Knowles: Destiny’s Dad
In the ’80s, Mathew Knowles enjoyed a six-figure salary and the status of one of the few African-American sales executives at Xerox. But when he heard his daughter Beyonc — a musical prodigy before puberty — sing in a talent contest, he knew he had a star on his hands…
Good Vibrations
I walk into a living room filled with nine young ladies. It could be a Tupperware party. But none of the girls here is interested in keeping the carrots fresher longer or having a tidy container for storing leftover stew. No, they’re here for the dildos — the big fat…
The Press: 15 Rounds and Counting
In November 1989, a scrawny, 48-page tabloid took to the streets of the city, looking for a fight. The new Houston Press was trying to prove that — despite the many publications that had perished before it — an alternative newspaper could be a success. That first issue showed the…
The Warrior Ramirez
In May 1997, a struggling San Antonio artist named Joe Lopez was battling a severe case of stage fright. It came as he was preparing to take the podium at a press conference at the Houston Heights store called Casa Ramirez. Facing a crowd, cameras and reporters, Lopez froze. “I…
Pope: The Garden Gourmet
At the Midtown Farmers’ Market, which is held on Saturday mornings in the parking lot of Monica Pope’s restaurant, T’afia, organic farmers, bread bakers, coffee roasters and custom chocolate makers gather around their leader, Monica Pope. A passionate advocate of the “garden-to-table movement” and a charter member of the progressive…
Muse, with Razorlight
On record, Muse crafts profoundly moving ballads. Singer Matthew Bellamy’s falsetto trembles as if windblown, and the band’s symphonic slow-dance melodies could jerk tears from a stone. In concert, though, the group converts this intense emotional energy into pure volume. Like Queen, their equally melodramatic countrymen, Muse’s members are live…
Restless Pam
The new millennium was shaping up pretty badly for club pioneer Pam Robinson. After a long dispute with a couple of NIMBY newcomers to her ‘hood, she was forced to shut down Walter’s Ice House, her beloved Durham Street bar. What’s more, the longtime music fan was frustrated by Houston’s…
Hugo: The Humble Magician
Hugo Ortega grew up in Mexico City and made his way across the border looking for better opportunities. He got a job washing dishes at Backstreet Cafe in 1987. Two years later, he signed up for the culinary program at Houston Community College. By 1992, he had become a line…
To the Fruitmobile!
The Fruitmobile’s body might be lagging, but her spirit is strong. Right now, the old gal, a 1967 Ford station wagon, is sitting in Jackie Harris’s garage, being tended to by one of her friends. He’s giving it some sort of tune-up, while Harris, a former exotic dancer, looks on…
Rilo Kiley
Sheer charm can carry a band only so far. Just look at Rilo Kiley. Front lady Jenny is so charming you just wanna, I don’t know, brew her up some tea, make sure she has enough blankets, stuff like that. And that’s just on the strength of the candid band…
Ming’s Dynasty?
For better or for worse, the Yao Ming story has been about far more than what the seven-foot-six square-jawed center did on the court. That puts him right at home in a city that has always celebrated unique sports heroes — from Nolan Ryan to George Foreman to a certain…
A Compaq with the Lord
It’s a few days before Easter, and the old Compaq Center looks like a dusty skeleton of its eventual self. The arena buzzes loudly with heavy-duty construction work as Joel Osteen steps inside and surveys what will become the 16,000-seat home for his Lakewood megachurch when it moves in this…
Cooper: Queen Tamalalia
For almost ten years now, Tamarie Cooper has treated Houston audiences to the nutty particulars of her imagination. Dancing pieces of bacon, singing cockroaches and rented yellow school buses all have taken center stage in Tamalalia, her annual revue that guides the lucky few through the twists and turns of…
Fischerspooner
Now that electroclash has gone the way of countless rails of yayo, New York’s Fischerspooner confronts that difficult second album in a post-Scissor Sisters soundscape. Perhaps not coincidentally, Warren Fischer and Casey Spooner opt for a warmer, less processed sound on the follow-up to 2003’s #1, emphasizing songcraft over dance…
Mouth of the Dirty South
Last year OutKast hosted BET’s Top 25 Artist Countdown, a show wherein today’s hip-hoppers play and talk about their favorite videos of all time. Andre 3000 and Big Boi were then the reigning kings of not just hip-hop but also the wider music world. Half of their list was composed…
Caldwell: The Lord’s Business
You don’t usually expect your pastor to have an MBA from Wharton, but then again, you also don’t expect him to be a personal friend of the president. Over the last 23 years, the Reverend Kirbyjon Caldwell has transformed the Windsor Village United Methodist Church from tiny (25 members) to…
Myernick: Movin’ On Up
When you’re a teenager, moving to a new town is always hard. But it was harder still for Kelly Myernick, who at 14 relocated from Colorado to Houston to study with Houston Ballet’s Ben Stevenson Academy. She attended class all day at Lamar High School, practiced dance in the evenings…
Bowling for Soup, with American Hi-Fi and the Riddlin Kids
Here’s a band that’s a cluster of contradictions. It’s called Bowling for Soup, but the members are admittedly terrible bowlers and not big fans of soup. It’s a punk band, but it was nominated for the “Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group” Grammy in 2003. It’s made up…
Fertitta’s Dynasty of Dining
Odds are you hate him, but you have to give him his due: Nobody has made a bigger impact on the Houston restaurant scene in the last 15 years than Tilman Fertitta. Based in Galveston, his Landry’s entertainment empire includes 285 restaurants in 36 states with revenues of around a…
Lovable Lesbian Activist
Women in cowboy hats, tight jeans and hairstyles both long and cropped — whatever they consider their lesbian Saturday-night best — lean against the bar and couches of the 1415 Bar & Grill. Nancy Ford, comedian, is on stage hosting the weekly “Dyke Show,” singing a song inspired by what…
Watt’s Happenin’
Doors open at 9 p.m. Saturday, May 7. For advance tickets, call 713-874-1310 or visit www.gatsbysocialclub.com. $10 presale; $15 at the door.
