New Otis Redding Bio Digs Deep Into ’60s Soul
Dreams to Remember: Otis Redding , Stax Records, and the Transformation of Southern Soul By Mark Ribowsky Liverlight Publishing, 400 pp., $27.95 When he died on December 10, 1967 — on a small plane with members of the soul group the Bar-Kays crashing into the icy waters of Lake Minona, Wisconsin —…
freshDark Fest: Something New and Different On Houston’s Festival Scene
The seeds for many ideas occur when least expected. However, when inspiration strikes, it can be difficult to ignore. Kazembe Gray, better known as DJ Elevated, experienced a flash of brilliance while walking with his friend Trevor Piper one evening. “It was dusk, and I said, ‘It looks fresh dark…
The 5 Best Things to Do in Houston This Weekend: First Date, Comedy Dance Festival and More
It’s a busy weekend, Houston. We’ve got some shows that are just opening and some that are about to end their run. Here are our five picks for “Must-See” arts events over the next three days. Our pick for Friday is the TUTS Underground production of First Date. Jessica Janes,…
Eat This: Fruit Crossaint at Common Bond
The fruit croissant at Common Bond may initially confuse one not well-versed in the complex world of French breakfast breads (e.g., this author) because it’s shaped like a diamond, not the traditional sickle shape seen in most standard croissants. Step outside your comfort zone and embrace a croissant lacking in…
First Look At Cureight Inside Hubbell & Hudson Bistro
If people in The Woodlands are tired of not having an ambitious dining experience in their part of town, the wait is over. Moreover, it’s a tasting menu that people closer to the heart of Houston who enjoy elaborate dinners should consider in their dining plans. We profiled chef Austin…
Eat This: Achiote Pork Torta at Local Foods
Perhaps in an attempt to avoid becoming a cookie-cutter restaurant chain, Local Foods offers slightly different menus at its two Houston locations. Fortunately, the ever-popular Crunchy Chicken and Truffled Egg Salad Sandwiches are available at both branches. However, another standout savory treat can only be had at the Local Foods on…
Opponents of the Memorial Park Demonstration Project Say Buffalo Bayou Is Fine Post-Flood
After the rains started coming down on Memorial Day Weekend, geologist Bill Heins, an ardent opponent of the Memorial Park Demonstration Project, couldn’t stop thinking about what was happening as the waterway continued to swell and slop over its usual banks along the last natural stretch of Buffalo Bayou that…
The Road to Early Rock & Roll Stardom Ran Straight Through Houston
In a nice coincidence, the past few weeks saw the release of two items with huge significance in the world of early rock and roll. Not only has Concord Music Group/Specialty Records just released a three-disc set that includes the earliest and most historically significant Little Richard sides, Directly From…
Linus Pauling Quartet’s New Single Channels Quantum Theory
The men of the Linus Pauling Quartet have never been great at math — there are five of them, after all. But that hasn’t stopped the long-running local stoner-rock troupe from taking a downright scientific approach to crafting its latest music. After celebrating the Eldritch horror of Lovecraft and the…
Recap: The Woodlands Wine Rendezvous Grand Tasting & Chef Showcase
The 11th Annual Wine & Food Week took place last week in The Woodlands. It’s definitely one of the premier food events of the year — several days of wine, food, beer and food, which culminates at the Wine Rendezvous Chef Showcase and Grand Tasting, which always lands on a…
5 Observations on NBA TV’s Outstanding “Clutch City” Documentary
In this age we’re in where the sports documentary genre has become its own art form, when you have a favorite historical team and it comes time for their accomplishments to be recapped, documented, and celebrated on film, you hope that the final product will do your team justice. You…
