We would like to take a moment to thank this week's advertisers on Houstonist. The 2009 Toyota Corolla, which encourages you to "Live the Dream for Less Coin." Gallery Furniture, where you can win $25,000 in furniture in their video contest. Joe Jackson's Rain, available now on Amazon.com. Busted Tees, which introduces three new designs a week. If you're interested in advertising on Houstonist or any other site in our network, check out our online......

We would like to take a moment to thank this week's advertisers on Houstonist. The 2009 Toyota Corolla, which encourages you to "Live the Dream for Less Coin." Gallery Furniture, where you can win $25,000 in furniture in their video contest. Obama for America, remember the Texas primary on Tuesday. Joe Jackson's Rain, available now on Amazon.com. Busted Tees, which introduces three new designs a week. If you're interested in advertising on Houstonist or any......

We would like to take a moment to thank this week's advertisers on Houstonist. The 2009 Toyota Corolla, which encourages you to "Live the Dream for Less Coin." Gallery Furniture, where you can win $25,000 in furniture in their video contest. Joe Jackson's Rain, available now on Amazon.com. Busted Tees, which introduces three new designs a week. If you're interested in advertising on Houstonist or any other site in our network, check out our online......

Local tech news in a compact, digital format. Dwight Watch Dwight Silverman, local tech guru, tackles installing the first service pack for Microsoft Vista. Dwight installs it on various platforms with various results. Dwight's also has been blogging about a workaround for Comcast's unethical treatment of bandwidth, he also unboxes the MacBook Air and touches on what could be the nail in the coffin of the HD-DVD vs Blu-Ray saga. Local Calendar Feb 19:......

We would like to take a moment to thank this week's advertisers on Houstonist. The 2009 Toyota Corolla, which encourages you to "Live the Dream for Less Coin." Gallery Furniture, where you can win $25,000 in furniture in their video contest. Joe Jackson's Rain, available now on Amazon.com. Busted Tees, which introduces three new designs a week. If you're interested in advertising on Houstonist or any other site in our network, check out our online......

We would like to take a moment to thank this week's advertisers on Houstonist. The 2009 Toyota Corolla, which encourages you to "Live the Dream for Less Coin." Joe Jackson's Rain, available now on Amazon.com. Gallery Furniture, where you can win $25,000 in furniture in their video contest. Busted Tees, selling a special shirt to honor the New England Patriots. If you're interested in advertising on Houstonist or any other site in our network, check......

We know it's only February, but we would like to prematurely speculate and say that Lightspeed Champion has released one of the most accomplished debuts of the year. Who knew that Dev Hynes [pictured], guitarist of the now defunct thrash punk outfit Test Icicles, was a brooding singer/songwriter bursting at the seams with sentimental feeling? Dev, recording under the moniker Lightspeed Champion, releases his stunning new solo album, Falling off the Lavender Bridge, today. -Watch......

If you're anything like Houstonist, you haven't finished all your holiday shopping yet. In fact, if you're anything like Houstonist, you've barely even started. But don't worry: We're putting our gift lists together and pulling out some of our more inspired ideas to share with y'all. From music to DVDs to T-shirts to wet wipes, we've got you covered — but seriously, you probably won't want to give the wipes as someone's primary gift.......

Calling themselves "Houston’s most unusual string ensemble performing all original music," Two Star Symphony is aiming for another Houston national first starting November 30: to be the only string quartet performing with a matched set of instruments created by luthier Anton Krutz of K.C. Strings. The Russia-born Krutz, who began making violins when he was 12 years old, actually crafted the instruments from the same batch of wood and put them through the same varnishing......

It’s a slow week. So slow in fact, that the big release of the day just might be the Spice Girls' Greatest Hits CD. We'll be rooting for Scary Spice on Dancing with the Stars tonight, but we've decided to highlight some other musical imports for now. Might we suggest the perfect holiday gift for the music nerd in your life? The Brit Box: U.K. Indie, Shoegaze, and Brit Pop Gems of the Last Millennium......

It’s like Divas Las Vegas 2007 this week, but in a good way! Celine Dion, Alicia Keys, and the Queen of Soul all have new albums debuting on the charts. It took us a little longer than usual to warm up to Alicia Keys’ new single, “No One” from her latest album, As I Am. But now that we’ve heard it endlessly on the radio and on TV, and it’s formed its own repeat loop......

Good morning, Houston. There's nothing quite like a building implosion to lift our spirits at the beginning of the week — if, of course, it's a building we won't miss. That happened to be the case with the Crowne Plaza hotel in the Medical Center, which was reduced to rubble Sunday; click the link for video from KHOU. (Be prepared to wait — there's a lot of buildup to the big moment in Channel......

::HOME: The Aramco Brat's Story:: Tonight, River Oaks Theatre hosts the Houston screening of the feature length documentary, HOME: Aramco Brat's Story, a film depicting the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as seen through the eyes of the Western expatriate children who grew up there between 1933 and present day. With all the attention given to the Middle East today, it is important that the Western public receives a complete picture in order that their......

Lots of CDs are released week after week. And though we unwisely spend a bulk of our disposable income on music, Houstonist understands that you work hard for the money, honey! So every Tuesday, we'll bring you a list of CDs that we think will give you the most bang for your buck. Ryan Adams and his band the Cardinals release an EP called Follow the Lights today, just months after the acclaimed full-length Easy......

The party is at Rudyard’s tomorrow – you know - THE party. The Black Math Experiment’s CD Release Party for “All You Need is Blood”, at which a couple of other bands will be performing. La Sed will bring some progressive rock courtesy of Puerto Rico and Mk Ultra adds politically-minded psychedelic punk to the mix (political as in the song writing may focus on fighting military culture and the 9/11 conspiracy). This should be......

