first real break the Athens, Ga., juggernaut had taken in 15 years of relentless music-making. For the past nine months they’ve almost made up for being away, returning to near-constant touring. Taking their rootsy…
ACL Music Festival Reviews
Death Cab for CutiePlans (Atlantic) Death Cab for Cutie isn’t mysterious. Ben Gibbard isn’t even cool. They don’t wear black leather jackets in the summer, they don’t sing about one-night stands, and they say things like, “We put the punk in punctual.” Maybe that lack of pretension is how the Seattle foursome can make such…
Phases & Stages
Bob DylanNo Direction Home DVD: A Martin Scorsese Picture (Paramount Home Video) Bob DylanNo Direction Home: The Soundtrack (The Bootleg Series Vol. 7) (Columbia-Legacy) Bob Dylan Live at the Gaslight 1962 (Columbia-Legacy/Starbucks) Bob Dylan’s body of work is so vast and varied, so luxurious in its allowance for perspective and comparison, that it now informs…
Austin G.I. Rights Hotline
Activists try to counsel soldiers having second thoughts
On the Case: No. 3
Movin’ on up
Arts Review
Renaissance Austin Theatre Company’s staging of ‘Phaedra’s Love’ is not for the prudish eye, what with its incest, murder, rape, and graphic scenes that require splash guards
Learn Your EATs
Eating Out All Night There are a few all-night eateries and late-night establishments in or near the campus area, ideal for nourishment after parties or during all-night cram sessions. Perhaps the closest one is the Kerbey Lane location on the Drag (2606 Guadalupe, 477-5717), an old Austin late-night standby famous for their pancakes, vegetarian options,…
ACL Music Festival Interviews
Roky Erickson & the Explosives Saturday, 7:45pm, Austin Ventures stage On the eve of his first full concert in almost two decades – and quite likely the largest audience he’s ever played to – South Austin-raised psychedelic pioneer Roky Erickson is excited to be playing Zilker Park again, this time with the Explosives. “Zilker used…
ACL Music Festival Reviews
Bettye LaVette I’ve Got My Own Hell to Raise (Anti-) The ever-elusive genuine article becomes rarer by the day. Brought to light by the same folks who helped resurrect Solomon Burke to Grammy status last year, Detroit’s soul singing sensation Bettye LaVette emerges as producer Joe Henry’s latest diamond in the rough. Supplying the blueprint…
Phases & Stages
The Rolling StonesA Bigger Bang (Virgin) “Life is short – one look and it’s over. Comes as quite a shock. All I got is some memories stuck in an old shoe box.” Memories like Exile on Main Street’s “All Down the Line,” which lends newest opener “Rough Justice” A Bigger Bang. At 65 rocky minutes,…
Local Peacemaker Returns to Iraq
Charlie Jackson goes into the belly of the beast, again
DVD Watch
‘People aren’t as evil-minded as they were when you were a soldier, Papa,’ purrs 14-year-old Emmy (Diana Lynn) to her dimly suspicious father (William Demarest), though certainly she must know better
Arts Review
‘Border Radio: The Big Jukebox in the Sky’ was as eclectic as the border radio culture it re-created, but one couldn’t avoid feeling overstuffed by evening’s end
Learn Your EATs
When the Music’s Over Jim Morrison said that we should turn out the lights, but there’s still time after the Austin City Limits Festival for food and drink, so we thought we’d put together a listing of places still open and ready to accept a bunch of hot, sweaty, sun-baked (or muddy, depending on how…
ACL Music Festival Interviews
Aterciopelados Sunday, 12:30pm, SBC stage “We’re victims of a masculine world,” says Andrea Echeverri, lead singer for Colombian rock duo Aterciopelados. “Ever since Madonna, women have played this very sexual role, and I don’t like that. I think we can be more.” With a weighty honesty, Aterciopelados, whose other half is bassist/producer Hector Buitrago, has…
ACL Music Festival Reviews
Fiery Furnaces EP (Rough Trade/Sanctuary) This early 2005 collection of odds and sods from the siblings Friedberger is a lesson in dynamics. Like their critically stalked 2004 rock-cept LP, Blueberry Boat, the tempo changes are many, the lyrics nonsensical, the feel epic. Opener “Single Again” is a jerky, electro-cathartic crawl through singer/organist Eleanor’s stiff lyrics…
Phases & Stages
Tim RiesThe Rolling Stones Project (Concord) Saxman and arranger Tim Ries, currently on tour with the Stones, conceived this jazz tribute to the “World’s Greatest Rock Band.” Besides corralling Keith, Charlie (a jazzbo at heart), Ronnie, and bassman Darryl Jones into guest slots, he’s also brought along some jazz heavyweights in guitarists John Scofield and…
Headbutting Over AMD Development Continues
Were traffic study’s numbers dishonest?
