Montrose Mayhem
There are two kinds of people in America: those who believe that pro wrestling is real, and those who ridicule those who believe that pro wrestling is real. The latter tend to be a bit more educated; the former are damn good hunters. Each group has something to offer, but…
Split Personality
The menu at Japaneiro’s Sushi Bistro and Latin Grill (2168 Texas Drive in Sugar Land, 281-242-1121) is divided in two. First there’s the Japanese side, with its extensive sushi, sashimi and tempura offerings; then there’s the Latino side, which includes the pinchos platter ($15). Pinchos is Spanish for “skewers”; here,…
Nasty Mixx
FRI 7/8 Once upon a time, the South wasn’t quite so dirty. But in 1989, 2 Live Crew changed that forever with the release of As Nasty As They Wanna Be, featuring the massive club hit “Me So Horny.” And 2 Live’s DJ Mr. Mixx was there to spin the…
Play “Free Bird”!
Bob Schneider concerts remind us of the all-you-can-eat roadside smorgasbord where we stopped after a daylong field trip in the fourth grade. You paid, like, $2.75, then packed your piehole till you were pretty sure you were gonna yak. Our friend Jon H. managed to put away 27 pieces of…
Heavenly Crooning
THU 7/7 Playwright Ted Swindley knows a thing or two about good country music. Two summers ago, Stages Repertory Theatre opened Swindley’s Always…Pasty Cline, featuring songs by one of Nashville’s most beloved stars. The show was such a success, it ran 14 months. Lovers of Swindley’s honky-tonk will be happier…
Nio A?
Café Tacuba appears
Chefs Rule!
Turns out, I didn’t know much. I sat in culinary school listening to my chef instructor drone on about the seven “mother” sauces, sanitation and proper straining technique while, jacket freshly crisped, writing it all befittingly in a notebook. Later, during demo, I practiced knife cuts casually while joking with…
Shakira
Rappers and punks take pains to make their rebellious postures seem offhand. Shakira, meanwhile, doesn’t draw attention to her nonconformist tendencies — but make no mistake, she just don’t give a fuck. The Colombian superstar gave her 2001 crossover album (Laundry Service) and subsequent stadium-hopping stint (“Tour of the Mongoose”)…
Take My Wife, Please
San Jacinto County Sheriff Lacy Rogers has seen a lot of hardened criminals get nabbed by the long arm of John Law. Including his wife. Caroline Rogers entered into a life of crime June 18 when the diligent agents of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, ever on guard against possible…
Marcia Griffiths
Although Marcia Griffiths attained her greatest international exposure as a member of the I-Threes, the female trio that backed Bob Marley on his albums and concerts from 1974 until his passing in 1981, her 41-year career is most remarkable because she is the only singer of either gender to have…
Psyched Out
The patient attacked Ruby Simon in the linen room. The 60-year-old nurse was grabbing pajamas for another psych patient at the Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center when a 27-year-old veteran burst into the room, ripped off his shirt and tried to strangle her. After 12 years in the…
Foo Fighters
Perhaps the only thing more self-indulgent than issuing a double album is planning a surprise party for yourself and then feigning astonishment when your guests emerge. Many such releases have been ostentatious, masturbatory excursions, while others (Bitches Brew, London Calling, Sign of the Times, Life After Death) have been warranted,…
Le Torture Chambre
Think American kitchens have it bad? Think again. The French, granddaddies of fine cuisine they are, invented mistreatment. Stories abound about chefs being made to drink gallons of butter sauce that fell below the most rigorous of standards and being belted over the head with ladles when their consommés weren’t…
Mary Gauthier
It’s records like this that justify Nashville’s existence as a music town. Baton Rouge-bred Mary Gauthier (pronounced “Go-shay”) is often compared to Lucinda Williams, but that’s a superficial likeness based mainly on the fact that both women have pronounced drawls and play Americana music. Gauthier comes across as one of…
Filthy McNasty
