(I am) Beautiful
I think I have a cool gig – listening to free CDs, chatting up rock stars and watching music videos all day. But the really cool gig, I just found out, is being a Pussycat Doll. Part of the opening for Christina Aguilera’s Houston concert , the Pussycat Dolls are…
Dirty Money
Keith Plocek for HouStoned Images Ltd., Ulmtd. The intersection of San Jacinto and McKinney witnessed a little street theater this afternoon, courtesy of Billionaires for Coal. Four dapper fellows and one classy lady paraded around in stovetop smokestack hats, trying to give away pieces of charcoal to passersby. No one…
We Hear Houston Is Lovely. Have You Tried There?
Daniel Kramer Michael Lyddon slept on this bench at night because he had nowhere else to go. According to elected officials in Fort Bend, though, he doesn’t exist. More poor people live in suburbs than in cities. Surprising, no? The homeless population in suburban Fort Bend County is surging, though…
Tacos y Mujeres
Photos by Robb Walsh Maria hands over a taco al pastor and a taco asado, $2 each. I pulled into the parking lot of Mi Ranchito, a night club at 13502 Almeda, at around 8 pm on a Saturday night to sample the tacos at a brightly lit truck in…
Tacos y Mujeres
Photos by Robb Walsh Maria hands over a taco al pastor and a taco asado, $2 each. I pulled into the parking lot of Mi Ranchito, a night club at 13502 Almeda, at around 8 pm on a Saturday night to sample the tacos at a brightly lit truck in…
That Man Makes a Mean Lemonade
And then Cheney proceeded to shoot the reporter in the — ah, that’s just too easy. So the Brits are going to start pulling out of Iraq. Somehow this is a good sign to Dick Cheney, or at least that’s what he says in an exclusive interview with ABC News…
We’re All Gonna Die!
And don’t get us started on stampeding elephants… Imagine the scenario: A meteorite crashes into downtown Houston, leveling the entire Inner Loop with a shockwave and covering the suburbs in a cloud of dinosaur-killing dust. Space City is toast. Millions would die, according to disaster experts, if a gigantic meteorite…
Catfish Reef: Happy Woman Blues
Lucinda Williams Happy Woman Blues Smithsonian-Folkways Way back in 1980, long before she was on all those magazine covers, long before the Grammys and all the other accolades and her status among the NPR set, the woman who would be the Queen of Americana made this gentle, rootsy and unassuming…
The Secret of NIN
A third track on the upcoming Nine Inch Nails Year Zero album has been released as part of a viral marketing campaign leaked. You can download the three tracks here. So far it sounds like Trent Reznor is continuing his slow transition from fuzz-heavy industrial to titty-bar electro. An industrious…
Okay, Now He’s Ready to Go
This is not Robert Eckels. Last we checked, he doesn’t wear a fedora. Looks like Harris County Judge Robert Eckels has figured out what he wants to be when he grows up: a lobbyist with the law firm of Fulbright & Jaworski. “This is a new stage for me to…
Glory Days
The Museum of Printing History’s “Now Playing Houston: The Liberty Hall Poster Show” features reminders of a lost local treasure. Before it closed in ’77, Liberty Hall hosted Big Mama Thornton, Lightnin’ Hopkins, The Velvet Underground, The Ramones, Bonnie Raitt, Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen and other notable blues and rock…
One Giant Leap Backward for Womankind?
You probably spent last Wednesday wining and dining the person you love — or running around for a last-minute gift when for that chick or dude you’re boffing who suddenly thinks he or she’s your significant other. You probably weren’t morning the death of traditional love — unless you were…
Take That, Hillary!
