My how time flies. It feels like only yesterday that we were sitting on the floor at the Pasadena rec center watching girls in fishnets beat the living daylights out of each other at the very first Houston Roller Derby exhibition bout (and blatantly ignoring the Astros in the World Series at the time — I didn’t choose the Derby over the game, it chose me…).

This Saturday, September 9th at 6pm will be the final Championship bout of the season. As always, it will be held at the Arabia Shrine (2900 N. Braeswood) with a portion of the proceeds going to the Shriner Children’s Burn Hospital.

The HRD after-party will be held at the Meridian (1503 Chartres St), so be sure to make an appearance to chat up some derby girls and listen to some live music by I-45 and Big Brown Truck. Should be an amazingly swell evening.

Come support the girls (and watch them kick butt)!!

…or rather, Happy Independence Day, everyone! Happy Birthday to America, the land of the free! Maybe our Founding Fathers will be disappointed in the way we celebrate this holiday today, and perhaps even moreso, because some may have forgotten the actual purpose of this holiday: America is free from her mother country, England, after all of the conflicts of “taxation without representation” and among other grievances as listed by the 13 colonies in the Declaration of Independence. If we didn’t “fight for our freedom and rights,” we’d probably be under England’s authority (and government) much longer than 1776.
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The weather was a bit warmer than usual in January… causing many trees to start blooming, which is wonderful for my allergies.

No one posted any ideas on things to do for Chinese New Year in Houston (thanks you bastards). Luckily, a friend recommended I check out Tan Tan Restaurant on Bellaire. Turns out it was an exceptional recommendation as they had great food and a massive amount of fireworks despite the state-wide burn ban.

When (not if) you go… I urge you to try the hot pot. ANY of them.

The dragons came inside the restaurant for a little while… and the place went WILD. The kids especially enjoyed the little red envelopes the dragons gave away.

Later in the day, I happened to see this truck of tired dragon dancers.

And then…

Checked out the Basquiat exhibit at MFAH and nearly dropped $140 for a pair of shoes inspired by his art. Inspiration = Marketing Opportunity?

I think Sir Basquiat would have a shit-fit if he saw what people were doing with his artwork.

~ QUICK CONTEST ~

HouMetBlog needs more bloggers damn it! To encourage at least one of the 4 million plus residents of our fair city, I’m willing to give away two tickets to the Mozart concert on Feb 14th at the Menil Museum to the first person that signs up and posts.

Second place winners will receive a coupon book from the Houston Downtown Alliance with coupons to places such as St. Pete’s Dancing Marlin, Zula, Havana, Kim Son, Massa’s, and more!

To qualify: sign up and post immediately. Get to it guys… the clock is ticking.

It’s a new season (supposedly) down here in Houston, so that means it’s time for another Burn It CD exchange!

Since it’s really freaking hot, the theme for this Burn is hot music. And by this I mean music so sensual, so sexy, so scorching (like all the s words?), that it makes you hot, just like you too were out in the Texas sun. This would be the music you would want playing in the background if you were really into someone to go with the sexual tension in the air.

Burn Its are always a lot of fun, so go read the rules and sign up!

Just a reminder, but today is the last day to sign up for Burn It - The Spring 2005 Edition, my mix CD swap.

We’ve got a lot of participants, both old and new, and I’d love to see some more Houstonians get involved.

I forgot to mention it, but the latest Tiara Happy Hour is tomorrow at the Flying Saucer on the corner of Capital and Main.

For those of you not familiar with the Tiara Happy Hour concept, it’s pretty simple. A bunch of people (in this case, mostly bloggers) meet in a bar, wear tiaras (boys must wear one too), and drink. And drink more. And then drink some more.

Tiara Happy Hours are always a lot of fun (see proof here, here, here, and here; as you can tell, lots of boobies get involved in these pictures) and you should definitely come out if you can. I’m also making Burn It CDs to pass out as favors.

For more details, check the Evite.

Hope to see you there!

It’s hard to believe, but the mix CD swap I run, Burn It, is turning two years old.

To commerate this anniversary, I’ve decided to make the theme for this mix driving music, the theme that started it all off.

If you’d like to participate or are interested in what I’m babbling about, you can get all the details here.

We had a couple of Metbloggers sign up last time and I sure would love to see more of you participate in this round.

Just a reminder, but today is the last day to sign up for Burn It - The Winter 2004 Edition. The theme this season is remixes, so there should be some interesting compilations created.

You know you want to join, so go read the rules and sign up!

I know it’s not 2004 any more (and it doesn’t even feel like winter most days lately in Houston), but I’m just now getting around to Burn It - The Winter 2004 Edition.

For those of you not familiar with Burn It, it’s a mix CD swap that I run where I give you a theme, put you into groups, and everyone swaps CDs. You can read the rules and sign up here if that kind of thing is appealing to you.

Hope to see some new Houston faces in this Burn!

Some of you may know me already - I