Haiti

Upcoming Events: Ultimate Umami and an Incredibly Romantic Fundraiser

What happens when two of the city's best chefs come together for one dinner? Ultimate Umami. That's the name of the multi-course dinner that's taking place on Sunday, August 26, when Chris Shepherd of Underbelly joins chef Manabu Horiuchi at Kata Robata. The duo's dinner will explore and highlight e ... More >>

Wyclef Jean Squanders Relief Funds, Heralds Apocalypse

Mason Lankford said, "There will come a day when we forget the Rapture ever even happened," but Rocks Off is keeping an eye out for signs of our impending Armageddon. We were wrong last time, but we're totally right this time! Master Sgt. Jeremy Lock, USAF​It's been a while since we predicted ... More >>

Once on This Island

ACL: Arcade Fire, Big As The Great Outdoors

Photos by Jim Bricker​Check out all our ACL 2011 coverage, including our hottest crowd shots and slideshow from Sunday featuring Randy Newman, Arcade Fire and The Walkmen. Arcade Fire Bud Light Stage, Austin City Limits Music Festival, Zilker Park September 18, 2011 Sunday night in a serene ... More >>

Sampler Plate: This Week in Food Blogs

Each week, we put together a sampler plate of the most interesting links from both local and national food blogs. Know a blog we should be paying particular attention to? Leave the address in the comments section below. Food in Houston: Important news first: Anonymous Eater is back! Sort of. Our on ... More >>

Last Night: Arcade Fire At Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion

Photos by Marc Brubaker​Arcade Fire, Explosions In the Sky Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion May 4, 2011 It was a sort of homecoming for titanic indie-rockers Arcade Fire Wednesday night in the Woodlands, as the band returned to Houston after five momentous years to play songs from The Suburbs, ... More >>

Sprinkles' Efforts to Help Japan

​With the recent disasters that have occurred in Japan, we're all looking for a way to help out however we can. There are numerous benefits and texting campaigns that have successfully raised money for relief efforts. Today Sprinkles Cupcakes is selling Red Cross Red Velvet cupcakes to ben ... More >>

Placing Rappers With The Proper Charity, Because We Care

The hip-hop world is a less than sensible place - lots of times, you're even required to clarify when bad means bad and when bad means good - so once a week we're going to get with a rapper and ask them to explain things. Have something you always wanted to ask a rapper? Email it to sheaserrano@gmai ... More >>

Happy Birthday, Rush Limbaugh: Ten Great Moments to Remember Him By

Rush Limbaugh: A reasoned voice in a sea of shrill partisan rhetoric​Happy 60th birthday to the man who helped birth modern right-wing talk radio in the late '80s, and made the world safe for the dozens of like-minded and ratings-hungry guys who would follow in his footsteps, stomping on the f ... More >>

10 Music Stories We Wish We'd Ignored This Year

​We in the alternative media - not necessarily the Houston Press and/or Rocks Off, not all the time - enjoy calling out our mainstream brethren. Whether it's ten books that didn't make The New York Times' "Best of 2010" list, or "10 Stories Our Print Version Accidentally Overlooked," us "under ... More >>

A Royal Pain In The Ass

​And I was still suffering residual boredom from the last one. I have to give our media credit; unemployment still hovering around 10%, cholera spreading to the Dominican Republic from Haiti, and terror threats abroad, and every morning news show has devoted a good 20 minutes of programming e ... More >>

Day Of The Dead: Music In Memoriam 2009-10

itscactus.com​Rocks Off doesn't mean to be morbid, but today is the Day of the Dead, the Mexican holiday and festival honoring those who have gone before. So instead of waiting until the end of the year, the more traditional time for such things, we wanted to compile a list of the notable name ... More >>

Musicians Who Will Fetch The Least In TwitChange Auction

​TwitChange, a charity organization dedicated to helping Haiti led by the only Desperate Housewife who doesn't look at least partially mummified, Eva Longoria, is having an auction that will change the very nature of self-obsession as we know it. Several celebrities have gotten together and ag ... More >>

Chris Stewart: Klein HS Star Takes On Unique Challenge At Notre Dame

Photo couttesy NDChris Stewart in Haiti, helping with earthquake relief​Chris Stewart was a highly recruited lineman coming out of Klein High School; he chose to go to Notre Dame.After a few bumps, he's thriving, and right now he's taking on a challenge no Irish football player has ever tried: Goi ... More >>

