Crash and Burn
Soon, for the first time since 1977, the storied 3600 block of Washington Avenue will be without a live music venue. Among others, Rockefeller’s and Club Hey Hey have come and gone, and now, after ten years as a mainstay on the Houston rock/roots/country scene, it’s the turn of the…
Cram Shop
All the tension of college testing builds up inside the small room. Students file in, write their names at the sign-in table, pick up their exams and take seats in the tiny uncomfortable chairs with the desk tops. One or two sip coffee or soda, but most just stare undisturbed…
I Am Woman, Hear Me Groove
On the third Tuesday night of every month, a party goes down in Montrose. Well, to be honest, a party goes down in Montrose every time somebody shows up at a friend’s house with a bottle of Boone’s Farm and a Dirty Vegas CD, but this is a specific party…
Art of the Deal
Mary-Jane Buschlen remembers her first impression of Houston after her parents left Bermuda to follow oil money to the booming Bayou City in 1979. Then a high school junior, she made the drive in from Intercontinental Airport, amazed at the contrasts after a life amid the vivid colors of sea,…
Filter
Richard Patrick of Filter might be a good moderator for a music conference panel: “The Hit Single: More Harm than Good?” The band’s 1995 release, Short Bus, produced a major hit with the single “Hey Man, Nice Shot,” but its overexposure on MTV and commercial radio came with a price…
Food Fight Indigestion
The upset victory of Four Families for the Hobby Airport food concession last week shocked Mayor Lee Brown, who more and more is looking like a lame duck presiding over a runaway City Council. It also left the lobbyist for loser CA One charging that District H Councilman Gabriel Vasquez…
Greg Wood
When Greg Wood sings about death, as he does often on Ash Wednesday, he does so with frightening intimacy and a not unexpected sense of subjectivity. Spending two months in Ben Taub — as Wood did in 2000 after a bout with endocarditis and a subsequent infection — will do…
Mary Had a…
For those who would roast an entire lamb hindquarter just for the crispy edges, here is heaven. At the newly opened Empire Turkish Grill (12448 Memorial Drive, 713-827-7475), the Iskender kebab ($9.95) is a stack of crispy lamb shingles, succulent by themselves but even better atop a framework of fried…
Robert Gordon
Although Robert Gordon’s show includes a few covers of classic 1950s rockabilly, his heartfelt love of the music, baritone voice and overall authenticity clearly separate him from poseurs and revivalists who perform note-for-note re-creations of the genre. Gordon realized long ago that wearing an oldies straitjacket wasn’t for him. Gordon…
All About the Kids
Our recent item on Wayne Dolcefino mugging in front of his Emmys during his latest Kid-Care scandal update resulted in a meeting with Brad Levy, executive director of Kid-Care. That’s not too surprising — things are very quiet over at Kid-Care these days, and the intense Levy admits he has…
Division of Laura Lee
Reviewers seldom gush over discs that remind them of albums made by lousy artists from the past; hence the dearth of notices praising Shakira for introducing a new generation to the genius that is Charo. But the opposite proves true when it comes to CDs that recall the long-ago platters…
Buttery Beef on the Rock
Each slice of ultra-fatty Kobe beef is about the size of two squares of a big Hershey’s chocolate bar. At Azuma, the new Japanese-style restaurant on Kirby, the steak slices come to the table raw with several pats of butter and a heated rock to cook them on. Now, granted,…
Pleasant Grove
Named for the Dallas suburb that spawned co-vocalists/guitarists Bret Egner and Marcus Striplin, Pleasant Grove’s music is no blissful drive through manicured lawns and Girl Scout bake-offs. Specializing in brokenhearted epics, in which the characters start off in a quagmire of bad luck only to sink still deeper by song’s…
The Long Goodbye
On a recent October morning, the 6000 block of Woodbrook Lane in Houston is about as bucolic as its name could ever hope for. Birds from the neighboring 21-acre forest are chirping away, easily covering the gentle hum of a distant leaf blower. There’s a slight breeze stirring the many…
The Mexican Roots Trio
Joel Guzman had not performed with his father for nearly 15 years when Lupe Guzman was invited to go on at a National Endowment of the Arts event in 1993 and asked his son to be at his side. During the emotional rehearsals of traditional songs, Joel felt his vision…
Designer Drinks
In the afternoon they answer the phone “Duke’s,” as in Duke of Hollywood, the tailor shop that’s been holding its own downtown since the ’30s. But by cocktail hour, the martini shakers come out, the regulars wander in, and the CharBar (305 Travis, 713-222-8177) takes over. Duke’s/CharBar maintains its dual…
