Introduction to Nudity – 1301
Y’know, ex-Playmate Jenny McCarthy went to college. Just sayin… I’m not one to shy away from covering Playboy. There was Playmate Robin Arcuri’s semi-nekkid protest, Victoria Silvstedt’s onanism and local girl made Cybergirl Amanda Duncan’s hating on Myspace dating. So of course I have to relay that Hef’s mag is…
Re: Behind the Scenes of a Conference Call
Bell may have a point about morality and science, but he’s clearly missing the boat when it comes to the Rangers and border security… Not a whole lot to report from the Bell conference call, other than — as we mentioned earlier — he thinks Guvnah Rick Perry is playing…
Behind the Scenes of a Conference Call
So I’m sitting on the line on a Chris Bell conference call, and I’m actually just sitting here. Bell’s going to talk about Governor Rick Perry “playing politics with women’s health.” Other journalists and I are waiting for State Rep. Senfronia Thompson, who’ll be joining us soon to talk women’s…
Blonde Ambition
Copyright 00A9 2006 ABC, Inc. / Bob D’Amico H-town “Socialite” Erica will compete for a cosmetics Prince… Spoke to a rather grouchy publicist (the first one of those I’ve ever encountered — seriously) at ABC earlier today regarding two Houston women who’ll appear on the upcoming season of The Bachelor…
Re: Making the Banned
Banned Books? Carol A? We’re there! If you happen to be downtown and looking for something to do before happy hour, the ACLU is hosting a Banned Books Week event at the South Texas School of Law at 4:30 p.m. Notable Houstonians, including City Councilwoman Carol Alvarado, will be reading…
Re: Take Ten, or at Least Five
Okay, well, take six then. Lotsa luck, Andy…
Take Ten, or at Least Five
“This is totally going in my album.” In just a few minutes, sentencing will begin for former Enron whiz/Starbucks swillin’ “mastermind” Andrew Fastow. David Gerger and John Keker, Fastow’s attorneys, know that they’re looking at 10 years for A. Fast, but will likely ask for a reduction anyway. We’re guessing…
Making the Banned
Simon Says Keep yer sinnin’ ways outta Katy, Alice. Phyllis Reynolds Naylor’s heroine Alice seems like your average kid. The high school star of Naylor’s Alice series of teen books fauns over her boyfriend, administers well-intentioned advice to her friends and invites female ex-cons to dinner. Why, she’s a regular…
The Taco Truck Gourmet’s Art Gallery
Photos by Robb Walsh That’s all, folks! Taco trucks are decorated with paintings of characters, landscapes and food still-lifes. This emerging genre of pan-American folk art depicts the people, places and things of Latin America in a jumble of the real and the imagined. The anthropomorphized spokespig, who we will…
The Taco Truck Gourmet’s Art Gallery
Photos by Robb Walsh That’s all, folks! Taco trucks are decorated with paintings of characters, landscapes and food still-lifes. This emerging genre of pan-American folk art depicts the people, places and things of Latin America in a jumble of the real and the imagined. The anthropomorphized spokespig, who we will…
Bill’s Blog
Bill Davenport There’s definitely a pun to be made about blogging straight from the heart, but we wouldn’t subject you to such a thing. Local artist, writer and collector Bill Davenport recently launched a blog, full of his day-to-day musings, but with a twist: He’s posting diaries he wrote as…
FYI
For our next FOIA request, we’d like to know where he got that lovely tie. When Senator John Cornyn isn’t busy making sure the Prez can torture anyone he wants, he’s doing some good stuff for government transparency. Along with Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Cornyn sponsored the OPEN Government…
Kick Ass Barbacoa
Photos by Robb Walsh El Mapache III is the name of the shiny new taco truck at the corner of Renwick and Gulfton in the parking lot of the Bestop gas station and convenience store. El Mapache means “the raccoon.” It’s also a nickname for a bandit, an allusion to…
Kick Ass Barbacoa
Photos by Robb Walsh El Mapache III is the name of the shiny new taco truck at the corner of Renwick and Gulfton in the parking lot of the Bestop gas station and convenience store. El Mapache means “the raccoon.” It’s also a nickname for a bandit, an allusion to…
The Dirty Dozen Brass Band
Marvin Gaye’s awed and fearful three-word question is perhaps the most natural reaction to Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. As we watched a city drown and empty out and now perhaps wither and die, we couldn’t nor can we help but ask, as Gaye did when confronted with all the…
Poetry and Puncture Wounds
