Baron Von Bomblast Delivers ‘Dirty Houston Party Rock’ as Only They Can
On a hot summer Sunday night deep in the heart of Montrose, five legendary local rockers take the stage at Rudyard’s upstairs room to not only to promote new music and play a fiercely aggressive set but also to take turns flippantly kicking one another in the bum onstage. Baron…
Maceo Parker Always Brings That Funky Stuff
98% Funky Stuff: My Life in Music By Maceo Parker Chicago Review Press, 200 pp., $19.99 As a bandleader, James Brown could be a sonofabitch. Everyone knew hr ran a tight ship – perhaps too tight – when it came to his band in the ‘60s and for most of his career…
First Look at City Acre Taproom in Houston
City Acre, 3418 Topping, has been brewing beer here since 2012, but recently added a kitchen and taproom that could rival any restaurant in town. Located on an acre of fertile land, City Acre boasts more than 60 fruit trees, shrubs, plants and vines, a staff that provides excellent customer…
During the NBA Salary Boom, Which Locker Rooms Could Collapse Under the Broken Pay Scale?
A couple weeks ago, the Houston Rockets made the rare (possibly unprecedented?) move with James Harden in which they took a player with two years remaining on a max contract signed three years ago, and in the middle of the league’s biggest salary boom ever, tore up that deal and…
The Tacos of Texas Book Will Be Released Soon, and Here’s What It Says About Houston
In August 2015, the team behind The Tacos Of Texas book was in Houston scouting for the best tacos that the city’s numerous taquerias and trucks had to offer. The team members who visited were Austin-based author Mando Rayo of the “Taco Journalism” blog, Houston-based photographer Marco Torres (who is…
How Sweet It Is: Five Cinnamon Rolls to Try in Houston
The cinnamon roll, not to be confused with the sticky bun, is perhaps Sweden’s greatest culinary gift to the United States. Home preparation is a challenge for even the most experienced baker, for the requisite double-rise can easily became a double-fall, given the vagaries of yeast and humidity. If you’re craving…
Ab Fab at Last: Patsy and Edina Return Just When We Need Them Most
To understand what Absolutely Fabulous (first a TV show and now a movie) means to Brits, you’d have to go back to the TV premiere in 1992. Margaret Thatcher had their economy in a stranglehold until her departure as Prime Minister two years earlier, and when every sensible citizen was…
Star Trek Beyond Has Blockbuster Action — and Some of the Original’s Heart
Star Trek Beyond might be the Star Trekkiest film of the new, J.J. Abrams-ified Trek era. That is to say, it’s the one that feels the most like a turbo-loaded episode of the original series, and has at least some of that classic spirit of exploration and derring-do. That’s not…
Wrestling Doc Lucha Mexico Comes to Houston, Hits Hard
Warning: Possible spoilers ahead if you’re not up on recent deaths in lucha libre I’m hard-pressed to think of any sort of professional wrestling documentary that isn’t a company produced fluff piece which isn’t essentially a tragedy. No matter the heights that some of these tremendous athletes achieve in their…
At Civic Hack Night, Hackers Try to Solve Houston’s Social Issues
The word “hacking” might conjure up images of crashed computers, identity theft and leaked documents, but hackers are no longer just anarchy-loving rebels. (Never forget the ’90s film Hackers, with Johnny Lee Miller’s inane cry, “Hack the planet!”) In fact, if you happen to like both computers and making an…
UnReal Just Had the Greatest Anti-White Savior Moment on Television
As I’ve said before, unReal is one of the shows on television that is way better than it has any right to be, and last night’s episode proved that without a doubt. If you’re unfamiliar, it’s the story of a reality show producer named Rachel Goldberg (Shiri Appleby) as she…
