Labor Day

The Devil’s Auteur: Rob Zombie Faces His Fans — and His Art

22 Coots and Codgers Making the Rest of Us Look Bad

While the rest of the music business has been slow to awaken from its holiday slumbers, the biggest shows in Houston this weekend come from two artists who have been up a long, long time -- 87 years, to be exact: Bluesman B.B. King and country crooner Ray Price. (Actually, Price will turn 87 on Satu ... More >>

Robert Earl Keen's "Christmas" Present That Keeps Right On Regifting

For many people, the Christmas spirit fades as soon as the last trash bag bulging with wrapping paper hits the curb. Texas singer-songwriter emeritus Robert Earl Keen is counting on goodwill toward men lasting at least through the end of his "Merry Christmas from the Fam-O-Lee" tour that stops at Ho ... More >>

Austin's Bright Light Social Hour Eat Own Tails On Endless Tour

It's been a busy year of travel for Austin's Bright Light Social Hour. The group's intriguing blend of semi-psychedelic Southern rock and '70s disco-soul has taken them to every nook and cranny of North America in 2012, highlighted by big, triumphant performances at SXSW and Arkansas' Wakarusa festi ... More >>

Chupacabras, Assault Rifles, and Busting Facebragging Hunters: True Texas Game Warden Adventures

Among crime blotters in the state, two of the best belong to the Lufkin Daily News and the Wise County Messenger. But those are both private sector news sources. Our favorite "socialist" crime blotter comes from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, whose periodic Game Warden Field Notes is must ... More >>

College Football Week 1: 4 Winners, 4 Losers Among Coaches, Heisman Candidates, QBs

Thursday night college football is fun. The Friday night ESPN game, at least under the magical watch of Joe Tessitore, has become somewhat sneaky over the years. But the college football season truly begins on that first Saturday. So when I fired up the television Saturday morning, then and only th ... More >>

Happy B'Day, Beyoncé: 10 Gift Ideas for Houston's Homegrown Megastar

"What do you get for the woman who has everything?" That question must have been plaguing Sean Carter for the past weeks, at least. His lovely wife, Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, whom he so callously stole away from our fair city even though she is 100 percent too good for him, turns 31 today. In the p ... More >>

#MadeInAmerica: The Rain, Restrictions & Randomness of Day 2

Day two of the first-ever Made In America music festival felt considerably less hectic and crowded than day one. The blazing heat of the previous day was replaced with scattered showers, and the humidity that follows, making for a sticky and slippery situation on the Ben Franklin Parkway. The crowd ... More >>

#MadeInAmerica: Translation's Steve Stoute Talks Diversity, Honesty, and The Digital Revolution

This Labor Day holiday weekend in Philadelphia, Jay-Z is teaming up with Budweiser and Live Nation to curate the initial and inaugural Made In America Music Festival, a two-day, multi-genre event featuring acts such as Pearl Jam, Skrillex, Santigold, and Gary Clark Jr, and features the return of D'A ... More >>

Rest Easy, Texas (Well, Not Too Easy): Tropical Storm Isaac Inching Its Way Toward Louisiana

Fortunately for everyone along the Gulf Coast, Isaac is still a tropical storm as of Monday morning. The storm has yet to form a solid inner core thanks to some wind shear from an upper-level disturbance near it, but that will change as it moves toward the northern Gulf Coast. Isaac should slow down ... More >>

Handicapping Houston Restaurant Week: Your Guide to the Best Deals and Meals

UPDATE: In grand Houston Restaurant Weeks tradition (which used to be just "Houston Restaurant Week," no plural at the end), HRW has been extended once again this year. The month-long dining-for-charity eatstravaganza will run through Labor Day weekend. The last day to get your $20 lunches and $35 d ... More >>

Like That Chain Restaurant?

Try this local one instead.

Top 5 Red Wines to Serve Chilled in Summer

Some are more apt to reach for white than red wine during summer months, and it's perfectly understandable: White wines are generally served chilled, red wines generally not. But when summertime arrives at our house, I find myself craving earthy red wines to pair with the smoked ribs we are offered ... More >>

The 10 Greatest Summer Concerts I Never Saw

Well, kids, summer has arrived. If you have ever noticed, all the good concerts seem to come during the summer -- with May being more like a pre-show. My parents, when I was younger, took me to many concerts at some of these venues, mainly Contemporary Christian concerts. I myself had only been to ... More >>

Wrong Time, Wrong Place

A parochial school kid takes a leap of faith, transfers to a public high school and gets caught in a whirlwind.

