News Brief
Deck Missing: Orange County Investigator’s Dignity You gotta love Texas justice, such as this kind request posted on a Texas prosecutors’ messageboard (Tdcaa.infopop.net) on Saturday: “Please put a good country ass whoopin on whoever is wearing `my badge`, prior to placing them in jail,” wrote Kevin Breshears, an investigator with the Orange County District Attorney’s…
News Brief
Deck Missing: Orange County Investigator’s Dignity You gotta love Texas justice, such as this kind request posted on a Texas prosecutors’ messageboard (Tdcaa.infopop.net) on Saturday: “Please put a good country ass whoopin on whoever is wearing `my badge`, prior to placing them in jail,” wrote Kevin Breshears, an investigator with the Orange County District Attorney’s…
News Brief
Deck Missing: Orange County Investigator’s Dignity You gotta love Texas justice, such as this kind request posted on a Texas prosecutors’ messageboard (Tdcaa.infopop.net) on Saturday: “Please put a good country ass whoopin on whoever is wearing `my badge`, prior to placing them in jail,” wrote Kevin Breshears, an investigator with the Orange County District Attorney’s…
News Brief
Deck Missing: Orange County Investigator’s Dignity You gotta love Texas justice, such as this kind request posted on a Texas prosecutors’ messageboard (Tdcaa.infopop.net) on Saturday: “Please put a good country ass whoopin on whoever is wearing `my badge`, prior to placing them in jail,” wrote Kevin Breshears, an investigator with the Orange County District Attorney’s…
Musical Melting Pot
Songs for a New World 8pm Thu-Sat; dinner at 6pm Through Jan 6 $20 show; $39.95 show + dinner Church Bistro and Theatre 271-7791 Churchbistroandtheatre.com Do you ever wonder what happens to all those songs that are written for musicals that never come to fruition? Do they end up in exile on some mythical Island…
That’s a Wrap
Rocky Balboa. Man. Rocky. Freaking. Balboa. Wow. Well, now, look. I know no one was really asking for another go-round. I wasn’t. Folks are still pissed about Rocky V and Tommy Gunn, the little prick. But I’ve been looking at the throwbackish publicity materials, and hey — it’s Rocko. Y’know? He’s from Philly, he punches…
Learning to Get Into Oxford
The students of History Boys pose for the most casual class photo ever. Teach for the test, or reach for the truth? A conflict between two versions of education provides the dramatic premise of The History Boys, which is set at a Yorkshire school in 1983. Hector (Griffiths), a rumpled tub of a teacher who…
Dead Ringers
Gore, guns, and Busey abound in scenes from Snakes on a Train, 666: The Child, and H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds. The girl in the tree is unconscious. She’s pretty, with arching eyebrows, reddish hair swept from her cheeks by an unruly ponytail, and large, presumably expressive eyes (they’re closed — unconscious, remember?), but…
Musical Melting Pot
Songs for a New World 8pm Thu-Sat; dinner at 6pm Through Jan 6 $20 show; $39.95 show + dinner Church Bistro and Theatre 271-7791 Churchbistroandtheatre.com Do you ever wonder what happens to all those songs that are written for musicals that never come to fruition? Do they end up in exile on some mythical Island…
Holiday Horror Show
Once Upon … Happily After By appointment only Through Dec 29 Unit B (Gallery) 500 Stieren Street 312-375-1871 Too much holiday cheer got you down? Check out the decorations at Unit B’s exhibition Once Upon … Happily After. You’ll see coffins instead of sleighs, skulls instead of sugarplums, and snowy scenery, with dark references to…
That’s a Wrap
Rocky Balboa. Man. Rocky. Freaking. Balboa. Wow. Well, now, look. I know no one was really asking for another go-round. I wasn’t. Folks are still pissed about Rocky V and Tommy Gunn, the little prick. But I’ve been looking at the throwbackish publicity materials, and hey — it’s Rocko. Y’know? He’s from Philly, he punches…
All Ears
11
The Green Goddess &ndash Changing the world one shopper at a time
