Heights Magazine

THERE’S A BETTER APPROACH TO CANCER CARE in the Texas Medical Center

At Houston Methodist Neal Cancer Center, we treat every aspect of your cancer. Leading oncologists work with our specialists across disciplines to minimize cancer’s effects on major organs. One comprehensive team — dedicated to your individual care — uses the latest research, treatments and technology to stop your cancer. From infusion and clinical trials to surgery and reconstruction, our innovative care is available in the Texas Medical Center.

That’s the difference between practicing medicine and leading it.

THE ONLY SENIOR COMMUNITY IN THE HEART OF THE HEIGHTS

The Village of the Heights

Located in the quaint, yet vibrant Historic Heights area of Houston, The Village of the Heights offers residents distinctive experiences enjoyable for all. Whether it’s browsing local art shops, strolling through beautiful parks, dining at highly sought-after restaurants, or having access to nearby, high-quality medical services, The Village of the Heights offers a variety of activities and experiences that are enriching, enjoyable, and create memories.

Because our community is based on the idea that life is inherently valuable, rich, and downright enjoyable, we are focused on living life to the fullest. That’s why we offer a rich calendar of monthly activities and events. Our talented chefs prepare fresh, delicious, healthy meals our residents can enjoy in a cozy restaurant-style dining room.

We also value health and wellbeing, which is why we offer residents a variety of popular fitness classes, such as Tai Chi or Sit Yoga, and Fit Aerobics, and a walking club centered around our gorgeous grounds. At The Village of the Heights, we believe socializing is at the center of our residents’ lives. Our residents enjoy a lively, festive community that offers continuing education opportunities, including art, language, and cooking classes. Game nights are a hit featuring Scrabble, dominos, and mahjong, Sunday bingo, and more along with the always popular themed happy hours. And, for those looking for a little R&R, residents can catch their favorite flick at our weekend movie nights.

Residents at The Village of the Heights can choose from a range of living options to provide as much, or as little assistance as needed. From independent living, assisted living, and memory care, residents get the right level of support from our team of expert care associates. The Village of the Heights is committed to serving residents in a way that provides comfort and fulfillment. A place to Live Life Well®.

Visit for monthly events or for lunch to experience the community and a taste of distinguished senior living at The Village of Heights. Visit www.villageoftheheights.com or call 346-8005426 to schedule a private tour and lunch.

Imagine days full of possibilities in your beautiful new home at The Village of Heights Independent Living, Assisted Living and Memory Care. Enjoy delicious supportive living services, and innovative programs that will inspire you to be social & remain physically active. Combined with the added spectrum of care to your individual needs, you’ll have everything to Live Life Well®, no matter

Celebrating 25 Years

As those 25 years of age or older already know, while a lot happens in those two-plus decades, it all moves too fast. Intown celebrates its silver anniversary, which is rare in the magazine business. In the overall media business, two decades is an eternity. In 1997 when Intown published its first edition, the internet had barely begun. Newspapers still ruled. Facebook and Twitter did not exist. A year later, in 1998, a little company called Google began to change the world as we know it.

There is little time to reflect on the media business; the winners and losers get weeded out quickly. With each calendar change, I have a sense of renewal and promise to do better. Growing my company, reading more, losing some weight, and being more thoughtful come to mind. The new year is a time of renewal with who write and what they write about, along with many new design ideas. After two long years of grappling with the pandemic, the aftermath of paradigm shifts has created a new landscape.

My renewal thoughts consist of less negativity, division, or downtrodden articles about many things wrong with our society. What about some of the bright spots that push us forward through the fog of life?

Our new motto is to inspire, entertain and inform. How can we help improve our city and our lives? Contributing in some way to making Houston a better place is a good starting point for the next 25 years of Intown. Looking back, we have been doing quite a bit of this already, which may be why we have survived the first 25 years.

Intown’s initial focus was to promote business in the Upper Kirby District. The magazine and now its website houstonintown.com continue to expand with its roots still in Upper Kirby. The company that publishes Intown now publishes eight titles mailed to 25 neighborhoods in Houston and Cypress, Texas neighborhoods. We hope to continue and renew our mission to inform, entertain and inspire.

A Look Back at Some of our Most Inspiring, Informative, and entertaining:

Carrabba’s The Original 30 years of Amazing - Yvette Streit

Pulitzer Prize in Perspective: Lisa Falkenberg

Raising The Bar by Jeanette Clift George

Julep – A Bar For the Southerner in Us All

Toufic Elsaadi’s Journey From a Refugee Camp to Montrose

Making Cancer History Avondale House

Tom Flanagan: Intown’s Medical Person of the Year The Cannes Experience

Go to www.houstonintown.com to read these inspiring stories and many others.

