Date Night: Five Ideas for Valentine’s Day
It’s the mother of all date nights…and it is right around the corner. Get those Valentine’s reservations, guys and gals. We like this idea: a dinner-and-a-movie date, all rolled into one, at Alamo Drafthouse (Mason Park). For $36 per person (not bad), lovebirds can enjoy a four-course meal and a…
National Signing Day: Where’s Smash Williams Gonna Go?
I can’t help but notice that today is National Signing Day, that day when high school football stars sign their letters of intent to play for a certain college. And while I generally think the way some people so obsessively follow this is akin to those geeks who learn how…
Sara Hickman: Injecting Music Into the Death Penalty Debate
The next time you’re at a party or out with friends and feel like bringing the conversation to a standstill, try bringing up the death penalty. It’s the rhetorical equivalent of announcing you’ve got the Hanta virus or, you know, maybe Osama bin Laden isn’t all that evil. But Dallas-raised…
What’s That Dirt on Your Head? Oh Yeah, It’s Ash Wednesday
“Remember, you are dust and unto dust you shall return.” Can I get a hellz yeah? Can I get a what what? Seriously, all the Catholics in the house, just wave your hands in the air, and wave `em like you recognize the Lord Jesus Christ has died for you…
Steroids and Baseball: A Cheat is a Cheat is a Cheat is a Cheat, Except for When He’s Not
Will Leitch, editor of the great sports blog Deadspin, has a new book, God Save the Fan. I’m not here pimping the book, which despite some copy editing problems is rather good, but because I want to discuss something Leitch wrote. For those of you who have never read Leitch’s…
Drenched in Blog: Bachman Turner Overkill
Yesterday saw the release of yet another Bachman Turner Overdrive hits collection, this one titled The Definitive Collection. Quick, name me two songs that aren’t “Taking Care of Business” or “You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet.” Better yet, I defy you to even try to explain the differences between those two…
Texas Zydeco Hits the Big Screen
Since the late 1950s, zydeco has fueled one of Houston’s most vibrant and fertile music scenes, and also one of its most insular and least understood. Most people still believe this accordion-fired, rubboard-embellished, upbeat and remarkably resilient Creole dance music, which down the years has combined readily with blues, R&B,…
Dave Matthews Sucks, Almost as Much as Ken Hoffman Does
When Tom Petty was tabbed to perform at halftime of the Super Bowl, I thought it was both an inspired choice and richly deserved. And then, to my surprise, a hater parade commenced. People said he wasn’t big enough a star, that he was too old, blah-di-blah-blah. Prominent in this…
Go to Hell, Bobby Knight
So Bobby Knight has finally left the building. And all that I want to say is, good frakking riddance. There’s going to be a lot written about Knight. About his greatness as an innovator, as a coach, as a teacher. And there will be some truth to all that is…
Parish Predators: Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston Agrees to Settlement in Abuse Case
The Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston has settled with four men who accused the archdiocese of negligently handling a seminarian who abused the men, when they were boys, in 1995. The amount of the settlement was not disclosed. A trial had been scheduled in Houston for February 25. In a press release…
Drenched in Blog II: Arcade Fire Super Bowl Update
Turns out Arcade Fire didn’t sign off on the use of “No Cars Go” after all. The band did not clear Fox Sports to use the song for its Super Bowl promos. The folks at Pitchfork must have breathed a sigh of relief after they sweated all morning through their…
Drenched in Blog I: John Mayer Topless
Here’s a picture of John Mayer playing on the deck of a cruise ship in the Bahamas this past weekend. I would be inclined to make a snide remark about his bitchin’ Stevie Ray tat, but you’re dealing with a guy who has the Rolling Stones lips logo tattooed on…
Spygate Back in the News: Time for Another Look at the Patriots’ Illegal Looking?
