Fresh off the heels of winning a second consecutive MLS Cup championship, the Houston Dynamo are preparing to fill out their cheerleading squad this month. With preliminary auditions set to take place on February 16 from 9am-6pm, the Dynamo Girls are looking for a few good women. Houstonist caught up with Team Director Marilu Harman to find out just what it takes to be a Dynamo Girl, whether the squad members spend any time with......

He can make you burn, make you rock, or teach you about triangles. Houstonist recently caught up with Trevi "Big Daddy" Biles, local hot sauce maker/ Whorehound band member/ geometry teacher. Here's what Big Daddy Trevi had to say about Big Daddy's Ass Burn "Hell Goin' In Hell Goin' Out" Hot Sauce: What made you want to create a hot sauce? Was the stuff in the stores not hot enough? Actually the whole thing started......

Every so often we're too lazy to read every MC there's a Missed Connection that stands out from the crowd. This is one of those so oftens. just a kiss... - w4m I’m a girl. (or woman, what have you) I’m in my mid 20s. I am polite, respectful, well spoken, intelligent, from a great family, and very independent But it occurred to me a few weeks ago that I can’t remember the last......

The incredibly talented and modest Mlee Marie Suprean has to be one of the hardest working musicians in Houston. Juggling five musical projects (including the fantastic Hearts of Animals) at the same time can’t be easy for anybody, but even while recovering from a nasty cough, Suprean still made time to talk to the Houstonist about what’s on both her mind and plate. Mlee is an interesting name. Where did that come from? My......

The Astros traded albatross-esque outfielder Jason Lane to the San Diego Padres yesterday for a player to be named later or cash. This was the first transaction by Ed Wade since he took over as the Astros general manager last week. Given the struggles that Lane has had over the past couple of seasons, and the fact that his trade value was estimated at somewhere similar to that of Cubs World Series tickets, that......

Need to know just a little bit about something? Ask a dilettante. The Chinese obviously hate us: First, they tried to poison our dogs, then our teeth, and now they're after our kids. Does this mean we should be keeping a closer eye on Yao Ming? Or ChineseElvis? --Red Ballsworth, Houston Now that Yao Ming has entered wedded bliss, I don't think he has the time to plot our downfall. Plus, he's been living in......

So, have you heard the one about the guy who went chasing his prized pet bird, got stuck 60 feet up in a pine tree and had to be rescued by a Coast Guard helicopter? Good story — and it happened right here. The bird was Geronimo, an Umbrella Cockatoo; the tree was in Porter; and the man was William Hart, a roofer. Hart said Geronimo flew out the window of his house around 4......

Francesco Nonino is an Italian photographer who lives and works in Bologna. His work is exhibited in the Never Been to Houston show, and he answered a few questions for us about Houston and the exhibit. What was your perception of Houston before you started this project? A place somewhere far away, linked to my childhood memories on space missions What did you do before to start this project? Did you research Houston or just......

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,......

OK, guys — we're sure this won't interest you one bit, but there's a porn convention in Houston this weekend. What? All right, all right, we'll go ahead and tell you about it because we know you're dedicated to keeping up with local events. The convention is Lone Star Pornutopia, which began Wednesday and runs through Saturday. It's a scaled-down version of an event held every January in Las Vegas (which includes the AVN Awards),......

Remember a couple of weeks ago, when HPD announced that it was revising its chase policy to limit the times officers would go after miscreants? Yeah, so did the guy who led police on a 20-minute chase through Houston last night after he refused to stop for a traffic violation in north Harris County. But there were a couple of problems: The guy was being chased by county deputies, who don't follow HPD policy —......

In one of the more bizarre things to happen over the weekend, several apartments in a Conroe complex were damaged Saturday when they were struck by a random bolt of lightning. What makes it odd is that there wasn't a storm at the time: It's possible for lightning to hit up to 10 miles away from a rain source, but an unexpected bolt (especially one that damages something) isn't something you hear about all......

Today, the Chronicle picks up on Animals Have Problems Too, a local online comic phenomenon from 24-year-old Sam Houston State grad student Zach VandeZande. His drawings — which, as you'd expect, are of animals with problems — are just doodles that VandeZande sketches, scans and computer colorizes. But his non-sequitur captions, which rarely have to do with the animals themselves, are the great part. For example, the Gecko That Uses Words He Doesn't Know......

Houstonist has its own guilty pleasures when it comes to TV, but we're happy to say ABC's Wife Swap isn't among them. Even so, we've seen enough commercials for the show to know the basics: Two families switch moms, one of them with certain traits and the other with the opposite traits. Chaos ensues. And now it's come to the Houston area! In last night's episode, Shantrise Maness of League City swapped with Frankie Roy......

If comments on the About:Chron blog are any indication, the Houston Chronicle's website redesign has people plenty riled up. Houstonist remembers how people reacted when the Chron introduced its print redesign, which is flashier than the old one but short-changes readers on content, readibility and, at times, respect. This time around, the blog comments (546 of them at last count) make observing the debacle much more fun: I'm searching for something positive to say here.......