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Keith Dupuis and Ted Lee at a prior Bayou Roux Tomball festival performance.

Music Returns to Tomball Depot with Rails & Tails Mudbug Festival [UPDATED]

By Bob Ruggiero

Apr 29, 2021

While the phrase “May Day” typically signals a distress call from a ship or boat, it’s also the traditional nomenclature for May 1 in the calendar year. And for Ted Lee, co-founder/bassist for the Cajun-centric band Bayou Roux, this year’s May Day will be anything but stressful. In fact, he’s...

A WindowWorks art installation on Main Street is yet another attraction promoting pedestrian traffic that would be helped by closing Main Street.

The City is Closing Main Street to Cars: 5 Reasons to Keep It That Way

By Jeff Balke

Dec 1, 2020

Last week, City Council approved the More Space Main Street project, which would close sections of Main Street in downtown, allowing bars and restaurants to spread outdoors and into the street. It is an idea that was floated earlier in the year to help struggling businesses in downtown. But, it...

The Nancy and Rich Kinder Building from above certainly makes a mark on the Houston skyline.

MFAH Opens Doors (Free Weekend!) of the New Kinder Building for Modern and Contemporary Art

By Bob Ruggiero

Nov 17, 2020

The culmination of events more than a decade in the making — the Kinder Building for Modern and Contemporary Art — was celebrated Monday at a gathering of media, VIPS and donors at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Everyone in attendance was properly masked and seated in socially distanced...

Time to say goodbye, you beautiful weirdo.

Farewell, Disco Kroger

By Jeff Balke

Nov 11, 2020

At roughly 10 a.m. on a regular old weekday, I was walking the main aisle of the Kroger on Montrose Boulevard. I popped across the street, as I did most days, from the building that used to have a nightclub on the roof (RIP Cody's) where I worked. I was...

Oh, sure, it looks all calm and peaceful from a distance, but get a little closer to the tracks and all hell breaks loose.

Canoe Chronicles: Knee Deep in Buffalo Bayou

By Jeff Balke

Oct 19, 2020

This is part four of an ongoing series of posts about my purchase of a canoe during the pandemic. It was a beautiful, if warm, late Saturday morning and I was standing knee deep in Buffalo Bayou. Above me, cars were whizzing by on the West Loop with no idea...

Alice’s Tall Texan Drive Inn at 4904 North Main in the Heights.

Beloved Alice’s Tall Texan Bar Is Closing Its Doors Forever In August

By David Rozycki

Aug 3, 2020

Alice’s Tall Texan bar has recently announced on their Facebook page that they will be permanently closing in August.

Macario Ramirez at his Heights folk art gallery in front of his annual tribute during Dias de los Muertos to his parents (left) and to lives lost in the community

Remembering Macario Ramirez, the Embodiment of Mexican American Culture

By Charlotte Perry Aguilar

Jun 15, 2020

His own personal history was captivating — brutally hot summers in his childhood spent as a migrant farmworker with his immigrant parents and six siblings, a friend of Cesar Chavez as a young Chicano activist, a language adviser with the U.S. Department of Defense who braved the hotspots of South...

Evelyn Rubio is Crossing Borders - Musical and Otherwise

By Bob Ruggiero

Jun 2, 2020

In the Age of Coronavirus, musicians all over Houston (and the world) are understandably itchy to get back onstage—even under new rules and restrictions for live venues. And for artists who also happen to have new records to promote, there’s an extra twist of the metaphorical knife. That’s how Houston-based...

Mayor Turner plans to join Tuesday's march in support of George Floyd and his family.

Tuesday's March Planned to Honor George Floyd and His Family

By Margaret Downing

Jun 1, 2020

Beginning his afternoon press conference Monday with word of two more deaths in the city due to COVID-19, Mayor Sylvester Turner reminded one and all that the coronavirus is still present in Houston and urged participants in the recent marches related to George Floyd's death to take advantage of the...

More officers will be on Saturday to try to prevent a recurrence of looting and vandalism.

City of Houston Prepares For Saturday Night After Friday's Protests Took a Bad Turn

By Margaret Downing

May 30, 2020

As he attributed most of Friday night's vandalism problems to about 10-20 percent of the participants at the Justice For George Flynn march in Houston, Police Chief Art Acevedo at a 3 p.m. press conference today said officers will be out in force tonight trying to make sure looting and...

