Public Broadcasting Service

Rap Not So Macho

Another Ball Game

Meet forgotten stars in "Black Baseball: A History of the Negro Leagues"

Station Break

Beset by budget problems, bereft of substantive local programming, Channel 8 finds itself at a crossroads. Perhaps it's time to put the "public" back into Houston Public Television.

Press Picks

Beset by budget problems, bereft of substantive local programming, Channel 8 finds itself at a crossroads. Perhaps it's time to put the "public" back into Houston Public Television.

Heartbreaking News For Barbecue Fans: Thelma's Gutted By Fire

Thelma's, one of the city's most famous "unknown" barbecue joints, was apparently gutted by fire over the weekend.We're told someone saw the fire engines out at the shack on Friday; another passer-by on Sunday says the place looked gutted.We're sending someone out now to get photographic evidence an ... More >>

SXSW: Protest Outside Austin City Limits

A dozen Austin activists staked out the four corners of the University of Texas communications building earlier today, passing out flyers to people on the way to Ben Harper's Austin City Limits taping. Surprisingly, the flyer had nothing to do with herb not being a gift of the earth, but rather was ... More >>

Westheimer Block Party Preview: Updates from Elaine Greer, Bolt, Linus Pauling Quartet, Future Blondes and More

The second in Rocks Off's series of self-penned updates from bands playing Saturday's Westheimer Block Party. If this also applies to you, please send yours to chris.gray@houstonpress.com. Elaine Greer: "I have been working on my first-ever EP, which is set to be released in May, and am playing ... More >>

Best Local Television Show Causing a Commotion

Street Flava, KUHT Channel 8

Parking Tickets and Clamato

Street Flava, KUHT Channel 8

Crashing the Sidecar

Plus: Oliver Returns, Mary's Memories, No Yellow-Dog Democrat

Brideshead Revisited Goes Back to the Book

The movie is shorter and truer to the novel than the TV mini-series

High School Lessons

The movie is shorter and truer to the novel than the TV mini-series

Capsule Art Reviews: "Apertura-Colombia," "Craft in America — Expanding Traditions," "Dario Robleto: Oh, Those Mirrors With Memory (Actions 1996-1997)," "How Artists Draw," "Katy Heinlein," "Miwa Yanagi — Deutsche Bank Collection"

The movie is shorter and truer to the novel than the TV mini-series

Capsule Art Reviews: "Craft in America — Expanding Traditions," "Dario Robleto: Oh, Those Mirrors With Memory (Actions 1996-1997)," "John Alexander: New Paintings and Drawings," "Katy Heinlein," "Miwa Yanagi — Deutsche Bank Collection,"

The movie is shorter and truer to the novel than the TV mini-series

“Craft in America: Expanding Traditions”

The Houston Center for Contemporary Craft features a thinking-out-of-the-box exhibit

The Kite Runner

Controversy aside, this adaptation just won't fly

The War

Ken Burns looks at WWII

Racist or Roadshow?

"Blackface" stirs up an old question

Man with the Mike

Ernie Manouse chitchats with visiting stars

Blue Christmas

Joe's Roadhouse pays homage to the melancholy side of the season

This Week's Day-by-Day Picks

Joe's Roadhouse pays homage to the melancholy side of the season

Various Artists

Ken Burns Jazz: The Story of America's Music (Columbia Legacy)

Flop Like an Eagle

Brad Tyer checks out of the Hotel California after five songs

Farm Living Isn't the Life for Damian Mandola

Damian Mandola and his wife, Trina -- both notable Houston chefs and restauranteurs -- have found themselves in a spot of bother up the Hill County, where they currently reside on a ranch outside of Austin. That spot of bother? Allegations that they had three of their neighbors' Swiss mountain ... More >>

The Living Bubba

Damian Mandola and his wife, Trina -- both notable Houston chefs and restauranteurs -- have found themselves in a spot of bother up the Hill County, where they currently reside on a ranch outside of Austin. That spot of bother? Allegations that they had three of their neighbors' Swiss mountain ... More >>

Chef Rick Bayless: Reluctant Rock Star

Photo by J.C. Reid​A visitor to Macy's at Memorial City Mall last Wednesday would have been surprised at the more than 100 people -- many of them young women -- lined up in the Kitchen and Home area. Were the Jonas Brothers endorsing a line of tableware? No, but it was a rock star of sorts -- ... More >>

Copyright Infringement

Get your hands off my sound

The Planets: An HD Odyssey

The Symphony joins NASA for a match made in Houston

Fine Living No More: The Cooking Channel To Debut May 31

​If you think that food-oriented television couldn't get any worse or lowbrow than Sandra Lee's infamous Kwanzaa cake or the frosted tips of Guy Fieri traveling the nation in search of burgers, burgers and more mediocre burgers, you're in for a shock: There is much worse programming on the men ... More >>

Idol Beat: That's All, Folks

Um...really? This was it? This was the best you could do, America?​And so, the ninth season of American Idol comes to a lumbering and terrible end. The show is frequently boring and often aggressive in its desire to force viewers to sit through bad guest performances, but even by the show's ow ... More >>

American Idol: That's All, Folks

Um...really? This was it? This was the best you could do, America?​And so, the ninth season of American Idol comes to a lumbering and terrible end. The show is frequently boring and often aggressive in its desire to force viewers to sit through bad guest performances, but even by the show's ow ... More >>

Pamela And Jack Wright: Houston's Pawn Stars

Photo by schemacomaWhere dreams are made....​We know we're a little late to the game, but Hair Balls recently became a fan of Pawn Stars, the History Channel's beer-gutted, blue-collar answer to PBS's effete, pinky-sipping Antiques Roadshow. (Which we also love.)Thanks to its Las Vegas setting, an ... More >>

Five Disturbing Films, Plus Five More For Good Measure

​I'm going to the unrated remake of I Spit On Your Grave next week. The original, I should point out, was rated "R", though I still doubt the new one will pack the same punch the first one did back in 1978 (Roger Ebert described sitting through it as "one of the most depressing experiences of ... More >>

Bryan Caswell: No Pity

​Last night, half of Houston tuned in to watch Chef Bryan Caswell of REEF and Little Big's represent the Bayou City on the Food Network's newest show: Next Iron Chef. I didn't watch it. I was catcalling people from the back of a banquet room at the Hilton during the otherwise classy My Table ... More >>

Why the Tears?

