Second Haitian Relief Concert at Warehouse Live This Week Scheduled for Friday
On the heels of Bun B’s all-star (if borderline interminable) “Houston 4 Haiti” relief concert at Warehouse Live Monday night that reportedly raised in the neighborhood of $10,000, the venue will open its doors – albeit in the smaller studio room – for another benefit Friday night starring four local…
The Life Of One Of “Houston’s Craziest,” Caught On Video
During the reporting of “Houston’s Craziest,” a Houston Press cover story from a few weeks back about a new Houston Police Department program that identified the 30 craziest people in Houston, we noticed a trend among the people on the list: Almost all of them used drugs. Not psychotropic drugs,…
The Taco Truck Gourmet: El Chilango
The caampechana taco at the El Chilango taco truck is filled with a mixture of chorizo and chopped fajita beef that is fried together and served on a lightly grilled tortilla. The topping of onion and cilantro and the lime wedge is free — not a bad deal for a…
Fast and Fresh: Pho 99
Pho 99 (12002 Veterans Memorial) sits in one of the many unassuming shopping centers along Veterans Memorial. To be completely honest, we were a bit hesitant when we pulled up to the restaurant. Did we have a greasy, stomach ache-inducing lunch in store for us? We walked in to find…
King Cry Baby: A Team Leno Playlist
If you’ve been keeping up with the business going on between Conan O’Brien and Jay Leno, odds are you’ve already picked a side. Every team needs its fight songs, and although Team Leno looks a lot smaller than Team Conan – in fact, Rocks Off isn’t sure if we’ve even…
Edward Matthews, 23, Bayou Body Count No. 18
For weeks, Edward Matthews held on dearly to his life, until finally he couldn’t hold on any longer and it slipped away.And when it did, the police were ready to pounce.On Wednesday morning, officers arrested 17-year-old Frederick Grant and charged him with murder. He is locked up in the Harris…
Yelapa’s Platos Crudos
Mahi-mahi, aka dolphinfish or dorado, was the star of the raw Peruvian “cebiche” at Yelapa, the new Mexican seafood restaurant on Richmond near Blue Fish and the Hobbit Hole. Yelapa’s crudo plates are the most interesting thing on the restaurant’s menu. No, “crudo” doesn’t mean “crude” in Spanish; it means…
The Basics: How to Boil an Egg
With the semester fast approaching, we’ve been thinking about quick, easy nutritious dishes. Hard-boiled eggs are a staple, if you know how to make them correctly. They’re also very versatile and will keep in your fridge for several days. If you get sick of plain boiled eggs, peel them, chop…
Game Time: Rockets Midseason Report Card
I grew up as the oldest child in a family with three boys. There was me, two years behind me was my brother Kevin, and then six years behind him was my brother Ryan. While all three of us were, and for the most part still are, pretty intelligent fellows,…
Happy Anniversary Texas Music Magazine, or “Austin and (Maybe) Everything After”
Towards the end of last week, Rocks Off got the latest issue of Texas Music magazine in the mail, which just happens to mark the quarterly periodical’s tenth anniversary. Naturally, as just about every publication does when it reaches such an august milestone – no mean feat for a magazine…
Our Second Reader Judge: The Houston Press Cupcake Smackdown
Oh man, this was a close one. Who knew choosing the second reader judge for Sunday’s Houston Press Cupcake Smackdown would be so gut-wrenching? Two readers, JG and Sofia, captured our hearts. Both came off as passionately — okay, insanely — dedicated to cupcakery. JG claimed that her mother offered…
Sampler Plate: This Week In Food Blogs
Each week, we put together a sampler plate of the most interesting links from both local and national food blogs. Know a blog we should be paying particular attention to? Leave the address in the comments section below. Foodie Houston: We can’t disagree with Jodie’s statement that “Chris Shepherd Rocks.”…
Real Life Scene From The Wire In Rural Santa Fe
Remember that scene in season two of The Wire where Bubbles and his junko partner Johnny Weeks get caught pillaging a Baltimore ambo for needles and morphine?Apparently these two Santa Fe women did. They are alleged to have practically reenacted the gritty B-More theft rural-redneck Galveston County-style.Santa Fe police allege…
Guitar Zero: Crossing the Bar (or Barre)
If we were measuring Guitar God status by how enthusiastically my children responded to my playing, I’d already be somewhere between George Lynch and Chet Atkins. Unfortunately, six-string success isn’t determined by infants giggling at their dad playing the “Peter Gunn Theme” at half speed, so to my third lesson…
The Big 3: Banana, Chocolate Chips and Walnuts
We are big believers in the sum of an excellent flavor fusion being greater than its parts. And we tend to return over and over again to certain ingredient combinations that just work really well together. That’s why we’ll be blogging about some of our favorite three-flavor blends that can…
More Tats, More Social Deviance, Texas Tech Reports
Texas Tech’s school of sociology will soon publish a study claiming a link between the number of tattoos a college student has and their level of social deviance, which is defined in the study as proclivities for binge drinking, promiscuity, frequent marijuana use and occasional use of other drugs, a…
She’s Comin’: Sarah Palin To Campaign With Rick Perry In Houston
Start droppin’ yer Gs now!! Sarah Palin is a-headed to town, with a bucketfull of common-sense talk for all them hot-air artists up in Washington!!!Rick Perry’s campaign announced today that Palin will appear with the governor in “the Houston area” February 7.”I look forward to standing with Sarah to promote…
“Weird” and Proud, Preemo Understands the Meaning of “Hustle Town”
We think “Weird Al” Yankovic screwed it up for everybody. There aren’t lots of times you can use the word “weird” in a good way. That’s one of those words we need to take back, on the real, because when you put “weird” into the right context it can be…
Donut Patrol: Bagels and Lox
I wasn’t in the mood for a donut. Actually, I was craving smoked fish on a bagel. So I dropped by New York Bagels on Hillcroft, an establishment that I was once thrown out of. Owner Jay Kornhaber was furious because I was taking notes while looking at his menu…
Ruben Dario Ical, 51 (a/k/a Myra Ical), Bayou Body Count No. 17
Police discovered a body in a field a few blocks east of the University of St. Thomas Sunday.The body belonged to 51-year-old Ruben Dario Ical, who also went by the name of Myra Chanel Ical. Ical died in an area known for picking up tricks and for buying drugs, police…
Artist of the Week: Why You Should Care About Modern-Rockers Raging Apathy
Each Wednesday, Rocks Off arbitrarily appoints one lucky local performer or group “Artist of the Week,” bestowing upon them all the fame and grandeur such a lofty title implies. Know a band or artist that isn’t awful? Email their particulars to sheaserrano@gmail.com. Thirty-eight simple rules govern our existence. Our father,…
It’s The 1950s At Cypress Ridge High, And The Juvenile Delinquents Are At It Again
Yet another black eye for Texas high schools has emerged, and it involves an ass photo.Some PE teacher sneaking a camera into a locker room to snap the girl’s volleyball team showering? No. Some misguided junior girl with low self-esteem sending a dirty photo to an alleged boyfriend who forwards…
Brew Blog: Baltika No. 6 and No. 4
Eighty-six years ago this Thursday, Lenin died. In honor of this historical marker, and because we were drawn to the Cyrillic characters on their labels, we sample two brews from St. Petersburg. Baltika labels its beers with numbers at the top of their necks. We tried No. 6, the porter,…
Idol Beat: A Lot of Hot Air In the Windy City
So here we are with our pants on the ground, in the second week of American Idol, and it’ll be another month before auditions end. At first I was pleasantly surprised to find that last night’s episode was just an hour: I did my time in the trenches with Dancing…
American Idol: A Lot of Hot Air in the Windy City
So here we are with our pants on the ground, in the second week of American Idol, and it’ll be another month before auditions end. At first I was pleasantly surprised to find that last night’s episode was just an hour: I did my time in the trenches with Dancing…
Texans Raise Ticket Prices Because….Because…Because They Can?