TV Eye
From the best moments to the what-the-hell? moments
The President’s Last Bang
The President’s Last Bang 2005, NR, 102 min. Directed by Im sang-soo, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Han Seok-gyu, Baek Yun-shik, Song Jae-ho, Kim Eung-su. The blazing torch of the current crop of South Korean films glows brightly in this political action thriller by Im Sang-soo. His story re-imagines the events surrounding the…
Book Reviews
‘Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea’ and ‘Drawn and Quarterly Showcase #3’
Food-o-File
Scrambling to keep up at Spicewood. taking the Tour de Vin, and keeping NOLA efforts rolling.
ACL Music Festival Interviews
Doves Sunday, 2:30pm, Cingular stage Wouldn’t you know it, “doves” is slang for the teeth-grindy lovedrug MDMA, or Ecstasy. But then anyone familiar with the similarly named UK trio probably could’ve guessed that. For starters, their past two albums, 2002’s The Last Broadcast and this year’s Some Cities, are as euphoric and uplifting as a…
ACL Music Festival Reviews
Bloc PartySilent Alarm (Vice) This multicultural, South London-based quartet has committed itself to the deceptively tough task of creating jagged, intelligent, working-class art-punk but, in doing so, has borne an album so rich in layers and careful thought that it takes repeated listens to truly appreciate what’s happening. For instance, the first few times “Helicopter”…
Phases & Stages
Devendra BanhartCripple Crow (XL) Critics love attaching the “freak-folk” label to everything Devendra Banhart does, and while that label may have applied to last year’s fantastical Rejoicing in the Hands, the nomadic 24-year-old Texas-born singer/guitarist eschews that label here in favor of the more loving embrace of “The Family.” Visions of Charles Manson may still…
Sayonara Shoal Creek Frankencurbs?
The ‘consensus’ that left nearly everyone unhappy leads back to square one
Hurricane Rita Coming
Hurricane Rita tracking and prediction maps, info on where evacuees should seek shelter, and ACL info
Two From Alternative Comics
‘The Cute Manifesto’ and ‘A Strange Day’
2005 ACL Music Fest Preview
All ‘picks’ no ‘sleepers’ for the Austin City Limits Music Festival, one blurb at a time
ACL Music Festival Interviews
Arcade Fire Sunday, 4:30pm, Cingular stage “The lineup is wicked,” enthuses Arcade Fire’s full-time violinist Sarah Neufeld, contemplating the 2005 edition of the ACL Music Festival. Neufeld and her Montreal-based band are riding their bus into Edinburgh, Scotland, in the midst of a successful summer tour. As hectic as the road has been, the group…
ACL Music Festival Reviews
OasisDon’t Believe the Truth (Sony) Oasis’ sixth studio outing is a wallop upside the noggin of those who slagged off Manchester’s heart and soul when generation-defining broadsides Definitely Maybe and (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? were forgotten amidst the snow-blinded pomp of follow-up Be Here Now. Even 2000’s roundly panned Standing on the Shoulder of…
Phases & Stages
New Orleans brass hop turns into Ensenada border pop on Nortec Collective’s Tijuana Sessions Vol. 3 (Nacional), ripe with trumpet, tuba, and hooks: “Tijuana Makes Me Happy” y “Dandy del Sur.” Accordion narrates the story, electrical aids signing the entire performance, from pachyderm parades and ground yerba buena in your mojito to a guest appearance…
Naked City
Headlines and happenings from Austin and beyond
Capital Metro Workers on Strike
As of 3am Thursday morning, the majority of Amalgamated Transit Union 1091 had gone on strike against Capital Metro, and their contractor StarTran, resulting in a dramatic drop in bus service.
14th Annual Short Story Contest!
