Reality Bites: Forensic Files
There are a million reality shows on the naked television. We’re going to watch them all, one at a time. My first thought, when I sat down to take in the first episode of Forensic Files I’ve watched in — well — forever, was “This show is still on?” It…
Craig Washington’s Law License Suspended Amid Claims He Screwed Over Clients
To say that former Congressman Craig Washington has a checkered past would be an understatement. In 2009, the dapper bow tie-sporting lawyer admitted in court to illegally shooting a couple of teenagers who were looking for a parking spot in his private Midtown lot (bullets hit the car but the…
Who Were Those Masked Men? Why, Mushroomhead
Mushroomhead, The Family Ruin Scout Bar January 20, 2015 There is a stigma attached to fans of bands who paint their faces or wear masks (see Tuesday’s article posted on types of fans yesterday) and those who follow the alt-metal group Mushroomhead are no exception. But after seeing the band…
Chef Chat, Part 1: Mary Bass of Haak Winery
Haak Winery is located in the little town of Santa Fe. It’s closer to Galveston than Houston, but when you pull up to the tall brick mission-style building, you’ll think it’s worth the drive. Out front is an old wagon wheel amid a garden of roses and greenery, and even…
Gary Kubiak Introduced As Broncos Head Coach
The Denver Broncos made it official on Tuesday afternoon — Gary Kubiak is back as a head coach in the NFL, taking the reins of a franchise that won two Super Bowls in the late ’90s (with Kubiak as part of Mike Shanahan’s staff) and is on a streak of…
NFL Determines Patriots Deflated Footballs Used in AFC Title Win
“Win if you can, lose if you must, but at all times, cheat.” — “Classy” Freddie Blassie Bill Belichick does not give a rat’s ass about the karmic ramifications of right and wrong, whether it means the “Golden Rule” or the actual rules. If it makes his team better, and…
Dan Patrick’s “Advisory Panel” Members Already Spend Millions Lobbying Lawmakers
Last week when Lt. Governor Dan Patrick announced the deep bench of millionaires, heavyweight GOP donors and corporate figureheads he’s tapped to officially advise him as he steers legislation through the state Senate, he lamented that private interests don’t have a loud enough voice at the table. Really. “Very often…
Local Banker Stole Money From the Accounts of Dead Nigerian Man
Back in early 2010, a Nigerian man named Benjamin Onweni dumped some $2 million into a couple of accounts he’d just opened at a local Chase branch. When banker Carlos Lavin Ibarra learned of Onweni’s death later that year, he was supposed to inform the bank. Evidently he didn’t. Instead,…
10 Acts We’d Like to See at FPSF 2015
DALE WATSON Dale Watson has a lot to offer FPSF. You know he’s affordable, considering the kind of price tags the fest has to be looking at for some of the other acts; he’s got biker/greaser cred to burn thanks to that suave leather duds and silver-fox pompadour; decades of…
MasterMinds 2014 Revisited: jhon r. stronks
Choreographer jhon r. stronks took us seriously when we joked that he could use his 2014 MasterMind Award cash prize for anything he wanted. “You can use it to buy pencils, a plane ticket, anything you want,” we said. He didn’t buy pencils, but he did buy paper and a…
Texas Man Cashes in 500 Pounds of Pennies
The last time we took a bunch of change to the magic Coinstar machine, it was about a solo cup’s worth, and we got about $12, and damnit, we were happy. But there’s no way we could have been as happy as Ira Keys, a Lubbock County man who made…
Try These 5 Absolutely Loaded Grilled Cheeses in Houston
If you’re going to pay for grilled cheese, it better damn well be a step up from the white bread and American cheese number you can make yourself at home. These buttered-up, overloaded and cheesy as all hell sandwiches most definitely are… See also: Try These 5 Outrageous Mac &…
Upcoming: Dave Matthews Band, Deadhorse, Robyn Hitchcock, Stevie Wonder, Train, etc.
