Go Find Something to Do, Dammit
So I was sitting in the office writing up a list of new CDs to put you in a Halloween-type mood (email me and I’ll tell you what they were) when I thought, ‘Hell, with all this music tonight, there’s no reason to sit at home listening to CDs.’ Seriously,…
Houston Aeros Lose to the Syracuse Crunch (Unless You’re Talking about a Penalty Contest)
The Aeros lost to the Syracuse Crunch last night by a final score of 3-2. In many ways, it was the same old story. Aeros commit penalties. The other team scores. Aeros get on the power play. Aeros can’t score. But in some ways, it wasn’t the same old story…
Cocaine and Toddlers: Sometimes You Just Gotta Agree with Nancy Grace
Nancy Grace wasn’t smiling last night when she was talking about the four Houston toddlers who tested positive for cocaine. It’s never any fun turning on CNN and seeing Nancy Grace trash your hometown. But last night, Grace was asking some very intelligent questions about the four Houston-area toddlers who…
Cover Story: Daryl Morey, Statistical Analysis and the Houston Rockets
Contrary to popular belief, Daryl Morey is not just a stats guy. Oh sure, the Rockets new GM has earned the nickname “Deep Blue.” That kind of goes with the territory when you’ve got a Masters from MIT and a computer science degree from Northwestern. And when you do crazy,…
Last Night: Bukka Allen at McGonigel’s Mucky Duck
Bukka Allen McGonigel’s Mucky Duck October 30, 2007 Better Than: Other Texas Music son acts. Much, much better. Download: “Behold What You Found” or “Confidante” at www.screendoormusic.com For the release of new CD Confidante, longtime Jack Ingram sideman Bukka Allen brought his partners in Screen Door Music, cellist Brian Standifer…
Drenched In Blog: Tim Curry Halloween
Editor’s note: You know what’s scary? That sweet little kid grew up to be this guy. Way back in the mid-‘80s when Craiged in Blog was still just a chubby knee-high rugrat, few things were as scary as this music video. Well, this and “Large Marge” from Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure…
Día de los Muertos: What’s the Deal with All Those Skulls?
Click the image for a slideshow. Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) has mistakenly been called a Mexican Halloween (not!). Because of the use of skeletons and skulls, it has also been accused of being satanic worship (really, really, really NOT!). Día de los Muertos is, quite simply,…
The Hills are Alive with the Sound of Horror
Just another fishing show, until that music kicks in. A woman runs through a forest and trips on a fallen branch. Cue ominous music. She attempts to get up, but her shoe is entangled in a tree limb. As she tries to rip off her shoe, the pounding sound of…
Miss Pop Rocks Honors The Very Best Horror Films of All Time
In honor of Halloween, Miss Pop Rocks the Horror Film Fan needs to rant and then give a quick shout out to the best horror films of all time. First, the rant. Call me old-fashioned, but I just cannot get into these modern splattercore torture porn films they call horror…
$13 at Fish City Grill on Buffalo Speedway
Where: Fish City Grill, 5172 Buffalo Speedway, 713-668-0197 What $13 gets you: An even crappier version of T.G.I. Friday’s Stepping into Fish City Grill, I had no idea the place was a chain. Turns out, there are locations throughout Texas, including in Katy and Sugar Land. I was impressed by…
The Official Memo from Jeff Cohen on the Houston Chronicle Layoffs
Here’s the official memo from editor Jeff Cohen on how the Houston Chronicle will be even bigger and better now that it’s gotten rid of all those pesky reporters and editors:…
Drenched In Blog: Avenged Sevenfold and Right-Wing Screamo Metal
Hey, America! While all of you are waiting breathlessly for a mediocre dance-pop album from your favorite glitter- and Cheeto-dusted “starlet,” none of you seem to care that the world’s first right-wing screamo-metal album hits shelves today. I finagled an advance copy of the new self-titled Avenged Sevenfold record. No,…
Re: Layoff and Buyouts at the Houston Chronicle
The carnage continues over at the Houston Chronicle. Besides the names we mentioned yesterday, folks who have either taken a buyout or been laid off include (and by “include” we mean these are the names culled from various sources; if you are erroneously included, our congratulations and please let us…
Celebrating Day of the Dead at the Graves of Houston Musicians
Last week, we wrote about trying to start up our own musical version of Day of the Dead here in Houston. In a nutshell, we want to fuse the Mexican holiday of remembrance with Blind Lemon Jefferson’s admonition to see that his grave was kept clean. This Friday, I’ll be…
Jason Friedman’s NBA Predictions: Mavs Beat the Jazz, the Suns, the Rockets and the Pistons, Take the Championship in ’08
Daniel Kramer Here’s hoping T-Mac and Yao are swapping tips on staying healthy. I feel your pain, Houston sports fans. Together, we’ve suffered through the cataclysmic Astros season, and – horror of horrors – we’re only halfway through another lost season from the Texans. But perhaps hope lies on the…
