observationcafe
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Sat, Aug. 12th, 2006 11:41 am
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Preservationists in Houston say the city’s most endangered building is the former Alabama Theater, which reopened as a bookstore in 1984.
The River Oaks Theater, built in 1939, is still showing movies, but demolition rumors have stirred an uproar.
August 12, 2006
Fighting the Wrecking Ball to Save Houston Landmarks
By RALPH BLUMENTHAL
HOUSTON, Aug. 11 — This fast-spreading metropolis of see-through skyscrapers, clogged freeways and antipathy to zoning has long worn its boomtown history lightly, freely consigning cherished landmarks to the wrecking ball.
Though only New York, Los Angeles and Chicago have more people, and it covers more acreage than Chicago, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Detroit combined, Houston has one of the nation’s weakest urban preservation statutes. Any owner wishing to demolish a landmark must only give notice to the city and allow 90 days for discussion. After that it can be torn down.
But with a rallying cry of Alamo-like fervor — “Remember the Shamrock Hotel!” — many Houstonians are now drawing a rare line in the sand in defense of some particularly beloved architectural treasures threatened with demolition.
The sites at risk include Houston’s two oldest movie theaters, the River Oaks and the Alabama, both dating from 1939, and the 1937 Art Moderne River Oaks shopping center, which is the oldest in Texas and the second-oldest in the nation. The streamlined black-and-white mall has been a “veritable icon,” said Stephen Fox, adjunct professor of architecture at Rice University and one of Houston’s leading architectural authorities, at a City Council hearing last week.
( Read More... )
N.Y. Times  
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observationcafe
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Sat, Aug. 12th, 2006 11:40 am
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The theater's marquee advertises a 1939 movie plus short features in this historic photograph.
Bob Bailey Studios: COLLECTION OF LOVITA IRBY
July 28, 2006, 12:43AM
Battle to save River Oaks center
Public outcry rises over fears that the historical theater and shops will be torn down
By LISA GRAY
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle
Fear that the River Oaks Shopping Center, including its much-loved movie theater, might be demolished has fueled grass-roots interest in historic preservation — a surprising development in a city where many architectural landmarks have fallen without a fight.
In less than a week, an online petition sponsored by the Web site Houstonist.com has attracted more than 13,700 signers.
At Historic Houston's Web site, more than 4,000 individuals have registered to receive e-mail updates about the River Oaks Shopping Center and the Landmark River Oaks Theatre.
City Councilwoman Ada Edwards, whose District D includes the shopping center, said more than 100 letters and e-mail messages have flooded into her office — none of them form letters. She and other council members hope to persuade Houston-based Weingarten Realty Investors to change its plans.
"We're going to fight to find a balance between historic preservation and development," Edwards said.
( Read More... )
Houston Chronicle
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observationcafe
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Sat, Aug. 12th, 2006 07:44 am
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Isle port riding a wave of success
By Greg Barr
The Daily News
Published August 4, 2006
While “We’re No. 1” may be the universal rallying cry of success, Port of Galveston officials are thrilled with the idea of being No. 11.
In its annual ranking of cruise ports, industry trade publication Lloyds Cruise International has moved Galveston up one notch closer to being among the top 10 worldwide.
In North American rankings, Galveston is No. 5, while perennial cruise industry leader Miami remains No. 1, the same ranking it retained in the world. Galveston is also now the industry’s top Gulf of Mexico homeport for Caribbean operations.
The announcement was made by Port Director Steve Cernak on Thursday at a luncheon aboard the Carnival Cruise Lines’ ship Ecstasy, a few hours before the vessel set sail for another cruise.
This year, 600,000 passengers will come through Galveston’s two cruise terminals, showing continued strong growth from 2005, when 532,000 passengers strode through the turnstiles. Cruise operation revenue now accounts for about 40 percent of total port revenue.
