The Beautiful People Get Tainted in A Bigger Splash
Never one to betray the courage of his convictions, Luca Guadagnino excels at the unrepentantly grandiose and ludicrous. The title alone of his previous narrative feature, I Am Love (2009), signaled operatic sweep and loony sincerity, qualities further exalted by the film’s visual ravishments and seductive voluptuousness. The Italian director’s…
Houston’s 10 Best Bars if You’re Broke
Houston, we know you’re hurting out there. As severance packages dry up and real-estate prices crumble, the pain of the oil crisis trickles down to us all. Let’s stop lying to ourselves with over-iced cocktails at Anvil and admit a universal truth: we’re broke. Really broke, y’all. But being financially…
Farewell to Banshee, the Most Unhinged — and Best — TV Show You Never Watched
Long celebrated as the premium cable destination for soft-core pornography and third-run Marc Singer movies (which is perhaps redundant), Cinemax has taken steps in recent years to shed its “Skinemax” past by following its more accomplished brethren like Showtime and parent company HBO into the realm of original programming. Previous…
Nicolas Cage and Elijah Wood Can’t Save Bad-Cop Vegas Heist Thriller The Trust
Las Vegas is home to ordinary people who take the bus to work like everyone else. In The Trust, the stylish new heist film from Alex and Benjamin Brewer, we get a brief, satisfying, darkly comic peek at everyday Vegas life as lived by low-level LVPD officers. Then the film…
Wheatley’s High-Rise Honors Ballard’s Architecture but Not What Counts
In an appreciation published in The Guardian a few days after the death of J.G. Ballard, in April 2009, Martin Amis noted that the paragon of New Wave science fiction was “remorselessly visual.” Ben Wheatley’s muddled adaptation of the dystopian 1975 novel High-Rise — one of many Ballard books that…
10 Great Spots for a Graduation Brunch in Houston
Celebrating graduation all weekend? Old and new, splurge-y and some with wallet-savvy options, here are 10 scenic and tasty spots for a weekend graduation brunch with loved ones. (P.S.: most of these restaurants also work well for a celebratory brunch.) Ouisie’s Table: Get your Southern brunch fix in a classy…
Big Tex Road Trip: Musical Hot Spots Across the Lone Star State
Texas is (no duh) stacked with a deep musical pedigree. Soon, the Houston Press, in its far-reaching Texas road-trip challenge, will show off the state’s best car-pointing spots for concerts, music history and oddball spots (like dead musician gravesites). For now, here’s the best of the best in Texas music…
My Night as an MKT Bar Guest DJ
I imagine if someone were to ask the average person if they’d like to be a DJ at a popular venue for the evening they’d respond with one of two polarized emotions: “Yes, I’d love to!” or, as in my own case, “OMG, I am going to die.” I envisioned…
Houston’s 10 Best Bars to Be Outside
For six months a year, Houston is tailor-made for outdoor activities. The other six months…well, not so much. Unfortunately, the better half of the calendar is winding down, and scorching temperatures are on the way. Act fast, Houston — you’ve got about one month left of quality outdoor good-timing. With…
Some Testy HISD Trustees Pound on Staff Members About R-E-S-P-E-C-T
In a Monday agenda meeting that started late but revved up quickly, Houston ISD trustees expressed shock that the after-school vendor process the law required and they OKed in January had removed many long-standing programs from the district’s approval list and returned to a debate over its job-order contracts program…
Lowlife Thieves With Expensive Tastes Break Into The Union Kitchen
Sometimes, even when a restaurant does everything right, it’s not enough. The Union Kitchen at 12538 Memorial is outfitted with a monitored alarm system, blaring horns and ten surveillance cameras. That didn’t stop lowlife thieves from breaking into the place around 3:30 a.m. on Monday morning, right after Mother’s Day…
Undocumented Mothers, Awaiting Supreme Court Decision, Rally Support for DAPA
Yesterday, Gabriela Contreras invited a dozen undocumented mothers into her home to rally support for DAPA, President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Parents of Americans, an executive-action program now being challenged in the Supreme Court. The home is the same one Contreras is afraid to leave every day, for fear…
Got Questions? Ask Making a Murderer Attorneys in “A Conversation On Justice” Lecture Tour at UH
America loves its conspiracy theories – and there seems to be no shortage of those (alien abductions, chupacabra, government-engineered Zika virus) – but perhaps the most-discussed water cooler chatter these days involves the very strange ten-part Netflix documentary, Making a Murderer, about Steven Avery, the Manitowoc County man and auto-salvage…
How Does Bill O’Brien Stack Up With Other 2014 NFL Head Coaching Hires?