Attention all short-form writers! The Austin Chronicle announces its 14th annual Short Story Contest! More information available at austinchronicle.com/shortstory and in future issues, but here are the crucial details: Postmark deadline for submissions is Dec. 12; work must be unpublished, typewritten, and no longer than 2,500 words; work must be accompanied by a cover letter…
ACL Aftershows
ThursdayOliver Future, Nic Armstrong & the Thieves, the Real Heroes, the Parish South Austin Jug Band, Carolyn Wonderland, Saxon Pub Thievery Corporation, Z-Trip, Stubb’s outside Friday Alejandro Escovedo, Split Lip Rayfield, Jon Dee Graham, Continental Club Arcade Fire, the Black Keys, What Made Milwaukee Famous, Stubb’s outside [sold out] Drive-by Truckers, La Zona Rosa Hairy…
ACL Music Festival Interviews
Jack Ingram Sunday, 6:30pm, Austin Ventures stage For the better part of two years now, Dallas’ KPLX has aired Jack Ingram’s Real American Music Hour, a program that’s reinforced an important lesson for its host. “The capacity for Tim McGraw fans to accept and explore is a lot greater than most people give them credit…
ACL Music Festival Reviews
M83(Mute) M83Before the Dawn Heals Us (Mute) France is where robots come from. M83, the former duo that’s been reduced to one programmer – Anthony Gonzalez – is evidence. Cinematic and, at times, too grandiose, M83 is all about the big picture: airy synths, ticky-tack beats, and simple melodies. In 2001, when Frenchman Nicolas Fromageau…
Phases & Stages
Wearing dreadlocks, singing about love, and freaking out a bunch of Germans is black genius. Proving that in part, the wide-eyed man who founded his career singing jingles and later backup for David Bowie, Luther Vandross, died recently yet leaves us with From Luther With Love: The Videos (Epic/Legacy). Bad graphics from the Eighties do…
Hiding Behind Homeland Security Act, DPS Sues AG
Revealing camera locations would compromise security, troopers argue
Page Two
Seeing clearly now
ACL Music Festival Interviews
Checking in with some of the Austin City Limits Music Festival’s featured acts, from Roky Erickson to Coldplay
ACL Music Festival Interviews
Coldplay Sunday, 8:30pm, SBC stage “You know, it’s the same four people who sat in my bedroom nine years ago and tried to hammer out some songs. We’re still exactly the same – just with less hair and more body hair.” Jonny Buckland, guitarist for superstars Coldplay, tries to explain what it’s like being in…
ACL Music Festival Reviews
The Bravery(Island) If fans of the Killers are awaiting a B-sides compilation, they need only pick up the debut from a less-threatening gang of nu-wave rockers: NYC’s the Bravery. Not just for the similar, goth-inflected atmospheres, but also because the best Bravery song would make a so-so Killers bonus track. Singer-songwriter Sam Endicott tries his…
Phases & Stages
The Foo Fighters, WeezerFrank Erwin Center, Sept. 14 The best way to sum up the differences between co-headliners Weezer and the Foo Fighters, during their packed Wednesday night Frank Erwin Center show, would probably start with their priorities. Weezer’s enigmatic frontman Rivers Cuomo made dedications to his “Texan friends” while lead Foo Dave Grohl paid…
Rock Crusher Stonewalled
Lawsuit seeks to overturn TCEQ permit of Buda operation
El Crimen Perfecto
This new black comedy by Spanish absurdist De la Iglesia involves murder and the plight of a playboy blackmailed into marriage.
After a Fashion
This week, Stephen slathers it on at a major social-climbing event…
ACL Music Festival Interviews
Bobby Bare Jr. Friday, 11:45am, Heineken stage Bobby Bare Jr. was quite possibly the sweatiest man in Zilker Park during last year’s ACL Fest. Doing hard time on the small BMI stage, the Nashville-based shaggy-dog singer donned a black suit and belted out his signature pathos-lined, good-time alt.country to a modest but enthusiastic audience. This…
ACL Music Festival Reviews
September is CD release time; critiquing albums by Austin City Limits Music Festival acts
ACL Music Festival Reviews
Kaiser ChiefsEmployment (Universal/Motown) A smirking diary of being young, British, and “lairy” (aka “boozed up”), Employment is perfect for a night down at the pub. That’s where most of this debut appears to have been written; “Time Honored Tradition” is obviously patterned after traditional barroom sing-alongs like “Roll Out the Barrel.” Though not as detailed…
Phases & Stages
Molotov, Los AbandonedStubb’s, Sept. 18 Underground rock shows are still sleepy-eyed at 8pm on a Sunday night, but tonight there was a rowdy, full-bodied crowd out to witness one of Mexico’s most popular rock acts, Molotov. L.A.’s Los Abandoned opened with a half-hour of Pat Benatar fire and ice as lead singer Lady P. wiggled…
Bondage and Discipline: City $$$
Time for taxpayers to take their spanking
Cry Wolf
A tech-centric but bloodless teen horror thriller that works best as a stinging critique of post-adolescent whininess.
