Tube Boobs
Wanna knock the prez? Let’s make a show…preferably on television. Paul Weitz’s new satire American Dreamz imagines the Bush regime as an episode in the history of American entertainment and American Idol as the quintessence of U.S. democracy. So what else is new? The vision of America as a vast,…
Get Your Spankin’
Think R. Kelly is the reigning king of bootylicious sex jams? The Philadelphia/Brooklyn-based rap group Spank Rock might make you reconsider. MC Naeem “Spank Rock” Juwan, who sounds like a young Q-Tip, spits sexed-up lyrical tales about cock-teasing dancers (“Backyard Betty”), flirtatious pickups (“Touch Me”) and straight-up booty-shaking (“Bump”). With…
Dolce Vita
It’s quitting time when I pull up to Dolce Vita (500 Westheimer, 713-520-8222), and the traffic on Westheimer is moving at its usual crawl. The weather’s just right, though, and my date and I opt for the patio. I’ve heard about a good drink here, but I can’t remember what…
Way Down in the Hole
Countless are the creative souls who struggle with mental illness, as are the novels and films dedicated to them. Again and again, we’ve encountered artists both inspired and undermined by their madness, whose torment and tumult produce works of beauty and depth. So can a documentary about a singer-songwriter and…
Prom Dates and Skates
Yep, it’s prom season. And while you may “Whatever” at the whole schmaltzy high school gala thing, you gotta admit, it’s kinda cool to get dressed up in a bad tux or gown and shake your ass. (Seriously, would movies like Napoleon Dynamite and Never Been Kissed have been half…
There’s the Party, Yar!
A word of advice when choosing an outfit for your next pirate soiree: Think Johnny Depp — and Jeff Skilling. You’ll score big, matey. I’m hanging with the lasses and scurvy dogs at the Dusk Til Dawn Film Fest Pirate Party. When the nice folks at the local indie film…
Kinda Blue
In the pop culture lexicon, Blue October is en fuego. Just last week they played The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and their white-hot single “Hate Me” has been the No. 1 requested song on Sirius’s Alt Nation, with the most adds on alt-rock radio formats nationwide. Not bad for…
Messing with Molire
Mon Dieu, what the hell is going on downtown? David Ball’s sexed-up pop adaptation of Molire’s classic farce The Miser, co-produced by the Alley and the Theatre de la Jeune Lune, is running, and you’ll either rave about it or despise it. You’ll leave the theater exhausted or exhilarated, but…
Femmes About to Rock
The ladies of the all-female AC/DC tribute band Hell’s Belles have some big shoes to fill in rocking out classics such as “Back in Black” and “You Shook Me All Night Long” — all while in front of a largely macho, AC/DC-worshiping audience. “We get men in there because they…
Capsule Reviews
Carmen If you were going to be remembered for only one opera in your prolific career, you’d do no worse than Carmen. Composer Georges Bizet died during its premiere run in 1875, thinking his Gypsy girl had shocked his native Parisians, who weren’t accustomed to such brazen hussies on the…
Remember Them
Though so many of the names and whereabouts of the Holocaust’s six million victims are unknown, Yom HaShoah is the day when we remember them all. This year, the Holocaust Museum Houston hosts a citywide service for the commemoration of the day, which marks the Warsaw Ghetto uprising of 1943…
Cold Cuts: Bun B vs. Byron Crawford
Participants: Port Arthur-bred Texas rap legend Bun B, who, with recently paroled rapper Pimp C, formed the hugely influential duo UGK, versus Byron Crawford, bomb-tossing St. Louis blogger who recently was hired on to write his amusing and outrageously opinionated columns at XXL’s Web site, which was where this beef…
Black Like Who?
I thought David Levinthal was black. The invitation for his show at the Menil Collection, “Insistent Objects: David Levinthal’s ‘Blackface,'” featured a photograph of a blackface figurine. In the art world, a host of contemporary African-American artists have been appropriating racist imagery for their own devices. I assumed Levinthal was…
What on Earth?