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Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Presents Portrait of Courage: Gentileschi, Wiley, and the Story of Judith in January 2023

Two paintings depicting the Old Testament story of Judith slaying Holofernes—one by 17th-century Italian artist Artemisia Gentileschi and the other by contemporary American artist Kehinde Wiley—will continue their national tour at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston from January 25 through April 16, 2023. Presenting Gentileschi’s Judith and Holofernes (c. 1612-17) from the collection of the Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte in Naples and Wiley’s 2012 Judith and Holofernes from the North Carolina Museum of Art, Portrait of Courage: Gentileschi, Wiley, and the Story of Judith places the two paintings in dialogue with one another, revealing shared narratives and ideas across time and culture.

MUSEUMS

Asia Society Texas Center

Through LAIN SINGH BANGDEL: Apr 30 MOON OVER KATHMANDU

Museum Of Fine Arts, Houston

Through GORDON PARKS: STOKELY Jan 16 CARMICHAEL & BLACK POWER

Through PHILIP GUSTON NOW Jan 16

Through ALBERTO GIACOMETTI: Feb 12 TOWARD THE ULTIMATE FIGURE

Jan 25- PORTRAIT OF COURAGE: Apr 16 GENTILESCHI, WILEY, AND THE STORY OF JUDITH

Contemporary Arts Museum Houston

Through TROY MONTES MICHIE: Jan 29 ROCK OF EYE

Through DIANE SEVERIN NGUYEN: Feb 26 IF REVOLUTION IS A SICKNESS

Holocaust Museum Houston

Through HOPE: STORIES OF Jan 29 HOUSTON SURVIVORS

Through WOMAN, THE SPIRIT OF Apr 2 THE UNIVERSE

Heights

Every First Saturday of the Month

1245 Heights Blvd

Elanor’s Market

Sat and Sun 9 am until 1 pm 2120 Ella Blvd.

Feb 3 - THE LIFE AND ART OF Apr 9 ALICE LOK CAHANA

Feb 24 NEIGHBORS 1938. WE June 18 WERE ALL LADENBURGERS Feb 24 through June 18 Menil

Through SAMUEL FOSSO: AFRICAN Jan 15 SPIRITS

Artupdate houston published every two weeks by houstonintown. Go to website and sign up for newsletter to receive free update.

Epicurean Farmers Market

Intown’s Classical Music Editor and Critic, the Hon. Philip Berquist, Honorary Consul for the Republic of Croatia for Texas

The 2022-2023 Arts Season Continues in January & February

The holidays are now firmly behind us and let’s begin the New Year by highlighting what is in store for us. Coming soon to a venue near you -

Houston Grand Opera

HGO presents two operas in their winter repertoire, Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro and Massenet’s Werther.

Mozart’s comedy, The Marriage of Figaro, was composed in 1786. Dealing, as usual, with love and its trials and tribulations, it is considered by many as among the greatest operas ever written. This is a revival from 2016 and is set in Spain in the 1960’s.

The Marriage of Figaro 3 hours and 28 minutes, one intermission. Sung in Italian with projected English translation. Patrick Summers, Conductor, Michael Grandage, Original Director, Ian Rutherford, Revival Director Price range - $20 - $210

Jules Massenet’s, Werther, was written in 1887 but had its first performance, in German, in Vienna in 1892. It was performed soon thereafter in its original French. These performances feature Matthew Polanzani and three time Grammy award winner, Isabel Leonard. Conducted by internationally acclaimed, Robert Spano.

Werther

2 hours and 52 minutes, 2 intermissions. Sung in French with projected English translation. Robert Spano, Conductor, Benoît Jacquot, Director Price range - $20 - $210

All performances - Brown Theater at Wortham Center Houston Symphony Orchestra

The Houston Symphony has cleverly set its January and February performances as two festivals, “Riots and Scandals” and “Songs of the Earth.” Béla Bartók’s The Miraculous Mandarin was set to accompany a pantomime stage presentation and was initially considered to be in violation of current moral standards and was banned after its first performance in Prague. Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring achieved the highest honor of having the audience at its premier at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris in 1913 descend into an actual riot with fighting, screaming and the tearing of clothes. One patron famously considered his torn shirt collar a family heirloom! Now, over a hundred years later, the music is still provocative and is always a favorite.

The “Songs of the Earth” festival features what, in my opinion, will be the highlight of HSO’s first season with Music Director Juraj Valčuha - Das Lied von Der Erda - The Song of the Earth by Gustav Mahler. Written in 1909, only two years before his death, Mahler was very aware of the significance of a ninth symphony, with the ninth symphonies being the last of Beethoven and Schubert. As a result he did not label Das Lied as a symphony following his massive 8th. No less than Leonard Bernstein has declared it to be not only a symphony but to be Mahler’s greatest. Mahler next completed what he called his 9th Symphony which would be his final completed symphony, so it seems that one should not kid around with fate.

