“George Gittoes: Witness to War”
Australian artist George Gittoes is at his creative best when he’s in danger. (He’s written, “If I get comfortable, the work will lose its sting.”) That’s why he’s set up temporary studios in Rwanda, Congo, Chechnya and other war-torn countries to paint, draw and film. He also keeps a multimedia,…
“Joan Son — Part Geometry, Part Zen: A Personal Exploration through Paper”
Origami works always give off an aura of calm and simplicity — though anyone who’s attempted to turn one of those squares into a simple crane can attest to the maddening complexity of the process. Houston-based artist Joan Son has long since transcended the trickiness and has widely displayed her…
“Upside Down: Arctic Realities”
So you’ve seen the lesser sketches of Picasso, primitive Indonesian jewelry, and upholstery from 15th-century France. Well, even the horizons of the most avid art aficionados will be expanded by The Menil Collection’s “Upside Down: Arctic Realities” — consisting entirely of works from Arctic cultures (that means very north). The…
Bunnicula
Chester the Cat and Harold the Dog are trying hard to tell their human family that the new bunny they’ve brought into the house is a vampire. (What else could explain why all the vegetables in the house have started turning white?) But to no avail — no one is…
A Murder Is Announced
Some call Agatha Christie’s A Murder Is Announced her “most ingenious murder mystery.” You can decide if that’s true at this production by Theatre Suburbia. The grande dame of the good, old-fashioned whodunit put together an intriguing thriller, and the stage adaptation by Leslie Darbon brings the whole tale to…
The Marriage of Figaro
In a bit of serendipity, Houston Grand Opera is presenting Mozart’s masterpiece The Marriage of Figaro, just around the corner from the Alley Theatre’s current run of Amadeus, Peter Shaffer’s rococo-like fantasy on famed composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The opera, which is based on the notorious play by Beaumarchais, was…
Possum Kingdom on Fire: The Official Video
Possum Kingdom, the beloved state park west of Fort Worth — celebrated in song by The Toadies — has been very unlucky when it comes to the wildfires hitting west and north Texas. The Texas Parks & Wildlife Department has released some official video of the event, including interviews with…
James Franco Enrolling in UH’s Creative Writing Program? (UPDATED with UH Confirmation)
Is the University of Houston’s well-respected Creative Writing Program about to get as a student James Franco, the actor known for post-grad studies, 127 Hours and not being the greatest Oscar host? Possibly. Burndownblog takes note of page 13 of the CWP’s newsletter listing incoming students. Among them:…
BP? Maybe Not – Five Other Possible Summer Fest Sponsors
Today is not only 4/20 and whatever the name for the Wednesday of Holy Week is – sorry, it’s been a while since Rocks Off has been to church – it’s the one-year anniversary of the BP blowout in the Gulf of Mexico. It’s also the latest April Fool’s Day…
Comment of the Day
Katharine Shilcutt discovered an excellent Italian restaurant in Spring called Capri. While dining there, what did she have to drink with her tagliatelle al salmone? Boone’s Farm. Commenter Eric Hanao wrote in with some words of support: So. Freaking. Awesome. A true foodie will eat and drink it all. Good…
Mortal Kombat Legacy: Impaired Vision
The first episode of the new Mortal Kombat webseries has already drawn millions of viewers, and a possible full movie deal is already in the works. Tuesday brought us the second episode, and expectations for another killer ride were high despite some rather tragic dialogue and cliché plotlines from the…
Major Survey Shows Young Houstonians More Casual About Race & Ethnicity Than the Olds Are
Rice’s Stephen Klineberg has again assayed the attitudes of Houstonians on a myriad of subjects, and as usual he’s come up with some interesting results. The 30th annual survey, released today, shows we are generally happy in Houston and think the worst of the financial crisis is over, although we’re…
Top 5: Food Head Scratchers
The world of food and drink can at times be puzzling. Here are five things we wonder about the Houston food scene. 5. Jus’ Mac: Is it? I don’t have a problem with Jus’ Mac’s food. I’m not a big macaroni and cheese guy, but their product (on my only…
Finally…the 2011 Jim Rome Smack-Off Recap
“It’s good to be in something from the ground floor, but I came in too late for that. But lately I get the feeling that I came in at the end, that the best is over.” — Tony Soprano In the first three minutes of the greatest television show of…
Cooking the Easter Bunny
If your kids haven’t already figured out that there’s no Easter Bunny, here’s an easy way to teach them a valuable lesson while also scarring them for life: Cook and serve rabbit this year for Easter. Decorate with Easter eggs for effect. This is absolutely the kind of thing my…
The Storied Shamrock Hotel: UH Opens Its Digital Vaults
The University of Houston’s Digital Library has put together a collection of menus, programs and other material from the legendary Shamrock Hotel, which stood near where the Medical Center is today and was a little bit of Vegas in Space City. The library worked with the school’s Hospitality Industry Archives…
For 4/20: Hipgnosis’ Greatest Bong Hits
Rocks Off doesn’t know if it’s our Shot In the Dark photo show tomorrow or that batch of brownies someone sent us, but we’ve been in a really visual mood this week. We can’t remember exactly what it is, but something told us today might be a good day to…
Health Department Roundup
It’s 4/20 today, a high holiday for stoners. It’s also Hitler’s birthday and the anniversary of the Columbine school shooting. But don’t let that bring you down. We don’t care too much about celebrating, but we’re happy to help out those of you who do indulge by reporting on the…
Cover Story: Kidnapped by Family
Fourteen-year-old Andrew Mosier disappeared from his Houston home in August 2010. Two months prior, his uncle Doug Lazell, in violation of custody orders, took the boy to Colorado, an incident for which he now faces a felony charge of unlawful restraint. Presumably, Lazell took his nephew to Colorado so he…
Capri: Behind the Review
This week’s cafe review of Capri praises the little Italian restaurant in Spring for its many virtues: housemade pasta and mozzarella cheese, excellent service, a cheerful and cozy dining room and its generous no-corkage-fee BYOB policy. I found out this week, however, that the BYOB policy may soon change as…
R.I.P.: Remembering The 27 Club – Jimi, Jim, Janis, Kurt…
As a student of rock music since he was born and sat in front of MTV and VH1, Craig’s Hlist has grown up hearing constant aching throb of the number 27, the end-marker for a collection of rockers who died at that hallowed age, due mostly to their own chemical…
A Celebration of Texas-Based Bisexual Artists
Playing off the Texas Biennial, Curation Myth Ministries, Box 13 ArtSpace is hosting BI 2011: A Celebration of Texas-based Bisexual Artists and yes, according to Emily Sloan the curator, all the artists involved have declared themselves bisexual. The work on display will include performance, photography, video and zine from Daniel…
KTRU Has One More Week On The FM Dial (UPDATED)
UPDATE (3:06 p.m.): A reader just emailed Rocks Off and says KTRU staff was just informed the station is going off the FM airwaves at 6 a.m. next Thursday, April 28. A little earlier, Rocks Off started hearing rumors that this evening would be Rice University student station KTRU’s last…
Underground Footage From a Texas Dairy Farm (Not for the Weak of Stomach)
Undercover footage from a dairy farm southwest of Amarillo shows workers crushing sick and injured calves’ skulls with pickaxes and hammers, and tossing dying calves on a pile of dead ones in the back of a truck — acts that one animal welfare group says violates state cruelty laws. Gathered…
Nona Sivley Demonstrates TV-Worthy Cooking at Rice Epicurean
Last week ended on a high note when Hell’s Kitchen Season 8 winner Nona Sivley left her chef de cuisine post at LA Market to head over to Rice Epicurean and cook up a big, steaming bowl of loaded potato soup. The audience was atwitter with an interesting mix of…
Houston Grand Opera’s Mariachi Opera Going to Paris, According to MariachiMusic.com
The Mariachi Music blog reports that To Cross the Face of the Moon/Cruzar la Cara de la Luna, a Houston Grand Opera production that’s been pimped as the world’s first mariachi opera, will perform a six-day run at a Parisian opera house. An HGO employee that Art Attack spoke with…
Chef Chat, Part 1 : John Schenk of Strip House
You think it’s tough overseeing one kitchen? Try running six, all scattered around the country in such places as Houston, Las Vegas and New York City. Welcome to Strip House Executive Chef John Schenk’s life. We caught up with him on his last visit to Houston. EOW: What’s it like…
On 4/20, Texas Bans K2
Harshing the buzz of untold headshop fans, the state of Texas today officially announced its ban on synthetic marijuana product K2. Important news: The ban takes effect Friday. Stock up now, pseudo-stoners!! The Texas Department of State Health Services made the announcement today; the move was expected after recent actions…
Narduwar The Human Serviette’s 11 Best Interviews
Nardwuar The Human Serviette from “Vancouver BC Canada” knows all of your favorite bands, artists, and rappers better than you, and better than they know themselves. At first glance, he kind of resembles a Canadian Matthew Lesko (the free-money guy), but aside from the patriotic persona and bizarre choice of…
Houston’s Gets Its First Anarchist Book Fair
This weekend, MECA will play host to Houston’s very own Anarchist Book Fair. Organized by folks from Sedition Books, the two-day event spans 28 hours of programming, offers free meals, free lodging for those coming from out of town, and free childcare for those that wish to attend. Art Attack…
For Hitler’s Birthday: Five Public-Relations Disasters Involving People Wearing Nazi Uniforms
Happy Adolf Hitler’s Birthday!! Just try celebrating, though. Wear one Nazi costume these days and you’ll find yourself apologizing for weeks. Especially if you’re, like, the prince of England or something. The world is full of people who thought it was a great idea to don Nazi garb only to…
Brew Blog: Shiner Ruby Redbird
As much as I love heavier, fuller bodied beers and the cold weather that warrants drinking them, I must admit that I have a soft spot for crisp, summery brews and patio weather. Something about sitting out in the sunshine, particularly if there is a grill nearby, with a bottle…
Video: Sprite Step Off Rattles Houston
Check out the pics of Houston’s best step teams in our slideshow. The second Sprite Step Off stopped at Texas Southern University this weekend for a tournament-style competition between fraternities, sororities and Greek dance clubs, offering competitors a chance to win up at $100,000 in scholarship money. The event takes…
