U.S. Army

PETA's "Cutest Vegan" Finalists Include Soldier from Channelview

PETA pisses a lot of people off with their efforts to sway meat eaters to a vegetarian diet. The controversial campaigns often draw attention for their outlandishness. One particular approach, however, generally irritates no one, and that is the ad campaign featuring hot people, usually actors or mo ... More >>

The Rocks Off 100: Mike Meegz, Scoremore's Houston Lieutenant

Welcome to the Rocks Off 100, our portrait gallery of the most compelling profiles and personalities in the far-flung Houston music community -- a lot more than just musicians, but of course they're in there too. See the entire Rocks Off 100 at this link. Who? Mike Migl, aka Mike Meegz, is Houston ... More >>

Moving Day: 5 Albums I Just Can't Quit

Reconsidering a lifetime of musical choices is a funny business. My first musical purchase? The Maxi Single for Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now). First proper album purchase? Amy Grant's 1991 classic, Heart In Motion. Before I lose any degree of credibility, let's move on. For the past m ... More >>

July 2012 in Openings & Closings: t'afia Is Dead, Long Live t'afia

It's true: t'afia is closed. But only until August 14. That's when -- as chef/owner Monica Pope told us on Wednesday -- the restaurant will be reopened with a revamped concept. It's also true that our beloved Nabi is on the chopping block, as owner Ji Kang confirmed to Eater Houston. However, just ... More >>

Why Juneteenth Is The Coolest Holiday

Today is Juneteenth, a celebration that began in Texas but has spread across the country as a celebration of black culture. It is the coolest national holiday, for five reasons: 5. The name itself Thank God it's not known as The 19th of June, or even the other proposed names, like the clunky Emanc ... More >>

Combat Veterans Fall Prey to Gambling Addictions at an Alarming Rate

where's the military when the chips are down?

ZZ Top & Their Gang Of Outlaws Hit The Woodlands June 23

ZZ Top is returning to the Houston stage June 23 at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, for their "Gang Of Outlaws" tour, along with openers 3 Doors Down and Gretchen Wilson. Before you complain, Rocks Off would like to kindly remind that ZZ Top is the greatest group to come from Texas and the Ho ... More >>

Blood Money

More than 200 soldiers are suing KBR for knowingly exposing them to toxic chemicals in Iraq, whose effects started with nose bleeds and could end with cancer. KBR says that didn't happen. But even if it did, the company isn't responsible. Taxpayers are.

Top 10 Films to Celebrate Black History Month

In 1926 historian Carter G. Wilson began what was known as Negro History Week in an effort to make the African American story more prevalent in our culture's consciousnesses. The week evolved into an entire month-long celebration and promotion of African American history, which we recognize this mon ... More >>

MasterMinds 2012

This year's winners have art, passion and history on their side. And now they'll also each have a check for $2,000.

Father Figures: 100 Famous Musicians' Paternal Professions

If you're a Texan of a certain age, this week you've probably spent some time mourning the death of Jerry Haynes, the children's TV host better known as Mr. Peppermint. Haynes' show on WFAA-TV in Dallas, Peppermint Place, ran from the '60s to the '90s and was widely syndicated across the state, incl ... More >>

Swoop, There It Is: Skydiving Championships of Canopy Piloting Hit Rosharon (w/ VIDEO)

Francisco Montes​Skydive Spaceland in Rosharon is hosting this weekend the US Parachute Association's National Skydiving Championships of Canopy Piloting, where jumpers "swoop" at speeds starting at 75mph towards earth while navigating an obstacle course on the landing field, all while being j ... More >>

Too Much Pavement

Houston's strip malls increase heat, pollution.

R.I.P., Army Berets: Eight People Who Could Actually Rock That Look

Monk: Round Midnight is the right time for a beret​We read with mixed emotions the news that the U.S. Army is dropping the beret from its official combat uniform after soldier complaints. On the one hand, the overall foppishness of the beret tends to cancel out the otherwise serious, assertive ... More >>

Top 10 Musician WTF Hobbies

Zazzle.com​Musicians are weird. Well, the good ones, at least. It's a little-known, beloved factoid. While artists' news, drama, and private lives are sometimes aired to the point of over-saturation, it becomes more interesting when we learn relatively kept insight into their rockers' offstage ... More >>

Rocks Off Open For Bidness On Memorial Day

someecards.com​James McMurtry, "Memorial Day": Rocks Off has no idea what we're going to be doing on Memorial Day; we just know we're not going to be here, as in the office. We suspect Leon's Lounge will be involved somehow, because it usually is. But you should be here, as in on this very ... More >>

The Astros' Jim Crane Era Begins: Get Caught Up On The Team With This Quiz

Do you recognize this man?​For the first time in a long time, the Houston Astros will not be led by a hyper, motto-spouting grocery magnate. Drayton McLane has sold the team to Houston businessman Jim Crane. It may be the first piece of Astro news you've bothered with this year. The team was ... More >>

BP? Maybe Not - Five Other Possible Summer Fest Sponsors

Jermaine Rogers​Today is not only 4/20 and whatever the name for the Wednesday of Holy Week is - sorry, it's been a while since Rocks Off has been to church - it's the one-year anniversary of the BP blowout in the Gulf of Mexico. It's also the latest April Fool's Day in history, because earlie ... More >>

Exactly How Safe Is Juarez?

Capsule Art Reviews: "California Cool," "Christian Eckart: The Absurd Vehicle & Other Propositions," "Plenitude," "Timothy Greenfield-Sanders: Injured Soldiers and Marines," "Tony Smith: Drawings"

Capsule Art Reviews: "James Drake: A Thousand Tongues Burn and Sing," "A Matter of Wit," "Plenitude," "Timothy Greenfield-Sanders: Injured Soldiers and Marines," "Tony Smith: Drawings"

Five Oprah Secrets That Would Have Been More Interesting

​Last week we started hearing rumors of a bombshell revelation coming on Monday's episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show, a discovery Winfrey made late last year which she described as a "miracle" that she said "shook me to my core." Speculation ran rampant, from the predictable "lesbian relationsh ... More >>

Capsule Art Reviews: "A Matter of Wit," "Plenitude," "Timothy Greenfield-Sanders: Injured Soldiers and Marines"

Captured in Afghanistan

American soldiers, vérité-style, in Restrepo.

Army Helmets Made By Beaumont Prisoners Are Recalled For Safety Hazards

Vic Morrow, dealing with the scum who made him a crappy helmet​It looks like it's getting harder to find good help these days -- especially when the help are federal prisoners: earlier this month, the U.S. Army recalled 44,000 helmets manufactured by Beaumont inmates working for Federal Pris ... More >>

Christopher Farnsworth: Blood Oath

So the president of the United States has a vampire for a bodyguard - damn, D.C. must be rougher than we thought

G.I. Blues: A Soldiers' Playlist

​Today is the anniversary of one of the truly momentous occasions in popular music: On March 23, 1958, Elvis Presley reported for induction into the U.S. Army, thus opening up a thousand alternate timelines for musical historians to formulate "What if he hadn't?" scenarios. For the next few years, ... More >>

SPECIAL LONG-LETTER EDITION

Got Your Goat

We don't mean to sound paranoid, but: Did aliens abduct George Clooney's sense of humor?

Set to Explode

As unconventional as the warfare it depicts, The Hurt Locker is a ticking time bomb of a movie.

For the Fourth Of July: Worst Cinematic Attempts At Patriotism

This weekend, as we come together to celebrate Independence Day, let's do our best to remember what this holiday is all about. It's more than merely dodging DWI checkpoints on your way home from backyard barbecues and trying to decide between the Jon & Kate 8 or Deadliest Catch marathons on TV ... More >>

A Gulf Coast Juneteenth

The FBI Makes Things Go "Boom," And We Have The Video

(Note: The explosions get bigger the longer you stick with the video.) For the better part of this week, FBI bomb experts have been teaching area cops the Xs and Os of improvised explosives, like the ones made by shoe-bomber Richard Reid or the one that killed college student Matthew Rugo in his Tex ... More >>

Suckfest - Sorry, Buzzfest - XXII Lineup Announced

Hey, didn't Korn break up after this album? They didn't? Our bad.In the midst of getting our collective Rocks Off panties in a twist over SXSW next week and the impending sweat-stained Westheimer Block Party, it's easy for us to forget what it's like on the other side of the music-snob fence. ... More >>

Buffalo Soldier Mutiny: Houston, 1917

Memorial Park wasn’t always a park — it was once an army camp, and horrible things happened there

Buried Treasure Found In Galveston

Michael Pate, a contractor helping clean up Ike debris off Galveston beaches, noticed a sturdy US Army ammunition box half-buried in the sand earlier this month.Thinking it'd be useful, he dug it out and opened it. Inside was a somewhat odd collection of stuff, the Galveston County Daily News report ... More >>

First Film Thursdays at Dean’s: Austin FilmWorks

Get a sneak peek at what Steve Mims has to offer

Bayousphere: Rough Riders at the Houston Rodeo

After rolling around in the dirt, these cowboys and cowgirls clean up pretty well

The Host

Korean box-office monster emerges from the Han River to slime us stateside

Virtual Quagmire

The Army's realistic first-person shooter bogs down under fire

Who Cares?

Celester Hall went to Afghanistan to help the troops and make his fortune. He came back deaf, in diapers and looking for benefits.

Capsule Reviews

A picture of our opinions on local exhibitions

Boys to Men

Testosterone levels soar at DiverseWorks

Teenage Wasteland

Two artists ask how boys become men in a videocracy

Hell and Back

Scott's Black Hawk Down pays grim, gritty homage to real-life warriors

Helping Hands

Coming This Week

Free-for-All

New Studio, Same Old Stuff

DreamWorks's first film is a conventional tale of glam and guns

Back to Wok

A pair of Asian pioneers return to blaze new (if familiar) paths

Geronimo: An American Legend