Overlooked in ’05
Listening to every single thing that comes across my desk is by and large a painful if not soul-killing experience, but it does occasionally land a few diamonds in my lap that wouldn’t get there any other way. Most of these CDs are by artists you’ve likely never heard of…
Electronic Music
While hip-hop continued to get mo’ live in ’05, and indie rock further honed post-punk/emo’s affectations into something more genuinely affecting, the arch-paradigms from the last 12 months of electronic composition seemed more concerned with looking in than locking in. And for the most part, top producers haven’t seemed as…
That Little Something Extra
The ranch burger ($6.35) at Cahill’s on Durham (903 Durham, 713-864-9400) is perfectly executed, and its smearing of ranch dressing adds a wonderful taste. Cooked over an open flame and served on a fresh-baked bun, the single large patty is covered with the dressing and topped with Swiss cheese and…
Diaspora Jammin’
The year 2005 was one of exploration and expansion in urban music. Against a Matrix-like background of corporate-controlled radio and TV, iPod-enabled consumers demanded more musical choices and were rewarded by indie labels that stepped in to provide an alternative to mainstream mediocrity once again. For every lackluster commercial effort…
Around and Back Again
In the summer of 2004, the Continental Club came under fire from the Texas Lottery Commission for violating a class-three felony: hosting Monday-night bingo games without a license. The weekly events were popular with regulars, who came out to win worthless prizes and listen to perennial retro favorites the El…
Heady Metal
When it comes to heavy metal, 2005 will be remembered as the year the promising Sounds of the Underground tour debuted, metalcore dominated the scene popularity-wise, and Iron Maiden got egged at Ozzfest. There weren’t a lot of big hits (only nü-metal holdovers Disturbed and Mudvayne cracked the Billboard Top…
Suburban Import
If you love Indian food, then you’ve got to love the Houston suburbs. Yes, they’re stomping grounds for nutters in propaganda-plastered H2’s, but they’re also home, to the south and west, to Indians and their most authentic and creative eateries. That’s why the recent news that two of the most…
Freestyle Fellowship
So barefoot-boogie hippies rub you the wrong way. Or maybe you’re more open-minded than the typical cranky-pants, scene-sucking elitist. Either way, hopefully you’re savvy enough to realize that shortcut labels like “jam band” and ” indie rock” better describe a group’s business approach and fan base than its sound. This…
Mint Julep
When I walk into the Kentucky Club (2707 Fountain View, 832-252-7267), it seems the entire bar is illuminated by the 20 TV screens on the walls. There’s a blond sitting at the bar flipping channels. I ask her if she can make a mint julep. She stares at the ceiling,…
Sweat Along with Russell
Cinderella Man (Universal) Back in the Great Depression, boxing matches only cost a nickel, and the ring was uphill both ways. That’s the central message of this well-made if sappy bio of 1930s boxer Jim Braddock. Ron Howard’s direction and a stellar cast save the film from its one-dimensional characters…
Pop Rocks
In 2005, pop music was rock music. Between Kelly Clarkson’s tarted-up “Since U Been Gone,” Ashlee Simpson’s raspy, Courtney Love-after-a-bender vocals and Hilary Duff’s collabs with her Good Charlotte boy-toy Joel Madden, even the biggest Top 40 starlets liked their guitars cranked up to a sassy 11. Elsewhere, rockers in…
Near Perfect
In less than a decade, first-person shooters like Doom and Halo have grown from a niche genre to a cottage industry. Whether it’s our love for their immersiveness, competition, or just old-fashioned bloodlust, the popularity of FPS games shows no sign of waning. They’ve become so much of a draw,…
Let There Be Rock
My undying love for Dudes with Guitars Who Think Way Too Much About Girls is now a critical liability, as Rockism has recently become grounds for public execution. I can only hope my final hours (before I am personally decapitated by Missy Elliott) are as graceful, poignant and unabashedly melodramatic…
Our top DVD picks for the week of December 6
Dirty Love (First Look) Dragonball Movie Boxed Set (Funimation) Everybody Loves Raymond: The Complete Fifth Season (Warner Bros.) Fun With Dick and Jane(1977) (Columbia/Tristar) The Future of Food (Cinema Libre) Gilbert Gottfried: Dirty Jokes (Image) God Save the Queen: Punk Rock Anthology (Music Video Dist.) Hellbound (Warner Bros.) He-Man &…
Do You Hear What I Hear?
