Four Places
In Joel Drake Johnson’s play Four Places, siblings Warren and Ellen take their mom Peggy to her favorite restaurant without alcoholic Dad. Peggy has a secret, and they want to know what it is. How much noise can Mom make in public? “Some things, Warren, are strictly our business,” Peggy…
Discovery Green
Nestled in downtown Houston, Discovery Green is full of recreation and entertainment. Visitors can view international and local music artists year round or grab a bite to eat at the Lake House Restaurant. Kinder Lake is transformed into an ice-skating rink in the winter seasons. Discovery Green’s programming includes the…
Stars over Texas
Everything is bigger in Texas, including, it seems, the sky. The full-dome, live planetarium presentation Stars over Texas begins with a look at the local sky before moving on to the western part of the state, exploring the differences between Texas night skies and those over other parts of the…
Ariadne auf Naxos
With its staging of Ariadne auf Naxos, the Houston Grand Opera engages in a meta-level exploration of theatrical convention, which was a hot topic when Richard Strauss composed the work in 1916. The opera-within-an-opera tells the story of a very rich man who has arranged for two per-formances at a…
“Picturing the Senses in Europe”
Some 15 paintings and ten prints make up the exhibition “Picturing the Senses in Europe,” currently on display at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. The works, which are mostly from the 16th to the 18th centuries, explore images, both allegorical and realistic, that evoke the five senses. Highlights of…
Come Back, Little Sheba
In 1950, when William Inge rocked New York audiences with his first major success, Come Back, Little Sheba, critics thought he’d join the ranks of America’s great playwrights. Inge never got as famous as Tennessee Williams or Arthur Miller, but that doesn’t mean Come Back, Little Sheba, a grand, tender…
Comment of the Day
Mai Pham went out for oxtail pho with a side of raw veal at Pho Ga So 1 and loved it. Commenter Jay Francis is a fan of the soup too: I agree with you. I came across a recipe that recommended oxtail for the base because of its perfect…
Gerald Guidry, HGO Actor Caught Sexing Teen in Rehearsal Room: Previous Gig Was in Children’s Theater
We told you last week about Gerald Guidry, an extra at the Houston Grand Opera who has been accused of having sex with a 16-year-old girl at least three times in the rehearsal room and basement of the HGO facility. His previous gig? A role in children’s theater. He was…
Teacher Taunts Muslim Student Over bin Laden Death
A local high school algebra teacher has been suspended for making incredibly stupid comments to one of his students, taunting her that he bet she was grieving over Osama bin Laden’s death. What? A humor-impaired math teacher? Something new every day. As KTRK seems to have been the first to…
Health Department Roundup
Today is apparently Star Wars Day, thanks to some questionable wordplay that wasn’t all that good at first and really started to grate after we heard “May the Fourth be with you” an additional ten times. Despite all the excitement, health inspections continued as normal all week leading up to…
Star Wars Day Fun: The Best & Weirdest Star Wars Tattoos
Continuing with the Stars Wars Day theme, we scoured the Internet looking for the best and most innovative Star Wars tattoos, honoring the trilogy and its characters. We wonder if George Lucas could actually sue you and take your skin back as copyright infringement. Maybe we shouldn’t give him any…
The Truth Is, Bob Marley Never Said That, Either
In the last couple of days, we saw exactly how pretty words can be put in the mouths of even the most famous dead people. Unless you’ve been hiding out in the Tora Bora cave complex the past few days, you’ve heard all about how Martin Luther King never said,…
Bun B Breaks It Down At Kashmere’s Grammy Career Day
Rocks Off has always been kind of bitter about not being able to take Bun B’s class at Rice University, so when we heard that he’d be speaking at Kashmere High School on Tuesday, we jumped on the opportunity to sit in. The rapper/educator and Ronda Prince, COO of Rap-A-Lot…
Give Me a Bone: Oxtail Pho at Pho Ga So 1
There’s something about chewing on a bone that’s infinitely satisfying. That’s what I was thinking when, after watching my friend get her hands dirty while happily devouring her oxtail, I got another side order. The waiter looked confused. “You mean you want another bowl of pho with oxtail?” He asked…
MFAH Scoops Up Leticia London’s Photo Of Ballet Dancer Li Cunxin in China
Billed as “the only photograph of Li Cunxin as a ballet dancer taken in China,” the shot by Houston photographer Leticia London has been accepted into the permanent collection of the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. The photograph, donated by Thomas Damsgaard, titled “Rooftop Shanghai” was taken when London accompanied…
Star Wars Day Fun: Top Ten “As Darth Vader” Videos
Today is May 4th, the unofficial Star Wars Day in pop-culture. You get it, may the fourth day be with you? Apologies to those afflicted with lisps of course, who helped makes today infinitely possible. And no, we didn’t just load those last two sentences with lisp-carrier land mines on…
William McRaven, UT Journalism Grad, SEAL Boss: Five Stories He Might Have Written As a Cub Reporter
As we noted yesterday, Admiral William McRaven, the head of Special Ops who commanded the raid that got Osama bin Laden, is a University of Texas grad with a degree in journalism. Like many cub reporters, he decided his journalism skills would be put to better use killing people in…
The Way to Mom’s Heart is Through Her Stomach: Mother’s Day Brunch
We’ve already put our mothers through enough, so don’t add “forgetting Mother’s Day” to the list, okay? I say skip the trinkets and go right for the good stuff: brunch, complete with cocktails. Breaking bread with Mom and spending quality time with her will make her a lot happier than…
Never Mind Arcade Fire: Bands Who Fit Other Houston ‘Burbs
Tonight’s the night. Win and Will Butler of conquering indie heroes Arcade Fire finally return to the town that indirectly won them a Grammy, The Woodlands. On last year’s The Suburbs, the Butlers and their Canadian compatriots reflected on the brothers’ restless Montgomery County days in songs such as “The…
Unidentified Female, 26, Bayou Body Count No. 58
A 26-year-old Kingwood woman was shot several times and killed by the man she was living with, who then turned the gun on himself and committed suicide, Houston police say. Identities are being withheld, but the incident happened in the 5400 block of Forest Spring Drive about 10:35 p.m. last…
Low-Cost Lunch at Skewers
Skewers — the subject of this week’s cafe review — is quickly becoming one of my new favorite lunch spots. The newly renovated Lebanese restaurant offers everything I look for in a lunch hour hideaway: quick service, convenient location, good food and the ability to get in and out for…
The Makeover Episode: Tim Gunn on The Biggest Loser
“One of the things I love so profoundly about being part of the makeover show is being witness to the epiphany these contestants have about who they are.” -Tim Gunn The most-watched episode each season on NBC’s The Biggest Loser is the makeover show, and in recent years the addition…
Gun Control: Texas Is a Namby-Pamby Liberal State, New Study Shows
If there’s one piece of pride Texans can hang their hat on, it’s that our legislators can be counted on to bring the crazy when it comes to (lack of) gun control. So it is with a heavy heart we bring you the state-by-state rankings of the Brady Campaign to…
Lost ’90s Songs Houston’s The Zone Should Play
A few weekends back, Craig’s Hlist spent his whole weekend driving around town running errands listening to 106.9 The Zone, Houston’s newest “alternative gold” radio station. In those 48 hours, our entire adolescence flew into our ears, reminding us of most every good and bad moment, at least those related…
Chef Chat, Part 1: Jerry Jan of RA Sushi in City Centre
This week, we catch up with Chef Jerry Jan of RA Sushi in the beautiful CityCentre on all things sushi. EOW: How long have you been with RA Sushi? JJ: Almost six years now. EOW: What are some characteristics of a good sushi chef? JJ: You definitely have to be…
“Ancestors of the Lake”: The Rarely-Seen Art of New Guinea Opens at the Menil
Your life is not that hard. Promise. The daily happenings at Lake Sentani and Humboldt Bay, located on the western portion of New Guinea in the 1800s and early 1900s? Now that was a difficult existence. In the early 1920s, a couple of gonzo European explorers, Paul Wirz and Jacques…
NY Senator Chuck Schumer Feels the Awesome Power of Michael Berry
Take that, New York Senator Chuck Schumer!!! You insult Houston at your peril while Michael Berry’s here to defend it!!! The tiresome KTRH talk-show host has found a new dead horse to beat: the decision to spurn Houston when it comes to retired space shuttles. Pretty much everyone else got…
Last Night: Steve Earle At Cactus Music
Steve Earle Cactus Music May 3, 2011 “We used to make records for girls but now we make them for nerds,” says Steve Earle as he situates his instrument before jumping into Hank Williams Sr.’s “I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive,” the title of his new album and…
Avoid the Clear Beer Bottles This Cinco de Mayo
“I don’t drink much Mexican beer,” laughed Justin Vann over the phone on Tuesday afternoon. I’d called on the beer and wine manager at Central Market in hopes of getting some recommendations for off-the-beaten path Mexican beers for Cinco de Mayo. What I got instead was a lesson on colored…
Anatomy Of A Hoax: No Rebecca Black At The Galleria
Fool me once, shame on me… A while back, Rocks Off heard that the tween-meme queen of YouTube, Rebecca Black of “Friday” fame, was doing a mall tour that included a stop at the Galleria today. So we kind of shrugged and said “huh.” Not our thing, but you know,…
Houston’s Comedy Past “Stands Up” in Documentary
New York, Chicago and Los Angeles remain the gateway cities to success in the chuckle business, but from about 1978 to 1990, Houston hosted a surprisingly healthy scene. At one point, the city limits hosted nine thriving comedy clubs that catapulted performers such as Sam Kinison, Bill Hicks, Brett Butler…
Jess DeCuir: Musical Mash-Up Artist From a Different Angle
Houston Press readers should best know Jess DeCuir from Rocks Off’s slavish devotion to her and husband Jeff’s synthpop band Hyperbubble. We’ve followed their career as musicians for many years, and we can confidently call their last album, Candy Apple Daydreams, a critical success because we were the critics who…
Eirin Ann Hicks: Texas State Student Killed by One-Story Jump
If you’re a parent who wonders why you worry about your kid, fresh evidence today that you need to: A Texas State student has died by jumping out of a first-floor window. Eirin Ann Hicks, 24 and from Temple, was taken off life support yesterday after head injuries suffered in…
Tequila Talk with Stewart Skloss of Pura Vida Tequila – Part 1
I didn’t expect to actually meet with Stewart Skloss when I contacted the offices of Pura Vida Tequila. I especially did not expect to meet with him the week of Cinco de Mayo and the launch of their radio station, the first ever “fueled” by a tequila company.The history of…
Bayport Cruise Terminal: Still Empty and Unused, Except for Wayne Dolcefino
We noted last month the interesting sidelight to the big Disney announcement that they’d be sailing a cruise ship out of Galveston — that sidelight being that Disney was flipping the bird to the Port of Houston’s boondoggle of a cruise terminal. KTRK’s ever-intrepid Wayne Dolcefino has now taken a…
Mother’s Day Gift Guide: Do’s and Don’ts
Mother’s Day – the day we all honor the women who carried us for nine months and then shoved us out into the world. This year, try not to be lame. Unless you’re five years old, a handmade card or clay ashtray isn’t going to get it. Gift cards, flowers,…
Last Night: Man Man At Fitzgerald’s
Man Man Fitzgerald’s May 3, 2011 Two things seemed instantaneously odd as Philadelphia’s Man Man took the Fitzgerald’s stage Tuesday night. First, the usually packed venue wasn’t sold out; in fact, the upstairs balcony wasn’t even open. Considering Man Man’s steady buzz among the ’00s indie scene, it was curiously…
Aeros Implode, Fall Behind 2-1 in Playoff Round Two
John RoyalJared Spurgeon briefly gives the Aeros something to celebrate.The Houston Aeros had plenty of chances to make things right last night. Like taking the early 1-0 lead off of a power play goal. Or, down 4-2 in the third, having the refs confer and change a no-goal call to…
Chane: Rapper Confronts Dad’s Death In Wrenching Video