All That Remains: With Texas Hippie Coalition, Green As Emerald, Apothica., Tue., February 17, 7 p.m., $18 to $22. Scout Bar, 18307 Egret Bay, Houston, 281-335-0002. American Sharks: With From Beyond, Tron Sack, Moonrazor. Fri., January 23, 8 p.m., Free to $10. Fitzgerald’s, 2706 White Oak, Houston, 713-862-3838. Amplified Heat:…
The Nightly Show With Larry Wilmore Asks the Right Questions, But Doesn’t Have Any Answers
The Nightly Show With Larry Wilmore’s great misfortune isn’t that it replaces The Colbert Report, but that it premieres after Last Week Tonight With John Oliver. The Colbert Report was sui generis, and will likely remain so, because such a series makes leviathan demands on its host: crackerjack comedic skills,…
How to Support Small Batch Mexican Producers of Mezcal in Houston
Cuchara and The Pastry War collaborated on a dinner last week in honor of three very special guests who had never before all been in the same place at the same time in the United States. Many would not know them, but to those interested in agave spirits, these men…
The Suffers’ Time to Shine Is Right Now
Fresh off the recent successes of last month’s Red Bull Sound Select program at Warehouse Live, the Suffers will again showcase their jazzy tunes in Houston, only one month removed from their last hometown performance. This time, however, they’re bringing some physical product with them: their debut EP Make Some…
Houston Firm Books First-Rate Austin EDM Fest
It seems like only two weeks ago that we were talking about the upcoming year of dance-music festivals. At the time we were talking about the heavyweight lineup that UME had assembled for this year’s Spring Break on South Padre Island. Today we have a different festival with a different…
Jockey Under Investigation for Shocking Horse at Sam Houston Race Park
The photograph shows horse jockey Roman Chapa staring straight ahead atop Quiet Acceleration as he wins the $50,000 Richard King Stakes at the Sam Houston Race Park on Saturday. But if you look closely, the photo also appears to show Chapa gripping more than just the reins. Chapa’s left hand…
Cleveland Woman Hid Meth Pipe in Vagina During Drug Search
When Montgomery County deputy constables pulled over the car Christina Searcy was traveling in on Friday, they smelled pot, found a joint, and ultimately turned up several small baggies of cocaine. The party clearly busted, it’s unclear why at that point Searcy still felt she needed to hide a meth…
Leon’s Lounge Closes Abruptly…Sort of
What should we come across on our way to work this morning but two HPD patrol cars and a U-Haul truck parked in front of Leon’s Lounge, and the staff removing furniture from the wizened Midtown bar as fast as they could carry it? Owner Pete Mitchell, who was standing…
Stick to the Fish and Pizza at True Food Kitchen and You’ll Be Fine
True Food Kitchen does a good job with fish dishes. Even a carefree gourmand could visit this diet-conscious establishment, order the moist, pink grilled steelhead salmon and be pleased with the experience. It’s paired with perfect companions: red quinoa laced with caramelized onion and crisp, fresh mizuna salad strewn throughout…
Black Lab Theatre’s Tigers Be Still Is Houston Theater at Its Best
Here, in the intimate downstairs space that is Wildfish Theatre on Post Oak and San Felipe, miracles occur. Wonders don’t often happen in the theater, not with regular occurrence. Only a few each season, and most of those come at you in bits and pieces: a revelatory performance among the…
Meet the 2015 MasterMinds Winners: A Historian, an Artist and a Student Mariachi Orchestra
As we announce the winners of the MasterMind Awards, now in their seventh year, it’s clear that Houston’s art scene has continued to evolve and reinvent itself, with some significant changes to the landscape in the past year. The Alley Theatre and Main Street Theater are borrowing stages while they…
Randy “Macho Man” Savage Selected for WWE Hall of Fame, His Definitve WWE Career Timeline (w/ VIDEO)
In the mid-’90s, during the Monday Night War between WWE and WCW, when the WWE bloodletting was at its most profound, stars of the ’80s and early ’90s were leaving Vince McMahon’s company in droves, heading for the greener pastures of Ted Turner’s guaranteed money in Atlanta. Eventually, McMahon was…
Drink This: The Royal Flush
Baby, it’s (sort of) cold outside. To warm your hands and your heart, mix up a Royal Flush. This boozy berry cocktail provides a latent soothing heat that softens the hard edges of a stressful day at the DMV and provides rejuvenation after that six-hour sober baby shower. Perhaps as…
