Good News: Texas Leads the Nation in Teen Pregnancy
A new study says Texas ranks number one in the nation in teen pregnancy – and it’s about damn time! Because Texas had experienced a decline in teen births in the 1990s, it didn’t look like we stood a chance at nabbing the coveted God We’re Really Fucked Up Award…
Video Game Review: NCAA Football 08
Hey nerdlinger, put down the Harry Potter book because NCAA Football 08 is here! And yes, I had to fight through two screaming fans just to get a copy so yours truly could review it. There were many questions in the weeks before its hyped-up release: Why the hell did…
Harry Potter and the Sisters of Mercy, or Goth Like Me
Hermione? Is that you? Like millions of others in their 20s and 30s with no reservations (or shame) about reading a series of books intended for people half their age, I’m currently devouring Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. And yes, the first thing I did after buying the book…
High School Photo Contest: Food, Glorious Food
Close, but no cigar. We’re accepting entries until the end of August for our photo contest for Houston-area high school students. The theme is food. Good food. Bad food. Dog food. People food (but not in a cannibalistic way, of course). Anything that relates to eating. Food…
Thanks to a Slick Move, Houston-based Weatherford Keeps Drilling in Sudan
Oil is slick stuff. The oil business can be even slicker. And within the industry, Houston-based Weatherford International may be the slipperiest of all. Yep, that Sudan. According to Fortune Magazine, the oil giant is drilling in Sudan, despite the fact that the US Congress has prohibited American companies from…
We Blame the Chicken Fried Steak
Yes, indeed, everything is bigger in Texas, including our fat asses. Check out this obesity map from CNN. It’s kind of interesting the way fat states are marked in red and slightly less fat states are marked in blue. Maybe it’s a subtle statement on the politics of the Fat…
Biggio Was Really Good, in Terms of Useless Stats
Okay, I’ve always found Craig Biggio to be a bit of a phony, but the guy knows how to do things in style. He gets five hits on the night that he gets his 3,000th hit. And on the night that he announces his retirement, he hits a grand slam…
(White) Girl Power
Your preteen daughter may worship her Bratz Dolls and dress like an off-duty call girl, but on the bright side, she probably doesn’t perform in a white-power folk group. After the jump is a trailer for a new UK documentary chronicling one summer in the lives of hate-folk duo Prussian…
There’s a New Rocket in Town
And it’s not Steve Harris. Check out the latest marketing blitz from the Dynamo. All in all, not a bad idea. – Margaret Downing…
We’re Getting the Band Back Together! Or Should We?
The Yardbirds: Re-feathering the nest? The Yardbirds weren’t one of the more popular British Invasion acts on these shores, but they were at the forefront of the Limey Blues Boom of the mid-‘60s, paving the way for later acts like Cream, the Who and Led Zeppelin. More importantly, three faces…
Infernal Bridegroom Productions, 1993-2007
Sad news just landed in our inboxes: Infernal Bridegroom Productions ceased operations this month due to hard-core financial difficulties. Damn, that sucks. We really liked those folks. IBP was one of the things we always pulled out in the Houston-versus-Austin debate. We’ll have more on this later. For now we’re…
Craig Biggio to Announce His Retirement
Craig Biggio is announcing his retirement later today. Of course, as one of my colleagues stated, this is appropriate in that his bat retired following the 2004 season. (I know, I keep making remarks like that and I’ll never get on air with Milo.) I’m sure that tomorrow’s edition of…
Summer Mix Tape
A wise song once said, “Summertime and the livin’ is easy.” So the Press has put together some songs we think you might find relaxing. Ad man Joe Espelage says “What a Job” by Devin the Dude is perfect for rollerblading. (Seriously.) And we’re not sure why new guy Chris…
We’re Not Sure About Cathy Mincberg, But You Definitely Have a Problem Writing Original Headlines
