September 2002 Archives

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Features

Feature

Scenes From A Mall

And not just any mall. The Marq*E Entertainment Center is a marvel of marketing: a teen-friendly hangout where kids from all over the city flock to shop, flirt, skateboard, and otherwise act their age.

By Katy Vine

Feature

Hi, Society!

How did a girl from Harlingen become Houston's hostess with the mostest? Sweetie, Becca Cason Thrash has always been the life of the party.

By Skip Hollandsworth

The Culture

Pueblo Nuevo

When I moved to Houston two years ago, I was expecting little in the way of Hispanic culture. Who knew it was such a good city for Latinosbetter, even, than San Antonio?

By Cecilia Ballí

Feature

Welcome to the Neighborhoods

We wanted to see what the real lives of real people looked like, so we knocked on doors at random from Pasadena to Sharpstown. We said, "Please." They said, "Cheese." Here's what we came back with.

By Texas Monthly

Feature

My Kind of Town

OVER AT THE HOUSTON ARBORETUM and Nature Center, in Memorial Park, I asked Ruth Milburn, the center’s executive director, what she liked best about the place. She looked at me indulgently and said, “Why, I’m here for the trees.” As I navigated the well-marked trails and boardwalks that weave through

By Suzy Banks

Feature

My Kind of Town

THANKS TO A LIGHT-RAIL PROJECT scheduled for completion in 2004, much of downtown’s historic district appears to have been rooted up by a monster armadillo. Still, with its shady parks, outdoor sculptures, busy theater district, chic restaurants and clubs, and seven miles of air-conditioned tunnels (in essence, food courts for

By Suzy Banks

Feature

My Kind of Town

WILLIAMS TOWER (FORMERLY TRANSCO TOWER), a 64-story office building designed by Philip Johnson and John Burgee that soars above the Galleria area, is impossible to miss even when you’re zipping down Loop 610. But you need to get out of your car to appreciate the architects’ splashiest touch, the freestanding

By Suzy Banks

Travel & Outdoors

My Kind of Town

OKAY, SO THE HOUSTON ZOO isn’t exactly an unknown attraction, but how can I ignore this warm and fuzzy institution, especially its newest addition, the John P. McGovern Children’s Zoo? Most of the munchkins I saw scurrying around there were more interested in scaling the giant sculptures of frogs and

By Suzy Banks

Feature

My Kind of Town

Bank of America Center, 700 Louisiana; closed weekends; Brazos Bookstore, 2421 Bissonnet, 713-523-0701; Chocolate Bar, 1835 W. Alabama, 713-520-8599; Edith L. Moore Nature Sanctuary, 440 Wilchester Boulevard, 713-464-4900; Etta’s Lounge, 5120 Scott, 713-528-2611; Fred Hartman Bridge, Texas Highway 146 between La Porte and Baytown; Houston Arboretum and Nature Center, 4501

By Suzy Banks

Feature

My Kind of Town

EVERY SUNDAY THE FAITHFUL PACK Etta’s Lounge, south of the University of Houston, to worship with sax legend Grady Gaines and the Texas Upsetters. The longnecks, the coldest in the city, are served on ice in mop buckets; the decor runs to aged Christmas decorations; and everyone, from the nattily

By Suzy Banks

Travel & Outdoors

My Kind of Town

The Bank of America Center and 24 other things I love about Houston.

By Suzy Banks

Politics & Policy

“The Trick Is Not to Act Like a Lawyer.”

So says Rusty Hardin, Houston’s defense attorney of the moment—the latest in a long line of courtroom heroes guilty of premeditated flamboyance and charisma in the first degree.

