Exploding Playgrounds
It’s a good thing Tropical Storm Erin is headed toward Texas and predicted to be ready to drop some heavy duty water on us and cool things off. Especially our mulch, which according to some people becomes a time bomb on the ground if the right conditions are in place:…
Re: Re: Are Umpires Racist? Maybe.
Why the picture of Bill Murray? Maybe it’ll make sense in a minute. Maybe not. Okay, I need to get back to the umpire racism bit. Essentially, what I’m being told is I’m not looking at the forest, I’m looking at the leaves on the trees in the forest. What…
Cover Story: Tango Blast Houstone
Courtesy of HPD I first heard about the Hispanic prison gang Tango Blast Houstone from a social worker here in town who said he was alarmed at how many of the kids he was dealing with seemed to admire the gang’s members. He told me the group’s symbols, such as…
Houston Press Podcast: Willie Anthony Waters of the Houston Ebony Opera Guild
Click the buttons below to hear Maestro Willie Anthony Waters discussing the Houston Ebony Opera Guild’s upcoming performance of Madame Butterfly with Night and Day Editor Olivia Flores Alvarez…
Re: Are Umpires Racist? Maybe.
I wrote yesterday about a new study indicating that racial bias plays a role in how the home plate umpire calls a baseball game. I only had a Time magazine story to rely on in writing this report. But thanks to my intrepid editor, I now have access to the…
Two Men On. No Outs. Brad Lidge in the Game…
Well, if there’s a strange way to end a baseball game, leave it to the Astros to find it. The Astros held on to win 7-4 last night. But it wasn’t easy. The Dodgers started the bottom of the ninth trailing 7-3. Then there was a double and a walk…
Miss Pop Rocks: Crying for The Two Coreys
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I ask you, is there anything more pathetic than spending an hour and a half watching three back-to-back episodes of The Two Coreys on A&E? The answer is, yes, there is something more pathetic. And that more pathetic thing is actually tearing up and…
Chingo Bling vs. La Migra
If you’ve been cruising the area around the South Loop and South Wayside Drive in the past couple of weeks, you’ve probably seen a billboard with the rather blunt slogan “They Can’t Deport Us All.” That’s popular Houston rapper Chingo Bling’s provocative means of promoting his new Warner/Asylum album, also…
Drenched In Blog: Attention Denim Demons and Princes of The Rodeo
Well, I couldn’t very well let today’s blog go in without mentioning Turbonegro. You see, today they release Retox, their first set of new material since 2005’s Party Animals. The band describes their new record as a “nihilistic homo-punk-metal biker movie: full of speed, power, humiliation and freedom!” If I…
Jesus Ortiz Gets His Own Radio Show? We Just Don’t Understand…
Now here’s someone who needs her own show. In the booth with our trusty columnist, of course. Oh sweet Jesus no. Not this. Anything but this. I don’t know how the Chron gets a sports page out everyday. Star columnist John Lopez has a daily radio show. Star NFL reporter…
$13 at Edwards Marq*e on the Katy Freeway
Where: Edwards Houston Marq*e 23 & IMAX, 7620 Katy Freeway, 800-326-3264 What $13 gets you: Heartburn and a stretched bladder. I went for the well-rounded approach (and no, that’s not a fat joke), ordering a gourmet hot dog ($4), a soft pretzel ($4) and a large drink ($5). The two…
$13 at Edwards Marq*e on the Katy Freeway
Where: Edwards Houston Marq*e 23 & IMAX, 7620 Katy Freeway, 800-326-3264 What $13 gets you: Heartburn and a stretched bladder. I went for the well-rounded approach (and no, that’s not a fat joke), ordering a gourmet hot dog ($4), a soft pretzel ($4) and a large drink ($5). The two…
Open Letter to Messrs. Van Halen, E., and Roth., D.L.
Dear Sirs, My friend and colleague Brett Koshkin just informed me your new tour schedule not only does not stop in Houston, but shuns Texas altogether. Up front, I must say this doesn’t bother me in the least. I’ve never been more than a passive fan – except, of course,…
Get Lit: Redemption Song: The Ballad of Joe Strummer, by Chris Salewicz
For all the anti-establishment rabble-rousing of his music and endless booze-and-spliff-permeated pub musings, Joe Strummer was stoked the Clash was being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He was furiously working toward reuniting the classic lineup for the 2003 ceremony, if only to rip through “White Riot,”…
Are Umpires Racist? Maybe.
