Grupo Fantasma
Comprising members of the Blue Noise Band, the Golden Arm Trio and Sun Vocina, Austin’s Grupo Fantasma meld their disparate influences over the roiling Colombian cumbia beat. The nine-piece group floats a three-man horn section and call-and-response Spanish vocals atop a double rhythm section. Fantasma defies even sufferers of advanced…
A Lavender Christmas
Two guys wearing bathrobes and fuzzy purple slippers storm onto the stage. Standing on mauve carpet, a choir sings beneath a stained-glass Jesus. Stage right is a red AIDS ribbon; stage left, a dove flies across a pink triangle. A Christmas tree in the corner is covered in butterflies, stars…
Brady Brock
Born and raised in Houston, Brady Brock played in the punk band the Grimple Twins before discovering his affinity for slow acoustic artists like Elliott Smith. Now Brock lives and plays in New York City’s Lower East Side, just him and his acoustic guitar. I Will Live in You Where…
Little Joe Makes It Big
In early March, Little Joe Washington was fresh out of a weeklong stint at Ben Taub Hospital, and it was anybody’s guess as to whether the hard-living blues musician was headed down the path to perdition or local celebrity. Leave it to Little Joe to take both roads at the…
Willis Alan Ramsey
Willis Alan Ramsey is still mulling over the follow-up to his debut. It’s been a lengthy process, 30 years now, in fact. And Ramsey is grayer and portlier after spending the 1980s in the U.K. ruminating about his record deal gone bad. Yet his comeback isn’t as precarious a proposition…
An O’K(ane) Deal
Those behind bars may often come up with strange stories, but convict Florence Myra Strom had a particularly bizarre tale to pass along to a bankruptcy court early last year. Before she was sentenced to 12 years on a conviction of stealing from a former employer, the 57-year-old grandmother filed…
The Buddhacrush
Like we said earlier this year, Houston is Fusion City, and few local bands exemplify this unofficial title as well as the Buddhacrush. The men and women of this biracial band come from several different musical backgrounds. Violinist Amy Price is a former member of Celtic band Gordian Knot, saxman…
Winning Ways in a Losing League
On a chilly October day, the Houston Energy took on the Austin Rage. The sky was dark and the game was mean. But by the end, the Energy’s 47-14 victory gave them 17 straight wins and their second Women’s Professional Football League championship. “We were due to lose,” says Houston…
Sting Like a Bee
The most daunting thing for an actor is to portray a god, and when that god comes equipped with a tangle of myths and the quickest left jab in history, the actor’s job can soon verge into guesswork. To Will Smith’s credit, he has managed to get, at least partway,…
A Gay Rights Suit Returns
Attorney Robert Rosenberg couldn’t help but note what he viewed as an ultimate irony. On the re-election campaign trail, Mayor Lee Brown proclaimed his support for gay rights — simultaneously, Brown’s legal staff was busy trying to squelch those rights in a case before the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of…
The Unthinkable
It took Andre Dubus all of 18 pages to communicate the grief that fills every frame of Todd Field’s two-hours-plus In the Bedroom, a wrenching bit of filmmaking based on Dubus’s short story “Killings.” Both story and film tell the same tale in the same solemn and gripping tone, with…
Too Small for the Two of ‘Em
Two weeks ago, University of Houston Provost Ed Sheridan met with faculty and staff of the Conrad Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management to break the news that their dean, Alan T. Stutts, would be moving on to bigger and better things. Sheridan told the group he was surprised…
Sly Foxx
When he first auditioned for Any Given Sunday director Oliver Stone to play quarterback Willie Beamen, an embittered bench-warmer prone to fits of vomiting before each snap, Jamie Foxx was sure he’d blown it. Stone, as subtle as an ice pick to the cornea, said as much–loud enough so Foxx,…
Laff Riot
The Houston Chronicle employs many weapons in its never-ending battle to attract readers: redesigns of page one, constant updates on what’s happening in the world of Destiny’s Child, aggressive coverage of the things that make Houston a great place to live. One weapon they generally never use, however, is humor…
Absolutely Fabulous
The houselights go down, and with a cue from the stage manager/God-figure we’re off and romping through the wild gay garden of Paul Rudnick’s The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told. This is an Eden where Adam falls for Steve, Jane adores Mabel, and straight people (who don’t appear for centuries)…
Dire Forecast
Dire Forecast Help wanted now: Everything in this article makes a lot of sense [“Damage Control,” by Brian Wallstin, December 13]. However, the immediate future was not addressed. What is going to be done to prevent next year’s rains from flooding our houses? We need some guidance now to be…
Curiously Corporate
It’s always been a curiosity to me that a company making a product intended to be ingested orally should describe said product as “curiously strong.” It brings to mind the frightful thought of what curiosity is alleged to have done to the cat. Still, people who’ve been undeterred by the…
This Thing On?
