Brown Trial: Rachel And Bagwell, Sittin’ in a Tree
Judge Jim Wallace did not allow Michael Brown’s lawyers to introduce evidence that the ex-hand surgeon’s wife is banging former Astro Jeff Bagwell in Brown’s assault trial today. Arguing admissibility after the jury was excused, attorney Dick DeGuerin got Rachel Brown, 37, to admit to having an ongoing relationship with…
“Arts in Transit”: Metro’s Arty Stab at Neighborhood Beautification
Though she now lives in Houston, artist Arielle Masson grew up in Belgium and was educated in France; thus, she has a bit of a different idea of public transit than the single rail line (and seemingly underutilized bus lines — when was the last time you were on a…
Want To Hear Arian Foster Get Advice From Jim Brown? Well, Here You Go
Yesterday, I did the first of what will be seventeen weekly shows with Texans running back, defending NFL rushing king, and Tweeter extraordinaire Arian Foster. To set the scene, this first show took place at an investor/sponsor party at the West University home of our network CEO David Gow. (NOTE:…
Comment of the Day: When Is It Okay to Call a Place a “Vegetarian Hangout”?
Here on Eating Our Words, the commenters absolutely make the blog, and our Comment of the Day honors the best of the bunch. Every day, we read you guys and pick the commenter, or commenters, who made us laugh, cry, salivate over something delicious, or think about things in a…
100 Favorite Dishes: No. 13, Mesquite-Grilled Shrimp Poboy at Goode Co. Seafood
This year leading up to our annual Best of Houston issue, we’re counting down our 100 favorite dishes in Houston. This list comprises our favorite dishes from the last year, dishes that are essential to Houston’s cultural landscape and/or dishes that any visitor (or resident) should try at least once…
10 Houston Artists Who Should Be Playing ACL This Year
Rocks Off has been putting it off as long as we can, but we have finally started seriously thinking about this weekend’s Austin City Limits Music Festival. And the more we thought about it, the more it slowly dawned on us that, to the best of our knowledge, no Houston-based…
Cigarettes Banned in City Parks?
First they came for your barbecue grills, and you didn’t speak out because you just microwave your meals. Now they may be coming for your cigs. Discussion at City Council today included talk of banning smoking in city parks because of the fire danger brought on by the drought. Mayor…
5 Movies from Our Childhood That Should Be Re-released in 3D
This Friday, Disney’s The Lion King will be re-released for two weeks in glorious, faddish 3D, 17 years after its summer 1994 debut. Released June 15, 1994, the film would be the most successful movie that year, raking in $783 million, and would go on to spawn a handful of…
No Smoking At ACL: Five Ways To Still Get Your Nic Fix
That heavy sigh and occasional sniffles you heard on Monday was the Rocks Off team finding out the Austin Parks Department has banned smoking at the Austin City Limits Music Festival this weekend, for which we will all be leaving tomorrow evening. The team of smokers on this crew nearly…
Be a BestFest VIP: Half-Off Our Fancy Tickets, Today Only
So you held out last week and didn’t purchase the $25 tickets to BestFest. Maybe you didn’t think $25 was a fair price to see Cake, the Toadies, and a million other great bands at our two-day block party. (I can’t really help you there…) But maybe you were waiting…
Metro Wants to Use Private Security Firms to Make Sure You Pay for Your Light-Rail Ride
Metro is making noises about hiring private security as fare enforcers on the light rail. Right now state law bars that, but Metro says Phoenix does it, so why can’t they? “Adding civilian fare inspectors could not only increase fare inspections but also permit better utilization of law enforcement resources…
Wanted: Art Reviewer
The Houston Press is looking for an art reviewer to cover shows at local museums and galleries. You don’t have to have an art history degree, but you do need a store of knowledge, the ability to write clearly and persuasively, an opinion, and the guts to express that opinion…
Dry Chicken Pho at Pho Thai Binh Duong: Best in the City
Pho Thai Binh Duong (11528 Bellaire Blvd #G, Tel: 832-351-3451) is one of those under-the-radar pho places that is patronized primarily by Vietnamese. It’s partially tucked behind a building in the back of a strip mall near the intersection of Bellaire and Kirkwood, and you wouldn’t see it from the…
BestFest Finalizes Lineup, Releases Schedule
As much as Rocks Off has been talking about it, planning it, and writing about it these past two months or so, it doesn’t seem possible that our first-ever Best of Houston® BestFest is only 10 short days away. By the time we finish coughing up all the dust from…
Cinema Slap Fight: Henry Chinanski vs. Ben Sanderson
I can quit whenever I want. The cinematic alcoholic has a long and storied tradition, dating back to screen drunks like William “Nick Charles” Powell, real-life drunks like John Barrymore and combinations of the two like W.C. Fields. And for the bulk of the 20th century, the drunk was usually…
The Heat, My God, the Heat: When Will Summer Finally End?
Elaine Benes used to date David Puddy on the show Seinfeld. He claimed to be a Christian — sporting a fish symbol on his car, tuning his radio to Christian stations and the like — but encouraged his girlfriend to do sinful things on his behalf like steal the neighbor’s…
Gordon Ramsay Is Really F&*king Excited About the New Season of Kitchen Nightmares
Where there are bad restaurants, there are bad kitchens. With the new season of Kitchen Nightmares (premiering Friday, September 23, at 8 p.m. EST / 7 p.m. CST on FOX), master chef and restaurateur Gordon Ramsay seeks to transform another series of train-wreck eating establishments, starting with Blackberry’s Catering and…
Totally Rad: Mexican Food Goes Vegan at Radical Eats
The Mexican food at Radical Eats is so good, you might not even realize it’s vegan. Or gluten-free. And that’s the way owner Staci Davis likes it. She doesn’t have anything against carnivores, she says; she’s simply trying to offer something different if people are willing to try it. In…
Tierney Malone’s “Cluttered Mind” Opens Saturday at PG Contemporary
Tierney Malone is a deep cat who is forever breaking down the layers of stuff in his brain to arrive at answers. What distances Malone from the token deep thinker is that he’s able to translate his reflections into a tangible piece of writing, music or visual artwork that more…
10 Songs That Helped Make Nick 13’s Country Debut
Tiger Army’s Nick 13 delivered his self-titled solo debut this year, and the lead singer of one of the past decade’s biggest psychobilly bands has made one of the most enjoyable traditional country records of 2011 not called Photographs. Yes, this 10-song set from the man you first met on…
Cover Story: The Red-Light Camera Circus
Hot tip for all those cities considering a red-light camera program: Check out how Houston did it, and then do the exact opposite. Houston’s danse macabre with camera vendor American Traffic Solutions (ATS) may have botched the city’s budget, business reputation, and credibility. Mayor Annise Parker flip-flopped on the issue…
Guys and Dolls and Miss America at the Hobby
Former Miss America Susan Powell was a classically trained singer, but opted for musical theater over opera because (a) she didn’t want to starve and (b) the only way to avoid (a) was to work in Europe and she didn’t want to do that early on in her career. But…
FotoFest’s “Intense” Moscow Portfolio Review Gets Wall Street Journal Shout-Out
Houston’s own FotoFest International got some national love today on the Wall Street Journal Web site for its Moscow portfolio review, which wrapped up September 2. The story, “Free Market Exposure,” was written by William Meyers, a photographer in his own right. Meyers describes the “intense” atmosphere inside Moscow’s Garage…
Agustin Figueroa Jr.’s Fetish Foursome: Bestiality, Child Porn, Incest and Bondage
Agustin G. Figueroa Jr. of Angleton is going to a federal prison for ten years, and that is most definitely a good thing. Figueroa was convicted in 1996 for raping a child, and more recently he was found guilty of child-porn possession. He had “20,825 images including both still and…
Gothic Council Ponders Excommunicating Fair-Weather Goths
Almost the very first thing Gothtopia did when we started the Gothic Council was oust somebody from it. Partly because, well, what good is a club if you can’t deny entry to some people? Mostly because the person we ousted made the cardinal mistake of prefacing every sentence with, “I’m…
Tasting Notes: This Week in Wine Blogs
Another Wine Blog: “Don’t be a Wine Spectator,” writes Amy Corron Power this week on the blog she co-authors with her husband Joe. Amy and Joe often express their skepticism when it comes to wine reviews and wine blogging, and Amy offers some good advice in this post: “The best…
Allison Harvard Represents Houston (Again!) on Cycle 17 of America’s Next Top Model
America’s Next Top Model premieres Wednesday, September 14, at 8 p.m. CT on the CW network. ANTM is in its seventeenth “cycle” (they don’t call them seasons), and Spring native Allison Harvard will be among the former contestants returning for this, the “All Stars” cycle of the hit reality show…
In Just Six Years NASA Will Fly This Manned Rocket…If You Believe Them
Put it down in stone — in just six years, and for just $18 billion, the rocket pictured in the artist’s rendering above will be flying astronauts. NASA says so, so it must be true. The agency announced today the design for the manned rocket that will take astronauts to…
Cy Fyre: Mega-Producer Builds Big Beats, Never Sleeps
Each Wednesday, Rocks Off arbitrarily appoints one lucky local performer or group “Artist of the Week,” bestowing upon them all the fame and grandeur such a lofty title implies. Know a band or artist that isn’t awful? Email their particulars to sheaserrano@gmail.com. What we have here is the invisible man;…
Why I’m Going to Buffalo Wild Wings Instead of Colton & Farb Gallery
