Obama, No Way. W And Some Dallas Cowboys? You Bet!
Houston, whenever you worry the right-wing loons are making you look bad, take solace in this: There’s always Dallas.North Texas was perhaps the country’s capital of the awe-inspiring movement that kept schoolkids from hearing a president speak about staying in school. And the Dallas area played its part.The Arlington school…
9/9/09: Songs With a Certain Number in the Title
As Hair Balls pointed out, we’ve only got three more of these weird number/same number/same number days left this century after today. Such chronological repetition appeals to the hidden obsessive-compulsive in all of us, so join us as we wash our hands nine times, lock the door nine times, and…
Taylor Hicks Isn’t The Only One Getting Them Squirming In Their Seats At Grease
When Taylor Hicks descended from the heavens (from above a burger bar) in the national touring production of Grease at Hobby Center Tuesday night, the roar from the crowd was like the landing of the Beatles on American soil. Several ladies (sorry, didn’t see any guys do this) jumped out…
Five Direct Beatles Connections to Texas
Looks like Beatlemania 2.0 is in full swing. Rocks Off may have mentioned how excited we are to play The Beatles: Rock Band at Coffee Groundz tonight, with prizes, drink specials and much laughter as we try to gnash our way through “I Saw Her Standing There.” Shortly after noon,…
Roast Beef & Poor Boy History
The gravy-drenched roast beef poor boy at Mama’s Cajun Cuisine touted in this week’s Café review is an experience that New Orleans poor boy lovers won’t want to miss. But don’t make the mistake of ordering a whole sandwich – you’ll have trouble finishing a quarter. I first wrote about…
The Nine Five Movies You Must See On 9-9-09
It’s September 9, 2009, a date which has absolutely no significance to anyone except those celebrating Shane Battier’s 31st birthday and people who regularly say things like, “Well of course you’re having communication issues; you have retrograde Saturn in your 5th house.” Today also marks the release of the movie…
Stirred and Shaken: Lola’s Georgia Peach
Houston isn’t my hometown, but I’ve lived here for 10 years now. And yet, horror of horrors, until recently I’d never been to Lola’s Depot (2327 Grant St., 713-528-8342). Hey, jerks! I can see you all shaking your heads. Gimme a break. It’s not like the place is real easy…
Wal-Mart And An Accounting Firm Fire A Muslim For Praying, Suit Says
Mohammed Zakaria Memon just wanted to wash up. To just splash a little water over his face, hands, head and feet before a quick prayer five times a day in accordance with his Muslim religion.But no. That was too much for the folks at Wal-Mart and Deloitte Consulting. Instead, they…
Meet the Beatles… Again: Live From the Sam Houston Coliseum, August 1965
More Beatles for you (and more to come). While researching the group’s Texas history, Rocks Off stumbled across this gem: a live recording of the Beatles’ one and only Houston appearance – though they played a matinee and evening show – at the Sam Houston Coliseum on August 19, 1965…
“Galveston’s Coming Back — It Looks Like Home Again”
Marie Creasy is the manager of the Poop Deck on Galveston’s Seawall, so she’s been at Ground Zero for the past year’s efforts to recover from Ike.As far as she can tell, things are back: “Everybody seems to be putting their lives back together, and those that aren’t putting their…
Get Your Beatles Rock Band On Tonight With The Houston Press
If you’re a Beatles fan — and who isn’t? (Besides me, and maybe that’s just because I’ve heard the music too much, although I’ve never gotten into Sgt. Pepper, and some of the early stuff is really…but I digress) — tonight’s the night to show your chops.The Houston Press has…
Ritter’s Substandard Frito Pie
How in the world can you mess up a Frito Pie? All you have to do is dump a ladle of chili in a bag of Fritos and maybe garnish it with some chopped onions. Somehow Ritter’s Frozen Custard stand on Fry Road in Katy managed to turn this simple…
The Beatles: Rock Band Is In the House
It’s like Christmas morning here at Rocks Off today. We just got our copy of The Beatles: Rock Band and, like a car wreck or the Williams Tower waterwall, can’t stop staring at it. (Must… look… away…) It looks like developer Harmonix spared no expense – and, at $250 for…
Bayou Body Count: They’re Finding Dead Bodies All Over The Place
For the past four days, local cops and sheriff’s deputies have been finding dead bodies all over the place. From ditches and cars to living rooms and the middle of streets, they seem to be popping up everywhere.All the police have are just a few leads, no suspects, and a…
Lone Star Scorecard: All Tanya Tucker Edition
The history of country music – or any music until recent years, for that matter – is largely represented by men, with female artists popping up more and more frequently as time passed and concert/record promoters realized there was a market for women in the business. In country, you started…
Easy Win Over, Now UH Gets Ready For A Top-Ten Team
The Houston Cougars came out and dominated the Northwestern State Demons last Saturday, scoring on their first five possessions on the way to a 55-7 win. But this week’s contest is going to be a bit tougher as the Cougars are traveling to Stillwater to take on the fifth-ranked Oklahoma…
A Cafe Bites Nibble
Jim Ginger, a 35-year veteran of the hospitality industry, opened Napa Grille Urban Wine Bar last year; and it’s now very well established. He recently opened Bullpen Pizza & Sports Bar (14019 Southwest Freeway, 281-242-0190) three doors down from Napa, after Out Of Africa decided to shut its doors after…
Artist of the Week: Bubbly Electro-Rap Princess Shina Rae
Each Wednesday, Rocks Off arbitrarily appoints one lucky local performer or group “Artist of the Week,” bestowing upon them all the fame and grandeur such a lofty title implies. Know a band or artist that isn’t awful? Email their particulars to introducingliston@gmail.com. With regards to our bubbling electro scene, we’re…
The Major League Soccer All-Star Game Gets The Biggest Houston Stage, But Who’s Going To Be On It?
