Iran

Kiarostami in Exile

The great Iranian director lost a home but gained a planet.

Comment of the Day: Romney's 47-Percent Gaffe

We have some great commenters here on Hair Balls, and it's time we paid some damn attention to them. So we'll be highlighting a Comment of the Day each morning or afternoon from the previous day's work. Maybe two comments, even. This will all be determined by a highly rigorous scientific formula i ... More >>

Marjane Satrapi: There Is No "Clash of Cultures"

Graphic novelist on east, west and how all stories are autobiography.

First Look at Solea

Solea opened Wednesday night on Shepherd, and although I wasn't there for it I imagine it to have been a fine, fun affair. Instead, I was there on Tuesday night for a media preview of the place -- something which I rarely attend anymore. But curiosity won out; I had to get a glance inside the resta ... More >>

''Multiple, Limited, Unique: Highlights from Permanent Collection of The Center for Book Arts''

20th Annual Iranian Film Festival

''Made in Iran''

Gelareh Bagherzadeh: $5,000 Reward for Information About Her Murder

The younger brother of a Texas Medical Center student who was slain outside her parents' Galleria-area townhome Monday issued a tearful plea for anyone with information about the incident to come forward. "I can't see my parents -- and I don't want to see any parents -- in this situation, and we ne ... More >>

The Film Issue

Looking back on the year in movies, and what's coming in 2012.

Chef Chat, Part 3: Morty Parsa of Kasra Persian Grill

Photos by Matthew DresdenThe Sultani platter at Kasra Persian Grill​After our conversation (included in Part One and Part Two of this Chef Chat), Chef Parsa brought out a few of his specialties. We started with the house-made flatbread called taftoon, a warm, slightly puffy disc the size of a ... More >>

Chef Chat, Part 1: Morty Parsa of Kasra Persian Grill

Matthew DresdenMorty Parsa in the kitchen of Kasra Persian Grill ​Since chef/owner Morteza "Morty" Parsa opened Kasra Persian Grill in 1999, the Westchase restaurant has become one of Houston's best-known Persian restaurants, winning numerous accolades in the process (including a 2007 Best of ... More >>

Yo-Yo Ma with the Silk Road Ensemble

Ten TV Shows That Need To Go Away Now

​We're barely a month into the fall TV season and have already lost three new network shows. My Generation, the show that was to catch us up on a group of high school graduates ten years after the fact (and presumably set to the music of The Who) pulled a Keith Moon after two episodes. Lone St ... More >>

Anousheh Ansari

An author shares her story of how her childhood dream of spaceflight came to be

Imprisoned Iran Hikers: Mom Still Has Hope, And Obama, On Her Side

Photos courtesy Ben FellemanShane Bauer, Sarah Shourd and Josh Fatta: The three hikers​Ben Felleman is almost a typical Millennial or Gen Y young man: a 25-year-old who digs the local Houston music acts, enjoys steady employment as an SAT instructor and his own freelance work as photographer, and ... More >>

Hikers Imprisoned In Iran Getting Houston Support Tomorrow

Music and a vigil this Saturday​Ben Felleman is hoping that the vigil he is hosting this Saturday to mark the one-year anniversary of his cousin Josh Fattal's arrest and imprisonment in Iran's infamous Evin Prison is canceled: "I would be thrilled to get that call that could transform the event fr ... More >>

Happy Anniversary, Appetite For Destruction

​July 21, 1987 began as a day like any other. The Reagan Administration told The New York Times that any discussion of presidential pardons in the Iran-Contra affair were "inappropriate at this time." Iran announced it would ignore the cease-fire with Iraq unanimously approved by the United Na ... More >>

Spotlight On: Meade

​When you hear the words "golden delicious," think mead (not apples!), the drink of choice for various peoples throughout the ages, including ancient Greeks, twelfth-century Slavs, and modern-day Ethiopians. Loosely defined as any beverage made from honey, water and fermented yeast, mead is ce ... More >>

Persian Cats, 3-D Phish And Houston Zydeco

​No One Knows About Persian Cats, the pseudo-documentary about the underground music scene in Tehran that Rocks Off first told you about in January, opens in wide release today and is now screening at the Landmark River Oaks Theatre. The film was featured at the MFAH earlier this year as part of t ... More >>

Forbidden Iran

Now you know: Tehran's underground music scene in No One Knows About Persian Cats.

17th Iranian Film Festival

See The Song of Sparrows during today's installment of the Middle Eastern film fest

Inprint Margarett Root Brown Reading Series: Joseph O'Neill and Marilynne Robinson

Two acclaimed authors stop in Houston to read for Inprint Series

Social Distortion: The Little Election That Could

Note:  Feel free to sing along with John Denver at any time.  This is wholesome social media activism the whole family can enjoy! There was a land of Persians with loads and loads of hope,All gearing up to elect a new President that was not a dope,And as the polling stations began to chug ... More >>

Lemon Sorbetto with Noodles

Last summer's obsession was Greek Gods chocolate fig flavor ice cream. So far, our favorite weird ice cream flavor this year is Golnazar lemon sorbetto with crunchy noodles. The rice noodles give the refreshing lemon sorbet an unexpected, but interesting texture. Golnazar is a California ice cre ... More >>

Seven Blind Women Filmmakers

Consider the title truth in advertising

16th Iranian Film Festival

Don’t mind the dictator

The United Nations of Food at Phoenicia Specialty Foods

2008 in Plastic: Seven inches at a time...

“We the People”

The Art League Houston takes on Hispanic and Muslim immigration in a multimedia exhibit

Glenn Gould, The Russian Journey

This documentary film captures the Canadian pianist's visit to Leningrad and Moscow

The Fish Fall in Love

The Global Lens Film Initiative screens two movies about women and destiny

Honoring Sally Yan Yan Ng

The MFAH remembers a film fan

Analyzing While Waiting (for Time to Pass): Contemporary Art in Tehran

Treibsand magazine, via the Aurora Picture Show, delves into the other Iranian film scene

Iranian Film Festival

Break the Silence

Comida sin Fronteras

In 21st-century Houston, it's getting hard to tell the difference between Mexican and Tex-Mex

The Show Band that Wouldn't Die

Three things you didn't know about Vince Vance and the Valiants

Hot Plate

My Kebab; No, Mine

Gang Signs

Booker-Lowe Gallery showcases "Hot" young aboriginal art

No PAL of Mine

The doors indeed will close on a respected program

Reverberations

A stunning video exhibit goes far beyond the Iranian culture it uses as its base

Best Pastry Shop

Epicure Cafe

Waves of Fascination

Shortwave radio: Where the lunatic fringe lives, breathes and flourishes

Stirred and Shaken

Old Heidelberg's Special

Welcome Home, You're Busted!

A watch and a pair of earrings come between two close socialite friends

The Silent Treatment

Woman needs only a few words to condemn an entire culture

From the Mouths of Babes...

Horses focuses on the children whose actions speak volumes about the persecuted Kurds

Come See the Paradise

This gentle Iranian import proves that children speak louder than fundamental ideologies

Allah My Children

Thank Heaven and Iran for a solid kids film

Fatwa This

Ayatollah you once, ayatollah you again: Abbas Headline:Kiarostami's movies just aren't that interesting