Black-Hearted
For information, call 713-524-0200 or visit www.bordersstores.com. Free. Black also performs at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 19, at the Houston Improv, 7620 Katy Freeway, suite 431, 713-333-8800, www.improv.com. $30.
Robyn Hitchcock
Remember how John Lennon used to imitate Bob Dylan? Like on “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away” and “Working Class Hero” and stuff? Well, picture Dylan imitating Lennon instead. Now endow him with Roger McGuinn’s jangly guitar style, Syd Barrett’s dislocated psychedelia and a lyrical sensibility somewhere between Captain…
Junkie, MD
FRI 4/15 Dorian Shanley is a young hotshot heart surgeon who lives for sex, drugs and the rock-star life. Sure, he’s got some faults — like passing out in the middle of surgery over a patient’s open chest — but he makes for quite the central character in Houstonian producer-director…
Fannypack
Call off the truant officer, because the school of lo-fi sass is back in session. To kick things off, Brooklyn’s Fannypack throws itself a raunchy little pep rally on “Keep It Up,” with MCs Jessibel, Belinda and Cat playing head cheerleaders to a band of whistle-blows and sneaker-squeaks conducted by…
A Hot Racket
Stuck up and stodgy? Try studly and sweaty. That’s men’s tennis for you nowadays, having long shed its cable-knit identity in favor of bicep-baring, neon-wearing superstars. Yes, the ladies get plenty of attention, thanks to toned legs under teensy skirts, but the dudes deserve their share of catcalling — even…
Shooter Jennings
Can’t think of a time when I’ve heard a country CD as, well, postmodern as this one. By postmodern country, I don’t mean KILT-friendly schlock like Tim McGraw — I mean this CD, which fairly defines what I am thinking of. Which is this: While it purports to be reverential…
Sweeping Riddim
FRI 4/15 Everyone and their dad knows “bling” is snazzy jewelry, “crunk” is crazy drunk and “fo’ shizzle” is, uh, fo’ shizzle. Duh. But how about fagilia? If you’re fluent in Swahili, you know it’s slang meaning “to sweep over an area.” It makes perfect sense in the case of…
Yao More than Ever
It seems unlikely that any American outside of a cloistered, sports-averse, PBS-watching film reviewer would have failed to notice the 2002 arrival of Yao Ming, the seven-foot-six gentle giant also known as China’s national basketball hero and, in the United States, the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft –…
Ghetto Fabulous
FRI 4/15 If you grew up black in the ’70s, your TV idols were either J.J. Jackson or George Jefferson, ghetto superstar or ghetto survivor. The bipolarity of these images is what plagues most African-Americans who grew up poor and became successful — they still can’t shake the ghetto. Michael…
For Love of the Game
Directed by Peter and Bobby Farrelly. With Drew Barrymore and Jimmy Fallon. Rated PG-13.
Spoon Up the Grease
The just-opened Montrose Diner (1111 Westheimer, 713-520-8281) serves up the classics 24 hours a day. One of the most popular entres is also one of the best buys: The “working man’s breakfast,” just $9.99, includes a grilled T-bone and two eggs any style. If you sit at the counter, you…
Unreal As It Gets
Directed by Jessica Yu. With Dakota Fanning and Larry Pine. Not rated.
Straight Outta London
Dizzee Rascal appears Thursday, April 14, at the Engine Room, 1515 Pease, 713-654-7846.
Knotty Knickers
Steve Martin could fill an entire shelf at Blockbuster with his films. But the silver-haired entertainer writes a lot more than whacked-out movie scripts, which might surprise those who haven’t read any of his New Yorker essays on everything from philosophy to grammar or his many books, including Shopgirl, The…
Humor Can Be Funny
The Comedians of Comedy appear , at Mary Jane’s Fat Cat, 4216 Washington Avenue, 713-869-5263.
Capsule Reviews
Billy Bishop Goes to War As much as we love Canada and all things that sweet country to the north represents, John Gray and Eric Peterson’s Canadian import Billy Bishop Goes to War is a hard play to get excited about. The Stages Repertory Theatre production, directed by Chelsey Santoro…
Karachi Rock
Say what you want about rock deities like Bono and Bob Geldof — call them pretentious and full of themselves and demand to know who the hell they think they are, if you must. But give them credit for this: They have transcended the often trivial world of rock and…
Capsule Reviews
“African Art Now: Masterpieces from the Jean Pigozzi Collection” This show is filled with fresh, smart and gorgeous work. But like every individual collection, it represents one person’s taste and point of view. Jean Pigozzi began collecting contemporary African art 15 years ago; his private collection, the Contemporary African Art…
Who’s Your Daddy?
