Today in Public Semi-Nudity
Ray Hafner Arcuri entertains – and educates – some downtown boobs So Playboy Bunny/model/activist Robin Arcuri showed up downtown today, just as promised, to protest the Ringling Bros. & Barnum and Bailey Circus which hits town tomorrow. What seemed to be a traffic jam at the corner of Capitol and…
All in a Huff
MLB.com Let’s hope Aubrey does a lot of this here in H-town Sports talk radio was all abuzz this morning with news that the Houston Astros had a “major announcement” at a 9:30 a.m. press conference at Minute Maid Park. Over at Sports Radio 610, Morning hosts John Granato and…
Hang in There, Bob
By now you’ve probably heard that this morning, former Houston Mayor Bob Lanier collapsed at Ken Lay’s funeral at the downtown First United Methodist Church. Reports say that Lanier, a friend of Lay’s, turned and waved at reporters as he entered the church. Once inside, he collapsed and hit his…
Seriously, Hil, LYLAS
Hey, you think you’re better’n us? So it seems Hilary Duff is doing better than her boring, conformist former friends in Houston. The 18-year-old actress/singer/geophysicist told Self this month that she doesn’t know what her life would be like if she hadn’t moved. She then goes on to diss her…
Kinky Talk
Courtesy of Wayne Gilbert Kinky visited Houston this weekend. We can still smell the cigar. If you happened to see a mustached, cigar-toting dude in a big, black cowboy hat this weekend, chances are good that you espied one Kinky Friedman. The gubernatorial hopeful was in town for a fundraiser,…
Red State Style
“I’m going for Billy Joe Armstrong meets MySpace.” Houston’s hipsters know that no matter how hard they try, without a trip to NYC they’re simply not going to end up on Blue States Lose, the venerable (and imitable) Gawker column that each week takes that city’s “normal” people into the…
Nekkid Bunny
Something tells us Robin is a vegetarian.. We’re all about helping you plan your day. So if you’re downtown tomorrow at the corner of Capitol and Milam (just in front of the Chase Tower) at, say, noonish, keep an eye out for Robin Arcuri. She won’t be too hard to…
Air Jordy?
Courtesy of the GHCVB So , Jordy, does the shoe fit? If you’ve ever met Gerard J. “Jordy” Tollett, the president and CEO of the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau, you know that he’s quick to talk about his shoes. (Heck, I still remember the day I met him…
Jailhouse Rocks
Reuters Save that cup for loose change, Andy What were you doing the day after Ken Lay’s funeral? If you were fellow Enron scammer Andrew Fastow, you were watching every penny. A spy at the Westheimer Guitar Center informs us that Fastow was in the store today cashing in a…
Puff, Puff, Pass
Welcome to HouStoned, or as we like to call it, HouStoned. It’s the official Houston Press blog, and it’s way overdue. We’re planning on daily content that will be updated, as our name implies, you know… whenever. Wanna send us a news item, some dish, or some love? E-mail us…
We kinda liked “Spaceballs”
Oh sure, we all knew we needed a blog. But coming up with a name was tough. Thank the stars our editor in chief, Margaret Downing, is good with words. (Check out her entry on the Houston Dynamos and quarter horse racing.) She, in fact, named this blog. Good thing…
Chromeo and the Cajun
Courtesy of the MFAH Where’s Jacques? We know the Starbucks Mixed Media Music Series at Museum of Fine Arts, Houston is the place to see and be seen for Houston hipsters. But within minutes of entering the second installment on Saturday night, the only person that really made a valiant…
Excuse us, we’re looking for Gay Street?
Elaine Mesker-Garcia Mr. Balls (pictured) in his heyday We were driving down Lower Westheimer the other day, taking in the sights — drag queen, street kid, Numbers, street kid, Helios, crack whore, Felix, street kid, Condoms Galore, drag queen, street kid, suburbanite pretending to be a street kid, Burger King,…
Dynamos and Quarter Horses: Cha-Ching!