Well, I just came across this little study mentioned in Time magazine. Apparently, major league baseball umpires are racists. Yeah, I just thought they were blind fools who needed glasses. (Sorry, Ria.) I never suspected racism. But you can’t argue with the numbers. Actually, you can. And I will…
Racehorse Haynes Has Still Got It, If “It” Is the Ability to Defend Women Who Give Blow Jobs to 16-year-old Boys
Richard “Racehorse” Haynes, the legendary Houston lawyer who defended Cullen Davis and who was a star in the case that led to the book and movie Blood and Money, is 80 years old. What’s he up to? Defending a 41-year-old Austin woman who gave blow jobs to her 16-year-old neighbor…
Houston Press Podcast: April Hernandez, winner of “The Big Show 2007”
Oriental Rug by April Hernandez Click the button below to listen to a podcast with April Hernandez, winner of “The Big Show 2007” at Lawndale Art Center. Hernandez beat out 457 other artists for the top honor. — Olivia Flores Alvarez…
History with Bill Brown
I got a little history lesson while watching the Houston Astros game last night. Bill Brown told me that Brooklyn Dodger owner Walter O’Malley flew over the undeveloped land in Chavez Ravine and decided that was where his ballpark should be located. Funny thing, I thought that there was a…
Last Night: Against Me! at the Meridian
Against Me!The Meridian (main room)August 10, 2007 Click here for a slideshow. Better Than: Watching the Astros’ season circle the drain at Minute Maid Park. Download: For context, something from the band’s first two albums, Reinventing Axl Rose and As the Eternal Cowboy. As important as it is for professional…
The Minutemen Are Happy Karl Rove Is Leaving. We’re Not Sure How to Feel About That.
What with the announcement this morning of Karl Rove’s retirement, we expected our inboxes to be full of triumphant cries from lefty organizations, all declaring, “Ding-dong, the Turd Blossom is dead” or something along those lines. But nope, first out the gate was the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, an organization…
Drenched In Blog: I’ll Take “Sad” for $200, Alex
At the end of an illustrious life, after you’ve invented the daytime chat show and various iconic quiz shows, and even participated in the first open-mouth kiss in modern Hollywood history, there’s not much else you’ve left unconquered here on Earth. Merv Griffin passed away from prostate cancer Sunday at…
Football Practices Canceled at Hot O’Clock
According to the official Houston Press meteorological center – we ‘re still awaiting the funding that will allow an upgrade to full Severe Weather Center status, like every TV station in town – the temperature outside is Fucking Hot. How hot? So hot it’s messing with Texas high school football…
How About Those Texans?
I didn’t watch much of the Texans game on Saturday. I was too busy watching Brad Lidge return to form. But I did learn a few things during the brief time I did watch. For instance, do you know the Texans did not make one bad move this off-season? Yep,…
Shot Fired at KPFT During Zydeco Program
For a radio station whose motto is “Radio for Peace,” KPFT 90.1 FM sure attracts a lot of violence. Last night, during a Zydeco music show, a shot burst through the station’s Plexiglas window, nearly striking programmer Mary Thomas. The station manager, Duane Bradley, sounded perplexed about why someone would…
Last Night: The Gourds at Warehouse Live
The GourdsWarehouse LiveAugust 11, 2007 Click here for a slideshow. Better Than: Magic mushrooms in a bowl of Jell-O. Download: “The Gyroscopic”: Handful of monkeys with typewriters / Will be found passed out in a limousine / So cheer up, the sluts are comin’ / The big orgy just a…
Miss Pop Rocks: Lucy Noland…meow
Keeping viewers abreast… The other day I was slumped on the couch watching the tail end of Oprah claiming her truth or whatever the hell it is she does on that show, when during a commercial break, I almost fell off the couch. I reached for the phone to call…
The Astros Have Been Forsaken
Luke Scott singled early in yesterday’s game. As he stepped on first base, he signaled to the sky, thanking God for his base hit. Now, while God was busy guiding Luke Scott to first base, three people were being killed in a Missouri church shooting. Two people were being killed…
Killing the Messenger: the Numbers
This is a sidebar to the story posted yesterday on the murder of Brad Will. Brad Will is the latest victim in a continuum of U.S. reporters who have traveled to Mexico to document the struggle for justice here — and perhaps assuage their personal demons — and have wound…
Who Killed Brad Will?
