The World According to Shempco
Stanya Kahn performs solo in The Ballad of Crappy and Seapole (According to Shempco). That is, unless you count the work’s other, less animate characters: Shempco’s friend Jurgen, an orange floatie; Crappy, a can of tuna standing in for a mermaid; and Seapole, a hair clip representing a skinny girl…
In the Company of Women
Neil LaBute is back to his old self again, and the cinematic world is a better place for it. Honestly, what was he thinking when he made Possession? Did the charges of misogyny, still lingering from In the Company of Men and Your Friends and Neighbors get to him so…
This Week’s Day-by-Day Picks
Thursday, May 8 This is a must-see: A 40-foot-long, four-foot-high replica of a human colon is coming to town. The organ, which has already seen the sights in D.C., Miami, Atlanta and Little Rock, will set up shop at the John P. McGovern Museum of Health & Medical Science. The…
Mighty Mediocre
Directed by Christopher Guest. With Guest, Eugene Levy, Harry Shearer and Michael McKean. Rated PG-13.
Art Cars Unleashed
After 15 years of living in the Houston International Festival’s shadow, the Orange Show’s Art Car Parade is finally free to cruise solo. For years, participants have complained that the slick presentation and huge scale of the iFest clashes with the grassroots, on-the-streets spirit of the art car “movement.” “It’s…
Mr. Mom
Long ago Eddie Murphy had grown tired of Eddie Murphy parts: the fast-talking high-jiver, the preening put-on. Even before he began parodying himself in Bowfinger and Showtime and I Spy, the latter two perhaps accidentally, he accepted high-paying roles in low-rent movies that neutered and humiliated the character he had…
Take Off Your Bra
FRI 5/9 Considering that the female breast is constantly changing, it’s not surprising that more than 70 percent of American women wear the wrong bra size. “When you’re 25 years old, and you’re a 34C, three years later you assume you’re a 34C, and five years later you assume you’re…
When He Was Cruel
Two women, dressed in standard waitstaff uniforms, emerge from the bar and into the well-appointed lobby of the hotel built 90 years ago by beer magnate Adolphus Busch, who tried to bring the Jazz Age to what would become a Muzak town. About 50 feet away, an interviewer and his…
Grudge Match
THU 5/8 After the United States’ 2-0 win over Mexico at last year’s World Cup in Korea, the Mexican players have been chomping at the bit for revenge on the gringos, who don’t even know the proper name for the sport. Houston is the perfect city for this rematch. While…
You’ll Cry, You’ll Laugh
Andrew Bovell’s Speaking in Tongues is meant to be a thought-provoking piece that gets to the very essence of meaning. And as directed by Rob Bundy at Stages Repertory Theatre, the production seems bent on giving its audience a case of existential heebie-jeebies. It jumps right into some heady territory…
Juicy Fruit
Blackberries grow on vines? Fig is more than a snack flavoring? In the grocery-store culture of a big city like Houston, lots of kids have no idea where their food comes from.At Matt’s Family Orchard in Tomball, both children and adults can pick fruit straight from the source. The orchard’s…
All in a Row
One of the strengths of Project Row Houses’ installation program is the row houses themselves. They aren’t bland, white, neutral cubes. Shotgun shacks have a rich social history; they carry the patina of age and record vernacular architecture. They become a platform for artists to explore ideas, and the most…
Pull Up a Stool
It’s hard to believe it’s been ten years since Infernal Bridegroom Productions cobbled together its first production, In the Under Thunderloo, in the back room of the Axiom. The rangy show about cavemen and music, written by company founder Jason Nodler, brought down the house, selling out every night of…
Ice Cream Sandwich
“Which flavor do you want to try?” asks the manager of the Nundini deli on North Shepherd in the Heights. He’s standing behind ten colorful vats of Italian gelati and sorbetti in an ice cream case. “All of them,” I confess. There aren’t a lot of customers, so manager Marion…
Dancing with Dinosaurs
You might find it odd that the Houston Museum of Natural Science would try to attract a social, nocturnal crowd by holding a weekly freakdown — with hors d’oeuvres, a cash bar, free IMAX and planetarium showings and, of course, live music — inside its hallowed halls. But last year,…
Feel the Earth Move
If you are aroused by just the thought of chocolate, then the Big “O” ($5.25) at The Dessert Gallery (3200 Kirby, 713-522-9999) was created especially for you. The “O” stands for Oreos, which not only adorn the top of a three-inch-tall hunk of cake but are also crushed into the…
Watching the Market