FAIL: Wyclef Jean, Richard Ashcroft, Mark Wahlberg, iTunes

Photo illustrations by John Seaborn Gray​Wyclef Jean's Latest Vanity Project: President of Haiti: Wyclef Jean is best known for being the member of the Fugees who quite improbably enjoyed the most solo success. We would have bet on Lauryn Hill, but unfortunately, she went crazy. Crazy may be ... More >>

Hurricane Alex: Mega 101.1 Helps Victims Of The Forgotten Storm

Photos by Paula BeltránSending food to the victims​Remember Hurricane Alex? Not very many people do. While most Houstonians geared up for a weekend of fireworks, barbeque and possibly too much time with family, many also spent this past Fourth of July weekend waiting to hear whether the homes of ... More >>

“Visions for a New Haiti”

One island-born artist finds a way to give back to his homeland

Peanut Butter Miracles

Amid the chaos that is Haiti, Dr. Patricia Wolff has made ending child malnutrition her life's work.

Patricia Wolff Tries To Save Haiti With Peanut Butter

​Patricia Wolff is not a doctor to be messed with -- she's a black belt who carries a stun gun and pepper spray. All three can come in handy in disaster-stricken Haiti.Wolff, a St. Luois pediatrician, is on the island trying to fight starvation and disease with "medika mamba," which is peanut butt ... More >>

Southwest's Newest Destination: The Gulf Oil Spill

Photos by John Nova LomaxAre we having wacky fun yet?​Since the late '70s, even without having an airport worth mentioning, the Florida Panhandle has managed to boom to the point of unrecognizability. The blinding white sand of the beaches and the heartbreakingly clear deep blue seawater were ... More >>

"East End Live Art: Un/Natural Disasters"

Voices Breaking Boundaries uses art, music and poetry to address recent and past disasters in Pakistan, Haiti and here

Houston International Festival

The Caribbean At iFest: Pass The Kutchie To Neutral Sister, The Mighty Diamonds And Easy Star All-Stars

Over the next two weeks, Rocks Off will be previewing acts performing at this year's Houston International Festival Saturday and Sunday and April 24-25 broken down by genre (loosely, anyway) and with a guest pick from a true insider: iFest Director of Performing Arts Rick Mitchell. Today, the Caribb ... More >>

Inquiring Minds: Henry Rollins Has A Lot To Say. Surprised?

​Since his debut in 1981 as Black Flag's fourth, last and best lead singer, Henry Rollins has been the emissary of intelligent hardcore punk rock and its accompanying ideals. Through his five-year history with the band, from the LPs Damaged to In My Head, he brought an animalistic, poetic spirit t ... More >>

Turning The Screw: All the Way, Z-Ro, Devin, Lil' O, UGK, Nicki Minaj, Ras Kass, Lil Wayne, Beyonce, Dre, Aziz Ansari, Wu-Massacre and More

Welcome back to Turning the Screw, Rocks Off's weekly rap post. It probably won't rhyme, at least most of the time. E-mail tips to introducingliston@gmail.com. Thanks, homies. Single of the Week: "Bring The Kush Back Freestyle," ATW Attn: Houston's Underground Rappers: You are on notice. These two ... More >>

Artists for Haiti Benefit

The Houston arts community responds to the Haitian people's need for help

Houston's Jesus Predicts Troubles

Ask A Rapper: Candi Redd Discusses Possible Ways to Help Haiti

The hip-hop world is a less than sensible place -lots of times, you're even required to clarify when bad means bad and when bad means good- so once a week we're going to get with a rapper and ask them to explain things. Have something you always wanted to ask a rapper? Email it to introducingliston@ ... More >>

Pop Rocks: John Travolta, Humanitarian

​The tragedy of the earthquake in Haiti has, as expected, brought out both the best and worst of humanity. As an example of the former, we've seen the nations of the world send supplies and relief workers to help the stricken Caribbean nation. As for the latter, well, the comments of extraordinar ... More >>

The Week In TV: Hope for Haiti (and Coco)

Move over failwhale: NBC ushers in the era of the failcock.​I'm loving the weather, thinking of overthrowing Comcast, and still humming "Free Bird." This was the week in TV Land: • So, I'm pretty sure we all watched Conan O'Brien's last episode as host of The Tonight Show. Nielsen ratings ... More >>