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…
Stitched: The Film and Panel Discussion at MFAH
Pieces of fabric stitched together rarely evoke any sort of emotional response beyond “I remember grandma” or “Hey, that looks warm.” But quilter Hollis Chatelain, a subject of the documentary Stitched, uses textiles and threads to convey messages of social justice and responsibility in the hopes of eliciting emotion from…
Seis Ways to Celebrate Cinco de Mayo
While many view Cinco de Mayo as a Mexican holiday, the United States was very much involved in the events that took place on May 5, 1862 in Puebla, Mexico. American Union soldiers fought side by side with the Mexican army to ultimately defeat the invading French (it wasn’t until…
Last Night: Donald Glover & Childish Gambino At Warehouse Live
Donald Glover/Childish Gambino Warehouse Live May 3, 2011 WTF is “nerdcore”? That’s what we went out to discover last night at Warehouse Live at the combination comedy and rap show performed by the same dude, Donald Glover, whose rap style as Childish Gambino has been lumped into this weird subgenre…
Can’t Stand Cooking the Mudbugs Yourself? Let The Crawfish Company Do the Dirty Work For You
I used to host crawfish boils and cook the critters myself — that is, until my garage started to smell like Galveston at its worst and then stayed that way for the next three months. I gave up and got my seasonal crawfish fix elsewhere, but that isn’t cheap…
Lawndale Art Center Issues An Open Call for The Big Show
If you’re a visual artist with $30 ($25 if you’re a member), live within 100 miles of Houston and want a shot at one of three class prizes – or even better: discovery of your greatness – then that time of year has arrived again. The Lawndale Art Center’s biggest…
Comment of the Day: My Sweet Lord, George Harrison Liked What?
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…
Demetrie Dixon: HPD Cop Gets Six Years for Raping Hookers
Demetrie Dixon, the Houston police officer accused of forcing hookers to give him blow jobs on duty, got a six-year sentence for rape yesterday. Dixon will have to serve at least half of his sentence before being eligible for parole. Dixon had his defenders after he was charged last June…
Morbid Curiosity: April 2011, Huey P. Meaux & Phoebe Snow
We all know that Bin Laden’s dead – but that happened in May, man. Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. That’s why we’re back with another installment of Morbid Curiosity, providing a little time to reflect on those notable souls who passed last month. As we profiled last…
Manichean Still Batting 1.000 With New LP Sakura
Rocks Off has been an apostle of The Manichean ever since we grabbed singer Cory Sinclair by the shoulders and demanded he explain to us what the hell a Manichean was. Since then, we have dutifully reviewed every single release he and partner Justice Tirapelli-Jamail have thrown at us, and…
Going from 290 to I-10 to Be Much, Much Easier (Eventually)
Anyone coming south on 290 trying to get on I-10 knows what a hassle it can be: You come in right at the point where the North Loop becomes the West Loop, then you have to handle all the lane-switching that goes on between people headed Galleria-way and those, like…
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: A reader wrote in to let us know that we’d…
Mark Bly on a Healing Monster With a Grotesque Killer Arm
Sight unseen and before his play Bengal Tiger hit the West Coast and got really big and long before it was a Pulitzer finalist or snagged Robin Williams to play the lead role on Broadway, Alley Theatre dramaturg Mark Bly and Artistic Director Gregory Boyd approached playwright Rajiv Joseph saying…
Alan Shepard, First American in Space 50 Years Ago: Five Odd Things About the Flight
Tomorrow marks the 50th anniversary of Alan Shepard’s flight in Freedom 7, the first time an American had ever been in space. With all the wonders NASA has brought since then, it can be jarring to realize just how primitive that first flight was. It was a modern miracle at…
New Huge Fine for Parking in Handicapped Spaces: Some Lucky Houstonian Will Become the Face of Selfishness
We can all agree — can’t we? — that people who illegally park in handicapped spaces tend to be lazy, self-absorbed, selfish a-holes. Being so just got a lot more expensive, and tomorrow some lucky person will become the face of the campaign against illegal handicapped-space parking. The fine for…
Comment of the Day
Today Katharine Shilcutt reported that Trader Joes is coming to Houston. Some commenters were “meh,” but others were excited, like Et: Mark my words – Trader Joes will eventually dominate shopping scene. Pound for pound, there is no better store. High quality, unique items and EXTREMELY reasonably priced products will…
Lingerie-Clad Man High On “Bath Salts” Kills Pygmy Goat (w/ Fantastic Mugshot)
I understand my responsibility on Hair Balls is to provide sports-related content. But frankly, sometimes a story comes across my desk that is so transcendent in its dysfunction and so detrimental to my faith in mankind that it must be covered in this space, as a public service announcement, if…
Is Glee Too Gay? Fox 26 (Actually) Debates It
The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation is demanding an apology from MyFox Houston for a debate segment called “Is TV Too Gay?” that was shown after TV’s Gayest Show Ever, Glee. The debate pit anti-gay buffoon and head of the American Family Association, Bryan Fischer, against Houston gay activist…
Dallas Blocker, Houston’s R&B King Of The Hook Shots
That’s Dallas Blocker. He is an R&B singer. He’s more talented than you. He’s more handsome than you. He’s cooler than you. And he works harder than you. He became regionally famous last year when he told women that he wanted to touch their bodies, touch their bodies all night…
Last Night: The Low Anthem At Fitzgerald’s
The Low Anthem Fitzgerald’s May 2, 2011 In another lifetime, and another location, Fitzgerald’s could have been a barn. Every time we see a show upstairs, Aftermath halfway expects an owl to swoop out of the rafters and sink its talons into an errant field mouse. Note to exterminators/Health Dept.:…
Today’s DVD: Smiles of a Summer Night by Ingmar Bergman
Today’s audiences know Swedish writer/director Ingmar Bergman as an internationally recognized cinema master, but in the early 1950s he was just another down-on-his-luck European filmmaker. His marriage was breaking up, he was ill (or so he thought) and he was on the outs with his production company after two box-office…
Rachelle Renee Price LOVES Getting Her Jail Mugshot Taken
You thought Tom DeLay was smiling in his police mugshot? He was an abject depressive compared to Rachelle Renee Price. Price was picked up in Pearland Sunday for trying to pass some forged checks at a grocery store, KPRC reports, and she was taken to the Brazoria County Jail for…
A Super-Size Sake Selection at Spec’s
Okay, so maybe I spend a lot of time at Spec’s on Smith. But can you blame me? The place is a palace of fine foods with interesting finds waiting on every shelf. Until recently, however, the sake selection here was somewhat limited. So it was with great relish that…
Michael Berry’s Dead Osama Pep Rally
Photos by John Nova LomaxWheels fit for a celebration.Early yesterday, Michael Berry, the former Boy Wonder of Houston politics turned radio rabble-rouser, sent out a press release plugging a “Houston Celebration: Osama Bin Laden Dead.” The event would be later that day at Hefley’s, a Texalicious bar/BBQ joint in what…
Garden Fresh: Strawberry Fields for a While
Gardening is war in Houston, for the most part voluntary, so when I get my ass kicked by bugs, squirrels, worms, brutally hot sun, tree rats, subtropical diseases and, this year, drought, I can’t really complain. I assumed strawberries would be the most attractive crop to the enemy, and thus…
The Intertubes: Odd Jobs
Remember a couple of years ago when America’s banks ruined our economy and everyone started getting laid off and we were all catapulted into a giant recession from which none emerged unscathed except for America’s banks? Sure you do, it was in all the papers. Well, it was only a…
Trader Joe’s is Trading on Texas: Dallas to Get First Store
The Dallas Morning News roused a lot of food-lovers across the state with some happy news this morning: Trader Joe’s, the specialty grocery chain based in California, is coming to Texas. Hot on the heels of another California import, In-N-Out Burger, Trader Joe’s first Texas store will be in Dallas,…
Save Ferris: Pop-Culture Origins Of 16 Famous Band Names
This one’s for the pop-culture junkies. For those who, like us, are tickled by all forms of pop media, whether it be literature, film or music… this list encompasses them all. A surprisingly high quantity of bands have named themselves after books, songs, and films; some are obvious, some took…
Mandatory Abortion Sonograms Bill Passes: Ladies, Get Ready For Your Close-Ups
Any woman seeking an abortion in Texas will be forced to undergo a sonogram and be asked if they want to view it or listen to the fetal heartbeat, thanks to a bill that passed today and that Governor Rick Perry says he can’t wait to sign. Pushed by Houston’s…
Tuesday May 3, 2011 Deals of the Day
Get your deli on with today’s VOICE Deal of the Day from Houston Press! This half-off coupon is good at Jersey Mike’s on Kirby Drive and Galleria/Uptown locations. Two words sold me: imported cappocola. And a hint for my fellow bargain-hunters: Keep your eyes peeled next Monday, when Haute Wheels…
Operators Are Standing By!: The Top 10 Best Ronco Products
Today is inventor and TV pitchman Ron Popeil’s 76th birthday, and to honor his being able to stay fresh and tender for these past seven decades, we bring you ten of the best products to come from his Ronco house of kitchen and home appliance gadgets. He must have a…
Goose Creek ISD Can Get All Gay: ACLU Succeeds in Ending Web-Filtering of GLBT Content
Last month we told you how Baytown’s Goose Creek school district was one of four nationwide targeted by the American Civil Liberties Union in a complaint over blocking gay-related material from school computers. One Goose Creek student trying to research the Chick-fil-A company was barred because of stories on gay…
William McRaven, Supervisor of SEAL Team That Got Bin Laden: A UT Journalism Grad
Don’t mess with journalism majors!! A lesson Osama bin Laden learned to his regret recently; the last thoughts through his diseased mind were no doubt about how journalism — especially University of Texas journalism — had triumphed again. That’s because the admiral in charge of Special Operations for the U.S.,…
Out Today: Beasties Bite Back, Stevie Nicks Gets Witchier
What’s the best way to celebrate the elimination of Osama Bin Laden? Listening to the Foo Fighters’ latest album Wasting Light for the fourth week straight, of course. Send help, or at least the announcement of a late-summer or early fall tour date. Come on, man, just one hit. This…
Five-Year-Old Sells $2 Lemonade for Profit on Houston Lemonade Day
“Would you like a free tissue flower? I made them and you can have one for free,” said five-year-old entrepreneur Emmy Askew with an impish grin. She could afford to give a free gift. After all, she’d just made a handsome profit selling a cup of lemonade for $2. A…
Google Wedding: Houston Couple Nabs $25K Prize
Screw William and Kate — the only wedding Hair Balls can get excited about is the upcoming one of Google Wedding sweepstakes winners (and Houstonians) Philong Nguyen and Nhu-Y Nguyen. The couple plans to marry in September. In its continued mission of worldwide dominance, Google launched a wedding planning service…
Charles LeDray at MFAH in Pictures
It has posted up at Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art and New York City’s Whitney Museum of American Art. Now, the spot-on-good exhibit “Charles LeDray: workworkworkworkwork” is having its swan song here in town. The traveling exhibit for LeDray, the New York-based artist, acts a bit like a retrospective because…
Cultivating Budding Chefs at Highland Village Farmers’ Market
Last weekend I skipped my usual Saturday stop at the Eastside Urban Harvest Farmers’ Market, and instead opted to visit the Sunday Urban Harvest Farmers’ Market at Highland Village (2720 Suffolk at Westheimer) so I could check out their new cooking and nutrition class for kids. “Stick a Fork in…
Last Night: Pete Anderson At Dan Electro’s Guitar Bar
Pete Anderson Dan Electro’s Guitar Bar May 2, 2011 Pete Anderson showed up a few minutes late Monday night. He’d gone to the address where he sent the posters for his show and discovered that was Dan Electro’s owner Bob Edwards’ home, not the club. But once the GPS was…
Urban Meyer to Replace Mack Brown at UT? Let the Rumors Begin!
