Happy Birthdayist, Houstonist
Go on, go party with Houstonist. Your friends at HouStoned remind you, however, not to drink and blog. We got nuthin’ but love for local blogs, so when we heard that our pals at Houstonist were celebrating their first birthday — and that said celebration involved alcohol — we were…
Barbara Walters Discovers a Champion in Joel
Is Joel Osteen more than a conqueror? We hoped Babs would tell us. I can admit to buying into the hype surrounding Barbara Walter’s The 10 Most Fascinating People of 2006, which aired last night on ABC. Specifically, I wanted to see what Babs could get out of Lakewood Church’s…
Bad Spell
www.sekulagibbsforcongress.com There are at least four ways to spell Kelly’s, er, Shelley’s name. Miya Shay, the political reporter for Channel 13, has a lively blog that’s often worth checking in on. A few days ago (hey, we don’t read it daily) she had an item about council member Pam Holm,…
Cumbiamania at the Continental Club
Like the armadillo, an ancient Colombian dance music continues creeping north Super Estrella I’ve always had a theory that if the cumbia ever made the jump into the English language, it would sweep the world. A show this Saturday featuring the reunited El Super Estrella and the debut of cumbia-rockers…
Return of the Ten-Year-Old Curmudgeon
Courtesy of The Family Lomax John Henry’s back, and this time, it’s personal. (Well, not really, but we thought it sounded good.) John Henry Lomax fans (and there are a lot of ’em), rejoice! Everyone’s favorite Ten-Year-Old Curmudgeon is back, and this time, he’s taking on Family Guy, weird anime…
Best Albums of the Year, 2006
In 2006, the pop singles market continued to dominate, in no small part because the pick-to-click-driven mentality of online music stores and ringtone sites gave consumers unparalleled freedom to Choose Their Own Musical Adventure. What suffered in the meantime, though, was the quality of pop/rock albums. These platters frequently spawned…
Blind Ambition
Things are looking really good for blind people these days. First, South Korea enacts a law that qualifies only the legally blind to be registered masseuses. Then, Republican Representative Edmund Kuempel of Seguin (near Austin), proposes a law that would allow legally blind Texans to go hunting. With laser sights…
Hu Ha
Courtesy of Press publisher Stuart Folb, Dubya and Yes-Woman Secretary of State Condi Rice doin’ it Vaudeville-style:…
Playbill: Austin Lucas
www.myspace.com/austinlucas1 Tra–oops, Austin. On his MySpace page, singer/songwriter Austin Lucas uses the “Sounds Like” box of his “General Info” section to bitch about being compared to Tracy Chapman: “All I can say is that even though I find this comparison terribly flattering, I also must admit that I don’t know…
Playbill: Austin Lucas
www.myspace.com/austinlucas1 Tra–oops, Austin. On his MySpace page, singer/songwriter Austin Lucas uses the “Sounds Like” box of his “General Info” section to bitch about being compared to Tracy Chapman: “All I can say is that even though I find this comparison terribly flattering, I also must admit that I don’t know…
Well, At Least He Did Better Than the Republicans
Okay, really, you can only use the “shiite” joke once in a post, so we got nothing. The blogosphere is all abuzz about CQ National Security Editor Jeff Stein’s recent interview with Rep. Silvestre Reyes of Texas, who has been tapped by incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to head the…
Keep Voting …
There are still four more days to vote in our Favorite Houston Band poll so get your ballot in. Remember the winning band gets a profile in the Houston Press. So show some support for your local faves and help get them a little press coverage. There are over 400…
Missing Man Formation
We haven’t checked with the Mayor’s office, so we’ll just assume they issued a proclamation formally declaring yesterday and today Official Vince Young Wailing Days. One last bit of wallowing in the bitter muck of wasted draft picks: After Young went on his 39-yard classic game-winning romp, you might have…
Missing Man Formation
We haven’t checked with the Mayor’s office, so we’ll just assume they issued a proclamation formally declaring yesterday and today Official Vince Young Wailing Days. One last bit of wallowing in the bitter muck of wasted draft picks: After Young went on his 39-yard classic game-winning romp, you might have…
That’s a Nice Wine, Shucker
Julia Walsh Nothing goes with oysters like a good Sancerre. And a Muscadet. And a Quincy… In my first two years as a home oyster shucker, I have noticed my oyster-eating guests prefer Loire Valley wines with high acidity levels. I wondered: Why the Loire Valley? What about high acidity…
That’s a Nice Wine, Shucker
Julia Walsh Nothing goes with oysters like a good Sancerre. And a Muscadet. And a Quincy… In my first two years as a home oyster shucker, I have noticed my oyster-eating guests prefer Loire Valley wines with high acidity levels. I wondered: Why the Loire Valley? What about high acidity…
Does T-Mac’s Back Mean Bonzi’s Back?
