Home > The M.O. > Archives > 2010 > February
February 2010
Honestly, I don’t give a damn where you are
I’m not going to sit here and get all preachy about the unnecessary oversharing of social media. I use Facebook (though my usage is dwindling) and Twitter regularly, and once did the same with Friendster and MySpace. It helps me stay in touch with friends, allowed me to send my first electronic message to the woman who would become my girlfriend and it gives me a platform to disseminate certain of my blogs posts — about which I am sure all my friends are thrilled.
While I have gotten use to the mundane status updates and Tweets (and know I can be guilty of the same), the one thing I have not quite come to accept or tolerate is the “location update.” You know: “So-and-so just checked in to Amy’s Ice Cream, 1012 West 6th Street.” I am not sure how these apps work, and I don’t really understand their value, except to pimp the businesses being mentioned, giving them social currency. Outside of being somewhat obnoxious, it seems they would also give followers or friends a way to track (stalk) your every move. Do we really need that? Is it for people to play coy about wanting to be surrounded by others but not having the nerve to ask for their company? Has the Internet, which turned people into shut-in extroverts, now using mobile power to turn them into awkward public extroverts? Am I just a grumpy ol’ late adopter?
Whatever the case, I’m not so intolerant that I have de-friended (Facebook) or stopped following people (Twitter) the way some of my friends have. But I am growing close.
Well, if the techie soothsayers are right, there’s a possibility that I’m going to have a lot fewer friends or folks I am following. According to MG Siegler at TechCrunch, “location will be this year’s Twitter at SXSW.” Great.
From the post:
Based on what I’ve been hearing, basically at the major players in the location-based space have big things planned for this year’s SXSW. Foursquare hopes to have a new, completely overhauled version of its iPhone app ready for the event this year. They are also likely to have a huge batch of new badges for people to collect throughout the week. Meanwhile, Gowalla has a large event of its own, complete with special VIP access if you use the service throughout the conference. The SXSW conference is also highlighting the Austin-based Gowalla as a key tool on its own pages. A newer startup, Plancast (started by TechCrunch alum Mark Hendrickson ? think “Foursquare For The Future”), has already put together a helpful unofficial SXSW guide surrounding events during the conference (and actually events for those who aren’t attending too). They also hope to have their iPhone app ready in time for the conference.Meanwhile, both Twitter’s and SimpleGeo’s plans are still largely unknown at this point, but both are planning big things, we hear. Twitter could use the event to launch its ad platform, and CEO Evan Williams is giving the keynote on Monday.And then, of course, there is Facebook. While they’re sniffing around Loopt right now, could they use the conference to talk a bit more about their location plans?
Of course, for all my bluster, just as I reluctantly came to Twitter and Facebook years after their launch, I am sure I will end up eventually being sucked into this nonsense. But, I hope not. In fact, this is it. “I’m talking about drawing a line in the sand, Dude. Across this line, you I DO NOT.”
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5 Questions With … Frank V. Ross, director of ‘Audrey the Trainwreck’
Using a five-question format, we’re interviewing South by Southwest filmmakers about their movies before and during the festival, which runs March 12 through 20.
Here, we talk to Frank V. Ross, director of the feature “Audrey the Trainwreck,” an intimate portrayal of the ennui and frustration suffered by 30-somethings stuck in a rut on the path most traveled. (Composer John Medeski jumps in at the end, as well, for his thoughts on the film’s score.)
“Audrey the Trainwreck” screens at 12:00 PM on Monday, March 15 at the Alamo Ritz and again at 11:30 a.m. on March 17 at Alamo South Lamar.
Have you worked an office job similar to the one Ron works in the film?
Frank V. Ross: No, my friend did. I went to her office to record some sound and when noon struck she pulled a box of wheat thins from her desk drawer and waited for me to be done so she could go to lunch. I don’t know why I thought it was so funny, all she said to justify her squirrel-like behavior was “People eat’em.” That element of office jobs is the interesting part for me. The decision to make it an ATM parts business was simply because I’m pretty sure there won’t be ATMs in 20 years.
Do you think most people hate their jobs?
Slippery. There has to be times we hate them, times we notice and verbalize that this sh** is getting old. Fleeting moments of anger and hate should be cultivated, because in those moments, we’re capable of so much. I’ve worked jobs I hate for the better part of my life and can’t claim to understand all people, but I know I’m not the only one letting jet run up my butt.
How do you go about making the mundane interesting?
The mundane gets a bad rap. Ron gets a cup of coffee from the same place everyday. That’s taken from someone I know, and probably someone else that you know or even you. My friend gets a coffee from the gas station every morning and I was incredulous when I found out - “Every morning?” “Every morning for the past eight or nine years.” It felt so private, this part of his everyday life that I was so oblivious too. So much of the mundane is never spoken about out loud, it makes it interesting to capture it.
