The Elected
Blake Sennett’s breathy, breakable delivery is as overly dramatic as a LiveJournal entry, and his dear-diary lyrics are even more so. “And if you see me down at the liquor store, please don’t tell my dad,” he moans on “Greetings in Braille,” with the back of his hand presumably draped…
Tales of the Alamo
Yeah, the heroes of the Alamo had it tough. But at least they only died once for their land-grabbing scheme — sorry, for their freedom. Houstonian Mark Anthony Chavarria had to die five or six times a night for 30 days straight. He was one of about 15 stuntmen on…
The Gift of Gab
Blackalicious’s 2002 effort, Blazing Arrow, was one of the bigger “conscious rap” records of that year, making a bazillion Top 10 lists and earning a nomination for a Short List Prize (the U.S. equivalent of Britain’s Mercury Prize). But to my ears, Arrow sounded tame, more of a hodgepodge of…
Taking Stock
At first glance, the envelope gave no clue to its importance. Buried at the bottom of a box of old paperwork, it was labeled only with a scrawled “keep.” When June Satterwhite found the envelope in 2001, her grandmother, who made the note, was dead. Jean Burke Springfield had died…
Greg Ashley
Greg Ashley is the latest in a proud crop of creaky, surrealistic troubadours like Devendra Banhart. He lays down twisted, dust-in-the-sun ditties in the tradition of Skip Spence or Syd Barrett. But though his voice actually bears a strong resemblance to Banhart’s, Ashley steers away from the fantastic in his…
Those Bichon Mutts
On an operating table at Texas A&M University, the fluffy body of 11-week-old Cherie lies as motionless as an afghan rug. A doctor watches her ailing heart thump on an X-ray monitor and calls for a scalpel. Her caretaker, Robin Pressnall, prays. Researchers here have pioneered a $2,000 heart operation…
Slaid Cleaves
Rest assured that the new breed of Americana-laced Texas singer-songwriter is in no danger of immediate extinction. Bearing names such as Pat, Jack, Jesse, Darden, Roger, Cory and Hadden, they come thundering across the Texas plains like an old-fashioned stampede. With Wishbones, Austinite Slaid Cleaves has left the rest of…
Letters
A Chilling Crime Problems persist: First I’d like to say I’m African-American. I’m assuming when most African-Americans or anyone else with a warm-blooded heart read this [“The Icebox Revisited,” by Keven McAlester, March 11], they felt some type of feelings: either anger, sadness or shock, and some probably felt hate…
Vienna Teng
The tragedy of American Idol’s karaoke sweepstakes is amplified in the person of Vienna Teng, whose talents include not only a warm, smoky voice, but piano, songwriting, and composing chops that beg for the attention squandered on Kelly Clarkson and Clay Aiken. A Stanford grad and onetime software engineer with…
Branching Out
Growing up in the city has its benefits. There’s a wider variety of entertainment, food and art. And there’s stimuli everywhere (i.e., more ways to avoid boredom). But don’t knock a suburban childhood. Sure, the master-planned community, with its endless rows of uninspired houses, imagination-debasing bylaws and vapid consumerism, can…
Jersey Hurl
Jersey Girl, the sixth film by writer-director Kevin Smith, is the least Kevin Smith-y film he’s ever made, which will be welcome news to those exhausted by Smith’s everlasting obsession with his dick, fart jokes and stack of comic books, and bad news to those enamored of Smith’s everlasting obsession…
This Week’s Day-by-Day Picks
Thursday, March 25 Move over, Footloose, and make room for Rise: The Story of Rave Outlaw Disco Donnie. This time it’s a club promoter who’s fighting for the inalienable right to shake his booty, but he’s got a lot more than an uptight preacher on his back. Four years ago,…
Suth’n Comfort
Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. With Tom Hanks, Irma Hall, Marlon Wayans and J.K. Simmons. Rated R.
