Digging Around the All-But-Abandoned Astrodome
The Reliant Astrodome was — is — the Eighth Wonder of the World. Generations of Houston-area kids spent their days dreaming of playing on the field under that massive domed ceiling. It’s one of our city’s last non-NASA ties to the space program, this UFO-like structure in the middle of…
Fresh Arts Coalition and Spacetaker Get Hitched
After a period of time, merging Fresh Arts Coalition and Spacetaker became a no-brainer, says Jenni Rebecca Stephenson, executive director of what is now known as Fresh Arts. On Tuesday, Fresh Arts Coalition (founded in 2002) and Spacetaker (birthed in 2003) announced that they have started the several-month process of…
The Healthiest County in Texas Definitely Isn’t Around Here
The University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation have put together a list of health by county across the nation, looking at births, deaths and various measures of the quality of life. You can get a statewide ranking of the counties in your state, and…
The Pass and Provisions To Move Into Old Gravitas Space
The pilot light has been lit: Chefs Terrence Gallivan and Seth Siegel-Gardner of Pilot Light Restaurant Group finally announced plans for their first restaurant space yesterday. The Pass and Provisions will be opening at 807 Taft, in the former space of both Gravitas and — before that — the original…
Forget Kraftwerk, 5 Acts We’d Like To See In Houston Museums
Next week, German electronic-music pioneers Kraftwerk will perform eight of their albums in their entirety, from 1974’s Autobahn through 2003’s Tour de France, at New York City’s Museum of Modern Art. The album that spawned the closest thing duo had to a “pop hit,” the title track of 1977’s Trans-Europe…
Stephen Colbert’s Super Pac Collaboration with UT Student Goes National
Stephen Colbert’s deconstruction of the inanity of election spending has been brilliant — usually there’s no way you’re ever going to get anyone to care about this stuff, but he’s found a way to expose all the ridiculousness of it in a way that keeps viewers hooked. And now he…
A Wonderful Time at Brenner’s on the Bayou’s Wine Revolution
This past weekend, beautiful Houstonians donning flats and bright resort-casual attire, per the event’s invitation, skipped out on their Saturday country club visits and spa days in favor of Brenner’s on the Bayou’s third annual Wine Revolution. Set in tents under the bright sun, amidst Brenner’s hilly greenery, the flawlessly…
Poetic First Ward For Sale Signs: What’s the Story?
A couple of weeks ago while on staycation, I took a daylong bike ride from the northwest corner of the Inner Loop to the southeast, from just west of the Heights to and through the godforsaken little Manchester neighborhood. Along the way, I saw some strange and wonderful things, like…
Isaiah Nicholas: 4-Year-Old’s Shooter Is Charged, on the Run (UPDATED)
A man has been charged with aggravated assault for opening fire on a northeast-side home and hitting in the head a four-year-old boy who was playing inside. Isaiah Nicholas is still hospitalized in critical condition, but Fox 26 reports that Candale Dekota Hall, 24, has been charged in the March…
Upcoming: Santigold, Yacht, Local H, Melissa Etheridge, Guy Clark, Etc.
10 Years, Fair To Midland, Kyng: Sat., June 30. Warehouse Live, 813 St. Emanuel, Houston. Acid Mothers Temple, The Phantom Family Halo: Thu., May 10. Fitzgerald’s, 2706 White Oak, Houston. American Sharks, Knights Of The Fire Kingdom, We Were Wolves, Co-Pilot: Fri., May 25. Fitzgerald’s, 2706 White Oak, Houston. Andrea…
Tuesday April 3, 2012 Deals of the Day: The Teahouse, Tango & Malbec and More
Today’s Houston Press Voice Daily Deal is good for half-off ($10 for $20) tapioca, teas, and juices at The Teahouse. As the temperatures heat up and we approach scorching summertime weather, The Teahouse keeps things light and cool. Reinvigorating refreshments include your choice of more than 160 drink flavors, from…
Wine Time: A Favorite Wine for Easter Lamb
When it comes to pairing wine with food, we live by two maxims at our house. 1. If it grows with it, it goes with it. (Motto attributed to the great New York restaurateur Danny Meyer.) Look to traditional pairings as rules-of-thumb. For example, the inhabitants of the western coast…
Houston Scores Big-Time In Latest Edition Of Encyclopedia Of Country Music: Part 4
Our fourth installment of Houston-area country-music pioneers honored with inclusion in the second edition of The Encyclopedia of Country Music details the last of an amazing group of local musicians from the ’30s, ’40s, and ’50s who left their brand on the people’s music. While the Appalachian and Tennessee pickers…
UPDATED:The Seafarer: Gregory Boyd Bets It’ll Make You LOL and Stop Your Breath
Due to an injury incurred by actor Jeffrey Bean, the performance run of The Seafarer was postponed. They have been rescheduled for April 14,15, 17 and 18 with Opening Night on April 19 and continuing through May 5. Patrons who have tickets that are not on the new schedule will…
Omar Daniel Gonzalez-Torres: Craigslist Prank Backfires, Leads to April Fool’s Day in Jail
According to what he told police, Omar Daniel Gonzalez-Torres was upset at the way a woman was treating his girlfriend, so he chose the route of high-tech vengeance. Posing as his girlfriend’s alleged antagonist, the 21-year-old College Station man took out a Craigslist “casual encounters” ad offering up various sexual…
Bernie’s Burger Bus Wins the 2012 Burger Bracket
School’s out for summer: The little yellow school bus that delivers some seriously juicy burgers, Bernie’s Burger Bus, won our 2nd annual Burger Bracket last night at The Distillery. It was a fortuitous time for a win, as Bernie’s has just launched a second bus in its burger fleet. You…
Fashion Meets Fitness: Four Reasons to Sweat in Style
Perhaps you are asking yourself whether fashion should ever meet fitness. After all, who cares what you wear when you’re hot, sweaty and stinky? There was a time when we would have agreed — our grossest pair of shorts and oldest, rattiest T-shirt would do just fine for a run…
Linus Pauling Quartet Plans Summer Campaign Of Stoner D&D Metal
Five years sounds like a long time unless you’re one of Texas’ most nefarious stoner-rock merchants. In that case, sometimes one song can feel like five years. Really, it’s hard to believe that much time has gone by since Houston (mostly) five-piece Linus Pauling Quartet’s last new album, 2007’s All…
Emma Miranda, 2, and Her Mom Victoria: Somewhere Out There Is the Driver Who Killed Them
Somewhere out there is someone who was driving an “unknown black vehicle” in the 13600 block of Westheimer about 2:30 Saturday morning. Whoever he or she is, the driver killed a 24-year-old mom and her two-year-old daughter, then sped away. Victoria Evelyn Miranda, 24, and Emma Leann Miranda, two, who…
A Crucifixion Playlist By A Satanist. Hey! That Rhymed!
