Junior Wells
Blues lore has it that a preteen Amos “Junior” Wells shoplifted his first harp and got caught. The presiding judge asked why he was so desperate for a $2 harmonica, and a tearful Wells pleaded poverty. So moved was the judge, the story goes, that he paid for the instrument…
Ad-verse Reaction
The superhot blond on the billboard peers out from under a black cowboy hat. Her bust is more than ample, her smile is sweetly suggestive, and her eyes most definitely belong in the bedroom. But scrawled in white letters next to her are the last words any man wants to…
Freedom Sold
With its first EP, Whores, Freedom Sold burst on the local scene as a hip-hop act with heart, soul and focus. Disappointingly, these characteristics are all but absent on the duo’s latest project, Ten Years Four Walls. An indecipherable mixture of static and electronic noise and banal, incoherent ramblings, the…
No Parking
On Saturday nights, parking in Woodlake Square is almost impossible. The only way to get a good space is to get there by 8 p.m. (which is uncool and nearly no one does). By ten there’s nothing but valets and signs saying no parking any time — violators will be…
Playbill
Among all the crappy postgrunge bands like Creed and Days of the New, each a worm-infested street mutt hoping to con you into taking him home, there awaits a neglected puppy just waiting to be picked up and played with. This cuddly creature is a Knoxville, Tennessee, quartet named Superdrag,…
Days of Paige
When President-elect George W. Bush nominated Rod Paige for secretary of education, the media raves on the local level spewed like Spindletop in its prime. The Houston Independent School District suddenly became the best urban district in the nation and the 67-year-old superintendent Paige the premier leader in public education…
Playbill
In the beginning, there was a trio of young Northern California rockers who released a neo-punk record titled Kerplunk (1992), and it was good (especially their cover of the Who’s “My Generation”). The trio went by the name Green Day, and Kerplunk served notice that this band would not rest,…
Private Practice for County Attorney Fleming?
Reliable sources say that recently re-elected Harris County Attorney Michael Fleming is planning to step down in the coming weeks and take a high paying job with a Houston law firm. Contacted at his office, Fleming denies he’s made any decision but admits he is mulling over several offers. “I’ve…
Foregone Conclusion
Thirteen Days is a suspenseful look at the American government in the grip of a crucial, minute-to-minute, real-life crisis that threatens to destroy the country. No, it is not — as the relatively brief time span referenced in the title makes clear — about the recent election struggles… or the…
Court Blues: Making a False Impression
The reviews are in. Here’s what a majority of the Texas Supreme Court thinks of the reporting of Channel 13’s legendary Wayne Dolcefino: It’s “false and defamatory”; it’s “misleading”; and “through omission of critical facts and juxtaposition of others, [it] left a substantially false impression.” And a minority of the…
Road Outrageous
If M. Night Shyamalan makes movies to be seen twice, then Joel and Ethan Coen make films to be pawed over a dozen times. O Brother, Where Art Thou?, an opulent and often slapstick updating of Homer’s The Odyssey by way of Preston Sturges, Robert Johnson and Clark Gable, sneaks…
Fear of Comics
At the time, it was meant to be read as a great compliment: Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez create comic books for people who don’t read comic books! A publisher or pitchman couldn’t have come up with a more glorious phrase, one magical sentence that would reel in the literate and…
Exiled from Main Street
Playwright-filmmaker David Mamet has the sharpest gift imaginable for shooting down the sins of American greed, the con games people run to get ahead and the corruption that comes with success. Whether he’s haunting a secondhand junk shop, a poker room or an outlying real estate office, he always finds…
Letters
Adoption Option Wonder no more: This story really hit home for me [“Kristi’s Gift,” by Jennifer Mathieu, December 21]. In a society where we still look at adoption as something someone else does, this is a decision I too live with and am proud of every day. A lot of…
It’s a Funny Thing
