Taylor was 33 years old at the time — a black man who had dropped out of high school, served time in prison for cocaine possession, forgery and ...]]> Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/news/how-many-innocent-people-has-harris-county-sent-to-prison http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/news/meanwhile-back-at-the-ranch Apologize: Hurricane Ike was an S.O.B., but Eisenhower was not a bastard ["You Bastard!" by Richard Connelly, September 18]. He was truly a great American hero and deserves respect and honor, especially ...]]> Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/news/meanwhile-back-at-the-ranch http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/news/hitler-s-desk-death-of-a-bookstore-and-premium-problems Houstonian Jack McConn has a desk set he wants to sell.

It's not just any old desk set, mind you. It's the one Hitler used to sign the Munich Pact back in 1938. (For those of you who skipped history class that day, the Munich Pact was an agreement by France, Britain, Italy and the up-and-...]]> Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/news/hitler-s-desk-death-of-a-bookstore-and-premium-problems http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/news/bayousphere Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/news/bayousphere http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/music/smells-like-teen-spirit Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/music/smells-like-teen-spirit http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/music/chrome-helios-creed Chrome was one of the most influential experimental bands, presaging the harsh, angular, mechanistic songwriting that would become industrial music. The act's paranoid vision of a dystopian world expressed itself in sounds that recalled the late-'60s psychedelic rock of the Thirteenth Floor Eleva...]]> Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/music/chrome-helios-creed http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/music/westheimer-block-party Alongside iFest and the Houston Press's own Music Awards Showcase, Free Press Houston's semiannual Westheimer Block Party is easily one of Houston's signature musical happenings — not least because it's absolutely free. April's installment drew more than 5,000 people to the sw...]]> Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/music/westheimer-block-party http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/music/tito-tarantula It is almost impossible to separate Tito & Tarantula from the Robert Rodriguez movies, Desperado and From Dusk 'Til Dawn, that made the band cult-level famous. And it's not surprising that Back to the Darkness, its first album in five years, is perhaps a tongue-in-cheek play ...]]> Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/music/tito-tarantula http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/music/paul-winstanley-amp-nameless-sound In certain Houston circles, the words "Lexington Street" are spoken in the hushed, reverent tones reserved for other bohemian enclaves like San Francisco's Haight-­Ashbury or Chicago's Wicker Park. For several years in the early to mid-'90s, the leafy avenue in Lower Montrose (near the 59 spu...]]> Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/music/paul-winstanley-amp-nameless-sound http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/music/the-cardinals As skipper of the Cardinals, Ryan Adams has made some moves like another noted Redbird: St. Louis baseball manager Tony La Russa. Adams tools with the group's lineup and modulates the game plan due to each player's strengths, though some of his methods can be confounding. Some incarnation of the ...]]> Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/music/the-cardinals http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/music/the-walkmen-you-amp-me With the exception of "The Rat," from the Walkmen's 2005 sophomore album Bows + Arrows — and maybe one or two other songs — the New York band has been conducting studies in the unmarketability of unhooky, sustained-chord guitar noise, churchlike organs and stretched-to-the-limi...]]> Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/music/the-walkmen-you-amp-me http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/music/todd-snider-peace-queer At one point during Peace Queer, Todd Snider addresses his audience, explaining how his friends have remarked his songs are getting more and more opinionated lately. "I did not do this to change your mind about anything, I did this to ease my own mind about everything," he explains. It's a...]]> Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/music/todd-snider-peace-queer http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/music/the-game-lax On LAX, The Game aims to achieve the status of the plethora of rappers he references in his rhymes. While this pursuit of greatness is admirable, the Compton-bred MC is still misguided on how to pull off such a feat. What started out as harmless homage on his first two albums (The Docum...]]> Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/music/the-game-lax http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/music/cory-mo-still-payin-due-z-vol-iii The litmus test for a Cory Mo album is the amount of "...nice" moments it contains. Put simply, a "...nice" moment occurs when something happens in a song, be it a clever punch line or unexpected snare, that makes you go "...nice." Lil' Wayne has ridden his aptness for such moments to grea...]]> Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/music/cory-mo-still-payin-due-z-vol-iii http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/music/new-north-heights-hipster-hang-big-star-bar

There ...]]> Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/music/new-north-heights-hipster-hang-big-star-bar http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/music/the-greatest-texas-rock-album-of-all-time

Old-timers would no doubt cast their ballot for something like the Thirteenth Floor Elevators' Easter Everywhere, Sir Douglas Quintet's The Sir D...]]> Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/music/the-greatest-texas-rock-album-of-all-time http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/dining/muffuletta-burger-at-hubcab-grill