Everyone who isn’t going to burn in a lake of fire after they die, and even some of us, know that Jesus Christ was crucified on Good Friday only to respawn three days later on Easter. At that point, he emerged from a rabbit hole with a collection of painted…
DVDs & Blu-rays: Being Elmo, the Battle of the Blonds and Old Blue Eyes
Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey stars Kevin Clash, Frank Oz and Whoopi Goldberg: Constance Marks directs. Nothing could entice us to review either of the two big-budget films being released on DVD/Blu-ray this week, you know, the one about a horse and the other one about a zoo. It’s not…
Top 5 Seasonal Commercial Easter Snacks
When I blogged about my five favorite commercial Halloween snacks, reader Maggie noted: “The reason why Halloween is my favorite holiday but Easter is my favorite ‘candy holiday’ is because not many unique candies or candy varieties come out around Halloween.” True dat, young Maggie. But what about other Easter…
Inuchan: Brazos Bookstore Becomes Your Own Personal Librarian
Have you ever wanted to be a member of a book club, but without the annoying conversation? Or, maybe you’ve wanted your own personal shopper, who picks out books guaranteed to please and enlighten you? That’s the idea behind a new program at Brazos Bookstore geared toward finding the perfect…
The Byrd at Hearsay Gastro Lounge
There was a time in my life when I couldn’t imagine spending more than five bucks on a burger; now, I’m smitten with The Byrd at Hearsay Gastro Lounge despite its $15 price tag. At Hearsay, the regular burger, composed of angus beef, cheddar, bacon, red onions, and chipotle mayo,…
Ed Crawford & Co. Rekindle Their fIREHOSE
It seemed like someone’s idea of a joke at Harlow’s in Sacramento in late December 2011 when this announcement was made: fIREHOSE would be playing the club next April. Whaaat? fIREHOSE? The hugely influential power trio of the ’80s and ’90s that alternative, indie and grunge fans could all agree…
Comment of the Day: TAPPS, You Never Fail to Deliver
We have some great commenters here on Hair Balls, and it’s time we paid some damn attention to them. So we’ll be highlighting a Comment of the Day each morning, from the previous day’s work. Maybe two comments, even. This will all be determined by a highly rigorous scientific formula…
Pop Rocks: How Does Jack and Jill Stack Up Against the Worst Movies of the 21st Century?
It’s fitting that on the eve of the boffo 3D re-release of Titanic, a film tied with two others for most Oscar wins by a single movie, Adam Sandler’s latest parvum opus — Jack and Jill — swept all ten categories at last Sunday’s Razzies. Sandler himself “won” for both…
A Florida Woman’s Long Search for Her Korean Birth Mother Ends, in All Places, Here in Houston
Chae Haile is a woman born in Korea and left to be adopted by a mother who had few resourses and four daughters already. She was sent to America and, eventually, married and settled in Florida. She set out to look for her birth mother, went to Korea for information,…
The Astrodome: Crunch Time Is Coming (We Hope)
It’s been seven years since we wrote about the decrepit Astrodome, and how — at that time — it was all but abandoned, except for the occasional high school playoff game or, yes, bar mitzvah. There will be another burst of discussion today about the Dome because, after a couple…
Where Are We Drinking?
Now that pleasantly warm weather is back, here’s an idea: Enjoy it while it lasts on a sunny patio with a peach iced tea before it gets excruciatingly hot. That’s what we’re doing this week at a popular Italian restaurant up north. Does the set-up above look familiar? If you…
Rap Round Table: What’s The Scariest Movie You’ve Ever Seen?
Some rappers happen to be thoughtful, intelligent people. Each week, Rocks Off will have some of them here discussing issues relevant to their culture. This Week’s Panel: Doughbeezy, B L A C K I E, Chane, Willie D, ESG, Kyle Hubbard, Propain Not Invited: Tom Six, director of Human Centipede…
The Many “Layers” of Gallery Sonja Roesch
The three artists united in “Layers,” a new show up at Gallery Sonja Roesch, don’t seem related at all at first — they live in different countries, work in different mediums and their pieces have vastly different effects on the viewer. The reductive factor that does unite them — “layers”…
Cops Say Seqoia Lemon Threw Daughter to Ground, Spit in Her Face Because She Wanted to Do Volunteer Work
You better think twice about volunteering to build homes in a needy neighborhood with a church group, at least if your dad is Seqoia Lemon and what police allege is true. Court documents say Lemon, 41, flew off the handle when his 13-year-old daughter told him at their Spring home…
Sarah Tressler: 5 Strippers Who Did Just Fine (NSFW)
This reporter is utterly baffled by scandal around Sarah Tressler, the Houston Chronicle society journalist that was reported by Houston Press as working as a stripper in the evenings and then blogging about her adventures. Mostly because we’re pretty sure if we went back to performing in a corset and…
Folk Family Revival Song Featured On Tonight’s Justified
Houston’s Folk Family Revival remains one of the best acts in the city. The three Lankford Brothers and their buddy Caleb Pace released an unimaginably perfect Americana album last year with Unfolding, which was nominated for two Lone Star Music Awards this past weekend, and have continued to build a…
March Madness — 4 Prop Bets for NCAA Title Game (and My Game Prediction)
In Friday’s post, it turns out I went a painful 0-2 on my Final Four semifinal selections, with Kentucky missing by half a point against Louisville (in a game where, in ultra-shady fashion, Louisville folded up their tents down eight with 30 seconds to go), and Ohio State choking away…
TAPPS Head Edd Burleson’s Take on Non-Christian Schools: A Texas Shanda for the Goyim
Edd Burleson is the head of the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools, and when it comes to discussing recent controversies between TAPPS and non-Christian schools, he brings the crazy like he brings the “d”s to his first name. The Dallas Morning News published an interview with Burleson Sunday,…
Courtney Dickerson’s Reaction to Break-Up: Rape, Two Kidnappings & Suicide
It’s safe to say 22-year-old Courtney Elton Dickerson didn’t take the break-up of his relationship well. So he scarred three lives and ended his own. Police say Dickerson had been going out with a woman until last week. Thursday he abducted her, raped her and then dropped her off at…
15 Things Rocks Off Learned Watching The ACM Awards
Sunday nights, I usually like to watch The Amazing Race after 60 Minutes. I don’t usually watch much reality television at all, but something about the combination of total incompetence, vicious backstabbing and exotic locales as several, two-person teams race around the globe is completely intoxicating. Unfortunately, last night the…
Cosplay: Rich’s Freakshow Gets Us in the Mood
Club slideshows don’t normally run on Art Attack — that’s typically sister blog Rocks Off’s territory, but we just couldn’t help marvel (geddit) at these pics from Rich’s over the weekend. The dance club hosts a monthly event called Freakshow, where partiers and employees are encouraged to dress up according…
Austin Beer Fest Turns Into Houston Beer Fest Disaster, Redux
This past June, the inaugural Houston Beer Fest at Hermann Square Park outsold the space by 8,000 tickets, infuriating attendees. But that was just the first of many problems for the event. Lines to get in stretched for blocks as many guests suffered heat exhaustion. Lines inside the event were…
Friday Night: Bomb The Music Industry! At Walter’s
Bomb the Music Industry!, Laura Stevenson and The Cans, LIMB, Lisa’s Sons Walter’s March 30, 2012 New York natives Bomb the Music Industry! is a project spawned from Jeff Rosenstock of Arrogant Sons of Bitches after they broke up. Bomb the Music Industry! provides anthems for taking life with a…
The Jacksons Reunion Tour Set To Hit Houston July 14
Since their brother Michael passed away in June 2009, there has been persistent talk of a full-scale Jacksons tour, with the surviving Jackson brothers on board performing their collective hits and the hits of brother Jermaine. Today the iconic sibling group — Jackie, Jermaine, Marlon and Tito Jackson — announced…
What’s Cooking This Week?
