Update: Billy Joe Shaver Shooting
Today’s update in the Billy Joe Shaver shooting: The Lorena Police have now released their version of the events, and not surprisingly, they don’t correspond with those put forth by Shaver’s attorney. Lorena police chief John Moran told the Waco Tribune that Shaver, and not shooting victim Billy Bryant Coker,…
Who’s in Charge Here?
While contemplating a post on Reggie Bush being banned from the Playboy Mansion, I came across this Richard Justice blog report stating that “removing Brad Lidge from the closer’s role would be one notch above Garner’s pay grade. That’s an organizational call.” I give Justice lots of grief. But the…
Playbill: Eliza Gilkyson
In a town filled with great songwriters, Eliza Gilkyson certainly sits somewhere near the pinnacle of the Austin Americana scene. Across a stunning four-album span, she has consistently managed that most difficult of tricks, to be both deeply humanistic and magically entertaining while avoiding entirely the purposelessly ethereal. There are…
The U.S.S. Astro
A baseball team is a lot like the crew of a 19th Century warship. Both travel a lot, are exclusively male domains, and have batteries — guns in the case of ship, pitchers and catchers in baseball. Both are helmed by skippers, who have various sub-officers or assistant coaches in…
Van Chancellor v. Guy Lewis
I see that ex-Comets coach Van Chancellor has just been elected into the Basketball Hall of Fame. I ask: how? How can Chancellor get in when former University of Houston coach Guy V. Lewis can’t? Just what is it that Chancellor did that Lewis didn’t? Did Chancellor take four teams…
The Shepherd Stroll Photo Essay
All photos by John Nova Lomax and David Bebee. To read The Shepherd Stroll, Part I, click here. To read The Shepherd Stroll, Part II, click here…
Packing Meat
One morning in March, the world’s forces of globalization, migration and economic inequity collided in a split second on the balcony of a Best Western in the Texas Panhandle. There, bubbling away outside the doors of three motel rooms, was a line of Crock Pots. Beside one was a small,…
Brad Lidge Update
So, there are other people who will update on you on the Craig Biggio quest for 3000 hits. I, however, feel that it is my duty to update you on the Brad Lidge blown save count. After two games, the Brad Lidge blown save count stands at one. There was…
The Crystal Clear Glasses of Detachment
You’re not giving up already, are you? Just for the record, I don’t wear glasses (rose-colored, or otherwise). I feel it’s necessary for me to get that out in the open right off the bat, since my sanity was mildly questioned for picking the Astros to win their division …
Last Chance
Mariah McWhorter Voting is winding down for the first round of our photo contest for high school students. Click here to have your say. The theme for the month of April is sports — football, baseball, badminton, whatever. Click here for more details. — Keith Plocek…
The Shepherd Stroll, Part II
Did we mention something about used car lots? South of the Loop and north of the Katy, Shepherd is composed of little else. Those sparkly, tasseled strings that overhang you there whisper in the wind, making this stretch of Shepherd sound something like an autumn walk in the woods. But…
Rotation: Post-TLC Reformation
The Fall Post-TLC Reformation! Narnack Records Part of the power of rock and roll is its ability to communicate in a seemingly endless variety of ways. For Bob Seger or U2 or Weezer, rock’s affinity for simple and direct expression allows it to function as a language of the everyday,…
So You Guys Are Talking About the Astros, Right?
What Royal fails to take into account is Carlos Lee’s ability to eat the competition. Yes, I know that all of you are sick of me harping on Houston’s leading information source. You know what, I’m sick of it, too. But there are just sometimes that a guy’s got to…
The Shepherd Stroll
Although I was more or less familiar with every stretch of Shepherd Drive, I didn’t know its headwaters up by I-45 and Veterans Memorial very well at all. I had a vague idea that there were a bunch of junkyards up there — but the farthest north I tend to…
Move Along. Nothing to See Here. Oh, Wait…
Courtesy of Unhinged Productions Corpus Christi proved that all publicity isn’t good publicity, according to its author Terrence McNally. Not because the play, which transplants the Jesus story to the gay community of the title city, led to death threats against McNally and the Manhattan Theatre Club when it premiered…
Good News for AFH
The folks over at AIDS Foundation Houston released the results of the 18th Annual AIDS Walk Houston yesterday: Fifteen thousand Houstonians participated and they raised more than $900,000. That money will be distributed to AIDS Foundation Houston and 19 other local HIV/AIDS service organizations. Funds will be used to provide…
Sorry. No Houston Here.
