Fixer-Upper Downer
When Marilyn Maglitto discovered termites in her home in 2000, she figured they would eat up either her house or her pocketbook. Partially paralyzed since 1986, she survived on a mere $500 a month in social security disability benefits and lacked the money to make repairs. Desperate, she called the…
Georgia Firecrackers
The last time Georgia garage rockers the Woggles played Houston, they hit a high-water mark. Literally. Their show in June 2001 occurred during Tropical Storm Allison, and before the band even got to the club they had an idea that it wasn’t going to be just another gig. Vocalist Manfred…
Letters
Bucked Up Killing’s the key: Thank you for thoroughly researching your topic and writing this extremely informative article [“Shooting Bambi’s Mom,” by Robb Walsh, November 6]. These great animals are part of our heritage as North Americans, and their capacity to prosper alongside humans and our destructive ways shows how…
The Mirrors
After exploding out of League City with their astonishing debut a couple of years ago, this overlooked band releases their second CD posthumously. The chief songwriter and guitarist, Greg Ashley, has moved to California, though he is back in town this week (see the minibill in Music Listings, page 100)…
Pachyderms Anonymous
Have you ever bought into a hideous and uncomfortable fashion trend just so you wouldn’t stand out? Or tried something dangerous and scary just because everyone else was doing it? Avant-garde theater taps into the universal gotcha of peer pressure this week, when Infernal Bridegroom Productions takes on Romanian playwright…
Dimmu Borgir, with Nevermore, Children of Bodom and Hypocrisy
That recent run on inverted silver crosses at the local head shop is no fluke. Faced with the discomfort caused by the festering boil on its butt-cheek that is nü-metal, genuine heavy metal has squeezed out that pus-filled irritant by returning to its darkest roots. Black- and death-metal bands are…
This Week’s Day-by-Day Picks
Thursday, November 20 “Metrosexuality” — the love a man shares with his scruffing lotion and his Prada pants — is now officially a Houston trend. How do we know? A local bar promoter has turned it into a theme night. Today is Solero’s first Metrosexual Thursday. Future Thursdays will feature…
Aesop Rock, with Mr. Lif, C. Rayz Walz and DJ Fakts One
Brother Ali and Atmosphere’s Slug aren’t the only pale-skinned wordsmiths showing up in town this week. Say hello to Aesop Rock, the newest milk-colored darling of an MC to come out of Definitive Jux’s stable of hip-hop hellions. And as with every other white MC out there, doubting his lyrical…
You Spin Me Round
Politicians are constantly trying to win our trust, and hence our votes. But aren’t they supposed to earn our trust by being trustworthy? Shouldn’t we believe their words because they speak the honest, unmarred truth? Yeah, but they would probably find that idea laughable. The truth is, our leaders are…
Atmosphere, with Brother Ali
What the hell is up with Minneapolis? Just when you thought Prince, a bunch of rock bands and The Mary Tyler Moore Show were all the city had to give, it goes and transforms itself into the breeding ground for underground hip-hop’s finest. And look no further for a dude…
Gorilla Art
SAT 11/22 Ever since the not-so-underground warehouse space known as OneTen Studios closed its doors, former director Michael Andrews has had time on his paint-stained hands to ponder the future of his craft. “I’m pretty well sure at this point that the only real art forms left — the only…
‘Pac, Man
There was a gaggle of young women sitting near me during the screening of Tupac: Resurrection. They frequently voiced their enjoyment of the movie, in particular at three specific points. They growled appreciatively at an image of Tupac naked in a bathtub, his crotch festooned with gold chains. They cackled…
He Ain’t Heavy, He’s a Boxer
SAT 11/22 When people think boxing, they think of heavyweight boxing — you know, like the classic bouts between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. But somewhere in the muck of Don King’s ridiculousness, Mike Tyson’s prison stint and George Foreman’s grill, heavyweights have become a sideshow, more akin to pro…
Living Dead Girl
It took four years, but finally Dark Castle — Robert Zemeckis and Joel Silver’s horror division, which puts out a movie each year around Halloween — has made something that’s genuinely scary. It may be no coincidence that this time around, Silver has scored a higher-profile cast than usual, and…
Just Like Winter
SAT 11/22 In the past, the only ice to be seen in Galveston during winter was floating in the cocktail glasses of moms watching their kids emerge from heated swimming pools. Not so this year. The folks at Moody Gardens have moved their indoor ice rink to an outdoor tent…
Singing Gabriel
