Gunplay at Trae Day
Trae Day, the one-year anniversary of the City of Houston’s proclamation honoring the local rapper for his community-minded efforts, did not end in smiles and good feelings, but gunshots. Hair Balls is still finding out exactly what went on, but click here for what we do know…
Breaking News: Gunplay at Trae Day
Ninety-eight percent of Trae Day went exactly as advertised. There were moonwalks and video-game trailers for the kids, local merchants selling various CDs and DVDs, a few actual celebrities and a general feeling of community pride throughout. Then they started shooting. At approximately 8:30 p.m. – 30 minutes after Trae…
Rising Star Barista at the Greenway Plaza Food Court
There were a couple of coffee connoisseurs sampling the espresso blends at Tuscany Coffee in the Greenway Plaza food court when I stopped by to check it out. “We come by to sample the espresso every day,” they told me. And they aren’t the only ones. Barista David Buehrer has…
Not Too Late for Half Price Live Nation Tickets
Rocks Off meant to post this as part of “Bayou Beat” Tuesday, but we got so excited about seeing Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten – which is excellent, especially if you like campfires – that, well, we forgot. Luckily, this week’s Live Nation “All In” ticket deal requires minimal…
The Houston Fire Department Mess Just Keeps Stumbling On
A small rally was staged today on the steps of city hall as a “show of solidarity” for Jane Draycott and Paula Keyes, the two women firefighters who were victims of racist (to say the least) graffiti on their lockers.A group of women church leaders offered prayers and general support,…
The Return of Mystical Houston Rocker Tyagaraja
In 2006, Million Year Dance won the award for Best New Band in our annual Houston Press Music Awards, and followed the next year by winning Album Of The Year for Liberation. It seemed that the band and their enigmatic leader Tyagaraja (a.k.a. Jonathan Welch) would be Houston’s next hope…
Judge Sam Kent Beats The Rap!!!
Judge Samuel Kent will not be impeached, the Senate decided today.What?!Their lame reasoning: He’s already resigned, so he therefore has forfeited the financial benefits he’d lose with the impeachment. As CQ reports: The Senate today met as a court of impeachment to dismiss four articles of impeachment against former U.S…
“The Mummy” at Ray’s Franks
We knew bacon when he sat under the stairwell in high school between most every period talking about how awesome it would be to be the world’s most revered and cherished meat candy. We knew bacon when anybody could just walk up to him on the street and shoot the…
MP3 of the Day: Benjamin Wesley
We always loved Tha Fucking Transmissions, especially seeing them upstairs at Boondocks, or pumping “Die Mother-Fucka Die” in the car on the way to or from work (depending on the day of the week). When the band’s multi-instrumentalist Benjamin Wesley announced he was working on a solo project, though, who…
Houston’s Theater Scene, Being Debated By The Chatters
All That Chat is the primary message board for Broadway fanatics; it gets cited from time to time in papers like The New York Times and is somewhat famous for its instant reviews of productions that have only just begun previews.What are they chatting about today? Houston.To a degree, anyway…
It’s Trae Day… and Everybody’s Celebratin’
To commemorate the one-year anniversary of the City of Houston’s proclamation of “Trae Day,” the chairman and CEO of Houston’s Assholes by Nature is throwing a giant block party from 3-9 p.m. in the parking lot of TSU Stadium at Cleburne and Tierwester in the Third Ward (or, appropriately enough,…
Acres Homes All Over The Tube For Breaking Michael Jackson “News”
Hold your nose and tune into Fox News right now, and you may see some familiar territory.TMZ and just about every other news outlet on the planet are rapt as federal agents rifle through the Acres Homes offices of Dr. Conrad Murray, the local physician who is all caught up…
Acres Homes on National TV Right Now
Hold your nose and tune into Fox News right now, and you may see some familiar territory. TMZ and just about every other news outlet on the planet are rapt as federal agents rifle through the Acres Homes offices of Dr. Conrad Murray, the local physician who is all caught…
Washington Ave. Drinkery’s Wad Shooter
If I may, let me try to describe the scene I witnessed when I walked into the Washington Ave. Drinkery (4115 Washington Ave., 713-426-3617) on a recent Friday night: A girl was doing some sort of rodeo cowboy move on the dance floor; there was double P.D.A. happening at the…
The Proposed Ashby High-Rise, Still Feeling The Sting Of Rejection
You have to admire the persistence of the folks who are trying to build a high-rise residential building in the very tony neighborhood near Rice. In this economy, it’s odd enough that they’re going ahead with plans when other developers are shutting down.Not to mention that their plans keep getting…
OK, Maybe the Eagle Does Play Some Black People
As we usually do when we get into work, Rocks Off tuned into Dean & Rog on the Eagle and lo and behold, they were talking about our suggestions to improve the station we posted here Tuesday. D&R especially seemed to enjoy the part where we said it wouldn’t kill…
Inquiring Minds: “Eggs” of Houston Music Blog Breakfast on Tour
This week in the paper edition of the Press (remember that?), Rocks Off examines the state of the local music scene on the eve of the Houston Press Music Awards showcase and awards ceremony. There are a lot of reasons to be encouraged – a bumper crop of fine local…
Oh Noes!!!111!!!! Barton Springs In Austin Might Be Closing For Awhile!!
Barton Springs, Austin’s landmark pool that has chilled generations even in the hottest Texas summers, is in trouble. It’s not trouble that can’t be fixed, but it will require time and money.Time, as in closing the pool for six to eight months. Money, as in almost $5 million the city…
A Cafe Bites Nibble
Qidong Lin, who’s from a small town in China, was first exposed to a moveable sushi bar during a visit to California. “I liked the concept very much,” said Qidong. “It is relatively cheap and easy for customers to see what they’re getting and how much they will pay.” So…
Lonesome Onry and Mean: Scott Miller Leaves Label, Licks Stamps
How bad has the music business gotten? We seem to be living in an age when record labels are sinking like the Titanic, when fewer and fewer artists can get a label deal, when the gate to radio is harder to get through than St. Peters Gate. On the Americana…
Houston 101: Andy Griffith, Killer
In 1969, the victim of one of Houston’s most notorious murder cases died at Sharpstown Hospital after a long, painful episode.Joan Robinson was the beloved daughter of River Oaks oilman Ash Robinson; she showed up in the papers all the time for her expertise as an equestrienne. She married a…
Houston’s Top Ten Taco Trucks
The taco truck is a revered and venerable institution in Houston, enjoyed by day laborers and lawyers alike. Whether grabbing breakfast tacos in the morning, a quick lunch while you stand in the shade of the truck or enjoying a weekend picnic-style lunch outside a farmers’ market with tacos in…
Artist of the Week: Coast
Each Wednesday, Rocks Off arbitrarily appoints one lucky local performer or group “Artist of the Week,” bestowing upon them all the fame and grandeur such a lofty title implies. Know a band or artist that isn’t awful? Email their particulars to introducingliston@gmail.com. Like it or not, South Park Mexican was…
Bronx Cheer: Black Music Allowed at Rice Village Bar. Black People? (Allegedly) Not So Much.