Once upon a time, in a kingdom far, far away, there lived a kindly but very sad fellow who struggled and toiled because of his indentured servitude to the Man. All poor John Boy dreamed of was attending the holiday ball, but year after year his inbox remained a barren wasteland. John Boy’s lonely life…
Dead Ringers
111
All Ears
Rock me, Amadeus: Now you can hear every Mozart piece ever written with the Digital Mozart Edition and other collections of the composer’s complete repertoire. Last week, the New York Times reported on a Christmas gift sure to warm the hearts of musicians and scholars the world over: the Digital Mozart Edition, an online archive…
The Green Goddess &ndash Changing the world one shopper at a time
Once upon a time, in a kingdom far, far away, there lived a kindly but very sad fellow who struggled and toiled because of his indentured servitude to the Man. All poor John Boy dreamed of was attending the holiday ball, but year after year his inbox remained a barren wasteland. John Boy’s lonely life…
Dead Ringers
111
All Ears
Rock me, Amadeus: Now you can hear every Mozart piece ever written with the Digital Mozart Edition and other collections of the composer’s complete repertoire. Last week, the New York Times reported on a Christmas gift sure to warm the hearts of musicians and scholars the world over: the Digital Mozart Edition, an online archive…
The Green Goddess &ndash Changing the world one shopper at a time
Once upon a time, in a kingdom far, far away, there lived a kindly but very sad fellow who struggled and toiled because of his indentured servitude to the Man. All poor John Boy dreamed of was attending the holiday ball, but year after year his inbox remained a barren wasteland. John Boy’s lonely life…
Dead Ringers
111
Learning to Get Into Oxford
The students of History Boys pose for the most casual class photo ever. Teach for the test, or reach for the truth? A conflict between two versions of education provides the dramatic premise of The History Boys, which is set at a Yorkshire school in 1983. Hector (Griffiths), a rumpled tub of a teacher who…
Traveling Music
111
The Mashup
Welcome to Texas, the world’s largest theme park dedicated to the Carboniferous Period, that Paleozoic paradise when ferns, trees, and algae gave their lives so that we could foreshorten ours in the 21st century. I’m not talking about Dinosaur State Park in Glen Rose, where you can slosh barefooted up the warm, shallow Paluxy river…
The Green Goddess &ndash Changing the world one shopper at a time
Once upon a time, in a kingdom far, far away, there lived a kindly but very sad fellow who struggled and toiled because of his indentured servitude to the Man. All poor John Boy dreamed of was attending the holiday ball, but year after year his inbox remained a barren wasteland. John Boy’s lonely life…
Dead Ringers
111
We Are Suprised
SPOILER WARNING: Don’t get too attached to Robert Patrick in this one. Just sayin’. Poor bastard doesn’t even get a credit, far as I can tell. Upon reading the synopsis for We Are Marshall, I gave a silent, inward sigh. All right, I thought resignedly. Yet another entrant in the swelling parade of passable, PG-rated,…
Traveling Music
Producer and lyricist Notes, top, and beatsmith Mnolo are the hip-hop duo Walking Sticks. Meet the Walking Sticks, the first hip-hop support group and the latest project of beatsmith Manuel Antonio Escobar, aka Mnolo, and Scott Walsh, the producer/lyricist known simply as Notes. The duo met through fellow hip-hop enthusiast Ernest Gonzales of Exponential Records…
The Mashup
From the Editor Welcome to Texas, the world’s largest theme park dedicated to the Carboniferous Period, that Paleozoic paradise when ferns, trees, and algae gave their lives so that we could foreshorten ours in the 21st century. I’m not talking about Dinosaur State Park in Glen Rose, where you can slosh barefooted up the warm,…
The Green Goddess &ndash Changing the world one shopper at a time
Once upon a time, in a kingdom far, far away, there lived a kindly but very sad fellow who struggled and toiled because of his indentured servitude to the Man. All poor John Boy dreamed of was attending the holiday ball, but year after year his inbox remained a barren wasteland. John Boy’s lonely life…
Dead Ringers
111
Got Faith?
