Creative Houston

Green Powered

Houston Business Journal: City of Houston a leader in purchasing green power. 2008-Jan-28, by Ford Gunter: The City of Houston came in at No. 2 on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's list of top green power-purchasing local government entities.

Rice Students enter Solar Decathlon

Houston Business Journal: Rice tapped to build solar-powered row house for DOE competition. 2008-Jan-29, by Ford Gunter: The U.S. Department of Energy accepted the Rice team's application to design, build and operate a solar-powered home using $100,000 in DOE money. About 20 students from Rice's engineering and architecture departments make up the team. Instead of building a standard house, though, the Rice team will design and build a house for Project Row Houses, a Houston neighborhood art and cultural organization in the Third Ward.

Venture Capital for 6 Houston Firms

Houston Business Journal: Venture capital fuels six local companies in fourth quarter. 2008-Jan-25, by Greg Barr: Kerogen Resources, Pivot3, US Fiduciary, Spendview, Mad Croc Brands, and Trulite.

Foley's Archives Preserved at UH

Foley's department store was established in Houston in 1911 and acquired by Macy's in 2005. Before too long, local historians will be able to access all the photography, artwork and information Foley's staff collected at the University of Houston. HBJ subscribers can read more at Houston Business Journal: UH bags Foley's archives for historian's paradise. 2008-Jan-25, by Monica Perin

Good Brick Awards

Houston Chronicle: Renovations balance historic preservation with the future. 2008-Jan-25, by Maggie Galehouse: "We never know what's going to get nominated," says Ramona Davis, executive director of the Greater Houston Preservation Alliance, which hands out the honors. "When the awards started, it was a very small thing. Now we get so many nominations that the jury has a tough time choosing."

Major Design Exhibit at CAM

Contemporary Arts Museum Houston: Design Life Now: National Design Triennial, Jan 26 - Apr 20, 2008: Inaugurated in 2000, the Triennial seeks out and presents the most innovative American designs from the prior three years in a variety of fields, including product design, architecture, furniture, film, graphics, new technologies, animation, science, medicine and fashion.

Houston Sounds are Diverse

Houston Press: What Happened to Honky Tonk in Houston. 2008-Jan-24, by John Nova Lomax: One of the great unwritten stories of the 1990s was the disappearance from inner Houston of virtually the entire Anglo working class. H-Town's Collective Bubba migrated en masse to Channelview, San Leon, Santa Fe, Tomball, Humble, Waller, Katy and Conroe. With the Collective Bubba went Houston's honky-tonk soul.... For English speakers (and some ­Spanish speakers, too), rap filled Houston's signature sound void through the '90s and much of this decade, but that seems to be imploding amid the national hip-hop meltdown of 2007...With hip-hop in the doldrums and our rustic past a fading memory, what is the sound of Houston now?

Houston Hip-Hop Collaborative

Houston Press: Hueston Independent Spit District. 2008-Jan-24, by Shea Serrano: Wouldn't it be great if, say, eight guys got together and made a conscious effort to produce an [album] that steered away from the tales of shiny teeth and silly little dances that have mummified an art form? And wouldn't it be even cooler if said group came equipped with wicked hip-hop names like Scottie Spitten and Ldavoice? Meet Hueston Independent Spit District, a veritable eight-man smorgasbord of soul, style and relevance. H.I.S.D. on MySpace

Recruiting Houston Dancers

Houston Chronicle: New York ballet school here to observe and pick. 2008-Jan-26, by Alexis Grant: For young ballet dancers, this is audition season. Serious dancers try out for several summer programs. An acceptance can lead to more than an invitation to train with a particular school for the summer. Some schools like the School of American Ballet use summer sessions to choose students for the academic year, too.

Housing Costs and Rules

Houston Chronicle: Would more housing rules raise Houston costs?. 2008-Jan-26, by Mike Snyder: Robinson, a caterer and event planner, has great affection for both cities. But while he acknowledges that his Portland house would have cost far less in Houston, he considers the money well spent. "The urban growth boundary keeps the city compact," Robinson said. "The neighborhoods have remained vibrant — I can walk to a movie theater, I can walk to the grocery store. Downtown doesn't clear out after dark and become a ghost town."

Student Inventors

Houston Chronicle: Students tackle task of Mars exploration. 2008-Jan-26, by Carol Christian: More than 150 students from 10 schools displayed their rover creations Saturday at the University of Houston's sixth annual Mars Rover Model Celebration and Exhibition. From Styrofoam cups to vegetable steamers, the elementary and middle school students used household items to craft devices wondrously varied in form.

Art Guys' Final Sale

Houston Chronicle: The Art Guys attempt to sell themselves. 2008-Jan-25, by Lisa Gray: Now a lucky collector can purchase the Art Guys," proclaims the creepy/funny brochure for Forever Yours, Jack Massing and Michael Galbreth's latest project. "Not just their work, but the actual artists!" Jack and Mike, art partners for 25 years, are auctioning off their cremated remains.

