Nineties Time Management
In the world of busi- ness, time is money. And while instant communications such as e-mail, cellular phones, and faxes can increase productivity, the unfortunate side effect is stress, caused by real or perceived lack of time. Dr. Hunter Lawyer is executive director of the widely regarded Tock Institute for Time Analysis. Aided by his…
Easy As Falling Off Analog
Remember back when you hardly ever heard the word “analog”? Well that’s because you didn’t need to — soundwise, everything was analog. More and more, though, it’s looking like the poor word will soon be returning to obscurity, only this time it’s because the entirety of recording media will be digital. The latest and probably…
Paynes on Parade
Call it “The Night of Lady Day.” When the Austin Circle of Theatres (ACoT) handed out the trophies at the 22nd B. Iden Payne Awards ceremony on Sunday, the big winner was Capitol City Playhouse’s production of Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill. This fictional re-creation of a Billie Holliday gig scored five awards,…
Also Playing
Friday: Bigfoot Chester, Dropouts, Blind Willie’s Johnson, Hole in the Wall Saturday: Stretford, Ms. Galaxy, Paranoids, Blue Flamingo; Webb Wilder, Antone’s Sunday: Hank Williams Tribute, Continental Club Monday: Loud Family, Sugarplastic, Wilt, Electric Lounge; Scabs, Steamboat Tuesday: Quatropaw, Super Dream Pill, Stubb’s Wednesday: Papa Mali & the Instigators, White Rabbit; Shat Records, Antone’s Thursday: Cesaria…
Ten Years After
Annette Carlozzi’s photograph on the inside jacket cover of her book, 50 Texas Artists, still accurately describes her. She is a dark-haired, pale-eyed, attractive woman. The book was published in 1986 as she was completing her seventh year as senior curator of Laguna Gloria Art Museum, just before Carlozzi and her husband, writer Tom Zigal,…
Money Worries
Last March, David Jones became one of the 247 Travis County residents to be diagnosed with AIDS in 1995. At the same time he was told he had AIDS, he was also diagnosed with HIV, the virus believed to cause the disease. At the time, Jones didn’t know the difference between HIV, which his doctor…
New Works
Timothy High Flatbed Press Gallery through October 15 Tim High, a printmaking professor at UT, says, “Great art… is borne out of an articulate and impassioned conversation between the eye, the intellect, and the heart.” The conversation generated by his own work is a lively one. No one is excluded. You like color? He has…
Going Non-Public
As jitters over the future of federal assistance increase, obtaining non-public funding has become a top priority for many of Austin’s AIDS service providers that face funding shortfalls. Some have found unusual solutions. Here’s a run-down of how a handful of local agencies stay afloat. * DOING IT YOURSELF: Positive Threads, a newsletter for people…
Poet Marlys West
The Impulse to Write by Barbara Strickland Marlys West writes some of the best poetry I’ve ever seen outside of a Norton’s Anthology. A Marlys West poem has a brutal delicacy to it; she describes the wounded and maimed with the same calm, almost impassive, devotion that she gives to her poems about galaxies and…
Coach’s Corner
It began early, in the muggy morning gloom, a barely audible whisper. At the Alumni Center from the stadium, and fueled by liquor and beer, it edged to a murmur. Slowly, as game time drew closer and sleepy, disoriented fans filed in, the volume increased. The fabled Fightin’ Irish, strutting the quiet arrogance of old-line…
Austin’s Service Community
Some of Austin’s HIV and AIDS service providers and organizations: AIDS Services of Austin 825 E. 53 1/2 St.; 451-2273 Case management, financial assistance, food pantry, nurse aide care and other services. Austin-Travis County Health Dept. HIV Services Program 55 N. I-35, Suite 240; 708-3500 Case management, child care, HIV testing, burials for people without…
Silky Turnpike
We never show up dead, now do we and who always does the driving? You don’t have to shout in front of the children, sighs my mother, looking at the buildings passing by. My brother in his diaper is wedged in between them. I sit in the backseat on my knees, arms around my father’s…
Day Trips
Indian Lodge sits tucked away in the Davis Mountains like an ancient Indian pueblo between two rising peaks covered with desert grasses. Its existence seems timeless, familiar to many, but discovered by few. The white adobe walls of the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department-operated inn shine from distant overlooks as if it were a small…
Cuba’s AIDS Embargo
It’s a Monday morn- ing in Havana, and I’m in a car with three Cuban doctors and Jerry Buttrey, one of my neighbors from Austin. We’re on our way to Los Cocos, the AIDS sanitarium on the outskirts of the city. The doctors, friends of Jerry’s, work at a nearby pediatric hospital and have agreed…
You Can Make a Difference!