Let’s say you’re the owner of the Houston Texans. And let’s say your team just barely managed to eke out its first winning season despite playing against some of the worst teams in professional football. Let’s say that, despite saying this summer that it was the playoffs or bust for…
Aftermath: Rocks Off’s Buddy’s Bachelor Party at House of Blues, Leon’s, the Darkhorse and, Suprisingly, Not Jail
Like we wrote last Friday, Rocks Off attended a bachelor party this past weekend for our friend Brett, who gets hitched this coming Saturday. (It took us a few days for our head to clear.) It was a star-studded event that included a faux Kings of Leon sighting, Luis Scola,…
Stirred and Shaken: Stag’s Head Pub’s Jailbird
The Stag’s Head Pub (2128 Portsmouth, 713-521-2333) is a warm, comfortable place to celebrate a friend’s getting out of a cold, uncomfortable place with some inappropriately heavy Monday-night drinking. Mike (new nickname: Short Timer) had spent the weekend in county lockup for an unpaid traffic ticket. He’d been mostly blind,…
The Five Best American Spinoffs From British TV….And Win An Invention Of Lying DVD
If you saw the Golden Globes — or, more likely, if you surfed the net the next day for highlights (because Lord, those speeches were as long and pointless as the drawn-out walks to the stage) — then you saw Ricky Gervais tear into the American version of The Office…
The Other Porn: Robblog’s 5 Hottest Babes
Food porn has always been good enough for us here at Eating Our Words. Show us a big, greasy burger voluptuously perched on a seedy bun, and we get all excited and our mouths get wet. Real porn seems so unappetizing by comparison. But if you ever check out our…
Game Time: The 24 Trim Report Card And “I Know That Dude!” Scoreboard
I was actually going to do my Rockets midseason report card today. I really was. But I got home last night, and despite telling myself that I would hold off on watching the next two hours of the new season of 24 until after I got my “sports related” work…
The 5 Smelliest Foods You Should Never Bring to the Office
Two things happened this week that predicated this post. Number one: We brought a vegetable tray to our weekly staff meeting. This was onerous enough in and of itself, as the Houston Press staffers are accustomed to chips and cookies of indeterminate but fatty origin. But the broccoli inside the…
13-Year-Old Can’t Be A Prostitute Because She Can’t Consent To Sex, Attorneys Argue
The Texas Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments in a case involving the Harris County District Attorney’s prosecution of a 13-year-old girl for prostitution. Attorneys for the girl, called “B.W.” in the proceedings, say that, because a minor cannot consent to sex, B.W. should not have been charged with…
Ask A Rapper: H-Kane Explains Proper Diss Procedure, Demonstrates on Chronicle
The hip-hop world is a less than sensible place – lots of times, you’re even required to clarify when bad means bad and when bad means good – so once a week we’re going to get with a rapper and ask them to explain things. Something you always wanted to…
Dual Sausage Poor Boy
A barbecue sausage poor boy is a novel idea to begin with, but a barbecue sausage poor boy made with two varieties of housemade links really gets my attention. That’s the sandwich the counter man at Hungry Farmer barbecue restaurant on Crosstimbers recommended. He claimed that the restaurant made their…
More Good News In The Lightnin’ Hopkins Historical Marker Campaign
Eric Davis, whose application to erect a state historical marker for iconic Texas bluesman Lightnin’ Hopkins was approved by the Harris County Historical Commission in November, said today his campaign to raise money to pay for the marker reached its goal of $1,800 dollars last month. “I’m just really pleased,…
It’s Back To The Local Station For The Fire Chief
The announcement came earlier today that the chief of the Houston Fire Department, Phil Boriskie, is resigning his post because of “my desire to return to the station and continue to serve in this great Department,” according to his written statement. Boriskie’s sudden desire to return to the station, however,…
More Good News In the Lightnin’ Hopkins Historical Marker Campaign
Eric Davis, whose application to erect a state historical marker for iconic Texas bluesman Lightnin’ Hopkins was approved by the Harris County Historical Commission in November, said today his campaign to raise money to pay for the marker reached its goal of $1,800 dollars last month. “I’m just really pleased,…
Another Anonymous Male, Bayou Body Count No. 16
The list of anonymous bodies and unknown killers continues to grow, as Houston homicide detectives opened another case over the weekend.On Friday at about 10:30 p.m., the cops got a call from a resident along the 3400 block of Tampa, a little east of Hermann Park, about a dead body…
Think You’ve Got What It Takes To Be a Cupcake Judge?
Ed. Note: The comments section is now closed, as we have made our decision. Sofia Straus joins Melanie Tello as our second reader judge. Good luck to them both. Last week, we chose Melanie Tello from a sea of 60 other worthy candidates to be one of our reader judges…
Boycott Houston, Because We Are So Depraved
If you think the folks in Haiti are having a rough time, just wait until Houstonians feel the economic effects of Pastor David Grisham’s boycott against our city of sin. Launched just a few days ago, www.boycotthouston.com is Grisham’s way of giving righteous Texans a chance to send a message…
Magnolia City Mixtape: Be Hollywood F.L.O.S.S.’s Pen Pal, Roky Erickson + Okkervil River, New Something Fierce 7″ and Dave Wrangler Mashup
Ever wish you had a pen pal like Hollywood F.L.O.S.S. when you were a kid? He’s been sending out a mixtape called Art-or-Fiscal Intelligence to various bloggers around the U.S. You can listen online or download here, and read some of the props he’s been getting. Austinites Okkervil River recently announced…
Bartender Chat: Denise King of The Black Labrador
What better way to spend a winter afternoon than with baked potato soup and a pint of beer? And The Black Labrador (4100 Montrose) has some of our favorite soup. The afternoon we visited, the pub was pretty empty, so we chatted with Denise King, who’s been a bartender at…
The End Is Near for Conan O’Brien
I can’t believe it’s come to this. As most people know by now, Conan O’Brien will be exiting The Tonight Show, likely after Friday’s show. It’s a bitter end to his truncated run on the show, and the real hell is how easily it could have been avoided if things…
Remembering Janis: Port Arthur’s Pearl Would Have Been 67 Today
Today would have been Port Arthur native Janis Joplin’s 67th birthday. Rocks Off started his day at the desk with her greatest-hits collection and all her work with Big Brother & the Holding Company that gets overlooked in lieu of her bigger singles. Pearl is still seen by many as…
2010 Coachella Lineup Includes Zero Houstonians
Surprise. But the headliner is married to one…
Visitors from Detroit Rate Houston Barbecue
A friend’s family flew in from Detroit for the weekend and demanded a statewide Texas barbecue crawl. But time was short, so we stole four hours between work shifts last weekend and set off on a Houston barbecue sprint. One in our party dubbed the tour MEAT (Men Eating Animals…
New DVDs: Che, Henry Lee Lucas And A Boring Kate Beckinsale
Less successful is Che’s involvement in the Bolivian uprising. There the peasants not only abandon him, they turn him in to the Bolivian army who hunt him down and execute him. It’s a sad ending to the life of a man who was committed to the idea of freedom, no…
Get “All Jacked Up” at Rodeo’s Hideout With Gretchen Wilson, Dale Watson, Honeybrowne, Others
The Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo announced the lineup for its smaller Hideout venue this morning and, well, it’s countrier than the Black Eyed Peas. This year’s bill includes “Here for the Party” girl Gretchen Wilson, a contestant from CMT’s Can You Duet (O’Shea), some legit honky-tonkers (Dale Watson, Eleven…
Pop Rocks: Golden Bozos
You know awards season is in full swing when all the celebrities converge upon the Beverly Hilton to get drunk and act like receiving an award from the same organization that once honored Pia Zadora is something to be proud of.That’s right, it was Golden Globes night last Sunday. And…
Smashing Breakfast at Chacho’s Tacos
I long ago wrote off Chacho’s Tacos on Westheimer in the Galleria as a Tex-Mex fast food joint housed in a garishly painted, drafty-looking garage. Then I stopped by the 24-hour hash house for breakfast. Refried beans flavored with bacon grease, hand-cut hash browns, thick bacon, and perfect over-easy eggs…
Virgil Fuselier, 38, Bayou Body Count No. 15
Virgil Fuselier had not shown up to work, and his brother was getting nervous. He called and called, but Fuselier did not pick up. Finally, he dialed up the cops.It was a little after 10:30 p.m. on Friday when Harris County deputies drove out to the 9800 block of Kathi…
Wanna Make $100? Kill This Guy’s Drummer.
