Ten Great Rap Albums from 2006
Clipse Hell Hath No Fury Borderline-irreverent tales of coke trade, consumption, and anxiety with the Neptunes’ hottest/weirdest beats in ages. The Coup Pick a Bigger Weapon Boots Riley, Cali’s smoothest MC next to Snoop, takes the limp defeatism out of leftist resistance; his bop gun weighs a ton. E-40 My…
Music Educator Awards
Know a great music teacher? The Houston Symphony is looking for some for the first annual Fidelity Investments Inspire the Future Awards for Outstanding Music Educators. The Inspire the Future program will be presenting five $1,000 awards to local music educators during the Houston Symphony’s annual Salute to Educators Concert…
RIP, James Brown
Daniel Kramer Papa didn’t take no mess. Spike Lee, in his 1989 masterpiece Do the Right Thing, managed to examine the whole of black thought on the race question. You had the stuttering savant Smiley, Sweet Dick Willie and his streetcorner sages, the drunken but wise and heroic Mayor, and…
Dr. Paul’s Tsunami Orphans – Oh, Really?
Photo provided by Global Peace Initiative Dr. K. A. Paul (a.k.a. Anand Kilari) Two months after Dr. K.A. Paul’s “Secretary General” sent us a certified letter demanding we no longer contact them, Paul’s organization sends us a press release about a little fundraiser his Alleged Orphan Dancers were supposed to…
Dream a Little Dream
Jamie Foxx and the amazing Miss Jennifer Hudson Christmas Day 2006 and auditorium #19 at Sugar Land’s First Colony Mall was packed for the 11:40 a.m. showing of Dreamgirls. Every seat had been sold and ushers had to enforce some last minute re-arranging so everyone could sit (although one guy…
Playbill: Daniel Johnston
Artistically and theatrically, it’s been a monster year for Waller resident and indie music pioneer Daniel Johnston. In March, a dozen Johnston drawings were included in New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art Biennial 2006, and in the same month the 2005 Sundance Film Festival sensation The Devil and Daniel…
The DeBakey Debacle
At 98 years old, Dr. Michael E. DeBakey is the oldest person to survive the surgical technique he pioneered. The Gray Lady ran a Christmas Day feature on pioneer heart surgeon Dr. Michael E. DeBakey. It’s a compelling yarn, detailing the decision to operate though the 98-year-old Houstonian signed a…
Rotation: Out Louder
Medeski, Scofield , Martin and Wood Out Louder Indirecto On Out Louder, jazz guitar legend John Scofield has once again teamed up with groove masters John Medeski, Billy Martin and Chris Wood to create magic. Not since the 1998 masterpiece A Go Go has the quartet recorded together. Unlike A…
Re: From Hairballs: Cameras Record Abusive Insidious Graffiti-ers
Courtesy of Dirty Third Streets Apparently, taggers such as this one can pretty much spray anywhere — including HPD substations. We’re pretty sure this is what you’d call “irony.” You may remember an item in Hariballs about a surveillance system that supposedly catches taggers in the act. Basically, your Houston…
Seasonal Smack-Down
Courtesy of Doomsday Wrestling 110% Phenomenal brings it all today and tomorrow. “Christmas? Go ahead and cancel it because this is going to dwarf it in comparison!” says Doomsday Wrestling promoter Tex Lonestar. Today, the Meridian will host seven comedic smack-downs. The undefeated 110% Phenomenal will face the tag team…
Seasonal Smack-Down
Courtesy of Doomsday Wrestling 110% Phenomenal brings it all today and tomorrow. “Christmas? Go ahead and cancel it because this is going to dwarf it in comparison!” says Doomsday Wrestling promoter Tex Lonestar. Today, the Meridian will host seven comedic smack-downs. The undefeated 110% Phenomenal will face the tag team…
Hey Drunks, We’ve Got Your BAC
