You read it in high school or college or after or maybe just last week and it probably changed your life, a whole lot or just a little bit. And it turns 50 today.
May 30 is the 50th anniversary of Gabriel García Márquez’s “One Hundred Years of Solitude,” one of the most important novels of the late 20th century. It sold more than 30 million copies in dozens of languages and remains a crucial part of the Spanish-language canon.
The the Colombian-born, Nobel Prize–winning Márquez, who died in 2014 was a journalist, screenwriter, and key figure in 20th century Latin American history and politics.
And if you start to read it today, do yourself a favor and xerox the family tree in the front so you don’t have to keep flipping back. You will thank me later.
Someone has decided that today is National Wine Day. Until you can get home and bust out your favorite boxed vino to mark the occasion, let’s count down our favorite wine guzzlers on TV.
5. Hoda and Kathie Lee
Think mornings aren’t the right time for wine? The “Today” show ladies would beg to differ. The on-air personalities always have a glass of something in front of them, though they may not drink as much as you think.
Season 3 of “Kimmy” hit Netflix earlier this month, but season 1’s song by Titus is still one of the highlights of the series. The song technically isn’t about wine, but actor Tituss Burgess does now have his own line of wines.
The Cure perform in concert at the Frank Erwin Center May 13, 2016 (photo: Suzanne Cordeiro for American-Statesman)
Perhaps because it is World Goth Day, the ’80s music site Slicing Up Eyeballs took a reader poll and ranked all 225 songs by the Cure. They tallied more than 100,000 votes. The results are kind of fascinating.
Nos. 2 to 10? Completely understandable: “Just Like Heaven,” Inbetween Days,” “Pictures of You,” “Boys Don’t Cry,” “Charlotte Sometimes,” “Fascination Street,” “Disintegration,” “Close to Me,” “A Night Like This.”
No. 1? “A Forest” (separated by *one vote* from “Just Like Heaven” — don’t let anyone tell you democracy doesn’t matter).
I like “A Forest.” But it would not necessarily occur to me that it’s The Best or Most Favorite Cure Song of All Time.
But I am clearly in the minority. It is a beloved tune, by both fans (obviously) and the band (it is the song they have played the most times) and remains one of the earlier examples of the Cure in one of its final forms: propulsive, yet atmospheric; driving, yet moody.
And what with ONE VOTE separating the top two songs, it is a virtual tie between goth Cure and pop Cure.
So here’s my list of 15 favorite Cure jams. No surprises here (and, honestly, just something of a rearrangement of stuff on the Slicing list), mostly because they weren’t shy about making the sharpest songs singles. (My list is likely heavily influenced by the cassette version of “Standing on a Beach,” their first and best singles collection and one of the best singles sets of the decade.)
1. “Just Like Heaven” (One of the perfect songs of the 1980s, period)
2. “Pictures of You” (Peak romantic Cure, absolutely amazing for pining over someone)
3. “Inbetween Days” (Throw some sequencers on there and it’s a perfect New Order song)
4. “Plainsong” (Sublime in the purest sense – just overwhelming stuff and one of the all-time great album/show openers)
5. “Charlotte Sometimes” (Peak Goth Cure)
6. “Fascination Street” (Both single version and album version; total rocker, also kinda obscene; forever the sickest bass line)
7. “The Hanging Garden” (Peak Goth Cure, pt. 2)
8. “The Lovecats” (Stunning pop song; terrific stand-up bass)
So there is a new Funniest Person in Austin and unlike many former Funniest People, he is actually from here.
“Born and raised,” Enzo Priesnitz said Wednesday. The 25-year old comic has only been Funniest since May 15, when he was crowned at Cap City Comedy Club. (The previous winner was the much-missed Lashonda Lester, who died in April.)
Calling from his day job as a fabricator for a company that makes props for movies and exhibits for museums (“I’m mostly a welder for them”), Priesnitz says he’s been doing stand-up for about three years.
“I used to watch Comedy Central late at night after my parents were asleep,” he says, citing Greg Geraldo, Louis CK and Dave Attell as inspirations, citing Attell’s “Skanks for the Memories” as “one of the greatest comedy albums of all time”).
“This is the closest thing I have to a headshot right now”
Priesnitz says he always enjoyed telling stories to friends and just started hitting local open mics. I mention that he seems to have no Internet video presence, which is unusual for 21st century comedians.
“That is on purpose,” he says, “I’ve been told by folks that you shouldn’t be seen until you are ready to be seen and there is a lot of material in those first few years I really wouldn’t stand by. When you start, you are just grasping at straws trying not to bomb.”