School observers may be interested to learn that former HISD chief business officer Cathy Mincberg is now poised to assume the role of schools superintendent – in Portland, Oregon, according to a recent article in Willamette Week entitled, “Houston, Do We Have Your Problem?” Mincberg, you may remember, once supported…
Robb’s Review: On the Menu
This week, in the process of reviewing Red Basil Thai Fusion Restaurant, we discovered lots of other Thai restaurants that have recently opened in the same West Houston neighborhood. Why are so many new Thai restaurants opening in Houston?…
Robb’s Review: On the Menu
This week, in the process of reviewing Red Basil Thai Fusion Restaurant, we discovered lots of other Thai restaurants that have recently opened in the same West Houston neighborhood. Why are so many new Thai restaurants opening in Houston?…
Michael Jackson: The Man (?) In the Mirror
Have you ever pulled out the old family photo album, looked at yourself through the years, and sat gazing at your lost youth? We all look back and shout, “Shit, if only I had laid off those Toaster Strudels,” or “You know, those ten years being a blackout drunk weren’t…
That’s the Story of the Hurricane
One in three coastal dwellers wouldn’t leave during a hurricane, even if the gotdamn guvment told them to, according to a Harvard University survey. “The survey found the most common reasons for not evacuating were the same ones that topped last year’s Harvard University poll: People believe that their homes…
Put Me In, Coach. I’m Ready for Play-by-Play.
Okay, the Astros might have the best nucleus in baseball, but the team sure does suck. Hey, guess what, the Astros lost night. Yeah, I know, big fucking surprise. Tell you something you don’t know. But I don’t know what to tell you. I think I’m out of words with…
America’s “Glamour Girl”
Gene Simmons sure is an ass. He talks up a storm about being his band being the most successful ever, sells KISS brand caskets and KISS brand pregnancy tests. But for all his posturing, he always had one major flaw. You see, he took off his make-up after each show…
You Should’ve Been There: B. and We Versus the Shark at Notusoh
Comedian Todd Barry has a joke in which he points out his problems with bands that have two drummers. “If you’re a drummer and you join a band that already has a drummer, you’re an asshole.” For the most part, I wholly agree. However, if a band knows how to…
Des Ark Stuck in Phoenix
Heading out in hopes of seeing Des Ark tonight at Notsuoh? Sorry to break the news, but the band had to cancel. This just in, from local promoters Always Summer Booking:…
Jesus Ortiz Is a Fool
Well, I was reading Jesus Ortiz yesterday – yeah, I know, I should know better – and I discovered he was actually confirming what many have suspected for many years. Drayton McLane makes all of the decisions involving the Astros. Of course he does, you’re saying. He’s the owner. But…
Drayton Says the Astros Are a Good Team. Why Shouldn’t We Believe Him?
Okay, you know how I operate. Unless I’m talking about Hunter Pence, I’m not really going to say nice things about the Astros. Or about the Astros chances to win the NL Central. And I’ll tell you the truth, when I sat down to write this post, that was the…
Harry Hallowed Potter
It took Pradnya Bhawalkar an hour to put together the gloves, robe and rest of the witch costume the 18 year old wore to the midnight Harry Potter party at the Barnes and Noble at First Colony Mall in Sugar Land last night. The parking lot was so full, I’d…
Gonna Be an Earthquake
Comic Earthquake comes to town on Saturday with a show that he promises is “more mature.” The comedian, who has had specials on HBO, BET and Comedy Central, says his show is definetely for adults. “It”s a little more sophisticated, on the topics that’s going on.” While much of his…
Here Come the Irish
Finally, Texas residents will get to see some great college football without freezing their ass off at an occasional Cotton Bowl. That’s because Notre Dame announced today they are playing a regular-season game in San Antonio in 2009. The opponent for the Halloween Day game is not exactly earth-shaking: Washington…
Are You Reading This Post Just Because “David Beckham” Is in the Title? Shame on You.
