UPDATED: Ain’t No Sunshine: Rain Washes Out K.C.’s New Year’s Eve Show
UPDATED (4:35 p.m.): The Mayor’s Office of Special Events released a statement about the performance. Meteorologists, farmers and other weather-watchers around here may know that Texas has again entered another official drought. But not Monday night when a sudden downpour put a damper on the City of Houston’s official New…
All Three Suspects in the Air Jordan Shoe Murder in Custody
In the first “I swear this is going to be a better year than last year” moment of 2013, police have reported Wednesday that they have apprehended all three of the suspects in the December 21 murder of Joshua Wood. For those not familiar with the crime, he was shot…
2012 Houston Murder Numbers Up Slightly from 2011 But Still “Very Low”
According to statistics from the Houston Police Department, there were 216 murders in Houston in 2012, which is 18 more than we had in 2011, but still the second-lowest number of murders in our city since 1966, continuing what officials don’t want to suggest might be a trend given how…
What Is Houston Cowboy?
I spend too much time on the Internet, but occasionally get rewarded for my rabbit-holing with stuff like Houston Cowboy. (And this GIF of a kitten getting slapped by a cat for wearing a dumb bowler hat.) I saw Houston Cowboy floating around in a few places yesterday and decided…
Crystal Ball: Looking Ahead to 2013 Houston Sports, Texans/Rockets Edition
It’s always an adventure when it comes to being a sports fan in Houston. Fortunes change quickly and the sensitive sports psyche of the city is so damn fragile, our confidence having been shattered so often in the past. Even when we want to swagger into a new year or…
Lucy: Making Ethiopian Food Look Good
One of the complaints I’ve always heard leveled against Ethiopian food is that it isn’t “pretty,” or that it doesn’t photograph well. The latter may often be true, because the texture and consistency of many Ethiopian dishes has a tendency to get lost in translation when photographed. A lovely, well-seasoned…
Why? Call to Older Forces On “The Water You Walk”
Welcome to a whole new year of music videos here at Rocks Off. Last year had some of the best we’ve ever covered, so there’s a high bar set for 2013. Let’s start strong with Why? and a cut from their upcoming 7-inch Waterlines. Directed by Erika Ochoa, this is…
Cover Story: The Canadian Pipeline Will Be Tearing Through Texas
If President Obama approves it, a 1,700-mile pipeline will be built from Alberta to the Texas Gulf Coast, connecting Canadian oil sand mines to our refineries. Proponents say something has to be done with the vast reserves to our North, and that bringing them in will lessen our reliance on…
This Week In Food Blogs: Quails and ‘Que
Urban Swank: What were your favorite meals of 2012? The Urban Swank girls — along with fellow food bloggers Hank On Food and our own Carla Soriano — round up their own magical meals, including the spaghetti carbonara from Coppa, jar-jar duck from Uchi and foie gras torchon from Brasserie…
Reality Bites: Zombie Apocalypse
There are a million reality shows on the naked television. We’re going to watch them all, one at a time. I’ve been a zombie horror fan for about as long as I can remember. Like most of my ilk, the first exposure (heh) came from George A. Romero’s Dead movies…
Feelin’ Hot, Hot, Hot: Houston and Galveston Break All-Time Temperature Records, But It’s Cool Right Now
It’s funny how perception works when it comes to weather. In 2011, the combination of a brutal drought — that continues, by the way, for most of the state and still threatens our area — and record daily high temperatures made it seem like the hottest year, well, ever. But…
Layered Cakes: Not Exactly a Piece of Cake
This Christmas I took on a task I have never attempted before. That task was making a layered cake. Four layers of chocolate cake with two layers of a cream and ganache between each cake round. Why would I take on such a daunting project, you ask? Well, I have…
Artopia 2013 Welcomes Poor Pilate, Bang Bangz, Bagheera
Entering its fifth year, already, Houston Press Artopia (Saturday, January 26) has become one of the hottest wintertime tickets in town, a veritable buffet line of the Bayou City’s hottest artists, dancers, designers, chefs and other creative types exhibiting their work. It’s like a Super Bowl of Houston culture, only…
2012: My Fave Fifteen, 15 Posts I Enjoyed Writing and (I Think) You Enjoyed Reading
A few years ago during the dog days of summer, in an attempt to fill air time with not much else going on, ESPN came up with this gimmick segment called “Who’s Now?” Basically, they matched up various sports figures in a bracket style tournament and then had random celebrities…
It Came From the Bowery: Punk Magazine Returns
