Home > The M.O. > Archives > 2009 > August
August 2009
Central Market’s Hatch chile contest: Bon appe-heat
- 1 unbaked 9” shell
- 4 eggs
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1/2 tsp. cumin
- 1/2 cup chopped onion
- 1 tsp. red chile powder
- 1 tsp. black pepper
- 1 cup chopped green chile
- 2 cups heavy cream or 1 cup evaporated milk or 1 cup half & half
- 1 cup shredded Swiss cheese
- 1/2 cup crumbled bacon
Separate eggs and beat egg yolks. Whip egg whites until thick and foamy. Fold egg whites into yokes, along with salt, onions, red chile powder, black pepper and green chile. Add cream or evaporated milk to mixture and blend well. Layer Swiss cheese over bottom of pie crust and then pour egg into pie crust. Sprinkle crumbled bacon over top. Bake at 425 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until browned and solid. Serve hot.
Permalink | Comments (4) | Post your comment Categories: Food
Interview: ‘Extract’ director, Mike Judge
Through his television and film work, Judge has cultivated a voice portraying sympathetic characters baffled and beleaguered by rubes and circumstances outside of their control, from Ron Livingston’s character in “Office Space” to Hank Hill in “King of the Hill,” Judge’s beloved and ambling animated TV hit that will see its 12-year run end in September.
Judge returns to the workplace in his new film, “Extract,” which opens Friday, but this time he shows his sympathies lie not just with the little guy. The film focuses on the owner of a vanilla extract company (Jason Bateman) and his attempts to manage his eccentric employees while haphazardly trying to revitalize his marriage.
I spoke with Judge last week at the Four Seasons Hotel after the Austin premiere of “Extract” to discuss his new film, dealing with Hollywood, living in Austin and what’s next.
Where did the idea for ‘Extract’ come from and when did it originate?
Mike Judge: I started writing shortly after ‘Office Space,’ and it was kind of two ideas that I combined. One was the guy hiring the gigolo and then the other one was the thing about Mila’s character - just a girl who’s kind of a really good looking sociopath. I didn’t really know where I was going with either of them; I just started writing and then combined them. And then put them it all in a factory that makes vanilla extract.
Speaking of extract … was there any metaphoric meaning in that product … due to its essence or simplicity?
It definitely wasn’t a metaphor. When I used to see that Adams Extract factory by the side of the freeway (in Austin), I just thought I really liked the way that building looked. I like those classic American factory-type buildings. When I was a musician, I played with a guy who was sponsored by Miller Genuine Draft, and they would fly us up to Milwaukee and a couple of times gave us a tour of the bottling factory. And I just kinda liked watching all that machinery work; it’s just fun to look at. Also, I was driving with my Realtor once back in ‘94, and he just pointed to a nice house over in Pemberton and said, ‘That’s where the Adams Extract people live.’ I just kind of thought, ‘you know, it’s kind of this odd item that’s in the grocery store that you’ve seen all your life but you don’t think about how it’s made or who decided to start a factory.’ So it just seemed kind of interesting to me, actually. And then, when I would tell people, ‘this guy has a factory that makes vanilla extract,’ they’d start laughing; so, I figured I’m one step ahead if that’s already getting a laugh.
If you started writing this just after ‘Office Space,’ I guess you didn’t have Jason Bateman in mind when writing?
No. And I put the thing on the shelf and didn’t look at it again for a few years, I guess. But after I’d seen ‘Arrested Development,’ I thought, ‘Man, this guy’s perfect.’ He did ‘King of the Hill’ once. My producing partners, for years, they were ahead of the game … they were always into Jason Bateman. They always thought he ought to be given a chance to be a leading guy, going all the way back to the 80s.
There’s an everyman characteristic about Bateman’s character. The same could be said about the protagonists in much of your other work. They are these everyday guys who have to deal with the buffoons and antics surrounding them. Do you relate to that character in a personal way?
It’s probably something I relate to, myself, I guess. And particularly with this, I wanted to do something where a guy is trying to be a nice boss and gets taken advantage of and how that’s kind of a difficult task. I’d never had anybody work for me, I was always an employee, and I had, you know, 100 jobs. Then, when ‘Beavis and Butt-head’ happened, I suddenly had 50 people working for me, and I started to sympathize with bosses I’d had and realized, ‘This is not easy.’ I just thought there could be something funny there. But, yea, he’s kind of an everyman … who runs a factory.
