Spun From the Underground
The surge of humanity is impressive for a Wednesday. Within the course of an hour — from 11 p.m. to midnight — the temperature in Cardi’s nightclub jumps ten degrees. On the dance floor, blurred visual trails from whipsawing arms and legs compose a disorienting collage. The music drives along…
In the Black
Everyone wins at an all-day, live-music marathon like Fall Jam IV. The radio station (in this case, KLOL/101.1 FM) gets plenty of publicity, and listeners get to see a lot of acts — perhaps even a few of their heroes — at a reasonable cost. Even better, this year’s Fall…
Abatement by Any Other Name…
For a few days, Belinda Crimmins figured she and her three-year-old son, Patrick, might be coming down with matching colds. First stuffy heads, then runny noses, then coughing, and finally a pair of uncharacteristic migraines. She took their temperatures to check for fever, but their temperatures were normal. “And then…
Rotation
Juliana Hatfield Bed Zoë/Rounder You could say that Bed is an experiment of sorts, a time-killer on a small label as Juliana Hatfield searches out a permanent home. The former Blake Baby turned moderately successful solo artist admits that this is a transitional album, and it certainly comes across as…
Grand Prix Profits
Houston Department of Public Works Director Jerry King didn’t think twice when he signed the letter. He’d only been on the job a couple of days, and the sheet of paper requiring his autograph was but one in a massive stack that seemed to have no end. Had he read…
Blues for Freddie
Freddie King is not alive to battle those who would seek to profit from his legend. The blues guitarist, a man whose music inspired the likes of Stevie Ray and Jimmie Vaughan and Eric Clapton, has been dead since December 28, 1976, when years of bleeding ulcers and pancreatitis caused…
The Wrong Enemies
This spring, it was just his underlings and the city’s criminal-defense bar who were annoyed with interim U.S. Attorney James DeAtley. Now the area’s federal judges are getting angry, and in terms of enemies to have lined up against you, that’s a big step up. The judges have written a…
Static
New Kidd in town… Tara Murski is all about Kelly Kidd. So naturally, she thinks we should be, too. Frankly, the way she goes on about this Houston pretty boy, he damn well better be the next national dance sensation — or she just might have a breakdown. The only…
Castles for Welfare Kings
Welfare-reform rhetoric pervades the stump speeches of both Democratic and Republican politicians these days, as the public gets down on lazy poor people who don’t work for a living. But one category of welfare recipient that has so far escaped much public scrutiny — and any political outcry in Houston…
Downtown and Down-home
There are better restaurants than Treebeards, certainly, but I don’t know of any that are held in higher regard. Treebeards is that rare case, a restaurant that actually inspires affection. And not just among a small cadre of loyalists. Go there any midday, and you’ll encounter tout le monde grazing…
Farmer Yarbrough ?
In terms of improbable candidacies, this one would be at the top of this fall’s statewide ballot, except that the hopeful’s name doesn’t appear. After plunking down $3,000 with the Texas secretary of state to be certified as a write-in candidate, Houston District Councilman Michael Yarbrough is out beating the…
Letters
Pack Reporting As media ownership narrows (and the top-dog corporations scramble to merge and buy up all the media outlets) and corporate media dominate our every thought and action, it is refreshing to read an article [“Bar Patrons,” by Nick Cooper, October 1] that explains, in some detail, how cigarette…
News of the Weird
Lead Stories *World’s greatest athletes: According to Pacific Dunlop, the company supplying condoms for the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia, Olympic officials have requested 51 condoms per participant for the 17-day event. Said one athlete interviewed by the London Daily Telegraph: “Three per day sounds too many.” *Five people…
Rain Dance
Three women stand at the front of a stage, wearing nothing but cardboard storm clouds with stick-on name tags affixed to their, er … lapels. They stand awkwardly, almost shyly, and point goofily at the name tags, leaning toward a microphone as if to say something. The audience titters. The…
Gypsy Woman
Insofar as filmmaker Tony Gatlif’s justly admired “Gypsy Trilogy” is an exploration of his roots and a search for his nature — he was born in Algeria to Gypsy parents of Spanish origin, but was later educated at Paris’s L’cole des Beaux Arts — it is one of the most…
Night & Day
Thursday October 15 Fifty years ago, a choreographer named George Balanchine started a little outfit called the New York City Ballet. From there, Balanchine, along with his associate artistic director, Jerome Robbins, built a ballet empire. Now, Peter Martins carries on the company’s artistic legacy, and in this, the company’s…
Gay-Theater Gains
Ask most anybody familiar with Houston stage about the state of gay theater here, and they’ll tell you, “Talk to Joe Watts.” He admits a little wistfully, that yeah, he’s the “grandfather of gay theater” in Houston. But Joe Watts hardly looks like anybody’s grandpa, even though he has been…
Who Was That Masked Man?
