The Non-Sexy Part of Edwards’ Houston Visit
We’ve already dealt with the less seemly, more trashy (and more entertaining!) aspect of John Edwards’ visit to Houston today. What was the serious, wonky, earnest (and boring!) stuff he was really here for? Housing. Helping the poor. Saying he was “a megaphone” for low-income Americans, Edwards took part in…
Council Passes Floodway Changes
With little discussion — certainly compared to the uproar that preceded the vote — the city council has passed extensive revisions to the new floodway plan. The previous plan, which was introduced without much fanfare, seriously curbed any new construction and reconstruction in areas near bayous. A good idea, maybe,…
Steroids Strangely Absent From Texas High Schools
The University Scholastic League, which governs high school sports in Texas, today finally released its official, final report on steroid use among young Texas athletes. The results: Either Texas kids are remarkably clean, or the test was really ineptly done and was easily finessed. Cups were peed into 10,117 times…
Sunday Sunday Sunday: HPMA Showcase Time!
Only four days until the day a lot of people consider the best day of the year for local music, the Press’ annual showcase of artists nominated for Houston Press Music Awards. First of all, take a moment to familiarize yourself with the 60 performers (and five DJs, for you…
Tommy Tune’s Dazzling Smile No Longer Directed At His Agent
Houston’s own Tommy Tune, proud alumnus of Lamar High and the namesake of the “local high-school Tony” Tommy Tune Awards, isn’t happy these days. Not with his longtime agent, at any rate. The New York Daily News reports that Tune has filed a federal suit against his agent of forty…
The “Wall Street Drunk” Video Becomes a Hit
Channel 13 Miya Shay’s home-run exclusive of a bootleg video showing a semi-loopy President Bush saying “Wall Street got drunk” has become an Internet sensation. Search Bush, “Wall Street” and drunk today and you get almost a million entries. In many ways it was perfect — a River Oaks location,…
John Edwards Denies Affair (Kind Of)
Former Senator, former (current?) veep candidate John Edwards was in town today for a meeting with ACORN, the organization that helps provide low-income housing. He came to town in the wake of a National Enquirer report that he’d been caught by their reporters on a late-night hotel visit with an…
Will the Real John Royal Please Stand Up?
From our soon to be ex-sister paper in Cleveland, the Cleveland Scene, comes the story of one Branson Wright, the holder of one of the more coveted jobs in sports, beat writer for an NBA team. Wright, employed by the Cleveland Plain Dealer, was the longtime lead beat writer covering…
Condo Monster on Alabama Street
The longtime romantic restaurant Bistro Vino has been closed for a few weeks now, and we’re getting word on what’s going to replace it. Something ugly. But just what type of ugly is up to you!! The folks at real-estate blog Swamplot have got their hands on a promotional brochure…
Slip Inside This House: MP3s from the Great Believers, Bobby Mabe and the Outcast and the Ninth Street Bridge
[Ed. Note: This is the companion to Rocks Off’s Wax Museum feature, focusing here on Houston’s psychedelic and garage-rock legacy.] The Great Believers, “Comin’ Up Fast, Part 1” I figured we might as well start this thing off with a bang, and there could be no better Houston garage 45…
Astros-Pirates: The Battle for Last Place Continues
Game 100 of the season started out much like it seems the other 99 games of the year have started for the Astros, with the team losing. Pittsburgh’s Freddy Sanchez, who hit the three-run inside-the-park homer in the ninth inning last night, hit a disputed home run with one out…
We’ve Been Invaded!! And Pwned!!!
In case you missed it, the Ron Paul Revolution, such as it is, has moved to Hair Balls. A fairly innocuous post that dared to question the idea that Paul is the single greatest thinker of the 21st Century (or the 18th, or 19th, or whichever one his followers are…
Kickin’ Video Games Old School Style
Okay, so Miss Pop Rocks isn’t one to shill for any corporate interest (although she loves drinking Tab, renting from Netflix, and reaching climax at Target). However, she has to take a moment to shamelessly promote one of the way coolest places in town, Joystix. Apparently it’s been around for…
Slideshow: Boxmasters at Scout Bar
We just loaded up some images from Billy Bob and band’s show last night at Scout Bar. Here you go. — KP…
Last Night: Service Industry Party at the Drake
What do you get when you cross Houston socialites with ice sculptors, graffiti artists and breakdancers? Another reason to toast the Red Bull Art of Can exhibition, apparently. Check out the evidence right here. — Keith Plocek…
Stroll Past the Sex Offenders
Walkscore.com recently ranked the country’s most walkable cities, and, big surprise, Houston wasn’t in the top ten. Yep, H-town came in 26th with a score of 51 out of 100. But, after rating the availability of schools, shops, restaurants, parks and such, downtown, Montrose, and River Oaks scored as the…
Artist of the Week: Permanent Daylight
Starting today, each Wednesday Rocks Off will arbitrarily appoint one lucky local performer or group “Artist of the Week,” bestowing upon them all the fame and grandeur such a lofty title implies. We wanted to give them a winner’s cane too, but all we could find was some Gold Medal…
Yun Cheng Goes for Vietnamese at Hue Restaurant
Yun Cheng, who brought us sushi spots Azuma and Soma, is turning his attention to Vietnamese cuisine with his new place Hue Restaurant, pronounced Hugh-Wey (3600 Kirby, 713-526-8858). “Americans know Chinese and they know Japanese cuisine,” says Cheng, “but we think the next explosion of cuisines is Vietnamese. It’s perfect…
Cartoons Will Stop Refinery Disasters
It turns out cartoons can be educational in the petrochemical oil patch, where telephone book-size safety reports can put a guy in a hardhat to sleep. The independent federal agency that looks into industrial chemical accidents says its computer-animated safety videos are a hot item for plant officials trying to…
Texas Road Food: Hereford
It’s what’s for dinner. — Robb Walsh…
Astros Trade Chad Reineke to San Diego for Randy Wolf
In a desperate attempt to make themselves relevant, the Houston Astros have traded minor league pitcher Chad Reineke to San Diego for Padres starting pitcher Randy Wolf. Wolf’s current record for San Diego is 6-10 with a 4.74 ERA. Of further note is that he’s 5-4 in San Diego with…
Congratulations to Trae da Truth…
Trae and Slim Thug, “Nothing to a Boss” …who, Rocks Off has just learned, was honored with a proclamation naming Tuesday, July 22 “Trae Day” – and read by Mayor Bill White himself – at today’s City Council meeting. Why, you ask? Trae told Fox 26 Morning News that very…
Get That Dog A Xanax!
