Project Crate House
If you were one of those kids with a deep and abiding love of Legos, you are going to be terribly envious of Wolfgang Winter and Berthold Hörbelt’s Kastenhaus (“crate house”) in the courtyard of Rice University Art Gallery. The German artists constructed a whole building from plastic crates, using…
Job Insecurity
Also see Steve McVicker’s companion article, “Unnecessary Roughness.” Someone grabbed her from behind. Jeanette Bledsoe remembers it slowly and quietly, although that’s not the way it happened. Someone grabbed her from behind, so she grabbed what was in front of her: bars. And she screamed. No words came out, but…
Unnecessary Roughness
See also Lauren Kern’s companion article, “Job Insecurity.” At five feet nine inches and 125 pounds, 23-year-old Mark Knox is slender, fair and redheaded, with a somewhat effeminate look about him, one that belies a history of violence and mental trouble. But by most accounts, Knox is one twisted little…
Rainy Day Dream
The eight or so meteorologists at the Institute for Storm Research worked frantically to calculate the path of a big disturbance rumbling across the Gulf of Mexico toward the coast in 1987. They relied on the latest available computerized charts laid out on a table. In the frenzy, forecaster Paul…
Jewels and Justice
Last December, Mike Plummer waited in line behind a gaggle of ladies at the David Yurman trunk show at the Galleria Neiman Marcus. Dripping with diamonds and compliments, the ladies shook hands with the New York designer in town to promote his latest jewelry line. Yurman, for those not up…
Stirred and Shaken
A huge hammerhead shark is mounted on the wall behind the fish counter. Fishing nets hang from the ceiling. I pull a nice-looking red snapper from the bed of ice and hand it to my waitress, who weighs it and passes it along to the kitchen. If you like fresh…
The Connection
As a mentor to high school kids, Susan Lieberman dispensed the standard good advice: Take tough classes. Study hard. Go to college. Education is the pathway to a good future. But kids are kids, and most ignored her. Bob was different. He did what she said. When she told him…
Picture Perfect
One of two things usually happens when jazz musicians gather together and play only for themselves: They either spiral into an extended jam session filled with wankerish, drawn-out solos that can clear out a room; or they embrace the freedom and elevate their musicianship to new levels, communicating as if…
The Mod Squad
Fed up with the Brown administration’s unwillingness or inability to manage the tax-cut battle at City Hall, a “mod squad” of three moderate councilmembers moved this week to take the high ground from the mostly conservative Tax Rollback Eight. Win or lose, they offer an alternative to the bloc led…
Folk Art
Ask Arlo Guthrie, one of the featured artists at the original Woodstock and a man who has been performing in public since age 13, if he ever expected his career to last this long, and he’ll answer with an emphatic no. Then he’ll laugh, a high-pitched chuckle, really. “I always…
“Look! I Made This!”
A cold breeze blows through an open window, and a football game silently unfolds on the television screen. The old man sitting on the couch regards the game with mild interest, though not long ago, football was his passion, a way of pocketing a little scratch during those long stretches…
X-ecutioners’ Song
A long time ago, when they were still deep underground and weren’t considered much of a mainstream threat, the X-ecutioners were known as the X-Men. This quartet of turntablists borrowed the comic-book moniker to combat another group of superhero-inspired New York spinmasters, the Supermen, headed by the famed DJ Clark…
Letters
Investigate CEP Get at the truth: I have long since come to regret the significant role that I played in helping Community Education Partners [“Learning Curve,” by Wendy Grossman, October 5] gain its first contract with Houston Independent School District and Harris County [see the Houston Chronicle Outlook section, March…
Rock This Town
An instructor is standing in the middle of a dozen or so couples, trying to teach them how to properly pirouette to a Bobby Darin song. It’s a swing scene that could transpire in any one of Houston’s many dance studios, but this one is taking place in a dance…
The Artist Formerly Known as Nigel
In the often stuffy world of classical music, a violinist who calls himself Kennedy, and who’s known as much for his attitude and appearance as for his musicianship, is an agent’s dream. Dismissing the usual staid conventions of the genre, Kennedy has adopted a punk persona, complete with wardrobe and…
Corey Harris and Henry Butler
To be a truly great blues duo, collaborators must go beyond putting out anything that could’ve been done solo. Two teams that have pulled this off are Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, and Buddy Guy and Junior Wells. Vü-dü menz, the first combined effort of 31-year-old acoustic guitarist Corey Harris…
Mixing Business with Leather
Every day millions of people carry around a secret that bonds them together: They love to wear leather! Oh, we’re not talking about those folks who wear tight Ricky Martin leather pants or those idiots at the clubs who look like a La-Z-Boy chair. We’re talking about hard-core, saddle-sores, spurs-and-chaps,…
Big Moe
On his debut, City of Syrup, rapper Big Moe mainly wants everyone to know that he doesn’t just drink soda laced with cough syrup — he bows down to it. Moe raps about the carbonated codeine cocktail as if it were a miracle elixir, a dose from the Fountain of…
Political Communion
The British Catholic poet Hilaire Belloc wrote the lines “Where ‘ere the Catholic sun doth shine / There is laughter and good red wine.” Well, perhaps. But as far as the Annunciation Catholic Church [1618 Texas Avenue, (713)222-2289) and the Incarnate Word Academy [609 Crawford, (713)227-3637] are concerned, there will…
Michael Wolff & Impure Thoughts
Keyboardist and composer Michael Wolff’s most recent project is the soundtrack for the independent film The Tic Code. Loosely based on Wolff’s life, The Tic Code — written, not coincidentally, by his wife, actress Polly Draper — is about a piano prodigy who has Tourette’s syndrome. While Wolff’s case is…
Don’t Mess with the Family
Alternating square slices of provolone and sottaceti, an Italian deli loaf that reminds me of mortadella, are dealt across a bed of romaine. Piles of green and black crushed olives, cucumbers, red-onion slivers, sliced mushrooms and marinated artichoke hearts surround the cheese and cold cuts on an old ivory dinner…
Dune, TX
With its recorded output, Dune, TX manages to cover a wide range of rock styles, all of uniformly high quality, but the live experience has always been about rockin’ out with the bare essentials: riff stacked upon riff and good times everywhere. It’s not that Dune, TX is a party…
Hot Plate
Bibas Greek Pizza [5526 Memorial Drive, (713)861-2266] had the right idea in naming its Aphrodite pizza after the Greek goddess of love. Falling for this pie is all too easy. Its power over mere mortals lies in its assembly: It starts, of course, with twice-risen dough, which is especially thick…
Oh, Doctor!
Richard Gere, as Dallas gynecologist Sullivan Travis, has never been more likable on-screen, perhaps because he’s never been more human, more vulnerable, more there. After so many years of so many duds, after so many years of playing the ladies’ man to little girls (and the recent Autumn in New…
The Grandstander
There’s no getting around it: The Contender is the most offensive movie of the year. It pretends to be high-minded even while it slings mud and semen at the audience in its attempt to make its bludgeoning point, which is this: If a woman wants to ascend to one of…