Ms. Deal
So much for those crackpot theories about flighty teenagers and their short attention spans. For four long years now the bland pop star Mandy Moore has stuck in the brain pan of white adolescent America like a wad of bubble gum, and there’s no sign that she will loosen her…
Whatcha Gonna Do?
For Houston reggae act the Neutral Sisters, this gig in Jamaica promised a tough crowd. This was not your typical Jamaican reggae festival slot their manager Pele Lanier had gotten them, not a hedonistic spring break shindig for North American college kids. This was Tony Rebel’s Rebel Salute — a…
Polished Patsy
Through August 17 at Stages Repertory Theatre, 3201 Allen Parkway, 713-527-0123. $25.
All-You-Can-Eat Bait
There are 40 kinds of sushi on display at Todai, the upscale Japanese seafood buffet restaurant in the Marq*E Entertainment Center on the Katy Freeway. Of course, sushi that has been sitting out on a buffet line isn’t as fresh and shiny as the kind you get at a good…
Being Trisha Brown
In the middle of the Contemporary Arts Museum lies a chest-high, 12- by 14-foot grid of metal pipe, latticed with garments hung on ropes. This is not a giant clothesline; it is the set for Trisha Brown’s Floor of the Forest (1970). Clad in black trunks and tanks, students from…
Havana Banana
Hungry for a little Latina bite? Look no further than the tiny Latina Cafe (1972 Fairview, 713-521-2611). The few tables inside practically touch each other, or bump up against the ceiling poles dressed as palm trees. Small, and not exactly known for rapid service, the quaint cafe still has thrived…
Popping Along
Hear the name James Rosenquist and an image of the little girl sitting under a hair dryer comes to mind. F-111 (1964-65), the 86-foot-long protest against the symbiosis of military and consumer culture, is the most iconic painting in this pop artist’s body of work. It is a mainstay of…
Prison Break?
It was no parade to be proud of on the Fourth of July. A long, miserable line of prisoners crouched in and outside the Darrington Unit prison infirmary in Brazoria County. Others lay in their bunks with high fevers, severe cramps and diarrhea from what prison officials say was a…
The Fire Next Time
The glamorous if shortsighted image of substance-fueled musicians in the throes of debauchery, burning out long before their time, will probably never be fully extinguished. The corpse of Layne Staley and the doddering figure of Ozzy Osbourne bleating out a helpless “Shaa-ron!” notwithstanding, there’s something almost comforting in that notion…
Family Circus
Now in its 132nd year, the circus known as The Greatest Show on Earth has kept up with the times while keeping one foot firmly rooted in tradition. The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus has added its first ever rap number, so kids can get their groove on…
Glomming Onto the Om
Like all touring musical artists, DJ Chris Smith, better known as DJ Fluid, will be pitching himself to his fans and, he hopes, to some who don’t know that much about his work. But the 30-year-old San Franciscan will be selling more than that on this particular tour. Smith will…
Summer Sundays
SAT 7/20 There are other things to do on Sunday besides go to church. At Industry Cafe’s “Flip Flop Sundays,” you’ll find invigorating house music, lethal frozen daiquiris served in plastic pineapples and lotsa girls with tattoos on their lower backs. But it’s the beef and chicken fajita strips grilled…
Reconsider Him
We thought he’d be dead by now, eaten up with the cancer that invaded his lungs and conquered his body. All he wanted, only last fall, was to live long enough to see the latest James Bond movie, Die Another Day, whose title he took as instruction. Warren Zevon revealed…
Big Time
THU 7/17 Infernal Bridegroom Productions’ annual summer series, Tamalalia, features the zany adventures of its creator, Tamarie Cooper. The revue has garnered so much acclaim that Cooper gets besieged by fans wondering why she hasn’t ditched this muggy burg for the big-time. In Tamalalia 8: Tamarie Makes It Big!, Cooper…
Richmond’s Burning
The Richmond Strip is a very Houstonian take on the concept of an entertainment district. Where most are cozy and pedestrian, ours is spread out and huge, like our fair humid city. Not only are the bars and clubs colossal — some upwards of 50,000 square feet — but so…
If He Could Turn Back Time…
Snaking with his entourage through the chanting crowd of 1,500 or so, the candidate seemed more like a heavyweight boxer headed to the ring of some Vegas prize fight. Sylvester Turner, the still-youthful-looking state representative ready for his mayoral rematch, mounted the Hyatt Regency stage in front of an imposing…
