U.S.S.R.

New Azerbaijan Cultural Center Shows Why Baku was the Houston of the Soviet Union

Irada Akhoundova remembers when the Soviet military rumbled outside her house. It was late 1991, post-perestroika, pre-independence, and Akhoundova, a principal in one of the schools of the Azerbaijan Republic, heard the four-wheelers and hard-tops tossing gravel outside her house. It was an early m ... More >>

Back In the U.S.S.R.: The Obsolete Beatles

The next time someone who's too "cool" to "get" the Beatles asks what makes them so important, ask that person what's so great about his or her nose. First, if you're lucky, you'll be treated to an entertaining look of befuddlement. Then, when you're done being amused by that, avoid launching into a ... More >>

Last Night: Sir Paul McCartney at Minute Maid Park

Sir Paul McCartney Minute Maid Park November 14, 2012 Seeing Paul McCartney live is a lot of things. It's communing with a spirit that touched millions and will touch millions for as long as humanity lurches forward. It's hearing the old schmaltzy bedrock anthems and the proto-everything blasts tha ... More >>

WWF's Top 7 Classic "Foreign Heel" Theme Songs

The WWF may have been the most patriotic American institution during the '80s and '90s; it turned Hulk Hogan into one of the biggest symbols of patriotism in recent memory. But there's a fine line between patriotism and nationalism, which the WWF straddled for years. By using jingoist superstars ... More >>

Da Camera of Houston: Jerusalem String Quartet

For May Day: The Nine Leaders Of The USSR, Ranked On Hotness

Tomorrow is May Day. It doesn't mean a lot in the U.S., but in many nations it's their version of Labor Day. Back in the day, when there was such a thing as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, May Day was a big, big deal. Soviet leaders would stand on a huge stage as mighty missiles, demonstra ... More >>

60 Years of Russian Photography

From Stalin to Putin

Back to the Classics

The Russian artists of "Perestroika" turn the past into something new.

Bill Moyers at Progressive Forum: An East Texas Sage's Optimism Twists in Today's Ill Winds

Bill Moyers believes that the sun-baked scattered bones of Wall Street's carcass are being picked clean by "animal spirits" -- namely, hyenas, and that these scavengers believe that they are justified, indeed morally sanctioned, in behaving as such, and that nobody in government is willing or able t ... More >>

Pop Rocks: New Clear Days

Explains a lot.​I was discussing career choices (don't ask) with an acquaintance of mine, and in the course of talking about how we got where we were, I mentioned that I'd never really planned for life beyond college when I was in my teens. The decision wasn't a "non-decision" or anything lik ... More >>

Space Station To Crash Into Ocean: 5 Other Notable Falls From Orbit

Skylab: Roomy but fallible​News came out yesterday that Russia and her space-station partners plan to crash the thing into the ocean when its life span ends in 2020. It's too expensive to dismantle, and would be too huge and dangerous a piece of space junk to leave up there in orbit. Man-mad ... More >>

Women's World Cup: Five Other Seeming "Game-Winning" Scores That Weren't

The USA's run in the Women's World Cup seemed to be finishing in grand style when Abby Wambach put in an extra-time header to give the team a 2-1 lead. It didn't last, and Japan won in overtime. Wambach's late goal joins a storied list of scores that seemingly iced a game or a series, only to be o ... More >>

Happy Birthday Tetris: 7 Covers of the Game's Theme

​Rocks Off has learned a lot from video games over the years. Super Mario Bros. 3 taught us that the sun is an angry, malice-filled demon who will stop at nothing until you're dead (It's a 102 degrees as we write). Bioshock taught us that taking Ayn Rand a too seriously leads to fighting genet ... More >>

Saturday Night: House Of Pain At Warehouse Live

​House of Pain, Big B Warehouse Live March 26, 2011 See more jumping around from Warehouse Live Saturday in our slideshow. Walking up to Warehouse live Saturday night, Aftermath wasn't sure what to expect of House of Pain's Houston reunion stop. We heard through the grapevine, "it had been ... More >>

USSR's Moon Lander: A New Look At A Space Race Oddity

​ You can see the hammer and sickle, and the "C" in "CCCP." What is this thing? It's the USSR's version of the lunar module that -- as far as know -- never made it to the moon.It's not on public display, but a student got a tour of the storage facility in Russia and posted pictures to his livejour ... More >>

Sputnik: The Shock of the Century

It’s an insider’s view at the race for space

Bellaire High Students Take First Steps On Road To Godless Communism, Possibly

Photo courtesy HISD​We guess they didn't get the memo out at Bellaire High that the USSR is an enemy devoted to selling us the rope with which we'll hang oursel -- wait, what? The Berlin War fell? We won the Cold War? It must not have made TMZ.com, because we don't remember reading about it. At a ... More >>

Comrade Ambassadors

Mumiy Troll, the biggest rock band in Russia, hopes for a belated U.S. breakthrough.