Orange Is In, with Arthur Yoria and Pale
While they may not technically count as a local supergroup, Orange Is In is a super new group playing fine original melodic pop with adult sensibilities and point of view. Consisting of former members of the Basics, Under the Sun, Blender, Buddhacrush, Jimmy’s Pawn Shop, Carolyn Wonderland’s Imperial Monkeys and…
What About Bob?
When your name is Bob, and you’re a bartender who’s outlasted three owners at your place of employment, you deserve to have a sandwich named after you. Hence the Cozbob sandwich ($5.50) at Cosmos Cafe (69 Heights Boulevard, 713-802-2144). And it’s not just any old sandwich. Nestled inside a large…
The Zwicks: “Faith People”
Twenty-five years ago, Mark and Louise Zwick came to the sort of crossroads in their lives that explains pretty much everything that’s happened ever since. Mark, a parish social worker, was pacing the hallways of St. Theresa Catholic Church while Louise finished up her final interview for the position of…
This Week’s Day-by-Day Picks
Thursday, May 5 How best to celebrate Cinco de Mayo? Throw some African-American comedians together and have them make funny. We’re not joking, and apparently neither is the Improv, as it’s presenting “Cinco de Soul!” today. Local yuksters Billy D. Washington, Sam Demaris and Al Freemon will take the stage…
Johnny Sketch and the Dirty Notes
New Orleans has long been known for its sassy, greasy, badass funk. With their back-alley hipster lyrics, punchy brass and low-bottom-ized rhythm section, Johnny Sketch and the Dirty Notes come straight from that school — the one where the Meters, the Neville Brothers and Dr. John the Night Tripper profess…
Danburg: Montrose’s Davy
Like Davy Crockett clutching his musket at the Alamo, then-state representative Debra Danburg was outnumbered, isolated and intent to fight to the bitter end. Her supporters packed inside an urban fort. But in her 22-year battle to defend the gay denizens of Montrose from the state’s massive army of social…
We Want the Funk
— Bob Ruggiero
Glenn Tilbrook
The name Glenn Tilbrook is synonymous with the smart, snappy new-wave pop that he created with Chris Difford in Squeeze. But casual fans might not know that the Difford and Tilbrook partnership had Difford penning the lyrics and Tilbrook composing the music. Now that the group isn’t operational anymore, Tilbrook…
Big Mac
Writing about Jim “Mattress Mac” McIngvale brings on the urge to use bold-faced type and a thousand exclamation points. Mac is a man of color, of action; relegating him to the written word comes across as a slap in the face. Sure, he has an autobiography (Always Think Big), but…
Gimme Cinco
Sure, Napoleon was short, but that wasn’t the source of his complex. No, any historian worth the salt rimmed round a margarita glass will tell you it was the defeat of the munchkin’s superior French Army at the hands of a ragtag gang of Mexicans that made the little guy…
Cowboy Mouth
Remember the days when a band could come through town and sell a few thousand tickets, yet odds were that their albums weren’t even in the stores? Well, Cowboy Mouth is kinda like that, one of those bands that have a catchy name — you know you’ve heard of ’em…
Urban Jungle Jim
The Robert Altman movie Brewster McCloud, about a kid who tries to fly inside the Astrodome, surely has made lots of youngsters wish they had the power of flight. But it was an adult, Jim Pirtle, who actually bundled himself in pillows and leaped from the second floor of Zocalo…
Orient Express
SAT 5/7 They may look like vessels out of some fairy tale or opium dream, but the centuries-old tradition of Chinese dragon boat racing will turn Buffalo Bayou into the Yangtze River at the 2005 Houston Dragon Boat Festival. “It’s visually dynamic and requires a lot of teamwork,” says Texas…
We’re No Angels
Much of Crash, an L.A.-stories portmanteau about the suffocating embrace of racism, is hard to watch, harder still to listen to. Its characters — the creations of co-writer and director Paul Haggis but also of people who live next door and perhaps even inside of you — say and do…
Bucky’s Brains
When it comes to the big things, Richard Smalley isn’t interested. He doesn’t care for his office’s gigantic coffee machine. “I hate that thing,” says the Rice University professor. And he isn’t awed by the massive computer system on campus, which today has denied him an e-mail. Rather, the 61-year-old…
Dish-cotheque
FRI 5/6 The jet-setting, passport-and-visa-toting DJ duo Deep Dish — whose members Ali “Dubfire” Shirazinia and Sharam Tayebi are Iranian immigrants — knows the hassles of post-9/11 travel all too well. “It’s difficult, but we get by,” says Shirazinia. “Sharam wasn’t always an American citizen, but he is now.” Now…