There’s nothing better than rumors about Longhorn football, even though they usually concern how yet another player has escaped publicity for ignoring one law or another. But here’s a good one, from 1560 The Game’s Lance Zierlein: Urban Meyer, the former Florida coach who “retired,” might just be the coach-in-waiting…
Wonder Dog Walks Away From Rollover Crash
Christina SolisSomewhere, beneath that massive mop of Rasta hair, is Celosa. And it may have been the excessive padding provided by the puli’s coiffure that allowed her to walk away from a dramatic roll-over accident that flew her from a tumbling car. Celosa’s owner, Christina Solis, was driving on 290…
Mortal Kombat: Legacy: Jumping the Sharkgirl?
Kevin Tancharoen’s reboot of Mortal Kombat is based on a revolutionary and very different vision of what the possibilities inherent in the series were. His Mortal Kombat: Rebirth may have bothered some fans with its loose interpretation of longtime favorites like Baraka and Reptile, but all were intrigued by it.Until…
Weekend Brunch Buffet at Georgia’s Farm to Market
Georgia’s has been through many incarnations in the last ten years. I remember when it was a K-Mart. I remember when it was Sandy’s, the precursor to Georgia’s. I remember when it was a lot larger inside and had a chiropractor on site. But throughout the changes, one thing has…
Who Will Write The First “Osama Is Dead” Hit Song?
Now that more details are starting to emerge about Sunday’s Navy SEAL helicopter raid that resulted in the death of Osama Bin Laden and several members of the al-Qaeda jefe’s entourage – especially how the months-long planning and 40-minute firefight was planned in total secrecy, and executed without any of…
Houston Museum of Natural Science: Here Be Dinosaurs (Soon)
This big, empty space? Soon to be filled with….dinosaurs! And, hopefully, delighted kids taking the first steps towards loving science and history. This is a sneak peek of the inside of the Houston Museum of Natural Science’s soon-to-be-opened Paleontology Hall, which will house, among other things, 26 huge dinosaur models…
Upcoming: Bright Light Social Hour, Otep, Sia, UFO, Etc.
“American Idols Live” With Casey Abrams, Haley Rheinhart, Jacob Lusk: Thu., July 21. Reliant Arena. The Black Dahlia Murder, Darkest Hour, Six Feet Under: Fri., Aug. 19. House of Blues. The Bright Light Social Hour: Fri., June 10. Warehouse Live. Dave Koz: Sat., June 18. House of Blues. David Crowder…
Frankie Sanders: Union Boss Put in Travel Vouchers for Hotels Closed by Katrina
If you’re going to rip your union off for $10,000 by putting in fake travel vouchers, don’t put in one showing you stayed at a New Orleans hotel while it was closed because of huge Hurricane Katrina damage. It’s just common sense. Con Artist 101. Put in a voucher for…
Wine of the Week: A White from Slovenia? Yes, Slovenia!
Anyone who’s ever had a chance to taste with Slovenian rockstar winemaker Aleš Kristančič (pronounced ah-LESH krees-TAHN-cheech) knows that he is one larger-than-life dude. That’s him in the photo above in the cellar of his family’s estate, Movia, the only winery allowed to operate privately under Tito (because the Yugoslav…
“Musicians Who Make Art” at ArtCar Museum
The Flatlanders’ Butch Hancock and Joe Ely as well as Sara Hickman can do more than burn down a concert stage. These creative types, as well as more than 35 folks that are more known for their musicianship, can also paint the crap out of a canvas and shoot the…
Celebrating Big H.A.W.K.’s Legacy With Bun B & More
Some rappers happen to be thoughtful, intelligent people. Every Monday that isn’t a national holiday (or thereabouts), Rocks Off will have some of them here discussing issues relevant to their culture. This Week’s Panel: Bun B, Paul Wall, Lil O, Starchy Arch, Scooby, KAB, Mac, Not Invited: We invited everyone…
Extraordinary Images: “The Whole World Was Watching: Civil Rights-Era Photographs”
This selection of photography from a collection given to the Menil by Edmund Carpenter and Adelaide de Menil documents the Civil Rights struggles of the late ’50s and early ’60s, when the exhibit’s title phrase, “The Whole World Was Watching,” was adopted by activists and political groups as a rallying…
Agar Clarification: A Clear Winner
Back in December, I wrote about Gelatin Clarified Stock. It’s a wonderful technique, and one I still use. It is, however, slow. Due to the melting point of gelatin and the structure of the gel it sets, it requires both freezing and cold-thawing to work properly. Both of these steps…
Comment of the Day: George W. Bush, Texan?
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…
100 Creatives: John Harvey
What he does: Playwright-poet John Harvey writes tales with haunted characters that are sure to make your skin squirm. “I’m drawn to the darkness, and part of that draw is that the dark stuff is forbidden, it’s taboo, it’s not supposed to happen,” he says. As co-founder of the theater…
Smashing Pumpkins Debut Song On Rocks Off Sister Blog
California, look what you’ve done. This morning, the Billy Corgan Experience Smashing Pumpkins, who managed to visit Houston twice in less than three months last year, debuted the track “Owata” on West Coast Sound, the music blog of Houston Press sister paper L.A. Weekly. The chiming “Owata,” heavy on either…
Celebrate Mother’s Day With the Worst TV Moms
We grew up with them, respected them and learned valuable lessons from them that were generally accompanied by cheesy, soft rock music. They are our second moms; the ones on television. Some television moms you wished were your own. When June Cleaver cleaned up the Beav’s room, we wished she…
Pop Rocks: Cinema Bin Laden
On the Geologic Internet Time Scale, the news of Osama bin Laden’s death took place almost a century ago. We’re already fondly recalling our whereabouts when we heard the fateful news (drinking beer and watching The Killing…NEVAR FORGET) and reliving the trauma of a thousand Facebook comment wars. But none…
Pop Rocks: Lights, Camera, Osama
On the Geologic Internet Time Scale, the news of Osama bin Laden’s death took place almost a century ago. We’re already fondly recalling our whereabouts when we heard the fateful news (drinking beer and watching The Killing…NEVAR FORGET) and reliving the trauma of a thousand Facebook comment wars. But none…
Giacomo Meyerbeer: The Holocaust of an Opera Composer
If you know absolutely nothing about opera, you still know Richard Wagner’s name. His “Ring Cycle” of four operas based on Teutonic and Norse mythology was famously parodied by Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd, forever cementing his music into pop culture. His biggest fan was Adolf Hitler, and the Nazi…
The Royal Wedding Gets Even Cheesier at Central Market
I don’t know what I was expecting when I heard that Central Market was hosting Sarah “The Cheese Lady” Kaufmann over the weekend, who was prepared to carve a portrait of William and Catherine — the new Duke and Duchess of Cambridge — out of a giant wheel of Cheddar…
George Harrison, Dedicated Dallas Fan
We’re currently reading the second volume of the voluminous diaries of Monty Python’s Michael Palin, a good potato chip read that, in this case, covers the 1980s. Among the things we learned: former Beatle George Harrison, he of the mystical interests of the East, he who produced independent films that…
Where Are We Drinking?