Sitting in the shadows of Beltway 8, The Great Caruso Dinner Theater hunkers in the eastern corner of a renovated shopping strip. The parking lot, humming with shiny tour buses, is a vast expanse of blacktop. At the entrance, a heavy wooden revolving door shuffles patrons into a cowboy’s wet…
Put Yourself in Their Nikes
For those Compaq Houston Marathon virgins out there, here’s an idea of what the runners will be going through. Mile 1: The cannon shot sure wakes you up, if you’re not bubbling with excitement already. People are all fresh and chatty. You try to run to the start line, but…
Spin Control
It was 6:45 a.m. Kristin Stecher dragged herself out of bed and pulled on a sweatshirt over her flannel pajamas. She wasn’t resentful at having to wake up at an hour most college students never see. Stecher was heading for her 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. shift at KTRU, Rice…
Changing Horses
Recent productions of Peter Shaffer’s Equus have been carbon copies of the 1973 premiere. So when Stephen Rayne was selected to direct the show for the Alley Theatre, he thought it was time for another interpretation. Most of the play’s action takes place in a mental hospital as psychiatrist Martin…
Working Stiff
On this recent Sunday, Glenda Turner takes her place in a back pew at Holman Street Baptist Church and is soon swaying gently. She smiles serenely as Pastor Manson Johnson croons in a rich baritone that “the Lord is blessing me right now.” Turner’s pleased. The woman in the gray…
Buenas Noches
On December 14, a notice was taped to the inside of the glass door at Cafe Noche [2409 Montrose Boulevard, (713)529-2409], stating that the popular Tex-Mex outlet was closed and giving the home and cellular-telephone numbers of Alan Mallett, the executive chef and owner of the nine-year-old operation. A call…
Chicken-Fried Honor
A steaming chicken-fried steak comes sliding down the stainless-steel bartop at Ouisie’s Table and comes to rest below my nose. The golden-brown, Southern-fried crust is so perfect that the cream gravy is served on the side. I nibble on the mashed potatoes, the mustard greens and the custardy corn pudding…
Reload the Confetti Gun
Speaking off the toque: Yuriy Fisher, owner of the Stoli Grill, 13148 Memorial Drive, (713)932-1336. Q. Why do Russians celebrate New Year’s Day on January 13? A. Well, it is not only Russians. It is all the many nationalities that are, traditionally, communicants of the various Orthodox churches and who…
Stirred and Shaken
It’s a cold January morning, and I am feeling seasick. The bartender at St. Pete’s Dancing Marlin [300 Main Street, (713)227-1511] offers to make me a Bloody Mary to calm my nerves. Behind him, a billfish the size of a small car hangs from the ceiling. The wooden floors and…
Shelf Life
As the music industry struggles for secure footing in the loose gravel of the computer age, one thing remains certain: Quality continues to be overlooked, even at a time when artists claim they can better control their destinies by selling their own products over the Internet. While this is true,…
Clove at First Sight
If garlic is a health food, maybe it’s the nutrition-conscious who have made the pollo al ajillo ($10.95) the most popular entrée at El Meson [2425 University Boulevard, (713)522-9306]. Then again, maybe folks just like loads of garlic. This Cuban dish features a boneless, skinless chicken breast that’s marinated overnight…
Swamp Thing
If there’s any word in the rock lexicon that’s tattered, debased and long overdue for retirement, it’s “supergroup.” But to the folks who follow music from the Louisiana coast, specifically between Lake Charles and Lafayette, no other term better fits Lil’ Band O’ Gold. The band, after all, gathers together…
G-strings
The DJ booth of the Colorado Bar and Grill (6710 Southwest Freeway) is getting clustered with half-butt-nekkid ladies. Ponytailed DJ Chris Hassette fields requests from the talent (“Anything by Depeche Mode,” one G-string-clad gal tells him) and alerts the crowd on the mike about the drink and dinner specials. The…
Dwight Yoakam
Musician, actor and film director Dwight Yoakam has never typecast himself or his music. Yoakam uses the country form as structural support for what he does musically, but then he builds what he calls “doorways” into his structures, offering him an opportunity to escape the genre’s limitations. Yoakam’s latest album,…