The New Astrodome, Ladies and Gentlemen
Something had to be done. After today’s Harris County Sports and Convention Corporation board meeting — and pending acceptance from Harris County Commissioners Court — the Reliant Astrodome will become a multipurpose spot with the potential for hosting concerts and, yes, football. Now, don’t get your hopes up too high…
Comment of the Day: This Is Latina “Reality” TV?
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…
Jim Parsons and Houston Theater Get Some Attention in a NY Times piece
Big Bang Theory’s Jim Parsons got a write-up in The New York Times as he prepares for his lead role in Harvey, and Houston got some mentions, too. According to the story, Parsons was a theater nerd right from the start — although for years he was also intrigued by…
ETX Family (Allegedly) Peddles Drugs Together and Goes to Jail Together
Three members representing as many generations of an Angelina County family are behind bars there after the local sheriff’s office caught them peddling pills, authorities say. According to a Lufkin Daily News report, a six-months-long investigation culminated in a raid on a home in Zavalla and the arrests of 75-year-old…
100 Favorite Dishes 2012: No. 91, Avocado Gelato at Frozen Cafe
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…
Cracker Barrel Is iTunes for Old People
If you have been paying attention to obscure press releases, you would know by now that Cracker Barrel, that folksy restaurant chain with all the rocking chairs out front that your grandparents love, is now a music retailer to boot. Yes, in addition to all those cool wooden toys and…
App of the Week: Pimp Your Screen Generates Custom iPhone Backgrounds
App: Pimp Your Screen Platform: iPhone Website: Apalon.com Cost: $0.99 There was a particular Seinfeld episode where George filled his wallet so full of stuff — sandwich shop punch cards, tear-off ads for guitar lessons, etc. — that he sat awkwardly. Eventually, it became so full it burst, sending all…
Chef Chat, Part 1: Benjy Mason of Down House, on Chinese Food and Breaking Down Pig Heads
Benjy Mason Down House 1801 Yale St. 713-864-3696 www.downhousehouston.com This is the first part of a three-part chef chat series. Look for Part 2 and Part 3 in this space Thursday and Friday. There’s not always a direct route to becoming a chef. A little more than a year and…
Reality Bites: Basketball Wives
The NBA playoffs are in full swing, but because my favorite team (the Washington Generals) aren’t in the mix, I decided to check out a b-ball-related reality show instead. And I really thought this was the Generals’ year. It’s interesting (to me, but I have notoriously low standards) to note…
VIDEO: Rusko Freaking Out in Houston After Stereo Live Set
Rusko’s show Tuesday night at Stereo Live was a highly-anticipated event for the Houston electronic-music community. Our own Taylor Moon covered the gig, and brought back reports of the dubstep star freaking the frick out onstage and lambasting the venue’s sound engineer for what he saw as a piss-poor job…
Burgers and Memories at Lankford Grocery
In this week’s cafe review, we take a look at how Lankford Grocery has managed to remain relevant and curiously current despite nearly 75 years of dealing in the dual arts of burgers and nostalgia. But what’s equally interesting to me is gathering stories of Lankford Grocery’s patrons over the…
Cover Story: Is the Blood-Thinner Pradaxa a Savior or a Killer?
Approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2010, a blood-thinner called Pradaxa was a great leap forward in the treatment of a heart disorder called atrial fibrillation. Or at least that’s how it was marketed. There was just one slight problem: Unlike the drug it was meant to replace,…
The Houston Press Needs a New Nightfly
Like to go out? Want to get paid for it? Of course it’s not quite that simple. But the Houston Press has an opening for a bar/nightclub columnist effective immediately. As of this week’s column, our now-former Nightfly, Shea Serrano, is moving on to greener pastures and better hours. And…
The Intense, Understated Works of Jason Yates at Barbara Davis Gallery
Jason Yates has lowered the volume on his art. Once called a maker of indie rock art, thanks to his psychedelic rock posters, portraits of rock stars like Captain Beefheart, projects for bands like Aerial Pink and Animal Collective, and generally loud, busy ink drawings, in his first Houston solo…
B[ring] Y[our] O[wn] B[arbera]
In the aftermath of recent posts here at Wine Time on corkage and tipping etiquette, Lucio’s BYOB and Grill seemed like an ideal destination for a working dinner with a colleague — a demilitarized zone, as it were. After all, it has “BYOB” in the name of the venue. Not knowing…
Vet Claims City Jailer Sodomized Him with Billy Club
A man who told Houston city jailers he was gay says one of them then beat him, called him “faggot” and sodomized him with his billy club, according to a lawsuit. The man said another jailer laughed while this was happening, and that the first jailer later apologized after learning…
Tito C. Milam, 33, Bayou Body Count No. 66
A Navasota man was shot to death in his car near an apartment complex west of the Heights early Tuesday, police say. Tito C. Milam, 33, was found wounded from multiple gunshot wounds near the complex at 800 North Durham shortly before 3 a.m. He was in the street, lying…
Trailer Park: Bill Murray As FDR?? (Pumps Fist)
The trailer for Hyde Park on Hudson hit the Web on Tuesday, showing off Bill Murray as President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, or, as it looks to me, an older, more regal version of his Herman Blume from Rushmore. Even though it’s set in 1939, he cavorts like he’s the 2012…
Last Night: Rusko at Stereo Live
Rusko Stereo Live May 22, 2012 See video of Rusko freaking out on the way to his tour bus Tuesday. With Rusko as your main act on Tuesday night, it was clear that everyone better be able to wake the fuck up and get their ass up. It was crystal…
Behold, the Miraculous Powers of the Cookie, or DEFCON Dining: Paulie’s
Dining out with children is an exercise in situational awareness. Each experience is unique, with different variables leading to different possible outcomes, DEFCON-like in their escalating threat levels. Keen observation, forward planning and prior experience are critical in determining the proper strategy. Here at DEFCON Dining, we do the grunt…
Photo: Dolce Vita Damaged by Fire
Popular Montrose pizzeria Dolce Vita was damaged today by a fire that started at around 3:30 a.m. this morning. As reported by KPRC, the fire started in a Dumpster outside the rear of the restaurant and the flames soon spread to Dolce Vita itself. “Firefighters arrived on scene within four…
The Intrepid Walker’s Guide to Houston: A Sole of Houston Forerunner, Circa 1975
(Part one of a planned series…) As the Preacher says, there’s nothing new under the sun, and it turns out I was not the first Houstonian to write about adventures on long walks and/or bike rides in the Bayou City. More than 30 years prior to my first adventure (a…
My Wonderful Day: Adults Behaving Badly Watched by a 9-year-old Girl
When he was a kid, Jonathan Gonzalez didn’t much like British playwright Alan Ayckbourn. “I found him really stuffy.” But, “as I mature, I realize how brilliant he is in the way he mixes farce and comedy and human behavior,” Gonzalez adds. And in My Wonderful Day, the Ayckbourn play…
Woodlands Wine & Food Week to Take Place June 4 to 10
Food and wine lovers, rejoice. Just a few short days away is a big-time celebration of gourmet cuisine and marvelous vino. The annual Woodlands festival, put on by the event-planning extraordinaires at Food and Vine Time Productions, and now in its eighth year, is slated to draw more than 10,000…
Slow, Loud & Bleedin’: haarp’s New Orleans Sludge Backs Up into Bayou City
If you’re a metal band rolling into Houston for the first time, there aren’t too many better guys to have backing you up than Phil Anselmo. The ex-Pantera front man is unabashedly worshipped as a metal god throughout Texas, and when he speaks, Houston’s heavy music fans listen. Lately, Anselmo…
Korean Dog Soup
When I lived in Seoul, I ate a number of strange things. Squirming octopus tentacles, pizzas with sweet potatoes and mustard, oxtails in a milky broth, and steamed silkworm larvae, to name a few. There is one thing, though, that I could never — would never, for any means –…
Australian Torture Porn Prom Movie Needs Your Help
Want a chance to win two free passes to see The Loved Ones? Check out our Free Stuff section. Kickstarter can help you get your movie made by crowdsourcing funding for a project, but what about getting that film into theaters? Doing so can be just as daunting, but something…
Is Tom DeLay Actually (Gasp) Correct that a Democratic Justice Can’t Judge His Case Fairly?
