At Sundance, Documentary Defends Pamela Smart, the Sexpot Schoolteacher Convicted of Murder
Pamela Smart, the sexpot schoolteacher who seduced three teenage boys to shoot her husband, has been imprisoned without parole since 1991. Her official release year is sometime in 9999, assuming that human civilization is still alive. Yet the captive in Jeremiah Zagar’s Captivated: The Trials of Pamela Smart isn’t her…
Deputy and Canine Partner Injured in Major Accident on Beltway 8
A Harris County deputy is in critical condition after an accident on Beltway 8, the North Sam Houston Parkway, Tuesday morning. Deputy Jason Denham was flown by LifeFlight to Memorial Hermann. He was in the vehicle with his canine partner, Sjors, who, after being checked by a vet, was determined…
Subscription Spam: How Often Is Too Often?
Every morning when I wake up, one of the first things I do is check my e-mail, a consequence of working for myself. Depending on what time I get up, there are anywhere from six to a dozen e-mails in my personal inbox and, with limited exception, most of them…
Is Sugar the New Cigarettes? Fed Up, a New Sundance Film, Thinks So
© Courtesy of Sundance InstituteSixty years ago, Fred Flintstone hawked Winston cigarettes. Today, he pitches cereal. And both can kill. Stephanie Soechtig’s rabble-rousing documentary Fed Up argues that it’s time to attack Big Sugar just like we successfully demonized Big Tobacco. Narrated by Katie Couric, Fed Up is the first…
Battle Snickers vs. Generic (Chewomp)
“Generic candy bars? Why didn’t I think of that?” was my first reaction when I spotted “Chewomp,” a clear Snickers knockoff, as I waited in line at the grocery store. Copycat and/or competing versions of candy bars are nothing new (see Skor and Heath), but (correct me if I’m wrong)…
True Detective Is Getting Weird(er)
Anybody watching HBO’s True Detective? I know Downton Abbey is a thing that is happening and Sherlock just started back up, plus we’re in kind of a Sunday night downer lull until the return of The Walking Dead (February) and Game of Thrones (April). What I’m saying is, it’s understandable…
Weather Week: Could Houston Get Some Freezing Rain This Week?
In southeast Texas, there isn’t normally much cause for alarm when it is suggested we might get some “winter weather.” For us, that normally means it might reach the freezing point, probably in the middle of the night when we are asleep with the heater set to 72. But, on…
It Won’t Kill You: Top 5 Hamburger Helper Flavors
Before you turn up your nose and think, “God Lord, who eats Hamburger Helper?” consider the fact that General Mills did like a billion in sales last year, and I’m willing to bet at least a percentage of that (re: millions of dollars) was from their boxed-dinner product line. And…
Two Shining Examples of Human Race Charged With Throwing Cat in the Air, Shooting It
Two east Harris County men have been charged with animal cruelty after authorities say they threw a cat in the air and shot it January 18. Alexander Marsh, 18, threw the injured cat into the air while Joseph David Morgan, 24, shot it with a shotgun, according to a Harris…
Guantanamo Babe: Will Audiences Take Kristen Stewart Seriously as a Soldier in Camp X-Ray?
© Beth Dubber, Courtesy of Sundance InstituteKristen Stewart in Camp X-Ray.Kristen Stewart spent five Twilight films getting rescued by werewolves and vampires. Consider Camp X-Ray her rebuttal to a half-decade of playing damsels in distress. As Guantanamo guard Private Cole, Stewart is punched, bloodied, and spat on — and that’s…
Top 5 Super Bowl Snacks You Should Buy Online
For many, including this writer, the Super Bowl is as much about food as it is about football. And while snacks from the grocery store are just fine for most any gathering, sometimes I like to add a little swank to my Super Bowl feast. Here are five stellar gourmet…
So Now Brittany Norwood Allegedly Says Her Entire Lawsuit Is Embellished
This time a week ago, we were all just beginning to digest the Arian Foster “baby mama” story. At the beginning of the day last Monday, Arian Foster was (as far as we knew) a happily married father of two young children who was rehabbing a back injury, anxious to…
5 Portable Nintendo Accessories That You Probably Haven’t Heard Of
The video game industry is gadget-mad by nature. After all, home video games started out as nothing more than electronic toys for the wealthy. Myself, I’m a utilitarian gamer who rarely has more than the standard console with the standard settings at any given time… Mostly because I still haven’t…
You Know You Love Them: Top 5 Shipley Flavors
As a former Bostonian, I will always have a soft spot in my heart for Dunkin’ Donuts, but among the many blessings that came with moving to Texas was the chance to become acquainted with Shipley Do-Nuts. I will always favor their monstrous apple fritters, though recently I have willed…
Isiah Carey Takes Another Social Media Star Turn With Arian Foster
It wasn’t exactly a grasshopper or the kind of YouTube moment that will land someone on Tosh.0, but it did go viral and Fox 26 investigative reporter Isiah Carey was right back in the middle of it. Last year, we gave Carey our Web Award for Best Media Personality on…
The Rocks Off 200: Gunnar Cushway, Insko’s Feel-Good Utilityman
Welcome to The Rocks Off 200, our portrait gallery of the most compelling profiles and personalities in the far-flung Houston music community — a lot more than just musicians, but of course they’re in there too. See previous entries in the Rocks Off 100 at this link. Who? Everything about…
Menchie’s to Open First Self-Serve Frozen Yogurt Truck in Houston
If you could picture the perfect food truck festival fare for a hot summer day in Houston, what would it be? My ideal warm-weather food is frozen yogurt, but that’s not an option at any food truck in town…yet. The owners of Houston Menchie’s Frozen Yogurt franchises, Andrew Martin and…
Pop Rocks: Downton Abbey and PBS Are Screwing Up My DVR
There is no point in denying how much I enjoy Downton Abbey. The drama, the stiff upper lips, the pale British complexions…the freaking Dowager Countess, I’m enthralled. Which is exactly why PBS’s delivery of the Sunday night period drama is absolutely killing me, at least from a modern, first-world-problems, technological…
Money, Spin and the Texas Governor’s Race: Wendy Davis Still Unlikely to Win
Last week, Greg Abbott sent out an email to his supporters claiming that “Sen. Wendy Davis has raised $8.7 million from liberals in New York, California and Washington.” Try as I might, I could not verify this claim. Indeed, the venerable conservative magazine National Review did not bother to fact…
First Look at Espresso Rescue: The Coffee Truck
With the influx of food trucks to the Houston mobile dining scene, we seem to be missing one type of truck. The city is blessed with numerous trucks that will satisfy the late-night munchies, the sugar cravings in the afternoon and everything else in between, but we don’t have enough…
Houston Dance Artists Present Work in 12 Minutes Max!