Gamelan refers to the historical Indonesian music of percussion. This will be featured along with Debussy’s Quartet in G Minor performed by plays of HSO. This will be a special one evening concert at a significantly reduced general admission ticket.

Lastly, famed violinist and collaborator with HSO, Itzhak Perlman will perform a recital on Sunday evening, February 26th. “Riots and Scandals Festival” ProgramH. Kendall, The Spark Catchers Rachmaninoff, Piano Concerto No. 3

Bartók, The Miraculous Mandarin Music Director Juraj Valčuha, Conductor Yefin Bronfman, piano

Houston Symphony Chorus, Allen Hightower, Director 1 hours, 45 minutes, one intermission Price range - $29 - $144

“Riots and Scandals Festival” ProgramRevueltas, Sensemayá Tchaikovsky, Piano Contero No. 1 Stravinsky, The Rite of Spring Music Director Juraj Valcčula, Conductor Khakis Buniatishvili, Piano 1 hour, 30 minutes, one intermission Price range - $30 - $144

“Songs of the Earth Festival” ProgramQ.Chen, Itinerary of an Illusion (Orchestral Variations) Mahler, Das Lied von der Erde - Song of the Earth Music Director, Juraj Valčula, Conductor Sasha Cooke, Mezzo-Soprano Clay Holley, Tenor 1 hour, 45 minutes, one intermission Price range - $30 - $144

“Songs of the Earth Festival” ProgramDebussy, String Quartet in G Minor Gamelan of the New Moon Members of the Houston SymphonyMuChens Hsieh, Principal Violin Tong Yan, Violin Samuel Petersen, Viola Louis-Marie Fardet, Cello Thursday, 16 February, 7:30pm Special price, $20, General Admission “Songs of the Earth Festival” Ravel, Mother Goose Suite Takemitsu, Quotation of Cream (Say Sea, Take Me!) T Hosokawa, Autumn Wind Debussy’s La mer Music Director Juraj Valčula, Conductor Lucas and Arthur Jussen, Piano Kojiro Umezaki, Shakuhachi (Japanese bamboo flute) 1 hour, 30 minutes, one intermission Price range - $29 - $109

Itzhak Perlman in Recital Program to be announced Itzhak Perlman, Violin Rohan De Silva, Piano Sunday, 26 February, 7:30pm Price range - $29 - $135

All performances - Jones Hall Houston Ballet

Houston Ballet will present the magnificent music of Prokofiev to accompany Stanton Welch’s choreography set to Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. This is Prokofiev at his absolute best and should not be missed.

Prokofiev, Romeo and Juliet

Prices begin at $25

All performances - Brown Theater at Wortham Center

Looks to me like a very impressive January and February. Go for it!

Keep letting me hear from you at classicalmusicberquist@gmail.com

Through ROBERT Mar 12 MOTHERWELL DRAWING: AS FAST AS THE MIND ITSELF

Through WALTER DE MARIA: BOXES Apr 23 FOR MEANINGLESS WORK

Through WALL DRAWING SERIES: Sept MEL BOCHNER Houston Museum Of Natural Science Special Exhibits

TRANSCENDING AUDUBON DREHER MATERWORKS1

BODY WORLDS & THE CYCLE OF LIFE KING TUT’S TOMB

MUSIC & DANCE

CLASSICAL UPDATE BY PHILIP BERQUIST. LET ME CONTINUE TO HEAR FROM YOU AT CLASSICALMUSICBERQUIST@GMAIL.COM. FOR UPDATES GO TO WWW.HOUSTONINTOWN.COM

THEATER

ALLEY THEATRE

Jan 20 CAMBODIAN ROCK BAND Feb 12

Broadway Across America Hobby Center

Jan 3 - PRETTY WOMAN THE Jan 8 MUSICAL

Jan 17 - JESUS CHRIST Jan 22 SUPERSTAR Feb 22 - MOULIN ROUGE! THE Mar 12 MUSICAL STAGES REPERTORY THEATER

Jan 20 - ROE Mar 5 Feb 10 - CULLAD WATTAH Mar 31

SPORTS Basketball Houston Rockets Toyota Center

After Uvalde, Texas Could Finally Fix Notorious Flaw in Public Information Act

An El Paso Democrat wants to close the “dead suspect loophole” that’s helped gut Texas’ once-distinguished open records law

by GUS BOVA Observer

“This article was originally published by the Texas Observer, a nonprofit investigative news outlet. Sign up for their weekly newsletter, or follow them on Facebook and Twitter.”

Atragedy like the Robb Elementary shooting of May 24 leaves its mark in many places. There are the homes that will always feel empty and the schools all over the nation that feel less safe than before. There are the parents who find themselves unwilling activists and the government officials who, thanks to that dark day’s botched police response, find themselves distrusted. And there’s a reinvigorated debate over gun control—though our state’s leaders will likely stop up their ears. Now, the legacy of Uvalde could also include something a touch wonky and seemingly far-removed: the closure of a gaping hole at the heart of Texas’ public information law.