First Date Closes Out the TUTS Underground Season for This Year
In First Date, Jessica Janes plays Casey, a woman who’s made a game out of going on first dates and developed an attitude about it. “She goes on a lot of blind dates so it becomes sort of a game to her. She goes into it trying to find what’s…
First Look at Viet Huong Vietnamese Restaurant
The spot at suite C-3 in the Hong Kong City Mall IV in Chinatown has seen numerous concepts come and go in the last few years. Three notable ones come to mind: Banh Cuon Tay Ho, Com Ga Houston, and most recently the popular Vietnamese dessert spot, Bambu. Nothing stuck…
For Now, Stick to the Small Plates at Commonwealth
For a “small plate,” the charcuterie and foie gras grilled cheese at Commonwealth is surprisingly generous — not to mention beautiful. Four crunchy squares of a deeply toasted, buttery foie gras sandwich mind one side of the big wooden tray while mound after mound of paper-thin prosciutto adorns the other…
Houston Texans: OL Quessenberry’s Return A Possibility, Team Reaches Out To Chris Myers
As the Houston Texans roll on toward the end of OTA’s, with minicamp and then training camp on the horizon, one of the more intriguing position groups on the team is along the offensive line. Like several positions on the club (actually, an alarmingly high number for a team that…
“Cosmic Dialogues” at MFAH Shows Off Artists Who Were Ahead of Their Times, and Ours
Fly me to the moon / And let me play among the stars / Let me see what spring is like / On Jupiter and Mars Say the word “cosmic” and most Houstonians go all starry-eyed and outer-spacey. I guess that’s understandable for those of us living here in Space…
HCCC’s Craft Garden Turned Storybook Setting with Whimsical Creations
A storybook garden with whimsical creations can be found in the Craft Garden of the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, courtesy of students in the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston’s Glassell School of Art. The Ceramics in the Environment exhibit is the result of a two semester course, “Special Topics:…
10 Ways FPSF Got It Right This Year
*** Credit where it’s due, Free Press pulled off a miracle this year. What could have been a disaster turned out to be a reminder of this city’s resilience and a testament to our nickname: Clutch City. It may not have been the prettiest outcome, but the job got done…
This Week in Houston Food Blogs: Braving the Unknown
Several Houston bloggers went out into the unknown of new or newish Houston restaurants to bring us back the scoop this week. Also, we’ve found an easy asparagus treat that’s so easy a caveman could do it, plus some donut recipes that may be better left to experienced chefs, or…
100 Favorite Dishes 2015: No. 90, General Tso’s Chicken From The Rice Box
Phaedra Cook is eating her way through Houston and counting down her 100 favorite dishes of 2015. It’s a collection of personal favorites that is also indicative of Houston dining. It’s a scene where a vast range of dishes coexist: highbrow and lowbrow; local and international; cheap and expensive; modern…
4 Famous Artists With Horrible Skeletons In Their Closets
I remember attending a KISS concert several years back at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion. Ted Nugent was the opening act, and by the early 2000s, he already had a well earned reputation for saying terrible crap at least as often as playing he played “Cat Scratch Fever.” On that…
How Houston Uses the TIRZ System to Benefit High-Dollar Areas and Ignore Poorer Neighborhoods
In November, the Midtown Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone attempted to annex portions of Montrose, which would’ve allowed Midtown to use Montrose’s property-tax revenue for redevelopment projects in Midtown. One of the only businesses that seemed to be on board — or even knew about the 235-acre annexation — was the…
Upcoming: Charli XCX, Garbage, Hall & Oates, Michael Bolton, Neurosis, Overkill, Romeo Dogs, Shuggie Otis, etc.
