New Braunfels

Seven Spring Music Festivals In Texas That Beat Staying Home

SXSW is officially over, thank the sweet baby Jesus. Now music fans have already begun to fan out to the four winds, seeking sunshine, swimsuits, alcohol, easy hookups and all the tunes they can handle until it gets ridiculously hot. Texans: you have about three hours. It's already begun over in Mi ... More >>

The 30 Essential Texas Restaurants: Surprising Shut-Outs

Haven't had a chance to peruse this week's feature yet? Catch up on our list of the 30 essential Texas restaurants and then meet us back here. Synchronize Swatches! There have been plenty of questions asked by readers confounded by how some of their favorite Texas restaurants could have been left o ... More >>

The Great Outdoors

Your 2013 music-festival outlook, Texas edition.

Your 2013 Music Festival Outlook (Texas Edition)

I don't know about you, but I am not totally in love with winter weather. Yes, it affords you the ability to wear beanies and cool fingerless gloves and dress like a hoodlum, but it's the heat that I love the most. That's why I love thinking about music festivals, because that's where we all get t ... More >>

The 25 Best Reasons To Love Texas In The Fall

Fall has arrived in Texas, and thank God. There is no better time in the Lone Star State, for so many reasons. The switch in season may be more subtle than it is in the north -- you never can get that far away from a Texas summer, after all -- but there's enough change in the air to signify that y ... More >>

Christian Educator Had Sex With Teen Girl, Now on the Run From Police

New Braunfels police have an arrest warrant and are searching for Leon Eugene Sneed, the 44-year-old (former, we guess) basketball coach at New Braunfels Christian Academy, who is accused of an "Improper Relationship between Educator and Student -- Sexual Contact." Police said they began their inve ... More >>

Jason Allen

Go Way Out to Eat: 5 Favorite Dining Destinations

Food & Wine magazine recently featured a series of articles on culinary destinations, or "...the world's best food pilgrimages," as they put it. While it was indeed interesting, I must say that places like Bangkok, Rome and India are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to food travels. The ... More >>

Newspaper Fights City Hall

5 Reasons Why Texas Will Never Win "Most Peaceful State" (and Good Riddance)

Maine has won the latest version of the United States Peace Index's "Most Peaceful State" competition. Texas? Forty-sixth most peaceful. This result simply means that Maine is a big pile of bo-ring while Texas is still holding it down with do-whatever-we-please citizens and outrageous criminals ( ... More >>

Upstart New Braunfels Newspaper Says Its Drivers Harassed by Cops

In case you weren't aware, a war (of sorts) has been brewing in the otherwise sleepy hamlet of New Braunfels. Late last year, Leonidas Patrick "Mark" McGonical, a critic of a new can-ban law that keeps tubers on the Comal River from bringing disposable containers, launched a newspaper called the NB ... More >>

Band of Heathens

New Braunfels Voters Ban Beer Cans for Tubers

Better not have no PBR on you.​New Braunfels's new law banning beer cans for people tubing on the Guadalupe and Comal was upheld by voters yesterday. About 58 percent of the voters voted in favor of the ban, a convincing victory in a huge turnout. The new law was triggered by this year's dro ... More >>

TxDOT Sues Over Steamy Novel

It's titled Don't Mess With Texas.

Head On

Readers comment on "Knocked Out."

Houston's Same-Sex Couples More Likely to Raise Children

And they may just live in Houston.​The Atlantic's blog has crunched some numbers from a recent gay survey and census data, and it's found that when it comes to raising kids, Houston's same-sex couples are near the tops in the nation. The Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown area had the seventh-highest ... More >>

Going Tubing in New Braunfels This Weekend? Be Prepared to Wait

Fun in the sun?​Earlier this month we listed five places to have water-based fun in Texas during the drought, and the spring-fed Comal River was one of them. We weren't alone in our thinking -- the river has become packed on weekends, to the point where officials say tubers have had trouble e ... More >>

Texas School Buying "Smurf Turf" Football Field; Superintendent Speaks To Criticisms

"Smurf turf" is coming to Canutillo High. ​West Texas' Canutillo Independent School District hasn't been bringing in much green of late so they've decided to sing the $350,000 blues. Last week, CISD board of trustees approved the installation of a "smurf turf" field that will replace, for "s ... More >>

Schlitterbahn Just Got Awesomer

One of the great advantages of living in Texas -- beyond the chance to vote for Rick Perry your entire life -- is Schlitterbahn, the renowned waterpark in New Braunfels. The Hill Country setting, the nearby Guadalupe -- whether you're on your own or herding kids, it's a unique and terrific place. ( ... More >>

