Casualties of War
Casualties of War R, 113 min. Directed by Brian De Palma, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Michael J. Fox, Sean Penn, Don Harvey, John C. Reilly, John Leguizamo, Thuy Thu Le, Erik King, Sam Robards, Ving Rhames. Consciences guilty over Vietnam War atrocities are passionately at work in this well-put-together drama about an…
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie 1972, PG, 100 min. Directed by Luis Buñuel, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Fernando Rey, Delphine Seyrig, Stephane Audran, Bulle Ogier, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Michel Piccoli. This Oscar winner for Best Foreign Film is also one of the most accessible works of this surrealist master, Luis Buñuel. A…
A Man Escaped
A Man Escaped 1956, NR, 95 min. Directed by Robert Bresson, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring François Leterrier, Charles Le Clainche. The final film in this Bresson series is regarded as one of the director’s best and most personal. Based on the account of Resistance leader André Devigny’s escape from Montluc prison fortress,…
Voyages
Voyages NR, 115 min. Directed by Emmanuel Finkiel, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Shulamit Adar, Liliane Rovère, Esther Gorintin, Natan Coganm, Moscu Alcalay, Maurice Chevit. This screening marks the Austin premiere of this winner of the French César for Best New Director of a Feature Film. A cinematic triptych with separate stories set…
Sing Faster: The Stagehands’ Ring Cycle
Sing Faster: The Stagehands’ Ring Cycle NR, 56 min. Directed by Jon Else, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . Opera buffs get that religious look in their eyes when they speak of Richard Wagner’s marathon 17-hour Ring Cycle. Generally regarded as a pinnacle of operatic achievement and a gleeful endurance experience for the…
Beetlejuice
In this wonderfully comic spook tale, a couple of mild-mannered ghosts call upon the obnoxious demon Betelguese to help them reinhabit their house from the new (and living) tenants.
Book Reviews
When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro Knopf, 342 pp., $25 Just over 10 years ago, esteemed British novelist Kazuo Ishiguro published the novel for which he is best-known, The Remains of the Day. It’s a remarkable book, but not so much for its story, in which an English butler, Stevens, drives across the countryside…
Food-o-File
The details about how to benefit the Austin Museum of Art while eating, the news on four new restaurants, and what to expect during Texas Wine Month.
Record Reviews
Beaver NelsonLittle Brother (Black Dog) If there’s any justice, and it goes without saying there rarely is in the music business, Beaver Nelson will be the next Austin artist to break big. His second full-length, Little Brother, is so good it often recalls Lucinda Williams’ best work. Nelson takes a variety of musical styles, from…
Record Reviews
Drums & TubaWater Damage Re-issues, Vol. 1: Box Fetish (My Pal God)Drums & TubaWater Damage Re-issues, Vol. 2: The Flying Ballerina (My Pal God) Former Austinites, brave pioneers, and true originals Drums & Tuba have found a new home in New York City, a new regular gig at the stalwart venue the Knitting Factory, and…
Naked City
John Cornyn says he believes in privacy, but a subpoena of Texans for Public Justice seeking donor records suggests otherwise.
Titanic Town
Titanic Town 1998, NR, 96 min. Directed by Karyn Kusama, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Ray Santiago, Santiago Douglas, Paul Calderon, Jaime Tirelli, Michelle Rodriguez. The images are classic surrealist sight gags. You first see Monopoly-board clusters of shopping malls and tract homes, each with their tight emerald fringes of obsessively tended carpet…
Off the Bookshelf
The First Paper Girl in Red Oak, Iowa: Stories by Elizabeth Stuckey-French Doubleday, 206 pp., $22 So many of Elizabeth Stuckey-French’s stories involve offbeat situations and characters that even some of the less successful stories go down as easy as a tangy glass of punch. The best story, “Electric Wizard,” is about a poetry writing…
Mini-Review
New York Deli in Round Rock has attitude. Chronicle Cuisines writer MM Pack explains why she likes it that way.