BACtrak/KHN Solutions, LLC. “I played a little switcheroo with Mike — he’s outside trying to breathe into his iPod!” Thanks to today’s Houston Press editorial holiday party and my boss’s potent rum ball treats, I’m currently preoccupied with the whole idea of DWI. And what serendipitously should fall on my…
Playbill: Conrad Johnson & Calvin Owens
Calvin Owens introduces Evelyn Rubio, the Spanish blues singer and sax player Two legenadary orchestras get together for one magical night this Saturday, December 23, when Conrad Johnson and his Orchestra and Calvin Owens and his Orchestra share the bill at the Doubletree Hotel – Downtown. The evening features Tweed…
Re: Wanted: Stoopid Christmas Fotos
Courtesy of Jay Lee You must not upset Farting Bear. Um, we may have a winner. As you may have heard, we’re taking submissions for Stoopid Holiday Fotos, and we’re doling out prizes. Our pal Charles at Off the Kuff has been spreading the word, and he has directed blogger…
Joe’s A-Go
Imageshack.com Addai looks to be healthy enough to embarass some Texans Sunday. Well, lucky us. Turns out that Joseph Addai, the Indianapolis Colts’ rookie running back stud and Sharpstown High alum, will be healthy enough to play on Sunday against the Texans. That’s great news for Addai, who’ll get to…
Yule Love This Soul Food
Robb Walsh The Rev shows off his $1.99 lunch. Reverend Jeffery is serving up some righteous fried chicken at Just Like Mama’s, his brand new soul food restaurant on Liberty Road (Liberty turns into Quitman West of Highway 59). The lunch special is a value-and-a-half… Stop by and try the…
Yule Love This Soul Food
Robb Walsh The Rev shows off his $1.99 lunch. Reverend Jeffery is serving up some righteous fried chicken at Just Like Mama’s, his brand new soul food restaurant on Liberty Road (Liberty turns into Quitman West of Highway 59). The lunch special is a value-and-a-half… Stop by and try the…
O Christmas Song, O Christmas Song
Slampo’s Place has finally gotten into the swing of the season with a discussion of the greatest Christmas songs ever, so it’s time we did over here at HouStoned too. Slampo stole some of our thunder, as we agree that Charles Brown’s “Please Come Home for Christmas,” Robert Earl Keen’s…
Rock Star Lesbians
A fire on November 15 closed two of the three bars at Chance’s (1100 Westheimer, 713-523-9533), but The Barn is still open with pool, Bud Light and the occasional flannel shirt. Tonight is Rock Star Thursday. Even though I’m wearing an outfit that no straight man could have possibly put…
Our top DVD picks for the week of December 21
Our top DVD picks for the week of December 19: Agnes & His Brothers (First Run) All the King’s Men (Sony) American Pie: The Naked Mile (Universal) The Beauty Academy of Kabul (Docurama) The Celestine Prophecy (Sony) Checking Out (Allumination) Derailed (Weinstein) Dreamland (Sony) Invincible (Disney) Lady in the Water…
Amos Lee
Philly native Amos Lee says he listened to a lot of Bruce Springsteen before starting work on his latest CD, Supply and Demand. It shows — not so much in style, but structure. For example, Lee and his cohorts supposedly spent 24 hours straight working on the CD’s first single,…
Snowbyrd
Touting oneself as “San Antonio’s most innovative new band” seems a bit pretentious, but that’s what it says right at the top of Snowbyrd’s bio. Lyrics like “It’s sometimes hard to find us / but there’s no need to remind us / guitar rock is back / ’cause we never…
Black Stone Cherry
Like Wolfmother, this year’s other new-band-with-a-classic-sound breakthrough, Black Stone Cherry aims to roll modern rock back a couple of decades (let’s just hope they leave big hair and platform shoes on VH1 Classic, where they belong). But while the ‘Mothers sing fantastical high-pitched numbers about white unicorns, pyramids and witches,…
2006 Year In Review: It’s Soooo High School
