weekend event planner

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

Ready for a laugh? Check out a dad joke contest. (Yes, for real.)

iStock

It's Super Bowl Weekend, which means everyone will be gearing up on Sunday to watch two much-reviled football teams kooky commercials, Puppy Bowl, and Kitten Bowl.

Here are the fun happenings this weekend leading up to the Big Game.

Thursday, January 31

Texas Children's Hospital presents Cooking for a Cure
The fourth annual Cooking for a Cure gives people an opportunity to not only give to a good cause — the Food Allergy Program at Texas Children’s Hospital — but to also experience the challenges people with food allergies face. Each guest will be assigned a food allergy to experience how it feels to avoid dishes containing the allergenic food. Among the culinary partners that'll be serving up dishes: A Fare Extraordinaire, Brennan’s of Houston, Café Annie, Underbelly Hospitality, and others. 7 pm.

Friday, February 1

Tom Loeser: Please Please Please at Houston Center for Contemporary Craft
The Houston Center for Contemporary Craft will be launching two openings this weekend: To Be of Use in the front gallery and, in the main gallery, Tom Loeser: Please Please Please. This traveling exhibition of the Wisconsin-based, furniture maker/designer encourages viewers to shake up their habits and interact with the environment and one another, while considering issues such as body posture and etiquette that are often taken for granted. It will be on display through May 12. 5:30-8 pm.

Dad Joke Tournament at Eureka Heights Brew Co.
With the consistent onslaught of bad news these days, don't you need something fun and ridiculous right now? Expect a one-on-one competition where each person takes a turn telling the lamest, daddest joke possible. Each contestant will tell three jokes. After three jokes, a decibel meter will judge the audience reaction. The dad with the loudest applause moves on. Sign up starts at 5:30. 7 pm.

Da Camera presents Vienna 1900: In the Garden of Dreams
Get ready to have a dream-like experience with this two-night production, an immersive feast for the ears, the eyes and, of course, the mind. Conceived and directed by Da Camera artistic director Sarah Rothenberg, this work draws on the writings of August Stringberg and Sigmund Freud, the music of Johannes Brahms and Arnold Schoenberg, and the art of Gustav Klimt and Max Klinger to illuminate the connections between music, art, psychology and literature, at the turn of the 20th century. 7:30 pm.

Saturday, February 2

Naughty AF Valentine Edition at Raven Tower
Valentine's Day is only a couple of weeks away, and the folks at freaky free market Naughty AF is giving boyfriends, husbands, and side dudes the chance to get their V-D gifts early. Among the vendors that'll be on hand: Carla Sue, Tenacious Leaf, Sugar Britches, Fizzycist Bath and Body, fLuxe Jewelry, and so many others. You can also snack on tacos from Pan de Taco while you go around this place, pulling your hair out over what to get your special someone on that damn day. 4-10 pm.

The Amazing Acro-Cats at MATCH
Houston, prepare for an all-cat talent show. This two-hour purrformance (sorry) features talented, domesticated house cats as they roll around on balls, ride skateboards, jump through hoops, and other fun stuff. The piece de resistance is the finale, when Tuna and the Rock Cats — known as "the only all-cat band in the entire world" — performs. This group consists of seven felines and a chicken (named Chuck Norris) who plays on tambourine. Sweet Jesus. 7 pm.

DCappella at Smart Financial Centre
Since Pentatonix and the Pitch Perfect movies have made a cappella a hip, cool thing all the young kids should take part in, you knew Disney was gonna find a way to make money off of that. So, ladies and gents, Disney presents...DCappella. The seven-member unit has an album full of classic Disney songs performed a cappella (of course!) currently out. So, if you ever wanted to hear "Friend Like Me" or "You'll Be in My Heart" get the a cappella treatment, they're here to give it to ya. 7:30 pm.

Sunday, February 3

Hip Hop Vintage Flea Market
This has gotta be the place where connoisseurs of hip-hop streetwear like ourselves can score some old-school threads from Cross Colours, Karl Kani, Martha + Francois Girbaud and others. Maybe we can finally find some African American College Alliance hoodies from back in the day. Man, the possibilities are endless. Noon-5 pm.

event-planner

Movie Review

The Apprentice uncovers the Trump card in Donald's rise to power

Photo courtesy of Briarcliff Entertainment

Jeremy Strong and Sebastian Stan in The Apprentice.

Before he was elected president, Donald Trump was a New York businessman who transitioned into a reality TV show host that played upon his bombastic personality. His effect on American politics over the past eight years would not have been possible without his early experiences, some of which are explored in the new film whose title cheekily references that reality show, The Apprentice.

It introduces viewers who may not know the entire history of Trump (Sebastian Stan) to his relationship with lawyer Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong), who was known for using all sorts of sleazy tactics to win cases. The film shows Trump meeting Cohn in the early 1970s, right when the Trump Corporation, then led by Donald's father Fred Trump (Martin Donovan), was being sued for violating the Fair Housing Act for not renting to Black people.

Cohn’s success at limiting the damage in that case leads Trump to fall in love with the way Cohn approaches life, and he proceeds to call upon him for advice and help in many aspects of his own life. These include trying to strong-arm New York City officials into giving Trump a big tax break on his first hotel, setting up an odious prenuptial agreement with Trump’s soon-to-be bride, Ivana (Maria Bakalova), and more.

Directed by Ali Abbasi and written by Gabriel Sherman, the film is both crystal clear in how it wants Trump to be portrayed and yet somewhat subtle in the way it goes about it. Opening with Richard Nixon’s infamous “I am not a crook” speech, the parallels between that fallen president and one who would go on to be indicted for many crimes while president aren’t at all difficult to parse. And yet, the filmmakers do a good job of methodically building their case for how Trump became the person he is today.

This includes showing the young(er) Trump as somewhat awkward and out of his depth, literally going door-to-door to collect rent at Trump Village apartments and still having family dinner with the whole Trump clan. Learning at the heels of Cohn builds his confidence, especially after Cohn reveals three rules that he lives by: 1) Attack, attack, attack, 2) Admit nothing, deny everything, and 3) Claim victory, and never admit defeat.

Because it’s a two-hour film, the truth of what it’s depicting likely falls somewhere on the spectrum of another thing Cohn tells Trump: “There is no truth.” Still, there are factual bases for much of what the film dramatizes, and even the sequences that might be made up completely fall right in line with the type of man who still refuses to admit that he lost the 2020 election. When Trump and Cohn essentially switch roles as the bully and the wimp when the film moves from the ‘70s to the ‘80s, it comes as no surprise.

Stan, in his second starring role in two weeks, does a fantastic job of evolving the character of Trump. He eases into the verbal and physical traits for which Trump is now known, and the slow build helps him tremendously. Cohn is easy to hate as a real person, but love as a movie character, and Strong bursts off the screen with his performance. He is an early favorite for Best Supporting Actor, utterly transforming into a despicable person from which you want to hear every horrible syllable.

Because of Trump’s overwhelming recent influence on American society, The Apprentice is next-to-impossible to view in an unbiased manner. And the filmmakers likely don’t want you to, as they are obviously trying to demonstrate how Trump has long been this way, and it took him becoming president for the whole world to see it.

---

The Apprentice is now playing in theaters.

movies film