Record Reviews
Don WalserI’ll Hold You in My Heart (Valley Entertainment) One of the best things about living in Austin after all these years is the knowledge that you can (still!) saunter into Jovita’s most Tuesday nights and hear Don Walser sing some of the best real country music anywhere. That said, bringing the oft-revelatory nature of…
Record Reviews
Sub OsloDubs in the Key of Life (Two Ohm Hop) Dub music has traditionally been a studio art, from the bare-bones days of founding father King Tubby to the psychedelic infusions of Lee “Scratch” Perry and new-school innovators Bill Laswell and Adrian Sherwood. Denton-based visionaries Sub Oslo shift the gears of dub forward with a…
Naked City
A tape disappears from George W. Bush’s campaign office and lands on an Al Gore supporter’s desk. No one knows who did it, but fingers are pointing at two Bush advisors.
Second Helpings: More Local Barbecue Joints
More local barbecue joints in this week’s Second Helpings.
Off the Bookshelf
How to Be a Chicana Role Model by Michele Serros Riverhead Books, 222 pp., $12.95 (paper) Spoken word artist Michele Serros became a celebrity among Latino readers with the publication of her first book, Chicana Falsa. In her second book, How to Be a Chicana Role Model, she refines her wicked humor and observations of…
Mini-Review
What happened when Saveur magazine editors came to Rough Creek Lodge, near Glen Rose, Texas.
Record Reviews
Willie NelsonMilk Cow Blues (Island) Meet the culture crusade’s next target: Willie Nelson. After all, that titular Bob Wills standard sure ain’t about a four-legged cow. Francine Reed churns up a fair froth in retorting “you’re gonna need my help someday,” so that one skates by on equal time. Then, on “Outskirts of Town,” Nelson…
Record Reviews
The SwellsYesterday’s Songs (Sandwich) This first full-length release from Austin’s Swells takes the spacey pop and rock vision of outstanding local label Sandwich Records to yet another level as Yesterday’s Songs supplies more gorgeous whispers and lush melodies than most albums could contain. Whereas the band’s 1998 EP electrostaticvibraverb dwelled more in the darker realm…
Naked City
Millionaire heir Hatsy Heep Shaffer says developer Gary Bradley has been improperly claiming he has her consent to use water on her land for his development in southern Travis County.
MoM’s Kids
MoMFest 2000 is sending a bracing blast of theatrical energy into Austin this autumn, with more than 50 companies and solo performers offering a performance buffet of short stage works, solo shows, poetry readings, dance, and comedy sketches. Here is an introduction to a few of the participating artists.
Off the Bookshelf
America Reborn: A Twentieth-Century Narrative in Twenty-Six Lives by Martin Walker Knopf, 368 pp., $29.95 Too often, surveys of American history focus only on the most famous individuals and the people immediately surrounding them, with a heavy bias toward politicans. Award-winning journalist Martin Walker (no relation) attempts to tell a story of 20th-century America with…
Chronicles
It’s been a good year for the short story for at least several years now. “They don’t sell well,” you used to hear. “Short stories have become academic and trite,” people would say. What everyone says about memoirs — that apparently anyone who has a pen and paper, or computer, is writing one — seems…
Record Reviews
Ervin CharlesGreyhound Blues (Dialtone) When the faithful went rooting for Texas blues heroes, it’s a shame they didn’t turn up Ervin Charles a bit sooner. A local legend who anchored the Beaumont blues scene for half a century, Charles was both inspiration and mentor to those who found wider fame, including Long John Hunter and…
Record Reviews
Aquatica: Electronic Sounds from the Silicon Hills Aquatica co-founder Brent Bruning fêted the release of this 13-track Texas comp a few months back, declaring it one of the best electronica mixes around, indie or otherwise. Sure, the man behind Austin’s suddenly all-wet electronica scene is going to knock kudos his own way, but the amazing…
Naked City
PIPE Coalition, an anti-Longhorn Pipeline group, has sued its Web designer for allegedly changing the site’s content.
