Cover Story
An ‘Our Town’ for Our Town
With 100 Austin stories, Zach builds a city on a stage
The Artist Formerly Known as Captain Beefheart
The Artist Formerly Known as Captain Beefheart 1997, NR, 51 min. Narrated by John Peel. Don Van Vliet, aka Captain Beefheart, is spotlighted in this BBC documentary that recounts his childhood in the Mojave desert, deep friendship with Frank Zappa, his discovery of the old blues masters and adoption of his stage name, and includes…
Lilja 4-Ever
Lilja 4-Ever 2002, R, 109 min. Directed by Lukas Moodysson, Starring Oksana Akinshina, Artyom Bogucharsky, Pavel Ponomaryov. An abandoned 16-year-old girl in Russia drinks, sniffs glue, and sells her body in post-Soviet Russia. She fantasizes about escape with another young friend, and becomes an easy mark for an opportunist who wants to sell her into…
Culture Flash!
Actors’ Equity honors Dirk van Allen, and the 2005 B. Iden Payne Awards go to …
ACL Music Fest Live Shots
KasabianZilker Park, Sept. 23 “I really admire you standing in this heat,” beamed Kasabian’s singer Tom Meighan. The Austin City Limits Music Festival has become an annual tradition for making pasty Brits sweat, and Kasabian’s midday performance was no exception. Launching with “Reason Is Treason,” off their self-titled debut, the band took charge of the…
ACL Music Fest Live Shots
OasisZilker Park, Sept. 24 As genuinely impressive as it was that most ACL acts commenced on time, it came as little surprise that Oasis didn’t. Revving up nearly 15 minutes past the schedule, the infamously tempestuous Brit-rockers managed to stay on their best behavior. To a fault. Waltzing onstage to a prerecorded version of “Fuckin’…
Radio Dial: New New Rock Alternative Alternatives?
The radio marketeers have rendered adjectives completely meaningless
Point Austin: Beside the Point: Zoned Out
The City Council returns today (Thursday) after its brief post-budget hiatus, and the agenda is bristling with zoning cases, including several addressing South Austin neighborhood plans and related matters that may generate more than the usual public discussion. And there are a couple of legal (executive) matters it would be interesting to overhear: Barbara Shorts…
MirrorMask
The work of fantasist Neil Gaiman finally makes it to the screen with its innate sense of wonder intact, despite this sporadically overstuffed package of magic, mystery, and masked madwomen.
‘Inconsolable: How I Threw My Mental Health Out With the Diapers’
Marrit Ingman’s new memoir: an excerpt
ACL Music Fest Live Shots
Sound TeamZilker Park, Sept. 23 As music festivals become more instrumental in breaking new acts in the U.S., winning over ambivalent masses in two songs or less is a great gift indeed. Although Sound Team surely benefited from the hometown crowd at their late-afternoon ACL performance, the septet’s full-bodied aural drama demonstrated why Capitol Records…
ACL Music Fest Live Shots
M83Zilker Park, Sept. 25 Laptops are never a festival’s friend and France’s M83 knew that. Anthony Gonzalez, a full band behind him, warmed the crowd even more with 10 songs of lush instrumentation. Despite the billion-degree sizzle, a decent-sized crowd still came out to hear sweaty synthesizers. More of a softer Sonic Youth than a…
Why Has Austin’s Solar Program Stalled?
Activists think the city has put sun power in the shade
The Hightower Report
New Georgia driver license law keeps poor folks down; and family-owned businesses put people ahead of profits
Reel Paradise
This documentary shows what happens when famed producer’s rep/author/gadabout John Pierson convinces his family to move with him to Fiji, where, if all goes according to plan, he can leave behind the indie-film rat race, immerse himself in a completely foreign culture, and, best of all, screen all sorts of movies for the natives.
Page Two
After the fall
ACL Music Fest Live Shots
Morgan HeritageZilker Park, Sept. 23 Offering the genuine article when it comes to “roots rock reggae music,” Morgan Heritage rationalized their journey from St. Thomas Parish to bless the Capital Metro stage. “Being from Jamaica, we’re used to the pain that hurricanes can inflict. So we figured that we should still come.” Comprised of the…
ACL Music Fest Live Shots
Kaiser ChiefsZilker Park, Sept. 25 “If it got this hot in Leeds, England, we’d think the world was going to end,” shared Kaiser Chiefs lead singer Ricky Wilson near the beginning of his band’s set. “So, let’s party as if it were.” Even though there were moments when he appeared near fainting, Wilson kept his…
Naked City
Headlines and happenings from Austin and beyond
No Family Is an Island
The Piersons on ‘Reel Paradise’
The Greatest Game Ever Played
The improbable but true triumph of 19-year-old amateur American golfer Francis Ouimet at the 1913 U.S. Open is given the David and Goliath treatment.