This Week in Houston Food Blogs: Celebrate H-Town’s Best Fries
Dalida of “Brunch & Conversation” visited Biskit Junkie, 403 Westheimer, this week to sample what’s perhaps one of the most decadent brunch menus in Houston. The biscuit-centric enterprise has offerings like the “Nitty Gritty” with grits, sausage, shrimp parmesan and bacon, as well as the “Hot Flight” with fried chicken,…
Theatre Southwest’s Festival of Originals Still Swingin’ After 19 Years
Mimi Holloway has been producing the Festival of Originals for the last 19 years. The artistic director says that despite nearly two decades of existence the basic format has remained the same. “We take five original scripts, roughly 20 minutes each, hand them to five separate directors with five separate casts,” says Holloway…
Big XII Media Day — Commissioner Bowlsby Gets Peppered With Baylor Questions
In the mob cartel that is college football, the dysfunctional fifth family gathered in Dallas on Monday and Tuesday for a two-day family reunion. Indeed, Big XII Media Days are here, and given how things have gone for the Big XII as a conference and for one of its primary…
McDonald’s Lone Star Stack Isn’t a True Texas Burger
Fast food giant McDonald’s is selling a new “Texas” burger until September 5. The burger, called the Lone Star Stack, was conceived by a Houstonian named Joseph Pena and the winning entry in a recent Burger Showdown competition sponsored by McDonald’s. Pena won $5,000 for his entry. The Lone Star…
The 5 Houston Museum Exhibits You Must See Before Labor Day, 2016
The new arts season is quickly on its way but before the summer exhibits close there are several “must-see” shows. The exhibits focus on contemporary art (true, the Houston Museum of Natural Science’s “Virgen de Guadalupe: Empress of the Americas” covers the religious icon over the last several hundred years,…
Eight Dessert Deals in Houston for Summer 2016
Dessert fiends, rejoice! We’ve gathered eight more dessert deals to try in Houston this summer. From restaurants hip to the Pokemon Go trend and offering free deep-fried brownies for showing your PokeBalls to food trucks offering discounts for riding your bike or bringing your own container, delicious indulgence on the…
Granger Smith’s “Minor Leagues” Are Wade Bowen’s Life. And That’s Okay.
Texas country has long been a tough realm of music to pin down with a nice, tidy definition. Unlike rock or hip-hop, it can be hard to know which song is a Texas country song, or simply a country song from an artist from Texas. Granger Smith (aka Earl Dibbles…
New Reinforcements Bolster War Master’s Deadly March Across Europe
War Master, perhaps Houston’s most brutal and respected platoon of death-metal shock troops, has broken camp and begun a new campaign of auditory violence across the headbanging battlefields of Central Europe. After a two-year hiatus, the group reannounced its presence within the international scene with a set at the renowned…
Four Reasons This Fall’s Misfits Reunion Shows Could Be Interesting
Recently, it was announced that horror-punk pioneers The Misfits would be reforming their “classic” lineup to play at Riot Fest in Chicago and Denver this fall. Almost immediately, the Internet went wild as the news spread. So why is this such a big deal to so many people? 4. THE…
Stranger Things Is the Best-Ever Miniseries Adaptation of a Horror Novel (Even if That Novel Doesn’t Exist)
Like the real 1980s, Stranger Things gets more unsettling as it goes. The opening episode of the Netflix show, created by the Duffer Brothers, gives us swear-y, scruffy kids playing D&D and then, beneath a lavish suburban starscape, encountering the unknown — which one of the boys promptly hides in…
Ali Wong’s Baby Cobra: Have We Entered Television’s Golden Age of Transgressive Pregnancy?
