Subject: YMCA

• Countdown to the 2007 Houston Press Best of Houston® Issue

  September 20, 2007

• Music at the Y, Minus the Village People

  November 16, 2007

• Bummer: Downtown YMCA to Be Demolished

  July 1, 2008

• No Excuses Now -- The Downtown Y Is Working Again

  August 7, 2008

• Houston Boldly Moves Forward with (Porn) Free WiFi

  August 22, 2008

• Kicking the Gang Attraction

  In Gulfton, soccer is much more than a game

  July 13, 1995

• 'Round the Kitchen Table

  October 16, 2008

• It's Play Time!

  June 30, 1994

• Press Picks

  December 29, 1994

• Press Picks

  June 22, 1995

• Digitalia: Microsoft Songsmith Corrects Artists' Glaring Oversights

  Billy Idol, "White Wedding"... sort ofMicrosoft Songsmith, a music-making computer program, has already racked up plenty of Internet accolades based on its eerily terrible commercial, wherein normal, everyday people dealing with normal, everyday problems - such as being tasked to write an ad campaign for glow-in-the-dark towels - suddenly burst into song backed by soulless, canned electronic instrumentation that lies somewhere between the soundtrack to a late-'80s children's cartoon and Thom Y

  January 27, 2009

• Press Picks

  December 12, 1996

• West U Doesn't Want Its Rec Center To Attract Outsiders, Maybe

  West University is building a new recreation center on Bellaire Boulevard. And according to this West U Examiner article, the crappy economy sure is working out for those can't-catch-a-break West U residents, bringing in plenty of low construction bids. Turns out, though, that the new rec center won't have basketball courts."We want something that is for our residents, not something that will compete with nearby fitness centers or the Weekley YMCA, or to merely attract what residents outside Wes

  February 13, 2009

• Jack Valenti, Gay Blade?

  Was the late Jack Valenti -- famous Houstonian, former Lyndon Johnson aide, former head of Hollywood's MPAA, namesake of the Valenti School of Communications at UH -- as gay as a Sondheim song?We don't care one way or the other, but it appears the FBI did.The Washington Post reports this morning that through a Freedom of Information Act request, they got their hands on files showing J. Edgar Hoover (Irony Alert? Self-loathing gay alert?) investigated rumors that Valenti hosted gay parties in Hou

  February 19, 2009

• Press Picks

  December 11, 1997

• Press Picks

  January 1, 1998

• New Year's Eve Picks

  December 24, 1998

• Child Trek

  June 10, 1999

• Out on the Town

  July 1, 1999

• WrestleMania: A Beginner's Guide

  Gonna be upfront here: I don't get the whole pro-wrestling thing. Never did.I grew up in New Jersey, where every pizzeria had a glossy shot of Bruno Sammartino on the walls, but it just never took.With that in mind, here is my analysis of the matches in the upcoming WrestleMania 25, which is the single biggest event to happen in Houston since ever.All info is taken from the official website, so you know it's good.Photos courtesy WWE Triple H vs. Randy Orton: Contrary to what I initially believe

  April 2, 2009

• Best A Cappella Group

  September 21, 2000

• Klan Comedy

  Plus: Driving Him Mad, Cable Curse, Gay Players

  November 28, 2002

• 2007 Jingle Bell Run & Walk

  The YMCA turns downtown into a North Pole race course

  December 6, 2007

• Judging Books and Their Covers

  Appearances aside, is the Houston Public Library doing the right thing for all?

  August 23, 2007

• Par for the Course

  Forget the money crunch, let's play golf

  June 29, 2006

• Fit or Fat, Houston?

  January 19, 2006

• Pigskin Science

  Get the goods on the gridiron at "Football, the Exhibit"

  June 9, 2005

• Get Out of My Head!

  Earworms bore in and won't let go

  February 10, 2005

• Have a Bowl

  Big-time college pigskin comes to Reliant Stadium

  December 23, 2004

• Shoving It

  The Houston Area Rugby Club tackles New Orleans

  December 9, 2004

• Shallow Pop

  Bernie Mac needs three more hits. He won't likely find one here.

  September 23, 2004

• Queer Eye for the Country Guy

  Have today's C&W stars been consulting with the Fab Five?