The greatness that is Roger Clemens is nailed daily into our heads. But today, I choose to remind my fellow Houstonians of the greatness of another baseball player. And, yes, I know that this is a Houston sports blog, but because the Chronicle will remind us all of the Clemens…
Brad Lidge Blown Save Count: 1
So, there are other people who will update on you on the Craig Biggio quest for 3,000 hits. I, however, feel that it is my duty to update you on the Brad Lidge blown save count. After one game, the blown save count stands at one. Stay tuned for further…
Hot Shot
Texas songwriting legend and all-around honky tonk hero Billy Joe Shaver was involved in a shooting Saturday night outside Papa Joe’s Saloon in Lorena, Texas. Shaver’s attorney Joseph Turner confirmed the reports today. The victim is alive and alert and talking to police. Shaver is being questioned about his role…
Miss Cleo Answers the Bell
When Miss Cleo was taken off the air at the beginning of the millennium, it was imperative someone step forward and take her place. Perhaps some people actually prefer to live in a world free from the spiritual trappings and false promises of the best-known member of the Psychic Friends…
Really, Shouldn’t All Inappropriate Touching Be Reported to the Authorities?
So, baseball season starts today. Have I ever mentioned that Opening Day should be a National Holiday? And hey, did you guys know that Craig Biggio is only 70 hits shy of the magical 3,000 figure? That’s okay, I’m sure the Chronicle will constantly remind everyone of that fact. Speaking…
Roger Clemens and Clay Aiken Are Both Totally Overrated
And don’t get us started on his slider. You know, one of the things that I enjoy about this blog thingy is responding to my many fans. So, today I’d like to take some of my valuable time to answer them. And, since this is supposed to be a sports…
Dead Voucher Walking
Yep, you counted that right. One hundred and twenty-nine votes is quite a skunk. Yesterday we talked about the Virtual Voucher bill before the Senate sponsored by Houston Sen. Kyle Janek that would allow low-income students in urban areas to leave the public school system for the private, and pay…
Holy Shit!
Oh, damn. It was only a matter of time before Jose Luis De Jes�s Miranda ‘s followers brought up the G-word. As you might recall, first De Jes�s claimed to be the Apostle. Then he went with the J-man. Then the Antichrist. There really was nowhere else to go but…
To Do: Ryan Thauburn Benefit
Ouch. He may be an aspiring comedian, but Ryan Thauburn got some recent news that isn’t so funny: Doctors found a tumor on a rib, close to his spine. It’s been successfully removed, but it left the 25-year-old Houstonian with more medical bills than Richard Pryor’s cumulative ambulance fees. So…
And They’re Off!
Lindsey Goldstein The online voting for our high school photo contest is off to a fast start. Lindsey Goldstein’s photo of Mr. Pip is the first one out of the gate, with Mariah McWhorter’s photo of Loopy running a close second. But they aren’t the only two contenders. Gareth LeGrande’s…
Mighty Neighborly of You
Apparently the folks who live behind the River Oaks Shopping Center got a neighborly letter from Weingarten Realty today, in which plans were revealed for the proposed redevelopment of the center. Click here to see the plans, complete with one sweet four-story parking garage. — Keith Plocek…
Bet You Didn’t Even Realize He Was Gone
Dude, there’s no need to get all pissed off. So, one of the good things about this blogging gig is that I can do a Mitch Albom and write about things in advance, then leave town for the week. Luckily, unlike Mitch Albom, I didn’t get nailed. That said, I’ve…
Bigger Than His Head?
Robb Walsh Really, it’s not that much bigger. New York food writer Francis Lam, aka the Chopstick Senator, was in town again recently. Turns out he had never had a proper chicken-fried steak before. (He thought they were made out of hamburger.) So I took him to Kelley’s Country Cookin’…
Bigger Than His Head?
