Then, Lunch at Burger King!
Mmm…fine Louisiana cuisine The people who live in northeast Louisiana are a proud bunch, especially when it comes to food. They just sent out an e-mail blast inviting food and travel writers to come along for a guided tour of the region’s delicacies. “As a travel writer/editor, I am sure…
Then, Lunch at Burger King!
Mmm…fine Louisiana cuisine The people who live in northeast Louisiana are a proud bunch, especially when it comes to food. They just sent out an e-mail blast inviting food and travel writers to come along for a guided tour of the region’s delicacies. “As a travel writer/editor, I am sure…
Your Billy Corgan Fix for This Year
Tuesday, the Smashing Pumpkins (Zwan II? Billy Corgan Band?) released Zeitgeist, their first set of new material since 2000. Some people say it’s not really the Pumpkins since the blonde chick and Asian dude aren’t there, but I still think it rocks. It’s sort of like Muse with stoner riffs…
OU Fans Pretty Pissed
Taking the long view, yesterday’s news that Oklahoma must “vacate” all its wins from the 2005 season was pretty tame stuff. Sure, OU fans are pissed at the NCAA for throwing egg on their face, but there’s simply not much substance to the NCAA’s sanctions. The loss of two scholarships…
Get Lit: The Diana Chronicles, by Tina Brown
Ten years ago in August, I and a whole lot of other people stayed up most of the night listening to news reports of Princess Diana’s accident. What started out as unbelievable turned into a night that became tragic, as TV reporters announced she had not been saved after all;…
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
The magic has returned to the Harry Potter franchise — albeit magic of the old, black variety. The darkest and most threatening by far of the five Potter films, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is also the only series entry outside of the third, Alfonso Cuarón’s Harry…
Evelyn Rubio y Calvin Owens Orchestra Azul
The blues is a language all its own, as easily translated as the titles on Evelyn Rubio’s La Mujer Que Canta Blues: “Fiesta de Blues,” “El Gato,” “Las Manos de Mi Hombre,” and, um, “Swing Boogie.” (Hard to believe there’s no Spanish phrase for “boogie all night,” but there you…
“A City on Stilts”
In 1900, a hurricane devastated Galveston. By 1901, the island city was busy rebuilding. In “A City on Stilts,” photographer Zeva Bradshaw Edworthy captured that rebuilding. The 80 photographs featured in the Galveston County Historical Museum’s exhibit include pictures of the advanced technology (given the era) used to rebuild the…
Rescue Dawn
Nothing if not appropriate for summer blockbuster season, Werner Herzog’s latest feature, based on his 1997 documentary Little Dieter Needs to Fly, offers a suitably fantastic tale of war, freedom and fortitude, set in the jungles of Indochina and featuring an immigrant lad who turns out to be just as…
Pelican
On its third album, Pelican continues its quest to incorporate the best bits of shoegaze stoner rock and heavy music — and then flip the bird at the genre conventions of all three. Since debut album Australasia, the Chicago quartet has progressively drifted away from its earliest, most metal compositions…
“Future Present Series Vol. 2”
If you asked the Houston art world where it sees itself in ten years, “Future Present Series Vol. 2” would be Michael Kahlil Taylor’s answer. The curator/artist says the show includes work from a handful of young, emerging Houston artists that he feels are worth watching, including himself. Taylor’s carved,…
Joshua
George Ratliff’s Joshua debuted at the Sundance Film Festival to raves from a particular breed of audience member: parents. Because, see, no matter how hard Fox Searchlight’s trying to sell this movie as a horror picture — Rosemary’s Baby meets The Omen on the way to The Exorcist’s for a…
Li’l Cap’n Travis
From the sound of “My Ship Is Coming In,” a smooth-as-silt track near the end of Li’l Cap’n Travis’s latest platter, you’d assume the Austin sextet is manning the helm of a yacht-rock revival. You wouldn’t be quite right, but only because the band refuses to tie up in any…
Side Show
Tony Award-nominated Side Show is local boy Kent Arneson’s first U.S. production with his newly formed company Arneson Productions. The musical, based on the true story of Siamese twins Violet and Daisy Hilton, who became stars during the Depression, is a portrait of two women whose extraordinary bondage brings them…
Dark Matter: Five Gothic Tales of Horror
Movies, TV and radio have just about killed the art of storytelling. But once upon a time, evenings must have been rich with clever tales that could inspire outrageous flights of imaginative fancy. Dark Matter: Five Gothic Tales of Horror by Don Nigro harkens back to that all-but-forgotten tradition —…
David Olney
David Olney can probably thank his irascible nature for keeping him from being a much bigger presence on the national roots-music scene. A respected contemporary and drinking buddy of Townes Van Zandt — check out his “Suicide Kid” — he’s often mentioned as a songwriter’s songwriter. Olney stands out like…
Comedy Sportz
Get a lesson in laughter from Comedy Sportz, the tag team improv group. The troupe “plays” comedy like a sports competition (think tennis with punch lines). The audience shouts out suggestions (“a monkey walks into a bar”) and the two Comedy Sportz teams slug it out to see who comes…
