The NBA’s Weird Trade Rules Affecting How, When Rockets Deal Omer Asik
Timelines in sports are a strange thing. While fans think of trade deadlines as ways to get excited about rumored swaps that include their favorite teams, mostly they are set by leagues based on paychecks and other mundane concepts. In the NBA, that includes all sorts of weird dates that…
Eat Healthy While Traveling: Five Homemade Snacks for the Plane
Despite what your stomach tells you at the airport, that last-minute chicken and biscuit basket is not the perfect snack for your flight. Fight the holiday travel bulge with healthy snacks that are easy to make, easy to transport and even easier to eat. From date- and nut-stuffed bites to…
How to Spend Your Mega Millions Jackpot
Sorry, didn’t mean to get your hopes up. According to a recent story on why the MM jackpot could soon reach record levels, your odds of winning are roughly 1 in 259 million. The Mega Millions jackpot is juicy, but thanks to new, longer odds, it’s entirely possible the payout…
New Twists on the Feast of the Seven Fishes
The Feast of the Seven Fishes may be an Italian-American Christmas Eve tradition, but it’s so good that we think everyone should celebrate it. The feast, commemorating the wait for the midnight birth of Baby Jesus, usually consists of seven (or eight or nine) different seafood courses. Typically, these include…
Christmas Parenting Advice: Zapruder Analysis of an Insane Video Gamer (NSFW Language)
Video games are a tricky thing, especially this time of year. When you give a video game to your kids as a gift, are you making their holiday more joyous or potentially making their skin more pasty and their muscles more atrophied? The key to video game enjoyment, like anything,…
What Happened to Gun Control After Newtown?
Yale law professor Dan Kahan has persuasively argued that the reason why we seem like two ships passing in the night when debating gun issues is because people disagree about the facts, as they see them: Gun-control proponents argue that greater restrictions will promote public safety by reducing gun violence…
Do Something Charitable This Season, You’ll Feel Better About Life
Every year my neighbors throw a massive Christmas party complete with turkeys, hams, cakes, tamales and mariachi bands. In addition to them being wonderful neighbors and throwing an awesome party, they also insist that all attendees bring an unwrapped toy, which they donate to a local charity. With the amount…
How to (Almost) Make a Gingerbread House from Scratch, or, My Epic Holiday Failure
I love food, but there’s a reason I’m a writer and not a chef. I cook a few things very well. I can follow a recipe. I have a good sense of how flavors should go together. I’m actually a wonderful baker. But events like those that took place last…
Weather Week: Warming Up Before Another Big Chill
Remember a couple of weeks back when it got into the 70s and everyone was all, “Boo! Green Christmas!”? Then, only days later, it got really cold and we were all, “Boo! Cold Christmas!”? Nothing like Houston in the winter to piss people off about the weather…or summer or spring…
Fugu Is Back at Kata Robata, While Supplies Last; I Tried It and Lived to Tell the Tale
Every December, puffer fish get even, well, puffier, as they pack on fat to survive the chilly winter. And that’s when we snatch them up and eat them. In Japan, blowfish, puffer fish and globefish are all called fugu, and their meat is a delicacy available only during the winter…
Tracking Through the First 100 Years of the Houston Symphony
The Houston Symphony began in 1913 with 36 members and a first season budget of $2,500. Its founder was Miss Ima Hogg, daughter of the governor and longtime patron of the arts who was determined that Houston should have its own resident symphony. Hogg even wrote the first newspaper ad…
George P. Bush: More Cruz than W.
The Republican Party has changed since George W. Bush’s presidency — it is more conservative. Indeed, many conservatives blamed Bush for the party’s woes because he was insufficiently Republican (of course, these complaints only started in 2006 with electoral defeats, there was a deafening silence before then). This johnny-come-lately criticism…
From Black Friday to Black Santa, It’s Time for Our Annual Holiday Freakout
There are good reasons to be annoyed during the holidays. Maybe you hate your family but feel obligated to stare blankly at them for a few hours every December. Maybe you have to work when everyone else is tweeting about how wonderful it is to have two weeks off for…
The Rocks Off 200: Brandon Ray, Punk Rocker Turned Filmmaker/Animator
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? After playing…
2013 Holiday Gift List: Top 10 Homemade Food Presents
Now that you have mailed everything to friends and family afar (or at least, you should have if you want it to arrive by Christmas), it’s time to spread some holiday cheer to your local friends and family. Each year, my mom and I make food gifts to give to…
Former Deputy Donald Wayne Tipps Allegedly Used the Threat of Arrest to Get Blow Job
Contributed by the Harris County District Attorney’s OfficeFormer Deputy Donald Wayne Tipps, accused of using the threat of arrest to get blow jobs. On Monday morning, the 248th grand jury indicted former Harris County Sheriff’s Department Deputy Donald Wayne Tipps with sexual assault and official oppression. While responding to a…
Style Encore: Plato’s Closet Goes Sophisticate
If you’re one of those women who loved to shop resale at Plato’s Closet, but sort of “aged out” of the clothes in your twenties, you aren’t alone; Ann Whitton, owner of six Plato’s Closets in the Houston area, says it’s common. “Plato’s Closet is for women in their teens…
Celebrate National Maple Syrup Day (TODAY!) With the Real Stuff From New England
I give credit to my husband for introducing me to a number of foods I had unintentionally excluded from my diet, including, but not limited to, kimchi, sardines, and pear lambic. Now, I love all three. The “new” food I most associate with my better half, however, is real maple…
Zapruder Analysis of the Drunk Santa Brawl at SantaCon 2013
For centuries now, people of all ages, races, creeds and geography have loved to drink. Not all of us you, but a lot of us you. Wine, beer, hard liquor, illegal moonshine, as long as it has alcohol in it, fill ‘er up! To that end, it never ceases to…
Dear Santa Claus, Please Send Me a Kegerator and a New Knife Set: Denizens of Houston’s Culinary World Share Their Wish Lists
It’s that time of year! Children are writing Christmas wish lists and mailing them off to Santa at the North Pole, hoping that he’ll deliver what they ask for come Christmas morning. Some of that magic goes away as you get older, but there’s no reason we can’t keep making…
The New Godzilla Movie Will Be So Good You’ll Forget All About Godzilla ’98
The other day I had a conversation with someone who just thought it was absolutely absurd that I was excited about a new American Godzilla movie. She just couldn’t believe after the debacle that was the Godzilla ’98 that anyone could trust Hollywood to make a good Godzilla movie. If…
The Top 20 Houston Concerts of 2013
Black Flag Walters, August 26 Not a heck of a lot of complimentary things have been said about Black Flag’s 2013 “reunion,” and when fans arrived at Walters in August to discover stage barricades and signs warning against stage-diving and photography, odds weren’t looking terrific. But when the hyper-stoic Greg…
“Joy to the World, Our Teacher’s Dead”: What the Hell Is That All About?