It’s hard to believe that this time two years ago, the Texans were just finishing up their first draft under the combined evaluation of Rick Smith and Bill O’Brien. In fact, my girlfriend’s “2 Years Ago Today…” reminder on Facebook yesterday was literally a picture of the Texans drafting Jadeveon…
Ridesharing Is Awesome, So Who Do We Blame When Uber Leaves?
For sprawled-out, traffic-snarled cities across the country, Uber has been a godsend for riders who can afford the easy, cheap-ish trips. But has the company built up enough goodwill to get whatever it wants? No, not in techie-town Austin, at least, where an overwhelming amount of voters this past weekend…
Houston Art Collective {exurb} Lets Us Become One With the Machine
When the transdisciplinary artist collective {exurb} took a look at their allotted exhibition space at Art League Houston (the Main Gallery), their first thought was, “Cool, no windows!” They took it even further, hanging blackout curtains on the fourth wall and creating a site specific installation that looks and acts…
This Week in Houston Food Blogs: Burgoo & The Best Houston Restaurants
This week, we’ve got a review of an unusual Houston brunch, as well as a few simple recipes and one food blogger’s top five Houston restaurants. The Urban Swank Girls paid a visit to Monarch Bistro at Hotel ZaZa, 5701 Main, to check out the new spring menu– and, incidentally,…
5 Strange Things I Learned Working in Movie Theaters
When I was much younger I spent a couple of years working at two different movie theaters, and the experiences I had in those jobs have stuck with me. For the record, this was a long time ago, in an era when it was still cool to profess a love…
For the Rockets, Maybe It’s Time for a New Approach to Putting Together a Team
Offseason relevance, for reasons both good and suspect, was nothing new to the Houston Rockets. In 2012, it was the last-minute blockbuster trade for James Harden on the virtual eve of the season opener. In 2013, it was the successful conclusion of a multiyear courtship of Dwight Howard. In 2014,…
Upcoming: Beyoncé, Boom Bash, A Day In The Country, Gwen Stefani, The Kills, Lil Flip, Ringo Deathstarr, Warren G., etc.
Note: Events in bold reflect highly recommended shows. 2nd Annual Boom Bash: With Rakim, Run-DMC, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, MC Lyte, Naughty By Nature, Monie Love, DJ Quik. Sat., June 11, 2 p.m., $45 to $150. Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, 2005 Lake Robbins Dr., The Woodlands, 281-363-3300. 93Q’s A Day in the…
La Fisheria Relocates Downtown and Fills Its Menu With Simple Pleasures
For some, the vuelve a la vida (or “come back to life”) soup at La Fisheria may conjure fantasies of waking up in a cottage on a Mexican beach where white-capped waves break and lap the sand. This particular soup might stop just short of bringing the dead to life,…
Morningstar Is Now Open, Bringing Adventurous Breakfast and Lunch Dishes to The Heights
As if Greater Heights wasn’t already the envy of other neighborhoods when it comes to new, hot restaurants, eagerly-anticipated Morningstar opens at 7 a.m. today. The café is at 4721 North Main in the same center as Foreign Correspondents Thai restaurant and Canard cocktail bar. The initial roster of doughnut…
What Your Favorite Album Covers Say About You
So you’ve got some new friends over to your place, and you’re showing them around. You casually drop comments like “Oh you know, there’s the bookshelf, those are my records… The kitchen is over here.” Sure, you’re as smooth and cool as cucumber water, but secretly you hope at some…
Benzene Leaks From Pipelines Have Been Quietly Adding to the Ship Channel Toxic Mix
