Most Popular
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Barack Obama and Me
It was the year 2000 and I was a young hungry reporter in Chicago covering a young hungry state legislator
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Mescaline on the Mexican Border
Texas is the only state in the country where peyote is sold legally. Really.
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A Prison Cover-up During Hurricane Rita
For days after the storm, inmates in Beaumont lived without A/C, electricity or hot meals. Press releases kept saying everything inside was fine. Guards and prisoners agree — that was nothing but B.S.
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Little Bitty Burger Barn
"It's okay to be little bitty in the big city" is an apt slogan for this new burger joint, where sliders rule
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Ghost Town CFS: Carriage House Cafe
Step back in time — to a spooky old carriage barn with a monster chicken-fried steak
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Barack Obama and Me (246)
It was the year 2000 and I was a young hungry reporter in Chicago covering a young hungry state legislator
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Save Lobo: A Siberian Husky Mix is Sentenced to Die (28)
Why? Because he's big and intimidating and because one family complained about him over and over again
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A Prison Cover-up During Hurricane Rita (13)
For days after the storm, inmates in Beaumont lived without A/C, electricity or hot meals. Press releases kept saying everything inside was fine. Guards and prisoners agree — that was nothing but B.S.
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Are You Hot Enough for Citizen Lounge? (6)
All This Useless Beauty
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Rotten to the Corps: A Question of Justice at Texas A&M (140)
Thanks to A& M and a district attorney, two cadets escape punishment for beating in a student's face
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Are You Hot Enough for Citizen Lounge?
All This Useless Beauty
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Tired of the Hype, But That's All There Is
Next month, Houston gets to be a cool kid. But only for a week.
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The improbable redemption of Ashlee Simpson
"La La" Love You
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Rap's Rapidly Vanishing Female MC
The Why Chromosome
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A New Official State Song for Texas?
A case for a new — or different, anyway — state song
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Geraldo Rivera Is Stupid: A Review of His Panic: Why Americans Fear Hispanics in the U.S.
06:06AM 03/09/08 -
Weekend Music: Help Save the Houston Music Scene
03:54PM 03/07/08 -
To Do: Hockey and Roller Derby
04:12PM 03/07/08 -
Sausage Fest: Bangers and Mash at Red Lion Pub
11:40AM 03/08/08
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Recent Articles By Michael Roberts
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Hellyeah
Hellyeah
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VietNam
VietNam performs Friday, June 8, at the Mink, 3718 Main, 713-522-9985.
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TV on the Radio
TV on the Radio performs Friday, April 6, at the Meridian, 1503 Chartres, 713-225-1717.
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The Game
Doctor's Advocate
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Badly Drawn Boy
Born in the U.K.
National Features
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SF Weekly
The Candidate
Our columnist knows Ralph Nader's running mate all too well.
By Matt Smith -
The Pitch
How Not To Be a Rap Star
First of all, lay off the Ecstasy.
By Nadia Pflaum -
Village Voice
Project Runaway
What becomes a gossip columnist most?
By Michael Musto
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Isis proves that beauty and brutality aren't mutually exclusive.
Subject(s): Isis
The "thinking-man's metal" tag that hangs on Isis seems bad for business, but guitarist/vocalist Aaron Turner and his comrades don't appear to mind. After all, the jacket of their new CD includes the quote "Nothing is true, everything is permitted" that inspired the album's title, as well as a quasi-footnote conceding that historians debate the line's origin. Then again, honesty in advertising is appropriate, since Isis's exciting work requires that listeners know how to use their heads for something other than banging.
Every track on In the Absence of Truth, from "Wrists of Kings" to "Garden of Light," contains more than its share of fascination, but "Dulcinea" could serve as a template. The tune juxtaposes lovely singing and harsh growling, not to mention delicate guitar arpeggios and surging power chords, even as it makes room for Aaron Harris's roiling drums, Jeff Caxide's inventive bass lines and Bryant Clifford Meyer's atmospheric electronic treatments. The results prove that beauty and brutality aren't mutually exclusive. And that's the truth.
