Sherlock Holmes

Defending Tarantino

What critics who attack the director's borrowings miss.

Capsule Stage Reviews: Miss Julie, Getting Sara Married, The Glass Menagerie, Life Could Be a Dream, Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure

Capsule Stage Reviews: Awesome America!, Miss Julie, Getting Sara Married, Life Could Be a Dream, Otello, Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure

Capsule Stage Reviews: 2 Pianos, 4 Hands, Getting Sara Married, Girls Only — the Secret Comedy of Women, Happily Ever at the Box, Life Could Be a Dream, Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure, Superior Donuts

No Capes! The Gothic Council Has Spoken

There's an unfortunate stage that most goths go through. I call it the Capetarded Stage, and yes, it involves wearing an actual vampire cape. Why do we do it? I don't know. I guess it has a lot to do with going a bit overboard when you begin the darksome melodrama that makes up most of being goth. ... More >>

7 Cool & Cheap Weekenders: Susan Alcorn, Steel Lounge Underground, Etc.

This ain't honky-tonk: Presented by They, Who Sound and Signal To Noise, Baltimore-based composer and avant-garde steel guitarist Susan Alcorn performs three sets starting 8 p.m. tonight at 14 Pews (800 Aurora): One solo, and two in trios with David Dove (trombone) and Damon Smith (bass), and Jo Bir ... More >>

Diane Tran: Houston Judge Slams Honors Student with Jail Time (UPDATED)

Diane Tran, a straight A student at Willis High School, now has a criminal record.When she landed herself in court for missing too many days of school, local Judge Lanny Moriarty made an example of her with a heavy-handed ruling: 24 hours in prison and a $100 fine. But of all the kids to make an exa ... More >>

The "Battle of LA," 70 Years Ago Today: 5 Irrefutable Arguments Why It Was Actually a UFO Attack

Seventy years ago today, the Battle of Los Angeles occurred, a vicious fight that resulted in three civilian deaths. Haven't heard of it? We're not surprised. The U.S. government said what happened was nighttime antiaircraft crews protecting Los Angeles got nervous -- it was just two months after ... More >>

Top 5 Pop Literary Lexicons

When you get right down to it, the concept of books about books is a little weird. After all, if you'd read the book in question, what could you have possibly missed that required another book to explain to you? Well, it turns out a lot. Sometimes you're dealing with a huge series that is so full o ... More >>

Don't Kill the Messengers

How bike couriers plan to survive the internet age.

Bands Named After Movies, Characters & Other Film Stuff

​Ever wonder which of your favorite bands are named after movies? So have we. So we went out and did a little bit of research. BANDS NAMED AFTER ACTUAL MOVIES My Bloody Valentine: The seminal shoegaze act took their name from a low-budget 1981 horror movie about a guy who really, really hat ... More >>

“Perspectives 172: Kirsten Pieroth”

A not so normal look at normal

R.I.P, David Thompson Of Murder By The Book

Photo courtesy Murder by the BookDavid Thompson, 1975-2010​For avid fans of the murder mystery genre, you'd think death was commonplace. But not when it snatches away one of our own. So we loyal patrons of Murder by the Book, Houston's go-to place for all things murder and mystery, are devastated ... More >>

"I'm On A Boat" Gets Steampunk Makeover, Boba Fett

​Rocks Off is quite keen on steampunk, which is basically when you take a bunch of clockwork technology and shoehorn it into Victorian times. It's a small subset of geekdom, but growing quite a bit in popular literature. So as long as we're transporting modern improvements into the past, why ... More >>

The Adventures of Arthur Ignatius in Wonderland

Lewis Carroll puts Arthur Conan Doyle down the rabbit hole

The Hound of the Baskervilles

When weather almost changed history

Five Spot: Texas All-Star Weekend, Movie Critic Killa Kyleon, Scarface Tweets?

Welcome back to Five Spot. Every Friday, we'll examine a recent bit of music news and, albeit sometimes awkwardly, tie it to a bit of Houston rap. It's five videos and occasional cussing. Send tips to introducingliston@gmail.com. A few things to mention this busy week from our handy-dandy notebook: ... More >>

Pop Rocks: Let's Never Fight Again, James Cameron

​I finally managed to catch Avatar last weekend. I don't know if holding out this long was more because of the demands of infant children or my holding out hope that withholding my handful of dollars might keep the movie from steamrollering to the top spot in all-time box office. That last option ... More >>

Pop Rocks: Golden Bozos

You know awards season is in full swing when all the celebrities converge upon the Beverly Hilton to get drunk and act like receiving an award from the same organization that once honored Pia Zadora is something to be proud of.That's right, it was Golden Globes night last Sunday. And while the just ... More >>

Girls, Gams and Garters: A Burlesque Tribute to Bettie Page at the Alamo Drafthouse

