Making a Point
On January 22, 1996, Rodney Hulin was found hanging in his jail cell. The 17-year-old claimed he had been repeatedly raped in prison, and when this didn’t stop, he decided to die. The lawsuit his family and the ACLU filed made national news: The Houston Press, The New York Times…
Living Out Loud
Guitar rock is back. It’s rising like a phoenix from the ashes of what was once alternative rock. But too bad, like alternative rock, it’s becoming corporatized, which means big labels are noticing this new sound’s appeal and are lining up to cash in on it. But until record companies…
Power Points
In an early scene in Instinct, released by Touchstone, a division of Disney’s Buena Vista Pictures, we’re told that a brilliant primatologist named Ethan Powell (played by Anthony Hopkins) is being brought back to the United States from Rwanda, where for several years he has been engaged in a close…
Star Time
When Houstonian Mark Dini opens for Larry Carlton on Tuesday night, the local-boy jazz guitarist is likely to feel a few butterflies. Headliner Carlton, after all, is revered in many jazz circles. He’s the cat with the dark, biting tone who played with the Crusaders and was a Los Angeles…
Dealing with Adversity
There are at least two indisputable truths about vaccinations. Next to clean water, nothing else has had such a significant impact on public health. The second certainty is that reasonable people will disagree over who should be immunized against which disease. Vaccination mandates, however, make that argument moot. In defending…
Canadian Werewolf in Houston
“Gino Vannelli, one of the greatest musicians and most intriguing artists of our time, has never received the recognition that he deserves.” So says the official Gino Vannelli Web site. Of course, if you know Vannelli by his three Top 40 singles, that’s kind of hard to fathom. Face it,…
Searching for a Cello
Desmond Hoebig took a seat on the old man’s couch and, for the next two hours, took the 200-year-old cello for a test-drive. He started with a plain C-major scale, his left fingers clambering four octaves up the neck while his right hand wielded the bow. In the cramped room,…
Rap Space
“We’re gonna see if we can get a thousand people in here tonight,” said the guy who emceed the Roots concert at Club Waxx last March. Although the auto-garage-turned-hip-hop-spot wasn’t filled to a thousand (management estimated it was half that), the wall-to-wall patronage certainly gave that impression. For a while…
Shiner Bach
When the Houston Symphony issued invitations for a media preview of the new season, it promised entertainment by the Bad Boys of Cello, the alter ego of the symphony’s cello section. Between white wine and chitchat, I peeked through a cracked door to the practice room. The Bad Boys wore…
Hot Plate
Smash this sandwich: Menu item number 35 at Cafe Express is the vegetable sandwich, piled so high on a crusty French baguette that we recommend you crush it, just a little, before attempting to bite into it. Inside its covers you’ll find long slivers of roasted red peppers, grilled onions…
Immune to Reason
Like most people, Glenda Matheny didn’t know much about hepatitis B, but when the family pediatrician recommended that her then-14-year-old daughter, Breonna, start receiving a three-dose vaccine against the virus, Glenda figured it had to be done. Breonna handled the first shot without incident. However, on January 17, 1995, immediately…
Sex Among the Armoires
A roomful of Friday-night diners at The Brownstone [2736 Virginia, (713)520-5666] was recently subjected (or treated?) to an astounding display of steamy live sex, staged by a fortysomething couple said to be celebrating their wedding anniversary. It’s hard to picture a less likely setting for lewdness than the Brownstone, an…
News Hostage
Twice-Told Tales The Houston Chronicle published its annual Young Writer’s Fiction Contest two weekends ago, featuring short stories by local teens and preteens. It’s a noble effort to encourage creativity and literacy. Somehow we didn’t get around to reading any of the entries that Sunday. But now we’re wondering if…
Local Control
Governor George W. Bush has prospered with an anti-Washington campaign theme of letting Texans make decisions about Texas. Environmental groups are saying he’ll have a chance to back up that rhetoric when he considers two pieces of legislation that they argue would surrender to the feds much of the state’s…
Family Unfriendly
Well, the Hermann Hospital Tag Along Kids Day Care Center is history now — abruptly shut down last week — and hospital officials just don’t want to talk about it. Neither do Texas Medical Center officials, who also played a key role in this debacle. Consider how these two fine…
News of the Weird
Lead Stories *According to a May Boston Globe report, the town of Sydney, Nova Scotia, is the country’s most polluted place (arsenic, naphthalene, lead, PCBs, oil, raw sewage) but is hopeful of exploiting the situation to become a research facility for environmental technicians and possibly a tourists’ center to showcase…
Letters
Zoo Doctrine Kudos to Brad Tyer on his article “Sick and Tired” [May 20]. But maybe he should research a little further back. This is not exactly new for the parks department. This is standard practice. As an employee, I know that Karl Peterson’s dilemma is not the first, nor…
Orlando and the 23rd Chair
City Councilman Orlando Sanchez has not been shy about claiming credit for alerting law enforcement officials to alleged criminal wrongdoing by four public works staffers now under indictment. Three of them, including 20-year city veteran Dan Jones, 51, are charged with the misdemeanor violation of bid laws in the purchase…
Night & Day
Thursday June 3 If you missed the original Tamalalia, if you were out of the country during Tamalalia 2!, if you simply forgot to go to last year’s wild bash, Tamalalia 3: The Cocktail Party (in which our heroine, Tamarie Cooper, dreamed erotically of those English princes, William and Harry)…
Great Expectations
Public relations is a dangerous business. The name of the game, of course, is creating a buzz — but too much pre-performance excitement means the real thing can’t possibly live up to expectations. With world premieres by both Glen Tetley and Lila York, two of the most respected choreographers in…
Serial Killer
Let’s get one thing straight: I’m no roller coaster novice. During the misspent days of my junior high youth, I was addicted to them. I’ve attacked The Rebel Yell (old, wooden, lots of big drops), The Shockwave (stand-up with loops), The Loch Ness Monster (fast as hell through tunnels) and…
Bawdiness and Brains
Anyone who has been to the movies lately has probably seen playwright Tom Stoppard’s work. His award-winning Shakespeare In Love filled the screen with luscious images and intricate verbal play. But as smart as the film is, it doesn’t begin to reveal the intellectual scope of Stoppard’s imagination. This writer,…
A Tale of Two Cities
If Gary James has his way, his name will be Houston’s next household word. You see, the club and party promoter is the next step in our much ballyhooed downtown redevelopment: He will be the one to redefine the way we socialize. Despite what you think of promoters, Gary’s not…
An Heir for Art
While Hong Kong movies have been invading Hollywood through the success of Jackie Chan, John Woo and others, mainland Chinese cinema has invaded the “classier” neighborhoods of the film industry. The latest contender is The King of Masks, an affecting melodrama from veteran Chinese filmmaker Wu Tianming. The title refers…
Fast Start
Let’s get this part over with right off the bat: Yes, Carl Lewis, the Olympic track and field star, is one of the owners of Cafe Noir. (And, from what I’ve heard, a fairly hands-on owner at that.) That said, let me add that the idea of celebrity restaurants generally…