Robert Wilonsky’s Top Ten Movies of 2006 1. Brick (Rian Johnson, USA) 2. The Queen (Stephen Frears, U.K.) 3. United 23 (Paul Greengrass, U.K.-USA) 4. Cavite (Neill Dela Llana and Ian Gamazon, USA) 5. Dreamgirls (Bill Condon, USA) 6. The Devil Wears Prada (David Frankel, USA) 7. The Heart of…
2006 Year In Review: Taking the Long View
Jim Ridley’s Top Ten Movies of 2006 1. Army of Shadows (Jean-Pierre Melville, France) 2. Children of Men (Alfonso Cuarn, U.K. -USA) 3. United 93 (Paul Greengrass, U.K.-USA) 4. Mutual Appreciation (Andrew Bujalski, USA) 5. Casino Royale (Martin Campbell, U.K.-USA) 6. The Departed (Martin Scorsese, USA) 7. The Prestige (Christopher…
Like Herding Sheep
It took Norman Mailer seven years and 1,282 pages to write 1991’s Harlot’s Ghost: A Novel of the CIA, and if memory serves, it took me 12 years to actually finish it. So director Robert De Niro and screenwriter Eric Roth can be forgiven for taking two hours and 40…
Making Scents of the Stars
Many of you will need some last-minute gift ideas for the music fan you love this Holiday Season. Instead of handing ’em a Christmas album with a 45-minute shelf life, why not pick up something that they will cherish the entire year? Maybe something like a star-themed cologne or perfume…
The Man Who Loved Women
Men are literally disposable in Pedro Almodvar’s Volver. But the film, particularly for fans of the gynophilic, flamboyantly color-coordinating maker of loco melodramas, is essential. The title translates as Coming Back — as in “back from the dead,” referring to the matter-of-fact resurrection of Irene (Carmen Maura), an old grandmother…
FISH STICKS
The cubes of tilapia in the fish kabobs ($13.99) at Pasha (2325 University, 713-592-0020) are marinated in olive oil and Turkish spices before being charbroiled, which adds a smoky flavor to the fish. There’s no need to remove the tilapia from skewers, since that’s taken care of by the kitchen…
Gods and Lovers
Today, Atul and Sarika Maheshwari are gods incarnate. People have flown in from all over the world — India, Canada, England and even the Ukraine — to celebrate them. These visiting guests wait patiently in a ballroom. Waiting is not unusual. The gods are rarely punctual. But the guests, spread…
Rocky V. Ahmadinejad
Bankrupt and brain damaged in Rocky V, a bout fought so long ago that the other Bush was still sucker-punching Saddam, Sylvester Stallone’s titular pugilist returns to issue another beating in Rocky Balboa. How much punishment can an audience take? Even 007 gets his license renewed by younger models every…
Off Trek
The TV show Firefly was an anti-Star Trek of sorts. While both shows featured crews traveling through space, the ill-tempered pirates on Firefly stuck together for high-stakes thefts, not Trekkie-style peace-spreading missions. But both had equally rabid fan bases. Like the original Trekkies, whose letter-writing campaigns turned a canceled TV…
Business Alliances
It was September 28, and the Aggies couldn’t have been happier. Texas A&M was cohosting its first Technology Commercialization and Investment Forum in Houston’s InterContinental Hotel. Press releases touted how “companies commercializing cutting-edge technologies” developed by Aggie researchers would be exposed to hundreds of hotshot investors from around the world…
Trim the Trimmings
In October 1843, needing money, Charles Dickens remembered a little tale he had told in a weekly periodical about a grumpy old miser visited by Christmas ghosts. He reworked this story, and six weeks later his “ghostly little book” was published. A Christmas Carol was a sensational success, and it…
Split Personality
PK’s Blue Water Grill has the soul of a funky fish house and the body of a fashionable seafood restaurant. That disarming combination takes some getting used to, but it’s a successful enough merger. The proprietor, Pat Kiley, reportedly spent more than a decade with Goode Co. Seafood, and he’s…
Beer Time in Austin