The Setup: On the evenings of January 17 and 18, five Houston choreographers presented work at The Barn in 12 Minutes Max! The five dance artists, all of which are participants in the Fieldwork process, included Rebekah Chappell, Sara Draper, Laura Gutierrez, Cori Miller and jhon r. stronks. The Execution:…
Terrence Jones Turns a Rockets Weakness Into a Strength
Back in July 2012, I wrote a story about how the Rockets were loaded with power forwards, many of them undersized for the position. In addition to players already on the rosters like Luis Scola and Patrick Patterson, there were new guys like Donatas Montejunas and Royce White (God help…
Top Ten Most Outstanding Texas-Owned Liquors
Texas spirits are getting some well-deserved international recognition.
Doctor Who: A Guide to Being a Less-Annoying Whovian
“I wish I had a Dr. Who filter” That’s a phrase I’ve seen a fair amount recently on my Facebook newsfeed, and as the countdown to Super Bowl XLVII: The Ballening begins right now I am very sympathetic to how aggravating ho fans have probably been over the course of…
UPDATED: Remembering Steve Fromholz: The Poet Laureate of Texas Music
UPDATE (Tuesday, 3:20 p.m.): Adds Fromholz’s funeral information. Steve Fromholz, who witnessed the flowering of the Austin music scene in the early ’70s and for many folks became the official face of Texas country music for his Tex-centric “Texas Trilogy,” died of an accidental gunshot wound Sunday. According to numerous…
Why Genesis’s Lyrics Were Great — or Awful
Phil Collins recently announced he’d be open to touring with his former Genesis bandmates again, and those of us who love the band rejoiced. No matter the lineup, the English prog-pop group always possessed some of rock music’s most skilled musicians. The extended instrumental breaks alone on some Genesis songs…
Houston Music, Back in the Day: Same as It Ever Was?
Houston is the largest city in Texas and the fourth-largest city in the United States, with a population that is increasingly culturally diverse yet maintains a strong social identity. It’s not especially well-known for its various music scenes (save rap, arguably) due to a combination of layout and luck. But…
Los Lonely Boys’ Revelation Is What Really Matters
Many fans thought Los Lonely Boys were a lucky band right out of the gate, and they were right. Henry, JoJo and Ringo, the Garza brothers from San Angelo, grew up playing music with their father and had a massive hit their first time out of the gate with “Heaven,”…
Zapruder Analysis of Video Résumé of Redneck Seeking Job As NFL Fullback
There was a time when the avenue to virtually every vocation in sports or in media was a cookie cutter, a very fixed blueprint. If you wanted to become a journalist, you majored in journalism, worked at a small newspaper, worked at a bigger newspaper, before finally hitting it big…
6 Antiquated Objections to Mayor Parker’s Marriage (and Same-Sex Marriage in General) on Social Media
As recently as 25 years ago, an openly gay mayor would have seemed inconceivable to most people in Houston. A lot can change and we are now in the third term of Mayor Annise Parker, the only one of the few openly gay mayors in America (Editor Note: as pointed…
Krullur, H.R.A. and More at Rudyard’s, 1/18/14
Krullur, HRA, Oath of Cruelty, Hel-Razor, Halo of Gunfire Rudyard’s January 18, 2014 In the middle of January, the city’s concert landscape can feel like a bit of a frozen wasteland, even when it’s t-shirt weather outside. Most of the big touring acts are in hibernation until the thaw, and…
Why Richard Sherman Is Awesome
For an AFC and NFC Title Game weekend that I compared to Wrestlemania 3, the ending was entirely appropriate. No, I’m not talking about Peyton Manning’s (at the very least) evening the score and perhaps surpassing (certainly, giving himself a chance to surpass) Tom Brady in the “greatest of our…
Louie Gohmert Is Against Gay Marriage Because of ‘Plumbing’ Problems
Congressman Louie Gohmert is at it again. The East Texas representative is known for spouting his opinions with little regard for minor things like facts, or reason, or not making it look as if everyone in Texas is a bigoted, racist idiot, and he has been airing his views on…
“Great Art in Ugly Rooms” Is Exactly That
Someone once said that beauty was everywhere, you just have to find it. The exact quote has been bastardized, morphed and flipped around so many times who knows what the actual saying is or who should get credit. Regardless of who said it first, it’s a played out saying and…
UH Basketball Versus the Apathetic Fan Base
