Hunter S. Thompson

Last Night: Justice at House of Blues

Justice House of Blues October 28, 2012 "They told me if I brought out this flag they would kick me out," says a guy dressed like Hunter S. Thompson sitting next to me on the balcony last night at Justice. In his cargo pocket was a large French flag, in honor of the French electro duo who made thei ... More >>

Your Gonzo Guide to the Republican National Convention

From cash-hungry strippers to protesters dressed as vaginas.

Gonzo Artwork and Lone Star Labels on the Rise: The 10 Best Beer Labels in Texas

Last week, we took a look at some of the very worst labels you can find on a bottle of beer. To counterbalance all that artistic vomit, we gathered some of the most iconic and creative labels on shelves today -- labels that feature artwork as original and important as craft beer itself. 10. Boulev ... More >>

What A Friend We Have In Marilyn Manson: 18 Years With The God Of (Expletive Deleted)

Born Villain, Marilyn Manson's first album since 2009's The High End of Low, marks his debut as a cheeky pop-culture gawker, a far cry from where he was just a decade and a half ago. I wrote about some of the best Manson myths on the occasion of his birthday back in January. He's not the snarling, ... More >>

Top 5 Songs About Whiskey

Whether it's rye or bourbon, straight or blended, Irish, Scotch or Canadian, rock, country or classical, whiskey and warblers go way back. Even Stravinsky was quoted as saying "My God, so much I like to drink Scotch that sometimes I think my name is Igor Stra-whiskey." In whiskey-related weird news ... More >>

5 Bands Your Musician Friends Love...But You Don't

austinpost.comYep. Robert Plant "copped everything" from this guy.​In a 2005 interview with Esquire, Johnny Depp discusses the unwavering authenticity of Hunter S. Thompson, and likens his late friend to another great, often-troubled mind, saying: "...like Roky Erickson and the 13th Floor Elev ... More >>

The Ghost of Hunter Thompson

An oddly tame adaptation of The Rum Diary.

Your 2011 Fall/Winter Movie Preview - Part 2

​You know the drill: the fall movie season starts today, my pretties (my review of Contagion will be up soon...there's a reason it didn't make the preview). Yesterday we covered the first half of 2011's most anticipated upcoming releases, determined through a rigorous scientific analysis consi ... More >>

Drinking Like Hemingway

Making the Hemmingway Daiquiri.​It's not Ernest Hemingway's writing that influenced me. The style is still amazing, and even Hunter S. Thompson, who copied Hemingway manuscripts just to hear the rhythm of the words on his typewriter, wasn't fool enough to imitate it. I won't emulate his lege ... More >>

The Four Best Books with Corresponding Soundtracks

​It goes without saying when you're talking to a music journalist, but music can be the greatest inspiration for a writer. Even if you're not writing about the music itself, it can still be an indispensible catalyst for the written word. More and more in modern literature, the afterwards featu ... More >>

Blake Broadway: Fear And Loathing in Lufkin Vegas

Blake Broadway probably doesn't look like Johnny Depp, either​"The trunk of the car looked like a mobile police narcotics lab," wrote Hunter S. Thompson in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. "We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a ... More >>

Michael Berry's Dead Osama Pep Rally

Photos by John Nova LomaxWheels fit for a celebration.​Early yesterday, Michael Berry, the former Boy Wonder of Houston politics turned radio rabble-rouser, sent out a press release plugging a "Houston Celebration: Osama Bin Laden Dead." The event would be later that day at Hefley's, a Texalic ... More >>

What's in a Name? Fired for Walking

Photo by Kimberly Fernandez​It's a well-known fact that most band names are essentially gobbledygook, but here at Rocks Off we're trying hard to find meaning in the oddest monikers. Well, Rocks Off can't say we haven't been to an opium den anymore. Our own Fired for Walking is a loud and thor ... More >>

Jean Pierre Mierau: Convicted Child Rapist on the Run from New Charges

Jean Pierre Mierau​It was obvious that Jean Pierre Mierau could see the writing on the wall back on March 18, shortly after he had made $20,000 bail on two counts of online solicitation of a minor. The 35-year-old from the Alief area had been sentenced to five years in prison after a convictio ... More >>

Super Bowl XLV: Livebloggin' the Commercials!

Betty White enjoys a Snickers.​For someone who watches the biggest television event in America strictly for the breaks, last year was a bummer. Betty White's Snicker's ad, and the Kia commercial featuring a posse of partying toys were two standouts in a year of boring, sexist and outright dumb ... More >>

The Ten Oddest Crimes Of 2010, Southeast Texas Style

Hard as it may be to believe, the criminal element of Southeast Texas did dumb and weird things in 2010, continuing a tradition that dates back to the creation of Southeast Texas. Here are ten of the oddest and dumbest: 10. Two former EMS employees in Santa Fe were arrested after they allegedly p ... More >>

Staffing The Ultimate Evil Record Label

"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." - Attributed to Hunter S. Thompson ​The evil record label is a staple of the public's perception of the music ind ... More >>

Shock the Junkie

Is ibogaine really an addict cure-all?

