sheeats

Rich Connelly at the Press posted these old photos that he received from Calvin Burdick Jr's son, Josh, that range from aerial views of the city to pictures of the Exxon building when it was first built to old downtown street scenes:

http://blogs.houstonpress.com/hairballs/20...uston_--_in.php

Rare to see pictures from back then in color. Cool stuff.

*side note* I hate slideshows, too. If there was a way to post the photos individually, I would.

Like anyone pays attention to which Forum a thread is in anyways.

Sheeats, we'll just start out own thread - "All Houston high schools, excluding Katy ISD, make Newsweek top 1500 for 2009"

Awesome! Thanks!

Thanks for picking out the stats for the rest of the city's schools, Highway6. As usual, we keep having to remind Katy that this isn't a Katycentric universe.

On a side note... STRATFORD SPARTANS! WOO! *ahem*

This isn't a real estate posting, so let's just make that clear.

http://search.har.com/engine/dispSearch.cf...20Gershwin%20Dr

This house was built by my best friend's parents, on the lot where their old house used to be. Happens a lot in that neighborhood - the families "outgrow" the older home that was there (and that they'd usually been living in for 10 to 15 years) and build something new - but this was the first house in the neighborhood to set that trend.

My friend's mother was an artist from Columbia who did very dramatic, mixed-media pieces and the walls of the home doubled as her gallery space. It was basically built as a giant art gallery where she would have showings/parties with an entertaining area in the middle and a huge kitchen to feed all the guests. The bedrooms were more of an afterthought, but still planned out very nicely with extremely European bathrooms (read: bidets).

The family moved out of the house about three years ago and it was bought by whomever is selling it now. It's amusing to me to see how the home is decorated without the enormous works of art and very imposing, Baroque antique Columbian furniture throughout the home. Looked so much better before...

Anyway, thought y'all would be interested to see an example of a very inner loop type of house outside the Beltway, in Memorial.

Looks like this thread inspired a blog post today on Lonesome, Orny and Mean:

http://blogs.houstonpress.com/rocks/2009/0...ean_don_mah.php

Am I the only one who thinks it looks endlessly dreary inside? That's a lot of cold, hard, gray surface area in what should be a vibrant facility.

There's a thread with more information here:

http://www.houstonarchitecture.info/haif/i...mp;#entry314566

Very cool bird's eye view photos of the construction and the skyline from the tower crane operator on the site:

http://www.houstonpress.com/slideshow/view/13227297

I love the first and last photos, and the shot of the guy's boots dangling over the site.

Wild Rides: The Toyota Prius Isn't the Angel Everyone Thinks It Is

On a rainy night last fall, a couple months after Riner bought her Prius, she was driving toward the Galleria for a sales meeting. She hated driving in the rain because a car wreck in college catapulted her through the windshield and doctors almost had to amputate her leg.

Traffic near the mall was congested but moving, and Riner kept the Prius pegged at 60 mph, constantly looking at the console to manage her fuel consumption.

Suddenly, she felt the car hydroplaning out of control, and when she glanced at the speedometer she realized the car had shot up to 84 mph. Riner wasn't hydroplaning; quite simply, her Prius had accelerated on its own.

http://www.houstonpress.com/2009-04-23/news/wild-rides/

Damn straight, Hannah Storm is a Rockets fan:

http://blogs.houstonpress.com/hairballs/20...rm_literacy.php

Then again, she claims "East Coast Bias" to be a non-issue.

Went to the new Fleming's steakhouse tonight for the first time (first time in any Fleming's, for that matter). I was pleasantly surprised. Steak isn't normally something I pay for in a restaurant -- I'd rather make them myself at home -- but this was exactly how I'd cook a steak, only with far better side dishes.

Very nice interior, typical steakhouse ambiance and design but slightly more upscale, great wine selection, good food. Makes a very welcome change from Taste of Texas up the road.

I pass this neighborhood every single day, and I'll be damned if the whole thing isn't going to be unrecognizable from its old incarnation within the next five years. It seems like another Memorial Bend house goes down every week.

Noticed these signs have sprouted up across from the propose renovations in the last couple of weeks. Anyone know if they are in response to anything specific, or just pre-emptive?

They're in response to this guy's attempt to build an apartment building that's going to be a bazillion times taller and larger than anything else in the neighborhood:

http://blogs.houstonpress.com/hairballs/20...and_houston.php

Surprise, surprise.

Just another macabre detail I found amusing: Todville would partially translate to Deathville in German. Tod = death. Heh.

I don't see where it's been discussed in this thread, but Alex Brennan-Martin (of Brennan's) is opening two new restaurants in CityCentre: Cafe Rose and Bistro Alex. Both will be in the Hotel Sorella and both are -- to me, at least -- exciting because they're aren't chains.

http://blogs.houstonpress.com/eating/2009/...g_and_fancy.php

Cafe Rose will be a more low-key place but will have house-cured meats, fancy cheeses, wines, etc. Bistro Alex will be more on par with Brennan's, but apparently will be very modern. Exciting!

Nope.

I'll refer you to this timely blog post (not mine) on the subject: http://igotmuchies.blogspot.com/2009/02/sh...-you-rodeo.html

It's not worth the price of admission. Trust me.

This place is open now and I tried it out. It's pretty good. Very similar to Chipotle and Freebirds. I'll be going back.

I heard they had their soft opening earlier this week. Glad to hear that you enjoyed it! Their grand opening is this Friday from 6pm to 10pm, if anyone's interested.

Houstonist has a post on it this afternoon:

http://houstonist.com/2009/02/23/continent..._expand_the.php

Mack Tripper wins the thread.

Who needs pig when they can have a pomengranate martini?

You have a point about the stacking. Richmond Ave was douche ground zero in its day, but it had parking. It also had JoJos for after. Is there any 24 hour food on Washington?

I miss JoJos.

No 24-hour joints on Washington. Even El Rey closes pretty early. But I suppose you could conceivably head down to Ruchi's on West Alabama or to Little Big's or BB's on Montrose. Doubt the folks who live along Washington would get behind a 24-hour eatery in addition to all the craptastic clubs they're currently enduring.

Is this "Reign"? Or is that the new build further down?

The Washington Ave bar scene is achieving maximum douche-density very rapidly. In 2-3 years it will be like Richmond Ave all over again.

Reign is further west on Washington. So far it looks like the perfect realization of douche-ness in building form. I'll put some pictures up when I get a chance. You'll see...

Looks to be transforming into a 2 story building... A casual sports bar on Washington would be a welcomed addition in my book. Has a decent sized parking lot...more than most drinking establishments in the area have. I will be utterly disappointed if the parking lot is used for valet. Hope its not another "scene" bar...

If? You know it's going to be... *sigh*

Bringing it all full-circle: http://blogs.houstonpress.com/eating/2009/...ringing_som.php

New restaurant opening this month in the Museum District (on Caroline at Binz) called Bodega's Taco Shop. Should be interesting.

Can someone please explain to me why we keep comparing Mooyah to In-n-Out? This isn't California. This is Texas. We don't care about In-n-Out burgers. Period.

/rant

fair enough.

i didn't realize you had written that blog post when I made my post so sorry about the garbage comment.

I found the rest of the story to be quite enlightening

Doesn't bother me one bit! No apologies necessary. I'd rather hear what people really think any day of the week.