These days, Priesnitz tries to go up about four times a week “which is not very much,” he says “I really should do more.”
He’s also quick to shout out his favorite Austin comics. “I love Jared McCorkle. Christina Parrish is amazing, she put me in a movie recently (her film “Call Me Brother”). Danny Goodwin’s great. These are people who have way more going on than I do right now. Go and see them.”
Check out Priesnitz June 2 at the New Movement and June 5 at Spider House.
Texas-born actor Powers Boothe died May 14 of natural causes at the age of 68.
Powers Boothe as Cy Tolliver
The gifted character actor, who hailed from Snyder, slithered into the public consciousness in 1980 playing cult leader Jim Jones in the TV movie “Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones.”
And I do mean slithered — over the years, Boothe cultivated a gift for being slick, snake-like and often extremely scary. Here are a few examples:
Here is Boothe as Rev. Jim Jones. It’s a star-making turn; check out the way he says “All marriages….are dissolved.” Doesn’t hurt, I suppose, that he was playing one of the most horrific Americans of the past 40 years — it’s a meaty, hideous role and Boothe made the most of it.
And then there’s the time that Boothe, in spite of wearing a completely ridiculous red shirt, was creepy as Curly Bill Brocius in the 1993 Western “Tombstone.” His line at :38 is probably in the meme hall of fame
Here is Boothe in an Austin production, as the beyond-corrupt Sen. Roark in Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller’s “Sin City.”
Boothe’s signature performance of the 21st century was as Cy Tolliver, owner of the Bella Union saloon and brothel in the still-stunning HBO series “Deadwood.”
Boothe seemed born to play this part, a mixture of viciousness, oily faux-class, increasingly desperate ambition, vain cowardice and fits of savage violence that can only come from the worst of the above. However awful Al Swearengen could be, Tolliver was always worse and Boothe was great at making that worse sing.
We’ll perhaps skip the scene where he all but beats to death a very young-looking Kristen Bell and instead focus on Tolliver matching wits with the genuinely psychopathic Wolcott.
Here is the latest trailer for “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” which comes out this summer, along with some released footage.
My favorite moment might be where Holland is kinda pulling a Michael Keaton reaction shot at the :58 mark (seeing as how Keaton was both Batman and Birdman).
I was like, “OK, Tom Holland, still killin’ it as the Hero Who Could Be You.”
But then, Holland did this on the MTV show “Lip Synch Battle.”
Which is a good reminder that Holland is a song and dance man back home in England. (He played “Billy Elliot” on stage.) This is years of dance lessons, loads of talent and total fearlessness all at once.
“Since We Fell” by Dennis Lehane (Ecco) After she loses it on air, former journalist Rachel Childs has barely left the house. And then an encounter causes her life, marriage and possibly sanity to fall apart. Look, it’s the new Lehane; of course you’re curious. (May 9)
Norm Macdonald: Hitler’s Dog, Gossip & Trickery (Netflix) The newest special from the great Norm Macdonald. (May 9)
Zac Brown Band, “Welcome Home” (Southern Ground/Atlantic). The very embodiment of frat-country releases their seventh studio album, just in time for the end of college finals and the start of summer vacation. (May 12)
Harry Styles, “Harry Styles” (C(olumbia). Styles, former singer with One Direction and possessed of some of the greatest hair in popular music, makes his solo debut. Columbia is praying it has another Justin Timberlake on its hands. (May 12)
“Anne” (Netflix). This is an eight-episode adaptation of the foundational 1908 all ages/children’s book “Anne of Green Gables,” about a complicated Canadian orphan girl and her adventures with friends and (adopted, more or less) family. You may make your own “bosom friends” joke here. (May 12)
Various artists, “The Bob’s Burgers Music Album” (Sub Pop). A double album with 112 songs from the first 107 episodes of one of the best animated shows of its era. (May 12)
“King Arthur: Legend of the Sword.” Look, I love a King Arthur movie. Even bad ones (2004’s “King Arthur,” we’ll never forget you). But let’s be real: Does anyone remember the last time a King Arthur movie made any money domestically? Or any movie set in the Middle or Dark Ages? Was it in the 21st century? They tend to do OK overseas, but not so much in the States. Anyway, this one stars Charlie Hunnam as Arthur and Jude Law as Vortigern. Yes, I will see it, but I will be astonished if anyone else does. (May 12)
“Snatched.” Amy Schumer is the daughter, Goldie Hawn is the mother. They go on vacation. Hijinks ensue. (May 12)
