Street Preacher Responds to UH Students Who Compare His Church to Westboro Baptist
If you’re an abortion advocating-atheist-transgender person, David Stokes probably hates you. Actually, to be more accurate, Stokes probably wants to save you. He’ll gladly share this with you on a sign that might say you’re going to hell, too. The self-proclaimed street preacher took it to the University of Houston…
Definitive Video Anthology of the Ultimate Warrior, 1959-2014
Jim Hellwig was never an easy man to work with, and nobody knew this better than WWE chairman Vince McMahon. Hellwig, whom all of you know better under his WWE moniker of the “Ultimate Warrior” (and who, going forward in this piece will be referred to as “Warrior,” seeing as…
Menu of Menus® Draws, and Wows, Huge Crowds of Food Fans
Silver Street Station had a lot of new things going on for Menu of Menus® this year. Air conditioning, for one, had people happy to be inside eating warm comfort food from spots like Frank’s Americana Revival and Fish & the Knife. There was a lovely photography show up on…
Overly Sensitive Howard Stern Calls Jeff Van Gundy a “Douche Bag”
Anybody who has watched Jeff Van Gundy broadcast an NBA game knows that over-the-top, borderline overreaction to certain ancillary aspects of the game (maybe a minor rules interpretation or the antics of a mascot) are part of his “gimmick,” if you will. If Jeff Van Gundy were a heel WWE…
100 Favorite Dishes 2013-2014: No. 1, Pastiera di Mare con Granchio e Gamberi at Ciao Bello
This year, leading up to our annual Menu of Menus® issue, Kaitlin Steinberg counts down her 100 favorite dishes as she eats her way through Houston. She’ll compile a collection of the dishes she thinks are the most awesome, most creative and, of course, most delicious in town. It’s a…
Reality Bites: Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey
There are a million reality shows on the naked television. We’re going to watch them all, one at a time. I’ve earned this. For all the real (the misguided veneration of Giordano Bruno) and imagined (no equal time for creationists) problems with Fox’s Cosmos, it has one huge advantage going…
Pet Products for the Rich and Insane
Screenshot from theclassydog.com Hair Balls loves animals. Loooves ’em. We also love crazy animal people. But we are not above mocking them, when appropriate. And there is perhaps no greater mocking-rich demographic than folks who spend outrageous amounts of moolah on pet products. Clearly, there are more than a few…
Seder: A Cup for Elijah
Passover Seders are unique to each family, though parts of the ceremonial meal — including embarrassing the youngest person at the table with the singing of the four questions — are constant. Hebrew songs and readings, the central plate of bitter herbs, and the cup reserved for Elijah are among…
Is Your Chevy on Some Drug Gang’s Radar?
When the Houston Police Department releases its monthly list of the most stolen vehicles, the makes and models rarely change. What does move the needle a bit, however, is the total number of vehicles stolen each year. According to police, there were just over 13,500 thefts last year, a 4…
After a Decade, Lost Screwed Up Click Album The Take Over Comes to Light
The dream seemed dead. John Hawkins, a man blessed with the voice of a preacher and the mind of a rap savant, known as Big H.A.W.K., was gone. The one major cog in the machine that was the Screwed Up Click after DJ Screw’s tragic passing in 2000 had been…
This Week in Food Blogs: Make Czech Kolaches at Home
Texas Monthly: Seriously, what kind of Texan doesn’t love kolaches? While we have some awesome places to grab an authentic Czech kolache in Houston (think Revival Market), it’s always fun to make your own. Texas Monthly shares a recipe from the Little Czech Bakery in West, Texas, complete with an…
A Behind the Scenes Rehearsal Video at Murder Ballad
While the rest of the set is onstage in Zilkha Hall at the Hobby Center, a crucial centerpiece -a bar – has been carefully built in a nearby rehearsal hall so that the actors in Murder Ballad can run through their paces for the upcoming TUTS Underground production. Tuesday we…
Recipe: Nigerian Chapman Cocktail
Now that the temperatures are finally creeping up, I’m getting more in the mood for chilled beverages. While perusing recipes for Thai iced tea, I ran across a blog post that mentioned the Nigerian Chapman cocktail. Its name immediately suggested to me some intriguing imperial concoction, so I did some…
Review: Carmilla Voiez’s The Ballerina and the Revolutionary
Here at Houston Press we’ve followed the rise of Carmilla Voiez and her brand of dark, gothic, and sensual horror ever since her first novel Starblood debuted. Since the end of that trilogy of magical massacres she’s moved on to less spectral, but no less sinister subjects. The Ballerina and…
100 Creatives 2014: Kate de Para, Textile and Clothing Designer
Kate de Para doesn’t worry about making women look sexy when she designs her clothing line Evens; she worries about making them feel sexy. “I think of Asian cultures where clothing is designed with the textile in mind,” she tells us. “In Western cultures clothing is designed with the body…
Start Your Day Off Right With This Story From Vin Scully About a Crack Pipe
For all the talk about the games lasting too long or the sport moving too slowly, baseball is still a key part of the American sports tapestry, and when it’s at its best, chances are it’s being narrated by Vin Scully. Scully is in his 65th season as the voice…
Supper To Go From Miss Saigon Cafe
Even though I spent five years at Rice getting my graduate degree, I didn’t visit Miss Saigon Cafe in the Village until long after I had finished my studies. I think I subconsciously avoided the restaurant because Miss Saigon is the Broadway musical I love to hate. Or actually, mostly…
A Formal Introduction to Fishgutzzz and the Other Goddamn Gallows
The Goddamn Gallows knows you, Houston. But, they don’t really know you. They would be pleased to truly make your acquaintance. If the feeling is mutual, they invite you to come fraternize while they throw down their own brand of “gutterbilly” punk rock Thursday night at Walters. “Well, we have…
Top 10 Oatmeal Cookies in Houston
While some kids sulked at the sight of an oatmeal cookie in their lunchbox, I rejoiced. I love the chewiness that oats add to a cookie, and can’t get enough of it. Oatmeal cookies are comforting, sweet and simply a joy to eat. Brown sugar and butter hold together the…
The Ten Best Movie Performances by Nicolas Cage
As video-on-demand continues to become the preferred route of distribution for a certain kind of independent film, much is being made of Nicolas Cage’s willingness to slum for a paycheck, with recent examples including already-forgotten, small-screen-friendly items like Seeking Justice, Trespass, Stolen and The Frozen Ground. (His character names in…
Five Things Bands Should Consider Before Reuniting
After reading my colleague Corey Deiterman’s musing on why there doesn’t need to be a new Wu-Tang Clan album, I got to thinking about what it’s like to try and rekindle something with a group of fellow musicians with whom you previously made magic. I got a first-hand look at…
Paul Stanley’s New Book Looks Like the Most Reliable KISStory to Date
Face the Music: A Life Exposed By Paul Stanley HarperOne, 480 pp., $28.99 With the publication of this glitter-, greasepaint- and leather-slathered tome, all four original members of KISS have now penned their autobiographies. Not surprisingly, as one astute Web site pointed out recently by comparing the quartet – their…
Six Bands You Didn’t Know Were Still Around
Tuesday on Rocks Off, we discussed some bands who broke up with barely anyone taking notice, probably because most of those bands sucked anyway. But friends, the suck never stops. It will not end and it will not quit. It is all-pervasive, and it lives on in the spirit of…
Community Hoping a Botanical Garden Is the Answer to Revitalize Houston’s East End
There’s been a lot of heavy discussion over plans to build a botanic garden on the East End, with a likely home being the Gus Wortham Golf Course. It all came to a head at a public forum hosted by the city late last month when passions collided over where…
Nation of Preschool Troublemakers
Texas is fighting a war on multiple fronts: The war against women, the war against minorities, the war against the middle class. Who could have imagined our educational system would wage a war against preschoolers? If we trust in the latest data from U.S. Department of Education, it appears that…
UConn Wins 2014 Men’s Basketball Title: “This Is What Happens When You Ban Us”
When he took over for the retiring Jim Calhoun back in September of 2012, University of Connecticut then-interim head coach Kevin Ollie concluded his introductory press conference with some very prophetic words: “I want to just say that we’re gonna take the stairs and not the escalator because the escalator…
How Home Court Could Help Rockets Make a Deep Playoff Run
Every team wants home court advantage. It is a fairly good predictor of which team will win a series (something like 64 percent of teams with the home court win that series). But, for the Rockets, who are close to tying up the fourth seed and a first-round home court…
Feel Like Cracking Down on A-Holes Who Torture Show Horses?