“Oh…my…God!” I was busted. Not an hour into a steady, but hardly busy, midweek dinner service, my nemesis had spotted me. I was taking it on the teeth, disheveled and on the verge of tears. All I wanted was anonymity, to fade into the background. No way was that going…
Unforgettable
When actors exude sheer pleasure performing on stage, it’s hard to lose the audience. Nat King Cole & Me – A Musical Healing, the Gregory Porter musical now playing at the Ensemble Theatre, features four exuberant singing actors who make the joint jump. (The onstage trio accompanying the actors, briskly…
Letters
Just Jaywalkin’ An officer and a gent: I’m an HPD officer who works in the ExxonMobil building across the street [“Can’t Get Arrested,” Hair Balls, by Richard Connelly, June 23]. Several people pointed you out and wanted to know what was happening. When I saw you, I knew it must…
Capsule Reviews
Deathtrap Ira Levin knows how to spin a yarn. The author of novels The Stepford Wives and Rosemary’s Baby, he also wrote Deathtrap, the yummy confection of a theatrical thriller playing at the Alley Theatre. Directed by James Black with irreverent glee, this walk on the dark side offers all…
Journalism Award
“A Closer Look at Dillard’s,” a Houston Press story by editor Margaret Downing and former staff writer Bob Burtman, was named a finalist in the Missouri Lifestyle Awards national competition. Competing in the Consumer Affairs category, the story told of perceived racist policies and what critics say is the ill-considered…
Process Proud
A photograph shows German artist Mario Reis sitting in a lawn chair with a black sleep mask over his eyes and a drawing board in front of him. Behind him is a grassland panorama with low hills. Reis has a pencil taped to each index finger and holds his hands…
Making Wookiee
“It’d be easier to make the jump to light speed with a damaged hyperdrive than to remain calm around…him.” Such are the metaphorical stylings of Rory Egglehoff, the Star Wars-obsessed heroine of The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Men I’ve Dated. Unlike her Manolo-wearing, cosmo-sipping chick-lit peers, Rory is…
Capsule Reviews
“Dan McCleary” The title of the painting Man Weighing Himself (2004) by Dan McCleary pretty clearly describes what’s going on in the work. A man in white pajamas stands in the doorway of a bathroom, looking down at the dial of a scale between his sock-covered feet. The scene is…
This Week’s Day-by-Day Picks
Thursday, July 7 Oh, these new-school celebrity couples: TomKat. Brangelina. Bennifer (again). Please! We prefer the classics, like Phantine, composed of the Phantom and lovely Christine from The Phantom of the Opera. Andrew Lloyd Webber converted the classic novel into a Broadway staple in the ’80s, with the lurking, brooding…
Could Be Verse
The British indie filmmaker Sally Potter, a former dancer, lyricist and performance artist, clearly has a taste for adventure. In 1992 that led her to Orlando, a screen adaptation of the experimental Virginia Woolf novel about an Elizabethan nobleman who hangs around for 400 years, eventually morphing into a hip…
Ace of Race
“I say ‘nigger’ a hundred times every morning,” Paul Mooney claims, and then demonstrates. “Niggerniggerniggerniggernigger.” He pauses dramatically. “Keeps my teeth white.” Mooney, who’ll stop by the Improv this week, is more racially and politically confrontational than any ten other comedians combined. And it’s no exaggeration to say that if…
Miracle on Ice
If you’re short on reasons to be grateful these days, look no further than March of the Penguins, the astonishing if imperfect nature documentary from first-time director Luc Jacquet. Hard times may have befallen you, but at least you’re not a penguin, an animal destined to repeat a devastating sequence…
Art-Hungry?
SAT 7/9 So you’ve woken up with the obsessive urge to purchase a piece of beautiful blown glass. You head to a local gallery during normal weekday business hours, but the gallery is open “by appointment only.” Suddenly you have the obsessive urge to shatter glass instead. Not to worry…
Cyclone Season
The tortilla chips come to the table in a brown paper lunch bag at Terlingua Texas Border Cafe. Our dining companion, who arrived before us, has already polished off most of them. He has three different salsas arrayed in front of him, a cold cerveza in one hand and a…