Just outside the Loop off West Bellfort, in a neighborhood of trees and brick homes and Home Depots, lies a big asphalt parking lot bordered on two sides by weathered buildings. Outside the main two-story structure hangs a shiny new sign for the Houston Agricultural Market Center. Through a portal…
Reality Bytes
Shortly before 8 a.m., Patrick Gregory throws on his overalls, grabs his utility belt and heads to the construction site off Beltway 8. This week, the half- Hispanic, half-German 22-year-old is working on a tubing company’s office building. He labors with a handful of others until 6 p.m., nailing eight-by-four…
Ground Control to Spider One
On August 2001, Powerman 5000 founder Spider One realized that his fast-rising group had just finished a new record that sounded a lot like its last one, 1999’s Tonight the Stars Revolt! But rather than release an album that would please the label suits, guarantee those coveted MTV guest spots…
Goal Tending
A portable basketball goal has been in banker Delbert Simpers front yard for 14 years. His 14-year-old son plays basketball for Quail Valley Middle School; his 17-year-old is a fullback at Elkins High School. The neighborhood kids use the hoop more than his own do, Simpers says. In September, the…
The Warp Records Tour
The beat-makers and rhyme-sayers at London’s Warp Records certainly are a flexible lot — forcing the reluctant relationship between hip-hop and electronica is their reason for being. Or maybe they’re just some kooky sons of bitches. After all, both ambient beat junkie Aphex Twin and the indie-film community’s equivalent to…
Peace Train?
Based on new Metro financial projections, Houston mayoral candidate Bill White and former mayor Bob Lanier contend that the agency can finance its 20-year mobility plan, Metro Solutions, without tapping into the general mobility funds that go to local governments for transit-related maintenance and roads. White and Lanier say they’d…
A Beautiful Mind
No band was cooler than the 13th Floor Elevators. — Ray Wylie Hubbard, “Screw You, We’re from Texas” Credited with being the first band ever to use the word “psychedelic” to describe its music, the 13th Floor Elevators still have a revered place in Texas music history. While the band…
Les’s Lost Weekend
You can bet Rockets owner Les Alexander would have rather been just about anywhere but Houston last weekend, facing off in the court-ordered mediation of a lawsuit accusing him of breaking an arena referendum promise to minorities. The litigation also has put two state legislators in uncomfortable positions. As previously…
Faceless
With riffs as thick as its collective skull, Godsmack is a band of unabashed metal meatheads, which doesn’t necessarily invalidate the music; as with Jean-Claude Van Damme films, there’s something to be said for mindless kicks. But after three albums of crushing monster-truck rock, Godsmack’s dirt-simple approach is growing exceedingly…
Prom and Proper
Christina Gonzalez wanted to finish her senior year at Lamar High School on a high note — by going to the prom. She was so determined that she bought a ticket before she had a date or a dress. The latter was going to be the hard part. While some…
Dark Riders
Nothing screams “superstar” like a performance contract fat with pages and pages of demanding hospitality riders. For the uninitiated, riders are the little clauses appended to a show contract detailing exactly what Joe or Jane Rock Star will or won’t eat or drink backstage. The most famous rider of all…
Rites of Spring
All the signs of spring in Houston are here: The Astros are ineptly flailing about, the humidity’s beginning to hint of a sauna, and the ambush interview is sprouting everywhere on the local TV news screen. The latter is owing to the fact that it’s yet another sweeps month, which…
Reggae Rugrats
For fans of roots reggae with a socially conscious bent, recent years have seen a drought of worthy new music. While Jamaican and Jamaican-American artists such as Sean Paul, Shabba Ranks and Shaggy have made dancehall — hip-hop’s Caribbean cousin — an international phenomenon, the spiritually and socially conscious reggae…
Letters
Color Guard Judged by dance only: I was a Stingarette in the year 2000-2001 at Texas City High School. I am a young black lady, and I don’t agree with everything in this article [“Stung,” by Zoe Carmichael, April 24]. I think the Stingarettes are not racist; in order to…
Adventures in Lo-Fi
King Britt’s newest CD experiment, the hip-hop fantastic voyage Adventures in Lo-Fi, may leave the average hip-hop fan a tad underwhelmed at first. But anyone who has followed the career of the Philadelphia-born DJ/producer/remixer knows that not dazzling the listener too much is something the man takes pride in. Britt…