Whenever there’s a tropical storm or hurricane anywhere in the vicinity, they start coming in like clockwork – press releases about being prepared for the storm. So yeah, Dolly isn’t headed for us, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t receiving wise counsel from the experts on how to flee. We…
Four-Dollar Gas Doesn’t Stem Felons From Flooding Houston
Houstonians who have been hoping that high gas prices might reduce the number of convicted felons on our streets will have to keep hoping a little longer. What’s the connection between fuel and felons? Easy — the Texas Department of Criminal Justice has announced that it’s reconsidering its longtime policy…
Bush: Wall Street Was “Drunk”
Channel 13 reporter Miya Shay has a great bootleg video up on her blog showing President Bush at a closed-door River Oaks fundraiser for congressional candidate Pete Olson. A very loose Bush tells the fawning crowd that Wall Street “got drunk” and is now suffering a hangover. (“That’s why I…
Ripped Off (Even More Than Usual) At The Gas Pump
Harris County, already an embarrassment of riches when it comes to con men, has something new to crow about. We have a bunch of the state’s most-crooked gas-station dealers. Texas Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples announced today the results of “Operation Spotlight,” where his agents went around testing gas stations to…
Tonight: Are You Ready for Cruefest?
This somewhat giddy reporter sure was, as Motley Crue’s Vince Neil and Tommy Lee gave her an “exclusive” backstage interview before the tour’s Palm Beach stop. My, how times have changed – anyone who’s read The Dirt knows what “exclusive backstage interview” used to mean. Now apparently the Crue sits…
Ivory Smugglers Get Nabbed
They looked like normal drums, or at least normal drums that came from Ethiopia. Made of wood and leather, they were part of a shipment being inspected by federal agents at the Port of Houston late last week. An agent thought six of the drums seemed heavier than normal; he…
Prosecutors Hate Bible-Lovers
When it comes to jury selection, Harris County prosecutors are a notoriously picky lot. They will attempt to strike you from the jury if you are possessed of the “wrong” color skin, opposed to the death penalty or even, famously, a member of freaky-deaky Lakewood Church. And as local defense…
The New Ron Paul Autobiography — Whether You Want It Or Not
It’s what you’ve been waiting for — the Ron Paul autobiography!! Wait, you mean you haven’t been waiting for it? Neither have we, really. Nevertheless, the New York Observer, scrolling behind the subscription-only barrier of the Publishers’ Marketplace website, reported today that Paul has signed on to write a “memoir…
Forbes’ Best Places — San Fran, Boston and…Houston?
Houston is perched near the top of yet another of those places rated-type polls. This time around, Forbes measured each city’s number of top companies, ability to attract graduates from elite colleges, median salaries vs. cost of living and a few other bottom-line factors, plus the number of young unmarrieds,…
Houston as a Movie Stand-In: The Top Five
Anyone who’s endured summer in our fair city or spent 45 minutes trying to negotiate the I-610/US-59 exchange has probably, however briefly, contemplated getting the hell out. Admit it, you’ve thought about abandoning Houston altogether in favor of a city with better traffic where you can spend the months of…
The Tragic Tale of Janet Jackson’s Evil Breast Has a Happy Ending
Be sure to check out our gallery of parody images… I thought that Houston would like to know that our long national nightmare is over. No, George Bush is still the president. No, our armed forces are still over in Iraq. No, the Astros still suck. The nightmare to which…
Galveston Police Department’s Stuffed Closet
Is the property room at the Galveston Police Department the worst ever? There’s a ferocious debate going on about that very subject. After a civilian property-room employee was indicted over missing cash and drugs, GPD asked for an audit by something called the Texas Association of Property and Evidence Inventory…
A Mountain of Onion Rings at Del Frisco’s
Why settle for fast food onion rings? Better to save up your fried batter calories for the good stuff. Here begins a series on great onion rings around town…
Tonight: Boxmasters at Scout Bar, Part 2
Billy Bob Thornton (center), flanked by the Boxmasters’ touring lineup. “Billy’s reaching for the phone.” With that, Boxmasters guitarist/bassist J.D. Andrew (see here) hands off to his drummer/lead singer Billy Bob Thornton, who won the hearts of miscreants everywhere as Willie, the booze-swilling, expletive-spewing St. Nick in 2003’s Bad Santa…
Ashley Harkleroad Poses Nude in Playboy. We’re Still Waiting on Anna Kournikova, Maria Sharapova, Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic.
