Lady Bird Johnson, 1912-2007
Lady Bird has passed away. She will be missed. We can only wonder what Hank Hill is thinking. — Keith Plocek…
Our Sister City
Back in May, Rich Connelly had this to say about a BayouSphere photo of one of those great big concrete ball-thingies in the Galleria area: Daniel Kramer “Things you never want to hear a supervisor say: ‘Hey, you — go grab a broom and clean those balls.’ It obviously takes…
The Franco-Texas Connection
If you didn’t think the French were douchey enough, they held a charity auction Tuesday of memorabilia from the TV show Dallas. The money goes to a charity that hires clowns to entertain sick kids! So that’s a bunch of real douches bidding on stuff worn by fake TV douches…
Team Player
Somewhere, some people with very exciting lives are super into Fantasy Congress. Fantasy Congress works in much the same way as its football counterpart, but users draft a mix of senators and representatives. Points are awarded for positive media coverage, a politician drafting a bill, and the bill being signed…
Something’s Coming
The countdown has finally dropped to….less than a week. Which isn’t much of a milestone, but if you’re a junkie, you take whatever you can get. Just six days from now, EA Sports releases the 2008 version of the world’s best video football game. No, it’s not Madden. Let the…
All-Star Game
Well, the Astros can forget about having home field advantage for the World Series this season. What’s that you say, you thought that the Astros had already forgotten about that? Well, the Astros can definitely forget about it now as that the American League won the All-Star Game by a…
O RLY?
Back in January 2005, Press writer Mosi Secret wrote about the Houston chapter of the Pink Pistols, a group of “concealed-pistol-toting, Second Amendment-defending sexual minorities who don’t take mess from criminals, haters or legislators trying to take their guns.” Bill O’Reilly falls under the “hater” category. Last month on his…
Nooner
Press art critic Kelly Klaasmeyer called Katrina Moorhead’s Moon Huge and Low and Does Not Leave “impressive and magical.” Said to look like an illuminated piece of polar ice, the thing is made with basic materials you could find at Home Depot. Tomorrow at noon, Moorhead will be at the…
Life Imitating Art
We would call it irony, but it’s actually the exact opposite. Amy Winehouse is onto her second UK concert cancellation this week. Maybe all the recent praise from super divas like Elton John and Prince has gone to her head, or maybe it really was “exhaustion.” Either way, she was…
Spanish Shorts at the MFAH
Catch the latest in Spanish cinema this Saturday at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston’s “Short Films from Spain (part 1)” and see a program that guest curator Marta Sanchez calls “really, really daring and diverse.” The Barcelona-based Sanchez mixed filmmaking styles and genres, from traditional black comedy to “Cine…
Get Lit: Up in Honey’s Room, by Elmore Leonard
Elmore Leonard is an easy author to read. You just open the book to the first page. You just read the first sentence. Then you’re on the next sentence. Then the next. And hours have passed and you realize that there are no more sentences to read. That you’ve read…
Brit-Indi is the New Tex-Mex
British Indian food is like Texas Mexican food — a cuisine unto itself. British-Indian TV chef Manju Malhi coined the term “Brit-Indi” (an awkward nod to Tex-Mex) to describe this style of Indian cooking for the British kitchen. With her “10 Minute Curries” and utterly relaxed approach to Indian home…
Brit-Indi is the New Tex-Mex
British Indian food is like Texas Mexican food — a cuisine unto itself. British-Indian TV chef Manju Malhi coined the term “Brit-Indi” (an awkward nod to Tex-Mex) to describe this style of Indian cooking for the British kitchen. With her “10 Minute Curries” and utterly relaxed approach to Indian home…
Opening Wolfgang’s Vault
A few weeks ago, a friend who knows I think Bono can do no wrong – so sue me – sent me a link to a concert he and the boyos did at Boston’s Orpheum Theater in May 1983, in the thick of the War tour. It’s almost 90 minutes…
Like Father, Like Son
Sure, these guys really don’t have anything to do with basketball, but it was either them or the Bushes. Houston-area high school basketball fans may have a new star to root for this coming season. It appears the decision of new Rockets head coach Rick Adelman to hire Elston Turner…
Suits Them
