Raising the Bar at the Bourbon Throwdown
Last night’s Bourbon Throwdown at Branchwater Tavern was the fifth throwdown — a casual, Iron Chef-style competition between local chefs — that the Houston Chowhounds have thrown since June 2009. But far from being a regurgitation of the first four, the bar was raised across the board, making last night’s…
The Gulf Coast At iFest: Joe Ely’s Rattlesnake Rock, Soulful Latinology, Voodoo Brass And Creole Zydeco
Over the next two weeks, Rocks Off will be previewing acts performing at this year’s Houston International Festival Saturday and Sunday and April 24-25 broken down by genre (loosely, anyway) and with a guest pick from a true insider: iFest Director of Performing Arts Rick Mitchell. We’re doubling up today…
The Shameless Chef: Emergency Chicken ‘n’ Dumplins
Today’s dish centers on a concept that might be difficult to understand if you’ve never experienced a certain sensation: once you’ve had good, Southern chicken ‘n’ dumplins, sometimes you will wake up needing them. “I require chicken ‘n’ dumplins,” your body tells you, “and if I don’t get them, you…
Least Necessary Advertisements Ever, By The State Comptroller’s Office
The state comptroller’s office found itself in an unaccustomed spotlight last week with its fiasco of a rebate program.Consumers could trade in their clunker appliances for energy-efficient replacements and sign up for rebates, was the plan. The reality was that the private firm handling the process was utterly overwhelmed, frustrating…
Recipe: Ramen Gone Wild
Just because ramen is the go-to food item for those on a tight budget, it doesn’t mean that we can’t indulge our inner chefs when feasting on some freeze-dried noodles. For someone who grew up on this stuff, a package of ramen noodles is like a canister of Play-Doh where…
Gimme Back My Bullet: An Eyewitness Account of Billy Joe Shaver’s Trial
Even by his own rather lofty standards (marrying the same woman three times, losing several fingers on his right hand… oh hell, just read this story here), Billy Joe Shaver’s recently concluded trial has to rank pretty far up there on the legendary Waco singer-songwriter list of exploits. As you…
Yet Another Piece Of The Genteel Past Dies — Get Ready For Metal Detectors At The State Capitol
Photo courtesy wikimedia commonsYou knew it was coming after that idiot fired some shots around the Capitol grounds in January — heavy-duty security is being installed.Gone are the days when you could stroll around the Capitol and casually walk in to see what your elected officials were or were not…
Yes, Pull Your Weed-Filled Car Over In Front Of A Cop To Look For Your Lighter
Tiffany Owens, 19, had a problem — she’d lost her lighter somewhere in the car she was driving.No worries, though; just pull over and look for it, right?Well, not if you intend to do it right in front of a cop car.Fort Bend Now reports on what happened: A cop…
Odd Pair: Taco Bell Crunchy Tacos
In Houston, we love our Mexican food. Whether it’s Ninfa’s on Navigation or Lupe Tortilla, we can’t get enough of the stuff. The promise of a margarita and queso-drenched chips makes any Houstonian drool. But what do you do when you’re craving Mexican food after all the restaurants are closed?…
New On DVD: This Is A Radio Clash, From Pirate Satellite
Out on DVD today is Pirate Radio, staring Philip Seymour Hoffman and Bill Nighy. So, walk right by Woody Harrelson’s Defendor, Lauren Holly’s The Final Storm and unless you’re just a die-hard fan, Robert Englund’s Nightmare on Elm Street collection. If you’ve got kids (or fond childhood memories), you might…
Magnolia City Mixtape: All The Scoop In One Fell Swoop… ACL Starts Us Off
Austin City Limits will be October 8-10 this year, and MCM expects the line-up to be released in the next month or so. You can sign up for the e-list to get first notice of who’s playing. If your profile is updated by today you’ll also get a special secret…
Robb Walsh’s 100 Favorite Houston Dishes: #64 Cumin Lamb at Chinese Halal Cuisine on Bellaire
Over the course of the next few months, I’m counting down 100 of my favorite Houston dishes. I chose some because they are such quintessential Houston creations, others for their cultural or historical significance, and others because they are just so damn tasty. Share your own nominations in the comments…
Free Forever, A Band Much More Than Just “All Right Now”
Long before Paul Rodgers started singing with a couple of Queens and he and drummer Simon Kirke enlisted in the hitmaking machine Bad Company, the pair joined guitarist Paul Kossoff and bassist Andy Fraser in Free. And though unfortunately most-remembered today for just the warhorse “All Right Now,” the short-lived…
Game Time: Best-Case NFL Draft Scenario For HBO’s Hard Knocks Fans
In the end, I guess someone had to go. If you’re the front office of a proud franchise like the Steelers, you can only have so many impromptu press conferences, district attorney explanations, and women screaming foul before a message needs to get sent. You’re not going to move the…
Brew Blog: Samael’s Oak-Aged Ale and Smoked Cheddar
We picked up an Avery Brewing Co. offering a few weeks back and thought we’d pull a clever little pairing with the Boulder-based brewer’s Samael’s Oak-Aged Ale. Given that the beer was brewed with oak chips, we searched for an oakwood-smoked cheddar from another Central Market shelf for investigation. The…
The Chronicle Gets Its Feelings Hurt By Treme; Possibly Offers A Solution
In case you hadn’t heard — and there’s no way you haven’t heard, since seemingly everyone who writes for a living in America worships David Simon’s TV shows — Treme premiered Sunday.It’s a story about New Orleans in the aftermath of Katrina. It contained two passing references to Houston: One,…
World Music At iFest, From Galveston To Colombia, West Africa And Oklahoma(?!)
Over the next two weeks, Rocks Off will be previewing acts performing at this year’s Houston International Festival Saturday and Sunday and April 24-25 broken down by genre (loosely, anyway) and with a guest pick from a true insider: iFest Director of Performing Arts Rick Mitchell. We begin with that…
Tourist Dining Mistakes
1. Pappasitos While there’s nothing wrong with the food and the generous portions at this landmark Tex-Mex joint, there are so many other, better Tex-Mex places that you can’t find in any other city. El Tiempo, for one, and probably a lot more that you should suggest in the comments…
Alley Theatre Proves There’s More to Harvey Than Meets the Eye
Hair Balls has always been partial to people who don’t quite fit into the world in traditional ways.So we jumped at the chance to talk with actor James Black, who is tackling the classic role of the well-intentioned and idiosyncratic Elwood P. Dowd in the upcoming production of Harvey at…
Aftermath: Julian Casablancas, Once A Stroke, Always A Stroke At House Of Blues
It was literally just a decade ago that the Strokes were basking in an adoration by rock critics that they had only previous lavished on the Smiths, or maybe even the Beatles to a bigger extent. The New York band was a breathe of fresh and scuzzy air after what…
Young & Recessioned: Haley Knight — Forwarding Phone Calls Kinda Sounds Like “Communications,” Right?