NBA.com T-Mac probably shouldn’t be putting this kind of strain on his back… We’ve enjoyed watching the Houston Rockets/Bonzi Wells drama unfold. (If you haven’t yet seen it, you gotta check out Richard Connelly’s spoof of Wells’s Almost MySpace page. A can’t miss: his choice of streaming tune.) For a…
Who Burned the Lasagna?
Nick Keppler Up in smoke. After more than 25 years as Houston’s one-stop shop for cheery entertainment and gourmet lasagna, the Great Caruso Dinner Theater went up in smoke yesterday — and general manager Vassili Magazis says arson could be to blame. Houston Fire Department District Chief Tommy Dowdy confirmed…
Merry Christmas and Pass Me the Jim Beam
If you were wondering just who would issue this year’s Most Depressing Christmas-Related Press Release, we have your answer: The fine folks at FEMA . In a brilliantly understated few sentences, a script for radio public-service announcements succeeds in making us want to slit our wrists, and we didn’t even…
Exercise Your Right to Gloat
AP Photo/David J. Phillip God. For those few Houstonians who aren’t blind adherents to the Vince-Young-is-God school of thought, Sunday’s game against the Texans admirably summed up the phenomenon. Young had a pretty average day, but — as you just might have heard — won the game with a 39-yard…
Exercise Your Right to Gloat
AP Photo/David J. Phillip God. For those few Houstonians who aren’t blind adherents to the Vince-Young-is-God school of thought, Sunday’s game against the Texans admirably summed up the phenomenon. Young had a pretty average day, but — as you just might have heard — won the game with a 39-yard…
Bigger than Jesus on Toast
www.beckjord.com Now if only finding the WMD had been so easy… Seems like every few months an ad pops up on Craig’s List offering the chance to live in an apartment where George W. Bush partied. Love for W runs deep around here, for whatever reason, so we assume these…
RE: Re: My Kid Is a Ten-Year-Old Curmudgeon
Courtesy of The Family Lomax Today, John Henry learns that “teachers are people too.” If you’ve followed us of late, you know that everyone’s buzzing about our newest guest critic, John Henry Lomax, son of music editor John Nova Lomax. Some readers, such as Reg Burns, are comparing him to…
Donna Huanca’s Clean Start
Courtesy of Donna Huanca Beyonce’ by Donna Huanca Local artist Donna Huanca found out her show “2012” was canceled six days before it was scheduled to open. Huanca, a 26-year-old University of Houston graduate who has shown in New York, California and Argentina, was set to display her signature portraits…
We Like Patrice Pike
Courtesy of CBS/Rockstar: Supernova The sultry Pike, who regularly wowed audiences on Rockstar: Supernova, hits Houston tomorrow. Austin singer/songwriter/siren Patrice Pike is known to many nationally as the contestant on the reality show Rockstar: Supernova who gained a legion of fans with her impressive pipes and her chill, drama-free persona…
We Like Patrice Pike
Courtesy of CBS/Rockstar: Supernova The sultry Pike, who regularly wowed audiences on Rockstar: Supernova, hits Houston tomorrow. Austin singer/songwriter/siren Patrice Pike is known to many nationally as the contestant on the reality show Rockstar: Supernova who gained a legion of fans with her impressive pipes and her chill, drama-free persona…
Andy P: Back to the Big City
Andy, we hardly knew ye… Multiple media sources have Astros pitcher Andy Pettitte signing a one-year, $16 million deal with the New York Yankees. Pettitte came to the Astros three years ago amidst much hoopla about how he just wanted to play in the ol’ home town. A Q&A with…
Malcom in the Middle… of Angleton?
