Soundcheck
There’s been a good amount of tooth gnashing and hair pulling these past months over proprietorship of something that, for lack of anything better to call it, is being bandied about as The Houston Sound — as in: who’s got it? where do I go to see it? on which…
For Strauss Lovers Only
Fans of Der Rosenkavalier will probably find much to like in Houston Grand Opera’s new production of Richard Strauss’ comic opera. However, this new production is probably not strong enough to win over those who are less enthusiastic about the work. HGO has assembled a stellar cast for this production…
Monster Men
Exactly one year ago, Todd Park Mohr and his old high school chums Rob Squires and Brian Nevin were holed up in the Boulder Theater in their hometown of Boulder, Colorado, in the midst of recording what they today call their reason for being. “I’ve been thinking about this album…
Journal of the Plague Years
After crashing through Prior Walter’s ceiling, the Angel of America — a mixed blessing if ever there was one — commands Prior to unearth sacred prophetic implements from their hiding place. But he says no way; he’ll lose his security deposit if he tears up the kitchen floor. Later, doing…
King of the Mild Frontier
Like so many of his British brethren who would later choose careers in music, Stuart Goddard began his career as an art-school dropout, fascinated with punk because it was as much about the packaging of image — torn clothing, men wearing makeup, performance art creeping into concert, treating the audience…
Getting Hooked, Brilliantly
As Jim Carroll, the teenage prep-school junkie hero of The Basketball Diaries, Leonardo DiCaprio gives a performance so brilliant it’s scary. DiCaprio’s only 20, and has only three major screen credits behind him, yet he has the expressiveness and assurance of someone who’s been starring in films for decades. He…
Holy Rollers
It’s 7:30 p.m. on Monday night, the day after Easter, and the rough parking lot of Lockwood Skating Palace is packed with cars, their recent occupants lined up a good 20 feet outside the roller rink’s doorway. A steady stream of buses and minivans pause in the drive to disgorge…
Chopped to Death
The casting of Nicolas Cage as Little Junior in the thriller Kiss of Death might seem at first to be foolhardy. Cage as a bad guy? More specifically, a menacing, pumped-up sociopath? But as Little Junior, Cage isn’t only convincing, he’s a marvel. It’s a shame his character is given…
Spanish Civil War
My head hurts just thinking about the latest plot development in the long-running Spanish Village soap opera. First there was the split between Larry Pico, the veteran owner of the Christmas-lit Tex-Mex landmark on Almeda, and the Medina family, who had bought the rights to the name and menu when…
Life after Death?
One minor footnote to the demise of the Houston Post is the future of Houston Life, the independently published magazine that has been appearing as a once-a-month Sunday insert in the newspaper. Life publisher Mark Inabnit says his glossy, four-color monthly paean to leisure and affluence is being printed as…
Post Mortem
“Let facts be submitted to a candid world.” The words of Thomas Jefferson, as they appeared near the entrance to the former Houston Post building. When the end came, there was no time for sentiment, no time to say goodbye, no time to mourn the city’s loss. No time to…
The Winners
Dean Singleton: Pulls the plug from Denver after running his third Texas newspaper into the ground; won’t deny he got away with millions. Chronicle publisher Richard J.V. Johnson and president Gene McDavid: Capitulation of the Post is the capstone of their careers; when Hearst bought their paper in 1987 for…
Gerald and Me
“You know, I ought to beat the shit out of you!” Houston Post editor Gerald Garcia had left his car across the lot behind the KPRC/Channel 2 studios and had come strutting back to my jeep after we’d exchanged a not-so-cordial farewell. Garcia had suggested there were some former journalistic…
Questions and Answers
The following is excerpted from a memo entitled “Frequently asked questions by former Houston Post readers and the answers you must give them (or else).” The memo was circulated to employees of Houston’s leading information source following the Post’s closing and was retrieved by the Houston Press from a trash…
Music of (Angry) India
The Campbells were a comin’ down Lovett Boulevard, and so were the O’Reillys and the Smiths. Fluttering in the evening breeze were the orange, white and green of the Irish Republic; the red, white and blue of the Union Jack; the red lion rampant of Scotland; the cross of Saint…
My Final Post Column
In the opera Harvey Milk, the assassinated San Francisco supervisor is given an opportunity to observe the city’s reaction to his death. “I have let you see it with your own eyes,” the Messenger tells Milk, “though you may not cross there.” In a perverse sort of way, I feel…
Letters
Get What You Pay For I just read the article “Trickle Down Protection,” by Steve McVicker [March 30] on contract deputies and their “unfair” placement. While I agree that there is a problem with these deputies staying in their contract areas all the time instead of the 70 percent that…
Press Picks
thursday april 27 If It’s Thursday, It Must Be Rome The Friends of Child Advocates Inc. co-opted the name of a 1969 Suzanne Pleshette movie (If It’s Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium) to give this fundraiser a kooky, Continental flair. The event is a fashion show, a peek at the…
The Year of the Indian
It’s a good year for Indian restaurants. Thanks to the techy Indian community that thrives around NASA, so far 1995 has seen the debut of Mogul in Clear Lake, with its astonishing okra and chutneys; and now, imported from the same area, comes Pavani — a Clear Lake operation that…
Not the Sahm Old Thing
It took several days to track Doug Sahm down. It was only when he paused for a moment in San Marcos at the office of somebody named Lucky that he had time to return a call. It may have been 30 years ago that Sahm toured with the Rolling Stones,…