Not in Kansas Anymore
It’s June 27, 1969. Judy Garland just died. Nearly every gay man in Manhattan is at Greenwich Village’s Stonewall Inn drowning his sorrows and hoping that there is indeed “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” Then the cops show up on one of their usual gay-bar raids, hoping to arrest some grieving…
Hard as a Rock
As a wise old green dude once said, fear leads to hate, hate leads to suffering, and suffering leads to Excedrin. But fearlessness leads to all the good things in life: power, women, cars, money, women and, let us not forget, respect — and women. But there’s a misconception in…
Night & Day
Thursday June 24 Freshman Year Sucks! doesn’t suck. In fact, Rob Nash’s funny one-man, 26-character play about his experiences at Houston’s Strake Jesuit College Prep school made its local debut at Stages last summer to significantly less-than-sucky reviews. Now, the reluctantly gay Ben, the awkward and nerdy George and their…
Sempers Fugit
One of southwest Houston’s strangest supper clubs closed at the end of ’98, and we almost missed the nonevent entirely. Sempers [formerly at 2727 Crossview] always suffered from a strange form of schizophrenia: A respected, big-bucks chef struggled every night upstairs with an industrial-strength disco din downstairs. Sempers was a…
Everything, All At Once
Among the surest signs of downtown’s new liveliness is the presence of the sidewalk menu pusher, the guy who politely forces you to take a Xerox of his restaurant’s menu. Houston has reached some tipping point, a critical mass of pedestrians: Finally, we’ve become a target market. And the odds…
Ol’ Sod Goes Vegas
Most Americans have seen Irish folk dance somewhere, whether on TV or at a local mall. Kids march out on the stage, arms cemented to their sides so stiff and straight they look more like miniature soldiers than dancers. But their feet kick and twirl them across the stage in…
Sweet Sorrow
I have some regrets from my recent dining experiences at Cafe Perrier. I regret that ordering the combination rack of lamb and lamb tender with fresh mint and port sauce meant that I could not simultaneously order the gratin of lobster with wild mushrooms and braised endives. I was heartily…
Wilde Fun
Woe to the scribbler who presumes to rewrite a master — unless he is so deft that his invasion of privacy produces something new and exciting. Enter British writer-director Oliver Parker. He has the nerve to meddle with Oscar Wilde’s sublime farce An Ideal Husband and the skill to pull…
Pennywisdom
Pennywise is probably the most pleasant, friendliest band that sometimes pukes on people and takes hostages. The Hermosa Beach, California, quartet are punks, though they are positive rather than nihilistic, and thought-provoking rather than typically didactic. The band’s upbeat-yet-laid-back attitude makes sense considering its surf-town home base is the party…
Perfect Pop
The new Adam Sandler comedy, Big Daddy, isn’t just the funniest movie of the summer; it’s also the most improbable feel-good movie of the season. It’s improbable because practically everything about Sandler seems so unlikely, so strangely back-assward. His whole phenomenal career — from Billy Madison to Happy Gilmore, from…
HammingIt Up
It has been one of the most debated issues in American popular music: Can a white man play the blues? Well, actually, it’s also one of the most outdated and ludicrous questions that players like Eric Clapton, Mike Bloomfield, Gregg Allman, Roy Buchanan and Stevie Ray Vaughan have long since…
The Millionaire and His Daughter
Everybody in Wichita Falls knew Vincent Murphy and his daughter, Dottie. Vincent was a multimillionaire, an oil man and a cattle rancher — some say the richest man in town. When he was president of the Lions Club, Dottie was its sweetheart. She was homecoming queen, Miss Archer County and…
All Nessed Up
Mike Ness, leader of Social Distortion, is getting older and more willing to show his roots. On his solo debut, Cheating at Solitaire (Time Bomb), he sings a raspy duet with Bruce Springsteen, lets Brian Setzer play a little guitar and covers tunes by Bob Dylan and Hank Williams. Ness…
Go Directly to Jail
Being on probation is, by design, supposed to be a pain in the ass. After all, you have admitted to or been found guilty of committing an offense against the peace and dignity of the great state of Texas. You have nevertheless avoided the outcome you most desperately wanted to…
Rotation
Pavement Terror Twilight Matador Pavement has something to prove. Overhyped and overpraised, the quintet has, through the course of this decade, been hailed as the genius kings of indie rock, the best band ever and everything just short of the saviors of rock and roll. The truth is, Pavement is…
Eviction Friction
Dan Lovegrove doesn’t strike people as a troublemaker. The native Englishman has a lilting British accent, two punk rock cats named Sid and Nancy, and a love for plants. The plants are his signature statement, and his second-floor apartment balcony is covered with them. Ficus plants are a particular favorite…
The Reverend Red Rocker
When Sammy Hagar and his band, the Waboritas, played an invitation-only show in town at the Hard Rock Cafe last month, some dismissed the show as a publicity ploy for his new brand of tequila, or sniggered at the venue. But for the couple hundred lucky fans who got to…
Bye-bye, Baby, Bye-bye
It’s good-night, Irene for another day care in the Texas Medical Center quadrant of the universe. Hermann Hospital’s Tag Along Kids Day Care Center celebrated its last day on May 28, despite parents’ protests. This time the cancer-fighting folks at M.D. Anderson are calling a final time-out for their day-care…
Hot Plate
A kittycat and a Kool-Aid: Twenty years ago, that meant an order of catfish and a Coors beer at Captain Benny’s Half Shell [8506 South Main, (713)666-5469]. It has been more than a decade since the Cap’n’s original boat slipped down Main Street to its current mooring, and two more…
Killer On The Loose
The explosion of the battering ram splintering a heavy front door jarred the predawn stillness of a quiet Dallas suburb last Thursday. Seventeen SWAT officers of the Plano Police Department rushed into the fashionable two-story house in their search for the elusive homeowner, Michael Lee Davis. With the SWAT team…
News Hostage
Can’t Get Enough You can’t watch a football game anymore without being subjected to endless replays of the play you just saw. If you see the quarterback hit his tight end for a 12-yard gain, you know you’re going to see it at least three more times in slow motion,…
News of the Weird
Lead Stories *Latest Diaper Research: Jill Furlough, 31, of Lakenheath, England, told the London Daily Telegraph in April that she had been frightened by the green sparks flying out of her son Joshua’s Kimberly-Clark disposable diaper. Scientists contacted by the newspaper said it was triboluminescence, a buildup of energy similar…
Letters
Brown Out Richard Connelly’s article was “right on” concerning the makeup of the Harris County Jail population [“Black and White Only,” June 10]. I guess there are really no white people getting arrested in Harris County. Could there be a more sinister reason behind this practice of labeling Hispanics as…