by Will Guess Remember when bands in the late 80s and early 90s had a limitless budget and were able to create elaborate, ridiculous music videos?  With a budget of $4 million and Axl Rose’s genius mind, it is the indisputable truth that “Estranged” by Guns N’ Roses is the greatest music video of all time.  Before your inner dialogue starts and tells you why you’re right and I’m wrong, allow me to present to you a series of exhibits that includes a walkthrough and screenshots to prove it. Exhibit A: The video opens with an enormous amount of police, ... Read More »

This is a banner weekend for movies at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Not only are they unspooling a retrospective on the Quay Brothers but they are also unreeling a bona fide classic war (or anti war if you’re reading the signs) movie, Gillo Pontecorvo’s The Battle of Algiers. Pontecorvo broke the mold on war procedural movies with Battle of Algiers (1966), a film that examines France’s war with Algeria in the late ‘50s. A film on urban guerilla war, Battle of Algiers exists as a blank canvas of battle that can be read two ways. In one sense ... Read More »

Malcolm McDowell doesn’t always play the bad guy or exclusively star in horror movies, and in fact if you gazed at his over 100 credits you’d notice an equal number of regular roles as villainous ones. For every appearance in a Silent Hill or Halloween movie McDowell has also played a principal in movies like Easy A or done a voice-over in an animated film like Bolt. “We just got renewed for a third season,” McDowell tells Free Press Houston in an exclusive interview regarding the series Franklin & Bash. “I like being on that show because it’s a fun ... Read More »

By: Erin Dyer Houston homeowners Aisling and Wes Jones’ beloved pet was suddenly shot dead at their home last month. Boss was an eight-year-old, 54-pound Boxer dog that the couple had had in their family since Boss was just six weeks old. Like many others who raise and love their pets, Boss was like “their very own child” and is deeply missed. Free Press Houston spoke with Aisling about the details of the events that lead up to Boss’s untimely demise – one that she and her family consider to be a horrific tragedy. According to Aisling, on the day ... Read More »

Cut To The Chase: The Charley Chase Comedy Collection (11/6) offers five hours of comedy shorts on two discs, many directed by Leo McCarey (Duck Soup) between 1924-26. Chase has been hidden but not forgotten by time, overshadowed by true innovators of cinema like Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. Chase will make you smile but next to Chaplin or Keaton watching his silent two-reelers is practically academic. Some of the actors that appear in the Chase comedies would go on to prominent careers of their own in the ‘30s, like Fay Wray (King Kong) or Oliver Hardy (part of the ... Read More »

by Omar Afra Our inbox is regularly bombarded with notifications of every happening in this city from every rapper’s new release to heartwarming stories of how Shell donated 18 bux to a kid’s college fund. We are more than desensitized to the absurd and ridiculous coming through every morning. But I got something today that would be comical had it not been true: Rock Springs Apartments at 9000 Town Center Park has sent out letters to all of its residents to report the presence of ” any teenagers or adolescents of the Afro-American race or other suspicious people on the ... Read More »

Houston is well-known for experimental music/noise and risk-taking performance art, but the literary landscape is rather safe, tepid, and bland. Poet / translator / interpreter / educator / collaborator / organizer / interdisciplinary artist John Pluecker is trying to change that. Read More »

Were Richard Scarry still alive today, he’d surely add Sandy Ewen, one of Houston’s most active and engaging performers, to his Busy, Busy World children’s books.  To the average Joe, her schedule would seem exhausting but whether performing with Weird Weeds, creating visual art, performing solo, or playing with various other performers, she is someone with seemingly boundless energy, enthusiasm, and curiosity.  This November and December are no exception as Ewen not only has a visual art show but also multiple performances in which she is either performing or organizing.  We somehow got her to sit still enough for us to have ... Read More »

In the wake of last week's election, there has been much gloating and vindication over the deceitful speciousness of right-wing media. What this glosses over, though, is that most US media are corporate-controlled and designed to deliver eyeballs to advertisers--they are not designed to inject deep and complex truths into the national discourse. Read More »

I was asked by an anarchist newspaper in Caracas, Venezuela to write about our recent election. I don't know if the readers knew much about our "system" of government. This is what I came up with. Read More »