tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-302106552012-01-30T19:48:28.831-06:00Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.comBlogger4401100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-4692546720984672092011-02-13T11:49:00.001-06:002011-02-13T11:50:31.426-06:00

This house is across the street from my house. I spy with my little eye Anything here that I can buy. I see a little thatched cottage Looking so neat With compulsory purchase we can buy it up cheap. Then we’ll pull up the floor boards, Knock down the walls, Rock the foundations, Until the house falls. Like a pack of cards, Crashing to the ground. Then we’ll build a row Of identical boxes And

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-86244563939485382102010-11-24T13:44:00.003-06:002010-11-24T13:46:40.248-06:00

Hey all you Wha'Happen readers out there. Long time no see. Anyway, I am reading The Passage by Justin Cronin right now. (Cronin is an English prof at Rice--his bio at Rice's website is curiously out of date.) Anyway, this question is for people who have read the book, and it contains SPOILERS. Not big ones, but a bit.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . Now after the vampires have started

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-1841759475321057042010-08-25T09:29:00.000-05:002010-08-25T09:29:38.232-05:00

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-46459269922302647232010-08-23T06:52:00.007-05:002010-08-24T12:58:58.985-05:00

A week ago, news of the pending sale of KTRU to the University of Houston was leaked to the news media. I heard about it first from The Houston Press blog. The Chronicle had apparently known about it for quite a while, but in exchange for some exclusive information embargoed the story until Tuesday. The point is that this was a done deal before any students, faculty, staff, or alumni heard

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-48405345427037693742010-08-21T12:20:00.001-05:002010-08-24T13:46:41.618-05:00

Long time, no see, Wha'Happen readers (all three of you). Most of my writerly energy has migrated over to The Great God Pan is Dead, where I write about art (mostly art in Houston). If there is something that doesn't fit at Pan that I want to make note of, I usually link to it on Facebook and/or Twitter. So Wha'Happen has become a ghost blog. But sometimes you have something that just won't fit

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-79014392984017761162010-05-25T08:03:00.000-05:002010-05-25T08:03:30.497-05:00

Harris County has a whorehouse for sale. Commissioners Court has on its hands the Velvet Touch, a business that operated on Highway 6 South, and will consider this morning how to dispose of it. The county came into possession of the brothel after Houston police shut it down in April 2008. A three-year investigation included a confession from the owner that she worked there as both prostitute and

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-77922822712954615352010-05-14T11:39:00.000-05:002010-05-14T11:39:31.724-05:00

"The government’s main function these days is writing checks to old people. These checks allow people to retire and pursue avocations such as going to Tea Party rallies." Michael Kinsley, "My Country Tis of Me," The Atlantic

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-26261498932212565292010-04-17T23:36:00.002-05:002010-04-17T23:36:54.417-05:00

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-74477125680200088282010-03-20T12:24:00.000-05:002010-03-20T12:24:14.762-05:00

I love the way the iTunes DJ veers crazily from song to song, regardless of the incongruity of the juxtapositions. Last song played: "Popcorn" by Kraftwerk This song: "There's a Tear in my Beer" by Hank Williams

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-36744850632593203792010-03-20T07:34:00.000-05:002010-03-20T07:34:07.309-05:00

(Swiped cold from Flowing Data, who got it from Dataviz, who got it from Mark Goetz.)

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-69199094538509811912010-03-19T06:08:00.000-05:002010-03-19T06:08:11.884-05:00

Alex Chilton's death hit me harder than I would have expected.  I think this article from Slate yesterday speaks to why. "It's such an icky boomer-like exercise, obsessing over your own demise," a pal told Shafer back in 2005, when he surveyed some of his younger friends about the potential signs of a coming cultural rebellion. True. And boomer self-satisfaction is such that we will probably

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-14489190262597874332010-03-03T20:04:00.002-06:002010-03-03T20:05:12.077-06:00

Kyle Fisher (Jon Favreau) is days away from his wedding and welcomes his bachelor party weekend as a chance to break free from the pressure from his Bridezilla fiancée Laura (Cameron Diaz). Things are as chaotic as expected in their hotel in Las Vegas — drink, drugs and a stripper. However, trouble begins when Kyle's friend Michael (Jeremy Piven) accidentally kills a stripper (Kobe Tai) in

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-63901030028030463652010-02-22T18:41:00.000-06:002010-02-22T18:41:04.350-06:00

This Robert Boyd is a virtuoso flamenco guitarist--check out his superb website for some samples of his fantastic playing. (I can play two chords on the guitar--but they're both really good chords!)

