Sexy Seventy-Something
FRI 6/18 When Walt Zipprian first went to an “over 50” drag show at the Lazy J in 1988, it was strictly for laughs. He certainly wasn’t expecting to spend five years making a documentary about one of the acts. But that’s the impact that Wendy Chicago made. “She just…
Comedy Central
Through June 20 at the Wortham Theater Center, 501 Texas, 713-227-2787. $11.50-$115.50.
Balls to the Walls
WED 6/23 Sweat pours down their faces. They dab their brows with matching wristbands and hurl balls at retreating figures with all their force. The members of the Baytown Bitch Slappers have just nailed their latest victims. That’s life at the Houston Dodgeball Association, the local league spawned with the…
Capsule Reviews
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) And now for something completely different for the Ensemble Theatre: the Reduced Shakespeare Company’s cult comedy smash, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged). Known for its African-American productions, the Ensemble has enhanced its diversity with this irreverent zip file of the Bard’s…
Dutch Treat
SAT 6/19 Believe the hype: Dutch decknician Armin van Buuren is the third most popular DJ in the world. Yep, that’s right: in the world. Van Buuren came in third behind Tiësto and Paul van Dyk in DJ Mag’s Top 100 DJs Poll. More than 60,000 mixaholics cast their votes,…
Text Hook
Through July 3 at Mixture Contemporary Art, 1709 Westheimer, 713-520-6809.
A Real Doll
MON 6/21 Poor Margaret Doll Rod. Considering her album cover art, for which she wears only a strategically placed guitar — not to mention her equally bawdy stage show, where her, um, weapons sometimes slip out of their holsters — it’s no wonder her power chords often play second fiddle…
Capsule Reviews
“Fade In: New Film and Video” This Contemporary Arts Museum exhibition, curated by Paola Morsiani, presents a group of works by eight international artists. American Luis Gispert’s installation, Foxy Xerox (2003), is a witty take on the appropriation of hip-hop culture by white America. On one wall, a blond girl…
Use Your Illusion
Someday it will happen. Hell will freeze over. Pigs will fly. Every star and planet in the universe will align in perfect harmony, and the original Guns N’ Roses lineup will reunite for an album and a tour. Don’t hold your breath, but it’s bound to occur eventually. The original,…
Wine-Geek Chic
When I walk up to La Vista on Fountain View carrying a bottle of wine, I notice a poster in the window that says the restaurant has applied for a liquor permit. This triggers a wave of panic in me. “We’re going to start selling beer and wine, but you’ll…
Spreading the Jams
When word of an MC5 reunion came down earlier this year, a gasp of disbelief rose up from the punk subculture, at least here in America. Europeans go apeshit for these graying get-togethers. Euro radio actually plays classic American punk, so cats like the MC5, Stooges and Ramones are big-deal…
Spotted Cock
Literally translated, gallo pinto means “spotted” or “painted cock.” Some translators call it speckled hen. But there’s no poultry in gallo pinto, which is a beef dish. In Costa Rica, it’s eaten at all different meals, particularly breakfast. Gallo pinto can also be found in Nicaragua, where it’s often combined…
Hallelujah, I Just Loved Him So
Ray Charles may have been blind, but he could see through more bullshit than any American musician who ever lived. Early on in his career, there were those within his own race who told him that his use of black gospel music to back secular, often blatantly sexual, lyrics was…
Family Ties
The pictures on the wall show the two sisters as little girls, snapshots of smiles and ribbons in their hair. In one portrait they are posed in matching red dresses with white page-boy collars. Kathy, the elder by 18 months, is maybe ten years old, all mischievous grin and twinkling…
Feel This
Psychiatric Evaluation Report Patient name: Dinsdale, Nathan Entry date: August 22, 1997 Location: La Pine, Oregon Synopsis: Responded to a frantic call from a recent high school graduate. Found patient disheveled, disoriented and curled up behind a washing machine, holding a portable stereo. Hair was in disarray. Eyes were bloodshot…
Fringe Characters
The PC Cowboys — the pride of Bridge City and planet Earth’s only politically correct country band — have been busy lately. There have been a couple of lineup changes, including the departure of a founding member and the addition of a fourth player. And as the band celebrates its…