Harris County Jail: No More Daily Visiting Hours
Sheriff Adrian Garcia is announcing today that he’s eliminating daily visiting hours to the Harris County Jail. Visits will be allowed only four days per week instead of the current seven. Doing so will allow him “to redeploy jail staff and save $1.3 million a year,” the sheriff’s office says…
Lower Life Form Feeling The Love All Over Again
Each Wednesday, Rocks Off arbitrarily appoints one lucky local performer or group “Artist of the Week,” bestowing upon them all the fame and grandeur such a lofty title implies. Know a band or artist that isn’t awful? Email their particulars to sheaserrano@gmail.com. The very first show that we covered for…
Sherri Lynn Davis, America’s Fightin’ Teacher, Gets Deferred Adjudication
Sherri Lynn Davis got more than her 15 minutes of fame (in web terms, at least) when video of her whaling on a student went viral. She parlayed it into an appearance on Good Morning America, where she took responsibility for losing her temper but blamed a chronically chaotic atmosphere…
The Texas Kobe Beef Burger at Branch Water Tavern
What’s in a gourmet burger? At Branch Water Tavern, it starts with the size of the patty. “Everyone does an eight-ounce burger,” explained Branch Water Tavern’s Executive Chef David Grossman, “so I thought, let’s make it nine ounces.” Ground in-house, topped with cheese, bacon, red onions, tomato and butter lettuce,…
Pink Confessions: An interview with painter Richard Butler
British born, NYC-based painter Richard Butler is a Houstonian – he just doesn’t know it yet. H-Town’s vibrant, diverse and impossible-to-classify visual arts scene, as well as its plethora of experimental music makers, belies any preconceptions of conservatism those just passing through may carry with them like so much unnecessary…
Last Night: Foals At Fitzgerald’s
Foals Fitzgerald’s April 19, 2011 Just minutes after Fitzgerald’s opened its doors for last night’s Foals show, tickets were gone. The sold-out venue was packed before second opener Freelance Whales even hit the stage, and it’s no wonder – Oxford quintet Foals, fresh off a performance at last week’s Coachella,…
Herbes de Provence
If I had to pick a favorite ingredient, it would probably be the creamy goodness that is butter. I don’t indulge in this obsession too often, opting instead for my second favorite ingredient, dried herbs. Okay, so that’s not really one ingredient, but I have yet to cook with an…
Comment of the Day: Some People Don’t Care About Space Shuttles
We have some great commenters here on Hair Balls, and it’s time we paid some damn attention to them. So we’ll be highlighting a Comment of the Day each morning, from the previous day’s work. Maybe two comments, even. This will all be determined by a highly rigorous scientific formula…
Meme Of The Week: Tom Hanks As Animals
If you don’t cry at least one point while watching Tom Hanks’ Forrest Gump, you may be an inhuman monster, and if all the 50 movies and counting in his body of work since Bosom Buddies don’t warm your heart and make you feel like you are the part of…
Aeros Sweep Peoria, Show Houston What a Winning Playoff Team Looks Like
John RoyalPatrick O’Sullivan with the game-winning goal.The Houston Aeros are like a Timex watch: They take a licking, but they keep on ticking. And last night, with the Peoria Rivermen down three games to nil in their best of seven opening round playoff series, the Aeros had to endure quite…
Nearly Lost CD Captures Bob Dylan On The Verge Of Stardom
That fact that the CD Bob Dylan in Concert: Brandeis University 1963 (Columbia/Legacy) exists at all is something of a miracle. Dylan’s brief but energetic seven-song set as a low-billed performer at the school’s folk festival came to light only recently via a battered tape box found in the archives…
The Intertubes: Red Vs. Blue
“Machinima” is a misspelled portmanteau of the words “machine” and “cinema.” And possibly “anime,” depending on who you ask. Its roots lie in the mid-’90s PC game Quake, when gamers began posting demos of themselves playing the game, but instead of playing it the way it was meant to be…
The Five Dark Secrets America’s First Ladies Wanted Desperately to Keep Private
The position of First Lady is often a thankless one. A surprising number of presidential wives, usually citing health, were all but recluses during their husbands’ administrations, brooding out of sight like something out of Jane Eyre. Others have been more public, but they lived their lives in fear that…
An Excellent Evening of Entertainment: A Murder Is Announced
The set-up: An engaging cast, substantial suspense and a series of surprises combine to produce an excellent evening of entertainment in the Agatha Christie mystery A Murder Is Announced at Theatre Suburbia. Set in an English country house with disparate guests (no surprise here), the plot revolves around a very…
Sampler Plate: This Week in Food Blogs
Each week, we put together a sampler plate of the most interesting links from both local and national food blogs. Know a blog we should be paying particular attention to? Leave the address in the comments section below. Bon Appetit: The big news this week, of course, was Andrew Knowlton’s…
John Kinsel, Imprisoned for a Crime His Accuser Says She Made Up, Hangs Out at Angola Prison Rodeo
Dooney & Bourke knockoff purses and stainless steel crosses line a long row of picnic tables at the Angola Prison Rodeo craft sale. The artisans wait close behind in a parallel craggy row, separated from their wares by a chain-link fence. There’s a lot of sitting, smoking, staring among those…
Comment of the Day
Katharine Shilcutt took in a ‘stros game and found herself at the FiveSeven Grille. And while she was frustrated by the $16 sliders, commenter Albert Nurick was downright outraged: $16 for three sliders? They’re $5.78 at Little Bigs. Uncle Drayton, why do you insist on screwing over your fans? I…
Rick Adelman and the Rockets Agree to Disagree
The press release was entitled “Rockets Agree to Part Ways with Rick Adelman,” and read like this: Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey announced today that the team and Head Coach Rick Adelman have mutually agreed to part ways. “After numerous discussions and careful consideration with Coach Adelman, we have…
Delani Hazen: Allegedly Drunken Tractor Ride Lays Waste to Countryside, Cuts Power to Town
What had to have been a wild night in Amarillo last Friday got even wilder after 20-year-old Delani Hazen’s friends either intentionally or unintentionally left her by the side of Interstate 40 just west of the north Panhandle metropolis. Apparently desperate to get from a town called Bushland back to…
Emily Todd, Menil’s Deputy Director, Vacating Her Post
Emily Leland Todd, the Menil Collection’s first deputy director, has decided to leave the museum after nearly three years on the job. Phone messages left with the Menil seeking comment were not returned. Todd began her post on August 18, 2008, following a stint as the assistant for cultural affairs…
Main Squeeze: Lemons and Limes
“What color is a lime?” sounds like a dumb guy question, except that a ripe lime is yellow. Tahiti limes–the most common in markets–are sold unripe, because green ones taste better. Partly yellow limes are juicier, but very yellow limes take on a flowery taste. Key limes, on the other…
Shot In The Dark: Photographer Origin Stories
Just a couple of days now before Art Attack’s sister blog Rocks Off proudly presents Shot In the Dark: Houston Press Concert Photography, our first-ever exhibit of live pics we’ve collected in about three and a half years of reviewing shows, curated by the people who shot them. Details: The…
Beyond “Thriller”: Top 10 Zombie Music Videos
One of Rocks Off’s choice ambient/shoegaze artists, Grouper, has just released visuals for her song “Alien Observer” and it’s full of (almost) everything that we hold dear: Blood, zombies buried beneath foliage, and girl-on-girl action. Oh, and Liz Harris’ haunting voice. It’s beautiful; which is shocking to us personally, because…
Jose Zerate Brings (Sex) Toys to Meet Kids at Hotel, Cops Say
A man who met a woman online and insisted she bring along two young children she babysat to a hotel rendezvous arrived on the scene carrying sex toys and was arrested, KPRC is reporting. A spokesperson for the Harris County District Attorney’s Office tells Hair Balls no probable-cause hearing has…
Cinema Bomar: Food, Clothing, Shelter, Sex
When you go to one of Cinema Bomar’s free monthly screenings of ephemeral films from yesteryear, a key part of the experience is listening to the clatter of the projector, just like you remember from school days. Or if you’re younger than 30, without the requisite sense-memory to draw on,…
Three Sliders, You’re Out at Minute Maid Park
I don’t personally understand the appeal of going to the ballpark and getting anything other than a hot dog or a plate of nachos piled high with “cheese” and pickled jalapeños that have been there since the stadium was built. It’s the American way. Nevertheless, ballparks across the country have…
Expansion of Bay City Nuke Plant Abandoned
The ambitious plan to double the size of the South Texas Nuclear Project, already in trouble over cost concerns, has been abandoned “as a result of the ongoing nuclear incident in Japan,” its owner announced today. NRG Energy, owner of the plant, said “while it will cooperate with and support…
Tracy Nelson, Victim Of The Blues, Embraces Muddy & Lightnin’
Long acclaimed as one of the truly great singers of the modern era, at 66 Tracy Nelson still has the fire for performing great songs. Her latest project, Victim of the Blues, is a loving caress to her original passion: Old-school blues, particularly the Chicago variety. Nelson’s first album, Deep…
Tuesday April 19, 2011 Deals of the Day
Hey Houston! Here’s where you can save on food and drink today: VOICE deal of the day at Houstonpress.com: 50 percent off at Auntie Chang’s Dumpling House: ($10 for $20). Steamed or fried, meaty or veggie, Auntie Chang’s Dumpling House has a dumpling for you. Don’t feel like dining in?…
Parents Baffled By Outbreak of Birth Defects in Aggieland
When five families in Bryan-College Station conceived children with an uncommon — and usually fatal — birth defect, they began searching for answers. And now, state health investigators and Texas A&M researchers are also part of that search. The Bryan-College Station Eagle reports that the defect at issue is trisomy…
Chatting With Kevin Pollak
Call us gullible, but when Art Attack received a phone call from none other than Alan Arkin last Wednesday, we were a tad surprised. Perhaps it was the few beers we’d just had at Cactus Music while watching Austin indie quartet Oh No Oh My. Maybe we were willing to…
Past Blasted: Alcopop And The Geto Boys’ St. Ides Ad
The usual moral outrage is greeting the recent unveiling of Blast, Colt 45’s entry into the “alcopop” market heretofore dominated by Four Loko. At a mere 12 percent alcohol by volume, the fruit-infused brews are twice as strong as Colt 45, which already kicks like a mule. As Eric Idle…