If you were watching the Major League Soccer All-Star game last night, you might have noticed something. These guys can’t get enough of David Beckham. Seriously, we get it. He’s coming to play for the MLS, he’s one of the best players ever, him being here will do a lot…
Get Lit: Restless, by William Boyd
Newly out in paperback, Restless is a tightly written, entertaining espionage novel that tells two parallel stories. The first involves the exploits of a woman recruited to be a British spy as World War II looms, eventually becoming part of a team working feverishly to get America into the war…
Seething in the Rain
Houston is as wet as a Desperate Housewife sitting courtside at an L.A. Lakers game. Each day we wake up and are yet again inundated with this cursed rain. It’s summer, dammit! Where are the blistering heat waves, with old people croaking over and kids breaking into neighbors’ pools? Do…
The Team Definitely Needs Some Kind of a Savior
Margaret Downing seems troubled by the fact Texas public schools may soon be teaching Creationism alongside Evolution. And while I always thought it was the meek who shall inherit the earth, and not the idiots, I think that Margaret should take a look at the positives that might result from…
People Are Talking About Coins. And Beaumont. And Us.
Various message boards are filling up with spirited comments from coin hobbyists regarding this week’s feature story on several related Beaumont-based coin companies accused of using aggressive tactics to defraud customers out of millions. You can follow the thread or add your two cents here. – Todd Spivak…
TGITiVo: The Bronx Is Burning
Two years ago, New Yorker writer Jonathan Mahler wrote a book called Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bronx is Burning. It was an entertaining, kaleidoscopic look at the tumultuous year of 1977 in the Big Apple, a year which featured riots, a citywide blackout, the serial killer Son of Sam and…
All Up in the Ozone
Houston DJ and “mixtape mogul” Kidd Crisco, whose “Block Party” goes live at 7 p.m. every weeknight on Party 104.9 while you troll Richmond and Westheimer in your candy-painted whip, is a finalist in this year’s Tastemaker contest, sponsored by Ozone magazine and the TJ’s DJs Web site. To vote,…
Walking to Los Angeles
Noah Rattler is walking from Houston to Los Angeles to raise awareness of homelessness. He began his walk on March 23 and is completing the second leg of his journey right now in the middle of summer, in the Mojave Desert. Ben DeSoto In June, I caught up with Noah…
Steve Francis Returns to the Rockets
We said it this morning, and it’s happening even faster than expected. Steve Freakin’ Francis is coming back to the Rockets. Though Francis got better options financially from the Heat, Mavs and Clippers, he chose to come back to the team for which he was a three-time All-Star. His style…
Creationism and the Dumbing Down of Texas
Looks like Texas is on the move to be as stupid as Kansas. Yes, it looks like creationism may be taught in public schools on an equal basis with evolution. That’s fair, right? Except that creationism a.k.a. “the theory of intellligent design” is religion (well the Christian fundamentalist brand anyway)…
The Good Thing About Soccer Is That You Don’t Have to Worry About Breaking a Nail
Hey girls, tired of how confusing soccer is? Want to find out why your boyfriend can’t peel his eyes away from the game? Or do you just want to meet some cute soccer boys? [insert girl giggles and shrieks here] Yeah, we weren’t exactly drawn in either when we received…
The Quick Stripes
Most bands think they have to regale you with two-hour long sets of “something off the new record” or “the song that bought me that new walk-in humidor.” They think you are getting your moneys worth, when in fact they are really just helping the beer vendors buy shoes for…
Lippe Service
Do you have a vagina? If not, feel free to skip down to the next item. If so, then at some point, you’ve probably had an itchy vagina too. Well, there’s good news on that front: Lippe (yes!) Taylor Communications wants you to know that Vagisil has come out with…
In Cold Blog? That’s Kind of Clever.
Twenty years ago local writer Steve Long wrote a book, Death Without Dignity, about the infamous murder trial of a Galveston nursing home. He’s reminiscing about it now on a blog for true-crime writers called In Cold Blog, and let’s just say times have changed…
How Much Worse Can the Astros Get?
