Chronic is now your one-stop blog shop for buzz on politics, sports, music, film, television, gaming, technology, design, gay stuff, and – do we even need to say it? – opinion.
Our blogs as you knew them (Earache!, The Score, etc.) still exist – though the news/politics blog is now called "Newsdesk" – and you can still spin off into your own zone of interest if that's your preference.
But now all blog posts will also feed into Chronic, the better to keep you up-to-date on all subjects in the universe – newest on top, just like you like it. Love it, loathe it, but tell us what you think about it. – Cindy Widner
Good Lord, I love a good lesbian audience. While the boys were seeing Before I Forget (Jacques Nolot, 2007), I snuck in with the ladies to see Drifting Flowers (Zero Chou, 2007), and good thing, too! Three inter-generational story lines are built around a core of characters living in Taiwan. From the precocious May to her blind lounge singer mommy and her 'drogy lover Diego, the characters in Drifting Flowers are memorable and sympathetic.
Perhaps the most interesting storyline is that of aged and Alzheimer-stricken Lily and her former "beard" Yen, who she believes to be her long-time lover Ocean. Lily and Yen need one another, even though their relationship is based on a mistaken identity. Strangely, Lily and Yen find a way to honor those sham marriage vows they took long ago.
The Texas Rollergirls' league season may be over, so that just means the hunt is on for the Women's Flat Track Derby Association's national championship.
Austin's own #5 ranked Texecutioners play host to #9 Detroit Derby Girls tonight. Considering that this is one of the last big bouts for either team before the regional semi-finals (Texas are Houston-bound for the Western Regionals Oct. 3-5, while Detroit head to the Eastern Regionals in Madison, Wi, the following weekend) this will be one of the most eagerly-watched derby match-ups around the nation this weekend.
But that's not all. In a special treat for fans who have always wondered what would happen if the two Rages (Bettie and Flame &) were on the same team, there's the Clash of the Midsummer Night's Dream Teams. It's like the ultimate derby fantasy match-up: two fans won the right to recruit and coach their own teams from any skater not busy on the touring team, as well as design the team motif. So this will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see the Holy Hand Grenades take on the Truckin' Mothers.
Whether you are catching tonight's Foodies' sponsored aGLIFF film, Drifting Flowers 8pm tonight at the Alamo downtown or not, you still have time to hit Buzio's, the club upstairs from the Copa, 217 Congress. Foodies is throwing the Girls on Film afterparty, promising drinks, a DJ, dancing, and a den to get your flirt on. And it's all free. If you don't know what a Foodie is, email Kitty at: beatsagogo@aol.com.
If there is one sure thing it's this: aGLIFF this year kicks ass. I've gone to one or two screenings in years past, but I'll be darned if I don't feel like a kid in a candy store this year. There are so many tremendous films – and very few of the typical gay cinema fare – boy/girl coming out of the closet, or even worse, the perfect bodied-gay/lesbian extended sex scenes. Now, don't get me wrong, I like sex scenes, sometimes I wish that the gay and lesbian community didn't feel like there was one appropriate body-type and ethnicity to have sex with (i.e. muscular and white).
If you're anything like The Hustle, you caught some of the Republican National Convention – albeit probably peering between your fingers, eyeing the screen in nauseated disbelief. If you didn't catch it, The Hust' recaps the RNC while recuperating at conservatism's spiritual home – the golf course. Featuring John McCain, Sarah Palin, Mitt Romney and more.
Whose doesn't after this week? Oh, yeah, not just mine. Not just yours, but Ann & Nancy Wilson's.
See, the GOP is playing their song. The song that made Heart – the Wilson sisters' band from Seattle – superstars, and the song that ironically was launched way back in their 70s heyday by Columbia Records after a lawsuit with their original record company, Mushroom, which used specific images of the sisters in a certain context without their permission.
Well, guess what? Apparently, the GOP never asked the Wilson sister's permission to use "Barracuda" (Little Queen, 1977, Columbia Records) as an image booster for their vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin (whose nickname in high school was apparently Sarah "Barracuda").
The Wilson sisters are pissed. They had originally asked their music not be used. But it was used again, so the sisters and their publishing concerns sent the McCain campaign a cease-and-desist letter. The song was originally written as a "scathing rant against the soulless, corporate nature of the music business, particularly for women… There's irony in Republican strategists' choice to make use of it there," according to Nancy's statement to Entertainment Weekly: "I think it's completely unfair to be so misrepresented. I feel completely fucked over."
Edge of Heaven (Faith Akin, 2007) was the perfect choice for an opening night film at the Austin Gay and Lesbian International Film Festival. It showcased some of the strengths of this year's award-winning program – a strong international representation paired with powerful characters and storylines that aren't in the slightest derivative. At this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Edge of Heaven won best screenplay, and deservedly so. The film plays out the connections (both real and missed) between an ensemble of Turkish and German citizens: A revolutionary, a university student, a prostitute, a bookstore owner. Each turns to another for comfort, security, love – and sometimes find their needs left unfulfilled.