I loved last week’s menu. Mango Chutney + Prosciutto + Pizza = Pure Bliss. Veal Saltimbocca ain’t so bad either. This week, since I have some leftover beer from the weekend and because I just freaking love it, I’m making a beer can chicken (along with another four meals to…
Lavandra Stevens, 24, Killed By Boyfriend Who Calls 911 & Flees, Bayou Body Count No. 41
Police are looking for a man they say killed his girlfriend, called 911 and then fled. Alan Erskine, 38, is charged with murder in the death of Lavandra Stevens, 24, about six in the morning Sunday in an apartment in the 4200 block of West 34th Street. Police say she…
How to Become a Beerknurd at The Flying Saucer
If you want a place to try beer, the shiny new Flying Saucer in Sugar Land does everything it can to help you achieve that goal, and it does it in a way that makes you want to come back again and again. There are 86 beers on tap, and…
Rick Perry, Singing at the Urinal: There’s Something Wrong with This Anecdote
Gawker has an exclusive excerpt from a Politico e-book on the 2012 GOP primaries. Their excerpt focuses on Rick Perry’s bathroom habits, but we doubt something in the story. The manager of a rival campaign was at a urinal in an empty bathroom in Hanover, New Hampshire, before the Bloomberg…
Last Night: Jandek At Big Star Bar
Jandek Big Star Bar April 1, 2012 The first time I saw Jandek live, I learned to leave whatever I had been expecting in another room. That was Rudyard’s in April 2009, and I had been expecting (correctly or not) some kind of solo Bill Callahan-like avant-folk implosion, and got…
Look at That S Car Go
It’s not just a punchline to a joke in that classic holiday movie, Trading Places. Now it’s also a Houston food truck. L’es-Car-Go — pronounced just like l’escargot — will be the city’s first all-French food truck. Jean-Philippe and Genevieve Guy, owners of the 14-year-old Bistro Provence in Memorial, will…
Fast Times: Kolache and Donuts from Shipley’s Donuts
We’ve been traveling a lot in my house lately, and one of the results of that hectic schedule has been almost weekly trips to Bush Intercontinental Airport during the wee hours. When I’m the one doing the dropping off I usually try to eat a healthy snack before I leave…
Rocks Off Is Experiencing Technical Difficulties
The Internet — whaddaya gonna do? The Houston Press has been having difficulty merging onto the Information Superhighway all morning, but we hope to resume our regular blogging schedule shortly. Stay tuned…
ICE Sweep Nets 74, Including Child Molesters, in Houston Area
A nationwide sweep of convicted criminal aliens, immigration fugitives and “egregious” immigration violators resulted in almost 100 arrests out of the Houston field office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE took in 3,100 people nationwide in its six-day “Cross Check” operation, with 74 coming in Houston, 11 in Beaumont and…
Mad Men: Will It Ever Be Normal Again?
Roughly three quarters of the way through last night’s episode of Mad Men, Roger asks Don when things will become “normal” again. What normal is to Roger Sterling may be stability, respect and a world where he can coast by, drink martinis and still be revered. What constitutes normal to…
Cuttin’ Up: A Tapestry of History Through Hair at Ensemble Theatre
The setup: The chrome on the three barber chairs gleams brightly in Janelle Flanagan’s “kitchen sink” set for Charles Randolph-Wright’s rich, if sketchy, tapestry of black life as witnessed in a contemporary Houston barbershop. Clippers buzz, scissors click and men talk on the Ensemble Theatre stage as an entire panorama…
What I Want In My Easter Basket
In one of his stand-up routines, Jerry Seinfeld has a terrific bit on Halloween, in which he says the “only clear thought” he had in the first 10 years of his life was: “Get candy.” Hmm. “Get candy” still dominates my psyche 30 years later…and counting. Which is probably one…
Dance Salad 2012: Nancy Henderek Gives Us Some of the Highlights
Dance Salad director and producer Nancy Henderek travels the world searching for choreographers and dancers to bring to the performing arts festival she founded 20 years ago in Brussels and then brought to Houston. Rather than looking for undiscovered stars or courting famous companies, Henderek says she looks for people…
Easter Potluck: Homemade Spinach Bread
This year, I’m attending my second annual Friendster. While it sounds like it is named after a defunct social network, it’s actually an Easter potluck with my degenerate group of friends. This year, I’ll be making one of my family’s favorite holiday treats: Homemade Spinach Bread. The hot and crisp…
Comment of the Day: Those New UT Football Uniforms
We have some great commenters here on Hair Balls, and it’s time we paid some damn attention to them. So we’ll be highlighting a Comment of the Day each morning, from the previous day’s work. Maybe two comments, even. This will all be determined by a highly rigorous scientific formula…
In Which John Royal Predicts the Winner of the 2012 World Series
The major league baseball season officially started last week when the Oakland A’s and Seattle Mariners played two games in Tokyo. Most of the other teams open on Thursday, and the Astros get started on Friday when they host the Colorado Rockies. Thus, here are my predictions for this season…
Game of Thrones: “The North Remembers”
So, where were we? At the end of the first season of Game of Thrones, George R.R. Martin’s epic blood and breast-laden tale of royal succession, supernatural threats and — oh yeah — dragons, things weren’t looking good for House Stark. Eddard, family patriarch and former Hand of the King,…
Summer Ott: Memorial Hermann Hires the Michael Jordan of Preventing & Treating Youth Concussions
Memorial Hermann now boasts the Michael Jordan of concussion expertise: Neuropsychologist Summer Ott, Psy.D., has been brought on board to head up the Sports Concussion Program at the Ironman Sports Medicine Institute at Memorial Hermann. Along with her deep knowledge of head trauma caused during athletic competition, Dr. Ott, who…
These Movies From 1992 Are All 20 Years Old
A few weeks back while deep into hours upon hours of research for a Pauly Shore blog post — joking — I came to realize that 1992 was a big year for movies. It’s unsettling to think that all of these movies are two decades old, because in 1992 when…
An Idea That Doesn’t Suck: Color Your Own Willie D
“Coloring sucks. I don’t wanna color.” –Nobody ever One night late last week at about 4 a.m., my brain decided it wanted to stop sleeping and start listening to Willie D’s Controversy. So I did that. And maybe, like, three-quarters of the way through, my brain decided it wanted to…
Where Are We Eating?
