Also Playing
Friday: Impotent Sea Snakes, Myra Manes, Blort!, Emo’s; MC Overlord, Steamboat Saturday: One Destiny, Flamingo Cantina Sunday: Sixteen Deluxe, Charlie’s Angels, Hamicks, Superego, Hole in the Wall Monday: Scabs, Steamboat Tuesday: Marvel Anne, Swirlitbox, Twin Freaks, The Family, Electric Lounge Wednesday: Sharecroppers, Jovita’s Thursday: Gatemouth Brown, Antone’s
Public Notice
The Power to Heal, to Rule Two superpowers of charity are deep into the new fall season, with major fundraisers: * The September Serenade — An Evening at the Paramount With Christine Albert & Friends is next Sun, Sep 15, 6:30-8:30pm and will benefit the programs of the Austin Rape Crisis Center. After the evening’s…
Chronicle Sues OPIC
On Wednesday, Sept. 4, The Austin Chronicle filed suit against the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC). The move was the latest action taken by this paper in an effort to obtain records, photos, and other documents from the federal agency which last October cancelled its $100 million political risk insurance policy on Freeport-McMoran Copper &…
Pushing Priorities
Sure, there are some tense moments during every councilmember’s career, but this week probably topped them all — budget negotiations were in full swing this Wednesday, Sept. 4 — and as we go to press, to the victor go the spoils of voter appreciation. Every councilmember came to the table today with a wish list…
Model Policing
If you frequent East- side establishments like Ben’s Barbecue down on East 11th, you may have noticed a certain middle-aged man chatting up the owners so naturally he seems part of the decor. If he’s got a walkie-talkie and he’s packin’ heat, he should be Ricky Davis, neighborhood police officer and an elusive bird indeed.…
Lessons in the Dust
Rain is a brain eraser, and a drought freezes time. This is what I’ve learned from the weather of ’96. This dry summer stretched on like an undeserved prison sentence. The days crawled by as we watched the sky and the Weather Channel for rain as anxiously as an inmate on death row watches the…
In Memoriam
An Austin artist whose work spanned the communities of dance and design, theatre and art, has died. Michael Jay Ciasullo, also known as Michael Carroccio, died Monday, September 2, at the age of 40. Ciasullo moved to the city in 1975 to study art and dance at UT Austin and over the next two decades…
Off the Desk:
For the past month, former city councilmember Brigid Shea has been putting her communication skills to the test as the state co-director of Texas Citizen Action, a consumer watchdog group that promises an in-your-face campaign to bring utility issues to the forefront on two counts: The business of restructuring utilities and the politics of cleaning…
Three Faces of Steve
If you ever need a case study in multiple personalities, talk to an actor. Your average thespian has at least a dozen folks swirling under his or her skin. Each is distinct, with its own pattern of thought, emotional makeup, background; each talks in its own way, walks in its own way, smiles, sighs, and…
Anatomy of a Drowning
As befits a house of worship, the Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church, off the stub of Pleasant Valley Road that runs south of William Cannon, sits on a hill. This is a good thing, since, according to city and federal authorities, everything below it is fixin’ to wash away. On a rainy Saturday morning two weeks…
Visions With Animals
Melissa Miller In Melissa Miller’s world, blind dogs have visions and monkeys clown around on stilts, and I like it. This Austin artist’s vibrant narrative paintings make me want to climb onto the canvas so I, too, can frolic with dancing bears. Okay, maybe I’m getting a little carried away, but that’s easy to do…
Fall Movie Round-Up
BOGUS An orphaned boy who lives with a busy foster mom played by Whoopi Goldberg has an imaginary friend named Bogus, played by Gerard Depardieu, in this Norman Jewison film. (Sept. 6)… MAXIMUM RISK Jean-Claude Van Damme plays twins, again (remember Double Impact?) in this action-adventure directed by Hong Kong legend Ringo Lam (City on…
A-B-C-Gastronomy
God of the Foods by Virginia B. Wood The Solace of Food: A Life of James Beard by Robert Clark, foreword by Julia Child Steerforth Press, $16, paper Seattle food writer Robert Clark selected the perfect biographical subject to illuminate the history of 20th-century American gastronomy in the late James Beard (1903-1985). Clark has written…
Closeted Curriculum
Rather than face more relentless taunting for another year, an overweight, 12-year-old Florida boy instead hanged himself last week. In blame-the-victim fashion, news reports pronounced that the boy had been “sensitive to teasing from other kids at school.” But if the school atmosphere permitted the tormenting of that boy, it’s safe to say that plenty…
Let’s Talk Positive
