No-Name Offense
There was a bizarre little story in the February 1 Houston Chronicle. The facts were intriguing enough: According to the story, a local defense attorney, “believed to have been drinking” in mid-afternoon, plowed his Jaguar into an oncoming car near downtown and killed a man. “Police said they smelled alcohol…
Night Owls
It was late afternoon when I stumbled into the Proletariat (905 Richmond, 713-525-4499), and let’s just say happy hour was not in full swing (read: I was the only person in the joint). Despite slashed drink prices in the early hours, the proletarians apparently don’t show up until after 9…
Situational Ethics
“He’s gay.” “You’re so gay.” “What are you, gay?” “That was such a gay thing to do.” Starting around middle-school age, kids — particularly boys — start picking at each other using the G-word. Any coach or teacher can tell you this. For adults who hate hearing this stuff, it…
Off to the Front
Off to the Front Young sacrifices: What a terrific story about kids (they are still indeed kids) doing something so great for their country [“Young Guns,” by Wendy Grossman, February 6]. So many times it seems that all the newspapers report about are kids in trouble, doing drugs and committing…
Suchu Goes to Hell
Don’t be thrown off by the fact that the new Suchu Dance show Mouthpiece has nothing to do with mouths or pieces or spokespeople. Like all creative endeavors, this one started off as a vague idea. It would explore how language affects us, artistic director Jennifer Wood told DiverseWorks in…
This Week’s Day-by-Day Picks
Thursday, February 20 Sometimes nothing will satisfy like a smoky piece of flesh. If you’re hankering to tear into some succulent brisket, ribs or chicken, head to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo World’s Championship Bar-B-Que Contest. The pros will be dishing up mounds of meat and competing for prizes…
Spontaneous Architecture
Phoebe Washburn likes looking at construction sites. But while most people watch the workmen on the girders, she takes in signs of the process: stacks of wood, cinderblocks or iron beams; piles of sand; bags of concrete. She’s particularly intrigued by the little inventions rigged to solve immediate, practical problems…
Comic Timing
You won’t ever catch Maria Bamford or Zach Galifianakis making jokes about airplane peanuts. These comedians eschew the Seinfeldian “Have you ever noticed…” brand of humor. Instead, they take their cues from more “alternative” comics like Janeane Garofalo and David Cross, telling anecdotes rather than formulaic jokes and finding humor…
Sunburst 17
In one of the more mathematically curious rules of rock and roll, the “power trio” can make sounds that seem far more sizable than their lineup. Acts like Cream, Rush and Crazy Horse proved that, in the immortal philosophy of Schoolhouse Rock, three certainly can be the magic number when…
Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo
The annual Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo kicks off with a parade at 10 a.m. on Saturday, February 22, with college bands, floats, horse-drawn buggies and thousands of trail riders. For a map of the parade route through downtown, visit www.rodeohouston.com. The ConocoPhillips Rodeo Run, featuring both 10K and 5K…
Will to Power
Someone’s got to say it, so let’s start here: We’ve underestimated Will Ferrell. Honestly, it wasn’t that hard to do. His Saturday Night Live stint was never hugely impressive, as he’d often fall back on the same shtick of yelling his lines with detailed enunciation in a passive-aggressive tone that…
Psychic Gothline
The Aquarian Institute in Berkeley, California, is located in a modest two-story home with a white picket fence. It is the place of business of one Allen David Young, Ph.D., a man who is known from time to time to converse with souls who have passed away. This is why…
The Devil You Know
The fanboy suckled at the teat of comic book writer-artist Frank Miller, circa 1980-81, will be satisfied, for the most part, with this cinematic Daredevil; if nothing else, the thing’s got enough Marvel Comics in-jokes to amuse ’em down at the comics shop for ages, or at least till Hulk…
The Revelation of Jana
“Have you ever creeped yourself out? Me, too.” Jana Hunter is talking about what motivates her to write songs. “I had a period where I was kind of going crazy at my house. I was broke and out of a job. Really depressed. And I just started getting really paranoid…