Can’t decide between a Belgian waffle or a glazed Shipley’s donut for breakfast? Have them both at this local eatery. With bacon. And maple syrup. And whipped cream. And then go update your will. (P.S. My full legal name is Katharine Leigh Shilcutt, just…so…you know, you can get that update…
Shanice Lambert: Another Panhandle Teacher Accused of Sexual Misconduct
What in tarnation is going on in the schoolhouses on Texas’s High Plains? The latest in the Shame Parade is Shanice Lambert, who looks much more glamorous on her Facebook page than in her Armstrong County mugshot. According to the Amarillo Globe-News, police in Childress accuse the 37-year-old teacher’s aide…
5 Songs For International Children’s Literature Day
Founded in 1967 and meant to coincide with the April 2 birthday of Hans Christian Andersen, the legendary Danish author of classic children’s tales like The Little Mermaid, Thumbelina, and the Ugly Duckling, International Children’s Literature Day is a celebration of books meant to encourage young people to read. The…
Mass Effect 3 to Get New Ending, and 5 More Games That Also Should
Mass Effect 3 has been the subject of near-universal scorn over its ending. We won’t go into spoilers here, but we will say that for a series based on the power of choices and the repercussions of those choices, Mass Effect 3 really didn’t offer a whole lot of wiggle…
HISD Won’t Be Merging with North Forest ISD, For Now
The Texas Education Agency’s plan to have the Houston school district absorb the chronically troubled North Forest district has been shelved, for now at least. TEA commissioner Robert Scott informed HISD by letter today that merging with NFISD “is no longer an option,” HISD spokesman Jason Spencer says. Scott “left…
This Week in Deliciousness: New Mex to Tex-Mex, the Monte Cristo & More
Welcome back to the weekly roundup here at Eating Our Words, where we’re growing out our summer mustaches so that we can carry around the savory scent of any crawfish boils we attend for at least a week. Speaking of weeks, we started this one off right with a look…
Weekend’s Best Bets — Final Four and Wrestlemania 28
When I was a kid, there were only a small handful of sporting events to which you set your calendar/watch, events that owned certain weekends or weeks of the calendar year. They were the biggies: Super Bowl, World Series, NBA Finals. But with the advent of a million different television…
Cover Your Eyes, Longhorns: The New UT Football Unis Are Horrible
Nike is either the coolest thing to happen to college football or the absolute worst. Their attention-grabbing uniforms, which began with Oregon but are now spreading everywhere, look either hideous or hip, depending on your viewpoint. And now the University of Texas is in the spotlight. Photos and drawings are…
Wine Subject to Availability? Texas Sommeliers Respond
In the wake of last week’s post here at Wine Time (“What To Do When Fine Wine Service Is Really Bad?”), I wrote to some of the top sommeliers in Texas asking them how they would have handled the situation. (Background: I ordered three bottles of white wine from a…
Pamela Leggett Used eBay to Make 122 Homemade Bombs
A Chambers County woman has pleaded guilty to owning 122 illegal homemade bombs she assembled with ingredients bought on eBay, the U.S. Attorney’s Office says. Pamela Leggett, 31, was arrested after a dramatic confrontation at her Anahuac home in which a cop was killed and her husband, who had done…
5 Artists Whose Second Acts Surpassed Their First
Rocks Off has always had a soft spot for Rick Nelson. Although our oldest memory of him is probably hearing about the plane crash outside Texarkana that killed him, his band and his fiancee on New Year’s Eve 1985, we’re also old enough to remember actually his songs like “Hello,…
Upcoming Events: Forks Over Knives and Farm Dinners
First things first: Don’t forget that this coming Monday, April 2 is our Championship Tasting for the 2012 Burger Bracket. If you disagree with any of the Final 4 contenders, be one of the first 100 people to come out to The Distillery at 4 p.m. and judge the burgers…
Your Odd “Cop vs. Two Guys Videoing Walmart” Confrontation of the Day
This has been posted to YouTube — two guys videotaping a Houston Walmart, and their subsequent confrontation with security. From the uniform, the security guard seems to be a moonlighting deputy constable, but we’re not sure. Things get a bit out of hand as both sides make some tactical mistakes,…
Dining Out on Easter, a.k.a. Brunchapalooza
It’s a little bit breakfast, a little bit lunch, and it’s socially acceptable to drink before noon in public. Yes, my friends: Brunch is a beautiful thing. And Easter Sunday is the mother of all brunch celebrations. When it comes to Easter in Houston these things we know for sure:…
Aeros Watching a Playoff Spot Slip-Slide Away
John RoyalMatt Hackett watches the puck slip past him early in last night’s game.The old Paul Simon song goes “the nearer your destination, the more you’re slip-slidin’ away.” He wasn’t writing about hockey, but at this moment, there’s nothing that applies more to the Houston Aeros because the nearer they…
Last Night: Bret Michaels At House Of Blues
Bret Michaels House of Blues March 29, 2012 Bret Michaels already had one foot firmly planted in “rock star parody” territory long before VH1 ever got a hold of him. His band Poison, those four horsemen of the ’80s hair metal apocalypse, were such a personification of that decade’s rock…
Stencil: The Week in Photos (NSFW)
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…
Kim Son Cafe in The Woodlands Disappoints
“Have you ever eaten at Kim Son Cafe ?” I recently asked a food-loving friend. “Are you kidding me?” he said. “I eat there at least once a week – they have some of the best food in the area.” This was a meaningful statement coming from this particular friend,…
Jose Hernandez: Shuttle Vet Allowed to Call Himself “Astronaut”
Jose Hernandez flew on the space shuttle in 2009 and worked on the International Space Station, but he’s been having a court battle over whether he can refer to himself as an “astronaut.” Hernandez, who stirred up some controversy with his immigration stances as an astronaut, retired in 2011 and…
Community “Digital Exploration of Interior Design”
Tonight’s summary is presented to you in real time as we watched the episode for the first time. Well, with lots of pauses. God bless you, DVR technology. It seems like we’re back to airing the episodes in order. Tonight’s episode starts with Dean Pelton excitedly opening the Cafetorium’s new…
Last Night: The-Dream At Fitzgerald’s
The-Dream, Jack Freeman, Lee-Lonn March 29, 2012 Fitzgerald’s “When you’re fucking the wrong bitch, bad things happen.” The-Dream, clad in a black T-shirt, some cheap Ray-Ban frames with a Raiders snapback and those rather extravagant “You Aren’t Really Up On This” Nike MAGs shoes said that Thursday night, sending those…
Fifty Shades of Grey: An Erotic Tale Gone Viral
Christian Grey, is everything a woman could want…blonde, beautiful, rich and exceptionally charismatic…but he also has a sinister side. Fifty Shades of Grey is an erotic tale which follows the dangerous relationship between a 27-year-old billionaire, Christian Grey and a quiet 21-year-old college student, Anastasia Steele. These two characters quickly…
Openings & Closings: Green Seed Grows Roots
Starting off the week with two bits of good news: Green Seed Vegan has moved out of its food truck confines and into a space of its own. The new spot at Wheeler and Almeda is conveniently located just down the street from Green Seed’s former digs in the Third…
Comment of the Day: That Anti-Gay Professor of Theater Is in for a Shock
We have some great commenters here on Hair Balls, and it’s time we paid some damn attention to them. So we’ll be highlighting a Comment of the Day each morning, from the previous day’s work. Maybe two comments, even. This will all be determined by a highly rigorous scientific formula…
Health Department Roundup: Check Out These Schools
We haven’t eaten in a school cafeteria in a long time. Our high school had open lunches and we usually went elsewhere. We worked as an HISD substitute teacher for a while and usually spent lunches in a classroom with a sandwich, wondering if Mama Cass suffered much or if…
Electric Touch: Their Sinister Plot Exposed
It’s a well-known fact that most band names are essentially gobbledygook, but here at Rocks Off we’re trying hard to find meaning in the oddest monikers. Posters extolling the virtues of Austin’s Electric Touch were freakin’ everywhere at SXSW, so when the band decided to bring their dog-and-pony show to…
Person of Interest: Identity Crisis
As much as we love this show, last night’s episode showed some tired ideas after starting out with an intriguing twist on its usual Number of the Week. And while it’s good to see Lionel Fusco occasionally finding his inner goodness, the resolution of his subplot was a jump-the-shark moment…
Sarah Tressler Finally Speaks Out, Says We’re “Mean”
Sarah Tressler, the Houston Chronicle society reporter who gained national, if not worldwide, fame for also being a stripper, made her first public statements this morning. Good Morning America flew her to New York and she spoke about her experience. Two things we did not know that we learned in…
Reviews for the Easily Distracted: Wrath of the Titans
Title: Wrath of the Titans What Unanswered Questions From Clash of the Titans Were Addressed This Time Around? Whether Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes will turn down any script. That would be “no.” Rating Using Random Objects Relevant To The Film: One and a half Cyclopes out of five. Brief…
Hoodie History 101: Bun B Speaks On The Death Of Trayvon Martin
When Rocks Off researched our hoodie history, we found its roots and its perceptions to be as complex and racially charged as the death of Trayvon Martin. The hoodie, of course, has become the visual rallying cry for Martin’s supporters on Twitter and Facebook profile pages nationwide. While the hoodie…
Is It Time for The Office to Call It Quits?