[Thanks to our buddy, former Meridian talent buyer John Escamilla, for posting this on Facebook.] The New Year’s Eve gig must not have gone well at all. Twenty minutes into 2010, a La Porte man posted a Craigslist invitation to kill his drummer for the low, low bounty of $100…
The Shameless Chef: Southwest Chicken and Dumplin’ Chowder
It’ll be Super Bowl time before long, so when I saw an imminently Super Bowl-style dish on the back of a can of Dinty Moore, I- Quit looking at me like that. Oh, you’ve never made something from off the back of a can before? Well, me neither. I’m aware…
Five Ways To Tell If You’re Talking To A Dude In A Cheap Austin Motel, And Not To A Supermodel
The Los Angeles Times had a report out today on a Texas guy whose story we had somehow missed: Using a “high-pitched voice” on the phone, he had somehow convinced rich guys that he was Bree Condon, who, the article informed us, is “a successful model and aspiring actress who’d…
Aftermath: Jemina Pearl Spits, Squeals, Hobbles and Rocks at the Mink
Looking for all the world like a young ex-Runaways lead singer Cherie Currie (minus the lingerie) and sounding like Kathleen Hanna, Jemina Pearl didn’t hesitate to scream her heart out in front of a small but energetic crowd at the Mink last night. Aftermath knew she’d be awesome – we…
UH Steps Up With Sumlin Contract Extension; Will The Fans Do Their Part?
Let’s hear it for UH Athletic Director Mack Rhoades. He got one of the nation’s hottest coaches, Kevin Sumlin, to put his signature to a new six-year contract which is a rather a good deal for the Sumlin and the Cougars. The deal is for six years and $6.8 million…
Recipe: Spanakopita
With school fast approaching and one awesome portable recipe under our belt, we decided to try to take a crack at another favorite – spanakopita, or spinach feta pies. Like our curry puffs, these can be frozen and then popped into a toaster oven or a microwave. This was our…
Aftermath: Bun B’s “Houston 4 Haiti” Relief Concert at Warehouse Live
5:55 p.m.: One of the things I like most about Warehouse Live is how professional and courteous the door staff is. My favorite is how they do that thing where you walk up to them and smile and say, “Hey, how are you?” and then they look at you like…
Author Steve Berry: An Evening of Thrills Tonight At The Houston Museum Of Natural Science
It’s been a good year for author Steve Berry. His new release The Paris Vendetta debuted at Number 9 on The New York Times bestseller list (no little feat since the list was already filled with heavy hitters like John Grisham, Michael Crichton, Stephen King and Sue Grafton). The paperback…
Promo Materials Emerge For I Love You Phillip Morris, Former Press Staffer Steve McVicker’s Movie
In advance of its March 26 release date, there are now trailers and posters galore for I Love You Phillip Morris, the Jim Carrey/Ewan Macgregor film based on the Houston Press articles and ensuing book written by former staffer Steve McVicker.You can see a mess of trailers here.McVicker says this…
Distant Early Warning: Atreyu, Black Joe Lewis, Dr. Dog, Mariah Carey, Snoop Dogg, Soulfly, Vivian Girls, etc.
Atreyu, Drive A, Otenki: Sun., Feb. 28. Meridian. Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears, Grandfather Child: Fri., April 2. Walter’s on Washington. Camera Obscura: Sun., April 11. Warehouse Live. Cold, Nonpoint, Day Of Fire, Chrome 44: Fri., March 19. Scout Bar Clear Lake. Deer Tick, Dr. Dog: Sun., May 2…
Where Are We Drinking?
A pool cue, high heels, worn-in wooden floors and a sleek pair of jeans. Can you guess where we’re drinking (and shooting pool) this week? Leave your best guess in the comments section below…
Texas Traveler: Casa Mesa
Ed. Note: This is the third part in a series about traveling to Big Bend. Part one and part two covered heading west and the sublimely bizarre towns like Marfa along the way. Part of what started Texas Traveler’s obsession with Big Bend was a chance encounter with my former…
Help Haiti By Enjoying Belly Dancers. You Know You Want To
If you are going to donate money for Haitian earthquake victims, there are worse ways to do it than watching belly dancers, if you ask us.Luckily, the folks at Avant Garden in Montrose think along those lines, too, so you can enjoy and help out at the same time.Tonight there…
Game Time: I Bet On The Cowboys This Weekend, And Now I Must Go Shower
I’m not sure why I thought Sunday would be any different for the Dallas Cowboys than every other big spot that they’ve been in since Tony Romo was handed the keys to the Cowboy Cadillac (complete with big-ass steer horns as a hood ornament). I mean, were two spankings of…
Bob’s Taco Station Gets Its 15 Minutes
Back in July 2009, we ran down the list of Houston restaurants chosen for the somewhat ignominious honor of appearing on the Food Network’s show Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, starring the most obnoxious head full of peroxide since Pamela Anderson did duty on Baywatch. Some of the entries on the…
Happy MLK Day from Rocks Off and Patty Griffin
We will resume our regularly scheduled buffoonery soon enough, but if Rocks Off lives to be 100 years old (and we’re still working here), we will post this song every MLK Day. As long as people keep making music like this, Dr. King’s dream(s) will live on…
A N00b Runs the Houston Aramco Half-Marathon
Every January for the last several years I have stood on a curb along Allen Parkway, cheering for my friends in the early hours of a Sunday as they competed in the Chevron Houston Marathon and Aramco Half Marathon. I have handed out water, yelled the names on random strangers’…
Top Five Taco Bell Moments
Taco Bell founder Glen Bell passed away on Sunday at the age of 86. Bell opened his first restaurant in 1948 and launched Taco Bell in 1962. Taco Bell, now owned by Yum! Brands, is the largest Mexican fast-food chain in the US. Every week, it feeds more than 36.8…
Lonesome Onry and Mean: Songwriting Scholar Steve Young Blasts Nashville’s “Yuppa-billys”
For Lonesome, Onry and Mean, they don’t come much taller or wiser than Steve Young. Young has been in a love/hate relationship with Nashville and the major labels since he came to town in the early Seventies. Along with Billy Joe Shaver, Young wrote the major anthems of the Outlaw…
They Came, They Saw, They Protested….A Not-Yet-Opened Planned Parenthood Office
The enormous crowd in the parking lot of the Catholic Charismatic Center, just south of downtown, began to thin out at about noon as people headed for the streets, or school buses, to make their way across I-45 to protest the opening of a Planned Parenthood clinic (it hasn’t opened…
Two Cent Tortillas and Organic Masa
I paid 70 cents for a 36-count bag of tortillas at Ayala’s Tortilla Factory on Fulton the other day. As you might imagine, the tortillas at the factory are extremely fresh, along with being cheap. Of course, I was hoping that this seemingly obscure tortilla factory was making masa from…
Girls, Gams and Garters: A Burlesque Tribute to Bettie Page at the Alamo Drafthouse
“TAKE IT OFF!” bellowed the man in the beige hunting jacket and camouflage boots at the back of the theater, as he slammed down his fifth successive Bud Light of the evening. And, surprisingly, the elegantly well-dressed woman on stage complied. Now, this tactic might not work everywhere. And Hunting…
Don’t Be a D-Bag – Come Party With Rocks Off at “Washington Shore”
Hey peckerhead, Rocks Off is pleased to announce the next evolution in fist-pumping and battling as we bring a taste of the Jersey Shore to the Washington Avenue Drinkery with our own Washington Shore” shindig Thursday, February 11 at 8 p.m. This is a free party, just like all of…
Coyotes And Bobcats Invade Area Yuppie Enclaves
Back in 2004, we covered the battle of man vs. coyote in League City. Now it appears the wily canines have moved the battlefront closer to town.WestUInstantNews picks up the, um, tail: Coyotes and bobcats have recently been spotted prowling the border of Bellaire and West University Place, prompting a…
Hot Pot City
Last week’s frigid blasts made it the perfect weather for hot pot. So off we went to Hot Pot City on Beltway 8 at Beechnut in Chinatown. At a basic level, hot pot is Chinese fondue: You order a “hot pot” of broth, which is kept simmering on your table,…
Filero Battles with the Past, Takes Control of His Future. Second In a Two-Part Series.
[Ed. Note. See Part 1 of Rocks Off’s encounter with Filero here.] When we talked to Filero about how much the rap game has changed since he saw the first Texas Latino rap album, actually a cassette, in the Gulfgate Mall Sam Goody, he says things that make him sound…
Five Unlikely Screen Appearances By Martin Luther King, Jr.