It seems that in a lot of R-rated comedies of late, a lot of the characters seem to be too clever by half. You, on the other hand, have a natural tone. Can you speak to your writing style in that regard?
It used to bug me when you’re watching a movie and everyone’s a little too clever. You can just see there’s a comedy writer who spent forever coming up with this line for this person to say, and it starts to, I don’t know, make it less believable or something to me. I guess I tend to also not write jokes so much as just have the comedy come out of who the characters are and their situations, I guess.
Do you think your quick rise to fame and early success allowed you to do what you wanted to do on your terms, and the fact that you weren’t in Hollywood worrying about what tests well and how to write the perfect joke, gave you a different perspective?
I’m pretty lucky in that I started out making these films in my house by myself, not having to take any notes from anybody. And then ‘Beavis and Butt-head’ became a show and became a hit right away. So right away, Hollywood was looking to me for the answers instead of the other way around. I think if I had moved out there and tried to make it, I would have had a different deal. By the time I did ‘Office Space,’ ‘King of the Hill’ had been a hit and ‘Beavis and Butt-head’ and ‘Beavis and Butt-head’ the movie, and still it was hard to get a studio to get on board with dialogue that was a guy just going, [does impersonation of ‘Frank Lundberg’ from ‘Office Space’] “Hmm … yea … if I could just go ahead and get that from you …” I mean, they saw the dailies and they were just breathing down my neck, ‘What are you doing, man?! Where’s the punch line? Why aren’t you shaking the camera all over the place and getting wide-angle lenses in people’s faces?’ So, even with the success, there’s such pessimism. They were just like, ‘Well, it’s because he should only be doing animation. He doesn’t know what he’s doing with live action. This is horrible.’ And then when Office Space came out and didn’t do so well, they said, ‘Well, see, we were right … you should have had punch lines and this and that.’ And eventually it started making a lot of money and they wanted sequels and all this other stuff. (laughs) Hollywood is very afraid to completely insult someone usually because there’ve been so many comeback stories.
Speaking of Hollywood … you’ve been in Austin for about 15 years now. What is it that you like about living and working in Austin that keeps you away from Hollywood?
Austin to me has everything I’d want in a town, and, even though it’s gotten bigger, it still feels kind of small. I’m able to get more done here. I can write and work better here. Over the years, it’s also kind of helped make me unavailable, which can be a good thing.
After the troubles you had with 20th Century Fox, specifically on ‘Idiocracy,’ what was your experience like getting ‘Extract’ made the way you wanted?
‘Idiocracy’ was a script that was the last thing I owed them on a deal that went way back to (the late 90s). And I wasn’t even sure I wanted to make it, but everybody was encouraging me. This one I just wrote on spec. What a lot of people do, and what I have done, and what your agent always wants you to do, is get the money in advance to write it. So, with this one, I just wanted to write it. And my producing partners are kind of in the same boat. We all decided together that we were just going to start writing stuff on spec and own it and do business a different way. We actually got independent financing for most of the budget. Miramax came in for the rest of the budget and bought domestic distribution, so it wasn’t even a development deal or anything. We already had Jason on board and all this before Miramax came in.
How did you get Ben Affleck on board?
Ben actually had read the script, and I had never met him before, and I heard he wanted to do it. And I thought, ‘Wow, really?’ Because I remember after ‘Dazed and Confused’ came out, I asked Rick Linklater, ‘Who’s the guy with the paddle who gets the paint dumped on him? Cause he’s really good.’ And this is way back in ’93. And he was telling me, ‘Oh, it’s this guy Ben Affleck, and he’s really smart and a really good guy to work with.’ And then he became this huge star. But I actually like him when he’s a character actor, like in that movie, like in ‘Shakespeare in Love.’ So I met with him and he started telling me about this guy back in Boston that he’s friends with, who he went to high school with and as he was talking about it, I could just sort of see it. And we had a read-through of the script, and he just killed it. I just thought he was really funny. And luckily he agreed to kind of make himself look different. He just got it, ya know?
When I first saw his name, I thought it may come off as an over-the-top cameo, but he really owned it and you could tell he enjoyed doing the role.
