This Week’s Day-by-Day Picks
Thursday, April 21 In case you haven’t noticed the excessive turbans or lack of parking downtown, the Houston International Festival is under way this weekend. To honor the annual event (or maybe to steal some of its thunder), the University of St. Thomas is throwing its own International Festival. Stop…
The Black Crowes
The signs were all there that a reconciliation between the feuding hermanos Robinson would lead to a 2005 reunion of the Black Crowes, who broke up after a contentious 2001 Halloween gig. Chris’s New Earth Mud band canceled a tour for their just-released second record, and Rich’s Hookah Brown ceased…
The Indie 50
Most years, WorldFest showcases independent film while showboating a Hollywood flick or two. But this year, you won’t find one studio movie among the 50 entries chosen. “For the first time in 38 years, we’re opening with a local production,” says longtime festival director Hunter Todd of the low-budget film…
Nedelle, with Fred Thomas
Remember when Kill Rock Stars was the label of rage? The riot grrrl movement found a fitting home there in the Pacific Northwest, and bands like Bikini Kill helped KRS become one of the best labels in the American underground. Over time, the label grew in both size and scope,…
Curry Favor
SAT 4/23 Pretty soon, nearly every customer-service rep you deal with on the phone will be talking to you from India, so you might as well get to know the country. You can get your start at the annual Houston International Festival, which returns to downtown after being held at…
Link Wray
Credited with inventing the power chord on his 1958 hit “Rumble,” Link Wray stands alongside Dick Dale as one of only a few truly legendary guitar figures of early rock and roll still hitting the boards today. While Dale became associated with what was then thought of as the “clean-cut”…
Singh It, Baby
THU 4/21 We wish we could tell you that golf is hip. Unfortunately, the action can be boring, and for the most part, the players aren’t too cool. (Take Vijay Singh, who just had to list his favorite hobby as the game snooker.) But all hope is not lost for…
From Ashes Rise, with Coliseum and Observers
From Ashes Rise proves that a band’s geographical origin and record label don’t define its sound. The Nashville-founded quintet signed to Jade Tree, but there’s neither twang nor twee in its thrash. On its earlier releases, From Ashes Rise saved space for epic plodders that made its crusty hardcore seem…
Playa Players
FRI 4/22 The island of Ibiza, off the coast of Spain, is a party/dance mecca where the world’s top DJs spin their hearts out for hundreds of thousands of exotic, erotic and, uh, rich fans. At this weekend’s Paraiso Ibiza event, DJ Mike C, DJ Nando Sanchez and Fadi Saliba…
Scoundrel Time
Directed by . With Kenneth Lay, Jeffrey Skilling and Andrew Fastow. Not rated.
Sister Act
Powerhouse playwright Paula Vogel won the Pulitzer Prize in 1998 for How I Learned to Drive, a dark and dreamy drama about a pedophile and his niece. Then, in 1999, she premiered The Mineola Twins, a deliciously strange satire about the ever-changing place of women in America. The cheeky play,…
Do the Hustle
“No more soccer!” declares small-time thug Sing (writer-director-star Stephen Chow) as he vigorously stomps on a child’s ball. In the context of Kung Fu Hustle, it’s a pathetic attempt by Sing to make himself look tough. The larger signal, however, is to followers of Chow’s work — it’s a direct…
Krupuk, Sambal and Heineken
Leaning on the bar at Yanti’s Restaurant & Bar on Dairy Ashford, I watch my buddy Jay ladle the Indonesian hot sauce called sambal olek out of a glass jar and spread it onto an oversize shrimp chip. The small order of krupuk, as the airy seafood chips are known,…
Lost in Translation
Among the many mysteries surrounding The Interpreter is the one that finds Sydney Pollack heralded as a major American director, a maker of Serious and Important Movies. His filmography, marked by mawkish mediocrities (Out of Africa, as vibrant as a coffee-table book; The Way We Were, its romance as plausible…
The Litmus Band
Wilco stands alone in the current Rock Moment as the one band everybody (except perhaps metalheads and teen-pop minions) has to have an opinion on. Ever since Jeff Tweedy wrenched himself out from under the shadow of Uncle Tupelo more than ten years ago, folks have been sounding off about…
A Lot Like Good
Amanda Peet. Ashton Kutcher. Romantic comedy. Who’d have thought it could work? And yet A Lot Like Love is an entertainment success, a triple threat of fresh writing, inspired directing and, yes, good acting. Fortified with a healthy dose of intelligence, it manages to leap clear across an entire field…
…And Justice for All
For Ozzy Osbourne, getting sued is as much an everyday event as looking befuddled and struggling to operate Velcro. But recently, Ozzy was hit with some fairly unprecedented legal action — even for a guy known for urinating in public and biting the heads off stuff. Last month, an Illinois…
Lovable Losers
“Am I a mug?” asks Mugsy (Kevin Brown) in Dealer’s Choice, the card-sharp production now playing (no pun intended) at Theater LaB Houston. Yeah, mate, you are. But Mugsy’s not the only fool in Patrick Marber’s incisive play — he’s but one of six lovable losers who think they’re winners…
Lowering the Boom
On a recent afternoon in leafy Alief, Howard Lehrman is sitting in his modest brick house, surrounded by his four cats, their scratching posts and plastic frog toys, when, as he puts it, he is acoustically raped. Beats blast out of a trunk, rattle his windows and pound his chest…
