Amarillo

Texas' Own Joe The Plumber

MySpaced Out: Gram Rabbit Stirs in the High Desert

Gram Rabbit, "California Christmas" In case you're still in your holiday hangover mode like I am, here's one wonderful holiday YouTube video that our gallant Mr. Rocks Off left out of his holiday onslaught. Cute doesn't begin to describe this one. While we are on the subject, high desert California ... More >>

It began in the Panhandle with the promise of great riches, only to crash and burn in a Houston courtroom. The wreckage is still smoldering, and the truth is nowhere to be found.

Gram Rabbit, "California Christmas" In case you're still in your holiday hangover mode like I am, here's one wonderful holiday YouTube video that our gallant Mr. Rocks Off left out of his holiday onslaught. Cute doesn't begin to describe this one. While we are on the subject, high desert California ... More >>

The Toxic Tort Case

It began in the Panhandle with the promise of great riches, only to crash and burn in a Houston courtroom. The wreckage is still smoldering, and the truth is nowhere to be found.

Postmarked Texas

Joe Ely sends a sad, beautiful Letter to Laredo

Letters

Joe Ely sends a sad, beautiful Letter to Laredo

Oprah Does Amarillo

It's the Queen of Talk versus the Meat Men, and outside the courtroom, master media manipulator Winfrey is already the clear winner.

Ant Farm 1969-1971: Early Underground Adventures with Space, Land, and Time

Filmmaker Laura Harrison presents a work-in-progress documentary about going through fire (literally) for art

First Out of the Gate

Now that he's got Mayor Lee Brown's attention, can Chris Bell win your support?

Punks, Jocks and Justice

There was a killing and now a conviction. Even those can't stop the fierce war raging between the Panhandle punks and athletes of Amarillo.

Swift Meatpacking Plant and Illegal Immigrants

Swift & Company pitted employee against employee when it replaced injured workers with illegal immigrants

Fadin' Renegade

Doug Supernaw's long, sad spiral

Joe Ely and Double Trouble

Joe Ely performs on Thursday, December 28, at Fitzgerald's, 2706 White Oak, 713-862-3838.

Bling Twango

Big & Rich delivers country music without prejudice

Bringing Out the Farm

Blaffer Gallery presents a retrospective of UH's most prolific art collective

This Week's Day-by-Day Picks

Blaffer Gallery presents a retrospective of UH's most prolific art collective

Slim Down in Houston

Blaffer Gallery presents a retrospective of UH's most prolific art collective

Downfall 2012, with Pimpadelic

Friday, November 29

World Class?

Houston can't join the ranks of other cities until it has an anthem of its own

Playbill

The Groobees

Left Return

Once burdened by debt and internal politics, a rejuvenated Texas ACLU is back mixing it up with those who dare to trample on the U. S. Constitution.

Turning the Camera on Mark Seliger

Mark Seliger

Wide Open Shot

The Groobees piggyback on the success of a song

Fire and Ice

Teen's police confession indicates he lied about how he killed a punker

The Strait Dope

Gettin' jiggy with George Strait at his country music festival

Fourth and Long

Dreams of Glory Die Hard in Semipro football

Tennessee Pushers

Old Crow Medicine Show's new CD of original material as rough-edged as their traditional covers

Road Trip!

Break the summer monotony at one of these out-of-the-way destinations.

Houston 101: "Amarillo By Morning," One More Goddamn Time

​Houston 101 is taking a bit of a road trip today in honor of George Strait. Our sister blog Rocks Off is counting down the days until Strait returns here for a non-rodeo appearance, and it put us in mind of the first time we'd heard a Strait song -- at the trial over one of the Texas political wo ... More >>

Amarillo's Big Texan Steak Ranch

Photos by Nikki Metzgar​Having seen the steak challenge at Amarillo's Big Texan on television, I had to drop by the restaurant when I swung through West Texas. For the unacquainted, the challenge touted on billboards hundreds of miles away requires you to eat a 72-ounce steak, a baked potato, ... More >>

Christian Country Singer Cowboy Hat Amarillo Diner = Beating

www.deanstrickland.com​ In about 45 minutes, Rocks Off will publish the first in our series of musical guides to post-secession Texas (you know it's gonna happen, y'all). Today we're focusing on the Panhandle-area state of "Palo Duro." This as-yet fictional state includes the city of Amarillo, abo ... More >>

A Musical Guide to Post-Secession Texas: "Palo Duro"

View Five States of Texas in a larger map As any proud Texan can tell you, the Lone Star State is entitled constitutionally to split into five states if it so wishes. The scenario has rarely been more in the news than it has relatively recently, when Gov. Rick Perry played to the wingnut gallery in ... More >>

Lone Star Scorecard: How Accurate are Your Favorite Songs About Texas?