The Big Recession may have hit the rest of America harder than it has Houston, but that doesn’t mean we’re not feeling the effects. Especially the youngest people in the job market — whether it’s twentysomethings trying to start their dreamed-of career or teens looking to begin making money on…
Impossible to Clean Kitchen Tools
We’ve all experienced the giddy anticipation of getting a new, handy dandy kitchen gadget that promises to make our culinary endeavors effortlessly easier. Oftentimes this initial excitement is derailed by the amount of manual labor it takes to clean the darn thing. Soaping, scrubbing, scraping; it requires more energy than…
Has New York Rap Fallen Off? “Universal Lover” Raye 6 Tolerates A Few Questions
The hip-hop world is a less than sensible place – lots of times, you’re even required to clarify when bad means bad and when bad means good – so once a week we’re going to get with a rapper and ask them to explain things. Have something you always wanted…
Pop Rocks: Ten Musicians I Want to Have Sex With Less Than Lady Gaga
I understand Lady Gaga’s declaration of celibacy last month was something of a big deal, if only because most of us have a hard time believing everyone in the music business isn’t vigorously fellating each other on those off days when they’re not sacrificing puppies to Clear Channel or auto-tuning…
Distant Early Warning: Athlete, The Bangles, Cypress Hill, Imogen Heap, MGMT, O’Jays, Rush, Talib Kweli, Etc.
Athlete, Carney: Sat., June 26. Walter’s on Washington. All Leather, Balaclavas, Yip-Yip: Sat., May 15. The Mink. The Bangles, Tonic: Sat., May 29. Moody Gardens Outdoor Amphitheater. Tyagaraja, Black Queen Speaks, Peekaboo Theory, Robert Ellis & The Boys, The Tontons, VerseCity, Wayside Drive.: Sat., May 1, 6 p.m., Free. Warehouse…
Where Are We Drinking?
Sure, you may recognize the slow-drip absinthe fountain, but do you recognize the establishment that’s offering up a taste of the Green Fairy? Leave your best guess in the comments section below…
Another Weekend, Another Team Sweeps The Coogs
It was not a good weekend, again, for Houston Cougars baseball. Just as they were swept by the Rice Owls over Easter weekend, this past weekend the Cougars were swept by the TCU Horned Frogs, one of the top-ranked teams in the country. And unlike the Rice games, where the…
For The 40th Anniversary Of Apollo 13: The Dorkiest Complaints About The Movie’s Accuracy
Forty years ago today, the second-most famous space words ever were uttered: “Houston, we have a problem.”THAT’S NOT WHAT HE ACTUALLY SAID, some people are likely screaming at this point. Yes, it was actually “Houston, we’ve had a problem.” Deal with it.When it comes to Apollo 13, though, many can’t…
In Honor Of Billy Joe Shaver’s Epic Courtroom Performance: Five Great Trial Scenes From The Movies
If he was only a honky-tonk legend before last week, today Billy Joe Shaver is a true Texas immortal. His testimony at his own aggravated assault trial in Waco saw to that.Three years ago, Shaver shot a fellow drinker in the face in the parking lot of a Waco bar…
Wine Revolution at Brenner’s on the Bayou
What do you get when you cross a garden party with a war zone? The Wine Revolution at Brenner’s on the Bayou this past Saturday afternoon. Although the concept was inspired — taste six French wines and their six American counterparts to discern the differences between them, then vote on…
Vanished Honky-Tonk Heavyweight Damon Bramblett Reappears Tuesday
Jesse Dayton recently wrote to us that he’s cutting two of Damon Bramblett’s songs on his next album. Dayton compared Bramblett to Mike Stinson as one of the cream of Texas’ current songwriter crop. In the early 2000s, Austinite Bramblett was a hot item on the exploding Texas music scene…
Bento Boxes: Welcome to the Lunchbox of Tomorrow
Recently we decided we were going to start taking our lunch to work at least a few times a week. Taking your lunch not only helps us watch our calories, but saves a ton of money. We’ve longed to get a bento box for some time now, as our plastic…
The Texas Secessionist Movement Finds A Home
Photos courtesy Texas Nationalist MovementFuture generations will revere the spot. Yellow school buses — spewing diesel, none of that bio-fuel shit– will regularly stop there, giving the kids a slight break from their social-study classes on how Martin Luther King was a communist. For it is here, in Nederland southeast…
Trae’s MTV2 “Jam Of The Week,” Devin the Dude’s 4/20 Tips, New Scarface Track List, Lil’ Wayne As Prison Guard?, Etc.
Welcome back to Turning the Screw, Rocks Off’s weekly rap post. It probably won’t rhyme, at least most of the time. E-mail tips to introducingliston@gmail.com. Thanks, homies. Single of the Week: “Inkredible,” Trae feat. Weezy and Ricky Ross Congrats go out to Trae and the rest of the ABN camp…
Mudbug Mania at the Texas Crawfish and Music Festival
Coming from the Midwest, where “crawdads” were something you marveled at in creekbeds during grade-school field trips, a visit to the Texas Crawfish & Music Festival in Old Town Spring last weekend was a revelation. The festival, now in its 24th year, will run each of the next two weekends:…
Moliere’s Classic Tartuffe, Set In River Oaks
The Classical Theater Company is currently presenting Tartuffe, a comedy written almost 400 years ago by Moliere. The title character, Tartuffe, is a con man hiding behind a mask as a religious zealot who is out talk a man out of his money and daughter, while the man’s family scrambles…
Aftermath: Los Lonely Boys, Gracious, Playful… And Only Half Acoustic
Los Lonely Boys sat on the House of Blues stage Sunday night for the first half of their two-hour set. With a bare-bones light show, two chairs and a drum set, it was all about the music and harmony only the Garza boys deliver so well. The steady stream of…
World’s Hottest Weapon, or Delicious Spice?
