John Wayne

L.A.'s Finest

Gangster Squad's cop-turned-screenwriter faces the thin blue line edit.

Friday Night: Public Image Ltd. at Scout Bar

Public Image Ltd. Scout Bar November 2, 2012 Not many shows remind you that sound has actual, physical mass, but Public Image Ltd. sure did Friday. Mass, as in something tangible and discernible, with density and volume. Especially volume. But don't count out density. Yes, I'm talking about some ... More >>

Here Come the Trishas, Texas' 4-Part Harmony Queens

Does anyone else miss the Dixie Chicks? Is it even OK to say that in Texas? We hope so, because a week or two ago Rocks Off stumbled across "Tonight the Heartache's On Me" again and have been on a serious Chicks kick ever since. But as the song says, that trio is a long time gone at this point. The ... More >>

Locked In

Survivors of a nuclear disaster scratch each other's eyes out in The Divide.

The 10 Best Warplane Films, According to Real Aviation Buffs (No Top Gun, Thank You)

Featuring a proto-beatnik jet pilot​With the possible exceptions of horses and ships, no other non-speaking entity has starred in so many motion pictures as the airplane. And we love airplanes. We love them so much we've probably seen every last airplane movie worth watching, and even more tha ... More >>

Glen Campbell's 15 Greatest Hits - As A Guitarist

Yet another reason to love Pet Sounds.​In a few hours, Rocks Off will be down at the Stafford Centre, watching the sold-out first Houston-area stop on Glen Campbell's extended "Farewell Tour." It might be the only one, but the tour is booked well into 2012, so we figure there's got to be a Dos ... More >>

Tasting Notes: This Week in Wine Blogs

Know a Houston-based blog we should be paying particular attention to? Leave the address in the comments section below. ​TweetChat #TXWine: If you've been following along here at Wine Time, you know that Texas wines have been on our minds. We found out about the TweetChat #TXWines thanks to t ... More >>

4 Great Character Themes from Classical Music (And What They Really Mean)

Pedro Sanchez​Entrance music is important. Get the right tune and people will forever have a dual-sensory impression of your character. Most people like to craft original music to help fully embody the characters they create, but some people just lift classical themes to get the job done witho ... More >>

Top 5 Musician Novelists

Ted Barron/New West RecordsSteve Earle: What's up, Doc?​Despite what our paychecks and sometimes even our diplomas say, the perception persists that music journalists are not "real" journalists. Similarly, no matter how literate their lyrics, some folks think musicians could not possibly put p ... More >>

Five Very Bad Father's Day Gifts

Father's Day: What are you gonna do? You are forced by the powers that be to get something, unless your Dad has passed on to his reward. And if you're a Dad yourself, then you have to resign yourself to books from that one author someone saw on your shelf (never mind that you hated that book), tool ... More >>

Our San Jacinto Quiz, Including Silk Underwear, Syphilis and Dennis Quaid

Good thing he wasn't named Sam Schnackenpfefferhausen​Today marks the 175th anniversary of the Battle of San Jacinto, the glorious day when a ragtag Texan army surprised a siesta-enjoying Mexican force and won independence for the Lone Star State. The battle, fought near present-day Refinery ... More >>

SXSW: Bob Geldof, Master Of The F-Bomb

Photos by Chris Gray​Leave it to Sir Bob Geldof to turn the SXSW keynote address into a 45-plus minute combination elaborate cultural history of the past 60 years with rock and roll at the center, personal narrative of how rock and roll ("pop with a hard-on") shook loose his inner social activ ... More >>

Stephen Jabbour, Mark Tilford: Kiddie Porn Cases Face Two Prominent South Texas Lawyers

Stephen Jabbour and Bill Clinton​What is going on with these prominent, middle-aged lawyers in the Texas Coastal Bend and their kiddie porn? Just last week, one got sentenced to federal prison, and it seems another is likely to follow. Last Friday, 57-year-old Stephen Jabbour, the former chai ... More >>

Kickass Movies of the Year

Our Ten Favorites from 2010 – including Jackass 3D.

Green Zone: Win A Free DVD, And Learn Why Matt Damon Is The Best Of The Ocean's 11 Actors

Thank God Brad Pitt didn't star in this​Green Zone, by shaky-cam master Paul Greengrass, is the latest movie to try to buck the trend of box-office poison that is the Iraq War.Many have tried, but even the most celebrated of the Iraq War flicks, The Hurt Locker, wasn't a blockbuster. (Maybe ... More >>

Cowboy Down

Rob Krentz's family talks about the life and death of the murdered Arizona rancher.

