Cover Story
Turning Tricks With The Amazing Ray
With nothing up his sleeve, Esther’s Follies resident magic man Ray Anderson pulls wonder — and laughter — out of thin air.
After a Fashion
What’s the scoop behind the Vylette split? Why didn’t Stephen go to the Warhol opening? And where should you eat this week? Peel slowly and see!
A Tree Dies in Travis Heights
When a work crew showed up the afternoon of Aug. 18 and uprooted a lovely, old live oak tree in Travis Heights, the neighbors looked on in anguish. One woman said it was like witnessing a murder. Another resident called City Hall to register her dismay. Another grabbed her camera. The death of the tree…
Good Grades or Good Reviews?
It’s official: With the launch of the UT Film Institute, Austin is now the filmiest place in America this side of a Houston windshield in August, barring heavy hitter Hollywood, of course.
Second Helpings
“Second Helpings” offers tasty, bite-sized restaurant listings compiled from new and previous reviews, guides, and poll results. This week’s entries were updated by Erin Mosow. For quick, reliable info about Austin eateries, check here. B.D. Riley’s 204 E. Sixth, 494-1335 Monday-Wednesday, 4pm-2am; Thursday-Sunday, 11:30am-2am B.D. Riley’s is a subtly elegant place with a real Irish…
Letters at 3AM
Americans are paying the price for lies about Iraq told by their leaders.
Full Ballot Language With Extended Endorsements
In case you’re wondering, since the Texas Constitution was first enacted in 1876, voters have approved 410 amendments. That’s averaging a little more than six per biennium, so this year’s proposed list of 22 is more than usually cumbersome. The Chronicle editorial board (an extremely informal institutional fiction) traditionally takes a dim view of the…
Short Cuts
The Austin film community activates its turbo boosters.
TCB
All the hip-hop that fits in ATX.
The Sultan of Scotch
Michael Parker’s passion is the whiskey of Scotland. You can see that passion the minute you walk upstairs at Opal Divine’s Freehouse, the delightful bar and restaurant he owns with Ms. Divine’s granddaughter — who is also his wife, Susan — where they stock 56 whiskeys at the second-floor bar. Not only that, but Michael…
Naked City
HeadlinesQuote of the Week: “So, this cloud that you bring forward, I want to say that this cloud is almost mythical in nature. You would have to believe that Chief Watson, acting Chief Bruce Mills, and myself ignored police corruption, if you are to believe there is sufficient evidence to connect police officers to wrongdoing.”…
Whose Pancho Villa?
Well-meaning white guys. Who needs ’em?
Scot’s Whiskey
My three favorite brands of single-malt whiskey are from Islay: Ardbeg, Bowmore, and Laphroaig. There are only four others (Bruichladdich, Caol Ila, Bunnahabhain, and Lagavulin) made on the island. Islay whiskeys are the strongest and most intense made. Many people who like single malts find the Islay versions too powerful. Almost all blended Scotch whiskies…
Naked City
Industrial air pollution will become “routine” as President Bush guts the Clean Air Act
DVD Watch
When it comes to Alain Resnais’ Hiroshima Mon Amour, “such a film about the darker side of love, much like the darker side of war, should not be ignored,” writes Eli Kooris.
Sharpening the Claw
“Tonight I would like to tell you the story of George, the world’s second greatest magician. It was the year 1927, the time of the first automobiles and the great Harry Houdini. Houdini had just invented his infamous Water Torture Cell illusion and was touring the country to thunderous applause, and the rest of the…
Superior Wine and Fine Food for a Great Charity
This Monday, Sept. 8, from 6:30-9:30pm, at the InterContinental Stephen F. Austin hotel, the Texas Hill Country Wine & Food Foundation will be offering Austinites a bargain food-and-wine experience. They are calling it the Deluxe Tour of Five Continents of Fine Wine, and they’ll be covering 27 fairly expensive wines (up to $80 per bottle)…
Naked City
The Beast from Bentonville announces a third Southside Supercenter as the battle rages over the first two.
Geek Confidential: Echoes From the 21st Century
A stellar tour of cultural ephemera from Rick Klaw
A Pulsating Light From Brazil
Quasar, Brazil’s most celebrated modern-dance troupe, brings its ferocious athleticism to Austin to launch the UT Performing Arts Center’s new ArtesAméricas initiative spotlighting artists of Latin America.
Food-o-File
Virginia B. Wood demands the restoration of the Schlotzsky’s Original.
Naked City
The GOP primary season begins as the comptroller blasts the Lege’s fees and cuts
Articulations
This fall, one of the city’s most active and daring improv companies is calling it quits (or quilts, as their Web site has it): well hung jury is breaking up.
Jammin’
Jerry Garcia, bluegrass, and third generation jam — thriving in Austin and beyond.
Naked City
Parks advocates fear their part of the Palmer / Long Center complex will be postponed indefinitely
The Animation Show
Mike Judge and Don Hertzfeldt inaugurate a new annual series of animation collections.
Exhibitionism
The Gallery 106 exhibition “Sacrifice” features images and text painted in red wine by José Toirac that draws mythic connections between wine and blood and also asks us to reflect on mortality and death as it is paid for the freedom of others.
Phases and Stages
My Morning JacketIt Still Moves (ATO/RCA) Echo. Jimmy James’ reverb wail, Jimmy James’ nostalgic moan, Jimmy James’ lovelorn cry. Jimmy James’ bursting soul. Falling hopelessly in love with the Louisville, Ky., visionary is as simple as surrendering one’s virtue to Jeff Tweedy or Neil Young. Love at first swoon. Frontman/songwriter/producer James and his fellowship of…
Naked City
Asst. Police Chief Jimmy Chapman — now under investigation in the Mala Sangre mess — acknowledges he erred in another case.