On a recent trip to London, we stumbled upon naga jolokia powder at one of Borough Market’s spice tents. We first talked about naga jolokia, or the ghost pepper, a few weeks ago when a story came out about the Indian military using it in a type of tear-gas hand…
The Chronicle Bids Adieu To The Free Weekly TV Section
Houston, you only have a few weeks left to enjoy your free weekly TV section in the Sunday paper. This announcement applies only to the few dozen people who still do so, most of them looking for Matlock reruns.The Houston Chronicle announced this weekend it is joining the hosts of…
Smoke Drugs Or Snuggle? Roger Waters And Lilith Fair Coming To Town Soon
This morning two big Houston concert announcements came down the wire, sure to delight the senses. One will no doubt get you brownie points from your girlfriend if you go, and the other will probably score you some really wicked brownies from a dude that knows a friend of yours…
Aftermath: Camera Obscura Charms A Surprisingly Well-Mannered Audience
Aftermath is always interested in how the residents of Houston represent our fair city when a touring act with any sort of notoriety comes through town. Houstonians don’t always have the best reputation as concert-goers, whether it’s because we talk too much during any given band’s set or stand around…
Texas Rebate Process Did Indeed Suck, State Comptroller Agrees
Last week on April 7 thousands of Texans tried to sign up for appliance rebates only to be greeted with busy signals, dropped calls and an online system that went belly up early and often. Just released today is Texas Comptroller Susan Coombs acknowledgement that the program did not work…
Robb Walsh’s 100 Favorite Houston Dishes: #65 Banh Cuon at Tay Ho 18 in Hong Kong City Mall
Over the course of the next few months, I’m counting down 100 of my favorite Houston dishes. I chose some because they are such quintessential Houston creations, others for their cultural or historical significance, and others because they are just so damn tasty. Share your own nominations in the comments…
Aftermath: Old 97’s Match Their Grayer, Mellower House Of Blues Audience
Some British band – it may have been the Thompson Twins – once sang about what a drag it is getting old. Aftermath is getting on in years, but still young at heart, which is what compelled us to go check out a similarly more seasoned Old 97s at the…
The Rockets’ Shane Battier: A Man Who Should Never, Ever Sing In Public
Among the tortures the U.S. has inflicted on Gitmo detainees and Panamanian dictators, an old favorite is blasting music. But usually it’s something like AC/DC.You want to torture someone? Make them listen to Shane Battier sing. Battier took the mike at a charity auction and — for some reason –…
Aftermath: At The End Of The World As We Know It, Shooter Jennings Feels Fine
“I’ve seen the future, brother,” Leonard Cohen once sang. “It is murder.” Maybe that’s why there weren’t more people at Meridian Wired Live Friday night. Pondering the shape of things to come is bad enough without coughing up a Jackson to have your weekend entertainment hammer that point home, over…
Silence Of The Hams
Sad to report that I’m not clever enough to have come up with that little pun on my own (or even, “It puts the BBQ sauce on its skin, or else it gets the hose again!” – a friend came up with that gem shortly afterwards). No, the credit for…
A Hard Third Ward Life Ends Up At West Point
Photo courtesy HISDIf anyone could have lost themselves in hard life of the Third Ward, it’s Ferunell Smith.His father died, his mother is fighting throat cancer; within the past three years, he and the family have moved five times.None of it brought Smith down, however. The Yates High senior has…
Game Time: Watch Me Compare Astros GM Ed Wade To Jennifer Love Hewitt
The mood in the Astros clubhouse yesterday after the 2-1 loss to the Phillies was about what you’d expect. Michael Bourn tried to stay upbeat, citing that the team is fighting hard and they know they have good players. (Fortunately, unlike many around Minute Maid Park, Bourn sounded like he…
Dan Patrick: Radio Host, State Senator, Founding Father
Dan Patrick, the former wacky sportscaster, sports-bar owner, current talk-radio czar and state senator, is adding another title to his portfolio: Founder of a movement.Today Patrick is announcing the creation of the Independent Conservative Republicans of Texas, a group that will, we guess, not put up with all those RINO…
Aftermath: Mango’s Shakes To Warpaint, Grandfather Child, Buxton And Balaclavas
There couldn’t have been a more a disparate yet completely unifying bill at Mangos on Friday. Grandfather Child headlined, showcasing their new seven-inch release, with Los Angeles’ Warpaint and Houston’s Balaclavas and Buxton bringing up the rear. The bill pretty much brought almost every inner clique and scene together -…
Random Ingredient of the Week: Furikake
What is it? Pronounced, “fuh-ree-kaw-kee,” it’s a Japanese condiment usually containing dried seaweed, sesame seeds, bonito flakes, sugar, salt, and other various seasonings. This particular batch is heavy on the fish flakes and also contains dried egg yolks, dehydrated soy sauce, and dehydrated rice wine. What is it used for?…
Dyanamo Make Mental And Physical Mistakes To Give The Game To LA
A series of mistakes throughout the first half of Saturday’s game cost the Houston Dynamo dearly. The Los Angeles Galaxy were the beneficiaries, gladly taking a 2-0 win out of Robertson Stadium.In the 27th minute, what seemed like a routine clearance for defenders Mike Chabala and Bobby Boswell was foiled…
The Treme Files: Do You Know What It Means To Recover, New Orleans?
The anticipation for HBO’s Treme is high among that certain sliver of TV viewers who worship at the altar of David Simon and consider his epic, five-season The Wire to be the best series ever made. (Consider me one of the faithful.) Yes, he also oversaw Generation Kill, but that…
Sunday Mornings at Indika
After a friend’s passionate recommendation, we recently visited Indika (516 Westheimer) to sample its Sunday-morning bottomless brunch offerings. Though we absolutely adore dinner at Indika and often have naughty dreams about the candied cashew-topped rice pudding, we held a healthy amount of skepticism toward the idea of Indian food for…
Treme: Do You Know What It Means?
The anticipation for HBO’s Treme is high among that certain sliver of TV viewers who worship at the altar of David Simon and consider his epic, five-season The Wire to be the best series ever made. (Consider me one of the faithful.) Yes, he also oversaw Generation Kill, but that…
Aftermath: Yeasayer’s Tribal Future Shock And Benevolent Manipulation At HOB
Photos by Groovehouse Your brain balls bounce to the bang-bang as you skip through the flash fantastic and your goo-goo ears drip dreamlike while they try to find your face and your tongue stays tied in a twist fist spooning sinews just attacked by a snare snake made of sound…
The Week In TV: So Long, Julia Sugarbaker
Even with my dependable shows in reruns, it feels good to be back in the stern embrace of David Simon. This was the week in TV Land: • Thank God for Hulu, you know? The video site is the only reason I actually keep up with Saturday Night Live most…
Where Are We Peeing (And Buying Possibly Stolen Merchandise)?
Craig Hlavaty Haggard Gentleman: “You ever saw that movie Righteous Kill with Robert De Niro?” Where Are We Peeing: “Yeah, I guess so. Why?” HG: “You wanna buy it?” WAWP: “Nah, I’m cool. Thanks though.” HG: “You wanna get fucked up? I have Vicodin and some sherm. You wanna smoke?…
Where Are We Eating?