If any of you wasted your time on the internets last week, you might have noticed the sensation arising around one Ashley Harkleroad, a professional tennis player. And if you’ve never heard of Ms. Harkleroad, that’s probably because she doesn’t make the finals of many tournaments. She’s currently ranked number…
Astros-Pirates: And to Think, We’re Just Barely Past the Halfway Mark
You know, even the best of us baseball fans can sometimes get bored. Especially when it’s bad baseball, like the kind the Astros play. Sure, I watched the game last night, but nothing just really seemed to sink in. It’s like I was in another world during the game –…
Brazoria County — Come for the Beaches (Maybe)
Who needs Miami Beach? With high gas prices, you can just putter down to the beaches of Brazoria County and save a wad on gas. That’s the sales pitch from tourism officials in the county directly south of Houston. As proof that Brazoria County hoteliers are profiting from gas-conscious tourists,…
Tonight: Boxmasters at Scout Bar, Part 1
Few things are more anonymous than being one of the Other Guys in a band with a bona fide celebrity. But, besides an Oscar-winning screenwriter and Oscar-nominated actor – and a musician since his high-school days – former Houstonian Billy Bob Thornton is also, by all accounts, a very laid-back…
An Open Letter to Metro
Dear Metro, I love you but we need to talk. A friend and I recently rode one of your trains down to the Museum District to join another friend staying at the Hotel ZaZa. I didn’t want to pay $22 to valet park my car, see, and the train was…
Deconstructing Falafel Sandwiches
We’ve been on a tour of Houston Middle Eastern restaurants lately sampling falafel sandwiches and trying to figure out what makes them great. Some Houstonians mix minced jalapeños into the ground chickpeas to make a radically hot falafel. Some people mix in some mashed yams. Others add fava beans. Mark…
He’s Baaack
It just wouldn’t be an election cycle without former U.S. Rep and city councilman Chris Bell running for (and probably losing) a race. Bell fans (and there are a few) faced the awful prospect of not seeing him run in 2008. They despaired of not being able to hear once…
No Tears for Starbucks
Rosenberg, the formerly sleepy little exurb way out there on 59, sees itself as a burgeoning, modern place with all the amenities. So you’d think people there would be crushed that two out of the town’s three Starbucks are closing, right? Maybe some folks are, but not Mayor Joe Gurecky…
Houston Sludge Company in Deep Shit?
Municipal governance is a lot more fun in Detroit. Right now, there’s an ongoing scandal involving a mayoral affair, not to mention mayoral lying about that affair (Detroit civic boosters, such as they are, no doubt cringe when reading a sentence in the Washington Post that mentions “the Detroit Free…
$13 at Madras Pavilion on Kirby
Where: Madras Pavilion, 3910 Kirby (Ste. 130), 713-521-2617 What $13 gets you: The satisfaction of having all your columns add up. This vegetarian joint sits in that strip center a block north of 59 that looks just as likely to house a company like Dunder Mifflin as an award-winning restaurant…
Tonight: Todd Rundgren at Warehouse Live
Todd Rundgren, who plays Warehouse Live’s studio tonight (tickets still available), has had one of the more interesting careers in pop music history. Most people doubtless know him from this song… …or this one… …but like Jimi Hendrix said, it goes a little deeper than that. Here are few of…
Janet Jackson’s Wardrobe Malfunction, Revisited
This morning a federal appeals court threw out the $550,000 indecency fine levied by the Federal Communications Commission against CBS for Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake’s 2004 Super Bowl incident in Houston, also known as Nipplegate. The court ruled the FCC acted “acted arbitrarily and capriciously” in punishing the network…
Texas Bible Study, a Syllabus
File under: “It’s About Damn Time!” With the world going to hell in an SUV, it’s reassuring to know that Texas has stepped up to the plate in order to give children (who, by the way, are our future) the one thing they absolutely need to know in an increasingly…
Paul Wall, Jamie Kennedy and “Mattress Mack” Pimp Some Furniture
Since the days of Houston Wrestling late weekend nights on Channel 39, Houstonians have known there’s absolutely nothing Jim “Mattress Mac” McIngvale won’t do to “Save… You… Money!” And as Mac’s Gallery Furniture empire has grown, so has his willingness to go to any lengths necessary to keep feeding the…
Someone Hates Kashmere Gardens Schools
It’s summertime — doesn’t everyone want to get as far away from school as possible? Not in Kashmere Gardens. Someone, or some group of people, is systematically breaking into schools in the neighborhood and stealing whatever they can. Over $50,000 worth of stuff has been taken…
Turning the Screw: Ozone Awards, Destiny’s Child, Soulja Boy, K-Fed and More
Welcome to Turning the Screw, Rocks Off’s weekly rap post. From here on out, we’ll attempt to bring you new music, news and other tidbits related (at least somewhat) to rap and hip-hop. Look for it Mondays around noon. It probably won’t rhyme, at least most of the time. E-mail…
It’s Debt Collection, Not Extortion
True crime buffs who have been following our tale of the Dangerous Duo who ripped off a Forever 21 store will be glad to see another installment: Hair Balls spoke to Nat Reifler, a partner in the Florida firm of Palmer Reifler, which recovers money for big retailers like Wal-Mart…
Neil Hohlfeld, RIP
Way back in the day, when I was in law school, I also worked the Astros games. It seemed, in that first year-and-a-half or so, that I also had to read and prepare notes, and I always found myself bringing a satchel of law books with me to every game…
Jesus on a Pole — Updated
The plot has thickened at the Miraculous Jesus Pole in Alice, Texas. Things have taken a turn for the worse. According to another report from the Alice-Echo News, not everyone venerated the wondrous shrine. Sometime Tuesday night, one or more individuals vandalized the utility pole at the corner of Dickey…
Oh No! Lots of “Hello Dolly” Puns!
Soon-to-be Hurricane Dolly is headed for Texas. That’s the bad news. The good news is that it probably — probably — isn’t headed for our part of Texas. Weather Underground’s Jeff Masters is calling for a Corpus Christi landfall in his latest blog entry, with winds of tropical-storm force reaching…
Over the Weekend: Sugar Hill, Summer Sin, Swami Ramdev and Houston Astros
Morning! How was yours? Ours was good. Let’s get to it. Friday Afternoon at Sugar Hill Studios Chris Gray spent Friday afternoon at the Abbey Road of the South and worked up this narrative slideshow to prove it. Summer Sin Party at Warehouse Live Dog leashes? Check. Burlesque dancing? Check…
Blonde Ambition: The Next Elle Woods on BROADWAY OMG!
