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Kirk Franklin Puts Dynamic Stamp On House of Blues' Gospel Brunch

Even talking to Kirk Franklin makes you want to straighten up and fly right, not to mention feel a little lazy. The 43-year-old Fort Worth native is arguably the most decorated gospel performer of his generation, winner of close to 100 music awards across a wide variety of platforms: Grammys (nine), ... More >>

No Beard? No Problem. Rockets Beat Clippers for 40th W of the Season

At the beginning of this season, I was talking to my friend David Hardisty over at ClutchFans.net. At the beginning of every season, we'll usually talk about what we expect from the season. The team had just traded for James Harden, but neither of us were optimistic. I pegged the Rockets' win total ... More >>

Wanted In Houston: An Old-School, Over-the-Top Ice Cream Parlor

While there are certainly a few glaring gaps in Houston's restaurant scene (Burmese?), I am and continue to be pleasantly gobsmacked by the diversity of our city's food options. Which makes the absence of one particular thing all the more painful Are you there, God? It's me, Joanna. Please bring Ho ... More >>

Why Electric Daisy Carnival Texas Should Be In Houston

The largest music festival in the United States in terms of attendance is not Coachella, Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo, or Austin City Limits. While each sees thousands of music fans pass through the gates every year, the real attendance champ is Electric Daisy Carnival Las Vegas. The 2012 version of the e ... More >>

Denzel Washington Sulks, Soars in Flight

Owls Baseball Fighting the Expectations

The expectations for the Rice Owls baseball team are a bit different than the expectations for the rest of Rice Owls sports. Whereas the alumni want the football team to win, they expect the baseball team to win. Whereas they just want the basketball teams to make any tournament, the baseball team's ... More >>

Picking Rockets Team of the 2000s Not an Easy Task

Throughout the course of this frustrating season, the Houston Rockets have been allowing fans to pick their choices for the starting team of the decade beginning with the 1970s and continuing with the '80s, '90s and 2000s. They had all but one of their starting five for the 2000s on had for their wi ... More >>

City of Houston to Vote on Charitable Feeding Ordinance

Every Sunday morning at 8:30 a.m., volunteers for Noah's Kitchen gather at Jenni's Noodle House in the Heights and begin prepping for their day ahead. Since 2010, the charity's mission has been to feed Houston's homeless one meal at a time. In their first year, Noah's Kitchen volunteers fed 5,000 p ... More >>

Top 5 Most Awesomely Insane Things Done By Nick Cave

Nick Cave remains in a class by himself. On one hand, he's the most gothic person alive, but on the other he's so unique in his contributions that when we sat down to make a list of all the different eras of goth music, we simply had to leave him out because he doesn't fit anywhere. He's a statistic ... More >>

Kaylan Goodman: Her Company's Owner, Who Has a Warrant Out for His Arrest, Says 18-Year-Old Girl Is Just Fine!

Photo Courtesy Crime StoppersKevin Davis: The company he works for is totally legit and non-sleazy, so you don't have to worry.​Although an Oklahoma woman who suddenly vanished after joining a traveling magazine sales crew was located in Illinois Wednesday night and was allowed to call family, ... More >>

Video Proof That Chase Budinger Can Dunk With Flair

Maybe I'm in the minority on this one, but I'll put it out there -- I enjoy the Saturday festivities at the NBA All-Star weekend even more than the game on Sunday night. The slam dunk contest, the three-point shooting contest, the "whatever-they're-calling-the-game-with-rookies-and-sophomores-this- ... More >>

Top 5 Musical NBA Players

The NBA All-Star Game is coming up in a couple of weeks. There may not be any Rockets on the roster - even ex-Rocket/Knicks sensation Jeremy Lin didn't blow up in time to be added as a reserve - but musical names such as Kanye West, Rihanna (the halftime entertainment), Lenny Kravitz, Josh Groban, ... More >>

We're Rich: Houston Income Growth Tops Nation, Survey Says

It comes in, but it also goes out​Income in Houston grew faster than any other city in the nation last decade, a new report says. On Numbers studied U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.numbers and found that total income in Houston grew at an annual rate of 5.69 percent between 2000 and 2010. T ... More >>

