Most Popular
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A Prison Cover-up During Hurricane Rita
For days after the storm, inmates in Beaumont lived without A/C, electricity or hot meals. Press releases kept saying everything inside was fine. Guards and prisoners agree — that was nothing but B.S.
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Movie Pirates
That couple in the back row — they're making out big time, but not in the way you think
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It's Hip to Be Square at Masraff's
Continental cuisine is over, so why would anybody want to eat at this retirees' hang-out on South Post Oak Lane?
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Breakfast Enchiladas at Mi Sombrero
At this old-fashioned Tex-Mex joint on North Shepherd, the huevos are served all day on weekends
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Barack Obama and Me (259)
It was the year 2000 and I was a young hungry reporter in Chicago covering a young hungry state legislator
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A Prison Cover-up During Hurricane Rita (26)
For days after the storm, inmates in Beaumont lived without A/C, electricity or hot meals. Press releases kept saying everything inside was fine. Guards and prisoners agree — that was nothing but B.S.
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What's the Problem Houston? (6)
The city's skuzzy alt-rock scene thinks it is dying
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"The Big Show, 2007" (29)
The curator of "The Big Show" does the job right
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Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Amtgard, Howard Stern and Infernal Bridgroom (4)
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Texas Fetish Ball
Pony play is just one form of erotic excitement at Dare Ware’s annual fetish funhouse
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Lisa Lampanelli
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Public Broomstick Adventure
Discover Houston Tours shows off the city’s creepy, creaky, ghost-filled sites
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Othello
The Alley Theatre takes on Shakespeare sans set
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Patti LaBelle
The woman with a once-in-a-generation voice bares her soul to Houston
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What I’m Thinking About When I Think About Films From the 1980s
06:06AM 03/28/08 -
Get Lit: Instamatic Karma: Photographs of John Lennon, by May Pang
06:06AM 03/29/08 -
Steroids and Roger Clemens, or Why Jose Canseco Is Kind of Like a Republican
02:54PM 03/28/08 -
High Price of Crawfish
11:57AM 03/27/08
What we are writing about
- Altar Boyz
- Backroom at the Mink
- Cactus Music
- Chantal Akerman
- Continental Club
- Cuban immigrants
- Erykah Badu
- Frozen
- Houston art
- Houston local music
- Houston music stores
- Houston theater
- McGonigel's Mucky Duck
- Meridian
- Ornament as Art:...
- PlayStation
- Proletariat
- Roger Clemens
- Rudyard's
- Sig's Lagoon
- Sound Exchange
- southwest Houston
- Sugar Bean Sisters
- The Menil Collection
- There Will Be Blood
- Vinal Edge Records
- Walter's on Washington
- Warehouse Live
- Wii
- Young and Fertle
Recent Articles By Olivia Flores Alvarez
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“Face the Music: An Evening of Jazz Dedicated to Fighting AIDS in Africa”
Music for a good cause
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Downtown Houston Night Crawl
This is the “I didn’t know that!” tour
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“Richard Black: The Art of Cue”
HCCC presents works by craftsman Richard Black
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“Seeing Beneath Mount Everest: Probing a Breeding Ground of Destructive Earthquakes
Anne Sheehan talks about earthquakes, Mount Everest and scorpions
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Madame de…
What goes around, comes around
National Features
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Miami New Times
Perez Hilton: Exposed!
Can a "crazy, flamboyant dork" from Miami find happiness as a Hollywood mudslinger?
By Francisco Alvarado -
Nashville Scene
Chip Off the Old Rock
Songwriter Justin Townes Earle has struggled with addiction--just like his proud papa.
By Michael McCall -
Phoenix New Times
"Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy"
Have they become the magic words when a state wants to terminate parental rights?
By Megan Irwin -
SF Weekly
Out of the Woodwork
Union carpenters describe a little slice of Jim Crow smack dab in the middle of America's most PC city.
By Lauren Smiley
Kente Santa
Introduce your kids to a new holiday tradition
By Olivia Flores Alvarez
Published: December 20, 2007Want your kids to get a different version of Christmas? One whose emphasis isn’t on getting gifts, but giving them? Then you need Kente Santa.
Kente Santa is an Afrocentric version of the department store Santa who takes photos with your kids. This Santa, however, is decked out in Kente cloth and cowrie shells. And while, yes, kids can sit on his lap and give him their wish list, the conversation doesn’t end there. Kente Santa asks kids not only what they want to receive, but what they plan to give this holiday.
“That’s all we ever hear, ‘gimme, gimme, gimme!’ And it seems that we’re missing the true meaning of Christmas,” says Shrine of the Black Madonna Cultural Center and Bookstore manager Anika Sala. “We wanted to do something that would help kids learn Christmas is about more than just getting presents.”
Don’t worry if your kids don’t have any ideas about what to give — Kente Santa has a list of suggestions ready to hand out. “Kids can give the gift of assistance, they can give kind words of encouragement or give a smile,” says Sala. “It’s not about presents; it’s about giving of yourself.”
Kids will get cookies, apple cider and peppermints while they wait in line to take their photo with Kente Santa. 12:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. today and 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. tomorrow. 5309 Martin Luther King Boulevard. For information, call 713-645-1071 or visit www.shrinebookstore.com. The visit with Kente Santa is free; photos are $5.
Sat., Dec. 15, 12:30-5 p.m.; Sun., Dec. 16, 1:30-3:30 p.m.; Sat., Dec. 22, 12:30-5 p.m.; Sun., Dec. 23, 1:30-3:30 p.m., 2007