I haven’t been in a while, but Buffalo Wild Wings is kind of incredible. It offers 14 distinct sauces for its wings. You can get something called “Asian Zing” dumped all over your chicken bits and simultaneously watch 43 billboard-sized televisions. Colton & Farb Gallery offers a similar yet more…
Houston Catches a Break with Bush Park Wildfire
As noted below, the grassfire that broke out yesterday afternoon at George Bush Park has been all but contained. No evacuations were necessary. By 7 p.m. HFD had “50 pieces of fire equipment, more than 175 personnel, 4 dozers” working the fire, and they were ready with an aerial drop…
Ingredient of the Week: Eggplant
What is it? Dubbed “aubergine” by the French, the eggplant is part of the nightshades family and is a fruit related to the tomato and bell pepper. Native to India, it has since spread to many other world cuisines, including Chinese, Mediterranean, African, Italian and French. There are different types…
Ode To Recalled Turkey: Top 7 Songs About Puking
This will come as a surprise to absolutely no one, but Rocks Off enjoys an adult beverage now and then. Sometimes we even enjoy more than one. And every once in a while we just might happen to, say, spend an entire Sunday drinking champagne on a patio and wake…
Menil Collection to Add Groovy Food Truck-Inspired Cafe, Courtesy of Rice Building Workshop
Over the next two years, Rice architecture students will find their work in company with that of Pritzker Prize-winning architect Renzo Piano, as the Rice Building Workshop builds a cafe for the Menil Collection campus. Construction on the cafe will begin next spring, and it will open the year after…
Chef Chat, Part 1: Nicole Hudson of Conscious Cafe
A hand-painted sign delineates the entrance of Conscious Cafe, a Nation of Islam-run vegetarian hangout in the Third Ward. It’s only been open for about a year, but the cafe already has devoted regulars. Nicole Hudson is the co-owner and chef (not to mention a kickboxing teacher and personal trainer)…
Dig This: Mydolls, Second Lovers, Yello Echo, The Answer Page & //TENSE//
The current volume of local music is staggering. New Houston bands and new songs are born daily, and all too often pass away just as quickly. Rocks Off wants to help you (and ourselves) keep up. It’s time for another installment of Dig This, wherein we inform you about the…
Comment of the Day: The Most Heroic 9/11 To-Go Box Ever
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…
“Working in the Abstract: Rethinking the Literal” Showcases Local Heavy Hitters of Abstraction
This show acts as a kind of teaching tool, so it’s appropriate that it’s on display at the Glassell School of Art. It’s a primer on different styles of abstract painting, and it features some local heavy hitters of abstraction. The styles range from the liquid and organic compositions of…
Last Chance to Vote in The Houston Press Best of Houston® Balloting
Today is the day, procrastinators. You have until 11:59:59 p.m. tonight to make your voice heard in the annual Houston Press Best of Houston® search for the, ummm, best of Houston. Click here to register your opinion in such categories as Goods and Services, City Life, Arts and Entertainment, Sports…
Conroe Native Courtney Smith Crashes Rock-Lit Boys Club
Introducing music journalism’s latest female-penned release, Courtney E. Smith’s Record Collecting for Girls. Following suit with like-minded veteran writers like Sara Marcus and Jessica Hopper, Smith’s first book boldly tackles the music memoir, a literary genre historically saturated with male writers. The Texas native and former MTV music programmer offers…
The Roughest Catch: Ike Jime on the Gulf Coast, with Video, Part 2 of 4
Read the first part of our four-part series on Gulf sashimi-grade fish, and stay tuned tomorrow for part three. “Lane snapper!” yells Captain Barry Irwin from the deck of the La Victoria. He’s been rod-and-reel fishing near the starboard bow, the trawler bobbing gently in Bondi blue waters 20 miles…
From the Road: Art Attack at New York Fashion Week
It’s Fashion Week in New York, and that means we get to spend an entire week looking at hot new fashions, hot new models and a jellybean-bedecked Nicki Minaj. Photographer Jay Marroquin was in New York for the start of Fashion Week, and has sent us some fabulous photos from…
Giant Boners, Random Women, a Proto-V for Vendetta” Today in Houston-Related eBay Shopping
It’s always worth an occasional search for “Houston” on the eBay collectibles page. You never know what you’ll come up with. Like these 10 items: 10. The world’s most unsubtle huge erection Current Price: $9.99 Why You Need It: Matt Houston is all man, bitches. Lean back and see just…
Sampler Plate: This Week in Food Blogs
Each week, we put together a sampler plate of the most interesting links from both local and national food blogs. Know a blog we should be paying particular attention to? Leave the address in the comments section below. Robb Walsh: Robb has been on a barbecue vision quest throughout the…
Woman Loads Car with Donations for Wildfire Victims, Neighborhood Threatens to Tow
Raintree Place, a private gated community near River Oaks, is home to the rich, the successful and the parking Nazis. Dianne Josephs, who rents a house in Raintree, had parked her car in her driveway and was loading it with clothing and household goods to donate to wildfire victims. It…
Michael Brown Trial: A Butt-Dial and a Humanitarian Award Used as a Weapon
A butt-dialed voice mail allegedly revealing an extramarital affair spurred the argument leading to Michael Brown’s assault charge, prosecutors argued in the first day of testimony in the ex-hand surgeon’s trial. After spending August 12, 2010, with her children (and requisite security personnel, natch) at NASA, Rachel Brown checked her…
Archie Bell Sues Legendary “Philly Soul” Duo Gamble & Huff
In certainly one of the more interesting local items to come in over courthouse.com, a Web site that reports on notable, unusual or legally significant filings in the federal courts, Houston songwriter and performer Archie Bell has filed suit against monumental soul-disco powerhouse Philadelphia International Records (PIR) and the hit…
Comments of the Day: The Petrol Station
Here on Eating Our Words, the commenters absolutely make the blog, and our Comment of the Day honors the best of the bunch. Every day, we read you guys and pick the commenter, or commenters, who made us laugh, cry, salivate over something delicious, or think about things in a…
Uh-Oh: George Bush Park Is (Sorta) on Fire (UPDATED)
This photo, taken from a local resident’s front yard, shows a smoky fire in George Bush Park on the far west side. The Houston Fire Department does report “a grass fire” and sent a unit out at 4:31 p.m. UPDATE: 22 units have been sent out, HFD says (see end…
Edinburg vs. the All-Nude Club: On Like Donkey Kong
Ever since Rolando Castenada took over as Edinburg’s chief of police in May, he has had a hard-on for the all-nude Jaguars club. Maybe that should be reworded: Let’s just say he’s been preoccupied with getting Jaguars closed. There’s not much he can do — the club doesn’t serve alcohol,…
Walk Like an Egyptian: King Tut Fever Hits Houston, the MFAH
It was a welcoming fit for a king. Traffic snarled with rubberneckers and bystanders’ cameras snapped this morning as contractors with Arts & Exhibitions International installed an stunning 25-foot-tall, seven-ton statue of the Egyptian god Anubis in front of the Museum of Fine Arts’ Caroline Wiess Law Building. Anubis was…
George Strait’s Top 20 Songs Of All Time: Nos. 5-1
As Rocks Off dives into the top slots of our favorite George Strait songs from his 30-year career – see Nos. 20-16, 15-11 and 10-6 – we are waiting anxiously to see if King George was able to knock Lil’ Wayne’s Tha Carter IV from atop the Billboard 200. A…
100 Favorite Dishes: No. 14, Venison Carpaccio at Thanh Phuong
This year leading up to our annual Best of Houston issue, we’re counting down our 100 favorite dishes in Houston. This list comprises our favorite dishes from the last year, dishes that are essential to Houston’s cultural landscape and/or dishes that any visitor (or resident) should try at least once…
Meet HISD Board Candidates — Even the Ones Who Aren’t TV Stars
If you watch Houston ISD TV, then you know school board President Paula Harris and the First Vice President Manuel Rodriguez. They are everywhere. For just some of the examples: Besides the televised monthly board meetings, Harris was on The Student Achievement Show — Principals of the Year that aired…
Today’s DVDs: The Tempest and Bill Cunningham New York
The Tempest stars Helen Mirren, Alfred Molina, Djimon Hounsou and Russell Brand; Julie Taymor directs. The Helen Mirren we currently see in The Debt looks like she ran face-first into a chain saw. The Helen Mirren we see in The Tempest, admittedly looking a bit more weathered than her usual…
Tasting Malibu Black
I’m known as the “rum girl” around these parts, so when the Houston Press got a bottle of Malibu Rum’s new Malibu Black, I was the one chosen to test it. I’ll say this about flavored rums. I don’t hate them. I just don’t like them. But I’ll sometimes keep…
Combat Shopping at Target on Missoni Line’s Debut Day
If you went to Target today to buy a blender and instead found yourself face-to-face with a shopping mob worthy of Black Friday proportions, you have only yourself to blame for not knowing today marks the debut of Missoni for Target, the high-end fashion house’s more accessible clothing line. Online…
Happy Birthday Don Was: His Five Best Production Jobs
Nerds like us – you have to be a music nerd if you’re reading a blog on Don Was – have favorite producers, like some sports guys have favorite coaches. Sometimes we listen to an album just because someone we like produced it, or it somehow gives it us extra…
Rick Perry: Maybe “Ponzi Scheme” Isn’t the Slogan to Win the White House
Yes, Public Policy Polling is a Democratic outfit, but nevertheless their new poll released today has some interesting tidbits. “In just three weeks Barack Obama has nearly doubled his lead over Rick Perry,” said Dean Debnam, PPP president. “That would seem to be an indication that Perry’s comments about Social…
