Running at Lanier
For Katherine Tyra, the road to Sheila Jackson Lee’s vacated seat on the Houston City Council now leads straight through Mayor Bob Lanier’s office. As Harris County district clerk, Tyra lent considerable behind-the-scenes support to Lanier’s initial run for mayor in 1991. But Lanier hasn’t returned the favor. Tyra’s runoff…
Chilly Scenes of Pinter
An audience member once wrote to playwright Harold Pinter: “Dear Sir, I would be obliged if you would kindly explain to me the meaning of your play The Birthday Party. These are the points I do not understand: (1) Who are the two men? (2) Where did Stanley come from?…
Press Picks
thursday january 26 Pro-Choice Luncheon Those who’ve been missing Nina Totenberg since Anita vanished from CNN will be heartened by this news: Nina’s in town. The NPR legal affairs correspondent will speak at our local Planned Parenthood’s annual Pro-Choice Public Affairs Luncheon. This is the seventh such event, celebrated on…
Moon Shots
On June 2, 1966, Surveyor 1, the first of NASA’s unmanned moon probes, came to rest on the lunar surface. Furnished with a video camera that featured a zoom lens, as well as a rotating mirror assembly, the robot beamed back thousands of images of the barren, pitted landscape –…
Hot Plate
New Menu Blues There are new menus and New Menus. At Americas, where Nicaraguan-born Michael Cordua has experimented so deftly and originally with flavors from up and down the Western Hemisphere, revisions in the lineup fall into the latter category. When the chef who earned his striking, Jordan-Mozer designed establishment…
Slack time
Most movie fans have a filmmaker they latch onto, take to heart and enthusiastically root for. Their triumphs make you euphoric and their failures make you surly and sad, and once you’re plugged into the thrill of following their careers, the emergence of each new work is simultaneously thrilling and…
Epic Flop
You wouldn’t think a frontier family saga that includes sibling rivalry, tragic deaths, illicit longings and searing revenge would make for a pretty picture. In Legends of the Fall, it does. Literally. So does a stroke victim stricken with body paralysis, shock-white hair and profound malaise. This is not a…
Throne of Blood
Raucous, bawdy, sexy and violent, Queen Margot is history as feverishly overwrought soap opera — history painted in tears, sweat, blood and semen, with a very broad brush. In telling the alternately romantic and tragic tale of the title character, who survived a ghastly royal power struggle that pitted Catholic…
Soul on Ice
More than most guys on ice, hockey player Graeme Townshend has had to choose shrewdly when to throw down the gloves and fight. In February 1990, fresh out of New York’s Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the 6-foot-2-inch Townshend was playing for the Boston Bruins, onetime home to hockey legends Bobby Orr…
Just Us Guys
If nothing else, the inauguration of George W. Bush as the state’s 46th governor served to once again set the dreary state of the Texas Democratic Party in bold relief. With the November 8 GOPslide having receded into a painful memory for Democrats, half the party seems to still be…
Great Lengths
Jason Schoemen doesn’t like to keep his appointments waiting. He assumes their anxiety levels are spiked high enough by the time they reach the front desk of Surgicare for Men’s office near the Galleria. They’ve been driven there by perhaps that most primal of male concerns. They’ve come to inquire…
Letters
Review Food, Not Character I do not consider myself an “activist” and typically would never write a letter to the editor of a publication. However, as a businessman, Houston Press advertiser and reader, I feel it important to bring to your attention the unprofessional image one of your writers is…
The Case for Dallas
The brand-new Empire Baking Company makes a persuasive argument for Dallas, that city Houstonians love to hate. Stupendous loaves, eventful sandwiches, punchy salads, tony people-watching, smart little wine list, industrial good looks: if there’s anything not to like about this bakery-cafe import — which has no relation to our homegrown…
Nice Guy, Nice Songs
Hadden Sayers is a nice guy. He calls one day to tell me that the Hadden Sayers Band has recently played a Fort Worth gig opening for Austin semi-guitar-star Chris Duarte. Seems the Star-Telegram had a reviewer at the show who dug his poison pen deep into Duarte’s Stevie Ray…
Madagascar Melody
Everything else you may or may not know about Tarika aside, novelty factor alone would probably dictate that anyone with even a passing interest in world music (i.e., music that seems exotic to you) make an effort to see this show. Tarika (which more or less translates as “the group”)…
Pop Moment
You know it’s a slow night at Rockefeller’s when those tall doors are opened to local jazz, but in this particular case, both the occasion and the talent are deserving of the spotlight thrown by A Tribute to Arnett Cobb, featuring the performing talents of the University of Houston-Downtown Civic…
Sound Check
Now that the interminable “holiday season” is officially over, I was hoping to start getting some fresh new CDs in the mail for review, but either the labels are following tradition and releasing next to nothing in January, or the flacks responsible for mailing the stuff out never came back…
Fresh Milk
During his more than 20-year tenure as general director of Houston Grand Opera, David Gockley has endeavored to present at least one new work each season. Some of these new operas have been extremely memorable (Akhnaten, Nixon in China) while a few have been downright forgettable (Atlas). Harvey Milk, which…