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    Houston's Music Festival

    The ultimate guide to Free Press Summer Fest's food: Eat like a rock star

    Reid Schroder
    Reid Schroder
    May 31, 2013 | 3:57 pm

    So what is your plan for eating and drinking this weekend at Free Press Summer Fest, Houston? Are you going to throw down a blanket, take your shoes off, and camp out in front of the Mars stage all day, hopping up intermittently for bathroom breaks and a huge slice of pizza?

    Are you going to roam around and try a little bit of everything in small amounts?

    Want my advice? Don’t commit to either! Play it smart and map something out with the FPSF app, but don’t etch anything in stone. This is a festival, after all. A festival in Houston, put on by Houstonians. You’d be doing yourself a disservice by committing to any one section of Eleanor Tinsley Park.

    You don’t want to be stuck waiting in line for a mediocre sub from Jersey Mike’s when you could be grabbing a Vietnamese sandwich.

    But where to begin? There are plenty of choices this year, and you don’t want to be stuck waiting in line for a mediocre sub from Jersey Mike’s when you could be grabbing a Vietnamese sandwich from the MuSuBi food truck . . .

    To assist you in your Free Press Summer Fest 2013 experience, here is my humble compilation of food, drink and assorted concessions to get you started. You’ll be glad you discovered these this weekend.

    Wild Bill’s Olde Fashioned Soda

    Crafty, classic suds in a refillable tin mug etched with the FPSF logo? Can’t miss! This booth was a hidden gem on Saturday last year, but by Sunday, everybody and their mother armed themselves with those 36-ounce tin mugs and lined up all day long for some delicious Sarsaparilla Six-Shooters and Outlaw Orange sodas.

    Buy a mug on Saturday before the lines get too long, and just like they tell you in the voting booth, refill early and often. Look for the booth buried between all sorts of food goodness along the main drag between the festival stages. You are bound to hear some good music while you’re waiting for an ice cold soda pop.

    MuSuBi Food Truck

    Food trucks are parking at the festival this year! This move seems like a no-brainer, and I’m very happy to see the food truck community taking an active role at Free Press Summer Fest. As for my personal favorite, MuSuBi will be parked directly across from the Neptune stage near the Taft entrance, so you don’t have to miss Geto Boys' set while waiting for a crispy baguette full of ginger garlic meatball with sweet Vietnamese chili sauce. A family recipe, I’m told. Well done, Houston.

    Saint Arnold White Noise

    Not only is this beer — a Belgian Wit full of bright flavors — perfect for a hot June day in Houston, it also goes far to debunk the myth that a music festival experience has to include crappy, overpriced beer. Keeping FPSF local is what this weekend is all about, and I’m thrilled to hear that Saint Arnold Brewing Company is doing this. You can find these beers in the Fancy Pants tents as well as the craft beer wall on the festival grounds.

    In the spirit of its name, I’m inviting you to enjoy White Noise with me while listening to the blistering sonic assault coming from the Jupiter stage during A Place To Bury Strangers’ set on Saturday evening.

    (Pro Tip: A little bird named Lennie tells me that using the hasthag #WhiteNoiseatFPSF or posting pictures on Saint Arnold's Facebook wall while enjoying the beer might just give you a shot at a nice prize.)

    Tiff’s Treats

    There is often a time at a festivals when, inevitably, you might crave some sweet munchies. When that happens, Look to the cookie! Tiff’s Treats is there for you this year, Houston. Their brick and mortar shop at Greenway Plaza has been a personal favorite of mine for a while now, so when I saw their name on the FPSF app this year, I couldn’t resist.

    Trust me, after toughing out two days of sweltering heat and the dizzying effects of music on music on music, you deserve a cookie. They will be offering a few of their classic cookie recipes near the Saturn stage as well as their ice cream filled Tiffwich sandwich and their brownie-forward masterpiece, the Tiffblitz.

    For Artists Only:Greenway Coffee Co.and Blacksmith Coffee Bar

    I have it on good faith that the guys from Greenway and Blacksmith are offering their fantastic coffee drinks to the Paul Walls and the Chan Marshalls of the world in the artist tent. I feel bad mentioning this one, because it is off limits to fans, but since I’m in that boat too, we can all marvel at this concept together from afar.

