The Big Sleep has a great band name and a great new album to boot. Instrumental prog-rockers The Big Sleep release their new record, Sleep Forever, today. If you're looking for a calming musical sedative to fall asleep to, you won't find that here. The choice jam sessions on this album mostly make us want to turn up the volume. Really loud. -Download the album's first single, "Pinkies," at French Kiss Records -The Village Voice......

En route to a fourth-straight victory, the Houston Rockets defeated the scorching hot Portland Trailblzers to the tune of 89-79 at the Rose Garden on Friday night. The Blazers entered the contest having won 12 consecutive home games, thanks to the heady play of such stars as guard Brandon Roy and former Texas Longhorn LaMarcus Aldridge. However, the game remained very much undecided until Houston coach Rick Adelman elected to infuse the starting lineup......

::Martin Luther King Jr. Grande Parade:: And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free......

We recently told you about Dr. Sketchy and that they were having their first event this past Sunday at Avant Garden. Well, in true Houstonist fashion, we showed up to see what all the hype was about and had a blast while we were there. Billed as an anti-art school, Dr. Sketchy Houston provides models, a DJ, a cash bar, room to draw, prizes and all the fun, you provide the cover to get in,......

Niko of Niko's, How you stifle my eating adventurousness. For I often think to explore new restaurants... but your call's too strong. Soothing Tzatziki; Warm, celestial pita bread: Temptresses! Sirens! Axl Rose must have written "Paradise City" about your fair grounds. (Cur'ously, Axl omits your name and sings not "I Lika da Sauce") My buds are restless Until they rest themselves in your gyro solace. -- photo: flickr user deji_01......

A rumble in the medical center If you live in the Southgate area, you were either violently awoken by the sound of exploding dynamite around 7:10 this morning, or you were standing on Travis St. witnessing the destruction of the Crowne Plaza Hotel by Cherry Demoliton (just like its near neighbor in June 2006). The building was recently appraised at a high value and was only about 34 years old, which is one of the......

ArtsHouston Happy Hour at Salud Winery We've been waiting to check out this new winery, and we've also been looking for an opportunity rub some elbows with the Frank Rose and the ArtsHouston peeps. And what better place than here, what better time than now? Please excuse the RATM reference. We are super fans. This evening, join the ArtsHouston staff at Montrose's newest wine bar, Salud Winery (3939 Montrose) from 6 to 9pm. All drinks......

While browsing through some of the many Houston art sites, we stumbled across a nicely laid out map of all of Houston's galleries, museums, and art spaces on the Arts Houston website. And we likey. And yes, we know that "likey" is not a word. So save it for yo momma. ArtsHouston Magazine, which has recently seen a facelift courtesy of Frank Rose, "aims to fill a need for a media voice dedicated to performing......

80's hair band Poison is coming to Houston tomorrow night. Believe it or not, they'll be playing at the Sam Houston Race Park tomorrow night after the horse races are over. (We want to call that a career low, but since the track hosted the great Merle Haggard recently, we can't justify that claim.) Poison had a good run of hits from '87 to '92 ("Talk Dirty to Me," "Every Rose Has It's Thorn,"......

VIEWER'S CHOICE EDITION So tell us what you want, what you really, really want. Since the announcement that England's favorite fabulous five will be reuniting, we've been unable to concentrate on our weekend plans. With so much drama in the HOU, it's kinda hard figuring out what we should do. So we need your help. (in so many ways). Leave your comment as to what YOU think WE should do tonight. Here are our top......

Holy smokes! Giant fish on the MTA, Paris Hilton in jail, then out, then in again, Al Gore, goatses, blumpkins, Matt Damon, and baby art critics! It's been a busy week across the Ist-A-Verse, and here's a smattering of what's been going on. In Gothamist's neck of the woods, they found out that many things are possible: A man caught a 40+ pound fish off the Rockaways and took it home on the subway. Graffiti......

Finally! After sixteen straight weeks of increases, gasoline prices have finally dropped across Texas. That's not to stay it still won't cost you $60 or $70 to fill up your gas-guzzling SUV though, because they've only dropped to an average of $3.05 in 11 Texas cities. On the bright side, that's three cents down from last week and still 14 cents below the national average. Gas prices are still about a dollar higher than they......

With all that went down this week, we thought we thought we'd cheer everyone up by giving everyone a double dose of dogs. It was a rollercoaster ride of emotions this week at DCist. Like the rest of country, we were floored by the news of so many dead coming out of Virginia Tech, and with so many of the victims and their relatives from the D.C. area, we felt it important to pay......

Houstonist remembers the point when gas went over $2 a gallon and oilman T. Boone Pickens said that was no big deal — what we should really worry about is when a gallon gets up to $3. And guess what? We're getting there. This week's AAA Texas gas-price survey reports that the average price of a gallon of regular unleaded in Texas is now $2.79 — an increase of 6.8 cents over last week. So......

Slugs and Bruises!! Flat Track Action begins this Sunday with "Spring Fling" the first official bout! Houstonist is jazzed about the second season of roller derby! The exhibition bouts in the Verizon proved to us that the visibility is indeed very, very good. The action was even better, with the rookies looking very un-rookie-like and some having major talent (Rookie Savage Rose is a fantastic jammer - bodies just fly out of her path) and......

