John Wayne

50 Rad Things Now on the Sig's Lagoon Walls

Within the past month, the walls of Sig's Lagoon have been transformed into a sprawling pop-culture collage of posters, photos, newspaper clippings, magazine covers, picture discs and cardboard cutouts courtesy of former Sundance Records owner Bobby Barnard. Since the longtime San Marcos music stor ... More >>

''In Residence 2011''

Hanging At The Hideout: Country Comes To Town At The Rodeo

This was my first rodeo. Before Friday I had never been to a rodeo let alone the rodeo. While I might have been there to cover the post-rodeo entertainment, it was also my chance to get the full rodeo experience. Compare me to the food critic excited about Olive Garden coming to town if you must, ... More >>

John Wayne: Let The Duke Be Your Muse, Pilgrim

Icon. Racist. Legend. Badass. Song inspiration. All of these are phrases that could describe Marion Mitchell Morrison. John Wayne is another. Loved by millions, hated by Public Enemy, he became an iconic image of what being an American meant. He's also responsible for planting the creative seed in ... More >>

Green Berets' 50th Birthday: Five Best Pop-Culture Moments

One hundred men we'll test today, but only three win the Green Beret.​The Green Berets, at least the unit everyone thinks of when they think of the Green Berets, are 50 years old tomorrow. President Kennedy, on one of his romantic James Bond flights of fancy, approved activating the U.S. Army' ... More >>

Pop Rocks: Alternative Songs for the 2012 Candidates

Please god, no.​Poor Michele Bachmann, first the John Wayne/John Wayne Gacy thing, now Tom Petty's piling on as well: The inaugural music-related strike of the 2012 presidential race comes from Tom Petty, who issued a cease and desist letter to Michele Bachmann's campaign to get her to stop ... More >>

Pop Rocks: Songs In The Key Of [Presidential] Fail

Please god, no.​Poor Michele Bachmann, first the John Wayne/John Wayne Gacy thing, now Tom Petty's piling on as well: The inaugural music-related strike of the 2012 presidential race comes from Tom Petty, who issued a cease and desist letter to Michele Bachmann's campaign to get her to stop ... More >>

R.I.P., Army Berets: Eight People Who Could Actually Rock That Look

Monk: Round Midnight is the right time for a beret​We read with mixed emotions the news that the U.S. Army is dropping the beret from its official combat uniform after soldier complaints. On the one hand, the overall foppishness of the beret tends to cancel out the otherwise serious, assertive ... More >>

Veals on Wheels: Rejected Food Truck Names

Photo illustrations by Monica FuentesScream louder; the clown says your parents will never hear you.​Last week, assistant music editor Craig Hlavaty amused the entire office by forwarding a link to Filmdrunk's recent post, "Ideas for Movie-Themed Food Trucks." On the front page was the Photosh ... More >>

Breakfast Forever at Tel-Wink Grill

​Down the Texas Independence Trail (610 South), up Telephone Road, past the Little Toy Club, Smile Lounge, and the Blue Cat, lies the Tel-Wink Grill. A sign out front used to read "Best Breakfast in Texas," and had they merely added the word "Cheap", it wouldn't have been a boast. Where els ... More >>

Top Five Songs About Horses

​Rocks Off's regular readers presumably know by now that we love few things more than offbeat anniversaries, and recently we came across one of the oddest yet. Thirty-two years ago Monday, on Feb. 28, 1979, the "actor" who played the original Mr. Ed in the 1960s TV show passed away. Yes, we're ... More >>

How the West Is Won

The Coen brothers take their tongues out of their cheeks for True Grit.

Don't Feel Turbulence

Chuck Norris Officially A Texas Ranger, Finally

We have to admit, the above Keyboard Cat clip contains the only footage of Walker, Texas Ranger we have ever seen.But the great and august government of Texas must have seen more, for today they officially voted to make Chuck Norris an honorary Texas Ranger.

