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Get All Dressed Up
October 22, 2009Mid-Week Match-Up: The Mayor's Race, Such As It Is
Most of Houston seems blissfully unaware that there's a mayor's race going on. This year is supposed to be one of the the years with a hot election -- the incumbent is term-limited, so it's an open seat likely to lead to six years in office -- but, for reasons we lay out in this week's cover story, the thing is instead a run for the top job in Dullsville.Still, it's your civic duty to vote, or America will slide into the abyss and all that. The three candidates with any chance of winning are
October 21, 2009Take This Tie and Shove It Part II: Houston As Fashion Capital For The Hot World
Yesterday, we shared the vision of urbanist and blogger Andrew Burleson, who dreams of a Houston in which we dress for the weather at all times, even at work. It's his view that this would lower energy costs and immensely improve civic life overall.He thinks we could begin with a Dress For The Weather Week, and after ten years or so of these weeks, Houston could become a city that always, in his words, "lived like it's hot 'cause it is" and "lived in the place that we're at and learned to em
October 21, 2009The Week In Photos
The photographers in our Flickr pool had their share of festivals, concerts, parties and scenery to choose from this past week, as Houston blossoms during the fall months. One such festival was Diwali, the Indian festival of lights, celebrated in Sugar Land and seen below. Enjoy some of our favorite reader-submitted photos from the last week below. For more information about any of the pictures, including subject and photographer, simply click on them.
October 23, 2009Upcoming Events
Although it's facing stiff competition from Southern Star lately, Saint Arnold is still our favorite hometown brewery. And this weekend's Foam Raiser at the Orange Show (Saturday, October 24, from 7 to 10 p.m.) is one of many reasons why. The ticket sales for the 2nd annual Foam Raiser go to support the Orange Show, which puts on the yearly Art Car Parade in addition to funding many other Houston folk art projects. Tickets are $25 at the door ($20 in advance), and festivities w
October 23, 2009Lone Star Scorecard: All Robert Earl Keen Edition
There are a lot of songs about Texas out there, and Rocks Off wouldn't be doing our duty if we sent you off into the world without properly informing you about their veracity. That's what the Lone Star Scorecard is for, and if it keeps even one of you from making an embarrassing Texas-based faux pas at a party/wedding reception/embassy dinner, then we've done our job. Occasionally we devote an entire edition to one artist, and this week it's Houston's own (well, sort of) Robert Earl Keen, wh
October 23, 2009Texas Traveler: Houston Haunts
Photos by Brittanie SheyEntrance to the Donnellan vault below the Franklin Street BridgeTexas Traveler has spent the better part of the month checking out some of the creepiest, oldest, most interesting parts of Houston and it's neighboring cities, and to wrap up the month we have a few more tales to tell you about. Below, five Houston haunts you may not have known about. Donnellan vault Fancy a drink at the Brewery Tap? Be sure to walk a few feet west to the Franklin Street bridge and l
October 26, 2009Chef Chat: Monica Pope of t'afia
Photo by Griff SmithArguably the most admired chef in Houston and probably the most lauded in the past decade, the ubiquitous Monica Pope runs t'afia restaurant (3701 Travis Street), hosts the Midtown Farmers Market every Saturday morning, presides at Beaver's, and teaches weekly classes at the Green Plum Cooking School. As this interview shows, locavore messiah Monica Pope is a chef on fire. Where did you first come across the term "t'afia?" I saw it in a Michel Bras cookbook. It's an
October 26, 2009Private-Security Firm Sued Here For (Allegedly) Shooting Up A Cab In Iraq
It was the morning of October 18, 2007, and three Iraqis were taking a cab from the city of Erbil to Sulaimaniya in northern Iraq, near the border with Iran. About halfway through the journey, at about 10:30 a.m., the taxi passed through the village of Kara Hanjir, when the road started to slope upward.Suddenly, the passengers in the cab felt the sting of gunfire. Members of a British security firm, Erinys International, were shooting at them, and without provocation or warning. At least acco
October 26, 2009Come to Rocks Off's "Helter Skelter Halloween" Party Tonight at Coffee Groundz
