“Because We Are”
Disease, hatred and official discrimination – much of the art in the Station Museum’s “Because We Are” exhibit draws defiant grace from some very dark places. Nearly a dozen artists working in nearly as many mediums address the struggles that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people face. Daniel Goldstein’s Medicine…
Videotaped Houston Police Beating: No Felonies Involved
Only midmeanor cases, and no video releaseDespite what Houston city and police officials have called “disturbing” images, there won’t be any felonies resulting from the videotape that allegedly shows a horde of cops beating and kicking a teenaged burglary suspect who was handcuffed and lying on the ground.Today a grand…
Sampler Plate: This Week In Food Blogs
Each week, we put together a sampler plate of the most interesting links from both local and national food blogs. Know a blog we should be paying particular attention to? Leave the address in the comments section below. Fork and Cork: The Houston Chronicle’s long-running Whine & Dine section is…
USA-Algeria: One Terrific Game, One Great Result
God damn, that was a great game.Nerve-wrecking, but a hell of a game.With just a couple of minutes left in stoppage time before the final whistle was blown, American goalkeeper Tim Howard started a counterattack by throwing a Brett Favre-like pass down the center of the field. He found Landon…
Arbitrary TABC Regulations: Brewery vs. Winery
In the red tape-filled abyss known as the TABC, there are many codes that do more to confuse than regulate the alcohol industry in our great state. We blame the good ol’ boys network and the ridiculousness of bureaucracy. For our first installment, we bring to you the confusing yet…
Crime Sweep Or Courtesy Visit: Uniformed Deputy Constables Go After Missing Textbooks
Irma Alvarez was at work on Thursday, June 17 when her cousin called her to say a uniformed officer was at the door, demanding the return of the textbooks Alvarez’s son still had after the end of the school year. Alvarez had received notice by mail that past Saturday saying…
Top 5 Cold Soups in Houston
At first it seems counterintuitive; soup is supposed to warm, comforting, steaming from a mug, a cold-and-flu cure, a liquid manifestation of love from somebody’s mom or grandma — not served in a chilled wide-lipped bowl, cool on the tongue or cold running down the back of your throat. But…
Salt In The Wounds At Washington Avenue Open Mike
Readers may remember three weeks back when Lonesome Onry and Mean set off a torrent of pissing and moaning for our speculations that the open-mike night at new Washington Avenue drinkery Salt Bar might not be the artistic triumph the Houston Chronicle proclaimed it to be. More accurately, the Chron…
Game Time: 2010 World Cup — USA Wins! Now Awaits Conference Expansion Invite To Become Part of South America
“Soccer is about to cement its place as the worst ‘sports bar sport’ EVER…” — Me at the 89-minute mark of the USA-Algeria game today”THIS IS AWESOME!!!” — Me hugging strangers at the 91-minute mark of the USA-Algeria game today And therein lies the most fascinating thing about soccer to…
Drinking Your Dinner: 5 Calorie-Laden Classic Cocktails
Vintage cocktails are undeniably the booze craze of the moment. Blame it on Mad Men. Blame it on “getting back to our roots” and people starting victory gardens once again. Blame it on books like Ted Haigh’s Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails. But classic cocktails are back in a big…
Lone Star Landowner’s Challenge Features Houston Contestant
Last year’s Landowner’s Challenge — a yearly contest sponsored by Lone Star Beer to judge who the truest Texan is among a group of finalists — bestowed its winner with nearly two acres of land in Independence, Texas. This year’s Landowner’s Challenge will be held tomorrow night at Griff’s and…
Sugar Land Picks A Site For Its Minor League Baseball Stadium
Minor league baseball is coming to Sugar Land, and it will be near the old Imperial Sugar factory that gave the city its name.The Sugar Land city council chose from among three options last night on where to build a stadium, and it picked a site near the intersection of…
Five ’90s Musical Fads We Remember Well, But Don’t Really Miss
A little over a decade ago, swing music made a strange comeback. You may remember seeing people all over dressing like ’40s hipsters, jumping and jiving in Gap commercials and most every club or bar was offering swing lessons. It started with the release of the film Swingers, which still…
Chef Chat, Part 1: Michael Pellegrino of Max’s Wine Dive
For the past year, Michael Pellegrino has commanded the reins in the kitchen at Max’s Wine Dive. About two months ago, Max’s changed its culinary program so that the menu incorporated a left and right side: the former housing the “Max’s Classics” and the latter serving as the chef’s creative…
Gloria Gonzales, 40, Bayou Body Count No. 158
A woman was shot to death in front of her daughter by her estranged husband, who then turned the gun on himself in a murder-suicide.Gloria Gonzales, 40 was sitting behind the wheel of her car in a parking lot on the north side of town, talking with her estranged husband…
V-Zilla, Shunned By HPMAs, Has A Lot To “Talk About”
The monster’s been quiet. We haven’t heard from V-Zilla in a good while, but the other day when the HPMA ballots hit the streets, we got an interesting text message. It was from Zilla. “There should be a “Best Lyricist category.” Yeah, we won’t argue. And if someone were to…
Robb Walsh’s 100 Favorite Houston Dishes: #16 Enchiladas de Tejas at Molina’s
Over the course of the next few months, I’m counting down 100 of my favorite Houston dishes. I chose some because they are such quintessential Houston creations, others for their cultural or historical significance, and others because they are just so damn tasty. Share your own nominations in the comments…
Wicked Orchestra Seats For Only 25 Bucks? If You’re Feeling Lucky
Wicked, the Broadway musical that’s become extremely popular among tween and teen girls, is coming to Houston, and — thanks to the economy, we guess — Broadway Across America is going to a cheap-seat method that could be a lifesaver for parents.Each night before a performance, an in-person lottery will…
Behind The Cover: Trae Stars In His Own Old School
Today’s Trae cover story was nearly a year in the making. As noted, the whole Trae vs. The Box thing can be traced back to the 2009 Trae Day shooting. Rocks Off was actually at that event and happened to be none too far from where the bullets were fired…
Houston’s Hottest Chefs: L.J. Wiley
Every day this week we’ll be highlighting the male winners from our poll on Houston’s Hottest Chefs. On Friday we’ll reveal the hottest chef of all. Yelapa Chef L.J. Wiley is a guy’s guy: a tall glass of water that likes to throw back a drink or six and is…
Sick: Snake Bitez and Twilight Sweethearts
When did pop culture become sick culture? No wonder kids are so messed up. I recently spotted two different odd-looking candies at Blockbuster and had to buy them: a Snake Bitez Gummi Snake, basically three feet of sugar and gelatin, and The Twilight Saga: New Moon Sweethearts, heart-shaped candies with…
Harold Hurtt, Former HPD Chief, Has A New Job — With The Immigration & Customs Enforcement Agency
Harold Hurtt, semi-controversial head of the Houston Police Department under Bill White, has landed on his feet — he’s going to hear a liaison office between federal and local officials on immigration enforcement.He’ll be director for the Office of State and Local Coordination for the Immigration & Customs Enforcement Agency,…
Stephen Colbert Visits NASA Looking For A Job
Stephen Colbert, in an effort to get a second job should this whole Colbert Report thing falls through, visited NASA a while back to try out as an astronaut.The results have been airing this week.Things we learn: NASA employees don’t generally seem to be in on the whole Colbert shtick,…
Blogging Bonnaroo: Meghan Hendley’s Top 5 Festival Memories
Houston artist Tyagaraja recently won the Ford Fiesta Team Houston Battle of The Bands, the grand prize of which was a trip to perform at the Bonnaroo music festival in Tennessee. Meghan Hendley, keyboardist/vocalist for Tyagaraja, reports back to us with her tales of the festival. Read the rest of…
Victor Martinez, 26, Unidentified Male, Bayou Body Count No. 157
A man was shot several times, at least once in the head, and left for dead on an apartment balcony in north Houston, police say.The man, whose identity was not released, Victor Martinez, 26, was shot in the 8200 block of Bauman about 4 a.m. this morning, HPD said.Police were…
Coldstone Creamery’s Sinless Shakes
It’s getting to be that time of the year in Houston when all I care to consume is chilled liquids. This craving, combined with my general predilection for sweets, makes milkshakes enormously appealing. Thus far I have told myself that full-fat milkshakes are an essential part of a weekly diet…
Matches & BiG Al Explore The Plight Of The Party Girl
Each Wednesday, Rocks Off arbitrarily appoints one lucky local performer or group “Artist of the Week,” bestowing upon them all the fame and grandeur such a lofty title implies. Know a band or artist that isn’t awful? Email their particulars to sheaserrano@gmail.com. If you listen to any of the local…
Rocks Off Blogger Writes Book. Seriously. For Real.