Robb Walsh Really, it’s not that much bigger. New York food writer Francis Lam, aka the Chopstick Senator, was in town again recently. Turns out he had never had a proper chicken-fried steak before. (He thought they were made out of hamburger.) So I took him to Kelley’s Country Cookin’…
Breaking Up Is Hard to Do
Houston sports teams seem to have a knack for inflicting pain. Let’s face it: There isn’t a scale in the world capable of measuring the suffering we’ve experienced at the hands of the Astros, Rockets, Texans and Oilers. But, for me, no team twisted the knife quite like the Phi…
Still Bangin’
Nick Vlcek No word on when he’s turning his doctoral thesis into a book. Houston Aero fans fondly remember Derek Boogaard, the six-foot-seven freak of hockey nature who was the team’s enforcer, a relentless brawler whose basic skills consisted of beating up opponents. In the strange world of hockey fighting,…
Still Bangin’
Nick Vlcek No word on when he’s turning his doctoral thesis into a book. Houston Aero fans fondly remember Derek Boogaard, the six-foot-seven freak of hockey nature who was the team’s enforcer, a relentless brawler whose basic skills consisted of beating up opponents. In the strange world of hockey fighting,…
But When Do We Get to See Beckham?
Just relax. As April 8 approaches and the championship Dynamo are about to start their 2007 regular season, team president Oliver Luck is a busy man, looking for champions to fill out his roster of guest celebrities in April aka “Champions Month.” They’ll be trotting them out for the fans…
Virtual Vouchers
The Texas Senate Committee on Education has been busy today meeting on Sen. Kyle Janek’s (R- Houston) bill which would allow school vouchers for low-income students in some of the more urban areas of the state including Houston, Dallas, Austin, Fort Worth and San Antonio. Oh and the much-troubled North…
Let the Voting Begin!
We asked for animal photos from Houston’s high school students, and the kids delivered. We got dogs, cats, penguins and pigeons, not to mention a graffiti panda. You can check out the online gallery here. Each photo has a number. Find your favorite, come back here and leave a comment…
Re: It’s Getting Hot in Heere
As promised, here are a couple of snaps from this morning’s protest outside the Dynegy building. First off, we have the offering below, a typical shot of angry white folks holding up signs. As you can see, they think dirty coal is bad investment that melts our prosperity and, you…
It’s Getting Hot in Heere
There’s a protest going on right now outside the downtown Dynegy building. I just happened by on my bike and got some photos, which scored me a lot of “What, are you some kind of narc?” looks from the crowd and which I’ll post in a little bit. The group…
Flogging Golfers
For some reason we found this image especially apt. So, we’re in the middle of the Shell Houston Open. Do me a favor, okay? Let’s not go talking about what great athletes these guys are. A great athlete doesn’t injure himself in his backswing because he hears a camera shutter…
Jana Hunter
Jana Hunter isn’t in a talkative mood. She picks her words slowly and gives brief, sometimes ambiguous answers punctuated with odd pauses. “So, do you see any difference between American and European audiences?” I ask. (An extremely long pause) “I don’t know. Maybe,” she finally says. With her green jacket…
Richard Kaplan
Richard Kaplan Pastry Chef: Acute Events & Catering Owner: Brown Paper Chocolates Richard Kaplan’s Brown Paper Chocolates were recently nominated for the Gallo Gold Medal, a national award for artisanal food producers. Who better to ask for chocolate bunny advice? Congrats on the nomination, Richard. So are you a pastry…
Thai Xuan Village
When visitors leave Hobby Airport, they enter a neighborhood of nondescript apartment buildings and strip malls with cash loan stores. Like most gateway corridors, this area is neither the best nor the worst spot in the city. But Houston officials think the place needs a makeover and they’re offering as…
Paradise by the Dashboard Light/Houston Music
So I was still in South By mode last week, still amped, still believing I could walk out of my house and into a night full of music. I checked last Wednesday’s slate of bands, and it looked promising. I got an e-mailed invite to see a new band called…
The Lookout
At various times over the last decade, David Fincher, Sam Mendes and Michael Mann were attached to direct Scott Frank’s screenplay for The Lookout, about a brain-damaged high school hockey stud who’s smooth-talked by distant acquaintances into robbing a small-town bank. That Frank — best known for straightening and sharpening…
Absinthe Brasserie’s
Knowing that absinthe was responsible for so much fun in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and that it was outlawed for nearly 80 years, I head on over to Absinthe Brasserie (609 Richmond Avenue, 713-528-7575) with my pal Sweener to sample some of what the French refer to…
porterdavis
Porterdavis likes being dirty, at least that’s what guitarist/vocalist Daniel Barrett says. “Sometimes Simon [Wallace] will play his harmonica so nasty that you just want to say, ‘Does your momma know you’re doing that? Would you do that in front of your momma?’ It’s just dirty,” laughs Barrett, who, along…
Inland Empire
No director works closer to his unconscious than David Lynch, and, stimulated by the use of amateur digital video technology, his latest feature ventures as far inland as this blandly enigmatic filmmaker has ever gone. A movie about Lynch’s obsessions, Inland Empire is largely a meditation on the power of…
What’s in Your Favorite Singer’s Backseat?
