Results tagged “library”
Houstonist missed the grand reopening of the Houston Public Library Central Branch in early June, but we're OK with that. Who wants to explore a library mobbed with people anyway? Instead, we decided to check out the renovation on a lazy Saturday in mid-July after all the brouhaha settled.
We're always looking for more ways to learn about our great city, so why not start at home? Not only is it interesting to know about the plat upon which you live, but it can also help to paint part of the picture of Houston's interesting, albeit short history, and there are quite a few on and offline resources to help with research. An easy way to start is to find the specific name of...
Wassail, both a noun and a verb, manages to come up in at least one conversation (or carol) each December holiday season. And yet, what the heck is it? The drink is from medieval northern Europe and used to resemble something like mulled beer. It's now more like mulled cider, wine or dry sherry. The word means "Be thou hale!" and was used as a non-Christian greeting or goodbye. Houstonist wonders if Shalom or Aloha...
Good morning, Houston. We remember our days as student drivers — not bad overall, though we did have a pregnant in-car instructor who had a nasty habit of slamming on the brakes every time we passed a doughnut shop. Still, we didn't have it anywhere near as bad as the kid who passed his driver's test Monday, then crashed his car into the side of a Houston DPS office. The driver was parking his...
Good morning, Houston. Suppose you're trying to keep up with piles and piles of government reports. How can you tell when there are too many? Simple: You ask for a report, of course. That's what the Texas State Library and Archives Commission did — and in a 668-page report, the commission has declared that the state is over-reported. The commission looked at more than 170 state agencies and universities and found more than 1,600...
We have to begin this week's Shelterporn with a disclaimer: Manhattan, Randall Davis' odd residential concoction across the street from the Water Wall, doesn't really suit our taste. But we'll freely admit that, if someone came to us and offered the keys to this penthouse in the building, we'd find it hard to turn down. Just saying. Access to the eighth-floor unit is through a 38-foot gallery that's perfect for hanging your art collection...
Ever wanted to live in the house of a Nobel Prize winner? Well, now you can: This 1982 home near Rice University was once owned by Richard Smalley, one of the discoverers of the buckyball molecule (hence the Nobel Prize in chemistry) and a researcher of nanotechnology. Smalley died in 2005, and the home is up for sale by his wife and son. Typically, we don’t care much for the 1980s period homes, but...
Good morning, Houston. Today's the last day of August, and you know what that means: Yes! Tomorrow, it'll be September! And why is that exciting, you ask? Well, as it happens, there are a few (relatively) interesting thing about the ninth month: For example, when the British Empire adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1752, Sept. 2 was immediately followed by Sept. 14 — which, legend has it, led to riots by people who thought...
Admit it: At one point or another, you've sat back and thought to yourself, "You know, I really wish I lived in an embassy." And sure, it would be fun, but who wants to deal with all those pesky diplomatic staffers? Well, we have good news: There's a pretty embassaic home available in River Oaks, and the only people who'll live there with you are the ones you invite. (Did we mention that we're looking...
Art Institute of Houston Poetry Forum Kickoff Borders Books and The Art Institute of Houston offer a monthly Poetry Reading Series at Borders River Oaks, hosted by Ken Jones, instructor at The Art Institute of Houston. The readings are the second Tuesday of each month at 7:30 p.m. at Borders River Oaks at 3025 Kirby Drive at the corner of West Alabama. These monthly poetry events are free, open to the public, and part of...
Cell phones can be annoying, sure: when someone takes a call in a movie, for example, or during a funeral. And that's just the voice part — something that tends to get overlooked is how some asshats can now take pictures of anything they want to using their camera phones. It's happening at the University of Houston, where some women are claiming they were photographed in campus restrooms. The first incident happened just after 3...
Good morning, Houston. Are you feeling particularly crunk today? Maybe you should be: Crunk is among the words added to Merriam-Webster's collegiate dictionary this year. Also among the 100 new words are DVR, IED, gray literature and smackdown. But we think we'll get the most use out of crunk, which M-W defines as a style of Southern rap music but which has a variety of definitions in the Urban Dictionary. Which brings us to...
Out of the Ashes: Recovering the Only Library of the Classical World A Lecture Presented by Roger Macfarlane, Ph.D., Brigham Young University Visit the Museum of Natural Science tonight @ 6:30 p.m. as they welcome Roger Macfarlane, Ph.D. from Brigham Young University to lecture on the surviving library of Pompeii. When the eruption of Mount Vesuvius buried the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum in 79 A.D., it not only froze an ancient civilization, it also...
If you're going to live in the Museum District, why not live in a museum-quality home? A good choice: this brand-new contemporary home off Bissonnet, just blocks from Main Street. The house is designed around a private central courtyard with a variety of porches, covered decks and large windows to combine indoor and outdoor living. The ground floor has two entrances — one from the street and one from the driveway — with a...
Good morning, Houston. When we hear the words "concrete canoe," two other words come to mind: "doesn't float." But our instincts are wrong: Concrete canoes can be seaworthy, and one created by University of Houston engineering students floats so well that it's headed for the national concrete canoe competition in Seattle. The national contest is set for mid-June, and it could lead the team to a spot in the international competition in Holland in...
The Big Read is a program started by the National Endowment for the Arts in order to "create a nation of readers." The program aims to combat the decline of reading for recreation and reading as a community. Be honest, when was the last time you visited your local library? Uh-huh, that's what we thought. The idea behind this program is to pick one book and encourage everyone in a community to read it, then...
Opening Reception: Surviving Katrina and Rita in Houston - Who We Are Art League Houston is pleased to announce the opening of its first micro exhibit, Surviving Katrina and Rita in Houston: Who We Are, an installation of photographs and stories featuring Houston-based evacuees and survivors of the hurricanes, with photographs by Alice McNamara, April 30 – June 15, 2007. Surviving Katrina and Rita in Houston: Who We Are is part of a much larger...
There's so much going on across the Ist-a-Verse that it's almost impossible to keep track these days. Fortunately, we do it so you don't have to! Londonist took a walk through Oliver Twist's London, thanks to a gorgeous map layer for Google Earth. They also caught up with modern-day fictional London, with the Fantastic Four and 28 Weeks Later. It was a week of insanity over at DCist. They started the week off with...
The fire that destroyed part of Needville High School yesterday morning was deliberately set, investigators say — though it's still too early to say by whom. According to Fort Bend County fire officials, whoever started the blaze threw a concrete block through a side door at the school, then went inside and set fires in two different parts of the building: the principal's office and a science classroom. "Multiple points of origin led us to...
Do you have any information or ability to dispute a rumor that a mosque is being built at the corner of Allen Parkway and Montrose? — Johnna The site — on the east side of Montrose between Allen Parkway and West Dallas — won't be home to a mosque, per se, but rather an Ismaili center built by the Aga Khan Foundation. According to the Chronicle, the center will include lecture and conference facilities and...
The Friends of the Houston Public Library invite you to peruse the more than 80,000 books of all genres that will be on sale at bargain prices this weekend at the George R. Brown Convention Center. The sale, held annually, benefits the Houston Public Library - and you, of course. Who doesn't love cheap books? Friday is preview day for members of the Friends, but you can join at the door for $20. On Sunday,...
We here in the Ist-A-Verse know that we're sensational, but it's very rare that we get a chance to be sensationalistic. This week, we've decided to have ourselves a little fun and try our hand at tacky tabloid headlines, using nothing more than our favorite posts from this week. Torontoist Special Report: Rosie to Trump: "Fire 300 Bicyclists for Fraud!" On DCist: Students Go Wild for Slogans, Secrets and Sexual Harassment The action was thick...
In what the mayor's spokesman has called "an award that recognizes what tens of thousands of Houstonians participated in," Mayor White has been honored with the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award for his work to help the tens of thousands Katrina and Rita evacuees that fled to Houston. The award is named after JFK's Pulitzer Prize-winning book and annually recognizes Americans who have demonstrated commitment and contribution to public service. It is the...
We were still feeling kind of bad about last week's shelterporn feature, the regrettable, vaguely Mediterranean townhome in the West End — so we decided to make up for it this week by finding some decent Mediterranean architecture. What we came up with is this Memorial Drive home, where we think Norma Desmond would feel right at home.
There won't be any changes anytime soon, apparently, but a big real-estate deal just went down on Montrose Boulevard: Last week, the University of St. Thomas announced it has purchased one and a half blocks along the boulevard. The land includes the shopping center with the Black Lab, Cezanne and Kraftsmen Baking — one of Houstonist's favorite shopping strips in the world — and the office buildings at 4200 Montrose and 4203 Yoakum. It's not clear how much UST paid for the land, but the Chronicle reports that the school is seeking $20 million from private donors for the purchase and future renovations to the buildings.
Remember last weekend's story about Norman Fulton, the man who fell 12 stories down an elevator shaft while trying to escape from a stuck elevator at his Galleria-area condo in December? The death might have been prevented if elevators in the building where Fulton lived had been equipped with door restrictors, which prevent trapped passengers from being able to pry open the doors of a stuck elevator car before trained rescue personnel arrive to help them. And according to KTRK, many Houston buildings don't have door restrictors on their elevators.
This week Houstonist is trying something new to keep you updated on the city's growing internet scene. Every weekend, we'll feature some of our favorite posts from local blogs the past week. So, without further ado, here's what Houstonians have been up to:
Houston Public Library's Julia Ideson building, which houses the Texas Room and Archives/Houston Metropolitan Research Center, is long overdue for an expansion. Not only did Cram & Ferguson, Watkin, and Glover's original 1920s plans of the library include an additional wing that was to the south of the building facing Lamar St., but local archives have been amassing in the building since the late seventies. The Julia Ideson Preservation Partners was created at the request...
On Sundays, Houstonist runs opinion pieces relevant to life in Houston. The opinions expressed below are entirely those of the author. Need to know just a little bit about something? Ask a dilettante. A lot of people have announced that they’re running for President. Do you have a favorite yet? I'm voting for Zappa. Again. I do have a favorite. After much deliberation, prayer and consultation with an assortment of lawyers, dog walkers and former...