Protection from Radiation

Science Centric: Feds fund study of drug that may prevent radiation injury. 2008-Jan-28: The Department of Defence has commissioned a nine-month study from Rice University chemists and scientists in the Texas Medical Centre to determine whether a new drug based on carbon nanotubes can help prevent people from dying of acute radiation injury following radiation exposure. The new study was commissioned after preliminary tests found the drug was greater than 5,000 times more effective at reducing the effects of acute radiation injury than the most effective drugs currently available.

21 Years of Beans Barton

Greg Densmore has an insightful profile of Dale Barton in The Leader newspaper of January 24 (no link available). Dale is an artist and a performer better known as the front man for Beans Barton & the Bi-Peds. "Heights resident Dale "Beans" Barton is as amused as anyone that he and his talented but wacky underground band, the BiPeds have lasted more than 21 years and have a cult following..."

Alley Theatre Taps UH Grad Students

Houston Business Journal: UH Shares Stage with Alley. 2008-Jan-25, by Christine Hall: Starting next fall, the UH School of Theatre and Dance and the Alley Theatre will offer graduate student actors, directors, designers and dramaturgs an opportunity to actively participate in Alley productions. "It's a win-win situation..." says Steven Wallace, director of the UH school. "It will provide our students with opportunities to work with some of the nation's top theater talents and allows the Alley to add the next generation of artists to its already rich pool of talent."

Houston-Produced TV Sitcom

Lionel Hillard of Houston-based Black Genie Entertainment has launched "As for Me & My House," a Houston-produced TV series about a family relocated to Houston after Hurricane Katrina. KNWS Channel 51 began airing the series on January 20. Houston Chronicle: Local producer has high hopes for series. 2008-Jan-23, by David Barron: Hilliard said, each show will feature public service announcements featuring Katrina evacuees who have built successful lives in Houston....Channel 51 agreed to air the show without charging Hilliard for air time, and Hilliard agreed to forgo a license fee for the program. The parties agreed to split advertising revenue for the show. "I think we have a creditable array of resources and talent in Houston to do a lot of things," he said. "...I have a track record, and (Channel 51) is giving me a chance."

More Proposals in Astrodome Future

Swamplot: Houston’s Real Estate Landscape: At Last! A Stable Future for the Astrodome » Swamplot: Houston’s Real Estate Landscape. 2008-Jan-24: For four years, the fate of the Astrodome has been chained to the proposals of a single company. Those proposals at first went in all sorts of different directions but lately have seemed to be going nowhere. And now, finally, the stewards of the Astrodome’s future have declared that Astrodome Redevelopment’s exclusive right to redevelop the Houston landmark will be coming to an end.

Desigining Economic Sustainability with Clothing

Read about the fascinating journey of Selven O'Keef Jarmon, a graduate of Texas Southern University and former designer for Tootsie's clothing boutique. Now he works in South Africa to find ways to make clothing design and production into an economic engine for raising the populace out of poverty. Houston Chronicle: Designer develops clothes for a better life, 2008-Jan-23, by Lisa Gray.

NYC Economy Needs the Arts

TIME Magazine: Culture Club. 2008-Jan-17, by Richard Lacayo: In 2005 the Center for an Urban Future, a Manhattan-based think tank, issued a study of the city's cultural sector, which it defined broadly to include art, design, music, theater and dance, as well as TV and film production, architecture, publishing, fashion and even advertising. It found that taken together those professions were second only to financial services as an economic force, employing 309,000 people, or more than 8% of the New York City work force....New York can cultivate the arts as an industry sector for the same reason that Detroit can support the production of cars: because it offers a powerful infrastructure, a network of suppliers, expertise and kindred spirits....The real estate crunch is a potential calamity for the arts economy.

Rice Prof to Head 2010 U.S. Census

Steve Murdock Takes Leave to Head Census Bureau: Murdock said he has argued for years that "the Texas of today is the U.S. of tomorrow." He compared the state's rapid growth with that of the U.S., which is among the fastest-growing developed nations. "If the challenges are adequately met and the opportunities developed, Texas and the nation as a whole can be increasingly competitive and prosperous with populations that reflect the diversity of the world and the strength that comes from drawing on such diversity."

Heart Pump Study

Houston Chronicle: Texas Children's Hospital to lead heart pump study. 2008-Jan-19, by Todd Ackerman: Texas Children's Hospital will lead a 12-hospital clinical trial of an experimental pediatric heart pump that has drawn national attention for keeping infants and toddlers alive until they could get a donor heart.