When Major League Soccer announced late July that the 2010 All-Star game would be played in Houston, there was much speculation as to where the event would be held. The Houston Dynamo currently call Robertson Stadium home, but Reliant Stadium is just so much prettier.The Dynamo front office held a…
Food Fight: We Aren’t Fox News
That’s right. No bias here, folks. After weeks of insinuation that we’re somehow prejudiced against Establishment A or in cahoots with Restaurant B, we’ve decided to record the selection process for the weekly Food Fight for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy the strongly non-biased, highly scientific spectacle for yourself. If it…
Houston Actress On Working With Mike Judge, Jason Bateman & Mila Kunis
If you were at the Edwards Grand Palace Stadium for the 7:05 p.m. Friday showing of Mike Judge’s new film Extract, you were probably wondering about all the inappropriate applause at the beginning of the show. The usher with the airplane light couldn’t figure it out either.Only Lidia Porto and…
Four Possible Reasons Jay-Z Is Skipping Houston on His Blueprint 3 Tour
Self-proclaimed king-of-rap Jay-Z unveiled his autumn tour schedule last week. The 26-date jaunt – which began Monday night in Chi-town and winds down just in time for Thanksgiving – will take Hovito all around the world, from New York to London to Kentucky to noise-rock haven Providence, R.I., to Ontario…
It’s 09-09-09. This Is A Big Deal To Some People, Somehow
Everyone’s making such a big deal out of today: It’s September 9, which means it’s 9/9/09.It is, according to one site, “the last set of repeating, single-digit dates that we’ll see for almost a century (until January 1, 2101), or a millennium (mark your calendars for January 1, 3001), depending…
How Many Brave HISD Parents Refused To Let Their Kids’s Brains Be Rotted By Obama? Not Many
HISD is releasing some scattered statistics on how many parents sent in “opt-out” forms so their children could remain God-fearing Americans instead of becoming Communist by listening to a president tell them to stay in school.District spokesman Norm Uhl says no survey of the district’s 300 or so campuses will…
Long Duck and Other Delights
You don’t know anything about wine, but you know what you like? There’s a new wine store for you. Wine Styles is a retail outlet that demystifies the complicated world of wine. There is a white wall and a red wall. The whites are divided into the categories “crisp,” “silky,”…
Not So Fab: Five Songs You Won’t Find on The Beatles: Rock Band
Sorry, Joe Strummer, but “phony Beatlemania” hasn’t bitten the dust yet, not with the release of both the remastered Beatles catalogue and The Beatles: Rock Band this week. Rocks Off knows this all to well, having flung down the gauntlet of challenge to all those who would test their video-game…
Community Gardens Can’t Stop A Crime Wave, Study Finds
The “broken-window” theory of fighting crime states that if a neighborhood is allowed to deteriorate to the point where broken windows are left unfixed, crime will increase because residents don’t give a shit.An offshoot of this says that doing beautification stuff such as planting small, public gardens builds pride and…
Tonight: Rocks Off Presents Stand By Me at the Mink – Free Hot Dogs!
Tonight at the Mink, Rocks Off presents Rob Reiner’s 1986 coming-of-age classic Stand By Me, complete with free hot dogs from hot indie restaurant darlings Ray’s Franks. Adapted from Stephen King’s Different Seasons novella “The Body,” the film traces the journey of four friends searching for the dead body of…
Because You Need It: A Bikini Contest For Pregnant Women
If there’s one thing you want to do when you’re pregnant, it’s parade around in a bikini for the sake of some wacky FM radio station.Apparently.While pregnant women are beautiful — the rosy glow, the increased tittage, the freedom they feel from having a good excuse for gaining a few…
Bayou Beat: Catch Rocks Off on Inside the Scene Online, “Troubador Tuesdays” at House of Blues, Greg Ashley Returns, etc.
If you missed Channel 39’s Inside the Scene documentary about this year’s Houston Press Music Awards, you can now watch it online here. Rocks Off, who absent-mindedly forgot to set his DVR (mostly because we don’t have one), hears he came off as remarkably well-spoken and erudite, so thanks to…
No Reservations: Outer Boroughs
Regretting having spent almost his entire life in Manhattan with nary a trip to the four outer boroughs, Anthony Bourdain took on the robust culinary scenes of the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island in this week’s episode of No Reservations. It seemed like a familiar problem, reminding me of…
Texas Traveler: Plano Balloon Festival
Every fall for the past 29 years, the skies over Plano come aglow with colorful aircrafts and odd hissing sounds that signal take-off for flight The Plano Balloon Festival will celebrate its 30th anniversary Sept. 18-20. It’s an event that has raised more than 2 million dollars for non-profits in…
Turning the Screw: Chamillionaire, Kid Cudi & Jay-Z, Mike Epps, The Kanye, T.I., Chris Brown, DJ AM, Slim Thug, etc.
Welcome back to Turning the Screw, Rocks Off’s weekly rap post. It probably won’t rhyme, at least most of the time. E-mail tips to introducingliston@gmail.com. Thanks, homies. Single of the Week: Chamillionaire, “Good Morning” Wire To Wire Despite what you initially want to think about Cham’s new single “Good Morning,”…
Social Distortion: Getting Off the Grid in Texas, Sorta Kinda
You’ve probably heard the expression “getting off the grid” more times than you can shake a BlackBerry at. These days, completely eliminating yourself from civilization (temporarily, mind you; for other self-removals, please see here immediately) is a task almost exclusively reserved for David Copperfield and Harry Potter. Furthermore, “risky behavior” usually includes embarking on an extended…
Snackshot: Tossed
This week’s snappy Snackshot comes to us courtesy of Gary R. Wise and a recent Caesar salad-making class hosted by Carla Cardini herself, the original Caesar Cardini’s great-grand-niece. From the photographer’s descrption: “Carla Cardini held a Caesar salad class for Houston Chowhounds at the very hospitable Culinaire Catering Aug 24th 2009. Carla…
Distant Early Warning: AC/DC, Alice In Chains, Insect Warfare, Jackson Browne, Puscifer, Son Volt, etc.