About AIDS
Sunken cheeks, furrowed skin, general gauntness – these are typical of facial wasting that often accompanies HIV disease and its life-saving treatment. At last, a new product called Sculptra is available to correct facial wasting, and Dr. David Wright is doing lots of it. At ASA’s Sept. 28 Dining With the Doctor presentation, Dr. Wright…
ACL Music Festival Interviews
Gov’t Mule/The Allman Brothers Band Friday, 2:30pm/6:30pm, SBC stage Warren Haynes is living a life that many guitarists only dream of. Besides leading his own band, the blues rockin’ Gov’t Mule, he’s a full-time member of the Allman Brothers Band. Last year Haynes also filled a guitar slot on tour with the Dead, a part…
ACL Music Festival Reviews
Leo Kottke & Mike GordonSixty Six Steps (RCA) Leo Kottke and Mike Gordon’s first collaboration, 2002’s Clone, was a cordial listen. It had its tentative moments, fragments during which it seemed they were still discovering where the whole thing would lead them. With Sixty Six Steps, the master acoustic guitarist and former bass player for…
ACL Music Festival Reviews
Arcade FireFuneral (Merge) A year after its release, Funeral is clearly one of this decade’s crowning musical achievements. The 2000s have been short on those, but it doesn’t matter. It’s that powerful. “Neighborhood #2 (Laika),” “Wake Up,” and “Rebellion (Lies),” at the least, are forevermore wired into the collective podcast bit-marked 2004. If they make…
Phases & Stages
Ravi & Anoushka ShankarParamount Theatre, Sept. 20 “Frankly, I don’t have much interest in music,” admitted a bemused Dalai Lama to more than 10,000 Austinites at the Frank Erwin Center only hours earlier. “Irritated by the noise,” via a disarming anecdote about being woken by a disco in Berlin, also responded to the perfect local…
Audit Ugliness
Perry questions Strayhorn’s ethics, but watchdogs warn he’s in a glass house
Flightplan
Aiming to be a Hitchcockian-type thriller set within the tight quarters of a jetliner, this Jodie Foster vehicle runs aground.
Naked
Gettin’ nekkid for fer Jon Dee Graham, oh yeah
To Your Health
Are tannins responsible for the heart-healthy benefits of drinking wine?
ACL Music Festival Interviews
Nic Armstrong & the Thieves Friday, 4pm, Austin Ventures stage It’s a few weeks before the Austin City Limits Music Festival, and UK rock quartet Nic Armstrong & the Thieves are thinking about a score to settle. “We’ve got to repay the Bravery,” says frontman Armstrong with a chuckle, backstage at Austin’s Parish. He’s referring…
ACL Music Festival Reviews
Mates of State All Day (Polyvinyl) Mates of State are so damned energetic. The incredible verve the drums-and-organ pair brings to each song is off the Richter scale. The San Francisco-based spouses ooze exuberance as they beat the soup out of their respective instruments, even on this short EP bridging the gap between 2003’s lauded…
ACL Music Festival Reviews
Jason MrazMr. A-Z (Atlantic) You can take the man out of the trucker hat, but you can’t take the trucker hat off the man. On his sophomore LP, Mr. A-Z, teen-friendly singer-songwriter Jason Mraz shoots for maturity and scores. That doesn’t mean he completely sheds his Ashton Kutcher/shopping-mall persona, but it sounds like he has…
City Tells Firefighters Volunteering Not Allowed
Union chief sees double standard on charity projects
Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride
Burton’s best work in ages is eye candy of the highest order and as eminently watchable as a hilltop Halloween pyre or a Día de los Muertos parade run amok.
