Film
GRISHA – Opening Act of Austin Classical Guitar’s 35th Season
Robert Rodriguez, the legendary Austin filmmaker, opened his Troublemaker Studios for ACG’s 35th Season. They filmed Alita: Battle Angel there. At the open-air set, I felt as if I was roaming the streets and alleyways of a fading, long-forgotten town in Spain. We savored complimentary sangria and paella from Flavor Read more
Art
What Is Your Nightmare? Mine Is a Dream Come True
What is your nightmare? Mine is a dream come true: stepping into the 3D immersive set of Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmasat the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. Thanks to Texas Performing Arts and the Wildflower Center, Austin audiences now have a chance to enter the fantastical world of Jack Read more
Art
“A Safe Place to Be Seen”: The Portraits—and Path—of Jorge Sanhueza-Lyon
On an afternoon inside a small East Austin space—half studio, half neighborhood hangout—photographer and filmmaker Jorge Sanhueza-Lyon waved a passerby in from the sidewalk. Ten minutes later, the man—Rick, a local gatekeeper with a complicated past—was telling his life story and posing for a portrait that feels equal parts confession Read more
Music
Duelling Piano Hands: Sohee Kwon and Shelley Ng
Tucked just off Research Boulevard, north of Great Hills Trail, rests a cultural gem: Austin’s only Steinway Piano Gallery. A temple to the legendary hand-crafted instrument, Steinway is to the piano what Rolls Royce is to the automobile—uncompromising, timeless, and revered. The flagship in New York, around the corner from Read more
Music
A Resplendent Night of Orchestration & Operatic Singing
What do you get when you mix one of the most original living conductors (our own Farkhad Khudyev, Associate of Music in Orchestral Studies & Music Director of the UT Symphony Orchestra) with a world-renowned opera singer, Rebecca Davis? Answer: you get what only Khudyev brings to this town: dynamic Read more
Music
A Toast to Texas
ATX Chamber and Jazz Music keeps blurring the line between concert and experience, pairing world-class artists with crafted culinary and cocktail moments. A Toast to Texas was another example of lyrical strings and piano from a powerhouse roster of musicians wafted through Assembly Hall as virtuoso violinists — Alexander Sitkovetsky, Geoffrey Herd Read more
Music
Jeff Goldblum & the Mildred Snitzer Orchestra: A Jazz Surprise in Austin
I had not heard about Jeff Goldblum’s involvement with the Mildred Snitzer Orchestra until recently, and the discovery came as a surprise. After all, I used to spend Monday nights at Michael’s Pub in Manhattan listening to Woody Allen play his clarinet, so I thought I had a handle on Read more
Lifestyle
The Pairing Project: How a Chef, a Storyteller, and a Wine Nerd Turned Austin’s Homes into Tasting Rooms
When Alexander and Carlotta “Loti” first locked eyes 32 years ago at a lunch on the outskirts of Mexico City, neither imagined that a decades-long love story would eventually set a table for Austinites in their own homes. “We saw each other eight times in two years,” Alexander laughs. “The Read more
Film
Time Passes: Tsai Ming-Liang Brings His Meditative Cinema to Texas for the First Time
The lights were low inside the AFS Cinema. The theater was empty, its rows of seats waiting for the audience that would soon arrive. Onstage, under the glow of a single spotlight, sat Tsai Ming-liang, one of world cinema’s most revered auteurs, alongside his longtime actor and muse, Lee Kang-sheng. I stood Read more
