Daniel Kramer

Your Ultimate Mardi Gras Guide: Get Fat on Fat Tuesday

First, get geared up with photos from the Mardi Gras celebration in Kemah... ...and the one in Galveston.

Our 10 Favorite Affordable Luxuries: Treat Yourself This New Year

Most of our readers will hopefully remember Robin Leach's signature sign-off at the end of each episode of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous during the show's decade-long run: "Champagne wishes and caviar dreams." As far as sign-offs go, the phrase is no Walter Cronkite's "...and that's the way it ... More >>

Vintage Baseball: Covering All the Bases

A writer and photographer are pressed into service on the field.

Welcome To My World: 10 Musicians Who Deserve Their Own Reality Show

Ever since The Real World hit the MTV airwaves in the early '90s, reality television has been all the rage. However, since The Osbournes debuted in 2002, some of that reality programming has catered to music fans. Even such music artists as country artist Tanya Tucker, rapper/minister Reverend Run ... More >>

Shanti: Music's Top 10 Yoga Enthusiasts

This weekend, the Texas Yoga Conference hits town at the University of Houston Recreation and Wellness Center. It's like a big party where everyone practices yoga and learns or improves yoga techniques. At the end of the weekend, there will be musical performances by the Desert Dwellers, Tyagaraja, ... More >>

Express Yourself: The 10 Best Deep Tracks of Madonna's Career

Daniel KramerPhoto by Daniel Kramer.​Madonna is one of those artists that does it all: she sings, dances, acts, and occasionally writes. The main thing that keeps her fans begging for more is that she always seeks to reinvent herself - whether it be her 'Borderline'-era '80s street-style or th ... More >>

Concussions: Avoidance, Protection and Better Helmets

Daniel Kramer​Justin Landers, head athletic trainer at Katy High School, leads me to a secret stash of football equipment. The attic-like room, which is only accessible by one skinny wood ladder, is floor to ceiling and wall to wall with hundreds of helmets and shoulder pads. Landers combs th ... More >>

AC/DC's Brian Johnson Sounds Off On Fast Cars & Fast Times

​While he's of course best known as the longtime front man for AC/DC, or perhaps the rocker with the most consistent wardrobe, Brian Johnson is also a very serious gearhead, a collector/tinkerer of classic cars and a competitive race driver who has seen the checkered flag on tracks all over th ... More >>

Nocturnal Classical Fans: No More Requests Or Local Hosts For You

Roll over Beethoven, tell the playlist bot the news.​Looking for a refreshing jolt of Rimsky-Korsakov to get you through that wee-hours cram session? If you've been getting your fix through KUHF's overnight classical DJs, you are going to have to look elsewhere after the dust settles on the ... More >>

Springsteen 2.0: Can Baby Bosses Cruise The Backstreets?

Daniel Kramer​This fall, Houstonians salivating for another touring run by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band don't have to search to hard to find bands heavily influenced by the man's sound and work ethic. Even though Springsteen and his merry band of musicians may be cooling their road ... More >>

Game Time: Okay Rockets, It's Your Move In The "Summer Of Trying To Be Moderately Interesting" In Houston

Photo by Daniel KramerYou're on the clock, Morey. Entertain us​"Can you really not be aware we've been building a RICO case against Tony Soprano for five f**king years? And then you blow this popcorn fart?" -- Federal agent to local prosecutor in Sopranos episode "Soprano Home Movies""Popcorn fart ... More >>

Mayor Annise Parker On Worldwide Reaction To Her Win, A Dynamo Stadium & Ziggy's

Photo by Daniel Kramer​Hair Balls had a sit-down yesterday with Mayor Annise Parker -- come on, it's already one month into her term and there's still traffic at rush hour!!!!A lot of the talk was dedicated to future items we're working on here at the Press, but there were some other scattered stu ... More >>

