Saudi Arabia

The Rocks Off 100: Electric Attitude, Renegades of Funk

Who? Sitting at The Harp on Richmond with Jordan Bell, Kwesi Sackey and Blake Shepard, founding members of funk/soul group Electric Attitude, it's easy to understand why Electric is so eclectic. Of the three, Shepard is the more straightforward, serious one. Sackey, on the other hand, gives off a mo ... More >>

When It Comes to Ending Hunger, All Eyes are Upon Houston

Every other month, Moez El-Shohdi travels through the greater Middle East. Stretching from Morocco to Pakistan, El-Shohdi dots the landscape, visiting models he helped perfect through his work in Cairo. He examines the factory sprung in Riyadh. He tours the facilities in Damascus. He makes sure that ... More >>

The Battle Against the Keystone Pipeline

Environmentalists and landowners battle to stop the Keystone XL pipeline and its load of crude from flowing across Texas rivers and aquifers.

Eating D.C.: Dining Dispatches from the Capital

As of this writing, I am still comfortably ensconced in the Hotel Palomar in our nation's capital. There is a Negroni at my side, compliments of the hotel, which was waiting for me in the room after I returned from walking off a Shake Shack burger at lunch. That's service. Both the Shake Shack and ... More >>

Mormons: Whether We Should Hate Them or Not

A Shallow Yet Helpful Guide

Full Swag For DJ Screw & Framboise; Half Swag For Riff Raff

One of the many things we love about Houston is the diversity of its music. For instance, on Tuesday night we went to Mango's to see Psychic Palms and Mikey & The Drags, two of our favorite local garage-rock bands. After The Drags performed their cover for "Then He Kissed Me" by The Crystals, the du ... More >>

Ramadan Iftar, Sponsored by the City, Draws Hundreds of Muslims

Photo by Mandy OaklanderMayor Parker backed Saturday's citywide iftar. ​Sealed bottles of water sit on the white-clothed tables before the crowd of thirsty fasters. It's Ramadan, so for one month, observant Muslims like those gathered here at the downtown convention center will abstain from ea ... More >>

Doting Mama

Tamarie Cooper returns to poke mostly gentle fun at the U.S. and delivers a new national anthem.

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 >>

Michael Berry's Dead Osama Pep Rally

Photos by John Nova LomaxWheels fit for a celebration.​Early yesterday, Michael Berry, the former Boy Wonder of Houston politics turned radio rabble-rouser, sent out a press release plugging a "Houston Celebration: Osama Bin Laden Dead." The event would be later that day at Hefley's, a Texalic ... More >>

American Grocers

Samir Itani got rich sending expired food overseas to U.S. troops in the Middle East.

American Grocers: Houston Company Sold $36 Million Worth Of Outdated Food To U.S. Troops

A Houston company gets nailed for $15 million for sending expired food to U.S. troops in the Middle East. ​The Department of Justice announced today that Houston's American Grocers, Inc., has agreed to pay $15 million to settle a lawsuit that charged the company with shipping expired food to U.S. ... More >>

Top Five Musician Religious Conversions

Marc Israel Sellum/ Isreality.com​The opposites of life attract us, we've always believed. Time and time again, that philosophy proves itself right. It's why in high school, the Catholic school girls were the biggest freaks. No, that's not a myth. They were suffocated with religion or "right" ... More >>

Fiona Dawson: Pitching An Anti-Prejudice Reality Show

Fiona Dawson, fighting prejudice through reality TV​Hair Balls is a very finicky TV watcher, opting mostly for shark-based shows, or dramas featuring the Amish getting out of tricky situations using only their earthy wiles, but we'd definitely watch the series that Houston activist Fiona Dawson is ... More >>

Israeli TV Show Is Taping In Houston And Honoring Right-Wingers

Live! From Houston! It's Tuesday Night Live In Jerusalem!!​Houston is the first stop for Israeli TV hosts Ari Abramowitz and Jeremy Gimpel as they take Tuesday Night Live in Jerusalem across the United States. "We want to give an empowering, uplifting, inspiring message about Israel. And the ... More >>

Five Musicians Who Can Help Mel Gibson Reform His Image

​Just in case you haven't heard the audio tapes of famed actor/ultra-religious headcase Mel Gibson unleashing slur-filled invective at his wife Oksana Grigorieva, you can listen to them here, but you've got to be warned, it is not even remotely safe for work unless you work in a Neo-Nazi biker ... More >>