MoM’s Kids
Heather Barfield & Elizabeth Doss To look at Heather Barfield and Elizabeth Doss, you might think they’re too young to have much theatrical experience under their belts. But that just goes to show how appearances can deceive you. Despite the fact that their ages added together don’t top the half-century mark, these two women have…
Off the Bookshelf
Trans-Sister Radio by Chris Bohjalian Harmony Books, 342 pp., $24 Well, I certainly know a lot more about sexual reassignment surgery than I did last week. Oh my. In Trans-Sister Radio, Chris Bohjalian (feted by Oprah for his novel Midwives) explores love, gender, and vaginas. For reasons I cannot fathom, Bohjalian has decided to structure…
Demolition
Before she knew there was really something wrong with her brother, Elaine would tell him that their mother had tried to abort him when she was only a month gone.
Record Reviews
Guy ForsythSteak (TMG) After the shamanistic singer-songwriter bravado of last year’s career-best Can You Live Without, dismissed by most critics and fans based on the cover art alone (get over it), Guy Forsyth has retreated back into more familiar territory: da blooze. Taking up where he left off in 1995 with his Antone’s Records debut…
Record Reviews
ChaskiUnay Chaski was an Incan postman, a messenger who literally ran between villages with the news. Local trio Chaski spreads the word too, their message simple: Enjoy the sweet folk sounds of Latin America. Made up of Shana Norton on harp, vocals, and accordion, Adrienne Inglis on flutes, toyos, tarka, maracas, zampoñas, quena, and vocals,…
Naked City
Organized through Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish congregations, the Industrial Areas Foundation’s Saturday gathering was not unlike a secular church service.
MoM’s Kids
Jessica Hedrick Jessica Hedrick likes to talk, and she’s good at it. The actress, writer, and director grew up in an academic family in Connecticut, went to college in Indiana, spent three aimless years in Seattle and four “not so aimless” years in Austin. “Not so aimless” is an understatement. For FronteraFest 1998, Hedrick wrote,…
Local Bestsellers
Local bestsellers are based on recent sales at Austin bookstores selected to reflect varied reading interests.
Sometimes You Get What You Want
Ira Cohen was a bongo player, drummer type person who picked up gigs whenever he could, which wasn’t often.
Record Reviews
Deep River Of Song: Big BrazosTexas Prison Recordings, 1933-34 (Rounder) Five tracks into this fascinating but haunting collection of Texas prison songs, I flashed back to Sun Ra and his Arkestra’s last Austin performance at Liberty Lunch in the early Nineties. These jazz avant-gardists ended their set with a tune extolling the virtues of interplanetary…
Beat Box
All Texas: Bavu and DJ Nick Nack’s Soundscape, Tee Double’s TX Resident,
Naked City
Hays Councy landowner T. J. Higgenbotham reveals his plans for 50 million gallons of water he wants to pump from a well on his land.
MoM’s Kids
The Dirigo Group Accepting the B. Iden Payne awards last week for Outstanding Actor and Actress in a Drama, respectively, Judson L. Jones and wife Christa Kimlicko Jones both gushed over their fellow Dirigo Group members. In their acceptance speeches, both also took the opportunity to publicly, affectionately, pay tribute to their director, Laura Somers:…
Page Two
Editor Louis Black takes the light rail argument into Austin’s farther future.
Point and Shoot
Without looking Matt knows the deer is dead.
Record Reviews
Blaze Foley Inside: BFI Three(Deep South) We’re up to the third volume in a tribute series to the most famous singer you’ve never heard of. Surely, you think, a good idea is being beaten to death and it’s time to end this thing. Well, this is supposedly the last of the series, but you’d be…
Doubting Thomas
Newly elected Council Member Danny Thomas is in a position to end the fighting over the Place 6 council seat.
The Hightower Lowdown
Motorola’s Chinese Chips; Bush League Public Ed; Devil in the Details
Remember the Titans
Remember the Titans 2000, PG, 113 min. D: Boaz Yakin; with Denzel Washington, Will Patton. While the rest of the world has its collective eyeballs on the big games down under, Disney has seen fit to offer viewers stateside some sporting rah-rahs of their own in the form of this woefully simplistic football-as-metaphor-for-racial-unity flick. I…
MoM’s Kids
Core Performance Manufactory The Difficulty of Crossing a Field September 23 John Henry Faulk Living Theatre In Selma, Alabama, in 1854, Mr. Williamson crosses an open field in midday. And vanishes without a trace. In front of witnesses that include slaves, neighbors, and his family. In playwright Mac Wellman’s take on the Ambrose Bierce story…
Public Notice
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, among other things, and “Public Notice” wants you to feel the love.