Midway through his presentation, about just-discovered potentially dangerous levels of benzene in their neighborhoods, Jay Olaguer saw the blank looks on the faces in the audience and realized they weren’t getting it. Olaguer, the air-quality science program director at the Houston Advanced Research Center, had spent years getting to this…
Nine Other Musical “Megafests” That Need to Happen
For the past week or so, a lot of rock fans — those of a certain age, especially — have been talking about Desert Trip, the three-day extravaganza from the producers of Coachella that come October will bring together pretty much all the remaining classic-rock royalty spry enough to still…
X-Men: Apocalypse Makes the Comic-Book Movie Great Again
There’s a scene during the first half of Bryan Singer’s X-Men: Apocalypse that is so emotionally resonant, so well-put-together and so quiet that you might briefly forget you’re watching a superhero film. It involves a raid by some Polish officers in the remote forest where Erik Lehnsherr, aka Magneto (Michael…
Jenni Rebecca Stephenson and Fresh Arts Reach Settlement
Legally-speaking, the saga between former Fresh Arts executive director Jenni Rebecca Stephenson and Fresh Arts appears to be over, according to a statement sent to the Houston Press by attorney Jared G. LeBlanc. Fresh Arts and Jenni Rebecca Stephenson, the former Executive Director of Fresh Arts, jointly announce that they…
Under State Law, Local Cops Don’t Have to Jail You for Pot
On a hot Saturday afternoon this weekend, dozens of people mostly wearing green descended on the Harris County criminal court building on Franklin Street to deliver a pretty straightforward message: They are tired of seeing people go to jail for possessing a plant. Among them was an epileptic woman who…
The Fight to Keep Hofheinz Pavilion Named Hofheinz Pavilion
The University of Houston announced in November that a desperately needed renovation of the long neglected Hofheinz Pavilion would begin after the 2016-2017 basketball season. The renovations would cost 60 million dollars, with 20 million of those dollars coming from an anonymous donor. The school also announced at the time…
Lanier Forever! Well, Bob, Not Sidney, if HISD Approves the First Name Change
Talk about fine tuning. After all the fuss about taking away the Lanier Middle School name, the Houston ISD has come up with — depending on your point of view — a brilliant or wussie decision. Instead of continuing to call the school Sidney Lanier after the Confederate soldier (“and…
Beyoncé’s Mom Heads to City Hall to Voice Support for Mayor’s Job-Creation Initiative
On Friday, Beyoncé’s mom headed over to City Hall to announce her support for Mayor Sylvester Turner’s new jobs initiative for people struggling to find work, especially those with a criminal record. Beyoncé’s background singers, called The Mamas, even came to sing the National Anthem before welcoming Turner to the…
Madness on Main Eases Houston Into Festival Season
Madness on Main Midtown Superblock May 7, 2016 The ACL lineup has been announced; Coachella is already in the books. Hell, check off another Buzzfest, too. At home and around the country, music festival season feels well and truly upon us. Here in Houston, Madness on Main served as something of…
In Fourth-Largest City in America, an 8-Year-Old Steps Up to Recycle City’s Glass
They were halfway down the block when David Krohn’s 1977 Jeep Wagoneer, full of makeshift recycling bins and a few stray glass bottles, blew a gasket. “Did someone shoot at our wheels?” asked eight-year-old Tristan Berlanga, the younger brother of Krohn’s girlfriend and the mastermind of this entrepreneurial endeavor. Krohn…
