Are They the New Beatles?
Last week we wrote here that “the Arctic Monkeys are a fucking great band.” After seeing them live, I’ll only enhance that this week: The fucking Arctic Monkeys are a fucking sensational fucking band. It’s a curious phenomenon — overseas, the Monkeys are Paris Hilton-style household names, tabloid fodder whose…
Why do Mexicans Worship Che Guevara More Than Argentines Do?
Dear Mexican, Why do Mexicans worship Che Guevara more than Argentines do? I don’t think we even give a shit about him. Maradona Maiden Dear Gabacha Wab, You’re one to trash Mexicans for revering a long-dead Argentine — how’s Evita’s corpse holding up these days? Besides, we suffer from the…
The Force Is with You
Memo to cave-dwellers: It’s hurricane season. Aside from stocking up on bottled water, there’s not a lot to do about that, except maybe find a cool theater where you can sit it out. Don’t want to take your mind off impending doom? The Burke Baker Planetarium’s Force 5 investigates the…
Double Vision
The Veronicas are 21-year-old twin sisters out of Brisbane, Australia, who have been performing together since they were five. Just two years ago, Warner Bros./Sire signed Lisa and Jess Origliasso for an obscene amount of cash, with hopes of turning the girls into the next Ashlee Simpson or Kelly Clarkson…
Feel My Pain
Editor’s note: This story originally was published online at www.houstonpress.com on Wednesday, June 7. We ran the story earlier than we’d planned because of sudden interest on the part of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. This story was undertaken in part to show the lengths to which some chronic pain…
Don Stud
A recent version of Don Quixote is 992 pages long, which means anyone with a life will take, oh, a year and a half to finish it. Save yourself the time and check out Houston Ballet’s version of Cervantes’s famed tale, which has all the book’s romance, comedy and cultural…
Cracker
Ah, the cracked vision of Cracker: David Lowery and Johnny Hickman are two of the cracked-est crackers to ever strap on guitars and leather jackets. Their credits range from work with alt-country groundbreakers Camper Van Beethoven to all sorts of indie films. Along the way, they’ve made a handful of…
Carne Carnival
Igor’s eyes widened when the rare rib eyes stopped by our table. At Nelore Churrascaria, the new Brazilian steak house on Montrose, waiters in gaucho outfits parade around the restaurant with hot, freshly grilled meats on swords. “Sure, I’ll try some of that,” he said. And the guy in the…
Plenty of Pulp
It’s surprising to some that pulp fiction is more than just a film starring Uma Thurman and John Travolta. No, pulp fiction was once the most popular form of literature in the land. (They were called pulps because of the cheap paper they were printed on.) Back in the ’30s…
Shandon Sahm
Billed on his MySpace site as “the other white Iggy,” Shandon Sahm takes his rawk seriously. He comes from the schoolyard where KISS meets the British glam rock of Gary Glitter, and where Adam Ant dukes it out with Bowie. His latest album, Knock Yourself Out, shows that the young…
Home Sweet Home
Chef Hugo Ortega of Hugo’s (1602 Westheimer, 713-524-7744) brought this dish to Houston from his native Puebla, and we can all be grateful that he did. The cemita ($9.95) is named for its freshly baked, slightly sweet sesame seed bun. To make a cemita sandwich, Ortega takes the bread, removes…
Front and “Center”
The folks of the Bayou City Women’s Chorus traditionally have gotten less publicity than their associates in the Gay Men’s Chorus. But that changes today, when the ladies break out their first full-length concert, “Taking Center Stage.” The show offers up Broadway favorites, Hollywood themes and popular tunes penned by…
The Walkmen
According to Walkmen lead singer Hamilton Leithauser, the band’s last visit to Houston turned out “pretty horrible.” The Walkmen hit town the same day as Hurricane Rita and spent 30 hours in a traffic jam on the way to their next gig in Austin. The trip might have made the…
Il Communication
International pop-opera quartet Il Divo is often dubbed the Phwoar Tenors in England. “Phwoar” is a Brit term for the sound men and women make when they ogle each other. Funny, we thought “Phwoar” could also be interpreted as “homosexual,” since the guys in Il Divo put out a gay…
On-Air Drama
“I’m uncomfortable with your silence.” This one phrase is what finally brings six radio station employees together in Tony Esparza’s new play, KBBJ: All Access All the Time. DJ Bear, the silent one, opens up about his childhood abandonment, and soon the whole station is awash in sharing and caring…
Be Your Own Pet
Sassy and brash, Nashville’s Be Your Own Pet is all about pure, unadulterated fun. Of course, the members are barely adults themselves, which helps explain the rampant, breakneck energy beelining its way in and out of their music. The 33 minutes that make up the quartet’s recently released self-titled debut…
She’s a Saint
No good deed goes unpunished for 17th-century French noblewoman Madame de Maintenon in the film Saint-Cyr. Maintenon, played by iconic French actress Isabelle Huppert, establishes a boarding school for the daughters of French nobility whose means have been reduced. But she comes to regret her charity, after finding herself at…
Girls! Undressing!