Sterling’s Creed
In 1971, it was unusual to hear a six year old use the “F” word. Especially in the context in which Sterling had used it.
Record Reviews
Bill & Bonnie Hearne Watching Life Through a Windshield (Back Porch) Bill and Bonnie Hearne have been making music for more than 30 years and show no signs of slowing down, as Watching Life Through a Windshield proves in a spirited way. A collection of road-related songs from the pens of Guy Clark, Butch Hancock,…
Who Will Survive?
Seven council members. One coveted position. And, in the end, only one survivor.
You Should Start a Web Site …
Though they claim to only answer to their man-on-the-streets tastes, both these Web sites demonstrate how diverse the dialogue on arts becomes when just the right voices cut in.
Articulations
The passing of Austin’s “favorite piano teacher.”
Letters at 3AM
Michael ventura mediatates on the permeability of reality.
Bobby Lee Carter and the Hand of God
When Miss Lena came home from visiting her sister in Jackson and found out Bobby Lee Carter had hanged a man from her sycamore tree, she left the breakfast dishes unwashed in the sink for the first time in her life.
Record Reviews
Charlie Robison/Jack Ingram/Bruce RobisonUnleashed Live (Lucky Dog) It was undoubtedly a sweaty night at Gruene Hall when these Hill Country troubadours got together to record this 12-song disc; the Brothers Robison dominate the first eight songs, while Ingram takes his turn on the four closers. Charlie Robison’s grittier vocals are unmistakable when he kicks in…
The Tribal Council
Due to a city charter amendment passed in 1994, City Council members are limited to two consecutive three-year terms in a given seat.* This provision will kick into effect big-time over the next year and a half, as three council members will be kicked off the island in June 2002, with the mayor to follow…
Of Moose and Movies
Nine days and nights at the Toronto International Film Festival
Exhibitionism
The murder in Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s 1871 novel The Possessed and the 1999 murders at Columbine High School, though far apart in time and seemingly so in circumstance, become almost impossible to differentiate in The American Demons, a collaborative production of Salvage Vanguard Theater and Deborah Hay Dance Company.
After a Fashion
Glossing the heights and depths of fashion, as reflected by last Saturday’s big show at the Austin Music Hall.
Texas Music Group
TMG label rises from the ashes of Watermelon and Antone’s.
Record Reviews
Ryan AdamsHeartbreaker (Bloodshot)Caitlin CaryWaltzie (Yep Roc) Ryan Adams, who lived in Austin for about five minutes, has always been a bit maddening. His band Whiskeytown, like Spinal Tap, has had at least 37 members over the years, pointing to someone who’s a tad, er, difficult to deal with in a band setting. Adams himself has…
Watson’s Way
In Austin city politics, it’s Mayor Kirk Watson’s way or no way at all.
Short Cuts
“Moon Over My Hammy” Dept.: If you were one of the literally hundreds of shivering Alamo Drafthouse patrons turned away from last Sunday’s sold-out premiere of the Mr. Sinus Theater 3000 series, all I can say is thank your lucky stars you weren’t standing out there nekkid. What am I talking about? Why, the Hill…
Exhibitionism
Though it shows evidence of higher aspirations, the Austin Shakespeare Festival production of Julius Caesar, directed by Ev Lunning Jr. is a one-dimensional melodrama, lacking the rhetorical firepower and guiding vision that gives this drama its political punch.
Mr. Smarty Pants
Trivia with a bite — and these are its teeth.
That Old Time Religion
16 HP’s David Eugene Edwards sounds off about his band’s holy-roller music
Record Reviews
Lisa TingleParadise (Tingle Entertainment) Lisa Tingle has a beautiful voice. This is fact, not opinion. After a near-fatal car accident nearly silenced her for good, the longtime local singer bounced back in 1999 with her second CD Picture Me There. A year later, she strikes while the iron is still hot, releasing the 11 mid-tempo…
Jackie, Oh!
“It’s been a long time since a woman was mayor,” Jackie Goodman mused the other day.
