Restaurant-ing through History has a nifty bit of nostalgia about the old automats that served Philly and New York starting in the early 20th Century. You can think of automats as part vending machine, part post office, walls of little windows where customers deposited coins and then opened the door…
The past few weeks have seen plenty of discussion about House Resolution 875, the Food Safety and Modernization Act of 2009. Some of the extended blog panic includes allegations that Tyson and Cargill, among others, had a hand in drafting the legislation. Whether or not that’s the case, there’s legitimate…
Clearing out a slight backlog, we’ve got more national acts than usual to add to this week’s list. And with summer only a few months away, now’s the time for the big outdoor venues to fill their calendars. Besides the acts in the headline, you can look forward to Motley…
If the only Beatles songs you ever heard came from the White Album, what would you think when you finally heard Meet the Beatles? Taking a look at the range of photographer Barbara Crane’s work, it’s possible she espouses an even greater dynamic range in her choice of styles and…
More than 100 pinball machines, all set to free play, and not a deaf, dumb, blind kid in sight. It might sound like some crazy pinballer’s fantasy, but it came true this weekend at the Texas Pinball Festival.Collectors and enthusiasts from around the country descended on Grapevine to show off…
It’s St. Patrick’s Day…or soon will be, anyway. Or, wait–we just had it on Saturday, right? So by now you’ve read a dozen stories about the mythologized “perfect pour” of Guinness . To hear someone going on about it at the bar sounds anal retentive at best (and pretentious at…
If you managed a band in 1999 and told your clients to forget the major labels and focus on “social networking” while giving away free tracks–you wouldn’t have lasted long enough to even be working today. But at least you could say “I told ya so.” Ten years (and countless…
BAND: FishboyVENUE: BanterTIME: 9 (or thereabouts)If you didn’t catch Fishboy at its Sunday night NX35 gig, you missed out on on an hour of manic, jangly-stringed, hollow-bodied goodness. Oh, and stirring mid-song conversation: “Settle a bet for me,” singer Eric Michener, aka Fishboy, asked the crowd. “Does ‘panini’ just mean ‘smashed sandwich?'”…
When times get tough, people need comfort food. But with BPA in soda cans, blood thickening energy drinks and stroke-inducing alcohol, what can we safely eat to feel guilty and gluttonous at the same time? Answer: Foie gras. Nothing says “comfort” like an overfed liver. The downside? It’s damn expensive…
It’s a story we’ve all heard before: Artists move into the cheap end of town, start doing … whatever it is artists do, and pretty soon developers, city officials and moneyed trophy wives all want a piece of the scene. This “gentrification,” as it’s known in places like Asheville and…
Who doesn’t love a good theme restaurant? Maybe it’s just the clever new names–rainforest burgers and such–for geezerly menu items, but you can’t deny those little extras. From a giant race car above the bar to the chance to sit next to one of Madonna’s sweat-stained concert outfits, concepts often…
When you’re pouring out Fluffy’s daily ration of Meow Mix, have you ever been tempted to try a bite? If the fancy does strike you, you’ll be happy to know that Popular Science declares cat food safe for human consumption, though not exactly the basis for a nutritious diet. The…
This week’s booking announcements comprises a pretty long list and features a few out-of-mind national acts–including A Flock of Seagulls, Live, and that band with the one-armed drummer. SXSW bookings are still coming in too, with a venue change for the Whispertown 2000. And, to top it all off, Lola’s…
The Saturday turnout for this year’s North Texas Irish Festival was pretty solid, even before taking into account the steep price of admission — 15 bucks a pop! Who knew so many people were itching to wear a kilt in public? Then again, it’s really the only day of the…
Of all the socially reinforced standards of behavior to which we must adhere, tipping must be the most, well, quietly awkward. There’s often an internal debate: was the service that good? Hell, not really. But I don’t want to look cheap. Then again, I gotta pay the cell phone bill…On…
The state of some food these days is enough to make a man go hungry rather than risk consuming the contents of many processed and pre-packaged items. If it’s not salmonella-tainted peanuts, it’s energy drinks that turn your blood into syrup. Health Canada recently found that 96 percent of sodas…
Not that I’d complain about an excuse to booze it before noon–I usually find there aren’t enough–but St. Patrick’s Day does have its shortcomings if we want to fully understand the sacrifices and celebrate the contributions made by the Irish to U.S. culture and society. Mixed in among the upbeat…
America in 2009 is a tough place for the working class. Lay-offs could be reported like the weather, with a five-day forecast (mostly cloudy with occasional drizzle), while CEOs head to sunny Dubai with billions of our tax dollars in their pockets. The few manufacturing plants left plan on moving…
This week’s show announcements include the Let it Rock Tour (with headliner Kevin Rudolf, pictured above), Billy Joe Shaver and Aesop Rock. Complete listing after the jump…
Books about dieting and weight loss. Geez, the shelves are packed full of some expert’s latest “scientific” finding, or maybe a “re-discovery” of what humans are supposed to eat in the wild (nuts, berries and kuchikami at parties). The one thing all the books share in common is a claim…
Starting with Red Bull, the energy drink craze quickly devolved developed into a shameless marketing frenzy. Every new brand blurs the line between serious marketing venture and pathetic self parody. We’ve reported previously on the strange level of demand for these cans of processed sugar and caffeine, but their popularity…
Say what you want about the aesthetic merits of urban graffiti, but you can’t deny its effectiveness as a medium. Like anti-billboards, tags and murals are messages we can’t avoid receiving, in a world where nearly everything comes on-demand with a built-in spam blocker. Spray-painted works on buildings, sidewalks, DART…