Scenes From An Inauguration: God Hates Urinals

Photo by Daniel Kramer​Although it may have surprised the three anti-gay protestors outside the Wortham Theater, Mayor Annise Parker's inaugural speech concentrated less on her historic election as the first openly-gay big city mayor and more on her goals to improve coordination among law enforcem ... More >>

2009 Concert Rewind, June: Roky Erickson, David Byrne, Heartless Bastards, Santigold, Clapton & Winwood, the Jenny Lewis Shushing and '90s Alt-Rock Back from the Dead

Daniel Kramer​ New York Dolls, Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears, House of Blues, June 4: "What we got last night at the House of Blues was an hour-long set of sporadic and confounding re-workings of their bedrock material, and a whole helluva lot of middle-of-the-road bar rock from two dimming ... More >>

More ParkerMania Continues: An Obama Phone Call, Roller-Skating Drag Queens

Photo by Daniel Kramer​The media fallout from Annise Parker's mayoral victory continues to roll in.President Barack Obama called to congratulate her (he didn't mention the gay angle), but he called while she was giving an interview to Fox 26. And really, what's more important, Obama or Fox 26? So ... More >>

Hiding on the Backstreets: Remembering Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band In Houston

Daniel KramerThe Boss at Toyota Center, April 2009​This past weekend's show in Buffalo, N.Y., was the last date on a nearly two-year (and two-album-supporting) trek by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, which found them criss-crossing the country and the globe several times to rapt audiences ... More >>

AC/DC Was In the Four Seasons Hotel Bar Saturday Night. Were You?

Daniel Kramer​Rocks Off hears members of AC/DC had a grand old time, um, "warming up" for Sunday's show at Toyota Center. We know they were there because a friend of Rocks Off's in town from Austin had lunch next to Angus and Mrs. Young Sunday at the Four Seasons' in-house restaurant, Quattro. "Ev ... More >>

It's Brodeo Time! RodeoHouston Announces Jonas Brothers, Tim McGraw, Brad Paisley and Brooks & Dunn for 2010

Daniel KramerThe Jonas Brothers at RodeoHouston 2009​ Monday morning, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo announced the first four entertainers next March's musical entertainment at Reliant Stadium. Jonas Brothers, Tim McGraw, Brad Paisley, and Brooks & Dunn have all been tapped to perform at ... More >>

Beyonce: Not Just Dangerously In Love, Dangerous To Your Computer

Daniel Kramer​Via the Houston site of examiner.com, anti-viral software company McAfee ranks Beyonce near the top of celebrities for whom Internet searches are likely to lead to pages containing spyware, viruses or other technology-borne maladies. Searching Beyonce and other boldfaced names like J ... More >>

Aftermath: Blondie, Graceful and Casual at the Arena Theatre

Photos by Daniel Kramer​ Even at today's prices, dreaming is free. That's why an evening with Blondie is such a bargain. Sandwiched between the Donnas (who sounded tight and sassy from the will call line) and Pat Benatar (still "Invincible"), Debbie Harry's crew navigated the Arena's revolving sta ... More >>

Rocks Off Succumbs to That Evil Facebook "Bands I've Seen" List

Chris GrayWilco's Jeff Tweedy at Verizon Wireless Theater, March 2008​If you're reading this at all, Rocks Off will just assume you're fairly familiar with the Internet, and therefore that you more than likely also have a Facebook page. Congratulations - don't you feel special? Rocks Off was recen ... More >>

Kemah Says It's Firing Cops Due To Ike; Cops Think Otherwise

Photo by Daniel KramerMaybe you heard, but Hurricane Ike smashed up Kemah pretty badly, and things aren't looking too good for the city these days.Sure, the vaunted boardwalk is coming back, and the local Wal-Mart is scheduled to reopen today, but the city has reported about a $400,000 loss in ... More >>

