Photo by Chris Curry

Mark "Scrapdaddy" Bradford doesn't waste any metal he finds

The 2013 Art Car Parade starts this Saturday, May 11 at 1 p.m. In this week's cover story "Enjoying the Ride" with story and photos by Chris Curry, we decided to highlight some of this year's entrants. Throughout this week, we'll run posts with video to give you a closer look at these dedicated artists.

Mark "Scrapdaddy" Bradford has built something of a leviathan in his latest creation called "The Char Car."

Using 15-foot radius industrial spools as wheels and scrap metal parts he found at a nearby machine shop, Bradford has welded, bent, compressed and scrapped an oversized rickshaw as well as a working, free-swinging rickshaw runner together. If all goes according to plan, the 20-foot-tall metal man he constructed will appear to be running the rickshaw, but in reality the contraption is driven by two motorcycle engines, one to power the vehicle and the other used to steer.

"I wish I had more time, because now I have to learn to drive it," Bradford said laughing. With an impending deadline fast approaching he still has a lot of hours to put in before he can say "finished" to the piece he named after his young daughter.

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The 2013 Art Car Parade starts this Saturday, May 11 at 1 p.m. In this week's cover story "Enjoying the Ride" with story and photos by Chris Curry, we decided to highlight some of this year's entrants. Throughout this week, we'll run posts with video to give you a closer look at these dedicated artists.

Randy Blair drives his "A Little Bit of Nonsense" all the time, not just in the Art Car parade. His 2007 Toyota Yaris is a magnet for all sorts of objects hanging on to it.

For instance, the Katy man has a Hot Wheels Mini Cooper glued on top of two busts of Superman, which in turn is glued to an Imperial Stormtrooper helmet from Star Wars."

Photo by Chris Curry

Randy Blair and his magnet car

The punchline: "You get a mini-cooper, double, super trooper."

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University of Houston student Zach Martin had been struggling with a literary story for years about a theater family unraveling in the middle of putting on a play. "I could never get the story to work purely as a written piece," he says. So he decided to adapt it to a new genre - that of graphic novel.

Tonight, from 6 to 8 at Alabama Song, 2521 Oakdale Street, several student writers will be celebrating the release of the first edition of Cougar Comics' Tier One, an anthology that's the product of professor Mat Johnson's graphic novel workshop.

Writers could illustrate their own work, or be matched with professional artists as part of this course of study, a joint effort by the university's Creative Writing Program and the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts.

Ted Closson participated in the class twice as a graduate student. "The workshops are an opportunity to make comics work. You write. If you're an artist you may also draw. If you're quick, it can be an opportunity to craft as many as two to three short works or a short comic and the beginnings of something longer. And the workshop is valuable whether you approach the class with a writing or an artistic focus. Mat works to show writers in the class how to think visually and to help artists understand the nature and pacing of a narrative. Even if you already have something of a background working with comics he has an inside perspective on the industry that is really priceless for those trying to see inside a publishing process."

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Photo by Chris Curry

No sidelines for Bob Wink

The 2013 Art Car Parade starts this Saturday, May 11 at 1 p.m. In this week's cover story "Enjoying the Ride" with story and photos by Chris Curry, we decided to highlight some of this year's entrants. Throughout this week, we'll run posts with video to give you a closer look at these dedicated artists.

Bob Wink of Belville, TX watched his first Art Car parade six years ago and was instantly entranced and determined not to sit on the sidelines. He decided to become a participant and came up with an art car built on a go-cart frame.

First, he built an alligator car, then his car was a guitar with himself playing Elvis and driving from inside the sound hole.

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What makes Houston so dang Houston-y? KUHF has been asking locals to submit short videos about what makes this city the unique place we have come to love. Let's face it, Houston can be wonderfully wacko and if you are not from here (or pleasantly displaced), you may not get it.

"Wonderfully wacko" is a good description for Juan Carlos the dancing rollerblader who boogies his way through the intersection of Montrose and Allen parkway every evening. He's difficult to miss. Juan Carlos and his roller-dancing are the subject of Alex Luster's submission to the KUHF contest and it has been creating some viral waves.

