Aeros Staying in Houston for at Least Five More Seasons
I’m sure some of you saw the story last week that the Minnesota Wild have renewed their lease with the Toyota Center, and as such, the Aeros will be remaining in Houston for five more seasons. I for one am happy about that. I’ve become a big hockey fan. The…
This Just In: Griffin Stolen from Bishop’s Palace in Galveston
It’s not exactly the Crime of the Century, but it’s the Crime of the Week, maybe: A griffin has been stolen from Galveston’s famous Bishop’s Palace. Investigators first had to determine a key question: What’s a griffin? It turns out it’s a winged-lion thing, maybe three feet tall and made…
Astros-Nationals: One Game Over Five Hundred
Yeah, yeah, the Astros won 6-5 last night, but damn, did any of you actually watch that game? It was awful. Home plate umpire Brian Runge called one of the worst games that I’ve seen in years. He was bad for both teams, though that balk on the Nationals in…
Reverberations: Born Liars and The Heys
New noise from the Bayou City and across the pond: Born Liars 7″ (Cutthroat) “Go Back One Day” roars from start to finish with the same cymbal-crashing moxie as Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers, building and thrashing on top of a late-night bar shuffle that makes very clear that we’re…
Tom Waits (nearly) Returns To Fannin Street
I knew it had been a long-ass time since we were last graced with a Tom Waits show in these parts, but I had no idea just how long it had been. According to his singularly obsessive fansite, it will have been a full 27 years and one month since…
Steroids and Roger Clemens: Rusty Hardin, Still on the Case!
The best thing that could happen to Brian McNamee in the Clemens defamation suit happened yesterday. U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison ruled that Rusty Hardin could remain as the Rocket’s attorney in the case, despite the fact that one of the main witnesses, Andy Pettitte, was also represented by Rusty…
Vintage Art Car Photos
Check out photos from the first parade. In honor of this weekend’s Art Car Parade, we’ve loaded up a bunch of photos from 1988, back when the Fruitmobile was fresh and the event was but a small part of iFest. — Keith Plocek…
Last Night: Mike Ness and Jesse Dayton at Meridian
Mike Ness and Jesse Dayton The Meridian May 6, 2008 Better Than: The Social Distortion episode of MTV Unplugged that never happened, thank God. Download: Jimmie Rodgers’s “In the Jailhouse Now,” one of the few prison-related songs Ness didn’t sing Photo by Chris Henderson Mike Ness Performers, especially those who…
Disco Kroger Gets SexyAttacked
Roving local flash-mob, hit and run graffiti boogie lords SexyAttack recently hit up the infamous “disco Kroger” on Montrose. Ironically, the management at this most oontz-oontzy, dance-friendly of supermarkets was not amused. Check out the video after the jump…
This Just In: The GRAB Is Gonna Close
We just received word that the GRAB will be closing up shop soon. So far, that’s all we got, but we’ll have more as it develops. — KP UPDATE: Flyer after the jump…..