The Proposition (First Look) There’s an old saying about Ginger Rogers, who did everything Fred Astaire did — but backwards and in heels. This Australian western seems to be saying something similar about gritty American westerns: You think that’s hard? Try living in the Outback. The Proposition mucks about in…
Richard Buckner
On his eighth album, singer-songwriter Richard Buckner largely leaves his trademark melancholic alt-country stylings behind in favor of primal, surprisingly upbeat garage pop. Buckner’s rough, whiskey-soaked voice sounds positively exhilarated to find itself in such fresh surroundings, especially on the buoyant opening track, “Town,” which sounds like a college radio…
Puddle of Fun
Publisher: Sony
Platform: PSP
Price: $39.99
ESRB Rating: E (for Everyone)
Score: 7.5 (out of 10)
French Kicks
A stutter step is a beautiful thing in basketball. Not so much in pop music. Not even in experimental pop. Drummer Aaron Thurston does a funny little skip in the chorus of “So Far We Are,” the opening track and first single on Two Thousand. For a second there it…
Our top DVD picks for the week of September 19:
After Sex (New Yorker) Bob & Tom Radio: The Comedy Tour (Image) The Boris Karloff Collection (Universal) Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul (Strand) 8th & Ocean: The Complete First Season (Paramount) Fabulous! The Story of Queer Cinema (Wolfe) Gilmore Girls: The Complete Sixth Season (Warner Bros.) Go for…
We Are Scientists
We Are Scientists is a small band, with just three guys. Three guys and a lot of bawdy nerve. Keith Murray (guitar, lead vocals), Chris Cain (bass guitar, backing vocals) and Dallasite Michael Tapper (drums, backing vocals) say they got together because Chris had a huge crush on Michael, who…
Penal Violations
When asked how many times he stabbed the old man, Daniel Harris says, “Once. To start with.” Fourteen years ago, Harris had a girlfriend who had an uncle, and she wanted the uncle dead. So, Harris says, he and the girlfriend went to the 78-year-old’s Virginia home, where Harris stabbed…
Musica Fresca
Put together by music-industry biggies Gary Kurfirst (Talking Heads, Jane’s Addiction, the Ramones) and Chris Blackwell (Bob Marley, U2), Musica Fresca is a Latin-fusion showcase with Akwid (hip-hop), Yerba Buena (Latin funk), Voltio (reggaet—n) and Santana faves Radio Mundial (Latin rock). The biggest draw on the bill is Akwid, made…
Top Tacos
Bright red shavings of pork, hot from the grill, were piled on double corn tortilla tacos, each topped with chopped onion and cilantro. There were supposed to be five tacos on the plate, but at Taqueria Monterrey Chiquito, they put so much meat on the tacos de trompo, it’s difficult…
Scott Miller & the Commonwealth
Scott Miller’s name always comes up in any discussion of the amorphous musical movement that flies under the pirate flag of alternative country. True to the movement’s indefinable parameters, Miller doesn’t much care whether he’s flat- picking an acoustic or flailing a Tele turned to 11. One minute he’s delivering…
Skipping the Skimping
Skipping the skimping: At Field of Green’s (2320 West Alabama, 713-533-0029), they don’t skimp on quality. Take the salmon burger ($8.50). Some might use a plain old bun, but not Field of Green’s. The sandwich comes on an organic, whole wheat, vegan bun made by Ezekiel Bakery. As for the…
Joe Doucet
Bluesman Joe Doucet celebrates the release of his new CD, Houston’s Third Ward Blues, on Dialtone Records with a little in-store glad-handing and a teaser performance. Guitarist Doucet had been out of the music game for more than 20 years when he bumped into Bayou City Blues author Roger Wood…
THE SPAGHETTI WESTERN
When I walk into the Spaghetti Western (1608 Shepherd, 713-861-1313) and see Lupe the bartender proudly wearing a Styx World Tour 2002 T-shirt, I know he and I are going to be fast friends. I sit down at the bar and order two Italian margaritas — one for me and…
The Cost of Doing Business
Nearly everyone in the central Texas Hill Country of Itasca knew Ricky Wiginton. He always wore a smile. Wiginton also was a proud employee of the Houston-based oil-field services giant Baker Hughes. But earlier this year, just days before the fiftysomething operations manager was headed back to his job in…
All the King’s Men
According to its publicity, bringing Robert Penn Warren’s 1946 novel All the King’s Men to the screen again has always been “a cherished dream” of executive producer James Carville — suggesting a lurking sense of payback frustration with the insubstantial legacy of the real populist Southerner Carville himself helped to…
What Happened?
