True Blue: James Blue, Community Activism and the Narrative Impulse
True Blue: James Blue, Community Activism and the Narrative Impulse NR. Directed by , Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . In recognition of S.W.A.M.P.’s 25th anniversary, this important regional arts organization is celebrating with a three-day program in its hometown of Houston. The celebration includes screenings of films by S.W.A.M.P. co-founder James Blue…
Indymedia Newreal (October 2002) & “paint it Black: Anarchism, Urban Uprising & the Mainstream News Media”
Indymedia Newreal (October 2002) & “paint it Black: Anarchism, Urban Uprising & the Mainstream News Media” 2001, NR, 86 min. Directed by Jessica Lawless, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . The October Newreal includes footage form a longshoremen rally in Seattle, antiwar demonstrations in San Francisco and Colorado Springs, preparations for the anti-FTAA…
The 48-Hour Film Festival
The 48-Hour Film Festival NR. Directed by Various, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . Movies don’t get more up-to-the-minute than these. This unique festival will present all the finished films made by 22 Austin teams in a 48-hour period between Nov. 1-3. All the film must be between five and 12 minutes long,…
Elisabeth Sikes Presents Her Favorite Films
Elisabeth Sikes Presents Her Favorite Films NR. Directed by , Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . Cinemaker’s regular open screening of local filmworks will be followed by a presentation by Elisabeth Sikes of her favorite films. An award-winning filmmaker in her own right, Sikes is also the Director of Artist Services at the…
Lunafest 2002
Lunafest 2002 NR. Directed by Various, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . This program, “Films by – for – About Women” is a project of ClifBar/LunaBar. The six films in the program were selected from more than 150 submissions, and films by several local filmmakers will also be included on the bill. The…
Jim Brown: All-American
Jim Brown: All-American 2002, NR, 130 min. Directed by Spike Lee, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . Director Spike Lee and sports phenom/movie star Jim Brown will be on hand to present this recently completed documentary about Brown’s life. This regional premiere is in advance of its official premiere on HBO in December.…
Tiger Cage 2
Tiger Cage 2 1990, NR, 91 min. Directed by Yuen Woo-Ping, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring David Wu, Rosamund Kwan, Donnie Yen. Directed by legendary martial arts choreographer, Tiger Cage 2 tells the story of an ex-cop and a woman accused of murder, who team up with an unscrupulous lawyer to find some…
Redneck
Redneck 1972, NR, 84 min. Directed by Silvio Narizzano, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Mark Lester, Telly Savalas, Franco Nero. One of those ultra-violent Seventies Italian crime movies, Redneck features Telly Savalas and Franco Nero as a couple of psycho kidnappers.
Bouchercon 2002
The world’s premier mystery convention awards its premier authors.
A Horse’s Areola
If you got here too late for the best years of Austin, take note that the Horsies, a truly tweaked and memorable Austin band from the Nineties, will reunite at Room 710 this Friday, with Peglegasus playing as well. (See City Beat.) Another rare event is the Areola 51 gig there the following night, as…
Supremes vs. ‘Texecutions’
In a strongly worded dissent, four U.S. Supreme Court justices on Oct. 21 argued that the high court should reconsider the legality of executing youthful offenders — a major issue for Texas, home to one-third of the 81 U.S. death row inmates who committed their crimes as juveniles. Written by Justice John Paul Stevens and…
A Monster Bash
Austin Studios will host a free outdoor screening this Saturday evening of Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, which, despite its singular title, also manages to cram in both Dracula and the Wolfman.
Phases and Stages
Miles DavisThe Complete Miles Davis at Montreux 1973-1991 (Columbia/Legacy) Six years, four milestone box sets, and dozens of important single title reissues after the stunning Miles Davis & Gil Evans, The Complete Columbia Studio Recordings, comes the Miles Davis assemblage to separate the completists from the obsessives. The Complete Miles Davis at Montreux 1973-1991 gathers…
Battle for the 403rd
The race for the 403rd District Criminal Court heats up.
Short Cuts
Austinites make good as Nicholls finalists, Cinemaker presents local animation superstar Eric Patrick on optical printing, and Concordia gets its screen scream on Friday.