It just might be time for The Office to go out of business. Staff writer and executive producer Paul Lieberstein is rumored to be leaving the NBC staple at the end of this season. In addition to being the guy behind the guy, Lieberstein plays the under-appreciated Human Resource rep…
Bartender Chat: Mike Shapiro of Char Bar
This week, I paid a visit to a sometime overlooked stop among Market Square bar-crawlers: the tailor and watering hole-in-one, Char Bar (pronounced “sh” as in champagne). Maybe people are confused by the signs, as one reads “Duke of Hollywood Tailors” and another “Char Bar.” So which is it? It’s…
Five Good Reasons to Start Backing Up Your Computer Now
Back in the late ’90s when a young Justin Timberlake was touring the world with ‘N Sync and people still hadn’t abbreviated “electronic” mail, a funny thing happened to me — and by funny, I really mean horrifying. I had just installed a software update on my Bondi Blue iMac…
Week in Photos: Tall Ship
Each week, we take a dip into the Houston Press Flickr pool and see what our talented photographers have been up to. We’re looking for pictures that represent the best of Houston, from food to art to events, to secret hidden spots of beauty. Just drop them in our Flickr…
Joan Jett’s Bad Reputation Gets Her Booked
Bad Reputation: The Unauthorized Biography of Joan Jett By Dave Thompson Backbeat Books, 300 pp., $19.99. From her days as a Runaway (the band, not the teen social problem), to massive MTV stardom, to leaner years and her elevation as a godmother of riot grrls/girls who rock, Joan Jett’s career…
The Ship of Dreams: Things We Can Thank Titanic for
According to director James Cameron, the RMS Titanic was “the Mount Everest of shipwrecks” and it was ripe for a film revival, something that could humanize for modern audiences an event that at the time of the flick’s production was 84 years old. Released on December 19, 1997, Titanic would…
April Fools’ Day Pranks: Six Suggestions That Will Have You Thinking “Are People Really This Lame?”
Sunday is April Fools’ Day, which is a blessing since if it was on a workday we’d have to hear about wacky morning radio hosts bringing the hilarity. But apparently some people take the day seriously, like the folks at the April Fool Zone Web site, which offers “unique and…
6 Cool & Cheap Things To Do This Weekend
The “Reggae Riddim Revival” rides into Last Concert Cafe Friday with D.R.U.M., Bigga Staar, Zin and DJ Meshak, plus live painting and dancers. Before 9:30 p.m., cover is only $5 if you bring a hand drum. In case you were wondering, there will be a drum circle. In one of…
100 Creatives 2012: Johnathan Felton
What He Does: Johnathan Felton specializes in sketches, paintings and drawings, mostly stunning nudes using loosely defined scribbles. His images are dreamlike, monochromatic studies of the human form, though he is planning on branching out into more color work in the future. For the last ten years he’s maintained a…
The Rest of the Best: Houston’s Top 5 Bloody Marys
For the next 20 weeks, we’ll be rounding up the runners-up to our 2011 Best of Houston® winners. In many categories, picking each year’s winner is no easy task. We’ll be spotlighting 20 of those categories, in which the winner had hefty competition from other Houston bars and restaurants. Well,…
Babyboy Small, Vernon Wade Baloney: Funny (Alleged) Criminal Names, Spring 2012 Edition
The recent travails of Crystal Angel Sugars reminded us that it was time to cobble together another of our semi-regular lists of the strangest, funniest and most downright awesome names we come across in our daily perusal of the Harris County Criminal Courthouse dockets. You can read our most recent…
Mega Millions: Top 10 Movie Tales About the Good/Bad of Winning a Load of Cash
The Mega Million jackpot is currently up to the obscene and unprecedented amount of $500 million and the most anticipated lottery drawing in years is happening on Friday. (We’ll wait for you to run to the gas station and buy a ticket.) Now that you’ve returned with your quick picks…
Katy Perry: Pop Star Runs Afoul Of Alex Jones And InfoWars
Katy Perry’s newest video for “Part Of Me”, featuring her chopping off her hair in a bathroom before joining the Marine Corps, seems to be pissing off a few people, including our fellow Texan Alex Jones. According to the Austin freedom fighter and radio host, it’s a man-hating recruitment video…
The Texans Unleash Their Free Agency Assault…by Signing the Rams’ Punter
The offseason started out just fine for the Texans, with the team inking star running back Arian Foster to a five-year, $40 million contract. Since then, other than the re-signing of center Chris Myers, it’s been a depressing parade of one guy after another either leaving or being asked to…
Tearful Treasures Dancers Ask Judge to Renew the Liquor Permit; City Asks to Put the Smackdown
Dancers from Treasures implored a state administrative judge today to renew the club’s liquor permit and dismiss the city’s protests. (No ruling has been issued yet.) The dancers — some of whom said they were single mothers and small business owners — told State Office of Administrative Hearings Judge Roshunda…
Houston Woman Invents Nacho-Eating Utensil, Other Than Your Fingers
“The Nacho Grabber (N-Grip) is an eating utensil, a sort of fork-like, easily handled personal tongs used when eating nachos, which can be very messy when eaten as a finger-food,” begins a confused-sounding press release from Invention Resource International about a recent Texan invention. “Sort of fork-like,” huh? I guess…
RIP Earl Scruggs: 4 Other Icons For Odd Musical Instruments
Rocks Off was saddened to hear this morning that bluegrass great Earl Scruggs passed away Wednesday in a Nashville hospital at age 88. It’s safe to say that the North Carolina native, best known for his fruitful partnership with guitarist Lester Flatt, was the most famous banjo player in the…
PETA Asks Joel Osteen to Hang a “Go Vegan” Banner in His Church
We guess there’s no harm in trying. PETA has written a letter asking Joel Osteen to hang a large “Go Vegan” banner in Lakewood Church, for which in return they will “prepare a delicious Easter Sunday faux-ham meal with all the trimmings for his parishioners.” Why Osteen? PETA seems to…
Free for All: Art Without a Price Tag — Houston Japan Fest, Shell Eco-Challenge & More
There’s a car race starting on Friday, the Shell Eco-Challenge Marathon. Well, we call it a car race, but it’s not a race exactly. Instead of seeing who can go the fastest, the object here is to see who can go the longest on a gallon of fuel. And while…
Dirty, Guilty Little Pleasures
After eating somewhere in the ball park of 12 Robin’s Eggs today, with my stomach getting that sour, sickly feeling from too much sugar, I realized a few things: First: There’s a little fat kid living inside of me. And second: I came to grips with the fact that I,…
Laundry for Foodies: The Dining Room Meets the Laundry Room
Fun fact: I’m kind of a mess. I want to be one of those together people who always looks pressed and polished, but most days I’m somewhere on the spectrum between “slightly rumpled” and “totally disheveled.” My unparalleled ability to get food on myself has only been increased by my…