“The Texas Aesthetic X” Shows Old Favorites Plus a Few New Surprises
Visiting this year’s “The Texas Aesthetic X” exhibit is akin to a family reunion; we get to check-in and touch base with 16 old friends over at the William Reaves | Sarah Foltz Fine Art stable of contemporary Lone Star painters, catching up on new works and seeing a few…
Dish of the Week: Whoopie Pie
From classic comfort foods to regional standouts and desserts, we’ll be sharing a new recipe with you each week. Find other dishes of the week here. This week, we’re sweetening things up with Whoopie Pie. Despite what it sounds like, whoopie pie is not a pie at all. Instead, the…
The 1975 Were the Best Show You Didn’t See on Saturday Night
The 1975, Wolf Alice, The Japanese House The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion May 7, 2K16 It’s not hard to understand, when you really think about it, why some people dislike The 1975. It’s definitely easy to see how someone could listen to their music, especially their singles, and be dismissive…
Texans QB Brock Osweiler Is Acclimating to Texas Frighteningly Well (PHOTO)
Over the weekend, the Houston Texans rookies, along with a handful of practice squad guys from last season, got together over at NRG Stadium for their collective first day on the job. Two days, actually, for rookie minicamp. Unless you have a super duper trained eye (like Texans sideline reporter…
Big Tex Road Trip: Best Outdoors
As the Houston Press prepares to unveil its ultimate Texas road trip guide, we’re listing the state’s most drop-dead gorgeous parks, rivers, lakes, campsites, and outdoors destinations. Have a personal favorite outdoors spot? Leave your $.02 in the comments section. Drive and camp the beach at Crystal Beach in GalvestonThe…
This Week in Houston Food Events: Go Wagyu!
Monday, May 9 Wine Dinner at B&B Butchers Winemaker Bob Egelhoff will present the wines at this six-course wine dinner at B&B Butchers, 1814 Washington, which will be served alongside fare like crab Louie, tuna au poivre and dry-aged sirloin. The dinner begins at 6:30 p.m., and tickets are $155…
5 Things to Know About UH’s Commencement Speaker Astronaut Scott Kelly’s ‘Year in Space’
When retired astronaut Captain Scott Kelly takes the stage to deliver the University of Houston commencement address at TDECU Stadium on Saturday, the audience will be in the presence of a real live history-making space man. Kelly spent 340 days aboard the International Space Station as NASA’s first “year-round” astronaut, logging…
Shows of the Week: Divas of All Stripes, Loretta to Rihanna
WRECKLESS ERIC Under the Volcano, May 11 Few label monikers hold more credibility than the UK’s Stiff Records, the original home of “Wreckless Eric” Louden. An unemployed youngster when he dropped off a demo at Stiff’s London HQ, within a week Eric found himself getting ready to record an album with…
Beginning to End, Beyoncé’s NRG Stadium Homecoming Is a Triumph
Beyoncé, DJ Khaled NRG Stadium May 7, 2016 Hours after the slaying, the wig snatching, the fitted snatching, the life getting, the boy bye’s and various curses of shock, amazement and confusion, I stood with a perplexed look on my face. How? How does Beyoncé do this? On this level?…
Big Eyed Fish Is Closed; Replacement Will Be Henderson Heights
Freelance photographer Chuck Cook noticed that Southern restaurant Big Eyed Fish at 908 Henderson is closed. It specialized in comfort food such as deviled eggs, fried green tomatoes and deep-fried quail. It also featured an good craft beer program, as well as several wines by the bottle. Over the last…
No Easy Answers With Children of Pop’s ‘What Does 69 Mean?’
