Natalie Portman

The 5 Best Shows In Houston This Week: Big Business, Garbage, The Shins, etc.

Big Business Warehouse Live (Studio), Monday Since 2003, the twosome of drummer-yelper Coady Willis and bassist-howler Jared Warren (give or take a guitarist) has been making a perfect sludgy mess as Big Business. They ended up joining Melvins Buzz Osbourne and Dale Crover along the way, both live ... More >>

The Shins

Houston Film Critics Society: Best of 2011

Free for All: Art Without a Price Tag

We've had a couple of days to recover from all of those holiday parties, and we're already looking forward to this weekend's offerings. Here are a few of the events on our list. On Friday, we'll be stopping by the "Joseph Cohen: Fatto in Italia" opening at Wade Wilson Art. Cohen, part of the Conc ... More >>

Say My Name: Bands Named After Actual, Real People

Punk Rock Elite​This Friday would have been Z.Z. Hill's 76th birthday, but the popular Texas bluesman passed away in 1984 from a heart attack. Most people only know who the late soul crooner is through his connection to ZZ Top. The moniker of that little ol' band from where we are sitting righ ... More >>

Top 10 Songs Famous Because Of A Movie

​Wednesday night, surf-guitar hero Dick Dale played to a packed Continental Club, in what Rocks Off's buddy Lonesome Onry and Mean and several others have since said was one of the best shows they've ever seen. The song that sent everyone home with their ears ringing and their fingers on fire ... More >>

Thor Morris, 20: Came from Asgard Crossed Half the Country to Hack Houston ATMs

Thor Morris: "Great Odin's raven!!!"​As much of America learned this past weekend, Thor the God of Thunder (?) (Hammers? We weren't paying that much attention) came to Earth from Asgard to not have sex with Natalie Portman. What we learned today: Thor, the God of Computer Hacking, came to Hou ... More >>

Stoned and Throned

Your Highness, dirty jokes for the D&D crowd.

Why We Read Previews (A Prelude to My Astros 2011 Preview)

​Thanks to the Internet -- specifically blogs, YouTube, chat rooms and porn -- the competition for the few spare minutes that you have in your day to consume items not related to work, family, or sleep has never been fiercer. So why would you spend the next several minutes reading my previe ... More >>

Oscar Night 2011: The Live Blog!

​We are only less than three hours out from bringing you live-blogging coverage, right here, of this year's Academy Awards, and we are more than excited to take you through the night for every win, loss, awful dress, awesome dress, foible, and foul-up Hollywood throws our way.

Colin Firth for Best Actor? Not So Fast.

​I realize the actual Academy Awards aren't set to be broadcast until Sunday night, when millions of people will watch -- for the first hour, at least -- as co-hosts James Franco and Anne Hathaway lob Nerfball zingers at their fellow actors, make passively tasteless jokes about speech impedime ... More >>

Bombay Pizza Company: Perfect for an Oscar Party

The Slumdog.​With Academy Awards season upon us again, I have a recommendation for your Oscar party, sure to increase the number of folks in your social network, and that, my friends, is Bombay Pizza Company downtown. I've wanted to try the Indian-Italian fusion-y joint since its inception b ... More >>

Cold Weather Baby Names: Naming the Bundle of Joy You Started This Morning

It made sense in February 2011, kid​No doubt all of you people who don't work in the news industry are either off this morning or working from home. But we all know that no one gets any work done at home with all the distractions running around you. Television, NetFlix, Internet porn, food, wi ... More >>

Life After Black Swan

Natalie Portman follows up with — surprise — an awfully good romantic comedy.

Why the Golden Globes Are Relevant...No, Really

Just as relevant as the Academy Awards. Sorry.​The 2011 awards season kicked off Sunday night with the 68th installment of the Golden Globes, a.k.a. That Awards Show No One in Hollywood Takes Seriously But They All Attend Anyway Because They're Too Chickenshit to Blow It Off. Though now that ... More >>

Dance Dance Revulsion

Natalie Portman goes batshit in a tutu in Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan.

So Who Hasn't Gotten Naked?

W Magazine: All about the art.​In the latest news from the Land That Talent Forgot, Kim Kardashian has gone starkers for the November issue of W Magazine: Kim Kardashian has bared all on the cover of a fashion magazine. The reality star, who turns 30 on Oct. 21, appears nude on W Magazine's ... More >>

Top 10 Celebrity Music-Video Cameos

​Ratt, "Round and Round" Thursday night, Ratt hits up Warehouse Live with what passes for their original line-up. At their peak, the band was a gritty and decadent alternative to bands like Poison, skewing closer to Motley Crue in terms of excess and drug abuse. ​The band managed to ... More >>

Noah Baumbach goes L.A.

The filmmaker on his new film, Greenberg, the DIY ethos and learning to drive.

The Lonely Island: Incredibad

How About Some SXSW Day Parties? A LOT of SXSW Day Parties?

We here at Rocks Off are only about a week away from chafed inner thighs, weird Japanese punk bands puking in hotel pools and sweating out our morning mojitos while walking to an art space off 4th Street. South By Southwest is now only a week away. It was all fun and games in December when we w ... More >>

Sister Act: The Other Boleyn Girl

Sibling rivalry in all its royal glory

Justice League: The New Frontier, The Darjeeling Limited, Death at a Funeral, Beowulf: Director's Cut

Six Degrees of Charlie Wilson’s War

Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium

Mr. Magorium is far less fantastical than its title

Get Inside. It's Summertime!

Your guide to the season's hottest films (and the other ones, too)

The Joy in the Bubble

Cannes 2007 was a success, but how many of its movies will you actually get to see?

Gretchen Schmaltz

Q&A with the singer/songwriter

Shut Up, Already

See Also: Vexing

V for Vendetta delivers less, not Moore

Torah! Torah! Torah!

Protocols of Zion takes a hard look at those who fear Jews

Dang, You've Got Skills!

Show 'em off at a midnight screening of Napoleon Dynamite

Excess Hollywood

In the season of sequels and Happy Meal toys, '05 may be a pleasant surprise.

On the Dark Side

Why Episode III isn't the movie it should have been

Sith Is It

George Lucas at last delivers the Star Wars prequel we've been waiting for

Fahrenheit 2004

Remembering the movies that heated up cinemas this year

Leaning Sideways

In a year when small movies came up big, picking the best was a Payne

Closer to Fine

Urban savages wage war over sex in Mike Nichols's dreadfully funny new film

Yes, You Can

In the Garden State, home is where Zach Braff's heart is

A Mountainous Achievement

Cold Mountain sets the new standard for Civil War drama on-screen

Mag Hags

What's wrong with the state of music journalism -- and how to fix it

Shadows of the Empire

George Lucas tries to reclaim his lost glory with Episode II

Okie Glamour

Ashley Judd and Natalie Portman as poor white folk? It's best not to question the attraction of Where the Heart Is.

Turning Japanese

Forest Whitaker brings an adopted honor code to the streets in Jim Jarmusch's Ghost Dog

Glossed Over

Anywhere But Here treats a mother-daugther relationship like kid stuff

Episode I: What Did You Expect?

It's Star Wars, all right

Star Lard

With The Fifth Element, Luc Besson swipes from science fiction past to create a slick, vacuous future

Manhattan Melodies

In Woody's world, everyone erupts into show tunes

Hollow Points

Besson's bullet ballet The Professional is slick, but morally ugly