12 Stones, Wake The Light, Saturate, Dine Alone: Wed., Sept. 30. Scout Bar Clear Lake. Aaron Neville Quintet’s Christmas Show: Fri., Dec. 4. House of Blues. The Accused, Krum Bums, Owl Witch, H.R.A.: Sun., Oct. 11. Walter’s on Washington. AC/DC: Sun., Nov. 8. Toyota Center. Baroness, Iron Age, Dark Castle:…
And So It Begins: Do You Know Where Your Children Are? (Updated With Speech Analysis)
It’s too late, parents….Unless you filled out the proper paperwork offering definitive proof you’re a right-wing radical blinded by Fox News, your kid is being subjected to the amazing hypnotic power of Barack Obama at this moment.You can watch here, if you dare.Will you recognize your kids when they come…
Ask a Rapper: Scooby of G.R.I.T. Boys Gives Us the Three Greatest Houston Rap Groups Ever, Including His Own
The hip-hop world is a less than sensible place -lots of times, you’re even required to clarify when bad means bad and when bad means good- so once a week we’re going to get with a rapper and ask them to explain things. Have something you always wanted to ask…
For Back-To-Work Day: Five Lousiest Jobs In The Movies
It’s the day after Labor Day, so you’re back inside reading blogs instead of grilling meat and ripping bong hits by a pool somewhere. And even those unfortunate enough not to have had yesterday off are hopefully in a better bargaining position than the Pullman workers whose 1894 strike led…
Bento Box at Nippon Japanese Restaurant
A bento box is a traditional Japanese box lunch consisting of rice, fish or meat, and a cooked or pickled vegetable. It is served in a compartmentalized box or tray, ranging from the lowliest fast-food Styrofoam container, to the most elaborate handcrafted lacquer-ware. Over the centuries, the Japanese have raised…
Hey Astros: Call Frank Robinson, For Crying Out Loud
Richard Justice is back on the Fire Cecil Cooper bandwagon, but this time, instead of Jeff Bagwell, he’s back to urging Drayton McLane to hire third base coach Dave Clark. Clark has no major league managing experience, and he sucks as a third base coach. Yet this is the guy…
Aftermath: The Dandy Warhols at Warehouse Live
While Afermath doesn’t have any hard data on hand to back this up, we’re guessing that driving an audience to a show on Labor Day evening is a tough sell. Or at least it seemed to be for the Portland, Ore.-based Dandy Warhols Monday night at Warehouse Live. Despite their…
Reconsidering Anchovy Toast
I bought a little tin of The Gentleman’s Relish while I was shopping at British Isles because it sounded quaint in a British Raj sort of way. I imagined eating some on crackers with my gin and tonic. But after I opened the can and tried some on a cracker,…
Five Reasons Why Notre Dame Will Win The BCS Title This Year And Texas Won’t: First In A Series
The first weekend of the college football season is over, and UT fans are rejoicing, or at least schadenfreuding, over OU’s loss to BYU.In the cause of bringing football sanity to the Lone Star State, we will have a continuing series this year outlining why Notre Dame has a better…
The Music of True Blood: Getting Caught Up Before Sunday’s Season 2 Finale
Alan Ball was known for his masterful use of music in Six Feet Under. He’s lost none of his touch when it comes to his current HBO series, True Blood – which happens to be set in the Louisiana swamps, not terribly far from Houston. Though we’re picking up midway…
Miss Pop Rocks Says Farewell
Gentle reader, for almost two years now, I’ve been serving up hot dishes of pop culture snark and doing my best to keep you informed on the fascinating happenings occurring on the pop culture radar. It’s been an absolutely fabulous time, and I’m grateful to the Press for giving me…
The Best Houston Tattoos (Of The Ones Submitted To Us)
In conjunction with our annual Best of Houston issue (coming soon!!), we asked readers to send in shots of their tattoos.Plenty responded, and we turned to the experts on our staff to pick the best.What better way to contemplate Labor Day and all it means than by looking at body…
Houston 101: Hidden Gay Spots Of Houston
We’re not sure why Houston 101 seems to be on a gay jag; maybe it’s because a staunch defender of the Houston Texans opened our eyes to the fact we’re secretly into that kind of stuff.At any rate, in the glorious pre-AIDS days when closeted men could find dark corners…
Ah, The Summer Of `09: What Would Bryan Adams Write About It?
Labor Day is here, and that means the unofficial end to the summer. Especially in Houston, if you’re talking about temperature.But no summer would be complete without a nostalgic look back to that innocent time, the Summer of `09, when we actually thought — however briefly — that we could…
Where Are We Eating?
