Syria

Seasonal Special at Sammy's Wild Game Grill: Camel Burger

I was intent on ordering the antelope. Sammy's Wild Game Grill offers a variety of exotic meatstuffs, but I wanted to try something really, well, wild. The last time I remember seeing the word "antelope" on the menu was eight-odd years at Jiko in Walt Disney World. But at the time I went for someth ... 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 >>

Video Released Yesterday Shows Houston Journalist Austin Tice Alive, But Terrified

In the first glimpse of Austin Tice since a message he tweeted on August 11, the captured Houston journalist appeared in a video clip released yesterday on a website supporting the Syrian government. It shows Tice marching in rugged and arid terrain, blind-folded, among men armed with bazookas and m ... More >>

Missing Houston Journalist, Austin Tice: Where Are You?

It's now been 33 days since anyone's heard from missing Houston journalist Austin Tice, lost somewhere in Syria, possibly in captivity, and even Twitter's gone quiet about him. This is how these things work, unfortunately, when it comes to social media -- everyone expresses outrage, panic, disappoin ... More >>

Houston's Austin Tice, Missing: The Most Dangerous Of Assignments -- Freelance Journalism In A War

When Houston journalist Austin Tice left for Syria eight months ago to cover the country's devolution and nascent civil war, he melted into a country that has become, both anecdotally and statistically, the most dangerous place in the world to be a journalist. He did it as a freelance reporter, pos ... More >>

The Real Deal at Taqueria La Macro

Taqueria offers al pastor-style meat cooked on a classic trompo.

In Photos: Trompos de Mexico

In this week's cafe review of Northside restaurant Taqueria La Macro, which specializes in tacos de trompo, we take a brief look at the history of the trompo itself, which I was excited to find in Houston proper: And sure enough, sitting right there in the open kitchen surrounded by sanitation-main ... More >>

Friends Can Also Betray You

Mexicans pay in blood for America's War on Drugs.

The Global Burger: Syria

I love a good burger. While I always enjoy the regular patty on a bun with cheese, lettuce, tomato and ketchup (as long as it's cooked at least medium-rare), sometimes I like to put a twist or two on tradition. In this series of posts, I'm globalizing the burger by revamping it according to other co ... More >>

Under Fire: Journalists in Combat

Obama's Best Campaign Strategy: Keep Singing The Blues

After President Obama crooning Al Green's "Let's Stay Together" at a Harlem fundraiser became an unlikely iTunes sensation, even topping the ringtone chart, history is now repeating itself with his version of "Sweet Home Chicago" caught on an episode of PBS' In Performance at the White House Tuesd ... More >>

Super Bowl XLVI: M.I.A.'s Bird Is The Word

On its best day, you can say the musical portion of the Super Bowl ranks somewhere below the fifth time you see the latest Go Daddy commercial and somewhere above that pre-game segment featuring an offensive lineman and his mother. I mean, who really looks forward to a halftime show, post Nipplegate ... More >>

Gifts of the Sultan: The Arts of Giving at the Islamic Courts

Failure Breeds Success

Alexander Payne's pessimism is good for business.

Fine Fellows

This year's Core Exhibition brings good and not-so-good work.

Carlos

Echoes from Ugarit: The Oldest Music Notation in the World!

Malek Jandali captures the spirit of music more than 5,000 years old

Mo's Knockout Grill & Mediterranean Food

Rumor to Rest

Who says Houston has bad shawarma?

Food Fight: Battle Baklava

No matter who loses Battle Baklava, we all win!​Several years ago I found a letter from the early 1970's handwritten from my great-grandmother to my grandmother. The paragraphs alternated between Serbian and broken English, some expressing open joy that my uncle had returned safely from Vietna ... 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 >>

Sufi Soul: The Mystic Music of Islam

William Dalrymple explores the music at the heart of Sufism

Spy Story

Con man or super spook — either way, Roland Carnaby wasn't supposed to meet his death on a Houston highway in a high-speed chase with the cops.

Mexican Moors?

More likely than you think

Guantánamo's Final Days

As America prepares to close the infamous camp, what about those prisoners?

The United Nations of Food at Phoenicia Specialty Foods

Al Green Goes All Rambo

Representative Al Green Fights His Own Vietnam War

Walid Raad and his Fake Foundation Show Real Art at the Glassell School

One Man Group

We Can Believe In Body of Lies

Ridley Scott's latest is the post-9/11, tech-savvy terror thriller we deserve

Universal Soldier: 'Rambo'

Twenty years later, our one-man military machine's still going

Spy Stories

Edwin Wilson said he was still in touch with his former employer, the CIA, when he shipped explosives out of Houston to the Middle East. The CIA denied it. The CIA lied

Assassination Tango

Controversial docu-drama imagines a post-Bush scenario

The Plane Truth

Houston minister Dr. K.A. Paul flies around the globe using Jesus to pull in worldwide donations -- unfortunately spending more money on jet fuel than orphans

Schlepp to the Cinema

Houston's Gone Gaaga for Haaga

A former king of the Texas metal world unites Houston's warring rock tribes and wins a passel of Music Awards

Call Him Al

An epic story turns human -- and fallible -- in Oliver Stone's Alexander

The Reorient Express

Some churches are still trying to "cure" homosexuals. And some people are still lining up to trade in their sex life for eternal life.

Peace Through Art

"Made in Palestine" humanizes the Middle East conflict

Business with the Unusual

Bill White steps into his own political spotlight

Is Zin In?

Zack Ateyea gives up the ghost of continental cuisine and bets the bank on a California red

From the Mouths of Babes...

Horses focuses on the children whose actions speak volumes about the persecuted Kurds

Real Life

A Burning (Bush) Issue. When Christmas rolls around, some Houston Jews get a little green with envy

To Bloom Again

Quiet, intellectual John Bloom transformed himself through his alter ego, Joe Bob Briggs, into a drive-in-movie critic on TV. Now a new character is emerging: John Bloom himself.

Gypsy Woman

Gadjo Dilo dances with dark tragedy and humor

Pleasure Palace

Aleppo's Grille offers more good food than can be negotiated in one visit

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