Colt 45’s Blast and The Geto Boys’ St. Ides Ad
Cue the moral outrage. Colt 45 is entering the “alcopop” market with its answer to Four Loko, Blast. At a mere 12 percent alcohol by volume, the fruit-infused brews are twice as strong as Colt 45, which already kicks like a mule. As Eric Idle would enthuse in another context,…
Notes from an Obscure Car Chase
So last night I am cycling home, listening to Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History podcast about the Red Army’s sacking of Berlin. As I pedal up North Shepherd near the 11th Street Kroger, Carlin regaling me with tale after tale of unspeakable Red Army atrocities, a more immediate if infinitely less…
Dance Salad: Willy Tsao, Artistic Director of BeijingDance/LDTX, Is China’s First Dance Independent
In the backstage basement of the Wortham Center, a group of 14 Chinese dancers in warm-ups, Snoopy T-shirts, and baggy sweatpants stand hunched over with their palms cupped. Through the CD player, a horn from one of China’s mountainous regions calls them toward the mirror, like a slowly rolling wave…
Eating Out on Easter Sunday
Ahhh Easter, a pastel-colored day filled with stale marshmallow candy, uncomfortable clothing, hard-boiled eggs and magical hares. And when the Easter Bunny comes to town, many of us go out to eat. So many, in fact, that Easter Sunday is currently the second most popular day for dining out (Mother’s…
Shot In The Dark: How The Whole Mess Started
Just a couple of days now before Rocks Off – the person and the blog – proudly presents Shot In the Dark: Houston Press Concert Photography, our first-ever exhibit of live pics we’ve collected in about three and a half years of reviewing shows, curated by the people who shot…
The Five Hottest Presidential Daughters
Continuing on with our C-SPANish investigation into White House sex and beauty (five horniest presidents here, five hottest presidential mistresses here), we now take time to examine the five hottest presidential daughters. Once again, time has not been kind to pre-20th Century candidates. Either pictures are unflattering or they don’t…
David Sedaris Is Just As Funny In Bed
If you are a David Sedaris fan and have some extra cash lying around, you have already gotten your tickets to his SPA-sponsored performance tonight at Jones Hall. If you are like the many broke Sedaris fans out there (me!), you have to sit around tonight pretending that you are…
Off the Wall: A James Coney Island Chicago Dog
Katharine Shilcutt’s article on Sonic’s version of a Chicago dog inspired many readers to weigh in on the American classic. Here’s the ever-popular Fatty FatBastard, on what James Coney Island was serving up: “I keep telling you to go to James Coney Island for their Chicago dog. It is EXACTLY…
Kindergarten Mayhem: Kid Brings Gun to Class, It Goes Off
Three kindergartners at Ross Elementary were injured this morning because one of them brought a gun to class and dropped it, setting it off. “None of the wounds are considered life-threatening,” HISD spokesman Jason Spencer says. So there’s that — no life-threatening wounds from a freaking kindergartner with a gun…
Texas Publishes Their Social Security Numbers, Now Someone’s Trying to Scam Them
Attorney General Greg Abbott is warning any Texans whose Social Security numbers were inadvertently exposed by the state government to, ummm, not just hand out that info to anyone calling to try to “confirm” things. More than three million employees of two of the state’s retirement systems had their SSN…
Out Today: Glee Warbles, Gorillaz Fall, Kinks Ride Again
It’s been a week since the Foo Fighters’ album, Wasting Light, hit the stores, and Rocks Off has probably averaged at least one or two spins of the solid disc per day. Right now, we are actually on track four. Will anything top Light this week? That remains to be…
Persistent Houston Babysitter/Webmaster Scores Houston a Sneak Peek at New Neil Patrick Harris Film
Persistence paid off for 22-year-old babysitter/webmaster Bethany Griffith. She got Houston on the list for a sneak-peek screening of the new comedy The Best and the Brightest, starring Neil Patrick Harris and Bonnie Somerville as a married couple that go to hysterical lengths to get their five-year-old daughter enrolled at…
Starbucks: Now Serving Starbucks Coffee
…just in case you were wondering. The Midtown Starbucks at Smith and West Gray seems exceedingly proud of this fact, writing it in huge letters on a white sign hung from the store’s fence, leading us to wonder: What did it serve before it served Starbucks coffee?…
Is Ashley Judd Really Sorry For What She Said About Rap?
The hip-hop world is a less than sensible place – lots of times, you’re even required to clarify when bad means bad and when bad means good – so once a week we’re going to get with a rapper and ask them to explain things. Something you always wanted to…
Bryan Fancher: Breaks Face of Good Samaritan Who Found Him Lying by East Texas Highway
Last Friday afternoon, Duane and Delois Lout of Shelbyville were driving on Highway 103 East in rural Angelina County when they came upon an alarming sight: an apparently injured man lying in the road. Delois Lout stopped the car, and Duane, her 64-year-old husband and the chief of Shelbyville’s volunteeer…
Texas Biennial: Identity Unknown
Let’s be clear: No one goes to an art festival to hear a lecture. Or a panel discussion. When you read reports about the annual South By Southwest festival, for example, you don’t get people raving about how rad the panels were. It’s about the concerts and the parties. That…
Space Shuttle Blues: Obama Says He Had Nothing to Do With Decision
Right-wingers are salivating over this interview of President Obama by Brad Watson of Dallas’s WFAA — The Drudge Report has a huge headline, “First Time: Reporter Turns Aggressive With Obama.” It actually turns out to be a standard give-and-take, with maybe a bit more pressing than usual (Obama comments afterward…
Upcoming: Bootsy Collins, Dave Alvin, Wanda Jackson, Etc.
Amplified Heat: Sat., May 21. Continental Club. Avett Brothers, Langhorne Slim: CHANGED Fri., May 20. Verizon Wireless Theater. Band Of Mercy, Titan Blood: Thu., May 12. Mango’s. Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Paul Wall: Sun., May 22. Arena Theatre. Boney James & Regina Belle: Thu., May 26. Arena Theatre. Bootsy Collins: Thu., June…
Cam Newton Flunks Camp Gruden (w/ VIDEO)
While ESPN has become a bit of a safe haven for literally dozens of retired players and terminated coaches who have no business on television, occasionally they come up with a gem. If you cast the net wide enough, you have to, right? I think Jeff Van Gundy is excellent…
Fast Times: Turkey Cranberry Panini at Murphy’s Deli
After last week’s caloric debacle, I promised to give my heart a break for this installment of Fast Times. I headed to one of my favorite fast food sandwich spots, Murphy’s Deli, and ordered the Turkey Cranberry Panini. It looked a lot healthier than my usual–the Club Supreme. Sorry, no…
The Trip to Bountiful Shows Talent, Heart and Dedication
The set-up: This is an extraordinary vehicle for an actress of a certain age – it won Geraldine Page an Oscar – and Elaine Edstrom as Carrie Watts, aging and ill and with the final wish to visit once more her childhood country home, finds the heart and strength to…
Last Night: Fitz & The Tantrums At House Of Blues
Fitz & the Tantrums House of Blues Bronze Peacock Room April 18, 2011 Soul music is about power, yoking that gospel id to the pursuit of more worldly affairs, but it’s also about subtlety. Grunt all you want, but smooth and steady wins the race (and wins over the ladies)…
Top 5 Middle Eastern Restaurants
These places may go by many names – Middle Eastern, Mediterranean, Lebanese, Persian – and though it is clearly not possible for all of these titles to be correct, in Houston we usually have a general sense of what the person is talking about when they mention any of the…
Artists to Watch at “Perspectives 174: Re: Generation”
The set-up: This biennial exhibition organized by the CAMH’s Teen Council showcases the work of Houston-area teens. The execution: The flagship image of the show is Alyssa Hansen’s digital photograph Princess, a closeup on a teenage girl’s lower lip, which she reveals to be tattooed with a crown. It’s a…
Comment of the Day: A Stark, Crisp Diagnosis of Our Writing Staff
We have some great commenters here on Hair Balls, and it’s time we paid some damn attention to them. So we’ll be highlighting a Comment of the Day each morning, from the previous day’s work. Maybe two comments, even. This will all be determined by a highly rigorous scientific formula…
Blogs Lose Their Breath Over New Beyonce Single
Rocks Off’s handy Google alert tells us that a new Beyonce single, “Girls (Who Run the World)” – or at least a demo – leaked onto the Internet sometime in the past 24 hours. Apparently Ryan Seacrest’s L.A. radio show played the track, which seems to be audio from the…
Pop Rocks: The Long, Strange Trip Of Nicolas Cage
Nicolas Cage was arrested in New Orleans last Friday for domestic abuse, disturbing the peace, and public drunkenness (or as we call it in my house, The Wife’s Undergrad Spring Break Trifecta). Let me repeat that: Cage was arrested in New Orleans, a city with streets washed clean each night…
Pop Rocks: Like You Didn’t See That Nicolas Cage Thing Coming
Nicolas Cage was arrested in New Orleans last Friday for domestic abuse, disturbing the peace, and public drunkenness (or as we call it in my house, The Wife’s Undergrad Spring Break Trifecta). Let me repeat that: Cage was arrested in New Orleans, a city with streets washed clean each night…
Tim Qualls Enters His Blue Period With New EP
Tim Qualls got almost nothing but love from Rocks Off when we took on the task of tabulating the terrific tunes from his debut EP This is Our Land last year. Our one complaint was that it was really more of a single than an EP, with the backend being…
Not So Fast on the Maharishi Hotel Re-Do
When we told you earlier this month about an alleged project to turn the dilapidated, abandoned downtown Days Inn into a sparkling new hotel, we included some skepticism. Even though the developer said the project to turn the hotel, which for a while was owned by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi,…
100 Creatives: Tra’ Slaughter
The artist pays homage to Jean-Michel Basquiat. What he does:Tra’ (pronounced “Trey”) Slaughter has a drawl reminiscent of McConaughey, a hairstyle that’s forever evolving, and he changes residences more often than most people change a tire (14 addresses in the past 10 years). While he currently spends his days working…
Where Are We Drinking?
If the drinks at this place aren’t familiar, perhaps the names will be: That’s a Pink Lady on the left and a Sunset Love on the right. Oh, and one more hint: These aren’t cocktails. Just juice. Think you know where we’re drinking this week? Leave your best guess in…
Which Houston Mayor Would Make the Best Rapper?