Yea. We shot a bunch if his stuff toward the beginning, and then all the factory stuff was at the end, so he came back for one factory scene, and I could tell he was kind of happy to be back. I think he really had a lot of fun with it, and it was really fun watching those guys together.
I assume, since you had independent funding for ‘Extract,’ you probably didn’t have to wage the battles you did for casting on ‘Office Space.’
It was much easier There weren’t any discussions about it. You know, whoever I thought was best and was available I could put in without having to listen to why this person isn’t funny and that person isn’t funny by the people who hired me because I supposedly know what I was doing. So that was definitely a better experience.
Why did you choose to shoot in L.A. as opposed to Austin?
It was actually cheaper, I think, to shoot in L.A. and we could get the actors to do it more easily in L.A. We shot some exteriors here, actually, so there is a little bit of Austin in it.
Also, the timing … you know, we shot it in the summer. I had always planned to shoot ‘Idiocracy’ and ‘Office Space’ here in the winter, and each time it got delayed until it was the middle of summer.
The film, in a sense, is about sex and infidelity and the fears surrounding it. But there’s no sex or nudity in the film, so it feels like a fairly conservative look at sex. Was that a conscious decision?
I wouldn’t say it’s a conscious decision. But when I see a movie, I don’t need to be in a theater getting turned on. That can happen in private just fine. I can’t imagine trying to be on the set when there’s actually a nude scene … I don’t wanna do that. There’s enough drama with actors with no nudity, so I can’t even imagine … … (laughs)
Do you ever make it out to any of the comedy or improv clubs in Austin, or are those the places you know for certain you will be recognized?
I haven’t in awhile. I used to go to see stand-up at the Velveeta Room and stuff. There’ve been a couple people I’ve used who I met there. And when I was casting ‘Idiocracy,’ I’d see people who were kind of a part of that scene. There’s a lot of good people here. Even though we shot this in L.A., I ended up using a little bit of local casting. You know, there’s a certain type of person that decides to up and move to L.A. and become and actor. For women, especially there are some interesting actors here. In L.A. you either have the huge fat woman who’s in the pizza commercials or the skinny, anorexic hot blonde ones … it’s harder to find those kind of in between ones.
What’s next on the horizon for you?
There’s a thing that my partners, Dave Krinsky and John Altschuler, wrote called “Brigadier Gerad,” that we’ll probably do next. I don’t think I’ll direct it, I’ll probably produce it. It’s set during the Napoleonic Wars, and it’s a comedy based on these stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle that are actually really funny. I read them, and it’s rare that you see something over 100 years old that makes you laugh. Maybe it’s not that rare. Anyway, these guys wrote this great script and we’re hanging on to it and we’re probably going to make that.
Independently?
Yea. I think it will probably get distributed by a studio. We have the money in place, we’re just kind of figuring out who’s going to be in it and that sort of thing.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Interview
OMG, there’s a bear in my yard! (kind of)
Back from vacation and trying to get back in the swing of things. In the meantime, really enjoying the hard-hitting journalism coming out of Fox8 in Cleveland.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: YouTube
We’re gonna break out the hats and hooters
Although I may not be the most prolific blogger in the world, or within 50 feet of my desk, I feel compelled to let you know that I will be away from the Intertron for close to a week. As for what I will be up to, that’s a secret, but here are some clues.
And for good measure …
Yes, I am happy to be leaving the 100+ degree heat, if you couldn’t tell.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Music
Your A-List: Best Taco Stand
What began as a small trailer operation on West Fifth Street has expanded to three locations with plans for more. As it makes its slow move to dot the Austin landscape with its taco locations, Torchy’s carries with it the title of Best Taco Stand in the Your A-List poll.
The flagship Torchy’s location sits in the South Austin Trailer Park Eatery, offering plenty of seating and parking for folks who have come to love the operation’s green chili queso, breakfast tacos and unique creations, such as the Trailer Park, which features fried chicken, green chilies, lettuce, pico de gallo, and Cheese served on a flour tortilla with poblano ranch.
The folks at Torchy’s briefly experienced a mild delusion of grandeur or misguided ambition last year when they attempted to start a burger operation at the Trailer Park location. However, they laid Shuggie’s to rest last month in order to focus on doing what they do best — tacos.
