One of my formative images was of punk progenitor Iggy Pop stage-diving onto a field of shattered glass. The dude rose slowly, like a demon out of ooze, gushing corpuscles and grinning like a ghoul. Phoenix New Times
Tony Mandarich bailed on his dying brother to go on a drug run. In another skeevy tale, Mandarich cops to popping barbiturates and mainlining pain meds in the Sun Devil Stadium locker room during a 1991 Cardinals-Packers game. PHOENIX Magazine
Randy Travis is Kool-Aid and coffee on the porch, a Lefty Frizzell song wafting out of the house. Steve Earle is the road and the sky, shots of Cuervo on the wrong side of the border. Dallas Observer
While arresting arrested person Earle, complainant had to use a lateral vascular neck restraint, causing arrested person Earle to lose consciousness. Police report, “The Trial of Steve Earle,” Dallas Observer
Coco Mitchell is a throwback to a vanished age in which sophistication was a tangible thing, like an exquisite fabric rustling against your thigh. Phoenix New Times
Sinatra never wavered in his insistence that Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme swung, baby. I’ve wavered. Houston Press
II was thinkin’. If I lost a little weight, maybe I could do Elvis’ career backwards. The portly Tortelvis of Dread Zeppelin, Scottsdale Progress
Of all the female trailblazers in men’s pro sports, Arizona Cardinals coach Jen Welter was the one that made us go “whoa.” Her sports psychology background and particular blending of tough and tender made Welter the perfect choice to tackle the NFL’s unwritten Catch-22 regarding women. (Haven’t been there? Can’t do that.) On the first female coach in NFL history, PHOENIX Magazine
Am I on crack or are the Arizona Cardinals about to host the NFC Championship Game? Phoenix New Times
When it rains, it sleets. Phoenix New Times
Mark Griffin’s critically acclaimed MC 900 Ft Jesus project is about more than music. “The idea is to create this character who is absolutely crazy, but who thinks he’s a great religious leader, sort of in his own mind. He’s the kind of guy who stands around on a street corner, screaming and babbling. A street prophet. It’s something that’s just coming out of me, I don’t know why. I am MC 900 Ft Jesus! Dallas Observer
The thought of being murdered by a sentient appliance on 12/21/12 isn’t pretty, but I would prefer it to spending eternity with a bunch of granola eaters who can’t do math. Phoenix New Times
In parts, the Tunnel evokes the bland futurism envisioned by author Philip K. Dick in “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale,” the story that influenced the movie Total Recall. “The Tunnel needs to become a much funkier place,” whispered my companion. On Houston’s odd underground kingdom/serfdom, Houston Press
At Seemen parties, there’s white walls, and we’re all wearing suits, and I’m the guy standing there yelling, ‘Here are the T-shirts with “Seemen” on them.’ And our machines rend things. It’s high comedy.” Chicken John, “loudmouth helper guy” for the Seemen robotics collective, Houston Press
I can almost smell the foie gras fajitas David’s not searing up for Clair and Rebecca, who aren’t lounging about in their Pompeii, Inc. cast-aluminum chairs, not reading W and Better Homes and Gardens. Houston Press
Kirsten Dunst’s project [Akihabara Majokko Princess] was not just some dumb idea somebody cooked up for typical reasons of titillation or commercial exploitation, though the video does strike one as pretty dumb until one realizes it’s actually art. LinkedIn
Nina Yankowitz’ piece looks like an explosion in a Brillo factory; it’s a real trick to shoehorn your sphere through one of the narrow slits in the tiny scouring-pad gate fronting the tee. The hole’s central motif is a metalloid giraffe munching on what appears to be a disco ball. Whimsical. On “Putt-Modernism: An Eighteen-Hole Miniature Golf Course and Exhibition,” Houston Press
The mock house is choked with “fine art,” fake busts and mock fireplaces. Many people would consider the effect(s) elegant, opulent. I’m turning a claustrophobic green and clashing with a Waverly wall covering. On the IdeaHouse, a high-end product-placement emporium, Houston Press
It’s the new movement in nightclubs, that Victorian, gothic gaudiness. Well, Edwardian, really. We want quite a mix of people: the suit-and-tie crowd, the American Express Gold Card crowd. Steve Clohessy, Dallas’ Empire club, Dallas Observer
The line “Another motherfucker in a motorcade” is not about Kennedy. I see it as the perfect metaphor for American politics. I think the element of choice in America is sadly lacking. You can choose between one motherfucker in a motorcade and some other motherfucker in a motorcade, but what you get in the end is still another motherfucker in a motorcade. Andrew Eldritch, Sisters of Mercy, Dallas Observer
