Cover Story
Who’s Who
Team Spare Change: The Stack Two estranged siblings make their way through a fantastical world of a building with the assistance of a mysterious wanderer. The Stack draws from traditional musical theatre and contemporary electronica sounds to create a new approach to the art form. Thursday, Sept. 8 and 15, 8pmTeam Sonav: Nothing’s On You…
Oops!
Roxanne Jo Mitchell, not Roxanne Jo Hilburn, took the “Gold Star Salute” photo of Steve De Ford that appeared in “Naked City” last week.
Council Notes
Narrowing the drive through Town Lake Park has been studied to death … so let’s give it more study
Transporter 2
For all its gimmicky mayhem, Transporter 2 is an improvement over the original, completely setting aside such yawn-inducing cinematic standbys as a romantic interest and realism.
The Evidence of Silence Broken: Becoming Zell
How Zell Miller III came to be an acclaimed poet-performer is revealed in ‘The Evidence of Silence Broken,’ his hip-hop performance piece
Well Connected
Shalimar’s extensive menu shows the many influences of Pakistani-Indo fare
Smoking Ban Kicks Off as Katrina Kicks In
Cigarettes are out at Austin�s clubs, but New Orleans musicians could be in
A Sound of Thunder
Abandoning any pretense of respect for the Ray Bradbury source material, this film manhandles the author’s delicacies into a lumbering and bewildered mess of grade-Z sci-fi clichés.
Michael Frary: In Memoriam
Michael Frary, an influential Texas modernist, painter of Texas watercolors, and longtime UT-Austin art professor, has passed away at age 87
Tino’s Greek Cafe
The concept is genius, and there’s actually more there than meets the eye
Naked City
Headlines and happenings from Austin and beyond
Lila Says
Based on an eponymous 1996 erotic novel, Lila Says is the story of a French girl and an Arab boy who learns the difference between words and actions.
GlassTire: Stew Descending a Staircase
GlassTire, the online journal for all things visual artsy in Texas, has coerced assorted Austin arts organizations to stir up some serious chili this weekend
Liquid Assets
Great new reds for a weary wallet
Naked City
Hurricane Katrina stops comptroller’s mouth … for two days
2046
At once tremendously dense and gossamer-thin, this period romance/sci-fi hybrid from Hong Kong auteur Wong Kar-Wai is a riot of sight and sound that has an irresistible, elemental pull.
Gallery 3: Where the Students Hang
The University Co-op is sponsoring Gallery 3, a new visual arts exhibition space run by students, inside its building on the Drag
Food-o-File
Bidding farewell to the inimitable T.J. McFarland; plus, Foo Swasdee Thais up Texas
Naked City
Attempt to move from state to federal court rebuffed
Echoes of Innocence
Earnest and well-intentioned Dallas-based cast and crew have created a puzzling and inauthentic youth drama that promotes teenage sexual abstinence.
Arts Review
In Onstage Theatre Company’s ‘Twelfth Night,’ the frolicking gaiety generally gives way to choppier stage seas and constricted emotion
Naked City
President now has chance for two Supreme Court appointments
Arts Review
‘Organic’ shows new work by husband and wife artists Jennifer Chenoweth and Todd Campbell that is opulent and expansive
James McMurtry Reviewed
James McMurtryChildish Things (Compadre) “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” James McMurtry adopts Corinthians 13:11 as title and theme of his latest LP, pondering life after such things have been…
Naked City
The city continues to push enviro-friendly autos
Readings
This follow-up to the critically acclaimed ‘The Pleasing Hour’ is a keen and forthright study of the inner workings of a family circle, which means it’s excruciating to read – a strange compliment to bestow, but an apt one
Phases & Stages
The New PornographersTwin Cinema (Matador) It took half a dozen members and almost a decade, but the New Pornographers have finally gotten very adult and a little hardcore. Their third LP’s title, Twin Cinema, is the perfect preview: Arrangements are superimposed on top of melodies so dense you’d think you were experiencing two albums simultaneously.…
Point Austin: What Works
A good time to think about the best uses of community, democracy, and government
Readings
Middle-aged, divorced, with his children grown, Reed’s stepping into what should rightly be called the Bobbie Ann Mason years
Phases & Stages
Archie Bell, Roy Head Continental Club, Sept. 2 Roy Head and Archie Bell, the voices behind two of Texas’ most enduring hit singles, joined forces Friday night to kick off Labor Day weekend with a swinging rock & soul revue that was anything but a garden party. Houston’s hijinky Allen Oldies Band epitomized the support…
Point Austin: Beside the Point
Final City Council budget readings and votes this week
Page Two
In a post-Katrina about-face, Republicans suddenly don’t want to play the ‘blame game’
Phases & Stages
Roberta FlackParamount Theatre, Sept. 3 After a week watching scenes of hell on TV, it was a blessing to hear songs of love sung by a master vocalist of the romantic jazz ballad, Roberta Flack. Although a sprained ankle made for a painful entrance before the nearly full Paramount Theatre Saturday night, once Flack took…
The Hightower Report
Support our indie coffee houses; and join the fight against library budget cuts
About AIDS
Research shows that when folks with serious health issues do volunteer work, they don’t notice their own aches ‘n’ pains quite so much
Phases & Stages
Echo & the BunnymenSiberia (Cooking Vinyl) The Go-BetweensOceans Apart (Yep Roc) Nothing’s ever the same after divorce, but reconciliation/remarriage sometimes works. A decade after their 1980-87 peak, Ian McCulloch and Will Sergeant (plus original bassist Les Pattinson) re-donned their Bunnymen suits for Evergreen, well in line with the Liverpudlian’s Crocodiles rock. Two studio LPs followed,…
Flight Patterns
The Texas Documentary Tour: Judy Irving’s ‘The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill’
To Your Health
Is eating chocolate beneficial to my health?