The Best of Punk Magazine Edited by John Holstrom It Books. 372 pp., $30. While the thought of a hardcover, slick-papered, coffee-table book anthologizing the decidedly low-rent, ragtag Punk magazine might seem the antithesis of punk, even a curmudgeon like Johnny Rotten would have to spit a gob in appreciation…
Houston Renters Are Feelin’ the Squeeze
The figures vary, but the bottom line remains the same: Most renters in Houston have seen their rents jump from last year. Where’s that Rent Is Too Damn High Party guy when we need him? Rents increased 16.8 percent over last year, according to Fortune’s list of the ten cities…
Chef Chat, Part 1: Dagan Lynn of 024 Grille, On Life on an Island in Puerto Rico, and Selling His Jeep to Work with Famous Chefs in NYC
Dagan Lynn 024 Grille at the Westin Memorial City 945 N. Gessner Rd. Tel: 281-501-4350 This is Part 1 of a three-part Chef Chat series. Parts 2 and 3 will run in this same space on Thursday and Friday. It’s a Friday afternoon, and even though he’s in full chef’s…
The Best of DVDs & Blu-rays of 2012, Part 2
We continue our list of best DVD and Blu-ray releases. Check out Part I. Best Restoration: Jaws Steven Spielberg’s story of a great white shark that terrifies a coastal town was one of just 13 films Universal fully restored as part of the studio’s 100th anniversary. Jaws was cleaned, repaired…
A Young Person’s Guide to Houston’s Historic Blues Venues
Houston is a sprawling metropolis of subdivisions and strip centers that retains a strong cultural hub. But this “cultural hub” has actually become more of a cultural sprawl. Especially music-wise, neighborhoods outside Loop 610 are often seen as culturally sterile, though some elements of Houston’s more developed, inner-city culture have…
To the Media Outed by the Gun Owner: You Had It Coming
To the Staff of the Journal News, When I read recently about how a gun owner published the names and addresses of many of you on a Web site in retaliation for you publishing the names and addresses of gun owners in your area, I have to admit my first…
What’s Cooking on Pinterest? Fat-Burning Chickpea Muffins
When I came across this recipe on Pinterest for chickpea muffins that apparently have super powers to burn fat, I thought this would be a great recipe to share with everyone for the New Year. The number one resolution for each New Year is to lose weight, so why not…
Claes Oldenburg’s “Strange Eggs” Are Finally Whole
The name Claes Oldenburg may bring to mind sculptures of giant lipsticks, ice cream cones and shuttlecocks. Today, the esteemed 83-year-old artist is known for his larger-than-life, playful public art installations of ordinary objects. This conversation between art and the everyday is one Oldenburg has been having since the start…
ShipRocked: KoRn Fights Seasickness but Fans Rage On
A few weeks ago, Rocks Off’s Kevin Ramer shoved off on the 2012 edition of ShipRocked, which bills itself as “the ultimate rock music cruise vacation.” These are his reports. After a long first night of partying and concerts, Shiprockers woke up in the southernmost part of the United States:…
2012: From Woodpile Crash to Western Kentucky, the Year in Bobby Petrino
It was the morning of April 3 when we first saw the headlines, and it seemed like an innocent enough story at the time — out for a Sunday, Arkansas head football coach Bobby Petrino crashed his motorcycle and was taken to the hospital to treat some non-life-threatening injuries. In…
Health Camp: The World’s Most Ironically Named Restaurant
When I was in school at Baylor University in Waco, our dining options — both on- and off-campus — were sadly limited. I hear they’ve built a Hooters there now, though, so good for them. (Not on the campus, obviously. Hell, the Chili’s they built on campus a few years…
Art Attack’s Pop Culture Trend Predictions for 2013
At Art Attack it is our collective job to constantly take the pulse of pop culture and report to you our findings, however wildly insane or on-point. Or way, way off. Trends, memes, fads, they flow through our brains like that red stuff that comes out of our noses when…
Top 5 Reasons Velvet Revolver Shouldn’t Reunite
You might have read recently that Stone Temple Pilots front man Scott Weiland is teasing a full-time comeback for his other band. You know, the one with the guys from Guns N’ Roses. That’s right, Velvet Revolver. I know, I tried to forget about them too, but apparently the guys…
Last Night: New Year’s Eve Cataclysm at Fitzgerald’s
Free Press Houston New Year’s Eve Cataclysm Feat. Buxton, Infinite Apaches, Robert Ellis, Ben Godfrey Fitzgerald’s December 31, 2012 Devil, your name be “Michelada.” Who else could I blame for a New Year’s Eve that seems to exist only as flashes and sounds and 11 pages of barely legible notes?…
Upcoming: Black Crowes, Scott Biram, NRBQ, Air Supply, Etc.