From the sometimes (check that – always) demented mind of Jef with One F, Rocks Off blogger and co-lead vocalist of “Houston’s most notorious band” Black Math Experiment, comes The Bible Spelled Backwards Does Not Change The Fact That You Cannot Kill David Arquette – a book at once musical…
Todd Buchanan: Jumping At The Bit to Coach UH Women’s Hoops
Meet new Houston Cougars’ women’s basketball coach Todd Buchanan. He’s an excitable guy. He talks fast, in run-on sentences. He goes off on tangents, but always returns to the point of the question. He’s got a tight handshake, and he calls you by your first name.He’s the kid in the…
Michael Jackson As Scholarly Subject: A Texas Tech Study
When The Journal of Pan African Studies decided to devote an entire volume to Michael Jackson after the Gloved One’s passing, Texas Tech librarian Rob Weiner had an idea: why not find out how many times MJ popped up in academic journals, and for what reasons. We don’t know if/what Weiner had…
Why So Serious? Let ‘Em See Your… Joker Face!
You know what’s scarier than the Lady Gaga sex doll? The thought of Lady Gaga being somehow linked to Heath Ledger’s Joker. So while the world impatiently for news regarding the third installment in Christopher Nolan’s reboot of the Batman films, there’s a couple of kids out there who decided…
Stirred and Shaken: Onion Creek’s Gin Rickey
The first time I got drunk at a bar was at Fitzgerald’s in the Heights. Many years later, I’m sitting at a picnic table and drinking a Gin Rickey down the block at Onion Creek (3106 White Oak Dr., 713-880-0706), thinking about how things are different now. Mainly, I’m not…
Francisco Olvera Sues Sealy, Saying He Was Arrested For Taking A Cop’s Picture
Francisco Olvera says all he did was take a cop’s photo with his cell phone. And for that, he claims, he was thrown into the back of a police car, handcuffed at the police station, made the butt of racist jokes by officers, and jailed on false charges.Olvera, of Sealy,…
Craigslist Prank Turns Sour For Katy Woman Who Didn’t Want To See A Whole Bunch Of Penises
If you have a falling out with a friend or a significant other, there are a number of responses. You can hold your head high, wish the other party the best, and move on with your life; you can shoot up a Luby’s; or, as a girl we’ll call Paula…
The Institute For Creation Research Gets Slammed, Rejected By Federal Judge
The Institution for Creation Research was a California-based school that moved to the Dallas area three years ago.They applied to Texas’ Higher Education Coordinating Board for certification to give master’s degrees in science; the HECB reviewed their curriculum and turned them down. They sued.A federal judge in Austin has ruled…
Top 5 Worst Wedding Desserts
My previous post on the Top Five Worst Wedding Hors D’Oeuvres prompted a request (thank you, reader Hadyn) for a similar list on the worst wedding desserts. While standard wedding cake can be boring, it remains a popular choice for good reasons: It usually tastes good, poses few health and…
The Shameless Chef: Even Lazier Salisbury Steak
Everybody knows Salisbury steak isn’t too difficult to make, yet in the Shameless Chef family, we feel compelled to make things as simple as possible. This is because we’re efficient to a fault. Of course, some people mistakenly label this sort of extreme efficiency as “laziness,” but what the hell…
World Cup 2010: A USA-Algeria Preview (Hint: The Good Guys Win)
How can you not think about the goal that was disallowed during last Friday’s game? Had it not been for referee Koman Coulibaly giving the United States the shaft, they be sitting on top of the Group C table going into tomorrow’s game against Algeria. Now, the Americans are in…
Steve Earle, Lyle Lovett Praise Houston On NPR
Monday around lunchtime, local singer-songwriter and multiple 2010 HPMA nominee Lee Alexander emailed us that Steve Earle and Lyle Lovett were being interviewed together on NPR’s World Cafe. Not only that, he added, both men were saying lots of nice things about Houston, where – in case you hadn’t heard,…
Game Time: LeBron James — A Lesson In Sales
The older you get, the more you realize that ultimately every decision in life has a “sales” element to it. Getting married, getting divorced, having kids, purchasing a house or a car, choosing a movie, picking an appetizer,…whatever decision it is, there’s some level of convincing that needs to take…
Jerry Eversole Blasts The Sheriff Over How He’s Handling Jail Overcrowding
Updated with reaction from the Sheriff’s Office.Harris County Commissioner Jerry Eversole implied at meeting earlier today that the county’s sheriff, Adrian Garcia, acted improperly and wasted tax payer money when he moved inmates from a jail in Lousiana to a jail in Texas. “If I were doing what Sheriff Garcia…
Top 5 Roughage Foods
After a weekend of meat and carb, that immovable-brick-in-the-stomach feeling is inevitable. If you need a little kick-start to get things, um…moving, eat a lot of this stuff and get your body back on track. Just keep your social calendar free as you wait for the magic of Mother Nature…
Keith Richards Signs On To Fill In At Faces Reunion
Today’s London Express trumpets the news that Rolling Stones perpetual bad boy Keith Richards will join erstwhile fellow Stone Ron Wood and the rest of the Rod Stewart-less Faces for the band’s reunion performance at the Vintage at Goodwood Festival in West Sussex, England, August 13. The addition of Richards…
Shane Perez: As His Own Pop Looks On, Drunken Dad Of The Century Is Knifed By Son In Father’s Day Fracas
Spending Father’s Day with his 21-year-old son Cody Perez was top priority for 38-year-old Shane Perez. Perhaps he wanted to make up for lost time.Salvador Perez, Shane’s father and Cody’s grandfather, told the Corpus Christi Caller-Times that Shane had been absent for much of Cody’s life, and would soon be…
Robb Walsh’s 100 Favorite Houston Dishes: #17 The “Instant Vintage” Burger at Rockwell Tavern
Over the course of the next few months, I’m counting down 100 of my favorite Houston dishes. I chose some because they are such quintessential Houston creations, others for their cultural or historical significance, and others because they are just so damn tasty. Share your own nominations in the comments…
MTV Nominates Trae As “Hottest Breakthrough MC Of 2010”
It appears that Trae’s ongoing difficulties with 97.9 The Box – again, you might want to check back here tomorrow; we’d sure appreciate it – are beginning to resonate outside the 713 and 281. Earlier today, MTV.com announced the local rapper and community activist known as “Tha Truth” is a…
Annyǒnghi Kaseyo, Komart
We mentioned in last week’s Food Fight that stalwart Korean grocery store Komart had closed earlier this year. Some of you were incredulous that the old store had been shuttered and, frankly, so were we when we found out. Komart had anchored the Korean part of Spring Branch for the…
KIPP Isn’t Cheating; Review Says It Really Is Super Duper
According to an independent research firm, KIPP charter schools — there are several locations in Houston — are not guilty of skimming the best and brightest from the public school system, thereby boosting their reported student scores.Nope, according to the Mathematica Policy Research Inc. the students in the 22 Knowledge…
Blogging Bonnaroo: GWAR, DJ Deadmaus And Cheesy Fries
Houston artist Tyagaraja recently won the Ford Fiesta Team Houston Battle of The Bands, the grand prize of which was a trip to perform at the Bonnaroo music festival in Tennessee. Meghan Hendley, keyboardist/vocalist for Tyagaraja, reports back to us with her tales of the festival. Read the rest of…
Houston’s Hottest Chefs: Ricky Craig
Every day this week we’ll be highlighting the male winners from our poll on Houston’s Hottest Chefs. On Friday we’ll reveal the hottest chef of all. Ricky Craig makes some of the best burgers in town over at Hubcap Grill. When we did a Q&A with him about his Hot…
Newborn Boy, Bayou Body Count No. 156
Houston police have arrested a 14-year-old female in the April death of a newborn baby.It’s a sad tale.An elementary school student told a counselor she had witnessed the death four days earlier, in an apartment in the 10100 block of Bissonet about 7p.m. April 16.Three juveniles were present when the…
Sarah Palin: Libs Hate Her Because She’s Beautiful, Not Like That Michelle Obama
Texas Tech, that bastion of Americanism way out there in Lubbock, has done it again.This time they’re not protesting a statue that allegedly features Commies and lesbians, nor are they linking tattoos to social deviance.This time, they’re saying liberals hate Sarah Palin because she’s beautiful, and libs prefer dogs like…
5 Ways Lady Gaga Could Spice Up The Astros’ Season
Last Friday night, Rocks Off’s favorite pop star, Lady Gaga, bum-rushed her way around Yankee Stadium during the opening game of the New York Yankees three-game homestand against crosstown rivals the New York Mets. Somehow she talked her way past security and into made her way into the Yanks’ clubhouse…
Recipe: A Different Scone
I am constantly disappointed with the scones I get in coffee shops and bakeries. Scones in England are a thing of beauty: soft and sweet, creamy yet flaky, dense yet fluffy. Most of the scones I’ve tasted in America seem to be made from some sort of bastardized biscuit recipe…
Whatappreciation…
When we rolled into Whataburger this morning to grab our little piece of the chain’s Customer Appreciation Day, we expected to see lines out the door and mobs of people with orange-wrapped breakfast sandwiches. Not even close. Although Whataburger had been giving away the Breakfast on a Bun for free,…
Twitter: Five More Types Of Tweets We Can Live Without, Thanks
Last month Craig Hlavaty, as part of his feature on the Twitterverse, examined the five most annoying things people can do on Twitter.It turns out there’s five more. At least.Hlavaty ably limned the TMI posts, the what-I’m-eating tweets, the horror of Foursquare.But we’ve got our own beefs. They involve more…
Post-Apocalyptic Videos, Rap Cartoons And Plenty Of Punk History
Catastrophic Skies (extended cut) from Chase Rees on Vimeo. • Pale, the mainstream-y dark rock band from Houston, has a new video out for their song “Catostrophic Skies,” featuring a high-concept post-apocalyptic motorcycle gang. It’s kinda goofy. But hell, look at those production values. • Last month Rocks Off asked…
Shannon Franklin, Young & Recessioned: Spell The Hiring Manager’s Name Correctly, Please
Today’s installment of Young and Recessioned features Shannon Franklin, assistant director of the Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University, who says that even Rice students might have to do anything at any point to try to make some income. We help them with networking, resume building, cover letters,…
Eat It!