Letters at 3AM
With two storms, nature has increased the speed of America’s decline by several years. This series of columns sketches what we’re in for (for good as well as for ill). The focus of this column is air travel and the tourist industries.
ACL Music Fest Live Shots
Gov’t MuleZilker Park, Sept. 23 The death of founding bassist Allen Woody in 2000 decelerated the now 10-year momentum of this Allman Brothers-esque outfit. Here, a family death kept keyboardist Danny Louis from joining drummer Matt Abts, strummer/singer Warren Haynes, and bassist Andy Hess. Luckily, James Hetfield’s favorite band enlisted John Medeski to pinch hit…
ACL Music Fest Live Shots
Arcade FireZilker Park, Sept. 25 Things overheard during the Arcade Fire show: A couple breaking up; a man exclaiming that he “wants to live again!”; a college-aged man boasting his score on the video game 187 Ride or Die. These topics of life, death, and rebirth just so happen to be central themes in Arcade…
Austin High Sophomore Killed in Drive-By
Shooting took place off-campus; principal insists campus is safe
Celebrating AFS’s 20th
A series sampling the 1,400 films AFS has shown during the past two decades
Happily Ever After
This French romantic comedy is little more than a heap of clichés whenever the director and star Yvan Attal’s real-life wife, Charlotte Gainsbourg, disappears from the screen.
After a Fashion
Stephen at ACL?! Were there buff men with rickshaws to cater to such VIPs?? Were they giving out free Prada??
ACL Music Fest Live Shots
John PrineZilker Park, Sept. 23 Long before he beat throat cancer, John Prine sang with the wry smile of someone who maybe cheated a little death. Even if you missed the ashtray edge in his voice, the stage cameras panned past the sizable scar on his neck from the surgery. So it’s probably no coincidence…
ACL Music Fest Live Shots
Franz FerdinandZilker Park, Sept. 25 It was 107 degrees out late Sunday afternoon. Good money says that it probably doesn’t get up to 107 degrees in Glasgow, where this energetic quartet calls home. Shocking, then, to see these wafer-thin lads bounding around the stage in long-sleeved shirts and plasticky-tight pants while the rest of us…
Rick ‘N’ Rita
Gov. Perry weathers the storm … of public opinion
Benefiting ‘Bamako Chic’
Former Austinite Maureen Gosling needs funds to finish her latest documentary
Community Cornerstones
Gourmet takeout markets and groceries are establishing themselves less as luxury than necessity
About AIDS
How can I make my HIV treatment as easy as possible � fewer pills, fewer side-effects?
ACL Music Fest Live Shots
The Black CrowesZilker Park, Sept. 23 Headlining day one of ACL, reunited rawk dudes the Black Crowes proved yet again that classic hip shake never ever goes out of vogue. Ignoring surface-of-Mercury temperatures, Atlanta’s throwback rock scholars were loose and limber by their second song, “Sting Me,” getting the wild crowd bending their bodies with…
ACL Music Fest Live Shots
Bob MouldZilker Park, Sept. 25 Bob Mould is a lean, mean, rock machine. Okay, I don’t know about his disposition, but even with more than a little grey in the goatee, he looks good – trimmed down and toned up. And holy God did he bring it. From the Godzilla crunch of opener “The Act…
Perry Keeps His Friends Close and His Enemies Closer
John Sharp bows out of governor’s race after Perry appoints him for tax study
Full Moon Horror
The Puppet Master himself at the Paramount
TCB
Hair metal sneaks into ACL 2005, under a blanket of dust
To Your Health
I have tested positive for Group B Strep and I am pregnant, what should I do?