We finished our five-week long patio series yesterday, and if those posts didn’t make you want to sit outside and enjoy this weather, perhaps this photo will. Does the glass of rose below look familiar to you? Think you know where we’re drinking this week? Leave your best guess in…
Bragging Time for Mayor Annise Parker and Houston
As Hair Balls let you know last week, the New York City-based business and innovation magazine Fast Company picked Houston as its No. 1 City of the Year for 2011. In case you can’t find a copy, the interview with Annise Parker by Jeff Chu, articles editor for Fast Company,…
iFest’s First Weekend Thick With Music, Humidity
Lots more iFest in our slideshows: The bands, the performers, the crowds and even the food. For something that was still going on 24 hours ago, the first weekend of the Houston International Festival sure seems like a long way away now. That’s what happens when one of the most…
Comment of the Day
Christina Uticone made her first pilgrimage to MAM’S House of Ice and left the EOW community salivating. Wrote commenter Caroline: I love this place! Having lived in NO for five years, I can confirm it is definitely authentic, and so so so much better than a snocone! Plus, how can…
Victor Rodriguez: Metro’s New Police Chief Is an HPD Cop
Metro’s new police chief is a Hispanic veteran HPD cop with a law degree. HPD Captain Victor Rodriguez replaces Tom Lambert, who has taken another role in the agency, after a somewhat lengthy search. My goal and desire is to make METRO’s police department the premiere transit law enforcement agency…
Houston Texans 2011 Draft Summary, Including Best Porn Name
The Texans 2011 draft is over, and it had a decided Wade Phillips-ian flavor to it. Not that I’m complaining. With poor to mediocre drafts every year since the 2006 haul that produced five contributors (including three Pro Bowlers) for the current roster, something had to change. If that something…
Searching for a Slice: Lunch Buffet at Star Pizza on Harvard
Star Pizza has been at the top of our pizza rotation since we moved to Houston last year, so my recent lunch visit wasn’t my first experience with their pie. We love Star because they deliver; we seem to live in a pizza non-delivery vortex, so we enjoy that Star…
Bin Laden’s Favorite Performers — Whitney Houston, MacGyver Dude, Etc. — Offer Twitter Silence On His Death
When you’re no longer in the absolute prime of your career, it can be disheartening to lose a hardcore fan. That’s the only reason we can think of that several specific stars haven’t tweeted their thoughts on the death of Osama Bin Laden, which every other celebrity has seen fit…
East vs. West, Modern Cityscapes and Nipples: Saturday Night Gallery-Hopping
On a busy night of gallery openings, such as last Saturday, it helps to have a planned itinerary if you ever hope to meet your friends out on the circuit. Planning to “visit galleries we’ve never visited before” might prove too vague, even along the gallery row on Colquitt, which…
Carlos Melendez-Solis, 46, Bayou Body Count No. 57
A sports-bar security guard was shot to death after an argument Sunday night, Houston police say. Carlos Melendez-Solis, 46, was working security at a bar in the 8100 block of West Tidwell near 290 about 9 p.m. last night when he got in a fight with a patron. The patron…
Whoopie Pies at Valero
A few months ago I was pleasantly surprised to discover that my local Valero sold some respectable cupcakes. Gas stations aren’t the first place I go to for baked goods, but when I’m feeling lazy, it’s nice to be able to fill my tank and satisfy my sweet tooth all…
Meme Of The Decade?: The Death Of Osama Bin Laden & The Internet Reaction
We started seeing crude Photoshop jobs of a dead Osama Bin Laden before President Barack Obama even walked away from the podium after Sunday night’s press conference announcing the death of the terrorist mastermind. By the time we woke up this morning, there was already enough pictures of Obama and…
May Day Immigration Rally Draws Thousands (and Opponents) in Houston
Photos by Christopher Patronella, Jr.Some three thousand people joined together in Houston on Sunday to take part in May Day rallies held all across the nation as the battle over immigration laws has taken center stage. Demonstrators blanketed the streets around Burnett Bayland Park as they flowed together in a…
The Shaggy Dog Roll at Nippon Japanese Restaurant
I grimace when the canine species is at all associated with Asian cuisine, but that didn’t stop me from ordering the Shaggy Dog Roll at Nippon. The components (shrimp tempura, mayo, crabmeat, etc.) seemed familiar and innocuous, and, besides, as I told the table, I was in the mood for…
Mary Magsamen and Stephan Hillerbrand’s Wild Household Imagery Is the Standout in “Measured: Lawndale Artist Studio Program Exhibition”
Lawndale’s Artist Studio Program provides resources and unrestrained studio space for three projects each year, chosen from a call for entries, and the current main gallery group show is displaying the results. Daniel McFarlane presents a series of acrylic paintings on panels that depict wooden, geometric 3D shapes augmented with…
Last Night: Master P’s Birthday Party At House Of Blues
Master P’s Birthday/No Limit Records 20th anniversary party House of Blues May 1, 2011 Apparently, there is a limit after all… and that limit is 20 minutes. That is exactly how long Percy Miller, aka Master P, graced us with his presence onstage last night at the House of Blues…
Thaddeus Neil Guillory, Anthony Jermaine Manuel: World’s Unluckiest, Most Inept Cop Impersonators
If you’e going to impersonate cops, you need to go all the way. Badges, sure. But you also want to have the total mise en scène right. Cops investigating a scene tend to leave their roof party lights flashing, right? Well, if your vehicle doesn’t have any such lights –…
Meme Of The Week: The Frowning Royal Wedding Three-Year-Old
You remember the royal wedding, right? That small gathering in London a few days back where Princess Diana’s kid and that really, cute leggy girl got married? After the events of yesterday, with our military finally taking down Osama Bin Laden, it was sort of forgotten amongst all the cheering…
Trattoria Il Mulino, the New Kid on the Block, Takes the Meatball Invitational by Surprise
Although Trattoria Il Mulino might not have impressed in its initial opening days, the new restaurant more than made up for it at yesterday afternoon’s Meatball Invitational at Damian’s Cucina Italiana. The Il Mulino meatball ticked off every box that the panel of professional judges — including Houston sports legends…
Saturday Night: Bob Seger At Toyota Center
Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band Toyota Center April 30, 2011 If Saturday night was supposed to be Bob Seger’s final farewell to Houston on what is reported to be his last go-round through the country as a performer, then he picked a stellar set list: 25 songs full…
Mowed Down By Angry Driver: Dwight Richards, 56, Bayou Body Count No. 56
Police are looking for a “heavy set” black woman “wearing a purple top [and] black shorts” who they say used her car to mow down and kill a bar patron after a fight at closing time Saturday morning. Dwight Richards, 56, was killed outside the Turning Point bar in the…
Video: Jane’s Addiction Announces Bin Laden’s Death At Buzzfest
Last night during their Buzzfest 26-closing set at at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, classic alt-rockers Jane’s Addiction had the distinct honor of announcing to the nearly sold-out crowd at the shed that Osama Bin Laden had been killed by American special forces…
MAM’S House of Ice: Open for Business
The Tweets prompting me to visit MAM’S House of Ice started several weeks ago. With a Twitter handle like @snowcones, it’s not too surprising, I suppose. The first thing I learned when I finally visited MAM’S is that they don’t make sno-cones, they make sno-balls — and they’ve been serving…
The Killing: “What You Have Left”
Preparations for Rosie Larsen’s funeral, juxtaposing somber funeral home preparations (It’s like the opening of the The Big Chill, only without the classic rock soundtrack or promise of sex with JoBeth Williams) with scenes of the family getting themselves ready to say their final goodbyes. It takes us to the…
Osama Bin Laden Mission: Rick Perry & Greg Abbott Weigh in Without Mentioning Obama
The world has presumably been waiting breathlessly for the chance to know exactly what Governor Rick Perry and Attorney General Greg Abbott think about the death of Osama Bin Laden. The wait is over. Both politicos issued statements this morning, neither of which happened to mention President Obama. (To be…
Top 10 Musician Tweets About Bin Laden’s Death
Last night, this member of Rocks Off was sitting at a pizza parlor off Ella when he found out that our military killed Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan. It was a monumental moment in time, as we sat back and looked at the past decade and half of our lives,…
Awkwardness Takes Over Four Places
The setup: Ethical questions abound in the drama Four Places. An adult brother and sister cope with two aging parents, though the father is never seen on stage, and the problems presented by their decline are compounded by reliance on alcohol. The play takes place with the siblings driving to…
Shiftwork Bites: Lagniappe Edition
So I lied. Kind of. My recent post really was the last actual Shiftwork Bites. It did, however, provide me with just enough material and inspiration to eke out one more piece, and for that, I’m grateful. One of my favorite things about eating at restaurants and preparing other cooks’…
What Not to Expect When You’re Expecting: Two Pregnant Sisters Brawl
What should have been a bucolic weekend family visit to a Lufkin McDonald’s turned nasty when two pregnant sisters attacked each other for unknown reasons. According to the Lufkin Police Department report, Tammy Martin and her daughters, Shnice Foster and Joy Hood (19 and 20, respectively) were returning from a…
Friday Night: Yelawolf & Many Guests At Warehouse Live
Yelawolf, Bun B, Trae Tha Truth, Doughbeezy, Dante Higgins, Gerald Walker & Cardo Warehouse Live April 29, 2011 10:54 p.m.: Let’s do this first this time. Here’s the thing about Yelawolf, and you may have noticed this already, but: He’s a rapper who is white – or, at least, he’s…
Justin Cronin: How to be Rich and Not Famous
