Which Bruce Show Was Better: Dallas or Houston?
Pete Freedman, our counterpart at our sister paper up I-45, wants to know here…
Get Lit: Buckingham Palace Gardens, by Anne Perry
The body of a mutilated prostitute has been discovered in a linen closet at Buckingham Palace. Queen Victoria is away, but the Prince and Princess of Wales are in residence and so Thomas Pitt from Secret Services is called in to sort out the sordid matter with discretion. Turns out…
This Week’s MuxTape
Sadly, I had to delete my African diaspora Muxtape, as the site only allows you to have 12 songs up with any one account. This week’s version takes a more local focus — 12 of my favorite contemporary rock songs from Houston. (All are from this decade.) Is your band…
Reverberations: Bipolaroid’s E(i)ther Or
Saturday night, hit Boondocks for the Reverberation throw-down. Get drunk and dance. If you miss this one, you’ll have to wait until next month, and four weeks is a long time to wait for a proper fuzz fix. For now, give this record from New Orleans a shot… Bipolaroid, E(i)ther…
Mp3: “Sit Shiva,” by Judas Bear
Judas Bear is another of Thane Matcek’s many aliases, and the title of this song, which I originally thought had something to do with Hinduism, in fact refers to the Jewish period of bereavement after the death of a close relative. Matcek has always been a wildly inconsistent artist. Previous…
Astros-Phillies: Jose Valverde Blows (the Save)
Maybe he wasn’t so bad after all… Okay, I could have sworn the Astros traded Brad Lidge to the Phillies. So what was he doing pitching in the bottom of the ninth for the Astros last night? Excuse me a second, my friend is telling me something… “What do you…
A Chicken in Every Pot and Pruno in Every Toilet
We’re not sure if his platform includes looser shiv-control laws and an overhaul of the bjs-for-protection economy, but a federal prisoner in Texas has landed on the ballot for Idaho’s May 27 Democratic primary…
Jason Friedman’s 2008 Houston Texans Preview
Get ready, Houston. It’s coming. I swear to you it’s coming. What am I talking about? Houston Texans playoff hype, that’s what. By the time training camp kicks off in July, I guarantee you’ll have probably read at least a half dozen stories pegging the Texans as a “sleeper” playoff…
Thirteen Great Soul-Blues Album Covers
The genre known as soul blues – the modern-day Bobby Bland / Little Milton-style blues you hear on KCOH and KTSU, and in the little hole in the wall bars all over Houston — might be one of the last redoubts of consistently great album covers out there. The music…
Spice of Life: Houston International Festival and Zonta Zelebration
The Houston International Festival is here, and it’s not just about the music and performances either – don’t forget the food. Sample the cuisines of Africa at the H-E-B Cultural Stage, where celebrity and local chefs will be doing cooking demonstrations several times a day. There will also be food…
I Remember Vanilla…
A1A? BEACHFRONT AVENUE!!! Just makin’ sure you’re paying attention. Are you surprised Vanilla Ice was arrested for domestic battery for pushing his wife? No, not even a little? Yeah, me neither. Vanilla Ice. The fact that this man continues to garner headlines befuddles me as much as it (oddly enough)…
Duck Season. Rabbit Season. Tax Season.
Several organizations took advantage of the tax day rush at the downtown post office to promote their causes – anti-government sentiment and beer. Members of HoustonTruth.org and RiotUSA.org gathered outside the post office to pass out pamphlets and DVDs, and to denounce taxes, the IRS and the Federal Reserve…
Has ACL Festival Jumped the Shark?
