:: Exiles in Paris Concert by Da Camera :: At the turn of the twentieth century, musicians, choreographers, writers and painters from all over the world converged in Paris and began sharing their work and ideas with each other with the goal of revolutionizing their artistic disciplines. (We at Houstonist are expecting the same thing to happen here at any moment.) Da Camera made a series of two concerts highlights the work of these......

Professor Trinh T. Minh-ha, renowned film artist and curator, will be at the MFA today, tomorrow and Saturday to discuss her career and work. Currently a Professor of Rehtoric and Gender Studies at the University of California at Berkeley, Minh-ha has focused on film and cinema as a medium for cultural critique. She has completed installation exhibitions at the Kyoto Art Biennale, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, and most recently at......

If you prefer 90’s music over today’s, there are a few shows this week that’ll be right up your alley. Tomorrow night, Matchbook Twenty and Alanis Morisette play a sold out show at Toyota Center (MuteMath opens). For rap fans, check out Too $hort at the Meridian Friday night and Snoop Dogg returns with new material at Warehouse Live Saturday night. Finally, Marilyn Manson gives you an alternative to Sunday night church this weekend.......

French restaurants have been very kind to Houstonist. They reside in quaint little locales, offer crusty bread and real butter, and cook up delectable and delicate fares. We were delighted to learn that a new french restaurant opened on Colquitt just two weeks ago. The owners and chefs of Au Petit Paris, Eric Legros & Dominique Bocquier, have created a 'casual' neighborhood restaurant with a distinct Parisian feel. Though the restaurant lacks the pretentiousness of......

Several more venues are celebrating the holidays this week with showcases. The Meridian is hosting the annual Holiday Babes Christmas Party tomorrow night with our favorite local musical babe, Katie Stuckey. Verizon Wireless will be a haven for country singer/songwriter lovers tomorrow night (includes Roger Creager and Bruce Robinson). Warehouse Live celebrates twice with the Jingle Balls Friday night, showcasing local favorites Paris Green and Glass Intrepid, and their annual Eve of Christmas Eve......

Ok, ok. We listened to you. We DO do that sometimes. And you've said that even though you can't live without really enjoy the Daily-ist everyday, a feature that picks out one kick arse event each day from the thousands, um, ok, lots and lots of things going on in the city, you are busy people. And you would like to plan ahead. Ok, we hear ya. So it's back: The Weekly-ist List. We'll......

There was very little else for Londonist to be concerned with when the threat of a Tube strike became a very unpleasant reality. The inconvenience was extreme: there aren't many alternatives to the Tube in London despite the best efforts of the Londonist team to get everyone from A to B. Brighter news came in the form of the first ever female Yeoman Warder, or Beefeater as the position is more commonly known, and......

What with Paris Hilton's release earlier this week and the upcoming celebration of American Independence (sorry, Londonist!), we've been thinking a lot about freedom. Freedom to vote, freedom to choose, and most importantly, freedom to blog. Here are a few things we're happy we've been free to blog about this week. Being the nation's capital, DCist felt especially proud to let freedom ring this week by exposing the really important issues, like how sad they......

Holy smokes! Giant fish on the MTA, Paris Hilton in jail, then out, then in again, Al Gore, goatses, blumpkins, Matt Damon, and baby art critics! It's been a busy week across the Ist-A-Verse, and here's a smattering of what's been going on. In Gothamist's neck of the woods, they found out that many things are possible: A man caught a 40+ pound fish off the Rockaways and took it home on the subway. Graffiti......

Local bands don’t usually have the funs to make their own video. That’s where aspiring film makers come in. Local band Paris Falls now has a (partial) video for their song “Walk Away,” thanks to a not-so-local aspiring film maker WarriorSouthpaw. The Australian created an action packed video for the song, using Lego's. It’s kind of a strange mix between a western and Star Wars. Speaking of Paris Falls, they are one of the......

Remember that one time in France when you spent hours sitting at a quaint candlelit corner table with a great meal and a bottle of wine? Yea. That was awesome. Too bad France is so far away. But wait. That meal last night wasn’t in France? It was in a strip mall in Houston? Get out. Seriously, Café Rabelais, camouflaged in a very humble strip section of Rice Village, is a departure from the ordinary.......

There's so much going on across the Ist-a-Verse that it's almost impossible to keep track these days. Fortunately, we do it so you don't have to! Londonist took a walk through Oliver Twist's London, thanks to a gorgeous map layer for Google Earth. They also caught up with modern-day fictional London, with the Fantastic Four and 28 Weeks Later. It was a week of insanity over at DCist. They started the week off with......

This week we'd like to congratulate the -ist network's Mother Hen, Gothamist's Jen Chung, who found herself a recipient of Wired Magazine's Wired Rave Award. If that doesn't sound terribly exciting, keep in mind another recipient was J.K. Rowling. Yep, that's right, the -ist network and Harry Potter now have something in common. Go us. Austinist has a chat with the ever-fashionable Golden Girl Rue McClanahan, and managed to catch some local fashionistas making......

Hamilton, Houston's very own custom shirtmaker, was recently featured in an issue of Men's Vogue. Even if the article does make fun of their location "on a gaudy suburban strip a block beyond Kwik Kar Lube & Tune and across the street from a purveyor of erotic novelties" (on Richmond, near Chimney Rock), we were very excited to see Hamilton get some great press. Hamilton's shirts are impeccably designed and crafted, and are available only......

Many of Houston's top theaters and arts venues have announced their 2007-2008 season schedules, and if you get your tix now, you not only get better seats and better prices (5-20% discounts), you get something to look forward to after the summer's imminent heat wave. Each venue offers different deals and packages; follow the links to get the full scoop. The Society for the Performing Arts Highlights: Lily Tomlin, David Sedaris, the Shaolin Warriors,......