Step Into Liquid
Surf’s up! It’s The Endless Summer: The Next Generation.
Exhibitionism
Director Blake Yelavich opens his production of K2 with an image that is theatrical in the extreme, powerful and breathtaking, but sadly his Arts Entertainment Group production has no thrills left after that, leaving the show to the mercies of Patrick Meyers’ long, tedious, sometimes silly script.
Phases and Stages
June Carter CashWildwood Flower (Dualtone) Thirteen songs. It’s hard to believe someone could boil down such a fruitful, joy-filled life into 13 songs, but such is June Carter Cash’s final recording, Wildwood Flower. This album serves as a placeholder for Cash, who passed away May 15, a reminder of the seminal role she played in…
Naked City
New draconian Texas welfare requirements get thwarted — for now — in court
Herod’s Law
Unflinching satire is diminished by overwritten messages.
News/Print
This editorial content is brought to you by the Steve Miller Band. And … I’m having job dreams.
Phases and Stages
Musicology 101 Were any major revelations to have appeared in the last few years about Stevie Ray Vaughan, Roadhouse Blues: Stevie Ray Vaughan and Texas R&B (Backbeat Books, 192 pp., $13.95) might be necessary. Instead, it’s a rehash by British author Hugh Gregory, taken largely from newspaper and magazine accounts and tagged with a smattering…
Capitol Chronicle
In the Bush era, Labor Day gives little cause for celebration
Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star
There’s something about the smarmy David Spade that brings out the worst impulses in a person.
Page Two
Harvey Pekar’s two Chronicle covers have been a rare, and deserved, exception to our 22-year focus on local news, culture, and events.
Phases and Stages
Groove ArmadaStubb’s, Aug. 29 Somewhere there’s a school where the DJs go to learn their trade. It’s probably on Ibiza, and it’s there, among the cavernous library of Seventies-era Sugar Hill 12-inches and beside the soccer pitch emblazoned with the MixMag logo, that they learn the single most integral component of DJ craft: how to…
Austin @ Large: Austin at Large
Development review gets flattened by budget steamroller
Ali G Indahouse
Unlike its televised predecessor, Ali G Indahouse just isn’t that funny.
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Iceland is 70% reliant on geothermal and hydroelectric power.Meteors do not burn up due to friction. Meteors actually vaporize due to something called ram pressure. Air in front of an incoming meteor is compressed and heated, like the air in a hand held tire pump.Bears like pumpernickel bread.Proposed names for new American states to be…
Phases and Stages
Neil Young & Crazy HorseGreendale (Reprise)Neil Young & Crazy HorseRe•ac•tor (Reprise)Neil YoungHawks & Doves (Reprise)Neil YoungAmerican Stars ‘n’ Bars (Reprise)Neil YoungOn the Beach (Reprise) Burnt … out … hippie. That’s what anyone under the age of 112 will mutter after jettisoning the audio portion of Greendale outta their Obstron (hard drive, iPod, whatever). Who cares…
Austin @ Large: Disclosure Review
I guess it just slipped folks’ minds, what with everything else going on, but Austin@Large had an eminently logical suggestion for process improvement in development review almost a year ago — in our Nov. 1, 2002, issue — and it seems even more timely now than it did then. And, Toby, you can have it…
The Secret Lives of Dentists
Alan Rudolph’s new movie offers a well-performed portrait of decency that’s much less sexy than its title.
Daytrips
Art, Texas, is more a state of mind than a place. Texas 29 between Llano and Mason is lined with a jungle of mesquite trees and prickly pear that is broken by occasional fields and pastures that tame the wild hills. In such a harsh environment, Art has managed to hang on for more than…
South for the Marijuana
The gringo travels to Mexico in search of weed and wisdom.
On the Lege
For the Senate Democrats, Labor Day was just another day (not) at the office.
To Your Health
Why can’t nutritionists make up their minds about whether fat is good for you or not?
More Bad Blood
Chief Knee announced an investigation into Jimmy Chapman’s testimony; it should probably start with Knee’s own testimony.
The Hightower Report
Bush leaves millions of children behind; and crazy John Poindexter gets tossed.
The Common Law
I’m renting an apartment and have eight more months left on the lease. I’m planning to travel over the next four months and want to rent the apartment to a friend while I’m gone. Do I have the right to rent the apartment to someone else?
City Budget Blues
The city budget battle moves toward an unanticipated quick conclusion.
What, Me Worry? Yes.
‘American Splendor’ is one of the most celebrated movies of the year, and everybody loves my comic again. But … I dunno.
About AIDS
Dine out Monday — and Help Out! Have a bite to eat with your friends, and at the same time help provide food, medical assistance, legal help, dental care, and other daily needs to people living with HIV/AIDS. What could be an easier way to support your community? Austin’s finest restaurants are gearing up for…
The Budget Scorecard
Development Review: Despite worries from neighborhood and environmental groups (and existing DR staff), the “faster and friendlier” downsizing at One Texas Center has solid council support. Fire Department: Squads and quints are dead, dead, dead. At least four council members — and the firefighters’ union — will cut a proposed 2% raise for firefighters instead…
‘Freshman Diaries’
The latest R.J. Cutler project (American High, The Real Roseanne) tells the story of 17 UT freshmen during the 2002-2003 school year.
Luv Doc Recommends: Keep Austin Weird 5K
Running – or for that matter performing any of the motions the body should be doing in order to ensure its survival even though they’re no longer really necessary to ensure survival – sounds like a good idea until the shoes hit the pavement, until you remember the theorem that states that a body at…
