The Unhappy Hooker
In the not-so-brave new world of independent filmmaking, low-budget movies premiere at Sundance or Cannes and win plaudits from over-psyched audiences, publicity from desperate feature writers and distribution from boutiques that are usually subsidiaries of major studios. Right now Tarantino-style thrillers are out; crazy-clan stories and upstairs-downstairs tales are in…
What Really Happened To Rodeny Hulin?
Under the rules of the Texas prison system, the last photograph of Rodney Hulin alive should never have been taken. Visitors are forbidden to bring cameras into the Ellis Unit hospital in Huntsville, but in the spring of 1996, Hulin’s family smuggled one in anyway. For weeks Hulin had been…
Show ‘Em Your Money!
There’s a purported moment chronicled in the City Hall indictment that, when considered in a larger context, seems more pitiable than scandalous. It came sometime around December 13, 1995, the day that Ben Reyes allegedly rang up his buddy Dan Morales and asked the attorney general to get on the…
The Insider
Welcome to Hotel Six Don K. Clark, the senior agent-in-charge of the Houston FBI office, was noticeably uncomfortable in his role as a press release reader at last week’s non-news conference following the indictment in the Hotel Six sting. The slight, unprepossessing Clark added nothing of detail to the Justice…
Letters
Real Waste In reference to John L. Anders Jr.’s letter [“Gypped Again,” July 17] on your June 26 story “Pain for the Prosecution”: The most disgraceful thing about former assistant district attorney Kristen Pain’s arrest and subsequent conviction is not that the taxpayers paid her salary, but that she is…
Press Picks
thursday August 7 Teach Good Study Skills to Students School is starting up again, and every conscientious, hard-working parent knows what that means: homework. Oh, that hateful hair-pulling hour or so of begging, badgering and browbeating, trying to get your kids to do their homework. This year, start off with…
Grade A
It’s always seemed to me that college cuisine is perfectly defined by the three Fs: fast, fatty and forgettable. But sitting at a table at Barron’s Restaurant at the Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management at the University of Houston, I had to reconsider my opinion. Looking…
Rotation
Echo and the Bunnymen Evergreen London Even by the drastically reduced standards of your typical reunion release, Echo and the Bunnymen’s Evergreen is a patent disappointment — if only for the fact that it didn’t have to happen. Indeed, some might have thought this sort of retread option was beneath…
Hip-Hop Down Under
New Zealand singer/songwriter Pauly Fuemana — a.k.a. OMC — is widely known as a hip-hop artist. It’s a label Fuemana, who grew up in a tough South Auckland suburb, would just as soon see people forget. This isn’t to say Fuemana denies a hip-hop influence. But one CD into his…
Static
Sobered by reality… It was the year that wouldn’t end. At least, that’s the way local singer/songwriter Tony Vila looks back on 1992: 12 months of one misfortune after another. “It seemed,” says Vila, “like I always had some natural disaster following me at the time. I feel like I’ve…
Tell No Lies
She lives about 20 minutes away, but she doesn’t want to meet in person. She ostensibly knows how to dial a phone, yet she has her publicist place the call from a third location and patch her through. Sometimes, musicians seem to enjoy being eccentric simply because they can, turning…
Get It While You Can
Not long ago, Billboard reported that rocker Melissa Etheridge was negotiating to star in a Janis Joplin film biography. Reading the Billboard announcement, something caught my eye: The company producing the film reportedly agreed to pay $1.1 million for the rights to use “Piece of My Heart,” which Joplin recorded…
Loving Care
Last year, a New York art fair organizer pitted pop music fans who are also artists against one another in a show entitled “Oasis vs. Blur,” referring to the British bands. At the time, a friend came up with an idea that might be even more reflective of popular culture:…
But What If the Nuts Are Right?
Jerry Fletcher, the hero of Conspiracy Theory, is a comic, glamorous variation on Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver. Like Travis, he’s a New York cabby obsessed with protecting a woman from the world’s hidden malignancies. Unlike Travis, Jerry snaps when he achieves sanity. Mel Gibson has been almost too willing…