Letters
Sizing It Up Objective on obesity: I am writing to commend the Houston Press and writer Sarah Fenske for that rare creature: an objectively researched article on this nation’s so-called obesity crisis — who suffers, who profits and how [“Ground Zero,” November 18]! What we often see are poorly researched…
Grande Plans
It’s Friday night, and the most fashionable restaurant in Houston is full to capacity. Glowing in his chef’s whites, Cafe Annie’s head chef and co-owner, Robert Del Grande, stands beside a table of VIPs including Houston Symphony conductor Hans Graf. The celebrity chef smiles constantly and laughs easily. He exudes…
Hot Off the Grill
There must be a faint rumbling emanating from Charles Dickens’s grave during the month of December. Given the number of stale Christmas Carol productions that get mounted this time of year, he must spend all 31 days spinning in his coffin. Fortunately, the folks at Stages Repertory Theatre are offering…
Eat Mi
Tan Tan Tan Tan Mi with wontons$4.95
Mi with barbecued pork$4.95
Mi with shrimp$5.50
Chicken wings$4.95
Egg rolls$5.95
This Week’s Day-by-Day Picks
Thursday, December 2 Though it’s nestled in a strip center off of I-45, the Comedy Showcase, a venue that often takes a backseat to the Laff Stop and Improv, has developed a good share of local comedic talent. The enormous Ralphie May cut his (exceptionally large) teeth at the venue…
Hangover Help
So you overdid it last night, and you’re craving some spicy grease. Instead of seeking the same old Tex-Mex cure, drag your queasy stomach, throbbing head and fuzzy tongue over to Romano’s Italian Restaurant (1528 West Gray, 713-526-1182) for a serious dish of spaghetti marinara ($8.50). After delivering your side…
Hollywood Holiday
They’re the most insidious of all holiday creations. You can’t tiptoe past the counters at Pottery Barn or Wal-Mart without being assaulted by them. Yes, Christmas CDs, once meant for good, have become pure evil. “Oh, they’re disgusting, I know,” says breathy, jazzy singer-songwriter Judith Owen, who, in fact, has…
Tree’s Company
SAT 12/4 You might have the coolest-looking Christmas tree in the world, but since it’s in your house, the only people who will appreciate your creativity will be relatives you don’t even want to see. But that’s not true of the local artists participating in Buffalo Bayou ArtPark’s fourth annual…
Volks-Walkin’
SAT 12/4 So what if Texas’s highest mountain is 700 miles away? The Happy Hikers of Houston have spent the past 25 years combing the county for walkable terrain, and they take to the trails en masse whenever they can. This weekend, they’re hosting a group 10K walk, or Volksmarch,…
Wax Women
FRI 12/3 You know the ladies’ night scene at most clubs: You get some dudes at the turntables and hordes of other dudes ogling the women who — having shown up for the discounted drinks and free cover — become the entertainment and eye candy. At tonight’s Ladies’ Night at…
Happy Horny Days
FRI 12/3 In 1997, husband-and-wife team Bob Morgan and Anne Zimmerman got tired of the endlessly repetitive pabulum staged again and again on the community theater circuit. So to bring some fun and weirdness back to the Houston stage, they formed dos chicas theater commune. “We will never give you…
Fresh Produce
Hip-hop producer extraordinaire RJD2’s slight frame is nearly encircled by a heavy weave of electronic wiring and a half-ton of clumpy amplifiers and miscellaneous sound equipment. It’s the sound check for RJD2’s San Francisco album release party, and although he’s politely fielding questions, he’s also obviously distracted with the task…
Foul Baal
The play’s run at the Axiom, 2524 McKinney, 713-522-8443, is open-ended. $10-$15.
What’s That Smell?
Within the fluid confines of the no-wave/art punk/ avant-whatever label, genre rebels have free rein. Noise is art. Clamor is pure. White noise turns everything black. Every corner is filled with an arsenal of sounds. Here, it’s okay to be disliked, unloved and full of contempt for the pop music…
Capsule Reviews
Comic Potential First produced in 1999, Alan Ayckbourn’s Comic Potential, about a man who falls in love with a beautiful android, trips lightly over what has become familiar territory. But Ayckbourn’s version has its own quirky charm, and that’s because it’s set in the crass and fabulous world of actors…
Get Back, Honky Cat
When you’re at a Barry Manilow concert and you run into someone you know to be hip, you’re totally at a loss for words. As Press contributor Greg Ellis, my fellow Fanilow-for-the-evening, put it, it’s a little like being ostensibly straight and getting spotted in a gay bar by other…
Poster Child
Most hippie art is so played out: blown glass, felt paintings, peace, love and all that. Bob with his blunts, Jimi with his ax, Jerry with his hair. A whole lot of swirling colors: tie-dyed, silk-screened, kaleidoscopic. Even more flowers, whatever their power. Man, that black-lit mushroom sure is a…
Flirt for the Cure
This is no typical happy hour at Red Star. As I stand at the bar, I watch a statuesque blond with a piece of paper taped on her back identifying her as “Bachelorette No. 39” trying to sell herself for one night to an older gentleman. The man agrees on…
Capsule Reviews
“Hyper’real’ism: Fellowship Series VI” Bill Davenport has been making a lot of quirky trompe l’oeil paintings of late, but with Dark Door, he’s taken fake to the next level of absurdity. Davenport has made a phenomenal and fantastically ridiculous sculpture. It’s a giant medieval-looking wooden door with big metal bolts…
Rotation
Tears for FearsEverybody Loves a Happy Ending Universal Behold the first Tears for Fears record in 15 years featuring both original members, Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith. As is the case with any re-formed ’80s band, there’s a great deal of forced media hype surrounding this, but while the duo’s…
Gambling on Iraq
On the day before all hell breaks loose, the worst day of the American occupation in Iraq thus far, Stephen Heering shouldn’t even be making a run. It’s Thursday, April 8, 2004, and in the groggy haze of predawn, the clock reads “0500.” The 34-year-old veteran truck driver has been…
Playbill
DJ Diplo “Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, but to be at Hollertronix’ parties in Philly circa 2002 was very heaven.” I’m paraphrasing Wordsworth, of course, but I think that’s what he might have said had he been on the dance floor of the Ukrainian National Home…
Party On, Dan
The announcement that Dan Rather will be stepping down from the CBS anchor desk has left us feeling as antsy as a crack whore’s fetus, as Dan himself might say. Watching the ticking time bomb of Rather was always entertaining; we can only hope there’s one last blow-up to come…
Closer to Fine
Mike Nichols’s new film Closer is a boiling pot of lust, mistrust and double-dealing that might well be taken for outright soap opera — or, in quite a few places, soft-core porn — were it not for the sophisticated gleam of its well-heeled London desperadoes and the vicious dazzle of…
After the Fall
In 2000, 37-year-old Jay Van Story received a startling letter from his 20-year-old cousin, Angie. There had been no contact between them in more than a decade, but Angie had recently married and become a Christian. Now she was suddenly asking Van Story for forgiveness. “I hope that you understand…
Boy Meets Whirl
Movies pushing the indomitableness of human nature tend to make me puke, mainly because they’re often created with a palpable self-congratulatory air by film-biz insiders whose real-life concept of “suffering” extends to being brought an incorrectly prepared frappuccino. This emetic response is doubled when the featured indomitable human happens to…