Podcasting has come to Houston in a big way – but there is room for your skills to make sure it grows. Your’s truly, is becoming the resident Podgod – helping setup several podcasts as well as broadcasting a few of my own. Riding with the Window Down is a companion podcast to my blog and while it doesn’t have thousands of listeners, it is growing.

mobilepodcast.org is a Houston based podcaster focusing on mobile podcasting.

The biggest success so far is the Lone Star Gridiron podcast. It is a podcast that covers high school football in the Texas area. With only two shows under our belt, we already have some advertisers lined up and the listenership is growing fast. This type of niche podcasting has great potential.

A site that is just starting up is called This Week in Houston and it is designed to be a podcast about what is happening in Houston. TWiH is looking to local bands for musical content as well, so if you know of someone – spread the word.

If you are interested in setting up your own podcast, want to get some pub for your existing podcast, or would like to contribute to TWiH – drop by and check it out. Podcasting is exploding and Houston needs to be a major player in the space. We already have the best bloggers in the country – we need to become the best podcasters in the country… and that includes supporting our own.

Also check out the Houston Podcasting Yahoo Group – it is freshly created and needs some members!

I just noticed that I didn’t put the date on my post about Bruce Campbell coming to town.

It’s actually next Wednesday (July 6th) if anyone is interested in going.

Okay everyone, relax.

Houston Revealed is proud to announce the winner for photo #16 is none other than our beloved CEO of H-Town Blogs, Elaine Mesker-Garcia! She correctly guessed the image was from Hobby Center for the Performing Arts. Now girl, get cracking on updating that there H-Town blog site.

Houston Revealed is also giddy with shutterbug happiness that David Ting-Jui Chang got in touch with us about his prize. (whew)… so your gift-certificate is on the way David!

And finally, we have the latest entry in the epistles of Houston Revealed! Remember that (a) you can play more than once and (b) all photos are from somewhere downtown Houston.

What building is this from?

If you think you know, send your answer via email to us before next Wednesday.

We Metrobloggers, among others, have made the exodus from Meetup.com. So what else is out there? That’s what I was wondering when I came across Upcoming.org. It’s pegged as an open source alternative to Meetup.

I’m still exploring how it can be used, but so far it’s not so bad. You join a metro (Houston, in our case) and it lists events that other users have posted. The number of users is small, only about 70 in Houston, and the only events listed so far are upcoming concerts. As expected, you just indicate whether you’ll attend a particular event or not.

Users can post their own events, and therefore are free to come up with their own location, date and time. Sounds like a good deal to me.

Like Meetup, it has the ability to remind you. But Upcoming lets you decide when you want to be reminded and how, either by e-mail or SMS.

The only problem seems to be the lack of a large user population, but that may change.

On July 6th, Bruce Campbell, the star of such cult classics as The Evil Dead, Army of Darkness, and The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. will be in town signing his latest book Make Love! The Bruce Campbell Way before showing his latest movie “Man with the Screaming Brain” at the River Oaks Theatre. I missed him when he was in town signing If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a “B” Movie Actor and I’ve regretted it ever since.

Bruce is talking and doing a Q&A at 6:00, with the signing around 6:40. “Man with the Screaming Brain” will then be shown at 10:00. More information can be found at the Murder by the Book signing page. Seating is limited for the speaking engagement, so I’m going to try and arrive around 5:00 or so.

If anyone is interested in going, e-mail me at kymberlie AT neuroticfishbowl.com so I can keep an eye out for you.

Yesterday, a message on those information board things that are on the highways (the big electronic signs that usually give accident and traffic information) caught my attention.

For those of you that have ever been on the road on a Friday or Saturday night at around 2am, you are aware of the fact that there are a lot of people on the road who probably have had a little too much to drink. I always find this to be the case when traveling south on 59 around 610, where people are either swerving in between two lanes or going 100+mph. In any case, it appears that you can now dial *DWI on your mobile phone to report drunk driving.

What I’m wondering is – what happens after you call? Let’s say I report someone driving badly on 59 south…what are the police going to do? Get on 59 and look for that person? By the time an officer is dispatched the driver will probably have exited or be long gone..

Although I think that *DWI is a good idea, I wonder whether it will actually be useful in preventing drunk driving. Either way – it’s a step in the right direction.

This weekend promises to be packed with chit to do man.

Friday afternoon I

Uh oh! I might have jinxed the Houston Revealers. Two weeks ago I heaped praise on all of our participants for their eagle eyes. And now we have had two pictures in a row go by without a winner. Now I know…. everyone has slumps. You can snap out it. I’ll throw you an easy one this week.

Where in downtown Houston was this picture taken?

If you think you know, email the answer!

My co-workers have recently introduced me to the glories of Sandy’s Food Market – a mere hop-skip-jump from my humble office abode.

If the novelty of eating in the middle of a grocery store food aisle isn’t enough to draw you in (it was for me), then the live jazz and completely phenomonal salad bar should.

There are also nice little old ladies that push serving carts literally overflowing with countless kinds of teas who try to force yummy ginger cookies on you and smell like your grandma.

There is also a super hot buffet with wild rice and other veggie delights (the potatoes are to die for). Supposedly their breakfasts are even better and they are just about to begin afternoon tea services and dinner as well. I heart Sandy’s.

There is a screening of the Houston-made film Laughing Boy at the Alama Drafthouse on Sunday evening.

The showing will benefit the Aiden Gray’s trust fund, the 2-year old son of Laughing Boy star Michael Gray who died on June 6th.

Doors open at 6pm and showtime is at 6:45. The price of admission is whatever you’ll offer out of the goodness of your heart for little Aiden.

(Thanks to Houston actor Henry Kana for the tip)