Victoria Garrick, Multi-Tasker: Stabs Boyfriend While Driving
Women, amirite? You’re driving down the highway and look over and there’s some dame doing 70 mph while putting on her makeup. Or stabbing someone. Victoria Garrick, 21, faces aggravated assault charges for an incident yesterday morning on the Gulf Freeway. She was driving a Kia Spectra with her two…
10 Things We Learned At The Awready! Houston Hip Hop Conference
The much-anticipated Awready! Houston Hip-Hop Music Conference was held Wednesday at the University of Houston, drawing in academics, screwheads, and media alike. The conference is a joint venture between the University of Houston Libraries and Rice University’s H.E.R.E. Project (Houston Enriches Rice Education). Julie Grob hosted the event along with…
Attorney Randall Kallinen Recruits Daniel Johnston to Perform at Kallinen Contemporary’s Grand Opening
For a self-proclaimed newbie gallerist, Randall Kallinen, a local civil rights attorney, isn’t messing around with this weekend’s grand opening of Kallinen Contemporary. Along with showcasing the work of more than 20 artists in a space that’s fall-on-the-floor beautiful, Daniel Johnston — yes, “the Daniel Johnston,” Kallinen tells Art Attack…
Feel Like Family (and Dine On Some Succulent Lobster) at Palm Restaurant
Palm Restaurant has been an institution since opening its first doors in New York City back in 1926. Now with locations worldwide and celebrating its 85th year, the family-owned restaurant has refreshed its identity. At a recent media event, I had the pleasure of enjoying a six-course tasting menu and…
Crawfish Boil Etiquette: Don’t Piss Off the Guy with the Paddle
As crawfish grow ever more popular in Houston, so do crawfish boils. Not a weekend goes by in spring when I don’t have a friend or neighbor hosting a boil at their house. And thank God, too, because I have no yard in which to host one of my own…
Mo’ Better Tunes: The Ultimate Spike Lee Soundtrack
When Spike Lee puts out a new film, I always make a point to check it out, even if I hated his last one. He’s directed more hits than misses, and even his duds have been quality duds. The first Spike Lee joint that I saw as a kid was…
Linda Ozmun: College Theater Professor Refuses to See Gay Productions, Sues
A former theater and dance professor at Beaumont’s Lamar University is suing the school, saying her tenure track was derailed because she refused to attend productions about the “homosexual lifestyle.” Linda Ozmun says her religious beliefs would not allow her to see what the suit calls “an ‘artist’ named Tim…
Best Comics in March: Crushing on Valerie and What to Do in London When You’re Dead
Once a month the amazing staff at 8th Dimension Comics selects a pile of the best new releases for us to peruse and judge. Archie #631 Confession time, we’ve always had a little crush on Valerie from Josie and the Pussycats. Don’t judge, everybody gets one cartoon to ogle. We…
Jesse Joe Hernandez at His Execution: “Go Cowboys!”
Jesse Joe Hernandez was killed last night by the state of Texas for beating an infant to death. Among his last words, besides the usual jailhouse-conversion religious stuff: “Go Cowboys!” So at least the world, which recoils at his vicious crime, can take pleasure in the fact that he suffered…
Upcoming Throwdowns, Who’s Hungry?
Chefs in Houston love each other, right? Let’s test that theory and pit them against each other. Coming up in the next few weeks are two throwdowns fit for true foodies. And trust me when I say, you won’t want to miss either of them. Kiss My Grits: A Gulf…
Marcel Khalifé — “Bob Dylan of the Middle East” — Performs at Jones Hall
It’s easy to hear that Marcel Khalifé is a songwriter to the core, even if you don’t understand a lick of Lebanese Arabic. In 1976, the Beirut, Lebanon-born musician first made a name for himself when he formed the Al Mayadeen Ensemble, a traditional Arabic group that’s heavy into interpreting…
Doctors Who Rock: 9 Musicians With Their Ph.Ds
Alice Cooper recently received an Honorary Doctorate from The Musician’s Institute in Los Angeles. After receiving the award, he said, “One more of these and I can write prescriptions.” Now you know that Alice Cooper could one day write you a prescription… to rock. You’re welcome. Out of sheer curiousity,…
Last Night: Lil Keke & Friends All-Star Birthday Bash At House Of Blues
Lil Keke & Friends All-Star Birthday Bash House of Blues March 28, 2012 Screwed Up Click veteran Lil Keke has been helping shape the sound and style of Houston rap for better than 15 years. That’s long enough to make a lot of friends in the game, and a whole…
The Dedicated Gamers Guide to Portal’s Long Fall Boots
In the video game series Portal, our protagonist Chell has three weapons at her disposal. She obviously has her wits and her portal gun, but she also needs to make sure that she’s well taken care of in the event of a high-speed impact brought about by falls. Hence, the…
Simple Sides: Delicious Herbed Quinoa
Up until about a month ago, I had never tried quinoa. I was like, “What the hell is it? How do you pronounce it? Is it a grain? Is it…like…pasta? What do you put on it? Why is there so much in my brother’s pantry?” So many questions. The bro…
Comment of the Day: Well Played, Sir
We have some great commenters here on Hair Balls, and it’s time we paid some damn attention to them. So we’ll be highlighting a Comment of the Day each morning, from the previous day’s work. Maybe two comments, even. This will all be determined by a highly rigorous scientific formula…
Pop Rocks: Traumatizing Your Kids Is for Their Own Good
Easter is less than two weeks away, which — if you’re a parent — means you’ll probably be dealing with at least two unpleasant occurrences: projectile vomiting brought on by overconsumption of Peeps, and the dread Easter egg hunt. “Wait,” you’re saying, “Egg hunts? What could possibly be unpleasant about…
Billy Regenhard Punches His Way to an Impressive List of Charges
It started as a domestic violence call, but by the time 22-year-old Billy Reganhard got through assaulting his girlfriend, neighbors and cops, he had racked up an impressive list of charges. Fox 26 reports that Fort Bend County Sheriff’s deputies went to answer the call in Pecan Grove Tuesday afternoon…
DUI Suspect Jason Murray: District Clerk Ticketed for Accident, Crashes Into Car Driving Away
How not to leave an accident scene: Troubled Galveston County District Clerk Jason Murray was ticketed by League City police after he rear-ended a truck March 28. He then got in his car and, as newly suspicious officers noticed he was driving erratically, he rammed into a second vehicle. He…
Nils Lofgren Goes Old School, Talks E Street Tour
In a list of phrases that most music journalists would probably like to see banned, hearing that an artist’s latest record “is their most personal yet” would rank near the top. But in the case of singer/guitarist Nils Lofgren –who, for the record, did not use that phrase — it’s…
