Come On Out
RayHill.info Ray Hill is the strong, not-so-silent type. In honor of National Coming Out Day, we gave local gay-rights activist Ray Hill a call. We were shocked when he called us back from a hospital bed, having woken up from surgery only a few hours before — get well soon,…
Hey, Over Here!
Global Peace Initiative “If I were you, I’d drop the Foley scandal faster than a bunch of imprisoned followers.” Along with a growing number of sources, Wonkette has picked up on the bizarre story of Rep. Dennis Hastert’s moral pep-talk with K.A. Paul. We’re all for spreading the gospel, but,…
Kickin’ K.A.
Daniel Kramer Got an ethical dilemma? Just ask, um, anyone but this guy. It seems airplane-loving, leper-stealing, orphan-abandoning evangelist K.A. Paul has added another high-profile personality to his circle of associates. The AP just reported that Paul — real name Anand Kilari — met with Rep. Dennis Hastert to chat…
This Is the Day
You’re not really gonna let Paris beat you in the civic responsibility department, are you? Today’s the last day to register to vote, people. We don’t care if you plan on voting for Guv Goodhair, Mr. Excitement, Grandma or Kinky — just vote, for chrissakes. (Okay, actually we do care…
Bachelor Bitchin’
Copyright 00A9 2006 ABC, Inc. / Bob D’Amico Galveston’s Jami hops in bed — with another girl! Watched another episode of The Bachelor: Rome last night, right after a fantastic Monday Night Football game. (Again, thanks, TiVo!) I haven’t been able to explain my fascination with this sometimes painfully cheesy…
Hoops and Hot Dogs
Photos by Steven Devadanam Practice? This dang near looked like a game. Got a chance to check out an extremely savvy PR move disguised as a Houston Rockets open practice today. The team opened Toyota Center for an afternoon practice/scrimmage event that included a “Chalk Talk” session with a team…
No Beach Party for You, Rumsfeld!
“We’re hoping for a big ‘wave’ of support here. You have big waves in Galveston, I assume?” We’re not normally ones to regurgitate stories at you, but we couldn’t help but notice the headline on KHOU’s website: Iraq war may jeopardize seawall project. You’ll have to read the whole piece…
Welcome to Football U
Y’know, this would probably make a decent sports talk show… And now, HouStoned presents Football U. Each week, Richard Connelly and John Nova Lomax will tell you which college pigskin games you should watch, why you should watch them, and why each of them is a better football prognosticator than…
Welcome to Football U
Y’know, this would probably make a decent sports talk show… And now, HouStoned presents Football U. Each week, Richard Connelly and John Nova Lomax will tell you which college pigskin games you should watch, why you should watch them, and why each of them is a better football prognosticator than…
Late Desayuno, Anyone?
Photos by Robb Walsh El Ultimo at Long Point and Antoine: One of the few tacos trucks that specializes in breakfast. El Ultimo Breakfast Taco El Ultimo Taco is the name of a shiny new taco truck parked in front of a carwash at the Southwest corner of Long Point…
Late Desayuno, Anyone?
Photos by Robb Walsh El Ultimo at Long Point and Antoine: One of the few tacos trucks that specializes in breakfast. El Ultimo Breakfast Taco El Ultimo Taco is the name of a shiny new taco truck parked in front of a carwash at the Southwest corner of Long Point…
Re: Introduction to Nudity – 1301
Courtesy of Kim Holland/Playboy Y’know, Playmate Kim Holland went to UH. Just sayin… I don’t exactly know what this says about the young ladies who attend UH, but I’ve received several frantic phone calls and e-mails regarding Monday and Tuesday’s Playboy auditions here in town. Namely, the ladies are worried…
The Jason Blair of Tacos?
Robb Walsh Fictionalized tacos? I recently received this e-mail from a reader. The allegations he makes are truly unsettling: Robb – When you got the cold, greasy taco from the truck at a gas station on Bissonnet a few years ago, did you take a bite and throw it away,…
The Jason Blair of Tacos?