Willie is all smiles at the all-star concert tribute special in his honor.

Country Legends Willie and Kenny (and Their Friends) Shine on Pair of Specials

By Bob Ruggiero

Apr 8, 2020

With most folks in Coronavirus Quarantine, our televisions are likely going 24/7 with all the watching, playing, and streaming (stocks I should have bought two months ago: Charmin, Purell, Zoom, and Netflix). Fortunately for the music fan, we live in a golden age of documentaries and concerts across seemingly all...

Houston Native and Music Megastar Kenny Rogers Dies at 81

By Bob Ruggiero

Mar 21, 2020

And somewhere in the darkness, the Gambler he broke even. This won’t be the first – or hundredth – obituary for singer Kenny Rogers which quotes that line from his signature tune, “The Gambler.” The Don Schlitz-penned story song about two Old West characters on a train with one imparting...

Ancient Cat Society is back with the video for "Anyone".

Snapping And Singing: Ancient Cat Society Premieres Video For "Anyone"

By Gladys Fuentes

Mar 20, 2020

With everyone on lock down and so many concerts and events getting canceled around the world, there’s one thing that can’t be stopped, a video release. Houston’s Ancient Cat Society is currently in the studios working on their second album but in the meantime they are letting fans wet their...

Look at that porch just waiting for someone to sit on it!

Five Tips for Meeting Your Neighbors...From a Distance

By Jeff Balke

Mar 20, 2020

Houston is a naturally friendly place, but it is still a big city with huge swaths of suburbia. As a result, while we may be neighborly, we don't always know who our neighbors are. People are busy and don't often have time to socialize and there is backyard life, which...

The Houston Art Car Parade won't be rolling the streets of Houston this April.

Houston Art Car Parade 2020 is Cancelled

By Margaret Downing

Mar 17, 2020

The Houston Art Car Parade that draws visitors from around the world, has been canceled for this year because of the affects of the coronavirus on the area. In a just-released statement the Orange Show announced it was cancelling the 33 year-old event for 2020 whcih was to have taken...

The annual Tomball German Festival is canceled.

More Houston Area Postponements and Cancellations Including Asia Society [UPDATED]

By Margaret Downing

Mar 13, 2020

The toll the perceived dangers of CORVID-19 are taking on Houston area events and organizations continued Friday with more places deciding that cancelling their plans might be the best course of action. Asia Society announced today that it is cancelling its Spring Break programming for March 16-21. This includes daytime...

This city and its residents have been underwater before

#HoustonSafe: City Can Survive Another Crisis if We Are Smart

By Jeff Balke

Mar 13, 2020

In 2017, the world got its first glimpse of the resilience of Houstonians when Hurricane Harvey deluged the region with rainfall. They witnessed neighbors helping neighbors and everyday residents handling an impossible situation with toughness and kindness. Today, we face a completely different challenge. Instead of banding together, we need...

L-R: Whitney Andrew, Joe Omelchuck and Lelia Rodgers at the foot of Rudyard's new stage

Rudyard's Gets an Instant Makeover

By Jesse Sendejas Jr.

Mar 13, 2020

Lelia Rodgers remembers the band that played the night Rudyard’s first opened its upstairs live music show space. It was a Thursday night in 1997, she said, and the headliner was Moses Guest. When the band members arrived, they were confused by the changes made to the venue, which was...

The bleak image of a lone cart available at a Costco packed with shoppers inside.

Grocery Store Madness Just in Case of a Quarantine (We Think)

By Margaret Downing

Mar 13, 2020

Chips it became clear, are really important for the end times. Trips to several greater Houston area grocery stores Thursday revealed completely empty shelves in certain sections of the store while shopping carts became a prized acquisition. Apparently sparked by fears of CORVID-19 and despite Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner's pleas...

The Changing State of Houston Given the Coronavirus Scare [UPDATED]

By Margaret Downing

Mar 12, 2020

Amid increasing concern in the Houston area about the possible spread of the COVID-19 virus, more notifications are trickling in that events are being postponed or canceled. To date, however, this hasn't affected Houston's theater stages as organizers say performances are going on as planned at any number of venues,...

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