Do you have a big belly and want to put it to good use? Have no gag reflex and are looking to acquire a new skill? Can you put away more food than all of your friends combined and still have room for a few desserts? Then do we have…
Upcoming: Adam Lambert, School Of Seven Bells, Vampire Weekend, Etc.
12 Stones, Egypt Central: Sat., July 24. Scout Bar Clear Lake. Adam Lambert: Wed., Sept. 8. Hobby Center for the Performing Arts. Andre Nickatina, Bizzy Bone, Glasses Malone, TMills, Dot Dot Curve: Sun., Aug. 15. Warehouse Live. Black Label Society, Clutch, Children Of Bodom, 2 Cents: Thu., Oct. 28. Verizon…
Is Drake Hip-Hop’s Savior… Or Its Justin Bieber?
The hip-hop world is a less than sensible place -lots of times, you’re even required to clarify when bad means bad and when bad means good- so once a week we’re going to get with a rapper and ask them to explain things. Have something you always wanted to ask…
25 Ways You Know The Astros’ Season Has Become Really, Really Bad
You know the Houston Astros are a bad team when…1. …the only thing the team is first at is having the first pitcher in the majors to lose 10 games. Congratulations, Wandy.2. …Geoff Blum not only gets consistent playing time at third base, but also starts games at shortstop.3. …they…
Aidee Renya, 30, Bayou Body Count No. 155
A woman was found shot to death on the grounds of a far southwest side apartment building Saturday.Aidee Reyna, 30, was found about 5 a.m. Saturday in a walkway between buildings of an apartment complex in the 10300 block of Lands End Drive, Houson police say.She lived in the apartments…
Charlie Campbell: Like H.P. Lovecraft On X
Modern horror films dealing with the supernatural all have the same moment: A minor character, one who you know for a fact isn’t going to make it to the end credits alive, stumbles across something very, very disturbing in the basement of an abandoned asylum or old house or something…
Where Are We Drinking?
Hoisting a few pints is all in a day’s work during World Cup season, when life really is all beer and skittles. Have a butcher’s at the picture below and see if you can tell where we’re having a tiddly wink. Leave your best guess in the comments section below…
The French Soccer Team: Five Movies That Would Have Ended Differently With Les Bleus In Them
France is in an uproar over their soccer team, which has not only sucked to an incredible degree in the World Cup but which has also gone on strike — IN THE MIDDLE OF THE WORLD CUP — because their feelings were hurt.Why did they strike? One of the players…
John Goodman: More Details Emerge From Bar Where Polo Patron Spent Last Hours Before Fatal Crash
More details are emerging in the case of John Goodman, the Houston-bred air conditioning heir turned Palm Beach polo patron accused of killing a recent college grad in a February drunk driving crash.According to the reports, Goodman evidently wanted to see to it that what had already been a pretty…
SugarHill Studios Burglarized Over The Weekend
6:08 p.m.: Updated to include list of stolen gear. Legendary Houston recording complex SugarHill Studios, subject of the recent book House of Hits by local historian Dr. Roger Wood and studio co-owner/engineer Andy Bradley, was burglarized over the weekend by thieves who were probably not the sharpest knives in the…
Free Breakfast on a Bun at Whataburger
When I go to Whataburger for breakfast I am going for one thing and one thing only. Death-biscuits. That is a little name my friends and I came up with to describe the Honey Butter Chicken Biscuit that Whataburger serves and, man, is it good/heart attack-inducing. Tomorrow morning I could…
Fishers of Men: Pastor And Associates Get Prison Time For Fraud
It was almost two years ago that we wrote about the Fishers of Men scandal, a church in southwest Houston whose pastor and associates were charged with various financial shenanigans.It sparked a comment war between defenders and accusers that lasted so long and got so vicious we had to shut…
Bobby Heugel’s Weekly Cocktail: The Tom Collins
The Tom Collins is among the most famous of historical cocktails. Yet despite its notoriety, one glaringly obvious question remains unanswered: Who the hell was Tom Collins, anyway? There are two competing stories about the name: It seems that the often overlooked Mr. Collins was either a fictitious scoundrel or…
Ron Artest Releases The Song He Couldn’t As A Rocket: “Champion”
Former Rocket Ron Artest, the current Laker who thanked his psychiatrist after the Game 7 win, is celebrating his new ring with yet another rap song.The song has been written and sitting around for a long time, but Artest tweaked it to capitalize on the championship. He hit the studio…
Top 5 Fast Food Ads from the ’80s
I like to think that fast food advertising hit its stride in the’ 80s with special promotions, movie tie-ins and celebrity endorsers. Okay, maybe that is because I am a self-centered child of the late 70’s/early 80’s but so be it, these are MY memories, dammit! Here’s a Top 5…
Blogging Bonnaroo: Norah Jones, Stevie Wonder, Jay-Z
Houston artist Tyagaraja recently won the Ford Fiesta Team Houston Battle of The Bands, the grand prize of which was a trip to perform at the Bonnaroo music festival in Tennessee. Meghan Hendley, keyboardist/vocalist for Tyagaraja, reports back to us with her tales of the festival. Read the rest of…
Robb Walsh’s 100 Favorite Houston Dishes: #18 Tex-Cajun Poutine at BB’s Cajun Cafe
Over the course of the next few months, I’m counting down 100 of my favorite Houston dishes. I chose some because they are such quintessential Houston creations, others for their cultural or historical significance, and others because they are just so damn tasty. Share your own nominations in the comments…
Game Time: Tennessee Whiskey — Jack Daniel vs Willie Wonka
Having just returned from vacation literally about eight minutes ago, today’s pearls of wisdom will not be sports-related (sports resumes in this space tomorrow). In my best efforts to derive some sort of synergy out of the 18-hour odyssey I just endured (Elkhart, IN to Houston, TX), today will be…
Houston’s Hottest Chefs: Justin Basye
Every day this week we’ll be highlighting the male winners from our poll on Houston’s Hottest Chefs. On Friday we’ll reveal the hottest chef of all. Ask Justin Basye about his daily beauty routine, and you’ll get a funny look in response. “I don’t have one,” he says. “Must be…
Sheri Lynn Davis, Teacher Who Became A Web Sensation For Beating A Kid: Charges Filed
The Harris County Sheriff’s Office has announced that charges have been filed against the charter-school teacher whose videotaped hitting of a student went viral on the web.Sheri Lynn Davis has been charged with injury to a child. Three others at Janie’s House Charter School have been charged with failure to…
Dinner at Gravitas
After many years of hearing about Scott Tycer’s delicious eatery Gravitas, I finally made it in for dinner. With the recent boom of casual, but upscale eateries, Gravitas is not as talked about as it once was and thus I found it fairly empty on a late Wednesday evening. My…
Raquel Mundy, 24, Bayou Body Count No. 154
Her car got towed from a McDonald’s parking lot, and she ended up dead.Raquel Mundy, 24, dropped off her two children and her mother at the Greyhound bus station downtown about 1:30 a.m. Thursday morning. She made the mistake of parking at the nearby McDonald’s, where tow-truck drivers aggressively patrol…
Music Award Nominees: Send Us Your Songs
Rocks Off returned from vacation this morning and looked at the calendar to discover – yikes – there are barely six weeks until the Houston Press’ annual Music Awards and its attendant showcase, which is scheduled for Saturday, August 7 at various venues dotting Washington Avenue. Since there was such…
Brownsville Chess Teams Get Some National Pub
It’s been more than two years since the Houston Press wrote about the unlikely success of the collegiate and grade school chess programs in Brownsville, but now the big boys at HBO have caught up and will air a segment Tuesday night about the community’s championship teams on its Emmy…
How Important Is It That Rappers Be “Real”?