Come on Houston, start your Halloween week off right with us, the mighty he-men of Rocks Off and Beatles Rock Band. Yes, it's been just over a month and a half since we saw all of your faces at Coffee Groundz (2503 Bagby) playing our newish toy, and we miss you so very much. Seriously, no kidding, you all smell better than most of the folks we usually hang out with, and that's saying something. The fun starts at 7 p.m. and runs till 11 p.m. when the venue closes. It's also a costume-friendly
October 27, 2009There Are No Coincidences In The Rat(t) World
We here in Houston are going to be besieged by rats -- not just the four-legged kind, but the ten-legged, ten-armed, sucking-talentless kind, too.How else to interpret two announcements? One: "New Report Ranks Cities At Risk For Rodents This Year -- Houston Is Number Three." Two, from the official website of the black-hole of metal known as Ratt: " PREPARE FOR AN INFESTATION! LEGENDARY HARD ROCK ICONS ANNOUNCE INFESTATION AS TITLE OF NEW ALBUM DUE MARCH 2010 THROUGH LOUD & PROUD/ROADRUNNE
October 27, 2009CenterPoint Hits The Jackpot At The Federal Stimulus Feeding Trough
Photo courtesy White House Flickr groupLet them bitch all they want in Chicago about getting shut out of federal stimulus funds for "smart-grid" power projects. Here in Houston, we're kicking ass.The federal gummint, that socialistic, fascist Big Brother, announced today how it is spending $3.4 billion of your grandkid's money, and Houston's two largest power companies were big winners.CenterPoint is getting $200 million to help with a nearly $640-million project to install 2.2 million smart
October 27, 2009Roky Moon & Bolt
October 29, 2009Get All Dressed Up
October 29, 2009Artist of the Week: Ball-Busting, Dexter-Loving Metal Maniacs BloodVoid
Each Wednesday, Rocks Off arbitrarily appoints one lucky local performer or group "Artist of the Week," bestowing upon them all the fame and grandeur such a lofty title implies. Know a band or artist that isn't awful? Email their particulars to introducingliston@gmail.com. In all honesty, before we started working for the Press, we were by no means fans of heavy metal. We listened to Metallica a bit, but only when they'd come on MTV, and even then we did so mostly because we knew it kinda bug
October 28, 2009Midweek Match-Up: My Black Pastors Are Better Than Yours, Punk
Houston's boring excuse for a mayoral election is now officially ON FIRE!!! It's EN FUEGO!!!!Why? Because there's some dull sparring between Peter Brown and Gene Locke over who has the best-est bunch of black pastors endorsing them. Locke is claiming that Brown, a multi-millionaire who is largely self-financing his campaign (or at least his wife is), spread some cash around black Houston churches and is therefore winning endorsements he doesn't deserve because he is not black like Locke. ("Bl
October 28, 2009Houston One Of Safest Cities In The Country, If You Look At It A Certain (Wrong, Houston Proud) Way
Photo courtesy GHCVBHouston may be fat, polluted, sprawling and ugly, but it's got one thing going for it, according to Forbes magazine -- it's one of the safest cities in the country.Say what? Don't they read our Bayou Body Count? What, you go ten days without a murder and all of a sudden you're Eden?Apparently, the designation doesn't have anything to do with odd recent spurt of non-murderousness.Forbes looked at violent crime (see above), workplace deaths (refineries are so safe), traffic
October 28, 2009Fearless Critic: Not The Only Brutally Honest Reviews In Town
One can't possibly argue with the extraordinary usefulness of Fearless Critic, from its many lists, to its valuable compendium of area restaurants, to its handy ratings system. But one can definitely argue with its claim that its reviews, by "food nerds" and food bloggers, are somehow superior to those of tried and true restaurant critics' simply because the book doesn't accept advertising. Anyone who's worked within a newspaper will tell you that -- despite its fondest wishes to the con
October 29, 2009Sampler 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. I'm Never Full: Although she uses Twitter as her main communication tool these days, Jenny Wang still maintains her blog on occasion. And the exciting announcement this week about the upcoming Bivalve (oyster) Throwdown is her latest post. Read all about it and score tickets whil
October 29, 2009Food Fight: Battle Po-Boy
Photo by Erika Ray We have a friend -- a born-and-raised Cajun who's as passionate about her food as she is about her Motherland itself -- who claims that it's impossible to get an authentic po-boy here in Houston. It has nothing to do with the seafood or the fixings or even the people creating the po-boys, many of them Louisiana transplants like herself. It has everything to do with the bread, she says. Something about the combination of New Orleans's proximity to the Gulf of Mexico
October 29, 2009Five Spot: Did Nnete Have Trae Banned From 97.9 The Boxx?