In November, state Representative Joe Moody, an El Paso Democrat who served on a committee that investigated the Uvalde killings, filed House Bill 30, a multifaceted measure that would close

what’s called the “dead suspect loophole.” Under current law, Texas cops and prosecutors may withhold from the public many records stemming from investigations that did not result in a conviction. This statute arguably protects the reputations of innocent Texans, but it also casts a veil of secrecy over cases where there’s no conviction because the suspect is deceased—including when cops kill someone during an arrest, or a person dies in jail, or a school shooter’s rampage ends, as happened at Robb Elementary, with his own demise. Moody’s bill would specifically open up many cases where the lack of a conviction resulted from a suspect’s death.

Since May, state police have withheld records such as video and audio recordings from the Uvalde scene on the premise that the local district attorney is still investigating—a standard reason that agencies hold back much detailed information. Under the dead suspect

loophole, however, those records can plausibly be kept secret forever. HB 30 would head this off.

“I certainly respect the investigatory process, but at some point you turn the corner and the public deserves to scrutinize the records, and that is at the heart of the Public Information Act,” Moody told the Observer. “The government doesn’t get to decide what is good for us to know and what is bad for us to know.”

In June, GOP Speaker of the House Dade Phelan tweeted support for closing the dead suspect loophole in Uvalde’s wake, and a spokesperson confirmed in early December that the speaker continues to support such a policy though he is “not yet familiar with the specifics of legislation that has been filed.”

In its present form, HB 30 would also expand public access to information about police misconduct in general and to videos of jail deaths or shootings by police, along with creating a public database of reports related to such shootings, among other provisions.

Next year’s legislative session, to begin

AP PHOTO | ERIC GAY

in January, will mark the fourth time that Moody has tried to close the dead suspect loophole. In past sessions, discussion of his bills centered on prominent cases in which Texans were shot on their porches, tased in the back of squad cars, or left to perish in jails. Moody nearly succeeded in closing the loophole in 2019—with help from a contingent of small-government Republicans open to criminal justice reform—but he was derailed by a last-minute, scorched-earth campaign from the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas (CLEAT), the state’s largest police union, in a fight that left the El Paso lawmaker and the lobbying powerhouse as bitter adversaries.

mation in police personnel files necessary to shed light on misconduct and specific incidents including ones involving dead suspects. “This is a serious policy. It’s not political grandstanding, but the people of that organization are completely disingenuous,” he said of CLEAT, adding that he has not received backing from George Soros, the Hungarian-American billionaire—often used as a bogeyman by the political right—who’s funded criminal justice reform efforts in recent years.

In addition to overcoming CLEAT, Moody would also need acquiescence from archconservative Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, who controls the state Senate, and freshly reelected Gov-

release information unless they could prove it “unduly” interfered with law enforcement. This status quo stood for roughly two decades.

Then, in 1996, Harris County District Attorney Johnny Holmes—aggrieved at least in part by the work it took to fulfill record requests—successfully challenged the provision in a case styled Holmes v. Morales. The Texas Supreme Court ruled the open records law made no distinction between open and closed files and suggested the Legislature clarify its intent. In the meantime, law enforcement agencies could now withhold both open and closed case records.

The following year, Democratic state Representative Harold Dutton and then-GOP Senator Jeff Wentworth carried identical bills to reinstate the preHolmes status quo. The proposal drew bipartisan support but got pushback from district and county attorneys. Late in the session, Wentworth took to the Senate floor and explained that, following a flood of faxes and letters from prosecutors, he’d worked out a revision to his measure: Rather than free up all closed case files, he was going to let law enforcement keep secret any without a conviction.

Transparency advocates hope that Uvalde will make the difference this time around, but they won’t be getting any help from CLEAT. “Just like it has been in the past, this is a George Soros-funded fishing expedition that seeks to tear down our profession by false innuendo,” said CLEAT spokesperson Jennifer Szimanski, homing in on parts of the bill dealing with police personnel files. “We’ll definitely be fighting this piece of legislation.”

Szimanski—who also said of the bill: “This is ‘defund the police’”—added that there was likely no path for her group and Moody to discuss any compromise because “the author of this bill has not contacted us since 2019.”

Moody countered that his bill is “properly tailored” to only target infor-

ernor Greg Abbott, who wields the veto pen and may harbor presidential ambitions. Neither responded to requests for comment for this article.

The road that led to the dead suspect loophole winds back through five decades.