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-31755471872115137332010-02-15T17:45:00.004-06:002010-02-16T08:19:10.441-06:00

Ahead of the Curve by Philip Delves Broughton. I read this book because I wanted to compare the Harvard MBA experience with my own. Broughton was the head of the Paris bureau for the Daily Telegraph when he decided to make a change in his life. Like me, he was older than his fellow students. He also was culturally from a different place than many of his fellow students. He tries to minimize

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-25757041641818396832010-02-15T11:05:00.000-06:002010-02-15T11:05:08.376-06:00

Years ago, someone gave me a copy of Please Kill Me (1997), the oral history of punk/new wave in New York City compiled and edited by Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain. It's a great read despite McNeil's unaccountable dislike of the Talking Heads (he refers to David Byrne's "yuppie whine," as I recall). So anyway, I guess that book was successful because it spawned a version for L.A.'s scene called

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-60628971004726361282010-02-05T09:20:00.000-06:002010-02-05T09:20:17.724-06:00

OK, so Lightnin' Hopkins is getting his own historical marker up on Dowling later this year. That's good--well-deserved. Lightnin' makes me proud to be a Houstonian. As Slampo says, he deserves even bigger official kudos. But Slampo follows up with the fact that historical markers tend toward the highly respectable and avoid the disreputable demimonde that are undeniably part of our history.

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-8074668595462094982010-02-04T08:20:00.000-06:002010-02-04T08:20:48.219-06:00

Created by John Coby over at Bay Area Houston.

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-36066708275685373222010-02-02T18:22:00.000-06:002010-02-02T18:22:44.384-06:00

This is the bottom part of the Bullwinkle oil production platform. To give you a notion of the scale, those things in the foreground are cars. It was the deepest "fixed leg" platform in the world, located in the Gulf of Mexico and owned by Shell. (There are deeper production platforms and ships, but they unlike Bullwinkle, they aren't buildings coming up from the bottom of the ocean. They may

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-71797515218095244922010-01-31T14:27:00.001-06:002010-01-31T14:29:58.725-06:00

  Dead Again by Masha Gessen.  I got this book as part of a relatively new interest in the Russian intelligentsia. I had always been a little interested in non-conformist art and read the first volume of The Gulag Archipelago (as well as several other Solzhenitzsyn books) in high school. But it was picking up The Whisperers and Natasha's Dance by Orlando Figes that really got me interested. The

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-18471906031251622632010-01-31T12:12:00.001-06:002010-01-31T12:13:18.343-06:00

  Duchess of Palms by Nadine Eckhardt Nadine Eckhardt was at the center of Texas literary history and Texas (and U.S.) political history. Her life really encompasses the changes in American society from the 50s through the 70s. She married Billy Lee Brammer, the author of The Gay Place (a great novel about Austin and Lyndon Johnson), in the early 50s and was part of the liberal Austin political

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-19856456939085656172010-01-29T06:42:00.000-06:002010-01-29T06:42:10.152-06:00

“I have friends from out of town who come to visit and they say, ‘Sparkling City by the Sea? More like graffiti city by the sea,’” said Robert Boyd, a local Vietnam veteran. Boyd, wearing a T-shirt that read “Graffiti Hurts,” said he paints over the graffiti at Carroll High School, near his home, because it lowers property values in the neighborhood, he said. “Like most people I can’t stand the

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-63441122586498833312010-01-26T20:09:00.002-06:002010-01-27T05:57:57.724-06:00

Haynesville Movie Trailer from Gregory Kallenberg on Vimeo. I may have mentioned it a few times here, but my employer is a natural gas E&P company. We primarily produce gas from shale formations. This type of gas production is a relatively recent development in the history of oil and gas exploration. It has been made possible by the combination and gradual improvement of two technologies--

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-28940218625639538252010-01-23T10:04:00.002-06:002010-01-23T10:11:37.095-06:00

Last Thursday, I was at the Jones School to watch the new documentary Haynesville (which was excellent and about which I may blog later). While there, I got into a conversation with one of my old professors. I'll call him Professor X to preserve his anonymity (he does not, as far as I know, have psychic powers, and he is definitely neither bald nor confined to a wheelchair). We got to talking

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-29166993414100997512010-01-14T19:46:00.001-06:002010-01-14T19:47:38.175-06:00

The absence of bike lanes leaves a small margin of space between motorists and cyclists. That small margin of space leaves little to no margin for error. In 2008, Robert Boyd pleaded guilty to gross vehicular manslaughter for killing bicyclists Lyle Rosser and Raymond Moore as they pedaled up the Yucca Grade. Town leaders admit the current state of cyclist safety is dismal. (Courtney Vaughn,

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-19266935318484386892010-01-13T05:23:00.001-06:002010-01-13T05:27:34.767-06:00

I got this in my inbox overnight: Dear Robert,         Below is a joint statement by Bill Butler, the interim president of Baylor College of Medicine, and me regarding the proposed Rice-BCM merger.  Although discussions have ended, we look forward to continued and expanded collaborations with our colleagues at BCM.        I especially want to thank the many alumni who provided thoughtful

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-76143721931293412722010-01-12T12:33:00.000-06:002010-01-12T12:33:14.861-06:00

