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Photo courtesy A.D. Players

Steel Magnolias

​A whole bunch of theater presentations are ending their runs this weekend, so get on out there if you want to see them.

The Wiz, which has been drawing huge crowds to the Miller Outdoor Theater and has extended twice, absolutely, positively must close this weekend. Be aware you might encounter some long lines in trying to get the free tickets for covered seats, and sitting on the hill can get a little tough too. But it's free, the Ensemble has put together an energetic, classy production, and maybe the heat won't be that bad.

If wacky zaniness is more your speed, then you might want to get to Radio Music Theater's The Story of Burford, Category 5. "You'll love experiencing the lighter side of a Category 5 hurricane hitting Houston," the company's promos say, and who are we to argue? Tickets are $24 and more information is available at their website.

Also closing this week: Steel Magnolias at the A.D. Players, and, at Stages, The Tamarie Cooper Show: Journey to the Center of My Mind (In 3-D!)

Photo courtesy of Dario Lipovac

​Houston's Iraqi refugee community is saying a painful goodbye to one of its most valued members. Now Marwan Hamza's friends are scrambling to help his family do the same.

Hamza, 22, is on his deathbed at Memorial Herman hospital after crashing his car earlier this week. Hamza's work with U.S. troops in Iraq forced him to flee alone for a refugee camp in Ankara, Turkey. There he used his nearly flawless English to help with security and translation at a refugee support organization, whose founder wrote him a recommendation letter when he left for the United States.

"I have never met a refugee with this kind of attitude, who willingly and positvely offered help with no expectation of anything in return," the letter reads.

Photo by K's Glimpse

​Have any extra room in your home and heart for a pit bull? There are a bunch of 'em available in Nacagdoches, rescued from an alleged puppy mill that telegraphed its redneck roots by choosing the name "Swamplot Kennels."

The pits are among the 118 dogs constables and animal control officers seized from Swamplot August 13. According to The Daily Sentinel, "most of the dogs were chained to the ground and had little food or clean water within reach." Some dogs were "locked inside hot tin sheds and trailers with no water." And Swamplot owner Lauree Brown is of course insisting she loves the dogs that she held captive like Jaycee Lee Dugard.

Hair Balls has received pleas from animal welfare advocates in Houston and Nacagdoches who say that while many of the dogs were adopted right away, the pits (surprise, surprise) haven't found homes. The advocates also point out that these pits were never in a fighting ring.   

Photos by Katharine Shilcutt

An empty giant on Riverside Drive, built in 1936.

​People often complain about Houston's flat, uninspiring terrain -- the topological equivalent of the doldrums, almost. But those people have probably never ventured south on Highway 288 to a sleepy neighborhood off MacGregor called Riverside Terrace. Long a stronghold of the marginalized yet affluent members of Houston society -- first Jews, then African-Americans, and now gays -- the neighborhood has been overlooked throughout the city's history.

Looping streets flow along the same path as Braes Bayou and the smaller gulleys that run through the neighborhood. Rolling hills of verdant green dip easily into kudzu-covered streams while Spanish moss hangs in dense curtains from the thick oak trees lining the neighborhood. In the middle of Riverside Terrace, a mossy pond sits in repose amidst a thicket of trees and the heavy, moist air. The streets are quiet here, home to some of the city's best examples of architecture from the late Art Deco and Mid-Century modern eras. These are some of Houston's finest homes that history has all but forgotten.

Riverside Terrace was established in the 1930s, a home for Houston's wealthy Jewish community who were forbidden by an unwritten gentleman's agreement from building or living within the WASP-y enclave of River Oaks. Families like the Weingartens, the Sakowitzes, the Battlesteins and the Fingers built their homes in the sleepy neighborhood just east of the Medical Center and Hermann Park.

Photo by Rob Ainsley

​At first glance it seemed like the cash for clunker bike promotion at Daniel Boone Cycles was little more than a spoof on the government program to get some advertising for the bicycle shop. Turns out, you might call it a political statement.

"It's a matter of making people aware they can go green, have a new bike, and it can all be done by private enterprise," Joy Boone, who started the shop in 1968 by buying and selling used bikes, tells Hair Balls. "Every dealer in town could do the same thing."

Boone isn't the biggest fan of government. She received a $200 check from one stimulus program, she says, but that money just went back to paying taxes.

"I think [the government] has wasted a lot of money," Boone says. "The cash for clunker program was probably the wisest thing they did, because it put the money in the hands of the people without 20 million layers of bureaucracy."

