Labyrinth
In this imaginative Jim Henson film that mixes puppetry and live action, Connelly stars as a young girl who must navigate a perilous labyrinth to save her brother. Bowie is charismatic as the King of the Goblins.
Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
Indiana Jones, a dashing Saturday matinee idol for the modern age, is one of Spielberg and Ford’s best creations.
Au Hasard Balthazar
Au Hasard Balthazar 1966, NR, 95 min. Directed by Robert Bresson, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Anne Wiazemsky, François Lafarge, Philippe Asselin. This is an amazing allegorical study of the life and death of a donkey named Balthazar, whose nasty, brutish life as a slave parallels that of a young farm girl.
Mouchette
Mouchette 1967, NR, 80 min. Directed by Robert Bresson, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Nadine Nortier, Jean-Claude Guilbert, Maria Cardinal. Based on the Georges Bernarnos novel, Mouchette tells the grim story of a 14-year-old girl born to an alcoholic father and a dying mother. After leaving the confines of her stifling home, Mouchette…
Record Reviews
Flaco JimenezSleepytown (Back Porch) Sleepytown follows the path taken by other releases by Flaco Jimenez, meaning it features guest stars of all stripes and is musically varied. Unfortunately, on Sleepytown one gets the sense that Jimenez was more a spectator/sideman than on previous efforts. Starting with a “A Little Drink, a Little Dance,” a bluesy…
Ozone of His Own
Texas environmentalists wonder when George W. Bush will face up to the consequences of killing the Tejas emissions-reduction program.
Video Reviews
The Straight StoryD: David Lynch (1999); with Richard Farnsworth, Sissy Spacek, Harry Dean Stanton, Everett McGill. Perhaps the strangest Lynch effort yet. But not because of surreal characters, darkened souls, or horrific mysteries. What Lynch goes for here is a brilliant odyssey across America’s heartland using the region’s most prized vehicle, a John Deere riding…
Off the Bookshelf
Contempt of Court The Turn of the Century Lynching That Launched a Hundred Years of Federalism by Mark Curriden and Leroy Phillips Jr. Faber & Faber, 394 pp., $30 On January 23, 1906, Nevada Taylor, the 21-year-old beautiful blond daughter of a cemetery groundskeeper in Chattanooga, was brutally raped on her way home from her…
Dancing About Architecture
Is the Return of Wayne Douglas on the way? Bob Schneider gets a solo record deal.
Record Reviews
The Horton BrothersHeave Ho! (Texas Jamboree) Los Hermanos Horton bust out a 14-song rockabilly fest on their sophomore full-length for Texas Jamboree, pulling in respected local talent like Lisa Pankratz, Dave Biller, and T. Jarrod Bonta to help round things out. The Horton harmonies often lean towards Don and Phil Everly territory, and their songs…
Ozone Daze
Number of days in which ozone standards were exceeded. For each city, the left figure represents 1990-94; the right figure represents 1995-99.sources: EPA, tnrcc, environmental working group, environmental defense fund, council of state governments, public citizen, sustainable energy & economy development coalition, sierra club, clean air task force, abt associates
TV Eye
Memories of the Jerry Lewis telethon. Also, upcoming KLRU programming for September, Hispanic Heritage Month
Local Bestsellers
Local bestsellers are based on recent sales at Austin bookstores selected to reflect varied reading interests.
Record Reviews
Barbara LynnHot Night Tonight (Antone’s) Barbara Lynn may never again reach No.1 as she did in 1962 with “You’ll Lose a Good Thing,” but in Hot Night Tonight, the southpaw guitarist from the Gulf Coast has recorded a much-needed album of sultry soul and bluesy ballads. As “Good Thing” proved nearly three decades ago, the…
Record Reviews
Little Jack Melody & His Young TurksLive — Noise and Smoke (Kilroy) Mostly due to their geographical origins in Denton, Little Jack Melody started out with the rep of being something of a “Little Brave Combo,” but it soon became obvious they preferred to tread the less sunny side of the street. This recent live…
Karl Rove’s Quick Count
As the presidential race tightens, the Bush campaign doesn’t seem to be worried.
Life’s Enriched Pageant
Good design, like good air, helps you breathe a little easier, and here are a few Austinites who are helping us all breathe easier through their work as graphic designers.
