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    At the Movies

    The Wildest Dream is no match for Angelina Jolie, but Everest IMAX movie soars

    Regina Scruggs
    Mar 10, 2011 | 10:15 pm
    • A scene from "The Wildest Dream: Conquest of Mount Everest"
    • Conrad Anker on expedition
    • George Mallory

    "Why do you want to climb Mount Everest?"

    "Because it's there."

    So answered 37-year-old explorer George Mallory to a reporter's question before the third British Mount Everest Expedition, in 1924. Some 30 years before Sir Edmund Hillary made it to the top, Mallory, in his third attempt to scale Everest, would disappear along with his climbing partner Andrew "Sandy" Irvine somewhere high on the North East Ridge of the world's highest mountain.

    Their fate was unknown for 75 years, until contemporary explorer Conrad Anker discovered Mallory's body in 1999. Did Mallory make it to the top? Would Anker? And why did Anker go back to Everest eight years later?

    These and other questions are tackled in The Wildest Dream: Conquest of Everest, the new IMAX film opening Friday at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. The documentary mixes archival and newsreel footage of Mallory's climb with Anker's two ascents of Everest, the highest place on earth at 8,850 meters (29,035 feet). Anker provides commentary throughout.

    Letters between Mallory and his wife are also read to give the project an additional personal touch. The IMAX format gives the viewer many incredible vantage points, particularly at the summit of Everest, where one is taken above the clouds and the other mountain peaks which make up the Himalaya range in Tibet, between India and China.

    Produced and directed by Anthony Geffen, Conquest of Everest is narrated by Academy-Award-nominee Liam Neeson. Also featured are the vocal talents of Hugh Dancy, Alan Rickman, and most movingly, Ralph Fiennes and Natasha Richardson, who are heard reading the letters between George Mallory and his wife Ruth. (The movie is dedicated to Richardson, Neeson's late wife.)

    Anker, an American who lives in Bozeman, Mont., came to Houston to promote the film. He told me that he was asked in 1999, with two weeks' notice, to join an expedition to search for the remains of Mallory and Irvine on Everest. An experienced climber with expeditions to Alaska and Antarctica under his belt, Anker took on the challenge. He was 37, he same age as Mallory when he died.

    I asked how one gets up the nerve to take on something like Everest.

    "I'm a practiced climber," he said. "Even so, one still has to have a certain degree of self-confidence."

    The 1999 Everest explorers knew only that Mallory had been last spotted some 800 feet below the summit. As Anker's fate would have it, he would be the one to find Mallory's well-preserved remains, clad in gabardine and hobnailed boots. Mallory, a devoted family man with three children, was known to have carried a picture of his wife Ruth; he had promised her that he would leave it at the summit of Everest. However, no picture was found on his body, which raised more questions: Had he lost it? Or had he already been to the summit and was on the descent when he died?

    Still searching for answers, and perhaps in hope of finding the missing Sandy Irvine, Anker led his own team back to Everest eight years later, in 2007. He wanted to replicate Mallory's expedition as closely as possible, including retracing the North East Ridge Route near the summit. He even had the ladder removed from the infamous 90-foot sheer rock wall known as the "Second Step" to free-climb it, just as Mallory and Irvine would have had to do 83 years earlier.

    Mallory had led an interesting life even before he took on Everest. Born in Great Britain (Mobberley, Cheshire), he was the son of a clergyman. He was introduced to rock climbing and mountaineering while still a teenager by a schoolmaster who took a group of people on an annual trip to the Alps. In 1905 he entered Magdalene College, Cambridge, and became good friends with members of the Bloomsbury Group. He was an excellent oarsman who rowed his three years at Cambridge.

    After graduation, he taught for a few years in Surrey (interrupted by World War I military service); he married, yet still found time for recreational climbing. He would meet the poet Robert Graves and was even best man at his wedding. Mallory would resign his teaching position to join the first Everest expedition in 1921.

    Besides spending time mountaineering and exploring, Anker is a lecturer and author. He was previously involved in production of the films Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure (2001), about the famous British explorer; Light of the Himalaya (2006), about natives of the region who suffer from the planet's highest rates of cataract blindness; and The Endless Knot (2007), Anker's personal story of surviving a Himalaya avalanche which took the life of his climbing partner and best friend, Tony Lowe.

    Anker's now married to Lowe's widow Jennifer, and adopted and is raising Lowe's three boys. I asked how the boys were doing in light of Lowe's tragedy, and the fact that their stepfather is still on mountain expeditions.

    "The boys are doing just great," Anker said proudly. "They know that climbing is just what daddy does."

    Are any of them looking at climbing as a career? "Not seriously. Not yet, anyway. They like sports, all kinds of activities. The youngest is in ninth grade. Plenty of time to make up his mind about what he wants to do."

    Almost stealing the show from Mallory, Anker, and the breathtaking IMAX vistas in Conquest of Everest is Leo Houlding, a British climbing prodigy who went along with Anker on the 2007 expedition at the tender age of 22.