25 years ago, Annie Leibovitz stunned America with her infamous portrait of Demi Moore — nude, bronzed, seven months pregnant — on the cover of Vanity Fair. The image of Moore’s proud, bare body, heavy with child and unmistakably erotic, meant that in some states the magazine had to be…
Paris and Limousin Are Burning in This Great Lesbian Love Story
Catherine Corsini’s lovely, sultry Summertime, a 1971-set tale about two women of different ages and class backgrounds who fall in love, celebrates erotic abandon but never loses its mind. Unlike Abdellatif Kechiche’s Blue Is the Warmest Color (2013), France’s most notorious treatment of a sapphic sentimental education, Corsini’s movie, which…
Former Cardinals Executive Sentenced to 46 Months for Hacking Astros’ Files
A former St. Louis Cardinals executive will spend 46 months in federal prison for hacking into the Houston Astros’ private computer system. A federal judge in Houston sentenced Christopher Correa, the team’s former director of baseball development, on Monday afternoon after he pleaded guilty to five counts of gaining unauthorized…
Christy Lee Rogers’s “Within the Invisible Space” Fuses the Light and Color of Hawaii Through Underwater Photography
We’re all formed by our experiences, and artist/filmmaker/poet/lyricist Christy Lee Rogers has channeled the essence of her island home of Kailua, Hawaii to create new photographs inspired by light, tropical flora and water. Her technique of posing models in darkened swimming pools, then amplifying the mise en scène with props,…
Expect the Unexpected at Alley With the Avant-Garde White Rabbit Red Rabbit
Nathan Lane and Whoopi Goldberg have taken the leap. So have Cynthia Nixon, David Hyde Pierce and Alan Cumming. But for those actors who have gone on to perform a cold reading of White Rabbit Red Rabbit in front of a live audience, they can never go down that rabbit hole…
Feminist Frequency’s Jonathan McIntosh Has New Show About Masculinity
Johnathan McIntosh is best known as the producer of Feminist Frequency, the online video channel responsible for the controversial (but excellent!) Tropes vs. Women in Video Games series. As series host and creator Anita Sarkeesian moves onto her new project highlighting underappreciated women in history, McIntosh has continued in pop…
Dwight Howard’s Media Tour Is Fooling Nobody
From the outside looking in, it would seem like every heterosexual male would love to be in a relationship with Jennifer Aniston, right? She’s beautiful, she seems very personable and funny, she’s aged pretty damn well (see “Striptease Scene”, We Are The Millers). And yet, for over a decade now,…
State Board of Education Should Not Approve a Crummy Mexican-American Studies Textbook, Coalition Says
At one point last year various Texas organizations were criticizing the State Board of Education for not offering a Mexican-American studies class. That prompted SBOE members to sign off on the creation of a Mexican-American studies textbook, but the resulting book has a lot of education, community and civil rights groups…
Talents Shine Bright in the Interactive Shear Madness at Stages
The set up: Is it possible that the longest running play in the United States is actually kind of a failure? Well, yes and no. When Bruce Jordan and Marilyn Abrams created their audience participation murder mystery show, Shear Madness (a translation of German playwright Paul Pörtner’s play Scherenschnitt) they…
First Look at Peter Chang in Katy
The first time I heard of chef Peter Chang was on an episode of the Travel Channels’ Bizarre Foods America with Andrew Zimmern, and I have had it on my restaurant bucket list ever since. Chef Peter Chang specializes in authentic Szechuan cuisine and is a James Beard finalist as well as…
Love in an Elevator Offers Houston Singles the Chance to Speed Date in a Glass Box
Some people might listen to Aerosmith’s “Love in an Elevator,” and miss the days when Steven Tyler could still rock skintight, all-leather outfits. Others listen to the late ’80s hit, a yowling description of Tyler’s (presumably fictional) sexual adventures in an elevator, and think, “What a great idea.” Or, at…
Upcoming: Cold War Kids, Die Antwoord, Dolly Parton, Jesse Dayton, Rabit, etc.