Today is Martin Luther King Day; meaning government employees are off, most other people aren’t, and Houston has feuding parades.King has become an absolute icon, showing up in countless movies, documentaries or TV shows, usually as shorthand for either the overall turmoil of the Sixties or the fact that blacks…
Donut Patrol: Tous Les Jours
Tous Les Jours, the French bakery inside the Super H Mart Korean grocery store, sells several varieties of donuts. The round rice doughnut is a lot like a dim sum sesame ball. It has a crispy and chewy outer shell filled with sweet red-bean paste. It would probably be very…
Last Call Comes to Midtown Favorite Leon’s Lounge… For Now, Anyway
Rocks Off got word late Friday afternoon that McGowen Street’s long-standing bastion of cool, Leon’s Lounge, would be closing over the weekend. Not for good, but at least for a few months while new ownership overhauls and renovates the establishment, long a barfly favorite and seemingly last hope of the…
Rice Graduate Among Those Affected By Haitian Hotel Collapse
The tragedy in Haiti is hitting home pretty hard for some Rice people.Alumna Diane (Berry) Caves, class of 2000, was in Port-Au-Prince, at the Hotel Montana, which was heavily damaged. She has not been heard from since.Caves was in Haiti on an assignment for the Centers for Disease Control and…
Recipe: Curry Puffs
Originally, this recipe was created to be a fun variation on Abuelita’s empanadas, which we were like to make and stock in the freezer at the start of the semester. Think about it: no utensils needed, no plate even… just a curry puff, napkin, and probably a glass of water…
Unnamed 18-Year-Old, Bayou Body Count No. 14
Another alleged thief bites the dust, thanks again to a heavily-armed citizen of Texas.At about 3:30 a.m. on Sunday, Harris County Sheriff’s deputies drove over to 307 Remington Creek in response to reports of gunfire. There, they found an 18-year-old guy, dead from a gunshot wound, authorities say.Investigators claim that…
Where Are We Peeing?
[Ed. Note: Just in time for lunch, Rocks Off presents our own spin on Houston Press food blog Eating Our Words’ popular Where Are We Eating/s.houstonpress.com/eating/where_are_we_drinking/” target=”_blank”>Drinking series.] Monday nights we usually hit this place up to watch The Daily Show on mute and partake in their weekly Lone Star…
Breakfast of Champions: Barbacoa Soup
Barbacoa soup belongs in the family of menudo, posole and caldo de res. It’s a weekend breakfast soup eaten with a squeeze of lime, chopped onions and cilantro and a stack of tortillas. If you like barbacoa, this stuff will knock your socks off. I had my first bowl last…
It’s Roller Derby Time Again…So Get Ready To Rumble
Few fans were cheering louder than Shirley Rivera, mother of Baby Face Assassin, aka Rita Roxanne Rivera. Sitting on a fold-out chair only a few feet from the action, Rivera hollered every time her 27-year-old daughter took her turn on the rink. Rivera, who lives in Freeport, said she went…
Cutout Bin: Accordion-Happy Televangelists the Van Impes, From Night Clubs to Christ
Maybe the Slap Chop infomercial ended and the remote was lost between the seat cushions. Or perhaps you spent a weekend stuck at your crazy grandmother’s house, with no cable. In any case, you’ve surely seen the Van Impes, the nation’s most enduring televangelical couple. Their weekly faux-news program Jack…
Dynamo Fans Want Their Stadium, Dammit
Since the Dynamo arrived to Houston from San Jose in 2006, there has been talk of building a soccer-specific stadium on the East End. This past Saturday, Dynamo supporters who say they have waited long enough held a rally to support their orange-clad heroes.”We come here today as Dynamo fans…
New Orleans Happy Hour Deals: Lüke Restaurant
Lüke is John Besh’s new restaurant connected to the Hilton on St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans. It is touted as an authentic brasserie; the seafood is kept open market-style on the bar and chosen by the customers individually. We really enjoyed the atmosphere here and thought it was an…
Turning the Screw: Lil’ Flip and Bun B Help Haiti, Jay-Z & Beyonce, Trae & Soulja Boy, Chamillionaire, Wyclef, DJ Clue and Funkmaster Flex and More
Welcome back to Turning the Screw, Rocks Off’s weekly rap post. It probably won’t rhyme, at least most of the time. E-mail tips to introducingliston@gmail.com. Thanks, homies. Single of the Week: “Feel It In The Air” (Lil’ Flip’s Haiti Tribute) Solid stuff here. Wire to Wire Bun B – who…
The Week In TV: We’re With Coco
The weekend’s gone, the sun is out, and the only marathon I did this weekend consisted of Whataburger taquitos. This was the week in TV Land: • So! Conan and Jay are probably not going to make buddy comedies together any time soon, or ever. The growing animosity between the…
Aeros’ Max Noreau: From Nowhere To All-Star
One of the fun things about covering (and watching) sports is the joy that comes from watching the underdog triumph over all odds and get to the top. It can be a team — like the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team — or a player. Just someone or something that…
Rocks Off Exclusive: Things Beyonce Will Be Doing on Her Break from Music
On top of everything else this week, sadly the news has come out that our beloved Beyonce is taking a break from music. Just when we need her the most, right? We miss B and Ms. Fierce already, and we’re already speculating what she might get up to while taking…
Where Are We Eating?
It almost pains us to post this picture, knowing that we can’t drop everything and drive out to this magical restaurant to get a piece of this brisket ourselves right now. But if you can guess where we’re eating this week, you should reward yourself with a few slices. Leave…
The Weekend In Photos
Not everyone was at the Houston Chevron Marathon this weekend, even though we couldn’t have had more perfect weather for it. Some of you were at pubs and clubs, some of you were getting your roller derby on, some of you were at a burlesque show (naughty!) and some of…
Chevron Kicks Out Activists From Its Marathon Expo
A group of marathon runners were kicked out and banned from the Chevron Marathon Expo for displaying material that was critical of the oil company, but one of the runners tells Hair Balls that the group is continuing as planned. “We are still going to, at least try to, run…
Party In The US, Eh?
Last night found Eating Our Words in a bar with a pint of Fireman’s #4. That part isn’t unusual. What was unusual was the fact that we had a microphone in our hand, loudly asking a bar full of people “What sexually-transmitted disease causes yellow or green-yellow discharge from a…
New HISD Board President Greg Meyers On Data And Messing With People’s Kids And Taxes
Greg Meyers, the new president of the Houston Independent School District, believes that data, unclouded by emotion, will lead the urban district to the next higher level of teacher performance.The day after a draconian day at the office Thursday that began at 10 a.m. with planning for the upcoming board…
Fast As You: Rocks Off’s Playlist for Sunday’s Houston Marathon
The drinking stops tonight. Rocks Off is joining 30,000 other crazy, hardy souls to run the Chevron Houston Marathon and Aramco Half Marathon this Sunday. (We’re running the half – it’s only our second race ever.) The past several months have been filled with long tedious runs in all kinds…
This Week in Deliciousness
Welcome back to the weekly round-up here at Eating Our Words, where today we’re contemplating the design of the turtle, and thinking perhaps creatures known for making good soup shouldn’t be walking around with their own bowl strapped to their backs. We’re also contemplating entering the Cooking Fail contest, although…
If You Can’t Text and Drive in Galveston, What Can You Do?
In the City That Was Supposed to be Houston, famed for its throwback seaside kitsch and relentless resilience in the face of crippling natural disasters, the technology tide has turned. More accurately, the City Council transformed itself into progress-hatin’ Dementors last night, entering your cars, shanghai-ing your cell phones, and…
On the Question of PB&J
After reading Katharine Shilcutt’s screed on the perfect peanut butter and jelly sandwich, we thought we’d weigh in. Packing a lunch box for a kid in pre-kindergarten might sound like an easy matter. But here at our test kitchens, we follow exacting rules for the creation of peanut butter and…
Five Spot: Trae’s Brother Jay’Ton’s Got It by Tha Ton Mixtape
Welcome back to Five Spot. Every Friday, we’ll examine a recent bit of music news and, sometimes awkwardly, tie it to a bit of Houston rap. It’s five videos and occasional cussing. Send tips to introducingliston@gmail.com. Since just about the oblivions, Jay’Ton, little brother to Trae, has been promising release…
If You’re Still Baffled By Invictus, A Rugby Primer From Our Expert
Yesterday Hair Balls went to see Invictus with a friend who does not understand even the concept of a “first down” in American football. Since the movie revolves around — in addition to Nelson Mandela and post-apartheid politics — South Africa’s victory in the 1995 Rugby World Cup, we were…
Openings and Closings
Exiciting news for Francophiles across Houston who miss Philippe Schmit’s deft touch at the long-gone Bistro Moderne at the Hotel Derek: Reports from two reliable sources indicate that Schmit’s new restaurant is getting closer to opening its doors. If Haven was the most anticipated opening of 2009, Philippe might be the…
How To Help Wall Street Bankers In Haiti’s Time Of Need
We Americans are a generous people. In the days after the devastating Haitian earthquake, we whipped out our credit cards and donated millions to relieve that stricken, jinxed nation.But until Thursday, when the Huffington Post got wind of the practices, the major credit companies (including Visa, Discover, MasterCard and American…
Detox Craze: Stupid or Sane?
