Dave’s Hot Chicken opened in Rice Village this past weekend, and alongside free shot glasses and temporary tattoos, they delivered some fiery sliders and tenders. The location is adjacent to Velvet Taco at 2525 Rice Boulevard and has plenty of Rice decor on their walls to appease their majority customer base.
Last semester, the Rice Music Collective created the Tiny Nest Concert, compiling the talents of 25 student artists under soft purple lighting in an intimately staged apartment off-campus. A play on NPR’s Tiny Desk, the video series of 22 musical performances was released over a period of six weeks. Since then, the club has continued to attract attention from musicians and non-musicians alike as they arrange events to showcase student talent. This week, the Thresher caught up with some former Tiny Nest performers to hear about how they became involved with music, their experiences in the club and the projects they’re currently working on.
Houstonian John Devereaux is taking the stage at the Hobby Center as a member of the ensemble and a swing for the production of “Hamilton.” Running at the Hobby Center through March 20, the show has brought Devereaux back to his home city and the theater where his interest in theater was sparked.
Listen up, everyone, because the princess of pop-punk has done it again. Avril Lavigne released her seventh studio album, “Love Sux,” and it’s everything I wanted and needed. It literally transported me back to my angsty early teenage years, but this time I can actually relate to her problems. I might have been sick in bed before listening to this album, but it had me up dancing around my room even before the second song. Even at 37, Lavigne’s vocals are as strong as ever and feel like they were plucked from the 2000s. A far cry from the slower ballads in her often forgotten 2019 album, “Head Above Water,” which even I only listened to in the midst of writing this review, Lavigne’s “Love Sux” experiences a delightful return to her pop-punk form.
Mignote Tadesse, a Lovett College junior, aims to incorporate more life and human experiences into her art, primarily working with oil paint on landscape images. Throughout her creative process, she draws inspiration from a wide range of sources, from Monet to her family portraits, and reflects on balancing art with her classes and schedule as a pre-med student.
Baltimore-born synth duo Beach House released their first self-produced album on Feb. 18. Written over the course of three years, “Once Twice Melody'' is a four-part kaleidoscope of timeless yet transient melancholia and one of Beach House’s most ambitious projects to date. Of the album’s 84-minute run time, keyboardist Victoria Legrand said, “We discovered that there was something more that the record wanted than just a 10-song existence.” Though “Once Twice Melody” fails to maintain the steady surety of the duo’s breakout release “Bloom,” the album preserves wealthy, brimming harmonies worthy of a corresponding light show.
“Drive My Car” is a movie without flourish or visual spectacle. It’s subtly acted and slowly paced. It’s almost three hours long. And it’s one of the best films of the year. “Drive My Car” is currently playing in theaters and will become available on HBO Max on Mar. 2.
Netflix recently released a sequel to their original, teen rom-com movie “Tall Girl” on Feb. 11, so of course I had to write a review. An important thing to note going into this review is that I’m an avid watcher of movies in the same vein as “Tall Girl.” From “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” to that one movie where Bella Thorne plays a girl that’s allergic to the sun, I’ve definitely seen most of those nauseatingly cheesy, bad acting, rom-com flicks — I have a 14-year-old sister that I’ve always watched them with, what can I say?
When I received an invitation to dine at Loro during its pre-opening trial, I suspected the quality food given its high-profile chefs. Even amid the hype, there’s simply no other way to put it: Loro is just too good. Located in Houston Heights, about a 20 minute drive from Rice campus, the Asian fusion smokehouse opens for service on Feb. 23.
Caught up in the unending pileup of mid-semester schoolwork or the infinite scroll of social media, it can be difficult to remember the days when reading was for fun. Even though college may be a busier time than before, it is important to continue making time for reflective hobbies and engage in pleasurable growth. Hopefully, with one of the recommendations collected from fellow Rice students below, you’ll be able to re-engage in the joy of leisure reading and discover a new book to check out.
Mardi Gras is the culmination of the celebrations from Epiphany on Jan. 6 to the day before Ash Wednesday known as Fat Tuesday, which is “Mardi Gras” in French. This reflects the practice of eating rich, fatty foods before the beginning of Lenten fasting season. The holiday has French roots, it is celebrated in the United States, especially in cities and regions with traditionally French populations such as New Orleans where their annual festivities in the days preceding Fat Tuesday attract locals and tourists alike. Here are just some of the ways to celebrate Mardi Gras in the Houston area for those interested.
The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo is right around the corner and Houstonians are dashing to Cavenders to perfect their Western drip before descending on NRG Park in droves. While many of the best parts of the radio stay the same (mutton grab, deep fried oreos), the musical performers change each night, with a total of 20 artists over the course of 20 days. If you’ve missed the rodeo due to its cancellation over the last two years, here are some performers to consider checking out and my personal recommendations.
Reflective of the Rice interdisciplinary spirit, Jillian Conrad, a Houston-based artist, collaborated with Rice University’s Robinson Lab to create her latest exhibition, “Hydras,” which combines the intricacies of visual art and cutting-edge nanotechnology research. “Hydras” will be on display at the Bioscience Research Collaborative through May 28.
Adriana Amaris, a Sid Richardson College senior, gave a closing night performance for their solo-exhibition “Self Care” at Sleepy Cyborg Gallery on Feb. 18. The show consisted of two parts: a collection of eight mixed-media art pieces inspired by tattoos and the tattooing process, followed by a live tattoo show held on the last day of the exhibition, where Amaris tattooed two of her friends with artwork featured in the show.
Featuring dance, song and spoken word, Soul Night provides an outlet for Black students at Rice to unapologetically voice their individual perspectives while simultaneously celebrating their shared identities. Preceded by a dinner reception, the event is the Black Student Association’s annual cultural showcase, held in the Grand Hall for the last time. This year, the show’s theme is Black excellence, which performers aim to honor in all of its nuances. Students and community members can watch Soul Night on Saturday, Feb. 26. Dinner starts at 6 p.m. and the show starts at 7 p.m.; tickets are $10.
Last year, a St. Louis reporter tweeted a promo for a segment on where parents should look for hidden drugs in their child’s room. The tweet started with the sentence: “Looks like a normal teen’s bedroom, right?” — a grave mistake considering that the bedroom looked nothing like a normal teen’s bedroom (for starters, no teen has ever owned a three hold punch). There are two morals of this story. First, the news station needs to fire whoever their teen-bedroom correspondent is. Second, there’s a reason the common refrain is “write what you know.” It’s really hard to accurately portray something or someone you don’t have personal experience with.
Going into “Death on the Nile,” I had extremely high hopes for this murder-mystery film based on the 1937 Agatha Christie novel of the same name. Its predecessor, “Murder on the Orient Express,” was a fantastic film filled with twists and turns and a genuinely surprising but well-earned final reveal. However, “Death on the Nile” is a massive disappointment, failing at all levels of production.
Among the many escape rooms littered throughout Houston is Rice Escape, a student-designed and operated escape room located in the Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen. The Thresher had a chance to visit Rice Escape and found it to be a great and convenient way to spend an afternoon with friends.