"The Masterworks of Charles M. Russell: A Retrospective of Paintings and Sculpture"

The famed Western artist had a funny side

MDC

G.I. Blues: A Soldiers' Playlist

​Today is the anniversary of one of the truly momentous occasions in popular music: On March 23, 1958, Elvis Presley reported for induction into the U.S. Army, thus opening up a thousand alternate timelines for musical historians to formulate "What if he hadn't?" scenarios. For the next few years, ... More >>

For St. Patrick's Day: Five Irish Movies You Need To See

Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day, when everyone's Irish, yadda yadda yadda.How best to get ready for it? Watching a movie tonight would be one way. Unfortunately, a lot of the "great" Irish movies suck. The Quiet Man? Oy vey. Maureen O'Hara is nicely feisty, but John Wayne is as wooden as ever and the ... More >>

Inquiring Minds: An Hour With The Red Krayola Mastermind Mayo Thompson

Chris Strong/ Drag City​ Last Friday, Rocks Off had the distinct pleasure of talking to Mayo Thompson, the man behind psychedelic (or not) art-rockers The Red Krayola, whose career spans the early days of Houston label International Artists, the art worlds of New York and Europe in the '70s, a sti ... More >>

For The Lebowski Bash: Five Dudes Better Than The Dude

The Big Lebowski has undergone a hell of a transformation since hitting big screens over a decade ago. A (very) mild financial success upon theatrical release, it's gone on to become a bona fide cult phenomenon, spawning "Dudeism" -- an online religion with over 60,000 ordained ministers -- and the ... More >>

For Memorial Day, Part 3: Five Best War-Movie Deaths

Memorial Day is more than just a holiday to remember the over one million American men and women who have given their lives in service to their country. It's also a time to commemorate Hollywood's love of war. You'll have no problem finding marathons of Tora! Tora! Tora! and Sergeant York on TV, and ... More >>

Mexican Birth Control and Undocumented College Students

Cold Day Lunch: A Hot Bowl of Chili

There's nothing quite like a bowl of chili with chopped onions and saltines to warm you up on a cold winter day. And for eighty-five years, one of the best bowls of chili in the city has been served at the James Coney Island hot dog stands. The chili recipe hasn't changed in all those years, althou ... More >>

$7 at Chicago Italian Beef on Airline

The Girl Next Door, Ford at Fox, Saturday Night Live: The Complete Second Season, The Wire: The Complete Fourth Season

Spaghetti Western Art

An Italian cowboy takes over Barbara Davis Gallery

Weird and Wonderful

Our top DVD picks for the week of December 14

Ford Tough

Our top DVD picks for the week of March 7

The Impossible Bomb

Homo on the Range

Ledger and Gyllenhaal are cowboys in love in Ang Lee's wrenching Brokeback Mountain

Funky Bunch

Mark Wahlberg stars in an odd remake that, oddly, isn't so bad

La Vie en Rose, Avec Juliette

The Nightfly finds the French most pleasant. Maybe it's the company he keeps.

MDC

Sunday, April 17, at the Engine Room, 1515 Pease, 713-654-7846.

Like Moths to a Flame

Americans likely will swarm to Ladder 49, an unabashed homage to firefighters

Best Video Store

This Week's Day-by-Day Picks

Score!

When it comes to hockey movies, Miracle is as big a winner as its heroes

White Dork Down

Silly Caucasian boy Tom Cruise likes to play with Samurai swords

Indian Giver

The Missing misses plenty, except ancient prejudices

Best Weekend Getaway

Neal's Lodges, Concan

Life As a Sappy Movie

Irwin Winkler builds a rickety House out of saccharine

Imagine All the Pitas

Houstonians have broad minds, and stomachs

Dust to Dust

Once more, a man calls upon the troops to save The Alamo, before it's gone forever

Heart Condition

Minnie Driver has a problem with her ticker - and with the cinematography - in the awful Return to Me

News of the Weird

The Reformist School

Alison Cook looks back at 1997: The Year That Bit

Texas Chainsaw Documentary

A Rice professor uncovers Leatherface's dark secret