Idaho

Cowboy Diaries 2013: Morgan Wilde, Performs Jumping Jacks in the Hall Before Riding Horses

True cowboys are hard to find, but not at the Houston Rodeo. Life on the road leads them here this time every year for the biggest rodeo in the world, where they'll ride and wrangle livestock for cash and glory. Each day, Hair Balls will spotlight one person with enough dirt on his boots to call him ... More >>

Omar Ibrahim: Pay No Attention to Adrian Castro-Villasenor's Corpse Wrapped in These Rugs, Just Help Me Move the Rugs

Omar Ibrahim just needed a little help, you know what I mean? Can't a guy get a hand with a honey-do, for crying out loud? For some reason, no one seemed eager to pitch in with his request to move some bedding wrapped in some rugs. Maybe it was the freaking corpse that cops say was stuck in the mi ... More >>

What's Cooking This Week? Guacamole & Bacon Paninis, Bistro Salad and More

I love cooking for my fiancé and myself, but most of the time, cooking for two proves to be difficult. If I don't make a plan, I end up running around in circles at the grocery store and wasting half the ingredients I've bought (and I hate wasting food). Enter What's Cooking This Week -- my weekly ... More >>

Idaho Man Forces Friend to Moonwalk at Gunpoint While High on Drugs

I have to admit that when I read this headline around 3 a.m. on Friday night, I couldn't stop laughing for a good 30 minutes. I may have even laughed myself to sleep. I may never feel that much joy for the rest of my life, and I wish that I could replay that hour of my life in perpetuity. Last wee ... More >>

"Reply All" & the Five Other Dumbest/Most Annoying Things People Do with E-Mail

Hard to believe, but the very first electronic messages were around 50 years ago. It wasn't the sophisticated, snail mail-replacing juggernaut most of us use every day, but it existed. As it has grown, communication has shifted and things none of us ever dreamed were necessary -- emoticons, for exam ... More >>

How To: Make Homemade Gnocchi

Gnocchi, or potato dumplings, are a traditional Italian staple dating all the way back to Ancient Rome. They can be made with everything from ricotta and spinach to sweet potatoes and breadcrumbs. But no matter how you make them, when done correctly, homemade gnocchi are the perfect light, fluffy an ... More >>

Last Night: Delta Spirit At Fitzgerald's

Delta Spirit Fitzgerald's April 12, 2012 I am concerned that younger bands these days are not learning the proper value of restraint. It's not even a generational thing, really. I had very little appreciation for or understanding of restraint myself until fairly recently, but a heart attack at age ... More >>

Track Your Bud Lets You Find Out Where Your Brew Was Born

There are many things about food and drink that I will readily admit confound me. How did salty, slimy fish eggs become a delicacy an ounce of which cost more than my monthly rent? What is the obsession with food so spicy, it literally hurts to eat it? If Anthony Bourdain weren't famous, would he be ... More >>

Odd Pair: What Wine Do You Serve with Your Baked Potato?

Baked potatoes at our house are much more than a meal. They are a religion. We don't just do sour cream. We do sour cream-infused with freshly ground horseradish, a kiss of white wine, and kosher salt. We don't do "bacon bits." We do crumbled, crispy, center-cut bacon that's been fried the day bef ... More >>

Darren Aronofsky's Meth Ads: Anti-Drug PSAs That Actually Might Work

​Last week, we posted a list of anti-drug commercials that not only didn't stop any children from doing drugs, but potentially encouraged such abusing behavior. The famed PSA one-liner, "I learned it from watching you," probably made more kids of the '80s wish they were rolling doobies with th ... More >>

Amanda Kueht: Drug Counselor Arrested For Sexing Up Underage Patient

Amanda Kueht: Getting too close, cops say​A West U substance-abuse counselor has been charged with having sex with a 16-year-old male patient. Amanda Leann Kueht, 28, and the male were discovered by a West u cop a little after midnight July 25 in the back seat of a car in a church parking lot ... More >>

Hey, Wanna Buy a (Notorious) Prison?

Bad memories included​If you've ever wanted to own a prison, now's your chance: The city of Littlefield is auctioning off the Bill Clayton Detention Center, abandoned by the GEO Group, a private prison operator with a troubled history in Texas. The Florida-based GEO pulled out after the son o ... More >>

Publicists Reject New Claim That Best PR Is None At All

theatlantic.comThe Weeknd: Don't call him, he won't call you.​A recent headline in The Atlantic - "For Indie Bands, the New Publicity Is No Publicity" - seemed to scream "music blog." Since we Rocks Offers spend a goodly portion of our day weeding through emails and phone calls from publicist ... More >>

The United States Of Women In Music

​Rocks Off is no He-Man Woman Hater's Club. We like women quite a bit, actually, especially those women brave enough to wade through the rivers of bullshit in the male-dominated music business. If you'll page back a few weeks, you'll remember the discussion of our favorite female artists from ... More >>

Some Can Whistle: A Playlist To Don't Worry, Be Happy

​It's often the little things that make our favorite songs our favorites - the curious, unforeseen additions of small touches like an understated bit of whistling. For those who like to categorize their playlists into themes, we present you with the Rocks Off approved Whistle Playlist. The S ... More >>