111
Battle of the Barrel
Texas Microbrewer’s Dream #1: After visitors have smelled the kettle and sampled the beer selection on the Saturday tour at St. Arnold’s Brewery in Houston, they typically ask to buy a six-pack of longnecks to take home. Founder Brock Wagner’s dream is to be able to sell it to them rather than send them to…
Hustle and Flow
In the breakdown of the greatest all-time NBA centers, Hakeem “the Dream” Olajuwon usually sits at number five, right behind Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Shaquille O’Neal, and slightly ahead of David Robinson. Despite winning back-to-back championships in the 90’s, Olajuwon’s Rockets have been historically underrated, particularly because their title runs came when…
The Green Goddess &ndash Changing the world one shopper at a time
Once upon a time, in a kingdom far, far away, there lived a kindly but very sad fellow who struggled and toiled because of his indentured servitude to the Man. All poor John Boy dreamed of was attending the holiday ball, but year after year his inbox remained a barren wasteland. John Boy’s lonely life…
Dead Ringers
111
Got Faith?
“Mel said I get to have the bigger loincloth!”: Natives slug it out in Apocalypto. The religious drama Guadalupe opened in U.S. theaters Dec. 8, just one week after its Mexican debut and the same day as Mel Gibson’s much-discussed Apocalypto. Both films were pegged to the week of Dec. 12, the feast day for…
Choke
A not-so hypothetical: You’re puffing away on a cancer stick outside the Rivercenter Mall and some soccer mom keeps firing knife-edged scowls at you. You ignore her scorn and count smoke rings until she stomps over and asks you to respectfully estinguish it. What do you do? You could stub it out. Or you could…
The Green Goddess &ndash Changing the world one shopper at a time
Once upon a time, in a kingdom far, far away, there lived a kindly but very sad fellow who struggled and toiled because of his indentured servitude to the Man. All poor John Boy dreamed of was attending the holiday ball, but year after year his inbox remained a barren wasteland. John Boy’s lonely life…
Dead Ringers
111
Choke
A not-so hypothetical: You’re puffing away on a cancer stick outside the Rivercenter Mall and some soccer mom keeps firing knife-edged scowls at you. You ignore her scorn and count smoke rings until she stomps over and asks you to respectfully estinguish it. What do you do? You could stub it out. Or you could…
The Green Goddess &ndash Changing the world one shopper at a time
Once upon a time, in a kingdom far, far away, there lived a kindly but very sad fellow who struggled and toiled because of his indentured servitude to the Man. All poor John Boy dreamed of was attending the holiday ball, but year after year his inbox remained a barren wasteland. John Boy’s lonely life…
Dead Ringers
Gore, guns, and Busey abound in scenes from Snakes on a Train, 666: The Child, and H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds. The girl in the tree is unconscious. She’s pretty, with arching eyebrows, reddish hair swept from her cheeks by an unruly ponytail, and large, presumably expressive eyes (they’re closed — unconscious, remember?), but…
Jingle Bombs (And Belles)
Every July, I find myself inexplicably thinking about Christmas cartoons and movies. Whenever I hear a piano song by, say, Billy Joel, I’ll think of Vince Guaraldi’s instantly recognizable keys, every commercial narrator selling toothpaste or coffee will start to sound a lot like Burl Ives, and I will occasionally be seized by the inability…
Dead Ringers
Gore, guns, and Busey abound in scenes from Snakes on a Train, 666: The Child, and H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds. The girl in the tree is unconscious. She’s pretty, with arching eyebrows, reddish hair swept from her cheeks by an unruly ponytail, and large, presumably expressive eyes (they’re closed — unconscious, remember?), but…
The Say-Town Lowdown
As with any un-televised revolution, there are people who manage to blissfully sashay through life unaware, until a battering ram knocks down their front door and men with red scarves tied around their necks crawl in through the windows. That’s what happened to State Representative Vicki Truitt after the Republican lawmaker from Keller filed House…