A couple of years back I got obsessed with finding out the origin of “Jingle Bells, Batman Smells.” Believe it or not I was actually able to track it down to pretty definitively to a single 5th-grade classroom in Dunkirk, Indiana. It’s made we wonder what other interesting Christmas parodies…
Upcoming: Aaron Lewis, B.B. King, Christina Perri, Willie Nelson, Excision, Sebadoh, etc.
2 Chainz: Fri., March 14, 8 p.m., $37.50. Bayou Music Center, 520 Texas, Houston, 713-225-8551. 4th Annual Holiday Bash featuring thelastplaceyoulook: With Otenki, Born Again Virgins, The Soapbox Revolution, Runaway Sun., Fri., December 20, 7 p.m., $10 to $15. Warehouse Live, 813 St. Emanuel, Houston, 713-225-5483. Aaron Lewis: Sat., February…
Going Deep Underground With Houston Rap
For all but the hardest of hardcore local hip-hop adherents, there are going to be a few unfamiliar faces in Sinecure Books’ new Houston Rap chronicle. When photographer Peter Beste and writer Lance Scott Walker began the project nearly ten years ago, they set out to document not just the…
R.I.P. Ray Price: Iconic Country Crooner Passes Away at 87
Ray Price, one of the singular voices of country music for 60 years, has passed away, according to country-music elder Bill Mack, who posted “Ray Price left for heaven about 4:43 p.m. Central time” on Facebook about 25 minutes ago. Price was 87, and had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer…
The 5th Annual Gingerbread Build-Off: Who Knew Architecture Could Be So Sweet?
You know that you are dealing with professional architects when blustering winds fail to blow down skyscrapers constructed with cookies and spackled with frosting. Of course, I am referring to the 5th Annual Gingerbread Build-Off, which was hosted by Architecture Center Houston in conjunction with C2 Creative this past weekend…
The WWE Brings Tables, Ladders, Chairs and More to Houston
There’s nothing quite like professional wrestling in the world of entertainment. In it you see the thrill of sports, the larger than life personalities of comic books, and the storytelling of soap operas, and while it shares things with each of those forms of entertainment, it remains its own beast…
What’s Cooking This Week? Spinach- and Ricotta-Stuffed Eggplant, Plus Shrimp
I love cooking for my fiancé and planning meals for us, but cooking for two often proves to be difficult. If I don’t make a plan, I end up running around in circles at the grocery store and wasting half the ingredients I’ve bought (and I hate wasting food). Enter…
The White Christmas Album 2
The setup: Whoever at Music Box Theater came up with the idea of pairing Christmas songs with the Beatles catalog is some sort of genius. On paper, this melange sounds totally weird, if not wildly inappropriate, but in The White Chistmas Album 2 , this joyous revue from our favorite…
Chef Chat: Bradley Ogden of Funky Chicken
James Beard award-winning chef Bradley Ogden is opening several restaurants in Houston, including Funky Chicken, which had its soft opening on December 6. Its grand opening will take place on December 18. We talked to him recently about his career and plans for the new restaurants. EOW: How did you…
Zapruder Analysis of My Trip to Santa’s Wonderland
“Take care of your 24.” That saying comes from charismatic second year University of Connecticut basketball coach Kevin Ollie. Basically, what it means is that there are only 24 hours in every day, so make every minute count, budget your time, stay balanced and make sure to live life to…
The Man Who Might Save CSN Houston
Way back in the day, I worked as a briefing attorney for a state district court judge. And one of the things I learned was that judges, or at least the judge that I worked for, really do hate making rulings on the record because once that happens, the appeals…
Films for Foodies: Remy the Cooking French Rat Makes Good in ‘Ratatouille’
Movie studios scramble to get big-name stars headline their films, but in many of my favorite movies food is the star. Few things are better than pairing a foodie film with a great meal so we can enjoy ourselves just as much as the folks onscreen are enjoying their own…
Amy Tan, The Family Secrets She Uncovered as She Wrote The Valley of Amazement
As a young girl, author Amy Tan asked her mother, who was both vain and beautiful, if she was also beautiful. Tan’s mother looked her over, then said, “No. You’re just average.” “Then she said it was good that I was not beautiful because eventually I would lose that beauty,”…
Pass/Fail: The Education Lobby Begins to Flex Its Muscles
We need to improve our education system. Every politician, from dog catcher to president, from socialist Bernie Sanders to Ted Cruz, would support this statement. What they really mean though is that we need to improve our nation’s inner-city schools; the children of the wealthy are doing just fine. And…
Daddyo’s or Daddy ‘NO’s? Another Adventure in Pizza
Sometimes my approach to choosing a restaurant is detailed, complicated; I might spend a few days asking around, and searching the Internet for information on a place to eat. It can be fun to see what others think, to have time to leisurely peruse a menu and to compare it…
Do Not Inflict Combination Gifts Upon Your December-Born Friends
My birthday presents came in the mail! My mom and brother both mailed me gifts for my December 22 birthday, and I am so tempted to open them, but I promised that I wouldn’t and they believe me I won’t. (When I asked if I could open early, my brother…
Aaron Behrens and the Midnight Stroll at Warehouse Live, 12/14/2013
Aaron Behrens and the Midnight Stroll Warehouse Live December 14, 2013 Side projects are far from a new thing. Actually if you think about it, a huge conglomerate of the bands we listen to are, or were originally, the side project of some other band. From Led Zeppelin and Cream,…
Jameis Winston Wins the Heisman, Now Where Will He Put It?