The widow of a contractor who was killed last month at BP’s Texas City refinery — the 19th person to die there since 2004 — is suing the company and the plant manager, alleging her husband’s death was “a direct result of the broken safety culture which has existed and…
Doing Rails
Yes, it’s true, we love our cars. And it’s true that light-rail in Houston has mostly been a big (train) wreck. But what to think about high-speed rail connecting major cities in Texas? You may remember the push back in the early ‘90s for the Texas Triangle linking Houston, San…
Et Cetera
I’ve got a few miscellaneous things to discuss, so I thought I would just put them all here. First, I struggled to get through flood waters to get to the airport Friday so that I could get to my flight to Toronto for a long sought after getaway weekend. Now,…
Zero Tolerance
On Saturday, the Chronicle finally got around to telling the story of Shelby Sendelbach – the 12-year-old sixth grader in Katy ISD charged with a misdemeanor and sentenced to four months of alternative school for defacing school property by writing “I love Alex” in small letters with a Sharpie. The…
Get Lit: Lean Mean Thirteen, by Janet Evanovich
Put together the phrases “comfort food” and “mystery novel” and you’ll probably find character Stephanie Plum in the answer column. Author Janet Evanovich, a former romance writer looking to move into a better paying sector of the book writing business, found the mother lode when she first created Stephanie and…
Warming Up
Well, let’s hear it for the Astros, huh? The team comes into the All-Star break having won seven of the last 11 games, including a split in the just-completed series with the NL East-leading New York Mets. That could qualify the team as being hot. There’s just one problem. When…
Best Punk 2007
Meet the nominees for Best Punk band in the 2007 Houston Press Music Awards. Don’t forget that the HPMA Showcase (50+ bands) is Sunday, July 29. Watch this site for more details. You can vote online at www.houstonpress.com or on a ballot you’ll find inside this week’s Houston Press newspaper…
Best Metal 2007
Time to meet the nominees in another Houston Press Music Awards category. Here are the Best Metal 2007 nominees. Remember, to vote pick up a Houston Press newspaper or go online at www.HoustonPress.com. – Olivia Flores Alvarez Insect Warfare…
Getting Famous for Doing Nothing
So you’re browsing through titles at the local adult video store when – bam! – you see your name on the box for “Young Cheerleaders Swap ‘n Swallow 2.” Oh, Houstoned, you crazy blog, you say, that could never happen in real life – or can it? This nightmare became…
Day by Day
You can now see three-fourths of Bobbindoctrin Puppet Theatre’s installment of the celebrated 365 Days/365 Plays on YouTube. For those of you who missed our write-up back in January, the project was the brainchild of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks, who penned a play every day for a year. Theater…
Shut Up, Fatty
Texas Congressman Ron Paul, the once-Libertarian-now-Republican presidential candidate, was affable enough on The Colbert Report last month. Now check out this old appearance on the Morton Downey Jr. Show where he whacks an audience member who calls for a government crackdown on drugs. “The government can’t make you a better…
The Big C and Marvin Z
Give a shout out to Marvin Zindler, who went on the air at KTRK-TV last night to tell viewers that he’s been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Zindler, who can be loud and cantankerous, was at his impressive best during the announcement. Shunning tears, he gave a feisty little speech in…
Re: Behind the Music: Craig Biggio
It appears that Behind the Music: Craig Biggio has touched a nerve. And there are some people who disagree with some of the things that I wrote. Well, being that this was an opinion piece, that’s fine, feel free. But there are some matters which I’d like to address. One…
Listen Up! The Clay Aiken Interview
The day Clay-mates all across Texas have waited for is finally here – Clay Aiken is in Houston, in concert, tonight. Performing with our own world-class Houston Symphony, Aiken will be taking his pop songs and giving them the full orchestral treatment. Make the jump for a look at our…
Get Lit: Birds of Texas, by Keith A. Arnold and Gregory Kennedy
Just holding this book is a delight; it’s one of those whose weight and texture just feels great in your hands. And okay so what if you have no idea of the difference between a “great crested flycatcher” and a “brown-crested flycatcher” — you could learn. Beautiful photographs coupled with…
Leave Beltran Alone