Texas Pop Festival Finally Getting Historical Marker
Rocks Off can’t do anything about the drought, but this weekend we will be breaking our own personal drought and returning to the Austin City Limits Music Festival after taking 2010 off. But long before ACL, there was another massive musical gathering in Texas – the Texas International Pop Festival,…
Perky Eggplant, Smoked Salmon, and Gorgonzola Pizza at Piola
I predict this post’s title will elicit two responses: 1) Why perky? or 2) Ew. That topping combination couldn’t have been good. To the first reaction, I say, “See picture.” I have no idea how or why that one eggplant slice is positioned, um, so erectly. But that’s how the…
Artist Talk: Marylyn Dintenfass on Making Public Art
Marylyn Dintenfass is known for her paintings, drawings and monotypes that feature energetic, abstract shapes, imagery inspired, she says on her Web site, by her “lifelong love affair with automobiles, especially the culturally iconic, high-powered, sporty sexy muscle cars that streamed out of Detroit from the late 1950’s to the…
U Can’t Touch This: The Top 5 Dance-Rap Tracks Of All Time
The hip-hop world is a less than sensible place – lots of times, you’re even required to clarify when bad means bad and when bad means good – so once a week we’re going to get with a rapper and ask them to explain things. Have something you always wanted…
Two Captured for $6 Million Jewel Heist; Third Guy Still on the Loose
Houston police are looking for the third man who helped take $6 million in jewels from a Bellaire store in February. They’ve already arrested Jason Clay Kennedy and John Dewayne O’Brien; Kelvin Lynn O’Brien is still on the loose. (What’s with all the Irish? Is it a Houston chapter of…
Houston’s Food Community Steps Up to Help Wildfire Victims
Although the wildfires in Bastrop have been getting the lion’s share of media attention, fires are burning all over Texas right now — including in our own backyard. And Houston’s food community has stepped up to help, in as many ways as they can possibly conceive. Whether it’s a food…
Score a Hole-in-One at Discovery Green’s “Insperity Golf Experience”
Putt-putt golf isn’t the leisure activity it used to be. What killed it? We have no idea, but if upscale makeovers are bringing people back to the bowling lanes, we think contemporary art might do the same for putt-putt. The nine-hole Insperity Golf Experience explores what happens when you ask…
Petrol Station Employee Wishes Muslim Customer “Happy 9/11”
Talk about a PR nightmare. A guy named Tarek G. wrote a Yelp review of Houston’s Petrol Station that included quite a tale: His to-go box, which included an un-American hamburger ordered so he could participate in the Satanic Islamic ritual of watching the Cowboys game, came with a drawing…
How Irrelevant Have the Astros Become? You WILL NOT Be Able to Name Last Night’s Lineup
The Astros long ago became an afterthought this year, about the first time someone touched a football in Texans training camp. But how irrelevant have they become? We are positive that no one in town outside of the most steadfast fan will be able to come up with the first…
Succinct Stooges Bio Looks Beyond Iggy Pop
The Stooges: Head On By Brett Callwood Wayne State University Press, 176 pp., $19.95. While there have been a number of books written about the Stooges and Iggy Pop, this slim but substantive volume is the first to really give the non-Iggy members their due both biographically and musically. And…
Ben & Jerry Whip Out Their Schweddy Balls: Five Other Pervy Food Names
Neat. Good times. Ben & Jerry have exposed their newest, limited-batch flavor “Schweddy Balls” based on the mock-NPR SNL sketch starring Alec Baldwin because “It’s never too early to start celebrating the holiday season.” (Wasn’t it just Labor Day?) According to the company site, Schweddy Balls is “Fair Trade vanilla…
Houston Zoo May Stink This Weekend
Two months ago the Houston Zoo’s African Forest welcomed seven-year-old Pewtunia the Corpse Flower to her new home. Now she is expected to bloom in the next seven to ten days. Corpse flowers open at their own pace, as Houstonians are quite aware. Last summer, the Houston Museum of Natural…
R&B Ingenue Coline Creuzot Won’t Give Up The Chase
Houston has been known as the home of some of R&B’s top vocalists, and Coline Creuzot is determined to be the next one. With three mixtapes featuring some of Houston hip-hop’s heavy hitters, she has already acquired the attention of the streets. Paul Wall, with whom she shares a manager,…
For Tyler Perry’s Birthday, a Comprehensive History of Black Men in Drag
Happy birthday, Tyler Perry. The media mogul is celebrating his 41st with the news that he topped Forbes list of highest paid men in entertainment: Thanks to five movies he has cranked out over the past two years and two TV series, Perry earned $130 million between May 2010 and…
Sundance Cinemas Will Open at Angelika’s Old Home in Bayou Place November 23
Houston moviegoers hoping for another spot to find independent and foreign films will see their wishes come true in November. Sundance Cinemas, the Robert Redford-helmed chain of art house movie theaters, will open its Houston location on November 23 in the old Angelika Film Center space in Bayou Place Downtown,…
9/11 Idiocy: Worker Draws Twin Towers and “Happy 9/11” on Muslim Customer’s To-Go Box
A guy named Tarek G. wrote a Yelp review of Houston’s Petrol Station that included quite a tale: His to-go box, which included an un-American hamburger ordered so he could participate in the Satanic Islamic ritual of watching the Cowboys game, came with a drawing of a plane about to…
Comment of the Day: Times Snobbishness
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…
Fast Times: Whataburger Banana Pie and Banana Milkshake
Even though my last attempt at enjoying a limited-time-only Whataburger milkshake didn’t thrill me, I had to return to try out their new Banana Shake. Bananas are serious comfort food for me, and after a particularly tough week I thought I deserved some serious (and fast) comfort food. When I…
Die Hard 5 Should Never Happen, and 5 Other Fifth Films
What is it with Hollywood and its lack of a new concept? We’re fine with a good sequel, and we can even handle a third installment if done correctly. In fact there have been quite a few excellent threequels made over the years — Return of the Jedi, Indiana Jones…
Upcoming: Buzzfest XXVII, The Gourds, Mastodon, Sting, Etc.
Brent Nettles, Literary Greats, Poor Pilate: Sat., Sept. 24. Continental Club. Brown Bird, The Devil Makes Three: Fri., Dec. 2. Fitzgerald’s. Buxton, By The End Of Tonight, Cosmic Sound: CHANGED Fri., Sept. 30. Mango’s. “BuzzFest XXVII” With Bush, Staind, Chevelle, P.O.D., Everlast, 10 Years, thelastplaceyoulook, Filter: Sat., Oct. 22. Cynthia…
Five Staples of the Soccer Mom Cabinet
Believe it or not, I can remember a time when “soccer mom” wasn’t necessarily a pejorative term. My theory: certain real/desperate housewives’ reality dramas and sitcoms have significantly reinforced the negative associations surrounding this figure. But f&*k that, ladies. If there’s two or more kids sleeping upstairs, a mini-van in…
A Rap Guide To The HISD Football Playbook
Football season is underway for HISD middle schools. Rocks Off helps coach a 7th and 8th grade team. Which means we’ve been working fervently with 12-to-14-year-olds these past three weeks, aimlessly trying to get them to understand how to identify which side of the offense is the strong side when…
Why Does the Fashion Industry Love Little (Naked) Girls?
The fashion industry is known for a lot of things, but shying away from controversy is not one of them. In fact, it’s just the opposite. The industry knows that sexy sells and scandal reigns king. For the fashion industry bad press is good press, especially if it comes in…
Houston’s Sports Teams: 21st Century Suckage, In Interactive Chart Form
Click here for a larger, interactive version of the chart. Everyone’s very, very excited about the Houston Texans. Beating a Peyton-less Colts team has the town assured of a division title and the playoffs. But this is Houston, people. For us, in the 21st Century, sports has been little but…
The Least Anticipated Movies Of Fall/Winter 2011
The fall/winter movie season kicked off last weekend as Contagion dominated the box office (the highly touted Warrior, not so much). I’ve already covered, in some depth, those releases coming up in the remainder of 2011 that might merit a closer look. We learned a couple things from this. The…
And Now, the Least Anticipated Movies of Fall/Winter 2011
Pop Rocks will return Thursday. The fall/winter movie season kicked off last weekend as Contagion dominated the box office (the highly touted Warrior, not so much). I’ve already covered, in some depth, those releases coming up in the remainder of 2011 that might merit a closer look. We learned a…
The Roughest Catch: Ike Jime on the Gulf Coast, Part 1 of 4
“I don’t eat bait,” growls Captain Barry Irwin, pointedly ignoring the plate of raw bonito being offered to him. It’s the end of a 15-hour commercial fishing expedition in the Gulf of Mexico, a mere pleasure cruise for someone like Irwin, who’s been a commercial fisherman since he was 16…
30 Seconds With The Contortionist’s Robby Baca
We sat down with Robby Baca of The Contortionist to see what we could find out about the heavy metal curb-stompers’ guitarist in 30 seconds. Rocks Off: What is the worst song in the world? Robby Baca: Too many bad songs to pick from. RO: What is the best lyric…
Confidential, the Classic Gossip Mag: Eight of Its Most Baffling Headlines
Confidential was the most-feared Hollywood magazine back in the day. While still somewhat sedate by 21st-century standards, it was no-holds-barred in classic Hollywood. Famously, it lost a libel suit (in Britain) for saying Liberace was gay. Anyway, looking at covers that are floating around the Web, there are lots of…
Where Are We Drinking?