The word out of Boston – coming after the Patriots’ stunning loss to the Giants, following closely the revelations that the Patriots taped the Rams final walkthrough before the 2002 Super Bowl, with all of this flowing from revelations that the Patriots had an assistant taping opposing coaches for several…
Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: New York’s Super Win Gives Rockets Hope
Everything I know is wrong. That’s the thought that keeps spinning around my head nearly 48 hours after the Giants’ stunning victory in Super Bowl XLII. I really need to get over it. I mean, upsets happen all the time, right? But this was no ordinary upset. New York’s win…
Three Quick Things: Kashmere Director Passes Away; Free Beethoven Lookalike; ACL Fest Tickets On Sale
Longtime Kashmere High School band director and HISD music-education icon Conrad O. “Prof” Johnson, the honoree at both last Friday’s Kashmere Stage Band alumni reunion concert and Saturday’s fundraiser for the Conrad O. Johnson Music & Fine Arts Foundation, passed away Sunday evening. The Victoria native and Yates High School…
Win Some, Lose Some: Aeros Get Three Points Against Quad City
“Probably of all the Friday nights I’ve watched us play lately when we’ve had the week off,” Houston Aeros coach Kevin Constantine said Friday night, “that might have been our better week-off game.” What Constantine was referring to, however, was the Aeros 4-3 shootout loss to the Quad City Flames…
This Just In: Pimp C’s Death Ruled an Accident
According to the Los Angeles County Coroner, Chad Butler, a.k.a. Pimp C, died from a combination of cough syrup (not an overdose, mind you) and a prior history of sleep apnea, a disordered characterized by pauses in breathing during sleep. LA Weekly has the full story. You can read our…
Last Night: Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers at Super Bowl XLII
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers University of Phoenix Stadium February 3, 2008 Better Than: The game itself, except for that last Giants drive. Download: Stream, actually, a sample of Tom Petty’s XM Radio show “Buried Treasure” here For the past several weeks, I have had the distinct suspicion Tom Petty…
Drenched in Blog: Haddaway Go Away
Leave it to the ad wizards on Madion Avenue to dredge up the sins of our pop-music past. This year’s Super Bowl was an upset, and I’m not just talking about the Giants shooting down my beloved Patriots. The worse atrocity was commercials this year featuring odd musical fumbles and…
Top Down: No Strippers? No Super Bowl
Photo by Daniel Kramer The city of Houston is making another try at hosting a Super Bowl, this time the 2012 game. I hate to be one to spread bad news, but I don’t think this is going to happen. First, there are a bunch of small-market NFL owners who…
Not Exactly a Hallmark Moment: Video of California Meat Packing Plant Ain’t Pretty
You might’ve heard how five Texas school districts (including Houston, Cy-Fair and Pasadena) have refused to serve meat from Hallmark Meat Packing Co., a California slaughterhouse facing a federal probe for animal cruelty. The development is the result of a video, released by the Humane Society of the United States,…
Super Bowl XLII: Predestined, But Not in the Way Everyone Predicted
Sometimes you just know. Watching Super Bowl XLII last night, the ending seemed etched in stone early on. Whether it was Ahmad Bradhshaw’s second quarter “How the hell did he end up with the ball?” fumble recovery, or David Tyree’s “How the hell did he catch that?” last-minute reception, I…
Over the Weekend: Fiery Furnaces at Proletariat, Cirque du SoGay at Numbers, Giants at the Top of the Heap
What a game. What a game. Sorry, Pats fans. You lose. The John Royal Jinx shows no mercy. But we’ll have more on that in a moment. First, let’s talk nightlife. The Proletariat’s Last Weekend The Richmond hipster haven is no more. We’ve got all kinds of memories of the…
Giants Win. You’re Welcome.