The weekend visit to Houston had been going well enough for Army Sergeant Mohamed Sesay. Now stationed at Killeen’s Fort Hood, he’d been back in the States for less than a week, after serving for over a year at Camp Bucca prison in Iraq, where he had helped guard the…
Getting Into The Houston Marathon Is Not A Sprint
The hysteria hit at a minute past midnight. Thousands of avid runners had stayed up well past their bedtimes Thursday night and into Friday morning to catch the start of registration for January’s Houston Marathon, which had been aggressively advertised as 12:01 a.m. sharp. That’s exactly when the sign-up site…
This Week’s No Reservations
In this week’s episode of No Reservations, Anthony Bourdain traveled to Melbourne, Australia. Despite Crocodile Dundee stereotypes of Australia, Melbourne is actually a thriving cultural capital with ethnically diverse cuisines – “like San Francisco, but without the fog.” Surprisingly, it was Bourdain’s tour guides who had the most “-isms” this…
Moratorium Is Over, So Foreclosures Spike Locally
Harris County is seeing the result of failed government efforts to fix the housing crisis by issuing 90-day moratoriums on foreclosures.July was the worst month for foreclosures in the county since the savings and loan debacle, just 73 properties short of the record month — October 1987 — according to…
Bayou Beat: Movie Night at the Mink, Scout Bar Beaumont Shut Down, Yeah Yeah Yeahs at ACL? and More
Seems the Mink has found an old movie projector and is planning to put it to good use this evening. After a couple of Charlie Chaplin shorts, the bar will screen the superb 2007 documentary Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten, and even provide free popcorn. “A makeout row can…
A Doctor Who Is (Allegedly) Sick, Sick, Sick
Houston famously is the home of one of Michael Jackson’s doctors; could it also be the home of a doctor who’s like Michael Jackson? (Note: Throw a half-dozen or so “allegedly”s into that sentence.)Prosecutors have charged Bernard Albina, a 69-year-old orthopedic surgeon, with sexually abusing at least four boys ages…
Top 5 Foods You Shouldn’t Eat On A Date
It’s your first date, and you’ve probably planned on having a meal. Your objectives are to avoid humiliation and be as impressive as possible, and you’re halfway there thanks to the invention of spearmint gum. But that can’t always save you, so take heed of this list. The right dining…
MP3 of the Day: Hayes Carll
Some basic facts that cannot be disputed. Our economy is in the shitter; parts of downtown Houston smell like a little boy’s bathroom, puddles and all; and singing good country music is no easy feat. The next artist on Rocks Off’s week-long visit through the HPMA Best Local Song nominees…
Looks Like South Padre Island Will Get An Offshore Windfarm
It looks like South Padre Island will be home to a wind farm featuring 500-foot tall turbines off the coast.They’ll be 10 miles off the coast, but that doesn’t mean everyone’s happy about it.Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson has signed a deal with British firm Baronyx to build the windfarm…
Slide Show: Moon and Space Album Covers
Rocks Off thought we’d wait for all the hoopla surrounding the 40th anniversary of the moon landing to die down a bit before tossing in our two cents. Hell, the Apollo 11 capsule didn’t splash down until July 24, 1969, so we figured the day after the anniversary is as…
For BARC, A Change (Agent) Is Gonna Come
BARC has inked a six-month contract with Houston consultant Gerry Fusco to address physical, financial and operational procedures at the troubled animal-control facility. Houston Health and Human Services spokeswoman Kathy Barton told Hair Balls that Fusco will be paid approximately $200,000 and is slated to begin Thursday. Barton said Fusco is expected…
Filet Mignon with Texas Maitre D’ Butter
Maitre d’ hotel butter is a flavored butter traditionally made by mixing butter with parsley, lemon, salt and pepper. A pat of the green butter once was a typical garnish with a piece of fish or a chop. It’s known as compound butter these days, and the flavorings vary widely…
Continental Airlines Manages To Piss Off India
Continental Airlines is having a tough stretch — its CEO quit, its recently announced earnings are dismaying Wall Street (What do those two things have in common? Hmmm….), its laying off a bunch of workers, and now it’s got the parliament of India all in an uproar.Indian politicians are shocked,…
Five Ways to Improve 107.5 the Eagle
For Houston music commentators, picking on the sorry state of the city’s commercial airwaves is even more fun than sportswriters must have making fun of the Astros. But on the rare occasion a new format does come along – even if it’s hardly “new” – it still inspires a glimmer…
Clyde Drexler Wants To Give Coaching Another Shot
Clyde Drexler says he wants to be a head coach in the NBA. “I’m going to coach in the NBA. I don’t know where, but I am. And I’ll be a good one,” Drexler told the FanHouse blog over the weekend. “When I turn 50, that’s what I’ll be doing…
Where Are We Eating?
