::Elizabeth Alexander & Taha Muhammad Ali at the Alley:: Well, if the intellects are to take over a day, might as well be Monday. Leave the killing brain cells to us the rest of the week. ELIZABETH ALEXANDER, whose dynamic work penetrates the African American experience, is a poet, essayist, and playwright. Winner of the Jackson Poetry Prize from Poets & Writers (one of the nation’s leading poetry prizes), she is the author of......

Good morning, Houston. When we hear the words "concrete canoe," two other words come to mind: "doesn't float." But our instincts are wrong: Concrete canoes can be seaworthy, and one created by University of Houston engineering students floats so well that it's headed for the national concrete canoe competition in Seattle. The national contest is set for mid-June, and it could lead the team to a spot in the international competition in Holland in......

The Tommy Tune Awards ceremony was held last night, and several high schools walked away with armfuls of very tall statuettes. We're just kidding, but Klein High School did rule the night with five awards for their production of Oklahoma. If you're not familiar with the high stakes game of high school musicals (not High School Musical), then you might not know what the Tommy Tunes are. Let us inform you. The Tommy Tunes are......

Cross your fingers, folks. This year might be the end of the Chronicle's 106-year-long Pulitzer losing streak. That's right -- the Houston Chronicle is the only newspaper among the country's ten largest to have never won a Pulitzer Prize. However, according to an unofficial leaked list of this year's finalists, Nick Anderson, editorial cartoonist, might end the dry spell. Anderson is already a Pulitzer winner, you see. He's only been with the Chronicle since last......

In what the mayor's spokesman has called "an award that recognizes what tens of thousands of Houstonians participated in," Mayor White has been honored with the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award for his work to help the tens of thousands Katrina and Rita evacuees that fled to Houston. The award is named after JFK's Pulitzer Prize-winning book and annually recognizes Americans who have demonstrated commitment and contribution to public service. It is the......

Hello Houstonians! Here's what's on tap.... Friday, November 3 For all your possibly-pretentious dance needs, the Hope Stone dance troupe will respond to the work of Paul Klee through dance over at the Menil Collection (one of Houston's hidden treasures--you must go if you haven't been. We're serious, we're requiring it.) The performance will be in Richmond Hall @ The Menil (1500 Richmond) at 7:30 pm. It's free, and a talk follows the performance. Saturday,......

Polish that peg leg and dust off your eye patch - September 19, 2006 is International "Talk Like a Pirate" Day - or TLAPD. Avast mateys ye can almost get away with bringing yer parrot to work - at the least ye can talk silly and tell that pesky co-worker to "Walk the plank ye scurvy dog". Rising from humble beginnings (a friendly raquetball game on June 5, 1995) the first officially recognized TLAPD......

Guess what? One of the year’s most controversial films came from right here in Houston. The screenplay for Brokeback Mountain was written by Diana Ossana and former River Oaks resident Larry McMurtry. You may know McMurtry’s more famous novels Terms of Endearment and Lonesome Dove, for which he won the 1986 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. He is also the father of Texas singer/songwriter James McMurtry. McMurtry, a former River Oaks resident, now lives and owns......

Houstonist loves books. They're the perfect gift, they look impressive on your bookshelf, and they're even fun to read on occasion. With the holiday season fully upon us and plenty of travel looming on the horizon, now is the perfect time to pick one up. Houstonist offers these suggestions from the year that was: Fiction: Gilead by Marilynne Robinson - Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics award, and a nigh endless......