Some rappers happen to be thoughtful, intelligent people. Every Monday (that isn’t a national holiday) Rocks Off will have some of them hear discussing issues relevant to their culture. This Week’s Panel: Paul Wall, Fat Tony, Sam Sneed and Yung Redd Not Invited: Plies and Rick Ross This Week’s Prompt:…
Spotlight On: The Mangosteen
A couple months ago, I ventured out to 99 Ranch Market and saw some fresh mangosteens parked in the middle of the fruit section. Although I was curious about how they tasted, I was put off by the price ($8.99/pound) and the fact that they looked pretty tired in comparison…
There’s a One In Four Chance The Truck Behind You Has Got Crappy Brakes
The Texas Department of Public Safety has wrapped up its latest crackdown on truck inspections, and the news isn’t good, if you enjoy things like surviving trips on the interstate.About 25 percent of the trucks DPS pulled over were ordered off the roads “because they were found to have serious…
Metallica Likes Death… A LOT
This video (watch it after the jump) claims to collect every single time that Metallica has mentioned death or dying in the band’s music, which tallies up to 81 instances. Somehow that seems awfully low to us, being almost life-long Metallica rats, and fans of, well, death. According to the…
Random Ingredient: Capers
What is it? Capers or caper berries (which are larger and riper) are buds of flowers that haven’t yet bloomed and are found on distinctive shrubs throughout the Mediterranean. Caper buds are picked by hand, sun-dried and pickled in a brine of salt water and vinegar or packed in salt,…
The Week In TV: What Do You Watch During The Summer?
Blah blah basketball blah blah soccer blah blah I miss real shows. This was the week in TV Land: • Treme wrapped its first season last night with an episode that was probably among its best so far, though it also highlighted some of the show’s weaknesses. Creighton’s suicide (post-reveal…
True Blood: Beautifully Broken With Shelby Lynne
Alan Ball was known for his masterful use of music in Six Feet Under. He’s lost none of his touch when it comes to his current HBO series, True Blood – which happens to be set in the Louisiana swamps, not terribly far from Houston. Season 3, Episode 2: “Beautifully…
The Situation: Seven Stupid Things He (Or A Very Good Imposter) Said On His Flight To Houston
The Situation is in town!! He’s here for a show, but you probably already knew that. Hey, hey — that’s not an insult. We’re not saying you’re the kind of person who follows The Situation’s career or anything. Just that you’re a dedicated Rocks Off reader.(Note: That Rocks Off item…
Top 10 Restaurants in Montrose
It’s a little bit insane to try and narrow down all of the food options in the Montrose area to a “top 10.” This list, as with all others, is personal and also imperfect. Such an exercise will surely lead to impassioned protests of “How could you be so stupid…
Raekwon The Chef Can’t Cook Up A Delicious Performance
Rap is a cultural celebration of telling, through music, what it is real today, right now; not what was real two years ago as happened on June 19, 1865 when word finally reached Galveston that President Lincoln had freed the slaves… two years previous. At midnight on Juneteenth (this year),…
Tool’s Awe-Inspiring Stinkfist Belts Toyota Center
“For the next two hours, nothing else matters,” said Tool’s Maynard James Keenan as his band launched into “Jambi” right after stirring the pot of the crowd with “Third Eye” from 1996’s Aenima to open last night’s nearly sold-out one-night stand at Toyota Center. It wasn’t quite two hours, but…
Maria Hernandez, 59, Bayou Body Count No. 153
All Maria Hernandez wanted was to keep the front of her home on Crosstimbers clean. Instead she ended up dead.Hernandez, 57, 59, was slammed by a hit-and-run driver in the 400 block of Crosstimbers a little before 9 a.m. Sunday morning, and was pronounced dead at the scene.Witnesses described a…
Stingray Sam Wants You To Hand Him His Asking Stick
The best band that you are not paying any attention to is The Billy Nayer Show and its leader Cory McAbee. When the world went gaga for The Flaming Lips’ film Christmas on Mars, what they apparently didn’t realize was that it was nothing but a very good but ultimately…
Where Are We Eating?
Such technicolor food can only come from the oldest of old-school Italian joints, the kind that still serve steak Diane. Or can it? Does the dish below look familiar to you? Think you know where we’re eating this week? Leave your best guess in the comments section below…
Astro Roster Changes Finally Come, As Reality Sets In
Maybe it was getting swept by the Texas Rangers, or maybe it was losing two of three games to the Kansas City Royals.Maybe it’s that the Houston Astros are 2-8 for their last 10 games, or that through 70 games they are one of the worst teams in baseball with…
No Lady Gaga: Celebrities We Wish Had Sex Dolls Made Of Them
Yesterday on the Rocks Off blog we unveiled the Lady Gaga sex doll, Lady Gag Gag. Comments were mixed on the doll, ranging from utter confusion and strange attraction from both sexes. One commenter claimed that the model on the box was even more attractive than the real Gaga. Obviously…
Despicable Me: Win Free Preview Passes, And See The Five Most Despicable Movie Characters
Despicable Me, starring the voice of Steve Carrell, tells the tale of someone who’s very despicable. Truly despicable.On the other hand, the character meets up with a couple of cute kids, and it’s a cartoon, so we’re guessing there’s some redemption in the end.There’s no redemption for the following five…
Hurricanes And The Oil Spill: There’s Good News And Bad News
As oil continues flowing into the Gulf the first tropical storm of the season, Blas, is rolling off the Southwest Pacific coast of Mexico and another tropical disturbance is rumbling a few hundred miles south of the gulf of Tehuantepec, we’re starting to see the first real signs that hurricane…
This Week in Deliciousness
Welcome back to the weekly roundup here at Eating Our Words, where we’re foregoing the usual goofy-ass intro to skip straight to the big news: Robb Walsh is opening a Tex-Mex restaurant and Katharine Shilcutt is taking over as our chief food critic! This is fantastically good news. Walsh will…
Forbes Says Houston Is The Best City For Young Professionals, So It Must Be, Right?
