Houston’s Weather Has Always Been Mercurial, and Now We’ve Got Real Mercury to Deal With?
New Zealanders have something new to fear today: Chinese blankets loaded up with formaldehyde! Apparently formaldehyde gives the blankets a “permanent press effect.” They have been recalled. Aren’t you glad you’re not sleeping in a poisonous Chinese blanket in New Zealand? We were feeling smug about that until we read…
Louis XIV T-Shirts for Sale. Cheap.
Some years back, Michael Haaga played a bill with Hot Hot Heat and Louis XIV at the Engine Room. Haaga thought that Louis XIV, a then-buzzed about band, was pretty good. “I liked what I heard from them at the sound check,” he remembers. And backstage, Haaga told them so,…
“Thunderstruck” on I-45
Some songs are custom-written for Houston, even if they come from halfway around the world. Just as I exited the Gulf Freeway this morning onto that long flyover leading to downtown, AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck” came on the trusty satellite radio. The skyline slowly rose into view as that needly guitar part…
Radio Houstoned: Harley Jane Kozak
Harley Jane Kozak’s Dead Ex has just hit the bookshelves, and already it’s getting lots of buzz. Kozak made his name as an actor in films such as Parenthood and Arachnophobia and soap operas like Guiding Light. Then she turned her eye to writing and launched the Wollie Shelley mystery…
In Defense of Michael Vick. Sort Of.
The things Michael Vick supposedly did are disgusting. And I’m not going to attempt to excuse him, or his actions. But I’ve got a problem with the way the NFL is treating Michael Vick. And the problem is this: Michael Vick was not involved with the death of a human…
Miss Pop Rocks: Ice Cream and Marie Osmond
This past Saturday, I found myself slumped on the couch with Mr. Pop Rocks watching Marie Osmond hawking her line of porcelain dolls on QVC. Yes, I was watching QVC. On a Saturday night. The one highlight of the evening was that I was simultaneously consuming Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate…
Why Should We Trust Richard Justice?
I wonder, do the guys at the Chron ever talk with each other? Do they compare notes at anytime? I’m not talking about using the same facts to draw differing opinions, I’m talking about having entirely different facts for the same story. Today’s example is courtesy of Richard Justice and…
This Week in Café: VIN
In this week’s Café, we look at VIN, the newest addition to fine dining in the Theater District. Don’t be intimidated by the dark-tinted windows or the “cool guy” atmosphere inside – a tribute to rich-colored wood and red-leather seating, with classic ‘60s and ‘70s movies playing over the stylish…
This Week in Café: VIN
In this week’s Café, we look at VIN, the newest addition to fine dining in the Theater District. Don’t be intimidated by the dark-tinted windows or the “cool guy” atmosphere inside – a tribute to rich-colored wood and red-leather seating, with classic ‘60s and ‘70s movies playing over the stylish…
Touchdown Jesus Wept
Resident Domer Rich Connelly can yuck it up all he wants about the off-field shenanigans of the Longhorn football team this off-season. But he should keep in mind that old saw about glass houses, because it looks like things in South Bend are careening wildly out of control. Touchdown Jesus…
$13 at Goldenroom Thai Restaurant
Where: Goldenroom Thai Restaurant, 1209 Montrose, 713-524-9614 What $13 gets you: A phat pad Thai, egg roll/spring roll and soup of the day. First things first: No matter what Google might say, the restaurant’s Web site isn’t www.thegoldenroom.com. No, that’s the site for a Canada-based “global healing facility” where you…
$13 at Goldenroom Thai Restaurant
Where: Goldenroom Thai Restaurant, 1209 Montrose, 713-524-9614 What $13 gets you: A phat pad Thai, egg roll/spring roll and soup of the day. First things first: No matter what Google might say, the restaurant’s Web site isn’t www.thegoldenroom.com. No, that’s the site for a Canada-based “global healing facility” where you…
Texans Better. Mario, Not So Much.
