Moscow

How to Get Signed In Five Easy Steps, Starring Hacienda

Maybe it all comes down to being in the right place at the right time. Maybe luck has something to do with it. Or maybe it's crafting a vintage-era sound with odes of talent that landed Hacienda a lottery ticket to musical gold. It's no secret that The Black Keys likes to take on extra projects, a ... More >>

You Don't Mess with Texans, but You Don't Mess with Chechens Ten Times As Much

Simon Hanukaev's family has lived along the western shore of the Caspian Sea for generations. Settled near the city of Derbent, a southern city in the Russian republic of Dagestan, Hanukaev's predecessors lived through khanates and tsars, under Bolshevik revolution and Stalinist resettlement. His pa ... More >>

Vladimir Putin's Boyz II Men Sex Plan Is Phenomenal

It seems that Russian president Vladimir Putin has finally figured out what every middle-school boy has known since the '90's: if you play Boyz II Men for your date, it all but guarantees that her clothes are comin' off. In a bid to astronomically increase the Russian birth rate, president Putin ha ... More >>

What's Your Signature Cocktail?

Noted food writer and Esquire food critic John Mariani was in Houston recently, only a few months after proclaiming that ours was one of his favorite restaurant cities: "On occasion, when asked what are America's best restaurant cities," he wrote on his personal website, "I have sometimes surprised ... More >>

Back to the Classics

The Russian artists of "Perestroika" turn the past into something new.

Taped Live Brit Plays Come to Sundance Houston in High Def

It's like a tour of the British theater scene on the cheap. Sundance Cinemas is bringing four taped performances of the National Theatre of London to downtown Houston starting in January and running through April. And even in a city like Houston with its extensive theater scene, Sundance Cinemas ex ... More >>

Santa's Kicking Some Hitler Ass, Kids: Christmas Ads For WWII War Bonds

​Nothing says "Christmas" like killing people. Boys and girls hoping for fire trucks or dolls in World War II sometimes had to settle for war bonds, if their parents acted like these ads told them to. "Yes, Bobby, you asked Santa for a Joe DiMaggio baseball bat, but Santa has to teach the Hu ... More >>

Local Landmarks Dominate the 3rd Annual Gingerbread Build-Off

Photos by Rachel BohananThe Alabama Theater, complete with tiny, edible movie posters, was one of the most heartfelt entries in Saturday's competition.​For David Stagg, Caitlin Kaluza and the rest of their team from Schipul, their gingerbread house was meant to evoke emotions: a vintage Alabam ... More >>

Upcoming: Dropkick Murphys, Glen Campbell, Il Divo, Red Fang, Dax Riggs

"The 15th Annual Townes Van Zandt Wake": Sun., Jan. 1. Old Quarter Acoustic Cafe (413 20th St., Galveston), 413 20th St., Galveston, Galveston. Adrian Bourgeois, Street Violence, Art Institute: Tue., Dec. 13. Super Happy Fun Land, 3801 Polk, Houston. Band Of Skulls: Fri., March 16. Fitzgerald's, 2 ... More >>

“Valentin Gertsman — 30 Years in Art”

Jersey Shore: The 5 Most Pompous, Snobbish Things in The New York Times' Travel Piece

Jersey loves you too, Alessandra.​As Texans, we know a lot about media condescension from New York and Washington. For me, growing up in New Jersey, I became inured pretty early to being looked down on by the big city across the river. But snobbish pomposity was taken to new heights in The N ... More >>

Walter's Appears To Be Moving By Month's End

​According to the above poster for the Saxton Fox/Art Institute/Satin Hooks show, which was posted on Hands Up Houston earlier this afternoon, Walter's on Washington appears to be moving before the end of the month. The new location, 1120 Naylor, is just north of I-10, in the same industrial ... More >>