The online Forbes empire never tires of putting together lists that rank American cities in any number of categories, all in the vain hope that media in the city named number one will write about — DAMN! Fell for it again!!Okay, we’ll give them an item, since they named Houston…
Last-Minute Gift Ideas for Food-Loving Dads
Hey punk, Father’s Day is in two days! You don’t have a present yet, do you? Well, fear not because Eating Our Words is here to keep you from looking like an ungrateful slacker child. Here are a few ideas for the foodie father: “Half Full” Glasses from Sur la…
Upcoming Events
If you’ve always wanted to attend a Houston Chowhounds throwdown but haven’t been in the past, the upcoming Ceviche Throwdown is a can’t-miss occasion and for one spectacular reason: The Chowhounds are trying to rasie $5,000 to help struggling Gulf fishermen in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon disaster and…
Marisa Miller’s Boobies Are Not Rated T For Teens
Back in 2008, supermodel Marisa Miller filmed this commercial for an edition of Guitar Hero, but it was deemed too sexy for television. Maybe it was the gratuitous cleavage and ass-shaking by a half-naked Victoria’s Secret model that pushed the censors over the line or their sworn allegiance to the…
Jesus Campos, Daniel Garcia and Julio Cantu: Valley Gang Fails Attempted Crime Spree
You’d think the three Rio Grande Valley teenagers might have realized it wasn’t their night after their second attempt at an armed robbery failed. You would underestimate the persistence of this Borderlands gang that couldn’t shoot straight.Fail #1: It all started at a Wendy’s in Harlingen. Jesus Campos, Daniel Garcia…
Openings and Closings
It’s been an exciting past week for diners and restaurateurs alike, with a rash of new and planned openings to please pretty much any palate. The biggest news, of course, was that our own Robb Walsh is working with Bryan Caswell and Bill Floyd — the team behind restaurants like…
World Cup 2010: Koman Coulibaly Is Soccer’s Jim Joyce
It was two halves, two teams on Friday morning as the United States tied Slovenia 2-2.Trailing 2-0 at the half, the Americans came to life in the second half to earn another point in the group stage, as they know face a must-win situation against Algeria on Wednesday, June 23.The…
Blogging From Bonnaroo: The Flaming Lips, Star Death and White Dwarf Do Dark Side of the Moon
Houston artist Tyagaraja recently won the Ford Fiesta Team Houston Battle of The Bands, the grand prize of which was a trip to perform at the Bonnaroo music festival in Tennessee. Meghan Hendley, keyboardist/vocalist for Tyagaraja, reports back to us with her tales of the festival. Read Part 1 and…
Game Time: Kobe Bryant: One Down, One To Go (And Neither of Them Are You, LeBron)
“I’ve got one more than Shaq.” — Kobe BryantThe accolades would seem to indicate that respect has not been an issue for Kobe Bryant — the respect of fans, the respect of his peers, the respect of the media.In his career, Kobe Bryant has been selected to the All-Star Game…
FAIL: The Entire City Of Seattle, Bachman Of BTO, The Scissor Sisters
Seattle Knows How Great Music Is Made Three years after it was originally dreamed up, the Seattle Music Commission convened for the first time on Monday, featuring representatives from such musical mainstays as Starbucks, Amazon and Microsoft. There are also several record label reps on the SMC, and even a…
$7 at Harry’s
Where: Harry’s Restaurant and Café, 318 Tuam, 713-528-0198 What $7 gets you: The Perfect Combo, $6.99 before tax. This actually isn’t the perfect combo, but it suffices. We had a classic case of diner’s remorse, since we kept wishing we’d ordered something Greek…
World Cup 2010, As Seen From The Bars In The Pre-Noon Hours
With the U.S. down 1-0 early — again — the mood at Sawyer Park on Washington Avenue was somber.Those who had skipped work, or skipped doing whatever it is people with trust funds do in the morning, to pack the sports bar for the 9 a.m. match against Slovenia didn’t…
What’s the Deal with Becks Prime?
I find myself eating at Becks Prime, a fast-food-style restaurant, probably once or twice a year. Each time I do, I’m always blown away by the interminable wait for my “fast food” and the exorbitant prices. My last trip really got me thinking about this. I was with a hungry…
Waco Man Finds Devo Billboard Offensive To God, Himself
We know, we know. It reads like one of the The Onion’s “Area Man…” headlines. Hat tip to our sister music blog up in Dallas, DC9 At Night, who showed us this promotional video for Devo’s first album in a decade, Something For Everybody, which was released Tuesday. The band’s…
Houston Press Is Looking For A New Web Editor
With Houston Press web editor Katharine Shilcutt on her way to becoming our new food critic, we’re looking for someone to take over her duties as web editor.The web editor creates, manages and promotes our content to grow community and readers. There is also a lot of work with photographers…
Joe Barton: Houston Is Getting Blamed For Him?
Look, Houston has enough troubles with this oil-spill thing: BP has its American office here, everyone automatically defaults to thinking of us as pollution-happy, regulation-ignoring money-grubbers, and, you know, we are home to a whole lot of energy companies who probably just as easily could have desecrated the gulf.But trust…
Health Dept. Roundup: Café Edition
Put on your black-rimmed glasses (even if you don’t need them) and bring a laptop: It’s the café edition this week on Health Department Roundup. A June 10 inspection at Gina’s Café (10370 Richmond Ave.) found an employee drinking from an open beverage container, contaminating his or her hands, food…
Milton Bradley: Latino Hip-Hop History Not A Game
Well, he started off as Doom The Strange and he was one of several underground Latino hip-hop artists in the 90s, but as he got older he shed the rap skin and now sports an R&B coat. And he changed his name. Several artists have gotten at Rocks Off about…
Derrick Melvin, 34, Bayou Body Count No. 152
A man was shot several times and his car was stolen down on Almeda Road yesterday.Police report that Houston firefighters discovered the body of Derrick Melvin, 34, at a motel in the 13600 block of Almeda shortly before noon Thursday.He had been shot several times, police said, and was pronounced…
Chef Chat, Part 3: Charles Clark of Ibiza
After talking with Charles Clark of Ibiza for the past couple of days, today we continue, discussing how his signature dishes are based in his roots and how Ibiza patrons can make special requests. EOW: So what should a first-time Ibiza patron order? Clark: To truly showcase my roots, they…
Passion Pit Moves Bodies, Emotions at Warehouse Live
Aftermath remembers the first book that ever made us cry. It was Katherine Paterson’s controversial but also much-loved young adult novel Bridge to Terebithia. In all likelihood it was also the book that made us want to write. We remember marveling, even at that young age, at how a simple…
Megan Roiz, Young & Recessioned: Not Even A Magician’s Assistant Job
Today’s installment of Young & Recessioned features Megan Roiz, a 21-year-old senior at Texas A&M from Sugar Land who is having a tough time finding a part-time job for the summer. The first job I got, I was 16. I’ve worked at two different pet stores, I did a counselor…
Words Without Songs: Making Music For Everyone with Ally ASL
Allyson Townsend, better known by the moniker Ally ASL, is a rising Internet star who was featured in one of our daily video’s signing to Ke$ha’s “Tik Tok.” Having found out that Townsend was a Texas girl, we decided to sit down with her and find out exactly what prompts…
Houston’s Hottest Chefs: Lisa Carnley
This past week, we’ve highlighted Houston’s hottest female chefs, profiling Monica Pope, Jody Stevens, Meagan Silk and Jamie Zelko. But the moment of truth has come. The people of Houston have spoken. Lisa Carnley of Calliope’s Po-Boys is Houston’s hottest lady chef of all. When we asked Carnley how she…
Longhorn Network: Death Knell Of The Big 12?
Back in the 1950s, with the Dodgers relocated to Los Angeles and the Giants to San Francisco, New York City found itself with only one baseball team, the Yankees.And despite the so-called popularity of the sport, there were still only 16 major league teams.With New York attorney William Shea in…
Recipe Review, Part 2: Giada’s Spicy Baked Macaroni
If my review of Giada De Laurentiis’s delicious recipe for Spicy Baked Macaroni inspired you to try it for yourself, here is the recipe along with my suggestions for success. Remember to reduce the pasta to 10 ounces, frequently check the consistency of the boiling pasta, and slightly increase the…
Commiserating The Lakers Win With Five Predictions About Bun’s Forthcoming LP, Trill OG
Welcome back to Five Spot. Every Friday, we’ll examine a recent bit of music news and, albeit sometimes awkwardly, tie it to a bit of Houston rap. We’ll incorporate the number five in there somewhere. Send tips to introducingliston@gmail.com. Ack. The Lakers won the NBA Championship last night, which means…
Gram Rabbit To Bring Psychedelic Disco To Last Concert Café
Talk about great news, Lonesome, Onry and Mean’s favorite California psychedelic disco glam rockers Gram Rabbit will play Last Concert Café August 14. According the band’s management, this will be the anchor date for their Texas swing, but no other Texas dates have yet been announced. The band was last…
Blake Newman Wants To Know: Can You Play A Meyerland Stripper With A Heart Of Gold?
