Father Figures: 100 Famous Musicians’ Paternal Professions
If you’re a Texan of a certain age, this week you’ve probably spent some time mourning the death of Jerry Haynes, the children’s TV host better known as Mr. Peppermint. Haynes’ show on WFAA-TV in Dallas, Peppermint Place, ran from the ’60s to the ’90s and was widely syndicated across…
FDA Needs Money to Fight Cantaloupes of Death
In case you haven’t heard, now even cantaloupe can kill you. A bacteria called listeria contaminated cantaloupes in Colorado (say that three times fast), turning the delicious melons into orange orbs of death. The CDC says 13 people have died as a result of what is now considered the worst…
Comment of the Day: Sending Food Back to the Kitchen
Here on Eating Our Words, the commenters absolutely make the blog, and our Comment of the Day honors the best of the bunch. Every day, we read you guys and pick the commenter, or commenters, who made us laugh, cry, salivate over something delicious, or think about things in a…
Five Reasons Why Perry’s Attempt to Block Negative Social Media Content Is a Bad Idea
Controlling negative publicity is tough business in the modern world. Virtually everything is caught on tape — good and bad — and the Internet provides the ideal place for opposition. From anonymous commenters to bloggers to people on social networking sites, it is impossible to prevent negative commentary, which can…
A New Law to Fight the Cantaloupes of Death
Sure, today may be World Rabies Day, but that’s not the only deadly disease you need to worry about in this dangerous time of ours: In case you haven’t heard, now even cantaloupe can kill you. A bacteria called listeria contaminated cantaloupes in Colorado (say that three times fast), turning…
Say My Name: Bands Named After Actual, Real People
This Friday would have been Z.Z. Hill’s 76th birthday, but the popular Texas bluesman passed away in 1984 from a heart attack. Most people only know who the late soul crooner is through his connection to ZZ Top. The moniker of that little ol’ band from where we are sitting…
100 Favorite Dishes: No. 2, Ceviche at Xuco Xicana
This year leading up to our annual Best of Houston issue, we’re counting down our 100 favorite dishes in Houston. This list comprises our favorite dishes from the last year, dishes that are essential to Houston’s cultural landscape and/or dishes that any visitor (or resident) should try at least once…
Seth Alverson, Local Artist Who Painted Twin Paintings for His “Lonely Unwanted Work,” Subject of This Week’s Cover Story
Seth Alverson is a genius, a madman or both. If anything, the subject of this week’s cover story has pulled off something quite unprecedented. At Seth’s solo art show in 2010, ten of his 16 paintings didn’t sell. “Nobody said anything about them,” says the 31-year-old artist, who often paints…
Parker Afraid of Dick: Press Release Headline of the Day
The battle over campaign signs has raged since the dawn of time when cavemen running for chief of their tribes would roll boulders covered in chalk-drawn scribblings about how the humps of their opponents were a sign of weakness in battle. In our world today, the more pedestrian matters of…
The Ten Best Pictures of Brigitte Bardot Ever (Probably)
Today is French bombshell and noted racial shit-stirrer Brigitte Bardot’s 77th birthday. The model, actress and sometime singer still makes lists of the most-desirable women of all time, and her press photos and modeling snaps are still drooled over by men of all ages. Hell, my own grandfather probably had…
Garden Fresh: Easy Cilantro and Parsley
The terrible heat seems to have passed, though in a season when a hurricane whacked villages in Vermont instead of Galveston, it’s hard to be certain. Some herbs survived easily through the 100˚ days — the basil, oregano, chives and spearmint — but hierba buena for mojitos struggled, as Houston…
UH Preps for UTEP While Rice Takes on Southern Miss
It’s no secret that the Houston Cougars (4-0) have problems when it comes to playing the UTEP Miners (2-2). No matter how good the Coogs might be, or how bad the Miners might be, the game is a struggle. They’ve played eight times, and each team has won four times…
Last Night: Cantare Houston Opens Its Ninth Season at Christ the King Church
Lightning struck during Cantare Houston’s 2011-2012 season-opening concert at Christ the King Evangelical Lutheran Church on Rice Boulevard. This is not a cheesy and clichéd attempt at attention getting, but rather a truth that doubles as an appropriate characteristic of what the choir is all about these days in a…
