Letters
HISD’s Playground Stones for the story: A standing ovation for Keith Plocek [“On Shaky Grounds,” December 30]! His article comprehensively delivered all of the points we have been yelling about and HISD has been ignoring for four years. I’m glad he had the stones to bring them to the mat…
Extended Sentence
The grim little green-walled apartment where Walter finds himself after his release has the look of a jail cell — with one apparent easement. What seems to be the only window in the place faces a school playground across the street. When Walter looks outside, he often sees kids running…
Naked Lunch
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Misdirected
Bad Education, the new film by the flamboyant Spanish director Pedro Almodvar, opens on a man sitting at a table, poring over the tabloids for stories of interest. When he finds something he likes, he reads it to his lover: Isn’t this an arresting image? Could we generate drama from…
This Week’s Day-by-Day Picks
Thursday, January 13 Being the sole African-American guy on Comedy Central’s Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn can be tough on a comedian, but Patrice O’Neal seems to take it in stride. Perhaps the Bostonian has a knack for shrugging off blatantly racial jokes from guys like Quinn and feisty fellow…
Not Rockne
Nobody messes with Samuel L. Jackson — at least not at the movies. He’s Shaft reinvented, the coolest cop on the street. He’s Mace Windu, the only swashbuckler in the Star Wars galaxy who gets to swing a purple lightsaber. Best of all, he’s Jules Winnfield, the ultrahip hit man…
Horse Senseless
An underappreciated art, vocal performance can make or break an animated film, as well as live-action movies that “star” talking animals. It’s Eddie Murphy’s exuberant line readings — not what he says but how he says it — that confer personality upon the garrulous Donkey in Shrek. And the sheep-herding…
Cheap Shots
THU 1/13 Few things swell our sense of state pride like the Texas Rangers, legendary lawmen of the wild frontier. They’re immortalized around the world by the Lone Ranger, the fictional hero who, as the story goes, is ambushed along with fellow Rangers and left for dead. As the sole…
Kill Me, Seymour!
It’s official. Audrey II, that man-eating plant from Little Shop of Horrors, will never, ever die. In 1982, Howard Ashman and Alan Menken’s chirpy musical, about an evil plant that takes over the world, blossomed off Broadway in a small 350-seat theater. It was quite the little hit. Modestly funny…
A Good Run
SUN 1/16 It can begin as a drunken bet, a New Year’s resolution or maybe a spousal mandate (“Get your fat ass in shape!”). Regardless of how it starts, the marathon always ends the same way: Hordes of salt-covered, wan, blistered bodies limp across the finish line, desperate for water…
Capsule Reviews
Contemporary Baroque Take two trendy, up-and-coming arts groups and stick them together for an evening. What do you get? A program that doesn’t live up to its hype. Contemporary Baroque — the long-awaited collaboration between dance darling Dominic Walsh Dance Theater and the super-cool historical music group Mercury Baroque –…
Tasty Samples
Figuring out which live act to check out can be like trying to decide what to do for dinner. Do you go Latin? New American? Maybe Caribbean? In the end, what really works is a good buffet, cooked up to satisfy a wide variety of tastes. The H-Town Throw Down…
Low-Tech Industry
Jess-Rafael Soto’s work isn’t technically kinetic, but it certainly can make the viewer kinetic. It gets you circling, crouching, standing, doing a box step and bobbing your head up and down like one of the those dashboard dogs. On your retinas is where the real work happens — that’s where…
Bittersweet Symphony
SAT 1/15 A devious count, Bluebeard, brings his lovely new bride, Judith, home to his castle. Frustrated that she has free rein in the place except for seven doors in a great hall, Judith demands entry. When she opens the doors to find — gasp — other wives, things get…
Capsule Reviews
“Erika Blumenfeld: Inconstant Moon” Try peering into the nocturnal skies over our fair city. You will discover, as any telescope owner in Houston will tell you, that you can’t see shit. Houston’s ambient light overwhelms most everything. But Marfa, now that’s a different story. The lack of ambient light there…
She’s Gone (Away from) Country
Tift Merritt may be nominated for a Grammy for her album Tambourine and have a new cross-country tour starting in two weeks, but her mind’s elsewhere the day before New Year’s Eve. “I’ve got 20 people coming over for dinner tomorrow night, band members, good friends, neighbors,” she says. “I’m…
Cajun, Twice Removed
The thick fillet of salmon served at Cajun Town Cafe was broiled until it was pleasantly charred along the edges. There are five toppings to choose from. I went with No. 3, which included small but juicy shrimp and fat crawfish tails in a creamy wine and lemon-garlic sauce. The…
Method Rocking
Here’s an odd phenomenon: When musicians try their hand at acting, they often do a damn fine job. Al Jolson, Frank Sinatra, Kris Kristofferson, Barbra Streisand, Cher, Will Smith, Mark Wahlberg — they may not have changed the art form, but they’ve had careers. Pretty good ones, in fact. But…
Pig Heaven
If you’re tired of the same old burger or chicken sandwich, then the breaded pork tenderloin sandwich ($4.95) at Heights Camphouse BBQ (2820 White Oak Drive, 713-861-2033) may be exactly what you’re looking for. “It’s a Northern thing,” says the manager, describing all the Yanks who flock to this sandwich…
Roadie Royalty
Houstonian Karl Kuenning is a roadie for life. No, he may not run sound anymore, or go days on end without a shower, or grope groupies, or catch a few hours’ uneasy rest in a smelly bunk on a crowded bus, but he’s done all that, and for the likes…
Rotation
Red Light District-Def Jam, Who Killed…The Zutons- Epic, Rendezvous-Jet Set
Local Rotation
The Late Great Daniel Johnston: Discovered Covered Gammon Records
Draining the Swamp
The mud stretches for 200 acres, a shimmering paddy of rutted black gumbo. It is flanked by a highway and a gravel road, real estate signs and an overpass. The developers look at it and envision an Italian village, an ambitious League City subdivision called Tuscan Lakes. But John Jacob…
Playbill
Eighteen Visions, with Emery, Misery Signals and Remembering NeverTime was, rock and punk were directly at odds, embroiled in denominational squabbles over such ontological issues as fashion, solos and whether colored hair warranted props or an ass-beating. But things change. In 2004, the five musicians of SoCal’s Eighteen Visions are…
Double-Wide Divide
Ever wanted to own a toll road? How about one with 85 mile-per-hour speed limits alongside a congested interstate — one where you had exclusive rights to sell food, gas and lodging? You can buy all that and more if you’ve got a few billion dollars and can convince the…
Auld Lang Pain
Five! Four! Three! Two! One! We made it, folks. It’s a new day, a new year. It’s time to keep our resolutions for at least a month before diving back into gluttony. Time to step back, count our blessings. One of those blessings might be that you didn’t spend the…
Do Not Enter
It’s never a good sign when, a few days before a heavily hyped event, callers to the promoter’s offices are greeted with the message that the phones are out of service. But hope springs eternal, especially on New Year’s Eve. So thousands of Houstonians — including one Hair Balls correspondent,…
About a Man
Paul Weitz, with brother Chris, co-wrote and co-directed 2002’s adaptation of Nick Hornby’s novel About a Boy, in which a cocky grown man (Hugh Grant) learned how to actually act like a grown man by observing a gawky young boy (Nicholas Hoult) who was nearly abandoned by his suicidal mother…