Sky Kings
Drop Zone is an action movie with the requisite good guys and bad guys, zap and pow and ostensibly witty tough talk, and all of that ordinary action movie stuff is done well enough. But instead of pushing to go farther, faster or harder, Drop Zone distinguishes itself from the…
Mr. Big
On a windy day in early November, Houston sculptor David Adickes is watching a handful of loyal volunteers from the city of Huntsville put the finishing touches to his mammoth memorial to Sam Houston that this fall, after three years of work, he was finally able to present to the…
Stay or Go?
At a Salvadoran diner in Bellaire, where extravagant soccer trophies on the counter compete with photos of Salvadoran volcanos on the walls, a 45-year-old cook who calls herself just Esperanza dices black clams and wonders about her future. Like many of Houston’s Salvadorans, Esperanza feared she was only a few…
Sixties Survivor
Twenty-five years ago Gene Locke faced a different set of legal challenges than those he will inherit when he replaces Benjamin Hall III as Houston city attorney later this month. On April 6, 1969, Locke was busy trying to figure out how he and two friends, Deloyd Parker and Dwight…
She’s No Pimp
During her four years as a concierge at Houston’s Ritz-Carlton, Kareen Eichmann was accustomed to receiving — and was skilled at fulfilling — requests for special favors from the four-star hotel’s wealthy international clientele. Tickets to the opera or ballet? No problem. The best table at the right restaurant? Step…
Do More Cuts Mean Less Shoots?
Houston filmmaker Eagle Pennell has done pretty well for himself in recent years. Working as an independent, he’s managed to complete three films — the well received Last Night at the Alamo, Heart Full of Soul and the soon to be released Doc’s Full Service — each of which is…
Letters
Peeling an Eye for Alison Is there any possibility of printing a picture of Alison Cook in an upcoming issue? I’m dying to put a face with the name I love to hate. What does Ms. Cook have against places where non-eclectic white folks can go and have a good…
Press Picks
thursday december 15 Rockets Those dastardly Los Angeles Lakers are back in town tonight, and if you’re of a mind to recall the bleak days of the last decade when Showtime was riding high (and roughshod) over everything in the West, you might want to pay a visit to the…
Marco’s Rampant
Now that Houston restaurant entrepreneur Ghulam Bombaywala has announced plans to spread his Marco’s Mexican restaurants across the nation, it behooves us to ask what manner of Tex-Mex he proposes to export in our city’s name. Several visits to one of his “Totally Bueno” suburban outposts yield a discomforting answer:…
Rotation
Smile Smile Hail Damage Records This is the debut CD — or digital demo, however you want to look at it — from a Houston three-piece that’s been playing the small club circuit with increasing frequency this past year, and there’s a good chance that the band, like many, offers…
Tight, Shiny and Abrasive
There are bands that make fantastic albums, then can’t seem to muster enough energy to so much as pick their noses during a live set (did the Cars ever make anyone’s Top Ten concerts list?). On the flip side, there are acts that produce terminally boring records and then turn…
Live Shots
Sir Douglas Quintet Friday, December 2 The Fabulous Satellite Lounge The Sir Douglas Quintet, the band that taught the Beatles some chops, are back on the road. To their credit, they avoided most of the pitfalls of Memory Lane tours by sticking close to their Tejano bar-band roots. The mostly…
Bill-bored
Late night thoughts (9:30 anyway) on watching last week’s Billboard Music Awards on the tube… Everybody, I suppose, understands that the Billboard Music Awards are based on Billboard magazine, and that what Billboard magazine does is track sales, so whoever sells the most wins automatically. There’s an inherent lack of…
A Talent to Bemuse
Noel Coward was no Eugene O’Neill, nor did he want to be. His witty urban dramas were meant to entertain, nothing much more, and at that they succeeded sparklingly well. But while Coward’s plays may be lightweight, their witty urbanity and suave frolic gives them a highly engaging keenness. When…
Milla in 3-D
Every Monday afternoon, the Houston Press staff convenes around a big ugly green table in a big room with ugly purple carpeting and commences with the weekly editorial meeting. A very small portion of this meeting is occupied with the music editor’s report to his editors of upcoming music stories…
Going Public
It’s hardly news that advertisers take pleasure in a captive audience. And a prime target is the person waiting for a bus. Most who wait to get from one place to another expect, aside from the occasional public service announcement, nothing more than another close encounter with Calvin Klein’s celebrated…
Shanghai Surprise
Rejoice, all ye Chinese-food buffs: an early holiday present awaits you at Diho Square — Houston’s new center of gravity for serious Chinese dining — where the Shanghai Restaurant is quietly turning out authentic regional fare that is unlike anything else in town. From a leafy green braise of pea…
Love and Bore
There are two kinds of bad movies: actively bad and passively bad. An actively bad one can prove perversely enjoyable. You sit there gazing up at the screen, marveling at the gap between what the filmmakers believed they were doing and what they’re really giving you. This kind of movie…