We can’t turn on the TV or the radio without hearing about the latest detox craze. Just the other day, we heard Rod Ryan talk about how great the Blessed Herbs one-week cleanse was on his radio show. Trust us, we really don’t need to hear about his cleanse in…
Tonight: Enlist In the Kunst Fascion at Persuasion Art Opening
Rocks Off is a big fan of the honky-tonk, Southern rock and all things bluesy and soulful (as you may have guessed), but our first love will always be the throb and grind of industrial music. Seriously. The first live performance we ever saw was Nitzer Ebb opening for Depeche…
Used Space Shuttles Now Almost ONE-THIRD Off!!! And That’s Not All!!!
NASA announced today that the cost of buying a used space shuttle for display in your museum, educational facility or backyard has dropped from $42 million to the low, low, low price of just $28.8 million!!And that’s not all!!The delivery of these fine, almost one-of-a-kind vehicle has been moved up…
Curling Up with a Good Scotch
Speaking of single malts, Laphroaig Scotch has announced that it will become an official sponsor of the United States Curling Association. Drinking Scotch and watching the curlers compete are two fine old Scottish traditions that I can’t get enough of. It reminds me of drinking Punt e Mes and watching…
Listology: Nava of The Last Place You Look’s Favorite Vocalists
This weekend Thee Armada gets a proper send-off at the band’s supposed final show ever at Warehouse Live Saturday night. Armada singer Josh Caddy is moving on to another band, and his bandmates are calling it a day. Some of Houston’s best alt-rock bands are opening, including The Last Place…
Game Time: 2009 Bear Bryant Award, Chalk One Up For The Good Guys
I’m not sure if any of you have noticed, but the last few weeks have not been all that kind to the perception of the college football coaching profession. If it’s not Jim Leavitt getting fired from South Florida for allegedly slapping around a special teams player at halftime of…
The Bowling Alley Burger
We seem to have an affinity for truck-stop fried chicken, convenience-store hot dogs and bowling alley burgers. On a recent late-night trip to Palace Lanes on Bellaire, we fancied a cheeseburger from the “snack bar.” It’s the same thing with airport bars – we’re attracted to these places like a…
Lonesome Onry and Mean: John Conquest Turns Both Barrels on Country-Music Poll
People have often referred to Lonesome, Onry and Mean as a curmudgeon (look it up), as a guy with a permanent hangover, bad temper and well… you get the idea. But compared to Austin-based 3rd Coast Music publisher (and main writer) John Conquest, LOM is a pussy cat, a cookie…
Houston Chevron Marathon: Where To Watch and How To Do It
Sunday morning, 22,000 runners will depart from the George R. Brown Convention Center to traverse Houston on foot as part of the 2010 Chevron Houston Marathon and Aramco Half Marathon. This year will be the largest and most popular marathon in Houston history. In 2009, the races sold out in…
Homemade Barbecue Sausage at Davis Meat Market
Beef tips or one of the other soul food plates are usually my choice at Davis Meat Market in the Fifth Ward. The barbecue is smoked on an Old Hickory stainless steel pit, so it’s not as smokey as it could be. But Mr. Davis’s spicy beef and pork links…
The Art of the Sandwich
Blame Bite Me Houston. A simple comment this morning on Twitter about sandwiches turned into all-out war, with people choosing peanut butter over friendship, jelly over love. Mike Cortez (the man behind Bite Me Houston) stated this morning: “There should be a law that peanut butter and jelly sammiches should…
She (Allegedly) Just Wants To Have Sex With A Hermann Park Statue. The Odd Thing Is, The Statue In Question Is Not Sam Houston
Objectum Sexuality from sergio on Vimeo. Via Swamplot, we get this video, about a woman who really, really really likes a statue in Hermann Park.It purports to be a documentary, complete with plummy British narrator, of someone with “object sexuality,” a condition where people end up loving the Eiffel Tower…
First Look: Laurenzo’s Grille
Open kitchen in the background, scurrying waiters darting around him, Domenic Laurenzo stood in the middle of his new place, Laurenzo’s Grille, 4412 Washington Avenue, trying to make clear what they are and aren’t and what they want to be. First, even though the Rockets game is playing on all…
Filero Isn’t Scared To Tell the Un-fairy Tale. First of a Two-Part Series.
This could be our most controversial Latino rap blog yet, or the first of many. We really don’t know yet. We can tell you what we do know. We’re 16 stories in and just starting to scratch the surface of the dynamics of Houston’s Latino rap game. Since Rocks Off…
A Tour of Kegg’s Candy Factory
We were driving down Westpark the other day in the office park no-man’s land of Houston when we noticed the Kegg’s candy factory. The marquee read “Daily Tours.” We didn’t know much about Kegg’s, so we called the factory when we got home. The young lady who took our call,…
Unidentified Couple, Bayou Body Count Nos. 12 and 13
Harris County medical examiners have two more bodies on their hands.A little before 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, say police, the cops got a call asking them to check on someone at 1926 Spillers Lane, in the Spring Branch West part of town. When the officers got there, they found a…
Cornbreadd Drops His “Pants on the Ground”
After all the death in the music world the last couple of days, Rocks Off figured everyone could use a laugh this dreary Friday morning. Luckily, we can always count on Cornbreadd in a pinch. Bless his heart…
Chris McMillian of New Orleans’s Bar Uncommon
Bar Uncommon at the Renaissance Père Marquette Hotel (817 Common St. in New Orleans) is the last place you might look for a life-changing cocktail experience. Funky, high-end interior design and snootiness abound here. The legitimacy starts behind the tiny bar itself. The lead mixologist is Chris McMillian, one of…
Divisive or Not, HISD Board Approves New Way to Target Failing Teachers
This is the tale of two teachers. Each of them inherit fifth-graders who test out at the start of the school year, on average, at third grade, fifth month. The kids are from the same neighborhood. They have identical demographics: roughly the same number come from single-parent homes, live in…
Aftermath: Goodie Mob at House of Blues, With a Completely Unexpected Bun B Cameo
9:25 p.m.: Standing in line to pick up tickets with the photographer, Bun B happens to walk up right behind us. (The Bun B Law of Inevitability is infallible.) I turn around and tell him hello and that we’ve spoken on the time several times and met briefly backstage at…
Are The Astros Worth What Drayton Is Asking?