And why have Mexican and U.S. authorities allowed the murderers of an American journalist go free? By John Ross OAXACA — Those of us who report from the front lines of the social justice movement in Latin America share an understanding that there’s always a bullet out there with our…
RIP Tony Wilson
Even a 24-hour party can’t last forever: Tony Wilson, founder of the Factory record label that launched Manchester-bred acts like Joy Division, New Order and Happy Mondays died Thursday night at age 57, Sky News reported today. Wilson, whose life was depicted with a large grain of salt in the…
Google Maps Is Watching You. Yeah, That Means You.
In case you missed it, Houston and parts of Galveston have joined the cutting edge of privacy invasion. Earlier this year, Google caused a stir when it introduced a “street view” tool to its map function, allowing users to view actual street scenes from any location within selected cities. Some…
We Got It Covered: Last Night’s GLBT Forum for Democratic Presidential Candidates
And now we present OutSmart contributor Josef Molnar’s take on last night’s GLBT forum for Democratic presidential candidates. As stage personnel and security people swarmed The Production Group Studios in Hollywood last night, busily touching up the stars of the two-hour Visible Vote 2008 Presidential Forum, I decided to pay…
Get Lit: E-mails from Hell: The Wrath of William Wyndell, by David Earthman
At first we thought we’d skip reviewing E-mails from Hell: The Wrath of William Wyndell. Austin author David Earthman’s book of practical-joke e-mails just seemed like too easy of a target. But then we started thinking – Earthman certainly has no problem taking aim at easy targets. And even more…
Donde El Cantante?
As we left the theater after seeing the new film El Cantante, starring Marc Anthony as Puerto Rican salsa great Hector Lavoe and Mrs. Anthony, Jennifer Lopez, as Mrs. Lavoe, Puchi Perez, someone said, “Jennifer really made the movie. Without her, the story would have been flat.” That’s true. The…
Hey Astros, Don’t Get Too Excited
It’s reality-check time for the Houston Astros. Yes, you just swept the Chicago Cubs. Yes, you’re only 8.5 games out of first place. Yes, if you sweep the Brewers this weekend you’re only 5.5 games out of first place. And I know the team’s excited by its prospects, by how…
Fuck-off Friday: It’s Too Hot to Work Anyway
Damn, it feels good to be a gangsta The countdown to happy hour is well underway, assuming you even observe such formalities. Here on Upper Milam, things are moving a little slow today thanks to the Detroit Cobras and Willowz, who sent a packed house at Rudz last night home…
$13 at Tampico Seafood Restaurant
It’s time for another installment of $13, where we hit the streets and find out what you can get for 13 smackers in this restaurant-crazy city. Russell Cobb goes fishing: Where: Tampico Seafood Restaurant, 2115 Airline Dr., 713-862-8425 What $13 gets you: A lot of tilapia and even more red…
$13 at Tampico Seafood Restaurant
It’s time for another installment of $13, where we hit the streets and find out what you can get for 13 smackers in this restaurant-crazy city. Russell Cobb goes fishing: Where: Tampico Seafood Restaurant, 2115 Airline Dr., 713-862-8425 What $13 gets you: A lot of tilapia and even more red…
Drenched In Blog: We Wanna Get High, So High
Hey all you trust-fund hippies, zonked-out hillbillies and confused stoner-rock doods: It’s time to pack up the Mystery Machine (and the bong) for Freedom Fest ’07, starring Willie Nelson, Asleep at the Wheel and Houston’s Carolyn Wonderland.. Yes, tonight in Austin we can all share in our love of roots…
It’s Time for Mario Williams to Shine. Or Else.
