Subject: Halloween

• Trails to Terror

  October 30, 2008

• Trails to Terror

  October 23, 2008

• Fedora Lounge

  November 8, 2007

• Texas Traveler: Oktoberfests

  Photo by dave77459​The Texas Hill Country is full of place-names that make Texas Traveler yearn for her nth-generation German heritage. New Braunfels conjures up the scent of the bratwurst and sauerkraut my Moomaw used to make on weekend mornings (food which I loathed, by the way, until I turned about 25 years old). Fredericksburg perfectly replicates memories of the blue-eyed blonde-haired cowboy-clad men of my father's family, who eventually found their way to Oklahoma in search of free

  August 31, 2009

• Get All Dressed Up

  October 1, 2009

• Halloween Countdown Part 1: The Seven Most Cliched Costumes

  Halloween is coming, and that means many, many costuming mistakes will be made by normally sane adults. To help stop this scourge, each Thursday we will be offering tips and analysis of what to avoid, or possibly what to do. It seems that every year Halloween becomes less and less about scaring other people and more about what current pop-culture reference you can cleverly pull off. One year wearing a Cubs hat and headphones was all the rage after fan Steve Bartman snatched a foul ball from outf

  October 1, 2009

• Snackshot: The Great Pumpkin(s)

  Today's seasonal Snackshot comes to us courtesy of mockbird and a pumpkin patch: From the photographer's description: "Pumpkins." (She's apparently a woman of few words.)

  October 5, 2009

• Get All Dressed Up

  October 8, 2009

• Sexy Halloween Costume Challenge For the Ladies

  Halloween is coming, and that means many, many costuming mistakes will be made by normally sane adults. To help stop this scourge, each Thursday we will be offering tips and analysis of what to avoid, or possibly what to do. While we don't know when or where we'll black out/get sick this Halloween, one thing's for sure: we'll see a bevy of boring "sexy" standbys - the slutty nurse, the Playboy bunny, the fetching feline. And thanks to the inexplicable popularity of Mad Men, a show unanimously p

  October 8, 2009

• Top 5 Creepiest Halloween Candy

  ​Spooky Nerds We begin with Spooky Nerds candy, because most of the gross-out candy you find around Halloween harks back to those memorable years in the junior high school cafeteria when the nerdy, weird kid would eat disgusting things and freak everybody out. We all pegged those kids as losers, but you have to think that one of them grew up and started a candy company that makes gummy boogers and sold out to Mars for millions of dollars. So let's all raise a gummy booger to the revenge o

  October 9, 2009

• Rocky Horror Show

  October 15, 2009

• Twice-Told Tales

  October 15, 2009

• Get All Dressed Up

  October 15, 2009

• Morning Metal: Get Ready for a Rocks Off Halloween With a Little Candlemass

  It's hard to believe that the next Rocks Off Beatles Rock Band event is only a week away. Next Tuesday, we once again seize Coffee Groundz (2503 Bagby) for another night of dranking and fake guitar-strumming. The cool thing about this party is that it's a Halloween costume party, and you know what that means: drunken slutty cops and Jokers singing "All You Need Is Love." We have been watching plenty of videos like the one above to get costume ideas. This is Swedish doom legends Candlemass with

  October 19, 2009

• If Halloween Is Coming, So Are Offensive Costumes

  ​The "Illegal Alien" costume causing uproar amongst immigrant rights activists, anti-immigrant supporters and free speech advocates is the first major faux pas of this Halloween season. While anti-immigrant supporters are scrambling to find the costume, immigrant rights activists are calling for a public boycott of the suit."We feel it's dehumanizing and that it's inappropriate. We're trying to put a face on immigrant issues and this costume takes away from that by making fun of them," says

  October 20, 2009

• Get All Dressed Up

  October 22, 2009

• Oregon Trail

  October 22, 2009

• ArBOOretum 2009

  October 22, 2009

• John Connolly: The Gates

  October 22, 2009

• McDonald's Halloween Mansion

  October 22, 2009

• Top 7 Couples' Costumes for Halloween

  Halloween is coming, and that means many, many costuming mistakes will be made by normally sane adults. To help stop this scourge, each Thursday we will be offering tips and analysis of what to avoid, or possibly what to do. Check out past entries here, here and here. There's one thing -- or should we say two things? -- you can count on every Halloween: some annoying couple dressing up in a his-and-hers theme that they consider pure genius, if for no other reason than it expresses their false b