Air Supply: Sun., Jan. 27, 8 p.m., $29.50. Arena Theatre, 7326 SW Freeway, Houston. Augustana: With Lauren Shera., Tue., Jan. 29, 8 p.m., $12/$16. Fitzgerald’s, 2706 White Oak, Houston. Beach Bones: Wed., Jan. 30, 7 p.m., Free. Heights Vinyl, 3122 White Oak Drive, Houston. The Black Crowes: Sun., April 28,…
Come See Some Cool Cats at the Houston Cat Club’s 60th Anniversary Show
Want to see some purrty cats (get it?) and help raise money for animal humane organizations at the same time? Then you’re in luck: The Houston Cat Club will hold its 60th annual show January 5 and 6 at the George R. Brown Convention Center. The show has raised more…
The Best DVDs & Blu-rays of 2012, Part 1
Art Attack film critic Pete Vonder Haar gave you his best films for 2012. We thought we would add our choice for 2012’s best DVD/Blu-ray releases to the mix. This list includes releases that we consider must-haves for your collection, sometimes because the film is great and sometimes because all…
Caviar Dreams: An Expert’s Guide to Choosing and Serving Caviar
You may have seen the little lockbox near the meats and cheeses in Spec’s downtown deli, its secured contents gleaming up from their cool environs in tiny, metal-capped glass jars. That lockbox cradles some of the best caviar in the city, beckoning you to buy just one to share among…
Happy New Year: Rocks Off’s Personal Resolutions for 2013
Recently Rocks Off challenged our writers to make a personal New Year’s resolution as a music fan for 2013. These brave souls actually did. Alexa Crenshaw: I should build a solid record collection, and not just let the few albums I own remain in decoration collecting dust. I also should…
Moving Video Tribute to the Celebrities Twitter Told Us Were Dead in 2012 (Reposting)
Earlier this year my tiny black heart was broken into a million tinier and slightly blacker pieces when I read on Twitter that former-Runaway turned greatest woman in ’80s metal Lita Ford had died in a tragic Jet Ski accident. I’ve harbored an enormous crush on Ford since I was…
2013 Food Trend: A Healthy State of Mind
Many companies and corporations have posted their predictions for the food trends of 2013. Of course, many of these lists include goofy trends like cake-pop push-pops (which sounds fun), but the common theme among a majority of all the predicted food trend lists of 2013 is health. Over the last…
New Year’s Resolutions for Houston Music In 2013
Recently Rocks Off asked our writers to make a New Year’s resolution for Houston music in 2013. These people wrote back. Alexa Crenshaw: I don’t have much more to say than the typical “I should branch out and watch more shows and listen to more music and buy more albums…
Pop Rocks: 2013 Already Sucks — Kanye and Kim Kardashian Are Breeding
That was quick. Was that quick? It seems quick. Kardashian, 32, took to her official site to post the following on New Year’s Eve: “It’s true!! Kanye (West) and I are expecting a baby. We feel so blessed and lucky and wish that in addition to both of our families,…
The Rocks Off 100: Chris Alonzo, Bringing Night Flight to Facebook
Welcome to the Rocks Off 100, 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. Who? Chris Alonzo is the founder and administrator of CMVC (musicvideothread), a Facebook page…
Chris Leung’s Cloud 10 Creamery Coming to Rice Village
There’s no denying that Chris Leung is one of the finest pastry chefs in Houston, although the young Leung has only been on the scene for a few years, starting out with a two-year stint at the Houston Country Club. Leung was instrumental in the success of Bootsie’s before it…
ShipRocked: Hard Rock Hijinks On a Big, Big Boat
A few weeks ago, Rocks Off’s Kevin Ramer shoved off on the 2012 edition of ShipRocked, which bills itself as “the ultimate rock music cruise vacation.” These are his reports. ShipRocked welcomed music lovers from 49 states and 20 countries for four days and nights of music, on a ship…
Top 10 Worst Lists of 2012
pe Two thousand twelve may be remembered for many cultural highlights, royal obsessions, not surprising celebrity divorces, surprising celebrity divorces, election overload, unexplained deaths, the list goes on and on and on. And that’s the thing about 2012; as horrific or insignificant as the event was, some blog somewhere turned…
Top 5 Cooking Shows to Watch in 2013
The New Year brings new series and the return of some of the best cooking shows on television. With today being the first day of 2013, we ranked our top five cooking shows for this year. Some are new and some are veterans, but all of them are enjoyable (or…
It’s Drunk and You’re 2013 Again! Happy New Year, Everybody!
It’s 6 a.m. on the first day of 2013. You are either a very disciplined person or you, more likely, are still up from last night’s revelry. We made it through a contentious election, school shootings, a Mayan calendar end of the world, a zombie apocalypse and even a global…
Top 10 Restaurants in Houston’s Little India
As we enter the new year, I’m trying to make good on a few resolutions starting on the very first day of 2013. And one of those is to get outside the Loop a bit more — even though a great bounty of amazing restaurants have opened inside the Loop…
Beat Repeat: 5 EDM Tracks We’ll Be Raging to In 2013
Every year thousands of songs get released, most of them fairly forgettable. The tracks you forget could fill countless hard drives, but it’s all worth it to find that handful of really great songs. If a song is really good — if it just knocks your socks off the first…
Game Demo of the Week: DmC: Devil May Cry
Game: DmC: Devil May Cry Platform: PS3/Xbox/PC Publisher/Developer: Ninja Theory/Capcom Genre: Hack n Slash Release Date: January 15 Capcom decided that the latest game in the Devil May Cry series would be a reboot, though it’s pegged as taking place in an alternative universe. The basics are still the same,…
So How Were Those Kendrick Lamar Shows Anyway?
