Learning Curves
It is not unusual to walk into a class and see Fernando with his head down on his desk. When not asleep or singing to himself inside the dark cave of his crossed arms, the Pasadena High School senior only nods at questions posed to him, sometimes answering with his…
Love’s Labour’s (Not) Lost
Many Americans first heard of Tom Stoppard when Shakespeare In Love, the inventive Oscar-winning film that he co-wrote, captivated audiences across the country a couple of years back. But the funny, rueful and frankly brilliant British writer has been crafting delectable scripts for decades. In 1967 Stoppard became the youngest…
Billie’s Last Convention Summer
This year marks Billie McClain Carr’s 49th as a Texas Democratic activist, but it will be her last as a member of the Democratic National Committee. Having battled cancer to a draw and wheelchair-bound from hip problems, the 72-year-old longtime leader of Texas liberal Democrats will make a final victory…
Art: The Third Dimension
By way of hackneyed intro, a classic definition of sculpture: “The art or practice of creating three-dimensional figures or designs, as by chiseling marble, modeling clay or casting in metal.” We might want to update that definition to include “crocheting yarn,” “pinning paper” and “casting in rubber.” With the 18th…
Art, Au Naturel
Humans are always trying to undo what they’ve done before. They build shelter to flee the elements, then windows so they can see outside, then they hang curtains to keep the sun out. Art, in fact, began as a way of bringing the outside in with renderings of bison and…
Letters 06-01-2000
Building on Past Mistakes I am in the 22nd month of my own five-month construction project. My prayers go out to the Youngs [“The Dream Home: A Cautionary Tale,” by Brad Tyer, May 18]. While my home will be completed in the next couple of weeks, I will never, ever,…
I Want My OTV
Ruggiero Leoncavallo’s opera about jealousy, betrayal and murder among a traveling troupe of Italian actors was written more than a century ago, but Houston Grand Opera brings Pagliacci kicking and screaming into the MTV era. Static backdrops give way to giant video screens. Hydraulic lifts and aluminum catwalks substitute for…
Still Stumbling
The Houston Chronicle has really, really been trying to deal with concerns from Hispanics that the paper ignores their community. Why, just in the few weeks since an April 12 protest by activists, the Chron managed more than two dozen mentions of Cinco de Mayo. But now another controversy is…
Using Her Noodle
Throughout the Southwest, ranchers and oil-patch workers alike stop at noon to down cups of piping hot black coffee with the rationalization that “heating up your insides makes the outdoors seem cooler.” Though I once pooh-poohed this theory as the desperate philosophy of those who do not understand the caffeine…
Waiting for the Fall?
Comparative studies frequently show us that different languages develop numerous highly specialized words for objects that are of particular importance to the language’s speakers. There is the well-known example of Inuit natives who possess 60 separate words for types and qualities of snow. Kazakh, the most widely spoken Turkic language…
Our Daily Bread… And More
It’s got to be one of the most relaxed gigs in the restaurant world: Chef/caterer Ann Swain, who owns the lunchroom at Autry House, is open for business only from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., and only on weekdays. She presides over a pleasant, high-ceilinged refectory populated by high-IQ Rice…
Let’s Make A Deal
Fred Rizk has known his share of blowhards over the course of his career as a real estate developer, but he couldn’t help but be impressed when he first met Michael and Patrick Graham. Mike was a large garrulous man with enormous energy and a seemingly endless store of ideas…
E-Goth
One night five years ago Ritchie Hey lingered outside the Millennium Club, waiting for the doors to open for a Front Line Assembly show. A die-hard FLA fan, Hey was one of only two people in line. Behind him was Breye Kyzer; naturally the two struck up a conversation, which…
Hot Plate
Vegetarian Vexillologist: The hardest thing about eating at Paulie’s [1834 Westheimer, (713)807-7271] is deciding what to order, since I have yet to encounter something I dislike. When in doubt, I opt for simplicity: the K.C. Special sandwich ($5.50), named after one of the owners, Kathy Craft Petronella — not the…
Can’t Foo Anyone
There Is Nothing Left to Lose, the title of the current Foo Fighters CD, suggests a sense of desperation. That much is true. But the title also reflects the carefree attitude of a band that has achieved Billboard success but not much else. No devoted Fooheads. No Foo bongs. No…
Metal Help
After reportedly being kicked out of the SRO/OT Sports Bar and Cafe on Mangum for drunkenness, William “Tray” Folliard was being escorted to the parking lot for the requisite designated-driver trip home. After jumping into the Ford Bronco while his escort was reportedly distracted, Folliard sped away. He soon wrecked…
Rotation
Roy Hargrove with Strings Moment to Moment Verve Anyone who caught its mind-blowing performances at Sambuca in February can attest to the fact that the Roy Hargrove Quintet is at the forefront of today’s jazz scene. The 30-year-old Grammy-winning trumpeter had superstar written all over him when he released his…
Local Rotation
I-45 Lost Between the Lines Fuzzgun Records I-45’s latest album, Lost Between the Lines, is simply the best rap album of the year to get your buzz on to. Fucked-up, stoned, ripped, blasted, wasted, blown, baked, toasted, marinated — whatever the hell you wanna call it — Lost Between the…
Soul Survivors
All told, the four acts that’ll be taking the stage at the ’70s Soul Revue — the Stylistics, the Dramatics, the Chi-Lites and the Delfonics — produced at least a dozen songs that, all those many years ago, inspired you and your lady to snuggle on the love seat, sipping…
Mission 2: Successful
Early on in Mission: Impossible 2 (or M:I-2, as the confident Paramount now calls it), hero Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) complains to his boss about his new assignment: “It’s going to be difficult.” “It’s not mission difficult, Mr. Hunt,” the boss icily replies. “It’s mission impossible. ‘Difficult’ should be a…
Pain in the Ass
When embarking on a sting, one wants company. It can be rather frightening to go it alone, and so I hope you don’t mind the royal we, for I now become it. We just feel more comfortable that way. If it makes you feel any better, you may imagine us…
All the Pretty Horses
The moody, feverish images that fill Running Free are so exquisite they almost make up for the film’s disastrous auditory misstep: the decision to cast Lukas Haas as the voice of Lucky, the chestnut foal that narrates this unusual adventure story. A cross between Nicolas Roeg’s Walkabout and Jean-Jacques Annaud’s…
Trying to Shine
Warren Smith used to hold court on his own, near the nucleus of the county’s old criminal courthouse. Lunchtime and trial recesses meant a steady stream of lawyers and laypeople flowing past his shoe-shine stand in the basement hallway just outside the cafeteria. In the rush hour of morning docket…
Come See the Paradise
It is difficult to reconcile American perceptions of Iran, a rigidly authoritarian Islamic fundamentalist society, with the captivating and compassionate films that emanate from the country. Most of these pictures, including the 1995 Cannes Film Festival Camera d’Or winner The White Balloon and the 1998 best foreign-language Oscar nominee Children…
Gramercy Gets Fingered
In 1928 Washington architect F. Stanley Piper went to work on suitable plans for an apartment house with the kind of charm to match the character of the community now known as Houston’s Museum District. Rice University had anchored the adjoining area in 1912 with its monumental quadrangle buildings. A…
Stalker Fiction
For a moment or two, David Lowery — front man for the band Cracker, and before that, beloved college-radio revolutionary sweethearts Camper Van Beethoven — found himself enjoying the book. He laughed in the right places, winced in the appropriate spots and thought, for a moment, the book wasn’t half…