There’s an old saying that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Two spots I recently visited in Texas take that statement even further to a level of artistry.

I began my Texas jaunt in Houston’s West End where in the midst of 1930’s style bungalows and condo developments sits a glistening, silvery house that’s covered in as many as 50,000 beer cans. The first sight of the Beer Can House can make drivers stop their cars in the middle of Malone Street or drive back around the block several times.

The home at 222 Malone began as the humble abode of John Milkovisch and his family in the ‘40s. Milkovisch, an upholsterer for the Southern Pacific Railroad, began collecting beer cans while he was covering the yard in concrete with inlaid marbles and stones. He apparently grew tired of mowing the grass. Once the yard was complete, he began a 20-year project that put his growing beer can collection to good use on the house.

“He didn’t believe in throwing anything away. He was way ahead of his time in that respect,” says Stephen Bridges, who handles PR for the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art, which now owns and operates tours at the Beer Can House.

As Milkovisch began affixing sheets of flattened aluminum beer cans to his house, it coincided with a drop in his air conditioning bills. Not to be wasteful of any part of the cans, he found a use for the tops, creating what Bridges calls “pop top garlands.” These still line the house...

For many decades if you wanted to see a movie once it left theaters you were pretty much out of luck. Sure, if you were a fan of It’s A Wonderful Life you could catch it on Christmas, but for most films it seemed as though they were lost to the ages. Then came the wonder of home video. With a short drive to the store you could watch any number of films in the comfort of your own home. This was a giant step forward, but alas it was not perfect, for what if it was raining? The solution? Netflix.

Now all that needed to be done to watch your favorite movie was to put it on your queue and in a matter of days it showed up on your doorstep. But in this ever-demanding society of ours even that wasn’t good enough. But rather than go the way of the video store, Netflix took a bold step forward and partnered with computer giant Microsoft to bring video on demand to the general public.

Thanks to the versatility of the Xbox 360 console, not only can you play the latest video games and store your vacation photos to show off on the family big screen, but now you can watch movies from your Netflix playlist with the push of a button.

Once the 360 logs into your Netflix account, the movies from your selected playlist show up, allowing you to scroll through a stack of box covers...

When you live in New York, the sounds of the city become very much a part of you. After awhile, the din of buses, cabs honking and people yelling isn’t an interruption. The noise isn’t tuned out but it doesn’t warrant attention either. Every now and then though, even the most jaded New Yorker may take note of music in the subway, usually because it's either really bad or really good. In fact, one of my favorite NYC musicians—Lipbone Redding—got his start in the subway.

A mid-Atlantic cable network is picking up on the treasures that can be found underground. The MSG Network, which has traditionally focused on NYC sports (particularly teams that play at Madison Square Garden), is expanding its entertainment offerings with a show called NYC Sound Tracks.

The show takes viewers underground in five boroughs in search of the city's best subway musician. In typical reality TV fashion, viewers will have the chance to vote and narrow 16 musicians down to the top subway star.

The show begins airing July 13th at 8 p.m. on MSG.