How do you choose the scenes you use to show day-to-day life and how stultifying it can be? And how do you avoid unauthentic moments?
Film language has its established way of showing repetition, routine, and the resulting internal rage. In Audrey, I tried to show it in the ellipses of each moment. More than aiming for ‘authentic’ as a goal, which would result in its own kind of fake, I try to strip away anything that feels typical, or put there because it has to be to solve narrative problems. The unauthentic is only allowed in when you play smarter than the audience.
One song into the film, I wrote in my notes “funky piano, Medeski-esque” … then come to see that it was, in fact, (jazz pianist) John Medeski. How did you come to work with John and can you talk about that process?
No one else sounds like that guy, right? He’s the best. I’m just a fan, he had seen my previous film and liked it. I think the way I wanted to go about scoring the movie appealed to him. Didn’t want him to write anything, we’d watch the clips, John would play what he felt and I would jump up and down clapping when I liked something. He honed everything into a piece that he could recreate but still play around with. It’s amazing to see someone with complete communication within themselves between their imagination and what they can create.
John Medeski: For me, the process was natural and very fast. We worked together as I recorded the music, which helped a lot. Frank had completely clear vague ideas about what he was looking for. Perfect for me. He would give a general description of the style of what he was feeling for the scene and i would try a few things until he said, ‘yes….yes………yes.’ We would throw down a couple of versions with some different options and move on to the next scene. Without getting into any musical terminology, Frank communicated what he was looking for in a way that i could really understand. It was fun. i hope he calls me again after he gets all famous.
Audrey the Trainwreck (first trailer) from David Lowery on Vimeo.
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Could Thom Yorke be coming to SXSW?
It was just announced that Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke and Atoms For Peace, the band he formed to play “The Eraser” (and other) material, will be doing a mini-tour in the U.S. starting the first week of April. Naturally, the band won’t be coming to Austin. Hell, Yorke hasn’t been to Austin since 1995, when Radiohead played with R.E.M. and Natalie Merchant. Yea, it’s been awhile.
So, Thom … why not get to the states a little early to get over your jetlag and do some rehearsing with your band? You guys could rent out the Hotel St. Cecilia for weeks, grub on some vegan fare, get some sun for that pasty skin of yours, rejuvenate yourself in Barton Springs and make the Metallica surprise show of a year ago look like a drop-in by Bob Schneider at the Saxon.
Sure, this is a festival for unsigned bands (allegedly), and you need the exposure about as badly as (insert analogy here about something that doesn’t need something) blah blah blah … but, whatever.
Everyone is expecting Muse to show up at Stubb’s in the midst of their Texas dates and knock everyone’s socks off, so why not one-up them. Seriously, in the tweeted words of former SXSW Film guru Matt Dentler, “Muse is only popular because people wish Radiohead still made albums like ‘The Bends.’”
(For the record, I give this pie-in-the-sky booking about 1/100 odds. Or, as my buddy Tom said, there’s also a chance Johnny Cash and George Harrison are coming.)
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Jim Morrison is coming to SXSW
It’s hard to believe that it’s been almost two decades since Oliver Stone’s “The Doors” hit big screens and provided for an entire generation the portrait of boozed-up, womanizing, quasi-mystic.
Nineteen years later, director Tom DiCillo (who directed “Living in Oblivion” and served as director of photography on Jim Jarmusch’s “Coffee and Cigarettes”) brings to SXSW “When You’re Strange,” a documentary featuring previously unseen footage that shows another side of the Los Angeles-based band and its iconic frontman, Jim Morrison. If that’s not enough to make all the men who want to be him and the women who want to be with him swoon, the doc is narrated by Johnny Depp. (Does this mean we can expect Red River in 2011 to be littered with wannabe-Morrisons, dressed in leather pants, drunk on whiskey and openly reciting LSD-inspired poetry? Would that be an upgrade?)
Check out the trailer here. Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek says in an interview that this new documentary “will tell the real story of The Doors, unlike the Oliver Stone story of The Doors, which is sort of Oliver Stone in leather pants, as opposed to Jim Morrison.” Zing. Manzarek goes on to call Stone’s version, “a gross exaggeration … a cutting together of Jim’s drunken moments that show Jim as absurd, rebellious and wild.”
Check out Manzarek and Doors guitarist Robbie Krieger playing “Riders on the Storm” at the Gibson house at Sundance in 2009. If Manzarek and Krieger could head up to Utah to jam, I think it would only be right for them to jam in Austin.
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Tweet thoughts on the robot known as Tiger Woods
For those of you not following me on Twitter, well, you’re probably a lot happier for it. By which I mean to say, follow me. But, if you don’t, below are the real-time thoughts I had on the extremely weird public statement Tiger Woods just made to a collection of sycophants, er, the press, his family and friends.
- Man, this whole Lieger Woods thing, naturally, is going to be so phony and ridiculous and over-managed. 10:02 a.m.
