Cops Suspect Up to 300 Counts of Fraud in KTSU DJ Case
Note: This article was written by William Michael Smith and Houston Press staff writer Steve Jansen. A TSU DJ has been arrested in an alleged pledge-drive scam, a local TV watchdog reporter said late Wednesday. According to a tweet from Fox 26 reporter Isiah Carey late this afternoon, KTSU radio…
KTSU DJ Arrested for Suspected Credit Card Fraud
According to a tweet from Fox 26 reporter Isiah Carey late this afternoon, KTSU radio volunteer Michael Whitfield was arrested earlier Wednesday and could face up to 300 counts of credit card fraud for stealing radio-station donors’ pledge sheets and opening credit cards in their names. Earlier this week, sources…
Evening Commute Will Be a Very Wet One
As predicted, the wet weather is on us and much of the area has gotten a good soaking, at least an inch and a half by 2 p.m. this afternoon. The rain will continue throughout the afternoon as a warm front moves north through the area, colliding with cooler, drier…
Restaurants Within Restaurants: Cove Is On the Cutting Edge
Whether it’s a manifestation of chefs’ ADD or a new dining trend to look for in the coming years, the restaurant-within-a-restaurant concept has hit Houston, which is now home to two such venues: Cove and The Pass. The Pass, which is technically side-by-side with Provisions, leans more toward the “traditional”…
Bagwell, Biggio Don’t Make HOF, But Neither Do Any Other Players
As expected, the most dynamic duo of players in the history of the Astros franchise, Jeff Bagwell and Craig Biggio, were shut out of the Hall of Fame voting, Bagwell for the second consecutive year. But, Bagwell and Biggio are in good company because no one on the nominating ballot…
Only Want Local Channels, But Want a DVR Too? Aereo Is Coming to Houston
As television begins the slow but inevitable conversion from traditional airtime to digital, on-demand services through devices like Apple TV and Roku, the one issue it faces is how to deliver things like local news or live on-air programming like sporting events. For now, if you don’t have cable and…
Build-A-Bar: A Byrrh by Any Other Name
First of all, a word on pronunciation. Ever since I requested a shot of “fur-neigh,” I’ve made a habit of asking about pronunciation when ordering any new, especially foreign, ingredient. I’ve found that very few cocktail and spirit discussions bother with this, and while it’s certainly not critical, mispronouncing anything…
Cover Story: A Battle for Creative Control of the Video World and Its Profits
Twenty-one-year-old Ben Vacas gained attention in the video game world as a top-ranked hunter in World of Warcraft. He moved from that to making videos about his experiences and that of other lead players. He was flattered when Machinima, a multi-channel YouTube network offered him a partnership. They’d put ads…
Pitbull’s Easy Guide to Spanish Pickup Lines
When Pitbull released “Culo” in 2004, fans who couldn’t speak Spanish sang the hook like this: “Da da da lita benenenita tenentremendo…CULO!!” They didn’t know what he was saying, and most of them didn’t care to find out. It was just fun to scream “CULO!” Pitbull is the reason that…
James Anthony Rubio: One of the State’s 10 Most Wanted Sex Offenders Caught in Bandera
One down, nine to go. The Texas Department of Public Safety announced that it has captured James Anthony Rubio, one of the state’s 10 most wanted sex offenders, on Monday in Bandera as the result of a tip that paid $5,000 to the tipster. Rubio, 55, is the first on…
Reality Bites: The Bachelor
There are a million reality shows on the naked television. We’re going to watch them all, one at a time. For all my other TV-related flaws, I considered it a point of pride that — until this week — I’d never seen an episode of ABC’s The Bachelor. Not like…
This Week in Food Blogs: 20 Things Everyone Thinks About Houston (But Won’t Say)
From the Gutt: Riffing on last week’s post from First We Feast which listed 20 things “everyone thinks about the food world (but nobody will say)” is local blogger Tom Gutting, who normally writes about wine but has now made me wish he’d write about other food-related topics with much…
Beat LA: Rockets Take Out Injury-Riddled Lakers to Run Streak to Five
The Rockets faced a depleted Lakers squad missing three key players including Pau Gasol and Dwight Howard Tuesday night at Toyota Center in a classic trap game. The first game of yet another five-games-in-four-nights stretch for the Rockets against a very short-handed team makes for situation Coach Kevin McHale openly…
5 Folk Acts Who Wandered Down the Synth Road
Mandolin enthusiasts Mumford and Sons have been on top of the world the past couple of years, dominating rock-driven radio with a folk sound that apparently touches the hearts of hard-rock bros around the world. Given that they have an apparently winning formula, one wouldn’t expect them to change it…
What Would 90210‘s The Peach Pit Be Like If It Were Open Today?
Last week, as I sat in my candle-lit bubble bath sipping champagne, I got to thinking about the Beverly Hills, 90210. And then, the gang’s hangout — The Peach Pit. Why, what do you do on a Sunday morning? Anyway, the champs got me thinking; What would The Peach Pit…
Video Game Atlas: Myst Island
Once a week Art Attack will offer you a handy little travel guide to the fictional worlds of video games. Name: Myst Island, Myst Series Population: Less than 10 Government: None The problem with traveling through a place like the First Kingdom of the Unfinished Swan is that places which…
Texas Legislature Opens Amid Protests from Texas Secessionists
Certainly no first day of a Texas legislative session would be complete without the appearance of the Texas secessionist movement. The nationalism movement in Texas has existed since the early ’90s, splintered into various subgroups and was fueled by future presidential candidate Gov. Rick Perry’s comments back in 2009 regarding…
2013 Food Trend: Daily Prix Fixe Menus
Now that 2013 is here, more chefs, corporations and restaurants are making their predictions for food industry trends for the next year. A common theme among them all is the regular occurrence of prix fixe menus — not just for special occasions or holidays, but for everyday service. This European…
Time-Trippin’: Great Houston Radio TV Ads From Yesterday
If I have learned anything over the past year at Rocks Off, it’s that you guys really, really get heated when it comes to FM radio in Houston. From format changes, myopic classic-rock playlists, and controversial morning hosts, Houstonians care about their terrestrial radio choices. Hell, you do spend a…
Last of the Red Hot Lovers: Three Acts of Seduction in one Neil Simon Package
The set-up: In Last of the Red Hot Lovers, Neil Simon’s take on the midlife marital crisis centers on the owner of a seafood restaurant who sees life passing him by, and thinks an extra-marital fling may be the answer to joining the parade. The execution: Theatre Southwest two years…
City of Houston vs. Retired Houston Firefighters at the Texas Supreme Court
Beginning today in Austin, the City of Houston will continue fighting retired firefighters with fire (and vice versa). In 2010, the city asked the state legislature to do something about the firefighters’ pension plans. At the time, City of Houston Attorney David Feldman said that a number of retired firefighters…
Celebrate National Apricot Day with Kolaczki
As you might have guessed from my nostalgic post about New Year’s traditions, I’m on a bit of a Polish kick. I put Kraków on my 2013 travel wish list (key word “wish”) and I have started experimenting with Polish cuisine. (My husband, incidentally, is obsessed with cooking Korean food…
