This Week’s Day-by-Day Picks
Thursday, January 15 With all the border conflicts and xenophobia in the world these days, it’s nice to see a group of artists interested in emphasizing the similarities between traditionally disparate cultures. The dance-and-music group Morena Amoora is bringing a performance of Middle Eastern and flamenco dance to the Jewish…
Torque Out
kay, so there’s this terrible joke some dork told me: A mouse is drowning in quicksand, and an elephant happens by and says, “Here, grab hold of my large penis and I’ll pull you out!” The mouse, puzzled but desperate, agrees, and is saved. Time passes, until the mouse happens…
Sure Shot
Fresh out of college and working as a young reporter in Costa Rica, R.A. “Jake” Dyer wandered into a pool hall to do some exploring. What he found there would take ahold of him for the rest of his life. “It was a really identifiable subculture,” says Dyer of the…
Five-Year Bitch
Jason Robert Brown’s The Last Five Years does a magic trick with time. The two-character musical, now running at Theater LaB Houston, approaches the story of one couple’s rather boring breakup from two perspectives. Cathy begins the tale in the present — that is, at the relationship’s painful end –…
Man with the Mike
THU 1/15 Walter Cronkite calls him one of the best interviewers he’s ever seen. And we’d have to agree with his assessment of Houston’s own Ernie Manouse. The familiar host of local PBS news shows is aiming for a more national profile with his new show, InnerVIEWS with Ernie Manouse…
Universal Pictures
Through March 14 at the Contemporary Arts Museum, 5216 Montrose, 713-284-8250.
Globe Box
THU 1/15 You can imagine it in black and white: a newsreel of the big fight. The spotlights. The tuxedos and limos. Bogey, Bacall, DiMaggio, Monroe. It was the golden age, when boxers were big-time celebs and celebs were big into boxing. Now fast-forward about 40 years. Some things have…
Sino-Tex
The shrimp fried rice doesn’t taste Chinese. And the fried whole mojarra comes with tartar sauce instead of ginger and scallions. 888 Chinese Restaurant, located next to the recently renovated Gulfgate Center, seems to be putting a Mexican-American spin on Chinese food for the predominantly Hispanic eastside neighborhood. Some of…
Mighty Real
Classic children’s stories, with their dark forests and furious beasties, have made for great librettos since before Hansel and Gretel were a glimmer in the Grimm Brothers’ eyes. This week, Houston Grand Opera’s children’s company, Opera to Go!, will present a new work for children based on Margery Williams’s timeless…
Load It Up
Houston’s Francophiles have long known the French Riviera Bakery (3032 Chimney Rock, 713-783-3264) as a place to find authentic breads, croissants and pastries. Its owner, however, isn’t from France. If you encounter an Asian from Madagascar who speaks with a French accent, then you’ve found the right place. And if…
Pike’s Peak
WED 1/21 Like many of her Austin peers who carved out a Houston fan base at the Fabulous Satellite Lounge, Patrice Pike felt rudderless when that fixture of the local music scene closed in January 2003. But Pike has gone on to thrive in her new home-away-from-home at the Rhythm…
On the News
MON 1/19 Henry Rollins, best known as the buffed and tattooed Black Flag front man, has been performing spoken word for more than two decades. And, he says, it’s his greatest challenge. “When I look at the tour dates, I always wonder if I’ll be able to pull it off…
And Then There Was One
The Vallone dynasty is a thing of the past. Master restaurateur Tony Vallone has said adieu to Anthony’s, shedding the second-to-last remaining vestige of his eatery empire, apparently as part of the pact he recently made with seafood land baron Tilman Fertitta. In late November, Fertitta and his Landry’s crab…
Rock Star 101
Panic in Detroit is a band that does a lot of things right, on and off stage, in the studio and out. It starts, of course, with the music — big ol’ guitar-driven power pop with hummable melodies, Cheeto-crunchy drums and Ginsu-sharp arrangements, or, as they put it, “Complicated and…
Moving Target
Billy Ray Sterling believed in working hard. An operator at the Lyondell-CITGO refinery, he took on 16-hour days, 80-hour weeks — no sweat. On holidays, Sterling readily volunteered. “I always stayed on for the ones who had kids,” he says. His wife understood. They’d been together since junior high nearly…
A Clean Brake
In this business, now and then you have a day when you feel like the teacher in A Christmas Story. You know the scene — the one where little Ralphie fantasizes that his teacher is ripping through the stack of lame “What I Want for Christmas” papers, shouting that each…
Hotel Envy
Some observers were shocked that the Dallas Cowboys put on such a pathetic performance in the NFC wild-card game January 3. (Right-thinking people, however, were simply pleased.) Analysts offered lots of reasons for the collapse, but none mentioned this: Would you want to come to Houston’s Super Bowl if it…
Messing with Texas
Our motto: Anything but Bush,” Lou Reed recently told Rolling Stone, voicing a refrain that’s becoming increasingly common among musicians. Not since the Reagan administration has a president catalyzed so much protest music. In the past year, Bruce Springsteen, Dave Matthews, Don Henley, Moby, Willie Nelson and Tom Morello all…
Do As I Do, Not As I Say
A brace of the country’s best criminal attorneys had just stepped into a very sticky pile at Houston’s federal courthouse last week, and their pained expressions spoke more eloquently than a closing argument for their clients, Enron first couple Andy and Lea Fastow. After negotiating with prosecutors for pleas that…
Midtown Honky-tonkin’
As the sleek new trains swoosh past down Main on a cool winter’s night, the Continental Club is filled with some of the oldest (and best) sounds in town. It’s Wednesday happy hour, and the Swank Countrypolitans are on stage — singer-guitarist Johnny Wolfe, singing fiddler Hilary Sloan, singing upright…
Ties That Bind?
When battles over light rail expansion reached their angry peak last fall, nearly every politician in town was jockeying for the TV cameras. Then-mayor Lee Brown got on a bus to push for the plan, while Congressman John Culberson produced a chart lambasting it. Former mayor Fred Hofheinz then denounced…
Eddie from Ohio
Labels mean nothing. Not only is drummer Eddie Hartness not from Ohio — neither are any of the other three members of Eddie from Ohio — but the “folk-rock” tag often given them is as misleading as can be. Sure, they do a fine version of Bob Dylan’s “Don’t Think…
(In)voices from the Dead
After four months, Robert Lunn largely has resolved his grief over the sudden death of his wife. That was no small accomplishment for a couple that had been together since their college romance days of more than 50 years ago. He’d been a market researcher who marveled at Judy’s accomplishments…
Guided By Voices
Guided By Voices appears Friday, January 16, at the Engine Room, 1515 Pease. Brian Jonestown Massacre opens. For more information, call 713-654-7846.
Letters
Cabin Fever Cruise cover-up: The timing of your article “Masters and Commanders” [by Josh Harkinson, December 25] couldn’t have been better. As an obligatory family vacation, I took the Rhapsody cruise recently. While I had been dreading this ordeal for months, I can honestly say the reality made even my…
Baby Rosebud
Baby Rosebud appears Monday, January 19, at Rudyard’s, 2010 Waugh Drive. For more information, call 713-521-0521.
Odd Man In
As with mousetraps, so with vacuum cleaners — build a better one, and the world will beat a path to your door. And if you happen to create a new way of doing business in the process, the world may beat a path to your door holding a book contract…
Rage Against the Macho
Since the South African waif known as Charlize Theron has put out on-screen for virtually everybody except Tobey Maguire (and who would?), she’s a seemingly unlikely but ultimately ideal candidate for realizing the challenging lead role in the terrific new film about feminine rage called Monster. As Aileen “Lee” Wuornos,…