The masks that make up part of this bar’s decor should be the best tip-off as to where we’re drinking this week. Does this two-story spot look familiar to you? Leave your best guess in the comments section below…
100 Creatives: Skeez181
What he does: Skeez181 has a long held interest in art. When he was 12 years old, he first started working with spray paints. By the time he was a teenager at Sam Houston High School in the late 1980s, his reputation as an artist made him popular with his…
Toan Quoc Nguyen: Science Teacher’s Steamy Sexts to 16-Year-Old Lead to Charges
Here’s what you don’t want to come home to as a parent: Your 16-year-old daughter “lying on her own bed” with a 26-year-old dude. That’s what court documents show happened to one local mother, and a Cy-Fair science teacher from Tomball has been charged with online solicitation of a minor…
Friday Night: Sideshow Tramps CD Release At Fitzgerald’s
Sideshow Tramps Fitzgerald’s September 9, 2011 If Aftermath doesn’t have to be at the office first thing in the morning, sometimes we let our personal hygiene slide a little. Some days stretch well into the afternoon before we take a shower, and every so often we don’t take one at…
Houston Texans Game 1 — 4 Winners, 4 Losers
Yesterday was a great day. The NFL season kicked off, the Texans were at home and the weather was an unseasonably cool 96 degrees in Houston, perfect tailgating weather if you can deal with pit stains and butt sweat. Oh, and the Texans beat the Colts in the opener for…
Comment of the Day
And the countdown continues. Katharine Shilcutt named her No. 16 favorite dish in the city, migas at Iguana Lupana. And she inspired commenter Dwilkinson to head out and try them: I just tried this place today based on this post, as migas is one of my favorite dishes, and was…
10 Great Pictures Of Johnny Cash
Do you remember where you were when you found out that Johnny Cash passed away, on September 12, 2003? This member of Rocks Off was in our tiny S-10 pickup, delivering pizzas somewhere in Pearland, when one of the country stations he was flipping through delivered the news that the…
Houston Texan Winston to Host Online Monday Night Football Show
Houston Texans offensive tackle Eric Winston is a funny and insightful guy who is a regular on local and national sports talk shows as well as a very good follow on Twitter. Tonight, he launches a Monday Night Football commentary show called Not Your Ordinary Sports Show (NYOSS) with Sports…
Michael DeWayne Walker: Lawsuit Over Child Rapist’s Prison Death Allowed to Continue
Michael DeWayne Walker was serving a 21-year sentence for aggravated sexual assault of a child when he was put in a cell with Wilbert “Peanut” Hamilton in 2006. Hamilton beat him to death, and Walker’s parents have sued on the grounds that guards and prison officials knew Hamilton was a…
Friday Night: Junior Brown At The Mucky Duck
Junior Brown McGonigel’s Mucky Duck September 9, 2011 Aftermath has absolutely no excuse for not having seen Junior Brown before, at least not in a nightclub setting. The man is one of the biggest workhorses of Texas swing, coming to Houston at least every few months and plays somewhere near…
100 Favorite Dishes: No. 15, Snapper with Grapefruit at Kata Robata
This year leading up to our annual Best of Houston issue, we’re counting down our 100 favorite dishes in Houston. This list comprises our favorite dishes from the last year, dishes that are essential to Houston’s cultural landscape and/or dishes that any visitor (or resident) should try at least once…
What’s the Opposite of Homosexuality? “Holysexuality,” Says “Pray the Gay Away” Group
Outside of the Sugar Creek Baptist Church on Saturday afternoon, about 70 protesters lined the service road waving rainbow signs. Cars honked along with their chants of “We are holy, we are queer!” A dozen protesters were students from the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts — one…
Last Night: Lil Wayne & Friends At The Woodlands
Lil Wayne, Rick Ross (feat. Bun B, Trae & Ace Hood), Keri Hilson Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion September 11, 2001 “Three things I want you to know about myself,” Lil Wayne told the Woodlands Pavillion at the start of Sunday night’s show: 1. “I believe in God.” 2. “I ain’t…
Marcus Keith Mehundrew, 26, Bayou Body Count No. 141
A man seeking drugs shot and killed another man on the southwest side Sunday evening. The 26-year-old male victim, whose name has not been released pending verification (Update: HPD has identified him as Marcus Keith Mehundrew), was sitting in a garage with two other males about 7:25 p.m. Sunday when…
Discount Designer Duds: Missoni for Target, Lagerfeld for Macy’s in Stores
Where are you going to be tomorrow, September 13, at 6 a.m.? We’re going to be staking out our favorite Target, waiting for the doors to open to stock up on pieces from the new Missoni for Target line. If you regularly ogle the window at Missoni in the Galleria,…
Tanqueray and Tonic. Really?
Gin drinkers, for the most part, are a particular crew. We’ll find a gin, perhaps the first one we try, and stake a position, like Coke and Pepsi drinkers. I was no different when I made Bombay Sapphire my house gin. There’s nothing distinctive about Sapphire, but as the label…
Saturday Night: Dom Kennedy At Warehouse Live
Dom Kennedy, Doughbeezy Warehouse Live Studio September 10, 2011 Saturday night, Aftermath was engulfed in clouds of marijuana smoke as we entered Warehouse Live for Dom Kennedy’s show, part of the Cali native’s “Scoremore Texas Tour” that had already stopped in Dallas, Austin and Oklahoma City. Amongst Saturday’s smoked-out atmosphere,…
Wildfire Evacuees Pause for a Breath at Lake Conroe KOA
Scott Ross had held out past the wildfire evacuation order. The father of six didn’t want to leave his place at Southall Drive and FM 1486 to looters and in his case, it wasn’t idle speculation. He’d already had a guy run out from under his raised house. “But the…
The Week in TV: Aaron Sorkin About to Get Aaron Sorkiny
Cable news, lesbians, and toddlers dressed like hookers. This was the week in TV Land: • Good news for fans of impassioned monologues and unalloyed earnestness: HBO has picked up Aaron Sorkin’s drama set in the world of cable TV news. Originally titled More as This Story Develops, the series…
Sourdough Bread: A Starter (Part One)
I grew up with freshly baked bread. The scent of dough proofing, and of crusty loaves baking in the oven, informs my sense memory from its earliest stages. I’m not quite sure where my mom picked up the passion for scratch cooking and baking, but I’m sure glad she did…
Five ACL ’11 Bands That Could Headline In 2012
This Thursday night, Rocks Off leaves for the 2011 Austin City Limits Music Festival at Austin’s Zilker Park. This year promises to be a hot one, from the killer temperatures, the constant wildfires just miles from the venue, and the mouth of Friday’s Bud Light stage headliner Kanye West. (Come…
Medger Chauncey Duckens: Church Worker’s Sexts to Underage Girl Feature Sophisticated “Hard Nips” Line
When you have the swellegant moniker of Medger Chauncey Duckens, it’s to be expected that your roll will be smooth and sophisticated. Especially when you, a 43-year-old church worker, are texting a 15-year-old female church member. Duckens brought his A game to sexting the girl, but was caught and the…
Happy Birthday Dr. Gatling: An Original Gangsta’s Playlist
This is the face that launched a thousand rap lyrics. You are looking at Dr. Richard Jordan Gatling, a mild-mannered inventor from the mean streets of Como, N.C., who started his career by inventing a screw propeller for steamboats, not knowing that someone else had patented one shortly before he…
Vote! A New Musical Showcases a Huge Teen Cast at the Hobby Center
When Steven Jamail was in college at Rice University, the music composition major spent a lot of his spare time writing “really dark historical things,” which he says are a tough sell (Phantom of the Opera and Jekyll & Hyde notwithstanding) to modern musical theater companies. Fellow lyricist and Rice…
Wine of the Week: A Rosé from the Texas Hill Country
The more I read about Texas Hill Country winemaker and San Antonio endocrinologist Richard Becker, the more I am intrigued. Any doctor-cum-vintner who quotes readily from one of my favorite 20th-century American poets, Wallace Stevens, sounds like someone who puts more thought into the art and science of winemaking than…
Laura Annette Durden, 44, Bayou Body Count No. 140
A woman’s body was found near her car in Sunnyside early Sunday morning, the victim of a head injury. Laura Annette Durden, 44, was found unconscious outside her vehicle at the parking lot of the Wilmington House Apartments in the 4300 block of Wilmington about 3 a.m. Sunday, Houston police…
Discount Dining: La Fendee Grill
I live close to La Fendee Grill, and I love Mediterranean food, but I hadn’t been to La Fendee in more than three years. And even when I did go to La Fendee, I don’t think I ever ate there. The few times I visited were spent on the patio…
Gosling & Mulligan’s Hot Kiss and 10 More Awesome Movie Makeout Scenes
All about the Internet we keep reading about the ridiculously hot Ryan Gosling/Carey Mulligan make out scene in the upcoming movie Drive. We’ve watched the exclusive clip (multiple times) and we will concur; it’s pretty steamy. Gosling is no stranger to legendary necking. His movie The Notebook tops most romantic…
Saturday Night: Santana & Spearhead At The Woodlands
Santana, Michael Franti & Spearhead Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion September 10, 2011 Timeless. Classic. Legend. OG – all classifications that tend to be distributed loosely in the music industry these days. Yet for Carlos Santana, the skinny Mexican kid who played at Woodstock and has since accumulated 10 Grammy Awards…
Comment of the Day: More Fodder for the Rick Perry Dumb-Quote Generator
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…
Sittin Sidewayz: Paul Wall Busted For Pot In El Paso
Paul Wall followed in the footsteps of his outlaw country heroes over the weekend… all the way to jail. Wall, fellow Houston rapper Baby Bash (“Suga Suga”) and producer BiggRoy were arrested early Sunday on suspicion of possession of less than 2 ounces of marijuana, Billboard reported this morning via…
Jersey Shore: The 5 Most Pompous, Snobbish Things in The New York Times‘ Travel Piece
As Texans, we know a lot about media condescension from New York and Washington. For me, growing up in New Jersey, I became inured pretty early to being looked down on by the big city across the river. But snobbish pomposity was taken to new heights in The New York…
Houston Animators (and Two of Art Attack’s 100 Creatives) Team Up for Webcast
In the course of Art Attack’s 100 Creatives series, we’ve had but two animators. Sophia Vassilakidis is a Houston native recently home from Canada who has made her mark locally by animating some of the truly disturbing music that Two Star Symphony has been putting out lately. Their album Titus…
Expedition Egg Salad: Barnaby’s Cafe
I’ve become obsessed with egg salad, which is a little weird, because I can remember a time in my life when I hated both eggs and mayonnaise. Go figure. My post on The Far Down at The Hobbit Cafe prompted a reader tip about Nielsen’s, purveyor of another praiseworthy egg…
Rappers Predict Texans’ First-Ever Playoff Run
Some rappers happen to be thoughtful, intelligent people. Every Monday that isn’t a national holiday, Rocks Off will have some of them here discussing issues relevant to their culture. This Week’s Panel: Mic Skills, Kritikal, Young Sensation, Kiotti, Tawn P, Medicine Girl, Show, Aspiring A.D.D., Kyle Hubbard, C-Stone, Fat Pimp…
Fast Times: Fajitas Puebla Tacos At Taco Cabana
Oh, Taco C, how I love thee. Maybe it’s because I lived off Taco Cabana tortillas and queso in college; every great night at the square or float down the river in San Marcos ended with a trip to TC. Drunk, sober or hungover, it hits the spot. So when…
Last Night: Homegrown Kissless Rocks Out Houston Before Heading Off-Broadway
The setup: An ambitious new Houston-grown musical about teenage conflicts uses a cast of 27 to create a dynamic world where parents are distant and largely irrelevant, while the opinion of a peer can be crucial. The execution: Teenage cliques formed around jocks and nerds are a theatrical tradition, but…
The Mass Confusion Over Whether Texas Medical Examiners Are Legit Without an Oath of Office
When we saw this story about the Webb County Attorney wondering why the county medical examiner never took an oath of office, thus potentially jeopardizing all her rulings, we wondered if the same thing could ever happen in Harris County, since no medical examiner in the county’s history appears to…
True Blood Finale: Getting Heavy
Alan Ball was known for his masterful use of music in Six Feet Under. He’s lost none of his touch when it comes to his current HBO series, True Blood – which happens to be set in the Louisiana swamps, not terribly far from Houston. Maybe it’s the fact that…
Owls Go for the Drama and Come Out with the Win
So close yet so far away. Nobody beats Rice but Rice. There they go again. Playing not to lose instead of playing to win. Just a few of the thoughts going through the head of Rice Owls fans as the Purdue Boilermakers sent the kicking team out for what would…
True Blood: In Death There Is A Heavy Peace
Alan Ball was known for his masterful use of music in Six Feet Under. He’s lost none of his touch when it comes to his current HBO series, True Blood – which happens to be set in the Louisiana swamps, not terribly far from Houston. Maybe it’s the fact that…
Judge Orders Gay Married Man Not to Leave Children Alone with His Husband, Or Anyone Else
When William and Lacey Flowers got divorced, she got custody of their three kids. After William Flowers traveled to Connecticut to remarry in 2010 — this time, to a man — he tried again to get custody. But he didn’t get the kids. Instead, some say he got a heaping…
Friday Night: Farragut North Is Pretty Much What You’d Expect When You Put “Washington” and “Drama” Together in a Sentence
The setup: Written by Howard Dean staffer Beau Willimon, who worked on Dean’s flawed, flamed-out 2004 presidential campaign, this insider’s view into the down-and-dirty world of American politics is every bit as corrupt as you’d imagine. The execution: The Iowa presidential primary race is ground zero for Willimon’s drama, where…
Where Are We Eating?
