Nebraska

Rats Needed to Keep the Keystone Pipeline Rolling

The Keystone Pipeline people just can't seem to win. First there are the landowners and environmentalists down this way objecting to the pipeline hauling the sticky black tar sands through their property. Then the Native Americans are furious because they feel the federal government isn't negotiatin ... More >>

Seasons 52 Opens Today with a Full Menu of Dishes Under 475 Calories

Seasons 52, the new restaurant located in the new Millennium complex on Westheimer adjacent to Bo Concept, is opening to the public today. "The name Seasons 52 represents the 52 weeks of the year," said Reuben Rolf, the managing partner. "Every week, our menu offers a side panel of new dishes that ... More >>

Tim Tebow, Star Of The Omaha Beef?

Yesterday, I got an e-mail from my friend R.J. Bell, founder of wagering infotainment website pregame.com. I love getting e-mails from R.J. because they always have the gambling spin on whatever the latest sports news is. You know how some people subscribe to services that send them inspirational e- ... More >>

Want Love? Live in Texas? Then I'll See You at Walmart

Walmart has anything you could need. Ninety-eight-inch televisions. Formica bookshelves. Palettes of alcohols. Piles of strollers. All for under $50, and all available just down the interstate. The Waltons have perfected the pursuit of capitalism, 102.7 billion times over. They've timed their sales ... More >>

The 10 Best Metal & Punk Albums Too Rough for the Texas 30

So, the Texas 30 has been revealed at last. And it's a good list, too: Well-considered, fair and complete. Even if a lot of the records that got picked tend to be a little... well, pussy, I guess is the word I'm looking for here. Rewind: The Texas 30 (cover story) Slideshow: The Texas 30 album co ... More >>

Upcoming Taxidermy Auction Comes Just In Time For Christmas

Over off Hansen and Airport Boulevard just miles away Hobby Airport sits Worstell Auction Co., where Mark Thomas and his auction team is working hard to put together a big taxidermy auction set for this Saturday inside a large warehouse on the Worstell grounds. On Friday there will be an all-day p ... More >>

Strap On Halo Resurrected

Band brings its classic goth sound to Houston

Know Your Local Media: Laura Reynolds and Her Sexy Traffic

Each week, we will profile an esteemed member of the local media and ask them five questions, for better or worse. Name: Laura Reynolds Employer: CBS Radio Title: Assistant Program Director/Traffic Reporter Laura Reynolds wears a lot of hats for the various CBS-owned radio stations including 610 A ... More >>

Why Taking The Piss Out Of Your Most Beloved Musicians Is Healthy

A few days back I wrote a less-than-excited review of Bruce Springsteen's latest album, Wrecking Ball. The Boss' official Twitter account has been retweeting every hyperbolic 140-character superfan review of the new disc. One guy claimed that Wrecking Ball made him sob on the side of the highway for ... More >>

Springsteen Stumbles On Pedestrian New Album Wrecking Ball

Today sees the release of Bruce Springsteen's newest album, the compact and confounding Wrecking Ball, his first since 2009's Working On a Dream. Recorded and inspired partly by the recent Occupy protests, with most songs coming before the movement was even a physical thing, in any other year it cou ... More >>

Pop Rocks: Why the Long Face? Eight Famous Horses We'd Like to Eat

Were you thinking horse meat was going to stay off the menu in American restaurants indefinitely? Neigh: Horses could soon be butchered in the U.S. for human consumption after Congress quietly lifted a five-year-old ban on funding horse meat inspections, and activists say slaughterhouses could be u ... More >>

Pop Rocks: The "Mane" Course -- Eight Famous Horses We'd Like To Eat

Were you thinking horse meat was going to stay off the menu in American restaurants indefinitely? Neigh: Horses could soon be butchered in the U.S. for human consumption after Congress quietly lifted a 5-year-old ban on funding horse meat inspections, and activists say slaughterhouses could be up a ... More >>

Tasting Notes: This Week in Wine Blogs (Thanksgiving Edition)

Wine Skinny: We're sorry to report that the Houston wine blogging scene has entirely ignored Thanksgiving (except for us). But Robyn Tinsley, author of Wine Skinny, did weigh in with a Thanksgiving recipe for Robyn's Potatoes (sadly, no wine recommendations or notes). We're looking forward to more ... More >>

Oh Jesus! Rock's Top 5 Religious Conversions

Rocks Off understands the need for a good detox now and then, as most of our evening antics often leave us feeling less than bright-eyed and bushy-tailed come morning. We also imagine the damage inflicted by lifetime of hard partying and endless touring in the company of morally compromised music-in ... More >>

The Top 15 Bands To Come Out Of CBGB

​Today is the 35th anniversary of the Ramones' first gig at New York City club CBGB. The Bowery venue would be an integral part of punk-rock history, with the bands who played there nightly in its musty confines becoming the legends that would pave the way for millions of bands to come. CBGB ... More >>

What to Feed That Flu

IslesPunkFan​With the temperature climbing steadily toward the hellish heat of Houston summer, I could've sworn I'd escaped the flu season unscathed. If only I was so lucky. I got sick, making it hard to taste anything. And as someone who loves food, this was especially unfortunate. I knew ... More >>

The United States Of Women In Music

​Rocks Off is no He-Man Woman Hater's Club. We like women quite a bit, actually, especially those women brave enough to wade through the rivers of bullshit in the male-dominated music business. If you'll page back a few weeks, you'll remember the discussion of our favorite female artists from ... More >>

Meat Sundaes and Deep-Fried Moon Pies: It's Rodeo Season!