Yesterday, the Rap Round Table at our sister blog Rocks Off pondered the interesting question “Which Houston rapper would make the best mayor?” You can go there for the discussion. Here, we will ponder which Houston mayor would make the best rapper. We have five nominees. 5. Diamond Jim McConn…
Saturday: New West Records Showcase At Cactus Music
New West Records showcase feat. Buxton, Robert Ellis & the Boys, Wild Moccasins Cactus Music April 16, 2011 Although they had a myriad of opportunities Friday night to make themselves bleary-eyed and drag-tailed – Aftermath chose The Wagoneers, and thus chose to write off Saturday morning – enough of Houston’s…
Walter’s Appears To Be Moving By Month’s End
According to the above poster for the Saxton Fox/Art Institute/Satin Hooks show, which was posted on Hands Up Houston earlier this afternoon, Walter’s on Washington appears to be moving before the end of the month. The new location, 1120 Naylor, is just north of I-10, in the same industrial complex…
Comment of the Day
On the subject of prom, Katharine Shilcutt has spoken. Prom-goers should eat at Haven. The end. Anyway, her post inspired some readers to reminisce about their own prom experiences. Wrote unclelijah: I went to high school in New Orleans. I took my prom date the Caribbean Room at the Pontchartrain…
Wilson Sauzo: The Last Defendant in the La Potra Sex-And-Drug-Trafficking Case Gets Three Years
The last defendant in the cases surrounding La Potra, a Houston bar accused of being the center of drug- and sex-trafficking, was sentenced to three years in federal prison. Wilson Sauzo, 29, was convicted on cocaine-running charges. Four others involved in the case were charged with charges relating to drugs,…
Meme Of The Week Bonus: Print Your Own Buscemi Eyes
It was only a matter of time before someone would make printable Steve Buscemi eyes for one and all to affix to their faces, in the wake of last week’s Chicks With Steve Buscemi Eyes mania that we brought you last Monday. Frankly, we are ashamed of ourselves for not…
Martini Night at Ava
As if I needed another excuse to indulge in a cocktail or two, I just found out that Ava Kitchen & Whiskey Bar is doing a special promotion on martinis. Every Wednesday from 5 to 8 p.m., they have a list of five specialty cocktails to choose from, at just…
Three Reasons to See “Round 34: A Matter of Food”
The set-up: Project Row Houses’ current round of installations takes food as its theme – the roles it plays in culture, history, belief systems, rituals and community. Chefs, historians, nutritionists and gardeners (as well as artists) were asked to participate by curators Ashley Clemmer Hoffman and Linda Shearer…
Top 10 Dancing Mascots In Rock & Hip-Hop
Today, Mark “Bez” Berry from the Happy Mondays turns 46, which is a feat unto itself, considering the amount of drugs that his band did in their heyday. Bez was the band’s dancer until their breakup in 1993, when he joined Black Grape with Shaun Ryder. Today he is a…
Houston’s Best Patios: The 10 Best to Take Your Kids
With patio weather season in full swing, Houstonians are absolutely spoiled for places to enjoy the day outside. And sometimes all you know is that you’re in the mood for a patio, but can’t figure out where to go. So how do you choose? Over the next five weeks, we’ll…
Angola Prison Rodeo Recap and Sweet Access to Cover-Story Subject John Kinsel
Hair Balls attended this past weekend’s Angola Prison Rodeo and all we got to say is that the event is super weird. The longest continuous prison rodeo, which began in 1964 at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, happens during one weekend every April as well as each Sunday in October. Located…
Malice for Wonderland
Last night Wonderland – Alice Through a Whole New Looking Glass opened on Broadway. This morning, it got the snot beat out of it by the critics. The Alley Theatre’s Artistic Director Gregory Boyd directed and co-wrote the book with lyricist Jack Murphy, Frank Wildhorn composed the music.The show had…
Estrella Hernandez “Nelly” Flores, 36, Bayou Body Count No. 52
Police hope someone will recognize this.Police are looking for the public’s help in identifying a woman stabbed to death on the southeast side Sunday night. The woman was found with multiple stab wounds in the Broadway Park Apartments in the 2500 block of Broadway about 11:45 p.m.; she was taken…
“Would You Like Onion Rings, Fries or ____ with that Burger?”
I’ve written before about how I prefer my burger with onion rings instead of fries. But truth be told, I would probably pick neither if given a third choice. I understand that restaurants can’t offer endless options; however, I think there’s room for just one additional “standard” burger accompaniment. My…
Which Houston Rapper Would Make The Best Mayor?
Some rappers happen to be thoughtful, intelligent people. Every Monday that isn’t a national holiday, Rocks Off will have some of them here discussing issues relevant to their culture. Slim Thug: “Me, of course.” This Week’s Panel: Trae, Bun B, Slim Thug, Paul Wall, ESG, Doughbeezy, Delo, Kritikal, Kyle Hubbard,…
As Good as It Gets: HGO’s The Marriage of Figaro
The set-up: Mozart’s sublime opera is all about love. All kinds, from raunchy seduction to moonlight serenade. There’s even an almost May/December romance between “old hag” Marcellina and young valet Figaro, until, to everyone’ s horrified surprise, it’s revealed that she’s his mother. Beaumarchais’s scandalous play, in which low class…
Jessica Tata: Legislature Acts to Help Increase Daycare Inspections
Blink once and you might have missed state rep Carol Alvarado’s bill in the House Urban Affairs last week that offered at least one more stopgap measure to prevent the West Houston daycare fire that took the lives of four small children. Former day care operator Jessica Tata, 22, faces…
Prom Night: Adventures in Dining (Or Not)
One of the questions I’ve been fielding a lot lately is, “Where should my [son, daughter, sister, brother, etc.] go for dinner before prom?” And the answer I’ve been giving is always the same: Haven. Haven has a beautiful dining room and patio; a great central location to where most…
Joe Roach, Former Council Member, Dies at 49
Joe Roach, the former Houston city councilman known as much for his dwarfism as being a politician, lawyer and TV analyst, has died after a brief illness, KTRK is reporting. The station says Roach, 49, had been hospitalized for a month with an undisclosed illness. He had been a city…
Puppets & Computers: The Best Christian Children’s Programming From The ’80s & ’90s
Any child growing up in a religious home in the ’80s and ’90s had a glut of entertainment options, keeping them satiated with moral, Christian music, television shows and video series, geared to most every youthful age group. I grew up straddling both sides, so my world view early on…
What a Crock: Marinated Mushrooms
I love mushrooms. This, my friends, is a darn good mushroom recipe. The rundown I look for any excuse possible to work mushrooms into my culinary mix. What makes this recipe so special is its versatility–serve these warm, cold, over steak, on top of burgers–it really doesn’t matter. The taste…
Alyssa Rubich: “I Do Not Exaggerate My Instabilities At All”
Rocks Off almost never gets a bad recording out of the Red Tree Recording Studio, so when producer Harold Reubens sent us his latest project, he had to jump a bar he’d already set pretty high. Little did we know that not only would Alyssa Rubich’s C’est La Vie clear…
UPDATED!: Hell Is the Harris County Admin Building
Updated at the end of the story An Icelandic saga as written by Franz Kafka. That is the best way we can describe what happens when you attempt to register and transfer title to a car given to you as a gift by your dad who lives out of state…
A Revival Dog at Revival Market
After a handful of trips to Ryan Pera and Morgan Weber’s still brand-new Revival Market, I’ve yet to be completely blown away. Don’t get me wrong, I think the place is fantastic on a number of levels. I’ve picked up wonderful cheeses and bread, fantastically orange-yolked eggs, and an array…
Hot Ticket: Klytemnestra
The set-up: Spring Street Studio was packed Saturday night for the second, and final, performance of Klytemnestra, a world-premiere opera produced by Divergence Vocal Theater. Friday night was equally S.R.O. What brings all these opera queens, wannabes, and probably-ares to this hot First Ward venue for a brand new chamber…
George Zimmer Will No Longer Head Men’s Wearhouse; Five Ads to Mourn the End of an Era
Houston’s own Men’s Wearhouse has announced that after almost 40 years in charge — and almost that long bedeviling TV viewers — George Zimmer is stepping down as CEO. Zimmer started the company in Houston in 1973, and now blankets America with his “You’re going to like the way you…
Friday Night: Sarah Jaffe At House Of Blues
Sarah Jaffe House of Blues Bronze Peacock Room April 15, 2011 According to singer/songwriter Sarah Jaffe’s Twitter bio, she is the “first female in the world to ever play the acoustic guitar and sing her own songs.” Refreshingly, the Denton-based musician is clearly able to poke fun at her own…
Ingredient of the Week: Ground Flaxseed Meal
What is it? First, let’s start with flaxseeds. They’re tiny little seeds that are just the slightest bit larger than sesame seeds. They come in a range of colors – from light to dark-brown – depending on the variety. These seeds can be used for crunch in things like cereal,…
Drunk Driver (With 18 License Suspensions) Sends Cops Scrambling, Smashes Patrol Car
The Galveston County Fair & Rodeo is over, but it went out with a bang. This year’s event saw one carnie arrested for being a sex offender and a ride operator nabbed for possessing three bags of pills, a bag of weed and brass knuckles. Enough for one year? No…
Houston Metropolitan Dance Company: “15 On The 15th” Bursts With Creativity
The Houston Metropolitan Dance Company celebrated its birthday last Friday with “15 on the 15th”, but it was the audience that received the gift. Nearly three hours of explosive dance were accented by video interviews with choreographers, making for an insightful performance. The Met’s come a long way, and they…
Friday Night: The Wagoneers At The Continental Club
The Wagoneers Continental Club April 15, 2011 Alt-country pioneers the Wagoneers laid down a crisp, essentially flawless 90-minute set Friday night at the Continental Club. They must’ve used cases of WD-40, but they showed no rust at all despite a 20-plus-year layoff. And it was unmistakable that they were having…
Courtney Bell, 28, Bayou Body Count No. 51
A man was stabbed to death in the driveway of his southeast side home Sunday night, Houston police say. Courtney Bell, 28, got in an argument with two men about 10:30 last night and ended up stabbed several times. He was taken to Ben Taub Hospital and pronounced dead. Police…
Friday Night: The Toadies At Warehouse Live
The Toadies Warehouse Live April 15, 2011 Friday night, The Toadies took Warehouse Live’s main stage in front of quite a rowdy crowd, hyping the crowd with such well-known hits as “I Come From the Water,” “Backslider” and, before the evening’s entertainment had ended, a reinterpretation of the Beatles’ “Don’t…
The Week in TV & How Anderson Cooper Gets Mad at Snooki
Two more soaps got the ax last week. In other news, there are still soaps. This was the week in TV Land: • Taking square aim at our nation’s stay-at-home parents, sick school children, and shut-ins with low standards, ABC announced last week that it’s canceling All My Children and One…