Arabian Nights and American Centuries
By Steven G. Kellman If you want to understand a nation’s interests, follow the money. And on the back of every dollar bill, find an Egyptian pyramid. American involvement with the Middle East is older than the United States of America. To pious English colonists more knowledgeable about Jerusalem and Jericho than Paris and Rome,…
Middle-Eastern Respite
Petra Coffee House 7959 Fredericksburg 614-0700 Tucked away in one of the anonymous strip centers of the city-within-the-city that is the South Texas Medical Center, there’s a small, clean, cozy little bistro called the Petra Coffee Shop. With a full array of excellent coffees and teas at reasonable prices, Petra is a valuable commodity for…
Jingle Bombs (And Belles)
Every July, I find myself inexplicably thinking about Christmas cartoons and movies. Whenever I hear a piano song by, say, Billy Joel, I’ll think of Vince Guaraldi’s instantly recognizable keys, every commercial narrator selling toothpaste or coffee will start to sound a lot like Burl Ives, and I will occasionally be seized by the inability…
Dead Ringers
Gore, guns, and Busey abound in scenes from Snakes on a Train, 666: The Child, and H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds. The girl in the tree is unconscious. She’s pretty, with arching eyebrows, reddish hair swept from her cheeks by an unruly ponytail, and large, presumably expressive eyes (they’re closed — unconscious, remember?), but…
They Don’t Care If You’re More Than a Pretty Face
It was Saturday evening, downtown near District 1 Councilman Roger Flores’s La Paloma restaurant. Michael John and his wife strolled the River Walk with their vending merchandise cleverly hidden beneath a black trash bag, so as not to disrupt the “ambience of the River Walk” with blinking lights and Santa hats. They were looking to…
Arabian Nights and American Centuries
Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present By Michael B. Oren W. W. Norton $29.95, 736 pages If you want to understand a nation’s interests, follow the money. And on the back of every dollar bill, find an Egyptian pyramid. American involvement with the Middle East is older than…
The Bar Tab
Pointe Martini Lounge 19178 Blanco, Ste. 201 494-0910 thepointeml.com Martinis circa $7.50 The Pointe Martini Lounge is like that relationship between the psycho freakazoid who nukes all your CDs in the microwave upon breakup, and your one true love — not good, not bad, just “eh.” It’ll get you by in a friendly, inoffensive way,…
Dead Ringers
Gore, guns, and Busey abound in scenes from Snakes on a Train, 666: The Child, and H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds. The girl in the tree is unconscious. She’s pretty, with arching eyebrows, reddish hair swept from her cheeks by an unruly ponytail, and large, presumably expressive eyes (they’re closed — unconscious, remember?), but…
Merry Christmas, Mr. Bonilla
Cross off the Texas Democrats. They already got what amounts to a holiday horn o’ plenty in these red-state woods when they picked up five seats in the state House of Reps, sprayed their donkey scent over every Dallas County seat in the heart of Bush Country, and soiled Tom DeLay’s old Sugarland roost. And…
Arabian Nights and American Centuries
Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present By Michael B. Oren W. W. Norton $29.95, 736 pages If you want to understand a nation’s interests, follow the money. And on the back of every dollar bill, find an Egyptian pyramid. American involvement with the Middle East is older than…
Ask the Chef
Dear CBA, I just heard something on the radio about fried Coke. That sounds 1) totally disgusting, and 2) kind of impossible. I would think that the Coke would dissipate into the grease, and you would basically have to drink the grease in order to drink the fried Coke. What am I missing here? —Cola…
Dead Ringers
Gore, guns, and Busey abound in scenes from Snakes on a Train, 666: The Child, and H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds. The girl in the tree is unconscious. She’s pretty, with arching eyebrows, reddish hair swept from her cheeks by an unruly ponytail, and large, presumably expressive eyes (they’re closed — unconscious, remember?), but…
Merry Christmas, Mr. Bonilla