It’s easy to jump on the UH fan base and once again belittle the lack of attendance at Hofheinz Pavilion for UH basketball. Yesterday’s UH/Rutgers game was a noon tip-off, and the excuses range from church, the marathon, the great weather, and NFL playoffs. But none of that really matters…
Strange Spring 2014 Trends Coming Your Way
Even though winter’s icy fingers are still clamped on our shoulders, many in the fashion world have turned their eyes to what we all will be wearing in the coming Spring. After countless hours forecasting and trend reporting, stores are beginning to stock their shelves with spring collections shown last…
Baker Spotlight: Drew Rogers, Owner of Drew’s Pastry Place & Star on TLC’s Bakery Boss
If you have ever searched for authentic Italian pastries and desserts in Houston, you’ve probably been sorely disappointed. Although the Bayou City is home to many bakeries that make cupcakes, cakes, cookies and other American sweet shops, it is seriously in need of establishments dedicated to creating cannoli, tiramisu, pignoli,…
LBJ People Want Historic Air Force One, and Ohio Says No
Even in the historic popularity contest, LBJ can’t seem to win. Lyndon B. Johnson and John F. Kennedy got to the White House on the same ticket, but the two weren’t exactly best buddies. It was a marriage of convenience, because they needed each other to deliver their respective sections…
UPDATED: Sondheim’s Into the Woods at Main Street Captures the Great Songs and the Energy Amid Fractured Fairy Tale Dreams
The setup: Update: Main Street has added two Wednesday performances to the run of Into the Woods: February 5 and 12 at 7:30pm. Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine won Tony Awards for best score and best book for the 1987 Broadway production of Into the Woods, as familiar fairy-tale characters…
First Look at Coltivare in The Heights
Waiting for a much-anticipated restaurant to open is a delicious dilemma, and last week a dozen food writers were able to a first glimpse (and taste) at Coltivare, the new casual Italian dinner spot from “the Revival Market guys” Morgan Weber and Ryan Pera. Slated to open on Wednesday, January…
Houston Texans 2014: The Purge on Kirby Continues
Red Wedding, final seen of The Godfather, last episode of Season 1 of The Sopranos….quite frankly, for the Houston Texans, I’m running out of television and movie analogies where multiple people get whacked. So here goes… (SPOILER ALERT: If you haven’t seen and eventually desire to see The Departed, which…
Dealing With the Mean, Older Girls at Chuck E. Cheese
The Wife With One F just started her last semester of nursing school, and this generally entails me taking my four-year-old daughter out somewhere in order to keep her occupied while my wife pursues the fine art of keeping people alive. Despite the nice weather, I decided to fuel our…
100 Favorite Dishes 2013-2014: No. 43, Duck Red Curry at Morningside Thai
This year, leading up to our annual Menu of Menus® issue, Kaitlin Steinberg counts down her 100 favorite dishes as she eats her way through Houston. She’ll compile a collection of the dishes she thinks are the most awesome, most creative and, of course, most delicious in town. It’s a…
How Little Feat Savored the Flavors of the “Houston Welcoming Committee”
Willin’: The Story of Little Feat By Ben Fong-Torres Da Capo Press, 296 pp., $26.99. As a band, their music was beloved and respected by a wide array of artists from Eric Clapton, Robert Plant and Linda Ronstadt to the Marshall Tucker Band, Bonnie Raitt and Jimmy Buffett. But the…
The Eagle Soars Triumphant In Houston’s Classic-Rock War
This past New Year’s Eve afternoon, as classic-rock fans across Houston were putting on their faux, pre-distressed Led Zeppelin ’77 tour T-shirt to head out and ring in the new year (and presumably, to rock and roll all night), they might have been shocked when turning in to KKRW 93.7…
Five Metal Screamers Who Have Lost Their Voices
Look, it happens. We all have to face it at some point. We get old and we just can’t do the same things we did in our youth. Take professional athletes, for instance. It’s a big deal when an NFL player is able to keep going into his late thirties,…
Six People to Avoid When Starting a Band
All illustrations by Dave WattBeing in a band is hard. Assembling a band is almost impossible. As anyone who’s been through a few bands can tell you, meeting a self-proclaimed “musician” should instill about as much enthusiasm in you as meeting someone who is going to college for a career…
The Best Concerts in Houston This Week: Amy LaVere, Amon Amarth, Matt Wertz, etc.
