When the little rascals (Rascall Flatts) pulled out of their show at the tonight’s Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo, three cowboys rode in to save the day. Apparently, the lead singer for RF had sumfin’ wong wif his wittle fwoat. Joe Nichols along with Houstonians Jack Ingram and Clay Walker stepped up to the challenge of a last second call and delivered in fine fashion.

Joe Nichols started things off with some of his hits and a few of the lesser known tracks, but sound issues early on hurt the performance. Jack Ingram shocked the house by turning in the best performance. It was obvious that he was excited to have the opportunity to play at the rodeo in front of his hometown… excited enough that despite being in New York City at 1:30 PM, he still made it in plenty of time to rock the house. The night ended up with Houston favorite - Clay Walker. As usual, he turned in a fine performance, and as usual, the fans loved it.

By the end of the evening, I don’t think there was a person in the stadium who remembered the name Rascall Flatts.

(crappy cell-phone photo copyright Chris Doelle)

An update to yesterday’s Hometown Taliban.

An unnamed faithful reader points out that suspected terrorist guy #1 was in fact, here in the country legally. HCC says that they have a current I20 form on file for Adnan Mirza. Not being an immigration expert myself, I’ll have to take the Chrons word for it that that lets people stay here legally.

Oh yeah, and Kobie Williams has denounced it all. A complete change of heart. I’d say ‘yeah, getting arrested kinda does that to you‘ but it looks like he turned himself in!

Both lawyers representing Williams said they could not comment on whether their client knew federal officials were watching him or whether Williams led investigators to Mirza. Floyd said that Williams had been communicating with federal investigators for some time before he surrendered to U.S. marshals Tuesday.

Hmmm… thats interesting. Well, good for him and the whole “seeing the error of his ways” thing.

While I don’t always agree with David’s opinons, he wrote an interesting article on the Lone Star Times about connections these guys had to a particular mosque in Houston.

You hear about it sometimes: A guy in New York, a college kid in LA, someone somewhere was caught giving aid to terrorists. But Tuesday afternoon, two students were arrested right here in Houston for giving support and planing to fight with the Taliban. I know we’re really friendly and helpful here in Houston, but thats a little much don’t you think?

According to the Chron article: Kobie Diallo Williams has pled guilty to to “conspiracy to assist a terrorist group”. Which, if I remember right, is gonna land you in jail for a bit. The other guy, a Pakistani national here on an expired student visa, is in the for the same thing and some federal wepons charges. Basically, the guys were giving money to someone who said they were giving it to the Taliban. And they were taking gun courses so they could eventually go fight in Afghanistan and Iraq.

While their plans weren’t very scary on their own, it is kind of a reminder that this kinda stuff can happen here. We live in the only city in the US with all major terrorist targets and, whatever your political/ideological views may be, there are those who’d like to do away with us. So, moral of the story? I guess just keep your eye’s peeled.

What other people are saying around town: IFOC, LST, blogHouston.

The Metblog family is sponsoring a theme in the awesome JPG digital photography magazine called ‘Hometown‘. All submitted photos will be voted on by the photog community and winners will be featured in the November issue.

“Home is not just about where you’re from - it’s also about where you’ve chosen to be. What does your hometown look like, and how does it feel?”

Represent our fair city and let us see how you view H-Town! Don’t forget to post your Houston photos to the Houston Metblog Flickr group too…

Photo thanks to Notsuoh Photography!

Despite a split decision draw on HBO’s primetime boxing against reigning super featherweight title holder, Marco Antonio Barrera, Houstonian Rocky Juarez appeared to this fight fan to be the clear winner. Barrera outboxed Juarez in the early rounds but to no avail. Although he landed more punches, they were weak and ineffective compared to the bombs dropped by Juarez. In the later rounds, it was all Rocky Juarez as the youngster’s tenacious attacks left Barrera gasping for air and holding on for dear life.

In the end, the judges must have been watching another fight as they saw fit to rule the bout a draw. The draw means that Marco Antonio Barrera retains his title and Juarez gains only the respect of the boxing world.

Congratulations to the hometown hero, Rocky Juarez for beating the champ regardless of the decision.

On my way home last night, I couldn’t believe the lines pouring out onto the sidewalks and into the parking lots of every sporting goods store we passed. Astros fans need memorabilia, dammit!!

This World Series has been decades in the making and it’s really cool seeing everyone get so behind our home team. Seems like most everyone has had some sort of Astros sighting or story over the last couple of weeks.

Mayor White is even promoting nudity (okay, I’m kind of making that up - but it made a better post title) this weekend in support of the ‘Stros.

Mayor Bill White urged Houstonians to participate in a “no sox” weekend in support of the hometown team.

“My mother may not approve,” he said, before several members of his senior staff lifted their slacks to show off bare ankles. “But let’s show everybody that we’re behind these Houston Astros.”

(link via Ed Schipul. Thanks Ed!)

(Astros/Sox gear image found here in this Flickr album)

GOP poster boy Tom Delay showed up for his mugshot and perp walk/slither today.

Heres the warrant if you feel the need to frame it.

bye bye tommy!

I don’t know if anything I’m posting has already been said because I’m trying to get this in before the power goes out!!!

Looks like we missed the brunt of the storm at the last moment. It turned towards Sabine Pass and the eye made landfall 5 miles east of the pass. Todd’s hometown, Port Arthur, has taken a beating all night long with wind gusts up to 116 miles per hour, I believe. Todd is already setting up a site to help the people surrounding Sabine pass with resources after the storm. Good job, Todd. I hope his family’s home is okay, though it is very near the water. I am sure glad his mom got the heck out of there! Posting this before I lose power. My brother is a few miles away and is without power. The lights keep blinking on and off here. The Woodlands has received a little rain. 3/4 inch has made it into the rain gage. Nothing compared with the projected 24 inches predicted for areas getting the bad end of the storm. Though, with the wind, that is not very accurate. Stay safe everyone!!!

One of my all-time favorite places in the world is in my old hometown of Lawrence KS. It was a bar called the Replay and its where I honed my love of the 3 P’s. Punk Rock, PBR and Pinball. Many an afternoon were spent at the ‘Friday Free Play’ chasing down Irish Car Bombs with 1.25 cans of PBR and trying desperately (yet unsucessfully) to beat Attack from Mars.

Now you too can enjoy some free plays (sort of) and get to see a dying artform in all its beauty (minus the car bombs I imagine) at the Pinball & Video Show.

Friday 5pm - 2am
Saturday 10am - 2am

Houston Northwest Inn
14996 Northwest Freeway
Houston, TX

$12 admission but you play for free!