More Info on the FPSF Blind Pre-Sale & Pegstar’s New Venue
In just a few hours, or right now if you’re just waking up, the blind pre-sale for this year’s Free Press Summer Fest begins at 10 a.m. at fpsf.com, and tickets should disappear faster than a rich banker when the collection plate in church gets passed around. For those who…
Blue Margaritas and Picadillo Sandwiches
Picadillo is ground or minced seasoned meat. Colloquially, many of us refer to it as “taco meat” but picadillo is a more accurate term. Tacos can be filled with all kinds of stuff and picadillo can be used for much more than filling tortillas. The name comes from the Spanish…
Because the Leagues Want it, Nationwide Legalized Sports Betting Will Happen
It’s a late Sunday evening in November. The final whistle sounds in the last game of another long weekend of NFL action. The Broncos beat the Chiefs 29-16 to run their record to 9-3, but more important to Andrew, whose final bet of the weekend was “Broncos -1,” Denver covered…
4 Disadvantages of Being a Big Guy
I’ve always been a big guy — I’m 6 foot four inches tall and sturdily built. I think a lot of people believe that there’s an automatic advantage in being a large person, but there is a downside that goes along with those advantages. Stuff like… 4. The World Is…
Five Bands Whose Fans Freak Outsiders Out
The root of the word “fan” is fanatic, and that certainly applies to some music lovers, particularly the extreme admirers of certain bands or types of rock music. Some people live for the music they love, and in the case of certain bands, there are enormous fandoms and cultures for…
Groundbreaking Stones Book Delivers Hard Truths of 1969 Tour
The True Adventures of the Rolling Stones By Stanley Booth Chicago Review Press, 416 pp., $18.95 Reissued for its 30th anniversary — though it chronicled events that took place 15 years before that — The True Adventures of the Rolling Stones is, simply put, one of those essential texts of…
Rodeo Defends Ticketing System, Says Sales Are Up
Tuesday afternoon, Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo officials defended their new ticketing system against the criticisms of many fans who attempted to buy seats this past Saturday morning and instead were angered by long wait times and maddening error messages, among other complaints, and soon enough vented their frustrations on…
We Insist! Jazz’s Five Greatest Protest Songs
The writer and journalist Harriet Martineau said, “If a test of civilization be sought, none can be so sure as the condition of that half of society over which the other half has power.” That same test, if applied today, would reveal certain improvements in American society. Yet, based on…
Frost/Nixon Might Surprise in the Way You Feel About the Ex-President
The set-up: There’s an emotion rushing through Company OnStage’s bumpy production of Peter Morgan’s quasi-historical Frost/Nixon that is, if not unintentional, quite unexpected – sympathy for Richard Milhous Nixon, our disgraced, Machiavellian 37th President. High crimes and misdemeanors, including burglary, hush money for witnesses, suborning perjury, willfully disregarding subpoenas, wiretapping…
Oscars Podcast: Can you Identify the Traits of “Oscar Bait”?
The bicoastal film pod continues in 2015! In New York, Village Voice film editor Alan Scherstuhl, along with Voice film critic Stephanie Zacharek, connects via the magic of the Internet with LA Weekly film critic Amy Nicholson to discuss the nominations for this year’s Academy Awards, announced on January 15…
This Week in Food Events: Valentines for Veterans and Meet Houston’s Youngest Executive Chef
Monday, January 19 5th Annual Valentines for Veterans Say “thank you” to a veteran with a valentine. The public is invited to come to Saint Arnold Brewery to help make valentines for those who have done so much for us. Baked goods will be available for purchase. There will also…
My Gary Kubiak Job Interview
“It is flattering and humbling to be invited to interview for a number of NFL head coaching positions, and I greatly appreciate these opportunities. But I have decided to stay with the Ravens. This is a special organization and we, like [Head] Coach [John] Harbaugh says, are building something great…
Metamorphoses: A Smart Modern Tale Built Upon Classic Myths
The set up: Who’d have thunk it? It’s amusing to imagine this is what Ovid, the Roman poet best known for his mythological epic Metamorphoses, might say today if he learned that a play based on his work had become such a success. Okay, sure, Ovid’s myths have themes that…
Yay, the New Buffalo Bayou Dog Park Is Open!