Local tech news in a compact, digital format. Snapstream Ships Beyond TV 4.7 Houstonist loves TV, we also love our iPods and iPhones. We just love technology. So we couldn't be more excited to bring you this bit of news from local software giants Snapstream. It's the release of Beyond TV 4.7 software with automatic iPod and iPhone syncing! What is this you ask? Let us break it down for you. It's PVR software......

It would if it were Christmas in July, right? Or at least the temps might climb down to a mild 75? See what the air is like at the Contemporary Arts Museum tonight, where ArtsHouston sponsors Steel Lounge Underground. Instead of carols, there will be DJs Majora y Minora in from Austin, spinning electro, disco, techno, house, and all other forms of I.B.M. (Intelligent Booty Music). And for holiday fare: free sushi and veggie......

Local tech news in a compact, digital format. Jay Lee's Helpline Helps Jay Lee tackles reader questions over at The Chronicle in his HelpLine Blog. Here are some recent reader queries. A reader had problems with file associations and Jay put them back on track. Another reader had issues with kids accessing her files. Read how enabling log on passwords solved her problem. See how email auto-formatting helps avoid annoying links. Check out Jay's......

Need to know just a little bit about something? Ask a dilettante. Can you please explain to me the thinking behind headlights that stay on AFTER you've turned the car off? Unless your car is pointed exactly the direction you’re walking in, the lights don’t do you much good. What’s the deal? Picture this. You’re standing outside at night - perhaps you’ve just finished dinner and are waiting for the valet to retrieve your car......

Houston Roller Derby's Burlesque Brawlers are throwing down a great time at a cool location to raise some funds for the team (we keep telling you how costly those fishnets and stuff are - and the ladies do play this sport entirely on their own dime and receive no revenues). Beginning at 5:00 p.m. and lasting until you holler uncle, or the bar closes - you can hang out with the Burlesque Brawlers at Hans......

We hate to ruin the suspense, but what the heck: the rum? Still gone, people. That's indicative of the general tenor of Pirates of the Caribbean III: At World's End. There's still Orlando Bloom being kind of a tool for the most part, still Keira Knightly being plucky, and still Johnny Depp being Keith Richards. Of course, this time there's also Keith Richards being Keith Richards, which may explain Depp's seeming drop in quality from......

In a perfect world, Reckless Kelly would be huge. Their music is the perfect blend of country and rock, with great melodies. Plus, they put on killer live shows. However, the Austin band doesn't fit neatly into any one radio music format, so they'll continue to be a secret treasure to the thousands of fans they have. (To see how great they are live, check out their new live CD/DVD recorded last year at La......

MTV's reporting that Beyonce, who last week was getting sued over covering Des'ree's song, is pulling the album containing the song, "B'Day", along with an accompanying music video DVD. The ban will be in effect at least until May 4th, when a preliminary hearing will take place. As you might recall from last week, the Houston singer covered the song even after talks to do so broke down, and Des'ree, the song's original performer, is......

Barbara Jordan – U.S. congresswoman, first African-American woman to serve as a Texas state senator, and professor at the LBJ School of Public Affairs – was a ceaseless voice for civil liberties and morality in politics. She is also one of Houston's own, born in the Fifth Ward. Today at Brazos Bookstore, Max Sherman talks about his new collection of Jordan's speeches, which also includes a DVD of her speeches Brazos Bookstore 2421 Bissonnet......

OPEN SCORE by ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG The Menil Collection in collaboration Microcinema International present Open Score by Robert Rauschenberg. This film is from a series of films on DVD about a legendary series of theater, dance, music and performances at the New York 69th Regiment Armory in 1966 that were held in conjunction with 9 Evenings: Theatre & Engineering which was recognized as a major artistic event of the 1960s. The performances represented the culmination......

Heads up, campers. The new Daylight Saving Time rules go into effect tonight/tomorrow at 2 AM. Ain't no thang if you only have an alarm clock and a wrist watch. Roll the hands of your Rolex forward when you stumble out of the pub tonight. Things get tricky if you have a software powered clock, like the one on the laptop you're using to read this or your CrackBerry, because DST starts a couple......

On Sundays, Houstonist runs opinion pieces relevant to life in Houston. The opinions expressed below are entirely those of the author, so take it up with her if you have a problem. Need to know just a little bit about something? Ask a dilettante. So the Public News is back? Finally, something to read when I’m done with 002. A paper calling itself “Public News” and using a familiar logo made its debut this week,......

Contrary to popular belief, Houstonist does more than eat, drink and be merry. Although that covers most of our daily activities, we occasionally broaden our minds with a book or movie. This time we chose the latest episode of the Hannibal Lector saga, Hannibal Rising. The book: Let’s just say Thomas Harris probably didn’t win any new fans with this one. Hannibal Rising is not his best work. Being fans of Silence of the Lambs......

Many songs from the 80’s don’t stand the test of time; Crowded House’s “Don’t Dream It’s Over” is an exception. It’s been 20 years since it hit #2 on the charts and the song sounds about as fresh now as it did then. Even the video has aged well, compared to others from the same time period. A lot of that has to do with lead house member Neil Finn’s songwriting and musicianship. Ever......

We don't know about you, but it's friggin cold out there. Well, not for some of you. It seems as though places that are supposed to be cold are warm and places that are supposed to be warm are cold. Or maybe that's just us. Either way, we're freezing. Austinist said goodbye to their co-editor (sell-out) and played rumor monger on the SXSW lineup. And when dozens of dead birds littered downtown Austin, it's......