  October 22, 2009

• Art Rock: Rocks Off's "Helter Skelter Halloween" at Coffee Groundz

  Come play with us... absolutely, totally, 100 percent free. Happy Halloween! ​

  October 26, 2009

• Scream on the Green

  October 29, 2009

• "Halloween Monster Show 4"

  October 29, 2009

• Tricks, Treats & T. Rex

  October 29, 2009

• Hidden Things

  October 29, 2009

• Civil Discourse?

  October 29, 2009

• Get All Dressed Up

  October 29, 2009

• Capsule Stage Reviews: The Elixir of Love, Little Shop of Horrors, Mary Poppins, The Rocky Horror Show

  October 29, 2009

• Lone Star Motorcycle Rally

  October 29, 2009

• The Rocky Horror Show

  October 29, 2009

• Dare Ware's Halloween Erotic Fantasy Ball

  October 29, 2009

• Halloween Desirous 2009

  October 29, 2009

• Halloween Countdown: Fool-Proof Last-Second Inspirations

  This is the final post in our series of articles offering Halloween costume advice. Check out the other four entries here, here, here and here. You've been too busy to run by Frankel's, Party Boy or even Wal-Mart to start formulating your Halloween costume this year. No ideas have jumped out at you. We've all been there -- stuck a day or two before the witching hours of October 31 with nothing to wear to the big party except a shrug and whimper. So to help you out, your friendly Halloween sta

  October 29, 2009

• Tortured Dogs Speak Out: "Please Stop Dressing Us Up"

  Halloween used to be a holiday for innocent kids to dress up in truly cute costumes. Then it became a holiday for women to dress up in sexy costumes, and men to dress up in whatever costumes would most likely result in them hooking up with a tipsy Sexy Nurse.And now, of course, it is also a holiday where people feel the need to dress up defenseless dogs.They did it last night at the Hotel Derek, in an event called Howl-a-ween, to benefit Citizens for Animal Protection. Yet these citizens, suppos

  October 29, 2009

• A Rocks Off Playlist: Halloween Songs That Don't Suck

  Yeah... screw this thing.​Let's face it: the Monster Mash blows. So do many of the songs we're forced to suffer through every Halloweentide. A couple of years ago, Rocks Off heard "One-Eyed One-Horned Flying Purple People Eater" on XM Radio's Halloween-themed channel, and wanted to sneak into a haunted house and hang himself just like that urban legend. We won't put you through that. Instead, we've compiled a playlist of a bunch of songs with spooky themes that won't make you want to hunt down

  October 29, 2009

• The Office: Koi Pond

  The Office usually has some fun nods to Halloween -- Pam as Chaplin/Hitler, Dwight and Creed as the Joker -- and last night's "Koi Pond" was no exception. The horrible haunted house the Dunder Mifflin employees set up for neighborhood kids in the warehouse was fantastic, from Michael's Dick in a Box to Darryl's unwillingness to figure out what anybody else's costume was. (Ryan's broody vampire won for best background detail, though. Between his erratic wardrobe and dialogue, they've made his c

  October 30, 2009

• Upcoming Events

  ​Tonight at Coffee Groundz, a grand coffee competition will be taking place unlike anything the city has ever seen. Baristas from Houston, from Texas and from several neighboring states will compete in the H-Town Latte Art Throwdown to create the most original and elaborate latte art for a panel of judges, one of whom has flown in from Taiwan. The evening will also feature a silent auction and door prizes, with all proceeds from the event ($10 suggested donation at the door

  October 30, 2009

• Five Last-Minute Halloween Costumes for Geeks and Nerds

  Friday, October 30th. The day before Halloween. Not that we think this fact has escaped you, dear, dear reader. But we know exactly what predicament you're in. It's clear by the panic on your face. You don't have a Halloween costume, do you? Shame shame. But we figured. Although it's usually par for the course that women acceptably transform themselves into raging sluts and men throw on their fathers' old suits and deem themselves golfers, Rod Stewart, or '70s pimps, you can't pull off any of

  October 30, 2009

• Whirlwind Weekend: See What You Missed

  Halloween weekend was cause for much merriment and mischief making. Whether at Rich's or the Roxy, the House of Blues or the streets of Montrose, a cosplay convention or an erotic ball, fun was found all over the city this weekend. Check out our favorite photos below. Photo by Son Lam​The huge Houston Press Halloween Bash at the House of Blues brought out guys and ghouls from all over the city. See more photos from the event here.

