Port Arthur

Setting Boundaries

Port Arthur School District: Sorry One of Our Principals Hit Your Fifth-Grade Children

Port Arthur police are investigating an elementary school principal who reportedly hit fifth-grade students who performed poorly on practice tests last week. The Beaumont Enterprise reported that the Port Arthur Independent School District has apologized for the behavior of Travis Elementary School ... More >>

Port Arthur High School Denies It's Banning Same-Sex Couples from the Prom

The Port Arthur school district says it's blindsided and not entirely sure where the rumors started that there is a ban on same-sex couples at its Memorial High prom, but officials say it's not true. An online petition had begun -- in this day of easy online petitions -- demanding the district reve ... More >>

Hand Doc and Strippers

The Port Arthur school district says it's blindsided and not entirely sure where the rumors started that there is a ban on same-sex couples at its Memorial High prom, but officials say it's not true. An online petition had begun -- in this day of easy online petitions -- demanding the district reve ... More >>

Happy Birthday Janis Joplin: Kozmic Pearl's Myrna Sanders On The Late Rock Icon

Today would have been rock great and former Port Arthur resident Janis Joplin's 69th birthday, a fact that would have Joplin snicker for the next year. Since her death in 1970, at the sad magical age of 27, the legend of Joplin has grown immensely, with her vocal style and stage presence helping inf ... More >>

Emma Jean Hardy: 57-Year-Old High School Employee Caught Sexing Student in Van

Jean Hardy, leading the active life​Port Arthur police say they caught Emma Jean Hardy, a 57-year-old employee of the town's Memorial High School, having sex with a 17-year-old student in a van Sunday night. According to published reports, a Port Arthur cop investigated a suspicious vehicle p ... More >>

New UGK/Big K.R.I.T. Song Holds Fast To That Wood

smokingsection.uproxx.com​It's not quite up to Tupac-level proportions yet, but UGK keeps pouring out that prime Southern rap unencumbered by Pimp C's untimely December 2007 demise. The latest track, leaked by the Smoking Section this morning, is the expertly sculpted ode to steering wheels " ... More >>

Mr. Boomtown Coats Bun B, E-40 With "Candy Paint"

Marco TorresE-40 on the set of "Candy Paint"​(phone rings) "What's up, this is Boom... Sure, I can do Boston... It's gonna cost ya." (click) The acclaimed music-video director and filmmaker Nahala Johnson, better known as Mr. Boomtown, sits inside of a Midtown bar one night last week, drink ... More >>

Hilton Kelley: Port Arthur Oil Refinery Activist Wins Huge Green Prize

Photos: Goldman Environmental PrizeHilton Kelley, winner of "the green Nobel"​Ten years ago, by anyone's standard, Hilton Kelley was living the dream. Then just turning 40, he was in sunny California, having escaped his malodorous hometown of Port Arthur via the United States Navy. After his ... More >>

20 Musician Biopics Currently In Development Hell

Happy birthday, Janis.​News came down last week that Sacha Baron Cohen will be stepping into the rhinestones and glitter as Queen icon Freddie Mercury. It's been a long time coming for Cohen, the Borat and Bruno star who is slowly becoming his generation's Peter Sellers and has been rumored to ... More >>

Port Arthur Police Experience Their Very Own "I'll Be Back" Moment

Terminator - I'll Be Back | Movies & TV | SPIKE.comThe above clip is actual security-cam footage from the Port Arthur Police Department Sunday night. Or it could be, let's put it that way. The Port Arthur News reports that a 53-year-old man drove his vehicle right into the lobby of police headq ... More >>

Museum Of The Gulf Coast's Musical Treasure Trove

Photos by Craig HlavatyJanis Joplin's car​Rocks Off visited the Museum of the Gulf Coast in Port Arthur this past Friday while on the the way to Louisiana for a quick vacation. The downstairs area is full of artifacts pertaining to the founding of the land around Port A, like military and anim ... More >>

Day Of The Dead: Music In Memoriam 2009-10

itscactus.com​Rocks Off doesn't mean to be morbid, but today is the Day of the Dead, the Mexican holiday and festival honoring those who have gone before. So instead of waiting until the end of the year, the more traditional time for such things, we wanted to compile a list of the notable name ... More >>

