The annual Westheimer Block Party is coming up Saturday March 24 and the Free Press has announced this year’s lineup:

Penny Royal, Satin Hooks, Scattered Pages, Cee Plus and the House of Bad Knives, Thee Armada, Generic Tribe, Arthur Yoria, Medicine Show, the Dimes, Free Radicals, Muzak John, .belville, Nosaprise, Stadium, Umbrella Man, Flowers to Hide, Honeysuckle, 9Volt, Guy Schwartz, Brains for Dinner, Guns of Detroit, Ninja Stars, National Electric, Police State America, the Krinkles, Million Year Dance, SkyBlue72, Doo Doo Butter, Novice, Mic Skills, the Jane Frequency, Standing Souls, Generation Landslide, Cartwheels in Central Park, Deep Above Surface, the Riff Tiffs, Poison Apple Martini and Organ Failure.

WBP promises 40+ bands, live guerilla arts, come and zine fest, boys, girls, food, booze and police repression spread across Numbers, La Strada, Mango’s and Helios. Sounds like riot… er, a good time. So, get out there and support local music, the Montrose and Houston life in general.

Houston
Originally uploaded by deneyterrio.

Proving he has more than fantastic ears, the superb eye of photographer deneyterrio brings you this really unique view of the Houston skyline we all know and love. It also brings a new twist on the stark blue skies we’re used to.

Join other Houston area photographers in the Houston Metblogs’ flickr group and show us the city through your eyes.

Are you a SXSW junkie? Will you be getting your geek on during the Interactive conference? Or perhaps rocking your proverbial socks off at the music fest is more your speed? Then you should know this (via the Austin Metblog):

I just got the text message from SXSW.

Waterloo Records (NW corner of 6th and Lamar) is selling SXSW wristbands as of right now. 2 per person. Cash or credit cards.

Don’t kill anyone on the way down there.

Check out the SXSW 2007 bands here. Some of the Houston Metblog kids will be attending the Interactive festival. Let us know if you’ll be there and we’ll drink beer together!

Sex: Why Bother? is more than just a disgruntled, open-ended question your best friend confronts you with over Sunday brunch mimosas the morning after breaking up with her loser boyfriend.

If you’re up for some very interesting discussion on ‘what’s under the sheets’ in regards to sexuality vs. asexuality, you should check out tonight’s Science Café panel at Salento Coffee House (2407 Rice Blvd.) from 7:30 - 9pm.

One of the greatest mysteries of biology is why humans need a sexual act to reproduce while some organisms such as bacteria do not…. Why then are some species, like humans, only able to reproduce with a sexual act? This is one of the greatest intrigues of evolutionary biology. And science aside, what does sex mean to us after all? Do we mate with the only goal of passing genes onto the next generation? Or is there more to it under the sheets? Come and discuss these questions with renowned scientist, medical ethicist, and religious studies scholar at the next Science Café.

The Science Café is sponsored by Houston PBS, the University of Houston and asexual organisms everywhere. Thanks to Abi for the heads up!

If so, you should put that pizazz in a picture and send it over to Channel 13. They are running a contest to find the wildest animals of Houston and are offering membership to the Houston Zoo and Petco gift cards as prizes.

One lucky winner will get a family membership to the Houston Zoo and a $100 gift card from PETCO. Two runners-up will receive tickets to the Houston Zoo and a $20 gift card from PETCO.

*Photos must be received by March 31, 2007 and are the property of the Houston Zoo and ABC 13.

So I’m sure I’m a little touchy on this, as this is something that’s happened a few times now - but is anyone else sick of seeing large plastic testicles hanging from cars?

I’ve been stuck behind vehicles (typically of the enormous diesel guzzling pick-up truck variety) during rush hour a handful of times now and get tired of seeing those things swing.

Maryland legislators are working on a bill to ban them and all explicit vehicle decorations - do you think we should do something like that in Houston? Am I the only one who finds them repulsive? Vote and let us know how you feel!

And this ends the most random Metblog post that I’ve ever written. Thanks.

NYC Pillow Fight 023 Originally uploaded by Miss Aleneous.

San Francisco has had a public pillow fight two years in a row. New York just did a pillow fight. Denver had a downtown-wide Capture-The-Flag game. When are we gonna get off our butts and having some fun?

Yeah, I’ve said this before. But come on! Lets do it!

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2, originally uploaded by inkoluv.

Houston photographer and Houston Metblog Flickr lover inkoluv shot this gorgeous urban-y photo of a building with a soon-to-be-lost history.

She says:

This photo was taken at a totally dangerous, forbidden and cool demolished Houston Police Garage at the corner of Washington and Franklin. The building was all decayed and half torn down. It was my first experience with 2 awesome lenses. I don’t think I could ever go back to a normal camera…

With images like that I can hardly blame her! Nice urban adventuresome work inkoluv!

There’s two big events coming up for Houston area Web Developers! We all love guest speakers right?

This Wednesday, February 28, Mike Culver from Amazon Web Services will be discussing the benefits of their new Mechanical Turk web service. In an bold step, Refresh Houston is teaming up with Houston Ruby on Rails group to bring you Mr. Culver’s presentation. Come out and learn the whats, whys, benefits and more of the AWS Mechanical Turk. The meeting will be from 6:00 to 7:00pm at DataCert Corporate Offices, 3040 South Post Oak Road , 18th Floor

And a little further down the road: The man himself, Ben Forta, is will show us some awesome ColdFusion Scorpio love. May 1st, Ben will be at the Houston CFUG to present the new features and development updates on where the ColdFusion platform is headed. There’s a Meet and Greet, food, door prizes and ColdFusion-y goodness. Stay tuned to the HouCFUG as the details are ironed out.

Escape the bluish glow of your monitor and learn about cool technolgy. And while you’re at it, join in on some of the webdev groups around Houston: Refresh Houston, The Web Design Meetup, The CSS Meetup, and NetSquared… just to name a few.

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Gotta Mosey, originally uploaded by jeffbalke.

In case the herds of cowboys, steer and horses clomping through downtown and other parts of Houston didn’t tip you off, the Houston Livestock and Rodeo has officially begun.

Did you make it to the Barbeque Cookoff? Are you holding out for ZZ Top? Or maybe you couldn’t quite squeeze into your Wranglers and are planning on attending next weekend?

I’ve only been to the rodeo once and that was when I was very young and enjoyed gorging myself on great food and marvelling at the large numbers of elderly people clogging. The only other Rodeo story I have is seeing about 5 times the number of cops looking for drunk drivers wearing cowboy hats on the Interstate this weekend. Related?

What are you Rodeo stories?