Battleship Potemkin

Bartender Chat: Bridget Paliwoda of Community Bar

Larami Culbertson​I've known Bridget Paliwoda of Community Bar (2703 Smith St) for about a year, since the time she started working there. And as often as I have been to Community, I have never seen her in a bad mood. I once witnessed her asking an out-of-control bar guest to vacate the prem ... More >>

Big 12 Title Game -- Loser Leaves Town

The Big 12 says goodbye to corn hats​It's probably appropriate that the most recognizable non-player/non-coach on the sidelines at the Big 12 Championship Game Saturday night was WWE Hall of Fame announcer Jim Ross because the final Oklahoma-Nebraska matchup (at least for the foreseeable futur ... More >>

Top 10 Hottest Jewish Musicians

​The Festival of Lights is upon us, as the eight-day Jewish holiday of Hanukkah officially kicks off at sundown tonight. Some of music's leading bigwigs will likely be sparking up the menorah, among them Lou Reed, Paul Simon, Billy Joel, Leonard Cohen, Diamond David Lee Roth, Perry Farrell an ... More >>

Queen of Spades

Love is never a sure bet

Names In the News Ask Collective Soul's 7even Year Itch: Collective Soul's Greatest Hits 1994-2001

​Rocks Off enjoys reading The New York Times on Sundays. It's one of the few things in our topsy-turvy lives we can count on. However, several stories in this past Sunday's paper gave us serious cause for concern. The best way to help these people, we figured, was to take their problems to Georgia ... More >>

The Tomball Area Dominates Texas Monthly's Worst Legislators List

Texas Monthly's eagerly anticipated list of Best & Worst Legislators is out, and one thing is clear: Tomball and its environs are a sticking cesspit of ineptitude and hackery.Two of the top ten bad legislators on the list (a list which is generally accepted to be nonpartisan) are from the town n ... More >>

Campaign Finance Shenanigans -- Maybe Fiction, Maybe Not

With the recent news of Barack Obama's record-breaking $750 million campaign fundraising efforts, it's an interesting time to release a novel about greed and deception in the field of political moneymaking. Especially if you, the author, were part of the team that helped secure Obama's three-quarter ... More >>

A Review of Rome 1960: The Olympics That Changed The World

A Modest Proposal: Train the Homeless to Be Better at Being Homeless

Capsule Art Reviews: "AES+F," "Andreas Nottebohm: Into the Light," "Claire Ankenman: Slices," "Contemporary Conversations: Robert Ryman, 1976," "Howard Sherman: In my mind, you're inflatable"

Last Night: Regina Spektor at Warehouse Live

Get Lit: Journeys of a Lifetime: 500 of the World’s Greatest Trips, by National Geographic

Get Lit: Stalin’s Ghost, by Martin Cruz Smith

Houston Symphony Opening Night Concert

All Russian, all the time

The Bourne Ultimatum

Amnesiac-spy trilogy culminates in a thrilling Ultimatum

Stage Capsule Reviews

Our critics weigh in on local theater

Stage Capsule Reviews

Our critics weigh in on local theater

Fallen Boundaries

Urban Indian Beat's new show combines East and West

Motorcycle Madness

Two-wheeled tours of H-town, East Texas and the Hill Country

Playing On Fear

Spielberg and Hanks spawn a daring new genre: the post-9/11 comedy

This Week's Day-by-Day Picks

Dallas Domination

The Metroplex schools Houston when it comes to the indie scene

Fertle Ground

The Fertle family is spending the holidays with family

Gold Russian

Kremlin Gold

News Hostage

News of the Weird

Dish

Masterful Moonlit Lake

Outdoor performance brings out the best in Houston Ballet

Dark Red Star

A boy and a Bolshevik bop steal The Thief

Press Picks

Mussorgsky Unplugged

HGO goes back to the original for a moving Boris Godunov

World of Film

Smaller, and with shorts, WorldFest/Houston cranks up its projectors

Post-Cold War Crazies

Rotations

Red Summer

Press Picks

Press Picks