Letters
Stem Cells Debated Slow death: As a victim of Wegener’s granulomatosis, an auto-immune disease, I applaud your stem cell article [“Westward Whoa!” by Josh Harkinson, May 19]. Untreated, Wegener’s kills in a year, but it has been held at bay till stem cell researchers find a cure, by chemotherapy and…
Broke, But Not Broken
There was no reason to expect much from Cinderella Man, Ron Howard’s biography of boxer James Braddock, who in the summer of 1935 became the most unlikely heavyweight champion in the history of boxing. After all, it’s a true tale whose outcome has been predetermined; surely there could be no…
Simply Stated
The Press Club of Houston has notified several Houston Press writers that they are finalists in this year’s statewide Lone Star journalism awards competition. Finalists for Print Journalist of the Year included Press staff writer Josh Harkinson and former staff writer Sarah Fenske. Harkinson was honored for “Thrilled to Death,”…
Ensemble Dining
A gleaming southbound Metro train suddenly fills the window facing Main Street and then speeds down the rails, its shrinking form visible through another window on Alabama. I’m sitting at a table at Julia’s Bistro that faces the corner of the giant panes. The station at this Midtown intersection is…
Precision Pecan Pie
The Swiss are known for their excellent timepieces. It’s that same care that goes into the pecan pie at Roland’s Swiss Pastry and Bistro (6504 Del Monte, 713-785-4294). The mid-size version ($3.50), about the size of a personal pan pizza, may seem too large for one person until you take…
This Week’s Day-by-Day Picks
Thursday, June 2 There was a time in the not-so-distant past when scensters flocked to Rich’s for its legendary Thursday-night parties. But then the club closed and underwent a makeover and a couple of ownership changes. The new Rich’s regime, under co-owner DJ Mark D, is trying to travel back…
Ring It In
If Thursday, May 19 — opening day of Star Wars Episode III — was Christmas for local sci-fi/fantasy fans, then Saturday, June 4, most undoubtedly will be New Year’s Eve. Oh, how the blogs and message boards are buzzing: “Are you going in costume?” asks one posting. “Are we meeting…
All the Right Moves
Ten is a magical age, when kids are old enough to make articulate statements about their experiences and young enough to express their feelings without shame. In a couple of years, excitement will go the way of the bag lunch and become uncool, and acceptable poses will shrink to a…
Buckets o’ Fun
SAT 6/4 There you are, busily packing bits of beach sand into Dixie cups and constructing sturdy castle towers that are, in your mind, worthy of King Arthur and his court. You even dig your heels around your imaginary hero’s house to simulate a moat for protection. You have quite…
Skate Bored
Lords of Dogtown is an odd, disorienting commodity — a fictional version of a documentary (Dogtown and Z-Boys) about the birth of skateboarding in 1970s Venice, California, that was written by the man who directed said doc, in which he was a central figure. Stacy Peralta, whose Dogtown and Z-Boys…
Gravity Games
SAT 6/4 Here’s a nature-versus-nurture problem. Are people born wanting mullets and NASCAR careers, or is that desire created by events like the Greater Houston Soapbox Derby? This weekend’s races, for kids ages eight to 17, include three divisions: Stock (total weight of car and driver is 200 pounds), SuperStock…
One for the Girls
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants is a flawed movie born of a flawed novel, but let this be clear: Girls will eat it up with a spoon. It features three young stars, indulges in rampant romantic fantasy, drips with teary-eyed sentimentality and pays a heapload of lip service to…
Bhangin’ Party
FRI 6/3 This sure sounds like an odd recipe. First, take the tablas, the drum instrument dating back to the sixth century of what is now northern India. Then, throw in some turntables, which date back to, what, the infant years of disco and hip-hop in New York? Shake well…
Wet and Riled
Dark, apocalyptic and profoundly disturbing, Bernard-Marie Koltes’s Night Just Before the Forests is kick-you-in-the-ass theater — just the sort of thing Infernal Bridegroom Productions does so well. Produced in cahoots with DiverseWorks in its spare black-box performance space, the ambitious hour of avant-garde theater rails against nothing less than the…
Quite a Stretch
In The Art of Dance, Isadora Duncan described her vision of modern dance in terms of a single figure “standing with one foot poised on the highest point of the Rockies, her two hands stretched out from the Atlantic to the Pacific, her fine head tossed to the sky, her…
Capsule Reviews
Done to Death Vermont playwright Fred Carmichael’s 30-plus light romances and murder comedies have been a boon to regional theaters, and his works and patronage have been instrumental in the reputation and success of that state’s Dorset Theatre Playhouse. If you’re acquainted with one of his most performed plays, thanks…
Rock and Role Model
, at the , .