Get Lit: Rock & Roll Heaven, by Robert Dimery and Bruno MacDonald
A compendium of dead rock stars and the tales of their demises is hardly an original idea. Nor are there many original, overarching ideas in this book. The vast bulk of the book’s 250 pages is taken up with a chronology of rock demises, from Robert Johnson’s murk-shrouded Mississippi Delta…
Spam Musubi at Aloha Grill on Westheimer
The Spam musubi at Aloha Grill will change your mind about canned luncheon meat. The succulent Spam musubi at Aloha Grill, the new Hawaiian restaurant on Westheimer, features a slice of Spam that’s been sautéed in a little teriyaki sauce on top of a rectangular raft of sushi rice secured…
The New Miracle Play, Coming to You Courtesy of San Antonio’s Trinity University
True football fans know the story of the Music City Miracle. That little play the Tennessee Titans pulled off on a kickoff with time running off of the clock to win a game that many thought lost. And there are probably many more people who remember the last Fiesta Bowl,…
Get Lit: Noogie’s Time To Shine, by Jim Knipfel
Ned “Noogie” Krapczak is a bit of a loser. First, there’s the nickname, “Noogie.” Then there’s the fact that his last name is announced Crap Sack. He’s a film lover in his 30s who lives in Jersey City at home with his Mom – who charges him $300 a month…
The College Football Review, Week Nine: Is Hawaii the Next Boise State?
Quick: how many Aggies does it take to hold Nebraska to 25 points? Trick question. The Aggies only gave up 14 points to the Cornhuskers last week. It’s the Horns who gave up 25 points to Nebraska this time out. Then again, the Horns did manage to hold on to…
R.I.P. Porter Wagoner
Wagonmaster: A shoo-in for many year-end Top 10 lists even before Porter Wagoner’s death Sunday. Porter Wagoner, the rhinestone-clad host of the Grand Ole Opry for the past 12 years and one of country music’s last surviving links to the time of Hank Williams and Ernest Tubb, passed away from…
The Hits Just Keep on Coming…
For those of you actually interested in watching real football (i.e. not the Texans), I’ve got some bad news for you: This weekend’s showdown of the century featuring undefeated New England and Indianapolis won’t be broadcast here in Houston. That’s right, while the rest of the country enjoys the biggest…
Drenched In Blog: Hayden Panettiere (Mis)cast in Plasmatics Biopic
I woke up Sunday morning and turned on my Blog Top to find that Hollywood is making a Wendy O. Williams biopic. That’s badass. I love the Plasmatics. Hot naked punk chicks setting cars on fire and blowing up buses, while their nipples are covered in strategically placed pieces of…
The Houston Aeros, Penalty Killers
Wonder Woman was spotted on the ice of Toyota Center last night during the break after the first period, and at the time, many of the 3,785 fans in attendance were wondering just what was going to be needed to get her into the Aeros green and red. The Aeros…
Three Nights Ago: Hives and Maroon 5 at Toyota Center
Maroon 5, the Hives Friday October 26, 2007 Toyota Center Better Than: Maroon 5. Oh, wait. They were there. Download: The first six songs from the Hives’ new Black and White Album. Maroon 5 may have received top billing, but Friday night belonged to the Hives. Clad in black suits,…
Layoffs and Buyouts at the Houston Chronicle
News is starting to seep out about the cutbacks at the Houston Chronicle. As with any cutbacks, the news is not good. Management had announced a five-percent cut in what it termed a “position-elimination program” (We can imagine the “We’re Full of PEP!!!” motivational memos); buyouts were also offered…
Texans-Chargers: Looking for a Light, Feeling Like a Coyote
Early during the first period of yesterday’s Aeros game, I got an anguished text message from a good friend: “Awful. This team is defeated before they get to the stadium. Horrible coaching. And prep is far worse than Pardee.” Hmm, that’s funny, I thought, because I knew my friend wasn’t…
Texans-Chargers: Jumping the Shark, Hearing Giraffes, Pining for Bill Cowher
I’ll get to the latest Texans debacle in just a minute, but first I’d like to reminisce about happier days gone by. For this, I have to travel all the way back to the mid-80’s (yes, it’s been a pretty miserable last two decades) when The Cosby Show was still…
Miss Pop Rocks: I Can’t Get Enough of Marie Osmond Fainting
Okay, so I’m totally going to Hell. Even though through the eyes of the pop culture calendar this event took place 100 years ago, I can’t get enough of Marie Osmond fainting. I’ve watched the incident on YouTube approximately 127 times since it first became available. And I’m not the…
Robb Walsh Visits the First Taco Bell in Monterrey
The Mexican slogan: Taco Bell is something else. MONTERREY, Oct. 27 — Studying the menu above the counter of the new Taco Bell in the Plaza Bella Mall in Monterrey, Mexico, I am drawing a blank. What the hell’s a tambache? And what’s a tacostada? Then, thanks to the photos,…
The College Football Preview, Week Nine: What Do Pushing Daisies, The Office and Chuck Have to Do with Football? Good Question.
