Scotland

'Tis the Season for Spirits and Cheese: Scotch Whisky Edition

This holiday season, turn the tables on the traditional "wine and cheese" combo by pairing cheeses with your favorite hard alcohol. In this special series, I'll be investigating which fromages go best with distilled spirits as well as offering tips on how to construct a tasting without breaking the ... More >>

Rocks Off's 10 Best Musical Discoveries of 2012

The thrill of discovering freshly minted treasure or a previously unheralded favorite is one of the main reasons music writers get into this racket in the first place; every so often it can make wading through the ocean of crap mediocrity that is pop music worthwhile. Rocks Off asked our contributor ... More >>

Arbitrary Product Review: Haggis and Black Pepper Crisps from Mackie's of Scotland

Apparently, haggis-flavored crisps (or chips, as I'm going to call them for the remainder of this article because 'MERICA) from Mackie's of Scotland made quite the splash when they first entered the American market in December 2010. I somehow completely missed this news, despite my ongoing obsession ... More >>

Houston Bartenders Head to NOLA for Tales of the Cocktail

Houston bartenders including Lainey Collum, Ornella Ashcroft, Alba Huerta and Sheridan Fay showed up to represent Houston at Tales of the Cocktail. Photos by Alex Gregg Now in its 10th year, Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans has become a sort of South by Southwest for serious spirits aficionados ... More >>

8 Musical Activities That Should Be Olympic Sports

After years of preparation, unprecedented security, and a Mitt Romney gaffe or two, the opening ceremonies of the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London get underway about 3 p.m. Houston time. At the same time, multitudes will gather in nearby Hyde Park for a free concert with Duran Duran, Snow Patrol, ... More >>

Top 5 Amusing Food-Related Entries From Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

During a recent trip across the pond, I visited the life residence of Samuel Johnson, a charming four-story house-turned-museum in south London. I'd recently read Johnson's A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, but was fuzzy on his most famous work, the Dictionary of the English Language, pu ... More >>

A Lonely Place to Die

Gothic Council Rules on Halloween Costumes

​There's a pretty sharp divide between goths over Halloween. While all of us can agree on the sanctity of the holiday, and many can trace our current interests back to an obsession with the 31st of October and all the hoopla that surrounds it, the actual mode of celebration is hotly debated. ... More >>

Top 5 Simple Foods to Pair with Scotch and Whiskey

smiling_da_vinci​ I recently started drinking whiskey for the same reason most other people do -- because someone they knew was drinking whiskey. For the past decade, I'd stayed away from the brown stuff, because all the Crown shots from college had left a mental (not to mention liver) scar. ... More >>

“Titian and the Golden Age of Venetian Painting”

The Wacky Adventures Of Frederic Chopin's Heart

Louis-Auguste Bisson​Today is Fredric Chopin's 201st birthday, although some sources claim he was actually born on February 22. Chopin's incredible nocturnes, pale complexion, consumption, and melancholy outlook have more than once prompted Rocks Off to christen him the Original Goth. He rema ... More >>

European Travel Tips For First-Time Bands

​Local favorites the Wild Moccasins embark on a six-week European tour this weekend. Rocks Off knows how daunting international travel can be, especially when you're on a multi-country blitzkrieg that exposes you to numerous languages and many differing cultural mores in a relatively short per ... More >>

Top 5 Foods that Just Seem Wrong

larryjh1234Veal.​5. Chicken served with eggs I love chicken. I love eggs. I don't love chicken and eggs served together at the same time. Am I alone here, or do others feel that serving something dead at the beginning of life (sort of) and at the end of life just seems wrong? When I go to th ... More >>

Colin Hay Is Still A Man At Work

​Though best known as the frontman of iconic and infectious '80s group Men at Work ("Who Can It Be Now?" "Down Under," "Overkill," "It's a Mistake"), for over 20 years Colin Hay has forged a newer identity as a singer-songwriter to a growing fanbase less likely to yell out "Vegemite Sandwich!" ... More >>

SXSW Aftermath: Shaking Off Winter With Vivian Girls, Broken Records, husband & wife And Duchess Says

Photos by Adam P. NewtonVivian Girls​ Much like ACL 2009 will be remembered as the "Rain and Shit-Mud Year," Saturday at SXSW 2010 is sure to be marked as the day when Winter decided to spit on Austin in the middle of March. As opposed to the blue skies and nice breezes that we enjoyed earlier ... More >>