The Texas chapter of the Humane Society of the United States is joining in the push to pass federal legislation that would help enforce the ban against “soring” — hurting show horses to exaggerate a high-stepping gait. The barbaric practice, which we’ll describe in a moment, was barred by legislation…
UPDATE: Video of Brawl at Houston Chacho’s Goes Viral, Reminds World We’re Classy
This past Thursday, April 3, a bystander shot footage of three women at the Chacho’s on Westheimer engaging in a physical altercation with management and staff at the restaurant. Eventually, a Chacho’s employee pinned one of the women to the ground, while the other two circled around, yelling wildly for…
Why I’m Totally on Board With the Announced Goonies Sequel
So this is finally happening: The Goonies director Richard Donner revealed last week that a sequel is currently in the works. Sean Astin said in 2012 that he was “1000 percent certain” that a sequel would happen and that he was willing to bet his children on it, so this…
Houston Bands Together to Aid Woman Injured at SXSW
On March 13, pastry chef Gracie Nguyen, 23, was badly injured in the crash at the SXSW music festival in Austin that left four people dead and another 21 people hurt. Nguyen was in the hospital in Austin for about a week, until she was able to be moved out…
Five Ways Your Smartphone Can Damage Your Life and How to Stop It
For all the advancements technology provides and all the convenience it affords us, there are risks associated with it that often catch us off guard. Who knew that the advent of the home computer would lead both to infinite discovery and obesity? It is the blessing and curse of any…
Grouplove at House of Blues, 4/7/2014
Grouplove, MS MR House of Blues April 7, 2014 Damn the iPod. Really. It’s truly ruined the way we ingest music. Long gone are the days of sitting down to a full album, taking in all of its little intricacies from front to back, allowing a band to tell their…
Top 5 Discontinued Chips We Want Back!
Nothing lasts forever, and we both know snacks can change. Well, that is not exactly what Axl Rose sang, but his sentiments about ephemerality, I think, apply to junk food as well as love. In the world of chips, flavors come and go; here are five that made their mark…
Fashion Trucks Invade Downtown Thanks to Greenstreet
Downtown Houston is the destination for evening and weekend events, but lately it has become the spot for weekday excursions as well. A new addition to the growing list of attractions filling up lunch schedules comes courtesy of Greenstreet – formerly Houston Pavilions. The three-block “shopping, dining and entertainment destination”…
Leftover Rice From Indian Takeout? Make Kheer
We have a lot of extra cooked rice in the house these days. My husband has been on an Indian cooking kick, and he successfully made several amazing batches of rogan gosh, fish masala and chicken vindaloo. He has been less successful in gauging how much rice we would consume…
Miami After Dark: H-Town Goes to South Beach
This past week, I packed my bags and headed east to Miami, that gorgeously naughty city in South Florida that rivals New York City and Los Angeles in its beauty and nightlife. The purpose was a professional one, a marketing and interactive conference for Latinos. But aside from the seminars…
Some HISD Trustees Frustrated by Dodson Elementary Do-Over
Two of her fellow trustees took Houston ISD Board President Juliet Stipeche to task at an agenda workshop Monday for her decision to reopen the Dodson Elementary closure case, supposedly settled in a 5-4 vote last month. After thanking trustees Rhonda Skillern-Jones and Wanda Adams for supporting her in bringing…
Pop Rocks: SPOILER ALERT! I Don’t Care if I Hear the Ending Before Seeing Something
I’m a big basketball fan. I have been since I was in elementary school. In the early ’90s when the Houston Rockets were winning titles, I was obsessed with watching the games. I had superstitions and rituals, all of which I thought would help the team. I sat in the…
Navigating Chianti With the Houston Press Tasting Panel
Just say the word Chianti and you evoke winding roads lined with cypress trees and old limestone farmhouses in what is perhaps Italy’s most photographed and photogenic region, Tuscany. Whether it’s mentions in pop culture (who can forget Hannibal Lecter’s infamous pairing?) or the straw-flasked bottles that once hung from…
The Rocks Off 200: Alycia Miles, Triumphant Soul Singer
Welcome to The Rocks Off 200, our portrait gallery of the most compelling profiles and personalities in the far-flung Houston music community — a lot more than just musicians, but of course they’re in there too. See previous entries in the Rocks Off 100 at this link. Who? Sometimes I…
Sheriff to Talk About State of Public Safety
Photo From Prsahouston.orgSheriff Garcia serving the law with a smile.Got something to say to the Harris County Sheriff’s office? Tonight’s your chance at a state-of-public-safety event hosted by the agency. The public town hall meeting will feature officials and public safety leaders, led by Sheriff Adrian Garcia himself. But seriously,…
The Myth of Female Privilege, or, Mark Saunders Is an Idiot
Over the last weekend a new name in the Men’s Right’s movement emerged in the form of columnist Mark Saunders at Thought Catalog. The self-described Denver yuppie debuted on the site with his article “18 Things Females Seem To Not Understand (Because, Female Privilege)”. The thing is, Saunders is completely…
Five Dishes Featuring Spring Peas
Last week we wrote about the spring produce you should be buying at farmers’ markets and grocery stores. The spring season brings lots of bright, fresh fruits and vegetables, but a special veggie seems to stand out as one of the most popular ingredients for in-season recipes: spring peas. One…
Puppets Gone Wild: A Look at Puppetsploitation X (With Video)
Puppetsploitation X, Bobbindoctrin Puppet Theatre’s annual puppet slam, features live puppet plays and films that range from the creepy to the absolutely hilarious. Carmella Clements and Larkin Elliot debut two shadow-puppet satires at this year’s festival, including Frogophobia, which is about the late, great Marvin Zindler. “I’ve been fascinated with…
Starbucks Won’t Be Bringing Booze to Houston, But Who Cares?