……….or is he? Well, it appears that Drayton’s surge is working. The Astros have surged all of the way to last place. That’s right, the Astros are now tied for last place in the NL Central with the Cincinnati Reds. Jason Jennings got the start yesterday. And you know what…
Houston’s Richest Man Shoots a Moose from a Helicopter. No Joke.
Dan Duncan, Houston’s richest man, has laid claim to a new, more auspicious title: Houston’s richest poacher. According to today’s Chron, the 74-year-old oil tycoon whose name appears in record books for hundreds of big-game kills, gunned down a moose and a sheep from a helicopter in Russia – and…
We Just Might Have Ourselves a Basketball Dynasty
A scrappy Argentine. A super-quick point guard who flew under the radar of NBA draft hype. An established big man to anchor the front court. A veteran leader and role players who can knock down the three. You heard it here first: the Rockets will be the new Spurs. Maybe…
Sandy’s Produce Market
It’s like some surreal dreamscape,” my lunchmate observed, looking out over the interior of Sandy’s Produce Market on the Katy Freeway near Dairy Ashford. We were sitting at a table in the middle of the health food store eating heaping plates of salad. Nearby, there was a display of milk…
Holocaust Museum Houston Lecture Series
The Holocaust Museum Houston presents an outstanding series of lectures dealing with current and historical aspects of anti-Semitism, including a look back at one of the groups most tragically affected by World War II Nazi death camps. Today, Dr. Michael Berenbaum of the American Jewish University in Los Angeles will…
Kuala Lumpur
The Malaysian curry seafood noodle soup ($5.95) at Kuala Lumpur (7818 Bellaire, 713-981-8822), made with chicken broth, includes strips of calamari, shrimp, scallops and surimi. It also has noodles, slices of okra and Japanese eggplant and tofu, which add additional color to an already eye-catching dish. Coconut milk adds creaminess,…
Dance Hall Days
“Businesses like mine never make it,” reckons Fitzgerald’s owner and namesake Sara Fitzgerald. “Two banks told me that, and both of them are gone.” The building is a former Polish women’s league dance and meeting hall that opened in 1908, when the Heights was still the outskirts of Houston. “The…
“To the Left”
“To the Left” at CTRL Gallery assembles works from women artists of Asian heritage. Grouping artists based on their sex and continent of origin may be a dubious exercise, but the works in the show are anything but. Chie Fueki’s intricately layered collages reference traditional Japanese symbolism with their chrysanthemums…
Hairspray
Did John Waters sell out? Or did our ever-more-metrosexual age merely render him irrelevant? Certainly long before Hairspray took up residence on the Great White Way in 2002, Waters had abdicated his throne as America’s elder statesman of underground smut in favor of a more lucrative career as a neutered…
Black Orpheus
Black Orpheus/Orfeu Negro combines Greek tragedy, bossa nova music and Brazilian Carnaval. The Oscar-winning 1959 film, considered a cult classic, is a retelling of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice set in modern-day Rio de Janeiro with a cast of black actors. For those rusty on their Greek mythology, Orpheus…
Soular Sessions with DJ Sun
The Contemporary Arts Museum Houston and the Houston Press are hosting Soular Sessions, a four-part monthly series featuring local DJs playing alongside Electric Relaxation: Digital Good Time (How to Break Your Own Heart), a wall-to-wall installation by Xaviera Simmons. The room is covered in classic soul, funk and jazz album…
I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry
I wanted to hate I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, truly I did. Two straight guys pretending to be gay (insert fiscal excuse here); been there, done that (insert all known variants on The Odd Couple here). Rampant homophobia hiding behind liberal pleas for tolerance — blech. And it’s…
Ridley Pearson
Mystery writer Ridley Pearson is on a roll. His new adult thriller Killer Weekend is looking like a summer favorite with the whodunit crowd, and his children’s books Escape from the Carnival (written with humorist Dave Barry) and The Kingdom Keepers are being touted as the next big thing for…
