weekend event planner

Here are the top 8 things to do in Houston this weekend

Aside from some scattered showers, this is a good weekend to get out and about, with a worldwide comic sensation in town. Also look for a March Madness bash in EaDo (Editor's note: Go Coogs!), a few crawfish fests, a fashion-friendly pop-up, and some fun outdoor markets.

Here, then, are your best bets for the weekend. Enjoy.

Thursday, March 25

Dave Chappelle and Friends in concert
As he has proven, Dave Chappelle isn't gonna let this freakin' COVID stop him from doing stand-up — even when he comes down with it. The iconic comedian is back in Houston to once again hit us with his now-patented brand of stand-up and sage wisdom. He will also be bringing some friends along, and anyone who's been to a Chappelle show knows he has a tendency to get some special-guest comics onstage to tell some jokes. Maybe that'll happen this time around. 6 pm.

Preservation Houston presents Cornerstone Drive-In featuring The Good Brick Awards
Preservation Houston will celebrate the talented people who are using historic preservation to make Houston a better place to live during this special event. There will be a double feature: a video presentation of the 2021 Good Brick Awards for excellence in historic preservation, and a screening of Citizen Jane: Battle for the City, a film about New York activist Jane Jacobs’ 1960s showdown with ruthless construction kingpin Robert Moses over his plan to raze lower Manhattan to make way for a highway. 6:30 pm.

Friday, March 26

River Oaks District presents Jenni Kayne Airstream Pop-Up
From now until the end of the month, California-based fashion and lifestyle brand Jenni Kayne will bring their Airstream trailer to River Oaks District for six days of shopping, activations and special promotions. On Saturday, the brand welcomes local florist Composto Fiori for live floral arrangement demonstrations. Shoppers can get a Composto Fiori floral bundles gift with purchase and participate in the Jenni Kayne Easter Egg hunt. 10 am (noon Sunday).

Houston Symphony presents Esa-Pekka Salonen Conducts Bach, Beethoven & Salonen
All this weekend, world-renowned conductor-composer and current San Francisco Symphony music director Esa-Pekka Salonen makes his Houston conducting debut with a program of treasured classics with a contemporary twist. Selections will include Bach’s Prelude from Violin Partita No. 3, Salonen’s FOG, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1. The Saturday performance will be livestreamed for home viewers. 8 pm (2:30 pm Sunday).

Saturday, March 27

Big Rivers Waterpark Spring Breakout Crawfest
Crawfish season is officially here, and Big Rivers Waterpark & Adventures (located out in New Caney) will be cooking up a lot of them at this cajun festival. This family-friendly event will feature live Zydeco music by The Platinum Players, as well as loads of family activities included with the $14.99-per-person admission. You can learn to throw axes, shoot arrows, splash and play in Wild Isle, or surf the waves on wave pool Boca Chica Bay. 11 am.

The Wolff Den Crawfish Pop-Up at East End Backyard
If the crawfest is too far for you, check out this crawfish free-for-all hosted by The Wolff Den, a team of University of Houston students. March Madness tips off at 1:40 pm and concludes with Houston vs. Syracuse at 8:55. East End Backyard is installing a 158-foot LED outdoor screen courtesy of Espolòn Tequila for the games.

All proceeds from crawfish sales will fund student scholarships at U of H's Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship. The bar also has a new, Instagram-worthy spot in the form of a "Coogs House" mural painted by the U of H Hispanic Alumni Association. The piece features UH cougar mascot Shasta and was designed by Felipe Galvan of Los Skarnales, along with artist Donkeeboy. 1 pm.

Sunday, March 28

Memorial City Farmers & Feel Good Market
The Memorial City Farmers & Feel Good Market is an outdoor experiential shopping event that will feature more than 40 local farmer and artisan vendors, offering locally curated fresh produce and foods, as well as stylish jewelry, clothing, and gifts. There will also be family-friendly entertainment including face-painting, a strolling magician, stilt-walkers, the YÜTH United Through HeARTZ performance team, music, and more. 10 am.

