Crossing Paths
The idea of destiny — especially the notion that fate will bring two people together to fall in love — is a load of crap, but a surprising number of people buy into it. Probably for that reason, it has proven to be a fairly popular component in movie romances,…
Generation Exceptional
“We had a rule: absolutely no classical music whatsoever.” Orli Shaham laughs at the memory — and its obvious irony. The young musician is now a mature married woman at 22, and she’s recalling the nuptial ceremony, held more than a month ago in her homeland of Israel. Orli’s a…
Easy Money
When lawyers with the Texas Attorney General’s Office looked for a test case of the questionable sale-leaseback industry in 1991, all they had to do was listen. A 35-year-old entrepreneur named Gary Elkins was using radio advertisements with the lure of fast cash to reel in credit-starved consumers: “Yankee Doodle…
Reznor’s Rabble
After they were dropped by their first label, 12 Rounds — the male/female duo of Atticus Ross and Claudia Sarne — found a creepy kindred spirit of sorts in Trent Reznor, who wound up signing them to his Nothing imprint. It’s easy to see what Reznor saw in these sallow…
If We Had a Hammer
Vice President Al Gore awarded the Veterans Administration a Silver Hammer award for government efficiency in constructing a Houston regional office facility three years ago, gushing, “Thanks for building a government that works better and costs less.” The Veep obviously wasn’t aware at the time how badly the agency had…
Clubland
The curse of 6400 Richmond Avenue continues: Earlier this summer, the flashy, fussed-over 6400 Sports Cafe closed its doors after only a few months in operation, suffering the same swift and unfortunate fate of Peter’s Wildlife, Rockefeller’s West, Hippo and others before it. Rumor has it that the club’s owner,…
The Insider
P.C. Follies Perhaps the lingering hangover from our ungodly hot and dry summer has set Houstonians on edge, because more than a few people around town are steaming and getting their dander up over some very unlikely causes. Here are examples — the Houston Chronicle’s suddenly prudish treatment of Astros…
Texan Turnoff
Sordid Lives, playing at the Paradox Theater, brings some interesting baggage to the comedy stage. First off, Del Shores, who was well into his thirties when he wrote this script, considers this his “coming-out play.” Like Ty, the central figure in his play, Shores had to go through the arduous…
Scenes from the Bayou Sphere
Premium passage Three friends. The latest employees at a business operating more than three decades. And the moment has come to move along in life, here in this energy dynasty of America. For nearly 40 years, the Exxon station at Pease and Milam, a block from the Exxon Building, had…
Falling in Love
Downtown, the couple picked up their marriage license, sufficiently impressing the clerk that he escorted them out and stopped traffic as they crossed San Jacinto. Barnett shuffled across with his walker, and Niecee, who at 73 was 15 years older, held onto his arm. They ascended the courthouse to the…
Wetlands Maul?
Drivers passing the intersection at Grand Parkway and Interstate 10 near Katy hurtle through without a second look. There’s little to see here. The northern side of the freeway is a quiet piece of overgrown land fringed by new housing developments. On Monday, that was all supposed to change. Developers…
News of the Weird
Lead Stories *Six women filed a lawsuit in July in Birmingham, Alabama, in protest of the state’s new ban on the sale of sex toys (“any device designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs”). According to an Associated Press report, four of the women…
Letters
No Nobel? Brian Wallstin should be recommended for a Pulitzer [“Biological Disaster,” by Brian Wallstin, August 20]! David Schechter via Internet Doggone It! I am appalled, reading your article about poor Bruiser [“Hound’s Hell,” by Russell Contreras, August 20]. I cannot believe the police would act in such an irresponsible…
Still Going Strong
It’s been almost two and a half years since Robert Henry died. But the Houston Ebony Opera Guild is surviving, even thriving, despite the passing of its founder. And this year, the Guild opens its season at Miller Outdoor Theatre with a rarely performed one-act opera entitled Highway One, USA,…
Night & Day
Thursday August 27 Now that you’ve recovered from Titanic fever, you may be suffering from Zorro mania. You’ve seen the movie; perhaps you’ve ordered Zorro merchandise off the Internet (the “official” Zorro whip, just $595, comes with an instructional safety video). Here’s an opportunity to work another angle of the…
Medical Marvel
Maybe it should come as no surprise, in light of the dual careers of Anton Chekhov and William Carlos Williams, that the often illegible handwriting of doctors can contain subtle, intelligent, careful and passionate information about what it means to be alive. Dr. Abraham Verghese’s remarkable first book, My Own…
Hot Plate
I don’t own a car myself. I never have. But were all drive-throughs as good as Thai Racha (10085 Long Point, 464-7607), I’d seriously consider buying one. This restaurant, housed in what was once a Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet, offers what it calls “authentic Thai fast food.” But that should…
Don’t Worry, Be Happy
We’d told The Sundance Grill to expect us at 8 o’clock, but driving down to Seabrook, we got hopelessly lost and arrived some 20 minutes late. This area having a long nautical tradition, we expected our temerity to cost us dearly. Maybe we’d be keelhauled, or, like Billy Budd, end…
Judy’s Lore
Even now, after all these years, David Bean still gets letters and phone calls from fans who wonder where he is, what he’s up to, why he disappeared. Perhaps they’ve heard the stories about how he became a recluse after he left the stage, which isn’t really true at all…
Dish
Here’s Another Bit of Texana Cookbooks have long since lived near the bottom of the literary food chain — ironic, given their content. You’re not likely to see their authors on Booknotes, discussing the significance of their tome with Ted on Nightline, or even with Oscar on Sesame Street. That’s…
People’s Art
The art world has always been a rather elitist one: The critics’ vocabulary is so specialized, and the collectors’ checks are so large. Agents always appear to be on the hunt for the next great discovery. Well, for the 20th century, those provocateurs of art have found their catch: the…
Static
Grooves by the Pound… By most standards, Doug Pinnick is a prolific guy. Conservative estimates place his songwriting output over the past decade in the triple-digit range. And even when you consider that King’s X — the Houston melody-and-faith-driven power trio for which he sings and plays bass — subsists…
Love Conflicts — Nailing Neil
Even in his grad-student days, playwright/filmmaker Neil LaBute got a charge out of stirring up audiences nearly to the point of physical violence. Take the 1991 run of Filthy Talk for Troubled Times at a makeshift theater in New York City, where the young writer was then studying at NYU…
Rotation
Cracker Gentleman’s Blues Virgin After the disappointing commercial showing of their last release, The Golden Age, it would be easy to forgive David Lowery and the rest of Cracker for continuing to streamline the formula that earned them a gold record with 1993’s Kerosene Hat. But rather than further refining…