Video Reviews
Nuts in MayD: Mike Leigh (1976); with Roger Sloman, Alison Stedman, Stephen Bill, Sheila Kelley, Anthony O’Donnell. Keith (Sloman) is one of the most maddeningly anal-retentive people on the planet. Along with his girlfriend Candace Ann (Stedman), he’s on holiday in the British countryside; they polish their Doc Martens diligently before going on an afternoon…
Exhibitionism
As its title suggests, Preaching to the Perverted is unlikely to deliver much that’s new to its expected audience. Still, Holly Hughes’ new solo piece serves as both intelligent entertainment and rousing battle cry for those who see all too clearly the many faults in the logic of the mainstream.
Day Trips
Recycled Books, Denton’s premiere used bookstore, features a world-class collection of fine editions, vinyl records and CDs in a historic downtown building.
Paying the Cost To Be the Boss
Q&A with the “King of the Blues”
Record Reviews
George DeVoreWonderland (Puddin Pie) Strange. George Devore’s second full-length, Wonderland, sounds fine from a sonic standpoint. The rock songs, such as the title tune, “Wait,” and “Bend but Don’t Break” muster a goodly amount of authority thanks to Devore’s voice, which has an appealing and plainspoken Midwestern grittiness to it. Occasionally, the band gets carried…
The Green Queen
Beverly Griffith’s populist ideas, once held by a majority of the council, are finding few friends as Mayor Watson turns the council’s agenda toward transportation.
Video Reviews
Suburbia aka The Wild SideD: Penelope Spheeris (1983); with Chris Pederson, Jennifer Clay, Flea, Timothy Eric O’Brien, Bill Coyne, Grant Miner. Not to be confused with the 1997 Richard Linklater/Eric Bogosian collaboration, Spheeris’ look at wasted youth in the California ‘burbs remains a B-classic. The film is centered on a gaggle of punk rockers known…
Lansdale’s Revenge
For umpty-some years now Joe Lansdale has been terrorizing the book world with radically weird, unsettlingly violent, and often indefinable short stories, novellas, and novels. What happens when he veers toward the mainstream?
About AIDS
The HIV Wellness Center’s offering a Healing Breath course — and here’s what it does.
Dancing About Architecture
Don Walser and Willie Nelson come up winners; Sixth Street still not quite dead.
Record Reviews
Household NamesThe Trouble With Being Nice (Top 40) Talk about top of the pops. Between Darin Murphy, the Love Supreme, Shane Bartell, Sparkwood, and Household Names, the Continental Club should seriously think about having another birthday party for Elvis — Elvis Costello. Besides, no recent UK band is as Suede-evoking as “Carousel” on The Trouble…
Man in the Middle
“Personally,” says Council Member Daryl Slusher, “I think Austin is growing way too fast.”
Video Reviews
Music OF The HeartD: Wes Craven (1999); with Meryl Streep, Gloria Estefan, Aidan Quinn, Angela Bassett. Just as David Lynch stepped out of the darkness to make The Straight Story, Craven abandons screams for heartstrings and violin strings. This is the true story of Roberta Gaspari (played by Streep), a classically trained violinist who ends…
Joe R. Lansdale Reviewed
High Cotton: Selected Stories of Joe R. Lansdale Golden Gryphon Press, 268 pp., $23.95The Bottoms: A Novelby Joe R. Lansdale Mysterious Press/Warner Books, 328 pp., $24.95 Get this: I’m trying to pigeonhole Lansdale for the benefit of the uninformed, and all it’s getting me is a cramp in my left hemisphere from all the free-association.…
Coach’s Corner
Patrick Ewing deserves better. And so does the Coach, who’s been forced to watch (gasp!) the Olympics.
Record Reviews
Meat PuppetsGolden Lies (Breaking Records/Atlantic) Whatever it is — comeback, new beginning, glorified Curt Kirkwood solo effort — the Meat Puppets’ Golden Lies is a compelling curiosity. In fact, talk of whether the new Austin-based lineup can be called “The Real Meat Puppets” is a red herring; Puppeteers know they’ve never been so much a…
Record Reviews
The Search for SaturnaliaFour Letters (Has Anyone Ever Told You?) Emerging fresh from South Austin’s Bubble studios is the Search for Saturnalia with a fresh slice of hazy, off-tuned guitar licks and understated vocal melodies that recall both the SST label in its prime and turn-of-the-Nineties British Invasion. Which is not to say that ex-Sixteen…
Wynning Formula?