Page Two
Rather than legislating by principal and vision, the influences on Bush are special interests, short-term voter response, and accident.
Record Reviews
Cliff’s Picks(Antone’s) Antone’s Records has been chronicling its style of Texas blues for 15 years now, and though recent tough times have curtailed the local label’s output, along comes Cliff’s Picks as a sort of celebration of its “new” life. Fourteen tracks from the label’s past, hand-picked by label founder Clifford Antone, along with a…
Record Reviews
Sexy Finger ChampsTrash Hits the Rock Kerri Atwood wants to be a “Japanese animated liberated superhero cartoon girl,” but her band Sexy Finger Champs couldn’t be more animated if they were drawn by Chuck Jones. Still, this is no Josie & the Pussycats or Banana Splits here; it’s more like L7’s long-overdue South Park guest…
Southern Exposure
One sweltering afternoon a couple of weeks ago, three South Austin neighbors — Hugh Moore and Mike and Annabelle Torrez — made their way through a tangle of brushy scrub, past a few old tires, a rusted car frame, and a cactus plant blooming defiantly under a merciless sun. They came to a stop at…
Articulations
Director Don Toner makes his exit from the State Theater Company, and Austin creeps back into the pages of American Theatre magazine.
Public Notice
Public Notice asks not what it can do for its community but what you can. This week features a list of Austin area Volunteer opportunities.
Record Reviews
Darden SmithExtra Extra Darden Smith Sings Twelve Songs by Heart (VE) Despite its banner headline, Extra Extra Darden Smith Sings Twelve Songs by Heart, there’s no new news on the Austin singer-songwriter’s first release in four years. And you know what they say: No news is good news. Particularly on a de facto greatest-hits package…
Record Reviews
The Futants(Aerosol) Anyone who grew up listening to radio in the Seventies remembers the mellowtone, Rhodes piano-driven aura of progressive jazz and the cool uncle types who played it in the background at their bachelor pads to trick girls into thinking they were with the program. Now imagine a band overlaying this sound with mood-killing…
The Hightower Lowdown
This is the Chronicle debut of a weekly column written by Austin political commentator, author, and radio talk show agitator Jim Hightower (jimhightower.com). It’s the paranoid’s worst fear. They really are watching you. We’ve learned in recent years that privacy is passé in practically every aspect of our lives, as corporate and governmental snoops track…
Exhibitionism
With Lipstick Traces, the Rude Mechanicals have adeptly created a theatrical adaptation of Greil Marcus’ legendary book that is loud, defiant, intelligent, funny, absurd, literate, physical, and fun, a rock concert for your head.
After a Fashion
Slightly shopworn but still vital and acerbic fashion authority available for hire …
Nurse Betty
Nurse Betty 2000, R, 112 min. Directed by Neil LaBute, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Renée Zellweger, Morgan Freeman, Chris Rock, Greg Kinnear, Aaron Eckhart, Crispin Glover, Elizabeth Mitchell. Betty Sizemore is a delightful cinematic creation. She pours coffee without looking, gets misty thinking about a Buick LeSabre, and when one character tells…
Record Reviews
Richard W. CooperBright Ideas for a Better Tomorrow (Quark Nugget) Clever titles on instrumentals are a double-edged sword. Sure, it’s amusing to pick up a CD and read off names like “Vicka’s House of Plastic,” “Dance of the Geminids,” and “Jackalopes in the Yard,” but odds are, you’re gonna have some preconceived notion of what…
Naked City
It could be that the 20 reporters who showed up at the Governor’s Mansion on the Sunday before Labor Day saw the only presidential debates that will occur this year; Hyde Park Baptist Church seems intent on moving “Forward Forever”; The light-rail train ride to the polls continues to build steam.
Exhibitionism
In the State Theater Company production of Martin McDonagh’s The Beauty Queen of Leenane, director Don Toner and a strong acting ensemble strikingly evoke a world of brutal feuds and long memories, where an unending series of bitter skirmishes between mother and daughter ends in tragedy.
Mr. Smarty Pants
Lessons in underused geometric shapes.