Women who test positive for HIV infection fear loss of control over their lives, possible loss of their children and housing and the ultimate loss of social supports. For this reason, many women who are tested and who test HIV-antibody positive, keep the information secret. Women who are infected tend to isolate themselves and often…
The Doom Generation
D: Gregg Araki; with James Duval, Rose McGowan, Jonathan Schaech, Cress Williams, Skinny Puppy, Christopher Knight, Perry Farrell, Parker Posey, Heidi Fleiss, Lauren Tewes, Amanda Bearse, Dustin Nguyen. VHS Home Video Waterloo Video, 1016 W. Sixth A self-proclaimed “pioneer of queer new wave cinema,” director Araki informs us right away of this movie’s heterosexual status,…
Cottage Please
Is there any beauty as satisfying as that of a small home skillfully conceived and executed? — Small Homes of Architectural Distinction, 1929 “Cottage” may be the most abused word in the language of real estate. I’ve seen cinderblock shoe boxes, tract homes whose two-car garages jut out prominently like bad teeth, and sagging structures…
A Half-Life at the Movies
It began in earnest around age 10 or so, when my parents dropped me off at the local YMCA so that I could swim, play Ping-Pong, and generally hang with my peers. We were just average, middle-class boys who wanted to grow up to be solid citizens and enjoy the right and privilege of voting…
Sat 7
Circle of Friends: A Celebration of Women in the Arts to benefit University YWCA, at Fiesta Gardens East, 2101 Bergman, 2-10pm. Cost is $10. 326-1222. Bill Oliver, Danny Dolinger, and Buck 49 perform to benefit Hill Country Wild, at Pato’s Tacos, 1400 E. 381/2 St., 8pm. Cost is $3-$5 (sliding scale). 477-0956. TUE 10 Frida’s…
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Liberace is credited with coining the term “crying all the way to the bank.” When Anna Gans died at 94, she had been housemother for Sigma Beta chapter of Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity at Ohio State for over 50 years — the “senior housemother” in the U.S. Maureen McCormick (“Marcia” of The Brady Bunch) was…
34th Street Cafe
1005 West 34th St., 371-3400 Mon-Fri 11am-6pm; Sat 11am-4pm 34th Street Cafe’s cool yellow walls, classical music, black-and-white photos, and white-clothed tables contrast oddly with the restaurant’s plastic dishes (an ecological no-no) and casual counter service. But instead of clashing, the divergent styles marry well, making the cafe the perfect setting for a quick, informal…
Coach’s Corner
Ex-jocks, the late Howard Cosell properly observed, more common on the airways than the cockroach, make the worst kind of announcers. Part of the sport’s fraternity, they’re quick to gloss over obvious mistakes by players, pontificate ad nauseam on the obvious, and are generally a few filaments shy of a lightbulb in their analysis. Sunday,…
Pearl’s Oyster Bar
9033 Hwy183, 339-7444 Daily from 11am-2am When a restaurant advertises Louisiana Cajun and Creole cuisine served with live jazz and French Quarter cocktails, certain images spring to mind with expectations to match: quaint, colorful decor; rich and spicy food, potent drinks, and lively music. On a recent visit, ten-year Austin institution Pearl’s Oyster Bar only…
Day Trips
At Hawkwood Fantasy Faire the entertainers will do almost anything to ensure that you have a good time, including playing with fire. Step onto the fairgrounds nine miles north of Fort Worth and you enter a land of knights, minstrels, merchants, and an assortment of elves and fairies. Shaded from the sun by a thick…
Dining at Dusk
Shoreline Grill 98 San Jacinto, 477-3300 Lunch: Mon-Fri, 11am-5pm; Dinner: Mon-Thu, 5-10pm; Fri & Sat til 10:30pm When people ask me to recommend a restaurant with a good view of the lake where it’s possible to watch our famous local bat colony depart in search of their evening mosquitos, I’m always quick to send them…
Page Two
This issue’s cover is a bit of an inside joke. Fifteen years ago this past summer a small group of us got together and put out a prototype issue for a paper we planned to start publishing that fall. We had decided to call it The Austin Chronicle, though we had considered dozens of names,…
Experience the C.H.A.R.M.?
On the city’s letterhead and bumper stickers, Austin is the “Live Music Capital of the World.” But what if we were merely charming instead? When word leaked out this past March that city planners were considering changing Austin’s official slogan to “Experience the C.H.A.R.M. [Culture, Heritage, Arts, Recreation, and Music] of Austin,” local clubowners, musicians,…
Music Reviews
ROBYN HITCHCOCK Moss Elixir (Warner Bros.) If Robyn Hitchcock ever runs out of musical ideas he can probably get a job teaching English in a parallel universe, where all our rules of grammar apply but uttering borderline gibberish is perfectly acceptable. Hitchcock’s knack for rhyme occasionally accommodates the stream of consciousness on planet Robyn, though.…