Although you’ve had success guessing restaurants by their baked goods in the past, let’s see if you’re as lucky this time. Where are we eating this week? Leave your guesses in the comments section below…
Ask a Rapper: Gotta Be Karim
The hip-hop world is a less than sensible place -lots of times, you’re even required to clarify when bad means bad and when bad means good- so once a week we’re going to get with a rapper and ask them to explain things. Have something you always wanted to ask…
Houston 101: Hail, Freedonia (Except For The Part About The Killings)
When you think alternative societies, you may imagine the New Mexican or Californian semi-wilderness in the late ’60s, NYC squats in 1990s or the Montana backcountry, um, probably now. Try this one: The Galleria area, 1992. That’s when then-high schooler John Kyle and friends began a “new nation project” called…
Prosecutor’s Blog About Partying Gets Some Panties In Wad
Kids — you can teach them how to be a lawyer, but you can’t teach them not to blog about every freaking thing they do in their life, for crissake.The Harris County courthouse has been all giggly over the former blog by a young prosecutor called “Life After Esq.” (Note…
Obscure Wine Grapes: Cinsault
Rose de Ksara is a dry Lebanese rose made with grapes grown in the Bekaa Valley. It tasted pretty good with tabouli and olives. The wine is made with about one-third Cinsault grapes. Okay, so Cinsault isn’t really all that obscure–it’s the fourth most widely planted grape in France and…
Distant Early Warning: Bob Saget, Loggins & Messina, Mos Def, the Queers and More
The Atomic Punks (Van Halen Tribute): Fri., Aug. 21. House of Blues. Bob Saget: Fri., Nov. 20. House of Blues. Cedric The Entertainer: Fri., Aug. 28. Arena Theatre. Derek Webb: Sat., Oct. 24. House of Blues. Mushroomhead, (hed)pe, Ethreal, Made In Vain: Sat., Sept. 5. Meridian. KMFDM: Fri., Oct. 23…
In Defense of Mom Jeans
So President Obama caught a lot of flack for wearing what the fashion elite term “mom jeans” when he threw out the first pitch at the All-Star game the other week. Critics decried the pants as too baggy and high-waisted, resulting in the “mom jeans” look that so many find…
Local Radio Host Wants To Ask A Mexican Why He’s Gone Online-Only
Tony Diaz, host of KPFT’s Nuestra Palabra program, has a bone to pick with us.He is alarmed that the “Ask a Mexican” column no longer runs in the print edition of the Houston Press. It runs online (after a slight glitch), but to Diaz running it online is like putting…
MP3 of the Day: American Fangs
All this week, Rocks Off will be featuring the 2009 HPMA Nominees for Best Local Song as our MP3s of the day. Because we’re going in alphabetical order and descending order of volume, American Fangs’ “Le Kick” gets to lead off today. Good choice for the 40th anniversary of the…
Star Trek’s George Takei Cites Houston As One Reason Texas Stereotypes Are True
George Takei, who managed to co-star in a series with William Shatner and survive, was in Dallas over the weekend in support of a Japanese-art exhibit.Takei has famously become an out gay dude, so naturally enough the blog of our sister paper, the Dallas Observer, took the opportunity to ask…
Late Night Scene: House of Pies
It’s an existential dilemma: What is House of Pies without a sense of irony? What if you woke up one afternoon and discovered a late-night guilty pleasure of negligible culinary quality but spectacular crowd-watching was… respectable? Since the smoking ban, the place no longer has an aura of stale cigarettes…
The Last Roundup: “H-Town’s Delight,” Fat Tony’s New LP, Something Fierce on Tour and More
Lords of the Loop have definitely out done themselves this time, with a chart explaining all the various cats in the human and animal kingdoms. It’s everything you could want to know. IndieHouston features HPMA Best Male Vocals nominee Cornbreadd for his participation in DJ Dave Wrangler’s “H-Town’s Delight” (above). Remember…
The Weinermobile, Hassled By The Man In Houston
Who in their right mind would ever hassle the Weinermobile, the beloved symbol of all that is good and nutritious in Oscar Mayer hot dogs?The Houston police, that’s who.We were traveling on I-45 south of downtown Friday night when we glanced to the side of the road. There, amid the…
Walter Cronkite’s Houston, Or What’s Left Of It
Walter Cronkite, the baby-boomer’s Voice of Authority, died Friday. He’s remembered fondly in Houston, where he worked at the paper at what was then Lanier Junior High, attended San Jacinto High and worked at the Houston Press. (No, not the current Houston Press; the afternoon daily that brought a little…
$7 at Tan Tan
Where: Tan Tan Restaurant, 6816 Ranchester, 713-771-1268 What $7 gets you: A bowl of Houston’s best noodles — there are eight pages of noodle dishes, including some 87 soups on the menu. Tan Tan specializes in the curly egg noodles called mi (pronounced “me”) in Vietnamese. Mi soups are made…
Weekend Video Roundup: Beastie Boys and Aerosmith
No, the Beastie Boys didn’t play Houston over the weekend, and they won’t be in the forseeable future either. No sooner had C3 Entertainment announced that the Boys would take the 8:15-9:30 p.m. spot on the Austin City Limits Music Festival’s AMD stage Friday, October 2 – see the full…
The Wiz’s Road Gets Longer, Easing Down It To Continue
Seems Houston is really anxious to “ease on down the road” with The Wiz; the Ensemble Theatre has just added two more weeks of performances to its already extended run. Under the direction of director/choreographer Patdro Harris and musical director Carlton Leake, The Wiz was the first Ensemble production to…
Snackshot: The Lone Star State
This week’s old school Snackshot comes to us courtesy of Samantha Bales and the good folks at Lone Star Beer. From the photographer’s description: “peace. love. & lone star.”…
Turning the Screw: All-Houston Edition with GT Garza, Trae Day, Trouble Sum, Jay’Ton, Paul Wall, Z-Ro, Letoya vs. Slim Thug, Coast, Z-Ro, Juan Gotti and More
Welcome back to Turning the Screw, Rocks Off’s weekly rap post. It probably won’t rhyme, at least most of the time. E-mail tips to introducingliston@gmail.com. Thanks, homies. Single of the Week: GT Garza, “52 Pick Up” (We’ve listened to a bunch of GT’s stuff, but this remains to be the…
Why Rename Hillcroft Only Once? A Modest Proposal
View Larger MapThe proposal to rename the stretch of Hillcroft that courses through the heart of Little Bombay is ginning up a surprising amount of aggro in the blogosphere. (Or is it a surprising amount of blogs in the aggrosphere — sometimes it’s hard to tell.)Under the headline “We’ll give…
The Astros, Hanging On Despite Themselves
The Houston Astros beat the Los Angeles Dodgers and Thursday and Friday to get their record to 46-44. For a short time, the Astros were in a three-way tie for second place in the NL Central. And with the first-place St. Louis Cardinals coming in for three games starting tonight,…
Lonesome Onry and Mean: The Disturbing Ballad of Bob Woodruff, Part 1
Over the course of a few Cactus Music in-store performances, the Chronicle’s Andrew Dansby asked LOM several times if we’d ever heard Bob Woodruff. Nope. So one day Dansby walks up and hands us a disc with “Bob Woodruff” scrawled on it. LOM took the disc home and was blown…
The Devil’s Breakfast Special
If you like devilled eggs, try the ones at Nielsen’s Delicatessen at 4500 Richmond. Mayo connoisseurs have been known to drive across town to get the famous house-made mayonnaise there. And that extra-rich, fresh-made mayonnaise is what makes the egg salad sandwich at Nielsen’s taste so good. At $6.60, the…
While You Weren’t Tweeting: Now With More Harry Potter
C’mon, ‘fess up. You spent early last week camped out in front of the Angelika in your Hogwarts uniform, awaiting the arrival of the new Harry Potter movie in theatres. Then you spent the rest of the week basking in the afterglow of Daniel Radcliffe’s smoldering gaze, and engaging in…
Aftermath: Rancid and Rise Against at Verizon Wireless Theater
There’s something about the punk rock of Northern California’s Rancid will remain forever and indelibly ingrained in Aftermath’s heart. No matter what we seem to find ourselves getting into, all we need to hear is a few spins of …And Out Come The Wolves to bring us back to our…
New Way To Help The Homeless In Houston
The “After Dark” shelter program at St. John’s Bread of Life is up and running, giving Houston a small push toward the method of dealing with homelessness that has been embraced for years in much of the country. The conversion of the former day center — located on corner of…