This is huge. Baylor College of Medicine and Rice University have ended 15 months of negotiations aimed at merging the two elite Houston schools. In a joint statement sent to faculty staffs and students today, Rice President David Leebron and Baylor President Dr. William Butler gave no reason for the collapse of the talks. Just four months ago, they hinted a deal might be in place by the end of

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-33687594873152072472010-01-12T12:26:00.000-06:002010-01-12T12:26:38.925-06:00

Dudes, you don't wanna mess with me. The Boyds had been one of the big families of Kilmarnock for centuries - they can be traced on the Ayrshire coast as far back as the late 1200s, with a Robert Boyd fighting the Vikings in the Battle of Largs, whose son then fought alongside Robert the Bruce - and who was rewarded by Bruce by a huge grant of land in Ayrshire. (The History of Portavogie, Mark

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-68504809140188411922010-01-10T11:00:00.004-06:002010-02-05T14:44:16.595-06:00

Cop in the Hood by Peter Moskos The simple way to describe Cop in the Hood is to say that it is the academic version of The Wire. Moskos, a sociologist PhD candidate, went to work as a Baltimore policeman (POE-lees, as they say in Baltimore) for two years as a research project. The congruences between The Wire and this book are pretty profound. And like the TV series, Moskos has two purposes--

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-83972449358299897202010-01-08T06:07:00.000-06:002010-01-08T06:07:27.741-06:00

  Wrestling With Moses by Anthony Flint In the 50s, Jane Jacobs led a fight to prevent 5th Ave. from being allowed to run through Washington Square Park (and thereby bisecting it and greatly reducing its size). This was Jacob's neighborhood, and she thought such a move would ruin the park (which it obviously would). Her main adversary was the man who had managed to become the planner of New York

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-40301180736743737072010-01-01T08:14:00.000-06:002010-01-01T08:14:48.434-06:00

The warmth of your love is like the warmth of the sun and this will be our year took a long time to come don't let go of my hand now darkness has gone and this will be our year took a long time to come and I won't forget the way you held me up when I was down and I won't forget the way you said, "Darling I love you" You gave me faith to go on Now we're there and we've only just begun This

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-72284911014929192132009-12-30T13:30:00.000-06:002009-12-30T13:30:02.018-06:00

Isn't this the perfect moment in history to start a nudist airline? Just thinking out loud, here...

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-2532063723061510632009-12-29T19:31:00.000-06:002009-12-29T19:31:16.346-06:00

  Methland: The Death and Life of An American Small Town by Nick Redding An excellent piece of book-length reporting--it combines small personal stories with a large historical narrative and big theories to explain it all. The pharmaceutical industry is one of the surprise villains here (because of their long and somewhat successful attempt to keep the U.S from regulating ephedrine and

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-36199289589980329222009-12-28T13:50:00.006-06:002010-02-06T09:08:03.728-06:00

  Zhivago's Children by Vladislav Zubok. I have always been interested in the artistic and intellectual life of the Soviet Union, but most of what you read deals with the brief period of openness at the beginning of the revolution and then the tragic reversal under Stalin. Those stories are almost unbearable, and perhaps that's why I'm drawn to them. Also, the art and literature of that period

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-14844537600407004842009-12-21T21:48:00.000-06:002009-12-21T21:48:11.204-06:00

Turns out that almost all of them were gay.

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-3631702424925413472009-12-18T20:36:00.000-06:002009-12-18T20:36:36.746-06:00

Hell would be living in a city of 216,000 souls with no bookstore. That is what Laredo is about to become. (If it's any consolation, literate Laredans who know Spanish can always cross the border to Nuevo Laredo--which has nine bookstores.)

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-42148192530019256982009-12-14T05:27:00.001-06:002009-12-14T05:28:50.784-06:00

One of the slightly spooky things about having your own name on Google Alerts is that items like this occasionally pop up. HOLDERNESS -- Robert W. Boyd, 68, died Nov. 12, 2009, at his residence. He born in Danvers, Mass., to Robert W. and Delia Cecile (Langlais) Boyd. He graduated from Salem State. After several years of teaching high school in Danvers and Peabody, Mass., as well as serving on

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-55658771141266872052009-12-12T17:33:00.000-06:002009-12-12T17:33:21.609-06:00

Waggish has determined six categories of conservative, three classic conservative types, and three degenerate types. The utility of his categories is limited. He writes, Since "conservatism" has had such bizarre associations in the United States for a long time now, I thought I'd give brief accounts of the three breeds that I most often think of in connection with the classical sense of

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-55299960914282093962009-12-10T20:54:00.000-06:002009-12-10T20:54:42.437-06:00

No, as far as I know Sig Byrd never did comics (unlike other Houston daily newspaper columnists Lynn Ashby and Jeff Millar). But Scott Gilbert adapted one of Byrd's tales. You can read it here.

