Super Mario Bros.

Django Unchained: The Most Moving Scene Quentin Tarantino Has Yet Filmed

Django is Like “Accidental Racist,” Except Not Godawful.

Buffalo Bills Fans Tweet Their Hatred For Mario Williams

Hard to believe now, but there was a time not too long ago when Texan fans openly debated the appropriate amount for the Texans to allocate this past offseason to re-sign defensive end/outside linebacker/chronic underachiever Mario Williams. Sure, the Texans defense was just fine without Mario for t ... More >>

Grand Incubator

Southern-fried dim sum from Yaki Snack Attack and Bernie’s Burger Bus.

Southern-Fried Dim Sum from Yaki Snack Attack and Bernie's Burger Bus

Austin King is a nervous ball of energy. He hops around the small kitchen at the rear of Grand Prize Bar like a character in Super Mario Brothers, head down and face fixed in a grimace of determined concentration. He pulls dumplings from a fryer with one hand, sprinkles Tabasco-infused scallions ont ... More >>

Video Game Sheet-Music Availability Rising, But Still Fairly Rare

Despite the enduring popularity of video games and the increasing amount of recognition that they receive as art, sheet music for their iconic scores remain very rare. Some of the most popular themes have recently become available, but publishers have been slow to tap this market. Super Mario Bros. ... More >>

4/20 Day: 14 Bongs Based on Movies That Should Not Have Bongs Based on Them

Hey, it's 4/20 day! Be glad you don't live in Boulder, where the University of Colorado is trying to end the annual massive on-campus celebration of the day by barring any visitors and spraying the quad where it's held with "a foul-smelling fish-based fertilizer on the grass." Bummer. Here in Hou ... More >>

The Dante Higgins Story

The winner of last year's Houston Press Best Lyricist award preps his first album.

Happy Birthday, Nintendo: 6 Awesome Retro Game Covers

​Today is the 122nd anniversary of the founding of Nintendo. Yes, you read that right. Nintendo is older than the automobile, Dracula, and the country of Iraq. In a just world, we would brave an abandoned warehouse haunted by tentacle monsters in order to win a cache of steampunk video-game ha ... More >>

Last Night: A Day To Remember, Etc. At Warehouse Live

Photos by Travis HensleyA Day to Remember​A Day to Remember, Bring Me the Horizon, We Came as Romans, Pierce the Veil Warehouse Live April 13, 2011 Wednesday night can be described in three words: Confetti, balloons and rage. Aftermath felt like we were at a B L A C K I E show or something, ... More >>

This Week in Deliciousness

"Because I'm afraid of WORMS, Roxanne, WORMS!"​Welcome back to the weekly roundup here at Eating Our Words, where we're starting to think that Aspartame is a pretty cool name for a baby. True story: A girl with whom we once shared an office with whose name was Cyndi used to go by Cyn, and when ... More >>

8-Bits Ain't Nothin' But Hos And Tricks

​Rocks Off got Donkey Kong Country Returns for Wii for Christmas. Big deal, right? We're willing to bet there are less than a thousand 29-year-old American males who didn't receive some kind of video game as a gift, but it's a big deal for us. See, we actually kind of did grow out of video ga ... More >>

This Week in Deliciousness

We have no words for how cool this is.​Welcome back to the weekly roundup here at Eating Our Words, where the holistic headache cure of choice is gravy and lots of it. To the surprise of no one, we started the week off with some marijuana-laced soda. After that, we were really, really excited ... More >>

Erasure, Robot Unicorns Bring Happiness To All

Every day Rocks Off trolls the tubes of you in search of videos to share. If you have something that you think deserves to be video of the day, send a link to jef_rouner at yahoo dot com. ​If you have the kind of job where you can play flash games on Adult Swim's Web site like your daily V ... More >>

Precious Little Life

Scott Pilgrim and Michael Cera get soul.

Cyndi Lauper Vs. Pat Benatar: An '80s Lady Grudge Match

​Honestly, if Rocks Off had been around in the early '80s, we would have been the biggest damned Cyndi Lauper fan in this city. Our second favorite female artist would have been Pat Benatar, because gruff chicks who snap their fingers menacingly at the camera are foxy. Also, Lauper sang about ... More >>

Confessions Of A Sheet Music Salesman

rbcmusic.com​Readers may be surprised to learn this, but searching for YouTube videos to mock and talking about Goth bands does not exactly pay for the finer things in life. So six days a week, Rocks Off - or at least the Rocks Off writer with only one "f" in his name - sells sheet music to th ... More >>