For a Heisman Trophy race that was about as lopsided as, well, many of the recent ones, the 2013 Heisman race had its fair share of storylines. You had last season’s winner, Johnny Manziel, no stranger to storylines of his own, as one of the finalists, the fourth former winner…
Stock Your Bar With Value: Ten Award-Winning Bottles of Booze for Under $30
A Double Gold nearly guarantees these spirits are good.
Barely Behaving Daughters: A Book To Teach Girls to Be Bad
Of the many things that no one should have to tell you not to do, lighting a firecracker next to a sleeping tiger is probably near the top of the list. It’s also the first thing that you see when you open P.M. Neist’s new children’s book, Barely Behaving Daughters,…
The Tea Party: Where Does It Go From Here?
The Party is Nearly Over The Tea Party is best understood as the latest reactionary lurch to the right of the Republican Party during the past 60 years: the Birchers who saw the civil rights movement as a vehicle for communism, the Goldwater supporters who thought the 1964 Civil Rights…
NOFX at House of Blues, 12/13/2013
NOFX House of Blues December 13, 2013 It’s hard to believe that a whole 30 years have gone by since NOFX first started playing music together. I’m guessing the late-forties punkers are probably thinking the same thing. Consisting of the same core lineup of Fat Mike, Eric Melvin and Erik…
Treat Yourself: Five Houston Culinary Splurges for a Decadent Holiday Feast
It’s the holiday season. A time for gift giving and celebration. A time for splurging, right? After all, you’ve worked hard this year. You deserve a reward. And what better way to reward yourself than with a blow-your-mind meal? Behold, our top picks for decadent foodie splurges in Houston. 5…
Bling in the New Year with Sparkle (and/or Shine)!
Do you have fancy plans for New Year’s Eve, or just want to dress like you do? Even if you’re ringing in 2014 on your couch with a pizza and a bottle of wine, it’s kind of fun to dress up like a disco ball. And because we know you…
Colts 25, Texans 3: The Long, Painful Road Home
The Texans have never won in Indianapolis. Never. On Sunday, the status quo was thoroughly maintained with a 25-3 loss at the hands of the lackluster Colts. The Colts hadn’t scored a first half touchdown in like 10 games (probably more like three, but that last sentence fragment may be…
5 Fans Who Do Doctor Who Better than the BBC
There are two really wonderful things about the era that we live in. No. 1: the ability of any entertainment vehicle to reach a worldwide audience with comparative ease. There’s a reason we’re still finding lost episodes of Doctor Who in sheds in Africa half a century after they were…
The Top Five Houston Music Videos of 2013
In 2012 Houston surprised the hell out of me by producing some truly incredible music videos by local artists. The Manichean took video of the year in our annual roundup, but several other artists made more than respectable showings. Truly, we’re finally catching up in that regard. This almost-past year…
100 Favorite Dishes 2013: No. 58, Grilled Cheese at The Golden Grill
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…
15 Odd Christmas Gifts for Musicians
Note: Rocks Off originally published this blog in November 2011 and people keep looking at it, so we figured we might as well put it back at the top of our queue. Call it a holiday tradition. As the timeless tale of the Little Drummer Boy reminds us, there is…
Eminem’s Awful Rihanna Duet Is a Monster All Right
Note: in his column Serrano Time, award-winning writer and goofball Shea Serrano writes about his life and times. Song: Eminem’s “The Monster,” feat. Rihanna History: Eminem did a freestyle battle. He went up against Papa Doc and choked. It was pretty sad. Then some more sad stuff happened to him…
The Best Concerts In Houston This Week: Backstreet Boys, Rev. Horton Heat, Jay Z, etc.
