What’s Next? Serving Tacos at Lunch?
You tell ’em, Chris. Remember when everyone was talking about immigration? Yeah, that was so, like, three months ago, back before both parties stalled the debate and focused their energies on getting elected in November. Well, we haven’t forgotten, and, man, oh man, do we have a bit of scandal…
More Nut Bustin’
Photos by Robb Walsh Ever since I pulled over for a cold coconut on Harrisburg last month, I have been seeing Cocos Frios signs all over the city. I guess the cold coconut thing wasn’t quite as big a novelty as I thought it was. There was a big crowd…
More Nut Bustin’
Photos by Robb Walsh Ever since I pulled over for a cold coconut on Harrisburg last month, I have been seeing Cocos Frios signs all over the city. I guess the cold coconut thing wasn’t quite as big a novelty as I thought it was. There was a big crowd…
Word of the Day
Good thing these guys didn’t pass the background check. Who is Jim Pruett? Well, he may just be the man who saves your life! The former radio host and current owner of Jim Pruett’s Guns and Ammo has put out a new radio ad warning the good people of Houston…
Where’s This Couch We Keep Hearing About?
Walking, talking and looking good — Tyra’s a triple threat. I headed to The Galleria on Saturday to check out the casting call for America’s Next Top Model. I wanted to see what Houston had to offer to Tyra and why these girls thought they should be the next Whatever…
Just a Taste
Is this what you’re looking for? Robb Walsh’s latest review really whetted the appetite of one reader, who wrote in asking for more information: I recently read your Houston Press review of the new Doneraki. I really appreciated your comments on the poor state of the tacos al pastor at…
Just a Taste
Is this what you’re looking for? Robb Walsh’s latest review really whetted the appetite of one reader, who wrote in asking for more information: I recently read your Houston Press review of the new Doneraki. I really appreciated your comments on the poor state of the tacos al pastor at…
Dear John
Cialis pale moonlight John Cornyn river run dancing lightly cheap Viagra chipmunk dreams shotgun cake This week all eyes — okay, all pundit eyes — are on the Senate, where three Republican senators with military records are going to battle against President Bush over whether to forgo the Geneva Conventions…
Now I Get It
Let’s call this one “bad cop.” I never quite understood the phrase “can’t win for losing.” That is, until the Chron told me about Michael Kubosh, a local bondsman who intentionally blew through the intersection of Milam and Elgin yesterday morning, hoping to get caught by a red-light camera so…
Get Out of the House
BuffaloSoldierMuseum.com Try to make it all the way through without humming Bob Marley. All right, that’s enough snark for the week. It’s time to be helpful. Tomorrow is Museum District Day, and the following 16 museums are offering up various events to draw you in. Click on the links below…
Now That’s What We Call a Political Party
KinkyFriedman.com If Kinky Friedman has his way, there’ll be freedom in every pot; or, like, a higher law; or, you know, no more stoning of non-violent offenders; or, um, something. So normally we stay away from endorsing one political candidate over another, but we love that the Kinkster came out…
Hey Man, Nice Shot
Maybe he thought the bird was a potential MySpace friend. It’s tough to say how the world would’ve been different had Ann Richards won her 1994 bid for reelection as governor of Texas, but one thing is for certain: The woman could shoot. A recent Austin American-Statesman story details how…
What If She Hadn’t Lost? Would We Be in Iraq Now?