Black Dahlia: 5 Songs for a Famous Murder Victim
Sometime between this day and January 15 in 1947, a young woman named Elizabeth Short was brutally murdered in Hollywood. She was nicknamed The Black Dahlia in the papers, who portrayed the 23-year-old aspiring actress as a midnight-party prowler who brought about her own demise through her wanton ways. They…
STOMP: Yes it’s Back in Houston Employing New Household Instruments For Its Sound
Andres “Pooh” Fernandez has been all over the world with STOMP for 16 years and now he’s back on the road on his way to Houston (thanks to the Society for the Performing Arts) with his group of performers who’ll use just about anything to make noise with. For those…
UPDATED “Picasso Vandal” Uriel Landeros Turns Himself In
Uriel Landeros, who fled Houston after vandalizing Pablo Picasso’s Woman in a Red Armchair last June at the Menil Collection — and then gloated about it on social media — has surrendered to authorities. According to several news reports, U.S. Marshals took Landeros into custody at the international bridge in…
Judge Bitch-Slaps Mark Thuesen’s Bizarre Motion in Swamplot Lawsuit
The malicious prosecution lawsuit filed against former West University condo owner association head Mark Thuesen keeps yielding precious fruit, with the latest being a Harris County District Judge’s order expressing his befuddlement over a rambling motion filed by Thuesen. For the uninitiated, the suit, filed by Laurence Albert, co-founder of…
New from Shiner: FM 966 Spring Farmhouse Ale
Well, someone at Shiner must have finally wised up and realized this whole craft beer thing isn’t going anywhere. Because for the first time in 103 years, the Spoetzl brewery in Shiner has not one but two ales in their portfolio. After the moderate success of its Double Wheat Ale…
6 Degrees of Separation from Daredevil to Disney: A Prophecy Fulfilled
Back in August we were pleased to announce that Marvel Studios, and by association Disney, had reacquired the rights to Daredevil. That means that Matt Murdoch can finally make his way into the expanded film universe that The Avengers have proven so wonderfully adept in, and maybe we’ll all get…
“New” Albums Composed of Old Music: Good or Bad?
It’s 2013, and we’ve all pretty much finished our end-of-the-year lists. Now we look to the future. What albums are we looking forward to this year? If I had to guess, at least some of the best releases of the year will consist of music out of a vault or…
These Old AQUA VELVA Commercials Alone Should Get Pete Rose into the Hall of Fame (w/ VIDEO)
Major League Baseball decided to delay announcing the 2013 Hall of Fame induction class until Wednesday this week so as not to have the news buried by coverage of the historic clash between Alabama and Notre Dame for the BCS title. For Major League Baseball, it’s a refreshing dose of…
Shows That We Demand To Be Added To NetFlix Instant This Very Instant
I spent the greater half of my holiday vacation watching nearly 80 episodes of The Wonder Years, the beloved family dramedy that ran on ABC for five years. Starting on Christmas Eve with the first season, I skipped around the series watching Fred Savage’s head shrink and swell, and witness…
An Open Letter to Tall People at Concerts
Dear Ridiculously Tall People at Concerts, Enjoying the privilege of being tall must be such a joy. You get to do everything short people can’t: Picking apples off the tops of trees; early predictions of oncoming storms; slapping high-fives with Jesus — and perhaps the most self-indulgent of them all,…
First Look at Michiru Sushi: Affordable Luxury in Greenway Plaza
Michiru Sushi is the other high-profile sushi restaurant which opened recently, not to be confused with Chris Kinjo’s MF Sushi on Westheimer. I haven’t been to MF Sushi yet, and I’m keen to dine there. Although reviews so far have been mixed, one thing has been noted across the board:…
Is Gilley’s Coming Back to Pasadena?
One way you know it must be rodeo season is when strange things like this start happening. Mickey Gilley, the country singer and businessman who made Pasadena world-famous when his Gilley’s nightclub was featured in the 1980 movie Urban Cowboy, announced on Facebook about 30 minutes ago that he is…
St. John’s/River Oaks Land Deal Said to Include Blanco’s
The Houston Chronicle reported Tuesday that private River Oaks prep school St. John’s has purchased a 13-acre tract of land that includes Blanco’s, central Houston’s only remaining traditional country-western music venue (or “honky-tonk”). However, the school’s headmaster said there were no immediate plans to redevelop the property. “We will be…
Charlie Shelton Girsh, Jr.: Wields a Long-Range Rifle, Plays Hide-and-Seek in a Montgomery County Forest
On Monday around 3 p.m., a white male was seen walking on State Highway 242 in Montgomery County near the railroad tracks. From a distance, motorists may have looked upon the lonely wanderer with pity. Upon closer examination, the bearded man seemed to be dressed appropriately for the winter chill…
Harris County Seeking Relatives for Unclaimed Bodies
In the Fox show Bones, unreasonably attractive forensic experts spend countless hours identifying murder victims in a high-tech facility for the FBI. Harris County may not boast the kind of facilities or model-like attractiveness (though they may have a hot lab tech lurking somewhere over there) the show Bones does,…
Taco Bell Loaded Grillers Deliver Varying Degrees of Success
The only reason I was interested in checking out the new Taco Bell Loaded Grillers is because I find the commercial for them completely puzzling. In it, Taco Bell promises you will never have to share your appetizers again — grrr! sharing! — with their single-serve “loaded grillers” that deliver…
Rodeo Touches Every Corner of Pop Universe, Almost Misses Texas
I live too far away from the coasts to care about Coachella all that much, and have done far too much time in both the ACL and SXSW trenches to get too excited about anything that happens in far west Houston anymore. So instead, I have started looking forward to…
Word Nerd: Hashtag Named 2012 Word of the Year, YOLO and Gangnam Style Also Nominated
The American Dialect Society, a 124-year-old organization whose members include “linguists, lexicographers, etymologists, grammarians, historians, researchers, writers, editors, students, and independent scholars,” chose their word of the year for 2012, and, lo and behold, it’s “hashtag.” I think the Internet just imploded. The relatively tongue-in-cheek awards are given each year…
Sociology and Sichuan Peppercorns at Mala Sichuan Bistro
Dining out with children is an exercise in situational awareness. Each experience is unique, with different variables leading to different possible outcomes, DEFCON-like in their escalating threat levels. Keen observation, forward planning and prior experience are critical in determining the proper strategy. Here at DEFCON Dining, we do the grunt…
Giant Dragon Descends Upon TransCanada Offices to Protest Keystone XL Pipeline! (okay, not a real dragon, but still…)
Protestors of TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline demonstrated at the company’s downtown headquarters and another building Monday, with similar protests occurring in other cities, including Westborough, Massachusetts, where students superglued themselves together in an office lobby. In Houston, demonstrators staged a “die-in,” complete with a “pipe dragon.” More than 150 took…
Happy E-Day: What If Elvis Had Lived?