In Toni Leago Valle’s dance creation Interview for a Date, she appears on-screen in a cocktail dress, telling a faux interviewer how she’d please her man if she were hired. In front of the screen, the live Valle shows how the woman really feels — exasperated — through modern dance…
Tortilla Flat
There is no movie more overrated in recent history than Napoleon Dynamite; it is to cinema what the Doors are to rock and roll, a thing blindly and inexplicably championed as though it were a religion above being blasphemed by nonbelievers. And every time someone tries to explain its appeal…
Whoa, It’s Candlebox!
Okay, there’s nothing really showstopping about the lineup of Buzzfest XVII. Skimming the lineup, we find local boys made good, the Zoloft-popping Blue October. Then there’s Staind, Shinedown, Hoobastank, Trapt, Candlebox…Hold up, Candlebox? The grunge-tastic, pseudo-flannel band from the ’90s that brought us “You,” and “Far Behind”? Yep, apparently that…
Shall We Dance?
Filmmaker-photographer Carlos Saura revitalized Spanish cinema in the late ’60s and early ’70s with his politically charged movies that taunted the oppressive regime of the dictator Franco. A legend in his home country and a greatly respected director abroad, he’s known for blending stilted reality with the macabre and, often,…
Hope Floats
Remember what a fun couple Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves were in Speed? Well, forget that. In The Lake House, Warner Bros.’ slow and heavy kickoff to the summer romance season, Bullock and Reeves play the mopiest lovers to hit the big screen since Tony and Maria channeled Romeo and…
Sugar Kisses
It’s been nearly 19 years since legendary Liverpool-based post-punk-rock band Echo and the Bunnymen played Houston (two years after they gave us Songs to Learn and Sing). But today, we’ll be singing along when E&TB vocalist Ian McCulloch and guitarist Will Sergeant hold court at Warehouse Live (813 St. Emanuel,…
Hardee-Har-Harland
“Have you ever put Rice Krispies in your bed?” asks Harland Williams. Long pause. “Then peed the bed?” Ugh. Williams, the Canadian comic who regularly reminds everyone that he left his job as a forest ranger to do stand-up, makes many folks wish he had stayed in the woods. If…
Royal Flush
It’s clear by now that British director James Marsh regards America as a vaguely amusing madhouse — a reliably primitive, thoroughly benighted backwater infested with dangerous grotesques. He is, after all, the fellow who gave us the supercilious TV documentary The Burger & The King: The Life & Cuisine of…
See Her Shine
Cinderella gets a makeover with the Ensemble Theatre’s production of Sparkle: The Musical. This rags-to-riches tale, based on the 1976 Joel Schumacher film, follows two sisters, Sister and Sparkle, as they reach for singing stardom during the racially turbulent and musically ripe ’50s. The sisters manifest the paradoxes of that…
Who’s Your Daddy?
Sure, Dad loves to grill, fish and play golf, but how many barbecue sets, fishing lures and club cozies are you gonna give the man? And do you really want to see his face when he gets another tie? Today, break the mold for the guy who brought you years…
Prom 2K6
In the garage of the San Luis Resort on Galveston Island, Dana Prentice takes a quick look at her hair in the car’s reflection. Her silver earrings dangle just so, with the right one hidden by her brown bangs. She adjusts her dress, a turquoise number that cuts across her…
Back in tha Mix
Purple and teal lights splash against the facade of the Audrey Jones Beck Building, drawing scenesters like mosquitoes to a backyard zapper. I’m trudging behind a couple of cute girls, and in crossing the intersection of Binz and Main, we’re halting cars, causing the traffic cop to lose his shit…
Koopa Loopas
Some of the world’s hottest electronic DJs — Amon Tobin, Junkie XL and Paul Oakenfold — have recently scored video games. But nothing they’ve done is as memorable or as simple as the music from the Nintendo Entertainment System. Today, you can relive those days of boxy eight-bit graphics and…
Malibu Punch
One of the benefits of Houston’s lack of zoning laws is all the “house bars” scattered around the city. It makes for some unique locations, not the least of which is The Gallant Knight (2337 West Holcombe, 713-665-9762), a Medical Center house-turned-jazz club that’s been around for 35 years. The…
Beach Patrol
Residents of New York and Washington, D.C. may be bitching about having their anti-terrorism funding cut, but they’re apparently unaware of the high-profile targets elsewhere that have every terrorist licking his chops. Like — you might be surprised to learn — the Bolivar ferry. The ferry goes from Galveston to…
Moving Motorcycle
He’s back! Jason Nodler, the founding artistic director of Infernal Bridegroom Productions, has returned to Houston and the Axiom to direct Speeding Motorcycle, a surprisingly sweet rock opera, which Nodler adapted from songs by Daniel Johnston, with grant monies from the Rockefeller Foundation. For the uninitiated, Johnston is a cult…
