A Perp Named Allison
For three hours during the peak of Tropical Storm Allison, Houston Police Department dispatchers relied solely on walkie-talkies to send officers on emergency calls. “It’s difficult to communicate via walkie-talkie to all the officers in the field,” says Chief C.O. Bradford. “But nonetheless, that’s part of our backup plan.” He…
Port Vale
With connections to past and current Houston bands (most notably Jessica Six), singer/guitarist Lance Walker, bassist Bret Shirley and drummer John Adams, who constitute Port Vale, are veterans of the scene. The anglophile Walker recently completed a UK tour to promote his electronic project, the White Papers. Port Vale, which…
Fingered by the Flood
Kathie Lerma Minshall and her husband, Dan, walked into the Fingers furniture store on June 11, picked out some home furnishings and received a written price quote, including tax and delivery charges, of $1,315. They still needed to transfer money from one account to another to pay for it, so…
Playbill
With few new acts on the reggae scene, fans have to rely on longtime faves, standbys such as Burning Spear, the Itals and Culture. Steel Pulse is also on that shortlist. After all, the group was often cited as one of Bob Marley’s favorites. Ironically, though, Steel Pulse didn’t hail…
Mid-Summer Daydreams
A breakfast crowd of Harris County Democratic faithful cheered and clapped last week as touring national party chair Terry McAuliffe punched all the right buttons, most of them labeled with dollar signs. For years Texas has been a cash cow for visiting Democratic presidential contenders, who sucked millions from Houston…
Playbill
In the mid-’80s, college guitar freaks who were above salivating over Eddie Van Halen sought out other heroes. These ranged from John McLaughlin to a young Kevin Eubanks to the Steves (Morse and Howe). One contender of that era was Steve Vai, who, before becoming David Lee Roth’s hired gun,…
Grieving in Public
When Russell Edison Yates took the microphone at the Clear Lake Church of Christ last week, he was the last major figure in the murder of his five children to speak publicly after a court-imposed gag order locked into place. His hour-long eulogy may have brought most of the audience…
Ground Jet
Kiss of the Dragon — the latest vehicle for martial arts star Jet Li, a mainland talent who became a superstar in Hong Kong and has since succumbed to the blandishments of Hollywood — has a little of the best (and a lot of the worst) of Hong Kong films,…
In This Together
The Houston school district is an absolutely terrific, terrific place to be a teacher — it’s “nationally recognized” and it’s got “great benefits” and “good pay.” At least it’s a terrific place to work according to the Houston school district, which has launched a teacher-recruiting campaign based on those selling…
Gallic Phallic Humor
There’s plenty of French star power in The Closet (Le Placard), a comedy written and directed by prolific director Francis Veber. The movie stars Daniel Auteuil, Gérard Depardieu and Thierry Lhermitte, which in U.S. terms is roughly equivalent to a movie featuring Robin Williams, Nick Nolte and Tom Hanks, directed…
Totally Bizarro
Originally, this was to be a story about how Stan Lee, the industry icon who ran Marvel Comics for decades and co-created Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four, wound up remaking archrival DC Comics’ most venerable heroes in his own image. The 12-part miniseries, Just Imagine Stan Lee Creating, was set…
Love Among the Ruins
German filmmaker Tom Tykwer has a gift for fusing psychological complexity and crackling plot without forsaking the excitements of either. The success of Run Lola Run didn’t exactly turn Tykwer into a household name, but it earned him his props as a young lion of the art houses. Moviegoers hungry…
Letters
Off the “X” Border Patrol blues: I would like to commend you on the excellent depiction of the Border Patrol in Brownsville [“The Bored Patrol,” by John Suval, June 21]. I too am an agent assigned here and applaud you for your truthful reporting of the facts of everyday life…
Full-Monty Fun
Escape can be a good thing — especially now, during these swampy, mosquito-filled summer months. Theatre New West has just the relief: a sexy, silly, romping production of Jack Heifner’s Key West. Filled with naked men and frothy romance, the pretty, featherweight show makes a fine two-hour getaway. When the…
Science for Hire
If there is a danger in our current free- market idealism, it is most clearly seen in commercial education. Once touted as a sign that PBS was obsolete, The Learning Channel spent only a few years challenging its viewers before scrapping serious documentaries for World’s Most Dangerous Police Videos and…