Steroids and Roger Clemens: Jose de Jesus Ortiz Hits a New Low
Ladies and gentlemen, what you are about to watch is disturbing, and it might not be appropriate for young children, people with weak stomachs or heart conditions, or any person of average intelligence. I give you Jose de Jesus Ortiz on ESPN yesterday, making the entire city of Houston look…
Get Lit: Hamburger America: A State-By-State Guide to 100 Great Burger Joints, by George Motz
I boiled the hamburger in beer in a cast iron skillet on top of the stove, adding five pinches of salt and three squirts of mustard along the way. It was the only “loosemeats sandwich” in the hamburger book and my daughter and I wanted to try something different –…
Review: XXY, Encarnacion, Santiago and Silent Light at the Latin Wave Film Festival
XXY I managed to catch four of the eight films screened during the Museum of Fine Art, Houston’s Latin Wave festival this weekend. I loved one, liked two others and one I, well, we’ll get to that last one in a bit. First, what I loved: XXY by Argentine director…
Wendy Wagner Takes Home the Hunting Prize
Every year, a Texas artist receives the Hunting Prize, a cash award in “the boner-inducing amount of $50,000” (as the inimitable Buffalo Sean puts it on his blog). The results are in – this year’s recipient is Wendy Wagner, who recently was included in DiverseWorks’s “Flicker Fusion” exhibition. (Our own…
Steroids and Roger Clemens: Richard Justice and Jon Heyman Join the Party (Which, Regretfully, Is Not at Jose Canseco’s House)
Richard Connelly has noted how the Daily News called out the Chron as Rocket’s house organ. But SI.com is on the Chron’s case as well, and the writer, Jon Heyman, made note of some misleading writing in the Chron’s Rocket apology story: “The Chronicle apparently was trying to bolster Clemens…
Review: Nine Inch Nails, The Slip
Nine Inch Nails The Slip Release date: 5/5/08 The pun is difficult to resist: The Slip is the second Nine Inch Nails album to arrive with free download availability, and the slip is what Trent Reznor has given to corporate parties who stand to profit from his music or the…
Steroids and Roger Clemens: NYDN Calls Out the Chron
The New York Daily News has its version of the Roger Clemens apology. (Although come on – is it an apology if you don’t say what you’re apologizing for?) We noticed this little dig, after a quote from Rocket’s pronouncement: “…Clemens said in a statement handed to the Houston Chronicle,…
Steroids and Roger Clemens: More Awesomeness from Jose de Jesus Ortiz
The Chron’s Jose de Jesus Ortiz Ortiz tells us he prayed for Roger Clemens at Mass yesterday. He also tells us we need to leave Rocket alone because no matter what Rocket has done, picking on Rocket harms the Rocket family. Gee, Ortiz, are you referring to Mrs. Rocket, who…
Exclusive! Uncovered Vanity Fair Memo to Annie Leibovitz
MEMO TO: Ms. Leibovitz FROM: Vanity Fair Editors Loved your Miley Cyrus shots and they’re certainly getting us a lot of press! Esp. loved the ones that included Billy Ray. Don’t worry about controversy surrounding these current pics. It’s great for business plus it’s sure to die down as soon…
Astros-Brewers: Back-to-Back-to-Back Wins and Homers
There was a time, not too many years ago, when Milwaukee Brewers closer Eric Gagne saved 84 games before blowing one. But he was with the Dodgers then. He was doing HGH. And he was yet to get injured. The Eric Gagne of the Brewers is nowhere near the Gagne…
Houston Rockets, 2007-2008: Requiem for a Season
To be a sports fan is to embrace the inevitability of pain. Sure, every once in a long while there those who find themselves lucky enough to cheer for teams like the Bill Russell-era Celtics or 10-Cups-in-15-years Montreal Canadiens. But for most sports fans, embracing your favorite franchise often means…
Over the Weekend: Cinco de Mayo, Club 2610, Zeppelin Video Lounge, Doyle Bramhall and Roger Waters
Happy Cinco de Mayo, y’all. Wanna celebrate in an authentic Mexican fashion? As Robb Walsh learned in Matamoros, that just might entail a plate of ballpark nachos. But enough about today. Let’s talk about yesterday, and the day before that, and the day before that. 12:39 a.m. at Club 2610…
Cinco de Mayo Mexican Menu: Baby Goat on a Stick or Ballpark Nachos?
