Houston News Blog

​Plus-size comic Loni Love is coming to Houston this weekend as part of the Comedians of Chelsea Lately tour.

Even though Love has had a successful stand-up career for more than six years now, her frequent appearances during the round-table sections of the late-night talk show hosted by Chelsea Handler on the E! network have given her an increased profile. (During a round-table section of the nightly show, Handler and three guest comics discuss the day's news, with a decided theater-of-the-absurd spin.)

But while audiences may think they're getting to know Love from her time on Chelsea Lately, she says fans will find a different Loni Love on stage during her stand-up show.

"My stand-up is totally different from the round table because at the round table, you're given a topic and you respond to that," she tells Hair Balls. "But stand-up is more about me, what I believe and think, and what's important to me. That's the reason I like stand-up because I'm more able to express myself. I can talk about my attitude about men, my religious views, things like that. I think people will be like, 'Wow! I didn't think that she was this way.' That's what exciting about stand-up for me."

As one of only a handful of non-white comics to appear more or less regularly on Chelsea Lately, Love often finds herself acting as a de facto spokesperson for African-Americans. In a similar manner, Jo Koy, who is of Filipino heritage, is tagged as "the Asian guy."

It's a position Love embraces. "I think it's important to discuss race," she says. "Both Jo Koy and I have mainstream audiences, and it's good for them to try to understand who we are. We try to squash the stereotypes, and we do that by making fun of them. For instance, people think that all black women are sassy. That's stupid. We're individuals like everyone else. We make fun of those ideas, on the show and in stand up, because it shows people how silly it all is.

Photo by agent2n

​Blame Obama if you're stuck in hopeless traffic on I-10 East at I-45 this weekend. I-10 East will be completely closed, due to that socialistic stimulus act.

Best attempt to put a good spin on it, from TxDOT: "With progress there is often sacrifice and the work on I-10 East will be no exception," spokesperson Deidrea Samuels said.

The agita-inducing details:

Beginning Friday, November 6th at 9 p.m. until Monday, November 9th at 5 a.m., contractors will close IH 10 eastbound at IH 45 in downtown. Traffic will be detoured to IH 45 South or IH 45 North exit.

Motorists can either take IH 45 North to the North Main exit and u-turn back to IH 45 South to access IH 10 eastbound or IH 45 South to US 59 North to access IH 10 eastbound.

This closure is necessary so crews can stripe the roadway and set up concrete traffic barriers for the major freeway rehabilitation work that will begin on Monday, November 9th which will reduce IH 10 eastbound traffic to one lane from the IH 45 North and IH 45 South exit ramps to White Oak Bayou Bridge for approximately three months.

Helfully, TxDOT says drivers "should consider an alternative route."

IT'S TOO LATE: We already elected Obama.

Among the annual must-see shows is Lawndale Art Center's "Retablo Exhibition." The show is winding down, with Saturday as its last day, so if you haven't seen it yet, get to it.

Dozens of Texas artists re-interpreted the Mexican tradition of retablos or devotional paintings for the show. The artists, including The Art Guys, Adrian de la Cerda, Gonzo0247, and Houston Press writer Kelly Klaasmeyer, produced work that runs from whimsical to cutting-edge. 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, noon to 5 p.m. Saturday. 4912 Main. For information, call 713-528-5858 or visit www.lawndaleartcenter.org. Free.

The first musical ever produced in the 30-year history of the University of Houston-Downtown, Ain't Misbehavin', is coming to a close on Saturday. The show celebrates the life and music of American jazz pianist and composer, Thomas "Fats" Waller, with a roster of songs that include "The Joint is Jumpin,'" "Honeysuckle Rose," and "Ain't Misbehavin'." Former UHD student Tony Glover is directing the musical and says that he's excited to be at the helm on the show. "What I really love is that the cast is non-traditional, because UHD and the UHD theater are non-traditional. We have created a show where everyone in the cast is a star," he's said. 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday. One Main Street. For information, call 713-221-8000 or visit www.uhd.edu. $5.

​Hurricane Ike has just officially become Yet Another Storm That Couldn't Beat Murdoch's Pier.

The historic shop, on a pier stretching out over the Gulf, has had a soft re-opening and is expecting to be fully operational by the end of the month, the Galveston County Daily News reports.

Some of the glitches still to be worked out include phone problems, so we weren't able to reach the owners, but they told the News that the east side of the building, which includes the gift shop, is open.

The state of Texas doesn't permit any new piers to be built, so this is officially a "renovation," we guess, of the place. But seeing as it was all but wiped out by Ike, it's quite the renovation.

Murdoch's has a long history with storms since it opened in 1910.

The director of the 12th Annual Polish Film Festival, Zbigniew Wojciechowski, spoke with Hair Balls about the ever-growing event, including the festival's beginnings, the current state of Polish cinema, and how he selected this year's closing film, Mala Moskwa by director Waldemar Krzystek.