The Saint Arnold brewery, and the beer that flows from its small facility, are two of the best things about Houston. So it is with some trepidation that we report that co-founder Brock Wagner is about to start lobbying Austin for a change in the state’s beer-selling law, and that…
Capsule Reviews
A Fertle Holiday One of the best ways to spend an evening this holiday is with the Fertles, the oddball family that resides at the Radio Music Theatre. Yes, it’s time yet again for A Fertle Holiday. The laugh-out-loud show is full of the small-town characters that Rich Mills and…
NUMBERS’S
It’s midnight on a Friday, and I find myself awash in a sea of underground dance hits from the ’80s, ’90s and whatever the hell we call this decade, which is basically like the ’80s plus studded leather belts and ProTools. We’re at Numbers (300 Westheimer, 713-526-6551) for the birthday…
Picking Battle
Mean machine: Shame on you for printing more open borders/unlimited immigration-from-Mexico propaganda, complete with bratty farmers threatening to move U.S. food production to Mexico [“Shorthanded,” by Todd Spivak, December 7]. Cabbages, apples and most other types of field crops can be harvested by machine. From the American Society of Agricultural…
Capsule Reviews
DiverseWorks: J Hill’s Sound Installations You can hear the Sonny Liston/Muhammad Ali fight in the bathroom at DiverseWorks. It’s part of an ongoing series of sound installations by artist J Hill in the arts space’s two public bathrooms. Hill dotted the walls and ceiling of the bathroom with speakers, transforming…
Yellow and Green
Paris Green’s newly released Rambling Yellow Paper CD was three years in the making, something Green cofounder and lead guitarist Justin Pea says was a good thing. “A lot of things happened during that time to us, a lot of personal tragedy and downtime,” says Pea, referring to the death…
Special Year-End Edicin
Dear Mexican, I’m a Spanish-language student struggling with tenses and the gender of nouns. The other day, some friends and I were discussing street slang and the word verga (penis) came up (no pun intended). It occurred to me that the definitive symbol of masculinity ends in the feminine -a…
Don’t Fear the Reaper
A few years ago, we started jacking the Greil Marcus Rock Death Meter, the one he invented in his 1979 essay “Rock Death in the 1970s: A Sweepstakes.” Fed up with the overuse of the word “survivor” in many of the music articles of the time, Marcus rated the rockers…
A True Horror Classic
When the Levees Broke (HBO) Spike Lee’s four-part doc, easily the best non-fiction film of 2006, gets a fifth part on DVD: a 105-minute epilogue that reveals just how little has changed since Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast in August 2005. Featuring new interviews with the displaced and displeased,…
Slay Bells
Somewhere in a dim and lurid recording studio in Los Angeles, your favorite artists are laying down a few Christmas tracks. No, not because they have the holiday spirit, but because they want to pay for their new private jets and calf implants. Right now, at this very moment, the…
Posterizing EA
Publisher: 2K Sports
Platform: PS2, PS3 Xbox, X360
Price: $30-$60
ESRB Rating: Everyone
Score: 8 (out of 10)
Cred Sheet
Alarming mail Receiving a package with nine copies of the new Primitive Radio Gods record. Aw, man, musta gotten trashed and surfed cdbaby.com again. TV Atrocity The Daily Show cutting off Tom Waits’s in-studio performance of “The Day After Tomorrow” in mid-verse. Further proof of Colbert’s superiority. Cartoon Planet Emusic.com’s…
Your Lucky Night
We know 2007 will be a good year because of one lucky number — seven. The number represents the Seven Lucky Gods of Japan, how many days it took God to create the earth in Christianity, and the pH of pure water. But we’re not drinking water tonight. There are…