Yes, Houston - The Black Godfather is gracing us with his presence this Friday night!!! Houston's own, The Allen Oldies Band will be backin' up Andre Williams at the Continental Club and the show begins at 10 p.m. You don't know who he is? We'll hook you up. A ladie's man from way back, Andre was born in Bessemer, Alabama in 1936 and eventually ended up in Detroit, where he recorded over 50 songs for......

:: 30TH ANNIVERSARY SUSAN SMITH BLACKBURN PRIZE DRAMATIC READING :: The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize honoring women playwrights from around the world, has decided to celebrate its thirtieth anniversary by hosting a reading and the awards in Houston. Five short works by local women playwrights (a talented bunch) will be presented as dramatic readings by Houston’s acting community (another talented bunch) at the Alley Theatre’s Neuhaus Stage this Sunday, March 9th at 3:00PM. Excerpts......

The Mink's Backroom seems like a haven for music events these days. We say "music events" because these don't seem like your run of the mill shows: we're talking exhaustive musical experiences. First was the Hootenanny, and now there's Menage e Trois. And it's only three dollars! Billing some of Houston's most eccentric bands, Menage e Trois looks like it's going to be a night overflowing with bitingly experimental sounds. The Balaclavas will offer up......

::Rice University's Second Annual Asian Film Festival:: Rice Cinema has put together an amazing lineup films this weekend to round out the end of its Second Annual Asian Film Festival. Houstonist would go to them all if we could. There's an erotic thriller, animation, documentary and a film based on the novel by Houston's own Bapsi Sidhwa. Go forth and prosper! Friday, February 8, 7:30pm Lust, Caution Ang Lee’s lush spy thriller set in......

We mentioned it in our interview with Mlee Marie Suprean, but our favorite local music blog The Skyline Network just released the poster for the Hootenanny, which only further solidifies the fact that we have to be there. So what's the Hootenanny? You've probably seen something like it before, but never done like this. Some of the strongest names in local music treat us to some of the classics, a treat that we'll selfishly......

Reader Emily B. snapped this picture of a very soapy Mecom Fountain on her way to work this morning — kinda Christmasy, don't you think? (Sorry, but we're Houstonians, which means we have some bizarre, deep-seated belief that soap bubbles really do look like snow. Don't correct us.) Thanks, Emily! And to our other 10 readers: If you see anything around town you think we should know about, drop us a picture. In the......

Some pret-ty, pret-ty, pret-ty cool stuff opening this weekend, kids. Check it out: Jeanne Cassanova / Reginald Rachuba The Joanna Gallery "Those in attendance can be assured a multi sensory onslaught of 'image spillage'." Oh, really. We have to admit, the term "spillage" sort of scares us, but the image at right is so cool, we're willing to risk it. Both Cassanova and Rachuba pull from contemporary images and create narratives woven between each other......

Do you find yourself a little scared to venture downtown these days, for fear of what you may or may not find? We'll admit, it's not out first pick for happy hour, what, with all the awesome parking opportunities and diverse bars, clubs, and retail? So we are looking forward to giving it a chance tonight, as ArtsHouston hosts a Meet & Greet (Hello, downtown, my name is ______) tonight at Butterfly High (705 Main......

There are so many freaking cool things happening this weekend -- here's just a list of what Houstonist has on hand. Please send us the rest. Thursday November 29th HOUSTON. IT'S WORTH IT. Book Launch Party At the Lawndale Parking Lot, 4912 Main Street 6:30PM-9PM Images from the book will be projected on North wall of Lawndale art center. DJ Pooks spins the tunes and there will be refreshments. Proceeds from sales of the......

A lot of jokes are made at the expense of the boy-girl synth and vocal duo. Granted, it has become a recipe in the D.I.Y. music scene. And sure, the charming and attractive female singer and the quietly reserved guy on the keys being relatively easy to come by, but Portland's Glass Candy is anything but formulaic. So polish those dancing shoes because these heralds of the newly revived Italo disco movement are coming back......