( Read More... )
Galveston Daily News
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observationcafe
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Fri, Aug. 11th, 2006 11:44 am
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The artists of Otabenga Jones & Associates -- Dawolu Jabari Anderson, from left, Kenya Evans, Jamal Cyrus and Robert Pruitt -- gather around a man the group identifies as "Otabenga Jones."
Otabenga Jones & Associates
A piece from Symmetrical Patterns of Def, the group's first collective show at the Lawndale Art Center.
otabenga jones & associates
Dawolu Jabari Anderson's Cheating Chief Wahoo.
otabenga jones & associates
A painting from Symmetrical Patterns of Def.
Otabenga Jones and Associates
The group's Exploring the Outer Reaches of the Garden of Pro-Black Sanctuary was featured at the Whitney Biennial in New York.
Otabenga Jones and Associates
A photograph by Jamal Cyrus from The Art of Subversion.
Otabenga Jones & Associates
Robert Pruitt's New Kiddz in tha Hood won first prize at the Lawndale Art Center's Big Show in 2004.
Otabenga Jones & Associates
July 21, 2006, 1:34PM
Our story. Our vision. Our purpose.
Proactive and provocative, the artwork of Houston-based Otabenga Jones & Associates seeps into the mainstream art world
By BILL DAVENPORT
For The Chronicle
An overturned police car, a graffiti mural drawn on the wall in Magic Marker, bootleg mix tapes for sale from the trunk of a plywood Cadillac. How you react to the work of the Houston-based art collective Otabenga Jones & Associates depends strongly on who you are -- black or white, rich or poor, old or young. Everyone takes the provocative works personally. They force you to take sides.
The group takes its name from Ota Benga, a displaced African pygmy who was exhibited at the Bronx Zoo in 1906. Like the original Ota Benga, Otabenga Jones has been on display in New York, too: The group and the four artists individually were selected for this spring's Whitney Biennial, the tip-top national showcase for American artists. But there's a key difference, says Robert Pruitt, the group's de facto spokesman: "We control what they're gawking at."
( Read More... )
Houston Chronicle
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observationcafe
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Sun, Jul. 23rd, 2006 11:48 am
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What the German archeologists found in an ancient cave.
Hot times in the Ice Age
Last year German archeologists found the 14th piece to a jumble of 13 fragments of siltstone, leading them to reassemble one of the earliest representations of male sexuality — and possibly the world’s first dildo. It is dated at roughly 28,000 years, and considering the trouble I have getting dated at a mere 44, I congratulate it.
I might have better luck if I had a rock-solid 8 inches, as this thing has, but then, mine has never shattered into 14 pieces. Of course, no one has ever used mine to shape flints with, as certain markings on this one indicate, and gods help them if they do.
( Read More... )
Houston Voice
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observationcafe
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Sat, Jul. 22nd, 2006 07:02 pm
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Opened in 1939, the Landmark River Oaks
Theatre is Houston's oldest functioning movie theater.
Shopping center tenants say a high-rise residential building
may replace it.
The Alabama movie theater
is seen in a photo in 1939, the
year it was built.
Today, the old Alabama movie theater houses the Bookstop.
July 22, 2006, 5:57AM
ENDANGERED LANDMARKS
Historic theater could soon fade into history
Tenants told of unconfirmed plan to raze portions of the River Oaks Shopping Center
By LISA GRAY
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle
Three Houston landmarks, including the Landmark River Oaks Theatre and the Bookstop in the former Alabama Theater, have been declared endangered by the Greater Houston Preservation Alliance.
The alliance has learned, spokesman David Bush said Friday, that two buildings in the River Oaks Shopping Center could face demolition within two years.
The center is controlled by Weingarten Realty Investors, a Houston-based company that owns and manages about 300 retail properties in the southern United States.
A Weingarten spokeswoman would not confirm the company's plans for the shopping center.
"We don't have any official statement at this time," Amy Jones, Weingarten's director of marketing, said Friday. Other Weingarten officials did not return phone calls.
