Noodling with Yakisoba
Release Date: 2002-08-01 When you enter Sushi Zushi in the Colonnade, assuming it’s not a jam-packed Saturday night, you’ll be greeted with a chorus of shouts in Japanese from the waitstaff and sushi chefs. As startling as it may seem (and many potential diners took great pains to ignore it), “Welcome!” is their message. (Irasshaimase!,…
Noodling with Yakisoba
Release Date: 2002-08-01 When you enter Sushi Zushi in the Colonnade, assuming it’s not a jam-packed Saturday night, you’ll be greeted with a chorus of shouts in Japanese from the waitstaff and sushi chefs. As startling as it may seem (and many potential diners took great pains to ignore it), “Welcome!” is their message. (Irasshaimase!,…
Noodling with Yakisoba
Release Date: 2002-08-01 When you enter Sushi Zushi in the Colonnade, assuming it’s not a jam-packed Saturday night, you’ll be greeted with a chorus of shouts in Japanese from the waitstaff and sushi chefs. As startling as it may seem (and many potential diners took great pains to ignore it), “Welcome!” is their message. (…
RIO GRANDE BLUES
The once-mighty Rio Grande River, which runs more than 1,200 miles from its headwaters in the Rockies to the Gulf of Mexico, has seen better days. Much better. In some segments, its flow is so pitiful that the river is best described as a puddle. In other stretches, tributaries give it a bit of a…
SPIN IN THE SCHOOL ROOM
Question: Of the following Social Studies textbook entries regarding the Texas revolution of 1835, which, if any, are free of factual error and comply with the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) standards? a) “In Mexico’s northern territory of Texas, discontent grew. Settlers from the United States and other countries began an independence movement. In…
IT’S A SMALL WORLD AFTER ALL
When I first began my career as a jazz musician, I was fortunate to have three excellent role models: Nobuko, with her prodigious piano chops and her passion for work; Mary Parchman, with her gracious demeanor and rollicking, gospel-inflected swing feel; and guitarist Polly Harrison, one-half of the popular jazz duo Small World. Polly and…
DUBYA LOVES IT — NUFF SAID
Internet muckraker Matt Drudge recently reported that the “President” screened the latest installment of the Austin Powers saga at Camp David and “already wants to see it again.” Perhaps Mr. Bush thinks the subtle nuances of Mike Myers’ scatological saga demand a second viewing. Maybe he just has a lot of time on his hands.…
WHITE HEAT: B-Sides and Bootlegs
White Heat gave its debut performance six months ago at the Honey Factory, following the B-Side Project’s farewell set. “We finished the set and told people that our friends were coming out to play in a couple of seconds,” says singer/guitarist Chris Branca. “`We` went backstage, changed clothes, and came back out as White Heat.”…
COVERING ALL THE FREQUENCIES
Father George Kennard, a Jesuit priest and philosophy instructor, once said, “To swing is to affirm.” If that’s so, then jazz bassist/vocalist/arranger Kristin Korb’s album, Where You’ll Find Me, is a series of affirmations: positive, joyful, upbeat. There is no angst here; even the ballads swing. This is music firmly rooted in the mid-20th-century traditional…
ALL EARS
TOO LONG IN EXILE If this were a just world, Solomon Burke’s Don’t Give Up On Me (ANTI-/Fat Possum) would do for his status what being on the Pulp Fiction soundtrack did for Al Green’s. No, wait — at least Al was huge in his heyday: If there were justice in the world, none of…
AFTER THE DRIVE-IN
I’ll qualify this circumstance, broadcast, renew this chance Pin hope on this promise Graduate to this settled score … This time I’ll get it right. “Mye,” Austere, Sparta Critics tend to attribute the lyrics to “Mye” to explain the demise of El Paso, Texas indie band At the Drive-In and the formation of Sparta. “You…
TO TELL THE TRUTH
John Taylor’s latest opus tracks the real-life suicide (or was it murder?) of East Coast eccentric Roger de la Burde. Insistently claiming he was a count — a fully fabricated title — Burde grew up in Communist-occupied Poland. Although he had a degree in chemistry and worked for Philip Morris, Burde’s true avocation was collecting…
SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL
In the black-and-white world of the 1950s, the nation’s societal ills went Technicolor through such processes as the House Unamerican Activities Council, the Comstock Act, and electroshock therapy. The life of literary critic Newton Arvin was deeply touched by all three: Throw in his homosexuality, and you have one conflicted member of the intelligentsia. Barry…
NEW REVIEWS
FULL FRONTAL “Far less exposed than the title indicates” Dir. Steven Soderbergh; writ. Coleman Hough; feat. Julia Roberts, Blair Underwood, David Hyde Pierce, Catherine Keener, Mary McCormack, Nicky Katt, David Duchovny (R) Despite the big names in the cast (and the Brad Pitt cameo), casual moviegoers shouldn’t confuse this film with Steven Soderbergh’s last romp,…
SPECIAL SCREENS
MAI’S AMERICA “Hanoi meets Mississippi” Prod & dir. Marlo Poras During what he calls “the American War,” Mai’s father, a successful Hanoi businessman, fought against the foreigners. Hoping now to enroll his adolescent daughter in an American college, he sends her to the United States for her senior year of high school. “To me, America…
SPECIAL SCREENS
MR. SHOW: THE COMPLETE FIRST AND SECOND SEASONS DVD, HBO Video Anyone who has ever sat through an entire episode of Kids in the Hall knows you have to watch a lot of Chicken Lady scenes to get to the legendary “Slipped My Mind” sketch. According to my calculations, even the best sketch comedy is…