By Pamela Colloff

Feature

My Kind of Town

I’D BEMOAN THE LOSS OF the Baytown Tunnel, an icon of my childhood (on the drive through it, my sister and I kept our eyes shut and our feet off the floorboards to avoid misfortune), if its replacement, the Fred Hartman Bridge, weren’t such a marvel of engineering. A cable-span

By Suzy Banks

Around the State

Atsbox

Latino Culture

DO, RE, Sí San Antonio loves a fiesta. And during the Diez y Seis de Septiembre holiday, which celebrates Mexico’s independence from Spain on September 16, 1810, there is plenty of evidence of that. On September 14 the streets of the Alamo City will be filled with music and dancing

By Eileen Schwartz

Atsbox

Straight Talk

THE GUY CAN’T HELP IT Little Richard, arguably one of the greatest performers in rock and roll history, is playing in Texas this month at Galveston’s Grand 1894 Opera House on September 28 and 29. So you’re coming to Galveston. Have you ever been to that part of Texas before?

By Eileen Schwartz

Atsbox

Books

WORD FOR WORD Ogden Nash once wrote, “I’m so full/Of Holy Texas/I’ll be hallowed ground/When they annex us.” Nash never lived in Texas, but his papers are permanent residents at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at UT-Austin. You can examine the comic poet’s original manuscripts, letters, drawings, and photographs

By Katy Vine

Atsbox

A Great Weekend in Houston

DIVERSIONS OF GRANDEUR Trashy romance novels may be perfect for summertime escapism, but fall calls for more enlightened pastimes. Houston delivers with an artistically packed weekend September 27-29, one built for cultural indulgence. Begin Friday evening, when the Houston Ballet performs Madame Butterfly, an adaptation of the operatic favorite. On

By Stacy Hollister

Columns

Environment

Prairie Dogma

Birders and their allies want to preserve the vanishing grassland of the farm and ranch country west of Houston, but time is running out.

By Joe Nick Patoski

Behind the Lines

Keep the Change

Houston, we don't have a problem.

By Paul Burka

Media

Pro vs. Chron

How the new editor of the Houston Chronicle is trying to turn the page on the paper's past.

By Evan Smith

Food and Drink

Melting Pots

Serving three of Houston's immigrant cuisinesIndian, Japanese, or Vietnamesethese restaurants put culinary adventure on the menu.

By Patricia Sharpe

Art

Peter’s Principles

Some people look at Houston and see only rough edges. Peter Marzio, the director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, sees a brash upstart that should be proud of its cultural riches.

By Michael Ennis

Politics

Race of Races

Who will succeed Brown as the mayor of Houston? He'll probably be black or Hispanic, but he could be White.

By Patricia Hart

Reporter

First Person

Sheila Jackson Lee

Sheila Jackson Lee can take the heat (but not pulled pork).

By Evan Smith

Reporter

Reliant Stadium

Tackling the ins and outs of Reliant Stadium.

By Joe Nick Patoski

Reporter

Miracle Workers

The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center is put under the microscope.

By Jim Atkinson

Web

Texas Tidbits

In a state of big, Houston is at the top.

By Cody Ramsey

Pat's Pick

On The Road

SAY “AMEN!” Our quest for the quintessential roadside cafe ended happily on a rural stretch of Texas Highway 21, four miles west of the hamlet of Lincoln. So many times before, we had been led astray in similar surroundings by a sign with the words “country kitchen,” “home cooking,” or

By Eileen Schwartz

Pat's Pick

Bookshelf

TRAIL MIX Ah, the mythical cowboy—he squandered not a second of daylight on the range. But after darkness fell, our archetype unwound in front of a glowing campfire, chowing down on beans and biscuits and slugging down coffee as black as the skies above. Now, a new cookbook—Bill Cauble and

By Stacy Hollister

Pat's Pick

Hugo’s

YOU GO, HUGO For two solid months, every time I checked on the much-anticipated opening of Hugo’s in Houston, I got variations on the same answer: “Oh, we’re so sorry, but there’s going to be a wait; we’ve run into more construction problems.” I sniffed disaster lurking. Finally, in July,

By Patricia Sharpe

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