The Sick Old Man of the Festival Circuit
Dear Houston International Festival Foundation Inc., It was with great anticipation that I clicked over to your Web site to check out this year’s music schedule. Over the years I have been to about ten iFests, and it’s safe to say that this has been the defining musical event in…
Capsule Reviews
…for those who live in cities After suffering a humiliating defeat in World War I, Germany suffered further defeat. Inflation tore apart whatever remained of the fragile social structure; the cream of Teutonic manhood lay dead in the trenches; riots erupted over scarce jobs; bread lines snaked through once-great cities…
Cellular Disruption
On a sunny Saturday at the park next to the Menil Collection, I unfurl a picnic blanket atop the rye grass. A bottle of wine and a stack of magazines are quiet pleasures. Or they would be, if the guy on the nearby park bench would stop shouting into his…
Morrissey
Moz is the current poster child for career resurrection, ’80s rock-star division — and if issuing Live less than a year after the release of 2004’s You Are the Quarry, his studio comeback, seems ill advised, the set’s quality more than justifies its existence. The album is both a satisfying…
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…
Renaissance Man
Laura LeBlanc has seen it all at the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement, where peace-officer careers go to die. She has dealt with hundreds of cases of bad cops, seeing their licenses suspended or permanently taken away for such misdeeds as official oppression, perjury and drug use. It was only…
Moby
Poor Moby. No matter how many commercials feature his music, how many awards adorn his mantel, or how many hip vegetarian restaurants he owns, it can’t be fun being second only to Ja Rule on Eminem’s shit list. The feud between the rap prince and the twerpcore king may or…
La Vie en Rose, Avec Juliette
Before touching down in Paris, I’d considered faking a British accent when introduced to the locals. After all, being a pig — an American from the heart of Bush country — probably wasn’t going to help me win friends or influence people. Surely some snide French waiter would beat me…
High-Caliber Kids
The Heckler & Koch MP5 submachine gun is the darling of the Navy SEALs and of special forces around the world. It fires up to 600 rounds a minute, attacking human flesh like it’s hurling a chain saw. Regular citizens can’t buy it because it’s too dangerous. Eight-year-old Judah Matthews…
Earl Gilliam
With criminally little fanfare, Austinite Eddie Stout has been cutting some of the finest blues records in America during the past five years, many of them starring Houston-based artists such as Little Joe Washington, Gloria Edwards and, now, Tomball keyboardist Earl Gilliam and southside guitarist I.J. Gosey. Though he was…
The News Is Out
There’s a new weekend breakfast menu at the original Berryhill Baja Grill (2639 Revere, 713-526-8080). The breakfast enchiladas ($8.50) start with two hand-rolled shredded-chicken enchiladas. They’re layered with two gently fried eggs and topped with the eatery’s signature “hogados” sauce, a super-spicy red sauce flavored with onions, bell peppers and…
Letters
Back in the Mood VNS victory: I enjoyed your well-informed article on VNS therapy [“Exposed Nerve,” by Craig Malisow, April 7]. I was implanted with the lead and generator two years ago as part of a clinical trial for treatment-resistant depression in patients with rapid-cycling bipolar disorder. It was a…
This Week’s Houston International Festival Highlights
Beyond the ill-fated Flamingo Gardens Houston Showcase stage (see Racket, page 63), there is still a fair bit of quality music to see and hear at iFest. Here’s a rundown of the highlights of week one. Saturday’s lineup on the Budweiser Music Stage commences with a Royal Indian Parade and…
Popular Painting
“J’aime Chéri Samba,” on view at the University Museum at Texas Southern University, presents 29 paintings by Congolese artist Chéri Samba, who has a larger-than-life personality and immense talent. Samba makes figurative and slightly surreal paintings that are gorgeous, pointed and witty. The works are drawn from Jean Pigozzi’s Contemporary…
And the Winners Are
Two Houston Press writers received first-place honors in a two-state First Amendment Awards contest sponsored by the Fort Worth chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. Former staffer Sarah Fenske won for her feature “Black and White” in the category of Use of Public Records: General News. The category recognizes…
Stone Coyotes
Since their local debut three years ago at the Conroe Cajun Catfish Festival, the greater Houston area has been so taken with hard rockers Barbara Keith, husband Doug Tibbles and son John that the trio has purchased a condo in the area and now makes Houston their second home. With…
The Plague Sucks
Show opens 8 p.m. Friday, April 22. Runs through May 7. For tickets and a full schedule, call 713-526-7434 or visit www.bobbindoctrin.org. $7 to $12.
The Derek Trucks Band
If the ubiquitous Warren Haynes is the busiest man on the jam band scene, then Derek Trucks — his fellow Allman Brothers Band guitarist — runs a close second. In addition to Trucks’s frequent guest shots with Frogwings and Phil Lesh and Friends, Trucks fronts his own band. And it…