Sex, Money & Other Ways To Guarantee Urban Radio Airplay
A cursory glance at the year-to-date urban radio chart reaffirms an age-old music industry adage: Sex sells. You can see the Top 10 at the bottom of this post, but first let’s talk about a few of the chart’s recurring themes. Sex Sells: Miguel’s “Sure Thing” occupies the top spot…
Aarón Sanchez Heats Up the House of Blues
Did you know the House of Blues serves food? If you didn’t, then you should know now — all 13 locations of the music venue are offering new dishes and revamped old favorites for their restaurants, re-branded as “Crossroads at the House of Blues,” by celebrity chef Aarón Sanchez. You…
ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition — Mystery Houston Reality Star Weighs in at Discovery Green
It’s the moment this show’s “super-obese” subjects, along with their friends and family, wait for after a year of diet and exercise, and an attempt to drop half their body weight: the final weigh-in. A cast member from season two of ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition will be stepping…
James Edwin Durham: One-Man Lufkin Crime Wave Finally Brought Down — Featuring Musical Mugshot Slideshow
Check the musical slideshow of Durham’s mugshots after the jump. It’s been a rough year for James Edwin Durham. Since last November, the 39-year-old Lufkin man has allegedly burned his mother’s house down while cooking meth, gotten shot in the ass, been charged with numerous felonies in several different incidents…
Waiter, This Soup Is [Supposed to Be] Cold
In the course of dining at Brasserie 19 for this week’s cafe review, I noticed a man at the table next to me during lunch send back a piece of perfectly cooked red snapper for being “too raw.” My dining companion and I watched in horror as the fluffy white…
Cover Story: Seth Alverson Copies His Own Paintings, Then Hangs Them Side by Side in a Gallery
Seth Alverson is a genius, a madman or both. If anything, the subject of this week’s cover story has pulled off something quite unprecedented. At Seth’s solo art show in 2010, ten of his 16 paintings didn’t sell. “Nobody said anything about them,” remembers the 31-year-old artist, who often paints…
The Best Comics of September
Once a month we’ll be bringing you a summary of the best comics to hit the shelves courtesy of the staff at 8th Dimension Comics. Catwoman #1 Here we are at the big DC reboot, our commentary of which got hurled at Jim Lee during an NPR interview. So far,…
Dig This: Rivers, Children of Pop, Guilt Party, Bloombox & Cosmic Sound
The current volume of local music is staggering, so Rocks Off wants to help you (and ourselves) keep up. Dig This is back with round four of our perpetual local band profiling, reporting back on all the internet trolling we’ve done and the acts we’ve discovered in the process. Here’s…
Houston Press Best of Houston®: The Results Are In
The Houston Press Best of Houston® BestFest was a raging success. Now it’s time to find out who and what will actually be given the title of Best of Houston®. Our theme this year was “Resident Genius,” celebrating the brilliant minds that make our city great, and there is clearly…
Tasting Notes: This Week in Wine Blogs
Wine & Spirits: For the second year in a row, a Texan has been named one of the best new sommeliers in the U.S. by Wine & Spirits Magazine (last year, Houston native Mark Sayre brought the accolade to the Lone Star State). Austin-based sommelier June Rodil (previously wine director…
Last Night: Molotov At House Of Blues
Molotov House of Blues September 27, 2011 The audience was already getting rowdy as we photographers claimed our spots in the soon-to-be drop zone for crowd surfers in front of the House of Blues stage. The concert hadn’t even started and there were several 20-oz. Bud Light cans littering the…
The Unglamorous Sixties: Cinema Bomar
If you’ve been watching recent television premieres, you may have noticed that TV executives have packed their views into a DeLorean like it was a clown car and driven us all into a time warp. With such shows as NBC’s The Playboy Club, ABC’s Pan Am and a new season…
FBI Releases Photo of Bank Robbers Leaving Kroger
It takes a lot of chutzpah to rob a bank. Doing it in the middle of Thursday afternoon near a well-to-do neighborhood is even more bold. But choosing a bank that is inside a Kroger is damn brazen. Of course, the disadvantage of such a move is that you are…