Mary Karr book signing

Get lit with this author’s third memoir

Edwin James Johnson: Legend Of The Port Arthur Pimp Game

Don't go getting any ideas. That phone number is no longer in service​As the hometown of late Texas rap legend Pimp C., you'd expect the pimp game in Port Arthur to be pretty damn strong. Innovative, even. If the case of Edwin James Johnson is any indication, you would not be disappointed.Accordin ... More >>

Beaumont Weatherman Busts Rhyme; Ryan Seacrest Approves

​ Somebody call Swishahouse. Rocks Off has spent a fair amount of time in the Golden Triangle over the years, and the live-music options in the greater Beaumont-Port Arthur area are usually somewhat limited. In the next couple of weeks, for example, if you're not a fan of Pat Green, hillbilly hard ... More >>

Geoff Winningham: Traveling the Shore of the Spanish Sea

​Photographer/filmmaker/journalist Geoff Winningham recently released a new book called Geoff Winningham: Traveling the Shore of the Spanish Sea. Made up of photographs he took as he traveled up and down the Gulf Coast from the Texas/Louisiana border to southern Veracruz and a narrative of his ... More >>

Houston Plant Gets Hit With $1.4 Million Fine

​The website for CES Environmental Services Inc., a waste treatment and disposal outfit located in Houston, states that the company "will, at all times, use a proactive approach towards health, safety and environmental issues towards our employees and clients work environment."Well, maybe not "at ... More >>

Barbecued Crabs: The Secret Recipe

Photos by Robb Walsh​When barbecued crabs were invented, there were only three ingredients required to make them: blue crabs, hot cooking oil and the now-discontinued Alamo Zestful Seasoning mix. These days, what exactly went in the seasoning mix is unknown. I have been working on my own barbe ... More >>

We Lost 500 Cows During Hurricane Rita!! Just Don't Look Too Closely

​Earlier today we had hurricane victims ripping off the feds and the sacred cow of Oprah Winfrey; now we have hurricane victims allegedly ripping off the feds with virtual cows.Six people were indicted today on charges that they told the federal government they had more than 500 cows that were swe ... More >>

A Musical Guide to Post-Secession Texas: Houston and "Brazoria"

The final installment of our Five States of Texas project brings it all back home, to the new state of Brazoria, encompassing all of Southeast Texas from the Brazos Valley to Sabine Pass. ​Patron Saint: Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown. A master of rock and roll, country, Cajun/Creole, blues and jazz, n ... More >>

The H-Town Countdown, No. 24: Pimp C's Post-Prison Pimpalation

Roughly 84,000 rap albums have been released in Houston since 1989. We're counting down the 25 best of all time every Thursday. Got a problem with the list? Shove it. Just kidding. Friendship. Email it to sheaserrano@gmail.com. Pimp C Pimpalation Asylum, 2006​As fun as it is for us music writers t ... More >>

Perhaps The Internet-Cafe Trend In Nederland Was Overstated

​Just as we were trying to figure out why there were internet cafes in Nederland and Port Arthur, we find out that the places were actually fronts for illegal gambling, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. The department announced yesterday that six people were charged with running the gam ... More >>

Burnin' for You

​Just as we were trying to figure out why there were internet cafes in Nederland and Port Arthur, we find out that the places were actually fronts for illegal gambling, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. The department announced yesterday that six people were charged with running the gam ... More >>

The Facts of LifeBag

Photos by Blake WhitakerPreparation is keyImagine a catastrophic hurricane has severed communication with the outside world. You're thirsty, but the water coming out of the tap is contaminated. Society has devolved into lawlessness, and your neighbors have stolen your bottled water by torchlight. Th ... More >>

The Facts of LifePack

Photos by Blake WhitakerPreparation is keyImagine a catastrophic hurricane has severed communication with the outside world. You're thirsty, but the water coming out of the tap is contaminated. Society has devolved into lawlessness, and your neighbors have stolen your bottled water by torchlight. Th ... More >>

UGK: UGK 4 Life

Photos by Blake WhitakerPreparation is keyImagine a catastrophic hurricane has severed communication with the outside world. You're thirsty, but the water coming out of the tap is contaminated. Society has devolved into lawlessness, and your neighbors have stolen your bottled water by torchlight. Th ... More >>

1968 with Tom Brokaw

Web exclusive!