​Last night, half of Houston tuned in to watch Chef Bryan Caswell of REEF and Little Big's represent the Bayou City on the Food Network's newest show: Next Iron Chef. I didn't watch it. I was catcalling people from the back of a banquet room at the Hilton during the otherwise classy My Table ... More >>

Chef Chat, Part 1: Robert Del Grande of RDG Bar Annie, Part 1

​EOW recently got to sit down with Robert Del Grande of RDG Bar Annie (plus a host of other restaurants around town -- The Grove, Café Express and two new ventures about to open at West Ave, just to name a few). Though we could have asked him how it felt to be one of the pioneering chefs du ... More >>

The Calling

​EOW recently got to sit down with Robert Del Grande of RDG Bar Annie (plus a host of other restaurants around town -- The Grove, Café Express and two new ventures about to open at West Ave, just to name a few). Though we could have asked him how it felt to be one of the pioneering chefs du ... More >>

For Once in My Life

​EOW recently got to sit down with Robert Del Grande of RDG Bar Annie (plus a host of other restaurants around town -- The Grove, Café Express and two new ventures about to open at West Ave, just to name a few). Though we could have asked him how it felt to be one of the pioneering chefs du ... More >>

Featherface: Dreams Of Peacocks And The Great Gatsby

It's a well-known fact that most band names are essentially gobbledygook, but here at Rocks Off we're trying hard to find meaning in the oddest monikers. ​Houston's own Featherface is a very interesting little group of indie-rockers. The music is ethereal, atmospheric, but somehow sinister un ... More >>

Five Great Uses Of Music As A Weapon

Ed. Note: Jef With One F does not distinguish fiction from reality from video games. We let it slide because he accepts checks from the "Bank of Mordor"... we just hope it's not rubbing off on us. teecraze.com​Music is a weapon. That's what angry political bands will tell you. They'll bend yo ... More >>

Pop Rocks: The Worst Part Of Parenting? The TV Shows.

Don't believe the hype.​Being a parent is tough, especially when the kids are toddler age or thereabouts. You're basically on 24-7 suicide watch while the little hobgoblins cram everything they find into their mouths and clamber to the top of the bookshelves, while at the same time you try to ... More >>

Top 5 Musician Novelists

Ted Barron/New West RecordsSteve Earle: What's up, Doc?​Despite what our paychecks and sometimes even our diplomas say, the perception persists that music journalists are not "real" journalists. Similarly, no matter how literate their lyrics, some folks think musicians could not possibly put p ... More >>

Pop Rocks: Come On People, Bert and Ernie Are Totally Straight

You people are sick.​Pop quiz, PBS. Now that your government is once again threatening to slash funding for anything not related to defense or entitlement spending, and your continued liberal heresies have put you squarely on the chopping block, do you: a) Let Philip Morris start advertising ... More >>

Bartender Chat: Jack of Brewery Tap

Photos by Ginny Braud​Last week, filmmaker Ken Burns was a guest on The Colbert Report promoting his new three-part documentary Prohibition, part one of which aired this past Sunday, October 2, on Houston PBS affiliate KUHT. The series examines our country's infamous failed social experiment, ... More >>

Top Chef: Texas - Let the Games Begin

​I have absolutely no tolerance for reality shows of any kind, and I watch little food television programming aside from Chopped, Alton Brown and the PBS Saturday morning line-up. I do not understand the modern paradigm of chef as rock star. I don't know why food blogging has become so entrenc ... More >>

Comment of the Day: AY, Mami!

​Here on Eating Our Words, the commenters absolutely make the blog, and our Comment of the Day honors the best of the bunch. Every day, we read you guys and pick the commenter, or commenters, who made us laugh, cry, salivate over something delicious, or think about things in a new way. In re ... More >>

Pop Rocks: You're Not Fooling Anyone, Downton Abbey

​A quick survey of status updates on Facebook Sunday night confirmed what I'd suspected for weeks: 200% of them were watching something called Downton Abbey. Season 2 just debuted on Masterpiece Classic on PBS, you see, and people responded with an enthusiasm usually reserved for when some m ... More >>

Daisy Bates: First Lady of Little Rock

​A quick survey of status updates on Facebook Sunday night confirmed what I'd suspected for weeks: 200% of them were watching something called Downton Abbey. Season 2 just debuted on Masterpiece Classic on PBS, you see, and people responded with an enthusiasm usually reserved for when some m ... More >>

Must Like Texas Wine: The Wine Slinger Chronicles, a New Guide to Texas Wines

Photo by Jeremy ParzenLeading Texas wine authority Russ Kane (left) and his wife Delia love meatballs. That's Russ with Coppa executive chef Brandi Key. Russ has called Brandi's meatballs "the best in town."​It seems inevitable that the authors of the two guides to the wines of Texas have name ... More >>