George Clinton & Parliament/Funkadelic
There are those who believe there’s nothing left to say about funkmaster-general George Clinton and his rhythmic traveling freak show. Balderdash! How about the fact that black Republican congressman J.C. Watts once revealed in a televised interview with Chris Rock that he has no idea who Clinton is? Or how…
Power Plays
On Tuesday, October 15, Houston school district trustee Jeff Shadwick took time out from his early-morning schedule to visit T.H. Rogers school and explain to a small group of parents why not too much is ever going to change about the crappy wedge of a playground their kids have. The…
Aretha Franklin
Rolling Stone just declared Aretha Franklin’s I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You the most essential rock album by a female performer. Duh! Is there any doubt that Aretha is the most dominant female pop singer of the 20th century? Do we honestly have to draw up…
On the Mark
On the Mark J.R. and Kenny Boy: Bravo, sir. Your article was informative with scandal [“Diva of the Deal,” by Robert Bryce, October 10]. The stories that come from the rise and fall of Enron are like the old TV show Dallas. I don’t even work for the company, but…
Charlie‘s Angles
Once more, it all boils down to the stamps — which, if you’ve seen Stanley Donen’s 1963 comic-thriller Charade, nearly ruins the last ten minutes of Jonathan Demme’s remake, The Truth About Charlie. But Demme isn’t at all concerned with such mundane things as shock-’em finales; he won’t be bound…
An Orcen Man
To measure the scope of J.R.R. Tolkien’s legacy, consider the breadth of the fantasy genre, which includes novels about anything science can’t explain. Then consider how many fantasy novels contain orcs, wizards, elves and their brethren — the types of creatures made popular by The Hobbit and the Lord of…
Gory Good Fun
Producer Joel Silver makes movies to win audiences, not awards, and Ghost Ship — created under the Dark Castle horror banner with Silver’s Tales from the Crypt partners Robert Zemeckis and Gilbert Adler — opens with a hook both gripping and revealing. It’s 1962 aboard the Italian luxury liner Antonia…
Just Don’t Mention Fabio
Novels with titles like Ecstasy and Desire have always inspired much eye-rolling and elbowing. But as more and more fly off the racks at bookstores, the romance novel is gaining respectability. After all, there’s no reason to laugh at a $1.52 billion industry that accounts for more than half of…
Columbine Harvester
If you’re a fan of the baseball cap-wearin’, Nader-votin’, muckrakin’, best-sellin’, corporation-confrontin’ son of a gun known as Michael Moore, all you need to know about his latest film, Bowling for Columbine, is that it’s more of the same. You know, the mix of easy humor, political potshots, attempts (some…
Stop the Presses
No Zagat Survey Houston Restaurants guide? Hang onto your 2001/2002 edition, folks. Because there’s not going to be another pocket-sized dining guide, at least not for Houston, at least not for a while. Teresa Byrne-Dodge, editor and publisher of the bimonthly My Table: Houston’s Dining Magazine, has worked on the…
The True-Hearted Traitor
According to high school history books, the American Revolution was all about heroic brilliance. The founding fathers forged a nation out of wilderness and wisdom, and Americans everywhere knew the true value of freedom. Or so the story goes. But Richard Nelson tells a darker tale of the birth of…
The Gord Is My Shepherd
The most enduring cliché spouted to critics by a band whose new release sounds just like 30 other albums released that day goes like this: “Yeah, dude, the album was a learning experience, but for us, dude, it all comes together on stage. Catch us at [name of club in…
Bee Gee’s
It looks like a Joseph Albers painting if Albers were less anal and handy with a needle and thread. With concentric rectangles of heavy denim in faded olive green, worn gray and washed-out turquoise, Loretta Pettway fashioned her Housetop quilt from men’s old work clothes. The overstitching of the quilt…
What Would Woody Do?
Englishman Billy Bragg has just arrived in North America and barely has time to talk. And Bragg, as any fan can tell you, likes to talk. When his record company publicist cuts into the call after a mere ten minutes to announce that we have only five more, Bragg does…
True Dat
CHARACTERS Russell Simmons: He is 45, wears a white baseball cap, a T-shirt with the words “40 Acres and a Bentley” on the back and a sweat suit manufactured by the $300 million clothing company, Phat Farm, he started a decade ago. Russell, teeth as white and big as freshly…