Huntsville 8 Benefit
When the octet of rabble-rousers now known as the Huntsville 8 headed out to Walker County on the morning of June 22, 2000, to protest the execution of Shaka Sankofa, their intentions were simple. They were going to join up to 1,000 like-minded activists in the pursuit of abolishing the…
Angel in the Midwest
For anyone wondering what has become of former editor Gerald Garcia of the doomed Houston Post, the self-nicknamed “Angel of Death” has found a new roost in the heartland. Since early this year, Garcia has been editor of the Southern Illinoisan, a 30,000-or-so regional daily based in Carbondale. Garcia had…
IMx and B2K
Seeing these two groups on tour is like witnessing a kiddie-pop changing of the guard. IMx, once known as Immature, is the last of the early-’90s R&B boy bands (remember Another Bad Creation, the Boys or Hi-Five — do ya?). These three randy lads spent the ’90s getting their man-hairs…
Costs You Money!
In addition to his manic “saves you money” commercials, Gallery Furniture’s Jim “Mattress Mac” McIngvale has built his reputation in Houston on sports boosterism and promotions for a host of charities. As he tacitly acknowledged in a recent New York Times Magazine article, those charitable activities also result in good…
Bobby Love
Like Clint Eastwood, Robert De Niro is one of those guys who can make just about any material enjoyable. Also like Clint, he will sometimes make you wish he’d pick roles that are a little more challenging. His recent record of relatively disposable films speaks for itself: tough-yet-sensitive cop (Showtime),…
Myths and Legends
For months, Captain Mark Aguirre of Houston’s South Central Patrol Division carried around a videotape of late-night drag racing along Westheimer that made his blood boil. It starts with shots of racing cars taken from inside one of the vehicles. Occasionally, there’s a glimpse of the camera operator in the…
Life Is Beautiful
In 1948 the artist Alighiero e Boetti tore a large piece of brown paper into small squares that he then “stacked into a rather unstable column.” He smoothed out and saved the silver paper linings of cigarette packs from 1957 on, “without missing a single one.” In 1949 he tightly…
Thrown for a Loop
Split on Shelley Thrown for a Loop: I was very angry to read Tim Fleck’s feature on Councilwoman Shelley Sekula-Gibbs [“Overdose,” August 22]. What he described was an ideal of what a city councilmember should be: a person of goodwill and concern. Mr. Fleck wants “political experts” to run City…
Live Long, Prosper
One day long ago–or not, because no one except he and a rare few know the precise date–an actor dove into the ocean to save a drowning boy. He did not want to do it, but he had no choice. They gave him none, those who gathered around and expected…
As Seen on TV
The television is always on at Tracie Brownlee’s house, yet she never watches anything. It’s background noise; everything comes to her in bits and pieces. In this age of the 24-hour news cycle, if she misses something good, it’ll be on again. “The only time the TV’s off is when…
Reality TV Bites
It was so early it was still dark out when Chad and Shani Walter woke up on the morning of November 27, 2001, in their three-bedroom home in Humble. They got in their car and drove down Highway 59 South to Houston. The plan was for Chad to drop Shani…
Late-Night Access
Jay Leno better not come to Houston anytime soon, because there are a bunch of public-access boys ready to jump his ass! More on that later. When we last left Joel Reed Parker, he was spending most of his time assembling B-movie snippets, obscure Faith No More videos and nude…
Just a Little Nip and Tuck
The cars seem to never go away. At first I thought it was some kind of opening celebration that went on for weeks and weeks. But apparently, whatever its name, the restaurant-bar that sits at the corner of Waugh and West Gray will always be popular with the locals. The…
Where’s Chango?
“They could turn it into a game, like Where’s Waldo?” Ms. W suggests as she sips her margarita. “See how many monkeys you can find. Kids would love it!” We are discussing the monkey problem at Tony Vallone’s new Mexican restaurant, Los Tonyos Cantina, which is located in the noisy,…
Fast Snails
One of the most popular appetizers at Crostini (2411 S. Shepherd, 713-524-8558) is the lumache (snails) with grilled polenta ($8.95). Perhaps the simplest and most famous way of preparing snails is to smother them in a garlic-butter sauce and then bake them. At Crostini, however, they marry the chewy gastropod…
Sloppy Joes
Oops. Somebody forgot to tell the Weary Boys that moving to Austin to play country music was akin to shipping coals to Newcastle. No matter. Despite the fact that Travis County boasts more twang per square foot than almost anywhere else, the Northern California expatriates have quickly risen from playing…
Lance in Space
NASA’s chief of the Astronaut Corps sits behind a podium with three other space travelers. At his immediate left is one of Russia’s top cosmonauts, and next to him is a European astronaut, the greatest fighter pilot in Belgian (!) history. At the far end is Lance Bass, a well-coiffed,…
Hide and Seek
John Congleton and Matt Armstrong, otherwise known as one half of the pAper chAse, sit in a tiny cluttered recording studio, otherwise known as one of the rooms in Congleton’s house in northeast Dallas. The spoils of Congleton’s successful eBay bids are thumbtacked to most of the walls or sit…
Identity Crisis
Well, Houston has lost another top-notch musician, and this time the Music Awards jinx can’t be blamed. Mary Cutrufello — who, believe it or not, never won a single one of our awards — failed to return from her usual winter sojourn on the Minnesota tundra this year and has…
Duke of Pearl
Duke of Hollywood Tailors (305 Travis) is the last tailor shop left standing in NoDo. There used to be 13 tailor shops on and around this block of Travis alone. But as time wore on, and a shopping alternative known as the mall became popular, tailor shops and haberdasheries began…
Darius Rucker
There’s something admirable in Darius Rucker’s mission to prove he’s more than the Dylan of the frat-boy generation. After years as the darker-skinned front man of the otherwise vanilla party band Hootie and the Blowfish, Rucker is branching out. With the release of his solo debut, Back to Then, he’s…
Arthur Yoria
Words like “sublime” get thrown around a lot in music reviews, a little too recklessly, if you ask this writer. The overall effect is to cheapen the adjective’s value when something comes around that truly measures up. Elegant modern pop-rocker Arthur Yoria’s newest EP is one of the few (local…