It’s time for another big weekend of college football, and the questions will all center on which teams will be upset. Four of the top ten teams were defeated last weekend, and it seems that no one is safe. So, let’s get on with the preview of the weekend games…
Get Lit: Q&A with Nick Hornby
British novelist/essayist Nick Hornby will be in town Sunday to promote his latest novel Slam, a story about Sam, a teenager who gets his first girlfriend pregnant. Houston Press Assistant Night & Day Editor Dusti Rhodes talked to Hornby on the phone about the book (which she highly recommends for…
Bollywood, in “Aural Translation”
Minor bun engine burn Benny Lava Have You Been High Todaaayyy? — John Nova Lomax…
Drenched In Blog: QOTSA “Battery Acid” Video Tease
Happy WTF Friday!! Looks like the mescaline already kicked in…..
Jason Friedman’s NFL Picks, Week Eight: Staring Zeus in the Eye, Daring Him to Flinch
The ancient Greeks had a great word to describe the sin I’m about to commit. It’s called hubris. Okay, so their definition differed somewhat from the way we interpret it today. That’s not the point. You, the reader, know what I’m talking about when I summon that word. And if…
John Royal’s NFL Picks, Week Eight: Take the Texans. That’s Right. The Texans.
After another disastrous weekend of picks, I return to once again make a fool of myself. Maybe I need to have a monkey make my picks or flip a coin, or something. But I don’t own a monkey, and I spent my coins at the Coke machine. So… With a…
$13 at Fung’s Kitchen on the Southwest Freeway
Where: Fung’s Kitchen, 7320 Southwest Freeway, 713-779-2288 What $13 gets you: A near-anxiety attack. Fung’s Kitchen offers a menu with more than 400 dishes – and that doesn’t include dim-sum. That’s a lot of reading. And a lot of choices. It can make a grown man feel downright helpless. And…
Miss Pop Rocks: My Sunday With Ralph Macchio
This post may only speak to a certain cadre of ladies (and men) who love Ralph Macchio. If it doesn’t appeal to you, please feel free to move along. Now that I’m among friends, I’ll start off by saying that back in the day, I was in total hot love…
News Flash: Astros Finally Make a Good Decision, Hire Bobby Heck
You guys might not believe this, but some people think that I’m mean to the Houston Astros. That I pick on the team just for the sake of picking on the team. Well, I’ll admit to this: I do give the Astros lots of heck. And I’m about to give…
A Glimpse of the Future in Hermann Park?