So, what happens when the Astros run into a good pitcher? Well, they lose. Like on Wednesday when Cole Hamels shut them down. And last night, when John Maine shut them down. The Astros lost 6-2 last night. The Astros lost to a Mets team that had just been swept…
Conspiracy Theorist
As mentioned below, Texas Monthly editor Evan Smith has noted in his blog that the “Astronaut Sex” cover might end up being the worst-selling edition in the magazine’s history, because apparently we live in a 18th-century Amish village where children have never seen the word “sex.” (Or, possibly, in a…
Shuttle Cock
This just in: Texans don’t like photos of astronauts getting it on. According to Texas Monthly editor Evan Smith, the magazine’s May cover – headlined “Astronaut Sex!” – helped make the issue “the second-worst newsstand seller in the magazine’s thirty-four-plus-year history.” Personally, I don’t see what the problem is, as…
One If By Land, Two If By River
This just in: This Saturday there will be a rally against the proposed building of a wall on the Texas-Mexico border. While pedestrians gather at the Roma Bluffs overlooking the Rio Grande (also near the World Birding Center), canoeists and kayakers are supposed to paddle their way from nearby Frontera,…
Secrets of Success
Wayne Stroman of Conroe is known around town as a local realtor and successful businessman. Both are true, but what many people don’t realize is that his company, Stroman Realty, is also the self-proclaimed largest resales broker of timeshares in the world. What’s more, it is the subject of a…
Behind the Music: Craig Biggio
Anyone who used to watch lots of VH-1 remembers Behind the Music. That little documentary thing that would document the life of a band or a musician. And it was a great little format. The first half would document the rise of the band. The second half would document the…
Dancing About Gitmo
Today on KUHF you can hear members of the Michele Brangwen Dance Ensemble talking about the troupe’s latest offering, “A Note from Guantanamo.” Steven Devadanam Since it’s kind of tough to do a dance performance over the radio – although it’d be really, really avant-garde if they did – local…
Jesus Ortiz Can Stuff It
Hunter’s Hill I have a modest proposal. If Drayton McLane is going to insist on keeping that stupid-ass hill in centerfield, then I suggest that it be renamed. No more Tal’s Hill. It should now be known as Hunter’s Hill. Have you guys been watching the plays that he makes…
Get Lit: The Secret Servant, by Daniel Silva
With the terrorism plot in London just upon us in real life, it seems that bestselling thriller writer Daniel Silva could not have picked a better time for the release of his latest book, The Secret Servant. Because it is in London that this story reaches its high point, in…
Patti Austin
The most stylish of the group here is Avant Gershwin, Patti Austin’s tribute to George and Ira Gershwin. The brothers contributed dozens of hits to the American songbook, including the eight Austin does here. “Love Walked In” and “Lady Be Good” are both especially nice, but the “Porgy and Bess…
Tianna Hall & the Mexico City Jazz Trio
“Fever” might be the second cut on this CD, but it should be the song you listen to first. It has a sweet mix of hot sensuality and cool. Peggy Lee who? Hall recorded this CD last year in Mexico City, with Miguel Villicaña on piano, Agustin Bernal on bass…
Zero tolerance gone awry in the Katy Independent School District
By now you may have heard about 12-year-old Shelby Sendelbach, who attends Mayde Creek Junior High in the Katy school district. After all, a Japanese television network is filming her as a case study in how not to discipline students. Sendelbach took a Sharpie and wrote “I Love Alex” in…
Kelly Willis
With her girl-next-door good looks and the raucous, fun-loving approach she takes on her latest release, Translated from Love, alt-country chanteuse Kelly Willis is the kind of performer who can induce schoolboy crushes in fully grown men. Somehow, despite her one-two punch of looks and talent, Willis has never been…
Alfreda’s Cafeteria
The oxtails at Alfreda’s Cafeteria (5101 Almeda, 713-523-6462) are served as a “meat and three” — protein with three sides, plus old-fashioned corn bread. There’s a special technique to removing all of the meat from the well-cooked oxtails at Alfreda’s. Usually, all but one stubborn piece of meat will already…
500 Megatons of Boogie, with the Jonx and Dizzy Pilot
If you know the Slurpees, then you know the Squishees and therefore are probably familiar with 500 Megatons of Boogie. Each is a spin-off of the others, and all are brainchildren of local front man Erik “Fancypants” Westfall. The bespectacled, nerdtastic guitarist gives each of his projects the post-punk flavor…