Well, that didn’t take long. Just two weeks into the NFL’s pre-season, Mario Williams is invisible on the stat sheet, yet ubiquitous in the hearts and minds of forever frustrated Texans fans. I’d love to take credit for predicting this phenomenon weeks ago, but the truth of the matter is…
The Return of “Trapped in the Closet”
As most of you perverts and trainwreck-spotters already know, R. Kelly’s “Trapped in the Closet” chapters 13-22 dropped today. Some of you, like me, might be in need of a refresher. Allow me to direct your attention to Dr David Thorpe’s Cliff’s Notes version of the preceding chapters. – John…
The Houston 100: The Best Bayou City Songs Ever
13th Floor Elevators? Yes. Over the next few weeks and months, the music staff here will be assembling a top 100 of Houston songs. To qualify, a song must be either by Houstonians or about Houston, or must have been recorded here or released on a local label. Thus, “You’re…
Drenched In Blog: Trailer Leaked for the New Dylan Biopic
Attention all you Zimmy Freaks, Dylanologists and depressed drunken boys listening to Blood on the Tracks as you write your daily blog. The new trailer for Todd Haynes’ quasi-sorta Bob Dylan biopic I’m Not There has just been leaked online. Yes, that is Richard “Habitrail” Gere, a small black child,…
Slideshow: Who Needs LOLcats When You’ve Got LOLferrets?
Tomorrow you can read Richard Connelly’s feature on ferrets in the paper, but for now we present LOLferrets, a series of photos inspired by that bizarre Internet meme known as LOLcats. Click here to see the gallery. And yes, you can has cheezburger. – Keith Plocek Got your own LOLferrets…
Radio Houstoned: Jason Starr
To listen to a short reading from The Follower, by Jason Starr, click the LISTEN button below. Write what you know. It seems crime novelist Jason Starr has taken this classic bit of advice to heart. A New York native, Starr sets many of his novels in the Big Apple…
Anything’s Possible in the Fantasy World of the Astros
Richard Connelly says that John Lopez may be departing the Chron to work full-time on radio. I would say that it is a good thing. The Chron would be better off with one less hack taking up valuable print space. But knowing the Chron, his spot would be filled by…
Drenched In Blog: Superbad Tracks
If you were any of the people who contributed to the $31 million haul that Superbad took in this weekend, you were treated to one of the best funk and soul soundtracks since Jackie Brown. Funk comes from a place that is confident and smooth, unlike any of us in…
Get Lit: I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead: The Dirty Life and Times of Warren Zevon, by Crystal Zevon
Warren Zevon was a genius. A real talent and hugely underrated performer whose sardonic, black-humored songs about suave lycanthropes, military men dead from the neck up (literally), and prom-night rapists set him far apart from his touchy-feely L.A contemporaries in the ‘70s and ‘80s, even though many of them went…
Will John Lopez Leave the Houston Chronicle to Pimp Products on the Radio Full Time?
You may have noticed the local airwaves are filled these days with Houston Chronicle people. John Lopez has a four-hour show on KBME; Ken Hoffman and Richard justice have shorter shows on new station KGOW. (Lopez and Justice are sportswriters; Hoffman’s a general-interest guy.) All this has caused more than…
Last Night: Storyville at Warehouse Live
Storyville Warehouse Live August 18 Better Than: Planning your Hurricane Dean evacuation plan. Download: “Blind Side” and “Bluest Eye” give a good overview of what these guys are about. Has there ever been a Texas band with this much talent? For musicianship, virtuosity, good taste and sheer rock power, you’d…
Popping My Roller Derby Cherry
I attended my first roller derby match last night. I was impressed. Daniel Kramer My friend Craig describes roller derby as a cross between NASCAR, hockey and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. I think that that’s an accurate assessment, but you should also throw in a little bit of professional…
Slideshow: All Stars Men’s Club
This weekend intrepid photographer Daniel Kramer documented the opening celebrations for All Stars Men’s Club, a sports-themed strip joint. You can see the slideshow here. Don’t click if you’re easily offended by women taking their clothes off in public. — Keith Plocek…
Last Night: Ben Kweller at Walter’s on Washington
Ben KwellerWalter’s on WashingtonAugust 17 Better Than: Trying to understand why anyone takes dating advice from Mystery on VH1’s The Pick Up Artist. Download: The super catchy “Penny on a Train Track” or, for more lovin’-touchin’-squeezin’ types, “Sundress” Even though I knew I was going to Walter’s on Washington to…
Miss Pop Rocks: The Head-On People Need to Check Themselves
Is it just me, or are the Head-On (apply directly to the forehead!) people getting a little too big for their britches? I’m not going to prattle on here about the infamous, incessant repetition of the product name in their television ads, or discuss the low budget quality of said…
Astros Win on the Road. Hell Drops Another Few Degrees.