Tom Coughlin, you’re welcome. Eli Manning, me and you are now the co-owners of New York City. Plaxico Burress, you owe me. Mercury Morris, you don’t look like such a crazy old man now. Yeah, you guys were all good. But really, everyone knows who the Super Bowl MVP really…
Totally Commercial: Super Bowl Color Commentary with Miss Pop Rocks
Let’s get right to it: Half an hour before the show starts, I’m watching Don Shula, Emmitt Smith, and others reading the Declaration of Independence. Can someone explain to me what the Hell this has to do with the Super Bowl? Break out the frozen pizza…here we go. Jordin Sparks…
Slideshow: 12:37 a.m at Numbers for Cirque du SoGay
Last night got kind of wild. Check out this slideshow for more. — Keith Plocek…
Slideshow: 11:30 p.m. at the Proletariat
We’ve just loaded up a slideshow from last night at the Proletariat. You can watch the Super Bowl there later today, and that’s just about all, folks. — Keith Plocek…
$13 at Pesquera’s Ocean Grill & Oyster Bar
Where: Pesquera’s Ocean Grill & Oyster Bar, 34616 Highway 249 in Pinehurst, 281-259-5000 What $13 gets you: A surprisingly sophisticated meal aboard an absurdly tacky fake boat Let me start by saying I love restaurants on fake boats. There are loads of them in the Houston area, and all the…
Q&A: Chewing the Fat with Christian Finnegan
Fans of Chappelle’s Show and Best Week Ever will recognize Christian Finnegan — if not by name, by face. The comedian played the “crazy” white roommate on the Chappelle’s Show parody skit “The Mad Real World,” and always has a clever quip about celebrities on Best Week Ever. Finnegan is…
Weekend Music: Does Humpty Hump Still Like His Oatmeal Lumpy?
We all knew the Proletariat would go out with a bang and it’s well on its way; the club reportedly stopped letting people in at 11:30 p.m. at last night’s Rock Box finale. Honestly, if things like the Pro’s light fixtures, bathroom mirrors and stage equipment are in decent shape…
Last Night: Gram Rabbit at Super Happy Fun Land
Gram Rabbit Super Happy Fun Land Thursday, Jan. 31, 2008 Better Than: Nostalgia Download: “American Hookers,” for Gram Rabbit at their most direct, radio ready best It’s been three days since I became aware of the existence of Gram Rabbit. In the convoluted way things tend to happen, this show…
Miss Cleo’s Fearless Forecast: Super Bowl XLIII Winner Revealed!
I can hear it now. All you uber-astute readers are muttering: “That Friedman’s such an idiot. His title refers to Super Bowl 43, when this Sunday’s game is only the 42nd. What a moron.” But while I may, in fact, actually be a moron or an idiot (or both), the…
Six Feet of Joy on Super Bowl Sunday
Dear Sophie, Your dream of celebrating the Super Bowl with a submarine sandwich that’s longer than your coffee table resonated deeply with me. Allow me to introduce you to Ponzo’s on Bagby, where the six-foot original Italian will certainly do the trick. Even the three-foot version is big enough to…
The End: John Royal’s Super Bowl Prediction
It’s finally here. The Super Bowl. The New England Patriots attempting to become the first team to go 19-0 for a season. And the New York Giants trying to play the belittled underdog and stop the Patriots. So what’s going to happen? The Patriots are currently favored by 12 points,…
Super Bowl TV: What to Watch Before the Big Game
The Super Bowl’s not supposed to kick off until 5:17 p.m. on Sunday. And Fox must really think you’re an idiot based on their pregame programming choices. That’s where I come in. I’m here to save you from Fox and the Fox crap. So forget about Shepard Smith and the…
My Music Tastes Suck Now and I Couldn’t Care Less
I was driving in my car the other day listening to “Life in the Fast Lane” by the Eagles when it struck me that I was driving in my car listening to “Life in the Fast Lane” by the Eagles. And that blew my mind. Back in the early `90s,…
Flame On: Aeros Go Against Quad City This Weekend
When last we left the Aeros, they’d just lost a two-game weekend series to their cross-state rivals the San Antonio Rampage. The team was going into a freefall, having lost four straight games and having gone from fighting for home ice advantage in the playoffs to being the ninth team…
