marmer

I was a piano major at UH in the 90s, and went to Wadler-Kaplan all the time. Good store, good selection, had a lot of obscure music. Well, some of the time. I was disappointed when the moved to that business park because it's a total pain to get to. Cheaper though I'm sure. Now it's called Dowling music, I have no idea why. Same location though, and same staff, for the most part.

Dowling Music was started by local pianist Richard Dowling who decided that the area needed a retail classical music store. He may have hired some of the old W-K staff (that would have been a smart and classy thing to do) but it is in a strip center on 59, not in either of the former Penders locations.

One just opened up on HAR. 700 sf for $850. http://search.har.com/engine/1005-Isabella-St-37-Houston-77004_HAR90378018.htm

Nice. That courtyard and corridor patina looks like neglect to me, though. I might get tired of looking at that after a while.

It's on the 1964 map. http://www.historica....com/?poi=10090

Yep, there it is. Thanks. I actually saw that earlier at a much smaller zoom and just thought it was a crease in the original image! Interesting, it's NOT in the 1957 image.

Can anyone find this Fondren location on historicaerials.com? It seems like it should be visible on the 1957 and maybe the 1963 map but I can't identify it.

I wouldn't wish to do this either, but there's a picture on the website here. Bottom row.

Correct. That is the photo. Thanks for posting this, Simbha.

I'm guessing EMME has hit the nail on the head. I would add to that perhaps (in reading between the lines of his "manifesto") he wasn't the easiest person to work with and this may have contributed to his multiple small-business/consulting failures.

Sure seems like had he gone to a reputable tax preparer in a timely fashion and made an honest effort to pay the taxes he legitimately owed he would have saved himself thousands of dollars, thousands of hours, and a planeload of grief.

Having said that, my wife is self-employed, and her tax situation sucks. But still. Once you get used to the idea that you will have to pay taxes, you can deal with it.

I know a lot about earth. If we can get an expert in wind and one in heart, then we can form a know-it-all Captain Planet.

I thought it was earth, air, fire, and water. Or was it just Earth, Wind, and Fire?

Fire is probably the only thing I do know anything about.

 

That and Houston rock-n-roll history, maybe...

Owned

Not so much as you might think. I work with the Fringe in real life; I know he's a retired firefighter. I was teasing him.

Saw the fire as I was going downtown a little after noon yesterday. HFD had already gone defensive so I knew the building was lost. Supposedly started in a kitchen vent. Happens quite frequently when a vent gets a large buildup of grease. 

I don't know that a civilian is gonna be able to tell just by looking that HFD has already "gone defensive!"

I was forced to go pearland once on a business meeting. I cried and I've never been back. Ugh.

This part of the above post is probably true. Certainly seems like it from the poster's take on the Pearland restaurant scene.

It's nowhere near as bleak as he/she makes it sound, though.

Hey, is this the same girl from the "First Date suggestions" thread? If so, congratulations and Happy Valentine's Day! I'm sorry to tell you but b4-u-eat.com says Moksha is closed. The later reviews were pretty bad. By the way, that b4-u-eat.com website is a better local restaurant review site than yelp.com.

I don't know of any Indian restaurants in Pearland. If you drive down 518 to the east you will come to Pho 518, and Pearl Dynasty Chinese restaurant, and Little Tokyo Steak and Sushi, and eventually, past 35, Thanh Phuong Vietnamese restaurant. I have been to all of them except the Pho place and my wife and I enjoyed them both. There's also a Miyako over by the Cinemark.

If you really want Indian or Thai, it's hard to go wrong in Houston, but you'll have to go to Houston. My favorite Indian place is probably Khyber, Thai, Nit Noi. But there are lots of other ones.

Oh, I forgot. D'Caribbean Curry Spot a little farther still down 518 gives you a West Indian take on curries, roti, and other similar foods. It has received great reviews, but I've never been there. Probably the closest Indian place is going to be Darbar Grill on Scarsdale.