This morning C3 Entertainment unveiled the lineup for the 2008 Austin City Limits Festival, scheduled for September 26-28 in Austin’s Zilker Park, and it’s looking more than ever like Coachella on the Colorado. The first name on the card is… Foo Fighters. Seriously. That means everyone hoping for Radiohead at…
Last Night: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band at Toyota Center
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band Toyota Center April 14, 2008 Better than: Getting your fortune told by Madam Marie on the Boardwalk – accurately Download: “Candy’s Room,” “She’s the One,” “Girls in Their Summer Clothes,” “Badlands,” “American Land” For two and a half hours and without a break,…
Introducing…Lonesome Onry and Mean
My first inclination was to name this column “Lonesome Onry and Mean on the Heartworn Highway of Dust That Lefty Bit Down South.” In spite of its unwieldy length, that reference to two famous songs by godfathers of the Texas music movement plus the 1981 documentary on the infant Texas…
Sunday Afternoon: Ramsay Midwood at Under the Volcano
Ramsay Midwood wheeled the beat-up white van into the parking lot and stepped out in one of those cheap, goofy, beat-to-shit straw hats with the brim all taco-ed up like he’d slept with it on last night. On anyone else, the hat would’ve looked ridiculous, but on Midwood it looks…
Mp3: Jon Cartwright’s “Plural Girl Blues”
I recorded from Schleicher County crooner Jon Cartwright while I was reporting on the polygamist compound in West Texas a couple years ago. The song might not make mention of all the recent developments, but with its “what’s your name again?” and “I got 13 pages of honey-do’s,” it definitely…
90210 Bastardization, Get Thee Hence!
So what the hell’s up with this supposedly new version of The Best Show Ever In The History Of Television (no, not “Barney Miller,” Mr. Pop Rocks). Of course I’m talking about “Beverly Hills, 90210.” And I have very strong opinions regarding the alleged remake that has all of Hollywood…
Houston Aeros Finish Season in Third Place and Get Ready for Rockford IceHogs
“It should be an interesting finish to the season,” Coach Kevin Constantine said from his office following Saturday night’s Houston Aeros 3-2 victory over the Milwaukee Admirals before a season-high Toyota Center attendance of 11,831. “In our situation, we’ve got to just win,” Joel Ward said. “We can’t control what…
Astros-Marlins: How Did Roy Oswalt Become Woody Williams?
Hey, the Astros won two games this weekend, two of the three games they should have won, considering they were playing the Double-A caliber Florida Marlins. The vaunted offense came to life for all three games, scoring six, five, and five runs, respectively. The ‘Stros lost 10-6 to the Marlins…
Q&A: Little Steven Van Zandt
NBC Photo / Heidi Gutman With James Brown no longer around, Steven Van Zandt might just have the title of the Hardest Working Man in Show Business. In addition to hosting/producing the syndicated 2-hour weekly “Underground Garage” radio program (heard locally on Sunday nights on KKRW, 93.7 FM), he also…
Over the Weekend: Rockets, Westheimer Block Party, Licorice, Bikers and Drinking
Oh, man, what a weekend. Big ups to the good folks at Free Press Houston, who put on one helluva party on Saturday. We haven’t had so much fun since, well, since they used to close off the street for WestFest. Anyone else remember how you could blow down right…
Saturday Afternoon: Bay Area Rally at Space Center Houston
On Saturday while all the rest of you were out on Westheimer, seeing bands, getting trashed and generally being all hip and nasty, we hit up the first biker rally ever at NASA. The inaugural Bay Area Rally had bands, a trade show and plenty of weekend-warrior bikers flexing their…
Yesterday Afternoon: Westheimer Block Party at Numbers, Mango’s and Avant Garden
Click here for a slideshow. I’m almost ashamed to admit this was my first Westheimer Block Party, or Street Fest, or Surprisingly Well-Organized Locals-Only Outdoor Event Sponsored by a Competing Publication on a Shoestring Budget (That Nonetheless Needed More Food Vendors), or whatever you want to call it, really. Despite…
Rockets-Suns: Shock and Awe
Just a stunning, incredible win for the Rockets. Talking to various media members before Houston’s Friday night tilt with Phoenix, absolutely NO ONE gave the Rockets a chance to win. For my part, I even made a friendly wager with a Rockets superfan that Houston would lose by more than…
Happy National Licorice Day
Today, as you might’ve guessed from the title, is National Licorice Day. Now we know Red Vines and Twizzlers and the like technically don’t make use of the licorice plant, but we almost got sick eating three boxes of Red Vines before lunch the other day, so we gotta give…
Top Secret: Flash Mob at Westheimer Block Party