Texas Traveler: Angleton’s Mysterious House of the Century
It all started with an obsession. And a blog post. The House of the Century was built in 1972 by the Ant Farm Art Collective, a group that included architects Richard Jost, a then-recent graduate of the University of Houston, and Doug Michels, founder of the collective and professor at…
$13 at Fadi’s Mediterranean Grill
Where: Fadi’s Mediterranean Grill, 1236 Westheimer, 281-556-8390 What $13 gets you: A free-for-all romp through an impossibly enticing cafeteria line. Fadi’s gives you a tray, then fills it with food. Meat dishes come with any number of sides. Given the decreasing price scale for upping the ante ($1.50, $1, $0.50),…
Aftermath: ZZ Top and Aerosmith at Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
Make all the Guitar Hero jokes you want. Whatever it is that’s kept ZZ Top and Aerosmith in the public eye for almost four decades – video games or beards-n-babes videos, Back to the Future cameos or Michael Bay ballads, bee-stung lips or cheap sunglasses – they’ve never forgotten that…
Playing Neil Armstrong On The Screen: The “Jesus Curse,” Redux
In the old days of Hollywood, they used to talk of “the Jesus Curse” — any actor who played JC on screen was thereafter doomed to obscurity.Does the same thing happen to actors who play Neil Armstrong? There aren’t as many Apollo 11 movies as you might expect, but the…
Q&A with Last Known Address Author Theresa Schwegel
Theresa Schwegel released her first novel just four short years ago, but she’s already solidified her reputation as a talented writer. As with her other novels, Officer Down, Probable Cause, and Person of Interest, her new book, Last Known Address, is a procedural thriller. The story centers on Sloane Pearson,…
Things to Do This Weekend If You’re (Almost) Broke
Friday Bluesman John Nemeth jams the Big Easy Slim Harpo-style for the budget-friendly price of $5. Austin Collins, the Small Sounds and Stephen Chadwick twang it up at the Firehouse Saloon. $10. Eclectic pop-rocker David Garza turns the Continental Club into a “Discoball World.” $10. DJs Cuba Gooding Jr., Fredster,…
Last Call for Art – “Oh, Man” and Talley’s Folley
Mark Todd’s art exhibit “Oh, Man” closes this coming week. The bright, colorful work prompted Houston Press contributor Dusti Rhodes to note, “It’s no wonder Mark Todd calls his exhibition ‘Oh, Man.’ Because that’s exactly the kind of stunned/amazed response his paintings and illustrations coax from viewers.”Todd’s work resembles vintage…
This Week In Deliciousness
Welcome back to the weekly round-up of our food blog, Eating Our Words, where the beef isn’t jerky but a couple of the maitre-d’s are. Robb Walsh started us off this week with a very informative post regarding those herbs you sometimes see growing behind Mexican food stalls; skipping the…
The Distillery: Rancid’s Let the Dominoes Fall
What it do, Rancid? What’s crackin’, formerly crusty-punk rude boys? Been a long time since we last hang, bros. When Dan Zeller lent me Let’s Go during senior year of high school, I knew y’all were onto something special: three-billy-goats-gruff sung scrabbling punk anthems and routs with just a hint…
Upcoming Events
Recession diners, get those forks at the ready. Yelp Eats! is here. The online review site — perhaps best known for local restaurant reviews — has started its very own Restaurant Week called Yelp Eats! in which popular area restaurants will be offering $25 prix fixe dinners from July 20 to…
Food Not Bombs Fights a War With the Houston Public Library
The saga between Food Not Bombs and the Houston Public Library continues. The group, which serves vegan food to homeless people four nights a week outside the downtown branch, had its first run-in with the library people about a year and a half ago, a few months before the big…
MP3 of the Day: Flowers to Hide
Here’s a nice little Friday-afternoon rocker for all you clockwatchers out there. It’s a snappy account of touring life by Houston’s Flowers to Hide, the opener of the quartet’s 2008 EP Down the Stairs. The lickety-split pacing and brazen guitars reminds Rocks Off of beloved ’80s nightwatchmen like Gene Loves…
Openings and Closings
Lovers of Belgian cuisine have another reason to rejoice other than Catherine Duwez’s increasingly common Cafe Montrose dinners: Former co-owner Andrew Klarman is opening Jeannine’s Bistro this week with his sister, Jeaninne Petras. The cafe will be located at Westheimer/Elgin and Bagby and will serve the standard Belgian fare –…
Inquiring Minds: Fresh Houston Rappers the Nice Guys
A few years back, Houston was the city the rap world was talking about. Artists like Paul Wall, Slim Thug and Mike Jones showed the entire nation (and beyond) what H-town had been up to for years. Those days are gone now, though, and the city is left wondering where…
The Hanging Oaks Of Houston
Way up Bagby near the bayou, there stands a live oak that was old when the Allen Brothers arrived here and perpetrated the real estate scam of the Millennium. One of the few trees to have escaped the city’s 173 years of boom times, the majestic oak owes its survival…
Metro’s Latest Civil Rights Trainwreck
A couple months back, we wrote about Metro receiving notification from the Federal Transit Administration, saying Metro had violated federal civil rights laws, but we hadn’t seen a draft of the preliminary report. Now we have, and, apparently, Metro hasn’t been too concerned with the federal laws. According to the…
Aftermath: Archgoat, Blaspherian and Thorn Spawn at Walter’s on Washington
This week has been one of many firsts for Aftermath. Sunday night, we attended our first drunken Tejano show at an icehouse in Pearland while visiting the parents. It was an eye-opening experience, full of balls-out accordion breakdowns and Freddy Fender covers that reminded us of our Hispanic-American roots, even…
The Crucifer of Blood at the Alley Theatre
The Crucifer of Blood, this year’s ExxonMobil Summer Chills series at the Alley Theatre is based on Arthur Conan Doyle’s novel The Sign of Four which was the second novel he ever wrote about Sherlock Holmes (after A Study in Scarlet). As Hair Balls wrote in an earlier post, Todd Waite will…
Cafe Montrose Reborn?
When Cafe Montrose closed late last year without notice or explanation, many Houston food lovers chalked it up to the slow economy and the general malaise following Hurricane Ike’s landfall. The general consensus was they’d just be closed a few weeks, ride out some tough times, maybe do some much-needed…
The Chevy Cobalt: Not So Safe After All
There’s nothing wrong with the Chevy Cobalt. It’s an affordable little car that gets pretty good gas mileage on the highway, but is it really worth killing over? According to Houston police, the answer appears to be yes. Huu Khanh Phung, 55, was in his silver-colored Cobalt near the intersection…
The Best ZZ Top Videos (We Could Find Online)
Not one but two gentlemen with long beards may be sneaking down your chimney today. They will leave memorabilia such as guitar picks and signed drumsticks, and if you’ve been a good boy or girl all year, may even give you a free guitar lesson. Instead of milk and cookies…
Summer Session at the Skatepark
The Kingpinz Summer Session will soon be underway at the Lee & Joe Jamail Skatepark tomorrow afternoon. Skater or not, the contest will be fascinating to watch, as the two events — grommet run and best trick throwdown — will feature some of the slickest skating in town. The youngsters…
Friday Night Noise: Earn and Black Pus
Earn, “She Could Only Remember” Snaggled-drone unit Earn is a solo project of Houston’s Matthew Sullivan, who also records under the name Privy Seals and has his paws in a slew of outfits, including Deep Jew and Vague Apology. As Earn, he’s all up on the “disturbing ambient with interruptions”…
Menu Flashback: Don’s Seafood 1972
Back in 1972, the Landry brothers were on a roll. They’d opened four of their Cajun-inspired seafood restaurants in Louisiana and had just begun a push into Texas with a restaurant in Beaumont. One of their employees, Jim Gossen, ordered a new menu design for their flagship restaurant in Morgan…
Aftermath: David Allan Coe at House of Blues
David Allan Coe will hang around as long as you will let him. And he wrote “Take This Job and Shove It.” Although it was a little hard to get past the sheer sight of him – the grizzly offspring of Gregg Allman and one of Dr. Teeth’s band from…
Will the Aeros Be Recognizable As the Same Team Next Season?