Book Reviews
The Little Friend by Donna Tartt Knopf, 555 pp., $26 At the blurry, inferno-red bull’s-eye of Donna Tartt’s classically trained debut — the mention of which is unavoidable in any discussion of her second novel — paced a troubled young genius in a duel with an invisible opposite. It might have been morality at last…
Phases and Stages
Golden Hornet ProjectCD-R Series Austin’s Golden Hornet Project is actually a hybrid of other groups, namely Graham Reynolds from the Golden Arm Trio and Peter Stopschinski of Brown Whörnet. Hybrid is an excellent concept given that GHP has one foot in the halls of classical music and another firmly planted at the bar in a…
Chomsky on Power and Hope
More than 2,000 people gathered in (and beside, and outside) UT’s LBJ Auditorium Sunday to hear writer, activist, and MIT linguistics professor Noam Chomsky deliver an address on the subject, “Unending Wars: The U.S. and the Middle East.” Hours before Chomsky’s noon lecture, the crowd had become its own story: A line formed outside the…
Eat, Drink, Watch Movies
Rumbly in your tumbly? Itchin’ for some action onscreen? Good thing Eat Drink Watch Movies is back.
Book Reviews
Pipe Dreams: Greed, Ego, and the Death of Enron by Robert Bryce PublicAffairs, 394 pp., $27.50 How unhinged from reality had the Houston-based giant become? How morally bankrupt? Here’s a taste: Enron once chartered a private plane so that an executive could make a $100,000-a-day trip to South Africa while the company was firing employees…
Phases and Stages
Charlie ChristianThe Genius of the Electric Guitar (Columbia/Legacy) Texas-born, Oklahoma-bred Charlie Christian was not the first musician to play an electric guitar, nor the first to be recorded on it, but without question, his stunning virtuosity single-handedly transformed the instrument’s role from a barely audible rhythm accompaniment to a gleaming, expressive, front-line dynamo. Christian revolutionized…
City Pipeline Proposal: Too Weak?
Austin’s draft pipeline ordinance isn’t strong enough for activists.
TV Eye
Sometimes real life is much scarier than scary movies.
Formula 51
Formula 51 2002, R, 98 min. Directed by Ronny Yu, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Carlyle, Emily Mortimer, Meat Loaf, Jake Abraham, Mac McDonald, Rhys Ifans, Ricky Tomlinson. There’s much debate going on regarding which is the worst of the current cinematic train wrecks: Guy Ritchie’s remake of Swept…
Page Two
Instead of ideas, this year’s election campaigns are serving up character assassination from all sides.
Phases and Stages
Austin Jazz & Arts FestivalSymphony Square, October 20 Rain was the only thing that could’ve brought the 14th Annual DiverseArts Jazz & Arts Festival to a halt, and thanks to Alex Coke and the Creative Opportunity Orchestra, it did. Not that umbrellas were necessary for CO2’s performance of Coke’s “Rain.” Phrases moved rapidly from one…
Redmond, Austin Are Miles Apart on Pipeline Safety
Here are some key distinctions between a Redmond, Wash., ordinance regulating development near a hazardous pipeline, and a draft ordinance proposed by the city of Austin:RedmondSetback for schools, daycare centers, hospitals, etc.: 500 ft. Setback for all other new construction: 25 ft. Other safety features: Mitigation measures (emergency plans, employee training, education programs) are required…
Video Reviews
Sexy and enduringly bewitching, 1942’s I Married a Witch is a four-star Hollywood incantation.
Second Helpings: Farmstands and Farmers’ Markets
“Second Helpings” gets fresh with local farmstands and farmers’ markets.
Mr. Smarty Pants
Some restaurant owners dread a visit from Uri Geller.Demi-ties may become the next fashion import from England.From the time Albert Einstein arrived in the U.S. in 1933 to the time of his death in 1955, J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI tapped his phone, opened his mail, and searched his trash. Einstein, who fled Nazi Germany, had…
Phases and Stages
A Jazz Odyssey: The Life of Oscar Petersonby Oscar Peterson Continuum, 382 pp., $29.95 There’s no denying that Oscar Peterson is among the most supremely talented musicians jazz ever produced. The Canadian-born piano Promethean is, however, not the most colorful figure in a musical culture known for its larger-than-life characters. What makes this fast-moving autobiography…
Naked City
Breaking news from Austin and elsewhere
After a Fashion
This week is all about Austin’s best regular fashion show: Club DeVille!
Phases and Stages
GVSB The fall deluge of jazz releases is upon us, highlighted by an especially strong crop of female vocal albums. Reigning songstress Diana Krall returns with the delightfully upbeat, if predictable, Live in Paris (Verve), which gives the vocalist/pianist and her crack band more room than usual to display their formidable instrumental talents. Far more…
Naked City
Readers may remember that the HEB grocery chain, formerly a major cog in Travis County’s early voting program, threatened to pull out of the program — partly due to space problems and partly because of a lawsuit seeking to impose other “civic duties” upon HEB (see “Litigious Linda,” April 19). Early voters will find that…
Day Trips
The Lighthouse Lakes Trail through the tidal wetlands between Port Aransas and Aransas Pass provides an amazing look at a coastal wilderness. Favored by anglers and explorers in kayaks and canoes, this backcountry maze of sloughs, islands, and lakes makes visitors work to experience its beauty. From the aerial maps, the area looks like a…
Phases and Stages
Faith in Time: The Life of Jimmy Scottby David Ritz DeCapo Press, 270 pp., $25 In March 1969, at the age of 44, Jimmy Scott recorded The Source for Atlantic Records, widely regarded by jazz aficionados as one of the finest vocal albums ever cut. During the session, when the musicians listened to the playbacks,…
Naked City
Last week, Beaumont-based mining company Trinity Materials Inc. canceled its application to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality for a rock-crushing permit in the east Travis Co. town of Webberville, saying they have no plans to open a rock-crushing plant there any time soon. But the company is proceeding with plans to develop a strip-mining…
To Your Health
I’ve been considering adding coenzyme Q-10 to my supplement program, but I couldn’t really decide if CoQ is an essential nutrient or not. How does CoQ help, if it does?