SXSW Aftermath: The Broken-Hearted Passion Of Frightened Rabbit's Deafening Drums; Basia Bulat Is Simply Beautiful

Craig HlavatyBrandon was still in line when Scotland's We Were Promised Jetpacks played at the Parish Wednesday, but we caught them earlier at the Fader Fort: "Surprisingly catchy. They may be hype-ridden but we could give them another spin."​Aftermath assumes that the people who perpetuate the my ... More >>

The New American Whiskeys

​Branch Water Tavern, the subject of this week's Café review, has a collection of rare American whiskeys behind the bar that really widened my horizons. St. George single-malt tastes like it was made in Scotland. It starts out as dark-brown ale and is distilled in a tiny copper pot still. It' ... More >>

The British Isles: Texas Haggis

Photo by Robb Walsh​In photos, canned haggis looks alarmingly like dog food. It is traditionally eaten as part of a full Scottish breakfast or as an entrée on a bed of mashed rutabagas and potatoes, which go by the cutesy names of "neeps and tatties" in Scotland. I bought a can of Caledonian ... More >>

Friday Night Noise: Swanshit and Yellow Tears

Swanshit, "Fluorescence": Forty-five minutes of linguine-layered, ascending drone, "Fluorescence" strikes me as a more intense, fully-realized stab at the kind of digitalized, etheral illusion-of-statis Aquarelle pursued a few years back on Of Memory and Momentum. With "Fluorescence," it's as if a m ... More >>

Talk About a Fundraiser

Photos by Jeff BalkeChef Albert Roux at the restaurant's grand opening in MarchChez Roux, the very fancy, very upscale top restaurant at La Torretta Del Lago Resort & Spa on Lake Conroe, is putting on a six-course wine dinner Saturday, June 6. It will cost $500 per couple, or $600 , if you want t ... More >>

2009 St. Andrew’s Episcopal Celtic Festival

Web exclusive!

It's Not a Thyroid Problem

Are the sticks edible?...it's the Corn Dog Pizza you just horked down. One of modern society's greatest questions is now succinctly answered in a single website: This Is Why You're Fat.  Included in the website are such favorites as Rochester's world-famous garbage plate (I was not ... More >>

Another Root Cellar Romp: Parsnips and Rutabagas

Swedes are larger and denser than turnips. No, it's not an ethnic joke--swedes are what they call rutabagas in England. The rutabaga, or Swedish turnip, is often sold with a wax coating to protect the skin from discoloration. Rutabaga comes from the Swedish word rotabagge. Swedes are best roasted or ... More >>

Glasvegas: Glasvegas

Incident In Scotland May Spur Lawsuit By Houstonian

Author Ian Rankin On The Rolling Stones, Graphic Novels & Houston

ACL Pix: More Scenes from Zilker

They're Talking About Us In Scotland

Angry Scots and pidgin tongues

McDreamy tries to win over his engaged gal pal in My Best Friend's Made of Honor Wedding

Here Comes the Bride. Yawn.

G Love and Special Sauce

The “Milk and Cereal” comes to Warehouse Live

Mono

Stranger than Fiction

Clan Ferdinand

It takes a true Scotsman to get to the bottom of this whole Franz Ferdinand thing

If It's Not Scottish, It's Crap!

Wack puts this whole Franz Ferdinand thing into context

Bringing Home Baby

Homeboy made good John Rando debuts a charming love tale

Boogie for Bush!

Dubya and Franz Ferdinand have made it okay for white guys to dance

Extreme Makeover

The Houston Shakespeare Festival shakes things up

The Beta Band

Heroes to Zeros (Astralwerks)

Heavy Heaving

The Scots know about throwing games

The Year of Living Dangerously

Cinema 2002 counterbalanced a treacherous world

I'll Be Jiggerered!

Jiggernaut hopes to crush all in its path to glory

Put Down That Fish!

According to the Williamsons, the Scottish salmon you're holding may be bogus

Bravehearts

The Battlefield Band

Storming The Beach

However shallow, Leonardo DiCaprio delivers a baptism of blood

News of the Weird

Heroine Overdose

The Governess looks good but turns unlikable

On the Fringe

Rotation

Press Briefs