After more than a year, Houston’s long-awaited Johnny Steele Dog Park opened January 17, and I’m looking forward to when the hype is over. Because it will probably take a couple of weeks before the $1.5 million, postcard-perfect grounds are utilized by lovers of dogs, and not lovers of shiny…
4 Things That Make Houston Weirder Than Austin
I have a house in Houston and another in Austin, and spend time between the two cities. I’ve lived in both places at various times over the last 24 years or so, and the differences between the two have always been interesting to me. I find city rivalries to be…
MLB Tries to Speed Up the Game
Baseball fans agree on few things, but if there’s any one thing upon which all fans agree, it’s that most games take too damn long to play. Major League games, which took an average of two hours and 50 minutes in 2010, lasted more than three hours last season. And…
Dish of the Week: Caesar Salad (w/ Homemade Croutons & Dressing)
From classic comfort foods to regional standouts and desserts, we’ll be sharing a new recipe with you each week. Find other dishes of the week here. This week, we’re sharing a recipe for the classic Caesar salad. Often prepared table-side, Caesar salad is made of romaine lettuce and croutons tossed…
Sam Baker Sings a Few Life-Affirming Sad Songs at the Duck
Sam Baker McGonigel’s Mucky Duck January 17, 2015 Just after he finished the song, “Odessa,” about midway through his Saturday-night set at McGonigel’s Mucky Duck, songwriter Sam Baker ruminated on just how sad a song it is. So sad, he said, he believed it was on a Rolling Stone list…
AFC and NFC Title Games: 4 Winners, 4 Losers
If there were ever a four-team homage to the propensity of the average sports fan to overreact to early-season results, it would’ve been this season’s AFC and NFC title games. The Green Bay Packers started the season 1-2, including a season-opening blowout in Seattle in which Richard Sherman wasn’t thrown…
A Few of the Best Hip-hop Emojis Ever Created
So how is your emoji game? Everyone knows about the evolution of emojis, those symbols of our thoughts that reveal what’s in our souls by way of email, text messages and social media conversations. They’ve gone from punctuation smiley faces 🙂 (Known as smiley’s or emoticons) to a graphic pieces…
Houston’s Best Concerts This Week: Hamell On Trial, Mushroomhead, John Doe, etc.
Hamell On Trial Poison Girl, January 19 With his shaved head, dizzying wordplay, and acoustic guitar, Ed Hamell, aka Hamell on Trial, was an institution at Austin’s Electric Lounge in the ’90s, and fittingly wound up on Ani DiFranco’s “anti-folk” label Righteous Babe. Surviving a serious van accident on tour…
RodeoHouston’s New Ticket Selling System Leaves Many Waiting Around
Does anyone really like waiting rooms? It’s one of the few things in society that seemed to be universally loathed. Waiting rooms are not really a concept that needed to be ported over to the digital world, but they “solve” a problem and so they exist. This morning, thousands of…
The U.S. Supreme Court Will Rule on Gay Marriage by June. Will Same-Sex Couples in Texas Have to Wait That Long?
Today the U.S. Supreme Court announced that it will finally decide whether gay and lesbian couples can marry in all 50 states. It’s expected that sometime in April the High Court will hear oral arguments in a case that was kicked up from the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals…
Dan Patrick Gives Rich People an Official Seat at the Table
The most powerful officeholder in the State of Texas has tapped a slew of millionaires, billionaires, heavyweight GOP donors and corporate figureheads — over half of whom have donated directly to his campaign — to meet in secret and advise him on what should be done about some of our…
Fan Fighting League! Cowboys vs Packers, Divas Match!
