Looking to burn in the new year? We’ve got a suggestion. And no, we’re not about to make a joke about marijuana (or herpes).

The American Wandering Club is recreating La Destrucción, an art happening that went down 44 years ago in Paris, when Argentine artist Marta Minujín destroyed all her work in a gigantic fire.

AWC is asking all available artists to bring (presumably their worst) work from 2007 to the Silo on December 31, where at the stroke of 4:44 p.m. the pile will be set aflame.

This installment of the Sole of Houston takes us to the Southeast side of town.

There were a lot of firsts to this walk. For starters, it was the first that had a theme – since it took us through Rory Miggins’s old stomping grounds, we dedicated the walk to him. The temperature was cooler than on any other walk, and this Monday hike was the first I’d ever done on any day other than Friday or Saturday. And there was another big one, a huge psychological step, but I’ll get to that as it comes…

9 AM, the Pierce Elevated at Travis

The original plan was to take the Fuqua park and ride bus from Downtown Transit Center out to Fuqua, walk west on Fuqua to Telephone, and then head north on that storied road to the Leeland split. From there we would head west on Leeland downtown, and then on to Warren’s, one of the traditional termini for these trips.

But after an hour or so, we got tired of waiting for the bus. We decided to just take off on foot, so we walked up to Leeland and headed east. We would decide where to turn around and head back later.

Danielle Riley, Westchester Academy for International Studies

We've just loaded up the latest round of entries from our photo contest for Houston-area high school students. The theme was weather. You can check out the entries over here. Be sure to let us know which one's your favorite in the comments.

Click here for more info on the contest. -- Keith Plocek

Milwaukee Brewer All-Star first baseman Prince Fielder may have learned how to hit the long-ball from his famous baseball father Cecil Fielder, but he has also inherited his dad’s long-standing legal troubles.

When Prince was 18 years old, playing A-league ball in the minors, a process server tracked him down after a game, handing him papers naming his father as a defendant in a $387,744 lawsuit relating to a trailer-rental business in Wisconsin that went foul, according to news reports.

Cecil has long been famous for squandering much of the more than $40 million he earned in salary over his baseball career on gambling. In 1999, he lost more than $500,000 to a casino owned by Donald Trump. Trump Plaza Associates later had to sue Fielder to recover the money.

Now, Prince is once again caught up in his father’s legal and money troubles. And this time, according to a lawsuit filed against the younger Fielder and his grandparents last week in Houston federal court, it appears that Prince may be more involved than in the past.

According to the recent lawsuit:

We’ve just received word that Comets owner Hilton Koch is going to be on the Sam Malone Morning Show (Mix 96.5) this Friday, getting his head shaved to fulfill a promise he’d made to the Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital Trauma Unit.

Koch agreed to shave his head (and Malone offered up his mustache) if the show raised $50,000 in donations, and, well, if you don’t know whether the goal was reached, you’re probably not very good at reading comprehension.

We here at Houstoned are itching to make a “shaved Koch” joke, but since he’s getting clipped for such a great cause, we’ll refrain. In fact, we’re so inspired by Koch’s upcoming on-air act that we’ve decided to make our own sacrifice online.

When it comes to schmoozing with woefully unaware politicians, K.A. “Leper-Stealer” Paul has no competition. The diminutive Indian minister has a Gump-like knack for showing up wherever the cameras are, be it during Charles Taylor’s exile to Nigeria or at an impromptu prayer-session in former House Speaker Dennis Hastert’s living room.

While Paul claims to have personally counseled Sadaam Hussein and Slobodan Milosevic, one of his greatest accomplishments might be flying 12 little girls in a rickety airplane from India to the U.S., where, last the Houston Press heard, they’re living in a three-bedroom apartment in Laurel, Maryland, with a woman whose professional relationship with the married minister is vague at best. Paul, whose real name is Anand Kilari, claims these girls are orphans. While that’s in dispute, one thing isn’t: pretty soon they’ll be 14 years old, around the same age of a girl with whom Kilari was allegedly conducting another “prayer session” in the Beverly Hills Hotel last April, when he was arrested on suspicion of “lewd and lascivious acts with a minor.”

So how did these 12 alleged orphans get over to the U.S. with Kilari in the first place? Well, that’s where Mike Huckabee comes in.

Welcome back. We hope everyone enjoyed the time off. We sure did. (Insert eggnog joke here.)

The Houston Aeros Beat the Springfield Falcons

Cal Clutterbuck got the action going with a brutally legal check, and Petr Kalus sealed the deal with two goals worthy of the highlight reel.

We Are the Hollow Men in the Warehouse District

This party promised scarecrow art and performances by some of our favorite Houston bands, including the Fatal Flying Guilloteens and the Dimes, but it collapsed under its own weight when the kegs ran dry before 11 p.m. We didn’t even make it in the door, instead pulling off a Montrose hat-trick at Poison Girl, Boondocks and Catbird’s.

Christmas Festivities

Our grandma almost got run over by a reindeer, walking home from our house Christmas Eve. You can say there’s no such thing as Santa, but as for me and Grandpa, we’re totally gonna jump that fat bastard next time we see him. – Keith Plocek

Ferret-hater and Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani was hospitalized overnight last week while in Missouri for flu-like symptoms, which makes you wonder how much attention to detail is being paid by his handlers.

