Daily - The Austin Chronicle (2024)

Hotrods, Hell Marys for TXRG Championship

So now it's settled. The Hotrod Honeys will face the Hell Marys for the Texas Rollergirls' championship on August 3.It took the Honeys handing a definitive and season-ending defeat to the Honky Tonk Heartbreakers on Sunday night at Playland Skate Center, in the last pre-championship bout of the season. Coming in, there was a ray of light for the Heartbreakers. If they could not just beat the Honeys, but do it with an 18 point margin, then they would be going to the championship: and 18 points isn't a lot in flat track roller derby. They also had the momentum of a recent 135-116 away win, against the Women's Flat Track Derby Association #25 ranked Mile High Club in Denver, CO on June 13. But the Honeys had the advantage, because anything short of a huge upset put them in striking distance of the title.The Heartbreakers set their crosshairs on one target: Rice Rocket. The Honey's talented jammer, who is talked about in reverential terms in other leagues, had to be denied lead jammer status at all costs. so the Heartbreakers set their own speed demon, Olivia Shootin' John, against Rice whenever they could, and it paid off. In their seven match-ups, she deprived Rice of the all-important lead jammer status three times, which is no mean record.

In Defense Part Deux

So some years back I wrote a positive review about the much-reviled comic book movie Daredevil. I didn’t make any friends with the fanboys for it, I’m sure, and nobody’s gonna hire me as professional prognosticator – I said that its director had written his meal ticket with the picture. (To whatever bunker you’ve burrowed into, Mark Steven Johnson, I send you a half-hearted shrug.***)All that said, there’s something in the Daredevil review that I’d like to reference.Copping to my utter lack of comic book knowledge, I said that all I was looking for in a comic book movie was “a good yarn, punchy action sequences, and a couple of forbidden kisses.”And that’s still, more or less, my criteria for comic book movies – and most other pop entertainments of the action ilk. The best of the bunch – the first two X-Men movies, I would argue – transcend their pop trappings to achieve something more profound. Scratch “transcend” – that suggests that they have to dig themselves out of a genre ghetto. But in these movies, the ones I would argue are art, not simply entertainment, they speak to something about the human condition in a way that is unique to the superhuman.So that's it for now – I cede the soapbox to you, Josh. I'm curious to hear how you defend writing off an entire genre of film.Seriously: What gives?

In Defense (and a Mea Culpa)

Good morning to all, and welcome to our first-ever Film Fight. Not sure what I'm talking about? Go here for a thorough explanation. But in brief: My film critic compadre Josh Rosenblatt and I will spend the week duking it out over comic-book movies. I like 'em; he hates 'em.And … go.Okay, actually, first, a little context before we get the ball rolling:I've never read a comic book before.I, like you, Josh, come at this purely as a filmgoer. We’re not here to argue about which comic book movies show the most fidelity to the source, ‘cause neither of us have a clue – and in that, I think we’re representative of the majority of audiences watching comic book movies. Which is to say, most of us have a glancing relationship to comic books at best.Are we missing some of the nuance? Sure. But a lot of this stuff is so deeply imbedded in our pop culture now that we can get by without knowing the source.So, moving on:I got a beef with your basic argument, Josh. I mean, sure, we’ve all got our biases – neither of one of us will touch torture p*rn with a ten foot pole (and while we’re on the subject, may we send a shoutout to our compatriot Marc Savlov, without whom Josh and I would have to get a whole lot closer than ten feet to said genre). But given the awesome scope of comic books (and the more elegant-seeming graphic novel form) … well, to reject the whole passel seems like crazy talk, pure and simple.But we’re not here to talk, are we? We’re here to FIGHT.