The Astros return home to start a ten-game home stand after going 4-3 on the most recent trip. Yep, you read that right. The Astros actually had a winning record on a road trip. But there are some negatives. Roy Oswalt strained his left oblique muscle on Saturday night, and…
Waking Up with High School Musical 2
Remember that time your friend put up that fake MySpace profile and made you look like a tool? Or how about when you got stranded out on Richmond because your ride took off with someone of the opposite sex? Or that other time, when your ride took off with someone…
Drenched In Blog: The Humpty Blog
Digital Underground, who bounces into Scout Bar tonight, is sort of like Public Enemy plus Funkadelic, minus all the Jew-hating and Elvis-bashing (see yesterday’s blog for that). Many people only know them from 1990 hit single “The Humpty Dance,” from the album Sex Packets, regularly heard at wedding receptions and…
Radio Houstoned: Farzana Doctor
To listen to a podcast with Farzana Doctor, click on the LISTEN button. Farzana Doctor’s Stealing Nasreen isn’t the typical debut novel, but then again, Doctor isn’t the typical debut novelist. Stealing Nasreen deals with an Indo-Canadian lesbian therapist who becomes involved with a supposedly straight couple, recent immigrants from…
Radio Houstoned: Gulf Noir
Texas authors Harry Hunsicker and Darryl Wimberley know all about Gulf noir. The star of Hunsicker’s Crosshairs is retired PI Lee Henry Oswald, who lives in Dallas, while the lead of Wimberley’s Pepperfish Keys is Barrett Raines, who lives in Deacon Beach in northwestern Florida. The two men embody their…
Bright Idea: Have Woody Williams Mentor Wandy Rodriguez.
Listening to the Astros game last night, I heard Bill Brown and Jim Deshaies talking about how Woody Williams has been serving as a mentor to Wandy Rodriguez. That explains a lot. High ERAs. Awful records on the road. Maybe it’s just me, but shouldn’t the Astros have someone like…
Miss Pop Rocks: We Need a Patrick Swayze High School…NOW!
I’m starting on a mission right now to get an area school district to name a new facility after our own native son, Patrick Swayze. And I’m serious. Does anyone know anything about the Burnet that Burnet Elementary in Houston is named after? No. What about Bondy Intermediate in Pasadena?…
Slideshow: “Nexus Texas” at the CAMH
We’ve got a new slideshow up, featuring selections from “Nexus Texas,” a group show opening tomorrow at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston. Click here to get a jump on the goatee-stroking competition. — Keith Plocek…
J.R. Harris Elementary Struck by Lightning. Other HISD Schools Have Water, Water, Everywhere.
Today’s weather is wreaking the proverbial freaking havoc on the Houston Independent School District and its schools. One has already been struck by lightning (good thing classes aren’t in session yet) and others are leaking. At one elementary they’re trying to save textbooks by plying them on top of furniture…
Drenched In Blog: Heartblog Hotel
Today, as the world celebrates Elvis Aaron Presley’s death, I sit here wondering exactly why we are eulogizing someone who rightfully should have passed away after his 1968 comeback special. Those ’68 clips really remind you how captivating and sexual he was. Maybe if he would have died earlier, we…
Houston Roller Derby… Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!
Are you sick of reading about racist umpires? Are you sick of the suckitude of the Houston Astros? Are you tired of John McLain’s latest platitudes about the Texans? Daniel Kramer Well, I know of a little something that might improve your attitude. Houston Roller Derby has a couple of…
Houston Rap: Kicked to the Curb?