Baz Ratner/Associated Press That kid better pick a new role model Where were the fireworks? It’s tough to get people to come out for local pro soccer when it’s running at the same time as the World Cup (won Sunday by Italy in overtime penalty kicks after Frances’s Zinedine Zidane,…
In His Prine
We like it when our favorite musicians wax on. And on. And on. So fans of John Prine should love this extended interview with Prine, which, for spatial reasons, didn’t make it into John Lomax’s recent story. No peas for John, please John Lomax:I never knew this, but I saw…
The Full Nelson
For me, coming up country was difficult under the auspices of Willie Nelson. This young buckaroo in South Texas received all sorts of life lessons and mixed messages from the Redheaded Stranger over the years, from the warning “Mama, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Cowboys” to the…
Leg Spreader
Midtown is one of the few neighborhoods in Houston where one can nearly get killed by a homeless man wielding a shank and driving a shopping cart, and then, within the span of two blocks, nearly get killed by a yuppie asshole wielding a cell phone and driving a BMW…
Under the Microscope
Playwright Lindsay Kayser tends to hang her shows on fairly straightforward plotlines. Yet once the show starts, well, you may wonder where in the hell the plot went. Her latest effort, Microscope Maintenance and Repair, is centered on three characters called “The Talent” who are preparing to voice a training…
Houston Band Cartography
Dig it: Virtually all of Houston’s rock music today can be traced back to either Little Screamin’ Kenny or Sprawl. We always suspected as much, but with a little scavenging of the annals of local music lore, the hypothesis came into ever clearer focus. Hell, it seems that most musicians…
Panic at the Warehouse
Soon after the late-2001 anthrax scare put an already paranoid America into panic mode, the legendary New York metal band Anthrax issued a press release: “…we are changing the name of the band to something more friendly, Basket Full of Puppies.” Of course, the missive went on to say that…
Just Plain Lion
It takes an artist to transform puppetry into one of the largest-grossing Broadway musicals to date, or at least a stubborn nonconformist. When Disney chose to put avant-garde director Julie Taymor at the helm of its theatrical production of The Lion King, many had their doubts. Mainstreamers questioned Taymor’s ability…
Ships Ahoy
When Daniel Smith began playing music with his siblings in 1995 as part of a senior thesis project at New Jersey’s Rutgers University, his inspiration was God. And so it’s been since then. On the handful of records he’s made both as leader of the Danielson Famile (a rotating ensemble…
It’s a Long Story
For most people, bones, nails, stones and fiberglass resin sound more like garbage than art supplies. But painter, sculptor, photographer and draftsman Bert L. Long Jr. used these throwaway items to create Kidney Stone (1985), a painting juxtaposing the strength of the human mind and the frailty of the human…
“Power” Players
It’s rare that you get a party with this many names together at once. Today at the Station Museum, there’ll be musical performances by Daniel Johnston and the Nightmares, Gibby Haynes (of Butthole Surfers fame), Tom Jones and the Floaters, the Sutcliffes and Bully Pulpit. Oh, and Kinky Friedman will…
Slam Dunk
Originally, Ward Serrill set out to make a documentary — and a short one at that — about Bill Resler, an avuncular tax professor at the University of Washington who thought he knew enough about basketball to coach the girls’ team at Roosevelt High School in Seattle. Never mind that…
Obie Trice
The nine gunshot wounds and subsequent bragging rights at Shady still belong to 50 Cent, but Obie Trice now carries in his skull a bullet (from a violent encounter last New Year’s Eve) and a memory (of his late labelmate Proof). Unlike the larger-than-life 50, Obie sounds genuinely scarred by…
With Her Best Shot
To some people, four-time Grammy-winner Pat Benatar will always be the single ’80s “Heartbreaker” who first taught us that “Love Is a Battlefield.” But Benatar isn’t, in fact, frozen in time: She’s been making hits with her husband — producer, guitarist and songwriter Neil Giraldo, whom she first recruited for…
Bye-Bye Birdie
Amy Meyers, the force behind Sippora (“Pretty Bird” in Hebrew), has announced she’s closing her doors after joining the gallery world just over three years ago. But first the famous party thrower is hosting one last shindig. The farewell fete and opening reception for “Kaleidoscope” features brightly colored oil paintings…
Why do Mexicans want to take back California?
