Honestly Neurotic
From an ordinary sap, any mention of intemperance might come off as crude, possibly even mean-spirited. Yet a rare talent such as Richard Lewis can zero in on this uncomfortable, unpleasant subject and somehow make us feel a little better about our own greasy, frantic lives. Lewis still wears the…
The Feng Shui of Dim Sum
The yellow dragon rears back on his hind legs and opens his jaws wide while an ominous drumroll thunders through the room. The monster leaps into the air, trying to grab a bunch of lettuce hanging from the doorway. When he catches it, pandemonium ensues — cymbals crash, flashbulbs pop,…
You Deserve a Break Today
We Love to See You SmileTM here at the Houston Press, so this column will be devoted to a subject that’s Always Quality. Always Fun.TM : the McDonald’sTM Corporation. Let us again contemplate this business giant, whose Golden ArchesTM and Ronald McDonaldTM spokesclown are no longer merely American phenomena. They…
Hot Plate
The menu description provided by the folks at Carmelo’s Italian Restaurant [14795 Memorial Drive, (281)531-0696] — a nearly clinical “artichoke bottoms” — is so minimalist it does the dish a disservice. What the description doesn’t tell you is that the large, bluntly tangy artichoke bottoms ($11) are piled high with…
Oil Yourself Up
Q. With all of the high-priced olive oils on the shelves of premium grocers and gourmet shops, what should a buyer know about choosing an oil? Should one choose by country of origin, by color, by price or by information on the label? A. I think Greece produces the best…
Stirred and Shaken
Neither the Continental Club nor the Drink Bar is open for happy hour on Mondays. So the young woman from Tennessee suggests we try the bar at the Fusion Café [3722 Main, (713)874-1666]. With its painted concrete floors, mustard-yellow walls and mostly empty tables, it looks like one of those…
Just for Openers
It’s a weekend night at Fitzgerald’s, but the upstairs stage at this Heights institution doesn’t sound like its usual raucous, juvenile self. A languorous bass line and a shuffling rhythm are combining to create a trancelike heartbeat. You sense the people here are attuned to its pulsations, as if every…
Hands On
Tom Mitchell started learning what it was like to live with mental illness almost 30 years ago, after he returned from Vietnam. At the time, the public mental health system was, in effect, going public: People who had been shut away in state hospitals were being encouraged, sometimes forced, to…
Free-Flowing
Aceyalone is not some corporate mouthpiece. He’s a messenger from hip-hop’s underground, an MC who briefly surfaced and dipped his toe in the major-label pond, only to find the water too damn cold for his liking. So Aceyalone and his irrepressibly intelligent flow fled from the marble halls of L.A.’s…
Super Vision
Chris doesn’t recall much of what happened that day in December 1996, when he was arrested for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. “I can’t say it happened, or it didn’t happen,” he says. “I think I’d had a 12-pack of beer and a bottle of wine.” Apparently Chris had…
Don’t Be So Literal
Many misconceptions exist regarding the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. One of these is that Spencer is a gnarled old bluesman of indeterminate age and ethnicity. Another is that Spencer doesn’t exist at all, that the band has been concocted by a bunch of artsy New Yorkers too cool for their…
A Portrait of the Artist as a Capitalist
Vladimir Gorsky considers the two faces of George Herbert Walker Bush in his living room. One of them, in a painting that hangs unfinished on the wall, is grim, serious, weathered by the years and, judging by the cardigan, clearly retired from the difficulties of public life. The other is…
Beat-niks
The flyers suck you in. Since last July, flyers have been circulating around town for Starlight, a monthly party that takes place inside the confines of Club Waxx (1601 Leeland). The advertisements feature exotic, scantily clad women in photos that look like they were taken for Vogue back in 1968…
Wide-Open Spaces
Pam Kohler quit her regular day job this year to follow the dreams of her husband, Mark, in the world of western art. He had left the nine-to-five grind three years ago to devote himself full-time to finely crafted canvas renditions of the Old West. They follow the major rodeo…
Coldplay