It hasn’t exactly been a banner year anywhere in hip-hop nation, and Houston is no exception. The Class of 2005’s lackluster sales have spurred every hip-hop rag and blog from here to Brooklyn to bust out its own unique variation on the evergreen “Houston, we have a problem” headline. Chingo…
Houston Hurricane Reporting, or Maybe We’re Not All Gonna Die
We tend to do some Houston Chronicle bashing on this site sometimes, mostly with good reason. But right now we’d like to give them a tip of the ol’ hat. Hurricane season has finally arrived in full force, with a wimpy Erin staggering into Corpus Christi and, more ominously, Hurricane…
Astros Lose, But There Was Something New
The fun thing about baseball is that there’s a chance, at any game, you’ll see something you’ve never seen before. Take last night’s game between the Dodgers and Astros. It’s early in the game and the Astros have a man on second. Dodger pitcher Brad Penny shouts at one of…
Al Madrigal
Al Madrigal doesn’t fit into a single comedy mold. The half-Mexican, half-Italian stand-up comedian often performs at Latin comedy events, but he doesn’t focus on race issues. He says that’s been done to death. Instead, the self-described “half-breed,” who jokes that he usually pronounces his own name incorrectly, has a…
“Spirit of Woman”
An established local artist who’s also a frequent exhibitor, curator and educator, Pat Moberley Moore has spent the past few years in close collaboration with two fellow female artists, a painter and a musician. It’s no wonder, then, that she found a theme in feminine spirituality. The resulting series, called…
The Remus Lupins
With the motto “Fight evil, read books,” The Remus Lupins are one in a growing movement of wizard rock, that is, teenage rock bands that are based on Harry Potter characters. There’s Harry and the Potters, Draco and the Malfoys, the Moaning Myrtles and (a personal favorite) the Hermione Crookshanks…
Dee Wilbur
If you want to meet Dee Wilbur, don’t be surprised when “she” turns out to be “them.” Author Dee Wilbur is a persona established by the mystery-writing pair of Beatrice Dee Pipes and Dr. Charles Wilbur Yates, Jr. Their first Dee Wilbur novel, A Jealous God, is about a high-powered…
Screamin’ Cyn Cyn and The Pons
If you want to know what other bands think of Screamin’ Cyn Cyn and The Pons, just check the group’s MySpace page: “Your lead singer fucked up your entire set by dressing like such an idiot.” This review, from a band called President Fluid, is posted on Cyn Cyn’s site,…
Ajoy Chakraborty
Don’t mistake Ajoy Chakraborty’s quiet dignity for snobbery. It’s actually the humility that comes from preserving a musical tradition that’s older than Christ. The -Calcutta-born singer, performing today at the Tagore Society of Houston, is perhaps the world’s leading exponent of Hindustani Classical Vocal, a tradition that traces its history…
Farzana Doctor
Farzana Doctor’s Stealing Nasreen isn’t the typical debut novel, but then again, Doctor isn’t the typical debut novelist. Stealing Nasreen deals with an Indo-Canadian lesbian therapist who becomes involved with a supposedly straight couple, recent immigrants from Mumbai, India, in a doomed love triangle (try saying that five times fast)…
Matt Sadler
Matt Sadler, an Austin-based stand-up comic, is the host of the raunchy trivia video game The Guy Game, which is basically 20 Questions featuring drunken Spring Break coeds. But inspiring drunken women to remove their clothing for a frat-boy game is only one of Sadler’s many talents. Sadler has been…
“Suddenly One Summer”
There’s nothing more uncomfortable for a student than to run into a teacher during summer vacation — unless, of course, that teacher happens to be a noted local artist, and makes kick-ass art. Space 125 Gallery’s new exhibit “Suddenly One Summer” features three University of Houston Downtown/O’Kane Gallery-affiliated artists who…
South Pacific
A nice trip to the South Pacific is just what the theater gods have ordered, and Class Act Productions is happy to oblige with its production of the beautiful Rodgers and Hammerstein musical. Set on a lonely island during WWII, the show covers issues as serious as racism even as…
Love Letters
A. R. Gurney’s Love Letters, about a lifelong relationship between two upper -middle-class lovers, has featured many famous actors during its relatively short life. Since 1989, when it opened on Broadway, actors including Colleen Dewhurst, Paul Newman and Stockard Channing have taken a turn at the tender little tale. A…
Godfrey
Jerry Seinfeld’s sitcom run was over by the time he teamed up with Superman to sell credit cards. Dane Cook became a red-hot comedian before he started shilling for ESPN2. And Bill Cosby was already America’s dad when he started pitching pudding. But Godfrey has taken the backdoor approach, starring…
Harley Jane Kozak
