By Michael Corcoran Six miles east of the downtown Beaumont exit, Interstate 10 splits the town of Vidor into near equal portions, like the hyphen between semi and rural. From the overpass at Main St., the town looks like countless other inhabitable freeway exits. Its founding father seems to have been a guy in a […]
Taking responsibility for your life is something you hear a lot about these days, but I have to pretty much blame the Rolling Stones for how mine turned out. If Mick Jagger and Keith Richards hadn’t run into each other at that train station in Dartford in 1961, I’d probably be making a ton of […]
For a few months in 1978, I lived in a studio apartment in Pico Rivera, a suburb of Los Angeles that looks like it sounds. I slept on the couch and my friend Kathy slept on a futon on the floor. We were separated by a small dining room table and two chairs. Next door […]
Growing up in Honolulu- at least a six-hour-flight from anywhere- limited the array of music I heard as a teenager and young adult. We’d get the big acts on the way to Japan- Rolling Stones, Rod Stewart and Faces, Beach Boys, Lynyrd Skynyrd – and the Bay Area funksters like Lydia Pense and Cold Blood […]
In the early-to-mid-1980s, Austin was lousy with punk bands, but the most intense of the lot was unquestionably the Offenders. With J.J. on vocals, Tony on guitar, Mikey on bass and Pat on drums, they were such a whirling menace of aggro-brotherhood that everybody gave them the last name of their band. They were dangerous […]
Can a personal website be an alternative to A.A.? We’ll find out. Got another story for ya. I’m not talking about American Airlines, whose random flight cancellations and delays have caused many a sober traveler to fall off the wagon (or, the skateboard in my case because I’m constantly off and on). I’m talking about […]
I sometimes wonder how my life would’ve turned out if the police officers who arrested me outside a country music club in Dallas in 1992 weren’t called off to back up another squad car in the vicinity. I was in my car in the parking lot of Cowboys, drinking a beer and smoking a joint, […]
Howard Stern is the most misunderstood man in America. Here’s what most folks think he is: sexist, racist, crude, mean-spirited, self-centered, outrageous and egotistical. He is some of those things, but he’s so much more, as millions of hooked listeners of his Sirius satellite radio show are aware. Stern is 90% known for what happens […]
By Michael Corcoran It’s been going around in various comments sections (the enemy of culture) that I was fired from the Austin Chronicle because I wrote a review of a show I didn’t attend. That’s untrue. I wasn’t fired. (And the other part’s not true, either. I did write a review of Hootie and the […]
Haven’t been to a Round Rock Express game in years, but I can imagine that, since it’s Austin’s team, the Express has got a ball park that’s better than the rest. Yes, they have hot dogs, but these are artisan franks made from antelope and bison sausage with grilled horseradish slaw. More than 20 food […]
