Rotation – The Walkmen
The Walkmen Pussy Cats Starring the Walkmen Record Collection Evidently, the Walkmen recorded Pussy Cats Starring the Walkmen as a spontaneous send-off to their Brooklyn studio, the building having been slated for demolition. To that we say, Who cares? With the exception of a few songs off its past two…
Football U: Pigskin for Turkeys
Nothing says “powerhouse matchup” like UT vs. Boise State… This week, pundit John Nova Lomax is on the PUP list, which means Richard Connelly gets the start. Man, this is really gonna screw up our fantasy league roster… Rich’s Picks: Longhorn fans, no matter how pitiful your season has been…
Football U: Pigskin for Turkeys
Nothing says “powerhouse matchup” like UT vs. Boise State… This week, pundit John Nova Lomax is on the PUP list, which means Richard Connelly gets the start. Man, this is really gonna screw up our fantasy league roster… Rich’s Picks: Longhorn fans, no matter how pitiful your season has been…
One of Those Syrupy Thanksgiving Tales
Paul S. Howell Start with fresh cane… My Thanksgiving preparations began with a drive up to The Heritage Syrup Festival in deep East Texas to watch them make cane syrup the old-fashioned way with a mule and an open syrup pan with a fire underneath it. I got some syrup…
One of Those Syrupy Thanksgiving Tales
Paul S. Howell Start with fresh cane… My Thanksgiving preparations began with a drive up to The Heritage Syrup Festival in deep East Texas to watch them make cane syrup the old-fashioned way with a mule and an open syrup pan with a fire underneath it. I got some syrup…
Miss Leslie Live at the Continental
Fans find Miss Leslie at the Continental Club every Wednesday, but this week Miss Leslie and Her Juke-Jointers will be unveiling their new CD, Honky Tonk Happy Hour – Live at the Continental Club. A local favorite and Houston Press Music Awards nominee for three years running, Miss Leslie and…
The High Priest Speaketh
Courtesy of Allen Oldies Band These guys really get up there for an Oldies band…. Allen Hill celebrates a decade of Oldies worship Ten years ago, Allen Hill’s Allen Oldies Band played their very first show — at the finish line of the Houston Press Fun Run inside the Astrodome…
The High Priest Speaketh
Courtesy of Allen Oldies Band These guys really get up there for an Oldies band…. Allen Hill celebrates a decade of Oldies worship Ten years ago, Allen Hill’s Allen Oldies Band played their very first show — at the finish line of the Houston Press Fun Run inside the Astrodome…
Re: Michael Richards: Call Him Ku Klux Kramer?
You heard it here third: HouStoned staffer Keith Plocek reports that the Drudge Report offers this update, apparently straight from a Drudge reader: ‘I’m in the audience for tonight’s David Letterman show and they just had Michael Richards on via satellite during Seinfeld’s interview to discuss his on-stage tirade. He…
Michael Richards: Call Him Ku Klux Kramer?
Wait a second, Kramer… is that a “sieg heil?” The comedy world is all abuzz about Michael Richards’s recent meltdown during a gig at L.A.’s Laugh Factory. If you haven’t heard, check out the exclusive “caught on tape” video on TMZ.com. Yep, that’s Cosmo Kramer from Seinfeld, dropping the N-bomb…
“No, This Entire Court Is Out of Order!”
Courtesy of Paramount Television Judge Toler told you, biatch! Okay, this is one of those rare occasions where UHF daytime programming is somewhat interesting: Today at 2 p.m., a Houston couple will stand before Divorce Court’s Judge Lynn Toler. The Houston couple is one Victoria Gray and Jason Gray. Victoria…
Kinky Pig Action
Courtesy of Simon & Schuster/ photo by Getty Images Kinky’s Pig is something you’d cast your vote for, seriously. I’ve been playing phone tag all week with one Kinky Friedman, whom you might remember as one of the independent candidates for Texas governor. The Kinkster, fresh from his concession speech,…
We’re All Gonna Die!