The Dastardly Bastard Cabbage and What It Has Done to Texas Bluebonnets
Right now, Texas wildflowers are putting on quite a show in any number of places in Texas, but elsewhere, such as in West Texas and Houston, things are a little disappointing. So we called the gurus of all things wildflower — the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center — whose personnel…
Frito Pies (or Not) Across America
I suffer under no delusions that Frito pies — whether Texan in origin or not — are as popular outside of Texas/Oklahoma/New Mexico as they are in this Frito tied-triangle. I understand that Frito pies are to our region as lutefisk suppers are to Minnesota or lobster rolls are to…
Councilman Jerry Davis Wears “Trayvon Martin” Hoodie to Meeting
Houston city councilman Jerry Davis donned a hoodie at yesterday’s meeting in support of protests over the Trayvon Martin shooting. Davis, who’s represented District B since January, said minorities still face unequal treatment by law enforcement…
Science Working on Implanting Fake Memories: Get Your Ass to Mars
Ahh! The future has arrived early. PhD candidate Aleena Garner and a team of researchers have been experimenting with implanting false memories into the minds of mice. The researchers have been using “cellular manipulation” to give the critters fictitious memories that parallel factual ones. In the most laymen’s explanation of…
30 Seconds With My Education’s Scott Telles
Austin’s My Education falls somewhere between the instrumental interludes of Rasputina and Pink Floyd. It’s like New Age music for highly disturbed people. Fresh off their SXSW showcase, we basked in the ether of bassist Scott Telles’ presence to see what we could learn about him in 30 seconds. Rocks…
Rear Window
Nagging wives might see Alfred Hitchcock’s 1954 Rear Window as a cautionary tale. Quit your bitching, or your husband might kill you and chop you up into little pieces in the bathtub. In real life, chances are no one will come along to foil the evil plot. In Rear Window,…
See Rock City and Other Destinations
Theater LaB is known as Houston’s master theater of the small musical, and proves this again with See Rock City and Other Destinations, an episodic, song-filled stage production about people looking to find themselves in the world. Adam Mathias and Brad Alexander’s musical follows several characters on their ways to…
Hahn & Enigma Variations
She’s only 32 years old, but she’s been performing professionally for 20 years. Violinist Hilary Hahn, who joins the Houston Symphony for Hahn & Enigma Variations over a four-day run this weekend, was just 12 when she made her major orchestral debut, 16 when she signed a recording contract and…
Natural Selection
In the film Natural Selection, Linda (played by Rachel Harris) is a sheltered housewife living in a loveless marriage with her repressed, staunch Christian husband. With her husband on his death bed, she sets out to find his estranged, illegitimate son and bring him back for a reconciliation. She doesn’t…
Easter at Moody Gardens
Brunch buffet from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Kids can have their picture taken with the Easter Bunny and take part in the Moody Gardens Easter Egg Hunt. $42.95 adults / $32.95 seniors / $19.95 kids 4-12 / free for kids 3 and under. Sun., April 8, 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m.,…
Easter at Union Kitchen
There’s a special $6 Easter menu and hourly prize drawings for the kids at Union Kitchen. Adults can order from the regular brunch menu, which includes four different styles of eggs Benedict, a lobster omelet, a build your own Bloody Mary Bar, and carafes of mimosas. Sun., April 8, 10…
Behind the Pulpit
Most people remember her as Thelma, the daughter in the mid- to-late ’70s show Good Times who played off her onscreen brother J.J. (actor Jimmie Walker) and his “dy-no-mite” catchphrase. But when Bernadette Stanis comes to Houston at the end of the month, it will be to play a wife…
Houston Children’s Festival 2012
Frommer’s Travel Guides designated the Houston Children’s Festival as one of the World’s 300 Unmissable Events. No wonder, since it’s the largest and, we might add, grandest, festival for kids in the United States. Houston’s 2012 version is so big, it fills several blocks downtown, from Tranquility Park, across City…
Houston Japan Festival
There might not be any cherry blossom trees at Hermann Park, but that won’t put a damper on the Houston Japan Festival, a former winner of the Houston Press Best of Houston® award for Best Festival. It’s one of the most colorful and enjoyable family festivals in the city. Entertainment…
2012 Shell Houston Open
The 2012 Shell Houston Open starts off on Monday with a Pro-Am tournament, then moves through open practice and official play. It’s all leading up to the Championship Round, when top players such as Lee Westwood, Simon Dyson, Darren Clarke and Texas native Johnson Wagner go after defending SHO champ…
Orange Show Eyeopener Tour: Art and Science
The right side of your brain controls creativity; the left side, logic. When the two sides combine, it can be magic. The Orange Show Eyeopener Tour: Art and Science explores that magic locally. The tour, which includes talks with both artists and scientists, makes a stop at the prestigious MD…
Chris Pavone: The Expats
Kate Moore leads a life that’s as ordinary and plain as her name. At least, that’s what author Chris Pavone wants his readers to believe at the beginning of his new novel The Expats. When Kate follows her husband to Luxemburg where he has a new job, that veneer of…
Shell Eco-Challenge Marathon
The average price for a gallon of gasoline is approaching $4, so there’s lots of interest in finding ways to soften the blow at the pump. Some answers might be found at the Shell Eco-Marathon. For six years Shell has encouraged innovators to come together to showcase prototype cars that…
Sinbad
He was one of the most ubiquitous comedians on stage, screen and television during the 1990s, a newer version of Bill Cosby with a clean act based on observations of friends and family (no F-bombs or N-words here). But Sinbad dropped out of the scene for a while, dealing with…
Owen Laukkanen: The Professionals
We don’t know how, but apparently Owen Laukkanen got tired of being a traveling poker reporter. ”I got sick of the casino lifestyle,” he says, ”so I quit my job.” (A truly unthinkable career move, in our opinion, since being a traveling poker reporter has got to be the best…
Stephen Richard
Playing the saxophone was just a hobby for Stephen Richard — until he started taking private lessons from the late, great Conrad Johnson. While he was still in high school, he got a chance to sit in during a sound check with the late Grover Washington Jr’s band. He recalls…
”40 Over 40”
In her ”40 Over 40” portrait, 47-year-old Tomball native Robin Free is standing naked, with her back to the camera, hand on her hip, hair slightly blowing back like a goddess’s. She’s standing on her toes as if wearing five-inch heels. The show, comprised of portraits of 40 women who…
Cabaret