Paul Howell May 1st is Labor Day in Mexico. There was a big parade in downtown Matamoros and a lot of people were out in the streets. After a touring the taco stands of Plaza Allende and taking a lot of pictures, I sat down at a table at my…
Last Night: Roger Waters at the Woodlands Pavilion
Craig Hlavaty Check out our slideshow of Roger Waters in the Woodlands. Roger Waters Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion May 4, 2008 Better than: Getting an extra nickel in your dimebag Download: Dark Side of the…wait, surely you already have this, right??? As only one of four U.S. dates and the…
Friday Night: Doyle Bramhall at McGonigel’s Mucky Duck
Doyle Bramhall May 3, 2008 McGonigel’s Mucky Duck Better Than: Every tired-ass blues jam or interminable harmonica throwdown on the planet. Download: This scorching version of “Big” with C.C. Adcock and Nick Curran on guitars. With producer/guitarist C.C. Adcock on emergency leave due to the suicide of his former producer…
Overnight Express: Keep Houston Weird
If you’re up for some mildly entertaining, somewhat informative, hardly revelatory Internet browsing – and really, who isn’t? – take a gander at one Yahoo! columnist’s ranking of the 23 “weirdest” musicians in the en-tar world, y’all. (23? That’s all he could come up with?) And give yourself a nice…
Like a Rolling Stone: The Strange Life of a Tribute Band, by Steven Kurutz
“Tribute bands occupy the lower rungs of the show business ladder,” Steven Kurutz writes in this, his first book. “Somewhere between lounge bands and wedding singers.” And indeed, they are one of the more curious offshoots of the music industry. Why would a group of men—often firmly slid into middle…
Get Lit: Always By My Side: A Father’s Grace and a Sports Journey Unlike Any Other, by Jim Nantz
I have never understood the popularity of CBS Sports broadcaster Jim Nantz. I find him to be rather bland and inoffensive, and I’ve always kind of felt that he holds the viewer in a kind of contempt. Sure, he’s not a pompous jerk like Joe Buck. But he doesn’t have…
To Do: Help Angela at the Stag’s Head
If you ever dug the scene at The Ale House, you probably know or have seen Angela Mullan Jenkins. An Irish immigrant with a penchant for having a damn good time, she came to Houston in 1980 and began her long association with British Investments as a waitress at the…
Last Night: Opening Party for Latin Wave
We’ve just loaded up some photos from last night’s opening party for the Latin Wave film festival at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Enjoy. — Keith Plocek…
HouTube: Building My Own MTV
If I ran MTV, instead of that trash they air all day, every day, it would look something like this. We’d start with a little chestnut from Spiritualized:…
Talk about Statutory Rape: Karl Malone and the 13-Year-Old Baby Mama
The whole world’s been looking at the Rocket/Mindy McCready affair this week, even though it appears nothing (allegedly!) happened until she was of legal age, but there’s another major statutory rape story involving a pro athlete that’s been almost completely ignored. It began to surface on Sunday when the Buffalo…
Slideshow: Taking Extraordinary Photos of Ordinary Life
Click here for a slideshow… Ranging in age from their mid-20s to mid-60s, the students in my class at the Glasscock School brought a wide variety of expertise and equipment. Over the course of eight weeks and through a variety of assignments, they expanded their grasp of the language of…
Overnight Express: Woman Hit by Metro Rail Near Continental Club
So guess what happened here tonight, on the block? A girl, perhaps anywhere from 15 to 18 years old, got hit by a train. My friend saw it. So did a couple of other friends and neighbors. I live upstairs, maybe 75 yards from where it happened, and I heard…
The Five Best Broadcasters in the History of Houston Sports
You may not know this from reading my writings, but I like sports. I watch lots of sports. I listen to lots of sports. And I have lots of opinions based on what I listen to, and what I watch. If the play-by-play guy and/or the color analyst is really…
Denise Richards is Getting Her Own Reality Show…Next Up, My Postal Carrier Inks a Deal with E!