The Fan Fighting League doesn’t discriminate. We will book matches between fans of any size, race, creed, income level and yes, gender. However, it is admittedly rare that we get a female-on-female brawl in the FFL. But around once a year, the catfight magic happens. In regular sports terms, the…
DNA Leads to Arrest in 30-Year-Old Cold Case
HPD announced this morning that it has made an arrest in the fatal stabbing of two sisters in the Heights that went unsolved for three decades. Police say a relative found the bodies of Yleen and Lillie Kennedy, 33 and 23 years old, around March 5, 1984 on the 600…
Reviews for the Easily Distracted: American Sniper
Title: American Sniper Great Sniper? Or Greatest Sniper? Great. Look up Simo Häyhä, the Finnish soldier who killed 505 Soviet soldiers in under 100 days. Rating Using Random Objects Relevant To The Film: Two-and-a-half Tom Berengers out of five. Brief Plot Synopsis: Ex-cowboy becomes SEAL sniper, is very good at…
AFC and NFC Title Game Best Bets
I’ll be honest. As I type this, I’m still reeling a bit from Cardale Jones’s decision that he announced Thursday afternoon to stay in school, return to Ohio State and compete for the starting quarterback job next season. It was all going to be so simple — a top-five-in-the-draft talent…
The 5 Best Things to Eat or Drink This Weekend: Shuck Oysters With Chefs
Chili Quest & Beer Fest @ Galveston’s Strand Friday, 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. 23rd & Strand Street On Friday, YAGA’s 6th annual Chili Quest & Beer Fest kicks off with a party at Beerfoot Brewery, 2816 Avenue R 1/2. Then on Saturday, get…
Houston Lawmaker Pens Slobbering Ode to Rick Perry
Because of a few throwaway lines tacked on at the end, many in the state’s political media apparently saw in Rick Perry’s farewell speech yesterday a call to bipartisanship and compromise. Which is strange, since to us it sounded an awful lot like the prelude to another schlep around the…
Aubrie Layne and Laura Landry Bring Lucky Cat Beauty Studio to Montrose
If you have ever seen an Elaine Turner photo shoot or David Peck lookbook, chances are you have seen the work of Aubrie Layne. The world renowned makeup artist has evolved from the bright eyed beginner, to Global Makeup Artist for Houston based beauty giant Laura Mercier Cosmetics, to go-to…
Waiting for Johnny Depp Explores the Chase of Celebrity and Following a Dream
She’s an actress who’s trying desperately to land what she sees as the role of a lifetime – to star in a film with a famous actor. Brooke Wilson stars as New York actress Rita Donatella in the world premiere of Waiting for Johnny Depp, a one-woman musical about someone…
Ransomware Holds Computers Hostage for a Price and What You Can Do to Avoid It
The New York Times ran an op-ed piece at the beginning of January about how a woman had to help her mother deal with a computer virus, but this was no ordinary virus that a purge of a hard drive or a computer expert can fix. This is something far…
Upcoming Events: Beer, Chocolate and a Fun Run
Former chef and MF Sushi co-owner Chris Kinjo launched his Omakase pop-up dinner series at Kaneyama earlier this week. While he’s making progress on his new restaurant — set to open in a contemporary building at 1401 Binz Street in the Museum District — Kinjo will be offering a signature…
Otenki Vox German Alexander’s Top 5 Desert Island Discs
Here on Rocks Off, we ask local heroes for their top five absolute desert island discs, the records that made them the musicians they are today. This week; German Alexander, vocalist for Otenki. Thrice, Vheissu You can’t just ask a musician to pick inspirational music. It’s like asking a mom…
Openings & Closings: Bye-Bye, Montrose Berryhill
It’s yet another restaurant closing in the Montrose area, and there are no plans for resurrection. On January 14, Syd Kearney at Houston Chronicle reported that Berryhill Baja Grill at 3407 Montrose has shuttered. A statement issued by a representative of Berryhill Corporation says that particular location was ran by…
Astros Trade for Slugger but Don’t Really Improve the Team
You’re in a casino in Vegas, one on the Strip, something like Planet Hollywood. And you’re at one of the $15 minimum blackjack tables. The dealer’s cute, the table’s friendly enough, everyone’s getting along and joking and having a good time. You’re only betting the minimum, but that’s no big…
