Empire of the Son
Given a choice between a small family-run restaurant or gravitational-pull establishment like Kim Son, I tend to float toward — breaking all known laws of physics in the process — the mom-and-pop eatery. Besides, when an empire grows as powerful as Kim Son (four locations! 182 items on the regular…
News of the Weird
Lead StoriesScotland Yard detectives said they overestimated the number of dead in a fiery London commuter-train crash in October because some survivors had walked away quickly and left town, spontaneously deciding to start new lives. (Detectives know this because several changed their minds and returned home.) After an announcement that…
Hot Plate
Gobble, Gobble: Get warmed up for Thanksgiving with a big cold scoop of pumpkin pie ice cream at Hank’s Ice Cream Parlor [9291 Main, (713)665-5103]. Every creamy bite tastes magically like the real thing, sweet pumpkin custard fragrant with cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and allspice, and thickly studded with bits of…
Cortés, the Killed
I was stunned to learn from Melanie Knight [“Snack Food,” November 4] that the Cortés Restaurant, most recently located at 404 North Shepherd, had closed. Say it ain’t so, I wailed. I drove straight over and, sure enough, the place was shuttered and dark, and the sign out front had…
Better Days
In music, as in life, there’s a big difference between being a character and possessing character. It’s a distinction that bandleader Jerry Lightfoot appreciates. As the earnestly focused guitarist fronting The Essentials and a longtime behind-the-scenes force in the unification of local blues culture, Lightfoot has earned a reputation among…
Where Is He Now?
(Voice-over): Welcome to VH1’s Where Are They Now? Tonight, a look at one of rock’s true guitar virtuosos. (Cue: photo of Rik.) A master of the six-string, Rik Emmett finger-picked his way out of the obscure recesses of the Canadian wilderness (cue: photo of Rik sitting in his backyard) into…
Bored? Tired?…
So Lilith Fair skipped Houston this year. Big deal. The way L7 lead babe Donita Sparks sees it, you didn’t want to go anyway. It would have been a yawn. That’s why she and her three bandmates, Suzi Gardner, Dee Plakas and Janis Tanaka, hired a small plane to fly…
Wise Young Man
Learning to be patient takes some people years, maybe even a lifetime. Jason Moran is already grasping the virtues of that principle; of course, the young jazz pianist had a good teacher, the late Jaki Byard, who taught Moran the benefits of waiting your turn. When Moran was a sophomore…
Rotation
Eve Ruff Ryders’ First Lady Ruff Ryders/Interscope Sole Skin Deep DreamWorks This may piss off many brothas, but it has to be said: Lil’ Kim and Foxy Brown are straight-up embarrassments to rap. They’re not progressive. They’re just eye candy. For every 20 half-nekkid studio sistas in rap videos, there…
Local Rotation
Jack Saunders Blue Shadows White Cat Records Houstonians with an ear for intelligent folk-flavored music have likely crossed paths with Jack Saunders over the past 20-plus years. He moved here in 1976 and eventually established himself on the regional singer-songwriter circuit via his collaboration with longtime partner Shake Russell. As…
You Say It’s Your Birthday
Jeff Wells remembers the day he wanted to be in the music biz. It was winter 1964, and Wells was walking down his neighborhood street near the West Belt at I-10 when, through the transistor radio in his hand, came the Beatles’ “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” “I said,…
Shame, Shame, Shame
Ted Poe, the judge who deals every day with junkies who can’t kick their habit, is not given to doubt. At least publicly. But maybe, just maybe, at three in the morning sometimes, a terrible dream comes to him. He stands penitently in a dark courtroom. There are no reporters…
Space Cadets
If you believe Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth, Sun Ra and his Arkestra can be held at least partially responsible for the ’80s/’90s revolution in indie rock led by Moore’s band and others. Music futurist and self-proclaimed man from Saturn, Ra was one of the forefathers of free jazz, having…
Carlos Chaves, Mall Surgeon
Even before the police raided Switch, the hair salon seemed out of place — wrong for quiet, upscale Town & Country Mall, and especially wrong in the mall’s quietest and most upscale end, nestled in the elbow between Neiman-Marcus and Saks. Money hangs heavy in the air there, and the…
Voice Activated
Brandon Teena’s turbulent life and tragic death have inspired a whole slew of creative endeavors, including several books, a documentary, a film (the recently released Boys Don’t Cry) and now a surprising and haunting play, running at the Little Room Downstairs Theater. What sets Leigh Silverman’s Brandon Teena apart from…
The Deal Busters
In the strip-center wilds of Westheimer beyond the Beltway, the election-night crowd munched on Pappa La Rosa’s cheese sticks and spicy ravioli, savoring early reports of success in their insurgent effort to detonate the downtown arena deal. The heroes of the moment, wizened Harris County GOP Chair Gary Polland and…
Burn The Messenger
Luc Besson, director of La Femme Nikita, The Professional and The Fifth Element, is not the first name that would leap to mind to helm a biopic of Joan of Arc. Sure, he’s French, and sure, most of his films have women/girls as protagonist or savior; but this is a…
Strong Reservations
Vacationing in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Kenyon Weaver was cold. He pulled out his school sweatshirt, but his mother wouldn’t let him put it on. “You can’t wear that,” said Jacqueline Weaver, a UH law professor. Kenyon was then a sophomore at Lamar High School, and his mother believed the…
Glossed Over
Susan Sarandon is one of the screen’s most gifted actresses, a fiercely intelligent artist who invests her roles with depth, compassion, wit and humor. She has the ability to elevate even mediocre material, taking a potentially schmaltzy part, as in Stepmom, and making it totally believable. In her best films,…
Smart Box
Tall and wire-thin, with a light cloud of curly auburn hair, Andy Mann darts back and forth in his kitchen, making dinner. Navigating the cramped space between sink, countertop and stove, the subversive genius of video art rinses every used dish or utensil clean as he goes. He wears all…
Life’s Even More Beautiful
The spirit of Fellini hovers over Train of Life, the third so-called holocaust comedy to come down the pike. Far superior to either Life Is Beautiful or Jakob the Liar, the French-language production has a silliness and a buffoonish humor reminiscent of Amarcord and Roma, yet somehow it feels neither…
Soft Core
Dave Attell is, several layers down, a man who is not unmoved by the button-eyed charms of a monkey. One hears a lot about Attell’s edgy side — and thanks to regular “The Ugly American” features on The Daily Show, his shaved head, stevedore’s build and sharp commentary are now…
Great moments courtesy of Ted Poe
1997 – Drunk driver who killed two must attend autopsy of a drunk driver’s victim, parade with a sign in front of a bar and put flowers on his victims’ graves on their birthdays 1996 – Wife-beater has to apologize on City Hall steps 1994 – Drunk driver who killed…
Latin Con-Fusion
God knows, I wanted to like Ruggles Bistro Latino. The promise of a swanky downtown location, hot music and sexy Latin food pegs my personal Swoon-o-Meter. Instead, ten minutes into my first visit, I could have wept, though I doubt I’d have been heard over the throbbing Ricky Martin soundtrack…
Real or Satire?
Television viewers these days are absolutely flummoxed when it comes to the local news. How do they possibly tell what’s real and what’s a satire? Take November 2. Channel 26 breathlessly broke into its regular programming to hyperventilate for its viewers while giving them the earthshaking news that a Houston…