Most Downloaded "Hope For Haiti" Texan? Although She Killed, Not Beyonce

Between fighting crime, reducing global warming, mending our socks and, you know, everything else Rocks Off does when we're away from the office, we caught a good bit of Friday evening's "Hope for Haiti" telethon. We didn't have much choice, because the George Clooney-organized, celebrity-packed fu ... More >>

Houston's Jesus Knows When The Next Caribbean Earthquake Is Coming, But He's Not Telling

Photo by Daniel Kramer​In case you haven't gotten your share of tragic news out of Haiti, a reliable Hair Balls source tells us there will be plenty more death and destruction within the next 30 months. And just who is this unimpeachable tipster? Why, none other than Jesus Christ Himself, aka Jose ... More >>

Second Haitian Relief Concert at Warehouse Live This Week Scheduled for Friday

​ On the heels of Bun B's all-star (if borderline interminable) "Houston 4 Haiti" relief concert at Warehouse Live Monday night that reportedly raised in the neighborhood of $10,000, the venue will open its doors - albeit in the smaller studio room - for another benefit Friday night starring f ... More >>

Turning the Screw: Lil' Flip and Bun B Help Haiti, Jay-Z & Beyonce, Trae & Soulja Boy, Chamillionaire, Wyclef, DJ Clue and Funkmaster Flex and More

Welcome back to Turning the Screw, Rocks Off's weekly rap post. It probably won't rhyme, at least most of the time. E-mail tips to introducingliston@gmail.com. Thanks, homies. Single of the Week: "Feel It In The Air" (Lil' Flip's Haiti Tribute) Solid stuff here. Wire to Wire Bun B - who headlines t ... More >>

Rice Graduate Among Those Affected By Haitian Hotel Collapse

​The tragedy in Haiti is hitting home pretty hard for some Rice people.Alumna Diane (Berry) Caves, class of 2000, was in Port-Au-Prince, at the Hotel Montana, which was heavily damaged. She has not been heard from since.Caves was in Haiti on an assignment for the Centers for Disease Control and Pr ... More >>

Councilman Johnson Donates To Haiti Relief, But Don't Follow His Example

​In a genuine and generous humanitarian effort, Houston City Councilmember Jarvis Johnson of District B will deliver "800 pair of shoes for Haitian Relief efforts to the Haitian Multicultural Association" in Southwest Houston.In a statement released by Johnson, he claims: At this moment, thous ... More >>

Aftermath: Goodie Mob at House of Blues, With a Completely Unexpected Bun B Cameo

Photos by Marco Torres / Click here for a slideshow​9:25 p.m.: Standing in line to pick up tickets with the photographer, Bun B happens to walk up right behind us. (The Bun B Law of Inevitability is infallible.) I turn around and tell him hello and that we've spoken on the time several times ... More >>

Answer an Urgent Appeal to Heal Haiti by Getting Some "Swagger"

[Ed. Note: Please email any news of further music-related relief efforts to chris.gray@houstonpress.com.] Bobby Moon & Lil Flip - Swagger from AK Kurji on Vimeo. If you're looking for a way to contribute to the Haitian relief efforts, Houston-based international pop artist Bobby Moon is going to ... More >>

Australian Cookie Ignites Debate Over "Creole," To The Bafflement Of Houston Creoles

​It's a never-ending debate around these parts. What is Creole? Is it the same as Cajun? If not, why not? And let's say you were an Australian supermarket chain and were looking for a name for your in-house generic rip-off of the Oreo, and you decided to call it the "Creole Cream." Should you exp ... More >>

Australian Oreo Cookie Ripoff Ignites Debate Over "Creole," To The Bafflement Of Houston Creoles

​It's a never-ending debate around these parts. What is Creole? Is it the same as Cajun? If not, why not? And let's say you were an Australian supermarket chain and were looking for a name for your in-house generic rip-off of the Oreo, and you decided to call it the "Creole Cream." Should you ex ... More >>

Vox Populi

Web exclusive!

Who Cares About You and Your 400 Kids?

Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti

Meet Maya Deren’s unusual circle of friends

Indie Rock Rediscovers the Motherland

Kinky Afro

This Just In: Get Ready for iFest

A Masterpiece on Canvas

Love and Haiti

Radio Free Haiti

Jonathan Demme's documentary brings a joyful revolutionary to the screen

Global Domination

As in the past, sleepers will steal this year's International Festival

Night & Day

April 15-21, 1999