Photo by Jim Parsons

​With the exception of legendary one-eyed bookseller Jim Brown, nobody knows the soon-to-shutter Alabama Bookstop better than John Cramer. The curmudgeonly guitarist in local psych-rock bands the Mike Gunn and Project Grimm worked there - mostly as the receiving manager - from 1994 to 2008, when he transferred to the Galleria Barnes and Noble. (There he took over receiving and set about solving mysteries for the Houston Police and starring on Inside Edition.)

Photo by Katharine Shilcutt

Interior of the West Alabama Bookstop

​Hair Balls got choked-up yesterday when we got the press release about Barnes & Noble closing Houston's beloved Bookstop on September 15 so that owner Barnes & Noble can open a store in the River Oaks Shopping Center the following day.

The company's press release touted the infallible awesomeness of the new, 32,000 square-foot space, which will include one of those exotic, hard-to-find coffeehouses called "Starbucks." But Hair Balls wanted to find out why the company would want to shutter a unique store housed in a historic building and open yet another big-box book behemoth. After 25 years, was it no longer profitable? Was it not practical to maintain both the Bookstop and the new store?

David Deason, B & N's vice president of development told us via e-mail: "Our lease has expired and the space has simply become too small for the services we can offer our customers. Our business model has changed and it is appropriate for us to move on." He also stated that "We loved our ties to the Alabama Theatre. At the time we moved into the theater, we were at the leading edge of retail; pioneers, really, in utilizing the theater. But the landscape has changed dramatically and the time has come for us to move on. We were great custodians of the space and we support the community's efforts to maintain the theater."

photo by frankh

​
The Houston Electric Auto Association recently cornered the four biggest mayoral candidates and grilled them on environmental issues, most (unsurprisingly) having to do with the unmitigated wonderfulness of the electric car. They were also quizzed on their support of proposed or already-existing City of Houston initiatives.

Peter Brown, Gene Locke, Roy Morales, and Annise Parker each participated to some extent, although Locke's hilarious response was to stonewall the interviewer and avoid him entirely when follow-ups were attempted. He answered only a few questions in the pre-interview chat, responding directly to none of the actual interview questions, and we like to imagine him lighting the action pledge on fire, then using its flame to light a big ol' cigar.

The animal world equivalent of Klem's punishment

​Little-girl-lovin' Beaumont cardiologist Jeffrey Klem has entered into a 15-year "agreed order of public reprimand" with the Texas Medical Board, according to a Board release issued this morning.

If you'll recall, Klem was the guy who showed that, in Jefferson and Harris counties, you can get a slap on the wrist for pleading guilty to fondling young girls as long as you're a doctor with enough dough to hire a good attorney. Klem was sentenced to six months in jail for his Jefferson County conviction -- but they were kind enough to let him serve his time on the weekends.

The Board on August 21 stayed a suspension of Klem's license, and Klem agreed to the following conditions (amond others):

• No "direct or indirect contact" with patients under 21
• When treating patients 21 and older, a chaperone must be present
• He must practice in a group or institutional setting
• Must see a Board-approved psychiatrist and follow that psychiatrist's recommendations
• Must take and pass the Texas Medical Jurisprudence Examination within one year
• Must pay a $5,000 administrative penalty within 90 days 

​You know, this week in current events really was a doozy, wouldn't you say?  Senator Ted Kennedy passed on to the crystal Kennedy camp in the afterlife, Dominick Dunne followed in his footsteps (ALERT: Old white dudes with cancer, don't walk under any ladders this week, okay?  The odds are clearly stacked against you), dogfighting sicko Michael Vick returned to the only team that'd have him in the NFL (definitely not the Texans, thanggod), and Michael Jackson's death was elevated to homicide status. And then he was deemed a pot hoarder.  Yikes.  

Oh, and Facebook 3.0 was released for the iPhone.

Wait, what?!  STOP THE SERVERS!  Shut up!  Can you believe it?!

Yes, Facebook stalkers and stalkees with iPhones alike, Facebook's app is new! Improved! New and improved!  And they're calling it the best thing since sliced bread.  Well, that's not a direct quote.  But Joe Hewitt really does deserve a series of blowjobs for the one-man show he pulled off.  An app once rendered almost useless has now been given a shave, a haircut, a tummy tuck, and a facelift, all in one fell swoop.

Are you unconvinced that this is a life-changing development?  Fear thee not, Doubting Toms and Tanias.  Words and phrases such as "snappy," "the perfect app," and "brings you closer to a full desktop experience" have been used to describe this puppy (hey, Michael Vick, does that word tempt you?).

Facebook ceremoniously laid it all out in a blogpost (okay, okay, it was in "Facebook Notes," to keep the branding straight, sheesh) last week.  The laundry list of highlights include: