Results tagged “green”

::Emerging Green Builders May Event ::

Thanks to our 11 readers and their parole officers for joining us at The Ice House last Friday. We had a good time and hope you did, too.

Last week we told you about the fantastic ice skating venue being constructed in Discovery Green. Well, brothers and sisters, we got our skate on last night. Here's what you need to know before you skate your heart out and release your inner Chazz Michael Michaels.

Tomorrow is offcially Earth Day and there have been some celebrations or educational programs going on around us. However, we like to think that every day is Earth Day, ever since we saw that infamous anti-litter campaign featuring Iron Eyes Cody. We have some pretty simple tips for being a little bit greener we'll share with you. Yeah, we know, you're going to roll your eyes at some, but, we may impart a new idea upon you (and we would LOVE to hear your suggestions) and perhaps reduce our carbon footprint. We will caveat that statement with the acknowledgement that, while industry has the largest carbon emissions and can make a larger impact to reduce anthropogenic pollution (like carbon), those steps or modifications are not "free" and come back to us by way of various price increases. Every little bit helps, and the first and easiest step is recycling at home and hopefully at work (yep, roll your eyes here). We still talk to people who insist that trash is trash and recycling a waste of time. Galls us, it does. Houstonians, you can drastically reduce your contributions to the local landfill by participating in curb side recycling or making a regularly scheduled trip to a disposal facility or depository. Just recycling your plastics (1 & 2 only), tin cans, aluminum cans and junk mail/magazines/newspapers you can witness a huge reduction in the amount of garbage that hits your curb on trash day. Here is a link to the City of Houston's recycling information. You already do that? Us too!

Celebrate the opening of our new Downtown green space, Discovery Green , this weekend at the Discovery Green Family Day on Sunday, April 13th.

All the fuss about the Ashby high rise is over thanks to a new plan to enlarge the development. The new construction plan would make the tower the tallest building in the world and would include dedicated connections to Southwest Freeway and the light rail. Houston Strategies writer, Tory Gattis, had us going for a second yesterday with his story. Everything seemed plausible to our insufficiently caffeinated brain, including a city ordinance requiring all new towers to be at least a 1/2 mile high, until we read that Bear Stearns was providing the cash. Damn it! We being "gotten" on April Fool's Day. At least we can still send back dated email with Gmail Custom Time.

Good morning, Houston. If the dearth of new TV in the wake of the writer's strike has left you willing to watch .

>> Poll shows split over Clemens, McNamee: The court of public opinion currently stands divided in Harris County regarding the Roger Clemens steroid scandal according to a poll by The Chronicle. According to the results published yesterday by David Barron, 35.5 percent said believed McNamee; 32.8 percent sided with The Rocket; and, 31.7 percent did not respond. The margin of error is listed at 4.1 percent. These numbers may prove initially encouraging for Clemens with a Justice Department investigation looming in his future. However, the data seems to indicate that his support base is less educated than McNamee's. Does it really seem hard to believe that someone kept a beer can, dirty gauze and a used syringe for seven years?

Many of the NBA’s so called pundits have dismissed the Houston Rockets’ accomplishments in achieving a 10-game winning streak, by exclaiming that until the squad beat a team of true substance, they were simply taking advantage of an undemanding schedule. Talking heads around the nation have stated that Houston’s road match-up against the Western Conference leading New Orleans Hornets would be the true test to determine if the Rockets were legitimate playoff threats.

Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey may have been the busiest man not involved in a presidential election over the past two days. Less than 24 hours after trading Bonzi Wells and Mike James to the New Orleans Hornets, Morey was at it again. In what can only be dubbed as a swap of malcontents, the Rockets shipped Kirk Snyder and a 2nd round draft pick off to the Minnesota Timberwolves in exchange for hometown Houston high school legend Gerald Green just moments before the expiration of the NBA’s trade deadline.

The Chron picked this up a few days ago, but we feel it's worth a second mention. The Rice Design Alliance in conjunction with the Houston Chapter of the AIA announced two Houston architects, Murphy Mears Architects, (Kirby Mears, Walter Murphy, Kyle Humphries, Jamie Miller, and Gina Lyons) and Stephanie Eugster as finalists in the recent 99K House Competition. The finalists were selected out of 182 entrants proposing a sustainable, affordable house that addresses the needs of a low-income family in the Gulf Coast region.

Darrell Green, a product of Houston's Jones High School, was voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame this past weekend. Green, who was selected No. 1 overall in 1983 by the Washington Redskins, played 20-years with the same team, an NFL co-record with the Rams' Jackie Slater.

Good morning, Houston. We freely admit that we don't like bugs, so we've tried quite a few home extermination methods — but we've never blown the roof off our house while doing it like Patricia Espiricueta of Galveston did. It seems Espiricueta was fed up with her home's roach problem, so she set off five bug bombs and left the house. While she was gone, the fumes hit a pilot light and exploded, lifting the roof off the house and separating a rear addition from the main part of the home. "It sounded like an explosion, or like a car had crashed into the building," neighbor Corinna Carubba told KTRK. The damages totaled about $15,000; there's no word on whether Espiricueta solved her bug problem, but she said she would try a different approach next time. "I'm not going to use [bug bombs] no more," she said.

Unfortunately, our pick of the week has already aired. Kimya Dawson and Adam Green of the Moldy Peaches performed our favorite song from the Juno soundtrack, "Anyone Else But You," on The View this morning. We're hoping it'll pop up on The View's website or on Youtube soon.

We’ve been walking around Rice Univeristy recently and couldn’t help but notice literally tons of construction. It turns out that Rice is currently undergoing an explosive period of development, adding roughly one million square feet of built space to its already 3.7 million square foot campus by 2009. This is pretty impressive as is, but we were more than a little surprised (knowing that universities are businesses like any other) that Rice was recently (Nov. 2007) written up in Texas Construction, a McGraw Hill Construction publication for its commitment to sustainable design. Two Rice Faculty, Barbara White Bryson, Associate Vice President of Facilities Engineering and Planning and Richard Johnson, Director of Sustainability penned in to the magazine and reported that being Green doesn’t always cost more green. They credit a unique combination of design, technology, and funding along with a strong sense of committed interest from the student body and faculty with the success of each project.

Today, Friday the 18th, our very own Mayor Bill White invites us all to check out the newest addition to Houston’s growing fleet of Green Buildings. Firstly, the fact that anything environmentally conscious is happening in Houston nearly knocks us off our rockers, but now the Mayor’s behind it?! And extending invitations ta-boot! This all just might be a little too much to believe so go see for yourself. Make the Mayor proud.

::Diverseworks Exhibit Opening Night:

He can make you burn, make you rock, or teach you about triangles. Houstonist recently caught up with Trevi "Big Daddy" Biles, local hot sauce maker/ Whorehound band member/ geometry teacher. Here's what Big Daddy Trevi had to say about Big Daddy's Ass Burn "Hell Goin' In Hell Goin' Out" Hot Sauce:

As the Texans 2007 campaign draws to a close on Sunday against the Jaguars, putting a bow on top of the most improved season in franchise history, we can look back at the highlights and lowlights.

Houstonist has an active and amazing Flickr photo group. We receive many, many photos of Houston and the surrounding areas every day and unless you are an active visitor to our photo pool many of these photos go unnoticed. So in a weekly effort to bring you more amazing photos from Houstonist readers and photographers, we are going to feature a block of photos submitted to our Flickr photo group. The images will be dug up from deep within our photo pool archives and we hope to expose you to even more wonderful Houston photography.

Houstonist normally throws all of our trash out of the car window during our daily commute into town. It is so much easier than having to put the trash can on the street.

Good morning, Houston. One thing about the holiday season: You hear Christmas music (and if you haven't been hearing it, just tune in to Sunny 99.1 — you'll catch up quickly). With that in mind, we were interested to check out ASCAP's list of the most-played holiday songs this year. It was released on Dec. 4, but by that time, the group reported that 1,562 different holiday songs had already been played 2.37 million times since Oct. 1. The No. 1 song was "Sleigh Ride," which Leroy Anderson wrote during a 1946 heat wave; at No. 2 was the 1934 classic "Winter Wonderland"; and at No. 3 was "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," which was originally quite a morose little ditty.

Several more venues are celebrating the holidays this week with showcases. The Meridian is hosting the annual Holiday Babes Christmas Party tomorrow night with our favorite local musical babe, Katie Stuckey. Verizon Wireless will be a haven for country singer/songwriter lovers tomorrow night (includes Roger Creager and Bruce Robinson). Warehouse Live celebrates twice with the Jingle Balls Friday night, showcasing local favorites Paris Green and Glass Intrepid, and their annual Eve of Christmas Eve party Sunday night with The Machos.

This looks to be the last big release week of the year, and 2007 is going out with a bang. We'll see you in '08!

New Living, the “Healthy Home Essentials” store will open in the Rice Village sometime early this week, and offer customers the opportunity to replace many of their not-so-sustainable cleaning supplies, paints, and paper with earth-friendly products. The message is clear; it’s about showing people that you don’t have to go to great lengths to make significant positive ecological change.

Football on a Thursday? Does this mean we have to skip 30 Rock? Damn, this is a hard decision. Gary Kubiak vs. Jack Donaghy. Sage Rosenfels vs. Judah Freidlander. Texans Cheerleaders vs. our completely defensible crush on Tina Fey. Tracy Jordan vs. Travis Henry's illegitmate children. Mike Shannahan's hair vs. the Sheinhart Wig Company. Who are we kidding? You can watch 30 Rock any time on NBC's website. It's like Tivo for poor people! The...

"We gon' rock it till the wheels fall off," the poet Nate Dogg once said. If he was referring to the Houston Texans' 2007 season (and we have no reason to believe that he wasn't), then the rocking will soon cease, as the wheels are at very least wobbling their way out of place as a prelude to actually falling off. The annual optimism has given way to the annual draft speculation, as the never-ending...

Looking for a little green space to stretch out those overworked holiday shopping legs? Check out Mosaic on Hermann Park's one acre, 7th floor amenity deck, as they host Hermann Park Conservatory's Urban Green for a Holiday Al Fresco event. Tonight's party will feature cocktails and canapes poolside, and all proceeds will benefit the Hermann Park Conservatory. Tickets at $30 and can be purchased at the door. We were bummed to learn this week that...

Steveland Hardaway Judkins is in town tonight. Why aren't you excited? Wait, you might know him by his stage name: Stevie Wonder. That's right, the R&B/pop master graces the stage of the Toyota Center as part of the final leg of his current tour. In fact, we expect to hear a minimum of two Stevie Wonder tracks at every wedding party we attend, and not just because we actually request that the DJ squeeze it...

Texas A & M has scheduled an 11 a.m. press conference today to announce that Houston Texans offensive coordinator Mike Sherman will be the next head coach. Sherman is returning to A & M where he was the offensive line coach from 1989-1993 and 1995-96. Sherman replaces Dennis Franchione who resigned after a 38-30 A & M upset win over rival Texas Longhorns. This is Mike Sherman's first college head coaching job, but he...