Houstonians curled into a fetal position on June 1 of this year, waiting all a-tremble for one after another in a series of deadly Category 5 storms that were all but assured of hitting us (see “Holy Sh–!” June 1). So now, amid all the unused plywood, the closets full…
Jet Li’s Fearless
Fans of Hong Kong cinema have been anticipating Jet Li’s Fearless all year, if not longer. The star is arguably the best in the business at combining major ass-kicking with actual acting; the director is Ronny Yu, known here for over-the-top horror sequels but more familiar to genre fans as…
Letters to the Editor
Sonny’s Language Escort service: I was a student in Galveston from 1976 to 1980 and spent many a Thursday “Ladies Night” at Sonny’s, having my chili cheeseburger and a beer and playing shuffleboard (best table in the Southwest) [“Mustard on That?” by Robb Walsh, August 31]. What was interesting about…
Confetti
Despite its title, Confetti, a chaotic mockumentary in the finest tradition of English vulgarity, has nothing whatever to say about marriage. It’s a loud belch in the face of a billion-dollar wedding industry that has sprung up to service the longings of the postfeminist young for ceremonial opulence. Broad as…
Image of the Week
You’re supposed to keep your head up when you’re ready to explode from your three-point stance, but it’s kinda hard to do that when your helmet weighs almost half as much as you do. Jake Barnett, seven, nevertheless gets ready for grid glory at a recent practice for the Trojans,…
Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles
Front-loaded with family discord, terminal cancer, prodigal jailbait, a cute kiddie looking for love and other accessories of the ready-to-wear soap opera, Zhang Yimou’s Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles is as heartfelt, sincere and soggy with nostalgia as some of his other periodic homages to the virtues of peasant…
Jet Stream
Jet has just played its last European show before heading to the United States, and drummer Chris Cester is fulfilling his interview quota by cell phone from London. The Australian quartet is crossing the pond for a mini-tour advancing its sophomore CD, Shine On, due to be released in early…
What’s Underneath
Despite its name, Victoria’s Secret is no secret anymore. Today a pair of pink silk knickers or a blood-red brassiere is about as shocking as a bowl of canned soup. But back in 1905, ladies’ lingerie really was a private, beautifully artful affair. Handmade from imported silk and Valenciennes lace,…
H-Town Zydeco
Zydeco is one of the more misunderstood musical genres in the national consciousness. Most people in places like Wisconsin and Boston and, often enough, right here in Houston, associate it strictly with Louisiana and even specifically with New Orleans. (And you can’t really blame them — every tacky souvenir shop…
Capsule Reviews
Barefoot in the Park Neil Simon’s spectacularly successful 1963 Broadway comedy has a winning mixture of showbiz savvy and youthful exuberance. He writes with a Midas touch. Married six days, stodgy Paul (Houston Hayes) and irrepressible Corie (Kelly Walker) awaken from their honeymoon daze to discover bumps on what they…
The Lucky Charms
Three-fourths of the Houston Irish rock band Blaggards are assembled at Shay McElroy’s pub downtown. Singer/guitarist Patrick Devlin, fiddler Turi Hoiseth and bassist Chad Smalley (drummer Brian Vogel is MIA) are sitting at a table loaded with pints of Guinness. If this were any more stereotypical, leprechauns would be dancing…
Girl Art
Very rarely has Barbie been used well in art, but Lauren Kelley pulls it off in “Collect Them All! Soft Brown Narratives.” It’s one of a whole slew of new shows at Lawndale Art Center, but it’s the best thing there — not to mention one of the best new…
My Hips Don’t Lie…But Mariah Carey’s Do!
If Shakira and Mariah Carey got in a fight, who would win? Yeah, the chances of two of the richest, most beautiful and most talented women in pop music today actually throwing down with each other are slim, but there are other ways of “winning,” right? 1. Awards Shakira has…
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…
Nomeansno
As punk was breaking for the second time, Nomeansno’s career peaked with 1989’s Wrong, which perfected their blistering oddball hardcore, and 1991’s 0 + 2 = 1, which included some of the strangest and most evocative lyrics that punk has ever produced. The following decade brought something of a slump…
Why do Mexicans put Tweety Bird stickers on their cars?
Dear Mexican, I see Jews, Asians and Persians making something of themselves and creating safe, walkable communities. Of course they’re not perfect, but I don’t see high Jew-crime communities, either. I see these people sticking together and helping each other out instead of envying their own. Why can’t Mexicans get…