One of these kids is doin’ his own thing Every team needs a whipping boy. You know, the guy who drives the hometown fans and talk shows hosts absolutely insane. For last year’s Rockets, Rafer Alston bore the brunt of the blame. Over in Astros’ land, it’s Brad Lidge. Or…
Monster Truck Mishap
I witnessed many stupid events in my years working with the Astrodome video crew. The stupidest event of all – even more than any event associated with the Rodeo – was the Monster Truck event. I could never figure that damn thing out. With motorcycle races, the object was evident:…
Texas Tech Is Dirty. We Can Prove It. We Just Can’t Tell You How.
If the actual season is half as entertaining as the preseason, this will be a fun year for college football, especially in Big XII country. We’re not even in two-a-days, and we’ve got all kinds of excitement. You’ve got aggravated robberies and DWIs in Austin. Then, there’s the fallout from…
Gay Presidential Forum? We Totally Got It Covered.
Be sure to stop back by tomorrow for coverage of tonight’s presidential forum on gay issues, sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign. OutSmart contributor Josef Molnar will be filing a dispatch from Los Angeles. For those of you unfamiliar with Molnar’s body of work, we asked him to write up…
Hey, Look Over There!
We’ve got a new slideshow up, featuring selections from “Hard Knocks: Rolling with the Derby Girls,” an exhibition of photos by Shelley Calton at Watermark Fine Art. Click here to check it out. — Keith Plocek…
Drenched in Blog: Fair Warning
Get ready, all you KLOL listeners of yore: David Lee Roth and two generations of Van Halens will be in Houston soon. Monday, Van Halen will hold a press conference to announce tour dates. We can all make a safe bet that Diamond Dave will make at least two tired…
Prodigal Players
In a show review posted earlier this week, one of the commenters mentions that Valient Thorr guitarist Warren Hatfield is a Houstonian. Which reminds me… Over the years, you hear about a lot of nationally more-or-less prominent bands with Houstonian members. In addition to Hatfield and his Goldenaxe bandmate James…
Harris County Leads the Nation in Minority Growth. What You Got Now, Los Angeles?
You don’t need to be an anthropologist to walk around the streets of Houston and notice we have one of the richest and most culturally and racially diverse cities around. But in case you haven’t been outside for the past ten years or don’t believe that, indeed, white people here…
And Now, a Word or Three on the Texans
I suppose I should say something about the upcoming football season. But I’ll confess: preseason football bores the shit out of me. But the Texans do have a game coming up on Saturday night. I think they’re playing some team called the Chicago Bears. Didn’t the Bears go to the…
HouStoned Theatre, starring Bryan Jay Connelly
And now HouStoned Theatre presents a dramatization of Bryan Jay Connelly’s aborted attempt to put a hit on the judge and prosecutor who put him in the slammer. The curtain rises on Connelly standing in his cell, a rotten look on his mug, his ripped bare chest exposing his tats,…
Astros Sweep the Cubs. Ausmus Homers. Hell Drops a Few Degrees.
“Why you acting so surprised? It’s not like it never happens…” I see Lou Piniella pulled a Tommy Lasorda and changed his lineups just before the game started. However, Piniella acted because of injury issues with the Cubs, not because he’s a dick. I’ve got to tell you. I didn’t…
Straight Talk with World Net Daily
The massive changes on the AM stations owned by Clear Channel continue to assault local listeners. We had somehow survived all these years without hearing Walton & Johnson or Mancow, but after a few minutes with both, we know we haven’t missed anything. (What’s up with W&J’s ultra-fey, ultra-gay sidekick?…
Rush Hour 3
Chris Tucker still believes in Michael Jackson. You can tell, because in the very first scene of Rush Hour 3, the actor-comedian squeals melodically, grabs his crotch and throws his arms up to the heavens. All that’s missing is a giant offstage fan to make Tucker’s shirt billow out behind…
Setting the Stage
Sweet summer nights might be coming to an end, but theater lovers have reason to rejoice. The upcoming 2007–2008 season promises a year of provocative productions. Just a quick glance at a few local venues delivers a bounty of reasons to reserve seats today. The fall is full of drama…
Madame de…