Phases and Stages
Jimmy ScottFalling in Love Is Wonderful (Rhino) Nearly 40 years after it vanished, one of music history’s Maltese falcons has resurfaced. A limited pressing of 7,500, available only through Rhino’s Internet imprint (www.rhinohandmade.com), Falling in Love Is Wonderful comes free of its legal bundling to claim its place as the crown jewel of Jimmy Scott’s…
Naked City
Tonight (Thursday) is the Save Our Springs Alliance’s annual “Soul of the City” benefit concert, featuring Joe Ely and Jimmie Dale Gilmore, at La Zona Rosa (see ad p.33). Friday, Oct. 25, the Central Texas ACLU will feature Karen Heikkala of the Drug Policy Forum of Texas in a discussion of Texas drug laws and…
The Man From Elysian Fields
The Man From Elysian Fields 2001, R, 106 min. Directed by George Hickenlooper, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Andy Garcia, Mick Jagger, Olivia Williams, Julianna Margulies, James Coburn, Anjelica Huston, Michael Des Barres. Is it just me or is Mick Jagger turning into John Hurt? In The Man From Elysian Fields, Jagger plays…
B-Boy City Freestylin’
Roméo Navarro’s freewheeling philosophy of dance has inspired a vibrant freestyle dance community in Austin for the past decade, and now his B-Boy City events, gathering 350-400 dancers from all over the South and Southwest and points beyond, are realizing a dream of freestylin’ dancers on an even grander scale.
About AIDS
West Nile Virus has been in the news a lot over the last year or so, and with good reason: It can be fatal. Hundreds of cases have been diagnosed in the U.S., with 57 deaths, including 11 in Texas and one in Central Texas. Actually, most cases of WNV are not dangerous — provided…
Weak at the Knee?
Chief Stan Knee’s tenure at the APD has had many external successes, and several internal failures.
Naked City
The city’s rocky relations with Seton Healthcare Network hit another bump last week when hospital officials acknowledged plans that may threaten the city-owned Children’s Hospital of Austin, which Seton currently leases and operates along with neighboring Brackenridge Hospital. Seton wants to build and own a new $200 million facility because of overcrowded conditions at the…
Abandon
Abandon 2002, PG-13, 99 min. Directed by Stephen Gaghan, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Katie Holmes, Benjamin Bratt, Charlie Hunnam, Mark Feuerstein, Zooey Deschanel, Tony Goldwyn, Melanie Lynskey, Philip Bosco. What hath The Sixth Sense wrought? These days, it seems as if every psychological thriller has a surprise finish. You get the idea…
The 411 on 411
Hidden inside that nondescript complex at 411 Brazos is a wealth of compelling work by provocative artists just waiting to be discovered.
The Hybridity Principle
A diverse, ambitious crop of restaurateurs is feeding Austin’s cosmopolitan cravings.
Shadows of the Past
A timeline of APD’s troubles over the past 13 years
Naked City
With the Tony Sanchez campaign commercial featuring the Gov. Rick Perry speeding video and the Ben Bentzin campaign ad featuring the Sen. Gonzalo Barrientos DWI video, the mud-slinging season reaches its full efflorescence. By the standards of Sanchez and Perry — e.g. drug money laundering vs. solicitation of bribery — an argument over a speeding…
Ghost Ship
Ghost Ship 2002, R, 91 min. Directed by Steve Beck, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Gabriel Byrne, Julianna Margulies, Isaiah Washington, Ron Eldard, Desmond Harrington, Emily Browning. If Ghost Ship feels like 13 Ghosts meets The Abyss to you, then you weren’t watching The Abyss with the sound on. Granted, director Beck helmed…
A Piece of Work
In her landscape narrative featuring two rows of large glass bottles, each filled with soil samples collected on a trip from Texas to California and labeled with a description of the soil’s composition, artist Kate Catterall suggests her present-time impressions of each landscape, and hints at its history, both geologic and human.