Dear Mexican, What is it with you Mexicans who want to take back California? Is it that conquistador blood that’s driving you? Go Back to Granada Dear Gabacho, Besides beards, light skin and bad wine, the Spanish conquistadors brought with them to Mexico the legacy of reconquista, which has replaced…
The Replacements
The two new songs are as forgettable as they are just fine; “Message to the Boys” (docked for debuting on Jim Rome’s “show”) and “Pool and Dive” neither celebrate nor tarnish the lovable losers’ legacy, and as much as the fan wants to cheer the reunion that really wasn’t (Chris…
Dave’s the 1
What’s the word on Chromeo, the Montreal/New York duo that’ll headline today’s Starbucks Mixed Media Music Series at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston? Musically speaking, they could’ve come from the early ’80s. “Our music…doesn’t sound like all the other dance music that’s out right now,” says vocalist and guitarist…
Clay Bakin’
Molding a pile of dirt and water into something more than a chipped ashtray/candy dish is harder than it looks. You can do it, though — and the exhibitors at ClayHouston can show you how. At the weekend-long event at Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, 18 area artists will showcase…
Fantastic 4
A hefty woman lies on the bathroom floor next to the toilet, her shirt hunched up around her waist, her pants at her ankles and her crotch in full view. There’s a trail of unspooled toilet paper on the floor, and a man and a woman are crouched beside her,…
Mr. Lif
Mr. Lif’s sophomore full-length is brilliantly structured to be a metaphor for the battle people endure to be heard. Mo’ Mega moves from a chaotic first half in which the Boston rapper’s frustrated voice cranes through the rubble of El-P’s production (every bit as suffocating as it was when Cannibal…
Pop Goes the Dead
It seems unlikely that a jazzy, avant-garde rock band would ever dabble in pop. But then, Seattle trio The Dead Science isn’t your typical jazzy, avant-garde rock band. Before forming the Dead Science in 2000, guitarist-vocalist Sam Mickens and upright bass player Jherek Bischoff played in an experimental orchestra called…
Branzini with Bouzouki
Four of us were seated at a table up front next to the stage at Alexander the Great Greek on Sage. It was Friday night, and as we finished our entrées, an entertainer named George Kitidis introduced himself to the crowd. He came out strumming his bouzouki, the traditional Greek…
Capsule Reviews
“Bringing Shadows to Light: Contemporary Argentine Photography” Addressing subjects as diverse as war, the tango and the country’s current economic crisis, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston presents a good small survey of contemporary Argentine photography. There are pictures of a man’s crude drawings recording the torture he witnessed during…
John Ralston
It was only a matter of time before John Ralston broke big. The twentysomething just might be South Florida’s best songwriter — many scenesters, including longtime pal and emo hero Chris Carrabba, say so. A few years back, his work with Legends of Rodeo elevated the band to modest acclaim…
Brutal Harvest
In the film Harvest of Redemption, young Oscar has just witnessed the brutal murder of his father but is helpless to do anything about it. As he grows up in the ’20s Rio Grande Valley haunted by this harsh injustice, Oscar must decide whether to eternally chase revenge or grant…
Where’s The Fire?