After writing one of the most highly anticipated and successful novels of 2010, Justin Cronin says he still isn’t rich and famous. “I still walk down the aisle at H-E-B and am unremarked on,” he tells Art Attack. The novel he wrote was The Passage, a hefty 766-page volume about…
Houston’s Best Patios: The 10 Best Unexpected Treasures
Over the last four weeks, we have been guiding you around Houston’s best patios in several different categories: The best places to catch up with friends The best places to bring the kids The best places to pretend you’re on vacation The best places to drink a glass of wine…
Bin Laden Mission: Six Other Notable Raids; Three That Worked And Three That Didn’t
There are uncountable things that could have gone wrong in the raid that ended up with Osama Bin Laden dead; operations like this usually have the odds against them. The Bin Laden raid will join the ranks of historic missions, some famous because they worked, some famous because they didn’t…
Rough Justice: Bloodthirsty Bar Greets Bin Laden’s Death
Osama bin Laden is dead. Following a late dinner at Van Loc Sunday, Rocks Off was a block or two away from Leon’s Lounge when a friend texted us the news around 10 p.m. When we entered the bar, our buddy Lonesome Onry and Mean’s daughter in the military had…
Don’t Miss Our New Age of Information
The setup: Satiric comedy abounds in seven plays about Our New Age of Information, for which seven Houston playwrights created short works to this pre-selected theme, in a competition inspired and presented by Scriptwriters/Houston, the 4th annual event, with the theme changing each year. The execution: Beside the expected humor,…
Kendrick Anthony Ross, 20, Bayou Body Count No. 55
An argument in a southwest side apartment complex left one man dead from a gunshot would Sunday morning, Houston police say. Kendrick Anthony Ross, 20, was heard by a neighbor arguing with a man about 6:40 a.m. Sunday in the Forum Plaza Apartments in the 10100 block of Forum Park…
Talking Culinary Creations with Quiznos’ Zach Calkins
This week’s Fast Times takes us in a different direction. Typically, a fast food product is consumed and you get the gist of my experience. This week, we sat down with Zach Calkins of Quiznos, to find out how some of these items are created.EOW: What is your formal title…
The Week in TV: Charlie Sheen Still Regrettably in the News
Well, since nothing at all happened in the world of politics or international news, let’s get to the week in TV Land: • Here’s the thing: It’s now impossible to even pretend to care about Charlie Sheen news. Even if that news is about the degree to which Sheen has…
Odd Pair: Boudin Balls and Brunello
Steaming boudin balls, freshly fried by Aunt Pam (who lives just a few doors away), were met with gasps of delight when they magically appeared at our family’s Easter gathering last week. I had been waiting for the main attraction — the spiral-sliced baked ham and all the fixings –…
Friday Night: George Jones At Arena Theatre
George Jones Arena Theatre April 29, 2011 For Rocks Off, going to see George Jones radiated much the same feeling of apprehension we had about the Pogues show at House of Blues in October 2009. On one level, we half-expected – no, feared – a train wreck, a career-marring embarrassment…
Comment of the Day: Fun Moms With Jell-O Shots
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…
Perv Learns Lesson: Don’t Mess with Lake Jackson Teens; They’ll Spit in Your Face
You’re rolling in your gold-colored SUV and you see a 13-year-old girl walking home from school. Playa that you are, you ask her if she “needs a ride.” Pro tip: First, determine if she’s from Lake Jackson. Because apparently Lake Jackson 13-year-olds know how to deal with a-holes like you…
Game Of Thrones: “Lord Snow”
“War is easier than daughters.” Ain’t that the truth. Sorry, I may have inadvertently channeled my own…occasional frustrations with raising three girls of my own. However, unlike Ned Stark, I didn’t have to deal with the blowback from killing my daughter’s direwolf on the orders of my king after her…
Friday Night: Ke$ha At Verizon Wireless Theater
Ke$ha Verizon Wireless Theater April 29, 2011 See more wild ‘n’ crazy pics of Ke$ha (and her fans) in our slideshow. Before Ke$ha even hit the stage for her sold-out show Friday night at Verizon Wireless Theater, we saw limos full of prom-ready teens pulling up to the venue, mounds…
Laura Anna Guillen, 31, Bayou Body Count No. 54
In something out of Pulp Fiction, a woman was killed when a passenger in the backseat of her car accidentally shot her, police say. Laura Anna Guillen, 31, was sitting in the driver’s seat of a car in the 4600 block of Collingsworth near the Fifth Ward about 2 a.m…
Blaffer Art Museum Renovation Images
Fancy. The University of Houston’s Blaffer Art Museum recently unveiled artist renderings of their forthcoming renovation and they’re yummy. The project, spearheaded by New York architecture biz WORK Architecture Company (WORKac), will only add an additionally 500 square feet to the circa 1973 site. However, the building transformation will boast…
Where Are We Eating?
A reliable favorite for low-key breakfasts, this little taco joint has some of the freshest, fluffiest, finest flour tortillas in town. Does the pair of chorizo and egg tacos below look familiar to you? Think you know where we’re eating breakfast this week? Leave your best guess in the comments…
The Ten Worst Things Texas Has Given to the Modern World
If we were to list all the great, terrific things Texas, Our Texas has given to civilization, we would be here all day. (Two words: Jessica Simpson.) Unfortunately, Texas has also gifted America and the world with some things the world and America would no doubt like to give back…
Bin Laden’s Houston Connections Prove Fatal
The man who killed almost 3,000 Americans was dead, and Houston played its part. At least we can assume so. For who can forget the Houston Chronicle’s zoned edition for the Heights, which in 1999 told readers — probably along with the fact HISD’s menus for that week would include…
Texans Draft 2011 — Defensive End Is the New Tight End
Last night, John Granato, Lance Zierlein and I were doing our annual NFL Draft show from Wild Wing Cafe in Katy. Like most seasons, we didn’t have to wait very long for the Texans to make their pick. (Actually, to be fair, the last few seasons, we’ve had to wait…
More Local Music News Than Half-Price Deals At Cactus
Another week, another teeming cup runneth over, full of local music news. Here’s our latest installment of Magnolia City Mixtape. This week’s soundtrack comes from Roosh Williams, whose Common Struggles of a Modern Man album just dropped. Roosh also has a video for the track “No Hard Feelings” and will…
This Week in Deliciousness
Welcome back to the weekly roundup here at Eating Our Words, where we’ve constructed a gigantic, hollow Peep with our leftover Easter Peeps and we’re trying to come up with a way to lure Nicolas Cage into it so we can set the whole shebang on fire. Whew. Not just…
Comment of the Day
Kevin Shalin visited Mandola’s Deli and reported that the family-run place is going to start doing a dinner service. And commenter hoho wrote in to let us know that we finally got it right: Finally! an authentic, time-tested Houston institution that truly deserves props. BTW, the original location (or an…
Planned Parenthood: Punched in the Uterus by Misguided Texas Senate
A Texas Senate subcommittee wrangled the vulvas of Texas women into a chokehold yesterday with its latest assault on Planned Parenthood. Republican Senator Robert Deuell, who is a physician, introduced a bill to a three-member subcommittee that bans Planned Parenthood from participating in the Medicaid Women’s Health Program. The program…
West Texas Teardrops: Earmuffs, But No Sellout, In Austin
Ed. Note: This past weekend, Houston alternative/screamo rockers The Last Place You Look opened for Unwritten Law in Lubbock, Odessa, and Austin, and invited Rocks Off’s Matthew Keever along. See links for Part 1 and Part 2. After two nights in a row of somewhat disappointing turnouts, The Last Place…
Royal Wedding Fashion Roundup
The gown! The jewels! The tiara! The footmen wearing weird tights and satin slippers! The royal wedding of Prince William to Kate Middleton–now the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge–has come to an end. Details about the wedding continue to emerge, but here is a roundup of the fashion and flair…
Garage Sale Cowboy: Rod McKuen’s The Sea
Today Rod McKuen, poet, composer, and sometime singer, turns 77 years old. Most people do not remember McKuen – at least nobody born after 1980 – but for one summer he was the strangest thing to come into Rocks Off’s record collection, and remains one of our favorites. It would…
Grand Prize Takes the Grand Prize (and Second Place, Too) at On The Rocks Cocktail Competition
Alba Huerta and Cedomil Slokar took home first and second place at last night’s On The Rocks cocktail competition, scoring at $1,000 check for Huerta and a double victory for Grand Prize Bar. Both Huerta and Slokar work for Grand Prize, and the bar was given two spots out of…
Community: She’s Having a Baby
One of the great things about Community is its ability to skillfully execute standard sitcom set-ups even when it’s not being ironic and meta about doing so. For instance, last night’s “Applied Anthropology and Culinary Arts” was a wonderful bottle episode, but the point wasn’t to bring the writers’ laser-like…
Donna Crites: Probation for Mom Who Gave 200 Jell-O Shots to Teens
Mom of the year candidate Donna Crites, of the town of Hutto just north of Austin, was sentenced to three years probation on Thursday after pleading guilty last month to five counts of providing alcohol to a minor. One of those minors later crashed her car and seriously injured four…
Here’s Julianne Moore As Sarah Palin: Will She Be Better Than Tina Fey?
Just today, the filmmakers behind HBO’s upcoming feature Game Change, released the first photo of actress Julianne Moore as former Alaska governor Sarah Palin. The film will chronicle the 2008 presidential election and will also star Ed Harris as Senator John McCain. We have to say that Moore will more…
Pete Anderson: Ex-Yoakam Guitarist Evens Things Up
Pete Anderson hasn’t worked with Dwight Yoakam since 2002, but his association with Yoakam was so successful and visible he may never shake free of that shadow. “We had such a great run,” says Anderson from his Little Dog home studio in Los Angeles. “That gig was a guitar player’s…
Zombies Near Galveston Island!!!