- He’s more awkward than Bobby jindal the last time the republican party let him give the party’s public response to a presidential address 10:05 a.m.
- Creeeeepy, angry robot tiger says elin did not hit him that night or ever. Said in tiger voice: “this. Is. Weird.” 10:07 a.m.
- Tiger sounds like one of those aliens in the 80s TV show “V” trying to sound human. How did this written response take 3 months to write? 10:08 a.m.
- “It’s not what you achieve in life that matters, it’s what you overcome.” tiger then says he’ll chase Nicklaus’s record playing as a lefty 10:10 a.m.
- I wonder if he had printed in bold the words where he is supposed to be showing indignation. Now for Buddhism talk.Tiger is becoming a monk! 10:13 a.m.
- Gary Condit thought that was weird. Seeya at the British open, Tiger. 10:16 a.m.
What follows is Tiger’s complete statement, as provided by CBS News:
Good morning, and thank you for joining me.Many of you in this room are my friends. Many of you in this room know me. Many of you have cheered for me, you worked with me, or you supported me. Now every one of you has good reason to be critical of me. I want to say to each of you, simply and directly, I am deeply sorry for my irresponsible and selfish behavior I engaged in.
I know people want to find out how I could be so selfish and so foolish. People want to know how I could have done these things to my wife, Elin, and to my children. And while I have always tried to be a private person, there are some things I want to say.
Elin and I have started the process of discussing the damage caused by my behavior. As Elin pointed out to me, my real apology to her will not come in the form of words. It will come from my behavior over time. We have a lot to discuss. However, what we say to each other will remain between the two of us.
I am also aware of the pain my behavior has caused to those of you in this room. I have let you down. And I have let down my fans. For many of you, especially my friends, my behavior has been a personal disappointment. To those of you who work for me, I have let you down personally and professionally. My behavior has caused considerable worry to my business partners, to everyone involved in my foundation, including my staff, board of directors, sponsors, and most importantly, the young students we reach. Our work is more important than ever. Thirteen years ago, my dad and I envisioned helping young people achieve their dreams through education. This work remains unchanged and will continue to grow. From the Learning Center students in Southern California to the Earl Woods scholars in Washington, D.C., millions of kids have changed their lives and I am dedicated to making sure that continues.
But still, I know I have bitterly disappointed all of you. I have made you question who I am and how I could have done the things I did. I’m embarrassed that I have put you in this position. For all that I have done, I am so sorry. I have a lot to atone for.
But there’s one issue I really want to discuss. Some people have speculated that Elin somehow hurt or attacked me on Thanksgiving night. It angers me that people would fabricate a story like that. Elin never hit me that night or any other night. There has never been an episode of domestic violence in our marriage, ever. Elin has shown enormous grace and poise throughout this ordeal. Elin deserves praise, not blame. The issue involved here was my repeated irresponsible behavior. I was unfaithful. I had affairs, I cheated. What I did is not acceptable. And I am the only person to blame.
I stopped living by the core values that I was taught to believe in. I knew my actions were wrong, but I convinced myself that normal rules didn’t apply. I never thought about who I was hurting. Instead I thought only about myself. I ran straight through the boundaries that a married couple should live by. I thought I could get away with whatever I wanted to. I felt that I had worked hard my entire life and deserved to enjoy all the temptations around me. I felt I was entitled. Thanks to money and fame, I didn’t have far - I didn’t have to go far to find them. I was wrong, I was foolish. I don’t get to play by different rules. The same boundaries that apply to everyone apply to me. I brought this shame on myself. I hurt my wife, my kids, my mother, my wife’s family, my friends, my foundation, and kids all around the world who admired me.
I’ve had a lot of time to think about what I’ve done. My failures have made me look at myself in a way I never wanted to before. It’s now up to me to make amends, and that starts by never repeating the mistakes I’ve made. It’s up to me to start living a life of integrity.
I once heard, and I believe it’s true, it’s not what you achieve in life that matters; it’s what you overcome. Achievements on the golf course are only part of setting an example. Character and decency are what really count. Parents used to point at me as a role model for their kids. I owe all those families a special apology. I want to say to them that I am truly sorry.
It’s hard to admit that I need help, but I do. For 45 days, from the end of December to early February, I was in in-patient therapy receiving guidance for the issues I’m facing. I have a long way to go. But I’ve taken my first steps in the right direction.
As I proceed, I understand people have questions. I understand the press wants me to - wants to ask me for the details of the times I was unfaithful. I understand people want to know whether Elin and I will remain together. Please know that as far as I’m concerned, every one of these questions, and answers, is a matter between Elin and me. These are issues between a husband and a wife.
Some people have made up things that never happened. They said I used performance-enhancing drugs. This is completely and utterly false.