Harley Jane Kozak’s Dead Ex has just hit the bookshelves, and already it’s getting lots of buzz. Kozak made her name as an actor in films such as Parenthood and Arachnophobia and soap operas like Guiding Light. Then she turned her eye to writing and launched the Wollie Shelley mystery…
Harry Hunsicker and Darryl Wimberley
Texas authors Harry Hunsicker and Darryl Wimberley know all about Gulf noir. The star of Hunsicker’s Crosshairs is retired PI Lee Henry Oswald, who lives in Dallas, while the lead of Wimberley’s Pepperfish Keys: A Detective Barrett Raines Mystery is Barrett Raines, who lives in Deacon Beach in northwestern Florida…
tempOdyssey
Anyone who’s worked for a temp agency can rattle off horror stories about psychotic coworkers, mundane, soul–crushing tasks and the overall icky, whorish feel of it all. But Austin-based playwright Dan Dietz has elevated the temp experience to operatic, Homeric levels with his comedy temp-Odyssey, Amy Hopper plays Genny. On…
Artful Thursday: Madame Butterfly
The Houston Ebony Opera Guild will present Madame Butterfly next week at Miller Outdoor Theatre, but for folks who want a little something different, there’s Artful Thursday: Madame Butterfly today. The program, which is more casual than a full-on performance, will include a panel discussion by experts, as well as…
Ann Arbor Film Festival
The Ann Arbor Film Festival has been called the “hall of fame for experimental media,” and you can catch this year’s highlights at this weekend’s Aurora Picture Show. The 32 selected films range from Alain Delannoy’s Monument, a 12-minute animated piece about a boy who goes in search of his…
Ingmar Bergman
After years of fighting in the Crusades, the knight in Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal returns to his plague-ridden country to find death has been waiting on him. To kill time before his demise, the knight challenges the reaper to a game of chess. The game takes the knight on…
Tim Fite
Tim Fite is all over the place. His latest album, Over the Counter Culture, which you can download free from his Web site, includes rock, country and hip-hop. The artist doesn’t combine these styles in every track, but rather presents them separately. His rap tracks, such as “It’s All Right…
“Nexus Texas”
“I’m just sitting in my car and I’m looking at stunt-jumping monster trucks coexisting with art cars. It’s a place of extremes,” says Toby Kamps, senior curator for the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston and one of three curators (with Valerie Cassel Oliver and Paola Morsiani) of “Nexus Texas,” a group…
“Women in Jazz”
Be there when Houston’s Community Music Center pays tribute to “The Divine One” in “Women in Jazz: A Salute to Sarah Vaughan.” One of the most storied and respected women in the history of American music, Miss Vaughan recorded a number of what are today considered standards, including “That Lucky…
Museum District Day
With 18 world-class museums and a slew of fun activities, Houston’s annual Museum District Day is a highlight of the summer arts season. Everyone from grizzled museum hounds to rank novices will find something to fascinate, amaze or just amuse them. Scheduled activities ranging from the live science show “Food…
“Emerging Artists 2007”
“It is our understanding that nobody shows emerging…clay artists — not in the Houston area and not anywhere else,” says Janis Ross, president of the Clay Arts Museum and Educational Organization. The “Emerging Artist 2007” exhibit is CAMEO’s solution to that problem. Around 15 young artists, university and college students…
Laptop Battles
Last year, white MC Sage Francis may have accidentally started a trend when he took exception, online, to a MySpace posting by far superior white MC and former 3rd Bass member MC Serch, then host of VH1’s White Rapper Show. “Pardon the length of this letter, but I took my…
Dodos
God forbid I ever lump Meric Long in with all those coffeehouse clowns and puke-pop darlings who fancy themselves singer-songwriters, but in spite of his relative obscurity, Long is easily one of his generation’s finest. While the San Francisco-based singer/guitarist of psych-folk-pop duo Dodos hones the callings of free-spirited, unhinged…
Ladybug Transistor
Longtime Ladybug Transistor drummer San Fadyl passed away shortly before the release of April’s Can’t Wait Another Day, succumbing to the severe asthma attacks he’d been fighting for a year. This is tragic enough in itself, but Can’t Wait… finds the Brooklyn quintet at the top of their game. “This…
Jelly Roll Morton in Houston
In ancient cities like Jerusalem, you can literally see layers of history. In the old quarter, Israeli construction lies atop Ottoman atop Crusader atop Persian atop Roman atop Judaic. There’s nothing quite like that in Houston, but there are some places that remind you of such strata. One is Freedmen’s Town,…
Talib Kweli