Note: Elvis Presley would be 78 years old today, if he had not (supposedly) died in Memphis in August 1977. This article originally appeared as part of Rocks Off’s “Elvis Week” in January 2011, and still seems plausible two years later. Do you realize that Woody Allen, Julie Andrews, the…
What $7 Gets You at Roots Juice
I don’t know if I’m a masochist or an optimist. Either way, I keep returning to Roots Bistro hoping, thinking that one day the prices will fall in line with the wonderful, farmers-market-fresh food and I can add a new neighborhood favorite to my list. So far, this has not…
Frankie MacDonald, YouTube Weatherman from Canada, Warns of Severe Weather in HOUUUUUSTON, Texas Today (with Video)
As I mentioned on Monday, the Houston area is in for some wet, potentially severe weather, today and Wednesday thanks to a cool front moving into the area and stirring up showers and thunderstorms ahead of it. The rain should persist all day today and into Wednesday afternoon, with the…
Overlooking the Cheese Factor at Nam: Noodles and More
When some of the best pho in town is served inside a trailer on the southeast side, and when you have to travel into the heart of Houston’s “Chinatown” to get the best Vietnamese in the city, it’s hard to take a place like Nam: Noodles and More seriously. It…
Upcoming: Major Lazer, El Ten Eleven, Anthrax, STRFKR, Vince Clarke, Etc.
Alejandro Escovedo: Fri., March 1, 8:30 p.m., $58-$88. Dosey Doe, 25911 I-45 N., Spring. Andre Williams: With Renaldo Domino, Barbara Lynn, Archie Bell., Sat., Feb. 2, 8 p.m., $20. Continental Club, 3700 Main, Houston. Anthrax: With Exodus, Municipal Waste, Holy Grail, High On Fire., Wed., April 10, $35-$100. House of…
Todays DVDs & Blu-rays: SEAL Team Six, Enlightened and George Lopez: It’s Not Me, It’s You
There’s an inherent problem with fictionalizing a true story: The audience doesn’t know what’s true and what isn’t. In the case of SEAL Team Six: The Raid on Osama Bin Laden , how much you believe to be true might well depend on your political leanings. Fans of President Obama…
Alex Jones, Texas-Based Radio Host, Conspiracy Theorist Goes Ape Shit on CNN’s Piers Morgan (with Video)
Every “9/11 was an inside job” conspiracy theorist’s favorite radio host, Alex Jones, made an appearance on Piers Morgan Tonight on CNN Monday night after he launched a petition that has gained over 30,000 signatures to have Morgan deported back to England when the British news show host ripped into…
ShipRocked In Photos: Rocking Out On the Open Seas
It seems cruise ships have become the hot new venue for music festivals. ShipRocked is the latest popular cruise and has dubbed itself as the “ultimate rock and roll cruise vacation.” The 2012 edition, which sailed November 27 through December 1, welcomed vacationing music fans from 49 states and 20…
Attention Pregnant Women: You CAN Eat Sushi
As we all know, pregnant women typically abstain from certain foods throughout their pregnancy — specifically, foods which could harm a growing fetus. Many types of fish, for example, have high levels of mercury — which can cause a liver infection in a pregnant woman — while others foods, such…
NBC’s Deception: Rich People Killing Each Other
Rich people. When will they ever figure out that money doesn’t buy happiness and rather it buys drugs, good clothing, nice beachfront property and, oh yes, MURDER. Last night NBC premiered its new soapdram, Deception, which the Peacock is pinning a lot of its hope on as a mid-season winner…
Pop Rocks: Guess the Name of Bethenny Frankel’s New Reality Show
No one saw this coming, except for those who did. Which is to say, everybody: After less than three years of marriage, Bethenny Frankel and Jason Hoppy call it quits in an emotional breakup. While a source tells PEOPLE that a reconciliation is out of the question, both Frankel and…
Guy V. Lewis Back on the Basketball Hall of Fame Ballot. It’s Time He Was Inducted Once and for All
There has been a lot of talk about various halls of fame this week with the retirement of Ray Lewis, the baseball Hall of Fame inductions to be announced on Wednesday and now word that, for the first time in five years, legendary University of Houston basketball coach Guy V…
The Rocks Off 100: Cristina Acuna, Cactus Music’s Twitter Fingers
Welcome to the Rocks Off 100, our portrait gallery of the most compelling profiles and personalities in the far-flung Houston music community — a lot more than just musicians, but of course they’re in there too. Who? Although Social Media Person is just one of the many hats Cactus Music…
Getting in Shape for 2013: Eating Healthy Is Easy (or “a Snap,” If You’re Into Puns) at Snap Kitchen
Not to get all TMI on you, guys, but I need to lose some serious weight. Here’s the long and short of it: I am only a little over five feet tall, but I weigh close to 200 pounds. That’s venturing into Weeble territory, aesthetically speaking, not to mention the…
Roger Clemens Close to Deal to Work with Astros Pitchers in 2013
Former Astros (and Skeeters) pitcher Roger Clemens is reportedly close to signing a deal with the Astros to be a part of the organization in a yet to be determined capacity. According to a report on Chron.com, Clemens will meet with Astros GM Jeff Luhnow on Tuesday to discuss his…
5 Food Network Shows That Need to Go
If you give me the remote and tell me to choose a show to watch, nine times out ten I will turn to the Food Network. I’m addicted to the Food Network…which is probably why I’m so hungry all the time. I love watching chefs battle it out on Chopped…
The Mountaintop: An Imagining of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Last Night
The theater is the place for what ifs. That’s what director Robert O’Hara believes makes The Mountaintop by Katori Hall so worth doing. The play imagines what the last night of life on earth was like for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. – not as an iconic figure, but as…
2013: First Year of the Post-CD Era?
