Hawaii

Foul Balls, Philosophy and Baseball Gods: Notes from the Houston College Classic

Six teams. Three days. Nine games. Seventy-one innings, give or take a couple here and there. So was The Astros Foundation 2013 College Classic. And after sitting through all nine games and three days, it's safe to say that this weekend was anything but a classic of college baseball. Most of the ga ... More >>

Kris Kristofferson's Favorite Place on Earth Is In Texas, But Not Houston

Rocks Off spoke to Kris Kristofferson by phone from his home in Hawaii where he describes living a life as spare and literal as the records he makes with producer Don Was. Twice he told us that he's old, once he told us that he's brain-damaged and then he told us that his favorite place on Earth is ... More >>

Boom. Roasted. -- The Monday Morning College Football Roast, Drunk Betty White Edition

Saturday night, given the choice between staying at home with me to watch the annual Denard Robinson Tear-Notre-Dame's-Heart-Out-And-Show-It-To-Them-Apalooza (and experiencing the corresponding remote control throwing that goes with it) and going out to dinner with her girlfriends to a nice restaura ... More >>

Real Ale Gone Wild and Firkins Everywhere: A Talk with Stewart Martin of Hay Merchant

The name seems almost inescapable this year: Hay Merchant. The eight-month-old bar, seated on the curve of Westheimer just West of Montrose, has been described as everything from a new trend in bars to Houston's Mecca for beer to snobbish and inaccessible. It's strange that a place specializing in ... More >>

Chef Chat, Part 2: John Sikhattana of Straits, On Singaporean Cuisine

John Sikhattana Executive Chef Straits Asian Bistro 800 West Sam Houston Parkway North 713-365-9922 www.straitsrestaurants.com This is the second part of a three-part chef chat series. Read Part 1 here and Part 3 in this space on Friday. EOW: You spent a lot of time with the Roy's organization. ... More >>

Chef Chat, Part 1: John Sikhattana of Straits, On Growing Up in Hawaii and What It's Like to be a Dishwasher

John Sikhattana Executive Chef Straits Asian Bistro 800 West Sam Houston Parkway North 713-365-9922 www.straitsrestaurants.com This is the first part of a three-part chef chat series. Look for Part 2 and Part 3 in this space Thursday and Friday. Houston may be a melting pot, but it's still pretty ... More >>

The Rolling Stones, King Zog: 5 Famous Exiles, in Honor of Napoleon

This week marks the 198th anniversary of Napoleon being exiled to Elba, a move celebrated by palindrome fans everywhere. (Able was I ere I saw Elba," you know. Exiles have been around forever, people forced to leave their country of choice for one reason or another. Sometimes it's worked out well, ... More >>

Top Five Fantasy Lunch Mates

Driving home from work the other day, I found myself making a mental list. I wondered: Who would I have lunch with if time, money and social standing got thrown out the window? Would I pick an actor, singer, artist, politician? I established a few rules: 1- It can be anyone in history (no fictio ... More >>

Mickey and Minnie’s Magical Journey

Brew Blog: Maui Brewing Co. Coconut Porter

Just as good as a Hawaiian vacation. Right?​My sisters in law are in Maui this week. They're vegetarians. And teetotalers. And afraid of foods with weird names. I have no doubt they're doing it wrong. They wanted us to go with them, but I didn't have $10,000 to spend on a tropical vacation. ... More >>

The United States Of Music

Monica FuentesFull-size image below​Rocks Off's sister blog Hair Balls did it with murderers and serial killers. Food blog Eating Our Words, riled the beer snobs with one about the best beers from each state in the union, and a teetotaling follow-up chronicling the best soda pops. For the pas ... More >>

Patio Perfection at Brenner's Blue Bar

brennerssteakhouse.com​A college roommate once theorized that the best times are often had near bodies of water. It's not surprising that she went on to live for many years in Hawaii. I, on the other hand, moved to Houston. In the land of freeways, strip malls and suburban sprawl, it's easy ... More >>

Scam Alert: Shady "Baseball Players" Looking for Tix to Hawaii

Yeah, Hawaii -- that's where I need to go​So I just happened to be working from home yesterday afternoon when, a little before 3 p.m., there was a loud knock at the door followed by an insistent ring. I got up to answer, and the caller seemed to be shocked to see me, and not a woman, answerin ... More >>

Ingredient of the Week: Axis Deer

ironammonite​

Prison Pays

Despite a history of abuse and bad conditions, private prison corporation GEO keeps getting contracts from the state.

