Letters
Farewell to Sugar-Booger I am disappointed that the article by Randall Patterson focused on rumors and allegations that are almost five years old and ignored the significant accomplishments that the Texas Wildlife Rehabilitation Coalition has made since that time [“Beastly Behavior,” August 22]. It has operated every day for more…
Press Picks
thursday September 5 Reconfigured: Six Approaches to Figurative Painting “People tend to think of figurative painting as limiting,” says Patrick Palmer, curator of this Glassell exhibition, and well they might because Western art is full of posed people. In this show, the familiar figure is still the subject, but according…
Cafe? On Aisle One.
I was raised to understand that people don’t eat in grocery stores for roughly the same reason that they try not to belch in elevators. The respective bodily functions on display are perfectly normal, even laudable in some instances, but in both cases, it’s just not the time, and it’s…
Static
Fitting tribute… Houston jazz bassist Dave Nichols had always wanted to record his own material, storing it away patiently over the last year while he waited for the right set of circumstances. Those circumstances never came. A ubiquitous freelance presence around town, a busy producer and a doting husband, Nichols…
Hold the Tonic
The Refreshments are one of a handful of Tempe, Arizona bands that were gobbled up by the big labels in the feeding frenzy set off in that town by the Gin Blossoms. A party-hardy quartet that floated quickly to top billing in the clubs around Arizona State University, the band…
A World of the Blues
Though he’s lived in the New York City area for more than two decades, Johnny Copeland still introduces himself on-stage as “from the Third Ward.” For some, covering that much territory might be a bit of a geographic stretch, but as Copeland’s latest album, Jungle Swing — not to mention…
Rotation
Pete Droge and the Sinners Find a Door American Pete Droge is a moody sort with a talent for devising simple, pleasant-sounding musical trappings for a rather ugly mess of emotional quandaries. Much of the charm — and the power — of the Portland native’s subversively addictive debut, Necktie Second,…
Garbage In, Garbage Out
To the average fired employee, fighting a legal battle with the likes of multinational garbage conglomerate Browning-Ferris Industries might seem an exercise in hopelessness. Then again, when you’ve spent your vacations doing humanitarian work alongside Afghan freedom fighters waging war against the Soviet Union, perhaps the odds don’t seem quite…
Grand Kabuki, Grand Style
In Japan, families pack box lunches to attend kabuki performances with the same sort of fervor shown by American parents who dress their little girls up in layers of crinolines for The Nutcracker. In both cases, tradition is being honored. But where the ballet’s tradition is accessible on more than…
Losing Their Head
Traditionally, summer is a down time for theater in Houston, as the big companies trot out easy fare while waiting for the fall and cooler weather to challenge their audiences. But this summer has been an exception. It’s witnessed the birth of a small cache of underground theaters that have…
The Lawman & the Weasel
Rude and crude with apologies to no one, Bulletproof is the sort of guilty pleasure that should be savored in a crowded theater on a Saturday night, with a giant tub of popcorn and a total lack of inhibition. This rambunctious little sleeper is the freshest, funniest action-buddy movie since…
Good-bye to Summer
It was the summer when audiences cheered while the White House burned. When a singing hunchback was more popular than a frisky dolphin. When Kevin Costner came to his senses and got out of the water. And, perhaps most important, it was the summer when movies were bigger than ever,…
Pretty Babies
First comes the plum lip liner. Then the raspberry lipstick. Matte foundation, brown eye shadow and a touch of pink in the corners of the eyelid. Twelve-year-old Lindsey Harvey sits in a hotel chair, barely stirring as her mother-cum-makeup-artist applies goop to her face. It’s 7:30 a.m., and Lindsey is…
Political Art
If there’s one thing that peeves Mayor Bob Lanier, it’s back talk. And the best thing to do when Lanier is peeved at you is to stay out of sight — which is exactly what the administrators, board members and supporters of the Cultural Arts Council of Houston/Harris County were…
The Insider
Flushed Out It seems that the convention center hotel wasn’t the only big-bucks city project that set dollar signs dancing in the eyes of Ben Reyes, the central figure in the FBI’s sting of councilmembers. In fact, the public disclosure of the feds’ investigation may have inadvertently derailed a deal…