Blockbuster Beats
When the Delta Heavy Tour’s two buses and semitrailer pull up to the Verizon, the first thing unloaded will be the speakers. Lots of speakers. Next will come the lighting — everything from everyday spotlights to elaborate laser rigs worth more than your mortgage. After that will be the video…
There’s Something About Larry’s
Larry’s Deluxe Dinner: $8.25 Larry’s Special Dinner: $7.25 Cheese enchiladas (three): $5.25 Chile con queso (small): $2.25
Pine Bluffing
The old man on stage at Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studios in Denton — the guy with the face like a weathered catcher’s mitt, sitting in a wheelchair, fretting his baby-blue Gretsch with a butter knife clutched in his polio-stricken right hand — is probably the only person in the room…
Da Marco
Lingua franca: There’s an appetizer on the menu at Da Marco that I’m willing to bet is not available at any other restaurant in Houston. In fact, one of the ingredients is so rare in the United States that I doubt it’s available anywhere on this continent. The dish is…
Moby Pick
Barbara Lynn wondered why the British voice on the other end of the phone sounded so excited. After all, this wasn’t the first time that one of the Beaumont-born soul singer-guitarist’s songs had been recorded by a major-label act. As a matter of fact, in 1964, when she was all…
Stirred and Shaken
It was a quiet Monday night, and my friend suggested we try out a daiquiri bar in our neighborhood. “I’ve lived here for years,” she said, “and never walked into the place.” But Sliders (1424-B Westheimer, 713-528-2788) didn’t turn out to be much of a daiquiri bar after all. What…
Los De Abajo
There’s a bit of folk musician in any punk, even if the only folklore that’s of interest sprung out of mid-’70s bohemia. There’s also a sense of art as political agitation, even if the politics are nothing more than a series of contradictory rebellious impulses. In both senses, Mexico City’s…
Eels
“You little punks think you own this town,” E spits scornfully just minutes into “Dog Faced Boy,” the murky, sludge-wallowing opening track of the Eels’ latest disc. The bemused annoyance that colored 2000’s Daisies of the Galaxy seems to have festered into full-blown anger, with cohorts John Parish and Koool…
Steve Earle
Before Sidetracks is half over, Steve Earle’s assertion that its 13 tunes are not outtakes but underexposed gems is as credible as an Enron annual report. While there’s plenty of good stuff here, the hit-and-miss quality of the collection makes clear that it’s less a creative outpouring than a contractual…
The Goo Goo Dolls
Goo Goo Dolls front man Johnny Rzeznik is surely the prettiest face ever to have been signed to Metal Blade Records. Long before he was a pensive pinup with a wounded heart, a happening haircut and an acoustic guitar, Rzeznik and the Goos were belligerent, bottoms-up punk rockers signed to…
Sleepytime Gorilla Museum
A brief entry in the 1974 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records cites the Sleepytime Gorilla Museum as the “World’s Most Closed Public Institution,” one that operated openly for only 47 days of its 34-year existence. Shuttered after crowds gathered in Manhattan’s meat-packing district for a “free salamander…
Diana Krall
Until recently in her career, the 37-year-old Canadian-born New York resident was referred to as a brilliant pianist whose vocal talents were just beginning to shine. But her take on ageless material like “S’Wonderful,” “Cry Me a River” and the bossa nova arrangement of the Bacharach-David title track on her…
Scene’s From A City’s Soul
When Amy Braitsch thinks of Houston, she likely thinks of vinegar. And machine parts. And a black-and-white city of balloon-tired roadsters and crammed downtown sidewalks filled with people heading to the latest Clark Gable film. And then she probably thinks of vinegar again. Braitsch, a recent University of Texas graduate,…
EchoBrain
The news was sad but true when bassist Jason Newsted left the mighty Metallica. After an admirable 15 years filling the immortal shoes of the late Cliff Burton, the former Flotsam & Jetsam four-stringer tired of being a puppet to Metallica masters Lars Ulrich and James Hetfield. Now free to…
Perilous Paths
Nine-year-old Christopher Solomon grew up around the Union Pacific tracks that crisscross his Fifth Ward neighborhood. Maps show the lines like baseball stitching running to and from the massive rail yard that spreads out beyond Lockwood, half a mile east of the Waco Street overpass. Another track arcs south just…
Sleepless in Alaska
The bad news for Memento fans is that Christopher Nolan’s Insomnia is far less complex and challenging in form than the backward-edited art-house hit that sparked as much disdain as devotion among moviegoers last year. The good news for Memento-haters is that Insomnia is far less complex and challenging in…
Will May Ever End?
When Channel 2 broke the sweeps-month story recently that Houston drivers sometimes exceed the speed limit, we thought, “Well, at least they’re not covering the strip clubs again.” We spoke too soon. In the 1,435th installment of the story that is to sweeps month what It’s a Wonderful Life is…
Oscar-Worthy
The plot of The Importance of Being Earnest, for those unfortunates who’ve missed it these past 109 years, goes something like this: A dandified London wastrel by the name of Algernon (Algy) Moncrieff (portrayed in this adaptation by Rupert Everett) welcomes into his chambers his friend and ally, Ernest (Colin…
Letters
Questions of Life Parents have the priority: I have known the Millers for many years, and to this day, I continue to have a hard time with the issues in this story [“Child Support,” by Brian Wallstin, May 2]. I do think Mark and Karla Miller had their fundamental rights…
Enough Already
It’s very tempting to not just dismiss Enough, the latest bill-paying gig by Michael Apted (Enigma) starring Jennifer Lopez, but shred it altogether. Ms. Lopez hasn’t exactly added to her acting credibility with a string of showy, glamorous roles in such mediocre fare as The Wedding Planner and Angel Eyes…
Steppin’ Wolf
Many choreographers would balk at the task of moving a cast of hundreds, but not Natalie Weir. Last summer in Adelaide, Australia, Weir choreographed an au courant version of Carmina Burana for the Australian Ballet and the State Opera of South Australia, a colossal undertaking that combined opera and dance…
Fugitive Moments
The portrait is an attempt to freeze time. Whether painting or photograph, its purpose is to hold the subject safe, to fix that moment when the person looks just so, before the passing of time and the cares of living take their toll. Though he’s been gone 50 years, Great-Granddad…
Moment in the Sun
Just look for the Christmas tree of human heads. It may sound like a morose directional detail, but it’s often the most effective way of pointing a newcomer toward the otherwise camouflaged coffeehouse/bar now known as Helios. Owner Marianna Lemesoff changed its name from The Mausoleum in order to cheer…
Urban Legend
Wearing little more than a black bustier, fishnet stockings and a smirk, Benita sits down to tell her stories. They’re the blood-soaked tales usually told by flashlight at slumber parties — like the one about the brave boyfriend who slips into the woods to investigate a strange sound only to…
Not Just Soup
Barry Cohen is a good Jewish guy. You might wonder, then, what he’s doing in a church. A banker by profession, Cohen is the brains behind an idea that on the surface seems so simple, it’s surprising that nobody has made it work before. Tired of seeing homeless people sitting…
The Prince
Thirty-four years later, Carson has returned to the school to deliver a series of lectures on the power of fable and film as metaphor, and he asked Coppola, whose film was partially inspired by David Holzman, to join him. Carson–who appears in Coppola’s feature debut, CQ, and who helped Roman…