Landing the Big One
Even those who have eaten shrimp on the east coast of the Yucatan might be surprised by the mega-size crustaceans at the cavernous, colorful Lucinda’s [2415 Dunstan, (713)394-7280]. At first glance, the camarones al cilantro ($17.95) look too pretty to eat: Dark bronzed shrimp, along with deep green strands of…
Date Drinks
There was a gorgeous red Yamaha parked on the sidewalk in front of Slider’s Bar and Daiquiris [1424B Westheimer, (713)528-2788]. It was the sort of souped-up motorcycle with chopped handlebars and a tiny windshield that we used to call, back in the day when I drove bikes, a cafe racer…
Sure Shots
Outside the Travis Cafe, Pat Kneifert of the Tequila Cowboys talks with a prospective “roadie.” “Aw, c’mon, man,” says the roadie, really just a vagrant. “Do me solid! Do me solid!” “I’ve already told you,” Kneifert says, “I don’t have any money.” “C’mon, man! I help you out.” “But I…
Live Free and Die
The Rockets were creaming the Denver Nuggets. At halftime Dave Pickrell walked into the hall and lit up a cigarette; five men joined him. It was the day after Christmas 1992, and the first game Pickrell had gone to since the Summit banned smoking. When no one told them to…
Von Trapped
Amid all the ethnic musical programs that hide in the corners of Houston’s radio dial is one curio: a show devoted to America’s biggest and nearly oldest immigrant group, the Germans. Sandwiched between Vietnamese news programs, The Musical Trot with Liselotte, hosted by German native Liselotte Babin, is good old-fashioned…
Makeup Punk
On the surface, the Eyeliners are almost too good to be true. The band consists of three sisters, picturesque brunettes who favor leather jackets and skirts and who can command an audience just by showing up. When Gel, Lisa and Laura plug in and punk out, they become every wayward…
Zydeco Kingdom
Inside Slim’s Y-Ki-Ki one Saturday night during the 1996 Labor Day weekend, the dance floor was packed at the Opelousas, Louisiana, joint. The crowd made space on the floor as zydeco accordionist and bandleader Keith Frank made the announcement: It was time. What looked like 100 women, standing alongside a…
Getting to the Show
Jason Green sits in the home team bullpen at Enron Field, 373 feet from the pitcher’s mound. Three hundred and seventy-three feet from the start of the rest of his life. It’s getting into the late innings. The Astros have given up eight runs so far to the St. Louis…
Social Distortion
Bands need to stand out, no question. And ever since Chuck Berry first chicken-walked across the stage 50 years ago, it’s the guitar player who has acted as the voice of his group. More than the drummer or the bassist, the guitarist feels the pressure of supplying the sound that…
Lucky Strikes Back
It’s Tuesday morning, and it’s looking to be one of those hot, muggy August summer afternoons. It’s the kind of day when a smoker, exiled to the unforgiving heat, would yearn for some cool refreshment. Or so hopes the ragtag bicycle outfit known as the Lucky Strike Force, which gathers…
Maller, Shot Caller
In the Almeda Mall parking lot, right across from JCPenney, is CONXTION 2000. The club is nowhere near NoDo, but it’s getting by all right. Consider this a case study in serendipity. CONXTION 2000 has some things working for and against it. First, the locale: no competition, but no surrounding…
Booked Up
Abram Himelstein can read people. It’s a skill he has honed traveling around the country hawking his ‘zine-like alterna-primer, Tales of a Punk Rock Nothing, in a massive person-to-person marketing campaign. The 29-year-old former Houston public schoolteacher looks for the kids with green hair and Doc Martens and punk band…
Bravehearts
Scotland’s Celtic-folk agglomeration the Battlefield Band fairly defines the term “warhorse.” Through its 30 years and 26 albums, the group has possibly gone through more lineup changes than even the Platters or Paul Revere and the Raiders. Not that this is a washed-up outfit — far from it. The Battlefield…
Getting Hosed
It was the start of a new year and a good time for cleaning house. That’s what the Glen Cairne Community Association thought, anyway, when it contracted with a north Houston firm to sweep the debris from the streets around its 2,650 homes, located 20 miles northwest of downtown Houston…
Acura Music Festival
Cheesy corporate title aside, this package tour is a healthy dose of N’Awlins goodness. After a long bout of the grumpies, stemming from his battles with Fantasy Records over the Creedence Clearwater Revival catalog (in which he was once sued for plagiarizing himself), headliner John Fogerty has only recently started…