Facing Food Fears: #2: Four Loko
To hell with trepidation. I’m forcing myself to try those five intriguing foods that scare me. I may barf, I may cry, and I may not always enjoy myself, but at least I won’t be a coward. #2: Four Loko I know, I know. What the hell happened to #3:…
Inspired by Bootsie’s: Shaved Carrots with Miso-Cream, Hazelnut and Flowering Henbit
Back in February, my wife and I made the trek out to Tomball to celebrate the one year anniversary of Bootsie’s Heritage Café. The dishes spanned a wide range of tastes, flavors and textures. From the unparalleled freshness and sense of place on offer in a communal dish of live…
The Houston Symphony Shines with Mendelssohn’s “Scottish”
This weekend the Houston Symphony presented three pieces in its classical series including Sibelius’s “Violin Concerto in D minor” and Mendelssohn’s famous composition “Scottish.” The crowd was fortunate enough that violinist Leila Josefowicz served as the main attraction for the Sibelius concerto. Josefowicz, a 2008 MacArthur Fellow, has been performing…
Saturday Night: Nicki Minaj, Lil Wayne & Friends At Toyota Center
Lil Wayne, Nicki Minaj, Drake, Rick Ross, Bun B, Trae, Yelawolf, Travis Barker & Mix Master Mike, Twist, Shanell, Birdman Toyota Center April 16, 2011 7:22 p.m.: We had not planned on getting here until way later tonight, but Bun B mentioned on his Twitter that the show would start…
Comment of the Day: More Space Shuttle Blues
We have some great commenters here on Hair Balls, and it’s time we paid some damn attention to them. So we’ll be highlighting a Comment of the Day each morning, from the previous day’s work. Maybe two comments, even. This will all be determined by a highly rigorous scientific formula…
Friday Night: Ted Nugent At Nutty Jerry’s
Ted Nugent Nutty Jerry’s April 15, 2011 See our pics of The Nuge and his fans in our slideshow. “The whole world sucks but at least America sucks the best,” yells madman Ted Nugent as he wrenches out “The Star-Spangled Banner” from his guitar in front of at least 2,000…
The Drayton and Milo Show: Somewhere, Two Villages Are Missing Their Idiots
Drayton McLane visited with Milo Hamilton during Saturday’s game against the San Diego Padres. As is usual whenever Milo’s in the booth, it was already impossible to know what was actually happening during the game because Milo doesn’t believe in talking about the events occurring on the field. But it…
Game Of Thrones: “Winter Is Coming”
Well, that’s over with. HBO’s long anticipated adaptation of the first book from George R.R. Martin’s “Song of Ice and Fire” series debuted last night, and there is much to say. Newcomers to Martin’s sprawling (the fifth of seven planned books comes out in July) and atypical (incest and intrigue…
Jeffrey Singer, Tina Louise Madrid: Their Disabled Son Found Decomposing in a Box
Good Lord: The Pasadena parents of an 11-year-old kid with cerebral palsy have been arrested after his body was found decomposing in a box in the back of their SUV. Father Jeffrey Singer was charged Sunday with injury to a child by omission and mother Tina Louise Madrid was charged…
Keeping Comic Bill Hicks Alive in Houston
In the second half of his short life, comedian Bill Hicks railed against authority, against hypocrisy, against social injustice. That he tried to do this behind a mike on a stand-up stage,added equal parts edge and poignancy. That he was overcome by alcohol and drug use, got himself straight and…
Where Are We Eating?
Sometimes, all you really need is a big, fat, filling sandwich. And a paper boat of fries covered in gravy. Does the scene below look familiar to you? Think you know where we’re plowing through some sammies this week? Leave your best guess in the comments section below…
Vintage Easter Cards, Twisted For Modern Times
This next Sunday is Easter, when the Great Rabbit was resurrected from a cave in the Middle East and gave all his followers eggs filled with pocket change, candy and sometimes balled-up dollar bills. At least that’s what heathen pop culture has taught us as opposed to the true story,…
City of Houston’s “Art on Loan” Barely Worth the Lonely Planet-Esque Adventure
What a cluster you-know-what. Earlier today, Art Attack spent about an hour negotiating downtown’s city hall annex to check out two art receptions for the “Art on Loan” program. Out of that hour, about 40 minutes were devoted to asking grumpy city employees for directions, sauntering through metal detectors, sidestepping…
Comment of the Day
If you read Eating Our Words long enough, you can guess, pretty easily, which topics are going to spark discussion in the comments every time they come up. Case in point: Mai’s, which just reopened, as Katharine Shilcutt reports. Commenter ReginaDupuis, for one, is not a fan: Mai’s is a…
More Local Music News Than Record Store Day Exclusives
Welcome once again to another installment of our smash hit series, Magnolia City Mixtape. This week is just like all the rest, with a bumper crop of local music news for your eyes and ears. We’ll start off with our soundtrack, which happens to be an EP from local rock…
The NBA’s Top-Selling Jerseys List (And Seven Things It Tells Us)
I’ll admit, I don’t own any sports jerseys. I’m not a jersey-wearing guy, partially because the fit and feel of an authentic professional sports shirt are not optimal, but mostly because I’m over the age of 14. Full disclosure, I don’t buy many jerseys for my kids either, mostly because…
This Week in Deliciousness
Welcome back to the weekly roundup here at Eating Our Words, where our constant tinkering in God’s domain is about to pay off with the imminent discovery of a FOURTH leche any day now. Right now, we think it will be part condensed milk, part goat cheese curd, and part…
Odd Pair: Wasabi Peas and Riesling
Though I am a fan of all types of good wine, I tend to shy away from some of the sweeter forms of vino. So while I can appreciate the fine craftsmanship of the 2009 St. Urbans-hof Urban Riesling, I knew I needed to find something savory to offset the…
Free Concerts Keep Skateboarding And Rock Connected
“The genesis of the Skate & Rock Free Concert Series was to bring live music into our skate park,” says Barry Blumenthal, a skater who helped put together the upcoming concert series and also assisted in raising funds to build the Lee and Joe Jamail Skatepark just west of downtown…
WorldFest First-timer: Mun Chee Yong and the World Premiere of When the Road Meets the Sun
California-based filmmaker Mun Chee Yong is among the many first-time directors screening projects at WorldFest Houston. Her film, Where the Road Meets the Sun, was seven years in the making and underwent various changes in characters and plot. “I started writing this in 2006, and at the time I was…
George C. Denkowski: “Dr. Death Penalty” Won’t Be Filling Up Death Row Anymore
George C. Denkowski, the forensic psychologist who’s been driving capital-murder defense lawyers crazy for years, is no longer allowed to send convicts to Death Row. Denkowski was reprimanded by the Texas State Board of Examiners of Psychologists and agreed never again to perform mental evaluations in death-row cases. He did…
Diddy Cancels May 12 Warehouse Live Date
According to an e-mail from Warehouse Live staff, Diddy’s May 12 date at the venue has been cancelled, with no plans for a new date given. Houston will not be getting a taste of Diddy’s “Diddy Dirty Money Coming Home Tour” after all. From the Warehouse Live missive: Unfortunately our…
Barsana Dham Ashram, Once Home to Wanted Felon Guru Prakashanand Saraswati, Changes Name and Appoints a New Leader — Another Accused Rapist
Prakashanand Saraswati, the 82-year-old Austin-based guru who fled the country once he was found guilty of more than 20 counts of sexual indecency with his female followers, is still on the run. U.S. Marshals think he’s hiding out in Mexico, trying to find a way to smuggle himself into India…
Top 5 Ramen Hacks
The life of a food critic is often far less glamorous than it may seem. Truly. For as many fine dining meals as I may eat, I eat far more often in my own kitchen. And most of those meals are leftovers designed to last for at least a few…
Zachary Wiersing Punches His Grandma Because She Peed Herself
Nominations for Worst Grandson of the Year are now closed: We have a winner, according to court documents filed against one Zachary Wiersing. He’s been charged with the felony charge of injury to an elderly individual because, according to investigators, he punched his 75-year-old grandmother in the face because bladder…
Constantine Maroulis brings Rock of Ages to Houston
Arena Rock in all its 1980s glory — think REO Speedwagon, Pat Benatar, Foreigner, Bon Jovi and Twisted Sister to name a few — is due to arrive in Houston at the end of May, courtesy of Theatre Under the Stars and former American Idol finalist Constantine Maroulis. Constantine segued…
R.I.P Joey Ramone: Top 10 Ramones Songs…
Besides “I Wanna Be Sedated” And “Blitzkrieg Bop” It was ten years ago today that the world lost their first Ramone, when Joey Ramone succumbed to lymphoma in New York City at the age of 49, one month shy of turning 50. The iconic punk frontman would lead the Ramones…
Katy ISD: The Days of Rage Continue
Egypt, Libya: They got nothing on the Katy school district. Katy ISD’s Days of Rage continued today, as Morton Ranch High temporarily went on lockdown and McMeans Middle School had its own uprising. Of course, “uprising” may be overstating it, but students at the schools left class to protest teacher…
Chef Chat, Part 3: Greg Lowry of VOICE
Before last week, I had never eaten at the restaurant inside the Hotel Icon – not when it was Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s Bank, and not when Michael Kramer was the executive chef of VOICE. So I can’t comment on what Houston may have lost in the way of fine dining. All…
Famous Triple Doubles (NBA and Otherwise)
Ah, the triple double. The semi-elusive NBA statistic whereby an NBA player gets double figures in a game in three performance categories (points, rebounds, assists are usually the big three, but steals and blocked shots are sometimes allowed in the mix, if the statistician is feeling saucy). As elite clubs…
George Gittoes, Witness To War
In the middle of our conversation with George Gittoes, Art Attack is struck with a fierce sense of inspiration. The Australian artist is relating story after story from his works in Pakistan and Afghanistan, where he’s just finished five new films, and it’s hard to imagine that anyone could leave…
Ronald Washington: Slices Woman With Machete, Douses Her With Gasoline, Then Gets Arrested When He Files a Report
If we take the Harris County Sheriff’s Office at its word, then Ronald Washington got into a fight with the mother of his six-month-old baby, a fight that included swiping at her with a machete, dousing her with gasoline and driving off with the kid in the car. He wasn’t…
Record Store Day: If You Take A Dump, Don’t Tell The Staff
Today is Tax Day (boo), but it’s also payday for a lot of people, which comes in handy because tomorrow is Record Store Day. In a few short years, RSD has become one of the biggest red-letter days on the music-geek calendar, even bigger than Tim Buckley’s birthday. This year’s…
Seven Easter Candy Favorites
These days, my Easter candy consumption is less “get up early and hunt for my Easter basket” and more “stay up late stuffing my face with Easter treats.” I was at H-E-B the other day, and I spent half an hour browsing the Easter display to see what’s going on…
The Baby Video Virus: Why Is America Ga Ga Goo Goo Over Babies?
