Photo by Hilary Bronwyn Gayle - © 2012 - OB Productions, Inc. All rights reserved.

Download this week's Voice Film Club podcast before you get on the plane or maybe listen to it on your way to a restaurant where you'll eat turkey and get a little drunk on red wine.

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"I was appalled and disappointed," says Village Voice film critic Stephanie Zacharek of Spike Lee's Oldboy on this week's Voice Film podcast. "I love [Park Chan-wook's] original and watching Spike Lee's version, there were big differences I was picking up on.

"Then I went back and looked at the original and saw how operatic it was. The problem with Spike Lee's version is that there is no poetry in Josh Brolin's performance. I thought, 'this thing is just dead.'"

"[Brolin's] got something -- but he just doesn't have what this movie needs," Stephanie says.

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Are babies born evil? Or do we make our children that way through excessive gift giving, too much TV time and Fun Fair Positive Soccer? In a new book just out by author Paul Bloom, Just Babies, examines some of the prevailing data on the moral behavior of babies. It may sound odd - how can a baby have any morality - but there have been numerous studies over the years on whether babies come out of the womb good or bad.

Bloom's book explores whether we are born as "blank slates" and if there is an innate ability to understand right from wrong.

Bringing together insights from psychology, behavioral economics, evolutionary biology, and philosophy, Bloom explores how we have come to surpass these limitations. Along the way, he examines the morality of chimpanzees, violent psychopaths, religious extremists, and Ivy League professors, and explores our often puzzling moral feelings about sex, politics, religion, and race.

As I am soon to be a first-time mother, the thought of bad babies have crossed my mind more than twice. It's an honest fear - what if my baby is totally evil! But as described in Just Babies, perhaps humans have the ability to overcome their primal instinct to be jerks and eventually we find our moral compass. Some of us.

But then there are those bad babies and kids in film and books that are just born to destroy. These are the kids we pray we never raise; they kill their pets for sport, they push their siblings out of windows and, worse yet, they make us feel like bad parents!

Here are the top five worst babies yet.

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Courtesy of Ghostlight Records.

Cover art for Marry Me a Little (New Cast Recording).

The copious genius of Stephen Sondheim has been thoroughly discussed far and wide throughout his career. Thus, it is no surprise that even songs cut from his various hit shows are brilliant and exciting as well, and that is exactly what the reworked revue Marry Me a Little, conceived by Craig Lucas and Norman René, reveals. The intimate show follows two lonely singles, who are just one floor away from one another, on a Saturday night as they sing about their amiable and secret fantasies.

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Photo by Jann Whaley

Venus in Fur with Nicole Rodenburg as Vanda and Michael Bakkensen was just one of many endeavors that fired up the Houston arts scene in the past year

It's become a tradition to ask our Art Attack bloggers what they are thankful for in the Houston arts scene this year. Here's this year's reaction:

Think of our performing arts scene as a grand banquet, a great groaning board full of savory dishes. Just since the official opening of the current season, look upon the entrees we've already tasted: classic fare like Main Street's The Real Thing; Houston Ballet's The Merry Widow; the Alley's You Can't Take It With You; Houston Grand Opera's Aida; A.D. Players' Arsenic and Old Lace, all prepared by the finest of chefs.

Then there were the mouth-watering side dishes, like TUTS new underground series that began with the grunge musical Lizzie; GEXA on Broadway's Peter and the Starcatcher and Chicago; and the Alley's Venus in Fur, the flavors were tantalizing. And let's not forget the highly spiced appetizers: Music Box Musicals' Avenue Q; Mildred's Umbrella's Carnival Round; Catastrophic's The Pine, Bayou City Concert Musicals' The Pajama Game. The food never stops, it's finely served, and just makes you hungry for more.