6400 Reunion Party: Sat., August 8, 9 p.m., $5 to $10. Numbers, 300 Westheimer, Houston, 713-526-6551. Acurate AIM: With Chino, Bryce Ayy, Docman. Sun., July 12, 6:30 p.m., $11 to $14. Numbers, 300 Westheimer, Houston, 713-526-6551. Aesthetic Perfection: Sat., June 27, 9 p.m., $15 to $20. Numbers, 300 Westheimer, Houston,…
A High-Schooler’s Take On FPSF 2015
It’s no surprise that Free Press Summer Fest is one of the biggest annual festivals in the Houston area. Tens of thousands of people come from all over to “experience Houston.” The crowd ranges from old hippies to rappers and urban hipsters, all coming to take in the lineup, the…
Melt-Banana & P.L.X.T.X. Wreak Sonic Havoc at Fitz
Melt-Banana, P.L.X.T.X., Hot Nerds Fitzgerald’s June 5, 2015 Until 2007, Melt-Banana were more prolific than a cage filled with libidinous rabbits on a warm spring day. Beginning in 1994, the band released 11 albums, countless EPs, worked with legendary avant-garde composers Merzbow and John Zorn, and opened for Mr. Bungle…
The Best Things We Overheard at FPSF 2015
“Leave me alone right meow” — Hissed fiercely by girl dressed as cat laying down in front of food trucks, after someone tried to wake her up “I want him to put his dick in me tonight, not her” — drunk crying girl in line for food “I ain’t never…
The Funniest Moments of FPSF 2015
My best guess is that the entire stage right side of Major Lazer’s set witnessed some of the most, uh, interesting and involved dancing of this year’s fest from one not exactly shy gentleman in sunglasses and a green Speedo. His signature moves included but were not limited to: grinding…
Woman Sues Houston Doc After Son Allegedly Finds Topless Photos on Office Website [UPDATED]
A Virginia woman has sued a Houston plastic surgeon for allegedly uploading pictures of her before-and-after breast reconstruction surgery without her consent or knowledge, leading to her 12-year-old son supposedly stumbling across the pics during a Google search. In a civil filing that raises a ton of questions, the woman…
2015 NFL Fantasy Crime League Update: Denver Broncos Owner’s Son Arrested for Domestic Assault
With the usual slew of offseason player arrests (admittedly a smaller slew than in years past), we forget that crime in the NFL can happen at any level. It’s not a plague that’s exclusive to those employees who make their livings on the field. Front office personnel misstep, too. The…
The Worst Acts of FPSF 2015
THE WELCOME TO HOUSTON CROWD No disrespect to the Welcome to Houston rappers, but this crowd was the very, very worst. Ever been crushed up against a mob of crushing teenagers? Wait. Strike that. Ever had a crushing mob of drunken jackass frat-boy-in-training teenagers pressed against you? No? Well, then…
Houston Ballet Brings Back Taming of the Shrew For its Season Finale
In keeping with its Shakespearean theme of this season, Houston Ballet is closing out with The Taming of the Shrew in all its politically incorrect – by modern day standards – glory. Complete with comedy,epic battles and splendid lifts, the production gives principals Connor Walsh and Melody Mennite the chance…
Dish of the Week: Ricotta Gnocchi (Gnudi)
From classic comfort foods to regional standouts and desserts, we’ll be sharing a new recipe with you each week. Find other dishes of the week here. This week, we’re bringing you a recipe for ricotta gnocchi. Gnocchi are Italian dumplings typically made with flour, egg, and potatoes. Due to the…
The Best Acts of FPSF 2015
FUTURE ISLANDS Samuel T. Herring is unconventionally charismatic, which is a fancy way of saying that I can’t think of a better way to explain just how captivating he is to watch onstage. There is something about him that is simply magnetic. That the songs his band plays are good…
After New Orleans Saints Bail Out, Houston Texans Find a Preseason Practice Partner
One of the key points made by all parties during the press conference a couple weeks ago to announce the Houston Texans’ participation in HBO’s Hard Knocks was that the show would not do anything that would put the Texans at a competitive disadvantage, and while the content itself come August…
First Look at Houston Watch Co.
First off, Houston Watch Co. is not what it sounds like. It’s a bar located in a historic space in the old Southern Pacific Railroad Building at 913 Franklin that once bore the same name. The building was designed in 1910. Two years later, Houston jeweler V. A. Corrigan opened…
Exhibit Captures the Social, Cultural and Political Experiences of Houston’s GLBT Community
Houston has become a fairly welcoming environment for those in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities, though the struggle for tolerance and acceptance was many decades in the making. In the current Throughout! Houston’s GLBT History exhibit at The Heritage Society, photographs, posters, mementos, costumes, films and lectures serve…
Metallica Easily Puts X-Games In Top Tier of Texas Summer Music Fests
If you’re the type who is predisposed to enjoying heavy metal and/or loud rock, you’ve probably had a Metallica phase at one point or another. There’s a reason that Mandatory Metallica still exists as a concept for some terrestrial radio stations: people who like heavy metal like Metallica. Even if…
This Week in Houston Food Events: Prix Fixe Paradise and Meet the Chef (Updated)
Monday, June 8 Triniti/ Mercury Orchestra Dinner It’s the next, long-awaited installment of the collaborative dinners between Triniti and Mercury—The Orchestra Redefined. Chef Ryan Hildebrand conceptualizes a menu set to the music of the 12-piece string orchestra. This performance is entitled, “A World Tour: A Unique Evening of Food &…
Pop Shop Houston Summer Festival Returns for 2015!
