The Write Stuff
Houston writer Al Reinert isn’t entirely comfortable in commercial jetliners, but he does okay in outer space. That was first made clear to art house audiences in 1990, when he released For All Mankind, a documentary look at NASA. And now Reinert’s ease with things extraterrestrial is being made clear…
Lost Knight
First Knight, a new effort from Ghost director Jerry Zucker, purports to tell the tale of King Arthur’s ill-fated marriage to Lady Guinevere — a young English noblewoman who fell madly in love with the aging king’s most trusted knight, the young, virile, reckless Lancelot. But because this is an…
Diagnosis
It was the spring of 1990, Alison Roome has said, when she was told that she might have been a member of a satanic cult and participated in gory rituals. The occasion was her first meeting with Judith Peterson. A tall, striking, redheaded woman with a doctorate in clinical psychology,…
More Revolving Doors
Doug Williams thought so much of Bob Lanier that he sold his civil engineering firm, R.G. Miller Inc., and signed on in early 1992 as the new mayor’s executive assistant. As it turned out, being a Lanier buddy, even a particularly adoring one who earned more than $90,000 a year,…
The Insider
A Matter of Degree … HISD board president Arthur Gaines and trustee Ron Franklin, his predecessor as president, clashed recently over whether River Oaks Elementary should be open to children from the nearby neighborhood after which the school is named. (Franklin led the charge for the change; Gaines favored retaining…
King Benjamin’s Mine
Benjamin Hall has never lacked for audacity, and the latest legal gambit of the self-described “South Carolina country boy” has Houston energy executives fuming and political consultants shaking their heads in bemusement. As Mayor Bob Lanier’s city attorney, Hall ramrodded a lawsuit against Valero Energy that resulted in the company…
Letters
Mo’ Joe! What a treat to read Joe Leydon’s review of the movie Smoke [Film, “Smoking Out a Story”] in your June 15 issue. Let’s read more, maybe? No one else in Houston can give such a clear and on-target opinion on film than ol’ Joe. I would hate to…
Press Picks
thursday july 6 Ink Spot Art Huey Long, originally from Sealy, has returned to Texas. The former Ink Spot has settled in the Heights and has put memorabilia, photographs, writings and music from his 70-year career up on display. These cultural and historic artifacts will be on view through the…
Pasta Tense
There’s something oddly unsettling about Houston’s new generation of takeout food emporia. Cross the threshold of Yapa or Ferrari Fresh Pasta, and say hello to deja vu: the same wooden trusses and ductwork slice up the space overhead; the same roasted squabs, mozzarella-layered portobellos and platters of emerald broccoli rabe…
Houston’s Great Pop Hope?
It’s been one misunderstanding after another, a veritable comedy of errors. Justice Records took the first arguably misplaced step, releasing the Jinkies “Instant Kar Krash” as a vinyl single with the song’s lyrics printed prominently on the sleeve, revealing once and for all what most Jinkies’ fans, positioned on the…
Come to Her Window
There’s a line toward the beginning of Melissa Etheridge’s song “Come to My Window” that goes, “I would dial the numbers just to listen to your breath.” It may not be the most memorable phrase in music history, but it tells you everything you need to know about the writer’s…
Critic’s Choice
In January 1993, when Houston native Everette Harp was playing the Clinton Inaugural as part of David Pack’s All-Star Band, he found himself sharing the stage with the celebrity guest of the moment, and a part-time sax player: President Bill Clinton. Harp, whose own sax playing is definitely more than…
Rotation
Guy Clark Craftsman Philo On the great continuum of tough-but-smart, hard-but-sensitive country and western singer/songwriters, Guy Clark cut his notch somewhere after Jimmie Rodgers, Hank Williams and Johnny Cash, and someplace before Rosanne Cash, Lucinda Williams and Lyle Lovett. Making a name more through his pen than his voice, Clark…
A Tale of a Tune
“Houston Proud” may be a familiar refrain in the Bayou City, but for some reason, it’s one that’s never really applied to Houston native Tommy Tune. “The prophet goes unheralded in his hometown,” Tune says laughing. “I always get the worst reviews in Houston. So I don’t even read them…
Squeeze Me!
A few years back, a classic two-panel Far Side cartoon appeared captioned with the greetings given at both the Pearly Gates and a less desirable (although warmer) destination. “Welcome to Heaven. Here’s your harp,” read the Pearly Gates’ welcome. “Welcome to Hell. Here’s your accordion,” read the other. Virtually everyone…
Stage Notes
At a recent reception honoring playwright Tony Kushner at the Omni Houston Hotel, Alley Theatre Artistic Director Gregory Boyd smiled when he was asked if — given the strength of the Alley’s recently announced upcoming season — he was pushing for the Tony Award for best regional theater. “What do…
Moonstruck
His ship might be damaged beyond repair, and his longtime ambition to walk on the moon might be dashed forever, but Jim Lovell (Tom Hanks), commander of the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission, still can’t help dreaming. As he and his fellow crewmates float in a damaged tin can miles above…