Looking for something to do this weekend? Look no further than, well, just keep looking at what your reading. Two great festivals begin this weekend, and both continue next weekend. Lucky you. Double your pleasure, double the fun. Houston International Festival: iFest Spotlights China Sorry if you missed the Houstonist ticket giveaway, we are all out. But you can still see some of the greatest acts visiting Houston this year for only $10. A steal!......

Salon Series features French Exhibit, French Films If you haven't made it to the MFA to view the Masterpieces of French Painting on loan from MET (um, whatcha waiting for?), this weekend's Salon Series would be a good time to get that taken care of before the exhibit leaves Houston on May 6th. On select Saturday evenings (beginning this weekend), Starbucks transforms the Audrey Jones Beck Building of the MFAH into a French Salon.......

A good week to catch some local and regional acts. Tonight, you can see Dallas' Fair to Midland, our own Paris Green, and more on us if you enter our contest giveaway by 4 p.m. Also tonight, Houston's Black Math Experiment is playing at the Proletariat -- and David Arquette is joining them? Super Happy Fun Land is celebrating their fourth birthday with some local and national bands. Finally, he's not from Texas, but......

Yes, Fair to Midland is a rock band. Yes, they have a banjo and violin in some of their songs. No, they do not sound like Dave Matthews Band. They’re more along the lines of Blue October or Mars Volta. Oh, and yes … we’re giving a pair of tickets to see them play at Warehouse Live tonight, where they are playing with Flyleaf, skillet, and Houston’s Paris Green. Fair to Midland comes from Dallas,......

Thanks to our friends at Shanghaiist, we have word of another list Houston's on — but this one doesn't have anything to do with our weight, children, dog poo or gold diggers. No, this has to do with The Economist magazine's Worldwide Cost of Living index, which ranks Houston 47th among the world's 132 most expensive cities in which to live, up one spot from last year's 48th place ranking. Shanghaiist has the details;......

Valentine's Day is only a few days away, and we here across the Gothamist network wanted to express would like to tell you, in the spirit of the holiday, just how much we love you, our readers. Don't let it get to your heads, though. There are plenty of things we love, you included. Just be glad you're not amongst the things we hate. SFist saw their beloved mayor enter rehab, and they loved the......

Delirious: An Archi-Arts Event at the Meridian For the last 86 years, Archi-Arts has been Houston's self-proclaimed "avant garde party." It is hosted annually by sophomore architecture majors from Rice University. At this year's event tonight, Rice architecture students will decorate the Meridian, a very popular venue for live music and special events in downtown Houston, in the style of Dada. The party is a fundraiser for an annual student trip to Paris in the......

Happy Holidays! Chances are, you're reading this the day after Christmas, back at your day job after all-too-short a holiday, and the last thing you want from us is stuff about the holidays. But that's just too bad. Because, see, here in the Ist-A-Verse, we do things ahead of time. It might be December 26 for you, but that's what you get for not checking your Favorite Local Blog on Christmas Eve. Austinist is......

On Sundays, Houstonist runs opinion pieces relevant to life in Houston. The opinions expressed below are entirely those of the author. Check out this list: Xavier Regan Joel Mr. Peepers Bob Who are these people? Guys I’ve slept with? Coworkers? Members of my skeet shooting team? If I were 12 years old and attending Pin Oak Middle School in Bellaire, officials there would say this is my hit list, and they would suspend me from......

River Oaks Theater turns 67 years old next month, and to celebrate, they are throwing two parties and inviting everyone. Landmark Theaters, who owns the property, will feature two nights of double features. All four movies were filmed (at least in part) in Houston and the surrounding areas: Monday, October 30th, 7 p.m.: The critically acclaimed, off-beat comedy Rushmore with Bill Murray (filmed mostly at St. John's School and Lamar High School), and the now......

Somehow, the world of -ists managed to make it through the week despite news that Jen & Vince broke up. Chicagoist had fall on their mind as they made squash and fudge, read "House of Leaves" and ">tried to figure out what's next for the Cubs. Not fall related, but still of utmost concern, the whole skinny black pants thing. Torontoist fought off an evil scourge of raccoons and went to go see who would......

The shot from flickr user and Houstonist photo contributor Houston Filmmaker. This shot is of a confusing landmark that tells a lot about the history of theaters in Houston. This is the Majestic Metro Banquet Hall, formerly the Ritz Theatre. This shouldn't be confused with the Majestic or Metropolitan theaters that once existed in Houston. Here's the scoop on the original Majestic, one of Houston's early movie palaces: "The Majestic was John Eberson's first......

Being the jaded Interweb users that we are, Houstonist thought we had heard it all when it came to online scams — but apparently, we were wrong. KTRK reports today on an online lost-dog scam that has hit hundreds of people. Anthony Risi of Jamaica, N.Y., discovered the scam when he was using the Houston-based pet-finder website Fidofinder.com to search for his lost dog, Coco (Fidofinder, in case you're not familiar, is the equivalent of......

It seems that yet again someone has done something that will soon be viewed as indispensable to the modern world. The latest example of greatness from the Nietzschian overmen at South Korean manufacturer LG is the LP4100, a cell phone that can, and will, let you know when you have had that one chardonnay too many. A phone with a built in Breathalyzer?!? The He@# you say! Did Houstonist mention that the fabulous LP4100 will......

Houston women had the chance to get a chance to become a princess over the weekend. (Yes, that confused us a bit, too.) There were open casting calls for the reality show The Bachelor: Rome on Friday at the local ABC studios and on Sunday at Katy Mills Mall. We’re a little surprised the casting wasn’t held outside of some fancy schmancy store in the Galleria, considering the social status of the new Bachelor.......