Out of the Woods
Yes folks, it’s that time again. Once a year, as certain as the glimmering glow of the summer solstice, another episode of Tamarie Cooper’s kitschy, kooky ongoing and ever-changing show, Tamalalia, comes along. For the uninitiated, this hodgepodge of tawdry silliness began back in 1996. Infernal Bridegroom Productions’ Tamarie Cooper…
Black and White Only
It was sometime last year when a bored group of cellmates at the Harris County Jail discovered to their surprise that they were white. Sal Flores, Gerardo Martinez, Guadalupe Garcia and Sixto Galaviz, among others, got the news when they checked their prisoner wristbands. All had their race listed as…
Too Much for Words
From the time I was six to the time I was 11, my dad worked at Texas Southern University. There, perched on a high stool in front of a computer terminal, I would play the world’s earliest computer game (hangman) and print the world’s earliest computer graphic (Snoopy) on long…
Campaign Appearances
Legislators had been in Austin barely long enough to break in their leather chairs when Comptroller Carole Rylander confirmed that the state was enjoying a robust budget surplus. Enough money would be available to pay for current expenses with a couple or three billion dollars left over for good measure…
Limbo Shtick
In John Sayles’s Limbo, which is set amid the rough-and-tumble of southeast Alaska, an ex-salmon fisherman with guilty memories (David Strathairn), an itinerant lounge singer with a lousy voice (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) and the singer’s melancholy teenage daughter (newcomer Vanessa Martinez) become stranded, Robinson Crusoe-style, on a remote island. This…
Letters
Going for the (Fool’s) Gold Kudos to the Press for an informative and enlightening article concerning Houston and its possible Olympic bid [“Let the Games Begin,” by Bob Burtman, May 27]. As a lifelong Houstonian, I would be the first to admit that the city has a chip — er,…
Shaggy Dog
A fine line divides inspired silliness from out-and-out witlessness; it’s a short leap from grin to groan. In 1997’s Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, Mike Myers took a thin premise — spoof the ’60s by transplanting a horny Matt Helm-like secret agent into the ’90s — and danced an…
News of the Weird
Lead Stories *Students in the pornography course (COL 289 in the catalog) at Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, submitted as final graded projects fiction, photography, a video of a man’s eyes as he masturbates, and in one case, a bondage performance in which a female begs to be whipped with a…
Heart Chords
Bernardo Bertolucci’s Besieged is a movie of enthralling visual poetry. Set almost entirely inside a ravishing Roman villa, it is a love story played out in furtive glances and stolen looks, by characters on opposite sides of the ethnic divide. Culturally, Mr. Kinsky (David Thewlis) and Shandurai (Thandie Newton) couldn’t…
You Go, Boys!
Mayor Lee Brown may be the ultimate bureaucrat. He ascended to the top of the city pyramid after a career of police chief appointments in nearly every corner of the country, culminating with the Clinton cabinet post of Drug Czar. With that background, you’d think his administration would at least…
Child Trek
Walter Cruz sits down on the rocky river bank in Nuevo Laredo, watching the Rio Grande, his back turned to Mexico and to the long trail leading to his native Honduras. He feels cold, gripped by a familiar hunger that comes from weeks of uncertain meals and days of hiking…
Planet Friendswood
Years ago, one of my gigglier girlfriends and I decided that the sexiest musical experience imaginable would be to hear Sting singing in your shower. Now that I’m older and tamer (and married), Shake Russell strumming in the backyard, fully clothed, is more my speed. This is where Barney and…
The One and Only
Saturday was a honky-tonk, Wednesday was another honky-tonk, and Friday was a real-estate convention. “Of all the shows I’ve ever done, this,” said Yogi Baird, “is one.” He walked out of the sunshine and into the League City civic center, where the main hall had been partitioned into booths. Some…
Night & Day
Thursday June 10 Now that American Ballet Theatre superstar Angel Corella won’t be performing the title role in Ben Stevenson’s Peer Gynt because of an injury, the men of the Houston Ballet have big slippers to fill. The ballet, based on Ibsen’s epic, is the story of a sexy young…
News Hostage
Reporters Are Not Scum It’s a crowded field with many, many deserving candidates, but we think we can finally declare just which media outlet is most guilty of overrating the importance of journalism contests. And the winner is… Inside Houston magazine, the veteran glossy that every month offers a tepid…
No Sacred Cows
One of the best things about being 51 years old is you’ve got some great stories to tell — that goes for dance companies as well as people. At a recent rehearsal for the upcoming Houston Limón Project concert, Limón Dance Company artistic director Carla Maxwell and rehearsal director Sarah…
Web Site Winner
The on-line version of the Houston Press recently won first place in the yearly national competition of the Association of Alternative News-weeklies. Houstonpress.com, which is the work of On-line Editor Liz Belile and On-line Design Director Daren Lunsford, was cited for its “Urban Adventures” feature. As the judges noted, “This…
No Local Server?
Good news: The democratic Zagat restaurant guide has finally gone high-tech with its own Web site at www.zagat.com. On the new Web site, which launched May 11, you can vote for your favorite restaurants, purchase Zagat merchandise or use its powerful search engine to comb listings for 17,000 restaurants in…
Turkish Delight
Istanbul Grill & Deli is an outpost of Turkey nestled between monuments of urban yuppieness in the Rice Village. Inside the tiny six-table restaurant, the TV glows with scenes from Turkish broadcasts. At tables outside the restaurant, groups of young Turks happily demolish large platters of food or sit quietly…
Room with a View
It took us a while to worm our way through the tony Waterford Harbor neighborhood just off FM 2094 in Clear Lake Shores, eagerly following the discreet signs for the Mallorca Restaurant like wooden bread crumbs. We finally fetched up at the Yacht Club in the heart of the marina,…
Hot Plate
!Que milagro!: Robert del Grande’s chiles rellenos at Taco Milagro [2555 Kirby, (713)522-1999] are not battered or deep-fried but unexpectedly grilled, leaving the glossy green poblanos firm and toothsome. Surprise again: The peppers are stuffed with a light, tart mixture of dried tropical fruits, chunks of pecan and a chewy…
Rum Punk
For those who’ve followed the musical evolution of Alejandro Escovedo, it seems likely that No Depression magazine, a periodical about — what else — being happy in an alternative-country world, would name him “Artist of the Decade” (see No Depression, March 1998). For practically everyone else, it seems likely that…
Discman
Fans and listeners who have followed the rap musings of producer/performer DJ DMD know the man has very little to be bashful about. After all, his pimp-tight lyrics and sporadically funky beats have made him a brave and bawdy cult fixture to Houston rap lovers. But there is one thing…
Jazz Alchemists
For a decade Acoustic Alchemy defined the New Adult Contemporary radio format. Often called The Wave and now usually referred to as “smoooooth jazz,” NAC debuted in 1987 and originally featured a mix of light contemporary jazz, upbeat New Age and some pop/jazz vocal sounds. Pop-contempo jazz artists such as…
Cool Country
Back in 1994, Austin-based Watermelon Records did Texas and the world a huge favor by introducing us to the greatest old-timey cowboy singer still warbling near century’s end. Don Walser was an unlikely candidate to become the label’s biggest star, but his debut, Rolling Stone from Texas, quickly won him…
Rotation
Os Mutantes Everything Is Possible! Luaka Bop Let’s face it. Nothing’s ever as good or as bad as everybody says it is. So when critics trip over their lists of glowing adjectives used to describe Os Mutantes and the band’s latest record, Everything Is Possible!, a greatest hits compilation (kind…