In the Doghouse
“This is where the puppies went down the drain,” John Nix says in a matter-of-fact this-is-where- the-coffee-pot-is voice. The automatic cage cleaners are designed to flush away feces, and on a few occasions, puppies got washed away, too. During the past 30 years, the City of Houston’s animal pound has…
Sepia Tone
The Latin name for cuttlefish is sepia; the color is named for the ink it uses to warn off predators. A cousin to squid and octopus, only much more tender, cuttlefish is popular in Asian cuisines. At A Dong (10780 Bellaire Boulevard, 281-498-8810), they prepare it as a house specialty…
Bad Reruns
The toilet backed up, overflowed and soaked the hardwood floors in raw sewage. On a Saturday morning, Olivia Jolly’s four-bedroom northwest Houston house was coated in three inches of human waste. “There was actual sewage and shit in our bathtub,” Jolly says. “The water went under the bathtub, soaked through…
Oliver’s Story
Now we know. Mayor Lee Brown came into office five years ago promising to institute neighborhood-oriented government. With the recent snap resignation of his highly regarded parks director-turned-chief of staff Oliver B. Spellman Jr., it seems that what the former Bill Clinton-era drug czar has actually delivered in the twilight…
Digest This
Digest This Checking the records: Tim Fleck’s article “Food Fight Indigestion” [October 24] was an excellent look at the lobbyist and insider fight for Houston’s lucrative $250 million airport concession contract. I would add only that campaign contributions also may have played a role. City Councilman Vasquez received at least…
DAM! Advertising
Carrie Moyer and Sue Schaffner have a bone to pick with corporate America. In the constant flow of ads force-fed to consumers, where are the lesbians? Like everyone else, they buy stuff, travel and eat. Eleven years ago, Moyer, a graphic designer, and Schaffner, a photographer, decided that if no…
Velocity = Size + Sound
Velocity Games is a universe unto itself, a dark chamber echoing with the sounds of cars, weapons and the cheers of video game players. They perch on large leather sofas under black lights that illuminate their white clothing, likening them to characters from the movie Tron. And appropriately so: Tron…
Miller’s Crossing
Funny how it all works out. “I remember when Beyoncé Knowles announced she was going to make a solo record, but Destiny’s Child was still gonna be a band,” Rhett Miller says on the phone from Los Angeles, where he’s lived off and on for the past few years. “I…
Romancing the Bones
Kim Nekroman, bassist and singer for Denmark’s punk oddities Nekromantix, barely seems to recognize the strangeness of his life. For example, as a former submarine radio operator in the Royal Danish Navy, he used to blast campy-punk icons the Cramps on the job. “It wasn’t that weird being on the…
Damn, That DJ Made My Day
I was in Amsterdam cooking a stir-fry for a house full of people when I got the news about 2Pac. I had stepped into the restroom for a moment. Mid-stream, a friend started pounding on the door hollering, “Oh, my God, they shot Pac! They shot Pac!” What, who, huh?…
Mark David Manders
The shot heard round the world fired by Jerry Jeff Walker on ¡Viva Terlingua! echoes through the music of Dallas open-mike veteran Mark David Manders. Much like the guru of good-time Texas country-folk, Manders makes easygoing Lone Star music filled with glimpses through the windshield and homespun observations. He also…
Ironing Out the Kinks
Post-Spinal Tap, it’s all but impossible to think of rock opera without cocking the dreaded raised eyebrow of irony. Such words as portentous, grandiose and bombastic come to mind when one thinks of Age of Aquarius relics like Tommy, Quadrophenia and Jesus Christ Superstar. But Ray Davies is no Pete…
Fatale Detraction
It’s possible that Brian De Palma’s latest movie is more ironic than the director realizes. Femme Fatale features a down-on-her-luck mother who was “replaced” seven years ago by her less benevolent, reputation-destroying, jewel-stealing doppelgänger (both are played by Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, who was apparently recommended to De Palma by Rollerball director…
Coheed and Cambria, with Hot Water Music, Thrice and Time in Malta
Coheed and Cambria is that rare band that can pull from contrary rock movements and not come out looking confused and pretentious. Influenced by the hardcore from nearby New York City and the pop of their suburban youth, the quartet flits between violent barks and suddenly sweet singing. With almost…
Caveman’s Valentine
The repellent Casanova portrayed by Campbell Scott in Roger Dodger has an instinct for looking up skirts and down cleavages, but no capacity for looking in the mirror. Part salesman, part caveman, Madison Avenue copywriter Roger Swanson is, deep in his cynical heart, as loathsome to himself as he is…
Mushroomhead
We got masks! We got masks! Unfortunately for Mushroomhead, the California hardcore band’s tawdry choice of apparel puts it squarely in the category of Slipknot wannabes, at least in the eyes of the casual observer. We question the wisdom of dressing up like a bunch of postapocalyptic Mexican wrestlers when…
Scared Suburban
After 40 years of books, films, plays and countless TV specials, it’s hard to imagine there’s anything new to say about the assassination of John F. Kennedy. But playwright Keith Reddin gives it the old college try anyway with Frame 312. Reddin’s play, complete with conspiracy theory, comes at us…
Houston Music Festival
Two of the many things that bring people from all over the world to New Orleans year after year are Mardi Gras and the Essence Music Festival. If it can work there, it can work here, right? Since Galveston already has the former covered with its version of Fat Tuesday,…
Gender Bender
ouston Grand Opera is making good on its promise that this will be “The Year of the Diva.” Never mind that two of the women in the company’s second offering of the season wear trousers. Women dressed as men, Pina Bausch-style dance theater and a wave machine — Ariodante has…
Cex
“I’m like the white Eminem,” Baltimore rapper Cex has snarkily said about himself. In a year when there seems to be more talented, alabaster-skinned MCs (El-P, the Streets) stepping up to the mike than ever, a white rapper officially attempting to give the almighty Marshall Mathers a run for his…
Memory Lane
So you remember the first place you lived as a child? It’s a safe bet that the way you remember the space has little to do with objective reality. The house you thought was cavernous and wonderful, your parents may have considered cramped and shoddy. A shimmering, malleable window into…
Front Page News
Otilia’s (7710 Long Point, 713-681-7203) is a media darling. In fact, the restaurant lists its newspaper accolades on the first page of its menu. Does that mean the proprietors of Otilia’s think more highly of their press coverage than their mole sauce? Not a chance in a gringo honeymoon. I…
See, Hear
The best thing about turning 80, insists the maestro who has been making music for movies for half of the medium’s lifetime, is that you no longer have to lie about anything to anyone. It’s too late for lies; the clock will no longer forgive deception. So you may feel…
Forbidden City Food
“Not frozen egg rolls, homemade egg rolls!” the proprietor of Peking Cuisine insists. I must have rolled my eyes a little when he said the lunch special came with hot and sour soup and an egg roll on the side. He was right: It’s a damn good egg roll. And…