Look, you corporate buttheads, we’re not cattle. We’re not profit. You can censor us, you can shoot us, you can put us in jail, but you can’t stop rock ‘n’ roll. Mojo Nixon, addressing the assembled music industry at South by Southwest, Dallas Observer
It’s a college radio station! It’s supposed to be cutting-edge. That’s its role. Man, wait until you’re 25 to have your morals raped. Craig “Niteman” Taylor, Dallas Observer
I’m playin’ some nice, sweet songs for these other people, and the rest of you can just shut the fuck up. Robert Earl Keen, Houston Press
The only people I can compare us to are, like, Walt Disney and Shakespeare. The English just flipped for our first album, calling us geniuses and virtuosos, on and on and on, and, you know, all true. Cris Kirkwood, Meat Puppets, Scottsdale Progress
I think the new music that people are gonna find dominating their lives is gonna be the music of The Charlatans. I think Americans should be grateful that a band with the quality of The Charlatans are coming out and touring America. Jon Brookes, The Charlatans UK, Fort Worth Star-Telegram
It’s lonely here at the top. Choreographer Trisha Brown, Houston Press
Every time it appears that [Devo’s] Mark Mothersbaugh has achieved a perfect balance, he throws himself for a loop. When he gets too far afield, he signs on for another Rugrats soundtrack. Phoenix New Times
It was like somebody was whacking a bag full of cats with a bat. On the cancellation of Joss Whedon’s show Firefly, Phoenix New Times
They’d always have a place fenced off. Once in a while, the whites would sneak over and start dancin’. There was just something, the rhythm, whites was tryin’ to learn. If they was caught, they’d escort you back where you was supposed to be — as long as you didn’t give ’em no lip. I saw it all as bein’ stupid then, not just now, you know? Bluesman ZuZu Bollin, Dallas Observer
Damn this losing! If not for all this losing, we’d be winning! The subconscious mind of Derrick Hall, Arizona Diamondbacks executive, Phoenix New Times
There’s a reason baseball has plummeted to third place in the national-pastime sweepstakes. In a word: ennui. In a few more: great shrieking, tedious torpor. Phoenix New Times
The Pittsburgh Pirates are better, and deeper, than they appear. The Arizona Diamondbacks are worse, and shallower. Phoenix New Times
May the least-worst team win. Phoenix New Times
The saloon looks more like Texas than Texas actually looks, but it is, for sure, what Texas is supposed to look like. Dallas Observer
The band’s grab bag of references begins (but doesn’t begin to end) with Hank Williams, Buck Owens, Faron Young, Harlan Howard, Cindy Walker, Johnny Burnette and the Rock and Roll Trio, Don Rich, Jimi Hendrix, Eddie Cochran, surfabilly, Western swing, gutbucket country blues and Texas redneck rock. “You add all that together and man!” Ronnie “Billy Ron” Glover, The Cowbillys, Scottsdale Progress
There’s a world of difference between a jukebox and a box full of moonbeams. Scottsdale Progress
Who are these “musicians,” when do they sleep and, most critical, have they no shame? On Amazon’s Prime Music “tribute” bands, LinkedIn
It’s a much tougher sell for a cover band to get up onstage and do a technically proficient “Walk This Way” than it is for Steven Tyler and Joe Perry to puke it out the way they usually do. In fact, Steve and Joe really only had to play “Walk This Way” well once. An Aerosmith tribute band has to play it perfect every time. Phoenix New Times
That’s the worst thing about this whole music deal. Writing songs and playing music is easy. Coming up with a [band] name is hard. Bruce Connole, The Cryptics, Scottsdale Progress
My cynical friend who is really an idealist views Tracy Chapman as either a relic or a fluke. My friend has simply lost too much to hand over her trust without asking for a receipt. Dallas Observer
I feel much more at home [hanging out with punk musicians] than I feel hobnobbing with the bigwigs. All of these punk rockers are my soul buddies, you know? It’s a decision I’m glad I made, even though I could have been rich right now. Penelope Spheeris, director of The Decline of Western Civilization, SMU Daily Campus
When we first started [in 1979], we were throwing beef liver around, trying to be real punk. David Bean, The Judy’s, Dallas Observer
To live in Houston, “you’ve got to be a Marxist and you’ve got to drive a Lexus.” Art critic/professor Dave Hickey, Houston Press