When the Houston Aeros season gets underway come October, you truly are going to need a scorecard to tell apart the players. Because while it may be a way of life in the minor leagues to have roster changes during the off season, the Aeros, who made it into the…
Wanted: Social Media Consultant for Annise Parker’s Campaign
Editor’s Note: The following article has been updated to clarify a statement made in the original. To clarify, Julie Pippert is not a member of Annise Parker’s campaignThe Houston Press regrets the error.In yet another move that proves social media is more revered than the Dalai Lama, mayoral candidate Annise…
A Chat with Shon Kyto of Kata Robata
“What’s your signature drink?” It’s a fairly inane question, but it’s one Shon Kyto thinks about a lot. He’s the manager of Kata Robata, but after seven years serving drinks at Azuma, the bar is still his baby. He shows me the cork-bound drinks menu with not a little pride…
Five Spot: Houston R&B Collaboration King Billy Cook
Welcome back to Five Spot. Every Friday, we’ll examine a recent bit of music news and, sometimes awkwardly, tie it to a bit of Houston rap. It’s five videos and occasional cussing. Send tips to introducingliston@gmail.com. This weekend, Bun B and Mya are shooting the video for the electro-wispy “Upgrade…
Larry Kellner Out At Continental Airlines
Larry Kellner, the head of Continental Airlines and a prominent guy in Houston political, social and charitable circles, is gone.The airline announced that he “has decided to return to private equity at year-end after 14 years with Continental, the last five of them as chairman and CEO.”Taking his place will…
When Cabaret Meets Art Class: Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School
Photos by Groovehouse The sun is streaming through the windows of an old house on a Sunday afternoon. Inside, the DJ is spinning groovy beats. The bartender is crafting saucy shots and cocktails. And the burlesque model on the floor is naked except for a bustier and some strategically-placed coins. This isn’t…
Aquarium Drunkard (Snarkily) Remembers the Fabulous Satellite Lounge
For a solid decade, Washington Avenue’s Fabulous Satellite Lounge was Houston’s go-to spot for roots-rock, alt-country and pretty much anything else that might get covered in the late, recently resurrected online No Depression magazine. Though he was living in Austin throughout the Satellite’s run (it closed in January 2003), Rocks…
Dynamo Player Fined $500 For Bad Tweeting
These damn kids and their tweeting twittering twatness!! When will they ever learn?Houston Dynamo star Brian Ching was fined $500 by Major League Soccer for something he wrote on his Twitter account after a recent game, or match, or tilt or whatever they call those soccer things.”Ref in seattle just…
Health Department Roundup: Downtown Crackdown Edition
In this economy, flat is the new up in the restaurant trade. One can’t excuse nasty hygiene just because the chips are down, but this week, we’ll throw in some good vibes along with the jibes as we look behind the scenes at health code-breaking restaurants in Houston’s ever-revitalizing downtown…
Inquiring Minds: Frank Zwee of D.R.U.M.
There was a time when world music was simply just a trend. That odd section in Barnes & Noble, the one where people with beaded jewelry and Birkenstocks went to buy their Christmas presents. Now, it’s a widely respected genre that includes exactly what its title professes, blending in a…
It’s Not Hillcroft, It’s Mahatma Gandhi Avenue, Dammit
When you think of Hillcroft between 59 and Westpark, you probably think of badly timed traffic lights, strip malls filled with small stores, and…..Mahatma Gandhi?Apparently yes, to the last part, if you’re one of the group of people KTRK says is trying to get the city to rename that stretch…
Food Fight: Battle French Fry
Did you know that Monday was National French Fry Day? Yeah, neither did we. We were still distracted by trying unsuccessfully to find poutine for Canada Day (July 1, ya hosers). But take National French Fry Day and combine it with Bastille Day (July 14, mais non), and you have…
Slide Show: ZZ Top’s Roots and Influences
One of the most influential Southern rock bands of all time, ZZ Top has, of course, been influenced by those who came before. You can see shades of the boys with the beards in each of the following bands – acknowledged by music critics, and in some cases the band…
What Do You Get For The Couple Who Has Everything, Including A Crazy Stalker?