Like a newborn baby to her mama’s teat, I’ve been sucked into this show despite my better judgment, and I don’t care who knows it. This Monday, July 21, we find out which lady will become the next Elle Woods on Broadway! Thank you, MTV, for destroying yet another portion…
Texas Road Food: Friona
Greetings from the Official Cheeseburger Capital of Texas. — Robb Walsh…
Astros-Cubs: Two Wins, One Loss, and a Few Roster Changes
The Astros got the second half of the season off to a good start by defeating the Chicago Cubs on Friday and Saturday. Astros killer Jim Edmonds gave the Cubs the 1-0 lead on Friday when he homered, but it appears that Miguel Tejada may have got a B-12 shot…
Last Night: Dare Ware Summer Sin Party at Warehouse Live
“Bring out the Gimp.” “But the Gimp’s sleeping.” “Well, I guess you’re gonna have to go wake him up now, won’t you?” We just loaded up a batch of images from last night’s Summer Sin Party. Might we suggest a good, long look? — Keith Plocek…
Weekend Music: Blackfoot, Dollyrockers, Terror, Brooke Waggoner and More
If you’re in the mood for Southern Rock a little grittier than the sanded-down licks Skynyrd will bring to the Woodlands next month, you could do a lot worse than Blackfoot. Also from Jacksonville, Ricky Medlocke’s bunch knocked around for most of the ’70s until opening up the hard-rock throttle…
Art Rock: Reverberations at Boondocks Tonight
[This could be your poster here too. Email chris.gray@houstonpress.com.]…
Get Lit: Being Young, by Astrid Young
Memoirs about the famous written by family members usually fall into one of two categories: hero-worship hagiography or score-settling axe job. Astrid Young’s reflections on sibling Neil, though, creates an entirely new genre: A Famous Relative book…without much of the famous relative. That’s right. Because despite the fact that the…
The Astrodome Keeps Crumbling Along
The slow decline of a once-great landmark continued this week when Houston Fire Marshal’s Office inspectors wrote nine citations for insufficient water pressure in the Astrodome’s emergency sprinkler system, the Houston Chronicle reported. Thirty-six employees of Reliant Park’s management firm who had been using the Dome for office space temporarily…
More Bad News For HPD
The District Attorney’s office is on an HPD roll – another officer has been indicted. This time it’s HPD Officer Nedra Hall and she’s up on felony charges of aggravated perjury. Seems Hall wasn’t quite truthful – allegedly, allegedly – during the investigation of two other officers, Tracie Denise Bell…
Batman: The Dark Knight, Explained
Midnight shows this early a.m. of The Dark Knight were sold out in at least some locations in Houston, but you obviously have all weekend to catch up with it. (Number 4,528 on Things We Don’t Understand: People paying hundreds of dollars for a ticket to a movie they could…
My Field Trip to Sugar Hill
Earlier this afternoon, I took a little trip down past Produce Row to Sugar Hill Studios, “The Abbey Road of the South,” according to co-owner Dan Workman. (Among many other things, the entire Sugar Hill staff are huge Beatle fans, making it even cooler.) Sugar Hill opened in the ’40s…
Swami Ramdev to Build Patanjali Yogpeeth Center Near Houston
Speaking of Swami Ramdev, yoga’s number one dude will soon be setting up a $4.5 million center in Rosenberg. Your Hair Balls correspondent learned this between deep breaths on Wednesday morning, but his Hindi is a bit rusty (tetanus, anyone?) so he didn’t quite understand that he and the other…
Art Rock: Designer Drugs at Boondocks
[Relax, people, it’s just a poster.]…
Metro: Are You Great, or Magnificent?
Metro’s blog, Write On Metro, has hosted a chat with the agency senior VP of engineering and construction, Bryan Pennington. So let’s get to the first question! “Q: Mr. Pennington seems to be a very talented man with numerous flattering credentials. I met him once about two years ago by…
Starbucks, We Hardly Knew Ye
Houston is absolutely kicking ass…when it comes to how many Starbucks are closing in town. The company’s newly updated list shows 11 of the coffee places being shuttered, far more than most cities. Chicago, for instance, will only lose five stores. Which Houston-area stores are gone?…
Tonight: Macon Greyson, Broken Teeth, Tilly and the Wall and More
Take a gander at your live-music options for this evening (Saturday and Sunday, once again, will be up tomorrow). First up, there’s Dallas alt-country firebrands Macon Greyson at the Armadillo Palace: …or tap-dancing Omaha indie sprites Tilly and the Wall at the Engine Room. Adorable!:…
Houston Dissed, A Continuing Saga
What is it about Houston that makes Washington-area media go stupid? Yesterday it was USA Today, raving about all the terrific stuff to do here. Including, according to a picture, The Texas Cyclone at Astroworld, which has been an empty lot for years. Today it’s the Washington Independent, in an…
Is Tal Smith Incompetent or Is This Some Kind of Parallel Universe?
I remember a classic Star Trek episode where Kirk ends up in an alternate, but parallel universe. Everything’s the same, but different. He’s still the commander of the Enterprise, but instead of seeking peace, the crew seeks war. The biggest change is that Spock is evil and emotional. More recently,…
Slideshow: Swami Ramdev in Houston
Yoga superstar Swami Ramdev has been at the George R. Brown the past three mornings, teaching Pranayama techniques to a couple thousand people (including this Hair Balls correspondent). Ramdev will be there tomorrow and Sunday too, in case anyone out there is interested in old-school stretching and breathing techniques. We’ll…
Negra Modelo Now on Draft in Houston (and Phoenix)
Man, there are some times I wonder how I can get out of bed and face my working days. One such was yesterday. When our feared Web editor Keith Plocek sent out a call for “volunteers” to go taste the new-in-America draft Modelo beers, I gritted my teeth and took…
Time to Watch the Tropics?