Cross off the Texas Democrats. They already got what amounts to a holiday horn o’ plenty in these red-state woods when they picked up five seats in the state House of Reps, sprayed their donkey scent over every Dallas County seat in the heart of Bush Country, and soiled Tom DeLay’s old Sugarland roost. And…
Game Theory
111
Ask the Chef
The chef disdains Coca-Cola almost as much as he does McDonald’s. (Almost.) Dear CBA, I just heard something on the radio about fried Coke. That sounds 1) totally disgusting, and 2) kind of impossible. I would think that the Coke would dissipate into the grease, and you would basically have to drink the grease in…
Aural Pleasure
Remixed and Reimagined Nina Simone (Sony Legacy) Nina Simone’s stylized covers of everyone from Leonard Cohen to the Five Stairsteps made her pop’s first true remixer and re-interpreter, spanning the jazz era’s taste for revisiting standards and foreshadowing the irony of today’s pop world and its unlikely covers. On this disc of remixes and reimaginings,…
Dead Ringers
Gore, guns, and Busey abound in scenes from Snakes on a Train, 666: The Child, and H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds. The girl in the tree is unconscious. She’s pretty, with arching eyebrows, reddish hair swept from her cheeks by an unruly ponytail, and large, presumably expressive eyes (they’re closed — unconscious, remember?), but…
Battle of the Barrel
The Blue Star beer pig fits conveniently in your fridge, but you can’t buy a six pack at H-E-B. Texas Microbrewer’s Dream #1: After visitors have smelled the kettle and sampled the beer selection on the Saturday tour at St. Arnold’s Brewery in Houston, they typically ask to buy a six-pack of longnecks to take…
Game Theory
R-I-P Rascal, a very real cat. She died without warning. Over the course of three days, a run-of-the-mill urinary-tract infection turned into congestive heart failure. In the middle of the night, the doctor called to tell me that cardiac seizures were gripping her little body. There were shouts in the background, and the phone tumbled…
Aural Pleasure
Remixed and Reimagined Nina Simone (Sony Legacy) Nina Simone’s stylized covers of everyone from Leonard Cohen to the Five Stairsteps made her pop’s first true remixer and re-interpreter, spanning the jazz era’s taste for revisiting standards and foreshadowing the irony of today’s pop world and its unlikely covers. On this disc of remixes and reimaginings,…
Dead Ringers
Gore, guns, and Busey abound in scenes from Snakes on a Train, 666: The Child, and H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds. The girl in the tree is unconscious. She’s pretty, with arching eyebrows, reddish hair swept from her cheeks by an unruly ponytail, and large, presumably expressive eyes (they’re closed — unconscious, remember?), but…
Choke
A not-so hypothetical: You’re puffing away on a cancer stick outside the Rivercenter Mall and some soccer mom keeps firing knife-edged scowls at you. You ignore her scorn and count smoke rings until she stomps over and asks you to respectfully estinguish it. What do you do? You could stub it out. Or you could…
Edible Christmas Wreaths
A Spanish-Mexican-Italian hybrid: Spanish chorizo, red jalapeños, queso añejo and fresh avocado top refried beans, roasted garlic, and a masa crust. Writer and satirist Calvin Trillin once opined, perhaps not altogether facetiously, that the turkey was a poor choice for Thanksgiving dinner despite its native-bird status and (likely erroneous) association with the Pilgrim’s first feast.…
Sound and the Fury
HARK THE GRACKLE ANGELS SING As the shopping days dwindle and the eggnog begins to settle uncomfortably, the good news for San Antonians is that while schools and offices are shutting down for the holidays, the music scene offers some worthy get-out-of-the-house options: Augie Meyers is San Antonio’s greatest living music legend and anytime he…
Dead Ringers
Gore, guns, and Busey abound in scenes from Snakes on a Train, 666: The Child, and H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds. The girl in the tree is unconscious. She’s pretty, with arching eyebrows, reddish hair swept from her cheeks by an unruly ponytail, and large, presumably expressive eyes (they’re closed — unconscious, remember?), but…