In 1973, in the wake of the Sharpstown stock fraud scandal that shook the state, the Legislature succumbed to a rare bout of good governance in passing what was then called the Texas Open Records Act. The statute, one of the nation’s strongest transparency measures at the time, made an exception for law enforcement records. But Texas’ attorneys general, who interpret and enforce the law, quickly decided the carveout only covered active investigations. Once a case file was closed, agencies had to

Wentworth explained the reasoning: “If somebody calls the police department and leaves some t1gvvinformation that’s scandalous but not true and it’s discovered that it’s not true … that file would stay closed; it would not be subject to the open records act,” he said. The amendment, approved near-unanimously, birthed the dead suspect loophole.

For the next 10 legislative sessions in a row, Dutton, whose own bill died on the House floor in ‘97, carried legislation trying to undo Wentworth’s prosecutor-friendly exception to no avail. Meanwhile, the seemingly innocuous carveout grew into a yawning pit, as cops and prosecutors increasingly withheld files in cases without a conviction including when the suspect had died.

Before the late ‘90s, “a Texan could be as proud of the state’s open-records laws as she could its well-maintained highways back in the day,” quipped

long-time criminal justice reform advocate and blogger Scott Henson in 2016. “On open records these days, we’re considered middle-of-the-pack or worse. And let’s please not speak of the roads.”

The term “dead suspect loophole” was first popularized around 2018 when the Austin TV station KXAN and the libertarian outlet Reason published investigations on its use. That year, Reason identified thousands of instances between 2003 and 2018 when records were withheld because there was no conviction in the case, including 81 in which someone died in law enforcement custody.

Perhaps the most high-profile illustration of the harm caused by the loophole is the case of the Dyer family. One night in 2013 in Mesquite, 18-year-old Graham Dyer, who was high on LSD, died shortly after being arrested and taken to jail. His parents tried to acquire video from that night but were stymied by the loophole. The parents then convinced the FBI to consider the case as a possible violation of

their son’s civil rights, and even though this led to no federal charges, the Dyers were able to obtain the videos in 2015 from the FBI—because there is no dead suspect loophole in the federal Freedom of Information Act. The parents discovered that police had tased their son in the testicles and that he’d been left on a concrete floor at the jail as he banged his head on the ground. These facts had been omitted or misrepresented in the basic incident report that Mesquite police had released. The Dallas County district attorney said there was enough evidence to charge the cops, but the statute of limitations had passed.

For Henson, the advocate and blogger, the best policy solution to this problem would be to completely abolish the exception for all conviction-less cases, not just for those in which a suspect died—in other words, to return fully to the pre-1997 status quo. “The criminal justice exception problem is vast, and just fixing the so-called dead suspect loophole would correct this narrow sliver of it,” he told the Observer, noting

that there are plenty of law enforcement actions that merit public scrutiny even though no one died.

But Moody, the El Paso Democrat, said that “fine-tuning” the law by just freeing up the dead suspect case records is the better and more “politically viable” approach.

Of course, political viability in Texas depends more on what Republicans think than Democrats. Moody has the House speaker and what remains of a fairly ineffectual bloc of reform-minded Republicans on his side, but the path through the Senate and the governor’s desk is murky at best. With the Uvalde tragedy, Moody at least has a fresh and haunting example of his policy’s purpose. In the past, cases like that of the Dyer family and other Texans effectively murdered by the state weren’t enough to make the Legislature buck entrenched law enforcement interests. Perhaps, though, the secrecy that’s marred our state since that horrific day at Robb Elementary will convince our leaders to let some sunlight back into government.

Samuel Fosso and Menil Curator of Collections Paul R. Davis

New Year, New Eats

Where to

eat

right

now, and for the rest of 2023

It was a long, hard year, but now it’s a shiny new 2023 and if you dissed that boring New Year’s Resolution to lose weight and instead pledged to eat new things, than we have some places you need to try. These are some hot spots that opened, or reopened, late last year that we think you’ll enjoy well into 2023.

lunch or dinner here, preferably starting with crispy artichokes or tasty meatballs, followed by your favorite entrée and a side of the melt-in-your-mouth polenta. Wash it down with the house specialty drink, The Bracco, a frozen greyhound made with fresh grapefruit. After all, bracco translates to hound. lbraccorestaurant.com

TEN Sushi + Cocktail Bar

By Marene Gustin

Coast eatery, TEN Sushi is under the management of BK Management whose popular Bosscat Kitchen and Libations is right across the street. Grab a seat on the 800-square-foot patio overlooking Mid Lane at TEN and sample the signature black rice rolls and beyond fresh sashimi. Try the specialty Cajun seared albacore or the smoked pepper salmon. There are also plenty of Japanese main courses like the shaken beef filet or the honey walnut shrimp. Go for the happy hour or splurge on a private dining experience, it’s all good at this elegant Asian spot.