The most level-headed hurricane guy in the city (Media Div.) is the Houston Chronicle’s science writer Eric Berger. Lots of times you can read his blog and learn why that tropical system that looks so ominous will almost certainly miss Houston, then go home that night and watch the TV…
Aftermath: Five Times August at Mojo Rising
Only suckers try to get their songs on the radio anymore. The truly savvy musicians know the real action is in TV/movie placement, somewhere Five Times August – the nom de stage of Dallas native/resident Brad Skistimas – has excelled of late. The singer-songwriter landed “Save It for Later” on…
Clear on Tomatoes, Nix the Peppers
The good news is that the FDA has lifted its June 7 warning on tomatoes. As of July 17, all tomatoes currently on the market have been cleared. The bad news is that raw serrano and jalapeño peppers are still considered suspect by the FDA and people in high risk…
Galveston — Exhibit A Against Offshore Drilling?
Florida Governor Charlie Crist recently forgot about his 2006 campaign promise and changed his mind about offshore drilling. This week, the President made his pitch to eliminate a federal ban on the drilling. (Florida is the only state in the Gulf of Mexico protected by the ban.) So Floridians might…
The Spread: Penthouse Club on Winrock
It’s probably a misdemeanor to say this, but I’m pretty sure the ribs at the Penthouse Club were the best I’ve had in Houston. Perhaps it was a fluke; my dining companions found the meat somewhat dry – could I have gotten the only two perfect specimens in the batch?…
Camel’s New Bi-Sexual Cigarette
The folks at Camel continue their never-ending journey to make cigarettes cooler. What have they got up their sleeve now? Well, it’s actually up the filter. Introducing: Camel Crush. Each cigarette contains a menthol capsule in the filter; if you squeeze it, the cig is minty fresh. If you don’t,…
What Makes “Free Bird” So Damn Good?
The other night I was hanging out at Late Nite Pie on the edge of Montrose, drinking Lone Star and shooting the shit with friends, when Lynyrd Skynryd’s “Free Bird” started drifting out of the jukebox. “It’s fucking `Free Bird’!” I announced to my tablemates, who nodded in happy agreement…
Texas Road Food: Navasota
Robb Walsh does a lot of driving around Texas. He also does a lot of eating. Photographing too. We thought, why not combine the three? Fish Friday at a BBQ joint. — Robb Walsh…
More Campaign-Finance Stuff Gets Online
Good news for political junkies — Harris County Clerk Beverly Kaufman announced today that the county is joining the city and state by putting candidates’ campaign-finance forms online. “The public can now view information pertaining to campaign contributions to local county officeholders and candidates with a click of the mouse”,…
Art Rock: Recession Thursday at Numbers Tonight
[From time to time, Rocks Off will post flyers and posters from local gigs that catch our eye. Tonight’s Recession Thursday installment at Numbers is a good place to start. If you’d like us to post yours, email a jpeg to chris.gray@houstonpress.com.]…
Wind Power to the Rescue
Texas has just taken a big step in the field of alternative energy — the Public Utilities Commission today gave preliminary approval to a massive, $5 billion plan to bring wind power from gusty West Texas to urban areas across the state. Consumers will probably see about four bucks a…
“Disgruntled” BP Workers Sue
While litigation over the 15 people who died in an explosion at the British Petroleum plant in Texas City in 2005 plods along and continues to make headlines, there is another legal battle being waged against the oil giant that has not received as much attention of late. A group…
Kill Your Friends For Fun! (Round 2)
The bars in the Loop may be a little less crowded in the next month, all thanks to the next round of Assassins. Sign-up for the grown-up version of tag runs from today through Saturday. Each participant pays $12 and trades their file – name, home and work address, phone…
Things (Not) To Do in Houston, Per USA Today
USA Today is running a package on Things To Do in Houston, including a whole slew of things you can do for under two bucks. (Somehow the list doesn’t include “Buy Half a Gallon of Gas.”) The accompanying “city guide” is full of the usual travel-section language (“While Houston has…
Flooded-Prison Lawsuit Moved Back to Texas
A lawsuit originally filed in Washington, D.C. accusing the federal Bureau of Prisons of refusing to evacuate prisoners jailed in Beaumont during Hurricane Rita is coming home to Texas. And that’s not necessarily a good thing for the plaintiffs. More than 400 current and former inmates at the United States…
HPD Cops Indicted For Stealing From HPD Cops
Oh, oh, somebody’s in trouble at HPD. Seems the Harris County District Attorney’s Office just indicted HPD officer Jeffrey Larson and former officer Ronny Martin for theft. Who did Larson and Martin allegedly steal from? Wait for it…the Houston Police Officers Union. Well damn. The two are accused of misappropriating…
Long-Haired Native American Boy Blocked From School
The Media came to Needville Tuesday night to cover the fight between small-town Texas and a Native American family. The setting was a school board meeting at Needville High School, and the board voted on whether to allow a 5-year-old boy, Adriel Arocha, to attend kindergarten despite his long hair…
Enough with This Brett Favre Business Already
I’ve got to ask this: Am I the only one sick of this whole Brett Favre thing? Retire. Not retire. Retire. Not retire. Every year, there’s a different jock who goes through this dance. Favre has done it for several seasons now. The Rocket originally retired way back in 2003…
Tonight and Friday: Eric Idle with the Houston Symphony
If there’s anyone directing traffic at the intersection of music and comedy, it’s Eric Idle, co-founder of England’s immortal Monty Python troupe and ace Beatles parody band the Rutles. Idle’s latest whimsy is the comic oratorio “Not the Messiah,” where he and Spamalot collaborator John du Prez riff on both…
Pacifica Station Attacked Again
KPFT-FM just keeps attracting the crazies. And we’re not talking about their out-there talk-show hosts. Once again, someone with a weapon and an agenda has attacked the station’s building. A year ago it was a drive-by shooting. This time it was a knife-wielding guy who broke a window. Why does…
Summer Sausage Bite-Off
Small town Texas meat markets turn out some amazing summer sausages. I would prefer to cruise around the countryside looking for new ones, but HEB provides a pretty decent selection too. I saw Poffenberger’s jalapeño and cheese summer sausage on the shelf in front of the meat case there the…
Wax Museum: MP3s from Acres of Grass, Ruben Perez & 13th Hour, Soul Bros. Inc and More
[Ed. Note: Welcome to our new feature spotlighting rare grooves and funky tracks from Houston’s lush musical past, courtesy of the bottomless archives of Music Listings Editor Brett Koshkin.] Acres of Grass, “Football” – I spent a long time wondering who Acres of Grass was, until Ovide owner Skipper Lee…
My Baby Thinks She’s Franch
We’ve received an e-mail headed “Franch Film in Texas,” which is, really, the way you want to spell “French” if you’re aiming for a charming accent. It contains zees message: Hello, First of all, please excuse my writting, i’m french and part of a television production compagny based in Paris…
John Royal’s Mid-Season MLB Progress Report and Predictions
Being that we’re at the All-Star break, I thought I would do a little review of my preseason predictions. For the AL East, I had picked: 1. Boston 2. Toronto 3. Tampa Bay 4. New York 5. Baltimore Instead, we currently have: 1. Boston 2. Tampa Bay 3. New York…
The New Slums — Coming Soon to Houston?