The "gay connection" was not the focus of the film, which was, quite honestly, refreshing. Instead, the relationship that develops between the young Turkish revolutionary, Ayten (Nurgul Yesilcay) and her university student girlfriend, Lotte (Patrycia Ziolkowska) is but one of many complicated and provocative relationships.
Everyone knows she was pro-choice, right? Voted for the 1967 UK Abortion Act, which made terminations available on the NHS? Knew that, right?
After it became patently clear that no Clinton supporter fell for the "Hey, if you kinda squint, Sarah Palin looks like Hillary" ruse, there's a new political comparison doing the rounds. The Alaskan governor is the new Margaret Thatcher. Yeah, that should get the base out. After all, everyone loves the former British prime minister, right?
Except those that know her best. Many British people (and let's be very, very, very clear on this) hate Thatcher, aka "Thatcher the Milk Snatcher" (so called because she ended free milk in schools. Apparently calcium deficiency is good for the free market.)
Of course American conservatives love her. On personal responsibility, it was Thatcher who claimed, "There is no such thing as society," then shoved through economic reforms that saw the greatest increase in the divide between rich and poor in a century (so what if she also oversaw two recessions, eh?) She shifted the emphasis in the tax base from a gradated income tax to value added tax, the UK's sales tax, which she shoved up from 8% to 17%. For the first time ever, people had to pay tax on their utilities. And that's just for starters.
… keep beating up on public schools in your campaign, like you're doing right now in your RNC speech. Because that issue has been such a winner for your party here in Texas. It's the main reason the GOP went from complete dominance of the Texas House to barely hanging on over the past two election cycles, currently within five seats of losing control.
Message to Code Pink and Other Protesters Inside the Convention:
You're not helping. Every time the cameras show one of you interrupting McCain and being dragged off screaming, a few more Americans decide to vote for him.
If you’re one of those brave souls who shows their face in public on South Congress on Sunday morning, you probably go to the Sinner’s Brunch at Jo’s. This Sunday from 12:30-3pm, a special performance benefits our beloved Jon Dee Graham and the myriad medical expenses that came after his car crash in July.
The folks at Sweet Leaf Tea Company will be selling “Something Wonderful Lemonade” and “Big Sweet Life Tea,” with youthful vendors Henry Ames (age 9), Oliver Ames (age 5), and Patch Pape (age 9) to dole it out. Amy’s Ice Cream created “Jon Dee Honey Graham” ice cream and will offer it to attendees. Tina Rose & the Jo’s Band perform, and a Jon Dee merch table will have CDs for sale. All proceeds from the event benefit the Graham family.
When I read that Jon Dee’s accident occurred after he fell asleep while driving home from a gig, my blood iced. It’s the nightmare of all musicians, and no one talks about what it’s like to drive home late after a gig, drained of energy, tired of the day, distracted by what’s next, and lulled into sleepiness by the white lines dotting your route. “Playing for fun” is the way most folks view musicians, even those they intellectually know work hard and make little money at it. I always think of the late Ginger Shults, VP of the local musicians union, who said, “If you think this is fun, you try loading out of the Elephant Room at 3am!”
“I certainly don’t sit around and think about things that happened 15 or 20 years ago,” he shrugs casually. Yet two decades after cutting Mudhoney’s debut 7-inch “Touch Me I'm Sick” b/w “Sweet Young Thing Ain't Sweet No More,” a crude, Stooges-inspired anthem that practically sealed the fate of the grunge movement, life is coming full circle for Arm.
Sub Pop reissued Mudhoney’s Superfuzz Bigmuff to commemorate both parties’ platinum anniversaries, and Arm reunited with Seattle stalwarts Green River for the label’s accompanying bash. (The band’s Dry as a Bone EP was the indie’s first non-compilation release.) He even found time to crank out a new LP with his garage-blues side project the Monkeywrench. Most importantly, Mudhoney’s latest, The Lucky Ones, is perhaps the band’s most stripped-down and lethal work since 1991’s Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge. Arm’s time is now.
Carnivalesque Films releases Orphans on DVD on Sept. 30.
Without a doubt, it's a sucky time for a true indie film to get any kind of traditional distribution deal. There are a lot of people currently trying to rethink how to get those indies out into the world (and leading the vanguard is former South by Southwest director Matt Dentler). Also fighting the good fight? Filmmaking partners and SXSW regulars Ashley Sabin and David Redmon.
Sabin and Redmon not too long ago founded Carnivalesque Films in order to continue producing and distributing their own films, but also to pick up and distribute other indie gems – what Sabin described in a recent e-mail as "great films that [are] usually RIP after the festival circuit."
Carnivalesque first released Redmon's Mardi Gras: Made in China on July 29 in stores and at online rental sites, and now the company is distributing Orphans, a family drama which won the special jury award at SXSW 07 and is directed by Ry Russo-Young (she played Hannah's roommate in Hannah Takes the Stairs – and, honestly, who needs six degrees when you've got South By smack in the center?).
Orphans will be released Sept. 30. In October, Carnivalesque will release Austinite Sam Douglas and Paul Lovelace's documentary The Holy Modal Rounders: Bound to Lose.