Free Radicals AvantGarden, January 6 Free Radicals is both Nick Cooper’s revolving-door ensemble that at any given moment could be playing free jazz or Latin funk, and also Cooper’s ongoing testimonial to how much he digs being a member of the Houston music community. He has so much experience at…
TUTS Announces Its 2014-15 Season Complete W/ Kinky Boots
Theatre Under the Stars announced its 2014-15 season today with a season heavily tilted to the classics with one very, very new Tony Award winner. Beginning with Victor/Victoria, the 1995 musical based upon the 1982 Blake Edwards film starring Julie Andrews, the season moves on to offer a Houston holiday…
This Weekend’s Best Bets: AFC and NFC Title Games
About four weeks into the NFL season, a prop bet popped up on the board in the corner of the internet that I visit in order to recreationally place some action Las Vegas and it went like this: * Broncos, Patriots, Seahawks, 48ers to win Super Bowl XLVIII -120 *…
Weekend Weather: If You Like Perfect Weather, This Is Your Weekend
Honestly, you are going to be hard pressed to find better weather than what we are going to have in Houston this weekend, but first, a little history. Earlier this week, ahead of a cold front, we saw pretty warm temperatures with highs in the 70s. But, by Wednesday, the…
Campbell’s Chicken Noodle Soup: 80 Years Young This January
As a professional food historian (I made this job up myself), I feel it is my duty to celebrate certain seminal events in the culinary world, and January 2014 marks an especially important anniversary. Eighty years ago this month, a modest food company and manufacturer debuted a canned soup featuring…
Summer Is Coming: Browns WR Davone Bess’s Arrest Tells Us Crime Season Is Nigh
I don’t know that anything positive comes out of one human being shooting another human being, other than the killer (if caught) being put behind bars before he can kill several more human beings. However, when Aaron Hernandez did the perp walk from his house to the police car last…
5 Ways to Lighten Up Macaroni & Cheese
Don’t get us wrong; every now and then we love ourselves some full-fledged fatty and buttery cheese-loaded mac ‘n’ cheese. But we run into a bit of a problem when we want to make it at home. After contemplating the amount of butterfat and milkfat and cheesefat that we’ve thrown…
Rockets’ Record-Setting Jekyll and Hyde Nature on Display in Loss to Thunder
Beat San Antonio. Lose to Atlanta. These are the kinds of wild mood swings we have come to expect from our Houston Rockets this season. But Thursday night was something entirely different. In fact, it’s difficult to describe just how dramatic the difference between the first and second halves of…
Youth Code at Mango’s, 1/16/2014
Youth Code, Coming Mango’s January 16, 2013 No doubt, Youth Code borrows quite heavily from Chicago’s fabled Wax Trax! Records (Front 242, KMFDM, Revolting Cocks) roster, the epicenter of seething industrial music in the 1980s and 1990s, when the city rose from the frozen plains and became a beacon of…
100 Favorite Dishes 2013-2014: No. 44, BBQ Pulled Wild Boar Sandwich at Sammy’s Wild Game Grill
This year, leading up to our annual Menu of Menus® issue, Kaitlin Steinberg counts down her 100 favorite dishes as she eats her way through Houston. She’ll compile a collection of the dishes she thinks are the most awesome, most creative and, of course, most delicious in town. It’s a…
Reviews for the Easily Distracted: Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
Title: Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit How Many Jack Ryans Is This, Again? Four actors have now played Tom Clancy’s repeatedly born again CIA agent. If they step it up, they might pass the James Bond franchise. Rating Using Random Objects Relevant To The Film: Two-and-a-half Red Octobers out of five…
Texas Receives Failing Grades in Emergency Physicians’ Report Card
Texas ranks 47th in the nation when it comes to access to emergency care, according to a report card just released by the American College of Emergency Physicians. That’s a big fat F for that category. The state ranked 38th overall (a “D+”) in the report, which measures “America’s emergency…
Other Desert Cities: How a Memoir Dropped Into a Family Gathering Can Wreck Christmas
The setup: Jon Robin Baitz has had a number of plays well-received by critics and audiences, but there seemed to be a consensus that even more might be expected of him. Other Desert Cities has been hailed by many as answering this need, as it was praised in its off-Broadway…
Dude! Alamo Drafthouse Introduces Cocktails to Pair With Your Favorite Films
Nothing pairs better with drinks than the right food. Except maybe movies. From the White Russians in The Big Lebowski to martinis in any (and all) James Bond films to the French 75, which rose to fame after its mention in Casablanca, films and cocktails have a long, mouthwatering history…
MLB Says Hello to Replay Review, Enters Modern Times
Major League Baseball adopted new replay rules yesterday, and these rules will be in place for Opening Day. Just about any play can be reviewed (except for ball and strike calls and the neighborhood play at second base). The new rules are far from perfect as MLB is adopting the…
The 5 Best Things to Eat or Drink This Weekend: Chicken & Waffles and Chili in Galveston
Food Truck Friday @ Houston Press Friday, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. 2603 La Branch It’s that time of week again — Food Truck Friday! And this time St. John’s Fire food truck will be rolling into the parking lot outside the Houston Press office. Come get your spice on with St…
UPDATED: Cannabis, Texas: How Close Are We to Legalization in the Lone Star State?