So Denise Richards is getting her own reality show on E! titled “It’s Complicated.” Why is this so? Why is Denise Richards getting her own show? Because she slept with her friend Heather Locklear’s ex-husband Richie Sambora? Because she was married to Charlie Sheen? Because she had guest spots on…
Rocket Fuel: Not Just for Adults
Has your child been acting kind of funny lately? Does he have mood swings? Unexpected weight gain? Can he suddenly throw a 98 MPH fastball even though he’s only 10? If so, did you perchance buy him an Icee back in the summer of 2005? And if so, did you…
RIP, Father of LSD
On Tuesday, one of the most important contributors to the development of most popular Western music and culture in general passed away at 102 years of age at his home in Switzerland. I am speaking, of course, of Albert Hoffman, the Swiss chemist who invented LSD. Think where the world…
Classic Rock Corner: Mudcrutch, Golliwogs, Mynah Birds, Moving Sidewalks and More
This week Reprise Records released the self-titled debut by Mudcrutch, the Gainesville, Florida swamp-rockers formed in the early 1970s by Tom Petty and future fellow Heartbreakers Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench. Petty has been playing tracks from the album, like a trippy cover of the Byrds’ “Lover of the Bayou,”…
Sole of Houston: Richmond Avenue, Houston’s Street of Dreamz
Eight a.m. to noon, The trip out, and in from Mission Bend to Westchase: David Beebe and I like to think we are great urban adventurers, veterans of what is now over 130 miles of walking the city streets, and many hundreds more miles logged on the city buses. In…
Sole of Houston: Richmond Avenue Facts
This week, David Beebe and I tackled Richmond, from the Mission Bend Park and Ride to the Wheeler Station on the light rail. I’ll have the full story up in a few minutes, but here’s a little something to whet your appetite. Richmond Ave, by the numbers Bars stopped in:…
Astros-Diamondbacks: Good Hitting, Bad Pitching, Wash, Rinse, Repeat
The good news is that the vaunted offense of the Houston Astros got to Randy Johnson yesterday, getting nine hits and six runs in Johnson’s four innings of pitching (the six runs came in the first two innings). The bad news is that Astros pitching staff performed as has become…
Roger Clemens Is Not Alone: More Famous Dalliances between Athletes and Entertainers
It appears our boy Rocket has outdone himself this time. Or did about a decade ago, when according to the New York Post, Clemens began blasting off with third-tier Nashville singer Mindy McCready. Also, McCready was about 15 at the time. Clemens, through his ever-vigilant attorneys, insists she’s a “family…
Healthy For a Day (or Two): Marathon Dining at Ziggy’s and Field of Greens
As an undergraduate, I had a very serious love affair with my school’s cafeteria. It was the perfect place to gossip and watch the rotation of meals from breakfast to lunch and from lunch to dinner. Often I would make my way through several full days at Kline Commons, starting…
Rocket, the Movie
We here at Houstoned Ballz do have some connections. For instance, some reader out in Hollywood sent me this transcript. It’s of a meeting between a young screenwriter and a powerful studio head. The kid’s agent, Ari Gold, set up the meeting, but Ari can’t make it because he’s got…
“Wendell Minor in the American Tradition”
You’ll usually find illustrator Wendell Minor’s artwork on book covers, but for the next several weeks, it will be hanging on the walls of the Children’s Museum of Houston. The exhibit “Wendell Minor: In the American Tradition” will display his drawings of many of our country’s historic icons, such as…
Chelsea Handler
Comedian Chelsea Handler loves being on television, but hitting the road also means she gets to hit the bottle. “I can’t really drink on television,” says E!’s Chelsea Lately host, who recently released her second book, Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea. She says one reason she was drawn…
“Listen Up!”
The Iris Project wants you to push its buttons. For its public art project “Listen Up!,” the local artist collective stuck 500 red sound buttons on buildings, signs, bus stops and more in the Museum District and the Montrose area. All for your pushing pleasure. When pushed, each button makes…
Ashes to Africa
Grandmothers can be so difficult. That’s what Marta Henderson finds out in Mark Clayton Southers’s Ashes to Africa, a family story about a nana’s dying wish to have her remains sprinkled over Africa. In the play, Marta arrives home from college for the funeral, finds a poem her grandmother wrote…
“Art Born of the Horror”
Israeli artist Avraham Sapir, who was the only member of his family to survive the Holocaust, makes work dealing with genocide and torture. Artist/poet Saul Balagura is not a survivor, but many of his paintings and poems also deal with the events and effects of the Holocaust. Work by both…
Tom Jones
Tom Jones knows the moon, man. The author of Sky Walking: An Astronaut’s Memoir has been in the space business for nearly two decades. Not only has Jones ventured into infinity and beyond four times, he was around for the launch of the Hubble, the construction of the space station…
Latin Wave: New Films from Latin America at MFAH
The Latin Wave film festival is a mixed bag of comedies, thrillers, family dramas and documentaries, all making their Houston debut this weekend. Many of the filmmakers will be participating in the festival, including Mariana Rondón, director of Postcards from Leningrad, the story of a young girl living with her…
This American Life — Live!
