The Law and the Lord
A two-year legal battle between the pastor and the board of deacons of a westside Baptist church is back to square one, with the lawyers in the case the only clear winners. Downtown legal giant Vinson & Elkins stands to collect nearly $100,000 for representing the McGee Chapel Missionary Baptist…
Dark Victory
It is December 5, the day AOL Time Warner-owned DC Comics has been anxiously awaiting for almost 15 years–the day writer-illustrator Frank Miller once more dons cape and cowl to resurrect the Dark Knight, his fiercely rendered vision of an obscenely obsessed middle-aged Batman. Today, stores will finally open their…
America’s New War Against Enron
Its former leaders are in seclusion, protected by elite bodyguards and high-tech security systems. Only a hard-core band of followers continues to staff its shattered shell, as a chorus of condemnation around the world denounces unethical strategies that wreaked havoc on tens of thousands of unsuspecting citizens. Any day now,…
Warts and All
Fairy tales are simple: Good is always fair of face, and evil is covered with warts. Leave it to Stephen Sondheim to muddle this easy equation with his wonderfully paradoxical Into the Woods. Written with librettist James Lapine and based on such familiar tales as Jack and the Beanstalk and…
Caring for the Kids
Caring for the Kids Improve funding: “Sick Kids,” by Wendy Grossman [November 8] was an excellent article, sad and entertaining at the same time. There are a couple of clarifications I would like to add: The article states there are 50 kids in my custody because of their mental health…
But What Does It Mean?
Abstract paintings tend to make people nervous. Unsure how to respond to, say, Jackson Pollock’s all-over drippy intensity or Mark Rothko’s shimmering mystical fields or Barnett Newman’s dispassionately stoic zips, their first words are almost invariably, “What does it mean?” — as though the painting posed some philosophical conundrum. The…
All in the Family
T. Sean Shannon may be an Emmy- nominated writer for Saturday Night Live, but that doesn’t mean he’s gotten too big for his britches. In the past few years, he’s contributed work to an obscure e-zine, Dryhump Magazine, and a letter to the editor of Celebrator Beer News. When the…
Under $5
“Under $25” is the title of Eric Asimov’s column about inexpensive restaurants in The New York Times. I have often mused that if we wanted to do the same sort of thing at the Houston Press, we would have to call it “Under $5” to get anybody to pay attention…
Not Acting Their Age
Twenty-eight-year-old actor, director and theater freak Ezekiel Morgan is very enthusiastic about his upcoming project, almost to the point where listening to him talk about it is a performance in itself. “You come one time,” says Morgan, brimming with confidence. “I guarantee you, if it’s in your mind, you will…
Panettone in a Pear Tree
Carlo Molinaro was born in Verona and grew up in Milano. He has been the chef and owner of La Trattoria restaurant (6504 Westheimer, 713-782-1324) for the last 19 years. We asked him about Italian holiday traditions, both in his hometown of Verona and here in the United States. Q…
Body-Slammed
There was once a time when long hair, a scruffy demeanor and bong hits at noon were as much a part of being in a band as amps cranked to 11 and rockin’ paeans to the glories of chicks, booze and kicking ass. Then came the ’80s, and everybody –…
Patty Melt
We couldn’t be more pleased to see a place use “fusion” in its name yet offer nary an Asian dish. Not that Fusion Café (2442 Times Boulevard, 713-522-1884) doesn’t adhere to the concept of combining different flavors. The cafe melds Caribbean, Creole and down-home Southern cooking, with the former being…
Love, Americana-Style
Buddy and Julie Miller live just a short bicycle ride from Nashville’s Music Row. The songs they’ve written are all over the country charts and on platinum albums by the Dixie Chicks and Brooks & Dunn. They even accompanied Lee Ann Womack on their song “Does My Ring Burn Your…
Party Like It’s 1982
The Gatsby (2540 University Boulevard, 713-874-1310), a disco bar advertised with billboards showing a woman in 1930s vamp drag, seems curiously anachronistic, or maybe just curious. The club occupies second-story space in the Rice Village, sandwiched between the wonky Rice University campus and the Mom-Dad-Buddy-and-Sis enclave of West University Place…
The Saga Continues
The odyssey began on November 30 with a panicked phone call from KPFT Lonestar Jukebox host Rick Heysquierdo. “It’s over, man,” he breathlessly informed me. “They won.” Wait a minute, Rick, back up. Who won? “They did. The national board caved in. They’re gonna fire me, they’re gonna fire all…
Tippling from Tap to Tap
Sometimes, a person just wants to cut through all the nauseating glitz and trendiness of downtown Houston and just get tore the hell up like Barney on The Simpsons. Can’t a person stroll NoDo in search of a place to merely imbibe refreshing alcoholic beverages? Isn’t there a spot without…
Betty Blowtorch
After slugging it out in L.A.’s shithole-dive bar-club scene, the best-looking band in leather since Girlschool finally delivers its first full-length album, with one foot in the gutter and the other planted firmly in the crotches of MTV’s endless battalion of carefully pierced ‘n’ primped Hot Topic rockers. The quartet’s…
Podunk
The pride of Port Arthur (with apologies to Janis Joplin), this band’s name is both a tribute and a gentle slam on their much-maligned hometown. But the quartet (three of whom have known each other since kindergarten) has nothing to be ashamed of musically. Straightforward rock and rollers without indie…
Freeloader
You can’t say that vocalist/songwriter Scott Sinclair is afraid of change. After earning an MBA from Stanford and working for a financial institution for almost a decade, the Houston native chucked it all in 1999 to form this trio and go into music full-time. Then, after his band recorded its…
Britney Spears
You ever notice that it’s much more fun to talk about Britney Spears than to listen to her? As an artist (and that term is used very loosely), she gives audiences banal, dry teen-pop and gussies it up with a shiny, enticing sheen — the musical equivalent of slathering honey…
Damage Control
White Oak Bayou is 25 miles long, from its sluggish rise in northwest Harris County to its concrete-lined terminus in downtown Houston. In September 1998, a band of thunderstorms aligned themselves with the White Oak and, after gathering the power and fury of Tropical Storm Frances, raked a southeasterly path…
Roy Head
Roy Head is certainly one of the Lone Star State’s most enigmatic music legends. His reputation tells of a major talent unfulfilled, and it’s not uncommon for him to forgo singing “Treat Her Right,” his one big hit song from 1965, when he performs. Head On!, a collection of his…
A Test of the Times
Nelie came in the door with a strange look on his face. “Get your things,” he said. “We’re playing the test today.” The boys were shocked. The match against the Yanks was scheduled for tomorrow afternoon. Tomorrow afternoon, or the day after never — who knew if this game would…
Eyes Half Open
Beneath the hazy, mystifying layers of Vanilla Sky lies a remarkable Tom Cruise performance — one that, to a large extent, takes place beneath a makeup artist’s piled-on scars and a costumer’s blank “prosthetic” mask. As David Aames, hipster publisher of Maxim-like magazines, Cruise plays a lothario so vain he…
Friends Forever
While others try to fathom the implications of the first human clone, Miller Quarles is thinking that it could have been his baby. And that is precisely the kind of thinking that worries Dr. Michael West, CEO of Advanced Cell Technology, the company that announced the controversial breakthrough last month…
Working Girls
The combatants in Patrick Stettner’s compelling first feature, The Business of Strangers, are a middle-aged software executive (Stockard Channing) wearing a steel-blue suit and an air of professional hauteur; the executive’s mysterious new assistant (Julia Stiles), fresh out of Dartmouth and full of self-righteous aggression; and a cocky “headhunter” (Frederick…