Going on three years strong, Pop Shop Houston returns for its Summer Festival—a weekend of art, music, and DIY, June 13-14. Making its home inside the vast space of Silver Street Studios, Pop Shop is an indoor arts market populated by a diverse array of the city’s craftiest creators, including…
The Harris County Clerk’s Office Won’t Be Ready for Gay Marriage in Texas
The U.S. Supreme Court is due to hand down its decision on same-sex marriage this month. Depending on how the court rules, county clerks across the country could see countless gay couples lining up to apply for their marriage certificates. However, if same-sex couples show up to the offices of…
Where to Dine in Houston This Father’s Day 2015
News flash: Dads like brunch, too. They also like breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert. This Father’s Day, treat dad to a meal he won’t forget at one of the many excellent Houston restaurants. From prix fixe meals featuring big beefy steaks to family-friendly spots serving up morning classics, check out…
Are Mattress Stores Changing Montrose Into “The Mattrose”?
Danielle Segar looks toward the Mattress Firm and Mattress Pro stores located right next door to one another at a shopping center in the heart of Montrose. She smiles before speaking, saying, “People are beginning to call it The Mattrose. Personally, I think it’s happening because a bunch of Reptilian…
Should MLB Install Protective Netting From Foul Pole to Foul Pole?
A woman attending a Boston Red Sox game with her son on Friday night is in a hospital with life-threatening injuries. She was hit in the head by the jagged edge of Oakland A’s third baseman Brett Lawrie. His maple bat shattered on contact with a pitch and sailed into…
Ministry’s Industrial-Strength Truth Bombs Are Fiercely Entertaining Too
Ministry Warehouse Live June 4, 2015 Certain musicians revel in their role as self-appointed scourge of the powerful. Someone like Ministry’s Al Jourgensen, for example, specializes in squeezing as much corruption and greed as he can squeeze into his four- and five-minute blast-furnace songs. His main wish with each successive…
The Five Best Concerts In Houston This Week: Deltron 3030, Folk Family Revival, The Geto Boys, Lukas Nelson, etc.
Deltron 3030 Scout Bar, June 10 The circa-2000 (A.D.) brainchild of rapper Del Tha Funkee Homosapien, turntablist Kid Koala and producer Dan “The Automator” Nakamura, Deltron 3030 the group birthed Deltron 3030 the album, the tale of a heroic rapper fighting to inject some humanity into a corporation-dominated future dystopia…
Point/Counterpoint: R. Kelly at FPSF
Note: since opinion was divided so sharply about R. Kelly’s appearance at FPSF, we decided two opinions about his performance would be better than one — Ed. Seemingly all of the media coverage for 2015’s Free Press Summer Fest has revolved around the extremely controversial choice of naming R. Kelly…
NBA Finals Game 1: The Cavs Are Finished (4 Winners, 4 Losers)
Life is funny. We all know how this feels — you seemingly have everything in order, you’re ready to attack the world, the sky is blue, the air is fresh, and you want to scream “BRING IT!” And then, out of nowhere, the gods drop something in your lap that…
Sharpstown High Molestation Case Ends With a Whimper
This week marked the underwhelming end to a case that saw the arrest of three Houston ISD administrators and forced the district to change its policy for reporting allegations of child abuse on its campuses. Just as he was about to go to trial this week, former Sharptstown High School…
Nothing Fancy Pants About the Unofficial, Unsanctioned Summer Fest ‘BrokeAss Stage’
Matt Willhelm has heard the question before, the one that goes something like, “Who, in his right mind, would plan a music event on Summer Fest weekend?” The simple answer is he and his friends would. They’ve done it before, with success, and are doing it again tomorrow with the Unofficial…
Emancipet Is Taking a Bite Out of Animal Overpopulation — Come Celebrate Saturday
