Rome (Italy)

Five Ways the Inaugural Mass is Different from the Presidential Inauguration

Pope Francis had his inaugural mass in the Vatican Square and, much like a presidential inauguration, a bunch of people came from all corners to bear witness. In some ways, the two inaugurations are not that dissimilar. There is singing. There are speeches. There are glimpses of the new pope and pre ... More >>

Four ScoreMore Tales That Didn't Make Our Cover Story

This week's Houston Press cover story is about ScoreMore, the Texas-based concert promotion company that has, in the estimation of many, become a vital part of the rap ecosystem in the Southern United States. For these types of long-form stories, a fair amount of research and reporting is involved ... More >>

Happy Saturnalia! 5 Songs for the Original Holidays

Why do we celebrate the birth of Christ in December? There's no solid date on the actual birth date of Jesus, but you have to pick a day. Why that one? Well, a lot of it has to do with the festival of Saturnalia, which begins today. Saturnalia was one of the most widespread holidays in the Roman em ... More >>

Anthony Bourdain, Part 2: Layovers, Twitter, Ruth Bourdain and the Dangers of Boredom

Yesterday, we caught up with Anthony Bourdain -- chef, author, TV host, publisher and recent Texas barbecue convert. We talked about his love affair with Austin (he used the word "quirky" twice, if you're counting) and his disdain for Dallas Morning News critic Leslie Brenner, why restaurants servi ... More >>

Caesar's Messiah

Rome invented Jesus, new doc claims.

Nundini: Straight from the Old Country

Italian kitchen, still lacking its sea legs, shows real promise.

Last Night: Sublime With Rome at The Woodlands

Rewind: Friday: Sublime with Rome at Discovery Green (April 1, 2011) Friday Night: 311 & Sublime with Rome at The Woodlands (August 12, 2011) Sublime with Rome Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion August 14, 2012 Fifteen minutes into their set Tuesday night at the Woodlands Pavilion, Sublime with Rome ... More >>

Bahram Arabpour: Austin-area Realtor Busted Here With Almost Two Pounds of Opium.

More evidence that Houston has arrived as a world-class city: it is now apparently the kind of town where you can get your hands on large quantities of opium. Yes, if Harris County Court records are to believed, Houston is now a market for the same "celestial drug" that in 1822 Thomas De Quincey rh ... More >>

Woody's Roman Holiday

Woody Allen and two co-stars meet in L.A. to talk about his new film, To Rome With Love, and some old themes (art, death, love).

Touring Taste of Dance Salad

Dance Salad Festival 2013

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 >>

Food Poison(ed): A History of Death By, For and From Food

On December 16, 1916, the Russian monk, mystic and politically polarizing figure Grigori Rasputin was invited to a bit of a soiree, one which ended with his body being bound, wrapped in carpet and tossed into the frigid Neva river, but only after he was beaten, stabbed and shot. All of this, becaus ... More >>

Tasting Notes: This Week in Wine Blogs

Wine Thoughts: There's so much groovy stuff happening this week in the Texas enoblogosphere. But we just have to open today's post with a nod to one of our favorite and most balanced wine bloggers here in our state, Sandra Crittenden, author of Wine Thoughts, who writes about one of our pet peeves: ... More >>

The World's Sexiest Wine for Valentine's Day

We've written about wine and sex here before: Since antiquity, wine and the cult of Bacchus and Dionysus have been associated with sexuality and intimacy. Wine -- red in particular, thanks to its polyphenols -- not only diminishes our inhibition ("I wanna tell her that I love her a lot, but I gotta ... More >>

Great Britten

Houston Grand Opera presents a timeless classic in a handsome, moving production.

The Rape of Lucretia: A Timeless "Modern" Opera

The setup: After the storm and fury of Peter Grimes (1945), whose sea-tossed music and psychologically truthful and damaged characters were heralded as a new era in English opera, composer Benjamin Britten, for his next stage work, went toward the simple but elegant. "I am keen to develop a new art ... More >>

Days of Glory: Italian Neorealist Classics: Open City

Friday Night: 311 & Sublime With Rome At The Woodlands

Photos by Jim Bricker​Check out these '90s all-stars in our slideshow. 311, Sublime With Rome Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion August 12, 2011 Aftermath could smell the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion before we even crossed the street for Friday night's 311/Sublime With Rome concert. The who ... More >>

Pop Rocks: Season of the Witches -- 10 Shows That Keeping Up with the Kardashians Outlasted

Over half a decade of quality programming.​In the course of writing Pop Rocks, I'm often exposed to information so horrific, so atrocious, so...repugnant it defies human comprehension. I first stumbled upon this particular tidbit several months ago, but only now has my sanity recovered from t ... More >>

Out Today: Washed Out Wins, R.E.M.'s First Bad Day, Incubus Chills

​This week sees the return of Incubus with an original disc after a greatest-hits collection, Sublime's first round of music with new lead singer Rome, a set of re-imagined hits from Alkaline Trio, and and R.E.M. reissuing 1986's Life's Rich Pageant. Today also holds the debut LP of Washed Out ... More >>

Food Fight: Box Lunch

Matthew DresdenLe Mistral's box lunch, with grilled chicken panini and cream of tomato soup. Perhaps the best deal in Houston.​If you google the phrase "box lunch history," virtually all the results are for lunch boxes and the fascinating history thereof. (Check out the Smithsonian's photo op ... More >>