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-38507891948866059792009-12-09T19:15:00.005-06:002009-12-10T11:29:02.331-06:00

A recent article in The Houston Press reminded me that I needed to check out Sig Byrd's Houston. So I went on Alibris and bought myself the cheapest copy available, and sat myself down for a read. It was enthralling. Byrd was a newspaper columnist whose column, "The Stroller" was filled with street stories, mainly from neighborhoods where polite white folk rarely went. I'm sure reading it gave

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-59193834874796489702009-12-04T09:57:00.001-06:002009-12-05T14:53:12.507-06:00

As some of you may know, I went to Memorial High School (class of 81, baby!). Now in sports we had rivalries (for example, we were rivals of the now defunct Westchester High School). That shit was never important to me, though. For me, our real rivals were St. John's and Kinkaid--those were the schools we were always competing with academically. I always was checking out who had more National

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-49603592578724845942009-12-04T09:31:00.001-06:002009-12-04T09:32:55.040-06:00

For the past hundred years, the science of oil and gas exploration has gotten better and better. Seismic techniques have steadily improved, as have wireline technologies. Geologists and geophysicists know more about the Earth than ever. But they all neglected one important thing--the Bible. That's how Zion Oil and Gas hopes to find oil in Israel. Who needs science when you have Jehovah?

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-61333001452709652082009-12-04T09:10:00.000-06:002009-12-04T09:10:50.388-06:00

A police report said the 21-year-old Denton woman answered a knock at her door by someone who claimed he was doing field work for a massage class. She let the man into her apartment and allowed him to massage her, but became suspicious when he asked her to keep taking off more clothes Monday. Police say the woman finally got the man to leave, but not before he asked her to go on a date. She

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-1582823998356577232009-11-25T07:27:00.002-06:002009-11-25T07:30:44.347-06:00

Regular readers (all three of you) will recall this post, in which an armed lunatic, Charles Alexander Diez, attempted to shoot cyclist Alan Ray Simons in the head. He missed, but the bullet went through Simons' helmet. Don't forget, Simons' baby was on the back of the bike when this occurred, and he was riding with his wife, who was on another bike. Clearly, attempted murder--even against a

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-80757548459895665402009-11-24T18:44:00.000-06:002009-11-24T18:44:36.587-06:00

I picked up this book a few weeks back at a book show. A piece of scary, mostly forgotten Houston history, it became relevant once again as the remains of another victim of Dean Corll was discovered, nearly 40 years after the fact. The author of this book about the Dean Corll serial killings really has it in for Houston, down to his mocking depictions of people's accents (Author Jack Olsen

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-43736309923282637412009-11-17T19:06:00.000-06:002009-11-17T19:06:47.139-06:00

Guy brags about getting a dude fired for using the word "pussy" (in the vulgar sense) in the comments section of the newspaper. (Hat-tip to Photography Is Not a Crime.)

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-43161415186754188922009-11-14T08:28:00.004-06:002009-11-17T20:19:41.292-06:00

This was a really brief ride, almost not worth mentioning. But as short as it was, it was interesting. My intent had been to try to cover a bunch of downtown streets on a Sunday when traffic is light. (Lots of other cyclists had the same idea. Downtown is a popular Sunday destination for the two-wheeled set.) I took a bus into town and got off at Franklin  at Crawford. I wanted to start in the

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-28790423085701609042009-11-04T09:45:00.000-06:002009-11-04T09:45:01.715-06:00

  DALLAS — The $16.50 gray fedora worn by Dallas strip club owner Jack Ruby when he fatally shot Lee Harvey Oswald in 1963 is for sale. Heritage Auctions scheduled an auction Saturday for the Cavanagh fedora. President John F. Kennedy was slain on Nov. 22, 1963. Oswald was arrested for the assassination. Ruby fatally shot Oswald on Nov. 24, in an attack captured during a live TV broadcast as

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-53218232652600558462009-11-03T13:36:00.000-06:002009-11-03T13:36:39.637-06:00

Claude Levi-Strauss, 1909-2009

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-39486228705916052532009-11-02T13:48:00.000-06:002009-11-02T13:48:42.640-06:00

ST. JOHN’S, Antigua — Disgraced Texas financier R. Allen Stanford is being stripped of his knighthood in the Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda, the head of the government panel that approves the awards said Monday. (Anita Kentish, Associated Press, Houston Chronicle, November 2, 2009)

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-284341865581264672009-11-01T08:35:00.001-06:002009-11-01T08:35:45.375-06:00

I saw this billboard driving north on the West Loop. Then saw this one coming south on I-45 just before hitting the North Loop. Any idea what they are all about? An homage to the great X song?

