Dallas Domination
The latest round in the longest and most bitter municipal boxing match in Texas went to Houston. Our arrogant neighbors up I-45 let out a collective sigh of disbelief when they heard the news that the Bayou City had edged them out for consideration as the host city for the…
The R-word
Let’s see how far we can go in this column without mentioning the R-word. You know, that word — the term generally used to connote a certain late-night event that features techno music, adolescent guests and glow sticks in a ballroom, warehouse or (more rarely) amusement center. Apparently the new…
Larry
For jam bands like Austin’s Larry, live albums can be sink-or-swim ventures. If the product is outstanding, then neophytes might be attracted to the band’s next show. But if the recorded performance is merely solid, would-be fans will stay away. Among Friends captures Larry at a few shows in Colorado…
Trish Murphy
So here’s Houston’s musical darling, after the major-label record shot, caught live at some intimate venues. For old fans there are versions of eight songs from her two previous discs, along with five others. She’s in the downsized mode, with acoustic guitars, mandolin and cello. (In keeping with Austin Musical…
Dunlavy
Though Denton likes to believe it was the home of Texas’s best psych rock in the 1990s, that title actually goes to Houston’s the Mike Gunn. This early-’90s quintet brazenly brandished a guitar indulgence that warped more minds in the Lone Star State and beyond since the six-oh days of…
Range War
In a section of the Addicks Reservoir just north of the Katy Freeway, Bayou Rifles Inc. announces its honorable intentions with a sign detailing its 13 rules: Fully automatic weapons are not welcome. That also goes for incendiary bullets, tracers, explosive or armor-piercing ammunition. Point loaded guns only at the…
Jack Ingram
We shouldn’t blame Robert Earl Keen for the Pat Greens and Cory Morrows that, as he puts it, he has “spawned.” Nor should we let their success taint our perceptions of his immensely more talented acolyte Jack Ingram. Ingram was the first college boy-turned-Keen Klone, but in the earnestness of…
Why This Hound Won’t Hunt
After two years of pondering, the Texas Ethics Commission has handed down the second largest fine in its history. The target is the state Republican Campaign Committee, which had been accused of funneling campaign money from Texas judges to a political action committee run by Houston’s conservative kingmaker Dr. Steven…
Moke
Moke takes the mainstream and puts it through a prism. The slick sound of “now” is apparent, but it’s shot through with an indie edge and a classic rock vibe. The paradoxical music is both condensed and sprawling, stomping and delicate. The band sounds proud and self-confident, with plenty of…
Golden Oldies
We experienced a fleeting moment of optimism November 13. Driving home, we heard a passing mention on the radio that Russian president Vladimir Putin was arriving the next day to deliver a speech at Rice. Hey, we said — the Russian president is coming to town. And there’s been no…
Bilal
When Bilal arrived on the R&B scene this year, many black men must have thought to themselves, “Oh, shit, here comes another one of those Sensitive Brothas.” Here was another soul man who performs songs about giving it up for the ladies and how hard it must be for them…
Letters, Week of November 22
Fed Up with Feds Medical misery: Wendy Grossman’s report [“Sick Kids,” November 8] shows how the federal government’s meddling in our health care system has created more problems than it has solved. Before Medicare and Medicaid, free clinics and charity hospitals were plentiful for those who couldn’t pay, doctors made…
Knight Falls
The new Martin Lawrence comedy, Black Knight, is yet another twist, albeit an uncredited one, on Mark Twain’s protean A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, one of the original fish-out-of-water comedy-fantasies. Was there an outcry for yet another redo? After all, Twain’s 1889 novel, about a New England mechanic…
Chicks with Shtick
Living in the first year of the 21st century, it’s tempting to think women have proved themselves equal to men in every field imaginable. Right now in Afghanistan female pilots are dropping bombs for the first time. But according to Melissa Nichols and Niki Key, founders of Houston’s newest female…
Emma Goes to France
The heroine of Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s bold and bracing new comedy, Amélie, is Amélie Poulain, a doe-eyed crusader with the face of a porcelain doll and a sleek helmet of jet-black hair. From her high perch in Montmartre, where she works as a cafe waitress, Amélie secretly resolves to emancipate all…
Fertle Ground
Steve Farrell has that most sought after and least acquired of all attributes in show business: stability. He’s been married to the same woman for 28 years. The theater group he formed almost 17 years ago continues to sell out shows — mostly due to the popularity of the Fertle…
War on War Books
Only a couple of months ago, it looked as though Donald Miller had a publishing home run on his hands–a thoughtful, exhilarating, inclusive book about World War II scheduled to hit stores just as Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks’ Band of Brothers was finishing its critically lauded run on HBO…
The Bambi Syndrome
The medium-rare Axis venison medallions, hearty wild boar and grilled quail are set off perfectly by an earthy mushroom sauce and tart cranberry compote. The dark red venison is leaner and tougher than beef, but with a richer flavor. The boar has been brine-cured until it tastes like ham. Rotisserie…
The Dark Side of the Moon
In 1929 New York City was the center of the world, especially for a songwriter wanna-be like Fred Stevens, the goofy guy in the middle of George Kaufman and Ring Lardner’s June Moon. This silly, antiquated romp, now at Main Street Theater, tells the story of a young man who…
Pig in the City
The foodies, F. Scott Fitzgerald may have written, but didn’t, “are different. They are not like you and me.” In the American foodie universe, New York and San Francisco replace Rome and Jerusalem as religious meccas. Apostolic succession began when Le Pavillon’s Henri Soule laid his hand on the shoulder…
The Artist’s Life
Before he embarks upon an installation, Tierney Malone watches Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse, the documentary about the chaotic and fiasco-laden making of Apocalypse Now. He loves the scene in which Coppola declares failure, doubting anything and everything he’s done. To see the anguish, the temporary loss of nerve…
A Fusion Formula
There is an Italian restaurant in Houston owned by a chef from Thailand who has managed to confound Kipling’s dictum “East is East and West is West” in a particularly beautiful way. The fusionista is named Sonchai Rapesak, though everyone knows him as chef Chai. And his restaurant is called…
Daddy’s Girl
Early Sunday morning, June 24, Gregory Wade Beard finished a 12-hour shift repairing Compaq computers. He walked quietly into his double-wide trailer, trying not to wake his wife and daughter. Stepping into the bathroom, he noticed a knee-high hole in the dark wood door; he thought his three-year-old, Hallie, might…
¡Viva El Vez!
In the bargain basement of the entertainment world, among the dross and dreck of failed talent and unquenchable dreams, there lurk the Elvis impersonators. These are the lowest of the low, who play out their pitiful fantasies by thieving the soul of a dead icon. But one act transcends such…
Squashing the Competition
Cleburne Cafeteria (3606 Bissonnet, 713-667-2386) once sported a retro school-cafeteria feel. Unfortunately, when it was rebuilt after a fire a few years ago, the restaurant gave way to the neotraditional design trend of West University Place. But the line still snakes out the door for country favorites like roast beef,…
The Sexual Revolution Will Not Be Televised
For a man who claims that capitalism stole his virginity, Dennis Lyxzén laughs a lot. Even battling a cold — not to mention corporate hegemony, the commodification of art, consumerism and Wal-Mart’s everyday low prices — the front man of Swedish Marxist mods the (International) Noise Conspiracy is remarkably amicable…