Hair Balls: How did Houston's Polish Film Festival start

Zbigniew J. Wojciechowski: I organized the first Polish Film Festival in Houston in November 1997, three years after moving down from Seattle, Washington where I enjoyed [the] Polish Film Festival organized [there] by a friend of mine, Dr. Michał Friedrich. I was fascinated by [the] opportunity to share my passion, Polish films, with others. I liked an idea to give back to the community, after years of being a spectator.

The first Polish Film Festival...lasted two days, and we screened four films at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston's Brown auditorium. One of the most popular actresses of that time in Poland visited us. I remember having goose bumps and stomach butterflies when we started screening films. "We did it!" was going through my head.

It seems that you look at the festival as more than just entertainment, you see it as a way to build bridges between the Polish community and Houston's mainstream.

Showing Polish films at Angelika, I hope to popularize Polish cinema in Houston and have viewers to better understand who we Polish living in the US are, our history and culture. I think our festival is one of few, if not the only, ethnic film festivals that is annual and with 12-year history. It is an excellent way to communicate and to show the multinational community of Houston who the Poles are, where they come from, why they behave the way they do, what they believe in, what values they represent, how they live, what they love and how they love, et cetera. It is the great way to introduce ourselves through the expression of the visual art.

​For most of his tenure in Oakland, Tom Cable has been your run-of-the-mill, overmatched, "dead man walking" NFL head coach. When he was hired last season in the wake of Lane Kiffin's firing, the things that jumped out at me about Cable were:

-- His only head coaching experience consisted of four seasons at the University of Idaho where he compiled a sporty 11-35 record

-- He was the first Idaho head coach in 22 years to be fired; his most recent predecessors had all been successful and moved onto better jobs

-- He looks EXACTLY like "Sean and John Show" producer Kyle "The Taskmaster" Manthey. Check it out...

Separated at birth?

​ 
But surely, the casual football fan did not give a rat's ass about Tom Cable when he was hired. It took Cable's caving in assistant coach Randy Hansen's face in a team meeting to make him somewhat interesting, it took his denying it to make him laughable, and it took allegations of physical abuse from a handful of women he either dated or married going back to the Reagan Administration to make him pathologically creepy and dangerous.

So with these skeletons now out of Cable's closet and with all of this appearing to be a classic case of "where there's smoke, there's fire," now we're in a place where Cable's job security is being debated as a result of these allegations (again some of them taking place nearly 20 years ago). It's at the point where the National Organization of Women has now taken a keen interest in Oakland Raiders football.

To be very clear, I think hitting a woman is the most cowardly thing anyone could do (unless of course it's by another woman and it happens in a food court at a grubby casino in California, then it's hilarious). But do we really need Tom Cable's abusive track record of "MMA fighter trapped in a fat husband's body" to fire him as coach of the Raiders?

​Look. We couldn't miss the collective whoop of joyous philanderers worldwide when Al Gore sat down and decided to invent the Internet. Clandestine, illicit communication via password-protected inboxes on web platforms? On what dotted line can you sign your penis away, and how fast? Salacious messages sent straight to your cellular device under everyone's noses? Phone conversations be damned! Break out the condoms so you don't give your significant others venereal diseases, and go horizontally mambo already!

The wide world of the web has plenty of advice for checkin' up on your cheatin' cholo or chola. Hell, we even gave you some pointers on bustin' your fuckin'-'round fool a few moons ago. But what about "trust"? Is it possible to actually - gasp! - not worry your swollen lil' head off 'bout the twatcopters of your lover's loins in a land dominated by the isolation of text messaging, email, Facebook, and the like?

We think so. And don't worry; we've never been wrong before. We don't think. Besides, we'd never ever lead you astray. We side with Alanis; this is something you oughta know.

So whaddya need in order to award complete and utter trust to your mate?

​Todd Mason is the vice president of real estate services for Metro. At the time of his hiring, there was some concern that by hiring Mason and dabbling in big-time real estate development at and around Metro properties, the transit organization was extending itself far beyond its mission statement, which reads:

METRO is an innovative regional transportation organization of dedicated employees committed to partnering with the public and private sectors to provide the safest, highest quality services and mobility solutions that exceed our customers' expectations while creating economic growth.

Consider those fears well-founded. Apparently, Mason is now attempting to decide who gets to ride the light rail and who doesn't.

​Tom Penders has been tasked with returning the Houston Cougar basketball program to relevance. And that's a task at which he feels he's been successful. But he's yet to succeed with the ultimate goal of basketball relevance, and that's getting into the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament.

Now, the Cougars have won basketball games in Penders' five seasons coaching the team. But they haven't won enough. And for the most part, they haven't won the right games because they've been defeating teams in Conference USA.

During the Cougars' last great basketball run, the team was a member of the Southwest Conference. And in those "glory days of the Southwest Conference," Penders tells Hair Balls, "when you had the University of Houston and Arkansas driving the bus, that conference was respected as one of the top four or five conferences in the country. Now we're in a conference that's not considered in the top -- we're around anywhere from 10 to 12 -- so it makes it a little more difficult in that regard."

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