Click below for complete results.
Others receiving votes
- TacoDeli, 14 percent
- Amaya’s Taco Village, 9
- El Chilito, 8 percent
- Al Pastor, 5 percent
- Tamale House, 5 percent
- Porfirio’s, 4 percent
- El Taquito, 3 percent
- Nuevo Leon, 3 percent
- Casa Garcia, 2 percent
- Mi Gordis, 2 percent
- Taqueria Piedras Negras, 2 percent
- Mia Madre’s, 2 percent
- Chuco’s, 1 percent
- Rosita’s, 1 percent
- La Guera, 1 percent
- Taqueria La Canaria, < 1 percent
- Taqueria Star, < 1 percent
- Vazquez Tacos, < 1 percent
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Your A-List
Busting a move (glow sticks not included)
With Lollapalooza now over, I wonder if this guy is already queuing up for tickets to the run of aftershows at Stubb’s during ACL (Sound Tribe Sector 9, Thievery Corporation, Ghostland Observatory). I think that may be Gene, the camp cook from “Wet Hot American Summer,” in the background.
This video originally appeared on the Leshock Value Blog. Thanks to Paige Maguire for the tip.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: YouTube
Homeowner calls the cops on Bob Dylan
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Music
Your A-List: Best Locally Produced TV Show
From local public access shows to a well-known drama on NBC, Austin can brag of an array of quality programs shot in town. But only one show based in Austin has made it into any kind of hall of fame.
Earlier this week, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced it will designate the studios of “Austin City Limits” as a historic site. This week’s Your A-List poll winner, with 40 percent of the vote, joins eight other locations around the country to receive the distinction.
The show, aired around the country on PBS, began with a focus on Texas music, so it was fitting that Texas native Willie Nelson was the first musician to perform on the show. In the 33 years since its initial broadcast, Austin City Limits has welcomed musicians of all stripes to its stage, from Trey Anastatio to Dwight Yoakam.
In addition to the nod from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in 2003, “Austin City Limits” received the National Medal of Arts, the only TV to receive that distinction.
Click the link below for complete results.
Others receiving votes
- ‘Downtown’ — 23 percent
- ‘Friday Night Lights’ — 20 percent
- ‘Biscuit Brothers’ — 10 percent
- ‘InfoWars’ — 4 percent
- ‘Central Texas Gardener’ — 2 percent
- ‘Texas Monthly Talks’ — 1 percent
- ‘Sonido Boombox’ — < 1 percent
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Your A-List
Your A-List: Best Queso
The Your A-List poll for Best Queso was as hotly (pun intended) contested as any we’ve had, with the top two vote-getters finishing within a tortilla chip crumb’s distance of one another. In the end, the multiple-location Kerbey Lane narrowly edged out Austin landmark Matt’s El Rancho for the crown. Both restaurants garnered 13 percent of the vote, but Kerbey received two more total votes.
With everyone and their mother serving queso in Austin, you can’t just melt some Velveeta and call it a day. You have to somehow set yourself apart. Kerbey has done so by adding guacamole to their queso, and offering the upgraded Cowboy Queso, which features black beans and guacamole covered with queso and topped with pico de gallo. According to their site, the stuff is so popular that the folks at Kerbey make 150 gallons of the award-winning queso every week. I think my heart just exploded.
Click the link below for complete results.
Others receiving votes
- Chuy’s: 10 percent
- Torchy’s: 8 percent
- Maudie’s: 8 percent
- Magnolia Cafe: 7 percent
- Texadelphia: 6 percent
- Polvo’s: 3 percent
- El Arroyo: 3 percent
- Z Tejas: 3 percent
- Fonda San Miguel: 2 percent
- Vivo: 2 percent
- Texican Cafe: 2 percent
- Tres Amigos: 2 percent
- Nuevo Leon: 2 percent
- Curra’s: 2 percent
- El Mercado: 2 percent
- Zocalo: 1 percent
- El Chile: 1 percent
- Manuel’s: 1 percent
- Lamberts: 1 percent
- Uncle Billy’s: 1 percent
- Alamo Drafthouse: 1 percent
- Jaime’s Spanish Village: 1 percent
- Chango’s: 1 percent
- Santa Rita: 1 percent
- Rio Grande: 1 percent
- Azul Tequila: 1 percent
- Sazon: < 1 percent
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Your A-List
Live review: Dave Matthews Band at Austin City Limits studio
Dave Matthews plays the guitar during the concert of his Dave Matthews Band July 11 at the Optimus Alive music festival in Lisbon, Portugal. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)
On the day the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame designated the Austin City Limits studio as a historical site, the venerable program hosted one of the most popular acts of the last 15 years, likely expecting the Dave Matthews Band to put a musical exclamation point on the big day.