“Conscious rap” needs to be eliminated from hip-hop’s vernacular — or at the very least, Talib Kweli’s name should be stricken from its rolls. Nobody’s quite sure what the term means: Music that doesn’t focus on rims and butts? Songs wherein the listener’s life isn’t explicitly threatened? Kweli has said…
Kim Richey
I can’t recall a recent album with so many telling, wish-I’d-written-that lines as Kim Richey’s Chinese Boxes. She’s been moving away from alt-country toward pop with each album, and she’s finally there. Recorded in London with George Martin’s son Giles producing, this ten-song, 33-minute AAA pop jewel is sophisticated yet…
Sam Baker
Some artists — Sam Baker, for instance — don’t let limited vocal ability keep them from making amazing records. Baker sings about the same way he talks, in a halting stutter like he’s not always sure he’s saying the right word. But like any true artist, Baker makes the most…
Local Motion
Sig’s Lagoon 3710 Main, 713-533-9525 1. Budos Band, Budos Band II 2. Spoon, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga 3. The Gourds, Noble Creatures 4. Andre Williams, Aphrodisiac 5. Amy Winehouse, Back to Black 6. Dave Alvin, Live at Austin City Limits 7. Kelly Willis, Translated from Love 8. White Stripes,…
Charles Mingus Sextet with Eric Dolphy
Among many amazing sounds on Cornell 1964, one inevitably stands out: Charles Mingus’s laughter. He’s happy. Those chuckles speak volumes, considering that in later years they would be replaced by grunts and gut-punches. But back to the music: The recording captures everything, making listeners feel like they’re in the auditorium…
Picross
Ask a random person five years ago what Sudoku was, and you’d be lucky if they mumbled something about Japanese ritual suicide. But go down any supermarket’s magazine aisle today, and you’ll find whole racks stuffed with cheapie newsprint books full of the addictive puzzles. People cant get enough. They…
For What It’s Worth
This summer marks the 40th anniversary of an imaginary feeling that supposedly swept the nation, for one great time, in the collective mind of a gaggle of well-to-do yuppies and senile, burnt-out ex-hippies. The rest of us young folks get to overdose on someone else’s nostalgia trip. We get to…
Our top DVD picks scheduled for release this week
Our top DVD picks scheduled for release this week: All Creatures Great & Small: The Complete Collection (BBC Warner) Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters for DVD (Turner) Back to School: Extra-Curricular Edition (MGM) The Black Widow (First Look) Charlie Chan Collection: Volume 3 (Fox) DangerMouse: The…
“The David Whitney Bequest”
Collector David Whitney once said, “You have it or you don’t.” He was referring to the way he trusted instinct when practicing one of his passions: gardening. But for Whitney (1939-2005), that instinct was more evident in his natural talent for curating and collecting. “The David Whitney Bequest,” currently on…
Underground Kingz
Finally it’s here in all its two-disc, 29-track, guest-star-studded, double-album glory: Underground Kingz, the most anticipated album out of Houston this year and the most eagerly awaited Texas rap album since Scarface’s The Fix back in 2002. Not since 2001 have we heard a whole album’s worth of “country rap…
Gang Lite?
Randy Moreno is staring into an open prison cell where two inmates are waiting to kick in his head. He had promised himself he would never join another gang, and certainly not a prison gang. But now is not the time for second-guessing. This is his initiation. “Get your shine…
Art Capsule Reviews
“Allison Hunter: New Animals” “New Animals” is a continuation of Allison Hunter’s “Simply Stunning” series, which showed at New York’s 511 Gallery last year. The Houston-based photographer’s recent work concentrates largely on animals, and the images reflect a progression toward emancipating creatures from the worldly environment. Sheep and deer inhabit…
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
With Is Is, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs have perfected their haphazard delivery. Part of what makes this band so captivating is their ability to sound as though each song might tear apart at the seams. The other part, of course, is the scary-sexual, guttural gymnastics of lead singer Karen O…
5 Wines That Will Blow Your Mind
Mockingbird Bistro is famous for unpretentious dishes like a big honking Kobe hamburger and crispy French fries. So it’s no wonder that their wine stewardess, Marcy Jimenez, isn’t all that interested in pleasing the wine snobs. Here’s her take on wine and her pick for five wines that will blow…
Keeping The Meter Running
Taxi Driver: Collectors Edition (Sony) Listen, you fuckers, you screwheads: Here is a man who would not take it anymore. Martin Scorsese’s 1976 vision of hell as city-of-night New York rips through the reverential treatment on this special edition like a hunters blade through deerskin. A second disc of eight…
Late Nite Catechism
