Listen In
Middlefinger Fitzgerald’s Friday, March 10 What you see is not always what you get with Middlefinger. But the initial observation helps. The short-cropped hairdos, black-rimmed eyeglasses, intentionally shocking T-shirts and the bleached-out blond guy, David Cummings — stage right, far stage right — with the ’80s-metal Ibanez guitar strapped around…
Egypt on the Bayou
Ben Stevenson once told Dance Magazine that when he first arrived at the Houston Ballet in 1976, he was afraid “they’d want a company with big-name guests — Baryshnikov with rent-a-corps.” Stevenson had a different vision: a company that, with the help of a top-notch ballet academy, would produce its…
Rotation
Bernard Butler Friends & Lovers Columbia/Creation Way back in ’92 Bernard Butler was making quite a fuss in the “must-see” band Suede. Ask him, and yes, he would even tell you, without shame, that he was a guitar hero. Butler, actually a fantastic guitarist, probably still stands by that comment…
Insecurity Complex
Houston is a city enamored of festivals, with seemingly endless imagination for thinking up subjects to champion. While FotoFest does not typically stimulate a thirst for either Miller Lite or electric guitars — and, in this way, is more akin to Worldfest than to either the Westheimer Street Festival or…
Local Rotation
Various artists Seedenstem Records Presents… Stop, Drop & Roll! Seedenstem Records All of the acts on this, Seedenstem Records’ second compilation, share a certain lo-fi, overamplified sound. This phenomenon is actually of great importance to the uninitiated: Each band works mostly from a guitar-bass-drums arrangement and fuzz-rock attitude, yet each…
Boob Job
The film is called Erin Brockovich, but it might as well be titled Julia Roberts. Never before in the actress’s erratic career has a film been so custom-made for her; it’s as though a screenwriter has been replaced by a seamstress who knows Roberts’s every curve. No matter that she…
That Rap-Metal Shit
Hollister Fracus formed about six years ago on the north side in the same way so many bands do: two friends jamming together with visions of Marshall stacks and big ol’ racks in their heads. The band eventually became a four-piece and has carved a niche for itself by mixing…
That Wascally Fate
What if fate has something horrific in store for you, and you can’t escape it? It’s an idea that has been around for a long time, from Greek myths such as Oedipus, to the New Testament, to EC Comics and The Twilight Zone. Cinematically we tend to prefer the idea…
Turning Japanese
The gun is a coward’s weapon, always has been, always will be. Likening it to the sword is like equating rape to romance. However, for reasons that can be attributed only to collective insanity, Hollywood absolutely loves to romanticize the gun, serving as an adjunct advertising agency for the firearms…
Mommy’s little angel
You were right about God, Marshall. He is a Good God. And you, you there, with imagination in your eyes And hope forever forwards in your soul, you are A Good Person. You are a human being and isn’t it exciting to be one? Isn’t it glorious this life God…
Return to Sender
Hollywood may be crass when it comes to cloning success, but it’s not alone. Take the British Isles, for instance, ever since the success of a certain working-class comedy about unemployed louts turned male strippers. It seems as if there has been a law put into effect that every comedy…
The Turning Point
It was the biggest performance in the short life of the Easy Credit Theater, and choreographer Richie Hubscher knew it. On a hot evening in July 1998, thousands of invitation-only arts patrons and new downtowners milled about the Rice Hotel’s recently renovated Crystal Ballroom, sipping Absolut martinis and celebrating the…
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
In the good ol’ days a couple of years ago, young, urban (read: bus-riding) kids wanted to be lawyers, cast members on Ally McBeal or doctors.handling people’s fecal matter and guts. Not anymore. Chances are today’s youth want to be either a Ruff Ryder or a Cash Money millionaire. Hell,…
Imminent Domain
Cruising past the formally dressed waiters offering trays of delicate pastries, sipping fresh coffee from an elegant cup and saucer, perusing the tables piled high with fruits and croissants, you might have asked yourself two questions: 1) Was all this luxury really being produced to celebrate the formerly blue-collar sport…
Letters
Sweet Smells, Sorry ScreensI love the whole movie experience; rented videotapes just don’t cut it for me [“Battle of the Megaplex Monsters,” by Richard Connelly, March 2]. I remember how disappointed I was when saw my first movie at a megaplex. Physics: Light decreases as an inverse square to distance…
Out at the Zoo
On Tuesday of last week, Houston’s Parks and Recreation Department announced the retirement of Houston Zoo director Donald Olson, who has held the post since 1993. Olson stated that he was leaving the zoo “to pursue interests in the private sector,” that he is “excited about a change” and that…
Drowning in Marinara
The medieval question used to be, How many angels can dance on the head of a pin? The question for Houstonians in the year 2000 might be, How many Italian restaurants does one downtown need? I mean, within walking distance of the Theater District alone there are two terrific Italian…
Once Is Enough
Sarah was blind, and Sarah, who was seven, looked three because of a pituitary growth condition. But that wasn’t the worst of Sarah’s rotten life. Her own mother sexually molested her. Her stepfather sexually molested her. There was oral sex and full sexual intercourse and an entire gamut of sexual…
Hot Plate
Heads Up: Down in the Rio Grande Valley, there’s a special treat that’s traditionally eaten on Sunday mornings: barbacoa de cabeza. Luckily, in Houston you can enjoy it every day at La Flor Taqueria [4328 Washington Avenue, (713)880-1981], along with a host of other breakfast tacos that will set you…
The Vulture Factor
Seventy-one-year-old Wendell Sexton got a letter last October at his southwest Houston home from a Dallas-based accountant with a tantalizing hook. “It appears you have overlooked, and are about to lose $933.50 from one or more public agencies with the state of Texas,” wrote CPA Karyn A. Ward. “I help…
Still Fame-ous
Ever wonder what happened to all those ambitious kids from New York’s High School of the Performing Arts who sang, danced and sweated their way into people’s hearts and minds in the movie Fame? How about Irene Cara, who sang the title song and played Coco Hernandez? Or Gene Anthony…
Normal Al Yankovic
There’s something odd about “Weird Al” Yankovic lately. In his latest video, a spoof on the Star Wars trilogy set to Don McLean’s “American Pie,” Yankovic has shed his glasses and goofy ‘do with the aid of vision-correcting surgery and hair straighteners. Then there’s that Behind the Music special, in…
Feeder Road Pho
Too many Houston restaurants are in strip shopping centers, have you noticed? It’s one of the quirks of our metropolitan dining experience I find myself apologizing for too often. “Don’t worry,” I tell out-of-towners looking askance at yet another bleak, shoebox-size storefront. “This is just how we do things here.”…
H-Town Get Down
Back in 1997, Lil’ Brian Terry paid tribute to a particularly distinctive slice of the local scene in the song “H-Town Zydeco,” the opening track on his groundbreaking CD Z-Funk (Rounder). While the hip-hop-influenced lyrics celebrate the vibrancy of Houston’s burgeoning nouveau zydeco culture, they also include a reference that…
Homeward Bound
Houston’s lack of zoning has long been a source of both comfort and consternation for many round these parts. But as far as we can tell, no one has ever found musical inspiration in the fact that a day-care center and a bar can coexist peacefully within projectile-vomiting range of…