When Gravity Attacks: 13 Memorable Onstage Stumbles

Lady Gaga kept a poker face after her Montreal fall.​Concert performances and award shows can sometimes really put the pressure on artists, who often get so nervous or excited that they may just faceplant the stage. We've complied you tube clips of some of the best mid-performance stumbles. So ... More >>

Rick Perry Gets Roasted Over Debate Performance -- By Conservatives

Rick Perry sucked last night, pundits agree​If you're going by the the opinions of the rightwing talking heads and pundits who fill up Fox News airspace, then Rick Perry had a terrible debate last night and the bloom definitely seems to be off the rose. Maybe it's the drought. Politico, the ... More >>

Houston Tops Dallas for Dining, Says LivingSocial, But What's In a Survey?

I mean, look at this survey. What the hell does it even mean?​In the last two weeks, two very different surveys have been released on the dining scenes in cities across the nation: one from Travel Leisure, which placed San Antonio above Austin on its top 20 list -- while failing to recognize ... More >>

Lyrical Life Lessons: Hell Hath No Fury Like A Woman Scorned

straightpinkie.com​Blame it on the humidity, but there's something about Houston that makes women go off the deep end. In fact, the Bayou City is home to three of the past decade's most notorious female-perpetrated crimes. There was Dr. Clara Harris (2002), who responded to the news of her hu ... More >>

Last Night: Ben Sollee At Fitzgerald's

Photos by Jessica Perry​Ben Sollee, Thousands Fitzgerald's July 21, 2011 "I don't know anything about cello or classical arrangements but I like this stuff," Aftermath said to our classical-music teacher, great friend and sometime colleague Meghan Hendley, keyboardist for local group Tyagaraj ... More >>

Houston One Of Top 20 Environmentally Green Cities In North America, Somehow

Not top 10 material yet​A new study of environmental practices in major cities in North America finds Houston ranked 16th, which is not that bad considering, you know, our air. The study, sponsored by the Siemens Corporation, used 31 criteria involving air, water supply, recycling and all th ... More >>

Yay? Houston One Of Few Cities To Get The Sarah Palin Movie

Comin' atcha, Houston!!!!​You've been holding your breath for weeks now, wondering if Houston would be blessed enough to be one of the cities picked for the limited initial release of The Undefeated, the documentary that proves beyond all doubt that Sarah Palin is the heart and soul of America ... More >>

She Stoops to Comedy

Detroit Pistons Mutiny (with Tracy McGrady video)

Practice?! We're talking about practice?!​If you're keeping score at home, Tracy McGrady has left scorched earth behind every NBA franchise for whom he has played. He left Toronto for Orlando just as his career was finally beginning to blossom, eventually wore out his welcome (amidst copious ... More >>

Airport Full Body Scanners: Austin GOP Takes a Bold Stand Against Them

Rosemary Edwards is appalled​If you're a Republican living in Travis County, modesty comes naturally. We just never knew it extended to body issues. Apparently plagued by self-doubt about having their nekkid bodies ogled by airport staffers, the Travis County Republican Party, such as it is, ... More >>

Amtrak's Terrible Sunset Limited May Become A Daily

Improvements on the way?​Amtrak has a new plan out on how to improve service on the Sunset Limited, the long-distance passenger train that comes through Houston on its way between Los Angeles and New Orleans. Any plan would likely improve service, since the Limited is notorious for long, long ... More >>

Low-Cost Virgin America Airline Might Be Coming To Houston

Another option for Houston fliers?​Another low-cost airline is looking to come to Houston, and that can't be bad. Virgin America, the airline essentially owned by billionaire Richard Branson, is considering renting some gates in Houston to go along with an hoped-for expansion in Chicago, Bloo ... More >>

Resurrecting Phi Slama Jama

Can UH resurrect its basketball glory days?