This hot dog has a sunny name to match the sunny weather we’ve been enjoying the past few days. And that’s not mayo that’s peeking out from underneath those pickled red onions; it’s cream cheese. Can you guess where we got this funky (and freakin’ delicious) hot dog? Leave your…
Texans 34, Colts 7: In Role Reversal, Defense Picks Up Offense
Our interactive Texans-season game card has been happily updated. Be sure to also check out our slideshow of Colts and Texan fans. It took just 12 game minutes for Wade Phillips and his new-look defense to show why this year’s Texans could be different from their once-promising predecessors. Matt Schaub…
100 Favorite Dishes: No. 16, Migas at La Guadalupana
This year leading up to our annual Best of Houston issue, we’re counting down our 100 favorite dishes in Houston. This list comprises our favorite dishes from the last year, dishes that are essential to Houston’s cultural landscape and/or dishes that any visitor (or resident) should try at least once…
R.L. Bell, Our Favorite Massage Therapist-Bodybuilder-Wedding Singer, Booted From Karaoke Battle U.S.A.
Though Spring native R.L. Bell impressed Karaoke Battle USA judges with his classic R&B style and massive guns a few weeks ago (one of the best parts of this show is hearing Carnie Wilson swoon), his performance last night in the semifinals failed to seduce the judges, at least enough…
VIDEO: Pieces of 9/11, Memories From Houston at City Hall
The Houston Grand Opera-commissioned song cycle, Pieces of 9/11, Memories from Houston, kicked off this weekend’s 9/11 tenth anniversary retrospectives at Hermann Square in front of city hall Friday. Present at the event were Mayor Annise Parker, city council members and many of Houston’s police officers and firefighters. Members of…
Comment of the Day
Today Jeremy Parzen wrote about his mother-in-law’s chili, which he paired with a nice 2009 Demi-Sec Vouvray for a splendid Odd Pair. He also casually mentioned that this was turkey chili with beans, so of course, we waited for the angry hordes to descend. And we waited. FINALLY, a commenter…
Football! This Weekend’s Best Bets
As I get ready to drop some more decidedly mediocre wagering knowledge on all of you this weekend, I have one quick thought to share with you on the opening weekend of the NFL season: This time last season, these were your starting quarterbacks in the AFC South: Matt Schaub…
This Week in Deliciousness
Welcome back to the weekly roundup here at Eating Our Words, where the nice weather can only mean one thing: soon our faces will be exploding with pollen. Ready the hot sauce and Benadryl, bitches, it’s time we taught these sinuses a lesson or two. We started the week off…
The 20 Best Tribute Albums Of All Time
This year alone has seen a multitude of tribute albums, from two Buddy Holly lovefests to the upcoming ZZ Top tribute set from a very motley crew of artists, including Nickelback, Daughtry, Grace Potter & The Nocturnals (yum), and Wyclef Jean. Let that one sink in. We’ll still listen to…
Shantel Moore and Friends: Scammed Cancer Patients and Spent It on Maserati & Gucci
If you have a mind sick enough to rip off desperately ill people, you probably think to yourself, “Cancer patients — hey, they may die soon, so what’ll they care?” Houston police say Shantel Moore, 29, apparently had that kind of coldhearted and inhumane logic. The Stafford woman worked for…
Wilfred: “Identity” Crisis
Shit just got real, yo. For its entire first season, Wilfred has played with our conception of what is and isn’t real to Ryan (Elijah Wood). Is he hallucinating? Dead? The only sane man in an insane world? I’m not sure we got much closer to the truth last night,…
When Cows Attack: Woman Sues Over Bovine Assault
You’re rolling along in the East Texas town of China, presumably minding your own business, when a cow decides to attack your car. What do you do? If you’re Linda Anderson, you get out of the car in front of an obviously annoyed cow. And then you get attacked by…
Project Runway: Bad Prints, Bad Attitudes
This week on Project Runway: Another team challenge rears its ugly head; Joshua M.’s selfish attitude gives Bert’s persnickety snark a run for its money; Joshua makes me cry — again. In this week’s episode, aptly titled “Can’t We All Just Get Along?” the designers are divided into two teams…
100 Favorite Dishes: No. 17, Crème Brûlée Bread Pudding at Killen’s
This year leading up to our annual Best of Houston issue, we’re counting down our 100 favorite dishes in Houston. This list comprises our favorite dishes from the last year, dishes that are essential to Houston’s cultural landscape and/or dishes that any visitor (or resident) should try at least once…
George Strait’s Top 20 Songs Of All Time: Nos. 10-6
Before we proceed to today’s portion of the George Strait countdown – catch up with Nos. 20-16 and 15-11 – here are a few interesting tidbits about King George. It is “fact-finding Friday,” after all. Strait has been a spokesperson for Resistol hats, Justin boots, Wrangler jeans, Chevy trucks and…
Visual Mixtape: “Musical Moves” at Rice Media Center
Because Sonic Youth has a long practice of using the works of contemporary artists on their covers – think Raymond Pettibon on Goo and Gerhard Richter’s photorealist Kerze (“Candle”) on Daydream Nation – these visual artists have reached wider audiences. Meanwhile, the band has distinguished itself by championing living, working…
Chef Chat Part 3, Cunninghame West of Valentino Restaurant Is No Food Snob
The last two days, Chef Cunninghame West has been entertaining us with stories about moving around the country looking for new jobs, hiding things in cane fields and sleeping outside by the ocean; see our conversation here and here. Today West goes in the kitchen to whip up some things…
Drought Madness: Houston, You Want a Hurricane. Overwhelmingly
It’s clear the Drought of ’11 has had some effect on the minds of Texans: They are actively in favor of getting hit with a tropical storm or hurricane if it will help bring about the end of the über-dry spell. Does everyone forget Ike or Allison? We asked readers…
KTSU’s Take Ova Crew Brings Student Voices To “The Choice”
In 1972, the FCC approved a license for Texas Southern University’s FM radio station, 90.9 KTSU (“The Choice”). The station was originally intended to give students in the communications department an opportunity to get hands-on training in the field of broadcast media. Although a few classes provided that training, KTSU…
Move Over, Mankini: We’ve Made Our Own “Fashionguistics”
You gotta love the industry for its artistic, often bizarre, concoctions. With Fashion Week upon us, we are sure to see some very inventive (and impractical) threads grace the runway. But even more off-the-wall than some of the fashions will be the manner in which they are described. We all…
Rice Seeks Win Number One Tomorrow While UH Aims for 2-0
Welcome to week two of the college football season. The Cougars go on the road to North Texas for what should be a sure win while the Owls host Purdue in an attempt for win number one. And if there’s ever a week where the Owls are going to defeat…
Emeril Returns to Television with Emeril’s Table, Talks to Us About Taking the Intimidation Out of Dinner Parties
Chef Emeril Lagasse is back with his brand new show, Emeril’s Table, premiering Monday September 26, at 11 a.m. EST/10 a.m. CST on the Hallmark Network. Each half-hour episode of the series will feature five guests sitting around Emeril’s chef table as he provides cooking lessons, offers tips and tricks,…
Mamma Mia! 10 Amazing Facts About ABBA
Yeah, we know. The last few weeks, all of these facts blogs have been on cool, big-balled rock bands like the Doors, Queen, KISS and Led Zeppelin – your basic meat-and-potatos groups you get into from listening to too much classic-rock radio with your parents. But this week, we dive…
Houston Ballet’s Return of the Masters: Revived and Resplendent
Dance season is back, and just as the fall renews our cultural spirit (no longer must we spend Saturday matinee-time with barbecues and water guns), Houston Ballet renews three grand works from our cultural past. Return of the Masters features rare jewels from a trio of the twentieth century’s greatest…
Texas Renaissance Festival Halts Preparations Because of Wildfires
The Texas Renaissance Festival is canceling all of its preparations and events this weekend, including wedding tours, cast rehearsals and new staff orientation, because of wildfire evacuation orders from Grimes County. The festival grounds will remain closed to the public until the evacuation orders are lifted. The festival grounds and…
Texan Sails Across Atlantic to Mark a U.S. Government “Cover-Up” of the USS Liberty Incident (Update)
Larry Toenjes was living a pretty nice life in Clear Lake Shores, Texas with his wife Jean Garst. Then, in April, the 74-year-old retiree decided that he would ditch his comfy existence to sail to a region where fellow nautical travelers have been threatened, taken hostage and killed, in order…
Last Night: Red Bull EmSee Battle At Warehouse Live
Red Bull EmSee Freestyle Battle Warehouse Live September 8, 2011 10:52 p.m.: White people dancing to Beat King’s “Hammer” is just about the greatest indirect advertisement for racial tolerance in all the world. 10:52:05: Oh yeah, introduction: Tonight is the Red Bull EmSee freestyle battle, an invitation-only competition to determine…
Lightning, Naked C-3PO and Killer Sunsets: The Week in Art Photos
It’s time again to check out the Houston Press Flickr Pool and see what kinds of art shots our talented photographers have added. We love street art, unique perspectives and beautiful photos of Houston’s creative community. If you think you’ve got a good eye, drop your pictures in the pool…
Openings & Closings: See Ya, Tequila
The city has lost one of its two restaurants with a tequila-themed nomenclature: Ruby Tequila’s in Midtown, which closed swiftly and quietly late last week. The chain’s website was quick to reflect the closure, removing the Midtown location from its site without a trace. A manager at the Louisiana Street…
Astros Suitor Jim Crane Emerges to Dis MLB and the Houston Press
Jim Crane, the guy who’s probably not going to end up buying the Astros from Drayton McLane, emerged from hiding via an exclusive interview with the Houston Chronicle. He says he’s frustrated that Major League Baseball seems to be interested in his paying fines to the government over Equal Employment…
Comment of the Day: A Hurricane to Break the Drought?
