Take It from the Queens
You can learn a lot from a man dressed as a woman. Mae West, who rose to fame as a film actress in the 1930s, created her persona by imitating the over-the-top sexuality, regal bearing and double-entendre-laden wit of drag queens. Or at least that’s what her character does in…
The Winter of Our Discontent
What more can go wrong in suburbia? Director Rose Troche (Go Fish) wants us to know, and to that end she has recruited another army of wounded parents, troubled children and broken dreamers, then marched them all into a whirlpool of dysfunction on the quiet, tree-lined streets just minutes from…
This Week’s Day-by-Day Picks
Thursday, March 13: Ciudad Juárez is a terrifying place for a woman to live, especially if she’s young and thin, with big brown eyes and a dark complexion. In the past ten years, hundreds of women fitting this description, mostly factory workers, have disappeared from the town across the border…
Hot Stuff
While The Transporter had a bigger budget and way more hype, Wasabi is handily the better of the two Luc Besson productions out this year. Unlike its big stepbrother, this nearly perfect confection never takes its action more seriously than its comedy. Wasabi is also the best vehicle for the…
The Sound of Sphincter
“It’s always a delight to see our Sphincter product move,” says Jeff “Little Jewford” Shelby. But with a name like Sphincter Records, co-partners Kinky Friedman and Shelby must have a hard time convincing people that their Houston-based independent record label is for real. It can’t help that they take every…
Kill Shot
When Neil Burger’s debut as feature-film writer and director, Interview with the Assassin, was being shopped around last fall, it had many intrigued but few interested enough to buy it for distribution. The theory goes that some distributors, among them Miramax, felt its subject matter was a bit off post-September…
Dreaming of Bigger Things
Carmen simply must increase her bust. “Ever since they started developing,” says the 19-year-old North Harris Community College student, “I never was really happy with them…I thought I should just wait and see if they’re gonna grow any more. But they’ve been the same size for years, and I know…
Family Circus
Meet Alice Sycamore, a perfectly normal young Wall Street secretary who’s just found the man of her dreams. Marriage is in the offing (this is the 1930s, after all), but first Alice must introduce her handsome fiancé and his wealthy parents to her own rather eccentric family. You’d never know…
Who Are Those Puckers?
There is an air hockey universe, and its center is Houston. If you stumble across the puck scene here, chances are you’ll meet the world’s top male and female players, Danny Hynes and Niki Jaquette. Houston is home to the largest organized group of air hockey players in the country…
In the Trenches
Imagine a young man, vigorous, patriotic, full of high ideals. His country calls him to war in defense of those ideals — say, freedom, or equality, or homeland security — and he answers the call. But then, like Kurt Vonnegut’s Billy Pilgrim, he comes unstuck in time. He finds himself…
Just a Gigolo
SAT 3/15 In case you didn’t know, Cinderella, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty are not the same person. But they all end up with Prince Charming. Isn’t that weird? It’s up to you to explain this to your kids while they watch the same guy scheme his way from fairy…
Katy Pie
Roma tomatoes sliced thin lengthwise, a smattering of fresh basil leaves and a little garlic over olive oil — these are the only toppings on the margherita pie at Pizza Bella. I’m even more impressed with the crust: Light and airy with a few yeast bubbles for chewiness, it is…
Barfin’ Green
Damn the world. This year, St. Patty’s Day falls on a Monday. American companies will lose, like, a zillion dollars in worker productivity as a result of the sharp increase in hungover (or still wasted) people dragging themselves into work on Tuesday. So in an effort to do our patriotic…
A Tale of Two Moles
Holy mole, sauce of the gods. The word comes from the Aztec mulli, meaning “sauce,” and legend has it that the chocolate nectar came down from the temples through some nuns in Puebla who are credited with the current-day mole poblano version. The combination of candy and chiles creates a…
Not Normal
Consider the one-man show. There are the psychotic rants of Eric Bogosian; the witty, measured monologues of Spalding Gray; Anna Deavere Smith’s edgy, historical “docu-performances” and the physical, mime-influenced work of Steven Berkoff. Each of these performers brings a personal element to his or her craft; that’s what copyrights the…
Any Given Sunday
The problem with David’s spinach frittata ($8.99) at Katz’s Deli & Bar (616 Westheimer, 713-521-3838) is that it’s available only as a Sunday brunch item. Something this good deserves a spot on the everyday menu. A frittata is an Italian version of an omelette that’s served flat, rather than turned…
