Feature|
January 20, 2013
After Hurricane Katrina, Rhonda Tavey selflessly opened her Houston home to a New Orleans evacuee and five of her children. She fed the kids, bathed them, and grew to love them so much that when their mother tried to take them back to Louisiana, she wouldn’t let them go.
Behind the Lines|
January 20, 2013
Here comes the story of the hurricane.
The Menil removed "The Art Guys Marry a Plant," a controversial performance piece, from its collection, a move that is stirring up Houston's art scene once again.
In one year the eyes of the world will turn to Dallas's Dealey Plaza for the fiftieth anniversary of John F. Kennedy's assassination. Is the city ready?
Web Exclusive|
September 30, 2012
How the 50th anniversary party for the Texas Heart Institute was really a glimpse into the Houston that once was.
Sending a Texan off into the world—and hoping he’ll return.
In 2011 the Legislature slashed family planning funds, passed a new sonogram law, and waged an all-out war on Planned Parenthood that has dramatically shifted the state’s public health priorities. In the eighteen months since then, the conflict has continued to simmer in the courts, on the campaign trail, and
John Friend, the founder of Anusara yoga, recently found himself engulfed in a scandal that has piqued the national media's interest. Mimi Swartz reports on the Texas takeaway and what this means for the homegrown practice.
The Supreme Court rejected the ex-Enron CEO's latest appeal, a move that is hardly surprising to most Houstonians.
For a quarter of a century, the Art Guys, Michael Galbreth and Jack Massing, have been Houston’s master provocateurs, stirring up discussion with their wacky, thoughtful, and tenaciously marketed “social sculptures.” But have they finally gone too far?
Houston has always prided itself as a city that barrels forward into the future, and operates without memory, regret or nostalgia. But when developers began messing with the historic River Oaks Shopping Center, Houstonians raised their hackles.
Ten years ago this month, the company that once dominated Houston collapsed in a cloud of debt. But its ghost still haunts the city—and America.
Rick Perry’s stumbles on the national stage have inadvertently highlighted the weakness of his opposition back home—Texas Democrats.
Mimi Swartz|
April 30, 2011
Amid all the drink tickets, bikini-clad hostesses, and outrageous displays of wealth at the world’s largest expo for independent oilmen, I was determined to get some answers about the future of the business.
Trey Speegle on paint-by-numbers art.
After a year on the job, the superintendent of the largest school district in Texas is loathed and loved in equal measure. Does that mean he’s doing his job?
Before he was fighting for the governorship of the second-largest state in the country, Bill White was just a kid from Texas.
Behind the Lines|
April 30, 2010
The debut of Enron, the play, on Broadway might be the perfect time to settle a question that’s been bothering Houston: Does Jeff Skilling need a new trial?
Every year thousands of women are smuggled into the United States and forced to work as prostitutes. Many of them end up in Houston, in massage parlors and spas. Most of them will have a hard time ever getting out.
Annise Parker, the newly elected mayor of Houston, is ready to discuss any of the challenges facing her city. That will happen as soon as everyone else is ready to stop talking about her sexuality.
Mimi Swartz|
January 1, 2010
On the day my mother died, I found myself in the place that, more than any other, had defined our relationship: her closet.
Web Exclusive|
September 30, 2009
The Houston Chronicle’s loss is CultureMap’s gain—Shelby Hodge.
The Horse's Mouth|
August 31, 2009
NAME: John Friend | AGE: 50 | HOME: The Woodlands | QUALIFICATIONS: Founder of Anusara, an increasingly popular style of hatha yoga / Has taught yoga for almost thirty years / Author of numerous yoga books, CDs, and DVDs, including Anusara Yoga 101 and Growing a Lotus• I was precocious
The Houston mayor’s race gets interesting (finally).
Behind the Lines|
June 30, 2009
It’s time for Texas to start taking better care of people like Darla Deese, a developmentally disabled woman who has spent most of her life in our harrowing state schools.
Web Exclusive|
May 31, 2009
What to do in humid Houston during the summer? If you’re Lynn Wyatt, you don’t sweat it and ask a couple dozen of your closest acquaintances to a book signing party for your dear, dear friend Candy Spelling, mother of Tori and author of Stories From Candyland.
Location: HoustonWhat You’ll Need: Open mind, credit cardI know that the idea of a weekend getaway in Houston—in summer, no less—might strike some people as cuckoo. (Oh, yeah? And how about Pittsburgh in February?) To those folks I can only say I’m sorry—for their ignorance. I have
Cerón on styling socialites’ hair.
If you need an example of how the world can change in an instant, here is a small blow by blow.
Maybe the collapse of the Stanford Group isn’t Enron, but Houston wasn’t about to be left out of the financial scandals.
Behind the Lines|
March 1, 2009
Why Texans stand out in crowds.
Street Smarts|
January 1, 2009
The once forgotten corridor emerges as an eclectic enclave.
Mimi Swartz|
June 30, 2008
Only yesterday, it seems, my mother was taking me to visit colleges. A second later, here I am, enduring this rite of passage from the other side.
Most American consumers understand that the invasion of Iraq has contributed to the skyrocketing price of oil. But there’s another reason why we’re paying so much per barrel and gallon: The countries where crude is available in abundance are increasingly dangerous places to operate. Russell Spell, of Conroe, can tell
Summer vacation is right around the corner, but that doesn’t mean you should panic. We’ve rounded up 68 of our favorite things to do with your toddlers, teens, and every kid in between. Dance the hokey pokey. Rope a horse. Eat way too many hot dogs. Zip down a waterslide.
1. Yes, Lee’s Sandwiches hails from California, but that just means it’s a spot where you can experience Melting Pot America in its myriad glory. Your order is called in Vietnamese and English; it’s a little like being in a train station in seventies Saigon. The baguettes and croissants
Letter From Houston|
December 1, 2007
How Houston’s rich got to be the same as you and me—that is, boring.
Feature|
October 31, 2007
In the right light, the ornery octogenarian oilman’s guilty plea can be seen as a victory: After all, he won’t spend the rest of his natural life in jail. But the fact is, he couldn’t beat the rap—and he knew it.
True-life tales from the files of one of Houston’s top divorce lawyers.
Street Smarts|
July 31, 2007
Westheimer Road, Houston
Anna Nicole Smith died as she lived: as a bit of tabloid ephemera, sandwiched between a love-crazed astronaut and Britney Spears’s new do. And that’s exactly where she belonged.
The Horse's Mouth|
February 1, 2007
Party tricks from Jackson Hicks.
Dan Patrick is causing nervous breakdowns of various size and duration—and he’s not even in the Texas Senate yet.
Street Smarts|
December 1, 2006
West Nineteenth, Houston.
Behind the Lines|
September 30, 2006
Houston’s Katrina hangover.
Hot enough for you?
But not just any. The Prime and Tanger outlets, in San Marcos, with Neiman’s Last Call and Saks Off Fifth and Polo Ralph Lauren and Zegna among their more than 225 stores, are the fourth most popular tourist attraction in Texas. Maximizing a trip to such a massive shopping mecca
Kenny, we hardly knew ye. Okay, maybe we knew you too well. The jury, at least, seems to have pegged you just right. You too, Skilling.
Whatever else you can say about it, the life and death of Bellaire High School junior Jonathan Finkelman is a tragic tale of drugs, money, race, and MySpace.
Scenes from the Enron reality show.