Revenge of the Nerds
Brand the guys in Nerf Herder misfits, and they won’t argue with you about it — they know as much. It’s no coincidence, after all, that both halves of the California band’s name share more than a few letters with “nerd.” Head Herder Parry Gripp relishes unhip implications; geeks are…
Static
Excerpts from a SXSW diary… Wednesday, March 12, 3 p.m.: The carnage hasn’t yet begun, but already the staff at Austin’s La Quinta Capitol looks like they’ve been through hell. One weary employee, dripping with sweat, joins me in the elevator as I head up to my room. He asks…
All the Wilder
Think of Webb Wilder, the self-styled “last of the full-grown men,” as a road-show Warren Zevon. Like Zevon, Wilder uses a mix of sledgehammer rock and witty, twisted lyrics that’s a rocket ship to a strange (and fun) planet. Drawing from a far-ranging aquifer of rock, country and rockabilly, Wilder…
Punk and Precious
Stringed instruments have a long, if not always honorable, tradition in pop music. Sweeping violin washes have been used to sweeten everybody from Ella Fitzgerald to Hank Williams for audiences that, presumably, preferred to swallow their personalities sugar-coated. Rock bands, even punk rock bands, feeling old and stifled by the…
Rotation
Buick MacKane The Pawn Shop Years Ryko Anyone who’s seen Alejandro Escovedo play live knows what the (tiny) audience for his recent records may have missed, which is that alongside the eclectic and literate sensitivity that has been Escovedo’s bread and butter for his last three solo CDs there’s a…
S R O
Big and Bouncy “The existence of a floor,” Elizabeth Streb says over the phone from a tour stop in Kansas City, “is a problem.” Coming from a choreographer — and given that dancers do most of their work on floors — that sentiment sounds a little odd. But then again,…
The Insider
Have You Heard the One About Judge Jim Barr? Judge Jim Barr, for all intents and purposes, is on trial for his judicial life,” intoned lawyer George Parnham last week during opening arguments of a hearing convened by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct at South Texas College of Law…
Story Time
It’s a late afternoon in early March, and Elia Arce is looking rather wistfully into a empty rehearsal studio at DiverseWorks’s gallery and theater complex. Three wooden chairs sit in the center of the floor, waiting for occupants. It appears that Arce, a performance artist from Los Angeles, has reached…
A Tale of Two Houses
Sometimes, what appears to be a disaster can turn out to be a blessing — even if not everyone involved recognizes it. Linda Williams, I suspect, would be one of those reluctant to admit to the blessing, but that’s understandable. She was, after all, the one who bore the brunt…
Dancing in the Dark
The out-of-town dance critics who flooded Houston last week weren’t here just because they admire the Houston Ballet (though that’s part of it). They were here because, with Dracula, Houston Ballet artistic director Ben Stevenson is offering up something truly rare: a brand-new full-length story ballet. Over the last few…
Light and Darkness
“So mature, it’s frightening” is how one of Aaron Parazette’s fellow artists describes Parazette’s new show at Texas Gallery, “Pleasure Provision.” Indeed, Parazette has developed a specific idiom — big chips of color in the shape of cartoony splashes — and presents here a tight, cogent suite of paintings. Each…
Star Bright
Selena opens with a re-enactment of the Tejano singer’s February 1995 concert at the Astrodome. Bedecked in a sparkling purple jumpsuit, the beloved Texas native (played by Jennifer Lopez) is shown singing a few disco nuggets from her childhood, including “I Will Survive” and “Last Dance.” The tunes, as performed…
Wasted Youth
The new Richard Linklater film, subUrbia, adapted by Eric Bogosian from his 1994 play, opens with a long, unbroken tracking shot through a ticky-tacky Texas suburb, backed on the soundtrack by Gene Pitney wailing “Town Without Pity.” This logy, Jim Jarmusch-y opening hints at even greater anomie to come –…
The Angelides Affair
A decade ago, at the dawn of a new era of science, Kimon J. Angelides joined the faculty at Baylor College of Medicine as part of an ambitious effort to discover novel methods to combat muscular dystrophy and multiple sclerosis. Angelides seemed perfectly suited for a newly created Baylor department,…
Off Line
The January 30 collapse of a wall at Northline Mall killed three people, but the tragedy breathed life into the Houston Daily News. The Internet-based newspaper that was supposed to offer the city a daily alternative to the Chronicle had officially launched operations two weeks earlier, but the mall disaster…
Rules of the Game
Term limits is a bad idea. It was a bad idea in 1991, and it’s still a bad idea in 1997. It’s a really bad idea to limit elected officials to three two-year terms, as we do in Houston. Six years is just too short a time, especially when you’re…
Letters
She Enjoys Driving Ms. Shelia I write in order to express my disappointment with Tim Fleck’s “Driving Miss Sheila” [February 20]. I was under the erroneous impression that his interview would be fair and include some semblance of journalistic value. After reading the article, it is apparent that the London…
Press Picks
thursday march 20 Great American Meatout River Phoenix, Ally Sheedy and other celebrities noted for treating their bodies like temples (ha!) have campaigned for past Great American Meatouts; this year, Rue McClanahan and James Cromwell top the star-studded list of plant-eaters urging Americans to forgo meat, for today at least,…