Starbucks recently announced that it would be adding beer and wine, as well as an “evenings menu,” to select locations around the country, after testing the plan in 26 markets during the last several years. The bad news? Starbucks booze isn’t coming to Houston anytime soon. The good news? We…
Six Bands That Broke Up Without Anyone Noticing
Usually when a band breaks up, there’s a lot of furor about it, and a lot of mourning, even if the band hadn’t done much of anything for a while. At least that’s what happens with bands who have dedicated fanbases. It’s a little bit different when it’s a band…
Upcoming: Justin Timberlake, 311, Bro Safari, Calle 13, Wolfmother, The Fray, ZZ Top, etc.
311: Wed., July 30, 8 p.m., $39.50 to $45. Bayou Music Center, 520 Texas, Houston, 713-225-8551. 4th Annual SouthEast 4/20 Fest featuring Disfrutalo!: With Downer, Devil Killing Moth, Zoofeelia, 72Names, InZurgo, Cosmic Bug Loaf, Dadsmom, Gio Chamba, Marc D, Def Perception Music. Sun., April 20, 3 p.m., $5. Bohemeo’s, 708…
Revenge of the Music Nerds: Arcade Fire Wins
Arcade Fire’s William Butler admits he still gets homesick for Texas. Even the weather…up to a point. “I miss how green everything was all the time always,” he says of his youth in The Woodlands from his current home in Montreal. “You’d come home in December and the lawns would…
2014 Texans Cheerleader Tryouts (Video/Photos)
Over 1,000 women, including at least one guy in jeans, took part in the 2014 Houston Texans Cheerleading tryouts this Saturday. Like they do every year, the Houston Texans set up a panel of judges that included coaches and super-fans. Slideshow: Texans Cheerleader Tryouts 2014 You think of cheerleaders as…
Website for Married People Looking for Extra Booty Ranks Houston
There’s probably a marriage counseling session going on right now where one of the spouses is talking about porn sites she found on her computer’s web browser. Maybe there are some texting conversations that are clearly over the line on another spouse’s smartphone, or a dress with some strange stains…
Lance Berkman, Roy Oswalt Retirement Ceremony at Minute Maid Park
It was more than just a game. At least that was the message emblazoned across the jumbotron at Minute Maid Park Saturday night as the Houston Astros hosted Albert Pujols and the rest of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. It was a game where two of the most beloved…
Few Tickets Left for Menu of Menus®! Get ‘Em Before They’re Gone!
It’s here! It’s here! It’s here! OK, actually it happens tomorrow, but close enough. Menu of Menus is finally here, which means you finally get to taste all the great food you’ve been reading about (and I’ve been writing about) for weeks! I’m told the event is almost sold out,…
Four Keys to the NCAA March Madness Finals Monday Night
Prior to the beginning of this year’s NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament (affectionately referred to as “March Madness”), billionaire Warren Buffett was offering a billion dollars to anyone who could complete a perfect bracket. The immediate reaction to anything that pays a billion dollars is “WOW,” because, well, a billion is…
Inaugural Rice Village Food & Wine Festival Kicks Off
If you’ve ever driven around Rice Village in circles looking for a parking space, you know it’s home to dozens of great restaurants and bars, so it makes sense for the neighborhood to celebrate itself. This year, for the first time, the Rice Village Alliance is hosting the Village Food…
Adventures in Gambling: Yes, People Lost Money Betting on the Undertaker at Wrestlemania 30
All good things must come to an end. For some people, “good things ending” means the end of the Undertaker’s remarkable 21 match winning streak at wrestling’s annual “showcase of the immortals,” Wrestlemania, which actually occurred on Sunday night as Brock Lesnar shockingly ended the “Dead Man’s” string of dominance…
Mixtape Monday: BeatKing, KDOGG & Mr. 16
BeatKing; 2nd Home The more I wonder about BeatKing, the more he continues to surprise me. Last week we got one of the harbingers of Texas club music with DJ Chose’s Surveillance tape, which felt more like a clever mix of Texas’ club sound with the revolving-goofball mystique that is…
Three Happy Cows Yogurt Returns to Houston Market
Happy cows from California not only make great cheese, they also make great milk, and that milk is used to make delicious, fresh and creamy yogurt in Dallas. Several months ago, the Dallas-based Greek and drinkable-yogurt company Three Happy Cows ceased production after a fire destroyed the yogurt plant. But…
Dish of the Week: Chicken and Chorizo Empanadas
From classic comfort foods to regional standouts and desserts, we’ll be sharing a new recipe with you each week. See the complete list of recipes at the end of this post. Empanadas, stuffed and fried bread or pastries, are popular all over the world, especially in southern Europe, Latin America,…
Sleigh Bells at Warehouse Live, 4/6/2014
Sleigh Bells Warehouse Live April 6, 2014 One might be forgiven for being a little surprised that Sleigh Bells are still selling tickets in 2014. The duo reached maximum buzz years ago, riding the hype all the way to a slate of plum festival gigs and late-night TV appearances. Like…
Game of Thrones: “You’re a Talker. Listening to Talkers Makes Me Thirsty.”
Welcome back! Did everyone have a good…ten months or so? Making progress in your post-Red Wedding therapy? Good, good. I was reminded during last night’s season premiere of Game of Thrones that HBO does this thing were they more or less spoil the impending episode by giving you such specific…
Spring in Houston: 5 Standout Artichoke Dishes Around Town
We don’t know about you, but we’ve got a little bit of spring (veggie) fever over here. We’ve already looked at the best places to get your asparagus on, but this week, artichokes are the name of the game. The ever-versatile vegetable, which is native to the Mediterranean, has a…
Chromeo at House of Blues, 4/6/2014
Chromeo House of Blues April 6, 2014 For someone to dance means he or she feels something deep down in his or her bones that moves not only the muscles but the spirit. Not everyone was given the gift of rhythm, but everyone has the ability to dance. It might…
Johnny Manziel Hanging Out With Marshall Henderson in Dallas (Uh-Oh!)