My Top Five Imported Mustards

​When I wrote about mustard recently, I got so many interesting recommendations that I went out and bought a bunch. Some of the tastiest mustards I tried were imported. Here are my current top five imported mustards: 5. Maille Dijon Originale (Canada) Good mustard seed, excellent vinegar, a ... More >>

The Rockets Go Communist In Their Search For Ticket Sales

You've lost your best player to injury, you've lost the guy who thinks he's the best player to Advanced Wussiness Syndrome, you haven't got a decent big name to take the court for you next year: What are you gonna do if you're the Rockets?Pitch yourselves as "Red Nation," apparently.That's the new a ... More >>

70 Years After A Nazi Invasion, Poland Gets Respect: The Five Best Movie Poles

On September 1, 1939, German forces invaded Poland. Soviet troops joined the attack (in adherence to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact) on September 16, and by the first of October, the country was entirely in enemy hands, and World War II was well underway.Poland and its people have had enough problems, ... More >>

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 >>

For This Year's Graduates: Five Memorable Ceremonies

Class of 2009, as you go out into the real world, you'll be welcomed by a sputtering economy, rising consumer debt, and increased threats from abroad. It's just like the 1970s, except you'll have the added fun of spending the next 30 years paying off your student loans. Congratulations! Here are so ... More >>

The Rockets, Joining The Pantheon Of Those Who Gave Up Surprising Momentum

Hey, how'd those Rockets do last night?!Oh.In case you missed it, Our Rockets (and by "Our," we mean "team we started cheering for a week ago"), got shellacked by the Lakers 118-78. Everyone had expected the injury-riddled Houston team to lose like that -- in Sunday's game, which they had won.That ... More >>

For May Day: Five Best Dirty, Rotten, Stinking Commies In The Movies

Once a pre-Christian celebration of the beginning of the summer, May 1 became associated with the labor movement and was eventually appropriated by the Soviet Union. The Cold War has been over for almost 20 years, so what better way to commemorate May Day than by poking fun at some famous movie Com ... More >>

Sputnik Declassified

Web exclusive!

Oh, Christ: Original Limp Bizkit Lineup to Reunite

Because things aren't already bad enough out there right now, the original lineup of crotch-rocking mooks Limp Bizkit annouced today they are reuniting. Here, according to a joint statement by the band's Fred Durst and Wes Borland, is their reasoning: "We decided we were more disgusted and b ... More >>

2nd Annual Russian Documentary Film Showcase: Images of Russia

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn is honored at this festival of Russian docs

Glenn Gould, The Russian Journey

This documentary film captures the Canadian pianist's visit to Leningrad and Moscow

Like, Russia Is So Totally 80s Right Now!

A Review of Rome 1960: The Olympics That Changed The World

Get Lit: The Candy Bombers: The Untold Story of the Berlin Airlift and America’s Finest Hour, by Andrei Cherny

John Royal’s Top Ten All-Time Greatest Sports Movies

The Cancer Researcher Who Went In To The Cold: Remembering (and Possibly Tracking Down) the Lockshin Family, Reagan-era Houstonians Who Defected to the Soviets

Georgian State Dance Company

James Brown isn’t among these great Georgian dancers

Back In The USSR

Striking Three

A photo exhibition at the MFAH has some real standouts

Red Elvises

The Red Elvises appear Monday, November 6, at McGonigel's Mucky Duck, 2425 Norfolk. Call 713-528-5999 for more info.

Countdown to 12

A Salvadoran boy awaits the birthday that renders him a warrior

Hello from Kazakhstan

Schizo paints a harrowing portrait of the former Soviet state

New Heights

Lughnassadh will make your heart Celt

This Week's Day-by-Day Picks

DJ Vadim

Saturday, March 1

Soviet Secrets

Stoli Grill's "KGB"

High-Tech Spectacle

Jennifer Steinkamp and Sharon Engelstein bring back the big and bold.

Kiss of Death

A needless love triangle deflates the tense sniper showdown in Gates

A Portrait of the Artist as a Capitalist

Painter Vladimir Gorsky learned how to work the system in the Soviet Union for personal gain. He discovered that things operate much the same way in America.

Foregone Conclusion

Even those who don't remember the Cuban missile crisis will know how it ends, long before Days does

Workers of the World, Unite in Song!

East Side Story explores Soviet musicals. Yes, musicals.

What It Is, What It Was, What It Shall Be

A review of the films of '93, and hopes for an adventurous '94