june 18
Frank McCourt wrote ravishingly of his blighted upbringing in Limerick, Ireland, in the book Angela's Ashes: A Memoir. Frank's brother Malachy McCourt was a product -- and a victim -- of the same cycle of despair: a slum-bound existence defined by rampaging vermin, near-starvation, a depressive mother (Angela) and an abusive, alcoholic father (Malachy senior). Malachy junior followed Frank to America, and his memoir, A Monk Swimming, has followed Angela's Ashes to bookshelves. But Malachy's Monk has little to do with Irish poverty; rather, it details the author's adventures (and misadventures) in the New York City of the '60s, his stints as "actor, raconteur, rowdy radio talk-show host and occasional concrete inspector," and his frequent run-ins with the fete set at the Gotham tavern he opened for A-list pals like Peter O'Toole, Grace Kelly, Sean Connery and Richard Harris. According to the press materials, the title of A Monk Swimming was "derived from young Malachy's mishearing of the Hail Mary's [phrase] 'amongst women' "; McCourt reads from the work at 7 p.m. Brazos Bookstore, 2421 Bissonnet, 523-0701. Free. (To read an excerpt from the book, go to www.houstonpress.com/1998/061898/nightday.html)
friday
june 19
Shirley Clarke (nee Brimberg) would seem an unlikely choice to direct one of the seminal black films of our time. The Jewish-American princess was reared on New York's Park Avenue, attended various upscale educational institutions (Johns Hopkins and Vermont's Bennington College among them) and danced with Martha Graham's troupe before becoming president of the National Dance Association at age 21. But Clarke found her calling as a controversial proponent of cinema verite -- a style she applied successfully to her 1963 film The Cool World, which foreshadowed the rise of the Black Power movement later in the '60s as well as the deadly gang culture of the '90s. One can see the birth pangs of the Bloods and the Crips and their empowerment-by-any-means world view in Clarke's film -- especially in the cold, hard face of its central character, Duke, a Harlem teen whose life's ambition is to buy a gun so he can "be somebody." In honor of Juneteenth, The Cool World plays as a double feature with Third Ward Blues; one admission ($5; $4 for matinees) covers both films. Cool World: 8 tonight and Saturday; 2:30 p.m. Sunday (see "Serenade in Blues" at right for Third Ward times and details). The Museum of Fine Arts, 1001 Bissonnet. Info: 639-7515.
The Juneteenth Freedom Festival honors Abraham Lincoln's 1863 signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. Highlights include performances by Step Rideau and the Zydeco Outlaws and the 100-member Juneteenth Gospel Choir, a beauty pageant and a barbecue. 8 p.m. The Miller Outdoor Theatre, 100 Concert Drive in Hermann Park, 284-8350. Free. (For info about other area Juneteenth activities, see Events in Calendar.)
saturday
june 20
The cheap and easy way to approach Ka-Tap would be to label it a subcontinental variation on Tap Dogs (about whom see Sunday). But the production by New York's 12-member Kathak Ensemble is more than that (and a good deal less high-concept), merging Kathak dances of northern India with American tap, and classical ragas with stateside jazz by the likes of Duke Ellington and Herbie Hancock. The program's reputed showstopper is "Tabla Tap Talk," a duet by tapster Neil Applebaum and tabla player Samir Chatterjee. 8 p.m. The Cullen Theater at Wortham Center, 500 Texas, 237-1439. $18 to $50 (Houston Ticket Center: 227-ARTS).
sunday
june 21
Billing its performance style as "testosterone tap," the troupe called Tap Dogs features six male hoofers from Australia who attempt to fill the void between the click-heeled grace of Fred Astaire and the rock-'em/sock-'em roustabouts in Stomp (cynics say the Dogs borrow over-liberally from Stomp's oeuvre; founder Dein Perry has acknowledged that his group's name was a swipe from -- er, an homage to -- Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs). The run closes with performances at 2 and 5 this afternoon (for the rest of this week's showtimes, see page 51 ). The Brown Theater at Wortham Center, 500 Texas, 237-1439. $12 to $40 (Houston Ticket Center: 227-ARTS; Ticketmaster: 629-3700).
monday
june 22
The Houston Astros versus the Minnesota Twins; it still sounds odd, doesn't it, the National and American leagues butting heads in the regular season? Baseball purists continue to sputter about the interleague switcheroo (now in its second year), but Major League Baseball's most significant sea change since the designated-hitter rule has turned out to be a well-struck blow for the common fan -- though its real aim, of course, is to separate said fan from even more of his money. The NL Central-leading 'stros take on the Twins of the AL Central in games at 7:05 tonight and 12:35 p.m. Tuesday. (For the rest of this week's Astros schedule, see page 30.) The Astrodome, 8400 Kirby, 799-9500. More info: 799-9555. $5 to $23.
tuesday
june 23
Most of us will never set foot on the fourth rock from the Sun, so "Mars: Race to the Red Planet" might be the next best thing to being there. Billed as "the interactive embodiment of NASA's vision for the first human mission to Mars," the recently opened exhibit includes a fast hop into the future via the Red Planet Virtual Reality ride, spins aboard the zero-gravity Multi-Axis Trainer (MAT) and the Mars Transfer Vehicle (MTV), a virtual jaunt on the planet's surface and a trip home courtesy of the In-Situ Resource Utilization unit (the ISRU is supposed to distill energy from Martian resources to power the real MTV on its return voyage in the year 2020). "Red Planet" continues through September 7; daily hours are 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Space Center Houston, 1601 NASA Road 1 (20 miles south of downtown, off I-45 at Johnson Space Center), Clear Lake, (281) 244-2100. $12.95; $11.95 for seniors; $8.95 for children four to 11; free for younger children.
wednesday
june 24
Jill Morley's True Confessions of a Go-Go Girl was a long-running underground smash in New York -- not least because Morley, a frustrated actress turned go-go dancer, bares (almost) all in the show, using her own boobs to lure hordes of the other sort. But True Confessions also attracts the nonboob crowd, because it defies the sleazy cliches and skin-game conventions of the contemporary tell-all; as one scribe put it, the show reveals Morley's body and soul. Don't be misled; there's enough skin in Go-Go Girl to garb a bull elephant, but it's no slimy Jerry Springer affair. Morley brings real depth to her tale about the shallow American dream, and proves herself a capable actress, storyteller and social critic. She parries the inevitable feminist thrust with the truism "the sex industry is the only industry where women get paid more than men," and spins a winning yarn about playing Charlie's Angels with her three best friends as a little girl; Morley always landed the role of Charlie's male assistant Bosley. Go-Go Girl is presented in conjunction with the Houston Fringe Theater Festival. It opens at 8 tonight; more performances are scheduled June 25 through 27. Theater LaB Houston, 1706 Alamo, 868-7516.