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-61019185772282547942009-10-30T21:34:00.000-05:002009-10-30T21:34:04.274-05:00

If you drive up US 59 from the  North Loop, you will soon pass a bizarre building on your right. After driving by it hundreds of times commuting to work, I finally had to stop. It is Iglesia La Luz del Mundo. This is it seen from the south: It basically consists of two buildings--a main building, which as a Greek temple-style front and a huge golden dome beside it, and then another, smaller

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com53tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-11598220831121906272009-10-30T08:57:00.001-05:002009-10-30T10:05:54.269-05:00

These links were compiled by Rebekah Drezek, a bioengineering professor. (At least I think she is responsible--how many bioengineering professors named Rebekah are there?) The links include lots of opinions both pro and con, as well as useful background information. As someone who doesn't have a huge stake in this issue (although I do have an opinion, of course), it is fascinating to see how this

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-68478160609552664742009-10-29T20:56:00.000-05:002009-10-29T20:56:56.341-05:00

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-68764418409268495812009-10-29T20:19:00.000-05:002009-10-29T20:19:25.492-05:00

I wish I had know about "Find a Grave" before I checked out Forest Park Cemetery a couple of weeks ago. I would have definitely located the graves of Lighntnin' Hopkins and Jesse H. Jones, who are both buried there. (It is also the final resting place of Lloyd Bentson, Carla Faye Tucker, and numerous professional baseball players.) If future rides take me past any cemeteries (which they

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-62362355432257773722009-10-29T19:33:00.004-05:002010-02-09T16:58:50.252-06:00

In my most recent post about the Rice-Baylor College of Medicine Merger, I got a comment from Dr. Moshe Vardi, a computer science professor at Rice. He had just given a talk (on October 26) about the merger, and the talk is posted online. I urge you to check it out--it's a bit long (over an hour) but worth listening to all the way through (including the questions at the end). His slides and

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-48353957726240320942009-10-27T20:29:00.004-05:002009-10-29T19:02:16.844-05:00

That's the subtext to the "Interim Report of the Rice University Faculty Merger Review Committee." This report was completed in late August but only made public recently. The faculty on the committee come from a wide variety of academic departments. I only know one of them, Duane Windsor, who teaches the ethics and csr class for the Jones School. Right from the very start, they express

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-82308901041954339602009-10-25T12:18:00.003-05:002009-10-25T19:05:03.013-05:00

I just finished reading Willie Morris's North Towards Home and the biography of Donald Barthelme, Hiding Man, by Tracy Daugherty. The two writers, so distinct in what they wrote, also had interesting similarities. Willie Morris was a journalist and editor whose reputation largely lies in his editing of Harper's Magazine from 1967 to 1971, during which time he was one of the editors responsible

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-10864656436849345402009-10-24T07:58:00.002-05:002009-10-24T08:00:31.315-05:00

Not that I care about the NYC mayoral race, but a one of my NYC Facebook friends posted this and it caught my eye. Mayoral Hopeful Thompson Talks Tough on Bike Lane MenaceThat controversial Grand Street bike lane, beloved by cyclists and loathed by some business owners because it makes receiving deliveries onerous, now has a new enemy: Democratic mayoral candidate Bill Thompson. The comptroller

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-52341849317468800112009-10-23T23:05:00.002-05:002009-10-23T23:20:29.504-05:00

Today was my day off from work, the weather was unbeatable, so I got on my bike and explored. I hit Lindale Park today. This neighborhood is just inside the Loop and just east of I-45. The main drag is Irvington. The neighborhood is about 50 years old, full of moderate-sized bungalows. I'd describe it as a well-kept working to middle-class neighborhood, strongly but not exclusively hispanic.

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-7829306491223340872009-10-20T06:35:00.001-05:002009-10-20T06:36:45.284-05:00

Hmmm... How should this be interpreted? I guess you could take it to mean that if someone is biking instead of driving, then at that moment there is "one less car" on the road. That's a benign, positive message. Unfortunately, the artist and the person who applied the sticker almost guarantee that the message will be received differently. The image of a car smashed by a giant fist (which

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-36336261939459342892009-10-19T06:36:00.003-05:002009-10-29T20:34:43.243-05:00

When you are driving east on I-10 or south on I-45 in that tiny segment just north of downtown where the two freeways become one, you might notice this sculpture as you whiz by. They are actually located on a tiny little street called Elder Street in a tiny little neighborhood kind of trapped between Houston Ave. and the freeways. The heads are, of course, by David Adickes, the guy who did

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-35463639522579442472009-10-18T21:36:00.004-05:002009-10-23T09:57:04.691-05:00

After a long hiatus, I am restarting my "Houston Streets" bicycle travelogue series. This time, I was inspired by a post about the area on the ever excellent Swamplot to give Idylwood a look. Specifically the comments peeked my interest. There were a few negative ones about the East Side, which brought a bunch of impassioned defenders. I checked it out on the map and was intrigued by its Brays

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-44980259916010952802009-10-13T06:14:00.001-05:002009-10-18T19:21:02.024-05:00

"In Houston, only 250 miles to the southeast, business conservatism had never exactly been impotent, and the radicalism of its rightists had often exceeded Dallas'. Yet Houston was no monolith; it was, as one of its writers would say, a whiskey and trombone town, openly in conflict with itself, and its very disorder had encouraged a rough and open democracy. Dallas, in contrast, had grown sick

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-20347099960339225142009-10-12T19:39:00.001-05:002009-10-13T06:16:51.332-05:00