    At least there are Anvil cocktails in the Fancy Pants tent to sip on. Just imagine if Tom Waits was in the lineup this year! Houston could be in the midst of a recreation of the classic Tom & Iggy vignette from the Jim Jarmusch film Coffee and Cigarettes.

    In any case, it’s great that Greenway and Blacksmith are showcasing Houston’s coffee culture for all of the artists that make this festival possible.

    The folks behind Anvil will be serving cocktails like The Mexican Firing Squad (made from tequila, lime, agave nectar, grenadine and bitters) out of the Fancy Pants tent.

     
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    Movie Review

    How to Train Your Dragon remake puts a fresh twist on the original

    Alex Bentley
    Jun 12, 2025 | 4:14 pm
    Toothless and Mason Thames in How to Train Your Dragon
    Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures
    Toothless and Mason Thames in How to Train Your Dragon.

    Let’s get it out of the way right at the top: The new live-action How to Train Your Dragon, coming a mere 15 years after the original animated film, serves no real purpose other than to make more money for Universal Pictures and Dreamworks Pictures. However, unlike Disney’s approach toward remaking their animated movies, this attempt manages to succeed on its own merits instead of being a half-baked vessel for nostalgia.

    As fans will remember, Hiccup (Mason Thames) lives in Berk, a town on a remote island populated by Vikings who constantly have to defend themselves against rampaging dragons. Hiccup’s dad, Stoick (Gerard Butler), is the community’s vaunted leader, with a legacy that seems impossible for Hiccup to measure up to, especially since he’s stuck in the armory alongside Gobber (Nick Frost).

    But Hiccup has a knack for inventions, and his use of one new weapon during a dragon attack takes down a feared Night Fury. Finding the wounded dragon deep in the forest, Hiccup decides against killing it, leading to an unexpected bond between the two of them. Most of the film shows Hiccup trying to prove himself to his townspeople, including the fierce Astrid (Nico Parker), while also nursing the dragon he dubs Toothless back to health with the help of another one of his ingenious creations.

    Written and directed by Dean DeBlois (who’s had the same roles on all four HTTYD films), the film is most notable for how engaging it is despite it retelling a story many already know and love. The biggest reason for this is a pivot away from telling a story mainly for kids toward one that feels like an extremely light version of Game of Thrones. Almost right away, there are real stakes for the people in the film, and the way DeBlois and his team stage the scenes, the danger can be felt by the audience.

    This sense of “realness” comes through especially well in the scenes between Hiccup and Toothless. The design of Toothless is faithful to the original, but the CGI makes the dragon feel amazingly believable. And when they start flying, the film literally and metaphorically takes off. At multiple points, the camera seems to have trouble keeping them in frame, a smart move toward verisimilitude when the filmmakers clearly could have made it an overly smooth watching experience.

    Even though it’s more serious than the original, the film still has plenty of fun to offer. Characters like Gobber (who replaces his two missing limbs with odd contraptions) and the ragtag group of teenagers who come to be in awe of Hiccup’s skills at taming dragons provide more than a few laughs. Hiccup isn’t quite as goofy as he was when voiced by Jay Baruchel, which turns out to be a good thing as his sense of purpose amps up the drama of the story.

    Thames’ performance gets better and better as the film goes along, as Hiccup goes from town whipping boy toward hero. He really shines in the last act when he’s given a few scenes that show off his acting range. Parker is equally good, demonstrating the girl power needed for the role, but also the softness of a potential love interest. Butler, the only actor reprising their voice role, is a great presence who sells the outsized personality of Stoick.

    Against the odds, this new version of How to Train Your Dragon is equal to the success of the first film, accomplishing the goal of making it feel like you’re watching the story for the first time. If live-action remakes are going to continue to come out, future filmmakers should study this film for how to respect both the history of the franchise and the audience paying good money to be entertained.

    ---

    How to Train Your Dragon opens in theaters on June 13.

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