Yes, you can make a difference in the life of a person who is living with HIV/AIDS! At AIDS Services of Austin, there are numerous opportunities where your time, dedication, and energy, can be used to make a difference in the lives of those affected by this illness. The Buddy/Helper program is designed especially to…
Page Two
Gathering together at restaurants and bars to wile away the night with booze and food used to be a way of life at the Chronicle. Wages were meager but there was always some trade account where we could eat and drink, charging it to the Chronicle. There would be almost regular gatherings the day an…
Law of the Land
The Indonesian mili- tary and local police stationed in and around Freeport-McMoRan’s gold and copper mine in Irian Jaya, Indonesia have launched a campaign to intimidate the indigenous people who are suing the company, allege human rights groups. In addition, Martin Regan, the attorney who filed a $6 billion lawsuit on the plaintiffs’ behalf against…
Conformity and Plaster Tigers
Amy lived next door to the weekend house owned by the Hoffeinz, the fine family that brought the Astrodome to the city of Houston. Amy had discovered she could infiltrate their gated sanctuary by crawling out a second-story window of her house onto the brittle branches of a pear tree and dropping over the fence.…
Public Notice
Oedipus Rising Here’s a brilliant intermeshing of noble cause and genius event, sure to be one of those classic Austin fundraisers folks talk about for years to come. The inspired and inspiring broadway sensation, The Gospel at Colonus, which sets the myth of Oedipus to the soul rave-up of a gospel church service, comes to…
God’s Paper
In 1993, when pub- lishing tycoon Rupert Murdoch and embattled New York Post editor Pete Hamill were struggling over the rights to the tabloid’s future, Hamill told the New Yorker that his dream paper, “God’s paper,” would have a “coalition of audiences… the new immigrants. We’d try to get the kids of the immigrants, the…
Fri 27
Moonshining at the Basin to benefit Wild Basin Wilderness Preserve, at Wild Basin, 805 N. Capital of TX Hwy, 7-10pm. Cost is $20. 327-7622. Lone Star Weekend Aloft Hot Air Balloon Festival will be held Sept 27-29 to benefit Any Baby Can, at Harris Branch. Cost is $5. 873-0677. SUN 29 Flamingo Fest ’96 to…
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Botox, a derivative of the same bacteria that cause botulism, is being used to erase crow’s feet-type wrinkles. According to wine connoisseur Stuart Walton, 1988 champagnes are no where near ready yet. His picks for top champagnes: Billecart-Salmon, Bollinger, Charles Heidsieck, Krug, Louis Roederer, and Pol Roger. Swiss engineers funded by Greenpeace have developed Smile,…
An Easy Read
At first glance, NPrint, a nationally syndicated television show being produced in Austin, looks a lot like Entertainment Tonight — high tech computer graphics, quick editing, flashy camera work and a colorful set with two perky, good-looking anchors. And both shows aim for the same lowest common denominator market; tidbits of fluff thrown out with…
Something Gorgeous Without God
They spoke of Fitz- gerald’s green eyes. They “glittered,” Edmund Wilson said, and were “hard and emerald.” Eyes that could spook the likes of Dorothy Parker and Ernest Hemingway. I see those eyes as dragonfly green, the kind of coloration that never quite stays put. Black-and-white photos register them sometimes as dark, sometimes very light…
Chez Zee
5406 Balcones Drive, 454-2666 Mon-Fri, 7am-10:30pm, Friday ’til 11:30pm; Sat, 9am-11:30pm, Sunday ’til 10:30pm News about recent changes at Chez Zee piqued my interest so I dropped in a couple of times to check things out. It’s indeed true that Northwest Austin’s premiere power breakfast meeting spot has changed their weekday morning menu from a…
Made in Austin
A handful of Austin-produced television shows have hit the national airwaves in the past, the first being Carrascolendas, a Spanish-English children’s show produced by KLRN-TV (the predecessor of public television station KLRU) that aired on PBS in the early Seventies. Then there was Austin City Limits, still one of the city’s best-loved exports, which is…
Passing the Toque
Mezzaluna 310 Colorado, 472-6770 Mon-Thursday, 11:30am-10:30pm; Fri, 11:30am-11pm; Sat, 5-11pm; Sun, 6-10pm If there is such a thing as a chef-proof restaurant in this town, it would probably be Mezzaluna. Longtime chef Harvey Harris struck out on his own at Stelline and the crowds kept coming. Brad Yerkes has recently moved on and there is…
Food O’ File
Citizens of South Central Austin, rejoice. After opening shiny new stores in many areas of Austin, HEB has finally begun the remodling and expansion of one of their smallest, older local stores at the intersection of Oltorf and South Congress. Adjacent buildings on the property have been leveled and first stages of the extensive remodel…
Death by Gridiron