Do these blue Miller Light tables look familiar? Feel as if you’ve propped your elbow here before? Can you guess where we’re eating this week? Leave your best effort in the comments section below…
Slide Show: Viva la Revolucion – Labor Albums for Labor Day
Enjoy our slideshow of labor-related album covers, comrades. Viva la revolucion!…
Coogs Look Good To Open The Season
With 2:22 left in the first quarter on Saturday night, the Houston Cougars were already leading the Northwestern State Demons 28-0. The Cougars had possessed the football four times, and they had scored each time. They scored in 59 seconds, in 1:12, again in 59 seconds, and then an endless…
Some Happy Working Songs for the One Day You’re Not Working
Work sucks holy balls. We have had some shitty jobs and some awfully fun jobs in our time. There was the summer we spent picking up used tampons and perpetually washing mirrors at a small health club. Or the three years we spent working in the dairy department at Kroger,…
Four Years Later, Katrina’s Sting Still Felt In Houston
Four-year-old Myana Smith was evacuated from New Orleans’s Sixth Ward during Hurricane Katrina when she was seven months old, and when she sees a helicopter flying over, she still raises her hands and says, “Help.” Myana sat in her grandmother’s Houston apartment on a recent afternoon, in the one splash…
A Chat with Geneva Gordon of Under the Volcano
“I’m very shy. That’s where the drinks come in,” says Geneva Gordon. No matter what Geneva says, though, shy she is not. Working behind the busy bar of Under the Volcano, she’s not overly gregarious, but she has the art of conversation down, chit-chatting about subjects ranging from crazy lawsuits…
The Klosterman Kwiz: Patient Fruit Bats Front Man Eric Johnson
Don’t ask us why, but ever since Rock’s Off read Chuck Klosterman’s “23 questions I ask everybody I meet in order to decide if I can really love them” from Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, we’ve wanted to do interviews comprised exclusively of those questions. Perhaps it’s a nostalgic throwback…
Friday Night Lights, Houston-Style: Katy Vs. The Woodlands
Hair Balls knows a little something about Katy High School Tiger football, and we’ve learned that the team has a fan base like no other: Adults who didn’t attend the school, or have kids who did, or even grow up in the town, show up for Friday night football games…
Tonight: Yet Another Branch of the Homopolice Bush, The Energy, Debuts at the Mink
So far 2009 has seen the debuts of about a dozen or so new Houston bands that have rocking our collective nuts off. Muhammadali, Passengers, Roky Moon & Bolt, the inimitable 10th Grade Cutie, the solo debut of Benjamin Wesley and the classic-rock-filtered garage of Giant Princess, just to name…
Tonight: Painted on Water’s Evocative Turkish Jazz at Meridian
Rocks Off knows the humidity make it feel like it sometimes, but if Houston were Istanbul, Painted on Water would be playing Toyota Center this evening. The Turkish duo’s eponymous CD showed up on our desks a while back without a clue to their background – turns out singer Sertab…
Heckler’s Delight: D-12
Lewd, crude, and equal-opportunity rude, Detroit’s D12 are as nasty as they wanna be. Boasts about audicious rapes. Graphicly vicious psycho killer rhymes. Gratuitious brown-LSD overdose fantasies. Extreme as the rundown nightmare metropolis they hail from, D12 are to rap what psychedlic acid-gobbling bands are to rock and roll, with…
Tonight: Shinyribs at Last Concert Cafe
Shinyribs, Gourds frontman Kevin Russell’s side project, has found a safe haven in his old hometown of Houston. Russell’s musical oeuvre mixes a large gospel-based element with dashes of country, blues, folk, and rock and ends up being something unique and very Houston-friendly. Russell has been doing a monthly residency…
Rocks Off Won’t Be Here This Weekend, But You Should Be
Well, it’s Labor Day weekend, and Rocks Off already has one foot out the door. Actually, by the time you read this, we’ll be long gone, but we’ve got all sorts of things on tap for you this weekend. So get out of the pool at some point, dry off…
This Week in Deliciousness
Welcome back to the weekly round-up here at Eating Our Words, the only blog in the web-o-sphere to ever successfully hurt Gordon Ramsay’s feelings. No, not that Gordon Ramsay… he was a kid we knew in fifth grade, used to call him Booger Britches. We started the week off with…
Now A Houstonian, He Survived Burma — Barely
Victor Win knew Burma’s secret police were coming for him. All he could do was wait.It was the spring of 1965, two years after Burma’s military toppled its elected government and jailed its leaders. Win, who fled the country in 1971 and eventually settled in Houston, was a 27-year-old architect…
Brush Up on Your Beatles Rock Band, Because Rocks Off Will Take You Down
In less than a week, Rocks Off will be giving our dear readers the first chance to play the new Beatles edition of “Rock Band.” Next Wednesday we are taking over CoffeeGroundz in Midtown for one night of boozin’, Beatles and inept drunken video-game play. A bartender will be on…
Last Call For Art: No Need To Rush
Photo courtesy Houston Family Arts CenterOn a Labor Day weekend you might have other things on your mind that Art-with-a-capital-A (Such as, say, football-football-football), so you’re lucky that there’s not a huge list of shows closing this weekend that you only have one last chance to enjoy.But there are two…
Openings and Closings
It seems that everyone’s gotten into the spirit of reporting restaurant openings and closings this week, from the Houston Chronicle’s food critic Alison Cook, who reports on the press release that’s been clogging inboxes across the city — Lynette Hawkin’s newest restaurant, Giacomo’s Cibo e Vino, which is set to…
Attention Brain-Dead Right-Wing Morons: If You Love God, Guns and “Texas Music,” Lonesome Onry and Mean Has a Few Choice Words
It’s pandering pretty-boy pinheads like Garland singer-songwriter Austin Cunningham who are the best at appealing shamelessly to Best In Texas Music Magazine’s brain-dead audience. His new Texas radio hit “Guns and Religion,” highlighted in this month’s issue of BIT, is supposedly based on a Barack Obama statement during a campaign…
Injured Iraqi, Who Helped U.S. Troops Before Coming To Houston, Will See His Mom
Thanks to some help from his friends, Marwan Hamza’s mother is on her way to Houston.Hair Balls reported last week that Hamza, who relocated to Houston after his work with U.S. troops forced him to flee Iraq, had been in a near-fatal car accident — and that his family was…
Things to Do This Weekend If You’re (Almost) Broke: Watch Rocks Off on Channel 39, Among Other Things
Friday Rhymesayer Thurogood Wordsmith, reggae men Brown Pilot and New Orleans’ Truth Universal join host Mic Skills and DJ Urban Legend at the Mink’s monthly Mission Control. Free. Not sure what “Indiestruction” is, but with Dave Wrangler and Piss Heavy on the decks at Boondocks, it should be pretty tight…
Reasonable, Calm Discussion Continues On Whether A President Can Urge Kids To Stay in School
Leave it to Texas to add a whole additional layer of idiocy to the cornucopia of idiocy surrounding protests over a President urging kids to stay in school.Other presidents have given such televised speeches to schools before — even in Texas — without any hubbub, but none of those presidents…
Foie Gras Poutine?