It’s become a widespread meme as the subprime crisis has exploded and the housing bubble has imploded — far-flung suburbs are going to become “the new slums.” Ever since Atlantic magazine wrote about it in March, communities and worried suburbanites have been wondering if they’re going to wake up one…
Stopping Terrorists (And Idiots)
El Paso Electric has installed a sophisticated monitoring system on 11 miles of one of its natural-gas pipelines in southeast Houston. ThreatScan, which is a GE product, “has been specifically developed to provide pipeline operators the means to reliably determine when and where their pipeline has been struck,” according to…
“Windows & Mirrors: Marcus Miller”
“Windows & Mirrors” is a homecoming for Houston-born, now Portland-based artist Dr. Marcus Miller. The show reflects his education and experiences in internal and naturopathic medicine. His monotype prints and paintings depict bodies with an unearthly feel that sometimes appear as a mixture of human and animal. The “Ascension Series”…
“The Glass Half-Full”
It’s anybody’s guess which is the handle and which is the spout at “The Glass Half-Full,” a whimsical collection of ceramic vessels on exhibit at 18 Hands Gallery. Discover teapots, tumblers, goblets, urns, pitchers and vases in all sorts of odd shapes and sizes. To be included in the exhibit,…
Mixed Martial Arts Extreme Fighting & Championship Boxing Extravaganza
The full-contact Mixed Martial Arts Extreme Fighting & Championship Boxing Extravaganza should appeal to fans of both Rocky Balboa and Tito Ortiz. One of the boxing matches, billed as a “Return of the Legends,” pits former lightweight champion Hector “Macho” Camacho against Perry “The Punisher” Ballard for the World Boxing…
Soul Mama Smackdown
The cup of gumbo at Mama Assumption’s is served in a pretty big bowl. I wonder what the bowl of gumbo looks like — I’m guessing it comes in a bucket. This terrific okra, shrimp and sausage soup has a crab shell hanging over the lip of the bowl waiting…
Kept and Dreamless, The Custodian
Tourists adore Argentina for its juicy steaks and soaring mountains, but it’s easy to forget what a complex and unsettled recent history the country has had. The severe fiscal crisis of the 1990s is at the heart of Kept and Dreamless, the first of a double feature of recent Argentine…
Billy Bob Thornton
Back when glamour ruled Hollywood and gossip wasn’t yet an industry, stars were expected to do it all. If you couldn’t sing, dance and act, brother, you were out. This kind of jack-of-all-trades approach to stardom has returned somewhat in recent years (the High School Musical music/TV/movie franchise, for example),…
Jaws
Summer blockbusters were never the same after Jaws. That’s because they actually didn’t exist before Steven Spielberg’s 1975 thriller. The landmark film changed the movie biz after its release hipped studios to the idea of saving their biggest release for the hottest season. (It also forever changed the way we…
Kirk Farris
Activist, poet, artist, performer and former investigator for the Harris County Pollution Department, Kirk Farris is well-known to environmentalists and City Council members for his longtime concern over restoration of the McKee Street Bridge and the James Bute Park area on Buffalo Bayou. One blogger called him a “professional troublemaker.”…
Tony Rock
Anyone who likes Entourage probably has a less-than-favorable impression of celebrity siblings. But you have to give Tony Rock a break — there are nine Rock siblings including Chris and Tony, but only two have managed to make it in comedy. There’s a reason the Rock brand of humor works:…
Children’s Hilltop Theatre Festival
The Children’s Hilltop Theatre Festival gives kids a week’s worth of fairy tales — for free. On Tuesday, it’s Beauty and the Beast, reset in Mexico. On Wednesday, it’s Freedom Train, an uplifting musical that recounts a slave family’s escape on the Texas Underground Railroad during the Civil War. On…
Stella Rimington
Stella Rimington is uniquely qualified to write about the spy game: She spent 30 years at England’s MI5, alternatively heading up the organization’s counter–subversion, counterespionage and counterterrorism divisions. Eventually she was made director-general, the first woman to hold MI5’s highest office. All that experience lends a note of authenticity to…
“Star Wars: The Clone Wars”
Can’t wait for the August release of Star Wars: The Clone Wars? Then head to the Space Center Houston, which has just scored “Star Wars: The Clone Wars,” a bunch of cool Star Wars memorabilia, including artifacts from the Clone Wars film such as sketches, digital prints and 3-D models…
“In Residence”
Critical acclaim is great, as is a sale or two, but for up-and-coming artists, a residency is the Big Fish. Just ask the participants in this year’s artist-in-residence program at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft. Their new exhibit, “In Residence,” includes fiber and felt works by Barbara Kile, colorful…
The Power of Men
Watch out for meddling mothers-in-law. They can make your life miserable. That’s what three husbands discover in Mexican playwright Tomás Urtusástegui’s domestic comedy The Power of Men. The mother-in-law in question has her daughters’ husbands doing all the chores. These poor guys are waiting on their wives hand and foot,…
The Summer Sin Party
We’re guessing the Houston heat will be no match for the hotness brewing at The Summer Sin Party. The festivities will be sponsored by local fetish clothing boutique Dare Ware (read: babes in bikinis and dog collars will be in abundance). Headlining a night full of DJs, dancers and debauchery…
Reliant Park World Series of Dog Shows
