Post Closes; Chronicle Sells Glasses
When we first laid eyes on the flier at right, we figured it for an elaborate hoax concocted by some low-level joker at the Chronicle in an extreme paroxysm of bad taste. Unfortunately, we must report that it’s a real deal, at least for Chronicle employees. And they are apparently…
The Insider
New Sportsday Dawning? Sports junkies hungering for more local coverage after the closing of the Post may have a new supplier in Houston Sportsday, a free weekly scheduled to debut on August 25. Sportsday publisher Matt Wagner says a couple of Houstonians he won’t identify (“You’d know their names”) are…
The Case for Gulf War Gate
It sounds like one of the most significant stories of the century, which raises the question, why hasn’t it appeared in a significant place? Why hasn’t the New York Times printed the Nicolsons’ story? “Are you naive or something?” Nancy Nicolson said with genuine shock. The answer was obvious to…
Justice Delayed
Alfonso Orosco Jr. agonized for more than 30 years while waiting to learn if authorities would catch up with the man who shot his father to death — a killing Orosco witnessed as an 11-year-old. Last September, police finally arrested 63-year-old Ora David Lott in New Orleans and brought him…
Letters
Devilish Dialogue Our daughter did not go to Spring Shadows Glen and have the “benefit” of the Ph.D. training of Judith Peterson to get the “Devilish Diagnosis” described by Bonnie Gangelhoff [July 6]. Unfortunately, the same results came from treatment by all-too-common repressed memory therapists. The therapy involved helping the…
Press Picks
thursday august 3 An evening of mystery and suspense The first of several, in fact. A gaggle of well-known mystery writers are in town, signing books and reading and hanging out at the Sisters in Crime writers retreat at the Doubletree Post Oak (where there’ll be a Murder, My Sweet…
Diner’s Notebook
It’s a happy occasion when a good new soul-food place opens in Houston, where our serious Southern culinary heritage often seems in danger of getting lost. Cora’s Kitchen, a cheery buffet-style spot in the middle-class black neighborhood that’s sprung up on the western edge of Meyerland, may not dispense the…
Striver’s Heaven
“That moose never looked so good,” deadpanned the man who accompanied me to the newly facelifted River Oaks Grill. A flattering glow from rose-pink spotlights bathed the grizzled taxidermy specimen of which he spoke — softening the edges of the Friday-night crowd in the bargain. They were a mature bunch…
Rotation
Rod Stewart A Spanner in the Works Warner Bros. Rod Stewart is such a pain in the ass to review. The guy’s a great talent. With that raspy and rich voice, Stewart can bend a lyric like few others. His songs, even the ones sappy enough to pour over pancakes,…
Stage Notes
For the past year or so, I’d been wondering if Main Street Theater continued to deserve its reputation as one of Houston’s better small companies. If its choice of plays wasn’t marginal, the casting was dubious. And the direction was oftentimes suspect. But with The Real Inspector Hound — Tom…
Northern Exposure
Most Canadians have this thing about guns. Just ask Gord Sinclair about it. The side arms in question were strapped to the hips of some rent-a-cops in El Paso’s Club 101, cops who were there to keep the peace during a show by Sinclair’s band, The Tragically Hip. Also on…
A Pericles to Ponder
The good news from the 21st summer season of the Houston Shakespeare Festival — featuring Pericles and As You Like It — is that Pericles is mounted with such aesthetic vitality that it’s a revelation. It’s not that Like is unlikable; it’s just that Pericles director Carolyn Houston Boone uses…
New Band, Old Country
Times are tough for honky-tonkers in this once proud land of the twangy guitar. It used to be that a good old boy could slip into his Wranglers, grab his sweetie and two-step his heart out at any number of establishments that catered to a live country audience. But Gilley’s…
The Wet Look
Given what we’ve heard about the film’s chaotic production history, the opening image of Waterworld has a certain juvenile charm: the world-famous logo of Universal Pictures, which bankrolled the movie — a pristine blue planet floating in a serene sea of stars — mutates so that the land is swallowed…
Critic’s Choice
That Mojo Nixon represents both what’s best and what’s worst about rock and roll should come as no surprise to anybody, since what’s best and worst about rock is the same thing: its fascination with things juvenile. And there are few around who mine that juvenile connection with more fervor…
Unkind Cuts
It’s been a long time since I’ve despised a film character the way I despised Chad Palomino (James Le Gros), a rich, handsome, spoiled young Method actor who’s had a string of early successes and has let every one of them go to his head. He’s just been cast as…
Fashion Plate
About 30 minutes into Clueless, a disposable new teen comedy starring MTV-spawned glamour girl Alicia Silverstone as a spoiled Beverly Hills princess, I started to picture myself as the protagonist of a post-apocalyptic science fiction movie. I’m playing a hard-bitten journalistic loner, a cross between Mad Max and Andrew Sarris…
Hold Me, Kiss Me, Thrill Me – Kill Me?
One night in 1987, Lois Rische’s husband, Allen, the retired CIA field chief for Texas and New Mexico, was stepping into their car when he decided he had to return to the house. He was only gone for a few minutes. Lois thought nothing of it — until later that…
Helpless Hands
In her office in an old building at the edge of downtown, Ruth Marshall, the director of Houston’s Project Head Start for the last 20 years, looks downcast. A short woman with steel-gray hair, she tends to screw up her face when pondering the answer to a question. Today, she’s…