God Hates Idiots: Westboro Baptist May Protest the Rockets/Thunder Game Wednesday Night
In yet another startling display of idiocy from Fred Phelps and the members of the Westboro Baptist “church,” they have threatened to protest game five of the first round series between the Houston Rockets and Oklahoma City Thunder Wednesday night because Jason Collins came out as gay this week and…
Five Lessons Learned So Far by the Inexperienced Rockets in the Postseason
A friend of mine has pointed out to me that “young” may not always be the appropriate term to use for the current Rockets rosters, particularly when comparing them to Oklahoma City. After all, Russell Westbrook and Jeremy Lin are the same age and James Harden has played with OKC…
Weather Week: Who’s Ready for One More Shot of Cold Weather?
The oddball “spring” weather in Houston continues this week, but before I get there, let’s recap the rain we had over the weekend. Certain parts of town received as much as 8 inches of rain on Saturday as thunderstorms trained along a warm front. As amazing as it may seem,…
DEFCON Dining: Fountain View Café
Dining out with children is an exercise in situational awareness. Each experience is unique, with different variables leading to different possible outcomes, DEFCON-like in their escalating threat levels. Keen observation, forward planning and prior experience are critical in determining the proper strategy. Here at DEFCON Dining, we do the grunt…
Free Press Summer Fest Releases 2013 Schedule & Stage Times
The moment many of you have been dreading has arrived: this morning Free Press Summer Fest announced this year’s schedule and stage times for its fifth year, scheduled for June 1 and 2 in Eleanor Tinsley Park. The festival’s eightysomething performers this year are spread across six stages from the…
Rick Perry May Be Speaking Softly but Wielding a Veto Pen This Session
The excitement was palpable as Governor Rick Perry strode into the House chamber just over two years ago to make his State of the State speech. Months before the four-term Republican governor declared his run for president, Capitol observers were parsing his every phrase and praising his uncanny political intuitions…
Pizaro’s Puts Artistry Into Its Napoletana-Style Pizzas
In this week’s cafe review of Memorial-area Pizaro’s Pizza Napoletana, we take a look at the artistry pizzaiolo (and owner) Bill Hutchison puts into every pie he makes. Part of that aesthetic emphasis is a product of the type of pizzas Hutchison makes at his restaurant: Pizza Napoletana, a style…
Honky Tonk Blood Brothers Ride Again on Hunchback of Mexico
Ed. Note: This article was written by Sonya Harvey. Guns. Knives. Ammo. Mexico. Prisoners. Hunchbacks. Hermanos. This is the stuff of spaghetti-Western legend in the making, which can only be thought up by Johnny Falstaff and Hank Schyma. The Honky Tonk Blood brothers and Houston musicians are up to their…
Reality Bites: Four Weddings
Weddings are a pain in the ass. Everybody’s clothes and hair must be just so, families have to be restrained from killing each other, and somehow you have to keep all your bitchy friends from making a spectacle of themselves. I understand the bride has stuff to worry about, too…
Tim Tebow, Star Of The Omaha Beef?
Yesterday, I got an e-mail from my friend R.J. Bell, founder of wagering infotainment website pregame.com. I love getting e-mails from R.J. because they always have the gambling spin on whatever the latest sports news is. You know how some people subscribe to services that send them inspirational e-mails each…
Five Great Outsider Artists and Musicians
The following creators are not necessarily mainstream in their music or their art. But all are insanely prolific (sometimes literally) and driven by darkness. All of them push their creative abilities to the extreme to exorcise their own personal demons, be they mental illness, emotional abuse, or a fear of…
Best Comics of April: Free Comic Book Day Edition
Once a month the amazing staff at 8th Dimension Comics selects a pile of the best new releases for us to peruse and judge. This month, we’ll tell you what titles to look for that will be available on Free Comic Book Day on May 4. Beware the Batman/Teen Titans…
This Week In Food Blogs: Should Food Trucks Get a Fair Shake?