Welcome back to Five Spot. Every Friday, we'll examine a recent bit of music news and, sometimes awkwardly, tie it to a bit of Houston rap. It's five videos and occasional cussing. Send tips to introducingliston@gmail.com. What a fortnight it's been for Trae. First, his Restless album was named the 14th best rap album to ever come out of Houston. Then his newest son, Houston, was born. Then he released the anticipated The Incredible Truth mixtape. (We're assuming those are listed in order of
October 30, 2009Chipotle Will Install Solar Panels Everywhere But Houston
Photo by lcrfHair Balls is always worrying about reducing our carbon footprint -- in fact, we're constantly using aerosol-spray cleansers and dusters to reduce it like a mofo -- which is why we were stunned to learn in the Houston Business Journal that beloved burrito builders Chipotle Mexican Grill will be installing solar panels in about 75 stores throughout Texas....but not in Houston! (And they're even teaming up with Houston-based Standard Renewable Energy to d
October 30, 2009Did You Know Houston Has Had the Same Official Song Since 1915? Maybe It's Time for a New One.
We don't know if it's the election or what - actually it's not, but bear with us - but this afternoon Rocks Off got to wondering whether or not Houston had its own official song, lyrics and music officially sanctioned and ratified to embody the Space/Bayou City's hopes and dreams. This being Houston, we figured no way would a city so willfully ignorant of its abundant musical heritage and talent (officially, anyway) ever take such a radical step. Surely any composer who dared even suggest such
November 3, 2009Five Reasons Why Peter Brown Barely Beat Roy Morales
Ah, Peter Brown. You spent more than $3 million of your wife's cash, you put up dazzling ads that showed you jazzercising your way to Houston's future, you led the polls most of the way, as long as "Undecided" wasn't included.Yet you lost. Badly. Instead of making the runoff, you had to struggle to beat no-name Roy Morales, a Republican running in a Democratic city.How did this happen?Five reasons:1. People don't want to appear stupid when polled. Let's say you're a Houstonian watching Wheel
November 4, 2009Sampler 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, 2009Loni Love And The Chelsea Lately Comics Hit Houston
Plus-size comic Loni Love is coming to Houston this weekend as part of the Comedians of Chelsea Lately tour.Even though Love has had a successful stand-up career for more than six years now, her frequent appearances during the round-table sections of the late-night talk show hosted by Chelsea Handler on the E! network have given her an increased profile. (During a round-table section of the nightly show, Handler and three guest comics discuss the day's news, with a decided theater-of-the-absu
November 6, 2009Where Are We Eating?
This week, we've made sure that the name of the establishment isn't visible in either the plate glass windows or the tent cards on the tables. In fact, we're not showing you anything at all except the hostess stand at this Houston restaurant. Can you clever things figure this week's restaurant out? Leave your best guess in the comments section below.
November 9, 200936 Years Later, Another Victim Of The Candy Man Will Be Buried
Courtesy Harris County Medical ExaminerRederings of the last two unidentified Corll victims. The boy on the left will be buried Thursday.Just a couple of weeks ago we went on a Houston 101 nostalgia trip about Houston's most notorious mass murderer, Dean Corll.Today in our e-mail-box comes word that one of Corll's victims will be buried Thursday.Harris County announced today that one of the unidentified victims left over from Corll's sad list of 27 dead young boys will be buried in the county
November 9, 2009Know Your Roast
A very common question asked in cafes around Houston is, "What is your dark roast?" We think people are trying to ask, "What coffee has the biggest, most pronounced flavor today?" But there's some confusion here. One aspect of coffee is often overlooked but very important. There are, in essence, two different philosophies of coffee roasting. The early years of American roasting brought what coffee geeks call "roast profiling," which means that the coffee, no matter where it's from, is r
November 9, 2009Alabama Bookstop: Cinematic Once Again (For Now)
Photos by Katharine ShilcuttWhen we heard that there was going to be a happy hour -- a happy hour -- in the old Alabama Bookstop on Monday night, Hair Balls simply had to be there. After all, it's not often you get to visit the emptied husk of your childhood and relive your dying love affair with literature while drinking a cold beer. The Cinema Arts Society and 29-95.com hosted last night's happy hour in an effort to promote the upcoming Cinema Arts film festival and to encourage Houston r
November 10, 2009The President Of The UT Health Science Center Finding It Hard To Move Here
Photo courtesy UTWell over a year ago -- back in May 2008, when Hillary Clinton was still a viable candidate for the Democratic nomination -- the UT Health Science Center here in Houston hired Dr. Larry Kaiser as its new president.How much does he love Houston? So much that the UT Board of Regents is about to consider an agenda item that will continue paying Kaiser commuting costs from his Pennsylvania home until August 2010."For personal reasons, Dr. Kaiser and his family have been unable to
November 10, 2009Loose Change
November 12, 2009Bring It On: The 2009 Cinema Arts Festival Houston Starts Tonight
Photo by Sandra KoopThe 2009 Cinema Arts Festival Houston is rolling out the red carpet as we speak, for today's opening night screenings.Over at the Angelika Film Center, the highly anticipated Precious starts at 7 p.m., while over at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the festival's opening night gala starts with a screening of Richard Linklater's Me and Orson Welles, with Mr. Linklater in attendance (hence the red carpet).Richard Herskowitz, curator for the festival, spoke with Hair Balls a
November 11, 2009Where You @?