Update: Sito Negron, communications director for Senator Jose Rodriguez contacted us to say that while Rodriguez has advocated for a review of our marijuana policies, he never has advocated for its use. The buzz about cannabis reform is still going strong, well after the very first recreational pot shops…
One Worker Dead and Another Injured Is Worth a $63,000 Citation, OSHA says
How much is a death on the job worth to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration? It’s valued at precisely $63,000, judging by the citation issued by OSHA to the Municipal District Services LLC in Cypress, Texas. In December 2013, company workers were trying to repair…
100 Creatives 2014: Margaret Menchaca Alvarez, Artist
According to Margaret Menchaca Alvarez, dogs smile; cats, not so much. It’s a Venus and Mars sort of thing. “There are some pictures that really capture the dog’s personality, that make you wonder what’s that dog thinking? I don’t see that as often with cats.” Alvarez is, of course, a…
DJ Sun Re-Launches The Flat as Montrose’s Hippest Hang
DJ Sun had already had a pretty great 2013. Last January he released One Hundred, a distillation of his 20-plus-year career as one of Houston’s top turntablists and soundmakers that many local critics thought one of the best local albums of the year. (This one thought it was the definitive…
Upcoming Events: North Coast Brewing Co. Comes to Houston & Kata Robata Celebrates Chinese New Year
There are some drinks and foods that go perfectly together, and beer and cheese is one of those delightful combinations. D&T Drive Inn will host Houston Dairymaids and North Coast Brewing Co. on Wednesday, January 22, from 7 to 10 p.m. during a beer and cheese tasting open to the…
5 Best Things About the Chevron Marathon Expo
The 42nd Houston Marathon takes place bright and early this Sunday, but if you’re not running (and don’t want to get up that early to spectate) you can still take advantage of one of the best aspects of the marathon — the Marathon Expo at the George R. Brown. Also…
Openings & Closings: Say It Ain’t So, Hubbell & Hudson
For those living in Spring and The Woodlands, this week brought sad news about two establishments. The first tale of woe concerns Koya Asian Kitchen in Spring. In one of the saddest restaurant closing announcements we have seen, Koya Asian Kitchen posted on Facebook that the barely three-month-old restaurant was…
Top 5 Things to Do in Houston This Weekend: Other Desert Cities, The Tenderloins, Chevron Houston Marathon and More
A daughter returns to her parents’ home for Christmas and reveals she is about to write a memoir — a bit of unwelcome news that further strains already tense relations among her relatives, both liberal and conservative. As Jackson Gay, director of the Alley Theatre production of Other Desert Cities,…
Holy Ship!!! 2014 in Animated GIF!!!
Note: this article was written by Kat Bein of Rocks Off’s Miami New Times sister blog Crossfade. Photo by Ian WitlenHave you ever seen a gingerbread man with no arms do the shimmy? What about two sharks going at it in shallow water? Seriously, who doesn’t want to see a…
Houston’s Worst Places to Get Put On Hold
Joe V’s Smart Shop is a Houston-based offshoot of one of the state’s most successful brands, H.E.B., aka the H.E. Butt Grocery Company. Or, as it’s known in my home, The Butt. If you’re a fan of The Butt — and really, who isn’t? — you know why it’s an…
Ever Wonder How Eric Clapton Got So Laid-Back?
In the fall of 1974, Jamie Oldaker was a 22-year-old drummer riding in the backseat of a car with a girl he met at a club. And he wanted to get to know her a little bit, uh, better. While the couple was tooling down the streets of his native…
Houston’s Top 10 Hip-Hop Clubs
As our sister blog Eating…Our Words does, from time to time Rocks Off will be giving your our picks for the top taverns in various Houston-area neighborhoods. Of course, the lines can be porous, but here anything with a TABC license that cannot reasonably be considered either a restaurant, coffeehouse…
The Best Shows in Houston This Weekend: The Beans, Wynonna, B.B. King, Yo Gotti, etc.
The Beans Fitzgerald’s, January 17 Houston natives The Beans have been playing together only since 2010, but their raw, psych-driven blues-rock has made them local standouts. Kick-starting things in a classroom at the University of St Thomas, where drummer Brendan Hall’s dad is a professor, they’ve already landed significant gigs,…
Mayor Annise Parker and Kathy Hubbard Are Married in California
Today, on the 23rd anniversary of the start of their lives together, Mayor Annise Parker and Kathy Hubbard got married in Palm Springs, California. The marriage had been anticipated for several days, but it wasn’t known exactly when it would happen. In a statement released by the mayor’s office, it…
Should Rattlesnakes Be Gassed? Texas Parks and Wildlife Says No
There’s not much in Sweetwater to recommend it to the outside world. People in the dusty little West Texas town seem to enjoy it all right, but for most of the year it’s just a wide spot in the road. But on the second weekend in March the town comes…
Need a Lemon Tree or Raspberry Bush? Get Yourself to Rice University on Saturday
What do apples, avocados, blackberries, blueberries, cherries, citron, dragonfruit, figs, goji berries, grapes, grapefruits, kumquats, lemons, limes, lychee, macadamias, mandarins, muscadines, nectarines, olives, oranges, passion fruits, peaches, pears, persimmons, plums, pomegranates, pummelos and raspberries have in common? They all grow on trees (or bushes, shrubs or vines, if you prefer)…
Alex Rodriguez Is Now Happy He Was Suspended 162 Games by MLB
