crunchtastic

Your big silver appendage is burrowing under a slab of pork belly to do some blow? That's a very strange scene there, when taken out of context.

Eh. Mainly old (as in elderly) regulars, and corporate visitors from the AIG compound. The bar between the restaurants is nice, but very dull. Food is good though. I have the great fortune of hosting a quasi-corporate HH there tomorrow nite. Eh.

You would have liked (some of) Texas Vines as well. Vines, wherefore art thou? Awacs, dammit! Lt Dan or whoever you are, you need to come to the happy hours!

and their icee machine is always broken. Plus, the restroom is out back and the key to it is sunk in the end of a baseball bat.

actually.....I think the idea of trading on Mayor Parker's persona as 21st century-fun-loving-openly-gay-mayor might have some legs, if done correctly. Did any of you see last week how she was clearly loving that photo op with the roller derby? This isn't necessarily related to the mayor, but Houston's obvious tourism niche that we could be doing a lot more to develop is gay-friendly travel. Emphasis on the food scene, secondarily boutique hotels, top-flight arts and museums, shopping. Correct me if I'm wrong, but Houston these days (at least on the high end of the food chain) seems very tolerant. With great value for the travel dollar to boot.

Another case of lowered expectations, but don't care as long as it's at least 4 stories lots of parking. That building is one of the biggest eyesores in town. Bleh. Especially if it's all retail and restaurant/bar, they could do something really smart to promote lower westheimer business and alleviate strain on residential streets with the right approach to parking. Sell weekly and monthly parking permits. People who work in the area can get a discount. Frequent visitors to the bars and restaurants in the can buy in advance at a discount. And otherwise use a premium scale; highest rates for by-the-hour on Fri/Sat nites, etc.

It is NOT 'bullying' to assert that someone did a poor job of conceptualizing and communicating a point of view in a public, highly criticized and open format such as video. No one has challenged or denied his right to have or express an opinion, much less threatened him. It really steams me to see people throw around the term-- as if every time you don't get a goldthousand dollarsingstar for coming to the party, you've been 'bullied.' He needs to learn to do it better if he wants his opinion to be heard and not discounted. I don't know about the 'old HAIF', but in life you don't get a pass for just showing up and saying something. His poor delivery sank whatever he intended to communicate. The topic of conversation was compromised when he made simple factual misstatements. He should educate himself more about the topic and the medium, then practice, and try agian. That's not bullying, that's advice on how to succeed.

Nice night, everyone! (And I only got a moderate amount of grief for coming home so late...) Will start planning these more often. The one Red mentioned will be epic, for sure.

Those of you out of town or with plans, dang. Guess this means we should be doing this more often. The rest of you...come on down! No food at Leon's, but options nearby. And who knows, we may decide to migrate elswewhere later in the evening. Lots of places nearby.

It's been quite a while! With new life on the forums, it's time for another happy hour. This coming Friday, Leon's in Midtown. (as the starting place, anyway.) All are welcome, and don't be shy. Redscare, Niche and I will be there, starting around 6:30 or so. Make it so!

Having grown up there, graduated from Katy High, and still spending quite large amounts of my time there due to family, I believe I am more than qualified to second the motion on soulesss. (except I wasn't a drama queen; I was the debate team captain. In case anyone wondered what was nerdier than band) But you guys enjoy that new Olive Garden! When the Chuy's parking lot is too full, good to know there's options.

With that pick-up at the Eastwood TC I am damn tempted to try them for our August trip to NOLA. The stop there is basically at Canal St and the mall, we could walk to our hotel. For $2 fare for 2 people and about an hour more road time than driving. Hmmm. There's an extra couple of hundred on drinks or food or blackjack at Harrah's. I've paid more than $2 to ride on much shittier buses, for a lot longer. Hmmm.

I was out there a couple of weeks ago and to me the sad thing is, the actual main street of Katy (maybe not technically, but that's the way I always thought of hwy 90 through town) is still not much better than 30 years ago. Considering that traffic is gridlock and developments are stacked next to each other all the way to Fulshear, I don't see the strip center demand waning anytime soon. I hadn't realized it was now solid down 99 all the way to the prison land! To each his own, but that whole landscape just makes depressed. Our own self-imposed version of European post war housing. One endless note of lowest common denominator infrasructure, with a veneer of consumerism that always offers another brand but never any meaningful choice. Dunno, maybe it's just seeing the prairie landscape covered with it, because I don't have the same visceral reaction when driving through other parts of town built up the same way.

There is no false dilemma, because there's no good reason the golf course needs to go. It's unsexy, but at the moment there is much more than just lip service being spent on managing parkspace and the effects of the drought.

