Jean and Burnie won$41 million in thelottery. But they still stop at Stuckey’s, still shop at Kmart, still play the numbers. And they still have each other.
Jean Graham was driving fast down Interstate 10, telling where they had been and where they were going, when her husband leaned forward and said they were nearly there. Stuckey’s was just ahead, said Burnie. She better get ready to exit, because they always stop at Stuckey’s. The hot dogs…
Picture Perfect
Like it or not, we’re living a technological reality that has come alive with a kind of glittering seduction. Increasingly in everyday life, computers and art are converging: in the computer-generated technodazzle of network news logos; in the TV spot for Listerine’s “Plaque Buster,” which stars a computer-animated bottle of…
Third Ward Rising
The directors of the Third Ward Redevelopment Council are gathering, as they do most every month, in a fourth-floor lounge at Texas Southern University’s student center. They meet early in the morning — it’s 7:30 on this day in June — and their view overlooking the Third Ward, with the…
Train to Disaster
Just when it seemed safe to go to the summer cinema, Steven Seagal is back, this time in Under Siege 2: Dark Territory, a megabudget sequel that’s literally on rails from beginning to end. Narratively speaking, though, it never pulls out of the station. Unlike in the Die Hard and…
The Insider
Matter of Choice Superlawyer John O’Quinn might be one of the pro-choicest attorneys around, but he’s bailed out from the board of Houston’s Planned Parenthood. The reason: a possible conflict of interest if his firm were to represent plaintiffs against the makers of the contraceptive implant Norplant and agencies that…
The Insider
Matter of Choice Superlawyer John O’Quinn might be one of the pro-choicest attorneys around, but he’s bailed out from the board of Houston’s Planned Parenthood. The reason: a possible conflict of interest if his firm were to represent plaintiffs against the makers of the contraceptive implant Norplant and agencies that…
Deep in the Ticket Tangle
Nine months ago, the president of a nationally known collection agency was asked to recall how Municipal Collections Inc. won a contract from the city of Houston to help track down some $60 million in delinquent traffic-ticket fines. “This thing,” he offered, shaking his head in disgust, “stunk right from…
Center of Dispute
The well-dressed lawyers, architects and civic club leaders gathered in the meeting room at the Judson Robinson Jr. Community Center near Hermann Park last week buzzed with anger, anxiety and suspicion. Many of the attendees reside in Riverside Terrace along South MacGregor — the River Oaks of Houston’s black community…
Thelma, Louise and Sybil?
The saga of Joyce Carolyn Stevens and Rose Marie Turford seemed odd enough from the moment it began surfacing in May. Stevens, a 30-year-old onetime psychiatric technician and operator of a landscaping business, and Turford, a 36-year-old mother of three and wife of a computer-company executive, had been charged with…
Press Picks
thursday july 20 The Sourdough Cowboy Our favorite historically accurate singing cowboy is back. Sourdough, the alter ego of folksinger Don Sanders, has a show he’s been doing around town for many moons. Kids dig it. The “Sourdough” show is based on WPA Writers Project interviews with real live cowboys…
A Fare to Remember
Patrenella’s Cafe is an adorable puppy of a restaurant, which is to say there is no way not to love it. So what if it chews on your shoe or has a moment of indiscretion in the corner? You cluck indulgently and go on doting. There is plenty to dote…
Diner’s Notebook
Thai Tip: I used to long for a Thai drive-thru to open up in Houston. I had the menu all worked out: the kind of grilled chicken Renu’s once served; green-chilefied Thai cole slaw; skewers of sate; and pad Thai, the eventful noodle dish. Then Thai Racha showed up along…
Critic’s Choice
Earth, Wind and Fire was paradoxical — couching positive messages inside grooves wicked enough to make your loins ignore any moralistic input — long before Prince (a.k.a. The Symbol Guy) ever put his Dirty Mind to work. That has always been the great thing about Earth, Wind and Fire: listening…
Rotation
Isaac Hayes Movement: Raw and Refined Branded Point Blank Like many promotional CDs, Isaac Hayes’ first two albums since 1986 came stickered and stamped from Hell to breakfast with warnings that they couldn’t be sold or exchanged and had to be given back to the label on demand. Tell you…
Glory Be
An atheist is someone who’s never heard Yolanda Adams sing. Ten minutes of exposure to the voice of this native Houstonian could have Madalyn Murray O’Hair, that notorious opponent of Nativity scenes and school prayer, down on her knees begging forgiveness — and another five minutes would have O’Hair shouting…
Letters
Hackwork Re: Jim Simmon’s article on Congressman Steve Stockman [News, “God, Guns & Kombucha,” June 22]. Geeeeeee. Why doesn’t Simmon just come out and say he doesn’t like Steve Stockman? I’d like to read an accurate and well-documented critique on the congressman, not a hack job fluffed with guilt by…
Perpetual Funk
There are two things you probably already know about Beat Temple. One: it’s some sort of funk band, and funk is not a terribly fashionable, or for that matter marketable, musical commodity at the moment. And two: Beat Temple has been around for what seems like forever, an observation that…
Tex-Mex Tunes
Austin filmmaker Hector Galan didn’t have much to work with — a meager selection of old recordings and still photos and a few feet of rare black-and-white footage of Rudy and the Renobops. That, and the history of Tejano music. But with his archival materials, and his conviction that the…
Play With Your Food
Like most critics, I don’t normally pay attention to what the crowd thinks. One reason is that I usually see shows on opening night; those audiences, packed with friends, family, staff, subscribers and other well-wishers, are a notoriously partisan lot. So given are they to urge the proceedings on that…
Quiet Spell
The Indian in the Cupboard is an oasis of calm amid the glitzy din of summer. It rarely shouts when it can whisper. Like the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm and the stories of the Arabian Nights, it is strange and complicated and contradictory. Working from a children’s novel…
Stage Notes
Houston is presently host to two open-air theater offerings that, though diametrically opposed, are both worth seeing. The Will Rogers Follies, with lavish production numbers and down-home wit, is at Miller Outdoor Theatre, a huge public venue; The Balcony, with graphic reenactments and incendiary thematics, is at the Artery, a…