John DiResta
Comic John DiResta may have been in chick flicks Miss Congeniality and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, but his most recent performances definitely have a male audience in mind. DiResta, ex-cop and former star of the UPN sitcom DiResta, is currently on two television shows — Hammered…
Sunshine
In the observation room of the spacecraft Icarus II, passengers sit on a bench in front of a large, rectangular screen displaying a view of what lies ahead. They gaze at the spectacle as you might marvel at special effects on some ostentatious plasma monitor. A seething orb of gas…
Sixteen Candles
Head over to the Alamo Drafthouse today for Sixteen Candles. Legendary ‘80s filmmaker John Hughes’s first effort at capturing Generation X, the movie featured a slew of young, future Hollywood stars — known as the Brat Pack — such as Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall and both John and Joan…
Heath Hyche
Comedian Heath Hyche hails from Birmingham, Alabama, home of many a defunct pro football team (six in all). “Every time we have a league, they have a competition to name the team,” Hyche says. “And we’re called ‘The Magic City.’ I say, call them the Birmingham Magicians, because they’re going…
Death on the Nile
Contemporary crime dramas bend toward the bizarre — plots twist around creepy marriages, spooky adolescents and a menu of increasingly peculiar sexual fetishes. In comparison, Agatha Christie’s whodunits, with their old-fashioned love triangles and tidy, almost bloodless murders, seem positively quaint. But the Alley Theatre’s elegant production of the classic…
Sabra Laval
Singer Sabra Laval echoes the eerie entrancement of Chan Marshall and Fiona Apple, her sweet vocals pouring over repetitive, heavy guitar strumming for lullabies that put listeners under her siren’s spell. In “Until It’s Gone,” Laval repeats an emotion-packed one-line chorus — “I won’t stop until it’s gone” — between…
Ruddygore
Experience Ruddygore, one of Gilbert and Sullivan’s less famous, but still uproariously funny, works. The parody of Victorian melodrama tells the story of the Baronets of Ruddygore, a family who have been cursed by a witch — a very creative witch, it seems, because the curse requires every Lord of…
One Piece at a Time
For the past five years, as acts like Reverend Horton Heat have gained widespread acceptance, the curious rockabilly-punk offshoot known as psychobilly has been clawing at the mainstream gates. Underground, it’s been festering four times as long, at least since UK horror-punks the Meteors’ essential 1983 LP Wreckin’ Crew. “I…
Stage Capsule Reviews
Always…Patsy Cline Ted Swindley, former founding director of Houston’s Stages Repertory Theatre, created this ultimate country-fried jukebox musical in 1988 as a tribute to the late, great Patsy Cline. Even with its meager story line pegged to Louise (Lyndsay Sweeney), a Cline groupie who meets her favorite star for one…
Tristero
The members of Tristero claim they are “music majors trying to make rock and roll.” Their lighthearted pop musings call to mind a wide range of artists, from Ed Harcourt to Neutral Milk Hotel…
Potlikker Film Festival
The Southern Foodways Alliance spreads stories about Southern food nationwide via the Potlikker Film Festival. A newly born tradition that will enjoy its second run today at the St. Arnold’s Brewery, the event features screenings from SFA’s vault, including Marsaw, which tells the story of Martin Sawyer, a bartender who…
Worst and Weirdest
The Music Awards showcase is right around the corner — July 29, in fact. Every year, we ask dozens of the city’s top bands to tell us what they love, hate and are astounded by about being musicians, and every year they don’t disappoint. Especially when we ask them about…
“No Skeleton Armies, Please”
Can you give me about 30 minutes to pick up?” Brian Rod asks when I call to schedule an appointment to see the show “No Skeleton Armies, Please” at the Joanna Gallery in the neighborhood of the Menil. Rod lives in the gallery, or rather, the Joanna Gallery lives in…