To paraphrase the old advertisement for Levy’s Jewish Rye Bread, you don’t have to be Catholic to love Late Nite Catechism, the “one-sister” show running at Stages Repertory Theatre, though it probably wouldn’t hurt. No matter your denomination, there are plenty of laughs, even if you’re one of those unfortunate…
Superbad
The latest comic meteorite to hurtle forth from the galaxy of producer Judd Apatow, Superbad is about a couple of chronically unpopular best friends who, after four years stuck on the lowest rung of the high-school social ladder, find themselves invited to a legitimately cool party. Goodbye, Friday nights chugging…
Feature Photo
A little bit of beauty doesn’t do much to relieve the depressing muck around one downtown Metro garbage can (People: The sign clearly says Pitch In! With an exclamation point! And an actual stick-figure artist’s rendering of someone successfully pitching in!) Lee Ann Foulger stands, amongst the refuse, with a…
The Ten
It’s impossible to write about David Wain’s The Ten without first making passing reference to Krzysztof Kieslowski’s Dekalog and Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life. The former, originally made for Polish TV 20 years ago and first shown in the United States in 2000, offered a modern-day take on the…
KELVIN ARMS
I make it to a friend’s shindig in the vault of the Kelvin Arms (2424 Dunstan, 713-528-5002) and discover that I know only a handful of the 40 people here. So while everyone else mingles, I grab a chair and sit against the wall with an old friend — the…
Mail Call
Keith has a fan club: Will you make an apology in your next issue [“What’s Missing from This Picture?” by Keith Plocek, August 2]? To the happy people who live in a building? To the organizations that you threw mud on? To the managers of the building you were so…
Monarch Restaurant
With a royal moniker like Monarch Restaurant and a chef named Bradley Manchester, you might expect this place to be serving steak and kidney pie, bangers and mash and some nice trifle for afters. ‘Ow’s that sound, ducky? Well, sorry, Anglophiles. You’ll have to keep getting your spotted dick at…
Riff Tiffs
If anyone needs reminding why alternative rock was once one of the best things to ever happen to commercial radio, look no further than the Riff Tiffs’ Afflictinnitus. Like early R.E.M., these Meyerland teens wear their influences — Explosions in the Sky, Radiohead, maybe some Wilco and Trail of Dead…
Killen’s Steakhouse
The créme brûlée bread pudding ($7) at Killen’s Steakhouse (2804 Main, Pearland, 281-485-0844) is so good, patrons like to lick up every last drop of sauce. Ronnie Killen does a masterful job of combining buttery croissants with the creamy custard of the crème brûlée and finishing it with a crispy,…
Rachel Loy
Rachel Loy first came on my radar at a Sunday writers in the round two years ago, where she was paired with Austin stalwarts Brian Keane and Wayne Sutton. Loy, a professional musician since age 13, not only held her own, she won the crowd over with her chin-out spunk,…
Tombstone Blues
I’ve already been to two bars tonight, most recently a trendy spot where the bartender insisted Jack Daniels was a bourbon. I’m offended, but that all falls to the wayside when I show up at Rudyard’s (2010 Waugh), which has a way of rendering moot any ambiguous feelings about mingling…
Stage Capsule Reviews
Forever Hold Your Peace The singing Fertle Family is back with a story nothing short of hilarious. As the eve of Gwenda and Uncle Al’s wedding approaches, guests are frantically trying to get to the wedding. Meanwhile, menopausal Justicena, who can’t seem to understand her husband Pete’s love, kicks him…
Bluerunners, Two Hoots & a Holler
“Workingman’s Zydeco” is the opening track off the Bluerunners’ most recent studio album, 2005’s Honey Slides (Bayou Vista), but it might as well be the Lafayette ensemble’s calling card: both simple statement of purpose and sly allusion to the Grateful Dead. Like the Dead, the Bluerunners stir all sorts of…
Rad Rich’s 5th Annual Backyard B-Day/Back to School Bash and Benefit
Sadly, this annual party hosted by KPFT “Rock and Roll Revue” DJ Rad Rich sounds more like a wake this year. It’s one of recent Houston Press Music Award winners Poor Dumb Bastards’ first shows after guitarist Hunter Ward’s death, as well as a benefit for the family of popular…
Mexican-American Culture
Dear Mexican I had a heated discussion in my van pool with a couple of gringos where they made a comment that immigration (both legal and illegal) needs to stop. I replied jokingly, “Then who will take our orders at McDonald’s or work in the fields?” They had the nerve…
Dirtfoot
A mainstay of the Shreveport, Louisiana scene, Dirtfoot has much in common with local faves Sideshow Tramps/Rx Medicine Show. Strummy, minstrelsy and raucous, Dirtfoot comes complete with an overdose of barking-gypsy/carnival attitude that sounds like a cabal of less-than-virtuous music majors who might pull their knives if you short them…