Some have written things about my family. Despite the damage I have done, I still believe it is right to shield my family from the public spotlight. They did not do these things; I did. I have always tried to maintain a private space for my wife and children. They have been kept separate from my sponsors, from my commercial endorsements. When my children were born, we only released photographs so that the paparazzi could not chase them. However, my behavior doesn’t make it right for the media to follow my two-and-a-half-year-old daughter to school and report the school’s location. They staked out my wife and they pursued my mom. Whatever my wrongdoings, for the sake of my family: Please leave my wife and kids alone.
I recognize I have brought this on myself, and I know, above all, I am the one who needs to change. I owe it to my family to become a better person. I owe it to those closest to me to become a better man. That’s where my focus will be. I have a lot of work to do, and I intend to dedicate myself to doing it.
Part of following this path for me is Buddhism, which my mother taught me at a young age. People probably don’t realize it, but I was raised a Buddhist, and I actively practiced my faith from childhood until I drifted away from it in recent years. Buddhism teaches that a creation of things outside ourselves causes an unhappy and pointless search for security. It teaches me to stop following every impulse and to learn restraint. Obviously, I lost track of what I was taught.
As I move forward, I will continue to receive help because I’ve learned that’s how people really do change. Starting tomorrow, I will leave for more treatment and more therapy. I would like to thank my friends at Accenture and the players in the field this week for understanding why I’m making these remarks today. In therapy, I’ve learned the importance of looking at my spiritual life and keeping in balance with my professional life. I need to regain my balance and be centered, so I can say the things that are most important to me: My marriage and my children. That also means relying on others for help. I learned to seek support from my peers in therapy, and I hope someday to return that support to others who are seeking help.
I do plan to return to golf one day. I just don’t know when that day will be. I don’t rule out that it will be this year. When I do return, I need to make my behavior more respectful of the game.
In recent weeks, I have received many thousands of e-mails, letters and phone calls from people expressing good wishes. To everyone who has reached out to me and my family, thank you. Your encouragement means the world to Elin and me. I want to thank the PGA Tour, Commissioner Finchem, and the players for their patience and understanding while I work on my private life. I look forward to seeing my fellow players on the course.
Finally, there are many people in this room, and there are many people at home who believed in me. Today I want to ask for your help. I ask you to find room in your heart to one day believe in me again.
Thank you.
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Interview: Tim Conway
His best-known character is a diminutive, faux Scandinavian golf ‘expert’ and many of the characters he portrayed as an Emmy-winning comedic actor on ‘The Carol Burnett Show’ had him costumed in such a way as to make his face memorable if not immediately recognizable. You know him. You just might not know how you know him. He is that guy.
For 50 years the comedian has relished his regular role of second banana, entertaining TV and film audiences with his absurd shtick, never playing it straight but always keeping it clean.
We spoke with the affable native Midwesterner from his home in California last week in advance of his two-night stint at the Paramount Theatre this weekend.
The M.O.: How’re you?
Tim Conway: Not well. But, I guess you’ve got problems, so you don’t want to be listening in on mine.
Which one of us should lay down on the couch?
Yea, right.
Will this be your first time in Austin?
No, as a matter of fact, I spent quite a bit of time in Austin. We had a couple of pieces of property there for awhile, so we would run in and out. Beautiful city. And, obviously now, you guys are one of the top five cities to live in in this country.
Yea, it’s a fun place to be.
Yea, fortunately, we sold everything before it really became valuable. So, we got out of there, boy.
Before your career in entertainment … the U.S. Army doesn’t seem like the best place for a cut-up …
Ah, you noticed that? Yea, I spent a little extra time in the Army for cutting up. They had no sense of humor whatsoever.
How did you reconcile or use your humor in that case?
Well, I was on guard duty one night. And it didn’t make much sense to me, because it was in Seattle at Fort Lewis and I was guarding the service club - you know ping pong balls and stuff like that - during peace time. So, I happened to get in the back of a car and I feel asleep and then I noticed, ‘Oh, God, it’s time for the guy to come around, the lieutenant.’ So, you’re supposed to point your rifle at him and say, ‘Halt. Advance and be recognized,’ and everything. So I ran out to go to the place where I was supposed to meet these people, and I noticed that I had forgotten my rifle. And they’re kinda sticky about that. So, I went to a dumpster and pulled out one of those long neon light tubes, and when the guy came around the corner I said ‘Halt. Advance and be recognized,’ and he started giving me his name and rank and all that. Then he said, ‘Wait a minute. What is that?’ And I said, ‘It’s a light bulb and if you come any closer I’m gonna turn it on.’ And then I got to paint rocks white and put them along the driveway for a long time.
When you started on the Steve Allen show, you had no formal training as an actor or comedian. Did that make you nervous or do you think that benefited you?