Luster is the documentarian behind Stick 'Em Up! as well as a 2011 Art Attack 100 Creative).

Luster was drawn to Juan Carlos because of his "infectious positive energy." He realized that if Juan Carlos made his day a bit brighter, he was surely doing the same for others.
"I think he represents Houston's true diversity," says Luster. 

Funnily enough' Juan Carlos was very receptive to chatting with Luster on tape but more reserved when it came to his dancing being filmed. Juan Carlos is apparently totally cool with dancing in front of hundreds of cars daily, but got a bit camera shy.

Luster also tells us that the feedback to this video has been excellent. All of a sudden this roller-dancing phenom is a "real person" with a voice and a purpose.

When I asked Luster if he thought he would win the KUHF contest he was more inclined to say that what he hopes happens is that this will get Houstonians to "appreciate what Juan Carlos does," which is to make some folks smile on their crappy evening commutes (of course he wants to win the contest too).

The KUHF contest closes on April 30, so there is still time to vote. Go check out Luster's video and you can also view all of the other videos that depict how awesome Houston is.

What could possibly be more fun?

Imagine, if you will, you are running around an enclosed stadium. You look behind you and notice that there are several angry, snorting bulls chasing you. And just as one of the animals closes in on you to maul you, you remember that you signed up for this and paid a fair sum of money to be placed in this situation.

Now imagine you are in Houston.

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More mermaids, please.

It was while pondering the somewhat bizarre concept of ice skating as entertainment that I realized this stuff has been around for a really long time. The Ice Capades started in 1940 -- and folded in 1995, lousy Gen X-ers -- while Disney on Ice started up in 1981 and is still strangely popular.

I say "strangely" not to make light of the athleticism required to perform your average axel or lute, or to question the majestic entertainment omnipresence of the Walt Disney Company. Ice skating just seems...quaint in an age of parkour and MMA (quick question: who'd win a cage match between the Beast and Merida's dad from Brave?).

Quaint or not, plenty of sons and (mostly) daughters filled out the lower sections of Reliant Stadium Friday night in order to check out "Rockin' Ever After," the latest installment of Disney's "On Ice" revue. It was as one might expect: garish and rather cheesy, but still very well-received.

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"You didn't see this coming after 'Mallrats,' did you?"

This year was only the second time in several decades we haven't thrown a party for the Academy Awards, and it only took a few minutes of red carpet coverage to remind me why we usually have people over: this shit is nigh intolerable unless you're surrounded by a bunch of drunks making fun of it.

It wasn't a big night for any movie in particular, with the major awards spread pretty evenly across the various nominees. Maybe the biggest story was Argo's Best Picture win and the attendant drama surrounding Ben Affleck's non-nom for Best Director, which went in a fairly surprising development to Ang Lee.

How did host Seth MacFarlane do? Were there any wardrobe malfunctions? Would anybody mispronounce Les Misérables? Read on, true believers.

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Photos by Pete Vonder Haar

The Chieftains with the Houston Symphony
Jones Hall
February 15, 2013

When your band's been around for half a century, you could probably be forgiven for reliving past glory and staying safely within the established confines of whatever envelope you've developed for yourself. Just don't tell that to the Chieftains, who celebrated their 50th anniversary last year by releasing an album (Voice of Ages) and now embarking on a 28-city tour.

That kind of longevity also brings a certain amount of respect from your peers (or so you'd hope), and any Chieftains show is likely to be loaded with special appearances and surprises. That was certainly the case Friday night at Jones Hall, where the Chieftains were joined by the Houston Symphony and several guests, providing a satisfying mix of Irish tradition and classical sensibility.

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Photo by John Hritz

We urge to think, quite literally, outside of this box.

Yeah, yeah, we know. "Valentine's Day is stupid! A manufactured holiday designed to sell stuff! If you love someone you should show them every day!" Blah, blah, blah! Celebrate, or don't, but for those who do--and who are scrambling for gift ideas--we have some suggestions.

For starters, if your S.O. isn't into flowers or candy, skip the flowers and candy--they're too generic for someone who doesn't really like either. We looked around Houston and found a few better options than a box of Whitman's and a bouquet of gas station flowers.

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