As a comic performer, Jamie Foxx has sustained a career that can be best described as, well, mediocre. His glory days as part of the mighty Fox sketchcom In Living Color far behind him, the 34-year-old Terrell, Texas, native has since had to rely more on his self-centered charm (and…
Calendar Editor On the Rocks
I feel like I’m wearing diapers in this harness, and having a rock climbing instructor teach me the basics of rope safety isn’t making me feel any more mature. The most I’ve climbed before this is a flight of stairs, but John Sooy does a good job of soothing my…
The Way We Were
The striking, high-ceilinged dining room of Dong Ting has held a special mystery for Houston diners over the years. The mirrored columns and wood trim give the place an upper-class European air. A giant black Chinese screen and hand-painted bamboo on the wallpaper provide the Asian accents. I had heard…
Resolution Relief
It’s so California — and just right for the postholiday lettuce-nibbler who considers conventional pizza too heavy after the Twelve Days of Noshmas. The caramelized pear-and-Gorgonzola pizza ($9.29) at California Pizza Kitchen (1705 Post Oak Boulevard, 713-963-9262) is a whisper of a pizza, with translucent slices of caramelized pears and…
The Mild Ones
At San Antonio’s MacArthur High School, Beau Sample didn’t listen to the type of music normally heard blaring from car stereos in the parking lot. Instead of Smashing Pumpkins, Marilyn Manson or Sugar Ray, his soundtrack leaned toward Carl Perkins, Roger Miller and little-known Nashville musicians like Narvel Felts. Narvel…
In Honor of the Winter Solstice
I enter the lobby of the Hotel Derek (2525 West Loop South, 713-297-4383), a location that has failed for a series of owners since opening in 1979. The new owners, Amerimar, a father-and-son real estate outfit out of Philadelphia, specialize in buying and renovating distressed hotel properties. They’ve given the…
Travail-less Travels
The vacation plans of the average American have been severely dampened by the fallout from September 11. For many yanqui adventurers, the SUV has temporarily displaced the jumbo jet as the preferred mode of transportation. But for those whose global wanderlust can’t be satisfied by a week in the Hill…
Tuesday Night Music Club
For nightclub owners, Tuesday nights are a dead zone. Even the most dedicated night owls have to take a little time off every week, and Tuesday tends to be the night. It’s neither Blue Monday, Hump Day, Thirsty Thursday, Payday nor the proud owner of any other cute nickname. As…
Lenny Kravitz
Lenny, Lenny, what happened? Things were going so well. You had chalked up three monster singles and graduated from playing halls to amphitheaters. And you were putting out solid music beyond the sometimes unfair “retro rock” tag. So why is your crucial new record easily the weakest in your entire…
Po Millionaires
It’s hard to take a group with a name like Po Millionaires seriously. And it’s even harder to ponder an album called We Got These Million Dollar Thoughts But We Still On Broke without thinking that the entire set must be a joke. But with the frenzied energy of “First…