29-95: Montrose mainstay Gratifi — the newly rebranded Ziggy’s — received some much-deserved love from Houston Chronicle critic Alison Cook for its extensive burger menu, in particular the Gaucho burger. “The Argentinian-themed El Gaucho is one of those specialty burgers that succeeds beautifully on a sandwich level,” she writes, “with…
Nas’ Biggest Fan Lives In Houston, With the Tattoos to Prove It
Think about your favorite musician for a minute. Do you remember the first time you heard his or her voice? Can you relate each album or song to a different stage or major occurrence in your life? How many times have you seen him or her (or them) in concert,…
Russell Prince’s New Old Collages at Front Gallery
The influences in Russell Prince’s collages intriguingly range from the Cubists and Dadaists to tattered billboards, old textbooks, and his great-grandmother’s deteriorating Victorian home. Indeed, the Houston artist’s works have an aged quality to them, from the musty old book covers from classics like David Copperfield that he rips from…
The Five Most Idiotic Things Louie Gohmert, Who Sees Radical Muslims Anywhere He Looks, Believes
Louis Gohmert doesn’t need evidence. He doesn’t need proof, or sourcing, or the ability to back up a claim with anything other than the vitriol in his voice and the consternation in his gut. All he needs is an idea, and a microphone, and away we go. Gohmert’s idiocies idiosyncrasies…
Three Legislature Bills Would Loosen Texas’ Extraordinarily Loose Pollution Guidelines (Yay?)
Texas law has always been a little loose — and yes, in this phraseology “loose” is code for kind of slutty — about environmental regulation, but now the state legislature has a few bills bouncing around during the 83rd legislative session that may make it looser than Lindsey Lohan after…
All In One Shot? Yes, Please, Hornitos
Living in Texas has pretty much disabused me of the notion that tequila is just for shots. I’ve learned that quality tequila can be sipped like a fine wine, and even experimented on my own with different cheese pairings. That doesn’t mean I’m categorically opposed to knocking back one and…
The Five Best Houston Rap Songs So Far This Year
Feel that sweeping change? That’s May upon us. Which means I’ll officially consider myself old as hell, despite being a fresh 25. Yes, we’re now one-third of the way through 2013, and Houston rap has never looked as beautiful as it does now. Okay, maybe when she was the darling…
Jack Chick’s Anti-D&D Comic is Becoming a Movie! 5 More We Hope Get Made
JR Ralls of Portland, OR won some money in the lottery. Not like a million dollars, but enough to where he felt like he had to do something significant with it to better humanity. To that end he bought the movie rights to famous evangelical comic strip producer Jack Chick’s…
Five Reasons You Shouldn’t Smoke Pot With Former Aggie QB Reggie McNeal
College footballer with weed — you’re thinking Mack Brown’s Longhorns, right? Forget it — we’re talking Aggies. Former Aggies. Former Aggies like quarterback Reggie McNeal, currently a Canadian Football League free agent. Currently a CFL free agent who keeps getting arrested for weed. McNeal was arrested recently for marijuana possession…
Gangsta Rap Wings and Surfers on Acid at Goro & Gun
Everyone’s been talking about ramen lately — especially the ramen at Goro & Gun. What I want to talk about are its wings. “We’re gonna drive Buffalo Wild Wings out of business,” chef David Coffman joked as a bowl of ODB wings hit the bar, the chicken glazed with local…
Happy Birthday, Ray Parker Jr.! Seven Songs That Aren’t “Ghostbusters”
Today Ray Parker Jr. turns 55 years old, and many happy returns to the man. Likely the only thing most of us know about him is that he penned the ever-catchy theme to Ghostbusters… though Huey Lewis claims Parker just ripped off “I Want a New Drug” with the tune…
100 Creatives 2013: Gwen Zepeda, Houston’s First Poet Laureate
What She Does Gwendolyn Zepeda is a writer of novels, children’s books, blogs and poetry “and whatever else I feel like.” She was recently named Houston’s very first Poet Laureate. Zepeda got her start as a blogger and was a founding writer for the early-internet TV recap blog Television Without…
Nullifying Federal Gun Statutes: After League City’s Precedent, Towns Across Texas — and Beyond — Race to Do The Same
It’s been over two months since League City became the first city in the nation to instruct local officials to forgo federal arms enforcement. League City, owner of the largest rate of concealed handgun licensees in the state, decided that any potential Bushmaster restriction was beyond the pale, and that…
In Honor of Spamalot Coming to Houston, Here Are 5 Ways to Use Spam
Monty Python’s Spamalot will be coming to Houston’s Theatre Under The Stars soon, running from May 14 through May 26. To pay homage to the musical, we’ve compiled 5 Spamtastic Recipes for y’all to try. Time to “eat ham, and jam and Spam a lot.”…
Can 56 Parking Meters Fix Washington Avenue’s Traffic Mess?
At 7 a.m. today, 56 parking meters scattered along the Washington Avenue area will be turned on, the first step in a new plan the City of Houston hopes will eventually relieve the severe traffic congestion that at peak times can suffocate one of its most popular entertainment corridors. As…
Buyer’s Guide to Video Game Lamps Part 2
A while back we featured some of the greatest video game lamps available to gamers that like a little style in their home lighting scheme. Today, we salute some new products for that purpose and let you know where they are available. It’s always a good idea to start with…