More importantly, what are we eating? If the dish below looks familiar to you, then you’ll most likely know the restaurant instantly. Think you know where we’re eating this week? Leave your best guess in the comment section below…
Astros Still Searching For That Elusive First Win, Believe It Or Not
It’s easy to be angry at the Houston Astros now. But for a few notable exceptions, like Carlos Lee, the Astros are performing as expected.They were swept by the Philadelphia Phillies this weekend, just as they were swept by the San Francisco Giants to open the season. They were destroyed…
Blind Woman Comes To Houston, Gets Robbed….Niiice, Lowlife Thief
Here at Hair Balls, we understand that living the life of a low-level street thief can be tough. The paycheck that comes from smashing out car windows and ripping out stereos probably doesn’t go too far, especially when you’ve got a nasty crack habit to support. But it has to…
The Spread: Michael’s International
As a service to our readers, Hair Balls has re-launched “The Spread,” a weekly review of restaurants that have somehow fallen off the radar of our more esteemed food critics. We hope you enjoy. Michael’s International6440 Southwest FreewayFree buffet hours: Mon-Fri, 11 a.m. -2 p.m. and 4 p.m.-8 p.m. If…
This Week in Deliciousness
Welcome back to the weekly roundup here at Eating Our Words, where we’ve borrowed six or seven fondue pots but have yet to return a single one. We started off the week with an adventure into the world of networking young professionals, which is exactly as nightmarish as you’d imagine,…
Designer David Meister Brings A Recipe For Success To Houston
Clothing designer David Meister helped amp up Houston’s fashion scene during a spring collection showcase at Neiman Marcus this week.Meister designs cocktail and evening dresses for women, while aiming for a timeless, simple look, he says. “I like simple shapes, lots of color and metallics. I always address trends and…
Five Great Cajun Songs By Non-Cajuns
As far as He Said knows, he has zero Cajun blood in his veins. His family is pretty much straight-up Anglo/Scotch-Irish, settling in the Piney Woods of Newton County via Alabama in the early 1800s. However, although the Sabine-straddling area around Newton, Burkeville and Wiergate is about an hour inland…
WorldFest Discovered Steven Spielberg…And Oliver Stone…And Ang Lee…And…
The 43rd Annual WorldFest — Houston International Film & Video Festival (damn, that’s a long name) can claim to have been the launching pad for several major directors; Steven Spielberg, George Lucas (in the same year), Ang Lee, Ridley Scott, Robert Rodriguez, the Coen Brothers, Brian de Palma, Spike Lee,…
Openings and Closings
Although it’s been a while since our last roundup of restaurant openings and closings around here, that doesn’t mean that Houston’s culinary community hasn’t been busy in the meantime. We have a feast of new places for you to look for in the coming weeks and months, some of which…
Kyle Beltran Drops Shakespeare For Rap In The Infectious In The Heights
Kyle Beltran, who plays the lead role of Usnavi in the Broadway Across America version of the Tony Award and Grammy Award winning In the Heights, now showing at the Hobby Center, credits the musical for bringing “hip hop into mainstream musical theater.” In fact, he compares the complexities of…
Upcoming Events
It’s not too late to get in on our huge food and wine extravaganza this Tuesday; tickets for Menu of Menus are still available, but going fast. If you purchase them in advance, the tickets are only $35, but go up to $45 at the door. And you can still…
Fails Of The Week: Insane Clown Posse Hates Science, No Dylan In China, Rihanna & Ke$ha’s Auto-Tour
If you’re reading this, you’re either on the Internet, or else you’ve mastered multi-dimensional thought-projection processes that would make Michio Kaku cry like a little girl. We’ll assume the former, and just in case you don’t already know, the Internet has decided that the word “failure” is too long by…
It’s A Workout Deciphering TEA’s Latest Instructions On Its “Fitnessgram”
Hair Balls believes intensely and fully in the physical fitness benefits of wind sprints, pumping iron and teamwork camaraderie. But even we took pause at an end-of-the-month missive sent out to school districts around the state from the Texas Education Agency, passed on to us by a Friend of Hair…
The Spread: Michael’s International
As a service to our readers, Hair Balls has re-launched “The Spread,” a weekly review of restaurants that have somehow fallen off the radar of our more esteemed food critics. We hope you enjoy. Michael’s International 6440 Southwest Freeway Free buffet hours: Mon-Fri, 11 a.m. -2 p.m. and 4 p.m.-8…
Holly Golightly Talks Country Living, Snake Handling, Old Gospel And Soul
Holly Golightly may have unplugged, but the former member of Billy Childish’s ’90s UK garage-rockers Thee Headcoatees hasn’t mellowed out. On 2008’s Dirt Don’t Hurt and the brand-new Medicine County, she and the Brokeoffs – aka Texas-born drumming companion Lawyer Dave – have been getting their fingernails dirty with their…
Simple Syrup Three Ways
Any self-respecting gourmand will likely share several interests: eating, cooking and drinking. When two or three of these can be creatively combined, the fun more than doubles. We’re sure you’ve noticed the trend in cocktails right now is moving toward more, more, more. More obscure ingredients, more creativity, more preparation…
Bad News For The Jim Carrey Movie Based On Houston Press Articles
Bad news for former Houston Press reporter Steve McVicker, whose articles for us were turned into a book which turned into a Jim Carrey/Ewan MacGregor movie: The Los Angeles Times is reporting that release of I Love You, Phillip Morris has been delayed indefinitely. Consolidated Pictures Group, the start-up that…
Top Ten Kitchen Essentials
A while back, Katharine Shilcutt wrote about her top 10 must-haves for her kitchen. Well, not everyone has the same kitchen needs, so here’s a little different perspective. We find that a lot of specifics, like mixing/prep bowls, can be overcome by having mismatched dishes, and we are even guilty…
Edgeplay… The Other Runaways Movie; Ex-Inbred Whiteboy In Dallas Film Fest
The Runaways biopic opens in Houston today, which you already know because you read Hollywood Shuffle religiously and are sick of hearing us talk about it. We swear this is the last of it. But before the new film was even a spark in some glimmery vampire-loving actress’ eye, ex-Runaways…
Carb Coma at Star Pizza
Passover ended Monday, thank goodness. We had one week of a semi-Atkins diet, because once the matzo ball soup ran out, we couldn’t stomach any more matzo. It was a week with no bread, tempura, noodles, pretzels, muffins or beer. Technically, we aren’t supposed to have sodas either, but we…
Game Time: My Five-Point Plan To Make Tiger Woods Popular Again
Ever since the sultry stories of Tiger Woods’ “other life” started to leak out after Thanksgiving, the attempts to rebuild Tiger’s image have gone from predictable…. …to even more predictable…. …to downright creepy…. (Can I coin the phrase “Nike-rophilia” for the act of using a dead person to convey a…
Arson Destroyed Gay-Friendly Church, HFD Rules
The fire that gutted the gay-friendly Servant-Savior Presbyterian Church was intentionally set, Houston Fire Department spokesman Patrick Trahan tells Hair Balls.Investigators have classified it as “incendiary,” meaning it was not accidental.The intense blaze was spotted a little after 11 p.m. last night. The church, a small wooden building near Beltway…
