Sidewalk Service
Hardly a day goes by that some disgruntled homeowner doesn’t call the city Public Works Department and complain of a cracked driveway or sidewalk, or drainage problems that result in pools of water on lawns or pavement every time it rains. Would the city please come out and make repairs?…
Insider
Tiff at the Midtown T.I.F. The recent resignation of the development director of the Midtown Redevelopment Board has sparked concern on the part of at least one board member that participants in the public-private agency are using it as a vehicle for personal benefit. Allen Crosswell, the former development director…
Where the Buffalo Roams
Houstonians are accustomed to hearing the words “Buffalo Bayou” immediately preceding the sentence fragment “has flooded again after a torrential downpour.” But city leaders hope residents will begin to view the area as the epicenter of downtown redevelopment, beginning with “The Bayou Beckons”; Saturday’s event celebrates the completion of $20…
Night & Day
thursday may 7 Trilling like a songbird caught in a storm, Canada’s Jonatha Brooke created her own mini-monsoon with the 1995 album Plumb. Though she’d been around since the dawn of the decade, Brooke broke through stateside — well, sorta — with her fine third disc. Because of the ongoing…
Hot Plate
Sick to death of nachos? So am I. There’s no avoiding them anymore. I hear they’re even cropping up at bridge parties. Ugh! And as for those corn chips: Well, the less said the better. But before you give up on nachos entirely, you should know this: There’s a new…
Letters
Good Work Just read your article on the Rodney Ellis verbal gaffes [Insider, “The Rodney and Lenoria Show,” April 30]. Keep up the good work. Christopher Robey via Internet Racist Whinings In regard to Russell Contreras’s biased article on the University of Houston’s Frontier Fiesta [“Frontier Fiesta,” April 30]: I’ve…
Dish
Tapas of the Town I love tapas for the same reason I often prefer movie previews to the full feature. I revel in the freedom to jigsaw an assortment of “little bites” into a meal, without committing to a single entree. I also relish the traditional relationship between tapas and…
Gore Tex
“I guess it’s kind of like one of those old-fashioned Amish barn raisings, except instead of a good, honest day’s work and neighborly kindness, we were dealing with cults, demonic rituals and lawyers,” says local filmmaker Tim Thomson of Possession Is Nine Tenths of the Law, a no-budget horror movie…
Close Enough
Lately, Amy Grant’s been showing a side of herself forgotten of late, one that is more personal and revealing, not to mention distinctly less slick. Obviously, there are limits to the breezy pop of more recent Grant hits like “Baby Baby” and “Lucky One” — the chief complaint being that…
Static
A new and improved Dennis? … “It’s the whole package — you’ve got to have a package to get across,” explains Dennis Lange from his cluttered office near the Richmond strip. The package in question is for Lange’s latest pet project, the Sheila Marshall Band. Lying on the desk in…
Steady Eddie
It’s after 2 a.m. on a Monday morning, Houston time, when Eddie Van Halen calls for a thrice-scheduled interview. But the guitar virtuoso of the storied band that bears his name isn’t phoning from some whiskey-besotted post-gig soiree. He’s dialing from a hotel room in Australia, where it’s actually late…
Sisterhood Is Powerful
Main Street Theater bills its current production, The Sisters Rosensweig, by Wendy Wasserstein, as the highlight of its season — and for once, such self-promotion is absolutely right. This thoughtful, if subdued, production brings to the stage a quietly funny story about sisterhood, self-discovery and falling in love at middle…
Simple Case
As a kid, Peter Case played for years at the Hamburg, New York, Unitarian church, before dropping out of school at 15 and running away to the West Coast. Since then, he’s been a party to nearly every rock movement of the last 30 years. He was a homeless busker…
Building Interest
The little red lapel pin that got me into the “Art and Architecture” symposium in Marfa, Texas, two weekends ago turned out to be a very hot item. The Chinati Foundation, which organized the symposium, was deluged with requests from Los Angeles and New York, with many people offering to…
Rotation
Soul Asylum Candy from a Stranger Columbia It’s taken Minneapolis’s Soul Asylum three albums and ten years to shed their sloppy, garage-band-in-overdrive baggage. So you could say the new Candy from a Stranger is a watershed of sorts for the band’s core membership — with its comfy, middle-of-the road feel,…
Duncan Hindsight
When she began performing more than 100 years ago, Isadora Duncan’s bare feet and uncorseted body shocked Victorian audiences and drew their attention away from her remarkable new technique. This week, less-inhibited Houstonians can evaluate Duncan’s extraordinary contributions to dance for themselves thanks to the Isadora Duncan Project, which commemorates…
Clubland
Peccavi’s future has been a blur since the tragic murder of owner Al Barretto seven days after the semi-exclusive establishment opened its doors in late 1997. The successful nightclub entrepreneur was stabbed to death December 18 of last year while escorting an unruly customer out of Crystal, another of his…
Deja Vu All Over Again
Henry Jaglom’s movies offer everything that Americans hate about French films, but with little of the philosophical depth or visual daring that marks the best French cinema. He captures the annoying qualities of Woody Allen movies — the self-absorption, the feigned feminism, the pretentiousness — without achieving anything like Allen’s…
Chips, Salsa — and Merengue
I should begin, I suppose, by apologizing to the — well, let’s play safe and call them the Fabers. Sorry, guys. We stole your table. Truthfully, though, it wasn’t our fault. Several of us turned up at Elvia’s last Saturday and plunked ourselves down at the first table we saw…
Old School
One of the few seemingly spontaneous bursts of energy at the recent Oscar ceremony was provided by motor-mouthing Dutch director Mike van Diem, who seemed genuinely surprised to have won the award for Best Foreign Film for his debut feature, Character. If the commercial popularity and Oscar sweep for Titanic…
Parting Shot
When he answers the door, he is shirtless and unshaven, an old man with a bulldog’s underbite but no front teeth. “Ah, shut up, you!” he growls at his barking dog. The dog shuts up but leaves a puddle between its legs. “Ah, now you peed on the floor!” he…
Upping the Ante-Up
You’re at the corner of Westheimer and, say, Chimney Rock, trying to head west at 5:30 p.m. In other words, you’re in hell. Nothing but cars in front and back of you, waiting in vain for any movement through another light change. You sit and curse the brainless idiots who…
Sancho Panza Takes the Stand
Prosecutor Mike Attanasio conducted his cross-examination of Hotel Five defendant John E. Castillo last week like a speed chess player, each of his questions as short and dramatic as the slap of a player’s hand on a timer. The graying, 58-year-old councilman had taken the enormously risky gambit of testifying…