Richards: “I did not want my tombstone to read, ‘She kept a really clean house.’ I think I’d like them to remember me by saying, ‘She opened government to everyone.'” Ann Richards was a one-term alternative to the status quo in Texas and with her death Wednesday, it’s time to…
School Bus Chicken
Photos by Robb Walsh For some reason, roast chicken dinners often come from “taco school buses” rather than taco trucks. I like Pollos Asados La Silla, a school bus parked at the intersection of Lawndale and Highway 225. It’s bright yellow with a giant chicken character and the saddle-shaped mountain…
School Bus Chicken
Photos by Robb Walsh For some reason, roast chicken dinners often come from “taco school buses” rather than taco trucks. I like Pollos Asados La Silla, a school bus parked at the intersection of Lawndale and Highway 225. It’s bright yellow with a giant chicken character and the saddle-shaped mountain…
Oh, Yes
Deborah Colton Gallery Thanks. Now we’re going to have that song in our heads all day. Or maybe that was your plan all along, you sly devil, you. Drivers merging from I-10 onto I-45 can expect to see one less Lakewood, Ron Carter or Mattress Mac billboard. (Yeah, we’re pretty…
Less Pain Forever and Peachcake
This split CD from indie rock duo Less Pain Forever and pop/electronica twosome Peachcake begins with Less Pain Forever encouraging you to “Throw Yer Babies.” The leadoff track not only has LPF’s usual quirky synths and Zappa-esque vibe but also contains lyrics like “The fire on the mountain is a…
Turning Tricks
I Am a Sex Addict (IFC) Caveh Zahedi has made a movie of our times — a strange mix of self-absorption, shamelessness in the pursuit of fame, and sex. Most shocking of all is that it works. Part fiction and documentary, confessional and comedy, the film traces the history of…
Last November
Don’t let the soft acoustic intro to All the Gory Details’ semi-titular song “Every Gory Detail” fool you. Listen closely, and you’ll hear Last November’s hard-as-stone rock and roll heart. “His breath still lingers on your neck / His hands took the tour of your body / Making sure to…
Our top DVD picks for the week of September 12
Ballets Russes (Zeitgeist) The Batman: The Complete Second Season (Warner Bros.) Beavis and Butt-head Do America: Special Collector’s Edition (Paramount) Bottoms Up (Sony) Disney Princess Stories, Volume 1: A Gift from the Heart (Disney) The Girls (New Yorker) Goal! The Dream Begins (Disney) Grey’s Anatomy: Season 2 Uncut (Buena Vista)…
Ronny Elliott, Ramsay Midwood, Dan Colehour
Despite his music’s regularly being heard on Larry Winters’s Spare Change show on KPFT/90.1 FM, Tampa native Ronnie Elliott’s only visit here so far has been a badly paired, poorly attended Ken Gaines writer-in-the-round event at Anderson Fair. Elliott hardly fit the profile of that bill, but he should find…
Baby Blues
Dark blue splotches stained Lisa Collins’s newborn son’s mouth as if he’d gotten messy with a lollipop. Mom scrubbed Baby clean in the bathtub, but the blemishes would not go away. The discoloration soon spread to Chase’s tiny fingernail beds — the sign doctors had warned about. Midway through her…
James Hand
“Decent people never see real outlaws,” says James Hand. He should know. One of the country’s hottest honky-tonkers, Hand is 100-percent pure outlaw, even if it’s just the musical kind. At 51 he took Austin by storm, and at 53 he’s just released his first nationally distributed album of original…
Image of the Week
Lying on the floor after getting tossed out of the ring at a recent Lucha Libre match at the Colonial, wrestler Rayo Potosinio lets out a loud “Oy vey!” Or, more likely, whatever the Spanish equivalent of that is. Click here to enlarge…
K.T. Tunstall
The Chinese/Scottish singer-songwriter chanteuse (say that ten times fast) was an immediate hit in her native UK with her 2004 debut, Eye to the Telescope. Her confident voice, strong lyrics and ability to incorporate both stripped-down and full-on band material make her something of a combination of alt-folk icons Jewel…
Tall-Tale Tacos
It’s easy to see where Doneraki’s tacos cazuela tapado got their name. The cazuela tapado is a skillet of tender meat simmered in chile sauce and “topped” with four soft, stained tortillas. I got the beef tacos, made with what appeared to be fajita meat, but there is also a…
Architecture in Helsinki
The eight-member Architecture in Helsinki is a traveling carnival of indie oddities. The band’s first album, the endearing but simple Fingers Crossed, came out in 2004. Their 2005 release, In Case We Die, featured more aggressive instrumental performances and quirkier vocals, which got them on stage with the likes of…
Nothing Should Taste This Good
The cheesecake milk shake ($7.29) at Katz’s Deli (616 Westheimer, 713-521-3838) is no ordinary milk shake. It is liquid ecstasy. To make it, Katz’s mixes a large slice of creamy New York-style cheesecake with two large scoops of vanilla ice cream and ice-cold whole milk. (Skim milk? Are you kidding?)…
The Black Dahlia
Directed by Brian De Palma from the novel by neo-noirist James Ellroy, The Black Dahlia is a true-crime policier unfolding in late-’40s Los Angeles somewhere between the neighborhoods of Chinatown and Mulholland Drive. The premise involves one of L.A.’s most notorious unsolved homicides. In early 1947, the naked corpse of…
The Last Kiss
Those twentysomethings, poor dears, can never catch a break in the movies. First this maligned generation is told, in countless gritty indies and perky studio comedies, that they’re rowing through life without oars. Now, The Last Kiss, director Tony Goldwyn’s admirably understated handling of dispiritingly slender material, suggests that if…
Name That Town
Reading one of the many zoned editions of the Houston Chronicle, we learned a few things about Missouri City September 6: 1) headline writers in zoned editions are no doubt very thankful they’re allowed to abbreviate it as “Mo City”; and 2) they may not have to worry about it…
Gridiron Gang
The Rock — formerly known as Flex Kavana and, a bit later, as Rocky Maivia — was a practicing actor long before he turned to movies and started taking down $12 million paychecks. The happily deluded throngs who used to watch him lay signature moves like the People’s Elbow or…
Where’s the LOL, Yaar?