Bonna-What?: How 7 U.S. Music Festivals Got Their Names

This whole week, the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, featuring the Black Keys, Radiohead, Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg, Pulp, At the Drive-In, the Shins, AVICII, David Guetta and maybe one or two others, will be all anyone who follows music these days will be talking about. Then early next week, it' ... More >>

Wildfire Evacuees Pause for a Breath at Lake Conroe KOA

Margaret DowningScott Ross had to flee his house​Scott Ross had held out past the wildfire evacuation order. The father of six didn't want to leave his place off at Southall Drive and FM 1486 to looters and in his case, it wasn't idle speculation. He'd already had a guy run out from under his ... More >>

How Not to Text a Teen

Lewd sexts to 14-year-old

First Look at Ruggles 11th Street Cafe

​Do you remember the old 11th Street Cafe? I do. My father and I tried to eat there a few times while he was still living in Norhill, just down the street. Every single visit was increasingly abysmal, to the point where I wondered just how long it would be until the old girl gave it up. I als ... More >>

Your 2011 Fall/Movie Preview (Part 1)

​Note: Pop Rocks will return next week. Labor Day has come and gone, which means the official start of the fall movie season is just around the corner. In fact, two of the more anticipated releases of latter 2011 -- Warrior and Contagion -- come out tomorrow. After what has been widely rega ... More >>

Last Night: Avenged Sevenfold, Three Days Grace & Seether At The Woodlands

Photos by Matthew KeeverAvenged Sevenfold​Rockstar Energy Drink UPROAR Festival feat. Avenged Sevenfold, Seether & Three Days Grace Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion September 5, 2011 First, Aftermath would like to give credit where it's due. To everyone who attended the Rockstar Energy Drink ... More >>

Comment of the Day

​Today Katharine Shilcutt reported on the sudden demise of Ayn Rand enthusiast Ron "Pigpen" McKernan's Greatfull Taco. Commenter Wyatt thought Rand would approve of how the closure was handled: Ayn Rand would probably be just fine with laying off a bunch of people with no notice. Sharing isn ... More >>

Balaclavas, Black Leather Jesus

25 Signs That You Aren't From Houston

That's right, you're not from Houston​Earlier this week Arturo Valdes was pulled over for speeding down the West Loop feeder road in the City of Bellaire. After finding "irregularities" with his registration (probably something other than a Bellaire or West U address), Bellaire cops called in ... More >>

Blue Hair and Mohawks: Notes From the Rice Owls Media Day

Pity the fool who mocks the Mohawk.​The Rice Owls' media day on Saturday was a bit looser than the media day held by the Houston Cougars on Friday afternoon. There were more players available. There was more laughter. The coaches mingled with the press. Spirits were high. It's not that th ... More >>

Case Keenum and the Favre Rules: Notes from UH Media Day

The Cougars would like Case Keenum to be a bit more like Brett Favre this season.​It's safe to say that the 2010 football season didn't pan out the way the Houston Cougars imagined it would. That team, to be paced by senior QB Case Keenum, was poised to take UH football to the next level with ... More >>

15 Reasons To Keep Watching The Astros

Watch Ed Wade try to line up another job with the Phillies​I know most of you have probably tuned out on the Astros by the now. Hell, most of you probably tuned out on the Astros back in March. But it's still over a month until the Texans start disappointing everybody again. The NBA may not ... More >>

Top 5 Sporting Events in Memorial Day History

Ernie Banks' immortal words used to mean something each Memorial Day.​A month from now (hell, even a second after it concludes), nobody is going to remember and/or care about the Houston Astros' Memorial Day clash with the Chicago Cubs in Wrigley Field. Overall, it's a pretty lame sports day ... More >>

I-45 in Harris County: Most Teen Car Crashes in Texas

Road trip...to higher insurance rates.​There's nothing like being a teen behind the wheel in summer. You've got your music blasting, you at least imagine the top's down, and the world is yours. Plus, if you're in Harris County, you have the added excitement of crashing at almost any moment. ... More >>