Q&A: Charlie Murphy Says We Gotta Do Better
Charlie Murphy drops into the Improv this weekend, but last week Houston Press Assistant Night & Day Editor Dusti Rhodes called him up to ask him about being Eddie Murphy’s brother, his time on the The Chappelle Show and his new show on BET, We Gotta Do Better. Here’s what…
Googlism with Houston Musicians, or Why Beyonce Is Stealing My Mojo
Have you ever played around with Googlism? Here’s how the site, which is not affiliated with Google in any way, describes itself: “Googlism was created as a fun tool to see what Google ‘thinks’ of certain topics and people. Of course, the results are not really Google’s opinion, they’re yours,…
This Just In: Kashmere Stage Band Update
Here are a few more details about this weekend’s reunion of “Texas Thunder Soul” titans the Kashmere Stage Band. Tomorrow afternoon’s performance at Kashmere High School is open to KHS students and faculty only, but Saturday night the KSB alumni will headline a gala reception and fundraiser for the Conrad…
A Day in the Life of Cable Sports Programming
Here’s the deal. I’m sick. One of those nasty cold things that just floors you. But yesterday I dragged myself from my bed to the couch. And I turned on the TV. I figured I’d check out the Super Bowl hysteria on the cable. Here’s what I found… 11:00: Flip…
Closing Up the Rock Box: Q&A with DJ Witnes
Fans of Proletariat’s weekly dance installment Rock Box, take note: tonight is your last night to get down. Last week, Houstoned Rocks talked with resident Rock Box DJ Witnes about the Pro’s closing, the end of Rock Box and what’s up with his upcoming move to New York. Houstoned Rocks:…
Web Extra: Seven Magnificent Moments in Guitar Hero / Rock Band
In celebration of John Nova Lomax’s feature on the popularity of Rock Band and Guitar Hero, we now present seven clips of fake-rockin’ goodness. 1.) Axl Rose’s Chinese Democracy might never be finished, but we’re happy to see Slash still has folks to jam with, most notably Kelly Law-Yone and…
Super Bowl Sandwiches: The (Somewhat) Magnificent Seven
One of the things I look forward to all year is the Super Bowl. This is not because I care about what steroid-injected hard body is running toward what end zone; it is simply because of the impressive display of food, specifically the big sandwich. All year I dream of…
The Blaggards
The Continental Club will want to stock up on plenty of Jameson and Guinness today for local Irish rockers the Blaggards. The quartet creates a sound akin to The Pogues or, more recently, Flogging Molly, by adding an Irish twist to folk, reggae, rock and country ditties. It’s perfect for…
Cirque du SoGay
The inaugural Cirque du SoGay (the title kinda gives it away, doesn’t it?) at Numbers Nightclub features Kings N Things, the drag kings of Austin, and Chelsea Luna, of the local puppet theater troupe Bobbindoctrin, who’ll present her puppet play Sealu’s Shadow, which, according to the puppeteer/playwright, “concerns itself with…
Barbara Park
Children’s book author Barbara Park had her kids back in the days before there were ultrasounds. So when Park, who writes the Junie B. Jones book series, accompanied her pregnant daughter-in-law on a doctor’s visit and saw an on-screen image of her unborn grandson, it seemed to be something from…
Flight of the Stone
It’s a far cry from Alvin and the Chipmunks: Violence and global humanity — not singing rodents — are the topics in the family-friendly short film Flight of the Stone, presented today at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. A man throws a stone at an enemy, but the rock…
My Brother’s Wedding
African-American filmmaker Charles Burnett comes to Houston today to introduce the brand-spanking-new director’s cut of his 1983 flick, My Brother’s Wedding, once again playing at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. The story follows two estranged brothers. Pierce still lives in South Central L.A. where they grew up; Wendall became…
Electric Purgatory: The Fate of the Black Rocker