Olivia is a new Austin joint with a meaty menu that might remind you a little of Feast. It was named one of the top ten best new restaurants in America by Bon Appetit this year. Chef James Holmes got my attention when he put a dish he calls foie…
Ten Things To Look For Tonight As The Texans Take On The Bucs
The final Texans preseason game is tonight, and the team is in Tampa Bay to take on the Bucs. One thing we know for sure is that, once again, the game will not be shown in high-definition, but frankly, with the way the team has been playing, maybe that’s a…
Lone Star Scorecard: “That’s Right (You’re Not From Texas),” “Texas Flood” and “Blind In Texas”
There are thousands of songs about Texas, most of which manage to get some aspect of “it” right about our great state: It’s big, for starters, and often seems composed of equal parts wide open spaces, comely women and Lone Star Beer. Cram any two of those elements into a…
Wags To Whiskers This Weekend at BARC
If you’ve been thinking about adopting a small, hairy, quadrupedal family member, there’s no excuse to miss Saturday’s “Wags to Whiskers” event at the Bureau of Animal Regulation and Care, 3200 Carr. From noon to 4, you can check out a wide variety of dogs and cats, available for $27.50 –…
Top 5 Foods to Sneak into the Movies
There’s nothing like the combined pleasure of gazing at Channing Tatum’s face on the big screen, filling your belly with treats and silently protesting a $10 ticket price. Such are the joys of sneaking food into the movie theater. Just remember that if you undertake this mission, don’t pack anything…
Mind Games: Five Movie Villains With Better Mind Control Skills Than President Obama
As more and more parents threaten to remove their children from school during President Obama’s speech on education next Tuesday, school districts are also getting into the act. HISD is saying they will air the speech, but let parents have their kids opt out of watching. Most others have said…
Five Spot: Cypress Hill Is Back, If You Need Another Reason to Get Baked
Welcome back to The Five Spot, Every Friday, we’ll examine a recent bit of music news and list five reasons why it’s either brilliant or dumb-assed. Send tips to introducingliston@gmail.com. Next month, Cypress Hill will re-up their six-years-dormant Smokeout Concert and Festival. How that was ever able to become an…
Pulitzer Committee To The White Courtesy Phone; Pulitzer Committee, White Courtesy Phone
Shelby Hodge has taken pity on the average Joe. The Houston Chronicle gossip columnist has come up with a “guide for social climbers” to teach the paper’s readers how to make it to the “upper rungs of the ladder.” What does it take to enter “café society” and “rub shoulders…
Ranking the Best and Worst Big 12 Fight Songs
When it comes to fight songs, the Big 12 lacks an undisputed classic. There is no nationally recognized rival to the instantly familiar and rousing battle cries of Notre Dame, Michigan or the Naval Academy. And before we start ranking these songs, we will caveat this by admitting that, as…
Coming Soon: Merche
Driving out 290, just past Highway 6, I noticed some new construction at the North Cypress Medical Center. In the middle of it, there was this brightly colored round thing that looked like a giant oven. “I bet that’s a giant tandoori,” I told my passenger. She thought it was…
Celebrating Ike The Right Way — By Candlelight
The middle of September is going to be an Ike-anniversary overload, but we kinda like the way the Little Woodrow’s in Rice Village is going about it — they’re taking themselves back to those brutal, electricity-less days after the storm by cutting off the power on Friday, September 11 and…
Aftermath: Fruit Bats at Walter’s on Washington
Aftermath made it to Walter’s just in time to catch the last gasp of News on the March’s opening set, a hyperkinetic barbershop quartet vamp about a pretty lady. The energy from just that one parting song was enough to make us wish we’d made it a bit earlier. We…
Please Feed the Local Geeks with SXSW Votes!
If there’s one thing as certain as the smoldering humidity deep in the heart of Texas, it’s this: Houstonians are bona fide geeks. In a good way.How can you tell? ‘Cause revolutionary geekery reigns supreme amongst the themes of SXSW panels submitted by tech-ambitious hopefuls in the local area.If this…
Food Fight: Battle Cupcake
Cupcakes are by their very definition almost too twee to engage in a battle of any kind. But no foodstuff is allowed to stand idly by in culinary wars, and cupcakes have been pressed into service this week in spite of their soft cakey bodies and mushy frosting heads. And…
Today Is It: The Last Day To Have Your Online Voice Heard In The Best Of Houston Balloting
It is almost too late, folks.You have only until the close of business today — we’re talking 6 p.m. — to file your online ballot in the 2009 Best of Houston survey.Tens of thousands of voters have weighed in, but you, you’ve put it off until the last second. Kinda…
He Said She Said: Our Top Ten Girl-Crushes
Ask any musician: there is something basically and viscerally masculine about the industry itself, and that masculinity can seep into the most feminine of rocker chicks and indie music queens. That swagger, that attitude, that confidence coupled with soft hair, a pair of soft lips and a softly lilting voice…
The Sheriff Of Crosby, N.D Protects His Citizens From Terror Better Than Adrian Garcia
Harris County Republican chair Jared Woodfill is steamed, according to a letter we first found on Isiah Carey’s Insite.He is totally pissed and outraged because Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia has “opened the doors” of his office to Al-Jazeera. A, umm, media outlet.Maybe not a media outlet with a viewpoint…
Five Artists Motel 6 Would Rather Not Give Free Rooms, Including John Mayer
In a move sure to boost occupancy among skinny jeans-wearing hipsters while simultaneously driving regular families away by the family truckster-load, Motel 6 is running a promotion to give free rooms to up-and-coming bands: “Here’s how it works: Motel 6 will give free rooms to developing bands on the touring…
Keep A Woman A Virtual Hostage For Six Years, Get Probation: Nice
Back in July we told you about a Saudi national who had been arrested for lying on a visa application; his lie was that he told authorities he would be bringing in a woman to work for him around the house eight hours a day for $1,300 a month.Instead the…
Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony
When I heard that Tuscany Coffee barista David Buehrer had never attended an Ethiopian coffee ceremony, I invited him to meet me at Blue Nile Ethiopian restaurant on Richmond. We were seated in backless stools at a traditional low, round table in the back of the restaurant. Clouds of frankincense…
He Said She Said: Ten Artists We Would Go Gay For
It always happens: you and your friends toss back a few beers and the talk turns to what celebrities and models you find attractive. At first it starts out innocent enough, arguing the merits of Angelina Jolie, Megan Fox, Marissa Miller or Paula Deen. Well that last name is actually just…
The World’s Most Unfortunately Dressed Bank Robber
The FBI has put out the alert for a new bank robber, one who knocked off a Memorial Drive Wachovia and a west-side Bank of America last week.This is not just any bank robber, though. This dude has style. A very outdated, ridiculous style. The FBI is calling him the…
The Number Of Burmese Refugees Will Just Keep Growing
A new stream of refugees began flowing out of Burma (or Myanmar) last month. Burmese troops broke a 20-year cease-fire with ethnic groups in the country’s northeastern Shan region, causing an estimated 30,000 to flee across the border and into China.The fighting is part of a trend toward more violence…
Lonesome Onry and Mean: More Reasons Why Best In Texas Is a Flaming Pile of Crap
Trilogy (n.): a set of three works of art that are connected and that can be seen either as a single work or as three individual works. If euthanasia is ever legalized, one method might be to have the doctor read Ed Shane’s monthly “Letter From the Publisher” in Best…
Health Department Roundup: Frenchy Edition
Several French-ish restaurants received poor grades from the Houston Public Health Department in the past month. Au Bon Pain (1200 McKinney) recorded a violation for food not protected from potential contamination by dust, dirt, coughs, sneezes…etc. France’s Cajun cousins at Boudreaux’s Cajun Kitchen (12806 Gulf Fwy.) had multiuse equipment not…
Five Reasons The Longhorns Won’t Win The BCS Title This Year
Finally — after what seems a wait of approximately five years — college football is back.The New York Times, of all people, has picked the UT Longhorns as the Number One team in the nation. A lot of other experts, not to mention Red Bull-swilling, Cheeto-chomping, Mom-avoiding bloggers, pick UT…
Exposing Obama’s “Brainwash The Kids” Scheme, With KTRH’s Michael Berry
You gotta admit this about the right-wing, talk-show-listening, Fox-News-loving one-third of America — no one can whip up a paranoid kerfluffle like they can.The latest insidious event causing them to storm the barricades is Barack Obama’s Stalin-like plan to hypnotize mass numbers of gullible schoolchildren into becoming mindless slaves of…
Magical Mesoamerican Chocolates
Sagahún Chocolates in Portland, Oregon makes some of the most interesting chocolate confections in the nation. The chocolate barks get their crunch from nuts, pumpkin seeds and crushed, salted corn nuts. They take their scents from edible flowers and lavender. And they contain potent doses of jalapeño, ancho and other…
Bayou Body Count: A Case Of Bad Timing
Some people simply don’t have good timing.Such was the case for 35-year-old Christina Stonebarger.On Sunday, Stonebarger and her friend Michelle Stansel, 36, were hanging out in Stonebarger’s room at a motel at 12600 South Main, where both women lived. For some reason, police say, the two friends started arguing at…
Cutout Bin: Filipino Icon Yoyoy Villame’s Yoyoy Is Barok
Yoyoy Villame Yoyoy Is Barok (Plaka Pilipino, 1978) Cultural icons can be discovered in the most unusual places, such as the dregs of the dusty record piles at a Houston thrift store. It took this record to introduce Cutout Bin to the legendary Philippine entertainer Yoyoy Villame. On the cover,…
Feasting at Arco Seafood Restaurant
With his drink- and food-induced gout, King Henry VIII was a master of feasting. Sure, we overeat in the 21st century, but do we feast? Feasting involves multiple courses, a big table, and some grandiosity. The so-called “Big” Mac achieves none of this. Luckily, at Arco Seafood Restaurant at 9896…
Houston 101: The Lesbian Bar That Shut Up HPD
The 1960s weren’t a very pleasant time to be gay or lesbian for most people, but especially in Houston. Somehow the Bayou City wasn’t as accepting of alternative lifestyles as it is today (and we’re not saying it’s Nirvana today.)Police raids of gay bars were common. Common but bizarre, in…
The H-Town Countdown, No. 21: Ganksta NIP’s South Park Psycho
Roughly 84,000 rap albums have been released in Houston since 1989. We’re counting down the 25 best of all time every Thursday. Got a problem with the list? Shove it. Just kidding. Friendship. Email it to sheaserrano@gmail.com. Ganksta NIP South Park Psycho (Priority, 1992) We wrote about NIP at length…
Aeros’ New Boss Promises A More Aggressive Offense
Hard as it may be to believe, especially with the temps outside and with football just now starting, but within a matter of weeks, players will be reporting to camp for the Houston Aeros. The Aeros have undergone some rather massive changes this off season — as has the team’s…
Aftermath: Box Elders at Mango’s
Sometimes Aftermath gets so used to covering big venue rock shows that he temporarily forgets about just how small, intimate, and concise a show can actually be. That’s why last nights Box Elders show was like a booster shot of reality before he commences a month of huge dumb shed…
Here’s Your Chance To Ask The Next Mayor A Question
Whether you like it or not — and it seems most people couldn’t care less — there will be a mayoral election in two months.Your next mayor will either be the city controller (in which case Houston will be the largest city in the U.S. to elect an open gay…
Recipe: Bistro Don Camillo’s Croque Madame
As it turns out, it’s not just Americans who eat fatty comfort food; the French do it too. The Croque Madame, like the Croque Monsieur, is a grilled ham and cheese sandwich, but it also has an egg. This recipe comes from executive chef Ryan Hildebrand from Bistro Don Camillo,…
Why Are The News People So Desperate?
