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Jennifer Aniston's favorite fitness studio heading to Houston

Pvolve, the New York-based fitness concept backed in part by Friends actress Jennifer Aniston, is set to open several Houston-area studios in the next few years.

The expansion is thanks to a franchise agreement with local entrepreneurs Mark To, Hahn To and Shawn Bishop, according to the Houston Business Journal. The Tos and Bishop have previously opened various other franchises including Massage Envy, The Joint Chiropractic, European Wax Center and Phenix Salon Suites.

They hope to eventually
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Slow, low and bangin': Houston car culture, explained

Texas culture can get boiled down to barbecue and country music, but some things are unique to a city like Houston. One of them? Swangas, which confused some drivers in Austin recently.

This week, a user posted to the Austin subreddit a photo of an otherwise staid-looking Kia sedan sporting major rims. The post now has more than 900 comments, asking everything from, "What is the point of these?" to, "How is this legal?" A good number of the comments reference classic Houston rap, including Lil'
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Megan Thee Stallion sued for harassment, hostile work environment

The suit was filed in California by Emilio Garcia, who claims that he worked as a personal cameraman for the "Savage" rapper from July 2018 until June 2023, when he was let go. The suit alleges multiple violations of the Fair Employment and Housing Act, including harassment so severe that it created a “hostile, abusive work environment” that made Garcia’s “working conditions intolerable."

The lawsuit alleges that Garcia quit his full-time job in 2019 to work and travel with Megan Thee Stallion,
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Not everyone is celebrating Houston's dueling Pride parades

During a council meeting last week, District H Councilmember Mario Castillo, who is gay, voiced concerns about the city having two Pride parades, calling it a “leadership gap in the community.” Mayor John Whitmire agreed, saying that he wants to bring the two Pride organizations together for a joint celebration.

New Faces of Pride consists of former members of Pride Houston 365, who split with the original group over allegations of financial mismanagement and other issues. Meanwhile, Pride Hous
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Texas A&M student radio station is gearing up to hit FM airwaves

The radio station announced the move in a Monday press release. Securing the permit is notable for a small station; there are only so many radio frequencies available in a given location, and it's rare for an unclaimed frequency to become available. Plus, with many broadcast radio stations transitioning to online-only streaming, it's unusual to see an indie radio station take the opposite track.

KANM officials say the approval of the permit is the first step towards operating the station on an
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How Willie Nelson got himself banned from this Texas university

The ban has been in effect ever since. As recently as 2019, a petition was circulated asking Baylor President Linda Livingstone to lift the ban, but it appears that Willie is still persona non grata on campus. (Calls to Baylor's media relations department to inquire about the ban went to voicemail.)

But why? It makes sense that the Christian university might look down upon the behavior of one of the world's most famous cannabis connoisseurs. But in a deliciously awkward interview from 1988 with
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One of 2024's most anticipated art shows opens in Houston

The first thing you notice walking into the downstairs gallery at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston is a blanket-covered couch positioned in front of a large screen. The room is dark, and the other furniture—a dining table and chairs, a yellowing lamp—give the impression of cast-offs. It feels like walking into a basement den, or perhaps a converted garage.

That's fitting because American artist Olivia Erlanger's previous work has dealt with the mythology of the garage—everything from Frank
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Houston's first interior design tour showcases luxury living

Houston has its fair share of architecture tours, but a group of local design firms are teaming up to host the city's very first Interior Design Tour.

The self-guided tour will take place on Saturday, April 27, and will showcase decorative styles from a variety of genres, featuring five different Houston-based firms. The idea behind the tour is to showcase the designers' works, inspire people working on their own home projects, and introduce potential customers to designers.

The event is being
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Houston's upcoming gospel music museum has its official home

Houston's Third Ward neighborhood could soon be home to a museum dedicated to gospel music, its history and its legacy.

While the Gospel Music Haus & Museum has been in the works since 2021, organizers recently made a significant announcement in the museum's progress. The former Wesley Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church, at 2209 Emancipation Ave., has been secured as the official location for the museum. The historical church-turned-museum will be the centerpiece of a major redevelopment
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Houston's Rothko Chapel is undergoing a big expansion

It was ironic that Wednesday's groundbreaking ceremony for Phase II of the Rothko Chapel's renovations was somewhat interrupted by background noise—mowers and leaf blowers manned by landscapers in the distance. That's because the second phase of the chapel's revamp will include extensive work on a park-like space extending the Rothko's calm, meditative atmosphere to the surrounding grounds.

The chapel, which opened in 1971 on the campus of the Menil Collection, was commissioned by museum founde
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Appeals court blocks Texas' controversial book rating law

An appeals court has yet again dealt a blow to a controversial book-rating law that would have required Texas booksellers to individually rate books they sell based on whether the works contain depictions or references to sex.

The move came on April 16, when the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals voted 9-8 not to rehear the case after a three-judge panel ruled that the law, known as the Reader Act, was unconstitutional.

The law, previously known as HB 900, was passed during the 2023 Texas legis
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Houston luxury real estate maven's closet is headed to auction

Martha Turner built a real estate empire in Houston. Now, Houstonians have a chance to purchase items from her fabulous life, with proceeds going towards two local charities.

Turner, who died in 2022, was the founder of Martha Turner Properties, a luxury real estate firm that was doing upwards of $2 billion in sales a year when it was acquired by Sotheby's International Realty in 2014. Turner stepped down as head of the firm in 2015 but continued to hold a chairman emeritus role until her death
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‘Mao’s Last Dancer’ returns to Houston for film screening, talk

The movie is based on Li's memoir of the same name, which outlines his journey from rural China to America and his disillusionment with the Chinese Communist Party that he once longed to serve.