While punctuated at times with exceptional playing, the show seemed to act more as an ellipsis … teasing fans with tastes of their rollicking past throughout a set of relatively homogeneous new songs.
The Dave Matthews Band made a national name for itself in the mid-’90s with crisp, melodic songs that featured evocative songwriting, jazz instrumentation and extended jamming. The group from Virginia straddled musical worlds, attracting eclectic fans of improvisational groups such as the Grateful Dead and Phish while remaining commercially palatable enough to inspire thousands of high school kids and college co-eds to attend the band’s shows in droves.
In the early years, Matthews served as a proxy for his fans — finding his way in the world, celebrating life’s endless possibilities, expressing individuality and swimming in the beauty and ache of the world — offering up his discoveries for the fans to share in as their own.
In the years since the early successes of “Remember Two Things” and “Under the Table,” as their collective star rose, however, it seems Matthews’ musical ambitions have lagged.
While the band certainly still hits the right notes and is as tight as ever, the content and delivery feel more processed. The poetry seems to have waned from the live lyrics, giving way to simplistic observations and self-seriousness, and the man who once gave voice to the collective concerns of a fanbase staring adulthood in the face became adult contemporary pabulum with a danceable beat. Such are the “perils” of adulthood and success. Most musicians should be so fortunate.
The ACL Festival co-headliner-to-be opened its set Monday night by stuffing the tamely ironic “Funny the Way It Is,” a song that feels perfectly suited for a twilight festival set, into the crammed studio, as the crowd, which did not have the luxury of seats, struggled with the notion of actually dancing.
Call him the musical Wooderson of “Dazed and Confused” — he gets older and the girls stay the same age — but Matthews still knows how to make the ladies swoon, as evidenced by their cat-call responses to his lines “But I love the way you love me, baby” in “Spaceman.” Maybe the girls grow older, too, they just continue to fall for the same lines. Lucky guy.
“Spaceman,” with its guitar-fueled devil-may-care Lothario vibe offered compelling evidence that Matthews has probably done more to fuel would-be “American Idols” a la Kris Allen and boost acoustic guitar sales than any musician of the past 15 years. Not to mention the amount of money it has earned him and his bandmates.
The “love-song of sorts,” as Matthew described it, “Squirm,” showcased Matthews’ immediately recognizable vocal style, as he descended from growl to whisper, shoving lyrics into a tight space before exploding like a bearded jack-in-the-box to the extreme delight of the hollering fans.
His boyish, rapscallion charm never lurking too far beneath the surface, Matthews improvised a bit about the joys of playing outside, under the stars with the city’s skyline in the back, an inside joke played at the expense of those at home who may be under the delusion ‘ACL’ is taped al fresco.
Continuing with the set stuffed with a majority of tunes from the recently released “Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King,” Jeff Coffin’s delicate soprano sax sounds punctuated the mystical aspects of “Lying in the Hands of God,” a song that had the plastic feel of commodified spirituality. The song did offer the chance for the band’s first full-on jam, highlighting the freakish drumming of Carter Beauford, whom I am not ready to declare has only four limbs. As they have throughout their history, the band does an excellent job of giving each of the players space to shine, communicating through subtle nods and inflections.
Here it should be noted that one of the great products of DMB’s popularity is how the band has made better listeners out of many of its fans. I would argue that many devotees over the years first came to appreciate the art of the solo, in particular that of horns, strings and percussion, by way of listening to DMB. In fact, I imagine the band was my rickety on-ramp to John Coltrane and Miles Davis in 1993.
With “Why I Am,” Matthews gave a nod to deceased sax man Leroi Moore, when introducing the song he said began initially as a chaotic cacophony before developing into a wonderful vehicle this night for the shredding of guitar virtuoso Tim Reynolds.
