Playbill
Houston almost lost Pete Mayes during his recent stint in the hospital, where he underwent a quadruple bypass. The bluesman suffers from numerous diabetes-related complications, including the loss of both legs. Through it all, Mayes somehow has maintained an optimistic spirit as he continues to walk along this narrow bridge…
Lean & Mean
There are plenty of reasons for Roscoe to sip tonight. It’s a spring evening on the south side of Houston, pleasantly warm instead of oven-hot, and there’s no place in particular Roscoe’s got to be. No clock to punch, no girlfriend to see. No responsibilities except to the Styrofoam cup…
Playbill
Tenor saxophonist John Greiner is the latest jazz musician to flee the fresh air of the Northeast to our beloved Space City’s poisoned atmosphere. What sets Greiner apart is that he has a truly historic recording under his belt: The Berkelee graduate located what’s believed to be an unreleased John…
We -Store-It, U-Lose-It?
Kendra Cuyler has lived the better part of the past 15 years immersed in the two professional subcultures that most people, given even half a choice in the matter, spend most of their lives assiduously trying to avoid. One is the tangled undergrowth of Harris County’s civil and criminal court…
Playbill
What hath ska wrought? Its most recent resurgence has seen far more troughs than crests. Ska’s integration with heavy metal has spawned some of the most annoying acts of all time. Somehow, punk and ska made better bedfellows. Rewind to the late ’70s, when the Specials burst onto the punk-dominated…
Injecting Fun into Death Row
Texas carries out so many executions — almost one a week last year — that it’s understandable if area interest in capital punishment has waned recently. Face it: If you’ve seen one execution, you’ve pretty much seen them all. But now, a Dallas-area man — obviously with way too much…
Object of Desire
Visualize a pretty young woman and a handsome young man heading for the bedroom. She has just suggested that she wants to show him what she really wants, so naturally he begins unzipping his trousers en route to the bed. Oblivious to his loud boxers, she sits and begins swooning…
Dr. Carter’s Blunt Trauma
In her new autobiography, Dr. Joye M. Carter describes herself as armed and dangerous in an educational sense. The same, however, cannot be said for My Strength Comes from Within, Carter’s own book. As chief medical examiner of Harris County, Carter is better known for her scalpel and corpse-side manner…
Drive a Stake in It
In terms of truth in advertising, the title The Forsaken is only partly accurate: Godforsaken — as in “godforsaken piece of junk” — might be more to the point. Okay, that’s a bit overboard. The Forsaken is reasonably well made and all, but it’s simply too familiar, too derivative and…
About Time
As a kid in Houston, in the early ’60s, Terrell James liked to lie in the grass and watch the sky. Sometimes she did it alone. Sometimes a bored friend would join her. The clouds billowed in the wind, and Terrell interpreted them: This one’s a sailboat, that one’s a…
Island in the Fun
It’s 1863, and Angus Wilcox is in dire straits. The gray-faced minister, who bears a striking resemblance to militant abolitionist John Brown, has been excommunicated, and his beloved Mormon Church has banished him and his hangdog family to the far reaches of the South Pacific. The natives are friendly enough,…
Quoth the Chron
The Houston Chronicle’s latest house-ad frenzy involves promoting, of all things, the incisive, sharp, thought-provoking writing that is (apparently) in the paper. They have ads — often full-page ads — highlighting quotes from past Chronicle stories or columns; they have a Web page dedicated solely to honoring the Great Thoughts…
The Personal Is Political
Giuseppe Verdi’s versatility as a composer of grand opera emerges in his mature works, but unlike later compositions such as Aida, Don Carlo doesn’t rely on pomp and spectacle as a primary ingredient. Set in Spain and France during the reign of King Philip II, Don Carlo immerses us in…
Shearer Delight
There is no good place to begin with Harry Shearer, because he doesn’t sit still long enough to allow one the chance to focus. He is a blur, forever in motion–on his way to the radio station, on his way from the movie studio, on his way to the publisher’s…