If there’s one thing everyone knows about strippers, it’s that they have the ability to change people’s lives. And that magic is the basis for the indie film Meyerland, whose creators have been scouring Houston to find a young actress to play Stormy, a topless dancer dancer who has a profound…
Bill Byrne: Adding To The Aggies’ Ever-Growing Hall Of Internet Shame
Texas A&M’s athletic director, Bill Byrne, has become an Internet sensation for leaving a heated voicemail for a fellow Aggie. If you haven’t heard, problems started when Byrne received an e-mail from an alum who was upset because A&M stuck with the Big 12 and the University of Texas. The…
Robb Walsh’s 100 Favorite Houston Dishes: #19 Barbacoa Tacos at Gerardo’s
Over the course of the next few months, I’m counting down 100 of my favorite Houston dishes. I chose some because they are such quintessential Houston creations, others for their cultural or historical significance, and others because they are just so damn tasty. Share your own nominations in the comments…
Us Vs. Them: Are Fan Videos Better Than Official Videos?
Today on the Daily Video, we’re going to try something a little different. Trolling through Youtube in search of the best and worst to bring you, Rocks Off encounters a lot of fan-made music videos for popular songs. Usually, we dismiss them, but we’ve sort of gotten to wondering exactly…
William Gammon: Prosecutor’s Not Happy The Accused Child Porn User’s Out On Bond
William Gammon, the attorney who’s pushed for aggressive homeowners’ associations in court and in the legislature, is out on bond on charges of possessing a pornography stash described by an investigator as “one of the largest collections of extremely young children he had ever seen.”One person not happy about that:…
World Cup 2010: What You Need To Know For This Morning’s US-Slovenia Match
“Talk is cheap.” That’s what American goalkeeper Tim Howard said in response to a Slovenian midfielder guaranteeing victory for his country over the US on Friday’s meeting. “A lot of boxers talk, too, and they’re looking up at the lights. And the next thing they know, they’re trying to figure…
Katharine Shilcutt Will Be the Next Food Critic at the Houston Press
She sat through and videotaped the complete butchering of a pig. She also authored our June 10 cover story that went with the video, about how local restaurateurs are curing their own meats. She organized a Cupcake Smackdown that pitted 11 professional cupcake bakers (and one home cook) against each…
Blogging From Bonnaroo: Damien Marley and Nas, Tori Amos, Steve Martin
Houston artist Tyagaraja recently won the Ford Fiesta Team Houston Battle of The Bands, the grand prize of which was a trip to perform at the Bonnaroo music festival in Tennessee. Meghan Hendley, keyboardist/vocalist for Tyagaraja, reports back to us with her tales of the festival. Read Part 1 of…
Food Fight: Battle Asian Supermarket
Ever since KoMart — the long-standing Korean grocery store on Gessner — closed earlier this year, the Asian grocery scene in Spring Branch has been dominated by Super H Mart and the newer 99 Ranch Market. They’re both large national chains, and they’re both based in California. Super H Mart…
A Cooler Coke: Leninade
Each Tuesday and Thursday for the next few weeks, we’ll be taking a look at alternatives to cokes for the sticky Houston summer that lies ahead Yes, that’s right. Leninade. According to the bottle, it’s “a taste worth standing in line for.” And that’s not the only pun the kids…
Jose “Smiley” Saenz: Representing The Worst Of The U.S. And Mexico
Jose Saenz, known as Smiley, was an aimless dropout and tagger in Los Angeles when he went on a killing binge.He shot two rival gang members in an “honor killing,” then viciously murdered the mother of his kid.He then went to Mexico. He came back a drug-cartel solider, on the…
Whoa, Whoa: The Situation Releases New Single In Time For Rich’s Gig
Remember when you were a kid and you would mix all the fountain sodas together into one monstrosity of a drink called a “Suicide” (or whatever it was called where you’re from). As an adult you probably realize that the end result was something less-than-greater than the sum of its…
Recipe Review, Part 1: Giada’s Spicy Baked Macaroni
Ever since Food Network became a cultural phenomenon, home cooks have had more access to celebrity chef recipes. But the recipes don’t always translate to home cooks. In fact, if you search for recipes on foodtv.com, you’ll notice many have comments regarding the recipes’ inaccuracies and discrepancies. I have attempted…
The Facebook Push Is On To Get UH In The Big 12
The Big 12, she ain’t what she used to be. Nebraska and Colorado have left.One of them should be replaced by the University of Houston, say two dozen Texas legislators in a letter to the Big 12 Commissioner.Not only that — State Rep. Garnett Coleman has started a Facebook page…
It Might Get Loud At Alamo Drafthouse Tonight
Hollywood Shuffle comes to you a day early this week because Alamo Drafthouse is hosting a screening tonight, and we’d never forgive ourselves if we didn’t let you know about it. What film is it, you ask? Oh, just a little “rockumentary” from 2008 called It Might Get Loud, in…
Chef Chat, Part 2: Charles Clark of Ibiza
Today we continue our chat with Charles Clark of Ibiza about his time meandering through the Mediterranean. EOW: You spent some time traveling through Europe learning the Mediterranean cuisine. So help me connect the dots of how you went from riverside fryers and Chinese restaurants in Louisiana to a tour…
Game Time: The Longhorn Network — A Few Programming Ideas
I often think how cool it must have been to have the first fast-food restaurant in a given town. You plunk down your McDonald’s, start flipping about a thousand burgers an hour (quantity over quality when you’re that busy), and watch the money roll in.And then Burger King drops in…
Carolina Chocolate Drops Pay Sweet Homage To Southern Musical Traditions
Not many modern bands can claim that the music they play spans more than 150 years in the annals of American history, but the Carolina Chocolate Drops’s double sold-out shows last night at Mucky Duck oscillated smoothly between early 2000s hits and songs as old as “Dixie.” And for a…
Happy Hour Scene: Nouveau Antique Art Bar
The Place: Nouveau Antique Art Bar2913 Main St. 713-526-2220www.art-bar.netThe Hours: Tuesday through Friday 4:30 -9 p.m.The Deals: It’s $1 off all drinks. A Budweiser, for example, is $3. The Scene: The Nouveau Antique Art Bar is so big — “cavernous,” is how a drinking companion described it — that if…
Patrick “Booger Red” Kelly, Convicted Of Running Child-Sex Club, Gets New Trial
The 14th Court of Appeals in Houston has granted a new trial to Patrick “Booger Red” Kelly and Jamie Pittman, who had been convicted of running a club in Mineola where patrons watched and videotaped children engaging in sex acts.It wasn’t exactly a ringing endorsement of Booger and his pal,…
$7 at Little Bitty Burger Barn
Where: Little Bitty Burger Barn, 5503 Pinemont Drive, 713-683-6700 What $7 gets you: Four pocket-sized sliders, topped with grilled onions, and a bed of thick-cut French fries will set you back $5.95. Put that leftover dollar towards a thick ‘n dreamy chocolate malt. Recommended: Meh, if you’re in the neighborhood…
Sage Francis Transcends Genres At House of Blues
Sage Francis’ new album Li(f)e should have received better reviews than it did. Although the reviews it got weren’t terrible, none of them seemed to acknowledge that Sage managed to marry rap and rock without coming off as awkward white-boy nu-metal, maintaining a hip-hop vibe even while backed by an…
Gil Costas: Fired BARC Whistleblower Gets $70K From The City
Houston City Council members Wednesday approved a $70,000 settlement with a former Bureau of Animal Regulation and Care veterinarian who filed a whistleblower suit against the city in 2009.Gil Costas was fired in February 2009 for what a BARC spokesperson said was a lack of Texas Department of Public Safety…
Never Let Goat: “Manimals” Git Down in New Hell City Kings Video
Today, Houston’s Hell City Kings officially premiere their new clip for “Never Let Go”. The music video was directed by director Bryan Forrester, who previously helmed the listenlisten clip for “On The Water” from last year’s Hymns From Rhodesia. Rocks Off was an extra on the set for the filming…
Houston’s Hottest Chefs: Jamie Zelko
Every day this week we’ll be highlighting the female winners from our poll on Houston’s Hottest Chefs. On Friday we’ll reveal the hottest chef of all. Talking to Jamie Zelko of Zelko Bistro is a humbling experience. Not only has she been voted one of Houston’s hottest chefs, she is,…
Rick Perry & Google: Do You Really Want To Play That Game?
