Coded for Success
In Andrew Niccol’s Gattaca, the cleverest (if not quite the most convincing) science-fiction movie of the year, the near future is inhabited by designer humans whose DNA codes have been rigged at the lab for conformist perfection and by “in-valids,” the inferior products of parents who’ve relied on mere faith…
Easy Street
The North Central repaving project looked good, at least on paper. Part of Mayor Bob Lanier’s widely acclaimed Neighborhoods to Standard program, the job called for the overlay of tons of asphalt on more than 200 blocks of the barrios due north of downtown, at a cost of more than…
A Church Divided
On the seventh day of the last full week of September, Almighty God in Heaven was said to be working overtime on a labor dispute at New Evergreen Missionary Baptist Church. It was difficult to tell which way He was leaning. Some said that He said the pastor was going…
The Incredible Expanding Contract
More than a decade ago, the city hired the engineering firm CRS Sirrine to design storm sewer and street reconstruction improvements on East Little York and Northline. The $400,000 contract covered labor as well as a variety of services, including soil investigations and topographic surveys. The deal was approved by…
The Insider
Aid and Comfort Since he began running for mayor, Rob Mosbacher hasn’t been the least bit shy about trumpeting his chairmanship of the Greater Houston Area Chapter of the American Red Cross and his other philanthropic endeavors. The multimillionaire oilman has routinely mentioned his work for the Red Cross in…
Captive of Fantasy
Like other members of his therapy group, Jose Grover was encouraged to talk about his sex life and fantasies. Forty years old and noticeably mentally retarded, Grover was required to attend and participate in the weekly sessions as a condition of his parole from the Texas prison system, where he…
Letters
A Matter of Inconvenience In response to David Bearden and other members of the Houston Contractors Association who are now opposing the city’s Minority, Women and Disadvantaged Business Enterprise program [“Voluntary … Or Else,” by Brian Wallstin, October 9]: Their chief complaint of having to make calls to ensure the…
Press Picks
thursday october 30 Macbeth Baddest of the bad girls, Lady Macbeth is a feminist’s nightmare. She’s strong and powerful but as low down and dirty as they come; she personifies all our worst fears about what happens when women rule the roost. So in a way it makes perfect sense…
Dish
Au lait? Oh, yes. Coffee Call tells you the plan not two steps inside the door: Take a tray and help yourself. Indulge in bottled juices or iced tea if you must; the smart money’s on the cafe au lait, past the decaf, hot chocolate and house roast. Fill a…
Static
Beatles scholar… “You have to do more than just study the notes. I’ve been through every one of those Beatles songbooks, and they’re full of errors,” says Darin Murphy, who’s best known locally for his years as half of the popular collegiate pop duo Trish and Darin. “To get it…
Is the Mac Truly Back?
This is an odd bit of paradise for Lindsey Buckingham. He’s ensconced in a plush East Hollywood recording studio, eyes closed, his bare feet tapping at the hardwood floor as he listens to a playback of “Bleed to Love Her,” another forceful blend of acoustic guitar and tortured romance from…
Mixed Breed
On their last studio outing, Straight Up!, Little Charlie and the Nightcats showed just how versatile a versatile band can be. The 1995 release augmented an already wide-open sound by lending a distinctive jazz edge to the jacked-up fusion of jump, swing and gritty R&B that had defined the group’s…
Spit and Polish
Slobberbone has never quite fit into any of the usual country-rock categories, and there has always been a suspicion that the songs of leader Brent Best simply encompassed too much for that kind of easy treatment. Barrel Chested, the Denton outfit’s latest release, confirms that, and makes a compelling case…
Scary Stories
Houston Grand Opera’s new production of Hansel and Gretel is indeed a testimony to the genius of famed children’s-book author and illustrator Maurice Sendak. The fanciful sets Sendak has designed for this show truly capture the charm of Engelbert Humperdinck’s fairy-tale opera, which is based on the familiar story by…
Sound Check
If this summer’s Lilith Fair achieved anything, it was to ram home the realization that there’s strength in numbers, even where women singer/songwriters are concerned. More to the point, it proved that even an all-female lineup as strikingly one-dimensional as Sarah McLachlan’s New Agey, neo-hippie-chic brainchild could entertain with reasonable…
History’s Burden
From artists who take as their subject the Holocaust, viewers demand a great deal. We demand that the Holocaust not be trivialized, universalized, aestheticized or used as a metaphor. Because the Holocaust is not simply another tragedy, it cannot be treated like one. And because the trivial, the universal, the…
The Not-So-Grand Canyon
You’d think the Canyon Cafe would have everything in the world going for it: location, Southwestern decor, location, Southwestern cuisine and location. Directing an out-of-towner, you could truthfully say, “You can’t miss it.” Prominently located at the high-visibility intersection of Post Oak and Westheimer, the place works to draw even…
Peking Soap Opera
Despite its muckraking pretensions, Red Corner is a rickety throwback to escapist adventures that featured beautiful foreign idealists spouting high-flown hooey to fighting Americans. The heroine, a scrappy Beijing defense lawyer, ends up whispering a whole succession of sweet somethings to the hero, a framed Yank. The banalities include (I…