Living in Harmony
Wednesday night on Lower Westheimer is a tale of two types of erotica. At Helios, the erotic poetry night is a deliberate, pull-no-punches attempt to stir up the patrons. At Cafe Brasil, the all-star drum circle that is Global Groove does the job much more effectively without really trying. Racket…
Fa-fa-fashion
Every nightlife scene comes with its own rules of sartorial cool. If you head out to the downtown clubs, you’d better be dressed to the nines in the top Prada/DKNY/Men’s Wearhouse suits or maybe a pair of leather slacks. For the ladies, a leather tube-top/pants combo complete with the cowhide…
Patti Smith
Now that she’s been officially resurrected with a successful comeback album, a spot on Jay Leno and an adoring profile in The New Yorker titled “The Torch Singer,” what’s next for Patti Smith, the woman who’s gone from poet to painter to rock star to Detroit suburban homemaker and then…
Moses Guest
Like raising a tank full of Sea Monkeys, it’s always an interesting journey to watch a band grow from its embryonic beginnings to its artistic peak. But unlike those comic-book ads that promise tiny bike-riding, castle-dwelling fish-people instead of the little cannibalistic shrimp that they really are, Moses Guest delivers…
Pink
Pink wants everyone to know that she isn’t Britney Spears. She’ll yell it from the rooftops. She’ll tattoo it on her washboard midriff. She’ll hold a high school principal hostage just so she can scream it over the intercom during morning announcements. She’ll even sing it. Her latest album, M!ssundaztood,…
Tab Benoit
Never one to shy away from his Louisiana roots, this Cajun bluesman gives his most thorough musical exploration of the region yet on his latest CD, Wetlands. The scratchy guitar licks of “Feel Free” and the fine picking of “Down in the Swamp” stand out, as does the solid cover…
The Burden Brothers
Last year was supposed to be a good one for the Toadies. They had survived the Interscope Records roster purge; released their much-anticipated, long-delayed second effort, Hell Below/Stars Above; and front man/guitarist Todd Lewis was proclaiming that the Dallas band had hit its creative peak. But in just a few…
Medeski, Martin and Wood
During its nine-year run, Medeski, Martin and Wood has become all things to all people. The trio continues to satisfy the jazzbo crowd who count on the band’s Blue Note releases to bear the future-fusion torch. And somewhere along the way, the dreadlocked white-boy network stopped playing Hacky Sack for…
Unmasked At Last
The artist and his wife exited the Southern Pacific railroad station, stepped onto Franklin Street and hailed a taxi. Take us to the new university, please, the artist asked. Where? the cab driver asked. “Texas State University for Negroes.” The driver still had no idea. The artist pulled out a…
Flat Lyne
To the woman who broke Adrian Lyne’s heart all those years ago: Stop what you’re doing right this minute. Drop everything, pick up the phone and call him. Apologize profusely for cheating on him. Tell him it’s all your fault and you’re a worse person for leaving him. Offer him…
Making a Splash
Amid the maze of detours and barricades and road construction, next week may be the only time central city leaders are actually eager to announce plans for yet another downtown street closing. And this one would be permanent. A press conference and luncheon are scheduled for the formal unveiling of…
Revolting
Last month GQ ran a disquietingly flattering profile of Joe Roth, who, in January 2000, quit his gig as Walt Disney Studios chairman to “revolutionize the industry” (GQ’s words) by forming his own studio. With a billion bucks on loan from men with money and bridges to burn — among…
Tough Sailing
A legal battle brewing in Houston’s First Court of Appeals raises two pressing questions: 1. What is it with Vinson & Elkins and shredding? 2. And what is it with Judge Brent Gamble and simple paperwork? The 270th District judge is fighting for his political career because he listed the…
Car Culture
In the year 2000, 41,821 people were killed and 3,189,000 were injured in an estimated 6,394,000 motor vehicle traffic crashes in the United States; 4,286,000 accidents involved property damage only. These numbers come from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which goes on to note that those fatality figures represent…
