Geeky chic

See the video: Art Car Parade gets a new kind of mobile push with CultureMapguide

If you're planning on coming out to survey the creations this weekend at the annual Art Car Parade, make sure to do it with CultureMap.

We're sponsoring the whole shabang, and we created a state-of-the-art mobile guide to take you through the cars, their makers and their stories. All you need is a smartphone and the parade is in the palm of your hand. You don't have to be a tech wizard either.

Grandma could do it.

Simply type www.culturemap.com/artcar into any phone with a Web browser and you can follow along with the parade in a way you never have before. As the colorful Art Cars go by, you can look at CultureMap's guide on your phone and read about what you're seeing. The guide is set up in the order that the cars will appear along the parade route. You can look ahead to see what's coming, tell your kids which cars they don't want to miss, impress a date with your uncanny knowledge of what year Hearse the No. 34 Cataillic car is.

Really, the only limit is your imagination and sense of Art Car zaniness.

CultureMap's mobile guide also features a map of the route and viewing areas as well as the complete schedule of events for the extended Art Car weekend (parade grand marshall Dan Aykroyd can check to see where he's supposed to be).

If you get closer to the Art Cars at some of the weekend's other events, there is even more technology you can tap into.

Each car has a Quick Response Code (think grocery-store style barcode) on it that you can scan (download a free app like NeoReader to read the QRC in seconds) to be taken straight to that car's specific page on our extensive guide.

There's certainly a lot to think about — and debate with your friends — with these Art Cars.

I'm always wondering where the ideas for some of these cars came from, how they're street legal and how exactly you'd explain to your car insurance company what it is you're driving.

My all-time favorite is the Dead Bug; it's been around for years, and is a gutted VW Bug (the old-school kind) welded upside down on top of another bug. Best part? The bug on top has inflatable people in it with their legs sticking out the top.

Which is your favorite Art Car?

See Channel 39's coverage of our Art Car mobile guide:

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Thanks, Queen Bey

Pop icon Beyoncé donates $100,000 to University of Houston Law School

Photo by Erza Shaw Getty Images

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Pop megastar Beyoncé Knowles-Carter has donated $100,000 to the University of Houston Law Center Criminal Justice Clinic through her BeyGOOD Foundation. The gift will allow the clinic to hire fill-time faculty to head it, benefiting the students who study there.

“I am delighted that the BeyGOOD Foundation has made this very generous gift to the UH Law Center,” said Leonard Baynes, dean of the UH Law Center. “Not only will this funding help establish a full-time criminal justice clinic that provides pro bono legal services in our community, but it will also supercharge our already excellent criminal law and justice programming.”

The clinic is one of nine at UHLC. It helps students learn to navigate the criminal justice system, especially on behalf of clients that are underserved by skilled attorneys. People of color are affected disproportionately by a lack of good, ethical representation.

Beyoncé, the most decorated artist in Grammy history and easily the biggest musical star native to Houston, has a long history of advocating for criminal justice reform. She was a staunch supporter of the police reform following the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, asking law enforcement to “stop killing us” in a web post. In 2020, she penned an open letter to the Kentucky attorney general asking for justice in the death of Breonna Taylor.

Through her BeyGOOD Foundation, established in 2013, Beyoncé has focused mostly on expanding the prospects of Black-owned business and offering education opportunities to students. Forwarding the cause of legal representation in Texas while also helping out marginalized communities compliments her other philanthropic work.

“At UH Law, we envision a legal profession where ‘everyone has the opportunity to prosper,’ as BeyGOOD envisions, and we will achieve this vision by providing access to strong and effective legal representation in criminal proceedings,” Baynes said. “And together, through this gift, the BeyGOOD Foundation and UHLC will shepherd the next generation of criminal justice attorneys in the city of Houston, the state of Texas and the nation.”