Atlantis Sinks Again!
The vacant Fire Station No. 1 and the city’s first water plant sit across Buffalo Bayou from the Wortham Theater on the last choice undeveloped civic center land on the booming west side of downtown. Lots of folk have groovy ideas about what to do with it, and outside public…
News of the Weird
Lead StoriesThe wood-products company Louisiana-Pacific Corp. claims success in changing its corporate culture from the selfish “reptilian” model to the nurturing “mammalian,” according to workers interviewed in a December Washington Post report. Not only managers and bureaucrats but line workers such as a “burly machine operator” and a “trembling hulk…
Keep Off the Grass
Asking Felder Rushing for a gardening opinion is like fertilizing kudzu: No matter how much exuberance you brace for, the result still surprises you. Grass? A waste of space, Rushing says. Azaleas? Pretty in the spring, but the rest of the year, they’re nothing but big green meatballs. Fire ants…
Letters
Hacks and TracksYour article on the Main Street light rail [“Train in Vain,” by Richard Connelly, February 3] was quite well balanced. Just reading it without any other knowledge, I might be cautiously optimistic about the building of the system, which will probably take place. There is a good question…
The Write Idea
This is the story of a man, a woman, two books — and two plates of jerk chicken. Late one Sunday afternoon at the Fusion Café, Houston-based authors Jetola Anderson-Blair and Troy Martin are eating their Caribbean delicacies with pride. Both have recently, and independently, released debut books, and they’re…
Dish
When we saw it darkened, we thought Cafe Chino Pacific Rim [6100 Westheimer, (713)334-6688] had closed. It had, sort of. Husband-and-wife owners Eddie and May Chan sold the Briargrove Plaza restaurant little more than a year after they opened it in November 1998. “I always wondered if they had trouble…
More Barking Room
I must admit, I like Barnaby’s bustling second home on Shepherd. I was afraid I wouldn’t. Like so many Montrose denizens, I’d become accustomed to the cramped, slightly scruffy original on Fairview; over the years, I’d grown fond of the rickety stairs, scuffed entryway and water-spotted ceiling. I was even…
Hot Plate
Yo’ Mama Mia: Imagine our delight to discover turnip greens, of all things, in a recent special-of-the-day pasta dish ($12.95) at Mingalone Italian Bar & Grill [500 Texas Avenue, (713)223-0088]. It’s a striking combination: Those soulful greens work as well uptown as down, it seems. A thick mass of very…
Get Sauced
As I write this, I turn 40. With all the worries and self-evaluations that go with that chronological milestone, I’ve been thinking about, among other things, the importance of food in my life. The first meal I truly remember eating was cooked by my old Italian babysitter, Connie Gallo. It…
Indies in Town
Though The Handsome Family has been critically well received since it began performing and recording in 1994, the husband-and-wife team of Brett and Rennie Sparks has yet to receive any major-label interest or funding. The couple recorded their latest disc, In the Air, in their Chicago living room, for tiny…
Prog’s New Face
In high school a few short years ago Mitch Mignano worked the counter at a Blockbuster record store in a mall in Baytown. One day, says Mignano, “some guy came in wanting to special-order a Moody Blues solo album, Justin Hayward or whatever.” Ever diligent, Mignano picked up the phone,…
Fill ‘Er Up
BR5-49’s current Grammy nomination for Best Performance by a Duo or Group could be considered a fluke. If it weren’t for the producers of the 1999 film Happy, Texas, who included BR5-49’s “Honky Tonk Song” on its soundtrack, the song — which originally appeared on the band’s 1996 self-titled studio…
Rotation
Guy III MCA A lot of things have changed since these new jack swing originators released their last album oh-so-many moons ago. For one thing, it looks like people have completely forgotten just how massive an impact Guy has had on R&B. These days, folk just know the members from…
Double Your Pleasure