Marco Torres texted Rocks Off shortly after 5 p.m. Saturday evening to say that a line was already forming around Warehouse Live for Kendrick Lamar, who was scheduled to perform at 10 p.m. The scene appears to have been the same at House of Blues, where he went on a…
One More Reason Not to Drive Drunk on New Year’s Eve
Earlier today, I gave you five not so great reasons to avoid drunk driving this New Year’s. They were superficial and unimportant, but they were meant to underscore the fact that driving under the influence is reckless and stupid, particularly on the drunkest night of the year. This doesn’t mean…
KC, of the Sunshine Band: “We’re the Party Band”
If there were some kind of Ghostbusters-style aura-meter that could measure the feelings certain songs evoke in people, KC & the Sunshine Band’s readings would be greener than the fields of Ireland. The Miami-based group dominated the charts in the mid- and late ’70s with a string of singles –…
Things We Learned from the Vince Young Outside The Lines Feature
Since falling out of favor with the Tennessee Titans in 2010, Vince Young’s slide to the bottom of the quarterback food chain has been precipitous and eventful. The highlights include: – Backing up Michael Vick in Philadelphia in 2011 and pronouncing the Eagles a “Dream Team,” a hex on that…
Houston’s Best Underground Rap Tapes of 2012, Most Assuredly (Pt. 2)
7. Killa Kyleon, Welcome To The Fish Fry Somehow, Killa Kyleon teamed with Danger Mouse for a mixtape and the Internet did not roll up into itself from amazingness. From the opening “I Got The Power, which trades in early-2000’s YMCMB flair, to the closing tink-tink-tink of the hyperaggressive “Holla…
City Hall: The Week in Photos
It’s time again to check out the Houston Press Flickr Pool and see what kinds of art shots our talented photographers have added. We love street art, unique perspectives and beautiful photos of Houston’s creative community. If you think you’ve got a good eye, drop your pictures in the pool…
UPDATE: Two Texas Longhorn Football Players Accused Of Sexual Assault In San Antonio
UPDATE: Mack Brown disclosed at his press conference Friday morning that two players have been suspended for the game and sent home for violating team rules. He didn’t get into specifics, wouldn’t name the players specifically, and wouldn’t indicate if either is a starter. When asked if the team had…
Eyes of a Dreamer and Some Charles Manson, Too
It’s a well-known fact that the majority of band names are gobbledygook, but here at Rocks Off we’re working hard to find meaning in the oddest monikers. Truth be told, which would probably be a first for this column now that I ponder it, Eyes of a Dreamer is not…
Karbach Tap Takeover Invades Houston Bars in 2013, Plus Hellfighter Bottles
You can hardly throw a rock in Houston these days without hitting a Karbach beer. Most larger grocery stores and liquor stores carry their canned beer 365 days a year. Hundreds of bars from The Hay Merchant down to local ice houses have their tap handles in their lineup of…
Superstorms, Mayans, Zombies and BDSM: The 10 Most Over-Hyped Stories of 2012
Journalists are really fond of writing about stories that went underreported every year. Too often, however, they forget to remind us all that those critical stories that went without needed coverage did so because stories with little merit wound up filling the airwaves and pages of newspapers. Unfortunately, the old…
ScoreMore Stoked For Saturday’s Sold-Out Kendrick Lamar Shows
It’s no great secret that the live-music scene around Houston can be a little, well, dead around the holidays. There are enough “thank God we’re off tour” shows by local and regional acts to make it worth fans’ while, but because the music business is generally among the first to…
How To: Classic Italian Panna Cotta
Two summers ago, I studied abroad in Florence, Italy, and got to taste and cook some of the best food I have ever had in my life. The first dessert we ate while in Italy was a creamy, pudding-like sweat treat, otherwise known as panna cotta. I had never had…
Beaumont Fox, ABC Affiliates Pitch in During CBS Anchor Bill Leger’s Memorial Service
People tuning into Beaumont’s CBS affiliate, KFDM, for the news at noon will notice something unusual: It will be anchored by a newscaster from the local Fox affiliate. And here’s why: KFDM’s beloved anchor Bill Leger was killed in a car accident in Louisiana December 22, and other newscasters are…
Upcoming Events: Last-Minute New Year’s Eve Plans and New Menus for the New Year
Still no plans for New Year’s Eve? You only have a few days left to plan, but here’s a last-minute suggestion that features some of the most important dishes for celebrating the New Year: oysters, cabbage and greens. (No black-eyed peas, but you can make yourself a pot of those…
Top Five Things to Do This Weekend: Hayes Carll, Django, Seeking Asian Female and More
Think of Hayes Carll’s Burlesque Circus and Sideshow Freakout, our pick for Friday, as a pre-pre-New Year’s Eve party. Singer-songwriter Carll, a rising country star from The Woodlands, will be joined onstage by Craig Kinsey, as well as a line of classy yet tawdry females for your ogling pleasure. The…
Is “Die Young” Really the Most Controversial Hit Song Right Now?
December was supposed to be Ke$ha’s big month. She was releasing a new album, critics were starting to see her as a serious artist, and “Die Young” was on the verge of becoming her third Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 single. But it was not to be. After the shootings…
Five of the Least Important Reasons Not to Drive Drunk on New Year’s Eve
We all know driving drunk is dumb. We all know doing it is dangerous and literally kills a lot of people every year. We also know it is completely avoidable. With New Year’s Eve coming up, the drunkiest holiday of the year, it is time for us all to reacquaint…
2012: The Year in Openings and Closings
Here it is. The wooly mammoth of a post that we provide to you as a public service every year. All of 2012’s openings and closings, listed by month, without fanfare or commentary. This is just the nitty gritty of every single restaurant whose doors have shut or opened in…
Joseph Kaiser Takes on the Riverboat Gambler Role in the Houston Grand Opera’s Show Boat
This January 18 will be opening night for Houston Grand Opera’s production of Show Boat, a somewhat risky, untraditional choice for an opera company, and one that Artistic and Music Director Patrick Summers has promised to replicate in other ways. Joseph Kaiser will be singing the role of good-looking riverboat…
Omotai’s Terrestrial Grief Shows Daring Steps Towards Masterpiece.
