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Your weekly guide to Houston: Five (plus) don't-miss events
In Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview, the late Apple mogul chats about innovation,creativity and what can come out of dialogue between artists and techies.
From the streets of Los Angeles comes "Street Beat!," a high-decibel troupemelding urban culture, hip hop and acrobatics. The result is an energetic showthat promises to "explode" on stage.
Houston Symphony's "The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses" multimediashow expands Koji Kondo's music score into a four-movement orchestral work withfilm.
If the revenge of the fifth — July 5 that is — erased any memories of Wednesday night's Independence Day rowdy carouse, let's just pretend that your walk of shame never happened and resume this week's regularly scheduled program. With a tad of 1990s Steve Jobs, video game music, art for good, street grooves and a handful of films, life is back to normal — to the best of your abilities.
Screening of Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview at Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
I must have been 11 years old when I was introduced to my first Apple IIe and the sleeker Apple IIc a year later. Learning to program and design computer games was the bane of my youthful existence, which came at roughly the same time that Steve Jobs was forced away from Apple after a falling out with the company's board of directors.
Most of the footage from an interview recorded a decade later in 1995, some of which was used as part of a television special, was thought to be lost, but tucked away somewhere a VHS tape was found. In it, Jobs chats about innovation, creativity and what can come out of dialogue between artists and techies.
Houston Symphony Summer in the City Series: "The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses" at Jones Hall
For a grown man to say that he likes video games . . . that's just not the chic thing to do. But I do, rather, I did during my teenage hood. There was something so romantically heroic about Link, the protagonist, on his quest to rescue Princess Zelda from the forces of evil by invoking the Triforce, which is much cooler than that Star Wars' "The Force."
Confession time: I mostly fantasized about being Zelda and being set free by Link, only to find myself in a haute dance club technoing all night long — a scene that somehow involved a cage.
Alas it's the hero's 25th birthday, and though I can't say I am familiar with any of the sequels, Link will never change.
This multimedia Houston Symphony show expands Koji Kondo's music score into a four-movement orchestral work with film. If all this sounds dorky to you, it isn't. Take the adventure. What do you have to lose?
Friday and Saturday, 7:30 p.m. Tickets start at $20.
Opening of Archway Gallery's Fourth Annual Juried Exhibition benefiting ARTreach
This week, a myriad of artists delivered works of art to Archway Gallery to be considered for this fourth annual exhibition, this year curated by Houston Center for Contemporary Craft executive director Julie Farr. She's charged with having to pore over all the submissions and decide what stays and what goes.
The open-themed show serves as a fundraiser for ARTreach, a nonprofit that works with children at-risk, the elderly and disabled through specialized art programs.
"Street Beat!" at Miller Outdoor Theatre
Trash cans lids, water barrels, pots, pans and junk — who says those can't be musical instruments? From the streets of Los Angeles comes this high-decibel troupe melding urban culture, hip hop and acrobatics. The result is an energetic show that promises to "explode" on stage.
Saturday, 8:30 p.m. Free event; tickets are available for the covered seating area.
Agatha Christie Black Coffee at the Alley Theatre
Don't cheat and look up what happens at the end of this classic Agatha Christie whodunit masterpiece. Rather, put some money behind your intuition during intermission, make a wager with your date and see if your detective smarts lead you down the right path as you attempt to solve a murder mystery. The victim? A weapons creator. Named Sir Claude Amory.
Here's a clue: Chances are the butler didn't do it. He never does.
Saturday through Aug. 5. Tickets start at $25.
Staff writer and most adorable Houston explorer Whitney Radley's pick: Screening of Forrest Gump at Miller Outdoor Theatre
Whitney says: "I've been itching to revisit Forrest Gump since some old friends in the band Driver Friendly reprised Tom Hanks' greatest roles in a recent music video. There's no better place to watch it than on the lawn, under the stars, at Miller Outdoor Theatre.
"The screening begins on Thursday at 8:30 p.m., and admission is free."
Arts smarty pants and in-the-Loop-film-maven Nancy Wozny's pick: Screening of Phantom Museums - The Short Films of the Quay Brothers at 14 Pews
Nancy says: "Homemade dolls with missing eyes, a shrunken head vault in a natural history museum. Who's in? Y'all know by now, I have a taste for the weird and a weakness for puppets. If you think Tim Burton owns film weirdness wait till you see The Brothers Quay, the original macabre stop animation duo.
"14 Pews is presenting Phantom Museums, a collection of some 20 films from the identical twin team of Stephen and Timothy Quay, over a span of 30 years.
"If you have never seen a Quay film, this is a great introduction to an outstanding and original body of work. Classics such as The Cabinet of Jan Svankmajer and Street of Crocodiles are included in the series along with more recent work as In Absentia (2000) and The Phantom Museum (2003). Come on, it's summer, let's goth it up."