Note: events in bold reflect highly recommended shows. Adam Berry Band: Thu., July 21, 9 p.m., $10. Firehouse Saloon, 5930 Southwest Fwy., Houston, 713-977-1962. Adam Torres: With Thor & Friends. Wed., Oct. 12, 7 p.m., $10 to $13. Raven Tower, 310 North, Houston. Alessia Cara: Know-It-All Tour Part II: With…
The 2016 Astros Tap Into the Same Fuel That Powered the Playoff Teams of the Late ’90s
In a Major League Baseball season, every game counts. It sounds like a cliché off a PowerPoint slide in a marketing meeting at baseball’s headquarters, but it’s true. The Astros have recent history to remind them of this, having secured one of the American League’s two wild card spots last…
Newk’s Eatery Has Some Surprises Dotted Among Its Comforting Sameness
Newk’s Eatery surprised me. It also fell exactly in line with my expectations. That these two results can sit side by side, effectively describing my experiences at one restaurant, is a bit surprising in itself. Especially when talking about fast-casual chain restaurant concepts. The supposed nature and appeal of chains…
Float Fest Rises to the Top Level of Texas’ Outdoor-Music Events
Year 1 of any music festival is basically a crapshoot. In Year 2, festival organizers learn from the inaugural event and make tweaks and corrections. Year 3? That’s the make-or-break year, when a festival either vanishes into the ether of fallen festivals or takes the next step in what is…
How to Explain the Latest Kanye/Taylor Swift Drama to Your Co-Workers
Sunday night, Taylor Swift felt the brunt of social media for maybe the very first time in her idyllic career. When Kim Kardashian-West revealed the footage of her husband Kanye West’s conversation with Swift over the lyrics to his “Famous” track, emojis came out. Jokes became aplenty, and on Monday…
Houston’s 10 Best Bars to Beat the Heat
For the majority of the next few months, Houston – with its searing heat and soup-like humidity – is going to be pretty unbearable. That said, it’s summer, and summer is prime drinking time for those in and around the area. Many will simply brave the soaring temperatures and continue their…
SpaceX Launches and Lands a Falcon 9 Rocket While Toting Supplies to the ISS for NASA
Early Monday morning, SpaceX pulled off an impressive feat when the Falcon 9 reusable rocket thundered off of Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Then, once the rocket’s cargo had been safely propelled into space, zooming toward the International Space Station that was loitering a couple…
Abbott Seeks Stiffer Penalties for Crimes Against Police
Saying he was fed up with violence against police, Gov. Greg Abbott vowed Monday to exact harsher justice on those who target law enforcement officers. Eleven days after one gunman ambushed and killed five Dallas police officers and another killed three more cops in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on Sunday, Abbott said…
ScHoolboy Q, aka Groovy Tony, Is a Man of the People
ScHoolboy Q Warehouse Live July 17, 2016 Outside of Warehouse Live Sunday night, girls were crying. Not because they were stuck in a line that wrapped down the block and stretched far beyond the venue. Not because they couldn’t find their friends or were caught up in the social-media downfall…
Alert: The Gathering of the Juggalos Is Approaching
After a much-needed two-year hiatus from the madness that is Insane Clown Posse’s annual Gathering of the Juggalos festival, we’re happy to report that this year, we’re going back. Our friends at L.A. Weekly is off to Thornville, Ohio for the Gathering, which runs July 20-23, and will be reporting throughout the…
Ted Nugent Still Loves Guitar Solos, Hates Obama
Ted Nugent Warehouse Live July 15, 2016 Ted Nugent didn’t refer to President Obama as a “subhuman mongrel” on Friday night. Nor did he issue calls for Obama and Hillary Clinton to be hung for their roles in the attacks on the American compound in Benghazi, as he’s done in…
Circus Xtreme at Its Best When It’s Innovating
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus is back in Houston again this summer, and it’s an excellent if somewhat strange show. It’s the first to appear here since the organization has begun retiring the controversial elephant performances, and the loss of such a circus staple has them trying out…
Big XII Preseason Rankings: Oklahoma Is the Prohibitive Favorite
This week, the 2016 edition of the most dysfunctional family reunion in college football takes place in Dallas, Texas. Yes, it’s Media Days for the Big XII conference, and after an offseason in which the league flirted with expansion (aborted) and one of the conference’s winningest teams of the last…
Why the Astros Should Hope for MLB Expansion