Tired of never knowing why people around you are walking backwards or pillow fighting? The Flash Mob has been popping up all over town and we even caught its last shenanigan on video. The secret society behind the aforementioned random acts of silliness is going a little more public with…
Weekend Music: No Money, No Problem
This is a good weekend to be broke. Not only is the Westheimer Block Party tomorrow afternoon, but Sunday brings Rice Radio’s 17th annual Outdoor Show at the university’s Intramural Fields 2 and 3, somewhere near the business school. Brooklyn indie-rockers Parts and Labor headline an otherwise local bill that…
Mp3: The Tontons, “Sea and Stars”
At 19 or 20, Asli Omar, vocalist for local psych-blues-rockers Tontons, might just be the finest young female vocalist in Houston, possessed of pipes that can shift gears between languid breathiness and heretofore undiscovered metal-melting alloys. You can hear elements of Bjork, Billie Holiday, the Amy Winehouse family of singers…
Last Night: Jay-Z and Mary J. Blige at Toyota Center
You could literally smell Mary J. Blige from like ten feet away. It was insane. It must have been all the product on her. If I didn’t know what “fabulous”smelled like before, I do now. It was amazing, like a separate presence onto itself. She must summon that essence to…
Christian Polygamy Advocate Says Mormonism Is the Problem
There’s no telling how many stories have been written this week about the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, but it’s probably a fair assumption that the words “polygamist sect” have appeared in most. That’s not good publicity, especially as revelations from Eldorado become more disturbing, for the…
Aeros-Flames: Playoffs Still Up in the Air
The Aeros don’t believe in making things easy. A victory on Wednesday night against the Quad City Flames would have put the team in the driver’s seat for the number two seed in the AHL West Division playoffs, and that would have guaranteed a little home-ice advantage. Instead, the Aeros…
John Royal Is Sick and Tired (No, Seriously)
Okay, I’m sick – I’ve got flu-like symptoms – so I must be having hallucinations. There’s no other way to explain how, after dragging myself out of the bed where I’ve spent the past several hours and turning on my MLB Extra Innings, I’m seeing the San Francisco Giants beating…
Marty Stuart’s American Odyssey Does Houston
Marty Stuart is definitely one of the more interesting also-rans of Travis Tritt-era popular country. He only had a couple of real hits – “Hillbilly Rock” and “Little Things” both reached No. 8 in 1990 – but he’s got a great pedigree. He was married to one of the Carter…
Um, So I Forgot Matt Dillon. And That Is Unforgivable.
I’ve gotten some very nice feedback from readers, friends and acquaintances on Wednesday’s MPR post regarding the greatest movie of all time, “The Outsiders.” But I’ve also gotten reprimanded. And deservedly so. Because as I was going through the cast o’ hotties, I somehow forgot to mention the hottiest hottie…
Slideshow: Bayou City Farmers’ Market
The Bayou City Farmers’ Market, in the parking lot behind 3000 Richmond, is my favorite Saturday morning hang-out. There’s live music, Katz’s coffee and free samples from Susan Holle, a cheesemaker from Sealy who goes by the name of Cheesygirl. There’s a craft table for kids — on a recent…
Mp3: Studemont Project’s “Mont Rose”
I dunno, this track makes me nervous, and I guess that’s the point seeing as how it’s all about the ongoing Fat Cat developer’s rape / destruction of Montrose. And I like the guitar interlude. But overall this feels too hectic and jittery and I’m the kinda douchebag who likes…
Is Johnny Guitar Watson’s “Telephone Bill” the First Houston Rap?
What’s the first rap song by a Houston artist? It’s debatable but most cite a few records that came about between 1985 and 1987. But there’s another much older often forgotten candidate – Johnny “Guitar” Watson’s “Telephone Bill.” By 1980, when he made “Telephone Bill,” Johnny “Guitar” Watson had long…
Bulgoki Burger on the Gulf Freeway
Our latest find in the bi-cultural burger department is the soy and teriyaki barbecue sauce-flavored “Bulgoki Burger” at the Korean-owned Burger House on the Gulf Freeway near Hobby Airport. Patrons describe the joint as the “poor man’s Fuddruckers” because they cook never-been-frozen burger patties to order and then offer a…
Executive Director of Texas Medical Board Announces Retirement
Donald Patrick, executive director of the Texas Medical Board, will retire on August 28, according to a Board press release issued this morning. Patrick has held the position since 2001. The retirement date marks his 70th birthday. The Board has formed a search committee to find a replacement, according to…
Astros-Cardinals: Albert Pujols Goes Deep. Twice.