The Eyes of Tammy Faye
The Eyes of Tammy Faye 2000, PG-13, 79 min. Directed by Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato, Narrated by Rupaul Charles, Voices by , Starring . After the holocaust, three things will remain, says Tammy Faye Bakker Messner’s most recent TV co-host, gay comedian JM J. Bullock: Roaches, Cher, and Tammy Faye. The well-documented public life of…
Record Reviews
Jeff Hellmer TrioPeak Moments (Viewpoint) Austin still may not yet be renowned for its jazz scene, but the few jazz albums that do come out of our fair city each year tend to be substantive, noteworthy projects. A case in point is this rock solid date from pianist and UT jazz professor, Jeff Hellmer. When…
Naked City
As the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission undergoes Sunset review, a new report details a host of citizen concerns about the agency’s complaint review process.
Exhibitionism
With Elytra, the artists of the Vortex Repertory Company and Ethos achieve a new level in integrating cyber-opera style and story.
Coach’s Corner
Coach picks the AFC’s winners and losers for the upcoming football season. And, as promising as the Longhorn football team looks, don’t get carried away just yet.
The Way of the Gun
The Way of the Gun 2000, R, 119 min. Directed by Christopher Mcquarrie, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Geoffrey Lewis, Kristin Lehman, Dylan Kussman, James Caan, Scott Wilson, Nicky Katt, Taye Diggs, Juliette Lewis, Benicio Del Toro, Ryan Phillippe. It should be obvious that a movie called The Way of the Gun is…
Record Reviews
Monroe MustangDe Avonden 091099 (JagJaguwar) It’s bad enough these five local shoegazers rarely play “The Live Music Capital of the World.” With their latest release recorded live-to-DAT at Dutch Public Radio’s De Avonden studios last year (10/09/99), they add insult to injury by traveling all the way to the Netherlands to make their sweetest sounds…
Naked City
Waco special counsel John C. Danforth has announced plans to indict former federal prosecutor Bill Johnston.
Graphically Speaking
People in the publishing industry call them “funny books.” We call them graphic novels, and they’re “funny” in quite a few ways.
Day Trips
The summer drought is making historical Indian sites throughout Texas more accesible to archaeologists … and to looters.
Equinox Knocks
Equinox Knocks 1999, NR, 111 min. Directed by Fran Rzeznik, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Sean Corrigan, Amber Lea Voiles, Katherine James, Debra Cassidy, Guilford Adams. What if you went to bed one night as a 17-year-old girl and woke up the next day with morning wood and whiskers? That’s the question posed…
Record Reviews
Omar & the HowlersThe Screamin’ Cat (Provogue) The latest from Austin blues stalwarts Omar & the Howlers comes from Provogue, a Dutch label whose motto is “Where Blues Meets Rock.” That’s a fitting tag for the Howlers, whose songs wouldn’t necessarily reside in the gutbucket end of the blues spectrum, yet fit squarely in the…
Naked City
Architect Juan Miro proposes a new plan for the CSC-City Hall complex that’s so simple and obvious, it’s striking.
The Past Has Never Been Better for Chris Ware
A few facts about Chris Ware: He’s 33 years old. He lives in Chicago. He attended the University of Texas at Austin in the mid-Eighties and the School of Art at the Institute of Chicago after that. He’s a cartoonist by design, or maybe a designer of cartoons, and his first hardcover collection — Jimmy…
About AIDS
Genetically modified Salmonella bacteria look promising as an HIV vaccine.
Catfish in Black Bean Sauce
Catfish in Black Bean Sauce 2000, PG-13, 111 min. Directed by Chi Muoi Lo, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Tyler Christopher, Sanaa Lathan, Kieu Chinh, Lauren Tom, Mary Alice, Paul Winfield, Chi Muoi Lo. All of us are strands of noodles in one big bowl of pho. That’s a bit simplistic, but it…
Record Reviews
Philo(Hamsterwheel) “Philo! Philo!” cackled the parrot. Bassist Junior Scott’s bird had become the obvious answer to the band’s name dilemma, but after deciding to dub themselves after their verbose feathered friend, local trio Philo determined never to repeat themselves again. An impressively diverse palette of songs and sounds that run the gamut from heavy modern…
Naked City
The city makes plans to reduce ground-level ozone in order to comply with an EPA-mandated cleanup schedule.
Has Daniel Clowes Really Grown Up?