James Joyce’s short story The Dead is filled with the lush, lyrical prose that made the Irish writer one of the most important of the 20th century. Psychologically rich in its observations, The Dead concentrates on the inner struggles of Gabriel Conroy, a hapless everyman who must learn how fragile…
Oh, Won’t You Stay
SAT 11/22 It’s fitting that just before the place is turned into a church, the final rock concert at The Summit — damn, we’ve always hated that corporate Compaq Center moniker — will be put on by ZZ Top, Houston’s high priests of fuzzy dice, Ford T-34s and three-chord blues.Of…
Go to Hell
We know better than to expect slick, glittery productions from community theaters like Opera in the Heights. Still, OH’s distinguished vocal treatment of Charles Gounod’s world-famous opera Faust is handled with the finesse and aplomb that this old operatic chestnut deserves. A very French abridgment of Goethe’s sublime epic, Gounod’s…
Burning Down the House
FRI 11/21 With a stage full of diverse virtuoso violinists fiddling away at lightning speed, who will miss the rest of the orchestra? Bowfire, a collective of the world’s most accomplished and versatile violinists, plays works that span the musical spectrum. The troupe was founded by Lenny Solomon, a three-time…
Tamale Morning
On Saturday morning at 10:30, there are around a dozen people eating tamales and drinking atole in the steamy little restaurant called Doña Tere Tamales on Bellaire near Highway 6. The aroma of hot tamales grabs you by the nose the second you walk in the front door. It smells…
Dead, Not Buried
The only man who knows the answers to the story below is dead — has been for six years, though even before that, he may not have been able to provide any cogent response to the questions raised and accusations made by those who now fight over the corpse. He…
Secret Taping
The drawings now hanging on the wall at Sicardi Gallery were almost tossed out. Harvey Bott was cleaning out his studio and had a barrel of old things he wanted to get rid of (when you’ve been making art for five decades, you accumulate a lot of stuff). But David…
Banjos and Body Piercings
“Texas rules. I always have a good time down there. I wish I was there right now.” So says 25-year-old singer-songwriter, banjo player/guitarist William Elliott Whitmore. And what’s more, he’s probably telling the truth. When you’re in a phone booth in Minneapolis and it’s 33 degrees, you really do wish…
Count on Fred
Count on Fred: What do two meatballs, plus two hard-boiled eggs, plus marinara sauce, plus angel-hair pasta equal? Capellini alla palermo ($7.95), one of the house specialties at Fred’s Italian Corner (2278 West Holcombe, 713-665-7506). The angel-hair pasta is buried under a load of thick, slightly sweet, ruby-red marinara sauce…
Nancy Wilson and Ramsey Lewis
Back in 1984, revered jazz/soul stylists (and longtime pals) Nancy Wilson and Ramsey Lewis collaborated for the first time together on wax on the Stanley Clarke-produced The Two of Us. Sadly, it wasn’t a pleasant experience. They ended up having to record their tracks separately, thus missing out on the…
Houston, Once Removed
Like many natives of Houston, William Ohrt begins his morning commute by backing a Toyota Land Cruiser onto the new cement of a prim, tree-lined street. He idles along at a responsible 20 miles per hour — with an eye out for joggers — nods to the guard of his…
Greg Ashley
League City native Greg Ashley is similar to one of those American jazz or blues musicians who had to leave the country to attain proper recognition for their art. Only Ashley didn’t have to get a passport — instead, he relocated to the still-simmering psychedelic hotbed that is the San…
Star Blazers
Talk about your party foul. Dolan Smith’s “grand celestial opening” of the Pet Columbarium had been going well for most of the night at the Museum of the Weird on 24th Street in the Heights. He had a couple hundred partygoers in attendance, plenty of booze and contortionist-hula hoop-strippers to…
Baby Blak
For more than a decade now, hip-hop has struggled to reconcile its hustla and activist sides. During much of that time, the music has fostered a simmering ideological tension between outlaw “me first”-ism and communitarian selflessness. Like KRS One and Rakim before him, West Philadelphia rhymer Baby Blak effortlessly balances…
Political Identity Crisis
For the first time in 32 years, come January Houston city government may be without a single black man in elective office, although there are two African-American women on City Council. The only possibility for a male counterpart is attorney Ronald Christopher Green in the Position 4 runoff against Bert…
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
Just hearing the words “concept record” sometimes sends music critics and fans running. From the Who, Pink Floyd and the Kinks to the Drive-By Truckers, concept records can produce occasional highs, but more often result in sonic chronicles of overblown pretension. That Neil Young would choose to make one of…