Tonight’s release party for Children of Pop’s What Does 69 Mean? might have been it for the band. Around last November, reflects COP auteur Chase DeMaster, he was frustrated enough that he was almost ready to throw his energies into his burgeoning label/DIY operation, known as #veryjazzed, or one of…
Halal Slaughterhouse Fined for Discharging Bloody Waste Into Nearby Harris County Ditches
A slaughterhouse on Old Richmond Road that has been dumping blood into ditches, leaving rotting animal parts on the ground and in improperly-refigerated containers, has to pay $20,000 in civil penalties as part of a settlement reached with the Harris County Attorney’s Office it was announced today. Half the money…
Court Rules Texas Prisons Can’t Stop Muslims From Growing Beards, Wearing Religious Caps
This week, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals told Texas prisons that they can no longer prevent Muslim inmates from growing four-inch beards or wearing skullcaps, called kufis, for religious reasons. The suit was brought by an inmate named David Rasheed Ali, who is serving 20 years for arson…
The Ends Do Not Justify the Means in I and You
The set up: Every year American Theatre Magazine lists the top 20 most produced playwrights in American for the season, Shakespeare excluded. Each list features a handful of the usual established suspects: Tennesse Williams, August Wilson, Eugene O’Neil, Arthur Miller. More recent darlings also expectedly rate: Sarah Ruhl, Aaron Posner,…
Paxton Staffers Accuse Reporter of Reporting
Staffers for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton recently took a break from helping their boss resist improvements to the foster care system and save the state from the scourge of online fantasy football betting to gripe about a reporter for the Dallas Morning News. An unnamed “high level staffer” told Breitbart’s FBI…
Woman Claims to Find Metal Blade in a Torchy’s Taco and Says the Company Isn’t Particularly Sorry About It [UPDATED]
Sometimes, foreign objects end up in restaurant food. It’s not all that uncommon but can be a liability issue. Generally, when diners discover inedible things in their food, restaurant managers are profusely apologetic and try to make amends. It is rare when the object is as serious as a sharp…
Former Jailer Indicted for Punching Handcuffed Inmate
On Thursday, a grand jury indicted a former jailer at the Harris County Jail who apparently hit an inmate in the chest so hard that the inmate fell to the ground. According to the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, Carrington Phillips was escorting the inmate in the jail last October…
Is a Pink Floyd Laser Show Really the Best Option for the Dome?
There was one point in my life where I probably spent two-thirds of each year at the Astrodome. I’d be in the video booth handling graphics for Astros games, or playing back replays for Oilers and University of Houston games. I’d be down on the floor dodging bulls and monster…
Airbag Maker Takata’s Largest Recall in U.S. History Climbs to 70 Million Following Houston Death
When the Japanese airbag manufacturer Takata announced the recall of more than 30 million airbags in 2015, it was the largest recall in American history—and now it just got even bigger. This week, Takata announced it was recalling another 35 to 40 million. The defective airbags, which may be inside…
Houston’s 5 Best Weekend Food Bets: Derby Day, Mother’s Day Brunch, & Bar Crawls
Here’s a look at this weekend’s best culinary happenings: 2nd Annual Derby Day Party @ Julep Saturday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. 1919 Washington We can’t think of a better place to watch the Kentucky Derby than Alba Huerta’s award-winning Southern charmer. Come dressed in your finest seersucker and sundresses…
A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder Delivers Homicide and Humor, Love and Lust
Musical comedies about serial killers don’t come around often; after all it’s coming up to 40 years since the murderous musical barber, Sweeney Todd, first hit the stage. So it’s more than noteworthy that two homicidal funny-bone song and dance numbers have been programmed back to back on Houston stages…
Upcoming Houston Food Events: Celebrate National Burger Month
Mark your calendars, because you don’t want to miss these deliciously fun culinary events: Celebrate National Burger Month at CURRENT, the newly opened, contemporary restaurant inside The Westin in the Woodlands, 2 Waterway. During the month of May, guests can sink their teeth into the Current Burger – with white…
Freaks Win: Culturcide Comes to the CAMH
EAT HUMAN FLESH Unless extraterrestrials start podcasting live on 97.9 the Boxx or Jandek makes an album with Terence Trent D’Arby, Mark Flood’s Gratest Hits exhibition at the CAMH is the most significant music-related event in Houston this year by a long shot. It hardly matters what you think of…
The State Foster Care System Has a License to Be Terrible at Licensing
On February 23, 2016, an inspector for the Department of Family and Protective Services discovered how the staff of a Children’s Hope foster care facility in Levelland disciplined the kids in their care: they hit them. The state inspector noted the violation at the facility, about 30 miles west of…
The Five Best Things to Do in Houston This Weekend: Star Wars Art Festival and Free Comic Book Day. Kapow!