Capsule Reviews
“Deep Wells and Reflecting Pools” David McGee combed through the Menil’s vast holdings, seeking to create a dialogue between selected works. He chose ancient to modern art and objects related to people of African descent — everything from a fifth-century BC Greek vessel to a certificate from a slave auction…
Playin’ Possum
In this day of media overload, it’s astonishing that vital music still remains unrecorded and largely unheard. But Matthew Johnson, a skinny white boy from Mississippi, found a heap in his own backyard. Turned on to blues by an Ole Miss class taught in the late ’90s by rock critic…
Keeping Score
Well, some people try to pick up girls / And get called asshole / This never happened to Pablo Picasso Jonathan Richman, Pablo Picasso Were upstairs at the Red Door when Bashev sees his target: four girls in a flurry of tight pants and spaghetti straps. Theyre hot babes. HBs…
Color Me Impressed
Spain Colored Orange’s “Persistent Intermission” starts with some fast, warm electric piano chords. Then the rhythm section and the guitars come thundering in, followed quickly by a Moog synthesizer careening out of control. And over the top of it all, wild-ass Spanish-style trumpeting and a mournful and soulful voice singing…
The Nitty-Gritty
Fast-seduction techniques range from common-sense basics to incredibly complex combinations of body language, tone and storytelling. Here are just a few examples of the practice’s major concepts: Anchoring Remember Pavlov’s dog? Well, Pavlov could’ve spent his time conditioning a hot babe (HB) instead of a Jack Russell. The idea here…
Carrie On!
I’ve made a New Year’s resolution. When I masturbate, I’m no longer going to say ‘Seacrest out’ when I reach climax. — Zach Galifianakis Well, kids, it’s over. No matter how you see it — long national nightmare or cause for public pride and celebration — Fox’s megahit American Idol…
Female Intuition
In case the idea of dating advice from dudes pushes your Skeptic Meter into the red, there are alternatives. The Wing Chicks (www.thewingchicks.com) are standing by to whip your bad haircut and wussy wardrobe into shape, and point out the women you really have a chance with. Michelle Bresser, a…
The Roots, with Floetry
What does a band that Rolling Stone readers once voted one of the 20 best concert attractions in the world do on its summer vacation? It heads back out on the road, of course. The Roots, who redefined live hip-hop during the ’90s, will take the provocative rhymes of Black…
Those Damn Kids
There was, no doubt, a lot of mumbling about “kids these days” as police investigated the recent vandalizing of a classroom at Pasadena’s McMasters Elementary. And then, well, two teachers and two clerical aides confessed to the crime. A teacher in a special-needs classroom had come to work May 12…
Wideawake
Talk about pressure. You win a bunch of Austin Music Awards at 2005’s South By Southwest, including Best Rock Band and Best Pop Band, as well as Best Songwriter and Male Vocalist in the form of front man Scott Leger. Shades of Bob Schneider, Batman! Yet even a casual listen…
Home Alone
On a long, winding suburban street set between the Sugar Land Country Club and a pea-green lagoon, there sits a white-brick, two-story mansion that boasts a working elevator, a wraparound balcony and a large indoor pool with a retractable roof. The head of the household, who serves as Chinese ambassador…
Eugene Mirman, with Woozyhelmet, the Slurpees, Andy Blitz and Langhorne Slim
Eugene Mirman is a stand-up comic who’s got his cred in place. He’s been on Conan, he’s opened shows for bands like Modest Mouse and Yo La Tengo, blah blah blah. According to no less a comedy god than ex-Mr. Show star and recent Pitchforkmedia-new-asshole-tearer David Cross, this Mirman “knows…