Anything Box Is Back From “Oblivion”
Anything Box has been one of the definitive synth-pop bands since Claude Strilio and his cohorts unleashed “Living in Oblivion” on the radio waves in 1990. Since then, the band has done what all great bands do, they’ve stretched, changed, experimented, given up, given up on giving up, and now…
David Adickes’ Random Big Head Lady Gone From Main Street
Sculptor David Adickes is having a rough April. The spry, 83-year-old monumentalist hewer of concrete — famous for his president heads, gargantuan mustachioed telephones, giant Beatles, and enormous Texas heroes — first saw the six presidential busts he had places in a busted Pearland real estate development returned home to…
What Not to Order at Niko Niko’s: Athenian Mushroom Burger
Niko Niko’s is a god among Greek restaurants, the Zeus of all feta cheese delicacies in Houston. But even Greek gods falter at times. This mistake is more than likely a diner’s error, because ordering something that doesn’t contain oregano or lemon juice at a place known for its traditional…
Lilith Fair Returns To Houston; The Last Time Around Didn’t Go Too Smoothly
Hair Balls is clutching our pearls in anticipation of the official announcement from Lilith Fair headquarters on a date, venue and lineup for the festival’s Houston show. (They’ve already announced they’re coming here, just not when.) From 1997 to 1999 the festival’s first incarnation made waves as a way for…
Lady Gaga Sells Out In 6 Minutes; July 26 Show Added; Don’t Forget Jack Johnson
Just in time to rob you of your hard-earned tax refunds, the summer concert season is finally here. Yes, you will be forgoing oil changes, dye jobs and tuition payments for the next few months to afford everything coming through Houston. Thank God for that too, because we were starting…
Robb Walsh’s 100 Favorite Houston Dishes: #66 Boudin Kolaches at Shipley’s on North Main
Over the course of the next few months, I’m counting down 100 of my favorite Houston dishes. I chose some because they are such quintessential Houston creations, others for their cultural or historical significance, and others because they are just so damn tasty. Share your own nominations in the comments…
Unidentified Man, Bayou Body Count No. 81
Police are investigating a possible drive-by shooting just south of the La Porte Freeway on Thursday night.Officers got a call just before 9 p.m. about a shooting along the 10100 block of Lucore Street. When they arrived, a young man, 25 to 30 years old, was dead. He had been…
Parisian EVIL MOISTURE Mastermind Teaches Us Some Russian Prison Slang
Radar Eyes: State your name and purpose… AB: Andy Bolus… EVIL MOISTURE. I am an artist, musician, and builder of machines among other things. RE: Where are you currently located? AB: Paris France since about 11 years, but on and off in Japan. RE: Where before that? AB: UK before…
A Street Tale: The $15,000 Condom
Around noon on February 11, an unidentified Beaumont man — a horny one, by the sound of this report — was patrolling the city’s southside streets in his SUV, looking for action.He found it in the form of 26-year-old Renee Denise Stoker, who likely didn’t advertise the fact that she…
Drayton Keeps On Raking In The Dough, Even As The Team Goes Nowhere
Here’s a little something to remember the next time you venture out to Minute Maid Park. The Houston Astros are the 11th most valuable franchise in major league baseball. In fact, the team’s franchise value increased over its value from last season, despite dropping attendance and awful play.So keep that…
Health Dept. Roundup: 77077 to 77099
This week on Health Department Roundup, we finally complete our systematic tour of Houston’s zip codes. This last leg was pretty smooth sailing, as we made it all the way from 77077 to 77099 with very few offenders. We also checked in on the non-sequential zip codes that make up…
Louisiana Songs That Don’t Suck (Heads)
Several years ago, as She Said was saving up the funds to get the heck out of Oklahoma, she took a second job waiting tables at a Cajun restaurant in Oklahoma City. Now, there aren’t a lot of Cajuns in that sprawling metropolis, and ever since that experience she’s been…
Long, Loud And Raw Houston School Board Meeting Leaves Few Happy
In a lengthy and tumultuous school board meeting Thursday night, trustees voted 8-1 to fire Principal Mable Caleb and five other administrators and teachers from the Key/Kashmere mess, approved another 170 employee positions be cut at a savings of $4.8 million despite speakers and protestors, and voted to go ahead with…
Take The “Which Houston Rapper Are You?” Quiz
Welcome back to Five Spot. Every Friday, we’ll examine a recent bit of music news and, albeit sometimes awkwardly, tie it to a bit of Houston rap. It’s five videos and occasional cussing. Send tips to sheaserrano@gmail.com. A few weeks back, someone sent along a link to a Facebook application…
You Think Today’s NASA Mission Posters Are Lame?
A while back, there was some general web guffawing over what was perceived as NASA’s lame mission posters, which have trended towards spoofing popular movies. (We kinda liked them, actually.)Now we’re getting a glance at how bad things used to be.On Tuesday — the 40th anniversary of Apollo 13’s famous…
Late Night Scene: TCBY
We were riding our bikes home late one tepid Houston spring night when we noticed the neon open sign was still lit up at TCBY on Rice Blvd. in the Village. Realizing we hadn’t eaten in like two hours, so we popped in to see what they had, asking the…
SugarHill In The ’90s: Jazz, Jazz, Jazz… And A Little Group Called Destiny’s Child
Ed Note: All this week, to celebrate the release of Dr. Roger Wood and Andy Bradley’s new book House of Hits: The Story of Houston’s Gold Star/SugarHill Recording Studios and preview this weekend’s related festivities at Sig’s Lagoon and the Continental Club, Rocks Off and Lonesome Onry and Mean are…
Another Dream Deferred For Kids: Clear Creek Ends Its Meat-Processing Classes
Pause, reader, to spare a thought for the young boy or girl, growing up in the Clear Creek school district, who wants nothing more than to spend a life processing meat.For years, his school district has helped that hopeful flame grow from the merest spark to a fire that can…
Young And Recessioned: Katie Spicer, Looking To Stuff Envelopes
The Big Recession may have hit the rest of America harder than it has Houston, but that doesn’t mean we’re not feeling the effects. Especially the youngest people in the job market — whether it’s twentysomethings trying to start their dreamed-of career or teens looking to begin making money on…
Teen Iron Chef: The Secret Ingredient Is Shrimp
The Teen Iron Chef Competition came to Houston this week at Sharpstown High School. Enterprising adolescents who had been training for seven weeks had their final showdown on Wednesday to see which team had made the most advancement in the kitchen. With Chef Monica Pope of T’afia serving as guest…
Paging Alanis Morissette: Rick Perry Scolds Bill White About Kids Deprived Of Libraries
If you haven’t had your fix of political chutzpah lately, you’re in luck — Governor Rick Perry’s campaign is absolutely outraged that budget constraints are forcing Houston libraries to cut back some hours.”It’s unfortunate that parents and children will be denied access to libraries because of Bill White’s fiscal mismanagement…
Listology: Lucas Gorham Of Grandfather Child’s Favorite Voices