Parachutes is a bald, unabashed testament to the squishier emotions, boasting such syrupy lyrics as “I wanna live life and be good to you.” That the album is the handiwork of four London boys in their twenties gives a gal hope in these dark days of flying middle fingers courtesy…
Late Bloomers
Five years ago my brother sent me a dozen red roses because he wanted to make sure I got flowers from a boy. That made me so happy, he sent bigger and better bouquets every year. Last week he called to wish me a happy Valentine’s Day. He said he’d…
Denice Franke
Even if you have watched Denice Franke evolve from a backup singer for Nanci Griffith to a tentative songwriter to a poet, you won’t be prepared for the leap she’s taken on her new album, Comfort. “I think there’s something to be said / about the more in the less,”…
Death and the Salesmen
New stuff is dull. Factory-fresh, perfect and perfectly boring. But every piece of salvage tells a story. Sometimes it’s a disaster story: Hurricanes strike, trains derail, trucks tip over. Sometimes it’s a story of everyday human failure: Movers chip dining-room sets, businesses declare bankruptcy, inspection seals get broken. In California,…
The Tony Furtado Band
The Tony Furtado Band is not a jam band, nor is it strictly a folk-bluegrass unit. There’s a bit of jazz here, a snatch of Irish folk there, some Appalachia, a generous helping of blues. But since there’s not really a snappy description for this particular genre-melt, Furtado prefers to…
Dodging Bullets
The afternoon gathering at the community center in the old Depelchin Faith Home two weekends ago was a political first for Houston. There sat Mayor Lee P. Brown with his new gay community liaison, health care consultant Janine Brunjes, and at-large City Councilwoman Annise Parker. They had come to sell…
Kenny Garrett
Watching Ken Burns’s Jazz series could lead people to believe that the genre ground to a creative halt about 40 years ago. Never mind that some of jazz’s most innovative albums were released during the last four decades, like Miles Davis’s Bitches Brew or Herbie Hancock’s Head Hunters. Newcomers to…
Like It’s 1999
Despite the fervent wishes of the general public, sweeps month continues to afflict us with inanity. We’ve had Channel 2 inform us that pet cats might make us go insane; on Valentine’s Day we had Fox telling us that candles — especially scented candles — might be deadly. (Hmmm –…
Planet of the Ape
It’s almost impossible to know what to make of Monkeybone after one viewing; there’s so much going on in this dreamland of stop-motion and computer-generated animation and celebrity cameos that you have trouble keeping up with it. Indeed, like a half-remembered dream, the movie’s often so overwhelming that even its…
Harden’s Crossing
It was to have been a routine stop on a routine press tour, yet another town in which the actress was to show up, chit and chat with the local media about her movie, then move on — the traveling salesman getting the word out, moving The Product. Denver, Dallas,…
Double Dribbling
Van Gogh was a lunatic who cut off his ear. Picasso was a self-absorbed cur who abused women. Warhol turned out to be a weird, desperate loner, Basquiat a doomed junkie. Try as he might, shriveled little Toulouse-Lautrec failed miserably at romance. As for El Greco’s explosive affair with that…
Letters to the Editor
Cross Ways Altar the angle? Have you become a fucking Christian newspaper or something? I know you probably won’t listen to me, and you probably won’t even read this letter because of the profanity in it. But like I said, WHAT THE FUCK? Ever since the Press changed its cover…
Silence Equals Death
That anyone should consider making a film of Reinaldo Arenas’s memoir Before Night Falls is curious. That the person to do it should be painter-turned-film director Julian Schnabel is truly unusual. And that the results should be as good as they are is most remarkable of all. But it would…
Checking IDs at Rice
Now in its third year, the Rice University Asian-American Film and Literature Festival launches this weekend with a compelling lineup of films, speakers and panelists that will make you wonder how this student-run three-day showcase could be so good — and free. Returning this year is keynote speaker Gordon Quan,…
Climb Ev’ry Mountain Man
Hate to admit it, but there’s something strangely persuasive about a grown man in his yummy black leather hotpants and matching suspenders. It’s even better if he swaggers with art-dude nonchalance, sings with a tender, soulful voice and is wicked funny at all the right times. If you doubt our…