Last night’s Solid Blues show at Miller Outdoor Theater might have been the start of something promising. Not so much for what it was (though it wasn’t bad), but for the untapped potential demonstrated by a couple thousand Houstonians – with plenty of room for a couple thousand more -…
Bright Idea: Scalping Entries to the Houston Marathon
The guys over at BlogHouston, who must enter more marathons than we do, have found an interesting twist: Scalpers trying to sell places in the Chevron Houston Marathon. Marathon organizers cap the number of entries, but this year they allowed runners to transfer their slots to another runner if for…
BBB Poetry: Sam’s Cafe on Studemont
Occasionally we get bored and dig through complaints to the Houston Better Business Bureau. (Yeah, yeah, we know.) Sometimes the complaints are petty, other times they’re totally weird, and too often the behavior they describe is just downright shameful. But none are quite as poetic as this one we found…
Galveston ISD Threatens to Sue Watchdog Group
Today’s lesson on the Constitution, and such amendments to it as, say, the First, will not be given in Galveston schools. That’s because the folks at Galveston ISD seem to have only the foggiest idea of what the First Amendment is about. The school district’s lawyer is threatening to sue…
Texas Gave Birth to the Worst (Scottish) Album Ever
If you say you’re from Texas anywhere in the world, you can of course expect to be treated like royalty. Anywhere, that is, but Scotland (which I just learned is a real place), where the word “Texas” conjures not an image of a mighty and proud state, but a crappy…
I Was a Lunchtime Eyewear Model
The world of big-city journalism is just full of surprises. “Can someone explain to me,” began an email from my editor this morning, “why when I pick up my Houston Chronicle from my driveway this morning and open it, the first face I see is my assistant music editor’s?” Um……
Drenched In Blog: Somebody Help Bob Goulet
I wish that when cool celebrities were sick or needed transplants, we the public could nominate banal and vapid celebrities as donors. Like when Joe Strummer died, couldn’t we have traded him for Scott Stapp? I would’ve gladly traded Chad Kroeger for 40 more fabulous years of Dimebag Darrell playing…
Long Snaps with Bryan Pittman: Overcoming Grief, Tatts and Hilary Duff
Houston Texans’ long-snapper Bryan Pittman returns for more thoughts on life both on and off the gridiron. This week, while going one-on-one with Ballz columnist Jason Friedman, Pittman talks about getting over last week’s loss and reveals more celebrity crushes! JCF: Well, I guess there’s only one way to begin:…
StubHub vs. Ticketmaster
I got an interesting little e-mail from MLB.com today, offering me a chance to purchase World Series tickets through StubHub. Now this is interesting not so much in that I, a resident of Houston, have a chance to get tickets to games that many in Denver and Boston might not,…
Radio Houstoned: Dracula at Texas Repertory Theatre
Click the button below for a Radio Houstoned interview with director Steven Fenley and Houston Press Night & Day Editor Olivia Flores Alvarez. You think you know Dracula? Think again. In Texas Repertory Theatre’s new production, the king of vampires is equal parts horror and humor, suspense and seduction. “What…
Blind Bird on a Corner, Begging for a Cracker…
Happy Thursday, everybody! Here is a Brazilian parrot that has learned how to whistle the blues. — John Nova Lomax…
Fires in Southern California: Where Will the Houston Texans Play the San Diego Chargers?
As you good Houston Texans fans probably know, the Texans have a game this weekend with the San Diego Chargers. And this game is to be played in San Diego. And, as anyone who’s been paying any attention to the news knows, Southern California is currently engulfed in flames. That…
Never Get Busted. Well, Almost Never.
Yo, bro, next time you decide to watch Barry Cooper’s video on how to hide your weed, you might choose a better place than inside a stolen truck that’s transporting 90 pounds of dube. Just sayin’. — Keith Plocek Click here to read the Houston Press profile on Barry Cooper,…
Pop Quiz
A New York Times reporter interviewed a Houston Press reporter for a story that appeared in the NYT yesterday. Which Press reporter was it? a) Craig Malisow, foreskin expert b) Chris Vogel, dancing-naked-men expert c) Rich Connelly, ferret expert d) Robb Walsh, Tex-Mex-cuisine expert If you guessed d), we owe…
The Scene
The Alley Theatre’s Neuhaus Stage opens its season with the Theresa Rebeck comedy The Scene. The play follows a group of New Yorkers who work in the entertainment industry. There’s Charlie, an out-of-work actor, Stella, his television producer wife, and Clea, a fresh-off-the-farm beauty, all of whom live in a…
“A Rose Has No Teeth: Bruce Nauman in the 1960s”
“A Rose Has No Teeth: Bruce Nauman in the 1960s” is a collection of work by the contemporary artist while he was in grad school in California. “The show covers from ‘64 to ‘69,” says Menil Collection assistant curator Miranda Lash. “It was a very prolific period. He moved from…
MECA’s Day of the Dead Festival
MECA’s Day of the Dead Festival is one of the city’s largest and most colorful Día de los Muertos celebrations. This year the Sixth Ward arts organization expects 6,000 people to join in, good-naturedly mocking death and celebrating life through music, food and the arts. The biggest draws are undoubtedly…
H.I.S.D.