About a month ago, John Popper, vocalist and harmonica player for jam band Blues Traveler, was driving his black Mercedes SUV when he was pulled over by the Washington State Patrol. The officers discovered a small amount of marijuana and enough weapons and armor to fuel a Sunni insurgency. Popper…
Avenue Montaigne
Neutrally retitled from the more pertinent Orchestra Seats, Avenue Montaigne is a French soufflé of the old school, a romantic comedy set in Paris’s arty district, where neurotic writers and actors wring their manicured hands and — at least in flirty little numbers like this one — rub shoulders with…
Your Guide to Being Cool
Album of the Year This Week Aw geez, the new Air record stinks. Let it be known that they got super-boring right after all you douche bags trashed the psychotic and truly righteous 10,000 Hz Legend. Unholy Unions Robert Smith collaborates with Korn, voluntarily. Inspiring horrified music editors to mull…
tick, tick…BOOM!
It’s not time that haunts the main character in Theater LaB’s life-affirming production of Jonathan Larson’s tick, tick…BOOM! — it’s the all-too-real, aching absence of its creator. Having struggled for years to become the next voice of Broadway, the ultra-gifted Larson, in 1996 just 35 and on the cusp of…
The Music Critics Dictionary
Ever read a CD review and think, “What the hell does that mean?” We do. Sometimes readers need a cheat sheet to decipher the terms critics use, so we thought we’d start a Critics Dictionary. Here goes: Artist: n 1. A term meaning a creative person, as in “The artist…
Stage Capsule Reviews
Don Giovanni With a sparkling production of Mozart’s sublime masterpiece, Opera in the Heights has its most consistent hit in many a season. The lovely ensemble cast has a grand time with this tale of lecherous Don Juan, his seductions and his ultimate hellish fate, and their joy in performing…
El-P
El-P drops a hip-hop classic every five years. In 1997, his group Company Flow released Funcrusher Plus, a declaration of independence for anybody alienated from mainstream rap. And after launching the Definitive Jux label in 2002, he dropped the solo disc Fantastic Damage, a daring effort that wandered far from…
“Hlio Oiticica: The Body of Color:
In the 1960s and ’70s, Hlio Oiticica was a major figure of the Brazilian avant-garde — no mean feat, as in retrospect it seems avant-gardists were pretty thick on the ground. This is the country that created Braslia, that eerily futuristic, modernist city, and made it the capital in 1960…
Kings of Leon
The cover blurb of a recent U.S. music magazine said it all: “Kings of Leon — When Will America Wake Up?” Treated like rock gods in the UK, the Kings are, unbelievably, still only the prince’s footmen at home. This, despite their two phenomenal records. It’s only natural that the…
Art Capsule Reviews
“…..all of the above” Judy Pfaff is considered a pioneer of installation art, and she’s got the MacArthur Fellowship to prove it. Her latest offering is awash in fluorescent oranges, blues, yellows, greens and purples, giving the space a decided Tron feel, sans digitized crotch rockets and wacky helmets. White…
The Stooges
The Weirdness isn’t a punk classic like Fun House, but let’s be fair — nothing the recently reunited Stooges can do will ever match their early work. This band does rock, however. Axeman Ron Asheton is a funky-ass rhythm freak. The dude’s piercing feedback-screech on “Greedy Awful People” and “She…
Mexican-American Culture
Dear Mexican, Why should Mexican nationals have more of a right to stay in this country than Chinese, Somalis or others who can’t cross an open land border and must thus wait on the bureaucracy like everybody else? 700 Miles Isn’t Long Enough Dear Gabacho, ‘Cause this land once belonged…
LCD Soundsystem
James Murphy rescues intelligent dance music from the oblique, humorless IDM crowd, forging a canny, self-conscious blend of new wave nostalgia, skittering breaks and wry wit. (He did, after all, almost write for Seinfeld.) Murphy’s second full-length release is more luxurious than his debut, apparently the result of spending even…
MotorStorm
Publisher: Sony
Platform: PlayStation 3
Price: $59.99