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…
Bayou City Concert Musicals’ Finian’s Rainbow a Magical Romp
The setup: Always a highly anticipated event, Paul Hope’s Bayou City Concert Musicals’ annual production sets its cap this year on a classic show not seen around these parts in decades: Burton Lane, Fred Saidy and E.Y. Harburg’s utterly fetching social/political fantasy from 1947 about leprechauns, capitalism, a buried pot…
Odd Pair: Turkey Chili, Fritos, French’s, and Demi-Sec Vouvray
Labor Day weekend found us in Orange, Texas, visiting with Tracie P’s parents and family. Following our nephew Brady’s football game, Mrs. B — my mother-in-law — had a lot of hungry mouths to feed on a rainy East Texas evening, including her three grandchildren, a six-months pregnant daughter (Tracie…
No BBQing in City Parks Until Drought Lifts
Houston parks are usually fragrant on the weekends with the smell of families barbecuing up their favorite dishes. They won’t be for now, and probably for quite some time. Mayor Annise Parker announced a ban on all barbecuing and grilling in city parks because of the drought and the threat…
Keep The Fire Burnin’: The Hidden Wisdom Of REO Speedwagon
It hasn’t been around for all that long, yet a pre-Internet existence is growing increasingly hard to recall, particularly when it comes to music. In addition to songs, full-length albums, artist bios and videos, the lines to almost every song ever written are just a click away. I can’t imagine…
Redistricting GOP Was “Very, Very Clever” in Limiting Minorities’ Voting Power, Expert Testifies
Republicans found “very, very clever ways” to minimize minority voting opportunities in new Congressional and House maps passing in June, University of Houston professor Richard Murray told a three-judge panel during the redistricting trial in San Antonio yesterday. Murray, director of the Survey Research Institute at the University of Houston…
Black Queen Speaks Uses CD Release For Firefighter Relief
Black Queen Speaks is, on the surface, a band we should detest. Their sound resembles much of what killed rock and roll deader than all the drugs, plane crashes and vomit-clogged airways combined. At first listen, you can just chalk them up as another Buzzworthy act, in the end just…
Texans-Colts: Five Things to Watch
With Peyton Manning out for Sunday’s opener and potentially the entire year after undergoing a second surgery on his neck, the narrative for Houston changes from a statement game to one of trends. That is, there should be no way to actually lose, or for the final score to even…
Mistaken Identities, Wit and Cross-Dressing: All in a Day’s Work for French Farce Triumph of Love
The setup: A French farce of 1732 by Pierre de Marivaux springs into exuberant life as cross-dressing, thinly disguised identities and a scanty plot serve as a framework for wit, paradoxes, style and excellent acting. The execution: The graceful set by Matthew Schlief is a variety of topiary, some giant…
What’s Cooking Next Week?
The short work week was wonderful, as were the meals. Next week’s menu plan brings me a romantic date night, breakfast for dinner, and my all-time favorite vinaigrette. On the menu: Crispy Chicken Salad w/ Honey Balsamic Vinaigrette Zucchini & Squash Quiche w/ Mixed Greens Date Night Steak w/ Mashed…
Reviews For The Easily Distracted: Contagion
Title: Contagion Does Gwyneth Paltrow Really Die? Well, her *character* does. She’s not the only Award-winning actor who croaks, either. Rating Using Random Objects Relevant To The Film: Two Rhesus monkeys out of five. A Global Epidemic Epic? Surely You Can Come Up With Some Appropriate Puns, Peter Hammond Style?…
Last Night: Black Star At House Of Blues
Black Star feat. Mos Def & Talib Kweli House of Blues September 8, 2011 Mos Def knows how to make an exit. With the lights dimmed and the curtains dancing toward the middle, Mos Def stayed on stage and shimmied to the beat of Archie Bell & The Drells’ “Tighten…
Bartender Chat: Chelsea Drummond of The Dubliner
It’s halfway to St. Patrick’s Day (truth), so we popped into The Dubliner earlier this week to…celebrate? Sure, why not? While sipping a Guinness, we started talking to Chelsea, a California native who’s been living in Houston for three years. Her friends thought she was nuts for leaving the delightful…
Your 2011 Fall/Winter Movie Preview – Part 2
You know the drill: the fall movie season starts today, my pretties (my review of Contagion will be up soon…there’s a reason it didn’t make the preview). Yesterday we covered the first half of 2011’s most anticipated upcoming releases, determined through a rigorous scientific analysis consisting of how likely I…
Week in Photos: Midnight Movie
Each week, we take a dip into the Houston Press Flickr pool and see what our talented photographers have been up to. Summer’s winding down and school is back in session. Are you spending your weekends tailgating? Enjoying happy hour now that the days are getting shorter? We want to…
2011 Fall/Winter Movie Preview — Part 2
You know the drill: The fall movie season starts today, my pretties (my review of Contagion will be up soon…there’s a reason it didn’t make the preview). Yesterday we covered the first half of 2011’s most anticipated upcoming releases, determined through a rigorous scientific analysis consisting of how likely I…
Looking Back: Movie and TV Projects That Were Cut, Canceled or Otherwise Changed After 9/11
A few weeks after the 9/11 attacks, TIME Magazine predicted the age of irony, in which “the good folks in charge of America’s intellectual life have insisted that nothing was to be believed in or taken seriously,” had finally come to an end. “In the age of irony, even the…
What’s The Leading Cause Of Poor Record Sales?