Robb Walsh Fictionalized tacos? I recently received this e-mail from a reader. The allegations he makes are truly unsettling: Robb – When you got the cold, greasy taco from the truck at a gas station on Bissonnet a few years ago, did you take a bite and throw it away,…
Down in NoDo
Steven Devadanam for HouStoned Images Ltd., Ulmtd. Stop signs? Downtown? WTF? You may have heard that last night’s downtown fire has left much of NoDo without power this morning, including daily information source the Houston Chronicle. (We swear we had nothing to do with it.) However, the Chron IT guys…
Letters to the Editor
Condom Sense A cover-up: Regarding the article “Penal Violations” in the September 21 edition of the Houston Press [by Craig Malisow], I want to commend your front page exposure brought to the public on life in a Texas penitentiary. Many rack locations I visited through the week had literally covered…
Dates and Camels
Houston boasts a veritable United Nations of dining establishments. But one national cuisine that is underrepresented here is Afghanistan’s — a pity, since some say Afghani food is just like Northern Indian or Pakistani food, only better. So when I recently heard about the opening of a new restaurant called…
Midget Mania
I thought the word “midget” was a bad word. “Little person” was the politically correct terminology. That is, until I went to the Rok’Um Sok’Um Tour Midget Wrestling at the Meridian Saturday night and the doorperson put a purple wristband on me. “What’s that for?” I asked. “To go into…
Bait and Switch
No studio director was a greater hero to the Hong Kong new wave than Martin Scorsese. John Woo dedicated The Killer to him; Wong Kar-wai modeled his first feature, As Tears Go By, after Mean Streets; Taxi Driver’s rain-slicked slo-mo urban stylistics worked their way into countless lesser HK films…
CRACKED UP
A college dropout with 20 years of reporting experience and a Pulitzer Prize on his résumé, Gary Webb broke the biggest story of his career in August 1996 when he published “Dark Alliance,” a three-part series for the San Jose Mercury News that linked the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency to…
Masterpiece Theater
It’s almost inconceivable to call a musical that’s not even 30 years old a “masterpiece,” but Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd (1979) is most definitely that. More than a “musical,” this rich, resonant work is a modern American opera, the best one we’ve had since Jerome Kern’s Show Boat (1927) and…
Grammar Rock
Karen O is laughing. It’s a throaty but light, even melodious, sound, not far removed from the slyly unpredictable, declamatory vocal style that has helped transform the former Karen Lee Orzolek into, if not precisely a household name, at least an alt-rock goddess in her role as the leggy fashion-plate…
Capsule Reviews
A Bad Night’s Sleep This crazy-quilt revue from the loons at Radio Music Theatre is really a show about nothing, but RMT out-Seinfelds Seinfeld — and is much funnier to boot. Although one of the 14 Fertle Family shows, Sleep keeps our favorite family gang off stage until Act II…
Rants About Stuff
Racket is angry this week, my friends. The de-funkification and de-coolifying of Houston continues apace. First Fourth Ward and then Montrose went condo, Cactus closed, the River Oaks and Alabama theaters are threatened, John Schroeter of Valhalla and Jerry Lightfoot both passed away, and now, on September 25, Monroe’s Gallant…
The End of Days
Five years ago, 9/11 freaked out the whole country. Now a recently leaked intelligence report has revealed what most of us had already figured out — the Iraq war has made us less safe than ever. And if creating a whole new generation of terrorists isn’t enough to cause you…
The Other Man in Black
Nashville Rebel, a Waylon Jennings retrospective, is long overdue. The four-disc CD musically chronicles Jennings’ association with Buddy Holly, his arrival in Nashville on through the platinum-tipped Outlaw movement he headed through the ’70s, and his work with the Highwaymen (the supergroup with Jennings, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash and Kris…
Capsule Reviews
“H J Bott: Raising the Line” Artist Harvey Bott is like some mad math professor — he’s obsessed with geometry. His previous show at Sicardi Gallery featured masking-tape drawings from the ’50s; it revealed a young artist’s fascination with dividing space with line and looked like an earlier and better…
Flying Soul-o Flying Soul-o
“This is the weirdest interview I’ve ever done,” says Max Cavalera by phone, as he wanders down the highway from a broken-down tour bus outside of Salt Lake City. “I’m walking around mountains,” he says. “It’s actually refreshing.” Cavalera, the singer/guitarist who currently leads metal band Soulfly, was also co-founder…
Cantinflas He’s Not
Dear Mexican, I once got into a fight with a cholo. We beat the crap out of each other but when all was said and done, I kicked his ass harder than he kicked mine and the cholo ran off swearing and spitting. I assumed the matter was settled but…
Los Lobos
Will the wolves survive? And thrive? Their tenth studio album in a powerful 22-year run finds Los Lobos treading water, albeit with the artful grace of an aquatic ballet. Rather than charm and/or stun, as they’ve done in their most winning and/or ingenious past moments, they use The Town and…