We’re positively ecstatic about Saturday’s grand opening of Emancipet, a low-cost spay/neuter clinic that also offers preventive veterinary services like vaccinations, microchipping, and heartworm meds, and which should help put a dent in Houston’s animal overpopulation problem. Houston City Council in March approved $260,000 in funding to bring the Austin-based Emancipet…
Reviews For The Easily Distracted: Spy
Title: Spy Describe This Movie In One Simpsons Quote: “We don’t have bums in our town, Marge, and if we did they wouldn’t rush, they’d be allowed to go at their own pace.” Rating Using Random Objects Related To The Film: Three-and-a-half razor-edged bowler hats out of five: Brief Plot…
NFL Fantasy Crime League: Dog Killing LB Shembo Reportedly Jealous Of Victim Dog
It goes without saying that if you abuse animals, you’re a bad person. If you kill animals, outside of sanctioned hunting and fishing trips, you’ re a deplorable person. And if you kill a dog as a member of the Atlanta Falcons, then you’re just a goddamn idiot. Prince Shembo…
The Best Houston Acts at FSPF 2015
GUILLA Venus Stage, 12:50 p.m. Sunday I’m going to need Guilla’s help on Sunday. 12:50 is going to come way too early, and I’m hoping that the energetic local rapper’s “Rap, Trap & Drums” can get me into the proper state of mindlessness to forget that there’s another huge stack…
The Songs of George Gershwin Alone Shine With a Nostalgic Bright Light
For Hershey Felder’s one-man tribute to George Gershwin,entitled George Gerschwin Alone, the University of Houston’s Wortham Theatre is transformed into an intimate cabaret. Sophisticated and warmly lit, designed by Yael Pardess, a theater curtain swags obliquely to our right, faded sheet music covers overlay the background, an old desk piled…
Houston’s 5 Best Weekend Food Bets: Celebrate 21 with Houston’s Oldest Brewery
Food Truck Friday @ Houston Press Friday, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. 2603 La Branch (La Branch and McGowen) We’re kicking off our Houston Press Food Truck Friday series with Skratch Food Truck. Stop by our office during lunch to get a taste of an “Eclectic Ethnic American Culinary Experience.” The…
Would You Believe There Have Been Only 14 Playable Black Women in Gaming?
Author’s note: Please for the love of the Hylian Goddesses read the criteria below before commenting with Elena or Storm. There’s a huge debate going on right now about the number of female protagonists in video gaming as opposed to the male. It’s a good discussion that is having a…
The Best Regional Acts at FPSF 2015
BOAN Mercury Stage, 2:10 p.m. Saturday Austin-based BOAN is an electronic duo consisting of Jose Cota and Houston-raised vocalist Mariana Saldana. Don’t let the electronic description fool you into thinking that they are an EDM act; BOAN is more like a Spanish-speaking Crystal Castles. Their synth-pop songs like “Freaksnake” and…
NASA to Its Test Flying Saucer
Here’s hoping that the fourth time will be the charm to test NASA’s flying saucer. NASA scientists have been trying to launch the Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (aka LDSD, aka NASA’s very own flying saucer) all week with no luck. Every day the launch has been announced and then scrubbed due…
The 84th Texas Legislature: Houston’s Winners and Losers
From the high highs of finally passing grand jury reform to the low lows of tattling on transgender kids in school restrooms, Houston-area lawmakers fit right in with the overall feeling of the 84th Texas Legislative session—overblown, underwhelming, but probably not as damaging as we initially expected. There were plenty…
Upcoming Houston Food Events: Half-off Oysters & a Choose The Price Dinner
Because Houstonians made their through May’s downpours and floods to Holley’s Seafood Restaurant & Oyster Bar every afternoon to chow down on the restaurant’s variously prepared oysters at half the price, the restaurant has decided to continue the special through June. Holley’s is offering all its Happy Hour raw and…
Important FSPF 2015 Survival Tips
*** Remember that people are surprisingly willing to trade intoxicants for sunscreen. *** Don’t wear clothes. Like, any. Go naked, if possible. And I’m not being skeezy; this is a practical matter, y’all. It’s June in Houston, and it’s probably too damn hot for clothes on a normal, old-people-errand-running weekend…
Iceage Braves the Necessary Evils of U.S. Festivals
