CORPORAL PUNISHMENT IS A GOOD THING
Somewhere between a Sunday afternoon country store jam session and a psychedelic freakout at the Fillmore, the Asylum Street Spankers loudly ply their trade. A precocious gaggle of virtuosos drawn together for pure shits and giggles, the Spankers have been pleasing the fortunate few (and, occasionally, the lucky multitude) for who knows how long. They…
RETURN TO SENDER
If only he could have arrived by inner tube, Cuban jazz pianist Chucho Valdés could have kept his date in San Antonio. But due to visa problems, Valdés’ and his band — whose performance was anticipated to be the highlight of JazzS’Alive — won’t perform as scheduled at the annual festival. Although Cuban septuagenarian jazz…
THAT LATE-’70s/EARLY ’80s COLUMN
Does it just mean you can’t play? — that doesn’t bode well for the label post-punk. Nevertheless, a host of recent releases cry out for the moniker, harking back to an early ’80s when Television was an inspirational band, not a piece of mind-numbing furniture. Coincidentally, a number of these folks are hitting Texas this…
TUGGING AT THE HARP STRINGS
One night, in my high school years, Charlie Rose, in his CBS years, brought a lunatic, gorgeous jazz harpist on his show. My young, tyro-jazzer heart was smitten, and after calling her in Boston to confess my admiration, I ran out and bought Deborah Henson-Conant’s album On the Rise. Lilting, melodious fusion supported by top-shelf…
EMERGENCY IN TRAUMA
Second-year resident Dr. John Hunter reassures auto accident victim Dawn Bender shortly after her arrival at the trauma center. X-ray technician Chris Vineyard observes while waiting to perform part of the initial exam. Between groans, the driver of the wrecked car asks where her passenger is, while a technician slices the jeans and blouse…
HARRY OF THE SUDAN
Who but a featherbrain would journey thousands of miles from England to the Sudan, cross an oceanic desert alone, fight handto- hand with fierce indigenous warriors, and, in order to rescue a captured comrade, deliberately get himself confined to a prison from which hell would be relief? “All this way for a feather?” asks Trench…
HARRY OF THE SUDAN
Who but a featherbrain would journey thousands of miles from England to the Sudan, cross an oceanic desert alone, fight handto- hand with fierce indigenous warriors, and, in order to rescue a captured comrade, deliberately get himself confined to a prison from which hell would be relief? “All this way for a feather?” asks Trench…
NEW REVIEWS
It was not because they came from Maine that Frank Zappa nicknamed best friends Vinny and Suzette “the Banger sisters.” The girls were groupies, the best-laid fans of music men. “Jim Morrison passed out here one night,” says Suzette (Hawn), pointing to a spot in a Sunset Strip nightclub, “with me under him.” But that…
Armchair Cinephile
As loud and energetic as the music it presents, Scratch (Palm Pictures) documents the current crop of hip-hop DJs with a vibrancy rarely seen in the documentary world. Director Doug Pray punctuates interview footage with edits that mimic the back-and-forth of a turntable — occasionally even running the picture backward — and includes copious footage…
SPECIAL SCREENS
Dir. William Wyler; writ. Dalton Trumbo, Ian McLellan Hunter; feat. Gregory Peck, Audrey Hepburn, Eddie Albert, Hartley Power, Harcourt Williams (UNRATED) All good things must come to an end, they say. Sometimes, we trust, those ends are temporary. TPR closes its latest (but not last) round of “Cinema Tuesdays” this week with a classic fairy…
STILL PLAYING
There are a few jokes in the film’s last hour that don’t involve excretion. You could chop ’em all out, add them to the opening scene, and have a five-minute movie that is every bit as entertaining as the seemingly endless river of excrement that is Goldmember. John DeFore Blue Crush “Bad teen angst on…
THE FLEETING FEELING OF FREEDOM
After they were stopped by authorities while traveling on Highway 75, police searched their cars for 17 hours with dogs and robots, detonated a bit of their personal property, and closed the main east-west artery in Florida’s highway system, stopping commerce and blocking traffic for hours. The police found nothing, and the three men were…
THE FLEECING OF SAN ANTONIO
They do it with money. They communicate. They hire public relations specialists who undertake a full court press. The hired hands appear before various business and community groups — anywhere there is an audience. They are always prepared to pay for advertising in print or on radio and TV. Of course, you can depend on…