We need a better address. I thought at first you meant the white building on the southeast corner of W. 12th and Yale, which looks like a commercial building which might have been converted to apartments. Is it on Yale, or on W. 12th?

That kind of brickwork is pretty common on prewar duplexes and four square houses, all over town.

I thought Indian summer was the last big warm/nice weather period around Halloween, AFTER the first cold snap and before Thanksgiving. We tend to have a pretty significant one around here, most years. I would call what we're having now "early spring." Or, if it gets cold again later, maybe "Indian spring?"

I must not be a yuppie, then, because I've made/experienced many a cascaron. They were a popular small-scale fund raiser for school clubs at one time a few years ago.

However appealing the mental image of their "delivery" may be, the thought of how one would actually make manure-filled eggs and convince someone with an upscale R/C chopper to actually use it that way is a little...daunting?

I can't help but agree with the concerns already posted here about stress, cost, and the potential relationship issues. I can only add two things:

Even if you're the best driver in the whole metropolitan area and you never drive fatigued, you're rolling the dice an awful lot about a car accident if you drive that many hours in that kind of traffic. I've had three or four myself, none of them even close to my fault (like being rear-ended while stopped at a red light) Sure, you can't drive anywhere if you are going to be terrified of having a wreck, but at some point I think the odds shift away from your favor.

I'd consider taking the 610 Loop to 288 and then 288 to Highway 6. My sense is that if you're starting from east of 288, Highway 6 is not a problem, and might be much better than 45. It is certainly better than 45 on nice weekends when 45 Southbound becomes a parking lot. Not sure how the weekend southbound Galveston traffic compares with the daily commute.

I can't believe no one's mentioned the Dot Coffee Shop on the Gulf Freeway. Maybe it's too far north. Still, it's a Pappas-owned 24-hour diner with Googie-esque detailing and neon. Sounds like your kind of place, sev.

Houston Press article

7006 Gulf Freeway. I've seen a few bad reviews, but the one time I ate there after a late-night recording session at Sugar Hill Studios, the food and service were excellent, with very large portions. The studio staff, who often have to find food in the area late at night, were unanimously raving about it.

Let's all play nice, folks.

I have a good friend who lives in Montrose, car-free. He doesn't have much money because he's on disability. He has a tiny apartment and a bicycle that I gave him which he uses for short trips. He is very familiar with the bus schedule and how to find information about it. He rarely buys anything he can't carry. When he does need a ride, he asks me or another friend. He is very sensitive about seeming to impose with his ride requests.

The biggest and most compelling reason that he is car-free, even more than the money, is that he never learned to drive. Since I work at a university, I see this fairly frequently among incoming students (especially non-Texans) also. I think it is fair to say that a driver's license and car insurance are going to be necessary if any kind of car or truck rental is part of the car-free strategy.

There are indeed cities in which having a car seems to be more trouble than it is worth. The borough of Manhattan comes to mind. I haven't spent enough time in Chicago to know where it fits in.

It sure seems to me that it is very difficult to justify going car-free from any kind of cost vs. convenience standpoint in Houston. Probably more so than any other large US city except maybe LA.

Can you go car-free? Sure. But there's no reason to apologize for the fact that Houston's big growth came about way later in the century than the big Northern cities, and the car was considered a desirable amenity by Houston city planners for most of the twentieth century. Aside from the already-mentioned emergency, security, and weather concerns, there are times when you will need to buy things that are too big to carry where delivery may not be available. I'm not even talking about furniture -- what about a week's worth of groceries, or enough for a dinner party? What about a desktop computer, or a TV, or a ladder? Good luck getting those delivered from Best Buy or Home Depot or Kroger.

Well, 24-Z, I might be able to help you. I went there frequently in its later years. It closed down around 1984. I went there several times in late high school and college. They had several rooms, one of which had a black or dark blue velvet sky with tiny white light bulb stars. In the entrance there was a sort of Italian night-time courtyard scene sort of like something out of the spaghetti scene in _Lady and the Tramp_. I remember it having a motto inside the entry that said "Pepe Roni: our pizza chef!"