What is it about the term "crafts" that is so off-putting to some of us? Well, for one, it reminds us of suburban housewives with wooden figurines adorning their shelves, reminding us that we're in a "Kountry Kitchen," or that (hee) "Back Door Friends are the Best Friends!" It was many years before we realized just how funny that sign in our wacky Aunt Grace's kitchen was. That, or that wacky Aunt Grace led a......

This weekend (Oct. 27 and 28) stop ogling your neighbor’s house from afar -- get in there and indulge your high design fantasies (legally of course). For one weekend every year the AIA allows even the unlikely likes of you a first-hand experience in top-notch architecture. We won’t even mention what it would actually cost to own these gems, but at $25.00 a ticket the fantasy seems like a pretty good deal. This year’s......

::Lawndale Opens Día de los Muertos Exhibit:: Today kicks off one of Lawndale's longest running annual exhibits, Día de los Muertos. For 20 years, Lawndale has hosted an open call exhibition of artworks created especially for Día de los Muertos, featuring over 300 Texas artists who contribute their contemporary interpretations of traditional retablo devotional painting.Every year the works created for this exhibition range from the very traditional to very contemporary and abstract. All proceeds......

Houstonist has an active and amazing Flickr photo group. We receive many, many photos of Houston and the surrounding areas every day and unless you are an active visitor to our photo pool many of these photos go unnoticed. So in a weekly effort to bring you more amazing photos from Houstonist readers and photographers, we are going to feature a block of photos submitted to our Flickr photo group. The images will be dug......

Today’s Photo of the Day comes from flickr user and Houstonist photo contributor txtamz who gives us this night view of Main Street Square in downtown Houston. If you have a passion for Houston and photography, consider joining over 420 of Houston's best photographers in the Houstonist Flickr Photo Group. If Houstonist uses your photo for Photo Of The Day, submit it here. For more great photography check out the Houston Photobloggers.......

Today’s Photo of the Day comes from flickr user and Houstonist photo contributor baldheretic. Greg Henkel holds down the fort at Sig's Lagoon on the 3700 Block of Main. If you have a passion for Houston and photography, consider joining over 400 of Houston's best photographers in the Houstonist Flickr Photo Group. If Houstonist uses your photo for Photo Of The Day, submit it here. For more great photography check out the Houston Photobloggers.......

Here's your chance to take part in an installation at the Lawndale Art Center! Today and tomorrow, from noon to 5:00 p.m. you have the opportunity to join artists Jamie Wentz and Kurt Mueller on site for Round Up and become a part of an installation that is an exploration of the myth of the Western cowboy/ranger and its provisions for the establishment and maintenance of law and order. How? Well, each person is given......

After an extraordinarily embarrassing event wherein Houstonist unwittingly drove the wrong way down a portion of South Braeswood Boulevard, we decided to thoroughly investigate the nature, goals, and idiosyncrasies of the Braeswood Boulevards. Our results have been quite astonishing and maddening, as these braided hydra-like streets weave, change course, change names, and sometimes suddenly disappear for a portion of their overall path as though it were not no thang at all. Our ultimate aim......

Today’s Photo of the Day comes from flickr user and Houstonist photo contributor sulla55. We love a crisp, night shot with a long exposure and combining it with downtown and the rail makes it more delectable. If you have a passion for Houston and photography, consider joining over 380 of Houston's best photographers in the Houstonist Flickr Photo Group. If Houstonist uses your photo for Photo Of The Day, submit it here. For more......

Lawndale Opening Exhibit x 3 What's better than a Thursday night opening at Lawndale? Try 3. Saw that one coming, huh? Hey, it's been a long week, we're spent. Tonight, Lawndale Art Center presents exhibitions in three galleries, all opening August 30, 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm, with artist talks at beginning at 6 pm. The exhibitions continue until October 6, 2007. In the John M. O’Quinn Gallery will be, Round Up, an installation by......