At first, it seemed like an innocent 24-hour bug, but as soon as it was gone another one hit. Now it’s become an epidemic. You’ve probably been afflicted by it too, in your email, on your Facebook page: The Internet has gone baby video crazy. Sure, when it all started…
FCC Approves Sale of KTRU to UH
You couldn’t call it unexpected: The FCC has approved the sale of Rice’s legendary KTRU-FM to the University of Houston, which plans to change it from über-eclecticism to classical music. Despite rallies, protests and formal filings urging the Federal Communications Commission to reject the proposed sale, the agency gave it…
FCC Approves KTRU Sale To University Of Houston
The Federal Communications Commission announced today it has approved the sale of Rice University student station KTRU’s (91.7 FM) broadcast license and signal tower to the University of Houston System, which plans to change the free-form format to classical music and fine-arts programming, and broadcast as KUHC. KTRU’s current programming…
Space Shuttle Blues: County Commissioner Calls for a Congressional Investigation (UPDATED With NY Smack Talk)
You know what the Space Shuttle fiasco needs? Congress getting involved. At least that’s the thinking of Harris County Commissioner Jack Morman. He’s introducing a resolution at next week’s meeting demanding Congress investigate “Nasa’s decision-making process concerning the permanent location of the space shuttle orbiters.” Yes, that will help. Some…
Shiftwork Bites: Travel Edition (Sort of)
When I was in Annapolis last week, I found the time to drink some beer, and work up a Brew Blog. I did not, however, manage to work in a road edition of Shiftwork Bites. I gave it some serious consideration, even worked up a few concepts, but never found…
April 9-15: The Week in Art Photos
It’s time again to check out the Houston Press Flickr Pool and see what kinds of art shots our talented photographers have added. We love street art, unique perspectives and beautiful photos of Houston’s creative community. If you think you’ve got a good eye, drop your pictures in the pool…
Poppy Flashes Plenty Of G.R.i.T. On Intent To Distribute
The G.R.i.T. Boys, a stalwart Southern rap group among stalwart Southern rap groups, have long been an undervalued commodity. There are three boys who are gritty -Scooby, Niq, Poppy – and musically, they tend to float around between Brick Rap, Brag Rap, existentialism and whatever the opposite of Calvinism is…
Taking Dogs to Restaurants and Bars: Why Stop There? (Five Other Options to Consider)
Houston, all of a sudden, has given rise to a movement demanding that people be allowed to take their dogs to restaurants and bars. The Boneyard Drinkery on Washington Avenue, for instance, exists just so people can do that. Why stop there? There are plenty more places people should be…
Openings & Closings
Another quiet week around the city, as even B4-U-Eat had only two restaurant closures to report and not a single, solitary opening aside from the long-awaited grand re-opening of Mai’s on April 9. Have you been back yet? The two closures reported by B4-U-Eat were Pete & Shorty’s Kitchen &…
New Queen Bio Separates Real Life From Fantasy
Is This the Real Life? The Untold Story of Queen By Mark Blake Da Capo Press, 384 pp., $25. Drawing on other sources, his extensive previous interviews with guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor, and more than 100 new subjects, Blake (Comfortably Numb: The Inside Story of Pink Floyd)…
Idol Beat: No Longer A Man’s Man’s Man’s World
I realized last night I’ve been writing about this damn show for nigh on three months now without making the obligatory comment about the size of Jennifer Lopez’s ass. So here it is: During the introductions to this week’s elimination show, I could swear her derriere started turning around a…
Sheriff’s Office: No Bomb, Just World’s Oldest Practical Joke
Here’s an official police statement you don’t get every day. To get the full flavor, just read it verbatim: This morning at 6:30 a.m., HCSO deputies responded to an alarm call at 13600 Treebank in northwest Harris County. Upon arrival, deputies observed the front door ajar. As deputies made entry…
Ann O’Donnell: UH Cop Had Cocaine in Her System at Time of Fatal Crash
Ann O’Donnell, the first UH cop to die on duty, had cocaine in her system when she crashed her car into a tree in a front yard of North MacGregor last year, the university has announced. UH said the report from the Harris County Medical Examiner showed the drug in…
Community: The Bittersweet Smell of Success
“Competitive Wine Tasting” might not have been the funniest episode of Community’s second season, but it managed to touch on a classic plot complication: doing the right thing for the wrong reasons. With all three story lines this week — Jeff and Pierce, Abed and the teacher, and Troy and…
Idol Beat: Paul McDonald Got Voted Off, E-I-E-I-O
I realized last night I’ve been writing about this damn show for nigh on three months now without making the obligatory comment about the size of Jennifer Lopez’s ass. So here it is: During the introductions to this week’s elimination show, I could swear her derriere started turning around a…
Fish Sandwich Fridays: Barnaby’s
In honor of Lent and in an attempt to revive my own (lapsed) Catholicism, I will be reviewing a fish sandwich (loosely defined) each Friday from a local Houston restaurant. Sorry, Mickey D’s fans: no Filet-o-Fish. Feel free to send in your suggestions even if you’re not a Fish Eater…
It’s ‘Big Girl, Big Boy Time,’ HISD’s Paula Harris Says
In a lengthy and sometimes tense board meeting that brought Houston ISD trustee Juliet Stipeche to tears, trustee Carol Mims Galloway to call for a tax increase and announce that all was not hunky dory with the board, and board President Paula Harris to tell her colleagues to suck it…
Last Night: Pete Yorn & Ben Kweller At House Of Blues
Pete Yorn, Ben Kweller House of Blues April 14, 2011 By the time Pete Yorn and his band were onstage, House of Blues was comfortably packed, as the crowd enjoyed the jovial and upbeat melodies that sounded as though they could have been theme songs to new-age Country & Western…
Benjy’s $10.99 Tax Day Relief
Both benjy’s locations (5922 Washington and 2424 Dunstan) are offering a little lunch time relief to diners on Monday, April 18–this year’s extended tax return deadline date. For $10.99 (excluding beverages, tax and gratuity), benjy’s will be serving up a three-course, prix-fixe meal. Start off with either the Chilled Avocado…
Comment of the Day: Granny Wants to Protest, Too
We have some great commenters here on Hair Balls, and it’s time we paid some damn attention to them. So we’ll be highlighting a Comment of the Day each morning, from the previous day’s work. Maybe two comments, even. This will all be determined by a highly rigorous scientific formula…
Cage Match: Ted Nugent Vs. General Bye Bye
Ladies and gentlemen, tonight a battle will be waged for the very musical soul of Houston. In this corner, from Detroit, wearing very little, heavily armed, and dragging the corpse of the Great White Buffalo behind him, the wild man of rock himself, Ted Nugent. And in this corner, from…
The Five Hottest Presidential Mistresses (Not Including Marilyn Monroe)
The item we did earlier this week on the five horniest presidents included research that could lead us to conclude either one of two things: Either a) America’s presidential mistresses don’t photograph well or are painted badly, or b) Not many of them are what you’d call “hot.” Still, it’s…
100 Creatives: Jennifer Chen
(Part of our ongoing series profiling 100 Houston-area artists. No rankings; no order. Check back every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday for another edition.) What she does: By the most technical definition, Chen’s current art is designing and making darkly whimsical jewelry pieces and selling them through her company Komodokat Designs…
Upcoming Events
If all goes to plan, the “Battle of the Heights” Pie-Eating Contest this Saturday at Pie in the Sky (632 West 19th) will look nothing like Stephen King’s Great Tri-County Pie Eat. But wouldn’t you rather go watch just in case? Four of the Heights’ “civic and business leaders” will…
Aaron Pennington: Small-Town East Texas Bigwig Busted for Kiddy Porn
UPDATE: Contrary to rumors, Pennington did not commit suicide, but he has now resigned his post on Grapeland City Council. Between the Grapeland police and the Texas Attorney General’s office, Pennington now faces a total of seven felony cases relating to kiddy porn and sexual assault of children. Investigators showed…
Lincoln Memorial
Set in the months after Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, The Conspirator follows the consequences of the fatal shot at Ford’s Theater — specifically, the trial of Mary Surratt, Catholic, 42 and the owner of a Washington, D.C., boarding house, who was presented before a military tribunal as the den mother…
April 9-15: The Week in Photos
Each week, we take a dip into the Houston Press Flickr pool and see what our talented photographers have been up to. Whether you’re relaxing in the cool of a bar or the warmth of our last few days of spring, we want to see your pics. Just drop them…
Comment of the Day
What’s better, Peeps or Cadbury Eggs? Katharine Shilcutt broke it down for us today. But reader “Shut Up & Eat” felt that the Peeps didn’t get a fair shake: Peeps are like a fine wine. One can’t just snatch them right off the shelf as soon as they hit the…
2010-2011 Houston Rockets Report Card
Hello everyone! Welcome to my blog post for today, also known as “Day Four of the Jim Rome Smack-Off Recap Hostage Crisis.” That’s right, based on feedback on my Twitter feed and the monster hits that our rogue “Smack-Off On A Mobile” have been getting, I know you people want…
Vegan Tamales from Radical Eats, Urban Harvest Farmers Market
One of my favorite Saturday-morning breakfasts is also one of my favorite choices for yoga fuel: vegan tamales from Radical Eats, served up at the Urban Harvest Farmers’ Market (2311 Canal St.). These tamales are healthy and hearty, and a great way to transition from a leisurely morning at the…
George Ellington: Sheriff’s Deputy Pleads Guilty to Helping Ecstasy Ring
Former Harris County Sheriff’s Deputy George Wesley Ellington entered a guilty plea today to an extortion charge that arose out of his helping an Ecstasy operation with information and armed security. Ellington, 38, faces up to five years in prison. “At today’s hearing,” the U.S. Attorney’s office said, “Ellington acknowledged…
Canned Champagne: For All Your Picnic Needs
Alright, so Sofia Mini isn’t technically champagne. It’s a sparkling Blanc de Blancs from California made with a blend of Pinot Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc and Muscat grapes. But for the purposes of this post, as well as ease of description, I like to call it champagne in a can. Last…
Remember Tawn P’s The Wake Up Kiss?