You Art Where You Eat: Montrose Whole Foods
You go to a restaurant. At some point between ordering your pancakes and wiping the syrup off your daughter’s face, you look up and there it is. Art. By my unscientific estimate there is 1,000 percent more art in restaurants than all of the art in galleries and museums combined…
Recipe: Dr Pepper Peanut Brittle
I sublet my apartment this summer, and when I returned, there were four cans of Dr Pepper in my fridge. I can probably count on one hand the sodas I really do not care for, and sadly (non-Dublin) Dr Pepper is among them. Dumping all four cans down the drain…
Final Suspect in Houston Jewelry Heist Captured Outside Dallas
The third and final suspect in the burglary of KARAT 22 Jewelers that netted him and his partners $6 million in jewelry on February 5 was finally captured outside of Dallas, according to police. Kelvin Lynn O’Brien, 44, was arrested late Saturday night at a Dallas nightclub by police following…
The Best Thing I Ever Ate: Fried Bites
Inspired by the Food Network, I’m looking into the “best things I ever ate” around the grand city of Houston. Recently, I shared the best vegetables I ever ate. Now it’s time to move on to the big guns – fried foods. In Texas, there is definitely no shortage of…
Video: Hanukkah-Loving Rick Perry Dances Around the Menorah
It’s not nearly as bizarre as Tom Delay’s appearance on Dancing With the Stars, but this video of Governor Rick Perry celebrating Hanukkah with a group of orthodox Jewish rabbis, intentionally or otherwise, is damn funny if for no other reason than Perry is trying his best not to look…
Patrick Carfizzi in HGO’s Barber of Seville Thanks to His Trash-Picking Mom
Bass-baritone Patrick Carfizzi once stuffed his future in the trash. Thanks to his mother, it didn’t stay there. Soon to appear as Dr. Bartolo in Houston Grand Opera’s production of Barber of Seville, Carfizzi traced through his earlier life with Art Attack, including the time he was offered an audition…
Noir-Hop’s Zilla Rocca: “I Like Crime, Women & Rapping”
Each Wednesday, Rocks Off arbitrarily appoints one lucky local performer or group “Artist of the Week,” bestowing upon them all the fame and grandeur such a lofty title implies. Know a band or artist that isn’t awful? Email their particulars to sheaserrano@gmail.com. This is out of protocol. Big time. This…
How To: Boil Pasta
I don’t care how many Italian grandmothers you have, there’s enough myths about boiling pasta to fill a phone app, albeit not a useful one. Tossing pasta into hot water works perfectly for a talented few, but even so, there’s a reason they’re so lucky. Most important is to start…
Automatic: The Passion Of VNV Nation
Being that there are no bad VNV Nation albums, it’s very hard to say which one is the best. Or it was. It’s not anymore because if you don’t hold their new album Automatic up as one of the greatest albums ever released by anyone in any genre anywhere, then…
Comment of the Day: UT vs. A&M, the Rivalry Continues in Comment Form
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…
Boots for Fall 2011 Five Ways: New Trends and Contemporary Classics
So what if temperatures are still brushing up against triple-digits? It’s time to go shopping for new boots for fall. It may not seem like it now, but eventually we will put our sandals away. Right? Right? Looks from the Fall 2011/Winter 2012 runway ranged from cute to confusing, but…
Texans Release Slaton, Promote Ogbonnaya
In what seemed like an inevitability in the preseason, the Texans finally cut running back Steve Slaton from the roster. Slaton was occupying the fourth running back position for much of the preseason behind starter Arian Foster, Derrick Ward and second year player Ben Tate. He was even soundly beaten…
Sampler Plate: This Week in Food Blogs, the Rosh Hashanah Edition
If you’re Jewish, happy new year and l’shana tova! If you’re not Jewish, you can still enjoy this week’s roundup of Rosh Hashanah-themed food blog posts, and perhaps learn a little something new along the way. Voracious: At our sister paper in Seattle, food critic Hanna Raskin asked the Washington…
City Opens Permanent Electronics Recycling Center in Spring Branch
For several weeks this summer, I drove around with an old television that belonged to my girlfriend, hers having been replaced by a fresh new flat screen. Because I drive a pickup, I became the designated discarder of the old technology that weighed only slightly less than a World War…