DJ Sun The Flat, December 16 Now that some of the well-deserved publicity surrounding the release of DJ Sun’s first-ever full-length release, One Hundred, has subsided a little, his true accomplishment on the disc seems even more impressive. In the span of 70 minutes, Sun pours his 20-plus-year career as one…
News of Ray Price’s Death Precedes Singer’s Actual Demise
Legendary country singer Ray Price is not long for this world. But he’s not quite gone yet. Earlier Sunday afternoon, reports of Price’s death began surfacing on the Internet from news outlets including Country Weekly, Rolling Stone, USA Today and even Nashville’s Tennessean — none of them citing any kind…
Car Crash Closes Woodrow’s Heights; Owner Plans to Reopen on Monday
We received a tip from reader David Hinners that Woodrow’s Heights might be closed. From the message, it sounded as if it was closed for good, but the restaurant’s website and Facebook pages were still active. The phone number wasn’t working, so we drove over there to check it out…
Galveston County Animal Shelter Won’t Answer Questions About Bloodied Dog
A Great Dane at the center of a custody dispute in Galveston County is now evidence in a criminal investigation, but Galveston officials are mum on who is being investigated, and for what. A photo of the dog — her face covered in blood — taken from within the Galveston…
UPDATE: Is The Burger Guys Closing for Good? YES.
Update: Owner Jake Mazzu has confirmed that The Burger Guys is closed. See his statement on the next page. On the heels of the shuttering of The Burger Guys’ downtown location, today comes the rumor that the original location on Westheimer is closing as well, or possibly already closed. We…
Second Week of Museum of Dysfunction VI Features Comedy, Romance and a Handshake That Never Ends
The set-up: “Carpe Diem” is Latin for “Seize the Day”, which could be the motif of Mildred’s Umbrella Theatre Company, as it produces 20 short plays, each one to appear for just three evenings. These have been selected from more than 200 submissions, and divided into two separate evenings of…
This Weekend’s Best Bets: “Texans New Head Coach” Odds Are Out!
Before the 2013 NFL season started, you could get odds on which head coach would be the first one fired this season. (I have no idea what it must feel like to have people betting on your employment status, but it’s not for me to be the moral compass of…
21 Movie Romances That We Loved in 2013
In 2013, love came in many forms: girl on zombie, boy on smartphone, and James Franco on — count ’em — two hot bikini babes at the same damn time. Sure, romantic comedies are as extinct as Oprah Winfrey’s chances of winning Best Supporting Actress at the Golden Globes, but…
Cheers! Camerata at Paulie’s Is Named One of the Hottest Wine Bars in the Country
It’s only been open since July of this year, but already Camerata is on the map. Eater National’s map, that is. It’s already received a glowing review from our wine writer, Jeremy Parzen, who also put it on his list of the best destinations for wine in Houston. Prior to…
Weekend Weather: Beautiful, Chilly Weekend on Tap
Since last week when we had quite a few days of warm weather, it has been right back into the deep freeze. While it didn’t get quite as cold as some forecasters thought it might, it did remain in the 50s all week and little will change this weekend. Today,…
Made in Texas: 10 Houston Gift Shops for Locally Made Goods
The holiday season sometimes gets me down. I mean, I love the sentimental aspect of it, and the spirit of giving. But I hate the rampant consumerism of it all, as evidenced this year by Black Friday actually starting right after the turkey leftovers were put away on Thanksgiving night…
So Beyoncé Has a Brand-New Album Out Right Now
I’m not a clairvoyant or anything near the sort but Tuesday night, I walked away from Beyoncé’s latest show at Toyota Center with the following idea in my head, “a Beyoncé live show reinforces sexuality and freedom above anything else.” That was about the show. I should have realized I…
2013 Holiday Gift Guide: 5 Goodies for the Griller
The holidays are upon us, and that means it’s time to show your buddies you care by buying them things they probably don’t need. But there’s no reason to shell out for an expensive ugly Christmas sweater that he’ll never wear, or a tchotchke that will sit idly at the…
Talking Family, Spears and Potential with the WWE’s Roman Reigns
For Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins, known to the WWE Universe as The Shield, it’s been a big 13 months. Since debuting in the WWE back in November of last year, they’ve looked like world-beaters, having great matches with some of the biggest names in wrestling and winning…
New Music from Iran and Syria: Saxophonist Basel Rajoub Discusses Sound: The Encounter
Saxophonist Basel Rajoub plays the most contemporary instrument in Sound: The Encounter, New Music from Iran and Syria. His partners, Saeid Shanbehzadeh (horns and vocals) and his son Naghib Shanbehzadeh (percussion) play traditional instruments that have been unchanged for centuries, but Rajoub says he’s equally rooted in the folk music…
It’s That Time of Year: Everything You Need to Know About Champagne and Sparkling Wine
In the wine trade, they call it “OND”: October-November-December, the last quarter of the Gregorian calendar and the 92 days of the year during which more wine is sold than in any other period of the year. And from the romantic dinner for two to the whole mispucha blowout, from…
Cat Power at Scout Bar, 12/12/2013
Cat Power, Nico Turner Scout Bar December 12, 2013 It’s always fascinating to hear stories of concerts past from friends, parents and grandparents, because like watching a movie or visiting a museum, each artist only gets a few hours to make an impression. But unlike other activities, nearly every person…
Reviews For The Easily Distracted: The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug
Title: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug What Have You Got Against Tolkien? Nothing at all. Directors given free rein to make a ten hour trilogy out of a 300-page children’s book, on the other hand… Rating Using Random Objects Relevant To The Film: One Dirk the Daring out of…
Latest CSN Developments Could Lead to New TV Deals
For the first time since the inception of the CSN Houston network, only Comcast subscribers have been able to see the channel and, as a result, both the Rockets and Astros. But on Thursday the Astros, who had been named lead negotiators for the network back in November after CSN…
Book Check: Everything Begins & Ends at the Kentucky Club by Benjamin Alire Saenz
Title: Everything Begins & Ends at the Kentucky Club Tell Me About the Author: Benjamin Alire Sáenz holds the distinction of winning two 2013 Lambda Literary Awards in two distinct categories for two different books. He won the prize for LGBT Children’s/Young Adult Book for Aristotle and Dante Discover the…
How To: Package and Ship Christmas Cookies So They Don’t Break (Get Baking!)