Really, how hard could destroying an asteroid be? According to the Guardian, there’s an asteroid hurtling towards Earth as we speak blog. Named Apophis, these gigantic rock of death could smack into the Earth in a mere 30 years. But no worries: The good folks at NASA are working on…
Who’s cool?
So the Who is back on tour. Why should we care? Well, to start with, it’s the Who’s first visit since original bassist John Entwistle died in 2002, some 38 years after joining the band (which is now called “the Two” by those keeping count). Also, in October, the Who…
Kuffed Around
Rail, no rail — who cares? Culberson’s in. Charles Kuffner’s always been an energetic and astute interpreter of local election results; the guy positively revels in wallowing in the nitty-gritty of precinct-by-precinct breakdowns. He’s got the latest info on the year’s election posted now on his blog, Off the Kuff…
Football U: The Battle of the Top 2
Apparently a “Ohio State” is playing some “Michigan” team this weekend? We won’t waste too much time on an intro this week. We just want to know how pigskin pundits Richard Connelly and John Nova Lomax are calling the OSU/Michigan game. We gotta make a call to our booki…er, mom…
Football U: The Battle of the Top 2
Apparently a “Ohio State” is playing some “Michigan” team this weekend? We won’t waste too much time on an intro this week. We just want to know how pigskin pundits Richard Connelly and John Nova Lomax are calling the OSU/Michigan game. We gotta make a call to our booki…er, mom…
Getting the Slip
The Slip Eisenhower Bar/None The Slip’s new album is available from Bar/None Records. Longtime fans of The Slip will find the band almost unrecognizable on Eisenhower. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Over the last decade, the New England trio has evolved from psychedelic jazz improv a la Miles…
PS3 Party, Houston
Last night, I hung out with the gaming geeks cold-hearted business snakes shoppers who lined up in front of the Galleria Best Buy to be the first to buy the new Sony Playstation 3. You may have heard of the PS3, the gaming system that people are going apeshit for,…
That Was So Last Week
Courtesy of Signtakers International Now there’s a novel idea. As usual, the New York Times is riding HouStoned’s coattails. On Tuesday the Gray Lady ran a front-page, top-of-the-fold article about efforts to remove all that pesky campaign signage from our nation’s roadways, even quoting someone from Houston: Campaign signs are…
Graveyard Shift
Dan Monick They’re so Pretty… We called Pretty Girls Make Graves bassist Derek Fudesco at about noon and he was in no shape to answer questions. “Let me just, right off the bat, say I apologize; we played New York last night, and I had a very late night, and…
Graveyard Shift
Dan Monick They’re so Pretty… We called Pretty Girls Make Graves bassist Derek Fudesco at about noon and he was in no shape to answer questions. “Let me just, right off the bat, say I apologize; we played New York last night, and I had a very late night, and…
Butterball Run
Steven Devadanam for HouStoned Images Ltd., Ulmtd. Team Corkscrew member Andy Adams and a Beaujolais Nouveau mascot re-enact the crash. (No mascots were harmed in this photo.) Four teams, four turkeys, two baby strollers, a grocery cart and a wheelbarrow: It sounds like a list for one of our Cannonball…
Buen Sandwich “Amigo”
Photos by Robb Walsh “Amigos”: Conveniently located in front of the Renwick Washateria The “Tacos El Amigo” truck is parked at the northwest corner of Renwick and Dashwood in front of the Renwick Washateria. Do�a Maria is the head chef and her food is “todo estilo Mexico” according to her…
Buen Sandwich “Amigo”
Photos by Robb Walsh “Amigos”: Conveniently located in front of the Renwick Washateria The “Tacos El Amigo” truck is parked at the northwest corner of Renwick and Dashwood in front of the Renwick Washateria. Do�a Maria is the head chef and her food is “todo estilo Mexico” according to her…
Royale Flush
By all rights, 2002’s Die Another Day should have been and could have been the final James Bond film. It was packaged like a cynical, weary best-of concert coughed up by an aging dinosaur, offering copious nods to the franchise’s past without bothering to offer any new material of consequence…