Yes, it was on the east side of South Main and Holcombe, near the former Holiday Inn and across from the Shamrock Hilton. If you search this Historic Houston forum, you might be able to find some pictures. I don't remember the pizza being all that great, honestly. Kind of a thin, crispy thing which tasted a little like frozen pizza. I think we are remembering it so fondly because there weren't all that many pizza places back then, and the atmosphere was very interesting, especially to a small-town kid like me.

Mind you, I'm not saying that anybody should change who they are as part of a first date, just that its helpful if part of who they are is a person that at least can demonstrate that they know the rules and demonstrate politeness when they know they're breaking them, for instance by using a segway such as, "I hope I'm not being to forward, but..."

Normally I don't comment on spelling, but when I read this immediately after reading your list of examples of outlandish behavior, I had to read it three or four times and then I had to laugh when I finally figured out what you meant.

The word for "transition between two subjects, musical themes, or other discrete units" is "segue."

The electric two-wheeled stand-up riding device is "Segway." I honestly thought your hypothetical crazy date person was riding around on a Segway at first. Funny image...

I assume the OP was talking south about "between 610 and beltway 8" - if so, take her to Armadilla Lanes and bowl. They have a snack bar and a real bar (with a pool table and big screen). Now that's my idea of a good date

Right on, sev! My parents told me they met at a bowling alley, so I have a soft spot for that. Never been to Armadilla, but it looks reasonably non-sketchy for that neighborhood. It's on Fuqua between Telephone Road and the Gulf Freeway, for those who don't know. Closer to Telephone.

All this back and forth about trust, and wasting time, and being true to yourself....perhaps the poster could care less about future dates and is just looking to get some or to just have a fun time on a date.

Y'all have no clue about his motivation for dating or where he's at in his life right now. Spending this much energy on dating rules seems kinda silly. He just asked for good places to eat and activities.

Paintball is fun... I still vote for paintball.

Point taken.

Let's leave aside everything except what the OP said:

She lives "between the Beltway and 610" and "Pearland is too far." We don't know the transportation situation but it sounds like the couple is going to meet somewhere and the woman doesn't want to travel too far. Of course, there are 360 degrees worth of "between the Beltway and 610" but perhaps the OP's Pearland location (and mine) are making me think he means on the south side.

Anything worthwhile at Gulfgate? Any good hole-in-the-wall Mexican places off Wayside? How about the Dot Coffee Shop? 1940 Air Terminal Museum (admittedly, there aren't many good eating places near there.) Is inside-the-loop Houston a possibility? Museum District? Discovery Green? Rice Village? The Galleria?

One of my absolute favorite things to do in Houston is go to the Museum of Fine Arts, and the Cafe Express in the basement has a pretty good selection of decent food. And, even though the OP specifically said he thought Pearland Town Center was too far away, it should be mentioned that there is ice skating there now for the holiday season. Some people really seem to like ice skating. It should also be mentioned that you can't do Town Center and then go to a movie without spending close to 30 minutes in someone's automobile. Yes, it's just across the freeway, but it's too far to walk, not pedestrian friendly, and the traffic and parking is very crowded these days.

All these rules...

All you've got to do is take her someplace you like. If she doesn't like it, then to hell with her. Move on. Valuable time is saved.

Heh. I have a good friend whose first date strategy was to take his companion to a hole-in-the-wall restaurant in Bellaire Chinatown, bag of fresh shrimp in hand. The proprietor would whip up a crunchy, crunchy, heads-on, staring-eyes, off-the-menu Chinese specialty, which probably didn't have an English name. If she flinched, well, there wasn't a second date.

Match.com hooked him up with a 90% compatible lady (at the time they were calling 50% "good.") He took her to the Chinese place and she said "Bring it on!" Crunch crunch. They've been married about ten years now and have two kids. Guess it only had to work once.

To be fair, there are actually a few places I like that my wife doesn't like. Fortunately, we didn't hit one of those on our first date.