Things haven’t been looking good for CDs for years now. Ever since the introduction of Napster and the first portable MP3 players, the format has pretty much felt doomed. Since the turn of the century, the CD has hung on valiantly, but its disappearance has remained a question of when,…
Connor Barwin Is Looking to Give Playoff Tickets to His Most Zealous Stalker
Playing NFL football is not an easy job, and this by no means has been an easy season for Texans outside linebacker Connor Barwin. Coming off his best season as a pro in 2011 with 11.5 sacks and unable to come to terms on a long-term extension with the Texans…
5 Rap and R&B Artists We Want to See Here In 2013
Last year Houston saw a wide range of artists from the urban field, including Kendrick Lamar (three times), A$AP Rocky, Drake, Nicki Minaj and more. In another year where performances and live shows may wind up trumping actual music sales, there’s a slew of artists who haven’t made a visit…
Awards Season: Your Guide to the Red Carpet
Come January, those of us who merely endure football are rewarded with a short but refreshing change of season. Much is made of seasonal transitions — when the swelter of summer gives way to cooler fall temperatures, or when leaves change from green to brilliant reds and golds — but…
Top 10 Restaurants in Chinatown
“You’re going to do a top 10 Chinatown list, aren’t you?” a reader implored last week on Twitter. Of course — Chinatown is my favorite neighborhood for dining and exploration in the entire city. For every old favorite you visit, you’re guaranteed to find at least two new restaurants to…
2013 RULES: David Bowie Announces New Album and Single
Late Monday just before midnight, the music world and social media stood agog as David Bowie’s official Web site teased a new album, set for a March release, entitled The Next Day, produced by Tony Visconti. Fuckin’ Tony Visconti. Just check out his discography why don’t ya? Just half of…
Arian Foster Changes Profile Pic on Twitter to Piece of Scathing Boston Globe Column
In case you hadn’t seen the column by Dan Shaughnessy in Sunday’s Boston Globe ripping the Houston Texans — our own Sean Pendergast wrote about it this morning — you can get a glimpse of at least a couple paragraphs of it in an interesting place: Arian Foster’s Twitter feed…
Bonus Rocks Off 100: Clint Broussard, Blues In Hi-Fi Man Now Back On FM
Welcome to the Rocks Off 100, our portrait gallery of the most compelling profiles and personalities in the far-flung Houston music community — a lot more than just musicians, but of course they’re in there too. Who? If you’re a fan of Texas R&B radio, and you definitely should be,…
Disappointing Thieves Try to Steal Safes Instead of Boots at Cavender’s Boot City
According to a report from KTRK, a group of would-be robbers broke into several Cavender’s Boot City stores on Sunday night. At least two of the suspects were apprehended by police along with their getaway car, which was filled with cash and tools. You read that right: cash and tools…
Friday Night: Hell City Kings and Burn the Boats at Fitzgerald’s
Hell City Kings, Burn the Boats Fitzgerald’s Januarary 4, 2013 Rocks Off was able to catch the middle chunk of American Fangs’ record-release lineup, and while I didn’t have a chance to see the headliners support their long-awaited release, Burn the Boats put on a strong enough show to make…
Thank Heaven: 7-Eleven Returning to Houston
I am barely old enough to remember 7-Eleven, which departed the Houston market in the 1980s following the Dallas-based company’s financial decline in that decade, but I remember the stores being awesome. Since it left the southern part of the state, 7-Eleven has mushroomed into a multinational corporation with 48,000…
Alleged Armed Gunman Shot Dead During Botched Armored Car Robbery Outside Movie Theater
I honestly wonder if people planning on committing robberies ever watch TV or the movies. Time and time again, films and television shows depict masked bandits attempting to rob banks, armored cars, stores, fast-food restaurants, people on the street…you name it, they try and steal from it. Yet they ALWAYS…
Early V-Day Prep: The “Have a Heart” Cocktail
No sooner have the Christmas M&Ms been cleared from the shelves of Kroger than scores of red and pink chocolate boxes appear in preparation for Valentine’s Day. I used to fight such excessively early celebrations. Now I just kind of embrace it. In the spirit of the upcoming heart-themed holiday…
Want to Help a Dog Some A-Hole Shot in the Face and Left to Die?
When we heard Satan was busy this morning roping off a special area in the Future Residents section of Hell, we gave him a call (as members of the media, we have him on speed-dial) to find out about the hubbub. He told us that a dog was found in…
Antiquated Music Things Kids These Days Will Never Have to Deal With
Some weeks back, while doing Christmas shopping for younger relatives, I realized just how different the musical world looks to someone who is, say, just now reaching ten years old. I discovered this when I realized that things like vinyl, cassettes, and even compact discs aren’t coveted items to most…
Weekly Weather: Severe Weather Could Be in Our Near Future
Cold and damp. That is classic Houston winter weather. And we’ve been living with it for the last couple of weeks. For this week, the trend will be a gradual warmup moving towards the weekend — we could see highs in the mid and upper 70s by Saturday before another…
New box sets revisit the legacies of Duke Ellington, Charlie Christian
Perhaps no musical genre has benefited more from reissues of older material and CD technology than jazz. Artists both famous and obscure and LPs long, long out of print have found new life in recent years. The vast vaults at Columbia Records have in particular yielded much, including the recent…
Ken Bridge Opening New Cantina Concept at White Oak and Studewood
I am convinced that Ken Bridge has figured out a way to subsist on thousands of micro-naps during the day, like Jack Donaghy on 30 Rock. It’s the only way I can think of how Bridge must manage the handful of restaurant concepts he’s successfully grown throughout Houston. His company,…
Texans-Bengals: The 10 Best Rapper PLAYOFF Tweets
Houston has a professional football team. They are called the Houston Texans. A lot of people like them. Some of the people that like them are rappers. The Internet has several forms of social media; one is called Twitter. A lot of people use it. Some of them who use…
Boston Globe‘s Dan Shaughnessy Calls the Houston Texans a Bunch of Frauds
Over the last four weeks of the regular season, despite having a significant carrot in front of them in the form of home-field advantage throughout the playoffs for which to play, the Houston Texans looked like they were lacking in direction, almost lifeless at times. How that could be, I…
Taste Wine, Hook Up at Houston Wine Tastings This Month and Beyond
The most important thing my mother ever taught me is that every wine tasting is a singles event. It’s not the only wisdom she imparted to me. But especially in the light of what I do for a living (writing and talking about wine), it’s the most important. Even back…
The Year in Review: Song and Dance and More Songs
The setup: Nostalgia for the past keeps getting more and more recent, and The Music Box Theater provides a reprise of 2012 musical events, on its stage and elsewhere, that fits in beautifully with a longing look backward and a joyful look ahead with The Year in Review. The execution:…
Why You Shouldn’t Apply For That New EDM Reality Show
Dear Rocks Off: Have you heard about this EDM reality show that some TV producers are trying to put together? I heard about it online but when I told my friends I wanted to enter they told me it was a really bad idea. I bet they’re just being haters,…
Rockin’ the Rodeo: Pitbull, Bruno Mars, The Band Perry, Mary J. Blige Lead 2013 Names
Pop stars of both the R&B and Latin persuasions, Bruno Mars and Pitbull, join new country favorites Brantley Gilbert, The Band Perry and the Zac Brown Band in the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo’s 2013 entertainer lineup, the rodeo announced this morning. Rodeo veterans Alan Jackson, Tim McGraw, Dierks Bentley…
The Royce White Twitter Feed Continues Unabated After Suspension from Rockets
On the court this season, the young Houston Rockets have been a pleasant surprise. They’ve gone 4-0 in their last four games and are 8-2 in the last ten. They continue to dominate the eastern conference (too bad they reside in the west) and are at or near the top…
What’s Cooking This Week? Turkey Sloppy Joes & More
I love cooking for my fiancé and me, but most of the time, cooking for two proves to be difficult. If I don’t make a plan, I end up running around in circles at the grocery store and wasting half the ingredient’s I’ve bought (and I hate wasting food). Enter…
Why the Beatles Never Go Out of Style
Imagine one of those tween magazine quizzes, one that is supposed to show what your favorite music says about you by asking you cute questions about your musical taste. Except in return, this one would provide you with some stone-cold harrowing insight into your soul as to specifically why you…
It’s Your Day, Nic Cage; 5 Best and Worst Cage Flicks
Forty-eight years ago today, the world was blessed with an actor of bizarrely wide range, Nicolas Cage. Cage was born under the famous Hollywood moniker Coppola; his father is Francis Ford’s brother. Cage wanted to do things on his own, and good for him for trying to do that. The…
Why Is Ray Lewis Worshipped and Barry Bonds Vilified?
Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis announced last week that he was retiring from football. ESPN immediately signed him to a contract to become one of their analysts on their nearly unwatchable pre- and post-game shows. Commentators, many of whom appear to have never seen Lawrence Taylor play, stated that Lewis…
ShipRocked: A Monstrous Final Day On the Ocean
A few weeks ago, Rocks Off’s Kevin Ramer shoved off on the 2012 edition of ShipRocked, which bills itself as “the ultimate rock music cruise vacation.” These are his reports. The fourth and final full day of the ShipRocked cruise is a full day at sea. After partying late into…
Top 10 Theories About the New Doctor Who Companion
… … Is it April yet? No? … … How ’bout now? Damnit. What you just read is the play-by-play brain of a Whovian as we all sludge through time the slow way and in the right order, waiting for the last half of Series 7 and the 50th-anniversary celebrations…
Top 10 Restaurants in Far Northwest Houston
View Larger Map First off, it is important that I define what I mean by “far Northwest Houston.” It is not Spring, Cypress or The Woodlands. It is bordered on the north by Tomball and to the south by Beltway 8. To the east, I’ve used Kuykendahl Road to divide…
Texans-Bengals: 4 Winners, 4 Losers, Playoff Edition
Check out our photos from the Texans’ Wild Card weekend. In the grand scheme of things, none of us really wanted to be there at Reliant Stadium on Saturday. Yes, the NFL is awesome, and we love our Texans, and it was (cue hokey Clay Walker voice) football time in…
5 Video Games That Would Make Fantastic Ballets
The Wife With One F is a ballet fan and has been trying to interest me in attending some of Houston’s by-all-accounts excellent performances for years. My opinion on the matter is that if I want to see superhuman feats of grace and agility, I’ll just turn on lucha libre…
5 Kanye Songs No Kid Should Hear, Least of All Kanye’s
The big music news of the new year so far is that Kanye West and Kim Kardashian are expecting their first child. Everybody seems to have an opinion on that, and I won’t go into how I feel about it because it’s irrelevant. As long as Yeezy is still making…
First Look at Brooklyn Athletic Club: Shepard Ross and Jeff Axline Partner Up Once More
“It’s like someone created a tiny, unpretentious country club and smacked it down in the middle of Houston. And there’s a nice restaurant attached.” This is how I found myself attempting to explain Brooklyn Athletic Club to my mother the day after I’d dined at the new restaurant on Richmond…
Texans 19, Bengals 13: Bulls On Parade Are Back, But Schaub Holds Key
Check out our photos from the Texans’ Wild Card weekend. Make no mistake about it. For the first time in weeks, the Texans showed flashes of their former Super Bowl-contending selves. But without a steadier performance from quarterback Matt Schaub, it won’t matter. The once-famed “Bulls on Parade” defense overwhelmed…
Some Veterinarians Just Shouldn’t Use Meth…
There are a few crucial qualities that pet owners might seek in a veterinarian: experience, bedside manner, a natural love of animals. “Crippling meth addiction” would probably rank toward the bottom of the list. But that’s just what former Dallas-area vet David Snyder had, and it led to his 44-year…
Bonus Rocks Off 100: Nortnii Rose, Houston Ska’s Greatest Hope
Welcome to the Rocks Off 100, our portrait gallery of the most compelling profiles and personalities in the far-flung Houston music community — a lot more than just musicians, but of course they’re in there too. Who? Nortnii Rose is the pixie-like guitar player and singer in the experimental ska…
Thieves Stealing UPS Packages: Five Things They Won’t Want When They Open Them
According to a report from KHOU, neighbors in midtown caught two men stealing UPS packages and called police, who arrested them. By the looks of the video — and knowing the area — these were probably homeless men looking for something they could pawn. Given the time of year, it’s…
Happy 50th Birthday, Dave Foley: The Hottest Kids in The Hall Member in Drag
There is no denying that The Kids in The Hall has been one of the most influential sketch comedy programs in the history of television. Before The State, Mr. Show and everything else that came afterwards, it was KITH, riding into our homes like a naughty Canadian Monty Python, saying…
30 Seconds with Wo Fat’s Kent Stump
From the bowels of the bayou comes Wo Fat, rock and roll that oozes, pulses and frankly makes me want to storm a compound. Good, good stuff if you’re in the mood to hunt Bigfoot in the Big Thicket. I braved the rage of singer Kent Stump to see what…
Cafe Texan!: The Week in Photos
It’s time again to check out the Houston Press Flickr Pool and see what kinds of art shots our talented photographers have added. We love street art, unique perspectives and beautiful photos of Houston’s creative community. If you think you’ve got a good eye, drop your pictures in the pool…
HPD Releases Surveillance Footage of a Shooting by a Guy Trying to Look Like a Ninja
On December 8 at around 9:20 p.m., three suspects were allegedly involved in the shooting of Eduardo Magana, 18, of Sugar Land in a the parking lot of a convenience store at 7433 Bissonnet. Police have released a surveillance video of the shooting, which includes two of the suspects. The…
Chef Chat, Part 3: Dagan Lynn and His Menu of Simple Elegance
Dagan Lynn 024 Grille at the Westin Memorial City 945 N. Gessner Rd. Tel: 281-501-4350 This is Part three of a three-part Chef Chat series. Read Part 1 here and Part 2 here. This week, Chef Dagan Lynn shared his secret for getting into the most famous kitchens in NYC:…
UPDATED: If Lightnin’ Hopkins Can’t Save the Texans, No One Can
The Houston Texans are hosting a playoff game tomorrow, but only after a spectacular late-season collapse that cost them the AFC’s top seed and invoked every Oileresque axiom about Houston sports being flat-out cursed. Since about the time the Texans’ offense was unable to convert on third down against Minnesota…
Person of Interest: Life of “2πR”
Merry New Year! Been a few weeks since we chit-chatted about things. You know, the fiscal cliff, the NFL playoffs and Reese getting picked up by the FBI. Last night’s winter premiere was unique among POI episodes so far in that Reese was barely in it, leaving the heavy lifting…
Lots of DWI Arrests in Harris County Over the Christmas and New Year’s Eve Holiday
People like to get their drink on during the holidays. There are parties and gatherings with family, which oft require drinking just to survive. New Year’s Eve is the most drunkiest time of the year! And, honestly, there’s nothing wrong with partying so long as you don’t drive after you…
The New Escatones 45 Is Indeed Out of Sight!