Greek Heros
The moussaka at YiaYia’s Roadster Grill on Bissonnet in Bellaire is one of the best in Houston. It starts with a bottom crust made with wide slices of potato. The middle is a thick, tomato-flavored ground beef and eggplant mixture with a huge cinnamon and garlic flavor. And the topping…
There’s the Beef
Fast Food Nation, directed by Richard Linklater from Eric Schlosser’s 2001 best-selling expos of the McDonald’s conspiracy, is an anti-commercial. It’s designed to kill desire and deprogram the viewer’s appetite. Linklater — who, along with Steven Soderbergh and Gus Van Sant, has staked out a particular outpost on the indie-studio…
TRIPLE TREAT TORTILLAS
Pizza isn’t the only thing you’ll find at California Pizza Kitchen (1705 Post Oak Blvd., 713-963-9262). The place also serves an amazing appetizer called tortilla spring rolls ($9.99) — flour tortillas sprinkled with herbs, stuffed with imaginative ingredients, rolled up and baked in a pizza oven that makes them nice…
Fight the Power
When you get right down to it, Houston is really just all about one thing — The Car. Every day, we seem more and more like a city fit only for refined oil and crude people. And why not? Our city’s economic engine is oil, so life here in this…
Dance of the Penguin
Having animals act like humans on film is a storytelling device as old as time, so maybe it’s a little unfair to get tired of it just now. But back in the day wise old owls didn’t sing “Boogie Wonderland.” And whereas we used to give animals human souls, now…
THE COTTON EXCHANGE’S
Based solely on the sounds blasting out of The Cotton Exchange Bar & Lounge (202 Travis, 713-229-0097), you could reasonably assume there’s a gigantic rave going on inside. A DJ is spinning records, sending a steady supply of trance music onto an empty dance floor. It’s early on a Monday…
Never Opening Near You
Dear Hollywood, You adore making big-budget biopics about rock stars and their eternal struggles against booze, broads and diverse demons. And we love watching them. Some you hit right out of the park, some not so much. Jamie Foxx was a respectable Ray Charles; Gary Oldman made a fine Sid…
Not Neighborly
Noisy neighbors can ruin a perfectly good day. Nobody knows that better than Jerry Schiff, the down-on-his-luck character at the center of Daniel Stern’s Barbra’s Wedding, now playing at Theater LaB Houston. Anyone who’s seen Home Alone or the sitcom Regular Joe will recognize Stern, who’s most known for his…
1960 Rock
Where the hell are we going?” Conchita demands. “It’s just a couple more blocks,” I tell her. I’m lying, of course. FBI Rocks #1 (11528 Jones Road, 281-807-4116) is not just a “couple of blocks” away from anything. We’re out on Jones Road, near FM 1960. Conchita understands streets named…
Capsule Reviews
Antigone When Sophocles wrote this most stereotypical political tragedy about how a citizen questioning authority can devastate a community, he should have called it Creon. The king of Thebes, Antigone’s uncle (Raven Peters), is the one who changes the most during the drama, the one who really suffers. This benevolent…
Jackie Mitto
While he never achieved the same fame as his peers — a group that includes Augustus Pablo and Tommy McCook — the late Jackie Mittoo (19481990) was a major player in the history of reggae, rock steady and ska. Mittoo was an ace on the keyboards, a charter member of…
Capsule Reviews
“Andy Moses: Vuelta” Andy Moses’s work looks like interstellar plein-air paintings — sunrises and sunsets from some other planet. Using pearlescent pigments, Moses creates luminous bands of color by what appears to be a combination of pouring and squeegee-ing; the lines of color, which lean toward deep cobalt blues and…
Joel Gilbert/Mickey Jones
If Martin Scorsese’s No Direction Home left you jonesing for more footage of Bob Dylan’s historic 1966 tour, you’re still gonna have to wait for your fix. The Home Movies comes courtesy of Mickey Jones, a drummer who’s slapped the skins for the likes of Trini Lopez, Johnny Rivers and…
Why do Mexicans and Irish get along so well?