If you’re one of the few who has managed to catch the new Kevin Costner film Draft Day (featuring guest star Arian Foster!) at a sneak preview, and you take it as being authentic, then you remember the pain staking efforts that Sonny Weaver (Costner’s Browns’ GM character) went to…
Rehoming a Dog in Houston Is Not an Easy Task
My husband and I rescued our dog Sadie from the Gulf Coast Bull Terrier Rescue organization. I had had bull terriers as a kid and recalled loving them like crazy. Sadie doesn’t look like the classic all white bull terrier – the Target dog or Spuds MacKenzie – as she…
Way Good Food Truck Really Is Way Good
“This is way good,” my fiancé and I unintentionally said to each other after taking one bite from our fried mac and cheese balls from Way Good Food Truck. Yes, the mobile eatery’s name is a bit pretentious and forefront in describing its food, but you can’t blame a food…
The Five Weirdest Artists Ever to Go Mainstream
One thing most intense music fans agree on nowadays is that the mainstream sucks. That’s probably a sentiment that’s always been true among the underground, but you even hear it among casual listeners today. “I don’t buy albums because only one or two songs are going to be good” is…
Rice Baseball Trends Down, But UH Flies High
Sunday morning starts with a chill. The air’s heavy with fog and mist. There’s not much of a crowd at Reckling Park, but none of this is stopping the Rice Owls and East Carolina Pirates from playing baseball. The Owls are up 1-0 in the bottom of the fifth inning…
Society for the Performing Arts 2014-15 Season: Music, Dance & Chinese Acrobats
In planning its upcoming season, the Society for the Performing Arts made sure “ecletic” remains its invisible middle name, lining up everything from magic escape artists to dancers, a concert violinist and Chinese acrobats. “Our 2014-2015 season opens the door to performing artists for all ages and tastes,” said SPA…
The United States of Desserts: Key Lime Pie
In this series, we examine the history and origins of famous sweets, confections, and desserts associated with American states. I have to admit, I really don’t love key lime pie. I’ve never made it at home, and I don’t think I’ve ever ordered it at a restaurant. The handful of…
White Denim & Cass McCombs at Fitzgerald’s, 4/5/2014
White Denim, Cass McCombs Fitzgerald’s April 5, 2014 Expectations are a tricky thing that can easily make or break any situation. In many years of showgoing I’ve learned that high expectations can easily spoil your day, but it’s hard to have absolutely zero; especially if it’s not your first time…
Is Jim Hogan a Trojan Horse in Democratic Runoff?
Just as we predicted in our cover story on the Texas Agriculture Commissioner race last November, it has turned into one of the best political circuses since Claytie Williams went on his dove hunt, opened his arrogant, chauvinistic pie-hole, and handed Ann Richards the last statewide Democratic victory. Since the…
What’s the Point of Post-Credits Scenes Anymore?
Last Saturday I went and saw Captain America: The Winter Soldier for my birthday. Good film. I thoroughly enjoyed it, but I’m not here to give you a review because that position at the Houston Press is held in the iron grip of Dutch supervillainy. Instead, let’s talk about what…
France à la Houston
When translated from France to America, the culinary capital of the world’s traditions often amount to starched white table clothes and stuffy service. Houston is luckier than most cities, as there are a few places in the Bayou City to get a great croque madame or a delicious foie gras…
Houston’s Biggest Rap Stars Help Local Pastor Take the Gospel to the Hood
There are a lot of pastors in Houston. Very, very few of them can rap. And only one of them is releasing an album this week featuring guest verses by Scarface, Bun B, Z-Ro, Paul Wall and Propain. That would be Vaughaligan Walwyn, a married father of four and the…
The Five Best Concerts in Houston This Week: Karmin, Arcade Fire, Kings of Leon, etc.
Karmin House of Blues, April 8 Almost the anti-Sleigh Bells, Karmin are still attempting to pull off the Pinocchio-like transition from viral sensation to offline pop success. The Boston-based duo of Amy Heidemann and Nick Noonan let the genie out of the bottle in April 2011, when their cover of…
Damian Mandola Arrested in Hill Country for Second Time in Three Days
It’s been a bad weekend for Carrabba’s founder and restaurateur Damian Mandola. On Thursday, he was arrested in Hays County near Trattoria Lisina, a restaurant he owns in Driftwood. According to police records, the 61-year-old was booked into the Hays County Jail on April 3 after he was spotted driving…
Supervisors, Officers Disciplined in HPD Homicide Probe
Four high-level homicide investigators and four officers have been disciplined after an extensive internal investigation of the Houston Police Department’s homicide division. The investigation found that 24 cases dating back to 2004 “were identified with deficiencies including not conducting proper follow-up, not entering documentation in a timely manner, insufficient documentation,…
Suspect in Strip Club Murder Captured in Mexico (Update)
The suspect in the murder of a pregnant cleaning woman working inside Eclipse Gentlemen’s nightclub was captured yesterday, less than two weeks after Maria Lucrecia was found dead. Osvaldo Fernandez-Aguilar, 23, was on his way to Cuba via Cancun, according to police, when he was arrested. Mexican authorities assisted the…
Mayor’s Anti-Discrimination Proposal May Not Be Wide Enough
It’ll be a public statement about discrimination in the City of Houston if a planned anti-discrimination ordinance gets through the council. For her final two years in office, Mayor Annise Parker wants to be working on greening Houston and cutting deeper into the homelessness problem, but it may be the…
Damian Mandola Charged With Burglary in Hill Country
Restaurateur Damian Mandola has been charged with burglary of a building at a winery adjacent to his Hill Country eatery, Trattoria Lisina. The 61-year-old founder of the Carrabba’s restaurant chain was booked into the Hays County Jail on April 3, and was released after posting a $5,000 bond. This isn’t…
Galveston Oil Spill Animal Body Count Continues
As we’ve unfortunately learned many times before, a bunch of oil dumped into bodies of water doesn’t tend to work out well for the birds and other animals that live in the area. We learned it with Exxon Valdez and it hit much closer to home with the British Petroleum…
Houston Man Used Religion to Sucker Woman Into Ponzi Scheme
A Houston man was sent to federal prison recently in a devious scheme to bilk a Mississippi woman out of her divorce settlement money. Samuel Ray Palasota used the word of God to get more than a half-million dollars from the woman, making her think they were partners in a…
Games of Thrones, Season 4: Your Favorite Killing-Beloved- (and Un-) Characters Show Returns
T.S. Eliot was right: April really is the “cruellest” month. Not only do TV viewers have to contend with the finales of Justified, Archer, and Suits (actually, I’m pretty sure my wife is the only one who cares about that one), but this Sunday brings the premiere of Season Four…
