Hometown Without Pity
Austin-based filmmaker Don Howard enjoys documentaries; he’s just not keen on the way they’re usually presented. “The assumption is that if you use a lot of footage and put a voice-of-God narration over it, it becomes the truth,” he says. “But it’s really more complicated than that. I want to…
The Rite Stuff
A video at the beginning of the tour says, “We’re all beings that will someday expire.” Thus placed in the proper frame of mind, you’re ready to explore the National Museum of Funeral History, a bizarre but compelling collection of artifacts about shuffling off this mortal coil. “A lot of…
Down-Home Delights
Describing The Heart and Soul Cafe to a friend, I mentioned that the place was owned and operated by two sisters. “Don’t tell me,” he said. “One’s a workhorse, and the other’s a glamour puss, right?” Not right at all. The sisters in question, Wendy and April Cohen, both work…
Hot Plate
Do you know what’s wrong with Houston? We don’t sweat enough. That’s why I’m so devoted to the huevos rancheros ($4.95) at Goode Company Hamburgers and Taqueria (4902 Kirby, 520-9153). They open the pores. Which is more than cleansing: It’s almost a purification ritual. If it weren’t for those huevos,…
Static
Summer cleaning… Lately, keeping tabs on the local radio industry has become a depressing exercise. First, it was the Planet’s unhappy disembowelment at the hands of Spanish broadcaster Heftel, which in May swapped the station’s Modern Adult Contemporary format for super-slick Mexican pop. Now, apparently, it’s another FM frequency’s turn…
Clubland
Hard to believe, but Fitzgerald’s will be undergoing major renovations toward summer’s end. And no, it won’t involve tearing down the sagging eyesore on the corner of Studemont and White Oak and starting from scratch — as some might have hoped. But the club will be adding floor space and…
This Year’s Model
The 1998 edition of Smashing Pumpkins is a much different beast than the one that made its name coupling grunge’s raw power with art-rock’s lofty perfectionism. Turmoil and change have swirled around the group over the past two years. Drummer Jimmy Chamberlain was fired for heroin use after a binge…
Maggie’s New Muse
It’s been a long seven weeks for SixMileBridge, touring the Midwest and the East Coast to promote their debut CD, Across the Water. They’ve survived everything from torrential flooding to altitude sickness. But over the phone from a Richmond, Virginia, hotel room, singer Maggie Drennon sounds surprisingly relaxed and upbeat…
Riding the Rap
If you’ve been staying up late recently with only the glow of HBO to comfort you, then you might have seen a straight-to-cable film called Butter, a limp action/thriller whose only saving grace is that New Kid-turned-thespian Donnie Wahlberg plays a shady villain. In the movie, a suave but naive…
Two Bullets in the Back
The fear began. At 1:35 a.m., Carolyn Deal was wakened by the sound of shattering glass. She roused her 62-year-old husband, Jack, who told her to get dressed, lock the bedroom door. She heard coughing just outside as she turned the lock. Jack, fighting the haze of sleep, put the…
Rotation
Tripping Daisy Jesus Hits Like the Atom Bomb Island A Texas outfit with Tripping Daisy’s wiseass pedigree could only hail from Dallas, a city that prides itself on standing apart from (and above) the rest of the state. It’s also no big revelation that Tripping Daisy’s often uncomfortable attempts at…
Reefer Madness
For 45 minutes every week, the teachers and students who participate in the Houston Police Department’s DARE program get what Councilwoman Martha Wong calls “a little break.” As part of Drug Abuse Resistance Education, a uniformed Houston police officer teaches the fifth- and seventh-graders about the dangers of alcohol, tobacco…
Cultural Front
Smoke Signals is a rare drama about modern life on an Indian reservation that, unlike Hollywood fare such as Dances with Wolves, has been written and directed by Native Americans. It’s a film that feels genuine and heartfelt — it understands the problems its characters are experiencing. It’s often a…
GOP Lay-Ups
Democrats may have more party favors to hand out while Clinton is in office, but that hasn’t discouraged plenty of wealthy Republicans in this area from whipping out their checkbooks for the conservatives. And no one in Houston exercises his right to give to the Republicans more often than Enron…
Saharan Stunner
The winds that sweep across the Sahara kick up ferocious sandstorms. Dunes change shape by the hour, flying particles blind the eye, and all sense of direction and reason is lost. In such disorienting surroundings, reality and hallucination converge, and the most inexplicable, unimaginable events can occur. Passion in the…
Insider
More of a Challenge Than They Thought Tons of money, a raft of top civic leaders and the best intentions are apparently no instant cure for the deeply ingrained problems of public education. More than a year after Houston was chosen as a recipient of a $20 million grant from…
Child’s Plays
Traditionally, the long, droopy days of summer are when theaters go dark — at least for adults. Children’s plays, on the other hand, start happening in a big way during these free-at-last months. And if you have some antsy-pants little ones stuck at home, you’re probably looking hard for a…
The Party Boys
Tilman Fertitta’s carport was a riot of blooming colors. Fabrics were draped over tables and chairs. Roses, daisies and hydrangeas blossomed from the center of each table. The rich floral harvest included more flowers cascading from overhead beams and chandeliers. On that night last September, Fertitta’s ten-car garage would have…
Dish
Lupe’s, Inside the Loop What is it about that west Houston neighborhood phenomenon, Lupe’s Tortillas (318 Stafford Street, [281] 496-7580), that has won so many devotees over the years? I can’t think of many Houston eateries whose customers regularly and gladly endure hour-plus waits for elementary Tex-Mex dining, but the…
Letters
All Aboard [Re: Letters, June 18]: I’m jumping on William Machmer’s bandwagon, since I, too, want to reward your paper for the only real reporting in town. I never believed the purpose of a newspaper was to defend and maintain the status quo, and I have always puzzled over the…
Night & Day
Thursday July 9 Though both were born in Houston and consider themselves “visual diarists,” the dual exhibitors of “In Situ: Responses from Charles Mary Kubricht and Ann Stautberg” were unaware of one another — and of the striking parallelism of their techniques — prior to teaming up for this show…