Dan Dalstra/The Brazosport Facts Frankie Muniz: child star, speed demon. If you’re heading down 288 South today for lunch or leisure, you might want to head over the MSR Houston Track in Angleton. If you’ve got a really keen eye, you’ll spot Malcom in the Middle star Frankie Muniz speeding…
Re: My Kid Is a Ten-Year-Old Curmudgeon
Courtesy of The Family Lomax We wouldn’t be surprised to see young John get his own column very soon. Turns out that the seemingly cherubic son of music critic/college football pundit John Nova Lomax is quite the critic in his own right, and man, do readers dig him. So, back…
From Hairballs: Cameras Record Abusive Insidious Graffiti-ers
Courtesy of Dirty Third Streets How did this tagger not get caught by HPD’s new S.Y.S.T.E.M.? The folks at BlogHouston have had fun with Richard Connelly’s “Punk’d!” graffiti item in this week’s Hairballs. In a nutshell, there seem to be cameras snapping photos of would-be taggers in the ‘Trose. Blogger…
Re: A Garland for the ‘Stros?
MLB.com If Buchholz’s shoulder killed the Garland deal, well, then…um…his shoulder’s got some serious ‘splainin’ to do. Oh, so it’s all Taylor Buchholz’s fault. Now there are reports (well, the Chron’s Jose De Jesus Ortiz has cited SI.com, anyway) that the Jon Garland to the Astros trade has fallen through,…
Playbill: Randy Weeks
Randy Weeks Despite living in LA, Randy Weeks has determinedly returned to Texas every couple of months since the 2006 SXSW. Bent on creating something like his loyal following at The Cinema Bar in Culver City, where his twice a month residency has become a must for fans of roots…
Soccer in Space
NASA.gov Joan already looks good in orange, so the Dynamo scarf should be a plus. You can’t say the Houston Dynamo folks aren’t geniuses when it comes to marketing… The MLS Cup game is long gone, but the team manages to stay in the news. There’s word that astronaut Joan…
Soccer in Space
NASA.gov Joan already looks good in orange, so the Dynamo scarf should be a plus. You can’t say the Houston Dynamo folks aren’t geniuses when it comes to marketing… The MLS Cup game is long gone, but the team manages to stay in the news. There’s word that astronaut Joan…
A Garland for the ‘Stros?
MLB.com Garland is a giant on the mound and has a mean curve. Bring ‘im on! Astros fans who jumped for joy this morning when they heard the team might be getting long n’ lean slinger Jon Garland (he’s 6’6/215) from the Chicago White Sox in exchange for pitcher Taylor…
My Kid Is a Ten-Year-Old Curmudgeon
Courtesy of The Family Lomax Really, does this look like the face of a tough-as-nails critic? And now, HouStoned presents our newest critic named Lomax, and it ain’t John Nova. Be sure to send him some love in the Comments section. I’ve heard it said and read on various message…
Forward, Russia!
