A Christmas Story

You'll Put Your Eye Out! Suspects Caught on Camera in BB Gun Drive By

In the old days, kids got BB guns for two things: shooting birds in the yard and then sobbing and swearing never to shoot anything again when their fathers forced them to watch as they mercifully ended the bird's life that took a BB to the eye (ahem) and for protecting their families from Black Bart ... More >>

10 Reasons to Be Thankful Christmas Is Over

After a full blast Christmas season, most of us are worn out to the point of exhaustion. The time spent with family, the commercialism, the "sounds of the season" and the gluttonous embarrassment of feasting is enough to drive anyone to drink, which you probably also did too much of this year for a ... More >>

Christmas Past: Top 10 Christmas Movie Soundtracks

While we celebrate the holidays, Rocks Off is resurrecting a few of our best Christmas-themed blogs from the past few years. (Wait... resurrecting is Easter. Never mind.) This blog originally appeared December 14, 2010. No doubt you have all been chin-deep in Christmas movies since you undid your b ... More >>

NBA Season Jump Starts with Spate of Christmas Day Games Including the Rockets

In 2011, Christmas Day was the literal start to the NBA season thanks to a lockout that kept the season from starting for nearly two full months. Most every other year, the season starts in October, but for the casual fan, it doesn't really get going until Christmas Day. With the NFL taking the day ... More >>

10 Odd Musical Gift Ideas for the Last Christmas on Earth

Back in the day, Christmas shopping for music lovers couldn't have been simpler: just head on down to the record store, pick up the latest hot release or a rare collector's item, wrap it up with a Warehouse Music gift certificate and you were golden. Now that the music business has evolved into a ... More >>

The Ice at Discovery Green

Capsule Stage Reviews: The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, A Christmas Story — A Ghost Story of Christmas, Fruitcakes, The Nutcracker, The Santaland Diaries

Pop Rocks: In Which I Conclusively Prove Lisbeth Salander's Cultural Supremacy

​David Fincher's adaptation of Stieg Larsson's gazillion-selling The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo opens today. I'll have a review up tomorrow, which will likely have no effect on the reportedly large numbers of women planning to avoid the film entirely. Says another marketing exec, "Hyper-realisti ... More >>

A Christmas Story

Gifts Galore

Wrapping up Houston's holiday shows.

This Week in Deliciousness

Behold, the loser of the world's first high-stakes game of Duck Duck Goose.​Welcome back to the weekly roundup here at Eating Our Words, where we're currently taking bets on how many Jack Sparrows it will be possible to see in one day at Dickens On the Strand. Our guess: 14. Not counting the p ... More >>

Classic Christmas: Vince Guaraldi Trio's A Charlie Brown Christmas

Over the holidays, we're looking back at some classic Christmas albums taking some track by track and just digging on others. There are seminal moments in the life of a child and it is not uncommon that some of them involve holidays, Christmas in particular. There's a comfort as a child that comes ... More >>

Modern Holiday Classics Veer Off from Feelgood and into Cynicism

This week, as Christmas movies began their assault on cable and network television, it occurred to us that in the past decade or so, holiday film tastes have begun to veer from lighthearted feelgood affairs and straight into stress-filled, caustic celebrations of the things we will all hate for the ... More >>

Pop Rocks: Basic Cable Blues -- The 10 Movies You Will Always Watch When They Come On

​You know the feeling: it's 11 p.m., you're lying half-conscious on your couch and thinking tonight -- tonight -- is the night you're finally going to go to bed before midnight and get a decent night's sleep. Maybe this will be start of a new chapter in your life, one in which you no longer cl ... More >>

How to Cook Like a Champ - Even During a Blackout

God, I hope they cleaned that fireplace grate first.​The crock pot recipes that EOW blogger Kevin Shalin shares here each week have become one of our most popular series of posts, but what are you to do when rolling blackouts prevent you from making those tasty crock pot recipes at home? And ... More >>

My Personal Top 5 Favorite Restaurant Dishes of 2010

The chef pictured (Michael Dei Maggi) has moved on from Caffe Bello, but those mussels remain...​Having a young child, a spouse with a crazy work schedule, and no family in town to baby-sit can certainly put a damper on one's culinary pursuits in a city blossoming with delicious dishes. Howeve ... More >>

Top 10 Christmas Movie Soundtracks

​No doubt you have all been chin-deep in Christmas movies since you undid your belt on Thanksgiving evening. Rocks Off made sure to steal a copy of National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation from our folks' house before the calendar even hit December. Unlike other blogs, we don't hate all Christm ... More >>

A Christmas Story Party and Feast with Peter Billingsley

Food in Film: Top 5 Food Moments in Christmas Movies

Christmas movies aren't all about plaintive children and heartfelt homecomings. Some of the best culinary scenes in cinema occur in seasonal flicks. Here are five to feast your eyes on: 5. Macaulay Culkin's monstrous ice cream sundae in Home Alone. Abandoned for the holidays by his distracted fa ... More >>

Sick of Turkey? Order a Pizza: Our Top 5 Pizza Places

Photo courtesy of luna715Look at you, eating your Star Pizza off a real dinner plate. Oh, you fancy, huh?​Not all of us are like the Old Man in A Christmas Story; we aren't all turkey fiends. Some of us are happy to have it once a year and then forget the bland white meat even exists. So while ... More >>

Jessica Simpson Feels The Pain Of Bullying Victims

Sorry sweetheart, but even Tim Gunn would've made fun of those pants.​There's been a lot of talk about bullies lately. The suicides of Rutgers student Tyler Clementi and Hamilton Middle School's Asher Brown have prompted renewed calls for bullying prevention, leading to things like the It Gets ... More >>

A Christmas Story

Web exclusive!

A Christmas Story at Texas Repertory Theatre

Remember the days when a BB gun could solve all your problems?

Black Christmas

In 1974, a bunch of folks made a holiday-themed flick. They’d later all be famous

COUNTRY PLAYHOUSE

How a theater on the verge of insolvency has reversed its fortunes