LEGO Group

The Art Car Parade: Enjoying the Ride

Art Car stalwarts employ time, energy and creativity to bring their new creations to life. Oh, and scrap metal comes in handy too.

These Old AQUA VELVA Commercials Alone Should Get Pete Rose Into The Hall Of Fame (w/ VIDEO)

Major League Baseball decided to delay announcing the 2013 Hall of Fame induction class until Wednesday this week so as not to have the news buried by coverage of the historic clash between Alabama and Notre Dame for the BCS title. For Major League Baseball, it's a refreshing dose of self awareness ... More >>

Local Woman Poses as Teen Girl Online to Catch Alleged Facebook Predator

Acccording to court documents, "Jessica," a 36-year-old Houston-area woman was creeped out by an acquaintance of hers, 26-year-old Daniel Riekstins of Webster. Jessica had heard that Riekstins's behavior with underage teen girls was suspicious and that his relationships with some of them had been ... More >>

Top 10 Kitschy Pop-Related Gift Items to Give This Year

Thanksgiving is in ten days, and then we'll all be fully immersed in the holiday season. While shopping recently, I noticed that Taylor Swift now has her own greeting-card line featuring her photography and sweet words. If you were to receive one such card from a loved one, would you swell with fuz ... More >>

30 Seconds With Ryan Beatty

When the opportunity to interview a fast-rising 16-year-old pop star named Ryan Beatty, I initially wrote him off as a Bieber clone, which would be like aural equivalent of Xeroxing the act of stepping on a LEGO. When I did finally sit down and give a listen to Beatty though, I have to admit there r ... More >>

Friday Night: Aesop Rock at Fitzgerald's

Aesop Rock, Edison, Dark Time Sunshine Fitzgerald's August 10, 2012 It was a characteristically hot August night in the H on Friday, but I'd wager that no place was hotter than the upstairs room at Fitzgerald's. The club was crowded with sweating hip-hop heads anticipating hot rhymes, hot beats and ... More >>

UH Hires Developers for New $105 Million Football Stadium

Look at the University of Houston, acting all grown up and everything. They are so cute at that age. UH, long suffering in grand old Robertson Stadium, particularly in recent years when the football team has been, you know, actually good, finally is moving forward on a much ballyhooed stadium plan ... More >>

Brick Fiesta

Undercover Brothers

Bro, how times have changed: 21 Jump Street now a buddy comedy.

Local Landmarks Dominate the 3rd Annual Gingerbread Build-Off

Photos by Rachel BohananThe Alabama Theater, complete with tiny, edible movie posters, was one of the most heartfelt entries in Saturday's competition.​For David Stagg, Caitlin Kaluza and the rest of their team from Schipul, their gingerbread house was meant to evoke emotions: a vintage Alabam ... More >>

Dig This: Back To Back, Black Congress, dUNETX, Frants, and Ghost Mountain

The current volume of local music is staggering. New Houston bands are born daily, and all too often pass away just as quickly. Rocks Off wants to help you (and ourselves) keep up. Houston may have gotten colder, but that's just an excuse to hunker down with those headphones, discover some local m ... More >>

6 Videos to Mentally Prepare You for Game 7 of the World Series

"Little roller up along first..."​You can debate all you want about which sport is the best or most fun to watch, but one thing most sports fans can agree on -- regardless of the sport, there is nothing quite like a Game 7. Sometimes it's not about the amount of true action, nor about person ... More >>

Let It Bleed

Hard at work on his eighth novel, Deadwood author Pete Dexter still packs a punch.

The 5 Worst Places to Take a First Date

When in doubt, let Justin Bieber be a living cautionary tale: If he takes his girlfriend to a place, don't take your date there.​Looking for a great place to take a first date? There are plenty of lists out there. Hell, we've even got a few of our own. Looking for a great place to break up? We ... More >>

Five Great Uses Of Music As A Weapon

Ed. Note: Jef With One F does not distinguish fiction from reality from video games. We let it slide because he accepts checks from the "Bank of Mordor"... we just hope it's not rubbing off on us. teecraze.com​Music is a weapon. That's what angry political bands will tell you. They'll bend yo ... More >>

Would You Sell Your Soul For A Million Twitter Followers?