ESRB Rating: T (for Teen)
Score: 6 (out of 10)
The Red Crayola
More legend than functioning band for most of its four-decade-plus, on-again-off-again existence, the Red Crayola started off in the mid-’60s by playing whatever Houston clubs would book them. At the time, the RC was a rangy collective of psychedelic cavemen led by visionary icon-smasher Mayo Thompson, who would remain the…
DVDs
Children of Men (Universal) Set in a tomorrow that looks like yesterday, Alfonso Cuarn’s wrenching adaptation of P.D. James’s novel feels more like documentary than fiction. In the movie’s world, women have gone barren and immigrants are tossed into prison camps; it’s the proverbial nightmare to which we might actually…
Acoustic Alchemy
In an alternate musical reality where “smooth jazz” is not an insult, Acoustic Alchemy is god. With 18 albums to its credit and a career that spans more than 20 years, it is the rarest of the rare — a best-selling instrumental jazz group. Acoustic Alchemy, known for dueling guitars…
Top DVDs
Bow (Tartan) Comeback Season (First Look) Curse of the Golden Flower (Sony) The Eden Formula (Westlake) The Addams Family: Volume 2 (MGM) Errol Flynn: The Signature Collection, Volume 2 (Warner Bros.) Fantastic Four: World’s Greatest Heroes, Volume 1 (Fox) Following Sean (New Video Group) Hacking Democracy (Docurama) Happy Feet (Warner…
Fu Manchu
San Clemente, California’s Fu Manchu has been worshipping at the altar of the Almighty Riff for the past two decades. Although it’s best known for pioneering the genre of stoner rock, the band incorporates elements of boogie, classic rock and thrash metal into a signature blend of fuzzed-out rock and…
Woodbelly
The Dallas-based trio known as Woodbelly says they perform reggae music with a bit of Hank Williams, Sr., and Stevie Wonder thrown in. Oh, and a bit of Louis Armstrong and Parliament Funkadelic, too. Ah, okay. Whatever you call what they play, Woodbelly is really just three chubby white guys…
UH student investigates ORIX
Tuesday, March 28, 2006, 7 a.m. Cyrus Rafizadeh, 17, wakes up and heads downstairs. The Rafizadeh house is full this morning; his parents, younger twin brother and sister, and older cousin are all there. Skinny, with short, thick, black hair, Cyrus is still shaking the sleep out of his system…
Houston Astros, Netflix, Congressman Ron Paul
The end of March usually brings at least a little hope to Astros fans — after all, every baseball team starts the season undefeated — but hope is in short supply this year. The team’s unofficial rallying cry is “Hey, the rest of the Central Division sucks too!!” which is…
Jack Saunders
Like the bumper sticker says, Jack Saunders wasn’t born in Texas, but he got here as quick as he could. The southern California-born Saunders settled in Houston in 1982, when he was playing bass with the dynamic duo of Shake Russell and Dana Cooper. After Cooper’s departure for a solo…
Nino’s
The osso buco at Nino’s on West Dallas towered over the plate. It looked like a red lava-covered meat volcano rising from a sea of pasta. Sticking out of the crater in the top, a marrow spoon protruded. I cut away a chunk of veal from the shank bone. It…
Mail Call
A veggie’s take: Is there a chance you could give Robb Walsh more investigative assignments or feature articles? I enjoyed reading about Houston’s taco truck industry more than abandoned buildings (and I’m a vegetarian) [“Las Fabulosas Taco Trucks,” by Robb Walsh, March 15]. Fantastic article. Steven Winnefeld Houston Delicious: I…
O’2L
The husband-and-wife team made up of guitarist Al Pitrelli and pianist Jane Mangini spend part of the year performing with the multi-platinum Grammy Award-winning Trans-Siberian Orchestra, but during the TSO’s off-season, the couple hits the stage as O’2L. Blending jazz, rock, blues and electronic music, Pitrelli, an in-demand session player,…
t’afia
On Tuesdays through Thursdays at t’afia (3701 Travis, 713-524-6922), there’s a special surprise for customers who try the mini b3r ranch burgers (from the Bradley 3 Ranch in Memphis, Texas), provided they order and consume them at the bar and purchase an alcoholic beverage — they’re free, along with other…