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.......

Let's take a step back and look at the facts here. The Texans are undefeated to start the season, 2-0 for the first time in franchise history. They scored 34 points against the Panthers, a team record. Matt Schaub was not sacked, not one single solitary time. We'll emphasize that last part again: at no point in the game did Matt Schaub stare up at the Carolina sky, holding the football, while a very large......

Houstonist had a thought yesterday as we were boarding our 7 AM flight to Dallas for yet another business trip, "This sucks," which got us pining for the way-too-few days sandwiched between our college graduation and our 8-to-8 gig inhabiting cubes around the country. Then a scene from Ben Stiller's 1994 release, Reality Bites, flashed through our head: Winona Ryder's character, LeLaina a.k.a. Lainey, is "show[ing] some ingenuity" by using her dad's gas card to......

Three months ago, someone tried to steal an ATM from the Regions Bank branch on North Eldridge Parkway near Spencer Road, prompting the bank to double-bolt the machine to the ground. You'd think that would have taken care of the problem, right? Well, no: Early this morning, thieves used a forklift to rip the machine from the ground. The theft took place around 3 a.m. and was caught by a surveillance camera inside the building,......

Our bloggers were fairly single-minded this week. We saw a lot of posts on the same couple of topics, but each one had its own distinctive style. Let's take a look at what's hot in the Houston blogosphere this week: Playoffs, anyone? The Rockets are getting ready, and the bloggers are fired up. Globetrotter is getting ready with their "I Urban Houstonian took a more classic approach, with an analysis of each team's chances,......

It's official: The Police are coming to Houston (the Toyota Center, to be specific) on June 29th. Tickets go on sale this Saturday morning at 10 a.m. They'll go fast. Some big acts coming into town this week, starting with The Shins performance tonight at Verizon Wireless. For you pop.rock fans, you'll have to choose between Sheryl Crow's make-up rodeo performance and the Red Hot Chilli Peppers show at Toyota Center. G. Love &......

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......

True Religion is ready to make fashion-conscious Houstonians (with well-lined pockets) truly happy. The clothing retailer will be opening a store in the Galleria this summer. The new store will carry True Religion's full line of merchandise for men and women, including T-shirts, pants, skirts, sweatshirts, and their trademark $200+ jeans. The original True Religion store was opened in 2002 in Los Angeles, CA, by husband-and-wife design team Jeffrey and Kym Lubell. They began a......

Let's face it: If you're not cooking on Thanksgiving Day, there's not a whole lot to do (except, of course, when you're eating). Enter Thanksgiving TV, your best buddy for Turkey Day — and an essential part of your post-meal nap in your favorite recliner. Start Thanksgiving Day with three parades: the H-E-B Holiday Parade from downtown Houston, the Macy's parade from New York and the WLS Thanksgiving Day Parade from Chicago. The main......

Houstonist will be taking Thanksgiving off, but that doesn't mean you should. There are plenty of places all over the city that need volunteers to do everything from deliver meals to carry balloons this week. Here are just a few: TXU Energy is sponsoring a 5K Fun Run that benefits Sheltering Arms, an agency that provides a wide array of services for the elderly. Volunteers are needed to help with registration, set-up, water stations, etc.......

Normally, the opening of another chain retail store in another suburban Houston mall wouldn’t make it to our pages. (Or maybe it would.) But this time, we’re really excited about the new store, which caters to the young, trendy, ever so slightly angry (or would that be emo?) crowd. It’s called Anchor Blue, and they’re just starting to spread to the Eastern parts of the US. Deerbrook Mall in Humble is going to be......

Even though Bobby Wiggins called Dallas home for a long while, the native Houstonian is back in our city, and making good use of his time here. He's got a line of t-shirts that are pretty, rockin', sweet, whatever you want to call them -- they look good! And young Bobby is running the business on his own. He calls the positive-message-only t-shirt line Moral Fabric. Why did you start Moral Fabric? Moral Fabric......

Even though the support continues to grow for the preservation of the River Oaks Shopping Center and Theater, many questions remained unanswered, and Weingarten has continued to keep their reticence. Rumors and some evidence throw a mix of names into the equation: Hermes Architects for the northwestern curved section, Wallace Garcia Wilson Architects for the highrise, and Barnes and Noble for an anchor. While concerned patrons, shareholders, and members of the community continue to......

We're working under the assumption that you haven't made plans for after work Wednesday, Aug. 2, yet (and that if you have, you're about to change them). Houstonist will be having our first happy hour that day — we're calling it "Happyist," because that's how we roll — and you're invited. Did we mention we're buying you drinks? So, the details: Come by Poison Girl between about 6ish and 8ish, have a drink on......

Have you ever needed — and we use that term loosely, because we know how easily "need" turns to "want" — something from the Apple store, but you didn't want to deal with Galleria traffic? Well, soon you'll have the opportunity to deal with Katy Freeway traffic insead: Apple is opening a new store at Memorial City this weekend. The grand opening is set for 10 a.m. Saturday, just in time to pick something up......

Summer is here: it’s time to dig out your old sleeveless rock tour t-shirts from the 80’s. In the same way that retired folks flock to Florida for the summer, aging rockers tend to come out of hiding and head south, too. Rock If you need your Van Hagar fix, Sammy Hagar visits the Woodlands this weekend, with Michael Anthony. (6/10 @ Cynthia Mitchell Woods Pavilion) Def Leppard just released a covers album of......

Get your cameras and your lawn chairs to park yourself for the 2006 EV1.net Art Car Parade. This is not just your grandma's Sunday afternoon parade — there are events for everyone all weekend long and it kicks off today with the Main Street Drag. The Main Street Drag will bring over 70 art cars to more than 30,000 people in schools, hospitals, and community centers who might not be able to experience the......

Ah, there's nothing quite like dumb criminals. Take, for example, 18-year-old Leon Dagoberto Jr., who was arrested Monday night in connection with a graffiti spree — because he was wearing a T-shirt printed with the same patterns he had allegedly been painting on buildings in Rosenberg. A school official saw two Foster High School students wearing identical T-shirts stenciled with a distinctive design featuring a gas mask, a griffin, a self-portrait (of Dagoberto?) and......

After a spring-like winter, Houstonist was looking forward to a couple more months of sun and mild temperatures when spring officially hit Monday. And then, bam — it got freakin' cold. Yesterday's low was 44, a full 10 degrees above the record low of 34, set in 1968. But the high yesterday, 54, was 21 degrees below the average high for March 23. And that brisk north wind didn't really help things, either. Things will......