Antioch Missionary Baptist Church

We got some notes about our The Rest of the Best: Houston's Top 10 Churches and Temples list last week. According to readers, we managed to leave off several important houses of worship. Last week we looked at large structures; this week we look at small, intimate structures. Hopefully the two lists together give a more complete picture of Houston's most beautiful churches and temples.

Last week the new co-cathedral downtown was notably missing from our list (it's ugly, sorry), but this week, Roman Catholic structures abound. Seems that, for a while anyway, the Catholic church did small very, very well.

See what made it to our list this week - and what didn't.

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Courtesy of The Matchbox Art Gallery

The Matchbox Art Gallery at Rice University

Everything's actually not bigger in Texas, at least not when it comes to art galleries. Houston's the fourth largest city in the country (you know we have to say that every chance we get), and home to some of America's most acclaimed museum galleries (yes, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, we're talking about you). But small also has a home in the visual arts community. Did we say small? Sorry, we meant tiny. As in super minuscule. Here's our list of our top ten favorite tiny art galleries.

10. The Central Gallery, The Holocaust Museum Houston
Morgan Family Center, 5401 Caroline St.
713-942-8000, hmh.org

Every square inch of the Holocaust Museum Houston is used to get the anti-hate, "never forget" message out. Exhibits, archives, books, photos, art and more relevant to the Holocaust and its legacy fill the building. Even a slender hallway that's been dubbed The Central Gallery has been transformed into exhibition space. We had the pleasure of seeing "Displaced Persons: Photographs by Clemens Kalischer" there in 2011. The exhibit was made up of photographs of displaced persons and refugees fleeing the Nazis in Europe in the late 1940s. It documented the immigrants' first few moments in America, capturing their excitement, weariness, hope and exhaustion.

Regular gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, noon to 5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.

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Annette Funicello was hot. Very hot. As star of all those beach movies in the '60s, she gave all the other girls at the time a run for their money, and it wasn't hard to see why Frankie Avalon demanded they have plenty of shoots on the sand. Or why millions of young were in love with her.

Pop Culture Icon Annette Funicello Dead At 70

We found out that she passed away yesterday at the age of 70 after a long battle with multiple sclerosis, which she announced she had back in 1992. Her once bubbly demeanor was slowed down by the disease and she retreated from public life.

Any dialog about the best pin-ups of the '60s includes Funicello, who was the wholesome alternative to Sophia Loren and Ann-Margret, or at least one partially sanctioned by the Disney people. Walt Disney didn't want her in two-piece bathing suits while she was under his thumb even.

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Courtesy of GHCVB

Houston is flush with great festivals. Our mild winters and open spaces make festivals pretty much a year-round thing. We've decided to look at the top festivals in the area. Now keep in mind, we're not looking at events where music or food are the main attraction; these are family-friendly cultural and arts events. Our list includes everything from the small-ish Japan Festival to the mega-monster iFest, the Christmas holiday celebration Festival of Lights to the fest that defies categorization, The Art Car Parade Weekend. See who tops our list - and who didn't make the cut.

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Photos By Nate "Igor" Smith

This past weekend the porn world's version of the Academy Awards, the AVN Awards and the Adult Entertainment Expo filled the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas with tons of porn starlets and industry folks hawking their wares for their peers and devoted fans.

Vegas is quickly becoming a second home for many in the naked people having sex industry, with it's relaxed laws, great weather, and abundance of tourists.

SLIDESHOW: Adult Entertainment Expo: One Wild Convention (NSFW)

As always we have plenty of pictures from the weekend, and I culled the best ten for your viewing pleasure.

Probably (and preferably) on your smart phone, away from prying eyes.

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pe

Good list

Two thousand twelve may be remembered for many cultural highlights, royal obsessions, not surprising celebrity divorces, surprising celebrity divorces, election overload, unexplained deaths, the list goes on and on and on. And that's the thing about 2012; as horrific or insignificant as the event was, some blog somewhere turned it into list form and top ten'd it with somewhat similar items. Two thousand twelve was the year of the list! Two thousand eleven also had lot of lists and most likely 2013 will as well.

It doesn't take a brain surgeon to understand our current culture's recent fixation on lists. For the reader, lists are easier to digest; they categorize items for us, which seems to be a human need. They also give us something to cheer and jeer; for the lists we agree with we can feel validated, and for the lists we don't see eye-to-eye on, that's what comment sections are for.

For the Web sites and blogs that post the lists, their desire to do so is just as simple. Lists are fun to write and they get higher page views (now you know the secret!). But have we gone overboard on the lists? I have been known to write a number of pointless lists on this particular blog, some of which I am very proud of. It's hard to find nine other items that will go along with something as random as vending machine underwear.

There is no way the list will die in 2013, but I've found ten from 2012 that we would all be just fine not remembering.

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Photos By Craig Hlavaty

This past weekend at the Texas Renaissance Festival was dedicated to the pirate's life, with tons of swashbucklers of all sizes and ages making the trip in to the woods near Plantersville to show off their costumes. It was a hot one this weekend, too, but that didn't dampen the moods. If anything, it just meant beverage sales were up.

Of course, pirate weekend is also one of the more kid-friendly editions of the Ren Fest season, no offense to baby barbarians and the boozy children during Oktoberfest.

Earlier this year, the festival even offered a $1,000 savings bond and lifetime passes to any parents who would name their child Texas Renaissance. Not sure if anyone took them up on that offer yet.

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The World Trade Center as seen in Moonstruck

Eleven years ago today, both the world and the Manhattan skyline forever changed when the World Trade Center came crashing down. Shots of the Twin Towers were often used to establish the movie's location. Nowadays, using the towers as an establishing shot often means the film is taking place in another time period before September 11, 2001.

Famous scenes were filmed both in and near the towers, which came to represent many things to many people -- often serving as the place where key plot points took place. Here's some examples:

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Some movies save the best for last. One last quote that just sums up the whole experience like a combination exclamation point/kick in the dick. Today I thought we'd count down the ten best ones that were laid out just before the credits and left an audience strumming with genius.

10. Doom Generation (1995)

You want a Dorito?

How do you sum up an evening that included rape, neo-Nazis, murder, and castration? Greg Araki did it with one of the most bizarre incidences of product placement ever.

9. Back to the Future (1985)

Roads? Where we're going we don't need roads

The ending of Back to the Future is one of the most influential endings of all time. How many movies have you seen try and set up enough interest to film a sequel by having you're plot-driver show back up with a mysterious warning and lay out a forced cliffhanger? Happens all the time, but none nail it with the style of Christopher Lloyd as Doc Brown.

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Hard times are, well, hard. That's why movies exist -- to provide an escape. They can cheer us up and show us that things are not as bad as they seem.

Take for example Bridesmaids. The reason that film did so well was because men and women not only liked the comedic aspects, but it also dealt with ideas such as rejection, failure, relationships and friendship.

Here's my picks for classic feel-good movies:

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