The Long Haul
At 13 years old, Thuy Vu accompanied her father to City State bank to help him apply for a loan. Tu Viet Vu, known as Big Tu, didn’t know much English then, but the Palacios bay shrimper had a vision. Big Tu had ventured into the Gulf of Mexico one…
Keeping the Faith
Every Sunday morning Frank Minton saves people. He immerses sinners in holy water and helps them take Jesus into their hearts. But of the hundreds he has saved, the 65-year-old preacher has baptized only two Jews. “That’s bad, isn’t it?” asks Minton, senior pastor at First Baptist Church in Bellaire…
Calling Jews to Jesus
The call to a Dallas evangelist came from Cincinnati, Ohio. On the line was a Jewish man seeking spiritual answers — of the Christian variety. The Reverend Jim Sibley, a missionary for the Southern Baptists’ North American Mission Board, took the call from the Hebrew soul searcher, who had got…
Letters 06-08-2000
Don’t Blame Houston My daughter is just finishing eighth grade at T.H. Rogers, and in the past two years her allergy problem has become much worse. There have been many trips to the doctor’s office and plenty of refilled allergy medications. I was not aware this was being caused through…
Payback Time
Convicted contract killer and insurance swindler Michael Lee Davis has a gift for making money off other people’s mortality. Now someone finally might make some from his death. Davis, who was Walter Waldhauser Jr. when he took part in a triple murder in Houston 21 years ago, was sentenced last…
Cowboy in the Kitchen
The Houston Press’s new food critic, Robb Walsh, has written about the gastronomic scene in Texas for more than a decade. He has served as food editor of The Austin Chronicle and editor in chief of Chile Pepper magazine in Fort Worth. He won the 1996 James Beard Journalism Award…
Remembering a Victim
From the porch of her red brick home in Hughes Springs, poet Leafie Mason could stand watch over the energy that kept alive the small town she called home. Just beyond West First Street, yards away, runs the railroad track, a pathway for Kansas City Southern trains that hurry westward…
Mexican Insurgence
With all the speed of a Taco Bell and all the fresh ingredients of a Ninfa’s, the recently opened Chipotle Mexican Grill [5600 Kirby Drive, (713)666-9769] could very well steal customers from both well-known chains. The unusual Denver-based chain launched last month in a limestone-clad strip center in the Rice…
Loose Cannon?
This is a story that breathes life into an old saw: No good deed goes unpunished. It also proves that you can’t believe everything you read in the papers or see on the evening news — even if it comes straight from the horse’s mouth, as they say. On the…
Hell Just Froze Over
The Houston Harpies play hockey year-round, a fact that surprises Canadians and other northern immigrants. Canadians believe that hockey is a winter sport. They don’t yet understand life in the subtropics. They cling to the belief that freezing is something that occurs naturally, without human intervention. They haven’t yet learned…
Political Winds of Change
It’s a political road map for up-and-coming Houston minority leaders such as City Controller Sylvia Garcia and Councilmen Orlando Sanchez and Gabriel Vasquez. A recently released report predicts that within five years Harris County will be a solid minority majority, and in a decade Hispanics will be nearly equal with…
A Puff of Smoke
His name appears in almost every book written about Groucho Marx, so much so, he has been given the appropriate appellation by members of the Marx family: Wesso. But Paul Wesolowski is of no relation to the famous clan. He’s a man in his 40s who lives outside Philadelphia and,…
The Ultimate Game Boy
With 3,993 tabletop games in Tony Elam’s collection, one would hate to think that two years ago Horizon Games purposely set up shop down the street from Elam’s house just to exploit its most loyal customer. But there’s no doubt that the merchants recognize Elam’s contribution to the franchise’s long-term…
Smooth Ride on the Tappan Zee
Crafting music that’s both sophisticated and accessible has been Bob James’s modus operandi for decades. Who could ever forget the theme song, that sweet melody on flute, that he composed for the sitcom Taxi? Even the background music was filled with little twists that made it exponentially better than standard…
Multicultural Masala
Abdul picks up the Styrofoam bowl and begins eating the spicy pink yogurt with a plastic spoon, so I follow his lead. The cold yogurt soup has some minced tomato and cucumber in it, along with an intriguing combination of spices. I detect cumin and black pepper, but there are…
Hot Plate
Hot But Sweet: Don’t be scared off by the guajillo chilies in the Shrimp Santa Fe ($13.95), one of the most popular dishes at the River Cafe [3615 Montrose, (713)529-0088]. The medium-heat chilies are deliciously bittersweet and make the thick, creamy, reddish-yellow guajillo sauce more sweet than spicy. A half-dozen…
Ska Fathers
Most pop music is such a succotash that it’s all but impossible to identify the single source of any particular style. But there is one group that can be pinpointed as the wellspring of an entire genre: the Skatalites, a collection of players who indeed created modern Jamaican music during…
Going, Going, Gone
Blink — or, more likely, doze — and you will miss it, this tiny beautiful oasis in the middle of an otherwise barren wasteland. For a moment — a precious, frustrating moment to be treasured in a movie that flaunts its disposability — Nicolas Cage reminds us of how good…
Like Father, Not Like Son
Most musicians do not know how to spend their downtime. Instead of running through scales or jotting down riffs or pounding the pavement, most, like Jeremy Gaskill of Geek, guitarist for Houston’s newest and most exciting heavy band, contemplate the star-filled future. “I don’t want to lay around the house…
Driver 23, Where Are You?
Don’t assume too much from the title: Driver 23 isn’t a nifty new game for your Sony PlayStation, or a direct-to-video knockoff of Gone in 60 Seconds. In fact, don’t even expect to see much driving in Rolf Belgum’s ambitious but unsatisfying documentary. Intended as an up-close and personal look…
Back in the Saddle
On stage at Blanco’s open mike night late last month, Clay Farmer — sporting trendy Buddy Hollyesque eyeglasses — talked a little about his grandmother, about how she couldn’t see a hand in front of her face but could pluck a quarter from the lawn in the middle of the…
Sexual Healing?
So, when was the last time you shared a woman with your dad? You know, just some woman that you and your dad both dug, who perked you up a bit. It’s probably been a while, huh? What? Never? Really? Well, that may be why Peter Greenaway gets to make…
Ready to Rock?
Supagroup — Devotees of New Orleans’ Supagroup describe the band as the potential savior of full-on rock and roll. Well, yippee-fuckin’-skippie. Like we need another one of those. Who knows whether such prophetic visions will ever be fulfilled. In the here and now, however, Supagroup puts out some of the…