The Gospel According to Tammy Faye
With her enormous, mascaraed eyes, Tammy Faye Messner was this country’s most famous present-day female televangelist in the ‘80s. Even after her fall from grace (then-hubby Jim Bakker was caught stealing from the church coffers), Tammy Faye managed to resurrect herself. Like a Phoenix rising, she became an inspiration to…
Texas coin companies target elderly investors
Editor’s Note: Please see our follow-up report at the end of this article. The 2004 magazine ad for Silver American Eagles that caught Maureen O’Neill’s eye included a thumbnail history and some mumbo jumbo about the coins being “certified gem brilliant uncirculated” and “sonically sealed in a tamper-evident holder.” But…
Been a Long Time
Few things send rock fans scrambling for the skip button (and the Maalox) faster than the sound of a symphony orchestra on top of electric guitars. Right? Absolutely. There have been some grievous offenses committed in the name of classical crossovers — “Bohemian Rhapsody,” Bat Out of Hell, Metallica’s S&M…
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…
Gulf Coast Jam
Local legends the Boogie Kings are playing the Port Arthur Gulf Coast Jam. What started out as a three-piece jam in a Eunice, Louisiana, kitchen morphed into the premier club band on the Gulf Coast by the end of the ‘50s. In fact, the Kings eventually became so popular, they…
Heads You Lose, Tails You Lose: Lie, Puke and Say No
Ever hear of banging a card? How about pitching heat? Or mind-screwing? According to depositions and interviews with former and current employees, several related Beaumont-based rare-coin companies have their own internal lingo. The terms and phrases suggest a contemptuous attitude toward the public, says Jason Gibson, a Houston-based plaintiffs’ attorney…
Flipping the Script
While the white suburban wastelands became partly gloomy with a chance of screaming, someone else took the reins on this stallion we call rock. Not tight-panted pretty boys in eyeliner and “sex” hair, warmed-over Slayer cover bands or your college buddies’ sloppy synth project. It was the Shop Boyz, a…
Mexican-American Culture
Dear Mexican, Why don’t Mexicans ever drop their Spanish? Even third- and fourth-generation Mexican-Americans still speak the language to some degree or another. I speak Japanese, but I’m losing it quickly, and when my mother passes on, so will my language. The typical Asian-American kid may attend Chinese, Korean or…
“Japan” at Houston center for Photography
The contrast of Japan’s beauty and its rigidity has captivated visitors for ages, and “Japan” at the Houston Center for Photography is no exception. On a 2006 trip to Japan, photographer Amelia D’Entrone sought to capture moments that revealed lonely souls trying to connect with a land that is at…
Local Motion
AllRecords, 1955 W. Gray, 713-524-4900 1. The Traveling Wilburys, Collection 2. Various artists, La Vie En Rose sound track 3. Various artists, Monterey Pop Festival 4. Wilco, Sky Blue Sky 5. Pink Martini, Hey, Eugene! 6. Michael Bublé, Call Me Irresponsible 7. White Stripes, Icky Thump 8. Bryan Ferry, Dylanesque…
Dim and Dimmer
Publisher: 2K Games
Platform: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Price: $59.99
ESRB Rating: M (for Mature)
Score: 6 (out of 10)
“Family Movie Night on the Lawn”
“My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.” If you don’t know where that’s from, you’re missing out on one of the best fairy-tale movies ever, The Princess Bride. This love story between Princess Buttercup and her one true love, Westley, includes sword fights, enormous rodents,…
L.L. Cooper
Despite their Houston Press “Best New Act” nomination, L.L. Cooper boasts considerable local experience. Namesake guitar-slinger Larry Cooper and bassist Jeff Enlow previously lent their chops to scene stalwart Lisa Novak. Rick Thompson spent a good decade handling keyboards and guitars for Moses Guest before signing on, and all this…
Cold War Reheated
Red Dawn: Collector’s Edition (MGM) John Milius’ 1984 war pic was a mighty bonkers release even back then; not since the 1950s had something come down the pike so rife with Commie paranoia. Russian and Cuban forces invade the U.S. with tanks and choppers and the whole shebang, only to…
