Dishes at an Exhibition
What to make of Museum? There’s that portentous name, its rarefied airs upping the ante: after all, a place invoking the sanctified aura of Dominique de Menil’s nearby art collection had better deliver. There’s the unpredictable (but not untalented) kitchen, whose goat-cheese-and-pesto sensibility springs less from deeply held passions than…
Ely, Allen and BBQ: The next best thing to Lubbock
Joe Ely’s long been known as one of Texas’ finest songwriters, and as the popular figurehead of the Lubbock Mob — that tightknit coalition of Lubbock expatriates that includes Jo Carol Pierce, Butch Hancock, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Jo Harvey Allen and husband Terry. And Terry Allen is a highly respected…
Alternative Notion Lollapalooza doesn’t say much about its generation, but the music’s fine
For at least its first two years of operation, the Lollapalooza tour was subject to journalistic searches for some semblance of meaning, some hint of cultural significance. Surely this large new thing attracting these large new crowds of funny looking kids must in some way symbolize the Zeitgeist, we all…
A Taste of the Hellhole
The idea that a compilation of local talent might be of some benefit to the commercial struggle of the local scene isn’t a new one, and it’s produced everything from memorable records like Texas Funk and Great Big Pile to probably-should-have-left-well-enough-alone embarrassments like last year’s Houston Music Council sampler. 30footFALL’s…
Rotation
Moe Tucker Dogs Under Stress Ichiban If Lou Reed and John Cale left the Velvet Underground with a sometimes justified, sometimes not, sense of arty pretension, drummer Moe Tucker came out just looking for a job. Tucker got married, moved to Phoenix, got divorced and moved to Georgia, spent some…
Communist Comedy
The heroine in Main Street Theater’s premiere of Red Scare at Sunset is Mary Dale, glamorous, red-headed movie star and homemaker. Mary is losing her matinee-idol husband, Frank Taggart, to B-movie actress Marta Towers, who has seduced him with the lure of serious theater and method acting. But that’s not…
Eat Drink, Go To Sleep
Director Ang Lee registered pretty much a perfect score on last year’s The Wedding Banquet. His low-budget story of a gay Taiwanese man living in New York and trying to hide his sexual identity from his very traditional parents was not only well-made enough to please the grumpiest critic, it…
The Sick and the Dead
Only in the movies could a therapist speak inconsiderately to a frayed patient, watch her commit suicide by jumping out his office window, quit his practice in shame, try to repair himself by seeking out an old college friend who is himself a psychologist, sit in on one of his…
Mao Mania
In China, The Blue Kite has provoked a political backlash for its bleak depiction of the “anti-Rightist” campaigns of the 1950s as well as of the Cultural Revolution that followed in the ’60s. Ostensibly the story of a young boy, Tietou (played as an infant by Yi Tian, as a…
Losing Track
In December 1992, a 15-year-old named Alfredo was charged by Harris County authorities with kidnapping after being accused of threatening a man named Ruben Gonzales with a screwdriver to rob him of $500. After Alfredo pleaded guilty to charges of felony kidnapping and theft, his juvenile probation officer recommended to…
Vince Ryan’s Distress
With just three months remaining until voters pick a replacement for lame-duck Harris County Judge Jon Lindsay, Democratic contender Vince Ryan has hit a rough patch in his race against state Rep. Robert Eckels. A fire last week that authorities believe was set by an arsonist scorched the southwest Houston…
Letters
Closeted Concerns Your article in the August 11 edition about the private life and public death of Frank Koury [by Brian Wallstin] was excellent. Koury’s closeted lifestyle should serve as an example of the possible outcome of a life hidden deep inside the closet. Of course, while it is easy…
Press Picks
thursday august 25 Songs of My People Later in the week, the Museum of Fine Arts will open an exhibition of more than 150 photographs by 53 of our finest African-American photographers; tonight, you can get a sneak peek at the works and hear a lecture by photographer, author and…
Hot Plate
Light Dining Since I believe it is uncivilized to eat dinner while it is still light outside, the appeal of early-bird specials (or daylight-saving time, for that matter) has always eluded me. After trying Sfuzzi’s “Summer Sunset Dining” deal — which offers three courses for $9.95, provided you eat them…