Grandfather Child is ridiculous. Seriously, the band’s lineup is like some sort of musical Fantastic Four, banding together to demolish all comers. They all have their own spin-off books too in form or the other: I Am Mesmer, Satin Hooks, Sideshow Tramps, Robert Ellis & The Boys. They probably have…
Happy Hour Scene: Richmond Arms
The patio at Richmond Arms was always the main draw on a couple previous trips, packed with twenty- and thirty-somethings drinking pints from the bar’s large selection of beer. But it was empty when we showed up for last night’s happy hour.We blamed the weather, which wasn’t that bad but…
Metro-Related Havoc Wreaked At Bagby And Elgin
Photos by Monica FuentesJust in time for the early-afternoon rush, an accident is mucking up the intersection of Bagby & Elgin, near the on-ramp for the Southwest Freeway. No major injuries are reported in the collision between a Metro bus and a car, although at least one person was treated…
Five Delicious Alternatives to Wheat Pasta
That’s right; it’s gluten-free time again here at Eating Our Words. But unlike our previous few posts which have been GF product assessments, we’re instead going to spotlight some of our favorite (and occasionally overlooked) alternatives to wheat pasta for those who need to cut out gluten from their diets…
An Overnight Delivery — Of Justice
Windjammer Street is a fairly innocuous road out in the vast westside suburbs. Who knew one of those homes was hiding a huge counterfeiting operation?The feds.The intercepted a package from Nigeria at a DHL hub in Kentucky addressed to a Eddie Wrobiv on Windjammer here in Houston. Since the package…
Malcolm McLaren Has Pulled Off His Last Great Rock And Roll Swindle
Malcolm McLaren, influential punk heavyweight icon and fashion engineer has died at the age of 64 at a hospital in Switzerland, where he was battling cancer. To say that his life was polarizing is an extreme understatement; to agree that he was integral to the shaping of modern music is…
Bobby Heugel’s Weekly Cocktail: The Kangaroo Cocktail
The Kangaroo Cocktail is among the most popular cocktails in America; however, it is rarely called by this proper name, which originated when vodka was first being imported. Instead, it is confused with other names and terms and is frequently grouped with adjectives like “dirty” and “bruised.” Perhaps the reason…
Going Overboard at Truluck’s
The last time I ate at Truluck’s (5350 Westheimer), the restaurant was still located in the charming silver diner car — still abandoned, by the way — up the road from its current location on Westheimer. When the restaurant moved to a swankier, if much more boring, building a few…
How To Help Your Pudgy Six-Month-Old Kid Drop Those Pounds
It’s never too early to give your children body-image issues. Doctors at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston have just published a study showing how they detected obesity in 6-month-olds.”Children who were obese at age 24 months were highly likely to have been obese at age 6 months,”…
Shooter Jennings On The Tarot, Stephen King, Crappy Radio And Frankenstein
Here at Rocks Off, we like to make sure all our bases are covered. That’s why we asked Shooter Jennings, son of Waylon, a few questions about his band Hierophant’s spooky, deep, spooky-deep new album Black Ribbons (right) and put them in this week’s print edition of the Press. That…
Discovering Bacon Spam
Bacon Spam — we recently found out about this stuff when our friend Andy texted us one day saying he just ate a Bacon Spam and fried egg sandwich between two waffles with peanut butter…for breakfast. True story…
Game Time: Earl Woods’ Force Ghost Asks Tiger The Tough Questions, In The Name Of Nike
So earlier this week, we got this presser from Tiger Woods at Augusta…. For those who don’t want to waste nine minutes of your life watching bullshit, just know that Tiger plans on being nicer to all of the fans, he has had to view himself in a way he…
Engine Room Reopening Next Month As The Warsaw; Numbers Shows To Increase
The live-music landscape downtown is changing… again. Mike Kelly, currently the general manager of Wired Live (which we’re still getting used to not calling the Meridian), stopped by the Press offices earlier today and told Rocks Off he will be leaving Wired next month and reopening shuttered downtown venue the…
Food Fight: Battle Falafel
Falafel is a Middle Eastern staple made with spiced chickpeas or fava beans which are ground into a paste, formed into balls, and then fried. The resulting patties are sometimes served alone, but most often rolled up in a flatbread and topped with a tangy tahini sauce… Sort of like…
Former Judge Pleads Guilty To Keying A Neighbor’s Car
Former district judge Woody Densen,a little-missed Harris County courthouse fixture, has pleaded guilty to criminal mischief and fined $1,500 for the idiotic, petty keying of a neighbor’s car caught on security video, the Houston Chronicle is reporting.Densen was apparently annoyed that the neighbor’s SUV took up too much of the…
Blaggards Do Ireland: A 400-Year-Old Galway Pub And Reunion In Waterford
Houston Celtic rockers – “stout” Celtic rockers – the Blaggards are back on Texas soil after a weeklong tour of Ireland, where the band mixed sightseeing with a few gigs here and there. Rocks Off asked bassist Chad Smalley if he’d share a few Blaggards experiences on the Emerald Isle…
Robb Walsh’s 100 Favorite Houston Dishes: #67 Al Pastor Quesadillas at Tierra Caliente Meat Market on Shepherd
Over the course of the next few months, I’m counting down 100 of my favorite Houston dishes. I chose some because they are such quintessential Houston creations, others for their cultural or historical significance, and others because they are just so damn tasty. Share your own nominations in the comments…
Raymond Salsgiver, 46, Bayou Body Count No. 80
Along the 1700 block of Laguna Meadows Lane in west Harris County lays a house of unrest. A place where boyfriends hit their girlfriend’s kid, and where the kid beats up on his own family members.That is if you believe Harris County court records for Raymond Salsgiver, 46, and his…
The AIDS-Spreading German Popstar And Four Other Horrifying Rock Legends
Hanging out backstage with Ronan Harris of VNV Nation last Sunday, his synth-excellency imparted a tale that Rocks Off hoped to the gods was not true, and led us down the path of myth and rumor to bring you a list of five of the most horrifying legends in pop-music…
Riddle Me This
This is a tough one ya’ll…What has: Ego overload; Awkward, obvious dubbed-over video (at times); Shameless product placements of Toyotas, Whole Foods and now bands like The Bravery; Ridiculous food challenges: using gas station ingredients to cook a gourmet meal; An annoying yet addictive quality; Lots of money to give…
A Very White Guy Explains Why “Granite State of Mind” Is Better Than Jay-Z’s Original
To: Jay-ZFrom A Very White PersonRe: Why “Granite State of Mind” is better than your originalSir:First, I’m sure you’re wondering how I, a very pale Irish-American, might be quailifed to critique so-called “rap” music. My answer is simply that, as a white person who reads the Internet, I feel qualified…
Y’all Musta Forgot: Big Pokey’s Hardest Pit In The Litter
Houston’s history is dotted with albums that, fairly or not, have been swept aside. We’ll examine them here. Have an album that you think nobody knows about but should? Email sheaserrano@gmail.com. Big Pokey Hardest Pit In the Litter (Chevis Entertainment, 1999) Big Pokey mostly existed in the fringes of the…