The past five years has seen an emerging new scene from Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, specializing in punk, noise, and all kinds of abstract experimental work. From the throttling post-punk of Lower & Communions to the Balearic dance music of Lust For Youth and the harsh yet serene sounds…
The 5 Best Things to Do in Houston This Weekend: METdance, Luis Jimenez and More
Popular Houston choreographer Kiki Lucas (profiled in our 2012 100 Creatives series) is in her final season with METdance. She’s on her way to Miami soon, but before she says good-bye, her work is being featured in the MET’s annual Sizzling Summer Dance, being performed for one night only on…
Good Riddance, Tal’s Hill
I worked on a video crew the first two years of Minute Maid Park, back when it was a brand new building known as Enron Field. My job was a simple one: I sat at the back of the huge room occupied by the video and scoreboard crew, and I…
Openings & Closings In Houston: Yum Yum Cha Is Calling It Quits After a Decade
Bartender Linda Salinas of newly-opened La Grange made a scream heard all the way across the Internet when she went to Yum Yum Cha at 2435 Times and discovered a sign that says that it is closing. After a decade in business, the restaurant’s last day is June 15. We called…
Houston’s 10 Best Bars Near NRG Park
With Free Press Summer Fest being moved to NRG Park after the flooding of their usual home at Eleanor Tinsley Park, we thought we would help out some of the festivalgoers with this list of bars in the area where they might want to drop by for a nightcap after…
Melt-Banana Brings the Noise With An Army of Hedgehogs
Let’s face it: if video killed the radio star, as the Buggles’ 1979 anthem presciently forecast, Japanese noise pioneers Hijokaidan and Keiji Haino should have presided over the burial rites, with a Godzilla movie or Toshio Matsumoto’s Funeral Parade of Roses screened on a jumbotron nearby. In a more just…
Performance and Punchlines Drive Guilla’s Excellence
Not many musicians can boast of having their first gig at a strip club. But the Houston-based rapper/producer known as Guilla effusively recalls his virginal voyage as a performer. “My first show was at a strip bar in 2010 or 2011. There was one stripper there.” he muses. “My friend…
The 10 Best Concerts In Houston This Weekend: Feufollet, FPSF, Accordion Kings & Queens, The Beaumonts, Institute, etc.
Feufollet Continental Club, June 5 Lafayette’s Feufollet mixes in plenty of honky-tonk and Americana with vintage Cajun music and zydeco, and experienced a second wind on this year’s Two Universes, their first album since the arrival of new singer and fiddle player Kelli Jones-Savoy. Now the group founded a decade…
Lawsuit Over Mentally Ill Man Shot and Killed by Stafford Cop Settled for $150k
Aaron Hobart was in grips of an acute mental health crisis when his mother, Pam Hobart, called her son’s psychiatrist on February 18, 2009. The psychiatrist told her to call 911 and specifically request a so-called crisis intervention team – a police unit specifically trained to deal with people in…
UPDATED: Egg Shortage Now Affecting Houston Grocery Stores — Turkeys Likely to Be Next
This breaking story will be updated as we receive information and press releases from area grocery stores and commercial egg suppliers. On May 31, 2015, a clamor arose from fast food breakfast fans upon hearing that Whataburger has shortened breakfast hours due to an egg shortage. The underlying issues go…
2015 NBA Finals Preview: Predictions Via Prop Bets
So I guess there’s still NBA basketball left to be played. I just assumed that by the time we’d gone like a month without a game that the season had been declared “OVER” and that Adam Silver had announced that Cleveland and Golden State are co-champions. But apparently we are…
Romeo Santos Is Bachata’s Playboy With a Heart of Gold
Romeo Santos Toyota Center June 3, 2015 There’s no way around it: Romeo Santos is fucking lovable. Not only is the guy a supremely talented singer, but he looks like the quintessential Latin playboy taken straight from the cast of a Hollywood movie (he did play a small role in…