​Many songs about Texas are written by residents wishing to celebrate some part of their beloved Lone Star State. Others come from non-Texans who are unable to resist the je ne sais quoi of the place that produced both Walter Cronkite and Karl Rove. One thing that many of them have in common, ... More >>

HISD About To Hire Its Superintendent, And Some Critics Emerge

​We have word from HISD spokesman Norm Uhl that the district might officially name the new superintendent at 2 o'clock. If the choice is Terry Grier, as it's been reported, some people are already unhappy. (Update: It is.) "I'm very disappointed in the board," State Sen. Mario Gallegos, who serves ... More >>

Lone Star Scorecard: All Tanya Tucker Edition

​The history of country music - or any music until recent years, for that matter - is largely represented by men, with female artists popping up more and more frequently as time passed and concert/record promoters realized there was a market for women in the business. In country, you started with ... More >>

Fool Hearted Memory: Music That Chooses You, Not the Other Way Around

​ Someone once observed wryly that the only member of your family you'll ever actually choose is your spouse, and perhaps a whole lot of that observation is equally applicable to the music of our lives. A couple of years back we were sitting at Prince's Hamburgers off the Southwest Freeway in the ... More >>

Depraved Houston, a jacked-up rodeo and Jennifer Aniston

​ Someone once observed wryly that the only member of your family you'll ever actually choose is your spouse, and perhaps a whole lot of that observation is equally applicable to the music of our lives. A couple of years back we were sitting at Prince's Hamburgers off the Southwest Freeway in the ... More >>

Windpower Woodstock: George W. Bush, Limitless Swag & A Burgeoning Success Story

Windmills in Texas -- as romantic-looking as in Holland​We used to love when oxymoronic news broke because a former editor would always exclaim, "Dogs are sleeping with cats! Film at 11!" Canines definitely hooked up with felines at Windpower 2010 this week in Dallas, where former President George ... More >>

Jacob Isom: Skateboarder Stop Koran-Burning, But What About The Houston Boycott?

This video, of an Amarillo skateboarder stopping a local wingnut pastor from burning the Koran, has gone viral.But in the course of its viral-ness we've learned the bookburning Man of Faith is none other than the guy who called for a boycott of Houston after it elected Annise Parker -- who is a les ... More >>

Gorillaz's New Album Includes Song About Houston

​ Christmas morning, Rocks Off got to hear the new Gorillaz album, The Fall, recorded entirely on an iPad by leader Damon Albarn as the super-group made their way through the States on tour this past October. Most every city on the run got a song dedicated to it, including Texas towns Ho ... More >>

Friday Night: George Strait & Reba At Austin's Erwin Center

Photos by Marc Brubaker​George Strait, Reba McEntire Frank Erwin Center, Austin January 14, 2010 Friday night, Aftermath drove to Austin to catch one of the lone Texas stops on this round of tandem touring by the King and Queen of Country, George Strait and Reba McEntire, with Lee Ann Womack ... More >>

The ALL CAPS chicas

Photos by Marc Brubaker​George Strait, Reba McEntire Frank Erwin Center, Austin January 14, 2010 Friday night, Aftermath drove to Austin to catch one of the lone Texas stops on this round of tandem touring by the King and Queen of Country, George Strait and Reba McEntire, with Lee Ann Womack ... More >>

Last Night: Jason Aldean At RodeoHouston

Photos courtesy of Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo​Jason Aldean Reliant Stadium March 20, 2011 You can tell everything you need to know about Jason Aldean by looking at his steel guitarist's forearms Sunday. First, he had a steel guitarist. Of the handful of Rodeo acts Aftermath saw this year ... More >>

Google Street View, Houston Circa 1891 and 1912

Milam & Pease: Current home of the Houston Press​We seem to be all about the zooming in on graphics today. A site called BigMapBlog apparently specializes in adapting old bird's-eye map illustrations of cities into Google Street View-like zoomability. They've got Fort Worth in 1891 and Amaril ... More >>

Delani Hazen: Allegedly Drunken Tractor Ride Lays Waste To Countryside, Cuts Power To Town

Hopefully not the ride in question​What had to have been a wild night in Amarillo last Friday got even wilder after 20-year-old Delani Hazen's friends either intentionally or unintentionally left her by the side of Interstate 40 just west of the north Panhandle metropolis. Apparently desperat ... More >>

Space, Land and Time: Underground Adventures with Ant Farm

Hopefully not the ride in question​What had to have been a wild night in Amarillo last Friday got even wilder after 20-year-old Delani Hazen's friends either intentionally or unintentionally left her by the side of Interstate 40 just west of the north Panhandle metropolis. Apparently desperat ... More >>

Top 5 Everyday Exotic Dinners

Jules:stonesoup​Unless I'm feeling particularly inspired, throwing a party or testing out recipes for a blog post, on a daily basis I often fall into the same old pasta, chicken, whatever rotation. There's only so many nights, however, that a person can stand the same old boring thing before o ... More >>

Top Five Cannibal Country Songs

​Songs about singers and other songs has long been one of Rocks Off's favorite fields of study within the wide-ranging curriculum of popular music. Off the very tippy-top of our heads, ABC's "When Smokey Sings," the Replacements' "Alex Chilton" and the Pogues' "The Band Played Waltzing Matilda ... More >>

George Strait's Top 20 Songs Of All Time: Nos. 5-1

​As Rocks Off dives into the top slots of our favorite George Strait songs from his 30-year career - see Nos. 20-16, 15-11 and 10-6 - we are waiting anxiously to see if King George was able to knock Lil' Wayne's Tha Carter IV from atop the Billboard 200. A top seat for the brand-new Here For a ... More >>

Julie Ann Moore: Another Texas Teacher Snared in Student Sex Scandal

Booking photoJulie Ann Moore: There might be as many as three 15-year-old victims.​An Amarillo elementary school teacher is currently out on bond and has been charged with sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy in the back seat of her car during the halftime of a high school football game. Acc ... More >>