Violent video games don’t necessarily lead to violent behavior, according to a study released by Aggie researcher Christopher Ferguson. He shares his results with GamePolitics.com. I conducted a meta-analysis of studies associating violent video game exposure with aggressive behaviors. A meta-analysis involves collecting existing studies in the literature, and obtaining…
We Knew It Was the Cubans All Along
That’s gotta hurt. Here are some home movies that are probably not of national historic import: — Your nephew’s Christening — Your Uncle Al getting drunk from his gin-filled hip-flask at your cousin’s bar mitzvah — You playing air guitar at the Jimi Hendrix exhibit at the Rock ‘N Roll…
Rotation: Trailer Tapes
Chris Knight The Trailer Tapes Drifters Church Records In the summer of 1996, Houstonian Frank Liddell and a 22-year old engineer named Joe Hayden took some beer, guns, fishing poles, and a portable tape machine up to Chris Knight’s mobile home in Slaughter, Kentucky. Knight wasn’t on the national radar…
SHARK Attack
It’s rodeo time, cowboys and girls. And as usual, not everyone is pleased. From Monday to Wednesday of this week, a custom-built rolling movie theater will be driving around town, showing scenes of rodeo carnage. The feel-good flick comes courtesy of an organization called SHARK (Showing Animals Respect and Kindness)…
You Know You Want It. Too Bad You Can’t Have It
Looks like we’ve got an early contender for Dumbest Press Release of the Week. Here it is, with a couple of parts bolded for stupidity: Alas, our love can never be. I’m forwarding you this information to inform you of JAMIE FOXX: UNPREDICTABLE TOUR which is coming to Houston soon…
Playbill: Texas Jazz Jam
The Monday Nite Texas Jazz Jam is back! Our jazzy friends tell us that vocalist Carol Sanders will host the return of the Monday Night Texas Jazz Jam tonight at Smitty’s Cafe and Bar. Showtime begins at 8 p.m. and there’s no cover. House band Straight-No-Chaser includes co-host Nelson Mills,…
Rap Not So Macho
A new PBS special takes an in-depth look at hip-hop’s taboo topics Rampant violence, homophobia, and misogyny have been prevalent for quite some time in hip-hop — even KRS-One once said, “Roxanne Shante is only good for steady fucking” — yet, curiously, no one’s really bothered to frame these issues…
Making Texas Proud
What would you say if someone told you the Earth doesn’t revolve around the sun or spin on its axis and that Copernicus was part of a Jewish conspiracy to undermine the Old Testament? We’d ask if we should wrap our heads in tinfoil to prevent the CIA from reading…
Idol Chatter
Sundance Head, the son of Gulf Coast music legend Roy Head and the pride of Porter, has already seen his American Idol stock soar and tumble like the gone-but-not-forgotten Texas Cyclone. After eliciting a collective jaw-drop from Randy, Paula and Simon at the Memphis auditions for his powerful and soul-steeped…
Hunger Buster
Why stop at 30 hours? When you get a press release that says “More than 500,000 teens across the nation will participate in this year’s famine,” you can’t help but take notice. And so it was with World Vision’s e-mail this morning about how hundreds of Houston teens will starve…
And Just Where Was Tinker Bell In All This?
This just in: Children all over the Houston Independent School District today had their peanut butter sandwiches taken away from them at lunch time. “By 9:45 we had checked every lunch. Each teacher went through the lunches of every child and we did not allow them to eat the sandwich…
Pucker Up
Courtesy of HPUCA Well, HouStoned lived up to its name yesterday, and we completely forgot to post about a gigantic Hershey’s Kiss that’s plaguing passersby at the corner of Waugh and Hyde Park. Okay, actually it’s not plaguing anyone — “delighting” would be a better word — but we figured…
Playbill: Jake Hooker
How many cowboys do you ever see in sunglasses? Jake Hooker has a classic honky tonk jones as big as Fort Worth. Across a four album span, it’s hard to tell Hooker’s own songs from covers of Ray Price and Johnny Bush. Dressed in retro tonk style, this fiddle-and-steel ensem…
The Scandal Just Got a Little Prettier
ET Online (where we get most of our news) reports that Leonardo DiCaprio is looking to produce and star in a movie version of Conspiracy of Fools, about the Enron saga. According to the brief story, the star of Critters 3 and The Beach would play a “newcomer to the…
Randall Bramblett
Randall Bramblett Like any great sideman, Randall Bramblett can make himself almost invisible when need be. Long-standing gigs with Steve Winwood, Traffic, the Allman Brothers, Govt. Mule and Widespread Panic make the multi-instrumentalist one of the hottest commodities in music. Despite a dance book that’s always full, he somehow finds…
Nacho ordinary nachos
The oyster nachos ($5.99) at Fish City Grill (15980 City Walk, Sugar Land, 281-494-3474) are unusual. What makes this most addictive treat so different are the crispy fried oysters adorning each chip. The oysters are dipped in a cornmeal batter before they’re fried, resulting in super crispy morsels. Round tortilla…
An Aging French Romantic
Chez Georges
Chez Georges Escargots$11.50
Oysters in cream sauce$10.50
Filet with foie gras and
truffle sauce$35
Dover sole$28
Rabbit in mustard$24
Profiteroles$8.50
Who Is Sylvia?
Sylvia Casares-Copeland, chef and owner of Sylvia’s Enchilada Kitchen, answers a few burning questions: What’s your fave ingredient, right now? Chiles and cumin — now and forever! Who is your culinary hero? My grandmother, Sara Issassi Casares. She was born in 1886 in Reynosa, Mexico, had 14 children and cooked…
Spy Vs. Spy
Directed by Billy Ray. With Chris Cooper, Ryan Phillippe, Laura Linney and Kathleen Quinlan. Rated PG-13.
Skyline Bar & Grill’s
Some days I barely get ahold of; other days I’m on top of things from the get-go. Then there’s the day I end up at the Skyline Bar & Grill (1600 Lamar, 713-739-8000), running from security in a drunken disco haze. Earlier tonight, my trusty drinking partner Sanchez and I…
Low Note
Directed by Marc Lawrence. With Hugh Grant, Drew Barrymore, Brad Garrett and Kristen Johnston. Rated PG-13.
