Mercedes-Benz International Inc.

The Top 10 Car Models in Desperate Need of a Redesign

Car years are like dog years. They age much faster than we do. The average life cycle of a car is getting shorter and shorter as automakers compete to have the latest and greatest redesign on the block. In between redesigns, many automakers try to trick you into thinking that a car is "all-new" when ... More >>

Beyonce Stoops to Conquer Toyota Center July 15

Hot off the heels of her electrifying Super Bowl halftime performance, which some believe had something to do with the mysterious blackout at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome shortly into the game's third quarter, Beyonce announced after the game that she will hit the road later this year for her first w ... More >>

Surviving The Great Blackout Of Super Bowl XLVII

Last night's Super Bowl blackout in New Orleans went something like this. At first, the lights dimmed in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome after Jacoby Jones' 100-something yard kick return. Just like they had done in preparation for Beyonce's pyro-laden halftime show. Then, the screaming scoreboards an ... More >>

Beyonce Blows 'Em Away In Wham-Bam Super Bowl Halftime

An army of Beyonces. Can you handle it? The power circuits of the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans might not have been able to. Sticking to a few high-kicking dance moves, bringing out a gaggle of dancers dressed exactly like her -- and then former Destiny's Child mates Kelly Rowland and Mich ... More >>

A Private Suite For Super Bowl XLVII Only Costs $136,380 -- Wanna Go Halfsies?

Yes, with just two days before the big game on Sunday evening, plenty of Super Bowl tickets can be had. For a price. A steep price. A price that few of you reading this can afford. Perhaps your boss can, if you have one of them fancy suit jobs where you can't wear house shoes to work. Right now on ... More >>

The Harbowl, Colin Kaepernick, Ray Lewis Dominate Super Bowl Media Day

On Tuesday morning the sports media world centered itself on the Mercedes-Benz Superdome and Super Bowl Media Day, with the Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers diving into the days' orgy of interviews on the stadium floor. Media from all over the world were present to ask players the toug ... More >>

New Orleans Braces For Super Bowl XLVII Onslaught As Future Of The Game Is Debated

Excited tension hung heavy in the air in New Orleans on Monday evening as the coming Super Bowl XLVII super-storm of tourist dollars began to filter into town. Most streets downtown near convention center are already cordoned off. There are NFL banners blanketing the city. The Mercedes-Benz Superd ... More >>

MTV: Beyonce Headlining Super Bowl XLVII Halftime Show

Beyonce, native Houstonian, role model, Tumblr-keeper, wife of Jay-Z, friend and favorite of President Obama, supposedly has yet another feather to add to her headdress come February: Super Bowl Halftime headliner. According to MTV.com, the 31-year-old HSPVA alumna will be the featured entertainmen ... More >>

Songs of Luxury & Materialism: Porsche's Place In Popular Music

Behind every manufactured product there's a human being who designed it. Working alone or as part of group, they create and revise until that product is out in the world available for purchase. In the case of the Porsche 911 that man was Ferdinand Alexander Porsche, who passed away recently at the a ... More >>

JerryBuilt Burgers Are Anything But

I didn't learn the phrase "jerry-built" until I married [and later divorced] an Englishman. In America, we use the phrase "jerry-rigged" instead, but they mean the same thing: something that's poorly planned, hastily built or just generally thrown together. It's curious that JerryBuilt Homegrown Bur ... More >>

Be a BestFest VIP: Half-Off Our Fancy Tickets, Today Only

​So you held out last week and didn't purchase the $25 tickets to BestFest. Maybe you didn't think $25 was a fair price to see Cake, the Toadies, and a million other great bands at our two-day block party. (I can't really help you there...) But maybe you were waiting for a better deal to come ... More >>

BestFest Finalizes Lineup, Releases Schedule

​As much as Rocks Off has been talking about it, planning it, and writing about it these past two months or so, it doesn't seem possible that our first-ever Best of Houston® BestFest is only 10 short days away. By the time we finish coughing up all the dust from our trip to the no-smoking Aus ... More >>

Two Captured for $6 Million Jewel Heist; Third Guy Still on the Loose

Kelvin O'Brien: On the run.​Houston police are looking for the third man who helped take $6 million in jewels from a Bellaire store in February. They've already arrested Jason Clay Kennedy and John Dewayne O'Brien; Kelvin Lynn O'Brien is still on the loose. (What's with all the Irish? Is it a ... More >>

Keep The Fire Burnin': The Hidden Wisdom Of REO Speedwagon

shakenstir.co.uk​It hasn't been around for all that long, yet a pre-Internet existence is growing increasingly hard to recall, particularly when it comes to music. In addition to songs, full-length albums, artist bios and videos, the lines to almost every song ever written are just a click awa ... More >>