Brandon Backe wasn’t happy with Albert Pujols yesterday, and Backe let him know during batting practice, when the two had to be separated by Cecil Cooper. Why? A little disagreement about Pujols’s slide into J.R. Towles the night before. Pujols’s response to Backe was simple: He went deep on the…
Rockets-Sonics: Face to Face with Inevitability
There is an air of inevitability surrounding the Houston Rockets these days. Like a racehorse attempting to soldier through the stretch run with a broken leg, this club is both admired and dismissed. Oh sure, everyone appreciates the heart and courage on display. But, though they dare not say it…
Art in the Park/VISIONS Cultural Arts Tour
Mid-towners will have their choice of events this weekend. First, dozens of local and regional painters, sculptors, jewelry-makers and other artists will turn Elizabeth Baldwin Park into a wooded bazaar for Saturday’s second annual Art in the Park. Second, 60 more artists will set up along the VISIONS Cultural Arts…
Oscar Romero’s Legacy
Sister Dianna Ortiz and El Salvador’s Bishop Medardo E. Gomez Soto have more in common than just their Roman Catholic faith. Both have suffered unspeakable crimes in Latin American countries because of their work for peace and, despite the risk, continue to speak out against political injustice in their homelands…
WorldFest Houston
Popcorn? Check. Soda? Check. Seat cushion? Check. Wait a minute, seat cushion? Yep, you’re going to need one when you go to WorldFest Houston International Film Festival because it’s going to take you a while to see all 52 feature films and 75 shorts that are being screened this year…
Manuel Barrueco and Cuarteto Latinoamericano
Be there for the Houston premiere of Inca Dances today when Cuban guitarist Manuel Barrueco and Mexican string quartet Cuarteto Latinoamericano perform the work by American composer and Rice University graduate Gabriela Lena Frank. (Barrueco and Cuarteto Latinoamericano are set to record Frank’s Inca Dances sometime this year.) Also on…
Houston Indie Book Festival
Bookworms will want to be early birds for the Houston Indie Book Festival. With all the deals from local and national journals, independent presses and bookstores, you’ll want to make sure you get there before the good pickings are gone. Kaboom, Brazos Bookstore, Arte Público Press, Inprint, Houston Institute for…
Marjane Satrapi
Persepolis author/illustrator Marjane Satrapi stops in Houston fresh from the Academy Awards and Golden Globes. The graphic memoirist earned nominations for Best Animated Feature and Best Foreign Language Film, respectively, for the screen version of her illustrated autobiography. Satrapi grew up in war-torn Tehran during the Islamic Revolution and war…
Discovery Green Family Day
One of Houston’s most ambitious efforts to bring nature areas to downtown will finally be unveiled during Discovery Green Family Day. The development of the 12–acre urban park, a pet project of Mayor Bill White, includes a manmade lake, children’s playground, interactive water features, an amphitheater, model boat pond, bandstand,…
La Bohème
The blockbuster musical Rent is slated to leave the Great White Way soon, its 12–year run a feat by anyone’s standards. But it pales in comparison to its inspiration, Puccini’s timeless opera La Bohème, which the Houston Grand Opera is performing today. Recession-worried twentysomethings and opera buffs will find something…
With a Pen in Her Hand: Mexicanas Telling Stories Through Music and Literature
Author Alicia Gaspar de Alba and singer/songwriter Tish Hinojosa celebrate the history of Hispanic women at today’s With a Pen in Her Hand: Mexicanas Telling Stories through Music and Literature. During the salon-style event, Gaspar de Alba will read snippets from her books Desert Blood: The Juarez Murders and Sor…
E_Merging II
Dominic Walsh’s young dance company (just ending its fifth season) has always made collaboration a priority, and Walsh himself regularly travels around the world to work with other groups. Tonight’s show, E_Merging II, involves one such alliance; joining the Dominic Walsh Dance Theater will be Gustavo Ramirez Sansano of Valencia,…
Glass Exhibition
As April 15 approaches, Alex Gabriel Bern-stein may have the most interesting list of “work-related expenses” of anyone in North Carolina. The artist, whose projects are on display at Hooks-Epstein Galleries’ annual glass exhibition, uses a diamond saw to carve his smooth yet intricate sculptures in a process that also…
12 Angry Men
The story of a jury’s deliberations on a murder case, 12 Angry Men takes the audience on a rollercoaster ride of anger, betrayal, hope and defeat. The case against a 16-year-old accused of killing his father seems open-and-shut to most of them, but one man isn’t so sure of the…
Love Loves a Pornographer