Last week, the music world laughed up a hiccup as Lil Wayne pranced around the VMA stage in nut-suffocating, Le Tigre-inspired jeggings. While that performance affirmed that Wayne is no fashion guru, his chart performance a week later reminded us that he’s very good at something else-selling records, tons of…
O RLY? Rockets Sending Out Open House Invites, Season Ticket Offers
There is a classic Internet meme characterized by a photo of a silly-looking bird with the phrase “O RLY?” written across it. The meme was designed to signify someone’s response to an outrageous statement, usually posted on a bulletin board. For example, Nerd One might say, “Clearly, Star Trek was…
Upcoming Events: Dinner and Drinks at Rudz
Looking for a food truck festival that doesn’t charge admission and that offers plenty of seating? Head to Noel Furniture — of all places — today, starting at 11 a.m. Until 1 p.m., some of the city’s best food trucks will be fixing food for the masses: Hit ‘N Run…
100 Creatives: Alfred Cervantes
What he does: Alfred Cervantes has worked as a crew member, location scout and local film pusher in Houston for nearly 20 years. As deputy director of the Houston Film Commission for the past 16 years, he helps filmmakers of both the Hollywood and the indie ilk find locations, equipment…
Bold Prediction: Nate Won’t Hit Houston and Neither Will Any Other Hurricanes This Season
I’m not much of a betting man, but if I were, I would take odds that the Texas coast, and Houston specifically, will see no hurricane landfalls in 2011. We have a pretty substantial tropical storm in Nate meandering around the Bay of Campeche at the moment with forecast models…
Menil Teams Up with New York’s Dia Art Foundation for Cy Twombly Memorial
When Cy Twombly died on July 5, he left behind a vast body of scribbled, free-form artwork that would influence, baffle and amuse contemporaries and future artists. Though Twombly was born in Washington and died in Rome, some of his most famous works hang in Houston’s Menil Collection, in the…
Dumb Things Rick Perry Says: The Random Generator
Is Rick Perry the sharpest tool in the shed? It is a matter of some debate. Perry, like many Texas politicians, has a habit of speaking his mind, which can be occasionally deemed an unfortunate trait. It can be difficult to keep up with all the wisdom Perry has gifted…
Kabir Isola: Self-Professed Satan Uses Spatula to Attack Cop
When Beelzebub, The Teller of Lies, comes forward, he shall be wearing the mark of the beast and be carrying a barbecue spatula — Book of Revelations, possibly Bible prophecy can tell us much, but it didn’t help out Lubbock police officer Bryan Schwartner Tuesday. Schwartner answered a disturbance call…
Reality Bites: Storage Wars
There are a million reality shows on the naked television. We’re going to watch all of them, one at a time. “Sight Unseen” is now “Reality Bites,” for no real reason other than writing about reality programming is simultaneously hilarious and depressing and lends itself well to my need for…
Comment of the Day
Today Jason Bargas shared 10 tips for eating MREs, having become an expert on the subject after Katrina. Commenter Jim offered a suggestion of his own: Sloppy Joe MRE + Jalapeno Cheddar “spread” (looks like yellow toothpaste coming out of the pouch) + yellow mustard on torta loaves or hamburger…
Hank3 & 7 Other Country Bloodlines
Free of the constricting trappings of his former label Curb Records, Hank Williams III is wasting no time getting new product to his fans. “They didn’t care for my thinking,” says the artist, performing these days as Hank3. This week he officially busted loose from the clutches of Curb, releasing…
2011 NFL Preview, Spoken in Wagering-ese
I hope everyone who has had a chance to check out our Texans 2011 preview “The New Normal” has enjoyed it. Big ups to Monica Fuentes for coming up with the season-long interactive game card tracking Texans’ results. You need to go check it out. If you haven’t read it,…
100 Favorite Dishes: No. 18, Chicken-Fried Steak at Triple A
This year leading up to our annual Best of Houston issue, we’re counting down our 100 favorite dishes in Houston. This list comprises our favorite dishes from the last year, dishes that are essential to Houston’s cultural landscape and/or dishes that any visitor (or resident) should try at least once…
Fly Life: Get a Look Inside Three of Houston’s Swankiest Hotel Rooms
Whether it’s a Motel 6 or a Four Seasons, the experience of jumping into a freshly made hotel bed signals the height of rest, relaxation and comfort. Of course, there are hotels that take comfort to a whole other level: spacious bathrooms and showers, flat-screen televisions, hell-yeah minibars and killer…
Gingerbread Breakfast Cupcake at Crave
It’s not so shocking that I walked into Crave Cupcakes last week intending to purchase two cupcakes and exited instead with three. What’s (pleasantly) surprising is that Cupcake #3 cost me nothing. Earlier this year I wrote about unexpected freebies at restaurants. I should have included Crave on this list,…
Willie Avery: Calls 911 After He Gives Guy $10 to Buy Weed and the Guy Doesn’t Come Back
You’re only supposed to call 911 for emergencies, and Willie Avery of Corpus Christi clearly thought he had one. He had given a man ten bucks to go buy him some weed, and the man had shockingly not returned. So naturally Avery called the cops. At first he tried to…
From The Mink To Mango’s: Dust Settles Some After Wild Weekend
While much of Texas is on fire, some of the smoke has cleared after a rather turbulent weekend. What began with last Thursday’s sale of The Mink and continued with a flurry of accusations from both sides has now shifted into focus, as both sides seem determined to make their…
Health Department Roundup
All we’ve got this week at the Health Department Roundup are mobile food units, mostly taco trucks. We’re not sure why the Health Department didn’t go to any fixed locations, or why it almost exclusively looked at units serving Hispanic food. Maybe the department did more but didn’t get around…
Ex-Hand Doctor Michael Brown’s Assault Trial Begins Monday
Ex-hand surgeon and international dildo transporter Michael Brown is set to stand trial in Harris County District Court September 12 on a felony assault charge involving his wife, Rachel. Brown was indicted in January for an August 2010 incident in which he allegedly twisted his wife’s arm behind her back…
Ditch the Department Store and Find Your Niche: 5 Perfume Brands to Try
Whether you use perfume to reflect your mood or to change your mood, the transitory nature of scent makes for a fun fashion chase. On the hunt for something new? Before you go running off to buy the next bottle of pink celebrity juice, consider exploring the world of niche…
Trae & Friends Go Gangsta For A Day On “Strapped Up”
Tuesday night, Trae The Truth called upon his followers to meet him at 2001 Commerce Street for the “Strapped Up” video shoot, the first track from his album Street King. His specific instructions were to “wear all black & ski mask”, and wanted all of his fans to show up,…
Brew Blog: Clown Shoes Clementine
I hate clementines. We always seem to have a bunch of the baggy skinned, overly sweet little buggers lying around the house, too, as my kids love them. I don’t know exactly why I hate them; in theory, they sound delicious. They promise to eliminate many of the things I…
Rick Perry’s Inevitable Taiwanese-Video Treatment
We’re going to be honest here — the whole Taiwanese-video thing never really grabbed us, but what little attraction it had faded a long time ago. Our infatuation with Hitler Downfall dubs lasted longer. But we realize some people still get a kick out of these, so here’s the newest,…
George Strait’s Top 20 Songs Of All Time: Nos. 15-11
Today’s installment of our 20 favorite George Strait songs, which we began Wednesday, comes with word that Billboard is projecting his brand-new Here For a Good Time to debut on top of next week’s Billboard 200. It will take some work, but he could just knock off Lil Wayne’s Tha…
Jonathan Taylor Thomas Turns 30: A Collection of Ten Swoontastic Pictures — Plus Bonus JTT Facts Inside
Time was that I thought 30 was old, but now with hearing that Jonathan Taylor Thomas is 30 himself today, I don’t know what to think. I turn 30 in less than two years. I didn’t realize that JTT was only two years older than me. That makes me sad,…
Downtown Express, Art Car: The Movie in Cinema Arts Festival Houston 2011 Initial Lineup
Cinema Arts Festival Houston, the local five-day film festival that focuses on work by and about artists, has released its initial lineup for this year’s inception. The festival is going into its third year and includes live performances to complement film screenings of both classics and new work. This year,…
Wildfire Relief: The 8 Best Firefighter Movies
This wildfire stuff is getting ridiculous. The entire state of Texas is experiencing drought, categorized as “extreme” or “exceptional” in 95 percent of the state. Severe lack of rain + high winds and high pressure = the fires currently ravaging Bastrop and Montgomery counties. Firefighters attempting to get a handle…
Keep on Truckin: Flaming Patties
One of my favorite lunch destinations these days is the parking lot at Inversion on Montrose. I usually check Twitter to see which food truck is there, and it’s often one of my favorites: Bernie’s Burger Bus or H-Town StrEATs are commonly found tucked into the shade from Inversion’s massive…
15 Songs That Changed My Life: The Intern’s Tale
The less antisocial among you know that talking about music is one of the best icebreakers there is. To get to know our staff a little better, Rocks Off will periodically be asking them to share a few songs that helped to shape their musical tastes – and character. We…
Chef Chat Part 2, Cunninghame West of Valentino Restaurant
Yesterday, Chef Cunninghame West told us about some of his adventures in Maui and Santa Barbara after he graduated high school. You can read about it here. Today, we talk about how he came to be at Valentino. EOW: After Santa Barbara, I understand you spent some time in San…
Timothy Porter: Teacher, Volleyball Coach, Alleged Steroid & Cocaine Dealer
High school coaches can be inspiring figures, like Coach Taylor in Friday Night Lights. Except we can’t quite picture Taylor dealing coke and steroids, possibly to his own students and players. That’s what Friendswood police accuse Timothy Porter of doing, and he was arrested Wednesday at his League City home…
Fashion Houston 2011 Preview: It’s Getting Haute in Here
Paris, Milan, New York…Houston? IAH or Hobby airports might be the first things that come to mind when you hear “Houston” and “runway” in the same sentence, but powerful fashion forces are working to change that. With New York Fashion Week in full swing, Houston is prepping for its very…
Yes, That’s Wildfire Smoke You’re Seeing and Smelling (UPDATE: HISD Cancels/Re-Schedules Some Games)
The weather here is pretty perfect right now, in terms of heat and humidity. But in terms of dryness, it’s still a bitch. You probably noticed a smoky smell this morning and even some haze. And yes, the source is probably what you expect. “Houstonians on their way to work…
10 Tips for Eating MREs, from a Pro
Six years ago, citizens of the Gulf Coast were starting to understand the immediate implications of their world post Hurricane Katrina. Power had been out since the storm made landfall, which meant that refrigeration systems were inoperable, food was spoiling, and people were hungry. Eventually federal, local and volunteer aid…
O’Death: Our Hope for a New Goth Sound
A little while back, Rocks Off’s editor hauled Gothtopia into his office and demanded that we lay out the 7 Ages of Goth, which we did to universal criticism. Some of that criticism had to do with the murky way we entered the modern era, in which we basically stated…
Young Africans Dance to a New Beat: HMAAC’s Afropolitan Symposium Will Be Broadcast on the Africa Channel
Despite Houston’s large African immigrant population, it isn’t exactly our go-to locale when it comes to thinking about a large, international conversation on Afropolitans. But this weekend, as Houston Museum of African American Culture CEO John Guess enthusiastically puts it, “We are at the center of the world,” in terms…
9 Musical Costumes Couples Should Avoid This Halloween
The other day, a friend of ours asked us for our opinion on some ideas for “couple costumes,” as in Halloween, including Han Solo and Princess Leia. Ugh. Do you happy couples really start this early in September? Rocks Off thinks we kind of understand the seriousness of the couple…
Whataburger’s Green Chile Double Cheeseburger
Houston has many of the best hamburgers in America, but my favorite fast-food burger comes from Blake’s, a New Mexico chain whose Lotaburger with green chile and cheese is iconic. Blake’s motto speaks for itself: “If you are what you eat, you are awesome.” However, Blake’s is a one-state deal,…
Comment of the Day: A Better HFD Patch for Magnolia Park
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…
2011 Fall/Winter Movie Preview — Part 1
Labor Day has come and gone, which means the official start of the fall movie season is just around the corner. In fact, two of the more anticipated releases of latter 2011 — Warrior and Contagion — come out tomorrow. After what has been widely regarded as a dismal summer…
Your 2011 Fall/Movie Preview (Part 1)
Note: Pop Rocks will return next week. Labor Day has come and gone, which means the official start of the fall movie season is just around the corner. In fact, two of the more anticipated releases of latter 2011 — Warrior and Contagion — come out tomorrow. After what has…
Yes, Inferno: No Meaning at All. None.