​Recently, Rocks Off was rolling the List o'Craig like we do when an all caps entry screamed at us that for only $50 they would gain us thousands of Twitter followers and Facebook friends. $50? That's less than a the price of a good Lego set! However, is it a good deal? Rocks Off firmly belie ... More >>

Holy Fiction

Last Shot Of Whiskey Wednesday Is Powerful Stuff

Steve Jansen​Rocks Off doesn't know where you went to school, but Robert Ellis & the Boys' final Whiskey Wednesday at Fitzgerald's last night felt a lot like the prom/graduation party we always wanted to have. With maybe just a little more beer. 'Tis the season. As the ceiling sagged from th ... More >>

West Texas Teardrops: Incident In Odessa

Ed. Note: This past weekend, Houston alternative/screamo rockers The Last Place You Look opened for Unwritten Law in Lubbock, Odessa, and Austin, and invited Rocks Off's Matthew Keever along. Here is Part 1. The Last Place You Look on FacebookThe Last Place You Look's Justin Nava at Emo's in Austin ... More >>

For Five Bucks I'd...

What Texans would do for a Lincoln

Fiverr.com: What Texans Will Do For Five Bucks

For sale, cheap: Critiques of your dating profile​Hair Balls has five bucks burning a hole in our pocket, and we're thinking about spending it on a postcard from a Houston-based model no one's ever heard of. Or possibly a Texas State Fair award-winning pecan pie recipe.The problem is, there are ju ... More >>

Total Eclipse Of A LEGO

Every day Rocks Off trolls the tubes of you in search of videos to share. If you have something that you think deserves to be video of the day, send a link to jef_rouner at yahoo dot com. ​If there are two things that Rocks Off is certain we loved as children in the late '80s and early '90s, ... More >>

Game Time: LeBron James -- All Right, Now It's Getting Weird (The Mav Carter Pendant Story)

A mission to recover diamonds, at Mom's house​I wanted to write about Luis Scola today, I really did. I wanted to talk about how good Daryl Morey has to feel that he was able to lock in Scola for an annual number below $10 million per year in a goofy free agent market that has seen $6 million and ... More >>

Nostalgic in Houston: The Foods of Our Youth

cybertoadYou can still get the fish at Luby's...​Twenty-five years ago I was a wee elementary school lass who liked to watch Goonies, play Legos, and eat raw gelatin off my finger at swim meets. Life was easy back then - We got our sloppy joes from the cafeteria lunch lady and our Frito pies a ... More >>

Rick Perry, Great White Hunter: How Does He Stack Up?

Rick Perry is getting a lot of Internet play today for manfully admitting to the Associated Press that he used a laser-sighted pistol with hollow-point bullets to kill a coyote that was threatening his dog while he was out jogging.Take that, dog predator. You should have known our governor never jog ... More >>

Reminder: Rocks Off's Free Lego Rock Band Party at Khon's Tomorrow

Tomorrow night at Khon's, Rocks Off lets you open up your first Christmas present of the season, our brand new copy of Lego Rock Band. We promise that you won't have to kiss any of us on the cheek afterwards or write a detailed thank-you note like your Mom would make you do back in the day when you ... More >>

Architecture Gone Awry: Houston's 8 Ugliest Buildings

Photo courtesy of SwamplotThe HISD Central Services building, a.k.a. the Taj Mahal​The old HISD Central Services building on Richmond -- called the Taj Mahal by HISD employees, both for its massive size and the massive budget that went into building it -- was torn down in 2007. One of the few ... More >>

Songs You Didn't Get As a Kid

Did you know that ZZ Top's "Pearl Necklace" is essentially about a man ejaculating onto a woman's neck? No? Well, neither did I when I was 12. That is just disgusting. It is a disgusting, insanely catchy song, and I had no idea what it was about until I was an adult. I thought it was about a wo ... More >>

You Down With OCD? Yeah, You Know Me

Video games linked to obsessive, Tony Shalhoub-type behavior

Home Is Where the Art Is

Together, architects and artists design dwellings

Let Go

LEGO tourney pits block against block

Thirty Seconds Too Late

A Killer Nanny

Charlotte Foster wanted a male nanny who’d play sports with her sons. She got an escaped murderer.

Here's Mud in Your Ear

Repeat after us: The Dirtbombs are not a garage rock band

Coming Down

A "routine" shuttle descent winds up stunning Space City

Coming Down

A "routine" shuttle descent winds up stunning Space City

Wading for Godot

Allison arrived in a flood of thoughts -- mattress rafts, murky thigh-deep water and the sudden flotsam of family life rushing out the back door

Meet the Press

Stoppard's Night and Day places journalism under a high-powered microscope

Product Placement

Brooke Stroud repackages consumer goods into minimalist works of art

Project Crate House

Forget the usual construction materials. Two German artists built a dream home out of plastic boxes.

Room with a View

Unfortunately, Mallorca doesn't offer much else

Boogie Nights

Music, a Houston DJ andthe lure of Austin

Domestic Disturbance

If you rearrange the furniture, do you become someone else?

Letters

Battle of the 'Bots

Press Picks

Gray Matter of Concern

Both a bang and a whimper? The CAM's long-awaited Texas show may burn bright, but it doesn't burn deep