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At first glance, Luis Alberto Urrea's new novel Into the Beautiful North seems rather lighthearted: After all the young men in her small Mexican town leave to work in America, a young woman lives in fear of drug lords. Then she sees the film The Magnificent Seven and decides that she and her town need protectors like those in Yul Brynner's band, so she heads north to lure the young men back.... More >>
Haste The Day's new LP, Attack Of The Wolf King, doesn't come out for another week but it is already being hailed by insiders as the band's definitive album. The band is hitting close to the decade mark and shows no signs of slowing and as with all Christian metal bands, don't discount them when it comes to utter hardness. It's a common misconception among laypeople. The touring for Wolf King... More >>
Taiwan's best photographers contributed images to the "Enchanting Taiwan" exhibition currently on display at the O'Kane Gallery. The 30 images that make up the exhibition include portraits of native peoples, lush, rolling landscapes and holiday celebrations. They reveal little-known aspects of Taiwanese culture. There's an opening reception at noon, June 3. Regular viewing hours are 10 a.m. to... More >>
You don't have to miss a single G-O-O-O-A-L during the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa -- just find the nearest bar stool and you're set. Dozens of bars around town are screening matches on oversize, high-def televisions so that fans can see every kick, foul, block and piece of dexterous footwork in amazingly clear detail. Add to that the fact that waitstaff will keep the liquid refreshments... More >>
Animation has evolved far beyond the 2-D, hand-drawn princesses of Disney's Golden Age, but even with help from computers, it still requires a lot of brainpower - from both the left and right sides. This is the central theme of the Health Museum's "Animation" exhibit, which, with help from the Cartoon Network, shows the science and the silliness of the craft. Featuring clips and backstage info... More >>
During his split set with Bun B during this year’s Summerfest, Slim Thug seemed to own the crowd, if not Houston, during his half-hour on the mike. Tonight the rapper holds down the fort at House of Blues, while he prepares his new release The Thug Show for mass consumption this summer. More >>
We have become so used to photography that we often forget what it actually is: a print made with light. The ongoing exhibition "Printing with Light" at the Museum of Printing History, part of FotoFest 2010, shows modern examples of all kinds of different techniques, including platinum prints, tintypes, cyanotypes, VanDyke prints, salt prints and gelatin silver, along with descriptions of the... More >>
Like many successful comic book artists, Ron Regé, Jr. is used to giving slideshow-powered readings to the public. Also like his cohorts, Regé isn't sure that's the best way to present his work to fans. The artist behind The Cartoon Utopia, an ongoing series of comics about a futuristic world, says his work is meant to be seen and not heard. "The idea of transforming it to... More >>
The opening lines of Sandy Tseng's poem "City View" capture the essence of her collection Sediment (2009). "In the window where the city is contained, / where rain collects along the edges like words moving over the tongue, / the space between two people narrow and widen / and narrow again." Cityscapes, nature and relationships are reoccurring themes in Tseng's first book of poetry. "[It's]... More >>
If the mystical and biblical imagery in Dead Meadow’s new concert film and accompanying soundtrack doesn’t get your Led Zeppelin-loving heart racing, then you must be made of stone. Mixing live footage of the Washington, D.C.-based band’s show with clips full of smoke, cloaks and automatic weapons, Three Kings is the band’s The Song Remains The Same for a new age. DM’s... More >>
You may remember Big Bad Voodoo Daddy from the late ’90s swing craze and the man-bible flick Swingers. For the uninitiated, the band was one of the most popular nouveau-swing bands of that era, standing right next to Royal Crown Revue, the Brian Setzer Orchestra and Cherry Poppin’ Daddies on the pop charts and countless national tours. You couldn’t turn on a television without... More >>
While most of the animal attractions at the Downtown Aquarium are decidedly, well, aquatic, the furry charms of the attraction's stable of white tigers (Nero, Marina, Coral and Reef for those of you keeping score) attract quite a few fans as well. The rare beasts will get their own time in the spotlight during Tiger Weekend. "We'll have conservation information, shows, crafts and... More >>
Suburban Warfare is one of those young bands you stumble on that give you hope for the future. Led by singer/rhythm guitarist Cari Quoyeser, the ensemble rocks with a classic yet fresh sound, but that's not their only trick. The violin-laden "High Flyin'" is moody, jammy and emotive, like some Feist deep cut. Quoyeser's voice floats over the transcendent melody with ache, foreboding and hope... More >>
According to Hotel California, Barney Hoskyns’ engrossing history of Los Angeles country-rock, older California heads like David Crosby and Gram Parsons disliked the Eagles when the quartet started out in the early 1970s. They were too packaged, they thought, performing with a professionalism that bordered on sterile. Yet it’s the Eagles dogged adherence to consistency that saved... More >>
George Bernard Shaw's Candida is a pre-Christina Aguilera exploration of "what a girl wants / what a girl needs." The story follows Candida, a poet in 1800s London wedded to a prominent clergyman, who owes much of his success to his wife's talent with words. Their life is disrupted when she goes away for a vacation, where she catches the eye (and ear) of another poet, Eugene Marchbanks, who... More >>
Given the goody-goody image she cultivated on American Idol, Jordin Sparks seemed an unlikely candidate to sell a song like "Battlefield," the title track from her 2009 sophomore disc. Last time we caught her, though, she came on way stronger than expected, making the Jonas Brothers (for whom she was opening) look like little boys. Not a miracle, perhaps, but a nice surprise. More >>
We could go on and on naming the circles that form in the natural world (whirlpools, tree rings, planets...), those that are essential in industry (wheels, gears...) and those that are cultural symbols (the yin and yang, the Olympic rings...), but we don't have to because the Children's Museum of Houston has an exhibit featuring a number of interactive activities based on the round shapes. The... More >>