South Houston is home to one of the most culturally diverse neighborhoods in Houston, Sagemont. There is a dense population of Vietnamese in this area, and as a result, a fantastic selection of great Asian food. T@pioca is a little Vietnamese banh mi, yogurt, and bubble tea dive on Fuqua and Sabo that's a good example of a quality small business. The bubble tea drinks are great -- we ordered jasmine milk tea and coffee milk tea with half sugar (they will know). We also ended up trying T@
November 12, 2009Five Spot: New Videos from Bushwick, Chamillionaire, Trae; A Classic from Big Mello
Welcome back to Five Spot. Every Friday, we'll examine a recent bit of music news and, sometimes awkwardly, tie it to a bit of Houston rap. It's five videos and occasional cussing. Send tips to introducingliston@gmail.com. Several key artists in Houston released new videos this week. However, before we get down to them, a couple of things from our handy-dandy notebook: At the Kroger by our house, there's this electronic helicopter outside near one of the doors. It's one of those rides where y
November 13, 2009Inquiring Minds: Dengue Fever's Senon Williams on Scoring The Lost World
Not content to just make records, Cambodian surf-pop band Dengue Fever's projects have included multiple soundtracks, a documentary film, and now, an original score. Rocks Off can think of few other bands whose music perfectly fits the exotic otherworldliness of the 1925 silent version of The Lost World, based on the book by Aurthur Conan Doyle. Dengue Fever will be at Warehouse Live Saturday night for a one-off performance of their original score for the film. The score was written for the San
November 13, 2009Another Farmers' Market
There has been some flak about too many farmers' markets, but Houston needs a slow food movement and the markets are where it is going to start. Houston has another market sprouting roots Saturday mornings at Rice University from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the corner of Greenbriar and University. If you are coming down Greenbriar look for the white tents. We sometimes feel that these markets are getting to be the same old, same old, but they are still a big deal to be sprouting up here in oil
November 16, 2009Aftermath: Peace, Love, Little Joe and Hooker Heels at Westheimer Block Party
Photos by Groovehouse We'll get the obligatory platitude out of the way first. If any of you didn't Day 1 of the one-and-only two-day edition of the Westheimer Block Party, then you missed an excellent day of music and community in Houston. As we walked between stages spanning the corner of Westheimer and Taft, we found ourselves amidst a broad cross-section of Houston life and culture out enjoying the fun and festivities. NosapriseWe could give some credit to the City Of Montrose itself
November 16, 2009Five Guys Burgers and Fries: New Location
Five Guys Burgers and Fries, which started out in Arlington, Va. more than 20 years ago, is opening another restaurant in Houston today. The latest is at 1150 Fry Road, another one of 50 stores its parent company, TCH Restaurant Group, has planned for Houston. This one will be open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day. As we told you back last January, there is a definite etiquette to burger building in the Five Bros. chain. You walk in and order your food. There are only eight menu ite
November 16, 2009PechaKucha: Houston
November 19, 2009Houston Dance Club Rich's Shut Down for Apparent Nonpayment of Taxes; Liquor License Suspended; May Reopen Tomorrow
Update: According to the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission's Web site, Rich's - listed as owned by MZM Nightlife, Inc. - has had its liquor license suspended. The license was scheduled to expire on November 29. Son LamDancers enjoying Halloween at Rich'sRocks Off received an email this morning that longstanding Houston dance club Rich's had been shut down. So far all the information we have been able to gather has come from social networking sites. The incident appears to have happened Satu
November 18, 2009Rich's Closed Over Tax Dispute, Possibly Only For A Short While
Son LamDancers enjoying Halloween at Rich'sHair Balls received an email this morning that longstanding Houston dance club Rich's had been shut down. So far all the information we have been able to gather has come from social-networking sites. The incident appears to have happened Saturday night between 12:30 and 1 a.m., as tweeted by @djebonix and @EATitORstarve. @keithdavisjr, who got there after Chris Brown's concert Saturday to find it shut down, and several others tweeted the reason was
