Indiana

2013 NFL Draft, First Round: 4 Winners, 4 Losers

All right, it's Friday morning, and either you're hungover from getting destroyed by the Battle-Drink BINGO drinking card for the NFL Draft or you're mentally exhausted from sweating out all the NFL Draft prop bets I shared with you earlier this week. Either way, however shitty you feel is likely my ... More >>

No Beard? No Problem. Rockets Beat Clippers for 40th W of the Season

At the beginning of this season, I was talking to my friend David Hardisty over at ClutchFans.net. At the beginning of every season, we'll usually talk about what we expect from the season. The team had just traded for James Harden, but neither of us were optimistic. I pegged the Rockets' win total ... More >>

Five Reasons the Young Rockets Will Make the Playoffs This Year

Last year, the Rockets were in the driver's seat with just a few weeks left in the season. They were in the sixth spot in the Western Conference seeding and virtual lock to make the playoffs. Then all hell broke loose. They lost six straight games and found themselves out of the playoffs for the thi ... More >>

Zack Kopplin, The 19-Year-Old Face of the Anti-Creationist Movement

Having fought his battles in Louisiana, the Rice University student is now ready for Texas and any move to put faux science in the public schools here.

The Best Concerts In Houston This Weekend

Scooter Brown Band Firehouse Saloon, January 4 Few bands on the Texas country circuit -- a scene largely made up of affable college dropouts -- can say that they have a true-blue U.S. Marine up front, but the Scooter Brown Band can. Lead singer-songwriter/Iraq war combat veteran Scott Brown chose ... More >>

Notre Dame-Alabama: Jimmy Clausen Fires The First Salvo And Shows Why The World Hates Him

I have to say that for a potentially historical battle between two behemoth football programs with the two most bruising, physically pounding defenses in the country, the lead up thus far to the January 7 BCS Title Game between Notre Dame and Alabama has been proceeding rather softly. The captains ... More >>

The 5 Best Shows In Houston This Week: Blondie/Devo, Uncle Lucius, etc.

Houston's football, etc., who package the spidery and poignant guitar passages of '90s bands like Mineral and Rainer Maria into a super-crunchy outer shell, went to the UK this summer and released a three-song split with Square Business in July. Monday, see if you can talk the trio out of a T-shirt ... More >>

The Best Beer Labels

The most iconic and creative on Texas shelves.

Friday Night: Murder by Death at Fitzgerald's

Murder by Death, Cory Chisel & the Wandering Sons Fitzgerald's July 27, 2012 When I discovered that Murder by Death was set up to play the smaller downstairs room at Fitzgerald's Friday night, I was a little surprised. The Indiana-based y'allternative act may hail from a small town, but they've got ... More >>

Pollstar: Woodlands Pavilion Now World's No. 3 Amphitheater

The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, site of Sunday night's aromatic 311 show, has long been one of the country's busiest concert venues, usually ranking at or near the top in annual attendance. Now it's officially one of the busiest in the world. In concert trade publication Pollstar's new survey ... More >>

Crossing the Line: Welcome Back, Jim Crow

New laws in dozens of states could take out Barack Obama this fall.

EarthQuest's Don Holbrook Threatens to Sue Critics into Submission

We couldn't help but laugh our asses off at the latest move by EarthQuest "consultant" Don Holbrook to silence two of his loudest critics: Last week, he hired an Ohio attorney to send cease and desist letters to Garland, Texas, resident Heather Dobrott, who runs a site called realscam.com, and to a ... More >>

American Parasite

Mitt Romney's years at Bain represent everything you hate about capitalism.

Chase Budinger's Painfully Awkward Dialogue with P-Diddy at the NBA Slam Dunk Contest (w/ VIDEO)

The logical evolution of most things brings about positive change. This is especially true in the world of sports and entertainment. Think about anything in either of those realms which you consume, and ask yourself, "Is this experience better now than it was 25 years ago?" For almost everything, be ... More >>

Blood Money

More than 200 soldiers are suing KBR for knowingly exposing them to toxic chemicals in Iraq, whose effects started with nose bleeds and could end with cancer. KBR says that didn't happen. But even if it did, the company isn't responsible. Taxpayers are.

Houston Texans Grieving Process 1.0: At Least We're Not in Louisiana!

Ha-ha!​Forty-eight hours have come and gone since Sunday, and the Texans' loss to the Baltimore Ravens is still maddening and painful. How does one process the anguish coming out of a sporting event in which your team had every chance to win the game and put themselves one step away from th ... More >>

Declassified KBR Contract Shows How It Gets a Free Pass for Willful Misconduct

These dudes know how to write a sweet contract.​A KBR government contract protected the company from liability for injuries or deaths caused by willful misconduct, according to recently declassified Army documents. Although the existence of the clause was revealed as a part of a lawsuit file ... More >>

Houston Rappers Freak Out Indiana KFC Diners

Photo by OrbitDidIt/Smoker's Club Tour​Hopefully you've been keeping up with the exploits of Patron-loving Houston MC Marcus Manchild as he winds his way toward Warehouse Live with Method Man, Big K.R.I.T. and a bunch of others on the Smoker's Club 2011 tour. Marcus will be filing his usual re ... More >>

10 Things You May Not Know About G N' R's Use Your Illusion Albums

For the past few weeks, the music world has been firmly entrenched in Nirvana nostalgia. Hell, even Rocks Off took a crack at it, looking up all the expensive memorabilia on eBay related to the band. But in September 1991, another album hit the store shelves that had a lot of impact too, for better ... More >>

Five Oddly Timed or Just Plain Odd Texas License Plate Offerings from MyPlates.com