There’s nothing worse than receiving a box of broken and crushed Christmas cookies. I love getting cookies in the mail during the holidays, but it is such a downer when you open the box only to find legless and armless gingerbread men, or chocolate chip cookie crumbs. Often, the biggest…
Megadeth at Bayou Music Center, 12/12/2013
Megadeth Bayou Music Center December 12, 2013 Thirty years into their storied career, Megadeth can still bring the noise. Filling Bayou Music Center to about 60 percent capacity Thursday night, the turnout was a bit disappointing for the Los Angeles-based thrash metal gurus who, despite being middle-aged, performed like they…
The Most Important Person Ever: Hitler, Jesus, Shakespeare Make the List
Who’s the most important person ever? Two computer scientists wanted to figure out who the most historically significant human beings to ever walk the face of the earth were (well, since we decided to start recording things with various forms of writing). So, being computer scientists, they developed computational models…
Upcoming Events: Holiday Office Lunches and an Elf Screening at Karbach Brewing Co.
Still looking for a place to take the office for a Christmas lunch? Backstreet Cafe has got your back. The restaurant will offer a “Bring Your Office to Lunch” special on Tuesday, December 17, from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m. The holiday menu costs $25 per person and includes items…
Top 5 Most Depressing Christmas Episodes on Television
It’s a common myth that some people find the winter holidays to be so depressing that suicide rates spike around Christmas. It’s at least prevalent enough that Snopes dedicated an article to debunking it. Simply put, there us no significant increase in the number of people who seek psychiatric help…
BATTLE-DRINK: The Interim Wade Phillips Era Begins!
After a ten day hiatus where the Texans managed to fulfill their weekly drama quota by firing their head coach, it’s back to the gridiron on Sunday as the Texans take on the Indianapolis Colts in Indy, where the team still seeks its first win in franchise history at that…
Bruce & Kelly: A Couple That Plays Together, Stays Together
After spending a majority of the past 12 Decembers singing season’s greetings to audiences around Texas and across the nation, how on Earth are Bruce Robison and Kelly Willis not sick to death of holiday music at this point? “Well, I don’t know,” laughs Willis by phone from the couple’s…
The 5 Best Things to Eat and Drink This Weekend: Red Velvet Beer Launch, Toys for Tots Drive & 12 Bars of Christmas Bar Crawl
No Label Beer Dinner @ Woodway Whole Foods Market Friday, 7-9 p.m. 6401 Woodway Dr. Reserve your spot at this five-course dinner from Whole Foods Market paired with No Label Brewery beers. Whole Foods has not announced the full menu , but it will include items such as seared day…
100 Creatives 2013: Valentina Kisseleva, Painter
Moscow-born painter Valentina Kisseleva has a little difficulty putting a name on her style of work. “My style is different now than it was 10 years ago. I’ve been moving away from Social Realism and creating a new style,” she tells us in a thick Russian accent. “It’s my own…
The Oilers, Buddy Ryan, Las Cruces and Me
I was at a Holiday Inn in Las Cruces, New Mexico, the night Buddy Ryan threw a punch at Kevin Gilbride. Sitting on the bed, eating fast food, watching the Oilers and Jets on Sunday Night Football. And I knew things would never be the same. I’d been in Europe…
The 11 Best Houston Releases of 2013
Bun B, Trill O.G.: The Epilogue At this point, Bun B’s influence stretches far beyond music, but that doesn’t mean he can’t still churn out a great album. Trill O.G. The Epilogue, the finale in his Trill album series, has everything we’ve come to both expect and love from a…
Openings & Closings: Campioni Open Through Holidays and Fat Cat Creamery Finds a Home
This past week, Eater posted that Prohibition in the Galleria area would be closing; however, in an updated post, Darla Guillen reported that Prohibition is actually moving to a building downtown. The new location will be at the McCrory Building on Prairie. The bar is holding a Closing Party on…
The Top 5 Things to Do in Houston This Weekend: Dueling Art Shows, A Musical Grinch, A Screwy Scrooge and The Little Soldier
On Friday, we’ve got dueling art show openings. Luckily, the openings are staggered so you can easily attend both. First is “>20 Square Feet.” Independent art curator Matt Adams noticed a lack of exhibits of large-format works, so he organized one, (The show’s title refers to the minimum size of…
The Charlie Brown Christmas Music Is Still Awesome
When my kids were young, I didn’t force them to play T-ball or try dance class or even go to school regularly. One thing I insisted upon was them sitting with me at holiday time to watch the Peanuts specials I eagerly awaited each year as a boy. I know…
A Round of Serious Drinking at the New Kids On Market Square
“To cold beer, and hot chicks,” the bar chanted in unison, glasses raised high in solidarity. The bartender had just bought everyone another round of shots, after a recent Monday happy hour had ended. The glass drew closer, and the overwhelming smell of black licorice hit our nose. It became…
Houston’s Top 10 Bars to Warm Your Ass Up
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 Best Concerts In Houston This Weekend: NOFX, Hope For Haiyan, Blaggards, etc.