Don’t expect actual fire when you order the flaming beef chunks ($9.95) at Vietopia (5176 Buffalo Speedway, 713-664-7303). But do expect thin strips of beef, charbroiled until almost crisp, along with scallions, garlic and onion. The hot beef mixture is served over lettuce leaves, which wilt under the heat. Steamed…
Capsule Reviews
Hotter than Houston St. Peter doesn’t know what to do with Stan Wetzel. Stan’s not bad enough for hell, but he’s certainly not worthy of heaven. There aren’t enough stars for good deeds tallied on St. Pete’s celestial tote board. Not yet, anyway. “Can’t I go to that middle place?”…
Dan Crump
The great country and folk songwriters who were touched by Houston or touched it — Mickey Newbury, Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark, Eric Taylor — had a blue, dark side that kept returning to the messiest of messes. Love, hate, indifference — whatever the subject — the job was to…
Here Comes the Sun
At the hip restaurant-bar Gravitas, DJ Sun is turning up the heat with his new Thursday-night weekly, Skyline at Sidebar. The gig launched last week with a special set by San Francisco DJ J-Boogie, who celebrated the release of his new Om Records disc. Instead of focusing on the chilled-out…
Bond in a Bikini
The Matador (Weinstein) Richard Shepard’s spec script, sent to Pierce Brosnan’s production company out of desperation, wound up as 2005’s best buddy pic — damned if I can recall a funnier movie from last year, except the one with the middle-aged virgin. Brosnan, not afraid to don cheerleading skirts and…
Aly & AJ
Into the Rush by SoCal sibling duo Aly & AJ, Disney’s second consecutive tween-pop project to cross over successfully from Radio Disney to mainstream Top 40 (following the strangely superpowered High School Musical soundtrack), is perfect for Kelly Clarkson fans tired of waiting around for the first-season American Idol to…
Big Show
Big City Rock is appropriately named, considering the band is from a big city (Los Angeles) and it plays rock music. The quintet’s crystalline, synthesized, retro sound is nothing new — in fact, Big City Rock can sound like the Killers’ sloppy seconds. But there are plenty of catchy choruses…
Pong 360
Publisher: Rockstar Games
Platform: Xbox 360
Price: $39.99
ESRB Rating: E (for Everyone)
Score: 7 (out of 10)
Bullet Train to Vegas
Attention, (guys in) Tight Pants Brigade! Behold Bullet Train to Vegas — your new leader. The Los Angeles-based band’s We Put Scissors Where Our Mouths Are is a creative and spastic art damage record with intense guitar work dominating a11 tracks. The variation of sharp and clean styles (from hardcore…
The Gospel of Grant
By day, Grant Olney Passmore is a mild-mannered student in UT’s mathematics, computer sciences and philosophy departments. By night, he’s Grant Olney, a brooding, hip indie singer-songwriter with an album under his belt at a time when most kids are just realizing what the hell Demetri Martin is actually talking…
Our top DVD picks for the week of July 5
Charlie’s Angels: The Complete Third Season (Sony) Cyberteam in Akihabara: Complete Collection (ADV) Eastern Horror Double Feature: Satan’s Slave and Corpse Master (Brentwood) King of the Cage: The Superstars of KOTC (Brentwood) The Kinks: The Live Broadcasts (Classic Rock Legends) The Legend of Prince Valiant: The Complete Series, Volume One…
The Samples
Few bands bridge the divide between instrumental proficiency and sharply crafted songwriting as deftly as the Samples. Long before the term “jam band” was coined — way back in the mid-’80s, in fact — this Colorado combo was funneling its freewheeling melodies into odes etched with inspiration. They are reflective,…
You’re So Money
Numismatists of Houston, rejoice. The JMV Coin and Currency Show is landing in town today, making it the best opportunity to get your hands on rare and special gold doubloons. (Johnny Depp never had it so easy.) The show will feature coins of all metals — both ancient and modern…
Bad Checks
So let’s say you’re a Little League softball coach. You want only the best for your little girl, a.k.a. the star pitcher, and her friends, so you do some research on two guys who’ve volunteered to be the assistant coach. An online background check for the first guy, Daryl Knowles…
The Briefs, with Rancid