Simbha has the right idea here. Replace the golf course with a putt-putt that's really an expansion of the zoo. No animatronic lizards sucking your balls down their gullet--real Komodo dragon action! And how cool is this--we could justify an actual moat as part of planned city development. There would even be enough room for go-karts, if planned correctly. Forget that dinky-ass water feature at Discovery Green. Until economics dictate that all public green space be programmed and designated for maximum density, I would like to keep enjoying a variety of open space. We're not there yet, not even close.

They've poured concrete on a couple of blocks for parking across from the pier adjacent to Fish Tales, but it looks as if it's only about 300-ish spaces. It was half full just with workers. I'm guessing there's shuttle service to and from another location, but no one we asked knew where that was.

their choices sounded pretty clear to me. a) gut it and refurbish in the hopes enough events other than the rodeo will lease it, or a 'plaza', which sounds like code for mostly parking lot. Enough with the endless feedback loop of bad ideas that no one will finance. Demolish it already, but first auction the seats and whatever fixtures are left.

'organic' and 'iterative' used by mid mgmt assclowns to describe procedure. 'panties'. I don't know why, but ick.

I didn't think it was possible to make the term EaDO more irritating, but I was wrong. Pair it with 'pioneers.' I'm with Sam; not really into all the boosterism. June marks my 5 year anniversary in the east end and I still like it just fine, aside from any of the reasons the article cites. Glad they didn't name drop the D&W, because thankfully the EaDo people seem to be staying away from it. Oh, don't hold your breath on Moontower. I rode by there 2 days ago and there appears to be no progress since March, at least. Too bad, because it sure would be nice to have dollar Lone Star and that yard to hang out in while it still less than a 100 degrees outside.

Yes, it is already traffic hell on S Mason. It's a death march to get to the freeway on Saturday morning at 10. Trae's right, it isn't as if the neighborhood is all that. I guess I could understand the Cinco people calling ghetto foul. But I would think everyone out there would welcome something that saved a trip to Supertarget or Walmart, seeing how it takes 20 minutes to go 3 miles. Meanwhile, the Kroger up the road closed down a week ago. Welcome to the downward spiral, FM1960 style. There are only so many large stores that can go vacant before you've got a weedy lot. And it's the 2nd big box to go in a few years. Fiesta already took the vacant Kmart space. The original Kroger on Kingsland became Moes years ago, and there's already a 24 hour fitness down the road. I guess it's time to welcome the next generation of really large dollar stores? With any luck, a halal market chain has the backing to go big and lease the space. Or a Ranch 99.

There is a proposed Aldi on S Mason in Katy, right outside my parents subdivision (Oak something near the HEB at Mason and Highland Knolls) There are a number of "stop Aldi" signs in the yards. I found it interesting that people living on a major arterial road in the suburbs are shocked and horrified that a retailer would pursue a location on an large empty corner. I asked my folks and if they understand the protest correctly, it's because traffic would get worse and Aldi is considered ghetto and more befitting North Mason or N Fry Rd.

Speaking of olden times, I just discovered recently that Col St James was still on the air. Whatever the classic rock station is now? Christ on a cracker, he was on KILT back when they were a rival to KLOL! All dudes on the radio should sound like Roark on KPFT. Sans the constant public radio beg-a-thon, though. Now that I'm thinking of it, forget Siri, I want that guy dictating my calendar and reading back my notes. "Roark! Cancel my meetings today! I'm going to chill." "Whatever you say, Kathy. Let me turn on your pandora station. Should I have bourbon and nachos delivered? I think you would enjoy a massage."

Niche suffers from a number of maladies. Class envy is not one of them. Back to Stella Sola, tho. Actually...I heard the new tenant will have NO parking spaces and have a wine+walkability pairing menu in which after each course you walk briskly for 5 blocks, then valet 2 cars and before your next course. If you can't meet the time constraint, you have the option of Metro bus stop quik-clean duty, or a 100% upcharge for your next wine flight. I understand it's pretty much the brass ring for chef-driven sustainability.

Is there the potential for law-breaking and handcuffs here, or are we just being super literal with the law? Because you can get some very nice stainless cuffs online. Anodized in your choice of colors.

White Linen Nights? This is great---I had no idea how much I underestimated Houston walkability in summer! I'll be sure to tell all my friends in the second ward and encourage their families to go walking at White Linen Nights. They thought it was a fable that the fountains in the Heights were filled with chilled pinot grigio and the streets were lined with misters. Au contraire! It's ok to park on the streets, right? Because sometimes it's hard to fit all the strollers and rolling coolers on the Metro.