NOFX House of Blues, December 13 It’s pretty obvious that NOFX is legit when fellow oi! legends Rancid cover their songs, like they did on the BYO Split Series, Vol 3. But even without that validation, NOFX would still have some pretty unimpeachable street cred, given that 1994’s Punk in…
TD Club of Houston Names H.S. Players of the Year, Coach of the Year
College recruiting is big business, big business fed by high school football, and at the epicenter of the recruiting game is Houston, Texas, the mecca of high school football. The best of the best were on display receiving their just due on Wednesday night, in a banquet hall near the…
Zapruder Analysis of Three Arkansas Fans’ Creepy Courting of Jon Gruden
Pre-technology, paying tribute used to be so much more difficult to pull off. However, now with an iPhone, a YouTube account and a cursory knowledge of some editing software, any ol’ country bumpkin can tell his college football coach in song that he thinks he’s the next big thing. The…
American Horror Story: Coven: The Anti-Red Wedding
If you watch or read Game of Thrones then you might remember the Red Wedding, and even if you don’t you probably heard everyone talking about it earlier this year because it was a scene in which roughly all the characters from one family were brutally murdered at what was…
100 Favorite Dishes 2013: No. 59, Baklava French Toast at Harry’s Restaurant & Cafe
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…
Robbers Sought by Houston Police in Attempted McDonald’s Heist
Three suspects are wanted in connection with a robbery of a McDonald’s at 17250 Tomball Parkway that took place about 12 a.m. on November 22. Police have now released photos and surveillance footage of the suspects and are seeking the public’s help in locating them. All three are described as…
2013 Holiday Gift List: 5 Indulgent-But-Worth-It Gourmet Food and Drink Presents
The holidays are upon us, and that means it’s time to show your buddies you care by buying them things they probably don’t need. But there’s no reason to shell out for an expensive ugly Christmas sweater that he’ll never wear, or a tchotchke that will sit idly at the…
Houston City Dance Is All Animal in It’s A Jungle Out There
The Set-Up: I sense a trend going on in the Houston dance community. In the past few months, several companies have staged, or are in the process of staging, productions that take their choreographic inspiration from nature and the life forms that inhabit it. August saw FrenetiCore’s The Rite of…
UPDATE: Rockets Take Over CSN Houston Negotiation, Bid to Buy the Network
Update: John Royal, my colleague here at the Press who has covered the CSN story as well, pointed out to me via e-mail that one part of my story is incorrect. In fact, the Rockets can negotiate deals with cable providers and unanimous approval is not required. Only the judge…
Free Cab Rides from Santa Every Tuesday in December
Everybody needs to take a taxi every once in a while. Sometimes, it’s because you had a little too much egg nog at the Christmas party and your designated driver left you in favor of the hot secretary who scanned a photo of her butt and presented it to him…
The 10 Types of Holiday Shoppers You Meet in Houston
Shoppers are predators, and baubles for others are their prey. Houston has its own unique hunting ground, and as you’re out there beating through the crowds with your handbag in order to net whatever gift your loved one most desires, be on the lookout for many species of shopper that…
Top 5 Nastiest Fast-Food Desserts (Who Came Up With These Atrocious Foods?)
As Christina Uticone has so skillfully showed us, not all fast food is created equal. And the good, the bad and the ugly can also be found in the dessert section of the menu. Here are my top 5 nastiest fast-food desserts. 5. Apple Pie (McDonald’s). Not the worst, but…
Houston’s Five Funniest Crimes of 2013
People do a lot of stupid things, but as the year draws to a close, we decided to stop and remember that some of the exceptionally stupid criminal things people have done in the year of 2013 were also funny. As the saying goes, some things change, but you can…
Cadbury Switcheroo: Americans Settle for Second-Best From the Same Chocolate Maker
Why is a British Cadbury Milk different from an American one.
TUTS Offers a Kids-Friendly Intro to Theater Via Scrooge and Flat Stanley
They never go full dark. Even though their musicals are held to 55 minutes, because of the age of their audience – first through fifth graders – when Theatre Under the Stars puts on one of its Musicals For Young Audiences it knows that despite all the warnings, someone might…
Texas Gets an “F”: Center for Public Integrity Issues New Report on State Judges
WhisperToMeThe Texas Supreme Court: You Get an “F”State supreme courts don’t get nearly the attention the United States Supreme Court (SCOTUS) does. State supreme courts decide more mundane issues related to contract, tort and state procedural law, while SCOTUS decides the hot-button/culture war issues surrounding abortion, guns, the death penalty…
Pop Rocks: Hey Dudes, Would You Take a Male Birth Control Pill?