Their name implies an obvious preference for tighty-whities, but when the Briefs are stripped down, it’s evident why their choice in drawers fits so snugly. While hailing from boxer-favoring, grunge-band-capital Seattle, the quartet holds itself up with a tight, simplistic style — one that relives the early years of punk…
Frida Fiesta
Ladies: Got a bushy, caterpillar-like unibrow that has caused you nothing but embarrassment? Don’t touch that tube of Nair. Today that follicular mass could win you some cool prizes at Frida de Mi Corazon — The 99th Birthday Celebration of Frida Kahlo. The event celebrates the birth of the most…
Top of the World
Yeah, okay, you’re right — Mike Willcox flies toy airplanes. And flying toy airplanes, especially when you’re 35 years old, is about as hip a hobby as stamp collecting. But do you get free trips to Europe and Asia, where you’re mobbed by autograph seekers, feted by mayors and pestered…
Rosie Ledet and the Zydeco Playboys
A rare female in a testosterone-laden genre, accordionist-singer Rosie Ledet has carved out a niche as “zydeco’s sweetheart.” A native of Church Point, a tiny Louisiana town near Eunice, the Creole beauty with the caf au lait skin fronts a family band that includes husband Morris Ledet (whom she met…
Naughty Puppet Play
Break out the bondage gear — it’s time to celebrate the bawdy Bobbindoctrin Puppet Theatre’s ten-year anniversary. Sex, Puppets and Rock & Roll, hosted by Leopard Boy, will look back on Bobbindoctrin’s R-rated history with a presentation of clips from past shows such as The Black Box and the Danse…
Debate Club
Chris Baker is the leading local talk-show host in town; since the town in question is Houston, he is of course hard-core right-wing. A former stand-up comic, Baker employs all the tools used by any Rush or Hannity wannabe: a heavily controlled forum and a tendency to out-shout the rare…
Fool’s Gold
The fact that 2003’s Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl was such a hit had much to do with viewers’ prelaunch expectations, which were approximately none. Who could have been blamed for thinking a Gore Verbinski-directed, Jerry Bruckheimer-produced movie based on a theme park ride would…
Diamond Life
We have plenty of baseball heroes in town: Nolan Ryan, Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte. And then there’s J.C. Hartman. If you’re not familiar with Hartman, it’s because he played during a less glamorous era of pro sports: segregated leagues. Hartman was a shortstop for the Inkster Colored Panthers and the…
Letters to the Editor
The Accused Grand slamming: In 1944, as an employee of the federal government, Colonel Leon Jaworski, founder of Fulbright & Jaworski LLP, apparently committed a grievous injustice toward several black soldiers, imprisoning them and destroying their lives for having done nothing [“Rush to Judgment,” by Josh Harkinson, June 22]. While…
Skater Boyz N the Hood
If Crash grew a pair of cojones, it might look something like Larry Clark’s cheerfully defiant Wassup Rockers, in which a pack of Latino skaters from South Los Angeles spend an afternoon marooned in the suburban jungle of Beverly Hills, cutting a swath through dense thickets of white privilege and…
Pee Ditty
You gotta love the premise of the musical Urinetown. A heartless corporation preys on a small town and, thanks to a 20-year water shortage, charges citizens just to flush their potties. Brutal, huh? (Thank goodness the idea of big companies gouging the little guy for daily conveniences is purely fictional.)…
Rebuilding Fiona
She’s been branded everything from tortured and bruised to moody and difficult, but right now Fiona Apple just has a case of the sniffles. Talking on the phone from her home in Venice, California, the much-praised, much-embattled singer-songwriter-pianist is lying low, preparing to embark on the biggest concert tour of…
Image of the Week
As the guy says in the cinematic classic Drumline, “I do love my drum!” Colard Bell shows off his grill and his skill as part of the Greater Houston All-Star Band during a June 17 game between semipro football titans the Houston Wolverines and the Texas Thunder…
Dyde in the Wool
In Persona Non Gratis, legendary Houston dance man Farrell Dyde illustrates the inner emotions of three characters — or maybe just one with multiple personalities. The work is presented in three parts, as Dyde glides gracefully from one persona to the next, accompanied by musical arrangements by Steve Reich, Harold…