Out Today: Danger Mouse In Rome, Nick Cave & Queen Reissued

​It's back to the usual grind for Rocks Off after last night's late-night Austin City Limits Festival lineup announcement. Sadly, we will not be seeing the Foo Fighters play songs from Wasting Light in Austin come September. And yes, still playing it, along with a steady diet of Guns N' Roses. ... More >>

Friday Night: Sublime at Discovery Green

Photos by groovehouse​Sublime Discovery Green April 1, 2011 Check out our slideshows from this weekend's Big Dance Concert Series: the bands and the fans. Aftermath has been listening to Sublime as long as we can remember. They helped define our childhood, but we never thought we would get ... More >>

The End Of The Ocean: No Singers, No Fear Of Caligula

It's a well-known fact that most band names are essentially gobbledygook, but here at Rocks off we're trying hard to find meaning in the oddest monikers. The End of the Ocean on Facebook​Let's be very clear about something. As a singer Rocks Off is not in favor of instrumental rock music. Reb ... More >>

Upcoming: 311, Britney Spears, Sade, Widespread Panic, Etc.

UPDATE (1 p.m.): Britney Spears will be back in July at Toyota Center; the GO-Go's the month after that. ​311, Sublime With Rome: Fri., Aug. 12. Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion. "B L A C K I E In 3D": Thu., April 7. Warehouse Live. "The Bamboozle Roadshow" With Chiddy Bang, Dev, Ninjasonik ... More >>

What to Do with Leftover Risotto

​Anyone who has made risotto more than a handful of times has certainly realized the down side (apart from the endless stirring necessary in the traditional method) of this otherwise delightful dish. Risotto makes terrible leftovers. The interplay of creamy sauce and tender rice with a firm in ... More >>

Capsule Art Reviews: "Dynasty and Divinity," "James Drake: A Thousand Tongues Burn and Sing," "Tony Smith: Drawings"

Capsule Art Reviews: "Anthony Thompson Shumate: Cocky," "Dynasty and Divinity," "Eduardo Gil: Extra"

Fruitcake and 4 Other Foods with a Bad Reputation

jeleneDiscouraged by its bad reputation: the fruitcake. ​How does a food item get a bad reputation? Does it cut class to smoke with trans-fats in the parking lot? Sleep around with carbohydrates? Often it's an association with a particular era in history or social class that gets a food placed ... More >>

Biscuits at Branch Water Tavern

​On a recent visit to Branch Water Tavern, I enjoyed the chicken fried oysters, seasonal cocktails and perfectly cooked rare cheeseburger. Truly bloody meat can be, ahem, bloody hard to find in Houston restaurants. My favorite part of the meal, however, was a dish I didn't have to pay for or ... More >>

This Week In Set Lists: Pixies, Kings Of Leon, Tom Petty, Rush, Etc.

GroovehouseKings of Leon, Toyota Center, October 2009​Rocks Off has been both eagerly anticipating and dreading this week for months now. Anticipating because several of our all-time favorite bands are playing within the span of a few days, as are a couple of our favorite newer bands (though n ... More >>

Heights West Restaurant

Serves a mosaic meal

"Secrets of the Silk Road"

Meet a woman who's 3,800 years old - and still looks good

The Five Most Overrated Houston Attractions

Let's be honest, there's one main reason visitors come to Houston -- to visit relatives. Or, if they're from the hinterlands of Texas, to see a major league baseball game (sorry, you'll have to settle for the Astros) or the rodeo.But Houston, like every other city, has to sell itself as a tourist de ... More >>

Sampler Plate: This Week In Food Blogs

Each week, we put together a sampler plate of the most interesting links from both local and national food blogs. Know a blog we should be paying particular attention to? Leave the address in the comments section below. The Necessarian: Although at the time of this writing, Nancy has packed up all ... More >>

Game Time: Jim Rome Smack-Off 2010, A Five-Time Champ Weighs In

The Rome show may have mellowed, but the Smack-Off still delivers​If you're a sports fan in the Year 2010, you probably know who Jim Rome is. If you read my blog posts each day, you almost definitely know who Jim Rome is.For those who don't, I'll be brief with the history lesson -- Rome is a syndi ... More >>

Aftermath: Yeasayer's Tribal Future Shock And Benevolent Manipulation At HOB

Photos by Groovehouse ​Your brain balls bounce to the bang-bang as you skip through the flash fantastic and your goo-goo ears drip dreamlike while they try to find your face and your tongue stays tied in a twist fist spooning sinews just attacked by a snare snake made of sound leaving litt ... More >>

Tosca

The ultimate opera

4th Annual Italian Retrospective

Holly Golightly didn't have an Italian accent, did she?

Amazing Astronomers of Ancient Rome

Web exclusive!

“Imaginary Spaces”

The Menil Collection presents places you may or may not wish were real

The Houston Shakespeare Festival

Friends, Romans, Houstonians, lend me your ears

Dido and Aeneas

Mercury Baroque and the Dominic Walsh Dance Theater come together for an imaginative collaboration

Bells & Whistles Café and Railroad Restaurant

SHERLOCK'S

SNEAKY FUCK

Roman Scandals

The HMNS looks at the turmoil and traditions of Ancient Rome

The Bard Gets Bloody

Hot Plate