Yeah, I should probably be beaten badly and left in an alley to think about what I did for making that pun, but trust me; The Escatones’ “Out of Sight/East Beach Stomp” is indeed worth the price of the 45 record. The Escatones are usually described in conjunction with their…
Top Four Things to Do in Houston This Weekend: Richard Lewis, Food Truck Friday, William Shatner and More
Comedian Richard Lewis has some advice for young comics: “Put on a flak jacket and dive in head first.” Lewis, who was named to GQ magazine’s list of the 20th Century’s Most Influential Humorists and is our pick for Friday, says, “There are lots more opportunities to be a comedian…
Evernote Food 2.0 App: Your Digital Cookbook
Evernote released Evernote Food last year as an application for you to remember the food you recently ate. Rather than just snapping a quick picture of your gorgeous meal you either created at home or enjoyed at a restaurant, and vowing you would blog about it but really ended up…
Football! This Weekend’s Best Bets, NFL Playoff Edition
Best bets time and after going 5-1 last week, just in time for the holidays I might add, we are all even now heading into 2013! 50-50-2! People who are into hobbies like to talk about conducting those activities under optimal conditions. Skiers enjoy skiing with four feet of powder…
Upcoming Events: More Food Trucks Hit the Downtown Streets
After all the brouhaha over food trucks being banned from downtown, the Houston Pavilions is bringing in a whole fleet of the mobile food units, six days a week. Starting last week, the food trucks will provide a daily lunch service from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Saturday…
Last Night: Dante Higgins at Warehouse Live
Dante Higgins, Undergravity, etc. Warehouse Live January 3, 2013 New Year’s resolutions are all about making a point to do something your lazy ass should have been doing for years already. For me, that means digging into some of the “New Houston” rap artists that I’ve been mostly ignoring since…
Reviews for the Easily Distracted: Not Fade Away
Title: Not Fade Away That Sounds Like The Title Of A Song: What a coincidence, as it’s the name of a 1957 Buddy Holly single, a cover version of which was the Rolling Stones’ first U.S. single. This will not be on the final exam. Rating Using Random Objects Relevant…
Former Astros Broadcaster Brett Dolan Talks About Awkward Formats, Milo Hamilton and the New Astros Front Office
Many Astros fans were shocked at the news that radio voices Brett Dolan and Dave Raymond had been dismissed from the team the day after the season ended. With the retirement of longtime play-by-play voice Milo Hamilton, it was assumed by many that Dolan and Raymond would finally be given…
Kitchen Improv: Low-Oven Dehydration
If there’s one thing Shiftwork Bites taught me, it’s how to improvise. From poaching eggs in a coffee maker, to the space management required to cook in 25 square feet, I learned how to make do with limited resources, both in terms of space and equipment. I try to incorporate…
Video Game Atlas: The First Kingdom of the Unfinished Swan
Once a week Art Attack will offer you a handy little travel guide to the fictional worlds of video games. Name: The First Kingdom of the Unfinished Swan, Unfinished Swan series Population: Virtually abandoned Government: Monarchy Sailing west of C-Island and away from the closest apex of tropical utopia this…
The 5 Worst Tattoos In Rap
Lil Wayne loves weed. He loves it so much that he got “baked” tattooed on his forehead.. Yes, I’m serious. It also apparently refers to Baker Skateboards as well because skating is the only thing Weezy loves as much as weed. This joins the litany of other stupid things tattooed…
Straw Polling of MLB Hall of Fame Voters Is (Sort of) Good News for Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell
As potential Hall of Fame classes go across all sports, I’m not sure that one city has more invested emotionally right now than the city of Houston does in balloting for this year’s induction class into the Baseball Hall of Fame. First baseman Jeff Bagwell is on the ballot for…
Health Department Roundup: Sparrow, the breakfast klub, Cafe Japon and More
The city doesn’t mess around when it comes to eggs. Despite getting hit with just three violations, an inspector cited Sparrow Bar + Cookshop (3701 Travis, listed on the Health Department website as Boulevard Bistro – t’afia) after finding an employee not wearing effective hair restraint (corrected on site); improperly…
Coming Soon to Houston: Tons of 2012 Critical Favorites
“No good bands ever come to Houston, I swear.” Welp, you’re wrong buddy. In the next few weeks and months, plenty of critical darlings are coming to Houston venues, and it’s not even festival season. They are coming because they are actually on tours and not taking pity on us…
Portlandia: New Season, New Guest Stars
My first introduction to IFC’s quirky show Portlandia actually occurred in Portland, Oregon, where the show takes place. I was visiting my cousin and she told me that I “just had” to check out this new show about her hometown. She showed me the teaser music video “Dream of the…
Houston’s Top 5 Lounges
5. WITCHCRAFT TAVERN Formerly Dragon Bowl (and still under the same management), the brand-new Witchcraft Tavern has quite the selection of beer, and if you’re feeling adventurous, try the Devil’s Backbone. You might want to give your keys to a friend first. To be completely honest, we do miss the…
There Is an ABC Movie of the Week Channel on YouTube, You Guys!
From 1969 until 1976, ABC presented an original made-for-TV movie each week, featuring big actors, big budgets and big-time names behind the cameras. Now, through the magic and flagrant piracy of YouTube, you can watch more than a handful of these thrillers, screamers and dramas in full. Charles787980’s ABC Movie…
The New Trader Joe’s in Memorial Opens in One Hour; Are You Ready?
After receiving its sales tax permit all the way back in December 2011, the Trader Joe’s #427 at 1440 S. Voss is ready to open — at 8 a.m. today. The new Trader Joe’s location is situated on a once-empty pad site that was previously occupied by a Michael’s and…
Texans-Bengals, Act III: Same Names, But New Identities
After a season of lofty hopes and expectations of a home AFC Championship game, the Texans find themselves in the exact same spot they were one year ago. They’re the number three seed in the AFC playoffs, opening at Reliant Stadium against number six Cincinnati. The Texans thrashed the Bengals,…
ESPN’s Tom Rinaldi and Tim Tebow Are BFF’s, Somewhere Thom Brennaman Weeps (w/ PHOTO)
It’s been a rough few months for one Timothy Tebow. Despite his excitement over being traded to the Jets during the offseason last year, he’s been relegated to punt protect and gimmicky specialist roles (some of them working out with predictably hilarious results), been passed on the quarterback depth chart…
Openings & Closings: Fat Bao and Vietnamese Craft Beer
A new year means plenty of new restaurant news, and we’re glad to have it. Starting with the super-awesome-spectacular news that there’s now a Vietnamese restaurant/craft beer bar in Webster. Yes, Webster. Nobi Public House (241 E. NASA Road 1) is a collaboration between brothers Charles and Andy Nguyen and…
A 16-Bit Version of Doctor Who’s “Blink?” Why Yes, Thank You!