It’s tempting to call cartoonist Daniel Clowes a chameleon, except for one problem. Though the Berkeley-based writer/artist’s comic book Eightball may feature cheap Archie-like gag pages, autobiographical meanderings, tales of twisted adventure, or dips into a number of other genres, it doesn’t really blend in with anything else on the racks. No less a source…
A Texan Does Toscana
While it’s obvious that hours of work making stocks, sauces, marinades, and custards go into the production of every meal at Siena, the end result is an array of hearty and robust peasant dishes elegant in their simplicity and true to their heritage.
Highlander: Endgame
Highlander: Endgame 2000, R, 85 min. Directed by Doug Aarniokoski, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Christopher Lambert, Lisa Barbuscia, Bruce Payne, Adrian Paul, Donnie Yen. Strike the set, box up those bloody latex noggins and sheath those deep-drinking medieval broadswords. The most improbably successful fantasy adventure franchise in movie/TV history is shutting down…
Record Reviews
SteamrollerFull Throttle (Matchbox) Summer. Hot days, breezy nights. Heated hunks and cool ladies. Outdoor parties, and the tunes to go with it: fun, upbeat, and sensual. The type of music made by admitted Rush/Led Zep/Beasties fans Steamroller. So much so in fact, that you can almost smell the suntan lotion as you open the CD…
Criminal Conversation
How Christopher McQuarrie, the writer of The Usual Suspects and the director of the upcoming The Way of the Gun, learned to say no.
Judge Chip Kidd by His Covers
Nobody in the book trade believes that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. Publishers spend a lot of money hoping that’s exactly what you will do. And some of that money is spent on Chip Kidd, who is the closest thing there is to a rock star in the rarefied world of high-end…
Siena Wine
What to drink at Siena.
The Tao of Steve
Easygoing romantic comedy about an unlikely ladies’ man.
Record Reviews
Ignorance ParkBad Luck — Or the Plan? (Mortville) It’s been said many times that the best rock & roll is that which makes you want to fuck or fight. Lose those angry hormonal urges making you look dumb and suddenly it’s real hard to justify flogging around a sentiment like “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction.”…
Screens Feature
Nicky Katt: Low-Rent Warren Oates? Actor Nicky Katt, who has a central role in The Way of the Gun as one of the story’s flinty bodyguards (along with Taye Diggs) and who visited town for the film’s benefit premiere last month, is hardly a newcomer to Austin. The actor spent time here during the Nineties…
Postscripts
Upcoming events in September.
Food-o-File
Anthony Bourdain is a hot literary dish, Rosa Salas, whose salsa was a huge hit at the recent Chronicle Hot Sauce Festival, is already serving her concoction at a local restaurant, and the details on learning how the ancients ate.
Whipped
Whipped 2000, R, 82 min. Directed by Peter M. Cohen, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Callie Thorne, Judah Domke, Zorie Barber, Jonathan Abrahams, Brian Van Holt, Amanda Peet. Whipped is very much a man’s movie. Not just any man, but the frat boy, “lay-’em-and-leave-’em” type man whose vocabulary doesn’t include big words like…
Record Reviews
The BulemicsTalk Dirty to Me (Twenty Stone Blatt) They say that profanity is the linguistic crutch of the goddamn inarticulate motherfucker. Well, Austin’s Bulemics snarf down huge quantities of dirty, nasty sex, digest it, and projectile-vomit up piss and vinegar on this latest disc. The Bulemics still had guitarist Gable in the band’s lineup at…
Rush Hour
Todd Phillips’ Frat House, screening at the Alamo this Wednesday as part of the Texas Documentary Tour, asks the question: Will you ever dick a brother?
Graphic Novel Reviews
Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer: The Beauty Supply District by Ben Katchor Pantheon, 116 pp., $22 Before you ever hit a strip in this new collection of offbeat tales featuring Ben Katchor’s off-the-beaten-track shutterbug Julius Knipl, you’ll come across a drawing spread across several pages, a long ink rendering of an urban district at street…
Mini-Review
The Mindful Cook: Finding Awareness, Simplicity, and Freedom in the Kitchen by Isaac Cronin Villard, 224 pp., $19.95 Here’s one little book with the power to completely and permanently transform the way you cook and think about food, share meals, and even eat. In fact, The Mindful Cook might even change who you are. “Yeah,…
Second Helpings: Smoothies
Cuisines writer Lorne Opler scouts out Austin’s best smoothies.
