Love Hurts
The first hint that Michael and Marisa Hierro had that something was amiss when they pulled into the driveway of their Dallas-area home on the night of December 20 was their Christmas lights. They had been on when the couple had left earlier that day, but someone had turned them…
A Meaty Issue
Back in early November I wrote that Victor’s Delicatessen makes the best Reuben sandwich in town. A strong statement, I admit, but a heartfelt one. Perhaps my dotage has made me complacent. Last year I came away relatively unscathed after pronouncing the best pizza in town. So far there has…
Lost Legends
Wavy gray hair and translucent-rimmed glasses restore the aura of an archivist to Tary Owens. His soft, raspy voice and deliberate words temporarily hush as he closes his eyes to catch the music, the vision of that first prison experience: It is again the summer of 1963. Owens turns his…
Dish
“Big B” Benjy Levit, owner of “little b” benjy’s in the Village [2424 Dunstan, (713)522-7602], will soon be jumping onto the comfort-food bandwagon with a second restaurant, near River Oaks. Levit is building out the space that formerly housed Armando’s at 2300 Westheimer between Kirby and Shepherd. “We’re going to…
The Insider
With its redevelopment problems and closets full of skeletons, the old El Mercado del Sol near downtown would make a great set for a political version of Poltergeist. The imposing brick facade rests, though not in peace, atop a graveyard chock-full of unrealized civic schemes that seem immune to exorcism…
Slow Turning
Sometime this year the investigation of Houston Renaissance, Inc. by the Texas Attorney General will have run its course and an opinion will be rendered on whether the publicly funded nonprofit charged with redeveloping the Fourth Ward engaged in consumer fraud. Presumably the A.G.’s findings will explain, once and for…
Political Sex Change
Leslie Perez ran an insurgent campaign against then-Harris County Democratic Party chair Ken Bentsen Jr. in 1990 and was rewarded with one of the great garish headlines of all time by the Houston Chronicle: “Killer Transvestite in Runoff.” Although future Congressman Bentsen eventually won the race, the strong showing by…
Real Life
My brother Joel said I was crazy. Booking a flight New Year’s Day was, to him, yet another piece of evidence to prove I was switched at birth. Someone who can’t name all the players on Duke’s ’91 championship basketball team and is stupid enough to fly into the teeth…
Tonight at the Improv…
Dressed in a half-snowboarder, half-Paul Bunyan getup on a recent HBO special, comedian Harland Williams asked his audience if they liked impressions. He obliged them not with some hack-job evocation of Robert De Niro or Jimmy Stewart, but with an interpretation of forest critters. “Eeewww-eee!” he squealed at the shocked…
Sock It to Me
In the stuffy and imperious world of concert pianists, Jean-Yves Thibaudet gets nearly as much attention for his attire as for his musicianship: The showman has a penchant for sporting fire-engine-red socks with his antique tails. But thankfully his virtuoso playing has not exactly gone unnoticed. Now billed as the…
Hot Plate
Ruin This Cheese, Please: The French may frown at the terribly American habit of baking their beloved Brie cheese, but gauche and gooey as it may be, we love it. A particularly appealing baked Brie appetizer ($7.95) can be found at the River Cafe [3615 Montrose, (713)529-0088], here rendered as…
The “It” Guy
Houston jazz musicians agree on damn few things, but they all seem to sing in harmony when the subject is saxophonist David Caceres. They agree that Caceres has “it,” that something extra that separates him from his peers. Caceres is the type of guy who walks into a room and…
Yield Here
Like a good novel, the narrative thrust of Richard Shindell’s power folk songs emerges from characters’ personalities. Unlike confessional songwriters, who can’t seem to get out of the way, even for one line, Shindell creates characters, gives them voices and trusts the listener to empathize with their inner lives. Take…
Playbill
Beth Hart comes across as the type of woman who, if you tried to pick her up at a bar, would drink you under the table and beat you at pool, telling dirty jokes the whole time. She has guts, swagger and ovaries. No wonder she was selected for the…
Amplified
Everybody has probably been through this scenario once or twice: It’s Christmastime. You’re at the local Cactus Music looking for that new one from Calvin Owens or Ezra Charles or any other of your favorite Houston-based artists. You cull the racks for your faves, but all you see are CDs…
The Greek System
Based on the familial bloodletting of Sophocles’s Electra, Charles Busch’s Die! Mommy! Die! twists the elements of the Greek tragedy into a larger-than-life satire that lampoons the brazen days of Hollywood, circa the 1960s. Busch’s campy tour de force, now running at Theater LaB Houston in its local debut, incorporates…
What If They Gave a Primary…
In past years after the filing deadlines for the March primary, the Harris County Democratic Party celebrated the planting of their spring crop of candidates with festivities at a Mexican restaurant. But in this year of famine, the seedlings were so few that the party faithful had almost nothing to…
Storm Warning
When you hear the title The Hurricane, you imagine Dorothy Lamour, reclining against a palm tree in her sarong. Instead, with this wanna-be Oscar lapdog, you get well over two hours of Denzel Washington huddled in a cell. In the poster art, Washington glowers out, one bandaged fist cocked for…
News Hostage
After suffering through one of the more embarrassing moments in Houston journalism history at last year’s Press Club of Houston awards, the Houston Chronicle has apparently decided to take its ball and go home. Well, almost. Actually, taking its ball and going home would mean the paper would forfeit the…
Schizo
Some people really are crazy, but then, “crazy” is a relative term. Does it apply to someone who feels he might spin off into outer space and never be able to get back down to Earth? Or is it only crazy when you have to cling to the nearest table…
News of the Weird
Lead StoriesAccording to a December Boston Globe report from Xi’an, China, the Three Brothers Scorpion Restaurant claims to be the first in the country to reintroduce the 18th-century fascination with the scorpion into domestic cuisine, based on the health benefits. Scorpion venom (reduced in potency by a six-month process of…