University of California-Los Angeles

Poverty at UH

Teaching fellows looking for raises.

Without Pay Raise in Twenty Years, UH Grad Students Take Petition to Masses

One month before your friends began painting their Facebook profile pictures red in support of gay rights, a group of University of Houston English Teaching Fellows swapped their main photos to something of the same color: a shot of the Cougars' mascot, blazing red, with a bit of text underneath it: ... More >>

An Animal Roars Again: The Eric Burdon Interview, Part 1

As lead vocalist for the '60s British Invasion band the Animals, Eric Burdon fronted what was perhaps the toughest R&B-influenced group from the era (sorry, Stones fans), and had a second incarnation exploring psychedelic music. In his collaborations with War, Burdon pushed the boundaries of impro ... More >>

Football! This Weekend's Best Bets, Charlie Weis Celebration Practice Video Edition

This week's tale of gambling riches comes from Branford, Ontario, where locally their version of the lottery is actually an NFL parlay card of sorts, where if a player picks 15 games 100 percent correctly, they will win a sizable six-figure payout. In Week 3 of the NFL season, a man named Gino DiFe ... More >>

What Wine for a [California] Veggie Sandwich?

The first time I had a [California] veggie sandwich (in California, they just call it a "veggie sandwich"), it was at the legendary Source on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles. By the time I got there (an undergrad at UCLA in the late '80s), founder Father Yod and the Source family were long gone (as ... More >>

Michael Martin Murphey: "I Was Always Proud of Texas"

Michael Martin Murphey will not get off the phone. The Texas singer-songwriter, arguably America's foremost ambassador and scholar of traditional cowboy ballads and trail songs, is the kind of person who has answered two or three other questions by the time his interviewer is ready to ask another on ... More >>

Michael Martin Murphey: The Cosmic Cowboy Years

Texas singer-songwriter and real by-god cowboy Michael Martin Murphey has already walked Rocks Off through a healthy bit of the past 100 years of American folk music this morning, as well as a good bit of his own. But dissatisfied with the folk scene he found out in late-'60s Southern California, he ... More >>

Lionel Richie Vs. Chuck Norris: Who Would Win?

So far the musical comeback of the year has been Lionel Richie, hands down. Last week the Alabama-born crooner's new album in three years, Tuskegee, debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 with sales of almost 200,000 copies. According to The Hollywood Reporter, if about 185,000 copies of Madonna's MD ... More >>

An Afternoon with the Artists

Bonna-What?: How 7 U.S. Music Festivals Got Their Names

This whole week, the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, featuring the Black Keys, Radiohead, Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg, Pulp, At the Drive-In, the Shins, AVICII, David Guetta and maybe one or two others, will be all anyone who follows music these days will be talking about. Then early next week, it' ... More >>

Ron Paul and Sci-Fi

Auburn Offensive Coordinator Gus Malzahn's Wife Is Insane (w/ VIDEO)

Simultaneous with the push toward bowl season every year, we have the college football coaching carousel that begins spinning around Thanksgiving and doesn't stop until around the time the bowl games end (or until around spring practice if your quarterback is trading signed memorabilia for tattoos). ... More >>

Carol Swarbrick Says There's No Blues in White Christmas at TUTS

Even if you're one of the people who saw White Christmas at the Hobby three years ago, actress Carol Swarbrick says you'll still see some new things if you come to the latest version courtesy of Theatre Under the Stars. With a new director and choreographer, she says the dance routines are not the s ... More >>

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 >>

ACL: Black Dub In The Hour Of Tranquility

Photos by Marco TorresPhosphorescent​It's been a low-key afternoon. It rained again. Still is. Rocks Off ate some fried chicken and sat in the Vista Equity tent while the gospel quartet Endurance lifted our spirits. It doesn't matter what your spiritual inclination is - you haven't seen danci ... More >>

Why Do Mexicans Work as Day Laborers?

And is it true that Vikki Carr and Eydie Gormé are Mexicans?

Knocked Out: Bell Ringing

Further studies at UCLA sounded the alarm about concussions and their treatment

UH Scrimmage Recap: The Return of Case Keenum to Patrick Edwards

Steve JansenThere are high hopes in Cougarland, thanks to Case Keenum​(Note: The University of Houston athletic staff, citing potential game-planning advantages by opponents, did not allow photography during the scrimmage.) The Houston Cougars' scrimmage on Saturday afternoon at Robertson Sta ... More >>

May Day Immigration Rally Draws Thousands (and Opponents) in Houston

Photos by Christopher Patronella, Jr.​Some three thousand people joined together in Houston on Sunday to take part in May Day rallies held all across the nation as the battle over immigration laws has taken center stage. Demonstrators blanketed the streets around Burnett Bayland Park as they flow ... More >>