Long before his tragically brief heyday on Dancing with the Stars, Sugar Land’s Tom DeLay was convicted of campaign-finance violations. He’s appealing that conviction to the state’s 3rd Court of Criminal Appeals in Austin, but many of the judges have taken themselves off the case. One justice who won’t do…
Toyota Center Announces October 30 Justin Bieber Surprise
Justin Bieber is coming back. The 18-year-old singer, who is as much a social-media phenomenon and cultural meme as old-fashioned pop star, will bring his Believe tour to Houston October 30 at Toyota Center, the venue announced Wednesday morning. Canadian tween phenom Carly Rae Jepsen (“Call Me Maybe”) will open…
ReShonda Tate Billingsley: Local Author’s Punishment Of Daughter Sparks Social-Media Debate
ReShonda Tate Billingsley is a romance author of such books as Can I Get a Witness? and Holy Rollers. It’s not her writing that has people talking about her online, though, it’s what’s happened with her daughter. Tate Billingsley’s daughter posted a picture of herself on Instagram holding a vodka…
Rel The Chosen: Local Rapper Survives Near-Fatal Car Accident
“Thank God I ain’t too cool for the safe belt.” — Kanye West, “”Through the Wire” Rocks Off has written glorious reviews about local underground rapper Rel The Chosen. His Beautiful Music mixtape series, both the debut and the follow-up, were fantastic. You’ll especially enjoy them if you favor the…
That’s Not Bobby: One TV Character, Multiple Actors in 6 Different Shows
A few weeks ago while I was watching an episode of Mad Men, the usually quiet Bobby Draper was thrown a few lines, and I was struck by how different he looked from the previous season. “Oh yeah,” I mused, “that’s because it’s not the same actor.” In fact, four…
Top Five Pet Foods I’m Tempted to Eat Myself
When I was six years old, I asked my parents about every ten minutes for a German Shepherd. Instead, I received another sister. Strangely, part of my motivation for owning a canine stemmed from a desire to eat dog biscuits, which to me looked crunchy and delicious. Today, I still…
Who Will Be DC Comics’ First Gay Superhero? Our Top Six Picks
People everywhere with not much going on in their lives are all atwitter over the news that a DC Comics superhero is coming out of the supercloset in June. That’s right: Someone who wears skin-tight clothing and very likely a cape will reveal to a stunned world that they are,…
Ask a Rapper: Jack Freeman Nerds Out with R&B Hits
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. Something you always wanted to…
100 Creatives 2012 John Tyson: Alley Theatre Company Actor & Dollhouse Maker on the Side
Pretty early on in his life, John Tyson knew what he wanted to do. From the time he was a little boy living in northern California, he wanted to be an actor. He earned his degrees in theater from Cal Berkley and later the University of North Carolina. Afterwards he…
This Week in Food Blogs: Houston’s Best Sausages and Frozen Custard for the Summer
Eater Houston: You look like you could use a stiff drink. (Yes, I know it’s only 7 a.m.) Luckily, Eater’s new editor Eric Sandler has put together quite the useful list for just that purpose. The latest cocktail “heatmap” features some of our favorites, like Line & Lariat (for its…
Seven Sins: A True-Crime E-Book from Village Voice Media
Every week writers for Houston Press and our parent company, Village Voice Media, produce elegant magazine-style feature writing — a gritty portion of which comes in the form of true-crime stories. Now VVM has collected some of its best recent true-crime yarns into an ebook: Seven Sins: A True Crime…
4 Best Vintage Comic Book Video Games
There has never been a better time to be a comic book fan. This summer alone will see the release of three superhero films that combined will make enough money to forever destroy the notion that comic book movies are unprofitable. Hell, The Dark Knight picked up an acting Oscar,…
30 Seconds with Vertigo Blue
Using the magic typing box, we hurled 1’s and 0’s through the ether towards local electronica master Mike Naus, better known as Vertigo Blue, to see what we could learn from him in 30 seconds. Rocks Off: What is the worst song in the world? Mike Naus: I can’t think…