Awhile back I was lauding some of the excellent modern TV shows remade as classic video games. Of course, most of them were actually just animations done in the style of old-school gaming, not actual playable entries. Some, though, like the Twilight video, were actually able to be controlled through…
The Best Concerts In Houston This Weekend
Scooter Brown Band Firehouse Saloon, January 4 Few bands on the Texas country circuit — a scene largely made up of affable college dropouts — can say that they have a true-blue U.S. Marine up front, but the Scooter Brown Band can. Lead singer-songwriter/Iraq war combat veteran Scott Brown chose…
Report: Texas Ranks Near the Bottom in Tobacco Settlement Spending
Texas is only spending 2.4 percent of the tobacco settlement money it collects on tobacco prevention campaigns, placing the state near the bottom of the Centers for Disease Control’s recommended state-spending list, according to a December report. The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids’ report states that Texas will collect $1.8 billion…
Rockets Continue to Pummel the Bad Teams with Win Over the Hornets
The New Orleans Hornets are one of the worst teams in the NBA without their star guard Eric Gordon and he wasn’t with them Wednesday night when they visited the Toyota Center. The result was a 104-92 win for the Rockets that was perhaps closer than it should have been…
Chef Chat, Part 2: Dagan Lynn of 024 Grille on His Upcoming Tasting Menus, Wine Dinners and More
Dagan Lynn 024 Grille at the Westin Memorial City 945 N. Gessner Rd. Tel: 281-501-4350 This is Part two of a three-part Chef Chat series. Read Part 1 here and Part 3 in this same space on Thursday and Friday. EOW: So, being an executive chef in a hotel, how…
Classic Downtown Macy’s Shutting Its Doors
According to a report from the Houston Chronicle, the store those of us who grew up in Houston knew as Foley’s downtown since it opened in 1947 will be shutting its doors as part of a move by Macy’s to close underperforming stores. It will begin a clearance sale on…
Crystal Ball Part Deux: Looking Ahead to 2013 Houston Sports, Astros/Dynamo/UH/Rice Edition
Yesterday, we took a look at the futures of the Texans and Rockets. Predictions were made. Accusations were tossed about. But no one is Carnac the Magnificent. All we can really do is guess…except when it comes to the Astros…
Negative Utopia Gets All Self-Determinist Up In Here
It’s a well-known fact that most band names are essentially gobbledygook, but here at Rocks Off we’re working hard to find meaning in the oddest monikers. Negative Utopia is only six months old as a band, so I’m not sure exactly what they’ll be when they grow up. Their sound…
Free for All: Soul Food Junkies, Houston Film Critics Society Awards, Ice Carving Competition and “Staged”
If you are what you eat, what does it say about soul food lovers who eat pickled pigs feet and chitterlings on a regular basis? Filmmaker Byron Hurt’s documentary Soul Food Junkies looks at what a soul food diet has done to African Americans. Screening on Friday as part of…
Dinner at the Market: Revival Market Launches Supper Series on Tuesdays
With co-owners Ryan Pera and Morgan Weber busy opening up Coltivare — the upcoming Heights restaurant from the Revival Market team — food at the market itself has been left in the capable hands of Adam Dorris, chef de cuisine at Revival and the most recent chef de cuisine at…
UPDATED: Must See TV: Where in the Hell Can I Watch the Rockets if I Don’t Have Comcast?
Update: Tim Baldwin, the man who put together the map and Google spreadsheet, spoke with me last night and said he decided to do it for fun and that he had added every location from the CSN Houston list to the interactive map, noting that there were a number of…
My Favorite Birthday Meal: Chicken Paprikas
Nothing says nostalgia like your birthday. Each year, my mom would make my brother, sister and me our favorite meals for our respective birthday dinners. I’d get super pissed when it was my sister’s — Pork Chops and Apple Sauce (though I love it now) — and semi-excited when it…
Houston Area Might See Some Winter Weather as Soon as Friday
It’s so damn hot in Houston most of the time, we forget what cold weather feels like. Then, we get a week where it doesn’t make it out of the 50s and we wish for warmer climates if only because frozen margaritas seem so much less appealing when it is…
American Horror Story: Asylum: Burn, Waiting for the World to End
Don’t mind me. Just quoting my favorite Cure song is all. Warning, spoilers to follow more than usual. To business then. Asylum has been on vacation for a while, sparing us a New Year’s Eve-themed horror outing to match the misfire of their Christmas endeavor. All is still as we…
Energy Drinks Are a Crock of Crap, But You Knew That…Right?
On the front page of yesterday’s New York Times was the headline Energy Drinks Promise Edge, But Experts Say Proof Is Scant. And not that people feeding their babies Mountain Dew out of a bottle nor concocting go-go juice for their kids, Honey Boo Boo-style, will notice or care what…
Your 2013 Music Festival Outlook (Texas Edition)
I don’t know about you, but I am not totally in love with winter weather. Yes, it affords you the ability to wear beanies and cool fingerless gloves and dress like a hoodlum, but it’s the heat that I love the most. That’s why I love thinking about music festivals,…
Pop Rocks: Entertainment-Related New Year’s Resolutions You Can Actually Keep
Let’s be honest: Our annual attempts at bettering ourselves usually end up as abject failures (my resolution to avoid flipping off other Houston drivers lasted a whole 36 hours into 2013, for example). This inevitably results in our spending the rest of the year mired in self-loathing and indulging in…
Woman’s Death on Flight Being Investigated by Police Described in Most Understated Press Release Ever
There is a phrase in the news business called “burying the lead.” This happens when a key element to a story is not placed in the headline or even in the first paragraph of the story. Instead, it is somewhere down in the story’s body. This can be done for…
Become Healthier By Drinking Coffee? Count Us In
That morning cup of joe doesn’t just wake you from a zombie-like state and keep you from being a complete asshole to the guy in the cube next to you. In addition to making you a semi-decent human being, coffee can provide tons of health benefits. Here are five ways…
The Rocks Off 100: Ramblin’ Chase Hamblin, the Man Who Will Be Paid
Welcome to the Rocks Off 100, our portrait gallery of the most compelling profiles and personalities in the far-flung Houston music community — a lot more than just musicians, but of course they’re in there too. Who? Who? The very idea that I even have to tell you who Chase…
FBI Seeks Help Apprehending a “Bundled Up” Bandit
I’ve long admired the FBI’s wit when it came to criminal activity, particularly when it involved odd-looking or strangely dressed bank robbers. They’ve had fat guys and dudes in wigs and sunglasses. They always manage to twist it into something funny even if the crime is anything but. Fact is,…
Turning Photographs into Drawings with Ewan Gibbs
Ewan Gibbs has turned his distinguishable pixelated drawing style on topics as diverse as the Statue of Liberty, Chicago Ferris Wheel and hotel facades. Seemingly part-photography, part-drawing, his technique is inspired by grid-like knitting patterns the artist started incorporating into his work two decades ago to turn photographs, both found…