I think it benefited me because I wasn’t really that concerned about whether anyone ever liked me or not. I was working at a local station in Cleveland with a guy named Ernie Anderson, who became really popular in Cleveland … and I was actually directing the show at the time, and we were supposed to have a movie and a guest. And the show was so bad at the time we couldn’t get any guests. And I never did figure out how to back-time a movie so that it would end at 10 o’clock; so the first week we didn’t have any endings to the movies, and people would call and say, ‘Hey, what happened here?’ And I said, ‘It’s ‘Citizen Kane.’ It’s a sled. Get over it.’ So it kinda got to be an inside thing because the show was really a disaster. But it got to be funnier because nothing was working. And we couldn’t get the guests, so this guy would introduce me as a guest and come out as a bullfighter or a trumpet player and away we’d go doing these stupid little sketches.
After Steve’s show you ended up on the Carol Burnett Show. Did it ever feel like a risk being as absurd as you were on that show?
She’s probably the most generous star you can find. Most stars, if something funny happens on the show, they say ‘I’ll be doing that.’ But Carol said let’s just have fun and see how long we can go with this thing. And that’s what we did. And, Harvey (Korman), of course, being a very bad performer, laughing all the time - I don’t know how they ever hired him - was an easy target for me. I was a writer on the show, so I’d write one thing and say something else, and he never knew where we were going with the thing, so I’d kinda leave him in the dark. We just couldn’t wait to get there on Monday for the next week. It was really a lot of fun to do.
The entertainment you guys did on that show was very family-friendly. Were you ever cognizant of trying to play to the broadest audience?
You know, in those days, you didn’t even think to have a hint of anything off-color or nudity or violence. There were 17 variety shows on at the time. So, variety was the place to be. It was like vaudeville. I was offered a lot of things along the way, but I never wanted to do them … Don Knots ended up being a close friend of mine, and Don had the same approach to comedy as I did: You just do good, clean humor and funny stuff and you don’t have to apologize at the end of the show. So, what we’re doing now with these shows is pretty much the same thing, where you just do family-type comedy and you get an audience that you don’t have to apologize to. So that was really my goal in life … They send me stuff that’s unbelievable. How anyone can …. Not that I’m a prude — I should probably be in Levenworth, really, in my personal life - but, I don’t know how in the hell you can say, ‘Oh yea, this will be good. I can do this.’ I’m not gonna name any shows, we’re all aware of what they are. But I saw a show the other night - that if I was watching it with my family, in the days when we were watching Sid Caesar, they not only would cringe, they’d have a heart attack. So, it’s changed considerably.
And I think television has kind of shut off people that come from the era that we did, where it was really fun for fun and television was part of the family. You had to watch it with the whole family, cause there was no tape or anything; so if you wanted to talk about the show the next day, you had to watch it. And there was only usually one set in the house, so everybody would gather around. You can’t gather around with your kids now days because you never know what’s gonna jump out at you. Steve Allen asked me to be part of the Parent Television Council — and they’re not burning scripts or anything, they’re just trying to get all this crap to at least after 10 o’clock so that the kids aren’t sitting around the television set watching this. And, I said, ‘Steve, in my personal life … I shouldn’t be throwing rocks … I shouldn’t even be going toward the rock pile at all.’ And he said, ‘We’re not trying to restrict writers from writing whatever they want to write, but just put it in a time where the kids aren’t watching.’
You kinda strike me as an absurdist Garrison Keillor…
He’s one of my favorites, incidentally. Also, one of my favorite comedians was Richard Pryor. Richard obviously used the (foul) language in his act, but Richard was also adept to do characters that he had seen in life. The guy was brought up in a house of prostitution where you don’t say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ so much. So, his language, real was part of his life. I really thought that he was an exceptional talent. So, it’s not that I’m opposed to (blue humor), but put it in the right venue.
What’s the key to successful physical comedy?
The combination of words and body movement. You look at singers, and you know the ones that have rhythm. Tony Bennett, to me, is an example of a great, great singer but is kind of a little stiff. Sinatra was a guy who had it all together. He not only was the best singer ever, but his body moved with what he was singing and talking about. And you just don’t notice the movements when a guy is really flowing. And I think that’s the secret to comedy. Most comedians will say that it’s like leading an orchestra, as far as an audience. You look for crescendos and you look for low spots, and you know you’re building toward this big joke where there’s gonna be this big laugh. And that’s kinda how you take people along the way.
In talking about Bennett and Sinatra, it almost sounds like the difference between being a boxer and being a puncher.
Absolutely.
I doubt you ever imagined back in 1960 that you’d still be doing comedy 50 years later.
I didn’t imagine I’d ever be doing this. I started out to be a jockey; that was my goal. My dad was training horses in Cleveland — he’d come from Ireland as a whip, which is the guy who would keep hounds in line on Saturdays. And, as you know, if you look out in your backyard, not too many whips go by on Saturdays. So he ended up working with horses; so I would go to the track and he’d let me gallop these horses around the track. If I hadn’t fallen off as much as I did, and been totally frightened of these animals, I think I probably would have been a pretty good jockey. But, they were picking me up a lot out there.
