The All-American Rejects
Tyson Ritter, lead singer of the All-American Rejects, has cheekbones you could build a small town house on, and a whole Jeff Buckley-meets-Zach Braff look. His band rocks the greasy hair, striped tees and dirty Converse getup that says, “We’re not emo, we just dress this way.” Indeed, the GQ-looking…
“Black” Is Back
Well, a year has passed, but — lo and behold — people are still destroying the environment. So it makes perfect sense that the Michele Brangwen Dance Ensemble would resurrect “Black Rain,” which premiered last year, for this weekend’s FotoFest Biennial. Brangwen’s work fits well with the event’s themes, “The…
Rockin’ Your A>S>H>S
Don’t worry, you don’t have to remember the name of Houston-based band Audible>Stellar>Hypnotic>Situations. They go by A>S>H>S. Since forming in 1997 as a tribal percussion and electronic noise band, A>S>H>S has morphed into a six-piece lineup, complete with a saxophonist, turntablist, conga player and keyboardist. To add to the complexity…
Hustle Time
The journeyman is coming! Thank God. They’ve been huddled like this for minutes, minutes that seem like hours, ever since the game ended. They have deadlines, all of them: the stone-faced beat writers, the rosy-cheeked sportscasters, the cheery-voiced radio guys. They have copy to file, updates to phone in, B-roll…
Crab Invasion
When Sartin’s closed its location in Kemah four years ago, serious fans were devastated that they’d have to drive to the original location in Beaumont to get their barbecue crab fix. So the restaurant’s recent reopening in Nassau Bay (18023 Upper Bay Road, 281-333-4040) is cause for rejoicing. The all-you-can-eat…
Yao Won’t Bow
With all due respect to documentary directors Adam Del Deo and James D. Stern, this is the Year of the Yao. Houston Rockets supastar Tracy McGrady’s back continues to give him fits and threaten the longevity of his career — not to mention the team’s playoff hopes. Meanwhile, Yao Ming…
Jack and Coke
It’s Saturday night, and I’m stuck helping a friend move a broken washer and dryer. It’s amazing what I will get myself into when somebody says the words “I’ll buy you a drink if…” After the lifting, Harold and I head to Cheers2u (14023 Westheimer, 281-870-1735), where neon beer signs…
A Blog of His Own
Every news outlet in Houston, it seems, has someone blogging the Enron trial. The Houston Chronicle, which seems to believe the future of newspapers lies in creating a blog about every single subject known to humankind, has two to choose from, with business columnist Loren Steffy also occasionally chiming in…
It’s a Crime
Given Inside Man’s bullpen (director Spike Lee, stars Denzel Washington and Jodie Foster), moment in political history and advertising, you could be forgiven for anticipating some kind of socially relevant, perhaps even politically volatile dramatic smash-up something with teeth, ambition, a functioning cerebrum and a lusty relationship with reality. But…
Boot-Sleuthin’
RodeoHouston may be gone, dangit, but there’s still some action over at the Doubletree Guest Suites. Show up hungry and ready to solve a crime at Rodeo Can Be Murder. The mystery dinner theater surrounds pun-tastic characters like cowgirl sharpshooter Annie Oakra, gambler Black Jack and ranch owner Ben Ropin…
Pho Real
The mi at Pho Dung Noodle House in Hong Kong City Mall was excellent, but unfortunately my dining companion found my noodle-slurping technique so disgusting, she threatened to go shopping until I was finished. I gazed up at her to beg forgiveness, but it’s difficult to look contrite with a…
Letter to the Editor
Nuclear Reactions Gutsy: Congratulations on a well-written and informative piece [“Bring It On,” by Josh Harkinson, March 9]. You managed to effectively challenge one of the big orthodoxies with facts. The status quo on energy will not change until we accept the fact that nuclear energy is clean and effective…
Beauty Amid the Horror
If French writer Andr Malraux was correct when he claimed that “all art is a revolt against man’s fate,” the most horrific events in human history can give rise, incongruously, to images of soul-searing beauty. How else to explain the stunning black-and-white images that fill Fateless, the story of a…
A Real Fun “Group”
The image of a girl lying bound and gagged on the floor of an apartment is startling. But it’s Paige Majko’s way of dealing with trauma and terror — and it’s strangely alluring. The work, captured in freeze-frame clarity, is part of the series “Phobias,” now on view in the…
Image of the Week
Death humps George W. Bush in front of a blond, little child this has to be Ingmar Bergman’s weirdest film yet. In real life, it’s just one of the fabulous memories this kid will take away from the pro and con demonstrations surrounding a visit by Cindy Sheehan. Click here…
Good Face Time
My lesson for the week: How do you find out if Howard Stern’s girlfriend is regular? Show up to a TV-commercial audition. I’m hanging out at Jones Plaza on a cloudy Friday afternoon, where dozens of handsome guys are lined up, hoping to become Gillette’s next “Face of Fusion.” Swimsuit…
Mix and Madge
Gender preference be damned — Madonna is the sexiest mother on the planet. Girls, young and old, would pull a VMA Britney just to be in her presence, and guys, straight or gay, would hop at the chance to shag her from here to England. Madge’s own sexuality has always…