The 5 Best Things to Do This Weekend: The Naughton Sisters, Mel Chin and More
Art imitates life when father and son Justin and Ty Doran play father and son in Black Lab Theatre’s production of Tigers Be Still, a black comedy by Kim Rosenstock and our choice for Friday. Joseph is a high school principal; Zach is his son, who’s still reeling from losing…
Los Straitjackets and Deke Dickerson Camp It Up at Continental Club
The Nashville-based, luche libre mask wearing band, Los Straitjackets strolled into town with Deke Dickerson in tow in support of their new collaboration, Deke Dickerson Sings the Great Instrumental Hits. The band of masked marauders took the stage at 10 p.m. for an hour and a half set of classic…
#GamerGate Journalist Milo Yiannopoulos’s Self-Published Poetry Book Contains Unattributed Tori Amos Lyrics
Brietbart journalist Milo Yiannopoulos has been one of the more prominent names in the #GamerGate movement, writing numerous articles regarding “SJW types ruining every platform they touch”. He also self-published a book of poetry in 2007 called Eskimo Papoose under the name Milo Andreas Wagner, but it turns out that…
Reality Bites: Kate Plus 8
There are a million reality shows on the naked television. We’re going to watch them all, one at a time. After all the tabloid unpleasantness surrounding serial breeders Jon and Kate Gosselin, they did an admirable job dropping out of the public eye. True, the first season of Kate Plus…
Greater Houston’s Biggest Speed Traps
We all know the gut-churning mix of frustration and confusion that washes over us whenever we see those blue and red lights flashing in our rear-view mirror. Assuming you’re not running from warrants, some version of this song and dance probably follows: A cop will ask you why you’re in…
Takeout Trials: $16 Steak & Curry Fries on Tuesday at Ambrosia
After my first visit to Ambrosia, I stated that despite the good food (particularly, the curry wedges) I wouldn’t return anytime soon unless they lowered their prices or started a happy. In the 18 months since this initial visit, Ambrosia has not only added a “reverse” as well as a…
Baritone Scott Hendricks on Sharpless, the Moral Conscience of Madame Butterfly
The original Madame Butterfly was a two-act disaster that premiered in 1904. Composer Giacomo Puccini hauled it back in and rewrote extensively in time for another try later that year and in the two years that followed after another few revisions, came up with the three-hanky classic that audiences have…
TCU’s Gary Patterson Wins the Bear Bryant Award
Having improved from 4-8 on 2013 to 12-1 in 2014, the TCU Horned Frogs were statistically one of the most improved teams in the country. However, if you ask TCU head football coach Gary Patterson, he will tell you that it was as much about the ball bouncing the right…
Adela Andea’s “On the Left Side of Mercury” Is Otherworldly, of Course
A person doesn’t need to book a flight on Virgin Galactic to travel to outer space; just stop by Anya Tish Gallery to see Adela Andea’s imaginary naturescapes brought to life through neon, LED lights, Plexiglass, mirrors and spec-fabricated consumer electronics. The pieces in the series, “On the Left Side…
Doctor Who: Why Shona McCullough Needs To Join the Tardis Crew
Though there was a quite a divide about Series 8 as a whole I don’t think any Whovian had anything but love for the Christmas special “Last Christmas”. It had horror, mind-twists, and for what hopefully is the foreseeable future Clara and the Twelfth Doctor finally seemed to come clean…
Gun Enthusiasts Re-Enact Paris Massacre in Plano for Some Reason
As far as we’re concerned, there’s only one appropriate way to respond to a tragedy like the Charlie Hedbo massacre, and that’s to re-enact it with paintguns in a nondescript Plano business park. Most people might think that’s weird, but fortunately, the reasonable folks at The Truth About Guns were…
Ben Godfrey Talks Moving to NYC and His New EP Wild Desperation
In the summer of 2014, Houston-based musician Ben Godfrey packed up his belongings, sold what he didn’t want, and headed to New York City. Yet despite his relocation, Godfrey hasn’t given up on the Lone Star State just yet; in fact, he’s set to perform Saturday evening at Walter’s Downtown…
