Up To Date on ’98
In real life, stories don’t end with “happily ever after.” They roll forward with no regard for narrative neatness: The prince becomes king; he files for divorce; Cinderella writes a tell-all book; the kids date topless dancers and form a post-punk band. And so on. With such developments in mind,…
Business As Usual
The large ceremonial courtroom on the third floor of the Harris County Civil Courthouse was quiet. Sally Stephenson, a matronly African-American woman from rural South Carolina, was testifying on behalf of the State Bar of Texas as it tried yet again to nail John O’Quinn to the wall. Stephenson’s Deep…
… And One from ’97
In March, rapper Willie D (“Big Talker,” November 13, 1997) was sentenced to four months in prison for the 1993 misdemeanor assault of a topless dancer at Foxxy’s Cabaret. Willie maintains his conviction came about primarily because he’s a celebrity. His attorney, Stanley Schneider, says Willie’s accuser even told the…
… And Another from ’96
Three years ago, national attention — and the ire of family advocacy groups — focused on a Houston family court in the custody fight over two boys (“In the Child’s Best Interests,” by Bonnie Gangelhoff, January 18, 1996). That battle finally ended September1, in the tiny north Texas hamlet of…
Letters
Foaming at the Mouth Your paper was the only Houston media organization that covered the LEGO robot competition held at Rice University [“Battle of the ‘Bots,” by Randall Patterson, December 17]. This is the same competition that has made national media news when held at MIT or Cal Tech. I…
News of the Weird
Lead Stories *In November, to improve lagging sales, the Liko-L tourism company in Kiev, Ukraine, announced a new attraction: a daylong visit to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which has been closed to the public since the catastrophic accident there in 1986. Liko-L said the government, in need of tax…
Which Bug Gets the Gas?
In 1988, a little-known Texas congressman gathered a crowd of reporters in the lobby of a downtown New Orleans hotel housing several state delegates to the Republican National Convention. Clutching a pole topped by a drooping American flag, 22nd District two-termer Tom DeLay launched into a rather implausible defense of…
Night & Day
Thursday January 7 Comedy with a message? That’s the kind George Lopez sells with surprising success. Most standup comics drink a lot, cuss a lot and would do somersaults for a regular TV gig; Lopez works with children’s charities, refuses to present “disparaging television” and turns down roles — such…
For a Good Time, Think Pink!
A sociological experiment: What happens when a mosh pit full of punk-crazed hipsters is confronted with a bare-naked hoochie on the stage in front of them? Frenetic thrashing-for-the-sake-of-thrashing becomes a shoving match with only one goal — a better view. This and many other Situationist propositions (e.g., if you put…
The Sound of Money
One of the embarrassing moments from my youth was singing “Summer Nights” from the Grease movie soundtrack at the top of my lungs. In my best John-Travolta-as-a-six-year-old voice, I recounted Danny’s summer of love, even though I had no idea what he meant when he said he “made out under…
Cocktails and Dreams
Nathan Taylor is a bartender with flair. He flips bottles, spins tins, catches glasses behind his back and blows fire from his mouth in a job that’s equal parts circus freak and service professional. Think Tom Cruise in Cocktail — except, as Taylor is quick to point out, “Tom Cruise…
Don’t Cry for Me, Houston
The song was Madonna’s. The singer wasn’t. Betti Maldonado, impersonating the superstar in her Evita role as Eva Peron, welcomed guests at the Spotlight Karaoke club with a rendition of “Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina”: Have I said too much? / … all you have to do is look at…
Dish
Let Them Eat Bread In the ten months since the Arizona-based Scottsdale’s restaurant opened in the old Pico’s space just off Kirby (4527 Lomitas, 526-5260), owner/manager Perry Thomson received mixed reviews of his grilled-meat-dominated menu and endured disparaging comments about chains. Critics also complained of high prices (a tab might…
Rotation
Rush Different Stages Live Atlantic When I was in high school, there were two similarly garbed and coiffed camps who hung out in the smoking area: AC/DC fans and Rush fans. It was hard to tell them apart unless you listened in as one group discussed the relative merits of…
Hot Plate
“Albaloo polo” sounds like one of Aladdin’s incantations, but at Kolbeh Persian Restaurant (5700 Hillcroft, 785-1358) the command will summon a magical rice dish instead of a bottled genie. Toothsome white basmati rice is topped with gemlike “sour” black cherries which, despite the name, are slightly sweet; the rice is…
Swing and Smirk
Roomful of Blues — The current swing revival must have at least some members of Roomful of Blues smirking. Since 1968 (before many of today’s neoswingers were even conceived) the band’s ever-revolving lineup has offered its encyclopedic interpretations of blues styles. From jump and swing to searing electric and tear-flowing…
From Boys to Men
Sometimes success ain’t all it’s cracked up to be. That’s what Johnny Rzeznik, the singer and primary songwriter for the Goo Goo Dolls found out when he tried to compose songs for the follow-up to the band’s 1995 breakthrough album, A Boy Named Goo. After ten years of respectable record…
Swingin’ Back
The next millennium is just around the corner, but you’d never know it by two new sweet and goofy plays that hark back to the golly-gee times of decades long past. Leave It To Jane, at Main Street Theater, is all about the struggles of the students at Atwater, a…
Island Comfort
It was miserably cold when I first found the Reggae Hut — one of those nasty, damp days peculiar to the Gulf Coast in December. Rain squalled from the lowering blue-gray sky, prematurely dark at four in the afternoon. We sat for a moment in the car, listening to the…
Class Action
The great attorneys of our time — Tom Cruise, Susan Sarandon, Tom Hanks — must now make room in the firm for a new partner. John Travolta, who in past lives has been a disco king, a hip hit man and a deep-fried presidential candidate, reinvents himself in A Civil…
Lotto Fun
You get the feeling filmmaker Kirk Jones knew which way the wind was blowing when he sat down to write Waking Ned Devine, which he also directed. Like the blue-chip 1997 British hit The Full Monty, Jones’s Ned Devine deals with money-making schemes and naked men. In fact, Ned Devine…