So Drayton McLane has made it known that he’s really, really willing to sell the Houston Astros. And as his price, he’s asking for $650 million.I’m sure the potential buyers are putting every aspect of Drayton’s baseball empire under the microscope, but I thought I would provide a little assistance…
Councilman Johnson Donates To Haiti Relief, But Don’t Follow His Example
In a genuine and generous humanitarian effort, Houston City Councilmember Jarvis Johnson of District B will deliver “800 pair of shoes for Haitian Relief efforts to the Haitian Multicultural Association” in Southwest Houston.In a statement released by Johnson, he claims: At this moment, thousands of our neighbors in Haiti are…
Songs Rocks Off Chose for Our Buddy’s Bachelor Party
In a few weeks, Rocks Off loses another friend to marriage when one of our best friends from high school gets hitched at a church in Sugar Land. Quite honestly, out of all of our best friends, the smart money was on Rocks Off to get married first while Brett…
Chef Chat, Part 2: Brandi Key of Pappas
Yesterday we started our chat with Brandi Key. Today we finish it up as she dishes on her favorite Pappas restaurant, what to get there and more. Eating Our Words: If you had to pick one Pappas Restaurant to recommend a friend, which one and why? Brandi Key: Little Pappas…
I’ll Take People Who Don’t Grasp The Concept For $500, Alex: East Texas Alleged Sex Felon Now Facing Arson Charge
Sometimes in life you are fresh out of options before you even know it. That’s what 19-year-old East Texan Randy Keith Hester found out recently when his cunning plan to help pay his attorney went dreadfully awry.Last fall, Hester was accused of having a consensual sexual relationship with a 14-year-old…
He Said She Said: 10 Artists Who Never Got Their Due, Part Deux
It’s the plight of every musician. You struggle and struggle to make it big in the business, only to find that even the most modest margin of fame barely comes with a modicum of respect. Even artists with a lot of influence on later, more popular musicians fall by the…
R.I.P. Laura Tyler, Who Fought Cancer Through Art
Laura Tyler, a Houston artist we wrote about in October of 2009, passed away last Friday at about 1:30 in the morning after a seven-year battle with synovial sarcoma, a rare form of cancer. The death was relatively sudden and unexpected, according to her husband Matthew Tyler.”She was very strong,…
Food Fight: Battle Discount Sushi
It’s no secret that we love sushi. However, we also love something else — and we love it even more than we love sushi. We love money. To paraphrase Adam Sandler, we’re a big fan of money. We like it, we use it, we have a little. We keep it…
George Washington Didn’t Listen To No Rap Music
The State Board of Education is meeting today to approve history textbooks, and that usually brings with it some entertainment.Among the worries on the left: That conservative members will insist that history has “vindicated” loony Senator Joe McCarthy.Among the worries on the right, as expressed in the above picture from…
Recreational Bones and the BARF Diet
If you’ve been looking for somewhere to buy recreational bones, look no further than Wabash Feed Store on Washington. Wabash sells the exclusive Primal Pet Foods Inc.line of canine culinary products. Primal Pet Foods makes pet food for customers who believe that dogs and cats should eat raw meats and…
See You Later Alligator: Louisiana Legend Bobby Charles Dead at 71
It’s a sad day in the swamps of South Louisiana as Bobby Charles, a founder of the musical genre known as swamp pop and one of the most under-rated songwriters of his time, has passed away at 71. Originally from rural Abbeville, Charles rose to fame on the very cusp…
The White House Wasn’t Pleased Obama’s Call To The Mayor Went Public
Ever leave an extremely personal voicemail for someone, only to have what you thought was a private message broadcast to complete strangers — or even worse, your friends? You know, maybe something about a burning sensation when you pee, or that you think Jack Black is actually funny? We could understand…
Health Dept. Roundup: Chicken Edition
Everybody knows about the threat posed by mad cows. But what of our feathered friends? This is the sick chicken edition. Sometimes, inspections yield mild hand-slaps, such as Tuesday’s inspection of the Kentucky Fried Chicken at 2359 S. Shepherd, where the wall or ceiling was not maintained in good repair…
Happy Hour Scene: Shuck Daddy’s
Obsolete August, a cover band that plays live music at Shuck Daddy’s on Wednesday nights, was in the middle of a rendition of Jimmy Buffett’s “Margaritaville” when we walked in. To make matters worse, it was a slow-rolling version, almost like a love ballad. The song seemed to be putting…
Stoner Follies: Bryan Man’s Mislaid Bong Leads To Two Felony Charges
Bryan’s Gary Emil Maale, 20, faces two counts of felony drug possession after a cop patrolling Maale’s apartment complex noticed a bong left in full view on his front porch. Evidently that piqued the curiosity of the cop, who reported that he decided to pay Maale a visit and noticed…
A Farmer Cooks You Dinner
Garden slugs, green activists and organic food lovers will gather for cocktails from five to seven p.m. tomorrow night at Last Concert Café at a mixer sponsored by Houston Green Scene. Drinks will be followed by a dinner to benefit Last Organic Outpost’s community gardening efforts. The Living Off the…
He Said She Said: 10 Artists Who Never Got Their Due
In the course of music history, some bands get that extra push by pop culture and become uber-iconic, while others, though just as deserving, go largely unnoticed except by those who choose to dig even deeper. For every Elvis Presley, there is a seedier Carl Perkins off to the side…
Game Time: Saluting College Football’s Greatest Liars
If you’re into bending the truth, ignoring the truth, spitting on the truth…really any misdeed against the truth, then this has been a pretty good sports week for you. Hell, it’s been a pretty good run ever since Thanksgiving when Elin either rescued Tiger from the fiery wreckage of his…
Lonesome Onry and Mean: “Nashville Phantom” Goes Off on the Scene’s Country Music Poll
Another 30-plus-year vet of Viet Nashville got his bowels in an uproar about the Nashville Scene’s country music poll. In a long email to Lonesome Onry and Mean, this denizen of the songwriting trenches and the recording alleys who has had songs recorded by Johnny Cash, Emmylou Harris and other…
The Magical World of New Orleans’s Central Grocery
We recently visited New Orleans. A friend requested we bring back a bottle of olive spread from a little Italian convenience store located at 923 Decatur Street. We had never visited Central Grocery, but we promised to come back with the spread, assuming we could locate the iconic store sooner…
Things Your Pastor Probably Shouldn’t Be Doing With Your Or His Genitals
Alexandra Cantu of Houston had just finished up a bible study group in an unfamiliar neighborhood when she asked her pastor if she could follow his car back to their church in order to find her way home.Everything seemed to be going well enough, as they drove along, when suddenly…
Recipe: Chicken Noodle Soup
Previously, Jane Catherine Collins posted her chicken noodle soup in under 30 minutes. This is not a quick recipe, but it is easy, and a great way to warm up the house in this cold weather. It makes enough soup for four meal-size servings, and would pass at any potluck…
The New Downtown Y Is Ready!! And So’s The M!! The Rest Of The Building, Not So Much
Photo by Richard Connelly Groundbreaking was a little over a year ago, but already the new downtown YMCA is ready.Well, the “Y,” at any rate, and pretty much most of the “M.” Which is all it takes to start a “Young man” chorus of the Village People song.The facility is…
Answer an Urgent Appeal to Heal Haiti by Getting Some “Swagger”
[Ed. Note: Please email any news of further music-related relief efforts to chris.gray@houstonpress.com.] Bobby Moon & Lil Flip – Swagger from AK Kurji on Vimeo. If you’re looking for a way to contribute to the Haitian relief efforts, Houston-based international pop artist Bobby Moon is going to make it real…
Players-Only Meeting Helps Inspire Coog Win
A glance at the box score from last night’s 75-65 Cougar win over the UTEP Miners might make one think that the key to victory was Kelvin Lewis nailing three three-pointers on his way to 13 points and 10 rebounds. Or maybe Maurice McNeil roaming the paint for 12 points…
My Mole Smuggling Days are Over
The mole pastes found in Oaxacan mercados are so good, I used to bring them back in my suitcase. And so did a lot of other people, judging by this post from Jay Francis last year. In the comments section of that post, Jay talked about a new bottled mole…
The H-Town Countdown, No. 3: Scarface’s The Diary
Roughly 84,000 rap albums that have been released in Houston since 1989. We’re counting down the 25 best of all time every Thursday. Got a problem with the list? Shove it. Just kidding. Friendship. Email it to sheaserrano@gmail.com. Scarface The Diary (Asylum, 1994) Honesty time: Last week’s post, the one…
NASA Still Struggling With The Whole Pee-Drinking Thing (And Who Can Blame Them?)
NASA, which is bound and determined to turn its astronaut corps into a bunch of watersports enthusiasts, has hit another roadblock.The hugely expensive ($250 million!) system on the space station that is supposed to magically make urine drinkable (or, we guess some fetishists might say, even more drinkable) has run…
Pat Robertson: Has The Man Ever Been Wrong?