Have you seen that promo for KPRC news where Dominique Sachse and pals are wandering around a gigantic room, begging us to tell them what we want them to cover?I’ve been searching for it on YouTube with no luck, but I think you know the one. Bill Balleza and Dom…
Houston’s Finest
The accolades for Spain Colored Orange keep stacking up – most recently, the band took home Best Indie Rock band in the 2009 Houston Press Music Awards. (Not bad, considering other nominees in the category included promising upstarts the Tontons and Wild Moccasins.) In this case, though, “indie” is a…
Rockapella Goes Retro
While the image of a cappella singing groups conjures guys with candy-striped coats or leather jackets singing smooth doo-wop, the five-man unit Rockapella travels forward in time for slightly more contemporary musical inspiration. For Rockapella Goes Retro, the group that never has to worry about getting its instruments stolen will…
Aaron Elkins
Aaron Elkins knows a thing or two about human development – he’s a forensic anthropologist and a former professor of physical anthropology. But Elkins is no stodgy academic – he’s also the bestselling author of the Gideon Oliver crime series. The man knows human remains, and he knows how to…
Edwin David Grat: “Postscaenium”
Painter Edwin David Grat has said he makes an effort to stay “naive, perceptive and spontaneous.” Those brave enough to explore “Postscaenium,” his solo exhibition opening at the Jung Center, will encounter enough thought-provoking work to make them question the naivete part of that statement. Grat’s claim that he “has…
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
The movie buffs who host locally grown podcast Film Forum will step away from the digital world to present a screening of 1962’s What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? They’ll show the disturbing film as a complement to their almost-bi-monthly online radio show, in which they compare two movies with…
Grease
Grease doesn’t provide a historically accurate view of the ’50s. There’s no Joe McCarthy, Korean War or race-specific water fountains. But so what? Thanks to the 1978 movie with John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, the saga of summer lovers Danny and Sandy, the T-Birds and Pink Ladies, and karaoke-ready songs…
Rakugo
Though it may seem otherwise, there is more to comedy than stoned man-boys and people being embarrassed on reality shows. Today, the Consulate-General of Japan at Houston and the Japan-America Society of Houston will present the traditional Rakugo performer Kaishi Katsura in a rare stateside visit to prove that the…
“Topiary Text Lead”
The works of “Topiary Text Lead” are tied by a common subject: the natural world and our relationship to it. Highlights include Peter Brown’s photos taken on kayak excursions in post-Ike Gulf Coast bayous; photographer Linda Walsh’s documentation of Houston’s community gardens; and Kia Neill’s abstract drawings exploring the interplay…
The House of the Spirits
When done right, multigenerational family sagas can make for exceptional literature and theater – and in some cases, both. Main Street Theater presents the English-language premiere of Caridad Svich’s The House of the Spirits, based on the best-selling debut novel by Isabel Allende. Mixing the sensual and the supernatural, it…
The Celebration of African Arts and Music Festival
The Celebration of African Arts and Music Festival faces a formidable challenge: representing a continent’s worth of culture in one night. That goal may be unattainable, but with poetry, music, art, dance and a fashion show, the event will get as close to success as possible. Attendees dressed in African/Afrocentric…
“Glitter Art Show”
JB Carrillo is putting a sparkly spin on Signac and Seurat. “I’m starting neo-pointillism,” says the artist behind “Glitter Art Show.” “I’m not doing dots with paint, I’m doing dots with glitter.” Carrillo creates portraits of both real and imagined people, either embellished with or completely covered in glitter. His…
Fiesta Mexicana Barroca
Villancicos sounds like it translates as “bad guys scheming to deflower virgins in Mexican telenovelas,” but the word actually describes a poetic form of singing popular in 17th- and 18th-century Mexican and Spanish culture. In the style, lyrics typically revolving around religion and love are sung in a refrain followed…
The Wayside Motor Inn
Most motel stays during road trips aren’t as dramatic as the ones featured in Theatre Southwest’s production of A.R. Gurney’s The Wayside Motor Inn. The play, set at a motel outside Boston, revolves around five sets of travelers: a rich couple, a lonely salesman, a father and son heading to…
KUHF Silent Film Series: The General
Graham Reynolds gives The General the un-silent treatment. Austin’s movie-music man and his ensemble, the Golden Arm Trio, will present – live – their original instrumental take on the 1926 Buster Keaton classic about the Great Locomotive Chase for a KUHF Silent Film Concert Series screening. It’s quite a change…
“Reduced Visibility”
Even the most seasoned art lovers can have a tricky time cracking the code of abstraction. Learn a few tricks at the Glassell School’s new exhibition “Reduced Visibility,” curated by Core Program Critical Studies Resident Kurt Mueller. The show demonstrates the potential of visual abstraction to effectively convey the complexities…
Jay Mohr
Jay Mohr has a resume a stand-up comedian – make that anyone looking to succeed in the entertainment business – would dream about. He’s been seen on TV (Comedy Central specials, Saturday Night Live and, most recently, Gary Unmarried); starred on the silver screen (Jerry Maguire, Picture Perfect); created, hosted…
The Hunger Walk
If you’re too sexy for your shirt and you care about the less fortunate, you’ll love POSH Magazine’s Hunger Walk. The fashion show benefits the Houston Food Bank, so all the fuss will be for a good cause. Plus, it’s at a swanky bar, so you know the party will…
Scott H. Biram
There’s nothing pretty about the music of Austin’s Scott H. Biram, with his raspy howl and gutbucket guitar picking dominating the air, but it sure cures what ails ya. Since his debut album, 2000’s This Is Kingsbury?, Biram has been spinning whiskey-soaked tales of woe for a devoted following of…
Paolo Nutini
The 22-year-old singer-songwriter Paolo Nutini confounds most expectations, from his name on up. Despite its Mediterranean sound, Nutini hails from Paisley, Scotland, though his father’s side of the family is Italian, a few generations back. And despite his early shaggy, longhaired image, Nutini is not yet another dour rocker from…
Pop Sensation at Masala Wok
Seems like anything with a handle or a stick coming out of it is called a lollipop today. The chicken lollipops ($3.99/$7.49) at Masala Wok (10001 Westheimer, 713-784-8811) come in portions of four or eight, and four of the wings make the perfect-size appetizer. The convenient “stick” used to pick…
The Dandy Warhols