Phases & Stages
Windsor for the DerbyGiving Up the Ghost (Secretly Canadian) Windsor for the Derby’s seventh LP, Giving Up the Ghost, is a wooden roller coaster: a towering beast swaying to and fro with the will of the wind. Sadly, the organic thrill ride jostles and shakes, oftentimes stalling out and wasting effort. Austin expatriate Jason McNeely,…
Cinematexas 10
Sept. 14-18
The Common Law
Identity theft at the gas pump?
Phases & Stages
Iggy PopA Million in Prizes: The Anthology (Virgin) The Stooges(Elektra/Rhino) The StoogesFun House (Elektra/Rhino) “Well, it’s 1969, okay? War across the USA.” Detroit’s Stooges were Sixties born, all right (Velvet Underground, Steppenwolf, MC5), but so was the Vietnam conflict, and like the flower-power exfoliate, Iggy Pop writhed under Utopia’s shattered idealism. A Million in Prizes:…
DVD Watch
The two-disc ‘Collected Shorts’ spans 27 years, and while some of the films don’t fully cross the CGI generational divide, you can see in all of them why animators like Tim Burton have been so strongly influenced by Svankmajer’s work
TCB
Austin steps up to help our New Orleans brothers and sisters the best way we know how: benefits, benefits, benefits
Day Trips
The Texas Metal Arts Festival in Gruene features 25 of the top creative metalworkers in the state showing their creations ranging from fine jewelry to large outdoor sculptures
Home From Home
Austin opens arms to New Orleans ‘guests,’ longing to return
TV Eye
Bless Kanye West’s heart
Race to Innovation
With $1,000 each and eight weeks, five teams compete to take theatre to a new level
Mr. Smarty Pants Knows
Mitzi Gaynor, Topo Gigio, and “farthinder”
Katrina Relief in Austin
You want a silver lining? How about an outpouring of love and kindness like this town has never seen? You want light at the end of the tunnel? How about an influx of grateful new friends, injecting our town with doses of New Orleans spunk and warmth from the Gulf Coast? We have a chance,…
ArtSpark Festival Schedule
Thursday, Sept. 8 8pm: Team Spare Change: The StackFriday, Sept. 9 8pm: Team Sonav: Nothing’s OnSaturday, Sept. 10 2pm: Team Biped Entertainment Group: Girl7 8pm: Team Walking Shadow Repertory: TerminalTuesday, Sept. 13 8pm: Team Permutations: The Empty BowlThursday, Sept. 15 8pm: Team Spare Change: The StackFriday, Sept. 16 8pm: Team Sonav: Nothing’s OnSaturday, Sept. 17…
Soccer Watch
U.S. Men secure their place in the World Cup finals.
Without Evidence: Executing Frances Newton
Another Texas death row case marked by official carelessness, negligence, and intransigence
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
South Korean horror cultist Park Chan-wook’s 2002 film is the opening freshet in his bloody cinematic triptych; it’s also a finely wrought and emotionally complex film of surpassing, stylized beauty.
Luv Doc Recommends: Out of Bounds Improv Festival
The famous playwright Sacha Guitry once said, “You can pretend to be serious; you can’t pretend to be witty.” If he was being serious, he definitely hit the nail on the head. The thing is, anyone can be funny. Being funny doesn’t necessarily require intent. For instance: Dan Quayle was funny. He wasn’t trying to…