Strings Attached
As he would later admit, Colt Amox threw the first and only punch. The 21-year-old former high school pitcher must have launched a phantom fastball, because when Billy Ray Johnson went down, he sputtered and gagged and didn’t open his eyes for another three days. It was about 1 a.m.,…
Amp Fiddler
Echoes of P-Funk, Sly Stone and Shuggie Otis resonate through Joseph “Amp” Fiddler’s music, yet the Detroit-based artist’s debut album, Waltz of a Ghetto Fly, is no mere retro-funk remembrance. True, George Clinton makes a guest appearance on the title track (rapping about a pimp who swore he’d never die),…
Sign Language
There’s a Heights resident who desperately wanted a stop sign on her street corner, utterly convinced that the intersection was dangerous for kids, pedestrians and cars. The city didn’t agree. Every time she brought the matter up, in petitions and at City Council hearings, she was told the intersection didn’t…
Tiësto
The Dutch aren’t known for much besides cheese, but Tiësto and his fellow countrymen Armin van Buuren and Ferry Corsten are making a case for the Netherlands as the home of the DJ as rock god. Tiësto’s latest release, Just Be, is an ambitious ten-track exploration of trance blended with…
In the Dark
For the past three years, Sarah Kleman’s workday as a paralegal downtown begins at 4 p.m. and sometimes doesn’t end until sunrise. But those late shifts have helped the single mother pay for college for her two daughters. Her eldest child received her education degree from the University of Texas…
Beastie Boys
After a six-year hiatus, the Beastie Boys return with To the 5 Boroughs and alternately position themselves as pop culture bottom-feeders and political pedants. While anti-Bush screeds “That’s It That’s All” and “Time to Build” come across as heavy-handed, the terse “Open Letter to NYC” does manage to channel that…
Letters
Riders on the Storm Safety first: I was sadly disappointed by your lame article on amusement rides [“Thrilled to Death,” by Josh Harkinson, June 3]. People take rare, isolated incidents and make them bigger than they appear. As a person whose hobby is visiting theme parks, I’ve been to just…
Mark May
Though it’s been available at gigs for almost two years, a new distribution effort now puts this doll on actual store shelves (right next to Shreddin’ Barbie?). That’s good news for Mark May, Houston’s premier blues-rock singer/slinger. And yes, there is a difference between straight blues and blues rock, my…
Size Matters
Just because an idea isn’t capable of sustaining a full-length, deluxe, two-hour extravaganza doesn’t mean it’s worthless. The problem with short plays and films is that audiences are not likely to line up in droves to see a seven-minute show, even if that seven minutes is bursting with more entertainment…
Playbill
Lars Frederiksen and the Bastards, with HorrorPops When Rancid side project Lars Frederiksen and the Bastards issued its debut album, many assumed it was just another vanity project. So it was a pleasant surprise to discover that Frederiksen had made one of the more stellar recent punk efforts. Ever since,…
This Week’s Day-by-Day Picks
Thursday, June 17 Despite all their hippified feel-good intentions (or maybe because of them), jam bands really polarize the public. Either you love ’em or you hate ’em. Fans cite the sheer musicality and free-form grooves as selling points, while critics just don’t think jammers know how to write a…
Playing On Fear
Getting stranded at snowbound O’Hare for the night is one thing. You call home, maybe knock down a couple of martinis, then grab a blanket. A century ago, being quarantined at Ellis Island for eight months because you were, say, a part-time anarchist from Campobasso with a big mustache and…
Right on the Market
Somewhere in the South of France lies a stretch of country road that winds through vineyards and villages, dead-ending into a creek. At this spot, locals gather to hawk their wares: fresh flowers, pungent cheeses, fragrant incense and purées for sauces. Yeah, well, big deal. The hot and dusty streets…
Feels Like 80 Days
You might think that with the technological advances in moviemaking since 1956, this new version of Around the World in 80 Days would at least look better than its predecessor did. You could not be faulted for believing you’d be wowed by the Rube Goldberg gadgets of inventor Phileas Fogg,…