Oh gosh, Lisa Nowak’s not going to take this news well.(That’s Lisa “I was not wearing diapers” Nowak to you; one-third of the wackiest astronaut love triangle ever.)The other two parts of that triangle are getting married.Bill Oefelein, the NASA stud muffin who simply loves the ladies, is tying the…
MP3 of the Day: Sean Reefer & the Resin Valley Boys
As if Wednesday night’s drunken, surly and bearded Clutch show wasn’t enough for the House Of Blues staff, tonight they get to rassle with the musical stylings of one David Allan Coe, openers 1100 Springs and Sean Reefer & The Resin Valley Boys. Long a fixture on the Houston honky-tonk…
HISD Takes Back Some Of Its Objection To A Critic’s Numbers
Last week when Hair Balls reported that LULAC (the League of United Latin American Citizens) had sent letters to the Texas Education Agency and the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts saying it should investigate Houston ISD for the amount of money it spends on two private alternative schools, we were…
$13 at Edomae Sushi
Where: Edomae Sushi, 12225 Westheimer, 281-558-5599 What $13 gets you: Sushi Special C from the lunch special menu is $10.95 and includes a California roll rolled in bright orange flying fish roe and a Spicy Tuna roll with your choice of miso soup or salad. If you can’t afford the…
The Moon Landing, In Sharp Newly Restored Video
Score one for the British press.We mentioned a while back that a London paper was reporting that NASA had discovered and restored tapes of the moon landing that had been missing for 40 years.The timing seemed highly coincidental, but it’s true. And NASA just now has released the restored video.You…
Cutout Bin: Censored and “Recalled” Album Covers
The Beatles, Yesterday and Today (1966) We start with perhaps the best-known example of a “recalled” album cover. When advance copies were sent to stores and DJs, there was an immediate uproar over the cover, showing the band covered in baby parts and bloody meat. All copies were ordered to…
A Chat With Chef John Watt
Tulsa-bred Chef John Watt has long toiled in the kitchens of Houston. He helped found Trevisio (6550 Bertner Street) and Prego (2520 Amherst), both recipients of Wine Enthusiast accolades, among many other culinary plaudits. Trevisio was named one of 2002’s best new restaurants by My Table Magazine, while Prego is…
Astros Second-Half Preview: Now Comes The Hard Part
So the second half of the season gets underway for the Astros tonight, and the team has 74 games left to secure a playoff spot. Of course, the Astros are a surprising 44-44, and they’re only three-and-a-half games behind the NL Central leading St. Louis Cardinals, and they’re only five…
Aftermath: Clutch at House of Blues
If you ever wondered what might have happened if James Brown and Audioslave had a baby, you should have been at House of Blues Wednesday night. You might only be wondering this if you are a member of the male gender, because – with a few exceptions at the almost-full…
Houston 101: An Elevator’s Last Ride In The Montrose
Some bands are just fated to live fast, die hard and live a pretty corpse. Maybe no Texas group ever exemplified that credo better than the 13th Floor Elevators, perhaps the first and certainly one of the most dramatic exemplars of a band that flew too close to the sun…
Fleming’s Chipotle Mac ‘n’ Cheese
Creamed spinach, iceberg wedge salad, and macaroni and cheese are old steakhouse favorites, long served to us alongside our ribeyes. It wouldn’t be Texan to say we like them more than the beef, but that creamy, cheesy pasta with the newfangled breadcrumb topping does something naughty to us. James Cole,…
Apollo 11’s Michael Collins Interviews Himself
Michael Collins, the man who orbited the moon while Neil and Buzz had all the fun, isn’t doing any interviews, apparently, for the 40th anniversary. But through NASA he’s put out a Q&A with himself answering what he says are the biggest FAQs he gets.Most of it is predictable, and…
Straight from the Sole: Houston’s Best Metal Bands
You know Soledad. He’s the vocalist from controversial Houston rap-metal act Daylight Coma. He’s got a lot to say. Sometimes it’s insightful, sometimes less so, but it’s almost always said with conviction. This week, in honor of the fast-approaching HPMA, we asked him who he thinks are Houston’s five best…
MTV’s Brand Of Birth Control: 16 and Pregnant
Okay, so this show makes me nervous about getting pregnant, and I’m 32.I admit that when I first saw the previews (yes, I’m in my 30s and watch 16 and Pregnant…don’t judge), I was worried that the reality series — which follows girls who are (guess what) 16 and pregnant…
“Challenge VII: dysFUNctional”
A chair you can’t sit on, a teapot full of leaks and a vase with a blocked neck: When the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft decided to go looking for works that “subvert and satirize” function, they weren’t kidding around – or maybe they were. For “Challenge VII: dysFUNctional,” the…
“Introductions”
Linda Darke, owner of Darke Gallery, was being literal when she named her current group exhibition “Introductions.” The show presents seven emerging Texas artists, including a few that have been mostly unseen in Houston despite their success in other cities. “Chad Erpelding, for example, is having shows in Korea and…
“$timulus”
President Obama has his stimulus plan, Artadia has its. Unless you’re a giant corporation, chances are you’ll see more benefit from Artadia’s. In 2008, ten Houston artists were recognized by Artadia for their talent and innovation. As part of the award, each was given some cold, hard cash (up to…
Houston, Where Seventeen Railroads Met the Sea
Take a good look at the city seal of Houston, and you’ll see a train engine. (It’s been there since 1840.) That’s because Houston was once a major railroad hub, with tracks from more than a dozen companies crisscrossing the city. During today’s Houston, Where Seventeen Railroads Met the Sea…
12th Annual Festival of Originals
Extraterrestrial abduction, the Mafia, the trouble with scientific theory – all this and more is on the bill at this year’s 12th Annual Festival of Originals, or FOO, as the folks from Theatre Southwest affectionately call their annual production. The show is made up of five new “perfectly constructed 20-minute…
Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone
When you hear the military leader in charge of defending Neo-Tokyo say, “Conventional weapons don’t work,” you know the battles in the anime film Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone are about to go into hyperdrive. It falls to a group of teenage pilots, part of a clandestine organization called…
Punctuality, Uncle Tom and Learning English
Dear Mexican, How can I get Mexicans to arrive to a meeting ON TIME? Punctual Pete Dear Gabacho, Tell them you’re offering green cards on a first-come, first-serve basis. And then diles a gabachos to eliminate the concept of arriving “fashionably late” the way they did the Polish joke. Dear…
Spacefest: 40th Anniversary of the Moon Landing
Once commander Neil Armstrong planted his big old silver-foiled boot on the moon on July 20, 1969, nothing on earth was ever the same again. Relive the glory, thrill and immense pride of Apollo 11 and subsequent voyages to the moon during Spacefest: 40th Anniversary of the Moon Landing, four…
Arsenic and Old Lace
Killing runs in the family in Arsenic and Old Lace, presented today by the Houston Community College theater department. In the play, suave theater critic Mortimer has just discovered his two old-lady aunts have been happily murdering bachelor boarders and burying them in the basement for years. Add to that…
Cafe Reads Presents Cathy Jodeit
Inspirational author, wife and mother of four Cathy Jodeit will read from her most recent title, Raising Bentley…The Lab with Heart, and discuss her writing career at today’s Cafe Reads presentation. A University of Texas graduate, Jodeit inadvertently started her first book, Sweet Sixteen with Hodgkin’s, when she began compiling…
Thoroughly Modern Millie
See the first-ever local professional production of Thoroughly Modern Millie at the Texas Repertory Theatre. The show, which features new songs from the 2002 Tony Award-winning Broadway revival, is set in the roaring ’20s. It’s the story of an ingenue who sets out to conquer the Big Apple and find…
Mixers & Elixirs with Mango Punch
If you think it’s odd to try and pick up a hottie amidst T-Rex fossils, dead butterflies and stoic terra cotta warriors, you haven’t been to the Houston Museum of Natural Science’s ongoing Mixers & Elixirs. Try some old-fashioned face-to-face, no-computers-needed social networking and clink a few cocktail glasses along…
“Detritus”
Who says artists don’t have a sense of humor? Jessica Moon Bernstein, one of the artists with work in “Detritus,” certainly does. “Two of her pieces are made from recycled bicycle inner tubes and they’re very phallic,” says Sarah Schellenberg, program coordinator for Art League Houston. “They look like dicks,…
Children’s Hilltop Festival
The four-day Children’s Hilltop Festival presents a quartet of plays that are entertaining, educational and, best of all, free. Asian Treasures is an anthology of magical tales in which humans interact with mischievous monkeys, beautiful birds and cunning tigers. Kian Long, Texas Pioneer tells the story of a slave who…
Kung Fu Panda