Major League Baseball officials have hypothesized that the league may soon be expanding. Adding two teams, one to each league, would allow MLB to have two 16-team leagues consisting of four 4-team divisions. It would allow divisions to become more compact, allow for nothing but division play in the last…
Alley Theatre’s Production of Agatha Christie’s Spider’s Web is a Delight
Agatha Christie’s Spider’s Web is by far the funniest thing the Alley Theatre has produced all season. What, you say? Agatha Christie funny? Is this some critical tongue in cheek back handed way of saying that the production ran off the rails in a funny ‘weird’, but not funny ‘ha-ha’…
Dish of the Week: Pao de Queijo (Brazilian Cheese Bread)
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 heading to South America with a Brazilian specialty: Pão de Queijo. Portuguese for “cheese bread,” pão de queijo are tiny, baked…
Whining About Art at Discovery Green? Time to Open Up Those Wallets
First-time visitors to Chicago’s Millennium Park, after shaking off thoughts of the monolith from 1968’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (and those triumphant opening notes of Richard Strauss’s Sprach Zarathustra), are generally awestruck by the book-ended public art/video sculpture Crown Fountain. Installed in 2004, the Jaume Plensa-designed homage to dualism has outlasted…
Tom Brady Stands Down, Will Accept Four-Game Suspension
It popped up on social media late Friday morning, the somewhat surprising, and frankly unspectacular concession of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady on his four-game suspension in the Deflate-Gate “scandal”…. And there it was. After 18 months of courtrooms, scientists, social media fervor and exhaustive analysis of what exactly…
This Week in Houston Food Events: Collaboration of Smoke Returns
All Week Long Anniversary Offerings at The Springbok To celebrate its anniversary, The Springbok, 711 Main, will offer a special menu all week, including deviled eggs, the “Bushman’s Platter” with chicken peri peri, bunny chow and hangar steak, and malva pudding. The dishes are family-style and will be served at dinner…
Mother Sues Owners of Abandoned Lot Where 15-Year-Old Daughter Was Murdered
Against boarded up windows and smoke-stained white bricks rests the memorial for Karen Perez. Candles, crosses and Bible verses and a flurry of pink and red flowers decorate the ground. Stuffed bears are tucked in the branches of two trees, serving almost as pillars framing the memorial site. And what…
5 Things to Take Away From Dani Mathers Body Shaming Another Woman
A few days ago, a woman named Dani Mathers posted a secretly taken nude photo of a woman at her gym taking a shower onto the Internet. Mathers isn’t some mean teenager with a kid’s diminished ability to understand consequences, but is a 29-year-old professional model and radio personality who…
L7 Proves They’re Far More Than Just a Nostagia Act
L7 House of Blues July 15, 2016 “Fast and Frightening” is the name of a great song by L7, but “Fast and Amazing” might be a better description of the band’s show at House of Blues last Friday. Anyone in the audience expecting a simple reunion show of a ’90s…
Shows of the Week: 30 Years of Drivin N’ Cryin’, Still On the Road
DRIVIN’ N’ CRYIN’ Satellite Bar, July 21 Like Dash Rip Rock, BoDeans, the Jayhawks, and a few others, Atlanta’s Drivin’ n’ Cryin’ belongs to that class of roots-rock bands formed in the mid-‘80s that never quite broke all the way through to the mainstream (outside a stray hit single or…
Devil Killing Moth Guitarist Adds Music to Central American Mercy Missions
Helping someone in need and listening to amazing music share a common element, according to Anton De Guzman. He says there’s something immeasurable about the feeling you get from either act. He’s in a position to know, as guitarist for Houston alternative rockers Devil Killing Moth and a rapid response nurse…
Check out the 50+ New Restaurants Participating in Houston Restaurant Weeks
The time has come to welcome a new cadre of restaurants to the fascinating, if somewhat overwhelming, list of venues participating in Houston Restaurant Weeks. This year more than 50 new locales will offer a menu of multi-course prix fixe meals aimed to give diners a great deal for a…
Dan Patrick Filling in for Gov. Greg Abbott at the GOP “Trump-fest” Convention
Since Gov. Greg Abbott simply cannot travel to Cleveland right now because of the second- and third-degree burns he got on his legs while on vacation with his family last week, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick will be heading to the Republican National Convention in Abbott’s place. “I’m excited about the…
Despite Opposition, Alief Is More Than Likely Getting a “Little Saigon”