Il Bracco

Opened last August in the home of Post Oak Boulevard’s former California Pizza Kitchen, Il Bracco has transformed the space, with the aid of Michael Hsu Architecture, into a 6,000-square-foot fine dining Italian spot complete with dining room, bar, and luxury patio. Filed with fancy furniture and fine art, the food at this Dallas-transplant rivals the décor; house-made pastas and breads, along with a couple of juicy steaks and a mean eggplant parm for the vegetarian crowd pair with a lengthy Italian wine list and some craft cocktails. Do enjoy

Another new out-of-towner, this one with local management roots and co-ownership, Ten Sushi + Cocktail Bar sprang up in River Oaks offering a fancy vibe on Asia food. Originally a West

Karne

tensushicocktail.com

Looking for something different? How about a Korean steakhouse? Karne is the brainchild of Dak & Bop’s Jason Cho whose Korean fried chicken garnered hungry fans, many who were firsttime eaters of Korean cuisine. Opened in the Heights just last November, Karne is an upscale steakhouse blending thick cuts of American and Japanese beef cooked tableside with kimchi, pickles, and egg souffles. This one should definitely be on your special night out list, bonus points if you opt for the multicourse chef tasting menu.

months of 2023. Oh, and those crepe cakes make an excellent end to a meal at Mala Sichuan Bistro. malasichuan.com

Becks Prime

Here’s another tried and true, home of the never-frozen-always-fresh beef patty, Becks Prime. Not even a new location, but a welcome addition to 2022, is the reopened Kirby Drive location. After an extensive remodel, this fami-

Navy Blue

And the much-awaited sister to Aaron Bludorn’s eponymous eatery, Navy Blue, opened in November in Rice Village with fresh seafood and more. A delight on the menu is the throwback clams casino, although the steamed version is also good, and Dover sole, which remind of us of divine seafood days or yore. Mainstays like the grouper sandwich and blackened red snapper are more modern and reflective of the comfortable and casual interior here. Dinner only, and a cute cocktail menu (Chasing Penguins is an actual drink here) make this a perfect date night out spot. navybluerestaurant.com

Mala Sichuan Bistro

Not new, but new to the Heights, this stalwart of regional Chinese cooking cruised into its fifth location last year with sizzling dishes and a traditional dining room with lanterns and a pagoda to make you feel like you’re dining in China. Just like the original in Chinatown, this North Shephard eatery offers up Dan Dan noodles, red oil dumplings, and some simmering soups that will cure whatever ails you in the chilly early

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ly favorite quietly reopened just before Christmas, but the longtime regulars were ready and anxious to line up for those burgers, parmesan truffle fries, and thick shakes. A family favorite for the drive through meals that range from steak and baked potato feasts to fajita platters, Becks has something for everyone. And Upper Kirby fans are glad it see it back.

becksprime.com

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As a player Dusty Baker won a World Series title with the Los Angeles Dodgers. A number of players who have won a World series title to go on and win a title as a manager. The list includes such legendary names as Casey Stengel, Leo Durocher, Gil Hodges Red, Schoendienst, Billy Martin, Lou Pinella and Mike Scioscia. None of these however can lay claim to having smoked a joint with Jimi Hendrix which Baker has. He has his own winery now and allegedly along with his former teammate Glenn Burke credited with inventing the high five. And oh yeah he got a good luck message from Snoop Dogg prior to this year’s World Series.

After spending 19 seasons as an outfielder, making two All-Star teams and helping the Los Angeles Dodgers win the 1981 World Series Dusty Baker began his managing career in San Francisco. In his tenth year managing his first team the San Francisco Giants, he went to seventh game in the World Series but lost to the Angels. After compiling a long distinguished possibly Hall of Fame coaching career leading all five of his teams to division titles, in 2022 after 25 years he takes home the biggest trophy of his storied career.

His playing career started in Atlanta in 1968 at age 19 as an outfielder where he played with the legendary Hank Aaron. Aaron had called Dusty’s mother to encourage him to sign with Atlanta despite reservations about playing in the south as an African American. Baker had admitted praying to not to be drafted by Atlanta where he would have to play in

the south with all the civil rights and war protests causing turmoil at the time. He later said “that was the best thing to ever happen to me, because I wouldn’t have met Hank Aaron.”

After a long a successful 19 year career in the majors Baker was working as a stockbroker until 1987 when he got a phone call from Aaron, who wanted him to help players find jobs after their playing days. Shortly after this led him to coaching in the minor leagues. In 2003 he led the Chicago Cubs to the National League Championship Series, but lost in Game 7 to the Miami Marlins in the infamous game where Cubs fan Steve Bartman got in the way of a fly ball that cost the Cubs dearly.