Sustainability at Rice

Sustainability at Rice University: Rice University President David W. Leebron has signed the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment, placing Rice on a track to become net carbon neutral...The 2007-2008 academic year at Rice will feature a common reading and series of events that touch upon the theme of man, nature, and climate change...A $30 million gift will support the construction of a residence hall that will be amongst the "greenest" buildings in Houston. ..Each Tuesday from 3:30 - 7:00PM, the Houston Farmer's Market will do business on the Rice campus at Entrance 9 near Rice Stadium...Rice once again made a strong showing in RecycleMania, a nationwide intercollegiate recycling competition.

Inside the Biggest Quilt Festival

If you've been mystifiied by the explosive growth of the International Quilt Festival, Michael Hall has written a wonderful article about it for Texas Monthly: The Fabric of Our Lives. 2008-January: Today it’s a billion-dollar industry with talented women of all ages creating vibrant, cutting-edge work. Many of them attended the world’s largest annual quilting convention, in Houston, so I tagged along with one of the art form’s biggest stars: my mom.

Our Thriving Chinatown

Houston Chronicle: Branding Chinatown: A boom for a Houston neighborhood. 2008-Jan-8, by Lisa Gray: Of those new car-ruled Chinatowns, Houston's is among the biggest — a bit over six square miles — and most muscular. The Asian American Business Council estimates that land values along the Bellaire strip have soared between 25 percent and 50 percent since 2004, and says that more than 2 million square feet of new construction, including high-end condos, is expected over the next two years. And as the last of the open land is developed, those once-cheap rents are likely to rise.

How Tampa Bay builds Creativity

CreativeTampaBay: Jan 7 08 Newsletter. Top 10 List for Creative Communities, by Deanne Roberts: ...3. Creative communities have lots of young people aged 24-35 who are both the workhorses and show horses of the workforce. To appeal to this group, a community must be attractive to singles, not just the traditional family. 2. Creative communities are entrepreneurial. There are lots of innovators who commercialize their ideas and start new companies. 1. Creative communities capitalize on their own assets and resist copycat strategies.

See More Texas Film

Houston Film Commision: Every first Thursday of the month we will have a FREE screening of award-winning Texas-made short film entries from the Houston Film Commissions Texas Filmmakers Showcase or from other film festivals. The one hour-ish screenings will begin at 9PM at Dean's Credit Clothing, 316 Main Street (between Preston & Congress). Come see some great films that you may never get to see again or to just talk film in the comfort of the hippest venue downtown. If you can't make it, do the right thing and tell a film making friend.

Collecting Our History

S. O. Young's Houston History. Two landmarks books on Houston by S. O. Young, A Thumbnail History of the City of Houston (1912) and True Stories of Old Houston & Houstonians (1913) have been republished by Copano Bay Press (www.BooksOnTexas.com) in lush collectors' editions, the set for $125.

Making Landmarks

Houston Chronicle: Preservation River Oaks helps rescue 'landmarks'. 2007-Jan-4, by Lisa Gray: Kelley Trammell recognized John and Terri Havens as her kind of people. "They have that sparkle thing going on," she says. Kelley, one of the founders of Preservation River Oaks, is also from New Orleans, and her group aims to change the neighborhood's tear-down culture — not by force but by charm, by making historic preservation seem as cool as jazz...

Chef Robert Del Grande

Houston Chronicle: Celebrity chef Robert Del Grande getting in a new Grove. 2008-Jan-4, by Dai Huynh: Without realizing it, Del Grande was leading a cooking revolution. The founding fathers A framed handwritten letter from Julia Child hangs in Del Grande's kitchen. The culinary icon wrote him, "I never knew all the hot dope on chiles until I met you — and I didn't even like them until I met you."

Building African American Library

Houston Chronicle: In search of black history treasures. 2008-Jan-4, by Leslie Casimir: Community historian Patricia Prather...seemed entranced on a recent afternoon as she sat in Punch's living room, sifting through the 86-year-old's stacks of yellowed papers and folders. "People have history in their homes, but they just don't know it." Prather, 64, was commissioned by the city of Houston to find artifacts, documents and photographs to be housed at the long-planned African American Library at the Gregory School.

No Secret to Vietnamese

LA Times: Flocking from SoCal to Houston. 2007-Dec-21, by My-Thuan Tran (via Dynamist): Houston's Vietnamese community, now the third largest in the nation, numbered about 85,000 in 2006 -- up a third in just six years, according to U.S. Census figures. Community leaders and real estate agents in Houston say they started seeing an upswing in Vietnamese Americans from California five years ago, driven mostly by the city's cheaper housing....Real estate agents have advertised houses in California's Vietnamese newspapers. Developers have tried to persuade businesses to expand to Houston. And talk shows on Radio Saigon Houston have spread the word....Houston is no longer the Vietnamese community's "best-kept secret,"