What a sissy thing to take you out on the campaign trail, especially if it's preventable. Even Houston Comets superstar Sheryl Swoopes, who's undoubtedly in far, far better shape than you or I, got a flu shot this year. Where? On her arm--I mean, smack dab in front of City Hall.

Just in case you were wondering, yes, Texas politics is still a messy and ethics-challenged affair. The latest hiccup in state politics is a report by the Midland Reporter-Telegram that Texas Monthly editor Evan Smith had a hand in recruiting a candidate to oppose Speaker of the House Tom Craddick.

Smith, a New Yorker who came to the Texas Monthly in 2000, supposedly encouraged Midland Councilman Bill Dingus to run against Craddick. Trouble is Smith did no such thing. The Midland Reporter-Telegram seems to have gotten it a little wrong.

Some bloggers post holiday wish lists, but your humble Tunnel Mole is more concerned about what to give, not to receive. Like, what to give the Real-Estate Tycoon Brother Who Has Everything?

My Real-Estate Tycoon Brother Who Has Everything is getting his own chunk of land, courtesy of Jeanne's Rock Shop, where I unearthed a breathtaking geode containing quartz, smoky quartz and amethyst crystals. It'll look great on one wood-paneled wall of shelves that rises up for three stories.

By that, I mean, the gift will stand out amongst opulence. Jeanne's is the second-best local gemstone attraction, next to the Houston Museum of Natural Science. And it's going out of business Christmas Eve, so everything's on sale. It's enough to make a geologist sob at the pleasure and pain of it all.

Okay, so I suppose it’s time to admit that I’ve caught a little bit of MTV’s “A Shot at Love With Tila Tequila,” and all I really have to say about that is HOW COULD SHE HAVE CHOSEN BOBBY OVER DANI?

I mean, really. Houston’s very own Vietnamese MySpace nymphette Tila Tequila (whose head shape reminds me of that classic alien head we see in all those Roswell sketches) chose the boy over the girl in her bisexual dating show. This leads me to believe that while the jury is still out on Tila’s alleged bisexuality, she is definitely, without a doubt, totally freaking crazy. Why? Because most straight women I know would have preferred dating Dani, the girl, over Bobby, the boy. And by “boy” I mean gel-headed goober who cannot rap to save his gel-headed soul.

I mean, Dani is not only adorable, what with that cute pixie cut and shy grin of hers, she seems totally at ease and confident in herself – a rarity on a reality dating show. Never once did we get the feeling that Dani was playing up for the cameras or faking it. She was just a soft butch cutie pie firefighter with a heart of gold.

Happy holidays, y'all. We've been looking back at the past year all week, and now we present our findings all in one place. Click the photos to get the goods.

Best Houston Concerts of 2007

Top Ten Worst Song Lyrics of 2007

Top Five Dumb-Ass Houston Sports Moments of 2007

By now, you’ve probably heard the flap about the white supremacist’s $500 donation to libertarian presidential candidate/vagina doctor Ron Paul’s campaign. The money came from Don Black, who runs a Web site called Stormfront, where inbred redneck troglodyte mouth-breathers talk about how the damn blacks and Jews are effing things up for everyone. The AP quoted a Paul spokesman as saying, “If someone with small ideologies happens to contribute money to Ron, thinking he can influence Ron in any way, he's wasted his money.”

The hitch here is that the media (owned and operated by the Jews) have dug up a 1992 newsletter from Paul, with some rather off-color remarks about color. So, to further educate the public about another brilliant Texas politician, the Houston Press offers this fun quiz. See if you can tell where these pearls of wisdom came from – Black’s Web site or Paul’s newsletter? The winner receives a scrap from Robert E. Lee’s snotrag and one of those black mammy salt-shakers.

Pitchers, strippers, explosions, wrestlers, sick people, dying people, musicians, greyhounds, ferrets, catty hatin' and chicken-fried steak -- it was one helluva year.

In just a few short weeks, this country will be turning an eye to Iowa. Why? Because they grow our corn there. Actually, we’ll be paying attention to Iowa because they’ll be holding the Iowa presidential caucus on January 3. Now, in addition to acting like a seventh grade boy and laughing when you say the word “caucus,” this is also a time to sit back and really take in what the presidential candidates have to offer. In other words, it’s time to wonder what they’re like to party with. After all, you only really know a person once you’ve thrown back a couple shots of Jäger together. And only then can you really know if they’re the kind of person you would want to elect President.

Imagine, if you will, what a party with the leading candidates in attendance would look like…here’s Miss Pop Rocks take on things:

Mitt Romney/The Designated Driver

Come on, Romney. My parents aren’t going to be home for, like, another hour. I know, you don’t even drink Coca Cola, much less a cold brewski. Calm down, Mitt, that dude’s just doing a keg stand. He isn’t gonna hurt himself…Hey, Mitt, you’re the DD, the Keymaster, right? Think you can take meeessh hommeeebblpt?? Come on, Mitt, try a cold one. You need to loosen up or something.

Barack Obama/Toking in the Bathroom

Ohmigawd, Barack just rolled the biggest J in the back bathroom everyone. Seriously. You need to go check it out. That ain’t no shwag, ya’ll. I don’t know where he got it, but it’s seriously some sweet, sweet weed. He’s been in there all night, and now he’s asking if anybody has any salty snacks. Anyone got some? Shit, I think he just dialed Oprah on his cell. This party is gonna get a whole lot crazier, people.