Hello, Moon
Listen, boys and girls: A long time ago yes, before you or I or the Toronto music scene was even born some very wrong people had a very bad idea. Children, these very wrong people reasoned, are small and silly. Let’s make small, silly music for them. And so children,…
Miracle at Main Street
Tom Jacobson’s Ouroboros might be one of the most richly textured works Main Street Theater has put on in years. The story is told from two points of view in two productions shown on alternative nights. One is a comedy, A Nun’s Tale; the other a tragedy, A Priest’s Tale…
Don’t Cry for Her, Israel
She was born in Russia, spent her adolescence in Milwaukee, immigrated to Israel to live and work on a kibbutz, and eventually rose to become that country’s prime minister from 1969 to 1974. Once described by an admirer as “the only man” in the government, tough-looking and -acting Golda Meir…
South By So Huge
“Is It Too Big?” ran the headline on Friday’s Austin American-Statesman, the ‘it’ in question of course being South By Southwest. And I think I’m gonna have to answer that one in the affirmative. It’s gotten to the point where the damn thing is like Mardi Gras, your birthday and…
Capsule Reviews
Beauty and the Beast Only the smallest of tykes will be enchanted by this homegrown version of the Disney spectacle still playing on Broadway. The rest will be lulled into a stupor, like many a little one on opening night. Theatre Under the Stars has replaced the glitz and blinding…
Primus Sucks (On-Screen)!
Back in MTV’s heyday, long before any rooms got raided or any rides got pimped, they used to show these things called “music videos.” If you were watching these “videos” in the mid-’90s and suddenly things started to freak you out — as if you’d eaten a whole bunch of…
Lord of the Cover Bands
Chances are, if you’ve patronized one of the many clubs along the Richmond Strip, Barker Cypress or South Mason Road on a weekend, you probably heard a cover band playing a string of hits you grew up listening to. And if you heard a song you liked in a bar,…
Glenn Close-Up
Two boats, one blue and one orange, rest on the floor. From a video screen, we hear artist Glenn Ligon telling his therapist about making a papier-mch boat in school and painting it blue and orange. When his teacher asked him why he didn’t paint it with prettier colors, he…
Buy Your Bike Bods Here
Ladies, you ever check out those bike messengers you see downtown? You know, the ones with the streetwise, hip, emo-meets-jock vibe? They’ve got the shorts, the lean, muscular frame and the grin. You ever want to meet one? No sweat. Tyrone Davis can hook you up with a date. But…
Mama Mia
The ticket says 8 p.m., but it’s rapidly approaching half past the hour. We’ve been at Jones Hall since a quarter after seven, and my mom is getting fidgety. “They shouldn’t print 8 p.m. on the ticket if they don’t mean it,” she says firmly, like the dutiful Caucasian schoolteacher…
Capsule Reviews
“Alex Katz” Alex Katz made his name with hard-edged, flattened portraits. But just shy of 80, the painter has loosened up considerably. He’s still interested in flat color and abstracted form, but his work has gotten looser and brushier. His show at Texas Gallery features a lovely collection of small…
Nothing’s Up
Frank, Theo and Babette, the three central characters in [sic], the latest play from Mildred’s Umbrella, have serious issues. They’re educated. They’re condescending. And they’re pretty much failures. Babette, an aspiring writer, has not actually written anything. Ever. Would-be auctioneer Frank bumbles a tongue-twister tape from his home study course…
Loose Fur
You’re forgiven for approaching every supergroup with skepticism even more so when a group’s first album was less than thrilling. Which brings us to Jeff Tweedy, Jim O’Rourke and Glenn Kotche. The three are back again as Loose Fur, and this time they got it right. Instead of a lightweight…
Sonic Bust
As celebrity career paths go, Sonic the Hedgehog has been tiptoeing dangerously close to Baldwin Brothers territory lately. Last year brought the embarrassing Shadow the Hedgehog, a dark title in which Sonic’s brooding alter ego wielded a gun, earning it the unflattering nickname “Grand Theft Hedgehog.” Still, at first blush,…
House of Gable
Off a county road in tiny Caldwell, Texas, near a town called Harmony, lives a legend. And though many don’t know who Gable Matcek is, local country fans should. Today the elder guitarist plays a special show at The Daily Grind. He’ll be joined by his son Thane Matcek —…
Neko Case
Like any self-respecting alt-country artist, Neko Case would probably love to leave behind alt-country and the negative connotations the term’s overuse has spawned for good. The well-deep voice that earns deserved comparisons with Patsy Cline has made it difficult for Case to escape the tag, but she was covering Scott…
Now You See Them
Breasts: A Documentary (First Run) Honest, compassionate, and funny, this documentary is remarkable for the bravery of its participants, who bare their breasts as they speak about them. The film delivers 22 women of all shapes, sizes, ages, races, and orientations — all of whom have interesting, surprising things to…