In 2012 his Cincinnati Reds won 97 games, but lost in the National League Division Series to the San Francisco Giants. 2016 was another successful year for Baker as a coach, but it ended in Game 5 of the NLDS to the Los Angeles Dodgers. 2013 brought more success for the Reds until losing the Wild Card game to the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Astros postseason

frustration, until now

In 2020 while coaching the Houston Astros he took the team to the ALCS, but lost in Game 7 to the Tampa Bay Rays. 2021 was another great season for the Houston Astros, the second season for Baker after tak-

I always said if I win one, I want two. I like to keep my word. This is as much fun as I’ve ever had.

ing over for A..J. Hinch in the wake of their cheating scandal and Baker took them all the way to the World Series, where they ended up losing to the Atlanta Braves in Game 6. In 2022 he became the oldest coach to ever win a World Series.

Cool as the California breeze where he resides in the offseason Baker has been appreciated by taking time to connect on a personal level with players, coaches and staff. And the good new is he will back at the helm managing the Astros Spring training kicks off next month in Florida.

He has survived prostate cancer and a stroke. After many close calls Baker, who went 29-31 in his first year as manager of the Astros in 2020 came within a win of reaching the World Series. After winning the pennant in 2021 and falling short yet again at 73 years old,

Baker was already the oldest manager to reach the Fall Classic and the first black manager to win 2,000 games. Now he has that elusive title and is back for more in 2023.

1968 ATL 5 2 0 0 .400 1969 ATL 7 0 0 0 .000 1970 ATL 24 7 0 4 .292 1971 ATL 62 14 0 4 .226 1972 ATL 446 143 17 76 .321 1973 ATL 604 174 21 99 .288 1974 ATL 574 147 20 69 .256 1975 ATL 494 129 19 72 .261 1976 LAD 384 93 4 39 .242 1977 LAD 533 155 30 86 .291 1978 LAD 522 137 11 66 .262 1979 LAD 554 152 23 88 .274 1980 LAD 579 170 29 97 .294 1981 LAD 400 128 9 49 .320 1982 LAD 570 171 23 88 .300 1983 LAD 531 138 15 73 .260 1984 SFG 243 71 3 32 .292 1985 OAK 343 92 14 52 .268 1986 OAK 242 58 4 19 .240 19 Yrs 7117 1981 242 1013 .278 162 Game Avg. 565 157 19 80 .278

Reliving Sicily Through A Bottle of Planeta La Segreta Il Rosso Sicilia

By Virginia Billeaud Anderson

Photographs show us at the 5th century BC Temple of Segesta is western Sicily. There’s handsome Donnie near a massive column. The way this temple is situated into the surrounding landscape is perfectly breathtaking. A nearby amphitheater has views of the sea. Segesta was inhabited in the 9th century BC, before the Greeks colonized Sicily in 753 BC, although Professor Peter Green preferred the word “rape” for the Greeks’ pilfering of Sicily’s resources. Renzio Barbera wrote that after God created the earth he took it in his hands and kissed it, and where he put his lips, is Sicily. I could see his point the day I gobbled-down mussels in garlic and wine sauce and rustic bread on the southern coast. We were heading east on SS115 to the temple ruins at Agrigento. Pindar described Agrigento as “the fairest city inhabited by mortals.” Here in Houston, I’m hankering for Sicily. So I stock-up on olives and pecorino cheese and put on the scarf I bought in Palermo and haul-ass to the Sicilian section of the Italian wine section of Spec’s Wines and buy a bottle of Planeta La Segreta Il Rosso Sicilia DOC. I chose the La Segreta Il Rosso because it cost $15. I’m cheap. More so, I chose it because 50% of its grapes are Nero d’Avola. Nero d’Avola is a big daddy of indigenous Sicilian grapes. The Greeks cultivated Nero during their rape. Nero d’Avola means black grape from Avola. Avola is on Sicily’s east coast. Gradually the grape spread from its historic home to other parts of the island. We knocked-back quite a bit in Sicily.

In past centuries, Sicily’s rural estates got ambushed. To protect family, agricultural products and the peasants they employed,

Planeta vineyards and olive trees. Sicily’s northern coast near Etna

landowners typically surrounded their residence, courtyard, and farm buildings with high walls and fortifications. Today for the most part banditry is less common. Many Sicilians restore farming estates for hospitality and wine tourism. They call them baglios or forts. We stayed at a baglio near Marsala with a tower that dated to the 1700s. Its historic architecture, courtyard, pool and view of the vineyards were stunning. In 1985, Diego Planeta and his children Alessio, Francesca and Santi reestablished vineyards at their baglio, Fort Ulmo, on land the family has owned since the 1600s. They added additional vineyards nearby in the hills at Menfi. There, they grow the international varieties such as the Merlot, Cabernet and Syrah that are blended into the La Segreta Il Rosso I bought. Menfi is Planeta’s main manufacturing and administrative headquarters. The family has homes there as well as resort accommodations for wine tourists near the beach. Menfi is very near Selinunte, a coastal city founded in the 7th century BC, where we saw the remains of eight Greek temples.