The United States of Soft Drinks

Full-size image below.​In 1998, Nebraska set a precedent for all other U.S. states when it formally declared Kool-Aid to be the state soft drink. Sure, plenty of other states have state foods or state dishes, but a state soft drink? The popular children's beverage was developed in Hastings, N ... More >>

Top 10 Musician Movie Cameos

Rocks Off has no idea why Mick Jagger might prefer Performance to Ned Kelly.​Over recent years, Rocks Off has been repeatedly surprised by the quality performances of musicians in films. Naturally, there are some duds in the mix; even Mick Jagger himself, who starred in 1970's Ned Kelly, disow ... More >>

Prison Pays

Despite a history of abuse and bad conditions, private prison corporation GEO keeps getting contracts from the state.

Greenhouse Gas Rules: Guess The Only State Not To Bother?

Just imagine it's a smokestack instead of a cannon​New rules designed to limit harmdul greenhouse gas emissions go into effect January 2, and 49 states have taken steps to meet them.Guess which one hasn't. Mississippi? They're usually last in everything, right? WRONG.You probably realize just from ... More >>

Reporting from the Southern Foodways Alliance Symposium: Chingo Bling Talks "Taco Circuit"

​A lot of rappers establish street cred by talking about hittin' licks and sellin' rocks. Chingo Bling raps about slangin' tamales and hot sauce -- which is what brought him to the Southern Foodways Alliance annual symposium last weekend. Known as the Masa Messiah, or the Taquero Vaquero, or ... More >>

Nick Kosir: The Rapping Weatherman's San Francisco Gig Is Over

All of Houston has been following semi-breathlessly the sage of rapping weatherman Nick Kosir who has either appalled or entertained viewers (in Beaumont and on YouTube) with his white-man-raps schtick.He seemingly rode his talent to the big time -- San Francisco, which is a hell of a lot better TV ... More >>

Ridley Pearson: In Harm's Way

Popular mystery writer reads from new novel

FAIL: Prince, Johnny Rotten, Too Short, Auto-Tune

Photos by John Seaborn Gray​Internet Not As "Over" As Prince Had Hoped: Remember last week when Prince said the Internet was "over," and that was why he's now giving copies of his new CD away for free whenever you buy a copy of that thriving and relevant medium, a British newspaper? Well, ent ... More >>

No Longer Bulletproof

Reckless Kelly look to an old Idaho mentor on new album Somewhere in Time.

Texas Traveler: P. Terry's Burgers, Austin

​I put the car in reverse and started backing up through the drive-through lane at P. Terry's in Austin. The guy behind me honked his horn. My traveling companions screamed, "Watch out!" But I didn't care. ​"These fries are cold," I told the guy in the drive-though window, handing him ... More >>

One-Woman Wrecking Crew

Readers weigh in on the principal at T.H. Rogers

Analyzing Bocephus's "McCain-Palin Tradition"

Elephant Walk

Protests Against ExxonMobil, But Not In Houston

Capsule Art Reviews: "Comic Books: A Visual Journey," "Dave Darraugh & Hana Hillerova," "Defending Democracy," "Drapetomania: A Disease Called Freedom," "The Joannaversary: Parachutists Are the Loneliest People," "Sterne and Steinberg"

Capsule Art Reviews: "2008 Houston Area Exhibition," "Dave Darraugh & Hana Hillerova," "Defending Democracy", "Designed by Architects: Metalwork from the Margo Grant Walsh Collection," "Sterne and Steinberg: Critics Within"

Capsule Art Reviews: "2008 Houston Area Exhibition," "Dave Darraugh & Hana Hillerova," "Designed by Architects: Metalwork from the Margo Grant Walsh Collection," "Dramas: Real and Imagined" The artists of "Dramas," "Sterne and Steinberg"

Capsule Art Reviews: "Dave Darraugh & Hana Hillerova," "Dramas: Real and Imagined," "The Old Weird America: Folk Themes in Contemporary Art," "Sterne and Steinberg: Critics Within"

A Chicken in Every Pot and Pruno in Every Toilet

Get Lit: Journeys of a Lifetime: 500 of the World’s Greatest Trips, by National Geographic

Larry Craig's Bathroom Sex Might've Screwed Farmers

Miss Pop Rocks: Public Restroom Shenanigans, or Am I the Only One with Questions for the Cops Who Caught Larry Craig?

Georgia Rule

La Lohan elevates -- but can't save -- Georgia Rule

Montrose Vindaloo

Is Indika the best Indian restaurant in the United States?

Geek or Chic?

Dang, You've Got Skills!

Show 'em off at a midnight screening of Napoleon Dynamite

Minor League Rockers

Bands and their fans play rookie ball at Cardi's 2000

Fringe Characters

This summer the PC Cowboys trade KILT for kilts

Letters

Famous Potatoes

Idaho's Built to Spill survives the indie-to-major metamorphosis with its street cred intact

News of the Weird

Cultural Front

Smoke Signals laughs and cries Native-American style

The Love Barge

B.S. 101

John Singleton's Higher Learning fails to make the grade

The Soul of Storyville