Gale Farce
Right-wing pundits will be coming out of the woodwork to holler about this one. Bad enough, they’ll say, that The Life of David Gale attacks the death penalty; it also features a caricature governor of Texas with big ears and a familiar, scripture-quoting smirk. There’s a character who notes that…
Reverse Fairy Tale
Astute indie listeners with ears to the ground have been rising up to call Rilo Kiley the best new American band of the year. The group’s reputation — including a habit of stealing shows — is ever growing. Music journalists, who dragged out their sprezzatura to analyze the Breeders, Superchunk…
In the Name of…
Why do people engaged in warfare always believe that God endorses their cause and not their opponent’s? The Civil War drama Gods and Generals is filled with so much religious righteousness — endless Bible readings, urgent recitation of prayer and ardent supplications to the Lord, to say nothing of the…
We Are Houston, Hear Us Snore
Back in October, Racket wrote up a South By Southwest how-to in the hopes of improving our woeful representation at the biggest yearly event in the Live Music Capital of South Central Texas. He filled readers in on how to apply, and then clued them in on the game within…
Natural Disaster
Tony Grisoni can always tell when his old friend Terry Gilliam, the visionary who sees too far for his own good, is in pain: He laughs. The worse the pain, the harder the laughter. If that is the case, then the Terry Gilliam seen throughout Lost in La Mancha, Keith…
Demolition Doll Rods, with Young Heart Attack
This bare-bones trio, featuring rambunctious sisters Margaret Doll Rod on ramblin’ guitar and Christina Doll Rod on a skeletal upright drum kit, jettisoned the idea of an all-girl frontal attack for a secret cross-dressing weapon: singer-guitarist Danny Doll Rod. Danny, formerly of Detroit’s infamous mayhem makers the Gories, with his…
Rock Poet
Corny as it might sound, Infernal Bridegroom Productions’ Actual Air really is poetry in motion. Adapted by IBP company member (and Press assistant calendar editor) Troy Schulze from David Berman’s book of poems by the same name, the show translates his ragged lyricism from the page to the stage with…
Shemekia Copeland
Maybe the folks who still like to talk mess about Johnny Clyde Copeland’s little girl would prefer that she go into exile for, say, 20 years and re-emerge with the chronological credibility she supposedly lacks. Even better, they could just get over it and accept the fact that the 23-year-old…
Going Baroque
In a bleak morning in late January, a group of 30 Houston Symphony musicians gathered outside the box office of Jones Hall. Some carried their instruments, but they weren’t there to play. The cement was still wet from a heavy rainstorm, and the sky promised more bad weather on the…
50 Cent
Get Rich or Die Tryin’, the first full-length from rapper 50 Cent, isn’t so much a debut as an entry wound. Having been shot nine times, 50 Cent is plenty familiar with the latter. But despite all the spent rounds, death and suffering that serve as this album’s marrow, Get…
High-Tech Shia Pet
Ali Rizvi’s aunt was on a mission: She flew from London to Houston to find a husband for her daughter. As is Shiite Muslim custom, she networked with friends and family to get the names of suitable families, then arranged preliminary interviews to test matrimonial waters. But after several lackluster…
Say Cheez
The Villanova, Temple and Penn State pennants on the wall give me a good feeling about Jake’s Philly Steaks. Even more reassuring is the souvenir menu from Pat’s King of Steaks, where the steak sandwich was invented. But when I reach the counter and spot a stainless-steel warming pot with…
Mayoral Field of Dreams
With springtime just around the corner, the only things that will soon be sprouting green faster than area gardens are the campaign fields under cultivation for the upcoming mayoral race. With millions of dollars in consultant and advertising fees up for grabs, all the usual suspects are scrambling for positions…
Smoke Rings
The ingredients for the beef mesquite fajitas ($10.95) at Los Tios (4840 Beechnut, 713-660-6244) are so compelling that you may need a tortilla the diameter of a beach ball to make room for everything you want to include. Alas, these are just mortal (handmade flour) tortillas, and you must employ…