Rick Perry has a new ad out, at least on the net (Check the jump for the video.)It consists entirely of fascinating footage of a computer screen as someone enters search terms into Google like “Bill White disenfranchising military voters.” You know what? Items come up in the search!! QED,…
What Rhymes With Anahuac? We Ask The Rapping Weatherman
We wrote about Beaumont’s rapping weatherman Nick Kosir last week, and as we mentioned then, we weren’t the first to do so. ESPN2’s Sports Nation, The Huffington Post and the ever-illustrious Ryan Seacrest have all recognized Kosir for his skills behind the mic. Reader comments have ranged from: “Omg, he’s…
Odd Pair: Watermelon and Loredona Riesling
The only thing better than a cold slice of sweet, ripe, seedless watermelon is a slice of sweet, ripe, seedless watermelon paired with a nice, chilled glass of Riesling. Yes, summer has officially arrived. Alone, watermelon is a treat like no other – memories of backyard barbecues with the family,…
Only 15 Percent Of HISD 9th-Graders End Up With A College Degree
About 15 percent of Houston Independent School District ninth graders will get a college degree.That stark news was delivered at the board of trustees early morning workshop today to the six board members in attendance (Anna Eastman, Diana Davila, Larry Marshall, Greg Meyers, Harvin Moore and Manuel Rodriguez). The data,…
Lorena Perez: Facebook, DAs Reunite With Her 5-Year-Old Son, Who Was Taken Four Years Ago
Harris County District Attorney Patricia Lykos’ office announced today that they’ve successfully tracked down a boy who was taken away by his father as part of a messy domestic dispute four years ago.”Lorena Perez had last hugged her son Isaiah, now 5, just before he disappeared in July 2006. They…
Remember Willie Dee’s Controversy?
Houston’s history is dotted with albums that, fairly or not, have been swept aside. We’ll examine them here. Have an album that you think nobody knows about but should? Email sheaserrano@gmail.com. Willie Dee Controversy (Rap-A-Lot, 1995) Note: Yes, we’re aware he’s gone by “Willie D” for the majority of his…
Robb Walsh’s 100 Favorite Houston Dishes #20 The Pork Chop at Perry’s on Scarsdale
Over the course of the next few months, I’m counting down 100 of my favorite Houston dishes. I chose some because they are such quintessential Houston creations, others for their cultural or historical significance, and others because they are just so damn tasty. Share your own nominations in the comments…
Take A Ride On Your Disco Stick: The Lady Gaga Sex Doll
Over the next year Houstonians will get three chances to see Lady Gaga in the flesh, with two shows next month at Toyota Center and another one in spring at the same venue. We are pretty sure all three have now sold out, so if any of you little monsters…
Mack Rhoades Wants UH Fans To Show Up, Darnit
I got the chance to visit with Houston Cougars athletic director Mack Rhoades last Friday to discuss the school’s new stadium plans — I was just one of the several media members there. And while Rhoades was trying to get out his vision for the future, there was one other…
We Have Met The Enemy, And He Is Perez Hilton Us
Gossip blogger Perez Hilton is, once again, drawing fire for his shenanigans. This time around, however, the complaints are a bit more serious than mere bad taste: Perez Hilton, aka Mario Lavandeira, might not yet be facing legal action after tweeting a provocative picture of teen star Miley Cyrus, but…
Mike’s Hard Lemonade v. Smirnoff Classic Lemonade
When I got to that awkward age when you desire to drink alcohol yet still secretly hate the taste, I was excited to find that lemonade covered up the taste of vodka, gin and other clear spirits quite well. Although my palate has improved, I still enjoy the occasional grown-up…
Can Music Fight Cancer? MD Anderson’s Celebration Singers Think So
Earlier this year, we lost God himself Ronnie James Dio to cancer. Dio had been valiantly fighting the disease at Houston’s own MD Anderson Cancer Center. Approximately 1,500 people in America die every day of cancer, but MD Anderson continues to find new avenues to help heal those afflicted, including…
Houston Chronicle Readers Aren’t Buying The Latest Bit Of Desperation
The Houston Chronicle, in its bid to get as many clicks and eyeballs and whatevers on its website, has made many errors in judgment. There’s the sex column Girl Dick. There’s the plan to give every person who asks their very own personal blog.And there’s the “Hot or Not” feature.Only…
Father’s Day: Five Very Bad Gift Ideas
Father’s Day is fast approaching, and you probably haven’t given much thought to your gift. We know you.To be sure, most fathers would gladly settle for Peace & Quiet once the kids are out of the weirdly-shaped homemade-paper-clip-holder stage, but most people feel obligated to get the old man something.Which…
2010 Big Range Dance Festival
Sometimes the title of an event lends no clue as to what to expect. That’s not the case for the 2010 Big Range Dance Festival. For three weekends, choreography in a multitude of styles, concocted by both local and national dance masters, is given a place in the Barnevelder Movement/Arts…
“Printing with Light”
We have become so used to photography that we often forget what it actually is: a print made with light. The ongoing exhibition “Printing with Light” at the Museum of Printing History, part of FotoFest 2010, shows modern examples of all kinds of different techniques, including platinum prints, tintypes, cyanotypes,…
Daddies in Nature
Any trip to the Children’s Museum of Houston is going to be all about the kids, but the museum is making a nod to Father’s Day with “Daddies in Nature.” Kids and their male parental units can stop by the EcoStation to learn about animal life cycles and the different…
Star Chamber
Actors, at least according to Noél Coward’s 1930s play Star Chamber, actually do think about something other than their lines from time to time. In the case of Star Chamber, they think about helping their fellow thespians in need. Or at least they try to. “It’s about a bunch of…
The Killer of His Daughter’s Mother
Twelve years ago, Jose Saenz was a Los Angeles Unified School District dropout and run-of-the-mill tagger known on the east side of Los Angeles as Smiley, a nod to the way he flashed his trademark brilliant grin. At age 22, he sidled up to two young east-side men peddling dope…
Candida
George Bernard Shaw’s Candida is a pre-Christina Aguilera exploration of “what a girl wants / what a girl needs.” The story follows Candida, a poet in 1800s London wedded to a prominent clergyman, who owes much of his success to his wife’s talent with words. Their life is disrupted when…
AIA Houston: Authors in Architecture: Jill Nokes
From the humble garden gnome to elaborate walls handmade from collected stones, the features we add to our yards make them oases not just for plants but for us as well. At least this is the theory of the Austin-based landscape designer and author Jill Nokes, who’s an expert in…
“Secrets of Circles”
We could go on and on naming the circles that form in the natural world (whirlpools, tree rings, planets…), those that are essential in industry (wheels, gears…) and those that are cultural symbols (the yin and yang, the Olympic rings…), but we don’t have to because the Children’s Museum of…
Beyond the Motor City
The documentary film Beyond the Motor City asks one basic question: Can Detroit change its car-loving ways in time to save itself? Detroit’s boom years are long gone, but if public transportation advocates have their way, the city could become a shining example of economic recovery. One of the ironies…
Luis Alberto Urrea: Into the Beautiful North
At first glance, Luis Alberto Urrea’s new novel Into the Beautiful North seems rather lighthearted: After all the young men in her small Mexican town leave to work in America, a young woman lives in fear of drug lords. Then she sees the film The Magnificent Seven and decides that…
Five Guys Named Moe
The ’40s bandleader and jivey saxophonist Louis Jordan has been called the “father of rhythm & blues” and the “grandfather of rock ‘n’ roll.” Although largely forgotten today, Jordan and his successful quintet, The Tympani Five, popularized the jump blues style, with its amalgam of jazz and blues, which directly…
Indiana Jones & the Temple of Doom
You might not be old enough to count the film Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom as one of the landmarks of your youth, but it should ring a bell for your dad. And, since today is Father’s Day (and not You Day), it might be nice to treat…
Mixers & Elixirs 2010
The Houston Museum of Natural Science’s weekly Mixers and Elixirs event offers people the chance to get drunk and dance around in a room filled with priceless fossils and other artifacts. We see absolutely no way this could go wrong! Fueling the potential travesty today is party band Mango Punch,…
Golden Axe
Metallic two-piece Golden Axe is Houston’s go-to party thrash band. With gigantic riffs and thundering drums, the Axe throws out all the technical preening and gets down to the brass knuckles, and without vocals. Each set leaves you sweating and happy, with your neck sore from headbanging and your arm…
Let’s Misbehave
The Pride Festival and Parade isn’t until next week, but the LGTB community is getting a head start on the celebration when the Gay Men’s Chorus of Houston joins forces with lesbian comedian Kate Clinton for Let’s Misbehave. The program includes such LGTB musical classics as Tom Lehrer’s “Masochism Tango”…
Siempre Te Amaré (I Will Always Love You)
I-love-yous and I-love-you-nots are in equal abundance in the Spanish-language film Siempre Te Amaré (I Will Always Love You). Presented by the Institute of Hispanic Culture, Siempre is the story of (try to keep up here) Fernando, played by the Argentine heart-throb Sandro, who works with Enzo, who has a…
Stefanie Pintoff: A Curtain Falls
Catch a new author who is making quite a splash on the literary scene at today’s discussion and signing session with Stefanie Pintoff. Winner of the 2010 Edgar Award for Best First Novel for In the Shadow of Gotham, Pintoff is currently on tour in support of her new book,…
Abracadabra Aladdin!