Java Pura: Insanely Good Coffee

​ Ken Palmer, Master Roaster, probably knows more about coffee than almost anyone else in this city. He stumbled into the industry several decades ago while out in Hawaii. Palmer had a natural intuition about coffee and was educated by Alfred Peet, who had taught his style of roasting beans ... More >>

NFL & College Football -- Weekend's Best Bets (with Tales of Deceit, Adultery and Ron Artest)

We see....FAIL in Ron Artest's future​Drayton McLane apparently has plans to sell the Astros. This comes as no surprise, those rumors have been swirling for some time. Now I don't know if he'll get his $800 million asking price, but I did call Drayton and make an offer and we now know that $9 ... More >>

I Wanna Be Your Dog (Or Cat): TV Pilot Edition

Hair Balls was excited to learn that one of its favorite old TV shows, Hawaii 5-0, is returning to the air this fall. That show's success was attributable not just to the swaggering awesomeness of Jack Lord and his haircut, but because the show included a certain timeless element that appeals to peo ... More >>

Random Ingredient: Octopus

​What is it? With the World Cup finally coming to a close, there's been a lot of chatter about a certain cephalopod named Paul that resides in Germany. With all due respect to the "octopus oracle," we present today's random ingredient. Octopi are actually in the mollusk family. They're eaten ... More >>

5 Songs That Are No Day At The Beach

This past weekend, Craig's Hlist spent a good solid two days at the beach playing in the surf down off Mustang Island just south of Corpus Christi. It was one of those mental-health weekends that if we hadn't have taken, we would have ended up throwing beer bottles against the wall at an old folks' ... More >>

Andrew Karnavas

Pop Rocks: Just Create A Sex-Tape Channel Already

​The celebrity world was rocked yesterday by news that country singer Mindy McCready's sex tape was about to hit the streets. Okay, maybe "rocked" is the wrong word. How about "briefly distracted from Kate Gosselin's behavior on Dancing with the Stars?" Time was, a sex-tape scandal was cause for ... More >>

Please Make Obama Eat Some Cabbage

​I am worried about whether or not Barack Obama will be eating black-eyed peas and cabbage on New Year's. As everybody knows, you have to eat black-eyed peas for good luck and cabbage for prosperity on January first. I am not sure they have black-eyed peas in Hawaii (if that's where the Obamas ... More >>

Game Time: The Week In Tweets

​Maybe I'm biased because I use it all the time, but I'm going to make the bold statement that Twitter has surpassed "fad" status and that it's here to stay. Even at this point, people who don't use Twitter recognize kinda sorta how it works, and even recognize a Tweet when they see it -- "it's go ... More >>

Disney on Ice

Web exclusive!

Dragonfruit at the Keauhou Farmer's Market

Photos by Robb WalshYellow Dragonfruit Going to the Farmer's Market on Saturday morning is one of those habits that's fun to engage in while you're on the road. And since I am staying in a condo with a kitchen this week in Kailua-Kona, it was great to buy some fresh local produce. The vegetables lo ... More >>

This Week In Deliciousness

Robb Walsh has been vacationing in Hawaii. He had beer for breakfast and Spam musubi that actually looked really tasty. We hate him. A lot of restaurants are closing. A lot of GOOD restaurants. It sucks. Rodeo food: Give us fried or on a stick. Both would be best. That'll shut that ulcer up.

Obama's Lunch Fave: Spam Musubi

This Spam musubi cost me $1.68 at a grocery store on the North Kona coast. It wasn't the best Spam musubi I've ever had--the Spam was cut too thin, I think there was a little teriyaki sauce between the meat and the rice.The guy behind the counter told me I would have to get there a lot earlier in ... More >>

For February: The Five Best Blaxploitation Epics

It's Black History Month, when America commemorates Africa-American culture with Fresh Prince of Bel-Air reruns on TBS and wholly unpredictable jokes about Februrary being the shortest month of the year. Here at Hair Balls, we know that the 1970s marked the first point when the black community made ... More >>

College Bowl Season: Previews By A Real Expert

The college football bowl season is here, and it's become such a confusing mess of odd-sounding games played in smallish towns with mediocre teams that you need an expert to figure it out. And nothing says "expert" more than a teen-aged kid, whether the subject is football, driving, or how inutterab ... More >>

College Bowl Season: Previews By A Real Expert

The college football bowl season is here, and it's become such a confusing mess of odd-sounding games played in smallish towns with mediocre teams that you need an expert to figure it out. And nothing says "expert" more than a teen-aged kid, whether the subject is football, driving, or how inutterab ... More >>

College Football Preview, Ashley Judd Edition

Paradise Lost in Surfwise

Parenting off the grid — and eventually off the reservation — in this alt-family portrait

Poi Dog Pondering

The Chicago band visits the Continental Club

The College Football Review, Week 14: The BCS System Blows

The College Football Review, Week 13: Why You Gotta Be Hatin' on the Coogs?

Spam Musubi at Aloha Grill on Westheimer

The College Football Review, Week Nine: Is Hawaii the Next Boise State?

“I Land”

Keo Woolford dances his way out of Hawaiian myths

Our top DVD picks for the week of March 1

Wet Kisses

Riding Giants gushes over the legends of "big wave" surfing

Golden Boy

Morgan Faulkner may be the best surfer Texas ever kicked out

Bora! Bora! Bora!

Pearl Harbor's sound and fury signify nothing

Asian In-fusion

East meets West

Hawaiian at Heart

One Texas hula school proves to skeptical islanders that dancers do sometimes wear socks

Letters

Taking the Waves

A tale of love, life and longboarding

Love for Sale

Surfing Safari

Bruce Brown goes back to the beach to hang ten, again