Dear Mexican, My fianc is trying to learn Spanish so he can speak to my grandmother when we get married next month. Lately, he’s been listening to CNN en Espaol to get an ear for the language. A couple of days ago, he told me that, after several weeks of…
Rozzano Zamorano
Bass player Rozzano Zamorano is well known to Houston music fans thanks to a long stint with the Fondue Monks. A Musical Illustration of the Human Condition, which Zamorano calls a collection of “bass compositions,” neatly builds on his previous solo album Eudamonia. But Illustration isn’t exactly a solo album…
Hands Off
Publisher: Square Enix
Platform: PlayStation 2
Price: $49.99
ESRB Rating: T (for Teen)
Score: 7 (out of 10)
Bruce Cockburn
If you didn’t like what Natalie Maines had to say about President Bush, you probably don’t want to buy Bruce Cockburn’s Life Short Call Now or attend one of his shows. Cockburn’s not likely to get invited up to the ranch in Crawford for a hootenanny with W and Rummy…
When the Stars Came Out
Forbidden Planet (Warner Bros.) Long available as faded discount product, Fred McLeod Wilcox’s 1956 masterpiece — the movie without which Star Trek, Star Wars, 2001, and, oh, Lost in Space wouldn’t exist — at last gets its proper due; this double-disc collection comes with everything but stardust and rocket fuel…
Les George Leningrad
Montreal’s Les George Leningrad should be absolutely unbearable. They’re still steeped in the post-punk and no-wave revivals, several years after those crazes faded. The kitschy riffs and garbled pseudo-English bring them dangerously close to electroclash, another dated moment in recent indie history. Their stage show is more performance art than…
Our top DVD picks for the week of November 16
Brothers of the Head (IFC) Cary Grant: The Franchise Collection (Universal) CSI: The Complete Sixth Season (Paramount) Cream: Royal Albert Hall (Rhino) 49 Up (First Run) Friends: The Complete Series Collection (Warner Bros.) The Green Mile: Two-Disc Special Edition (Warner Bros.) Hate Crime (Image) He Changed Our World: Steve Irwin…
Viva la Margarita!
There were a couple of striking-looking women sitting at the bar at Sabor, one of the trendiest restaurants in town. They were drinking some of the restaurant’s signature frozen cocktails and talking about the Astros’ prospects for next year. I ordered a pomegranate margarita and joined in the conversation. To…
Ridin’ Cupcake
It’s a cool, crisp Tuesday night, and Osama Bin Laden is taking a leisurely ride through the Montrose. As he leans over his little blue scooter, the wind whips through his thick black beard and through his loose-fitting white garments. He tightens the dynamite pack strapped to his chest as…
Amazing Race
Hopes for Henley: I worked with Jim Henley at Lanier for many years and he really came to my rescue in my early teaching days, when I was discouraged and wanted to quit [“Getting Schooled,” by Richard Connelly, November 2]. His loyalty is unwavering and his commitment firm. Here’s hoping…
Sound Education
For such a young band, the Hush Sound is making a big noise. Bob Morris has got his hands full tonight. His band, the Hush Sound, is slated to open for Fall Out Boy and the All-American Rejects at Chicago’s UIC Pavilion. Just prior to the hometown gig, as the…
The Blood Brothers
With a palette of six different colors of punk, smeared with no-wave androgyny, mallrat hipsterism, “fashion-core” and a sense of humor warped to the point of sadism, the Blood Brothers are the unlikeliest of commercial successes. It seems as if they could have been specifically constructed to alienate audiences of…
Johnny Winter
Johnny Winter may live in New England these days, but his musical lineage is purely Texan, going all the way back to his school days in Beaumont and an influential local disc jockey named J.P. Richardson, the Big Bopper of “Chantilly Lace” fame. Young Winter grabbed onto the blues early…
Rice-A-Roni
Moxie, a rock quartet of Rice University students, has just put out their first studio work, an EP called Fight the Monochrome. Made up of Evan Davies on guitar, piano and vocals, Jordan Myska Allen on guitar and vocals, Aaron Taffet on bass and vocals and Andy Whitten on drums,…