Someone sent Fox 26 this picture of a hacked freeway sign outside of Galveston, supposedly taken this morning. Fair warning to any Island residents thinking of heading north. Now excuse us while we go get us some BRAINS!!!!…
Chef Chat, Part 3: Danton Nix of Danton’s Gulf Coast Seafood Kitchen
When I told my friends that I was doing a Chef Chat with Danton’s, the response was almost uniform: “I love that place!” Judging from the comments on parts one and two of this Chef Chat, many readers feel the same way. Danton Nix may call himself a mere cook,…
April 29, 1992: Ten Songs About The L.A Riots
It was 19 years ago today that the Los Angeles riots began after four white police officers, caught on videotape beating the African-American Rodney King after a drug-fueled high-speed chase, were acquitted by a Simi Valley, Calif. jury. The rest of the world watched in shock and sadness as buildings…
Gerald Guidry: Houston Grand Opera Extra Gets Rehearsal-Room Sex from a 16-Year-Old, Cops Say
Police are looking for a Houston Grand Opera actor who is accused of having sex with a 16-year-old girl in the rehearsal room and basement on at least three occasions. Gerald Christopher Guidry, 23, has been a “supernumerary,” which is highfalutin’ ballet opera talk for an extra, in HGO productions,…
Emily Johnson’s “The Thank-You Bar,” Wading In the Deep End
You never know what to expect when you walk into a modern dance/performance art installation that describes itself as “a jukebox, a roadside bar and a fish that never dies,” but don’t expect any of those things, especially not immortal fish. This weekend, April 29 and 30, Diverse Works Art…
Favorite Three: Pizza Places
Picking a favorite pizza place is a hot-button topic. Let’s see which places showed up on our lists. John Kiely 1. Dolce Vita Pizzeria & Enoteca 2. Russo’s Coal-Fired New York Pizzeria 3. Pizza Hut John’s Take: The worst pizza I’ve had was in Italy, so authentic isn’t always better,…
Yacht Owners Deserve A Huge Tax Break, Texas House Panel Decides
You know who’s suffering in this economy? Yacht owners, that’s who. Luckily Texas legislators have recognized this crisis, and momentarily put aside slashing public education to address the issue. A House panel has approved a bill that would cap state taxes on any yacht — even the mega-million two-helicopter jobs…
Rise Of Lil B And Odd Future Both A Gift And A Curse
So you’ve written the greatest song the world has never heard. You spent a good two-and-half hours on those brain-melting metaphors, and another three laying them on wax. Every bar requires repeated listening to fully digest. Your ad-libs are on point like Chris Paul. The beat knocks harder than steel-toed…
Grier Calls 1st TAKS Tests for Apollo “Progress, Not Victory”
Superintendent Terry Grier released Houston ISD’s first-round state test scores for fifth and eighth graders on Thursday, acknowledging at the start of the press conference that the results for middle school students in the Apollo 20 pilot project were of the most interest. And those particular results from tests taken…
Dry Wonton Noodle at Chino’s Fast Food
Over the years, I’ve gotten really sensitive to MSG (monosodium glutamate), the cooking additive Asians often use to enhance flavor. In addition to making me extremely drowsy, I sometimes get blinding headaches from eating a large bowl of noodle soup. The problem is, I love Asian noodle soups. They’re cheap,…
Stages: What Happens When Children Want to Parent Their Mom
Peggy goes to lunch with her grown children, not knowing what they have in mind, only to find her independence threatened. They, in turn, get a real shock as they discover they don’t know everything about Mom, and she actually does have a life of her own. Actress Cristine McMurdo-Wallis…
Last Night: Pale At Warehouse Live
Pale, Come See My Dead Person, The Shiny Darks Warehouse Live Studio April 28, 2011 Pale is a transparent band. With a new record under its belt on a new label, a national distribution deal, and a well-known Los Angeles-based publicist, the band makes no bones about shooting for the…
Rick Perry Whines About Helping Tornado Victims
More than 300 people have died and entire neighborhoods have been wiped off the map across the South because of massive tornadoes, and Governor Rick Perry has one question for President Obama: “Why are you taking care of Alabama and other states?” Perry whined to reporters yesterday that the Obama…
April 23-29: 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…
Upcoming Events
Sometimes wonderful things are born out of our comments section and we remember for a moment just how awesome humanity can be when it comes together for a good cause. The Lemonade Day Crawl is a perfect example of that awesomeness, suggested by commenter Chris Oakley in support of National…
Nocturnal Classical Fans: No More Requests Or Local Hosts For You
Looking for a refreshing jolt of Rimsky-Korsakov to get you through that wee-hours cram session? If you’ve been getting your fix through KUHF’s overnight classical DJs, you are going to have to look elsewhere after the dust settles on the purchase of KTRU and KUHF’s upcoming flip to NPR news…
Johnny Dowd Joins Ranks Of Oklahoma Music Greats
Poet, musician, avant-garde musical thinker and doer, Johnny Dowd may live in upstate New York these days, but that fellow is 100 percent died-in-the-wool Okie through and through. When Dowd opens his mouth to sing, Dust Bowl dust and heat come out. In performance, Dowd’s brain appears to be boiling…
No More Requests for Night Owl Classical Lovers: KUHF (and KUHA) Will Offer Canned Music Only in Overnights
Locally hosted overnight shows on KUHF will soon be a thing of the past, and don’t go looking for them on KUHA, the phoenix rising from KTRU’s ashes, either, confirms Richard Bonnin, executive director of media relations at UH’s Office of University Communication. Bonnin tells Hair Balls that KUHA, the…
Roy James Samuel: Indicted After Telling TV Reporter Yeah, I Killed My Girlfriend
It’s a staple of any TV show or movie involving a high-profile murder case; hell, it’s a Law & Order staple: millions of reporters flocking to a perp-walk, shoving microphones in the suspect’s face and asking the obligatory “Did you kill your wife/mistress/boss/third-cousin-once-removed?” to which the suspect is supposed to…
Reviews For The Easily Distracted: Fast Five
Title: Fast Five Quién Es Más Macho: Vin Diesel O Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson? Diesel looks (and sounds) like he feasts on the bones of fallen foes, but there’s more testosterone in the Rock’s goatee than in the testicles of 100 lesser men. Rating Using Random Objects Related To The…
Lil Wayne Documentary At Center Of Lawsuits
Lil Wayne is currently shooting a documentary for his I Am Music IItour, but he’s come under fire for a different film. Tha Carter, a Weezy-sanctioned documentary released in 2009, is at the center of a litany of lawsuits between Lil Wayne’s Young Money Entertainment and film production company Digerati…
Tequila and Enchilada Tasting at Sylvia’s Enchilada Kitchen
Sylvia’s Enchilada Kitchen has invented a holiday I fully endorse: National Enchilada Week. In fact, given the multitude of types of enchiladas, I wouldn’t object to a National Enchilada Month — ah, a girl can dream. In anticipation of this glorious event (May 9 – 14), Sylvia’s hosted a tequila…
Galleria Traffic Hell Alert This Weekend
The West Loop through the Galleria area can go crazy at seemingly random times of the day, but this weekend promises to be special. From 9 p.m. tonight to 5 a.m. Monday, TxDOT is offering oodles of traffic fun for anyone trying to negotiate the area. To begin with, the…
Remember Doughbeezy’s Reggie Bush and Kool-Aid?
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. Doughbeezy Reggie Bush and Kool-Aid (Self-released, 2010) Doughbeezy is, at the moment, one of the city’s brighter points of…
Top 5 Contest Options for Houston Sports Teams
During halftime of a recent New Orleans Hornets game, a fan participated in a common giveaway contest. He had to make a layup, a free throw, a three-pointer and a shot from halfcourt under a time limit to win a prize. Unlike the vast majority of those who take the…
Bill Gonzales: Authorities Didn’t Know There Was a Second Crash Victim Until Father Found Body 12 Hours Later
When Harris County officials inspected the wreckage of a spectacular early-morning April 27 crash, they found the body of a single young man. The car was not registered to him, but there was no evidence anyone else had been in the utterly mangled vehicle. The man who owned the car,…
Discount Dining
Like Christina Uticone, who rounds up food deals around town for Eating Our Words, I’ve signed up for every site I’ve come across, even Gaggle of Chicks, “where moms flock for great deals”, and no, I am not a mom. I get about 15 emails daily with new deals and…
Idol Beat: Last Call For Beardo
This just in: the American Idol finals will be sans facial hair. Jesus, *two* “Walk this Way” signs? I’d sacrifice David Archuleta to the god of skinny punks just to see a “Steven, Show Me Your Big 10″” placard. Just once. You knew tonight’s episode was going to be particularly…
Idol Beat: There Is No Joy In Idyllwild
Bearded Casey has struck out. Jesus, *two* “Walk this Way” signs? I’d sacrifice David Archuleta to the god of skinny punks just to see a “Steven, Show Me Your Big 10″” placard. Just once. You knew tonight’s episode was going to be particularly unendurable when they decided to visit the…
Last Night: Willie Nelson At Verizon Wireless Theater
Willie Nelson & Family Verizon Wireless Theater April 28, 2011 See Willie Nelson’s extended Houston family in our slideshow. There are few times you don’t want the Rolling Stones in your head. A very few. But on your way to a Willie Nelson show trying to fight off the insinuating…
The Final Meals Project
Only a select few get to witness prisoner executions in Texas; fewer still get to watch the guilty (or wrongly convicted) party wolf down his last meal. Fortunately, Chicago art collective Lucky Pierre has an ongoing video installation called Final Meals, featuring volunteers eating the, uh, final meals requested by…
Brew Blog: Texas Beer Fest
Despite having some really terrible beer laws, Texas has some really great beer. While efforts are currently underway to change the law, we don’t have to wait to get our hands on some wonderful brews. Not only are there many bars around town serving up Lone Star libations, we now…
Comment of the Day: Even Andrew Jackson’s Parrot Was Bad-Ass
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…
April 23-29: 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. As the weather warms up, we want to see your pics. Park life, swimming pools, barbecues, whatever. Just drop them in our photo group right here. As always,…
Cage Match: Kesha Vs. Thunderkunt
Ladies and gentlemen, tonight a war will be waged in Houston for your very musical souls. In this corner, wearing glitter, last night’s makeup, and the sign of the almighty dollar, that Autotuned ingénue, Kesha. And in this corner, four fell fiends from the farthest reaches of Angryrockdor, our own…
The Five Funniest Texans
We are not especially known for it nationally or internationally, but we Texans are pretty damn funny. Here are five the funniest Texans we could think of in about 30 minutes of rigorous Wikipedia-clicking and YouTube-embedding. 5. Ron White The only Redneck comedian worth a shit. And he might just…
Old-Time Astrodome Baseball: Juan Marichal, Dominating at the All-Star Game
Little something from the toobz that shows Astrodome baseball when the game was very different: Juan Marichal dominating hitters at the 1968 All-Star Game. Of course, he wasn’t the only one being dominant that day: There was but a single run scored all game, and that came on a double…
Openings & Closings