Houston’s 10 Best Bathrooms to Bang In
“It’s a list of bathrooms to fuck in, not Homer’s Odyssey. Don’t go overthinking it.” My girlfriend hurled this sage wisdom at me earlier this week as I planned my trek to nearly two dozen bars I visited to compile this list. If nothing else, I am sure the Greek…
ShipRocked: A Storm From Five Finger Death Punch, and the Weather
A few weeks ago, Rocks Off’s Kevin Ramer shoved off on the 2012 edition of ShipRocked, which bills itself as “the ultimate rock music cruise vacation.” These are his reports. Thursday, November 29, the passengers of ShipRocked woke up to a pleasant view of the beautiful Bahamas capital city of…
Ray Lewis to Retire at Season’s End (w/ VIDEO)
When news broke late this afternoon that Baltimore Ravens middle linebacker and future Hall of Famer Ray Lewis would be retiring at season’s end, I asked my two sons (ages 14 and 13) what the first thought was that came into their head when I mentioned Ray Lewis. James, the…
Internet Death Pools for 2013 Take Aim at Castro, Bush, Chavez and Charles Manson
Internet death pools are probably not the most morbid thing online, but they could be the most human. It’s natural to wonder about your own mortality and that of others. How many times have you sat around a party or your workplace and opined about which celebrity would die next?…
5 Places to Get Your Chili Fix in Houston (While It’s Chilly)
Most of the time, I’m the type of person who thinks that — like barbecue — chili is best made and enjoyed at home. It’s simple stuff that dates back nearly 500 years to the first chili recipe, when Bernal Diaz del Castillo, one of Hernan Cortez’s captains, described the…
Happy Deathday, Edgar Cayce! 5 Songs For Our Favorite “Seer”
On this day in 1945, a psychic named Edgar Cayce suffered a stroke that killed him. The famous sleeping prophet, who worked in Texas during the 1920s, was hailed far and wide for his abilities to heal the sick by entering a trance. He was even reported to be able…
Capsule Art Reviews: “Flying Solo,” “Gilad Efrat: Negev,” “Jerry Jeanmard: Collages,” “Jonathan Faber: Surface,” “Laura Nicole Kante: Fibers of Being,” “Unpremeditated Natures: Russ Havard and David McClain”
“Flying Solo” One of my first reactions to seeing the names involved in “Flying Solo,” a new group exhibition at Art League Houston featuring Houston artists who aren’t represented by a commercial gallery, was surprise that so many of them aren’t represented. The seven artists included offer such unique, distinct…
Zombies and Fiscal Cliffs
Highlights from Hair Balls WHATEVER Journalists are really fond of writing about stories that went underreported every year. Too often, however, they forget to remind us all that those critical stories that went without needed coverage did so because stories with little merit wound up filling the airwaves and pages…
Leftover Crack
Embattled NYC ska-punkers Leftöver Crack were one of the most polarizing acts of the late ’90s and early ’00s, with lyrics less than delicately touching on everything from the World Trade Center bombing and school shootings to drug abuse and general malaise. Ironically, the band’s 2001 album Mediocre Generica (nee…
Pho to Ramen, Bulgogi to Bo 7 Mon
Top 10 Chinatown is my favorite neighborhood for dining and exploration in the entire city. For every old favorite you visit, you’re guaranteed to find at least two new restaurants to fall in love with. You may not be able to get around by foot here — unlike some other…
Capsule Stage Reviews: Girls Only — the Secret Comedy of Women, Panto Mother Goose
Girls Only — the Secret Comedy of Women Two gifted female improv actors in Denver, Barbara Gehring and Linda Klein, discovered a golden lode of material in their high-school diaries and mined it into scripted vignettes of what it’s like to be young and female. The resulting comedy is having…
Escatones
On Saturday, Galveston surf-junk-garage trio the Escatones release a new seven-inch, “Out of Sight/East Beach Stomp,” a teaser for fans while the group continues readying a full-length studio album for later this year. This offering is especially interesting because the Escatones were joined in the studio by Paul Leary of…
Inglorious Basterds
Early in 2012, I received an e-mail from a man who corresponds with me regularly. His message was a short 45 words. It wasn’t a question, but it wasn’t a declaration, either; I suppose you could classify it as a revelation, but that seems a bit melodramatic. Mostly it was…
Special Best Of Edicion: Do Mexicans Cause the Closures of Hospitals?
Dear Readers, My muchos apologies for this Best Of edition — I’m still in the rancho getting faded on the Herradura and stuffed with tamales, pozole, birria and empanadas. But this is an oldie-but-goodie even Art Laboe would appreciate: a 2007 piece ripping apart former CNN personality Lou Dobbs, who…
The Battle Against the Keystone Pipeline
One after the other, Cherokee County Sheriff’s deputies wearing straw cowboy hats dragged bearded, zip-cuffed young men toward a waiting van. Strands of snot and spit set flowing by doses of pepper spray dangled from their bowed heads. A company man wearing a hardhat trailed them, recording a video of…
Discovering Lucy
See more colorful photos from Lucy’s dining room and kitchen in this week’s slideshow. It’s not often you find yourself getting bottle service at a mesob, the woven round table that functions as the traditional serving structure at Ethiopian restaurants. It’s short, small and close to the ground. You don’t…
Team Kerouac
There’s traffic from Silver Lake. That’s why Kristen Stewart and Garrett Hedlund, the stars of On the Road, are late to the Benedict Room of the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills. We’re as psychically far from Jack Kerouac’s Beat gospel as you can get: fidgeting under crystal chandeliers in…
L.A.’s Finest
“Like a lot of other stuff in my life, I sort of fell backwards into it,” screenwriter Will Beall says of his unexpected perch atop Hollywood’s A-list. Unexpected, because just five years ago Beall was busy working for Tinseltown’s second most famous employer, the Los Angeles Police Department, where he…
Defending Tarantino
Ah, here it is again: that special time we experience every two to six years when Quentin Tarantino makes a new movie, and people dig out the old “Tarantino just steals everything from such-and-such” arguments. You’ve heard them. Reservoir Dogs is a scene-for-scene rip-off of Ringo Lam’s City on Fire,…
Scooter Brown Band
Few bands on the Texas country circuit — a scene largely made up of affable college dropouts — can say that they have a true-blue U.S. Marine up front, but the Scooter Brown Band can. Lead singer-songwriter/Iraq war combat veteran Scott Brown chose music after the Corps, and now his…
John Hiatt & the Combo
Known for a distinctively gruff voice that masks his deft touch with a pen, John Hiatt is probably Indiana’s third most famous native-born rocker after John Mellencamp and Axl Rose. He’s got plenty of mailbox money from songs he wrote for folks like Bonnie Raitt (“Thing Called Love”) and Bon…
DJ Sun
DJ Sun isn’t hard to find. He has a residency most evenings of the week, either solo or with the crew from his long-running Saturday-night KPFT show Soular Grooves. As affable as he is industrious, in 20 years Sun has become a soft-spoken cornerstone of the Houston music community, often…
