Stirred and Shaken
The copper bar is tucked into the corner of the front room at Cafe Perrier [4304 Westheimer, (713)355-4455]. There is a large framed photo of an older Cafe Perrier hanging on the wall behind it. The bartender tells us that chef and owner Frédéric Perrier’s grandmother is the little girl…
(Ore)gone to Hell?
The year 2000 was another very good one for the already successful civil litigation firm of Richard Mithoff and Tommy Jacks. In April a Houston jury ordered Columbia Kingwood Hospital to pay more than $40 million to a Mithoff client in a medical malpractice suit. And just last month 54-year-old…
Houston Kid
TITLES, BLACK ON WHITE: Houston, Texas, 1957 CUT TO: Long aerial shot of the Houston Ship Channel. On the shore, we see a jumble of tall conical smokestacks, round squat oil holding tanks and wharves. On the water, the barges and tugboats appear like toys. CUT TO: Medium aerial shot…
Pumped Up
The same day that the Houston Press published the last of a series on the elimination of service station dealers by their parent oil companies (“Pumped Dry,” by Bob Burtman, November 2), Exxon dealers won a major victory. Jurors in Corpus Christi decided in favor of more than 50 dealers…
Masked Avengers
It’s one of the oldest saws in show business: You gotta have a good gimmick. For Los Straitjackets, the gimmick came about by accident, but it has turned out to be an eye-catching one: gaudy Mexican wrestling masks. Not that there is any relationship, per se, between Mexican wrestling and…
Fish Tales
Fishermen on Sam Rayburn Reservoir have had a discouraging year. One of the premier largemouth bass lakes in the country, Rayburn once would typically disgorge ten- or 12-pound bass by the dozen in its many tournaments held annually. But the East Texas lake’s productivity has dipped in recent years, and…
Street-Fighting Man
It’s been a hell of a ride for Roy Head, the South Texas-bred force of nature who recorded the Duke/Peacock label’s biggest pop hit, mentored a young Johnny Winter and crossed genres from bluesy soul to rocking country with ease and aplomb. His songs have graced The Commitments soundtrack and…
Worked Over
In January Fermín Colindres and more than 80 other Hispanic workers walked off their jobs to protest unequal wages and degrading conditions at Quietflex, a Houston manufacturer of heating and air-conditioning components. The bold action touched off perpetual uncertainty, conflict and frustration. But Colindres, a 44-year-old El Salvador native, says…
Austin Lounge Lizards
Musical comedy is rare these days. A few performers still work with political humor, while others excel at satire, usually cynical and mean-spirited. But the Austin Lounge Lizards come from a much older musical-comedy tradition: burlesque. This is the humor of outrageous exaggeration, in which trivial subjects are treated grandly…
Prisoners of Love
Lynette Barnett is back in prison. But instead of being a guard, now she’s an inmate. Working at Crossroads Correctional Institute in Cameron, Missouri, last year, Lynette fell in love with convicted murderer Terry Banks. Her marriage was coming apart, she was lonely, and she and Terry had a lot…
Various Artists
Forget what the pop music writers tell you — the first concept album of the long-play era was not Pet Sounds, Sgt. Pepper or Only the Lonely; it was an instrumental album, and its genesis came from, of all things, a piano industry study. In 1950 Columbia Records executives learned…
Pain and Progress
An investigator from the district attorney’s office called Tracey Deel’s father in October. He said that four guys had thrown a blanket over Kevin Rivas, the boy sentenced to life in prison for shooting Tracey, and beaten him so badly he was hospitalized. “That really made us feel good,” says…
Grady Lee
With his wide-brim hat, vest and kerchief, Grady Lee may look like a cowboy on the cover of Texas Sunset, but inside him beats the heart of a true bluegrass musician. For this collection of original tunes, Lee has assembled some of Houston’s finest pickers, including Spencer Cubage on lead…
Sue Me, Baby, One More Time
By all appearances, the legal action was over last October in the Fort Bend County case filed by Children’s Protective Services against Gary Gates and his wife, Melissa. Lawyers for CPS asked to have the case dismissed through a nonsuit. That would effectively end the agency’s months-long investigation and resulting…
Diane Craig
Diane Craig’s Fortunes Told is a little bit country, a little bit bluegrass and all the way wonderful. Featuring 11 songs of pure south Appalachian perfection, this little gem is one of the finest releases to emerge this year from a Houston-area artist. Fortunes Told was waxed in Huntsville, Alabama,…
Well, Blow Me Down
A number of adults still cling to the childhood habit of shunning spinach, no matter how many trendy chefs stuff it into cheesy enchiladas. And who can blame us? When improperly cooked, spinach leaves can be so soggy and bitter that even Popeye wouldn’t touch them. But you can bet…
Playbill
Visitors to the tiny dimly lit Old Quarter Acoustic Cafe in Galveston can’t help but notice a hodgepodge shrine to venerable Texas singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt. On a wall next to the stage, a collection of photographs attempts to capture some of the essence of that troubled troubadour who died…