Those who missed This American Life host Ira Glass’s recent appearance in Houston can see him again via satellite. Sure, it’s not as good as face to face, but fans of his popular NPR program will still enjoy This American Life — Live! onscreen. The show will feature a look…
We’re Going to Eat You (Di Yu Wu Men)
The makers of We’re Going to Eat You were too busy cramming freakin’ awesomeness into the movie to worry about a plot. The multigenre flick features cannibals, ass-kicking, secret agents and covert missions. Could you ask for more? Yes, and you’d get it because it also includes a desert island…
Norm MacDonald
Success has given Norm MacDonald a vault of oldies-but-goodies. There are joke gems from the comedian’s years on the stand-up circuit and his time on Saturday Night Live as the host of Weekend Update. There are also one-liners from his roles in movies such as Dirty Work and Billy Madison,…
“Houston Architectural Trilogy: Photography of Valentin Gertsman”
It is very difficult to see urban construction as anything less than an enormous pain in the ass, especially when you’re stuck for 45 minutes on a six-lane highway that construction has winnowed into one chute. Either photographer Valentin Gertsman didn’t drive for 22 years or he truly believes in…
Cokie Roberts
Cokie Roberts is giving it up for the ladies. The award-winning senior news analyst for National Public Radio and former co-anchor of ABC’s This Week with Sam Donaldson & Cokie Roberts recently released her fourth book, Ladies of Liberty: The Women Who Shaped Our Nation. From Abigail Adams to Sacagawea,…
“J. Antonio Farfan, A Solo Exhibit: On the Nature of Time”
In 2002, the artist J. Antonio Farfan, who had spent much of his young life in our fair city (he was educated at the University of Houston), decamped for New York. Fortunately for us, he decided to return in 2004, and his work has since appeared at multiple galleries and…
Liars, Lovers and Lunatics
Amber Benson is best known as the -second-hottest lesbian witch on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She continues acting, but what she really wants to do is direct. For her first effort, she wrote, starred and got behind the camera for the 75-minute 2002 digital film Chance. She came back with…
“Nothing to It (An evening of itty bitty witty ditties)”
“Nothing to It (An evening of itty bitty witty ditties)” features reruns of The Art Guys’ best episodes. The Guys, also known as Jack Massing and Michael Galbreth, started their artistic collaboration in 1983 at the University of Houston and have since shown their performance and visual art all over…
“Orchidaceae”
When Frazier King isn’t raising orchids, he’s photographing them. Silky, sensual and delicate, the flowers in his photographs seem to be caught in mid-flight, suspended in air. King claims he had less than total control over the images in his new exhibit “Orchidaceae,” a series in black and white. “They…
Sleeping Beauty
Houston Grand Opera’s “Opera to Go!” Company is presenting a 45-minute mini-opera version of Sleeping Beauty for kids today at the Miller Outdoor Theatre — sung in English, of course. (Introducing children to opera and classical music is no simple task, but Tchaikovsky, whose music formed the merry cores of…
Willie Nelson: One Hell of a Ride
At 100 songs clocking in just shy of five hours, Sony’s latest dip into Willie Nelson’s fathomless catalog, a four-CD behemoth timed to coincide with the release of Joe Nick Patoski’s bio Willie Nelson: An Epic Life (see Racket, page 51) and the Red Headed Stranger’s 75th birthday April 30,…
Cinco de Mayo Festival
It’s a hometown lineup at the Cinco de Mayo Festival, the annual celebration of the Mexican victory at the 1862 Battle of Puebla. Girl group Las Fenix (four teenaged sisters who turn Norteño music on its ear) and Fito Olivarez (writer of the cumbia classic “Juana La Cubana” and past…
Asian/Pacific American Heritage Festival
At this year’s Asian/Pacific American Heritage Festival, you can experience the meeting of East and West. One of the biggest draws this year will be Pakistani rock group Junoon, which blends traditional Sufi, or Islamic mystic music, with rock. Junoon, which is wildly successful both in Pakistan and abroad, has…
Capsule Stage Reviews: La Bohème, One Flea Spare, Twelve Angry Men
La Bohème It doesn’t really matter that there’s no passion or fire between Ana Maria Martinez and Garrett Sorenson in their roles as eternal lovers Mimi and Rodolfo, in this Houston Grand Opera production, because there’s plenty in the orchestra to make do. Giacomo Puccini’s La Bohème is usually called…
Roger Waters
For a very brief moment on July 2, 2005, there at the Live 8 concert in London, it seemed that a miracle was unfolding — and it had nothing to do with reducing Third World debt or the Assumption of Bono into Heaven. The four famously squabbling members of Pink…