The dust had barely settled in Port-au-Prince following Tuesday’s 7.0 magnitude earthquake before opportunistic Jesus-bot Pat Robertson offered his take on the tragedy. Surely a prominent religious figure like Roberts could be counted on to offer words of comfort and solace for the thousands of victims of this disaster, yes?…
Chef Chat, Part 1: Brandi Key of Pappas
Brandi Key of Pappadeaux and Pappas Seafood House, has the job title of R & D Chef- New Food, but she’s been many other things in her tenure with Pappas. She sat down for a cup of coffee and gave us the 411 on her experiences working for the company…
Quiet Storm In Heaven: R.I.P. Teddy Pendergrass
Teddy Pendergrass, one of the main voices of the ultra-smooth “Philly Soul” sound of the ’70s, passed away Wednesday evening in a Philadelphia hospital. The R&B singer had been hospitalized for several months following surgery for colon cancer, his son told the Associated Press. Pendergrass, 59, first attracted attention as…
Idol Beat: Tryouts Burn Atlanta All Over Again
Going into the second audition episode of American Idol, I worried that it might not be any different from the first one. And while the bottom line is that I was right on a technical level — it was 90 minutes of good singers, bad singers, and manufactured drama –…
American Idol: Pants On The Ground
Going into the second audition episode of American Idol, I worried that it might not be any different from the first one. And while the bottom line is that I was right on a technical level — it was 90 minutes of good singers, bad singers, and manufactured drama –…
Whole-Wheat Pasta Versus Regular: Spaghetti Corazon
It’s New Year’s resolution season. We’ve started small: drinking more green tea, taking the dog for an extra walk, and switching to more fiber-rich foods. The gym will come next week, we swear. Keeping with the small changes theme, we decided to try something we swore would never land on…
Album Covers You’ll Never, Ever See on Any UK Stamps
The UK’s Royal Mail recently unveiled a series of stamps based on classic British album covers, including the Rolling Stones’ Let It Bleed and The Clash’s London Calling. Rumor has it Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here was rejected due to the burning man on the cover, with the Royal…
And I Would Have Gotten Away With It, Too, If It Wasn’t For That Meddling Hurricane!!
Deanne Snowball had a sweet deal going, and we don’t just mean her name.Her dad died in 1998 (that’s not the sweet part), but the Louisiana Carpenters Regional Council Pension Plan had continued to send his monthly pension checks (that is). Not one to look a gift horse in the…
Pop Rocks: American Idol — What The Hell Is Wrong With You People?
The ninth season of America’s national karaoke showcase — also known as American Idol — premiered last Tuesday. The show that has contributed such legends as Jordin Sparks and Taylor Hicks to the world of music continues to chug along in spite of the absence of original judge Paula Abdul…
“Wishing Well for Houston”
For those of us who have tossed coins into a fountain only to be disappointed when nothing happens, “Wishing Well for Houston,” an installation at the Art League Houston, now guarantees that those pennies and nickels will help make someone’s life better. Artists Heath Hayner, Aram Nagle and Brian Piana…
A Musical Evening with Kirill Gerstein
Here are a few hints about Russian pianist Kirill Gerstein’s impressive talents: Proficient in both jazz and classical music, he got into Berklee College of Music at age 14 (that school’s youngest student ever), by 20 he had his master’s degree and, oh yeah, he won first prize at the…
Garbage Dreams
Al Gore’s a Nobel Prize laureate and an Oscar Award-winning filmmaker. It’s not much of a stretch to believe he’s a film critic, too. At least that’s what the publicists for Mai Iskander’s fascinating documentary Garbage Dreams seem to think; they lavishly use his quotes in all press materials —…
Mark Morris at the Menil: A Conversation with Stanton Welch
Houston has a bit of Mark Morris fever. First, there was an art exhibit made up entirely of portraits of Morris by famous photographers like Annie Leibovitz. Tomorrow, it’s the beginning of a two-day stint by the Mark Morris Dance Company at the Wortham Center. And later this season, the…
The Bettie Page Tribute Night
The Bettie Page Tribute Night puts the tease back in striptease. “It’s like, ‘Yeah, I’m about to take this off. You guys really want to see this? Are you sure?’” explains Miss Coco Letric of Austin’s burlesque troupe The Jigglewatts. “There’s a lot of humor in it. There’s a lot…
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
If the story of Snow White and her seven friends were written today, the guys might be named Tweeter, Porn Boy and Dude. Thankfully, playwright Laura Williams took a traditional approach to the children’s theater production Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and Sleepy, Sneezy, Grumpy and all the rest…
Rhapsody in Blue
On a train to Boston in early 1924, George Gershwin came up with the main themes and movements of his classic Rhapsody in Blue. “I heard it as a sort of musical kaleidoscope of America, of our vast melting pot, of our unduplicated national pep, of our blues, our metropolitan…
Rhapsody in Blue
On a train to Boston in early 1924, George Gershwin came up with the main themes and movements of his classic Rhapsody in Blue. “I heard it as a sort of musical kaleidoscope of America, of our vast melting pot, of our unduplicated national pep, of our blues, our metropolitan…
“Jonathan Marshall: Double Vision”
Austin transplant Arturo Palacios was putting the finishing touches on the new digs for his gallery, Art Palace, when we called to ask him about the opening show, “Jonathan Marshall: Doubled Vision.” “He’s one of my strongest artists,” Palacios told us. “Just the breadth of his work, the breadth of…
Steel Magnolias
Stage Door Inc. Executive Director Marc Anthony Glover takes on directing duties for the company’s latest production, Steel Magnolias. The comedy centers on six women who regularly gather at the local beauty shop in their small Louisiana hometown. Living by the truism “There is no such thing as natural beauty,”…
Community Center Reading Series: Rick Elliott
Author and clergyman Rick Elliott discusses and reads from his inspirational book Faith Journeys of the Heart today to launch the Community Center Reading Series, a new GLBT reading series. “It’s something we’ve thought about for a while,” says Tim Brookover of the GLBT Community Center’s board of directors. “So…
The Met Live in HD: Carmen
Opera’s fiery vixen, Carmen, is brought to the stage by soprano Elina Garanca in The Met Live in HD: Carmen. Award-winning director Richard Eyre has said his new production of Bizet’s classic “is about sex, violence and racism – and at the corollary: freedom.” Roberto Alagna sings Don Jose (the…
An Evening of Thrills: How Science and History Make Great Thrillers
Get two New York Times best-selling authors for the price of one at today’s presentation An Evening of Thrills: How Science and History Make Great Thrillers at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. Writers Steve Berry and James Rollins are not only professional colleagues, but buddies as well. Both specialize…
32nd Annual Original Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Parade Celebration
Though several different organizations are holding celebrations in honor of the late civil rights icon, the Black Heritage Society’s 32nd Annual Original Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Parade Celebration has the longest history. Expect ornate floats, high-stepping bands, lively organizations promoting their causes and politicians trolling for votes. The…
Wonderland
“The show is most definitely not Alice in Wonderland or Through The Looking Glass – it’s not an adaptation of a Lewis Carroll story – it is proudly and totally unfaithful to the books – and that’s clear from the outset,” co-author and director Gregory Boyd told us about his…
Mark Morris Dance Group
Mark Morris, an avant-garde artist with mainstream appeal, is known as much for his affection for music as his affinity for movement. For years he’s toured the world choreographing ballets and operas for the world’s preeminent companies, but today his Brooklyn-based Mark Morris Dance Group visits Houston, courtesy of the…
Miss Coco Peru Takes on Texas Tour
You could say Coco Peru likes being the center of attention. And apparently to the GLAAD Media Awards, that’s just fine. (Peru’s shows earned two GLAAD Media Award nominations before winning the 2004 nod for Best L.A. Theater.) Coco’s alter ego, writer/actor/director/drag queen Clinton Leupp, has appeared in everything from…
Yaga’s Chili Quest and Beer Fest
Be there for the first ever Yaga’s Chili Quest and Beer Fest on Galveston Island. For this contest, anything containing any meat and beans qualifies as chili, and there’s an exotic division. So while you’ll be sure to taste the usual beef, turkey and venison, there’ll also probably be some…
Robert Crais: The First Rule
You might hear echoes of Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler and Ernest Hemingway during today’s reading and signing session by author Robert Crais. (The award-winning author of the action series featuring the character Joe Pike counts them as his main influences.) Crais will be reading from The First Rule, which sees…