SPECIAL ETHNIC STUDIES EDITION

Robb Walsh's 100 Favorite Houston Dishes: #80 A Bowl of Chili at James Coney Island

​Over the course of the next few months, I'm counting down 100 of my favorite Houston dishes. I chose some because they are such quintessential Houston creations, others for their cultural or historical significance, and others because they are just so damn tasty. Share your own nominations in ... More >>

Magnolia City Mixtape: Sign the WestFest Petition, And Other Stuff You Need to Know About

MTV Shows Are you READY for Rocks Off's Washington Shore party this Thursday? If not, this video of Jersey Shore's Snooki interviewing Phoenix on MTV will melt your brain. If you read even one Houston-based music Web site, you probably already know that a petition is circulating to show support for ... More >>

Texas Traveler: Heading West

Photos by Brittanie SheyEd. Note: This the first part of a series on heading west to Big Bend and back. Check back next week for our continuing adventures. The very first thing we have to decide is which way to go. We're meeting friends in Big Bend for a New Year's camping trip, but we have several ... More >>

SPECIAL EL EDITION

Five Reasons The Longhorns Won't Win The BCS Title This Year

​Finally -- after what seems a wait of approximately five years -- college football is back.The New York Times, of all people, has picked the UT Longhorns as the Number One team in the nation. A lot of other experts, not to mention Red Bull-swilling, Cheeto-chomping, Mom-avoiding bloggers, pick UT ... More >>

No Reservations: Montana

Photo by gaby53mt​Usually Anthony Bourdain is a hedonist. He indulges in food, alcohol and not a few off-color sex jokes, no matter what city or what audience. But this week while visiting Montana, he exits out of the fast lane. Maybe it's the mountains, but in the first 20 minutes of the epis ... More >>

Blockbuster Disses Houston As A Movie Location

Blockbuster has put out an interactive "Road Trip" map for the summer, listing locations where great movies have been shot.Sixteen of the listed films are in Texas. The number of those shot in Houston? Zero.Included are Bonnie & Clyde (Dallas) and Dazed and Confused (Austin), but even the TV sho ... More >>

Very Minor: Miracle at St. Anna

No matter the run time and budget, Spike Lee's WWII drama is an epic bore

Empire Strikes Back in Mongol

The film paints a historically hazy but kickass picture of everyone's fave emperor, Genghis Khan

Big Bad John Cornyn Is One Tough Cowboy, Apparently

Empire Strikes Back in Mongol

This film paints a historically hazy but kickass picture of everyone's fave emperor, Genghis Khan

A Mighty Heart

Angelina Jolie kidnaps Daniel Pearl's movie

Our top DVD picks for the week of June 14

Our top DVD picks for the week of May 30

Scared Stiff

Wayne Kramer's latest casts a Paul over the proceedings

G'Dead, Mate

Zombies rise again, this time from down under

The Devil & Mr. Zombie

The rocker's second directorial stab yields a true gorefest

Steal These Albums

The ten most dangerous and radical hip-hop records of all time

Fonda Film

A countercultural icon rolls into town for Easy Rider and The Hired Hand

Messin' with Texas

The Alamo gets what it always needed: a happy ending

Metaphor Alert: Bright Red

Like America's current leaders, Viggo and Hidalgo try to "enlighten" the Arabs with Western justice

Of Boobs and Blood

Troma's Lloyd Kaufman has guts, all over the floor

Male Fraud

Jason Lee lies to juggle two women, because, hey, it's A Guy Thing

Keep History Alive

Paul Matthews puts his collection of military history on display

Larry Perdido

Head chef and co-owner, Saba Blue Water Cafe

The Straight Shooter

The no-bullshit Budd Boetticher took an unsentimental approach with his Ranown Cycle westerns

Rejected

Thousands of inmates rely annually on a capricious parole board for their freedom. Most, like George Dismukes, return to their cells without ever knowing why they were denied.

The (Balding) Eagle Has Landed

Clint Eastwood's charming Space Cowboys tosses youth demographics out the cargo bay

Not Your Average Angst

The Steve McQueen Affair

The "Steve McQueen: The King of Cool" film retrospective

Couch Capo

De Niro's comedic mob mastery excels in Analyze This

Backwoods Bin of Sin

Powerful Clay Pigeons scores with country-style noir

Escargot A Go-Go

Gene Weaver always had a big idea. Selling snail dreams was to have been his last hurrah.