H.I.S.D. (HUEston Independent Spit District) is an anomaly among local hip-hoppers: They don’t chop or screw anything. Formed out of a love for the jazz- and soul-infused, conscious hip-hop à la De La Soul and Little Brother, H.I.S.D. leaves the dragging flows and heavy beats behind on their latest release,…
“This Old House”
“This Old House,” an old Victorian-style home near the Third Ward, was formerly a daycare and covered in what GONZO247 describes as “scary monsters.” (Actually, they were badly airbrushed likenesses of Sesame Street characters.) “Diane Barber at DiverseWorks approached us and asked if we’d be down to paint the house,…
Red Elvises
This might be the only night of the year that the Red Elvises won’t be wearing the craziest clothes in the room. The band mixes the ethnic music of their Siberian homeland with American rock and roll, throwing in the loud costumes and oversized instruments as a bonus. 8 p.m…
The Houston Cellar Classic
Foodies and wine lovers are in for a fabulous treat this week. Tonight marks the beginning of seven — that’s right, seven — days of some of the best food and drink Houston has to offer. The Houston Cellar Classic will offer more than 25 events celebrating everything from fine…
Montrose Crawl
Once you turn 21, you’re pretty much too old to go trick-or-treating without getting yelled at by concerned adults. But if the idea of parading down the street in costume still sparks your fancy (and you’re not a prostitute), then the Montrose Crawl is right up your boulevard. (And actually…
Dances for the Seasons of Life
Contemporary dance becomes a very serious matter this weekend with Ad Deum Dance Company’s presentation of Dances for the Seasons of Life. Themes such as injustice, loneliness, and being strong in the midst of chaos will be explored during the evening of four dances choreographed by an impressive array of…
Houston Séance
“For those who believe, no explanation is needed. For those who don’t believe, no explanation will suffice,” says Jamie Salinas as he begins the main event of Houston Séance. Magician/ghost whisperer Salinas and partner Scott Wells summon ghosts known to haunt Market Square’s La Carafe. (Wait, we thought La Carafe…
Fatal Flying Guilloteens, Quantum Fucking
Four years after Get Knifed, the Fatal Flying Guilloteens have finally spit out their third album. The Houston-bred racket makers are renowned locally and beyond for their special brand of performances, which typically last mere minutes due to gear being destroyed, blood being spilled and something (or someone) getting set…
Skeleton and Spirits
Given the hoopla over the Houston Museum of Natural Science’s decision to host the Lucy fossil, maybe the best way to get a scare out of the curators and staff at today’s Skeleton and Spirits 2007 party is to put on a traditional neTela and go as a citizen of…
Dracula
You think you know Dracula? Think again. In Texas Repertory Theatre’s new production, the king of vampires is equal parts horror and humor, suspense and seduction. “What Stephen Dietz has done is to go back to the way the book was written,” says Steven Fenley, the play’s director. “If you…
Carmen Suite
The Russian Cultural Center brings the precision and grandiosity that made Moscow’s Bolshoi Ballet famous to Houston when Marianna Ryzhkina, principal dancer of the famed company, stars in the Carmen Suite. Performing with the Metropolitan Classical Ballet, where Alexander Vetrov, a former Bolshoi soloist, is a co-artistic director, Ryzhkina is…
“International Discoveries”
“The big international show at FotoFest” may sound a tad redundant — the organization always shows world-class photographers. But FotoFest takes it up a notch with “International Discoveries,” opening today, an exhibit pulled from the port-folios of nine of the world’s finest photographers. Argentinean Alessandra Sanguinetti has several entries from…
Inside the Circle
The 1982 documentary Style Wars helped transform the world of graffiti into an indelible art movement, and Houston native Marcy Garriott’s Inside the Circle looks poised to bring the same credibility to the “b-boy” set. The film focuses on two best friends (Omar Davila and Josh Ayres) who are unified…
Nick Hornby
Nick Hornby has to chuckle a bit when people question his motives for writing his latest work, Slam, a novel meant to be young adult-friendly. “People keep asking me if this was a commercially motivated decision in any way, and I say, ‘You’ve got to be kidding. Why would you…
The Spirit of the Beehive
Frankenstein makes an appearance in Víctor Erice’s The Spirit of the Beehive (El Espíritu de la Colmena), but he isn’t the movie’s monster. That role is filled by Spain’s dictator, Francisco Franco. Considered one of the best Spanish films of the 1970s, Spirit of the Beehive follows two young girls,…
Moonlight Ramble