Meat Beat Manifesto, and Badawi
Over the course of a two-decade recording career, Meat Beat Manifesto has explored acid jazz, dub, techno, IDM, breakbeats, big beat, industrial and synth pop. The only real constant has been quality: Despite the genre or medium, MBM has always managed to make good music, oftentimes veering into genius territory…
Miguel Angel Rojas gets political without getting polemical
The words “Houston” and “Curillo” are written on a piece of paper using little circles in earthy shades of green. The letters look like they were blown up from some dot matrix printer. The immediate question is, why are these two cities paired? Maybe something about Houston’s trade with South…
Fuegovivo and Saga Food & Wine
Fuegovivo is the newest Brazilian churrascaria to open in Houston (11681 Westheimer). Owner Carlos Barros has three other locations in the Miami area. The Houston Fuegovivo should be offering some competition to Fogo de Chão and Nelore (Rodizio has closed its doors); General Manager and Executive Chef Karlo Solyom says…
McDreamy tries to win over his engaged gal pal in My Best Friend’s Made of Honor Wedding
In Made of Honor, Patrick Dempsey plays a conveniently rich and willfully single serial “fornicator” slowly but surely domesticated by his unspoken love for longtime BFF Hannah (Michelle Monaghan), who’s on her way to Scotland to marry Mr. Right Now since Mr. Right’s too chickenshit to say boo before her…
Remember to Breathe at Seco’s
Simple, homemade corn tortillas make for spectacular corn enchiladas ($8.99) at Seco’s (2536 Nottingham, 713-942-0001). The enchiladas are filled with roasted poblano pepper, corn, onion and cream cheese and topped with a cilantro-cream sauce that makes the dish. You can taste the sweet corn, spicy pepper and tart sauce in…
Prologue is a tantalizing – and overpriced – glimpse at the next Gran Turismo
When the trailer for Star Wars: Episode I first hit theaters, some fans bought tickets for the movie it was presented with, watched the trailer and then walked out — essentially paying full price for a fraction of the final product. Superfans are happy to do that sort of thing…
Debating Dissociative Identity Disorder
Dismissive: I was distressed to read “Going to Pieces” [by Craig Malisow, April 17]. In this article, Malisow describes a real area of clinical controversy, but unfortunately does so in such a dismissive tone that he undermines the usefulness of his piece. Of the mental health professionals he mentions, Dr…
Larry McMurtry and Willie Nelson in Houston
In his 1968 essay collection In a Narrow Grave, Larry McMurtry wrote that Houston was “a city with great wealth, some beauty, great energy, and all sorts of youthful confidence; but withal, a city that has not as yet had the imagination to match its money.” So too it must have…
Celtic Scots and Hispanic Mexicans
Dear Readers: The paperback version of my book is out in stores now, cheap enough so that even a Guatemalan can afford it. Buy, por favor! Now, on to the preguntas… Dear Mexican, Consider the similarities between my people, the Celtic Scots, and yours, the Hispanic Mexicans. Both our people…
The Whigs: Mission Control|What Made Milwaukee Famous: What Doesn’t Kill Us
Like R.E.M., the Whigs call Athens, Georgia, home. And like R.E.M., they’re Southerners who really don’t make much of their Southernism. Sure, there are signs they grew up below the Mason-Dixon Line: frontman Parker Gispert’s occasional drawl, gutbucket riffs and epic songs, which sound like they have about 150 years…
The Deal sisters bring back the Breeders
Given that the Breeders release records less often than February 29 appears on your kitchen calendar (last month’s Mountain Battles makes just four albums in the past 18 years), guitarist Kelley Deal may be better known for playing colleague and caretaker to her twin sister, Pixies bassist and Breeders leader…
Mike Ness, with Jesse Dayton
Before Social Distortion became one of the most successful and longest-running American punk rock bands, personifying outlaw cool (with a surprising sentimental streak) for an entire generation of latter-day greasers, its eventual frontman Mike Ness wore out the grooves of his Johnny Cash, Rolling Stones and Creedence Clearwater Revival albums…
Ignore the set of Billy Budd, and you’ll hear a masterpiece
Throughout Houston Grand Opera’s Billy Budd (1951), an unseaworthy mechanical gizmo spins on stage — it’s an annoying mechanical platform that’s supposed to be the deck of the English warship Indomitable. The thing never stops moving, even during composer Benjamin Britten’s most impressionistic scene changes. But if you can ignore…
Doyle Bramhall Sr.