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. San Antonio is loaning Houston a band called Yes, Inferno this weekend. The best way to describe the few songs we’ve had the chance…
How Things Change: Technology in 1991, 2001 and 2011, Graphically Displayed
A lot changes in 20 years, perhaps nothing to the degree technology does. When talking about the ten-year anniversary of 9/11, I began thinking about the massive changes that have taken place in just that ten years, but go back another ten and it’s even more startling. Many of those…
First Look at Ruggles 11th Street Cafe
Do you remember the old 11th Street Cafe? I do. My father and I tried to eat there a few times while he was still living in Norhill, just down the street. Every single visit was increasingly abysmal, to the point where I wondered just how long it would be…
100 Creatives: Mark Armes
What he does: Armes is a writer/director/producer and one of the folks at the helm of the creative collective Funwunce. The name comes from Armes’s father. “He would always encourage me to go outdoors and have ‘fun once,'” says Armes. “For whatever reason, Funwunce seemed to stick with me. The…
The Nine Best Mobile Apps for Fantasy Football Enthusiasts, Ranked
Thursday night marks the opening of the NFL season and fantasy nuts are gearing up with Red Bull, nachos, paid NFL television subscriptions and, you guessed it, technology. While I am not in a fantasy league (I have been a couple times in the past), I do understand the passion…
Days of Glory: Italian Neorealist Classics: Open City
It was August, 1944, just two short months after the Germans had been forced out of Rome during World War II, that Roberto Rossellini, Federico Fellini and Sergio Amidei started working on a script for the 1945 film Open City (Roma, città aperta). The movie was one of the first…
Grand Taiko Concert
The big boom-boom bombs emanating from Miller Outdoor Theatre today are the sonically impressive sounds of the annual Grand Taiko Concert. The musical art of taiko, the Japanese word for drum, carries deep significance in Japanese culture, from calling a mythical sun goddess out from her cave to illuminate the…
Staged Reading: The Guys
Some 343 New York City firefighters were lost during the 9/11 attacks. That meant 343 funerals, 343 grieving families and 343 eulogies. The Guys, by Anne Nelson, is a drama centered on one fire captain who was responsible for writing some of those eulogies. A writer tasked with helping him…
Mexican Film Series: An Arturo Ripstein Retrospective
Director Arturo Ripstein often focuses on dark, dismal subjects, as viewers will see during the Arturo Ripstein Retrospective presented as part of the Mexican Film Series. First up is Castle of Purity (El Castillo de la pureza), a surreal film based on the true story of a Mexico City man…
Sylvia
An empty-nest couple, settled in their ways, gets shaken up by the appearance of a new woman. It’s an old, too often true, story. But playwright A.R. Gurney has put a comedic twist on that plot in Sylvia, which opened off Broadway in 1995. In this charming story about middle-aged…
2011 Summer Studios Installations
Student artwork is the focus of the 2011 Summer Studios Installations at Project Row Houses. Seven students from local universities spent six weeks in residency at PRH, working alongside well-known Houston artists and members of the Third Ward community. Each then completed an installation based on the experience. Working in…
Sea Rex 3D
Scare the snot out of your kids at the adventure film Sea Rex 3D. The story is narrated by a fanciful young character named Julie, who travels through time to various prehistoric eras, specifically the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. There Julie and the audience explore a wild underwater world…
The Dark Side of Chocolate
You may change your mind about eating candy bars after you see the documentary film The Dark Side of Chocolate. Danish journalist Miki Mistrati went undercover in West Africa hoping to expose the truth about the brutal working conditions suffered by children as young as seven and eight years old…
“The Spectacular of Vernacular”
What is Houston art? Or more broadly, Texas art? The idea of regional artistic influences is becoming a topic of debate as, like everyone else, many artists become a part of a global community. Does regionalism even exist? The upcoming show at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston explores the concept…
“Out on a Limb”
Introduce your kids to Henry David Thoreau (or at least to some of his ideas) at the Children’s Museum of Houston’s new exhibit “Out on a Limb — Adventures with Nature and Arts.” It was Thoreau’s view of nature, along with that of environmentalist Rachel Carson and author Richard Louv,…
Return of the Masters
The Houston Ballet gives fans an opportunity to once again enjoy past favorites at Return of the Masters, an evening-length program comprised of seldom-seen works by legendary choreographers. There is Les Patineurs (1937) by Sir Frederick Ashton, In the Night (1970) by Jerome Robbins and Song of the Earth (1965)…
Luis Abreux
Cuban-American artist Luis Abreux paints from memory, creating surrealistic images of his life in Cuba, where he lived until 2005. In his first solo exhibit in Houston, “Luis Abreux,” currently on display at Talento Bilingüe de Houston, Abreux shows off his sense of humor as well as his artistic talent…
Houston Center for Photography: Fall 2011 Exhibitions
A trio of shows share the spotlight for the Houston Center for Photography’s Fall 2011 Exhibitions. Making his American solo debut is Cuban photographer Adrian Fernandez with “Life Style.” Focusing on the moneyed upper class in today’s Cuba, Fernandez is displaying images that show obstacles that separate wealthy families from…
John Dunn’s MADCAP 24
John Dunn’s MADCAP 24 is in its fifth fun year. It’s a 24-hour creative event in which producer John Dunn gathers together a group of writers on a Friday night and challenges them each to write, cast, costume, direct and produce a ten-minute play for a live audience within 24…
Not So Spectacular
You know, if it wasn’t 5,000 degrees outside and we weren’t in the middle of drought, I might be slightly less enthusiastic about Chris Larson’s video Deep North. But it is 5,000 degrees outside, we are in the middle of a drought and Deep North is set in a Southern…
Capsule Art Reviews: “Emily Halbardier: Deep Green,” “Hayden Fosdick: Paper Compounds,” Marc Swanson: The Second Story, “Project Row Houses: 2011 Summer Studios”
“Emily Halbardier: Deep Green” At first glance, this show of mixed-media work by Emily Halbardier could come across as under-skilled or shallow in its processes and execution — but that’s only a surface judgment, and it would be grossly reductive. While Halbardier’s drawings of people are definitely simple representations rather…
Desert Couscous
See more photos from Casablanca’s colorful dining room and kitchen in our slideshow. Toward the end of Ramadan, my friends and I planned an iftar dinner at Casablanca Couscous & Grill, arriving a little after 8:30 p.m. on a quiet Thursday night. It’s easy to miss if you’re just driving…
Contagion
Currently the fifth-to-last film on Steven Soderbergh’s ever-expanding pre-retirement slate, Contagion opens on day two of a global viral epidemic. Gwyneth Paltrow plays Beth Emhoff, an American employee for an ominously unspecific multinational corporation who returns from a business trip in Hong Kong to her wintry Midwestern home feeling like…
Why Do Mexicans Work as Day Laborers?
Dear Mexican, I’m a young white dude who drives to work everyday, and on my daily commute, I get off the freeway and drive through the streets. Every single day between the hours of 5 a.m. and 12:00 p.m., there are AT LEAST one hundred Mexican men out there waiting…
Tramps On Your Street
“Lock all your windows Lock all your doors He stole all my money And he’s comin’ back for more He’s on the needle again He’s on the needle again” — Sideshow Tramps, “Hambone’s On the Needle Again” In a revealing scene early in recent Houston movie Honky Tonk Blood, shady…
Freeway View
The phrase “Hey, there’s this cool little lounge you need to go check out” is not often followed by “it’s located right off of the freeway.” You could definitely hear it after “Hey, there’s this great country bar you need to go check out,” because Firehouse Saloon (5930 Southwest Fwy.),…
How Not to Text a Teen
CRIME How Not to Text a Teen Lewd sexts to 14-year-old By Richard Connelly Michael Sherard Harris, 20, has been charged with sexting a girl he knew to be 14 years old whom he had met at church, which is the go-to place for finding kids to send sexually explicit…
The New Normal
Be sure to check out our interactive game card to be update each Monday with results and analysis. When news got out in late July that the Texans had signed cornerback Johnathan Joseph and safety Danieal Manning, football fans in the city of Houston got giddy. For those who have…
Leroy Thomas & the Zydeco Roadrunners
Lake Charles native Leroy Thomas has driven the “zydeco corridor” so much that he can probably tell you which I-10 rest-stop Subway serves the tastiest $5 foot-longs. And between you and me and the mailbox, the next time you’re planning a trip to the Coushatta casino in Kinder, he’d be…
Black Star
Formed in late-’90s Brooklyn, Mos Def and Talib Kweli’s Black Star project never truly took off. The pair only recorded one full-length album, Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star. But while they didn’t sell slabs, they reshaped minds, tossing off lyrically dense rap theses, converting both underground and…
J Roddy Walston & the Business
They don’t make them like Baltimore’s J Roddy Walston & the Business anymore. This would have been Harry Nilsson’s favorite band — maybe even his chief younger foils — had he lived to see them. At it since 2002,the group is now road-seasoned vets, touring with the likes of Deer…
Bring the Stink
Private Ryan Online readers comment on “Bad Business,” by Craig Malisow, August 24: Memories of Christie: A cheating woman such as Angela Denton would push any decent woman’s buttons, and a cheating man would do the same. I’m sure Ryan told her what he wanted to get in her bed…
Hybrid Theory
If you’re at all familiar with Houston’s music scene, you’ve heard the name VerseCity. The polarizing local four-piece has drawn the attention of many — both their enthusiastic fans, and critics who dismiss their upbeat sound as too poppy and overly mainstream. They’ve even done a rock interpretation of Ke$ha’s…
Hank3
Free of the constricting trappings of his former label Curb Records, Hank Williams III is wasting no time getting new product to his fans. “They didn’t care for my thinking,” says the artist, performing these days as Hank3. Last week he officially busted loose, releasing not just one album but…
Capsule Stage Reviws: Damaged Divas of the Decades, Once Upon a Mattress, Sylvia
Damaged Divas of the Decades A particularly high style of cabaret is in performance through November at Music Box Theater. This second production from the newly minted troupe is called Damaged Divas of the Decades, and if that title alone doesn’t propel you to Colquitt and Kirby, what kind of…