TCB
The ACL festival is here. Time to hunker down.
The Common Law
Dog law – dogs can’t be ‘trusted’
ACL Music Festival Interviews
Sound Team Friday, 5:15pm, Austin Ventures stage As soon as Austin darlings Sound Team signed with Capitol, they disappeared. Now, after a summer holed up in their self-built Big Orange studios recording next year’s major-label debut – in between West Coast gigging, ditch digging, and supermodel courting – the optimistic eccentrics are performing for the…
ACL Music Festival Reviews
Blues Traveler¡Bastardos! (Vanguard) The first thing you’ll notice about the latest Blues Traveler album, ÁBastardos!, is what’s missing. The band, which recently entered its third decade, has long been identified by the lightning quick harmonica leads of frontman John Popper. Here, Popper’s harp has retreated to the background somewhat, but that only allows the NYC…
ACL Music Festival Reviews
Bob MouldBody of Song Deluxe Edition (Yep Roc) Once more, Bob Mould has matured, this time with the help of Fugazi knob-twiddler Don Zientara and Fugazi drummer Brendan Canty. That doesn’t mean Body of Song Deluxe evinces the spine-cracking urgency of Hüsker Dü or the buzzsaw melody of Sugar. Instead, this 2-CD box (the deluxe…
Freeport & Grasberg: A Chronology
1936: Dutch explorer-geologist Jean Jacques Dozy discovers Ertsberg (Dutch for “ore mountain”) in Papua New Guinea. His discovery is recounted in a paper that is ignored for 23 years. 1959: Forbes Wilson, exploration chief for Freeport Sulphur Co., learns of Ertsberg from Dozy’s report, visits site. 1961: Jim Bob Moffett, a football player, graduates from…
Katrina’s Price Tag
Reimbursement is promised, but will it be delivered?
Roll Bounce
Hot-wiring a penchant for sports film truisms to some seriously spot-on Seventies nostalgia, this Bow Wow vehicle is an easygoing portrayal of teenage camaraderie and its attendant difficulties.
Keeping Cesar Alive
Actor Ed Begley Jr. explains how he was inspired to write a musical honoring his friend Cesar Chavez
Day Trips
The High Plains wine country offers wine lovers a nice selection of quality wineries to tour and enjoy a sampling of their wares
ACL Music Festival Interviews
Thievery Corporation Friday, 5:30pm, Heineken stage “The expectations are for psychedelics to transport you to another dimension, yet it works differently for everyone based on their mindset. While for some it takes a magic mushroom, others can get there by doing breathing exercises or listening to music.” Peeling the glass onion back at its fringes,…
ACL Music Festival Reviews
Cory MorrowNothing Left to Hide (Write On) In the ever-burgeoning Texas music scene, Cory Morrow is a superstar. But like the rest of his ilk, Morrow’s music, as evidenced by Nothing Left to Hide, remains routine, and his songs retain that cookie-cutter feel. We’ve heard this before, with different lyrics perhaps, but the emotions and…
ACL Music Festival Reviews
Dierks BentleyModern Day Drifter (EMI) Arizona-born Dierks Bentley had one of the better debut singles in recent memory with 2003’s randy “What Was I Thinkin’?” but Modern Day Drifter fails to deliver on that initial promise. Its 11 songs are cookie-cutter Nashville fare about beer and pickup trucks (good) and cheating women (bad), and Bentley…
Freeport at Grasberg: ‘Devastated the river system’
What are the ongoing environmental conditions at the Grasberg mine? Are the mining tailings releasing heavy metals? If so, how bad is the problem? These questions cannot be answered with certainty, because there are no published reports of any independent monitoring of Freeport’s mine and its environmental effects. But there is an historical record that…
Chisum Spouts Nonsense in Gay Marriage Debate
Rabid anti-gay representative takes on liberal Austin
À Tout de Suite
Shot in jittery black-and-white 16mm, this French film’s on-the-fly aesthetic captures the shiftlessness of bourgeois youth and some of the spirit of the French New Wave.
Luv Doc Recommends: Old Pecan Street Festival
No football this weekend. That ought to dress up the color scheme considerably. Be honest with yourself: Austin is one of the few cities in America where you can get burnt orange off the rack, and for good reason. Burnt orange doesn’t go with anything – not even mustard yellow or babyshit brown, both of…
