Take a Hike
You know how boys love to play soldier? How they get stern-faced and march out to destroy an enemy whom they believe needs destroying? Well, actors are into that, too. Sometimes they soldier on even when Bruce Willis or Mel Gibson isn’t around to help them frown determinedly. Such is…
What’s Sex Got to Do with It?
Ever really listened to the words to “I Want It That Way” by the Backstreet Boys? In the days before she became a novelist, T Cooper was researching its lyrics for Teen People and thought to herself, “This is the stupidest, most confusing song I’ve ever heard.” So she came…
Wolves and Foxes
Regina Giddens is one of the most treacherous villains ever to walk across a stage. Moneygrubbing and wily, the nasty fox will stop at nothing to get what she wants. Helping her along are her beady-eyed, middle-aged, greedy brothers Benjamin and Oscar Hubbard. Like Regina, they bow to one god:…
Curry in a Hurry
What makes Stone Mill Bakers’ (2518 Kirby Drive, 713-524-6600) signature curried chicken salad sandwich ($6.95) different? Everything. Start with what Stone Mill does best: bread. The freshly baked wheat slices are dense but moist, loaded with plump raisins and crisp buttery walnuts. Add a thick, neat layer of classy chicken…
Slipper Magic
Behold the demi-caractère. It is technically a character role using classical steps but is recognizable as the guys who aren’t the prince. Ben Stevenson’s ballets are rife with them. Former dancer Parren Ballard stole the stage as Renfro in Dracula, every male dancer in Houston Ballet has taken turns in…
In Your Face
Through March 30 at the Contemporary Arts Museum, 5216 Montrose, 713-284-8250.
College Credit
It felt good to spend money. Jennifer Fuller handed over her plastic card, watched the clerk slip it through the reader and listened to the chug-a-chug of the machine giving her its approval: The card was good, Jennifer Fuller was good, and spending money was very good. She was 19,…
Save the Dome
Teaching kids to keep their heads If you’ve ever watched kids sailing up and down skate ramps, you know that, against all evidence, they believe nothing could get through their hard little skulls to damage their gray matter. Otherwise, why would anyone ever try a McTwist? At the Children’s Museum…
The Dogs of War
During a routine inspection of the woods near a base in Bavaria, Army Staff Sergeant Dwayne Armour was collecting trash. He noticed a box, opened it up and found a three-month-old German shepherd. He took her home, named her Lucy after his aunt, and fell in love. Whenever he trains…
Weekend at Vernie’s
SAT 3/22 A church converted into an art film house — what better locale for an unorthodox holy ritual? “Say ‘Hallelujah!’ to that media miracle that is the Aurora Picture Show, Houston’s one and only film church. See and ye shall believe!” sayeth The Art Guys about Houston’s unique film…
Reeling from Wheeling
Waller City Council sessions are exercises in the purest form of backroom country politics. The chambers occupy the kitchenlike rear of the aging City Hall, and the council table is of the fold-up variety. When the most exciting topic is the minutia of approving municipal utility bills, it is understandable…
Touch of Gray
FRI 3/21 If he’s good at anything, it’s talking. Spalding Gray’s monologues and one-man shows have entertained for more than two decades now. At most performances, the set is the same, with a table, a chair, a notebook and a glass of water. But what he says is always unique…
Home from the War
Rufus Browning lives in a six-story apartment building a few blocks from Minute Maid Park. The DeGeorge at Union Station houses about 90 military veterans, all of them previously homeless. Browning speaks with the passion of the recently converted, giving no indication of his troubled past. He was an expert…
Dinner and Darts
When we first enter The Rivendell Bar & Grille, we walk by two women who are talking intently on a big sofa by the front door. One has her legs curled up comfortably underneath her, and they’re both working on pints of beer. In the back, near a pool table,…
Banana Republicans
Led by then-governor George W. Bush, Texas Republican Party heads launched an intensive push to try to organize supporters among the state’s burgeoning Hispanic population. Bitter infighting at the largely unreported state convention of the Republican National Hispanic Assembly (RNHA) in Corpus Christi indicates the effort has a long way…