Record Reviews
HobbleBlackmassking (Action Rock) Young, sweaty, and pissed off. “The bullet went through my brain, but I’m still the same.” Ouch. If you’re going to run around screaming lyrics like that, it helps to have a band that kicks ass. Hobble does, and they’re brief, too; out of 13 songs on their debut Blackmassking, exactly three…
Short Cuts
JEAN-PAUL BELMONDO, IN BREATHLESS, IN THE FINAL SCENE DEPT.: “What?!” I hear you say. That’s what I look like right now. Exactly. And yeah, that’s how I’m walking, too, so no comments from the peanut gallery, if you please. La Nouvelle Vague, that’s me. Actually, as I mentioned in last week’s column, I’m recuperating from…
Graphic Novel Reviews
Jetlag: Five Graphic Novellas Actus Tragicus $14.50 (paper) Yirmi Pinkus and Rutu Modan founded hip Israeli comics collective Actus Tragicus after the tragic crash-and-burn of their 1994 project: an Israeli edition of MAD magazine. Since then, several other leading Israeli comic artists have joined their ranks, and in five years of commune-style comic production, the…
ClickBeetleMania
Bug-nut Wayne Alan Brenner goes coo-coo for click beetles!
Record Reviews
Ten SpeedThe Beanhouse (ATP Music) For drinking songs or songs about drinking, there are much better to be found than what’s on The Beanhouse. Austin’s short-lived Schlitz Quarts come to mind. The Gear Daddies are another chart topper in this category, though Ten Speed’s “I Saw My Reflection” is worth a page in the archives…
Record Reviews
King’s XPlease Come Home … Mr. Bulbous (Metal Blade) King’s X has long been respected for their adventurously composed power trio songs, many of which deal with spiritual maelstroms, but always from an open, human perspective, not a dogmatic fortress. More Last Temptation of Christ and less Sunday church finger-waving. And let’s not forget the…
Video Reviews
(“Video Reviews” wishes to thank Blockbuster Movies & Video, Encore Movies & Music, I Luv Video, Vulcan Video, and Waterloo Video for their help in providing videos, laser discs, and DVDs.)Race With the DevilD: Jack Starrett (1975); with Warren Oates, Peter Fonda, Loretta Swit, Lara Parker. This prime slice of Seventies drive-in cheese might as…
Off the Bookshelf
When I Was Five I Killed Myself by Howard Buten Overlook Press, 191 pp., $23.95 The more you learn about novelist Howard Buten, the more clear it becomes that somehow, there is an active child mulling about in his head. He prides himself on writing his first epic novel at the age of 11, he…
I Am Hiphop
One of the hiphop elders delivers a sermon.
Record Reviews
Kevin FowlerBeer, Bait, and Ammo Beer, Bait, and Ammo — you ask me, they’ve got it all. Unreconstructed Austin honky-tonker Kevin Fowler hits all the right chords and twangs on all the right strings on this CD. He even takes on a Western swing groove on “Butterbean” (not written about the king-sized boxer/wrestler, by the…
7&7 Is
…all there’s been in forever. Considering pressing 45s is now more expensive than stamping out CDs, the trickle of local vinyl both big and small has slowed to draught proportions. Not doing the collapse is Austin’s Peek-a-Boo Industries, who continue to kick the shins of Big Brother by eschewing major-label million-sellers for DIY college radio…
Video Reviews
Rubin and Ed D: Trent Harris (1991); with Crispin Glover, Howard Hesseman, Karen Black It’s odd that writer/director Trent Harris has maintained a low profile since making this film. This early-Nineties nugget was somewhat ahead of its time in terms of eccentricity and style. It’s a buddy movie of sorts about two guys who head…
Off the Bookshelf
The Green Suitby Dwight Allen Algonquin Books, 288 pp., $22.95 Dwight Allen’s first book, The Green Suit, is more of a collection of stories than a novel (eight of the 11 chapters were published in literary journals) and, unfortunately, the main character, Peter Sackrider, is a sad sack, arguably not worth pursuing through an entire…
Local Flow
Austin hip-hop in the house — really