CEO Mom
Last week my boss forwarded a press release touting Monday, August 21, as Stay Home with Your Kids Day. Under normal circumstances, I ignore made-up holidays. I mean, does anyone out there care that this is Family Eye Care Month? Is National Creamsicle Day marked on your calendar? Is there…
Chewing the Fat
Amanda Peet has some really large teeth. Seriously. Even given the fact that it’s in vogue for hot, young would-be sex symbols to parade their brightly polished choppers for all to see (think Neve Campbell, Casper Van Dien or Denise Richards), Amanda’s impressive ivories outshine every other set of incisors…
Write and Wrong
Success is relative in Hollywood, like a third cousin twice-removed who doesn’t recognize you at family reunions, and doesn’t care to. Fame is so fleeting it has a month-by-month lease. Six years ago, Christopher McQuarrie was as famous as any screenwriter on the backlot known as Los Angeles. He had…
Pep Rally
Only the United States could have invented the concept of cheerleading. It takes a unique combination of repressed sex drive and denial to come up with a method for blossoming young ladies to shake their developing moneymakers in front of horny young guys, then claim that the entire enterprise is…
Campaign Finance Laws, What Are They Good For?
Michael Yarbrough has never taken campaign finance laws seriously, except perhaps as minor obstacles to be overcome in realizing his own peculiar vision of the American dream: I get elected to office, you give me money, and I spend it however I please. Several years back, The Insider asked the…
God(grand)-fathers
Turns out that when goodfellas don’t die — when they don’t get shot or blown up in a car or beaten to death with a baseball bat — they move to Miami’s South Beach. They drive tour buses for the elderly, take orders at Burger King, give dime-a-dance lessons to…
Letters 08-31-2000
Spaced Out Trailblazer to the beyond: Your compelling article on Transhab and NASA’s famous Constance Adams was very exciting to read [“Science Friction,” by Lauren Kern, August 10]. Her revolutionary spirit is just what America needs to blaze future trails in space! Given your interest in “space architecture,” please check…
King of Pain
A scar is a record, like an archival document permanently attached to the body and mind. It can be a physical or psychological mark that results from any manner of inflicted pain. We all have scars, and they are all linked to a memory. Your childhood may be a blur,…
It’s Clean in Mayberry
A joke usually depends on an element of surprise, something that tacks left when you’re expecting it to go right. An easy way to do that is through vulgarity, or an over-the-top stage presence. Comedian Jack Mayberry prefers the difficult road, relying instead on a restrained delivery and clever turns…
It’s Goode Being Green
Speaking off the toque: Levi Goode, quality control manager for Goode Company Restaurants and son of founder Jim Goode Q. Does the presence of mesquite trees in Texas have any relation to the quality of your barbecue? A. We are the only restaurant to adapt open mesquite burning to restaurant…
A Long Overdue Reunion
Fifty-five years ago on April 11, Harry Feinberg, then a 25-year-old American GI, woke up prepared to continue wearing down a war-torn Germany. On that same day, Mike Gerstner, then a 19-year-old prisoner in a Nazi labor camp, woke up prepared to do nothing but survive. At the time, Feinberg…
Meltdown at Fox
We’re really, really trying not to break out the Survivor references, but the situation at Fox Channel 26 is coming close to leaving us no option. Amid intense backbiting, crushed egos, shattered careers and rampant paranoia and suspicion, the once-stable station is undergoing an ugly, ugly purge. Anchor Anna Davlantes…
Combination Plates
In the good old days, Texans went to “Mexican restaurants” and ate “Mexican food.” Then in 1972, The Cuisines of Mexico, an influential cookbook by food authority Diana Kennedy, drew the line between authentic interior Mexican food and the “mixed plates” we ate at “so-called Mexican restaurants” in the United…
Cheaper By The Bottle
The dynamic duo of Charles Clark and Grant Cooper are at it again, adding a little more heat to the already boiling Houston restaurant scene. This time around, the originators of Tasca Kitchen and Wine Bar [908 Congress, (713)225-9100] have a fresh concept scheduled to go into a booming part…