Houston’s history is dotted with albums that, fairly or not, have been swept aside. We’ll examine them here. Have an album that you think nobody knows about but should? Email sheaserrano@gmail.com. Tawn-P The Wake Up Kiss (self-released, 2011) It feels a bit like Tawn P, a teeny-tiny firecracker MC with…
Favorite Three: Desserts
I asked my fellow food bloggers to choose their three favorite desserts in Houston. Let’s take a look at what they said. Geri Maria Harris 1. Churros and Hot Chocolate from Hugo’s 2. Flan from El Rey 3. 5 Nut Brownie from Hillstone (formerly Houston’s) Geri’s Take: It is rare…
Filmmaker Greg Carter Explains “Mainstream Indies”
Texas filmmaker Greg Carter, a speaker at the Black Images in the Media Symposium and Arts Festival at the University of Houston, thinks it’s a great time to be an independent filmmaker. Although exactly what qualifies as an independent film is up for debate. “If you look at the ten…
Beaumont ISD Spokeswoman Jessie Haynes Calls Media Racist, Says School Board Candidates Are Criminals
Beaumont’s KDFM has been reporting on the saga of Jessie Haynes, the $101,000-a-year spokesperson for the city’s school district. Haynes certainly has an interesting take on how to do her job. In the above clip, she introduces her newest aide at a press conference where she says the guy, who’s…
Top 10 Led Zeppelin Songs Not Constantly On The Radio
Of Led Zeppelin’s nine stellar (OK, Presence was just all right) studio albums, it’s hard to pick the five best. There are no dogs in the bunch, and unlike the Duran Duran Top 5 we did last week, it’s harder and more heart-wrenching to limit them to just five. We…
Buy Ron Paul’s House!! (You Can Donate It As a Historical Building Later)
Congressman Ron Paul, everyone’s favorite presidential candidate (in terms of entertainment value), is selling his longtime Lake Jackson home. He’s got a Web site (buyronpaulshouse.com) about it and everything. “Generations of Liberty loving kids have grown up here, and you can continue the tradition,” says the site…
Inwood Forest Golf Course to Become Flood-Detention Pond, Greenspace
A defunct golf course on the northwest side of town will be converted to greenspace that will double as a detention pond during floods, Mayor Annise Parker announced today. The Inwood Forest golf course, near Antoine and West Little York, has been purchased by the city for $9 million and…
Bryan Caswell Comes to the Food Network Along with Several New Shows
By now, the news that Houston’s own Bryan Caswell will have his own four-episode show on the Food Network has worked its buzzy way through Twitter, Facebook and the rest of the Internet. Starting in May, the busy chef will be hosting a run of food competition-themed shows called Best…
Houston By The Book: Brazos Bookstore
“It’s the hardest job I’ve ever had in my life,” says Jane Moser, the bespectacled woman who runs Brazos Bookstore. Moser is a former children’s bookstore owner – the first one in Houston actually at Stop Look And Learn, and as that name sparks a flash across Art Attack’s eyes,…
Chef Chat, Part 2: Greg Lowry of VOICE
Yesterday, we spoke with VOICE executive chef Greg Lowry about how he became a chef and the evolution of the menu under his direction. Today we talk sharks, Toque 5 dinners and molecular gastronomy. EOW: Have you recovered from the Final Four? GL: Business-wise it was fantastic, but hour-wise it…
Troy Colt Griffin: Lost His Cellphone Full of Child Rape Pics
EDITED: JANUARY 18 2012 When Troy Colt Griffin lost his cellphone in April of 2011, his horrid proclivities were discovered. The pervert used the device’s camera function to take and store pictures of himself having sex with a seven-year-old girl. Thankfully the snoopy finder of the phone had a look…
HGO Got $4 Million, What Would You Do With the Money?
This past weekend, The Houston Grand Opera received some amazing news to the tune of a $4 million dollar donation. Major philanthropic figure and good friend to the HGO Margaret Alkek Williams has pledged to support all the arias a person could possibly want. The Allek and Williams Foundation have…
Sunny San Leon Combines Rock Festival, Mayoral Election
Deep in the last of the “R months,” oyster season’s coming to a close, and though it’s not yet stiflingly hot, breezes off Galveston Bay are getting warmer by the day. What better time to head down to San Leon for a beer and a day of “icehouse rock,” blues,…
Katy Students Protest Teacher Layoffs and Get Away With It
Maybe 200 or so students at Morton Ranch High in Katy took to the barricades this morning, protesting planned layoffs for 350 teachers districtwide. (Video above from KHOU.) A representative group of them got to meet with Superintendent Alton Frailey, who explained Blame Austin to them. None of the students…
Galveston’s Food and Wine Festival by the Sea
As someone who will take practically any excuse to head to the beach, I was very excited to learn that this weekend Galveston will be hosting the 2011 Food and Wine Festival. This is going to be a four-day event extending from today through Sunday. Everything kicks off with a…
Last Night: Hunx & His Punx At Fitzgerald’s
Hunx & His Punx Fitzgerald’s April 13, 2011 “How many of you have big dicks?” yelled Seth “Hunx” Bogart while hanging from a beam that sits atop the downstairs stage at Fitzgerald’s. Everyone screamed back and/or lies “I do!” and the crowd laughs. Bogart’s band, Hunx & His Punx were…
Idol Beat: I Lost It At The Movies
It’s time for American Idol, the show that dares ask the question, “What the f*ck is will.i.am still doing here?” Seriously, when do they make him a judge? In case you hadn’t heard, Jennifer Lopez was selected World’s Most Beautiful Woman by…Cat Fancy or something. This provided a brief respite…
Aeros Ice Peoria, Win Game One in the Playoffs
John RoyalJed Ortmeyer relaxes on the bench.Houston’s only playoff team, the Aeros, started action last night. And at about the same time that Wandy Rodriguez was getting pounded by the Chicago Cubs just down the street from the Toyota Center, the Aeros found themselves trailing 1-0 to the Peoria Rivermen…
Cadbury Eggs vs. Peeps: The Ultimate Easter Candy Battle
Peeps and Cadbury Eggs might be the two most divisive Easter candies on shelves today. Loving or hating either one can easily be decried as heresy from staunch Peep apologists or Cadbury defenders. People don’t seem to be as passionate about things like Reese’s Peanut Butter Eggs or pastel-colored M&Ms…
Longhorns Tumble in Playboy Party-School Rankings
Face it: UT has a lot of trouble with rankings, whether it’s college football or Playboy. Sure, they sometimes (read: very rarely) come out on top — Vince Young can lead them to a BCS title, Playboy can name them top party school in 2010 — but mostly it’s a…
Idol Beat: Movies Is Magic
It’s time for American Idol, the show that dares ask the question, “What the f*ck is will.i.am still doing here?” Seriously, when do they make him a judge? In case you hadn’t heard, Jennifer Lopez was selected World’s Most Beautiful Woman by…Cat Fancy or something. This provided a brief respite…
Comment of the Day: Taking the Good With the Bad
We have some great commenters here on Hair Balls, and it’s time we paid some damn attention to them. So we’ll be highlighting a Comment of the Day each morning, from the previous day’s work. Maybe two comments, even. This will all be determined by a highly rigorous scientific formula…
Klytemnestra: A Myth in Six Music Videos
Last week, Art Attack’s 100 Creatives series profiled Houston opera singer Misha Penton. This Friday and Saturday, at her newly opened Divergence Vocal Theater , Penton presents the opera dance theater work Klytemnestra (“the original subversive female”) that re-imagines of the story of the Greek anti-heroine. Klytemnestra is an especially…
Three Regions Fried Rice at Pho Dung
Just because it calls itself a pho (Vietnamese beef noodle soup) restaurant doesn’t mean that pho is the best thing to order. Case in point, when I walk into Pho Dung (11201 Bellaire Blvd # 815) in the Hong Kong City Mall IV, I notice as many rice dishes on…
Last Night: A Day To Remember, Etc. At Warehouse Live
A Day to Remember, Bring Me the Horizon, We Came as Romans, Pierce the Veil Warehouse Live April 13, 2011 Wednesday night can be described in three words: Confetti, balloons and rage. Aftermath felt like we were at a B L A C K I E show or something, and…
HISD Thinks Too Many African American Kids May Be in Special Ed
Houston ISD Superintendent Terry Grier has reason to believe his district has tagged too many African American students with mental retardation and emotional disturbance labels, and that it may be underserving limited English proficiency Hispanic kids at the elementary level. Oh, and that HISD isn’t doing such a hot job…
How to Make: Perfect Mashed Potatoes
If, in some apocalyptic scenario, we all had to pick one food to eat for the rest of our lives, I would undoubtedly pick the potato. With a simple but hardy flavor, potatoes are like nature’s jack-of-all-trades. Baked, fried, boiled, grilled – I have yet to meet a potato recipe…
Last Night: The Raveonettes And Tamaryn At Fitzgerald’s
The Raveonettes, Tamaryn Fitzgerald’s April 13, 2011 Oh man, did any of you go to that Tamaryn show Wednesday night at Fitzgerald’s? Yeah, we think that The Raveonettes might have been there as well. First, let’s talk Tamaryn. It’s a neo shoegaze/dreampop band fronted by the shaggy-haired Tamaryn, originally from…
Spinal Tap’s Harry Shearer Bringing His Katrina Documentary to Houston
Harry Shearer, known for being one-third of Spinal Tap, one-half (it seems) of The Simpsons and just about all of the syndicated radio program Le Show, has adopted New Orleans as home. He’s become wrapped up in the city’s recovery from Katrina, and the events that led to its devastation…
Harry Shearer Comes to Houston With His Katrina Documentary
Harry Shearer is known for being a lot of things. In no particular order, he is famous for being one-third of Spinal Tap, one-half (it seems) of The Simpsons and just about all of the syndicated radio program Le Show. He’s added a new title: Documentarian. A while back Shearer…
Pop Rocks: Remake My Day III (John Hughes Edition)
We’ve done this on Pop Rocks a few times already, not that it’s made any difference. All those upcoming crimes against cinema — from The Birds to Fright Night to Escape From New York — are all due to be released in the next few years (Fright Night this summer)…
Pop Rocks: Remake My Day III – Ready For A New Breakfast Club?
