Mixmaster
Beats, please: Claudia Schiffer, Claudia Schiffer / makes a fellow want to lean in close and sniff her. / Putting up a gender fight in Black and White / she turns her tail on any man who’d treat her right. / Riane Eisler-esque twaddle-spewing supermodel / into the arms of…
Reeling
It’s 10 a.m., all quiet on the battlefront. Conditions breezy and cool, water calm. The thin, dead stumps of the Black and Amber forests poke baldly from the surface. An occasional logging truck laden with tapered trunks grinds across the Highway 147 bridge, temporarily breaking the silence. A handful of…
There’s Something About Mary
Merchant/Ivory Productions has long been America’s quintessential purveyor of classy “literary” films. At its best, the team of director James Ivory and Ismail Merchant has given us A Room with a View (1986) and The Remains of the Day (1993); at its worst, Slaves of New York (1989) and Jefferson…
Making (Up) the Grade
Two educational gurus visited Houston last spring to evaluate HISD’s privately contracted alternative schools, operated by Community Education Partners. Educational historian Diane Ravitch and Mary Butz, the founder of the Manhattan Village Academy, wrote a report filled with effusive adjectives, describing the “tranquil” hallways and the school’s overall “sense of…
Feminism in Pumps
“Fuck” is a deliciously lush word. Just listen to the opening sequence of Theresa Rebeck’s Spike Heels at Actors Theatre of Houston if you need any persuading. The house lights dim, and out of the darkness comes a smooth voice that waxes long on the astonishing versatility of that good-old,…
Power Lunch?
With jail time looming and his days as a Republican kingmaker but a sweet memory, George Bishop is living a dark chapter of his life. But the well-connected attorney is not going down without a fight. The 58-year-old Houstonian took a beating in the early rounds of his legal battle…
Opening-Day Orgasm
Apparently some sort of baseball stadium has opened in Houston. It received a little coverage from the local media, so maybe you heard about it. No one quite referred to it as the Second Coming, but it got about as much ink and airtime as that event would. Not surprisingly,…
Do As I Say…
Donohue Industries officials like to say that the final decision on changing Sam Rayburn Reservoir water standards should be based strictly on the facts; that science, not the fiction propagated by “environmental extremists” should rule the day. That’s partly because the Texas Natural Resources Conservation Commission has officially endorsed the…
Letters
Angela’s AshesTo put it simply, this is a great piece of journalism [“Saving Baby Angela,” by Lisa Gray, March 23]. It is touching, real, and was handled with the care and respect the subject deserves. It also is very informative of how CPS works and the dedication the caseworkers must…
Tongue-tied
H e’s a nine-year-old third-grader who is segregated in a special bilingual classroom because he doesn’t speak, understand, read or write English very well. Instead, he spends his days in the Spanish he understands and hears at home. Carlos (not his real name, but let’s call him that) writes stories,…
Closer to Home
Mardi Gras may have ended weeks ago, but Wild Magnolias, from the Crescent City, resurrects the spirit of the celebration with its party chants. Splicing together rowdy sing-alongs with bits of rap, R&B and blues, Wild Magnolias — contrary to the celebration itself — appeals to folk young and old…
Kissing Off a Kingmaker
It was the summons so many Harris County GOP runoff candidates have come to dread. Shortly after coming in first in a packed field in the Republican primary for the Seventh Congressional District, state Representative John Culberson got a call. Religious right organizer Dr. Steven Hotze was inviting him to…
The Music! The Gaiety! The Samba!
Carmen Miranda was a funky singer known for her jiggling bosoms, fruit-basket hairpieces and platform shoes. She was, in the words of Charles Treves, organizer of the Carmen Miranda exhibit at the Houston International Festival, “Technicolor in the age of Technicolor,” a “mix of Brazilian culture with American vision” and…
Albee Alley
Three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Edward Albee is a man who speaks his mind. So if you’re going to talk with him about the U.S. premiere of his latest work, The Play About the Baby, there are several key rules to follow. First of all, don’t ask him to describe it…
43 Skiddoo
43 Brasserie, 4315 Montrose Boulevard, (713)874-0043.
Hogg’s Head on a Stick
Speculation is rife, as those prone to cliché are wont to say, about the late, lamented Hogg Grill. (That’s three — count ’em, three — in one sentence.) Shortly after opening in October 1998, the Theater District restaurant, which took its name from the historic building housing it, won over…
Hot Plate
The menu board at Café Express [3200 Kirby Drive, (713)522-3994; 1422 West Gray, (713)522-3100], that neck-stiffening list above the counter, doesn’t invite one to linger over its many mouthwatering possibilities. It’s so easy to overlook the lowly turkey burger amid all the fresh salads, pastas and sandwiches — but don’t…
Global Domination
Each year, the Houston International Festival brings a batch of global superstars to the World Music Stage, and each year this lineup impresses. And each year the sleepers steal the show. Count on it again in 2000. Topping the marquee, undisputed Afro-pop champion of the world King Sunny Ade (Saturday,…
Officials Probe Refund Collector
Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector Paul Bettencourt and Chief Appraiser Jim Robinson have asked authorities to determine whether a Dallas CPA violated state law in soliciting Houston-area residents, many of them elderly, to become their property tax agent. Appraisal district officials also cancelled her status as an agent representing nearly 1,000…
Accordion Corleone
Walking deliberately with a slight limp past vacant storefronts and over grimy gray asphalt, the inimitable Dr. Dre raps: …By some nigga wit’ a Tech 9, tryin’ to take mine / ‘You wanna make noise, make noise’ / I make a phone call, my niggas come in like the Gotti…
Listen In
KISS Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion Saturday, April 1 Like an extended version of a multimillion-dollar Super Bowl commercial with hip animation and a snappy jingle, the KISShow was really not much more than a two-and-a-half-hour-long advertisement for KISS and KISS-related products. Since the big screen behind the stage, continuously flashing…
Popera
There’s nothing particularly exceptional about the way Andrea Bocelli sings a certain verse in “La Luna Che Non C’è,” from the Italian singer’s 1997 gem, Romanza. His husky, conversational delivery is straight out of George Michael’s textbook. Yet as soon as the song’s full instrumentation kicks in, Bocelli performs a…
The World (Fest) Is Not Enough
J. Hunter Todd still winces when he remembers an all-too-typical episode from last year’s edition of his WorldFest/Houston International Film Festival. He was standing in the lobby of Meyerland Plaza Cinema, scoping the queue of ticket holders for an afternoon screening, when a middle-aged fellow, on his way to see…
International Film Festival 2000
Editor’s note: Not all of WorldFest/Houston’s films were available for screening prior to the opening of the festival. Below is a complete list of the feature films showing at this year’s WorldFest; some are short reviews, and others offer only a brief synopsis. Reviews are by Joe Leydon or David…
Heart Condition
What’s your pick for the most ridiculous movie ever made? The Conqueror, starring John Wayne as Mongol emperor Ghengis Khan? How about The Manitou, in which the grizzled head of an Indian medicine man sprouts from Susan Strasberg’s neck? The musical remake of Lost Horizon surely deserves a couple of…