This is one of those weeks where it’s abundantly clear why Houston is such a great city in which to work and play. The work part is coming to an end, and we think dressing up for the Star Wars Art Festival and Free Comic Book Day should bring out…
‘Holy Sauce’: Sauce Walka’s War Against Biters
There’s a trope that Seth MacFarlane’s Family Guy uses frequently, where main protagonist Peter Griffin sees his archenemy, The Chicken, and the two immediately begin to fight. It’s a “destined to do this forever” type of thing, almost to the point where one is just as synonymous as the other…
Country Music Would Be Stupid to Ignore Beyoncé’s Gift to the Genre
At the end of 2015, one thing was abundantly clear – country music is and has been undergoing a seismic shift in terms of what listeners want and the mainstream has to offer. The unsigned, unpromoted successes of artists like Aaron Watson, Turnpike Troubadours and a host of country newcomers…
Johnny Manziel Makes First Court Appearance, Can’t Stay Off Social Media
When we last left our hero, Jonathan Football, he was on a Justin Bieber concert binge — from Houston to Cleveland to Columbus, and possibly some points in between — getting perturbed with people tweeting pictures of him watching the first night of the NFL Draft at the bar before…
Openings and Closings in Houston: State Fare Suddenly Arrives, Sparrow Flies Away
Lee Ellis of Cherry Pie Hospitality (and Lee’s Fried Chicken & Donuts) has taken over and rebranded Pour Society, 947 Gessner, into State Fare, a Southern food concept with offerings like oysters, pork chops, mac ‘n’ cheese specials and more, plus cocktails designed by Laurie Harvey and desserts from Petite Sweets…
Linus Pauling Quartet Breaks Out the Big Guns for Madness on Main
Of all the acts set to appear at tomorrow’s Madness on Main music festival, probably no one is chomping harder at the bit to get onstage than the Linus Pauling Quartet. For more than 20 years, the cerebral stoner/psychedelic/monkey rock quintet (yes, quintet… don’t ask) has been a fixture of…
The Good Wife‘s Lame-Duck Years: Alicia Florrick Lost Us as She Found Herself
According to her emails, Hillary Clinton has had an eye on Alicia Florrick since season one. As her pop-culture portraits go, The Good Wife has been a flattering one. Its protagonist first followed in the footsteps of many a political spouse by standing by her man, then relaunched her career,…
Red Mystery Liquid Leaks Into Drainage Ditch Near Massive Spring Branch Chemical Fire
A massive chemical fire raged through a warehouse this morning in Spring Branch, leading the Houston Fire Department to issue a shelter-in-place order for the surrounding neighborhood and evacuate an elementary school “due to the release of hazardous materials,” according to an HFD press release. The fire is now under…
Uchi Houston’s Chef Gets Promoted and One With Roots in Conroe and Katy Takes Over
Uchi’s Houston location has a new chef de cuisine thanks to its former chef de cuisine being promoted to a high-level position within parent company Hai Hospitality. Kaz Edwards is now concept chef and Lance Gillum is now in charge of the kitchen. Gillum has learned the ins and outs…
Houston, Unlike Most Other Major Cities, Doesn’t Regularly Launch Weather Balloons
Last Friday Eric “Sci Guy” Berger, a former Houston Chronicle reporter and one of the most trusted dudes in local weather, warned on his Space City Weather blog that storms could bring heavy rainfall to areas already pummeled by last month’s historic flooding. He wasn’t alone. With nerves still raw…
Amid Personal Legal Troubles, Ken Paxton Dives Headfirst Into Swirling Target Toilet Controversy