Everyone loves a farce, especially if it’s filled with juicy sexual innuendo. Blackmail, sex, secrets and cucumber sandwiches bubble over the top of Love Loves a Pornographer, by L.A.-based playwright Jeff Goode. His postmodern idea of a Victorian drawing-room comedy features a fancy-pants family named Loveworthy and their campy neighbors…
Westheimer Block Party
The Westheimer Block Party is a crash course on the local music scene. The festival includes six stages showcasing more than 70 acts from H-town spanning every genre. There might be a few bad apples in the bunch, but the overlapping itinerary guarantees you won’t have to put up with…
George Carlin
At age 70, George Carlin hasn’t lost his momentum — or his anger. The comedian/actor/author, who got his start in the ‘60s with appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show, is still throwing funny punches at society, government, entertainment and everything in between. In his latest HBO special, It’s Bad for…
“The Absence of the Subject”
At first glance, the works in “The Absence of Subject” seem pretty basic. “They look like pictures that would be sold at Pottery Barn, but when you realize what’s gone into them — it’s pretty rad,” says Deborah Colton Gallery assistant Evan Garza. For the show, artist Michael Somoroff (the…
Houston Roller Derby’s April Annihilation
It’s bash and crash time at Houston Roller Derby’s April Annihilation when the Hell Marys meet the Psych Ward Sirens and the Bayou City Bosses go head-to-head with the Burlesque Brawlers. For anybody who’s still standing after the bout, there’s an afterparty at the Onion Creek Café. (Hey, what’s roller…
Lifting the Veil
In the 2001 film Beneath the Veil, journalist Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy helped expose the horrors the Taliban were inflicting on Afghan women. For the follow-up, Lifting the Veil, she returned to Afghanistan five years after the U.S.-led invasion. The film, which premiered on CNN late last year and is showing at…
Tony Earley
Tony Earley has a knack for using simple plots as platters to dish out his delicious prose. His series about a boy growing up during the Great Depression started in 2000 with Jim the Boy. That book introduced readers to Jim at age ten. This year Earley catches up with…
This Is Our Home, It Is Not for Sale
As lofts and townhomes continue to take over historical areas in Houston, it’s bittersweet to see how things started out and, sadly, how they barely still are. In the documentary This Is Our Home, It Is Not for Sale, director Jon Schwartz chronicles the construction and deconstruction of Houston’s Riverside…
Titanic and Today, An Evening Exploring the Arctic Then and Now
Ninety-six years ago today, the Titanic spent its last day above water. “Titanic and Today, An Evening Exploring the Arctic Then and Now” explores the sinking of the unsinkable ship and what, if anything, could have been done to prevent it. We might think today’s technology would mean the ship…
Moving Pictures
It’s rare that teachers get to strut their stuff, as their students are usually in the spotlight, but when the instructors in question — the faculty of the University of Houston’s dance department — are some of Houston’s most prominent young choreographers, it’s a treat to get a peek behind…
“Images that Flicker Light”
“Images that Flicker Light” is a group show by several up-and-coming Latina photographers. Among the group is Fabiola Valencia, who shows us still-lifes, glimpses of a window with its curtain flowing or a chair sitting against a wall. Also participating are Tina Hernandez, Pita Rivas and Rose Cosme. 9 a.m…
“Leonardo’s Contributions to Engineering”
“Leonardo’s Contributions to Engineering” is perfect for anyone who’s engineered some interest in the genius inventor. The panel discussion will include professors from Rice University discussing how da Vinci’s ideas continue to have an impact in the fields of transportation, military combat, architecture and mechanics. 6:30 p.m. Houston Museum of…
Ordinary Smart People
Smart people got no reason to live — and, sure, that’s not quite how Randy Newman sang it, but the point still stands. Because in Noam Murro’s directorial bow — one of those Sundance premieres starring famous people slumming it in dingy Indieland — the smart people ain’t doing much…
Banned Books in Prison; Best Movies of the 1980s
Our online readers responded to Richard Connelly’s Hair Balls item [“Book Learning, April 3] on the books the Texas prison system is banning for its inmates. Brilliance: Ah, the brilliance of unelected bureaucratic standard setters. I once heard of a study recommending complete banning of “explicit” magazines after claiming that 75…
Hayes Carll
I suspect there is a contingent that will howl long and loud that Hayes Carll’s third album (and first on the Lost Highway label) is too slick, too Nashville, not raw enough. In their way they will be right, but I don’t want to get into that argument. To these…
TAX TIME!