If any of you are waiting for a mea culpa or an apology from Alex Rodriguez for his continued use of performance enhancing drugs, I wouldn’t hold your breath. Recapping history… After being ratted out to investigators by the provider of this round of PEDs, Anthony Bosch, A-Roid responded by…
100 Favorite Dishes: No. 45, Guanciale Burger at Plonk
This year, leading up to our annual Menu of Menus® issue, Kaitlin Steinberg counts down her 100 favorite dishes as she eats her way through Houston. She’ll compile a collection of the dishes she thinks are the most awesome, most creative and, of course, most delicious in town. It’s a…
County Attorney Goes After Sharpstown Strip Center Over Prostitution
“The Track” has moved, apparently. Last May, we wrote about how County Attorney Vince Ryan was suing the Plainfield Inn at the corner of the Southwest Freeway and Bissonnet Street because it was home to prostitution and other general criminal activity. Those in the know referred to it as “the…
The Rocks Off 200 Mario Rodriguez, Tax the Wolf/Bang Bangz’s Wonky Power Monger
Welcome to The Rocks Off 200, our portrait gallery of the most compelling profiles and personalities in the far-flung Houston music community — a lot more than just musicians, but of course they’re in there too. See previous entries in the Rocks Off 100 at this link. Who? His full…
What a Crowdsourced ER Bill Taught Me About Socialized Medicine
Spending New Year Day in the animal emergency room is something of a tradition in my family. It doesn’t happen every year, but it has happened enough for me to not be surprised about it. This particular instance came from my Himalayan cat Daniel who became unable to pass any…
Top Ten Foods You Think Are Healthy But Aren’t (And What to Eat Instead)
New year, new resolutions to exercise more and eat better to achieve a healthier lifestyle. These are worthy goals, of course, but many people don’t realize they’re sabotaging their attempts at healthy living with food and drinks that masquerade as nutritious but actually aren’t. Sneaky little devils. Eating better is…
Auburn’s Gus Malzahn Wins Bear Bryant Coach of the Year Award
College football turnarounds are not easy, especially in the SEC West. At the beginning of the year, we pencil our teams in, expectations shaped by experts and the results of the season before and we jump headlong into college football. In 2013, the names were pretty familiar. Alabama, Oregon, Ohio…
American Horror Story: Coven: Cunning Women With Un-cunning Plans
I have now figured out what about Coven truly bothers me this season… everyone in it is an idiot. I’m not talking about the cast itself. Frankly, the show has never had a stronger cast. Between mainstays like Jessica Lange, Evan Peeters, Frances Conroy, and Denis O’Hare pulling off their…
Wine Foreplay: Prime Your Stemware Before Serving
Last week’s “how-to wine” post was devoted to opening a bottle of wine. Sadly, it happens all the time. A well-intentioned wine lover brings a bottle of super-groovy Oregon Pinot Noir, biodynamic Cabernet Franc from the Loire Valley in France, or old-school Nebbiolo from Barbaresco to a friend’s or family…
Barrence Whitfield & the Savages at Under the Volcano, 1/15/2013
Barrence Whitfield & the Savages Under the Volcano January 16, 2014 The tremors felt in Rice Village, Southampton, and West University Place last night were not small earthquakes related to fracking. All that shook-up vibration emanated from a little five-piece combo known as Barrence Whitfield and the Savage Kings. Outside…
Scam Warning: Beware of Officers Collecting Debt Via Phone and E-Mail
On the rare occasion my spam filter allows an e-mail through from a Nigerian prince who wants to send me $1 million, I chuckle for a moment. Then, I realize the reason these ridiculous e-mails are still in circulation isn’t because they are funny, but because some poor suckers out…
Pop Rocks: And the Razzie Goes to…
It truly is award season. Just as my colleague Pete pointed out in his Oscar predication list, I will also point out this fact. However, instead of writing about all of the celebratory moments worth honoring, for your consideration, here is my forecast for this year’s Razzie Awards. Yes, the…
Cheap & Good Eats: Top 5 Budget Lunch Spots in Lazybrook/Timbergrove
We’ve been rounding up our favorite budget lunch spots in different neighborhoods around town. (See the complete list at the end of the post.) This week, we’re moving just west of the Heights proper to the adjoining neighborhoods of Lazybrook and Timbergrove Manor. Here’s our list of the best cheap…
Texas Medical Board Accuses Stanislaw “I Cured Cancer, Bitch!” Burzysnki of Deceptive Advertising
The Texas Medical Board has accused controversial Houston doctor (we use that term loosely) Stanislaw Burzynski of making false claims in how he advertised his cancer treatments (another term used loosely). Filed in December, the complaint comes a year after a similar complaint from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration,…
Hungry? Check Out One of Houston’s Many Eating Contests, Sure to Fill You Up
They say everything’s bigger in Texas, including our burgers, pizzas and bowls of pho. OK, so the pho thing might be unique to Houston, and that’s just one of the reasons that Houston eating competitions are the best: They’re incredibly diverse. From Bellaire to Baytown, Sugar Land to the Woodlands,…
Stark Naked Theatre Presents “A Lot of Irish” in Repertory
One is the story of a no-name criminal who is hiding out not only from two different crime bosses, but charges of kidnapping and murder as well. The spotlight is on actor Santry Rush in The Good Thief as his character becomes prey, rather than the hunter, leading him to…
5 Complications That Make the Arian Foster Mess Even Messier