Lewis Blows His Top
Lewis Black: Red, White & Screwed (HBO) Like many other Daily Show success stories, Lewis Black is a comedian made for these times; his facial contortions and verbal tics are expressions of the Bush-era phrase “outrage overload.” But unlike other big names in political stand-up right now (David Cross, Bill…
Favourite Sons
Favourite Sons is the musical vehicle of Ken Griffin, an Irish-born vocalist who fronted the sorely overlooked dream-pop band Rollerskate Skinny in the ’90s, and members of the Philly-based indie space-rock band Aspera, who had recently separated from their vocalist. In 2004 the reclusive Griffin was working at a New…
Copycat Killer
Publisher: THQ
Platform: Xbox 360
Price: $59.99
ESRB Rating: M (for Mature)
Score: 8 (out of 10)
Headlights
On Headlights’ debut full-length, Kill Them With Kindness, there is no shortage of layered instrumentation, which is why it’s surprising to discover the Champaign, Illinois, band is only a trio. On the opening track, “Your Old Street,” there’s a flourishing string section that builds for more than a minute before…
Our top DVD picks for the week of October 3:
Avenger (Warner Bros.) Calvaire: The Ordeal (Palm) Cedric the Entertainer: Taking You Higher (HBO) Changing Times (Koch Lorber) Confidence (Lionsgate) Deadfall (Lionsgate) Edmond (First Independent) The Greatest American Hero: The Complete Series (Anchor Bay) Harvey Toons: The Complete Collection (Sony Wonder) Humphrey Bogart: The Signature Collection, Volumes 1 & 2…
Jonny Lang
Guitarist Jonny Lang burst on the blues scene in 1997. Barely out of junior high, Lang was signed to A&M and released the much anticipated Lie to Me before his 16th birthday. The CD promptly went to the top of the Billboard charts, and the title song’s video, featuring the…
CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE SOUL
The tom kra kai ($3.95) at Thai Sticks (4319 Montrose, 713-529-4500) is the perfect food to warm your heart, soul or any other part of your body. This thick, hearty soup is so full of ingredients, you can’t even see the bottom of the bowl. Pale-white chicken meat floats in…
Frank Black
When Frank Black was first whelped from the rib of Black Francis following the premature demise of the Pixies a decade and a half ago, he came on like a man with a hell of a lot to prove. Those first two solo records were slick, eclectic, somewhat overwrought affairs…
ZULA’S ESPRESSO MARTINI
I come to downtown’s fashionable Zula (705 Main Street, 713-227-7052) on a Friday night to meet my esteemed Stirred and Shaken predecessor, a man known by as many names as there are police reports documenting his adventures. Some call him Jason Kerr, others Le Grand Fromage, but around the city…
The Thermals
Nowadays Reagan-era punk rock political alienation sounds positively quaint. The currently reigning neocon junta and attendant Internet beheadings and newscast body counts make the cold war complaints of bands like the Minutemen and the Dead Kennedys shine like the rosiest nostalgia — “We’ve Got a Bigger Problem Now,” indeed. Enter…
Easy Reach
Nobody seems to notice as Dave Marcellin walks up to the stage at Sambuca (909 Texas, 713-224-5299) and settles in at the grand piano. Thin, with a bit of grey sneaking into his beard, the Trinidad transplant has been a staple on the local jazz scene for a long time,…
Opt In, Opt Out
Anthony was sentenced to alternative school at Community Education Partners, and there was nothing his mother or his lawyer could do about it. He had violated the student code of conduct regarding “dress code, defiance.” Mom and the lawyer weren’t disputing that Anthony had not behaved well, but they were…
Bonnie Raitt
Guitarist Bonnie Raitt, Grammy Award winner and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, plays everything from gritty blues and funk to chart-topping pop. Her songs have even appeared on Disney movie soundtracks. Raitt has shared the stage or studio with Jackson Browne, Ruth Brown, Fred McDowell, Muddy Waters, John Lee…
No Parking Zone?
Rumors have been flying around the neighborhood of Timbergrove Manor, which is just west of the Heights. Residents there thought they had succeeded in saving a 21-acre parcel of trees, paths and open space on 11th Street. The Houston school district, which owned the land, wanted to put a new…
Ozomatli
Members of the 10-piece Los Angeles group Ozomatli say they took their name from the Aztec god of dance, and since they sometimes jump into the audience to lead a samba line, it seems a good choice. A mix of Latin, funk, hip-hop, reggae and folklrico music, Ozomatli won a…
Waiting for Friedman
Hundreds of heads keep turning excitedly toward the door. At the packed Flying Saucer, longnecks and beer glasses thump on tabletops. Chairs skid on the floor. Is he finally here? Has he made it in? Nope. On the big screen TV, the Astros have just gotten on base again against…
Strike Anywhere
Strike Anywhere hasn’t done much to change their politically driven punk anthems over the years. The group has stayed true to their post-hardcore ways, from the first album Change is a Sound to the recently released Dead FM. Fierce yet catchy instrumentations push singer Thomas Barnett’s melodic shouting and crooning…