    "I've known Leo since he was a teenager. He didn't have any real climbing experience at 'altitude' but he turned out to be a natural," Anker said.

    What was the coldest temperature on the mountain?

    "About -18 degrees Celsius, or 0 degrees Fahrenheit, before the wind factor. Frankly, I've experienced colder temperatures in Montana. But when you add the wind, and the thin air...above 26,000 feet on Everest it's call the 'Death Zone' and most climbers are on oxygen...for that climb, I started my trip from the U.S. in early April, spent several weeks at base camp, followed by advanced base camp, and in mid-June we spent about a week on the ascent. The descent was much faster, just two to three days."

    I asked Anker how the press tour was going. "It's doing well on the museum circuit, on the IMAX screens around the country, and kids especially seem to like it. Conquest did have a limited theatrical run last summer, but it opened on August 8th, the same weekend as Angelina Jolie's Salt, which had a marketing budget twice the amount of our total budget."

    Sheer rock faces, snow, ice, wind, avalanches, thin air? That's no challenge to your average mountain climber, compared to taking on Angie.

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    weekend event planner

    Here are the 15 best things to do in Houston this 4th of July weekend

    Craig D. Lindsey
    Jul 2, 2025 | 6:30 pm
    Shell Freedom Over Texas
    Courtesy of Shell Freedom Over Texas
    The city has revealed the performers for its July 4 celebration.

    The 4th of July lands on a Friday this year, which means things will get especially patriotic this weekend.

    We’ve already listed all the fireworks celebrations and restaurant specials that’ll be popping off on Friday. (Don’t forget about the screenings of Independence Day at River Oaks Theatre, Rooftop Cinema Club and Marriott Marquis Houston.) But there are also other must-see events happening this weekend, including a LEGO convention, the second anniversary of a Third Ward eatery, the return of a Stanley Kubrick classic, and an outlaw music festival featuring Willie Freakin’ Nelson and Bob Freakin’ Dylan!

    Thursday, July 3

    Brick Rodeo
    Brick Rodeo is a family-friendly event that features hundreds of custom models and displays made from LEGO bricks. Creators from Texas and around the country will be available to talk about their creations. Fans who want to display their own creations, attend workshops, and participate in all the activities should purchase an All Access Pass. Families and individuals who want to spend a day viewing incredible custom creations, talking with builders, and shopping with vendors should purchase a public exhibition ticket. 9 am (8:30 am Friday-Sunday).

    City Place presents Young Audiences of Houston: Painting with Watercolor Pencils Art Workshop
    This free art workshop, hosted by Young Audiences of Houston teaching artist Judy Malone Stein, transforms City Place’s central waterfront plaza into a classical art studio with easels and other essential supplies. Participants are introduced to the medium of watercolor pencils and will learn basic color theory which includes the color wheel and primary and secondary colors, along with complimentary colors. They will also focus on creating compositions, using traditional visions (portraits, landscapes, still life) as their subject matter. 9:30 am.

    Improv Houston presents Dustin Ross
    Dustin Ross is a NAACP Image Award-winning host, writer, and producer. Fans of The Read podcast may know him as a longtime guest/friend to the show. These days, you can hear him on two pods: The Friend Zone, with co-hosts Hey Fran Hey and Assante; and Holding Court, with Eboni K. Williams. He has also hosted seasons of Bet on Black, REVOLT TV’s competition series, Bet On Black. As an on-air contributor, Ross has appeared on multiple platforms, including MTV, BET, Bravo TV, HBO, FUSE TV, GLAAD, Fox Soul, and more. 7:30 pm.

    Friday, July 4

    Freedom Over Texas
    With an average of 50,000 people in attendance, Freedom Over Texas has become Houston’s annual, signature July 4th celebration. The live, televised event will feature local, regional, and national entertainment, headlined by Ashley McBryde and Lee Brice, and will be capped off with a musically choreographed, “Texas-sized” fireworks finale. It also features a unique non-profit component, as the event will donate a percentage of food and beverage sales to the Houston Food Bank. 4 pm.

    Ensemble Theatre presents The Tap Dance Kid
    Over at The Ensemble Theatre, The Tap Dance Kid is about a 10-year-old African-American kid named Willie who doesn’t want to be a lawyer like his well-to-do strict father, and dreams of becoming a dancer like his talented Uncle Dipsey, an aspiring Broadway choreographer. The final production in the theater’s 2024-25 season, this musical is filled with imaginations of stardom that keep us tapping along. Through Sunday, July 27. 7:30 pm (2 and 7:30 pm Saturday; 3 pm Sunday).

    Dan Electro’s presents The Broken Spokes & Oliver Penn 4th of July Party
    Freedom, music, and a 4th of July Party will be going down at Dan Electros. The show will feature a performance from traditional Texas country band The Broken Spokes, a well-seasoned outfit that’s put in the time honing their craft in honky tonks across Texas,. Also performing will be Rhode Island-born, Houston-based country singer Oliver Penn, who has shared the stage with Charley Crockett, Shakey Graves, Randall King, The California Honeydrops, and Shinyribs. 9 pm.