Despite the fact that April 22 has been designated as the official Earth Day since 1970, the UN says it is March 21, while some activists argue it should be June 21. Can’t we all just get along? The Children’s Museum’s weekend-long celebration of the enviro-friendly holiday reminds us that…
En la Calle
A day after 500,000 protesters flooded the streets of Dallas, Houston stepped up to do its part in the fight against proposed immigration legislation. The numbers weren’t the same — hey, it was a Monday — but the event turned into a joyous, festive celebration of Hispanic culture and the…
Capsule Reviews
“Mariah Anne Johnson: How to Fold a Fitted Sheet” “How to Fold a Fitted Sheet” sounds like the topic of a circa-1953 home-ec lecture, but it’s actually the title of Mariah Anne Johnson’s exhibition at Lawndale Art Center. Johnson takes the former contents of countless linen closets and uses them…
Graphic Entertainment
German artist Josef Felix Müller destroyed his own property but made serious art when he used his studio floor to make a series of woodcuts. Making prints from the woodcuts was something of a challenge for the artist — traditional printing methods were out of the question. So he asked…
Letters to the Editor
Horse Sense Disgusted: The first thing I’m going to admit to is the fact that I was too angry to read the entire article [“Horse Flesh,” by Josh Harkinson, April 13]. There were far too many unanswered questions, for me, in the first two pages. First, if Finch feels that…
Mob Hit Misses
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Platform: PS2, Xbox, Xbox 360
Price: $39.99
ESRB Rating: M (for Mature)
Score: 7 (out of 10)
Talk About the Weather
For Gulf Coast residents, the weather isn’t just the subject of idle conversation, it’s what we do. (Ask Katrina and Rita.) It’s no surprise, then, that the John C. Freeman Weather Museum, the country’s first, opens in Houston today. Interactive experiments and exhibits such as “Touch a Tornado” let you…
Image of the Week
Those who wear the ancient Tic-Tac-Toe Robe must always hide their faces from mere commoners, if our admittedly slim understanding of this slice of Japanese culture is correct. Behind the mask is sensei Chizuko Matsumoto, 74, performing at the Japan Festival in Hermann Park. Click here to enlarge…
When Stars Don’t Align
Americano (MTI) Before he is due to take a high-powered corporate job, college graduate Chris (Joshua Jackson) heads off with two friends (Timm Sharp and Ruthanna Hopper) to Europe, where they end up in Pamplona for the running of the bulls. There, he encounters one of those saucy Latinas (Blade…
Good Ward
Admittedly, Houston’s First Ward hasn’t always gotten the best press. But this weekend, you can get a whole new perspective on this historic neighborhood at the Inner Corridor Warehouse & Private Art Tour. Unbeknownst to many Houstonians, there’s a lot of important art being created in the Houston Avenue/Washington Avenue…
Merengue Mosh
“Coupling a Brooklyn-bred garage rock with a sassy southwestern styling might seem as unfitting a marriage as beer and tequila, but with their latest release, En Este Momento, the culturally-infused quartet Cordero showcase a sound that is anything but desperado.” — The University of Wisconsin Badger-Herald, February 23, 2006 As…
Our top DVD picks for the week of April 18.
A Bigger Splash (First Run) Breakfast on Pluto (Sony) Cross of Iron (Henstooth) Event Horizon: Collector’s Edition (Paramount) Games of Love and Chance (New Yorker) Herbie Hancock: Possibilities (Magnolia) Hostel (Sony) I Am Trying to Break Your Heart (Plexifilm) Kickboxer: Five-Disc Collector’s Set (Lions Gate) The Killing Time (Anchor Bay)…
A Bunch of A**Holes
Okay, we admit that when we heard that the Brazosport Li’l Players’ new play was called Asshole Parade, we wanted to know more. Writer-director Paul Locklear says the plot basically follows a marching band that comes to Brazosport. “Actually, the marching band is actually a rogue, free-jazz marching band,” says…
About a Beast
This sort of thing happens to me a lot, actually. I’m at the Meridian (1503 Chartres) tonight to check out the Iron Maidens, an all-female Iron Maiden cover band that’s earned more ink in the past four years than the real Iron Maiden. It’s the premise that got me in…
Irie iFest
Well, the Houston International Festival is again upon us, and this year the spotlight nation is Jamaica, so expect downtown to be infused with the smells of jerk chicken and, uh, other smoky stuff. As for the music, as was the case last year, there are two main music stages…
Schoolin’ You
Young dancers from as far away as Canada, Japan and Australia attend Houston Ballet’s Ben Stevenson School. So you’ll want to check out these hotshots at their spring performance, which will feature artistic director Stanton Welch’s contemporary piece Fingerprints, as well as more classical selections from Les Sylphides and The…