Stage Capsule Reviews
American Homefront The idea behind Fernando Dovalina’s new play American Homefront sounds promising. The story centers on the parents of a soldier who’s been captured by a militant fringe group of terrorists in Iraq. Complicating matters is the fact that the young man is gay, but his hyperreligious mother (Elva…
Elvis on Speed, Amplified Heat
Now that the Great Garage Rock Revival is at an end, the next genre to resurge from the past seems to be ’70s-style hard rock and boogie, as Wolfmother, Rose Hill Drive and Black Stone Cherry discover their inner James Gang, Motörhead and Cactus. Surprisingly (or not), several other rising…
Katherine Veneman
In her first-ever Houston exhibition, “Adaptation,” local artist Katherine Veneman’s paintings offer a subtle commentary on change. Colorful and busy, her work sees boundaries as guidelines rather than precisely delineated separations. One object bleeds into another until the entire canvas becomes a swirl of color gone out of control. The…
Mexican-American Culture
Dear Gabachos, You love us, you really love us! Mere moments after the Senate allowed an amnesty bill to collapse like the peso’s value, ustedes bombarded the Mexican with typo-heavy valentines. To commemorate America’s latest amnesic spell regarding its immigrants and assimilation (previous examples include the Chinese Exclusion Act, the…
W.A.S.P., L.A. Guns
Feigned ironic excitement and flat-out ridiculing people who never left the Headbangers’ Ball are probably the two most common reasons to attend this pairing of less-interesting G’N’R predecessor L.A. Guns and shock-rock also-rans W.A.S.P., but there are other angles. There’s the semi-obscure conflict: Play up the angle of bad (fake)…
Goldilocks and the Three Bears
Around this time every summer, with their kids bored and complaining “there’s nothing to do,” lots of parents start pulling their hair out. Never fear, Goldilocks and the Three Bears are here to save the day. Well, actually, it’s the University of Houston’s Children’s Theatre Festival’s production of Goldilocks…there aren’t…
Big Brain Academy
Publisher: Nintendo
Platform: Wii
Price: $49.99
ESRB Rating: E (for Everyone)
Score: 8 (out of 10)
ZZ Top, David Allan Coe, Hank Williams III, Old 97’s
Hear that? It’s the rumble of thousands of Harleys and hot rods descending on The Woodlands for a bill made in tattoo-artist heaven. ZZ Top needs no introduction, obviously, as Houston’s closest musical analogue to Nolan Ryan or Hakeem. Top’s recorded output has been limited to reissues and compilations since…
Blitzen Trapper
Classic rockers tired of all the noise and pop will be pleased to meet Blitzen Trapper. The Portland foursome mirrors the styles of artists such as Neil Young, Steely Dan, Led Zeppelin and, more recently, Pavement, giving some tunes an unexpected experimental twist. The friendly sound of “Wild Mountain Nation”…
You’re Gonna Miss Me
You’re Gonna Miss Me (Palm) A hit at the South by Southwest Film Festival two years ago, Keven McAlester’s doc about the Papa of Psychedelia, Roky Erickson, at long last gets its proper release. But time has done McAlester a tremendous favor: Had he shot the film too soon, he…
Godsmack
Something more than wicked this way comes. Heavy metal has long since lost its transgressive path and landed on the plate of mediocrity, and Godsmack are the lords of all that is banal and boring in the nü incarnation of metal. Rightfully (and righteously) bitch-slapped for ignorantly letting their music…
Roger Foster
Atlanta sculptor Roger Foster’s “Objects of Ritual” is a series of sculptures in stone, wood, steel and brass that comes from his study of two symbols found at shaman burial sites in China dating from 5000 to 1200 B.C.E. He has been working with wood for more than 25 years,…
Our top DVD picks scheduled for release on July 12
After the Wedding (IFC) The Astronaut Farmer (Warner Bros.) Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad (Funimation) Brutal (Lionsgate) The Comedy Collection (Lionsgate) Elizabeth Taylor Collection (St. Clair) Extras: The Complete Second Season (HBO) Fat Burning Hip Hop Dance Party: Urban Style (Shami) Fred Astaire Collection (St. Clair) Frankie & Annette: MGM Movie…
The Fantastic Foreskin
“I’m wearing it right now,” John Long says. “But I didn’t wear it most of the day yesterday.” The 27-year-old bookstore employee is talking about the device attached to his circumcised penis, beneath his clothes. Picture a miniature silicone lampshade with a handle on the wide end. It’s cupping the…
Houston Roller Derby
The roller derby exhibition match “In Quad We Trust” pits Houston teams Psycho Ward Sirens against the Burlesque Brawlers and Machete Betties against the Bayou City Bosse$. While Houston has emerged as an unlikely city for the thriving revival of roller derby, local skater Pvt. BeenJammin’ wants you lily-livered girlie-men…
Art Capsule Reviews
“Allison Hunter: New Animals” “New Animals” is a continuation of Allison Hunter’s “Simply Stunning” series, which showed at New York’s 511 Gallery last year. The Houston-based photographer’s recent work concentrates largely on animals, and the images reflect a progression toward emancipating creatures from the worldly environment. Sheep and deer inhabit…
Hunter Ward, R.I.P.