BrewHaHa Grand Tasting

Brittanie SheyA generous pour at the BrewHaHa Grand Tasting​See photos from the BrewHaHa in our slideshow. This weekend beer lovers gathered at Galveston Island's Moody Gardens for what organizers hope will be the first of many Brewmasters International Beer Festivals. Eating Our Words was th ... More >>

Speed In A Hunstville School Zone, Get Fined $312

Houston makes the top 10 list for big fines​The school year has begun in some places, and that means school zones are up and cops are watching for violators. In some places you can't text or talk on your cell in a school zone; in every place you can't speed in one.What are the worst places in Texa ... More >>

IllegalAlienReport.Com Lets You Report Those Invaders Anonymously

Your country needs you to report online​Good news, Texas!!Not only is there finally a way to report all those illegal aliens you see stealing jobs everyday -- we mean besides just calling ICE -- but there's even more good news: the are only two places in Texas with illegal aliens!!So we have to wo ... More >>

Chris Stokes, U.S. Marine, Gets His Stolen Medals Back In Memorial Day Miracle (Of Sorts)

One bad Memorial Day followed by one good one​A year ago, U.S. Marine Staff Sgt. Chris Stokes was tubing in New Braunfels. His vehicle, parked at the Landa Park Rec Center, was broken into while he and his wife were on the river.Among the items stolen -- Stokes' Marine honor medals. Bummer o ... More >>

Jonathan Akinola, Secret Shopper Scams: Everyone's Warning About Them

Let's be smart out there, people​What gig could be better than a "secret shopper"? Go spend someone else's money and get back at the useless sales staff who don't immediately bow to your every whim. (This is assuming, of course, that the entire idea of shopping doesn't sound like the freshest kind ... More >>

Thank God He's An Idiot

Child-porn producer pleads guilty

New Braunfels Fights The College Kids With All Their Dang Noise

​If there's one thing that Texans have always prided themselves on, it's love of Big Government -- especially The Man telling you where, and with whom, you can live. Or at least that's how some folks in New Braunfels see it.Spurred by complaints over noise and parking issues, the NB Planning Commi ... More >>

Lonesome Onry and Mean: An Artist Best In Texas and LOM Can Agree On. Seriously.

While anyone who follows this column knows that Lonesome, Onry and Mean can't stand about 90 percent of what gets touted in Best in Texas magazine and labeled Texas/Red Dirt music, we have always had a soft spot for Stillwater, Okla., rockers Cross Canadian Ragweed. Our son took us to see CCR in Lu ... More >>

Texas Traveler: Oktoberfests

Photo by dave77459​The Texas Hill Country is full of place-names that make Texas Traveler yearn for her nth-generation German heritage. New Braunfels conjures up the scent of the bratwurst and sauerkraut my Moomaw used to make on weekend mornings (food which I loathed, by the way, until I turn ... More >>

Capsule Art Reviews: "The Art Guys: New Clichés," "Casual Encounters," "New Art in Austin: 20 to Watch"

Capsule Art Reviews: "Casual Encounters," "Literally Figurative," "New Art in Austin: 20 to Watch"

Slideshow: Snakes on an Album

One of the songs slithering around Rocks Off's head lately is "Snake Farm," the title track to grizzled Hill Country troubador Ray Wylie Hubbard's 2006 album, where the singer and a comely employee of the ramshackle reptile house between San Marcos and New Braunfels get it on amongst the other&n ... More >>

Artist of the Week: The Favorites

Each Wednesday, Rocks Off arbitrarily appoints one lucky local performer or group "Artist of the Week," bestowing upon them all the fame and grandeur such a lofty title implies. Know a band or artist that isn't awful? Email their particulars to introducingliston@gmail.com. We like to fancy ourselv ... More >>

Slip Inside This House: MP3s from S.J. and the Crossroads and the Six Pents

Death Threats and TAKS Tests

Some TAKS tests are murder

Book Her

Best Place to Pretend You're in the Hill Country

Letters

Letters

Bye-Bye Bongs?

Tubing without beer bongs? Why?

This Week's Day-by-Day Picks

Hayes, Dude

A fresh and brainy country alternative

In the Crosshairs

"Shoot to Cure" targets diabetes

Best Place to Water-Ski

Lake McQueeney

This Week's Day-by-Day Picks

Letters

Best Adventure Race Series

Texas State Championship Sprint Adventure Races

Night & Day

May 13-19, 1999

Pyramid Scheme

Two, four, six, eight.Come and watch us levitate!

Press Picks