Cover Story: Jason Nodler Discusses Bluefinger, His New Rock Opera About One Debauched Dutchman

Herman Brood, Black Francis and Jason Nodler coming together​"I am only ever interested in art/work/plays/music about how weird and fucked up it is to be a human animal on the planet earth, aware of and in necessary denial of our mortality, of the fact that each of us will die and go off the p ... More >>

Ten Iconic Musical Nicknames, And 25 You May Never Guess

​You know what sucks? Getting saddled with a really awkward family nickname when you are younger and it following you until it takes a frenzied freak-out to stop it. We were once called "Pooter" by our mother until an eight-year-old Rocks Off gave her a terse look right before third grade star ... More >>

Has the "Foodie" Backlash Begun?

Courtesy of Toothpaste For Dinner​Late last year, all of the sister papers in the Village Voice Media chain were informed that we were no longer to use the word "foodie" in blogs or in print. The reason? "Foodie" has not only become overused but has developed a strongly negative connotation: A ... More >>

Brian Bledsoe And Esther Sustaita: Home-Grilled Meat Spells Doom For Bryan Pair's Alleged Motel Drug Spree

Photos courtesy BCSOBBQ at the hotel​Brian Bledsoe and Esther Sustaita had made all the arrangements, and their alleged Tuesday evening drug bender was going well. They had rented a room at the Travel Lodge on Bryan's Texas Avenue, and the pharmaceutical cornucopia they had on hand would have (mil ... More >>

Game Time: Kentucky Derby 2010 Infield Olympics (Includes Mud-Wrestling Videos)

We guess Hunter S. Thompson was right -- the Kentucky Derby really is vile and depraved​I'm not sure what it says about the type of summer we're going to have here in Houston when an embedded video of 30 hornets wrecking a shop and mass-murdering 30,000 bees in a blog post about the Kentucky Derby ... More >>

Where Are We Drinking?

This intimately melancholy and desperate scene looks straight out of a Hunter S. Thompson book, if Thompson lived in Houston and drank Lone Star. Can you guess in what shell of civilization we were drinking this week? ​Leave your best guess in the comments section below.

In the Pit

It's easier than ever to take pictures at concerts. Unless that's your job.

R.I.P., Hollywood Video In Montrose: What's Next For The Old Tower Theater?

Photo by joe_stephens_3​Swamplot confirms what we've been thinking for a while: The Hollywood Video store, in that nice old theater near Westheimer & Montrose, is not long for this world. Employees are telling customers the place is closing, and the marquee out front is being dismantled.Video ... More >>

Requiem for Michael: The Last Rock Star

Amid the past two weeks of Michael Jackson worship, the details of his drug use were slowly leaked out. The man had done enough painkillers and random legal narcotics that would make all-star druggies like Keith Richards and Lemmy Kilmister shudder and cower away. It's funny that this small and spri ... More >>

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Web exclusive!

The Five Best Super Bowl Movies

The Super Bowl is about more than just gorging ourselves on lite beer and fatty foods before calling in sick to work on Monday: it's about terrorism, and transsexualism, and the dread that comes from knowing your bookie is going to have your legs broken because Whisenhunt called for a meaningless 4 ... More >>

A Super Bowl In Rice Village

We're only days away from what's become known as America's biggest secular holiday -- the Super Bowl.This year's match-up is underwhelming, to say the least: the Pittsburgh Steelers should beat the Arizona Cardinals easily enough.But the atmosphere surrounding The Game has long become bigger than Th ... More >>

Gonzo: The Life and Work of Hunter S. Thompson

A documentary reveals the rise and fall of an influential writer

Beyond Gonzo

Call hell-raiser Hunter S. Thompson's style what you will — a new doc succeeds when saluting his substance

Margot at the Wedding, American Gangster: Unrated Extended Edition, Lust, Caution, Excellent Cadavers

Kentucky Club

Kentucky Cocktail

2007 Houston Press Music Awards Showcase

Now That's Some Gonzo Journalism

A Blog of His Own

One analyst indulges his gonzo side

Hang 'Em High, Mom

Kids say the darnedest things

Roadie Royalty

Houstonian author and Webmaster Karl Kuenning is a prince among road dogs

Paul Oakenfold

Friday, October 31

Stoner Science

Our staff risks all to determine if a plant will get them high or if it's just another Internet lie

Blunt About High Fashion

Roll up more than your sleeves with this clothing line

Mount Coy

South Park Mexican carves out his place in history with the 2001 Music Awards

Los Gringos Locos

Julia Roberts's and Brad Pitt's performances go straight south in The Mexican

Keeping the Faith

The Invisible Circus remains loyal to the author's limited but earnest vision

The Talking Penis

Basic Instinct author crawls up Bill Clinton's pants and hangs on tight

Night & Day

June 25 - July 1, 1998

Contact High

Fear and Loathing is the latest in Terry Gilliam's cinematic revolution

Splendid Isolation

For Warren Zevon, it's all about how he looks in the hat

Mr. Bad Example

For 20 years, Warren Zevon has danced with madmen and outlaws