Updates on Robert's and Rick's adaptations, Texas on TV, and 'Dot' plays L.A.; plus, have you ever considered a double bill of 'Tarnation' and 'Mrs. Doubtfire'?

BY JOE O'CONNELL

TV Eye

I saw two seemingly unrelated things on TV that set my mind ablaze last week. The first was a commercial for toddlers' disposable underwear. The second was the series premiere of Jonny Zero on Fox.

BY BELINDA ACOSTA

Screens Reviews

Film Reviews

Despite bearing a title that practically cries out for disrespect from antsy filmgoers, the new Ice Cube picture (he stars as well as co-produces) demonstrates the actor's amiable side and proves he can headline a family picture.

The Assassination of Richard Nixon

First-time director Niels Mueller tells "the mad story of a true man" in this tragic portrait of Sam Bicke, who tried to fly an airplane into the White House in 1974.

Assault on Precinct 13

This new version of John Carpenter's classic is superfluous in the extreme, and while it’s not technically a bad movie, per se, viewers unfamiliar with the film’s lineage will likely write it off as yet another midwinter also-ran, the sort of action film that never quite takes off and instead focuses on random gun battles and cheesy dialogue.

Elektra

Watching Jennifer Garner as Elektra turn somersaults over her foes in her drop-dead-sexy assassin’s gear isn’t nearly as invigorating as it ought to be.

Vera Drake

With this period piece set in 1950 London, British filmmaker Mike Leigh delivers his best picture in some time, and with it he seemingly aims to provoke conversation about the ethics of abortion.

The Work and the Glory

Not reviewed at press time.

arts & culture

Risk: It's What They Do

What's at stake for the frontier-crossing artists in Long Fringe 2005

BY BARRY PINEO

Council Gives Long Center Unanimous Go

At their Jan. 13 meeting, Austin City Council members voted 7-0 to approve a revised lease for the Long Center for the Performing Arts

BY ROBERT FAIRES

Through the Green Fuse

'Through the Green Fuse,' Conspirare's first professional recording, is a shimmering, iridescent prayer in which the beauty of the subject is magnified by the sensitivity and sensuousness of these voices

BY ROBERT FAIRES

LBJ Swings Like the Pendulum Do

For a fun Sixties flashback – sans acid – see the LBJ Library's 'Signs of the Times: Life in the Swingin' Sixties'

BY ROBERT FAIRES

Arts Reviews

Square One

Steve Tesich's bitingly funny, dark play Square One' posits an oppressive U.S. frighteningly close to our country today.

Pericles, Prince of Tyre

There's a sincerity and sweetness to Different Stages' production of Pericles, Prince of Tyre' that makes the show tender and touching

FronteraFest Short Fringe: Friday, Jan. 14

The Jan. 14 Short Fringe program featured a humdrum radio thriller, a comedy about tourism, a graceful commentary on rape, a provocative performance about sexism, and a thoughtful, funny reflection on headlines

The Match and Solo Adaptations

Strange, funny, obvious, and obscure, Deborah Hay and company's The Match' gave me, in more ways than one, the time of my life

'Janet Kastner, Joseph Janson, and Brad Ellis'

In an interesting exhibit at D. Berman Gallery, a number of unexpected commonalities emerge among the works of Janet Kastner, Joseph Janson, and Brad Ellis.

columns

Page Two

The unprecedented outcry over toll roads ignores a larger problem: We want more government services than we can pay for

BY LOUIS BLACK

Postmarks

Our readers talk back.

Letters at 3AM

No concept lies more firmly embedded in our national character than the notion that the U.S.A. is No. 1,' the greatest.' A number of facts reveal that we can no longer even consider ourselves among the Top 10 nations in the world.