​The folks over at MyPlates.com, who bring us just about every custom license plate our Texas hearts could desire, just released a batch of new offerings we didn't even know we needed. The mostly-sports-themed releases provide citizens of our great state the opportunity to show pride in their ... More >>

Grilled Corn on the Cob

​Corn on the cob was a favorite, until the Germans came. Before them, summertime guests relished the crisp Indiana sweet corn, fresh from the field, hot and buttered. But our Teutonic cousins refused the golden ears, and were giggling like brats at the end of the long table, while the Americ ... More >>

2011 NBA Draft -- The Live Blog

Keep coming back for the latest​The overwhelming consensus on the 2011 NBA Draft is that it's, by and large, a pretty underwhelming group of players, and it may quite possibly be completely devoid of future All-Stars. So why am I so excited about tonight's festivities? Because of all the thin ... More >>

Kosher Coke: The Real Real Thing

​Often I pop into Belden's in Meyerland because it's a throwback supermarket with unique food items, and right now it has "Houston's Largest Selection Kosher for Passover." That matters because it's the short season for Kosher Coca-Cola. I'm not from Sugar Land, but I love sugar in my Coke. ... More >>

"Screamin'" Gus Johnson Videos

Scream it like you mean it, Gus.​As play-by-play announcers go, nobody in any sport has as big a cult following as CBS's Gus Johnson, the screaming, cackling, (at times) seemingly psychotic, mid-card voice of college basketball and NFL football. If you're reading this, you probably live in Ho ... More >>

Texas Lousy at Reporting Food Poisoning, Study Says

You'll never know what gets you in Texas​If you live in Texas and eat food, you will probably die, or at least become violently ill. That's what we're taking away from a study that gives the Lone Star state an "F" in reporting outbreaks of foodborne illness. The Center for Science in th ... More >>

Bartender Chat: Ben Sills of Barcadia

​ Why is Ben Sills of Barcadia nicknamed Ben the Menace? "Kassidy, my girlfriend, calls me that because I'm always creating trouble," he said. "I'm the kid with the slingshot in his back pocket." Considering his sweet, boyish charm and nonconformist attitude, I would have to say that's a pre ... More >>

What Does Batman Have To Do With "Jingle Bells"?

somethingawful.com​Jingle Bells! Batman smells Robin laid an egg. Batmobile lost a wheel And the Joker got away. Everyone has heard this parody of "Jingle Bells." In fact, for a couple of years Rocks off had recited this version so many times that when called upon to sing the original ve ... More >>

National Journal Ranks Rick Perry 11th In The 2012 Stakes

Answer: Probably not​It's never too early to begin the horse-race punditry on the 2012 presidential race, and National Journal has taken on the job. They've published their rankings of who's likely to get the GOP nod, and -- in what's good news for America but bad for Texas -- Rick Perry come ... More >>

Sexiest Cities: Don't Get Too Excited, Houston

Houston;'s hot, but not as hot as....Bakersfield?​Men's Health has found, once again, a surefire way to get mentioned in a bunch of cities who otherwise wouldn't pay it much mind: It's come up with a list of the nation's sexiest cities.How? By, it claims, examining condom sales, birth rates and ST ... More >>

Frozen Custard on a Hot Day

Photos by Robb Walsh​The thermometer in the car said 100 degrees on Saturday afternoon when we stopped for ice cream at Ritter's Frozen Custard on North Fry Road in Katy. Ritter's serves scoops of frozen custard in a variety of flavors. We sampled the rich vanilla and chocolate-flecked strawbe ... More >>

The Sleaziness Of The Door-To-Door Magazine-Subscriptions Industry Continues

On March 30, Grand Prairie police say, a magazine subscription salesman knocked on the door of a 78-year-old woman, raped her, poured rubbing alcohol on her chest, and set her on fire. The question right now is not "How did this happen?" but "When and where will it happen again?" Police quickly arre ... More >>

SXSW: Scott Miller

Photo by clared23 "I've been drunk all around this town, from the downside up to the upside down...." So sings Scott Miller in "Drunk All Around this Town," which he calls "the most beautiful ballad I have ever written." That might not be true but it is a most apropos song for SXSW, and it never sou ... More >>

Local Attorneys Help Hit Drugmaker Hard

$800 million is a ton of money to settle a civil suit, but two Houston attorneys helped win a settlement of that size this morning.Joel Androphy, who specializes in whistleblower suits, worked with Sarah Frazier and won a big one as the drug giant Eli Lilly agreed to pay that whopping amount to sett ... More >>

Mail Call: Post-Ike/ACL Edition

Protests Against ExxonMobil, But Not In Houston

High-School Heroes and Zeros Roam the Halls of Nanette Burstein's "documentary" American Teen

Young-Adult Fiction

Five Times August

Five Times August performs Saturday, May 5, at Mojo Risin', 1600 Shepherd, 713-426-1505.

Haunts

They'll scare the crap out of you

Proud Marie

A fiery poet shares her Home Grown flow

Hard Time

Ray Hill's tips for surviving prison

Children of Enron

One of Ken Lay's many legacies: the families whose lives were disrupted by the fall

Gay Play

The nightlife scene is alive and well in the Montrose. Meet some of its stars.

POD People

A new publishing method attracts first-time authors. Will it do the same for readers?

Executing the Truth in Ads

Just who is behind the McVeigh ads is called into question

Letters

Ministry Magic, Rice Wars, Cross to Bear

Ford Fatigue

Harrison plods through the flat Pollack mystery Random Hearts

Dripping with Irony

Hard Rain drowns the myth of small-town virtue

Dumb and Dumber

The Nerd and Ten by Ten do little to liven up the season

The Chips Are Down

Lost Cyberweekend

CyberCulture Houston: Three days of art, music, dance and deep thoughts