Madame de… has been called “the most perfect film ever made.” That’s heady but well-deserved praise for Max Ophüls’s 1953 classic (also known as The Earrings of Madame de…). The black-and-white film follows a countess (Danielle Darrieux) in early 20th-century Paris. Trapped in a loveless marriage, she’s unhappy and in…
“three sixty”
If you couldn’t tell by the name, Michael de La Cerda’s “three sixty” is a well-rounded exhibition. The artist arranges handcrafted circles to create loopy wall hangings. He clumped green O’s together to form a piece of grass in Blades and arranged brown circles to resemble a person dancing in…
Black Sheep
They’re here, they’re fluffy and they’re pissed. Not since 1972’s Night of the Lepus, that clarion call to the clear and present danger of ill-tempered rabbits, has a monster movie palmed off a threat as counterintuitive as the woolly gut-munchers of Jonathan King’s Black Sheep. Think of this daft New…
Stage Capsule Reviews
Houston Shakespeare Festival Forget the endless rain, the suffocating heat, the blasted bugs — now is the summer of love at the Houston Shakespeare Festival. And the smoldering heat onstage at the Miller Outdoor Theatre will go a long way toward making you forget about the weather outside. The most…
Arnez J
Arnez J’s humor isn’t for everyone: He uses the N-word liberally, and at least once in every show he humps something. He makes fun of the differently-abled, homosexuals, white folks and God. In general, he does every politically incorrect thing you can think of. Oh yeah, and he’s hilarious. (“Florida…
Shake Russell
There was a time when Shake Russell could’ve run for mayor in Houston and probably finished with enough votes to shame both political parties. He might even have pulled a majority in Montrose and the Heights. For almost 30 years, Russell was a duo with Dana Cooper, and the pair…
The Popcorn King
It’s a bright March afternoon on the set of Rush Hour 3, and the mood is tense. After shooting last winter on location in Paris, the production has returned to Los Angeles behind schedule and over budget. The Supermarine Executive Air Terminal of the Santa Monica Airport has been transformed…
“China Under Construction”
There is a whole lotta Asian art out there right now, filling practically every gallery in the city. The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston’s “RED HOT — Asian Art Today from the Chaney Family Collection” has created an Asian art storm. Chinese art — Chinese pop in particular — is…
Cory Morrow & Eli Young Band
You’ve got to give Cory Morrow props for attempting to make more serious music since his drug-possession arrest in Austin a couple of years ago. Something about that event and the succeeding fallout seemed to give him the space to separate himself a bit from Pat Green, Robert Earl Keen,…
Dance Houston 2007
It’s hard to believe that just five years ago, this dance concert was a small-time variety show held at St. John’s School, with the modest mission to increase dance appreciation in Houston. It seems to have succeeded: Dance Houston 2007 has had to find vastly larger performance spaces, dance companies…
Harris County librarians and UT Longhorn football players’ arrests
It was a cri de coeur from a panicked, if sadly anonymous, Harris County librarian. “Last week we were informed of one of our ‘other duties as assigned’ which has everyone angry and afraid,” the letter said. What, dressing up as Harry Potter? No. Rushing to the front lines of…
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…
“Face the Music: An Evening of Jazz Dedicated to Fighting AIDS in Africa”
Leave it to a Longhorn to figure out how to have a good time and do good at the same time. “We want to do both,” says Kayleigh McCormac, a member of the University of Texas FACE AIDS chapter and chair for the “Face the Music: An Evening of Jazz…
On Top of Spaghetti
Everybody loves cheese,” Antonio Rosa, the owner of Antonio’s Flying Pizza on Hillcroft, told me as I leaned over the counter to watch him make pizzas. The pizza he was cutting was piled high with meat and dripping with melted mozzarella. “But all that cheese doesn’t let the crust breathe…
Mail Call
HouStoned blog readers respond to “Creationism and the Dumbing Down of Texas,” by Margaret Downing, July 19. Poor Kansas: Hey! It’s not my fault everyone who lives within me is a religious retard! Why not pick on Oklahoma for a change? Kansas says, July 19 Idiots: Jesus said that the…
Mexican-American Culture