Cloud Tectonics Imagines Colliding Planes of Existence
Anibal de la Luna is a regular kind of guy who’s moved to Los Angeles in part to leave his Puerto Rican culture behind. On a rainy night he meets up with a pregnant hitchhiker, Celestina del Sol, who claims to be 54 (but looks much younger) and who says…
Children of Pop and the Fine Art of the Remix
“Ah, so happily we live, Without misery among those in misery. Among people in misery, We live without misery.” From the Dhammapada The Children of Pop write music for people who live among those in misery. Bringing joy to people during shattered moments in their lives is a gift. Many…
10 Best Original Television Shows Set in Houston
I think even the most fervent fan of our city would agree that Houston has something of a problem projecting an identity to the rest of the nation. We’re just not seen as a place with a really iconic personality or look so it’s rare that we are used as…
Chef Chat, Part 2: Paul Lewis of Paul’s Kitchen
Is it tough to start something new in a space that was previously a well-known restaurant with a beloved chef? Sure it is, but Paul Lewis of Paul’s Kitchen seems to have the right ideas on how to pick up the ball and run with it. Yesterday we talked with…
Rockets, Dynamo on Texas Custom License Plate Chopping Block…and a Few Other Surprises
Maybe you didn’t realize. Maybe you were so busy working and doing whatever it is you do in your life that you didn’t know these poor bastards were about to see their lifespans cruelly cut short. You must be a terrible, heartless, uncaring jerk if you didn’t take the time…
10 Houston Bars You Might Have Missed
C & F DRIVE INN The C & F stands for Cortez and Family, and this Heights neighborhood ice house has indeed been run by the Cortez family since opening in 1987. A loyal crowd of regulars made up of people from the neighborhood and beyond drop in for the…
Happy Birthday, Wikipedia! 5 Songs Honoring the Site
It was on this day in 2001 that Jimmy Wales and Larry Danger launched one of the greatest time sucks in the history of the internet, Wikipedia. For all intents and purposes it’s become the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy for millions of people, serving as a general source on…
Bun B and Colleagues Contemplate Hip-Hop and Nonviolent Protest at the Menil
About 30 minutes before the Tuesday-night Conversation at the Menil Collection was scheduled to begin, all of the best seats stuffed inside Renzo Piano’s low-slung masterwork were already taken. All of the bad seats, too. Still, people continued to press inside, sitting, standing or stooping in whatever space they could…
River Oaks Theatre Special Presentation – Royal Opera House: L’Elisir D’Amore
Lucy Crowe, Vittorio Grigolo and Bryn Terfel star in Donizetti’s romantic comedy about love and life in a rural village. Directed by Laurent Pelly, L’Elisir D’Amore is sung in Italian with English subtitles. Sun., Jan. 18, 11 a.m., 2015…
The Book of Mormon
It’s no surprise that a Broadway show put together by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of South Park, includes a song with the lyrics “fuck you, God” (“Hasa Diga Eebowai”). That’s just one of the irreverent, outrageous moments in the musical The Book of Mormon, a cheerful send-up…
Kevin Hart Proves He’s Hollywood’s Best Comedy Star in the Crass Wedding Ringer
Here’s the pipsqueak who has hauled himself up into a sharp-dressed leading man. Here’s the comic who’s boundlessly inventive in his swearing but also suave and commanding in pursuit of love, the motormouth horndog who yawps about like a puppy on fire but can melt your mother’s heart with his…
Houston Press Artopia Preview Party
The official Houston Press Artopia® celebration isn’t until next weekend, but you can get an early start on the fun at the Artopia® Preview Party. Enjoy music by DJ Mike Masters and drink specials featuring Circulo Tequila mixed by 1919’s Andres Chapa, named Best Bartender in the 2013 Best of…
Bank of America Friday Night Flicks at the ICE at Discovery Green: March of the Penguins
Watch as a flock of Emperor penguins make their annual trek to their mating grounds – single file. Watch from the sidelines or rent some skates and see it from the ice. Fri., Jan. 16, 7:30 p.m., 2015…
Bayou City Burlesque & Circus Arts Festival