    Alamo Drafthouse LaCenterra presents Graveyard Shift: Attack the Block
    Guy Fawkes Night in London is a time for fireworks, fooling around, and an occasional surprise or two. But when vicious extraterrestrials decide to crash the hellraisers’ holiday, a time for making merry quickly turns scary. Writer-director Joe Cornish also ensures it’s frequently humorous as well. This frisky, vigorous 2011 spoof — propelled by an insistent electronic score by Steven Price & Basement Jaxx and a star-making lead turn from John Boyega — shows a similar sensibility in its breezy blending of goofiness and gruesomeness. 10 pm.

    Saturday, July 5

    Rado Market 2 Year Anniversary Celebration
    Chef Chris Williams’ market and cafe at the historic Eldorado Ballroom will celebrate its two-year anniversary with a celebration that’s free and open to the public. The event will include complimentary champagne during the first hour, food specials from chef Jaden Gaines, and live music from a DJ for the first two hours. Guests can also browse and shop from a curated lineup of local vendors offering various products for sale, including Posh Body, Ambrosia Nectar, 77 Stash, and Juxx. Patrons can also enter two raffles featuring Radiant Aura samples and other giveaways. Noon.


      
     
     
     
     
     
     
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    Winnie’s presents Labubu Face Tattoo Korean Corn Dog Karaoke Party
    Never has an event’s name been a more complete description of what’s happening at the Midtown sandwich shop/cocktail bar on Saturday. Artists from Rodeo Tiger will be tattooing Labubu, the must-have accessory that feels destined to become the Beanie Babies of 2025 ($25 minimum, $50 for both sides, and $100 for full face custom work). While you wait, snack on a Korean corn dog created by chef Jennifer Hoffman. Karaoke starts at 8 pm. 1 pm.

    The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston presents Barry Lyndon
    This weekend, catch the 50th anniversary screening (in glorious 35mm!) of Stanley Kubrick’s lavish, Oscar-winning 1975 adaptation of William Makepeace Thackeray’s 18th-century novel. Forced to leave Ireland after killing an English officer in a duel, young Redmond Barry (Ryan O’Neal) seeks his fortune as a soldier in Prussia, as a spy, and then as a gambler living among the elite of Europe. He changes his name and marries an aristocrat (Marisa Berenson) for her wealth, but will he finally gain the acceptance he seeks? 5 pm (2 pm Sunday).

    Kings Harbor Waterfront Village presents “Fireworks on the Pier”
    Looking for a post-4th of July throwdown this weekend? Kings Harbor Waterfront Village in Kingwood will have its annual “Fireworks on the Pier” celebration, a patriotic evening of family fun, live entertainment and a spectacular fireworks display. Festivities include family-friendly games like Connect Four, a balloon artist, face painting and bubble stations for kids. Local restaurants will be serving up a variety of delicious food and drink options throughout the evening. A dazzling fireworks show over the pier will begin around 10 pm. 7 pm.

    Movies at Miller: Wicked
    We know there is a lot of y’all who can’t wait for Wicked: For Good to drop in multiplexes this winter. Before that happens, head over to Miller Outdoor Theatre and revisit the Oscar-winning Broadway musical adaptation that set it all off. In the magical Land of Oz, Wicked covers the first act, following Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), the future Wicked Witch of the West, and her friendship with Galinda (Ariana Grande), the future Glinda the Good Witch. The audience is encouraged to come in costume. 8:30 pm.

    Sunday, July 6

    Eldorado Ballroom presents Ball N’ Parlay
    Dubbed “A 1st Sunday Vibeout,” Ball N’ Parlay is a vibrant, Third Ward day party that’s going to be held outside the legendary Eldorado Ballroom. They’re really hyping this one up, calling it “the Sunday you’ve been waiting for, where music, community, and culture meet.” We’re just psyched that some of our favorite DJs will be doing live sets, including DJ Elevated, Maiya Papaya, Alist, and DJ Bloom. 3 pm.

    Outlaw Music Festival
    If you grew up going to Cactus Music and picking up the latest issue of No Depression, looking for the latest in outlaw country releases to scoop up, a fest full of iconic, guitar-strumming banditos will be making a stop at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion this weekend. The 10th anniversary tour of the Outlaw Music Festival will feature an unparalleled lineup of legends and superstars, including Willie Nelson & Family, Bob Dylan, The Avett Brothers, The Mavericks, and Tami Neilson. 4:05 pm.

    CONCACAF Gold Cup Final
    As of this writing, we don’t know who will be playing in the final match of the soccer championship known as the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup, going down this weekend at NRG Stadium. What we do now is that the winners will be determined on Wednesday night, when the semifinal matchups – the USMNT vs. Guatemala and Mexico vs. Honduras – will take place. This also marks the first time the Gold Cup Final will be held in the state of Texas. 6 pm.

    Freedom Over Texas
      
    Courtesy of Freedom Over Texas
    The Freedom Over Texas celebration takes place on the Fourth of July.
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