Eliot Lipp
I guess you have to be on a wide-open dance floor, wearing pants 15 sizes too big, zonked out on Red Bull and youthful abandon, making out with your girlfriend and boyfriend in order to appreciate the music Eliot Lipp drops. As I sit here, writing this piece at my…
The Cajun Cocktail Queens
The bar at Floyd’s new Cajun joint on the Gulf Freeway is shaped like a boat. When I stopped in for lunch the other day, two smiling blonds were seated at the prow. I’d estimate they were wearing a half-pound of gold jewelry between them. On top of their heads,…
Move Over, Sundance
In its promotional materials, WorldFest Houston claims to be “the oldest independent film festival in the world and the third oldest film festival in North America.” So why doesn’t WorldFest enjoy the high profile, glitz and glamour of Sundance, Toronto or Tribeca? Houston’s fest gloats about being the one that…
Jones Family Singers
There are few less electrifying scenes than the morning of a big music festival, when no-name acts amplify the air with meandering notes so those first through the gate don’t realize that they’re way too early. It was in this unpromising setting last year — 11 o’clock on a Saturday…
Money for Nothing
“Save Clay’s Car!” The Web site’s plea is simple, direct. Desperate to restore his classic 1977 Porsche, 17-year-old Midland resident Clay Chastain has turned to cyberbegging. He states on his Web site, www.vectortea.com/oweb/scc, “I see donation scams all over the Internet. And I bet that you do too. People are…
Easy Like Sunday Afternoon
Never mind Barbara Bush — we’re totally down with our New Orleans transplants, especially the musical folk. Today, the Orange Show pays homage those purveyors of zydeco and blues from I-10 east with the Eyeopener Tour: Hurricane Survivors Blues, Jazz and Zydeco Tour. Jump on the bus and you’ll catch…
Celebration, with TV on the Radio
Baltimore’s Celebration is the project of lead singer Katrina Ford, her multi-instrumentalist husband, Sean Antanaitis, and percussionist David Bergander, all of whom came from the ashes of their previous band, Love Life. If there’s any way to describe their sound, it could be called an evenhanded cross between the crazed…
Hoob Job
Anyone who’s had his ear tuned to mainstream rock radio for any part of this decade has been subject to “Crawling in the Dark,” “Running Away” and “The Reason.” Pop-rock fans know these as the three biggest hits by the Los Angeles quartet Hoobastank, whose name has no meaning (it…
Real Mind Trip
A Trip Through the Mind of a Crazy Mexican is the story of El Crazy Mex, the founder of the Royal Mexican Players and the consummate “brown man.” In an interview with a reporter, El Crazy Mex remembers stories from his childhood, which he performs with his troupe. These four…
Fall of Troy
Holy shit, this trio thinks it’s a good idea to imitate Steve Vai guitarisms while alternating death metal guttural grunting with Darkness-esque glam crooning in an extreme rendition of the always-questionable screamo MO. All the songs on their Doppelganger disc seem to be about Michael Jackson in the process of…
Reep the Rewards
Comedian-actor Jon Reep has that pop-culture staple, the one-liner, to thank for his career. You’ve seen him on those Dodge commercials as the hick who always asks, “That thing got a Hemi?” and then responds “Sweet!” The Dodge gig has gotten him other commercials and even sitcom work on the…
Love, Actually
After fellow Houstonian Jim McIngvale, Jim Love is arguably our city’s most important Jim (apologies to Astros great Jim Deshaies and former secretary of state James Baker). Unlike Mattress Mac, Love set about beautifying Houston not with recliners, bedroom suites and tennis clubs, but with his quirky sculptures. If you’ve…
The Missiles
They toured with the Beat Farmers. They opened for Jason and the Scorchers. Low Scale Mattress Fire was one of the great Houston album titles of all time. That alone makes a Missiles reunion something to write home about. But it goes deeper than that. Like Herschel Berry, Tab Jones,…
Eva Not Included
The prevalence of hip-hip on the local music scene has had house DJs such as Matthew Dunn and his buddies a little worried. “We were sitting around talking about how everything’s hip-hip now,” says Dunn, “and we were like, ‘Man, we’re desperate house DJs.’ ” Ding! The name stuck, and…
Two-Handed Job
The melted mozzarella alone just can’t hold together the thin slices of spicy meat and caramelized onion in the roast pork loin sandwich ($8.95) at Ruggles Cafe Bakery (2365 Rice Boulevard, 713-520-6662). No matter how you eat it, this is a sloppy meal; once you’ve grasped the sandwich with both…