Despite avid opposition from Alief residents, City Council member Steve Le said at City Hall Wednesday that he’s still going through with his proposal to call a segment along Bellaire Boulevard “Little Saigon”—albeit without the Vietnamese monument he wanted to erect. Le proposed earlier this year that, given there are…
Z-Ro Is Ready to Go Worldwide on New Album
Every single time I sit down with Z-Ro, something new gets uncovered. Last year, it was an interview surrounding two things — his legacy as one of Houston’s, if not all of rap’s, more misunderstood characters and his new album Melting the Crown. The hour-long conversation truncated down to a…
Weird Al at the Wortham Center Was Even Better Than We’d Hoped
Weird Al Yankovic Wortham Center July 14, 2016 Where you see a show matters. It’s not something we as music fans dwell on most of the time, but it’s something we all know is true. There are specific venues you want to see specific acts in for specific reasons. Beyond…
Blue Bell Announces ‘Mystery Flavor,’ Shrugs Off That Whole Listeria Mess
The people running Blue Bell have really cornered the market on magical thinking. Post-listeria, some might have steered clear of any marketing campaign that questioned what exactly is in a half-gallon tub of the company’s ice cream, but Blue Bell has gone the opposite direction announcing a new “mystery flavor”…
The ’90s Live With Rec Room’s My So-Called Mondays
My So Called Life likely captures your high school years perfectly, and yet you’ve probably never heard of it. One of the great “Brilliant, But Cancelled” series of early ‘90s, the Claire Danes-vehicle ran for a mere 19 episodes across six months in 1994. Yet in that brief stint, the angsty critical darling racked…
Houston’s 5 Best Weekend Food Bets: Beer Fest, Tipsy Desserts and Sake Sunday
Here’s a look at this weekend’s best culinary happenings: Saturday Morning Bake Sale at Fluff Bake Bar Saturday, 10 a.m. until sold out 314 Gray This week’s Saturday morning bake sale features a pretty well-known name in the culinary world: chef Bryan Caswell of Reef, Little Big’s, El Real Tex Mex,…
Let’s Add Larry Dierker to the Astros Media Wall of Honor
For most of the history of the Houston Astros, there was perhaps no person more associated with the franchise than Larry Dierker. He joined the team as a player when it was still the Colt .45s. He spent one season with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1977, then retired as…
Upcoming Houston Food Events: Hot Summer Specials
Mark your calendars, because you don’t want to miss these deliciously fun culinary events: During the entire month of July, every day where the temperature is 95 degrees or hotter, Harold’s Restaurant, Bar and Terrace, 350 West 19th, will offer a “Hot Houston Lunch Special” for $13. The special features…
Why Is It Costing Homeowners $15,000 to Turn Power Back on After a Pole Falls Over?
Rodi and Bob Franco are still trying to get this straight: A utility pole in front of their house randomly fell over early Monday morning before the sun was even wide awake, their power went out — and now they have to pay $15,000 to get it turned back on…
A Week With the Dancing Machines of Houston’s Nether Regions
Sooner or later we must come to accept that George W Bush is a born dancer as well as a painter. The former president is a Cancer, astrologically speaking, and Cancers are drawn to the arts. It’s not uncommon to find bundled artistic talents within Cancers, although often at the…
Openings & Closings in Houston: Hans Bier House Leaves, Love Buzz Arrives
Creamistry ice cream parlor is part of the eruption of create-your-own food concepts; the eatery lets you choose the ingredients in your frozen treat, then uses liquid nitrogen to flash-freeze the dessert for you. The first Houston location is now open at 5000 Westheimer. The InstantNewsWestU web site reported on…
The Five Best Things to Do in Houston This Weekend: #CatchEmAll at Hermann Park
Just like Elvis, we’re all shook up about Pokèmon Go. For all you trainers out there, save those lures and pokèballs, because it’s time to #CatchEmAll at Pokèraid: Hermann Park this Friday night. But that’s just the beginning of an awesome weekend in Houston. We’re going to get toasted with art,…
Exclusive: George West’s “Broken” Creates an Atlas of Sound
Traveling in Texas to anywhere causes weary-eyed travelers to re-live the scene from Children of the Corn where poor Burt and Vicky think they have escaped the child-occupied death-cult town of Gatlin, Nebraska only to wind up in the same exact place they started each time. But other travelers have…
Friday Free For All: ‘Roadies,’ Kemo For Emo, Sounding Out!, Spotify, etc.