Halfway through the set that would feature almost all of the group’s new material, the band finally gave some old diehards what they had come to see, as they launched into “Jimi Thing,” a song from the band’s break-out “Under the Table and Dreaming,” that was spiced by Coffin’s sax and trumpet player Rashawn Ross trading lines. The raucous throwback allowed the band to fully stretch out, where they are at their best, and for the first time of the evening give the studio the feel of a small club, with older and younger fans alike bobbing and swaying.
It would be one of the few times when everyone in the room seemed equally invested in the band that they had come to love at different times throughout the winding career of arguably the world’s longest-running college party band.
Matthews seemed intent on giving a platform to his newer tunes on this night, but he is not unaware or unappreciative of the fans of his older work. While he seemed reluctant to go back to his formative musical years, as a departure from the night’s intended set list (which I acquired), the band’s final encore of the 16-song set was “Two Step,” off the 1994 live EP “Recently.” Not coincidentally, it was also the song requested on a handmade sign held by a girl in the front row.
If only the whole night had contained the energy and passion of the song which ended it. Alas … musicians change … often becoming something less than what we once thought and hoped they were.
Dave Matthews Band at Austin City Limits studio, 08.10.09 (setlist)
“Funny the Way it Is”
“Spaceman”
“Squirm”
“Lying in the Hands of God”
“Alligator Pie”
“Gravedigger”
“Why I Am”
“Seven”
“Jimi Thing”
“Shake Me Like a Monkey”
“Sister”
“You and Me”
“Time Bomb”
“Ants Marching”
E: “Whiskey, Rye Whiskey”
E: “Two Step”
Fans cheer for the Dave Matthews Band during a show Monday night at the “Austin City Limits” studio (Kelly West AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
Permalink | Comments (2) | Post your comment Categories: Music
Cheese, glorious cheese
I headed over to the Downtown Hilton Saturday for the American Cheese Society’s Cheese Fest. Imagine a dairy-based SXSW Interactive, with the cheese world’s biggest names supplanting developers and coders, and you begin to get an idea of what this thing was all about. Over 1,000 cheeses, dozens of wine and beer, complimented by salami, crackers, patè, fruit and more … it was sensory overload in the best sense.
Check out video evidence of my evening:
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment
John Hughes: Pen pal extraordinaire
We will be running tributes in Sunday’s paper to writer/director John Hughes, who arguably defined pop culture and movies for a decade in a greater way than any director in history. From 1983-1990, Hughes was an absolute beast: writing and/or directing “Mr. Mom.” (1983), “Vacation” (1983), “Sixteen Candles” (1984), “The Breakfast Club” (1985), “Weird Science” (1985), “Pretty in Pink” (1986), “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” (1986), “Some Kind of Wonderful” (1987), “Planes, Trains & Automobiles” (1987) and “Home Alone” (1990). That is insane! He was like Barry Bonds from 1998-2004, minus the steroids.
It is amazing Hughes had time to do anything outside of write scripts, but according to this blog post on wellknowwhenwegetthere.blogspot.com, Hughes took time out of his busy life to become a pen pal to one of his teenage fans in the mid-80s. In this touching account, the author, Alison Byrne Fields, discusses how she first came in contact with Hughes and how they renewed their communications after a decade-long silence.
With press junkets, lunches at Spago, constant communication on PDAs, massive egos and endless studio obligations being de rigueur for filmmakers these days, it seems impossible to imagine a person as prolific as Hughes being so accessible, kind and responsive to a fan today.
Read Alison’s account of her pen pal relationship with Hughes here.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment
Your A-List: Celebrity with Ties to Austin
- Willie, A to Z
- 75 days of Willie
- Photos: Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan at the Dell Diamond
- Photos: Willie’s 4th of July Picnic through the years
- On the road with Willie
Others receiving votes
- Leslie Cochran, 9 , 1 percent
- Lance Armstrong, 9 percent
- Darrell K. Royal, 7 percent
- Matthew McConaughey, 4 percent
- Mike Judge, 3 percent
- Sandra Bullock, 2 percent
- Robert Rodriguez, 2 percent
- Earl Campbell, 2 percent
- Mack Brown, 2 percent
- Lloyd Doggett, 2 percent
- Alejandro Escovedo, 1 percent
- Andy Roddick, 1 percent
- Richard Linklater, 1 percent
- Ray Benson, 1 percent
- Pinetop Perkins, 1 percent
- Major Applewhite, 1 percent
- Fred Cantu, 1 percent
- Cat Osterman, < 1 percent
- Ron Oliveira, < 1 percent
- Jody Conradt, < 1 percent
- Judy Maggio, < 1 percent
Permalink | Comments (2) | Post your comment Categories: Your A-List
Your A-List: Best Place to Buy Used Records
They may not be as plentiful worldwide as the London underground t-shirts, but in Austin, when you see that circular logo with the horizontal bar, you know immediately that it represents Waterloo Records. With 33 percent of the vote, one of the anchor’s of the Austin music scene is the winner of the Your A-List poll for Best Place to Buy Used Records.
