Can I get an amen now that Halloween is over? It's time to pick yourself up from the evening's reveling and make plans for the weekend. On tap are a fundraiser on the green, a walk with heart, crafty activities, Korean soup for the soul and a big party for young professionals who don't want to grow up.
Try this: Click on the link below each event to find a page with helpful features like the ability to download the deets right to your electronic calendar, information on nearby restaurants, hotels, bars and shopping so you can enjoy your outing to the fullest.
Buffalo Bayou Partnership's Eighth Annual Gala "Sense-Sational"
The otherwise serene meadow — and one of the loveliest grounds about the city's main waterway — at the Sabine Street Bridge morphs once again into a nature lovers fete for Buffalo Bayou Partnership's gala. Sure it's been the location of choice year after year, though the scene never gets old.
The seated dinner, chaired by George Lancaster and Marley Lott, honors Mark Cover. With all the beautification projects and enhancements in the works along the bayou's banks, this nonprofit always benefits from the influx of cash.
The deets: Thursday, 6:30 p.m.; Sabine Street Bridge; tickets start at $500.
2012 Houston Heart Walk
With cooler weathers finally making their way to the south, a five kilometer leisure stroll reminds everyone that it's possible to improve one's cardiovascular health with a few simple steps. In this big commuter city, Houstonians don't walk much. So why not heed the call while raising awareness for the American Heart Association?
I walked last year and met some wonderful people along the route. With Halloween festivities behind us, let this be the start of a healthier fall/winter season. Sign me up.
The deets: Saturday, 9 a.m.; Reliant Park; free to walk.
Houston Center for Contemporary Craft "Hands-On Family Festival"
Trying to delineate between art and craft is like deciding what came first: The chicken or the egg. But one easy distinction is the importance of the process of making: The art of crafting.
This family-friendly hands-on festival offers a view into the act of craft, including basket weaving, pattern design, felting, cold hammering, weaving and wood turning by artists working locally, among them John Barber and members of the Clear Lake Basket Weavers Guild and Gulfcoast Woodturners Association.
The deets: Saturday, 11 a.m.; Houston Center for Contemporary Craft; admission is free.
Houston Grand Opera East + West presents From My Mother's Mother
If you chat with HGOco's director Sandra Bernhard, you immediately realize that at her core is the belief that music opens doors to connect the bricolage of communities that is Houston. Through the Song of Houston's East + West initiative, a series of chamber operas were commissioned that tell the story of people who found their way here.
From My Mother's Mother, composed by Jeeyoung Kim with a libretto by Janine Joseph, traces generations of Korean women as they adapt, adjust and safeguard what's uniquely and culturally theirs — beginning with a comforting bowl of hot soup.
Listen for the gayageum, a zither-type ancient plucked string instrument associated with music of Korean royalty.
The deets: Saturday through Nov. 9; various locations; admission is free
Emerging Leaders' 2012 Gala "The Big Party"
The next generation of Houston's movers and shakers have a penchant for partying — while doing good, of course. Though they may be coming of age philanthropically, there is no reason not to summon one's inner child and indulge in some booze, bites and a carnival carouse.
That includes cotton candy, arcade games, caricature drawings, balloon twisting, a clown, a fortune teller and a floor piano. Sounds like a good time.
Arts smarty pants and in-the-loop easy going lady Nancy Wozny's pick: BooTown presents Damn the Man
Nancy says: "My fave indie theater collective, BooTown, is back, this time with Damn the Man, a Benshi show based on Empire Records. In traditional, Benshi performers memorize western movies and reinterpret the story for an eastern audience. In BooTown's Benshi, chances are things are going to work out a little differently, but I expect major fun and hilarity.
"In keeping with BooTown's mission to perform at non-traditional venues the show is at three different places."