The Mars Volta
It’s not hard in these short-attention span, disposable-pop times to be freaks, but the two guys with Afros from El Paso’s At the Drive-In are the lords of freakdom. They smoke copious amounts of pot, watch foreign films, read books with words you can’t pronounce and write indecipherably titled (e.g.,…
Texas Monthly‘s Bullshit
Former president George Bush (he’s the Iraq-invading Bush who didn’t duck wartime service) granted a rare interview recently, resulting in a cover story in Texas Monthly. The Q&A session included Bush telling Monthly editor Evan Smith that media claims about differences between him and his son were “all bullshit.” “We…
The Evolution Control Committee
Today’s mash-up craze, where artists graft the a cappella version of one popular tune to the well-known instrumental backing of another, inspired a “band” like Columbus, Ohio’s Evolution Control Committee to up the ante beyond anything that London’s Freelance Hellraiser introduced to dance floors last year. Simply pasting Christina Aguilera’s…
Letters
Cat House Blame yourselves: I wonder how many folks will respond to condemn Toyya, who have themselves contributed to the population of unwanted pets — especially in the communities where Toyya has lived [“Kitty Litter,” by Wendy Grossman, July 3]. Charles Hixon Huffman No miracle worker: Being a lover of…
Moneen
Despite the best efforts of Loverboy, Rush and Our Lady Peace, Canada just doesn’t rock the same way we do. Canuck bands come close, but just as often miss the mark. Not so with Moneen. It hasn’t reinvented the emo/pop-punk wheel, but the Toronto-based foursome is certainly trying to. Wrapping…
Wha’s Up, Beesh?
You know it’s leather when we ride / Wood grain and rawhide — “Suga Suga,” by Baby Beesh The Roxy had to turn people away from Baby Beesh’s July 3 show. The Houston hip-hop artist’s latest single, “Suga Suga,” has been burning up airtime on local hip-hop stations; in fact,…
Norah Jones
Don’t lie. The smoky strains of “Come Away with Me” make you want to shoop — or at least take Norah Jones’s hand and let her lead the way. The daughter of sitar legend Ravi Shankar was thrust upon the world’s stage at South by Southwest two years ago, and…
This Week’s Day-by-Day Picks
Thursday, July 17 What do you get when you mix Jaws with All That Jazz? Why, All That Jaws, of course. The original production stars Wayne Wilden as Frank Fosse, a sheriff-choreographer (à la Roy Scheider, who played the sheriff in Jaws and the choreographer in All That Jazz). The…
Les Nubians
(An open letter to Les Nubians, from a disaffected Frenchman who has immigrated to America.) Bonjour, Les Nubians, my little chocolate bonbons. It is so nice to see you over on this side of the Atlantique, where you are appreciated more, where black men have no choice but to get…
University of Life
Michael W. Dean’s new book, $30 Film School, isn’t just a crash course in independent moviemaking. It’s also an inspiring handbook for personal promotion, whatever the artistic endeavor. Film school, Dean suggests, is a futile exercise. It’s a waste of time and money better spent making art and promoting it…
The Clumsy Lovers, with Jesse Dayton
Over ten years and seven albums, Vancouver’s Clumsy Lovers have built a reputation for filling dance floors all across Canada and the U.S. northern tier. Comparisons of these festival regulars to jam bands like Railroad Earth are in order, but a Canadian version of the Pogues also makes a convenient…
The Breeders
The dog days of summer are headed to Houston, literally, with the 26th annual Reliant Park Series of Dog Shows. Top-ranked pooches from all over the country will be on hand (er…paw) to compete in flyball, Frisbee, agility and obedience contests, plus something called “Canine Musical Freestyle.” (Will Snoop be…
Blanding Zone
More like Hollywood fluff than Gallic farce or sophistication, the French romantic comedy Jet Lag stars Juliette Binoche and Jean Reno as mismatched lovers who meet when circumstances — bad weather, computer glitches, a strike by air traffic controllers — ground them both at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris…
Free-Falling
Space City boasts two first-class drop zones — that’s skydive lingo for “place where people jump out of planes.” You can jump from 14,000 feet even if you have no experience with the sport; all you have to do is take a short training class and then tether up to…
