Spare a Dime, Dah-ling?
One night not too long ago at the now-defunct Lava Lounge, a stream of young and impossibly thin guys and dolls strode snobbishly down a makeshift catwalk. They walked in time to the beat of acid jazz and modeled some designer duds. Onlookers appeared spellbound. The whole thing was all…
Unusual Punishment
First off, a full disclosure: This reviewer considers Dostoyevsky to be terminally boring, and would sooner read just about any cereal box or, for that matter, the collected lyrics of Steely Dan. Having said that, it’s a mixed blessing that director Rob Schmidt’s film Crime and Punishment in Suburbia bears…
Jailhouse Rock
Barbara Lynn’s August-issued CD is not only her big shot at breaking through but also Clifford Antone’s best chance at, umm, breaking out. Their obstacles are formidable. Owner of the famed Austin nightclub that bears his surname, Antone pleaded guilty in January 1999 to money laundering and conspiracy to deliver…
Acting Out
The American theater is in a shitload of trouble,” says a character in Jane Martin’s often screamingly funny Anton in Show Business. Of course, if all productions were as smart and naughty and flat-out entertaining as this season opener for Stages, then theater would have no trouble holding its own…
Omara Portuondo
In Buena Vista Social Club, there’s a scene in which Ibrahim Ferrer and Omara Portuondo have just finished singing the achingly tender duet “Silencio.” As the audience claps, a tear wells up in Portuondo’s eye. Ferrer takes a handkerchief from his pocket and dabs away the drop. Tears are expected…
Lost Boys
Lyle Kessler’s Orphans, now running at Masquerade Theatre, evolves from a very strange premise: Two filthy and odd young men live in a nasty house somewhere on the edge of Philadelphia. Tuna cans, newspapers, clothes and all manner of trash are strewn willy-nilly throughout the place. Turns out they aren’t…
Buju Banton
When Mark Myrie, a.k.a. Buju Banton, was growing up in a slum outside Kingston, Jamaica, he had to endure some awful conditions. He was the youngest of 15 children, all of whom had been squeezed into a one-room apartment with no running water. It was harsh third-world living. Fortunately, Banton…
Brawl on the Boardwalk
The shiny, sparkling, so-family-friendly-it-hurts Kemah Boardwalk is, in many ways, a perfect symbol of Houston and its environs at the booming turn of the century. Take a collection of comfortably ramshackle seafood restaurants, stuck just far enough off the beaten path to give patrons the cachet of going where the…
Wyclef Jean
Wyclef Jean’s The Carnival, released in 1997, established the multifaceted entertainer as a bona fide force, boasting a sound both cultural and street-smart, hard-core and kid-friendly. Needless to say, expectations are high for his follow-up, The Ecleftic: 2 Sides II A Book. This is Jean’s attempt to prove he can…
Tackling the Taboo
In the 11th-floor radio broadcast studio, with the glimmering lights of the Southwest Freeway before her, psychotherapist Hanh Vo adjusts her headphones. Twice a month she discusses mental health issues on Voice of Vietnam. Leaning forward into the microphone, she urges listeners to call in with problems and questions. Five…
Middlefinger
So there’s this hardworking band around town. It has won some awards in its day. The kids love ’em. Heck, even some of the “older” folks who still manage to make it out at night sing the band’s praises. Is Middlefinger going somewhere? Mainstream? No one seems to know. But…
A Few Minor Problems
Maryanne never had a problem letting her 14-year-old daughter spend the night at her best friend’s house. The girl’s parents weren’t usually at home, but she considered her daughter responsible for her age. Another girlfriend was there, too. The three girls planned teenage activities for the evening: movies, games and…
People Try to Put Us Down…
This song explains why I’m leaving home and becoming a stewardess,” says Anita Miller (Zooey Deschanel) to her well-meaning, overbearing mother, as the soundtrack begins to swell with the low hums of Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel. Just a few seconds earlier, Elaine Miller (Frances McDormand) had insisted she wouldn’t…
A Fan’s Notes
Almost Famous is the movie Cameron Crowe always wanted to make–and the movie he tried to keep from making as long as he could. The writer-director insists he didn’t want to make a film about his wonder years as a Rolling Stone writer in the 1970s, because he didn’t want…
The Last Good-bye