The Friday Free For All relays albums, artists, videos and vibes the Houston Press Music staff has been grooving to over the past week. U.S. AIR GUITAR CHAMPIONSHIPS Want to visit Finland on someone else’s dime? If you can shred an air guitar better than anyone you know you have…
BrainDead Is a JibJab: CBS’ Political-Zombie Drama Fumbles Its Politics but Is Still Promising
A while back I cracked a dumb joke about all our presidential candidates being corrupt. My wife hit back with this: “You’re a JibJab!” She referred, of course, to the animated viral sensations of America circa 2005 or 2008, the once wildly popular political-parody videos that, in the interest of…
In Its Second Season, Hulu’s Difficult People Is Easy to Watch
In the world of Difficult People, the cutting comedy returning this week to Hulu, the game is rigged against Julie (Julie Klausner) and Billy (Billy Eichner), but perhaps only because they rigged it against themselves. As their friends find success, the two struggling comedians feign interest in jobs that pay…
Humble Man, Owner of Olympic Web Domains, Fights Off IOC
A Humble man who scooped up more than 1,000 Internet domain names for possible Olympic host cities is fighting efforts by the mighty International Olympic Committee to stop him – and so far he’s winning. Stephen Frayne, Jr. denies he bought domain names (such as tokyo2020.com, the host city for…
Here’s What Happens If You Break UT’s Just-Approved Campus-Carry Rules
The University of Texas Board of Regents approved the university system’s largely restrictive campus-carry rules Wednesday, striking down only one controversial provision. At UT-Austin, professors will be able to prohibit guns in their individual offices, the only public university in the state to adopt this rule. The board of regents…
On Ricky Williams, Cults and Sexy Children
It’s been a while since we heard from beloved Austin weirdo and ex-Miami Dolphins running back Ricky Williams, perhaps the most famous member of an odd , Houston-based organization called Access Consciousness. So we were thrilled to read an extensive profile of the former Pro Bowler in Complex. If you’ve…
Wicked Still Leaves Us Confused, But So What? It’s Beloved.
The Setup: It’s back! Gather ye all distaff tweens and proceed as fast as lightning to the Hobby where the ultimate girl power musical lumbers, sputters, and sometimes manages to amaze. This most profitable of all Broadway millennium juggernauts is, of course, Wicked (2003), Stephen Schwartz (music and lyrics) and…
Stirred & Shaken: The Bloody Mary at Hubbell & Hudson Bistro
Of all the cocktails, bloody marys are the weirdest. Most mixed drinks are sweet, strong or fruity. Bloody marys are more closely related to shrimp cocktail sauce than any of its boozy brethren. I learned to love bloody marys at Baltimore airport. Back when I was running a graphic design…
Getting Stuck in 2013, Musically Speaking, Is No Place to Be
So, I’m bad with phone screens. My current phone had the screen crack so badly that it started displaying some digital nonsense and entering incorrect passcodes on its own last month. After some failed (and truly ill-advised) attempts to repair it myself, I ended up taking it to the Apple…
Is Being a “Grammar Snob” a Good or Bad Thing?
We live in a world where increasingly, people communicate through writing. This is interesting, because prior to our dependence on computers and the creation of online social networks, most folks probably didn’t have to write very often. Unless a person was a student, a teacher, a journalist, or had a…
Police Officers, Including HPD, Are More Likely to Use Force Against Blacks and Hispanics Than Against Whites, Study Says
In the wake of several black men’s deaths at the hands of police, one question has risen to national prominence: Is someone who is black or Hispanic more likely to be shot by cops than a white person? The answer, according to a new study that used Houston Police Department…
The 12 Best Brunches in Houston for 2016 (With Video)
Brunch might be Houston’s most popular meal. Every Saturday and Sunday morning, droves of residents go out—maybe in jeans or perhaps in their Sunday best–in search of one of the greatest meals ever invented. It’s a meal where cocktails in the morning or early afternoon are not just okay, but…
Five Musical Acts Who Need TV Variety Shows
A few weeks ago, NBC unveiled Maya & Marty, a good old-fashioned network-television variety show. These types of programs dominated the airwaves way back in the ultra-hip 1970s, and frequently the hosts of the shows were musicians. This new entry is hosted by Maya Rudolph and Martin Short, who have…
My Man Masturbates All the Time. Help!