It’s hard to find a character that’s sexier and sassier than the wonderfully wild Sally Bowles from Cabaret. Even better, she’s surrounded by a group of women who prance about in their knickers at the Kit Kat Club as they gyrate to the gorgeous tunes written by John Kander and…
Annie
When Sandy (real name: Macy) runs through his paces onstage in Theatre Under the Stars’ upcoming production of the musical Annie, audiences should thank Bill Berloni, who’s animal trainer royalty and a behavior consultant to the Humane Society of New York. In 1976, then-aspiring actor Berloni was offered a deal…
Kevin Nealon
He’ll always be best known for the decade he spent on Saturday Night Live, creating such characters as Mr. Subliminal, Franz and Mr. No Depth Perception, and serving as anchor of Weekend Update. But in the years since, Kevin Nealon has honed his standup act, while landing a supporting role…
Mountainfilm on Tour in Houston
The latest addition to Houston’s film festival line-up, much to the delight of local cinephiles, is a traveling presentation of Mountainfilm on Tour in Houston. The festival, which has been going strong since 1979, takes place each Memorial Day weekend in Telluride, Colorado. This year, with the help of Shushana…
Call of the Wild
In Dead Man’s Cell Phone, a woman at a cafe rises to answer a cell phone when its owner does not, only to discover that the man has died. She answers the phone anyway, and thus becomes embroiled with his family and his business. Playwright Sarah Ruhl has the talent…
Deep Thoughts
A few days before he releases his brand-new album, Think/Thoughts, next weekend Houston musician Benjamin Wesley will sit in with the renowned and shadowy Jandek at Big Star Bar. No small shakes for any Houston artist, considering the myths that have surrounded the internationally adored Jandek for nearly the past…
God Only Knows
In the first scene of Israel’s Best Foreign Language Oscar nominee, Footnote, Uriel Shkolnik (Lior Ashkenazi) — a fortysomething Talmudic scholar whose research has earned adulation while his sixtysomething father’s has mostly been ignored — accepts an honor with an obliviously glib speech built around a childhood anecdote about his…
Angry Birds
Many cultures regard roosters as good luck, brilliant birds connected to the gods and the universe through any manner of meanings. The Greeks considered them solar emblems, reasoning that their morning crowing symbolized day’s light conquering night’s darkness. In Matthew 26:34, Jesus tells Peter “this very night, before the rooster…
Floor-to-Floor Combat
Lean, fast-moving, and filled with game-changing fight sequences that have a brutally beautiful (or beautifully brutal) quality, Gareth Evans’s Indonesian martial arts film The Raid: Redemption lives up to its viral hype and the buzz it generated at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival. Rama (Iko Uwais) is a rookie…
Bret Michaels
When not fronting Poison or making the reality-show rounds – either looking for a mate or trying to become one of Donald Trump’s underlings – Bret Michaels tours the country as a solo act. With a career renaissance that began with Poison’s early-’00s re-invigoration, Michaels has become a sort of…
Radio Blues
SPACED CITY Radio Blues Reporter fired after abortion story By Richard Connelly Scott Braddock, a respected reporter who has been with the fledgling news radio station KROI since November, has been fired. Twitter supporters and some fellow reporters have been questioning whether the ax fell because of a Braddock report…
Capsule Art Reviews: “Gunplay,” “Neurotic,” “The Livable Forest,” “Perspectives 177: McArthur Binion”
“Gunplay” I was almost seduced by Harlow Tighe’s photograms. The sepia-toned images of various handguns — Colt Dragoon, Browning Buckmark, Ruger Vacquero — are repeated throughout Gallery Two1Four. The monochromatic effect of the brown paper and white, seemingly absent guns in various formation makes for an alluring show. That’s kind…
Skatalites
If anything is going to take you back to your high-school rasta phase, it’s going to be this show with famed Jamaica outfit the Skatalites. Instrumental in forming the rude-boy sound by collaborating with iconic artists including Prince Buster, much of the band’s original lineup (they have a four-piece brass…
Capsule Stage Reviews: Annie, Below the Belt, Cactus Flower, Our House
Annie When it comes to the blockbuster Tony-winning Annie (1977) presented by Theatre Under the Stars with an optimistic grin a mile wide, the old showbiz canard “never work with children or animals” doesn’t apply — not with these kids and that ahh-inducing pup Sandy. I won’t be alone in…
Clouseaux, Trio Musette, Will Van Horn
This show is like something that might happen if you stumbled into a South American restaurant in Paris’s Latin Quarter, only to discover it opens onto a studio lot where a film crew is remaking King Kong and a Texas singer-songwriter is singing softly in the corner. Or it could…
SPECIAL SPANISH SLANG EDITION
Dear Mexican, Stop using Spanish in your column. I like reading your column, but when every other word is in Spanish, I don’t know what the hell is going on. It makes you sound like that nerdy kid who uses big words to try and sound impressive. Don’t be lazy, and…
In Search of Spring Break
After arriving in Galveston amid tornado watches under swirling end-of-days skies, and enduring downpour after downpour throughout a long Sunday afternoon and night, on Monday afternoon, it looked like photographer Daniel Kramer and I had at last found the Island’s Spring Break. We were on East Beach, long the scene…
In Search of Spring Break: Then and Now
My own most memorable and fateful Spring Break took place in South Padre Island and Matamoros in 1989. At that time I was a freshman and well on my way to flunking out of UT. I’d uncorked a 0.5 GPA my first semester, and while I more than tripled that…
Home to Roost
Don’t want to wait? See inside the cozy-chic Roost for yourself in our slideshow. It’s a good thing Kevin Naderi didn’t open his new restaurant, Roost, in the summer. On a recent Friday night, I waited outside on a wooden picnic table with a bottle of wine and two friends…
Hot Chelle Rae
The members of Nashville foursome Hot Chelle Rae all boast parents and various other family members from high up in the Music City industry echelons. (Two, Ryan and Jamie Follesé, are brothers.) As such, though they play their own instruments and appear to write their own material — and flirt…
Still Treating Em Right
Forty-seven years after his breakout hit, “Treat Her Right,” 69-year old wildman Roy Head is still fighting the entertainment wars, continuing to perform and record. He’s also his son’s, former American Idol contestant Sundance Head, biggest fan. The elder Head’s history is the stuff of myth. As unlikely as it…
Ronnie Milsap
Now nearing 70 years of age, country crooner Ronnie Milsap is still an active touring and recording artist, releasing his latest album, Country Again, just this past summer. The title track, about a hot-rod driver with a souped-up time machine instead of crumpled sheets and tear-filled eyes, is a gritty…