Stand-up comedy in Shakespeare? How about slapstick? Or musical interludes from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly? All these things and more romp through director Gregory Boyd’s raucous new take on one of Shakespeare’s zaniest tales of mistaken identity, The Comedy of Errors. Catching the Shakespeare-popularity wave, the Alley…
Local Rotation
Liquid i Waves of Rain Emulsion Records The band formerly known as Liquid, Liquid i, changed its handle in time for its second release, Waves of Rain. Unfortunately, however, its mainstream rock/ pop sound remains the same. Most of Rain is solid, full of songs sturdy enough to sound at…
Dial M for Monotony
Even at just 92 minutes, this film feels endless. Intended as a humorous, heartwarming take on dysfunctional family relationships, Hanging Up doesn’t work as comedy or drama or anything in between. Given its wealth of above-the-line talent — director and co-star Diane Keaton, writers Delia and Nora Ephron and actresses…
Amplified
Swaying back and forth in front of the Cardi’s 2000 stage is an unidentified white male, wearing a T-shirt with Mercyful Fate inscribed on the back and punching his fist — neatly wrapped around the neck of a beer bottle — into the air. He “stands” among four or five…
$tocks and Bonding
Twenty-seven-year-old Ben Younger delivers the message of his first feature, Boiler Room, with all the subtlety of a car bomb. To wit: Greed is alive and well in the new century, fueled by the material dreams of a generation bent on instant gratification and the distorted expectations of neophyte investors…
Playbill
Has anyone called Brian McKnight yet for ripping off the 1993 Jeff Bridges movie Fearless in his “Back at One” video? Oh, you remember that flick. It’s the one in which Bridges comes out of the cornfields from a plane crash (just like McKnight does in the video), thinks he…
Pitch Black Beauty
Moviegoers rejoice! The first fun movie of the year has arrived. Oh, Leo’s little seaside adventure was pretty to look at, but the attempts at depth were a real bummer. And let’s not even talk about Scream 3. Even the first one was highly overrated, and it’s been all downhill…
Elephant Walk
The neighbor’s constantly barking dog may not be so bad after all. Montgomery County is suddenly wrestling a bigger pet problem: 10,000-pound pachyderms. And camels. And two apes, a black bear, llamas, a bobcat, a Bengal tiger and a puma, along with other large exotic cats. Those are only the…
Turnstyled and Junkpiled
“I been turnstyled, junkpiled, railroaded too / I been laid low, but honey don’t you know, I’m still in love with you.” — Townes Van Zandt It was August 1998, early in the school year, and 17-year-old Mickey Dunlap stepped out of the back door of his house and started…
Well Executed
Calling the subject matter of Errol Morris’s latest documentary, Mr. Death, “unpleasant” is like referring to the lavatory on a tuna boat as “lightly scented.” The director who brought us the zany Americana of Fast, Cheap and Out of Control and the lukewarm Stephen Hawking snoozer, A Brief History of…
Gang of One
Khanh Le is a stoic guy. He keeps to himself, smiles broadly and constantly, and reacts to most everything with calm — so much calm that Houston Police Department officers thought it suspicious when they arrested him one afternoon in November 1996. Le had just put his nephew to sleep…
Cry for Justice
Jackie Criner feels good about the recent flood of attention her imprisoned son, Roy, has received. She appreciates the pointed editorial by syndicated columnist Clarence Page about Roy’s case, as well as the piece in Texas Lawyer that ripped the state’s contentions in the case as “pretzel logic.” She cherishes…
Like a Dog in the Dirt
In 1992 Earl Travis was a former city employee who testified for the defense in a discrimination suit against the City of Houston. The city won. A week later Travis accepted the city’s job offer and a hefty raise, becoming a top administrator in Houston’s Department of Housing and Community…
He Sleeps with the Fishes
Who can forget the sinister finale to The Godfather? Michael Corleone has taken over as the don and ordered the murder of his traitorous brother-in-law, Carlo. Michael is in his office when his sister bursts in, hysterically screaming that Michael killed her husband. She’s hustled away; Michael’s wife asks him…