Letters
Spin Dry Hobart Rowland no doubt bought in to the teenybopper hype that plagues the “Rave Scene” [“Houston’s Underground Spin City,” October 15]. Why? Because he missed focusing on the talent that goes into DJ-ing. The focus of his story should have been Chris Anderson and Andrei Morant, who both…
News of the Weird
Lead Stories *In October the New York Times reported on an emerging mental health condition called “uplift anxiety,” in which Prozac users who were uplifted by the drug grieve for their former selves because, in the words of a writer who has overcome depression: “The most fundamental aspect of yourself…
An Open Mike Poetry Slam-pler
Ah, the 21st-century Open Mike Poetry Reading: Shameless public self-gratification or shamanistic poet/audience communion? Embracing social event for fledgling writer/performers, or embarrassing evidence that we never got enough attention as children? God knows what possesses us to ever write a poem in the first place, much less to read it…
Night & Day
Thursday November 12 Jimmy Hanrahan is a Texas boy made, well, fashionable. As MTV’s senior wardrobe stylist, he’s supposed to “quickly transfer fashion trends to MTV’s 80 million style-conscious viewers.” He’s the man behind Daisy Fuentes’s breast-enhancing bustiers, Dan Cortese’s sleeveless T-shirts, Vanessa Williams’s long, lean gowns, and many of…
Pony Up
For 364 days a year (closed Christmas), Sam Houston Race Park opens its doors to hardcore bettors who come to stare at simulcast screens. There’s even a special building set aside for them on the grounds. Such is a pro’s life. But with the start of the fall ’98 thoroughbred…
Weak Robber
The folks at Masquerade Theatre produced some of the best tiny-budget, small-cast, head-shaking wow-what-a-wicked-good-show-that-was sort of musicals during their inaugural season last year. Thus, they are allowed, even obliged — given that we learn most from our mistakes — to produce a big fat egg now and again. The Robber…
Hot Plate
Guests at Sabine (1915 Westheimer, 529-7190) are greeted with a lovely plate of fresh baked-in-house breads with an intriguing trio of dip, jelly and butter. Use this inside info from executive chef Aaron Guest to win bets with your fellow diners: The black-eyed pea hummus substitutes black-eyed peas, of course,…
User-Friendly Abstraction
In the last several years, abstract art — which had seemed an antiquated practice — has been resurrected. In Houston, as in other parts of the country, a loose-knit tribe of artists seek to recharge the form by shifting it closer to life. Their user-friendly paintings replace the forbidding seriousness…
Dish
Goodbye to Al Geranium’s The abrupt shuttering of Al Geranium’s Garden Bistro in mid-October came as a surprise to customers, employees and even the landlord. The property manager for R. M. Crowe, Maria Flores, tersely confirms that the closing was premature in terms of the lease contract, and adds, “The…
American History Xploitation
American History X, a hard-edged look at American neo-Nazis, arrives in theaters with a lot of behind-the-scenes baggage: First-time director Tony Kaye has engaged in a protracted, high-profile battle with distributor-producer New Line Cinema over the film’s final form. From the outside it’s hard to judge whether this is a…
Magic Flutes
Around 330 B.C., Aristotle wrote in his Politics: “The flute is not an instrument that has a good moral effect: It is too exciting.” Better remembered but more widely disputed are Mozart’s sentiments about the ancient instrument. In a letter to his father on February 14, 1778, he said he…
Irregular Joe
Well, now we know why the term “bored to death” was invented. Meet Joe Black takes an interesting idea — Death assumes human form and comes to earth to learn about human existence — and reduces it to a flat, uninspired, interminably slow movie. Not only slow but long: a…
The Good Fight
Someone has to take the blame for the swing revival’s cigar-chomping, martini-swilling madness and rampant retro-fashion sense. And right now, Royal Crown Revue is happy to shoulder the brunt of it. “We pretty much take responsibility for doing this first, turning on most of these other people playing in all…
Great Dane Dogma
Denmark was the first Scandinavian country to have a film industry, but — with the exception of the revered Carl Dreyer (The Passion of Joan of Arc, Ordet), whose career lasted from the middle silent era through the sixties — the nation’s filmmakers until recently functioned in the shadow of…
Into the Groovy
Let me begin by stating that I have seen Simon Reynolds do the methylenedioxymethamphetamine boogie. Moreover, I have, on occasion, shared water bottles with him. This seems important to note for two reasons. One is to reveal that books are sometimes reviewed by colleagues and/or friends of the author. (And…
Stock Shock
First, a disclaimer: Having missed last year’s I Know What You Did Last Summer, I deliberately put off seeing it until after viewing its sequel, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer. That way I could view part two without prejudice, as well as be able to judge whether…
Rotation
Alanis Morissette Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie Maverick/Reprise When all was said and done, Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill snagged four Grammys, sold a staggering 28 million copies worldwide, spawned five multi-format hit singles in the United States, and thrust her into the position of the symbolic saint for angry young…
In the Line of Fire
The last thing John McLemore wanted to do was work another weekend. The Waco TV reporter had spent the entire month of February in Houston covering the grisly murder trial of serial killer Kenneth McDuff, and he was looking forward to some quiet time at home with his wife. So…
Tex-Mex Tyranny
Until I dined at Lupe Tortilla’s, I’d never encountered a restaurant with a rulebook. It’s described as “frequently asked questions,” but make no mistake: These are rules and they will be enforced. No substitutions. No incomplete parties. No separate checks. No reservations. No happy hour. No cooking to order. No…
Under Siege
For most politicians, the scene would be a breeze-through photo op: “Mayor teaches local children how to read.” But Cipriano Romero, the mayor of the city of South Houston, has invested more than that. Romero has been mentoring children in his city every week for the past five years. This…
Winning Efforts
The Houston Press received top honors in this year’s Dallas Press Club Katie Awards, being named the best non-daily newspaper in the competition. In addition, staff writers Brian Wallstin and Randall Patterson each received first-place awards. Wallstin won in the general interest category for his story “A Question of Life.”…
No Room at the Rice
The Insider’s recent exploration of the politics and finances of the Rice [“Castles for Welfare Kings,” October 15] provoked at least one attentive reader to action. Sheila Graves, a 38-year-old downtown bank clerk, read with interest the news that the owner of the renovated hotel, Houston Housing Finance Corporation, required…
GOP Sweeps Week
In a darkened side room off the Crystal Ballroom at the Rice Hotel, the crinkled, bearded face of former Texas lieutenant governor Bill Hobby glowed ghostly in the moon-like aura of a computer screen. Midnight had come and gone, but Hobby and a tense, mostly silent circle of campaign staff…