Beyonce Scheduled to Perform at Michael Jackson Memorial

Daniel Kramer ABC News is reporting that Beyonce, who sang tributes to Michael Jackson at her Toyota Center concert and at New Orleans' Essence Music Festival over the weekend, will perform at Jackson's funeral in Los Angeles this afternoon. Also expected to attend are Justin Timberlake, P Diddy, Sm ... More >>

Aftermath: Beyonce at Toyota Center

Photos by Daniel Kramer Imagine, if you will, being invited to the most lavish party, held just for you and about 15,000 of your closet friends. The host, a beauty from McGregor, whose only mission is to give her guests 100 percent of herself and satisfy their needs for a night of entertainment. In ... More >>

Aftermath: Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood at Toyota Center

Photos by Daniel Kramer Two words came into Aftermath's head shortly into the show uniting these former Blind Faith bandmates and arguably two of classic rock's biggest stars: peerless musicianship. They stayed with us for the rest of the concert. While we can appreciate the bombast and big show of ... More >>

Aftermath: New York Dolls & Black Joe Lewis at the House Of Blues

Photos by Daniel Kramer Aftermath is not going to purport to know what the New York Dolls were like live, in their Thundered and Killer-ed heyday of kitsch and campy kiss-offs. We weren't even in Pre-K when Buster Poindexter was singing "Hot Hot Hot" on Saturday Night Live. But for chrissakes ... More >>

Rice Hosts NCAA Baseball Regional, Doesn't Get Top Seed

Photo by Daniel KramerYesterday saw the announcement of the NCAA's 64-team bracket for the College World Series, and it was a mixed bag for local fans.Good news: Seven Texas teams are in it.Bad news: Rice didn't get a top regional seeding, for the first time in three years, kind of a slap to the new ... More >>

Statewide Smoking Ban For Bars: Coming Soon?

Photo by Daniel KramerIt's been tried before, but this time there may be some possibility of a statewide smoking ban in Texas.Two bills address the subject, (one by Houston's Rodney Ellis) and the Texas Restaurant Association has announced it can support a ban.Although the TRA says it has "som ... More >>

Over the Weekend: Sports Illustrated, Dr. John, Neville Brothers, Pretty Things Peepshow and Aerosol Warfare

Morning! We've been plenty busy these last few days. Time to share. Top Ten Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue Photos John Royal started things off with an in-depth cultural analysis of the phenomenon that is the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. Dr. John at House of Blues Mark C. Austin and ... More >>

AC/DC to Piledrive Wrestlemania

Daniel KramerDo people still watch professional wrestling? We stopped watching when the Rock left to make awful mummy movies and Stone Cold Steve Austin started fighting women instead of other dudes in black Speedos. That, and we graduated high school. Nonetheless, World Wrestling Entertainm ... More >>

She Caught The Katy To The Championship

The Katy Tigers beat down Wylie 17-3 Saturday, December 20, in front of more than 18,000 fans at Reliant Stadium. Beginning the season 0-2 and finishing at 13-3, the Tigers are now back-to-back Class 5A Division II Texas state champs. Click here for a slideshow. -- Daniel Kramer

Classic Rock Corner: The Greatest Band Logos of All Time, Part 1

Daniel Kramer With our ears still ringing from last night's AC/DC concert at Toyota Center (I knew we should have stayed away from the end of the stage with the cannon...), we got to thinking about the Aussie boys' iconic band logo. Sketched in pen on a million different school notebooks, and gr ... More >>

Nudist, Tex-Mex, X and Y

Last Night: X at Warehouse Live

Texas Sinkhole!

Rockets-Jazz: Of T-Mac, Time and Fate

Houstoned Exclusive: Montagu Hotel Goes Back Up

West Oaks Hospital, Don Quixote and Galveston ISD

Mail Call

Houston Center for Photography’s Annual Print Sale

Local photographers hawk their wares

Mail Call

Vlog Spot

Mail Call

Shameless

Lyre, Lyre

Risky Business

Letters