Young theatergoers will enjoy the musical adaptation of the tale of Princess Jasmine, her adventurous suitor Aladdin, three genies, Ali Bubba and a very special magic lamp in Abracadabra Aladdin! The Houston Family Arts Center, which is presenting this production, won the 2009 Nickelodeon Parents’ Picks Award for Houston’s Best…
Chopping Mall
It’s robots gone wild in today’s screening of Chopping Mall, when a group of young employees get locked inside a shopping mall after-hours. The mall’s security system automatically dispatches killer robots to exterminate the intruders (seems somebody set the violence setting much too high on the machines). But the kids…
Transcending: The Wat Misaka Story
The latest installment of the Searching for Asian America film series is the documentary Transcending: The Wat Misaka Story. A chronicle of the first man of color ever to be drafted into the NBA, Transcending shows the Japanese-American Misaka facing racism and a political climate rife with anti-Japanese sentiment in…
“Katsura: Picturing Modernism in Japanese Architecture”
Spare-yet-inviting teahouses. Refined paper screens. Elegant bamboo fencing. This is the global ideal of classic Japanese architecture, and it is exemplified in the 17th-century Katsura Imperial Villa, in Kyoto. But in the black-and-white photographs of Ishimoto Yasuhiro, which he took in 1953 and 1954, the structure looks remarkably like a…
MC Chris
High-pitched and hidden behind his ever-present low-slung black baseball cap, MC Chris is the comic-loving, videogame-playing antithesis of the common conception of rap music. From his beginnings in Cartoon Network’s late-night programming, most notably as MC P Pants in stoner favorite Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Chris’s natural comedic leanings and…
Passion Pit, Tokyo Police Club
Dripping, saturated and romantic are worthwhile adjectives to describe Michael Angelakos’s Passion Pit. Not only does such purple prose perfectly describe the emotional bent of Angelakos’s lyrics, it’s also an apt description of the love-struck pop the band has perfected since Angelakos recorded the Chunk of Change EP as a…
Skate & Rock No. 3
Punk rock and skateboarding have always gone together like peas and carrots. From the Dogtown Boys in the ’70s to the countless boarders turned full-time punks like U.S. Bombs’ Duane Peters, you can’t really separate the two. Wherever you see a homemade ramp and a group of teens, you will…
Tool
Now in their 20th year of business, Tool has solidified themselves as their generation’s go-to prog band. Nothing about the L.A.-formed quartet has ever been run-of-the-mill. From 1992 debut EP Opiate onward, the band set a course that would lead to a cult of massive devotion and eternal mystery among…
A Gulf Coast Juneteenth
Juneteenth always means a one-of-a-kind blues show at Miller Outdoor Theatre, with a lineup this year that nods heavily toward Louisiana. The Meters Experience, an all-star project headed by Meters guitarist Leo Nocentelli, celebrates the music of the Meters, one of the most storied — and litigious — ensembles in…
A Rail Issue
A Rail Issue METRO responds: It never ceases to amaze how the omission of facts in an article can be almost as egregious as getting the facts wrong in the first place [“Train Wreck,” by Paul Knight, May 27]. This fact was perfectly borne out by your recent story “Train…
Under Fire
A slip of the tongue. The F-bomb. Former Houston Community College police officer Heather Perry says it was a honest mistake, that she didn’t mean to curse at the guy behind the counter at the EZ TAG store, but she was frustrated her toll pass wasn’t working properly and let…
Capsule Art Reviews: “Claire Ankenman: Phase”, “Hand+Made: The Performative Impulse in Art and Craft”, “Round 32: eco, xiang, echo: meditations on the african, andean & asian diasporas”, “The White Album”
“Claire Ankenman: Phase” Claire Ankenman makes intriguing mixed-media works that probe the question “What am I looking at?” Her previous show at Moody Gallery, “Slices,” was a literally penetrating series that examined the effects of cutting different surfaces and materials, and the wound-like inflictions that resulted. Here, she experiments with…
Capsule Stage Reviews: Boeing-Boeing, Cuckoos, La Fille mal gardée
Boeing-Boeing Alley Theatre veteran actor Jeffrey Bean is a national treasure, or should be, after a miraculous effort of resuscitation. With his actor’s arsenal that is second to none (and a silent movie comedian’s rubber face and rich pratfall dexterity), he manages to thoroughly revive Marc Camoletti’s 1960 French farce,…
Don’t Miss Dish
Hats off to Cyclone Anaya’s Mexican Kitchen (1710 Durham, 713-862-3209) for coming up with the perfect way to add lump crabmeat to Tex-Mex: Jumbo Lump Crabmeat Nachos ($22). Organic blue tortilla chips are topped with a smear of refried black beans, a blend of melted Mexican cheeses, and crabmeat gently…
Toys Are Us
Fifteen years after ushering in a new era of CGI animation, and 11 years after a colossally successful premillennial sequel, the Toy Story franchise returns to a changed world. Its irresistible conceit and snappy good humor remain largely intact, though now it also hauls a saltier and more anxious sensibility…
Sangria and Serrano
Some cuisines are just sexy. Spanish food definitely falls into that category. Big, luscious red wines, lots of shellfish and soft spices all over the food. Tintos Spanish Restaurant & Wine Bar is just that, sexy. At an early lunch with a friend, I’m immediately turned on by the ambience…
Expert Advice
CRIME, COURTS Expert Advice Accused child-porn fan advises on outing sex offenders By Richard Connelly William George Gammon, arrested for possessing child pornography, is a leading attorney in the state for über-aggressive homeowners’ associations. As such, he’s offered advice to the legislature and to potential clients. Like when he discussed…
Sushi Tora
Ken Takagi and his mother own the successful Coco’s Yakitori Sushi Bar on Westheimer. Now Takagi has opened another sushi bar called Sushi Tora (920 Studemont, 713-864-8672) just off the hopping Washington corridor. “Coco’s is a lot bigger. It’s 4,000 square feet. Tora is 1,100 square feet. At Coco’s the…
Minutemen and the douche fixation
Dear Mexican, I’m a civil rights lawyer. I sue the San Diego Minutemen. Whenever the Minutemen are accused of being racist they always say something like, “I’m part-Hispanic,” or they’ll note that some of their members are Mexican. This last claim is actually true. Some of the most zealous Minutemen…
Sugarcane’s Scarlet Letter
I took my friend Lee for a cocktail at Sugarcane (1919 Washington Ave., 713-864-9463) to treat him special in honor of his imminent departure for a summer in Mexico. Normally that situation would call for a well drink and a “see you in September.” But he’s going to Monterrey to train…
Concrete Dreams
Sometimes an artist — Dutch-born painter Vincent van Gogh, for example — has to die before his work is recognized by the world. Hip-hop artist Aaron Manuel Beltran, known as Preemo, is okay with that possibility. He says he’s created his career’s masterpiece, did so on his terms and could…
Road Dogs
American Fangs is easily one of Houston’s most unsung bands. Their slinky, aggressive rock and roll is a stark contrast to the rest of the city’s pop-core bands, but the Fangs haven’t suffered any for it. The quartet has been on the road for the better part of the past…