Whenever reports come out about athletes having children out of wedlock, most of us shrug and recognize it as coming with the territory. Athletes — and other people in position of power and authority — frequently find themselves in public paternity suits. If you are Shawn Kemp, many, many, MANY…
Where the Chefs Eat: Lance Fegen, Travis Lenig, Steve Marques, Eric Laird
We’re ringing in the new year with a return of our Where the Chefs Eat series. This week, the chefs from F.E.E.D. TX Restaurant group — Liberty Kitchen, BRC Gastropub and the new Liberty Kitchen & Oysterette — tell us where they like to eat around H-town. Lance Fegen Culinary…
Rest of the Best: Houston’s 10 Best Concert Poster Artists
No matter how much you love to spread the word about your band through online media, one thing has never changed. You’ve got to have a badass poster to let people know that your concert will be equally badass. Even if it’s only ever seen in jpeg format. Creating concert…
Houston: Where the Osbournes Fired Carmine Appice
He may be a senior citizen, but 67-year-old classic-rock skinthumper Carmine Appice will have a busier 2014 than you, for sure. In addition to co-launching a new startup label, Rocker Records, he has rehearsal and recording sessions with a new group, and a busy slate of live gigs with three…
Vote or Die: The Last VJ’s Top Five Videos of the Week
Welcome back to The Last VJ, music fans. It’s a slow time for music videos right at the moment, but that means we just had to dig a little deeper in order to find the one that were really going to knock your socks off. Strap in and take your…
2014 Chevron Houston Marathon and Aramco Houston Half Marathon (& 2014 ABB 5K)
Thousands of athletes will hit the ground running for the 2014 Chevron Houston Marathon and Aramco Houston Half Marathon (& 2014 ABB 5K). There are a few course changes that should make for more prime spots from which to watch the race. Runners from around the world compete in the…
Deon Cole
Fellow funnyman Conan O’Brien is responsible — at least partially — for helping Deon Cole launch his comedy career. In 2009, Cole delivered a set on The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien that landed him a spot in Tonight’s writer’s room. Then Leno returned to the Tonight show desk, rendering…
Tyler Perry’s Hell Hath No Fury Like a Woman Scorned
Singer Cheryl Pepsii Riley leads the cast of the musical stage play Tyler Perry’s Hell Hath No Fury Like a Woman Scorned. In his signature style, Perry uses music, drama and comedy to give us a story about resilience and faith. At the center of Hell Hath is Anita Lincoln…
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Celebrations
Civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. is honored with a variety of activities around town, including three separate parades. There’s the 36th Annual “Original” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Parade. Started in 1978, this is said to be the first MLK Day parade in the country. (King’s father,…
Magnus Flyte
The two female writers who make up the male Magnus Flyte persona, Meg Howrey and Christina Lynch, will discuss City of Lost Dreams, the latest Flyte release. The action-adventure-supernatural-mystery-time trave-romance Dreams, sequel to City of Dark Magic, follows musicologist Sarah Weston as she scours Vienna, hoping to help a desperately…
My Boyfriend Is Too Busy for Sex. 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! HOW FAST IS TOO FAST? Dear Willie D: I met a man and we instantly connected…
“50 Shades of Green”
Noted art collector Peggy Guggenheim is credited with saying, “My knowledge of art ended at impressionism.” Guggenheim was a well-known fan of abstract and avant-garde art; she was married to Dadaist Max Ernst, after all. Whether Guggenheim was complimenting the Impressionist movement or insulting it is up for debate. The…
Under a Cowboy Moon
Houston playwright Carl Williams has turned his attention to cowboy poetry in the comedy Under a Cowboy Moon. Set in Spitwhistle, Texas, on the occasion of the town’s annual poetry contest, the play follows several characters, both contestants and non-contestants, through the competition. The Saddle Horn Bar is run by…
The Passenger
Lisa, a former SS offficer, is aboard an ocean liner with her German-diplomat husband when she discovers that one of her fellow passengers looks like a former Auschwitz prisoner she tormented. Mezzo-soprano Michelle Breedt, a South African by birth and now a German citizen, sings the role of Lisa in…
We Will Rock You
Imagine a world where music is controlled by the government and there is no rock and roll. No, this isn’t a time trip into the past, but the future, “on a planet once called Earth” as a Theatre Under the Stars press release proclaims. As it turns out in We…
Wes Craven: I Always Encouraged Robert Englund to Make Freddy Krueger His Own
Despite some reluctance, Wes Craven is a name-brand filmmaker. The phrase “Wes Craven Presents” comes with certain expectations thanks to the financial success of the Scream franchise and The Hills Have Eyes series before that. But what cemented Craven’s reputation is A Nightmare on Elm Street, a deathless cycle of…
Other Desert Cities
A daughter returns to her parents’ home for Christmas and reveals she is about to write a memoir — a bit of unwelcome news that further strains already tense relations among her relatives, both liberal and conservative. As Jackson Gay, director of the Alley Theatre production of Other Desert Cities,…
A Found-Footage Attempt at Rosemary’s Baby in Devil’s Due
In Devil’s Due, co-directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (V/H/S) and first-time screenwriter Lindsay Devlin offer an uninspired found-footage riff on Roman Polanski’s demon-spawn classic, Rosemary’s Baby (1968). On their Dominican Republic honeymoon, the squeakily innocent Samantha (Allison Miller) and Zach (Zach Gilford) are drugged by a cult who draw…
