Austin Motel
Volume 21, Number 16
news
Riding the Rail
The challenge for Capital Metro: convincing voters that the new light rail isn't the old light rail that they rejected last year
BY MIKE CLARK-MADISON
Saving Our Salamander
No More Polancos
The DA's office decides not to pursue the death penalty for Nancy DePriest's murder, but questions linger over police handling of the case.
BY JORDAN SMITH
Not Enough Hate in East Texas?
An East Texas Republican comes under fire for making nice with black legislators.
BY LAURI APPLE
Triggered Interest
In the wake of Sept. 11, more Texans want to pack heat.
BY DAN OKO
Más Denero
BY JORDAN SMITH
Council Roundup
Commissioners in the Spotlight
Candidates line up for county commissioner seats.
BY AMY SMITH
Who's the After-Maxey?
Candidates begin throwing hats into the District 51 ring
BY MICHAEL KING
Naked City
BY LAURI APPLE
Austin @ Large: Austin at Large: Chuck, We Hardly Knew You
Chuck Manning's departure from Austin Energy comes at a most inopportune time for the city.
BY MIKE CLARK-MADISON
The Hightower Lowdown
Conscipicuous consumption for pets; giving of ourselves, not just of our pocketbooks; John Ashcroft is "doing something" -- to our Constitution.
BY JIM HIGHTOWER
food
Remembrance of Flavors Past
The Food staff lets readers in on their holiday food memories.
BY VIRGINIA B. WOOD
Food-o-File
Why the Chronicle Food editor loves Anthony Bourdain and a new foodie movie
BY VIRGINIA B. WOOD
Second Helpings: American Cafes, Part Two
More American cafes in this week's "Second Helpings"
music
Holiday Cards From the Austin Music Scene
Photos by John Anderson, John Carrico, and Todd V. Wolfson
BY RAOUL HERNANDEZ
Dancing About Architecture
Fastball gets dropped, while fans of Billy Joe Shaver hopes he doesn't drop dead.
BY KEN LIECK
Phases and Stages
Asylum Street Spankers
A Christmas Spanking
Zero Skills
Christmassacre
Slaid Cleaves
Holiday Sampler
Albert & Gage
One More Christmas
Dale Watson
Christmas Time in Texas
Rubinchik's Yiddish Ensemble
Mark Rubin Presents Hill Country Hannukah
B.B. King
A Christmas Celebration of Hope
various artisits
Blue Xmas
The Campbell Brothers
Sacred Steel for the Holidays
Tommy Sands
To Shorten the Winter: An Irish Christmas
Leon Redbone
Christmas Island
Leon Russell
Hymns of Christmas
.38 Special
A Wild-Eyed Christmas Night
various artists
The Big 80's Christmas
They Might Be Giants
Holidayland!
Barbra Streisand
Christmas Memories
various artists, Temptations
A Motown Christmas, The Best of the Temptations Christmas
Destiny's Child, various artists
8 Days of Christmas, TRL Christmas, A Very Special Christmas 5, A Season of Soul and Sounds
screens
Robots, Sleuths, and Warthogs
Winter PC and PlayStation game releases reviewed
Requiem for a Landmark
Filmmaker Steve Bilich was blocks away from the World Trade Center on September 11, and documented the tragedy with a 1920 hand-crank Cine-Kodak 16mm camera; the resulting film, Native American in Manhattan, will screen at the Sundance Film Festival.
BY MARC SAVLOV
A Bug's Life
A new, artificially intelligent toy does little to excite the brain or the blood pressure.
BY LINDSEY SIMON
Local Web site Wows 'Cahiers du Cinema'
Austinite Todd Harbour wins praise from the esteemed French film publication Cahiers du Cinema for his film-and-video Web site, Mobius Home Video Forum.
BY MARRIT INGMAN
Short Cuts
Would you like Raisinets and a tall skinny latte with your movie?
BY MARC SAVLOV
TV Eye
Keeping one eye on television and the other on pop culture
BY BELINDA ACOSTA
Screens Reviews
The Night of the Hunter
1955's The Night of the Hunter stars the terrifying Robert Mitchum as a reverend with an evil-Elvis swagger, complete with knuckles on his right-hand tattooed with "LOVE" and knuckles on his left with "HATE."
Film Reviews
La Buche
Dinner Rush
Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius
Animated Jimmy saves Retroville from the aliens.
Joe Somebody
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
The first film in Jackson's Tolkien trilogy stays true to the spirit and logistics of the novels, but is also a breathtaking and beautiful work of art on its own.
The Majestic
The Royal Tenenbaums
arts & culture
Still Lives
Kate Breakey talks to Clay Smith about why she photographs dead birds and flowers and other animals.
BY CLAY SMITH
Articulations
Pat Jasper leaves Texas Folklife Resources, and a pair of Zachary Scott Theatre Center shows get good out-of-town press.
BY ROBERT FAIRES
Arts Reviews
The Moontower's Glow
Art Davis' new play The Moontower's Glow is a spiritual cousin to both The Rocky Horror Show and You Can't Take It With You, focusing on a houseful of eccentrics who have rejected the normalcy of society to live their dreams, no matter how ludicrous they may appear to the rest of the world.
The Nutcracker
In these troubled times, Ballet Austin's production of The Nutcracker reveals a beauty undimmed by tragedy, a magical landscape untouched by terror.
The Best Salvage Vanguard Holiday Ever
Like those Christmastime baskets full of cheese logs, summer sausages, miniature jars of jellies, etc., The Best Salvage Vanguard Holiday Ever features a diverse little gathering of tasty treats -- in this case, five-minute plays on a common theme -- and it's fun to snack on.
columns
Page Two
The past decade, when the distance between innovation and inspiration shrank, can inspire us in what could be a rocky year, and interesting decade, ahead.
BY LOUIS BLACK
Postmarks
Our readers talk back.
Letters at 3AM
The Bush White House is mounting the most sustained and successful attack on the Constitution in America's history and not enough of us are willing to say it publicly.
BY MICHAEL VENTURA
Mr. Smarty Pants
BY MR. SMARTY PANTS
Day Trips
Texas Monthly has called the Old Jail Art Center "the best small town art museum in Texas -- and maybe the nation."
BY GERALD E. MCLEOD
After a Fashion
Let us not forget the reason for the season, people … club crawls and parties!
BY STEPHEN MACMILLAN MOSER
To Your Health
I consider myself a very healthy woman, since I have been athletic all my life and even considered training for the Olympics, but my physician is worried that I have the beginnings of osteoporosis at age 32. Could this be true?
BY JAMES HEFFLEY, PH.D.
About AIDS
CDC Rearranged To Put Anthrax First
BY SANDY BARTLETT
Coach's Corner
Here and There: UT basketball is a great entertainment value, Major League Baseball isn't. And neither is the NFL, thanks in large part to the lousy refs, who got what they deserved in Cleveland.
BY ANDY "COACH" COTTON
Feedback
Letters to the editor, published daily