Dear Mexican, Sitting on my desk is a levy from the Internal Revenue Service for over $12,000 in unpaid taxes. Turns out some dude used my Social Security number for two years in Albuquerque to get paid, and didn’t bother to pay taxes. It’s taken me plenty in time and…
Streetlight Manifesto, with Dan Potthast and Zox
Everybody indulges in a guilty pleasure or two. For some, it’s eating mayonnaise with a spoon; for others, made-for-TV movies fit the bill. For my wife it’s the emotional trash of a Nicholas Sparks novel. Some noble souls choose to brave the judgment of their peers, wearing their scorned passions…
Jackie Tan Thinks Big
The sensational seafood salad at Jackie Tan Restaurant on Bellaire featured cold shrimp and crunchy jellyfish slivers tossed with shredded pork, cilantro, fresh mint, scallions, onions and a spicy fish sauce dressing. It was served over romaine leaves with hot-out-of-the-fryer shrimp chips on the side. My favorite Vietnamese restaurant used…
The Bobcat Benefit
Local bands love benefits. In fact, like the kid in class who needs to pee, they’ll hold up their hands and scream “me, me” until they are booked onto the thing. The reason is simple: benefits pay the same as most of their regular gigs, but at least on a…
Viking: Battle for Asgard shows promise, but not much more
It’s nice when a game comes along that pleasantly surprises you. I admit, I judged Viking: Battle for Asgard by the screenshots, writing it off as yet another one of those grimy, violent games so plentiful that they’re almost their own category: the “Bloodletting in Brown Clothes on a Cloudy…
Catastrophic Theatre’s Big Death and Little Death
Out of the ashes of Infernal Bridegroom Productions, Houston’s infamously wicked avant-garde theater company that went down in flames last season, rises The Catastrophic Theatre. Created by ex-IBPers Jason Nodler and Tamarie Cooper, Catastrophic looks a lot like IBP — the company has the same push-the-artistic-envelope-goals and the same performers…
More Banned Books in Texas Prisons, and Cactus Jack Gets Sued
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice has finally come through with some answers for the bizarre-seeming list of books that were banned from inmates in 2007 (see Hair Balls, April 3). The biggest news of all: Gay is okay! In a little-noted policy change that took effect late last year,…
Chess Masters at UT-Brownsville
Nadya Ortiz’s natural instinct is to attack. But for the moment, she must bide her time. Ortiz briskly taps her finger against her lip as she studies the chessboard. She is playing black, an immediate disadvantage because the white team always moves first. It is several hours into the match, and…
Should Bruce Springsteen Be Forgiven?