Of the many rock legends, few have black faces. Jimi Hendrix, Chuck Berry, Prince and Rick James make up the short list of African-American rock and rollers. What’s surprising is that black musicians were at the helm in the beginning of the genre. In Electric Purgatory: The Fate of the…
Reservoir Dogs
While 1994’s Pulp Fiction is often seen as Quentin Tarantino’s Citizen Kane, some might argue that his 1992 debut, Reservoir Dogs, is actually his best work. Dogs has all the classic elements of Tarantino’s style: an out-of-sync chronology, cultural reference-filled dialogue and brilliant use of vintage music. Tarantino coaxes great…
Capsule Stage Reviews: Frozen, Jersey Boys, Love, Janis, Sugar Bean Sisters
Frozen The “Arctic frozen sea” of a pedophile’s mind lies at the chilly center of Bryony Lavery’s smart, mesmerizing Frozen. The play about a child killer and his victim’s raging mother was so affecting when it opened on Broadway in 2004, it was nominated for several Tony Awards, including Best…
“Thomas Glassford: Between Earth and Sky”
Laredo-born artist Thomas Glassford has exhibited extensively throughout Texas and Mexico, with some stops in France, Germany and Spain along the way. Now based in Mexico City, Glassford is coming to Houston to show his found-object art for “Thomas Glassford: Between Earth and Sky.” Glassford’s colorful, light Dark Eyes is…
Aurora Video Library Open House and Menil Bookstore Deck Party
We’re hoping the Aurora Video Library Open House and Menil Bookstore Deck Party is as fun as its name is long. Besides screening art flicks at its church-turned-theater, Aurora Picture Show also maintains a video library with more than 800 DVDs of films and videos available to the public; it’s…
It’s Almost Midnight
Willie Mae Sallie wrote the musical play It’s Almost Midnight in one sitting. The “Holy Spirit woke me up at two o’clock one morning,” she says. “I sat down to write and by day it was done.” Based in part on Sallie’s experiences with her brother, who was very ill…
Christian
Fans of Chappelle’s Show and Best Week Ever will recognize Christian Finnegan — if not by name, by face. The comedian played the “crazy” white roommate on the Chappelle’s Show parody skit “The Mad Real World,” and always has a clever quip about celebrities on Best Week Ever. He’s also…
Chef Dominique Macquet
Most folks have never heard of Chef Dominique Macquet’s homeland, the tiny African island of Mauritius, but that doesn’t stop them from enjoying the savory tropical dishes he serves up in his New Orleans restaurant. The author of Dominique’s Tropical Latitudes and Dominique’s Fresh Flavors: Cooking with Latitude in New…
The Unseen
Forget Cloverfield. For some really creepy, scary fun, see Craig Wright’s allegorical The Unseen at Stages. The darkly humorous story is about two men imprisoned in an unknown place, by unknown captors, for unknown reasons, while they struggle to find meaning in lives shaped by torture, fear and bitter disappointment…
“The Assassination of Benazir Bhutto and the Future of Pakistan”
In the confused and frantic days following Benazir Bhutto’s assassination, the Pakistani government announced numerous causes of her death, ranging from gunshot wounds to her being thrown against the sunroof of the car in which she was riding. While the cause of her death was hard to pinpoint, the effects…
Gem of the Ocean
Aunt Esther is 284 years old — no, that’s not a typo, 284 years. Impossible? Not in August Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean, in which the wizened old woman is not only a “soul cleanser” but also the keeper of knowledge. Set in 1904, Gem focuses on Esther, an ex-slave…
Brown Bags and Beethoven
The Houston Symphony’s all-day, multiple-discussion, four-performance, full-orchestra-plus-a-choir Beethoven Experience, happening in March, may be too much for some people (okay, most people), but you can get a more manageable slice of the world’s most renowned composer with Brown Bags and Beethoven, a lunchtime performance at Jones Hall today. A wind…
Carmen
Hot passion and seduction aren’t necessarily the first things that come to mind when you think of northern Russia, but fortunately the expert performers of the St. Petersburg Ballet Theatre are more than convincing in Carmen, a ballet set in balmy Seville. One of the premiere companies in its ballet-crazed…