The Owls Prepare To Slay The Knights

The Owls are led by their Ray Guy Award nominee punter Kyle Martens​The Rice Owls (2-5) aren't going to out-physical most football teams. They usually don't have the talent of other teams. So for the Rice Owls to win football games, they need outstanding game plans, solid execution, and they ... More >>

Pink Power Propels Rice Over Houston

Perhaps it had something to do with Rice's pink logo​Saturday was a tale of two halves. The Rice Owls dominated the first, playing easily their best half of football this year. The Houston Cougars came out and took over most of the second half. But for the Cougars, winning the second half wa ... More >>

Rice Faces Improving Baylor, Hoping To Cut Down On Key Mistakes

Art Briles comes back to Houston with a good QB​The Rice Owls and Baylor Bears used to play each other every season. Then the Southwest Conference imploded. The Bears used some political clout to get into the Big 12, a conference where they've been outclassed every season. The Owls have bounced ar ... More >>

Game Time: Best of the Best -- Top 10 Moments from Clutch City Rockets (w/video)

Consensus Number One​I am a total sucker for lists.This makes me like roughly 95 percent of society; the fact that I openly admit I'm a sucker for lists makes me a little more unique. There are so many list books, list columns, list blog posts (many by yours truly) that it seems by admitting you ... More >>

Ex-DJ Brandi Garcia Happy To Move On Beyond The Box

Photos courtesy of Brandi Garcia​When Rocks Off got DJ Brandi Garcia on the phone a couple of weeks removed from her controversial dismissal from 97.9 The Box for playing a Trae track at an unrelated concert, we were anticipating her to call us from a frigid office full of books with legal jar ... More >>

Pat Green Or Monkeys Riding Dogs? A July 4 Dilemma Solved

​Sunday, the City of Houston will celebrate our fine country's independence from the Redcoats in the same way it does every single other year, with the self-proclaimed "Largest Land-Based Fireworks Show in the Nation," Freedom Over Texas. This year, the festival's blander-than-white-bread head ... More >>

Rice Romps As It Starts To Make Its Move In C-USA

​It's hard to find fault with your baseball team when you win a game 23-1, and that game is called in the seventh-inning because of the so-called travel rule -- it actually appeared to be more of a mercy type thing, but called the game was.Yet leave it to Rice Owls coach Wayne Graham, the coach of ... More >>

UH, Rice Football Schedules Offer Some Intrigue, But Will They Attract Fans?

​Lost amidst the hoopla of the upcoming NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament was the release on Tuesday of the football schedules of the Houston Cougars and the Rice Owls. And knowing Cougar fans the way I do, I'm sure they're already starting to form their excuses for failing to sell out the stadiu ... More >>

Coogs' Kelvin Lewis Helps Rip The Mustangs

Photo courtesy UH​The Cougars shot only 32.2 percent from the field on Saturday afternoon while the SMU Mustangs shot 38.2 percent. Usually when the Cougars shooting percentage has been this bad this season, they have lost. But they got the 66-60 win on Saturday because the Cougars did have an inc ... More >>

Aftermath: The Wailers, and Much Gnashing of Teeth from Our Writer, at House of Blues

Photos by Groovehouse / Click here for a slideshow​Aftermath recently read the following quote on Twitter: "Reggae is actually the only musical genre in which its greatest artist ever is actually its most popular as well." While Aftermath thinks this reveals a major disservice to artists l ... More >>

Cardiac Coogs Test The Hearts Of Their Faithful

Photo courtesy UH​It was just last month that Matt Hogan was the third-string kicker and back-up punter for the Houston Cougars. But after his 51-yard field goal soared through the goal posts as the clock reached 00:00 on Saturday night, it's very doubtful that Hogan will have to worry about winn ... More >>

No Justice

We've bailed out the banks. When do we go after the crooks behind our financial collapse?

Bombay Salad and Colossal Shrimp at King's Inn

Bill Maher Makes an Adolescent Case against Religion in Religulous

Oh, God! You Devil's Advocate

House of Blues Changes Houston's Live Music Landscape Before Even Opening

Mail Call

Rice and Its Neighbors