Food-o-File
Eat, Drink, Watch Movies at the Alamo Drafthouse North, or just eat and drink in Fredericksburg, in this week’s “Food-o-File.”
The Top Brass
Assistant Chief Mike McDonald This 21-year APD veteran became the APD’s first black assistant chief in 1995. Last year he became an acting assistant city manager to Toby Futrell — prompting the widespread speculation that he is being groomed to take over as chief if and when Knee leaves. He is serving as chief of…
Naked City
Gary Condit, Monica Lewinsky, George W. Bush: Their sex lives were probed, poked, and mocked during Planned Parenthood’s “Sex and Politics With Texas Divas,” a panel discussion featuring syndicated columnist Molly Ivins, former Texas Gov. Ann Richards, and author/ex-Lady Bird Johnson press secretary Liz Carpenter. Held Friday at the Capitol Marriott, the panel discussion was…
Real Women Have Curves
Real Women Have Curves 2002, PG-13, 90 min. Directed by Patricia Cardoso, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring America Ferrara, Lupe Ontiveros, Ingrid Oliu, George Lopez, Brian Sites, Soledad St. Hilaire, Lourdes Perez. Two women, Carmen (Ontiveros) and Anna (Ferrara), are locked in an age-old struggle. It’s the struggle between mothers and daughters, expectations…
Articulations
The passing of Texas regionalist pioneer painter Everett Spruce
Eat, Drink, Watch Movies Menus
Our delicious food movie series starts at 7pm this Monday, Oct. 28, at the Alamo Drafthouse North (2700 Anderson), with Alfonso Arau’s lyrical Mexican romance Like Water for Chocolate. The food will be prepared by Mexico City native Marisela Godinez, owner of El Meson (5805 Burleson, 416-0749), and will include tortilla soup, Christmas rolls (bolillos…
The Chief Answers His E-Mail
APD Chief Stan Knee e-mails the Chronicle
Capitol Chronicle
State Sen. Jeff Wentworth and Rep. Rick Green are accused of improper lobbying for “legal speed” maker Metabolife.
Satin Rouge
A dutiful Tunisian widow and mother of a teenage girl is awakened to self-actualization through the allure of belly-dancing.
Exhibitionism
Austin Symphony With Caitlin Tully: She Got ItBass Concert Hall, Oct. 18 Conductor Peter Bay, introducing what turned out to be an invigorating and enjoyable program, said of guest violinist Caitlin Tully simply that we’d be amazed. The 14-year-old Tully, making her way across the country as a guest of symphonies, chamber orchestras, and more,…
Liquid Assets
Wes Marshall knows how to celebrate his wines, and he’s willing to share that information in this week’s “Liquid Assets.”
The Roads to Commissioners Court …
The Chronicle handicaps at the county races.
The Hightower Report
Bush preserves democracy by coddling tyrants; Phil Gramm cashes in at the bank.
The Truth About Charlie
The Truth About Charlie 2002, PG-13, 104 min. Directed by Jonathan Demme, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Christine Boisson, Lisa Gay Hamilton, Ted Levine, Joong-Hoon Park, Tim Robbins, Mark Wahlberg, Thandie Newton. The Truth About Charlie, Jonathan Demme’s remake of Stanley Donen’s Charade, is a lovely, ragged thing. The plot, more or less,…
Exhibitionism
As staged by Ballet Austin, the 1841 ballet Giselle showed its age in the first act, with cartoonish characters cluttering the stage and a distinct lack of fireworks in the dancing, but after the death of the title character, the production came alive with a breathtaking performance from Gina Patterson.
Those Magic Moments
Over a cup of coffee at Flipnotics, Stephen Barber rifles through a thick stack of sheet music, carefully examining the endless series of dots spread across them. On Nov. 2, those intricately arranged notations will instruct a local 10-piece ensemble at his Dia de los Muertos concert. For 40 minutes, those ink spots will finally…
The Chronicle Endorsements, Nov. 2002
The Chronicle endorses for the 2002 November general election
Mr. Demme’s Holiday
Oscar-winning director Jonathan Demme takes a trip to the city of lights and of love, of Tati and Truffaut, in his latest, The Truth About Charlie.
Exhibitionism
Pro Arts Collective’s presentation of two Pearl Cleage one-act plays delivered this playwright’s poetic, often witty dialogue with style and some convincing performances; the only thing missing from this quality production was the audience.
Dancing About Architecture
American Idol comes to town, the Funk Bros leave — a little poorer for the musical wear and tear.
The Whole Foods Cure for Herpes
Whole Foods Market lays off a group of low-wage employees.
Confessions of a Trash-Lovin’ Mama
Old viewing habits die hard for a new mom.