UPDATE: HISD Culinary Students Put Their Skills on the Line
UPDATE: The Westside High School culinary team won the Houston District Cooking up Change competition this past weekend. Barrosha Boykin, Santiago Castaneda and Andrew Winkle prepared a chicken chili sandwich with fajita chicken strips, black beans and chili powder and a sauce made of tomatoes, jalapeno peppers, and red and…
100 Favorite Dishes 2013-2014: No. 2, Bone Marrow Pho at Pho Binh by Night
This year, leading up to our annual Menu of Menus® issue, Kaitlin Steinberg counts down her 100 favorite dishes as she eats her way through Houston. She’ll compile a collection of the dishes she thinks are the most awesome, most creative and, of course, most delicious in town. It’s a…
Jamey Johnson at House of Blues, 4/3/2014
Jamey Johnson House of Blues April 3, 2014 Can you sing along to “The Yellow Rose of Texas”? Don’t be silly; of course you can. Right? But try it, and it’s tougher than you think. Jamey Johnson knows the words, as well as those “O Susannah,” which is of similar…
What’s in Fashion: Nicole Kidman Goes Pantless, Marc Jacobs Casts New Ad Via Twitter, Spray on Yoga Pants
Lots of breaking fashion news hits the interwebs and I don’t want you to miss one bit of it. So, I present some of the biggest headlines each week for your reading pleasure. Click and enjoy!…
Reviews for the Easily Distracted: In the Blood
Title: In the Blood DIdn’t Captain America: The Winter Soldier Open This Week? I went to the Astros opening game instead. What is it with these questions, anyway? Rating Using Random Objects Relevant To The Film: Three Gulfstreams out of five. Brief Plot Synopsis: Newlywed with troubled past attempts to…
The Difference Between Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts Outside the Grocery Store
The Boy Scouts of America have really got to hire a marketing expert to have a little talk with the way they let the Scouts raise money outside of grocery stores because at this point I swear it feels like I am being accosted by tiny, well-prepared drug dealers. Let…
Top 5 Underrated Burgers in Houston (According to You)
Well, Houston, you’ve proven your love of burgers yet again. More than 1,100 people voted in our poll to determine which burgers in Houston don’t get their fair due, and the results are in. It actually wasn’t even close for first place, either. Forty-five votes separate first and second places,…
Movie Review of Draft Day (Featuring Texans RB Arian Foster)
The NFL Draft has grown into a monster business. There are literally hundreds of websites, pundits, and magazines making money hand over fist on the (intelligent sounding, but in the end largely random) speculation on which teams will draft which college kids. Smoke, mirrors, and the Wonderlic, baby! Hell, the…
Does Ellie Being LGBT Change Playing The Last of Us?
After the revelation of Ellie’s kiss in Left Behind, the downloadable expansion to The Last of Us, I decided two things. One, that I was sufficiently over being terrified of the game the first time to give it another go, and two, that I was curious whether or not the…
The 5 Best Things to Eat or Drink This Weekend: It’s Crawfish & Barbecue
Pearland Crawfish Festival @ Shadow Creek Ranch Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Sunday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. 15800 South Freeway, Pearland Come for one day, or for all three days this weekend at the Pearland Crawfish Festival. Feast on crawfish from Swamp Shack Catering for $4…
Upcoming Events: Menu of Menus & Vedge Dinner at Brennan’s
The Houston Press Menu of Menus Extravaganza is on Tuesday, April 8, at the fully air conditioned Silver Street Station. From 7 p.m. until 10 p.m. you will have the opportunity to sample food from more than 40 Houston restaurants — bring your stretchy pants! Sample Italian food from Ciao…
100 Creatives 2014: Shawn Swanner, Video Game Painter
What He Does: I suppose it’s possible to need another reason to go visit the retro game store Game Over. You know, if the whole “it’s like walking through every happy moment I had as a child at once” thing wasn’t a good enough excuse. Well here’s another incentive, the…
A Homeless Life With Cats on Allen’s Landing (Video)
As you walk along the banks of Buffalo Bayou near Allen’s Landing, the first thing noticeable about Percy Lyons, the subject of this week’s feature on Houston’s hidden homeless, is not his camp or his cots, but the cats. In fact, the 16 cats that live up in Percy’s camp…
A Real Fan’s Top 10 KISS Albums
Marking their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame next Thursday, Rolling Stone has put KISS on the cover (for the first time ever!) and also made a list of the 10 best KISS albums. Sadly, this is something that magazine’s Richard Thompson fanatics are just not qualified…
Openings & Closings: Bradley’s Fine Diner Officially Opens & the Heights Gets More Crawfish
New month, new openings. April may bring showers, but the month hasn’t brought us any notable closings yet, just lots of openings and announcements of openings. Thien An has reopened at its new location, 2611 San Jacinto, according to CultureMap Houston. After closing in 2012, the Vietnamese restaurant has began…
Top 5 Things to Do in Houston This Weekend: The Wayne Shorter Quartet, John Wiese, Jo Koy and More
For those who want to see a genuine giant of jazz’s golden era in live performance, time isn’t on your side. Sure Sonny Rollins, Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor and Jimmy Heath still perform occasionally, but seeing them on stage is probably going to require a trip to New York or…
Under a Different Name, HISD Trustee’s Daughter Talks About “Bully” Principal
Houston ISD trustee Manuel Rodriguez told us yesterday he wasn’t going to take a public position on the much-debated-question in recent months of whether the principal at Patterson Elementary is any good or not. “It’s not a board member position to handle administrative or personnel positions,” he said taking the…
Barney the Dinosaur: More Influential Than Nirvana?
One question I’ve tried to avoid asking musicians I get to chat with is, “Who are your musical influences?” It’s trite. And if you really love music, you can figure out the answer to this question at least eight out of ten times. But the biggest reason I don’t ask…
CityCentre’s Breezy Bars Teem With Nightlife
‘Hi. Can you make me a lychee martini?” “A what?” “A lychee martini — it’s on your menu.” “I don’t think we have those.” “I’m pretty sure you do; you guys serve them at dinner. And at lunch. L-Y-C-H-E-E martini.” We’re trying desperately to communicate with the bartender at Straits, but…
Houston’s Top 10 Rock Bars
As our sister blog Eating…Our Words does, from time to time Rocks Off will be giving your our picks for the top taverns in various Houston-area neighborhoods. Of course, the lines can be porous, but here anything with a TABC license that cannot reasonably be considered either a restaurant, coffeehouse…
The 10 Best Concerts In Houston This Weekend: Pearland Crawfish Festival, Sleigh Bells, etc.