Steven Hotze and Other Zealots Want to Grease Up for All-Gay Special Session at the Legislature
For Steve “Birth Control Pills Make Women Less Attractive” Hotze and other conservative homophobic activists, the recent legislative session just wasn’t gay enough. So Hotze’s motley crew of obsessives is calling for a special session to pass legislation to keep certain people who are in love with each other from getting…
The MacArthur Foundation Wants to Keep People Out of the Harris County Jail
Yesterday, the Harris County Criminal Justice Coordinating Council convened to high-five itself for winning $150,000 from the MacArthur Foundation. Exactly how they will administer the money remains to be seen. The grant is part of a contest the MacArthur Foundation is holding to incentivize counties across the country to reduce…
Chef Chat, Part 2: David Guerrero of Andes Café — South America in Houston
In Part 1 of our Chef Chat with David Guerrero of Andes Café, we learned about his year of unemployment after Samba Grille closed. His new job: find an investor for a new restaurant. Initially, he wanted to reopen Alma Cebiche + Bar, the short-lived restaurant on Eldridge in West…
Five Reasons iZombie Is Summer’s Most Underrated Show
iZombie is about as sunny and optimistic as the zombie genre gets, which of course isn’t all that much. Even by supernatural standards, it’s a bloodthirsty canon, demanding regular sacrifices of innocents and grisly feats of skull splitting and cerebellum cannibalizing. The CW’s Seattle neo-noir boasts plenty of both to…
James Harden’s and Dwight Howard’s Viral Offseason Is Under Way (w/ PHOTOS)
The NBA season is a long grind, so when it finally ends, there is no begrudging players their time off. Get away from the game for a while, blow off some steam, relax, do whatever you need to do to recharge your batteries. That’s all perfectly acceptable. For James Harden…
Barnstorm Fest Kicks Off with Diverse Line-up of Contemporary Dance
The Setup: This past weekend saw the opening of the inaugural Barnstorm Dance Fest, a three-weekend line-up of contemporary dance presented by Dance Source Houston. Each weekend features a different line-up of dance artists running the gamut of styles and ranging from independent choreographers to long-established companies. What’s even more…
The Illusionists Conjure Up a Night of World Class Magic
The Setup: Short of something going horribly wrong, you don’t hear a lot about magic these days unless you actively seek it out. Sure, now and then a story pops up about a up and coming magician who is going to change the industry, and that’s great; now, tell me…
The “TnT” Kicks Off Berryhill’s Taco of the Month Series
Now there’s a reason to visit Baja Berryhill Grill beside to get the fish taco. Actually, wait, there are plenty of reasons, including but not limited to their happy hour margaritas, huevos hogados, and seafood chimichanga. But here’s another one that will only be around for June: Berryhill’s first-ever taco of…
Feufollet’s Crazy Fire Torches the Continental Club This Weekend
Kelli Jones-Savoy, who comes to town Friday night with red-hot Cajun band Feufollet, is something of a Southern renaissance woman. Originally from the Raleigh-Durham area of North Carolina, where her father plays traditional Appalachian music, she came to Louisiana to study dance and choreography at University of South Louisiana. But…
Despite What the City Says, Veteran Homelessness Is Still a Thing
On Monday, Mayor Annise Parker announced that the city of Houston had “effectively ended” veteran homelessness. That statement is effectively false. “It’s like when Bush said the war was over,” said Oskar Gonzalez, an Iraq war veteran and the outreach coordinator at Midtown Terrace Suites, a shelter and service provider…
Acts You Can Skip at FPSF 2015
CHANCE THE RAPPER Mars Stage, 7:50 p.m. Saturday I’m not sure where my lack of enthusiasm for Chance The Rapper began, but I’m just not a big fan. His Acid Rap mixtape was pretty fresh, and his live show is exiting, colorful, and loud. But there’s something about him that…
My Lover’s Wife Wants to Meet Me. Help!