At a September 3 farewell bash, the seams were busting on the Aquarium Lounge. Regulars and employees said tearful good-byes as the 28-year-old neighborhood bar shut its doors to business. People even came from out of town to bid farewell to their old hangout. They had no idea how symbolic…
Mr. Blum Goes to Washington
He first earned local headlines with a quixotic run against then-congressman Craig Washington in 1992. Since then, former liberal firebrand-turned-neoconservative Edward J. Blum has been a continuing thorn in the municipal side of former mayor Bob Lanier and successor Lee P. Brown. In the ’90s, Blum and his supporters launched…
Pigskin Parade
Yes, we understand that football is king in Texas. Hell, we love football ourselves. But our jaws are still on the floor over the mind-boggling display put on by the local media over the ceremony revealing the name of Houston’s new NFL team. It wasn’t a ceremony revealing that Houston…
Letters 09-14-2000
Blowing Smoke Light up for liberty: Writer Wendy Grossman has it backward [“Live Free and Die,” August 31]. Dave Pickrell is doing what any loyal American who cares about freedom does; he is willing to die for freedom, even freedom of the press. Unfortunately Grossman has chosen to mock him…
Booze in a Blender
The back of the bar at Urbana [3407 Montrose, (713)521-1086] is decorated with a modern stained-glass window with jagged shapes of green, blue and purple. The whole place has a bright, sleek look. There are three TVs, their broadcasts muted, above the bar. The one on the right is tuned…
But Seriously…
Unfortunately, when people think of theater, words like “dry,” “stuffy” and “serious” all come to mind. It smacks of the passive rituals of church more than the engaging stimulations of the nightclub, which is one reason the playgoing crowd tends to be small in number and over 50 in age…
Miller’s Crossing
O woe! What do I do now, where do I go now?Death has devoured my body, Death dwells in my body, Wherever I go, wherever I look, there stands Death! — Epic of Gilgamesh Miller Quarles raises his arms in triumph and allows a smile to steal across his wolfish…
Rome in a Day
Jim Rome has created a new lexicon for the sports-obsessed. Hell, he’s created a new cult, for that matter. Rome’s listeners, or clones, consist of legions of fans who live and breathe The Jungle. They not only follow the show compulsively, but mimic the host’s lingo: “Smack” is sports talk,…
XX Marks the Spot
On the steps of the Bexar County courthouse, the happy lesbian couple brandished their new marriage license for the TV cameras, and their lawyer, Phyllis Randolph Frye, explained once again why these two women could be legally married. Jessica Wicks, a male-to-female transsexual, had been born a man, and according…
Oh, Danny Boy
Two sunny-side-up eggs are the center of a glorious breakfast mandala. Radiating outward from the innocent whites and yellows is a dark and glistening circle of things meaty and fried. There are thick red rashers of Irish bacon, shiny golden sausage links, two slices of black blood pudding and two…
Chopped Liver
Texas historian Walter Prescott Webb, author of the 1931 book The Great Plains, first explained to the world why the American West was different from the rest of the United States and what the Europeans needed before they could claim it as their own. Webb named four things necessary for…
Holy Moses
Aufheben is the name of Moses Guest’s new label. The term is German for (roughly) “creative maintenance.” Basically it means onward with only the best of the old, and upward with something new and improved. Aufheben is everywhere on this old band’s updated sound. Whether Houstonians will buy it is…
Split Decision
No need to agonize over the dessert choices at Vincent’s [2701 West Dallas, (713)528-4313]. The banana split pie ($5.50) has been a favorite at the restaurant for 14 years, and for good reason. Served in squares, it looks more like a cake, but the graham cracker crust reveals its humble…
Triple-A Poet
Patty Larkin is a literary songwriter. No, that’s not some kiss-of-death label or backhanded compliment. It’s a statement of admiration. In her songs, Larkin creates single expansive moments and single passionate explosions. She builds her tunes rapidly from mundane beginnings to powerfully dramatic conclusions. Best of all, Larkin sidesteps the…
Self-Righteous Leftists
Tom Paxton doesn’t like to look back too long, for fear of turning into dust. It is okay, he says, to glance backward every so often, but do not stare. Yet for an hour in late August, Paxton appears happy talking about what happened a thousand yesterdays ago, before he…