The Nanny State Hates The Cars On Your Front Lawn

As goes Port Arthur, so goes Houston.The noble Golden Triangle town recently passed an ordinance banning people from parking their cars on their front lawns.Always eager to take their lifestyle cues from Port Arthur, the Houston City Council has followed suit with an ordinance of its own.Homeowners ... More >>

Bacliff Gets Ready For An Ike Invasion

Shortly after Hurricane Ike, San Leon resident Tommy Dixon praised the spirit of his hometown and its will to rebuild by saying "All we need now are FEMA trailers and mosquito repellent."We don't know about the mosquito repellent, but they are getting the FEMA trailers. Two hundred of them are slate ... More >>

Sprucing Up In Port Arthur: Get Those Cars Off The Lawn!

Starting today, folks in Port Arthur who park on their front lawns need to think of other places to park.As part of a measure to spruce up the place, the city council approved an ordinance allowing the city to fine folks who think the best place to park the ol' pickup is right in front of the porch. ... More >>

Port Arthur Environmental Group Says, "Bring On The Sarin Gas!!"

It's tough enough being an environmental group in Port Arthur. It's kind of being anti-gay in Key West: You're not going to eradicate it all.But it's also not every day when you announced that you're fine with the feds bringing in chemical-warfare waste to your town.That's what Hilton Kelley, direct ... More >>

Tonight: Pimp C Tribute on KPFT's "Damage Control"

Has it really been a year already? Indeed it has: On December 4, 2007, Port Arthur-born MC and producer Pimp C was found dead in his Hollywood hotel room; the Los Angeles County Coroner listed the cause as a combination of sleep apnea and accidental overdose of codeine-containing cough syrup. To s ... More >>

Documentary Takes A Look At Houston, Port Arthur

Has it really been a year already? Indeed it has: On December 4, 2007, Port Arthur-born MC and producer Pimp C was found dead in his Hollywood hotel room; the Los Angeles County Coroner listed the cause as a combination of sleep apnea and accidental overdose of codeine-containing cough syrup. To s ... More >>

Port Arthur Shares The Polluting Load

Has it really been a year already? Indeed it has: On December 4, 2007, Port Arthur-born MC and producer Pimp C was found dead in his Hollywood hotel room; the Los Angeles County Coroner listed the cause as a combination of sleep apnea and accidental overdose of codeine-containing cough syrup. To s ... More >>

Gatemouth Brown Needs a Gravestone

Has it really been a year already? Indeed it has: On December 4, 2007, Port Arthur-born MC and producer Pimp C was found dead in his Hollywood hotel room; the Los Angeles County Coroner listed the cause as a combination of sleep apnea and accidental overdose of codeine-containing cough syrup. To s ... More >>

Slideshow: Listening Party for Bun B's II Trill

Has it really been a year already? Indeed it has: On December 4, 2007, Port Arthur-born MC and producer Pimp C was found dead in his Hollywood hotel room; the Los Angeles County Coroner listed the cause as a combination of sleep apnea and accidental overdose of codeine-containing cough syrup. To s ... More >>

SXSW: Black Diamond Heavies at Fado's Patio

Has it really been a year already? Indeed it has: On December 4, 2007, Port Arthur-born MC and producer Pimp C was found dead in his Hollywood hotel room; the Los Angeles County Coroner listed the cause as a combination of sleep apnea and accidental overdose of codeine-containing cough syrup. To s ... More >>

Weekend Music: Does Humpty Hump Still Like His Oatmeal Lumpy?

Has it really been a year already? Indeed it has: On December 4, 2007, Port Arthur-born MC and producer Pimp C was found dead in his Hollywood hotel room; the Los Angeles County Coroner listed the cause as a combination of sleep apnea and accidental overdose of codeine-containing cough syrup. To s ... More >>

Love, Janis

The Alley Theatre remembers a Texas legend

Undertaker Update for Pimp C and Rory Miggins

The Alley Theatre remembers a Texas legend

The Apple of Her Eye: Pimp C’s Sixth Grade Social Studies Teacher Remembers Chad Butler

The Alley Theatre remembers a Texas legend

Port Arthur Residents Sue Premcor Refining

The Alley Theatre remembers a Texas legend

Crab Man

Meet Doug Sartin, onetime heir apparent to a Texas barbecued crab dynasty

Hellish Houston

A summer selection of the Bayou City's most miserable music and depressing songs

He Won't Back Down

The mayor was threatened -- or maybe he wasn't

Big Trouble at Brittle Spy

Another Saturday Asian Night, another dead body on NoDo's streets

Podunk

Saturday, December 15

Blue Crab Standard Time

Take your time when eating Gulf blue crabs

"I Didn't Create This Mess ..."

Take your time when eating Gulf blue crabs