Weird, the day after I write this, another cyclist has been killed in an accident. A bicyclist has died a day after he was hit by a van while he pedaled along a road in east Harris County. Investigators said the rider was hit while he was riding in the 12600 block of Beaumont Highway about 10 p.m. Thursday. He was seriously injured and was flown by medical helicopter to Memorial Hermann-The Texas

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-47028584121284695432009-10-11T18:36:00.009-05:002009-10-26T14:08:53.143-05:00

The current issue of The Houston Press has a fantastic article, "Ghost Riders" by John Nova Lomax, about the dangers of cycling in Houston. "Ghost Bikes" are the term Lomax uses to describe bike memorials, the sites of where a cyclist has died that has been marked with a bicycle painted white. Lomax starts the article with the story of one such cyclist, Cisco Rios. Rios wouldn't get to enjoy his

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-21130416209225391962009-10-08T21:00:00.000-05:002009-10-08T21:00:34.074-05:00

I like a bum with a sense of humor.

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-63137997313898725772009-10-06T08:51:00.000-05:002009-10-06T08:51:08.842-05:00

Bloggers who offer endorsements must disclose any payments they have received from the subjects of their reviews or face penalties of up to $11,000 per violation, the Federal Trade Commission said Monday. The agency, charged with protecting consumer interests, had not updated its policy on endorsements in nearly three decades, well before the Internet became a force in shaping consumer tastes.

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-12592832000929877432009-10-01T08:42:00.000-05:002009-10-01T08:42:56.719-05:00

If you see Melchor Izquierdo, he'd like his hatchet back please What is it with Houston and hatchets and machetes and killing people? Dale Lezon of the Chron seems to have the "hatchet murder" beat, and it's keeping him busy! Police are searching for a man wanted in the apparent hatchet killing of a his co-worker whose body was found in the cab of a dump truck days after he had been slain.

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-59731494928539836532009-09-30T20:03:00.002-05:002009-09-30T20:03:50.992-05:00

Excellent demonstration of how car technology has improved since the 1950s. What isn't mentioned in this video is that the Malibu also gets much better gas mileage, pollutes much less, and has a motor that, with regular maintenance, will last much longer than the Bel Air.

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-3477285506313115492009-09-24T11:33:00.001-05:002009-09-24T11:33:32.383-05:00

The empty parking spaces at lunchtime are an uncanny sight, and the rumbling in the distance bodes ill. Rice Village merchants have come to hear that sound as a harbinger of doomed sales, a menace that keeps shoppers at bay. It's the low, incessant grumble of track hoes on Kirby Drive.[...] At Cova, a high-end wine shop, owner Monsterville Horton IV watched the confluence of three Cats gouging

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-32955151499659359572009-09-23T10:57:00.000-05:002009-09-23T10:57:53.977-05:00

Two semi-unrelated items. First, as everyone interested in comics knows by now, Jack Kirby's heirs are asserting their rights to the characters that Jack Kirby had a major hand in creating. The heirs to Kirby, who co-created the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, the Avengers, Iron Man, Hulk, Thor and Captain America - and had a hand in creating Spider-Man, pretty much completing the set - have sent

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-66888006232338848752009-09-15T06:21:00.000-05:002009-09-15T06:21:13.156-05:00

One of them is a remake of Yellow Submarine. Disney have officially announced their motion-capture CGI 3D remake of the Beatles' Yellow Submarine. [...] The official announcement was made over the weekend, and the accompanying press release quotes Disney Studios chairman Dick Cook as saying, This is truly an inspired collaboration, and a wonderful opportunity to revisit one of the most

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-17665376012976161342009-09-12T09:02:00.000-05:002009-09-12T09:02:06.883-05:00

Leigh Boone was riding her bike through the pedestrian-and-bike-heavy intersection of Dunlavy and Montrose when two hot-dogging firetrucks from the same station who were racing to a call managed to collide. They killed her. This a memorial to her.

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-31775834651897832202009-09-12T07:26:00.003-05:002009-09-14T09:19:20.255-05:00

Rice University is my alma mater (classes of 1992 and 2008). Any old owl who gets repeated dunned by the university knows that Rice has been in a construction orgy. Seriously, just in the past couple of years, Rice has built two new colleges (Duncan and McMurtry--this new class is the largest freshman class in Rice history), a new gym, a new student hangout place, the "Collaborative Research

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-17218842404599352812009-09-07T12:46:00.001-05:002009-09-07T12:47:05.999-05:00

Here's some of what I have read in the past few months (excluding graphic novels--I'll give them their own post). This is in reverse order--most recently read first. The $12 Million Dollar Stuffed Shark by Don Thompson. I reviewed this over on my other blog. Suffice it to say, if you are interested in economics and art, it's worth reading. The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway. Highly

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-10309317037000946262009-09-05T06:03:00.000-05:002009-09-05T06:03:57.182-05:00

Cartoon by Marc Murphy. (Hat tip to Crooks and Liars.)