Even though Omotai is always on the list of Houston’s top metal acts, this is the first time I’ve really had the opportunity to check them out. Seeing as how their live prowess is always shouted from the rooftops, I was curious how that energy translated into their first full-length…
Wet Winter Weather Continues Right Through the New Year
If you looked outside Thursday and wondered to yourself, “What is this liquid falling from the sky?” don’t feel too bad. It’s been a pretty dry fall and winter thus far, so when we started seeing some misty rain Thursday afternoon, as ugly as it may have been, it was…
Ring in the New Year: Where to Eat on New Year’s Eve and Day 2012
It’s time to start making plans for New Year’s Eve and Day, if you haven’t already. Houston restaurants are opening their doors for you and your friends and family to celebrate the end of 2012 and beginning of 2013 with a delicious meal and champagne toasts at the strike of…
Houston’s 10 Best New Year’s Eve Shows
So the world didn’t end the way you all wanted it to a few weeks ago. What a tragedy. Life goes on, the road goes on forever, the party never ends, blah blah blah. The good news is that we all have New Year’s Eve to look forward to on…
A Rebuttal: 10 Annoying Things About Die Hard
As some of you may recall, not very long ago on this very blog I listed the ten most annoying things about the undeserving Christmas movie Love Actually. It was in the spirit of holiday fun, and we all had a few laughs. Well, not all of us. Among those…
The Owls Aim to Soar into the New Year
The minor bowl games are usually boring. These games often feature not-so-epic battles between two teams who finished sixth or seventh in their respective conferences and who usually don’t even have a winning record. These games generally exist as nothing but programming for ESPN and in which the stadiums are…
Game Demo of the Week: Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch
Game: Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch Platform: PS3 Publisher/Developer: Namco Bandai/Level-5/Studio Ghibli Genre: RPG Release Date: January 22, 2013 Welcome to a new regular weekly video game feature where I’ll be taking brief looks at upcoming games available for demo on console systems. This week we start…
Frampton Comes Alive… Again!
FCA! 35 Tour : An Evening with Peter Frampton Eagle Rock, 189 mins., $19.98 Things weren’t looking so hot for 25-year-old singer/guitarist Peter Frampton’s career at the end of 1975. After stints as a teen idol (with the Herd), lead guitarist (Humble Pie), and bandleader (Frampton’s Camel), his subsequent solo…
Health Department Roundup: Ruchi’s, Cedars, Le Peep and More
There’s not much to draw from in the city’s health inspection records this week, and that’s all right. Forcing Houston’s inspectors and restaurant owners to keep dancing during the holidays would have been wrong, like mixing lean with Diet Sprite. Of the few places that got looks last week, Ruchi’s…
Football! This Weekend’s Best Bets, the Mea Culpa Edition
First, with Christmas now in the books, I’d like to issue an apology. If you were paralyzed financially this holiday season, unable to buy gifts, and woefully relegated to giving your loved ones esoteric, abstract gifts like “more personal time” or crappy pieces of handmade artwork, it probably means you…
10 Cool & Cheap Weekenders: December 28-30
Hayes Carll’s Burlesque Circus and Sideshow Freakout House of Blues, December 28 Singer-songwriter Hayes Carll’s songs are populated by widescreen people of oddity and quirk, so it makes total sense for him to put his own special twist on the holidays. At Friday’s House of Blues free-for-all, Carll will be…
Openings & Closings: Surfing Cowboys and Plenty of Pizza
Last week’s roundup was heavy on the closings, but not this week. Although there were some high-profile places that shuttered, this week features mostly good news. But in the grand tradition of breaking news to people, let’s go ahead and start with the bad. First is that Tintos, the tapas…
Updated New Year’s Resolutions That You May Actually Do
Every year around this time, many of us sit down and reflect on the past year. More often than not, we reflect on all the awful things that happened, whether it’s true or not. Then we take pen to paper and make ourselves a nice old list of all the…
App of the Week: Facebook Poke, the Dumbest App You’ll Ever Own
App: Facebook Poke Platform: Most smartphones Website: Download Site Cost: Free The first thing you might ask yourself when you read that Facebook has an app called “Poke” is, “Do people still poke each other on Facebook?” It reminds me of a very funny song by Australian singer/songwriter Kate Miller-Heidke…
TRAILER PARK: Ryan Gosling, Motorcycles, Guns and Bradley Cooper
The trailer for Ryan Gosling’s newest begins with Suicide’s “Che”, which nearly sold me on the picture sight unseen, because I am a Suicide geek. But The Place Beyond The Pines actually looks very, very good. Plus the synopsis is provocative. A motorcycle stunt rider considers committing a crime in…
Classy Action: KBR Disagreed with an $85 Million Judgment Against Them, So They Accused Jurors of Misconduct
After KBR was ordered in November to pay $85 million to a dozen Oregon National Guard soldiers who were exposed to a toxic chemical while providing security for contractors in Iraq in 2003, we figured there’d be some foot-stomping and an immediate appeal. We didn’t think KBR would have the…
An Inside Look at Randall’s Grocery Carts on Christmas Day
Upon opening my eyes on Christmas day, the first thought to run through my head was not Santa, or presents, or family. It was “I am so hungry.” Followed immediately by “Oh my gosh all the grocery stores are closed what am I going to do do I have enough…
Robert Earl Keen: “I Do It How I Want to Now”
If you only know Robert Earl Keen from “Merry Christmas From the Family,” funny and true-to-life as it is, that’s still a shame. The dark, pointed humor that has made that song (originally released on his 1994 LP Gringo Honeymoon) one of the most beloved holiday tunes of the past…
Open Letter to the Jerks Who Killed Someone Over a Pair of Air Jordans
Dear A-Holes, Well done. You have reached the absolute lowest point on the criminal totem pole. You are now ranked down there with people who steal Christmas gifts on Christmas Eve and worthless lowlifes who literally take candy from babies. You killed a guy over a pair of shoes. I…
How Do You Define Triniti?