Photos by GroovehouseGinger Valentine, mid-routine / Click here for a slideshow​"TAKE IT OFF!" bellowed the man in the beige hunting jacket and camouflage boots at the back of the theater, as he slammed down his fifth successive Bud Light of the evening. And, surprisingly, the elegantly well-dress ... More >>

The Top 10 Places to Eat on Long Point

There's more to Long Point than just taco trucks...​As more development and activity pushes consumers north of the Katy Freeway -- such as the giant new shopping center and mega H-E-B at Bunker Hill, the push from MetroNational to create a "Memorial City"-branded area around Gessner, the etern ... More >>

Alley Theatre's Artistic Director Gregory Boyd Goes Down the Rabbit Hole With Alice

Photos courtesy of the Alley TheatreNikki Snelson plays the Mad Hatter​Alice is a children's book writer who's estranged from her husband and not doing well at all with her daughter. Worst of all, to Hair Balls's way of thinking, she has writer's block. So she goes to the strange and crazy pl ... More >>

There Will Be A Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On At Sherlock Holmes In Tomball

​In case you are not completely psyched for Sherlock Holmes -- and who would not be psyched for what looks like yet another CGI-laden Victorian-era adventure story? Does The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen not ring a bell? And all the sequels they made to it because it was so entertaining? -- th ... More >>

Gerald Elias

Music and murder meet in Devil's Trill

Last Call For Art: Sherlock Holmes, Flappers & Edgy Art

From "Toil and Trouble"​It's your last chance to get your Sherlock Homes fix (a seven-percent solution, naturally) as the Alley Theatre's Summer Chills production of Sherlock Holmes and the Crucifer of Blood comes to a close.The Summer Chills shows are always entertaining, and Todd Waite pretty mu ... More >>

Capsule Stage Reviews: Last Easter, Sherlock Holmes and the Crucifer of Blood, Steel Magnolias, The Tamarie Cooper Show: Journey to the Center of My Brain (in 3-D)

Capsule Stage Reviews: Ps and Qs: the ABCs of Manners, Sherlock Holmes and the Crucifer of Blood, Steel Magnolias

Steve Hockensmith: The Crack in the Lens

This novel gives us the Sherlock Holmes of the Wild West

Capsule Stage Reviews: Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, The Phantom of the Opera, Ps and Qs: the ABCs of Manners, Sherlock Holmes and the Crucifer of Blood

The Crucifer of Blood at the Alley Theatre

Todd Waite as Sherlock HolmesThe Crucifer of Blood, this year's ExxonMobil Summer Chills series at the Alley Theatre is based on Arthur Conan Doyle's novel The Sign of Four which was the second novel he ever wrote about Sherlock Holmes (after A Study in Scarlet). As Hair Balls wrote ... More >>

Houston's Latest Sherlock Holmes, On Being Buff And Avoiding Cliche

Photo courtesy Alley TheatreThis year's ExxonMobil Summer Chills production at the Alley Theatre  will be Sherlock Holmes and the Crucifer of Blood, allowing company actor Todd Waite to once again play the master detective in all his dressing-gowned splendor.The show runs Wednesday, July 15 thr ... More >>

The Five Best Dom DeLuise Movies, Such As They Are

Dom DeLuise -- actor, chef, and father of that guy who was on 21 Jump Street -- passed away Monday at the age of 75. Rather than wallow in misery and grief at the loss of another of cinema's titans, we prefer to look back fondly at a movie career mostly spent co-starring alongside Gene Wilder and B ... More >>

State of Play

Journalistic nostalgia meets political intrigue in a brave new world.

Miss Pop Rocks: Dumbledore Is Gay…and Ron Weasley’s Into Leather

Another Bump

Ten of the best coke anthems, plus a shortlist for the Cocaine Hall of Fame

Stage Capsule Reviews

Our critics weigh in on local theater

Our top DVD picks for the week of June 27

Bar Etiquette 101

Our columnist grills a few bartenders and comes up with The Nightfly's Nine Rules for More Effective Boozing

Dishing the Dirt on Dirty

We chronicle the greatest moments of Ol' Dirty Bastard

This Week's Day-by-Day Picks

Plot Shot

The characters, not the story, make Sherlock Holmes

Class Is Out

Once homeless, Tyler Perry now sells out the house

Theater at Its Best

Things Being at the Worst is a sexy, avant-garde production

Use Your Noodle

From the strange store next door to the mystery bits in the soup, there's plenty to ponder at Arepas & Empanadas Gourmet

What a Tangled Web

Feardotcom's thrills are cheap and confusing, but they look good

Write Soon and Tell All

Pauline Oliveros moved to San Francisco. She played avant-garde accordion. She came out as a lesbian. She kept in touch with her mom.

Sweeney's a Sweet Success

Press Picks

Dead Men's Tales

Main Street Theater's splendid "new" Sherlock Holmes