Despite facing a seemingly endless amount of personal legal problems, Attorney General Ken Paxton is now taking on Target’s toilets. Paxton apparently sent a letter to the nationwide shopping center chain, warning that its decidedly non-discriminatory bathroom policy allowing people to use whichever restroom, men’s or women’s, best pertains to…
Working With Two New Songs From Lin-Manuel Miranda Comes to Main Street Theater
A fast food delivery worker replaces the newspaper boy. Some other characters and their stories have been updated. There’s new songs as well – two by none other than Lin-Manuel Miranda of Hamilton fame – one of which is about the fast food worker. So if you can’t make it…
48 Hours in Chicago: Dove’s Luncheonette, Topolobampo, Lost Lake and More
As a food writer and restaurant critic, it’s important for me to know a bit about the restaurant and bar scenes in other major cities. A city’s food scene is an ecosystem. Restaurants provide meals but are fed in their own way by both longtime residents and the newly-arrived. It’s…
More Aggie QB Problems, Tate Martell Reopens Recruitment
There is no more fickle athletic endeavor than college football recruiting. Anything held together by the whim of 17 year olds is destined for turmoil, and Texas A&M re-learned that lesson the hard way on Wednesday night. Apparently, the Aggies’ 2017 recruiting class has a little Twitter hashtag going called…
Radiohead Returns to Top ACL 2016 Lineup
Radiohead will headline the 15th edition of the Austin City Limits Music Festival, scheduled for the weekends of September 30-October 2 and October 7-9 in Austin’s Zilker Park, promoter C3 announced this morning. Other top acts include Mumford & Sons, Kendrick Lamar, LCD Soundsystem, the Chainsmokers, M83, Willie Nelson, and…
Man Gets 25 Years for Prom Night That Turned Fatal
Prosecutors argued that 18-year-old Eddie Herrera choked his girlfriend to death in a hotel room on prom night; the defense said it was a drug and alcohol overdose. The medical examiner ruled her death “undetermined,” as the Houston Chronicle reported. So jurors were left to decide instead. On Wednesday, after…
Houston’s Got a New Virtual Reality Place to Play
You might not know it, but Houston is one of the places where virtual reality is really making strides into the mainstream market. The Omni, which allowed for free-standing movement in virtual environments, was founded in Houston. Now, Exitus VR is stepping up to the plate with a new facility…
My First Fertilized Duck Egg and a Barrage of Questions From My Children
Before I got to eat my balut, my kids had to offer it a tearful eulogy. They took turns cradling the egg, passing it back and forth Hot Potato-style, apologizing to it on behalf of their terrible father. They did all this in between bites of perfectly grilled pork, dragged…
Mayor Turner Delivers First State of the City Address, Announces New “Flood Czar”
At Mayor Sylvester Turner’s first State of the City address on Wednesday, there were two disasters that at the forefront: the aftermath of the flood, and the city’s troublesome financial situation. But when Turner took the podium inside the Hilton Grand Ballroom downtown, it was the former that took immediate…
10 Acts to Watch at Madness On Main This Weekend
THE BROKEN SPOKES All Seeing Eyes Stage, 4:45 p.m. Named after the South Austin dancehall that has drawn two-steppers like flies for a half-century — and successfully fought back hungry developers for the past decade — the Broken Spokes could have easily been plucked straight off that hallowed honky-tonk’s hardwood…
I Never Get Second Dates. Help!