Growing up in the Rio Grande Valley, Danny Villarreal had heard the stories from his grandparents. His ancestors, it was whispered, had come to Mexico from Spain under something of a cloud. Apparently, they were not purebred Castilian Spaniards, but members of a persecuted minority — namely, Jews who had…
Divorced from Reality
“Harold” is having a great run. Just two weeks ago, on a trip to Austin, he ran into an old secret high school crush. Early in the evening they talked about old times, compared clique notes and sipped a few cocktails. Later they went back to her house, snorted cocaine,…
Less Price, Less Spice
Whole chicken to go: $10.50
Half-chicken with two sides: $10.95
Pasta Julia: $7.75
Linguine diavolo: $9.95
Pork chop: $10.50
Italian sausage: $7.95
Make Mine a Guinness
I have always longed to have exotic ancestry. Apparently, so did my ancestors. Back in the 19th century, some of my forebears convinced themselves that the name Lomax was a shortened form of Lomazzi and that the family originated in medieval Florence. Back then, it was fashionable to be of…
David Olney
“Anytime anyone asks me who my favorite music writers are, I say Mozart, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Bob Dylan and Dave Olney. Dave Olney is one of the best songwriters I’ve ever heard — and that’s true. I mean that from my heart.” — Townes Van Zandt “Townes must have had a…
All Grown Up
Lawndale Art Center’s newly remodeled space is pretty fabulous. But if you remember the old Lawndale or even the old, old Lawndale over near the University of Houston, you might be a little saddened by the clean, hip new space. The old Lawndale’s endearing, funky makeshiftness has gone the way…
What a Devil
The devil, as Hollywood and the Bible tell us, is one clever dude. In his endless fight with the Almighty, the Prince of Darkness thinks rules are for suckers. And you never know where he’ll pop up to do his satanic work. Recently, it was at an ultraconservative church in…
The Heavenly States
If you are a touring musician or have ever known any, you no doubt are familiar with tales of woe from the road, which to hear most musicians tell it, is never much more than a litany of van trouble, sub-Waffle House food, moronic fans, shady promoters, STDs and broken…
Letters
Sludge Hammers Big business rules: I was not surprised by the way the EPA responded to the findings regarding the hazards of sludge for humans and animals [“Wretched Excess,” by Josh Harkinson, March 31]. Our government cares for only the “have mores,” and big businesses like Synagro rule our government…
Soilwork and Dark Tranquility, with Hypocrisy and Mnemic
Soilwork’s latest album combines the title Stabbing the Drama with ludicrously literal thrust-dagger clip art. Its singer’s stage name, Speed Strid, rhymes when pronounced correctly. And its music — all blast beats, chugging riffs and relatively cheesy keys — sounds like Pantera mauling Europe’s “The Final Countdown.” Unintentional hilarity aside,…
Haute Stuff
Robb Walsh, food writer for the Houston Press, is a finalist in two categories of this year’s James Beard Foundation Awards for food writing. Walsh is a finalist in the category of Newspaper Feature Writing About Restaurants and/or Chefs With or Without Recipes for his feature “Grande Plans,” a profile…
The Radiators
Long before the noodle-ocity of Phish reigned supreme, there was the Fish Head music of the Radiators. In the tradition of the Funky Meters, Little Feat, Allen Toussaint, Earl King and numerous other talented veterans of the Big Easy scene, the Radz emerged from the bayou in 1978 and have…
Gutsy Show
I do not think that Christians have a positive attitude to life, worldly life, the bright awakening into being. — Hermann Nitsch The brutality and blood lust in Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ have their roots in the art and theater of Hermann Nitsch. But ironically, advocates of…
MDC
Punk is suburban folk, a genre born of stultifying mediocrity and conformity. But the onetime vehicle for protest is now just another marketing niche for songs about girls. Springing into that vacuum is MDC. Along with the Dead Kennedys and Suicidal Tendencies, the band helped forge the American hardcore movement,…
This Week’s Day-by-Day Picks
Thursday, April 14 Imagine what will happen when little Tyler from Odessa meets a male Cher. The folks at Rice University’s GLBT group GATHER are throwing a little shindig to coincide with the school’s annual Owl Weekend, which welcomes prospective students to the campus. At today’s Drag Queen and King…
Gogol Bordello
If you think the theme of sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll has been played out, a single listen to Gogol Bordello will restore your faith in the power of music to jolt you out of complacency. Gogol’s lead singer, songwriter and chief maniac, Eugene Hutz, and his cohorts continue…