Wonderfully Wicked
Ultra tough guy Jesse “The Body” Ventura says he means business as the new governor of Minnesota. But for now, the nasty crime wave in that state continues unchecked, in the movies, anyway. Sam Raimi’s A Simple Plan, a psychological thriller that shows us how dangerous life can get after…
Dish
What’s New on the Web Eureka! So, presumably, thought cybermeals co-founder Tim Glass as he watched Sandra Bullock’s character in The Net surf her way to a pizzeria web site to order a meal. Captivated by the idea of moving food orders from keyboards to kitchens on a grand scale,…
Hi-Lo Ho-Hum
“Freedom’s just another word for nothin’ left to lose,” Kris Kristofferson sings in his most beguiling song, “Me and Bobby McGee.” Stephen Frears’s The Hi-Lo Country tries in vain to be just as lyrical about love and liberty. In this 20th-century Western, a cattle rancher named Pete (Billy Crudup) narrates…
In The Dark
Black Sabbath — One of the more interesting entries into the recent spate of musical “reunions” (which has delivered everything from Fleetwood Mac to Mstley CrYe) is this second go-round from rock’s own four horsemen of the apocalypse. Though long derided by critics, Black Sabbath prompted millions of alienated teens…
Heart Failure
Here’s the first great movie mystery of the year: How did second-time director Willard Carroll line up the likes of Sean Connery, Ellen Burstyn, Gena Rowlands, Dennis Quaid, Madeline Stowe and Anthony Edwards, among others, for his new film, Playing By Heart (which he also wrote)? The mystery deepens when…
Black Blues, White Label
North Mississippi blues guitarist R.L. Burnside’s new record, Come On In, features drum programming, loops, samples and remixes by hip white producers such as Alec Empire, Beal Dabbs and Tom Rothrock (who is credited as main producer on the recording). It sounds like a collision between Burnside’s rural blues drone…
Looking for Answers Down Below
Greg Baxter has been in the real estate business since the age of 14, when he started working as a laborer for his father’s company, Baxter Construction. The family firm, which was established in 1948, specialized in what’s called the “hard-bid business” — roads, dams, hospitals, schools and other public-works…
Cali Sandwiches
“Was everything all right?” David Ngo inquired anxiously on my first visit to Cali Sandwich. “Be honest, now.” He dropped his voice to a whisper and leaned over the cash register. “I know my father talked you into that sugar cane drink. If you didn’t like it, you don’t have…
Striking Out
Reid Ryan remembers bumming around the streets of San Francisco alone as a 12-year-old kid, carrying $20 that his father slipped him before heading to work. It was enough cash to cover Reid’s cab fare to Candlestick Park, the windswept stadium on the bay where the boy’s dad suited up…
Several Seasons of Success
No one predicted George Winston would change music in 1981. Nine years earlier the unassuming pianist recorded an independent album which sold modestly, Ballads and Blues – 1972, and he wasn’t heard from on record again. When he returned to the studio in 1981 and recorded Autumn, an album of…
An Award for Our Writer
The National Association of Secondary School Principals has selected Houston Press staff writer Shaila Dewan as a recipient of a 1998 Benjamin Fine Award for Outstanding Education Reporting. Dewan received the award, which recognizes balanced reporting that explains complex education issues, for her article “Why Johnny Might Someday Be Able…
Rotation
Ani DiFranco Up, Up, Up, Up, Up, Up Righteous Babe On Up, Up, Up, Up, Up, Up DiFranco expands her palette by adding Julie Wolf, a remarkable keyboard player whose organ and piano work add considerable weight to DiFranco’s already phat sound. And on this outing, DiFranco’s 11th effort since…
Bush Dole
Every other January, 181 state legislators, supposedly representative of Texas and supposedly armed with good intentions, go to Austin and instantly become the most sought-after people in town. For every legislator, there are at least eight lobbyists — about 1,500 type A personalities paid to troll the halls in search…
Walter Waldhauser Wired
Walter Waldhauser Jr., a.k.a. Michael Lee Davis, is out of business and on a short leash. Although the confessed killer is once again a free man, new conditions on his freedom — referred to as “the highest level of supervision” by the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles — mean…
Letters
Lease Unsafe I read this story [“False Sense of Security,” by Steve McVicker, December 31] with particular interest because I lived at Bayou Park Apartments when Ms. Morey was attacked. At that time I, too, was a woman in her late twenties living alone, and I never felt safe there…
News of the Weird
Lead Stories *In November Wichita, Kansas, police removed four children from their parents’ mobile home, which was littered with animal feces. When police arrived they noticed stacks of Star Trek posters and magazines and heard the parents and kids speaking fluent Klingon, the language created for the Star Trek series…
Betti’s Blue Notes
City Hall Sting convict Betti Maldonado just can’t win for losing lately. When a friend sings for her, he gets in trouble. When a friend refuses to sing for her at an opportune moment, she just sinks deeper into the legal muck. Last month, Southern District U.S. Marshal H.A. “Art”…
Model-Netics Hooks City Hall
When Houston City Council voted a half million dollars for management training for department executives last month, members didn’t realize some of that pays for a controversial program called Model-Netics. The program is peddled by Main Events Management (MEM), a company founded by the former boss of Al Haines, now…
Night & Day
Thursday January 21 There will be a heavyweight boxing match at the Astrodome this week — it just won’t be between George Foreman and Larry Holmes. This month’s Browning Boxing “Blood, Sweat & Cheers!” contest at the Sheraton Astrodome hotel brings in world-rated light-heavyweight Leif Keiski, a young Norwegian fighter…
Another Time, Another Country
Country music in the ’90s is Alan Jackson inexplicably hyping Ford trucks via a rewritten version of “Mercury Blues,” a venerable number covered during the early ’70s by Steve Miller. It’s Shania Twain, a singer whose producer/husband/Svengali, Robert “Mutt” Lange, made his name in British rock. And it’s Garth Brooks…
Simba’s Pride
Competitive wiener-dog racing came into the world in 1993 after a Gulf Greyhound Park marketing director saw a Miller Lite advertisement starring dachshund dragsters with parachutes that popped out of their butts to slow them down. That stroke of ill-gotten inspiration resulted in an event that’s attracted 80,000 fans, received…
Irish Lament
Martin McDonagh, the 28-year-old Irish-English playwright who wrote the award-winning, critically acclaimed The Beauty Queen of Leenane currently at the Alley, has hit some sort of deep-in-the-heart nerve with his audiences. In the New Republic, Robert Brustein claimed that “McDonagh is destined to be one of the theatrical luminaries of…
The King Has No Clothes
A million adoring fans can’t be wrong, can they? Elvis Presley is the poster boy for the sorrows of superstardom. It’s an old and now-familiar story: Unprepared for the realities of international fame and fortune, Elvis — immensely talented, charming beyond belief and massively charismatic — found himself adrift in…
Two for the Road
The Brazilian film Central Station concerns the relationship between a homeless nine-year-old boy and the insensitive, acerbic woman who reluctantly agrees to help him find his father. Winner of the Golden Bear for Best Film at the 1998 Berlin Film Festival (as well as numerous other awards), the movie explores…
Hot Plate
Stop by the Sabroso Grill [5510 Morningside, (713)942-9900] for an only-on-Sundays treat of paella de mariscos ($12.95). Chef Arturo Boado has streamlined this Spanish classic and serves it on platters as big as your head. Saffron rice cooked al dente is generously heaped with a garlicky, olive-oiled tangle of blessedly…