The big news this week, of course, was the unveiling of Catalan’s new direction once Chef Chris Shepherd leaves for good to start his own restaurant, Underbelly. Losing the chef at a chef-driven restaurant means that continuing in his broad footsteps is a daunting and foolish proposition. For that reason,…
100 Creatives: Bret Harmeyer
What Does He Do: There is not a single goth in all of Houston without at least one Bret Harmeyer print in their house. His work is famous for its dark imagery, especially his anthropomorphic insects and masked protagonist. Bret works primarily in water color, though he has recently branched…
HISD Trustees Prove They Can Go Hours Without Peeing
Houston ISD board members resolutely stayed anchored at the board room table for hours Monday, picking through programs, considering projections (What if there’s a 3.3 percent tax hike? How about a 15 percent cut in the homestead exemption?) and trying to decide what they want to spend their money on…
2011 NFL Draft — Live Blog
I am not an NFL Draft expert. How’s that for unbridled confidence? Right out of the shoot, in a live blog for the NFL Draft, a host of a sports talk show is admitting that he’s not an expert at something sports related, let alone the thing at which he’s…
Comment of the Day
Katharine Shilcutt posted the story “No Franklin’s BBQ for Hitler,” and we felt like the last people on earth to learn about the Downfall meme. Most of the EOW commenters were already in the know, especially commenter Eric Sandler, also a Franklin’s devotee: Generally speaking, I’m pretty tired of the…
Baggage Handlers Arrested for Helping Houston Drug Ring Make Deliveries
Federal agents arrested a dozen baggage handlers and airline employees in Detroit today for being ever so helpful to two drug rings, one operating from Jamaica and one from right here in Houston. Coke and weed were transported via baggage on regularly scheduled flights to the Detroit airport, the feds…
Mandola’s Deli Hits Home
Mandola’s Deli is more than 30 years old, but I bet many of you reading this article didn’t even know it existed. Don’t feel bad, I didn’t either. It’s an east downtown neighborhood spot, located near the University of Houston and about a minute off I-45. For years, the casual…
Idol Beat: A Tapestry Of Mediocrity
I’m going to hate tonight. For unlike these other liars on Idol who – to a one – claimed to have grown up in a Motown household, I really did grow up on Carole King. I have great fondness for Tapestry, which was in regular rotation when I was a…
Ahead Of The Royal Wedding, Other World-Stopping Television Moments
If reports are to be believed, almost two billion people around the world will be watching the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton tomorrow morning, starting early right before dawn here in Houston at 5 a.m. Those two billion viewers also includes those watching on television and tuning into…
John Kinsel: Kicked out of Angola Prison for Hair Balls Interview
Not every blog post can free a man from Angola Prison, but ours did. Sort of. In 1999, John Kinsel was convicted of raping a child and sentenced to life without parole. Despite his accuser coming forward as an adult and saying she made the story up, and despite a…
West Texas Teardrops: Incident In Odessa
Ed. Note: This past weekend, Houston alternative/screamo rockers The Last Place You Look opened for Unwritten Law in Lubbock, Odessa, and Austin, and invited Rocks Off’s Matthew Keever along. Here is Part 1. Rocks Off didn’t expect much while on tour. We were prepared to sleep in a van; to…
Twitter Dumbness: Trent Cantrell, Former Lufkin City Planner, Resigns After Sour Tweets About Town
Even if you really, really hate the town whose government is signing your paychecks, you might want to keep those thoughts to yourself. If you absolutely must Tweet your opinions on the matter, only let your friends see ’em. Former Lufkin city planner Trent Cantrell didn’t take those precautions, and…
Get Your Tinfoil Hat, Consortium of Genius Is Coming
Rocks Off loves extreme personalities. Whether it’s the serene, spiritual symphony that is Tyagaraja, or the pre-frontal lobe melting experience that is Tubby Chubcakes we just can’t get enough of people who go screaming over the edge of normalcy like Thelma and Louise. And ladies and gentlemen, the undisputed king…
Top 5: Food Streets
When it comes to food, all streets are not created equal. These are the five best in Houston. 5. Airline I really wanted to put Airline higher on the list, but truth is, it just edged out Montrose to land in the top five. Granted, this street is top-heavy, with…
The Fiery Ann-Margret At 70: Her Ten Best Video Moments
Today actress, dancer and singer Ann-Margret turns 70 years young, and she’s still making appearances in films and on television, most recently a few episodes of CSI, Army Wives and an Emmy-winning arc on Law & Order: SVU. I just showed a colleague a picture of her with her Emmy…
NFL Draft Liveblogging, Starring Sean Pendergast
The topic that has dominated sports talk radio lately — at least in a city such as Houston that is experiencing a severe drought in anything worthwhile to talk about for its current franchises — is the NFL Draft. It has turned into an off-season Lollapalooza for NFL nuts, who…
Warm And Scratchy: A Definitive [adult swim] Discography
The masterminds behind Aqua Teen Hunger Force have relocated the fast-food crew to Seattle and changed not only the name, but also the structure of the show after deciding that they were unhappy with the pilot. They even made a new theme song, recruiting Queen of the Stone Age Josh…
Happy Hour Scene: Expanding our Horizons at Pub Fiction
The Place: Pub Fiction 2303 Smith 713-400-8400 www.pubfiction.com The Deals: $2 domestics, $3 select imports, $4 vodka drinks. Food specials vary. The Hours: 4 to 7 p.m. Mondays through Fridays The Scene: Pub Fiction is a clean bar. Which isn’t to say that filthy things don’t happen there, as they…
Scott Hochberg: Politically Extinct Due to Redistricting?
A marathon session in the state House of Representatives has produced a proposed redistricting map, and it’s bad news for two Houston Democrats: Scott Hochberg and Hubert Vo. Houston loses one district under the map, and in the game of musical chairs, it will be Hochberg and Vo fighting it…
My Top 5 Books Written in the Typewriter Era
Though the typewriter isn’t completely dead, this week’s announcement chronicling the demise of one of the last typewriter factories is definitely a sign that the once powerful tool is going kaput. Art Attack mused on some of the documents written during an era loosely defined between 1867 (when the machine…
Royal Wedding: The Drinking Game
OMG IT’S TONIGHT!!!!!!!!! Well, technically it’s tomorrow morning, but if you’re one of the hard-core Royal Wedding watchers, you’ll be up and partying when the action begins in the wee hours of Friday. Anglophile bars in town are hosting watch parties (our sister blog Art Attack has the info), and…
The Black Lips’ Favorite Garage Albums & Bands
In the Black Lips’ recent video for “Go Out and Get It,” the Atlanta garage boys are seen on a cruise ship and on some tropical beach surrounded by vacationing bikini-clad hipster gals, all messy hair and sunglasses, sipping drinks like some endless Sunday Funday. The band will be in…
English Desserts for the Royal Wedding
Well, ladies, the jig is up. It’s official; none of us will be the future queen of England. As the world waits with bated breath to see what Kate Middleton will wear, whether anyone will make a faux pas, and how much better Prince Harry will look than his brother,…
Mark Steven Bauman: Texas’s Latest Most Wanted Sex Offender Is One Snappy Dresser
A new name has been added to the Department of Public Safety’s 10 Most Wanted Sex Offenders list and, more importantly, a new mugshot. Instead of the usual bunch of unshaven, T-shirt-wearing fat guys staring blankly into the camera, DPS offers the stylish pose of one Mark Steven Bauman, 50,…
Last Shot Of Whiskey Wednesday Is Powerful Stuff
Rocks Off doesn’t know where you went to school, but Robert Ellis & the Boys’ final Whiskey Wednesday at Fitzgerald’s last night felt a lot like the prom/graduation party we always wanted to have. With maybe just a little more beer. ‘Tis the season. As the ceiling sagged from the…
Today Only: Dine Out for Life
Wondering where to go for lunch or dinner today? Let me make that choice exceptionally easy for you: Dine out for life, and support AIDS research by eating at one of these restaurants. They’re all supporting Dining Out For Life, an annual charity event whereby restaurants donate 33 percent –…
The Voice Premieres on NBC
Confession: I am an American Idol dropout. A huge fan of the show for the first several years, I eventually had to throw in the towel because of the ambitious show schedule — up to four or five hours per week, especially in the early audition phase. But there is…
Andy Surface: Alvin’s Conde Nast Scammer Graciously Agrees Not to Keep the $8 Million He Got
Andy Surface, the Alvin man who scammed the powerful Condé Nast publishing company of $8 million simply by sending a single bogus e-mail invoice, has formally renounced any claim to his ill-gotten gains. Forbes, which first broke the story, reports Surface has filed court documents in New York relinquishing any…
Moody Blues Have Little To “Lament” In Nearly 50-Year Career
Since their 1964 origin, England’s the Moody Blues have combined lush, orchestral pop with more rock-edged material to score hits like “Go Now,” “Tuesday Afternoon,” “Ride My See-Saw,” “Question,” “The Story in Your Eyes” and, of course, “Nights in White Satin.” And save a three-year hiatus in the ’70s, the…
No Franklin’s BBQ for Hitler
If you aren’t already familiar with the now-viral “Hitler Reacts” meme, please head over to Know Your Meme and familiarize yourself. Macht schnell! Now then. Found on the Houston Chowhound boards yesterday was a Hitler Reacts video that I couldn’t believe I’d never seen. Anyone familiar with the early hours…
Can We Talk? Joan Rivers Dishes on Sheen, Trump, Snookie and More
Fresh off the success of a stirring and intimate documentary about her life last year, and following on the heels of that odd Super Bowl ad for GoDaddy.com, it seems like Joan Rivers is everywhere these days. And she’ll be in Houston May 6 as the special guest at the…
Idol Beat: Fail To The King, Baby
I’m going to hate tonight. For unlike these other liars on Idol who – to a one – claimed to have grown up in a Motown household, I really did grow up on Carole King. I have great fondness for Tapestry, which was in regular rotation when I was a…
App of the Week: Four Apps to Ease Your Summer Airline Travel
App: FlightTrack Platforms: iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Palm Web site: Mobiata.com Cost: $3.99 (Pro for $9.99) App: FlightBoard Platforms: iPhone, Android Web site: Mobiata.com Cost: $3.99 App: Skyscanner Platforms: iPhone (Web site available as well) Web site: Skyscanner.com Cost: Free App: Hipmunk Platforms: iPhone (Web site available as well) Web site: Hipmunk.com Cost: Free I haven’t been on an airplane in about 15 years. Crazy, right? Some…
Chef Chat, Part 2: Danton Nix of Danton’s Gulf Coast Seafood Kitchen
Yesterday, we spoke with Danton’s Gulf Coast Seafood Kitchen executive chef Danton Nix about his menu and the good and bad of customers having favorite dishes. Today we talk oysters, Groupon and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. EOW: What do you think about the move to give appellations to Galveston…
KTRU Departs FM Airwaves Defiant, Unique As Ever
“I’m so nervous,” declared former KTRU station manager Joey Yang as he took over the helm for the final hour of programming that would be broadcast on the FM band. “Since 1971 we’ve been on FM, and it’s all coming down to this. It’s a lot of responsibility.” Rocks Off…
Comment of the Day: Thou Shalt Not Criticize St. Biggio
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…