Tunnel of Love (Columbia, 1987) The gelled hair, black suit and bolo tie on the album cover, flanked by a hot white coupe on a sunny beach that bears no resemblance to the grim Jersey shore. The mega-success of Born in the U.S.A. and its unintended association with Ronald Reagan…
Sitting Down with La Porte’s Buxton
La Porte quartet Buxton are fresh off their most successful tour to date, a weeklong all-Texas jaunt that took them as far west as Marfa, as far north as Lubbock and as close to home as College Station. Seated at a table at the Black Lab five days after that…
British Sea Power, with Film School, Colour Music and the Watermarks
UK indie-rockers British Sea Power were Ivy League smarty-pants way before Vampire Weekend came on the scene. On their 2003 debut, The Decline of British Sea Power, they penned melancholy songs about old-school Russian literature and obscure historical figures. On the new Do You Like Rock Music?, British Sea Power…
Feast on Lower Westheimer
Lower Westheimer has a new “rustic European” restaurant, Feast (219 Westheimer). After a practice opening with friends and family, husband and wife James and Meagan Silk and their friend Richard Knight opened the place just a couple weeks ago. James is a butcher; Meagan deals with the business end; and…
Dionne Warwick
Dionne Warwick has disproved that old “no second acts in American lives” saw famously. With a voice both honeyed and dusky, Warwick was frontwoman for one of the greatest partnerships in pop history, Burt Bacharach and Hal David. Their 1960s chart run withstood even the British Invasion with hits “Walk…
Buncha bull At Mama Assumption’s
At Mama Assumption’s (6609 W. Sam Houston Pkwy. South #96, 713-777-6262), a deep, thick, rich roux is poured on top of the oven-roasted oxtails ($12.99), creating an unbelievable combination of tender, bone-sucking meat and robust gravy that just screams to be lapped up with whatever’s available. Fortunately, the dish comes…
Chinese Contemporary at FotoFest
So far FotoFest’s official China exhibitions, focusing on early documentary images, propaganda photography and contemporary documentary work, have been surprisingly strong. But the biennial’s winning streak ends with the section Contemporary Conceptual and Staged Photography, 1994-2008, which consists of the works in “New Photo, 1993-1998” and “Current Perspectives, 1998-2008,” presented…
Zydecowboys
Are you an old man? Do you fancy dancing with attractive younger women? Well, Mister Inappropriately-Dances-With-Girls-Half-His-Age-Guy, Jax Grill (1613 Shepherd) is where you need to be. Most people know Jax Grill as a family-style neighborhood restaurant offering up an eclectic mix of entrées because, well, it is a family-style neighborhood restaurant…
Capsule Art Reviews: “Design Life Now: National Design Triennial 2006,” “Ethnography, Photojournalism and Propaganda: 1934-1975.,” “FotoFest2008: Current Perspectives, 1998–2008 CHINA,” “Vivid Vernacular”
“Design Life Now: National Design Triennial 2006” For an exhibition about design, this show isn’t very well designed. Organized by the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, the original installation apparently took up three of its floors. In the exhibit’s Houston incarnation, the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston’s upstairs gallery is so…
BACKSTREET CAFE’S FORTY-YEAR-OLD MILKSHAKE
I am not a fan of alcoholic desserts; in fact, I am a purist. Most of the time I think they’re a waste of good hooch. Rum cake, oh no; bourbon pie, give me a break…what are people thinking? However, the word on the street is that Backstreet Café (1102…
Bayousphere
Little Parker Bryant gives his belly some air while wondering just how close his grandpa has to get to enjoy Texas wildflowers. Somewhere under grandpa Rich Hammons is a Labrador puppy, we’re told. To view image larger, click here…
So Much for No Child Left Behind
A few years ago, I signed on as a volunteer tutor at my local elementary. I was matched with a student — I’ll call him Eddie — who was failing miserably at both the math and English portions of the TAAS (Texas Assessment of Academic Skills), a statewide minimal skills…
Capsule Stage Reviews: Gutenberg! The Musical!, Sty of the Blind Pig, Underneath the Lintel, Wit
Gutenberg! The Musical! Pirate Queen, Dance of the Vampires and Kelly – these were rank bombs all, made legendary by their horridness. Billed as serious Broadway contenders, they should have been spoofs. Gutenberg! The Musical!, on the other hand, wants to be bad – and succeeds wildly. The little comic…
Cop Out: Street Kings
For a movie built around questions of failed ethics and duplicitous behavior, Street Kings is just as dishonest as its characters. Though conceived as yet another sobering frontline report on law enforcement’s ever-expanding gray area, director David Ayer’s grim police thriller mostly plays as one long dick-measuring competition. You sense…