Freshman council member Will Wynn allies himself with Watson’s majority faction.
TV Eye
If you’re looking for reviews of The Nutty Professor, John Pierson’s Split Screen isn’t your show. If you like insightful, sometimes peculiar excursions into the independent film world, Split Screen will please you more than a stolen afternoon at a weekday matinee. Also, Olympic fever spreads — but not without a few complaints.
The Grease Trap
Twenty years have passed since Nacogdoches native Joe Lansdale published his first novel (Act of Love), and for all the critical kudos and fanatical devotion of a tirelessly loyal readership, the former East Texas tater baron and martial arts master has yet to secure a spot atop (or within) the Times bestseller list. Damn shame,…
Noshing Kosher
Lorne Oppler gives the lowdown on eating kosher in Austin.
Record Reviews
Dexter FreebishA Life of Saturdays (Capitol) Here it is: the first national work by Austin’s Dexter Freebish, who won the much-publicized “John Lennon Songwriting Contest” by netting the votes of heavy hitters like Elton John, Wyclef Jean, and members of the Foo Fighters. What’s so special? Well, the leadoff track “Leaving Town,” the song those…
Record Reviews
Brown Whörnet12.15.99 (Pecan Crazy) Oh what a crazy night this must’ve been. 12.15.99 captures Brown Whörnet’s cacophonous riptide of sound as it inundated the Triple Crown in San Marcos late last year. Though the sound on this 19-song live recording is somewhat muddled, particularly on the louder songs, it does give you a fleeting taste…
Compromising Raul
Raul Alvarez was elected by environmental community but is not yet voting with it.
Girlfight
Girlfight 2000, R, 110 min. Directed by Karyn Kusama, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Michelle Rodriguez, Jaime Tirelli, Paul Calderon, Santiago Douglas, Ray Santiago. In this time of the curious resurgence of the boxing movie, it’s easy to see why Girlfight has risen to the top of the heap. Nicely executed and extremely…
Postscripts
What made Dave Oliphant want to write a long series of thematically linked poems about various places in Texas, especially when quite a few of those places at first glance seem, um, immune to the poetic touch (ever been to Wink)?
Kosher Symbols
Look closely at a kosher food label and you’ll see a small little sign like these (pictures of the symbols) on the front of the packages. This tells you that the food has been inspected by one of the many kosher certifying agencies in the United States. Each agency identifies itself by its own unique…
Record Reviews
FastballThe Harsh Light of Day (Hollywood) Ahhhh, the sweet smell of success! “This,” sings Miles Zuniga on The Harsh Light of Day’s opening track, “this is not my life. This is not my face, this is not my place — no, this just isn’t right.” Roaring to life on major-label production values, Fastball uncorks its…
Record Reviews
The ChumpsR.I.P. Good Times (Mortville) Rising forth from the putrid muckety-muck of the Blue Flamingo era of Texpunk, the recently departed Chumps steadfastly delineated themselves with fat, driving power chords and the David Johansen-on-glue vocal stylings of Sean McGowan. R.I.P. Good Times is a convincing rock through the windshield of convention joyously hurled in the…
Naked City
Bush and NARAL, GetHeard.org voters Web site, Kay Bailey Hutchison on abortion, Carole Keeton Rylander speaks to Austin Rotary and attacks AISD, Mike Levy for Mayor, Austin Police endorse Ronnie Earle
Psycho Beach Party
This campy send-up of surf and slasher movies uses Gidget movies as its comic template.
Book Reviews
A Density of Souls by Christopher Rice Talk Miramax Books, 274 pp., $23.95 “The swamp of New Orleans made a better home for mosquitoes than humans,” 22-year-old Christopher Rice writes in his debut novel, A Density of Souls. It’s a pointed observation, and one whose sentiments are echoed throughout this excessively grim coming-of-age tale. In…