Morning rush hour around downtown Houston usually doesn’t start until around 7 a.m., but for one day a year it begins considerably earlier — and the streets are filled with bikes instead of cars. The 35th annual Moonlight Bicycle Ramble takes pedal pushers along two courses — an eight-mile or…
Houston Haunted Houses
Houston’s haunted houses have come a long way from the neighborhood community center’s bowl of cold pasta labeled “Witch Guts.” Now in its seventh year, ScreamWorld, the ever-expanding scream park (their pun, not ours), boasts five separate attractions at its location in North Houston, including the elaborate “Haunted Hotel,” the…
Cat Scientist, Lick Lick, Three Fantastic
Cat Scientist creates the type of quirky, clever techno-pop only an indie fan could love. The Austin quintet entertains with sounds that could be likened to ‘80s left-of-the dial outfits like They Might Be Giants or Kraftwerk and well–harmonized, male/female vocals that mirror recent groups like Mosquitos. Songs such as…
Houston Center for Photography’s Annual Print Sale
Looking for an affordable piece of art? Try the Houston Center for Photography’s Annual Print Sale. More than 25 local photographers, including Chuy Benitez, Mark Bagge and Houston Press staff photographer Daniel Kramer, will have prints for sale. The Print Sale’s offerings range from Linda Gilbert’s traditional landscapes to Sasha…
Phantasia
If Christmas gets an annual ballet in The Nutcracker, why not poor, maligned Halloween? With that in mind, Psophonia Dance Company co-artistic directors Sonia Noriega and Sophia Torres created Phantasia in 2004. The seasonal ballet, which has a different theme each year, celebrates the eerie darkness of the holiday through…
The Lawrence Arms
The Lawrence Arms are breathing new life into that most unfortunate of rock subsets, pop-punk. Having more to do with brash-yet-melodic forebears such as The Buzzcocks than with the watered down, spiky-haired, boy-band simpering of Blink-182 or the Riot Grrrl lite of Avril Lavigne, The Lawrence Arms know how to…
The Daughter of the Regiment
In Donizetti’s The Daughter of the Regiment, Marie is raised by a regiment of soldiers, with dozens and dozens of daddies. Houston Grand Opera’s production of Daughter features Laura Claycomb as Marie (the beautiful orphan girl), Barry Banks as Tonio (the man she hopes to marry) and Ewa Podles as…
Shaolin Warriors
The Shaolin Warriors are more than peaceful, nonconfrontational bald guys in robes, as anyone who’s seen Bruce Lee’s Enter the Dragon knows. They can also kick some serious ass. The monks will be demonstrating their highly theatrical, choreographed moves — a cross between kung fu, gymnastics and break-dancing — in…
“Monster Show 2: Another Compendium of Awesome Monster Drawings”
Just in time for Halloween, “Monster Show 2: Another Compendium of Awesome Monster Drawings” is serving up plenty of heebie-jeebies. The show features local and national artists and their take on what lurks beneath the bed or at the end of the dark alley. Of course, not all of them…
David Sedaris
In a story from Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, one of his five best-selling collections of essays, David Sedaris talks about his compulsion to touch people on the head when speaking to them. (We’re guessing this is why he doesn’t do interviews.) This need is put to the…
Jay Reatard
Jay Reatard is one drug overdose or insane-asylum visit away from working himself into legend. The most prominent figure in Memphis’s thriving, methamphetamine-fed garage-rock scene, Reatard cut his first single more than a decade ago and has since reincarnated in the Angry Angles, the Bad Times, a one-off project with…
Lee Hazlewood: Stranger in This Land
At 78, retired and living in Las Vegas, Lee Hazlewood was as deadpan and droll as ever, having recorded his farewell album fully aware of his impending demise. Renal cancer “doesn’t lead into remission, it leads into death,” he chuckled during one of his last interviews, adding that “Even the…
Open House at the Chinati Foundation
When I told a family friend that my wife and I would be spending the first weekend of October in Marfa, Texas, she squinted her eyes, smiled sarcastically and asked, “Marfa? Why would you want to go there?” About three seconds into my pointless explanation, I realized my mistake in…
Galactic
Galactic’s latest trip through Houston should feature not only their trademark groovy jams but also the hip-hop-infused sound of the funky New Orleans quintet’s new album From the Corner to the Block. With guests including DJ Z-Trip, Trombone Shorty, Big Chief Monk Boudreau, Soul Rebels Brass Band and Juvenile, From…
The Bronx Bar
The Bronx Bar (5555 Morningside, 713-520-9691) fills up almost every night with the young and the restless, who queue up for nightly shot specials while bobbing their heads to the DJ. So wandering in on a Sunday afternoon was a real trip. The muted football on the massive plasma TVs…