In this week’s cafe review of Triniti, the nearly indefinable restaurant from chef Ryan Hildebrand and his talented team of sous chefs, servers, bartenders, pastry chefs, sommeliers and managers sourced from the city’s best restaurants, I struggled with how to define the restaurant itself. Unlike other new restaurants this year…
Hear the First Song Recorded On the International Space Station
Commander Chris Hadfield, a Canadian Space Agency astronaut, is currently on the International Space Station, orbiting Earth. When he is not pointing at the windows of the ISS and screaming “Holy shit I am in space!” and doing various experiments meant to better mankind and science, he also plays guitar…
Vans Invades High School with a Killer Design Contest Worth $50k for Art Programs
When school kids come back to the dreaded schoolhouse in a few days for the spring semester, they have something less lame and like, dumb and stuff, to look forward to. The Vans shoe company is once again opening its Vans Custom Culture competition to high school art classes all…
Former President Bush Moved to ICU at Methodist Hospital
According to multiple reports, President Bush (George HW) was moved to ICU on Sunday and is in guarded condition with a persistent fever. He was admitted to Methodist the day after Thanksgiving for treatment of bronchitis, but suffered setbacks last week that landed him in the ICU. Doctors say he…
Rest In Peace: Nekst, Houston’s Most Successful Graffiti Artist
To be successful in this crazy world, a person needs to have talent and determination. Some individuals exhibit natural talent, but are limited by their lack of drive. Others are blessed with a sense of purpose and a strong work ethic, but lack the talent that is required to achieve…
Houston’s Best Underground Rap Tapes of 2012, Most Assuredly (Pt. 1)
I’d guess that nearly all of the time, the order of any list is impacted considerably by external, unrelated, completely unimportant factors (to deny that seems entirely senseless). To wit, empirical evidence: Recently, I posted a message on Twitter that said I’d be eating at a restaurant near my house…
Dinner Party Meal: Short Ribs Tagliatelle
The first time my mom made this dish, it was an experiment. At this time, we were realizing that you can mix odd ingredients together and come out with something spectacular. After religiously watching Food Network, we decided to take a whack at Giada De Laurentiis’s short ribs tagliatelle dish…
Metal Swingset on Southwest Freeway Turns into Fatal Accident
In what has to be one of the most bizarre and unfortunate incidents on Houston highways this holiday season, the driver of a car is dead after being struck from behind by another vehicle on the Southwest Freeway the day after Christmas. The culprit: a metal swingset sitting in the…
Reviews for the Lazy Gamer: Mega Man X Street Fighter
Game: Mega Man X Street Fighter Platform: PC (Free!) Publisher/Developer: Capcom/Zong Hui and A_Rival Genre: Side-scroller Describe This Game in Three Words: Pretty damned mega. Plot Synopsis: The Blue Bomber celebrates 25 years of making Capcom big old piles of money by having a classic 8-bit adventure where all the…
Where the Chefs Eat: Alex Padilla, Jose Vela, Mario Valdez
This week, we continue our Where the Chefs Eat series with three Latin American chefs: Alex Padilla of Ninfa’s on Nav, Jose Vela of Mockingbird Bistro, and Mario Valdez of Rainbow Lodge. Padilla won the 28th Annual Caesar Salad competition this year with a tasty BLT caesar salad. Vela is…
Lil Flip Arrested In Louisiana On Gun, Drug Charges
Wednesday, Lil Flip made the news. Not for releasing a comeback single to regain his footing as one of Houston’s first breakout rap stars post-2000, but for being jailed. According to the Shreveport Times, the 31-year old rapper was arrested near Shreveport, La., Wednesday after deputies found a Bushmaster AR-15…
License Plate Auction for Something Similar to But Not TEXANS
The Great Plate Auction of 2013 has released yet another custom plate option to be auctioned off in a couple weeks. We already wrote about HOUSTON, DYNAMO and ROCKETS. Now you can have…TEXAN5? They even got a quote from Jamey Rootes of the Houston TexanS about how great having this…
Free for All: Jerry Jeanmard, Victoria Laurie and Wayne Gilbert
Some of Jerry Jeanmard’s earliest artwork (the Blue Bell Ice Cream logo showing a silhouette of a little girl leading a cow for milking) is seen daily. Some of his latest work (untitled paper collages) is rarely on view. Jeanmard, who has worked as an interior designer for nearly 30…
30 Seconds With Hayes Carll
Mr. Hayes Carll from The Woodlands is one of our greatest treasures, and his country magic is making him a name all over America. We sat down with Carll to see what we could learn in 30 seconds. Rocks Off: What is worst song in the world? Hayes Carll: I…
What Exactly Is Fresh About Furr’s Fresh Buffet?
