Slang and Jargon

Workers of the World, Untie!

Good Golly, Miss Molly!

Bang This

The Red Lion Pub

Dirty South Mix Tape Tour

Sunday, August 24

Slanguage Arts

It's not your father's English class

Just for Openers

Houston's first-call warm-up band Cosmic Force sets its sights higher

Safety Zone

Justin Bull Riding Championship

Talking the Blues

Justin Bull Riding Championship

Turning the Screw: Bun B, Trae & Lil Keke, Rihanna, Snoop, Eminem vs. Nick Cannon, Jay-Z, T.I., E-40, South Park Mexican and More

Welcome back to Turning the Screw, Rocks Off's weekly rap post. It probably won't rhyme, at least most of the time. E-mail tips to introducingliston@gmail.com. Thanks, homies. Single of the Week: "Grey Cassette," Trae feat Bun B and Lil Keke Wire To Wire Ummm, we're not going to link to them, but s ... More >>

¿Quieres Chingar?

amd other suave ways of getting in her chonis

Papa Gangsta

Houston rapper E.S.G.'s evolution from street thug to family man.

Artist of the Week: Time Travelers and Staunch Futurama Defenders Holy Fiction

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. ​ Occasionally, you'll h ... More >>

David Sedaris

Humorist reads from his latest creature comforts

Special Summer Edicion

Humorist reads from his latest creature comforts

Top Five Food-Related Idiomatic Expressions

A. Drauglis Furnituremaker​Of the activities that provide me with endless entertainment, eating is high up on the list (shocking, I know), as is analyzing literature, speech, dialogue...you know, words. It came to my attention once when I was teaching ESL how much of our day-to-day slang invol ... More >>

First Play: Kyle Hubbard's "New School Slang" Vs. hasHBrown's "Grand Champion"

Houston exists largely as its own market. As such, rappers here tend not to like - on the record, anyway - ranking themselves, their albums or their songs against each other or each other's. So we'll do it for them. Email sheaserrano (at) gmail (dot) com. Kyle Hubbard​The Songs: Kyle Hubbard' ... More >>

Gaslight Anthem

Houston exists largely as its own market. As such, rappers here tend not to like - on the record, anyway - ranking themselves, their albums or their songs against each other or each other's. So we'll do it for them. Email sheaserrano (at) gmail (dot) com. Kyle Hubbard​The Songs: Kyle Hubbard' ... More >>

Talk Dirty to Me: Ten Filthy-Sounding Sports Terms

This is not sexual, but T-Mac is serving up a "facial."​In few places are slang terms as popular as in sports. There is virtually an entire language dedicated to describing play on the field, court, course or pitch. These terms create sort of an insiders club of those who know them and follow ... More >>

Remember Kyle Hubbard's Tomorrow in Retrospect?

Houston's history is dotted with albums that, fairly or not, have been swept aside. We'll examine them here. Have an album that you think nobody knows about but should? Email sheaserrano@gmail.com. ​Kyle Hubbard, a 23-year-old MC with his feet firmly planted in the firmament of the New Housto ... More >>

Comments of the Day

​Today, we learned a few things. First, in the comments to Lennie Ambrose's post about El Perico Agave Spirit, we acquired some new slang, courtesy of Ted Stickles: Hah, that's funny, 'perico' is slang for cocaine... We did not know that! And the comments of Katharine Shilcutt's post on s ... More >>

Asobi Seksu

​Today, we learned a few things. First, in the comments to Lennie Ambrose's post about El Perico Agave Spirit, we acquired some new slang, courtesy of Ted Stickles: Hah, that's funny, 'perico' is slang for cocaine... We did not know that! And the comments of Katharine Shilcutt's post on s ... More >>

Grocery Guide: Choosing Avocados

​In the avocado bin of just about any market, you often can find the gamut of avocado ripeness stages, from the hard verdant green of unripe fruit, to the dark greenish-brown blobs that are beginning to cave. What surprises me is that even in well-maintained produce sections, end-stage avocad ... More >>

Five Tweets That Might Get You Busted by the TSA

​Most everyone gets that you can't shout "fire" in a movie theater or crack jokes about bombs on an airplane. This sort of thing will get you in a mess of trouble. But, apparently, jokes made on Twitter can also get you in trouble, particularly if you are a foreigner using slang we don't get i ... More >>