Pop Rocks: You Really Should Be Watching Supernatural
The CW is, by all generally accepted standards of measure, a horrible network. Just about every show is aimed at that unfortunate segment of the pre-adolescent population whose parents can’t afford basic cable, so instead of several hundred channels of garbage programming, these poor kids are forced to to concentrate…
Happy Hour at Yelapa
On a recent beautifully sunny and crisp Friday afternoon, a few friends suggested we start the weekend off properly with some margaritas. We ended up at Yelapa Playa Mexicana (2303 Richmond). We knew they had $4 margaritas and $4 Patron shots until seven, which sounded like a deliciously excellent recipe…
Idol Beat: Tim the Tumor
If I did have a tumor, I’d name it Tim. Tim. The scratch on the roof of your mouth that would heal if you could stop tonguing it, but you can’t. I’ll get back to him a minute. This week’s American Idol results show was the first legitimately dramatic or…
American Idol: Tim the Tumor
If I did have a tumor, I’d name it Tim. Tim. The scratch on the roof of your mouth that would heal if you could stop tonguing it, but you can’t. I’ll get back to him a minute. This week’s American Idol results show was the first legitimately dramatic or…
Astros Live Down To Expectations In First Series
Three games in. Three losses down. If there’s one thing to say about the Astros, they know how to play down to expectations.A still-injured Roy Oswalt had one bad inning on Opening Night, but one bad inning was all that the San Francisco Giants needed as they defeated the Astros…
$7 at 99 Ranch Market
Where: 99 Ranch Market, 1005 Blalock Road,713-932-8899, www.99ranch.com What $7 gets you: A nice lunch for two. Like many Asian grocery stores, 99 Ranch Market has a great food court, where lots of grab-and-go foods entice us to blow half of our grocery budget. Recently, we’ve become addicted to the…
Freddy Fender And Huey Meaux Reel Off A String Of SugarHill Hits In The ’70s
Ed Note: All this week, to celebrate the release of Dr. Roger Wood and Andy Bradley’s new book House of Hits: The Story of Houston’s Gold Star/SugarHill Recording Studios and preview this weekend’s related festivities at Sig’s Lagoon and the Continental Club, Rocks Off and Lonesome Onry and Mean are…
Seven Followers, But Her Tweets Are Still Monitored By The Authorities, Maybe
As much as social media broadens our horizons, be it through interpersonal or business relations, it creates a whole new universe of privacy issues. Friendswood-area college student Ashley Marzullo found that out firsthand last week after making an off-hand remark on Twitter last week on a particularly nice day of…
Soweto Gospel Choir
The world-renowned Soweto Gospel Choir, which has performed for Bill Clinton and Oprah Winfrey, is bringing its talents to Houston. The singers and instrumentalists blend indigenous African traditions with American gospel and pop to create joyful shows that will get your whole body swaying with the same passion the performers…
“Documenting Contemporary Social Justice Movements: Protests and Testimony from the Edges of Society”
Liana Lopez, our own freelance writer and photographer, was speeding down a road in Nicaragua when she shot the photograph Road House. Bouncing in the back of an SUV going from Mulukuku to Managua, she was taking photos out an open car window when she snapped the image of one…
My Education
Some people get a new watch or maybe a handful of gift cards for their birthday. If you are Golden Cities’ guitarist Marcus Gausepohl, you get to play a gig with Inner Lights and Austin instrumental post-rockers My Education – not a shabby musical birthday gift at all. ME’s new…
Authority Zero, Voodoo Glow Skulls, The Failed Attempt, Always Guilty
Arizona-based reggae-inflected punk rockers Authority Zero pull into Wired Live tonight with fellow ska mavens the Voodoo Glow Skulls in tow. AZ may have the rabid young sporty fanbase, but VGS has history behind them. The band was a part of the third wave of ska in the late ‘80s…
Disney on Ice: Let’s Celebrate
Mickey Mouse, Minnie and all their friends are throwing a bash with Let’s Celebrate, a very merry unbirthday party. Cinderella, Lilo & Stitch, Woody and his friends from Pixar’s Toy Story, and Alice and the Mad Hatter join all the Disney Princesses, along with Pluto, Donald Duck and the rest…
Inprint Margarett Root Brown Reading Series: Dorianne Laux and Patricia Smith
Celebrate National Poetry Month with a reading by two American poets, Dorianne Laux and Patricia Smith, who will appear at the Inprint Margarett Root Brown Reading Series. Laux – whose most recent volume is Facts About the Moon – looks at motherhood, sisterhood and, especially, sex. “Her work is fresh…
Lombrices (Worms)
Think of Lombrices (Worms) as a murderous Grey Gardens, scattered with bits of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, played as a black comedy. Written by Argentine playwright Pablo Albarello, Lombrices centers on Consuelo and Martirio, two older women who are ensconced in their apartment, ignoring the rest of the…
Dangerous Liaisons
When Choderlos de Laclos published Les liaisons dangereuses in the 1700s, Marie Antoinette apparently loved it. Maybe that’s because it sounded so familiar. The story about badly behaving French aristocrats focuses on a power-hungry woman who sets out to destroy the beautiful people around her just for the sick pleasure…
Tartuffe
Oh, what a difference 400 years make. When Moliíre wrote the play Tartuffe in 1664, it was considered so scandalous that the Archbishop of Paris threatened to excommunicate anyone who went to see a performance. What was such a big deal? The play discusses hypocrisy disguised as religious fervor. Fast-forward…
Houston Grand Opera: The Queen of Spades
There’s not a sugarplum fairy in sight in Tchaikovsky’s opera The Queen of Spades. Addiction? Yes. Obsession? Yes. Actually, pretty much every human weakness shows its wretched little head, but there are no scampering mice or nutcrackers. Instead, The Queen of Spades, presented by the Houston Grand Opera, is the…
2010 Houston’s Funniest Person Contest
Houston’s Funniest Person Contest might have ended when the Laff Spot inside the Loop closed last year if it weren’t for Ted Vincent, a 2009 competition finalist, who is now a manager of the Laff Spot on Louetta. “I saw an opportunity to keep the contest alive,” he says. So…
“Andrea Dezso: Sometimes in My Dreams I Fly”
Growing up in Romania, Andrea Dezso was enraptured by space exploration and the astronauts who were venturing into outer space. All these years later, those experiences have inspired the art exhibit “Sometimes in My Dreams I Fly,” currently at Rice Gallery. “Our imagination was really captured by how these men…
Company
Sandpaper is baby bottom-soft compared to Stephen Sondheim’s classic, multiple-Tony Award-winning musical Company. Although you’d never call any score by Sondheim rough, this one about the joys (!) of modern marriage can scour your skin off. George Furth’s book is a blowtorch, and Sondheim’s music and ironic lyrics are incomparable:…
43rd WorldFest International Independent Film Festival
You’re going to need lots of stamina if you want to see the entire 43rd WorldFest International Independent Film Festival. Opening night alone includes a screening of the dark comedy The Joneses starring Demi Moore, Lauren Hutton and David Duchovny, an Art Car Parade and live mariachi music. From there…
Get Out! Of the Closet!