This is not my week. First, I gave in to curiosity and tried a McRib after 32 years of pointedly ignoring the restructured pork product and discovered firsthand the troubling McRib Paradox: People who turn their noses up at offal will happily consume pork hearts, tripe and scalded stomach blended…
Habitat for Cat-Manity: Help Build “Houses” to Keep Feral Cats Warm in Winter!
In case you hadn’t noticed, it was freaking cold last night. Friends for Life, an animal rescue group, knows that feral cats surely noticed the dips in temperature over the last month, so they launched Project WARM in order to help out the critters on cold nights. The group is…
Pop Rocks: Just Let Yourself Get Fat Already, Jessica Simpson
This is sort of the opposite of how it usually works this time of year, but whatever: [Jessica Simpson] confirmed her second pregnancy on Christmas via photo. And although she won’t stick to her diet plan now that she’s in the family way again, she will continue to appear in…
The Rocks Off 100: Bradley Munoz, P.L.X.T.X.’s Noise Acolyte
Welcome to the Rocks Off 100, 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. Who? Bassist and singer Bradley Munoz was an instrumental part of Female Demand before…
8 Texans Named to the Pro Bowl, Most in the AFC
There was a time (largely, 2002 through around 2008) when the night the Pro Bowl rosters were revealed was a complete non-event for Texans fans. Well, times have changed, and Wednesday the Texans AFC best 12-3 record was mirrored by having an AFC best eight players (six offense, two defense)…
The 5 Worst Trends Started By the Class of ’99
Chris Gray’s write-up of the Brian Setzer Orchestra’s “Christmas Rocks” show at the Arena Theatre a couple of weeks ago got me thinking. These days, the swing maestro seems to be comfortably settled into his own little niche in the music industry, playing swingin’ Christmas carols to grown folks. But…
The 5 Levels Of a Hangover and How to Cure Them with Food
New Year’s is here and I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to go out with a bang. And by bang I mean a bottle of champagne, at least three vodka-sodas and an undetermined amount of shots. It’s a guaranteed good time. It’s also a guaranteed hangover. So to…
Chad (Ochocinco) Johnson Has a Sex Tape? Of Course He Does
Chad Johnson has always been one of the biggest attention whores, not just in sports but, really, well, anywhere. When he’s not legally changing his last name to “Ochocinco,” he’s taking a stab at professional soccer for no real reason. When he’s not trying to be a professional bull rider,…
Not Fade Away Soundtrack Offers Up a Fistful of Blues, Stones
Not Fade Away, Director David Chase’s period piece about a burgeoning rock band in the ’60s, is still playing on limited screens in New York and Los Angeles, but this week preview copies of the soundtrack hit mailboxes. It is a sprawling double-disc, double-LP collection featuring vintage Rolling Stones, Elmore…
4 Movie Novelizations That Revealed Mind-Boggling Things About The Film
I love movie novelizations because the very concept is insane. They’re books designed to appeal to people who have actively chosen another entertainment medium. The weird thing is, a lot of the time they’re completely awesome. One of the reasons you should pick up a novelization is because they can…
Houston’s Best Gluten-Free Dining Options
One of the more frequent questions I’m asked these days is where to find good gluten-free food. And when GF folks ask this question, they’re looking for more than an answer of, “Oh, any place that serves vegetables and meat. Can’t you figure out your own dietary restrictions?” No; they’re…
Omotai, From Beyond
Omotai releases the band’s newest offering, Terrestrial Grief, Friday at Walters, which has reclaimed its place as one of Houston’s best metal and punk venues since moving to Naylor. Following Omotai’s 2010 Peace Through Fear EP, Grief is made up of 11 one-point, grinding metal courses that make more noise…
Winter Wonder Glam
The old, weird Houston scene — somewhere both the music and people who made it could be hazardous to your long-term health and short-term prospects of making it to work the next day — is almost gone, replaced by an ambitious generation of bands that prefers social networking and playing…
Please Shut Up
Highlights from Hair Balls Political Animals Dear Political Extremists, I’m going to imagine you’ve been bound and gagged for a few minutes because I assume if you were not, you would run roughshod over my attempts to speak with you in a reasonable tone. You talk (and type) a lot,…
Adolescents
Old-school Cali punk meets new-school Houston punk as spiky ’80s greats the Adolescents and Youth Brigade swing through town, picking up the young, pissy, and (natch) tattooed American Heist along the way to open a few Texas gigs. The Heist is set to have another big year of recording and…
A History of Violence
Watching Django Unchained, it’s easy to imagine that Quentin Tarantino had such a blast making his last picture, the ebullient Holocaust fantasia Inglourious Basterds, that he decided to take his whole blood-spattered historical tent show on the road, this time putting down stakes in antebellum Dixieland. Although not technically a…
The Mavericks