In Memoriam: Shannon Leigh Lewis

Austin lost a native daughter and rising star last week when Shannon Leigh Lewis, age 20, died from injuries sustained during a cave diving accident in Florida. As a talented teenaged writer, Shannon Leigh turned performer when she and her mother, music professor Sheila Siobhan, began making the Austin poetry slam rounds. The two met slam master Ron Horne and the Texas Youth Word Collective was born.Shannon dazzled audiences at the Brave New Voices youth poetry slam festival, and snippets of her performances can be seen in Carl Brown’s moving documentary, 2nd Verse. She appeared in the sixth season of Russell Simmons' HBO series Def Poetry Jam, and last year came in third among individuals at the National Poetry Slam. (Shannon was profiled here in the Chronicle prior to the 2007 Nationals held in Austin.)Shannon had been a college student in Atlanta at the time of her accident on June 14. During her dive at Ginnie Springs in Florida, something went horribly wrong. She indicated to her partners that she was experiencing some discomfort and would return to the surface to investigate. What happened after that is a mystery, as she was discovered unconscious by a diving instructor, Mike Woods, while he and his wife were preparing to float down the Sante Fe River. Woods signaled to another diver, Steven Howe, and along with a doctor who’d been staying in the area, the group was able to bring Shannon to the surface, clear her lungs of water and bring back her pulse. She had been in critical condition at Shands HealthCare, University of Florida in Gainesville until she passed away in her sleep on June 30.

Aztex Play for Division Title Tonight

Floorshaker

Obscured by artificial clouds, the three members of Boris, and special guest Michio Kurihara, took the Mohawk stage the same way they had only eight months prior, but what transpired could not have been more contrary. Whereas October’s Roaring Silence Revue launched Pink’s pummeling psych-punk missiles and scanned the spectral brilliance of Rainbow, at one point even venturing into Kurihara’s Sunset Notes, last Saturday’s meltdown stuck predominately to the Japanese trio’s latest, Smile. The album is easily the band’s most expansive and melodic work to date, as evidenced by the opening, astral interpretation of PYG’s “Flower Sun Rain” and the heavy mettle missives “Buzz-In” and “Laser Beam.” Of course, reinvention is nothing new to Boris, and the hour-long set proved an insightful snapshot of the group at this particular moment in time, even if the sound wasn’t loud enough to match the magnitude of the band.What made the venture truly remarkable, though, was hearing the way in which Kurihara sculpts Boris’ vision, adding peripheral echo guitar to the screaming tonal bliss of “Ka Re Ha Te Ta Sa Ki – No Ones Grieve” and piercing through the massive distortion of the closing, untitled drone. The trance-inducing extended intro to “Statement” leaned closer to the alternative version crafted by producer You Ishihara, while b-side “Floorshaker” more than lived up to its name with thick Lizzy guitar harmonies and a pulsing backbeat, over which double-necked guitarist Takeshi outlined the Boris experience in Japanese:I found a ripped ear on the floor.This must be yours.I found the sand stained dark red,But still you must be dancing.

Happy 4th from the Chrontourage!

Here at the Chronicle we love a good celebration as much as the next alternative weekly, and what better time to celebrate than the birth of the good ol' U.S. of 'merica! That's right, it's July 4th again and that means plenty of BBQ, beer, sunshine, good friends (hopefully), and of course 'splosions!Living in such an urban area means no making your own kabooms or kapows (unless you use your mouth... which could be kinda fun) so you're best bet is at Auditorium Shores town by Town Lake. There will be a massive fireworks show with a musical accompaniment by the Austin Symphony. Free to all, show starts around 8:30pm.After you've celebrated you're independence from England and other colonial tyranny you should be ready to go America all over their asses at the Dethklok show at The Austin Music Hall on Sunday night! That's right, [adult swim]'s own animated house Death Metal band will blow the doors off of the Music Hall like the 'splosions from the days before. The Chrontourage will be there trying not be mauled by rabid fans or scalded with vats of hot coffee.

Paula Nelson Kicks Butt on Film

She's become a YouTube celeb for the kick-ass kick she planted on an overzealous and probably over-served fan at the Saxon Pub. Now Paula Nelson is kicking it up as Michael Madsen's mistress in the political thriller Conflict of Interest. Even more interesting and synchronistic, Saxon Pub owner Joe Ables plays the role ofa judge in the film, which recently shot hereabouts. Paula's mother Connie Nelson is also in the film, as is rocker George Devore, who portrays a bartender.

Film Fight Has Landed

Okay, it's circling the tarmac.Check here to find out more.See you on Monday.