Surprise, surprise: Yet another Top 40 act from Britain struggles for recognition here in the States. That sucks, because all frivolous punctuation aside, Forward, Russia! busts hard dance grooves, while singer Tom Woodhead shreds his throat Blood Brothers-style and guitarist Whiskas slays with intensity comparable to At the Drive-In. The…
WHEN YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT TO ORDER
The sizzling grill ($19.95) at India’s (5704 Richmond, 713-266-0131) has a little bit of everything. As the name of the dish implies, all the meat is grilled or prepared tandoori style, which imparts a red color and a wonderful smoky flavor not unlike that of barbecue. First there’s chicken tandoori,…
Larry Cooper
Larry Cooper’s songs drawl out in that deep-voiced Dave Alvin vein, all roots rock and jangle. Cooper has been in all sorts of bands locally and probably enjoyed his rocking heyday in Under the Sun with P.J. Flowers and in Personality Crisis with Willie Dunivan in the late 1990s, when…
Iron Man
Consider them mere oddities or symbols for industrialized life, but Richard Wood’s photorealistic paintings of the latches and bolts of machinery seem designed to appeal to shift workers and art professors alike. He takes the time to intricately paint items such as heavy gate fasteners, skipping no details. Red Bolt…
The Black Keys
Don’t be fooled by their move to Nonesuch Records: The Black Keys are still the spare, muddy, riff-heavy blues duo they always were. On the recent Magic Potion, singer/guitarist Dan Auerbach sounds both world-weary and road-wizened. The entrancing “Goodbye Babylon” shimmers in a dirty haze, as Auerbach gives a kiss-off…
Wintertime Blues
There’s a lot to be depressed about during the holiday season: a smaller-than-expected Christmas bonus, in-laws coming to visit, Clay Aiken television specials. But even if you’ve got the yuletide blues, you can still put on your high-heeled sneakers and jump and jive at the annual Houston Blues Society Holiday…
Shorthanded
J Carnes felt queasy looking out at the rows and rows of rotting cabbage heads marked by cracked black leaves. The pungent odor — like boiling cabbage, but worse — made him retch. Even as the sun faded into the horizon, small clusters of migrant workers remained stooped in the…
Sugar Tit Tribe
Apocalypto has a faux Greek title and an opening quote from historian Will Durant that ruminates on the decline of imperial Rome. It may seem an odd way to comment on the supposed end of an imaginary, unspeakably barbaric Mayan civilization — but WWJD? Mel Gibson means to be universal…
BAKER STREET PUB & GRILL’S
Now that a Democrat will fill disgraced Congressman Tom DeLay’s seat, and Sugar Land itself has been ranked the third best place to live in the U.S., I figure it’s time to pay a visit to our little neighbor to the southwest. I walk into Baker St. Pub & Grill…
Punk’d!
Walk behind the Leopard Lounge clothing store on Westheimer and you may be in for a surprise. If you’re lucky enough to stroll in just the right spot — the spot, say, a graffiti artist or an illegal dumper may use to indulge his muse — you’ll hear a stern…
Woman’s Glib
From its wink-wink, nudge-nudge movie-within-a-movie opening through to its bold-faced quoting of such classic Hollywood farces as The Lady Eve and His Girl Friday, Nancy Meyers’s The Holiday wants us to know that it’s different from the kind of rom-com pabulum that fills the multiplexes these days. And it is…
Houston Chopper
The blaring Nickelback tune on the radio is barely audible over the clangs, bangs and whirrs. Under a big graffiti wall mural and posters of grinning porn stars, Roman Blum attaches hoses and fits transmission pieces to a slowly evolving chopper with the skill of a brain surgeon. As he…
Say It With Diamonds?
“T.I.A.,” mutters Danny Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio), slouched across a bar in Sierra Leone. It is 1999. As the West obsesses over Clinton’s blowjob, the west African nation is mired in a savage civil war. Our hero, a world-weary soldier of fortune, has struck up conversation with Maddy Bowen (Jennifer Connelly),…
Talking Turkeys
No lame duck: Shelley Sekula-Gibbs has been known as a respected physician, loving wife and mother, dedicated city council member and tireless public servant [“Turkeys of the Year,” by Richard Connelly, November 23]. Did the special election suddenly change her? As one who has worked closely with her in city…
Hardly Poor
Poor Richard, everyone says in Jean Kerr’s romantic comedy — so talented, such a waste. The characters are talking about the best-selling poet Richard Ford (Kent Johnson), whose slim volume “The Girl with a Velvet Ribbon” has made Richard a very rich, famous writer. Unfortunately, the girl in question, his…
Chaos Theory
Jazz guitarist Al Di Meola has been to Houston before. “One of my first shows ever was at the Astrodome with Chick Corea when I was 19 years old. At the Astrodome. With 40,000 people. Can you imagine that?” he laughs. Of course, the Astrodome was a step down for…
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…
Loony Zunes
So Doug Morris, chief executive of Universal Music Group, managed to put one over on Microsoft a while back. Morris, the boss of the largest music company in the world, and what must have been a small army of lawyers, reportedly convinced Microsoft that MP3 players like their own Zune…
Capsule Reviews
“Dan Havel: House Divided” Dan Havel, along with Dean Ruck, deconstructed an old bungalow in Montrose to create Inversion, a traffic-stopping public artwork. This time Havel is working solo and constructing a small wooden bungalow — sort of. His installation “House Divided” at DiverseWorks consists of a child’s playhouse cut…
One Fan at a Time
Houston rock band Jadewood is on a mission — to earn an audience, even if it has to do it one fan at a time. Jadewood’s three members — Elias Sanchez (vocals/guitar), Librado “Lee” Cerda (drums) and Saul Sanchez (bass) — dropped by the Houston Press offices to tell us…
Who Is Chapuln?
