Keeping the King Quiet
When Steven Russell bid a sly farewell to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, his departure embarrassed state prison officials — apparently so much so that they’ve gone to extraordinary lengths to keep Russell’s story quiet. In the five weeks following Russell’s capture, the Houston Press made numerous requests to…
Hot Plate
I’m not going to claim that Riva’s (1117 Missouri, 529-3450) serves the best meatball sandwich ($4.50) in the whole damn solar system. That would smack of exaggeration. And besides, it’s years since I’ve been to Mars — though I hope to pop over when I visit Saturn next July. All…
Numbers Man
James DeAtley, the chief federal prosecutor for Houston, Corpus Christi and the Rio Grande Valley, doesn’t look much like a used-car salesman. But according to a growing number of critics inside and outside his office, it won’t be long before the U.S. attorney hits the late-night TV scene, leaning into…
Dish
Abuzz in the Garden Have I mentioned that a food critic’s job is a difficult and demanding one, all work and no play? If I did, I was lying through my teeth. Recently, I spent a pleasant Saturday at Teas Nursery’s 155th anniversary celebration, as one of the judges in…
The Insider
Flying Miss Sheila Last week’s update on Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee’s endlessly revolving staff door elicited a personal testimonial to The Insider from a recent defector. According to Lee’s former Capitol office executive assistant and events scheduler Rhiannon Burruss, the congresswoman’s abrasive ways not only drove off staff members but…
Return of the One-Man Mob
Last week, John Shike files a lawsuit against the Houston Press and staff writer Steve McVicker in connection with “One Man Mob,” a profile of Shike that appeared in the Press on May 8, 1997. The article detailed Shike’s long-running divorce suit, as well as his other legal entanglements. Shike’s…
Taken to the Woodshed
Lawyers for the city of Houston may have thought that U.S. District Judge David Hittner ripped into them during Barbra Piotrowski’s recent high-profile lawsuit against the city. As it turns out, Hittner was biting his tongue. In a sanctions order May 5, he blistered three city attorneys and their bosses,…
Letters
How Could We? I was appalled and astounded to read Eric Lawlor’s catty assassination of Bistro 224 [“Bad-News Bistro,” April 30]. He totally missed the point of the delicious food and lower Westheimer ambiance, instead going off on a disgusting diatribe of so many irrelevant or barely relevant things. These…
To the Manners Born
While he was the man of the house at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, John Kennedy used to call Letitia Baldrige “Miss Push-and-Pull” because of the way she handled his schedule. And as Jackie Kennedy’s social secretary, Baldrige was responsible for White House social events, most which involved more planning than the…
Bless the Beasts and Kids
Beneath a white-gold moon shadow, a lioness breaks into song. Her call of the wild — a throaty blues — sounds like a cross between a wolf’s yowl and a sea lion’s belch, and the sudden break in the gloaming stillness makes the members of our group jump in unison…
Night & Day
Thursday May 14 IMAX offers mind-blowing images of the natural world as a matter of course, but its occasional stabs at injecting human drama into those oversize epics usually result in pitiable failure (consider the so-called acting of the natives in loincloths and conquistadors on chargers in the IMAX paean…
Lame Horse
The Horse Whisperer, the latest film from Robert Redford — and the first of his directorial efforts in which he also stars — could almost serve as a compendium of Redford’s best and worst tendencies. It features his eye for gorgeous, pictorial vistas … his straightforward narrative approach … and,…
Rao Now
When Tony Rao bought the River Oaks Grill recently, who could have imagined the harm it would do nice Burt Lancaster? One of the restaurant’s best features is a mural filled with Hollywood legends. In addition to Lancaster, there’s a young Frank Sinatra (it’s hard to imagine now, but, yes,…
The Further Adventures of King Con
“This was a masterpiece, wasn’t it?” laughs Steven Russell, phoning from a Florida jail. He is referring to his latest escape. A fast-talking, pathological liar, Russell recently pulled off his fourth illegal exit from a Texas prison or jail. This spring, for the second time in just over a year,…
Outside Looking In
Jim Lauderdale will be the first to tell you that, try as he may, he lacks the goods for Nashville mega-stardom. After all, the prolific singer/songwriter knows himself better than any Music City image-maker could ever hope to. “The more I’m just myself, the better off I am,” says Lauderdale…
Why Johnny Might Someday Be Able to Read
Pediatric neurologist Eldo Bergman is not a teacher, but he has a great deal to say about teaching reading. As a medical scientist, he sees patients every day who have severe reading disabilities. As the founder of the Texas Reading Institute, he’s in the vanguard of reading instruction in the…
Vincent Unearthed
Dragon Street Records’ David Dennard is responsible for the release of debut albums from the likes of Tripping Daisy and Hagfish. But the Dallas indie-label mogul isn’t so interested in finding the hottest, newest thing anymore. Indeed, he has spent the past few years digging up music long thought forgotten…
Embarrassing Little Secrets of Hotel Six
Last month, FBI informant Julio Molineiro learned the hard lesson that when you take the stand as a major witness in a six-ring federal bribery-conspiracy circus, cross-examination is likely to bring out all your best-buried little secrets. In Julio’s case, they just happened to be tax evasion, drug use, prior…
Static
Getting acquainted… Simply put, it was a matter of mental and emotional maintenance. Just back from a grueling tour with Nanci Griffith, singer/songwriter Denice Franke was more than just disillusioned with the music business; she was disillusioned with herself. And while she realizes it might sound ungracious (after all, many…
Figaro al Fresco
At 6:30 on Friday evening, much of the audience for The Marriage of Figaro, Mozart’s most popular opera, was arriving outside Wortham Center. They toted their fold-up aluminum lawn chairs, their Igloo coolers, their Batman blankets. They wore Bermudas and gimme caps, cutoffs and Nikes. Some weren’t even a year…
Average John
John Wesley Harding has proven he isn’t the sort of singer/songwriter who lends himself well to major-label promotion. Telling adjectives slide off the guy like egg off well-greased Teflon. After a long but less than financially fruitful stay at Sire/ Reprise, the hard-to-describe, hard-to-sell guy is now the happy property…
The Larry David Show
Not since the death of Diana has there been a pop phenomenon as cataclysmic as the demise of Seinfeld. The surrounding hoopla has reached such, well, titanic proportions that it has turned the series’ saturnine co-creator — balding, bespectacled Larry David — into a cult celebrity. The press has presented…
Rotation
Various Artists Lilith Fair: A Celebration of Women in Music Arista When the ticket windows closed for the final time last fall, Lilith Fair had become the most successful festival tour of 1997, both financially and artistically. By then, Lilith founder Sarah McLachlan had gracefully ascended to the status of…
Out of Time
It’s the tail end of the 1996 California primary election, and incumbent Democratic Senator Jay Bulworth (Warren Beatty) is having a nervous breakdown. Sleepless for days, famished, he channel-surfs aimlessly in the darkness of his office, where, in a rare moment of lucidity, he has an inspiration: He arranges to…
Clubland
Houston jazz vocalist Marilynn Thibodaux is making the most of her sporadic Swank Lounge appearances as Luscious Caprice, her sassy, wardrobe-savvy alter ego. And so far, she’s been encouraged by the results. Especially receptive: the downtown nightclub’s diehard nocturnal set (that is, those urban daredevils willing to stay up way…