Static
22 Jacks, a John and a Joey… I must say that I’ve had few — if any — conversations with card-carrying punk rockers in which Elton John has been mentioned, let alone discussed in detail. But, at the risk of threatening 22 Jacks’s membership in the hard-core bad boys club,…
Bone to Pick
John Pickering has never been effective at throwing his weight around. He’s warm and passive by nature, an amiable East Texan with a wide smile, a healthy laugh and a vivid memory. “I’m most comfortable singing. I was a professional singer by the time I was five; it’s what I…
Swing Kings
Let’s face it: The time has come to take the whole “retro” concept and toss it in the trash. The music most folks call classical, after all, was the popular music of its day; it’s only come to be considered timeless art because it is timeless. Now we should accept…
A Touch of the Familiar
The Chevy Suburban of ballet, The Nutcracker is both durable and familiar. It’s a comfortable ride, and one that, with the Houston Ballet in charge, spins away with pretty confections and fluff. The sweetness reflects Ballet artistic director Ben Stevenson’s desire to create an English pantomime style dance that parents…
Old Tales Told New
Of all the things that can go wrong with direction, perhaps the kindest for the audience is direction that, while peculiarly misinterpreting the material, uses actors to their fullest ability. That’s precisely what happens in Stages’s current production of the 1960s musical She Loves Me. A light comedy that swirls…
Doesn’t Suck
For years, smarm mongers have urged us to get in touch with our inner child, a delightful little creature who would greatly improve our outlook and behavior. But Beavis and Butt-head rocketed to MTV fame by meeting truer, deeper needs: the cravings for adolescent-male stupidity and pathetic sex jokes. Animator…
Love and Other Agenda Items
Early this year, in the psycho-gangster/vampire movie From Dusk till Dawn, George Clooney, of TV’s ER, kept his head while all about him were losing theirs — literally. As a slick thief saddled with a lunatic brother (Quentin Tarantino) and beset by demons, Clooney demonstrated poise under duress. His professionalism…
That Old Black Magic
Why a movie of The Crucible now? Arthur Miller’s play about the Salem witchcraft trials was first staged on Broadway in 1953, when McCarthyism was still in flower, and it was not a resounding success. Now, of course, it’s a staple of rep theaters and high school and college drama…
First Baptist Church expected 50,000 people to see this year’s Christmas spectacular. The stage was ready. The wise men and the shepherds had been cast. Now, all they needed was…THE NEW JESUS
In the beginning was the script, and the script was with God, and the script was God, and the people auditioned for the roles. A hospital clerk was chosen to play Mary, a plumber to play Joseph, and Judas was the church maintenance man. Jesus was the question. He was…
Letters
Another Round of Turpentine The response of Thomas Jones [Letters, “Taste of Turpentine,” November 21], former campaign manager for Sylvester Turner, to your October 24 story on Mr. Turner [“Man Overboard,” by Jim Simmon] uses the very tactics that it decries. Mr. Jones attacks the Press story as “grossly misleading…
Island Dreams
When the Reggae Hut’s owners say they serve up “authentic Jamaican food and vibe,” they aren’t exaggerating. Like the gentle motion of waves in the Caribbean Sea, a steady reggae beat rocks hypnotically from speakers in the ceiling of the small Jamaican storefront restaurant on Almeda, creating subliminal images of…
Rotation
Semisonic Great Divide MCA Precious few know this, but Semisonic’s Dan Wilson has already been a party to what is arguably the most lucid back-to-nature statement any post-punk band has made this decade. It happened with his last group, the overtly ambitious Trip Shakespeare, in the summer of 1990: Dan,…
A Question of Rape
On October 29, just before the beginning of her sixth period social studies class at Jersey Village Senior High School, 15-year-old Deirdre headed for the restroom. Rather than use the lavatory on the first floor near her classroom, Deirdre would later tell a Jersey Village police investigator, she wandered upstairs,…
Nature’s Call
The short blond woman, who had come dressed in a fetching red-white-and-blue ensemble, seemed on the verge of tears after City Council had taken its final vote to annex Kingwood. Out in the hallway a few minutes later, she eagerly satisfied the electronic media’s need for a handy “angry Kingwood…
The Insider
A Love So Devine Civil District Judge John Devine is a strident right-to-lifer who’s decorated his courtroom in religious kitsch, but somehow the conservative Republican jurist has maintained soul connections to the ranks of godless Democratic plaintiff’s lawyers — connections that came in handy when he ran in last month’s…
Press Picks
thursday december 19 Santa Live Since Halloween, Santa has blitzed every mall and museum in town, and yet he still feels as though he has not touched base with every child. To remedy this, tonight Santa reaches out to little couch potatoes via Access Houston. During this two-hour special, kids…
Dish
Pay Now, Eat Later This time of year, everybody in town tries to find a new way to get you to part with your money. So it’s not surprising that a quintet of tony restaurants have decided to offer dining packages that are just right to place under the Christmas…