Ariadne auf Naxos: An Opera that Makes Fun of Opera and 3 Larger Than Life Sopranos
As they spill into the room, it’s easy to understand why these three sopranos don’t need mikes to throw their voices out over an audience during a performance. They project all the time and they’re really kind of, actually a lot of, funny as they talk about why they’re doing…
Girly Pop Songs We’re Not Ashamed To Love
Like CHL’s imaginary third uncle always said, “If you gonna eat shit, make sure it’s some nice, glitter-covered fancy shit you would buy from one of those kiosks at the mall next to Hot Topic.” Truer words were literally never spoken, and it speaks to something that has been following…
Food Fight: Beef Steak Nachos
For this week’s Food Fight, we pit two Houston Tex-Mex heavyweights against one another. We’ve got El Real Tex-Mex Cafe, the young, scrappy newcomer, against Teotihuacan Mexican Café (4624 Irvington), the cagey veteran. Will youth overpower age, or will the consistency of a Houston institution take down the rookie? We…
Terry Sims: Amazing Mumford Wannabe Fails to Make Meth Disappear
Apparently Terry Michael Sims enjoys his meth and doesn’t much care who knows it. Earlier this week, the 33-year-old Tyler man evidently made a spectacle of himself in public, and police in the town of Huntington were called out to investigate a report of an intoxicated man. (And it’s apparent…
Pop Rocks: How to Profit Off the Royal Wedding
The big day is finally almost upon us. After months of sweaty anticipation by domestic news agencies, Prince William of Wales will marry Kate Middleton at Westminster Abbey “on the morrow,” as they say (probably) over there. That is, unless one of his groomsmen convinces him to bolt to Mexico…
Pop Rocks: Bettin’ On The Weddin’
The big day is finally almost upon us. After months of sweaty anticipation by domestic news agencies, Prince William of Wales will marry Kate Middleton at Westminster Abbey “on the morrow,” as they say (probably) over there. That is, unless one of his groomsmen convinces him to bolt to Mexico…
Legislative Victory for Texas Beer
Just as we were bemoaning the huge, wet bite the IRS took out of our savings account, along comes an example of tax dollars being put to good use. On April 21 the office of State Representative Jessica Farrar (D, Houston, District 148) sent out a press release announcing the…
German Measles Break Non-Metal “No Disease Names” Rule
You know, if we had to sum up The German Measles’ music, we’d have to just stick with saying, “They’re from New York.” It’s a very, very Velvet Underground, East Coast approach to rocking you and mocking you. They’re so obscure they haven’t even heard of themselves, you motherloving hipster…
Royal Wedding: Vintage Wedding Cards, Modernized
Okay, you didn’t get an invite to the big royal wedding. You should still send a card or something, show `em you care. (Assuming you do.) Mayor Annise Parker did! In case you are looking for cards to send over, we found some vintage ones. Naturally, we modernized them a…
Coffee and Cheese for Breakfast
I am far from the first American to discover the joys of dipping warmed Finnish cheese into my coffee, but that doesn’t put a damper on the current affair that I’m having with Brun-Uusto. I first spotted the stuff at Spec’s as I was picking up a few pieces of…
100 Creatives: Joel Orr
What He Does: Joel Orr is the artistic director and founder of the Bobbindoctrin Puppet Theatre. He’s been producing avant garde and exceptional puppet shows since 1989. Our first brush with his work was when Bobbindoctrin was tapped to open for The Legendary Pink Dots with the short production The…
Five Presidents Who Could Kick Chuck Norris’s Ass
In our continuing series of scholarly meditations on the United States Presidency, we now bring you a list of five presidents who could kick the crap out of Chuck Norris. Of note: only one of the top five served after 1908, although two honorable mentions came later. Where have all…
Childish Gambino
Donald Glover has been a viral-video phenomenon, a New York improv-comedy staple, an award-winning writer for 30 Rock and, most recently, an actor on NBC’s recently renewed Community. Funny guy. But he’s really just a rapper. Performing under the moniker Childish Gambino – chosen after he ran his name through…
Memphis
Contemporary audiences are used to seeing live performances of concerts and operas broadcast to theaters around the country. Now Broadway is getting in on the act — the 2010 Tony-winning musical Memphis, taped at a recent live performance, is coming to a screen near you. Loosely based on legendary music…
Emily Johnson: The Thank-You Bar
As part of a multimedia survey of contemporary Native American art, DiverseWorks is presenting The Thank-You Bar, a performance/installation by Alaskan-born choreographer Emily Johnson. If you haven’t reserved tickets yet, you might want to get on that — this is going to be an intimate show with limited seating. During…
6th Annual Latin Wave: New Films from Latin America
Don’t misconstrue the fact that four of the eight titles in Latin Wave: New Films from Latin America are the first features by the participating directors. That doesn’t mean this is amateur time. Far from it; in fact, this may be one of the strongest lineups of the annual festival…
Lisa Lampanelli
Think of acid-tongued comic Don Rickles in a flowered dress and high heels, and you have an idea of what to expect from Lisa Lampanelli today. Like Rickles and shock jock Howard Stern (a big Lampanelli fan), the large-boned comedian is outrageously rude and drop-dead funny at the same time…
Mermaid Theater of Nova Scotia: Swimmy, Inch by Inch and Frederick
The whimsical children’s books by Leo Lionni are brought to the stage by the Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia during today’s puppet performances of Swimmy, Inch by Inch and Frederick. Swimmy is about the adventures of a tiny but brave fish facing danger in the huge ocean; Inch by Inch…
The Black Lips
In the Black Lips’ recent video for “Go Out and Get It,” the Atlanta garage boys are seen on a cruise ship and on some tropical beach surrounded by vacationing bikini-clad hipster gals, all messy hair and sunglasses, sipping drinks like some endless Sunday Funday. The song comes from the…
Capsule Stage Reviews: The Marriage of Figaro, King Lear, Come Back, Little Sheba, Under the Big Dark Sky
The Marriage of Figaro Mozart’s sublime opera is all about love. All kinds, from raunchy seduction to moonlight serenade. Based on Beaumarchais’s scandalous, satiric play, in which low-class Figaro and wife-to-be Susanna get the jump on their master Count Almaviva, who has neglected his wife and is chasing Susanna for…
The Energy
“Live In Ruin,” the first track on the The Energy’s new album, Get Split, opens with crowd noise from Frampton Comes Alive!, the only album that was issued to you if lived in the suburbs, coming in the mail with samples of Tide in the ’70s. We’re not sure if…
Childish Gambino
Donald Glover has been a viral-video phenomenon, a New York improv-comedy staple, an award-winning writer for 30 Rock and now an actor on NBC’s recently renewed Community. Funny guy. But he’s really just a rapper. Performing under the moniker Childish Gambino – chosen after he ran his name through a…
Stellar Stella
Want to get your own glimpse into Stella Sola’s fast-paced kitchen? Check out our slideshow. Some dishes stick fast in my memory without even being deliberately placed there. In lieu of remembering important things like my father’s birthday or what time to show up to my cousin’s wedding, I remember…
Shilpa Ray & Her Happy Hookers
Shilpa Ray makes music like a dog biting an electric fence. The New Yorker’s latest album, Teenage and Torture, features her backing band the Happy Hookers playing a kind of blues that’s splayed out, wrenching, and driven, a result more of compulsion than composing. As for Ray herself, like a…
Formal Disaster
“This one perfect moment.” “That soul-crushing mistress.” “Our forever night.” These and other understated definitions are obsessively applied to a certain dreaded/anticipated ritual throughout Prom, a timely pop product set in a suburban high school during the last weeks before summer break and destined for the immortality of Vitamin C’s…
Ms. Lauryn Hill
Notoriously reclusive for most of the dozen years since the release of her multiple-Grammy-winning blockbuster The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, . Ms. Lauryn Hill (as she prefers to be called these days) has been easing out of the shadows with a few festival appearances and now a full-fledged tour. She’s…
Doing Time, Wrongly
CRIME, COVER STORY Doing Time, Wrongly Finally, a chat with our cover subject By Mandy Oaklander 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…
Fix the Justice System
An Accusation Recanted Online readers comment on “Life Without Parole,” by Mandy Oaklander, April 13: Good article: Wasn’t it CNN’s Nancy Grace who first reported on the Duke Lacrosse rape hoax and said that women don’t lie about rape? Just how many thousands of innocent young men just like…
How Do Mexicans Propose Marriage?
Dear Mexican, Why does every Mexican rap/hip-hop song always contain the lyrics, “No paramos,” “Nunca paramos” or some other logically equivalent statement (e.g., “Siempre avanzaremos,” “No acabaremos de seguir,” etc.)? Can’t you people be more original? I mean, come on! It’s not like you all speak a language that makes…
Houston International Festival
Houston’s annual celebration of exotic cultures (and itself) has taken the theme of “The Silk Road: Journey Across Asia” this year – perhaps best exemplified by the Friday-night collaboration between the boundary-pushing Kronos Quartet and Afghani ensemble the Homayun Sakhi Trio; tickets sold separately – and the color of iFest’s…
The Final Play
It’s the Houston Cougars’ first scrimmage of the 2011 spring season, and Case Keenum extends his arms over his head and into touchdown formation. The team’s star quarterback, wearing his number 7 jersey, is fired up that the offense has scored yet again on a defense that’s been run ragged…
Capsule Art Reviews: “Donald Baechler: Sculptures and Paintings” “Larassa Kabel: and all of this so far from Heaven” “Perspectives 174: Re: Generation” “Regine Schumann: Chameleon” “Round 34: A Matter of Food” “Heinrich Kühn: The Perfect Photogr
“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,…
Making It Rain
Ben Westhoff is a writer, and as writers sometimes do, he wrote a book. His particular book, Dirty South: OutKast, Lil Wayne, Soulja Boy, and the Southern Rappers Who Reinvented Hip-Hop, is about the commercial success of Southern hip-hop. Several chapters are about some of Houston’s most colorful, beloved and…
Dangerous Men
“I’ve got that sinking feeling / This town’s got a ceiling” — Pale, “That Sinking Feeling” Nothing stirs our self-righteous Houston-centric blood like grisly Bukowski-esque tales of local musicians living and dying on the edge in that West Coast den of iniquity and glitz, Los Angeles. And what makes the…
Back in Business
Popularity is fleeting. Gorgeous, high-end, high-powered Italian sports cars are not. It’s 1 a.m. on a weekend. Technically it’s Sunday morning, but really, it’s still Saturday night. A shiny Maserati with a personalized license plate reading “JAWZS” is inching down Richmond. Despite the precision with which the car’s drive train…
Literary Greats
With very little fanfare, the Literary Greats have established themselves as one of Houston’s most interesting bands and, if not one of the most ambitious, a group with a knack for getting their songs in front of the right ears. Two years ago, the Greats’ LP Ocean, Meet the Valley…
Yelawolf
The fact that Yelawolf was one of the many “surprise guests” at Lil Wayne’s Toyota Center show earlier this month ought to be evidence enough of the Alabama rapper’s rising star, but the only way to really appreciate why he deserves the hype is to see him live. The tatted-up…