I CHEATED WITH HIM; NOW HIS WIFE WANTS TO MEET ME Dear Willie D: In the book, I Am the Messenger, Markus Zusak, wrote “Sometimes people are beautiful. Not in looks. Not in what they say. Just in what they are.” That’s how I feel about the guy I’m seeing…
12 Cant-Miss Acts at FPSF 2015
THE DECEMBERISTS Saturn Stage, 6:30 p.m. Sunday Admit it: since The Decemberists released What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World, you’ve been counting the days until you could be in a large group of strangers singing “The Singer Addresses His Audience.” All Decemberists fans have. It’s that kind of…
Podcast: Spy is the Melissa McCarthy Movie We’ve Been Waiting For
On this week’s Voice Film Club podcast, the Village Voice’s Alan Scherstuhl and Stephanie Zacharek, along with Amy Nicholson of LA Weekly, praise the latest Melissa McCarthy comedy, Spy: “She plays a real woman who reacts like a real woman would,” Nicholson says of her character. “It’s a really funny…
Gov. Abbott Vetoes Bill That Would Have Reduced Overdose Deaths
It’s not hard to figure out why House Bill 225 passed both the state House and Senate with overwhelming support (140-4 and 30-1, respectively). The non-controversial law would have done two very simple things in order to reduce overdose deaths across the state. First, a so-called Good Samaritan provision would…
Rob Gronkowski and His Brothers Set to Appear on “Family Feud”
I’m a huge fan of game shows, but I do realize that different game shows require different levels of intelligence and self awareness. Not all game shows are created equally, not everyone has the chops to participate on all shows. At the very bottom end of the intellectual game show…
Animal Shelters Need Your Help!
Sure, it rained hard and heavy here last week — but it’s also been raining cats and dogs at local animal shelters (HEY-OH!). Spring and summer months always hit shelters hard, with more homeless animals pushing facilities past capacity. “We have so many friendly, [lovable] pets just waiting for a…
Cam Newton Signs $103 Million Deal, So What Do Andrew Luck and Russell Wilson Get?
So you’re an NFL team, and through a mind numbing flood of your own on-field ineptitude, you land the number one pick in the draft. You spend hundreds of thousands of dollars scouting, vetting, hand wringing over either a) whom to take or b) making sure the obvious choice is…
Photos of the FPSF Buildout at NRG Park
Now with just four days until Free Press Summer Fest, we asked Marco Torres to head down to NRG Park Tuesday afternoon to see how its virtually on-the-spot relocation to NRG Park is progressing…
HISD Investigators Says Hope Academy Charter School Fiddled With Grades and Courses
Here’s a lesson in how to improve your high school graduation rate. In lab circles it’s called graphite analysis – you achieve the results you want with no actual research or testing, just a sharpened pencil put to paper. Unfortunately for 19 of 21 seniors expecting to graduate from high…
Vince Gill, the Conscience of Country Music
When Eddie Rabbitt abruptly canceled his appearance at the 1983 Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo, rodeo officials called in a little-known country singer and bona-fide cowboy from San Marcos named George Strait. He rode into the arena on a horse, and before even singing a note sealed his spot in…
Spy: For Once, the Joke Isn’t on Melissa McCarthy
The Melissa McCarthy of Spy is different from the one who rose to prominence by shitting in a sink. Bridesmaids scored her an Oscar nomination, and for the ceremony McCarthy donned a glamorous rose gown with a diamond collar and belt. But in the years since, Hollywood continued to see…
After Eight Seasons, Entourage Hits Theaters, Doing What It Does
The first line in Entourage is a good indication of what the next 104 minutes will bring. Peering through a pair of binoculars while a speedboat carries him toward a yacht in the dazzling waters of Ibiza, Johnny Drama (Kevin Dillon), the big brother of megastar Vincent Chase (Adrian Grenier),…