Quiet Company Warehouse Live, April 4 Quiet Company are quickly becoming Houston’s favorite Austin band, which must make Bob Schneider’s crew a little nervous. It’s was hard not to get swept up in the dapper five-piece’s symphonic rock in the grand tradition of The Who or …Trail of Dead (“You,…
Mayor Parker Talks Crime Lab, Rape Kits and Human Rights at State of the City
The biggest applause for Mayor Annise Parker’s third State of the City speech probably came when she talked about creating an independent forensics crime lab and when she talked about the work in helping to eliminate a backlog of untested rape kits. That was part of the speech she gave…
Hallelujah! Kirby House of Pies Reopens
It happened back in November of 2013: A fire damaged the beloved House of Pies on Kirby, and it was forced to close its doors, giving untold numbers of Bayou Goo addicts severe anxiety attacks. Well, after much construction and renovation, a new and improved House of Pies has reopened,…
Warning to Owners of Recalled GM Vehicles in Houston
Courtesy Senate Democrats Media CenterGM CEO Mary Barra gets ready to testify about saving a buck a car while victims’ loved ones look on.General Motors CEO Mary Barra has had a rough few days. She’s been subject to intense grilling from House and Senate inquiries regarding GM’s actions, or lack…
Pro Days Done, Clowney Makes Case for Number One Overall Pick
When it comes to the draft process in the NFL, and there are multiple prospects jockeying for any one position or status, it may not be about who has the last word necessarily, but from a Pro Day standpoint, it’s definitely about who has the latest word. The Texans, in…
A Farm-to-Table Peruvian Pisco Dinner at Latin Bites
I distinctly remember the first time I met Johnny Schuler, master distiller for Pisco Portón. Schuler, known to Peruvians and pisco aficionados as “Pisco Johnny,” is a TV personality in his native Peru and the world’s foremost authority on Peruvian pisco. It was April 2011, and we were meeting because…
Plutocracy in Action: Rick Perry’s Employment Agency and McCutcheon Simplified
That quaking and creaking isn’t from the Chilean earthquake, it’s a destructive seismic shift to right-wing extremism and plutocracy in real time with its epicenter in Texas. The rumble began with Greg Abbott’s new education model, “Teach the Best and Shoot the Rest” based on Charles Murray’s white nationalist writing…
Top 5 Tortellini to Try in Houston
For Lent this year I considered saying “basta” to pasta in an attempt to eat more vegetables and protein. Thank God I had a change of heart, because it seems like every day I run into another scrumptious macaroni dish. My penchant for stuffed pasta, in combination with my fascination…
iPhone App Helps Shut Harris County Grow Operation Worth $1.4 Million
While it sometimes feels a little gimmicky when the sheriff’s office pushes their iWatch Harris County smartphone app, it may have recently helped deputies squash an indoor marijuana growing operation worth more than $1 million. We’re not sure if we’re in support of all that greenery being wasted and eventually…
Food & Wine’s Best New Chef List Includes Three Texans (and One Houstonian)
Of Food & Wine magazine’s ten “best new chefs,” a designation given every year to up-and-comers in the United States food scene, three are from Texas. Way to represent, lone star state! The magazine released its annual list this week, and chefs from Houston, Austin and Dallas made the cut,…
Cat Fashion Magazine in the Works, Not a Late April Fools’ Joke
You read it right ladies and gents. A fashion magazine dedicated to cats is in the works. I’m not sure if this will be a cat-astrophe or if I’m secretly fe-line it. (See what I did there.) Puss Puss magazine, the brainchild of Royal Academy of Art graduate Maria Joudina,…
Corn on the Cob, Five Ways
The sun is out, and it’s (hopefully) here to stay, so now is the time to enjoy some al fresco dining. And what better way to enjoy the warm weather than with the classic picnic and poolside barbecue fare, corn on the cob? While we obviously love our corn stick…
The Rocks Off 200: DJ Piam, Poison Girl’s Bacon-Fat Funk Specialist
Who? DJ Piam is one of those Houston treasures that is hard to translate to outsiders. A bike mechanic by day, Piam slips into DJ mode when the sun goes down and lays down a mighty smorgasbord of late-’60s/early-’70s old-school funk that would tie even a music critic’s head in…
Cougars Go All In on Rocket’s Kelvin Sampson Despite NCAA Issue
The University of Houston announced last night that Houston Rockets assistant coach Kelvin Sampson has been named as the ninth head coach in the history of the men’s basketball team. Sampson’s the former head coach at Washington State, Oklahoma, and Indiana. He got all of those schools into the NCAA…
8 Obnoxious People to Avoid at I-Fest
Sometimes you feel like a faux-Aussie accent, sometimes you don’t. At I-Fest, we don’t. The theme for this year’s International Festival is Australia, which means that although you may be tempted to throw on your best Croc Dundee costume and head on up, you still shouldn’t come anywhere near us,…
The Old Fashioned Cocktail Gets a Make-Under
The Old Fashioned cocktail is one of the most popular drinks in the present.
NASA Broke Up With Russia’s Space Agency, Now What?
The United States has ended things between NASA and Russia’s space agency. While the U.S. has yet to issue a Taylor Swiftian pop ballad about the breakup, a memo on the split did get leaked. We can’t say we didn’t see this coming. Things have been, shall we say, tense…
Just a Tease: 10 Photos of Dita Von Teese to Prepare You for Strip Strip Hooray [Slightly NSFW]
Let us cut to the chase: you care not about the words on this page. I know this. You know this. I could share with you the epic tale of a web editor at an alt-weekly who wanted nothing more than the best burlesque slideshow for you, dear reader, to…
Four Dead in Fort Hood Shooting, 16 Injured
The message went out at 5:01 p.m. on Fort Hood’s Twitter account: “All personnel on post are asked to shelter in place.” The message was re-tweeted more than 1,800 times and by then news spread that the army installation in Killeen had seen another deadly shooting. Three people are dead…
Rest of the Best: Houston’s Top 10 Music Video Directors
Everyone knows, or should know, that Houston is a hive of tremendous live musical talent. Seriously, go out sometime. Any time. There are bands for all tastes, from the light-hearted pop rocky to the esoteric beyond all measures of known sound. However, it seems to be less well-known that many…
Top 5 Banana Breads in Houston: Just Like Mom Makes
Good banana bread is moist; it’s full of bananas; it’s sweet, but doesn’t make your teeth rot; it’s comforting; and it’s just what you need at the end of a hard day (or any day, for that matter). While your grandmother or mom (or you) probably makes the best banana…
Waxahatchee’s Katie Crutchfield: At Home Wherever She Goes
Waxahatchee front woman Katie Crutchfield is a homebody…sort of. Geographically speaking, she’s relatively nomadic. Born and bred in Alabama, Crutchfield was raised as Southern as they come. Three years ago, however, she left Alabama at age 22 and headed east to Philadelphia, where her band Waxahatchee’s notable folk-meets-pop-punk album Cerulean…
The Last VJ’s Top 5 Videos of the Week
Welcome back to The Last VJ, music fans. I’m pleased to present a pretty diverse group to you this week. We’ve got everything from Disney pop princesses going goth to a short music film directed by — not making this up — Lena Dunham. Electronica, pop-rock, and hardcore are on…
Why Listen to a Liar?
