Zooey Deschanel

Just Be 'Cos': Eight Music Artists Perfectly Suited for Cosplay

Cosplay, short for "costume play," is the art of normal, everyday people going balls-out to depict themselves as their favorite fictional characters from comics, movies, video games and television. It's hugely popular, thanks to ComicCon and our obsession with all things pop-culture. Cosplayers gat ... More >>

In Defense of New Girl (Hear Us Out...)

Aimee Bobruk Is "Two of a Kind" All By Herself

Austin's singer-songwriter darling Aimee Bobruk will be in town at Anderson Fair this weekend, and to herald her arrival, she recently recorded a fantastic music video for her tune "Two of a Kind." It's a simple yet fetching throwback to the days of silent film, with Bobruk playing both her feminine ... More >>

Christmas Past: Top 10 Christmas Movie Soundtracks

While we celebrate the holidays, Rocks Off is resurrecting a few of our best Christmas-themed blogs from the past few years. (Wait... resurrecting is Easter. Never mind.) This blog originally appeared December 14, 2010. No doubt you have all been chin-deep in Christmas movies since you undid your b ... More >>

Ruby Sparks

Finally, the fantasy girlfriend is fiction.

My Heart Is an Idiot

10 Rom-Coms Even Guys Will Watch

Can you smell it? Either love is in the air or the Chick-fil-A has started using chicken-scented billboards. Yes, Valentine's Day is coming to give all men night sweats over what to do on the most romantic of the Hallmark holidays. As we were searching around for entertainment suggestions, we were t ... More >>

5 Musicians Who Changed Their Names to Inspire Jim Crane and the Astros

​This week, the new owner of the Houston Astros Jim Crane opened Pandora's Box of Hearty Suggestions For A Struggling Franchise and discussed changes to the team. Cheap beer (yay!), cheaper seats (double yay!) should be one of the first things but Crane suggested that the Astros do the unthink ... More >>

Who Gives a Shit About Katy Perry!? Vanessa Paradis is About to be Single!

Houston Press was ecstatic when slutwave superstar Katy Perry and comedian Russell Brand broke up, though there were some very different motivations amongst the staff for that joy. For instance, Craig Hlavaty chose that opportunity to place himself in the draft pick for being her next paramour, some ... More >>

The 2012 Katy Perry Fantasy Relationship Draft: Which Rappers & Rockers Should She Date Next?

​The pop and tabloid world was rocked last Friday as we got word that Russell Brand was divorcing his wife of 14 months, Katy Perry, smack in the middle of the holiday season. The pair spent Christmas apart, with Perry cavorting in Maui in a bikini - yes, there are boob shoots - and Brand repo ... More >>

Modern Holiday Classics Veer Off from Feelgood and into Cynicism

This week, as Christmas movies began their assault on cable and network television, it occurred to us that in the past decade or so, holiday film tastes have begun to veer from lighthearted feelgood affairs and straight into stress-filled, caustic celebrations of the things we will all hate for the ... More >>

Our Idiot Brother

Long-haired dreamer has predictably profound effect on his siblings.

Katy Perry To Beat Michael Jackson, Destroy Earth

Mason Lankford said, "There will come a day when we forget the Rapture ever even happened," but Rocks Off is keeping an eye out for signs of our impending Armageddon. We were wrong last time, but we're totally right this time! Marc Brubaker​Whether you like her or not, and Rocks Off hates her ... More >>

Pop Rocks: Bye Bye, Chicago Code -- Fox's Greatest Crimes Against TV

Fox you, "Code" fans.​The fall network TV schedules aren't set to be released until next week, but the bad news has already leaked for fans of Fox's The Chicago Code, which was not renewed for a second season in spite of a mostly positive critical reception: Answering questions from disappoin ... More >>

Music's Top 10 Most Fashionable Women Right Now

GroovehouseThe Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Karen O at the 2009 Austin City Limits Music Festival​Fashion, like songwriting and other artistic outlets, is a form of self-expression. It adds to one's aura; it speaks on her behalf. Yet fashion sometimes gets overlooked in music, and undeservedly so. Follow ... More >>

Stoned and Throned

Your Highness, dirty jokes for the D&D crowd.

Lyrics That Make Terrible Facebook Status Updates

DTF for sure.​Ever seen a nonsensical, irrelevant Britney Spears or Drake lyric on your Facebook news feed that made you cringe? We have - about 56, and the workday isn't even over yet. Some lyrics should stay on the radio and off the Facebook circuit. Perhaps instead of simply asking, "What' ... More >>

20 Musician Biopics Currently In Development Hell

Happy birthday, Janis.​News came down last week that Sacha Baron Cohen will be stepping into the rhinestones and glitter as Queen icon Freddie Mercury. It's been a long time coming for Cohen, the Borat and Bruno star who is slowly becoming his generation's Peter Sellers and has been rumored to ... More >>

Paris Falls Has A Winner With Reverse Mirror Image

​It's very, very hard to talk about Paris Falls' latest CD, Reverse Mirror Image, without using a plethora of adjectives that have already been painted in bright letters across reviews of their first three albums. They are still the living embodiment of everything that made pop music awesome ... More >>

One Guy's Remaining Thoughts On 2010

Thanks to Tron: Legacy for Olivia Wilde in 3D​As we head into the New Year, I thought I would look back at some of the things in 2010 for which I'm thankful, sports, and non-sports. 1. ESPN's 30 For 30.  ESPN does a lot of things wrong, i.e. the Brett Favre lovefest, The Decision, Col ... More >>

Top 10 Christmas Movie Soundtracks

​No doubt you have all been chin-deep in Christmas movies since you undid your belt on Thanksgiving evening. Rocks Off made sure to steal a copy of National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation from our folks' house before the calendar even hit December. Unlike other blogs, we don't hate all Christm ... More >>

Does "Indie Rock" Mean Anything At All Anymore?

