The Man Who Knew Too Soon?
Tom Curtis — neither a bitter nor an overtly sweet man himself — must have indulged a bittersweet chuckle, sitting in his Galveston office that Tuesday morning, November 30, 1999, reading his New York Times. There on page one of the Science section, reporter Lawrence D. Altman, M.D., had devoted…
News Hostage
You might not know it, but there’s this very funny talk show on NBC starring Conan O’Brien. The reason you might not know it — or know it only by reputation — is that KPRC chooses to delay airing the show from its usual weeknight 11:35 p.m. slot to a…
Where Angels Fear to Tread
For opening night of Kilgore College’s production of Angels in America, police officers and security guards locked every entrance to the Turk Fine Arts Center, except the front door. Cops searched hallways and bathrooms for suspicious packages, and they sent the 12-member student cast to the theater’s makeup rooms located…
News of the Weird
Lead StoriesPatrick J. Murphy, deputy superintendent of schools in Cambridge, Massachusetts, resigned in December after admitting that he solicited two of his staff members to write papers on Shakespeare for his 19-year-old daughter’s literature class at Stonehill College in nearby Easton, Massachusetts. The scheme blew up on Murphy when one…
Lutfi’s Loot
Apex National Insurance Company executive Lutfi Hassan was just oozing holiday spirit last month, after City Council awarded his joint venture group an airport insurance contract worth $6.3 million. Hassan decided to gift Mayor Lee Brown, chief administrative officer Al Haines and several councilmembers with 16-place, 85-piece settings of garish,…
Dish
Last week we reported that Benjy Levit, owner of benjy’s [2424 Dunstan, (713)522-7602], was shopping for a chef for his new restaurant, scheduled to open in April or May in the Westheimer space vacated by Armando’s. Now it appears that Levit was headhunting for not just one, but possibly two…
The Insider
Nearly four years ago University of Houston football player Michael DeRouselle stole a teammate’s checkbook, forged a check and cashed it at a local bank. While the investigation of that crime was under way, the star defensive lineman stole a roommate’s check, forged it and cashed it at Sterling Bank…
Miles Behind Her
Miles Davis rarely recorded with singers, and the singers he did record with were usually unique talents. Shirley Horn is no exception. Her soft and understated ballad singing, tasteful piano playing and creative interpretations were just as treasured by the late trumpeter as they are envied by jazz musicians today…
Holy Noodle House!
According to traditional Japanese folk tales, Kintaro is a red-skinned wunderkind raised by a mountain witch. He sounds like an Asian version of Paul Bunyan: Immensely strong, he carries an ax and rides a wild boar. Kintaro nowadays is perhaps better known as the mutant monster star of Mortal Kombat…
Hot Plate
The Story of Ohhhh: Once upon a time there was an utterly irresistible dessert concocted in the magical kitchen of the Dessert Gallery Bakery & Café [3200 Kirby, (713)522-9999]. The pastry elves called it “The Big O,” but it’s not what you’re thinking: This cake’s a double-layered stack of creamy…
Korn-ucopia
When its Burn My Eyes debut was released in 1994, Machine Head began its career as arguably the biggest new heavy metal band since Pantera. For Machine Head, critical and commercial acclaim were both nearly boundless. The only variable in the band’s conquest of heavy-metaldom was how long the Oakland,…
Another World
At El Mirage, an Arabic restaurant and meeting place in west Houston, a singer is on stage imploring the audience to listen to her in song. She sings a few lines then waits for a response. The audience erupts into clapping and dancing. The singer turns it on a little…
Rotation
Save Ferris Modified Epic Monique Powell sure sounds like Gwen Stefani; even looks like Gwen Stefani. So how in the world of ska-punk acts is Powell’s seven-member band Save Ferris supposed to separate itself from comparisons to No Doubt? It can’t, really. Five-year-old Save Ferris will inevitably be likened to…
Local Rotation
Demigods Polyphonic Demigods On Maudlin Street, where power rock meets romantic longing, the Demigods reign. On its recent self-release Polyphonic, the band fusses over obsessive, nearly unhealthy love. “You, you are the one for me / You’re everything I want, you and me / We make a perfect pair /…
Amplified
Hard to believe, but one of Houston’s brightest, best-est talents has broken up his band. Thing is, he brought his empire down just as he was building it up. Clay Farmer, leader of the incredible, eponymously titled country-western quartet, says he has had enough. Before a performance at the Brewery…
Playbill
During the South by Southwest Music and Media Conference two years ago, you couldn’t walk down the street or into a bar or even by a garbage can without seeing this image: a fluorescent lime flyer with the name SINIS (the S’s drawn like those on the flags of Hitler’s…
Delicious Dinner Theater
Quaint and dated as dinner theater might seem — those mounds of prime rib and iceberg lettuce are downright scary — Spero Criezis of The Great Caruso seems positively hell-bent on changing our minds. And with his latest production of Ain’t Misbehavin’, the Fats Waller Musical Show, he just might…
Student Bodies
It’s 2013. Amy Carter is president. Rush Limbaugh’s a senator. World war rages in the Middle East. And Fag Rock is the hippest new genre in popular music. So goes the future according to Rob Nash, creator of Junior Blues and Senioritis, the last two installments of his sweet and…
Poor, Pitiful Me
Boo hoo! Frank McCourt had a miserable childhood! Honestly, who can say their childhood wasn’t impoverished in some wayŠ or in many ways? That McCourt survived and eventually published his inescapable memoir is nice, of course, and the book is indeed a poignant and crafty piece of work. Nonetheless, it…
Sad Sundays
“It’s true of anybody,” says die-hard Houston football fan John Pirkle. “If you watch the Oilers long enough, they’ll make you cry.” Pirkle didn’t have to watch very long. When he was just four years old, he started going to games and joined the “Oiler Buddies,” a program that paired…
Ambition Overload
In Cradle Will Rock, his third directorial outing, Tim Robbins takes on an almost insurmountably ambitious project: re-creating an era by weaving characters imaginary, obscure and famous into a tapestry that represents the texture of the time. It’s a tall order. E.L. Doctorow was able to pull off a similar…
Doug’s Deals
Nearly a year ago, when we last checked on Doug Williams, the real estate consultant had just quit a job with Post Properties, citing the “appearance of a conflict” with his duties as chairman of the publicly funded Midtown Redevelopment Agency. While his resignation might have seemed motivated by principle,…