When the Mavericks appeared in the early ’90s, they brought an air of sophistication and class rarely seen in Nashville then and now. By mixing traditonal country with the Latin flair of their Miami roots and making the most of singer Raul Malo’s Orbison-esque croon, they went platinum on 1994’s…
Capsule Stage Reviews: Panto Mother Goose, Sanders Family Christmas, The Santaland Diaries, The White Christmas Album: A Beatles Holiday
Panto Mother Goose The latest installment of Stages Repertory Theatre’s annual Christmas “pantomimes” has a nimble score by David Nehls but top-heavy book (though far nimbler lyrics) by Stages’ artistic director, Kenn McLaughlin. With tongues firmly planted, the actors gleefully chew the scenery — a Necco wafer storybook set by…
Texas Crimes of the Year, 2012
Check out all 10 Crimes of the Year mugshots in our slideshow. In ordering the past year’s multitude of mayhem, madness and overall malarkey here in the Lone Star State, we struggled to come up with a theme, a spine to link all the various stories we encountered. Should we…
Craig’s List
Only in Houston It’s that time of year — it has been since, like, November — for rock writers to show everyone else how cool they think they are with their year-end best-of lists. How obscure can you get? How controversial can you be with your choices? “If only Honey…
New Year’s Eve 2012 Guide
Between conspiracy theories about the Mayan calendar and political promises of apocalypse if the other side wins, it’s about time we had a reason to celebrate the future, even if only for a night. So, this New Year’s Eve, take the time to swing by your favorite bar, club or…
FPH New Years For-Eve-R Cataclysm
Since the Pegstar and Free Press Houston folks bought Fitzgerald’s in 2010, they have been throwing large, must-attend parties to unite Houston’s disparate youth tribes and ring in the new year. This year’s edition features Robert Ellis, who moved to Nashville earlier this year and has been traveling the world…
10 Movies to Watch in 2013
Most of the blathering this year about the death of film and film culture has already evaporated from the mind, like so much inert gas. But one gnomic pronouncement endures: Leos Carax describing cinema as “a beautiful island with a cemetery” following the world premiere of Holy Motors at Cannes…
Special Year-End Edition: How Can I Get My Mexican Neighbor to Turn His Music Down?
Dear Mexican, Longtime reader, first-time writer. I need some advice. My wife (who’s a half-Mexican L.A. native, just so you don’t think we’re a couple of white hipster dickheads) and I (who’s white, but an immigrant, so I hope that lowers my dickhead factor a little) have had it up…
Les Misérables
You can hear the people sing — really hear them — in the long-gestating screen version of that Broadway juggernaut Les Misérables. Countering the standard practice of having the actors in a film musical lip-synch their songs to prerecorded tracks (a.k.a. “playback”), director Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech) insisted that…
Defining Triniti
See more of Triniti’s gorgeous dining room and expansive kitchen in our slideshow. Triniti absolutely glitters at night. Although you can’t see the way the sun hits the perforated metal that wraps in a crimped pattern around the exterior of the restaurant — gleaming gold or rust or green, depending…
Hayes Carll’s Burlesque Circus and Sideshow Freakout
Singer-songwriter Hayes Carll’s songs are populated by widescreen people of oddity and quirk, so it makes total sense for him to put his own special twist on the holidays. At Friday’s House of Blues free-for-all, Carll will be joined by good friends Corb Lund and Houston’s Craig Kinsey, along with…
Tabu
Perhaps in response to bombastic mainstream Hollywood, international auteurs often veer toward minimalism — quieter emotions, slower tempos, a tightly defined era and setting. Portuguese filmmaker Miguel Gomes is clearly a man of the art house — his new film, Tabu, which opens this week, was shot on 16mm black-and-white…
Kendrick Lamar
Hands down the hottest rapper of 2012, Compton’s Kendrick Lamar had to schedule two shows in one night just to meet the demand among his mushrooming Houston fan base. Not a trash-talking braggart like so many of his contemporaries, Lamar is instead a heavy-lidded ladies’ man whose gift for witty…
Capsule Art Reviews: “Demiak: The Big Blow,” “J. Todd Allison: Unresting,” “Jerry Jeanmard: Collages,” “Peat Duggins: Wreaths,” “Staring at the Wall: The Art of Boredom”
“Demiak: The Big Blow” Maarten Demmink was born in the Netherlands, honed his craft at art schools in the Netherlands and currently lives in the Netherlands. But the multimedia artist’s work is anything but provincial. In a solo show currently up at Redbud Gallery, the artist, who goes by the…
Cowboy Mouth, Dash Rip Rock
Two Louisiana lifers, New Orleans brothers in arms Dash Rip Rock and Cowboy Mouth are still preaching the gospel of righteous, swamp-flavored rock and roll night after night some 20 years into their careers. Neither is exactly a stranger to Houston — in fact, Dash played the Continental’s Coffee Porter party…
Underdogs and Juggernauts
Top 10 If I had to pick one word to describe the mad, exciting rush of restaurant activity that’s defined 2012, it would be this: exhilarating. Followed closely by: exhausting. Trying to keep up with every single new restaurant that’s flung open its doors in exuberance — welcoming the city’s…