November 18, 2009Sampler 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. Dude, You Going To Eat That: What begins as a simple question on Filipino cuisine evolves into an interesting discussion of Western eating practices vs. Eastern, and the idea that many people eat these days to finish a given portion instead of to interact on a social level. Dr. R
November 18, 2009$7 at Chiloso's Taco House
Photos by Justine SchmiderWhere: Chiloso's Taco House, 701 E. 20th St., 713-868-2273What $7 gets you: A quick lunch of tacos, beans and rice and a big-ass bottle of Coca-Cola. Sometimes the weather is so nice in Houston that the best meal is one enjoyed on an outdoor patio. A personal favorite is Bubba's Texas Burger Shack, but even a place like Brother's Taco or Poppa Burger does the trick. So when we were driving through the Heights earlier today and spotted Chiloso's Taco House, a co
November 19, 2009Five Spot: Inside E.S.G.'s Everyday Street Gangsta
Welcome back to Five Spot. Every Friday, we'll examine a recent bit of music news and, sometimes awkwardly, tie it to a bit of Houston rap. It's five videos and occasional cussing. Send tips to introducingliston@gmail.com. After you interview somebody in preparation for writing something about them, there are always things that you want to mention that get left out of the article because of flow or space restrictions or whatever. It's the nature of the situation, we suspect. When we interview
November 20, 2009Houston 101: Sig Byrd, Houston's King of True-Life Noir
Of all the columnists in the history of Houston journalism, Sigman Byrd was easily the darkest and the most literary. From the late 1940s to the early '60s, Byrd wrote a column called The Stroller for the old daily Houston Press and later, briefly for the Chronicle. He always much favored the city's dark shadows, scruffy neighborhoods, and forgotten, often wrecked people over the big affairs of the day and Houston's high and mighty.As David Theis put it in his 1994 remembrance : Byrd ranged
November 20, 2009Upcoming Events
Although the Saturday tours at the brewery are still on hold for now, you can still get your fix of walking and beer with the Saint Arnold Pub Crawl tonight starting at 6 p.m. As a special bonus, there will be limited-edition Christmas Ale on tap. The crawl will take place in the north part of Rice Village, and because the crawls have gotten so huge, the first stop will actually be in three locations (mystery locations, as per tradition). Pick up your ticket at one of the three locations
November 20, 2009Listology: Nick Gaitan of the Octanes and The Umbrella Man's Favorite Female Vocalists
This is a big week for all-everything Houston bassist Nick Gaitan. Not only have his Monday-night Continental Club gigs with atomic-powered rockabilly trio the Octanes been steadily been picking up steam, his other band The Umbrella Man - which just happens to play Tuesday nights at the very same place - releases its self-titled debut CD tomorrow night with special guest Pokey Lafarge. Nick's a busy guy - oh yeah, he also plays bass for Billy Joe Shaver, if you haven't heard - but he was kind e
November 23, 2009Bush Intercontinental Doesn't Suck, No Matter What You Think
Remember this as you fight your way through the never-ending construction and the other annoying delays at Bush Intercontinental this weekend: It could be a whole lot worse.At least that's what website The Daily Beast thinks. It's named Bush the best airport in America.We're not kidding.Listen to them enthuse: The Continental hub ranked near the top in every one our criteria, and in terms of getting away during Thanksgiving, it was tops. "Because of our climate and geographical location we do
November 23, 2009Houston Is Somehow A "Salad City," Highly Scientific Survey Says
Is your mind still boggled at the thought that Bush Intercontinental is a terrific airport? Be prepared to have be re-boggled.The scientists at Dole Foods, or at least the people who put together pseudo-scientific surveys, have declared Houston to be one of the best "Salad Cities" in the nation.Houston, perennially a contended for Fattest City, is healthy when it comes to eating?"[R]esidents of Houston eat more salad per person that the national average -- or are more likely to consume more s
November 23, 2009
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