Innovation in today’s blues scene is hard to come by, so it’s small wonder that Doyle Bramhall’s Is It News was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Contemporary Blues category. Bramhall’s credentials are super-solid: They’re part of that gang of blue-collar, mostly Dallas-bred, Austin transplant kids (Stevie and Jimmy…
Would Morrissey Approve
Girl in a Coma is an all-female trio from San Antonio whose 2007 album Both Before I’m Gone is pleasingly versatile. “Their Cell” resembles the swirling pop of Cocteau Twins, while “Clumsy Sky” begins like a Cat Power lullaby before morphing into a My Chemical Romance-esque rocker — which makes…
Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man Is a Marvel
Chalk it up to personal preference, but I’ve always been fonder of those comic-book heroes who emerge by intent rather than happenstance. I mean the ones, like Batman’s Bruce Wayne, whose transformation from average Joe into masked crusader is an act of will instead of the unintended result of a…
Kanye, Jay-Z, Mary J. and Rihanna Clamor for Diva Status
As Ye-Day approaches, one question looms large: Can any arena contain Kanye West’s massive ego? The 17,000-capacity Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, where hip-hop’s favorite college dropout plays May 2, is hardly large enough for a performer of his stature. He deserves a venue truly worthy of his Ye-ness: a biosphere,…
There’s a Fly in My Soukous
Africans love to party. Now, typically we try to stay away from broad ethnic stereotypes — except of course those that we personally know to be fact, like, Mexicans can run up to 60 miles per hour — but when the statement comes from the general manager of the African-based…
Bayousphere
I…Am…IRON MAN. (Cue crunching guitar riff.) This is actually not Tony Stark touching up his costume; it’s former Marine Eusebio Collazo, 26, training at a free learn-to-weld program by the giant engineering firm Fluor. Collazo, who served in Iraq before being injured by a mortar in 2005, hopes to work…
Ramon Medina’s Matagorda Island Discs
In our third installment, we present the picks of Linus Pauling Quartet guitarist and Free Press Houston music critic Ramon Medina. (Ramon had better hope that there’s a variety of playback devices down there.) Here are his picks, both of tunes and formats: 1) Deer Tick: War Elephant (CD). Horribly…
Doctors vs. Parents: Who Decides Right to Life?
Darrin Murray was racing around the recovery room at Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital in a blind panic. His teenage stepdaughter was in agony and no one was doing anything to help her. Two days before, 14-year-old Sabrina had come out of surgery for a sinus infection that had developed into…
Great Stuff at Abe’s Cajun Market
A singer with an acoustic guitar warbled popular songs in the big dining room of Abe’s Cajun Market in Clear Lake on a recent Friday around sunset. We sat at a table by the front window and watched patrons in rubber gloves eat crawfish out on the patio. “It makes…
Capsule Art Reviews: “Apertura-Colombia,” “Craft in America — Expanding Traditions,” “Dario Robleto: Oh, Those Mirrors With Memory (Actions 1996-1997),” “How Artists Draw,” “Katy Heinlein,” “Miwa Yanagi — Deutsche Bank Collection”
“Apertura-Colombia” This survey of Colombian photography and video at the Station Museum of Contemporary Art far outshined the official FotoFest exhibitions of contemporary Chinese photography. The Station is at its best when it deals with art and politics, and this show is no exception. Angel Rojas shows Caquetá, his video…
Pregnant Bitches, Gay Christians and Swindling Baptists
Karen Augustine of Porter decided she wanted a “companion dog.” She went to the Montgomery County animal shelter and paid $100 to adopt a mixed-breed female she named Zoe. Sixty bucks of the fee was for having Zoe spayed. So it was a little surprising when, as they say on…