Dear Mexican, I’ve run into a problem with my wife. I’d like to proudly display our last name on the back window of the family car, but she won’t allow it. How can I convince her that’s it’s a long and honored Mexican tradition to do so? Tejano Rick P.S.:…
I.J. Gosey’s Sunday Afternoon Blues Party
The passing of Jimmy T-99 Nelson makes I.J. Gosey’s Sunday Afternoon Blues Party all the more a treasure. One of only a handful of session players from the legendary Duke-Peacock recording sessions still working, Gosey is the realest of deals, a bluesman who not only lives to play but plays…
Suspicious Minds
Next Thursday will be 30 years since the King of rock and roll, Elvis Aron Presley to his mama and daddy, keeled over on his Graceland throne, dead at the love-me-tender age of 42. Of course, many believe his death was a McCartney-like hoax, that Big E could be sucking…
Elvis Is Everywhere
Bubba Ho-tep Limited Edition (MGM) Intentional camp is difficult to do well. It’s a contradiction that usually comes off cutesy and forced. The old Batman series pulled it off, and it’s been B-movie god Bruce Campbell’s livelihood. But in a long career of overacting and mugging, Campbell’s peak may be…
Downtown Houston Night Crawl
“This isn’t a pub crawl! It’s a tour,” says Discover Houston Tours founder Sandra Lord, making it clear that winos aren’t welcome on the Downtown Houston Night Crawl. “We’re going to visit the Old Cotton Exchange, La Carafe and the Char Bar, among others. The last tour we hit almost…
Cage Match
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages, in a three-way tag-team cage match, it’s Houston’s Battle of the Sexual-Identity Stereotypes! That’s right, folks, starting Saturday, it’s an all-out war of the prefixes! Jägermeister will be spilt, flannel torn and glitter scattered in the breeze! Epithets will be…
Star Dreck
Publisher: Sega
Platform: Wii, PSP
Price: $49.99
ESRB Rating: T (for Teen)
Score: 6 (out of 10)
Alaska or…The Secret of Yonder Mountain
Summer silliness abounds in Old Town Spring. The Ace Theatre’s melodrama Alaska or…The Secret of Yonder Mountain tells the tale of a girl who fears her man has died (aw, sniffle, sniffle). When she goes searching for him, she discovers that he’s struck it rich in the Alaskan mountains (oh,…
Farewell T-99
“I’ll miss the one-night stands / travelin’ from town to town / the friendly faces / and the hecklin’ clowns / racin’ down the road to make the gig on time / the highway patrol and the soul food signs / I dig the backstage smoke / before the show…
Old Town School of Folk Music Songbook Vols. 2 & 3
Like an Old Testament of folk music, these compilations — 42 songs in all — are both celebration and preservation. Artists ranging from faculty of the 50-year-old titular Chicago institution to Austin honky-tonk legend James Hand to alt-country chanteuse Kelly Hogan play ’em stripped and straight up, taking each performance…
Our top DVD picks scheduled for release this week
Beneath (Paramount) Brigitte Bardot 5-Film Collection (Lionsgate) Luis Bunuel: 2-Disc Collector’s Edition (Lionsgate) Disturbia (DreamWorks) The Dog Problem (THINKfilm) The Dresden Files: The Complete First Season (Lionsgate) 8 Simple Rules: The Complete First Season (Buena Vista) The Fly: Collector Set (Fox) Full House: The Complete Seventh Season (Warner Bros.) The…
The Riff Tiffs
If you have put off seeing The Riff Tiffs, don’t miss today’s show. It’s going to be the high school band’s last performance before heading off to college. Who knows what will happen to the ambient rockers who aim to capture the softer sides of Don Caballero and Sonic Youth?…
Houston Press Music Awards Winners
The Houston Press Music Awards turned 18 this year — the event is finally old enough to go to war, vote and get into shows. And grouse if you must about the technical glitches at both the showcase and the awards ceremony (curse you, PowerPoint!), but these seemed to be…
Jimmy Raycraft Benefit
Jimmy Raycraft has been on the Houston music scene almost as long as there’s been one, lending his vocal and guitar talents to a slew of edgy bands: heavy rockers Spatz in the early ’70s, hard-partying ’80s faves the Dishes, Herschel Berry and the Natives, as well as numerous incarnations…
California Guitar Trio
If you’re looking for truth in advertising for your entertainment dollar, it’s hard to beat the California Guitar Trio — three guys, with guitars, from California. Well, okay, maybe they’re not really from California (Paul Richards, Bert Lams and Hideyo Moriya all live outside of Cali), but they do have…