Hanson
Hanson didn’t follow the rules. Even back in 1997, everyone knew what was supposed to happen. They’d never match the massive popularity of “MMMbop.” They’d get dropped by their label and develop serious chemical dependencies, destroying both their youthful good looks and their fortunes. They’d resurface in 20 years, starring…
Dr. Dog
The problem with most modern bands who ape the ’60s power-pop triumvirate of the Beatles, Beach Boys and Kinks is that they are either severely diluted knockoffs of their idols, or their music is simply too, well, wussy-sounding. High harmonies and songs about joy and sunshine and a desire to…
Sylvia, A Masked Ball
That old showbiz axiom — work with dogs, risk being upstaged — receives a refreshing swat across the snout in A.R. Gurney’s romantic fable Sylvia, now running at Town Center Theatre. In this ultra-smart marital comedy, the title character is a dog, played to canine perfection by the spirited Alison…
The Dresden Dolls Brigade
Whatever you do, don’t call the Dresden Dolls goth. Amanda Palmer, the Boston duo’s singing half, so wants to avoid the G-word, she invented the phrase “Brechtian punk cabaret” to describe the Dolls’ style. That label may sound pretentious, but it’s an accurate summation of their minimalist, scary, campy noise…
Creepshow: Halloween Party Music
It’s that time again, guys: Halloween. Suburban yards across the Houston area are full of huge inflatable pumpkins, which were so much fun to shoot with pellet guns back in the day. Haunted houses opened up a few weeks ago and have been continuously inundated with stoned teens and kitsch…
Our top DVD picks scheduled for release this week
The Adventures of Aquaman (Warner Bros.) The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Volume One (Paramount) Battleship Potemkin (Kino) Breathless: The Criterion Collection (Criterion) Commune (First Run) The Company (Sony) Fantastic Planet (Accent Cinema) Home of the Brave (MGM) Hostel: Director’s Cut (Sony) Hostel: Part II (Sony) Into Great Silence (Zeitgeist)…
V’s Thai Restaurant & Bar
The bartender at V’s Thai Restaurant & Bar on Dairy Ashford was a feisty Thai lady in a push-up bra. She asked me what I wanted and laughingly offered herself as one of the options. The assembled barflies howled. I turned red and asked for a beer and the spicy…
Art Capsule Reviews: “Amy Sillman: Suitors and Strangers,” “Chemical City,” “The David Whitney Bequest” and “Practice Makes Perfect”
“Amy Sillman: Suitors and Strangers” Amy Sillman paints like she’s reincarnated from some squirrelly, third-tier 1950s abstractionist. But I mean that in a good way. Sillman’s colors — the turquoise blues, the deep oranges, the bright greens — all allude to fave color palettes from half a century ago and…
Annie Lennox, Songs of Mass Destruction
Those looking to steer clear of political agendas need not be wary of Songs of Mass Destruction; Annie Lennox saves her screeds for the liner notes so they don’t disrupt her fourth solo album’s delicate beauty. Songs showcases a confident Lennox, creating a near-perfect project that maintains the ambition brought…
Jimmy Wilson’s Seafood & Chophouse
The marinated blue crab fingers ($8.99) at Jimmy Wilson’s Seafood & Chophouse (12109 Westheimer, 281-497-1110) is a refreshing, innovative dish you won’t find anywhere else. Ten large, meaty claws, which have been boiled, are neatly arranged around a homemade olive mash that serves as dressing (and also as dip for the…
Feature Photo
Just covering all the bases before Halloween, “Pelle” and the cat’s owner Carol Ericsson stopped by Christ Church Cathedral earlier this month for the annual Blessing of the Animals. To view image larger, click here…
Death at West Oaks Hospital
All the little radios and tightly clamped-on headphones in the world couldn’t shut out the voices Mario Vidaurre was hearing. He was off his meds again, but even when he was on them, the hallucinations were there, taunting him, whispering things to him. Immersed in his schizophrenia, he became increasingly…
Beirut, The Flying Club Cup
Beirut frontman Zach Condon, 21, is too young to have any stories of his own, so he imagines other folks’ — usually folks living on other continents in other centuries. On “The Penalty,” he speaks from the perspective of a worker caught in a time of plague: “Yesterday fever, tomorrow…
Directors Series: Stanley Kubrick, American Gangster, Mr. Brooks, Days of Heaven
Directors Series: Stanley Kubrick (Warner Bros.) Most of the old Kubrick DVDs were crap: full-screen editions with poor pictures and virtually no special features. This set makes up for them with 2001, A Clockwork Orange, The Shining, Full Metal Jacket and Eyes Wide Shut (hey, who farted?), all looking great…
The Scene Is Dead. Long Live the Scene!