MY MAN MASTURBATES ALL THE TIME Dear Willie D: I think my man has a mental disorder. He masturbates all the time. I don’t know where he gets the energy. We have sex at least five times a week. He is a hotshot driver. Today he called me at home…
First Case of Zika-Linked Microcephaly in Newborn Confirmed in Harris County
Harris County Public Health has confirmed the first Zika virus-linked case of microcephaly in a newborn baby, meaning the infant was born with an abnormally small head. According to HCPH, the mother of the newborn had spent most of her early pregnancy in Colombia and moved to Harris County during…
Bellaire Police Officer Dies During Motorcycle Chase, Suspect Faces Murder Charge [UPDATED]
A Bellaire police officer died in a motorcycle crash Tuesday afternoon while chasing two suspects accused of shoplifting from a Target in Meyerland Plaza. Officer Anthony Zarate, a seven-year veteran of the Bellaire Police Department, was flagged down in the Target parking lot by loss-prevention employees who had been chasing…
Sen. Ted Cruz: In A Lonely Place While Flying on Air Force One?
On Tuesday Sen. Ted Cruz officially ended his long-determined stance as the “official outsider” of Washington D.C. politics and all because he took a ride on the president’s plane. That’s right, the junior senator from Texas who once read Dr. Seuss from the floor of the U.S. Senate in a…
TxDOT Creates Pretty Hilarious Don’t Pokemon-Go-While-Driving Campaign
The Texas Department of Transportation’s digital media manager, Becky Ozuna, has not played Pokémon Go just yet. But she’s pretty sure there’s a good chance that, based on the massive amount of interest in the new smartphone game in just one week, people will likely become so attached to it…
Feds Urge Houstonians to Replace Recalled Shrapnel-Bomb Takata Airbags
It was only supposed to be a minor fender-bender — until 17-year-old Huma Hanif’s airbag literally exploded, sending metal shrapnel into Hanif’s neck, killing her at the scene. In March, Hanif became the tenth person in the United States and second person in the Houston area to die as a…
First Look at Rise No. 2 in Houston
Rise No. 2, the second location of a concept that started in Dallas, simply has to be sought out, both in the literal and figurative sense. Since it is located on the second, airy floor of BLVD Place, 1700 Post Oak in the Galleria area, someone isn’t likely to stroll…
Satchel Paige and the Kansas City Swing Salutes a Great Player, But Alas, Suffers From an Overstuffed Plot
The set-up: The phenom black pitcher and baseball Hall of Famer gets his own musical in Satchel Paige and the Kansas City Swing. The musical sections, directed and exceptionally choreographed by Patdro Harris with music and lyrics by Carlton Leake, are major league, indeed, full of ’40s swing pastiche and…
Hugo’s Spices Up Its Cocktail Program With Drinks From Notable Houston Bartenders
Certainly, Hugo’s beverage director Sean Beck is no slouch when it comes to creating a cocktail. He oversees the drink lists not only at Hugo’s but at six-time James Beard nominee chef Hugo Ortega’s other restaurants as well, including Backstreet Cafe and Caracol. Obviously, Beck had something specific in mind…
The Trumpet of God? Pentecostal Christians Continue to Weigh Donald’s Place in the Great Design.
The year was 2001. The United States had just started bombing Afghanistan post-9/11. Hardly anyone was traveling internationally for fun, but I found myself in a small, urban church in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, lit that October night by a single dangling bulb. I was there with members of my Dallas…
Can Airbnb Fix Its Discrimination Problem? Gay Houston Man Denied Housing Says No.
In the worst case of irony Buddy Fisher had ever encountered, he was told that he couldn’t make an Airbnb reservation for the Austin Pride Parade — because he was gay. Austin was the last city in which he would ever expect to face discrimination, he said. Fisher, of Houston,…
Presenting the 2016 Mid-Year Houston Rap Awards
Every year I keep saying that Houston rap is in a healthy, thriving place. In some cases that’s the honest truth, and in others it’s a sizable lie ready to be picked apart. Yes, Houston rap is in one of the healthier spots across the country. Regional bias has forever…
Reverend Horton Heat vs. Dale Watson: The Texas Tall Tale Showdown
For Texas music fans, it’s hard to imagine two artists who represent what makes Texas music special in the first place more than the Reverend Horton Heat and Dale Watson. Beyond their perfectly styled pompadours and musical chops for days, both men share an abiding love for their home state…