Sounds kind of like your Dorf bit. Speaking of Ireland, I wonder if the pathos of the Irish has had any influence on your comedy or world view.
Just that I would have a drink immediately after the show. That, I think, was the only connection.
What: An Evening With Tim Conway
When: Friday, February 19 and Saturday, February 20 at 8 p.m.
Where: Paramount Theatre
Tickets: $45 - $110
More info.: www.austintheatre.org
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Your A-List: Neighborhood Hangout
It hasn’t been open quite five years yet, but Doc’s Motorworks on South Congress Avenue already feels like a neighborhood institution, with its massive (and usually crowded) patio an ideal place for sipping cold beer and people watching on warm days.
The former car maintenance shop lures regulars with daily beer and happy hour specials and Texican grub that doesn’t deserve the tag of ‘bar food.’ After the success of their original SoCo location, the Doc’s folks put up a shingle down south in the form of Doc’s Backyard, a slightly more rustic version that appears to have scored with the locals using the same recipe as its big brother near downtown.
Others receiving votes
Crown and Anchor, 13 percent
Mean Eyed Cat, 11 percent
Pluckers, 9 percent
Spiderhouse, 8 percent
Billy’s on Burnet, 7 percent
Rio Rita, 6 percent
Posse East, 4 percent
Cain and Abel’s, 4 percent
Quack’s, 2 percent
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Your A-List: Best Smoothies
Thanks to their dedication to freshness and the relationship they have cultivated with their loyal following, it’s hard to de-thrown a Your A-List champ like the Daily Juice.
The purveyors of fresh (often organic) juices, smoothies and raw cuisine took home 41 percent of the vote to repeat as winners this year. In the interest of full disclosure, I am good friends with the owners of the shop which originated on Barton Springs Road and has since expanded to include a Lake Austin Boulevard location and the Daily Juice Cafe in Hyde Park (45th Street and Duval St.).Following their victory, I reached out to co-owner Matt Shook about the Daily Juice win.
“You got to fresh squeeze to truly please, from the froths to the juice to frozen smoothies,” he said. “Thanks, Austin. We think you have extremely good taste.”
Others receiving votes Whole Foods, 17 percent Amy’s, 11 percent Central Market, 9 percent Jungle Juice, 7 percent Maui Wowi, 4 percent Wheatsville, 3 percent MamboBerry, 3 percent Flipnotics, 3 percent Zoombaz , 3 percent Jamba Juice, 3 percent
Photo by Annie Ray FOR AMERICAN-STATESMAN.
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Your A-List: Best Spa
Milk + Honey in the 2nd Street District has one of those storefronts that just makes you feel more relaxed when you walk by it, with its amber hues beckoning you to come in and be pampered.
Located in the heart of downtown, Milk + Honey, which received 53 percent of the vote, feels like a true urban retreat, specializing in making you feel like the queen (or king) of the concrete jungle. The sleek-yet-comfortable spa which offers massages, facials, body treatments, and natural nail therapy is often praised for its great service and attention to detail.
Others receiving votes
Lake Austin, 15 percent
AZIZ, 13 percent
Mecca, 5 percent
Barton Creek, 3 percent
The Crossings, 3 percent
Four Seasons, 3 percent
Salon 505, 3 percent
Jackson Ruiz, 1 percent
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SXSW releases grid of showcase performances
Check out our staff’s early impressions of the SXSW schedule here.
Well, there goes the afternoon. SXSW has released its showcasing band grid, so let the planning, plotting, complaining, scheming, screaming, rejoicing and retreating begin.
Check out the grid here.
As the day unfolds, Statesman and Austin360 staff will be picking over the list to find some of our favorite venues/groupings.
MORE SXSW
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Restaurant critic kicked out of a restaurant for being critical
Some of my friends give me hell for being picky about my food. It’s true that I’ve sent back limp French fries or an under- or over-cooked piece of meat. I don’t make a habit of it by any means, and I think my friends are exaggerating and just like to give me hell regardless the situation.
But, when I do send something back, I always do it politely and without causing a scene. And I’ve always been treated with respect equal to the respect I show the restaurant’s staff.
Good thing I don’t live in Houston or dine at Jonathan’s The Rub.
Alison Cook, the restaurant critic at the Houston Chronicle was recently kicked out of the aforementioned restaurant for sending back an overcooked steak. And, here’s the rub (pun intended), she was kicked out not by an under-trained server or a lippy food runner, but by the owner himself.
The entire incident began when Cook informed her server that her $34 steak au poivre was not cooked medium-rare. The server informed chef-owner Jonathan Levine who responded indignantly. He then hostilely offered to re-cook the steak. Cook was reluctant, as would I have been, to let a resentful person take her food back to the privacy of the kitchen. Then, it was on.
