California Dreamin’
The musicians in Rogue Wave look like Muppets. Guitarist-vocalist Zach Rogue (né Schwartz), his soft features framed by golden, surfer-boy hair, is the Kermit of the group; multi-instrumentalist and Houston native Gram Lebron, with his cheery grin and shaggy curls, is Rowlf; bassist Sonya Westcott, cute and easygoing, is Janice…
Make Mine Meaty
Hoagie, hero, grinder, sub, poor boy — no matter what you call it, it all comes down to pretty much the same thing: a stuffed sandwich on some kind of French or Italian bread. The steak hoagie ($4.19) at Pete’s Fine Meats & Deli (5509 Richmond, 713-782-3470) is one such…
A Star Is Reborn
Lower Westheimer on a warm Tuesday night. A burly, bearded Hispanic tough guy in a red checked shirt with the sleeves cut off is ambling east, carrying a sack full of eggs in one hand, a gallon of milk in the other. He walks past a futon store and a…
R. Kelly
The double album Happy People/U Saved Me finally shows R. Kelly as the hopeless schizophrenic we all know he is. No, there’s no angel vs. devil struggle here, like on his previous albums. And there’s no booties, crotches or bumping-and-grinding, either. Both of these albums basically preach the same thing:…
Clash Course
On a Friday afternoon in late August they’ve come to this street corner to raise their signs and voices to protest the venal forces that would bring down the United States. They brandish placards and peace signs, and passing motorists wave back in agreement, offer their own gestures consisting of…
Six Feet Blunder
There are, of course, four stages to dealing with death: denial, anger, bargaining and acceptance. In Brazoria County, there’s one more: swatting flies from your loved one’s corpse while you wait for the hearse to come. Getting rid of the dearly (and recently) departed has become somewhat chaotic in the…
Faithless
No Roots, the fourth installment from UK powerhouse Faithless, is an emotional exploration that restores faith like a religious epiphany. After ten years together, Maxi Jazz, Sister Bliss and Rollo Armstrong prove that the power of music is still alive in the hearts of true believers. Introducing guest lyricist and…
Business as Usual
For a month, a special evaluation team pored over proposals for one of the city’s largest contracts: a three-year deal, valued at roughly $324 million, to handle all of Houston’s municipal electrical needs. The city’s consultants finally reached their conclusion by the end of March: Maryland-based Constellation New Energy was…
Lhasa
Dorothy Parker once wrote that Katharine Hepburn ran the “gamut of emotions from A to B.” Well, it’s not as if Lhasa de Sela can’t sing, but she conveys a range of emotions that goes from A to A-and-a-half. The Mexican-American musician first introduced us to her husky alto on…
Letters
Haye’s Hell Robbed by the system: What a story — how a life can be disrupted, possibly broken, through the incompetence (or worse — intentional behavior) of the system [“Truth and Consequences,” by George Flynn, August 26]. Who makes this incompetent investigator pay — shouldn’t his freedom be taken away?…
Ruthie Foster
Ever since Ruthie Foster played the Vancouver Folk Festival in 2002, organizers have been talking about how her two live sets helped her shatter the festival CD sales record held by Ani DiFranco. Stages, a 14-track live set, finally delivers exactly what those fans were hoping to hear when they…
Hair and Now
As he watched footage of protesters rallying in New York City on the eve of the Republican National Convention, Phil McKinley felt a sense of déjà vu. “I thought I was looking at footage from the ’60s,” he says. The moon must be in the Seventh House, and Jupiter aligned…
Playbill
Sam Phillips, with David Byrne After incarnations as the queen of Christian rock and a secular purveyor of baroque, Beatlesque pop, Sam Phillips signed with Nonesuch and came up with Fan Dance, a much starker album of dark cabaret torch songs. And now, three years later, we have A Boot…
This Week’s Day-by-Day Picks
Thursday, September 9 Savvy ladies know that Thursdays are the perfect “screening” date nights. Why blow a precious Friday or Saturday night on a schlub? Guys, take heed: To make your best impression on a Thursday hookup, you gotta get creative. Take her to the Houston Garden Center for a…
Last Call at the Downtown Dives
Downtown’s posh spots crop up — and often fold — quicker than you can say “metrosexual.” No one would argue that the revitalization of our skyscraper-studded stretch of streets is a bad thing, but in their attempt to give birth to a bustling scene, new club owners — with their…
Queen Drama
What’s more exciting than a group of Anna Nicole Smith imitators? Anna Nicole Smith herself, of course. But you don’t have to choose — both Anna and Anna wannabes have roles in Wasabi Tuna, which is screening at this year’s Houston Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. And the wacky comedy,…
Into the Woods
Some of the best performances of the year can be found in Mean Creek, a small independent film that marks the auspicious feature debut of 31-year-old writer-director Jacob Aaron Estes. An ensemble drama with a relatively unknown cast, the film looks at six kids and what happens when an innocent…
A Slave’s Trade
MON 9/13 “It took Moses more than two weeks to come to understand that someone wasn’t fiddling with him and that indeed a black man, two shades darker than himself, owned him and any shadow he made.” With these words on page nine of his 2004 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The…
Power Plays
SAT 9/11 For football fans, the return of fall is a return to Friday-night high school games, Saturday college rivalries and, most glorious of all, Sunday and Monday NFL matchups. It’s a time to watch guys beat the crap out of each other on the field while ladies cheer on…
His Guy Friday
There is a phrase bandied about that other film industry — “gay for pay” — that means exactly what it says. The queer thing is, this switch-hitting work ethic obviously applies to the “straight” industry as well, since actors not infrequently launch their careers, or rev ’em up, by playing…
Thong and Dance
FRI 9/10 If you’ve ever been to a nude beach, you’re painfully aware of the Murphy’s Law that governs them: There’s almost never anyone you’d actually want to see naked running around, sunbathing or playing volleyball. With that in mind, we were a little skeptical when we heard about the…
Dive into Dumpster
The winds blow mighty funny during Last Night at Orabella’s. The wizards responsible for the nonstop hilarity at Radio Music Theatre — Steve Farrell, Vicki Farrell and Rich Mills, abetted behind the curtain by Mark Cain on lights and Pat Southard on sound effects and keyboard — have been performing…
Women’s Movement
THU 9/9 While the delicate ballerina typically outshines her male counterpart on stage and in the public mind, those who create her movements are, for the most part, men. “In many respects, ballet choreography can be a very male-dominated field,” says Houston Ballet artistic director Stanton Welch. That’s why Houston…
Capsule Reviews
Footloose It’s been 20 years since Kevin Bacon got the girls all gaga in Footloose. But there’s good news for anyone with a hankering to get back to the big-haired ’80s: The stage version of Footloose is alive and kicking up its shiny high heels at the Great Caruso Dinner…
Boogie for Bush!
It all seems so clear now. Ninety years ago, Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated — tripping off the guns of August and the start of WWI. Doesn’t that shit just make you want to dance? Well, it did to Glaswegian art students Alex, Paul, Robert and Nicholas. Rather, it made…
Capsule Reviews
“How Latitudes Become Forms: Art in a Global Age” Two women take turns pouring water over each other’s heads as they sit talking. They’re wrapped in towels, and water drips down their bare shoulders as their voices echo in the room. Behind them is a stone basin with faucets; the…
Boring by Design
Cowboy rib eye: $39.95
Eight-ounce filet$27.95
Veal chop$27.95
Baked potato$5.95
Caesar salad$6.95