Cry Tough
Tommy Shannon and his wife, Kumi, are raising four elegant horses — three of them Trakehners, an athletic European breed — on their Austin ranch. This land, where the Shannons have recently settled, spills out into unspoiled Hill Country. With just a bit more landscaping, it will resemble an American…
Static
Uncomfy niche… Over the last few years, Clandestine has become such a reliable part of Houston’s Celtic folk landscape that it’s been tempting to take them for granted. Like its contemporaries in Ceili’s Muse and Gordian Knot, this rustic foursome is a consistent draw at McGonigel’s Mucky Duck (where, incidentally,…
Tupelo’s Curse
Anyone who follows popular music knows that success is often a matter of timing. Yesterday’s cool, after all, is today’s Wang Chung. It wasn’t long ago that alt-country was supposed to save the world. The genre even had its own supergroup in Uncle Tupelo, which, after putting out a string…
Rotation
H-Town Ladies Edition Relativity Back in 1993, three local boys with the handles G.I., Shazaam and Dino made good nationally with a smoldering little ditty called “Knockin’ Da Boots.” The song peaked at number two on the Billboard pop charts, and for a while there, it looked as if H-Town…
Dish
King of Kings A King Cake, as you ought to know by now, is one of those buttery, neon-frosted concoctions that announces the approach of Mardi Gras — and inside which hides an eensy toy baby. Symbolically, that little plastic figurine represents the Baby Jesus, who was found by the…
Growling at Hollywood
In addition to his numerous stage plays, John Patrick Shanley has written a fistful of movies. His credits include everything from the quirky art-house flick Five Corners to the Oscar-winning Moonstruck to the deliciously simian adaptation of Michael Crichton’s Congo. His movies are eccentric, odd and full of audaciously farcical…
Can’t Get Up
After Santa’s overstuffed sack of Oscar qualifiers is disgorged onto New York and Los Angeles screens in December, the studios have little left in their pipelines for January. With all the brutal competition from the big-ticket films, Hollywood has established a tradition in recent years of dumping lost-cause features during…
Made in Houston
Three years ago, the Museum of Fine Arts put together “First Look,” a showcase of films made by Houstonians. Back by popular demand, the series is now called “Local Spin,” and is backed by the MFA, the Houston Film Commission and the Southwest Area Media Project. Not surprisingly, the series…
Hello, Dalai
Martin Scorsese’s Kundun is a deeply ceremonial experience. It’s like watching a serene pageant of colors, rituals, costumes. It’s about the Dalai Lama — recognized as the 14th reincarnation of the Buddha of Compassion and the spiritual and political leader of Tibet — from his childhood in 1937 through the…
Flameout
It’s always depressing when an action movie presents a plot idea that, though reminiscent of earlier ventures, at least comes off as a new spin on an old concept — and then fails to live up to even that low standard. Sure, Firestorm might be described as Con Air meets…
The Trophy Son
In her immaculate kitchen, remembering the saddest day, Mrs. Sonja Rutherford’s lip began to tremble. “It makes me cry even now,” she said, sniffling. “Sorry.” And she reached for the Kleenex. They had such hopes for that day. It was May 17, 1996, and Kyle Rutherford’s whole family — his…
The Insider
With Friends Like These… Details, details: You’d think that the proposed whacking of more than 100 trees on the Hermann Park Golf Course would have somehow come to the attention of a group that calls itself the Friends of Hermann Park — especially since that nonprofit organization vigorously lobbied the…
Letters
Putting ‘Frisco to Shame Having moved from Houston to San Francisco a few years ago, I sometimes forget how much I love the Houston Press. I was in Houston for New Year’s Eve and nabbed the year-end issue [“Alison Cook Looks Back at 1997: The Year That Bit,” January 1],…
Situational Ethics
You’ve got to hand it to Lee Brown — the man has been deft when it comes to wielding a symbol. Or so it’s seemed. You’d have to be a card-carrying member of the Texas Aryan National Skinheads not to have been moved by all the not-so-subtle signs of inclusion…
Press Picks
thursday january 15 Triple Focus Eighteen years ago, the Jewish Community Center started Dance Month at the Kaplan Theatre, and it’s still going strong. This weekend, see three of Houston’s finest professional dance companies — Houston Metropolitan Dance Center, Joan Karff’s New Dance Group and Weave Dance Company — together…
Packed at Saks
I was enchanted when I first set foot in Grille 5115, the Ruggles offshoot in Saks Fifth Avenue. The place was hopping. Lots of people; lots of noise. It made the pulse race. How uninhibited it seemed; how communal. Breughel’s scampering peasants came to mind — minus the Chanel No…