“Reality TV is pretty ridiculous. The only thing left to do in the genre is to make fun of it,” says Jarrod Gullett, the senior producer at Houston’s Zenfilm. To that end, the company has created “anti-reality show” Get Out! Of The Closet! “It’s a comedy, a parody,” says Gullett…
Composers’ Birthday Series: Sergey Rachmaninoff
The music of legendary Russian composer Sergey Rachmaninoff will be the focus of the Composers’ Birthday Series thrown by The Russian Cultural Center Our Texas. “Rachmaninoff was a great composer with tremendous inventiveness and substantial validity. And his development was quite spectacular,” says Olga Vayner of the RCC. The musical…
“OPUS, Autonomía”
It’s FotoFest season, and there are impressive, brilliant exhibits all over town. One that is especially worth notice is “OPUS, Autonomía,” currently at Talento BilingŸe. Curated by Angel Quesada, the show brings together work from several local Latinos, including featured artist Rodolfo Hernández. His provocative photograph Untitled shows a nude…
Stick Fly
The much-discussed matriarch Mrs. LeVay never shows up in Lydia Diamond’s barbed-wire Stick Fly. Mom’s certainly the focus, and perhaps the cause, of all the family’s dysfunction, and everyone’s awfully skittish that she’ll walk through the door at any moment. Set on tony Martha’s Vineyard, the play draws upon the…
Other People’s Money
The title to Jerry Sterner’s 1988 play – Other People’s Money -sounds like the theme song for the American economy these days. But Sterner’s comic play chronicles the machinations of Larry the Liquidator, a corporate raider who finds companies worth more dead than alive, then buys them up just to…
Eschenback and Lang Lang
Fan favorite and former Houston Symphony Music Director Christoph Eschenbach returns to the podium at Jones Hall to conduct pianist and Deutsche Grammophon recording artist Lang Lang in a program called, unsurprisingly, Eschenbach and Lang Lang. Recently, Lang’s performance at the XXIX Olympics was seen by more than 5 billion…
A Look at Books
Ed Hill and Suzanne Bloom, the digital photography pioneers (and married couple) known as MANUAL, return to their roots in a way for this first major collaborative exhibit since their 2004 retrospective at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. As photography goes, it’s both fascinating and troubling. As another chapter…
Capsule Art Reviews: “2010 Glassell Core Exhibition”, “Allison Hunter: Zoosphere”, “David A. Brown: Trying to find my way…”, “Dirty Secrets from the Cataract Cinema”
“2010 Glassell Core Exhibition” It’s rare (and maybe impossible) that an annual Core Exhibition fires on all cylinders. There’s always great anticipation and excitement leading up to the opening, followed by a kind of anticlimactic dud. But perhaps that’s the nature of the Core program. It’s a wide spectrum of…
Dark Tower
Shooter Jennings has his dog to thank for his new album, Black Ribbons. The French bulldog that belongs to Jennings and actress girlfriend Drea de Matteo (The Sopranos, Desperate Housewives) is unable to fly, so the couple and their young daughter relocated from New York to L.A. via a cross-country…
Pie in the Sky Pie Company
“We sold 60,000 pies from our original location in Conroe, and we hope to do more with our new Heights location,” says Marlene Stubler, owner of the Pie in the Sky Pie Company (632 W. 19th St., 713-864-3301). “Years ago, before I opened my own place, I started baking and…
Capsule Stage Reviews: Barefoot in the Park, La Bohème, Speech and Debate
Barefoot in the Park A revival of Neil Simon’s 1963 whipped cream of a play, Barefoot in the Park certainly sounds delicious. After all, the 1967 film version still buzzes with the comedic zing that Simon and his one-liners are famous for, chronicling the struggles of two newlyweds in New…
Pocket Change
The ham and cheese empanadas ($2.25 each) at Argentina Cafe (3055 Sage, 713-622-8877) may well be the best and least expensive snack in the city, although it is unlikely that just one will stave off hunger pangs. Like everything else in this tiny coffee shop, the half moon-shaped pastries are…
Third Ward High
“…Yates high school, classless of 2010” — National sports writer Rick Reilly, from his column in ESPN The Magazine about the Yates High School basketball team Brandon Peters wanted out of the tunnel. He stood in the back of a line of Yates Lions basketball players, his teammates, teenagers in…
Downing Street Pub’s Downing Street Draft
If you’re on a scavenger hunt and anti-Obama bathroom graffiti pops up on your list, try Downing Street Pub (2549 Kirby, 713-523-2291). The place is how you might imagine The Wall Street Journal as a bar — lousy with white collars, cigars and masculine wood (the stained kind). There’s even…
Bad Marriage
“We are not these people! We are a boring couple from New Jersey!” complains Claire Foster (Tina Fey) to her husband, Phil (Steve Carell), about halfway through Date Night, the latest high-gloss, middle-to-low-brow would-be blockbuster from director Shawn Levy (Cheaper by the Dozen, Just Married). Phil and Claire are middle-class,…
From On High
A sign in the parking lot of Mezzanine Lounge (2200 Southwest Fwy., No. 150) states, very matter-of-factly: “Lock Your Vehicle. Close Windows. Remove Valuables.” It’s a right intimidating message to see when parking your car, something like seeing a sign while swimming that reads, “Shark Warning: Swim at Your Own…
It’s the Wife’s Fault
CRIME It’s the Wife’s Fault Can’t enjoy child porn at home? Try school By Richard Connelly Wives. Amirite, fellas, or amirite? You try to settle down with your child-porn collection at home, and all of a sudden the ol’ ball-and-chain is on your case. Sure, she (somehow) doesn’t call the…
Yeasayer
With this year’s Odd Blood, Brooklyn-based Yeasayer has taken the next step in indie tech-folk domination, joining the ranks of their neighborhood’s own Grizzly Bear with what is already one of the year’s most lauded albums. Blood is a solid sophomore release more than improving on 2007’s All Hour Cymbals;…
Baseball on the Brain
Baseball on the Brain Online readers comment on “Sharp-Dressed Fans,” by Richard Connelly, March 25: Hooked for life: All it took was my dad driving around the outside of old Buff Stadium (or Busch Stadium, whatever it was called then) around 1959 or 1960, I believe, and I was hooked on…
The Jonx
You get the feeling the Minutemen are never very far from the Jonx’s turntables. Not many bands splice together jazz and hardcore punk these days, and fewer still do it with a dash of humor — check the Full Metal Jacket takeoff at the beginning of “I’m Getting Really Good…
SPECIAL CENSUS EDITION
Dear Mexican, I know that Mexicans and pochos can be black, white, Asian, and indios, but I just got my United States census form. Figured you would be the best person to ask about question #9-Race. I know I’m not white, (I been pulled over too many times for BS…
KTRU Spring Outdoor Festival
Rice University and its hip-as-hell student radio station KTRU (91.7 FM) hold their 19th Annual Outdoor Show all day Saturday. The event has been a means for local indie bands in the past to rub shoulders with bigger acts, all within the friendly confines of the elite local college. Three…
Hitsville, Texas
Dr. Roger Wood’s eyes have that professorial twinkle in them, like he’s finally getting the major point of the lecture across to the slowest dolt in class. “Look, this is what you’ve got to understand because this is what makes this story so Houston. Bill Quinn’s [founder of Gold Star…
Camera Obscura
Certain songs can make such an impact on your psyche that specific times/dates/weather conditions can be recollected when thinking about that first moment when the melody, voice and sound entered your world. It’s one of the wonders of music appreciation — and neurology — that a consciousness can be permanently…
Warpaint
Imagine four Kim Gordons playing spooky, sleepy indie jams and you get the idea of Los Angeles’s Warpaint. The all-female quartet made a huge-as-hell splash back in February opening for Akron/Family at Walter’s, bewitching most everyone in the crowd with licks from last year’s EP, the John Frusciante-produced Exquisite Corpse…
Holly Golightly & the Brokeoffs
Holly Golightly has had an interesting career, to say the least. The London native started out in one of the umpteen versions of hyper-prolific punk poet Billy Childish’s garage-rock outfit Thee Headcoates, where she no doubt came to the attention of Jack White, who eventually recruited her for the tongue-in-cheek…
White Rabbits
It’s no wonder that Spoon front man Britt Daniel signed on to produce It’s Frightening, the follow-up to Brooklyn sextet White Rabbits’ 2007 breakout debut Fort Nightly. A perpetual piano plunk follows the aggressive tropicalia of Frightening songs such as “Percussion Gun” and “Company I Keep,” while singer Stephen Patterson…
Block Party
The first thing we ordered when we sat down for lunch at Block 7 was the “whole pig” flatbread, a thin, flattened piece of bread covered with house-made Italian pork sausage, San Danielle prosciutto and baby arugula. With crispy bits of sausage, bright-green, spicy arugula and salty, chewy pieces of…