USA vs. Mexico Soccer
The USA vs. Mexico soccer rivalry is virtually unmatched in North American sports. Historic and nationalistic factors make it more than just a game between two home teams, especially when they duke it out on American soil. The US has an 8-0-1 record at home this decade against Mexico —…
Last Rock Box
Local DJ Witnes (a.k.a. Michael Zapata) made moving forward his New Year’s resolution. He says the closing of The Proletariat, where he has been holding his weekly dance installment Rock Box, was the push he needed. “It’s kind of like a blessing in disguise that [owner Denise Ramos] was ready…
“12th Annual Citywide African-American Art Exhibit”
It’s a good thing this is a leap year — you’re going to need that extra day if you want to see the entire 12th Annual Citywide African-American Art Exhibit. Twenty-eight artists have work at nine locations around Houston, including the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, the Houston Urban League, the…
Charlie Murphy
If you don’t think Charlie Murphy is as funny as his brother, “then fuck you,” he says. Eddie Murphy’s comedian brother says when he started out, he wasn’t nervous about living up to the family comparisons. “The way I dealt with it was by not caring about it,” he says…
Brazilian Carnival 2008
Get your samba shoes on, Houston — Brazilian Carnival 2008 is coming. Okay, it won’t be the five-day/shut-down-the-city celebration that they have in Rio de Janeiro, but it will still have the trademark girls wearing little more than a giant headdress, a few sequins and a smile dancing madly to…
Alls I’m Sayin’ is Juno Better Win Best Picture
Dude, do you think the quirky, true-to-life, whip smart Juno will win the Academy Award for Best Picture? Alls I’m sayin’ is, it better. The problem is, I don’t think it will. Why? Because it isn’t the kind of film the Academy likes to reward with a Best Picture. Why?…
Getting into The Game with Chance McClain
Some of you doubtless remember my “glowing review” of KGOW and its programming last week. Some of you may also remember that I got a comment from Chance McClain, who works for KGOW and invited me down to the station for a tour. He also promised me the best spaghetti…
Billion Dollar Babies
Irrational exuberance is so widespread in hip-hop right now that Alan Greenspan might freak out — provided he understands rap lyrics at all, that is. There’s no two ways about it: Hip-hop sales stink. Album sales dropped 30 percent in 2007, a figure that includes digital downloads. Ringtones, which have…
Freddy Fender is ‘El Bebop Kid’
Has there ever been a more Houston-sounding music than that of Freddy Fender? Think about it. Songs like “Wasted Days and Wasted Nights” and “Before the Next Teardrop Falls” were pan-Gulf Coastal music. Here you had a Mexican-American guy from the Valley, singing heavily Fats Domino/New Orleans-influenced country/R&B in both…
B.J.’S SPORTS PUB’S BUTTERY NIPPLE
As I entered B.J.’s Sports Pub (9615 Southwest Fwy., 713-272-6849) on a rainy Monday night, I spied all the essentials of a good-time neighborhood hang-out: shuffleboard, pool, darts, friendly regulars and a horseshoe-shaped bar with Roseanna holding court. Places like B.J.’s don’t have specialty drinks, so I settled in with…
Bayousphere
Death, who comes for everyone, apparently had been out deer hunting and is therefore wearing his orange cloak as he prepares for the last moments in the life of the Montagu Hotel. Also known as Josiah Kendrick, he watches patiently with his grandfather Jim. To view image larger, click here…
Vampire Weekend: Vampire Weekend
Call it an amendment to Godwin’s Law: As reviews of Vampire Weekend accumulate, the probability they’ll mention Paul Simon’s Graceland approaches 100 percent. It’s a lazy game of connect-the-dots, really. Graceland traces an MOR-shattering pilgrimage wherein Simon spent 17 days recording in South Africa, cheesing off the U.N. and immersing…
Universal Soldier: ‘Rambo’
A fourth Rambo? The question isn’t why; it’s what took him so long. Was America’s avenging angel of meat just planning to sit out Fallujah and what we’re cooking up for Iran and Syria? (Oops — pretend that last part was redacted.) Okay, sure, last time we saw John Rambo,…
