Winning in the Worst Way
Last spring, Detra Gobert swapped her Houston police sergeant’s uniform for the more down-to-earth role of football mom, taking a place on a couch in the Memorial-area home of Jeanette and Larry Ramming. These affluent benefactors of the Northwest Academy football team were hosting an informal meeting that included her…
News Hostage
Press Club Follies The press release practically screamed off the fax machine: “KUHF 88.7 FM NEWS TEAM SWEEPS PRESS CLUB OF HOUSTON RADIO AWARDS.” The story added the stunning details: “KUHF 88.7 FM news team captured seven first-place awards, as well as seven second-place and three third-place honors at the…
Fighting Chances
Tucked behind the Lunch Box Diner and Cafeteria on the corner of Elgin and Dowling in the Third Ward sits a corrugated metal building in the middle of a patch of weeds. It doesn’t look like much of anything at all. Certainly not like the sanctuary it is. Inside isn’t…
Take This Show on the Road
“A loonie a look” is what Saskatchewan-based artist Gerri Ann Siwek charges for a peek into Funomena, her mobile museum of the weird and strange. (A loonie, by the way, is a Canadian buck, not a crazy relative.) Siwek, one of several art-car extremists scheduled to address the topic of…
Awards Hoo-hah
A slew of Houston Press writers cleaned up at the Press Club of Houston’s 1999 Excellence in Journalism Banquet, taking first place in the Investigative Reporting, Commentary/ Criticism and Sports Story categories. “This is what investigative journalism is supposed to be all about: Find an injustice or abuse of power…
Italian 101
For too many people, I’m afraid, the phrase “Italian food” immediately conjures images of hearty, garlicky, long-simmered tomato sauces. But those standbys represent only part of the cuisine, and if they’re all you know, you’re missing the Italian respect for fresh ingredients and light, flavorful sauces. You should enroll yourself…
Matrix Off the MIA List
The delivery guy thought something had fallen off the truck, but he kept driving through west Houston to the Tinseltown theater on Beltway 8. When he arrived, he told theater general manager Danny Grayson to go ahead and sign for the delivery. No, Grayson said. He was supposed to be…
The Hard Way
Urban legend has it that Iyad “Eddie” Khalil, the owner of El Mirage restaurant [9350 Westheimer, (713)532-4900] won his start-up stake from the tight fist of the gambling industry, much like the Galvans of Jenita’s Taco House. The often-repeated story claims that Khalil was the owner of the convenience store…
Hosing Housing
In January 1995, shortly after Bob Lanier was sworn in as mayor of Houston for the second time, another anointment of some significance took place in an office a few miles from downtown: Michael Stevens, a wealthy real estate developer, was chosen president of the Houston Housing Finance Corporation. HHFC…
Jackpot at Jenita’s
Some aspiring restaurateurs turn to bankers or investors for seed money; others bet their family’s life savings to open a small cafe. But John and Leticia Galvan, proud proprietors of Jenita’s Taco House way out FM 1960 at Steubner Airline, have the slot machines of the Grand Casino Coushatta in…
Burying the Hotel Hatchet
Two players in the continuing downtown convention center hotel soap opera have settled their legal battle, unfortunately aborting what promised to be a juicy trial full of allegation, innuendo and revealing confidential documents. Lobbyist and former Hotel Six defendant Ross Allyn and hotel developer Wayne Duddlesten reached a confidential agreement…
What the Funk?