  November 2, 2009

• The Top 6 Costumes at the Montrose Crawl

  The third annual Montrose Crawl took over Westheimer on Saturday night as crowds of Halloween revelers lurched from bar to restaurant to bar. With the attendees encouraged to come in costume, it was as if Arne's and Party City had simultaneously exploded onto the streets of Montrose. Needless to say, it was difficult to pick our favorite costumes of the night, but here are our top six. Photos by Trish Badger​Number Six goes to this lovely lady, er...handsome man, er...extraordinary pers

  November 2, 2009

• Aftermath: Peaches, Stripping the Onion (and Herself) at House of Blues

  Photos by Jody Perry/ Click here for a slideshow​ It's been a long time since Aftermath has been to the kind of high-energy, high-theatrics rock and roll show that makes us totally forget ourselves, even if just for an hour. Monday night at House of Blues, Peaches gave us exactly that kind of show, a relentless assault on good taste, fashion, preconceived notions and musical genres. We thought we had Peaches pegged. Shock-rocker. Gender-bender. We were hoping she'd come through and meet our ex

  November 3, 2009

• The Final Fantasy: An Inside Look at Anime and Cosplay Conventions

  Photos by Jeff BalkeWe don't know who this character is supposed to be, but she was killing some Japanese opera.​The costumes are expected. The fanciful, the extraordinary, the bizarre, the obscurely referenced, the painstakingly planned and the larger than life weren't surprising -- after all, this was a cosplay (short for "costume roleplay) convention. What was unexpected, however, was the gender-bending everywhere that we looked. The most gorgeous men were dressed as exotic women, whil

  November 3, 2009

• Game Time: The Horrible Turn Of The Texans' Owen Daniels

  ​(I want you all to watch in amazement while I introduce you to the literary technique known as the "shplegue". This stands for "shameless plug that turns into a segue." Watch and learn...)I'm not sure how many of you have seen the web-based tragicomedy Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, but this coming Monday at the River Oaks Theater is the world premiere of the unofficial prequel Horrible Turn, starring yours truly as Police Commissioner Tommy O'Chimina (and by "starring", I mean I'm in the m

  November 3, 2009

• The Dallas Cowboys (And Friendswood), Keeping It Classy

  Photo via Deadspin​ Whitney Isleib is a Friendswood gal who's a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader, which means she's willing to sell her dignity for fame. So she was probably hoping to become an Internet sensation one day.Not this way, though.The web is alive -- IT'S ALIVE!! -- with photos Isleib posted on her Facebook page of the Halloween party where she threw the 21st century to the winds and went in blackface to a party as Lil Wayne.

  November 4, 2009

• Sampler Plate: This Week In Food Blogs

  Each week, we put together a sampler plate of the most interesting links from both local and national food blogs. Know a blog we should be paying particular attention to? Leave the address in the comments section below. The Ferm: Sir Ron may or may not blog drunk from time to time (see this entry on "How Not To Get a Job at the Houston Press"), but his latest entry on newly proclaimed city holiday Saint Arnold's Day is a loving ode to Houston's favorite microbrewery complete with a reassessment

  November 4, 2009

• Opinions "Mixed" On Obama's Fort Hood Visit, Waco Paper Says, Demonstrating An Odd Use Of "Mixed"

  ​The once-respected Waco Tribune Herald was purchased this summer by a very conservative family whose first move was to put "In God We Trust" on the front page of each edition.Since then the paper has become very right-wing (even for Waco!!) on its editorial pages. We don't read it enough to know if that's seeped over to the news side, but we did read it today online."Opinions in Fort Hood, Killeen mixed on today's Obama visit," read the headline on a story about the presidential visit for the

  November 10, 2009