Another year, another rich haul of Christmas CDs. But instead of coming up with just another essay about holiday music, this time around we decided to help out the ailing economy — not to mention you frazzled holiday shoppers out there — and do a Christmas CD Buying Guide. So…
Letters to the Editor
The Alcohol Thief Lacking brain cells: I have been an avid reader of the Houston Press since moving to Houston five years ago, and I have to tell you, “Free Booze” [by Keith Plocek, December 1] is by far the dumbest article I have read yet. To sum it up,…
Lion in Winter
If you’re a fan of C.S. Lewis’s Narnia books, all you need to know is this: Disney has done right by The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. It’s impossible to imagine it done much better, in fact. If you’re not a fan, perhaps you’re among…
System Failure
Glenda Caldwell doesn’t have a lot of faith in the system. It didn’t crash all at once the way her foundation did after Tropical Storm Allison chewed away the earth beneath the west end of her Windsor Village home in June 2001. It withered slowly in six-month installments as one…
Blood for Oil
Warner Bros. put $50 million into Syriana and allowed writer-director Stephen Gaghan as much time and travel as necessary to research and write his story. They’d be well advised to pony up a few extra bucks to provide filmgoers with a flow chart that connects the myriad scattered dots that…
The Notorious M.O.M.
The mammoth bus, with a painting of dearly departed rapper the Notorious B.I.G. on each side, seems to swallow the parking lot of the Shrine of the Black Madonna. Out from it steps Voletta Wallace, a tiny, gentle woman with a beaming grin, wearing a suit, scarf and glasses. As…
Jesus Saves
Hands down (and hands down her pants, from the sound of it), the funniest bit from the summer’s raunch smorgasbord The Aristocrats was hearing Sarah Silverman tell the infamously profane family-act joke at the center of Paul Provenza’s documentary. Where Robin Williams, Drew Carey, George Carlin and a hundred other…
A Pack of Mutts
As far as music goes, I am not a tribal person. I am not prodded by Pitchfork, nor narcotized by Relix, nor are my spirits lifted by No Depression. Not to say that those media sources are entirely flawed — indeed, each has its virtues. But each of these influential…
Thirteen Million Yogis Can’t Be Wrong
It’s no secret that documentaries have finally gained some currency in the American media. With the help of Michael Moore, Morgan Spurlock and a very cold bunch of penguins, docs have increased their audiences by railing against injustices, exposing political and corporate malfeasance, and inviting us into hidden worlds. Naked…
Sisters Are Punking It for Themselves
By day, Melissa Bransfield-Waters teaches pre-K tots at the Rise School, a private facility near the Astrodome for kids with disabilities and also those who are developing typically. She’s the mother of a toddler daughter and a master’s candidate in early childhood/special education. She’s also been a youth counselor and…
Error Message
Clare Boothe Luce has described her play Margin for Error as a “satirical melodrama.” In fact, the work is that and more: It’s at least three separate plays — political drama, murder mystery, comedy of manners — each with its own style and tone. Sometimes the three butt against one…
Hip-hop, Year Two AJ
If hip-hop had a theme song in 2005, it wasn’t “Gold Digger” or “Lose Control” or “Candy Shop,” or any tune that contained Mike Jones’s phone number. Instead, it was that old standard by the original rapper himself, Lou Reed: “I’m Waiting for the Man.” The man in this case…
Capsule Reviews
A Christmas Carol This season, the Alley Theatre has cobbled together a new version of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, and it is as darkly funny and as sweetly tender as Dickens can be. The production features the same script, which was adapted by Michael Wilson, that the Alley used…
Down-Home Delights
In 2005 Nashville hunks-in-arms like Toby Keith tuned down their jingoist jingles, the Muzik Mafia treaded water, and most of alt-country’s best contenders simply looked back. But as these ten albums from country’s mainstream and underground demonstrate, these quiet scenes were still full of ferment beneath the surface. Only the…
Capsule Reviews
removed Joy Episalla’s removed (2000-2002) is one of the worst examples of conceptual art in recent — and long-term — memory. I’m betting Episalla was one of those kids with overly supportive parents who convinced her that anything she did was fascinating to others. Using three separate videos, projected wall-size,…
They Did What?
As Curtis Armstrong’s Miles tells Tom Cruise’s Joel in the 1983 smash-hit comedy Risky Business, sometimes you just gotta say, “What the fuck.” In Joel’s case, this phrase is employed with a shrug of the shoulders and a sly smile: “What the fuck, let’s go for it.” In mine, as…
Girls Gone Wild
When you live in the boonies of Texas, you’re living a lifeless, fun-free existence where the religious right stamps out even the most feeble attempts at raciness, correct? Guess again. Head out to Bremond, a small burg halfway between the teeming metropolises of Waco and College Station. Then find yourself…