Pacifica Quartet
The Grammy Award-winning Pacifica Quartet presents a stirring program that includes Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 7 in a performance hosted by the Houston Friends of Chamber Music. The quartet, made up of Simin Ganatra and Sibbi Bernhardsson on violin, Masumi Per Rostad on viola and Brandon Vamos on cello, is…
The truTV Impractical Jokers Tour featuring The Tenderloins
Allen Funt had in the 1960s. Years later, Ashton Kutcher continued the televised practical joke tradition 21st century style with , which launched in 2003. Now there’s truTV’s Impractical Jokers featuring antics by the Tenderloins. The target of this particular improv-cum-sketchcomedy show, which comes to Bayou Music Center for a…
How the Other Half Loves
Three couples collide in wonderfully theatrical ways in How the Other Half Loves. Bob and Theresa, Frank and Fiona, and William and Mary play out a farce on one set that depicts the Phillipses’ and Fosters’ homes. The set is divided right down the middle, and we watch simultaneous action…
12 Minutes Max
Houston dance fans can enjoy new work by five choreographers and dozens of dancers at 12 Minutes Max! Among the dance makers is jhon r. stronks of “there…in the sunlight” and Sara Draper, who mixes spoken word with dance. Rebekah Chappell, Laura Gutierrez and Cori Miller round out the list…
Seven Samurai
See what many consider the greatest live-action Japanese film ever made at today’s Big Screen Classics screening of Seven Samurai. It’s impossible to overstate the legacy and importance of Akira Kurosawa’s 1954 epic about a group of unlikely heroes who protect a village beset by bandits. Without it there would…
Six Houston Hardcore Acts to Look Out for in 2014
For the first time in a long time, Houston’s hardcore punk scene is thriving. Maybe it’s just a part of the wave of hardcore revivalists around the country, but then Houston has never been trendy. What we have here, though, is a burgeoning scene in and of itself, formed through…
Ride Along Is Just Another Cop Comedy, But the Joke Is on the Audience
‘You are the man?” a crook asks Ice Cube as the cop comedy Ride Along opens. “I am the man!” Cube insists. You can’t blame him for being defensive. Now a 44-year-old father of five, Cube is three decades away from the furious teenager who co-founded N.W.A. his senior year…
Rip It Out
Only in Houston Bagheera: This slick, funky electro-duo has a huge year in store that only starts with a collaboration with Twin Shadow hooked up by Red Bull’s Sound Select Program. Bagheera’s Aidan Kennedy says he’s still figuring out what to do with the songs he has stockpiled, but knows…
Lane Closure Exposure
Highlights from Hair Balls Traffic If you’ve never been to the Northeast, particularly if you’ve never driven on their highways, it is probably tough for you to understand the scandal facing Governor Chris Christie and his staff right now in New Jersey. How could a pair of lane closures be…
Tipping in Restaurants Reaches a Tipping Point
Food Policy Next time you hear a waiter or waitress complain about his or her tips, remember that the United States and Canada are home to the biggest tippers in the world (but maybe don’t tell them that fact, ’cause it probably won’t help). In many other countries, service is…
Affirmative Action and Ethnic Groups
Dear Mexican: I work in one of those progressive companies. Most of the gabachos bosses are actually pretty cool…at least when your back isn’t turned. There are a few a-holes pero there will always be a few; they’ve got gigs lined up in talk radio. Sabes que…what drives me bananas…
Capsule Art Reviews: “50 Shades of Green,” “The Age of Impressionism: Great French Paintings from the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute,” “Antonio Berni: Juanito and Ramona,” “Funnel Tunnel,” “São Paulo 2013,” “SPRAWL”
“50 Shades of Green” The influence of the impressionists is very much at play in the new collection “50 Shades of Green,” at the Archway Gallery. The show is composed of the works of painters Judy Elias and Harold Joiner. The collaborative collection features a variety of oil paintings, mostly of outdoor…
Capsule Stage Reviews: How the Other Half Loves, A Raisin in the Sun, Under a Cowboy Moon
How the Other Half Loves Bob Phillips’s shoe is in the wastebasket. Taken for granted, his wife, Theresa, is slovenly and edgy. Their baby is covered with prunes and honey. Frank Foster, Bob’s boss, has settled into a predictable married routine. Frank’s neglected wife, Fiona, finds excitement by having an…
After Controversy in Houston, a Yoga Guru Resurrects His Practice in Denver
As roughly 20 yoga students contort themselves into various poses in the spacious, purple-walled “Sky Room” at the Vital Yoga studio in Highland, a neighborhood in northwest Denver, their teacher for this session, John Friend, pads about the wooden floor, adjusting spandexed hips and poking at protruding butts while talking…
No Need for Wishes at the Enchanting Eleven XI
Figuring out how to tackle the dish before me was tricky. It was stacked gingerly, at least half a foot tall, delicate layers of toasted challah hugging paper-thin slices of sopressata, speck and prosciutto, while slightly thicker chunks of smoked duck breast jutted out here and there. The creamy manchego-béchamel…
Kenneth Branagh Makes the Dumb Spy Thriller Soar in Jack Ryan
Russians still make the best movie villains. Since 9-11, Hollywood has been queasy about giving us fictional baddies from Arab countries — the line between cheap stereotypes and real-life religious extremism is too blurry, too delicate. South American drug lords have had their day, and Albanians in bad sweaters just…