( Read More... )
Houston Chronicle
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observationcafe
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Sat, Jul. 22nd, 2006 07:32 am
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July 16, 2006, 7:11PM
Hillcroft: a whole world nearby
The diverse mix of ethnic groups gives this unique avenue an international flavor
By TARA DOOLEY
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle
Hillcroft Avenue is pure Houston, created with dedication to the automobile and an aversion to zoning.
A string of strip centers broken by blocks of single-family homes, it connects cacophonous enterprises: the tires of an auto repair shop stacked near a florist's roses; a women in hijab at Jerusalem Halal Meat Market two parking lots away from the "adult novelties" at Bizarre Bazaar; manicured lawns and Dumpster-decorated parking lots.
It provides spiritual sanctuary under steeples and in tucked-away storefront temples and mosques. Just as it offers nighttime revelers refuge under twirling lights and Norteño music.
It's an avenue where a staple of life and culture is found under different headings: bagels, pita, naan, pan, bread.
"Hillcroft is disorganized but not necessarily unorganized development," said Bob Stein, dean of Rice University's school of social sciences. "It is what Houston is all about.
"When you go from one end of Hillcroft to the other end, you cross every ethnic and racial group in our city. As a result, I want to say it is a microcosm."
( Read More... )
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observationcafe
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Thu, Mar. 9th, 2006 01:12 pm
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PUBLIC VIEW Gov. James E. Greevey of New Jersey and Dina Matos McGreevey, in 2004, before he announced his resignation.
March 7, 2006
Many Couples Must Negotiate Terms of 'Brokeback' Marriages
By KATY BUTLER
One hour into "Brokeback Mountain," Amy Jo Remmele began to cry, and not just for the woman on-screen, standing in a doorway in Riverton, Wyo., watching her husband embrace a man.
"When I saw that look in her eyes, I thought, 'Oh, yeah.' Even though I never saw my husband with another man, I knew exactly how that woman would have felt," said Mrs. Remmele, a respiratory therapist in rural Minnesota.
On June 1, 2000, Mrs. Remmele, then 31, discovered her husband's profile on the Web site gay.com. The couple stayed up all that night weeping and talking. Soon afterward, 10 days before she gave birth to her second child, Mrs. Remmele's husband went off to spend a couple of nights with his new boyfriend. "I tried to talk him out of it, and he left anyway," Mrs. Remmele said. "I was devastated." Three months later the couple divorced.
( Read More... )
N.Y. Times
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observationcafe
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Thu, Mar. 9th, 2006 12:14 pm
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Aroma's Coffee & Tea House serves a cappuccino with snickerdoodle biscotti.
Ben DeSoto: Chronicle
March 2, 2006, 1:36AM
Stirring things up
Local coffeehouses aren't blending in, they're standing out with exotic new brews of their own
By DAI HUYNH
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle
Out of Africa, coffee came and conquered.
Consumers in the United States drink more java than those in any other country. According to research group Packaged Facts, it's the second-largest U.S. import, behind the other black gold: oil.
Most experts agree that the proliferation of gourmet coffees coincided with Starbucks' expansion. The Seattle landmark started brewing in 1971. The company went public in 1992, about the same time java morphed into the world's most popular beverage, with more than 400 billion cups sipped annually. Today, there are 10,800 Starbucks worldwide. President and CEO Jim Donald's long-term goal is 30,000.
In Houston, the Yellowpages.Com Web site lists more than 200 coffee outlets, including Diedrich Coffee Inc. and Starbucks. About half are parts of chains, but industry experts say independents are holding their own. Greenberry's Coffee & Tea Co., Onion Creek Coffee House, Brasil and Harvest Coffee, for example, all are working hard to build a loyal customer base and a unique brand.