Before The New York Times named him its lead reporter on the 2001 D.C. sniper story, Jayson Blair had been accused of plagiarism in The Washington Post, had lied that a cousin had died on 9-11 to get out of contributing to the Times’s great “Portraits of Grief” series, was…
The Importance of Being Earnest
Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest closes out the Classical Theatre Company’s 2013-2014 season. The comedy of manners follows two friends, Jack and Algernon, who create alter egos for themselves in an attempt to escape society’s rigid rules. The trouble starts when the two women they love fall in…
The iFest Inaugural Film Festival — Down Under Films: Priscilla Queen of the Desert
The Houston International Festival focuses on Australia this year, and as part of the celebration, several films are being screened in the iFest Inaugural Film Festival. This week it’s Priscilla Queen of the Desert, the story of a group of cross-dressing performers who tour the Australian outback. Hugo Weaving, Guy…
Communicating Doors
It’s the year 2024, and Phoebe walks through the wrong hotel door and into a world of danger. She meets another woman, Ruella, and together they try to stop someone from being killed, as they flip back and forth through time. Alley Theatre Artistic Director Gregory Boyd, who describes the…
A Girl and Her Bike
Like all child protagonists in movies, Wadjda’s Wadjda wants one pure thing so much that the very concept of want shades into need. If this plucky Saudi Arabian girl (played by preteen Waad Mohammed) doesn’t get a bicycle, it seems, some fundamental quality of hers might not survive adolescence. Her yen for small rebellions…
“Topsoil”
The Houston center for Contemporary Craft has a strict “Don’t touch the art” policy, but if you could pick up the Kate de Para’s contributions to “Topsoil” — you can’t, but if you could — you’d find that the rock-like objects are very light. “It’s very deceptive,” de Para tells…
Point for Rumsfeld
‘I’ve interviewed a lot of nasty characters over the years,” says a cheerful Errol Morris over lunch on a bright Los Angeles day. “I’m a connoisseur of bullshit.” He’s sampled some of the finest: Holocaust deniers, murderers swearing their innocence, a beauty queen who claims she only kidnapped and raped…
Wayne Shorter Quartet
For those who want to see a genuine giant of jazz’s golden era in live performance, time isn’t on your side. Sure Sonny Rollins, Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor and Jimmy Heath still perform occasionally, but seeing them on stage is probably going to require a trip to New York or…
Imaginary Values presents John Wiese in Houston
Musician and experimental filmmaker John Wiese is making his Houston debut, and he’s rounded up some of the most out-there artists in the city to help him. “It’s kind of unbelievable considering how many shows I’ve played in the U.S., but I’ve simply never had the opportunity to play in…
Houston Premieres: Following the Ninth: In the Footsteps of Beethoven’s Final Symphony
Ludwig van Beethoven’s sonic masterpiece Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Op. 125 is one of classical music’s best known works, especially the bombastic finale (think fireworks and the finale of Caddyshack). Part of the Houston Premieres series, the documentary Following the Ninth: In the Footsteps of Beethoven’s Final Symphony…
His Teacher Called My Son a Loser. Help!
Welcome to Ask Willie D, Rocks Off’s advice column where the Geto Boys MC answers reader questions about matters, in his own words, “funny, serious or unpredictable.” Something on your mind? Ask Willie D! HIS TEACHER CALLED MY SON A LOSER Dear Willie D: My 9-year-old son’s teacher called him…
Jo Koy
Say the name Jo Koy five times real fast — sounds like jokey, doesn’t it? We think Koy, born Joseph Glenn Herbert, is trying to send out a subliminal message to his audience — “I’m funny. I’m jokey. You will laugh.” Koy, who’s deceptively sophisticated at the mike, doesn’t really…
HBO’s Doll & Em Takes on Women’s Spontaneous Friendship Combustion
Why can’t women stay friends? That’s a trick question, of course, but also one that British actresses Emily Mortimer and Dolly Wells — lifelong pals in real life — attempt to answer earnestly and honestly in their new HBO cringe comedy Doll & Em. In the six-episode series, Mortimer and…
Cloud Gate Dance of Taiwan: Songs of the Wanderers
Taiwan’s renowned contemporary dance company Cloud Gate Dance Theatre makes its Houston debut with the evening-length work Songs of the Wanderers. Inspired by the tale of Siddhartha’s quest for enlightenment, choreographer Lin Hwaimin has created a powerful story of spiritual pilgrimage. Songs is set to Georgian folk songs and mixes…
Paris Proves It’s Perfect for a Rom-Com or Tragedy in Le Week-End
The great insight in director Roger Michell’s fourth collaboration with writer Hanif Kureishi is its vision of Paris as an arena equally amenable to romantic comedy and sulking tragedy. Thus the City of Lights becomes a proving ground in Le Week-End, where Jim Broadbentand Lindsay Duncan play an aging middle-class British couple quarreling away their anniversary,…
Reginald Ballard
You might know comic actor Reginald Ballard best as “Bruh-man from the fifth flo” on the Fox sitcom Martin. (Bru-man wasn’t real smart; he usually held up four fingers when he said “fifth flo.”) Ballard grew up in Galveston, where he was an all-district linebacker for Ball High School. From…
Demy Goddesses
A euphoric swirl of sherbet colors, Jacques Demy’s Hollywood-musical homage The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967) elevates even the most mundane actions to the spectacular: Simply crossing the street occasions an ecstatic choreography of cartwheeling and front-flipping passersby. The film, Demy’s fourth, was his follow-up to The Umbrellas of Cherbourg…
Houston Barbecue Festival
In 2013, 1,300 people came out in the chilly and windy weather to stuff themselves silly with brisket, sausage, turkey and more at the inaugural Houston Barbecue Festival. And this year, they’re doing it all over again at the Second Annual Houston Barbecue Festival. “This year, my partner, Michael Fulmer,…
Spoiler: Torture’s Bad
Has it ever occurred to contemporary commercial filmmakers that maybe audiences could take a movie’s word for it that a character has been tortured? That perhaps implication and skilled acting could communicate the idea with sufficient power, and that we might all be spared the screaming and limb-breaking and slow-motion…
Experimental Films from India
While many filmgoers immediately associate representation of India’s cinema first and foremost with the colorful, danceable rom-coms of Bollywood, a smaller group of writers, directors and actors look toward a more cutting edge. Eleven such works are featured in Rice University’s festival Experimental Films From India. Among them are Sunday’s…
Bon Vivamps
The vampires that walk among us — and they do — are not the Twilight kind, or the True Blood kind, or even the Buffy kind. In the world of Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive, the director’s most emotionally direct film since Dead Man, and maybe his finest, period,…