Shock and Awful
It is no great joy to review Palindromes, the latest film from writer-director Todd Solondz, who is loved by those who do not loathe him for such movies as Welcome to the Dollhouse, Happiness and Storytelling. Advance word had Palindromes as Solondz’s most shocking film, which seemed impossible, given its…
High on Lowe
The sun is shining down on Rick Lowe — almost too much. The glare from a mosaicked table on Holman is making him squint as he greets passersby in the Third Ward. Everyone throws him a nod or a wave. The man, his famous dreadlocks now shorn, has become an…
Death to the Salesmen
FRI 5/6 The man-eat-man world of David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross is as dark as it gets. The burning story about a salesman who loses everything as he tries to hold onto his pathetic manhood takes place in a hellhole of a sales office, the sort of dingy place where…
Growing in Stages
What a difference a decade and a half can make. Since 1990, the Houston theater scene has positively blossomed. New venues, new companies and lots of new and innovative shows have spun H-town into the sort of city theater-lovers adore. Just look at the ever-changing skyline. By 1990, we were…
Lay of the Land
Near the pinnacle of Enron’s success in the late ’90s, CEO Ken Lay spoke to the editors of the corporate advice handbook Lessons from the Top. “I will always look for leadership over management skills in my senior people,” Lay told them. “What we are trying to do is create…
There’s No Place Like Home
If you are dissatisfied with your server, feel free to tell her or him. If your food is not right, tell the cook. If you think we have poor management, let us know…Otherwise, sit back and enjoy the drama and theatrics of our entertaining staff. However, if you don’t like…
Capsule Reviews
Medea Under the guidance of Euripides, one of the oldest playwrights in Western civilization, director/adaptor Charlie Scott has created what may be the most innovative, exciting and outrageously original piece of showmanship to grace a Houston stage this year: his dangerously delicious Medea, featuring the most infamous scorned woman of…
Swoopes: Hardwoods Homie
In her home in a quiet gated community on the west side of town, Sheryl Swoopes is being pulled in all directions. Just minutes back from a long day of errands, a week back from playing pro ball in Russia, and hours away from a trip to play a short…
Who Is Mike Jones?
If you have even a passing interest in local hip-hop, you already know the answer to the following question: “Who is Mike Jones?” And you also know that his cell number is 281-330-8004 and his Web site is www.whomikejones.com. And now, thanks in no small part to his canny marketing…
Capsule Reviews
“Evidence” Tracking trends in contemporary painting is as futile as clutching smoke. You can’t be sure until years later that what you’re promoting is going to catch fire, heat up your audience and interest them enough so they’ll spend their cash to collect it. Inman Gallery has mounted another of…
Eckels: The Son Also Rises
Ask Houstonians how they feel about Harris County Judge Robert Eckels, and they might sound like they’re talking about two different men. One might laud Eckels’s work to ease the area’s notorious traffic woes, and the other might express fear about a toll road tearing through the Heights. Over the…
Brighton Rock
Mary Jane’s Fat Cat, 4216 Washington Avenue, 713-869-5263.
Letters
Twisted Roots DNA tracing: I disagree with Bennett Greenspan’s inaccurate and misleading characterizations of myself and African Ancestry in John Nova Lomax’s article [“Who’s Your Daddy?” April 14]. Indeed, African Ancestry was never contacted for a response to Mr. Greenspan’s accusations. Mr. Greenspan accuses our company and me of overselling:…
The Passage of Paige
President Bush calls it holding schools accountable. Critics call it Every Child Left Behind. And the nation’s largest teachers’ union just filed suit over it. It’s the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, and one of its main backers was former HISD superintendent Rod Paige. Paige, W’s erstwhile secretary…
Codeine Country
On Sunday, April 17, the centerpiece story in the Arts and Entertainment section of The New York Times was a story about how, via the Slim Thug/Mike Jones/Paul Wall hit single “Still Tippin’,” Houston’s homegrown screw music was poised to take over the hip-hop nation. Screw — the slowed-down hip-hop…
Bloody Biking
Local bike activist Peter Wong has never shied away from contending with bureaucracies when it comes to issues concerning the two-wheeled community. Now he’s taking on one of the biggest sacred cows of all: the annual MS 150 charity ride to Austin. He volunteered to be in an ambulance for…