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-56507299477886530772009-09-04T18:51:00.000-05:002009-09-04T18:51:14.449-05:00

I make no excuses. I think this is funny.

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-15309319729104959222009-09-04T06:29:00.001-05:002009-09-04T18:25:29.889-05:00

Jeezus, it's September already, but people got a few excellent crimes in the last days of  August! The latest bank robber to hit Houston wants to out-weird the Reckless Robber (hero to bicyclists everywhere). Authorities are searching for a man they say robbed two banks in less than a hour while wearing a silver sweat-inducing jogging suit and toting a pistol.The first robbery occurred about 11:

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-56570797508457352472009-09-03T14:44:00.001-05:002009-09-03T14:45:26.590-05:00

I have been seeing some activity from art-lovers over at my other blog, The Great God Pan Is Dead--but I just want to remind you Wha'Happen readers it exists, particularly as last week has been pretty fruitful for me over there. Combining Crap With Crap -- a meditation on the art of assemblage. Jason Villegas/The Art Guys at McClain Gallery -- Yippee-Ki-Yay, artlovers! My Favorite Bits of

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-51941087485998557262009-09-03T06:26:00.001-05:002009-09-03T06:26:26.007-05:00

Man, what is it about that place--people can't stop doing crimes! Chron crime-beat reporter Dale Lezon has the scoop. A Sugar Land woman is accused of bilking millions of dollars from the chemical company where she previously worked to buy a luxury home and bankroll trips to Las Vegas, according to federal authorities. Diana Simon, 49, pleaded not guilty today to one wire fraud, which,

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-72845711744229991802009-08-28T21:21:00.000-05:002009-08-28T21:21:02.298-05:00

No doubt readers have heard the mind-boggling, horrible story of the little girl who was kidnapped when she was 11, kept in a back-yard prison for 17 year, and bore her kidnapper two children, one when she was 14. Really the story is so strange, it's hard to wrap ones head around it. And it's so terrifying, I don't even really want to think about it. But this jumped out. Neighbours and even some

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-75189092240558691222009-08-28T08:19:00.002-05:002009-08-28T08:19:58.625-05:00

Check it out at my other blog.

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-36211858948294001732009-08-26T20:15:00.001-05:002009-08-26T20:17:20.389-05:00

Every now and then, I don't take the freeway home from work, but try to explore the many interesting neighborhoods between IAH (near where I work) and Memorial City (near where I live). If you go more-or-less straight south from my office, you end up on Gloger Street, and where the ends of Gloger and Mt. Houston meet, you see this sign. It looks the same from the back. Then as you go down

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-80748225894435209552009-08-23T17:20:00.000-05:002009-08-23T17:20:05.161-05:00

It looks like the U.S.A. is the Saudi Arabia of natural gas. Or is it? Maybe the reason America seems to have so much more gas than anyone else is that we have developed our shale fields. Reserves only exist when you explore for them, and the more you explore, the potentially larger reserves can be. For example, Antarctica may have huge reserves or oil and gas, but there has been very little

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-72206772448363201852009-08-23T12:08:00.002-05:002009-08-23T12:51:37.002-05:00

Wilshire Village is officially no more.Swamplot has really been the critical source of information about this crime against history and interesting architecture.I am interested in what happens next. Certainly something new will be built there, but in today's economic environment, getting loans for development is hard. So it may sit for a while. But I will be watching and taking photos whenever I

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-27776286841804020592009-08-21T06:56:00.001-05:002009-08-21T15:40:27.763-05:00

But as William Burroughs noted, he seems to be lurking behind much of the creative energy of the world, so maybe his is not so dead after all.In honor of that creative energy, I initiate my art blog. This is a spin-off from my "anything goes" blog, Wha'Happen. I have copied all my art postings from the old blog to the new blog, and will continue cross-posting for a while. But eventually,

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-45774928301968298752009-08-18T18:13:00.003-05:002009-08-18T18:33:58.265-05:00

Here's an interesting contest for all you literate artists and designers out there. The blog Venus febriculosa is having a contest to design a new cover for Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. There is even a cash prize! As far as I can tell, this blogger is just doing this out of a sense of disappointment with the covers this novel has gotten from publishers in the past. In particular, he writes, I am

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-81103926433251802862009-08-17T18:48:00.004-05:002009-08-17T19:13:10.973-05:00

I was contacted by choreographer Toni Leago Valle, who had three dances at last weekend's Fringe Festival. She knew one of the photographers present (Ted Viens), and has given me permission to post some of his photos from her dance pieces.Catalina Molnari in "Silent Victim"http://www.flickr.com/photos/ted_viens/ / CC BY 2.0Mechelle Flemming in "Interview for a Date/I Take My Dress Off"http://

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-26009883434708672232009-08-16T11:01:00.008-05:002009-08-16T17:36:05.479-05:00

I went to the opening of "Pieced Together" at the Aerosol Warfare Gallery, an exhibit of graffiti art by a variety of Texas artists. This show has been traveling around the country, and Aerosol Warfare is the final stop. Aerosol Warfare is a local gallery devoted to graffiti art and related items.exterior of Aerosol Warfareinterior of Aerosol WarfareThe pieces on display are small, essentially

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-75419118348063306052009-08-15T21:28:00.002-05:002009-08-15T21:32:57.606-05:00

I just finished reading The Art of Harvey Kurtzman. It's beautiful, and I recommend it highly. But I don't want to talk about Harvey Kurtzman, but rather this photograph.That is Adele Kurtzman, Harvey's wife, from 1948.I am in love.

