Flanfire

Unstrung Heroes -- saw it on TV last night for the second time. What an amazing little film. Stars John Turturro and Andie MacDowell as a Jewish couple with two children. He has lost his faith after learning that his wife has cancer and become even more of a control freak. His son Steven, seeking affirmation, ends up living with his two eccentric uncles - played wonderfully by Michael Richards of Seinfeld fame and Maury Chaykin (who later played Nero Wolfe). Director Diane Keaton (yup!) lets us see Steven as a timid little geek (age 12) who gains confidence as he learns how to live in the face of his mother's illness and his father's emptiness. The uncles also are transformed into more caring real adults in the course of the film -- which teaches the lesson that God's benefits can come to us as we reach out to even the least likely.... and that love heals.

Caught the Brennen Leigh band last Tuesday at Evangeline Cafe, and we all made plans to spend Thanksgiving night over at Ginny's Little Longhorn with their pal Dale Watson. Candye Kane showed up to sing a couple of songs with Dale, and Brennen herself did two duets and one of her own new honky tonking songs. Surprise of the night was meeting a contingent of Kentuckians who are planning to relocate to Austin as one big extended family - an entourage that includes a band called the Zombie Cowboys. You have to search hard to find them on the web - but we listened to a song or two and they did not suck. They have applied (as have many others) to play at SXSW next March - their previous band was rock and roll. Dale - for the record - was already playing a BUNCH of Christmas songs. As usual, he has a busy December schedule. We enjoyed the addition of a fiddle player to his band -- added another layer of goodness to the sound.

Late last night we went up to Graffitis on Howard Lane (nosebleed country for South Austinites - we are talking Wells Branch area here) to catch the first out of the box gig for the Aaron Hamre Band. Aaron had moved here last June after leaving LA and ended up finding two guys he grew up with in Santa Fe to be his bandmates - drummer Miguel Velasquez and bassist Uppy Ethelbah. The boys are headed back "home" for the holidays to play some gigs and polish their sound -- we are talking three-piece classic-style guitar rock and roll (akin to Rush and Zeppelin and other power rockers) with a little of that New Mexico magic. The band is still very rough, playing songs but not yet fully playing sets - but they are getting there. The rhythm is down, and now the band can start working on adding color and tone to create the secret place they want to take an audience of war-weary working folks. Aaron in another lifetime played SXSW and hopes to bring this trio back there next March. They will be playing gigs in town starting in January ... so get serious about catching the act.

Uppy is also a longtime friend of the guys from Tiny Livestock, which played at Graffitis earlier in the evening. The Woodall brothers (Brady and Daren) and longtime pal Paul Martinez all hail from Albuquerque but reconnoitered here in Austin (sound familiar?) and play around town.