After some back and forth with Levine, at which point she admittedly became steamed, Cook was asked to leave the restaurant. To his (very, very) slight credit, Levine offered to comp the entire meal, but Cook and her guest would not accept the “courtesy.”
The incident led to some back and forth on the Houston radio airwaves and much commenting on Cook’s blog, on which she was rather modest and borderline contrite, which seems completely unnecessary in this case. Levine, in part, attributed his response to being a New Yorker.
Well, Jonathan, chalk this one up to “when keeping it real goes wrong.”
Check out her entire account of the event on her blog, Cook’s Tour.
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Worst. Date Movies. Ever.
In honor of Valentine’s Day, we built a gallery of some of the best date movies from the last 50 years or so. Which got me thinking … what would be the worst possible movies you could rent or take a date to see very early in a relationship.
While some of the movies on my list of Worst Date Movies are actually pretty good films, for the purposes of my list, they met the criteria: shocking, disturbing, violent or just generally inappropriate.
You can check out my list (compiled with help from all-too-willing co-workers) here.
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Is the end in sight for ‘Friday Night Lights’?
As for Austin-based “Friday Night Lights,” I could never quite commit to putting in the time with the show. I had heard about what a great show it was from people whom I respect, but I could never get around to checking it out until last month, when I borrowed Season One from a friend. Thanks to a head cold and a lot of couch time, I plowed through the first season with vigor. I thought the acting — much of it improvised — was superb, appreciated the multiple-camera style and admittedly enjoyed seeing scenes of Austin. Connie Britton and Kyle Chandler make one of the best married couples in recent TV history, and while some of the younger actors have their weak moments, overall I thought the first season was fantastic. Now, just as I am about to start Season Two (which I have heard takes an unfortunate turn toward the melodramatic), it seems, one again, the show will be off the air before I can catch up all the way.
According to an Entertainment Weekly exclusive, the fifth season of the show will be its last. For those who have not been following the story of the Little Local TV Show That Could, the third and fourth seasons debuted first on DirectTV (Season Four actually ends tonight) before re-airing on NBC (Season Four is scheduled to premiere April 30). Season Five will be premiering on DirectTV in the fall, but, if form holds, likely won’t air on NBC until next year. So, while the end is in sight for the high school football drama, it will still likely be a part of our TV lives for another year or so.
As for me, I can enjoy running out the string as long as I like, I reckon. But, please, no spoilers.
(What follows are a few bullet points from the EW exclusive.)
While there was always the possibility that the critical darling could continue for a sixth season, no one connected to the show really expected it to. In other words, though we may sniffle and sob, the cast and crew have already gotten that out of their system by now.For the show’s MVPs, the timing is great: Pilot season is just kicking off, so the actors are free to attach themselves to new fall shows with no availability issues. As I mentioned, production on season 5 is expected to wrap in June or July, right around the time most broadcast shows start up production. (My God, can you imagine the bidding wars that’ll ensue over the services of Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton?)
The timing of the announcement is also great for behind-the-scenes quarterback Jason Katims and his fellow producers. Now they can call their final plays knowing that they’ll be their final plays.
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Which of these Bonnaroo artists will make it to ACL?
Sure, we haven’t even endured SXSW, so what in the hell am I doing looking forward to the Austin City Limits Festival already? Well, the Bonnaroo lineup is being announced today — actually slowly rolled out on their official site as bands use Twitter, mass emails, MySpace, etc. to make their individual announcements (a lame social media gimmick that is meant to build anticipation and excitement while lining the fest’s pockets with MySpace-partner money but ends up just being a pain in the neck … and seriously, MySpace? What is this 2003?) — and the Tennessee fest is a fairly good indicator of who is making the rounds during the summer. (The fest takes place June 10-13 this year, and tickets can be purchased here.)
Now, obviously not every act playing Bonnaroo is in play for ACL Fest, what with tour conflicts and the fact that ACL is in October, after some bands have already taken a hiatus, but it’s always fun to use the list to guess at what acts may be making their maiden voyage to Zilker Park.
Below is the full list of Bonnaroo acts announced on the first day (with assists from Rolling Stone, MySpace.com/bonnaroo, Billboard, Consequence of Sound and Twitter), with potential first-time ACL acts in bold. Bands with some ties to Austin are in italics. Who do you think will come?
Hot Rize
Miike Snow
Les Claypool
Dan Deacon Ensemble
Michael Franti and Spearhead
The Temper Trap
B.o.B.