ACL Music Fest Live Shots
Kacy CrowleyZilker Park, Sept. 24 Memo to Ahmet Ertegun: Kacy Crowley is still every bit the tougher-than-cool female singer-songwriter she was when you made her the winner of the 1997 SXSW lottery. Not sure what good that does now that the world wants pop trixies, but the local singer drew from 2003’s Moodswing and 2004’s…
ACL Music Fest Live Shots
Jack IngramZilker Park, Sept, 25 Near the end of his performance, after he’d introduced his band and made a little dig at the Kenny Chesneys of the world, Jack Ingram announced, “I play country music.” This caused a few spit takes among the purists in the crowd as during the previous 50 minutes Ingram and…
St. Andrew’s Defends the Cowboy Way
A big donor withdraws funding over ‘pornographic’ book and stirs up an online storm
Film News
‘Friday Night Lights’ on the small screen – and in Idaho? Plus, the several recent successes of Tommy Lee Jones, ‘Roller Girls,’ Mike Judge, and more.
Unique and Universal
A look ahead at the Austin Gay and Lesbian International Film Festival
The Common Law
Child support – how much does parent have to pay?
ACL Music Fest Live Shots
South Austin Jug BandZilker Park, Sept. 24 It may have been early Saturday afternoon, but there were still several hundred fans and curious onlookers assembled before the South Austin Jug Band took the stage. The young Austin quintet didn’t disappoint either, with their quick pickin’ and frolicsome songs. Concentrating on material from their fine new…
ACL Music Fest Live Shots
WilcoZilker Park, Sept. 25 There’s absolutely no better band to coax the sun behind the trees than Wilco. In unusually high spirits, Jeff Tweedy provided respite from the relentless fireball with songs spanning the entire Wilco catalog. “I’m officially coming out of my shell tonight,” Tweedy declared. “Okay, maybe not.” But he did encourage uncanny…
Cryptic Messages Yield Treasure, Community
Austin Found sends contestants on a carless race about town
DVD Watch
The 1993 film by writer and director Mike Leigh, newly released by Criterion, is a small masterpiece of blighted English negativity: like little body with a corrosive heart
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Texas cities claim four of the seven top spots in per capita daily driving in the whole world
ACL Music Fest Live Shots
Tracy BonhamZilker Park, Sept. 24 “Hi, we’re Tegan and Sara, featuring John Darling and Tracy Bonham!” grinned the pocket-sized rock violinist who gamely replaced the Canadian folk-rock twins after a last-minute cancellation. A surprising number of faithful (raise your hand if you forgot Bonham’s 1996 hit “Mother Mother”) clustered around the stage for her spirited,…
ACL Music Fest Live Shots
Kermit Ruffins & the Barbecue Swingers Zilker Park, Sept. 25 “See all the party people up front, dancing for their lives?” asked trumpeter Kermit Ruffins midway through his swinging Sunday night set. “That’s how we do it in New Orleans.” With all of the misery that’s befallen Ruffins’ beloved city in the wake of Hurricane…
Get on the Bus D.C. Report
If 100,000 march on the White House and nobody reports it, did it really happen?
TV Eye
The return of Ricky Gervais; plus, Jennifer Perkins, Vicki Howell, and Austin among the Emmys
Weird by the Numbers
Wrangling the massive beast that Keepin’ It Weird became proved a monumental challenge for Steakley and Zach, involving dozens of people over the life of the project, which lasted more than a year longer than originally planned. Steakley’s request for names of people to interview yielded a stream that then grew into a torrent. The…
Day Trips
The rocking chairs at Fox Meadows Guest Houses and Nature Conservatory look out over a field where the deer come to feed in the evenings, and that is just one of nature’s delights to enjoy there
ACL Music Fest Live Shots
Bloc PartyZilker Park, Sept. 24 “Hey, Austin, long time no see,” greeted Bloc Party singer Kele Okereke at the onset of his band’s evening show Saturday. The group, who exploded at SXSW in March, returned to town for an ACL gig that drew thousands of fans waiting a long time. Effortlessly, the UK quartet took…
ACL Music Fest Live Shots