Sexy New Darling
The first show the fledgling west Houston stage company Gray Wolf Theatre ever put on was Hamlet. A noble effort, sure, but honestly, not enough skin. Their next endeavor, however, should provide plenty. Not Now, Darling, a British sex farce, promises lots of laughs, plus ladies traipsing around in lingerie…
Eels
Guess you had to be there, at Town Hall in New York City last July. Although from the sounds of it, not so much. Thomas Bartlett, writing last summer on Salon.com, sent his own postcard lamenting how his beloved band went “all chamber/acoustic refined/wimpy,” resulting in music that came off…
Our top DVD picks for the week of March 21
The Adventures of Brer Rabbit (Universal) Batman Beyond: The Complete First Season (Warner Bros.) The Billy Wilder DVD Collection (Paramount) Bukowski: Born Into This (Magnolia) The Busby Berkeley Collection (Warner Bros.) Capote (Sony) Chicken Little (Buena Vista) Crackheads Gone Wild (Xtreme Films) Dear Wendy (Fox Lorber) Derailed (Weinstein Co.) Dreamer:…
For the Children
Here’s a much more effective telling of the Palestinian-Jewish situation than you’ll get with any “fair and balanced” news coverage. The documentary Arna’s Children tells the story of a West Bank theater group established by Arna Mer Khamis. Khamis, a Zionist, used the school to help the children of Jenin…
Mogwai
Back in the early days of Mogwai’s career, an album titled Mr. Beast would have matched the band’s Category 5 noise hurricanes perfectly. But as the Scotsmen refined their sound over the next decade, moments of levity and clarity airy synths, strings, eerie silences made their emotional maelstroms more compelling…
Oasis
Though they’ve been commercially overshadowed by the gooey pandering of Coldplay and challenged by the recent reinvigoration of the original title holders, the Rolling Stones, the case can still be made that Oasis is indeed the world’s greatest rock and roll band. Or, more accurately, many of the world’s greatest…
Girls, Uninterrupted
It’s been a while since Aimee Jones graced the scene with one of her casually hip art shows. And it’s too bad, since her events can be as watchable as any American Idol episode and, depending on the subject matter, as sexy as a certain lingerie catalog. Fortunately, Jones is…
Mtley Cre
Here in the new century, it’s sometimes a bit hard to take the Cre seriously. After all, the 1980s hair-metal scene seems a near-total anachronism after grunge and alternative rock swept not just the sound but the attendant coke ‘n’ chicks lifestyle and such fashion accessories as scarves and mascara…
Clothes Make the Art
Before you take those old clothes to Goodwill, consider the decade of work by minimalist Joseph Havel. His approach to art, hugely inspired by his own laundry, is on view in “Joseph Havel: A Decade of Sculpture 1996-2006” at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, which also organized the show…
Dig on This
British DJ-producer John Digweed consistently ranks as one of the top ten DJs in the world in most of the big DJ/club culture publications. One of the first UK DJs to get an NYC club residency (with his DJ partner Sasha), he’s been huge stateside since 1997, when he scored…
Graham Weber
In this country, we’re facing a population explosion that’s verging on a crisis of catastrophic proportions. An overabundance that threatens to rip apart the very fabric of civilization as we know it! I speak, of course, of musicians whose breathless bios utter the phrase “Austin-based Americana singer-songwriter.” But wait! Out…
Tuesday-Night Fever
It was the decade of pre-Scientology John Travolta, groovalicious bell-bottoms and generous wa-wa pedals. And now, 30 years later, in a salute to the velvet-jumpsuit era we just can’t forget, the Gay Men’s Chorus of Houston presents Seventies Fever, with cameo appearances by the Bayou City Women’s Chorus. The concert…
Pieces of Pablo
Pablo Francisco is often labeled as an “impression” comedian, and as a “sound effects” guy. But Francisco’s material is about more than cell-phone rings and Dubya voices. His observational takes on things like R&B tunes (every one must have “smooth, soft and silky” in it) and soft porn (“It’s called…
Trout Fishing in America
They are the Mutt and Jeff of the quirky indie/folk/pop/Latin/reggae/classical/jazz/comedy duos. Okay, so there’s not much competition for the title. But former Houstonians Keith Grimwood (bass player, measuring a Jeff-esque five-foot-five) and Ezra Idlet (guitar slinger, standing a Mutt-worthy six-foot-nine) have managed to make their musical partnership last more than…
Blue Monday
Yo, can you say two Pulitzer Prizes in the house? The Alley Theatre can this week, when poets Louise Glück and Franz Wright take the stage to read from their new books. Don’t expect much roof-raising, though — neither is known for particularly uplifting verse. Still, they are the best…
Love the Glove
Last year women’s boxing got a huge PR boost with Clint Eastwood’s Million Dollar Baby. Folks clamored to see the sweet Hilary Swank don a mouthpiece and gloves and TKO her opponents. But after the Oscars were handed out, the hype around women’s boxing faded. Now Houston photographer Delilah Montoya…