When Texas Enter- tainment News launched last fall, the Austin-based syndicated infotainment show operated under a charter mandate of “Entertain, Inform, and Inspire.” Today, in hiatus after only a 33-show run, TEN’s goals are different: perhaps more along the lines of “Return, Endure, Survive.” Officially, TEN creator Fred Miller plans for the program to make…
The Big Flamingo
Grumbling and groaning is escalating in the wake of the One World Festival, with volunteers calling me to accuse Fest liaison Dan Smith (whom I quoted last week) of everything from “out-and-out lies” to nearly running over a volunteer with a van in which he was transporting Bunny Wailer. Staff members are holding a meeting…
Granite Cafe
2905 San Gabriel, 472-6483 Mon-Thu, 11:30am-5p, lunch; 6-10:30pm, dinner. Fri-Sat 6-11pm, dinner. Sat and Sun brunch beginning 11am. Granite Cafe used to be a favorite spot to satisfy my craving for designer pizzas and pastas. But a recent dinner on the restaurant’s surprisingly breezy terrace found me venturing beyond the boundaries of Italy, sampling new…
CinemaTexas
No matter how accomplished they may be, there is no denying that student films can be indulgent. Most, if animate, would take the weight of the world on their shoulders and lie awake at night pondering whether to sustain forever its crushing tonnage, or to heave it off in what might possibly be a last,…
Eric’s World
Like most homes in Tarrytown, Eric Johnson’s beige stone house is dwarfed by the tall trees that tower above it. Against their late-summer, matte-green backdrop, its worn wood paneling, like the fence out front and the walkway to the front door, is almost colorless. It’s a plain, one-story dwelling that would no more call your…
Bonus Tracks
THE HUNGER Devil Thumbs a Ride (Universal) With “Vanishing Cream” receiving considerable attention from KLBJ, it’s no surprise this Houston quartet’s album blands somewhere between Alice in Chains and Filter. Surprisingly, however, despite the faux industrial keys-whiz, and every clich� in the book, the band’s pound-and-howl factor almost saves Devil Thumbs a Ride from being…
CinemaTexas Schedule
CinemaTexas Schedule Thursday 9/26 5pm: reception 6pm: opening 6:30pm: UT Retrospective #1 9pm: Competition Program #1 Friday 9/27 3pm: Competition #2 5:30pm: Competition #3 8pm: UFVA program #1 Saturday 9/28 12pm: UFVA Program #2 2pm: panel discussion: Festivals and Distribution 4pm: Competition #1 (repeat) 6:30pm: Competition #2 (repeat) 9pm:Competiton #3 (repeat) Sunday 9/29 1pm: UT…
Links to Eric Johnson info on the Web
Eric Johnson is all over the Web. Of course, you have to do a little judicious surfing but the first place to get your feet wet is at http://www.ericjohnson.com, the official Eric Johnson website. Here you can download previews of five songs from Venus Isle, with four 30-second previews of “Manhattan,” “Lonely In The Night,”…
Eric Johnson
Venus Isle (Capitol) Venus Isle has few surprises, which is both the best and worst thing about the album. It’s slick, overproduced, or, as described with a rose-colored pen by the record company, “polished beyond perfection.” Johnson’s lyrics approach new-age hokey. His thin, breathy singing voice regularly sounds forced, and his aural soundscaping can become…
Pop Entrepreneur
There are scores of accomplished entrepreneurs in Austin, but only a few can claim crowing rights in the national press. Doug Foreman, a 39-year-old junk food lover who hit the big time with his Guiltless Gourmet line of fat-free snacks, is one of them. This time it’s not food, but NPrint, a slick syndicated TV…
The House
Austin Chronicle: I hear you’re into world music. Eric Johnson: It’s natural that when you’re younger, you notice what’s right in front of you [like rock & roll], and after you get familiar and have a scope of what’s in front of you, then your head tilts up a little more and you look at…
Live Shots
GEORGE CLINTON & THE P-FUNK ALL-STARS One World Music Festival, Resort Ranch, September 15 After opener Buddha Bass something-or-other finished their set, the stage announcer — some Nineties Wavy Gravy holdover who used three and only three adjectives (irie! phat! and righteous!) — said enthusiastically, “Art rock is not dead.” Well the person who resurrected…
Between the Lines
D: Joan Micklin Silver; with John Heard, Lindsay Crouse, Jeff Goldblum, Gwen Welles, Stephen Collins, Marilu Henner, Bruno Kirby, Jill Eikenberry, Michael J. Pollard, Joe Morton, Lane Smith. VHS Home Video Encore Movies and Music, 8820 Burnet There’s no way for us to modestly skirt this film’s effect: This story of an underground paper in…
Naked City
After Mayor Bruce Todd barred environmental activist Karen Hadden from speaking at council meetings last fall, the Mayor asked for an apology for what he considered her disruptive behavior. Instead, he got a lawsuit accusing him of breaching Hadden’s constitutional rights. Now, he’s shamefaced. On September 17, Todd and the city legal staff settled out…