TortoiseZilker Park, Sept. 25 Charging out of the gate with a prog-rock aneurysm, Tortoise unleashed an Albini-esque rumble from the AMD stage just as darkness descended upon Sunday’s Zilker dust-bowl. The Chicago quintet stormed through musicological explorations so chunky with thunder that preceding sonic lightning bolts lingered amidst related strains of Seventies era King Crimson.…
Blood-Spilling Anti-War Protesters Not Guilty
Only lesser charges stick to St. Pat’s Four
ACL Music Fest Live Shots
Allman Brothers BandZilker Park, Sept. 23 There’s been any number of variations of the Allman Brothers Band since original brother Duane Allman’s death in 1971. As evidenced by this all too brief festival set, few of those lineups have retained the spirit of the original group as accurately as the current incarnation. Original drummers Jaimoe…
Leslie
One name came up in every single interview conducted for Keepin’ It Weird, says Steakley, and that name was … Leslie. Everyone had some take on the man in the skirt on the street, and Steakley was surprised by the range of attitudes expressed: “I thought generally it was going to be pretty positive about…
Soccer Watch
U.S. bows out of FIFA U-17 World Championships
ACL Music Fest Live Shots
Death Cab for CutieZilker Park, Sept. 24 In a striped T-shirt, bowl cut, and rosy cheeks, Ben Gibbard looked more like Peter Pan than a rock star. Death Cab for Cutie took the stage to thousands of screams with Plans opener “Marching Bands of Manhattan.” Struggling through much of that new release but gaining more…
ACL Music Fest Live Shots
ColdplayZilker Park, Sept. 25 Coldplay doesn’t quickly come to mind when confronted with scenes from the Old West: the landscape shrouded in a dust cape denser than fog, citizens wrapped in handkerchiefs with only tired eyes peaking out. After enduring the hottest day of the year, even Chris Martin was soaking through his black button-up.…
Radnofsky Takes Aim at Hutchison
Democrat challenges incumbent’s moderate reputation, paints her as hard-right
Actors From the London Stage: Just the Essentials
With Actors From the London Stage in residence at UT, you can see five actors reduce theatre to its essential elements: actors, audience, story
Food-o-File
Amy’s latest location and Dracula’s wine list; plus, two benefits you’ll benefit from by attending
ACL Music Fest Live Shots
The Fiery FurnacesZilker Park, Sept. 24 “Now we’re going to play songs from our new album – Tommy.” Well, at least the Fiery Furnaces have a sense of humor about the endless Who comparisons, as keyboardist Matthew Friedberger revealed during the band’s blazing afternoon set. The siblings Friedberger, Matthew decked out in all black and…
ACL Music Fest Live Shots
Best ACL SetGreg Beets: Kaiser Chiefs Michael Bertin: Kaiser Chiefs Jim Caligiuri: Weary Boys Matt Dentler: Arcade Fire Robert Gabriel: Eisley Christopher Gray: Drive-by Truckers Melanie Haupt: Franz Ferdinand Raoul Hernandez: Roky Erickson & the Explosives Andy Langer: The Frames Martin de Leon II: Arcade Fire Audra Schroeder: The Fiery Furnaces Darcie Stevens: The Frames…
Senators Go for Bush’s Man
Roberts nomination sails along
Serenity
Joss Whedon’s Western/sci-fi hybrid (which was canceled from TV but greenlighted for the movies) evinces the kind of swashbuckling bonhomie that made so many of us fall in love with the original Star Wars films.
City Cultural Arts Funding: One for the History Books
What do you call it when the City Council approves the Cultural Arts Funding Program budget with no furor or 11th-hour changes? How about ‘historic’?
Momentum and the Mountainside Sound
Dylan’s bottler of magic, Bob Johnston, on the nicest guy ever, plus Paul Simon, Willie Nelson, Michael Martin Murphey, and more
ACL Music Fest Live Shots
The WalkmenZilker Park, Sept. 24 It’s a tall order to follow a perfect song like “The Rat.” The Walkmen’s latest album, Bows & Arrows, provided an angst-ridden soundtrack for anyone who’s ever been walked on or ignored, and the aforementioned single has become an unlikely sing-along to countless fans. One-upping their Parish show the night…
Bad Medicine?
No Child Left Behind prescribed for Austin schools – although the cure may be worse than the illness
Polygamous ‘Prophet’ Update
Jeffs still at large, but apparently communicating with his flock
A League of Ordinary Gentlemen
This documentary about Americans’ love of bowling traces our fascination through the sport’s glory decades and eventual decline to its recent revival.
