Here’s a video from YouTube of Idgy Vaughn, Erin Condo, and Sofia Gray doing a great Vaughn tune “Mr. Wrong.”

If you’re into Irish, er, I mean Celtic music, it doesn’t get any better this side of the Atlantic than the Wednesday night Irish session. Here’s another video from a devoted fan.

My relationship with my car is something like a father’s with an adolescent daughter. Please God just tell me everything’s great cause if it’s not I just don’t think I can handle it. So on this, the six-month or so anniversary of the ominous arrival of the check-engine light I’m ready to seek professional help. The thing is, who to turn to? I have no idea. So as an experiment who better to turn to than the collective power of the Metroblogging Houston crowd? Anyone? Anyone? I prefer to local mechanic somewhere in reasonable proximity to Rice Village area. The comments are open.

As college football coaches look and act less like teachers and more like CEOs, the conclusion of football season is seeing a lot more hiring and firing than in years past. For ambitious coaches, revitalizing a losing program is sometimes less an investment than a stepping stone. After one year with Rice, first year Owls Coach and Conference USA Coach of the Year, Todd Graham has parlayed his success into the head job at Tulsa, where he coached prior to taking the job at Rice. It’s a bitter loss for Rice, who just signed Graham to a contract through 2012, and also lost offensive coordinator Major Applewhite to Alabama.

A little to the East, University of Houston head coach Art Briles, who lead a rejuvenated Cougar team to their first Conference USA Championship reportedly turned down an offer from the Minnesota Gophers in the wake of their unseemly firing of Glen Mason after his team gave up the biggest comeback in bowl history to Tech.

Houston Chronicle: Group trying to preserve old Sixth Ward character posts front-porch testimonials on YouTube.com

If you’re a Houston transplant like I am you probably have no idea what a ward is much less where they all are. Here’s a great run-down of the Six Wards of Houston. The Houston Chronicle has a feature on the wards with a helpful map. Looking it over, one of the things you’ll likely realize is how much of Houston you’ve never set foot in. May I suggest a New Year’s Resolution? Get out there and do some local tourism!!!

The Houston Cougars went down 44-36 to the South Carolina Gamecocks. A gamecock, if you didn’t know, is a “strong, colorful, and territorial type of chicken.” Knowing that only makes me feel marginally better. Exciting game, good finish, blah blah blah blah blah… another bowl loss is all it is to me. Sigh….

• Houston Chronicle: UH outgunned by South Carolina in Liberty Bowl
• Michael Murphy: Live, from Memphis, it’s the beginning of the end…
• Richard Justice: UH slows in second half, loses Liberty Bowl, 44-36.

In People of Texas, people of faith, the Houston Chronicle reviewed Roy Spence Jr.’s new photobook The Amazing Faith of Texas: Common Ground on Higher Ground exploring the varieties of religious experience in Texas.

The book, which features several Houstonians including Mayor Bill White, inspired White to create a series of interfaith dinners composed of groups of 8-10 people who will have dinner on Tuesday, January 30, 2007 to discuss and share about their faith. If you’re interested in participating, you can sign up on their website - Amazing Faiths Houston.

Once a year the downtown arts community comes together for ArtCrawl Houston and opens it’s collective doors to the general public. It’s a unique opportunity to see the kind of exciting artwork being created as we speak in the Bayou City and meet the good people making it.

Over 100 artists will be showing their work this Saturday, November 18th, between the hours of 2:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. (when the parties get started) in over 25 buildings. Not to be missed!

I’ll be crawling along myself to Fransisco Studios (2300 McKinney) and to the Elder Street Artists Lofts (1101 Elder) to see the latest work from my good friend and artist Shane Maberry. Hope to see y’all out there!

The University of Houston men’s basketball team opened the season tonight with an overtime win in Rhode Island. Oliver Lafayette hit a three pointer as time expired in the overtime period to seal the win for the Cougars and deliver Coach Tom Penders a satisfying victory over a team he coached to the Elite Eight in 1988.

Houston had big contributions from JuCo transfers Robert McKiver (33 points) and Marcus Malone (25 points) in addition to 20 from returning senior guard Oliver Lafayette.

The Cougars host Monmouth in their first home game of the season this saturday, Nov. 18th at Hofheinz Pavillion. They’ll face their first big test Dec. 17th against #16 Arizona, a team they upset in Houston last year.

Houston Chronicle, ESPN

Harry and Lesli Zamora conceived of the Phenomena Police when they began experiencing strange unexplainable activity in the house they had just moved into. Harry, a veteran police officer, convinced some of his co-workers to help him figure out what was happening.

The Houston Chronicle published a list of the “Top 10″ most stolen vehicles in Houston. Trucks lead off the top three (1) Ford (2) Chevrolet and (3) Dodge. Finding your vehicle on the list could be either good or bad depending on how you look at it. You’d never want to go through the ordeal yourself, but it’s nice to know that it’s in demand.