Jonathan Barnes & Pals: How to Spend Those Ill-Gotten Gains? Buy Frank Sinatra's 1957 Caddy

The first time Frank Sinatra's name has been associated with criminal activity​The U.S. Attorney's office today announced the indictment of three oil traders accused of running an $80 million scam against LyondellBasell, and the most entertaining part was what the trio spent their alleged ill- ... More >>

Last Night: Soul Asylum At House Of Blues

Photos by Jason Wolter​Soul Asylum House of Blues December 30, 2010 '90s alt-rock mainstays Soul Asylum took the House of Blues stage Thursday night, 18 years after their breakthrough release Grave Dancers Union. Front man Dave Pirner is conceivably regarded as one of the era's most colorful ... More >>

Lindsay Lohan & Demi Lovato: Mamas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Pop Stars

You said it, Demi.​If you're a parent, one day you'll inevitably come to the sobering realization that your child's ultimate happiness is out of your hands. Naturally you're going to avoid feeding them Red Bull and Cheetos for lunch (that's a man's meal) or letting them juggle steak knives, bu ... More >>

Six Songs That Shoot First, Ask Questions Later

​If there's one musician whose advice is worth heeding, it ought to be Johnny Cash. But when the Man in Black sang "Don't Take Your Guns To Town," a whole lot of musicians must not have been listening. Perhaps they were tuning in one of Cash's other songs that takes a different point of view - ... More >>

Jerome Ponette Wrecks Six Cars After Getting 86'd From Strip Club

Hungover and -- I did WHAT last night?​Wow, helluva night at the strip club for 40-year-old Jerome Ponette. First, he got kicked out of Mirage Cabaret on West 34th Street for allegedly being drunk. Then he got behind the wheel of his Mercedes Benz and went all Mallachi brothers in the parking lot, ... More >>

Remembering Janis: Port Arthur's Pearl Would Have Been 67 Today

Today would have been Port Arthur native Janis Joplin's 67th birthday. Rocks Off started his day at the desk with her greatest-hits collection and all her work with Big Brother & the Holding Company that gets overlooked in lieu of her bigger singles. Pearl is still seen by many as the magnum op ... More >>

Living and Dying with Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor Over Sundance

How I turned some newspaper stories into a book which became a movie that caused those two guys to kiss

Thom Bell and the Sound of Brotherly Love

While the ubiquitous songs of Detroit's Motown get anthologized and commercialized ad infinitum, and the critics salivate over the gritty southern soul of Memphis' Stax, the third great movement/label of '60s and '70s soul has always gotten short shrift. Until now, that is, with the release of the ... More >>

2007 Music Year in Review

Houston Couture

Taking His Medicine

Troubled hand surgeon Michael Brown pursues custody of his two children

The Last Word

They've fought for justice for nine years, but time is running out

The Freedom Fighter?

James "Smokie" Phillips is running for constable -- and running from his past

Visitors' Guide

Get Bowled over by the best of the real Bayou City

Best Local Girl Gone Bad

Clara Harris

Godspell

Three hundred people from Austin quit their jobs, sold their homes and moved 175 miles to Alvin to start a new church — called by the Holy Spirit in the form of the Reverend Dana Carson

This Week's Day-by-Day Picks

Jailhouse Shock

Did a Channel 13 reporter sneak her way into an exclusive?

Letters

Year of the Yao Woo

The crazy times in 2002 — Kmart raids, Olympian losses, stadium mania and more —- now make sense. Houston was just mining Ming.

Who Stollen Christmas?

Joe Mannke gives us the dish on German food

Hairy Situation

Bandits holds out for a hero and gets two: Bruce Willis and Billy Bob Thornton

Racket

"The Big E" isn't your typical DJ

French Twists

All work and no play makes Michel a dull, repressed, homicidal boy in this Gallic thriller

Turn The Beat Around

Long before DJ Screw, Darryl Scott was Houston's mixmaster, spinning records that eventually spun him into the ground. A reformed Scott has a new rap these days - the word of God.

Miami Spice

Southern Exposure

Going, Going, Gone

Someone take the wheel, 'cause the filmmakers don't know where they're headed

Wareing Thin

Primary results make a hoax of Hotze

Hot Sauce

Houston rapper South Park Mexican performs at Watcha Tour '99

Tales From the IRS

Three stories of taxman terror

"Boom Boom" Goes Bust

The founder of the Classical School for Brilliant Children claims to have fallen on hard times

The Legend

Where the games are good, everybody knows the story of Dwayne Rogers, and everybody wonders: Why is he still an amateur?

Good Work If You Can Get It

A New Orleans law firm paid $250,000 to a Houston topless dancer. Now it wants the money back.

Fourth and Long

Dreams of Glory Die Hard in Semipro football

Hot Plate