Planeta makes many wines. If you’re tastes are too elevated to drink blended grapes, you might want to try one of their more pricey bottles. You might want to try for instance the Planeta Santa Cecilia DOC Noto, made with 100% Nero d’Avola from their vineyards in Noto, near Avola. This region is called

Planeta vineyards and winery near Ulmo

Planeta vineyards near Mount Etna, above, and southern coast, below.

the cradle of Nero d’Avola. I however was happy with my “cheap” La Segreta Il Rosso blended with 50% Nero. After I downed the first bottle I bought two more at my local HEB.

I read that on Sicily’s southern coast, Mediterranean breezes push sea minerals into the already mineral-rich vineyard soil. If ordinary winds from above North Africa can enhance grape terroir, imagine the impact of a volcano. Mount Etna in eastern Sicily near the Ionian sea is Europe’s largest volcano. It’s one of the world’s most active. From safe distances it’s possible to gawk at lava flowing from Etna’s “bowels,” as Virgil wrote after the Roman Empire stole Sicily from the Greeks. Grapes love Etna’s volcanic soil and steep hillsides. Planeta has multiple vineyards in the Etna region where lava deposits “add minerality.” At one of them on a peninsular part of Sicily’s northern coast, they cultivate not only Nero d’Avola but other native varieties that grew in ancient times.

How tragic that this beautiful land still has remnants of mafiosi. Until recently, these parasites used explosives to encourage cooperation. Assassination was their favorite way of weeding out anti-mafia judges and law enforcement. But Sicily always had predators. The

Planeta’s indigenous Carricante grape near Etna

Santi, Francesca, and Alessio Planeta

Planeta vineyards near Etna: Norello grape

Photo by Patricia Toth

Phoenicians who predated the Greeks and Romans highjacked minerals. Later Sicily became the Roman Empire’s breadbasket. But first the Romans deforested the island for lumber. Byzantines, Arabs, Normans, French and Spanish all plundered. Each of Sicily’s conquerors on the other hand deposited some of their language and culture. For example the Arabs brought exquisite architecture as well as the lemon and the eggplant. Try to imagine Sicily without eggplant parmesan and caponata. Tradition holds the goddess Persephone was born on Sicily. Persephone gave Sicily the pomegranate. The sight of pomegranate trees heavy with fruit near villa walls made me giddy. More importantly, the goddess gifted the change of seasons for nature’s death and rebirth. When I see images of the sun-baked red soil at Planeta’s vineyards at Vittoria, in the east on the southern coast near Ragusa, where summer temperatures get extremely high, I understand the value of Persephone’s gift. At Vittoria, Planeta grows Nero and Frappato, the latter grape originating from this area. Here too at Vittoria the family performed rather enlightened architectural restoration, turning a historical building into a swanky winery, thus adding to their list of venues for wine tasting and hospitality.

http://www.planeta.it

Tanglewood Wooded Lot on The Bayou.

Francesca Planeta

MENIL COLLECTION CELEBRATES 35TH ANNIVERSARY WITH ‘CIRQUE SURREALISTE’ GALA

The Menil Collection welcomed 500 guests for Cirque Surréaliste: The Menil Collection’s 35th Anniversary Gala. All proceeds directly support the museum’s green spaces, art buildings, and programs, which are free and open to everyone.

With the theme of a 20th-century circus, the décor was inspired by the museum’s world-renowned collection of Surrealist art, specifically Alexander Calder’s Two Acrobats, 1929, and Fernand Léger’s Julie, The Beautiful Cyclist, 1945, and Study for the Grand Parade, 1953-54. The Events Company turned the event space into an over-the-top circus, complete with a cocktail tent with red and gold drapery. Colorful orbs continuously moved from the ceiling, and a circular bar with center stage showcased a clown’s pre-show preparation. The dining tent was resplendent with chandeliers, two grand stages, and oversized vintage French circus posters lining the walls. Vintage 15 provided music throughout the evening, along with performances by a ringmaster, stiltwalkers, jugglers, clowns,a roaming caricaturist, a juggling unicyclist, and performing dogs.

Francois de Menil and Susan de Menil

Amy Ryan, Hilda Curran, Lindsay Holstead

Anne Moriniere and Jack Moriniere, Sara Cain, Michael McGinnis

Maurine Ford and Charles McClelland, Yvonne Cormier and Rufus Cormier

Daniel Zilkha and Janie Zilkha, Kirsten Seglem and Daniel Zimmerman

Michael Govan, Kara Vander Weg, Jenny Saville

Isabel Lummis and Ransom Lummis

Elizabeth Young and Barry Young Mike Stude and Mariquita Masterson

Janet Hobby and Paul Hobby

Lynn Wyatt

Photos: Jenny Antill and Daniel Ortiz

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