Plan on gallivanting around town to explore French comedy, an artsy festival, a huge book sale, a food truck party and a young professionals' crawfish boil for a good cause.
Do this: Click on the link below each event suggestion to find a page filled with helpful intel and features, like the ability to download the information to your calendar and to learn about places to eat, drink and shop near your final destination.
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Five Funny French Films
If your exposure to French comedy is limited to the lusty Pepé Le Pew, you are in desperate need of MFAH's Five Funny French Films screening series. With the exception of the 1969 surreal classic Le Grand Amour, the other more recent selections deal with modern subjects that plague — and tickle — denizens of any society.
Bayou City Art Festival Memorial Park
As the festival that paints the town with the colors of today's creative economy rolls into Memorial Park for its 42nd year, lets consider that beyond the art, performances and food, the Bayou City Art Festival is a fundraiser that gives back to its nonprofit partners, many of which are looking for volunteers to fulfill their responsibilities. So choose your favorite arts partner and offer your time in kind.
Or just plan to shop the juried festival's 300-plus artists, including a new category for rising talent. If you are into social affairs, "Art Heist - A Scene in Green" is where you want to be on Sunday. Now, if the weather can just behave. . .
Friends of the Houston Public Library's 35th Annual Bargain Book Sale
Social media fiends active in the Twittersphere may be adept at crafting quick-witted puns and quibbles, a behavior that could put at risk the art of reading and writing whole books cover to cover — something that should never go out of style. Yes, there's life beyond 140 characters, and this three-day bargain sale is a lovely opportunity to regain your love for the literary arts and score big, literally.
The 35th Annual Houston Public Library Bargain Book Sale is like a box of chocolates. Except what you get isn't extra pounds and acne. Rather, you'll walk away with remembrances of someone else's real or imaginary world carefully penned for your enjoyment.
Third Annual Haute Wheels Food Truck Festival
Following a food truck around can be akin to a geo-location scavenger hunt, so it's easy to understand why the Haute Wheels Houston Food Truck Festival has been hugely popular despite the first tries being a big haute mess. Last year was an improvement, and I hope the event goes off without a hitch this weekend, because the mobile food movement is something that should be experienced
The gathering includes Aracan Kitchen, Angie's Cake, Bernie’s Burger Bus, Coreanos, Custom Confections, Frosted Betty, Green Seed Vegan, The Lunch Bag, Eatsie Boys, Good Dog, Pi Pizza, H-town StrEATS, It's a Wrap, Oh My Gogi, Happy Endings, Ladybird, The Waffle Bus, Firehouse Tacos, Bare Bowls Kitchen, Stick It, Fork in the Road, Porch Swing Desserts, NOLA'S Creole2Geaux, L'Es-Car-Go, St. John's Fire, Chocolate d'Arte, Monster PBJ, ZeaPod Cakery, Soul Cat Cuisine, Big Daddy Z's, Coney Cruiser, Snow Angels and Kona Ice.
ChildBuilders NightShift's Third Annual Crawfish Boil
You have to live in a vacuum to not know it's crawfish season. Sure, you could make the rounds from establishment to establishment in search of these little crustaceans, or you could just partake in one of the many socials that use crawfish boils as means for people to get together and raise funds.
Chairs Michelle Sacks and Mark Donaldson, with the help of host committee members John Andell, Buck Baker, Courtney Culver and Liz Gorman, host an informal afternoon at Jackson's Watering Hole in support of ChildBuilders, a nonprofit that advocates for the healthy social and emotional development of kids and families.
Staff writer and savvy Houston explorer Whitney Radley's pick: CORE Performance Company presents above and below
Whitney says: "This week, I'm planning to slip out of work a little early for CORE Performance Company's above and below, a site-specific work in the Menil Collection's Richmond Hall. I mean, contemporary dance influenced by Dan Flavin's minimalist installation of fluorescent lights? Sign me up."
Staff writer and totally awesome guy Tyler Rudick's pick: Searching for Sugar Man
Tyler says: "Be sure not to miss the Academy Award-winning film Searching for Sugar Man, which finishes up a brief run at 14 Pews on Friday. The documentary follows two South African music fans on the hunt for Sixto Rodriguez — a politically-motivated folk musician who lived in relative obscurity in his native Detroit while maintaining a Dylan-esque superstar status across much of the world."
The deets: Friday, 7 p.m.; 14 Pews; Tickets are $10, free for 14 Pews members.
Arts smarty pants and in-the-loop sassy gal Nancy Wozny's pick: Alley Theatre presents A Few Good Men
Nancy says: "Attention West Wing fans, there's only one week left to see Aaron Sorkin's biting drama, A Few Good Men, at the Alley Theatre. Jeremy Webb swaggers about with total confidence as Daniel Kaffee, the cocky lawyer who gets in over his head and triumphs and Lee Sellars is terrific as Lt. Col. Nathan Jessep. I promise you will not miss Tom Cruise or Jack Nicholson at all. It's a robust production and you should not miss it."
The deets: Through March 24; Alley Theatre; tickets start at $26.
Big Is Beautiful is one of the flicks chosen as part of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston series Five Funny French Films.