>The Dandy Warhols’ most recent album, The Dandy Warhols ARE Sound, is billed as the “director’s cut” — or the Portland, Oregon, band’s original mix and vision — of its 2003 effort, Welcome to the Monkey House. That album wasn’t unanimously well received by Dandys fans at the time, mainly…
THE DAVENPORT’S PISTOLERA
Saturday was one of those drinking marathons that cause me to wake up the next day and ask myself questions like, “How old am I, again?,” “Why is my wallet in the toilet?” and “How did I break my pants?” Anything worth doing is worth doing to irresponsible excess, right?…
Chris Knight
The decrepit, dirty-dealing and down-and-out find their voice in Chris Knight’s songs, which transplant the working-class realities and resilience of Bruce Springsteen’s mustang-wielding union loyalists to farm country. They share a similar spirit, from the nihilistic meth dealer just making a buck on “Hell Ain’t Half Full” to the hard-luck…
Soulfest
For some people, Labor Day means barbecues and maybe one more trip to the beach before that autumn chill creeps back in the air. Since Houstonians have to wait on that chill a little longer than most, down here Labor Day means it’s time for Soulfest, the Continental Club’s annual…
Close Call at Mackey Gallery
Apama Mackey takes a break from rolling a fresh coat of paint on her gallery’s floor. We sit down on the wood deck in the courtyard to talk. There aren’t any chairs — Mackey sold them, along with the refrigerator. She apologizes that she can’t offer anything to drink. After…
Miss Leslie & Her Juke Jointers
As Kris Kristofferson so aptly noted years ago, there’s just not much that’s as miserable as a Sunday morning coming down. Not long ago, Cosmos Café was the place to be on Sundays for country music fans and folks who love to two-step, but that went the way of the…
Labor Pains
Mike Judge began writing the screenplay for Extract not long after Office Space opened and closed in a matter of weeks in the late winter of 1999. The two movies were always intended as bookends, with Extract countering the earlier film’s woe-is-me tale of the put-upon prole with its fucked-am-I…
The Cult
For four simple letters, The Cult had a devil of a time settling on its name. The Yorkshire-formed group’s origins stretch back to Southern Death Cult, the band formed by American Indian-obsessed Ian Astbury. SDC found almost immediate success on the UK Goth circuit, but Astbury wanted to break out…
Soul Man
Sophie Barthes’s clever metaphysical comedy Cold Souls has been dubbed “Being Paul Giamatti” more than once since its Sundance 2009 debut. But if comparisons to the films of Charlie Kaufman are inevitable, the similarities only go so far. Sure, Paul Giamatti plays “Paul Giamatti,” another “real” actor unwittingly embroiled in…
The Forgotten Festival
This entire summer, pop culture has been inundated with Woodstock nostalgia. Warner Home Video got the ball rolling back in June with a deluxe DVD edition of Woodstock, featuring the four-hour director’s cut of Michael Wadleigh’s Oscar-winning 1970 documentary and yards of bonus footage in a box designed to look…
Jacko’s Doc and the Ultimate Stage Mother
Spaced City He Shot Michael Jackson’s Doctor Forgotten photo earns big bucks, but not for the photographer By Richard Connelly Thomas Nguyen is an office administrator for a Galleria-area doctor. For the past 17 years, he’s also been a part-time photographer stringing for the Houston Chronicle’s zoned editions, mostly on…
Strange Love
The timing of Country Playhouse’s production of Wendy MacLeod’s The House of Yes was strange indeed. The play, about a set of grown-up twins who enjoy acting out the assassination of John Kennedy, opened on the weekend of Ted Kennedy’s death. This was, of course, completely unintentional; still, it was…
Mindfreak
J.R. Rosenstein, a tall, crazy-eyed member of local rock band My Own I who’s currently hanging out at far west Houston’s Blue Door (11124 Westheimer), is all kinds of fun. In a span of about 50 minutes, he manages to accomplish the following: 1. Park his own car (the nerve!),…
Strange Fruit
“Playing in the Shins is like being an astronaut in my day job,” says Fruit Bats front man Eric Johnson while en route to a set of shows in San Francisco. “With Fruit Bats, I’m really passionate about it, but I’m not really making money from it.” Over the past…
Gay Panic in Fort Worth, Best Burgers and Taylor Hicks Defenders
Trouble in Fort Worth WWJD? I am so sorry this happened to you guys in Fort Worth [Gay Panic in Cowtown,” by Thomas Korosec, August 18]. I would like to hear more, especially about the independent investigation results. Also, why didn’t the large networks cover this? This type of behavior…
The Burmese Come to Houston
Inside the urban jungle of southwest Houston there is an apartment complex like any other. Laundry dries from identical balconies stacked three at a time. The units are modest and slightly damp, and some have cockroaches. There is a pool. Beyond the thick iron gate that surrounds the complex, strange…
Capsule Art Reviews: “Amy Blakemore: Photographs 1988-2008”, “The Paramilitary Show”, “Adela Andea: The Green™ cyber web”
“Amy Blakemore: Photographs 1988-2008” The photographs Amy Blakemore takes with a crappy plastic camera can make you cry. Dad (1999) is an image from this exhibition, a 20-year survey of the artist’s work at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. The entire time I was in the gallery, people kept…
Laredo Cavalcade
The pork and summer squash stew in calabacitas taco at Laredo Taqueria on Cavalacade is slow-cooked until the pork falls into threads and the squash becomes a thick, luscious sauce. The mixture is seasoned with green chile and a touch of cumin. I added a dribble of the taqueria’s scorchingly…
Capsule Stage Reviews: Into the Woods
Into the Woods This Tony winner from 1987 is Stephen Sondheim at his most accessible, and Pasadena Little Theatre performs the fairy-tale infused musical with great charm and heart. Your favorite storybook characters and some new ones are here, all living next door to each other. There’s Cinderella (J.C. Barras,…
Walter’s on Washington Leaves Its Namesake Avenue Behind.
Houston music lovers got a real scare last Tuesday night when news broke that Walter’s on Washington — where indie heroes-in-the-making MGMT, The Hold Steady and Fleet Foxes, among many others, first played to Bayou City audiences — was shutting down. Since opening in 2000, Walter’s has battled noise complaints…
Marriage and…what else? Illegal Immigration…again!
Dear Mexican, I am a 22-year-old Mexican-American woman, still living with my parents but going to college, working full-time and taking care of myself financially. I grew up in a very traditional Mexican household, youngest of four kids, and we were all born in the United States. I’m unmarried but…
Mantra Fine Indian Cuisine
Dish Vinay Kotak is the owner of Maharaja Jewelers on Hillcroft, but he has always had a passion for food, so when his brother-in-law, Amar Dholakia, decided to change careers, they got together and opened Mantra Fine Indian Cuisine (15295 Southwest Fwy., 281-325-0071). “I was in IT, in the engineering…