Ather’s black hipster shirt is sticking to his back from nervous sweat. Frantically sprinting down a quiet suburban street, he bursts into a convenience store, nearly toppling over a beef jerky stand. He collapses against the counter and looks up at the nonchalant clerk with wide, terror-filled eyes. “You gotta…
Letters to the Editor
Knocking Knudson Malicious: I am a big fan of the Houston Press, and I look forward to each week’s paper, from the music to theater sections. However, I cannot help but comment on the malicious nature of the recent article on Chris Knudson [“The Edge of the Spotlight,” by William…
A Step Beyond
Simple Elegance, the repertory program kicking off Houston Ballet’s 37th season, isn’t simple or always elegant. But it is one of the best rep evenings HB has ever offered. The Simple in the program’s title refers to the streamlined, minimal classical movement by legendary choreographers Hans van Manen, Glen Tetley…
Aimless Attack
It’s not easy being Massive Attack. Just ask Daddy G (known to his mum and the taxman as Grant Marshall). “It can be a painful process. At a certain point there are just too many human beings involved,” he says with a sigh, sitting in a hotel room in Paris…
Capsule Reviews
Boy Gets Girl In award-winning playwright Rebecca Gilman’s thought-provoking 2001 drama, in its premiere production for Houston’s newest theater group, The Pendulum Theatre Company, we have an Alfred Hitchcock movie without a murder. The movie master’s palpable sense of dread intensifies into fear as the play progresses. Icy blond career…
Ready for Some Football?
When I got the press release for the Houston Symphony’s “Gridiron Glory: Sights and Music of the NFL” show, I thought it was a prime example of what persnickety social commentator Paul Fussell termed “prole drift.” In his wickedly funny and unapologetically elitist book Class, Fussell defined prole drift as…
Body and Soul
The human body has been on the minds of many Houstonians since February, when “Gunther von Hagens’ BodyWorlds 3: The Anatomical Exhibition of Real Human Bodies” opened at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. Driving our cars down the highway, we’ve been greeted by its billboards featuring images of flayed…
Pop Quiz
Xtina, Paris, Jessica and Beyonc have all just released records. Are you up to speed on your pop pabulum? 1. “Freakum Dress” is: a. A song on Beyonc’s new album b. Something Bill Clinton would just rather forget about c. The title of the new Devendra Banhart record d. The…
Capsule Reviews
“CraftHouston 2006” This biennial exhibit, which saw its inception in 2002, should really be named “CraftTexas,” since the artists highlighted in the show are from all over the state. (Apparently the name will be changed for the 2008 show to reflect that very thing.) Art historian, writer and curator Suzanne…
Getting Lucky with Luke Boor
“Why are you so scared?” Conchita asks me as we walk up to Cosmos Cafe (69 Heights Boulevard, 713-802-2144). “Open-mike nights terrify me.” “But you’re not even singing; why are you nervous?” “Have you ever been to one of these?” She shakes her head no. “It’s freaking scary what you…
Why Did My T-Shirt Piss People Off?
Dear Mexican, My gabacha friends and I marched in the May pro-amnesty rallies and wanted to show our support on our chests as well as our feet. We wore T-shirts that read, “I only [picture of big, juicy lips] mojados” on the front, and “Yo solo [lips] mojados” on the…
Junior Boys
After recording Last Exit in 2004, the electronica-pop duo Junior Boys (Jeremy Greenspan and Johnny Dark) parted ways. That left Greenspan on his own for 2006’s So This Is Goodbye (clever), featuring new recruit Matthew Didemus. And even though Dark was given most of the credit for Exit’s masterful rhythm…
Monkey Trials
What could be more fun than monkeys trapped in plastic hamster balls? That’s the strange philosophy of Super Monkey Ball, a puzzle series that debuted in 2001. Much as with Marble Madness, the goal here is to cross the finish line without falling off a floating platform. Except that this…