We’ve done this on Pop Rocks a few times already, not that it’s made any difference. All those upcoming crimes against cinema — from The Birds to Fright Night to Escape From New York — are all due to be released in the next few years (Fright Night this summer)…
Gothic Council Hands Out Some Goth Blocks
Stevie Ryan has finally shown Gothtopia the way. We had no idea we could use our darksome image to impose our will on the populace at large. Our proof? Her music video for “Goth Blocked.” It’s nice to know that the goth community has this kind of power, but like…
Celebrity Tax Cheats: Five Pieces of Crap Produced to Pay the IRS
Tax time is looming, and even though you get a weekend reprieve this year — the deadline is April 18, not the 15th, because of an obscure Washington, D.C. holiday — you’d no doubt like to skip the whole thing altogether. Some famous people have taken that same route. Unfortunately…
Food Fight: Pork (A Special Menu of Menus Edition)
You’d think doing a Food Fight with so many places under one roof would be easy. It’s not. But such is life at the annual and extremely popular Houston Press Menu of Menus event, held Tuesday night at the Spring Street Studios. I got there early, beat the heavy crowds,…
100 Creatives: Howard Sherman
(Part of our ongoing series profiling 100 Houston-area artists. No rankings; no order. Check back every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday for another edition.) What he does: Houston artist Howard Sherman’s eye-catching paintings dominate a room with their imposing size and explosions of dynamic color. Influenced by cartoons, they use thick…
App of the Week: Cat Paint
App: Cat Paint Platforms: iPhone Web site: CatPaint.info Cost: Free Photo sharing has rapidly become one of the hottest trends in cellular phone technology. Most smart phones have fairly sophisticated cameras in them and, with an added software app like Instagram, it’s possible to get decent photos from your phone and share them with…
Kemah Crawfish Festival
The three-day Kemah Crawfish Festival brings together crawfish races, eating contests, and magic, with zydeco, rock and country music. The crawfish races, we’re told by organizers, will be held according to International Racing Rules (which we’re guessing are pretty lax). The magic comes in with Marie Laveau’s Voodoo Garden, presented…
15 on the 15th
The Houston Metropolitan Dance Company celebrates its 15th anniversary with 15 on the 15th. Among the premieres on the program are Jason Parsons’s light before sound and Spencer Gavin Hering’s Hyperbola. john r. stronks will perform a solo work, crossing along the dark side of night…kicking without screaming, and Houston…
The Grateful Dead Movie
It was 1974, and the Grateful Dead was in for a five-night stand at San Francisco’s Winterland Ballroom before the band took a year off from tour-ing. Singer and guitarist Jerry Garcia was directing a documentary about his band and their growing Deadhead following. It became The Grateful Dead Movie,…
New York – Songs for April
Have Sunday brunch on the stage of the Hobby Center during New York — Songs for April, a nod to springtime in the Big Apple. Performing for the intimate concert are pianists Bobby Lyle and Clyde Adams, vocalists Aisha Adams and Horace Grigsby, and trombonist Delfeayo Marsalis. 11 a.m. 800…
Klytemnestra
A woman who killed her tyrannical king-husband deserves more than one show, don’t you think? When Divergence Vocal Theater’s Misha Penton was asked to play the Greek heroine Clytemnestra in local playwright John Harvey’s adaptation of Aeschylus’s Agamemnon, she had an idea to create a sister production to the play…
East Montrose Home Tour and Art Walk
See houses with a history during the East Montrose Home Tour and Art Walk. Stops on the tour include homes from the early 20th century, such as a 1906 Victorian cottage built by the founder of the Sterling Bank for his mother, and contemporary creations, such as the home of…
Philip Kerr: Field Gray
In the thriller Field Gray, Bernie Gunther, the protagonist of a series of books by British author Philip Kerr, is in a precarious situation. He left the spy game in Cuba, bought a boat and made it to Florida. But authorities there sent him right back to Cuba, where he…
David Sedaris
Author, playwright and spoken-word artist David Sedaris isn’t interested in moralizing. His not-for-children book Squirrel Seeks Chip-munk: A Modest Bestiary (with illustrations by Ian Falconer) features animals acting out some of the less-than-admirable characteristics that make us, for better or for worse, human. Sedaris has called Aesop’s fables unrealistically black…
Songs for April
Have Sunday brunch on the stage of the Hobby Center during New York — Songs for April, a nod to springtime in the Big Apple. Performing for the intimate concert are pianists Bobby Lyle and Clyde Adams, vocalists Aisha Adams and Horace Grigsby, and trombonist Delfeayo Marsalis. 11 a.m. 800…
Game Time
Game Time Online readers respond to “KGOW’S KAPOW KAPOW,” by Jeff Balke, March 31: Accurate story: John Granato pays me to be his friend. Having disclosed that, this article paints an accurate picture of what he and the rest of the guys are like away from the station. They are…
Soul Patrol
It’s reggae night at the Mink. Let’s set the scene: A few weeks back, the Midtown Houston watering hole was about to be inundated by old-school reggae tunes that would permeate the bar and spill out onto the sidewalk. Stewart A. Anderson, the man who would be playing these tunes,…
Manifest Destiny and Museums
Dear Mexican, I grant you a magic wand; now, tell me how do we right the wrongs of Sam Houston and Manifest Destiny? Is it to correct his legacy and call out the crimes and recognize the victims? Or should the land be given back? What is it, my fellow…
Capsule Art Reviews: “Donald Baechler: Sculptures and Paintings” “Larassa Kabel: and all of this so far from Heaven” “Mark Bradford: A 20 Year Survey” “Regine Schumann: Chameleon” “Kate Breakey 2011: Painted Light”
“Donald Baechler: Sculptures and Paintings” Like a kindergartner, Donald Baechler always seems to be painting with a brush that’s way too big. But the artist somehow manages to channel the “childlike” without getting hokey, and he’s offering up his appealingly lumpy work at McClain Gallery. His series of flower paintings,…
Capsule Stage Reviews: Jitney, This, Breaking the Code
Jitney The big dramatic confrontation in August Wilson’s thrilling Jitney happens at the end of Act I, between father and son. Becker (an incandescent Wayne DeHart) and his son Booster (Timothy Eric in full boil) meet for the first time in 20 years inside the car-service company owned by Becker…
Pete Yorn
Just last month, power-popper Pete Yorn gave his debut LP, musicforthemorningafter, a proper deluxe re-release, including an extra live set of the material from around its initial 2001 bow. The album still stands out as not only one of the most solid freshmen sets by any artist, but also as…
Fake Problems
Fake Problems sounds like a baby Bruce Springsteen backed by The Against Me! Street Band, and we mean that in the best possible way. From the first time we saw them on a 2009 weeknight at Walter’s on Washington — on a quiet Monday no less — we sat stunned…
Rattletree Marimba
Rattletree Marimba’s performances are almost as visually entrancing as they are musically. The Austin-based group plays the oversize xylophone cousins that give them their name, and has recently discovered a way to rig their soprano marimba with MIDI triggers, creating what they believe to be the world’s first synth-marimba. Augmented…
Freelance Whales
Living in the margin between the Postal Service and Sufjan Stevens is an awfully adorable business, but Freelance Whales manages to do it without being too vomit-inducing. Scant praise, and that’s about right for the Queens quintet. There’s some wonderful songcraft here, which keeps the Whales out of Owl City…
Fitz & the Tantrums
The Los Angeles sextet Fitz & the Tantrums traffics in a vintage neo-soul sound that originated when front man Michael Fitzpatrick started tinkering around with an antique church organ. FATT, in its current incarnation, eschews heavy rock guitars in favor of smooth, fluid keys, saxophone, and flute. In the past…
Bruce Hornsby & the Noisemakers
Think “The Way It Is” is all there is to Bruce Hornsby? Boy, have you got some catching up to do. Besides that 1987 chart-topper — which made the Virginia native one of the handful of artists to hit No. 1 with their very first single, and has some pretty…
The Mother Lode
A balding man in a snap-front Western shirt glares out at the viewer as if daring somebody to say something. Standing in a little girl’s room, he’s got a rolled-up newspaper clenched in his fist and behind him, surrounded by inanely grinning stuffed animals, is the limp form of a…
Efficiencies
For 27 years, Robert Gonzales has been the auto-collision program teacher at the Barbara Jordan High School for Careers. It is the only place he’s ever taught, the only courses he’s ever led. When he started at Barbara Jordan, the school had just been recognized by Omni Magazine as one…
Stout and High
No one knew it when the Wagoneers burst onto the Texas music scene in 1987, but the band, which lasted only two albums and four years, is now considered to be one of the earliest examples of alternative country. They re-formed recently for the Austin Music Awards during SXSW, and…
Life Without Parole
Even drunk, John Kinsel knew what to expect the night he was arrested for driving a tow truck into a ditch in West Monroe, Louisiana. He’d go to jail, make bond and pay a fine. By his early twenties, the blond-haired, blue-eyed Texan already had a knack for getting into…
Bikes on Easements
Ridin’ Dirty Bikes on Easements North-south cycling trails? Maybe By John Nova Lomax About a year and a half ago, as a sidebar to an article we wrote on the perils of urban cycling here in Houston, we cast our battle-tested, road-weary eyes longingly toward the possibility of CenterPoint Energy…
Meet at the Junction
It is 10:01 p.m. on April 4, 2011. The Butler University Bulldogs are playing the University of Connecticut Huskies in the NCAA National Championship game on 43 separate TVs inside of Junction Bar & Grill (160 W. Gray). Incidentally, they are also playing in real life at Reliant Stadium (1…
It Takes Tuwo
See more suya skewers and soup — and see how the tuwo is made — in our behind-the-scenes slideshow. Our journey to find Ghanian food had led my friend Steve and me into a section of Missouri City that I had never traversed in my entire 30 years in Houston…