Ashlee Nose What’s Up
We’re not ones to judge (well, not most of the time). But we had to cry foul when we saw Ashlee Simpson commenting on young girls and body issues last week on Entertainment Tonight. “Why can’t people just be happy with who they are?” she asked. Um, Ash, not to…
Letters to the Editor
Hurricane Hoopla Game improvement: Hurricane Bingo [“Holy Sh–!” by Richard Connelly, June 1] would be a lot more fun if you’d include a “Megaplier” checklist, including any female news reader (I’m loath to use the term “reporter”) who appears to be within three seconds of an orgasm while telling her…
Capsule Reviews
All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go There’s a play buried somewhere inside Catherine Filloux’s comedy/drama about transvestites vs. the Amish (yes, you read that correctly), but you’d be hard-pressed to find a coherent one in this messy production, now stumbling all over itself at Theatre Suburbia. Come to think…
Nano Yo’ Business
When most people reflect that “It’s a small world,” they aren’t referring to nanobiotechnology, but they could be. The Health Museum’s “It’s a Nano World” exhibit is here to help us understand why. “Nano World” literally puts a giant magnifying glass on the bazillions of tiny particles in the microscopic…
Image of the Week
Ever wonder what a guy looks like as he considers whether he’s made the right career choice? Wonder no more. Eduardo Escobedo, a featherweight from Mexico City, looks like he’s decided he should have taken a different, perhaps less painful path in life. But he sacked up and defeated local…
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…
Emancipation Jam
It’s time again to celebrate that historic day in June 1865, when African-Americans in Galveston learned (albeit belatedly) that they had finally been declared free by Abraham Lincoln. Today, at A Gulf Coast Juneteenth, you can hit a bluesy and horns-a-blarin’ party that toasts both emancipation and life after the…
Weapons of Mass Construction
In the five years since the release of the last Coup album, Party Music, there have been enough high-octane political scandals to power the space shuttle. The poorly reasoned Iraq war, illegal spying tactics, Plamegate, the torture photos of Abu Ghraib, Tom DeLay’s indictment, the botching of Hurricane Katrina –…
Brotherly Love
Publisher: Nintendo
Platform: Nintendo DS
Price: $34.99
ESRB Rating: E (for Everyone)
Score: 8 (out of 10)
School of Old School
Don’t expect a lecture at this weekend’s “The Lesson Part Won: From Bebop to Hip Hop.” For one thing, what lecture has ever popped off on a Saturday at 10 p.m.? This “lesson” is actually a party at the historic Eldorado Ballroom. “It’s pretty much to inform the current generation…
Roots Redux
Three years ago, Dan Colehour seemed set to arrive on the national music scene much like Chris Knight had. With a DreamWorks deal in hand and a searing roots-rock album recorded, Colehour was ready to hit the road hard. He heard opportunity knocking, saw his shot at hand. One for…
Bring in the Trash
Valley of the Dolls/Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (Fox) Behold The Godfather and Godfather Part II of drag-queen cinema — two movies that provide the gateway to a lifetime of wig addiction. The films couldn’t be more different in temperament — the 1967 original is mile-high Hollywood kitsch, while…
Worldly Moves
The soulful voice of Ray Charles offers up a throat-tightening melody as dancers’ movements respond to the specter of Hurricane Katrina in a piece called “Sincerely Katrina Jones.” Such emotive pieces abound in the Juneteenth/Houston Black Dance Festival, a showcase of African and African-American dance, and a benefit for Katrina…
Scott Faingold Listens to Everything
For reasons best known to him, our outgoing assistant music editor continues to randomly listen to every single promo CD sent his way, in its entirety and regardless of genre, source, probable quality or personal interest. Elefant The Black Magic Show Hollywood Records Do you like David Bowie? Me, too!…
Our top DVD picks for the week of June 13
All Aboard! Rosie’s Family Cruise (HBO) Aquamarine (Fox) Beavis and Butt-head: The Mike Judge Collection, Volume 2 (Paramount) Before the Fall (Picture This) The Betty Grable Collection: Volume 1 (Fox) Cemetery Man (Anchor Bay) End of the Spear (Fox) Fatwa (Ventura) A Good Woman (Lions Gate) Green Street Hooligans (Warner…
Pampered Philanthropy
What’s the best way to blow tomorrow’s paycheck: indulgent spa session or donation to a well-intentioned charity? Today, you can drop your cash on both. Deco’s Look Good, Feel Good, a decadent women’s fair featuring local wellness, beauty, art and fashion vendors, benefits the charity Women Helping Women. Just try…