I was flipping through my television when I noticed the Spanish-language channel showed a man in a red suit with yellow pants, antennae on his head and a heart with the letters “CH” on his chest. It appeared to be a sitcom, and all the characters related to the insect…
Cred Sheet
Fried Coke Fried Coke? Dude. Critical Boondoggle The gleefully savage reviews doled out to Twyla Tharp’s The Times They Are A-Changin’. They shoulda used more trampolines. Strange Bedfellows Vanessa Carlton signs to Murder Inc. The Ja Rule duet is gonna be totally badass. Video Vanguard Award J-Shin’s perhaps slightly too…
Alive and Well
The waitresses are chatting in Russian. The food is Italian. There’s a group of Argentineans in the corner, talking Spanish at full-speed. And Texan Tianna Hall is on stage singing classic American jazz, backed by a Norwegian guitarist and a Lebanese drummer. Yeah, this is Houston. Actually, to be precise,…
A Masterpiece on Canvas
Rocky: 2-Disc Collector’s Edition (MGM) An old TV commercial for Rocky included here compares Sylvester Stallone to Pacino, De Niro, and Brando — and though we now know this to be pure madness, it’s easy to see what inspired it. Sure, Stallone (who also wrote the Oscar-nominated screenplay) slowly destroyed…
Fetti Profoun
“Fetti Profoun” is a horrible hip-hop handle, but the hooks here are hot as hell. The CD opens with audio clips from news stations, spliced together to sound like a big, controversial story about the Phoenix-based Fetti, then busts into the title track with hydraulic-bumpin’ beats and suspenseful synths, where…
Our top DVD picks for the week of December 7
The Architect (Magnolia) Beerfest: Unrated (Warner Bros.) Charlie Chan Collection, Volume 2 (Fox) Coma Girl (Cinequest) The Conformist: Special Collector’s Edition (Paramount) Dinosaur Valley Girls: Mammoth Edition (Cinema Epoch) Dungeons & Dragons: The Complete Animated Series (Brentwood) Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton: The Film Collection (Warner Bros.) Gwen Stefani: Harajuku…
Tea Leaf Green
San Francisco’s Tea Leaf Green has made major waves in the jamband community the last couple of years. The band, having received the Song of the Year award for its “Taught to be Proud” at last year’s Jammys (an awards show for improvisational music), is now riding the crest of…
Lisa Novak
Like all smart singer/songwriters, Lisa Novak has surrounded herself with outstanding musicians, such as drummer Paul Valdez and guitarists Larry Cooper and Chris Masterson, for her latest CD, Too Shallow to Swim. And as expected, all of the sidemen on this project deliver excellent performances here. It’s Novak who is…
“White” Tepid
At the opening of “White Noise,” an exhibition of work by four Norwegian artists at the Art League Houston, people slowly began to realize Norwegian choreographer and dancer Øyvind Jørgensen was performing. He was sitting on a cube and staring into space. Well, he was either doing that or looking…
Army of Anyone
Although Army of Anyone features half of the Stone Temple Pilots and former Filter lead singer Richard Patrick, the group’s whole isn’t greater than the sum of its parts. None of the tracks on Army’s just released self-titled debut smolders quite like Filter’s mid-’90s breakthrough “Hey Man, Nice Shot” or…
Jazz and Oysters
Hours: 11 a.m. to 10.pm. Mondays through Thursdays; 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Fridays; 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. Saturdays (and Sundays during the holidays).
Baked oysters: $9.95
Grilled shrimp: $17.95
Panko salmon: $17.95
14-ounce strip steak: $25.95
Redfish with crawfish étouffée: $20.95