You know that moment in television and the movies (oh yeah, and in real life) when a couple is headed towards the bedroom and the guy asks, “Are you on the pill?” Well, soon enough it might be the lady asking the guy that. Researchers in Australia and Britain are…
Where to Eat While Shopping for Christmas: The Woodlands Mall Survival Guide
Christmas is less than two weeks away. I repeat: TWO WEEKS AWAY. It’s crunch time, people. If you’re headed to The Woodlands Mall to get the final few things on your list (or to start your Christmas shopping … no judging here), you’ll need plenty of energy to battle the…
The Rocks Off 200: The Excitable Boys of Another Run
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? On the…
5 Reasons It Might Be Time to Move Out of the Heights
I am a big fan of the Houston Heights. I lived there for the better part of 15 years and spent countless summer days at my grandparents’ house just about 8 blocks east of there. It has so many things that make it a desirable place to live, from the…
December Kickstarter Round-Up: A Book for Children With HIV/AIDS and More
Once a month we’ll be bringing you a look at some of the best local Kickstarter campaigns in order to let you know what’s getting ready to be unleashed through the help of small investors. Our Little Soldiers: A Book for Children Living with HIV: Now, I have gone on…
2013 Holiday Gift List: Five Treats for the Hostess, Plus Where to Find Them in Houston
The holidays are upon us, and that means it’s time to show your buddies you care by buying them things they probably don’t need. But there’s no reason to shell out for an expensive ugly Christmas sweater that he’ll never wear, or a tchotchke that will sit idly at the…
Houston Needs a National Hockey League Team: An Open Letter
Dear Whoever Has Enough Money To Buy Hockey Teams: Two weeks ago my hockey-loving husband and I headed up to the Big D. to watch the NY Rangers take on the Dallas Stars. As transplants from New York, we were rooting for the Rangers, and (no surprise) they won. Regardless…
Good Deeds: Show You Care This Holiday Season by Volunteering Time and Food
Most of the year we use this blog to tell you about all the great food there is in Houston. We tell you what gifts to buy for the food-lovers on your list, where to eat a nice meal out and which hot restaurants are opening. But this time of…
The Rest of the Best: Houston’s Top 10 Hotels to Stash Visitors During the Holidays
Ah, the holidays are here. For many of us that means visiting relatives and friends. Where can you safely and happily stash your holiday visitors? What’s the best bang for your buck? Here’s our list of top hotels for visiting relatives and friends. They’re spread out around the city. Prices…
Knocking at Your Back Door: A Deeper Shade of Purple In the ’80s
Deep Purple Perfect Strangers Live Eagle Vision, 141 mins., Various CD/DVD formats It’s something of an intellectual parlor game for Deep Purple fans to debate the ultimate question: Which lineup was the best? Commercially and song popularity/longevity wise, it’s clear DP 2.0 — the band responsible for efforts like Machine…
Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine Back In the Day: “We Were Probably a Little Snotty”
While metal masters Megadeth arrive in Houston tonight as part of the tour to promote their most recent record, Super Collider, this year the band also released the CD/DVD Countdown to Extinction Live. The sonic souvenir of last year’s tour celebrated the 20th anniversary of the popular release in which…
Le Petit Soldat (The Little Soldier)
In 1960, legendary film French director Jean-Luc Godard was riding high on the critical and commercial success of his debut feature film, Breathless. The stylish thriller would epitomize the “French New Wave” of cinema. But you can still see Godard toying with camera angles, thematic content and his love of…
Books in Conversation: Amy Tan, The Valley of Amazement
The author of The Joy Luck Club visits Houston to discuss her latest book in Books in Conversation: Amy Tan, The Valley of Amazement. It took Tan eight years to write Valley. She was already working on another novel but was waylaid when she saw an old photograph of Chinese…
The Nutcracker
Make your holiday season complete with the Royal Opera House Dance series’ cinematic broadcast of The Nutcracker. Peter Wright’s production, first seen in 1984, is an exuberant retelling of the story of Clara, a little girl who gets her Christmas wish when the nutcracker she’s given comes to life. Along…
TUTS Underground: 50 Shades! – The Musical, The Original Parody
People intrigued/entranced/less-than–enthused by the book Fifty Shades of Grey, written by E.L. James, will have the opportunity to see a parody of it come to life in 50 Shades! The Musical — The Original Parody, thanks to TUTS Underground. In this version, a ladies book club meets to discuss and…
A Christmas Carol: Unscripted
Improvisational comedy shows are like snowflakes and ex-lovers: no two are alike. That unique aspect helps make ComedySportz Houston’s A Christmas Carol: Unscripted a welcome departure from the incessant retellings of Charles Dickens’s seasonal classic. Here, the recognizable past-present-future theme is still followed, but very loosely. “A Christmas Carol was…
“NeoPopStreetFunk 5”
Curators Nicky Davis and Kevin Sechelski started their own group show when they found a lack of local exhibiting opportunities. Focusing on guerrilla art with an attitude, the two called it “NeoPopStreetFunk” in order to cover the range of styles it included. The duo has put together “NeoPopStreetFunk 5,” a…
LitFuse Reading Series: Ken Jones, Analicia Sotelo and Conor Bracken
The writers appearing at the LitFuse Reading Series this month include an attorney, a musician, teacher, author, poet, magazine editor and former food-truck fry cook. That’s a neat trick, considering there are only three writers on the schedule: Ken Jones (he’s the attorney, musician, teacher, author); Analicia Sotelo (she’s the…
James Rollins and Rebecca Cantrell: Innocent Blood
Two years ago, bestselling author James Rollins reached out to writer Rebecca Cantrell to launch a new thriller series based on a vampiric, reimagined history of the Catholic church. The pair, with Rollins creating the plot and Cantrell providing a sense of time and place, wrote The Blood Gospel. Featuring…
“>20 Square Feet”
Independent art curator Matt Adams looks for problems to solve. Several years ago he realized there had never been an iPhone photo exhibit in Houston, so he organized one. Recently he noticed a lack of exhibits of large-format works, so he organized one, “>20 Square Feet.” (The show’s title refers…