Who knew pandas could be slackers? Well, in Kung Fu Panda, Po is apparently a layabout with no real goals in life except to avoid as much work as possible. Not good traits to have when you’re called on to save the entire Valley of Peace from a treacherous villain…
Cirque du Soleil: Saltimbanco
Cirque du Soleil: Saltimbanco has visited 75 cities on five continents beneath its travel-friendly big-top tent since its creation in 1992. But even if you’ve seen it once, twice or thrice, it’s worth heading to the Toyota Center today to see a Saltimbanco that’s been reconfigured as an arena show,…
The Burning Hell
Cinema Bomar has a special treat for fans today – The Burning Hell. (Which, according to the film, is where most of us are going if we don’t change our evil ways and stop all our fornicating.) Made by the evangelistic preacher Estus Pirkle, The Burning Hell is a look…
“Besa: Muslims Who Saved Jews during the Holocaust”
In “Besa: Muslims Who Saved Jews during the Holocaust,” Norman Gershman’s soulful black-and-white photography and first-hand oral history illuminate a part of the Holocaust that, until recently, went unexplored. The title comes from the response Gershman received when he asked Albanian Muslims why they risked their lives to save Jewish…
Summer Sin Party
Get some face time with performers Calia Doll, Perish, members of Circ X and your fellow kinksters and exhibitionists at today’s Summer Sin Party. Pop for the VIP ticket and enjoy an extra two hours of naughtiness with early admission into the playroom. 8:30 p.m. to 2 a.m. Meridian, 1502…
“Recollections”
It’s easy to see why folk artists Leon Collins and his teenage daughter Molly Bee chose the title “Recollections” for their exhibit at Redbud Gallery. The works displayed are based on the family stories told by Leon’s great-great grandaunt. She died in 1970 at the age of 119 (no, that’s…
Tattoo, Burnout, & Bikini Contest
There’s more than $3,000 in prize money up for grabs at Republic Harley-Davidson’s 6th Annual Tattoo, Burnout, & Bikini Contest. The big money goes home with the winner of the bikini contest ($1,000), who is also crowned Miss Republic. Best burnout, best tattoo and best tattoo artist get a not-so-shabby…
Summer Sinfest: Fetish Feast
Whip your William, spank your Sally or bound your Bill among friends at this year’s Summer Sinfest: Fetish Feast. “It’s for kinksters, by kinksters,” says organizer Whitney Menn. The annual leather-based S&M event is getting a dinner-theater makeover to ensure participants don’t become spectacles. “There’s a lot of people who…
Explore Buffalo Bayou by Canoe
See Buffalo Bayou up close during today’s Explore Buffalo Bayou by Canoe trip. You’ll put in at Woodway and travel to Memorial Drive at Shepherd. Conservationist Don Greene leads the trip, pointing out the interesting plants and wildlife along the way. Please note that there’s a mandatory meeting before the…
“The $29.95 Polyphonic Art Score”
The “$29.95 Polyphonic Art Score” is music to your eyes. The exhibit features work from the members and friends of local drawing collective Sketchy Neighbors. “It’s all music-inspired,” says sketcher Anne Byrd. The group was approached by the Houston Chronicle’s 29-95.com to draw up some tuneful pieces to be sold…
The Odd Couple
UpStage Theatre closes out its current season with the Neil Simon comedy The Odd Couple. The story of terribly mismatched roommates – sloppy Oscar (Scott Holmes) and uber-neat Felix (David Hymel) – The Odd Couple features Neil Simon’s character-driven humor at its best. 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Through August…
“$timulus”
President Obama has his stimulus plan, Artadia has its. Unless you’re a giant corporation, chances are you’ll see more benefit from Artadia’s. In 2008, ten Houston artists were recognized by Artadia for their talent and innovation. As part of the award, each was given some cold, hard cash (up to…
“Arte Caliente”
Twenty-five Hispanic artists from Texas, including Houston-based photographer Sergio Santos and sculptor Jonatan Lopez, were selected for the juried exhibition “Arte Caliente.” Gallery owner Lori Betz purposefully sought out submissions in the most diverse styles and mediums possible, all with the theme arte caliente (hot art). Martin de Vore was…
“Blast from the Past”: The Science of Classic Toys
When your dad is the famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright, you’re looking to make your own mark on the world. John Lloyd Wright did just that with his invention of Lincoln Logs, the children’s classic building toy. Kids can play with Lincoln Logs, pet rocks, paper dolls, Slinkys and other…
Planet You
Phil Lindsey and his crew started shooting Planet You 3D last March. Just a few short months later, it’s making its big-screen premiere. Produced by Houston’s own Health Museum in conjunction with The Museum of Science Boston, the film chronicles the lives of the tiny, microscopic creatures that crawl all…
Reliant Park World Series of Dog Shows
The big draw at this year’s Reliant Park World Series of Dog Shows is expected to be Ch. Clussexx Three D Grinchy Glee, a.k.a. Stump. A Houston-based Sussex spaniel who’s the reigning Westminster Kennel Club champ, Stump will be giving out pawtographs and posing for pictures with adoring fans (ah,…
Pirates of Penzance
In the comedy Pirates of Penzance, Frederic was supposed to be a pilot. Garbled instructions put him on course to be a pirate instead. After spending years learning his illegal craft, Frederic has a fit of conscience and vows to recapture his honor by not only leaving his pirate ways…
Aga-Boom
Cream was a supergroup of rock musicians and the Justice League a supergroup of, um, superheroes. Is there a supergroup of…clowns? Yes, three whiteface jokesters formerly with Cirque du Soleil, Ringling Brothers and the Moscow Circus have combined their mighty mirth to present Aga-Boom. Part outrageous physical comedy and part…
Dawn of the Space Age
Relive the adventure of our race into space in Dawn of the Space Age. From the launch of Sputnik to the International Space Station, from those early Gemini missions to plans for the exploration of Mars, you’ll see every victory, every historic moment played out on the dome of the…
Capsule Art Reviews: “Amy Blakemore: Photographs 1988-2008”, “Carlos Cruz-Diez: Crosswalk”, “Perspectives 166: Torsten Slama”, “Toil and Trouble”
“Amy Blakemore: Photographs 1988-2008” The photographs Amy Blakemore takes with a crappy plastic camera can make you cry. Dad (1999) is an image from this exhibition, a 20-year survey of the artist’s work at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. The entire time I was in the gallery, people kept…
Comedy of Manners
Given anyone the middle-finger salute on the freeway recently? Bought coffee at Starbucks while chatting on your cell phone? Eaten dinner with your elbows on the table? Oh you naughty, naughty Houstonians — Main Street Theater has a show for you. Indeed, Ps and Qs: the ABCs of Manners, a…
Hell on Earth
Historically, New York hardcore has been a style closely tethered to its Manhattan roots. However, the burgeoning Long Island scene has begun making substantial contributions to the state’s mosh-ready exports. “You could play shows in Long Island, but it didn’t mean as much as when you played in New York…
Cover Me
“Last night I had a bad night,” Kathern Cathey says. “A real bad night.” The grape-sized tumor on her pancreas was causing even more pain than usual, so she chased the Vicodin she’s been taking with a pill from the bottle of morphine she just had filled. She waited for…
Capsule Stage Reviews: Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, The Phantom of the Opera, Reckless, The Wiz
Best Little Whorehouse in Texas If Country Playhouse listens to its audience, the theater will cancel the rest of the season and play this 1978 musical nonstop. There’s real appreciative whoopin’ and hollerin’ goin’ on — a recent packed house didn’t want to leave. This Tony Award-winning musical, created by…
Cover Me: Apply Heat
Cinergy Health, of course, is not the only company that has ever been a discount medical provider. There are many others, and in this account the Houston Press examines operations that have absolutely nothing to do with Cinergy. Perhaps one of the better examples of how many discount medical providers…
Prince of Darkness
Don’t let the PG rating fool you: The dark arts are back with a vengeance in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the generally grim, occasionally startling and altogether enthralling sixth chapter in a movie franchise that keeps managing to surprise just when one would expect it to be puttering…
What It Feels Like for a Girl
Any movie featuring children under ten is a movie wherein documentary bids to trump fiction and behavior can eclipse acting. The 1934 New Deal flag-waver Stand Up and Cheer! will remain ever fresh for featuring five-year-old Shirley Temple’s precocious (and relatively unedited) hoofing alongside genuinely incredulous veteran vaudevillian James Dunn…
The Life of Brian
Response to Judge Guerrero’s letter: Will this nightmare ever end? This innocent young man was finally acquitted after more than two years of resetting trial dates [“A Child’s Word,” by Randall Patterson, May 21]. Brian wanted to give the interview to clear his name and get the truth out. His lawyer,…
We Apply to Be BARC’s Top Dog. Plus: 10,000-person-strong tea party. maybe.