Anyone who’s seen the mockumentary Best in Show knows there’s a breed of humans who take their four-legged friends seriously. Very, very seriously. But the Reliant Park World Series of Dog Shows promises much more than just overweight handlers jogging their precious pooches around a circle. Along with breed judging…
“Perspectives 162: Snow”
It’s Christmas in July at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston. “Perspectives 162: Snow” features the work of L.A.-based Allie Bogle and Houston native Libbie Masterson, two artists who work individually to create an arctic feel. For Antarctica 360o,Masterson mounted seven-foot-tall, translucent photographs onto light panels to create a panoramic view…
Shannon Cannings: “Trigger Happy”
The paintings in Shannon Cannings’s show “Trigger Happy” pay homage to a forbidden fruit of her youth: toy guns. The artist says her parents wouldn’t allow anything resembling the weapon into the house, and this, you could say, triggered some rebelliousness in her adulthood. On a recent hunt for subject…
Something Sweet
Love can be messy. It certainly is in Something Sweet, director Dan Turgeman’s story about falling in love with the wrong person. Alon (played by Turgeman), is a smart businessman living in London. He’s supposed to be marrying Maya (Avital Abergel), but when the couple goes home to her tiny…
Pumping Iron
“I am coming day and night, it’s terrific, I’m in heaven,” beams a taut Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 1977 documentary Pumping Iron. Back then, “Ahnold,” who was 31, was too focused on the satisfying feeling of “the pump” and smoking a fat one to worry too much about his future…
Beck: Modern Guilt
Beck has made a much-lauded career by camouflaging his ramshackle ways inside the scenery provided by his producers. Still, Modern Guilt, his tenth album, feels like as much a Danger Mouse album as a Beck release. Danger Mouse, the whiz behind Gnarls Barkley’s maniacally celebrated 2006 smash “Crazy,” is the…
Capsule Stage Reviews: Ain’t Misbehavin’, Snoopy, The Tamarie Cooper Show, War of the Roses
Ain’t Misbehavin’ By day, Thomas “Fats” Waller sold beboppy tunes on Tin Pan Alley. Come nighttime, when all the cool cats were out on the prowl, the jazz great traveled uptown to take part in the Harlem Renaissance. Lucky for us, many of those delicious toe-tapping tunes have been tied…
Heart of Darkness: The Dark Knight
What a brooding pleasure it is to return to Christopher Nolan’s Gotham City — if “pleasure” is the right word for a movie that gazes so deeply and sometimes despairingly into the souls of restless men. In The Dark Knight, the continuation of Nolan’s superb 2005 reboot of the Batman…
Eric Idle, with the Houston Symphony
For a symphony orchestra, audience laughter during a performance is something to be avoided at all costs — unless, that is, Eric Idle is in the building. “To watch people laugh in a symphony concert situation is a great situation,” says Idle, co-founder of one of the greatest (and certainly…
An Old Flame, Scorching: Space Invaders Extreme
Battlefield: Bad Company is a video game published by Electronic Arts for the Sony PlayStation 3 and Microsoft’s Xbox 360. It’s a first-person shooter. That means that in Battlefield: Bad Company you shoot, and the shooting is performed from a first-person perspective. Okay, let’s see here: “Tools”…”Word Count”…43?! That’s it?…
The Hacienda Brothers mourn fallen bandmate Chris Gaffney
After a blistering set about four years ago, Dave Alvin brought his band the Guilty Men back onto the Continental Club stage for an encore. From their sidelong looks and body language, there was obviously trouble in the band. Later, it turned out that drummer Bobby Loyd Hicks had overindulged…
Tilly and the Wall, now with added drummer
One Wednesday night last March, the basement of the First Unitarian Church — Philadelphia’s decidedly no-frills “venue” — was packed to the hilt with a couple hundred fans of Omaha quintet Tilly and the Wall. Gear had been set up, mikes checked, set lists taped to the floor, towels and…
Ian Moore
Known as a guitar virtuoso since his teenage years, Austin native and current Seattle resident Ian Moore elicited a collective double-take about a decade ago by doing the unthinkable — shelving the six-string heroics and heading in a rootsier, more singer-songwriter direction, while finding unconventional ways to present his work. How often…
Billy Bob Thornton
Back when glamour ruled Hollywood and gossip wasn’t yet an industry, stars were expected to do it all. If you couldn’t sing, dance and act, brother, you were out. This kind of jack-of-all-trades approach to stardom has returned somewhat in recent years (the High School Musical music/TV/movie franchise, for example),…
Wolf Parade: At Mount Zoomer
Wolf Parade’s 2005 debut, Apologies to the Queen Mary, got great reviews, but it now seems unduly influenced by its producer, Modest Mouse’s Isaac Brock. Fortunately, follow-up At Mount Zoomer — which the band produced themselves — more fully embraces the group’s strengths and eccentricities. Though channeling ’70s-style progressive rock,…
Three 6 Mafia: Last 2 Walk
When the members of Three 6 Mafia won the 2006 Best Song Oscar for “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp,” from Hustle & Flow, they reacted with so much exuberance they made Cuba Gooding Jr.’s Jerry Maguire Supporting Actor acceptance speech seem restrained by comparison — and even though…
What Mainstream Publishers Don’t Want You to Know About Door-to-Door Magazine Sales
In the Ramada Inn, across I-10 from Ikea, dozens of young sales agents spill out of vans and head for the first-floor conference room. They’re in their late teens and early twenties, tired from a long day of selling magazine subscriptions door-to-door, but excited about the money they think they’re…
