Most Popular
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Barack Obama and Me
It was the year 2000 and I was a young hungry reporter in Chicago covering a young hungry state legislator
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A Prison Cover-up During Hurricane Rita
For days after the storm, inmates in Beaumont lived without A/C, electricity or hot meals. Press releases kept saying everything inside was fine. Guards and prisoners agree — that was nothing but B.S.
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Little Bitty Burger Barn
"It's okay to be little bitty in the big city" is an apt slogan for this new burger joint, where sliders rule
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Live-Action Role-Players Get Boffed in Amtgard
Amid flailing swords and flying shields, these modern-day knights fight on
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Barack Obama and Me (257)
It was the year 2000 and I was a young hungry reporter in Chicago covering a young hungry state legislator
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A Prison Cover-up During Hurricane Rita (24)
For days after the storm, inmates in Beaumont lived without A/C, electricity or hot meals. Press releases kept saying everything inside was fine. Guards and prisoners agree — that was nothing but B.S.
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Are You Hot Enough for Citizen Lounge? (7)
All This Useless Beauty
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What's the Problem Houston? (6)
The city's skuzzy alt-rock scene thinks it is dying
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Live-Action Role-Players Get Boffed in Amtgard (5)
Amid flailing swords and flying shields, these modern-day knights fight on
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Are You Hot Enough for Citizen Lounge?
All This Useless Beauty
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What's the Problem Houston?
The city's skuzzy alt-rock scene thinks it is dying
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Rap's Rapidly Vanishing Female MC
The Why Chromosome
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A New Official State Song for Texas?
A case for a new — or different, anyway — state song
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Marilyn Manson's celebrity dating club
Mechanical Animals
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You Look Like a Freak When You Play With Your Wii
01:07AM 03/20/08 -
Meet Paul Ford, the 763 mp3 Guy: He Covered the Waterfront like No Other, from Over 1,000 miles Away
06:06AM 03/20/08 -
Spring Training: Itching for Pitching
03:15PM 03/19/08 -
$13 at Zake Sushi Lounge
11:41AM 03/18/08
What we are writing about
- American Gangster
- Amy Sillman: Suitors...
- birth defects
- Bob Dylan
- Christmas Tree-O
- Continental Club
- Houston art
- Houston local music
- Houston music stores
- Houston Rockets
- Houston theater
- I'm Not There
- illegal immigrants
- Main Street Theater
- McGonigel's Mucky Duck
- Meridian
- Perspectives 158:...
- players' scoring averages
- Proletariat
- Rudyard's
- Rumors
- Sig's Lagoon
- Somerville
- Sound Exchange
- toxic industrial...
- Toyota Center
- Turkeys of the Year
- Verizon Wireless Theater
- Warehouse Live
- Wii
Recent Articles By Bob Ruggiero
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Detroit Cobras, Willowz
concert preview
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Valient Thorr, Riverboat Gamblers
Valient Thorr and Riverboat Gamblers perform Monday, August 6, at Red Room inside Meridian, 1503 Chartres, 713-225-1717. ASG and Totimoshi are also on the bill.
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Grady
Grady performs Saturday, July 28, at the Continental Club, 3700 Main, 713-529-9899. Studio Magick Black is also on the bill.
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Elvis on Speed, Amplified Heat
Elvis on Speed and Amplified Heat perform Friday, July 13, at Rudyard's, 2010 Waugh, 713-521-0521.
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Houston Roller Derby
Skating queens hit the rink -- and each other
National Features
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Village Voice
A Long Way Wrong?
Another celebrated memoir threatens to blow into a million little pieces.
By Graham Rayman -
LA Weekly
Hoop Dawg
Billionaire Donald T. Sterling owns the L.A. Clippers and loves the ladies. And those are just two of his problems.
By Patrick Range McDonald -
Broward-Palm Beach New Times
The Player Priests
They were holy men--and they sure knew how to party.
By Amy Guthrie -
Westword
The Good Soldier
When the Army tried to take down Andrew Pogany, they messed with the wrong coward.
By Joel Warner
The Black Crowes
Thursday, April 21, at the Verizon Wireless Theater, 520 Texas, 713-230-1600.
By Bob Ruggiero
Published: April 21, 2005The signs were all there that a reconciliation between the feuding hermanos Robinson would lead to a 2005 reunion of the Black Crowes, who broke up after a contentious 2001 Halloween gig. Chris's New Earth Mud band canceled a tour for their just-released second record, and Rich's Hookah Brown ceased activity.
Then, when telltale puffs of animated smoke (undoubtedly of the cannabis kind) started to emanate from the mouths of the two ebony crows on the band's long-dormant Web site, the fans got excited. There followed an official announcement -- turns out that was a peace pipe the crows were toking on -- and the excitement grew when the rest of the lineup was announced: Birds from several different eras of the band (Marc Ford on guitar, Sven Pipien on bass and Eddie Hawrysch on keyboards) were on board. (Interestingly, original drummer Steve Gorman -- the sole non-Robinson survivor of the band's original lineup on the last tour -- isn't in this incarnation of the band. Bill Dubrow takes his place.)
Die-hard fans who post insane amounts of copy on the band's site are also excited about set lists for preview shows, which change nightly and embrace both hits and rarities spanning the band's catalog, along with some surprising covers.
The Black Crowes have always wonderfully mixed hard rock, jam band and '70s boogie tendencies. And though best experienced live, they've also put out many underrated studio efforts. Their full-length tour (before a summer jaunt with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers) actually kicks off here in Houston, so we'll have a chance to see them emerge from the nest first. And hopefully, other writers will be able to stay away from aviary metaphors better than this one.