A Cooler Coke: Vimto

​Each Tuesday and Thursday for the next five weeks, we'll be taking a look at alternatives to cokes for the sticky Houston summer that lays ahead. If you're like me, you might wander up to the refrigerated drink case at Phoenicia and think that the red, yellow and white can of Vimto sitting o ... More >>

We're No. 1! (In Executions)

Photo by Katharine ShilcuttA death penalty protest march was held last week in downtown Austin.​In its 2009 Death Penalty and Executions report released today, Amnesty International calls Texas the "worst offender," because -- with 24 executions -- it leads the country in the number of people ... More >>

Beetle's Paul Beebe and Other Local Musicians Remember John Lennon

Today is one of the most dubious anniversaries in all of rock and roll. Twenty-nine years ago this evening, Mark David Chapman shot and killed John Lennon on the front steps of Lennon's apartment building on the Upper West Side of New York City, the Dakota. For Baby Boomers and even their older kid ... More >>

Pine Leaf Boys

Saudi National Charged With Not Telling Feds He Intended To Make A Virtual Prisoner Of His Maid

A citizen of Saudi Arabia has been charged by the feds here for lying to obtain a visa for an employee.What's so bad about that? Well, the lie was that he told visa officials he was bringing the woman over here to be domestic help at $1,300 a month at eight hours a day six days a week, but instead, ... More >>

The United Nations of Food at Phoenicia Specialty Foods

Al Green Goes All Rambo

Ambassador Schechter On Secretary Of State Clinton

With the world media coming dangerously close to announcing that Hillary Clinton plans to accept the Secretary of State position in Barack Obama’s cabinet, Hair Balls thought we’d reach out to longtime Clinton-family ally and former Ambassador to the Bahamas under President Clinton, Houston ... More >>

Representative Al Green Fights His Own Vietnam War

Get Lit: Gay Travels in the Muslim World

Texas Woman Fights Abuse at the State's Schools for the Mentally Retarded

Her son was beaten up by an angry caregiver at Denton State School

Leaving no gimmick unturned, that Super Size Me guy goes searching for Public Enemy No. 1 in Where in the World Is Osama bin Laden?

Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World

Eastern Promises, American Pie: Beta House, The Kingdom, War

The Kingdom

Peter Berg sends Jamie Foxx to fight the enemy over there in The Kingdom

Mean Joe Greene Meets Avril Lavigne: Texans-Cowboys from the Press Box

Gods and Lovers

During their massive, five-day Indian wedding, a local couple was worshipped

Well, At Least He Did Better Than the Republicans

Getting Schooled

A legendary debate teacher has a lesson plan to knock off Congressman John Culberson

Power Plays

Other options to nuclear have their own set of drawbacks

Killing Time

In the profound Jarhead, a soldier can be his own worst enemy

Welcome to Fire Island

While communities across the country block LNG terminals, Quintana just shrugs

All Aboard

Since 9/11, tanker sailors are having a tough time making it to dry land in Houston

Ship Wrecked

A Houston firm certified the oil tanker Prestige as good to go. It broke apart in the Atlantic, causing the worst environmental disaster in Spanish history.

Blessed and Bewildered

Recent debacles demonstrate why District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal needs more than a moustache to match the legacy of Johnny Holmes

Whatcha Gonna Do?

Houston's Neutral Sisters look white, sing black and move to a reggae rhythm

The Gulf Between

When these soldiers became writers, the pen becomes very mighty indeed

Hotter than Halal

Islamic fusion restaurants are all the rage because of their organic meat -- and whole chiles

Who Stollen Christmas?

Joe Mannke gives us the dish on German food

Red Light, Green Light

With billboards of windmills promising gentle, nonpolluting energy, Green Mountain offers Texans a new power avenue. Will they take it? Should they?

Letters

Rockin' On, A Stark Affair, Wrong War?

Rose, By Any Other Name

Jim Rose got a makeover, but he still has fans rolling in the aisles

Letters

Family Affairs

Mai's and Van Loc revel in large similarities - and small differences

Snow Job

Why would the U.S. ship dozens of snowmobiles to the Caribbean?