Tales of Rail
Arthur Louis Schechter, known as Butch to his friends, flew to Washington in 1993 to witness a special event. His mode of transport was better than first class: a seat on Air Force One with then-president Bill Clinton as a traveling companion. The trip itinerary featured the signing of the…
Murder in Small Town X
Dublin, Missouri, may be small (population 4,780), but apparently it’s also swinging. The community theater is putting on St. Joan by George Bernard Shaw, the local cheese maker is concocting a world-class designer provolone, and one very bad rich boy is about to be voted into the state legislature. There’s…
Hearst 1, Baylor 0
When Houston Chronicle editor Jack Loftis made noises about retiring this year, most people at 801 Texas assumed things would go pretty much as they had in the past — everyone would move one rung up the ladder and the so-called Baylor Mafia of editors would continue their tepid, gray…
All Play and No Work
Actors and audiences have a shaky relationship. If actors are going to work virtually for free, they occasionally want to venture outside the 1,000th production of Neil Simon to try their hand at Shakespeare or Ionesco. If theatergoers are going to shell out their hard-earned money for tickets, they want…
Saving Babies
Saving Babies End the shame: Reading your story brought tears to my eyes [“Rock-A-Baby Bye-Bye,” by Wendy Grossman, April 25]. I have a one-year-old son whom I love with all my heart. My baby was a planned pregnancy and I wanted him. However, in the months that I carried my…
Planet Hemingway
Floridita’s double daiquiri is heavy, the glass frost-rimmed. I gaze into the liquid greenness just below the frapped top, and it reminds me of the sea — and a novel called Islands in the Stream, in which a character named Thomas Hudson gazes into his frozen daiquiris and thinks of…
Child of Happenstance
Isabel Allende was sitting in a diner, mulling over her book Daughter of Fortune when she spotted the novel’s main character, Eliza, pouring coffee. When the waitress approached, the author blurted, “You’re so beautiful, you must be Chilean!” Actually, the young woman’s porcelain skin and oval eyes were due to…
Berry Busy
It’s not very noticeable, the small sign behind the bar that says, “Franchises now available. Inquire within.” But somebody must have spotted it while waiting for their cold beer and fish tacos, because Berryhill’s Hot Tamales is selling faster than, well, hot tamales. The restaurant concept that started in a…
Albino Asparagus
White asparagus is a national obsession in Germany this time of year. Many restaurants there offer special dinner menus with asparagus in every course. Chef John Schuster of Houston’s Charivari Restaurant (2521 Bagby, 713-521-7231) once owned an eatery in Germany’s Black Forest region, so we called him to see if…
Grimm Reality
Ten years ago in an interview with British journalist Allan Vorda, Clementine Hall, wife of 13th Floor Elevator Tommy Hall, verbally etched this epitaph for the pioneering psychedelic Texas rock band: “Our generation took a lot of drugs, and to some extent we were damaged by the trips we took…
Wild Turkeys Can Fly
Around the corner from the city’s oldest bar, La Carafe, sits the city’s second-oldest building, constructed around 1820. The first thing you notice about the Twelve Spot (218 Travis, 713-222-1962) is how far up the brick walls go before they finally connect with the roof. To get an idea of…
Human Nature
It’s easy to make Damian Higgins laugh. All you have to do is ask him how much work it takes to put together a mix CD. He’s not even writing the songs, just digging through his record crates to find a dozen or so tracks to string together into one…
Where the Wild Things Are
The oh-so-proper Bistro Lancaster (701 Texas Avenue, 713-228-9502) lets loose on its dinner menu with the fricassee of wild mushrooms ($10), a festive dish of fresh, flavorful fungi simmered in red wine. Joining the trio of wild mushrooms are black truffles and cubes of apple-smoked bacon. Roasted sweet potatoes lend…