My Dad Acts Like a Drill Sergeant. 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! INTRODUCING MY SIGNIFICANT OTHER TO MY FRIENDS & COWORKERS Dear Willie D: I am dating a…
China Cat Dance: Aquaria
The beauty of the sea inspired choreographer Maggie Lasher to create Aquaria. Presented by the ChinaCat Dance Company, the performance is a mixture of traditional dance, pantomime, puppetry and costumes that transforms people into urchins, octopi and other sea life. Lasher is a master of using body movements to create…
The Irish Tenors
The Irish Tenors take the stage for a one-night-only concert in Houston. Known for their moving performances of pop anthems such as “My Heart Will Go On,” the three will also per-form favorite tunes from Ireland, including “Danny Boy,” “Whiskey in the Jar” and “Fields of Athenry.” One of the…
Houston Symphony: How the Grinch Stole Xmas
He’s about as cuddly as a cactus, and his heart might be full of unwashed socks, but that doesn’t stop the Houston Symphony from telling his musical tale in the seasonal family concert How the Grinch Stole Xmas. Helping the symphony like a support chorus of Whos from Whoville will…
Return of the Dinosaurs
Go back in time (to the Late Cretaceous Era, to be exact) at the interactive exhibit “Return of the Dinosaurs.” Some 50 museum-quality animatronic dinosaurs make up the exhibit. Along with touring the show, kids can take part in lots of hands-on activities, including digging for bones and riding a…
Six Metalheads and Punks Who Went Folk
Hey everyone, here’s a thing I’ve noticed: lots of guys seem to “mature” and quit metal and punk to do other stuff. Yeah, yeah, I’ve pointed out many times that these are genres for youngsters, and once you reach a certain age maybe it is time to find a different…
Malaysian Food Is Worth the Trip to Chinatown, and Mamak Malaysian has Some of the Best
You really can’t go wrong with anything in Dun Huang Plaza. According to the Web site, there are 62 businesses currently operating out of Dun Huang Plaza on Bellaire. There are seven different types of clinics, two reflexologists, a few bakeries, a large Chinese import store, three travel agents, one…
It’s Time for Christmas to Hit the Stage in Houston
The holiday theater season roars to life in December. The big perennials in town, the Alley’s A Christmas Carol (Dickens with an annoying case of ADD), Houston Ballet’s Nutcracker (a Victorian sampler) and the Houston Symphony’s Messiah (is there a more resonant musical message than Handel’s?), are must-sees, but there…
A Clutch of Newish Bars Around Market Square Draws Serious Drinkers Downtown
‘To cold beer, and hot chicks,” the bar chants in unison, glasses raised high in solidarity. The bartender just bought everyone another round of shots, after a recent Monday happy hour ended. The glass draws closer, and the overwhelming smell of black licorice hits our nose. It becomes apparent that…
The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug Is Everything the Last One Wasn’t
Elves snore, it turns out. Their maidens make teensy-peen jokes and pine for the hottest of dwarves. And Bilbo Baggins, so concerned about his doilies just three hours of screen time ago, now punches his sword right through the trachea of a goblin — and then looks rather proud of…
Rest of the Best 2013
Best of Houston It’s 2:15 in the morning. The bar has just closed, and you know you’re going to be in trouble tomorrow unless you find somewhere with food that will help soak up all the booze you inadvertently consumed. Where do you go? In the past, we’ve rounded up…
Ya Dig? Abel Ferrara on Ms. 45, Back in Theaters After More than 30 Years
Bronx-born filmmaker Abel Ferrara considers all of his fiction films to be documentaries: What you see is what happened in the moment that was shot. That mentality informed the making of Ms. 45, Ferrara’s characteristically complex 1981 rape-revenge drama. In the film, a mute teenager (Zoë Lund) copes with being…
Walt’s Revenge
How stubborn was Walt Disney? He spent 26 years wheedling Mary Poppins author P.L. Travers to sell him the film rights to her book — call it determination or bullying. Travers thought he was a hack who would louse up her story with cartoon penguins. Walt thought she was a…
Capsule Art Reviews: “Antonio Berni: Juanito and Ramona,” “Calaveras Mexicanas: The Art and Influence of Jose Guadalupe Posada,” “Funnel Tunnel,” “Nice. Luc Tuymans,” “São Paulo 2013,” “SPRAWL”
“Antonio Berni: Juanito and Ramona” Antonio Berni (1905-1981) was Argentina’s greatest 20th-century artist, a greatness recognized far beyond Argentina during his lifetime. Since his death his fame has faded, especially in North America. The exhibition “Antonio Berni: Juanito and Ramona,” on view at Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, is an…
The Foundation
Screwston, Texas If this weather’s got you interested in curling up on the couch with a warm blanket and a good book, you’re in luck. Sinecure Books has just put out a great one: photographer Peter Beste’s Houston Rap, a years-in-the-making picture book detailing the locals and locales that have…
Capsule Stage Reviews: A Civil War Christmas: An American Musical Celebration, Djembe and the Forest of Christmas Forgotten, Hamlet
A Civil War Christmas: An American Musical Celebration It’s very earnest down by the banks of the Potomac on Christmas Eve, 1864. Extremely earnest. In this musical from Pulitzer Prize-winner Paula Vogel (How I Learned to Drive) and Daryl Waters, who arranged the numerous period carols, war anthems and pop…
The Great Bull(shit) Run!
Highlights from Hair Balls Whatever Are you a thrill-seeker of the highest order, or at least of a middling level? Do you crave well-orchestrated pseudo-danger of the sort that allows you to sport a commemorative T-shirt and boast to your buds at the douche factory the following day? Well then,…
Economics and Traffic
Dear Mexican, You mocked and didn’t answer the legitimate questions raised in a letter to you a couple of weeks ago, about the guy who didn’t see a rosy future for a Mexican-led America. The writer correctly referred to serious problems in the Hispanic community, such as poor academic performance…
Amid All the Good Things Going On in HISD, Why Is It So Many of Our Kids Still Can’t Read?
One kid is a 17-year-old senior getting ready to go on to college who says he can’t read even though he’s passed all his state tests. Now in his final year of high school, he’s playing a gigantic game of catch-up because suddenly it has hit him that he may…