The Art Cellar of Houston presents The Parkway Market Days
Regent Square is continuing its calendar of outdoor programming at The Parkway with this spring flowers-themed market. The community is invited to stop by the activity and event site for a market featuring local vendors and a water coloring activity, plus music and food.

It's free to attend, and the floral water coloring kit will be complimentary for the first 50 attendees. (Kits will be priced at $35 each for the remainder of the day.) Noon.

Cheer on the Coogs in EaGo while you shuck crawfish.

Photo courtesy of East End Backyard

Cheer on the Coogs in EaGo while you shuck crawfish.

event-planner

Movie Review

Avatar: Fire and Ash returns to Pandora with big action and bold visuals

Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios

Oona Chaplin in Avatar: Fire and Ash.

For a series whose first two films made over $5 billion combined worldwide, Avatar has a curious lack of widespread cultural impact. The films seem to exist in a sort of vacuum, popping up for their run in theaters and then almost as quickly disappearing from the larger movie landscape. The third of five planned movies, Avatar: Fire and Ash, is finally being released three years after its predecessor, Avatar: The Way of Water.

The new film finds the main duo, human-turned-Na’vi Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and his native Na’vi wife, Neytiri (Zoë Saldaña), still living with the water-loving Metkayina clan led by Ronal (Kate Winslet) and Tonowari (Cliff Curtis). While Jake and Neytiri still play a big part, the focus shifts significantly to their two surviving children, Lo’ak (Britain Dalton) and Tuk (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss), as well as two they’ve essentially adopted, Kiri (Sigourney Weaver) and Spider (Jack Champion).

Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), who lives on in a fabricated Na’vi body, is still looking for revenge on Jake, and he finds help in the form of the Mangkwan Clan (aka the Ash People), led by Varang (Oona Chaplin). Quaritch’s access to human weapons and the Mangkwan’s desire for more power on the moon known as Pandora make them a nice match, and they team up to try to dominate the other tribes.

Aside from the story, the main point of making the films for writer/director James Cameron is showing off his considerable technical filmmaking prowess, and that is on full display right from the start. The characters zoom around both the air and sea on various creatures with which they’ve bonded, providing Cameron and his team with plenty of opportunities to put the audience right there with them. Cameron’s preferred viewing method of 3D makes the experience even more immersive, even if the high frame rate he uses makes some scenes look too realistic for their own good.

The story, as it has been in the first two films, is a mixed bag. Cameron and co-writers Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver start off well, having Jake, Neytiri, and their kids continue mourning the death of Neteyam (Jamie Flatters) in the previous film. The struggle for power provides an interesting setup, but Cameron and his team seem to drag out the conflict for much too long. This is the longest Avatar film yet, and you really start to feel it in the back half as the filmmakers add on a bunch of unnecessary elements.

Worse than the elongated story, though, is the hackneyed dialogue that Cameron, Jaffa, and Silver have come up with. Almost every main character is forced to spout lines that diminish the importance of the events around them. The writers seemingly couldn’t resist trying to throw in jokes despite them clashing with the tone of the scenes in which they’re said. Combined with the somewhat goofy nature of the Na’vi themselves (not to mention talking whales), the eye-rolling words detract from any excitement or emotion the story builds up.

A pre-movie behind-the-scenes short film shows how the actors act out every scene in performance capture suits, lending an authenticity to their performances. Still, some performers are better than others, with Saldaña, Worthington, and Lang standing out. It’s more than a little weird having Weaver play a 14-year-old girl, but it works relatively well. Those who actually get to show their real faces are collectively fine, but none of them elevate the film overall.

There are undoubtedly some Avatar superfans for which Fire and Ash will move the larger story forward in significant ways. For anyone else, though, the film is a demonstration of both the good and bad sides of Cameron. As he’s proven for 40 years, his visuals are (almost) beyond reproach, but the lack of a story that sticks with you long after you’ve left the theater keeps the film from being truly memorable.

---

Avatar: Fire and Ash opens in theaters on December 19.

movies film