Blood Feud
Until last year, no one had any reason to doubt Dr. Elizabeth Johnson’s work. A molecular biologist who had done postdoctoral work in hematology at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Johnson was hired in 1991 to set up a DNA testing laboratory for the Harris County Medical Examiner’s Office. One testing…
The Insider
Down at the End of Lonely Street… The players in the FBI sting at City Hall had best be getting their new court wardrobes in order, with an accent on lightweight summer attire, because a special grand jury is being impaneled to begin hearing the government’s evidence, possibly as early…
Letters
The Best … and the Rest Your May 9 cover article “Bitter Lesson” [by Michael Berryhill] demonstrates the political infighting that occurs in school systems around the state. This type of struggle probably goes back to ancient Greece. It also explains why citizens are unhappy with their school system. Having…
Press Picks
thursday may 30 Book and author dinner Austin mystery writer David Lindsey has written yet another book, Requiem for a Glass Heart, and he’ll talk about this book, his career and his penchant for setting books in Houston at a special dinner for his fans. Lindsey is also the author…
Heaven, or Hell?
Given the duality behind the theme of the new Saints & Sinners, maybe it’s appropriate that I’m of two minds about the place. At times, the angel-and-devil-themed decor strikes me as engagingly goofy; at other times, it simply seems cheesy. The halos and pitchforks that are sprinkled throughout the menu…
Static
Non Stop adjustments… Change is nothing new for Non Stop Bombers — and neither is chaos. Less than two years into the Houston rap-metal group’s existence, bassist/songwriter Jay Schneider is now the only original member left to tell the story of the group’s dizzying progression of lineup snafus and bitter…
Squeezebox Serenade
Ridiculing the accordion is no longer fashionable, especially now that the instrument has wiggled its way into almost every imaginable musical sphere. Much of the credit for the resurgence belongs to Texas and Louisiana, where squeezeboxers toiled in the shadows before leading the charge into the spotlight. The versatility of…
Playing Dumb
You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to understand Atticus Finch. The Houston quartet’s songs aren’t all that complex; their post-grunge guitars plod along much like scads of other Pearl Jam/Soundgarden wannabes. So it may surprise the band’s detractors that a real rocket scientist (sort of) heads the band…
Sound Check
In 1971, as they transported boxes of their very first release — by a crusty North Carolina banjo picker named George Pegram — to the basement of their ramshackle house in Somerville, Massachusetts, it’s not likely that the three founders of Rounder Records were imagining the future: an independent record…
Talk Soup
It would be hard to like playwright Nicky Silver if he weren’t funny, and the same can be said about his new play, The Food Chain, at the Alley’s Neuhaus Stage. In person, rather than chatting, Silver offers a monologue. Similarly, his play doesn’t really allow for dialogue between characters;…
Lesson in Survival
If slavishly adapting to trends has increasingly become the “alternative” norm, then count the Posies among the ever-declining number of real nonconformists. Since 1988, they have quietly and persistently gone about their business as Seattle’s sensitive, pop-minded outcasts, apparently relishing their role as that grunge-soaked city’s milder option. Privately, though,…
New Shapes
The Houston Ballet could be in trouble. That’s one of the things that comes through clearly in the company’s current production of Four Last Songs, Image and Bartok Concerto, three short works choreographed by Ballet Artistic Director Ben Stevenson. This mixed rep program marks prima ballerina Janie Parker’s penultimate performance…
Sunday Spice
An interesting twist on the standard Sunday-brunch fare of omelets and French toast can be had at Thai Spice, the only Thai restaurant in town I know of that offers a Sunday brunch buffet. It’s no surprise that Thai food, sturdy and intensely flavored, holds up well on a buffet’s…
Black Is Back
Shaft? Damn right. And Super Fly, Foxy Brown and Sweet Sweetback, too. Throughout June at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, you can return to those thrilling days of yesteryear — i.e., the 1970s — with Blaxploitation Bijoux, an affectionate overview of low-budget, high-concept action melodramas that defined one of…
Buddy and the Beast
If there were such a thing as an Academy Award for Best Computer-Generated Actor, it would be hard to imagine a more worthy Oscar hopeful than Draco, the flying and fire-belching behemoth who figures prominently in Dragonheart. To be sure, it helps a lot that this scaly superstar is blessed…
Space Case
The sky turned green a few months back, from Dallas all the way to the Gulf. “A lot of people saw it,” the man was saying, and if you didn’t, you weren’t looking, and you’ll never see anything if you don’t look. He had begun speaking of lights that came…
On the Ropes
The bare white walls of his apartment reveal no clues to his fame. There are no photos of his bouts with Muhummad Ali, Sonny Liston and Ernie Terrell. The polyester curtain sags from the rod. His silver walking cane rests on a muddy brown flowered sofa. Plastic prescription bottles cluster…
Gassed
Harold Sjogren was tooling down Westheimer in his Volkswagen camper three months ago when he noticed his gas gauge hovering near empty. In what he thought was a stroke of good fortune, Sjogren happened by the Westheimer Super-Mart, which was offering Conoco regular unleaded for a bargain-basement 99 cents a…