Letter Bombs
Mailing a letter is a fairly mundane act, but one that will become increasingly nostalgic as on-line bill-paying and digital communication take precedence. When you think about it, there’s something mysterious about the whole postal process: You tuck a missive into an envelope, smear the flap with saliva, affix a…
Letters
Ringer’s Ways Light Barr: I have just finished the article on Dr. Ringer [“Nature of the Beast,” by Bob Burtman, April 12]. I have been in the plastic surgery field for the last nine years and have heard it all. I have also met Ms. Barr, who seemed neither psycho…
Iceberg Ahead
Speaking off the toque: Mark Cox, chef and owner of Mark’s American Cuisine [1658 Westheimer, (713)523-3800]. Q. There have been repeated stories that claim iceberg lettuce is making a comeback as a serious gourmet product. Some foodies are aghast. The latest issue of Gourmet features an editorial defending the crunchy…
38 Seconds of Fame
A bikini-clad Hooters girl munches dried fruit bits and complains about her ballooning weight (up seven pounds to a grotesque 125) as she sits ringside, awaiting the signal to hold up the next ring card. The reporter suspects a ploy: She may, in fact, be keenly aware of how good…
A Slice of Heaven
We were intrigued by the shrimp-and-crab cheesecake ($9.95) at La Griglia [2002 West Gray, (713)526-4700], and since there would appear no divine law that mandates cheesecake be served only for dessert, we decided to test Providence. The three-inch-high wedge comes on a bed of creamy pesto, awash with shrimp and…
King 4 to Queen 4
There isn’t much that separates The Original Kings of Comedy from their spin-off quartet, The Queens of Comedy. Oh, sure, these ladies have different equipment from the fellas, and instead of using the word “muthafucka” to describe someone, the ladies use “bitch.” (Example: “A skinny bitch is a confused bitch!”)…
Stirred and Shaken
A spooky shudder sweeps over me as I stand in front of the display case just inside The Volcano [2349 Bissonnet, (713)526-5282]. The glass case contains a Day of the Dead altar on which sit two copies of Malcolm Lowry’s masterpiece of alcoholic horror Under the Volcano and a recent…
Westward Ho!
Pull out a modern map of the United States. Find St. Louis on the eastern border of Missouri. Now imagine that was the edge of the United States in the 1820s. To the west was the vast territory known, somewhat misleadingly, as the Great American Desert. Jim Bridger was then…
Folk Art on Bread
The skinny flute of bread is split in half and toasted, always a good sign. “Do you want your oysters well done?” asks the woman behind the counter at Original New Orleans Po’ Boy. “No, I want them juicy,” I say. They come from the fryer in the back, six…
In the Doghouse
It’s a sunny Sunday afternoon, and musician and producer John Broussard and his wife, Cassandra, decide to take in a movie at the Meyer Park 16. They agree to see the Martin Lawrence comedy Big Momma’s House. They buy their tickets, get some popcorn and soda, find their ideal seats,…
Everything’s Kosher
While last year saw the opening of several new downtown dining and drinking establishments — some of which cost their owners and investors a cool million, and then some, before the first cosmopolitan was even poured — no new ventures on a similarly Texan scale have been announced. The latest…
Reservation Blues
In Native American folklore and art, the circle often illustrates the continuum of life (What? You were thinking of The Lion King?). So it’s only appropriate that the Native American blues-rock band Indigenous would title its sophomore effort Circle. Released last year on Pachyderm Records, the album has garnered a…
Monty Alexander
Pianist Monty Alexander is very much in tune with his Jamaican roots. Prior to this live exercise, his last two Telarc efforts found him paying homage to Bob Marley (Stir It Up) and collaborating with the famed producing team of Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare (Monty Meets Sly and Robbie)…
Pale
Many alt-rock bands attempt, and fail, to create gripping atmospheric music. Sadly, most slip into soporific doldrums or overwrought sentimentality. Houston’s Pale is not one of them. Its new release, High Up and Away, strikes just the right balance of rocking aggression and gentle emoting. Songs like opener “Salvation of…