Political Animals We think we have what it apparently takes By Craig Malisow With the firing of BARC Bureau Chief Ray Sim, Mayor Bill White has called for a “change agent” at BARC, according to the Chron’s Lisa Falkenberg. Hair Balls hereby submits our application. We would have liked to…
Louisiana Creole Cafe
Linda Smith is affable, generous and hospitable. After Hurricane Rita, she moved to Houston from Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, to rebuild her life. And she’s making some of her family-favorite recipes at Louisiana Creole Cafe (3717 Dowling, 713-807-1700). “I’m cooking like I did back home, you know, smothered pork chops, oxtails,…
Pump Up the Volume
Murphy’s Law works something like this: On the hottest day of the year, the air conditioning will break. This was proved true on a recent Saturday in St. Louis, when the a/c conked out at the So Many Dynamos’ CD release show — on a day that hit 98 degrees…
Meat at Moe’s
Anyone who has been to Montreal will be familiar with its smoked meat sandwiches. At Moe’s Bar & Grill (Food Court, 5000 Katy Mills Circle, 281-644-3663), an outpost of the restaurant in Canada, the Famous Montreal Smoked Meat Sandwich ($10.99) comes in a regular or jumbo size. Jumbo is the…
Tres Hombres
ZZ Top. Typing those five letters into any search engine brings forth a Texas flood of results. Beards, babes, blues, boogie and booze. Cheap sunglasses and low-riding cars. Pearl necklaces, manic mechanics and whiskey ‘n’ mamas. Heaven, hell or Houston. Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in…
TONY MANDOLA’S ITALIANTINI
When you start with one of my favorite drinks, the vodka martini, and you introduce a little creativity from a savvy bartender at my favorite restaurant in the city, Tony Mandola’s Gulf Coast Kitchen (1962 W. Gray, 713-528-3474), the result is a can’t-miss. The Italiantini, which combines Italian vodka and…
The Radiators
New Orleans has always been a bit of a melting pot. From language to food to culture, it’s a place where combination and commingling are the rule rather than the exception. This fact is as true of New Orleans’s musical history as of anything else, and few bands encapsulate the…
Gators and Gumbo
The first thing you notice about the chicken and sausage gumbo at Al-T’s Seafood & Steakhouse is the thin sheen of rich liquid fat that coats the surface. That’s usually a tell-tale sign of a flavorful gumbo. Then your eyes take in the generous chunks of chicken and plump andouille…
Willie Colon
Anyone who saw the poorly received film El Cantante, the biography of singer Hector Lavoe starring Marc Anthony and Jennifer Lopez, knows that trombonist/band leader Willie Colon was Lavoe’s longtime friend and collaborator. Working since the 1960s, the two men — along with others like Celia Cruz, Johnny Pacheco and…
Listen Like Thieves
With skeletal fingers tapping the glass display counter inside the Library coffee shop in his native Long Beach, bearded Rx Bandits vocalist/guitarist Matt Embree breaks from squinting hopelessly at the illegible, chalk-scrawled menu hanging behind the cash register. Something snags his attention. It’s a flyer for an upcoming open-mike night,…
John Nemeth
Two acts come to mind when John Nemeth’s salty 2009 Blind Pig LP Love Me Tonight hits the speakers: Slim Harpo and the Fabulous Thunderbirds. Nemeth manages to hit that nice sweet spot between Harpo’s snaky south Louisiana boogie and the classic Junior Wells big-city Chicago blues, a sweet spot…
Rancid
In 1994, Rancid and Green Day were the instigators of a mainstream punk-rock revival that has persisted ever since. Echoing the spawn of the Clash and the Buzzcocks 20 years prior, the two groups rose to prominence by infusing their bratty and rebellious anthems with irrefutable hooks. Whereas Green Day,…
D.R.U.M., DUBTEX, Rattletree Marimba
The title of the latest CD by D.R.U.M. — that’s Divine Rhythm, United Motion for you newcomers — is a mouthful, and not technically a word, but it’s probably the best description of the long-running Houston Afro-reggae group’s music and philosophy anyone could ever come up with: Loveternalightruthealingrowthappiness. Get all…
Slow Poisoner
Slow Poisoner is by no means a typical solo artist. The San Francisco-based one-man outfit mixes every possible style and condenses it into a part rockabilly, part alt-country, part avant-garde endeavor. Somehow, in the midst of this genre identity crisis, he manages to keep a firm sound. The initial tracks…
Beauty in the Abandoned
Leonardo Drew hand-built each of the 880 boxes in his sculpture Number 43 (1994). They are packed tightly together, stacked into an imperfect grid against the wall. Grubby, rust-dusted scraps of fabric are jammed inside them; twisted fragments trail out of some; others have fabric stretched over the top, sealing them…
Yourself and The Air
Precious and precocious in equal measures, Chicago five-piece Yourself and The Air has benefited from a groundswell of hometown support that is just starting to translate into national exposure. Newly equipped with a prominent booking agent and towing the glowing EP Friends of All Breeds, the band is thriving in…