Although it may have moved locations since its birth in 1982, and quadrupled in size, the mission of Waterloo to promote good music from around the world and Texas in particular, has never changed. And while there may be t-shirts, bumper stickers, DVDs and more for sale at the venerable store on Lamar Boulevard, they still carry that which rests in the heart of all good music lovers — vinyl. With over 5,000 used records, and a selection of new vinyl that grows daily, Waterloo continues to be a beacon for audiophiles and music lovers from Austin and around the world.
Click below to see complete poll results.
Others receiving votes
- Cheapo, 23 percent
- Half-Price Books, 10 percent
- End of an Ear, 9 percent
- Antone’s, 7 percent
- Backspin, 4 percent
- DJ Dojo, 4 percent
- Austin Record Convention, 4 percent
- Music Mania, 2 percent
- Friends of Sound, 2 percent
- Sound on Sound, 2 percent
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Your A-List
Your A-List: Best Basketball Courts
- Downtown YMCA, 19 percent
- Givens District Park, 12 percent
- Barton Hills playground, 5 percent
- Walnut Creek, 5 percent
- Shipe Park, 4 percent
- Brentwood Park, 4 percent
- Alamo Park, 4 percent
- Ramsey Park, 2 percent
- Wooten Park, 2 percent
- Gillis Park, 1 percent
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment
Your A-List: Best Dance Party
This post comes from my wonderful co-worker Deborah Sengupta Stith.
I won’t lie. Back in the day when I was a swilling single and one of just a handful of hip-hop Desis in the city, I used to pretend that Sid Sharda a.k.a. DJ Kurupt was my cousin. By about 11 p.m. each Sunday his weekly party at the Red Fez was packed to capacity and a line of well-dressed club-goers ready to get their groove on stretched down the street. A girl had two choices, patiently wait around (in six inch heels) or try to bust a hustle. I’ve never been known for my patience.
Inside the club a diverse mix of fresh faces and grown and sexy professionals got down and dirty to a consistently slick mix of hip-hop and dancehall spiked with sensual r&b soul. The people were beautiful, the drinks were strong and the dimly lit Middle Eastern-themed club provided ample ambience. It was the hottest singles scene for Austin’s urban set.
A good five years later and Kurupt’s become a fixture on the local hip-hop scene, with his Rush Hour Roll-Out bringing the ATX home every day on Hot 93.3FM and his Sunday show at Red Fez still slamming. Consequently, it’s no surprise that the gig took the title of Best Dance Party with 62 percent of the vote, edging out other Austin faves such as DJ Mel’s Rock the Casbah and the Second Sunday Sock Hop.
Others receiving votes
- Rock the Casbah, 26 percent
- Twist Up at Red Fez, 3 percent
- Second Sunday Sock Hop at Scoot Inn, 2 percent
- Monday Night Jumpoff at Nasty’s, 2 percent
- Boombox ATX at Lucky Lounge, 1 percent
- Deep Sessions with Toddy B at Firehouse Lounge, 1 percent
- Old Skool Sundays at Gruv, 1 percent
- Regression at Elysium, <1 percent
- The Hump at Plush, <1 percent
- Soul Happenings, <1 percent
- Ring the Alarm at The Parish,<1 percent
- Tighten Up! at Beauty Bar, <1 percent
- EZ Action at Beauty Bar, <1 percent
- RockIt, < 1 percent
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment
Your A-List: Best Indian Restaurant
This post comes from my wonderful co-worker Deborah Sengupta Stith.