I NEVER GET SECOND DATES. WHAT SHOULD I DO? Dear Willie D: I’m the guy who gets women to say yes to the first date all the time, but I can never get them to go on a second date. I am courteous, respectful, and accommodating. So what am I…
A Witness for Abbie: How Genre TV Systematically Lets Black Women Down
On the surface, there has been a lot of forward movement on television for black women. We’re now able to see an incredible breadth of black female characters, including Cookie Lyon (Taraji P. Henson) on Empire, Rosalee (Jurnee Smollett-Bell) on Underground and Dr. Rainbow Johnson (Tracee Ellis Ross) on Black-ish…
Hofheinz Family Sues UH Over Proposed Pavilion Name Change
The family of the late Judge Roy Hofheinz is suing the University of Houston for allegedly breaching its contract as the school attempts to rename the Hofheinz Pavilion basketball arena, according to a press release from the Hofheinz family. The family is requesting an injunction from a judge to stop…
Beer-Bong Mishap Leads to Justin Bieber Lawsuit
Overall, Justin Bieber has done an excellent job of rehabilitating his public image following the release of last year’s Purpose album, including an April 9 stop at Houston’s sold-out Toyota Center, but he appears to have stumbled after the show. Bieber drew quite a bit of media attention during his…
Listeria Rears Its Ugly Head Again, This Time in Many Widely Distributed Frozen Food Brands
CRF Frozen Foods has issued a voluntary recall of massive proportions of frozen fruits and vegetables. The recall is getting some attention thanks in part to six of the products being packaged under the Trader Joe’s grocery store brand. That, however, is the merest tip of the iceberg—and only one…
2 Dead, 2 Injured in Shooting at Katy Trucking Company
On Wednesday morning, a man opened fire at a trucking company in Katy, killing one employee before turning the gun on himself, according to authorities. The shooting happened at Knight Transportation just before 9 a.m. According to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, the shooter had recently been terminated from his…
Discipline Policies Need to Change Even More at HISD, Parent-Teacher Group Says
Houston ISD should decrease its alternative school contract to a private company by $3 million and invest at least $1 million of that money in de-escalation training for teachers and support for children so more kids can stay in their own school – rather than be sent away as punishment…
Ted Cruz Is The Sorest Loser
Ted Cruz was dealt the absolute-final-no-for-real-this-time blow to his presidential campaign yesterday, losing the Indiana primary to Donald Trump. Of course, Cruz was way behind in the delegate race to begin with, and an Indiana victory probably would have only prolonged his embarrassing defeat to Donald Trump. Still, Cruz painted…
Here’s Where to Celebrate Cinco de Mayo in Houston
Cinco de Mayo is here, meaning you can celebrate the Mexican defeat of a French army at Puebla with tequila, margaritas, tacos, and even more tequila in the form of oyster shooters. Check out Houston’s Cinco de Mayo Roundup: 5th Annual Cinco de Midtown Pub Fiction, Irish Cowboy, and 3rd…
World Premiering HGOco Opera Will Make Us Think, and Might Make Us Cry
Director Matthew Ozawa (A Little Night Music, The Memory Stone) says that, if the world premiering chamber opera After the Storm is a success, there will be no applause at the end. He might be on to something; those who previewed the beginning scenes last year were moved to tears…
7 Local Features That Make Houston an Interesting Place to Live
One of the cool things about Houston is how many things there are in the city that can surprise even long time residents. Some of these them are just oddities that pop out along the city’s freeways, and others are quirky activities and places unique to Houston, but they all…
The ‘Houston Press’ Mixtape: XX Chromosome Edition
Don’t Peggy Olsen us, motherfuckers. We know how hard Houston women work on music, and we know how hard the music industry can work on them. Today the Houston Press is bringing you a mixtape of the artists who have survived it — all the haters who said they were…
UH Removes Gun Art Display From Exhibit, Pretty Much Making Artist’s Point for Him
Artist Alton DuLaney couldn’t be mad that University of Houston officials censored his gun art from an exhibit at the Blaffer Art Museum— they basically made his point for him. Despite the fact that students will literally be sitting in English class with loaded guns on them in just three…
The Best Houston Music We Heard in April
TONY VEGA BAND “Moody Park” Houston’s Near Northside was in the news quite a bit last month thanks to the opening of White Oak Music Hall, but it’s also the setting of the wonderful “Moody Park,” a highlight of the Tony Vega Band’s brand-new Black Magic Box album. The majority of the…
Ted Cruz Suspends Long, Mean and Awkward Campaign For President
The real estate mogul turned reality TV star who launched his campaign by calling Mexicans “rapists” and joked about his dick size in a nationally televised debate became the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee for president on Tuesday. If you feel a slight, almost guilty tinge of satisfaction in that, maybe…
VMG Wants to End the Stigma Against Marijuana Advertising
Today AdCellerant and Voice Media Group, the parent company of the Houston Press, announce the launch of their programmatic advertising network for businesses in the cannabis industry, an entirely new service that will allow marijuana entrepreneurs to market themselves more effectively on the Internet through programmatic display advertising. While it…