The Fringes of Twang
Way out on the fringes of this nebulous thing called alt-country are Calexico and Clem Snide, two opposite yet equal bands. Clem Snide is as East Coast as Philly cheese steak, and Calexico is as Southwestern as tacos de birria. Clem Snide reminds you of smoking manhole covers and cool…
All Duct Up
Stafford is a nondescript Fort Bend County suburb with maybe 10,000 residents. Leonard Scarcella, mayor of the sleepy commuter city, recently outlined his goals for the town in the coming year: enhancing Stafford’s appearance, renovating City Hall to include a municipal court and “continuing to support ethnic and religious diversity.”…
Meet John Dough
“Oh, just make the whole article about Girl Scout cookies,” John Doe says with a laugh. Doe has three daughters, and he often gets caught up in their Girl Scout cookie wars. Following a set at the Hollywood singer-songwriter haven Largo a few weeks back, Doe pulled in a red…
Can to Mouth
Dominique’s Vichyssoise ($2.29) seemed like the perfect way to start a civilized meal. You’re supposed to eat the French potato-and-leek soup cold. And talk about easy, you don’t even need to add water. But the white potage poured out of the can as thick as paste. And it tasted like…
Bowling for Bands
Bands have always been second-class citizens in the Nashville country music system. Even after the long ride of the recently retired Alabama and the breakthrough of the Dixie Chicks, country remains primarily a solo singer’s game. So how does the emerging Nashville foursome Pinmonkey deal with being in an industry…
Uncivil Defense
Houston, the experts say, is as likely a target as any other major U.S. city for a terrorist attack. Houston is also a city that — let’s face it — has plenty of problems even without any help from Al Qaeda. So if we get hit by a small terror…
Screw SXSW
The proverbial two roads are diverging in that yellow wood for Earthwire.net. For close to two years, M. Martin’s delectably underground Montrose studio/ Webcasting station has been the one spot in Houston where rappers jammed with cowpunks, Mexican rockers partied with their indie counterparts, and Montrosians and denizens of the…
Wrestling with Bigfoot
A cold rain beats steadily in the deep forest of the Big Thicket as Bobby Hamilton slogs down a muddy trail, peering into the swamps in search of Bigfoot. Hamilton, 38, is one of Texas’s most intrepid Bigfoot hunters. A former professional wrestler, he lives in a double-wide trailer with…
Ramsay Midwood
Ramsay Midwood’s masterful wordsmithing and sparse production values carry the 11 songs on this striking debut. Midwood, a Virginia native residing in Austin, has put together a song cycle that often verges on the timelessness of his influences: Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan and early Tom Waits. This is earthy, sitting-on-the-porch-swing…
We Know You Like to Watch!
On a slow winter day last December, Channel 13 investigative reporter Wayne Dolcefino was sweeps-week dreaming about a blockbuster series of news reports to air the following spring. They would be predicated on the notion that some official somewhere in Houston city government just had to be using the office…
Ted Leo
Unknown, or at least underrated, Ted Leo swivels his hips like a young Elvis P. and sneers like a younger Elvis C. on Hearts of Oak, pounding the pulpit and sounding the alarm. Flipping through a history book while rocketing into the future, he still can’t quite escape what’s going…
Nice to Be Nice
Okay, now it’s clear: Niceness has become an official policy of the Houston Chronicle, according to the time-honored journalism tradition of three examples firmly establishing a trend. The latest example of Houston’s Daily Information Source being Houston’s Sunniest Information Source comes courtesy of sports columnist Dale Robertson, whose spring training…
The Churn
Houstonians can now scratch another entry off the list of Cross-Pollinated Musical Genres We Thought We’d Never See. Taking their name quite literally, the members of the Churn have tossed quite a bit into Ye Olde Stir Pot and come out with a creamy product that can best be described…
Letters
Klein Destined Same old lies: I want to express my appreciation for your writing “Situational Ethics” [by Margaret Downing, February 20], about the Klein school district’s foot-dragging attempt to ban a Gay Straight Alliance from their school. One thing I really like about your style of writing is that you…
Minibill
The Locust, with Erase Errata Thursday, March 13, Club Fat Cat, 4216 Washington Avenue, 713-869-5263 Like a worm boring through a rotten apple, the Locust has gnawed its way out of San Diego and through post-hardcore punk America. Dressed like both Zapatistas and fashionistas, they prove that punk’s original slash-and-burn…