Another Day of the Dead is upon us, and it would seem to offer us the chance at creating a unique intercultural Houston tradition. Mexicans and Mexican-Americans use Day of the Dead as an opportunity to tend the graves of their ancestors and loved ones and honor their memories. Blind…
Stage Capsule Reviews: Arsenic and Old Lace, Rough Night at the Remo Room, Rumors, Sleeping Beauty and A Streetcar Named Desire
Arsenic and Old Lace It may be old, but it’s certainly not weary — Joseph Kesselring’s murderous comedy premiered on Broadway in 1941, and you’d think the story about two old-maid killers would feel a little bit tired at this point. But director Gregory Boyd proves that old dogs can…
Joy Division’s Expanded Reissues
Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis has waited almost 30 years to become a star of stage and screen, so he’s not going to let a little thing like being dead interfere with his Moment. And with Rhino’s expanded reissues of the dour Manchester quartet’s three albums — three different concerts…
Dan in Real Life
Dan in Real Life has this much going for it: It is not the worst Steve Carell film of 2007. That honor, of course, goes to Evan Almighty, which even the Lord walked out of during the second reel. Fact is, Dan in Real Life isn’t really much of a…
Reservation Road
I gave up after about 100 pages of John Burnham Schwartz’s 1998 novel Reservation Road, a typically overwritten and contrived slice of mass-market literary pabulum that hopscotches between the points of view of three people — the grieving mom, the grieving dad and the perpetrator — involved in the hit-and-run…
The Orange Box
Whether it’s $600 PlayStation 3s, $50 a year for the option to play your Xbox 360 online or the five bucks Nintendo shamelessly charges for 20-year-old NES games on the Wii’s Virtual Console, devoted gamers have gotten used to assuming the position when it comes to the costs attached to…
2007 Halloween Guide
Don’t look now, but sloppy Britney costumes might be all the rage this Halloween. Who doesn,t like their festivities decked with little clothes (and shame), lots of drink and lots of candy? Whether you,re tethered to kids or tired of wearing undies, we have an activity for everyone. There,s no…
Low Self-Esteem, Flirting Double Standards and One Intelligent Mexican
Dear Mexican, Why do so many of my peers assume I must have low self-esteem just because I’m dating a Mexican guy? I finally found someone with my same values and who treats me way better than any gringo I ever dated. The same women who complain about “sleazy” Mexican…
The ManKind Project
Yellow Journalism: After reading “Weekend Warriors” [by Chris Vogel, October 4] with its many and gross inaccuracies, my eye has been jaundiced to the quality of your other work. Certainly I will give “reporter” Chris Vogel’s future articles the same respect I give to any supermarket tabloid’s “news”: useful for wiping…
Paula Maya
This is a homecoming of sorts for Paula Maya, so the Brazilian-born Seattle pianist and chanteuse is sticking around for a while, playing multiple shows over the next week. (See below.) Before Maya moved to the Pacific Northwest, where she also hosts a radio show, she lived in Houston and…
High Spirits
It’s probably nothing more than old-fashioned luck, or good timing, but either way I have managed to stumble upon what has to be one of Houston’s choicer living situations: an upstairs apartment in the building that houses the Continental Club, Big Top, Sig’s Lagoon and Tacos a Go-Go. Sharing its…