The Lure of the Irish
Moments before the screening of The Secret of Roan Inish a buddy of mine said, “John Sayles is my favorite director, even though I don’t like many of his movies.” That about sums up Sayles’ career — people never dislike him, even though none of his movies make it big…
Barely There
Set in 1817 during the aftermath of the Napoleonic wars, Colonel Chabert is about a legendary soldier, presumed dead, who returns home to discover that life has proceeded without him. He then struggles to reclaim his identity, causing intense emotional disruptions all around him. The title character is played by…
!Quermos Rock!
It’s Saturday night and it’s cold. Down on South Main, the International Ballroom — or the Aragon Ballroom, depending on the nationality of the act booked that night — is cold too, and the cavernous venue that must once have been a Kroger looks almost empty from the door, even…
Hear No Evil
Glenda Joe was acting out of sheer frustration when she took her complaint about City Councilwoman Martha Wong before Wong and her Council colleagues last December. Joe had wanted to lodge her complaint with the city’s ethics committee. The city ordinance that created it says the committee is supposed to…
Visible Man
The Houston Post’s Carlton Thompson was eating with three other journalists in the dining room of the Astrodome press box last year when an usher made his way to their table. He wanted to see some identification — but only from Thompson. Thompson dutifully proffered his press credentials while trying…
Letters
Clunker Concerns D.J. Wilson’s article “Clunkers R Us” [News, January 12] captures the irony of the poor shouldering the costs of reducing industrial pollution excesses. Clearly, someone forced to drive a worn-out car is unlikely to have the money to go out and purchase a new car. However, the article…
Press Picks
thursday february 16 Islam in Asia More tricky, sticky multicultural issues. The Asia Society has brought John L. Esposito down to talk about the effect of Islamic movements in Southeast Asia. Esposito himself is neither in Islamic territory nor Southeast Asia; his natural habitat is Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.,…
Live Shots
The Cramps Numbers Saturday, February 4 It’s been a few years since I’ve thought seriously about The Cramps. But then, there hasn’t been a need to think, seriously or otherwise, about The Cramps lately: the well-lubricated crowd at Numbers saw almost exactly the same show I saw 13 years ago…
Rotation
Fu-Schnickens Nervous Breakdown Jive Poc, Moc and Chip Fu of Fu-Schnickens are three young Brooklyn men who spent their childhoods watching way too much after-school and Saturday morning television. Their raps riff on karate flicks, monster movies, Batman, Bugs Bunny, sitcoms and cereal commercials — in other words, they spout…
Pop Moment
I skipped a poker game for the Houston Music Council’s Meet the Press shindig at the Urban Art Bar last Monday night (and probably spared myself another $10 loss in so doing), but it turned out to be good fun of a different kind. The HMC had invited the usual…
Trancey Groove
All the techno- and rave-heads in Houston who’ve been bitching about the paucity of good shows here, and all the kids who’ve been steaming up the all-ages dance clubs with their teenage frottage during “Closer,” will want to queue up for the Lords of Acid. Granted, it won’t be a…
Weimar Woman
If you’ve been keeping a finger on the cultural barometer lately, you may have noticed the continuing triumph of every sort of musical retro trend imaginable, and a few that are probably made up. The idea of the musical archeologists, or at least of the articles documenting their gravedigging trends,…
Evolution of a Watering Hole
Once upon a time, the Backstreet Cafe rarely entered my mind unless someone said, “It’s such a beautiful day, why don’t we eat outside?” Then and only then would Backstreet’s quirky tandoori chicken sandwich and dependable salade Nicoise reel me toward the funky vintage house with the tricky access, stashed…
Odd and Odder
Why revive The Odd Couple? It’s no wonder that Playhouse 1960 can’t provide a satisfactory answer to this question — even Neil Simon couldn’t solve this problem when, in 1985, he undertook a Broadway comeback for his signature piece of 20 years earlier. Not only do you have to contend…
Hot Plate
Truffle Stop All crisp black and white under its eccentric deep-rose ceiling, DaCapo’s three-table bakery-cafe brings an assortment of modest and not-so-modest pleasures to a corner of the Heights that can use them. Agreeable sandwiches on highly seasoned, home-style breads. Daily soups. Salads. And most significantly, a couple of sweets…
Baroque and Beautiful
Because Baroque opera is rarely seen on the stage today, some might be inclined to dismiss Henry Purcell’s 17th-century masterpiece, Dido and Aeneas, as a museum piece. If it is, then Houston Grand Opera’s new co-production of the work with Opera Atelier is the Mona Lisa. HGO and Opera Atelier…
Dead Bang
About ten minutes into Sam Raimi’s Western The Quick and the Dead, his nomadic, gunslinging heroine, Ellen (Sharon Stone), slouches down in a rickety chair on the front porch of a saloon in the middle of Redemption, a Southwestern town so desolate even the cacti look withered, and lets a…