The Hubcap Grill is tiny. Or maybe it just s...]]> Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/dining/muffuletta-burger-at-hubcab-grill http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/dining/missing-vowel-at-luigi-s-pizzeria Bruce Ward, proprietor of Luigi's Pizzeria (3700 Al­meda, 281-793-3333), seems an unlikely person to open a pizza place. After all, if you don't have a vowel at the end of your name, what do you know about cooking Italian? But while he may not be Italian by birth, he is in his att...]]> Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/dining/missing-vowel-at-luigi-s-pizzeria http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/dining/get-some-tail-at-under-the-bridge Under the Bridge (6202 Highway 6 South, 281-564-0202), you may not be able to clean your plate. In fact, it's not a plate but a platter. But it's not quantity that makes it special, it's the rich flavor. The oxtail pieces have been slow-simmered...]]> Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/dining/get-some-tail-at-under-the-bridge http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/dining/roll-n-saloon-s-soco-and-lime When HPD and the good folks down at the Mayor's office finally lifted the citywide curfew, I had a chance to reflect on how the "forced bedtime" had played havoc with my double life as a drinks columnist. Case in point: I'm pretty sure that the last time I visited the Roll-N Saloon (4216 S...]]> Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/dining/roll-n-saloon-s-soco-and-lime http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/film/we-can-believe-in-body-of-lies Body of Lies is about the War on Terror as it is being waged on the ground, in the air, but most of all in cyberspace. Directed with terrific verve by Ridley Scott (coming after the listless American Gangster) from a smart screenpla...]]> Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/film/we-can-believe-in-body-of-lies http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/calendar/the-beauty-of-disposable-things Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/calendar/the-beauty-of-disposable-things http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/calendar/fresh-fridays-presented-by-the-fresh-arts-coalition Fresh Fridays Presented by the Fresh Arts...]]> Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/calendar/fresh-fridays-presented-by-the-fresh-arts-coalition http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/calendar/akimbo Akimbo would put any longhaired mane in a tangle. The Seattle threesome pounds out riff-heavy, rhythm-conscious tunes meant for head thrashing and fist pumping. The trio's blend of metal and rock caught the attention of Jello Biafra (Dead Kennedys) back in 2006, and since then the group has c...]]> Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/calendar/akimbo http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/calendar/hearts-of-animals Hearts of Animals is high-quality lo-fi. The one-woman band starring Mlee Marie features gentle layers of fuzz-treated guitars, beats and keys. The compositions are placed behind Marie's lullaby-licious vocals for a dreamy synth-pop sound. Hearts of Animals plays perfectly in an intimate ...]]> Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/calendar/hearts-of-animals http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/calendar/screamworld ScreamWorld continues to live up to its name. The haunted house was beefed up this year with movie-set quality scenes to ensure you strain your vocal cords. The newly added farmhouse, tomb and outdoor graveyard sites are packed with zombies, monsters, chainsaw maniacs and other terrifying thi...]]> Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/calendar/screamworld http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/calendar/time-will-tell Time Will Tell. The world premiere dance choreographed by local tale...]]> Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/calendar/time-will-tell http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/calendar/einstein "E...]]> Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/calendar/einstein http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/calendar/family-fun-workshop-day-of-the-dead-sugar-skulls Dia de los Muertos/Day of the Dead sugar skulls with voodoo, devil worship and all things satanic. They miss the whole point - they're skulls, and they're made of sugar! How cool is that? And anyone can enjoy them, even if you don't get the whole back story r...]]> Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/calendar/family-fun-workshop-day-of-the-dead-sugar-skulls http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/calendar/salome Salome live a...]]> Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/calendar/salome http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/calendar/american-civil-war-field-notes-sketches-from-cairo-to-columbia Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/calendar/american-civil-war-field-notes-sketches-from-cairo-to-columbia http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/calendar/robin-wright Robin Wright has reported o...]]> Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/calendar/robin-wright http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/calendar/jon-scieszka Jon Scieszka - the wonderfully warped writer responsible for The Stinky Cheese Man and The True Story of the Three Little Pigs - recently took on perhaps his most absurd subject to date: his childhood. Knucklehead, the recent autobiography from the...]]> Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/calendar/jon-scieszka http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/calendar/stephen-hunter Night of Thunder, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and film critic Stephen Hunter's fifth Bob Lee Swagger novel, features (try to keep up here) an ex-M...]]> Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/calendar/stephen-hunter http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/calendar/lo-fi-no-brow-folk-show-new-works "Lo-Fi No-Brow Folk Show: New Works." "As the name suggests, we are pairing artists who have an outsider art aesthetic, without being actual folk artists themselves," says ArtStorm's Chris Cascio in an e-mail. "B...]]> Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/calendar/lo-fi-no-brow-folk-show-new-works http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/calendar/exit-saigon-enter-little-saigon-vietnamese-america-since-1975 "Exit Saigon, Enter Little Saigon: Vietnamese America Since 1975" capture the desperate journey more than one million Vietnamese refugees made to the United States when Saigon fell in 1975, and the hope they found when they got here. As their count...]]> Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/calendar/exit-saigon-enter-little-saigon-vietnamese-america-since-1975 http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/calendar/perspectives-163-every-sound-you-can-imagine "Perspectives 163: Every Sound You Can Imagine" examines the rise of experimental notation and reveals its later influence on visual arti...]]> Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/calendar/perspectives-163-every-sound-you-can-imagine http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/calendar/monsieur-verdoux Monsieur Verdoux, the story of Henri Verdoux, an earnest if slightly sociopathic unemployed banker who takes to marrying and then killing off wealthy widows in order to support his family. (It was based on an idea by Orson Welles, who in...]]> Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/calendar/monsieur-verdoux http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/calendar/the-walkmen The Walkmen's first three releases suggest the group has a decidedly descriptive moniker. The New York City-based indie rock quintet's occasionally murky, melodic sound may remind you of listening to a second-generation tape of a pop record on a portable device not quite fit to provide an opt...]]> Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/calendar/the-walkmen http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/calendar/splendid-china-iii-new-discoveries Splendid China III: New Discoveries, a program of Eastern treasures, to Miller Outdoor Theatre. Making its Houston premiere today, the Shanghai Dance Company will perform works that depict the fearless warri...]]> Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/calendar/splendid-china-iii-new-discoveries http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/calendar/laurie-anderson Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/calendar/laurie-anderson http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/calendar/wayne-brady Wayne Brady fronting the Houston Symphony. Sure, the actor/comedian/dancer/singer was a stand-out lyricist and vocalist on the hit series Whose Line Is It Anyway?, but our hipster department remembers him more fondly for his hilarious roles on the Emmy Awa...]]> Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/calendar/wayne-brady http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/culture/don-t-miss-wayne-dehart-in-radio-golf Radio Golf is the final work in Wilson's epic ten-play "Pittsburgh Cycle" — his mammoth, elect...]]> Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/culture/don-t-miss-wayne-dehart-in-radio-golf http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/culture/ike-s-biggest-art-casualty-tries-to-dry-out Galveston Art Center Director Alex Irvine, describing her first post-Ike visit to the GAC, on the Tuesday before the island was opened up. "It was just horrible, it was heartbreaking; the walls were covered with mold, and the floors were buckling. The whole ...]]> Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/culture/ike-s-biggest-art-casualty-tries-to-dry-out http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/culture/capsule-art-reviews-houston-collects-african-american-art-indifference-personified-lo-fi-no-brow-folk-show-radar-eyes "Houston Collects: African American Art" In 1865, a North Carolina father built a desk for his little girl, who was learning to read. Such a desk may not seem noteworthy, as it is rough-hewn and made from mismatched scraps of old furniture, with some pieces painted and others written upon....]]> Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/culture/capsule-art-reviews-houston-collects-african-american-art-indifference-personified-lo-fi-no-brow-folk-show-radar-eyes http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/culture/capsule-stage-reviews-all-i-really-need-to-know-i-learned-in-kindergarten-electile-dysfunction-madama-butterfly-rumors-to-kill-a-mockingbird All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten Robert Fulghum's feel-good nostrums about life and how best to live it have become a worldwide phenomenon ever since the publication of his first book of pithy essays, which has now been adapted into a play by Ernest Zulia, with mu...]]> Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/culture/capsule-stage-reviews-all-i-really-need-to-know-i-learned-in-kindergarten-electile-dysfunction-madama-butterfly-rumors-to-kill-a-mockingbird http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/culture/ask-a-mexican Dear Readers,

I don't like to rerun columns 'cause it makes me look like a lazy Mexican, but I realize that, as my column invades foreign terrain (Chattanooga! Columbia, South Carolina! Steamboat Springs, Colorado!), new readers might not understand some of my commandments. Following, the...]]> Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/culture/ask-a-mexican http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/home-entertainment/a-two-point-plan-to-save-gaming-news Two weeks ago, I described the links between one of gaming's biggest PR companies, TriplePoint PR, and a small gaming news and review site founded by TriplePoint's General Manager and founder Richard Kain (see "A Slave of Two Masters" at www.JoystickDivi...]]> Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-10-09/home-entertainment/a-two-point-plan-to-save-gaming-news