Dress Blues
After five years riding with the Drive-By Truckers, Jason Isbell is finally in the driver’s seat, behind the wheel of his own rig. No hard feelings, he says from the road during his first week supporting his outstanding solo debut, Sirens of the Ditch. Since former bandmates Patterson Hood, Shonna…
Skyblue 72
2007 Houston Press Music Award winners for Best Pop Act, Skyblue72 also freely dabble — actually more than dabble — in reggae, prog, funk and hard rock on new CD Feel My Way Home. Feel My Way was recorded mostly live, and it feels that way. Those pop voters might…
Local Motion
Black Dog Records 3804 S. Shepherd, 713-522-6001 1. Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon 2. Rolling Stones, Exile on Main Street 3. Led Zeppelin, Houses of the Holy 4. Bob Dylan, Blonde on Blonde 5. Beatles, Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band 6. Velvet Underground, Velvet Underground & Nico…
“Richard Black: The Art of Cue”
It took Humble-based craftsman Richard Black a few years to figure out what he was doing — the right woods to use, which stones and skins worked best, how to distribute weight to achieve the perfect balance — but once he got it, he started churning out cue sticks that…
A Legal Matter
Are you an attorney?” Like “What’s your home address?” or “When’s the last time you watched porn with a stranger?” this sort of bold question can deep-six a bar conversation before it ever starts. Still, there are some bars where a little charm — tempered by grain spirits and a…
Terri Hendrix
Terri Hendrix is one of the most successful DIY acts in Texas. Now in its tenth year, her Wilory Records imprint — rumored to have an e-mail list 150,000 names strong — is an entirely self-contained music-marketing machine, the envy of any number of just-getting-by record labels. On this trip…
TILA’S
I’m not a fan of complimentary valet, so I park on the street between Tila’s (1111 S. Shepherd, 713-522-7654) and a neighborhood “no pooping” sign. It’s here that we see a terrier — smaller than his owner’s engagement ring — fertilizing the sidewalk. Apparently she confuses my sarcastic query (“You…
Reefer Madness
Start the school year off with everything your parents warned you about — sex, drugs and…show tunes? Okay, so maybe a musical isn’t what comes to mind for an end-of-the-summer celebration, but Reefer Madness isn’t exactly as wholesome as Guys and Dolls and South Pacific. The musical was based on…
Against Me!
Jacksonville’s Against Me! shares a hometown with Lynyrd Skynyrd and, discounting the redneck caricature Skynyrd became after frontman/spiritual leader Ronnie Van Zant’s 1977 death, a lot more: a keen eye for the flaws of leaders and those being led alike, and songs with sentiments as potent as their melodies. Singer…
The Gourds
Hard to believe it’s been more than a decade since the Gourds crawled out of a squalid rehearsal shack in North Austin dubbed the Steamy Bowl, “a crooked little hothouse where music and words germinate and flower into song — or wilt, crumple and dissolve back into the Earth,” wrote…
Sisters Morales
One of the top acts on the Houston scene for the past 12 years, Sisters Morales (Lisa and Roberta) have recently relocated to the San Antonio area. Since forming Sisters Morales in 1989, they’ve put out three solid albums and toured the world, and they continue to pack almost every…
“Fruit of the Orchard: Environmental Justice in East Texas”
“Fruit of the Orchard: Environmental Justice in East Texas” chronicles the story of Winona, Texas, a tiny town of 500, and its struggles with a nearby toxic waste facility. When it was built in 1982, residents were told that fruit trees would be planted on some of the land. However,…
Garbage
Thirteen years ago, Garbage created a rock-electronica hybrid and proclaimed, “I can’t use what I can’t abuse” — the opening lyric of “Vow,” the first song on this two-disc singles compilation. As always, the songs are rife with residual, mid-’90s, post-Nirvana nihilism and glossed with a Phil Spector-like wall of…
Bamboo Garden
At first glance, the crispy chili baby corn ($6) at Inchin’s Bamboo Garden (14025 Southwest Freeway, 713-529-2245) looks a lot like Tater Tots®. One taste, however, and you’ll know you’re eating something else entirely — something a whole lot spicier. It’s actually whole pieces of baby corn coated in batter,…
“Animal Grossology”