Li was the subject of an international scandal in 1981 when he was imprisoned inside Houston's Chinese Embassy for 21 hours following an attempt to defect to the United States. He was eventually released, and his Chinese citizenship was revoked.

Li ultimately danced with the Houston Ballet for 16 years
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Houston’s temporary tattoo shop lasted less time than its ink

Ephemeral, the company which opened a storefront in the bustling Montrose shopping district in September 2022, has already closed up shop. In true Houston fashion, it's in the process of being replaced by Bahama Mama, a popular local smoke shop chain. It's unclear exactly when the ink shop closed, but the storefront, at 1665 Westheimer Road, has been vacant for the past few months.

Ephemeral rose to fame in 2021 by offering "commitment free" tattoos—made with real ink and applied using a real t
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Texas Eclipse Fest was canceled for weather—it was worse inside

The festival hosted at the sprawling Reveille Peak Ranch began on Friday, April 6, and was supposed to close on Tuesday, April 9. Instead, organizers announced around 10 a.m. on April 8 that the festival was shutting down early due to severe weather. At the time, many festival attendees were eagerly awaiting the start of the eclipse, set to begin around noon that same day, with totality occurring around 1:30 p.m.

"We regret to inform you of the severe weather forecast, including risks of high w
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Drake dropped from huge Astroworld lawsuit

Drake has been dropped from at least one class action lawsuit filed in the wake of the 2021 Astroworld Festival crowd crush incident that left 10 people dead and hundreds more injured.

Thousands of lawsuits were filed in the aftermath of the concert. The Toronto-born rapper, whose real name is Aubrey Graham, was listed as one of dozens of defendants in a class-action lawsuit filed in Harris County alleging negligence in the planning and execution of the event. Other defendants include Travis Sc
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Houston's Museum of Fine Arts celebrating its 100th anniversary

The oldest art museum in Texas, the MFAH opened on April 12, 1924, with just one structure, the neoclassical Caroline Wiess Law building at Montrose Boulevard and Bissonnet Street. The original museum entrance faced south, overlooking Hermann Park and the Miller Outdoor Theater, which celebrated its centennial last year.

Over the years, the original building was expanded with new wings and galleries, and the museum's campus also grew, with the eastern structure, the Audrey Jones Beck Building,
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Get lost in the shelves during Houston's bookstore crawl

"We created it because we wanted to spotlight our neighbors, and we were curious: how many bookstores are there in Houston?" the shop wrote recently on the photo-sharing site. Now, Blue Willow is teaming up with 17 of its "neighbors" for a month-long bookstore crawl that will highlight other independent sellers in the Houston area and give Houstonians the opportunity to patronize local businesses, and get a chance to win some goodies in the process.

Since that 2022 post, Houston has added a num
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Sculptor builds 35-foot temple to honor Houston's art community

The encounter with Scranton highlights one of the reasons Best is in town. Though Best, who is in his late 70s, lives in California, he has close ties to the Houston art car community. He's in town for the next several days as the Orange Show's 2024 artist in residence.

Best is well known internationally for his towering, intricate, non-denominational wooden temples, which are built as places of mourning, release and reflection, and then burned to the ground. He's closely associated with the Bu
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Two artists are turning Houston's Sabine Street footbridge pink

Though Buffalo Bayou Park has undergone numerous improvements over the past decade, including the installation of new pedestrian bridges spanning the bayou near Montrose Boulevard and Shepherd Drive, the Sabine Street Bridge predates them all. As a result, it has a sort of neglected, utilitarian air. Whereas the Rosemont Bridge, just east of Montrose, includes decorative ironwork railings and a unique Y-shaped design, the Sabine bridge consists of ugly stairs, patchwork concrete, and generic met
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In Houston’s Botanic Garden, Zimbabwean art is born in real time

At the Houston Botanic Garden Friday morning, artist Passmore Mupindiko was putting the finishing touches on a stone sculpture, a hummingbird perched atop the leaves of what looks like a bromeliad. A visitor to the garden earlier in the week saw Mupindiko's unfinished sculpture and already put a claim on it. That customer is coming to pick up the sculpture later on Friday, and so Mupindiko, working under a pop-up tent just inside the gardens' entrance, is trying to finish it in time.

"It needs
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Skims seems to be opening a store in Houston

Skims, the shapewear and basics brand founded by Kim Kardashian, may be preparing to open a brick-and-mortar store inside the Houston Galleria.

Permits filed with the state of Texas show plans for a nearly 7,000-square-foot Skims retail store on the Galleria's first floor, near Marc Jacobs, Tag Heuer and Alo Yoga. According to the Houston Chronicle, which first reported the development, the permits list New York-based Kenneth Park Architects as the design firm for the project. That's the same f
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Houston rodeo announces dates for 2025

Mark your calendars, rodeo fans. The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo will be returning for 2025, and has just announced the dates for the nearly century-old event. The 93rd Houston rodeo will take place Tuesday, March 4 through Sunday, March 23.

That means the opening date of the rodeo will coincide with Mardi Gras 2025—the perfect opportunity for the festival to book a zydeco band for the event's ever-popular concert series. The Rodeo Run and Parade will take place on Saturday, March 1, with
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Beyoncé's 'Cowboy Carter' references the Chitlin' Circuit. What is it?

Beyoncé's visuals for Cowboy Carter, her country album released Friday, are rife with references to Southern culture, from the border blaster radio stations that gave voice to regional artists in the postwar era, to the trail riders and rodeo queens that help preserve Black cowboy history. With the release of the Cowboy Carter track list earlier this week, some fans might be wondering about another reference: the Chitlin Circuit, mentioned prominently at the top of the track listing.

The Chitli
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