Dream Catcher
We take photographs to record and document our lives: a child’s birthday party, a daughter’s graduation, a son’s wedding, that trip to Graceland two years ago. Photographs authenticate our memory; they are proof that the moment really happened, that those people existed in that place and at that time, and…
Royal Slash
Saul Hudson was a good little English lad, born to bourgeois parents whose idea of success was to design costumes or album covers for the likes of David Bowie and Neil Young. But young Saul aspired to a bejeweled throne in the entertainment industry, so he fled the idyllic Stoke-On-Trent,…
Stirred and Shaken
Originally built as a health club for business executives trying to shed pounds and rediscover their inner velociraptor, The Houstonian Hotel, Club & Spa (111 North Post Oak Lane, 713-680-2626) has become better known as the former residence of George Herbert Walker Bush. The 41st president is now safely ensconced…
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes
Just as I took my first bite of the steaming salsa at Noche Cocina y Bar, my husband, Brad, said, “Is it the chips or the sauce that tastes like an ashtray?” His comment caused an involuntary gag reflex on my part. It was true — the salsa had an…
Dish Washed
The Great Flood of Ought-One may have done a couple billion dollars’ worth of damage, but it’s remarkable how little permanent harm it did to Houston’s restaurant scene. During the flood, restaurants that normally do business between, say, midnight and sunrise mostly shut down, such as Century Diner (1001 Texas…
Mosquito Dope
There’s something about the name Hayflick Limit that describes the eponymous band fairly well. On the literal level, Hayflick Limit describes the nitty-gritty of the aging process at the cellular level, so dubbed to honor the doctor who made its discovery. Truly defining Hayflick Limit, the cellular process, is as…
Hats Off
On the southwest side of town, there’s a tiny Jewish bakery with a French name, owned by a Hispanic woman, where they make hamantaschen (75 cents each), otherwise known as Haman’s hats or ears. These small delectable pastries — in the shape of an equilateral triangle — are filled with…
Dear Sweet Goodness
Blues is a charged emotional feeling derived from a bad situation. At least that’s how Tony Vega sees it. Having grown up in Houston, Vega is light-years from the whiskey-soaked juke joints of the classic blues musicians. But he knows what it’s like to have trouble in mind. He’s shared…
A Punk Looks at 50
If the National Park Service created a Mount Rushmore of ’80s music — and it’s a travesty of public funding that it hasn’t happened already; write your congressman! — it would probably feature the chiseled visages of The Boss, Madonna, Michael and Prince. Perhaps in the case of Jackson, the…
Wading for Godot
Everyone has had a Bizarre Moment in life, a moment when you just step back and ask, “How the hell did I get in this situation?” Often it’ll come when you’re attending the wedding, say, of two people you thought you knew well. Then the preacher announces that the loving…
Racket
On April 2 of last year, Ted Nugent took to the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion stage dressed in his strange notion of multicultural attire (Indian headdress, rebel flag T-shirt) and launched into a litany of abuse. He excoriated “faggots” a little, but such was to be expected from The Nuge,…
The Fire Inside
The young black man stands barefoot and handcuffed in the middle of Harrison Street, surrounded by a scrum of cops, most of whom are white. His vintage blue basketball shoes rest neatly on the pavement beside his feet. The officers have blocked traffic in both directions on the residential thoroughfare…
Wet Nighthawks Cry Foul
It seems like some folks just aren’t done talking about the flood yet. People are still reeling from the repercussions of the Great Disastrous Amazing Technicolor Floodapalooza of 2001. A handful of Houstonians are upset about the way a few clubs treated stranded, sopping-wet spectators. We start with Fitzgerald’s (2706…
A New Leash on Life
It was like a Hollywood premiere. A crowd complete with cameras heard the featured guests before they saw them. What looked like a horse trailer rolled up, and its back doors swung open. All eyes eagerly shifted downward, and the stars paraded out one at a time — the 51…
Scott Miller & The Commonwealth
Virginia’s Sic Semper Tyrannis — Thus Always to Tyrants — is rivaled only by New Hampshire’s “Live Free or Die” and West Virginia’s “Mountaineers Are Always Free” (translation: If you don’t like what we’re doing up here, come and get us) in terms of sheer state snarkiness. Compound its in-your-face…