Battle Cries
The tall, grizzled Austin cop peered through his mirrored shades down Congress Street from his position across the street from the state capitol grounds. There, several thousand people were gathered waving placards (a sampling: “My Country ‘Tis of Greed,” “Vive La France” and “And We Thought You Were Too Stupid…
Jailhouse Mock
KHOU/Channel 11 continues to show an impressive degree of cockiness over its investigative work into the Houston Police Department’s inept DNA lab. First it put out a press release with news director Mike Devlin belittling other TV stations’ investigative efforts as concentrating on “mother-daughter strippers.” Now KHOU has an ad…
Nü-School Drool
Chris D’abaldo can’t help but laugh when he contemplates his predicament. The rhythm guitarist with rock shredders Saliva is only 45 days out of rehab, where he kicked a habit involving what he calls a “conglomeration” of booze and other substances. But when his band takes the stage in Houston,…
Letters
Nanny Goat Raise your own: Congratulations on a very well researched and written article [“A Killer Nanny,” by Wendy Grossman, March 6]. While I can understand the Fosters’ horror at having a convicted murderer in their home caring for their children, they should be thanking their lucky stars that nothing…
Game, Set and Match
Singer-songwriter/Spanish teacher/tennis coach Melinda Mones’s musical background is a jumble, and her debut album proves it. The album ranges from energetic good-time twangers like “Sunshine and Him” and “Good Life” (“you’re never gonna find my number on a wall / but if you’re lookin’ for a good time, call”) to…
Sex, Drugs and Puppets
Jason Nodler has said that if his company, Infernal Bridegroom Productions, ever had a brother, its name would be Bobbindoctrin Puppet Theatre. Like green-eyed siblings, the companies share a pitch-black sense of humor and a love of the absurd. Now, they’ve finally come together to produce what may be their…
We Are the Spazbots
Everybody loves a good epic musical performance. Unfortunately, there are usually two problems with Broadway-scale productions: 1) They’re normally held in arenas, which carry high ticket prices; and 2) highfalutin productions are often employed by acts whose music is the equivalent of slow torture. The Epoxies, however, defy the paradigm…
This Week’s Day-by-Day Picks
Thursday, March 20 Mary Kay Andrews, author of ten mystery novels, is moving closer to the more genteel, literary realm of Southern fiction with her latest offering, Savannah Blues. A former newspaper reporter, Andrews covered the real-life murder trials of Savannah antiques dealer Jim Williams, the inspiration for the best-selling…
The Exies
While the Strokes were criticized by some for ripping off Television’s Marquee Moon, at least that album was more than 20 years old. By contrast, the Exies — this year’s “it” band (which is to say this year’s Strokes) — can only lay claim to rehashing what has been on…
Just Do It
SUN 3/23 Michael W. Dean doesn’t define himself as filmmaker. He’s also a novelist, a painter and a musician. And though you’ve probably never heard of him, he makes a living as an artist. Granted, Dean survives on what he calls a “McDonald’s salary,” but that’s not the point. He…
Afro-Mystik
House music’s throbbing beats, feel-good vibe and bare midriffs will never be mistaken for Rachmaninoff. But the genre’s bad rep can actually be attributed to DJs and producers who pander to the lowest common denominator with a steady stream of 4/4 beats and whooshy atmospherics instead of pushing deeper rhythms…
Fight Club
It’s fun to watch people kick each other’s asses. That’s why Toughman Contest was the FX Network’s highest-rated show for three years. Now the boxing competition has moved to pay-per-view, but you lucky Houstonians don’t have to watch Toughman on TV. Strapping guys and gals that live within a 75-mile…
Drifter
With warmer weather and longer days on hand, there comes a concomitant change-up in the ol’ car CD player. Singles like War’s “Why Can’t We Be Friends,” Sly Stone’s “Hot Fun in the Summertime” and even the Cars’ “Magic” sound just right blaring from an auto with the sun shining…
The Stunted
The Hunted pits Tommy Lee Jones against Benicio Del Toro in a battle of hand-to-hand, wit-to-wit fighting skills. Frankly, my money would be on Tommy Lee any old day: He may be old, but he’s a tough geezer who looks like he could mop the floor with Benicio. (Also, frankly:…