Photos by Katharine ShilcuttPulled pork sundaes at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. For more photos, check out our slideshow.​Hot beef sundaes are nothing new; in fact, we wrote about them back in March 2009, when the popular meat-and-potatoes parfait was taking to the streets of Nebraska ... More >>

The United States of Soft Drinks

Full-size image below.​In 1998, Nebraska set a precedent for all other U.S. states when it formally declared Kool-Aid to be the state soft drink. Sure, plenty of other states have state foods or state dishes, but a state soft drink? The popular children's beverage was developed in Hastings, N ... More >>

Slaid Cleaves

Capsule Stage Reviews: A Flea in Her Ear, The Little Foxes, Man from Nebraska, Uncivil Unions

Capsule Stage Reviews: The Little Foxes, Man from Nebraska, Reefer Madness

Paul Hope Goes From Brit to Heartland Americana in Man From Nebraska at Stages

Photo by Margaret DowningPaul Hope, the man from Nebraska​Paul Hope was brought up Baptist and says his father is a lot like Ken Carpenter, the character Hope plays in Man From Nebraska, now being shown at Stages Repertory Theatre.The veteran Houston actor -- he used to be with Theatre Under the S ... More >>

Capsule Stage Reviews: Man from Nebraska, Reefer Madness, Stick Fly

Man from Nebraska

What do you believe when you don’t believe in anything?

He Said She Said: Our Christmas Musical Wishlists, Part 2 - LPs Nobody Can Buy

​When He Said was four years old, all he wanted for Christmas was big brown tape recorder that Play Skool put out so he could record his own imaginary radio shows and crazed ramblings about He-Man. Santa Claus brought it that year, and He Said wore that thing out over the next few months. For Chri ... More >>

Game Time: The Cable Guy

​For most of his tenure in Oakland, Tom Cable has been your run-of-the-mill, overmatched, "dead man walking" NFL head coach. When he was hired last season in the wake of Lane Kiffin's firing, the things that jumped out at me about Cable were:-- His only head coaching experience consisted of four ... More >>

Chris Knight

Stages Announces Its 2009-10 Season

Stages Theatre, still basking in the success of its Grey Gardens production, has announced its 2009-10 season lineup.There are a bunch of productions that are "regional premieres" but, it must be said, nothing as headline-grabbing as the musical about the Beale sisters.But it's a solid series of pro ... More >>

Nebraska: The New Japan

Photo courtesy of Matthew N. Stoller Hot beef injections are down the street, sicko.It's long been known that Japan has the market cornered on bizarre vending machines.  From machines dispensing beer and sake to bowls of hot ramen and farm-fresh eggs, the Japanese are a people who love ... More >>

Top Ten Americana Albums of 2008

Picking the best folk and Americana records of the year isn't nearly as hard as discarding those great records that just didn't feel right stuck in the category. Releases by Calexico and DeVotchKa felt far too worldly to pigeonhole as folk or country, for instance, while Blitzen Trapper's fantastic ... More >>

King's X

Should Bruce Springsteen Be Forgiven?

Arguments for reconsidering the missteps on the Boss's otherwise impeccable track record

The College Football Preview, Week Ten: Reality TV Bites

“Making the Ordinary Extraordinary: Books and Photographs by Lee Friedlander”

America in black-and-white

Ultra Man

Champa is the champ of our DJ competition at South Beach

Cornfed Keyboards

America is bullish on the Faint. But can the band pick stocks as well as it spots trends?

Patterson Hood

Killers and Stars (New West)

Those Bastards!

Johnny Cash's legacy lives on

Mannheim Steamroller

Sunday, December 21

Image-Free Art

Julian Dashper gives us audio but no visuals in his recordings of the museum exhibit environment

Don't Faint

Justice for Some

Just who is a victim? After flexing its muscles to reform the justice system, the victims’ rights movement suffers growing pains over divisive issues.

News of the Weird

News of the Weird

News of the Weird

Down (and Out) on the Farm

A Juicy Steak

Cowboys, cowgirls and a little vegan lust hit the trail

Letters

God Listens But He don't buy records.

Perpetual celestial boys King's X give anger a chance.