Credit Check
Nancy Kral was confused. A longtime professor of political science at Tomball College, Kral considered herself well versed in college course material. And so far as she could tell, that was exactly why she had been asked to attend a meeting at Cy-Fair High School on that spring day in…
The Great Escape
At this moment, Baz Luhrmann, control freak and self-proclaimed ringleader of conspirators “who conspire to something greater than ourselves,” is not in control at all. The cameraman trailing behind him, like a faithful puppy awaiting treats, does not work for the director; rather, he is in the employ of the…
Lost His Place, Lost in Space
Jose spends his days inside a dark two-bedroom apartment in Irvington Village across the street from Moody Park. When he gets up in the morning he eats breakfast, lifts weights, jogs on his newly acquired treadmill, plays video games on his Nintendo 64 and watches hours upon hours of TV…
Letters
Art Car Bawl Starving artist: Good article, Richard Connelly [“Divided Road,” May 24]! I was one of the parade participants from the past who was planning to boycott the Art Car Ball this year but was talked out of it by a fellow artist (okay, I admit, free patron party…
Playing Hardball
At first, the photo looks dull. On a stage stands a gaggle of men in suits, plus somebody’s wife. Big deal, you think. But the longer you look, the weirder it gets. The banner on the stage proclaims the event to be the groundbreaking for the “World’s First Air Conditioned…
Zen and the Art of Playwriting
Writers like Vladimir Nabokov can approach their stories like an academic thesis, while others can boil their work down to a step-by-step process, as John Gardner did in the young writers’ bible The Art of Fiction. Still others rely on feeling and intuition to get the pen moving. When asked…
Curiouser and Curiouser
At first glance, 39-year-old cosmetics specialist Melony Ann Robbins’s appearance last month before federal magistrate Nancy Johnson seemed an insignificant skirmish in the government’s war on drugs. Robbins, a former assistant at a Bellaire skin care clinic, pleaded not guilty to ten counts of exploiting her position to write false…
Nobody’s Here
If you’ve never heard of Marco Perella, there’s a good reason. Perella is a nobody, at least nobody worth mentioning. He’s a moderately employed actor who got his break as an archetypal clown who terrorized Judd Nelson in a dream sequence in Fandango. If you don’t remember that scene, it’s…
Roundabout Revenge
Earlier this year Cassandra Washington, the proprietress of one of the largest black-owned printing businesses in Houston, signed an agreement for a $400,000 small business loan with a local bank. The only loose end in the arrangement was that Washington needed a city extension on a permit that allowed her…
Tall Poppy
It’s Saturday afternoon during this year’s South by Southwest, and the collection of independent parties known as South by South Congress is in full swing along South Austin’s main thoroughfare. Musical acts perform at a variety of establishments along the avenue and in the alley behind it. The Yard Dog…
Playbill
Nothing says blues quicker than the fat sounds of a miked harmonica. Think of the great Chicago/Delta players: Big Walter, Little Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson (I and II), James Cotton and Junior Wells. Their influence has been so pervasive that no contemporary-blues harmonica style has risen to challenge it. Though…
Thunder from Down Under
Say what you will about failed love affairs, how they wreak havoc on your emotions and leave your psychic closets bulging with unwanted baggage. But fall in love with the right person, like a cute drummer from Australia, and you’ve got a hot tip on future musical trends, all based…
A River Ran Through It
For more than a century, parched Texans made the six-mile trek east from the town of Wimberley down the five-mile-long Little Arkansas Road, which parallels the Blanco River into an unspoiled land filled with clear water, cedar, oak, cypress knees, armadillos and white-tailed deer. Before the Texans came, the road…
The Tortoise Taught Us
In music, genres are used to simplify things so that would-be fans don’t need to investigate every act that comes out of the chute. But in some ways, categorizing is a dismissal of the basic function of thought. Everyone speaks from his own frame of reference, each comparison or contrast…
The River Wild
It is a truth universally acknowledged that no good deed goes unpunished. Few have gone so wrong so fast on such a scale as in the recent dustup at The River Cafe (3615 Montrose Boulevard, 713-529-0088). New owner Mark (a.k.a. Marcula) Stauffer and two staff members recently came to blows,…
Scene But Not Heard
The Boston gig’s been canceled. Oh, don’t worry about Boston. Boston’s not a big college town. — Spinal Tap manager Ian Faith Go to the Internet newsgroup houston. music, and enter in the words “Houston scene.” There you will find almost 500 posts riffing on the theme that “the” Houston…
A Matter of Grape Concern
An iceberg wedge already has retro appeal; served with French, ranch or Thousand Island, it recalls the 1960s, an era of more innocent salads. But here at Ibiza, the new “food and wine bar” in Midtown, the quarter-sphere of lettuce is paired with a relic of even more ancient vintage:…
Playbill
Though lumped into the ever-expanding “alt-country” movement, this Chicago trio has more in common with the Cramps, X and Tom Waits (the band’s personal hero) than any twangin’ retro pickers. With songs full of sultry, lolling rhythms and lyrics of despair and resignation, the Blacks’ sophomore release, Just Like Home…
Embraceable Ewe
Skewers (3991 Richmond, 713-599-1444) is a counter-service eatery devoted to kabobs. Shiningly clean, the tables are hospitably set with a sea-salt grinder, some sliced pita bread and a little dipping bowl of olive oil and za’atar, a mixture of sumac powder, dried thyme, white sesame seeds and salt. The lamb…
Playbill
Not to make a big fuss over who is more seasoned on this bill, but even the most booty-bass-loving of rap fans can see that Doug E. Fresh is an undisputed old-school scholar. It was he, along with former partner MC Ricky D, better known as Slick Rick, who came…
Stirred and Shaken
Warren’s Inn (307 Travis, 713-247-9207) has been a downtown institution since way before downtown was cool. The original Warren’s was on Milam; when the building that housed the bar was torn down by a developer, Warren Trousdale moved across Market Square to the present location. A rice farmer and sculptor…
De-Evolution
When he was in his thirties, Ivan Reitman made comedies like a young man. His early movies, among them Stripes and Meatballs and Ghostbusters, were messy, cocky, charming, daffy and restless; they did anything for a laugh, even if that meant dousing John Candy in mud or Bill Murray in…
The Straight Shooter
Oscar “Budd” Boetticher Jr. was raised in patrician comfort as the adopted son of a wealthy Chicago businessman, and educated at Culver Military Academy and Ohio State University. But don’t hold any of that against him: At the age of 20, he rebelled against his privileged background and pursued graduate…
Norma Rosa
“Now wait a minute,” you may ask yourself during the setup of Ken Loach’s new film, Bread and Roses. “Is that Tom Green? Because it sure looks like Tom Green, and judging by the way he’s climbing into that garbage can, he certainly acts like Tom Green…” Well, take a…
Mr. Bundy‘s Neighborhood
Who wouldn’t want someone like the shuffling, overalls-wearing, white-haired Mr. Bundy living next door? Decrepit but twinkly-eyed, the sweetheart of a senior spends his quiet days fabricating yard decorations for his neighbors. He’s got a slide and a swing set out back for their kids, and the old man even…
Red Light, Green Light
Craig Gerhard was driving back to Houston from a camping trip at Lake Somerville two weekends ago when a billboard along U.S. Highway 290 caught his eye. It pictured a field of white wind turbines and a Web site address: GreenMountain.com. Once home, he logged on and learned that Green…