Sunday in the Church with George
Eight days after he became world heavyweight champion before a TV audience of millions; seven days after he struggled through thousands of adoring fans at Intercontinental Airport; one day after he stood before some five hundred people as Mayor Bob Lanier proclaimed November 12 his day, George Foreman is back…
Worm’s Eye Hamlet
Consider the bit characters of the dramatic world. After they’ve strutted their 45 seconds on the stage, what occupies their time? Are they off eating dinner, spending time with their sweethearts, oblivious of the crucial moment when they’re needed to further by one turn of the wheel a story that,…
Life of a Poet
Nancy Evans has worked as an in-home caregiver assisting the elderly and disabled for more than 30 years, so she’s accustomed to dealing with human frailties in their most personal and physical form. But the scene she walked into when Adult Protective Services dispatched her to a modest home in…
The Extended Courtship of Phrogge Simons
Despite the humid morning air, Phrogge Simons looks surprisingly fresh in her olive-colored corduroy dress, especially for someone who’s been on a 22-month campout in downtown Houston. It’s the day after Election Day, and after almost two years of waging a guerrilla-style war against insiders in Harris County’s family courts…
What the Tide Brought In
Political unknown Steve Mansfield won a seat on the highest court of Texas criminal jurisprudence last week the same way he fished for dates in personal ads he placed in the Greensheet: with a self-confident pitch, a shoestring budget and a lot of double talk. The Houston lawyer now says…
Letters
Class Standing Regarding your comments that Tony Lindsay was appointed a district court judge fresh out of law school with little court experience [“Turkeys (And Other Creatures) on the Ballot,” by Tim Fleck, November 3], implying that she obtained the position because of her husband Jon Lindsay’s political clout, which…
Press Picks
thursday november 17 The Big Bayou City Biceps Bonanza A bevy of buff beefcake for Body Positive. See studs compete in “Mr. Sexiest Biceps in Houston,” “Mr. Arm Wrestling Champion of Houston” and “Mr. Rocky Balboa One-Arm Push-Up Champion.” Women will compete in Ms. versions of those contests and also…
Nutcracker Nosh
Among the trinkets and Christmas gewgaws crowding the Astrohall during the Houston Ballet Guild’s Nutcracker Market this week, shoppers will find a rarefied Texas smorgasbord of holiday foodstuffs — including a number of items guaranteed to wow your guests or make you a welcome sight on anybody’s doorstep. Where else…
Into the West
Few things are charismatic enough to send me out to the 13900 block of Westheimer, a neighborhood so far west that the air actually seems to contain less oxygen. But the riveting pepper snails produced by chef Art Scharhag at his obscure little bistro, Cafe European, are — as the…
Ecstatic Static
At the beginning of the song “Expecting Brainchild,” from Guided By Voices’ 1993 LP Vampire on Titus, a woman’s voice intones: “Bob, will you and Living Praise Choir lead us in ‘To God Be the Glory?'” It’s a silly gag, nothing more than a found religious recording inserted as a…
Rotations
Joe LoCascio Trio Silent Motion Tafford Music A mainstay of the local club scene for several years, pianist Joe LoCascio has recorded widely, with seven releases as a leader and many more as a session player, including a 1986 date with West Coast-cool idol Chet Baker near the end of…
Two Guys on a Goof
One of the joys of listening to early Ween tapes such as God Ween Satan and The Pod was the self-flattering illusion that hey, I could do this if only I were holed up on a Pennsylvania horse farm with my best friend, two pounds of pot, three cans of…
A Way with Words
There’s a lot of talk about the Townes Van Zandt/Guy Clark/Nancy Griffith triumvirate of Texas songwriters, and how they all came up through the Anderson Fair-anchored Houston folk circuit way back in the good old days, when the folk clubs were filled with actual folks paying good money to bask…
The Small and the Dreadful
What we feel in relation to something monumental is not the same as what we might feel were the same thing diminished considerably. In the small, there is a closeness with the object that cannot be experienced otherwise. This is especially true in sculpture, where reduction in size helps a…
Mamet at the Movies
When it comes to filmmaking, David Mamet is as hard to figure as the conflicted characters he writes about. In his screenplays that are remakes of earlier movies, he ignores his own voice — a voice so distinctive that it’s won him a Pulitzer Prize for drama — and instead…
The Sucking Game
The nation can rest easy now; another burning question has been answered. Tom Cruise can play a vampire, and he can do so well enough that you forget that you’re watching the star of Risky Business. But how great an achievement is this, really? Bloodsuckers come in all shapes these…