2010-2011 Houston Rockets Report Card

Photo by GroovehouseSad Rocket fan​Hello everyone! Welcome to my blog post for today, also known as "Day Four of the Jim Rome Smack-Off Recap Hostage Crisis." That's right, based on feedback on my Twitter feed and the monster hits that our rogue "Smack-Off On A Mobile" have been getting, I k ... More >>

NCAA Days Three and Four -- Winners and Losers

March madness underway.​Well, I'm guessing that this past weekend of basketball is not how the money people behind the Final Four's coming to Houston drew it up on the chalkboard. In a tournament that already had last year's regional darling Baylor on the outside looking in, the only two Te ... More >>

11 Keys to Your Filling Out Your NCAA Bracket

Have you done your brackets yet?​So it's that time of year again. Time for the Big Dance, March Madness, the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. It's that one time of year when absolutely everyone in the office actually pays attention to college basketball and everyone thinks they're an expert ... More >>

My March Madness Selections (And Lots Of Helpful Links)

It's bracket-ology BABY!​I made this public service announcement on my radio show this week, but seeing as many of you are scrambling to fill in your brackets at the last minute, I feel compelled to print it here and remind all of you of the following: If Sports talk radio hosts (like myself) ... More >>

Happy Birthday, Where's the Beef?

Yesterday marked the 27th anniversary of a pivotal event in American culinary history: the first airing of the Wendy's "Where's the Beef?" commercial (above). I know what you're thinking. "Has it really been 27 years?" If you're like me, you can remember exactly what you were doing when the ad fi ... More >>

Cougars Prepare To Battle The Golden Eagles

Last week the Golden Hurricane, this week the Golden Eagles, what next, the Golden Slumbers?​It's been a tough season for the 5-5 Houston Cougars. They lost their starting quarterback, Case Keenum, to an ACL injury in the season's third game, a loss to UCLA. They lost his back-up, Cotton Turner, ... More >>

SPECIAL DREAM EDITION

Brown, Out

Macho meets homo in the laudable but terrible La Mission.

Coogs Open The Basketball Season With A Solid, If Expected, Win

Photo courtesy UH​On Monday night, Cal State-Fullerton defeated UCLA in one of those so-called easy basketball openers that so-called major powers are supposed to easily win. Kind of like Houston's Tuesday night opener against Nicholls State was supposed to be one of the easy games for a so-call ... More >>

Nothing Sets Our Readers Off Like Che Guevara and Rape

Listen Up, People: The Top Ten Coaches In Houston History

​The Chron's Jerome Solomon has another of those endless lists we writers like to do, this one asking for input on the top 10 coaches in Houston college and pro sports history. And he helpfully provides us with some candidates for the list. So I thought I would help out and provide what I consider ... More >>

UH's Choice For New Athletic Director: From USC Or Akron?

The University of Houston has supposedly narrowed its search for an Athletic Director to replace Dave Maggard down to two choices. The first choice is Brandon Martin, a former college basketball player for USC who is currently the senior associate AD for the Trojans. The second choice is Mack Rhoade ... More >>

The Epic 1969 UH-Harvard Debate Competition Still Haunts

Photo courtesy Debate TeamThings we did not know until today: The University of Houston had a kick-ass debate team in 1969, one that swaggered in to the national finals predicting victory only to lose to Harvard. And one of the members of that team has never gotten over the loss, and gotten so depre ... More >>

King Tut Is Back

Lawndale unveils the King Tut exhibit of the future.

Pete Newell, RIP

Basketball fans ought to stop for a moment this weekend and mourn the loss of former San Diego Rockets General Manager (1968-1972) Pete Newell, who died on Tuesday at the age of 93. Long before UCLA made John Wooden a coaching legend, the blue and gold UC university system discovered another coac ... More >>

Top Ten Astrodome Sports Moments

An Exclusive Interview with the Astrodome

The University of Houston Quiz, Continued...

Dick Vitale, Adrian Dantley, Pat Riley, Patrick Ewing and Hakeen Olajuwon Make the Hall of Fame, But What About Guy V. Lewis?

Toxic Runoff : Somerville Mayor Tommy Thompson Discusses the Public Health Situation

The College Football Preview, Week Nine: What Do Pushing Daisies, The Office and Chuck Have to Do with Football? Good Question.

He's Really Doing That

Welcome to Football U

Welcome to Football U

Overstimulated

How taking a Parkinson's disease wonder drug apparently makes some people want to gamble and have sex all the time

Gimme Cinco

May 5 fun for drunkards and sober folks alike

Poster Child

Rice Gallery revamps the hippie aesthetic without selling out

Hallway Gangstas

When bad things happen to good kids, their Luck always holds

Picture in Picture

Vija Celmins's paintings of photographs say more than a thousand words

Rotation

The Little Mexican Tramp

Cantinflas kicks off the MFA's series of classic Mexican films