Yuppie Scum Meets Ravishing Refugee
Directed by Anthony Minghella. With Jude Law, Juliette Binoche and Robin Wright Penn. Rated R.
Remembering Molly
Profound, insightful and sorrowful stories poured forth from news organizations around the world two weeks ago commenting on the death from breast cancer of Molly Ivins — an award-winning journalist, best-selling author and syndicated columnist from Texas. She was 62. KPRC-TV Channel 2 news reporter Phil Archer may have summarized…
Capsule Reviews
“Brooke Stroud: New Drawings” and “Michael Petry: In the Garden of Eden” There are two new exhibitions at Devin Borden Hiram Butler Gallery — one is subtle, the other subtly subversive. Brooke Stroud’s colored pencil drawings on gray cardboard have an Agnes Martin vibe to them. The cardboard looks like…
Command Performance
Rice University is known for a lot of things, but political passion ain’t one of them. The engineers and other career-minded types at the school have never quite embraced the taking up of great national causes that other students do. So it was a little surprising that Bill Clinton rocked…
Capsule Reviews
Charlie & Out at Sea Having lived under Communist domination, modern Polish emigre writer Slawomir Mrozek thrives in the “theater of the absurd” as if he were a hothouse exotic bloom, fragrant but deadly, colorful but showing rot around the edges. His early short works — two of which, from…
Letters to the Editor
Run for Cover Okay, y’all: “How to Hide Your Weed” definitely wins for the best Houston Press cover ever! And I thought it was gonna be tough to beat “Master Cockfighter.” Sarah Pants Houston Power to the people: I just wanted to write you and tell you how happy I…
Hey, what do you know, Joe?
Dear Readers, Mucho comments about my Feb. 1 column regarding the metamorphosis of Mexican names into seemingly wacky nicknames — Nini from Alejandrina, for instance, or Chely from Araceli. I argued such changes occurred thanks to linguistic laws; some of you had other theories. Here are the best. Here’s what…
Elephant’s Memory
“I wanted to first play music when I went to a Cheap Trick show when I was in sixth grade,” recalls Robert Schneider. “I went with my friend Jeff Mangum and I met my friend Will Hart for the first time there. And after the show Jeff and I, like,…
Homebody Alone
Through February 25 at Main Street Theater, 2540 Times Blvd., 713-524-6706. $20#208$35.
Dream Deferred
Baron Guy was in his early teens when he started a career as a sideman playing trumpet for the likes of Overton Owens. That was in the 1960s and ’70s. By 1975, Guy was married and had two young children, so he decided to give up the road and put…
Playing Hard to Get
Through February 24 at DiverseWorks, 1117 East Freeway, 713-223-8346.
The Essence of Gordon Chambers
Gordon Chambers is one of the few people on the planet who’s saddened by the Whitney Houston/Bobby Brown breakup. Not just because he wanted to work on future recording projects with the battling pair (Chambers had collaborated with the superstar couple on the duet “My Love,” on Houston’s 2002 Just…
Royal Flush
Marie Antoinette (Sony) Sofia Coppola’s third feature grabs you by your frilly lapels from the jump, with Gang of Four’s “Natural’s Not in It” showering guitar chords all over the credits as Kirsten Dunst nods to the audience, as if to say, Hang tight — this thing’s gonna be a…
Lucinda Williams
West Lost Highway
Do Not Disturb
Publisher: Nintendo
Platform: Nintendo DS
Price: $34.99
ESRB Rating: T (for Teen)
Score: 6 (out of 10)
Spencer Durham
Much More Than Words Cavender Castle
Talk to Mee
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the “cultural cringe” — the ingrained belief that nothing from Houston is as good as stuff from other, more glamorous places — and its effects on the local music scene. In response, local indie punk/hard-core musician and occasional Press correspondent Daniel Mee…
Boys Like Girls
Boys Like Girls Okay, so like you were playing guitar in your bedroom and then you posted some music on the Internet and a big record exec called you and made you famous? Right. That’s not exactly the true Boys Like Girls story, but it’s pretty close. Actually, the members…
Borrowed Stories
Imagine a singer who looks like Anita Baker and sings like Tracy Chapman. Seems rather incongruent, doesn’t it? Well, that’s what record execs were trying to get when they signed blues singer/songwriter Ruthie Foster to a development contract in the 1990s. Now based in Austin, Foster was born in Gause,…
Patty Griffin
Children Running Through Ato Records
Coco Montoya
Coco Montoya Guitarist/singer Coco Montoya plays what some people call Southern-fried rock. Actually, it’s just the blues turned up real loud. Whatever you call it, Montoya does it really, really well. Oh yeah, and he plays it upside down — he’s left-handed but plays a right-handed Fender Stratocaster turned the…
This Blows!
One of our primary economic development strategies must be to return these [vacant] properties to productive use and get them back on the tax rolls. –John Fabrizi; mayor, Bridgeport, CT; chair, Task Force on Vacant and Abandoned Properties, U.S. Conference of Mayors Oh, you’re early — I wasn’t expecting the…