Miranda Lambert
Diane Birch
Lucero
Tinariwen
Here We Go Magic
Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue
Aterciopelados
Calexico
John Butler Trio
Kris Kristofferson
LCD Soundsystem
Alison Krauss & Union Station
Mumford and Sons
The Gaslight Anthem
Blitzen Trapper
Martin Sexton
Deadmau5
Rise Against
Julia Nunes
Mew
Stevie Wonder
Kings of Leon
The Dodos
The Melvins
Clutch
Lotus
…And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead
Aeroplane
The Bakerton Group
The Entrance Band
They Might Be Giants
Jamey Johnson
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
Tenacious D
Damian Marley & Nas
Rebelution
The Postelles
Brandi Carlile
Jay Electronica
Macnhester Orchestra
Dropkick Murphys
Local Natives
Dave Rawlings Machine
John Prine
Zac Brown Band
She & Him
Thievery Corporation
Kid Cudi
Dr. Dog
Tokyo Police Club
Blues Traveler
Norah Jones
Regina Spektor
Weezer
OK Go
Jay-Z
Phoenix
Gwar
The XX
Wale
Mayer Hawthorne and the County
Ingrid Michaelson
Dave Matthews Band
Japandroids
The National
Baroness
Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers
Jeff Beck
John Fogerty
Medeski Martin & Wood
Punch Brothers
Isis
Chromeo w/ guest Daryl Hall
The Avett Brothers
Cross Canadian Ragweed
Carolina Chocolate Drops
Big Sam’s Funky Nation
Jimmy Cliff
Tori Amos
Neon Indian
The Black Keys
Monte Montgomery
Bassnectar
The Dead Weather
Disco Biscuits
Baaba Maal
The Constellations
Flaming Lips with Stardeath and White Dwarfs covering “Dark Side of the Moon”
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Free chocolate-covered strawberries
Anyone who has passed down Duval Street north of campus has seen the Hyde Park Grill fork. The sign is almost as much of a neighborhood institution as the fries. I received a message from the fork today (no, my meds are not out of balance), telling me that today the art would be changing atop the sign. Gone are the Longhorns. That’s so January. You can also meet artist Dale Whistler, who is in creative control of the fork’s new ‘do.
But, more importantly, the fork told me that if you stop by the restaurant today between 3:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m., you can get a free chocolate-covered strawberry, a nice taste to get you in the mood for everyone’s (least) favorite holiday next week.
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Café Mundi is closing
The little cafe tucked away by the railroad tracks has been a neighborhood staple — it’s kid-friendly, pet-friendly and, generally, just friendly.
Their Facebook page was updated with the following: “To all Café Mundi patrons, friends, family, and the spirits that surround us. It is our deepest regret to announce the closing of Café Mundi. The final day will be Sunday, March 21st……at this location. We do not see this as an end, but as a new beginning.”
A worker at the cafe recently verified that information, and I am waiting to hear back from ownership about details on the closing and any possible plans, as alluded to in their Facebook post, for the future.
Photos: Scenes from the Café Mundi Halloween party in 2007
Photo by Deborah Sengupta-Stith AMERICAN-STATESMAN
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20% off all beer at Central Market
Hump Day has never tasted so delicious. Beginning tomorrow (Wednesday, Feb. 3), both Central Market locations will be offering 20 percent off each and every beer in stock at the store, from singles to cases. While the Super Bowl is coming up this weekend —- an occasion for much beer drinking — I’m told that the sale is simply a celebration of beer and an opportunity for customers to try some new things. So, while you may be tempted to stock up on Fireman’s 4 or Sierra Nevada, you may also want to get extravagant and put that 20 percent to good use by taking the plunge on a Deus Brut des Flandres, which would usually run you $36.99
The sale runs through Tuesday, Feb. 9. And, remember your shopping etiquette, folks, no pushing.
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UT BCS Championship gear going to Haiti
Every year when a champion is crowned in college and professional sports, team members are swarmed by staff and immediately adorned in T-shirts and hats declaring the athletes champions. And the next day, or sometimes the same night, fans can line up and buy similar gear.
Obviously those hats and T-shirts are not made on the sidelines in the final seconds of the games. They’ve been made in advance. So, what happens to the thousands of pieces of apparel that get made for the eventual losing team?
Well, this year, the 14,000 BCS Champion Longhorn shirts and hats from the University Co-op are going to the relief efforts in Haiti.
“With the terrible tragedy and loss the Haitian people have suffered and are still experiencing, we do realize this donation may not be very high priority for them. However, we all need clothing and this is a small contribution we can make to assist in their recovery,” George H. Mitchell, Co-op President, said.
From a release:
The University Co-op is working with Fashion Delivers Charitable Foundation, Inc. in association with Kids In Distressed Situations, Inc, (K.I.D.S.) to facilitate the transport of the 14,000 shirts & hats to the Haitian community.The Co-op chose this charitable organization due to the operational efficiency, track record and criteria of the items in need, which are all sizes of new clothes for men, women and children. Along with 100% guaranteed arrival to Haiti, the coordination of the distribution to the individual families is well organized and secured. They were also among the recommendations by the Co-op’s fashion consulting firm, The Doneger Group .
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