Dark Matter: Five Gothic Tales of Horror
Murder, madness and modern physics come together in Don Nigro’s Dark Matter: Five Gothic Tales of Horror. A quintet of tales about spooky love gone terribly wrong, Dark Matter covers fairly grisly ground. Included is The Malefactor’s Bloody Register, the tale of three young girls who suffer horrors at the…
Matisyahu, 311
Countless Christian churches have turned to the glitz and glam of rappers and rock bands to tempt young people back to their pews. But there hasn’t been a priest, nun or Saved star yet that could rock audiences like Hasidic Jew Matisyahu. By mixing reggae and dub beats, rock and…
“Art for Caged Hearts”
Diana Atchetee’s mixed-media works, on view at M2 Gallery’s “Art for Caged Hearts,” use scraps of paper, found ornaments, foil, watercolors and more as materials. In Test Subjects, Atchetee pairs painted fruit with a plastic reindeer and torn lace, while Three Graces adorns two blue-faced girls with gold-leaf halos, their…
Parts & Labor, with Sharks and Sailors
Three noisemakers from Brooklyn have been busy breeding melodies and mayhem. They call themselves Parts & Labor, and their beastly offspring, sporting names like “Fractured Skies” and “Unexplosions,” are best described as racket jazz, noise pop, and avant-rock. Walk into the band’s latest zoo, 2007’s Mapmaker, and watch these creatures…
“It’s How You Play the Game: Professional Sports in Houston”
“It’s How You Play the Game: Professional Sports in Houston” chronicles Houston’s sometimes brilliant, sometimes remarkably bad sports teams. You’ll see baseball, basketball, hockey, football and soccer memorabilia and learn about each team’s history in Houston. For example, soccer is traced from the first Dynamo team to the current Dynamo…
Transformers
Transformers twiddles its big, fat, stupid robotic thumbs for the better part of two hours before jabbing them into your eye socket and finger-fucking your brain in the last 20 minutes. Yes! It’s torture enough waiting for the iPhone and the second coming of Jesus without wondering when, exactly, this…
Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile”
Death on the Nile is a good ol’-fashioned love story — girl meets boy, boy falls in love with girl’s best friend, girl tries to kill both boy and friend. The play, adapted from what many consider to be one of the best novels by mystery guru Agatha Christie, features…
Sweet Charity
Charity Hope Valentine, the title character of Sweet Charity, is one of musical comedy’s most endearing heroines. A taxi dancer who believes in love even though she’s been left more times than she can remember, Charity’s full of spunk, optimism and an unquenchable life force. Based on Fellini’s screenplay for…
“Scream the Truth at the World — Emanuel Ringelblum and the Hidden Archive of the Warsaw Ghetto”
“Scream the Truth at the World — Emanuel Ringelblum and the Hidden Archive of the Warsaw Ghetto” started with one man and an idea. Dr. Emanuel Ringelblum wanted to tell the world the horror the Polish Jews were suffering during World War II, so he enlisted a few dozen men…
One Monkey Don’t Stop No Show
The Ensemble Theatre is bringing the ’70s golden age of black TV sitcoms to the stage with its revival of Don Evans’s One Monkey Don’t Stop No Show. As an amalgam of all that came before, Evans’s 1980 audience-friendly comedy is a little like watching a live television show without…
Critics question realtor Wayne Stroman’s timeshare resale business
Long-time realtor and land developer Wayne Stroman of Conroe is a good guy. Well, not just a good guy, a great guy. Ask anyone back home. “Everybody likes Wayne,” says “Stew” Darsey, president of the Greater Conroe/Lake Conroe Area Chamber of Commerce. “I don’t know why anybody wouldn’t like Wayne.”…
Mail Call
Meanies: Your piece on Kristen2go’s “vlog” was mean [“Almost MySpace,” Hair Balls, by Richard Connelly, June 21]. What have y’all done to be so smug and cooler-than-thou? Ordered a Pabst Blue Ribbon? Whatever it is, I’m sure it’s impressive. I mean, it would have to be, I guess, if your…
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…
Late Nite Catechism
Late Nite Catechism just might be the sell-out comedy of the summer. The one-woman show features Sister (no given name needed), an Everyman nun. Notorious for castigating misbehaving audience members with everything from a ruler to a good long sit in the corner, Sister has become a celebrity of interactive…