Pissing the Night Away
Here’s a philosophical question for you: How can a down-home, church-on-Sunday, God-fearing Christian boy from Spring, Texas, possibly take the lead in a Broadway musical named after human waste? Easy, says Charlie Pollock, Urinetown’s leading man. “I’m such a 16-year-old when it comes to humor anyway. I love pee jokes,…
Lost in Translation
Rising from the Scottish mist flowing over the stage at the Hobby Center is the magical world of Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe’s Brigadoon. The 1947 musical is a throwback to that era. Melodies lilt into heights where only the headiest sopranos and tenors can go, and the choreography…
The Graduates
FRI 3/26 Stressed-out, exhausted, jubilant, relieved and quite possibly inebriated graduates will be in attendance — along with their art, of course — at this Friday’s opening of the “2004 Masters of Fine Arts Thesis Exhibition” at the Blaffer Gallery. The show is the culmination of the University of Houston’s…
Capsule Reviews
Crowns Even an atheist — one with at least an ounce of fashion sense — will be rockin’ and clappin’ hands at the end of Ensemble Theatre’s thoroughly joyous musical production of Crowns, adapted by Regina Taylor from the book by Michael Cunningham and Craig Marberry. Set as a stylized…
Throwback
SAT 3/27 Baseball’s modern era began in 1901, and since then, fans have witnessed scandal, greed and a lot of divas piling on notes to the national anthem. Were times simpler before steroids, cocaine and penicillin? Yes — way back in the 1800s, when a Port-O-Let was better known as…
Water Overdose
At FotoFest 2004’s opening night, people strolled down Main Street, past fountains and photographs projected on a wall of water. They also walked through exhibitions featuring scores of water photographs. “Wow, I need to pee” became a half-serious running joke. The theme for FotoFest 2004 is water. I suppose it’s…
Back to School
SAT 3/27 When booking agents scheduled Big Daddy Kane to perform at the second Old School Hip-Hop Fest, the Brooklyn-born smooth operator knew he was going to perform for some appreciative hip-hop fan, both young and old. “Throughout my career, Houston was always a big turnout,” Kane says. Kane was…
Capsule Reviews
“Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective of Drawings” Born in Turkish Armenia in 1904, Vosdanik Adoian would grow up to be Arshile Gorky, one of America’s most important and influential artists, but he would never forget the land of his birth and the village of his difficult childhood. This intimate retrospective at…
Sick Humor
Cancer can be funny. When a doctor told Robert Schimmel that he had non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, the comedian quickly replied, “That’s just my luck. I get the one that’s not named after the guy.” Schimmel has been in remission for just over three years, but he still jokes about the struggle…
No More Wussies
Tom Hanks is who Tom Hanks is today because of something he did about 14 years ago. One afternoon, Hanks walked into his agent’s office and told the man who takes 10 percent, “I don’t want to play pussies anymore.” He had spent the better part of the 1980s being…
Surgical Strike
When Mike Patton first brought Fantômas to life in 1998, the term he used to describe the band’s work was “uneasy listening.” That’s a tremendous understatement when applied to their third and latest album, Delirium Cordia, which consists of one continuous 74-minute piece of music called “Surgical Sound Specimens From…
Sex, Death and Oysters
As I draw my cocktail fork across it, the delicate creature contracts almost imperceptibly. Then I stab the quivering mouthful and slide it onto my tongue. The flavor is salty, a little metallic and surprisingly sweet. There’s a subtle nuttiness in the chewy bit that surrounds the foot. Eating raw…
Stream of Consciousness
“Bound for glory”: You can find this phrase sung in the old spirituals, written in the songs of Woody Guthrie and emblazoned on the motorcycles of Springsteen’s heroes. For certain musicians, these words sum up the promise of a new kind of American music, where old and new can merge…
Sunnyside Sup
Reid’s Barbecue
Moby for Veep
Like it or not, in today’s politics, personality trumps policy. As our attention spans have withered, so too have our appetites — and aptitudes — for absorbing any information that doesn’t come in bite-size kernels. Who wants to watch a debate about Medicare reform? Who the hell even knows what…
Beat the Drum
Salads rarely inspire my adoration, because most of the time I associate them with dieting. But the grilled beef salad ($9) at Bongo’s Latin Grill & Bar (818 Travis, 713-222-2254) is enough to get the rhythm pulsating through my body. Thin strips of charbroiled top sirloin, completely devoid of fat,…
Adieu, Monsieur Mojo
South By Southwest, so the story goes, is supposed to be about beginnings. For me, anyway, this one was about an ending — specifically, the musical career of Mojo Nixon. That’s right — after a couple of decades of celebrating trash culture, sticking it to the man and stuffing Martha’s…