Cold Sassy Tree
Love Simpson, the woman at the center of the Carlisle Floyd opera Cold Sassy Tree, is a woman with a plan. It’s not a great plan, but given that it’s the year 1900 and Simpson is an old maid living in a gossipy small town, it’s a pretty good one…
The Breakaway
Most art movements reach a point when the work slowly begins to break away. That breaking point is reached in Alexandros Avranas’s Miss Violence, the latest export from the formally ambitious talent factory of contemporary Greek cinema. Recalling this movement’s ur-film, Yorgos Lanthimos’s Dogtooth, in its depiction of a bracingly…
Houston Press Menu of Menus® Extravaganza presented by Stella Artois
The annual Houston Press Menu of Menus® -Extravaganza, presented by Stella Artois, returns to Silver Street Station, and it’s going to be better than ever. The evening features food from more than 40 Houston restaurants and samples of a wide variety of beers and wines. There’s also the 3rd Annual…
Descent of Man
It’s been 5 million years since humanity hauled itself from the swamp, and according to Joe director David Gordon Green, we’re devolving back into muck. While the stoners of Green’s Pineapple Express regressed from men to boys after a few puffs of weed, this grimly beautiful drama starring Nicholas Cage…
47th Annual WorldFest — Houston International Film Festival
The tagline for the 47th Annual WorldFest — Houston International Film Festival is “Everybody’s a critic.” With some 50 indie features and more than 100 film shorts from 31 countries on the festival’s ten-day schedule, it would seem quite a few people are filmmakers, too. Highlights of this year’s festival…
Comedian Has a Sad
Watching Kristen Wiig on Saturday Night Live, you maybe sometimes wondered if she was from outer space, perhaps some planet where women have big foreheads and tiny hands and sing like chickens on helium. As sheltered housekeeper Johanna in Liza Johnson’s proudly frustrating Hateship Loveship — a pun on the…
Godspell
Grammy and Academy Award honoree Stephen Schwartz is credited with writing the music and lyrics to Godspell, with John-Michael Tebelak providing the book, but anyone who’s read the Gospel of St. Matthew is sure to recognize the story. Jeff Baldwin directs the musical, with Jared Barnes appearing as Jesus and…
The 10 Worst Musical Comebacks of All Time
Don’t call it a comeback…because it sucked. Sometimes it’s hard to remember that “less is more,” especially when you’re a retired musician. It can be easy to find yourself pining away for the spotlight and those glory days of old, but we really would advise you to think twice before…
Capsule Stage Reviews: April 3, 2014
By the Way, Meet Vera Stark The award-winning playwright Lynn Nottage is as gifted at humor as she is at drama, delivering a sophisticated comedic tour de force that makes fun of Hollywood’s stereotypes of blacks. The lead characters — it’s Hollywood in 1933 — are Gloria Mitchell and her…
The Houston Grand Opera Prepares to Go Gargantuan With the First Part of the Ring of the Nibelung
Without doubt he is the most despised composer in history. Yet he wrote some of the world’s most sublime music. More books have been written about him than any other composer. He’s been called “a titan,” “The wizard of Bayreuth” and “The Behemoth.” He’s also been called a rabid anti-Semite,…
Booker T’s Reality of Wrestling Gets a Second Chance, Just as He Did
In a spacious area in the back of a strip mall gym in southeast Houston, in one of two professional wrestling style rings, Kevin Burnhardt executes a hip toss on Natasha Tassinari. If you’re a wrestling fan, you know a hip toss is a basic transitional wrestling move, an afterthought,…
CityCentre’s Young-Professional Social Scene Is Thriving
‘Hi. Can you make me a lychee martini?” “A what?” “A lychee martini — it’s on your menu.” “I don’t think we have those.” “I’m pretty sure you do; you guys serve them at dinner. And at lunch. L-Y-C-H-E-E martini.” We’re trying desperately to communicate with the bartender at Straits,…
Marvel Goes Conspiracy Thriller in Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Tucked into a pocket of his workout sweats, Steve Rogers — a.k.a. Captain America, the serum-enhanced Yankee Doodle Dynamo who’s spent the last six decades in deep freeze — keeps a notebook of cultural beats he’s missed: Star Wars, Marvin Gaye, Thai food. (“We used to boil everything,” he mock-groans.) If…
Capsule Art Reviews: April 3, 2014
“The Age of Impressionism: Great French Paintings from the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute” These days, Impressionist exhibitions are the art museum version of the ballet The Nutcracker: frothy and beautiful, if a little overexposed, and sure to pack ’em in at almost any price. Even though we’ve already…
Ordering Truffles Out of Season
Market Watch “Don’t order anything with truffles,” my friend said during a recent dinner at an upscale restaurant in town. “It’s not truffle season anymore. It won’t be worth it.” I had, of course, heard the phrase “truffle season” before, particularly in reference to the expensive Alba white truffles, which…
The Lessons of the Galveston Bay Oil Spill
Highlights from Hair Balls Environment Mark Twain’s declaration that “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme” is an appropriate and memorable reminder in the wake of the March 24, Galveston Bay oil spill. It’s one more prompt that environmental abuses, whether by negligence, human error, or political gain, need…
Special César Chávez Edición
Dear Mexican: I’m a second-generation Orange County-raised pocho. Both sides of my family have been civil rights activists since the 1940s. My mother’s family took part in the landmark case Mendez, et al vs. Westminster, et al. in 1946. My father was a Chicano activist in the 1960s and 1970s…
Houston’s Hidden Homeless Live Under Bridges, in the Shadows, Out of Sight and Mind
A low, animal-like howl begins to rise from under the Main Street bridge along Buffalo Bayou. Through the eerie darkness, the reflective glint of countless eyes gives the feeling of being watched. The howl ends in a chuckle. Percy Lyons is calling his cats home. And they come from everywhere,…
Tiger Den’s Noodles and Broth Are Vying to Be Houston’s Best
On average, a bowl of ramen takes 27 minutes to eat. When it comes to your table, you first must feel the bowl. Cup your hands around the patterned porcelain and let them linger a moment before the radiating heat becomes too much to bear. The bowl should be so…
Noah Wants to Be a Mad Epic
To hear Darren Aronofsky tell it, in the interviews he’s given recently to The New York Times Magazine and The New Yorker, there was no way in hell he’d let his special-effects extravaganza Noah, years in the planning, be your run-of-the-mill, candy-ass Biblical epic. The ark built by Russell Crowe’s…
Arcade Fire’s Bad Covers, Radiator Hospital’s Thrifty Ideals
Hipsters Woodlands expats Win and Will Butler and the rest of their Montreal-based band, Arcade Fire, make lightweight pretentious rock for hipsters and bored suburban kids. That’s fine, because it’s a market that apparently Jason Mraz wasn’t cornering quite well enough. But now they have crossed the line with me…