How does a person stay funky? It’s a question that has plagued man ever since way back in the late ’70s. Funk comes and goes, you see. You may have the funk one minute, then the next, you’re about as funk-free as an episode of Frasier. There are the basic,…
Court Karma: What Goes Around Comes Around
It’s enough to give a courts watcher a crimped neck, trying to follow all the action of a trio of oddly connected players. GOP courthouse kingmaker emeritus George Bishop, the spouse of Judge Caprice Cosper, faced arraignment before federal magistrate Calvin Botley on federal tax evasion charges Friday. Meanwhile, across…
Rotation
Buck-O-Nine Libido TVT Part of the seemingly endless stream of Southern Californian ska-punk bands, San Diego-based Buck-O-Nine tempers its joy with sadness and its anger with a bit of maturity. Grown-up ska? Yup. It’s not just for 14-year-olds with too much energy anymore. By cutting back on the goofiness quotient,…
Cutting Class
Herbert Karpicke is a very wary man these days. The principal carefully, cautiously and finally welcomed the Houston Press to his school office last week to talk about his plan to level acres of tree-laden parkland inside Loop 610 to erect a fine-arts monument there. Actually, the meeting’s official purpose…
Beach Gents
Great Beach Boys songs — and there are actually dozens of them — are magical. Forget for a moment the harmonic complexity of Brian Wilson’s compositions, the sophistication of his arrangements and the grandeur of his and legendary producer Phil Spector’s productions. Technical analysis of the Beach Boys repertoire doesn’t…
News of the Weird
Lead Stories *The Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority in Glasgow, Scotland, announced a cutback in services in March because there was only one sperm donor left in the city, and even he will face mandatory retirement after ten pregnancies. Although the donor was not identified or described, officials warned couples…
A Star in Reborn, Again
The father and the son share memories. Like those of many fathers and sons, the memories are attached to shared times, and as with many fathers and sons of a certain age who grew up in Texas, those shared times were spent hunting. Deer, duck, goose, dove, quail. At least…
Lofts’ Labor’s Lost
“Oh to be young and come to New York,” writes Tom Wolfe in In Our Time, “and move into your first loft and look at the world with eyes that light up even the rotting fire-escape railings, even the buckling pressed-tin squares on the ceiling, even the sheet-metal shower stall…
Letters
Mow Down the Lawn Art The fact is that in Houston deed restrictions are about all we have to keep our communities presentable [“The Mad Hatter vs. the Homeowners Association,” by Jennifer Mathieu, April 1]. Remember: Some very well funded real estate interests have managed to defeat zoning every time…
Night & Day
Thursday April 15 Comedian Craig Shoemaker actually highlights Hollywood Squares in his bio. He was also Magic Johnson’s sidekick on the unmagical Magic Hour and the host of VH1’s short-lived game show My Generation. Still not impressed? Well, Shoemaker wrote an episode of Just the Ten of Us, guest-starred on…
Hot Plate
Crunchy creole classic: Never mind the ups and downs of the Creuzot family’s empire; after 30 years the original and only remaining Frenchy’s location [3919 Scott, (713)748-2233], midway between U of H and TSU, is still dishing out legendary fried chicken. Moist, meaty chicken parts are marinated in a secret…
Young Blood
Take a glance at the record charts these days, and you’ll see what looks like a senior high slumber party invitation list. Teenage girls are driving sales in all genres, from pop (Britney Spears) to R&B (Brandy, Monica) to country (LeAnn Rimes) to even, hell, classical (Charlotte Church). But in…
The Strait Dope
It’s time again for the George Strait Country Music Festival. Actually, it’s time again for the “Nokia presents the George Strait Chevy Truck Country Music Festival.” But if you can get past the ubiquitous presence of overbearing sponsors, who’ve helped create a day that welcomes you to either the “Jack…
Wilde Times
Oscar Wilde was a larger-than-life writer, full of flamboyant, witty swagger. To critics who dared question the morality of his work, he famously declared, “There is no such thing as a moral or immoral book. Books are well written or badly written. That is all.” But for all of Wilde’s…
Same As It Ever Is
George Strait Always Never the Same MCA Records By most accounts, George Strait is a pretty decent guy. Firmly established as one of country music’s biggest names since the early ’80s, Strait also deserves credit for continuing to carry the banner of authentic country sound in an era of pop…
True Drew’s Delight and an Edgy Go
Courage comes in an infinite variety of forms and faces, but who among us would be brave enough to go back and relive our high school years, face the horrors of homeroom and confront hallways so fraught with danger that the most treacherous battlefield would look as placid as a…
Bay Area Ballet
Ballet productions of Giselle seethe with secrecy, deception, vengeance and torture. A peasant girl goes mad when she discovers her lover is secretly engaged to another. Frenzied, she grabs his sword and kills herself. Desperate spirits of jilted brides condemn the double-crossing suitor to dance until he drops dead. When…
Lifeless
Imagine, if you will, one of Bob Hope and Bing Crosby’s classic road movies that never leaves the terminal, and you have pretty much described Life, the strikingly uneventful new comedy starring Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence. It’s their Road to Nowhere. Life, which was directed by Ted Demme from…
A Stitch in Time
To fully experience “Time Not Wasted,” Jane Miller’s installation at Rice University Art Gallery, you must carefully step around scattered floor “paintings” and audiotape “rugs,” climb onto a 20-foot bed with a knotted muslin spread, walk around an oddly crooked staircase, examine a room jammed with hand-colored etchings of absurdly…