Mamma Mia! drains the fun out of ABBA
I’ve always enjoyed ABBA — not in that post-hoc, so-bad-it’s good hip way, but innocently, the way I like Phil Spector. To this day, howling along in my car to that echoing, cascading, multiply overdubbed wall of sound makes me feel like a member of some dippy but joyous cathedral…
Manolo’s Cuban Café
“I have tried to create a little piece of Miami in Houston,” says Sam Barro, owner of the recently opened Manolo’s Cuban Café (6015 Hillcroft, 713-774-2822). “I came to Miami from Cuba in 1979, and that’s where I was raised. In 2000, I moved to Houston from Miami, where I…
Nudist, Tex-Mex, X and Y
Nudist Needville Odd: Interesting article by Paul Knight [“Cut Off,” July 10] about the social dos and don’ts in Needville. If Knight had Googled “Needville,” he would no doubt have uncovered the fact that this town is primarily known for having a thriving nudist colony. Perhaps this fits in with the town’s slogan: “Where thousands live…
What Mainstream Publishers Don’t Want You to Know: Sales Force
Vinnie Pitts is the president of the National Field Selling Association and the owner of Sunshine Subscription Agency, based in Coral Springs, Florida. The 54-year-old Pitts got his start in Pilot Point, Texas, and migrated to Florida in the late 1990s. In 2000, while the NFSA was fighting the Traveling…
Mexicans, Germans, the Border Patrol and Jeff
Dear Mexican, Why are there Mexicans in the Border Patrol? What a hypocritical thing to do to our people. Carne Asada Carlos Dear Wab, Not only are Mexicans in the Border Patrol, but la migra’s own figures show that Latinos make up about 52 percent of its force, comfortably outnumbering…
New Fajitas at Mango’s Cantina
At $9, the salmon fajitas at Mango’s Cantina (403 Westheimer, 713-522-8903) are, incredibly, among the most expensive items on a very innovative menu. This tasty entrée begs the question: “Why didn’t anyone think of this before?” An ample portion of fresh Chilean salmon is cut into slices, marinated with Southwestern…
Bayousphere
This guitar is to a regular guitar what Keith Richards is to a regular human being — lots more miles and stories, and all of them displayed proudly. The hand, though, just looks like Keith Richards’s face. Willie Nelson, at the recent Family Picnic here in Houston. To view image…
Can Alternative Venues Jump-Start the Local Music Scene?
The day after the Fourth of July could have been a glimpse of Houston’s musical future. New York symphonic-metal lunatic Andrew W.K. and Austin instrumental techno-rockers the Octopus Project were scheduled to headline a party at the Keene Street Warehouse next to the railyards just north of Buffalo Bayou, an…
Kirk Farris
Activist, poet, artist, performer and former investigator for the Harris County Pollution Department, Kirk Farris is well known to environmentalists and City Council members for his longtime concern over restoration of the McKee Street Bridge and the James Bute Park area on Buffalo Bayou. One blogger called him a “professional…
What Mainstream Publishers Don’t Want You to Know: Digging Holes
Blair Dimmick was born with a hole in her heart. It was not only a birth defect, but a metaphor. Dimmick grew up in a stable family in Redding, California. Her mother is a licensed therapist, but even she could not fix whatever was bothering her daughter. Dimmick ran away…
Seth Alverson Rules the Group Show at Blaffer
Seth Alverson’s work always amazes me, not only because of his virtuosity as a painter but because of the compelling mystery that lies within. You don’t have to know or understand his reasons for painting to appreciate what he does. In Blaffer Gallery’s “2008 Houston Area Exhibition,” the tenth installment…
What Mainstream Publishers Don’t Want You to Know: Upper Management
Around eight in the morning of May 18, 2008, Robert Spruiell staggered out of Room 205 in the Golden Nugget motel outside Miami and collapsed in the hallway. Suffering multiple stab wounds, he bled to death lying face-up on the floor, the blood soaking his white T-shirt and gray briefs…
Locals Only
He may not have invented it — it’s actually a kind of syncopation common to the works of Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms — but he perfected it, and that inimitable “Bo Diddley beat” still pulses through plenty of today’s music. So who better to pay tribute to the rock and…
What Mainstream Publishers Don’t Want You to Know: Cataloguing Grief
Between 1999 and 2006, 17 magazine sales agents working in crews around the country were killed in traffic accidents, in some cases resulting in convictions of vehicular homicide and manslaughter, as well as careless driving and homicide by intoxicated use of a vehicle. In the first seven months of 2008,…
Kam: Bamitskam EP
Pop quiz: What do Los Skarnales, country music and the Baptist Church all have in common? If you said, “White people love them all,” you’d be, well, we guess technically you’d be correct, but in this instance, you’re wrong. The actual answer is Kamera Franklin. Known more succinctly in Houston…
Capsule Art Reviews: “Dave Darraugh & Hana Hillerova,” “Dramas: Real and Imagined,” “The Old Weird America: Folk Themes in Contemporary Art,” “Sterne and Steinberg: Critics Within”
“Dave Darraugh & Hana Hillerova” After long employing baroque and rich imagery, Hana Hillerova has moved into the minimal with a group of systematic works. In glass sculptures, tubes of different lengths are attached with webs of wire. Their angular forms rest at sharp angles in loosely arranged but precarious…