Food Fight: Potato Salad

Nielsen's Deli​Potato salad is not, strictly speaking, an American concept, but the mayonnaise-based version that most of us know and love is in fact American - or at least its origins are murky enough that we might as well claim it. And claim it we do -- in some towns it's illegal to hold a s ... More >>

Last Night: Miss Mykie's Love Repair Premiere

Photos by Larami Culbertson​6:14 p.m.: Tonight (Sunday), tiny R&B dynamo Miss Mykie will debut the movie version of her enjoyable and dexterous recent EP, Love Repair. They're being a bit liberal with the term "movie" - it's really an eleven minute music video - but still, it's a pretty neat t ... More >>

Butch Hancock, Flatlanders Still Chasing The Horizon

​Pound for pound, Rocks Off's choice for greatest living Texas songwriter is Butch Hancock, who happens to play in the same band as his closest competition for that title - old Lubbock buddies and fellow Flatlanders Joe Ely and Jimmie Dale Gilmore. At McGonigel's Mucky Duck over Labor Day week ... More >>

Drive-By Truckers: Hard At Work And Loving Hall & Oates

UPDATE: 6 p.m.: The contest is over. Thanks for playing! Danny Clinch​Grand Funk Railroad may have got there first, but Drive-By Truckers are an American band. If not for Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, for whom the Truckers opened the Midwestern leg of their summer tour, the Georgia six-piece ... More >>

Upcoming Events

Photo by Micah Taylor​If you're a lady who loves lager, there's a new(ish) club in town for you: Texas Girls' Pint Out is a group of hardcore beer nerds and geeks -- labels which they bear proudly -- who also happen to be women. They're in the process of organizing all manner of events for the ... More >>

Upcoming Events

Yes, they even have GF chocolate chip cookies.​No big surprise here, but a welcome announcement nonetheless: Houston Restaurant Week has officially been extended until Labor Day, making it -- in effect -- Houston Restaurant Month. HRW was expected to end on August 21, tomorrow, but will now ru ... More >>

The Brew Ha-Ha on the Brewmasters International Beer Festival

​Hopheads, grab your steins! It's a brewtiful day to love beer in the Lone Star State. On Labor Day weekend (September 3-6), through a partnership with Spec's and Food & Vine Time Productions, Galveston's Moody Gardens will host the largest-scale beer event in Texas. The Brewmasters Internatio ... More >>

Chef Chat, Part 1: John Brand of Las Canarias and Pesca on the River

​San Antonio's John Brand is executive chef at Las Canarias at the Omni La Mansion del Rio, along with Pesca on the River at the Watermark Hotel. We were able to catch him during a brief visit to Houston, when we discussed the process of writing corporate menus -- and how to coax a secret barb ... More >>

Pop Rocks: You'll Be Sorry When They're Gone

​Harvey Pekar died yesterday. What was lost in the usual exercise of macabre one-upmanship -- as everyone rushed to update Twitter and Facebook in an effort to be the first to break the bad news to all their friends -- was the fact that most of them were only aware of Pekar's existence thanks ... More >>

Emerald Lake Nudist Resort Goes For World Skinny Dipping Record (NSFW)

Photos by GroovehouseThough the resort looks like a scrapyard from the outside, this posted notice gives some idea as to what awaits inside.​Don, a soft-spoken older gentleman with bright blue eyes and the remnants of ruddy hair amidst the gray, spoke to me from a white, plastic lawn chair. It ... More >>

Jill Moser: "Sixteen Street"

Artist Jill Moser speaks the language of simple abstraction

The Forgotten Festival

The 1969 Texas International Pop Festival

This Blows!

Houston has a national rep for taking down buildings. So why are these eyesores still standing?

Children of Enron

One of Ken Lay's many legacies: the families whose lives were disrupted by the fall

South Park Monster

Fans saw Carlos Coy as the invincible rapper, the gangsta who could become an icon for outcast Hispanics everywhere. But they didn't know his weakness -- young girls did.

Dish

Soft and Crabby

Summer's the right time for many things -- but none better than soft-shell supping