Burlesque entertainer KiKi Maroon shares her passion for the tantalizing and strange at the inaugural Bayou City Burlesque & Circus Arts Festival. The show’s producer, Maroon is bringing talent from across the country to Houston for this first-of-its-kind-in-the-city show. On the wild and weird bill are Kristina Nekyia (a contortionist/belly…
Rice Cinema Murfee Worsham Screening: Rome Open City
Roberto Rossellini, who co-founded Rice Cinema, directed this 1945 drama about a resistance fighter in Nazi-occupied Rome who takes refuge with a young couple. Considered a landmark in Italian Neorealism and postwar European cinema, Rome Open City won the Grand Prize at Cannes in 1946. Fri., Jan. 16, 7 p.m.;…
River Oaks Theatre Weekend Midnight Movie: A Clockwork Orange
Get your fill of ultraviolence when Stanley Kubrick’s 1971 A Clockwork Orange gets a two-day run as part of the River Oaks Theatre Weekend Midnight Movie series. Kubrick described A Clockwork Orange as “a running lecture on free will” and set it in a dystopian near-future England. It’s the shocking…
Mozart & Shostakovich
Critics have noted that pianists Christina and Michelle Naughton often sound as if they are one person rather than two at the piano. The sisters, identical twins who have been performing around the world for the past seven years, agree; Christina has said she sometimes forgets they are two different…
Martin Scorsese Presents: Masterpieces of Polish Cinema: Man of Iron
A mix of fact and fiction, Andrzej Wajda’s 1981 Man of Iron is set in the aftermath of Poland’s Gdansk shipyard strike. Sun., Jan. 18, 4 p.m., 2015…
My Fiancé Confessed He Wants to Sleep With My Best Friend. Help!
Welcome to Ask Willie D, Rocks Off’s advice column where the Geto Boys MC answers reader questions about matters, in his own words, “funny, serious or unpredictable.” Something on your mind? Ask Willie D! I’M 40 AND I WANT A PATERNITY TEST! Dear Willie D: My father was a married…
American Sniper Is a Rah Rah Rah War-on-Terror Fantasy
In Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper, Navy SEAL Chris Kyle (Bradley Cooper) — an astoundingly talented marksman credited with more than 160 confirmed kills in Iraq — runs into a fellow veteran at a mechanic’s shop between deployments. The soldier shows Kyle an artificial leg and thanks him for saving his…
Blackhat Is Another Exercise in Style but Not Much Else
Anyone who loves Michael Mann movies, or even just the idea of Michael Mann movies, accepts that film style is a language and something more, a way of thinking, feeling and looking that goes beyond basic plotting, dialogue or character motivation. I can tell you pretty much everything that happens…
Paddington Gives CGI Kid Movies a Good Name
Emerson argued that each flourish and tendril of a work of art has its exact corollary in the mind of the artist, that creative expression is always, in its way, a sort of autobiography: Want to know the person? Look at her works. But Ralph Waldo never lived to see…
Time-Travel Puzzle Predestination Should Try Again From the Start
Without dropping spoilers right and left, how do I explain that I’m completely baffled by the Spierig Brothers’ retro-futuristic thriller Predestination? So the she that’s really a he is the earlier version of the he we meet later on, and the later version of the she who shows up near…
Capsule Stage Reviews: January 15, 2015
My Name Is Asher Lev In his 1972 semiautobiographical novel, My Name Is Asher Lev, American author, artist and rabbi Chaim Potok tells the tale of a Hassidic Jewish boy whose love of drawing comes into sharp conflict with his ultrareligious family and community. In adapting it for the stage…
Capsule Art Reviews: January 15, 2015
“Arranging Family” Photographer and sculptor Carlee Fernandez uses the central theme of family — and how the past intersects with the present and gives hope for the future — to demonstrate her centeredness and strength. Her reverence for her ancestors, who join her in spirit, allows her to create something…
Special Tucson Edition
Dear Mexican, I go to Mexico frequently, as I live in Tucson. I kinda like Mexicans. Many Mexicans die in the Sonoran Desert in the Tucson border sector, trying to get to el otro lado. This is because your buddies at la migra in the L.A. sector have pushed them…