( Read More... )
Houston Chronicle
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observationcafe
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Fri, Feb. 24th, 2006 08:21 am
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Differences Between Women And Men
1. NAMES
If Laurie, Linda, Elizabeth and Barbara go out for lunch, they will call each other Laurie, Linda, Elizabeth and Barbara.
If Mark, Chris, Eric and Tom go out, they will affectionately refer to each other as Fat Boy, Godzilla, Peanut-Head and Scrappy.
2. EATING OUT
When the bill arrives, Mark, Chris, Eric and Tom will each throw in a $20 even though it's only for $32.50. None of them will have anything smaller and none will actually admit they want change back.
When the women get their bill, out come the pocket calculators.
3. MONEY
A man will pay $2 for a $1 item he needs.
A woman will pay $1 for a $2 item that she doesn't need, but it's on sale.
( Read More... ) Current Mood:  amused Current Music: Louis Armstrong: Jeepers creepers:
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observationcafe
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Fri, Feb. 24th, 2006 08:06 am
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The rumor mill has it that negotiations are under way with John Travolta to play evil oilman J.R. in the big-screen version of the TV hit Dallas.
Feb. 17, 2006, 1:29PM
Dallas movie could put the Big D in Florida
By CHRISTOPHER KELLY
Knight Ridder Newspapers
FORT WORTH — After four years in development, it looks as if the much-anticipated big-screen version of Dallas could finally be ready to roll, as early as this summer.
The only catch: It might just end up rolling in Florida, or Louisiana, or, egad, Canada.
The makers of Dallas say that as much as they would prefer to shoot entirely on location in "Big D," they are considering shooting elsewhere. Their reason: Texas just can't compete with other places when it comes to offering financial incentives to lure Hollywood productions to the state.
( Read More... )
Houston Chronicle disappointed Current Music: John Mayer - Your Body is a Wonderland (acoustic live):
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observationcafe
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Wed, Feb. 15th, 2006 01:55 pm
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February 10, 2006
Op-Ed Contributor
Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Ex-Gay Cowboys
By DAN SAVAGE
Seattle
FIRST, a little of that full disclosure stuff: I have not actually seen "Brokeback Mountain" or "End of the Spear," both of which I'm going to discuss here.
But since when did not seeing a film prevent anyone from sharing his or her strong opinions about it? Before the posters for "Brokeback Mountain" were even printed, everyone from the blogger Mickey Kaus to the Concerned Women for America to gay men all over the country had already said a lot about the film. (Their opinions were, respectively, con, con and pro.)
( Read More... )
Dan Savage is the editor of The Stranger, a Seattle newsweekly.
N.Y. Times Tags: gay cowboys Current Mood: amused Current Music: Again...what do you think I am listening to??
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observationcafe
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Wed, Feb. 15th, 2006 01:53 pm
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The stucco and adobe Prada Marfa store, near Valentine, sits on a desolate stretch of U.S. Highway 90 where the posted speed limit is 75 mph and carries the logo of the nearly centry-old Italian fashion house. The art sculpture building shows off 20 high-heeled women's shoes and a half dozen handbags, some in the four-figure price range.
Feb. 8, 2006, 5:39PM
Fashion and art bisect in Marfa
By MICHAEL GRACZYK
Associated Press
VALENTINE — With leather bags and footwear on display inside, the adobe building easily could fit in with the grazing cattle and mountainous desert Southwest landscape outside.
But these aren't saddlebags and cowboy boots. The brand isn't Wrangler or Stetson. And the simple 15-by-25-foot cube structure is like nothing else around these parts.
Here in the remoteness of West Texas, where rodeo means bulls and broncos, there's a tiny store emblazoned with the name of Prada that's more akin to Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. The place turns motorists' heads as they speed along this wide-open, desolate stretch of U.S. Highway 90.
( Read More... )
On the Net:
Prada Marfa
Houston Chronicle, fashion, marfa, texas Current Mood: artistic Current Music: Run DMC: Mary, Mary
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