You’d think that if an actor making his major motion-picture debut in a starring role brought a date to the screening, she’d be all starry-eyed and flush with romance after the closing credits rolled. But if your name was Gunnar Hansen, you were playing Leatherface, and the movie was The…
One Fine Drive
There are several good and right reasons to see Paula Vogel’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play How I Learned to Drive, currently playing on the intimate Neuhaus stage, downstairs at the Alley. But the best and most visceral and moving reason would be James Black’s wondrous and disturbing performance as the sad-sack…
Living in Dreads
Tofarai looks up to the stars And wonder if there’s life on Mars Some say he should shave his head But he’s proud to be a dread. –Des’ree, “Proud to Be a Dread” So you’re walking down the street and you see a man or woman wearing dreadlocks. You… a)…
Film for Thought
In The Long Dissolve, a nine-minute film loop by video artist Burt Barr, an ice cube melts on a saucer. And that’s all. Barr — who’s scored such honors as a Guggenheim fellowship and a slew of museum shows — works both inside and outside the world of moviemaking. This…
Dish
Broken Heart, Tired Soul Sad news for the Heights: One of its most promising new restaurants, the Heart and Soul Cafe, closed its doors September 20. In less than a year, Heart and Soul had garnered glowing reviews and a growing, loyal clientele. The announcement was even more surprising because…
Art for Sale! Cheap!
Stephen Keene’s exhibition “Fresh Art Daily,” now at the Rice University Art Gallery, is a theme park of the imagination, a Wonderland for a modern-day Alice. Signlike paintings cover the walls from floor to ceiling; eye-popping furniture and playful, seductive paintings occupy every nook and cranny. For the past five…
Hot Plate
The shrimp and pork crepe ($8.95) at Dalat Vietnamese Bistro (3241 Southwest Freeway, 669-9375) is a piece of work any way you cut it. And believe me, you’ll do a lot of cutting. Crepes don’t come much bigger than this. No, it’s not as large as a breadbox. It’s more…
Boys in the Bond
The hero of The Mighty — the title character, in fact — is an eighth-grader known by the nickname Freak (Kieran Culkin). His might isn’t physical — he’s a small, frail boy who suffers from a degenerative birth defect. His spine curves painfully, and he’s able to walk only with…
Clubland
Dan Robinson must be the scourge of Shepherd Plaza by now. First, as the proprietor of the Voodoo Lounge, he goes public about his spat with fellow tenants and the complex’s Trammell Crow management team. He alleged that professional jealousy and latent racism were responsible for killing business at his…
Moved by the Spirit
Beloved, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by the much-revered Nobel laureate Toni Morrison, is a tragic, sorrowful affair — just like the book itself. Those who have finished the book know it’s not a brisk read. Like most of Morrison’s work (including Song of Solomon and Jazz), Beloved has…
Out of Africa
Well versed and well traveled, Randy Weston defined “multicultural” with his blend of jazz and African traditional music decades before the term became a divisive sociopolitical catch phrase. As if the 72-year-old pianist ever really had a choice in the matter. Growing up in Brooklyn, New York, during the Depression,…