So gas is really expensive, in case you hadn't noticed. But there is a bright spot, even if it is a little one: The price of a gallon did increase this week, but the increase wasn't as steep as last week's. Hey, when we're paying $2.40 a gallon, we take the good news where we can get it. According to AAA Texas, the average price of a gallon of regular unleaded in Texas this week......

Houstonist isn't going to lie and tell you that this is our first time watching America's Next Top Model. We did use "research" as our excuse last night when we watched it, though. It looks like it is going to be another fun season of ego vs crazy vs trashy vs know-it-all, etc. We hope "Little Tyra" (aka Felicia) from Houston stays on as long as possible, because we feel much less guilty watching......

Remember when gas was cheap? No, we're not talking about 10 years ago — we're referring to earlier this year, when the price of a gallon dipped well below $2 at some stations around town. Well, keep that in mind: It'll help you deal with shelling out $2 and change at the pump these days. According to AAA Texas, gas prices statewide rose for the second straight week this week, settling at an average......

Astronaut Lisa Marie Nowak, who's a household name today after news broke about her plan to confront — or, police say, to kill — another woman, is back in Houston this morning as details emerge about what might have driven her to make a cross-country trip armed with a knife, rubber tubing and a BB gun. According to the AP, Nowak's marriage ended weeks ago when she and her husband of 19 years separated. Before......

On what would have been Martin Luther King Jr.'s 78th birthday, some Houstonians are saying the city hasn't done enough to commemorate the life of the civil rights leader through the years. Sure, there's the street in southeast Houston that bears his name and there's the bust of MLK at Bricker Park, but maybe that's not enough for a city like Houston. By this time next year, the Chronicle reports, at least two groups hope......

There's some good news with regard to the price of gas this week: It has leveled off and looks like it'll stay relatively constant for a while, according to AAA Texas. Of course, it has leveled off at more than $2, which means you might have to take out a loan to fill up your car, but still — we take good news where we can get it. This week's AAA Texas gas survey showed......

It's news you might have missed, but late last month the FDA lifted a 14-year-old moratorium on silicone breast implants. Big deal? Yeah, potentially — many women prefer the softer, lighter-weight silicone implants to the saline implants that have been used for the past few years, and the move back to silicone could mean a boom for plastic surgeons in Houston, where fake boobs are unusually popular (our fair city even earned the nickname "Silicone......

Houstonist feared that the last of the local Elvis shrines vanished years ago with the renaming of Velvet Elvis and the closure of Aquarium Lounge. Rejoice, friends and neighbors! The King lives on at Rose Garden! Rose Garden harkens back to yesteryear with its old style approach to the neighborhood beer joint. Nestled just inside the loop near the edge of Sunset Heights, the bar was purpose-built in the 1930's and joined a burgeoning population......

We've been noticing gas prices falling in our neighborhood, and apparently that's part of the trend across the area: The AAA Texas weekly gas price survey shows the average price for a gallon of unleaded gas in Houston this week was $2.06, down 3.2 cents from last week and the lowest average price of any listed in Texas. We wouldn't call it cheap yet, but it's way better than paying nearly $3 a gallon, right?......

Normally, when it comes to national reality tv shows, we’re all about rooting for any Houstonian. It’s a chance for people to see that not all Texans speak with slow drawls or chew straw between meals. We like that, right? Last night, we caught the 2-hour premiere of the ABC show “The Bachelor”. (Which we also love.) So imagine our surprise when we see that the Houstonian chosen to represent our city was a......

A 57-year-old southeast Houston grandmother has filed a complaint against HPD, accusing officers of knocking her to the ground and injuring her while they were responding to a domestic violence call at her home Sunday. Here's how the woman, Rose Smith — who KHOU calls Rose LeDay — describes what happened: Early Sunday, she returned to her house in the 7300 block of Saint Lo after attending a birthday party and found police there investigating......

Everybody get ready to brag to your out-of-town friends again: For the second week, Houston has the most expensive gasoline in the state. The weekly AAA Texas gas-price survey found the average cost of a gallon of unleaded in Houston went up 4 cents this week, to $2.93 a gallon. That's 8 cents more than the statewide average of $2.85, up about 5 cents over last week and 62 cents over last year's average. The......

We're always in the mood for a little Astros nostalgia, and here's some courtesy of a vintage TV commercial from Channel 20 — remember when it was called Channel 20? We date this ad to 1985, when Reds player-manager Pete Rose was "inches away" from breaking Ty Cobb's hitting record (which he did on Sept. 11, 1985). Just thinking about those days — the bad hair, the rainbow uniforms, the Home Run Spectacular —......

Gas prices jumped in Texas this week on concerns over possible summer gas shortages, landing at an average $2.59 per gallon statewide, the weekly AAA Texas gas price survey says. That's 11 cents higher than last week and 45 cents higher than this time last year, and it's just a penny under the national average of $2.60 a gallon. Houston is ahead of the state and national averages, with a local average gas price of......

A car crash in northwest Harris County this morning sent a van flying through the front of a KFC restaurant. The excitement began just after 7 a.m. at Bammel North Houston Road and Highway 249 when a car collided with a van: The force of the collision sent the van flying through the air and into a KFC fast food restaurant. Rose Dennis witnessed the whole thing. "I was just telling my boss I don't......