Uncorking a Bargain
Reims, the Disneyland of bubbly, is the capital of the French Champagne district. Under the streets of this ancient metropolis, miles upon miles of multilevel passageways have been bored through the chalk. They lead to underground caverns filled with millions of bottles of champagne. It’s like the city was built…
Oz Does Toronto
On December 7 the curtain went up. A Canadian audience saw the premiere of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: A Musical Journey — and James Doyle saw his vision become reality on the stage of the Civic Light Opera Company of Toronto. The former proofreader at Houston’s Greensheet had spent…
Playbill
A Hollywood screenwriter could have penned Wesley Curely Clark’s life. Or at least a Behind the Music scribe could. Act I: The early years. During the ’50s and ’60s Clark is an influential blues musician who becomes something of a legend in Austin, yet remains virtually unknown outside Texas. In…
Some Sugars Added
Speaking off the toque: Richard Hazzard, bartender at Maggiano’s Little Italy [2019 South Post Oak Boulevard, (713) 961-2700]. Q. As creator of the award-winning classic dry gin cocktail, the “Inner-and-Outer” martini, and a longtime observer of the industry, what do you think of the current fashion for creating such drinks…
Jump-starting a Political Engine
Nearly 20 years ago Houston’s political spotlight swung to the inner-city neighborhoods of Montrose as its premier resident, then-city controller Kathy Whitmire, defeated then-sheriff Jack Heard in a bitter contest for mayor. She ran on a platform of municipal reform embraced by a coalition of the area’s gay activists, liberal…
Better in Pairs
Welcome to the cinema, the great communal meditation chamber, circa 2000. Okay, now throw open all the exit doors, because some of our communal celluloid putrefied over the course of this year, and we’re going to clear the air by dispensing with the top offenders first. Whether it was the…
Blow Up the Box
Thank God for old Jews with shaky hands and the inability to tell this word (G-O-R-E) from this one (B-U-C-H-A-N-A-N). Without them–and Survivor Richard Hatch, that self-proclaimed “fat naked fag” who, as is turns out, is just a really concerned parent and not at all, uh, abusive–it would have been…
Eager to Please
In Hollywood, all it takes is one big hit. Sandra Bullock’s ticket to stardom was the 1994 sleeper Speed, a rip-roaring action/crime thriller that elevated co-star Keanu Reeves to similar megawatt status. With her cute girl-next-door looks and ingratiating physical klutziness, Bullock established an instant rapport with audiences. That perception…
Letters
Designer Labels Earth and entrance exams: Thank you for the article on William Dembski and the intelligent-design movement [“In God’s Country,” by Lauren Kern, December 14]. Several points: – Charles Darwin was extremely proud of his theory of evolution because he believed he had discovered how God had really done…
Year of Living Dangerously
Deep, deep below a gun shop in far west Houston, they waited. It was almost exactly a year ago that they entered the vault and descended the circular stairway to their new home. Others — the nonbelievers — had scoffed that all this “Y2K” business was hogwash, media hype, and…
Mary-making
Maryellen Hooper has a reputation for being a gentle soul, on and off the stage. “Maryellen Hooper is one of the kindest comedians I have ever worked with. She is so warm and giving to her fans as well as all the comics around her,” writes fellow jokester Marc Ryan…
Graham’s Goree Details
This just in: Prison sucks. So says Patrick Graham, a con artist serving a ten-year sentence for attempting to swindle $150,000 from a woman who happened to be a government informant. At a hearing before state District Judge William Harmon late last month, Graham pleaded to be released, complaining that…
Psychic Agenda
First rule of predicting the new year: Keep it obvious. It will be a cold winter in the Midwest. It will rain a lot in April. We’ll learn more about the human genome. Second rule: Say every adverb three times. “2001 will be a very, very, very good year,” says…
The Final Ascent
Linda Sarofim Lowe might have been more enamored than most visitors to an Abercrombie & Kent Web page touting its African tours. The upscale travel company cites a Swahili saying that translates as “The beginning is a bud, the end is a coconut.” It means simply that big things start…
Butter Yourself Up
Even the most lackluster year-end party calls for that annual ritual known as New Year’s resolutions. These secular vows are taken as a show of faith in the middle-class ideal of perpetual self-improvement. The New Year’s Day of a new century and millennium calls for some truly super-extra-special resolutions. Since…
On the Outside
Roy Criner hasn’t had much time to himself since he walked out of prison on August 15 after serving ten years for a rape he didn’t commit (see “Home Again,” by Bob Burtman, August 24). A shy and retiring sort who feels most comfortable in the solitude of the Montgomery…