Eels: Meet the Eels: Essential Eels Vol. 1Useless Trinkets
Mark Oliver Everett’s Eels have been going for a decade now, consistently mining their frontman’s dark side for material while shedding genres with nearly every album. Never known to shortchange fans — Eels’ discography already includes a live disc and double album — the band marks this milestone with a…
Lousy Movie: ‘Meet the Spartans’
Perhaps the most oft-quoted line from Zack Snyder’s cinematic adaptation of the Frank Miller graphic novel 300 is, “Tonight we dine in hell!” Chowing down on a box of Butterfinger Minis during a screening of Meet the Spartans, you will truly understand what that means. You remember 300, right? A…
Attention, Opera-holics: Mozart is Coming to Town
The Abduction from the Seraglio (1782) is Mozart’s Broadway musical — a singspiel, as musicologists call it, i.e., a comedy with songs and spoken dialogue (and a dance or two). Always the innovator, Mozart takes this pop form and sends it spinning in novel directions that the staid Viennese never…
Samurai Warriors: KATANA
The very first time I saw the Wii’s motion-sensitive “Wiimote” (and after the initial Wha-huh? reaction), a single thought bounced in my head like a toddler on corn syrup: Finally we’re gonna get an f-ing brilliant lightsaber game. It was inevitable, a perfect match for the technology. Never again would…
The King of Kong, Monty Python’s Life of Brian: The Immaculate Edition, King of California, Automatons
The King of Kong (New Line) Seth Gordon’s best-of-2007 documentary, about the battle for Donkey Kong supremacy, remains a work-in-progress: Billy Mitchell, the longtime titleholder dethroned by Steve Wiebe over the course of this hysterical, thrilling and occasionally sad little film, recently reclaimed the throne — and Wiebe has vowed…
Sign Me Up
Which would you rather do — patrol the streets of Baghdad, the mountains of Afghanistan or Fondren Southwest? If the recruiting efforts of the Houston police department are any indication, people would rather fight in a war than answer calls at Bellfort and Gessner. An abnormally high retirement rate has…
Culturcide: Year One
Culturcide was a pop band that liked to play around with noise. Sometimes that noise overwhelmed their pop’s shimmer and spark; other times, it lurked just under the surface. Year One, a re-release of the Houston band’s 1982 debut, is awash in pop reference points, from disco to country to…
Paul Miles, Iraq and PTSD
Online readers comment on “Man on Fire,” by Craig Malisow, January 17. Take responsibility: It seems that Paul Miles’s family diagnosed him with PTSD and no psychiatrists did. It also seems that he takes no responsibility for his actions. Because he took (was seeking) the plea agreement, it seems obvious…
Gamers Become Stars with Rock Band or Guitar Hero
For 21-year-old Kelly Law-Yone, a.k.a. “the Tipper Queen,” years of preparation had gone into this show, the biggest night of her life. You could say she had been practicing for this gig ever since her first music instruction — piano lessons, beginning around the time she started grade school, followed…
Cajun Gets a Crewcut at Denis’ Seafood House
“The third time’s the charm,” I muttered as I slurped. The 13 oysters I got last week at Denis’ Seafood House on the Katy Freeway were the best I’ve had so far this season. The oyster meats were beginning to turn creamy beige, the color of oyster fat. They serve…
ASK A MEXICAN
Dear Readers, Mucho feedback from ustedes re-garding recent questions about archetypical Mexican dogs and the propensity of wabs to D.U.I. Let’s empezar with the doggies: Dear Mexican, You’re right about Chihuahuas. Crazy, tough dogs. I’m a dog rescuer (www.geocities.com/st-roch), and we once found a Chihuahua in a box by the…
Local Motion at Sound Exchange
Sound Exchange 1846 Richmond, 713-666-5555 1. Cat Power, Jukebox (LP/CD) 2. Robert Wyatt, Comic Opera (LP) 3. Horna, Sotahuuto (CD) 4. Various Artists, Thrashing Like a Maniac (CD) 5. Six Organs of Admittance, Shelter From the Ash (LP/CD) 6. Belle & Sebastian The Boy with the Arab Strap (LP) 7…