Rice Window Exhibit + Closing Gallery Talk by Artist Mike Stilkey While other campus spaces had some downtime this summer, Rice Gallery was busy with its summer window exhibit "When the Animals Rebel." The installation's Los Angeles-based artist, Mike Stilkey, will give a talk tomorrow, Aug 30th, at noon at the Rice Gallery. A complimentary light lunch will be served, and the event is free and open to the public. To create the installation, Stilkey......

Triple Threat Edition So we couldn't decide on one event for tonight, so we're giving you three. We are so damn generous some times. Besides, this week has been so long we figured you needed an extra long Friday to make up for it. Well, of course there's the Txt Me L8r SPIN Party at HCP that we'll all be at. Two of your favorite Houstonist contributors (wait, you have favorites, right?) will be participating......

More on Hines' proposed 47-story downtown skyscraper: The Chronicle has some details about the building and its design, and it looks like it really could be something different for the CBD. Plans call for the 630-foot building to be clad in glass, with the west facade featuring projecting vertical glass fins to shade offices from afternoon sunlight. Near the top of the building, on its east side, will be a notched opening that'll shelter......

Callaloo, among the top literary magazines in the country, is sending four writers (all faculty from Callaloo's Creative Writing Workshops) to read in Houston for one night only. Terrance Hayes, Mat Johnson, Tayari Jones, and Tracy K. Smith will give a public reading Thursday, August 16 at 6:00 p.m. at the Ensemble Theatre, located at 3535 Main Street. These four writers have won more than a dozen national awards and fellowships; they are at......

Have you ever wondered how a bat sleeps? How much food a bat can eat in one hour? Or how a bat contributes to the ecosystem? Yeah, niether have we. But now we're curious. This Friday night, beginning at dusk, learn the answers to these questions as you board the Bayou Breeze Pontoon Boat and observe the emergence of approximately 250,000 bats from Waugh Street Bridge. And you thought Austin was the only city with......

Houston, it's time for the annual "Big Show" at the O'Quinn Gallery of Lawndale Art Center. Tonight and tomorrow night, beginning at 7:00 p.m. - and totally free to the public (the second best four-letter "F" bomb - FREE! We are partial to "Fart", too) the Big Slide Show is taking place. Now, what in the wide world of art-y and cultural-like stuff is this? Well, let us do some 'splaining to you, care of......

Good morning, Houston. Sure, we've had a lot of rain, but there haven't been any hurricane scares yet — so it's pretty easy to overlook the fact that we're headed into the peak of the 2007 hurricane season. Not that easy, though: The Chronicle's Eric Berger reminds us that there's still some storm activity in the Atlantic, including a system 650 miles east about 650 miles east of the southern Windward Islands that could......

Mixed Media Series at MFA It's baaaaaack! Yep, for the last few months every time an email from the MFA popped up in our inbox we hoped and prayed it was an annoucement of a new Mixed Media series. This week we were rewarded! Whoo-hoo! [The Deets] Find where art and music intersect on select Saturday nights at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. DJs spin and bands play against an arresting backdrop of......

While running along Montrose Ave this morning, discovering the sidewalks (and subsequent ankle-twisting cracks) of a neighborhood we have often admired, but of recent become a resident, we got an upclose look at many of the establishment we have visited many a time, yet on foot were allowed to explore a bit more. In the effort of being visionaries, we've decided to name this strip of road SoMo (or South Montrose, for you slow pokes.)......

Contain Yourself! After days and days of driving down Main, nearly vearing off the road from craning our necks to check out the interesting graphic on the window of the Center for Contemporary Craft, we've finally figured it out (and a good thing for pedestrians!). Intertwined: Contemporary Baskets From the Sara and David Lieberman Collection, is an exhibit at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft continuing through Sept. 23. More than 40 artists are represented......