Not satisfied yet, just wait. Look what's in store for the next seating: 50 Shades of Grey; Wagner's Das Rheingold; Other Desert Cities, Aladdin, The Diary of Anne Frank, Vera Stark, American Idiot. The banquet in Houston never stops. Go gorge yourself, giving thanks all the while for Houston's performing arts bounty which is, as we all know, food fit for the gods. - D.L. Groover

I've written several Creatives profiles this year and I am so grateful to see so many people in Houston making a living (or at least a go) at a lifestyle that does not require sitting inside a cubicle. It gives me immense confidence in the creative diversity of this city. It's also so inspiring on a personal level to talk to people who are overwhelmingly passionate about what they do. That makes me want to be a better writer. - Brittanie Shey

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The set-up:
Under full disclosure I freely admit it: I'm a sucker for these zip-drive, silly British vaudevilles that take a beloved subject and kick it around unmercifully, like The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) or the Complete History of America (Abridged), both from the Reduced Shakespeare Company.

In Potted Potter, the brainchild of actors Daniel Clarkson and Jefferson Turner, who have also given us Potted Pirates and Potted Panto, the authors (and original performers of this wildly inventive schtick that premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival before it took off around the world like one of those powered-up quidditch broomsticks ) put our beloved child wizard and all his attendant kiddie pals, warlocks, dementors, and "he who shall not be named" through the wringer. It's a comic speed wash.

The execution:
Now on its spirited American tour, presented here by The Brilliant Lectures Series, Inc., Potted Potter is currently performed by James Percy and Delme Thomas, giving the original creators a needed break, for this two-actor piece is non-stop physicality and gives them quite a workout. They are breathless by the end, but so are we, from laughing.

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Do I really have to say this? Fine: "Nice hooters."

There are a million reality shows on the naked television. We're going to watch them all, one at a time.

Did you know Pasco Country, Florida is one of the largest nudist friendly areas in the country? Of course not, and why would you? Who seeks that kind of information out?

Besides nudists, I mean.

The county is home to about a dozen "clothing optional" subdivisions and neighborhoods, and Jackie Youngblood -- the self-titled Queen of Nudist Real Estate -- is here to help you with all your naked home purchase needs. Thanks again, TLC, for reminding us that the "Learning" in your network name is far from a mandatory requirement.

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Photo by istolethetv

Even turkeys need help keeping it all tucked in for Thanksgiving dinner.

In light of our recent questions about how, exactly, to dress on Thanksgiving Day, this seemed like the perfect time to offer our readers a definitive guide to dressing for the holidays. So how, exactly, does one "dress for success" for Thanksgiving dinner? That depends on the kind of Thanksgiving diner you are.

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Title: Frozen

So? Another Disney "Classic?" I'm less annoyed by Big Mouse calling everything a classic than I am their strategy of only releasing their movies "from the vault" at certain times. Kids don't just decide they want to watch The Little Mermaid during your stupid windows of opportunity.

Rating Using Random Objects Revelant To The Film: Two Ice Pirates out of five.

Brief Plot Synopsis: Spunky princess must save town from magically powered sister (and queen), and also save queen from herself.

Tagline: "From the creators of Tangled and Wreck-It Ralph."

Better Tagline: "From the creators of The Aristocats and Treasure Planet."

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Beekeepers in More Than Honey.

This year saw its share of incredible documentaries, but in 2013 the stand-outs are films that help flesh out the way we see the world.

Below are 15 docs we suggest seeing, from the grisly to uplifting. Click on the name of the film to read its review.

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Photo by Flickr user blackbiscuits

I was sad to hear, a few weeks ago, that Houston's only magazine store, Issues, would be closing at the end of the year. But I was even more dismayed to find out, while at lunch with a friend yesterday, that the store's final day is actually today.

If you're like me and have been procrastinating that final visit, they'll be open until 9 p.m., but after the holiday, Issues will be no more. One source told me the store -- which shared some prime South Shepherd real estate with Azur Salon, a Kumon tutoring school and the Neptune Society ("America's Trusted Cremation Provider since 1973") -- lost their lease. An employee at Issues did not want to confirm that information, and we are still waiting on a return call from Issues owner Bang Tran, who was not at the store yesterday.

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