Frank McComb at the Breakfast Klub
Frank McComb is certainly not a dull interview. All it takes is one question, and the 36-year-old, Cleveland-born, married father of two is ready to let rip on just how much he had to go through to get to this point in his career. And he’ll disclose that info with…
“A Thing Called Early Blur”
Katrina Moorhead’s exhibition at the Blaffer Gallery, “A Thing Called Early Blur,” looks like Iceland. Well, not like the actual country, which is more temperate than icy, but how you imagine a place called Iceland should look. Everything is pale and frosty, with works that glitter and glisten. Organized by…
Circus of Dreams
See elephants dance and acrobats fly through hoops of fire at the all-new Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus of Dreams. This year a jumbo video screen will bring the audience even closer to all the action in the three rings, and for the first time ever, the show…
Bayou Blow
It’s official, cocaine is back. Both The New York Times and The Atlantic Monthly have recently exposed the drug’s easy availability and record low prices, and newspapers and blogs from the Big Apple to Seattle and down to Los Angeles have run stories on the resurgence of the devil’s dandruff…
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…
“Earthworks”
Visit “Earthworks” for a look at three artists that use, you got it, the Earth to make their art. On view will be works by Mario Reis, Perla Krauze and Madeleine Dietz, who each use the natural world in their art. German artist Reis submerges a blank canvas in a…
Another Bump
Since this week’s Racket is about the comeback of cocaine, we thought we’d dedicate this week’s Wack to the same subject. After all, coke is the most Wack of drugs — sure, it can be fun, and when directed towards a goal, say, the writing of your memoirs, cracking a…
Mexican-American Culture
Dear Mexican, I welcome the inclusion of a nice big scoop of chopped habaneros in the bland casserole that is America. Must admit, however, it gave me pause the other day when I saw an all-too-typical familia of recent arrivals at K-Mart: mom, pop and four kids less than five…
T-Bone Tom’s Steakhouse Restaurant
Hours: 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays; 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Tom’s Backyard hours: 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. daily (limited late-night menu).
Happy hour shrimp cocktail: $1
Chicken-fried steak: $10
Rib eye: $20
Hamburger (1/2 lb): $5.99
Sausage…
Squirreling Away the ‘Nuttz
Five-dollar pitchers are always a great way to get me out to a bar, even on the Lord’s Day. Apparently the deal’s a pull for plenty of others, too, because 702 (702 W. Dallas) is bustling with Houstonians this lazy Sunday evening. Our temperamental Houston weather is uncharacteristically mild, and…
When He Was Small
Chancer: Series 1 (Acorn) Available solely in the U.K. for years, this is a small-time release featuring a modestly big-time star at the get-go of his career: Clive Owen, looking all of 12 years old and 73 pounds, is a sacked investment banker who winds up in the employ of…
THE BOONDOCKS
The Boondocks (1417 Westheimer #2, 713-522-8500) is your basic hipster scene: lots of inked, horny people swilling Lone Star and running up and down the stairs to smoke, because you’re only allowed to smoke upstairs. The place is really cozy, the bartenders are cool as hell and you can get…
Arturo Sandoval
After a number of adventuresome jazz albums on Blue Note, the Miami-based trumpeter returns to his pre-Irakere roots on this disc. These original songs bear an Afro-Cuban feel not far from Buena Vista Social Club turf, with Sandoval even sporadically abandoning the mouthpiece to sing. His trademark high-register squeal is…
Resident Evil 4
Publisher: Capcom
Platform: Nintendo Wii
Price: $29.99
ESRB Rating: M (for Mature)
Score: 10 (out of 10)
Sam Yahel Trio
The tawdry cover art on Sam Yahel Trio’s new album — which echoes that of New Jack Swing albums of the ’90s with its reflected glamour shots of the trench-coated Yahel on a New York City rooftop — might clue you in to which direction the Hammond B3 organist is…
Our top DVD picks scheduled for release on July 5
Baa Baa Black Sheep: Volume 2 (Universal) Baseball’s Most Unbreakable Feats (Shout!) Batfink: The Complete Series (Shout) Disappearances (Universal) Dora the Explorer: Summer Explorer (Paramount) Degrassi: The Next Generation — Season 5 (Funimation) Dream a Little Dream 2 (Echo Bridge) Driving Lessons (Sony) Eureka: Season One (Universal) Filmation’s Ghostbusters: Volume…