Guest Column: HISD’s Ethnic Gap
Ethnicity can make a difference in your opportunities for success in the Houston Independent School District. If you are white, you are more than likely going to score 250 points or more on the Scholastic Aptitude Test than most African-American or Hispanic students. Higher scores on the SAT bring letters…
Johnny Winter
There’s a bittersweet air about the new Johnny Winter album, his first studio effort in eight years. It’s the title. Sad, really, that Winter has to either: a) remind us that he’s a fabulous blues guitarist — perhaps the best white American player the genre has produced; or b) introduce…
Letters
Dead On Former friend: I was stunned when I saw this article [“Family Ties,” by Kevin Brass, June 17]. Kathy Odom and I were friends when I was in my twenties. I lost touch with her after I broke up with the guy I was with who was a friend…
Playbill
The X-Ecutioners When hip-hop strolled into the debutante ball in her homespun garb, she barely got a glance. Those who did look scoffed at her lack of instruments, forgetting that guitarsbassdrums are only tools. Two decades later, sitting prettier after capping the pop competition, the shallow glitter of bling-bling shines…
Sign Singing
A sly spokesman for the under-represented, novelist Mark Twain broke some thick literary ground when he made a black character a sympathetic figure in his oft-debated classic The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The premise was simple: Why can’t an outsider be at the center of a story? In a twist…
Run, Do Not Crawl
Directed by Sam Raimi. With Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, Alfred Molina and James Franco. Rated PG-13.
This Week’s Day-by-Day Picks
Thursday, July 1 After seven years and two billion miles, the spacecraft Cassini-Huygens completes its journey to Saturn today. Now it’s time for it to start collecting data — a task, no doubt, which will take a long time. If you can’t stand the wait, head over to the Houston…
Soul Doubt
Directed by Louis Schwartzberg. Featuring Patty Wagstaff, Ben Cohen, Michael Bennett and many others. Rated PG.
Novel Approach
A good Renaissance man is hard to find, but with the emergence of 29-year-old New Orleans diarist-novelist-painter-singer-songwriter-performance-artist Michael Patrick Welch, the search might just be over. Welch and his multimedia circus will be blowing into Super Happy Fun Land this weekend, performing under the unlikely nom de renaissance the White…
Whos at Main Street?
Through July 18 at Main Street Theater, 4617 Montrose, 713-524-6706. $10-$30.
Freak Show
The MFAH shows us the world through the eyes of Diane Arbus Now, we know your mother always told you not to stare, but you can ignore her advice completely at the “Diane Arbus Revelations” exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. The subjects captured by the famous New…
Capsule Reviews
Cabin Fever Theatre Suburbia has a bona fide hit on its hands with Mark Dunn’s feel-good comedy-drama Cabin Fever. Perhaps the theater could be persuaded to extend the show’s run. Not only is Dunn’s gentle play an absolute joy, but its exceptional performers delightfully flesh out their characters with heart…
Wicket Games
Grab a cocktail and go clubbing It’s always a blast to get trashed while watching your favorite sport. But how about getting trashed while playing it? Thanks to 19th-century English bluebloods who made it a hit, croquet offers the perfect marriage of cocktails and athletics. It’s not beyond the croquet…
Do Your Part
It’s easy being green THU 7/1 Of the many good reasons to dawdle and socialize with friends before heading home at the end of a long day, architect Larry Albert may have struck upon a work-weary Houstonian’s best idea yet: lazing with a conscience. Albert first saw a connection between…
African Hideaway
Kifto $7.95 Yedoro wot $7.95 Gomen $4.95 Kik wet $4.95
Vegetarian combo $7.95
Meat combo $8.95
A Matter of Taste
The Alley serves up some Black Coffee Belgium is famous for its chocolates and, um, its chocolates. In the literary world, though, Belgium is the home of author Agatha Christie’s master detective Hercule Poirot, perhaps the most impeccably dressed, groomed and mannered of all fictional sleuths. Written by the prolific…
Haute Dog
The hot dog is to the United States what merguez — thin, spicy beef or lamb sausage — is to Algeria. And since so many Algerians have migrated to France, merguez et couscous has long been standard Parisian fare. The French restaurant Café Rabelais (2620 Bolsover, 713-526-6841) serves a lamb…
Outer Child
It’s raining in San Francisco and the city streets are, as always, confused by the wet. Heroin addicts pile into the pay toilets on Market Street, midsize sedans honk in slippery frustration, and outside Café Du Nord, eager showgoers bounce and giggle as they wait in the rain. Inside, it’s…
Take This Love and Shove It
Wow big a success has Eamon’s foul-mouthed breakup song “F*** It (I Don’t Want You Back)” become this year? Here’s all you need to know: Even the song’s subject — the ex-girlfriend addressed throughout as a “ho” and a “burnt bitch” — loves it. Of course, Eamon is quick to…
Strikes and Spares
What ever happened to festivals in this town? A few years ago, they were going great guns. The iFest was drawing record crowds downtown, as the Westheimer Street Festival did in Montrose. Reliant and Enron were throwing huge bashes for no other reason than they could. There were ethnic fests…
Capsule Reviews
“Fade In: New Film and Video” This Contemporary Arts Museum exhibition, curated by Paola Morsiani, presents a group of works by eight international artists. American Luis Gispert’s installation, Foxy Xerox (2003), is a witty take on the appropriation of hip-hop culture by white America. On one wall, a blond girl…
DJ Shadow
There are tons of great DJ Shadow concert bootlegs floating around out there on disc and vinyl, but the stunning clarity and seamlessly mixed content of the official Live! In Tune and On Time put the rest to shame. This 20-track, 78-minute CD (packaged together with a 24-track DVD) is…
Getting Sideways
Kevin Darnell, a 22-year-old college student with a Yankees cap cocked at a jaunty hip-hop angle, hops into his maroon Nissan 240SX. “I’m a virgin at all this, so my technique isn’t that good yet,” he says. He mashes down the clutch and fists it into third along the racetrack…
Lenny Kravitz
Though his music is often unfairly dismissed as “retro” (something he actually left behind with 1995’s dark Circus), Lenny Kravitz is really — next to Prince — one of rock’s most talented triple threats. Unfortunately, those who hope the title of this record marks a return to form after the…
Law? What Law?
You’d think that when the Houston City Council passes a law ordering bureaucrats to do something, it would happen. You’d be wrong. A year ago council passed a law, proposed by Councilmember Carol Alvarado, telling the city to hike golf-course greens fees for out-of-towners. The law didn’t specify the amount…
Lila Downs
Using different languages and musical styles as vehicles, Lila Downs’s new album, Una Sangre (One Blood), is an emotional journey undertaken to show us our similarities. While cultural exploration is undoubtedly her focus, poetic social commentary and themes of empowerment lie under the rich tapestry of the music. On “Dignificada,”…