Ballet Austin: The Start of Something BIG
A big new production, a Big Apple debut, and big gifts to support its big new dance center downtown may make this the biggest season yet for Ballet Austin
ACL Music Fest Live Shots
The DoubleZilker Park, Sept. 23 Taking the place of the Ditty Bops, the Double were good sports about playing the dreaded noon slot. The NYC quartet’s most recent Matador release, Loose in the Air, borrows from kin like Interpol – singer David Greenhill’s eerily similar voice – yet takes that act’s jangly sound and fills…
ACL Music Fest Live Shots
The Dirty Dozen Brass BandZilker Park, Sept. 24 Would the Dirty Dozen Brass Band eulogize its New Orleans birthplace the way it did its original tuba player Anthony Lacen on last year’s Funeral for a Friend? The expectation for a transcendent set certainly worked itself into a frenzy as lifelong second-liners and weekend tourists alike…
The NCLB Game: If You Don’t Make ‘Average Yearly Progress’
Under the 4-year-old federal No Child Left Behind act, a school that does not make “adequate yearly progress” (AYP) in the same area – reading or math test scores, graduation rate, and/or attendance – for two consecutive years goes into a process called school improvement. Every year that schools don’t meet AYP targets, they move…
Three-Eyed Fish Alert! Texas No. 1 in Power Plant, Mercury Emissions
Toxin linked to birth defects
Dil Jo Bhi Kahey
This new Bollywood film is a cross-cultural love story set in Mauritius.
Arts Review
From Deborah Hay’s dance ‘The Match,’ the Rude Mechanicals pull ‘Match-Play,’ a hilarious, intellectually striking bit of absurdity with the feel of ‘The Real World’ as conceived by Eugene Ionesco
ACL Music Fest Live Shots
Monte WardenZilker Park, Sept. 23 It’s unfortunate Monte Warden chooses to perform in public so infrequently. In the past several years, the local songwriter has perfected his craft, George Strait taking his co-write with Bruce Robison, “Desperately,” to No. 1 on the country charts. With unshakable backing by Lisa Pankratz on drums, Brad Fordham on…
ACL Music Fest Live Shots
Zap MamaZilker Park, Sept. 24 The shade of the Capital Metro stage was no match for the heat of Zap Mama. On ACL’s second twilight, starting late, this Earth-mother-led Afropop quintet dropped postcolonial funk for a sweltering hour. Mysterious as they were in their black sunglasses, the three lead singers, fronted by Marie Daulne’s silky…
The Bus Stops Here: Cap Metro
One-day strike ratchets up tensions between transit agency and union
Weed Watch: Meddling Federal Lawmakers Share Blame in Senseless Medi-Pot Death
Barr and co. prevented D.C. voters from enacting law
Into the Blue
There’s a crisp little thriller anchored in this movie about pretty people wearing skimpy swimwear in a beautiful locale.
Arts Review
Song From the Sea Dougherty Arts Center Theatre, through Oct. 9 This year marks the 15th season for Second Youth Family Theatre. All of the original company members, such as recently departed Artistic Director Rick Smith, are gone, leaving behind a company that’s testing some new waters in theatre for young people. One example of…
ACL Music Fest Live Shots
Dios (Malos)Zilker Park, Sept. 23 Following in the footsteps of recent forebears like Pavement and Weezer, Hawthorne, Calif.’s Dios (Malos) play low-key indie-pop girded with melodic subtleties likely to draw Beach Boys comparisons simply because of their shared birthplace. Their new, self-titled album on StarTime International is full of sweetly melancholic left turns, but translating…
ACL Music Fest Live Shots
Roky Erickson & the ExplosivesZilker Park, Sept. 24 After months of buildup, it’s exhilarating to report that Roky Erickson & the Explosives unequivocally exceeded all expectations at their ACL performance Saturday night. This was Erickson’s first full concert in almost two decades and most likely the largest crowd the Texas psychedelic music legend had ever…
Katrina Aftermath Radio: A Brief, Dysfunctional Life
Attempts to set up a low-power FM for Astrodome residents killed by bureaucracy
Point Austin: Getting Bonded
Making the wish list was the easy part …
A History of Violence
Cronenberg’s new horror film implicitly tackles the old question of nature vs. nurture: What are we born with and what do we acquire from our environment?
Luv Doc Recommends: Texas Freedom Network’s 10 Years for Texas Gala
Democracy is a bit of a sticky wicket. On the one hand you have the fundamental philosophical precept that all men are created equal, and on the other you have the mountains of empirical data that argue exactly the opposite. In fact, the idea that all men are created equal is a completely asinine assumption,…