Floating over to Monarch Lounge
Contrary to popular belief, most millionaires are not dicks. That dubious honor often falls to those known as New Money. Monarch Lounge (5701 Main, inside Hotel Zaza) bouncer Ronnie Wilson politely clarifies: “The millionaires in here are laid-back, real cool and very respectful. It’s the ones that make $200,000 [per…
Whodini, Big Daddy Kane, Kool Moe Dee, Willie D
The same way the deluge of horrid rap-metal in the late ’90s sent throngs of appalled rock fans scurrying for the comforts of Led Zeppelin and the Beatles — sometimes for the first time — hip-hop’s present creative rut makes any flashback to the genre’s golden age not just a…
Capsule Art Reviews: “AES+F,” “Andreas Nottebohm: Into the Light,” “Claire Ankenman: Slices,” “Contemporary Conversations: Robert Ryman, 1976,” “Howard Sherman: In my mind, you’re inflatable”
“AES+F” AES+F is a Russian art powerhouse comprised of Tatiana Arzamasova, a conceptual architect; Lev Evzovitch, a conceptual architect and filmmaker; Evgeny Svyatsky, a graphic artist; and Vladimir Fridkes, a fashion photographer for the likes of Vogue. The group combine their diverse skills to spectacular effect: Their work is slick,…
Lions
Despite their staunch faithfulness to the blueprint laid by their stoner-rock forebears, Lions are actually interested in dynamics, an all-too-rare trait in bands of their beery ilk. This doesn’t mean Lions have balladeer tendencies — the guitars surge and thrust, while Matt Drenik’s vocals sound like the result of a…
Bobby “Blue” Bland
If the blues ever had its version of Frank Sinatra — at least in terms of an almost instinctual appeal to the opposite sex — it would be Bobby “Blue” Bland. He never fussed around much with concept albums or made much of a name for himself as a technically…
Flock to “Flicker Fusion”
Fans of independent film and animation should hurry to DiverseWorks to experience a real treat of an exhibition, “Flicker Fusion.” Referring to the visual fusion produced by a continuous flow of video frames, the show loops through a 12-video cycle presented at seven viewing stations. As you enter, the cacophonous…
Yonder Mountain String Band
Like the similar-minded jamgrass acts Railroad Earth and Leftover Salmon, this quartet from over yonder (Nederland, Colorado, near Denver) shoots for the mythical sound of Bill Monroe fronting the Grateful Dead, though their music is clearly more in tune with the former. YMSB was formed by Illinois college buddies Dave…
White Williams is No Average Joe
Growing up in the Cleveland area, Joe Williams had the usual complaints about the city’s music scene: There’s no place for electro-pop fans to hear ass-shaking tunes, and no place for electro-pop nerds to play their ass-shaking tunes. Clevelanders like meat-and-potatoes rock and roll, dammit, and you’re outta luck if…
The Fiery Furnaces
Thank God Fiery Furnaces siblings Matthew and Eleanor Friedberger were never married. Lord knows they’ve got enough in common with the White Stripes. A dose of creepy pseudo-incest would just be too much to bear, although I’m sure plenty of indie kids would love it if Eleanor’s — or a…
Various Artists: Juno: Music from the Motion Picture
Too many movie tie-in collections put profits before cohesion. Tunes by widely disparate performers, most of whom just happen to record for companies affiliated with the film studio, wind up being tossed together willy-nilly in the hope that one of them will stick, thereby inducing fans to purchase all the…
Blue Mountain
If, circa 1994, you were wearing flannel shirts and discussing the meaning of “alternative” ad infinitum, chances are you were drinking at least some of your beer to Blue Mountain. Uncle Tupelo may have been the poster child of the then-nascent alt-country movement, but this Oxford, Mississippi, trio of songwriter/guitarist…
Nidda Thai’s Chu Chee Eggplant
Versatile vegetable: As vegetarian dishes go, the chu chee eggplant ($10.95) at Nidda Thai (1226 Westheimer, 713-522-8895) is excellent — tasty and filling. Thick slices of eggplant are dipped in a thick batter and then deep-fried, giving the eggplant a crispy exterior and a sort of soft interior. But what…