  April 29, 2004

• The Pageant Must Go On

  Bad kids learn good lessons at Christmas time

  December 18, 2003

• Holiday Puree

  A pinch of this culture, a dash of that make Fiesta Navideña

  December 11, 2003

• This Week's Day-by-Day Picks

  March 20, 2003

• Seventh-Inning Stretch

  HISD's Stripling stalls while opposing sides clamor for a decision about the T.H. Rogers playground

  January 9, 2003

• Power Plays

  Behind the scenes, HISD trustee Shadwick and influential good ol' boys work to do good. And they probably have -- though maybe not for everyone.

  October 24, 2002

• Lost & Found

  One year ago, the Lost Boys of Sudan came to Houston in search of America, a future, safety and an education simple things that got somewhat complicated in the translation

  April 18, 2002

• Protective Wrapping

  Programs surround a kid and his family with services, hoping for success

  November 8, 2001

• Sacred Blues

  Blues 2 Joy writes a new testament for the devil's music

  July 12, 2001

• Playing Hardball

  Quentin Mease's drive to desegregate the Dome gave rise to a new black power in Houston

  June 7, 2001

• National Racquetball Tournament Hits Houston For Final Time

  Photo by Leo VasquezPatric MascorroIt's Sunday afternoon, and Marcelo Laprea is screaming inside a glass box.  He just lost a point. Laprea is fending off rival Patric Mascorro in the rubber match of a USA Racquetball regional championship at the downtown YMCA. About 50 people watch from the faded bleachers behind the court, and some fans stand along the clear, reinforced side wall. Mascorro swings, the little blue ball bounces twice on the floor, and an agitated Laprea pounds his rack

  April 29, 2009

• Amateur Sports Groups Are Watching The Flu Hype Warily

  High schools in Texas aren't the only places where competitions are being canceled or delayed because of swine-flu fears. (Although the UIL has reversed itself a bit; regional track meets are back on.)All basketball games and practices in the South Texas AAU, which includes the Houston area, are off until May 15, director Daryl Richardson tells Hair Balls. But it's apparently not written in stone:  "If the kids go back to school, we go back and everything is normal," he says.Youth soccer is

  May 1, 2009

• Houston Rugby Takes A Giant Step Forward

  By the time Brad Allen finished his first-half scoring run, the Houston Athletic Rugby Club had the game in the bag. Now they're headed to the first Sweet 16 playoff berth in club history.   "It's a really big deal," says club president Will Wornardt, who searched records dating to the inception of Houston rugby in the mid-1960s and couldn't find anything to suggest it has ever made it this far.   The United States doesn't have a professional rugby league. Houston, along with the club

  May 6, 2009

• Building The New YMCA From Above

  Photos by Daniel MarshallThe old Downtown YMCA does have its architectural charms, but this is Houston, and we tear such things down and put up gleaming new glass towers.That's what's happening at the corner of Milam & Pease (across the street from the Houston Press, as it happens). Construction has been going on for a while now, and Daniel Marshall has been working the huge crane -- and taking pictures."I have a unique job that not everyone is able to perform mostly due to the height involv

  May 20, 2009

• The New Y -- You've Seen It From Above, Now See It From Inside

  Yesterday we showed you what the new YMCA looks like from above as it's being built. The good people at Swamplot, the real-estate blog of Houston, have got their hands on what the place will look inside.Here's a couple; for the rest head to Swamplot. The entrance area: Slightly different from the dark, cramped and airless entrance at the current Y:

  May 21, 2009

• From Sudan To Houston To The Fashion Runway

  Todd Parker of STP Images​The supermodel Alek Wek, a refugee from Sudan who had been resettled in London, was discovered by a talent scout at a market. Louice Ali was working his summer job last month when his break came. Born in Khartoum, Ali fled war-torn Sudan with his family just after middle school. He spent the next four years in a refugee camp in Damascus, where he couldn't go to school, or do much of anything. In December of 2007, he came to Houston with his mother, father and five si

  August 10, 2009

• Heroic Iraqi Refugee On His Deathbed As Family Struggles to Obtain Temporary Visas to Be At His Side

  Photo courtesy of Dario Lipovac​Houston's Iraqi refugee community is saying a painful goodbye to one of its most valued members. Now Marwan Hamza's friends are scrambling to help his family do the same. Hamza, 22, is on his deathbed at Memorial Herman hospital after crashing his car earlier this week. Hamza's work with U.S. troops in Iraq forced him to flee alone for a refugee camp in Ankara, Turkey. There he used his nearly flawless English to help with security and translation at a r

  August 28, 2009

• The Burmese Come to Houston

  September 3, 2009

• Dynamo Charities Cup

  October 8, 2009