Jordan Fuchs Company: Thicket and Strange Planet
Today’s performance of Thicket and Strange Planet by the Jordan Fuchs Company kicks off a three-day run at the Barnevelder Movement/Arts Complex. The show will be performed in-the-round, with the audience sitting on the stage floor circling the dancers, and with the soundtrack created live for individual headphones worn by…
“Rain or Shine: How Houston Developed Space City Baseball”
Think the Astros were the first team to bring baseball glory to Houston? Or maybe it was the short-lived Colt 45s? Think again. The game can be traced back to Civil War times, and in the 1860s, the Houston Base Ball Club was already scoring runs for the hometown crowd…
3rd Annual Houston Tango Festival
In Argentina, the tango is not just dance and music, it’s life. Just ask composer Astor Piazzolla, who tried to introduce a new style of tango in the 1960s – poor guy got death threats and beatings for his trouble. We doubt the fans at the 3rd Annual Houston Tango…
Jarrett Krosoczka
Massachusetts resident Jarrett Krosoczka graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design and became an illustrator for an educational publisher. Pretty normal career path for an artist. A few months later, a quick trip to New York landed him his first book deal – as a writer. That’s not so…
Apostle of Hustle
Fat Tony has seen the light. “It’s about money, it’s about hoes and it’s about being respected and being really cool and really, really fly,” says the 21-year-old rapper born Anthony Obi. “That is it. That’s what rapping is about.” This isn’t exactly a groundbreaking revelation, but it’s a common…
Capsule Art Reviews: “Body in Fragments”, “Exit Art Portfolio Collection”, “Perspectives 168: Anna Krachey, Jessica Mallios, and Adam Schreiber”, “Recent Accessions in Design”
“Body in Fragments” The Menil is always great at creating little mini exhibits from its vast collection, grouping together and juxtaposing modern and contemporary works with primitive art. “Body in Fragments” is no exception. The title says it all — every piece on display contains an element of body fragmentation,…
Capsule Stage Reviews: A Chorus Line, Rent, Wonder of the World
A Chorus Line It may be a warhorse, but A Chorus Line still has game. The Broadway Across America production spinning across the boards at the Hobby Center proves it. Using Michael Bennett’s original award-winning choreography and direction, Bob Avian and Baayork Lee fill the musical about a group of…
Amnesty and “Native” Americans
¡ASK A MEXICAN! Dear Mexican, I’m surprised by the choice of the word “amnesty” by those who would demonize immigration reform, especially in the South. Doesn’t the modern well-being of many Southerners derive in some way from their ancestors’ having sworn to amnesty oaths, both before and after the Civil…
Kristine Mills
Kristine Mills has been building up quite a reputation over the last few years. In 2008, she released the CD Playing with the Big Boys — LIVE!, recorded with longtime Duke Ellington Orchestra/Ken Ward Trio members Barry Lee Hall Jr. and the late Rocky White. Big Boys earned her a…
My Blue (Screen) Heaven
A one-film cabinet of curiosities, The Lovely Bones turns the most successful CGI director of the ’00s loose on one of the decade’s prime literary phenomena: Cults collide as Peter “Lord of the Rings” Jackson tackles Alice Sebold’s best-selling New Age gothic, the story of a rape-murder-dismemberment and its aftermath,…
A Fistful of Soul
A few weeks back, we got a chance to check out the DJ collective Urbane Guerrilla Sound System’s monthly “A Fistful of Soul” night at the Mink and were blown away. Not only was everybody dressed like extras from Quadrophenia, it was also a dirty, fun dance party with people…
BYZANTIO’S MOTITO
Some New Year’s resolutions make themselves. After spending 2009’s last days staying at a friend’s place in New Orleans, where closing time has about as much significance as Who Dat Nation does in Orléans, France, my body was telling me it was time for a booze sabbatical. “Man, shut up,…
A&M Assault Case and Abortion Super Center?
COURTS, CRIME A&M Assault Case Moves Ahead Trial date set, raising hopes of victim’s family By Paul Knight A judge in Brazos County set a date — June 21, 2010 — for trial in the case of a Texas A&M student who was allegedly assaulted by two members of the Corps…
Fins Seafood Sushi & Grill
Kam Ip, the owner and chef of Fins Seafood Sushi & Grill (2810 Westheimer, 713-750-9483), is a very hospitable person. He greets every customer like a long lost friend, and is genuinely interested in how each and every one enjoys his food. “I like to talk a lot,” said Kam…
Misery and Gin
Yesterday’s honky-tonk hero, Bad Blake, arrives at a Clovis, New Mexico, bowling alley. It’s another in a string of low-pay, low-turnout gigs with pickup bands half his age, grinding the Greatest Hits out of an old Fender Tremolux, including his breakout — with the chorus, “Funny how falling feels like…
Darden Smith, Dan Navarro
Darden Smith and Dan Navarro have been out on the folk-rock circuit so long they have become elder statesmen. In 2009, his 25th year of performing, Smith released the 14-song career retrospective After All This Time. He has all kinds of Houston history and connections, and is a perennial favorite…
Lessons from La Divina
In 2010, more than 30 years after the great Maria Callas died in 1977, fans can still buy a calendar featuring photographs of La Divina. Leonard Bernstein called her “The Bible of Opera,” and her impact on the world of music and star-powered scandal has been documented in dozens of…
Pierced Arrows
The husband-and-wife team of Fred and Toody Cole wed in 1967 and began appearing in various garage and punk bands together until the rise of Dead Moon in the mid-’80s. Those Clackamas, Oregon-based garage-sludgers found themselves lumped into the region’s nascent grunge movement by the time they released their fifth…
Kicking Ass for Jesus
Directors Allen and Albert Hughes were raised by an Armenian mother and African-American father. With such a background, it would be difficult not to have feelings about the church. The Hugheses’ fourth film, The Book of Eli, centers on the Christianity that was at the margins of their previous films…
Suburban Warfare
Suburban Warfare is one of those young bands you stumble on that give you hope for the future. Led by singer/rhythm guitarist Cari Quoyeser, the ensemble rocks with a classic yet fresh sound, but that’s not their only trick. The violin-laden “High Flyin'” is moody, jammy and emotive, like some…
“Bright” Stars
“Those worthless Democrats are ruining us,” rants the cabdriver in Minouk Lim’s 2006 video The Wrong Question. But he’s not some New York teabagger operating a Yellow Cab. The driver is actually a Seoul cabbie longing for the golden days of South Korean dictator Park Chung-hee. The English subtitles of…
Ceviche Challenge at Yelapa Playa Mexicana
The citrus ceviche ($12) at Yelapa Playa Mexicana (2303 Richmond, 281-501-0391) is so different, it may set a new standard for this classic dish. Sure, it contains marinated fish such as amberjack, snapper, shrimp and scallops, but it also contains avocado, pomelo and lime for a smooth texture and citrus…
Lymbyc Systym
What is most immediately arresting about Lymbyc Systym is how warm the Brooklyn duo manages to feel, particularly on most recent effort Shutter Release. For a project that has made its name blurring the edges of electronic music with indie-oriented post-rock, “warm” is almost certainly not the first modifier that…
True Confessions?
“I sit alone in my four-cornered room starin’ at candles…” — Scarface of the Geto Boys in “Mind Playing Tricks on Me,” one of the most popular songs in Houston at the time of Edna Mae Franklin’s murder. _____________________ When Charles Raby opened his eyes he was lying in a…
Federal Reserve
Belly dancing is a bit paradoxical. By nature, it is not meant to be a sexual act. Yes, it consists of women wiggling around to music with a bunch of skin showing while people watch. This, we admit, is pretty much the understood definition of “stripping.” And true, these women…
Looking for Trouble
Jemina Pearl is congested. She punctuates conversational pauses with coughs trailed by an apologetic “excuse me,” hardly resembling the fearsome, fearless lioness her old brat-punk band, Be Your Own Pet, made her out to be: the psycho hose beast given to brute-force food fights, bouts of psychological/emotional extremism and devil-may-care…
One to Grow On
Noise has spent the past four columns looking backwards and frankly, our neck is a little sore. With a new year and a new decade (cue Nina Simone’s “Feeling Good”), it’s high time we started looking ahead. We asked a few of our friends, probably the people in Houston who…
Duck Fat: the New Butter
Popcorn tossed with duck fat instead of butter is my new favorite bar snack. I had some with a glass of St. George American single malt whiskey at Branch Water Tavern on Shepherd the other night. I love the slow-cooked meats and reasonably priced appetizers at this cool new restaurant…
Houston’s Craziest Headline?
Take 30 The violence myth: Thank you for your critically important and well-written article on Houston’s chronically mentally ill [“Houston’s Craziest,” by Paul Knight, December 31, 2009]. The progressive and hands-on approach to treating these individuals is admirable. From an economic perspective, the article demonstrated the importance of being proactive as…