Harry Potter
It’s going to be a bittersweet night as kids get ready for the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the last of the seven-book series by J.K. Rowling. Children all over the city are waiting for the stroke of midnight, which is when the book officially goes on…
Get Him Eat Him
If Providence, Rhode Island, quintet Get Him Eat Him sounded as threatening as their name implies, it would be easy to misconstrue them as a band more aligned with their hometown’s Load Records — a shrill, predatory beast feasting on the blood squirting from busted eardrums. Actually, Get Him Eat…
Our top DVD picks scheduled for release on July 19
Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog (Shout!) Avenue Montaigne (THINKfilm) Baxter (Lionsgate) The Best of the Colgate Comedy Hour (Passport) Beer Drinkers in Space (Tempe) Birdman & the Galaxy Trio: The Complete Series (Turner) Esther Williams: Volume 1 (Warner Bros.) Gunsmoke: The First Season (Paramount) The Happy Hooker Trilogy (MGM) The…
The Deep by Jackson Pollock
The Menil Collection is hosting a roundtable discussion of the abstract painting The Deep by Jackson Pollock. A panel of art experts including historians, artists and a conservator will discuss the 1953 painting, which is considered one of Pollock’s most enigmatic — and his most important later work. An open…
Jana Hunter
Jana Hunter haunts me in my dreams. Her music, though sparse in instrumentation and arrangement, bears a weight that clings to me like the stifling air of a Houston summer, albeit in a much more pleasant fashion. Fortunately for you musical claustrophobes out there, Hunter has been lightening things up…
Tidal Wave
Last month we asked Houston’s high school kids to send us photos of water, and we got caught in a tidal wave of quality. This was probably our best batch yet, which is why we’re happy to hand out six awards. First place goes to Marielle B. Reiersgard, of the…
Paul Varghese
You may think the days of racial profiling at the airport have died down, but Indian comedian Paul Varghese isn’t taking any chances. “If I’m late to a flight, I can’t run into an airport,” says Varghese, who was featured on Last Comic Standing. Varghese understands the fear, though; in…
Austin Lounge Lizards
If only, as the name implies, this were an Austin-centric lounge-singer act. Sadly, a ticket to this show won’t buy a bunch of cross-dressing hippie burnouts crooning Dean Martin, just an old-guy folk-bluegrass combo with more banjos and fiddle than gold medallions. True, songs like “Luster’s Motel” and “Jesus Loves…
Porn actress uses former schoolmate’s name
Courtney Cummz, call your lawyer. Well, only if you’re not the Courtney Cummz who stars in Young Cheerleader Swap ‘n’ Swallow 2. If, however, you somehow got through high school as Courtney Cummz and have now discovered someone’s using your name as a porno actress, you need to sue. That’s…
The Spy in the Mes
Jesper Børjesson Holm and Hasse Mydtskov, the Denmark duo behind The Spy in the Mes, will have you wishing their homeland wasn’t so far away once you hear their quirky, danceable pop rock. Audience favorites include “SmallBlondeFreakyMother,” a polka-infused rock dance ditty sure to get anyone with legs out on…
Mary Cutrufello
Mary Cutrufello hasn’t moved back to Houston, but we should be seeing a lot more of her. After a three-year performing hiatus to take care of nodes on her vocal cords, she’s relocated to Austin from the frozen tundra of Minneapolis. She’s just released a blazing new album and is…
Mail Call
Always in style: Cocaine is back in style [“Got Blow?” Racket, by John Nova Lomax, July 5]?! Give me a fucking break! That would imply it has ever gone out of style. Psst, it didn’t! Drugs will always be around, and every one of them will always be “in style.”…
Jim Dale Reading
Jim Dale, the voice of the Harry Potter audiobooks, is making only five U.S. stops for Harry Potter and the Deadly Hallows, and Houston is one of them. Blue Willow Bookshop bookseller Katie O’Sullivan says, “We are so excited. He has an entire show, he’s fantastic. He’s a very good…