About five years ago, after the death of legendary Houston partyer Bruce Henry Davis, a letter writer penned some words to the Press that I have always remembered: “If you can’t be a good example, then you’ll just have to serve as a horrible reminder.” On June 30, Hunter Ward,…
Amedeo’s Italian Restaurant & Bar
What’s special about the “special artichoke dip” ($8.50) at Amedeo’s Italian Restaurant & Bar (22704 Loop 494, Kingwood, 281-359-4451)? For one, it’s not listed on the menu. But what really sets the dip apart is the welcome addition of tasso, a lean, cured pork popular in Cajun cooking, which adds…
The Fantastic Foreskin: Under the Knife
If in transgender surgical procedures doctors can turn a penis into a vagina, why can’t they give a guy back his foreskin? While there are accounts of surgical restoration, virtually all restoring organizations do not recommend it. The National Organization for the Restoration of Men (NORM) warns against surgery because…
“Red Velvet: Making a Case for Domestic Tranquility”
In the gallery notes for “Red Velvet: Making a Case for Domestic Tranquility,” the current group show at Vine Street Studios, Sean Morrissey Carroll (a Houston Press contributor) explains that the show is an answer, in a sense, to David Lynch’s 1986 film Blue Velvet, which delved into a horrific…
Mail Call
Online readers respond to “Jock Radio,” by Richard Connelly, June 28. There’s nothing else: I like to listen to sports-talk radio in Houston because, let’s face it, the music channels are a waste of air space, and I’ve grown to prefer listening to talk radio when I am in my…
Boondocks
Boondocks (1417 Westheimer #2) is a dark bar without many shadows. It feels similar to an Austin Sixth Street establishment — there are tables and a long bar downstairs with the jukebox, and the stage is upstairs, with booths lining the walls and small tables filling the space in between…
Move Over, MySpace
Candee D*Vine wants to be your friend! She’s 19, cute, bisexual and “up for anything.” If you approve her request, and you probably will, she’ll go into the pile with the rest of your “friends,” who are more than happy to invite you to check out their naughty Webcams, remind…
Nirvana Indian Restaurant
he chicken “phal” at Nirvana Indian Restaurant on Memorial came with big tender chunks of boneless white-meat chicken in an orange sauce made with madras curry powder, dried chiles and mustard seed. We all agreed it was the best dish on the table, despite the fact that it was extremely…
Move Over, MySpace: Not So Fast
MySpace fatigue may be on the rise, as are alternative social-networking sites like Virb and Facebook, but several local musicians told the Press last week they can’t imagine doing without it. “When I’m dealing with big record-label execs, they ask me what my ‘numbers’ are on MySpace — plays, friends,…
POISON GIRL’s
Waiting around at Poison Girl (1641 Westheimer, 713-527-9929) for my friend Dusty, I finally get a call around midnight. Turns out the birthday girl and her friends are still dancing at Numbers, rocking out to Depeche Mode and getting hit on by a guy with a whip. Though they claim…
American Idols Live
It’s a brilliant system, really: Take a group of malleable, optimistic kids dreaming of a music career and cynically turn them into soulless hit-paraders. Then take basically the same kids and run over their puppies, or something, to make them all sulky so they’ll record equally soulless and calculated music…
Alpha Rev
Casey McPherson has a pop-radio voice. Fortunately for all of us, his songwriting transcends what you would usually expect from someone who sings like that guy from Train. McPherson and friends weave standard rock instrumentation around plenty of piano and strings (all live, mind you) to wind up with something…
Irreplaceable? Not So Much
Apparently running interference, and errands, for pop’s biggest divas is as cutthroat an endeavor as scoring choice seats for Fashion Week. Last month, the New York Daily News reported that H-town music impresario and sire of R&B royalty Mathew Knowles dismissed daughter Beyoncé’s longtime bodyguard, a 400-pound hulk known only…
Beehive
Grab your stilettos and head over to Miller Outdoor Theatre for Beehive. Recalling the mega-hits of girl groups and women singers from the 1960s, the off-Broadway musical features more than 35 classic songs like “One Fine Day,” “My Boyfriend’s Back” and “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman.” The…