Taking the title of Best Indian Restaurant with 37 percent of the vote, the food at the Clay Pit, self-described as contemporary Indian cuisine, is somewhat less traditional (and spicy) than some of the restaurants on this list, but flavorful and well-executed nonetheless. The menu boasts lamb, goat and fish specialties, a wide selection of curry dishes and ample options for vegetarians and vegans. They also, naturally, have a full menu of items prepared in the tandoor, a traditional Indian Clay Pit. In the evening the restaurant emphasizes fine dining and as such dinner entrees are presented on the menu with wine pairings and the evening meal will set you back a few dollars. For the frugal gourmet, the daily lunch buffet is a steal, with entrees, sides, salad, naan and dessert running $7.50 on the weekdays and $8.50 on the weekends. The best deal of the day, however is happy hour (in the bar area only) from 4 to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday. There you can nosh away at tasty half-price appetizers while sipping on mango-infused cocktails. Post-workday nirvana.
Others receiving votes
- Bombay Express, 26 percent
- Star of India, 6 percent
- Taj Palace, 4 percent
- Madras Pavilion, 4 percent
- Bombay Bistro, 4 percent
- Bombay Grill, 3 percent
- Sarovar, 3 percent
- Swad, 2 percent
- Indian Palace, 2 percent
- Masala Wok, 2 percent
- India Kitchen, 2 percent
- Shalimar, 2 percent
- Chola, 2 percent
- Tandoori Palace, < 1 percent
- Curry in a Hurry, < 1 percent
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment Categories: Your A-List
Blindsided by Sandra Bullock’s new movie
It’s pretty difficult for me to do this, as I am sure Sandra Bullock and John Lee Hancock, both fellow Texans, are really good people with great intentions, but …
The trailer for “The Blind Side,” the Hancock-helmed movie starring Bullock is simply astounding.
It’s like “Webster” meets “Wildcats.”
Hancock, who directed the Texas-based films “The Alamo” (underrated) and “The Rookie” (solid showing), has taken half of Michael Lewis’ deft, solidly researched book about football in America and the rise of Michael Oher, “The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game,” and seemingly transformed it into a schlocky melodrama where the upper-class Caucasian family is portrayed as a team of superheroes in their rescue of the African-American adolescent. (It is undoubtedly a compelling story, and Oher, now plays for the Baltimore Ravens following an illustrious playing career at Ole Miss. My problem is with the telling — as previewed in this clip — not the story.)
While the trailer does seem to represent the facts of Lewis’ book, as relayed to me by a fan of the work, it has all of the subtlety of a punch to the stomach. And Southern accents as nuanced as a punch to the head. A friend of mine who has read the book and watched the trailer said, “It looks like the movie excises all the intelligence and subtlety of the book … If I were unfamiliar with the source material, I would think from the trailer that the book was some kind of inspirational novel instead of a work of serious sports journalism.”
Careful … it may give you goosebumps … on your vomit.
Permalink | Comments (9) | Post your comment Categories: Movies
Fend off swine flu with booze
As the Russian national soccer team and its fans prepare to head to Wales for a World Cup qualifier next month, the head of the country’s supporter association (VOB), advised fans to booze up in order to fight the dreaded H1N1 swine flu, according to Reuters.
“We urge our fans to drink a lot of Welsh whisky as a form of disinfection,” VOB head Alexander Shprygin told Reuters.
“That should cure all symptoms of the disease.”
And it should do wonders for the Welsh pubs and the acetaminophen industry. Of course, acetaminophen is for wimps. Everyone knows the best way to combat a whisky hangover is more whisky.
From Reuters:
Russia’s Health Ministry has issued a public warning against traveling to Britain because of the spread of the H1N1 virus but Shprygin said he expected at least several hundred fans would go to Wales for the September 9 qualifier in Cardiff.“Health officials say this virus is very dangerous but being a fan myself I can tell you that for a real fan nothing is more important than the well-being of the team,” said Shprygin, who also sits on the executive board of the Russian FA.
“Russian fans don’t fear anything or anybody so this virus will not stand in our way of supporting our team.”
The Russian FA also said health issues should not prevent fans from traveling.
“We don’t want our team to be without any support for such an important match so we urge our fans to go to Wales despite the health warning,” a spokesman said.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Misc.