​Our colleague Shea Serrano has been doing brisk business with his Rap Round Table blogs, corralling local hip-hoppers into talking about events in their scene and in the world at large. No topics are off limits, and everyone is willing to talk. So Rocks Off decided it was time for Houston's ... More >>

True Blood: Looking For "Trouble" With Suzi Quatro

​Well folks, it's finally happened. The world of Suzi Quatro and the world of vampires have collided. Gothtopia hopes you've enjoyed his writings here at Rocks Off, and regrets leaving you at the mid-season mark of True Blood. For you see, there is now simply nothing left to live for, and we'r ... More >>

Katy Perry's "California Gurls," As Done By Really Old Men

​Rocks Off hates Katy Perry with the white-hot burning intensity of a thousand suns. Her songs sound like Pink with a lobotomy, and she looks like Zooey Deschanel playing a really low-cost prostitute. When the video for "California Gurls" came out, we saw something that we never thought we'd s ... More >>

Pop Rocks: Hope Justin Bieber Dies Before He Gets Old

​Oh, calm down. This isn't a call for the murder of American's favorite prepubescent pop idol. Sure, the former YouTube sensation from Stratford, Ontario who dresses and talks (and Tweets) like a diminutive Tupac Shakur has made more money in the last two years than you or I will see in ten li ... More >>

SXSW Aftermath: Rachael Ray's Party Pics

Photos by Katharine ShilcuttRachael Ray and husband John Cusimano, lead singer of The Cringe.​John Popper of Blues Traveler (although our favorite Popper role is as himself on the HBO series Z Rock) livened up The Cringe's otherwise banal set at the Rachael Ray party on a cold, gloomy Saturday ... More >>

Still Not Sold On SXSW? How About Smokey Robinson, High On Fire, She & Him, Band Of Horses, Drive-By Truckers, Deer Tick, Anya Marina, Black Angels, Major Lazer...

Today the organizers of the SXSW Music Festival announced their showcase schedule for the music portion of the industry fest starting on March 17. This is the news Rocks Off has been looking for, so let's get it on. We are now one month away from Sixth Street and one of the world's biggest conglome ... More >>

Remembering Janis: Port Arthur's Pearl Would Have Been 67 Today

Today would have been Port Arthur native Janis Joplin's 67th birthday. Rocks Off started his day at the desk with her greatest-hits collection and all her work with Big Brother & the Holding Company that gets overlooked in lieu of her bigger singles. Pearl is still seen by many as the magnum op ... More >>

Garlic Zeppole and Foie Gras Ice Cream: Challenging the Idea of Traditional Desserts

Photos by Katharine Shilcutt​We entered through the back door into the labyrinthine kitchen of Textile. It was our third time at Scott Tycer's restaurant (although the first in its kitchen) and we were glad to be back: The desserts were the best part of our first two visits, and we were eager ... More >>

Love Hurts

And that pain will last (500) Days, but in a good way.

Summer of Salvation

The Terminator is back. Plus lots of other movies we can't wait to see this season.

Memo Re: Slap Shot Remake

TO: President, Universal Pictures FROM: Script Department RE: Slap Shot Remake We received a copy of Peter Steinfeld's (21) first draft for the planned Slap Shot remake. Before we pass it on to the director currently attached to this project (Dean Parisot, Fun With Dick and Jane), we though ... More >>

Memo Re: Slap Shot Remake

TO: President, Universal Pictures FROM: Script Department RE: Slap Shot Remake We received a copy of Peter Steinfeld's (21) first draft for the planned Slap Shot remake. Before we pass it on to the director currently attached to this project (Dean Parisot, Fun With Dick and Jane), we though ... More >>

M. Ward: Hold Time

30 Rock Takes Another Little Piece of Port Arthur

One of the only things Rocks Off loves as much as Tom Petty and chicken-fried steak is NBC's brilliant, multiple Emmy-winning 30 Rock, which he thinks is the best TV comedy since The Larry Sanders Show. Now he loves it even more after last night's deliciously twisted episode, "Senor Mach ... More >>

John Royal's New Year's Resolutions for 2009

In honor of the New Year, I thought I would go the cliché route and give you my Ten Resolutions for 2009. 10. I'm going to continue to be as objective as I can when it comes to my coverage of Houston sports. 9. I'm going to find some way to get the Houston Press to pay for my MLB Extra Innings pa ... More >>

Top Ten Americana Albums of 2008

Picking the best folk and Americana records of the year isn't nearly as hard as discarding those great records that just didn't feel right stuck in the category. Releases by Calexico and DeVotchKa felt far too worldly to pigeonhole as folk or country, for instance, while Blitzen Trapper's fantastic ... More >>

Yes Man Repackages Jim Carrey's Greatest Hits, Which Maybe Weren't So Great to Start With

Just Say No

Jenny Lewis: Acid Tongue

She & Him: Volume One

New Year's Resolutions

This Time It's Serious

Oh, Grow Up

Failure is McConaughey's perfect movie, and a pretty good one for us

Green Achers

Undertow relishes the pain and beauty of a reclusive Southern family

Free Will

Another SNL vet may be the next Bill Murray. Seriously.

A Friend in Need

The Good Girl transforms Jennifer Aniston into a crazy cracker everywoman

Revolting

Meet The New Guy, same as the old guy

People Try to Put Us Down...

Almost Famous talks about its g-g-generation -- of misguided rock and roll fans

Psyched Out

Mumford muddles through fantasyland