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-88527261906321379622009-08-15T11:39:00.007-05:002009-08-17T15:29:05.567-05:00

Last week I complained about the Fringe Festival not being quite "fringe" enough. This week was an improvement on that score, and over-all a more interesting and pleasurable evening. You can still see it tonight (Saturday, August 15) or tomorrow. Again to be brief, I'm going to use bullets.There's a Tsunami at Your DoorA short play by Mary Ellen Whitworth.A woman about to commit suicide is

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-29041238192917918792009-08-14T18:48:00.003-05:002009-08-14T18:52:50.676-05:00

Hero to cyclists (i.e., CRIMINALS) everywhere!Oh, and awesome fanny-pack, fella!(Swiped from B.S. Houston Art Blog.)

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-12124520066286615472009-08-14T08:27:00.004-05:002009-08-14T11:39:33.917-05:00

Recently I have been blogged about crimes against bicyclists (here, here, and here). But maybe I was too hasty! Maybe bicyclists deserve what they get and more because of their own criminal nature. Indeed, if you read the reader comments of the stories linked to above, you will find numerous examples of bicyclist lawlessness being used to excuse crimes against bicyclists.Up to now, I have

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-1704136825298848792009-08-12T19:31:00.003-05:002009-08-12T19:44:43.527-05:00

For some reason, the offshore oil rig has never (to my knowledge) been a popular subject for painters. Obviously, their remoteness is a reason--hard to paint what you can't see. And they have bad associations with many people, particularly sensitive artistic types. Plus, I think folks generally (and wrongly in my opinion) think of them as ugly.So imagine my surprise when I stumbled across this

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-17445843780507888482009-08-10T17:59:00.002-05:002009-08-10T18:08:30.096-05:00

In "quality of life" as ranked by the Princeton Review. The Houston school ranks No. 1 nationally in the newly released edition of ‘The Best 371 Colleges.” (Houston Business Journal) The rankings for quality of life are based on students’ assessment of food on and off-campus [...] (The "serveries" are a great improvement over the barely edible food when I was an undergrad, to be sure.) [...]

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-13430577578447006482009-08-10T05:21:00.007-05:002009-08-15T12:47:48.734-05:00

Friday night I attended day one of the Frenetic Fringe Festival at the Frenetic Theater out on Navigation. This was the first night of a month-long series that combines theater, dance, and film/video pieces. My expectations were for some really avant garde stuff. But what counts as avant garde today, after a 20th century full of it? I imagined the theater would be Samuel Beckett or Charles

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-86211430603185789292009-08-06T19:27:00.003-05:002009-08-06T20:59:43.623-05:00

George Vera--Man With the Hidden GunTwo weeks ago, I went on weight watchers. Being overweight is unhealthy, unsexy, and forces a fellow to shop at big-and-tall stores with terrible yet overpriced clothes. So wish me luck.That said, being fat can have its advantages. An obese Harris County jail inmate turned over a pistol that had been hidden in the folds of his skin after he went through at

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-30924647338262225222009-08-06T19:18:00.002-05:002009-08-06T19:27:19.156-05:00

I plan to be there for it and possibly to blog it, in my ongoing project of educating myself about the Houston art scene. The Frenetic Fringe Festival runs every weekend for the rest of August. If you miss the program tomorrow, you can see the same program Saturday and Sunday.In addition to the the theater, dance and film presentations, there will be an art exhibit. Among the artists is Stephanie

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-52987313123052645062009-08-05T13:02:00.003-05:002009-08-05T13:09:39.982-05:00

Ah, the halcyon days of summer... Houston police have arrested and charged a man in the ax-slaying of his roommate. Robert Fulton Burns, 42, is charged with murdering a man identified by relatives as Lewis Mack Holiday, 41, at his home in the 5800 block of Hirondel in southeast Houston on Sunday night. (Dale Lezon, The Houston Chronicle) ...When we sit in the sultry shade sipping tall cool drinks

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30210655.post-5424927406241887562009-08-04T21:01:00.004-05:002009-08-04T21:07:08.020-05:00

This is maybe the weirdest and yet most moving blog post I have read in a long time. Houston artblogger B.S. Houston writes about the death of his cat, Pumpkin.Read it.

Robert Boydhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10832011160514073833noreply@blogger.com0