“Animal Grossology,” a traveling interactive exhibition, includes yucky displays that fall into one of five categories: Dookie Lovers, Slime Makers, Vomit Munchers, Blood Slurpers and Other Gross Stuff. Kiddos learn interesting facts about what dung beetles eat (you may be able to guess from the name) and bee barf (let’s…
Sneaker Summit
The Sneaker Summit is an expo with a whole lotta sole. The event is designed for shoe collectors looking to expand, trade or show off their collections. “It’s kind of like a comic book convention for sneaker heads,” says Craig “BBC” Long. Collecting kicks (shoes, people) is a growing hobby,…
The Lonely H
Only the fresh faces of The Lonely H, five longhaired kids barely out of high school, bear the markings of just how young they are. Their music is mature and honed with finesse, aged well beyond the members’ years, from back when rock unironically riffed and strutted and gestured mischievously…
Stardust
Stardust is less an adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s 1999 novel than of its dust-jacket synopsis. That will come as disconcerting news to fans of the author, who thus far has avoided the fate of fellow fantasy writers and comics creators who’ve had their works mangled by the studios’ clumsy assembly…
Russian American Kids Circus
“Everything I need to know I learned while juggling on a unicycle.” This should be the motto for the members of Russian American Kids Circus. Instead of arithmetic and history, these six- to 16-year-olds are balancing poles, hoops, plates and each other on their heads, shoulders and backs as they…
The Barbeque People
Many awkward topics of conversation might spring up at your family’s Labor Day get-together, but a murder cover-up probably isn’t one of them. That’s not the case for the family in The Barbeque People. The 2003 drama, screening today as part of the Jewish Community Center’s Israeli Film Series, depicts…
Paris Falls
Right now, Paris Falls is one of the most promising rock acts in Houston, with a sound equal parts fun and good. That sounds pretty elementary, but it’s nice to catch a breath of fresh pop air in this age of experimentalism. Led by husband and wife Raymond and Jennifer…
Saying Goodbye to Two Giants of Cinema
Ingmar Bergman directed more than 50 features, but he was a significant figure in 20th-century culture in part because he was so obviously significant. Last week’s inch-above-the-fold front-page New York Times obituary cites Woody Allen’s pledge of allegiance: The Swedish director was nothing less than “the greatest film artist…since the…
“Seeing Beneath Mount Everest: Probing a Breeding Ground of Destructive Earthquakes
Dr. Anne Sheehan likes getting high — elevation-ally speaking, that is. She’ll be telling viewers about it at her “Seeing Beneath Mount Everest: Probing a Breeding Ground of Destructive Earthquakes” presentation as part of the Houston Museum of Natural Science’s Distinguished Lecture series. Sheehan, with the University of Colorado, Boulder,…
Al Andalus! The Legend
Sara Draper calls her Al Andalus! The Legend a “dance epic,” and rightfully so. The show includes flamenco, North African and modern dance, along with singing and recorded narration, to tell an “interethnic” love story set in the golden age of medieval Spain, where philosophy and scholarship flourished. For half…
Detroit Cobras, Willowz
Garage rock, whether the vintage or contemporary strain, is mostly a boys’ club, a testosterone-fueled rave-up of vocal wails and crazy guitar runs. But the ladies dig the sound as well — and can play it. You might not want to bring singer Rachel Nagy and guitarist Mary Ramirez of…
The Super Fun of It
In the fall of 2006, David Lynch published a book called Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity. “Ideas are like fish,” he begins, and the book is his guide to their natural habitat (the unconscious); the best way to hook them (transcendental meditation); and the most effective kinds…
The Dark Crystal
Watching Jim Henson’s The Dark Crystal, one question comes to mind: Did he model the race of the gelflings off RUSH’s Geddy Lee? (Seriously, the resemblance is uncanny.) The fantasy film uses puppetry to chronicle the journey of Jen, a Geddy look-alike on a quest to save the planet Thra…
Pong
Watching Pong is like seeing the coolest results of a mid-life crisis, ever. The Austin group is comprised of five thirtysomethings who look like they either fix computers or sell cars. But instead of buying Hawaiian shirts and sports cars to impress the ladies, the guys got together and wrote…