Pop Rocks: Finally, Some Important Movie News

​Now that the dust has cleared (and the blood has been spilled, thanks to a stabbing before the...Cowboys and Aliens panel) at Comic-Con, we can finally move forward, away from the overwrought announcements about the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean movie, Green Lantern (Ryan Reynolds is better ... More >>

Top 5 Bizarre But Lovable Video-Game Theme-Song Covers

​Rocks Off is an old-school gamer. We relished those days of racing off the school bus in anticipation of milk, cookies, Goomba stomping and sore thumbs. Back before graphics surpassed gameplay on the scale of importance, most of our gaming quandaries could be solved by blowing into cartridges ... More >>

Dennis Hopper, Tell Us A Tale Before You Go

King Koopa has gone where Mario and Luigi cannot follow. Dennis Hopper, the Academy Award-nominated actor from films like Apocalypse Now, Blue Velvet, Easy Rider and yes, Super Mario Bros., passed away Saturday after a long fight with prostate cancer. While Hollywood mourns the death of one of its ... More >>

The Eastern Sea: TV-Savvy, Wife-Approved

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 sheaserrano@gmail.com. ​Summerfest, the mega-music fe ... More >>

Aftermath: Hour After Hour at the Sprite Step Off With Lupe Fiasco, Brooke Valentine, Letoya Luckett, Trae and Sheila Jackson Lee

Photos by Marco Torres/ See our slideshow here​ 8:20 p.m.: Somehow, without checking in as media or anything, we've found our way backstage. That was a bit too easy; like, "Make You Feel A Little Uncomfortable About The Security Level At This Event" uneasy. 8:24: Yipes. Congresswoman Sheila Jackso ... More >>

Nintendo Goes Old School For The Holidays: A Review

​Ho, Ho, Ho! For this, the most somber of holiday seasons, our dear friends Nintendo have found have their nostalgic side. With their recent release of Super Mario Brothers Wii, and The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks -- due out December 3 -- Nintendo has gone back to two originals that helped sta ... More >>

Steam Punks: Baristas Throw Down at Houston's First Latte Art Competition

Photos by Katharine ShilcuttSilence Huang points out good and bad characteristics on a calibration cup of latte.​Judging a latte art competition is deceptively difficult, as we found out on Friday night. Silence Huang, one of our fellow judges and a master barista from Taiwan, drew careful diagram ... More >>

Is and Always Was

Daniel Johnston 2.0, full-on rock record, iPhone app and all.

Artist of the Week: Trash-Talking "Booty Truck" Indie-Rockers Giant Princess

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.​ If you could input a bu ... More >>

Tonight: Eugene Chadbourne and Walter Daniels at Rudyard's

The willfully weird Eugene Chadbourne stops by Rudyard's this evening with Walter Daniels, harmonicist (as far as I can tell that is, in fact, a word) for 1980s Austin punk bands the Hickoids and Jack O'Fire, in tow. Chadbourne's music is a mishmash of folk, blues, bluegrass, count ... More >>

You Down With OCD? Yeah, You Know Me

Video games linked to obsessive, Tony Shalhoub-type behavior

Tron

Go inside your favorite golden oldie video game

Want Quality New Games? Look to the Past

Old School's in Session

Braid Changes the Game

Not settling for clever play, Braid reinvents how to tell a story, too

Video Games Live

Maestro, meet Mario

Masons and Miles Davis at Bissonnet's Fedora Lounge

Hat Trick

2007 Music Year in Review

Halo 3

A promising glimpse of the next Halo.

Super Paper Mario

Super Paper Mario is flat-out fun.

Band on the Run

A murder confession puts the Jonbenét in the news

2006 Houston Press Music Awards Supplement

Super Mario Symphony

Koopa Loopas

It's Mario in tha mix

Brotherly Love

New Super Mario Bros. scores by plumbing old ideas

Pretty Girls Make Saves

As video games go indie, Wack imagines a few likely pairings

X-Man Reunited

There's nothing rusty about Mega Man X's old-school 'bots.

Eight-Bit Symphonies

Who was responsible for the best music of the 1980s? Nintendo. Who's finally discovering it? Everyone.

This Game Bites

The new Castlevania is the last nail in the franchise's coffin

Dream Child

Robert Rodriguez and his kids conjure up a charming 3-D fantasy

The Halo Challenge

Master Chief, a weapons-toting super-enhanced human, is the only being who can save the earth. A video gamer from Texas is the world champion at helping him do just that — thousands of times over.

Playbill

Shearer Delight

The voice of Flanders is the voice of reason, absatively posilutely

HammingIt Up

Local blues guitarist Hamilton reaches musical puberty